If you have ever traveled to a foreign land, you have experienced the very real confusion that accompanies visiting another culture in which many of the rules and norms differ from those you didn’t know you held dear until they were absent. If you did not speak the language, your discomfort was even more acute.
For immigrants this disorientation is amplified by knowledge that their move to a new country is permanent. Many emigrate from countries characterized by dire poverty, crime, war, and oppression. Most experience the regret of leaving loved ones behind.
Leviticus 19:34 says: “You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt….”
How should we follow this directive? The complex process of immigration to the U.S. offers many opportunities to help immigrants. The command to treat the immigrant “as a native among you” is, however, fulfilled in a direct, legal sense when he or she is naturalized as a U.S. citizen with the requisite rights and responsibilities. A small team of Incarnation members has been working to help citizenship candidates prepare for the naturalization exam and interview.
One of our students, when asked why she wants to become a citizen, teared up as she described how the Taliban has stopped her sister, who aspired to attend college and become a diplomat, from receiving any more education. Her elderly mother is frail. Leaving home for food or medical attention is risky. She wishes to bring them to the United States and hopes that achieving her citizenship will help.
Each of these immigrants, who are beloved by God, has a unique story and reasons for coming to this country. Eligibility for naturalization requires them to hold permanent resident status for at least five years, so candidates have experienced the benefits and challenges of life here—and they all want to stay and participate fully.
For most, however, the naturalization interview and exams are intimidating. Imagine success in this important process depending on your ability to write a sentence dictated to you by an immigration officer when in your first language the characters represent entire words rather than individual sounds! What if you never learned to read in any language?
Incarnation’s program has evolved from a classroom-style approach to a tutoring model that allows each instructor to work with one or two students at a time, focusing on the aspects of the process that are most helpful. We focus on the interview (which not only requires skill in English, but also defining vocabulary that is rarely used in day-to-day conversation), the reading and writing tests, and the civics exam. We’re demystifying the process and helping build the confidence candidates need to represent themselves well in this official encounter.
Most importantly, we’re showing the immigrants we care. Our commitment of time, investment in their success, and empathy with their struggles say more about the God we obey and His call to active love for our neighbor than words ever could. The work is rewarding, unpredictable, and, at times, frustrating.
At one point, we considered ending the program and finding a different ministry. But God surprised us by bringing students even though we did not publicize the program. So, we ask for your prayers that God will continue to bless and guide this ministry. If you would like to know more, talk to me after church or email us at outreach@incarnationrichmond.org!
Chris Wilson
Scripture Reflections
For the last three Sundays, our Gospel readings have come from Matthew 13, which is the third of five great “discourses” in Matthew. In each of these discourses, Jesus teaches on a particular topic. As an itinerant teacher, Jesus gave way more than five extended sermons (read the Gospel of John for some that Matthew leaves out), but Matthew only records five, because he wants us to see Jesus as the new and greater Moses, and Moses wrote five books.
This third discourse, which is made up entirely of parables, is about the kingdom of God. It answers the questions, “Why aren’t more people responding to the kingdom of God, and what will God do about it?” Jesus had been announcing the kingdom of God and demonstrating it by healing and delivering people, and yet, strangely, most people rejected the message. The disciples must have been struggling with a sense of failure, and so Jesus tells them a string of parables to explain what is happening. The soils, the wheat and tares, the mustard seed, the leaven, the hidden treasure, the pearl of great value, and the dragnet all answer the questions, “Why is the kingdom so small? Why are people walking away from it? Will it ever grow? What will God do about the people who are working against it?”
In a simple sense, all of these parables call for the disciples to have patience—not the patience that comes from resignation or despair, but instead the patience that springs from hope and faith. The kingdom looks small? Have patience; it grows slowly but will become huge! Some people are fighting against the kingdom? Have patience; God will sort things out in the judgment. The kingdom is tiny and overlooked? Have patience; pearls are like that, even though they are worth more than everything you own!
We need this sort of patience when we examine our own lives. Each Christian is a microcosm of the kingdom of God. Parts of our lives are like the bad soil, the weeds in a field of wheat, a piece of as-of-yet unleavened bread. We wonder when we will be fully committed, fully transformed, fully cleaned out. Just as he said to his disciples, through these parables Jesus says to us, “Have patience. The yeast of the Gospel will leaven the whole of your life in due time. The seed will grow. The tares will be torn out and thrown away. The good soil will bear fruit.”
As you are made aware of the places where your faith is weak, your obedience clumsy and half-hearted, and your heart still impure, have patience! But again, not the sort of patience that springs from resignation, but instead the patience that comes from expecting God to continue working out his kingdom in your life as you submit to him.
In Christ,
Steven+
Scripture Reflections
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Rom. 8:22-23)
There is so much in these two sentences! The picture of childbirth is a beautiful analogy for the sufferings of this present time, because it demonstrates that they are leading somewhere glorious. Suffering isn’t meaningless, and even though it is a product of sin, God is using it to bring into being—like a birth—something new and glorious. This new and glorious thing, which was described as the “revealing of the sons of God” (v. 19) is now described as our adoption and the redemption of our bodies. Some transformation is coming, when who we are—the sons and daughters of God—will be made evident to all of creation by what happens to us physically.
The guarantee for this is the gift of the Spirit. Everyone who has the Spirit will receive this adoption, and it is the presence of the Spirit in our lives that enables us to long for the redemption to come. But Paul says that we have only received the firstfruits of the Spirit!
Firstfruits are the initial moment of a harvest, like that early tomato that comes a few weeks before the others, or the pepper that pops out way too soon. (You can tell my favorite plants in the garden…) Firstfruits are something to rejoice over, because they are a gift in and of themselves, but also because they testify of what is to come. That first pepper is a delight, but it also creates the joyous expectation of what is to follow.
This is what the gift of the Spirit is now. Every bit of this initial firstfruit is a delight and a treasure, but it is only the beginning. Whatever you have experienced of the Spirit to this point is tiny compared to what will come! There will come a moment when the whole harvest arrives, and the overwhelming joy and strength of the Spirit will flood through us and overwhelm us. Everything will be transformed in that moment—all sadness and fear removed, all guilt and shame washed away, all bad habits and harmful patterns of the mind eradicated. We will receive, measure upon measure, overflowing and overwhelming, the life of God through the presence of the full harvest of the Spirit!
As you encounter the moments in life that are not what they should be, remember that the full harvest of the Spirit still lies before us. Set your hope on what God has promised!
Steven+