Immigration has been a pretty hot topic this year... And there is no shortage of opinions about how we as a country should handle immigration, illegal aliens, and foreigners.

But I don't want you to misunderstand my intention here. I am not trying to make a policy statement about Immigration... No, the issue that I want to draw our attention to is that while Immigration is a political issue... Immigrants are people... and as a church, we are in the people business.

In fact, if we are going to be hospitable (as the Bible talks about hospitality), then we are going to have to welcome anyone and everyone... and not just the people like us.

I was a stranger... The word here can also mean "foreigner". And this same idea is found in Romans 12.

The word "hospitality" means "love of stranger/foreigners". But all-too-often, we think of hospitality when we invite our friends over for a meal.
In Luke 10, Jesus talks to a guy who thought like that.

Jesus goes on to tell the story of the "Good Samaritan" highlighting that sometimes your neighbor is the despised foreigner that you don't think should even be around. Maybe your neighbor is a stranger.

We have put up so many walls in order to protect us from strangers, fearing them. We have taught our kids about "Stranger Danger" (and rightfully so), but unfortunately we have let that idea carry over into our adult lives... and especially our Christian lives.

But God keeps knocking holes in our walls that we have built up (or to borrow from last week's lesson, He keeps putting "open doors" in-front of us). And there is no guarantee that it is going to be easy.

Hospitality requires us to get out of our comfort zone… To get a little messy… Because that’s what happens when we open our lives up to strangers.

And so... May you have no more walls and no more boundaries that hinder you from sharing God love to the strangers and foreigners you come in contact with everyday.