LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2013, Page 370

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370

THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS­­—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS
workers and rulers of all kinds who, through their labors, contribute to the
well-being of many neighbors.75

as God’s means to curb external sin through the “sword” wielded by political
authorities.78

Moreover, God created male and female in His own image and, therefore, in perfect righteousness—namely, to live in a right relationship before
God and a right relationship before human beings. Even though we rightly
speak of our relationship with God after the fall as one that has been corrupted by sin, we must remember that from the beginning God has desired to
live in communion with His creatures and—instead of destroying His fallen
creation—chooses to restore it through Christ’s redemptive work and the
Spirit-led speaking and living out of the Gospel through the church on earth.
God instituted the church already from the beginning by creating our first
parents to live in communion with Him in the Garden. After the fall He makes
provision to restore His creatures to communion with Himself through Christ.
God has provided the world with the church, her ministers, and individual
members to proclaim the Gospel of redemption in Christ and thus to contribute to the spiritual well-being of many neighbors.

In short, all vocations, stations, or offices through which we relate to and
serve our neighbor in the world today derive from God’s design and word.79
To be a creature means to have vocations and neighbors for whom we care.
But who is my neighbor? Indeed, my neighbor is anyone who needs my help.
Yet if everyone is my neighbor in general, the danger is that no one will be my
neighbor concretely. When speaking about immigrants who are in the United
States illegally, one must remember that each person has a different story and
experience.80 Some are victims of trafficking.81 Some do not have legal status
due to violence and exploitation by another party. Many entered the United
States legally but overstayed their visas for any number of reasons, including
family reunification issues, fear of persecution, or the desire to provide their
children a more dignified life. One must also admit that a number have come
to or stayed in this country to engage in criminal acts. Immigration is not
merely an issue about law in some general sense, but about the individuals
who are our neighbors. Otherwise stated, vocation allows us to put a human
face on debates concerning law in general and immigration law in particular.

God created us to live rightly before one another. Adam and Eve, our first
parents, were not created to live merely as isolated beings seeking to fulfill
their own individual needs and desires. Instead, God created man and woman
for each other and thus to care for and sustain one another in the context of the
marital union. People living in this fallen world often speak of marriage and
family life in terms of its challenges, failures, or inconveniences. Christians
are called to remember that God instituted marriage, and thus the family, as
a means to bless, care for, and protect His creation.76 Parents provide for the
temporal and spiritual needs of children. The Christian household is the first
place where children learn from their parents the value of work, marriage,
authority, and God’s Word. It is the first economy, government, and church.
God instituted secular government “already in paradise” under the command to rule the earth. Government is rooted in the reality that, as a result
of the institution of marriage, “earthly life requires relationships in which
some are superiors and others are dependent, in which some give commands
and others are subjects.”77 Therefore, secular government, broadly speaking,
includes “marriage, the household, property, the relationship between master
and servant,” even if after the fall secular government is defined more strictly

75
“Whoever does not work is a thief and robs his neighbor in two ways. First, he permits others to work for him and nourishes himself from their ‘blood and sweat.’ Second, he withholds
what he ought to give his neighbor.” Althaus, The Ethics of Martin Luther, 102 (italics added).
76
“On earth and in relation to his neighbor he [i.e., man] fills an ‘office’; there the main point
is that creation is sustained, e.g., that children receive food, clothing and care. This work of
love God effects on earth through the ‘orders’—the order of marriage, of teacher and pupils, of
government, etc.” Wingren, Luther on Vocation, 6-7.
77

Althaus, The Ethics of Martin Luther, 48.

Just as the Lutheran teaching on vocation avoids the idea that the law can
be fulfilled abstractly without some concrete neighbor in mind, this teaching
also helps us to avoid the danger of thinking of our neighbor as an abstract
object by directing us to advocate for specific neighbors in their particular
situations and within a context of actual service, from some concrete office
or station in life. When it comes to the immigration debate, the critical argument is not whether one is for or against “illegal” immigration. Whatever is
“illegal” according to this or that current law is, strictly speaking, “illegal.”
There is no argument there. Disagreements about the civil law have to do
instead with whether immigration law, either broadly or in certain aspects,
deals adequately, fairly, justly, or reasonably with certain neighbors or sets of
neighbors. It is therefore only natural that particular answers to illegal immi78

Ibid., 47-48.

79
“God has established stations among men—Luther also speaks of orders, institutions, offices, or hierarchies. There are many and various stations in life, for ‘God is a great lord and has
many kinds of servants’... Sometimes Luther summarizes them in three basic stations: ministry,
marriage (or the family, including everything related to business and the economy), and secular
authority… All these are ‘divine stations and orders’ because God has established them in his
word, and they are to be honored as holy institutions.” Ibid., 36-37.
80
SRIC notes: “Millions of undocumented persons have come to the United States for many
and various reasons. They have come to flee oppression of many sorts, including extreme poverty and hunger. They have come in order to make provision for their loved ones. They have
come in order to end separation from loved ones. They have come illegally because they have
deemed that the legal route is nearly impossible to maneuver. They have come because they
can work, and they find dignity in labor. We recognize also that a small percentage have come
for malevolent reasons.”
81
See Res 6-07A “To Support Efforts to End Human Trafficking/Slavery,” in The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod, Convention Proceedings (2010), 144.

