Illegals

 

Illegals

 

Luke 10:25-37

The parable of the merciful Samaritan 

 

10:25 An expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

 

10:26 He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?"

 

10:27 He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself."

 

10:28 And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live."

 

10:29 But wanting to vindicate himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

 

10:30 Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and took off, leaving him half dead.

 

10:31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.

 

10:32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

 

10:33 But a Samaritan while traveling came upon him, and when he saw him he was moved with compassion.

 

10:34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, treating them with oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

 

10:35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, 'Take care of him, and when I come back I will repay you whatever more you spend.'

 

10:36 Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?"

 

10:37 He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

 

 

“The one who showed him mercy.” Such simple words, aren’t they? And yet, we live in a time when many root for an administration that touts showing NO mercy to immigrants and “illegals” from places “less desirable” than the Good Ol’ USA. Even Shakespeare, who wrote those immortal words, “The quality of mercy is not strained…” knew that mercy was a highly moral and even “divine” thing. Showing mercy was better than any sacrifice, according to Hosea’s telling of God’s feelings about it. The old hymn says that Jesus “could have called ten thousand angels,” but that he instead showed mercy to those who were crucifying him, and through HIS sacrifice, to all humankind. Might our generation be in trouble with the Almighty for how we are treating those looking for a better life—or even just basic safety—here in our country? Might we be judged for not showing mercy in this way? I am at a loss as to why we might take the chance, let alone FEEL this way about “strangers in the land.” Remember, God told Israel to treat the “foreigners” and the sojourners in their land JUST LIKE A CITIZEN, and to welcome them. Are we privileged to “do less,” just because we are uncomfortable with people who don’t look like we do, or who speak a different “native” language than do we? You tell me. I’m writing these sermons for “church people”—Christians—who proclaim to believe the Gospel, and yet, according to the most recent “power polls” we call elections, we have put in charge people who hate these “sojourners” and “foreigners” in our land. It would be bad enough that they would want to send them packing back to where they came from, but no, they want to PUNISH them by sending them to ANOTHER land, foreign to them, and who will incarcerate them, away from family, language, and culture. “Evangelicals”—people who proclaim to follow Jesus—have endorsed this treatment at an 80% level, according to post-election polling. I’m sure Jesus is quite proud of them, and YOU, if you are one of them.

 

I’m not going to say this “isn’t a political sermon,” for in a way, they are ALL political, and they, if true to the gospel, should all “hurt,” to some extent. I know I should personally be doing more to support these immigrants and refugees, but short of sending some money to organizations who are helping them and helping raise awareness of their plight, I’m not losing much sleep over the issue—and I should be. So should you. I know, one of my seminary professors told us we should not “should all over” our people in our preaching, but on this issue, I think we need some “shoulding” or “should-not-ing.” We are a big, prosperous country, with loads of “menial” work for people who are willing to work hard for what is probably unjustly low pay. And yet, the “powers that be” are successfully telling us they are “stealing our jobs” and our resources. This is an outright lie, and it needs to be called out as such. Unfortunately, in order to uphold this lie, the current administration has set goals of deporting 3,000 “illegals” per day, so they can boast of “keeping their promise” of getting rid of the “criminal element” who have crossed our borders—another lie, by the way. The fact is that immigrants and refugees commit crimes at a far lower rate than the “legal citizens” do. But they have you hoodwinked. So to “keep their promise,” they are going after the “low-hanging fruit”—those persons who are doing their best to BE here legally, and to obey our laws, even while they do the work that ordinary Americans don’t want to do. THEY are the ones being rounded up at Home Depots, farmer’s markets, and courthouses, and who are being sent to other third-party nations where NO ONE speaks their language or understands their plight. And families are being separated, possibly to never see each other again. Some gospel these “evangelicals” believe in, huh?

