Biblical urgency about hospitality

Day 15 – O’Keefe – the Biblical urgency about welcoming strangers

The clear admonition in the Bible that we take care of immigrants and other strangers was watered down and almost forgotten for some years.  But when you do retrieve it, you find that this neglected teaching is repeated all through Scripture with tremendous urgency.

Caring for strangers shows up 18 times in the trio that touches the heart if there’s a heart to be touched: widows, orphans and strangers.

The command shows up all through Leviticus, not as a detail of the dietary laws, but as the principle that explains many laws.

The command shows up frequently followed immediately by a command to respect God.  Punctuation is not an ancient invention, so we can’t say for sure whether welcome-strangers-respect-God is a single idea in a single sentence.  But throughout Scripture, they are clearly related ideas.

At the end of his life, Moses gave a long teaching that incorporates 12 curses.  The list includes a curse on anyone who perverts justice for the familiar trio – widows, orphans, strangers (Deut 27:19).

Psalm 94 stretches to explain an incredible evil: they are so evil that they even kill widows and strangers and orphans!  Worse evils are beyond the imagination, it seems.

In his “Temple Sermon,” Jeremiah cries out for reform, and lists four specific details: Deal justly with your neighbor, stop oppressing the stranger and the orphan and the widow, do not murder the innocent, and avoid idolatry (Jer 7:6).  Later, Jeremiah addresses the king of Israel, and says that if the king fails to make these reforms, the kingdom will fall and the palace will be smashed to rubble.  In his words to the king, he drops one item – idolatry – from his Temple Sermon: he does not focus on idolatry.  But he keeps the demand to care for the familiar trio (Jer 22:3). 

Ezekiel does the same.  The children of Israel deserve to be exiled in Babylon, he says, because of a list of evils, including the oppression of immigrants and other strangers (Ez 22: 7 and 22:29).

In the last chapter of the last book in the Old Testament, the prophet Malachi describes a mysterious day of immense violence, when the messenger of the covenant will come “like a refiner’s fire,” purifying the children of Israel.  The description of this day includes judgment against a list of specific evils: sorcery, adultery, perjury, defrauding employees of their wages, defrauding widows and orphans, ignoring the rights of strangers, and failing to fear God.  Note the familiar three.  And note the connection from welcoming strangers to respecting God (Mal 3:5).

The fiery words in Matthew’s Gospel are not puzzling strays.  When you welcome an immigrant or other stranger, you welcome the Lord of the universe, and the rewards are incalculable forever.  When you slam the door shut, the almighty Lord takes it personally, and responds with justice.  Hospitality is not trivial decoration; it is fundamental.

Urgent: Welcome immigrants!  (Eternal rewards and penalties apply.)

Mr. Parrott?

Day 13 - O'Keefe - Virgin of Guadalupe

Day 13 – O’Keefe – Brothers and Sisters

Mexico has been our neighbor for our entire history.  Why haven’t we learned yet to be respectful?

In the Capitol, underneath the rotunda, there is a large hall with statues from each of the 50 states.  California’s statue is striking: it’s a man holding up a cross.  You’re a Christian, Mr. Parrott: are you proud of that statue?  It’s Junipero Serra, a Franciscan missionary, and his mother language was Spanish, not English.  In Statuary Hall, he stands out: but is he an American and Christian hero, or a foreigner?

In the 20^th century, there were many nonviolent campaigns around the world, modeled on the work of Mahatma Gandhi.  In the United States, there were two large nonviolent campaigns that ended with tangible success.  One, of course, was the civil rights campaign.  The other was the successful campaign to organize farm workers, led by Cesar Chavez.  Four states celebrate his birthday on March 31 as a state holiday.  Three states – Arizona, Texas and Colorado – take note of the day; but in California, many schools are closed, which makes it a real holiday.  Chavez led the United Farm Workers to victory after decades of failure, in part by appealing successfully to consumers across the country.  The grape and lettuce boycotts, persuading Anglos to buy products only if they had a union symbol, were events of nationwide unity, of proud solidarity with the gutsy workers who fed us, who still feed us.  Are we deeply proud of him, of them? 

The UFW symbol is an eagle.  It’s taken from the Mexican flag – which resembles the Great Seal of the United States.  Are we pleased and proud to share this symbol of freedom and aspiration?

