Our country has never had a set, consistent process to welcome immigrants. All of us, unless you are Native Americans, are here because our ancestors were allowed to settle here – or came here by force. The first immigrants got here by accident, looking for a quicker route to Asia. Since Columbus, and the colonizers who followed, landed in the Americas by mistake, we have been fighting over who owns the land and who can stay here. This struggle isn’t new – people have been migrating since people have existed, wandering around in the wilderness and in already claimed lands, looking for food, water, and a better place to live. And those wanderers have almost always been met with resistance and violence. ICE is just the most recent iteration of our attempt to keep people out who are different from us (whoever us is).
The English version of the Bible that I use doesn’t have the word immigrant in it; it has illegal in it once, pertaining to property gained improperly. The closest we can get is foreigner, which appears only 18 times in the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, and only two of those are in the New Testament. When Jesus interacts with a foreigner in the Gospel of Luke, He heals him of leprosy and sends him on his way, healed in body and spirit. In the New International Version, the word is used 81 times, and the one that jumped out at me is in Leviticus 19, right near all those rules about behavior and who you can have sex with. This is it: 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.
It doesn’t say anything about borders; we are to simply include them as one of our own. In fact, there are a number of other places in Leviticus that give guidance to how we should live, and they include foreign born and native born. Now, you might come back at me and say that immigrants here illegally should be punished for what they have done. Yes – and according to Executive Summary 8 U.S.C. §1325, a first-time offender can be fined and/or put in prison for up to 6-months. Not deported. Not brutalized. Not murdered. And we have a number of ways for people fleeing oppression to be here legally. It seems to me that a Christian response would be to make sure the person is truly fleeing oppression, that they are not a danger, and that they can be gainfully employed. Never – Never – should we allow any person, regardless of their immigration status, so be abused or murdered. We are supposed to be better than that. I hope we are.
Prayer – Holy God, forgive us for breaking Your commandment to welcome the foreigner into our midst. Heal us of our selfish ways. Amen.
Today’s art is “American Dreams” by Cornelio Campos.