Ezekiel wrote his prophesy to the people of Israel who were
living in exile in Babylon, after being forcibly displaced by the Babylonian
armies who swept across the region destroying whole cities (including
Jerusalem) and killing tens of thousands.
In Ezekiel’s vision, these refugees are dry bones. Lifeless.
Empty. Hopeless. As Ezekiel surveyed the great valley, filled
with bones, the LORD asks him, “Mortal, can these bones live?” The prophet responds, “O Lord God, you know.” (37:3)
I spent Tuesday and
Wednesday of this week at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
Advocacy Days in Washington DC. This is
an annual event where the bishops of the ELCA are invited to Washington to
learn about key issues of the day, and then visit with senators and
representatives from our home districts around those issues. This year, we met, along with the Lutheran
Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) Leadership Summit, around the question
of refugee resettlement and caring for the tens of thousands of unaccompanied
minors and their families coming to our southern boarders. They were an intense and I think, worthwhile,
couple of days. I visited with both
senators from Arkansas, and aides for the senators from Oklahoma (all
Republicans). The conversations were constructive.
We found common ground and areas of
agreement as we spoke and listened to one another. All four senators, as people of faith,
believe that caring for migrants and refugees is important… even if we didn’t fully agree on how best to
do that.
Today, 65 million people wander the earth as refugees. They have been displaced by war, famine,
violence, persecution and political oppression.
The world has not seen this many refugees since the end of World War
II. At that time, the United States
opened our hearts and our doors and led the way in caring for displaced
persons. LIRS was founded in 1939 to
respond to that crisis and has been resettling refugees ever since. Today’s refugees long for safe places to live
their lives, just like those who were displaced by WW II, and the Babylonian
armies of long ago. Many will never be
able to return to their homelands. They
are dry bones suffering and struggling and dying in refugee camps that stretch around
the world.
God’s people continue to have a significant role in caring
for those who wander homeless. Today,
the LORD still asks, “Can these dry bones live?” Like
Ezekiel before us, people of faith need to prophesy to these bones through
study, prayer, and advocacy, so that they can feel the breath of God’s Spirit
and experience new life. Jesus tells us
that when we welcome the stranger we are, in fact, welcoming him (Matthew
25). Caring for migrants and refugees is
holy work.
Can these dry bones live?
It is the Spirit of the Lord who gives us all life, but the Spirit works
through us as we do God’s work with our hands, and proclaim God’s praise with
our voices. Join me as together we proclaim a word of hope
and life to the migrants and refugees of our world in both word and in deed.
Peace,
Bishop Mike
Thank-you for reading.
You can find out more about the ELCA’s work with migrants and refugees
at AMMPARO, and
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.
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