Passage for reflection: Nahum 1: 2 - 8
I wanted to say something about the events of this past week, especially the humanitarian crisis evolving in Afghanistan. It’s been one of those sermons I needed to write but the words would not come.
I was driving the other day in Harrogate trying to get to the hospital. The traffic was heavy and I was in a hurry so every movement in the queue of traffic was welcomed. I moved forward when suddenly this man decided to push in without looking from a side road. I am sorry because I yelled at him “you ————*******” - which was not helpful considering what I was dressed like! 🙂
There’s a South African word “Ubuntu” - which literally means “I am what I am because of who we all are.” - let me repeat that - “I am what I am because of who we all are.” We are connected to each other, whether in our village, in our country, or in the world. What happens to another wherever they are should affect us. The man pulling out in front of me made me cross, an act of compassion and understanding lifts my spirits. When I see suffering in the eyes of another I should be moved to do something about it, when someone is celebrating life I should celebrate with them. We are all made in the image of God, we are all part of one human diverse intricate tapestry - “I am what I am because of who we all are.”
The pictures I’ve seen of the escalating human catastrophe in Afghanistan these past few days have deeply moved me, especially that American plane taking off from the airport with people holding on to it, desperate to escape what is coming, a Taliban regime back after 20 years of relative stability. People especially women and anyone seen as different now live in fear because they know how they were treated before. So no wonder we are seeing chaos, people trying so hard to get away, others feeling death is a better choice than living under the Taliban. It would be easy to comment about American policy to withdraw military forces and a President who is suddenly looking very elderly and who admits they are not going to get everyone out, or that the last President did some sort of deal with the Taliban for a withdrawal, or to comment about whether our foreign Secretary did take a phone call while on his holiday or did he stay on his sun lounger. What we have, right in front of us, are people in a crisis, a refugee crisis, necessary migration to try and preserve life and we cannot not be upset by it. “I am what I am because of who we all are.”
I received an e mail from Ripon City of Sanctuary on Thursday with this helpful quote from the Bishop of Leeds, which got this difficult sermon going…
“Christian faith has always been clear: we protect and defend the poorest and weakest people among us. Rather than demonise refugees and asylum seekers, we need to show the sort of costly love and mercy that we would wish for ourselves, were we to find ourselves similarly bereft.”
It’s hard to put ourselves in the place of an ordinary Afghan man, woman or child. Imagine your town or village were run by a brutal, narrow minded regime. Imagine being liberated from that regime. Imagine suddenly having rights and education and democracy and freedom. Imagine due to the help of others being about feeling relatively safe. Now imagine that regime back, your rights, education, healthy democracy, and freedom threatened. You don’t feel safe anymore, so you want to get out and run or fly for safety anywhere but stay where you are. Not knowing where you are going, and going with nothing is better than what might happen to you.
A person working on the ground, first-hand in Afghanistan whose organisation needs to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, wrote this:
“The fear for the Afghan people is not so much the unknown, but rather the known: a brutal regime where daily life is filled with unbearable tension: regular public executions, oppression for women, fear of a knock at the door from the Taliban.
For too long people in Afghanistan have looked for salvation from Western powers. Well that hasn’t worked. It’s failed spectacularly. We need our brothers and sisters in the global church to take spiritual responsibility and stand with us in prayer. “
There’s also a lovely Afghan proverb: “A real friend takes the hand of his friend in overwhelming worry and fire.” “I am what I am because of who we all are.”
So where is God in all of this? Well, two thoughts which came to me…
First, that God is a refuge for those who seek refuge. People in the history of the world and in the story of God’s people have always been on the move, often with no choice. Remember the Israelites escaping the brutality of Egypt. God tells Moses he is to say to Pharoah “let my people go so they can worship me.” For generations, people wander in the wilderness with no home.
Remember two periods of exile when the home of Gods people, Jerusalem, was destroyed first by the Assyrians then the Babylonians. Being a refugee isn’t easy. The people escaping Egypt want to go back there because they feel they are left to die in the middle of nowhere, and they turn on Moses and say “were there no graves in Egypt that you have brought us out here to die?” The exilic community cried in despair remembering what they’d lost: “By the rivers of Babylon there we wept when we remembered Zion.” Yet despite the displacement God does not abandon his people.
