Preaching on Refugee Sunday 2014
by Rev. E. Roy Riley
As on any Sunday in the Church Year, the first priority is to proclaim the Gospel. In the context of
World Refugee Day/Week and the 75th Anniversary of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service,
we have an opportunity to hear the Gospel as it is heard by some of the most vulnerable of God’s
children: migrants and refugees. Hearing with them and seeing through their eyes, we find new
meaning for our own lives brought by God’s abiding promises to be with us and give us new life.
We are called to be in God’s mission through Jesus Christ and to bring the word of God’s love to all
humankind.
THE CONTEXT
On any given day, approximately 45 million people are living forcibly separated from the place
they call home. Nearly half of these are children. In almost every case they are displaced by war, civil
unrest, persecution, economic collapse, or natural disaster. Faced with dire circumstances, they flee
to places of presumed immediate safety. Most want only to return to their homes. Some know that
this will never be a possibility and seek a new home in a new land. All are migrants and the majority
become refugees. Some will seek a new opportunity. Most will simply try to survive with their families.
All are at the mercy of others. Migrants and refugees are truly some of the most vulnerable of God’s
children.
THE TEXTS FOR SUNDAY, JUNE 22, 2014
• Matthew 10: 24-39
• Romans 6: 1b-11
• Jeremiah 20:7-13 OR Genesis 21:8-21
• Psalm: 69: 8-11, (12-17), 18-20 OR 86: 1-10, 16-17 OR 91: 1-10 (11-16)
(All texts use NRSV)
(Note: Most congregations hear readings from the three-year cycle of the Revised Common Lectionary. Readings from
this Sunday across Lutheran congregations may vary somewhat by verses, but generally come from Matthew 10, Romans
6, and Jeremiah 20, and the three Psalms listed.)
LIRS.ORG
Preaching on Refugee Sunday 2014
by Rev. E. Roy Riley
THE PSALMS
Psalms flow as song and prayer from the heart. When a psalm comes to voice, it is said, sung, and/
or prayed in the moment and the life situation. Sometimes a lectionary-assigned psalm can seem
foreign to us. That’s probably not the case with these three: Psalms 69, 86, 91. The Interpreter’s Bible
lists the themes for these three psalms as follows: “Plaintive Cry for Deliverance” (69); “A Cry for
God’s Succor” (86); “God, My Refuge and My Fortress” (91). Such themes resonate with all who gather for worship, even though most of us do not find ourselves in the harsh depth of circumstances that
surrounded these psalmists when they first formed these verses.
Challenge yourself to speak/sing/pray these psalms from the circumstances of migrants and refugees. Can we imagine what these verses might sound like coming from someone fleeing to a neighboring border for safety, or living in an over-crowded refugee camp, or seeking a new life in a new
land? Here is a sampling. Imagine that you are that migrant, that refugee:
Psalm 69
1 Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck… 3 I am weary with my crying…my eyes
grow dim with waiting for my God. 4 More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate
me without cause… 13 My prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance
of your steadfast love, answer me. With your faithful help 14 rescue me from sinking in the mire. 15
Do not let the flood sweep over me… 18 Draw near to me, redeem me, set me free because of my
enemies. 19 You know the insults I receive and my shame and dishonor… 20 Insults have broken my
heart. I looked for pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but found none.
Psalm 86
1 Incline your ear, O Lord, for I am poor and needy… 2 Preserve my life. Save your servant who trusts
in you…
Psalm 91
1 You who live in the shelter of the Most High… 2 will say to the Lord “My refuge and my fortress;
my God in whom I trust. 3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly
pestilence… 14 [The Lord speaks] Those who love me, I will deliver… 15 When they call to me, I will
answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them…
Those of us who have experienced or heard the stories of migrants and refugees know their tenacity,
their resilience, their passionate determination so often born out of deep faith. Their hope inspires
us. Their courage amazes us. The psalmist’s confession is their confession and our confession too:
69:14 …my prayer is to you, O Lord…in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me. With your
faithful help rescue me… 86:15 …you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and
abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” Our faith is well-placed in the God who rescues and
redeems.
LIRS.ORG
Preaching on Refugee Sunday 2014
by Rev. E. Roy Riley
FIRST LESSON: JEREMIAH 20 OR GENESIS 21
Jeremiah 20 is part of the ongoing saga of the Prophet Jeremiah who is called to bring God’s word
in the midst of disaster and uncertainty. Israel has become a battlefield for competing powers. Finally the Babylonians are taking control and exile/deportation for many of the people looms on the
horizon. Jeremiah announces that God is so angered by the stiff-necked unfaithfulness of the people
that God is actually fighting on the side of the invaders. This declaration earns Jeremiah a slap from
the Temple Administrator, a night in the stocks, ridicule and humiliation. No one wants to hear the
judgment Jeremiah proclaims. This is the story of Jeremiah’s life.
Jeremiah has been overpowered by God, forced to look into the abyss of Israel’s sin (16:10-12) and
the resulting consequences of separation, loss, injury and even death. The prophet cannot contain
that vision or the awful judgment that stems from it. It eats at him day and night, like fire burning in
his bones, so Jeremiah lifts up his voice - the mocking and ridicule and revenge notwithstanding. Jeremiah will not and cannot allow God’s people to turn their gaze away from what is wrong. God helps
us see that it is our responsibility to not look away, even when it means recognizing and confessing
that we have some complicity in the wrong.
The Genesis 21 story of Hagar and Ishmael being exiled/deported is an unsettling picture as well.
