Act twenty one - Refuge by Paul Catterall
It's not exaggerating to say the world today is a divided, polarised place. Attitudes to the 'other' and, frankly, anything outside of our own culture, have shifted positions of fear into the mainstream. Now is the time to counter fear with generosity and ask the question – who is our neighbour?
"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,
I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me..."
Matthew 25:35–36 (NIV)
The Bible teaches us much about God's heart for the poor and the 'sojourner' – the stranger living amongst us. Jesus himself spent time as an asylum seeker in Egypt where his parents fled from Herod's genocide. There is a whole book in the Bible that tells the story of Ruth the Moabite 'refugee' who married Boaz. Have you ever wondered why Matthew lists Ruth and four other women in his genealogy of Jesus? Because quite simply the good news – the gospel – is for everyone whatever their background or past.
God calls us to love Him and to love our neighbour; these are the two most important commandments (Luke 10:27 and Matthew 22:37-39). Acts 1 tells us that we are to receive the Holy Spirit and then to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the world.
This was made very real for us at Jubilee Church Teesside when in 2000 we began to have visitors who were asylum seekers from the ends of the world. What was then a predominantly white British church was about to change. New friendships were spawned and the eyes of the church were opened to ways of responding to the many difficulties faced by the much wider refugee community living locally but made up of people from different faith backgrounds who had fled persecution and conflict and sought sanctuary in the UK. With the aim of showing the love of God to everyone seeking refuge, members of Jubilee Church got to work – a move that eventually led to the formation of Open Door North East.
One particular story really sums it all up. Kamilia (name changed) was a Muslim lady abused and rejected by her husband and then abandoned in the UK. She was sleeping in a shop storeroom when we first met her. When she eventually got her refugee status she came to say thank you and these are the words she said to us without realising that she was quoting the very words of Jesus:
'I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me.'
Choose how to complete this act...
GREEN OPTION: Sometimes the most generous thing we can do is educate ourselves on the issues. Take time today to look into which newspapers spread fear about refugees, then write to the companies who advertise in them (major supermarkets are a good place to start), asking them to remove their funding from the papers. You could also do your own research into migrant groups in your area.
YELLOW OPTION: Make a practical difference today for those seeking refuge. Men, this is your time for a clear-out (groups supporting refugees often report low numbers of good quality men's clothes). Or regularly donate tinned and dried food to those helping destitute asylum seekers or check out Welcome Boxes, a group who make arriving in a foreign land a little bit easier for refugees.
RED OPTION: Can you play a bigger role in reaching out and caring for asylum seekers and refugees who are far away from home? You might be just the person to set up a new Welcome Box project in your town, or offer help to Home for Good's work with refugee children, or support one of the many excellent The No Accommodation Network (NACCOM) member projects providing hosting and homes for asylum seekers left destitute and with no recourse to public funding in the UK.
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