Today we’re going to jump a little – from the “contemplative” side of this missive to the “activist” side. I see them as 2 sides of the same coin – though perhaps of a currency without a country. Knowing ourselves, and our essence as God’s beloved, should also cause us to ask how we are to live in this world in which He has placed us. While it may be what He called the desert fathers to do, I personally don’t feel called to a hermitage in the desert to pray and garden all day long (though I would love to visit one of those for a week or so…). For me, and I believe for the vast majority of His children, God is calling us into a deeper knowing of who He is, and who we are as His beloved image-bearers, in order that we might be grounded in our job in the Ministry of Reconciliation. We are deputy ministers in this great department, and the job will not be done until He comes. So, how do we move into this world, as ministers of reconciliation – making right all that is wrong, and bringing it into alignment with the way He intended it to be? Herein lies the crux of Christian activism.
I have not said much about this particular issue in our world today, mostly because I try to only comment on stuff I know first hand, but silence is not the answer here. And even if I don’t know it all, I know enough to say something true. And I believe truth, in these situations, is sorely lacking. So, while we can let the politicians wrestle with the issues that are theirs, we can stand firmly in the things that are true – and which demand a response on our part as His children.
The issue is the situation on our southern border. This issue, in its essence, is not new. It’s just (relatively) new-to-us. For years, Americans, myself among them, have flown long hours and slept in uncomfortable conditions and faced challenges too great to name in order to bring relief and aid in the name of Jesus to refugees living on the border of a country neighboring their own. They live in squalor and deplorable situations, without adequate food, water, or hygiene. They are locked in places too small for their numbers without access to supplies, toilets, income-earning potential, or legal assistance. Most of the time, humans live by the adage “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know” – until one day, the devil you know just becomes so evil and awful that you’re willing to take your chances with the unknown devil. Just think about yourself – how bad would it have to get for you to take your chances on being locked up and having inadequate EVERYTHING? Very, very bad.
We call these “detention centers.” They are mostly brick-and-mortar structures. In Uganda and Kenya, these are “refugee camps,” cities of tents housing millions of Sudanese. In Guinea, these were refugee camps housing millions of Sierra Leoneans. In Greece and Italy, these are refugee camps housing millions of Syrians. It’s just the structure that is different. The rest is the same. Human beings, Image-bearers all, trying to escape some evil that is threatening them and their families to the point where they would risk death and degradation to find relief.
We are Kenya. We are Guinea. We are Greece. What we have on our southern border are refugee camps, filled with people risking everything in the hope of safety. Only the structure and the way we go about addressing them is different. The occupants are not.
Refugees. Usually, that word engenders compassion in the hearts and minds of Western Christians.
As long as those refugees are far, far away.
But what about when the refugees are 600 miles away, living in our own country? What do we do then? We call them “illegals” and put them in “detention centers” and address them using law enforcement officers. Words are important… They change everything.
But why are we moved to give and to go and to pray when the same situation occurs 3,000 miles away on the border of someone else’s country? Maybe because we know that ultimately, we won’t be bothered or inconvenienced – or changed.
But ultimately, it doesn’t really matter who THEY are or why they got there. Jesus cares how WE respond.
Let’s just ask the one question that is ours to wrestle with as children of the Most High God – “who are those people in those places, be they Syrian, or Sudanese, Sierra Leonean – or Salvadoran, or Guatemalan, or Honduran?” They are image-bearers. They are little incarnates. They are God-in-flesh, because they bear HIS image. They are Jesus.
“Whatever you do to the least of these my brothers and sisters, you have done to me.” – Jesus (Matt. 25:31-46)
| Here’s the article that got me contemplating this topic this morning, if you’re interested. But you don’t have to go far to find a million more. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/21/us/migrant-children-border-soap.html |