The Eternal Immigrant

Today I’ve stolen my sermon title from a fresh new creed.

It’s called the Immigrants Creed and was written by Jose Luis Casal, General Missioner of Tres Rios Presbytery in Texas. Visit this link to view the whole creed:
http://www.ethnicharvest.org/ideas/creed.htm

We’re going to read the whole creed later, but for now I want to get real familiar with this one sentence from it. So Let’s read it together first in English, then in Spanish.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the eternal immigrant from God's kingdom among us, who speaks all languages, lives in all countries, and reunites all races.

Of all the people who should be preaching this sermon today about the Eternal Immigrant, I am probably the least likely suspect.

Of all the people who should be co-pastoring a church that’s at least half-full of immigrants, I probably wouldn’t be your first choice.

I’ve never really been an immigrant.

I was born four blocks from here at Bethany Hospital.

With the exception of my college years, 50 miles away at Ottawa, Kansas, I have spent my entire 49.5 years here within 10 miles of my birthplace.

Technically, I’m not an immigrant and never have been, even though I’ve had the pleasure of visiting Mexico, Central and South America and Europe.

I’ve never had to learn a new language in order to get by.

I’ve never had to adapt to a new culture and give up precious parts of my history and myself.

The only thing that has ever separated me from my biological family members has been death.

I don’t know of a single other pastor in a Presbyterian Church who is pasturing four blocks from his birthplace.

Most pastors, at the very least, migrate to other cities and states.

But somehow I haven’t migrated at all.

And yet here we are together . . .

The least likely pastor to be able to relate to immigrants and a church full of immigrants.

How many of the rest of you were born within 4 blocks of this church?

From my perspective you’re all immigrants.

How did we end up here together?

Spanish speakers, English speakers, Guatemalans, Missourians, Ecuadorians, Kansans, Mexicans, Colombians, West Virginians, Hondurenos, country folk, city folk, suburban folk, Latinos, Europeans, Young, Old.

How did all of you end up here together 4 blocks from where I was born?

The Eternal Immigrant.

You got up and you moved when the Spirit said move.

Why?

Because when the Spirit says move, you’ve got to move, Oh Lord, you’ve got to move when the Spirit says move!

Why?

Because God’s Spirit is always on the move.

Jesus told Nicodemus, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)

Let’s say it again, I believe in the Holy Spirit, the eternal immigrant from God's kingdom among us, who speaks all languages, lives in all countries, and reunites all races.

Why are we here together?

Because of the Eternal Immigrant, God’s Spirit, who is working to reunite us.

People wonder why we do we what we do?

Why do we bother to sing in two languages? Why do we bother to pray in two languages? Why do we bother to preach in two languages?

They think we must be drunk.

But it’s only Noon.

But they are right. We are drunk.

We are drunk on the Eternal Immigrant. God’s Spirit has baptized us, has intoxicated us, has inebriated us, has inflamed us with this ridiculous folly that we belong together.

The Eternal Immigrant has come to us from God’s Kingdom to reunite us and offer us the passport of baptism which give us freedom to immigrate to God’s Country, God’s Kingdom where all our differences are respected and welcomed.

Let’s say it again, I believe in the Holy Spirit, the eternal immigrant from God's kingdom among us, who speaks all languages, lives in all countries, and reunites all races.

Where does the Holy Spirit live?

Here in Wyandotte County? Yes!

In Michoacan? Yes!

In Quito? Yes!

In Mazatenango? Yes!

In St. Louis? As much as I hate to admit it. Yes!

The Eternal Immigrant is at work in every city, every country, every continent, working to reunite all God’s children everywhere.

There is no river the Eternal Immigrant won’t cross.

There’s no border the Eternal Immigrant can’t break through.

There’s no desert the Eternal Immigrant can’t transverse.

No stupid border walls that the Holy Spirit won’t demolish.

The Eternal Immigrant makes her home where we are and where we aren’t.

Let’s say it again, I believe in the Holy Spirit, the eternal immigrant from God's kingdom among us, who speaks all languages, lives in all countries, and reunites all races.

The Eternal Immigrant bursts into our lives and gives us the ability to talk to anybody in any language.

In today’s story the Eternal Immigrant baptizes, intoxicates, inebriates, inflames the disciples with a wide variety of languages.

The streets of Jerusalem were filled with tourists who were there for the festival.

And the Eternal Immigrant pushed the disciples out the door to where the people were.

And the Eternal Immigrant in a miraculous moment gave them the ability to speak the languages of all those tourists.

If you are baptized, intoxicated, inebriated, inflamed with the Holy Spirit there is nobody you can’t or shouldn’t talk to about Jesus.

Say it again, I believe in the Holy Spirit, the eternal immigrant from God's kingdom among us, who speaks all languages, lives in all countries, and reunites all races.

God’s Holy Spirit is the Eternal Immigrant and when the Eternal Immigrant says, “Move” then by God, You’ve got to move when the Spirit says move, You’ve got to move when the Spirit says move, Cause when the Spirit says move, you’ve got to move, Oh Lord! You’ve got to move when the Spirit says move!

I thank God, that by the power of the Eternal Immigrant, I have become an alien, a stranger, a foreigner who holds a baptismal passport to the only Country, the only Kingdom, the only Realm that matters --- God’s.

Because of the Eternal Immigrant I no longer belong to Wyandotte County, I no longer belong to the United States, I no longer belong to North America or the western hemisphere.

Because of the Eternal Immigrant we belong to God’s Country, God’s World, God’s Kingdom where there are no strangers, there are no aliens, there are no foreigners and where every immigrant can find a home.

Thanks be to the Father, the Son and the Eternal Immigrant.