Does the Bible speak to recent policy changes? Decide for yourself:

Deuteronomy 27:19
Cursed be anyone who deprives the alien…of justice.

Leviticus 19:33
When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. 34 The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

Exodus 23:9
You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt

Deuteronomy 10:19
And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.

Mark 10:14
When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

Matthew 18:6
If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

Romans 13:10
Love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Matthew 25:35
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me

Romans 15:7
Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God

Hebrews 13:1-2
Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares

Ezekiel 47:22-23
You shall allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the sojourners who reside among you and have had children among you. They shall be to you as native-born children of Israel. With you they shall be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. In whatever tribe the sojourner resides, there you shall assign him his inheritance, declares the Lord God

Ezekiel 22:29
The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the sojourner without justice.

Exodus 12:49
There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.

Jeremiah 22:3
Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place."

Jeremiah 7:5-7
“If you do not oppress the alien…then I will dwell with you in this place…”

Zechariah 7:8-10
Do no oppress the alien.

Luke 4:16-21
…Bring good news to the poor…release to the captives…sight to the blind...let the oppressed go free.

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Weekly Call to Prayer  MCC council of Elders

Hebrews 13:1-3
1Continue in brotherly love. 2Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. 3Remember those in prison as if you were bound with them, and those who are mistreated as if you were suffering with them.
 

Holy God of life and love, God of outcast and downtrodden, God of refugee and safe harbor, hear our plea:
 
Sometimes it is unbearable to witness the brutality of this world. We stand paralyzed not knowing what to do, where to begin, how to help. Yet we know doing nothing is not an option.

As we sit comfortably sipping our cappuccino in our local coffee shop we try to drown out the cries of your children around this earth. In neighboring towns, even in our own communities. We try to ignore the rounding up and dismantling of families, we try to breathe through the inhalation of entire cultures of color, we so often avert our eyes and pretend that we haven't lost our humanity and that we are not powerless to an oppressive and broken system.  Yet Creator, we are not heartless people, we just feel so inadequate to handle the task at hand.
 
You are the God who set the captives free, who parted a mighty sea, who let it rain manna from heaven, who knew us before we were formed in our mother's womb. You teach us how to love one another as we have been loved by you, which may be your biggest miracle yet. Oh God liberate us from fear which keeps us complacent and fill us with a mighty righteous indignation to take a stand against bigotry, hatred and the manifestation of pure evil in this world.
 
Creator we submit this to you in your many Holy Names and in the name of Jesus the Christ, may it be so.

prayer submitted by

REV. JENNIE M. GARCIA-KITCH
Pastor, aChurch4me MCC
Illinois Hospice Chaplain

Did you know, over 450 individual people have come through our doors in the forty years we have been serving the GLBTQI&friends community?

 And for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation. the old order has passed away; now everything is new!  All of this is from God, who ransomed us through Christ—and made us ministers of that reconciliation.  This means that through Christ, the world was fully reconciled again to God, who didn’t hold our transgressions against us,  but instead entrusted us with this message of reconciliation. -2 Corinthians 5: 17-19