“Christ is No Stranger Here”: Disrupting Advent with Central American Migrant Narratives

The issue of Liturgy dealing with “Liturgy as Protest and Resistance,” guest-edited by Andrew Wymer, looks at how liturgical practices can subvert the status quo both societally and religiously. What follows is an excerpt from an essay by Princeton students and their professor, seeking a way to bring the stories of migrants into the season of Advent. –– Melinda Quivik

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In Fall 2018, more than 2,000 people from Central America began walking to the southern border of the United States to seek asylum from violence and poverty. Their walk from Honduras became a major political issue in the US’s midterm elections. President Trump often spoke at rallies and wrote on Twitter about the “migrant caravan” as full of “criminals” and a threat to Americans’ safety and economic wellbeing.

That semester, graduate students at Princeton Theological Seminary were studying liberation theology and the immigration crisis in a homiletics course titled, “Oscar Romero and the Gospel of Liberation,” taught by Andrew Scales. In addition to engaging the work of Romero, the contemporary work of Salvadoran journalist Óscar Martínez introduced us to richly detailed accounts of Central American immigrants’ struggles and hopes. Two students, Emily Wilkes and Klaas Walhout, organized an evening worship service called “La Violencia del Amor [The Violence of Love]: A Service of Justice and Peace.” More than fifty people gathered on campus to lament and pray at the service on December 7, 2018 just as the “migrant caravan” was on its way to the southern border of the U.S. 

“La Violencia del Amor” reinterpreted the Advent story through Central American migrant experiences. Worshipers participated in a politically provocative liturgy that challenged racist rhetoric about Central Americans with an alternative claim of Christ’s radical solidarity with migrants. In the words of Archbishop Romero, “Christ is no stranger here” among people who flee extreme violence and poverty. The theological insights of Salvadoran martyrs Ignacio Ellacuría and Oscar Romero grounded the primary claim of the worship service: Jesus Christ reveals his presence today through the narratives of the members of the migrant caravan. 

We propose that Advent offers liturgical opportunities to disrupt and resist oppressive political rhetoric with an ecumenically generous theology of Christ’s solidarity with Central American migrants. This article presents three liturgical signs utilized in the December 2018 worship service that reflect this reinterpretation of the Advent story with contemporary narratives. After a brief summary of relevant theological insights from Salvadoran theologians, we will explore these signs: (1) the representation of the Holy Family as disappeared migrants, (2) the reading of a Salvadoran woman’s testimony with excerpts from Romero’s homilies and Advent-related Scripture passages, and (3) sending worshipers to engage with undocumented immigrants at a local detention center. Finally, we propose new directions for considering Advent themes as a compelling opportunity to reinterpret Christian worship as a vulnerable act of resistance to authoritarian immigration policies. . . . 

We have chosen three examples for reflection of what it can look like to interpret Advent in light of Central American immigration narratives: (1) the representation of the Holy Family as disappeared persons, (2) the inclusion of Central Americans’ testimonies in the preaching moment with traditional Scripture readings for Advent, and (3) equipping worshipers with means to seek solidarity with neighbors presently detained in immigrant detention centers. The Advent season—celebration of God’s coming into the world—challenges the Trump administration’s dehumanizing rhetoric with the claim that Christ reveals himself through the narratives of Central American immigrants. 

The full essay, published in Liturgy 35, no. 1, is available by personal subscription and through many libraries. 

Andrew Scales, a co-chaplain with Princeton’s PC(USA) campus ministry, defended his PhD in homiletics at Princeton Theological Seminary in Spring 2019. 

Klaas Walhout recently earned his MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary and serves as chaplain resident at Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

Emily Wilkes, in her third year at Princeton Theological Seminary, is pursuing her MDiv toward ordination in the PC (USA). 

Andrew Scales, Klaas Walhout, and Emily Wilkes, “‘Christ is No Stranger Here’: Disrupting Advent with Central American Migrant Narratives,” Liturgy 35, no. 1 (2020): 25-31.