I wrote up my thoughts on "foreign" last Wednesday in my paper journal. Having "hospitality" show up as today's prompt gave the post new urgency.
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To be foreign is to be different. We humans by nature tend not to like people who are not like us, who are not our kind of people. We fear them and hate them.
God shows us a better way. Be kind to the stranger and sojourner, he told the ancient Jews, for you were foreigners in Egypt. You've been there, you know what it's like to be a stranger in a strange land, hated and oppressed for simply being you.
Jesus took it even further, breaking down the dividing wall of hatred between Jews and Gentiles. He took the hatred on himself and nailed it to the cross.
When the teacher of the law asked him (seeking to justify himself), "But who is my neighbor?", Jesus pointed him to a despised Samaritan. "Go and do likewise," he said, claim as neighbor those terribly wrong kind of people, those people who are not like you. Now go, and love your neighbor as yourself.
This is the way of love, the way of hospitality, welcoming the foreigner into our lives.
How can we do less?
It does not take long listening to the United States political scene to realize that racism and xenophobia are alive and well. I am glad to see responsible religious leaders, who normally (and wisely) stay out of public particulars of partisan politics, beginning to call out Donald Trump for the racist and misogynist demagogue that he is.
Jesus call us to welcome the stranger, to show hospitality and love to the foreigner. To do otherwise is evil.
God shows us a better way. Be kind to the stranger and sojourner, he told the ancient Jews, for you were foreigners in Egypt. You've been there, you know what it's like to be a stranger in a strange land, hated and oppressed for simply being you.
Jesus took it even further, breaking down the dividing wall of hatred between Jews and Gentiles. He took the hatred on himself and nailed it to the cross.
When the teacher of the law asked him (seeking to justify himself), "But who is my neighbor?", Jesus pointed him to a despised Samaritan. "Go and do likewise," he said, claim as neighbor those terribly wrong kind of people, those people who are not like you. Now go, and love your neighbor as yourself.
This is the way of love, the way of hospitality, welcoming the foreigner into our lives.
How can we do less?
It does not take long listening to the United States political scene to realize that racism and xenophobia are alive and well. I am glad to see responsible religious leaders, who normally (and wisely) stay out of public particulars of partisan politics, beginning to call out Donald Trump for the racist and misogynist demagogue that he is.
Jesus call us to welcome the stranger, to show hospitality and love to the foreigner. To do otherwise is evil.