by Bror Erickson

GUEST COLUMNIST

The gospel lesson for last Sunday, Pentecost 7, was Luke 10:25-37, otherwise known as the parable of the Good Samaritan. The big question in the whole text is: "Who is my neighbor?"

The reason this question is asked is we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, something we very rarely come anywhere close to achieving. The lawyer wants neighbor to be defined so he can justify his ill treatment of others in his life.

It dawned on me as I was reading this parable that about the only place one might see a person left on the side of the road for dead, would probably be a human trafficking route on the Mexican border. Given a lot of the anti-immigration rhetoric flying around these days, I would probably be arrested for treason if I gave that person a glass of water. This is a sad state of affairs we have fallen into here. I know these people are breaking the law, but they are still people. They are still my neighbors. These are people for whom Christ died on the cross and shed his blood.

I normally loathe preaching politics from the pulpit, of which this column is somewhat of an extension, so don't misconstrue me here. I think you can be a Christian on both sides of this debate. I don't advocate the breaking of laws, and I think the illegal aspect of the immigration has posed a huge problem that is not an easy fix. I do think criminals ought to be punished, but only to such an extent as their crime justifies. I also don't think love necessarily entails supporting amnesty. But sometimes (not always) I hear, underneath the rhetoric opposing illegal immigration, a dislike or even hatred of another person for nothing more than the fact that they speak a different language or come from another country.

That hits pretty close to home for me. My ancestors came from Germany and Sweden less than four generations ago. They didn't speak English when they came and had to learn. But even after they learned it, they didn't always use it. Some of the older immigrants never learned it. The ones who did learn English often spoke Swedish and German with their friends and family. Up until the 1940s, it was quite common to see whole communities in the Midwest that spoke nothing but German, Swedish or Norwegian in their day-to-day lives, outside of school. Signs would be in German, contracts would be in German. Sure most of them knew how to speak English, but they loved their mother tongue. And despite all the hate speech touted by the politicians of the day, they were fiercely loyal American citizens. Many of the German Lutheran churches dotting Midwest cornfields still have plaques on the narthex walls honoring the names of German-Americans who died fighting the Germans in both World War I and World War II. In some cases, their loyalty to America led them to shoot at cousins and nephews across the enemy lines.

In fact, Ben Franklin perfected most of the rhetoric used against Hispanics today. Only Ben Franklin used it against Germans, who at the time of the Revolution already outnumbered the English. The quotes by Theodore Roosevelt that endlessly circle the Internet, about "one country, one language" were used against all the immigrant parties that ever came over: Poles, Jews, Germans, Swedes, Norwegians, Italians, Greeks and Finns. Today we can hardly imagine what this country would be like without the contributions these immigrants brought with them. They are our neighbors now, just as they were then. But this goes to show hatred and hypocrisy have never been on short supply, and that is not Christian. To be Christian is to love, for Christ first loved you.

So, in the story we hear about a foreigner who loves. We do not hear about one who receives help from a citizen, but one who saves the life of a citizen. One who sees a man lying on the side of a road and helps him knowing full well that if the tables were turned the man He was helping would probably have kept on going. If that seems incredible to you, know that it is true. You were that man, left for dead on the side of the road, beaten and robbed of your own dignity, by your own hatred for whomever you have ever hated. Your own sin has left you for dead on the side of the road, never to make it to the heavenly Jerusalem. Yet a foreigner came, and saw you dying there. He picked you up and carried you, not on a horse but on his back. He opened the gates of Jerusalem for you. And He did this by taking your place in death. Dying for you, who hated Him. For if you have ever hated anyone for any reason, you have hated Him. That foreigner was Jesus Christ. He was not a citizen of this land. His home is in heaven, at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. He left that home to come and find you here, to take you home and make you a citizen of heaven. He did it because He loves you, as He loves all your neighbors. But He couldn't carry you on a horse. He had to carry you on His back. You were His cross. You are Christ's neighbor, and your neighbor is Christ.

Bror Erickson is pastor of the First Lutheran Church at 349 N. Seventh St. in Tooele. He is a graduate of Concordia Theological Seminary located in Ft. Wayne, Ind. Bible studies and Sunday School start at 9 a.m. Sunday, followed by worship at 10:30 a.m.