The Bible is a book from and for refugees.
The Israelites were not at home in Egypt or Canaan. The Church of Acts suffered the persecution of kings as today it suffers that of caliphs. Across the last 2,000 years, many Christians have been forced from home and safety.
Sadly, the Church has been the cause of much forced displacement—a fact we cannot overlook in our present pursuit of justice and reconciliation—but it has also, in many times and places, provided a haven.
Old Testament Strangers
Alien status is foundational to the story of God’s chosen people.
In the opening pages of the Christian epic we see Adam and Eve displaced from the garden, aliens of their own making, cast out by God after the world’s first fit of sinfulness (Gen. 3:23-24). Abram and Sarai fled famine for the fertile fields of the Nile (Gen. 12:10, 19-20). Lot bolted from a wave of death (Gen. 19:17-20). Hagar was an Egyptian, taken to be Sarah’s maidservant and to give birth to a son, Ishmael, in a land not her own (Gen. 16). Isaac faced another famine and went to live among the Philistines in Gerar (Gen. 26:1). Jacob fled to Harran when his brother threatened to kill him, then to Gilead after deceiving Laban (Gen. 31:20). Later, Jacob sent his sons to Egypt when his crops failed, settling in Goshen, and setting in motion the plight of a whole nation uprooted (Gen. 27:42-44; 47:4).
Joseph was a foreigner in Egypt, sold into the land by his own brothers (Gen. 37:28). Moses fled to Midian after killing an Egyptian (Ex. 2:11-25). The exodus of the Israelites, driven from Egypt in such haste that they did not even have time to let their bread rise, led the people of God through the wilderness for decades (Ex. 12:37-39). Naomi and Ruth left Moab for Bethlehem during famine (Ruth 1). David was constantly on the move, running from Saul (1 Sam. 21:20; 22:1; 23:13; 27:1). Elijah ran from King Ahab and Jezebel, and the Lord provided for him by way of ravens and widows (1 Kings 17:3-4; 19:3-4). Daniel and his three companions were captives and the children of captives carried off to Babylon (Dan. 1).
All were foreigners in the land.
God as ‘Ger’
The Hebrew term for resident strangers, ger, is applied to our forefathers from Abraham to Jacob to the community of Israel, stranger that it was in both Canaan and Babylon.[1]
Distinctively, in the English Standard Version translation of the Bible, God himself takes on the ger label to emphasize his communion with his people: “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me” (Lev. 25:23).[2]
Idiosyncratic or not, we see the King and Creator of the universe adopt refugee status, both the Father in heaven and, as we shall see, the Son on earth.
New Testament Strangers
The New Testament is equally full of stories of raw, resilient followers of Christ who were migrants and refugees.
Much of the early Church went running from the powers that oppressed them. Acts 8:1 tells us, “On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.” After Stephen was killed, Christians “traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch” (Acts 11:19). Aquila and Priscilla fled Italy because of religious persecution (Acts 18:1-2). John wrote the book of Revelation from exile on Patmos. And above all, Jesus of Nazareth, Savior of the world, was himself a refugee, hurried off to Egypt with his parents when the king promised to slay all the young boys (Matt. 2:13-15).
Our Lord knew the pain of refugeeism. Not only did he flee physical danger as a child, but his entire ministry was one of ascension through the barriers of religious persecution and backlash—all without a true home. “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Matt. 8:20).
Millennia of Strangers
From the least to the greatest, exiles and refugees are everywhere in the Bible. But it did not stop with Christ or with the apostles. For 300 years the Romans continued to persecute and uproot Christians. After cracks began to splinter the Church, interdenominational oppression became the norm. The Byzantines persecuted the “Nestorians” (today’s Assyrian Christians), flinging refugees as far as India and China.[3] Chalcedonian Christians battled with non-Chalcedonians, resulting in a community of Monophysite refugees.[4] The Church of Rome and the Church of Constantinople—East and West Christendom—were in regular conflict, uprooting each other even as they alleged to crusade into the Holy Land.[5]
The coming of Islam brought with it the dhimmitude and flight of Christian and Jewish communities, and the annihilation or forced conversion of the pagans. With the Reformation came a new era of intra-Christian hostility, the result of which was mass displacement. Mennonites fled the fists and fire of German Catholics and Jesuits felt the fury of English Protestants. Puritans abandoned Europe in hopes of finding religious liberty in the New World. Lutherans were uprooted from Austria. French Huguenots ran from harassment at the hands of French Catholics. Christians of many stripes fled the Ottomans. Europe was a breeding ground for religious persecution and refugeeism.[6]
Today, Christians by the hundreds of thousands are fleeing the Middle East—the birthplace of all Christianity—as they reluctantly succumb to the unbearable pressure of sectarian division and Islamist regimes mixed with power vacuums and neocolonial fatigue, among numerous other factors.
