A Lenten Geography

Easter, John - New Life from the Tomb

2011-04-24T06:00:00.001-07:00

John 20.1-18
“I have seen the Lord.” (Jn 20.18)

Mary shows us that the miracle of Jesus’ resurrection is not the end of the story. Jesus’ terrible death and then the empty tomb, which seemed liked a tragedy, is transformed into a new beginning in her life...and ours.

Just as Jesus commanded his followers at their passover meal, “do this in remembrance of me,” we are also charged to remember Jesus’ ministry by following him—his life-giving miracles of healing and liberation show us to our own everyday acts of mercy and compassion. By our own small acts of healing, teaching, feeding the hungry, we follow our teacher.
In Jesus’ death and resurrection, we see what it means to rely on God’s spirit, to do what we cannot do on our own. In a world seemingly bereft of hope, we, like Mary, have witnessed God’s amazing power for life.

In Palestine today, even under the brutality of Israeli occupation, there are many signs of resurrection, places where, against all human expectation, new life is emerging.....God is still, today, bringing new life out of the tomb of death and destruction and hopelessness.

This new life can be seen in Bethlehem and Ramallah and Gaza, where the children of the occupation are being given the tools for their liberation—education, pride in their heritage, self-confidence to stand up for their human rights.

New life is emerging in Israel, out of the tomb of militarism, fear and hatred, when Israeli young people meet Palestinians in organizations like Sulha and when Machsom Watch grandmothers stand up for Palestinians at the checkpoints. New life is emerging where IDF soldiers question what they have done in the name of security and they refuse to serve in the occupied territory of the West Bank and Gaza (Breaking the Silence and the Shimistim).

Once glimpsed, the hope of resurrection cannot be quashed. We have seen hopes for new life race across northern Africa and spread throughout the Middle East, as people take to the streets, throwing their bodies in the line of fire.

Even in Denver, I see signs of new life for Palestinians. More and more people are learning about what has really been happening in Israel and Palestine. And more people are protesting Israel’s brutality and its disregard of international law and human rights.

Watch some Alleliuia! action in Denver: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW mfp1KEIOo. These protesters are challenging TIAA-CREF to live up to its motto, “Financial services for the greater good,” and pull their investments out of companies that support Israel’s occupation and the building of the apartheid wall. (If you squint, you can see me in my bright green jacket holding the yellow sign “End the Occupation”).

Whether you have investments with TIAA-CREF or not, take action on Jewish Voice for Peace’s new website: www.wedivest.org

Good Friday, Psalm 22

2011-04-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me,
From the words of my groaning?

During the month of March, as we have been making our Lenten pilgrimage, 15 Palestinians were killed by Israel, including five children. As reported by the Palestine News Network, another 90 Palestinians, including 22 children, were wounded.

O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
And by night, but find no rest.

Israeli troops arrested 270 Palestinians, including 20 international solidarity workers, who travel to Israel and Palestine to stand with the Palestinians in non-violent protest of continuing land confiscations and human rights abuses.

Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our ancestors trusted, and you delivered them.

“Israelis Don’t Want to Be Occupiers Either”—it’s not a message we often hear in the US. The words of Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers usually drown out the voices of ordinary Israelis who see how militarization is corrupting the soul of their country. But these were the words of an Israeli peace activist, Gershon Baskin, as he reflected on the liberation movement sweeping across northern Africa toward the Middle East.

Baskin founded the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI), headquartered in Jerusalem. This organization brings Israelis and Palestinians together for weekly meetings to hear speakers and learn about one another to equip grassroots leaders who are knowledgeable and creative.

But I am a worm, and not human;
Scorned by others, and despised by the people.

Photo is from an exhibit, "Christ in the Palestinian Context"

After five members of a settler family were murdered in Itamar, near Nablus, Israeli authorities approved plans to build an additional 400 homes for the settlers. Itamar is an illegal settlement in the West Bank, wedged between Palestinian towns, villages and the refugee camps where Palestinians fled from the soldiers in 1948 and 1967. Itamar has taken land from these Palestinians to build their sprawling settlement, destroying olive groves and other agricultural land. Settlers from Itamar attack Palestinians, beating, occasionally torturing, and sometimes murdering Palestinians of all ages; they burn Palestinian crops, and hack down their groves of olive trees, the livelihood of many Palestinian villagers. Hundreds of these trees, have been destroyed by rampaging Israeli settlers. (http://www.ifamericansknew.org/media/itamar.html)

Yet it was you who took me from the womb;
You kept me safe on my mother’s breast.

Many Jews in Israel and in the US oppose Israel’s policies and are working to end the occupation. Jewish Voice for Peace has mounted a campaign supporting a shareholder resolution to request TIAA-CREF to engage with corporations in its portfolio, such as Caterpillar, Veolia, and Elbit, that operate on the West Bank and East Jerusalem, with the goal of ending all practices by which they profit from the Israeli occupation.

Do not be far from me,
For trouble is near
And there is no one to help.

In March, Israeli authorities demolished 70 Palestinian homes and other buildings, including a mosque.

For dogs are all around me;
a company of evildoers encircles me.

From Defense for Children International (DCI): On 8 March 2011, a 15-year-old boy from Beit Ummar village, West Bank, is arrested by Israeli soldiers from his family home at 1:00 am: Hands tied tightly behind his back with a single plastic tie - made to walk for an hour to the settlement of Karmi Zur - soldiers kicked him in the legs along the way - on arrival at the settlement he was made to sit on the ground for an hour in the cold and reports being slapped and punched - after an hour he was pushed into a military vehicle and transferred to the settlement of Gush Etzion for interrogation - interrogated by two men - "Sharif" and "Dawoud" - shouted at and confessed because he was 'scared' - signed a document written in Hebrew - taken outside and waited until 7:00 pm before being transferred to Ofer Prison - hands were tied so tightly behind his back that he began to scream in pain and they became swollen…

But you, O Lord, do not be far away!
O my help, come quickly to my aid!
Deliver my soul from the sword,
My life from the power of the dog!
Save me from the mouth of the lion!

Holy Week - Good Friday

2011-04-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

Psalm 22

Do not be far from me,
For trouble is near
And there is no one to help. (Ps 22.11)

Sixty-three years ago this month, the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin was the scene of a massacre by Jewish paramilitaries. It was April 9, 1948, just before Israel declared its independence on May 15. There have been many accounts of what happened that day—for many years Israelis denied that a massacre had taken place, but in recent years, as government documents were made available, it has become clear that the Irgun and the Lehi Zionist paramilitary groups, fanatical offshoots of the Hagannah, were responsible for the killing of more than 100 villagers, including women and children.

Dr. Masin Qumsiyeh, who spoke in Denver I March, wrote this poem on the anniversary of the Dei Yassin massacre, as he returned home from his US visit: http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2011/04/09/a-poem-for-juliano/

Deir Yassin to Gaza
by Mazin Qumsiyeh, written in honor of Juliano Mer Khamis, who was killed in Jenin April 4. Learn more about him on my April 8 blog post.

My kind old mother laments
Decades of memory that transcends
Fake Gods and fake peace offers
who bless nichsayon and slaughter
our eyes fail to see or just lament
blood of a child licked off a pavement
By stray thirsty cats
with more morals than army brats
Our ears fail to hear
voice of Dr. Izzeldinne echoes
"I shall not hate" his anguished cries
After three beautiful daughters
With a tank shell and in a niece in a slaughters
Our noses fail to smell
The whiff of death mixed with gun powder
Or the vomit of our tortured
Our hearts fail to feel
the punctured womb by the old home
the severed girl's head by the mosque dome
Mutilated,
dismembered,
disconnected
Our fingers fail to touch
an anguished young mother
Looking for a child
Jews, Christian, Muslims wail
The lost humanity to no avail
the generals must have their joy
to test their newest toy
in Gaza white phosphorous back in use yesterday
impunity from war crimes thanks to the US of A
billionaires must make more dollars
zealots must sacrifice children at altars
Gabriel can stay a knife but not drones
And hate can murder a thousand Julianos
While the apathetic multitude watch TV
Obliviously focused on their shopping spree
Bypassing love and responsibility
Chasing gadgets, hate, and vanity
Next news bulletin.... get the experience
Next anniversary..awaken the conscience?

Poem also published by Palestine News Network:
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9865&Itemid=

[You can read a detailed and well-documented description of what is believed to have happened at Deir Yassin on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deir_Yassin_massacre with pictures. Ilan Pappe writes about it in his book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.]

Holy Week - the Passover Seder

2011-04-18T07:18:00.000-07:00

Exodus 12.1-4 [5-10] 11-14

Tonight, Monday of Holy Week is the first night of the Jewish Passover, a week of commemoration of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. It is a time for reflection on a miracle—when God enlisted Moses’ help to plead for the freedom of the Israelite slaves and sent ten plagues to persuade Pharaoh to let them go. The tenth plague was the slaughter of the firstborn in every Egyptian household. God instructed the Israelites to mark their doorposts with the blood of a lamb so that the angel of death would “pass over” their homes. They were also instructed to prepare to flee their captivity in Egypt. Indeed, they left their homes in such a hurry that they had to grab their bread before it had risen. In remembrance of their hasty flight to freedom, Jews do not eat any leavened bread during Passover. Hence the plentiful supplies of matzo in the supermarket lately!

