Occasion: Thanksgiving Day

The Danish film Babette's Feast won the Oscar for best foreign film in 1987. Set in the bleak Danish terrain of the Jutland Peninsula in the 1870s, the movie tells the story of Babette, a 19th-century political refugee from Paris, who shows up at the doorstep of two elderly sisters who have devoted their life to an austere Christian congregation their late father founded.

Babette goes to work as the sisters' housekeeper and cook. One day she wins a lottery and decides to use the money to prepare a delicious dinner for the stern sisters and their small congregation. More than just an epicurean delight, the feast is an outpouring of Babette's gratitude. It is her gift to a group of people whose souls need to be nourished.

What can Babette's Feast say to us today, as we celebrate our own national day of gratitude and feasting? I believe it has something to teach us about the gifts that the "strangers and foreigners" in our midst bring with them. How should we welcome these immigrants? Do we see them as a blessing or a burden? Do we see them strictly in terms of their legal status, or do we see them as human beings in search of the same things in life that we are?

The biblical testimony is clear: Both the Old Testament and the New remind us regularly to welcome the "strangers" and "foreigners" in our midst. Hospitality was not only seen as a virtue in biblical times; it was necessary for survival in a harsh desert climate. Turn away a traveler at the end of the day and they might well die overnight.

But the biblical testimony goes further. The foreigner is often portrayed as possessing qualities or acting in a manner that is morally superior to the "entitled residents." Many Jews considered the Samaritans outsiders, even despised them as outcasts. Yet, time and again, the gospels portray them as virtuous, holy, or generous.

The biblical testimony is clear: Both the Old Testament and the New remind us regularly to welcome the "strangers" and "foreigners" in our midst. Hospitality was not only seen as a virtue in biblical times; it was necessary for survival in a harsh desert climate. Turn away a traveler at the end of the day and they might well die overnight.

Babette brought special qualities and gifts with her as well. She journeyed to a cold, austere northern land from a sunnier Latin culture. France is known for its culinary delights and its warm, passionate embrace of life, and Babette brought these gifts with her. But what gifts might the "strangers and foreigners" in our midst today bring with them? Many of them also come from sunny, Latin cultures known for their warmth and spontaneity, and their passionate embrace of life. Many are extremely hardworking and devoted to their families. And they are generous. Money earned in the United States is often sent back to the immigrants' lands of origin to support loved ones living in very humble situations.

God calls the people of Israel to practice hospitality over and over in the Bible with the admonishment: "Remember, you too were strangers and foreigners at one time." There is no day more fitting for us to remember this cautious reminder than today, Thanksgiving Day. As most of us learned in grade school, the first Thanksgiving was celebrated when the first European settlers had barely arrived at the shores of this great nation. They were hopelessly and helplessly out of their element and faced sure starvation as winter set it.

It was the native people, who had been here for thousands of years before any pilgrims arrived, whose hospitality saved these "strangers and foreigners in their midst" from certain starvation. The American Indians would pay a dear price for their hospitality. We can't go back and change that sad history now. But we do have a new opportunity, right here and now, to practice that same hospitality and generosity toward those who are now considered strangers and foreigners in our own midst.

When we do so, we bless them, but we also and perhaps more profoundly allow them to bless us. When we open our arms and embrace the stranger and the foreigner in our midst, we will find that the vast majority come bearing gifts—languages, values, customs, traditions, talents, histories, vitality-that enrich this great and diverse land we are privileged to enjoy.

So, let us welcome the immigrants to our hearts, our homes, and our nation. Let us share our Thanksgiving feast with them. Babette would be pleased.