Lent 2, Genesis - Blessing and Curse

Lent 2 - Genesis 12.1-4a

Blessing and Curse

“In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen 12.3)

“I will make of you a great nation.” As an advocate for human rights for Palestinians, these verses from Genesis stick in my gut. They represent families in East Jerusalem sitting on plastic chairs in the street, under a plastic tarp, evicted from their homes. This is what great nations do, isn’t it?—they rule!

My own country is also heir to these words. By most every measure, the United States is a “great nation.” And I am great, blessed beyond all my dreams, with health, wealth, security, and happiness. But grab the edge of a blessing, lift it up and turn it over and on the dark, wet underside you will find a curse. My country is a blessing, but it is also a curse...to its own poor and the poor of the world.

Given the choice, most of us would choose greatness. The question is—will our greatness be a blessing or a curse? Who is blessed by American’s greatness? Who is cursed by it?

For five years, Avital has lived in a house in East Jerusalem with her husband and two preschoolers. This is the Arab part of Jerusalem, on the Palestinian side of the Green LIne, the 1949 armistice line. Avital invited us into her living room and told us about her decision to move from Netanya to Jerusalem, a dream-come-true for her, to live within walking distance of the Old City. “This is our country,” she tells us. She says she lives here so that Jews can surround the Old City and protect their right to access.

She moved here because it is a diverse neighborhood. She looked forward to living with families from different backgrounds, but now she is just afraid of them—afraid to speak to the Palestinian families in her neighborhood because she sees them demonstrating against the evictions every week. She tells us that Palestinians are evicted bec

ause they do not pay their rent, that her house was “abandoned.” The Israeli courts have affirmed her views. “The demonstrators don’t want to hear us,” she says.

Her house is owned by an Jewish American, who is investing lots of money in real estate in East Jerusalem, where the Palestinian Authority has always planned to situate its capitol. He rents the house to Avital and her husband for a low rent, very affordable for these young Jewish families. Photo: Avital telling us her story.

Avital told us part of the story. Nasser Ghawi told us another. His family is one of the families evicted from their home in East Jerusalem. The Ghawi family was given their home by the UN in the1950s, they had lived since the 1950s, as restitution for the home they lost in 1948 when Jewish militias forced them from

one of the Arab villages Israel was clearing out to create their new Jewish state (Israeli historian Ilan Pappe documents Arab removals in his book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine). Although they

have documents showing ownership, an Israeli court ordered their eviction. Photo shows Nasser Ghawi standing by a poster protesting his eviction.

What does it mean to be God’s chosen people? Is it a blessing or a curse? Is Israel chosen? Is the US chosen?

How can our greatness be a blessing to the families of the earth? By selling them M-16s and F-16 fighter planes? By refusing to apply international law to Israel? By giving Israel$3 billlion a year for security, so that their soldiers can evict Palestinian families from their homes?

How can Israel’s greatness be a blessing to the families of the earth?

Gracious God, through your servant Abraham, you have shown us your faithfulness. Help us to trust, like Abraham, that you will bless us. As we live into that trust, help us to live so that we are a blessing to the nations of the earth. Amen.