So, generally I shy away from political themes in sermons. I tend to think they don't do much good, and in this current environment, you can be guaranteed that you'll make half your people angry, and the non-angry half will probably miss the point completely and so you've wasted your time, accomplishing nothing.
Usually, I pepper my sermons with tales from my childhood or seminary days, days working in an AIDS clinic or coffee shop. Tales of my people, some I loved and miss, some I never knew but knew of.
And that's OK, I think. That's just how I relate to God and the Bible and the Gospels. Summa quod Summa. I am what I am.
But I want to tell you a different story today. A story that I experienced sort of one person removed. It's a story that happened to my friend, Brooks. I was only one the fringes. But it was enough to have an impact. It's a story about some migrant workers in Hamilton.
I'm not here to preach on a position about borders and walls and such. I figure there are good people on both sides of that issue, and frankly I tend to come down squarely on both sides! And I'm not here to talk about what we call people – undocumented migrants or illegal immagrants. For farm workers that's ironically sort of a to-MAY-to, to-MAH-to sort of thing.
I want to tell you a story of Caesar and Paula and their four children. They are from Guatemala but have lived in and worked around on the farms in Madison County for about five years. Long enough for three children – three American citizens – to be born.
And it was during the recent change from a balmy winter to a frigid one that all four of the children got sick.
Now Caesar is a good man, at least he tries, and succeeds mostly. He is undocumented, so there's that strike against him. But by all accounts he's a hard worker and good father. And because he's a good father, he borrowed the farmer's car to go up to Kinney Drugs to get some medicine for his family.
The farmer's car had an expired registration sticker and that's what caused Caesar to be pulled over. The only ID he had was an expired passport, and the officer didn't think the picture looked like him. He took him back to the farm where people identified him as who he said he was and who the person on the passport was, but the officer chose not to believe anyone and instead called ICE – Immigration Customs and Enforcement.
And now Caesar is gone, in some facility around Buffalo, awaiting deportation. His wife, Paula, has had limited contact with him.
Paula's troubles were just beginning. She was here on a temporary visa which requires her to make periodic check-ins. But she can't drive, and her husband shouldn't drive, and the language barriers made it such that she missed her last check-in. So, more ICE agents came to her house in the dead of night to take her to detention, also.
This is where Fr. Brooks came in. A group of Hamiltonians go wind of the raid and went to the house. The Spanish speakers went into calm Paula, and other, including Fr. Brooks, talked to the agents. Later a friend described it as dealing with employees from the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Paula was made to sign a document that stated that she would show up in Syracuse last Thursday. The immagration lawyer told the Hamiltonians to get her out of the house as soon as possible. It seems that, once she signed the document, they had all they needed to come snatch her away in order to “ensure her apparence.” She later said, this is always a pretext to deportation.
If she were snatched away, the oldest child would also be detained elsewhere, and the three younger children could be put in foster care.
The group got Paula to Syracuse on Thursday. Frankly, things could have gone worse. She will be allowed to stay in the country. But that's only because the lawyer says she got one of the few sympathetic ICE agent. So, the reality is she will be able to stay in the country until she catches the attention of the caseworker's superiors, at which time, all bets are off the table. The lawyer says she will forever have this Sword of Damocles hanging over her head:
Keep reporting in like she's supposed to, and she'll eventually get deported. Dissapear and she'll risk the safety of her children, eventually get caught, and get deported. And if she's put in prison instead, the three youngest children will be shipped who knows where in the country. And the oldest child will be deported. The oldest child, by the way, is seven.
She still has no idea what will happen to her husband. He'll be deported, but nobody knows where. You see, just because he's from Guatemala doesn't mean he'll get sent to Guatemala. Apparently, nowadays, any ole country of brown folks south of the border will do.
So if Paula decided she had enough of American hospitality and returns to Guatemala, there's absolutely no guarantee that he'll be there. And there's no real guarantee that good enough records will be kept on our end that she'll be able to find him.
If they are reunited in Guatemala, the village they're from is filled with violence and sexual slavery due to the constant drug wars.
Life there was so bad that it was worth risking the American Sword of Damocles to be here.
She is lost and hopeless, and the system is completely grinding her down. Her choice is between the Hell she knew and the Hell she knows now.
In our Gospel reading today, Jesus is being presented in the Temple. Nowadays, our delicate sensibilities refer to this day as The Presentation of the Lord. In older, rougher times, we called it The Circumsion of Jesus. It was a day, like our baptisms, that Jesus was welcomed into the tribe, the day he was dedicated to God. It was a happy day.
And it was made happier when Simeon looks down and, behold, this is not just another Jewish baby. It is God incarnate. And Simeon knows. Our lectionary gives a rather drab translation, in my opinion. The response of Simeon found in the Book of Common Prayer is so much more beautiful:
Lord, you now have set your servant free *
to go in peace as you have promised;
For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, *
whom you have prepared for all the world to see:
A Light to enlighten the nations, *
and the glory of your people Israel.
And we Christians end that prayer with “Glory to the father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning was now and will be forever. Amen.
An acknowledgement that God is always with us, and in us, every one of us. In Spirit and in the eyes of our fellow human beings.
Having seen the savior, I doubt that Simeon knew what would happen to the savior. How he would be hated and spit on, beaten and crucified.
And I doubt that Simeon would have known that even before that, Jesus and his family would be sought out by the full force of the government in order to have the child executed. And I doubt that Simeon would have known that that family would have to flee across deserts and wildernesses to hide out in a foreign land.
All Simeon knew what that when he looked at this child, so loved by his family, he had seen God.
And he cries out, “For these eyes of mine have seen the savior.”
When we look at those in our midst that are scared for their lives, do we see Savior then, too?