By showing love to strangers, aliens, you
might entertain angels without knowing it

1Keep on loving each other as brothers. 2Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. 3Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. —Hebrews 13:1-3 (NRSV)
33When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. 34The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God. —Leviticus 19:33-34 (NRSV)

I have just returned from a very informative and engaging workshop in El Paso on immigration issues. The workshop, titled “Embracing my Neighbor,” was sponsored by the Methodist Border Mission Network, a group of bishops, district superintendents, pastors, and laypeople who serve on both sides of the United States-Mexico border with either The United Methodist Church or The Methodist Church of Mexico.
I discovered that participants at the workshop held and expressed several different opinions concerning the complex and controversial subject of immigration. Many people attending the workshop went away with new questions and answers.
However, what seemed to receive universal agreement with the participants was the need to keep on loving each other, especially the stranger, the alien living among us. (See the Bible verses above.)
The moving reports of the tragic deaths in Arizona of those people seeking a new start in the United States, the tearful anecdotes of the financial hardships in Mexico of those women and children deported to that country, the stirring testimonies of human beings from all over desiring legal entry but receiving bureaucratic obfuscation, and the frustrated words of law enforcement officers describing the human problems of immigration as bigger than all of them—these and other stories remind us that the immigration conundrum involves not just a set of political, legal and financial issues but also real human issues.
Those arrested, those working, those waiting—each has a human face and a name. As Christians who seek to receive, incarnate and pass on God’s love as experienced in Jesus Christ, we are mandated to find ways to entertain strangers, to treat them as we would want to be treated, to love them as ourselves.
I understand that immigration laws with appropriate enforcement are necessary in our flawed world. I support the need for those laws. Yet, those laws and that enforcement need to be as humane and merciful as possible. We Christians seek that goal in all our nation’s laws and their enforcement.
So, whatever your political leanings may be, whatever candidate you are supporting, pray about the plight of those most directly affected by the immigration crisis. Work for the welfare of those who are suffering.
In your action on this difficult and complex immigration problem, as a disciple of Jesus, bestow some love upon the strangers among us. Learn their names and the names of their children. Listen to their stories. Care for them as you would want to receive care.
In that way you may find that you “entertain angels without knowing it.” You may find that your receive more from God than you give away.