Latest / Finding God at Work / 9: Witness: Immigration

Transcript

9: Witness: Immigration · Finding God at Work

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(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, I'm Chris.
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This is Finding God at Work.
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Just a reminder that Finding God at Work
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isn't just a podcast, it's also an online
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course.
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Check it out at findinggodatwork.org.
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Our current series is Take a Stand, Faithful
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Political Witness at Work.
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And we're entering into the final part of
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the series here where we actually dig into
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some controversial political issues and kind of look
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at them as an example of how do
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we think through political issues and then how
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do we act as disciples of Jesus in
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light of how we've thought them through in
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our workplaces, in our communities, and how is
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that part of Christian witness.
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So today we're going to talk about immigration
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and then in our next couple episodes we're
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going to talk about abortion and food insecurity.
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Okay, so immigration.
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I want to start with a story.
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My cousin married a man from Nigeria.
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He had gotten a job with Microsoft in
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Seattle where my cousin grew up so they
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met out there.
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He still had family in Nigeria so they
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did the wedding in Nigeria.
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So I flew to Nigeria for the wedding,
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had never been to Africa before, was an
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incredible experience which I could have spent more
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time there.
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But I did feel kind of on edge
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while I was there.
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Some of it was just the normal cross
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-cultural stuff like I didn't know what to
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expect, I didn't have a car so I
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had to depend on other people for transportation,
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people from my cousin-in-law's family.
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Also some of the travel stuff was a
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little extra stressful at that time because this
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was during the pandemic so I had to
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have my vaccine card with me and when
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we were getting in lines it's sometimes like,
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oh, is there going to be a problem?
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Just a little bit anxious.
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And when our flight landed in the United
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States it was actually routed through Washington DC
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before getting back to Chicago.
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O'Hare is the airport that I usually
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fly out of.
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And as soon as our plane landed in
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DC I just noticed that this anxiety lifted
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off my shoulders.
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I was like, oh, that's interesting.
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And I was just like, oh, it's because
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I'm home.
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I'm a citizen here.
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If something goes wrong I'm not going to
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be stuck in a foreign nation in some
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sort of legal limbo.
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Things are going to be okay once we're
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here for me.
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And then a couple moments later I realized,
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wow, there are a lot of people, my
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neighbors in the United States who don't feel
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that way while they live in the United
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States.
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They don't have the privileges of citizenship.
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They may actually have that kind of high
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anxiety sense of, what if a legal situation
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affects me or my loved ones?
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They might have that feeling every day of
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their lives.
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I just had it for a few days,
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a couple airport experiences for them that's normal.
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That's just their every day.
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That really made me think like, wow, that
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must be so challenging to not have the
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privileges of citizenship, to be an immigrant and
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especially to be an undocumented immigrant, to be
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somebody who is on edge in terms of
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the legality of your continued residence.
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Okay, so that's just one little experience, maybe
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gave me a sliver of empathy for what
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migrants go through.
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You may have other experiences that can give
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you that empathy.
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Maybe you yourself are an immigrant, an undocumented
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immigrant or just a legal immigrant but who's
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in a different environment than what used to
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be home for you.
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Maybe you've spent time abroad and you know
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what that's like to kind of be on
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the outside of a cultural know-how.
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All of us have different experiences, but when
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we dig into scripture we see that migration
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is actually part of God's work in the
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world.
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Migration is part of the biblical story and
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so immigration, people having the experience of being
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immigrants, that fits into God's bigger purposes.
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As we talk about this idea of witness
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and how there can be political witness, I
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want us to situate it in that broader
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vision of what God is doing in the
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world.
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This is not just an American issue, this
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is not just a political issue, this is
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not just an ethical issue, this is actually
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a theological issue that God is at work
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through migration in the history of the world,
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including what's unfolding in global events right now,
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and our response to political questions around immigration
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shows whether or not we're in that narrative
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participating in it or rejecting it.
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Okay, so that's a lot.
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We're going to unfold it very briefly and
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simply.
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I'm going to give us some pointers to
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future resources in case you want to explore
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these things further.
