“Here is my servant, whom I uphold,

                                    my chosen one in whom I delight;

                        I will put my Spirit on him

                                    and he will bring justice to the nations.

                        He will not shout or cry out,

                                    or raise his voice in the streets.

                        A bruised reed he will not break,

                                    and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.

                        In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;

                                    he will not falter or be discouraged

                        till he establishes justice on earth.

                                    In his law the islands will put their hope.” (Isaiah 42:1-4)

            Last week, my daughters and I visited the “Gateway to America”, Ellis Island. We learned that more than 20 million people passed through this world-famous immigrant processing center between 1892 and 1954. Wow, that’s a lot of people!

            During the peak years of immigration, conditions at Ellis Island were almost as cramped as they were onboard the ships that brought the people on their month-long voyage to America. Most immigrants came speaking little or no English, and some came with nothing more than the clothes on their backs.

            Life must have been really hard for these people back in their home countries otherwise I can’t imagine what would have moved them to make such a journey.  Perhaps it was an ocean of tears that washed them up on our shores.

            I like to think of that first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty, “Mother of Exiles” with her torch held high and burning welcome, kindling some hope in the hearts of all who passed by her.

                        “`Give me your tired, your poor,

                        Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

                        The wretched refuse of your teeming shore;

                        Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

                        I lift my lamp beside the golden door!’”(The New Colossus, Emma Lazarus, 1883)

            “This is what America is all about!” I thought, hope burning inside of my own heart as our ferry boat circled round Liberty Island on its way back to Ellis and the mainland.  My heart went out to today’s immigrants coming to this great land with hope for a better life and for liberty.

            Oh God, may they not be disappointed!

            I don’t think they will be because, in a way, what they came to seek is the very thing they have brought with them.  Liberty is not something people are born with, but something born in people.  It’s born in their hardship and exists in their hearts before it ever becomes a reality in their lives.
     

       Liberty is something immigrants define anew for those of us who have lived with it long enough to take it for granted!

            In the same way, the ‘smoldering wicks’ that wash up on the shore of God’s Church rekindle the fire in us, the members of that Church.  Their hope in The Savior, born of their suffering, redefines our hope in God’s “chosen one”, Jesus Christ, The Lamp that shines bright and the Golden Door to new life and eternal liberty!