Mar. 10, 2019         A Blessing to the Sojourner                          

“None of us, are native Americans!” This statement was made by one of our local clergy, at our weekly minister’s meeting.  Which prompted a 20 minute discussion on the topic. Mostly, family histories of how we all came to this country. Now most of us have two family histories, one involves my great grandfather on my dad’s side, coming on a boat through the St. Lawrence seaway to Detroit, and the other involves my Mother’s side of the family, traveling up the Mississippi from New Orleans to settle outside of St. Louis. I’m sure most of you have your own stories of the days when your family came as immigrants to America.

A number of those stories probably include some kind of prejudice or discrimination along the way. When the Irish came to this country after the potato famine, they were feared and blamed for the society’s problems. Same thing when the Italians came, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Germans, and etc.  As the speaker noted at our Wednesday Lenten Breakfast, when strangers, foreigners, or what the bible calls sojourners, enter into a new community, they are often scapegoated, blamed for the ills of society. What our speaker didn’t go onto say, was that we do the same thing today, with our fear of Muslims, Mexicans, and people from backward countries.

So why am I on to this today. Well, I have preached numerous times on the temptation of Jesus, but I haven’t ever written a sermon on our passage from Deuteronomy this morning. And, since immigration, and our fears of those who are different from us, is a current concern in our society – indeed it always is - this a timely topic for us to meditate upon this morning.

Our passage from the book of Deuteronomy, speaks about what the people faithful to God are to do to celebrate, give thanks, in the promised Land that God is about to give them. The first thing they are to do is recognize that they were immigrants to the land. A wandering Aramean was my ancestor, reads the text. The next thing is to recognize the persecution of his ancestors – he went down into Egypt, ….. and was oppressed with hard labor. After that, we hear the story of how God brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and led them through the wilderness, to a land flowing with milk and honey. So therefore, in response to this, the faithful Israelite is to take the first fruits of his or her labors, and give it to the poor, the stranger, and the sojourner in the land.

This is the act of almsgiving, which I preached on at our Ash Wednesday service. This is not an anonymous act of giving money, but instead a direct one on one interaction with someone in need. The purpose of which is to know their sufferings, their persecution, and their hardship, as a reminder of what our ancestors faced when they were strangers in a strange land. And in so doing, to overcome our fears of the sojourner among us, so that they may be assimilated into our culture in peace.

Now I realize that there is a lot of fear out there, concerning the immigrant, the foreigner, and the sojourner among us. But one of my favorite quotes about immigrants, comes from Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish philanthropist, who said of first generation immigrants, that the vast majority of them are a hardworking, humble, and law abiding people, seeking the American dream. This statement, reminds us of our families, when they first came to these shores, seeking acceptance and inclusion in American society, and willing to work at any job, to secure that place.

     So what does this all have to do with God? Our passage this morning, shows us that God is the God of the wandering Aramean, the oppressed Israelite in Egypt, the Israelites who were sojourners when they came to settle the promised land. As a reminder of this God commands the Israelites to give of their first fruits to those in need and those who are sojourners among them.  To be clear, the God presented to us in our scripture lesson today is not on the side of those who fear monger and scapegoat the stranger or the foreigner. This God is a God who directs his faithful people to welcome the immigrant into our communities, helping to integrate them, so that we may dwell together in peace. That is ultimately the side that God is on, our living together in Peace! And that is the Good News of Jesus Christ. Amen.