WWJD: Who Would Jesus Deport?
As the U.S. presidential race heats up and primaries loom just after the first of the year, immigration reform is a hot topic in candidate forums and debates. It’s an issue being addressed today in the Senate, it’s a subject of importance to the voting public, and it’s a matter of family preservation to the millions of undocumented aliens facing the threat of deportation and separation from U.S. citizen family members. We bring you this update because it is also a weighty issue for U.S. churches, particularly those whose congregations and communities include undocumented immigrants.

Last year Elvira Arellano was provided sanctuary by her church after immigration officials told her she would be deported. Arellano and her 8 year-old son, Saul, lived in the upstairs apartment of Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago from August 15, 2006 until August 2007. Arellano knew that leaving the church meant risking deportation and separation from her son, who is a U.S. citizen. In August of this year, after 15 days of prayer and fasting, Arellano “felt led to leave the sanctuary of her Chicago, IL storefront church and confront California legislators Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House, and Zoe Lofgren, chair of the subcommittee on immigration. While in Los Angeles, she met with and encouraged the families there in congregational sanctuary. On August 19, Elvira was captured on a city street and deported.”¹ In many ways Arellano’s well-publicized story has put a face on this intersection of church and state. Her situation provided the impetus for what is being called the New Sanctuary Movement, which was officially launched on May 9, 2007. (Read more about Arellano and the New Sanctuary Movement in the Sept/Oct issue of Sojourners.)

Scripture instructs, “When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of you native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God” (Lev. 19:33-34) and “Cursed is the man who withholds justice from the alien, the fatherless or the widow” (Deut. 27:19). When legislature threatens to criminalize the demonstration of mercy and compassion toward undocumented aliens, Christians and churches are faced with a question of allegiance. As Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, America’s largest Latino evangelical organization, notes, “It’s not typical for evangelical churches to be engaged in political activities that have historically been interpreted as walking a fine line between the violation of law and the application of our biblical narrative. However, with the egregious damaged caused to families that are being separated now, we find the church to be the only sanctuary that can accommodate the needs of our people. The immigration issue affects the Latino community more than any other community, so to us it is not just a matter of political expediency, it’s a matter of survivability.”²

What is the local church’s responsibility to the alien? How are your churches responding to the needs of immigrants in their congregations and communities? How can you as missionaries offer perspective and speak into this situation as your churches consider and respond to these issues?

Please note: The views held by the organizations and publications referenced in this update are not necessarily representative of the views of this office or WorldVenture. These organizations and individuals are quoted and referenced in an effort to provide a small window into the broad issue of immigration reform and the local church.

¹ http://www.newsanctuarymovement.org/actions.htm
² Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, “The Church is the Last Safe Haven,” Sojourners Magazine, Sept/Oct 2007, 17.

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WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR? Luke 10:25-37
The 70 had just returned from their mission in Luke 9 when “an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus” (Luke 10:25 NIV). The word “test” is the same word used in the Lord’s Prayer—“deliver us from temptation.” The lawyer comes to tempt Jesus.

You know the question he posed: “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” The answer from Jesus: “What is written in the law?” The lawyer’s response from the Torah: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.” The lawyer combined the Shema of Deuteronomy 6—“you shall love the Lord your God…” with the Leviticus expansion of the Law—“you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” This is called the Royal Law in the Old Testament. We see this combination in the Talmud and used by rabbis in the first century.

Jesus answers him, “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live.” The conversation easily could have ended at this point—the question asked had been appropriately answered—but Scripture tells us the lawyer wanted to justify himself, and so he pressed Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

In order to understand the weight of this question we need to understand something of the social climate of the day. The Dead Sea Scrolls give us insight into this time. From them we’ve learned that by this time the Jews were extremely nationalistic and they had a very tight definition of neighbor. The Scrolls record prayers by the Jews asking for total devastation to fall upon the Gentiles.

The lawyer asked his question with this first century nationalistic bias in his mind. It really is a curious thing, because if he had read Leviticus, chapter 19, verses 33-34 instruct, “When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien [foreigner] living with you must be treated as one of you native-born [as a citizen]. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” DONE! Question answered!

This devotional does not afford me the time and space to walk through the rest of this passage, but nothing has changed. Has it? The question of the lawyer is really, “How broadly does Jesus define neighbor?” This was an important issue then, and it remains so today. Who is my neighbor? Toward whom do I have an obligation?

