Saturday, September 14, 2024

Xenos: Us vs Them




One summer on family vacation, a grandson decided we should have a family Olympics to mirror the games unfolding that summer in Brazil.

The team names: Us and Them.

We had lots of amusing conversations and plenty of confusion. I remember asking repeatedly: "Am I an Us or a Them?" I think I was a Them, but still not quite sure.

When it comes to immigration: are we an Us, or a Them? 

I was 12 or 13 when I stumbled on the poem "Outwitted," by Edward Markham, a little known American poet born in Oregon in 1852: 

He drew a circle that shut me out--
Heretic, a rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
         We drew a circle that took him in!

I copied it and memorized it quickly. Not so much because of the idea of heretic or rebel, but because I was captured by the idea that the circles others draw can be overcome by wider, intentional circles of love.

I believed it then. I believe it now. 

I've been saddened to hear Christian friends speak about immigrants as a dangerous "them", threatening and endangering a self-protective "us."

I've known many immigrants, from all corners of the globe. I've never felt threatened by any. Instead I'm grateful:

  • For Hudson, the Ugandan refugee who helped me with my West Philly community garden, then came and shared the produce for dinner.
  • For the Hmong families who joined our church and invited my husband and me to a celebration dinner in honor of a daughter they named after our own first daughter.
  • For Tran, the Vietnamese refugee who helped me lead our Brownies in their camping trips, sitting by the fire after the girls were asleep, sharing stories of her years in a refugee camp. 
  • For the immigrants I see in our church every week, adding their rich perspective to conversations over shared Sunday lunches. 
Some came through international refugee programs. Some won the immigration lottery. Some had work that paved the way to green cards. 

Others? I never ask. Current US avenues toward legal immigration are messy, broken, and in great need of reform. 

The Bible has much to say about our welcome of the exile, the stranger, the immigrant, the unknown "them." A quick review of the most forceful:

“You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien; for you were aliens in the land ” (Exodus 22:21)

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)


For the Lord your God...loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing.  You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
(Deuteronomy 10:19:

‘Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.’ Then all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
(Deuteronomy 27:19)

Old Testament passages suggest that when it comes to "strangers," we are all in that group, and should treat others as we would like to be treated. 

Jesus makes the case even stronger: our acceptance of strangers is equal to our acceptance of him. Our denial of stranger is a denial of him and ample cause for his own denial of us. 

Read Matthew 25:31-46 carefully, prayerfully. Jesus challenged the "us" and "them" of the people who considered themselves chosen. He said there would come a a day of judgment that would not go as they expected. 

The word “xenos” in the original Greek, translated “stranger” in the Matthew passage, could also be translated foreigner, alien, sojourner, guest. It's the root of the word “xenophobia”: fear and hatred of strangers, foreigners, anything strange or foreign. 

Treatment of the "xenos", Jesus said, is the same as treatment of Jesus himself. 

There are plenty of arguments to be made for welcoming immigrants. 

Our economy has for centuries been dependent on immigrant labor, work ethic, ingenuity. 

Opposing arguments about immigrant crime have no basis in fact. For decades studies on the issue have shown immigrants are far less likely to commit crimes. Undocumented immigrants in particular do all they can to avoid any encounter with law enforcement. 

Non-citizens voting? The Heritage Foundation leaves no rock unturned in efforts to prove wide-scale illegal voting, but review of their data "shows just how extraordinarily rare noncitizen voting truly is."

The World Relief Corporation of the National Association of Evangelicals provides a six-session study: Discovering and Living God's Heart for Immigrants: A Guide to Welcoming the Stranger.  The study addresses issues raised above and more. 

But for Christians, our response to immigrants, legal or otherwise, ,can't be based on economic questions, protection of "our" way of life, or judgment of the motives of the strangers struggling to join us. Jesus suggests none of that matters. The deeper issue is love of neighbor: the command second only to love of God himself. 

Wouldn't it be wonderful if churches spreading alarm about "illegal aliens" would take time to learn the facts and see what God has to say? 

If you're interested in learning more, spend some time with that World Relief study guide. 

If you hear people talk about "illegals," dangerous aliens, our borders overrun: ask for facts, sources, and offer that study guide. Or invite friends of family to read that Matthew 25 passage together. 

What I see in the Matthew 25 discussion of sheep and goats is Jesus' rebuke of the self-important, self-protective "us" vs "them." I hear him saying "don't assume you're the insiders, the chosen. You may be surprised."

The divisions will not go well for those most eager to divide. Jesus stands with the "them": the strangers, the foreigners, the "illegals", the xenos: "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me."




