Tag Archives: Immigrants

Showing Hospitality to Strangers: A Communion Liturgy

27 Tuesday Aug 2019

Posted by in Liturgy, Pop

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This communion liturgy was written for a Sunday in which we were featuring the musical The Sound of Music.  I was preaching on welcoming the stranger and caring for immigrants and refugees.  Scriptures included that morning were of the Holy Family’s escape to Egypt as found in Matthew 2, Hebrews 13:2, and the Leviticus 19 text in which we are given the following command:

“When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” 

SERVICE OF COMMUNION

Invitation
One: God be with you,
Many: And also with you.
One: Open wide your hearts!
Many: We open them up to God.
One: Let us give thanks for this time and space,
Many: Giving praise to God for this meal we will share.

Prayer
One: We are surrounded by a world of hunger and hurt.  We are surrounded by injustices, loneliness, illnesses, and hate.  Yet through you, God, we know a different story.  

Our sacred story tells us of many times when our ancestors dined with the Divine. When the Israelites left Egypt, they escaped with little resources.  As refugees, they moved into the wilderness. In their exile, God rained sacred sustaining bread from heaven.  

Our sacred story tells us of times when our ancestors dined with those who hungered.  When Abraham was approached by three strangers, he offered them bread to rebuild their bodies and refresh their souls.

Our sacred story tells us that when sojourners listening to the teachings of Jesus became hungry, Jesus gathered loaves and fish, ultimately providing enough for all in attendance with twelve additional baskets to share.

Our sacred story tells us that on the night before Jesus died, as he and his friends gathered in a room, Jesus clenched a loaf of bread.  He broke the loaf and said “do this in remembrance of me.”  And after supper, as the night grew long, Jesus took a cup.  As he blessed its contents, he exclaimed “Drink in remembrance of me.”

And our sacred story tells us that two of the disciples were on their way to Emmaus and came upon a stranger on the journey.  In a spirit of hospitality, they invited him to stay. As their new friend broke the bread, they were able to see the Christ.

Our table extends beyond this time and space: to food pantries, to community meals, to dinners shared with home-bound friends, and to coffee shared with friends who grieve.  When two or three are gathered, the Christ is present. As scriptures detail, in showing hospitality to strangers, we entertain the angels in our midst. As we have experienced, while sharing bread and cup, we have encountered angels among us.

May the Spirit of God encircle these gifts with love.  May the Spirit of God bless these gifts and, in doing so, bless the connections between all here and all in our hearts.  May the Spirit of God bless the widows and spouseless ones, children without parents and children from foreign lands, the last and first, the poor in spirit and the ones who hunger and thirst for righteousness.  May all of your children in each space on our earth feel your love and experience the winds of your righteousness. Amen.

Distribution of Elements

PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING

We celebrate our gratitude, Divine Companion.  As this spiritual meal has nourished us, inspire us to feed our neighbors and journey with the lonely.  Through our co-creation together, may we spread love throughout our world and extend your hospitality to people in need.  Amen.

(c) Rev. Michelle L. Torigian.  Free to use with attribution.

Art and Life in Step: The Handmaid and the Refugee Parent

20 Wednesday Jun 2018

Posted by in Current Events, Pop, Pop Culture, Social Justice, Television

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This post contains spoilers for The Handmaid’s Tale, season 2, episode 10.

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I can’t imagine a more apropos episode of The Handmaid’s Tale for today.

Earlier today, I saw the following Instagram from Elizabeth Moss:

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I had a feeling I knew where this episode was going…

After some very brutal scenes earlier in the episode that needs a trigger warning, the last 1/3 of the show presents us with a familiar storyline. June/Offred is granted the opportunity to visit her daughter Hannah and spend a few rare moments with her child. As we see earlier in the series, the child was kidnapped from her parents and June was forced into sexual and surrogate slavery.

The conversation is heartbreaking. As their visit continues, the child asks her (former) mother why she didn’t try hard enough to look for her. She hides behind the Martha as she is so unfamiliar with the woman that gave birth to her and raised her for the early years of her life. Hannah screams out for her mother as people pry the child out of the mother’s arms at the end of their short visit. The two do not know whether or not they will see each other again.

So this is just another dystopian series, right?

Or is this too real?

What we see in this episode and hear on the news are eerily similar: children being ripped from the arms and lives of their parents.

(As they filmed the episode, I highly doubt they knew this episode would be airing this week of all weeks.)

Like what is going on today, the party who very much wants to push a pro-family platform destroys families that cross their path.  Children are ripped from the lives of their parents, undoubtedly crying themselves to sleep as they abide in a world of uncertainty.

Some people believe it’s part of God’s plan or divine intervention that such horrific moves are made. They want us to follow they demands of the government instead of God’s ethics. And yet, as they continue to believe they are the good guys, our world becomes like Canada in The Handmaid’s Tale: seeing a humanitarian crisis unfold.

Like some posts I’ve seen online this week, leaders in the Bible who separated children from their parents were not the “good guys.” Rather, they were Pharaoh and Herod. They were notorious not only for taking children away but killing them as well.

I don’t think any “Good Christian” wants to identify with the two of them. But here our Jesus-professing leaders are- following in their footsteps.

Dystopia is a breath away from us right now, America. When children and parents are ripped apart from one another, and the children are kept in cages, not allowed to be picked by adults, and may never see their parents again, the distopian nightmare is real.

You may read this and say the refugees have broken the law. But they came here because their living conditions were so unstable and dangerous. And we turn our backs on them. We’ve been told over and over in Scripture that we are to care for the orphan, widow, and alien/stranger, and we ignore the many Biblical texts that give us this mandate. No matter what the law says or what the powers-that-be want the law to look like, Jesus was (1) a refugee and (2) a law breaker as he healed on the sabbath. Our powers-that-be wish to forget this.

I encourage each of you to watch the last 1/3 of the episode. Hear the screams between mother and child. Watch the tears swelling in their eyes. This is not fiction. This is not dystopia. This is America in 2018.