The Ladybug

Tag: Immigrants

  • Loving the Stranger

    The Ladybug 32 

    Wednesday, November 12, 2025 

    Hello Readers!  Today I feel inspired to share a sermon I delivered approximately a year and a half ago at my local NH church.  However, this sermon seems particularly relevant to repeat, given that our country is currently struggling with a sinking economy, and many families are having trouble making ends meet.  Homelessness can quickly become a reality for anyone, anytime, and I have faced housing insecurity personally.  I also wanted to share this message because, while this sermon focuses on the homeless population, I believe that the spirit of it could also be applied to immigrants.  The atmosphere in the USA regarding immigrants is at best described as tense, and the way that they are treated by the people in power is downright despicable.  Therefore, I encourage you to imagine both the words “homeless” and “immigrant” in your mind’s eye while you read my words below.  God calls us to love, and you will find practical advice as to ways of loving marginalized groups among us if you continue reading!

    By: Gaelle McLoud 

    Sunday, March 17, 2024 

    Based on:   New Testament: Matthew 22: 34-40  

           Old Testament: Leviticus 19: 33-34 

    Message 

                Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable in your sight, oh Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.  Amen.   

    I would like to begin by highlighting from the first scripture reading for us this morning, Matthew 22: 34-40, the second commandment that Jesus gives: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  On the surface, this may seem like a simple commandment.  One might think, of course I love those around me, my friends, and my family, including my church family.  However, let us dig a little deeper.  What if your neighbor was smelly and dirty?  What if your neighbor was a drug addict?  What if your neighbor was living a life opposite to yours, a life you could not even imagine?  Would you still be willing to love your neighbor?  Today, I am going to focus on our neighbors who are homeless.   

                You might be wondering why I chose the passage from Leviticus this morning, and be curious as to the relationship to the homeless.  “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them.  The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born.  Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.  I am the Lord your God.” Leviticus 19: 33-34. The Leviticus passage refers to our neighbors who are, “aliens,” or, “foreigners.”  One of the Google definitions of foreigner is, “a person not belonging to a particular place or group; a stranger or outsider.”  Certainly, one could think of homeless people as not belonging to a particular place, and many consider them to be strangers and outsiders.  And yet, in Leviticus as well as in Matthew, God commands us to love them.    

                Here is how I began to love my homeless neighbors.  In early 2017, I started attending a new church located in Charlton, Massachusetts.  I prayed to God to direct me towards His will, and I felt a strong calling on my heart to minister to the homeless.  I thought about how I might get involved with mission work, and I remembered that my dad had been connected to a church called the Worcester Fellowship.  The Worcester Fellowship is an outdoor church located in Worcester, Massachusetts that meets every Sunday afternoon, no matter what the weather, to provide a Christian worship service, and brown bag lunches and men’s white crew socks to the homeless population.  Their mission statement is: Worcester Fellowship is dedicated to ending isolation by nurturing community and providing pastoral care. We welcome everyone, we are an outdoor church, we reach out to homeless and at-risk adults and we believe God loves us now.  I attended a Worcester Fellowship Service for the first time in the spring of 2017, and felt transformed and brought alive by the experience.  God’s love and light were palpable at the service.  I spoke to my home church in Charlton, and we signed up to begin donating brown bag lunches and men’s white crew socks to the Worcester Fellowship on every other month throughout the year. The pictures on the power point are of a Worcester Fellowship gathering on the common in Worcester, Massachusetts, on Christmas Eve 2017.   

                Many people think of the homeless population as set apart, and have trouble connecting to them.  However, anyone, anytime can become homeless.  There are many reasons for homelessness, including job loss, PTSD due to military service, or high medical bills that lead to eviction when one cannot pay their rent.  This could be you.  It was almost me.  Let me tell you a true story from my own life.  When I was quite young, 20 years old, I had dropped out of college due to health problems, and I had no money and nowhere to live except with my parents back at their home.  I faced the reality of becoming homeless, though, because I was not sober, and my parents did not want me to live with them when I was an active alcoholic.  I had to decide to try to get sober and attend AA meetings, or else I was on the streets.  I will never forget how close I came to homelessness.   

                In addition to my own experience with housing insecurity, I have learned a lot about homeless persons while volunteering with the Worcester Fellowship.  Here is a question for us to ponder: What can we as Christians do to show God’s love and mercy to the homeless population?  Here are three answers to that question that we can all employ when we interact with those who are homeless or disadvantaged.   

                First, show compassion.  One of the best ways to show God’s compassion to others is to simply listen to them.  Start up a conversation with someone who may be out of your comfort zone and listen to them talk about their life and their experiences.  This action will go a long way towards making the person feel loved.  Consider carrying Dunkin gift cards to offer to those who are begging when you see them. 