 

This sermon is a rant, just like the rant Jesus goes on when the lawyer dares ask Jesus, “Who is my neighbor.” Jesus was most likely so indignant that if he ever WERE to “call ten thousand angels” to the scene, this might have been it. I can imagine him glaring at the privileged, Jewish lawyer, and then turning to the angels, uttering, “He’s all yours…” But no, even in what must have been an excruciating rage for Jesus, he launched into the parable in today’s text. We’ve come to call it “The Good Samaritan,” and we’ve managed to whitewash it into a kind of fairytale. How “nice” that this man happened by and “had compassion” on the man who had been beaten and robbed, especially when the priest and the lawyer were “too busy” to stop to help. Bull pucky. They didn’t stop because they DIDN’T have compassion, pure and simple. Their religion and privilege got in the way of one of the most basic things God tried to create in humans—empathy. False platitudes about God, on the part of the priest, and “legal liabilities” on the part of the lawyer, kept them from helping the suffering victim, but truth be told, I would say it was a sad lack of empathy on both their parts that drove them away. Now we KNOW why the chicken(s) crossed the road, don’t we?

 

Along came a Samaritan. I’m sure you’ve heard the patter about how the Jews hated Samaritans, and about how deep this hatred ran. I remember hearing a preacher say, just after the horrible terrorist attacks of 9-11, that the Samaritan would be like Bin Laden coming to our rescue, should you have been likewise victimized. On one hand, this was a ridiculous assertion, given that Bin Laden was the ring-leader of the terrorists, but on the other, it may have been true that the victim in this story—who would have been Jewish, according to the form of the parable—might have seen the Samaritan man approaching him as the robber returning to finish the job! In his rage over the lawyer’s ridiculous question, “Who is my neighbor,” which demonstrated a supreme lack of empathy, Jesus tells a story wherein a hated Samaritan was the only one IN the story who HAD empathy, and specifically a degree of empathy that led to a compassionate response. In my opinion, Jesus may have told this parable as much to shame the lawyer for his stupid, arrogant question as to “give a lesson” to the rest of us about empathy and compassion. In a way, Jesus may have been saying, “The hated SAMARITAN would never have asked a dumb question like yours, Mr. Barrister!” But then, Jesus had far more empathy for even the extremely-privileged that I tend to. Sorry. 

 

In the wake of the horrible floods and monumental loss of life in Texas this past week, a story has emerged that searchers and rescue teams had crossed the border from Mexico to help look for victims of the tragedy. Samaritans, were they? Apparently they were welcomed by the hurting Texans, in their time of need and grief. I’m guessing that a number of new relationships were born out of this empathetic and compassionate endeavor by those who came from one of “those” nations. If this were so, IT would be a perfect real-life parable of what Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about in his book, “Life Together.” Bonhoeffer understood that “living among” or alongside those whom are strangers to you offers the opportunity for the common “spark of divinity” in each of us to fire and germinate relationships. Walls and deportations deny both parties of this chance.

 

I have a friend who engaged me in a debate a few years ago about these “illegals,” as he called them. His appeal was that if persons wanted to immigrate to the United States, they should do so “legally.” My counter was that those who opposed allowing “those people” to come here had made the pathways to legal entry so difficult, and then so understaffed the portals for such entry, that it had become nigh unto impossible to get here “legally,” especially if one was a refuge, seeking asylum from the violent gang culture of some of the Central American nations. I also asked my friend to consider how the laws of Native American tribes and nations applied to our European ancestors who stormed the Americas in THEIR attempt to find a new home? Were we not the “illegals” of that time in history? Of course, we had the power to “negate” any such laws and rights the Native American peoples claimed, and even enough to imprison and murder those who resisted our “neighborliness.” In the Good Samaritan story, WE are the robbers, not the good guys.

 

Friends, there is no way to turn this message around to make it a sweet little lesson about being more “compassionate.” This parable forces us to either swear at it and do what we damn well please, OR repent of the heinous sin we continue to perpetuate against “the least of these,” and turn to Christ for forgiveness. We must also ask for God’s transformational power to “remold and make us” back into the “good neighbors” we must be, if we are to claim allegiance to Jesus Christ and to God. So, how do you respond? If you choose to swear at it and walk away, to continue on your own privileged path, I will pray for you. If you choose to repent, THAT outcome is in the hands of the Living God. I confess that I keep putting myself there, but it is SO EASY to slip back into the privilege I enjoy as a white American, and a MALE, at that. May God save us all from ourselves, and may Christ have mercy on those we victimize, either intentionally or by default. And may we all learn how to no longer strain the quality of our mercy. Amen.