Refugee Sunday sermon

It's the Australian National Council of Churches Refugee Sunday today (as opposed to World Refugee Day which was a couple of months ago) & I preached for the first time in the morning service (the bigger service, there were over a hundred people) & the first time at all for over 3 years. I spoke after the minister who gave that stats (like 90% of arrivals detained are eventually recognised as genuine refugees by the governments own figures). I spoke for 7 minutes, but the record for the shortest sermon is held by Paul Zanardo, who spoke for 3 minutes.

It’s All Relative

I titled this mini-sermon “It’s All Relative” because God is relational, the gospel is relational; salvation is about having a right relationship with God which results in a right relationship with people; sin is what breaks relationship; indeed the meaning of life, the universe & everything is not 42 as readers of Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy might think, but love, which is about how we relate to others.

God is relational. He is father, son, & Holy Spirit & existed together in relationship before (or outside of) time. Being in relationship with himself he didn’t need to create humans out of loneliness, but he created us out of his love. His desire was that we would have relationship with him & with one another, but by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good & evil we rejected our dependence on God to know what was right & sought independence, breaking our relationship with God & establishing a relationship with Satan, or the accuser (Satan & devil both mean accuser in Hebrew & Greek respectively). Having broken our relationship with him he sought to re-establish that relationship through the cross, where he momentarily broke relationship with himself, and as Jesus took our sin, which is anything that separates us from God, upon himself, & the father could not look upon him. I don’t really understand how he did this when Jesus and the father are one, but by taking what breaks our relationship with God upon himself, dying with it but rising from the dead as conqueror over it, he re-established our relationship with God for anyone who wants it.

One way of looking at sin is that it is anything that damages relationship. Primarily our relationship with God, but most of what damages our relationship with God are the things we do that damage our relationship with one another. If we are the cause of a broken relationship with another, we have damaged our relationship with God and need forgiveness, cleansing & the strength & wisdom to rectify the situation, which we get from God by asking. The whole gospel is relational. One way of looking at salvation is being brought into a right relationship with God, which will bring us into a right relationship with people.

In MT 22:37-40 ‘Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”’

And in JN 13:34f. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

And Paul says in RO 13:8-10 ‘Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to its neighbour. Therefore love is the fulfilment of the law.’

Everything is about how we relate to one another, and the standard is the love of Jesus. So if the meaning of life, the universe, & everything is love, who are we to love? One of the things God wants from us is to stretch ourselves and reach out to people who we would not normally have reached out to, particularly those having a hard time. For example:

PR 19:17 ‘He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done.’

LK 14:13f. “But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Widows, orphans, the poor & aliens (or refugees) feature prominently in God’s plans & in Scripture. The word alien (which means a refugee) or aliens are used over 70 times in the bible where God is telling his people to love, provide for, share with, grant justice to, look after & not to oppress them, reminding them that they (the Israelites) were or are aliens, or that we are aliens & slaves, telling his people that they (his people) are under the same law and are considered the same in his sight as the aliens, & that God loves & provides for them & watches over their ways. For example:

EX 22:21 “Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt.”

LEV 24:22 “You are to have the same law for the alien and the native-born. I am the LORD your God.”

ZEC 7:10 ‘Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.’

In EPH 2:10 we read ‘For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.’

It is clear from the Scriptures that some of these good works are looking after the poor, widows, orphans, refugees and basically anyone having a hard time. Here’s how Jesus describes his work:

LK 4:16-21 ‘He [Jesus] went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17 The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
LK 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
LK 4:19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.”
LK 4:20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21 and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”’

As people called to do the work of Christ, we are called to preach good news to the poor, proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour, or in other words to reach out in love to everyone having a hard time. So what are some things we can do for refugees?

One thing is to be informed about what is going on by subscribing to a free newsletter by one of the refugee advocacy groups. Even if you think your not up to doing anything about the situation refugees in this country are in it’s a good idea to subscribe to such a newsletter because the information way well motivate you to take some action. I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome & although I have been concerned about the situation for refugees in this country for several years, I hardly have any energy. Subscribing to email newsletters has motivated me to write to refugees, march in a couple of marches, attempt to visit refugees in detention & preach this sermon in the last year or so & I will write to my local MP next.

Another thing is writing to refugees in detention. If you would like more information about any of these activities, ask me afterwards.

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Blessings,
Joe :-)