REWIND AND REMIND: A NATION OF IMMIGRANTS

This past weekend was our congregation's Pulpit Exchange Weekend with our sister congregation Temple Bat Yam, the Jewish Reform congregation that shares our building here on Periwinkle Way.  I preach for Bat Yam on Friday night, we have a joint potluck dinner on Saturday night, and the Temple's Rabbi preaches for us at two of our Sunday morning services. 

The Torah portion for Friday night included the Ten Commandments.  I reflected on the fact that they are couched in a reminder that God brought the Israelites out of Egypt.  "Indeed," I said, "this theme appears again and again in the following chapters . . . and in next week's portion . . . speaks three different times about the importance of treating foreigners justly, kindly, and with great care."  Time and again, the Law notes that the Israelites are to treat the resident aliens in their midst with justice and compassion because, "you know the feelings of the stranger, for you yourselves have been strangers in the land of Egypt."  (Exodus 23:9, TANAKH Translation)

The point I made in the sermon was pretty simple.  In the same way that those ancient Jews needed to be just in their treatment of the foreigners in their midst because they were once foreigners themselves, so too we Americans need to be just in our treatment of the eleven million undocumented immigrants in our midst.  For we are, as John Kennedy said, a nation of immigrants.  Indeed, it provided the title for his last book.

The issue has surfaced again in Washington.  And while I believe strongly in the separation of church and state (or synagogue and state!)  and therefore would be reluctant to suggest our representatives ought to read (or reread) the Book of Exodus before debating the immigration issue, I am inclined to suggest they read (or reread) Kennedy's book from over fifty years ago.  At least the title page.  For we are a nation of immigrants--and that reality must always inform what we say and do as we seek to make sense out of a badly broken system.

(Photo:  Rabbi Selwyn Geller and Pastor John Danner preparing for their congregations' joint activities.)