Tag Archives: Independence Day

On Being Migrant Citizens

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Migration is one of the major themes in the Bible. Abraham was called out of Ur of the Chaldees and Isaac and Jacob were constantly on the move. In Deuteronomy, Moses gives a retrospective account of their migration from Egypt to the Promised Land of Canaan that they are about to enter. In contradistinction to the Egyptians, Moses insists that the God who lead them out of Egypt demands good treatment to helpless people, especially the widow and the orphan, and the stranger, since they were strangers in Egypt. (Deut. 10: 19) Later, there we are migrations of the Jewish people at the hands of power politics that lead to the Babylonian Exile and the Return from Exile under the rule of Cyrus. With the prophets’ conviction that God was at the root of these movements, there is the suggestion that God, rather than any particular piece of land, is their true home. The author of Hebrews reviews all of the biblical migrations to teach us that, no matter how much we may think we feel “at home” in this world, this world is not our true homeland but that God has prepared a better homeland, “a heavenly one.” (Heb. 11: 16) Hardly surprising since the Son of Man had no place to lay his head. (Mt. 8: 20) If everybody’s true Homeland is a heavenly one, then there is no land on earth where anyone should be considered a stranger and treated the way the Egyptians, the Assyrians or the Babylonians treated the Jews. (Or the ways the Jews treated the Canaanites when they entered the Promised Land.) From these considerations, it follows that we should love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, as Jesus teaches us in Matthew. (Mt. 5: 44) After all, if we are all aliens, then nobody is an alien, and there is no reason for anybody to be an enemy.

On Independence Day in the U.S., one may be prompted to use these reflections for guidance as to how our nation should conduct itself. That is, we should be welcoming to people seeking entry into our country, nurture the vulnerable, and do what we can to cultivate good relations with other countries. Bad governance by these guidelines would be to pursue a policy of enmity, either against people within the country or with other countries, or both. Usually the two go together, as the more enemies one finds, the more enemies one finds. Such governance is a disquieting escalation that will have no end until, like the serpent Ouroboros, we devour our own tail. After all, hatred of others tends to be rooted in hatred of self. Ouroboros is considered a symbol of infinity, but it is the infinity of the closed circle, and thus a vicious cycle. Such closed circles represent the policies of most sovereignties since the foundation of the world, with Egypt, Assyria,. Babylon, and Rome being biblical examples. It is the infinity of God, the maker of Heaven and Earth, who specifically commands the Israelites to open their circle, and with Jesus, this true infinity becomes a human being who breaks the circle we keep trying to close again. So it is that closed-circle rulers such as in Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Rome, and the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem crucify Jesus, only to have the Risen Victim open to us the way to an open system for all time, if and when we will have it.

With a political observance such as Independence Day, it is tempting to keep the focus on what the government should do, making ourselves armchair coaches with no responsibility–America’s favorite blood sport–but it is all the more important to realize that when political leaders show a need for enemies, they need for us to need enemies ourselves. When we put the matter this way, we begin to see how difficult these teachings are for ourselves. We ourselves tend to find excuses to consider some people to be aliens and others to be enemies. Life seems to lose its meaning without them. But if we have it in us to envision a country living by biblical principles, living as migrants wandering towards a heavenly homeland, then we need to open the closed system of enmity and open ourselves to the Holy Spirit who lovingly tears down these barriers. If we want a loving, peaceful country, we have to be peaceful, loving selves. That would be a cause for celebration.

True Greatness

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It is natural and good to have an affection for the place where one was raised and where one lives. Caring for one’s family, one’s community, one’s city, one’s country is all good. Such affection is the basis for caring for other people. Caring for other people. That is the key. Do we indeed make local affections the basis for caring for people of other cities, of other countries?

In Deuteronomy, Moses grounds his love for his people in God’s love for his people. It is God who has delivered the people from Egypt and is leading them to a new land for them to settle in. Therefore one should fear God for what God has done. (Deut. 10: 21) Moses then expands God’s love for God’s own people by saying that they are commanded to love the stranger. Why love the stranger? Because the Israelites were strangers in Egypt. They should remember their own vulnerability as strangers and care for the vulnerability of other strangers. America is a continent of immigrants, which is to say, strangers. This even goes for those we call Native Americans. For that matter, we find histories of migration for just about any group of people that we know anything about. All of us are vulnerable strangers and all of us should care for vulnerable strangers.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus presupposes the legitimate and right love one has for one’s own people, then, in the tradition of Moses and going beyond it, stretches this love for the stranger to one’s enemies. (Mt. 5: 44) That is to say, God raises the sun, not only on one’s own people, but on all people. After all, caring for one’s own people is the least we can and should do. Isn’t it caring for the stranger that makes a country great? Isn’t it caring for one’s enemy that makes a country greater still?

