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Over 200 people were rescued today after their boat sank while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea. But not everyone made it out alive. 21 women and one man died. This adds to the almost 3,000 migrant deaths in the Mediterranean this year alone. (UNHCR)

The 22 brave souls who died trying to make it to Europe, did so knowing the worst could happen. They knew, as every refugee and migrant does, that the journey may cost them everything, even their life. With such a high risk of loss why would someone embark on such a journey?

Every person carries with them the same basic needs, wants and fears. Knowing this, we should take into account that a person seeking refuge through harrowing and often tragic journeys would only do so for reasons of extreme need – the kind of needs that we all as a human kind share.

So, it bears investigating the question; how should we respond? How should those of us who enjoy freedom, security, and plenty respond to those willing to risk their lives and the lives of their children in order to obtain such basic necessities?

In a political climate where lines of race and religion are used to divide and where fear is the tool of division, how can a follower of Jesus understand how to respond? I believe we follow the way of Jesus and step into the conflict and broken lives of others. I believe we not only go to the places of conflict, but also open our lives to those who’ve arrived on our shores. I believe we open our hearts, our eyes, and our communities to all who would receive such an invitation. In essence, we must be a sanctuary, where all who have need would be given access to our sacred space.

The places we live, work, and play are the most sacred spaces in our lives. They are sacred because these are the spaces where we are fully present in relationship with others. In these spaces we need grace and offer grace. In these spaces we offer and receive acceptance, comfort, security, respect, and support. This is our community and our community is sacred.

When people become refugees or are forced to flee their home for other reasons, they are divorced from their sacred spaces, the places where relationship meets space and meaning takes shape. The places where they can count on being heard and valued are no more. Instead, refugees and other migrants exist in dislocated and disenfranchised places where uncertainty and insecurity have taken the place of comfort and security.

Here’s the thing: it doesn’t have to stay this way. As a people whose mission is to join God in remaking a broken world, we get to be at the forefront and the fringes, extending an invitation of peace and flourishing. We get to be on the hilltops looking and searching (with expectation) for those in need. When we embody a life of invitation, we dismantle our tendencies to raise and maintain our social, cultural, religious, and communal fortresses. We move from a posture that fears and suspects to a posture of inclusion and acceptance. Our family, community, city, and nation become a sanctuary for the foreigner and stranger. In this way, our sacred spaces actually make tangible the Kingdom of God “on Earth as it is in Heaven”.

Jesus was always talking about encounters with neighbors, strangers, and enemies. Not merely that those groups and people exist, but actual encounters with them; encounters that were transformative for all involved. As followers of Jesus we have the daily opportunity to pursue the peace of others. In a time where over 65 million people have been forced to flee their homes and countries, we have an opportunity to invite them into our sacred spaces, our community.

To live like Jesus and make tangible the Kingdom of God is to forsake fortress for sanctuary. Too often hilltops are used to keep the “other” at a distance and build-up a fortress. In the Kingdom that Jesus brings, it’s the opposite. The hilltop is meant to be a beacon, a place for all to see and to find refuge. Sanctuary is where relationship meets space and flourishing takes place. In other words, sanctuary is the place where we immerse into each other’s lives and in so doing work to meet the needs we all share. To be a part of this Kingdom is to live by invitation, to freely offer sacred space to anyone without it.

Get to the hilltops, be on the lookout and join God in remaking a broken world through the invitation of your sacred space to all those without.

Here’s a few practical ways to extend invitation:

1. Discover the places in your city that are dislocated and cut-off from flourishing and go there. Start a conversation and extend an invitation to learn more about the people you meet there. A place will become sacred when meaning and presence merge.
2. Research and connect with a local group or organization that serves refugees. Join them and build a relationship with someone who has sought refugee in your city. Then invite them into your sacred spaces.
3. Discover your “hilltops”. Cultivate ways to see and meet “others”.
4. Take your community with you.

May we be marked, not by fortress or exclusion, but by sanctuary and invitation.

Peace!

