Dunbar United Church of Christ - May 2, 2010

I. I’m glad Jesus doesn’t live in Arizona -- because if he did, with his brown skin and dark hair -- they’d deport him to Mexico in no time. The people of Arizona won’t tolerate foreigners, even Jesus.

II. What do you think about that law? Police can stop anybody who doesn’t look “American” -- which in Arizona is anyone who isn’t white. When I lived in San Diego I went to Mexico with my friend Brad when we came home and stopped at the border, an officer asked me for an ID. I said, “Sure.” Then I pointed to Brad and said, “Why aren’t you asking him?” The officer said, “Because he looks American.” That was in 1983.

This is ironic because, at one time, even the people guarding our borders came from “foreign” families? None of our ancestors came from here. Yet somehow, over time, some people got the idea that this is “their” country. I can’t stand hearing the tea party people crying, “I want my country back.” It was NEVER their country! Listen to God’s guitar-playing prophet Woodie Gutherie: “This land is your land, this land is my land, from California, to the New York Island....” Yes -- God made this land for you and me. It’s not my country -- it’s ours.

III. Do Christians live in Arizona? Don’t they know that this law would have the Lord they worship arrested! This is the ugly side of human nature, and it’s in all of us. So we pray that Jesus will save us from the sick and demonic parts of ourselves that can’t live with a brother or sister who is different, or not “legal.” And Jesus can help us because he’s a healer and an exorcist. And he knew what it was like to be called “illegal.”

IV. John Newton said only God’s amazing grace can save us. We need to be saved from the wretchedness that makes us think somehow we’re entitled to the comfort and security we have, and others aren’t. According to the Bible, everything we have is a gift -- none of us earned this life we have.

V. So if there is any justice in heaven, we will return here in another life as a child born in a ghetto, with no way out, or as a Mexican in America with police chasing us because our neighbor has turned us in. Or we will come back as a slave, chained to the bottom of a slave galley. If we survive the torture of that journey, we will have to endure our masters selling us like livestock -- breaking up our family, taking our children.

If there is any justice, we will come back and learn what it’s like to be one of the poor people of this world, dependent on the kindness of others for our survival. And we will keep coming back until our hearts are so broken, we will finally be able to feel the pain of other people. Then we will be saved -- that is salvation.

VI. May God break us until we desire happiness for every human being on this earth. One day, we will be merciful -- we will be kind -- even if we have to die a thousand times to get there.

God told Peter, in a dream, that all the food he created is good, and that all people must be treated with respect and love. Every one, good and bad, without exception.