All in need of giving and receiving help
With the wall fiasco in the United States continuing its insanity, and the looming Brexit deadline in Europe already making its impact very much felt, one feels lucky to be somewhat off the global map down under. But are we really?
There is a massive humanitarian crisis with millions of people fleeing violence and economic desperation. What should our response be as a country? As individuals?
We now live in a world with significant wealth differential – the average wealth per adult in New Zealand is 416 times higher than that of the poorest, central African republic.
And globalisation connects us all – how we consume, how we treat our environment, how we use prosperity as our main measuring stick whatever the cost, regardless of who gets left behind.
As we can see in Europe and the States, there is enormous political capital to be gained (and money to be made on Facebook) in galvanising people’s fears that jobs may be lost, economies pushed down the tubes, daughters assaulted, and terrorism given free rein, if migration is not severely stemmed and security not prioritised over democratic processes.
Ironically, the reality can actually be quite the opposite.
Consider Steve Jobs was the son of a Syrian migrant.
Look at Europe – back in 2011 Massimo D’Alema pointed out in the French newspaper Le Monde that there were 333 million Europeans, but with the falling average birth rate, that number would fall to 242m in the next 40 years, and that unless they had at least 30m new migrants the European economy would completely collapse.
When Jesus is asked what is the most important thing of all, he doesn’t say prosperity, GDPs, or security. He says it’s love: ‘‘That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence – and that you love your neighbour as well as you do yourself.’’ (The Msg) A religious scholar in the crowd asks for clarification, what exactly do you mean by your neighbour? What exactly are you asking of us?
And so Jesus tells this simple story: There was once a man travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side.
Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.
A Samaritan travelling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill – I’ll pay you on my way back.’
‘‘What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbour to the man attacked by robbers?’’
‘‘The one who treated him kindly,’’ the religion scholar responded. Jesus said, ‘‘Go and do the same.’’
The Samaritans were an ethnic group much despised by the highly religious Jews. And here, in unexpected places, outside of national borders or affiliations, regardless of the significant security risk that stopping on this dangerous road entailed, we find the essence of humanity, of faith.
Jesus was inviting his Jewish audience to consider that the essence of religion might require a significant change of mindset, and telling us that it will require us to do things that put us out, that put other’s interests ahead of our own at times, and in ways that will be uncomfortable and risky.
What does this mean in our global society? What do we say to our politicians deciding on refugee quotas? How do we respond to the efforts of the Red Cross? How do we respond to those we come across who are different from us, who perhaps don’t speak English well? How does this change the conversations we have at parties and cafes when these topics come up?
Jeremy Leggett, from the Guardian, argues that in the future, the only possible sustainable future for humanity, is one where we put aside our own prosperity and security as our guiding principles and embrace a new approach to our world:
‘‘High on the list is the need for us all to consume less ‘stuff’ and to seek a type of prosperity outside the conventional trappings of affluence: within relationships, family, community and the meaning of our lives and vocations in a functional society that places value on the future.’’
It truly is a brave new world, where what the concept of a ‘‘border’’ means is radically changing with each generation. And bravery may be what’s needed.
For all the things that the scaremongers point to in ‘‘other’’ cultures as threatening our way of life – it’s been my experience that we have so much more we agree on than disagree, so much more we can connect with rather than than disconnect.
Ironically, I’ve found the times I’ve connected with Indian, Burmese, Korean, Muslim cultures (to name just a few) I’m left thinking just how much I have to learn about what it means to truly value family and relationships, about what a hard work ethic truly is, and how privilege has impacted my own life.
Faith, virtue, righteousness, whatever you want to call it, in Jesus’ Good Samaritan parable it involves a tangible engagement with the ‘‘other’’.
Most of us won’t be engaged with the actual politics of our national immigration policy (although we can write to our local MP and have an impact that way), but that doesn’t make us powerless either.
I’m amazed at how many new cultures I see when I look at the pictures on the wall of my 5-year-old’s classroom.
Maybe bravery is starting a conversation with these kids’ mums and dads, with those who look and sound different to us, maybe it’s as simple as walking across the room and learning that our ‘‘neighbour’’ has more to offer, more to teach, than we thought.
Maybe the lines of who is ‘‘the man injured on the side of the road’’ and who is the ‘‘other’’, the Samaritan, are much more blurred than we realise.
Maybe it turns out we are all interconnected, and in need of giving and receiving help, and we need to live with an openness and generosity for everyone’s needs if humanity is to survive and thrive the current challenges.