Refugee Sunday

In our church calendar today is Refugee Sunday, and Anglican version of World Refugee Day. This was first celebrated on 20 June, 2001 by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to recognise the contributions of forcibly displaced people throughout the world.

Refugees are becoming a bigger political issue for us in New Zealand, and this Sunday offers us a chance to consider our response to them.

CWS reminds us that giving hospitality to the homeless, the traveller and stranger is at the core of the Judeo-Christian tradition. From the time of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar wandering in the desert to the present day, millions of people have fled their homes and countries. UNHCR reports there were 11,703,179 refugees, 23,925,555 internally displaced people and nearly 43 million of concern in December 2013.

Many people of Syria, Palestine and South Sudan join the long list of those who have fled their homes. In Syria the country is crumbling under the pressure of violence and sectarian strife. Another round of failing peace talks on the situation of Palestine and Israel gives no hint of a pathway forward for Palestinian refugees. In South Sudan deep seated rivalries have spurned brutal violence, hunger and a flood of refugees.

Today, CWS is asking churches to join in prayer and action for displaced people.

The theme in the readings for this Sunday is discernment – how we make decisions. All our readings invite us to make decisions for life – God’s life. In the Genesis reading we see Rebekah choosing to offer generous hospitality to not only Abraham’s servant but his animals as well. And when she is offered the possibility to go with this stranger to marry a man she has never heard of, let alone met, she sees the possibility of a different life and chooses life in this new place.

Paul continues his ongoing theological examination of our warring motivations, and what prevents us from embracing a different life.

And in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus offers a hash critique of those who oppose both John and him. He labels these so called worldly wise and powerful people children, too immature and ignorant to see what was happening around them, too filled with self-importance and too busy protecting the world as it is and their place in it. But to those deemed unimportant, ignorant, foolish, unworthy of any great attention, Jesus offers a glimpse of a different world, one that includes a place for them. And some of these like Rebekah say yes.

So what motivates us in our decision making? Is it protecting the world as it is and our place in it? Or have we the courage to glimpse a different world and join God’s work bringing that into being. When we apply this to refugees, how might we make decisions for a changed world, where there are no refugees, and where  those who are now displaced are offered the same generous hospitality Rebekah offered the servant of Abraham.