Beloved in Christ –

Tuesday’s raid at an Omaha meatpacking plant by immigration enforcement officers brought an issue that’s daily in the national headlines directly to our community. As of this morning, 76 individuals who have been living and working in Nebraska, some for many years, are being kept in an unknown location after being detained. Currently, they are unable to communicate with their families and appear to be without access to legal representation. They represent a tiny portion of the many thousands of people who have been arrested and deported over the last few months.

Immigration management and border security are real and complex issues. As followers Jesus, we know it is no “solution” to turn away sisters and brothers in desperate need, to demonize particular races and cultures, or to break families apart. We can and should expect more than this shameful response from our leaders and of our nation. We cannot lose sight of Jesus’ teachings and witness, nor forget the Baptismal Covenant promises that every Episcopalian makes as an adult profession of faith. Our commitments to “seek and serve Christ in all persons” and to “respect the dignity of every human being” extend especially to people on the margins of society whom Jesus commends to our care: the poor, the sick, those persecuted and imprisoned, the outcast. Jesus teaches that every human being God places in our path is a neighbor, and that our duty as his followers is to love our neighbors as ourselves.

I hope you will pray for your neighbors this day, especially for those detained yesterday and for their families who are suffering and scared in their absence. I hope you will offer some care this day, in charitable giving or hands-on service, especially directed towards the improvement of the lives of those who’ve recently made their way to this country and this state to find safety and opportunity for themselves and their families. And I hope you become an advocate this day, working to ensure that our immigration laws are sensible and just, and that law enforcement officials do their work without unnecessary abuse or cruelty. Write your elected officials and speak out in the public square.

In one of the most memorable and sobering of his parables, Jesus identifies himself with the marginalized and imagines that the citizens of heaven came to that reward because of the way they treated him. “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in.”

Today – and always – may we do our part to love and serve the one whose name we bear.

Faithfully Yours in Christ –

+ Bishop Barker