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In touch

Up-to-the-minute jumping-off points for sermons, linking the reading to the latest news and global issues

Sent to be vulnerable

To be called – and sent – to heal and save, is to accept risk (Mark 6.8).

Context

• Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) recently confirmed the killings of two emergency coordinators and their driver in Tigray, northern Ethiopia.

• Earlier last month, in Baghlan-e-Markazi, northern Afghanistan, gunmen killed 10 members of the HALO Trust and injured 16 others who were working to remove landmines in a country where similar weapons have killed more than 40,000 people since the Soviet withdrawal in 1989.

• Also last month, two Sudanese staff with Doctors with Africa CUAMM were killed in Yirol, South Sudan, while on a mission to ensure that proper food is available before the rainy season to people at risk of severe malnutrition.

Incidents such as these sometimes make the mainstream news, but the shocking full statistics on attacks against humanitarian aid workers are rarely reported.

Successes are similarly largely ignored: for example, the fact that aid is now reaching 10 million victims of the war in Yemen every month, despite the obstacles presented by the combatants’ actions and much of the international community’s inaction.

A few minutes’ online search turns up innumerable stories of successes ‘in the field’, published by aid and development agencies who long for them to reach wider audiences.

 

Ideas for sermons or interactive talks

Every day – and every night – across the world, selfless workers provide water, food, shelter, medicine and surgery, books and education, resources and hope, to people trapped experiencing poverty and/or conflict. Often they are local people, sometimes foreigners. They may work with the support of aid and development agencies, or with only what they have to hand. The incidents cited above are just three examples of the risks run by those who are called – and sent – to care for people living in great need. Few make themselves more vulnerable in the service of others than they do.

Today’s Gospel reading records Jesus sending out his apostles to heal and teach, with only the barest necessities for their journey, into a country where attacks on travellers were frequent enough for him to describe one in the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10.30). St Matthew’s Gospel records the same commission (Matthew 10.16-18), adding a stark warning which reflects the very real threats faced by the early Christians a generation later from local religious and political authorities.

Individuals and groups who are intent on gaining the upper hand in a situation through fear and violence, often resent the presence of those who seek to care, heal and reconcile; and this is where the danger arises. Humanitarian aid workers’ lives depend on combatants respecting the provisions in international law intended to protect them; the workers themselves know that these are all but impossible to enforce on the ground – but still they go.

 

Questions for discussion

• Why is humanitarian aid work largely ignored by the mainstream news media?
• Where does their work fit into our understanding of vocation and apostleship?
• How can we support and promote their work? (Fundraising is one answer, but also think more broadly about raising awareness of their work and influencing decision makers on their behalf.)

Robert Beard is a freelance writer and Church of England priest.

 

Check-in

Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues for young people

Saying what we believe, and standing by our opinions, is not always the easiest thing to do. Superstar Britney Spears has recently made headlines over a complicated legal agreement controlling her life decisions which she wants to be free from. Among this complex debate came the comment from her sister: ‘I’m so proud of her for using her voice’. What matters here isn’t who is right and wrong, but that Spears stuck to her instincts and beliefs.

There are certainly parallels between this story and this week’s Gospel. We encounter a messenger in the person of Jesus who is thoroughly rejected and shunned for preaching his message of peace and love. He faces peer pressure – but nevertheless shows commitment and determination – he does not let hateful comments deter him from being true to himself.

These examples, though differing in context, are united as examples of being prepared to be shunned for your beliefs. This can be a vulnerable and a difficult position. Social media and news outlets regularly challenge our views and encourage us to take up the latest trending belief or behaviour – they encourage us to stop being ourselves. Can you think of a time when this has happened to you?

Sticking to your instincts and beliefs is rewarding! Over the coming week, why don’t you try and do this? In your interactions, try your best to be yourself in the face of all of the pressures of the world. Stand by what you believe in – not what peer pressure tells you. In doing this, you will be true to yourself, and you will be imitating and following the example of Jesus.

Joe Allen holds a BA degree in Theology having graduated from the University of Exeter in 2021. The son of an Army Chaplain, he was born in Lancashire and has lived across the UK.

 

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