Choosing Life for Others

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.

The issue of Refugees seems to have lessened for us in New Zealand. We are currently unable to take any refugees as our borders remain shut. But the need around the world continues to grow. Ahead of World Refugee Day on 20 June, the United Nations announced a staggering 79.5 million or one in 97 people displaced, up from 70.8 million the year before. The UN recorded 29.6 million refugees in its 2019 figures.  Five countries account for two-thirds of people who have crossed borders to escape violence and persecution: Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Myanmar.   “With no resolution in sight, these conflict zones are likely to push more people from their homes, increasing levels of trauma and suffering.  Covid-19 has not stopped conflict and is one more risk they face,” says Pauline McKay, National Director. Some 80 per cent of countries hosting displaced people are facing acute food insecurity, malnutrition, and climate and other disaster risk.

CWS partners are doing everything they can to protect displaced people from Covid-19, hunger, and danger.  They are providing personal protective equipment, emergency food supplies and advice on Covid-19.  They reminds us that giving hospitality to the homeless, the traveller and stranger is at the core of the Judeo-Christian tradition. 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.