Wait, Wasn't Jesus a Refugee?

Photo by Magnus Wennman, http://www.refinery29.com/2015/
11/97460/where-syrian-refugee-children-sleep#slide-10

Last week our sisters and brothers in France were wounded in a brutal terrorist attack claiming the lives of 129 people and wounding over 350 more. This, like all other such attacks, have a blatant disregard for life...a heinous crime that can never be condoned or supported by anyone in their right mind. My congregation held them up in prayer on Sunday as well as teaching our young ones about God's presence in the midst of pain and suffering. Across various social media platforms I witnessed people changing their pictures to have a watermark of the French flag, plenty of #prayforparis posts, and yes...lots of prayers offered up to God. 

And yet this event also provided a proof for people to reject refugees from Syria on the basis that they might be letting in a terrorist. Such sentiments stem from one of the cancers of humanity, fear. I agree that we do not want any sort of attacks...ever. But are we willing to turn away from people in need?Will we tell people there is no room in the inn? I get it. We are scared of the possibilities of what could be, but that doesn't excuse us from being disciples.

North Dakota has been struggling with this issue. Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota has been facilitating the resettlement of refugees since the 1950s, yet just this year people have been voicing strong opinions against such activity. In fact, it has been such a heated topic in the area that police squad cars have had to watch over the executive director of LSS ND's house because of  threats to her and her family.

But here is the thing...

LSS is not taking as many as they can get in order to earn as much money as they can get, these new Americans have been placed here by the U.S. government. These new Americans are not sucking up all of the social services funds and resources, in fact according to Cass County, only 15% of  county assistance goes to New Americans. These new Americans are not hurting our economy, they are helping because they are taking the jobs that nobody wants! Yet that does not stop that insidious and infectious part of humanity we call fear.

So perhaps it is because of the fear of rekindling the flames of protest against the work of resettlement, or maybe it is because ND does not have a Syrian population in which to connect new immigrants, Lutheran Social Services of ND has made a statement that they are requesting not to have any of the Syrian refugees placed in this state. Instead they want to focus on settling the people they have in recent decades (people from Bhutan, Sudan, Iraq, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Cuba, Liberia, Rwanda, Burundi, Sierra Leone, and Ethiopia). While both may likely be driving factors, it seems as though LSS of ND has taken the easy way out of this conversation.

So what should the church do? 

We should live into our baptismal identities as God's children, as God's agents in the world, as God's disciples. 

You see discipleship is all about going out of the church walls and into the world to answer the cries of our neighbor. It is a deepening of engagement with the world, not a personal achievement. It is the Triune God who reshapes all of us in our baptisms to follow the new obedience of Jesus Christ and not our own wants, or fear for the matter. German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote:

But because Jesus' disciples act in simple obedience to their Lord, they view the extraordinary as the only normal act of obedience. According to Jesus' word, the disciples can do nothing else but be the light that shines. They do not do anything to accomplish this; they are the light while following Christ, looking only to their Lord. (Discipleship, 150)

Indeed, such an obedience to minister to people in need as that of refugees may seem to be extraordinary to the world, but for Christians is should not be. Not so much that this is a common occurrence, rather that the call to go to this neighbor is something which is readily and willingly done. This is because all cries from our sisters and brothers are met by the obedience of disciples in their calls of service.                                                                                                                       

But for those who need a refresher, here's what Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew about what it means to serve God and the world:

...for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

Now is the time to look at ourselves and take an inventory of what we are doing in our discipleship. Are we going to lock our doors, our hearts, our minds, our borders, our lives from those who so desperately need God's love? Are we going to declare to people that there is no room in the inn when we could find some? Now is the time for the radical hospitality of God. To see that lived out in a frightened world is going to to take bold and courageous action.

We are called to be the light that shines.
     W are called to be disciples.
          We are called to love our neighbors. 
               We are called to love the least of these.

I pray that as we look to the coming season of Advent, a season of hopeful waiting for the coming of God, we find ourselves welcoming the refugee infant. The lowly babe born in a manger, Jesus.

-Tom