Adopted Families

Sunday, May 13, three people from Iraq, who have been living as refugees in Lebanon, landed in the Toronto airport.  Members of our Refugee Committee at St. Paul’s in Oakville were there to greet them and welcome them to their new home.  We hope they felt warmly welcomed, but they will feel overwhelmed for a while.  The customs in Iraq and Lebanon are very different from Canada.  They don’t speak English.  Luckily, they do have family here in Oakville, but it’s going to take some time to adjust to this new environment.  In the meantime, we need to remember that it’s not about us, it’s not about what we think would make us happy or content, it’s not about the work we have done to bring them here.  We  need to listen, have patience, and be open minded.

  

One of the 2018 movies suggested on which I was asked to preach was Paddington II.  Now, unfortunately, I couldn’t find this movie available anywhere so I decided to watch the first Paddington.  In this movie, Paddington has to leave his home because of a natural disaster.  He is encouraged to go to London, a place where long ago, children were shipped off to strangers because of the danger in their home.  Paddington was told that the people of London would remember this and would know how to welcome a stranger to their city.  Unfortunately, he did not receive the warmest of welcomes.  

We heard today from the Torah, the sacred five books of the Hebrew scripture, “When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself.” 

When the church settled me and my family in Stoughton, Saskatchewan, it wasn’t a different country with a different language, but it was very different from our past experiences.  We were far from home and far from family.  We met someone there named Joanne.  She had two adult sons and no grandchildren and she was the type of person who really needed grandchildren.  She was so sweet and so had much love to share.  She embraced our two young boys.  She always chatted with them, remembered their birthdays, and took a real interest in their lives.  She had the whole family over for holidays.  She became the boys’ Stoughton Grandma.

Saskatchewan tended to be one of those places where there was always a lack of ministers, so many new ministers were settled there.  Like us, many were isolated and far away from family.  Two, who were serving in churches nearby, were Nick, a married man from BC, whose wife had stayed in BC, and Cordelia, from Ontario, a single, young woman.  We met at our regional church gathering and we quickly became friends. We began to invite them over to our place for Thanksgiving and Easter.  They became a part of our extended family in Saskatchewan.

Sometimes families are not related by blood; instead they are created by necessity.  There was a documentary that came out last

year on Fred Rogers and his show, Mr. Roger’s Neighorhood.  He was someone that touched the lives of many including those people who were on his show.  In this documentary, many expressed his influence on them, including one man who saw him as a surrogate father.

A scribe, listening to Jesus and his followers in conversation, asked the following, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 

The alien.  The neighbour.  Love them as we love ourselves.  A tall order.  Loving ourselves is the first order of business, and we all know that isn’t easy to do.  Some of us have to work harder than others because of negative messages we’ve received throughout out lives,  but if we don’t first love ourselves, it’s difficult to love others well.  

Inviting people to be a part of our lives and a part of the lives of our families can be risky.  We risk being hurt.  We risk our families being hurt.  We make ourselves vulnerable.  This risk though can also bring the richest of rewards, as we’ve heard in the stories we’ve shared.  When we are open to the love of another, especially one who needs our love, our families benefit and the love within our families grows.  

May we always feel a part of a family, loved for who we are and who we are becoming and may we always offer that love to others who long to belong and be a part of a loving family.  May it be so.  Amen.