And this is only the story of Christians. We must not forget the non-Christians who became and continue to become refugees, many at the hands of Christians themselves.
The engines of refugeeism are legion. The list is too long.
But it cannot be ignored.
Find Yourself in the Story
All of this matters because it is our story—the story of the Church and of the world—and also because, just as the Judeo-Christian story is a story of refugees, it is equally a story of hospitality and welcoming the stranger.
God’s people have always cried out to him from their exile, from their position as strangers in the world, and they have also always been called to administer peace and compassion to others who are strangers.
The Church as Refugee
The Church’s history as refugees is equaled by its history as a refuge. Upon entering the Promised Land, God commanded Israel to establish cities of refuge where fugitives could find safe harbor and await a fair trial (Num. 35; Josh. 20). The early Church was a bastion of hospitality for the persecuted (1 Peter 4:9; 1 Tim. 5:10). Countless saints and martyrs dedicated themselves to a ministry of presence with the poor and homeless. Monasteries and churches have taken in strangers for two millennia.[7] The Underground Railroad consisted of many churches that served as safe houses for blacks fleeing slavery in the American South. During WWII, Christians and churches across Europe took in Jews. The Sanctuary Movement—a network of hundreds of American churches—in the 1980s created havens for migrants fleeing Central America.[8] Today, European and Near East churches, bolstered by Pope Francis and the patriarchs, have acted as refuges for Arabs and Africans uprooted by crises in their countries.[9]
Taking a lead role in the resettlement of refugees, Christians have formed scores of specifically religious bodies whose function is to care for the needy.[10] Their goals are the empowerment of displaced people wherever they are, the resettlement of refugees, the protection of human rights, and the empowerment of the Church to fulfill its mission to the world.
Though in the modern era, states and governments have shouldered most of the responsibility of asylum—at least in the popular conscience—the Church cannot forget that which is its great duty and greater joy. For to welcome the stranger is to welcome Christ.
[1] Ger was applied to Abraham (Gen. 17-7-8, 20:1, 21:34, 23:4), Lot (Gen. 19:9), Isaac (Gen. 35:27, 37:1), Jacob (Gen. 28:4, 32:4), Esau (Gen. 36:6-7) and Joseph and his brothers (Gen. 47:4, 9) and to Israel as a community (Gen. 12:10, 17:7-8, 21:23, 23:4, 36:6-7; Ex. 6:4; 22:21, 23:9; Lev. 19:34; Deut. 10:19). Also, Moses in Midian (Ex. 2:22, 18:3) and Israel in Babylon (Ezra 1:2-4).
[2] The ESV translation of Leviticus 25:23 may be idiosyncratic in identifying God with the term ger. The New International Version translates the Hebrew as, “‘The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.’”
[3] James Minahan. Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations: Ethnic and National Groups Around the World—Volume Three. Greenwood Press. 2002.
[4] Volker L. Menze. Justinian and the Making of the Syrian Orthodox Church. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford University Press. 2008.
[5] Nicholas Terpstra. Religious Refugees in the Early Modern World: An Alternative History of the Reformation. Cambridge University Press. 2015.
[6] Ibid.
[7] World Council of Churches, Refugee and Migration Service. A Moment to Choose: Risking to be with Uprooted People. World Council of Churches. 1996.
[8] Kathleen L. Villarruel. “The underground railroad and the sanctuary movement: A comparison of history, litigation, and values”. Southern California Law Review, 60. 1986.
[9] Anthony Faiola and Michael Birnbaum. “Pope Francis on Europe’s Catholics to take in refugees”. The Washington Post. Sept. 6, 2015.
[10] A small sampling: Church World Service, Episcopal Migration Ministries, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, Mennonite Central Committee, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, World Relief Corporation.
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