Jason Clarke

[1] United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) found at: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=54092#.V4_kZfQ8KnM

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BBC Learning: ‘Seeking Refuge’ Series – Ali’s Story from Freedom from Torture on Vimeo.

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Today is the day when our Governor’s actions to reject those fleeing the world’s worst crisis goes into effect. Governor Greg Abbott of Texas has decided to place an impossible standard on the U.S. government as it seeks to welcome refugees fleeing conflict and disaster. Gov. Abbott claims that “refugees cannot be vetted” yet it is widely known how rigorous the refugee vetting process is and how strict the conditions are for refugees to be approved.

The facts are these:

1. Of the nearly 20 million refugees worldwide less than 1% are ever selected for the UN Resettlement Program. Of that 1% the U.S. resettles around 70,000 people annually.

2. Refugees go through a rigorous, multi-phase background and fact checking process conducted by the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, Department of State, and other agencies. This process takes around two years to complete.

3. Any person selected for U.S. resettlement cannot be found to have been a part of an armed group, have a criminal history, or associated with persons or groups who have been associated with criminal, militia, or terrorist activity.

4. Refugees who entered Europe did so as asylum seekers, not as vetted refugees participating in the UN Refugee Resettlement Program – which is the only way refugees enter the U.S. Therefore, citing the terror attacks in Europe as reason to reject refugees entering the U.S. is one based not in program integrity, but race and religious bias.

There is no vetting process nor depth of knowledge that can be had about any person which can predict hidden intentions or future actions. FBI Dir. Comey, who has often been misquoted regarding the vetting process was not suggesting that the U.S. does not have a legitimate tool for vetting refugees. But, rather, that those who are vetted have passed the most rigorous of tests and yet it is an unknown as to what an individual will chose to pursue in the future. To suggest that one must be able to predict the future actions or hidden intentions of refugees in order for Americans to welcome those fleeing for their lives presents an impossible standard in the face of indescribable tragedy.

America is a land where people from the world over have fled. This is a nation of migrants seeking refuge and a better life. As Americans we cannot forget our past. We cannot rush into safety and close the doors behind us. We cannot build a future based on fear. No, we must meet those in need – not with fear, bias, and rejection – but with love, hope, and acceptance. It is the mutual humanity and image of God within refugees that we see and a desire to realize their flourishing and invite them into our prosperity that we pursue.

As Americans and citizens of the world it is our responsibility to stand with and for the most vulnerable. This is our moment in history. Will we be known as those who rejected or those who welcomed? I urge you to search your heart, your faith, and your values and find within a safe space for refugees to call home.

Grace and peace,

Jason Clarke
Founder, Director
Seek The Peace

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This is a re-post of a blog our friend, Jon Huckins of The Global Immersion Project wrote to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. We felt it to be a needed reminder of how we are to think about life, others and even the enemy, daily.

This coming Monday is our national celebration of the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. As I have been reflecting on his work and witness, I am convinced his message is as necessary and prophetic today as it was when he was alive (if not more!).

We live in a culture that not only glorifies violence, but often celebrates its use against the “enemy” as the truest form of heroism and bravery. While I won’t get into the debate of whether violence is ever justified to preserve life (a much bigger conversation extending far beyond an 700 word blog post), I will say I’m deeply troubled by our assumption that violence is the only way to respond to a real or perceived threat.

Most disturbing is the fact that the majority of Jesus followers in this country have the same assumptions about the “necessary” use of violence as the culture at large. I would argue that an objective observer would not be able to distinguish between the USAmerican Church’s ethic of violence and the ethic of the State or the culture at large. As followers of a God who looked like an enemy-loving Jesus — who sacrificially absorbed violence rather than perpetuating it — we’d be wise to re-examine our assumptions around violence in light of his life and teachings. 

