JESUS THE REFUGEE: ANCIENT INJUSTICE AND MODERN SOLIDARITY D. Glenn Butner Jr. (Fortress Press 2023) 230pp, paperback, RRP £16.99
There is no let-up in the refugee crisis. Whether it is stories of small boats landing in Kent, snaking lines of desperate people making their way to the Mexico/US border, the plight and problem of fleeing people is ever before us. Christians are often in the vanguard of those responding to this ocean of need because, as Glenn Butner says in this accessible book, the Jesus we follow was a refugee.
But the question Butner sets out to answer in what he calls a thought experiment (page 6) is the simple one: was Jesus really a refugee? Would he have been granted protection under the legal frameworks that stem from the 1951 UN Convention on the status of refugees? His reason for undertaking this thought experiment is that there is a lot of misinformation out there – in the church, among policy makers, and certainly in the media – that needs to be faced and corrected if Christians are to have a solid legal basis for their actions in support of the displaced.
Over the course of six chapters, Butner explores the laws in place across the globe, the definition of a refugee, and the rights and responsibilities of nation-states to protect their borders and to receive displaced people fleeing war, persecution and inter-communal violence. He outlines ethical responses to this issue.
A final chapter is devoted to how Christians can work in solidarity with the displaced, a chapter that is worth the price of the book alone. It is full of practical ideas and challenges to the indifference and complacency of so many who claim to follow Jesus the refugee. He calls us to an incarnational solidarity with refugees which involves both practical welcome and accompaniment, including challenging the unjust laws being enacted by governments across the globe as they attempt to shore up their borders.
This is essential reading for leaders and preachers seeking to shape their church’s response to this most pressing of moral and political issues in our generation. Buy it, read it, act on it.
Simon Jones is a Baptist minister and co-founder of Peaceful Borders, a grassroots organisation that accompanies displaced people in Calais and London.
FLIPPED: LIFE IN THE UPSIDE-DOWN KINGDOM Malcolm Duncan (SPCK: 2023) 192pp, paperback, £9.99
There are many books out there which talk about the Kingdom of God – what does it mean for us to pray ‘Thy Kingdom come’, and to seek the rule and reign of King Jesus in our lives, communities, and churches? We might think for example of the classic, Tom Wright’s How God became King, or Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ The Kingdom of God – so I was a bit unsure about reading yet another book about, as Duncan writes, ‘life in the upside down Kingdom.’ By the time I had got to the end of the first chapter, I wasn’t unsure any longer. Duncan’s testimonies and stories of the breaking in of the Kingdom are gentle, engaging, and stunning: from supporting leaders in the poverty of Dhaka to befriending the forgotten in Somerset, these are stories which are beautifully told, and ground the theology and discussion in real life, with real people.
Duncan takes us through Matthew’s gospel, particularly looking at the Sermon on the Mount in chapters 5-7, as well as other parts of Jesus’ ministry around it. He brings deep theological truths to the surface in a way which is accessible and brief: for example, by looking at the similarities between Jesus and Moses and the relevance of their genealogies for us today, and continues to pepper this gentle theological exegesis with grounded and genuine everyday stories. Each chapter ends with a space to pause, pray, and listen, and there is an interactive study guide as well.