Passover, along with Shavuot and Sukkot, is one of the three pilgrimage festivals, when Jews were required to be present at the temple in Jerusalem. Holy Week is also a week of remembrance—when Jesus and his disciples, all good Jews, traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover was arrested, tried and killed.

God’s instructions to Moses and Aaron for observing Passover are the first lesson we read on Maundy Thursday because Jesus’ last meal with his disciples was the Passover meal.

Tonight, Monday in our Holy Week, Jews all over the world will be sharing a special meal, the Passover Seder. Jewish Voice for Peace offers this seder as a way to reflect on the Jewish exodus through the experience of the Palestinians who have been forced to pay the price for the existence of the State of Israel.

As Rabbi Alissa Wise of Jewish Voice for Peace explains, “This Haggadah takes our responsibility to be part of the ongoing evolution of Jewish culture and ritual seriously, by re-imagining and re-creating rituals to speak to our highest ethical values and political lives and commitments. You will find in this Haggadah, inspired by the tradition: olives on the seder plate, ten plagues of the Israeli occupation, four cups of wine dedicated to education, solidarity, the BDS movement, and community, and feminine and non-gendered blessing formulations.”

Or click here for the Jewish Voice for Peace Haggadah

Prayer: Even if you don’t read the whole Haggadah, please use the prayer of repentance, Nakba Dayenu, on page 15.

[Passover news from Palestine: Israel’s military is preparing for the Passover by announcing a "general closure" of the West Bank which will last for ten days. The closure will prevent Palestinians with work permits, from entering Israel and Jerusalem until 11:50 p.m. on 26 April. An exception is the few Palestinians who were granted permits to visit the holy sites in Holy Week (story, “Jewish Freedom Holiday Restricts Palestinians,” Ma’an News). Israel is also closing entrances to Gaza during Passover (see story, Ma’an News). Read Maria Khoury’s article about Christian access to Jerusalem in Palestine Network News. Dr. Khoury was in Denver in February and spoke at a Sabeel program.]

Lent 6, Palm Sunday, Matthew 27

2011-04-15T08:38:00.001-07:00

Palm Sunday, Matthew Matthew 27.11-54

Now, THIS is a god Palestinians can identify with! This god, on trial before Pilate, convicted by the mob, spit upon, mocked, taunted with the vile-tasting wine, totally abandoned as he hung there dying—When Christians in Bethlehem read this story, they know what Jesus is facing. They have been there, arrested by Pilate’s soldiers, waiting in Pilate’s prison and standing in his courtroom.

They, too, have been betrayed by their leaders—their own leaders and their military rulers, the Israelis. They have sat forgotten in Israeli jails, where they have also been beaten—young and old alike. They have been mocked at checkpoints, taunted by soldiers who make them lift their shirts. They have suffered the indignity of a pat-down every time they want to leave their town. They have stood impotent as the soldiers beat their children. They have stood for hours in the hot sun, at the whim of a 19-year-old in a green uniform pointing an AK47 at them. They have been abandoned by the international community that created Israel out of their villages and olive groves.

On March 29, Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons launched a hunger strike, protesting the inhumane treatment they have received and Israel’s violations of international law. In the US, we don’t hear much about Israeli prisons, but for Palestinian prisoners, Israeli prisons serve as educational institutions. The prisoners meet together, the older ones teaching the younger ones. They learn about the history of the Palestinian people and they read Gandhi and Martin Luther King. The prisons are a school for non-violent resistance to Israel’s occupation.

Sami Al Jundi was a teenager when he was sentenced to ten years in prison after a bomb he was building exploded, killing his friend. His new book, The Hour of Sunlight, co-written with Jen Marlowe, is his story of transformation in these prison schools. After his release, he founded an organization bringing together Palestinian and Israeli youth.

His is not the experience of all Palestinian prisoners and not everyone embraces non-violence. And, as Mazin Qumsiyeh pointed out during his visit to Denver in March, Palestinian non-violence is often met by violence on the part of the Israeli soldiers. But Sami’s story inspires others in their non-violent work and the work multiplies—I have seen for myself some of the non-violent work being done all over Israel and Palestine, for example, Sulha, the group I met with last year in Jerusalem. Photo shows Sulha youth and their leader, Elad. See part of that story on my blog: http://apilgrimstales.blogspot.com/2010/05/peace-is-road-that-takes-you-somewhere.html

Watch an intereview on GRITtv with Sami Al-Jundi and Jen Marlowe http://www.blip.tv/file/4976052

O God, you know the life of a prisoner. You stood before the greatest military power of your time, on trial for your life. Help us to stand with prisoners everywhere—both in Israel and with the people in our own prisons right here in Colorado. Amen.

Lent 6, Palm Sunday, Isaiah - Sustaining Words

2011-04-13T08:16:00.000-07:00

Isaiah 50.4-9a
The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. (Is 50.4)

Read what our Palestinian Christian sisters and brothers call us to do to support them during Holy Week—

Position of the Local Palestinian Christian community on Restrictions on Religious Rights (and especially during Holy Week)

For Christians, Holy Week in Jerusalem has a special spiritual connection. The Old City, its gates and roads, the Mount of Olives, Via Dolorosa and The Holy Sepulchre Church, where pilgrims from all over the world journey to, are equally important to the Palestinian Christians of Gaza and the West bank, who want to join their Jerusalemite Christian brethren in the liturgical events leading to the resurrection, the holiest celebration in Christianity.

In every country that respects and implements freedom of worship, worshippers of different faiths live their faith and express their prayers without restrictions from the governing authorities. In Jerusalem, and for the past decade, this has not been the case. The occupying power is denying free access to Holy places of worship to both Christians and Muslims on several important occasions. Photo: Bethlehem residents who were denied permits, protesting at the Bethlehem checkpoint, Palm Sunday, 2010.

Last year, Israel restrictions prevented Palestinian Christians from attending the Holy Fire Saturday in Jerusalem. Israel allows only 8000 pilgrims and few hundreds of locals to enter the city on Holy Fire Saturday where the Holy Sepulchre Church and its surroundings become off limits for Christians through a complex network of walls, checkpoints, and security apparatuses.

A tradition dating long before the creation of the state of Israel is observed by Palestinian Christians on that special day. Local Christians wait for The Holy Light on the roof of the Patriarchate and at the Church of Saint Jacob, adjoining the Holy Sepulchre. The local faithful insist on preserving this right no matter what it takes. They see that the restrictions made against them are violations of basic human rights and religious freedom as well as a violation of the Status Quo and centuries of religious traditions for the indigenous Christians of this land.

On the occasion of the celebration of Easter the “The Moment of Truth Document” that unites Christians in a word of Faith, Hope and Love in a call for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, would like to emphasize on the follow:

• The right of entry to Jerusalem for West Bank and Gaza Christians. On the occasion of Easter, Palestinian Christians living outside of Jerusalem in the West Bank and Gaza are required to apply for permits to access their holy sites in occupied East Jerusalem. It is estimated that of those, only 2000 – 3000 Palestinian Christians receive permits. Muslims have also difficulties in accessing their Holy sites. However, Jews do not have to apply for permits!

• The permit system instated by Israel is in obvious violation of the ICPRR, Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international covenants and treaties to which Israel is a signatory. Regardless of the number of people from the local congregation allowed toparticipate in the celebrations, we reject the imposition of a permit/quota system to access our churches and shrines.

• During Jewish holidays, Palestinian areas are put under military closure in the West bank and acquired permits are automatically cancelled. The heavy presence of Israeli Police and Military forces (around and in the Old City and surrounding the holy sites) preventing Christians from accessing the Holy Sepulcher Church and the Old City disturbs the spiritual atmosphere of Easter, especially when Israeli commanders are around and inside the Tomb of Christ.

• Excuses being used by the Israeli police regarding our ‘own security’ are not acceptable. In addition, our prayers and holding of candles are signs of peace & should not threaten the might of the Israeli Police. There is no need or justification for a fully charged army & police force. Actions taken against Palestinian Christians, the first and oldest Christian community in the world, attack not only the Palestinian people and their rights in the occupied city of Jerusalem, but in reality, the whole Christianity.

We call on all our leaders, friends, brothers and sisters around the world to continue exerting pressure on Israel, to end its military occupation on this land and to respect international law and human rights. Practical steps to take:

Support local Church leaders not to submit and accept the conditions that deprive indigenous and international worshippers of the joy of celebrating Easter.

