What does the Bible say about refugees and how should we as Christians apply it? That's what the Gave Foundation published the book The stranger in our midst, a biblical exploration. Rev Gé Drayer read the book and wrote a blog about it.
The stranger is our neighbour
Fortunately, many churches are paying attention to refugees and asylum seekers. This is necessary: people driven from their homes - by human violence or natural disasters - we as Christians must support and help them. Some of them stay in the region they came from. Others come this way, to our country. Then the help that is asked for becomes very practical and that is where churches and church people often come in.
In many churches, especially where there is an AZC nearby, people are fortunately working very hard to accommodate refugees and asylum seekers. In doing so, many Christians assume that the Bible more or less commands this. They derive their motivation to work for refugees from Bible texts that call to love and care for strangers. That an appeal to such texts is quite rattling is something you will discover when reading this book.
I enjoyed reading the book. It reads reasonably easily and it is a thorough account of what the Bible says about 'the stranger'. That the Bible uses a number of words with different connotations for stranger, she explains very nicely and thoroughly. The format is somewhat technical: lots of notes (254 in total) complete the story. This makes the book more of a real word study, which, as I said, reads reasonably easily.
I very much appreciate that the author, Lianne van der Zee, has dared to 'just' write down clearly that you cannot transpose the way the Bible talks about strangers one-to-one to our time and situation. A very justified conclusion! And so other arguments need to be put on the table, to provide a better biblical rationale for our help and support to foreigners.
I think the arguments Van der Zee then puts on the table are just as biblical, but not as easy to find; the whole biblical context is brought in. She then arrives at five arguments why we should help as Christians. I take them verbatim here for a moment:
- The motivation for mercy: act as God acted with you
- The social context: applying on a local scale
- The goal: the worship of God by all nations
- The need: prevention for vulnerable refugees and fellow Christians
- The consequences: blessing or judgement.
I am not going to elaborate on these arguments here, but they are, in my humble opinion, good and valid arguments for us as Christians and as churches to stand up for foreigners.
What she writes is a good counterpoint to what many political parties - with the exception of a few! - write in their programmes these days. But the arguments also help to leave politics to politics. I liked a sentence in this context: ''What does it mean for me as an individual Christian or as a local church to love strangers in my neighbourhood?' By asking this question, one can stay away from the tendency to blame entire refugee problem on the government."
This sentence comes from the last chapter, where Van der Zee gently bridges to today. From me, she could have said more there and been clearer: we have to accept people we encounter and deal with, regardless of whether they are strangers, "for the glory of God, as Christ accepted us". The implication of this perhaps penetrates Christians far too little
In short: 'The stranger in our midst, a biblical exploration' is a book to study for yourself and then get started: Accept each other in honour of God... he or she is also your neighbour! Heartily recommended!
Ordering
The stranger in our midst, a biblical exploration has been published by Scholten Publishers. It is for sale in the Gave webshop, at publisher Scholten and in bookstores.
Podcast and video series
Gave made a video series on Youtube and a podcast series on Spotify to the book.
