On Immigration

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: I am the Lord your God (Leviticus 19:34, NRSV Translation).

The needs of immigrants and refugees in America are many, but meeting them just requires someone who cares. On this occasion, refugees from the Congo expressed being overwhelmed in American supermarkets: the number of choices, the communication of sales and expiration dates are all new to them. So, after teaching them vocabulary words related to their most common needs, we attended the grocery store together, walking them through the store until they gained more confidence in the task.

There are many issues believers in Christ never contemplate subject to his Lordship because those issues are rendered merely “political.” For Americans, the enculturated yet often unexamined doctrine of The Separation of Church and State has dichotomized our issues into the religious and secular, or spiritual and political. The commingling of a political topic into a spiritual setting can set ablaze impassioned parishioners who have either found the security to have their political positions interweaved into the subculture of their religious affiliation, or have been able to make such “political” topics taboo, limiting the scope of conversation in the religious setting to prescribed, acceptable issues of spirituality.

In other words, cultural Christianity replaces a biblical one and the Lordship of Christ is limited to venues and topics that do not offend our sense of what is right. The Jesus Christ of the Bible, who said, “Blessed is the one who is not offended at me” (Matthew 11:6) is traded in for a more acceptable version of a religious leader who does not offend, who is always understood, and who knows where and when he can speak into the lives of his listeners and definitely refrains from engaging political topics. Fiction.

The Christ of the Bible wants to speak into the whole of our lives. Not because he’s controlling, but because he is right, righteous. His way is the way to govern humanity and the whole world awaits such goodness.

Deuteronomy 4:7 For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? 8 And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?

Grace Aaseby helps her friends from the Congo to communicate their needs in the grocery store, and points out specific items of interest. This is just one of several practical seminars the group has benefitted from, others being how to communicate their needs to a doctor or open a bank account.

The law of God, the Bible, is God’s gift to us and is fully manifest in the life and teachings of his Son, our Lord, who was crucified for upholding the contention that the rule of God extends beyond the confines of our cultural limitations.

The immigration discussion is a hot topic in the current political climate, but it’s not a new one by any measurement of history. In Leviticus 19:34 the Lord gives his command as to how the immigrant should be handled when living in our land. It’s not a complicated passage. It’s a very straightforward text!

Breaking down the verse, one could paraphrase the Lord’s command into three elements, a) don’t oppress the immigrant, b) treat the immigrant like you would a citizen, and c) respect the immigrant, looking to their well being as though you were in their situation. In addition, the Lord calls on Israel’s memory of their own immigrant experience.

When the law of God was not in play, they suffered oppression, the deprivation of rights that belonged to the citizens of Egypt, and alienation by the citizens who lacked compassion for their situation.

Jordan Miller teaches a group of refugees from the Congo a lesson on medical care. She explained the difference between emergency medicine and primary care, how insurance works, and how to communicate their needs to a 911 operator. This education saves lives!

In Leviticus, many of the commands are followed by a statement of rationale, reasoning the justification for the command. However, in chapter 19, some commands, such as this one, do not have any such reasoning. The rationale is solely the lordship of YHWH as Israel’s God. Thus, understanding the command is not a prerequisite to Israel’s obedience. The absence of God rationalizing his mandate to make sense of it in Israel’s political climate implies that the Lordship of Christ is evinced in obedience, overriding the need to subject the command to considerations of their cultural sense of right and wrong.

No matter where you politically stand on the topic of immigration, in Christ, the mandate is clear - “you shall love the alien as yourself.” Our surrender to the Lordship of Jesus gives him the authority to speak into the whole of our lives; to restore us as whole beings, no longer dichotomized into secular and religious, spiritual and political, but as human beings created in the image of God, following after Jesus, sharing this world with all of God’s children and learning to live in it together, in peace. The whole world longs for the rule of God, where his love brings salvation because he is righteous, he is good.

As you read this edition of the Global Voice, I pray that your hearts would be open to the Lordship of Christ, allowing him to have voice into those venues previously considered political or secular; that you would sense his love for the whole world and that as you open your heart up to him in these formerly closed or unexamined areas, acting in faithful obedience to his commands, you would notice healing and restoration in your own life, bringing an end to the hostility and division within yourself, coming into the peace that only Christ can bring.

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

Don’t be afraid of the alien, they’re just like you - children of God who need his grace, love, forgiveness, and healing.

God bless you!