From Xenophobia To Xenophilia: Witnessing to God’s presence in the Migrant Introduction

Psalm 90; Isaiah 1:24-31; Luke 11:29-32

Today we live in a world where people from all countries experience the need for resettlement. For some, migration stands for an opportunity to find a better life beyond their country of origin. For others, it becomes a desperate need to leave oppressive conditions of warfare, or despotic governments. Yet there are still those for whom migrants become a fearful threat that needs to be confronted and eradicated. 

For years, the immigration policy of the United States has been of critical concern for North American society. While there have been attempts to improve this program by representatives of the United States Congress, there have been few and inadequate efforts to resolve it.[1] The dilemma lies in the fact that for politicians, this issue has become a weapon to discredit opponents, instead of an opportunity to strive for a collective approach to include all interested parties, embracing migrants themselves, to settle it.

The dilemma lies in the fact that for politicians, this issue has become a weapon to discredit opponents, instead of an opportunity to strive for a collective approach to include all interested parties, embracing migrants themselves, to settle it.

The lectionary readings for this 1^st mid-week of Advent can help us address this challenge. In Psalm 90 we find that knowledge of God’s judgment upon humankind is a source for encouragement and hope. The crisis experienced by the post-exilic people of God portrayed in this psalm becomes a type of response to the problem of exile articulated at the end of Psalm 89. God, the Creator — the one who was before there was a creation — has offered God’s people refuge throughout generations. God has been present with God’s people and has served as an unfailing and forceful protector. YHWH, our creator and redeemer, is the one who provides hope for the renewal of life characterized by sorrow and misfortune.

In the book of Isaiah, we find an indictment on the people of God. Yet this denunciation is proclaimed with an expression of hope, for the present unfaithful condition of God’s people is contrasted with a future time when their righteousness will be restored. To be sure, their present faithless condition claims the prospect of divine judgement. But this sentence is connected with the divine purpose to restore their previous condition of righteousness that will lead to a restoration of justice as perhaps with an allusion to the growing tradition of the idyllic reigns of David and Solomon.[2]

The gospel of Luke reaffirms this belief by making a contrast between the people of Ninive and those following Jesus. If for the former Jonah was given as a warning for their need of conversion, those following Jesus are offered God’s very own presence in the Messiah of Nazareth calling them to a faithful vocation. At the time of the final judgement those people of Ninive following Jonahs’ calling will stand before others as an example of the faithful remnant. Whereas those following Jesus’ teachings will shine with their faith among those whose sinful condition led them ashtray to lament and compunction.

As we look back to the continuing debates about migration, let’s try to clarify the core of this biblical message as a tool to address this vital social challenge. The biblical readings for this year’s first mid-week of Advent challenge us to consider that for God’s people in ancient Israel, or those following the teachings of Jesus, this message became a powerful and important foundation to address this and other important queries. While these Scripture teachings have been interpreted in a variety of ways by academic and church leaders, this time around I invite you to consider another important partner in dialogue missing in previous analysis of these teachings: biblical migrants themselves.

While these Scripture teachings have been interpreted in a variety of ways by academic and church leaders, this time around I invite you to consider another important partner in dialogue missing in previous analysis of these teachings: biblical migrants themselves.

In one of his relatively recent books, the Puerto Rican theologian and historian Luis N. Rivera Pagán reminds us that the first confession of faith in the Bible starts with a story of pilgrimage and migration:[3]

A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with sounds of wonder; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. (Deuteronomy 26:5-9).[4]

This history of migration, slavery and liberation was so important for the people of Israel that it became the center of an annual liturgical celebration of remembrance and gratitude.[5]

In the Gospel of Matthew, the opening book of the New Testament,[6] we find the story of the holy family’s flight to Egypt. This migration journey was led by divine guidance through dreams and angels, to protect Jesus’ life from the infuriated king Herod, who learned from the “Wise Men” the birth of the long-time expected Messiah for God’s people.[7] Fleeing from Herod into exile in Egypt, Mary, Joseph and Jesus learned to be aliens in a dominant xenophobic culture.

Fleeing from Herod into exile in Egypt, Mary, Joseph and Jesus learned to be aliens in a dominant xenophobic culture.

For Rivera Pagán, a faithful effort in tackling the issue of migration from a Christian perspective is by establishing a difference between xenophobia and xenophilia. The former describes the fear and despise of anything considered foreign (whether people or cultures) establishing a threat to one’s identity.[8] The latter designates the opposite, the love and concern for the stranger.[9]

For Rivera Pagán, a faithful effort in tackling the issue of migration from a Christian perspective is by establishing a difference between xenophobia and xenophilia.

