These people are queuing for water at a camp for displaced people in Darfur. P hoto: Nils Carstensen DCA/ACT International
'We must speak up for the dead and dispossessed in an epidemic of rage.'

Paula Clifford uses John 10. 22-30 and Revelation 7. 9-17 for this Day of Action for Darfur reflection. The day takes place on April 29.

‘We must speak up for the dead and dispossessed in an epidemic of rage’
Tom Stoppard, UK playwright, writing about Darfur, March 2007

The image of Jesus strolling through the Jerusalem Temple on a Jewish holy day (John 10.22-23) is rich in theological significance. Here is the Messiah, the hope of his people, walking in the building that he has come to replace.

The feast day itself, the Day of Dedication, commemorating the rededication of the Temple after its desecration nearly 200 years earlier, prefigures the dedication of Jesus himself as a baby in that same Temple.

But John’s narrative does not allow us to lose ourselves in theological niceties. Although today’s Gospel reading stops short of being uncomfortable, we need to read on a little further.

Because what happens when Jesus’s opponents confront him in the Temple building is another desecration: there and then they take the law into their own hands and try to stone their Messiah (10.31).

‘No one will snatch my sheep out of my hand’

The trigger for this outbreak of violence is possibly one of the greatest promises of Jesus recorded in the Gospels. Jesus offers his people total safety, total protection: ‘no one will snatch my sheep out of my hand’. The Good Shepherd, who leaves everything to search for a lost sheep, will not let that sheep be taken from him.

It is security promised not only by Jesus himself but also by his Father. And it is of course Jesus’s statement that ‘The Father and I are one’ that provokes his opponents to violence based on righteous indignation: for them this is blasphemy of the first order.

In secular terms this ideal of protection finds its expression in international human rights laws – the right to life, the right to peaceful enjoyment of possessions, the right to right to respect for private and family life and so on. In Darfur, all these rights continue to be violated with devastating effects on millions of people who are the targets of an epidemic of rage and unthinking violence.

The international community has so far done the equivalent of burying its collective head in theological niceties. Today is the time for all of us to insist that governments take action – that they intervene to provide the people of Darfur with the protection that they have lacked for so long.

‘They will hunger no more and thirst no more’

One day of action, though, even if it achieves its immediate end, is not enough. Certainly there must be change for the people of Darfur here and now. But people must also be given hope for the future. And whether international governments and agencies are motivated by human rights or by the Christian Gospel, it is for them and us to do everything possible to safeguard that hope.

Today’s reading from Revelation, with its vision of a time when people neither hunger nor thirst and when ‘God will wipe away every tear’, should not be seen as an option that is not available in this life, and therefore as yet another excuse for us to do nothing.

The Christian vision is of a new life before death, where Jesus’s promise of complete protection becomes a reality, and where people can enjoy the realistic hope and expectation that the actions of others will help put an end to their suffering, an end to the destruction brought about by epidemics of rage.

In taking action today, we are turning Jesus’s promise of protection for his flock into our own promise to the people of Darfur. If we fail to do that, we are giving in to the same forces of lawlessness that took up stones against their Messiah.

Points for prayer

Please pray for:

Protection for the people of Darfur: Thousands of people continue to be displaced from their towns and villages by militia attacks. Even in the displaced camps, people are still being attacked by Janjaweed fighters. Displaced people are calling out for protection from the international community.

Yet proposals to give greater UN support to the small African Union protection mission are stuck in a diplomatic impasse. Pray for the civilians in Darfur who face violence and insecurity.

Peace in Darfur: 2.5 million people have been displaced from their homes by violence and are living in sprawling displaced camps Darfur and in neighbouring Chad. They will only be able to return home and rebuild their lives when peace comes.

A rushed peace deal negotiated last year – the Darfur Peace Agreement – has failed to halt the violence. In fact, by splitting the rebels, it has made the situation more insecure. New effort is needed to reinvigorate the peace process. Pray that western governments will find the determination to bring peace.

Relief for the people of Darfur: Because of the attacks on villages, millions of people in Darfur depend on humanitarian agencies to survive. Yet these agencies are often denied permission to fly into many areas where communities are in need. Many aid workers have been attacked in Darfur by bandits and militiamen. Pray that, in spite of the violence, aid agencies are able to operate safely and that food gets through to those who so desperately need it.