Write to your political representatives to pressure Israel by political means to end its restrictions in this field In Colorado: (for other districts, please see: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/findyourreps.xpd) Senator Michael Bennet: http://bennet.senate.gov/contact/ Senator Mark Udall: http://markudall.senate.gov/?p=contact_us Representative Diana DeGette: http://www.house.gov/formdegette/Legislative_Contact_Form.shtml Representative Jared Polis: https://polis.house.gov/Forms/WriteYourRep/ Representative Doug Lamborn: https://lamborn.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=138 Representative Mike Coffman: http://forms.house.gov/coffman/webforms/issue_subscribe.htm Representative Ed Perlmutter: https://forms.house.gov/perlmutter/webforms/contact.shtml

Write directly to the Israeli Ambassadors in your countries complaining against such actions Israeli Ambassador to the US, Michael Oren: Email: info@washington.mfa.gov.il Telephone: 202.364.5500 Kairos Palestine, The Christians Palestinian Initiative c/o Dar Annadwa, P.O.Box 162, Bethlehem, Palestine • Phone +972-2-277 0047 • Fax +972-2-277 0048 Email: info@kairospalestine.ps • www.kairospalestine.ps Jerusalem , Bethlehem, 3.04.2011

Lent 6, Matthew - Palm Sunday in Jerusalem

2011-04-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

Matthew 21.1-11

On Palm Sunday in Jerusalem, crowds still gather on the Mount of Olives and process into Jerusalem. This centuries-old tradition draws pilgrims from all over the globe, who walk the streets where Jesus rode the donkey, a tradition perhaps tracing its roots as far back as the fourth century.

Last year, a story in the New York Times reported: “Hundreds of Christians from around the world marched from the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem to mark Palm Sunday, retracing the steps of Jesus 2,000 years ago….A few dozen Israeli police stood by, a small fraction of the forces on duty in recent weeks because of Palestinian unrest.”

“Unrest?” An interesting way to describe protests against the announcement of even more settlement construction in the Palestinian West Bank.

“Unrest?” An odd word for protests against Israel’s refusal of permits for people from Bethlehem to travel to Jerusalem for the procession, a denial of their centuries-old tradition.

“Unrest?” Christians from around the world didn’t need any permits to walk Jesus’ route; they just showed up by the busload on the top of the Mount of Olives. You and I would not need a permit. Our American passports would do the trick. But the locals, the descendants of those who waved palm branches for Jesus, were required to get permits to be there. And then their permit requests were denied. Even though the Mount of Olives is in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian part of Jerusalem.

No wonder there was “unrest.” For the residents of Bethlehem, in the West Bank, permits are required to travel to East Jerusalem, another part of the West Bank, because Israel has set up checkpoints at every road leaving Bethlehem. No one enters or leaves Bethlehem without a permit, without waiting in a long line, submitting to searches and questioning.

You’d think that Palestinians traveling from a West Bank town, through the West Bank, to another town in the West Bank, would not have to go through Israeli checkpoints. But the settlements have been built between all the towns of the West Bank and so Israel has set up the checkpoints to protect them from the Palestinians, whose land was taken for the settlements.

(the blue areas on the map are Israeli settlements, between Palestinian towns in the West Bank).

In fact, if Jesus were traveling today, from Jericho to the Mount of Olives and into Jerusalem, he would have to pass through at least two checkpoints and the Israeli settlement of Maale Adummim. Then, just before getting to the Mount of Olives, he would bump up against Israel’s 25-foot-high wall at Abu Dis (see photo), where it cuts off the road from Jericho to Jerusalem and divides this Arab village in two. Jesus would be able to go no further—not even a checkpoint here; no travel. Period.

Even though Jesus would never leave the West Bank, he could not make it to Jerusalem.......even in the unlikely event that a rabble-rouser like him would be granted a permit.

The map shows how the settlements (blue) break up the West Bank and make travel between Bethlehem, East Jerusalem, and Jericho (to the right, off the map) so difficult.

God, you sent your son to bring good news—your dreams for our future, of hope, health and abundant life. But we are too afraid to let go of the life we know to follow your way. As we remember Jesus’ life death and resurrection this Holy Week, embolden us to be good news for your people today. Amen.

Lent 5, John – Raising the Dead

2011-04-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

John 11.1-45

Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again? (Jn 11.8)

It’s dangerous, this healing work. Jesus’ disciples are incredulous. Does Jesus really intend to go back up to Jerusalem, the place where the "Jews" are planning to stone him? (Jn 10.31)

This power to bring life out of death is hazardous. Lazarus himself became the target of threats (Jn 12.10). The world fears this life-giving power.

We’ve seen it in Tahrir Square, as freedom protesters were attacked and killed. We’ve seen it in Libya, in Bahrain, in Yemen. And this week we see it again in Palestine, in Jenin, a refugee camp famous for its refusal to accept Israel’s theft of land, its fences and walls and iron gates. Jenin is well-known for its uprisings against Israel’s cruelty.

This week, one of Jenin’s leaders was killed, five bullets to his head, gunned down outside the theater he created in the hopelessness of this refugee camp. Juliano Mer-Khamis was the co-founder and director of the Freedom Theatre in Jenin Refugee Camp. It is not yet known who killed him, but he was most definitely a man of peace and freedom. Watch this 8-minute documentary by Jen Marlowe which tells Juliano’s story, in his own words—a man breathing new life into a community under occupation.

God of resurrection, you bring healing out of illness, life out of death. Today, your steadfast presence still inspires visions of the possibility of life in a world where death seems victorious. Give us courage to stand with those who have seen the vision you have given us, even when death threatens. Amen.

Lent 5, Romans - God is Waiting

2011-04-06T06:35:00.000-07:00

Romans 8.6-11 But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. (Rom 8.9)

This poem from Joan Chittister’s new book, The Monastery of the Heart, came to me this week via her weekly email, Vision and Viewpoint. It perfectly describes the work of Compassionate Listening, and expresses what I have seen and heard when I meet people on the ground working for peace and reconciliation in Israel and Palestine. Jamal Muqbel and his family, for example, embody this work in Beit Ommar (see Friday, Apr 1 post). And there are hundreds more…hearing God’s spirit dwelling in their hearts and joining God’s creative work, in their own lives and for the future of the world.

Listen with the ear of your heart…Prologue of The Rule of Benedict

It is a gentle, tender invitation,
this call to create within ourselves
a Monastery of the Heart.
It is the call to go down deep
into the self
in order to find there
the God
who urges us;
to come out of ourselves
to do the work of God,
to live in union with God
in the world around us.

It is not punitive, this call.
It is not demanding,
not harsh and unforgiving.
It is, instead, the daily guarantee
that, if we will only begin the journey
and stay the road—
listening to the voice of God
and responding to it
with all our gifts and goodness—
we will find that God stands waiting
to sustain us,
and support us,
and fulfill us
at every turn.
God is calling us lovingly always,
if we will only stop the noise within us
long enough to hear....

The Prologue to Benedict's Rule
demands of us
that we "Listen."
Listen to everything.
Because everything in life is important.
Listen with the heart:
with feeling for the other,
with feeling for the Word,
with feeling for the God
who feels for us.
Listen to the Word of God,
the Rule says,
"and faithfully put it into practice."
Most of all,
know that to seek God
is to find God.
In a Monastery of the Heart—
in the riches of the tradition it offers
and the treasures to which it leads,
and in company with others who are seeking, too—
find a loving spiritual guide
to encourage your journey,
to refresh your faith
when life is dry and dark,
when the days are long and draining,
when you are inclined to forget
that God is with us
for the taking.

Most of all, every day
start over again.
Remember that life is
for coming to see,
one day at a time,
what life and God
are really all about.
Life grows us more and more—
but only if we wrestle daily
with its ever-daily meaning for us.
God is calling us to more
than now—
and God is waiting
to bring us to it.
"Listen," the Rule says.
"If you hear God's voice today,
do not harden your hearts."

God, whose breath formed our very lives, your Spirit still breathes through us this day. Soften our hearts to find you there, in our very created essence. Give us courage to heed your invitation to work with you, bringing in your kingdom of justice and peace. Amen.

Lent 5, Ezekiel - Breathing Life into Dry Bones

2011-04-04T07:23:00.000-07:00

Ezekiel 37.1-14

And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil…. (Ez. 37.11)

Near a busy intersection and trendy shopping area in West Jerusalem (the Israeli side), our Compassionate Listening stopped for lunch near a large park, much of it hidden from view by a tall fence of corrugated metal. I could hear bulldozers at work, but I couldn’t see what was going on in there. This is Mamilla Park and we were told that construction was beginning on a Museum of Tolerance, built by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, based in California.

Sounds beautiful, does it not? Just what is needed in this border area where Israeli West Jerusalem meets Palestinian East Jerusalem, where Jews, Christians and Muslims fight over land and human rights—a perfect spot for a tolerance museum, to bring people together.

This story of hope, however, has a dark underside. Mamilla Park was built on top of a Muslim cemetery, and, as construction proceeds on the Museum of Tolerance, graves are being bulldozed, the bones scattered…dry bones, ancient bones of the ancestors of today’s Palestinians, living nearby in East Jerusalem or in refugee camps in Jordan or Lebanon, or in America or anywhere around the world where they have found refuge.