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gration will depend, whether we realize it or not, on our vocational priorities
and corresponding neighbors for whom we are called to advocate.

ought never to assume that God would have us exclude anyone from the love
of neighbor to which we have been called.

Vocation allows us to argue boldly and persuasively for particular neighbors. It encourages Christians to take a stand for the people whom we are to
serve. For example, the governor of a U.S. state might argue, from his or her
position as an officer of the law in the left-hand realm, for tougher enforcement
measures against immigrants who reside in the state illegally in order to protect state residents for whom he or she is responsible against problems such as
violence, kidnappings, human trafficking, and other crimes. In doing so, the
state official performs his or her duty from a particular vocation—in this case,
by advocating for the safety and quality of life of state residents. With regard
to law enforcement, border patrol agents also fulfill their vocations by stopping immigrants who want to cross into the United States without a proper
visa. This is the main duty through which these agents will promote national
security on behalf of the citizens of the nation—their neighbors. Since we are
faced with many neighbors asking for our attention, vocation defines who is
my closest neighbor, what neighbor’s needs one should deal with first, and
how to do so.

Inevitably, in a less than perfect world, advocating for one neighbor may
also mean not coming to another neighbor’s defense. Not surprisingly, therefore, there will also be conscientious and upright citizens and residents who
will advocate for hard-working immigrants whose legal status is questionable
or difficult to regularize but who over the years have contributed to the economic vitality of the state, whose children were born or raised in this nation
and know of no other country than this land of freedom and opportunity, and
whose families are a complex composite of citizens, residents, and undocumented aliens all living under the same roof. Broadly speaking, those who will
speak for them are likely to argue for initiatives such as sensible worker visa
programs, humane enforcement of immigration laws, protection and access
to public education for children of undocumented aliens, family unification,
and earned paths to legalization. Such advocates include but are not limited
to families and friends of the undocumented, pro bono immigration lawyers,
human rights activists, Christians and church workers who work very closely
or almost exclusively with immigrants, as well as larger groups such as
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS).84

A significant tension often arises as we wrestle with the obligation to love
our neighbor in the everyday complexities of life. Even as we are called to “do
good to everyone,” so we are also encouraged to show special concern for “the
household of faith” (Gal 6:10). Our Lord chided the Pharisees for a convoluted
“ethic” that resulted in neglect of family members in the name of some other
set of religious priorities (Mk 7:10-12). Such references remind us that love for
our neighbor always involves particular individuals and that our Lord expects
love for our neighbor to begin with our families and other neighbors who are
in closest proximity to us. So the father dare not neglect the love of his family in
the name of love for others who are farther removed. Similarly, it is appropriate
for a Christian community to give priority to the neighbors in its midst, as Paul
says in Galatians 6. And, from this same principle, it is morally appropriate
for civil entities and governing authorities to give priority to the well-being of
their own citizens.82
At the same time, this concern for the “nearest neighbor” is not permission
to deny that the person who is farther removed is also my neighbor. When the
lawyer in the parable of the Good Samaritan asks, “Who is my neighbor?” he is
attempting “to deflect attention away from himself” in order to avoid the command to love. His question “implies that there are some people who are not
my neighbor.” But no such conclusion is allowed by the Lord, whose ministry
shows that “absolutely no one is excluded from his love” (see Matt. 5:43-44).83
While no Christian is able to do good in equal measure to every neighbor, we
82
Peter C. Meilaender has emphasized the matter of proximity as an important factor in the
immigration debate. See “Immigration: Citizens and Strangers,” 10-12.
83

Arthur A. Just, Jr., Luke 9:51-24:53 (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1997), 451-452.

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2013 Convention Workbook

A measure of conflict is inevitable in a sinful world with so many competing issues calling for our attention and so many types of neighbors calling
for our help. Our neighbors—in a good and real sense—are our burdens and
crosses to bear. God has given us our neighbors. We rightly struggle with
questions about whom we should serve first and how we should best serve
them.85 We cannot evade that fundamental divine intention for our lives. It
is part of our creatureliness, our being bound or rightly related to the specific
people whom God has given us to serve. In making decisions for this or that
neighbor in the context of our God-given vocations, Christians will of course
experience a certain measure of ambiguity at times and should expect a certain
level of paradox.
Such paradox arises when a Christian considers his office, where the
neighbor he has been called to serve from a particular station in life depends
on him, vis-à-vis his own individual or private relationship as a Christian to
some other neighbor. This paradoxical state of existence in the life of the Christian implies that “a distinction must be made between acting (and suffering)
84
We speak here of advocacy in the broad sense of promoting the well-being of the immigrants through various means. When defined more narrowly as a means to address systemic
change in immigration law, advocacy represents only 1% or less of LIRS’s service portfolio.
More broadly, LIRS is a social ministry or service driven by the Lutheran faith whose mission
is to protect refugees and migrants at risk and to assist with their resettlement in the United
States.
85
Sánchez, “Misión e inmigración,” 71, 73. Other questions, beyond the scope of this document, could be asked with regard to this issue such as the responsibility of government to its
citizens, an immigrant’s responsibility to obey governing authorities in his/her new country as
well as the country of origin, etc.

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