"What message are we
sending?" Sermon preached by Rev. Jeanette Mathews Refugee Sunday, 24 August 2003 Some Australians who research their family origins feel quite proud to know they are descended in part from convicts. Our family traces back to John Warby and Sarah Bentley, a pair of convicts who were both deported to Australia from England in the late 1700s. Soon after they arrived here they were married and had 14 children: our family's line comes from their second son Benjamin. We know that John Warby made good because the Warby Ranges near Wangaratta in Victoria are named after him. Recently I was sent an email referring me to the Proceedings of the Old Bailey where it is possible to download a court record of trials held back in the 1700s. The record of Sarah Bentley's trial for "Simple Grand Larceny" from 17 September 1795 can be found there. At the age of 16 years she was indicted for feloniously stealing two cotton gowns, value 5s. a cloth cloak, value 5s. a check linen apron, value 6d. a muslin check handkerchief, value 6d, and a shawl handkerchief, value 1s. After evidence by the wife of the owner of these items, and a pawnbroker who was offered the items, she was found guilty and her punishment was transportation for seven years. She arrived in Sydney on a tall ship some six months later. Towards the end of 2001 a group of "ordinary Australians" living in and around Sydney heeded the words of aboriginal activist Rebecca Bear Wingfield who referred to white Australians as "Boat People". They formed a network called "We are all boat people" and their website states: "Pretty well everyone in this country who's not indigenous is a boat person, or at least their ancestors were. ... Remember who we are?! How we got here... what our ancestors fled... we are ALL Boat People." Seeing ourselves in this light gives us an opportunity to identify with refugees and asylum seekers who come to our shores today, many of them still in boats. Some of our ancestors went straight behind bars when they arrived, but many were able to gain freedom and take up the opportunities that this wide empty land offered to start a new life. Here there were looser class structures so that some were able to leave poverty and the need for larceny behind and find a future filled with hope. I During the last few weeks Thorwald has been preaching about the Israelite people in exile, and reminding us that the creation story in Genesis was written at a time when the people of Israel were in crisis. The purpose of telling the story of God's creation of a good world out of chaos was to encourage and remind these people in exile who they are and what sort of God they worshipped. The passage we read this morning from Isaiah is from the same period and has a similar message. It is a message of good news, of peace, of comfort, encouragement and hope. The passage starts off with a reference to the messenger, the one who is bringing this good news to a people bowed down by despair, a people who are away from their homeland and surrounded by a different nationality, culture and race. Who were these people of Zion? A people of peace, salvation; a people of good news. What sort of God sent the message? A God who comforts, who saves, whose love and mercy can and must be seen by all the nations. A God who is welcoming, expansive, inclusive. Now it is true that some parts of the Old Testament, such as Joshua and Ezra and Nehemiah, emphasize the Israelites as the chosen people who won't tolerate the presence of others. But these have to be considered against the many other passages such as these we find in the second part of Isaiah which carry this message of welcoming, inclusive good news. It seems that Jesus stood in this trajectory, because in his life recorded in the Gospels we hear the message again, of a God who is willing to show love to all the world, a God who is for others. As followers of Jesus we also stand in this tradition and are messengers of this God. Our calling as the people of God is to take the good news to those around us, especially those who, like the people of exile, live without seeing a hope for the future. II But we also have to hear the second part of Isaiah's message to those in exile if we are to have a relevant message for those who are suffering today. It is in this part of the book that we hear of the Suffering Servant - the one who was chosen by God to bear the sufferings of the world. Listen to the language used in the passage: "Many were astonished at him; He shall startle many nations; Who has believed what we have heard? He was despised and held of no account." We may well ask with the Israelites, "Could the God of hope really be seen in such a person?" But God's message was Yes - through this servant, suffering is taken into the very being of God. The ugliness and evil of this world's experiences are so important that God is willing to share them. It is sobering to know that some have called the 20th century the century of refugees, and others have called it the century of genocide. So much has been achieved in the last 100 years and yet so many are still suffering. And so far it doesn't seem as if the 21st century will be any better. In our time many experience exile, many feel rejected and despised. Listen to the voices of some refugees: A 15 year-old girl says "My father sent me away to save my life. But here in Australia I am persecuted. I cannot go home to find my family and I cannot have freedom." A Bangladeshi asylum seeker said "My hope is pie in the sky.. the Australian government want to convey the message we don't care what happens to you, go somewhere, just don't stay here." A