Some of the bones were simply piled into cardboard boxes, unidentified, unmarked, without notifying the families or anyone in the community. The construction of the “Museum of Tolerance” has been opposed by Israeli archaeologists, historians, human rights advocates, to no avail. Construction is proceeding this very moment. Photo: my view of Mamilla Cemetery in 2010 Take a few minutes to hear about the controversy:

Interview on Democracy Now, explaining the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s reaction to the Palestinian protest and an interview with Rashid Khalidi and Michael Rattner, explaining Palestinian objections to the building (9min): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDssmI-EnHo&feature=related

More pictures of the cemetery (2 min): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am0MyyjPYyU

What would express God’s desire for Israelis and Palestinians? “I will put my spirit within you and you shall live, and I will place you on our own soil.” God of creation, your breath gave life to humankind. In times of suffering, you sent your spirit and then your son to bring your people hope for new life. Today we bring you our own hopes for the future of your people. Grant us courage to carry out our part in your life-giving work. Amen.

Lent 4, John - Born Blind

2011-04-01T08:07:00.000-07:00

John 9.1-41 (including Jesus’ explanation of this sign in 10.1-21)

…he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. (Jn 9.3)

Sometimes when I tell people what I have seen and heard in Israel and Palestine, I feel like the man born blind.

When I come back to the US with all these stories that don’t fit with what we have always believed about Israel and Palestinians, I get the questions—Aren’t the Palestinians encouraging violence? Aren’t their leaders corrupt? After all, don’t they want to see Israel “driven into the sea”? How do you know you haven’t been duped into sympathizing with the Palestinians? Is it possible you have been brainwashed? Like the blind man, I have seen something so powerful that I can’t keep it to myself. I feel compelled to tell everyone about it. Like the blind man, I’m not sure what it means, but in telling the story I am slowly finding the meaning.

This week in Beit Ommar, the Israeli army closed the city’s only entrance, the small dirt road that passes under the 50-foot-high guard tower. The people of Beit Ommar, fed up with Israel’s ongoing confiscation of their lands, have been demonstrating against the occupation. With the “unrest” all over the West Bank, Israel is clamping down on protest.

Jamal, in Beit Ommer (the name of the town, like most Arabic place names is spelled many ways in English – I have usually written Beit Ummar) wrote on Wednesday (his English is MUCH better than my Arabic, but I’ve done a little editing to make it clearer):

“Now the Israeli soldiers closed Beit Ommer; it's like a big prison, no one can use the car to go outside, also they arrested a lot of people (young men). Despite of that I continue working for peace. I invited Israelis to my house, I visited Sderot, in the south of Israel where Hamas rockets come through Gaza, I talked to people there, I faced dangers there, some people made a protest against me and other Palestinians who were there; they used bad words.

Photo is of Jamal and Margee, from our Compassionate Listening delegation last May, taken by Ellen Greene.

Also there were 4 women from Cyprus; I invited them to my house with Israelis. I coordinate with the Mayor of Beit Ommer; we invited many people to the Muncipality to screen a film about the conflict in Cyprus. Then we discussed with the Israelis; many shared and asked questions; it was a wonderful meeting. Last Monday the Compassionate Listening group visited us; we invited Israelis to the meeting, also Palestinians; they heard from both sides. Saddiye [Jamal’s wife] and the children help me in all my activities; they give me courage. It's not easy for me to continue without their support; sometimes Saddiye becomes afraid when I visit Israelis area because there is a lot of hate to Palestinians. Also my work with Israelis caused problems in my job [Jamal is a barber] because I lost many customers, because many people don't accept the idea that I deal with Israelis, but I want to continue what I started. We think of our children’s future; we want them to live on peace without fear , it's a big challenge.

Also last week we met with an Israeli family from Sedrot; they have 4 kids; our children shared playing with them; we shared a meal. It was really nice meeting. The plan was to visit them in their house but the soldiers didn't let us go to Sedrot even we though had permits, but this family come next to the checkpoint. We spent 4 hours together, this means a lot to us; we feel we break the wall between us.”

God, you know the desires of our hearts—longings for peace and security, for freedom and a future for our children. Help those of us who have been given these gifts to use them for the work of your reign of justice and peace. Amen.

Lent 4, Ephesians - In Darkness

2011-03-30T07:04:00.000-07:00

Ephesians 5.8-14

For once you were in darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. (Eph 5.8)

So much of what has happened in Israel/Palestine over the course of the twentieth century has been hidden in darkness. Instead of living by what can be seen in the light, I have discovered that I have lived by myths that flourished in the darkness. One myth I believed was that Palestine was an empty land, waiting for industrious Jewish farmers to “make the desert bloom.” And that Palestinians rock-throwing started the violence. History teaches otherwise.

Today, March 30, is Palestinian Land Day, "Yom al-Ard," —a day commemorating the Israeli military's 1976 killing of six young Palestinians as they protested the Israeli government's seizure of Palestinian land. The day has since become a symbol of Palestinian resistance to land theft, colonization, occupation and apartheid.

The stories of Palestinian non-violent protest are hidden to most Americans. Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh’s new book, Popular Resistance in Palestine, is one of many recent books bringing this hidden history to light. He writes about the careful organizing that led up to the events of Land Day (pp 112-113), and shared them on his blog yesterday:

“Away from politics, grassroots efforts were functioning. The increased mobilization among Palestinians inside the Green Line took a dramatic and bold step forward with a large meeting in August 1975 in Nazareth attended by 110 individuals to defend the land. At this meeting, a committee was selected, headed by Anees Kardoush, to prepare for an even larger meeting. This meeting, held in October 1975, included about 5,000 activists from many factions and created the Committee for Defense of the Land (Lajnat Al-Difa’ An Al-Aradi) with 100 members and an eleven-member secretariat.

It began by protesting against the confiscation of 22,000 dunums in the Galilee and the declaration of an even larger parcel of land belonging to three villages (in the Al-Mil area) as closed military zones, with the intention of building nine Jewish settlements in this closed zone. A meeting was held in Nazareth on March 6, 1976. This included 48 heads of municipalities and local village councils and called for a day of protests and strikes on March 30, 1976 should Israel go ahead with its land confiscation policies. When it appeared the strike would take place, many areas outside of the Galilee joined it, including in the West Bank. Photo: Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh being arrested, Al Walaja, 2010

This became known as ‘Land Day’ throughout Palestine. The events actually started on March 29, when a demonstration against the Israeli army’s provocative mobilizations in the village of Deir Hanna. Later that evening, the village of Araba Al-Batoof demonstrated in solidarity and a young man, Khair Muhammad Yassin, was killed by Israeli soldiers. He was the first martyr of the 1976 Land Day. More martyrs fell over the next 24 hours.

The events were well organized and participation was high. The Israeli authorities reacted violently. Many were injured, six nonviolent protesters killed and hundreds arrested. The events coincided with the secret Koening Memorandum which laid out plans for further discrimination and ethnic cleansing to ‘make the Galilee more Jewish’. The Israeli government condemned the leaking of the memorandum, but no government official repudiated its racist content.12 After this successful popular event, differences arose that weakened the organizing committee and yet, the movement continues strongly to this day.”

As you can see, non-violent protest is an inaccurate description. Non-violence is often met with violence. Tomorrow in Palestine, Israeli soldiers protect the bulldozers clearing Palestinian land for the building of the wall; people protest; and some may be killed.

God of light, open our hearts to the light. Then give us courage to be your partners in this illuminating work; help us be your merciful light, shining on the dark places of your world. Amen.

Lent 4, Samuel - Leading

2011-03-28T07:55:00.000-07:00

For the Lord does not see as mortals see...” (1Sam 16.7)

It’s not easy being a leader—prophet OR king. Saul learned the hard way. Enjoying God’s favor, battle after battle, he became more and more impressed with himself, finally claiming sacrificial leadership that did not belong to him. He forgot that his success was not his own, that everything he had achieved depended on God and on Samuel, God’s messenger. Samuel loved his protege–king, even when Saul arrogantly took over Samuel’s job. When God abandoned Saul, Samuel grieved.

As I read about poor Saul, I recalled the strange scene at the Colorado legislature on Friday, March 18, when first the Senate and then the House, interrupted their business to give Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren a standing ovation and a resolution of uncritical support for the state of Israel.

Everyone I’ve told about this asks, Why is the Colorado legislature passing resolutions on foreign policy? Introducing the resolution with laudatory praise for Israel, the legislators explained that it was the $36.6 m Colorado companies make, selling things to Israel. The resolution was our state’s thank you to Israel, a “democracy” that “shares our values,” and is such “ a good partner.”

I, too, have believed that Israel shares our democratic values....until 2008, when I met Dr. Abdul-Latif, a hydrologist who lives surrounded by Israel’s wall in the village of Jayyous in the West Bank. He showed us the wall and told us about his brother-in-law, Dr. Ghassan Khaled, a lecturer and professor of commercial international law at Al Najah University in Nablus, who had been arrested a few months before, on January 16. He was released for lack of evidence, rearrested and held under “administrative detention” for 20 months; then released and arrested again in August, 2010.

