“What if, instead of viewing immigrants as burdens and drains on our society and its resources, we would choose to see them as gifts to us? What if God means to use immigrants to enrich our lives? Or refine our faith? What if God means to bless us through Christian immigrants by teaching us more fully who He is through them? Can we also enrich and bless the lives of immigrants in our midst?”

“Compassion for the poor and marginalized is more important than efficiency, and is more important than profit ... The Bible affirms that in a Godly society, the people in the margins should be cared for.” 

Sermon preached at Saint Mo's Church.

“Are we moving from a mentality of bread crumb mercy to bold and abundant mercy for all? Is the power of this Kingdom merciful enough to mend the family of God? Have we forgotten that we are familia? If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the fear of the other is the end of mercy. And faith without mercy is dead.”  

“In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the world that wherever one of the little ones is rejected – whether the hungry is left unfed or the prisoner unvisited or the stranger unwelcomed — he takes it personally. Whenever we ignore or turn away those in need, we hurt Jesus. And in the end, that hurts us all. We often pass by the hungry, forget the prisoner, and reject the stranger — hurting ourselves and others in the process.” 

“God desires mercy, and mercy requires action. Mercy requires that we see the humanity of others, and also recognize our own humanity. Mercy sees the true need and seeks restoration. And in order to give mercy, it must flow of our own awareness of how we have received mercy so abundantly.”  

Note: The audio quality for this sermon is poor. Please turn up the volume in the device that you use to listen to the sermon to be able to hear the sermon.  

“This moral crisis is bigger than one instance, one executive order. We have to take this to the macro level. We have to see the pattern, and we have to see how it fits into the whole story. And that means we have to acknowledge the value system that created this. We have to acknowledge that segregation inspired South African apartheid. The same value system that ripped children from their homes in Africa, and that ripped children from home in the plantations, and that ripped children from their families on Indian reservations, and ripped children from their homes and put them in foster care systems, is the same system that is ripping children away from their homes by ICE.”   

Preached at the Cathedral of the Beloved. 

“We are constantly witnessing or facing difficult or oppressive situations in which we feel that we must be obedient or compliant, even though we know that these situations don’t align with God’s priorities and God’s will. This story, the story of the shrewd and faithful midwives, reminds us that our guiding principle to respond must always be God and God’s priorities. Our response can take different forms, and perhaps, in some cases, when there are risks for us, our response may require some shrewdness, and always, always must reflect our fear of God – this is our faithful alliance with God.”  

“Because in the economy of God’s grace, what appears to be leftovers, are the essence of God’s kingdom ... We will always have enough leftover, and we will always have enough to extend to others.”  

“Porque en la economía de la gracia de Dios, lo que parece ser sobras, es la esencia del Reino de Dios ... Siempre va a sobrar y va haber para otros.”

Preacher: Rev. Marcos Canales, Interpreter: Pastor Jennifer Guerra Aldana

“We acknowledge that just because something is legal, does not mean it is moral … we affirm that we answer to a higher law. We affirm our own humanity and the humanity of others as the highest law to which one person can answer ... We can say never again, never again. Never again will we stand by while human beings are put into cages. Never again will we [remain] silent while children are torn from their parents. Never again will we pretend that we don’t know that people are dying out here in these deserts trying to make their way home.”  

“What divides and differentiates— walls, boundaries, borders —also, somehow, are the very things that make love and connection possible. To adorn a wall with hearts, is to place a symbol of love, with care and deliberation, upon a symbol of separation and division. It’s to bless the place between — the meeting place, the liminal space — and to call it holy.”   

“Boaz goes out of his way, above and beyond what might have been normal or expected, to use his relative wealth, and security, and power to affirm Ruth’s dignity and value. He did this in the midst of a world that, not unlike ours today, did not always value people who were poor, or immigrants, or of a minority race, or ethnicity, or women.”  

“Engaging in this work can allow us to sow those seeds of blessing that Bach put to music, and it can help us begin to even dimly resemble that foretaste of true bliss that is present in every refugee’s story of finding a home again — including the one of Mary, Joseph, and the Christ child that we celebrate every year in the Christmas story. And it’s that true bliss that comes from a bit of heaven showing up right here on earth. When we welcome the refugee amongst us, so too do we welcome Christ to come down from heaven and dwell with us again.”  

“Not only are [the] migrants crossing the border being criminalized in ever more punitive ways, so are the people who are trying to help them. Just over a year ago, in January of 2018, nine volunteers with No More Deaths were charged with federal misdemeanors for abandonment of property — basically for littering in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. And in January 2019, Natalie Hoffman, Oona Holcomb, Madeline Huse, and Zaachila Orozco McCormick were put on trial and convicted just a few days before my visit. In March, they were sentenced to 15 months of probation and fines.”  

“Like those 70, the immigrants may come to us and say, ‘Peace be to this house.’  Seemingly with no resources – no purse, no bag, no sandals – they come to us, greeting no one on the road because they know no one here. As it was with Naaman and the Hebrew girl, so it may be with us as we pay attention to what is offered to us by ‘the least of these’, the little sisters and brothers of Christ. They may call our attention – individually and as a society – to the healing, the wholeness, the salvation that God desires for all people.”  

