Welcome the Stranger

          These days, if you were in a middle school current events class you would likely be learning about immigration reform.  The need for reform has been evident for at least a decade now, and after the recent election season it seems that both sides of the political aisle have the will to engage in significant action.  I am delighted, and members of my congregation, both Anglo and Latino, are hopeful.

          My own opinions on this matter are shaped by Jesus’ mandate to “welcome the stranger,” from the well-known parable in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 25.  But the roots of Biblical hospitality can be found even in the Old Testament.  There is a rich witness of grace extended to the stranger among the people of Israel, even though they felt themselves uniquely chosen apart from other peoples.    For instance: 

And I charged your judges at that time, “Hear the disputes between your people and judge fairly, whether the case is between two Israelites or between an Israelite and a foreigner residing among you. Do not show partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be afraid of anyone, for judgment belongs to God.” (Deuteronomy 1:16-17, NIV) 

These words seem pretty clear that Israel understood God as one who showed no partiality between the so-called “chosen people,” and the strangers who lived and worked among them.  Israel was constantly reminded that their sensitivity to the stranger came out a deep empathy because they once were a people who knew what it was like to be foreigners in a strange land.  Psalm 39:12 is an example: 

          Hear my prayer, Lord, listen to my cry for help;

           do not be deaf to my weeping.

I dwell with you as a foreigner,

            a stranger, as all my ancestors were. 

          While the U.S. government has been slow to extend that same grace, at least churches, or the ones I am familiar with, have been more willing to provide a spiritual home and even sanctuary to those foreigners residing among us.  My own congregation includes a significant number of “resident aliens” who have been graciously received into our fellowship.  In this case the people of God have been leading the way in how to treat the strangers among us, praying that our civil authorities will eventually find a way to be hospitable as well.

          Admittedly, a nation has a right to establish rules for citizenship, and even Israel had certain restrictions, requiring the “sojourners” among them to comply with certain Jewish dietary or cleanliness laws, and limiting them to worship at the temple only at the outer court.  Nevertheless, the overwhelming body of instruction regarding the stranger in Israel is marked by gracious hospitality. 

          In the letter to the Hebrews we are reminded to show “hospitality to strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”  So, while the U.S. for the time being may still be criminalizing the sojourners among us, the people of God are admonished to treat them as angels among us; indeed, to treat them as if each one may be Jesus, himself, “As you have done it unto the least of these, you have done it unto me.”

         

The Calm Between Storms

I’m breathing a sigh of relief, thankful for the silence and solitude.  For two days now there have been no robocalls attempting to scare, manipulate, intimidate, or influence me to vote one way or another.  The TV is back to showing innocuous commercials about cars, shampoo, and beer --- no voice of doom warning me what might happen if one or the other candidate gets elected.  The difference in my mood is measureable.  Ahhhh.

I know the rancor of politics is not over but I’m appreciating this momentary lull, where winners and losers are for the most part being conciliatory.  The storms will return, of course, as surely as hurricane season brings its parade of tropical depressions; some, like Sandy, do build up to pack a wallop.  I know there looms on the horizon the “fiscal cliff,” and there will definitely be political conflict about what to do about it --- this is the way democracy works.  God bless America.

I am a citizen of the United States, and glad of it.  But I was born in Brazil to missionary parents and so I am considered a citizen of Brazil, also.  I have two passports.  I am proud of my Brazilian connection but I pledge allegiance to the Red, White and Blue rather than the Blue, Yellow and Green.  Still, I often feel like a stranger, no matter where I happen to be. 

One of the reasons for my sense of strangeness is the fact that our family moved around every four years or so.  I have never had a place that I call home, and so I often feel like a resident alien in whatever town I happen to be living in at the moment.  I have often wondered what it would be like to have been in one place for decades.  For me it is hard to imagine that kind of longevity anywhere.

But there is another reason for my rootlessness.  I belong to yet another country.  I have only seen it in my spiritual imagination as I have reflected on the Biblical witness of Jesus and the prophets.  The parables Jesus tells about the kingdom, and the pictures painted by the prophetic voices have taken hold of me and made me long for the country where God reigns, and I am restless until and unless I reside there.  Sometimes I have felt myself already there, when I have received kindness from strangers, seen enemies embrace, or witnessed forgiveness enfleshed.  I felt myself to be in that country this week as I shared coffee, donuts and deep conversation with African-American pastors as we empathized with each other in our common desire for justice and reconciliation. 

But most of the time I sense that there is a better country than this one and God has put a longing in my heart that cannot be satisfied with things as they are.

Still, I’m not just passing through.  I make my home where I am, and I look for God’s country in every face I see, and in everything I try to do.  And right now, in this quiet space and time, it feels more like home than usual.  And until the next storm comes I think I’ll just enjoy it.