Theological Reflection
Rev. Don Ng
The Struggles of API Immigrants Today & Our Faith Response
November 10, 2011, 8:30-11:00, Old St. Mary’s Cathedral, Hecker Hall
My church is the First Chinese Baptist Church on the corner of Waverly Place and Sacramento. The two short blocks that I walked from my church to here, I passed many strangers. Some were tourists, others were workers in Chinatown, and others were immigrants who are trying to make a living here. Unlike tourists to our fair city with their cameras and shorts on thinking that it’s warm in California, immigrants don’t want to stand out. People don’t like to be labeled as immigrants. Immigrants and strangers in a different land don’t want to be noticed or seen with the fear of being persecuted, ridiculed or being deported if they are illegally here.
My father who came to America in 1930 and worked in a Chinese laundry that his father started in Boston served in the US Army during WW II. He went to Germany and came back as a US citizen. But I think he was always treated more as an immigrant than a citizen. He never spoke perfect English. He never held a job other than ironing shirts and waiting on tables in a Chinese restaurant. But he loved the Red Sox as I do now. And maybe that’s the reason why he joined the American Legion to show that he was an American.
I was born and grew up in Boston but when I was younger and even up to the time when I was in seminary, people would ask me, “Where I was from?” They didn’t want to know that I was as much a proper Bostonian as they were. They wanted to make me say that my parents were from China—somehow I think that they felt that they have some control of the world by at least thinking that a proper Bostonian didn’t really include a Chinese-American. Being an immigrant, a foreigner, an alien in a different land has never been welcomed and we can see that this reality remains today.
Biblical Stories
The passage in Exodus 3 said that God heard the cries of the people when they were enslaved. The Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of the land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.”
The Israelites were slaves in Egypt, no rights like many immigrants today. They worked hard and long hours under the control of their taskmasters. Just like hearing the testimonies of immigrant students, domestic homecare givers, and hotel workers, they cried and were miserable.
But noticed where God was going to free the Israelites to. They will be brought up out of the land of Egypt to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and land that is already occupied by Canaanites, Hitittes, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. They will be moving to a land where other people were already there.
The point is that we are all immigrants in some way, journeying throughout life on this planet and trying to provide for our family and finding a meaningful purpose for our lives. Theologically, we are all only sojourners occupying this space for a little while and then moving on. But while we are here, we must recognize the moral and theological mandate that we must welcome the stranger, the immigrant, the alien.
In Numbers 15:14-16, preparing the people to enter the Promised Land, Moses told them that if an alien is living among you and wishes to make a burnt offering, the Lord welcomes that. And Moses said that the same law and ordinances should apply to both the Israelites and to the aliens.
In the prophets, Jeremiah warned the people to not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place. If you do this, God will then dwell with them in this place. In Ezekiel 47:21-23 when Israel was dividing up the land among the twelve tribes, he said, “So you shall divide this land among you according to the tribes of Israel. You shall allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the aliens who reside among you and have begotten children among you. They shall be to you as citizens of Israel; with you they shall be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. In whatever tribe aliens reside, there you shall assign them their inheritance, says the Lord God.”
In the Old Testament, God did not neglect or forget the immigrants, strangers, the aliens who were living among the Israelites. In fact, God recognized them with rights and an inheritance of land.
In the New Testament, the Holy Family needed to escape Roman persecution and sojourned to Egypt. Before they did that, strange visitors from the East were able to travel freely to present gifts of gold, incense and frankincense to the Christ Child. Imagined if there were tall fences, border patrol, customs and immigration stations, and airport security during Jesus’ birth, we wouldn’t have any Christmas stories to speak about.
We know that if the Good News of Jesus Christ were not for all people, we wouldn’t have most of the rest of the New Testament when the Apostle Paul was called by Christ to reach out to the Gentiles. The Gentiles were aliens and foreigners in the eyes of the Jewish people.
No Longer Strangers and Aliens
Our human limitations prevent us from always seeing everyone as friends whom we can trust. It may not be the twelve tribes of Israel, but we still live largely in our tribal groups. It’s like all the family associations we have in Chinatown. I wonder if the Eng Family Association would take me in who is a Ng?
In John 15:12-17, Jesus said, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants or slaves any longer, because the servant or slave does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.” If we claim to be religious leaders of our community, we hear Jesus commands for us to love one another including our new friends.
Befriending God
One of the things that I am often perplexed about is what to do when someone comes into our church asking for a hand out. I know that the recommended policy is to give no money—no cash but care. While that may be the policy of our city and probably should be our churches, I am convicted by Matthews 25. On that Day of Judgment, Christ will ask me when did I give him food when he was hungry, drink when he was thirsty, a stranger and I welcomed him, when did I give him clothing when he was naked, when did I cared for him when he was sick, and when did I visited the prison when he was in jail. Jesus told us that when we do these things to the least of these who are members of his family, we would have done them to him.
And finally in Hebrews 13:1-2, the writer said, “Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”
While all of our plates are awfully full of important things to do, I am here like you because biblically and theologically, our religious communities need to advocate for the rights and fair treatment of immigrants, foreigners, and aliens. We are called to listen to the voices of those crying out for God’s shalom and to compassionately respond.
Now as one who has lived in America all my life and especially living in the Bay Area, I am rarely asked, “Where am I really from?” But that does not mean that we have no problems. As long as people from other parts of the world are coming here like my father and grandfather did many years ago to find new opportunities and to have a better life, we are in the best position to advocate for the rights and fair treatment of immigrants, foreigners, and aliens. We hear the cries of the people and we believe that there’s a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey for all of God’s children to enjoy.