Guest Preacher: Rev. Israel Alvaran
Luke 24: 13-35
There is a story that during World War II, two ships, one filled with Japanese, and the other ship with Americans were anchored side by side in a European sea port, both waiting to leave and bring its passengers to their home countries. A group in one ship began to sing the hymn “In Christ there is no East or West.” Not soon after, believers in the other ship joined in singing these stirring words, even at a time of war:
“In Christ there is no east or west,
In Him no North or South;
But one great fellowship of love,
Throughout the whole wide Earth.”
I believe in a world without borders. Unfortunately, people who worship the God of capital have caused the building of walls that protect profit and national interest over the lives of human beings. The poor and oppressed, the foreigner, the “other” – the stranger – are discarded to the margins of society, and shackled by economic and political injustice.
The story from Scripture we have read today invites us to walk with the strangers in our midst. This piece of the resurrection narrative is a dramatic reminder that we are often blinded to the truth that Christ walks with us incognito in the lives of those that society has mangled and murdered with apathy and injustice. We see in this Scripture passage two followers of Jesus walking to Emmaus with a man they did not recognize as the same Teacher they respect and emulate. Here we see Jesus as a stranger to his own followers. Little did they know they were walking with the resurrected Christ. They even ask, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who have not heard of what has happened here these last few day?” not knowing they are talking with the person in the center of these events. It was Jesus’ act of breaking bread that shed the veil off their eyes and they recognized him. Another interesting piece here is that while he was a stranger to them, they extended an invitation to Jesus to have supper with them. They walked with him, talked with him, shared their faith with him, and broke bread with him. I believe that the United States is reliving this story today – only that many are not in the mood to walk and talk with the strangers in our midst, much less invite the stranger to share in the blessings we have.
The United States is increasingly becoming a nation hostile to the stranger – that person of color, that gay or lesbian, the bisexual, transgender and queer, those who speak a strange language and whose culture is different from ours, and that lowly immigrant Latino or Asian worker who, most of the time, is suspected of being an illegal or undocumented alien, or worse, a terrorist. I decided to apply for political asylum in the United States fully aware of this creeping culture of xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment.
I came to the United States to learn and minister, then return to share the blessings of knowledge I gained. But in the years since I left the Philippines, cries of murder and injustice have reached these shores. Victims of human rights violations toss and turn in their graves. Now, an early home-coming looks farfetched for I am a political refugee. I come from a country whose present leadership parrots the ideals of democracy, yet turns a blind eye of denial and neglect to those killed because of their political beliefs. With one hand, they pay homage to the altar of free expression, but the other behind its back is soaked in the blood of innocents they have murdered because they cry for liberation and justice. They have spared no one – lay and clergy, journalists, young students, community organizers. My country’s military is funded by the US government. Our taxes are being used to provide for guns and bullets that silence the voices of genuine democracy that many in this nation uphold. These martyrs are also strangers – unnamed, faceless, forgotten – so please keep them in your thoughts and pray for their families.
I remember when I was interviewed by the asylum officer July of last year. I was asked why I was seeking asylum. After telling her the gory details of how political activists, including clergy, were being killed and abducted in the Philippines, I added that I was reading, at that time, a book titled “America is in the Heart” written by Carlos Bulosan, a young Filipino immigrant in the early 1920s. I stressed that being American is not in the color of one’s skin, or the language that one spoke, or the origins of one’s family, but in sharing the common values of equality, justice, and freedom this country hold dear. America is in the heart indeed. She asked if I will continue to be an activist if granted asylum. I said YES, I most definitely will. I added that while I was haunted by the thought that I was seeking the protection of the conquistador that massacred hundreds of thousands of Filipinos when we were a colony of the United States, I will wield the freedoms guaranteed all persons in this country as a sharp knife that will expose the rotten violations of human rights beneath the veneer of democracy. I cried as I told her that I am inspired by martyrs killed and abducted in my homeland and how I wish, that given the privilege of political asylum, I could join the rising voice of dissent against all forms of discrimination. In August of last year I was granted political asylum, and I have not stopped talking about the plight of my own people and the immigrants in this country. I come here today thinking of my friends, fellow activists who are risking their lives for justice and human dignity. I am thinking of those who do not have the chance to become “legal” members of American society, even if they pay taxes and do the menial and difficult jobs many Americans do not want to do. I am lifting up the plight of the stranger – the refugee, the asylee, the so-called undocumented immigrants – all 12 million of them in the United States that work hard to provide for their families and create the wealth that only so few unjustly and selfishly appropriate for themselves.
