Introduction
When you travel as the disciples were urged to, travel means committing to the people you visit. At present, as we look at a world where individuals, races, cultures and nations constantly have contact without closeness, or the commitment it fosters, distrust is the keynote of several diverse stories. Travel, proximity, and financial entanglements alike divide people rather than unite them.
Context
The terrorist atrocity in Tunisia still overshadows the news. In its wake tourists are fearful and locals are shaken and dismayed. New schools guidance to prevent radicalisation in the UK allegedly threatens to frustrate rather than advance efforts towards community cohesion. Meanwhile the close collaboration between Eurozone States’ sours into mutual suspicion as Greece defaults. Angry factions are forming in Greece, and Eurozone leaders bluster.
Reflection
Is the false sense of intimacy created by almost instant news footage from far away places dangerous? Do heavily managed meetings in slick international hotels and conference centres insulate our politicians from real encounters? Are we – and our politicians – encouraged by all this to make remote and superficial judgments of people and cultures, and in doing so have we moved far away from what Jesus wanted from his disciples by really living among those they sought to convert?
Could tourist life-styles be made less blatantly separate and different if we took to heart the gospel advice to ‘travel light’, without our comfortable cocoons of western normality in food, accommodation and entertainment (vv. 8-10)? Might we then support fragile African economies without fuelling hostility?
The generosity and bravery of the Tunisian locals demonstrate the sanity of the gospel advice: become a real, sharing guest and your host will be tenacious to protect you. Are we careful enough, wherever we are, and whatever we are doing, to make real contact? To treat everyone as a person? And to show and accept courtesy, recognising that moving in and out of other peoples’ lives is a privilege? At work and in our leisure do we really share?
The gospel advice to throw yourself on the generosity and hospitality of strangers is really quite radical! How good are we at truly ‘celebrating difference’, and how good at it do we really want to be? Do we ever voluntarily make ourselves vulnerable? Is the pervasive national urge to self-protection (in rich Germany, poor Spain, the UK, or Greece itself) the cause of Greece’s problems?
What can we do to see that new security measures do what they are intended to do in promoting our safety, and do not drive our communities apart? Can we translate the Gospel instructions for travelling missionaries into guidance for all Christians reaching out into their wider communities? Can we share a vision without disrespect to the convictions and aspirations of others? What about the advice for when we fail? What is the modern equivalent of ‘shaking off the dust’ (v.12)? Are there people we should shun? Should government engagement avoid any sections of the community?
Prayer
Prayers that could be used among the intercessions.
As new guidelines to prevent radicalisation go out to schools, we pray for all those who will be required to implement them and all those who will be on the receiving end.
We pray for sensitivity and discernment to prevent damage to sensitive and often fragile relationships between the schools and parents, governors, religious leaders and the wider communities they serve.
We pray for courage and wisdom for those who face dilemmas and difficult situations where the demands of confidentiality and trust conflict with the demands of security.
We pray for insight and self-awareness for all involved as groups and individuals are scrutinised so that no one is unfairly stigmatised, no one clumsily alienated, no one mistakenly excluded from participation in the full life of their community.
God of love and God of peace,
be with us as, together with all those of good will,
we seek to be part of a healing process in our communities.
Amen.
Questions
Does package tourism serve to open minds, open opportunities for travel to the many and promote international understanding, or is it just a damaging and exploitative way for westerners to treat poor countries with pleasant climates?
Action
Think about your local community and your local situation. Is there one thing you could do to promote trust between different parts of the community, old and young, a majority and a minority community, or your Church and the secular community around it?
Young People
Do you think the young are more open-minded than older people? Do you think they are more trusting of those who are ‘different’? Have a mind-mapping session of ways you could recognise a trustworthy stranger. What would be warning signs of someone or some organisation not to trust?
Brenda Vance is a URC elder and a retired university teacher living in Sussex.
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