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Okay, so this idea of witness, first we
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got to unpack.
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What does it mean to have a kind
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of political witness?
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Well, the word witness is used in the
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Bible.
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In the Old Testament, it's used to describe
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witnessing what God has done, right?
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It's like the children of Israel witnessed God's
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deliverance at the Red Sea.
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In the New Testament, it's used primarily about
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the resurrection of Jesus.
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The apostles were witnesses to Jesus' resurrection, so
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that's what they went around proclaiming, for example,
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in the Book of Acts.
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They went from community to community proclaiming the
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resurrection of Jesus.
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But the New Testament also speaks to this
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idea of other people witnessing us, other people
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seeing us.
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So, for example, in the Sermon on the
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Mount, Jesus famously said that a city on
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a hill cannot be hidden.
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Let your light shine so that people may
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see your good deeds and give glory to
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your Father who is in heaven.
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Very similar passage in 1 Peter.
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This is chapter 2 verse 12.
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Live such good lives among the pagans that
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though they accuse you of doing wrong, they
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may see your good deeds and glorify God
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on the day he visits us.
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Okay, wow.
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Now people are glorifying God on the day
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he visits us.
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That's a reference to Jesus' return.
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That means that they've come to faith in
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Jesus.
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And so I think what Peter is saying
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here is it's possible to live a life
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that is so compelling in terms of its
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good deeds that when people look at it,
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they're drawn into that way of life themselves.
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So we can also think of this idea
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of witness.
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We're bearing witness to the resurrection of Jesus,
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but we're also living lives that show the
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power of Jesus' resurrection.
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We're doing good deeds in such a way
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that our lives are evidence for the resurrection
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of Jesus, for his work in the world.
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That too is witness.
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Okay, and so that idea of doing good
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deeds, that includes doing good political deeds.
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That includes the way that our lives and
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what we do or don't do, what we
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say or don't say intersects with public policy.
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So that leads us to the question of
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what does the Bible say about immigration and
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how does that relate to public policy in
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a different culture, different nation, several centuries later.
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I think it's helpful to look at what
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the Bible teaches in terms of what the
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people of God do, which in our context
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would be what does the church do.
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And then also kind of look at, okay,
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what does the Bible say about rulers and
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what should government authorities be expected to do?
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Again, like we talked about last time, inasmuch
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as we have influence over public policy, those
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biblical guiding words to rulers also should guide
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us in the way that we seek to
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influence policy and elect officials who influence policy
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in certain ways.
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Okay, so first, just kind of like, how
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should we act, you know, as the people
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of God toward immigrants?
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Well, we see a lot of guidance for
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this in the Torah and in the book
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of the law that's given to the people
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of Israel.
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So again, this is different because it was
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law, but it was law within a kind
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of theocratic context, right?
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So it might be more directly applicable to
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thinking about like the ethic of us as
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disciples of Jesus rather than as something prescriptive
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for all of society.
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But I think it is really helpful because
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it reveals God's character and how we respond.
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This is just one example from Leviticus 19
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as it relates to immigrants.
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I'll be reading from the English Standard Version,
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starting in verse 9.
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When you reap the harvest of your land,
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you shall not reap your field right up
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to its edge, neither shall you gather the
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gleanings after your harvest, and you shall not
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strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather
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the fallen grapes of your vineyard.
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You shall leave them for the poor and
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for the sojourner.
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I am the Lord your God.
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Okay, so what this passage is saying is
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when it's harvest time and you're going to
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do a harvest of a field or of
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a vineyard, don't be a hundred percent thorough.
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It's really strange advice.
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We're saying don't be a hundred percent thorough.
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Don't strip the vines.
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Don't go all the way to the corners
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of your field.
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Leave some behind.
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And who's that for?
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That's for the poor, right, regardless of whether
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they're Israelites or others.
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And for the sojourner, for in contemporary terms,
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we could say for immigrants.
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And there actually are a couple contemporary translations
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that would translate that word sojourner as immigrant,
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like the common English Bible, the CEB.
