Living in the Spirit
June 28, 2016

Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 5:1-14

But his servants approached and said to him, ‘Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, “Wash, and be clean”?’ So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean. –2 Kings 5:13-14

The changes needed to correct immigration issues and provide for better security are not difficult. They should have been made a long time ago. It is clear that making the necessary changes would negatively impact the bottom lines for those who benefit from immigrants not being granted legal status. TV detective shows, often use the phrase “follow the money.” It applies to immigration reform as well.

When jobs are filled by immigrants at a lower pay with no benefits that could have been filled by a USA citizen, it undercuts our economy and contributes to poverty. This only happens when the immigrants doing these jobs do not have legal papers for if they had legal papers their employers would be required to meet the same salary and benefit requirements of a citizen. There are, however, jobs in our economy for which we do not have enough citizen workers to fill. Those jobs can be identified. There are people living in other counties willing to do these jobs. These people need to be vetted at the highest security level and those that pass be given a time-limited visa to travel to the US, apply for the jobs, and if they are hired, be granted a work visa, which could be time-limited and renewable based on the type job. The process now in place to make this happen is unnecessarily complex and fraught with all kinds of procedural delays (unless the immigrant is a star athlete from another country). If someone is hired in this process, and chooses to pursue long term residency they should have the opportunity to do that also. The legal costs of obtaining a green card is prohibitive for many people.

Immigrations for reasons other than work, like marriage or bringing family members to join others in the USA or providing asylum to refugees need also to be streamlined and all immigration processes need to be updated significantly for secure digital record keeping and accuracy. The uncoordinated and slow system we have now probably contributes to lessened security.

What does this have to do with our faith practices? We are called to welcome the stranger throughout the Bible. Welcoming the stranger represents a worldview that demands interaction with all of God’s children.

Prayer: Lord, give us the courage to welcome the stranger and share your love with them. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, 
Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.