In the Star Tribune today, a news story of the complicity of Jeff Sessions and Rod Rosenstein in the horrific criminal and racist policy of Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, and the rest of the racists in his administration and Department of Homeland Security was reported by the Inspector General of the Justice Department.
In reading about this account, I think of the same kind of policy that Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Hitler contrived in their “final solution” to the Jewish population.
I remember how shocked and outraged I was when this policy was first being implemented by trump, miller, sessions, and Homeland Security in the summer of 2018. In my many years of ministry, I have ministered to and with the Latino community, some documented and some undocumented. This segment of our population is no more criminal than the Caucasian or any other community. The hardest workers I have known have been Latino men and women. Their understanding of the blessings of the greater community far stronger than many of us who come from Northern European ancestry. The harm inflicted on these suffering families by trump and those complicit in trump’s crimes is irreparable.
Jesus makes it very clear in the Gospel of Matthew the importance of welcoming the refugee. “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. ³² All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, ³³ and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. ³⁴ Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; ³⁵ for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ³⁶ I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ ³⁷ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? ³⁸ And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? ³⁹ And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ ⁴⁰ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’” (Matthew 25:31-40, New Revised Standard Version)
It is very convenient for many who call themselves Christian to forget that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were political refugees who fled for their lives to Egypt. Herod the Great who slaughtered a countless number of children in his attempt to kill Jesus. It was only after Herod’s death, that it was safe for Jesus, Mary, and Joseph to return to Palestine.
¹³ Now after they (the Magi) had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” ¹⁴ Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, ¹⁵ and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.” ¹⁶ When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: ¹⁸ “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.” ¹⁹ When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, ²⁰ “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.” ²¹ Then Josepha got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. ²² But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. ²³ There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazorean.” (Matthew 2: 13-23, New Revised Standard Version)
I decided to channel my anger, my outrage, into two musical prayer songs for piano in my cycle of songs, Psalm Offerings Opus 10. I composed these two songs in a very short period of time. They were published by CD Baby in September of 2018.
Here are the two songs:
