This comment was posted regarding my sermon this week, in which I said:
"I am deeply troubled by what is happening at our southern border with regards to the immigrants from Latin America that have come here seeking refuge.
Most troubling of all is that we have adopted the policy of separating children from their parents, placing the children in various make shift facilities while imprisoning the parents as criminals.
The “politics” of this are troubling and divisive, to say the least. But I’m not going to debate those political issues, at least not from this pulpit. If you want to talk about that, let’s arrange to do so at another time.
But what I will ask is does being a “Christian Nation” have anything to do with the “Kingdom of God”? That is a religious question, a question of faith.
What would Jesus do?
How should we, who claim to be Christian, first and
foremost, respond to the situation of the immigrants at our border who come
here seeking refuge?"
Another individual responded to my sermon by posting
directions to our Church so that all manner of people in need could inundate
us, and suggested that our congregation would be a good place for heroin
addicts to come and shoot up. When I pointed out all that our church
does, she thanked me that our church backed up its words with actions.
Still, yet another, questioned the status of my health
and wondered if hate were my motivation. In all fairness, I am angry at
what is happening, but not yet hateful.
I have written in this blog about my bipolar symptoms often manifesting themselves in a desire to save the world, sometimes through grandiose schemes and dreams. Perhaps my compulsion to write about this issue is simply that, but I think not. I'd prefer to think of it as a genuine commitment to be part of national conversation, with an optimistic hope that we can make a difference.
I am deeply disturbed at the insanity that has gripped our nation, so much so that we now justify that which we once would have fought wars to prevent.
One Facebook friend pointed out that whereas many hold views
of the immigrants as "rapists, murderers, pedofiles, hate filled blood
worshipping monsters", those same people gave Donald Trump a complete
"pass" on all his unsavory behavior and elected him to the White
House. Why such a harsh judgment in one case, and elevation in the
other? Race? Who knows, it's just crazy.
The New Colossus
By Emma Lazarus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “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-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Has that mighty woman, the Mother of Exiles, been silenced in our land? Perhaps that is why some of us seek to cry out in her stead.
Has the battle cry of Armageddon been sounded, a final battle for the soul of our nation? Is the battle we are fighting amongst ourselves not between 'good and evil', but rather regarding the very definition of 'good and evil'?
Trump has alienated our allies, and saluted our enemies. He heaps praise upon despots, and disdain for, among others, Canadians of all people. Eh? That's kind of like kicking "Mr. Rogers" in the groin. What has happened to us?
And the children. Separated from their parents as a political bargaining point. Fifteen billion dollars in funding for a wall will set them free. Give me your tired, you poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free and I will seize their children, and imprison them all. All for the sake of one damn wall. And what will the 'huddled masses yearning to breathe free" do once the wall is constructed? Go around it.
Some convictions:
The drug cartels would not be a problem would it not be for our own addictions. Treat the addictions and the cartels evaporate.
We need the labor force. It is simple supply and demand. Provide immigration reform, and an adequate guest worker program, and the problem of undocumented aliens goes away.
And we should embrace the role of refuge for the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, as it is people such as this that formed the foundation of our nation.
But we cannot become what we abhor. Lutherans live with the legacy of acquiescence to the Nazis in Germany. Good folk, by and large, caught up in a fervor that gripped a nation. Swastikas in our sanctuaries. Luther's own words, a justification for the holocaust. Pardon us for our concern, but we have a history, and never again dare we blindly salute the fuhrer.
Dare we see Jesus at our border? That one who once was exiled in Egypt? 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me. "
Dare we embrace the Crucified One, who life was given for all, even those immigrants seeking asylum in our country. Can we reject help to those Jesus offered his life for?
My psychologist stated his belief that the depression I was feeling didn't come from nowhere, and his belief that it is not just a matter of chemical imbalances. We spoke of vocation, and my longing to be a self employed woodworker again able to 'create', not just 'produce'.
But most of all, I find our nation's status to be depressing. Perhaps most depressing is that it is the stock market, and the status of our retirement funds, that seems to afford us great leniency regarding all other issues. That dirty little secret. We don't care about the poor huddled masses at our border, because our portfolios are doing well. Has our entire conscience as a country boiled down to this, "its the economy, stupid!"
That, and in spite of all the news coverage detailing one issue after another, corruption at the highest level, we simply accept reality as dictated by Trump. He's the greatest because he says he's the greatest.
Its depressing to me. It just is. I yearn for the Kingdom of God. For a redemptive moment. For hope. And I wait upon the Lord, more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.
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