Day of the Refugee
In the spirit of Pope Francis’s message on the 110th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, celebrated this past Sunday on September 29, 2024, the Wayfare staff wants to recognize this day through a non-exhaustive list of resources reminding us to heed Jesus’s call to “take in” the stranger (see Matthew 25:35).
We are mindful of the ways migrants and refugees have shaped the restored gospel of Jesus Christ; indeed, migrant stories are foundational to our faith. Scripture stories in our holy canon emphasize the plight of the migrant and refugee, and of God’s help in their lives. From Abraham and Sarah’s sojourns as a “stranger[s]” in foreign lands (Genesis 23:3-4), to the exodus of the children of Israel from the land of Egypt; to Ruth choosing to worship with her mother-in-law’s people, to Esther advocating for her endangered diaspora; to the escape of the holy family into Egypt, to the entire Lehite tradition of the Book of Mormon and their various migrations and challenges within the Americas, all serve as witnesses of the precarity and dignity of the human condition. They also bear witness of God’s abounding love in whatever circumstances His children find themselves in.
The experiences and work of migrants and refugees have also shaped our not-so-distant past. The first century of Latter-day Saint history marked its own exodus from mobocracy and state-sanctioned violence, becoming refugees within their own nation. Many Latter-day Saints today across the world are descended from refugees or are currently displaced from their homes. Latter-day Saint meetinghouses and communities around the world provide refuge from those displaced by violence, economic hardship, and natural disasters. As Elder Patrick Kearon reminded Latter-day Saints in 2016, the stories of immigrants and refugees are “our story.”
These stories are universal; they are personal. God’s hands reach out to those compelled to leave their homes, as well as those left behind, and He walks with migrants and refugees in their challenges. We are all strangers in a strange land, sojourners on earth, needing the grace of God’s love and the helping hands of each other to return to our heavenly home.
Online Resources
President Linda K. Burton, “I Was a Stranger,” April 2016 General Conference.
Elder Patrick Kearon, “Refuge from the Storm,” April 2016 General Conference.
Bishop Gérald Caussé, “Ye Are No More Strangers,” October 2013 General Conference.
President Howard W. Hunter, “The Gospel: A Global Faith,” October 1991 General Conference.
Their Story is Our Story Project
Scriptures
Genesis 17:8
And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
Leviticus 19:34
But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
Deuteronomy 10:17-19
For the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:
He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.
Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt
1 Chronicles 29:13-15
Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name.
But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.
For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.
Psalms 39:12
Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
Matthew 25:35-40
For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
John 13:34-35
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
Ephesians 2:17-19
And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.
Hebrews 13:2
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
Alma 1:30
And thus, in their prosperous circumstances, they did not send away any who were naked, or that were hungry, or that were athirst, or that were sick, or that had not been nourished; and they did not set their hearts upon riches; therefore they were liberal to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, whether out of the church or in the church, having no respect to persons as to those who stood in need.
Alma 10:7
As I was journeying to see a very near kindred, behold an angel of the Lord appeared unto me and said: Amulek, return to thine own house, for thou shalt feed a prophet of the Lord; yea, a holy man, who is a chosen man of God; for he has fasted many days because of the sins of this people, and he is an hungered, and thou shalt receive him into thy house and feed him, and he shall bless thee and thy house; and the blessing of the Lord shall rest upon thee and thy house.
Doctrine and Covenants 38: 24-25
And let every man esteem his brother as himself, and practice virtue and holiness before me.
And again I say unto you, let every man esteem his brother as himself.
Doctrine and Covenants 115:6
And that the gathering together upon the land of Zion, and upon her stakes, may be for a defense, and for a refuge from the storm, and from wrath when it shall be poured out without mixture upon the whole earth.