Paul challenges us to recognise the gifts of those considered ‘weak’ (1 Cor 12.22).
Context
Sunday, 27 January, is Holocaust Memorial Day. The theme this year is ‘torn from home’. We are asked to reflect on the enforced loss of a safe place to call ‘home’ as part of the trauma faced by those experiencing persecution and genocide.
Issues of migration are seldom out of the news: from Trump’s proposed border wall; to refugees attempting to cross dangerous seas, be it the Channel or the Mediterranean; to questions over what will happen after Brexit to EU citizens living in Britain.
The infighting in government over Brexit continues. With less than ten weeks to go before the leave date, none of us know how things will turn out. Rather than working together, politicians are all pulling in all sorts of different directions.
Reflection
Collaborating with those who have different perspectives and priorities is by no means easy, as Brexit is making abundantly clear. There is no national consensus on the way forward. And in such times of anxiety and turmoil, people have a tendency to turn on those they consider ‘outsiders’. The government’s ‘hostile environment’ led to the Windrush scandal. Now EU citizens are fearful about their future in the UK. And at a funeral last Sunday for six unknown Auschwitz victims, the Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, warned of a rise in antisemitism, calling for all forms of racism and discrimination to be confronted. All the more important therefore that our churches heed Paul’s words, and act as places of openness and welcome, https://www.placesofwelcome.org.uk/ recognising the dignity and gifts of all.
It is now eighty years since the Kindertransport. Nearly ten thousand mainly Jewish children were brought out from Nazi-occupied Europe to safety in Britain. Since adults were denied entry, those children were torn from their families, and most would never see their parents again. But despite the hardships and trauma, they grew up to make an invaluable contribution to British society, becoming scientists, doctors, actors, journalists, artists, politicians…
Still today, people are torn from their homes and forced to flee. When they seek asylum elsewhere, however, they are all too often seen as a nuisance, rather than a resource. People coming here from Iran or Syria have skills and qualifications, many are university educated, and they long to contribute their talents. With the right encouragement and support they will make Britain a richer place.
I belong to a church where many members are asylum seekers. They have risked the kind of perilous journeys we hear about in the news, hoping for a new life in this country. Their legal status, housing situation, and job prospects are all precarious; they may not speak much English. But they too are members of the body of Christ, with gifts to offer. They act as sidespeople and servers, read lessons, serve coffee, arrange flowers … But the ‘greater gift’ (1 Cor 12.31) they bring is their witness to the power of faith. Those who have nothing truly know what it is to put all one’s trust in God.
Prayer
A prayer for Holocaust Memorial Day
Heavenly Father,
whose many gifts include memory and empathy:
we hold in remembrance before you those many of the Jewish people
who were murdered, harmed or displaced in the horror of the Nazi persecution,
and whose communities were destroyed.
In your mercy, help us to learn to accept our differences without fear
and cleanse our hearts of all hatred.
So may every human community flourish and every home be secure,
to the advancement of your loving purposes
and the glory of your name.
Amen
This prayer is taken with permission from Holocaust Memorial Day: A Resource for Churches, produced by the Council of Christians and Jews.
Questions
- What gifts do you have to offer? – to your family? to the Church? to the world?
- How do you encourage others to exercise their gifts – in your family? in the Church? in the world?
All-age activity
Randomly assign people into pairs. Give them five minutes to discover five things they have in common, and five ways in which they differ. Does every pair succeed? Discuss whether the same exercise would work if paired with any random person on the planet, and what this says about our common humanity.
Young people
Have you ever been in the situation of being the new boy or girl? How did you feel? Were you welcomed, ignored, or treated badly? How might you learn from that experience, as you reflect on what it would be like to arrive in a new country and try to make a home there? How can the gifts of new people be identified and encouraged?
If you have more time, watch the film The Book Thief (12A). The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust provides a resource with discussion questions.
Ann Conway-Jones is Chair of Birmingham Council of Christians and Jews.
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