“Administrative detention” means that they can hold him without charges...for however long they like. Like most universities, Al Najah is a place where ideas are developed and debated. As a Palestinian university, a big topic of conversation is Israel’s occupation and strategies to end it. As a teacher of international law, I can imagine that Professor Khaled has spoken and written about Israel’s own violations of international law in continuing its occupation and discriminating against its own Arab citizens and the Arabs in occupied areas like Nablus. There have been many demonstrations against Israel’s occupation.....Is this why he is considered a security risk and held in prison for the last three years? Photo is Dr. Khaled's sister-in-law and niece, 2008

Or does his arrest have something to do with his father, Sharif Omar Khaled, who is one of the popular leaders of the peace demonstrations against the Apartheid wall built on the land of Jayyous? His own fields – like most, in that area – were incorporated into Israel by the wall, and he is required to present a permit in order to cultivate them.

We can only guess, because, since the original charges were dismissed in 2008, for lack of evidence, Dr. Khaled has never been charged with anything, only imprisoned. Dr. Khaled is not the only one. Today here are 214 Palestinians held in “administrative detention.” Are these the values we share with Israel? Is this even democracy?

God of Samuel, Saul and David, we are stubborn, and slow to learn your ways; we do not listen to your prophets or submit to your will. But we are quick to assume power. Help us learn humility, to conform our lives to your desires for us, to let go of our desire for control, to live into our baptism with the gifts you have given us. Amen.

Lent 3, John - Walking a Divided Land

2011-03-25T06:36:00.000-07:00

John 4.5-42

But he had to go through Samaria. (John 4.4)

Jesus’ journey takes him through a land divided, by tradition and religion—like riding on the bus, past a Palestinian village on the right, an Israeli town on the hill above; or an Israeli “archaeological site with its ruins of a destroyed Arab town; or a Bedouin camp in the valley below an Israeli settlement.

Last May, as I rode the bus south toward the Israeli town of Sderot on the border with Gaza, I felt anxious, journeying toward the land of the “other”—an Israeli community located right on Israel’s border with Gaza, a place constantly under threat of attack by rockets launched from Gaza. It was these rocket attacks that Israel cited as the reason for its invasion of Gaza in December-January 2009-10. Although I knew we were meeting with a group of Israeli women who are working for peace, building bridges with their Gazan neighbors, my anger over Israel’s attack on Gaza and the horrible destruction of the towns and the deaths of so many civilians was stuck in my throat.

The women we were going to meet had moved their families to this land, which had once been home to both Palestinians and Jews, living side by side. They had come to this dry place to settle and claim the land for Israel. Even though I knew that they were working for peace, I knew that their presence was a source of the friction between Jews and Palestinians.

The bus pulled into the parking lot at Netiv-haAsara, a moshav, with a communal lifestyle similar to a kibbutz, but the agricultural lands are individually owned. It was planned as a buffer between Israel and the Gaza Strip, established in 1982 after Israel’s withdrawal from the Sinai and its peace agreement with Egypt. People are still moving here and the Jewish Agency provides each family with a small piece of land.

As I sat in the moshav’s community room, I learned that Roni does not want to be an obstacle to peace. She described their life here ten years ago, when Palestinians from nearby Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya came across the border each day to work the land of the moshav. These Israeli and Palestinian farmers got to know one another, visited with one another and celebrated weddings and other social events together. She said their lives have been “undermined by the military on both sides.” Photo: Roni and Julia in Netiv-haAsara, taken by Ellen Greene

In 2005, on the day after Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip, removing its settlements, a rocket fired from Gaza killed a girl in Netiv-haAsara. Since then they have lived under constant threat of the rockets. Just because the rockets are homemade and rarely hit anything but a field, the threat of death is always present. When the siren sounds, everyone knows they have minutes to run to the shelters.

Julia is a social psychologist who teaches at the college near Sderot, 2 k from Gaza. Two years ago a student was killed in the parking lot by a rocket, while other students watched. The worst effect is psychological—75-80% of the people in the region have PTSD. These two women described their work to build bridges with their Palestinian neighbors—Products for Peace, which sells things like Palestinian soap with an Israeli-crafted soap dish. http://www.nisped.org.il/

Roni moved here from Britain, Julia from the US. Both came as young adults, full of hope and the promise of Israel. Julia said she once believed that Israel wanted peace, that the land was empty and that “the Arabs hated us.” Those hopes and visions have been shattered for both women as they have learned about Israel’s history and gotten to know their Palestinian neighbors.

Now they are busy planning seminars to build understanding. Julia told us she was opposed to the war on Gaza and opposes the building of the wall. She has called for an end to the blockade Israel has imposed on Gaza. One of the women in their group went to Ashdod to protest the killing of the nine people on the humanitarian aid ship Mavi Marmara, which happened a few days before we met. The woman was threatened by her neighbors, who told her to apologize for participating in the protest or leave the moshav. But Roni and Julia told us, “we don’t give up because there is no other way.” They want Jewish Americans to realize that Jews need to acknowledge the Armenian genocide and the Palestinian occupation; there need to be joint ceremonies so that these events are not forgotten, so that the people can change the future. “I don’t have to compare [the holocaust and the occupation]…I cannot, because we know what this is doing to us as a people….” She finds it easier to dialogue with Palestinians than with people in her own community. “We cannot solve this militarily; we need something different…both people are entitled to a land and a life, a right not to be bombed.”

I couldn’t agree more.

God of all being, you walked our roads and drank from our wells. You listened to our squabbles over land and our arguments about how to worship you. And you dared speak to the “other,” bringing healing and peace to a divided community. We pray that you continue your creative work, forming us in your image. Amen.

[Note: Sychar….Jacob’s Well. Sychar is commonly thought to be the ancient city of Shechem, today identified with the archaeological site of Tel Balata, on a small knoll (Shechem means “shoulder” or “high place”) near the city of Nablus in the West Bank. The site today is in the Balata Refugee Camp. To read more about Balata today, see Anna Baltzer’s beautiful photographs and stories in her book, Witness in Palestine.) Jacob’s Well is at the entrance to Balata Camp. In the Orthodox tradition, the feast day of Plotine, the name given to the unnamed woman of Samaria, is celebrated, on March 20.]

Lent 3, Romans - Boasting in our Suffering?

2011-03-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

Romans 5.1-11

…but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. (Rom 5.3-5)

We rarely choose suffering….unless we have something to gain, like winning a marathon. Suffering simply comes to us, unbidden and often unannounced. Like the earthquake and tsunami and nuclear emergency. Suffering is part of life. It cannot be avoided. All we can do is make the best of it. Paul’s words are not idle speculation; Paul knew suffering.

In the Middle East there are many people who know suffering. Arrest, interrogation, torture, suicide bombers, house demolitions, corrupt government officials…the suffering goes on and on. The question is, What do we do with our suffering? Does it produce endurance, character and hope? Or bitterness, misery and retaliation?

When I first went to the Holy Land, I expected to see a lot of misery, encounter a lot of bitterness. But then I met Angie. A student at Bethlehem University, she was our guide while we were in Bethlehem—setting up the gardening and painting projects we did at the Lutheran school. She told me she had applied for a permit to go to Jerusalem for Holy Week, but was denied.

It’s the custom for Christians in the Holy Land to walk the road Jesus walked, down the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem, waving palm branches and singing. She said that since she was a student at a university where student groups engaged in mass demonstrations against Israel’s occupation, she was deemed a security risk, even though she did not belong to any of these student groups. There was no appeal, no process for proving that she was not a threat. The permit was simply denied, along with most of the rest of the Christians in Bethlehem. And it has only gotten worse. Last year, virtually no permits were issued for Holy Week travel. Photo: protesters who were denied permits for Palm Sunday try to push past the wall at the Bethlehem checkpoint, 2010.

Then Angie told me that she didn’t hate Israelis. She didn’t blame them for her virtual imprisonment behind the walls surrounding Bethlehem. She said she just wanted the occupation to end so that she could go abroad to study…and to Jerusalem for Holy Week.

I thought at the time, “How can this be?” And I realized I was witnessing something miraculous. That’s when I knew I had to tell her story and invite others to “come and see” for themselves. Because Angie is not the only Palestinian I met who carries no hatred for Jews or Israelis—I’ve seen it everywhere in Palestine, this miracle of forgiveness shared by Muslims and Christians.

I think this is what Paul meant. Living behind the 25-foot-high wall, not being allowed to leave Bethlehem….it takes endurance to stay there and not move to your brother’s in Texas—away from the soldiers and the threat of bulldozers. It takes endurance to raise your children knowing they may not be able to go to university abroad to become a doctor. Endurance means not giving up on your future. And somehow, miraculously, hope is born out of the despair. This year Angie is in Wisconsin, working on her masters degree so she can go back to Bethlehem, equipped to be a leader in the new Palestine.

God of unimaginable possibilities, you have created your people with a great diversity of talents and gifts. We are grateful for the opportunities we have been given to use our gifts to bring healing and hope in your world. Amen.