“There are dozens and dozens of scriptures in our Bible that talk about the love of the stranger and how we are to treat people, even people who are different from us. It’s at the beginning of the Bible, it’s at the end of the Bible, and it runs throughout the Bible ... We know that these compassionate scriptures are rooted in the experience of God’s people because God’s people were often the foreigners and the outsiders themselves.”  

“I am reading these stories through the lens of migration. Joseph’s parents, and grandparents, and great-grandparents had all been wanderers at various times in their lives. But in Joseph’s story, there are so many elements common to future human migration patterns. One that jumps out right here, is the idea that being cruel is not enough, evil also makes a profit. This echoes for me in the humanitarian crisis that is our immigration system. Our system currently criminalizes asylum seekers who cross the border. Desperate people fleeing violence, persecution and poverty are being detained by the thousands in private for-profit prisons.”  

“God crossed borders to be Emmanuel, God with us, the border between heaven and earth, human and divine, Bethlehem and Egypt, by becoming a refugee in exile through His Son. He knows that state of displacement, of homelessness, of being in danger. And it's in Jesus, our savior who crossed borders, [where] we find refuge and rest. And it's because of Jesus who crossed borders, we become people in exile, who see ourselves in solidarity with those in need of refuge and rest. And it's in Jesus' name, we offer refuge and rest to those in need.”  

“The invitation is to move into a place where you can bear witness. You can bear witness because you understand, and have discerned, and have experienced, and have reflected, and have listened to the word and the will of God that weaves through your words and weaves, and weaves through your actions, and weaves through your public witness.”  

“Jesus saw the humanity in the one the community rejected and cast away. He didn’t run from his appearance or his condition. He stopped, had compassion, and gave him the attention he needed. He didn’t question if it was acceptable, if it was convenient or right, he just set him free ... Jesus overpowered the injustice to bring justice for this man, and then told him to tell everyone what happened. Jesus not only set him free, he made sure the community saw it [and] left him to live rightfully and with dignity in his community.”  

“When we collectively decide that some people are illegal and others are legal, we divide people in ways that God never intended us to be divided. Do countries need immigration policies? Of course. But if those policies aren't looking out for the well-being of the people God so dearly loves, if those policies are based in oppression and harm, then they don’t fit with our values as Christians, as followers of Jesus.”  

“The story of the gospel is a story of an unprecedented experiment in mass forgiveness. And if that’s what saves us, then that is what we preach, and live, and practice — in our personal lives and out in the public square. We practice it by canceling debts that are owed to us, and by advocating for the cancelation of debts that oppress our brothers and sisters in poverty. We practice it by releasing grudges that we hold against church members, and friends, and family, and by dismantling bias and systemic racism, acknowledging and addressing how it lives in each one of us.”  

“Choose this day what kind of people we’ll be, Joshua says. What kind of church will we be? What kind of nation will we advocate for? Joshua encourages us to choose life. Choose to be people of justice, instead of people of exploitation. Choose to be people who value collective belonging, instead of self-sufficiency. Choose to be people who extend grace; who walk humbly; who protect the vulnerable.”  

“Literally, the Holy Spirit looks at Philip sharing space, being on the same road, and the Holy Spirit says, ‘That is not enough. You need to go stick like glue. You need to go join yourself to. You need to go share life. Get more proximate to this Ethiopian eunuch.’ ... This has radically changed my view of this story because I realize that it’s not enough, from God’s perspective, just to be just kind of close– to be in the same space, to go to the same schools, or be in the same neighborhoods. No, the Holy Spirit says you need to kalao, you need to share life. Can I just share? We are not good. Even as the church, we are not good at kalao. We need to be reminded by God to kallao more. Studies have shared that only 1 out of 10 immigrants has ever been invited into the home of a native-born U.S. citizen.” 

Sermon preached at City Life Church. 

“After Jesus’ birth, there was an active persecution against him even though he was yet a toddler. Joseph and Mary had to decide to leave a place they called home. Packed whatever they could and take off on a long journey to another town. They left family, friends, possessions, all to save the life of their child. Similarly, as we hear the stories of our immigrant siblings, as we see and hear how they travel long distances to get to the United States, we encounter the story of Jesus as a refugee.”  

Sermon starts at minute 35:17 of the video recording.

“She left Egypt as an enslaved woman, but she returned a free woman. A free woman who was transformed by God’s unveiling love ... How can we be reconciled with one another in a world where we are divided by walls, checkpoints, and by the threat of violence against those who are most vulnerable?” 

Sermon preached at Metro Hope Church.

“I don’t recall Jesus ever asking if someone had the right documents in order to receive compassion. The gospel never said that those 5,000 needed to show paperwork before getting fed. Jesus didn’t turn away lepers or demon-invested folks because they lost their wallets. And I guarantee you, Jesus does not check IDs before raising us to new life.”