Yesterday I attended a diversity forum for one of my social work classes. The panel included a Jewish gentleman who serves as the rabbi of a local Jewish synagogue. A student asked the rabbi what the Jewish community’s general view of a social worker was. He said that the Jewish community generally viewed social work in a positive light, as they as a people affirm God’s mandate to take care of the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner.
Today I read the following scripture:
You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. -Exodus 23:9
It is interesting that God calls His people to not oppress foreigners that reside in their land as that He recalls to the Israelite’s mind that they too understood what oppression in a foreign land was like.
As I was thinking about this verse, a few lyrics from a song by Derek Webb came into mind:
who’s your brother, who’s your sister
you just walked passed him
i think you missed her
as we’re all migrating to the place where our father lives
’cause we married in to a family of immigrants
I remember when I first realized what this verse meant, as it was very impacting to my worldview. We as Christians are part of a family of people who have migrated to our faith. Each of us has fallen to sin and has been saved by God’s grace. There isn’t a single one of us who has inherited their Christianity. Sure, one may have grown up influenced by the faith of the environment around them but in the end, that person still must choose to accept and follow God or not. That leaves not one of us with a claim of entitlement to the gift of salvation.
We who have received so many blessings spiritually and materially are called to bless others. Jesus called us to love and take care of our neighbors as we love and take care of ourselves. I believe this includes the modern immigrant to America. I know that I do not deserve ANY of the blessings that have come my way, therefore there is no reason for me to feel entitled to any of them. This includes the country that I happened to be born into. I would like to encourage anyone who may actually read this to love your immigrant neighbor as you do yourself. Blow past the sterotypes you may have and seek ways in which you can love the foreigner! After all, you come from a family of immigrants -physically and spiritually.