The debate was heated and passionate. It seemed have lost any sound reason and logical argument. It sounded like our friends were begrudging others success. (Which I preached against last week and is something I find to be completely unethical.)

Finally it calmed down a bit and we discovered that our friends were really misplacing their anger. They were really angry at the Canadian immigration and refugee system. It seems to encourage people to take advantage of loopholes and discourages people from using proper channels to immigrate to this grand and fine country.

I thought that immigrants would be a good topic for this morning's sermon. I thought that it might be a good time to look at what the Bible says about immigrants and what Jesus taught. I must say that these friends do not go to this church. And I don't know if some of you good people share some of these points of view. But I thought that you too, might have friends that you might get into a similar debate with and perhaps this sermon could help you out in such a debate.

What does the Bible say about immigrants? Well, it turns out that the issue of immigrants is as old as the Bible itself. The Old Testament gives quite specific instructions. Leviticus 19 commands, "When an alien resides with you in your lands, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you. You shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt." X2

Throughout the Old Testament the laws and the prophets remind the Israelites that they too were once aliens, were once slaves in a foreign land. As we just heard read for us from Deuteronomy, "You shall not deprive a resident alien of justice; Remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there." It continues and tells the Israelites and us to leave wheat in the field and grapes in the vineyard so that the alien, the orphan and the widow can reap what is left. In other words, we are to treat strangers as we would like to have been treated when we were strangers.

There is a sense of caring for the poor from our excess. There is a sense of taking less for ourselves and thinking twice about what one really needs. There certainly is excess in this country and yet we still complain that we don't have enough. We complain because we have forgotten that we were once aliens, that is we ourselves or our parents or grandparents were immigrants to Alberta. The land around St. Paul was originally inhabited by Indians, of course, followed by settlement by the Metis 200 or more years ago and then the French in the last century and finally eastern Europeans and English in this century.

By in large Canada is a country of immigrants. We are a country of people who chose to come here to better our lives and the lives of our children. We are a country of people whose forefathers chose to come here so that we could benefit. And yet, often we forget that. We think that we have earned the right to be here because we were born here. But of course, we haven't, we haven't earned anything and we don't deserve anything. Everything we have comes from God and it really never was ours in the first place. We are but stewards of this great and plentiful land.

The thing is, we do not live in a land without problems. In fact, Canadians are well known for their critical view of the country. The problems we face have complex origins with no easy solutions. But people find it easy to blame others for all our problems. The easiest of all to blame is the immigrants, for they are strangers. We don't understand their ways or their thinking. We are naturally suspicious. So when someone tries to rile up people by speaking against immigrants, they can often get support. We need to keep in mind that this is exactly the kind of emotional appeal the Nazis used to gain the support of the general population.

So what did Jesus teach about immigrants? He taught the people of his time that the hated minority called Samaritans should be treated as neighbours. He also taught against begrudging others success, and taught against being jealous of others.

In a parable Jesus tells us that, the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. He hires labourers throughout the day, negotiating the same wage, a fair wage. At the end of the day he pays all his labourers the same, even the ones who only worked a couple of hours. But the men who had worked all day complained to the vineyard owner that he had made them equal to them. The vineyard owner replied, "Friend, I am doing you no wrong, you agreed with me for the usual daily wage. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?" X2

Are we envious because our Canadian government is generous to others, to our immigrants, our aliens?

Now, the good news in all of this is that when we are aliens, others treat us as equals, strangers love us, strangers may even take us in.

I want you to think about times when you were a stranger in a strange land. And if you could share how you were treated. In particular if you could share who helped you. Who loved you when you were the alien?

I'll start with the time I was new to Alberta...

-after Kelly tells her story she invites members of the congregation to tell stories of when they were welcomed as strangers

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