A Prayer for Immigrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers

Photo by USA Today

I was participating in a social media discussion with someone who began his comment with, "I love my immigrant brothers and sisters, but..." He then proceeded to write a couple of extremely long paragraphs about all the ways he wants to exclude them, is suspicious of their motives and wants to deny what they ask for. He complained about what he perceives is their lack of assimilation to his culture and language. He felt he had valid concerns in the context of securing borders.

Where exactly is the love in all this?

Imagine going up to your wife and saying, "I love, you honey, but here's a list of two dozen behaviors of yours I want you to change pronto, thanks." 

You may indeed love your wife, but you are not showing love at that moment in time.

Despite this person's claim of having love for immigrants, he gave no evidence for it. There was no talk whatsoever about how he shows love to these people or even his desire to show love. There was no evidence that he was struggling over how to better demonstrate love for immigrants.

Love is not easy. It takes time, attention and lots and lots of work. It is a goal we should apply ourselves to every day. It is a concern we should bring to prayer. You can't just say "I love them" and shrug your shoulders as some kind of a blow off. Love involves constant work and attention.

A counselor once told me that a loving relationship is one where there are 10 positive things said for every negative thing. Given this, can most Christians say they are acting in a loving way toward immigrants?

If love if your focus, that's where your attention would be. Think about and write about all the ways you can learn to love your neighbor in even better and bigger ways that you did before. When your attention is on all the exceptions, exclusions and disclaimers, that is not a good witness to Christian love.

Perhaps that person has never been shown how to bring these concerns to prayer . . .

A Prayer for 

Immigrants, Refugees and Asylum seekers

I've visited lots of churches of various denominations. Many Christians have strong opinions about immigration, ranging from the most conservative to the most liberal. However, I can't recall many times when the congregation has bowed its head in prayer and brought its concerns to God in an open way simply asking God to provide guidance in light of His Divine Word in the Bible.

Let's do that now:

Loving Father, we give thanks to you for all you have given us:  

The gift of life and the gift of creation around us,

The gift of your son Jesus who shows us how to love as sisters and brothers, and

The sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit in our world and in our lives today.

We acknowledge that all we have is through your grace alone and not by our works.

Lord God, you command us to love one another and you tell us that this command is the command on which all the others hang. 

In your Beatitudes, you tell us to be humble, to be merciful to others, to be peacemakers of your Kingdom "on earth as it is in Heaven" and to look to and prefer the poor. You tell us to hunger and thirst for righteousness and justice.

In the Parable of the Sheep and Goats, you tell us to welcome the stranger, feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked and look after the imprisoned and sick.

We acknowledge the words you have spoken to us and the seriousness of your commands.

Teach us how to do this. 

Your children—our sisters and brothers—come to our door as refugees, immigrants and asylum seekers. Show us how to love more deeply, to welcome more warmly and to grow in tenderness and mercy.  Help us to look after their needs as they undergo their perilous journey longing for peace, safety and wholeness for their families. 

Help us to open our ears to hear their concerns better, 

and open our eyes to see their struggles more clearly,

So we can discern—with your guidance—how to respond as Christian disciples.

God the Father, how can we love refugees more today than we did yesterday? 

Jesus our brother, how can we show mercy to the asylum seeker knocking at our door and be the good neighbor you call us to be?

Through your grace in the Holy Spirit, how can we help cultivate peace in a world torn apart by war, poverty and violence?

Some borders and divisions may be regrettably necessary in this fallen, limited world. Help us to discern that whatever borders and locks we choose will only exist to serve your will and help foster the Kingdom "on earth as it is in heaven."

We pray to be your instruments in this world, giving to others out of thanks for all that you have given us. Without you we would have nothing. You remind us when you say:

Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt (Exodus 23:9).

For the gift of discernment 

     of your will 

          and not ours, we pray.

Amen.

***

Scripture references (unless cited above):

Greatest Commandment: Matthew 22:34-40

Beatitudes: Matthew 5:3-10

The Good Neighbor: Luke 10:25-37

Parable of the Sheep and Goats: Matthew 25:31-46

What's Fundamental to a Christian?

Some Christian denominations call themselves "fundamentalists"—they have identified a handful of concerns which they attest are, well, fundamental to Christianity. It's what is often referred to as "lowest common denominator Christianity" (for a good discussion, see Baptist writer John D. Pierce). It's a focus on the core values. There are pros and cons to this approach--it does reduce the whole of Christianity to a few basic principles, which can cut out a lot--too much, according to some. But it also helps to make sure that the most important pieces stay central, as Pierce discusses.