Jesus’ take on responding with violence:

“You have heard that it was said, You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who harass you so that you will be acting as children of your Father who is in heaven.” — Matt 5:43-45

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’  But I say to you that you must not oppose those who want to hurt you. If people slap you on your right cheek, you must turn the left cheek to them as well. When they wish to haul you to court and take your shirt, let them have your coat too.  When they force you to go one mile, go with them two.” — Matt 5:38-41

After being beat, humiliated, dehumanized and nearly killed, Jesus’ response to violence, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” — Luke 23:34

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” — Matt 5:9

These passages are often interpreted as Jesus either being a soft pushover or teachings that were not realistic and helpful for establishing a normative, everyday ethic toward violence. The reality is that Jesus was not promoting a passive response to violence, but a dignifying one. A response that would both expose the inhumanity of the abuser’s actions and amplify the dignity of the abused. 

Jesus is not just calling us away from the lure of violence, but inviting us toward the necessary, subversive, creative and costly work of peacemaking. Peacemaking isn’t a passive withdrawal from conflict. Peacemaking isn’t embracing the status quo. Peacemaking isn’t euphoric or other worldly.

Peacemaking is a series of actions that move us toward conflict armed with weapons to heal and transform rather than weapons to destroy.

MLK not only took Jesus’ life and teachings seriously, he modeled actions of an alternative response to violence, hatred and injustice. He invited a movement of people to take the hard work of peacemaking seriously by outlining tangible actions that would expose the inhumanity of those abusing power and amplify the humanity, dignity and plight of his black brothers and sisters caught in their wake.

As we celebrate MLK’s life and legacy, may we be reminded to take Jesus’ life and teachings seriously and repent of the ways in which we’ve allowed a culture of violence to hijack our own humanity. Because when we begin to view fellow image bearers as “collateral damage,” we are becoming less human and missing out on an opportunity to join God in the world he is making.

So, rather than embrace an American Sniper spirituality where the Bible brands our violence, may we embrace the spirituality of Selma where the Bible is embodied in nonviolent action. This is not only our task, it is our opportunity. May it be so. 

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My family has a motto. It is derived straight out of the Old Testament Book of Micah:

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)

Every night when my wife and I are huddled up in the bed with our five and two year old we tell stories, laugh at crazy toddler jokes about poop, thank Jesus for our favorite candy, best friends at school and for each other. Then we recite our motto and ask Jesus to help us live it out. Line by line we each recite the following:

Do Justice, Love Kindness, Walk Humbly.

Of course for toddlers this is just another thing that we do as a family. That is, until we find ourselves forgetting to live this out among each other. If my son is being selfish I’ll ask him: “Ro are you “loving kindness” right now?” If my daughter tries to take a toy away from my son I’ll ask: “Sissy are you “doing justice” right now?” In most cases they not only respond with the correct answer, but they actually understand the meaning of the concept.

The point is, if Micah 6:8 has the power to teach, correct, and transform toddlers who are acting in the most raw and basic of human instincts, how radically transformative could our lives become if we operated by these same basic principles? I believe this is the secret to peacemaking: that a person would understand and live out the most basic but radical lifestyle where the frame by which we operate seeks to accomplish the following:

Do Justice: Seek to make things right.

Love Kindness: With a compassionate heart treat others the way you want to be treated.

Walk Humbly: Living with the knowledge and belief that every person is equally valuable and that we are all in need of an equal amount of grace.

So what does it look like to live this out within the complexities of the modern world? Lets apply these principles to what has become the largest forced migration of people since WWII, the Syrian refugee crisis. When I think about this Crisis, I think about it along these lines:

1. What does it look like to do justice? That is, how can I participate in making things right for Syrian refugees? For me it looks like advocating on their behalf; encouraging others to warmly welcome them into our city so that they can live in a safe place with opportunity to rebuild what was destroyed and lost; shed light on the politics of fear and bias surrounding the crisis; and personally journey with a family once they arrive.

2. What does it look like to love kindness? I have to begin by placing my self and my family in the place of those in need. That is, I begin to think about what it would be like if it were my family who was fleeing war and were in need of rescue. My compassionate response would have to take this seriously and inspect it honestly. In doing this, I have come to the realization that I would let nothing in the way of bringing my wife, son, and daughter to safety.