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But these are people who have come from
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somewhere else.
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These are non-Israelites.
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These are Gentiles who are coming and they're
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in Israel for a time.
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And part of God's instruction for his people
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is you forego some of your prophet from
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your hard work, your fields that you've worked,
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so that those immigrants can eat.
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Wow!
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Okay, so as we think about our role
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as the people of God, we should be
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willing to make financial sacrifices for the well
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-being of immigrants in our communities.
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We should be willing to think how can
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I make sure that the basic needs, food,
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clothing, shelter, right, are there for immigrants.
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And the Bible emphasizes immigrants because they're often
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particularly vulnerable, like I felt just a little
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bit vulnerable in Nigeria.
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And many people much more seriously feel vulnerable
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here in the United States.
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We should be mindful of that vulnerability.
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We should be empathetic about it.
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And that appeal to empathy is actually also
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explicit in the teaching of the Bible.
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Deuteronomy chapter 10, you'll see how this idea
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of empathy comes in and how it's grounding
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the whole conversation in God's own character.
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So this is starting in verse 17.
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For the Lord your God is God of
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gods and Lord of lords, the great, the
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mighty, and the awesome God, who is not
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partial and takes no bride.
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He executes justice for the fatherless and the
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widow and loves the sojourner, giving him food
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and clothing.
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Love the sojourner therefore, for you were sojourners
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in the land of Egypt.
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You shall fear the Lord your God.
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You shall serve him and hold fast to
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him, and by his name you shall swear.
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He is your praise, he is your God
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who has done for you these great and
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terrifying things that your eyes have seen.
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So even right there at the end, we
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get that idea of witness again, right?
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You've seen what God has done.
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You've seen who God is because of what
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he's done.
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And who is God?
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He's the kind of God that executes justice
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for the fatherless and the widow, and who
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loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.
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So really, really clear, this is the compassionate
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heart of God himself.
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And so we as the people of God,
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we want to be like God.
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We want to love the sojourner.
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And then this is the appeal to empathy.
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For you were sojourners in the land of
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Egypt.
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God's like, you know what this feels like.
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Remember what it feels like to be a
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sojourner?
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That's why you should treat other people well.
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Okay, so again, based on whatever life experiences
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we have, we have that sense of empathy.
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Yeah, I want to take care of these
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people because they're vulnerable.
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And so we're also imitating the character of
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God when we see to it that people
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have their basic needs met.
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Okay, now that's a basic responsibility of the
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people of God.
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So that should be something that is getting
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worked into our personal budgets.
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For those of us who are disciples of
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Jesus, how are we using our money to
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make sure that immigrants in our communities are
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okay?
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Right?
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That should be part of the way you
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think through your family budget.
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If you're part of a church community, which
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I hope you are, that should be part
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of it, how your church is thinking through
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things.
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What are we doing as a church with
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our time, with our energy, with our resources
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to make sure that immigrants in our communities
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have what they need to thrive?
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That's a basic orientation from Scripture here.
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Okay, now let's pivot to a more challenging
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question, which is, what should the state do?
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If we kind of have seen what the
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church, what the people of God should do,
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what should the state do?
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What should happen in the political realm?
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Well, this is more complicated, right?
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Because we're not in a theocracy.
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We're in a pluralistic, representative democracy where people
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disagree about things.
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And the laws are meant to promote the
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interests of the United States.
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So like, what does it mean for us
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to step in as Christians and influence those
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for justice?
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But again, I think just like we looked
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at last time, those biblical guidelines for rulers
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should also guide our thinking.
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And again, as we looked at last time,
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protecting the rights of the vulnerable is one
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of the key responsibilities of rulers, of governments.
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So we should at least have laws, public
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policy, that protect the rights of immigrants, that
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protect their basic human rights.
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That's really, really clear.
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Now, what's not as clear, what we can't
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get just by saying, well, the Bible teaches
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this is like, how should the immigration process
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work in terms of like the technicalities of
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it?
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How many immigrants should be legally allowed to
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immigrate?
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At what times?
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The question of deportations, right?
