#SharetheJourney – Jesus Christ, The Refugee
“Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night,
and went to Egypt, and remained there
until the death of Herod.”
Matthew 2:14-15
Jesus earliest memories would have been of living as a refugee. An ancient Jewish synagogue in Cairo still carries the memory of being the ex patriot community that had welcomed Joseph and Mary and their infant son. I visited there in 2004 and know that whether that old stone building is where it happened or not, Jesus first heard the words of the Torah concerning treatments of aliens while living in a foreign land on the run from a cruel dictator who would have killed his family for returning to their homeland.
“You shall not oppress a resident alien;
you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens
in the land of Egypt.”
-Exodus 23:9
Essential to Our Faith
Jesus would come to distill the essence of his teaching to Love God and Love your neighbor as yourself. He would then define neighbor in such as way as to make it clear that the term is inclusive of all persons, with an emphasis on the poor and needy. Christians then do not have the luxury of deciding whether we would like to care for refugees so much as deciding whether we want to follow Jesus. For those who seek to follow him, caring for widows, orphans, ans those in need, is all part of the journey that is essential to our faith rather than a possible extra curricular add on.
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Refugees Today
Today, the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) works with more than 10 million refugees around the world with another 4.8 million in the Middle East cared for by United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The sixth largest situation is the result of what is rightly termed Africa’s World War, the turmoil in the Democratic Republic of Congo that included fighters from Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Angola, Zimbabwe, and other nations. The conflict had such tragic consequences for civilian populations, especially women and children. This conflict led to untold suffering, including making the region the rape capital of the world.
#SharetheJourney
This week, my wife, Victoria, and I travel with a group of Pilgrims on a trip set up by Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM). We will be on an 11-day journey into the Great Lakes region of Africa to visit the Gihembe Refugee Camp in Rwanda, to meet refugees and those who work with them and observe the process through which these Congolese refugees are resettled to the United States.
In preparing for the trip, I have been immersing myself in the history of the conflict back to its precolonial roots through reading first King Leopold’s Ghost and then bringing the story forward with Africa’s World War. This would be an unbelievable story if while singular it were not also common. Unchecked greed led to a rape of the land and its people first in the creation of the world’s only colony under the power of not a nation, but a single person (Leopold II of Belgium). But then the independent African nation was led by those who learned the lessons of the colonizers all too well and likewise ran the Congo for primarily personal benefit. The history is well summed here by EMM: DRC Webinar
Prepare to be Changed
I don’t know what the trip will bring. I do know that travel like this brings change. I am open to being changed and I ask those who journey with us to likewise be open to change. For to encounter the stories of others is to be open to them in a different way. The Messiah, Jesus, was himself, in his humanity, shaped by the experience of growing up a refugee in Egypt, dependent on others making room for his family. This was of course no accident. God’s intent in the Incarnation was that in becoming human, God the Son would begin life with this refugee experience.
So we certainly do not go to take Christ to Kenya and Rwanda for God the Son, in his divinity, has never failed to be found in the refugee camps of the world. We go to experience Christ there and to share that journey with others. I hope you will #SharetheJourney. For we will also be returning with news of how you can share this journey too in your own church community.
Join the virtual pilgrimage using #ShareTheJourney or via Twitter (@EMMRefugees) or Facebook. Follow the trip’s blog: EMMRefugees.tumblr.com.
-The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
The images are Merson’s Flight Into Egypt and Christ Maryknoll by Br. Robert Lentz, OFM. You may purchase Lentz’ image by clicking on the icon above.
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