The UFW had a second symbol that they carried in marches: the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe.  In 1531, almost four generations before Jamestown was founded, there was a mysterious event in Mexico City.  A young man – one of the very few natives of Mexico who had accepted the faith brought to the America by Franciscan missionaries – said he had seen a vision from heaven, and showed skeptical officials a beautiful picture of the woman he had seen.  The picture was on his cloak, made of rough fabric; to this day, no one has explained how that image got there; it’s not dyed, and it’s not painted.  It’s detailed, and it’s beautiful.  The image taught by graphic images what the Franciscans had tried to say in words, and it led rapidly to millions of conversions.  Key message: God is with us – not just with Europeans, but with all of us.  Do you embrace that message?

I am ashamed to live in the largest gated community in the world.  The wall between me and my neighbors embarrasses me.  Why haven’t we learned to be friends, neighbors, brothers and sisters – after 400 years?

I want the wall down – in the desert, but even more in our hearts, in our lives.

Mr. Parrott?

Day 11 - Biblical and Classical Teaching

Day 11 – O’Keefe – Homer and Scripture compared

Scripture, in both Old and New Testaments, commands hospitality for immigrants, and Christians are obliged to make sure our national laws and customs reflect that mandate.  Scripture’s teaching about strangers may be made clearer by contrast with the ancient Greek epic, the Odyssey.  This great story also explores the theme of hospitality. 

Odysseus, a Greek warrior, offends a god, who delays him for ten years when he is on his way home to Ithaca after ten years fighting at Troy.  His wife Penelope and his son Telemachus wait for him, but many neighbors doubt that he survives, and they come to court the beautiful woman whom they consider to be a widow.  She and her son do not know how to get rid of the suitors, and complain repeatedly that they are abusing the laws of hospitality, feasting lazily on the wealth of Ithaca.  Telemachus goes out to visit his father’s old friends in neighboring kingdoms, and is received with appropriate hospitality.  Eventually Odysseus escapes from the goddess who had held him prisoner for years, and makes his way home.  When he arrives, alone and unarmed, he disguises himself as a beggar, to see what is happening in his palace before he reveals himself.  The suitors treat the beggar rudely.  Odysseus and Telemachus devise a plan to trap the suitors – and then slaughter them all. 

One difference between Scripture and the Odyssey is that the Greek story includes abundant material about the expectations of a guest’s behavior as well as a host’s.  When Telemachus is visiting neighboring kingdoms, there descriptions of his welcome show how a host is expected to behave.  Scripture, by contrast, focuses almost exclusively on the proper conduct of a host.

Hospitality includes the way you think about the speck on the horizon, the initial greeting, the extended stay, and the long-term accommodation.  The Greek story includes initial greetings and a welcome that lasts a few days.  Scripture includes that, but the focus of most of the teaching is on long-term accommodation.

The Greek story resembles Scripture is several ways.  In the Odyssey, abusing the laws of hospitality was a capital crime, as in the Bible (the Exodus, Sodom, and Gibea).  The suitors made three errors, identifying Penelope as a widow, Telemachus as an orphan, and Odysseus as a poor stranger: this is, of course, a familiar trio from Scripture.  These errors would not have mattered much if they had been respectful to the apparently vulnerable trio – as Scripture mandates.

This odd thread that runs through the Old Testament – welcome the stranger because you too once were a stranger in a strange land – comes into full power in the teaching of Jesus.  Literature explores it, Abraham saw it, Moses pointed at it – but Jesus proclaimed it out loud.  Welcoming strangers does not bring a prince or potentate into your house on rare occasions.  No: welcoming strangers brings the King of Creation under your roof, every time.

Mr. Parrott?

Day 10 - O'Keefe - the "American dream"

Day 10 – O’Keefe – Which American Dream?

One concern that opponents of the Dream Act often express is that careless immigration policies threaten to alter or even destroy the American dream.  So what’s the dream: wealth, or shared moral values, or both, or what?

Today, many Americans – in government, industry, and education – are deeply concerned about America’s ability to compete with Chinese education and industry.  This sense of competition is extraordinarily revealing.  To me, it seems obvious that America is light years ahead of China in protecting the things that matter, such as liberty, equality, and human rights.  To me, it also seems obvious that this is not a “competition,” and that we should do anything we can to help the Chinese catch up with us in these critical areas of life.  If they get ahead of us in cherishing liberty and equality, that would be startling but glorious, unequivocally wonderful!

