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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

 

Equal in God’s sight

We are one in the Spirit…” – but who are “We”?

 

Context

Prime Minister Keir Starmer found himself deep in controversy last week following the publication of the White Paper entitled: Restoring control over the immigration system when, in his speech outlining the government’s underlying thinking, he said,

“Nations depend on rules – fair rules... Without them, we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together.”

The word “strangers” was seized upon by commentators as echoing the famous – or infamous - speech on immigration made in 1968 by Enoch Powell, in which he said that the existing population “found themselves made strangers in their own country.”

Several Labour MPs rejected Sir Keir’s use of “strangers” for people they see as “friends, neighbours and family members” and Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey claimed that Sir Keir was “echoing” Mr Powell.

Sir Keir’s official spokesman, however, categorically denied the link.

Journalist Beth Rigby argued that he had actually wanted to echo former Labour Home Secretary Roy Jenkins who welcomed immigration as long as it was properly controlled – a position Sir Keir himself has previously taken.

The White Paper proposals have also greatly alarmed providers of care and nursing services, who are largely dependent on low-paid immigrant workers.

Clearly, what is required is a calm, rational and detailed debate, free of prejudice and sweeping generalisations.

 

Ideas for sermons or interactive talks

It’s simply a fact that some people feel most comfortable associating with others who share their background and interests, while others relish being in groups of people from different origins and cultures. There’s nothing wrong in this, and we could discuss and speculate endlessly about the reasons for this. We should perhaps try to think about it from time to time, to help us understand why diversity is so discomforting for some and so exciting for others.

The first members of the Christian Church were Jews who, simply by deciding to follow the risen Jesus, had already taken a significant step beyond what they would previously have considered acceptable, and had thereby laid themselves open to the very real risk of rejection and shunning by the remaining majority of their traditional community, including even their own families. As Jesus repeatedly made clear in his teaching, the decision to follow him was no small commitment.

Small wonder, then, that the message a very excited Peter brought back from Joppa, that the Holy Spirit had fallen on a Gentile household “just as it had upon us at the beginning” (Acts 11:15), caused something of a stir among the Apostles in Jerusalem. Initially inspired to praise God for his revelation that Gentiles were to share the salvation brought by Jesus, when the excitement died down they had to thrash out the details, and especially which parts of the Jewish Covenant they should ask Gentile Christians to accept. This led to the Council of Jerusalem described in Acts 15.

Similar questions arise whenever one community with a particular background and culture accepts new members from another community with a different identity. Following the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE, Jews were dispersed across the known world, where they often sought to maintain their distinct identity by remaining separate from their host communities by continuing to practise their own religious and cultural traditions – making them an easily identifiable scapegoat when times were hard.

We know now how scapegoating minority communities can lead all too easily to unjustifiable persecution, violence and atrocity.

Much depends on whether we see those different from ourselves as “strangers”, or as “friends, neighbours and family members”, remembering always how Jesus defined “family”.

 

Questions for discussion

• Jesus says much in the gospels about family relationships. What is his definition of “family”?
• Why do some people feel most comfortable associating with others who share their background and interests, while others relish being in groups of people from different origins and cultures?
• What can our Church bring to a debate about immigration?

Robert Beard is an NHS worker and Church of England priest.

 

 

Check-in

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

In the news this week we have seen India and Pakistan exchanging military attacks on each other and Israel attacking Palestinians in Gaza. In both places, there are long-standing grudges and feelings of injustice. In both places, the other side are treated as different, not like us and not deserving compassion or mercy.

In today’s reading, Peter is given a vision by God of all the food that a good Jew would never eat and is invited to tuck in. He refuses and is told, “Don’t call anything unclean that God has made clean”. God is removing the barrier that would stop Peter, a Jew, from talking to, eating with and sharing Jesus with everyone who wasn’t Jewish.

For the early church, this was a huge issue. All non-Jews were to be kept away from, distrusted and avoided as far as possible - but Peter is being told that this isn’t God’s plan any more.

We often end up labelling people and giving ourselves reasons why it’s ok not to like them. They support a different team, they like different music, they are awkward in conversation. God has made us - and everyone we see - in his own image. He’s calling us to take down the barriers that separate us from other people and to reach out to them in the same way he reached out to us.

Steve Taylor shares the job of joint-vicar of St Paul’s CofE Church, Harrow with his wife, Ali. They share their home with their youngest child, two cats, three chickens and numerous fish.

 

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