                Second, treat the homeless as equals.  Do not be afraid of those who are different from you.  For example, during a Worcester Fellowship service there is a time for the passing of the peace of Christ, as with many church services.  It is important to walk right up to your neighbor and wish them God’s peace and shake their hand.  When you see a homeless person on the street holding up a sign, make eye contact with them and smile and if they ask you for something, offer the Dunkin gift card you have been carrying with you.  God loves all His children equally, and we need to mirror that love. 

                Third, Christians must challenge societal norms that dictate that we must ostracize and exile those who are different and suffering.  Jesus set the example for us with the way he lived his life.  Jesus associated with tax collectors and prostitutes, in other words, sinners and those cast out by society.  Jesus healed and touched lepers, as well as saved and loved all of us, despite our circumstances.  Welcome those who are homeless and disadvantaged to your church, and pray for ways that you can improve their lives for the better.  One way that this church loves the homeless is by collecting money to purchase socks for them, and this gift can go a long way towards brightening someone’s day. 

                Jesus calls us to love each other, let us change the world one act of love at a time.  Amen. 

    Thank you for reading!  I have included the links for The Worcester Fellowship, as well as a local NH homeless advocacy group called Hundred Nights.  Please pray about how you may support them!  Also: The photos are from a Worcester Fellowship gathering in 2017, which is referenced in the sermon.  

    God Bless and Good Health, G. 

    Worcester Fellowship

    hundrednightsinc.org

  • Love Thy Neighbors: Immigrants

    I have a question to ask: Why must we all be white?  The core of white supremacy seems to me to be a belief that white people should dominate and control.  A belief that only people of European dissent with pale skin tones should be valued and respected.  I am certain that this belief is wrong.  There is a feeling in my core that white supremacy is evil and dangerous.  In addition, white supremacy in the USA is incredibly hypocritical.  Native Americans were the original founders of the country, and the Puritans from England were the immigrants.  So, why is it that white people in America have turned on immigrants?!  Is our collective memory so short-sited?  Have we all forgotten what we learned in history class in school?

                The Trump administration which has taken over the country again has rolled out decisive action against immigrants, which I find sickening.  President Trump himself is a white supremacist.  He does not seem to be able to tolerate anyone different from himself.  The way that America is currently treating immigrants is a crime against humanity.  We are all beloved children of God.  We all matter and should be valued, regardless of our skin tone or ethnic background.  Separating families and tearing children away from their caregivers, simply because they are trying to find a better life on our soil, is inhumane.  We have a short memory, and seem to have forgotten all about the statue of liberty welcoming immigrants to our nation for decades past.  Why is there so much hate?

                Immigrants in the USA also play an important role economically.  It is foolish to deport them.  Immigrants work long hours at jobs that white people hold up their noses at.  They pick watermelons in fields and work in factories.  They are tax paying contributors.  Besides the financial implications and work place roles that should be considered, immigrants also bring a richness to the diversity in our culture.  When I was in third grade, I learned about America being described as a melting pot.  The community was made stronger by having many different cultural traditions present.  Let us not forget the beauty of inclusion. 

                The Bible also has many things to say about accepting our neighbors.  Since the conservative Republicans in Congress like to quote Leviticus for justifying their laws, I will quote Leviticus as well.  “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them.  The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born.  Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.  I am the Lord your God.”  Leviticus 19: 33-34.  The Lord is instructing His people as to how to care for foreigners, because they themselves had at one time suffered as outcasts in Egypt.  How quickly we forget.  This passage always reminds me that God’s law is one of acceptance and love. 

    But, why stop with the Biblical quotes there?  I would also like to include Jesus’ famous quote on loving our neighbors.  The story is from the Gospel of Matthew, when Jesus is asked which commandment is the most important.  Jesus replies, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”  Matthew 22: 37-40.  Clearly, the criminal treatment of immigrants is not an act of loving them as ourselves.  Separating families, and endangering children, and violently rounding up people, and destroying lives is not loving.  What would Jesus think of these actions, according to His instructions in the Bible?

                America should be finding ways to streamline paths to legal immigration, and developing better avenues to welcome refugees into our countries.  We should not be building walls to keep anyone non-white and different out of our borders.  It is not only inhumane, as I stated earlier, but it goes against the Christian principles set out in the Bible.  White supremacy is inherently evil, and I am afraid of what it will ultimately lead to in this country.  I am determined to work to stop this spread of injustice.  Welcome the foreigner and love your neighbor, even if, and perhaps especially when, they are different from yourself.  Deporting honest immigrants and terrorizing refugees are terribly wrong actions, and they go against the history of our nation.  Take time today to consider your own principles in your heart, and decide which side of history you will be on.  I hope you choose love, compassion, justice, and inclusive action.

                                        In Resistance, G.