For everyone’s sake, Christians should choose the life of Christ’s Spirit sooner rather than later (Galatians 5.1,13-25).
Context
The term ‘concentration camps’, is currently being used by the news media to describe the centres where refugee children are being held by the US government. Visitors to the camps have described appalling levels of deprivation, and one doctor stated, ‘The conditions within which they are held could be compared to torture facilities’. Six children have died in detention.
US Vice-President Mike Pence has blamed Congress for failing to appropriate the necessary funding to alleviate these ‘heartbreaking’ and ‘totally unacceptable’ conditions, but elsewhere Federal authorities have argued that people entering the US without going through the proper immigration channels forfeit their rights even to basic items.
President Trump is a Presbyterian Christian supported by many, though not all, American evangelicals.
The Rt Rev Paul Bayes, Bishop of Liverpool, however, has opined, ‘ I think he's mistaken in many of his policies, and I think that the Christians who identify with him, especially in the US, are not properly responding to what our Christian faith says they should do’.
Reflection
In such a situation, the best – and perhaps the only – approach an ordinary Christian may take is to go back to the teachings of Jesus. The Gospels draw our attention to children, insisting that they be welcomed (Mark 9.35-37, 10.13-16), that we adults must become like children, not they like us, if we are to inherit the kingdom of God (Matthew 18.2-4), and that it is better to be drowned than to cause a child to stumble (Matthew 18.6).
If Bishop Paul is right, then President Trump and his administration have strayed a long way from the Gospel message regarding the reception of children, and indeed from the wider biblical teachings about the treatment of refugees and strangers in general (Exodus 12.49, 22.21, 23.9; Deuteronomy 10.18-19, 27.19; Leviticus 19.33-34; Malachi 3.5; Matthew 25.35; Hebrews 13.2 et al.).
None of us is wholly Christ-like; but there is a way forward. In today’s reading from the letter to the Galatians, St Paul explains that Christians have a gift that enables us to make a qualitative leap beyond obedience to the Law revealed in Scripture. We need no longer behave in particular ways merely because the Law commands it. If we accept the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church at Pentecost, we shall live Jesus’ life of self-sacrificial love because he lives in us.
As always, our encounter with Jesus presents us with a choice in which there is no room for compromise. If we accept the gift of Christ’s Spirit, we shall continually rid ourselves of every personal, social, financial or political consideration that inhibits us from thinking and speaking and acting with Christ’s self-sacrificial love and compassion towards everyone whose life we can affect.
It is never too late to start living the Spirit-filled life of Christ in the world; but, for the sake of those who are suffering now, we had better start sooner rather than later.
Prayer
Breathe into us, Holy Spirit,
that our thoughts may all be holy.
Move in us, Holy Spirit,
that our work, too, may be holy.
Attract our hearts, Holy Spirit,
that we may love only what is holy.
Strengthen us, Holy Spirit,
that we may defend all that is holy.
Protect us, Holy Spirit,
that we may always be holy.
Adapted from a prayer of St Augustine (354-430 AD)
Questions
When and how do we use the word ‘spirit’? Examples: the Holy Spirit, alcoholic spirit (whisky, etc.) or petroleum spirit (petrol/gasoline), the party spirit, the spirit of the law, a soul or ghost. These usages indicate the purist form, the essential part or qualities, or the underlying meaning, that makes something what it is.
- What makes Jesus who he is? What are his essential qualities?
- Do these qualities match St Paul’s description of the Holy Spirit’s ‘fruit’ (Galatians 5.22-23)?
- What signs are there that we live and are guided by the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5.25)?
- How might we align ourselves more fully with the Spirit’s guidance?
All-age activity
Identify a current news story which requires people to make decisions affecting the lives of others.
- What would happen if the decision makers chose to be guided by the Holy Spirit, as described in the Galatians reading?
- What prevents people, including us, from being guided by the Spirit in decision making? What might we do about it?
Young people
‘Over half of the world’s refugees are children. Many will spend their entire childhoods away from home, sometimes separated from their families’ (UNHCR, the UN refugee Agency).
Imagine that you are forced to leave your country because of violence or famine. Plan your journey.
- What will you select to carry with you?
- Who will travel with you, if anyone?
- How will you decide where to go?
- How will you travel?
- How will you try to stay safe?
- What problems will you encounter, and how will you manage them (for instance, when you run out of food, your shoes wear out, or you have to cross the sea)?
- What help will you need, and from whom?
Robert Beard is an Anglican priest and freelance writer.
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