It’s been a while since I got a little controversial.  So I figured, why not rock the boat just a bit.  The last month or so the immigration debates have been grabbing the headlines.  Where should we as good Christians stand on the issue?  Far be it from me to tell you what to think … let me, though, set the stage and suggest some things for you to reflect on. Much of what is to follow I gleaned from this week’s edition of the “Wired Word.”

            Some people say that immigrants are a crucial part of the U.S. economy, accepting jobs that most citizens do not wish to perform. Many citizens are pushing for ways to legalize those who work and live here illegally, maintaining that once free from the legal limbo in which the migrants now live, they would pay more taxes and become greater contributors to the overall economy.

Others see immigrants as a threat to the economy, insisting that the migrants take work away from Americans, keep wages low by agreeing to work for sub-minimal pay, and put stress on the country's public welfare, schools, medical and other systems as they and their dependents make use of tax-supported facilities and benefits. Many on this side of the debate promote a greater enforcement of border security.

As Christians how should we respond to this complicated and potentially divisive issue?

Before we answer that question, let me share what the Bible has to say.  This is not intended to be all inclusive, but should give us something to think about.

·         Leviticus 19:33-34:"When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt."

This statement about not oppressing the alien is but one of some 36 warnings in the Old Testament about Israel's obligations toward foreigners living among them.  Israel's obligation was to be motivated by a memory: They themselves had been aliens in the land of Egypt. Early in their sojourn there, they had been well treated (Genesis 47:1-6) but later they were enslaved and abused (Exodus 1:8-11). It was the former example they were to emulate with the aliens among them.

·         Ruth 1:1: "In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and two sons."

Here's an example of an Israelite family becoming immigrants due to hard times -- a famine -- in their own land. They migrated to Moab because there were food and work there. And interestingly, this family from Bethlehem didn't get anybody's permission to make the move into Moab.

·         Malachi 3:5: "I will be swift to bear witness against ... those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts."

The prophet Malachi lived in a time when many religious people were behaving badly. Hired workers, for example, were cheated in what they were paid, and that apparently was true whether those workers were citizens or migrants. Verses such as this one and the many others in Scripture about caring for the alien tell us that whatever our attitude toward undocumented workers, it is a matter of spiritual consequence.

·         Luke 16:20-21: "And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table."

This is from Jesus' parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. The latter was a poor man who lacked even the basic necessities. The rich man had way more than enough for himself, but ignored the poor man at his gate. In the parable, both men die, and while the poor man goes to paradise, the rich man went to Hades (the abode of the dead), where he was tormented for his failure to have compassion while living.

·         Matthew 25:35: "... for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me."

This is from Jesus' parable of the Sheep and the Goats. While we can and should read it profitably on a personal level, we should not miss that Jesus himself characterized this parable as a judgment on nations (see v. 32) on the basis of how they have responded to the "least of these" in their midst.

            There are no easy answers.  There usually aren’t.  The question “what would Jesus do?” is an appropriate one here, though. God has blessed us in this country, this state, this county, this city, and this church with a prosperity unknown by the majority of the world, regardless of our financial condition.  What is God calling us to do?

            This month I invite you to consider just that.   Where is God calling us as a congregation and us as Christians to stand?  What is God calling us to do?  I don’t have the answer to that question yet and will be reflecting with you on this one.  I hope to have at least one Sunday School class and maybe even a sermon on the issue in the month of May.   I hope you will join me as we search for God’s will together.

            God bless, and as always, I’ll see you on Sunday!

Pastor Tom