Strangers are tolerated so long as their case arouses sympathy or their presence provides some benefit to us. Strangers are tolerated if they don t challenge our political convictions or our standard of living. Strangers are tolerated when times are good and the economy is prosperous. But when times get tough, tolerance evaporates. Tolerated strangers become suspected enemies as the Jews discovered in pre-war Germany, as people of Japanese ancestry found out in this country during World War II, and as resident aliens in this country found out last year when much tougher immigration and naturalization laws went into effect.
Welcoming strangers is an act of affirmation .
It says that we value the other prior to any judgment about them. It says that we believe in our fundamental relatedness without any specific knowledge of who they are. You are, and therefore I honor you. The scripture today is more challenging than that we have examined these past two weeks. It forces us to consider what might be required of us in welcoming the stranger.