(My kids and a few refugee friends playing together a few years ago)
This afternoon, I sat at my computer
and began to craft a pretty intense rebuttal to all the arguments being tossed
around about the Executive Order issued that has halted the US Refugee
Admission Program. Reasons why it matters that our current administration has
put a stop on refugee resettlement for the next few months. Reasons why it
matters that his executive order will be cutting the numbers of refugees
allowed to rebuild their lived in this country in half. Reasons why these
actions come from unfounded fears and with no empirical evidence to support
them. Statistics and resources from reputable
sources who are actually actively engaged in refugee resettlement instead of
merely slanted news source. I’ve laid this argument out time and time again
with facts in other writings, but I was going to try to do it again. But, then I had to step away from writing to go don
a pretend happy face and do some church stuff, with intentions to come home after
and pick up right where I left off.
However after all that, I found myself sitting late
at night in the parking lot of Walmart sobbing uncontrollably on the phone with
my mom, in a way that I have never really cried before. It was almost visceral.
I managed to somehow get it together and head inside, only to find myself
sobbing in the middle of the frozen food section. At Walmart. At 9:30pm. And I
started to pray and asked God what in the world was going on with me and
why was I so upset and immediately, the words of a song came to mind:
Heal my heart and make it clean, open up my
eyes to the things unseen, Show me how to love like you have loved me, Break my
heart for what breaks you, everything I am for your kingdom cause, As I walk
from earth into eternity. (Hosanna,
Hillsong)
It may not seem significant that those
words popped into my mind the exact moment I was having an emotional breakdown
in the Walmart, but to me, it was.
Because, you see, I have the pages of prayer journal after prayer journal of
those lyrics as the cry of my heart, literally written verbatim in the form of
a prayer to my God.
My weeping wasn’t the result of the
fact that I’ve been exhaustingly trying to explain the facts on this situation
and why it should matter to Christians. Why we as
believers should be outraged and vocal on this issue. It wasn’t because of the
arguments erupting on Facebook and comments on my posts and seeing the beliefs
of my friends play out on social media. It wasn’t because I’ve felt very lonely
and raw the last 24 hours as I’ve tried to speak up for the poor and defenseless.
It wasn’t even because the US Refugee Program is being threatened in such a
profound way. It’s because God was
answering my prayer. My heart is
absolutely breaking, shattering for what breaks His. And one of the things
that breaks His is when His children act out of fear, aligning themselves more
so with a political orientation than a heavenly one. And so, He told me to write. My heart has no
intention of shaming any fellow sister or brother in Christ. My prayer is that
through the power of the Holy Spirit and the word of God that is sharper than
any sword or tongue or even, pen, I can perhaps be used to be a tool of
conviction for any Christian who is
in support of the current restrictions on refugee resettlement in America.
Here’s the thing. In our lives, living
in this world, being in it, yet not of it, we are going to face times when we have to decide what systems
of belief supersede other systems of beliefs when they are in conflict. Many
Christians are spouting off rhetoric and arguments and logic that doesn’t align
with their confession of faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ,
but rather, in their belief and alignment with a political party. Stop. You,
sister and brother in Jesus, are not
called to follow a political party. You
are called to follow Jesus Christ.
Let’s ask the most important question in this argument for those who believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah, where would Jesus land here when it comes to
refugees?
Honestly, the amount of scripture that
shows God is wholeheartedly about followers of Him, caring for the persecuted
and marginalized of this world, is abundant. In fact, it’s pretty much the
whole point of the whole Bible. Remember this exchange Jesus had?
28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
29 “The most important one,” answered
Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[e] 30 Love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all
your strength.’[f] 31 The second is this:
‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[g] There is no commandment greater than
these.”
32 “Well
said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and
there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your
neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and
sacrifices.” 34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he
said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one
dared ask him any more questions.”
The
question of who is my neighbor is one
that Jesus addresses with the story of the Good Samaritan (see Luke 10:25-37).
Our neighbors, according to Christ, are beyond our cultural and national
boundaries. It’s beyond religious bounds. It’s
everyone.
So,
Jesus tells you and me, we have to love everyone.
Now, insert your arguments on how we can love from afar, but based on
Jesus’ example, love binds up wounds in
the flesh.
Jesus
talks about loving the least of our brothers and sisters in Christ (Matthew
25:31-46). He even says some are going to call out his name, proclaiming that
they are his followers, but at the day of judgement, he is going to say, I never knew you based on the
fact they never cared for the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger.
