God’s Concern for the Sojourner

Transcript

Tonight I want to focus in on a subject that is about something that God is very concerned about. And God has a special concern for the vulnerable of society. We can see that in His Word. We see groups that He singled out for special care, including the widow, the orphan, the poor, and a group that we're going to focus on tonight, the sojourner, or the immigrant population. When people were not native to a land and they came into a land, they were vulnerable. They stood out as not belonging to the native population, and that could make them targets. You think of Abraham and Isaac when they went to sojourn in Egypt and in Grar. How that would have occurred, that it was a fearful situation for them because they recognized their vulnerability, such that they feared for their lives and they asked their wives to say that they were, that she was their sister. These are just a few examples in the scriptures of people who immigrated to another land and lived there as sojourners. Here in our country, the events of the past month or so have hit me personally in a number of ways. I grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I went to middle school, high school, college, and graduate school in Minneapolis. My high school was only a few miles from where the ice shootings occurred last month. I've recognized neighborhoods and streets that have been in the footage of demonstrations that have been in the national news. The subject has been something that's been on my mind for quite a bit recently. Let's see, I lost my connection here. Give me one second. Nope, that's not going to work. That's not good. There we go. All right, lady was right. So, first question that I want us to address is like, who is the sojourner that we read about in our English Bibles? The Hebrew word gur or gar, which is a verb, and ger, which is a noun, is defined by Halod as to dwell as an alien. The verb is defined as to dwell as an alien and a dependent. The theological dictionary of the Old Testament says in the Old Testament, the ger occupies an intermediate position between the native, the Ezraach, and the foreigner, the Nahri. He lives among people who are not his blood relatives, and thus he lacks the protection and the privileges which usually come from blood relationship and place of birth. His status and his privileges are dependent on the hospitality that has played an important role in the ancient Near East ever since the ancient time. The theological word book of the Old Testament says that the root means to live among people who are not blood relatives, thus rather than enjoying native civil rights, the ger was dependent on the hospitality that played an important role in the ancient Near East. So you get the idea that this is somebody who's come into a country that's not their own, and they're dwelling there, and they're in a sense out of place compared to the people who were born and raised there. Another take on ger came to me through Brother Steve Snoblin, who shared a New York Times opinion piece that was published just this weekend by Rabbi Shea Held, who's done much more study into the Bible's look at the Sojourner than I have, and it was a really excellent article that paralleled a lot of the conclusions that I've come to in my studies on the subject. He said, in recent decades, biblical scholars have returned to an older idea that the ger should be translated as something close to immigrant. Writing about the book of Exodus, the 11th century Jewish biblical commentator Rashi explains that wherever ger occurs in scriptures, it signifies a person who has not been born in that land where he is living, but has come from another country to Sojourn there. And he makes the point, a good point, that the concern that the Jewish laws, that God's laws have for the Sojourner were unique in the ancient Near Eastern culture, and he calls it one of the Bible's greatest moral revolutions to mandate a concern and care for this vulnerable population. So what are the reasons behind Sojourning? People don't just usually up and leave their homeland, especially in the ancient world, and today, you know, transportation is a lot easier, and you could argue it happens a lot more today, but back then, why would you leave and become a Sojourner? Think of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, all left the land to dwell in Egypt because of famine. Elamelech and Naomi went to Moab in time of famine. Elijah became a Sojourner in a famine, and there's other examples. So famine, which is one type of economic reason. You can think of his herds, and Abraham's herds became too great to be in the same area. He had an economic reason to go to the land of Sodom for the pastures there, the greenery that was there for his flocks and herds. Another reason for Sojourning might be becoming displaced by war or by force. In Ezra, chapter 1, verse 4, which we'll look at in a second, we read about the Jews in captivity were Sojourners in Babylon. In Isaiah, chapter 16, verse 4, it speaks of the Moabites being displaced by force as well, and so here's what Ezra said. It says in Ezra 1, 4, this is the decree of Cyrus, let each survivor in whatever place he Sojourns be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with peace, besides free will offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem. So they were spoke of as being Sojourning in a land outside of their homeland, the land of Israel. So that's kind of what causes people to become Sojourners. Now, when they're Sojourners or immigrants and they come to a different country, one thing that has happened through ancient times until today is that there are negative attitudes towards the immigrant, and that was true then, that's true now. Notice one place you can see that is actually right in the book of Genesis. We mention Lot, Sojourning, and Sodom, and when we read just before the destruction of Sodom, when the angels came to him in Genesis 19, 6, it says, Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, and he said, I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly when they were demanding that they, the men of Sodom, were demanding that he give them the two visiting angels so that they could rape them. Um, he, Lot refers to the people of the city as brothers. Well, contrast that with what the