Xenophobia - care for the strangers among us.

What can we do about xenophobia. Understand the Biblical perspective and act in a Christian way.

Matt 25:31-46      I was a Stranger

This sermon was preached on the day before the xenophobic violence broke out in Cape Town.  The next day, Fri 23 May, our congregation opened the doors of our church to house displaced foreigners.  We have since been working with 2 other local congregations to house, feed and care for 250 people from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Somalia, Burundi, DRC, Congo Brazaville Rwanda, Ghana, Uganda and Cape Verde

Dave Stemmett – Bellville Baptist Church

The attention of South Africa’s media has been on the xenophobic violence that is sweeping over South Africa.  How should a Christian respond to this?   Should we join in the chorus:

These people don’t belong here!

They are taking our jobs and our resources and they must go home!

Lots of South African think that way about the Zimbabweans and Malawians and Congolese and Somalians and Burundians that have fled the wars and the economic meltdown in their home countries and sought refuge here in SA.   We call them “Refugees” because they have come here seeking refuge.

Almost every person can see some measure of a refugee identity either in their ancestry or in their personal experience. 

In 2006 I attended a Conference on refugees hosted by the city of Cape Town.  The audience, largely comprising refugees, was deeply moved when the Mayor of Cape Town, Helen Zille began her address by referring to her own refugee identity.  Her father migrated to South Africa as a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany.  Though he was trained as a medical doctor, the only work he could find before he learnt to speak English was as a security guard on a mine near Johannesburg.  You can imagine how that spoke to the refugees present, many who have professional qualifications, but are working as security guards in our city.

Have you ever been forced to find refuge among people you did not know?

During the turbulent 1980’s I was a theological student at the Baptist Theological Seminary in Athlone. One day in 1984 I was going from the Seminary in Bridgetown to the Blomvlei Rd Baptist Church.  I knew there were riots going on, but we had got used to the riots and the police searching our cars.  But that day, I turned into a street and I landed in-between a mob of rioting students and the police.  I didn’t know what to do.  I was stuck.  I managed to pull my car into the driveway of a house.  I ran round the back of the house and banged on the door of people I did not know.  They very kindly took me in and gave me refuge until the rioters and police had passed by. 

For those few hour I was a refugee in the home of a family in Athlone.

And just as I fled the violence of the streets and was welcomed as a stranger in that home, so people from violence-torn places all over Africa have fled looking for safety here in SA.    But so often they don’t find the safety they are seeking.

1.  What does the Bible say to us about refugees and the way we must respond to them?

In Matthew 25, from verse 31, Jesus is speaking of the day of Judgement.  And he speaks about the division between the sheep and the goats.  Throughout the Bible, God’s people are referred to as God’s flock, God’s sheep.  So this is the separating out of God’s flock from the rest of the people of the world on judgement day.   Clearly from the rest of Scripture, you become a member of God’s flock when you humbly repent of your sin and you receive Jesus Christ as your righteousness.   But here, Jesus gives us some of the distinguishing marks of those people who belong to God.  And one mark of a child of God is that they will take care of strangers.

Vs 35  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.

In the list of things that Christians are called upon to do – to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, help the sick, is the call to show hospitality and love towards strangers.

The New Testament was written in Greek and the word that Matthew used here that is translated ‘stranger’, is the word xenos. It is from this word, xenos that we get the word xenophobia – the fear of strangers, the hatred of foreigners. 

At the time of Jesus and in fact during the entire history of the Middle East, refugees were a common sight in Israel.  Israel lies at the crossroads of three continents:  Asia to the East, Europe to the West and Africa to the South. 

When there was famine or war in Asia, people would run Westwards and many would seek refuge in the land a Canaan. When there were problems in Turkey, the people would head South, crossing through Israel.  So the people of Israel were as familiar with refugees as we are.  And just as the Congolese refugees and the Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa are exploited and mistreated, so foreigners looking for refuge in Israel were often ill-treated by the people of Israel.

In the Old Testament there are dozens of commands to the people of Israel, to love the foreigners who seek refuge in their country.  Let me give you a few examples:

Exodus 22:21 “Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt.

Exodus 23:9 “Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt.

Lev 19:33-34 “When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. 34 The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

Numbers 15:15 The community is to have the same rules for you and for the alien living among you; this is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. You and the alien shall be the same before the LORD: 16 The same laws and regulations will apply both to you and to the alien living among you.’ “

Deuteronomy 24:14-22 Do not take advantage of a hired man who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother Israelite or an alien living in one of your towns. 15 Pay him his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and is counting on it. Otherwise he may cry to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin. 16 Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin.17 Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. 18 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.

