Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3)
You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. (Exodus 22:21)
There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus And if you belog to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:28-29)
The earth will rest, justice will prevail, the poor will rejoice and peace will return, once we no longer act as predators but as pilgrims. No longer each of us for ourselves, but walking alongside one another. (Pope Leo XIV)
This summer we are working on a project to identify clearly the values we want to live by so that we can articulate them when we try to explain to others the kind of world we believe God envisions for people. One of the big issues in the news these days is immigration, and we’re watching as masked men in street clothes without ID round up people at church, school, or work, families in their neighborhoods and immigrants who have come to court appointments according to the rules and send them to inhumane detention centers or deport them to dangerous prisons in countries they have never been in. There’s a lot of questions about the lack of due process or about how this is making our country safer. Safer from hardworking parents or their children? Many people feel like this is wrong – inhumane, lacking compassion, racist, not who we want to be. How do we explain why it’s wrong beyond “people shouldn’t be treated that way”?
As a general rule, I’m not a fan of picking a Bible verse here or there to prove a point, because every verse has a context which is essential to its meaning. Today we’re going to pick verses, and I’m going to try to be accurate about their context.
One of the foundational stories of the Judeo-Christian faith is the story of Abram, who with his wife Sarai was told by God to leave their home in Ur and travel with their extended family, flocks, and servants to a land God promised to give them. Another primary foundational story of our tradition is the story of God freeing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Both of these stories star in our scriptures today.
Before we look at what these stories tell us about immigration, let’s remember what these stories are as “origin stories” and how they function. When we are talking about very ancient peoples, before recorded history, our sources are the stories or “myths” these people have passed down to us as tradition. We tend to think of them as historical events, but since we’re talking 3,000-4,000 years ago, we don’t have actual recorded history to verify them. Both of these stories come to us from that ancient time.
Here’s what we know about that time and those people. About 3500 years ago when the land we now call Israel was being settled, there were a number of nomadic tribes, more like extended families, wandering across the land with their flocks, interacting with other tribes. Some of these tribes were identified in ancient tablets as ‘Apiru, perhaps the ancestors of our Hebrews. In Genesis we have the stories of tribes led by Abram (who is later called Abraham), Isaac and Jacob. People who study how ancient manuscripts have been edited tell us that these were probably leaders of separate tribes who eventually merged and combined their origin stories into the story of Abram’s family as we know it today. These wandering tribes are mentioned at times in Egypt, where we know groups of people were enslaved as laborers for the pharaohs. By the time about 3,000 years ago when writing was more developed and we have more historical documents preserved, the ancestors of these ancient wanderers lived in what is now Israel, considered themselves a single tribe, and remembered that they had been led to this place by God, having experienced slavery in Egypt. When I tell you that this is a story developed over time, I mean that it’s not based on historically datable events, but that it is true. It’s true because it has emerged from the experience of the people over centuries and it reflects their understanding of who they are and how they got there. It is a story about values and identity and it guides their behavior. It is more significant than simply retelling a story about what happened once.
Today’s two pieces of that story tell us some important things. One is that these people, our spiritual ancestors, believed they were in a good land because God has brought them there, and the purpose of their relationship with God wasn’t just to receive a blessing, but to become a blessing to everyone else. “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” That tells us that when we receive something good, we become stewards of that goodness, that resource, in order for it to benefit everyone. Think how different the nation of Israel would be behaving today if they understood their country not as a blessing they received in compensation for being treated badly, but as a resource to use to benefit others. Their defensiveness makes sense in light of their recent history, but it isn’t true to the original understanding of the gift of the land. There are many Jews today who see that dissonance clearly and would like to do something about it.
Our second ancient story reminds the people that they have themselves been wanderers and strangers and therefore they should have empathy for those among them who came from other places. Do you hear the echo of “do unto others what you want them to do to you”? Resident aliens are to be treated fairly, not oppressed or wronged. That’s a pretty clear condemnation of the way we are treating immigrants right now. Our history in this regard is mixed. Each new wave of immigrants has been marginalized as “other”, but we have also celebrated the great melting pot that’s made our country great. School children have heard those immigrant stories and learned about the Statue of Liberty who welcomes people from all parts of the world. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” That sentiment is still worthy of guiding our treatment of immigrants today. With few exceptions, we are all descended from people who moved to this country. We too can hear, “you were once aliens.”
Twelve centuries after that reminder was first spoken, Paul wrote to new followers of Jesus, “There is no longer Jew or Greek.” The Roman Empire was also a melting pot of people from all across the known world. For the most part no matter where you came from, you were part of the one Empire. When Paul talks about breaking down all kinds of barriers that might divide people, he reminds them of the promise to Abraham. And that promise isn’t for wealth, or for special status, it’s for the privilege of blessing others. Anything good that has come to us, is for the purpose of passing blessing along. Pope Leo speaks in that vein when he talks of walking alongside each other.
Some of you will remember the first time astronauts photographed earth from space, the beautiful big blue marble. There are no national boundaries visible in that photo. We are all one people. National boundaries are convenient for governing, but they are not meant to split humanity apart. Although there is an identifiable American Christianity, Christianity is not an American religion. It’s a global faith, a global guide. Along with the other great religions, we share principles of justice, freedom, hope, compassion. It’s good to be proud of our country because we have done many good things for the world. But whatever blessing that has brought us, isn’t meant for us alone. It’s meant to be a blessing for others. We have lived that at some of our greatest moments. We have supported our allies in great wars for freedom. We were instrumental in founding the United Nations. We brought food, medicine, and knowledge to many through USAID. When people suggest in this moment that those movements were a mistake, we can correct them. They are ways that we have fulfilled our vision of being a blessing to others. When people tell us that manifest destiny means we should take all the blessings of this place for ourselves, we can remind them that blessings multiply when they are shared.
The values scripture lifts up, are values that make us better people. To welcome the stranger, to live with generosity, to see ourselves as a global people make us better. Yes, we can be proud to be American, but only so far as being American makes us good and kind, generous and noble. At our heart, we don’t belong to a country, but to God. We are one global family, and we are better together.