What does "God's unfolding love" mean in considering U.S. immigration policies?

[Excerpted from a sermon, "The Unfolding of God," by The Very Reverend Robert V. Taylor on February 18, 2007 at Saint Mark's Church, Seattle, WA. Lectionary Texts: Exodus 34:29-35; Psalm 99; 1 Corinthians 12:27-13:13  & Luke 9:28-36. Thanks to David Enroth (Sky) for forwarding.]

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On Wednesday, the Federal Government raided the UPS facility in Auburn, Washington, detaining fifty-one people to deport to Mexico.  These are people who move boxes of books or CDs, packages of flowers and chocolates.  We were told that they are a threat to homeland security.  If it were not so blatantly untrue and disingenuous, it would be funny – in a sort of Monty Python way.  The truth is that the fabric of our everyday lives is completely interwoven with and depend on 12 million immigrants who have no documentation.  It is fantasy to imagine they are a threat to homeland security.  When we start splitting up families, when we refuse to deal with immigration reform, and when we look for scapegoats among the working poor, we seem to become stuck in the moral mud. 

 

I do not know where and how 12 million “undocumented” people are seeing the unfolding of God when we allow a climate of fear and intimidation to be our substitute for addressing the questions of immigration. 

 

So why am I even speaking of this on this last Sunday after the Epiphany, the Sunday before we enter into Lent and a season of penance for those thing done and left undone, those things that we have allowed to be done in our name?  Perhaps because the psalmist reminds us that God is a God of justice.  Perhaps because the transformation of our lives happens in the unfolding of real, ordinary human living.  Perhaps because we are not simply maximizing creatures.  Perhaps because we are creatures seeking meaning and purpose.  Perhaps because, if we seek meaning and purpose, we are measured by whether we have the capacity to love as God loves.  Perhaps because the unfolding of God in our midst depends upon how we care for the least and the last and the unloved.  Perhaps because the unfolding of God comes when we know that the truth will set us free.

 

Because the unfolding of love is entrusted to us by God.  By God who says to you – Here is my love and my life. It will transform you if you live and love with it.  Here is my love and my life.  It will transfigure the world if you allow yourself to be part of that.  Here is my love and my life.  Let it unfold.  Be of courage.

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