The “competition” is not about human rights or the value of life; it’s about money and power.  To respond to the competition, we are changing our educational priorities, emphasizing STEM – science, technology, engineering, and math.  I support more rigorous education in STEM subjects, enthusiastically.  But will we diminish our commitment to literature and history, our ability to get inside the minds of others, habitually?  To put it another way, what do we value?  What are determined to pass on to the next generation?

Let me propose a thought experiment.  Here’s a list of seven facts about America.  Can we lose any of these seven traits and still be the same great nation that Washington and others founded, that Lincoln and others kept together?

#1 .  We are the richest nation on earth.

#2 .  Militarily, we are the most powerful nation on earth.

#3 .  We have – or have had – a strong work ethic (often called a “Protestant” work ethic).

#4 .  We enshrine in our founding documents a commitment to equality.

#5 .  We enshrine a revolutionary attitude towards inalienable human rights.

#6 .  We are proud of our history of generosity and hospitality.

#7.  We are predominantly white.

Which of these can change, without changing American identity?  (I recognize that I am skipping over at least one huge and complex aspect of American life that is critical to our identity.) 

We can dump #7, right?  We can’t dump #4 and #5, no matter what, right?  What about #6?

100 years ago, we kept out millions of Chinese immigrants, because we considered them inferior.  Now we want to compete with the Chinese, and are worried (some people are worried) that their work ethic and intelligence might overwhelm us.  In retrospect, wasn’t it a colossal blunder to keep out those scrappy Chinese entrepreneurs?

Today, many Americans are deeply worried about family life, and about our ability to maintain an intelligent commitment to a family life that imparts traditional attitudes toward faith and family.  And yet we keep out Latinos, and divide immigrant families!  How dumb is that?

Mr. Parrott?

Day 8 - O'Keefe - lesson from Sodom

Day 8 – O’Keefe – the issues in Sodom

Mr. Parrott has taken a leading role in Maryland referenda on immigration and also on marriage.  The most-quoted passage in the Bible supporting Mr. Parrott’s position on marriage is also about welcoming strangers.  So if he overlooks the command to welcome strangers (or immigrants), he loses all credibility on marriage.

In Genesis 18 and 19, there are two stories about patriarchal figures, Abraham at Mamre and Lot at Sodom.  The passages are parallel.  Both Abraham and Lot receive guests, and promptly offer hospitality.  Both offer to serve the travelers.  Both offer to bathe the travelers’ feet.  Both provide a meal.  Both offer a place to rest.  Both passages include reference to their wives, and both wives get in trouble.  Both men bargain – Abraham with God, Lot with two angels.  Both men are to become the fathers of nations.

When you see the parallels, it is simply not possible to overlook the issue of hospitality.  The stories deal with a motif that is familiar not only in the Bible but in literature around the world: the stranger at the door who turns out to be divine.

Both Lot and Abraham provide models of hospitality.  They were pro-active, offering to help.  They provided for basic needs promptly.  They treated their visitors as if they were celestial – which was good, because they were.  And the key difference between the stories of these two men on that day is about a failure in hospitality.  Lot’s neighbors violate the laws of hospitality, among other problems.

So what did the people of Sodom do wrong?  They had a pattern of activity that offended heaven.  The angels’ investigation turns up evidence of three obvious crimes: rape, specifically homosexual rape, and assaulting guests.  (1) The non-consensual sex does not seem to be a key problem in the story, however horrifying it is to us.  Lot does not come off looking good, but he is rescued, not punished, after he offers his virgin daughters to the mob in order to protect his visitors.  (2) The traditional interpretation of the passage focuses on homosexuality, and the word “sodomy” comes from this story.  (3) But certainly, a large part of the evil is the assault on strangers, the sins against hospitality.

The last thing the townspeople do before the angels intervene is to shove Lot, threaten him, and make some kind of anti-immigrant remark.  Boom.

Given the extensive parallels between the two stories, it does not make sense to try to dodge the issue of inhospitality in the story.  Nor is it merely that the men of Sodom had the bad luck to try to rape two angels: the treatment you offer strangers is the treatment you offer God.

When the story is over, the corpses of those guilty of inhospitality and homosexual rape are scattered over the desert. 

It is not honest to take a lesson about marriage from the passage and ignore the lesson about welcoming strangers – including immigrants. 

Mr. Parrott?