Tikkun olam

The Refugee

18 Jun 2009 1 Comment

by Marvin Lance Wiser in Biblical Ethics, Christianity in Context, Church - Theologizing, Global Issues, Human Rights, Religion and Society, Social Justice, Uncategorized Tags: Bob Marley, immigrants, Immigration, marginals, Refugee, refugee ministry, refugees, UCC, UNHCR, United Church of Christ, vulnerable, World Refugee Day

This June 20th is World Refugee Day. A day which has been set aside so that we may think in some 42 million uprooted people (1 in every 50 persons) throughout our world. Hopefully, this thinking will lead to some form of action on our part. The country that currently has the highest refugee population is Pakistan with 1.8 million refugees. Other countries with high refugee populations are Syria, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Columbia, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Somalia. These are places filled with vulnerable peoples, what we sometimes refer to as the marginals.

The United Church of Christ (UCC) has developed a Refugee & Immigration Ministries page to provide resources for people of faith to take action concerning this global issue, bringing those often forgotten back into the margins of life. I recently posted concerning The Immigrant, which gives more details concerning these issues and how it directly affects the States and communities of faith.  This post is meant to recognize the international day recognized as World Refugee Day and to allow me to take some time to once again gaze into what the future may hold for me.  Once in Boston, my wife and I look forward to working directly with immigrant and refugee families.  This is a population that I feel drawn to.  I also feel as though much more work remains to be done in the field of biblical theology concerning the immigrant and the refugee, assimilation, communal and individual identity, etc.  Sociology is not yet finished teaching the stewards of biblical theology. This excites me. Examining the Exodus and Mosaic tradition, or the books of Genesis, Ruth, Esther, and Daniel in this light is sure to bear much fruit in the way we view and interact with this specific population among us. For example, a cursory reading of Psalm 137 reveals to us the sorrow, pain, strife, homesickness, and anger that uprooted people receive in the event of the making of their stories. Perhaps we can be agents within their stories that respond to their cries as we read in Psalm 17.  And through encounters with agents of change, we might hear a new song come forth from their tongues that have been so heavy ladended with lament, a song of confident liberation that we hear bellowed out in Psalm 72. Returning to the Mosaic tradition:

You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

~Exodus 22:21

Resources:

• UNHCR – The UN Refugee Agency

• USCIR – US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (National Center for Refugee & Immigrant Children)

• United Church of Christ Refugee & Immigration Ministries

~MLW