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Like if somebody came here and they don't
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have legal status, when should they be removed
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and why and how?
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There's a lot of technical questions here that
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Christians can disagree on in good faith.
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And that's okay.
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At the level of policy, we can't always
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draw a direct line from the Bible to
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the expression.
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But, but I would ask, whatever your public
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policy is, whatever your opinion is about these
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political issues, how does your political vision express
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the biblical priorities for public leadership?
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How does your political vision express the biblical
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priorities for public leadership?
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And what grieves me is how much of
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the rhetoric around immigration right now, and the
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changing norms of enforcement of immigration policy, speaking
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in 2025, things are changing rapidly.
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Things might even change between when I record
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this episode and when it's released, but it
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seems like the enforcement around deportations is changing
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rapidly, at least this year.
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What grieves me is that so often things
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are being carried out without even a pretense
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of compassion, a pretense of caring about people's
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rights, right?
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A lot of the anti-immigrant rhetoric is
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very clearly a kind of tribalistic us versus
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them fear mongering.
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That's what it comes down to in a
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lot of the way that it's expressed with
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deep contempt for other human beings on social
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media and sometimes even informal political discourse.
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For us as Christians, that should be a
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non-starter, that kind of language, language of
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hatred, language of rejecting people because of their
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nationality or their race, right?
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Language that's dehumanizing or images of people that
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are dehumanizing, running roughshod over families rather than
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treating them with compassion.
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None of this is anywhere close to the
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biblical vision of caring about immigrants, so we
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might be able to disagree about like some
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of the technicalities of how we should make
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immigration work, but this vicious anti-immigrant attitude
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is itself unjust and sinful.
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It's exactly the thing that the Bible is
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condemning when it says, do not oppress a
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foreigner.
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It's this kind of attitude, right?
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This us versus them, often jingoistic, often racialized
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kind of anti-immigrant approach.
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What it reveals is what people believe about
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migration and about home, right?
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It reveals this is our turf, our home,
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we have to defend it, you have to
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get out, right?
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And that can be a very natural human
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intuition to say like, yeah, we got to
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defend our home turf.
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But remember what I said, migration is part
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of the story of what God is doing.
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And so I want to go to Acts
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chapter 17 and get a different vision of
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how we think about turf, how we think
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about home, how we think about migration as
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Christians.
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So this is Paul, he's traveling, right?
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He's going from place to place.
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He's a migrant, sharing the good news of
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Jesus resurrection.
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He gets to Antioch, he starts telling them
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about who God is.
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And this is a really interesting line.
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He says, from one man he made all
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the nations that they should inhabit the whole
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earth.
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And he marked out their appointed times in
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history and the boundaries of their lands.
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God did this so that they would seek
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him and perhaps reach out for him and
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find him.
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Okay, so what did Paul just say?
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Paul said that God is behind migration.
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God is behind the movements of peoples.
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And the reason that he has people moving
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from place to place, right?
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And settling in different place and establishing boundaries
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in their lands, right?
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Is so that people would seek him and
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perhaps reach out for him and find him,
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right?
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God uses migration to draw people to himself.
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And we're seeing this in the United States
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today.
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Many, many churches that are experiencing revitalization are
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experiencing that because of immigrant leadership in those
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churches, immigrant presence in those churches.
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We're seeing how God is drawing people to
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himself through migration in that way and lots
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of other ways around the globe.
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And Paul ends that sermon by referencing Jesus's
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resurrection specifically.
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So he's saying, look, God is doing this
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in the world and now he's acted through
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Jesus' resurrection.
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When we have that vision of migration, that
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God is at work, then we think about
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turf differently.
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Instead of saying, oh, I have to defend
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my turf, us versus them, we think, whoa,
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what is God doing?
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The resurrection of Jesus changes things.
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The resurrection of Jesus makes it possible for
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us to say, hey, we're going to welcome
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and love these immigrants even though it changes
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the character of our neighborhoods.
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We're going to welcome and love these immigrants
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even though it challenges me culturally or linguistically.
