jesus the migrant: 6th sunday after pentecost

[today was our first attempt towards a bilingual (spanish-english) service at immanuel]

the other reading i reference is galatians 5:1,13-25

 

el santo evangelio de nuestro señor jesucristo, según san lucas.  gloria a ti, cristo señor.

⁵¹When the days drew near

       for [Jesus] to be taken up,

              he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

              ⁵²And he sent messengers ahead of him.

                     On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans

                            to make ready for him;

                            ⁵³but they did not receive him,

              because his face was set toward Jerusalem.

⁵⁴When his disciples James and John saw it,

       they said,

              “Lord, do you want us to command fire

                     to come down from heaven and consume them?”

                            ⁵⁵But he turned and rebuked them.

⁵⁶Then they went on to another village.

⁵⁷As they were going along the road,

       someone said to him,

              “I will follow you wherever you go.”

⁵⁸And Jesus said to him,

        “Foxes have holes,

       and birds of the air have nests;

              but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

⁵⁹To another he said,

       “Follow me.”

But he said,

       “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

⁶⁰But Jesus said to him,

       “Let the dead bury their own dead;

              but as for you,

                     go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

⁶¹Another said,

       “I will follow you, Lord;

              but let me first say farewell to those at my home.”

⁶²Jesus said to him,

       “No one who puts a hand to the plow

              and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

el evangelio del señor.  te alabamos, cristo señor.

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in today’s reading we encounter jesus as he “sets his face to go to jerusalem.”  from here on out, luke takes us with jesus toward the cross.  this is clear in the reading as all jesus seems to be doing is traveling—migrating.  the specific towns or villages along the way do not much seem to matter.  what matters is that he is moving, migrating, journeying—always toward jerusalem—toward death and new life.

this pattern of migrating—of journeying—should come as no surprise to those of us familiar with the ancestors in the faith found throughout the bible, and throughout our own history.  most of us can trace our personal ancestry back to immigrants, whether in recent generations including ourselves or before the united states became a country.  westport rd. is also part of the oregon, santa fe, and california trails heading “to the west.”  the bible is also full of migrants.  from eve and adam journeying away from the garden of eden to sarah, abraham, and hagar traveling to and from egypt and throughout mesopotamia on a promise from god, down to jesus—descendent of a wandering aramean and a wanderer himself.

nowadays in this global world, it is easy for those of us from the united states with enough money to journey to other countries, to cross borders.  many of us do it each year—for vacation or for business.

other beloved children of god travel out of necessity, for opportunity.  many, like jesus, know the danger that lies ahead.  they have set their face to go and they are going even if it means torture or death.  others, like the disciples, might have a vague idea about the danger of crossing borders, but because of the danger and lack of opportunity at home it doesn’t really matter, and it doesn’t really hit them until they are in the midst of those dangers.  for folks who travel out of necessity: though there is danger on the way, they also trust that there is new life to be found on the other side.

as i ended my third year of college in decorah, ia in may of 2008, us immigration and customs enforcement or ice conducted what was, at the time, the largest immigration raid in us history in the nearby town of postville.  they rounded up so many beloved children of god that the only place they could think to put them was, like cattle at a nearby fair grounds. 

the government came into this small community of postville, ia, a self-identified “hometown to the world” where people from many cultures and religions were learning how to be a community, and the government caused chaos and panic.  children, coming home from school had no idea where their parents were and the next day ½ of the students didn’t return to school.

beloved children of god were working hard in poor and at times abusive conditions at the local slaughterhouse and meat-packing plant.  they were supporting and providing opportunity for their families one day, and were taken away the next.  they were treated as if their whole being was illegal.  even the courts later ruled their treatment inhumane—illegal.  they were treated like the animals killed and processed where they work.  their humanity was lost.

during the following fall, i spent time each week with some of the women who were fighting deportation in the courts.  they wore a shackle around their ankle, tracking their every move, and had to sit still for 2 hours a day to charge it.  they needed to support their families and so were released from detention on “humanitarian grounds” and yet were not allowed to work to provide for those same families.

i met with these women and officially we worked on learning more english and navigating us customs and bill-paying.  in reality, we talked about whatever they wanted or needed to talk about and i learned from them.  these women who had survived not only the journey over walls, under fences, through the water and through the desert to cross borders for themselves and their families, but who had also survived the terror of the immigration raid.  in the time i spent with them, i learned of the struggles they faced in the countries they came from and the trust and hope they had for their lives in the united states. 

some people refer to these beloved children of god as “illegals” and yet as i have waited and prayed with the world as nelson mandela continues to struggle for his life, i came across a quote in which mandela said, “when a [person] is denied the right to live the life [they believe] in, [they have] no choice but to become an outlaw.” 

these beloved children of god are fighting for their lives and the lives and futures of their children and in that fight, they saw as their only option migration to a country that promises hope, freedom, and a future.

these women have stronger faith than i can imagine in a god who loves them and who tells them and us in jeremiah [29:11], “for surely i know the plans i have for you, says the lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”

these women had long ago set their faces to go to jerusalem.  they know intimately what it means when “foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but they, with jesus, have nowhere to lay their head.”  they know the pain and the danger of migrating and yet they have a hope inside them that there is a way to provide for their families.  that this country is actually a country of hope and freedom, that if we work hard enough we might actually be able to succeed, or at least scrape by.  that they can contribute to the good of this country and of their communities.

we call this country the land of the free.  we pride ourselves on the freedoms and rights we guarantee to those within our borders and yet we must ask ourselves what kind of freedom it is.

paul states that “for freedom christ has set us free.”  we are free not for self-indulgence, but that “through love [we might] become slaves to one another.” 

christ frees us to “love our neighbor as ourselves.”

christ frees us and calls us forward to witness to that freedom—witnessing by the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.   christ calls us in freedom to love the stranger and neighbor among us; to love, serve, and learn from the one who disagrees with us; to love, serve, and learn from the one who speaks another language, the one from another place, even the one others call illegal.

as followers of christ, we are called to journey together—strangers together in a strange land.  we journey together and are freed in christ.  in our journey together we come to know each other and strangers become neighbors.  we begin to see each other as beloved children of god. 

and in this way christ empowers us to free everyone from the oppression they face. “for,” as nelson mandela states, “to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”  christ frees and empowers us to recognize all people—native, migrant, resident, and citizen—as beloved children of god.