3. What does it look like to walk humbly? For me it begins by understanding that I am just as broken and in need of grace as every Syrian refugee. Whether Muslim or Christian, we are all equally valuable. Regardless of language or religion, cultural similarities or differences, our human equality trumps all other distinctions. Therefore, a humble response is one that draws no lines or divisions based on differences. Muslim refugees are as equally welcome as Christians.

As a (aspiring) peacemaker, I find more-than-not, that peace and justice are not terribly complex. Rather, it is the way that we all-to-often find ways to devalue the “other” that makes things so difficult and issues so complex. In pursuing justice, with kindness, in humility we will find ways to care for those in need regardless of what obstacles may arise. I encourage you (for your sake) and implore you (for their sake) to think on and live out these principles. I believe the transformation of the world depends on it.

Grace and peace to you.

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The practice of working or laboring alongside an enemy or simply the “other” has a far reaching impact regarding the creation of new experiences and ultimately the formation of new ways of feeling, thinking, and then acting toward that person or group. Our latest endeavor was born along the lines of this truth. We set out to bring people together – to labor next to each other – who otherwise might never encounter such a space.

This fall we are bringing together a young Muslim Sudanese man from the Darfur region and partnering him with a young Christian South Sudanese man for the purpose of co-laboring – working together – to screen print each tee shirt that Seek makes. We are also bringing together a Hindu woman from Nepal and a Muslim woman from Pakistan to co-labor on a project to make an exclusive range of candles for SEEK. Each person will learn the art of their respective craft and earn a fair wage in the process.

Laboring together is an important part of the process. Shoulder-to-shoulder experiences where one depends upon the other subjects even longstanding bias to the reality of true human and personal experience. The experience of a human relationship forms and strengthens both the subconscious and conscious feelings and beliefs about those within the relationship.

Cultural, religious, or political bias hold little weight against a positive human experience where the “other” becomes seen as equally human and equally flawed. In such a place, grace for the “other” is the embodiment of equality as it represents an honest admission of mutual worth and mutual need. It is in this place of grace that bias, lies, fears, and opinions lose their legitimacy and where the divinely created intrinsic value of the “other” begins to emerge.

In the Sudan and South Sudan region there is a longstanding conflict between Muslims and Christians, with both identity groups taking up violent conflict against the other. In a different but similar vein, Hindus and Muslims are at violent odds in many parts of South East Asia. It is our hope to not only bring together individuals at personal, cultural, and religious odds, but to also raise an example of how those individuals can go back into their respective communities as peacemakers and effect change in a greater way.

Stay tuned for more products created by this new crew of peacemakers.

Peace!

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Guest post by Matt Clarke

As a high school English teacher, I always seek opportunities for my students to engage, in a tangible way, with people who practice the concepts and themes I teach. Often, I wish I had friends in the relevant businesses, industries, and systems which I cover throughout a year. Rarely do I have such connections.

When I looked ahead in the curriculum several months ago, I saw just such a chance. The unit I would cover with my sophomore honors classes was focused on Justice.

Jason Clarke’s bearded face immediately came to mind.

I originally met Jason and his family through mutual friends on Halloween several years ago. His family and mine and our kids, crazy and adorable in equal measure, hit it off. It helped that we lived in the same neighborhood. Watching Jason build up and continually pursue peace and restorative justice through Free City International – now Seek The Peace – and his focus on families, refugees, and communities destroyed by violence, conflict, and injustice, has been paradigm-shifting. I’ve watched him continually push, with graceful firmness, into lives and situations locally and internationally, bearing peace in his hands and justice on his lips. Rarely do we meet people whose ability to dream is equally matched by their practical ability to reach their visions.

When I saw my upcoming unit, I knew my students had to hear him. Not simply so he could reframe their concept of justice and its application to their lives, but because I knew that Jason’s work impacts people’s lives in real, powerful, and pragmatic ways.

On the 19^th and 20^th of May, Jason came to North Garland High School and over the course of two days, essentially wrecked about 280 high school students’ preconceived notions of what justice actually is, and how it can look when we change our focus on justice from crime and punishment to restoration and healing.

