Second Monday Blessing: for the sojourner

Several years ago, I read The Day of the Pelican, written by Katherine Paterson about the conflict in 1998 Kosovo. Meli and her Albanian family driven from their family home by Serbian oppressors, and, Paterson writes, “They walk[ed] away, carried the tiny ones, and pushed grandmother in a wheelbarrow. They left everything.”

After walking a short distance, Meli looked back and, in despair, watched the thugs burn every bit of the dwelling to the ground. In disbelief, she asked herself Why? why take it only to destroy it.

“Meli’s older brother muttered the answer. So there’ll be no place to come home to when this is over.“

As I have written before, I put the book down at that moment, in tears. And I couldn’t pick it up again for days.

Because I cannot imagine having no home. Despite the growing population of those with no place to call their own, I still cannot picture myself or anyone I love without warmth in the cold, meals to call enough, or sufficient means and security to live a dignified life.

So, I find that, in the current national chaos and cruelty, the distain and intolerance for the sojourner, with no place to go or call home or feel safe, has become my waterloo. It is truly more than I can bear when I see regular people, with souls and families and hopes and determination being targeted, chased down, thrown down, and stripped of both dignity and basic human rights.

The Bible has pah-lenty to say about caring for foreigners – and never once refers to them as “illegals. While there’s no way to accurately count the number of times we are told to care for the sojourner, there is also no way to skirt the issue.

It starts like this*. Jesus says, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world,” and then goes on to list the four criteria God will use to identify those who are Blessed. In no uncertain terms, He describes himself as a stranger and tells them, “Some of you invited me in.” He goes on to explain that, when His Father determines who are His sheep – and who are the goats – He’s DEF-I-NITE-LY going to consider how all y’all treated people from other places – people who don’t look like you, talk like you, believe like you, or worship like you.

I know sometimes I write things that are controversial, or at least fodder for discussion, even heated debate.

But this topic, the extent to which we follow the words of Jesus (as well as His followers in both the Old and New Testament), THIS topic may just bring me to the brink of melt-down right here on the page. And I cannot refrain from telling you exactly what I think regardless how it may “come off,” considering the politically correct and more gentle, conversational approach I usually take.

Here goes. The way this administration, the one that claims to be creating a more Christian nation, has shredded the clear intent of Jesus’s words about those who seek refuge is impossible to misconstrue. The hateful and vulgar way those who wear masks and carry lethal weapons, ready and it appears more than willing to use them against even citizens of the United States, the way they show little regard for the legal rights of all – that’s A.L.L. – who reside or visit our country, the way some of them even find delight in inflicting pain on not only their victims, but also the loved ones who must stand by and watch the destruction of families… it’s just wrong. All wrong.

As my true and original goal for writing these Monday blessings is to bring a spirit of love and peace and comfort, I’ll resist the urge to rant on.

And I’ll embrace and share feelings of love, acceptance, and appreciation for the citizens of the world, all created in the image of God, all worthy of His love, all equal in His sight.

On this, the second Monday, I pray for you a spirit of hope for the foreigner, the asylum-seeker, the refugee… hope that in the days to come, we will witness a miraculous about-face in the way our leaders see the rest of the world. Our world.

I pray a blessing over the sojourner and, as always, I pray for you…

** See Matthew 25

Photo by Fabian Fauth on Unsplash