Strange Love

A bold move by the British, a Levitical law of hospitality, and an operation to help others that ended up saving themselves.

Today, we talk about the love of strangers.

"Remember, you are loved, so go, love better!"

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Transcript

“Today, an opportunity is offered for the British nation to take its proper stand to protect a minority that deserves well of all the nations of the world.  I feel that by doing things that are morally right, we shall achieve something which is worthy of the name of the British nation.”

These are the words of Sir Samuel Hor the Home Secretary of the UK describing a rescue effort launched by the British government in the days ahead of World War 2.  The program was called ‘KinderTransport’ and it was launched as an organized rescue of children, mostly Jewish, out of the countries of Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland.

It began on the 15th of November 1938, five days after Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, when the German SA and SS attacked, ransacked, and demolished Jewish owned stores, buildings, and synagogues.  After Kristallnacht, it became clear that it was no longer a safe place for Jewish minorities – especially children.  Kindertransport was the moral response to an immoral world.

Kindertransport would continue for the next nine months until the start of World War II brought the program to an end.  During that time, about 10,000 children would be brought into British territories for safety.

I’m Scott Beyer and this is the Love Better podcast where we explore the truths and lies about love and more importantly how to turn love into a skill – something we can get better at and hone along the way.

         Today, we are going to talk about Strange Love – the kind of love that makes no sense because it is love shown to a stranger.

         Your world is full of strangers!  Here are a few examples:

·      The visitor that walks into the church building all alone looking to make a connection

·      The elderly individual facing social isolation and loneliness

·      The person with disabilities that create physical, social, or emotional barriers for them through no fault of their own

·      The person at work, school, or church that comes from a different cultural background than you do

·      Or just the new neighbor across the street that just moved in.

Your world is packed with opportunities to practice the love of strangers.

And there are few better examples in modern history of strange love than the Kindertransport rescue effort.  I want to get back to that story, but before we do, we need to travel from the Jewish refugees fleeing toward the United Kingdom of 1938 all the way back to rise of Israel and creation of the Jewish nation as it marched into the land of Israel.  We need to take a journey to Leviticus 19.

         Leviticus is an interesting book because it sits on the precipice of two worlds – the worlds of citizen and slave.  Leviticus is written during the last few months before Israel leaves Mount Sinai to head for the Promised Land.  It is written to a group of people that knows what it is like to be oppressed, but has no idea what it means to be masters or how to run their own country.  They have known slavery, but never freedom.  This generation is about to walk into prosperity, power, and freedom… and leave behind a dark history of Egyptian loss and tyranny.  They have lived as Egyptian slaves… but what should it look like to be Jewish citizens?

         Leviticus, amongst other things, is meant to help them understand that.  What does it look like to be a good neighbor, a kind landowner, a moral civilian, and a righteous nation?  Leviticus talks about all of those things – and in the midst of a conversation about property rights, national welfare systems, and how to treat those with medical conditions like blindness, deafness, and leprosy, Leviticus answers the question of how the stranger.

         Leviticus 19:33-34 says, “When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the LORD your God.”

         When Israel became a nation, God made it clear they must do more than just treat strangers fairly… you must love strangers.  And this stranger love is repeated multiple times throughout Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Exodus… and becomes one of the primary focuses of God’s condemnation for the nation later on.  The prophets will continually repeat – you oppressed the stranger and the foreigner when you should have loved them.

         Yet, loving people you don’t know or don’t look, act, or speak like you isn’t common.  Loving strangers is… well, strange.  We all know it.  Jesus addressed the rarity of this type of love when He said in Matthew 5:43-48,

         "You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.' "But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on [the] evil and [the] good, and sends rain on [the] righteous and [the] unrighteous. "For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? "If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing [than others?] Do not even the Gentiles do the same? "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

         We have every incentive to love those we know and are familiar with.  Those relationships of love are already established and reciprocity is virtually guaranteed.  We know our family and friends – we have a shared story with them.

When you arrive at a large party – what do you typically do?  You look around for familiar faces to converse with.  Familiarity is the opposite of strange.  Familiar friends are the ones we already have close association with.  They know our voices, we don’t anticipate surprises in conversation, and the fear of awkward pauses is much lower.

