“Caged.”

Homily for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost       17 June 2018
The Rev’d John R. Clarke, Rector

Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love that we may minister your justice with compassion.                                                                                               Pentecost 4, Proper 6 Collect (excerpt)

Does the Bible justify separating children from their parents … ever?

More specifically, does the Bible justify separating children from their parents at our border with Mexico?

Drilling deeper, does the Bible justify caging 1,995 children in the past six weeks — torn, in our name — by agents of our government implementing the barbaric policies of this Administration?

To recap: Close to 2,000 children (roughly 45 per day) ripped from their parents’ arms, caged in warehouses — some destined for a tent city on an El Paso TX military base, in 100-degree daytime temperatures — with no plan in place for their reunification with their parents.

No end in sight to this abomination, this degradation of all we stand for as a people … and all that Jesus stands for. Jesus, who unequivocally said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.”

Two questions, then, for people of faith: Can this atrocity be reconciled with our prayer this morning, that we minister God’s “justice with compassion”?

And, is it justified by the Bible, as unscrupulous and biblically-illiterate political operatives assert that it can be?

Short answers: No. And “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

In reverse order: The claim that the Bible justifies caging kids ripped from their parents’ arms. That’s the whopper Attorney General Jeff Sessions hawked on Thursday. He argued that the government just has to separate the kids from their undocumented, border-crossing parents so the adults can be criminally prosecuted and incarcerated.

But when pressed to address this policy’s lack of humanity, Sessions beamed, “I would cite you to [sic] the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans Chapter 13 to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order.”

Keep talking like that, and before you know it, we’re in Handmaid’s Tale territory.

Later, White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders parroted, “It is very Biblical to enforce the law.” In fact, she parroted it over and over.

This is rank dishonesty. Sessions and Huckabee Sanders are pulling a bait and switch. The question on compassionate peoples’ minds deals primarily with the treatment of the children — what health professionals across the board are calling “government-sanctioned torture.”

The Attorney General and the White House spokesperson are switching that most self-evident and Christian of concerns — the well-being of the kids — to the apparent law-breaking of the parents. Obviously, Sessions and Huckabee Sanders don’t want to talk about the children. Jesus roundly condemns people like them who harm children. Think, as Jesus says, of a millstone wrapped around the perpetrators’ necks, the offenders “drowned in the depths of the sea.”

That actually is a very appealing picture at the moment. But I digress.

Now, you might be wondering what St Paul, in Romans Chapter 13, says. Yes, he says, “Obey the law.” He even argues that agents of the government enforce the law with God’s blessing. So, yes, that is problematic for libtards like me.

What’s up? Why would Paul say, “Obey the law”? Answer: Context. He wrote that as a survival strategy just as the imperial government was cracking down on minorities (like the followers of Jesus) fomenting civil unrest. Paul is basically telling Christians in Rome, “Avoid arrest. Don’t get beat up. Stay out of trouble.”

He also might be inoculating himself against charges that, as a leader of folks who see Jesus as a higher authority than the emperor (who just happens to be Nero!), Paul might spearhead a bit of rabble-rousing himself and be hauled in. To protect himself, he’s leaving a paper trail.

On top of that — and this is a point lost on anyone who crows, “Obey the law. It’s in the Bible! It’s in the Bible!” — forget that Jesus ran afoul of the authorities all the time. Forget that, leading up to the Civil War, this passage was used to justify the institution of slavery. You don’t even have to get trapped in the weeds of how a fully-formed conscience is bound to over-ride civil law when they conflict.

Think, instead: Church and State. Separate. Not even separate but equal. Separate.

Read: It’s a dubious enterprise — no, make that contrary to the spirit of the Constitution — to use the Bible to interpret and determine the Constitution, laws, and statutes of our secular-by-design republic.

Third: Resorting to “Obey the law! It’s biblical.” Factoid: Not everything in the capital-B Bible is lower-case-b biblical.

Take a footnote in our reading today. Samuel’s coup d’état deposing Saul as king and anointing David in his place. Why? Saul runs afoul of God.

But why does God — albeit reluctantly — sign off on the people’s choice of Saul in the first place? Saul is from Central Casting. He’s perfect. Until he’s not.

Because far into Saul’s reign, God commands him to wipe out the pagan Amalekites. “Put every man and woman and all the Amalekites’ livestock to the sword.” Oh, did I forget to mention “wipe out all the Amalekites' children, too”?

News flash: This isn’t God at God’s best. But the story isn’t about theology. It’s not even history. It’s myth, the tall tales people tell about their unique place on the world stage. In this instance, Israelites good. Pagan Amalekites — who not-so-coincidentally reside in territory the Israelites want to annex — bad. They have to go.

So, Saul carries through on the blood-binge, sort of. Yes, even kills all the kids. (And we’re worried about Trump putting them in cages!) But he saves the livestock … for himself. Ships them off to Mar-a-Lago … or maybe that’s Marrakesh. Well, somewhere.

Why show Saul the exit? For making off with the animals, for disobeying God. But okay with kiddie cadavers. It’s right there … in the Bible. à

But — to repeat — not everything in the capital-B Bible is lower-case b biblical. Biblical, in our Anglican tradition: having the moral force of the commandment Jesus places just about above all other commandments, opinions, suggestions, glosses, and advice. Paul even reiterates it after all his “obey the law” talk: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

He even adds, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.”

Raising the question: Can Attorney General Sessions, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, or any of their accomplices in the federally-funded child abuse business claim that what they are doing does no wrong to their neighbor? Do they consider the immigrant their neighbor? Immigrant children, immigrant parents their neighbor?

Leading us back to our first question: Is it possible to “minister justice” in this case without compassion?

What is justice? What is compassion?

As to justice, looks like the homewreckers are saying ‘tomato’ and those charging them with the injustice of child endangerment are saying ‘tomahto.’ Tomato, tomahto. Concepts of justice poles apart.

That’s because defenders of the Administration’s break-up-families policy think justice — whether it’s in the Bible or the Constitution — is all about punishment. “Disobey the law and, goshdarnit, we’ve got to, we’ve just got to punish you.”

Problem is: They haven’t really studied the Bible beyond all the “thou shalt nots” or opened their eyes to the arc of justice that soars above its pages. Justice, as it appears in the Bible and as it has been understood by all advancing cultures since recorded time, is giving to each and all what they are owed: fairness, equal treatment, dignity, respect.

And, yes, that might mean jailing or penalizing guilty perps, because the perps’ victims (or their survivors) are owed some sense of redress.

In the case of the immigrant families, the balance of justice tilts toward victims as well: the most vulnerable, the children. What are they owed? They are. Not. Owed. Cages. But what all children — in all places — in all conditions (immigrant or citizen) — in all fairness — are owed: family, security, compassion.

That’s compassion, as practiced by Jesus. Immersing ourselves fully in the pain, confusion, and helplessness of the children to alleviate it and correct it.

Bottomline: Can we in all honesty say that this policy — and those who have invented it, are thumping their Bibles for it, executing it, and profiting from it — can we say agents of our government — caging children — are ministering “justice with compassion”?

And then, are we — if we are being completely honest with ourselves — ministering justice with compassion if we conspire with them by remaining silent and allowing this injustice — this petty, mean-spirited, politically-motivated, this anti-Christian injustice — to continue?

Amen.