Lent 3, Exodus - Resistance

2011-03-21T06:55:00.000-07:00

Exodus 17.1-7
“I will be standing there in front of you.” (Ex 17.6)

This story about Moses and the Israelites’ journey to the “promised land” makes difficult reading this week after five members of one family were murdered in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Those who discovered the murders describe a horrific and bloody scene. The settlement is called Itamar.

Jewish Zionists build towns in Palestinian areas because these are sites mentioned in the bible—places the Hebrew people settled after fleeing slavery in Egypt. Today’s residents of Itamar settled here in 1984, deep in the heart of the Palestinian West Bank, near Nablus (First map shows Itamar and how settlements are encroaching on Arab towns). They named their town after Moses’ brother Aaron’s youngest son, who, tradition holds, was buried near here. The town was settled by Orthodox Jews, on land belonging to the Palestinian town of Awarta, taking half of Awarta’s lands to build their settlement, according to Awarta residents .

Second map shows Itamar and Awarta in the larger area of the central West Bank, from Jerusalem north to Nablus: Palestinian areas shaded in brown; Israeli settlements shaded in blue. Itamar and Awarta are in upper center.
Before any investigation, the IDF characterized the attacks in a headline: “Five Family Members Murdered in Itamar Terror Attack.” Haaretz described the Israeli response: “Extensive police forces and Israel Defense Forces are scanning the area for the suspect.” It’s what we would expect—an investigation into the murders, right?

In the US, we heard about the killings, but not much about the Israeli soldiers who descended on Awarta, made everyone go outside, beat the men of the village, and arrested 12 of them, between the ages of 15 and 40 (see AIC News). The soldiers camped out in villagers’ homes for five days. Swedish volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement, describe what they witnessed in the days following the murders—IDF soldiers smashing furniture, polluting drinking water, pouring liquids on computers (http://palsolidarity.org/2011/03/17061/)

We also did not hear much about the dozen settlers who retaliated by marching into Awarta, throwing stones and bottles at Palestinian homes. Or how the Israeli military intervened when the villagers tried to defend themselves (http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=368642). Or about the two young cousins, 18 and 19, who were killed in March, 2010, shot at close range by Israeli soldiers. And the long history of settlers harassing Palestinians as they harvest their olives in the fall. It goes on and on.

The road to freedom for Moses and his people had not been easy. Thirst, food shortages and other hardships of travel made everyone testy and quarrelsome. Their leader, who was so sure of himself when they fled Egypt, had run out of ideas. In the barren, dry desert, not knowing where to turn, in desperation, he “cried out to the Lord.” The Lord’s answer? “Go ahead of the people…I will be standing there in front of you.”

God had not abandoned them. Just as in the pillar of fire, God continued to go ahead of them, showing them the way, providing what was necessary for life.

This is how the Palestinians survive—they stay in Awarta and other West Bank towns, trusting that God will provide what they need to remain in their homes, farming their lands, picking their olives, selling vegetables…..resisting Israeli efforts to drive them away.

God of freedom-seekers, you call your people out of bondage and lead them to places of new life, to springs of fresh water. Open our hearts to the needs of those who are imprisoned, longing for freedom and an end to their oppression. Help us find ways to join in your liberating work. Amen.

Lent 2, John - Born Again

2011-03-18T06:44:00.000-07:00

John 3.1-17

‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ (John 3.2)

The first time I went to Israel and Palestine, I expected to see some questionable sites of Jesus ministry, do some “good works” at the Lutheran school in Bethlehem and be depressed about the conditions Palestinians are forced to live under. I expected to feel sorry for the Palestinians, their every move controlled by Israel. If the peace negotiators had not been able to achieve an agreement, I expected there was nothing I could do.

But the people I met had different plans for me.

Their puzzling hospitality invited me into their shops and homes. The Palestinians I met know that they are prisoners in their own homes because my tax dollars provision the Israeli army. They know that American corporations manufacture the weapons of their oppression—Caterpillar bulldozers that knock down their homes and uproot their olive trees to build the wall, M-16s that are aimed at them at every checkpoint, F-16s flying low overhead and shooting to blow up their homes and schools, security cameras and computer systems enable soldiers to control and humiliate them at checkpoints.

Knowing that without my tax support Israel could not continue its occupation of their land, how could they welcome me into their homes and serve me tea and cakes? This hospitality is who they are. They have never blamed me for their impossible lives. And they have not given up.

Their faith in me to change their situation challenged me. When I asked what I could to to help change their

oppression, they told me, “Tell our stories. Surely if Americans knew how we are suffering, things will change.” I felt powerless. What could I do? I have no influence with my government. Yes it’s my tax dollars, but what can I do?

As I get to know them and see the work they are doing to build up their community, performing miracles of transformation, turning their prison into a healthy place for children to grow up, I feel like Nicodemus. His declaration to Jesus showed that he saw God’s hand in the healing work Jesus was doing. Like Nicodemus, I, too, have seen the power of God’s healing promises. I have seen people imprisoned behind a 25-foot wall being transformed by the new life they have received in Christ Jesus. I have seen God’s promise of abundant life being fulfilled in the work of these faithful Christians, as they create the Bright Stars after-school programs—music and dance, art and sports—for the children of Bethlehem. I have seen God’s miracles of transformation as I watch Muslim and Christian children learning about each others’ cultures and religions and practicing tolerance and peacemaking at Dar al-Kalima school. I have seen how these Christians, trusting in God’s promise of salvation, have been freed to live their lives AS IF the wall did not exist, to build a college in Bethlehem so that when there is peace, there will be young people equipped to lead a new Palestine.

I did not expect to be hooked by these people, but in Bethlehem I have seen miracles of healing and I have experienced a miracle of forgiveness, a hospitality as radical as Jesus’ words to Nicodemus: “You must be born from above.” Trusting God’s promises that their occupation will not be the last word, the people of Bethlehem have been given new life...and a future for their children. ˆ

Photo: Art Resists the Wall, Bethlehem

God of Abraham, you have promised eternal life for all who trust in your promises. Help us, who have been baptized into new life, to be instruments in your work of salvation in a world where people are perishing. Amen.

Lent 2, Romans - Abraham's Heirs

2011-03-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

Romans 4.1-5, 13-17

“For he is the father of all of us, it is written, ‘I have made you the father of many nations’....” (Rom 4.17)

Standing on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City....Nowhere in the Holy Land is our common ancestry more evident—Muslims, Jews and Christians. We are sisters, brothers, cousins. We share each other’s holy places, revere the same stones.

After passing through the security checkpoint and opening our backpacks for Israeli soldiers in olive green uniforms so they can check to make sure we have not brought any bombs and weapons, we walk with the other pilgrims up the ramp to the park at the top of the Temple Mount (the Jewish name), or Haram al-Sharif (the Muslim name). On the square atop this tiny piece of land that has sometimes sparked warfare, we stand next to the Dome of the Rock, the mosque built on this hilltop where Mohammad is believed to have ascended to heaven. If we walk to one side and look over the edge, we see men and women swaying in prayer while reading the torah at the Western Wall; they come to the place where the largest stones we can see in the ancient wall are remnants of wall of Herod’s Temple; it is considered the gate of heaven. Walking to the opposite side of the Mount, we look out over the Mount of Olives and the Christian churches built on the hill, commemorating Jesus’ time on the Mount of Olives, praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, weeping over Jerusalem, riding the donkey down the road and then up the hill to Jerusalem, with crowds shouting “Hosanna!” Photo: praying at the Western Wall.

One tiny space.....three stories of humanity’s search to know their creator.

As Paul points out, God had a plan when God covenanted with Abraham. God did not intend that the covenant would stop with Abraham. God’s plan was much bigger than Abraham. He was only the beginning, blessed “to be a blessing.” God did not make Abraham the father only of the Jewish people. Paul reminds the Romans that God’s promise included them too—God made Abraham the father of Israel, but also the father of “many nations.” (Gen 17.4)

So, this week, when we read of a family of Jewish settlers being killed in the West Bank, how can we trust God’s promises? When we hear of Arab villagers begin held under curfew and Israeli settlers attacking Palestinians to retaliate for murders that have not yet been solved, how can we believe that God truly is the father of the nations?

God’s promises seem far away.

But the people of Bethlehem, a short drive from this scene, do trust these promises. In a land where tomorrow is uncertain, the people of Bethlehem are building a college to educate the young people of Palestine, who cannot often get the permits to travel abroad for school. The first building of Dar al-Kalima College was dedicated in November, 2010. With the first classes offered in 2006, they have now graduated three classes of students in their two-year accredited programs in arts, multimedia, tourism and communications.

I look at what is happening and find it difficult to trust that God will bring something new out of the destruction, but for these people living under Israel’s occupation, facing eviction notices and unable to travel or visit family, God’s promises are enough.....for the building of a college! Photo: dedication of the college, Nov, 2010.

God of Abraham, we praise you for your unfailing promises to your heirs. Help those of us who live in relative comfort, to trust in your good intentions for your creation. Give us courage to partner with you in your new creation. Amen.

Lent 2, Genesis - Blessing and Curse

2011-03-14T07:26:00.000-07:00

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.

