Thought for Today
Judges 12:5 Then the Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. Whenever one of the fugitives of Ephraim said, "Let me go over," the men of Gilead would say to him, "Are you an Ephraimite?" When he said, "No," 6 they said to him, "Then say Shibboleth," and he said, "Sibboleth," for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand of the Ephraimites fell at that time.
Luke 10:26 He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" 27 He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."
There was a very disturbing story on the local news last night, repeated again this morning. Recently, during the holiday travel, while riding on an airport shuttle bus, a woman delivered a misogynistic, xenophobic rant against a couple and their young children. A portion of the rant was captured on a cell phone and replayed on the news reports. The woman and the family were of different ethnic backgrounds, but evidently all were native born citizens of the U.S.A.
One of the most disturbing aspects of all this for me is that such incidents are becoming increasingly common, almost ubiquitous in our society. Admittedly, this was an exceptionally hate filled rant; but, far too often we are seeing such events and other examples of misogyny and xenophobia in our pluralistic, immigrant society.
Irrespective of one’s ethnicity, in the U.S.A., we are all either immigrants or descendants of immigrants. I’m not sure of the earliest date of immigration for my earliest ancestors. I’m sure that they did all immigrate, some from Scotland, some from Prussia and others from a variety of other western European nations.
There remains a lively scientific debate about the earliest immigrants to the western hemisphere. It is part of a larger debate about the origins of our species as a distinct species. The latest articles I have read all seem to indicate that human beings, homo sapiens, originated in sub-Saharan Africa and then spread around the globe. There is evidence of multiple waves of early settlers in the western hemisphere. Norse explorers settled in what is now Nova Scotia. Polynesians settled in parts of western South America. Some ancestors of what we now refer to as Indigenous Peoples may have crossed over an ice bridge spanning the Bering Straits during an early age. We know that there have been waves of immigration to North America from England, Ireland, Italy and other western European countries. But, we are all immigrants or descendants of immigrants.
Our Founding Fathers understood this. Our Constitution recognizes this. Even our first ally, France, honored this fact by gifting us the Statue of Liberty, inscribed with its famous statement of welcome. Sadly, currently we seem to have largely forgotten who we are as a nation. It is true that we now have an immigration crisis across our southern borders. It is true that our government has failed miserably to address the issue. Even more sadly, we are now seeing a rising tide of anti-Semitism, xenophobia and ethnically oriented hatred and violence.
As a Christian, I find this alarming and disturbing. I’ve read The Book. One of the more common words in all scripture is the word “all.” Even when it is not explicit, it is implied. When Jesus said “love your neighbor,” he followed that in the gospel of Luke by defining neighbor with the Parable of the Good Samaritan. If you don’t understand, Jews and Samaritans were not friends. To wildly misquote Winston Churchill, they were 2 people separated by a common God.
Jesus was specific and not the least bit vague about who is our neighbor. This week in worship, we will be looking at another passage from Luke. In chapter 3 of Luke’s gospel we read, “6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'" I wonder how often we read and promptly forget that one word in the Bible. How often do we forget that ‘all’ means ‘all?’ Not just the ones who look like us. Not just the ones who talk like us. All always means all. As Christians we are commissioned to “28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
Stay safe, love all your neighbors, trust God,
Pastor Ray