In the 1980s, Sharpstown High School welcomed a sudden influx of refugees fleeing the Communist government of Vietnam. The students showed up knowing no English and carrying a pass that entitled them to free lunches. Every day three of the loudest non-English speaking Vietnamese girls would cut the line in the lunch room to grab their free lunches. We would complain and they would scream at us in their language and it became a daily shouting match. Those of us who were born here were not sympathetic. We hated them.
“Get to the back of the line!”
“Our taxes are paying for your lunches!”
“Hey Lunch Lady, those girls cut the line again, like they always do! When are you going to do something about it?”
Of course, those three did not represent the norm. Most of the refugee kids were quiet and kept to themselves. And the truth is, our scorn was probably the reason those girls were so brazen. They refused to cower or to shamed in any way. Deep down, I knew it had to be so hard. I hated studying Spanish; I could not imagine suddenly having to live in Mexico and go to a Mexican school.
What does God require? COMPASSION.
“You must not exploit a foreign resident or oppress him, because YOU WERE FOREIGNERS IN THE LAND OF EGYPT” Exodus 22:21.
Statements like this one are repeated over and over: see Exodus 23:9, Leviticus 19:33, Deuteronomy 10:19, 23:8, 24:17. The Israelites were foreigners in Egypt for 400 years! Why so long? Perhaps part of the reason was to emphasize the importance of compassion. God expects us to be kind to the foreigner. As Christians, we know what it’s like to be a foreigner in a foreign land. We often do not fit in, surrounded as we are by people who view the world differently. We are foreigners too: we must have compassion.
God, give us patience, compassion, and love for the foreigners around us, for the poor, the disenfranchised, the oppressed, the outsiders. May we forget the politics and see them as people for whom Christ died.
ΑΩ