The role of the pastor, as a shepherd of disciples and converts, is one of care and compassion.  Whether you live by green pastures or find your flock in a draught-stricken desert, pastors find their vocation in laying down themselves for their flock and guiding their disciples as the Spirit leads them.  Below follows quotes from two pastors serving on the fringe of hot-button issues in America, immigration and war.  In such polarizing areas of thought it is thought-provoking to hear from fellow Christians who are serving in dark places.

In Alien Nation, the story of Isaac Canales, a Harvard graduate serves amongst illegal immigrants in California and yearns for Christians to take up the biblical calls to care for the alien.  Here are three quotes to ponder:

''My heart is thrilled as they share their testimonies of how God brought them to the United States in a car trunk, under a truck chassis, walking, swimming, or through tunnels. Many risked death walking through the desert. But they all came with God's help and with ours. I do not believe we are being politically defiant by helping them to the land of promise. This is our religious experience. The stories of faith they share make God real, and our mercy right.''

''In other words God loves the immigrants among us, and we are called to love them as well. However unsettling this may be, it is the American church's mandate to embrace God's theology of welcome in Christ Jesus. Our task as a church is not to judge immigrants but to love them, to become the arms of Christ, not the hands of tyranny. This is our prophetic and Christian duty.''

''Is the kingdom for the documented only?''

In Six Found Guilty, Jesuit priest John Dear was arrested along with others for trying to talk to a US Senator.  In a brash show of para-military prowness, a SWAT team was sent to arrest a group of nine anti-war activists carrying a petition.  Kind of ironic for a small group of nonviolent activists to be treated like terrorists.  In a roundabout way, I think their point was made.  Dear is more polarizing than Canales, as he outlines his dynamic calling:

''Our task is permanent, nonviolent resistance against the culture of war; nonviolence as a way of life; and full-time non-cooperation with violence, war, and empire.''

I don't think it is necessary to discuss the politics of John Dear at this point.  I do believe that his actions raise the question: How is a pastor supposed to balance their discipleship and prophetic responsibilities?  Does he go too far?  Or should more pastors lead their flocks in a dynamic way?  Your thoughts?