men of Sodom say to Lot. They said, stand back, and they said, this fellow came to Sojourn and he would become the judge. Now we will deal worse with you than with them. So they pressed hard against the man, Lot, and drew near to break down the door. So see that difference, the difference in attitude. Lot saw the people that he was dwelling with as brothers, but they did not see him at their level. They thought of him as less than. They thought of him as, you know, the Sojourner. He's not really one of us. Even though, you know, he may have risen in the society to some degree to be, you know, sitting in the gate, which is an indication of some place of authority or honor, but they still thought of him as a Sojourner. And, that negative attitude that they had towards the immigrant. Consider another passage. Um, in Exodus, in the beginning of the story of the Exodus of Moses and God's deliverance, it says there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply. And if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land. This here is perhaps the earliest record, maybe, of a xenophobic attitude towards immigrant, an immigrant population. He, like, saw them as a threat because of their numbers. And we hear things like that today as well, of countries being, you know, afraid of The response, then, that Pharaoh came up with was, therefore, they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens, whereas the NIV says to oppress them with forced labor. They built for Pharaoh storcities, Pithon and Ramses, but the more they were oppressed, which is that same word for afflict in the previous verse, the more they multiplied and more they spread abroad. So as a result of the threat that Pharaoh felt that these people posed, this immigrant population posed, his response was to oppress them. And that's just one example of many in history where an immigrant population becomes oppressed by the by the native population. So stuff like that today, you know, happens as well. We live in a country that is supposed to be a welcoming place to the immigrant. 97 percent of our population are descendants of people who've come to this country in the last, you know, few hundred years. I only have to go back three generations in my family before I see a number of my ancestors who immigrated to the US. Now, I realize I come from the Midwest here in New England. I imagine there's people that can go back many more generations than that. But still, you know, we're not talking, you know, too many generations before we're in other places, except for the, you know, the Native American population. But so many today and throughout our history have forgotten that our ties to this land are relatively recent. And, you know, we should have more compassion and understanding to people who are immigrating, recognizing that we are not too many generations back. We were immigrants ourselves. But, you know, you can see it today and you can see it in our nation's history. This is a political cartoon from 1890 that shows negative attitudes toward the immigrant aren't anything new in our country. You know, zooming in a little bit to see some of the pictures that might be a little small on your screen. You've got a picture. Well, the quote at the bottom says the proposed immigrant dumping site and the Statue of Liberty says Mr. Wyndham, who is actually somebody, a senator from Minnesota who became Treasury Secretary, said if you're going to make this island a garbage heap, I'm going back to France. So he had proposed apparently to make the island that the Statue of Liberty is on a point of entry for immigrants. But it was not a very popular thing. And you can see from this cartoon that they're calling these ships that are bringing people and dumping human beings onto the shores of the country as garbage ships and refuse as their cargo from the labels on the boats. And it's really sad that these are the attitudes that people have. People made in the image of God are being called garbage. And we hear the same thing today, sadly. In 1912, go back or go 30 years forward, you see, you know, other examples of this kind of attitudes towards people from other countries that are immigrating. Here the picture, you've got the American labor being concerned about the foreign element that's coming and he's being portrayed as holding a fuse that's about to blow up a bunch of powder that's going to destroy the foundation of American wages and prosperity. Using immigrants as a scapegoat for the economic problems isn't just happening today. It happened in Nazi Germany and in our country 100 plus years ago. Today we have similar xenophobic attitudes of the great replacement theory you may have heard as many are saying that the immigrants, there's actually a plot to bring immigrants in to take over our country, for example. It's, you know, sadly the racist and bigoted language and the tropes coming from leaders and influencers in our country aren't foreign attitudes in our country's history. They've been here all along. Now, so that's the attitudes of man. I want us to think and consider in contrast God's attitude towards the sojourner, towards the immigrant, and it's expressed so many places throughout scripture in the law, in the prophets, in the writings, and in the New Testament. We see hints of it as well. We're going to take a look at a selection of them. We cannot cover all of them because of how many there are, but we'll take a look. So, first of all, related to oppression. In Exodus chapter 22, the law prescribed, you shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you are sojourners in the land of Egypt. This word, oppress, was used back in chapter 3, verse 9, and when God speaks and says, and now behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I've also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. So that's same word that the Egyptians were doing to the Israelites. God is now saying, you can't do that to the foreigner that's among you, the sojourner among you. You must not oppress him. And he says in Exodus 23, verse 9, you shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart or the nephesh of a sojourner, for you are sojourners in the land of Egypt. We know that word nephesh is like often translated soul, but it also captures just the idea of a life. You know the life of the sojourner. They