When I worked in construction, I was in daily contact with individuals from Central America who had just recently arrived to find work. To my surprise, I had working on my crew a University professor, an attorney, a doctor and a businessman. What drove them to come here to do put in 12-14 hour days as laborers? The answer, a better future for their children. They were able to make much more money here as a common laborer than they could in their own profession back home. They too, had to undergo a dying to self and a resurrection with a new identity. Back home, they were respected and looked up to for their achievements. Here, they scrape the bottom of our society, suffering abuse, scorn, hatred and poor living conditions under high stress.
Our city, and nation for that matter, has a large and growing subsection that is continuously going through this metamorphosis. There is a continual dying and resurrecting that takes place incessantly throughout our communities. This is not just a move from poverty to middle class America as we would assume. It goes way beyond that. It is a move from a society that is known to one that is unknown. It is the same process that the Germans, Swedes, Irish, Italians and numerous other groups went through during their high time of immigration to the United States.
Many in our country say emphatically that people should assimilate as quickly as possible into our society. They should learn the language, learn the culture and become “American.” Everyone points to an example of a neighbor or friend who has successfully become one of us. Why can’t everyone do the same? Are they just lazy? We must remember that the process of dying and resurrection is a long and painful one that most of us would be unwilling to undergo. It means taking on a new identity, adopting norms that are foreign and often offensive and learning to speak in a way that goes against decades of training for the tongue. It means swimming through the confusing maze of U.S. culture and society without much direction. It means releasing their children into a system that they don’t understand while watching others’ children lose their way into drugs, gangs and immoral behavior. Imagine the stress placed on families that are going through this process.
What can the church do to help make this resurrection process less painful? First of all, the church can help give dignity to those who are finding their new identity. Everything in our society beats down on the immigrant and their families pay a dear price. No longer can we look at those who build our cities, clean our buildings do our dirty work as second class. No longer can we judge someone based on their ability to use proper diction. No longer can we view people who don’t live with the luxuries in light of their needs alone. We can give dignity to those around us by honoring their contribution to our society and congregations. Whatever their status, we can agree on this: they possess a fundamental dignity, and the Church meets them with open doors.
The church can also help provide what they desperately need, opportunity. While it is illegal for the church to provide work for the undocumented, we can provide training in other areas. Many immigrants miss opportunities, become unable to help their children in school and fail the test for citizenship because they don’t speak English. Providing ESL classes is a start, but it often takes someone to walk alongside, build a relationship with and motivate those who have are struggling to survive with long work hours and mounting financial pressures. People are relational beings and are motivated through relationships. The church is full of people who can provide this. Many immigrants have solid legal cases and a path to residency and citizenship, but lack the financial resources to pay for legal and INS fees. Their windows of opportunity close because they can’t make money fast enough to take advantage of the opportunity. Also, citizenship classes prepare individuals for an interview that will determine their future as US citizens. They church can host these classes and provide support to those who are preparing for their interview.
The church can also provide advocacy. While we can’t condone activity that goes against the laws of our country, we also can’t condone activity and attitudes that are contrary to our Heavenly Father’s love for all people. He made provisions in the Old Testament that protected the widows, the orphans, the poor and the immigrant from abuse. The church has a responsibility to speak for the voiceless, the abused and the downtrodden. This takes place first of all within our personal relationships and our individual spheres of influence. We can lovingly counter misconceptions and prejudices wherever we hear it being voiced within the church and society. Anything that attacks the value of human life, at any age and in any situation, should be opposed by the people of God. The church can also advocate for fair and just treatment of immigrants in society and government. We can speak up against the idea that they are “stealing our jobs” with the facts that we are using their labor to more economically build our cities and grow our crops while denying them even the most basic rights within our society. We can advocate for a more humane and civil immigration process that gives value and dignity to every human being desiring to contribute to our common pursuit of freedom and peace.
Lastly (but certainly not least), the church can provide Jesus. Jesus gave His life for “the least of these.” He died for all including sinners, lawbreakers, prostitutes, drunks and even Pharisees. His love and grace gave preference to no skin color, race, profession, status or socioeconomic class. He touched the outcast leper, communed with the biker crowd of His day, chose blue collar fisherman to be his disciples and forgave the woman caught in adultery. He spoke up for women, widows, orphans, outcast and the unclean. He brought grace into society and justified those who were outside the margins, not by simply cleaning them up on the outside and making them conform to a whitewashed culture, but by forgiving their sins and empowering them to live new lives that give testimony to His life-changing power. He rose from the dead in order that everyone might have new life if they believe in Him.
The dying and resurrecting of individuals and families everywhere throughout our country is continuously taking place. The question is not whether this will continue, but how the church will respond to this reality for the sake of the Kingdom.