Earlier posts on this subject: 

A movie that helped me see this more clearly: The Visitor 


A song that captures the questions of us and them. Who are the citizens? Where do we belong?



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Monday, September 2, 2024

Sacred Solidarity

Happy Labor Day.

I've spent time this weekend thinking and praying about workers, Labor Day, and the strange political landscape we live in. 

I'm troubled at the way some politicians cater to foreign investors and their wealthiest donors.

The Trump tax cuts are failing badly,
Washington Post, May 31, 2019
I'm offended by assumptions that poverty is always the result of laziness. 

I'm saddened by Christians who celebrate and admire a presidential candidate born to excessive wealth, whose business model depends heavily on cheating workers, creditors, and political supporters. 

Looking back through earlier posts, I discovered I've written quite a lot about workers, wage theft and Labor Day. No need to repeat all that. The links are below. 

What's your own theology of work? Grace? God's provision for the poor?

The Bible has far more to say on this issue than on other topics most Christians I know prefer to focus on. There's certainly far more about wealth, poverty, work and treatment of workers than we hear about in our Sunday services. This weekend I stumbled on a website called The Theology of Work, and a page titled What Does the Bible Say About Wealth and Provision? It's long, but worth some study.  

Here's the section that most caught my attention:

We Are to Change the Organizations and Structures of Society

Christians are called to work not only at the small enterprise and person-to-person level in seeking to alleviate poverty, but also at the macro or structural level. The world contains resources enough to meet everyone’s needs. But the social, political and economic motivation and means to do so have never come together on a global scale. This too is a form of human sin and error. We are to be involved in changing the organizations and systems of provision and wealth in our societies. Although we may feel too small and insignificant, too far removed from the halls of power in our society, God has a habit of using outsiders and insignificant people to bring great economic changes in societies.

My own involvement in PA politics was a direct result of time spent with friends born into poverty, struggling to find a way out and too often trapped by structural roadblocks. I am still deeply involved with some of those friends, but after years of looking for ways to help on a personal level, I found myself challenged to look at political structures that cater to the wealthiest among us and fail our poorest children. 
It's interesting to consider that Jesus, the center of the Christian faith, was born in a carpenter's family, lived his early years as a refugee, surrounded himself with fishermen, and chose to die on a cross between two thieves. 

The Labor Cross, Fritz Eichenberg, 1954
In the Catholic faith the word "solidarity" is used often to describe Jesus' actions toward us and our required actions toward others. Just as Christ chose to embed himself in human form, chose to take on our troubles and live among us, Catholic teaching on solidarity insists we're called to do the same for others.

From Pope Francis: 

Solidarity means much more than engaging in sporadic acts of generosity. It means thinking and acting in terms of community. It means that the lives of all are prior to the appropriation of goods by a few. It also means combatting the structural causes of poverty, inequality, the lack of work, land and housing, the denial of social and labor rights. It means confronting the destructive effects of the empire of money. (Pope Francis, On Fraternity and Social Friendship [Fratelli Tutti], no. 116)

Here's another way to approach it, from the United Church of Christ's Witness for Justice: 

To build solidarity is to entangle ourselves more deeply in the vulnerabilities of the world produced by injustice.  

I like that word "entangle." It's messy. It suggests we find ourselves caught and held together in ways we can't control. 

This Labor Day weekend, while thinking about the needs of workers, I've been fielding calls from a younger friend whose car died on Friday and whose family depends on her getting to work on Tuesday. "Entangled" suggests her problem is also mine. 

Jesus entangled his life with his friends and followers. So much so that he gave his life for them and all who follow after.

I have lots of questions. Not many answers:

  • What does it mean for us to entangle our lives with workers struggling to build a sustainable life in an economy that rewards some people richly and leaves others struggling to survive?
  • How can we travel through this world in ways that encourage and enrich the poorest, weariest workers we encounter?
  • Where can our own actions, our votes, our voices, help end structural injustice? 
  • How can we shop, travel, worship, give in ways that benefit workers most in need of help. rather than the wealthy who already have far more than they need?

I think maybe the first step in all of that is to make sure we step outside our safe bubble of belief and behavior, to know workers in different walks of life, different economic circumstances. Ideally, our congregations are places where that can happen. If not, maybe that's the first place to start. 

Almighty God, you have so linked our lives one with another that all we do affects, for good or ill, all other lives: So guide us in the work we do, that we may do it not for self alone, but for the common good; and, as we seek a proper return for our own labor, make us mindful of the rightful aspirations of other workers, and arouse our concern for those who are out of work; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen (Collect for Labor Day, Book of Common Prayer p 261)



Earlier posts about work, workers and Labor Day


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