It’s interesting to see how our Lord responds. Jesus decides not to weigh in with the Leviticus text. He doesn’t bring up theological points the lawyer is likely to dispute anyway. Instead, he tells a story. We call it the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

Let’s go to the end of the parable where, after telling the story, Jesus asks the question, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” This should really be translated, Which of the three created neighbor or became neighbor? In other words, Jesus turned the noun into a verb. The RSV translates it “was a neighbor.” The lawyer asked a question about a noun and Jesus answered with a verb. Which one “neighbored” the man who was attacked by the robbers?

This is an important question for us to ask today. How broad is our definition of neighbor and whom are we neighboring? Leviticus 19 shows us the heart of God. Is the church treating the foreigner as a citizen? How broadly do we cast this net called neighbor? “When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien [foreigner] living with you must be treated as one of you native-born [as a citizen]. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” How are we doing? How is the church doing in the place where you live? Most importantly, how are you and I doing as we live out the Great Commandment each day?

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“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.” Matthew 5:6

“Why is blessedness associated with hunger? Because those who bring their hunger to Christ will be filled with his righteousness. Thus, righteousness must be a gift before it can become a practice. The promise of righteousness is offered to those who are empty. It belongs to those who are aware of their lack.

“We cannot labor for Christ’s righteousness. Even if we wanted to work for it, we could not expend enough effort to obtain it. If we wanted to buy it, we could not offer enough money. We can’t get it by loan. The only way to obtain righteousness is to receive it.”

- John Koessler, in “Eat, Drink, and Be Hungry” in the August 2007 issue of CT

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The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun by Brother Yun with Paul Hattaway
Reviewed by Suzanne Johnson

In The Heavenly Man, Chinese house church pastor Brother Yun tells the story of how God called him at the age of 16 when he brought revival to Yun’s family and healing to his father’s cancer-ridden body. Yun then gives an account of the Lord’s faithfulness and mighty power displayed in his own life, that of his wife and family, and in the Chinese house church movement as a whole from his conversion in 1974 up until 2001. Brother Yun has endured the worst brutality imaginable from the hands of men, and has also experienced amazing healings and miracles from the sustaining hands of God. Yun narrates his compelling journey with humility and grace; while it would be easy to tell his story in a way that would bring glory and honor to himself, among the accounts of strong faith and incredible feats Yun includes his weaknesses, mistakes, and acts of disobedience as well. He emphasizes that God is the hero of this story, and Yun simply a flawed but willing servant.

If you love the Lord Jesus, I think it would be impossible to read this book without experiencing a breadth of emotions. While reading I felt shock, anger, awe, shame, admiration, excitement, and wonder, to name a few. This book took God out of the “Western box” I’d placed Him in and reminded me that He is so much bigger than my own experience of Him. In China today God is working miracles, giving dreams and visions, answering prayers that seem outrageous, providing for needs when resources don’t seem to exist, and adding to the Church daily thousands who are being saved.

Brother Yun’s account will cause you to consider what it really means to “know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings.” He writes, “How we mature as a Christian largely depends on the attitude we have when we’re faced with suffering. Some try to avoid it or imagine it doesn’t exist, but that will only make the situation worse. Others try to endure it grimly, hoping for relief. This is better, but falls short of the full victory God wants to give each of his children. The Lord wants us to embrace suffering as a friend. We need a deep realization that when we’re persecuted for Jesus’ sake it is an act of God’s blessing to us.”

As the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (Nov 11th) draws near, I encourage you to pick up a copy of this book. It will open your eyes to the persecution Christians are facing today and may change the way you pray. I know it has for me. Brother Yun writes, “Once I spoke in the West and a Christian told me, ‘I’ve been praying for years that the Communist government in China will collapse, so Christians can live in freedom.’ This is not what we pray! We never pray against our government or call down cursed on them. Instead, we have learned that God is in control of both our own lives and the government we live under. …Instead of focusing our prayers against any political system, we pray that regardless of what happens to us, we will be pleasing to God. Don’t pray for the persecution to stop! We shouldn’t pray for a lighter load to carry, but a stronger back to endure! Then the world will see that God is with us, empowering us to live in a way that reflects his love and power. This is true freedom!”

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