Compare that to the feeling you have when entering strange territory.  Your first day at a new school, new job, or relocating to a new city.  Those with experience in the military are intimately aware of the difficulties of strange territory.  A new tour means a new city, a new job, and new schools all at once for everyone!  Everything is unfamiliar – from where to buy groceries to where to get a haircut – everything is new and strange.

Which brings us back to the 10,000 children of the Kindertransport.  These children got on trains with numbers hung around their neck and headed to British homes all across the United Kingdom.  Families and individuals all over the countryside offered to house these children from infants up to age seventeen sight unseen.  There are hundreds of records from these children and the journeys they took as foreigners to a foreign land, but one account in particular I find haunting.  One child in explaining the events of the Kindertransport through their eyes started with a four word sentence:

“We all came alone.”

         And this is the truth about the life of the stranger – to be a stranger is to feel alone.  It is difficult to imagine welcoming a child into your home sight unseen.  You have no idea what their disposition will be or even they command of the language.  Will they be helpful and grateful for your generosity or angry and resentful that they’ve been ripped from their home?  How will their entrance into your life affect you, your own children, or your lifestyle.  Times are tight – war is imminent – what will another mouth to feed due to a household already precariously balanced in times of scarcity?

         Yet, as true as all of those emotions and concerns are – the British families of Kindertransport volunteered to house these strange children anyways.  Why?

         I suspect it is because of those four words – “We all came alone”

         As hard as opening your home to a stranger is – it is far harder to be that stranger yourself.  And this is an idea reiterated in God’s Old Testament laws regarding strangers –

Exodus 23:9 says "You shall not oppress a stranger, since you yourselves know the feelings of a stranger, for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

         Learning to love strangers requires us to remember how it feels to be a stranger… and most of us have some experience there we can tap into.  When we begin to think like strangers and have compassion on the journey of the stranger, we begin to love from a position of empathy instead of convenience.

         Which is why strange love is so strange because convenience is by definition “that which makes things easier “ and empathy requires us overcoming biases, a tendency to only see things from our own perspective, the emotional barriers of discomfort, and frankly, the emotional exhaustion that compassion requires.  Anyone who works in the medical field will tell you that ‘compassion fatigue’ is a real thing… and probably worthy of an entire podcast episode of its own! 

         Learning to love strangers is a challenging thing to achieve because it requires developing and cultivating empathy through practice and force of will instead of embracing convenience, but I will say this – learning to love the stranger also comes with a guarantee of unseen blessings.

         And that promise is found in the book of Hebrews in chapter 13:

“Let love of the brethren continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body.”

         Hebrews makes a point of reminding us that when we show kindness to strangers, oftentimes we are the ones who end up with the blessing.  Throughout the Old Testament there are examples of people stopping, inviting people in for a meal and a warm, dry place to sleep only to ultimately find out that those strangers were actually sent by God to bless them.  The lesson is clear – show love to strangers and it isn’t just the strangers that benefit, you do to.

         And that by the way is the rest of the story of the Kindertransport.  Kindertransport was a humanitarian program started by the British to help children from other countries – and they did, they helped 10,000 kids who ended up becoming poets, doctors, newscasters, mathematicians, writers, immunologists, and hosts of other blessings to the world… but that isn’t the only way the Kindertransport blessed the United Kingdom.

         The 1st of September, 1939 was the day that Operation Kindertransport ended because the war broke out, and it is also the day that Operation Pied Piper began.  When the war began, the British realized that due to a new German war strategy called “aerial bombings” that cities were no longer safe for children.  British children needed to be moved out of the cities and into the countries.  Because of the KinderTransport program, the people of the United Kingdom already knew how to do that.  They knew how to move children safely and efficiently without losing track of them or endangering them – so Operation Pied Piper would build upon the success of KinderTransport.  KinderTransport saved 10,000 children from strange lands.  Operation Pied Piper would save 1.5 million native British children.

         It turns out that when we open our hearts to strangers, we receive the greater blessing.  Because a life that is open to loving strangers better, is also open to strange new blessings, too.

         Ultimately, strange love is an act of faith because Jesus who died for us who had never seen Him face to face calls us to follow Him and love others sight unseen, too.

         Learn to love better – learn to love the stranger.  You never know what sort of strange, beautiful, better world you could be building because of it.

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And until next time, “Remember, you are loved, so go… love better.”