The tormented experience of God’s people in Egypt became so troubled, that the concern for the stranger was conceived as a key element of the Torah establishing a covenant of Justice and Righteousness between YHWH and Israel.[10]  The prophets constantly rebuke the elites of Israel and Judah for their social injustice and their oppression of vulnerable populations: the poor, widows, orphans, and strangers.[11]

However, the divine order to love the foreigner derives from another important foundation: God’s way of being and acting in history. Solidarity with the marginalized and excluded corresponds directly to God’s being and action in history.[12]

However, the divine order to love the foreigner derives from another important foundation: God’s way of being and acting in history. Solidarity with the marginalized and excluded corresponds directly to God’s being and action in history.

This being and action of God in history was specifically expressed in the life and ministry of Jesus in relation to the despised Samaritans, and in his dramatic and startling eschatological parable about true discipleship and true faithfulness.[13]

For the migrant people of God, as for Christ Jesus and his parents who suffered the experience of migration to Egypt, the dreadful experience of xenophobia was transformed by the promise and power of God.

The lectionary readings for today’s Advent celebration reminds us that, in spite of our past and present faithless witness to support the migrant, God’s gracious being and action in history provides hope and encouragement to transform xenophobia into xenophilia. For the migrant people of God, as for Christ Jesus and his parents who suffered the experience of migration to Egypt, the dreadful experience of xenophobia was transformed by the promise and power of God. This remarkable news is what God’s people in the past, present and future celebrate as the promise of the Gospel. As we prepare to rejoice once again with the birth of Christ Jesus during the upcoming season of Christmas, let this period of Advent become a time of active planning for a witness of faith that may address more faithfully our responsibility to the migrant.       

[1] See, https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/us-immigration-debate-0. Consulted on September 30, 2024.

[2] See, The Interpreter’s One Volume Commentary on the Bible ((Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1971), 332-33.

[3] Luis N. Rivera Pagán, Evocaciones literarias y sociales (San Juan, Puerto Rico: Publicaciones Gaviota, 2018) 315.

[4] The Peoples’ Bible: New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha (Minneapolis: Fortress Press,209), 328.

[5] See, Rivera Pagán, Evocaciones literarias y sociales, 316.

[6] The Gospel of Matthew was considered the first gospel written since the end of the second century, when the formation of the Christian cannon began. Now, for most biblical scholars, that place belongs to the Gospel of Mark. See Leticia A. Guardiola-Sáenz, “The Gospel According to Matthew,” in The Peoples’ Companion to the Bible, edited by Curtiss Paul DeYoung, Wilda C. Gafney, Leticia A. Guardiola-Sáenz, George “Tink” Tinker, and Frank Yamada (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2010), 240.

[7] The Peoples’ Bible, 1414-1415.

[8] See, Rivera Pagán, Evocaciones literarias y sociales, 317. See, https://www.britanica.com/science/xenophobia. Consulted on 9/30/2024.

[9] See, https://cct.biola.edu/xenophilia-praying-and-working-hospitality/. Consulted on 9/30/2024.

[10] See, Rivera Pagán, Evocaciones literarias y sociales, 319. See also, Exodus 23:9, Leviticus 19:33 ff, Deuteronomy 24:14, 17-18)

[11] See, Rivera Pagán, Evocaciones literarias y sociales, 319. See also, Ezequiel 22:6ff, Jeremiah 7:6, 22:3,5.

[12] See, Rivera Pagán, Evocaciones literarias y sociales, 320-21. See also, Deuteronomy 10:18, Psalm 146:9, Malachi 3:5). 

[13] See, See, Rivera Pagán, Evocaciones literarias y sociales, 323-24. Se also, Luke 10:29-37, Luke 17:11-19, John 4:7-30 and Matthew 25:31-46.

Born in the city of Fajardo, Puerto Rico José David Rodríguez was ordained in 1975 to the ministery of Word and Sacraments in the Caribbean Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, He served congregations in Puerto Rico and Chicago; held visiting appointments at the Seminario Evangelico de Puerto Rico and the Comunidad Teologica de Mexico, and was an adjunct faculty member at Elmhurst College, Elmhurst, Ill., and Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, Lombard, Ill., before joining the Lutheran School of Theology faculty in 1990. His service to the church includes membership on a number of boards, including the editorial board of the Journal of Hispanic/Latino Theology, andeditor of the online journal Fe en Acción. He was co-chair and planner of the first meeting of Hispanic-Latina theologians and ethicists held at Princeton Theological Seminary. He is also member of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT). From 1997 to 2001 he was coordinator of EATWOT’s U.S. Minorities Region. Rodríguez is the author of several books and numerous articles, including Caribbean Lutherans (Fortress Press), La Vocación (Abingdon Press) Romanos, the latter with David Cortés Fuentes, (Augsburg Fortress), as well as Martín Lutero descalzo with Carmen Rodríguez (Editora Centenario: República Dominicana). He received a BA from Universidad de Puerto Rico in the area of Philosophy (with honors). He earned Master of Divinity, Master of Theology and Doctor of Theology degrees at LSTC. He also completed the requirements for a PhD in History at the University of the West Indies (Jamaica).