In the two days since, using my copious notes from the presentations, my classes and I have processed not just what was said, explained, or demonstrated, but rather how we can allow the words to impact us on a heart level so that our new “principles” begin to “inform our positions.” Essentially, that once we know, we can’t un-know. As a result, we are weighted with the responsibility of a response to both harm and injustice in a way that restores relationship and repairs harm.

I have seen, and read, firsthand how, within 48 hours, students’ attitudes are affecting their opinions and treatment of their peers. To say they were inspired is not only an understatement, but inaccurately reflects what has begun to transpire in their hearts.

An inspiration, at its most temporary and basic, simply uplifts a person emotionally. It is not catalytic. A person must decide to act upon an inspiration. Hearing the impact of his dialogues with my kids has made it clear to me that these students are feeling the weight of their responsibility to respond, they are empowered to act as advocates within their families and communities, they are now motivated to be agents of literal change in their spheres of influence. The have begun the process of acting.

As a personal friend of Jason’s, if I may call myself that, I know that he stands on the shoulders of Christ in order to see and reach those who are ignored, marginalized, cast aside, abused, neglected, and broken. His perceptive vision into a person and beyond their beliefs and circumstances allows him uniquely to reach out in love, justice, comfort, and peace to those being crushed under the weight and experiences of their darkness, brokenness, and battles.

His presentations for my students although insightful and engaging, were important on a much more crucial level. He showed students that healing and justice go hand-in-hand. He revealed the divine nature of contending on behalf of the voiceless and forgotten. He opened the eyes of their hearts and spirits to see the imago dei – the image of God, written in the faces of friends, strangers, family, and adversaries. The seeds of justice planted this week at North Garland have already begun to change the way these kids see others, their communities, and their role in this world.

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It’s not always the complex ideas that lend the space for enemies and strangers to come together, seek to understand, and eventually offer forgiveness to each other. It’s true that complex problems often take strategic and principled negotiation. But all too often we miss the simple opportunities to cultivate the fertile ground to which a sustaining peace demands.

In the case of the Israeli and Palestinian conflict there are Israeli and Palestinian peacemakers who have come to realize that collective experiences such as community gardening hold within them the power to not only produce first-time meetings, but the cultivation of seeing each other as human as well.

Experiencing the mutual humanity of one’s enemy is the first step to treating that person with humanity.

So lets focus on the simple things: Our mutual humanity is simple because every human shares it. Our intrinsic value (our worth) is simple because every person is created with it. Our common dignity is simple because our mutual humanity and intrinsic value demand we treat people with it.

When we begin to see others as having these same and basic characteristics as ourselves it will be much harder to allow others to suffer at the hands of our fears and political opinions. Therefore, lets seek the simple things that bring back what we all have in common and thus need from each other.

From Jerusalem with grace and peace,

Jason Clarke

‪#‎seekthepeace‬

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Last Monday afternoon in Vickery Meadows, the refugee-center of Dallas, something was made very clear to me: simply put, true peace is found in the pursuit of reconciliation. That reconciliation is not an event, but rather a journey we enter into completely broken and in hope of becoming something or someone completely new. It is a lifetime of experiences where we choose to see people as God has created them – in his image and with a universal dignity and value.

That Monday afternoon, I was driving away from my office with two new friends, Jon Huckins and Jer Swigart. Jon and Jer had come in from California to teach our team (Seek the Peace) about ‘Peacemaking as the mission of God.’ As we drove deeper into the heart of Vickery Meadow, we found ourselves in the midst of several hundred high school students who had just been let out of class for the day. As we arrived at the busy intersection, we realized that in the center of this mass of teenagers was a violent conflict in the making. Two distinct groups – on one side, African Americans and on the other Burmese refugees – were in the process of spiraling into armed violence against each other. Both groups were feeling threatened and failing to see the imago Dei, dignity and value in the other.