lived that life in Egypt. They knew the feelings. Their heart experienced what it's like to be a sojourner, to be looked down upon, to be mistreated, to be oppressed, and that was something that they should never be doing, God says, knowing that life, knowing that experience yourselves. You should never want to inflict that on anybody else. God's concern for the immigrant included making sure their needs were met. If we look at Leviticus 19, the gleaning laws. When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest, and you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall gather the fallen grapes of the vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner. I am the Lord your God, and we're familiar with like how Ruth like was a poor person that would have benefited from that law and was able to to glean in Boaz's field, but God also had that plan for the sojourner. He wanted to make sure that their needs were met. Um, and Leviticus 19, I'm sorry, and sorry, but in Leviticus 23, that same idea is repeated for emphasis. It's almost almost word for word, the same message as if to like show how important it is that that God considered it to make sure that the needs of the sojourner of the immigrant were met. So let's move on to another aspect of God's care and concern. But actually, let's start with it. I've got a bit of a test question or a quiz question for you all. So time for audience participation. Fill in the blank. You shall love blank as yourself. Fill in the blank. What do we know from Scripture? Your neighbor. Your neighbor. Yeah, yeah. So I've heard both from a room nearby and from from Butch that, yeah, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Good. So that is a very well-known and important piece of Scripture. Command Jesus called it the second is like unto it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself, the first being you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul. But can anybody think of a second correct answer to this? As a teacher, I often like it when I can have a question that actually is not just one answer that we can see other things that fit. Can anybody think of another thing that fits in that blank? So maybe it's not as familiar, but let's consider. So Jesus, we know, teaches you shall love the Lord your God. That was the greatest commandment. The second was like unto it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus, in sharing that, was quoting from Leviticus 19 verse 18. But in the chapter mirroring this command of verse 18, love your neighbor as yourself, is this verse or part of this word part of a verse that says you shall love him as yourself. And who would the hymn be? The hymn would be the sojourner. When looking at verse 33, when a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself. For you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. This was, you know, this Rabbi Shea Held also talked about there being three loves commanded in Scripture. And this would be the third, the lesser known of the loves. But God thought it was very important as well as the others because he repeated, unlike the love your neighbor command, which was the only once in the Hebrew Bible, this one is repeated as in Deuteronomy 10 verse 12, or actually verse 19. But let's read 12 through 19 for some context. And now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, his ways, to love him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I'm commanding to you today for your good? Behold, to the Lord your God belong the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and shows their offspring after them, you above all peoples as you are this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, the awesome God who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow and loves the sojourner giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner therefore for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. So notice that, you know, in verse 12 he's asking Israel to walk in, God's asking Israel to walk in God's ways to love him and to serve him and to keep his commandments. And one of the ways that they were to do that is what we had at the end of the of the paragraph, that you know, God is not partial and he executes justice for the father, fatherless, the widow and the sojourner giving them food and clothing. So to keep the ways of the Lord then we should be doing the same. We should be loving the sojourner because that's what God does. God loves the sojourner. We should be mirroring that. We should be seeking justice for the vulnerable and mirroring his love for the sojourner. And we could even be the extension of God's hands in meeting the needs of the sojourner because it says that God gives him food and clothing. And how does God do that? He often does that through his people who are showing justice and mercy to those who are vulnerable and in need. So we have the two more famous loves and then we have this this third love, the love for the sojourner. And we might ask, you know, why is it that Jesus didn't emphasize this command? It was twice commanded in the law, but Jesus didn't seem to pick up on it the way that he picked up on the first two. Well, consider this when in the context of those loves, we had somebody in Luke 10 who was testing Jesus who said, you know, who is my neighbor? And the way that Jesus kind of in a judo move is working to try to get the mind of this person who was testing him engaged and his heart changed. You know, this person was desiring to justify himself and to kind of narrow the obligation of love. Jesus was like working to expand the vision of what a neighbor was in his powerful parable. His parable flips the question. After the parable of the Good Samaritan, he asked the man, which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? And the response was the one who showed mercy and Jesus says, you go and do likewise. So the Samaritan, the sojourner among them, because remember that the Samaritans came from a people group that were kind of imported into the land when the Jews were exiled. Rich can probably help me if this is, I think the Assyrians were the ones who put people in the land and kind of mixed people's locations up or whatever. And the Samaritans kind of came to be part of the land as a result of this. So they were, in a sense, sojourners