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We're going to welcome and love these immigrants
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even though I don't always know what that
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means for the future because the future is
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secure in God's hands.
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Jesus' resurrection is my safety, not my cultural
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homogeneity, not my national boundaries, not my sense
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of cultural comfort, right?
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Jesus is my center.
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His power, his resurrection is what frees me
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to be able to love other people even
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though the situation feels like it's changing.
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Our compassionate welcome of immigrants into our communities,
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in our own action as the community of
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God, the church, and in the ways we
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influence public policy, is a witness to the
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power of Jesus' resurrection to everyone around us.
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Our compassionate welcome of immigrants is a witness
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to the power of Jesus' resurrection to everyone
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around us.
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It's an example of living such good lives
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among the pagans that though they accuse us
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of doing wrong, they may see our good
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deeds and glorify God on the day he
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visits us, right?
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It's an example of that city on a
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hill that cannot be hidden.
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When we live out our faith by welcoming
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immigrants, we are doing good deeds that makes
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the gospel clear and inviting to the people
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around us.
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So, what does that look like for you
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this week?
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At work.
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Well, I bet that in your workplace you
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have co-workers or customers or vendors, somebody
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you interact with, who are themselves immigrants.
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So, the first thing to do is to
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just love those people, right?
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Do right by your co-workers.
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Be a good teammate.
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Do right by your customers.
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Treat them fairly.
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Do right by your vendors, right?
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Make sure you're doing good business when you're
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doing business-to-business deals.
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Just honor and respect the rights of immigrants
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just like you would anybody else in your
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community.
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Second thing you can do, if you have
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co-workers who are immigrants, is ask their
19:33
story in an intelligent way, right?
19:36
Ask them, hey, what has it been like
19:38
for you in your journey coming to the
19:39
United States?
19:39
How are these news stories affecting you?
19:44
Is your family influenced by what's going on
19:46
here?
19:46
Show that hospitality.
19:48
Again, that can be part of being a
19:49
gentle witness, creating rapport that makes it possible
19:52
for you to share the good news with
19:54
them perhaps in the future and regardless to
19:56
simply love them where they're at today.
19:59
And then finally, in as much as political
20:01
conversations come up at work, whether they're part
20:03
of your workplace directly, like you need to
20:05
make a policy about what do we do
20:07
if there's you know, an immigration and customs
20:09
enforcement raid here on this property, you know,
20:12
what policy do we make as a company,
20:14
right?
20:15
Or if it's just that conversation with co
20:16
-workers about how things are unfolding, to make
20:18
sure you're forming those policies, having those conversations
20:21
also out of a place of love, right?
20:24
If you're doing that out of love for
20:26
the immigrant that reflects the love of your
20:30
father for the immigrant, that will be a
20:32
witness to Jesus' resurrection.
20:36
Lord Jesus, thank you that you help us
20:39
with really difficult experiences and questions, messy situations.
20:45
We pray that we would all feel you're
20:48
welcome for us and you would help us
20:50
as your church to welcome everyone who you
20:52
invite into your kingdom.
20:55
Give us wisdom about how to invite people
20:56
into our communities and we do need to
20:58
set boundaries.
20:59
Show us what that looks like, but help
21:01
us also to be people who love the
21:02
immigrant like you do.
21:05
That that would be a witness to your
21:06
resurrection to the people around us.
21:08
Bring renewal, help your church to become all
21:11
that she is meant to be.
21:13
Create these things in your name.
21:15
Do your work in us as we do
21:17
our work with you.
21:23
Thanks for listening.
21:25
Finding God at Work is a production of
21:27
Mission Central, a ministry based in Aurora, Illinois,
21:30
dedicated to forming Christians for mission in everyday
21:32
life.
21:33
You can subscribe to the podcast wherever you
21:35
listen to this episode to get 10 minutes
21:37
of teaching on faith and work every Tuesday
21:39
and Thursday.
21:40
To get resources to go deeper with each
21:42
podcast series, read our blog, and get info
21:44
about upcoming courses on faith in the workplace,
21:47
go to our website missioncentral.church.