If Gentiles can become Jews – then anyone can become anything
That is the new dispensation – announced by St Paul – Gentiles of all tribes, nationalities, and countries of origin flocking into God’s kingdom as members of the “New Israel”, adopted by faith in Jesus, not by works of Jewish law, nor membership of the Jewish Nation.
St Paul counted as rubbish, trash, garbage, – anything that associated him with the old exclusive race and nationality to which he once belonged: being born a Jew, into an exclusive Jewish tribe, Jewish circumcision on the 8th day, all his honours at the very best Jewish University, belonging to the strictest Jewish sect of Pharisees & being one of its strictest practitioners – all that was abandoned by Paul as meaningless once he joined the international community of Christians alongside the previously hated Gentiles from every country & nationality under the Sun.
The only thing that matters in the new dispensation is not where you come from – but do you have faith in Jesus. Social barriers, class barriers, economic distinctions, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, age and every other distinction and barrier between peoples of this tiny overcrowded planet are swept aside by the explosive arrival of the Kingdom of God at Pentecost.
The only “test of belonging” to be asked of people now is “do you belong to Jesus – are you justified by faith in Him? Have you abandoned all reliance on your wealth, status, country of birth, educational attainment, nationality, and power – none of which make a shred of difference to your entitlement to access the privileges of the Kingdom. All that matters now is: do you have faith in Jesus Christ – that, and that alone, renders you righteous, that and that alone gives you the right to access the privileges of His Kingdom – in the country of the blessed.
What a nonsense this makes of the, inefficient, pettifogging, Dickensian workings of our asylum system, not only here in the UK, but across much of the developed world. All the meanness, blunders, wrong decisions, & sheer Scroogeness of it all; about which you can read in John Willmer’s excellent article in your parish magazine; and in the reports from Freedom from Torture, and the London Churches Refugee Hardship Fund to which he refers.
While we here in Britain make access to our Kingdom and its privileges ever more impenetrable and impossible, so across the world millions of refugees and asylum seekers are fleeing war, famine, pestilence, torture, & oppression to shiver out their bleak existences in camps, and drains and deserts on the margins of civilisation leading short, nasty and brutal lives that all too often peter out into waste and nothingness; or worse.
OF COURSE we say, wringing our hands, nothing can be done – problem is intractable, can’t risk being flooded with needy people – its how the world is – it’s their problem not ours – for all its horror and its failings, there’s nothing to be done.
And yet, and yet…… as I read in the daily office on the day I wrote these words:
“Oh Lord our Governor –
You have made human beings little lower than the angels
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands
And you have PUT ALL THINGS UNDER THEIR FEET,
All sheep and oxen, even the wild beasts of the fields…..
So presumably he has put our national asylum arrangements, & the governance of the world & its nations under our feet and given us dominion over them.
In other words – it doesn’t have to be like this – it could be different.
We could have a much fairer, more generous, more self sacrificial, more accommodating, less punitive more inclusive asylum system that took as its starting point that all men and women and children on this planet are our brothers and sisters for whose welfare we are accountable to God
and that we are Not to neglect to show hospitality to strangers, but to love the alien as ourselves
and that in God’s eyes Nationality is not relevant to this issue – & it will be no excuse to say to him on Judgement day – ” But they were foreigners Lord, they should have gone back to their own country to be looked after – they weren’t one of ours so it wasn’t our job to look after them.
The Lord will reply “in me Chris, there is neither Jew nor Greek, no male nor female, nor slave nor free – all are one & equally important.
And if we wring our hands & say, “but Lord the System was against us – it was the structures & the Treaties, & the laws, & the practices of our governments & other governments & international bodies that made things that way & there was just nothing we could do about it, He presumably will reply
“I put all things under your feet –
Everything in creation
so why didn’t you get organised & sort it out.
I told you to dedicate the freedom I gave you to my service, so that you, & the asylum seekers. & all creation, could be brought to the glorious liberty of the children of God.
To paraphrase President John F Kennedy: we may think that theGlobal situation that creates millions of asylum seekers is impossible to resolve…..
& we may think that a fair & just asylum system cannot be devised or operated, but these are dangerous & defeatist beliefs.
They lead us to the conclusion that millions of asylum seekers around the world are doomed; and that the human race is doomed to perpetual conflict & diasters – gripped by forces we cannot control.
As people of Hope Christians cannot accept such Fatalism. As our collect reminds us God has broken the Tyranny of sin & poured His Spirit into out hearts PRECISELY in order that we might work to bring all creation to the glorious liberty of the children of God. And these words have practical application to the political, social & economic affairs of nations & the world. Christians of all people must surely believe that no problem of human destiny is beyond human beings to resolve.
By God’s Grace, man’s reason & spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable. And as people of faith, we must believe that, by God’s grace, we can do it again. Not only in relation to the seemingly intractable causes that force millions to seek asylum, but also in relation to the institutions & concrete agreements that will have to be established to fairly, justly and humanely accommodate & relieve the sufferings of these asylum seekers. Thy kingdom, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.
Now this will require nothing short of a revolution in our attitudes towards our fellow men & women across the globe – our fellow citizens, our neighbours on this tiny overcrowded planet who we are commanded to love as ourselves, regardless of national, ethnic & religious boundaries.
And this in turn will require POLITICAL vision to work to establish global structures of governance that order the world & its resources for the benefit of all its citizens. Global institutions, to which nations arrangements by mutual agreement will have to be subordinate.
President John F Kennedy, a Roman Catholic , was deeply inspired by Pope John 23rd’s encyclical “Pacem in Terris” which was published in the final year of his life following the Cuban Missile Crisis, when he dedicated himself to the unrelenting pursuit of peace & the establishing of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty & the Nuclear Non proliferation Pact – the fruits of which we continue to enjoy today in a world spared the terror of an unfettered nuclear arms race and nuclear testing.
“Pacem in Terris” is a passionate and compelling rallying cry to all people of goodwill to work together to build a better world.
That’s what the plight of todays asylum seekers SCREAMS out at us.
That’s what God is ROARING in our ears this REFUGEE WEEK as we teeter on the brink of fatalism; as give up hope that its even worth trying to build a better world.
But it is!…………. it is! And such a world will not be achieved, as John Kennedy said, by a sudden revolution in human nature, but by the gradual evolution of human institutions; based on the laws that, as John 23rd said, God the Father of the universe has inscribed in men’s nature.
These laws, he says, clearly indicate how a man must behave towards his fellows in society, and how mutual relations between the members of a state and its officials are to be conducted.
They show too what principles must govern the relations between states; and finally, what should be the relations between individuals, or states, on the one hand, and the world wide community of nations on the other. Men’s common interests make it imperative that at long last a world-wide community of nations be established, at the heart of which is the imperative to respect the human rights of all and each person on earth to flourish in freedom and with dignity and to provide resources to make this possible.
That’s why God has “broken the tyranny of sin in Christ” – that’s why He begs us today in our collect to recommit ourselves and to beg Him for the gift of His Spirit & His Grace “that we might dedicate our freedom to His service so that we and all creation may be brought to the glorious liberty of the children of God” – in this world, in our history. Amen