Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us;
look, and see our disgrace!
Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
our homes to aliens.
We have become orphans, fatherless;
our mothers are like widows.
We must pay for the water we drink;
the wood we get must be bought.
With a yoke on our necks we are hard driven;
we are weary, we are given no rest.

Lamentations 5:1-5

We all want to read our own thoughts and experiences into scripture.

I know that some of my friends who read this passage will think of the “immigration problem” when they read verse 2. “Our inheritance…turned over to strangers!” That’s us!

I’m tempted to read verse 4 and think of Nestle, and the commoditization of public water for corporate gain.

But it is important also to balance our understanding with what the text is about (not just what it says).

This is the beginning of the Exile, when the Hebrew people were overrun and taken into captivity in Babylon by the Babylonians. Some sought refuge in Egypt, but didn’t receive it fairly.

This text is about exile and separation, not fears about immigration from the nationalist. In fact, it is the frightened plight of the migrant that is exposed. These are the homes overtaken, because these are people literally displaced and the horrors they face when they aren’t offered dignity.

It also isn’t about corporate greed, per se, but it does speak to exploitation of the poor and the weak and the refugee. This isn’t just walls and closed doors, but making money off of what is free and shared. It is creating unnatural burden off of natural relationships.

If there were a true modern context for this, it would be the ongoing refugee crisis, the sense of loss and the potential to never return to their homes that comes alive through this text.

Or it is the story I heard recently of the woman finally after 10 years, going back to her home in New Orleans after being evacuated, not from Hurricane Katrina herself, but the broken levees which put the city underwater.

It is true that we fail to understand our scriptures. And that we use them as weapons. Both of these ideas are pretty present in our consciousness. However, I often fear more that we fail to understand just how politically important the teaching in them is.

Every time we say that they aren’t political, we’re lying.

Every time we say they speak directly to our pet issue, we’re lying.

But the scriptures consistently speak to a sense of justice and reforming of the world which protects the weak, giving preferential treatment to the poor, the powerless, the refugee / migrant / immigrant / sojourner / traveler, and to all class of people who are not the dominant and the powerful. They speak to the great suffering of the displaced and socially vulnerable, not just naming their protection, but revealing their position. And they speak to GOD’s love for everyone, certainly, but especially those we neglect.

There is absolutely no doubt that our scripture is political. It is also our conscience.