MY second computer is full of documents, some dating back to my feisty days as a ‘younger’ priest. One that I found are my notes for a talk at University about Refugees. I reproduce them here because they seem relevant to today.
Many may have watched the new series The Bible on Chanel 9, at almost prime time on Saturday. It was well acted, technically good and dynamic (it flowed). It was sequential from Creation to the Exodus, but it took glimpses of the major narratives, from Abraham, Sarah and Isaac; Hagar (slave girl) and Nathaniel; Lot and his wife to the binding sacrifice of Isaac. Then, enters Moses and the Exodus.
The theme was clear, long time passed, but faith in God must be maintained. That God was the God of Abraham and Isaac. The line was established and they were the people of God. They were migrants, looking for a land, family and security. A place to work and call home. They were not welcomed in the Sinai, and Sodom was a temporary refuge for Lot, who “wavered in faith” and lost out in that society of inhospitality – Sodomites – only to rejoin the tested faith of Abraham his uncle. Faith survived but not without further testing under Moses and the wilderness experience and slavery, finally liberated by the Exodus.
These narratives were very powerfully rendered in the film of the Bible. We can see that they remain potent stories for the people today.
Leaving aside questions of Biblical interpretation, fundamentalism and tools of analysis, just the narrative has the power to speak to us. Its language is telling at this moment of moral decisiveness for Australians confronted by a record number of migrants, of different cultures, with mixed motives to leave their land and home. Are we ready to accept exiles?
Leaving aside the International asylum question: What is the moral path forward? Is it in the move to despatch people into exile and slavery; in penal settlements in other countries? Is it to follow the popularist views of Alan Jones and John Laws? To be lackies to the political parlours of power and Gestapo tactics masquerading as policy?
Are we not called to live our better selves and to honor the traditions of generosity after the War (1939-45) in welcoming the stranger? Let us listen to Isaiah, quoted by Matthew, in reference to Jesus, “He will not break the crushed reed, nor put out the smouldering wick, till he has led the truth to victory”.
Stop the boats by all means, but do not turn away the people of God – for there is only one God. But first, stop the lie that politics is paramount to morality. Do what is hard because it is right and have no other compass in this whole tardy affair.