Airport Welcome Signs

In 2016, I was blessed to be able to be elected as our Synod’s clergy voting delegate to the ELCA Churchwide assembly in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It’s like a Synod Assembly or Church Annual Meeting… but on steroids. 1,000 delegates from across the country were brought in to worship together, celebrate being church together, and vote on issues that we as church are deliberating on.

I remember getting off the plane in Milwaukee and looking around, a bit befuddled as I wondered where I should go next. That’s when I saw her. Curly tufts of white hair atop an aged brow. She was well into her retirement years. Upon her face she wore a welcoming smile… and about her body she had a bright red vest with the ELCA logo on it. Beneath the logo was the word “Volunteer.”

“Hello!” she said in a distinctly northern accent. I smiled and returned her greeting. She continued, “My job here is to welcome people and tell them where to go next… so… welcome in Milwaukee! I’m so glad you’re here! I hope your trip went smoothly. We’ve had a lot of delegates coming through so you can pretty much follow the clergy collars and thrivent shirts. But, just head down that hallway and you’ll see a table with a couple of ladies in vests just like mine. They will help you with where to go next. God’s peace and again, welcome!” She was the first of about 5 sets of volunteers that I ran into in the airport… each directing me to the next point of contact. Rather than just putting up signs for the many delegates who were arriving, they intentionally had volunteers placed throughout the airport to not only point us in the direction we needed to go… but to offer a bit of Milwaukee love as they welcomed us. That warm welcome cut through the chaos and almost overwhelming activity of the airport and helped lead us where we needed to be.

I cannot tell you how much I appreciated that warm welcome. It set the tone for everything that would happen in the days to come which would continually amaze me. It takes a lot to welcome a thousand people and to plan everything from where they will sleep to what they will eat for a full 7 days.

The intentional work around welcoming and the behind the scenes effort to make everything run smoothly for the delegates to the Churchwide assembly was truly impressive. Rather than feeling like we were a logistical problem, the hundreds of volunteers who offered their time and energy seemed excited to be able to care for and serve their brothers and sisters from across the country.

Deuteronomy

Our reading from Deuteronomy makes me wonder what the ancient Israelites anticipated as they prepared to get off their own plane of sorts. Their departure point had been Egypt, 40 years in the past. It was a long flight. That’s a long time to be in transition waiting to reach your destination. But after 40 years they were finally getting close to stepping off that plane of the rugged wilderness and into the promised land.

Before we go any further, I want you to picture what a promised land might look like. What does your imagination come up with? Rolling hills? Green fields? Milk and honey? Perhaps a Willy Wonka Chocolate factory? That might be a promised land for some of us.

The reality for the Israelites was that after those 40 long years in the wilderness, they likely had hopes of reaching a destination just like that. A promised land that was worth the trip… a place where their long struggle would finally bear the fruits of ease.

I imagine similar thoughts went through the minds of the early pioneers who travelled through the rugged terrain of this area in hopes of reaching a place that they could settle and life would come together. I imagine for the Cherokee and other tribes who had been forced to come here years before that… they too had hopes that when they finally arrived that life would be improved. But from the Israelites to the pioneers to the Cherokee… their Promised Land would not offer ease. When they reached their promised lands… they would face warfare, struggle, and hard work. When their new farmland finally bore its first crops, their first-fruits offering would represent their sweat, tears, and blood.

Refugees Today

For today’s global refugees seeking a place of safety, the promised land is still hard earned. As we see refugees pouring out of Ukraine right now, we can imagine that their struggles are just beginning. They are beginning their wilderness journey as they make their way across their homeland’s border in a massive exodus away from war and into the unknown. And as we watch those border checkpoints where they are ushered in, we see volunteers lining up to try and help the process… much like what I experienced in Milwaukee.

But unlike my trip to Milwaukee where my time in Wisconsin was a defined 7 days… no more and no less… the time that a refugee will be a refugee is, quite frankly, unknown. The Israelites spent forty years in the wilderness after fleeing Egypt. Modern refugees can experience much the same… except instead of wandering in the wilderness they might be confined within a camp.