Looking at the faces of these immigrants – do we see the face of the risen Christ – the one who was made a stranger among his own people? Do we dare to walk with these strangers and be identified with them? Will we invite them to share the blessings we have in our communities? These economic refugees, driven from them homes, families, and communities, partly because of the free trade policies, that the United States strongly support, have walked across borders and rode rickety boats, have risked arrest and deportation all because they want a better life for their starving families – do we share in their dreams of abundant food on the table, and quality education for their children? Who do we see when we look into their eyes? Do we see an illegal immigrant or do we see Jesus?
Now, why is there this seeming negative attitude against immigrants? Some argue they take away jobs from American citizens. If we see the bigger picture, we will see the hand of huge corporations that ship jobs outside the United States because of cheap labor overseas. Like what I mentioned, free trade has also caused widespread poverty in other countries causing a massive stream of economic refugees in search of jobs and security in wealthier nations.
Some argue that these illegal immigrants deplete social services and public resources. Again we need to look at the bigger context. Consider the depletion of the natural and human resources of poor and developing nations. The Philippines’ health care system is collapsing because most of our nurses and doctors are now working overseas. I once watched an Indian comedian tell of how some British detest the presence of many Indian nationals and immigrants in England. He said, “Well, you came to India uninvited,
so why make a big fuzz of us coming over to your country?” In short, because the powerful nations, like the United States, have messed up in these poorer countries, the problem is now biting the United States back in the you-know-what!
Some argue these illegal immigrants are messing with American culture and values. In San Francisco, the city colleges’ English language classes have a long waiting list showing how immigrants would like to learn English contrary to accusations they do not want to learn English. Some ask, “Why don’t they want to become part of our society? Why don’t they want to legalize their status?” That is obviously coming from someone ignorant of the fact that there is no path to citizenship for these immigrant workers. It is not as easy as going to a local post office and filling up a form to become a legal permanent resident or a citizen. Besides, what kind of law separates families, and makes people illegal? There is a flawed immigration law that is inhumane, separates families, an unjust and immoral law. The issue is, these folks want to be part of America, but America is holding back its embrace and welcome.
In Los Angeles, there is a young undocumented immigrant from Mexico who is being supported by people of faith through the new sanctuary movement. Her name is Liliana. In one conference on sanctuary, she came with her young child. She went up the stage to speak and lifted her hands clasped in the hands of her child. Liliana said: “These are the hands that work to provide food for our family, seek education for our children, share in the civic responsibilities of community. These are hands that do the dirty jobs others do not want to do. These are the hands that turn the wheels of industry and the economy of this country. These are the hands of America.” When we see those hands, do we also see the hands of Jesus? – the man made a stranger among his own people, yet whose hands bore the marks of nails pierced into his flesh at Calvary? The same hands that break bread and invites everyone to join him at the table of reconciliation and fellowship? These faceless, nameless, invisible strangers are the ones who make our beds at hotels, cook our food at restaurants, bus our tables and takes our orders, they care for our sick and elderly, the drive us to work on buses and trains, they clean our streets.
Our faith is a wellspring of inspiration to act, to be witnesses, to walk alongside the strangers – the so-called aliens – the immigrants in our midst. Scripture is very clear! In the Book of Numbers, those who believe they have been wrongly accused of a crime or feel they will not receive a fair hearing are instructed to flee to cities of refuge – of sanctuary – and cling to the horns of the altar. That assures them they will not be harmed and will be accorded due process.
In the Book of Exodus, God admonishes the people of Israel not to mistreat or oppress the strangers in their communities for they were strangers and slaves in the land of Egypt. In the Gospel according to Matthew we read how the baby Jesus and his family fled to Egypt as refugees because Herod ordered the killing of all male babies. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that Jesus names as one of the signs of God’s Reign the warm and genuine welcome accorded to strangers. He said, “I was once a stranger and you welcomed me.”
To underline the sacredness of embracing the stranger, the Christian faith has two sacraments that lift up openness and acceptance. In Baptism we affirm the image of God in human life, accept persons to be in fellowship with us, and pledge to raise our children in this loving relationship with God and our community. In Holy Communion or the Eucharist we open God’s table to all who come and wish to experience the love of God.