There are variations in the list of fundamentals, but a good representation is the original from the early 20th century:

1.       Biblical inspiration and the infallibility of scripture as a result of this

2.       Virgin birth of Jesus

3.       Belief that Christ's death was the atonement for sin

4.       Bodily resurrection of Jesus

5.       Historical reality of the miracles of Jesus

Other lists include the deity of Christ, the literal reading of the Creation account and the eventual return of Christ to earth. [I guess there's still disagreement as to what constitutes a "fundamental," as the list keeps shifting over time.]

My point here is: Absolutely none of these lists include the thing that Jesus Himself said was fundamental, despite the quadruple Gospel repetition: The command to "love God and love one another."

Isn't that a problem?

You could argue that the Greatest Commandment is included under the "inerrancy of Scripture" and it permeates everything on this list. That would be a fair point. But there are a few pieces of Scripture that were brought out for extra emphasis, and the Greatest Commandment was not one of them. Sadly, it rarely is.

Just to make sure you don't think I'm picking just on Protestant fundamentalists here, let's roll out the Nicene Creed. This is adhered to by the Orthodox, Catholics and most mainline Protestants. Like the five fundamentals, there are some points of disagreement on which version of the Creed is canonical. However, the Greatest Commandment is not included in the Creed nor is it a mentioned in any of the debates surrounding it.

In fact, almost nothing of what Jesus actually said or taught is part of the Creed.  That's a strange homage to the guy we claim to be God Himself. 

Going even further, the Catholic Church subscribes to the doctrine of infallibility. This is a very misunderstood (and at the same time hotly contested) issue, but at its core, it basically claims that the Holy Spirit will never let the Church be in error. Is this referring to following the ultimate Commandment of God Himself?  No, it is about whether the Church could ever be wrong in dogmatic teachings regarding faith and morals. 

If the Holy Spirit were going to make absolutely certain that the Catholic Church, in all its humanity, does not make any major mistakes, wouldn't you think the Holy Spirit would make sure we got the big things right? And Jesus (you know, God, right?) said the "big thing" was the Greatest Commandment. Sure, we profess it—but it’s not first on our list. It's not our central rallying cry. It's not the goal we strive for in our daily labors. Given the prominence which Jesus gave it, it is shocking, if not downright scandalous, how rarely we discuss it.

But instead, Catholics are convinced of the inerrancy of dogmas--theological explanations. Jesus Himself never said that our Christology, Ecclesiology, Eschatology or any of the other -ologies had to be correct. Rather, He said we are to love God and love one another. 

Isn't that just so hysterical it's ridiculous? Here's this guy walking around the earth, and most Christians will say that this man was actually God--literally. Mind blowing. Amazing.  Emmanuel--God with us. God came to earth in the person of Jesus, had a lot to say and gave a lot of instructions. And we have managed to silence every. single. word. from. his. mouth. in our most fundamental faith statements--a universal tendency shared by all Christian denominations. As we get ready for a year-long anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, this one point on which virtually all Christian denominations have in common is not something to be proud of.

I don't want to over-simplify. Christians affirm that the whole of Scripture is the Word of God, not just the specific words of Jesus. And many Christians affirm that God continues to speak through the living Body of the Church--the Body of Christ in the world today. Still, none of that takes away the strangeness of the duct tape around the mouth of Jesus of Nazareth.

If you ask Christians for moral guidance, they are more likely to point you in the direction of the 10 Commandments of Mosaic Law from the Old Testament than to the Beatitudes, Works of Mercy or the Greatest Commandment preached by Jesus Himself.

God walked the earth as Jesus. Christians generally do not deny that. Many of Jesus' words are recorded in Scripture. Most Christians do not deny that. Jesus says out of all the things you do, this one should be the first. He even spells it right out for us! Here's the #1 place you'll want to devote your time and attention, folks. *Crickets*

Yet, when we come together to define ourselves as Christians, it doesn't even crack our top 10.

All around Christianity, the name of the game is belief. Dogmas and head games are the central talking points. Denominations have fragmented over arguments about nuances in the way we understand that which we, ironically, all agree is impossible to fully understand.

Yet, how many denominations have split over a desire to follow THE command of Jesus more fervently?

I admire the work of the Red Letter Christians who dare to ask:  What if Jesus actually meant what he said?