Cor Ofman in een viering van de ERV
Cor Ofman in een viering van de ERV

Hospitality, some thoughts about Compassion and the Works of Mercy

Works of Mercy
Works of Mercy

 

One of the most intriguing Bible stories I consider to be the parable of the Final Judgment in the gospel according to Matthew, chapter 25.

God is pictured as a king who is judging the nations along the lines of how they have been treating the most vulnerable in their society.

The hungry, the thirsty, de naked, the stranger, the sick and the imprisoned.

What you have done to them, you have done to me, the king says.

 

We call it the works of mercy.

It doesn’t only concern your personal engagement, but the engagement of a whole nation.

It’s not just a question about what you should do in your personal life towards people at the edges of the society, but how we, will react as a society.

It’s not about individual compassion, but about how compassionate we are as a nation.

 

According to the words of Jesus the final judgment is about the righteous and the unrighteous who will enter the Kingdom of God, or not.

Those who will be included and those who will be excluded.

In the Old Testament we can read already how people should treat each other in the Promised Land.

You’ll have to take care of the poor, the widow, the orphan and the stranger. Those who can’t survive without your compassion. Even in the Promised Land!

 

I meet many vulnerable people in my ministry as a pastor in Amsterdam.

 

Every day I listen to the stories of asylum seekers and immigrants, who have left their countries, hoping for a safe place or a better life over here.

Just like Jesus and his parents who’d run for their lives to avoid the violent action of dictator-king Herod.

Just like Jacob and his entire family who escaped from famine to find refuge in Egypt.

 

It seems to be that asylum seekers and migrants are not really welcome into the Netherlands any more as they used to be, when - in what we call the ‘Golden Century’ -, tens of thousands of them came to look for work and integrating into this society.

Immigrants from Scandinavian countries, Jewish people from Poland and Spain, Huguenots from France, they all were welcome to share their knowledge and their labour and gave a boost to the economy.

 

Nowadays asylum seekers and migrants are considered to be a threat to the Dutch society, by taking over jobs and taking in positions jobless Dutch should have. As I they are ‘a pain in the ass’. (excuse me for this expression)

 

As the economy breaks down, people are looking for scapegoats and they have found them: in undocumented migrants and asylum seekers who are out of procedure.

 

I know many of them.

Twelve asylum seekers, living at a small space, sleeping on the floor like sardines in a tin.

A migrant couple staying in a room, big enough for just one mattress, with all their belongings piled up next to it.

A woman with two young children and a baby in a small room, worried if she will be able to pay the rent next month.

 

Surviving by doing the dirty work no one else wants to do,

underpaid, even exploited by their countrymen.

And always the risk of abuse and violence.

 

More than fifteen thousand are surviving in Amsterdam, more or less.

I usually meet them when there is nobody left over to turn to.

They pass on to each other the number of my mobile phone, which contains already about five hundred names in the system.

 

I call them survivors. They keep hope alive and do all possible things to stay in this country, because the situation in their countries of origin is even worse: more violence, more poverty, more limitations.

 

I don’t have my own church. I am just a pastor in the protestant church of Amsterdam as a whole, without having a particular parish.

En sometimes I’m grateful for that. Imagine they all came to my church!

 

Most of them visit an international Pentecostal church and perhaps even pretend that nothing is wrong.

At least on that Sunday morning of afternoon, when they praise God. In spite of all.

Even there they have to hide what is concerning them most: their poverty, their despair.

And some of them are afraid of being open about who they are:

being HIV-positive, gay and lesbian. Knowing that they would no longer being accepted within their community.

 

Women and men being victims of human trafficking. Still being exploited.

And to scared to report it to the police. Not knowing what their rights are in this country.

 

At the World House we don’t only want to be a listening ear, we also work on teaching them on the issue of basic human rights, training in empowerment, and so on.

 

How they have the right of getting access to free health care, reporting bonded labour and underpaid wages, being exploited.