All these are powerful words, mighty and meaningful images of welcome. These whom people call strangers cease to be strangers for we are bound together by love of God and neighbor. These whom people call aliens cease to be such for how can you call a person an alien if you both bear the same image – the Imago Dei – the image of God? These whom people deride and call illegal immigrants cease to be such for how can an immoral law of exclusion, hate, and oppression stand? How can they be illegal if their crime is to fend for their family and seek a decent life devoid of hunger and fear – values and dreams we all have and share? Their children, marked with God’s image are also our children. An immigrant and a leader of the immigrant rights movement in San Francisco once said, “If our taxes are legal, how can we be illegal?” These whom people refer to as the undocumented cease to be such for borders that separate us, and documents that mark people as citizens of one country are insignificant if we see the whole world as God’s creation entrusted to all of us, to sustain all of us, to house all of us, to feed all of us, to give all of us life.
I dream of a world without national boundaries and interests – a world whose security and prosperity is founded on seeking the best interest and protecting the dignity of every human being. I pray for a community of people where the labels “illegal immigrant” “refugee” “asylum” are non-existent because each one is a neighbor separated only by mountains, forests, or the ocean. In this world the seeming superficialities of differences such as geographical location, color, language, sexuality, and culture are creatively intertwined into common bonds of kinship and the desire for peaceful and bountiful living. Let us, in a cacophony of sounds and color, make wonderful melodies together, overcoming any walls built between us by selfishness, xenophobia, or apathy.
I believe in being stewards of communal space and of spaces between the mainstream, and the blessings that flow from genuine political and economic transformation. There are those who leave their places of origin in search of peace and safe haven. Others risk their lives to cross national borders just so they could work decent jobs and feed a hungry family they left behind. Are these reasons – founded on human dignity – not enough to welcome these people to the shores of nations that are relatively better off in social and economic security? Communities who have more in life have the duty to extend the hand of fellowship and support to the strangers in need. Open your hearts and doors of hospitality then, my friends. I know I might be preaching to the choir here. I pray we need not be reminded that the prosperity of this nation and of the so-called West or Northern world was borne on the shoulders of slaves and peoples robbed of land and liberty, of people oppressed by the evils of colonization.
What can we do to concretely support immigrants and their families? How do we walk with the strangers in our communities? I encourage you to consider becoming a sanctuary church, and organize a sanctuary cluster of churches in your community, and also lobby to make your city a sanctuary city. The New Sanctuary Movement is inspired by the sanctuary movement of the 80s when refugees from Latin America were admitted to the United States with the help of churches and congregations. The New Sanctuary Movement is a coalition of organizations and religious groups and congregations that reach out to the economic refugees of today by advocating for immigration law reform, providing spiritual and material support to immigrant families who are separated when one is arrested by federal ICE agents, and do the ministry of presence by accompanying arrested immigrants to their court hearings, and whenever possible, arrange legal support. You are not breaking any law if you are assisting a person go through the process of becoming a legal immigrant, and if advocate for reform of the immigration system that provides a path for citizenship to immi
grants with protection of their rights as workers in this country. You may write your legislators, city officials, and the ICE offices here and tell them how you feel as a person of faith about the treatment of immigrants, and how our broken immigration system causes the separation of families and tramples upon the dignity of human beings.
Being a sanctuary city is also one way to become a powerful witness. San Francisco passed a sanctuary ordinance in 1989 and last week the city, through the Mayor, launched a media campaign to inform everyone that the city is a safe place for immigrants. Even if you have been arrested by police for misdemeanors, they will not report your immigration status to ICE. The same is true with the sheriff’s office. Immigrants may avail of city health services, and their children may attend schools without fear that they will be reported to ICE. Being a sanctuary city upholds the basic human rights of residents to education, health, and safety, at the same time it is a political statement that points to the brokenness of our immigration system. The United States is a country built by immigrants, and is populated by immigrants and children of immigrants – from the time of the pilgrims and founding fathers to the modern-day Latino and Asian immigrant workers. You share in this heritage unless you are a Native American.
You have probably heard these words many times before, but I suppose it will not hurt to be reminded, most especially at this time when we celebrate the dignity of immigrants, and seek the tearing down of boundaries of hate and greed. This great nation offers an irresistible invitation held high by Lady Liberty. This nation has honored this invitation in the past, I pray this invitation is still good today:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”