Reflection of a 2nd Gen Migrant on Harmony Day

Posted Mar 22, 2017 in Culture

Rev Dr Amelia Koh-Butler originally delivered this reflection as a sermon at Pilgrim Uniting Church prior to Harmony Day 2017, and she later shared it on her blog. The sermon draws on readings from Exodus 17:1-7 and John 4:5-42. It has been shortened and edited slightly for New Times online.

Terry and I live in the city in Adelaide. In the past we have lived in manses and grown our own vegetables, but now we enjoy shopping at the Central Markets and living close to Chinatown. There are many things we love about living here, and this community is a wonderful home for us. Adelaide is rightly one of the most ‘liveable’ cities in the world.

After living here for more than two years, I have something to share about the state of the Church. The most confronting and shocking thing for me walking into my first Presbytery and Synod meeting in SA was to look around the room and see about 290 ‘white’ people and half a dozen indigenous people… and one other Asian, Rev Do Young Kim, who was new, like me. Coming from the East Coast, this was an experience of being alien and different. It was also a bit scary.

Our diversity is meant to make Australia a great place to live.

Harmony Day is a celebration of our cultural diversity – a day of cultural respect for everyone who calls Australia home. Held every year on 21 March, the day coincides with the United Nations’ International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Since 1999, more than 70,000 Harmony Day events have been held in childcare centres, schools, community groups, churches, businesses and government agencies across Australia.

The message of Harmony Day is ‘everyone belongs’. Its aim is to engage people to participate in their community, respect cultural and religious diversity, and foster a sense of belonging for everyone. According to ABS data and the Harmony Day website:

• around 45% of Australians were born overseas or have at least one parent who was born overseas
• Australians identify with about 300 ancestries
• since 1945, more than 7.5 million people have migrated to Australia
• 85% of Australians agree multiculturalism has been good for Australia
• apart from English, the most common languages spoken in Australia are Mandarin, Italian, Arabic, Cantonese, Greek, Vietnamese, Tagalog/Filipino, Spanish and Hindi
• more than 60 Indigenous languages are spoken in Australia

Most of us have grown up have grown up with the narrative that Australia is the ‘lucky country’. We believe it is a privilege to come here and to live here.

How, then, do we think of migration? Is it a pilgrimage that has arrival as a reward? Whatever cost, being here is an indication of ‘good luck’? This is, perhaps, the promised land?

Let us, for a moment, think about migration; about what it takes to leave where one has been and journey to the unknown. This was something that the Israelites also experienced as they moved through the desert.

They were moving through the desert – they were hungry and sore –
and they started asking loudly, “What for?!”

“Why are we here? Where are we going?
“Don't like the scenery, don't like the plot.
“Is the Lord with us?

“Is the Lord with us, with us or not?”

- “Is the Lord with us?” by Robin Mann*

Migration stories challenge us to consider how, when and where we experience God. Is God to be found in the promised land, or in the pilgrimage journey? How, when and where do we worship?

When Jesus and the Samaritan Woman have their long and famous encounter, these ideas and questions become a central part of their conversation. In their repartee, we sense a dancing around how they belong to different communities, and how belonging is defined by place and behaviour. There is a distinction between them because their places of worship are in different locations.

Maintaining worship and identity when travelling or migrating is difficult. Not having a family home is one thing, but not having a place to encounter and commune with God adds a whole other dimension to displacement.

The Samaritan Woman brings the story of her heritage to this encounter. Her ancestors were part of the Northern Kingdom, taken into captivity, and intermarried and corrupted by Babylonians and others. Yet they still worshipped Yahweh. They were ostracised because they were no longer ‘pure’.

They were mixed blood. Mongrels. Half-castes. If these terms seem shocking, we should be aware that, in our own Australian history, they have been used to describe many Australians. First Australians mixed with Second Peoples and migrants of mixed ethnicity or hyphenated identity – like me. Many in our society still regard such mixture as corruption, or at least with some suspicion – as they did when Catholics and Protestants intermarried, or Germans and English, or Scottish and French… Much of the concern arises from fear of ‘the other’. Disagreements, wars and breaches of trust make us suspicious.

We see the fear of ‘the other’ play out in many early stories within the Bible. In many cases, this fear separates tribes from one another, resulting in violence, cursing or division.

These earlier sins and grievances have a ripple effect that still impacts the discourse between Jesus and the woman at the well.

Yet what Jesus promises is the possibility of worshipping together, not in a place, but in spirit and in truth. For this to happen, what is required is a coming together, a reconciliation.

The promise of unity within the context of diversity often seems difficult, but it is the requirement for Heaven, where all nations will worship God. If this is to happen – if we are ever to worship in spirit and in truth – we must seek out the ‘others’ to worship alongside them, to mingle our voices, and to discover God’s will for the weaving together of a new heaven and a new earth.

Photo: Facebook, shared by Claire Louise Wright

*the article originally stated that the song was by Don Stewart. A commenter pointed out that this was incorrect and it is from Robin Mann's book, All Together Whatever. The song's inclusion in this book was confirmed on the website here.

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