Dear Friends,
The passage Matthew 25:31-45, in one of the modern versions of the Scripture entitled “The Judgement of the Nations”, we are reminded of our responsibilities to those around us in no uncertain language.
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 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, 36 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.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
We often talk about the stranger within our gates and those, in many ways, whom we assume to be in this passage. We are less prone to include the strangers outside our gates: the refugee, the asylum seeker and those in peril from round the world.
I grew up in a home where my parents believed in radical hospitality in Strathcona Baptist church in the 60’s. We welcomed Boris, a nuclear physicist who defected from the U.S.S.R and whenever he visited our home there was a man with a dog shadowing him who stood outside our home. We also enjoyed Bill, a journalist from China who had escaped from China and was a wonderful addition to our home at Christmas’ and at other times.
As a country we have an overblown sense of our role in the world in two areas… peacekeeping (which we do very little of in relation to other countries) and quite often our role in welcoming the refugee. I want to tell you a brief story about how some friends in our family of churches have made a difference. I am going to briefly sketch this out and give some names another time. The bare facts are these. Layne Daggett, an airport chaplain and former Refugee Review Board member joined Kinbrace Board in 2007 on the invitation of Loren Balisky, Executive Director of Kinbrace which is a place of welcome and shelter for those with refugee asylum status. Layne suggested “why don’t we offer tours for prospective refugee claimants so that they understand the refugee claimant process?” Kinbrace, along with other partners particularly UNHCR and the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada jointly published the first draft of a guide for refugees. They would no longer be bereft of support, encouragement and guidance. Part of the support of this initiative came from the CBWC Foundation and the Denomination itself. Today the completed guide was launched at a gathering organized by Kinbrace, who have been the primary writers, framers and collaborators for the piece. Attached is the last page which explains who sponsored the piece and an explanation of the work of Kinbrace, a community that was started out of Grandview Calvary Baptist Church and Salisbury Housing Society.
All this is well and good. We seek to serve the stateless, the refugee, the widow, the orphan, the broken; all those who the prophets and our Lord Jesus directed us to. But after all the formalities of the launch today, Loren got up to speak saying (this is a paraphrase) “It’s all fine to have a guide but the most important thing is to have relationship, to companion and to journey with those in this place… not to patronize, not to condescend…” What he was really saying to those of us in the room that are Christians, is to imitate the incarnation and be Christ to others. I know I haven’t done this justice; it’s only a start. I will say that as Loren spoke, he wept… I guess you have to have been there but so did I. I think the Lord himself weeps for many that we do not see. Might we have the eyes to see in each of our lives.
PS. Dan Brazeau passed on Holy Week. He was a pastor at Cornerstone in Winnipeg and was a dear friend to many, including me. He would often write me words of encouragement and tell me he was praying for me and sometimes…. In the provision of God, that was something that I deeply needed at the moment he reached out. I shall miss him. I give thanks for him. I pray that I will be more like him… that we might all be more like him in the care of others despite how we might ourselves be feeling.
PPS. I completed a MA in Organizational Leadership in 2009 at Royal Roads University. My thesis topic was on “How Not-For-Profits Develop Assessment Tools; Quantitative, Qualitative and Narrative sources,” using the Metropolitan YMCA as my organizational model. I am teaching a one-day course at the Carey Institute on Managing the Non-Profit World: Purpose and Practice and it will be populated by a wide variety of not-for-profit leaders. I’d like to thank Myrna Sears and Esther Kitchener for making this opportunity available to the larger constituency and would encourage any church leaders, not-for-profit volunteers and Senior and Executive staff to join us on May 13th, 2014. I am hoping the course will develop into a larger cluster of teaching in this area. Here is the link for the website for more information.
Warmly,
In Christ,
Jeremy