And just as the Old Testament people of God were commanded to love the refugees and foreigners living among them, so we as New Testament people of God are called by Jesus to show love to the foreigners. 

2.  So what can YOU do about the wave of xenophobia that is sweeping South Africa?

a.   The first things is, if you are a Christian, you dare not get sucked into hatred towards foreigners. 

We cannot join in the calls to get rid of the foreigners.  God sends them here to test our love for himself.  Surely that is what Jesus is saying: “I was a stranger…”  You say you love Jesus, well show it by caring for the hungry, they thirsty, the foreigner the sick and so on…

b.   The second thing is that we as Christians must speak out.   

Yes, Jesus calls us to speak through our actions and I praise God for the response of Christians to the plight of displaced foreigners in South Africa.  Churches have opened their doors to house homeless refugees. Christians have brought clothing and food to feed these destitute souls.  But we must also speak out.  When others are speaking against foreigners, when they are mouthing off about foreigners taking our jobs or being criminals, we must speak up.  It is simply not true that foreigners are responsible for all the crime in SA.  A minute % of the crime in SA is perpetrated by foreigners.  Far more South Africans are found guilty of crimes in OTHER countries than foreigners in SA.

c.   The third thing I want to encourage you to do, as you hear about the attacks on foreigners, is to pray. 

God loves the refugee. Refugees are very close to the heart of God, so pray for the refugees in South Africa. Pray for their safety.  Most refugees here have left family members back home. 

Let me tell you the story of one member of our church, Michel –from Burundi.  A year and a half he was forced to leave his home country because he refused to be involved in the on-going Hutu-Tutsi fighting.  He was a lecturer in a technical college and he was forced to leave his job, he sent his then pregnant wife and daughter into the countryside to stay with his parents and Michel fled down South.  Now he works as a car guard in Parow. But he is separated from his wife and his children.  He has never seen the son that was born after he left Burundi.

I can tell you a hundred stories like that – of people who have fled from war and turmoil in the DRC, in Zim, in Burundi, In Ivory Coast, in Somalia.   Now they are in SA.  They miss their loved ones.  Some don’t know if their family members are dead or alive.  One lady in our congregation – Eugenie, has not seen her husband for over 3 years. She has not heard from him in over 18 months, she fears he is dead!      Pray for the refugees in SA.

d.   A fourth action that we as Christians must consider relates to the long term solution of this present crisis of displaced people, name that of integrating foreigners into South African society.

The Government policy, in line with the best practice recommended by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, is one of integration of refugees and Asylum seekers into South Africa Society. That is why our government has rightly shunned the idea of Refugee Camps. At the very best Refugee Camps are depressing places and do very little to help people, apart from keeping them safe. In South Africa refugees are permitted to live where they choose, take up employment, start business enterprises and enrol in studies.

The current xenophobic crisis has revealed a number of problems with the policy of integration, but it remains a sound policy and in fact a Biblical policy. It is in keeping with the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 25, to invite stranger in and to include them in our society.

The UNHCR has developed this policy, the SA Government has embraced it in our legal framework, but neither of those bodies have the ability or the capacity to implement this wonderful policy.  There is only one body in the country that can truly implement the policy of integration and that is the Church of Jesus Christ.  Churches that have taken integration of asylum seekers and refugees seriously have experienced the great blessing that comes from obeying the call of Christ, as well as the blessing of diversity in the Body of Christ. 

This is a vital step for every local congregation that is situated in locations where there are asylum seekers, to seek to invite and integrate foreigners into their congregation.  Of course foreigners must hear the Gospel explained to them. In this way, inviting and integrating foreigners presents our churches with a wonderful opportunity of missions and evangelism.  We praise God that a large mission field has come at their own expense to our doorstep.  Now our old men and our young people can receive practical training in cross-cultural mission without leaving their own society.  We must take up this challenge at both the individual level, as local congregations and at a denominational level.

e.   One last thing we can do:  We must live like refugees in this world.

Working with refugees has taught me what it means to live like a refugee. 

In 1 Peter 2:11, the Apostle Peter calls us, aliens and strangers in the world.

We have a lot to learn from refugees. They travel light. They don’t mind were they end up living. They accept very humble jobs, even if in their home country they had a very good position. And we must have a similar attitude to life here on earth.  We cannot take our homes, our degrees, our money to heaven with us, so we must use these things here in such a way that they will benefit the Kingdom of God.

Rev. Dave Stemmett

BELLVILLE BAPTIST CHURCH - Cape Town