Welcoming the Hidden Christ – Scripture Readings and Discussion Questions
Genesis 18:1-8 Abraham and Sarah entertain angelic
visitors
The Lord appeared to Abraham by the
oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He
looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from
the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. He said, “My
lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water
be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me
bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may
pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have
said.” And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly
three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” Abraham ran to the
herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who
hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had
prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while
they ate.
1. What is your picture of ideal hospitality? 2. Why welcome strangers? 3. What came of this meeting? 4. What can you expect from
entertaining strangers? 5. Did
Abraham and Sarah know what they were doing, who they were entertaining? 6. Do we recognize the people we are
offering hospitality? 7. Does it
matter?
Leviticus 19:33-34 (NRSV)
When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not
oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the
citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in
the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 19:33-34 (KJV)
And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall
not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one
born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in
the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
Deuteronomy 10:17-19 (NRSV)
For the Lord your God is God of gods
and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and
takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who
loves the strangers, providing them with food and clothing. You shall also love
the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
1. These passages seem to be about respecting those who are
already in the country – ‘resident aliens’. How do we treat new arrivals? “new
Americans”? Do we treat temporary visitors and new citizens differently?
Why? 2. What are the definitions
of migrant, refugee, asylum seeker?
Deuteronomy 26:5-7 (NRSV)
You shall make this response before the Lord
your God: ‘A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and
lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation,
mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by
imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the Lord, the God
of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our
affliction, our toil, and our oppression.
Deuteronomy 26:5-7 (KJV)
And thou shalt speak and say before the Lord
thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt,
and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and
populous: And the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon
us hard bondage: And when we cried unto the Lord God of
our fathers, the Lord heard our voice, and looked on our
affliction, and our labour, and our oppression…
1. This passage, and others, treats sojourners and aliens as
somehow similar to widows and orphans and the sick and the imprisoned, that is,
as people on the margins, but people with a special claim on our hearts. 2. How do we respond? Do our own
experiences of marginalization (as children, minorities, unemployed, etc.)
change our response?
1 Kings 17:8-16 The Widow of Zarephath shelters Elijah
Matthew 25:31-46 esp.
v.35 “I
was a stranger and you welcomed me” and
v.43 “I was a stranger and you did not welcome me”
1. The scene of final judgment before the throne of God at
the end of time is the setting of this passage. Can we imagine that? 2. Here the poor, the marginalized, and
the stranger, are identified with Christ himself (though hidden). How does this
help us confront the stranger in our own lives?
Romans 15:7
Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed
you, for the glory of God.
Ephesians 2:14
For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups
into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between
us.
Ephesians 2:19-20
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are
citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon
the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the
cornerstone.
1. These passages talk about hospitality within the context
of the unity within the church between Jews and non-Jews. Are there dividing
walls in our own time that Christ breaks down?
Hebrews 13:2 (KJV)
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some
have entertained angels unawares.
* * *
* * *
"Ya it's interesting how people don't make that
hospitality and immigration connection." — someone who works on the border
The United Nations uses “migrant” generally to refer to people
living outside their homeland for a year or more regardless of their reason or
legal status and often includes international business people or diplomats who
are on the move but not economically disadvantaged. The IOM’s World Migration
Report 2005 defines “undocumented” or “irregular migrants” as “workers or members of their
families not authorized to enter, to stay or to engage in employment in a
state” … The 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees
defines a “refugee” as one who, “owing to well-founded fear of persecution for
reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group
or political opinions, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable
or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that
country”… The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), … defines
“internally displaced persons” as those “who have been forced or obliged to flee
or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a
result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of
generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made
disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State
border”…
Some
people may flee their homelands because of political persecution and fall under
the category of forced migrants or refugees, for example, but
their motivations may also stem from economic considerations and therefore the
same people can be economic migrants as well. Most migrants are motivated
by “push” factors that drive them away from their homelands and “pull” factors
that draw them to better lives in another place. [The term] “refugees”
highlights some of the most vulnerable people of the migrant population.
(Daniel G. Groody CSC, “Crossing the Divide: Foundations of a Theology of
Migration and Refugees” Theological Studies 70 (2009) 642-643 n.)
asylum-seeker:
“an individual who says he/she is a refugee, but whose claim has not yet
been definitely evaluated.”
(UNHCR)
* * *
From Coracle, the
quarterly magazine of the Iona Community (Winter 2015):
John R. Leech (USA): Recently I have observed and
participated in a variety of border and immigration ministries in southern
Arizona and northern Mexico, from hospitality (el comedor, Kino Border
Initiative, Sonora) to deportation proceedings (Special procedures court,
‘Operation Streamline’, Tucson federal courthouse), from keeping vigil at el
Tiradito shrine, remembering those who have died crossing the desert, to
training with Tucson Samaritans, and serving at the comedor with Samaritans of
Sahuarita and Green Valley.
I have spoken with members of St Michael and All Angels and
St Andrew’s Episcopal Churches in Tucson, and with volunteers of the Casa
Mariposa/Restoration Project, who have been meeting people at the Greyhound bus
station in Tucson, people recently released from detention by ICE/Border
Patrol.
This autumn the big news had two parts. First, the Tucson
bus station began receiving eighty people a night, women with children,
released with instructions to appear for a hearing within a month at an
immigration court – presumably near family already in the United States – lest
an order for removal close their case. No warning. Just dropped off.
Second, the incredible news that the Border Patrol has flown
a thousand kids from Texas to Arizona and then put them into a warehouse (I’ve
seen it from the road – it is meant for pallets of flour, not for people) in
Nogales, AZ. These are unaccompanied minors from Central America (El Salvador,
Guatemala, Honduras), refugees from violence and extreme poverty. The warehouse
serves as a temporary (promise: 72 hours) detention facility. It is on La
Quinta Road near the truck crossing into Mexico.
The ongoing need for change in policy and practice, compassionate
work for change and a deeper understanding of our fellow human beings –
exploited and caught in the middle of a gigantic and ongoing crisis – and the
need to reach out in love across boundaries: all this continues.
One thing I have been thinking about lately is that this
situation is similar to so many others in humanitarian relief and development
work: there is an immediate crisis that gets our attention – and an ongoing
problem that needs lasting sustained effort.
All of a sudden on our own southern border is an immense
influx of refugees, in two remarkable groups, women with children seeking to be
reunited with their families, and unaccompanied minors, mainly teenagers but
also younger children, who have been sent north without adults.
Preponderantly these people have come north through Mexico
from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Why? Besides a sell-job by human
smugglers, there are economic and political reasons for this migration.
People come to Arizona to work, to re-unite with their families,
or to find and begin a new chapter in their life.
We need to practice a theology of hospitality – a
spirituality of migration. We were strangers once too. So – an ongoing need is
there. The need for change – in our national policies, in our practices of
welcome, in our influence on conditions in other countries, in our attitudes
toward the ‘foreigner’ – continues.
(“Sparks of the Light”, Coracle, Winter 2014, 13-14)
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