As someone who is visibly not from an Anglo-Celtic ethnic background, I am often asked where I am from and when I arrived in Australia.
I do not mind talking about this – I welcome seeing the bemused looks on people's faces when I describe my first day at school in Australia. All the children with colourful hair coming and saying "Hi" (which I could not respond to – I only knew three English words at that point: "Yes", "No" and "Hello"). Do not get me started on how disorienting it was to be in a carpeted classroom with everyone eating sandwiches for lunch! From these experiences, being an outsider, or foreign, is a feeling that is very familiar to me.
I was an adult before I heard the term Third Culture Kid (TCK). Because I was a Christian, I heard it in reference to children of missionaries. For those who don't know, TCKs are, according to Wikipedia:
"people who were raised in a different culture than their parents, for a large part or the entirety of their childhood and adolescence. They... are exposed to a greater volume and variety of cultural influences than those who grow up in one particular cultural setting".
Australia welcomed 306,000 migrants to its shores in 2024-25; this was a drop from 556,000 people in 2023. More than 30 per cent of Australia's population was born overseas. We could add expats and returned missionary children to this number. It is safe to assume that a number of you reading this would identify as being TCK, or you would know someone who is.
Further, feeling like an outsider is a universal human experience. It does not have to be as dramatic as moving from an East Asian country to a Western country! You could be at a party where you only know the person who invited you. You could be visiting a new church. You could be starting a new job.
So what use is this feeling and where did it come from?
In the Bible…
It begins with humanity's rejection of God
The feeling of exclusion from others seems to have not been in existence when God first created the world. Before sin entered the equation, humanity seems to have enjoyed a perfect relationship with God and each other.
The first instance and sign of a strained relationship appears in Genesis 3:8. After having eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, man and woman hide from God. Adam reports that he was driven by fear into hiding from him (Gen 3:10). To complete the picture of the emotional and spiritual separation – that Adam and Eve instigated through their sin – God physically removes them from the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:23-4).
This episode from Genesis demonstrates that long before vastly diverse cultural differences existed in the world, there was the idea of alienation and exclusion – specifically from God and others. It was the outcome of our sin and rejection of God's rule.
This explains why the distortion of cultural difference can cause us so much pain. We can make cultural markers our primary point of identity and seek to belong to what we perceive to be the innermost circles.
…but used by God
But our great God is able to use anything and everything. Whilst sin was at the heart of this concept of being excluded and estranged towards God and others, God urges his people to use the feelings of alienation for good.
When God gives Israel the Law at Mount Sinai, he asks them to show hospitality to the foreigners and strangers among them. Why? Because the Israelites themselves know what it is to be outsiders in a strange land.
They were told to remember when they were slaves in Egypt:
"When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God" (Leviticus 19:33-34).
To be clear: there are many passages in the Bible where God warns Israel against becoming too closely connected to other nations. But God's wariness of other nations in the Old Testament is driven by idolatry. God is concerned that Israel will be influenced by the gods of other nations if they associated too closely to them – and they frequently and repeatedly were!
But if someone is willing to become a part of Israel (ideally, drawing them to the knowledge of God) the Israelites were urged to treat them well. Why? Because they, too, were once foreigners in Egypt. Their past experiences are to inform them as they seek to extend hospitality toward the outsider.
There are other passages where God goes so far as to call in Israel not to exclude foreigners from worshipping him (Num 15:14) and to not treat them differently if they are observing the laws of the land (Num 15:16). There are live examples, too, of foreigners that are enfolded into God's people, most famously Ruth and Rahab.
Which brings us to Jesus, who welcomed outsiders
God's plan was never to leave humanity separated from him forever. His plan all along was to restore humanity from their fall to the original state in the garden. They will not always be alienated from him.
In order to do this, God sent Jesus, who is the epitome of welcome and openness. Jesus did not spend his time on earth focused on those whom society declared to be insiders. Jesus ministered to the social outcasts (tax collectors and sinners), healed the ceremonially unclean (lepers and bleeding woman) and helped non-Jewish people (the Syro-Phoenician woman and Roman centurion).
This is a non-exhaustive list and there are many other examples of Jesus interacting with outsiders! Jesus had no problems relating to people who were on the fringes and inviting them into the inner circle.
