god bless the immigrants
“Ruth bowed down to Boaz with her face to the ground and exclaimed, ‘Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?’ Boaz replied, ‘I’ve been told how you left your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before…May you be richly rewarded by the Lord under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” Ruth 2:10-12
In the love story of Ruth and Boaz, what drew Boaz’s attention to the Moabite woman? He asked about her immediately upon his return from Bethlehem. He saw her working in the field. Perhaps he realized that she wasn’t one of his servant girls. Was she beautiful? We don’t know. Exotic looking? Probably not. Moabites and Israelites were both Semitic peoples and bore many of the same physical characteristics.
What seemed to distinguish Ruth was how hard she worked. As a matter of fact, that is what Boaz’s foreman pointed out—this foreigner, this stranger, this alien is working as hard as any of our servants…maybe harder. She barely rests.
Furthermore, the realization that she was a foreigner made Boaz feel MORE, not less responsibility. Biblical hospitality commands welcoming, loving and protecting strangers as if they are native born. It’s a command found in Leviticus 19:33-34: “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.” Jesus reiterates this in Matthew 25:35-40 (“When I was a stranger you invited me in”)
There is a term the New Testament uses to describe love of the stranger. It is philoxenia. It’s the opposite of xenophobia, the fear of strangers. Philoxenia requires action: providing food, water and companionship to the “other” even when it is inconvenient or costly, motivated by God’s gracious inclusion of us among his people. We see the concept of philoxenia in Hebrews 13:2 (“Show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.”) and Romans 12:13 (“Take a constant interest in the needs of God’s beloved people and respond by helping them.”) Philoxenia is presented as a requirement for church leadership in Titus 1:8 (“He should be one who is known for his hospitality.”)
Conversely, the wicked are described in Psalm 37:14-15: “Evil ones take aim at the poor and helpless…But the Lord will turn all their weapons of wickedness back on themselves, piercing their pride-filled hearts until they are helpless.” Psalm 37:9-13 gives the fate of those who horde the blessings of God for themselves and those like themselves: “One day the wicked will be destroyed…But the humble of heart will inherit every promise…God laughs at the wicked for he knows their day is coming.”
In that day when the one who is wicked gets his comeuppance, I hope that I have been standing up for the humble, the poor, the stranger, the foreigner, the aliens, documented or not. I hope that I will be one to whom Jesus says, “when you cared for one of the least of these, my little ones, my true brothers and sisters, you demonstrated love for me.”
God bless the immigrants!
Love, Liz
“Love is a superpower. It teaches the brittle to bend. It shows the selfish how to share.” JB Pritzker
