Brothers and sisters, this Sunday the Catholic Church observes the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, a day it began more than a hundred years ago. Although this observance originated in the Catholic Church, that does not mean we cannot support this cause. Welcoming the stranger belongs to all of us who follow Christ, and it is part of our own heritage as American Baptists.
In the 1980s, thousands of families fled civil war and violence in El Salvador and Guatemala, yet almost none of them were granted asylum in the United States. In 1985, our denomination, the American Baptist Churches, served as lead plaintiff, along with more than 80 churches and religious organizations, and took the government to court on their behalf. In 1991, the case settled, and hundreds of thousands of refugees received a new, fair hearing.
That same spirit of welcome is alive in our own community. The mural you see here, called Unity in Diversity, is painted on a wall in downtown Harrisonburg. Young art students in Iran who belong to the Bahá’í faith designed it; they are a religious minority that has been persecuted there for decades. Because of their faith, they are barred from attending university, and they can never paint in their own country. So they sent their design here, and local artists brought it to life.
It shows people of many cultures and walks of life standing together, a portrait of a city where people from many nations have made their home. What was silenced in their homeland found a welcome among us.
Behind this mural are young people with names, faces, and gifts. The same is true of every child who must flee their home. This year’s theme for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, “Even just one of these children,” reminds us that no child is just a number. Each one is known and loved by God. Jesus tells us, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me” (Mark 9:37). And Scripture reminds us, “You shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 19:34).
With open hearts, let us pray…
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Creator God,
who loves all of us as Father and Mother,
whose love and mercy are everlasting:
We are grateful to come together as a community to worship you in body and soul, and to express our gratitude for the gifts you have bestowed upon us.
Almighty God, Father to the fatherless, defender of widows, orphans, and the vulnerable of our society, we confess that we often fail you and follow the ways of the world by not loving our neighbor, whether it is the person who lives next to us, the foreigner, or the one who does not speak our language or profess our beliefs.
We confess that our hearts become hearts of stone instead of hearts of flesh, and that it is easy to fear what we do not know rather than to have a spirit of love, courage, and compassion.
But we know that we can come unafraid to the throne of grace and ask forgiveness for our sins. We can speak the Psalmist’s words: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10).
We pray that we, as a church community, may imitate your true example, so that love, peace, patience, and joy flow through our words and actions. As James, the brother of the Lord, wrote, “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you do well” (James 2:8).
We speak to you of our concern for all displaced people: those in refugee camps, fugitives from oppression, those crowded on unseaworthy boats, those in detention centers, all separated families, and traumatized children.
We pray for families who have had to leave their homes for many reasons, whether because of religious or political persecution or for economic reasons.
We remember the words of your prophet Jeremiah: “Execute justice and righteousness… Do no wrong. Do no violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow” (Jeremiah 22:3). And the words of your prophet Zechariah: “Don’t oppress the widow, the fatherless, the foreigner, nor the poor” (Zechariah 7:10).
May we, as a community of faith, open our eyes to see the needs of our refugee families and open our hearts to help and assist them to the best of our capacity.
May we, as a community of faith, in small ways embody the value of loving our neighbor, remembering the words of the apostle John: “Those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also” (1 John 4:20–21).
May the words of our mouths, the meditation of our hearts, and our actions be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer (adapted from Psalm 19:14).
Amen.
Pastoral Prayer from Pastor Felicia Zamora, 9/27/2026.