Bhutanese refugee says "The frustrating refugee life seems to have no end. It pains me very much to be a member of a society living on international charity. I have no answers to the questions of my children who ask me often, daddy, where are we from? Why are we living here? I am living my life hoping for a change." What can our message be to such people? If witnessing to the good news of God's love for the world is integral to our faith, then our message must be one of hope, of new life, of new possibilities. Those refugees and asylum seekers who have had contact with our church have heard this message. Recently a representative of the families from Kosovo asked me how they can express their appreciation for our church's support of them. Letters that come from the Mae La refugee camp are always prefaced by words like "we thank God for your love, and for your help." A woman who was in detention in 2000 but who now lives as a permanent resident in Canberra asked me some months ago for a copy of every letter and email that was sent on her family's behalf by myself and our church, because she wanted to keep a tangible record of the support they received at their time of need. But isn't it true that our current policies of deterrence also "send a message" to refugees and asylum seekers - a message that they are not welcome, that there is no room for them, that we in Australia are not willing to expand our good fortune to embrace others. There are approximately 23 million refugees in our world today. In the 1980s we hosted 20,000 refugees a year. Now our target is 12,000 and that target is sometimes not reached. In October last year Australia along with 61 other nations committed ourselves to protect rather than reject refugees. We give $14 million annually to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, but then spend $145 million a year on detention centres and $243 million on coastal surveillance. What message are we sending? III Today we have also read a story from the Gospel of Luke. Luke's gospel has a strong theme of hospitality running through it, with eight stories recording conversations around a meal table. Think of the great banquet that Levi the tax collector gave when he became a follower of Jesus, or the meal graciously hosted by Martha and Mary, or the invitation of Zaccheus, or the parable of the wedding banquet where the host had to send out to the highways and byways for guests to fill the seats. Often, and sometimes surprisingly for the hosts, the conversations at these meals are about the inclusive and welcoming nature of the kingdom of God. In the story we read Jesus was invited to the house of a Pharisee. Despite the invitation, Jesus had not been shown proper hospitality until a woman: outcast, unwelcome, identified as a sinner, came and welcomed him. Out of the little she had to offer, she gave much. A recurring theme in stories of those who have befriended refugees in our country is the experience of their generosity, their hospitality. Out of their gratitude for the welcome shown to them comes a great generosity of spirit. They who have little give much. In this they have something to teach us, who have so much.. If God has identified with suffering and intends to include the whole world in his love; if Jesus was concerned to welcome even the marginalized, then how can we as followers of this God show hospitality to the refugee and the asylum seeker? Some ways have been incorporated into our services today: to sign your name to a letter asking for an act of grace for the Berisha family, to donate phone cards or money to support those in detention and the free legal work being done on their behalf. Some of our church members already write to individuals in detention, some have visited detention centres to see conditions first hand. Some show their support with bumper stickers or by attending rallies (there is one next Saturday in Garema Place). We noticed a letter to the editor in the Canberra Times this week from a child appealing that his refugee friend from the soccer team be allowed to stay in Canberra, so even children can be involved in welcoming refugees. As a church we have responded well to requests for household goods, and it was great to have a full table at the fundraising dinner this week in support of the Refugee Advocacy Service of South Australia that coordinates pro-bono work for refugees. Another thing that can be done is to be well informed about government policy and international law and practice regulated by UNHCR and Amnesty international. Some information pages are available on the porch table and tonight's sunday@seven will have a greater emphasis on sharing information and ideas. The famous words of Jesus in Matthew 25 are especially applicable when we think about what our response should be to refugees and asylum seekers - "I was a stranger and you welcomed me.just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it for me" (Matt 25:35,40). IV Today I have tried to reflect on Refugee Sunday by considering some biblical texts and their message for the community of faith in their day, and the message that is still relevant in our day. God's message to those in exile was one of comfort, of hope, and of welcome but also a desire to identify with their suffering. We are to be God's messengers. Jesus' teaching in the gospel of Luke was that the hospitality extended to him by those who were marginalized in society was a hospitality that came from the heart of the Kingdom of God. We are to show that sort of hospitality if we are part of God's kingdom, and friends and followers of Jesus. J.M.
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