Mortal
Crossing
Immigration Reflections
by Pastor Mike Langer
The subtitle of a recent cover
story in Hoy, Chicago's popular Spanish-language newspaper, read
"Cruce Mortal" ("Mortal Crossing"). The
article is about the record number of undocumented immigrants
who have died in the Arizona desert. This caused me to reflect
on my family's story of immigration. The truth is that I only
have found documentation from my father's mother's emigration
from then Austria to the U.S. through Ellis Island. When I think
of the Ellis Island period of immigration, I am reminded of the
stories of heroic quests into the great land of opportunity and
the fortitude that these journeys required of our forebears.
But there has been another thought lingering in the back of
my mind: what if the U.S.'s current immigration policies had
been in place at the time that my grandmother emigrated? The
heroic mortal crossing of the Atlantic in the first part of the
twentieth century bears striking resemblance to the mortal crossing
of the Rio Grande and the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts in the early
twenty-first century. The x-factor: immigration laws.
This is certainly a political issue.
Legislation needs to change. But more importantly for us, this
is a theological issue. The book of Leviticus is replete with
regulations that had in mind explicit concern for the poor and
the resident alien. God often referred to himself as the one
who "brought you out of Egypt." In other words, God
was responsible for Israel's emigration into the Promised Land.
Most importantly, God became a resident alien when he took on
humanity in Christ. He bore a mortal crossing of his own, the
death and resurrection of Jesus, through which we are baptized
out of slavery and into freedom and new life.
The Apostle Paul commends the people
of Philippi to "do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain
conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,
not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests
of others" (Phil. 2:3-4). As we continue to engage the
issue of immigration as individuals and as a people, let us take
heed to Paul's words, for they bear great value. Let us have
a humble and hospitable posture towards all people, including
the resident alien. For the Kingdom of God has but one form
of documentation: Jesus Christ.
end