in the land. It wasn't their native homeland. And Jesus is taking and using the Samaritan and equating him as a neighbor because he proved to be a neighbor from the mercy that he showed. So by showing mercy, he proved to be a neighbor and Jesus says, we should go and do likewise and show mercy to our neighbor, which includes the sojourner and all those in need who God puts in our path. So I think Jesus wasn't ignoring that command to love the sojourner. He was just coming at it in a more, in a less direct way, but in a way that should strike and really lodge in our hearts is an impactful way that that powerful story of the Samaritan, the despised one of their society, who's the outsider, who's the immigrant. He's the one who showed mercy and love and Jesus is saying, you need to go and do likewise. Now, I think part of Jesus' ability to relate to the sojourner, including the Samaritans and other sojourners, was because of his life experience. Let's consider this, how this verse that we read just a little bit ago would connect with Jesus. Love the sojourner therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. I think that would connect with Jesus in a very rich way because his life experience as a boy growing up as a refugee in Egypt, he was a sojourner in the land of Egypt and out of Egypt called my son. That prophecy does double duty both with the children of Israel and with Jesus. He and his family had known what it's like to be an outsider, to be an ethnic minority, to be a very appreciative of the hospitality and kindness of those compassionate native peoples around you. They would have felt the scorn of those who were not compassionate, but they would have treasured the kindness of those who were compassionate. Jesus' heart was impacted by those experiences and it allowed him to mirror his father's love for the sojourner because he experienced it and knew what it was like. I think that would have impacted Jesus in his attitude towards and his interaction with those sojourners that were in Israel during his ministry. His interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, the tenth leper who he called out and praised his faith, who came back and was thankful, the Syrophoenician woman. He didn't just scorn them as non-Israelites. He showed them compassion and love. So, we've got, you know, God's commands for treatment of the sojourner. We've got Jesus' example, and so think about, like, what can we do in these times that we're in and in our interaction with people around us? That's the thing I want us to think about, too, and, like, look for some practical ways that we can use, knowing what God's heart is, towards the vulnerable outsider, the immigrant, the sojourner. How do we turn around in practical ways, like, show love that was commanded? So, first of all, let's think about some models of people who were in situations where they had to stand up for what was right in ways that were countercultural, that were dangerous, and actually even put themselves in danger by doing them. Think of, you know, back to the Israelites being sojourners in the land of Egypt. Remember in chapter one of Exodus how the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, because he wanted them to kill the male children, but they let the male children live. Verse 18, So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to him, Why have you done this? And let the male children live. And the midwife said to Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them. So God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very strong, and because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. So these midwives, they feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them. They defied governmental orders. They lied to the king, and they did so at great risk to themselves. They could have been killed as a result of what they were doing. But God blessed them, and they're given to us, and their names are recorded. You know, the Pharaoh's name wasn't recorded in Exodus, but these midwives, Shifra and Pua, were named and memorialized because of their faith and because their kindness and chesed to their loving kindness, their mercy to the vulnerable Israelite people. Yeah, we're supposed to submit to governing authorities in Romans 13, for example, but we have examples like here, and we have Daniel and his friends making their moral stands, and we have the apostles refusing to stop preaching when the authorities commanded them to not preach in the name of Jesus. They said, we must obey God rather than man. So here we have a model in the midwives' treatment and care and mercy towards the immigrant population, and they obeyed God rather than man. Another model, just after the next verse says, Pharaoh commanded after this going back and forth with midwives, and Pharaoh commanded all his people, every son that's born to the Hebrews, you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live. So this sets up really the next courageous person who defied the xenophobic orders of the king, and surprisingly, it was his own daughter. She took great risk to act compassionately towards the baby Moses and defy her father's orders. Let's read a few verses later in chapter two, verse five. Now, the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river while our young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket that Moses was placed in among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. And when she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying, and she took pity on him and said, this is one of the Hebrews' children. Then his sister Miriam said to Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew woman to nurse this child for you? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, go. And so the child went and called the child's mother, and Pharaoh's daughter said to her, take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages. So the woman took the child and nursed him. And when the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she named him Moses because she said, I drew him out of water. Again, the compassion that Pharaoh's daughter showed towards one of these sojourners, somebody from the immigrant population, she put her neck on the line. She defied her father's orders, and it could have gone very badly for her. But actually, later in the scriptures, she's named Batya, which means a daughter of Yah, or a daughter of Yahweh, which is so appropriate because she chose to mirror her Heavenly Father's compassion for the sojourner, for the immigrant, rather than the fear and the hatred that her earthly father had had towards this people. And that's another great model, a great example of how we should be treating those around us who are in this vulnerable population. So we have an opportunity. I want us to think about it as an opportunity. Sadly, much of Christianity in the public eye has really abandoned God's love for the sojourner. And you hear people that are claiming to be Christians that are justifying and excusing the hateful rhetoric that's coming out of our current administration. And it's really giving our Lord a bad name when people who claim to be his followers, you know, do this. But that's the sad part. The positive part is we have an opportunity. We have an opportunity to show something different. We can be a witness for biblical truth and for the love of our God, the love that he has, the heart he has for the vulnerable, for the victims of injustice. And we can be a witness for his future purpose, a unified, multi-ethnic family of believers in a new creation of peace, justice, and harmony in this world. And, you know, we can be a witness. You know, our ecclesia can be a witness. We have an ecclesia with wonderful immigrant families that add to our community in important ways. And, you know, we can talk and share it with people who, you know, we run across, we have conversations with. We have a really special thing where we worship. We have people that are, you know, from outside this country who bring another perspective, who are part of our family, in Christ. That can be a witness to the world around us. We are children of Abraham, the sojourner, and one of the things that the angel said, or God said through the angel in Genesis 18 was that about Abraham, I have chosen him that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him. So we are children of Abraham, and by his being brought into his family, we are under that command as well, to do righteousness and justice, including, you know, doing what's right and what's just for the vulnerable and the sojourner among us. And, you know, to bring it home here thinking about our, you know, current situation, you know, you've heard about all the news that's happening back in my home of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and maybe you've heard that recently plans were underway to build a large ice detention facility in Merrimack, New Hampshire, right on the border with Massachusetts, and that seems like it could be part of preparations for, you know, a surge of ice activity in the Boston metro area. I imagine that, yeah, I imagine that, you know, that because of who the people of Massachusetts voted for in the last election, that Boston is a target as well, as Minneapolis was, and we need to think about these things. Now, that detention facility was, this just this week, they scrapped that plan, but I wouldn't be surprised if we were to see that happen. So, you know, we see another location planned in place of that one sometime soon. So, we need to be thinking about these things. These could be affecting, very likely affecting us locally, you know, quite soon. And we got to think about what should we be doing? And both, you know, if that were to come about and but even before, I want to think about practical ideas. Let me share a few things, you know, that I've been thinking about as, as all these things have happened. In St. Paul, Ecclesia, where I grew up, there are, you know, two immigrant families, brothers and sisters from Iran and from the Congo. And when all these things have been happening in the news, I, my heart, you know, was breaking for what they might be experiencing. And, and one of the things I thought about is that, and this could be true of people around the country, this is an important time for us to reach out to our brothers and sisters and let them know that you are praying for them, that you're thinking about them in this time, which could be, you know, a fearful time, both here in our local Ecclesia in Boston as well, and but, but also throughout the country. In my, in my school, another thought that's come to mind is, you know, I've got a number of immigrant students that are, that are, there are students in my school, some of whom I've had in class, and some of whom I just see in the halls. But I've thought that, you know, I need to make sure that they know that they're welcome here, and, and I'm here to help, you know, if they need it. So that's another thing, you know, thing that's come to mind, another idea. I've also thought about how it's important to, you know, speak out against injustice and to speak forth the truth of what God's view of justice is, his concern for the vulnerable, which includes the sojourner. And part of that is me like doing this class tonight to try to share that and to bring it to our minds. So I want us to think about, you know, things like that that we can do now, but also think about, you know, if the government agents were to start coming into our communities, into my school, you know, what should I be doing next? What if they come after members of our Ecclesia? What are we going to do? Are the things, you know, if you hear about things that people in the Twin Cities did about caring for neighbors and going out and buying groceries, because they were, these people were fearful to leave their homes because there's just so many of these agents out on the streets and stuff. So to frame the question, I'll say, think about what can we do to show justice, kindness, love, and compassion towards the immigrants in our lives, in our schools and places of work, in our neighborhoods, in our Ecclesias. And I open it up for practical ideas that people have right now. I give you the floor to, you know, if there are ideas you've got that you could add to the things I've shared, I'd love to hear. Well, think about it. If you come up with something, we can also, at the end, I'm happy to hear other ideas at the end. I just have a few kind of closing thoughts. Thinking about, you know, circling back to that phrase that we heard, and it actually appears many more times than we looked at