In Iran and Pakistan there are 2.4 million Afghan refugees that have been living in refugee camps for just over 40 years now. There are 17 million refugees worldwide that have been refugees for over 5 years. That’s more than 4 times the population of Oklahoma… living in a wilderness of the in-between for at least 5 years… often in conditions that we would find hard to deal with for more than a few nights.

Even in the best of circumstances, those who are allowed to integrate into our communities rather than being forced to remain in camps, the process is challenging. The process for resettling in the United States requires twelve screening checks, the involvement of the United Nations, and several governmental departments, from the FBI to Homeland Security. Further requirements are imposed after refugees arrive: in most cases, the refugees must repay the cost of their travel to the US, beginning six months after their arrival, and within a year, they must apply for permanent residency. And that is not a simple process either.

As these deadlines loom, refugees are forced to adapt rapidly to life in their new country. Apartments must be furnished, jobs and transportation secured, and children enrolled in school. The culture shock can be intense. Grocery stores, with many options for each type of product, can be overwhelming, particularly for people who have lived in refugee camps for years. With new languages, new cultures, and new expectations, the life of a newly resettled refugee can be challenging. And all of this amid mourning what has been lost.

Just a few days ago, there was an interview with a woman who had just gotten past the checkpoint into Poland. And even as she gave thanks that she was out of the violence… she mourned those whom she had left behind. Word had reached her that her city was being bombed.

She worried about her friends and family. She worried about her home. And as she looked around she pointed down at her three knapsacks of belongings. “That’s the sum of my 68 years of life… in those three bags. That’s all that remains.”

There have been 2 million such refugees from Ukraine now. Almost half of them children... leaving not only homes and toys behind but grand-fathers, fathers and older brothers as well. 2 million… that’s a lot.

There are another 84 million refugees right now from other countries throughout the world.

All entering that wilderness place.

All waiting to step off and wondering what the promised land will look like.

Personal Wildernesses

Perhaps you have experienced a time in the wilderness as you looked to a promised land. Perhaps you have felt that rushing mixture of feelings as you began a wilderness journey and began to look at life in a promised land beyond. Perhaps there were moments where the journey felt chaotic for you… much like that airport was for me.

And yet, even in the chaos, there can be signs of promise and hope. People who welcome and make us know that we ARE welcome. People who are intentional in being the best neighbor. People who see us as more than a logistical problem but they see us as a person made in the image of God. And through those people we experience the presence of God.

In Tulsa, as congregations from multiple denominations and multiple faiths prepared for the great influx of Afghan refugees, one volunteer was interviewed as he was making a bed. “The person who sleeps here,” he said, “I hope that this is the start of a good life for them. I really do. They deserve it.”

Before the arrival, before the resettlement, the promised land can look like an airport: chaotic, overwhelming, difficult to navigate while struggling with baggage and holding children’s hands, but full of promise nonetheless. The airport is an in-between space, a threshold between worlds.

As the Israelites learned while listening to Moses on the eve of their arrival in the Promised Land, God’s presence is sometimes felt most keenly at thresholds and transitions. Today, as refugees arrive at border checkpoints and flown to airports around the world with so much behind them and so much still ahead, a promised land unfolds.

Conclusion

Even as we ourselves have been welcomed and loved, we too are called as Christ’s church to be among those who do the welcoming for those stepping into the wilderness places and look to a promised land. We are called to be among those who smile warmly and extend God’s love to the stranger.

Life in the new promised land seldomly is easy. But as God gives us to one another, the burdens are made a little easier to bear. And so we might ask ourselves… who is God calling me to be neighbor to today? Who is God calling me to care for and love with the welcoming promise of new life on the horizon? How might I be an ambassador of Christ’s love to those in need… those looking with fear and hope to the future.

Questions for reflection:

Now I’m going to pull up an image of an airport here… and I would like you to consider a few questions as we look at it.

● What do you notice in this image? What thoughts or feelings does it evoke?

● How is an airport like the Promised Land of the Bible?

● As refugees arrive in an airport, where might the face of Jesus appear?

● Where is God in refugees’ long-awaited arrivals and in their struggles to adapt to new lives?