The logic
\nof the political credo of Jesus' day would have demanded that Joseph, as a law breaker,
\nshould have surrendered Jesus to Herod for execution as an infant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nSunday School for preschoolers in the Churches of Christ in
\nthe 60s was pretty cool.\u00a0 In between the
\nKool-Aid and the cookies our teachers told us the basic stories of the Bible
\naided either by handouts with pictures of dramatic biblical scenes painted in
\nromantic nineteenth century style or by \"flannel graph\" technology which
\nconsisted of paper cut out figures of the biblical characters being stuck on a
\nfelt board at the appropriate time in the narrative.\u00a0 The paintings made a huge impression on me and
\nI can still see the artists' renditions of Cain and Abel, Samson and Delilah,
\nnot to mention Goliath or Moses and the Ten Commandments in my mind's eye.\u00a0 Once we learned to read, these dramatic
\nreenactments ceased and we had to fill out tedious workbooks, but that is a
\nblog entry for another day.\u00a0 One of the
\nmost powerful images from that era was the story from Matthew's gospel about
\nJoseph being told in a dream by an angel to flee with Mary and Jesus to Egypt
\nto escape the death sentence issued by King Herod. \u00a0Later, of course, Joseph was told he could
\nsafely return to Palestine, but all
\nof this was illegal since it violated Herod's decree.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nFast forward about forty years and I found myself teaching
\nan adult Sunday School class and the topic of illegal immigration came
\nup as we
\nwere considering one of the multitude of passages calling for God's
\npeople to
\nlove aliens and sojourners because God had taken mercy on us when our
\nancestors
\nwere such themselves.\u00a0 (\"And you are to
\nlove those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in
\nEgypt.\"\u00a0 Deuteronomy 10:18-19).\u00a0 A class member declared that
\nall undocumented
\nimmigrants in this country should be sent home since they were
\nlawbreakers.\u00a0 No biblical argument to the
\ncontrary would move this person off this thesis.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nIt struck me as very ironic that this class member would
\naffirm the orthodox Christian belief of Jesus as the Son of God, yet the logic
\nof the political credo would have demanded that Joseph, as a law breaker,
\nshould have surrendered Jesus to Herod for execution as an infant.\u00a0 No cross, no teaching, no ministry, just
\ninfanticide should have been Jesus' fate on earth.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nI am convinced Matthew included the flight to Egypt
\nby Jesus and his family to show that Jesus' own story was part of the ancient
\nstory of Israel.\u00a0 They, too, fled to Egypt,
\nsuffered persecution, were redeemed by God, and then were empowered to live
\nlives in solidarity with sojourners and aliens wherever they encountered
\nthem.\u00a0 Likewise disciples of Jesus throughout
\nhistory pick up the same ministry of solidarity with displaced people.\u00a0 Jesus was an illegal alien and that ought to
\nshape how we enter the current debate.\u00a0 But
\ntoo often political ideology clouds good theology.\u00a0 In the current debate over immigration policy
\nit distresses me to no end that so many of my fellow church goers ignore this
\nfundamental tenet that should be central to our identity.\u00a0 Instead as theological amnesiacs we insist on
\na secular law and order ideology over a biblical mandate. \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The logic of the political credo of Jesus’ day would have demanded that Joseph, as a law breaker, should have surrendered Jesus to Herod for execution as an infant.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1176,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c17-featured-writers"],"yoast_head":"\n