Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Reside in this land as an alien, and I will be with you, and will bless you; for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will fulfill the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.”
NL Daily Devotion for Saturday, September 20, 2025
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
God loves immigrants. God chose Abraham’s people—nomads—as those God would bless to become a blessing for the entire world. Yes, God promised them a land of their own—immigrants deserve to put down roots and find “home” wherever they decide to settle. No, God did not call for the genocide of the Canaanites as portrayed in the book of Joshua—the Hebrews moved gradually into the Jordan River valley over a long period and lived among the other semitic peoples there, just as the United States is an amalgamation of immigrants from all over the world. Our initial immigrants did, in fact, commit genocide of the native peoples living here—we shouldn’t forget that. And with each new wave of immigrants from other lands, those who were already here unleashed fear-driven hatred upon them—the Irish, the Italians, the Chinese. And each successive wave added the richness of their culture to the U.S. Another huge wave of “immigrants” was brought to the U.S. against their will as slaves and forced to labor for generations until finally freed in the late 19th century and they, too, have contributed beautifully to American culture. And yet now we have people who, though themselves descended from immigrants who were once reviled, insist we should reject immigrants and refugees, close our borders, and go back to some imagined “good old days” when everything was better. It’s ludicrous.
As followers of Jesus, we are called to practice radical welcome. How are we doing?
What are my attitudes and beliefs about immigrants and immigration? How does Jesus’ call to radical welcome impact these beliefs?