That their children should be able to go to school.

 

On March 21st this year ASKV, Doctors of the World and the World House presented the Passport of Amsterdam, a guide on basic rights for people without a residence permit.

It was the Mayor of Amsterdam, mr. Eberhard van der Laan, received the first copy.

That day he made a solemn pledge that the Amsterdam police force will not go searching for undocumented people (at random).

Only if they make a criminal offense people may be questioned and asked to show their identity papers.

 

And if undocumented people are victims of a robbery, abuse, violence or human trafficking, they should be able to report it to the police without having to be scared to be arrested and taken into detention.

As the World House has its informal contacts within the Amsterdam police, we can help people to get in touch with the right police officers.

 

The welfare organization of the protestant church I work for is called ‘Diaconie’, from the Greek word ‘diakonia’, which does not only mean ‘serving people in need’, but also ‘mediating’.

That is what we try to do: bringing rich and poor people together in sharing and loving companionship. Talking to politicians and policy makers about what is going wrong.

 

In the Gospel it’s the Lord who represents the most vulnerable, in the hungry, the thirsty, de naked, the stranger, the sick and the prisoner, who is supposed to get what he needs: food, water, clothes, hospitality, care and a visit.

It’s the first amendment of the Charter of Gods Kingdom.

 

One cannot deal with it, or start negotiating as at an African market.

Nations have the solemn duty to care for the needy. And that should not exclude the undocumented, but include them.

All of us we are children of God, all of us just as vulnerable and, by his grace, included in his Kingdom.

 

When the King of kings is asking who want to participate in his Kingdom of justice and peace it is being called the kingdom of Heaven.

It’s not a location far away, that we once might reach,

but a place ‘down to earth’.

Because it’s here where God wants to live among us, as He has shown us in the words and deeds of Jesus Christ.

 

The Gospel story of the Kingdom of Heaven proclaims the message of including people, not excluding them.

It is a call to make a choice: having open eyes and ears and hearts and hands for those who are being neglected in the eyes of many individuals and governments, but who are precious in the eyes of the Lord and the righteous.

So precious that the Son of Man is representing them and could have been one of them.

 

God loves people with folded hands: those who pray continuously for a change of mind in this selfish society.

Who pray for a change in themselves: that they will be saved from selfishness and may share their abundance.

 

God loves people with ‘empty’ hands: those who haven’t filled their hands with things they don’t want to share.

 

God loves people with ‘open’ hands: those who don’t hide things behind their backs.

God loves people with blessing hands: those hold their hand above someone else’s head and say: I won’t harm you, trust me.

 

So let your hands be as the hands of God: inviting, open, blessing, giving.

Because God has no other hands than ours.

 

We are not living in the expectation of a final judgment.

This is the moment of ‘Kairos’. It is happening right now: what do you stand for?

Do you believe in sharing with your brothers and sisters in need?

As if it was Jesus himself who comes to you, asking you for some food or drink.

He is being represented in each vulnerable person who seeks a safe place.

 

One of my undocumented visitors, who has been severely traumatized by extreme violence in his country, was suffering from a nightmare.

He dreamt of being attacked again.

When he sat down in a chair he repeated softly: ‘I am in Holland, I am safe here.’

 

As a Dutch citizen I feel sometimes ashamed that my government has such little pity with victims of war.

How rules for asylum seekers and immigrants are getting more and more strict.

 

That’s why churches are helping ‘under protest’.

It should not just be by mercy that people should be allowed to get access to this country. But also by righteousness.

Imagine that the Lord would say: no place for the poor and the precious.

 

At the same time this country can only express hospitality as long as there are enough people who show a spirit of hospitality.

 

That’s why I can only pray: ‘Come, Holy Spirit. Fill this land with hospitality and make myself to someone who is able to give it. By your grace.

 

Cor Ofman

 

Majesty TV has put this 'sermon' on You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfcpeoTGmIA