What if we started by contemplating that somebody took in Jesus, Joseph and Mary when they fled from Herod into Egypt. Joseph, Mary and Jesus may or may not have been illegal immigrants, but they did what millions of immigrants are doing now: they ran for their lives. We would not have the boy Jesus if someone had not saved the baby Jesus’ life. The words “As much as you do it to one of the least of these you do it to me” may have had special meaning for Jesus, the immigrant. Keep those words in mind. Remember that love for the aliens, the strangers and the orphans goes back thirty five hundred years to the Lord God’s “defense of the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and love for the foreigner residing among you.”
I fully support the civil authority protecting our borders. I fully support laws that do justice by the eleven million immigrants presently here and those seeking asylum. Yet what is happening right now is neither compassionate, sane, nor designed to protect Americans. It is part of a PERFECT STORM- the violent winds of desperate human need, blind ambition looking for votes, and a national panic attack violently colliding to destroy families and uproot justice.
One avowedly Christian politician said we ought to just let Christians in. Another characterized illegal immigrants as violent criminals, based on an incident involving one person among eleven million. Yet terrorist suspects considered too dangerous to fly have a constitutional right to buy guns! Also, we are only going to let a few Syrian refugees in after an eighteen to twenty four month period of vetting while welcoming ten million tourists in last year on tourist and business visas with almost no background checks.
Such behavior is neither just, compassionate, safe, or wise. The “Perfect Storm” has disabled our vision of what the “Great Migrant” from heaven would have us do now! The damage to our social consciousness challenges Disciples to rebuild our public lives on the Rock who is Jesus, King and Lord. The very Breath of God will help us “act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God. ”