"There Is A Knocking At Our Door"

"I was a stranger and you welcomed me."

"There is a knocking at our door.

sound of the homeless of the world.

voice of the frightened refugee,

cry of the children in the cold,

asking the least that is their right, 

safety and shelter for the night."

Words: Shirley Erena Murray

© 1992 Hope Publishing Company, www.hopepublishing.com.

All rights reserved. Used by permission.

I found these words of the hymn, "Here to the House of God We Come," in our church's new Voices Together hymnal, to be sung to the tune KHAO I DANG, the name of a Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand.

Due to the devastation of famine and wars and other forms of violence and persecution, the plight of some 26 million refugees around the world has become one of the greatest human disasters of all time.

The Hebrew Torah devotes more attention to our need to welcome foreigners and aliens than almost any other single concern, and in one of Jesus's final addresses he makes it clear that we cannot truly honor and welcome God without receiving those in need whom God cares about. 

In a recent Christian Century article "Deliverer and Refugee" by Zac Koons, the writer reflects on Mark Chagall's epic painting Exodus in which a crucified Jesus is accompanying Moses leading Israel's flight from Egypt. Rather than our being a part of their journey toward the Red Sea Chagall has the refugees heading toward us, as if we ourselves represented the Red Sea.

So are we aligned with the world's oppressors or with the oppressed? Do we represent an unwelcoming wall or will we allow God to transform us into an increasingly hospitable and welcoming place of refuge, remembering that we and our ancestors were also once foreigners and strangers?

You can help my making a generous donation to the Sharing Our Surplus Campaign, a part of the annual Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale effort. Its SOS Campaign raises money specifically for Mennonite Central Committee refugee relief aid.