There is much talk about making America great again. The anniversary of the founding of our country is a good time to reflect on what made America great, or if it actually needs to be made great in the first place. Since penitence is central to the Christian life, repenting of the ways we fall short of greatness is part of the celebration of our country. Noting failures to care for the stranger, the widow and the orphan, let alone loving our enemies, can lead us to greater efforts. If we can do these things, America will indeed be great.

The author of Hebrews takes up the theme of migration with an added depth. Abraham demonstrates his faith by setting forth to a place that he is to receive as an inheritance, (Heb. 11: 8) but actually Abraham and his descendants were seeking “a better country, that is, a heavenly one.” (Heb. 11: 16) We are all migrants seeking a better country that is grounded in God’s love for all people. One’s own land, one’s country, is important, but it is not of ultimate importance. God is of ultimate importance and God has prepared a better homeland for all of us, one that nobody will have to fight over.

Foreigners and Strangers

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statueoflibertyI’m not going to brag about how great a country the United States of America is, but I’m not going to condemn it either. The lections assigned for this celebration tell us how to celebrate this day and that is how I’m going to do it.

In Deuteronomy (10:17-21), Yahweh claims to be the God of Gods. That is God is God of all nations, not just Israel and certainly not just of the United States. Yahweh goes on to remind the Israelites of their humble origins as escaped slaves and commands them to lend the same compassion to other foreigners. It is easy for us to forget that all of us here are descended from foreigners, even the Native Americans, although they go way back. Yahweh, who defends the poor and the fatherless, embraces the tired, the poor, the teeming masses yearning to breathe free. As descendants of tired and poor teeming masses yearning to breathe free, we should open this country to those whom Yahweh loves and not just to the energetic, rich people who breathe easily. In order for a country to practice such radical hospitality, it is necessary to practice the same hospitality to all who already live here so that others may wish to come.

When we gather in any way, whether as a family, a community, or a nation, we need to be sure that our bonding is not at the expense of others. That is, we should not need enemies to know who we are or who we think we are. In Matthew 5:43-48, Jesus tells us to love our enemies, which amounts to not considering anyone our enemies, even if they think that of us. Jesus says that pagans greet those who are of “their sort.” Jesus asks much more of us than that. If God gives rain to all, then we should give peace to all. That is, we should treat those of other countries the way we treat our own, provided we treat our own as the passage from Deuteronomy teaches us.

The author of Hebrews (11:816) reminds us that our country, any country, is not ultimate, is not our final dwelling place. Even the most supposedly settled of us were nomads once and fundamentally we still are. We all should be looking for a “better country—a heavenly one” while we live as foreigners and strangers here. If we all live as foreigners, we will not be strangers to each other and we will be surprised at how pleasant our stopping place is on the Way to the better Home.

On Being Interdependent on Independence Day

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fireworksIndependence Day in the US is a day for fireworks and parade and speeches. It can be a field day for jingoism but it can also be a day of collective self-examination of how we might make our country better and not worse.

Reflecting on the concept of mimetic desire, the human tendency to imitate not just the actions of other people but the desires of other people, can help us greatly in getting a sense of direction on how we might make our country better rather than worse. With the way anything in social media can go viral, we need to be conscious about how the media are infecting our desires in ways we can easily not see. Media gone viral constantly blows up into scapegoating of victims that make everybody else feel “better” about themselves, a process that makes our country worse instead of better. It is worth noting that Alexander Hamilton favored a strong executive branch for our government vested in one person because that made it easier for everybody else to know whom to blame if anything went wrong.

In our global age, we are all of also members of an economic body. Adam Smith wrote about its emergence in The Wealth of Nations, published in the same year the Declaration of Independence was signed. This system, vast as Leviathan, is fueled by mimetic desire that is way out of control. I don’t buy the notion that this system somehow works out for good even though most people in the system act out of self-interest. The system has its own life and self-interest that we can see clearly enough grinds huge numbers of people into destitution unimaginable for those of us living in our own bubble. Since the US is such a leading participant in this system, it is tempting to equate the two, but they are not the same and can easily work at cross-purposes. The effort to become aware of how our own desires are being formed and manipulated by this system is much stronger than with the system of the political body.

Standing alone against such vast social systems is hopeless, but we don’t have to do that. In the simple story about the Emperor’s new clothes, one child cried out that the Emperor had no clothes and suddenly the mimetic perception of the kingdom shifted and he was not alone. Saying what we see and what we desire connects us to the desires of others. We will not be alone.

Most important, those of us who are Christians are members of another body, the Body of Christ. (Other faith traditions form bodies with the same kind of power.) The mimetic processes of the political and economic systems easily confuse us into thinking that this Body is equivalent to one or both of the others, but it is not. Acting out of self-interest in the faith that everything will work out fine falls infinitely short of the Gospel and the Messiah who sacrificed himself for us. This Body can also be exasperating when those in it fail to strengthen us when we need it, but it is still the Body where we can join up with those who had gathered around the woman caught in adultery and join the mimetic social process started by the eldest and walk away because we know we are not without sin. Where do we end up if we take this walk? The arms of Jesus who enfolds us in His Desire.