DEI Immigrant

 How many species of ants can we name? When I was in South Dakota, I was listening to South Dakota Public Radio about native grasslands. The state flower, prairie rose, can only grow on native grasslands. With the rise of CAFO farms (basically factories for livestock) makes the demand for more corn and soybeans causing farmers to dig up the grasslands to get feed them. Seventy percent of soybeans and corn grown around the world is used to feed commercial livestock. While this is going on, there are many people and organizations trying to keep native grasslands that were left and how to restore them that have been plowed up. The person studying this discovered something peculiar, the litmus test that he found was that if the prairie has eighteen to twenty-four species of ants, it was healthy. How many did we name? (5-7) I didn't know there would be more than a dozen. This shows God's plan to be fully healthy is diversity. 

Professor Amy Jill Levine, a Jewish New Testament scholar, says that this story of the Good Samaritan has been used to stereotype the Jewish people in unfair ways. Most interpreters will say because of Kosher laws they were forbidden to help or risk touching a dead body, which is wrong. I think that Jesus is really using the priest and the Levite as two-dimensional props that we are NOT supposed to think too hard about why they didn't help. In the community that Jesus is sharing this story, everyone expects these two to help and do their religious duty to love their neighbor. It is a shock that Jesus uses the Samaritan as the one who is the rescuer. Samaritans, in that time, were stereotyped by the Jews as not good people.  They didn't come to Jerusalem and the Temple so didn't practice a kosher religion. They were stereotyped to be dumber, more violent, and just not as worth much. For Jesus to lift up this dirty hick Samaritan as a follower of God, would elicit surprise and even laughter at the thought of them doing better than us. By the way, there is still a Samaritan community that lives today. 

What has been shown over and over again, diversity makes the whole stronger. Whether in nature,  in communities, or in nations, monocultures are a sign of death, not life. The pastor retired dairy farmer, Vern Bader, quipped, "The only cell in the body that wants to turn all others cells into its image is cancer." We should not try to make everyone like us, think like us, or believe like us. 

We are richly blessed, amazingly lucky to be alive in this world. Our choir directory, Ann Russ, right now is down in Costa Rica probably seeing dozens upon dozens, if not hundreds of different types of birds. There is a musician, Jacob Collier, who not just sings the 12 notes of the scale, but can harmonize with the half-notes and quarter notes, using 48 notes in his music and compositions. And there is a God. The one who created humankind in their image. God, who spoke and maybe sang the world into being. Creating so many species that we are still discovering, after 300 years of exploring and categorizing all sorts of plants, animals, fish, fungi, and birds, we are still seeing the diversity, the grandeur, and the awesomeness of God through the wonders of their creation. Jesus, who came to proclaim the kingdom of heaven, to bring good news to the poor, has stated, "Anyone who loves the other is my brother or sister, a sibling and a friend." 

In this time, in such a time as this, we need to remind our government representatives that we all are children of God, we all need to be treated with respect, and laws are to help protect people, not prosecute and persecute them. In our Fanning the Flame, our weekly MailChimp, under our Just Peace section, there is a message that you can send to our representatives that tells our government that immigrants are not the enemy. Let us keep striving for justice for all, doing our part to bring God's kingdom and kindom into this world.