Lent 1, Matthew - Command these Stones

2011-03-11T07:39:00.000-08:00

Matthew 4.1-11

‘If you are the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’ (Mat 4.3)

Stones……they are everywhere in the Middle East. They form the roads and mark the paths of the goats on the hillside; they get stuck in your sandals. The stones are the architecture of the buildings—gleaming white in the sun. The Romans made roads from these stones that tourists walk on two thousand years later when they visit the Antonia Fortress in Jerusalem or the ruins of Sephoris near Nazareth.

The tempter stooped, scooped up some of these stones and challenged Jesus….”command these stones to become loaves of bread.” Sounds good—people are hungry and need our help. Jesus himself made miracle bread.

We are always most tempted by our own best intentions.

Twenty-seven Palestinian children were shot in the past year while they were gathering stones—gravel, building materials—or helping their families farm the area on the north end of the Gaza Strip, near its border with Israel. Defense for Children International reports on the injuries and deaths caused by Israel’s ongoing security measures.

In February, Mustafa, 17, Nashat, 16, and Mohammad, 15, were each shot in the leg while they were gathering gravel or watching others working on Palestinian land. Israelis still do not allow enough building materials through their checkpoints, so there is a market for gravel to make the cement to rebuild houses destroyed in Operation Cast Lead (January, 2009). Gathering the gravel is a good way to make some money to buy bread for your family. Until you are shot.

Awad, Abdullah, Said, Hasan, Ibrahim, Mohammad M, Arafat, Hameed, Mohammad S, Ahmad, Shamekh, Belal, Rasmi, Nu’man, Khaled, Mahmoud, Yahia, Mokhles, Suhaib, Fadi, Rami, Mahmoud S, Hatem, Ismail…..shot in the right leg, left leg, right elbow, the head, knee, torso, left arm. They were gathering gravel, grazing goats, collecting wood. They are 15-16-17 years old and they were helping their families survive. Children can earn $8-14 a day collecting building supplies from destroyed buildings close to Israel’s border. They were all working 30-800 meters inside the border fence. See photos of the boys and stories about each one

We could dismiss these injuries….lucky they weren’t killed…..they should have been more careful….everyone knows it’s dangerous to be too close to the border.

But we cannot dismiss our role in these shootings. It is our tax dollars that pay for this Israeli security, $3 billion every year. We pay for the weapons that shoot these children; we supply the bullets and the tear gas canisters that break up demonstrations against the land confiscations. It seemed like such a good idea to use our tax dollars to protect people from suicide bombers. But Abdullah, Mustafa, Awad and the rest of these young men are not suicide bombers; they are not the ones throwing rockets into Israel’s southern towns. And they are suffering. Every evening their mothers await their return, wondering who will be shot today. Photo: Gaza farmers loading their cart in 2009, near northern border with Israel - demolished farmhouse in background.

Gracious God, you led your people through the wilderness, through the rocky desert where Israelis and Palestinians are struggling and suffering. As you gave Moses your commandments, show us your will today and give us courage to worship you in the manner you desire…loosing the bonds of injustice, sharing bread with the hungry, bringing the homeless poor into our homes. Amen.

Lent 1, Genesis - Tilling and Keeping

2011-03-10T06:08:00.000-08:00

Lent 1-Genesis
Genesis 2.15-17; 3.1-7

Dear God,
It’s me, Eve. Remember?

It sounded like such a good idea, especially when the snake put it the way he did. Knowledge is a good thing, right? What could be the harm? And the snake….he was so attractive and his words made me feel powerful. Tilling and keeping….it’s all so boring, and the snake was offering me something more—to really make something of my life.

But it hasn’t turned out so well, has it?—thinking I had the wisdom to rule the world has only brought us starvation, enslavement, pollution and war exploding all over the planet.

Look at what is happening in your part of the world today—it hasn’t turned out so good. Guns and tanks everywhere, bulldozers destroying people’s homes.

In Al-Walaja, near Bethlehem where your son was born, people are standing in front of the bulldozers building a 25-foot-high wall around their village. The Israeli government says the wall will protect the settlers who have built their town on Al-Walaja’s farmlands. And now the bulldozers are destroying more of their olive groves to make way for the wall. The soldiers are trying to keep the villagers away from the construction, throwing teargas grenades at the protesters, who are refusing to give up. All our knowledge is not working. Photo: Al-Walaja—Israeli soldiers tear-gas Sheering and arrest her.

That sweet-tasting and beautiful-looking fruit Adam and I ate has rotted and turned poisonous. All our knowledge has not made us happy; it’s just given us a false sense of our own power; and now we are ashamed. We build walls to protect ourselves and they end up imprisoning us; we make bigger weapons and they end up killing our children; we send our armies all over the world to keep us safe and we are in more danger now than ever.

Now we are trying to decide whether to help the rebels in Libya and all our knowledge will not end the suffering.

Looking back, I’m sorry I didn’t just stick with the job you gave us—to till and keep the garden, to serve you and protect what you created. It turns out all you wanted was our happiness—if we had only listened.

Maybe that’s why you gave us Lent.

Love,
Eve

Gracious God, you have given your creatures abundance beyond anything we could dream of. But we have not paid attention to your generous desires for our happiness and have followed our own desires for power instead. Accept our heartfelt remorse and turn our hearts to the tilling and keeping of your beautiful creation. Amen.

A Lenten Geography - an invitation

2011-03-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

Although it has become a message for every age, Jesus’ ministry happened in a specific place and time. As I walked the streets of Jerusalem, sailed on the Sea of Galilee and traveled the winding road down to the Jordan or through the hill country, I kept remembering that Jesus walked the same dusty roads and climbed the same dry hills I was walking each day—the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea—the land that the Romans called Judaea and later renamed Palestine. Today we call it Palestine or Israel or sometimes even Israel/Palestine, revealing our own confusion and ambivalence about this disputed territory.

In the time of Jesus, the land which was the Roman province of Iudaea or Judaea was the scene of war and violence, bloodshed, torture and displacement. The Roman occupation meant onerous taxes for the Judean peasants; when they objected, their protests were often put down violently, with all the protesters killed or crucified and entire towns burned to the ground. Finally the Roman Emperor Hadrian defeated the Jews for the last time in the third Jewish rebellion in 135 CE; by renaming the land Syria Palaestina (and renaming Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina) he hoped to wipe out all trace of the Jewish people and put an end to the Jewish rebellions. The Jews were even banished from Jerusalem and the surrounding area and Rome brought foreigners in to colonize the area.

When Jesus walked these roads, the land was under occupation—the Roman Emperor and his army, his governors and procurators controlled the land and the lives of everyone who lived on the land. The Judeans disputed Rome's control of their lives and their land. Today ownership of the land is once again disputed and the part of the land deemed Palestinian is again under armed occupation.

Beginning with the story of his birth, the gospel writers make us acutely aware of the role of the Roman Empire in the lives of even the most ordinary people in first century Palestine. In Luke’s account, the story of Jesus’ birth opens as Mary and Joseph make their way from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the mandatory counting—required by the Empire for all of the occupied people. The Empire wants to determine the value of that which it possesses. Matthew’s account, too, is specific about Jesus’ birthplace: “in Bethlehem of Judea,” and about the time: “In the time of King Herod” (Matt 2.1).

Even the preparation for Jesus’ birth was rooted in the land. Gabriel comes “to a city of Galillee named Nazareth” (Lk 1.26) to tell Mary of the impending birth. Mary travels the hills of Palestine, from Nazareth to “a city of Judah” (which places it near Jerusalem). So we are reminded that Jesus was born, not only in a specific place, but in a specific time, with a specific relationship to what was going on in the world. And so it is today. The land of Palestine/Israel is a specific geography and the story of the passion, of God coming to live among us, of God’s work in the world to bring about a new way of life for God’s creation, is ongoing.

Where do we meet God today?

Where is God at work among the people of Palestine and Judea today?

The stories of the “living stones,” the people of this holy land, tell us much about God’s work. Each time I visit the Holy Land, the people I meet beg me to tell their stories, with confidence that if the world knew what was happening in the land today, their lives would change and the occupation, the 60-year Nakba (catastrophe), would end. There is a growing movement among Jews within Israel that would end the occupation because of the way the system of checkpoints and walls and permits for Palestinians has damaged the humanity of the Jews themselves. Hear some of the stories as we reflect on the texts for the Sundays in Lent—stories of the “living stones” of the land of Palestine today—people working for justice and peace in this much-ravaged land today.
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Ash Wednesday, Isaiah - Shout Out!

2011-03-04T09:37:00.000-08:00

Ash Wednesday
March 9, 2011
Isaiah 58.1-12

Shout out, do not hold back!
Lift up your voice like a trumpet!
Announce to my people their rebellion…(Is. 58.1)

What is the worship God desires from us?

Is it the Bach cantata, or the praise band? The old familiar hymns, or some new ones?

Isaiah is very clear here: what God desires is not our “fasting.” God is not impressed when we wear “sackcloth and ashes.” God is not moved by our rituals. The fasting God desires?—“loose the bonds of injustice.”

