Taking Sides And Non-Cooperation

During last year’s presidential campaign, the issue of immigration was once again brought into the spotlight, and with the new administration we have witnessed a massive surge of ICE enforcement, increased border security, large-scale (and public) deportation as well as a lot of anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Right here in Rochester we have seen our share of ICE activity, and because we have declared ourselves a “Sanctuary City” we have found ourselves in the crosshairs of this administration for increased enforcement.

What strikes me as strange, however, is that many of the people behind the policies and enforcement – including at the highest levels of leadership – claim the Christian tradition as their own. And part of that tradition includes the Hebrew scriptures.

In Deuteronomy 10 which we read from today, the message could not be clearer. “For the LORD, your God, is…mighty and awesome, who has no favorites, accepts no bribes; who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and befriends the alien (also translated as outsider, foreigner and immigrant), feeding and clothing them. So you too must befriend the alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.”

In fact, in the Hebrew scriptures, “welcoming” and caring for the alien is mentioned over 50 times in one form or another. And in the Christian scriptures, Jesus clearly picks up this message in Mt. 25 when he says (on behalf of God), “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”

Not tolerated me. Not treated me as a second class citizen. Not made me jump through a bunch of hoops to try to belong here.

It says “welcomed me”.

What would it look like to “welcome” the stranger in ths country? What would our policies look like? What public statements would we be making?

So if people are claiming to be followers of the way of Jesus, yet rejecting this fundamental teaching, they are certainly not representing what the tradition puts forth because the tradition is quite clear. Their agenda comes from somewhere else.

Of course there’s a lot to be said on such a complex issue as immigration, but this text from Deuteronomy 10 puts forth a foundational idea that “no one is illegal” and everyone deserves respect and dignity – no matter where they are from. THAT is our biblical mandate.

The great theologian Karl Barth once said, “We must hold the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” (Of course he said that before social media was invented so substitute whatever news source you read in the place of newspaper…). But what he meant is that our theology must be influenced by what is happening in the world. BUT our praxis in the world must also be informed by what our scriptural tradition says.

We have another example of that in our gospel. In Matthew 17 Jesus is being questioned about paying the temple tax (this story only appears in Matthew, by the way, so it probably represents a bit of an ‘internal’ conversation among Jewish followers of Jesus). The temple tax was a contribution expected from Jews to keep up the temple of Jerusalem (although the tax may have been used for other purposes as well).  Some of the temple leadership ask Peter, “Does not your teacher pay the temple tax?” “Yes,” he said. But when Jesus gets Peter alone he asks him, “From whom do the kings of the earth take tolls or census tax? From their subjects or from foreigners?” When he said, “From foreigners,” Jesus said to him, “Then the subjects are exempt, right?” Peter agrees.

Of course Jesus is raising the idea that no one is outside of God’s kin-dom (regardless of how the world or the temple defines it) and that we are ALL the children of God and thus should not be subjected to unjust taxation which will be used by the temple or the state to make sure that they are well (and the people are not cared for properly). Back then and now, systems of taxation tended to siphon money from the most vulnerable and lowest economic classes and transfer it to the pockets of the wealthy and powerful.

Jesus, however, decides not to cause a scandal, and tells Peter to go and catch a fish and in that fish will be coins through which Peter can pay the tax. It’s kind of magical story.

While it can seem like a miraculous and folksy tale, there’s a bit going on here.

It’s clear that in the gospel, Jesus has a lot of resistance to paying taxes – whether to the temple or to the state. He has serious critiques as to HOW those taxes come about and WHAT they are used for. He also frames taxes as being imposed by the “kings of the earth.” 

My guess is that when Jesus looked at the temple tax, he did not see the money being used in a way that was consistent with the kin-dom of God. He probably did not see it even doing what was suggested in Deuteronomy 10 – caring for the widows, orphans and aliens. The taxes were likely propping up an institution that had adopted many of the economic and political practices of Rome, and the temple elite were the main beneficiaries. And maybe not unlike in our modern era, it’s often hard to tell the difference between a house of worship and a business because they frequently operate in the same way!

So Jesus finds a way to “comply” without supporting. He is using a form of non-cooperation that might get us thinking about what we can do when we do not want to support unjust systems that make demands of us.

Are there creative alternatives that we can engage? Are there work arounds that keep us within the law but limit our participation? Are there ways that we can speak our truth to the powers that be and call them back to being institutions that serve people (and not the other way around)?

Taken together I think our readings today invite us to acknowledge that our faith tradition often “takes sides” and invites us to align with those on the margins (and that this has political implications for policy decisions). Furthermore, our tradition offers us many examples – especially from Jesus – of non-cooperation and establishing alternatives to the institutions of the world – alternatives that align more closely with a vision for God’s kin-dom here in our midst.