The church is (not) a place of refuge

Our leadership last week decided to support Central Methodist congregation in a small way. This congregation has become a beacon of hope for refugees, predominantly from neighbouring Zimbabwe. This is where missional church in the Southern African context happens. It is unplanned; there's no coffeshop conversations, no Apple Macbooks, no kudus. Here it is smelly, dirty and yes, it's for real. Of late, however, they have also become the target of the wrath of businesses and government because of this. Apparently the MEC of Gauteng for Local Government government, Qedani Dorothy Mahlangu and the premier also chided Verryn for making the church's problem theirs and that they should refrain from attracting people from Musina, to Johannesburg. In any case, they argue, the church is not supposed to be literally, a place of refuge. The refugees from Zimbabwe should not simply become our problem, and after-all *wink-wink* we have a Confederations Cup and a FIFA World Cup on our hands.

The reality of migration, also to Johannesburg, needs to be faced square on. The premier of arguably the wealthiest province in South Africa (if not Southern Africa) cannot pretend that this is not a public and moral matter. Yes, we as faith communities must own up to our calling that the "the Church as the possession of God, must stand where God stands, namely against injustice and with the wronged".
And maybe we are not doing enough. It is therefore critical for the church to look deeper, behind the 'innocence' of government. Indeed, it has often been pointed out that the quack mire in Zimbabwe was caused by the lack of political will to do something, of Mr Mashatile's party and government and a conscious lack of planning. To come now and blame this church for the mess is, to say the least, hypocritical. Of course, it should be granted that church and government, but also all other sectors of good will, must now join hands to respond to this crisis, because indeed, this is a matter of life and death. As for the argument that government don't have the resources to deal with the refugee crisis, we simply need to remind them of the R1 million, a month expenditure on security for one politician, the billions available for sport stadiums and of course, those stashed away in wine estates, etc. Maybe our effort fade in comparison to the kind of projects on our plate, giving hope to the nation. Or maybe precisely these feeble efforts, becomes a irritating reminder, from Gods Spirit of who really matters, today in Johannesburg.