
“A voice was heard in Ramah,
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled, because they are no more. Matthew 2:18”
Listen to: "If We Only Have Love"
(Quand on n'a que l'amour) (various artists, Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris"Ensemble, Original off-Broadway Cast Recording)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9ILw3D5yrU
(see below for lyrics)
So our hearts were broken again.
Last Friday, November 13, terrorists executed well-timed attacks in Paris, France, that killed more than 120 people, and left 352 seriously wounded. The self-proclaimed, extremist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or often ISIS), is claiming victory. They boasted of master-minding of the bombing in Beirut on November 12, killing 43 people. They are bragging of downing the Russian airliner on October 31, killing 241 civilians. They are in part, one of the reasons for the mass exodus of refugees in Syria. They are the Frankenstein created in the aftermath of the Iraqi wars; they claim a religion that the vast majority of Muslims do not recognize, but perhaps the psychopaths of history would: Hitler, Mao, Stalin, and Lenin.
For this reason we must remember that this is not a war about religion. Religion is being perverted and used as a pretext to give credence to ISIL’s oppressive plans. Muslims are the greatest victims of ISIL to date and if social media is true, they are vociferously taking a stand against ISIL. ISIL, meanwhile, riding on their delusions, is striking out at the nations of the world, now claiming New York City is also on the list.
How do we respond?
If we sit for a while with the images of Paris and Beirut, with the images of swarming refugees, many different feelings may emerge. Compassion. Despair. Anger. Resentment. Numbness. We become also aware of the other hurts in our world that happen every day in some places in the world that don’t make it in the daily news. There are some hurts and pain known only to the heart of God. Opening our hurts to these hurts gives us the ability to embrace the larger pain of the world through Christ.
This is possible because we have the gift of prayer and we can pray for all the suffering people, because they are our brothers and sisters. God can do this by refashioning our hearts as he says through the prophet Ezekiel: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. (36:26). We must not turn away in despair, but allow the suffering of others to connect us to our humanity, as God intended.
This means that we are capable of a heart and loving people very different than ourselves. We are reminded that caring for refugees is a key theme of Scripture. Here are just a few: When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.
(Leviticus 19:33-34)
Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt. (Exodus 23:9)
Jesus himself said: "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ (Matthew 25:25-36).
We do not get to choose to love just when it’s convenient and safe. We must love because it is right to do so. The author-theologian, C. S. Lewis once observed that “to love is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken.” So amidst the cries about closing borders, turning away refugees because terrorists are possibly planted among them, we need to think and pray about the words of Scripture.
We need to think about love.
We need to think carefully, because closing down and living in fear is exactly how ISIL wants us to do.
Jesus came, lived and died for us to show us to live fearlessly, fully and to care for those whom the world pushes aside.
While states across the country are claiming they will refuse to accept refugees from Syria, France is proclaiming it will honor its promise to accept 30,000 more refugees over the next two years. As we ponder this question as we approach Christmas, we face a glaring story of the holy season that is often overlooked. You see, Matthew tells us of another psychopathic king, Herod, who went on a rampage (Matthew 2:13-18) and had all the baby boys under the age of two murdered in Bethlehem.
How many escaped we are not certain. We know Mary and Joseph fled with Jesus, with what little they had to Egypt. So Jesus began life as a refugee. Our Lord understands what being displaced means. Jesus knows what it feels like to be at the mercy of strangers, and to have one’s family thrown upside-down due to forces out of your control. Jesus chose to experience this, I believe, because it is so much a part of the human experience. Let us not forget Jesus, the Refugee, the homeless one.
Ultimately what it boils down to is home. Geographical boundaries have always been in flux and changing. What isn’t fluid is that the Earth is the Lord's, and God has commanded to us to care for the earth and to care for one another. Home for the millions who have lost theirs fleeing war. Home for the millions of veterans, the vulnerable, and the poor in our country and in other lands. Can we sit in prayer, ask the hard questions, and refuse to give in to despair, refuse to give in to cynicism, refuse to give in to hate? Let us choose to do what is hard, what is right, what is good.
So let us choose to love. Let’s choose to risk. Let us choose to follow the teachings of Jesus, who said, “love your neighbor as yourself.” No conditions. In that, there is true freedom and true peace, which passes all understanding -- which ISIL or any other person coming from a place of darkness will never achieve, never understand, and can never take away from us.
PRAYER: Jesus, Divine Refugee, teach us to see you in every fleeing person on earth. Forgive us for not getting involved. Mold our hearts to make them tender toward you and our brothers and sisters in need. Heal our world and what we have become. Show us how to love like you, and share your love with those we meet. Amen.
IF WE ONLY HAVE LOVE
If we only have love
Then tomorrow will dawn
And the days of our years
Will rise on that morn
If we only have love
To embrace without fears
We will kiss with our eyes
We will sleep without tears
If we only have love
With our arms open wide
Then the young and the old
Will stand at our side
If we only have love
Love that's falling like rain
Then the parched desert earth
Will grow green again
If we only have love
For the hymn that we shout
For the song that we sing
Then we'll have a way out
If we only have love
We can reach those in pain
We can heal all our wounds
We can use our own names
If we only have love
We can melt all the guns
And then give the new world
To our daughters and sons
If we only have love
Then Jerusalem stands
And then death has no shadow
There are no foreign lands
If we only have love
We will never bow down
We'll be tall as the pines
Neither heroes nor clowns
If we only have love
Then we'll only be men
And we'll drink from the Grail
To be born once again
Then with nothing at all
But the little we are
We'll have conquered all time
All space, the sun, and the stars