As ministers of reconciliation, our Jesus-like response is to enter into the conflict of others and to seek their peace – their holistic repair or shalom (Ps. 34:14.) So, after a full day of learning about God’s mission of peace in the world, this is exactly what we attempted to do. We left the car at the stop light, entered the chaos and pursued each party. Both groups had taken over the street taunting and swearing the others demise. I remember seeing an aluminum bat, Nunchucks and a taser. All this was swirling around in the middle of an intersection filled with people and cars stopped and staring, with students on the street yelling and crowding. This was the raw reality of pain and brokenness on display for all to witness. A display like this comes when an essential element of life is missing: hope.

The rest of this story is actually just the beginning. Our response led us to come face to face with each group, speak truth to them and with urgency lead them into a place of pause. I say pause and not peace as these groups neither understand their own value and worth nor the opposing group’s. Each group was acting out of their own brokenness, acting from a place of hurt, fear and pain. From their posture, words and weapons, it is clear that each group’s social and cultural understanding of the other had kept them from truly seeing the intrinsic value and image of God of their opponent. Therefore, this pause was simply a temporary cessation of violence, rather than a decision to pursue peace.

When we see broken identities and take them at face value as the total worth or encompassing value of a person or group, we have failed to see what God sees. We have failed to see through the lens of Jesus, who is actually making peace. Jesus is actively seeing the image of God in creation, transcending broken social and cultural identities and turning enemies into friends and family. This is the commission to Jesus-followers and the job description of ministers of reconciliation. To miss seeing one’s enemy rightly is to miss the point of the work of Jesus altogether.

I have missed this point too many times. In fact, I often prefer to miss this point. Seeing and then pursuing my enemy is not comfortable; in fact, it is costly. Leaving our intentionally created spaces seems counterintuitive. But isn’t that the logic of Jesus? For the sake of those who were at odds with him, Jesus leaves his place of comfort, crosses his borders and sacrifices everything for his enemies. The logic of Jesus is to bring “Peace on Earth” through the unadulterated pursuit of his enemies. In his peace, Jesus steps into our conflict for the sake of our flourishing. This is our salvation and the way or model of all those in Christ to act in our given spaces.

Peace and reconciliation, or the repair of our heart, mind, relationships, families, and communities, is a journey to be lived day-in and day-out. We are the “Salt of the World” as we step into the world’s brokenness seeking its peace. Jesus in Matthew 5 teaches: “blessed are the peacemakers.” In the words of my friends Jon and Jer, this is not Jesus blessing peace-thinkers or peace-wanters – this is blessing those who are pursuing the making and re-making of peace in the midst of enemies and strangers.

The work ahead of building-up the true identity of those two conflicted groups in Vickery Meadow is long and costly. It is long because transformation of the heart and mind can be slow. It is costly because immersing into spaces of brokenness, contending for the flourishing of one’s enemy, all for the hope of restoration is not a single act done with convenience. In fact, stepping into brokenness is highly inconvenient and takes a great deal of personal sacrifice.

What happens from here is the beginning of the journey of reconciliation. It is the starting point where strangers and enemies journey together toward a different way of living. A way of living brought to bear by those whose life is a sacrifice for the flourishing of a neighbor, stranger or even an enemy. At this point, one begins to see beyond the assumed identity of the other, to see and transcend the social and cultural identities of brokenness and to begin to see that all people are created in God’s image.

As ministers of reconciliation, I encourage you to follow Jesus into the conflict and brokenness that is all around you. The places of brokenness you find yourself may not be as obvious as a street fight, but when we begin to see as Jesus did, the cloak of broken social and cultural identities will start to dissolve. From work, to home, to war-zones, the world is hurting, broken and in desperate need of the peace of Jesus. When we choose to see this we have the opportunity to seek the peace of those in pain and journey with them toward the hope of becoming a new creation.

Points of Reflection:

1. Do I see strangers and enemies as bearing the image of God?
2. How am I allowing broken social or cultural identities to keep me from loving my neighbor and enemy?
3. What are the places of brokenness around me?
4. What would it look like to enter into the conflict or brokenness around me?

Find our more about the work of Jon Huckins and Jer Swigart at
The Global Immersion Project here: GlobalImmerse.org

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