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Hebrews 13:1-16; Luke 14:1, 7-14
A Sermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
In this season of Pentecost, we’re asking: How the Christian faith works with our feet on the ground? Today we’re going to look at the whole question of immigration.
Of course, as some say: “We are all immigrants.” All of us could talk about how our ancestors were immigrants.
It’s important to consider at how the Bible looks at this question.
I want to begin by describing the common view of the Biblical concern for the stranger, the refuge, and then move to how we use the Bible and what’s the Bible for.
We begin. As you know, there are many Bible verses which favor those who are strangers and sojourners, nomads, and migrants. The Book of Exodus says: “Resident aliens are to be treated well.”
Why is that? Because, as it says in Leviticus: “Remember you are also strangers and sojourners” (Leviticus 25:23).
This is brought out beautifully in the New Testament in Hebrews 13:14: “For here we have no abiding city but we look for the city that is to come.”
Therefore, we are the wandering people of God. We are pilgrims and nomads on earth. We should be open therefore to people who also do not find their roots in this world.
The danger is that we set down our roots and forget about that other dimension.
On top of that there is the matter of illegal aliens. If you think about the fact that the ancient people of Israel who were starving and went down to Egypt and lived there, they were in a sense illegal migrants.
The same is true in the second chapter of Matthew where it talks about how Joseph and Mary took Jesus and fled to Egypt when the threat came that all the little boys were going to be killed. They were then illegal aliens.
Furthermore, there is a whole theme in the Bible about “hospitality.” Everything is really hospitality. In our Hebrews text for today it says: “Remember to show hospitality to strangers because by doing this some have entertained angels unaware” (Hebrews 13:2). This is referring to that place in Genesis 18 and 19 where Abraham and Sarah entertained these visitors from the Lord who were not just passing strangers.
The way life worked in ancient times is that when night time fell and travelers came asking for shelter, you gave them hospitality even if they were your worst enemy. Breaking bread together, eating salt together, was considered a bond that could not be broken.
We are all migrants. We are all nomads. We have to help each other.
On top of that, in the New Testament, Jesus tended to sit down with outsiders, with tax collectors and prostitutes. That was a scandal to the Sadducees and the Pharisees. They couldn’t handle that.
From all of these texts we have the picture that we are to be a model, to be in solidarity with those in need, who are strangers, who are migrants. It’s a kind of mandate to have this kind of hospitality.
This is the common view of the Biblical concern for the stranger, and it is used frequently by those who want open borders. In fact, this is used by both Catholic and Protestant churches when they lobby in Washington and when they call upon their member congregations to give more money for immigration programs.
Here we have the problem of the use of the Bible.
For example, when you talk about how the Israelites went down to Egypt, they were there by invitation. It wasn’t that they were illegal aliens or forcing their way in. When they were no longer welcomed, they went back to their own country.
This is true for Jesus, too. Jesus was not an illegal alien or migrant. They brought him to Egypt to save his life, and when the danger was over, they went back to Nazareth.
We have these places in Matthew 5 that we discussed a few weeks ago: If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn the other. If anyone sues you and takes your coat, give him your cloak also. Lend money without interest, without security. If someone asks you to carry his baggage, go with him not only one mile, but two.
These commands are clear, plain, and simple, but life doesn’t work that way.
It comes down to the question of how we use the Bible.
Luther talked about people who use the Bible as a wax nose. At the time he lived, theater actors had wax masks, and they could twist the nose whether it was a comedy or a tragedy. They’d twist it to suit the occasion. We do that with the Bible. When it suits my case, I use it one way, when it doesn’t suit my case, I use it another.
It’s the same way with religion. In East Germany in the 1970’s and 1980’s the churches were full, and church leaders here said: “We must go over there to East Germany and study how they do it. It is so marvelous.” Church growth and all that. How did they manage to full their churches under this Communist regime?
But after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, church attendance declined precipitously. It was all something that was being used because of the persecution at the time.
The same is true for the civil rights movement in the 1960’s in this country. In many ways it was built on the churches. People used religion for political purposes.
The same is done by people for other causes which go in other directions. In all of this we see that people use often religion for political or social causes rather than for what it’s really about.
What do we do as we look at this matter of immigration?
We come back to our basic stance that we live simultaneously in two kingdoms. Both kingdoms are the Lord’s. The Lord’s right-hand kingdom of holiness and peace comes by his power alone. We are citizens of this kingdom through Baptism into the death and resurrection of Christ.
In our daily life we live in the Lord’s left-hand kingdom. Here our stance is summarized succinctly in Romans 13:10: “Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong, no harm, to a neighbor.”
Therefore, in our daily lives, in God’s left-hand kingdom, we ask: What does harm? We answer that by using our heads, that is, common reason and common sense.
When we take up the question of immigration, we have to ask something about the nation state. If you look back, nations as we know them, or “nation states,” have only been around about 500 years. Before that there was the sovereignty of kings or empires or tribes, or other forms of government, but the world developed a way of working that is called “the nation state.”
And the question that arises is whether nation states can survive if they have open borders. Some say nation states should not survive, that the age of nation states ought to be over, and that what is needed is world government, but efforts for world government haven’t carried the day.
A second problem is: What about the people in the world who are worse off than economic migrants, and therefore have greater need? By doing one thing, we neglect the other.
Third, mass immigration creates serious problems—in health care, housing, education, and rising crime. The burden falls heaviest on the working poor among us who can afford it the least.
Fourth, when the strong and able people of poorer countries migrate here, that loss of manpower and brainpower hurts development in those countries.
Fifth, there is also the unfairness of cutting in line, that is, letting illegal immigrants jump ahead of legal immigrants.
All these matters and more raise basic questions that need to be addressed.
Behind it all is the problem of sin which manifests itself in corruption.
When you look at organized crime, for example, as people try to figure out how to get rid of it, there is also the problem that many people want it. There are plenty of customers for gambling, prostitution, drugs, and the like. That’s why those problems exist. There’s a market for them.
The same is true for immigration. Behind it all, there’s a market for it. And not just “out there” but also in the churches and their expanding bureaucracies.
As we say about every matter in God’s left-hand kingdom: Of course, we could be wrong.
One of the glorious things we have in this country is freedom of speech which allows us to discuss matters publicly and make course corrections when needed. This is how we sort out how best to minimize harm in this fallen world.
To all matters we bring our Christian awareness that no matter how “good” the intentions and how “good” the program, there is that which is called sin, and it shows itself in corruption, as well as in other kinds of problems.
Therefore, we ask: What works? What are the trade-offs?
We remind ourselves that we are not building the kingdom of God, that peaceable kingdom to come of everlasting life. That kingdom is his doing and comes by his power alone.
In our daily lives, in the Lord’s left-hand kingdom, we live by the cross alone, by his forgiveness, and we go forth in our forgiven way to live the life that he sets before us. Amen