RAISING THE OUTSIDER FROM INVISIBILITY

(Preached on Sunday, June 10, 2007)

[God] raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people.                -Psalm 113:7-8

 

Laurie Coskey, a rabbi in San Diego, like most of us, is a child of immigrants.  In her case it was her great-grandparents, who immigrated from the Island of Rhodes in the 1930's with their children, her grandmother and great uncle.  Like many of us, her family has its own tragic immigration story, as well.

 

After her great-grandparents had immigrated to the United States they received a plea from relatives who had attempted to immigrate as well during the Second World War and were unable to because of quotas.  They sent a photo of their daughter and requested that Rabbi Coskey=s great uncle marry his cousin in order to save the girl from the Nazis.  His parents did not believe that the Nazis would reach the Island of Rhodes, where the Jews had enjoyed a life of freedom from discrimination.  Plus they felt that they couldn=t feed another mouth and they did not want to force their son to marry a girl he had never met.  Tragically, they said NO.  She died in the concentration camps together with the rest of her family, because the Nazis did get to the Island of Rhodes and annihilated the vibrant Jewish community there.

 

Immigration isn=t a new topic for our country=s legislators.  Though we are a nation built by immigrants (in fact most anthropologists and archeologists believe that none of the human tribes that have lived in this land originated here) it seems that almost as soon as people have arrived here they almost immediately try to close the door behind themselves.  It was in 1790, that one of the first actions of the recently formed Congress, the Immigration and Naturalization Act, codified citizenship for Afree white persons.@

 

This has not just been a secular attitude, but religious people and communities at times have acted and spoken in ways that exclude, marginalize, and declare to others that the physical and social boundaries of our nation are closed to them.  The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America articulates this reality in the following statement: AWe also recognize the obstacles and difficulties our church and society face in welcoming newcomers.  Too often we are slow in, tire of, or even resist fostering a hospitable environment for newcomers.  Too often we perpetuate the racism, the fear of, and the animosity toward newcomers to our society.  Our country=s history exhibits an ugly strain of exclusionary attitudes and policies toward newcomers who differ from the majority.  In times of economic downturns especially C as happened in the early 1990s C this strain becomes more pervasive and leads to laws that unduly restrict immigration and threaten the well-being of newcomers.@

 

What happens again and again to new immigrants is that they are Aoutsided.@  James F. Keenan, a Jesuit professor of theology tells the following story from his childhood that illustrates this practice of Aoutsiding.@  He was sitting in the tenth grade in Holy Family High School in Huntington, New York, where besides a few lay teachers, two religious orders of women taught the students.  One day their religion teacher was ill and another, Sister Joan Brennan, C.S.J., was going to substitute for her.  She was a superb teacher and a compassionate listener.  In order to win the esteem of his classmates, Keenan uttered under his breath, though audibly enough, Aoh brother@ as she entered the classroom.  She went around the room handing out an assignment and when she came to him, she simply said, Athanks a lot; that hurt.@  She knew that he had Aoutsided her.@  In other words, he had marginalized her, diminished her, discounted her.  That is what we do over and over again to new immigrants.

 

This is not something we as followers of Jesus should ever engage in doing.  Everything about his teachings is contrary to the practice of Aoutsiding@ or Ascapegoating@ (the term for the unfair blaming of specific ethnic groups for the ills of society.)  Jesus calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves, making clear that our Aneighbors@ include not just family, friends and folk like us but also strangers and enemies.  Jesus calls us to advance justice.  The witness of the entire Bible is that justice tilts toward the vulnerable, the marginalized, and the oppressed because these are the ones who have no social power.  Over and over again there is a specific call for just and compassionate treatment for the Aresident alien,@ such as in Jeremiah 22: ADo no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed violence in this place.@  Jesus also calls us to, and demonstrated over and over again through his own actions, the practice of extravagant hospitality.  In the famous Asheep and goats@ judgment parable of Matthew 25, the king says, AI was a stranger and you welcomed me.@  Immigrants are strangers.  As Christians, we are called to demonstrate welcome, or hospitality, toward them.  We do not want to court the judgment that comes to those to whom the king must say, AI was a stranger and you did not welcome me.@

 

Michael Harrington, quoted in The Sun, said AThat the poor are invisible is one of the most important things about them.  They are not simply neglected and forgotten, as in the old rhetoric of reform; what is much worse, they are not seen.@  But they are not invisible to God.  We heard the Psalmist declare in Psalm 113: AWho can compare with God, our God, so majestically enthroned, surveying his magnificent heavens and earth?  He picks up the poor from out of the dirt, rescues the wretched who=ve been thrown out with the trash, seats them among the honored guests, a place of honor among the brightest and best.@  God not only does not forget the poor, (which most recent immigrants are definitely among the poor), but God brings them out of the shadows, lifts them from the dust and reclaims them from the trash heaps of society, giving them seats of honor at God=s banquet table.  In other words, in God=s eyes they have as much value and deserve as much honor and respect as the best and brightest of society. 

 

Religious leaders and communities across a broad spectrum of denominations from ten states are coming together in a New Sanctuary Movement to engage in that very work of God C lifting up and giving honor to immigrant families who are facing the violation of their human rights in the form of hatred, workplace discrimination and unjust deportation.  By accompanying and protecting these families, they will help them tell their stories and begin to put a new face, a human face, on the immigration debate in this country.  They are taking action, courageous action, to stop the Aoutsiding@ and Ascapegoating@ of the new immigrants.

 

It is often said that immigrants are lazy, criminals, and just here to take advantage of government benefits.  In December of 2003, several immigrant workers from a local restaurant in a Chicago suburb met with clergy and lay leaders.  The workers were not being paid overtime for their work in excess of 40 hours per week (contrary to U.S. labor law).  They were also being harassed and insulted, and in some cases outright physically attacked by their employer.  They asked the congregations to stand with them to demand a change in their working conditions.  A local pastor asked the workers why they chose to come to the United States, and received a response that surprised him.  AWe come here because of horrible economic conditions at home,@ the worker said.  AWe are not here by choice.  Who in their right mind comes here knowing they will be insulted and looked at as a threat?  Who risks their lives crossing a militarized border and leaves their family, their culture, their life behind, unless they have to.@  Since the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect over 1.8 million Mexican campesinos, agricultural workers, have lost their jobs to U.S. factory farm corporations (the same practices that have decimated the family farms in this country) that have taken over the agricultural business in Mexico.