The author of Hebrews looks back at the patriarchs and says they “all died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.”
Strangers and exiles. That is the language Hebrews uses for people of faith. Not citizens — strangers. Not settled — exiles. People who never quite arrive. For a congregation half of whom were born outside the United States, this language is not metaphor.