Within the Information
Unjust and unlawful apprehension and detainment of immigrants is within the information on daily basis. As one instance, the New York Occasions “In One Picture” piece right now seems on the “anatomy of an ICE arrest” based mostly on a photograph of Carlos Javier Lopez Benitez being apprehended by ICE brokers as he left his asylum listening to.
And also you don’t even need to learn the newspaper to know in regards to the mistreatment of our immigrant neighbors. Yesterday in worship we prayed for members of Mennonite communities in San Antonio and San Francisco who had been apprehended by ICE. At this level, most of us know somebody or not less than know of somebody who has been detained due to the present administration’s “immigration enforcement” efforts.
We will anticipate that issues will solely worsen because the price range invoice lately handed by Congress accommodates $45 BILLION for constructing new immigrant detention facilities and will increase ICE’s annual price range 3-fold–to just about $30 billion.
Within the Phrase
O.Okay. Often if I hear (or learn) the phrase “The Bible is obvious . . .” I anticipate utter nonsense and unhealthy theology to comply with. As a result of the Bible is a fancy doc written millennia in the past by folks whose lives have been very totally different from ours. In lots of instances one a part of the Bible contradicts one other half. Typically the content material of the unique manuscripts is in query and typically the English translation of the Hebrew or Greek is unclear.
So, whereas I DO love scripture, imagine it’s the Phrase of God, and search to comply with the best way of God that I study from studying and learning it, I DO NOT imagine that “The Bible is obvious” about a lot.
BUT, the Bible is fairly darn clear about how God needs us to deal with immigrants. Truly, it’s astonishingly clear. Which implies I don’t must touch upon or contextualize these passages. I’m simply going to checklist a sampling of what scripture says about find out how to deal with the foreigner/alien/stranger:
- Deuteronomy 10:17-19; “For the Lord your God . . . executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, offering them meals and clothes. You shall additionally love the stranger, for you have been strangers within the land of Egypt.”
- 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 because the native-born amongst you; you shall love the alien as your self, for you have been aliens within the land of Egypt.”
- Ezekiel 47:22; “You shall allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the aliens who reside amongst you and have fathered youngsters amongst you. They shall be to you as native-born of Israel; with you they shall be allotted an inheritance among the many tribes of Israel.”
- Matthew 25:35; “For I used to be hungry and also you gave me meals, I used to be thirsty and also you gave me one thing to drink, I used to be a stranger and also you welcomed me.”
- Luke 4:25-27; Jesus mentioned, “However the fact is, there have been many widows in Israel within the time of Elijah . . . but Elijah was despatched to none of them besides to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There have been additionally many with a pores and skin illness in Israel within the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed besides Naaman the Syrian.”
- Romans 12:13; “Contribute to the wants of the saints; prolong hospitality to strangers.”
