In recent days I have seen posted on Facebook the billboard that has been erected in our city. On it, is the picture of a person running in the next election with the caption ‘Say no to mass immigration.” It has been the topic of many conversations.
Not Acceptable – We Should Be OUTRAGED
One only has to listen to the radio, watch TV, flip through Facebook or other social media to be inundated with stories of people fleeing their homeland in search of freedom or are leaving by choice for a better way of life. Some welcome others with open arms and work to make refugees feel comfortable and empowered. Others, like the sentiment captured in the billboard, feel threatened by those deemed different or outside and do not want to share their space. This attitude has led to detentions, cruel treatment, deportation, separation of families – not just in days gone by but right here, right now.
We are all familiar with the stories from the south of families being detained at borders and children being kept in cages. As people of faith, living in a place of deep privilege …
We should be outraged!
We should be standing up and speaking out!
This is not acceptable in any way, shape or form.
Jesus spent his ministry opening doors and tearing down boundaries. He told us that the greatest commandment was to love our neighbor as ourselves. Our own story is one of wandering and fleeing and searching. Time and time again the stories of the ancestors recount being led by Divine presence from slavery into freedom, being led to the ‘promised land’ in search of a place where we could worship, work and play without retribution.
Abraham and Sarah left their home and set out to find a new place
Jacob fled after an encounter with his brother to settle in a new land
Moses led our people out of slavery in Egypt, across the red sea and were nomads for many years
Naomi and Elimelech fled a famine in their own country to find a home and food in another
Mary and Joseph took the baby Jesus, under the cover of darkness and fled into Egypt
These are just some of the journeys our people have taken. Imagine how different our story would have been if any one of these were turned away, thrown in jail, sent back or killed. Imagine what our lives would be like had Jesus never grown into a man whose mission and ministry directs the path we walk!
In Canada we are blessed with large, unused tracks of land, an abundance of resources, and the freedom to be who we are. We proudly sing “God keep our land, glorious and free”. This freedom extends to all who would find a home in this place. With the possible exception of the First Nations people of this land we have all come from somewhere else, by choice or necessity, to build a home and find a space where we can be all that we are created to be. And we are blessed by the diversity among us with the freedom to learn and grow, laugh and love, work and worship as we choose.
May it always be so.
Blessings
Valerie
© 2019 Rev. Valerie Peyton Kingsbury. All rights reserved.