There cannot be a single person who has not been deeply moved by the images on our tv screens and in the newspapers of the current refugee crisis. People herded into wire compounds; people weeping and running and crowding onto packed trains; over-laden boats, and even worse empty and overturned boats; and that tiny figure lying in the sand. Our hearts break at the spectacle which daily arrives in our living rooms.

I am so glad that I am not a politician. What solution can there be to these terrible and extremely complex problems? We most definitely DO need to pray most earnestly for those whose decisions affect the lives of millions.

Again and again I find myself thinking about the parable of the Good Samaritan which Jesus told in response to the question, “Who is my neighbour?” The man beaten up by robbers on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho was ignored by the priest and the Levite who were both too busy about God’s work to spare this casualty a second thought. It took a foreigner, an enemy, a Samaritan, to stop and give him the human care he needed.

In the story told by Jesus the Samaritan didn’t ask the man, "How come you’re in this mess? Did you cause it yourself? Were you running in fear or were you just looking for a better life?" he simply saw a human being in great need, stopped what he was about, cared for him as best he could right there and then, took time and money to make sure he was taken to an inn, and promised to return later to check on him and to settle any outstanding bills.

So what about us? Do we see migrants? immigrants? economic migrants? refugees? displaced persons? Or maybe human beings, our brothers and sisters in the human race who are in the most difficult of situations and in abject need. Need which is real right now.

A sentence in the much loved Book of Common Prayer says "Whoso seeth his brother hath need, and shutteth up his compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?"

I urge each one of you to do what you can to ease the plight of these poor people. The Red Cross, Christian Aid and Oxfam are all working to help them, and you can contribute to these charities on-line.

Leave the politics to the politicians. Try to "walk in the shoes" of those who are homeless, hungry, frightened, and hopeless. How might you and I feel if we lost our homes and traipsed with our desperate families across Europe to find only stony hearts and bolted doors?