Wenatchee Brethren Baptist Church United
535 Okanogan Avenue, Wenatchee, WA 98801 509-662-3681
A NATION WITHOUT BORDERS
This weekend Irene and I will be in Harlingen, Texas to attend the high school graduation of our godchild, Angela. Twenty years ago we lived in Harlingen where we worked with Central American refugees fleeing war and oppression. Two of those refugees, Olga (from Nicaragua) and Carlos (from El Salvador), fell in love and got married. When their first child was born, they asked us to be godparents. Now that child is graduating from high school and headed to college.
The experience of Carlos, Olga, and Angela is similar to that of millions of immigrants here in the United States. But today there is a lot of controversy about immigration. Some people want stricter laws to prevent illegal immigration and secure our borders. Others want to provide more opportunities for legal immigration. Some of the debate on this issue has been civil, but some has been flavored with expressions of hatred towards immigrants.
When we Christians get caught up in the national debate over immigration, we can forget that our primary citizenship is in a nation without borders -- the kingdom of God. Peter says in 1 Peter: 2:9-10:
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Citizenship in God’s kingdom is not based on race, language, culture, or place of birth. It is certainly not based on “legal status.” (If that were so, none of us would be citizens – Romans 3.) Citizenship in the kingdom is based upon the mercy of God. We are God’s people because God is merciful.
For that reason, we should be a people of mercy. We should be merciful toward people of different languages and nationalities. We should be merciful toward legal immigrants and illegal immigrants. We should be merciful toward those with whom we disagree on the immigration issue. In a political culture filled with anger and hatred, we should be a people of mercy.
Even Old Testament law spoke of mercy toward “aliens.” Leviticus 19:34 says, “The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.”As a people saved not by the law, but by grace, we would be even more loving, more gracious. We may disagree on the politics of immigration, but our attitude toward all should be flavored with mercy and grace.
Pastor David