this, you were strangers in the land of Egypt. And that part of the reason why the Israelites were to show kindness and love to the sojourner among them. It should have elicited a response to them as they look back, remembering their time as sojourners. It should have elicited an empathetic response towards those who were sojourners in the land of Israel when they went into the land and began the nation of Israel at that time. You know, I'm thinking about how they should have been able to look back and think about what things were like in the past, reminded me of my personal history as well. Like, my family and I lived as legal aliens in another land for a time, and so we know to some degree what it's like to stand out, to feel vulnerable. I in particular learned what it's like to be arrested by authorities, and I remember the fear that I stood, that I had as I stood before a judge, knowing that he could put me in prison, especially after seeing a bunch, you know, half-dozen or so people ahead of me all in handcuffs, standing before the judge, and each one, after talking to the judge, handcuffs went back on and they were brought away, and they were speaking mainly in the tribal language that I didn't know and couldn't understand, but it just seemed like this judge is very stern and it wasn't looking good for me as I stood before him for a traffic violation. They arrest you and you have to go to court, but based on the fact that it was like, I mean, it's unclear that what the speed limits are, there's very, very few signs, and I left a village and there's corn fields on both sides, so I thought it went back to the normal 80 kilometers an hour, but apparently I was wrong. It was still 50 even though that village seemed to end, but based on how fast I was going, they could have put me in jail. They could have fined me a big fine. They could have taken away my driver's license for six months, so I felt kind of vulnerable, and I remember that fear, so I have a sensitivity, I think, to these issues because of having gained an understanding of what it's like to be a minority, being what it's like to be in a foreign culture, and knowing that fear of facing possible incarceration, but I know what I've experienced is only a small taste of what people of color experience in our society and when they have interactions with law enforcement sometimes, and in this current situation, people being singled out because of how they look, I knew that for the most part I was singled out and I got pulled over quite regularly, probably just because they figured I was a good target for getting a bribe, and most of the time I wasn't in danger for my life, but yeah, anyway, but we also have a collective history that I think we need to look at as well, a history that should also elicit an empathetic response of care for others, and Paul speaks of that in Ephesians chapter 2. You were strangers in the land of Egypt. In parallel to that comment that we have in the law, consider what Paul's saying in Ephesians 2, verse 11. Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands, remember that you were at one time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers, Greek word xenos there, which we get our word xenophobia from, strangers to the covenants of having no hope and without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off had been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace, who made us both one, and is broken down in his flesh, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing the law of commandments expressed and ordinances that he might create in himself, one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility, and he came and preached peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near, for through him we both have access to one spirit, to the father, in one spirit to the father, so then you're no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. So we should remember, you know, what Jesus has done for us, what God has done for us through Christ, that we've been gone from being alienated from the promises, to be brought in, to be part of God's family, to be made citizens of his kingdom, remembering what God in Christ has done for us should we not have empathy for the immigrant of this world, wanting to make them feel welcome and loved and part of our country, and hopefully that love will reflect the love of our father and his son, and draw by that witness, draw them to connection with God and with Christ as well. And you know, in closing, I want us to think of this vision of the kingdom that we have, and we want a world not divided by skin, language, pain, or fear, but united in love, truth, and humanity, and one place that kind of speaks of that is Paul in the epistle to the Galatians. He says in Galatians 3 verse 8, and the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, in you shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, so then all those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. Those promises that God made to Abraham that Paul's alluding to here, they mention a blessing coming to the nations through the seed of Abraham, and we are part of that, and that's just a wonderful thing that God has brought us from the nations to be sharing as part of his family. And in the close of the chapter, Paul gives this vision in verse 26, for in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith, for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ, there's neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither slave nor free, there's no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus, and if you are Christ, then your Abraham's offspring errs according to the promise. So Paul gives this vision of the Ecclesia, which was really a foretaste of the kingdom, and a witness to this divided world that we live in, that God has brought together all these different people to be sharing together in God's love, to be a part of his family, and it's a family that crosses ethnic, national, class, gender lines to create a united family in Christ Jesus. And that's, I think, a beautiful image that we have, that we should be a witness to this world to show the love that God has to the sojourner and to, you know, to live up to that calling, to reflect God's love to the world around us. So thank you all for your attention tonight.