Jesus is such an easy person to introduce to someone who feels like an outsider. Jesus took pains to ensure that the outsider understood that they were seen and known. He made the effort for them to know that he was here for them, not just for the powerful and influential. Jesus died on the cross to seal their place in his kingdom.
Jesus' only requirement is the same for everyone, whether or not they are cultural insiders or outsiders: that they repent and put their faith in him as their Lord and Saviour.
Everyone was once an alien and stranger
Adam and Eve represent the alienation that we as individuals have actively participated in, in living our own way apart from God. All of us, in our different ways, have rejected God. The concept of being an outsider, or a stranger, is used to describe what we were before we knew God.
In Ephesians 2, Paul explains that as Gentiles, the Ephesians were not considered the people of God (as Israel was):
"remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world".
The death of Jesus on the cross to bring all people, not just Israelites, into his kingdom is expressed as follows:
"Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household".
The feeling of being an outsider has direct connection to the gospel reality. As sinners and fallen human beings, we are separated from God. We are aliens to him and his holy nature. Jesus reaching out to the outsiders is an outworking of the gospel message itself. Jesus is unafraid of the outsiders – us – and is willing to bridge the gap and bring people to the inside.
Our identity in Christ
So, what does that all mean for us and for the way we look at ourselves and our lives? Once we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, we have a new identity in Christ. Galatians 3:26-28 teaches that distinctions in our identities (nationality, social status, sex) are radically relativised in Christ. The primary identity as children of the faith is expressed through the oneness we have in Christ.
Those once foreigners and strangers are now part of the people and family of Christ. They no longer have to wonder where they belong. They no longer have to ultimately define themselves beyond being in Christ.
For some TCK people, it can be an immensely difficult experience to move between cultures. Depending on where they are in their formation of identity, being asked to talk about their differing experiences and culture is not always easy.
I am at a good place in terms of understanding my identity. Still, sometimes questions that people ask catch me off guard. I have no idea if I feel more Korean or Australian. I have certainly lived long enough in Australia that it definitely feels like home. I love the sunshine. I love the laid-back attitude of the people. My most precious friends are in Australia.
Most of all I love that I became a Christian here and it is a place that nurtured my faith. But what do I do with the fact that people occasionally compliment me for "speaking English so well" or ask me for the nearest Asian restaurant recommendations?
When I visit Korea, it also feels like home. I do not stand out from the crowd and can blend in easily. I love the food. I love visiting my cousins. But what do I do with the fact that when I am visiting tourist attractions somehow shop assistants can tell I live overseas and start speaking in English? Or I stand in the foreigner line holding my Australian passport at immigration?
My identity in Christ is one thing that I never have to doubt. Heaven is one place where I know I belong. In heaven, no one will raise an eyebrow over my primary citizenship. No one will judge me based on my preferred language. No one will ask me where I am really from.
Further, in Jesus, I have someone who does not need me to explain myself. Jesus knows me inside and out. He does not ask me to separate which bits of me are Korean and which bits of me are Australian. He does not ask me to explain my every preference and tendency. My personality traits are just mine and he made me who I am.
He does not ask me to parse any life decision that I have made so that he can identify which culture made me go one way or another. He just lets me be and celebrates me as he made me. He only asks that I believe in his death on the cross and rely on his righteousness for the forgiveness of my sins.
Our most profound identity markers can never be completely captured by our ethnicities or culture. They can never be fully explained by the country in which we were born. Our truest identity can only be defined and fully known by the one who made us.
To our outsiders, our foreigners, our strangers – as you grapple with the discomfort of being an "other", I want to encourage you: there is purpose and meaning to the way that you feel. Our ultimate identity and belonging are defined by Jesus. He saw you when you were an outsider and invited you into his family. He died on the cross to make you the ultimate insider. The feeling of otherness is a reminder of what we were before we put our faith in Christ. We will put that feeling behind us permanently when we return home to heaven to live with him forever.
Our ultimate sense of meaning and citizenship are found in him. Everything else is less important. Let your anchor point, let your home, your identity rest in him.
The Rev Canon Susan An is Dean of Women at Moore College.
