The Fast That God Desires

 Thirteen years ago, I served as the pastor of an English-speaking church in Nuremberg, Germany.  It was a fascinating experience.  The church was small, only 30 or so, and composed mostly of young adults starting their careers in Nuremberg. They came from Cameroon, South Africa, India, Japan, Ukraine, Poland, Ireland, UK and, of course Germany. There were even a couple from the United States.  Nuremberg, once shrouded under the dark cloud of Nazi history, has emerged in the twenty-first century as a cosmopolitan city welcoming people from around the globe. 

 As a result of that experience, I followed refugee reports in Europe with special interest.  I was impressed with the way Germany and other European nations opened their resources, their communities, their arms and their homes.   In 2015 ABC News reported, “Dozens of volunteers have been driving to Hungary and to the Serbian border, picking up refugees walking along the highway in the aim of helping them travel to Western Europe.” Universities offered free classes to refugees. In Berlin more than 780 people opened their homes for temporary shelter. The continued flow has become overwhelming. Today there are more than 122 million refugees worldwide, people forced from their homes by war, crime and corruption. According to Statistica, in 2024 Germany ranked third in hosting refugees at 2.6 million.  The U.S. ranked 20^th at 435 thousand with 60,000 admitted in 2023.   

 I am always encouraged to see people reaching out to those who are different and desperate. There are, of course, dangers and risks, just as there were dangers and risks in Jesus’ Good Samaritan story.  But the rewards far outweigh the costs.

 In the United States, we are a nation of immigrants, refugees and their descendants. We all came from somewhere else, often from places suffering famine, disease and oppression.  In the 1960s and 70s we welcomed refugees from Viet Nam.  Fifty years later they have built businesses and sent their children to college where some became doctors, lawyers and engineers. When we lived in Minnesota, we came to know and love the Hmong our allies who fled slaughter in Laos following the fall of Vietnam.  Most came to the U.S. as animists.  Today many are devoted followers of Christ. St. Paul has the largest Hmong church in the nation. 

 While some traditional churches in the U.S. are in decline, many immigrant churches are growing. I attended the dedication of a new building for Liberian Christians north of Minneapolis. In St, Paul a church composed of immigrants from Myanmar (formerly Burma) rapidly outgrew their meeting space.

 In Isaiah, God said, “Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke?  Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into the house; when you see the naked to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?  Then your light will break out like the dawn, and your recovery will speedily spring forth, and your righteousness will go before you; and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard,” (Isaiah 58:6-8).