By the Revd David Pargeter, UCA Justice and International Mission Unit

Presentation at a forum on refugees and asylum seekers at Montmorency Uniting Church on 15 May

I would like to take you on a journey back towards what could be a possible future.

I want to take the very human stories associated with refugees seeking asylum in a sun-burned country, lift them out of the political stadium where they have become the latest pawns in the dirty business of power and control, and place them very firmly into the context of a faithful religious life. Especially, faithfulness to the Christ who comes amongst in the guise of the gardener, the companion on the road of disillusion, the lost, the least and the last. Who arrives in the guise of the naked, the hungry, the thirsty and the innocently imprisoned. The Christ who leaves us in no doubt whatsoever, as to what the benchmark for faithfulness will be. The one who says: "What you didn't do for the least in the world, you didn't do for me!" This is the Christ, who comes among us breaking bread, casting out fear, and displaying the kind of love that changes things.

So, let's take that little trip into the past in search of a possible for future.

As I look back over history it seems to me that societies, regardless of their culture or religion, have developed two primary ways of responding to what is foreign, or alien or strange. They have either repulsed or welcomed. Outlawed or in-lawed. Killed or cuddled. Embarked on war or engaged in welcome. Used them for the construction of enemies or approached them as potential friends.

Strangeness always generates tension. What is new and unusual always stimulates some kind of unease. Sometimes it's excitement and anticipation. Sometimes it is fear and apprehension.So it could be said that we end up with either xenophobia or xenophilia - fear of the stranger or love of the stranger. I want to suggest to you that this tension is overcome by the universally possible and the universally transforming practice of hospitality. Hospitality turns aliens into friends. Hospitality is a much better way of dealing with strangers.

So, lets just have a very quick look at ancient Greek society; the society of Homer. Homer the epic poet not Homer the Simpson. Homer divided the nations into two types - the savage and the hospitable. Greece was very proud of its hospitality to strangers, although at first it treated them with reserve and granted them no rights. From a religious perspective, strangers were placed under the protection of Zeus, and their rights were gradually defined as they settled into the new world.

Being under the protection of Zeus wasn't a bad place to be - Zeus, chief God of the ancient Greeks, ruler of the heavens. Through this relationship strangers or foreigners were regarded as guests of the deity. Consequently, sanctuaries were the primary places of hospitality. Out of this emerged the need for hospices and inns often associated with temples, synagogues or places of pilgrimage.

According to my books at home, the ones that reflect upon ancient Greek ethics, mistreatment of strangers was a serious offence. Greek society was encouraged to cultivate an ethic, an attitude of welcome. The situation of being temporarily without rights was relieved through the exercising of hospitality. What the law of the land wasn't able to provide, the principle of hospitality made up for.

Jewish and Christian societies however, have been less inclined to broadly embrace this notion of xenophilia and seem much more xenophobic. They emerge through history as being quite anxious about protecting themselves from the influences of other religions and cultures. And within the First testament period there are huge swings in thought and practice, from the openness of the period of the monarchy to the reaction against foreign influences by the prophets. After the exile there was strong opposition to mixed marriages and special hostility toward Samaritans. All this despite some heavy theology built around the primary belief that God is the God of hospitality, who welcomes to the table or to the feast, all of humankind.

Notions of inclusion and acceptance were driven by big names like Josephus and Philo. Yet resisted, I suspect by more primal fears. For all sorts of reasons, fear of neighbours who are different comes much more naturally to people than loving them.

Surprising as it might seem, the Christian community has also tended to reveal a dislike for what is foreign. Yet, if the truth be told, the gospel of the Christian community is based on the life of one who built his faith story around the capacity to show xenophilia and not xenophobia. To show love of stranger rather than fear of stranger.

Through continuous expressions of hospitality Jesus shocked his own faith community, by showing the kind of love that is capable of casting out all fear. He also established the benchmark for loving the neighbour; the benchmark I suspect by which any society may be critiqued.

But this deeply embedded concept of hospitality is not the watermark of just one or two religions. Listen to some 'texts' from other faith traditions.

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Christianity. Hebrews 13.1

They feed with food the needy wretch, the orphan, and the prisoner, for love of Him, saying, "We wish for no reward nor thanks from you." Islam. Qur'an 76. 8 - 9

Charity - to be moved at the sight of the thirsty, the hungry, and the miserable and to offer relief to them out of pity - is the spring of virtue. Jainism. Kundakunda, Pancastokaya 137

You shall walk after the Lord your God. But how can a man walk after God who is a devouring fire? It means, walk after His attributes: clothe the naked, visit the sick, comfort the mourner, bury the dead. Judaism. Talmud, Sota 14a

Hostility and hospitality sound very much alike but they are worlds apart both in response and consequence. They represent two very different ways of dealing with what is strange and unfamiliar. Had the first wave of British and European settlers to arrive on Australia's shore's 200 years ago practiced hospitality instead of hostility - Australia would be a very different place today. And if we were to use Homer's model of dividing nations into two types; the savage and the hospitable, then Australia's treatment of refugees seeking asylum in this land, can only be described as savage. The current policy position of deterrence, deterrence, deterrence, is clearly a policy of hostility. And this policy is being driven and fuelled by that most volatile of high octane fuel - xenophobia - fear of the stranger.

Last Wednesday morning the treasurer described the Federal budget as one that would help Australian's feel safe. Some commentators have called it the fortress Australia budget. Quite obviously, this Government has recognised the tension that strangeness generates, the tension between natives and foreigners and has decided to respond with hostility rather than hospitality. It has chosen to manage the asylum seekers in our midst as if they are an enemy to be repelled, a threaten to be held at bay, an influence to be rejected. They have refused to even consider that there is a better way. A non-violent and much more humane way. The way of hospitality.

Finally, the events surrounding 11 September should at least teach us that no amount of spending on border protection, or military infrastructure will act as a barrier to terrorism, nor as an antidote to its effects. History, especially modern history has shown us that when a nation begins to construct enemies for its own political ends, then we are in for troubled times. Hospitality is the antidote. Xenophilia is the internal infra-structure needed to maintain it.

There is a better way, and we don't need government permission to take it. At the risk of sounding simplistic, which is always dangerous when handling complex issues, it is the way of Jesus. It is the hospitable way. The welcoming way. The life-giving way. The healing way.

The greatest threat at the moment is not to our national security, nor to our national identity, but to our integrity as a people of faith to whom God has extended unfathomable hospitality.

http://www.media.anglican.com.au/news/2002/2002_05/hospitality.html