Deeper understandings Immigration
Coming to terms with our faith tradition and current affairs Editor’s note: This series is intended
to be a public conversation among teach- ing theologians of the ELCA on various themes of our faith and the challenging issues of our day. It invites readers to engage in dialogue by posting comments online at the end of each article at www.
thelutheran.org. The series is edited by Michael Cooper-White, president of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg (Pa.), on behalf of the presidents of the eight ELCA seminaries.
By Jose David Rodriquez I
n the October 2014 issue of The Lutheran, ELCA missionary Ste- phen Deal wrote an article reflect-
ing on the current experience of the Salvadoran Lutheran Church, raising awareness of the motives and dangers triggering the exponential increase in the number of unaccompanied children entering the U.S. from Cen- tral America. The article represents one of the latest dimensions of the continuing challenge faced by the
Author bio: Rodriquez is
professor of global mission and world Christianity in the Augustana Heritage Chair at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. He recently was “on loan” from LSTC to serve as
rector (president) of the ecumenical ISEDET Seminary in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He drew insights from and commends to readers articles and addresses by Latina/o theologians Elsa Tamez, Luis N. Rivera Pagán and Aquiles Ernesto Martínez.
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www.thelutheran.org
U.S. given its defective immigration system. This important witness of our
Lutheran brothers and sisters in El Salvador retrieves a vital teaching of the Christian faith and our Lutheran legacy that is worth highlighting in our conversations on the topic of immigration, as well as for the com- ing celebration of the 500th anniver- sary of the Reformation in 2017. For some theologians, the notion
of migration is a common and con- stant fact in what Christians call the biblical narrative of salvation history. One can even claim that the Bible’s initial confession of faith starts with a narrative of pilgrimage and migra- tion: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien …” (Deu- teronomy 26:5). Thus, the topic of hospitality to
strangers is present from the begin- ning of the formation of the Hebrew people. The earliest Christians con- sidered themselves sojourners in the world, frequently moving from one place to another in voluntary or vio- lent migrations, often forced by pow- erful empires, scarcity or famine. In different cultures we find
migration stories prior to the forma- tion of identity as a people. The his- tory of the Aztecs begins with the story of a migration from Aztlan to Tenochtitlan, the latter being the city they established. The Exodus, that is, the flight of
the Hebrew people from Egypt, is considered the foundational ele- ment in the formation of the people of Israel. The point of departure of the exodus was the oppression, exploita-
tion and ill treatment to which the Egyptian government submitted the Hebrews. The sacred Hebrew his- tory recounts the people’s mournful outcries and how God listened and liberated them by way of the struggle led by Moses (Exodus 1-15) through a long and dangerous migration to a promised land. This narrative of slavery, migra-
tion and liberation became so impor- tant for the people of Israel in devel- oping an annual ritual of remem- brance and gratitude, the Passover. This yearly liturgical remembrance shaped the compassion of the Hebrew people for strangers and aliens, leading to the care for foreign- ers residing within Israel. Caring for the stranger became a
key element of the Torah (Leviticus 19:33 ff.), a crucial emphasis by the prophets (Ezekiel 22:7; Jeremiah 22:3, 5), and the substance of an ethics of hospitality (Job 31:32).
Foundational for theology Later on the Israelites’ sensitivity regarding the strangers, the aliens and foreigners became foundational for Christian theology. Not only does the Gospel of Matthew provide us with an episode in Jesus’ early life of com- pulsory migration, but the core of our Lord’s teachings can be described as a radical retrieval of this Hebrew per- spective on the stranger, alien and for- eigner (John 4:7-30, Luke 17:11-19, Matthew 25:31-46). Jesus’ teachings became the cor-
nerstone for his followers. In the letter to the Romans, Paul insists on the attitude of hospitality toward the stranger (Romans 12:13). In Ephe-
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