After a playdate for her Isaac and Hagar’s Ishmael, Sarah in her maternal humanity demands of
Abraham (father of both boys) that he cast out this slave woman with her son so that the line of family
inheritance is absolutely clear. Since the promise of God is bound up in this inheritance, Abraham
doesn’t argue, and astonishingly God goes along with the idea! But God also promises Abraham
that Ishmael will be protected and in fact a nation will come from him because he is your (Abraham’s)
offspring. So through Ishmael, Arab people, like Jewish people, claim Abraham as the father of their
nation. This incident is a small part of the larger unfolding promise made to Abraham and Sarah that
originates God’s people Israel. But within this grand promise, that cites the stars of heaven as the
counting mechanism for the children of Abraham, there is a solitary vignette of a slave-girl (Hagar)
who is deported off into the desert wilderness with her little child (Ishmael) with only some bread
and one skin of water. Hagar makes it as far as she can, but ultimately the water runs dry, the bread
is gone, and she knows that her little one is going to die. So Hagar places 21:15 the child under one
of the bushes. 16 Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a
bowshot; for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him,
she lifted up her voice and wept.
This story is from 4,000 years ago and was reenacted somewhere in the world yesterday, and it will
be reenacted again today. How many times have we seen the televised reports of mothers with their
small children fleeing some terror, burying a child beside the road, or carrying a lifeless infant into a
refugee camp after her milk dried up days ago? At some level this horror is not unlike the abyss of sin
into which Jeremiah stares. Jeremiah does not allow God’s people to turn their gaze away from what
is wrong…nor should we. The One who rescues does not look away, and as promised, the lives of
mother and child are saved. The God of Abraham and Sarah is the God of Hagar and Ishmael, too.
LIRS.ORG
Preaching on Refugee Sunday 2014
by Rev. E. Roy Riley
GOSPEL: MATTHEW 10: 24-39
In Matthew it is Jesus who does not look away. In Matthew chapters 8 and 9, we learn that great
crowds were following Jesus wherever he went. Jesus is 9:35b teaching… proclaiming the good news
of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had
compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Now
here the story takes a remarkable turn: 37b “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few… Jesus
says. 10:1 Then Jesus summoned his disciples and gave them authority… 7 As you go, proclaim the
good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near. 8 Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.’
Jesus’ followers are invited into God’s mission, into the work of proclaiming the good news of God’s
love and mercy. But before they go out, there is a reality check (verses 8b-42). The way will not be
easy. Whatever trouble befalls the teacher/master, the disciples can expect as well. Body and soul are
at risk. Disruption is likely, even within families. A new day is dawning. The old day will not bow out
easily. Following Jesus into the world is not for the faint of heart!
But in the midst of these dire warnings, Jesus lifts up another reality: 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold
for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 And even the hairs
of your head are all counted. 31 So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. How
many sparrows is far less important than the news that we are always in God’s gracious sight. It is so
for me and for you when we are wandering through life or drowning in a sea of anxiety. It is also true
for the ones who are forced from their homes and displaced. God sees their trouble and hears their
cries. The one who sends disciples out into a broken world invites us into that seeing and hearing,
and asks us to show mercy
SECOND LESSON: ROMANS 6: 1B-23
In these verses, St. Paul completes the picture of the ultimate “rescue” proclaimed in chapter 5 - our
rescue from sin and death through the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. Now Paul begins to describe
what this means for us in our living as those joined by baptism to Christ, those who are 6:11…dead to
sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. We have life to live and to give.
A theme of rescue
When we think of migrants and refugees, we think of people in trouble and in need of rescue. The
lessons for this Sunday say first that we all need to be rescued. Singing/praying the psalms from the
point of view of one fleeing toward a border or lost in an enormous refugee camp is a point of entry
for those of us whose lives may be largely sheltered from need. Before long, the psalmist’s verses can
prick our own insecurities and plumb the depths of our own fears. We all need to know that there is
one - the Christ - who rescues us, no matter what drives us to flee to our own place of refuge.
LIRS.ORG
Preaching on Refugee Sunday 2014
by Rev. E. Roy Riley
The scriptures tell the story of God’s relentless pursuit of God’s beloved creation. No matter how
faithless God’s children; how stubborn, stiff-necked, and self-centered, God intends to rescue/redeem and will not be denied! God will wear out a Jeremiah, use the services of a Nebuchadnezzar,
and even go along with (to a point) the sad plan of Sarah and Abraham to accomplish that rescue.
Ultimately, God comes to us as Savior. God’s love and mercy in Jesus Christ overpower all that separates us from God. We are set free from fear and set in relationship with one another. So as God’s
gaze never turns away from us, we are free to watch over, and even rescue, the sisters and brothers
God has given to us.
Many Lutheran congregations have experienced the joy of rescue in a refugee resettlement. It is a
joy that goes both ways. We have learned the stories of migrants and refugees and are enriched by
them. These stories teach us life experience, tradition and culture. Some congregations have probably been “rescued right back” by the very people they resettled, finding mission and purpose and
new energy (not to mention new kinds of food!) in the new relationships. Perhaps the best place to
remember what God has done on this day is to tell the stories of the migrants and refugees we have
come to know.
For seventy-five years Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service has cared for some of God’s most
vulnerable children and has fostered those resettlement relationships that made rescue possible.
This is a day to celebrate what God has done through the Lutheran Church and to give thanks for the
many who have opened their arms in welcome. Thanks be to God!
Author:
The Rev. E. Roy Riley, Retired
Former Bishop of the New Jersey Synod, ELCA and
Member of the LIRS Board, 2008-2013
Study Resources:
1.) LUTHERAN STUDY BIBLE (NRSV), Minneapolis MN: Augsburg Fortress 2009
2.) Texts for Preaching Year A, Walter Brueggemann, Beverly Gaventa, and others, Eds., Louisville, KY: Westminster John
Know Press 1995
3.) New Revised Standard Version Bible, Oxford University Press 1989
4.) The Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 5 The Book of Jeremiah, New York: Abingdon Press 1956
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