Scripture: 1st Peter 2:11-13
Dear friends, since you are immigrants and strangers in the world, I urge that you avoid worldly desires that wage war against your lives. Live honorably among the unbelievers. Today, they defame you, as if you were doing evil. But in the day when God visits to judge they will glorify him, because they have observed your honorable deeds. For the sake of the Lord submit to every human institution.
Thought for the Day: Immigration is a hot topic these days, and though some might suggest that I should not venture into the conversation, it is impossible to stay away from politics when it is really about people. Now let’s first state the obvious – immigration is complicated, but when lives hang in the balance, complicated scenarios can find a path forward when love and compassion transcend the real obstacle which is usually pettiness. The prophets of old warned that nations would be judged based upon their treatment of widows, orphans and immigrants (foreigners/aliens). This judgement comes, in part, because the Hebrew people were once outsiders living in a foreign land. They were not wanted, yet their services were used and abused by the Egyptian culture. In the New Testament, Jesus challenged those who wished to narrowly define who was in and who was out by telling the parable of the Good Samaritan. Suddenly the definition of neighbor had to include even those the culture had deemed worthless. In our 240+ years as a nation, we have struggled with how we welcome and relate to immigrants even though we were once immigrants (99% of us). Of course, our nation is not unique in this struggle. Fear of the other and the unknown can drive both individual and political decisions, yet fear by itself is the single worst tool in decision-making. As followers of Jesus Christ, let us make sure his voice and opinion are part of the conversation when lives and families hang in the balance. And it is interesting how 1st Peter’s community felt as if they were immigrants (outsiders) in the culture of the time, yet as 1st Peter points out, it would be these outsiders who would eventually be seen as the examples of true faithfulness…and eventually, their works would be the means by which others would glorify God.
Prayer: Encourage me, O Spirit of God, as my relationship with you speaks to the real issues of my community, nation and world. You did not invite us to live in a bubble, but to live as those who are in the world but not of the world. Amen.
NEXT SATURDAY
