Only a couple simple letters separate the words “hospitality” and “hostility” and yet, they are emotional worlds apart.

Fear and suspicion are the environmental conditions that produce the emotional landscape of hostility, whilst trust and generosity yield the abundant harvest of hospitality. I wonder what kind of world you want to live in: one that is filled with angst and hostility or a world of possibility and hospitality?

Recently, a group of community leaders gathered at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church to discuss the prospect of partnering with the Buffalo-based, Christian agency, Journey’s End, to resettle refugees in Jamestown.

As The Post-Journal reported, the collapse of the government in Afghanistan has created a situation where Journey’s End has twice the number of refugees to resettle this year and needs the assistance of neighboring communities to respond to this humanitarian crisis. The Afghans fleeing their homes for their safety are doing so because have put their lives at risk in the service of democracy — often as translators or other contractors for U.S. forces.

Why would Jamestown want to step up to this call?

Well, it goes back to the kind of world we want to live in and work to create. As pastors, we are committed to patterning our lives and communities upon the loving example made known in Jesus. In the parable of the Sheep and Goats, in 25th chapter of Matthew, Jesus famously puts into the mouths of the sheep, “And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you….And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.'” Why would Jamestown step up? This is our opportunity to welcome the stranger. Around Christmas time, we annually remember the story not only of Jesus’ birth, but of the need for Mary and Joseph to flee with Jesus to Egypt to protect him from King Herod’s paranoia and hostility.

It is both a reminder that Jesus, himself, was literally a refugee and also an invitation to create a community not based on hostility, but on hospitality.

The U.S. government has legally welcomed these strangers into our nation. The question is will our community identify with Herod’s paranoia and hostility or with Jesus’ call to hospitality and abundance.

I (Luke Fodor) volunteered with resettled refugees from Bosnia in Chicago back in the 1990s while I was a studying at Moody Bible Institute, I found that this experience enriched my life in ways I cannot even speak.

When I (Bob Hagel) was seven my family helped sponsor a refugee family from Vietnam resettle in St. Louis, their love and gratitude has had a lasting impact on my family. We can also tell you that refugees are often the hardest working people.

They are forced to leave behind their families and societies just to save their lives–and they come ready to commit and to build up the community. In my experience hospitality helps us to grow stronger together.

Do we want to live in world ruled by hostility or hospitality? The choice is ours.

The Rev. Luke Fodor, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and The Rev. Robert Hagel, First Presbyterian Church