I chose a passage from the prophet Nahum to think about. Nahum is one of those books you have to look in the index to find where it is in the Bible. Nahum preached during the reign of King Manesseh, one of the most evil kings in Judah’s long history. it was a time filled with idolatry of all kinds in a nation that had completely turned its back on God. The Lord’s willingness to send Nahum, whose name means “comfort,” into such a hopeless situation evidences His unrelenting and overwhelming grace and his intention for his people. The Assyrian Empire, which had its capital at Nineveh, had a stranglehold on the people. Sound familiar? We know about Nineveh.
- God sent Jonah to Nineveh to preach repentance and hope to the Assyrian people, a message they heard and adopted—at least for a time. One hundred years later, during the time of Nahum, the Assyrians had returned to their bullish ways, conquering the northern kingdom of Israel and lording their power over Judah in the south. Jonah failed to realize what Nahum reminded the people of Judah: God’s justice is always right and always sure.
- Ordinary people suddenly displaced from their homes by the terror of the Taliban. May they discover that in Nahum’s words “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knows those who take refuge in Him.” Refuge… safety… even with nothing. Imagine leaving your home because it isn’t safe and never seeing it again. The God who protects is a huge theological truth. I love the bit of Hebrews where we are told we have no abiding city and we work together to build the city which has no foundations whose builder and maker is God. Our spiritual home is in God and with God. “I am what I am because of who we all are.”
Then this: if we really believe we are connected to each other, if our existence is
“I am what I am because of who we all are” then we have a call to work for a better world today. How do we make this situation better? Writing to our MP about immigration policy and welcoming the many refugees who will need sanctuary is a start, donating clothes where they are needed is a start, I know there are already mountains of bin bags of clothes building in the chapel at Snape and we are opening Allhallowgate this week, that’s a start, but really it is about how we live as God’s people. Everyone matters in this world. Jesus teaches us he is the Bread of Life. He offers substance and to the people in need he meets - refuge. Peter says to him “where else can we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Remember the words of Daniel T Niles: “Evangelism is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.” We are to challenge injustice, we are to pray for deliverance from evil, we are to hope in the promises of God, we are to live out our faith as best we can. Afghanistan is our problem. We cannot turn off the news and hope it all goes away. There’s a lovely little prayer in the new Methodist prayer book, written by Jessica, who goes to a primary school in St Helens: “Lord God, help us to learn to love the earth as you do and give us the courage to say “enough” to the things that hurt it.”
A broken and hurting people, a world that is fallen is met by a God who is a refuge and. Church which offers life for all. Whether a person in need is our neighbour, or in Kabul being crushed at an airport or hiding in fear, that person matters. “I am what I am because of who we all are.” And when I shout at selfish drivers or can’t bear watching the news, forgive me…
Here’s another Afghan proverb: “There is a way from heart to heart.” Today we pray for all God’s children, we pray for justice, we remember those who look for hope, we speak out for those who have no voice. In a situation we don’t understand these things are all we can do, and we remember that God in Jesus suffers with his world where it hurts and in his time he will redeem it.
A prayer by Barbara Easton, Vice President of the Methodist Conference:
The Prophet says, You know the plans I have for you, says the Lord; plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to offer you hope and a future.
Gracious and holy God,
We come to you with the situation in Afghanistan heavy on our hearts. It is a situation so complicated, and so fast moving, that it is difficult for us to know what to say or how to think.
We hold before you the people of the country, those who stay and those who flee; those living with terror and afraid for the future; those who, because of this latest turn of events, will never be able to live the fullness of life that is your purpose. We hold all this before you.
We hold open to you the future: the world leaders with a role in shaping what happens next; the many who are becoming refugees and the people who will be called upon to offer them safety and a future; the impact of these local events on our world story. We hold all this open to you.
We hold in your love all those known to us whose lives have been bound up in the recent story of Afghanistan. We think of all those who have served there in our Armed Forces, those who were injured and those who did not return. We hold in our hearts all those for whom this is a time of special grieving and confusion, and those who minister to them. We hold all these in your love.
Rock of ages, at this difficult time we lean into your timelessness.
Turn us, and all people, to your good purposes for your world. Grant courage and wisdom, hope and a future.
Amen
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