I have to be honest.
I woke up, this morning, upset about immigration reform. Before I had even made my cup of coffee (and
this is a big deal, because I haven’t had coffee in weeks), I was already
thinking about what could be done to bring some compassion, mercy, and reason
to this process that seems to have imploded overnight. I knew, when I sat down to read through the
daily office, that I might project my feelings about this onto the
Scriptures. Maybe I’ve done just
that. If you think so, go ahead and call
me out.
Last night I saw something that indicated that the
vast majority of people (I think a study showed 92% or so) don’t actually care
what clergy have to say about social justice.
This falls squarely on us. This
is a failure of clergy and the Church at large.
I apologize.
I read Psalm 55.
The whole Psalm is certainly worth your time, but here are a few verses
that stood out to me:
“Lord,
confuse the wicked, confound their words,
for I see violence and strife in the city. Day and night they prowl
about on its walls; malice and abuse are within
it. Destructive
forces are at work in the city; threats and lies
never leave its streets” (v. 9-11, NIV).
Then, Mark 7:1-23. Again, I would highly suggest reading all of
it, but for the purposes of this post:
“‘These
people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules’” (v. 7, NIV).
“Thus
you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And
you do many things like that” (v. 13, NIV).
“Are
you so dull?”
he asked. “Don’t
you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them?”
(v. 18, NIV).
“He
went on: ‘What
comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart,
that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice,
deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from
inside and defile a person’” (v. 20-23, NIV).
May God help us, we seem to have forgotten that the
problems we have are internal ones. In
Scripture, this is almost always the way it goes down. Jesus confronts those who are on the inside—those
who live in comfort and prosperity. Far
too often, the response is, “Oh, it’s not me.
It’s not us. Look at all of those
dirty outsiders. Heck, Jesus. It’s you. You are the problem! Leave us alone so we might build our walls of
protection and exclusion in order to be safe!”
Safe from whom?
Quite frankly, I have experienced more backstabbing
from within the walls than from outside of them. This is always… always… where I get myself into trouble with people who identify as
religious. Many years ago, when our
family started saying things like, “Everyone
is welcome here,” we found out rather quickly that this was a sore spot for
the religious elite. Interestingly, we
have suffered abuses at the hands of those who hold themselves in high esteem,
but I know quite a few drug dealers, prostitutes, widows, orphans, inmates, and
people riddled with disease who would give me the shirt off their backs if I
needed it. Something is wrong with this
picture. Really, really wrong.
Now, I want to be extremely clear that I am not
comparing refugees to any of those listed in the categories above. If there is any comparison to be made, it is
simply that we have marginalized them as people. That’s my point here. We have decided that they are somehow worth
less than we are, because they are unlike us.
Even though they are fleeing in fear for the sake of their lives and their
families, we are the ones who are afraid of them. But I can’t figure it out, because it’s
backwards. We should have no fear of
what is outside of ‘the wall.’ The evil
comes from within.
My heart is so broken, today. As I have indicated before, one of the
biggest dangers in this is that I will think I have done something to help just
by being sad. Please, let’s not fall
into that trap. I have a friend who is
an immigration attorney, and I am anxiously awaiting her suggestion for how to
move forward with some practical steps to make a difference. In the meantime, I have an online friend (who
is friends in real life with people I know personally) who offers great insight
into what is happening with Syrian refuges in Hungary, where she lives. Her blog can be found here. It both touches and breaks my heart every
time I read it.
I certainly don’t know everything about every
organization that is reputable, but I know that if you donate to Nazarene
Compassionate Ministries at this link, the funds actually go to help Syrian
refugees, in Hungary, right now.
I hope to have word on an action plan that will make
a difference locally, in the near future.
For me, it’s a both/and proposal.
Help now, where you can. Keep
helping as new opportunities arise. And
then, when you’ve done something practical, it’s OK to break down in tears for
awhile over our brothers and sisters, over their babies, over the sad state of
a world in which the people on the inside don’t understand that we are the problem.
L.
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