Some will argue, but we aren’t just
admitting brothers and sisters in Christ into this country, we could
potentially admit “enemies” into our midst (an argument that doesn’t take into
account the facts and how long the US refugee program and its track record in
terms of admitting the most vulnerable, persecuted people from the most war
torn and broken regions of the world, without incident). Jesus had something to
say about that as well:
27 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.
32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:27-36)
32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:27-36)
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if
he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap
burning coals on his head.e21 Do
not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:20-21)
He also left
each of us with a charge:
19 Therefore
go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
The truth is
most of us aren’t going hopping on a plane anytime soon to all nations and make disciples, but God in his ever-loving kindness
and sovereignty has presented us as Christians in America a way for the nations
to come to us. Refugees are the most
vulnerable, most abused and most terrorized in our world, and they are coming
here to find hope. Guess what
Christian? Your Jesus just gave you the nations on a silver platter, a way
for you to show them His love through your attitudes and actions towards people who are yearning for hope and yet, most
of you are knocking the plate out of His hand in the name of fear.
Jesus really
isn’t about making your life all nice and comfortable, in case you haven’t
gathered that yet. He didn’t pour out his life so you could have a sanitized
existence, free from any risk for His glory. He’s not about that life. He said
a life chasing after Him with all you’ve got, is only going to come from
denying yourself at every turn, from laying down your life for the gospel. There
is a cost in us doing all the things He called us to. It’s going to take us
pouring out our lives for things so much bigger than our comfort, our rights, and our “perceived” false sense of safety and security.
My friend,
if your political leanings tell you that this move by the President of the
United States is an acceptable one, I pray that you will let your leanings
towards the teachings of Christ to supersede them. I pray you won’t follow in
the exaggerated fears of your fellow Americans brought on by the confusion and
misinformation in the war of information being played out in the media and
Facebook. I pray you won’t take a soundbite you’ve heard and extrapolate it as a
backing for why this is ok and acceptable.
I know this issue can be confusing with so
many conflicting reports and data, but Jesus isn’t one bit confusing on where you should stand.
The world is
watching and they are chomping at the bit to label us as hypocrites and based
on some of the things I’ve seen, they aren’t missing the mark in terms of our
American Christianity in how we view the sanctity of life.
The prophet
Isaiah faced the same challenge in his day, to tell the people of God that
their actions and beliefs were not in
agreement with their professed faith. Their religiosity, a checklist of to do’s
instead of a heart bent on Him, was turning them into hypocrites. They had
forced others to pay debts that were unfair and then they would come before
God, ready to go through the motions of their religion. Isaiah recorded the
words of God to his spiritual brothers and sisters:
6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I
have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness[a] will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. 9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, 10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.11 The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. 12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings. (Isaiah 58:6-12)
and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness[a] will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. 9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, 10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.11 The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. 12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings. (Isaiah 58:6-12)
Oh,
that we may live in this kind of obedience! May we be a people who loosen the
chains of injustice, whether the hands
shackled look like ours or not. May we be agents willing to set the
oppressed free, whether they are from
America or not. May we provide the poor wanderer with shelter, no matter what religion they profess. May
we become repairers of the broken walls.
Fear
not, sister or brother in Christ. It’s going to cost us everything we have to live this out. But, your God is with you
every step of the way.
So,
you can choose to label those who are speaking out against this action as “bleeding
liberals.” You can repost articles attempting to support the president's actions. You can downplay the implications of this move by our
government and justify it. You can label this all a gross overreaction. But, you cannot do those things in the name
of Jesus.
8 Speak up for those who cannot speak
for themselves,
for the rights of all who are destitute.
9 Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.
9 Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.
Proverbs 31:8-9
Christian,
your voice should be the loudest in this fight.
And lest you
wonder if “destitute, poor, and needy” applies to refugees:
-21.3 million people have fled violence and
war with a fear for their lives from their country of origin due to persecution
based on their race, religion, ethnicity or political party (this doesn’t
include the other 40 plus million who are currently displaced due to war within
their countries). Of those, more than half are under the age of 18. Mamas, the
only reason your child isn’t included in this statistic is because of where you had the privilege of being born. These are our children.
- Syria is the current top producer of the
world’s greatest refugee population. Over 4 million refugees, the US only
accepted 11,000. Pull out a calculator. Figure out that percentage.
- The current order threatens to cut the
refugee admission program in half. Do some math. The past number of refugees
that were resettled in America: 110,000. Under this order, 50,000. Divide that
by the 21.3 million.
-Refugees are a vulnerable target for human
and sex trafficking.
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