Welcoming the Stranger

            This month, we continue to look at some of the key motions passed at the 2015 ELCIC National Convention in Edmonton.  In this case, we reflect on the statement called “Welcoming the Stranger,” which has echoes in it of the Christmas story.

            First off, there are Mary and Joseph, who welcome the strangers who come to worship the newborn king.  In each case, they could easily have told the visitors to stay out – both the lowly, generally mistrusted shepherds and the strange people of a different religion who come from a foreign land.  However, in each case, they welcomed them.

            Then, in the part of the story that we don’t hear quite as often, the holy family become refugees, as they flee King Herod’s murderous rampage (Mt. 2:13-18).  They leave Bethlehem and find refuge in Egypt, staying there until it is safe to return to their own land.  One wonders these days what would have become of them if the border had been closed and they had been sent back.  For these days, it seems, we have trouble welcoming the stranger.

            These days, we are taught “stranger danger” from a very young age.  These days, we suspect refugees of having ulterior motives and lying in order to get into other countries.  These days, we are too busy to offer hospitality or to get to know others who are different from us.

            One of the things that surprised me greatly in New Zealand was how many different people offered for me to come and stay with them.  In every case except one, these were people I had just met at a Missions Conference.  Taking four of them up on their offers, I had places to stay in Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch, and Tokoroa.  I was grateful for the hospitality, and it made me wonder how many invitations people would get were they to come to a similar conference here in Winnipeg.

           The document “Welcoming the Stranger” begins like this: “A core value of my faith is to welcome the stranger, the refugee, the internally displaced, the other.  I shall treat him or her as I would like to be treated.”  As difficult a time as we sometimes have getting to know those who are different from us, our horizons are greatly expanded when we do so.  At the same time, hospitality to strangers comes out of a long line of biblical examples.

            The most obvious example is Abraham, whose three visitors turned out to be angels / the LORD (Gen. 18).  However, we can also point to Matthew 25 where Jesus says, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (v. 35).  Hospitality to strangers is a core value throughout the Bible.

            While I recognize that not everybody is in a position to be able to bring strangers home with them, it is still worth reflecting on how we treat those who are strangers or different from us.  When we approach strangers only with fear, we miss opportunities to encounter different ways of seeing the world.  We also allow fear to reign rather than love.

            I encourage you to read the entire document on “Welcoming the Stranger” and to reflect on its contents.  You can find it on the ELCIC website (pages F62-65 in the Bulletin of Reports) or in the binder in the narthex.  And who knows? – We might get to know a stranger and then discover that we have actually encountered Jesus!

                        In Christ,

                        Pastor Lynne Hutchison