When I hear these words of Isaiah, I see the demonstrators in Tahrir Square, as they shouted out an end to tyranny, an end to oppression, an end to the misery of the poor, who cannot afford to buy food for their families. They stood their ground, occupying the square, until their demands were heard. Mubarak stepped down—his ruthless and cruel suppression of dissent finally overcome by the sheer numbers and persistence of the demonstrators.

Like Isaiah, these demonstrators protest hypocrisy. Isaiah saw the hypocrisy of the people who worshipped God by wearing sackcloth and ashes, but did nothing to care for God’s people. The demonstrators shouted out the hypocrisy of a president who amassed a large fortune while the people were going hungry. They shouted out the hypocrisy of a United States that talks democracy and freedom, but provides $1.5b for “security,” which tortures and silences those who question the government.

Ironically, many of the demonstrators were inspired by President Obama’s speech in Cairo shortly after he became president, in June of 2009. They were listening when he called for democracy, and they took him seriously when he announced his commitment to “governments that reflect the will of the people.”

Each Friday afternoon in Sheikh Jarrah, as Jerusalem prepares for the Sabbath, a crowd gathers; drummers march through the streets, past the house that used to belong to the Gawi family. These demonstrators, primarily Jewish Israelis, call on the government of Israel to end its hypocrisy, to match its deeds with its words—they hold placards saying “Not in my Name!” and “Free East Jerusalem” and “End the Occupation!” This is their worship…..their Shabbat. Photo: Drummers leading protest in Sheikh Jarrah

On Fridays in Al-Walaja, Bil’in, Ni’lin, al-Ma’sara, Beit Ommar, Nabi Saleh, Bethlehem, and other villages throughout the West Bank, protesters leave the mosques after Friday prayers and march in non-violent action against the Israeli wall, still being built on Palestinian land. The wall continues to isolate these villages, cutting them off from families, schools, commerce and health care, forcing them to go through several checkpoints to get from one village in the West Bank to another.

Is not this the fast that I choose:
To loose the bonds of injustice,
To undo the thongs of the yoke,
To let the oppressed go free,
And to break every yoke? (Is. 58.6)

God of all hope, your prophets called your people to actions of justice and reconciliation. Help those of us who live in the land of opportunity and freedom to break the yoke of oppression where we see it, to feed your hungry people and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, so that the world may see your light “break forth like the dawn.” Amen.

"Working for Justice, Praying for Peace, Living in Hope"

2010-04-03T18:45:00.000-07:00

John 20.1-18
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord". (John 20.18)

The Resurrection of our Lord, Easter Day
a message from Bishop Mounib Younan, ELCJHL, Jerusalem

“Working for Justice, Praying for Peace, Living in Hope” —these are the words at the very top of the web site for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL)— http://www.elcjhl.org/ . How can this be? I ask—in a land where political and economic realities reveal only suffering and hopelessness?

Bishop Mounib Younan explains in his Easter message: (Below is an excerpt. Read the entire message: http://www.wfn.org/2010/04/msg00011.html)

….Where do we find hope when all seems hopeless? Martin Luther finds it in the very act that brings us into the Christian family: Through baptism, we are restored to a life of hope, or rather to a hope of life. Baptized into life in Christ, our hope comes from our resurrected Lord, who
sustains and renews our hope, enabling us to endure difficulties, vulnerability and weakness. And he not only implants this hope in us but commissions us to carry it to all. This is why we in Jerusalem continue to shout out the message of the early church: the resurrection of Christ is
our sole hope in this world. This has been our message for 2,000 years, and will continue to be our message until Christ returns. For the living Christ will never allow our hope to fade away, for he is a God of hope and wants us to be messengers of hope.

I experienced this deeply this past January at the general assembly of the Fellowship of Middle East Evangelical Churches (FMEEC) in Beirut, Lebanon. I had gone seeking a word of hope—and I received it, as I listened to the testimonies of our sisters and brothers in Christ in Sudan, in Iran, Iraq and other countries in the Middle East. To me, it seemed as though the risen Lord was commissioning us for a new mission; that, like Mary, we are to revive hope in our fellow disciples by reminding them that the Lord is risen; that, like St. Paul admonishes, we are to strengthen our sisters and brothers in need.

Likewise, my sisters and brothers of FMEEC wanted a word of hope from Jerusalem. I told them how the evangelical message of grace was having an impact in the Middle East. I told them about how we were dialoguing with interfaith partners to bring justice to our region. I told them how the risen Lord gives me hope even in a hopeless situation…..

Likewise, we in the ELCHJL feel we have an important mission in our society. Like Mary, we stay in this land dying for peace and justice. As Jesus called Mary as his apostle of the resurrection, so we Palestinian Christians are called as apostles of hope despite our struggle, despite our hopelessness. Our congregations, schools and centers play an important role in providing hope and developing Palestinian society. Our parishioners’ daily struggle to maintain a Palestinian Christian witness in this land is an encouragement to our many partners and friends all over the world. Our efforts at building bridges between Palestinians and Israelis prepares us to live together peacefully after a political settlement is reached. Our dialogue with Muslims and Jews inspires other Christians to cross borders to build peace in this broken world. As St. Paul says of Jesus, “In his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us” (Ephesians 2:14b).

Photo: Bishop Younan, socond from left, and other signers of the Kairos Palestine document, calling for churches worldwide to stand with Palesetinian Christians against the occupation.

The resurrection calls us Palestinian Christians, given our current circumstances and our steadfast hope in the victory of life, a special call to impart hope where hopelessness exists in the world. We can encourage persecuted Christians in Asia and Africa; advocate for innocent civilians in war-torn countries like Afghanistan and Iraq; stand up for oppressed minorities like Dalits in India; share our resources with countries like Haiti destroyed by earth quakes. We can facilitate reconciliation between majority and minority populations of Bangladesh, Central America, Burma and Turkey. We can teach people who fear unfamiliar cultures, religions and political realties about celebrating diversity. We can welcome refugees, migrants and trafficked people from among the poor and disempowered around the world. We can share with others the hope that comes from dialogue.

Surely everyone in this justice-deficient land, Israeli and Palestinian alike, longs for the day when they will hear words of peace like those found in John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled,
and do not let them be afraid.”

As long as I believe in the risen Christ, despair will never overcome my hope; hopelessness will never overcome my trust in the living Lord. He is commissioning us, like Mary, to go and tell the world that he is risen. And, like Mary, I must not look for hope in a tomb. For Jesus is not there - he is out in the midst of life, beckoning us to follow him in his mission for peace in our beloved country. No, our Lord is not in the tomb, but he is with all of us who long for and work for justice, forgiveness and reconciliation.

May this hope, which began in Jerusalem with the risen Lord and continues in us today, inspire you to boldly say with us and all believers:

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

Al Masih Qam! Haqan Qam!

Good Friday—Psalm 22

2010-04-01T12:15:00.000-07:00

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from helping me,
from the words of my groaning?

O my God,, I cry by day, but you do not answer….

....I am a worm and not human;

Scorned by others, and despised by the people.

All who see me mock at me….

Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near and there is no one to help.

Many bulls encircle me,
strong bulls of Bashan surround me;.

They open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion

I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint;
My heart is like wax;
it is melted within my breast….

My mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.

For dogs are all around me;
A company of evildoers encircles me.

My hands and feet have shriveled;
I can count all my bones.

They stare and gloat over me;
They divide my clothes among themselves,
And for my clothing they cast lots.

But you, O lord, do not be far away!
O my help, come quickly to my aid!

Deliver my soul from the sword,
My life from the power of the dog!
Save me from the mouth of the lion!

From the horns of the wild oxen
you have rescued me….
In the midst of the congregation I will praise you….

You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him;
Stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!

For he did not despise or abhor
the affliction of the afflicted;

He did not hide his face from me,
But heard when I cried to him….

All the ends of the earth shall remember
And turn to the Lord
And all the families of the nations
Shall worship before him….

Future generations will be told about the Lord,
And proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it.

Many of the photos are mine – some are from http://www.freegaza.org/ and Reuters or AP; recent photos are from http://www.flickr.com/photos/imemc/, the archive of International Middle East Media Center; painting of Christ on the cross is from an exhibit, “Christ in the Palestinian Context” in Bethlehem: http://www.bethlehemmedia.net/photos_ed12.htm . Some were taken on Palm Sunday in Bethlehem; some in recent demonstrations against the ongoing building of Israel’s security wall in Beit Jala; some in Beit Sahour where the Israeli army recently built a watchtower; some show recent arrests and detentions; one shows victims of the war on Gaza in January, 2009; another shows a funeral procession in Nablus.

Maundy Thursday, "Thursday of the mandate"

2010-03-31T07:35:00.000-07:00

John 13.1-17, 31b-35

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” (John 13.34)

Loving your friends—sounds idealistic, a bit simplistic, but not necessarily impossible. Until we read the part of the story tonight’s reading omits…..those fourteen verses in the comma, John 13.17-31b. And the verses that follow tonight’s reading—verses 36-38.

In the verses we don’t read on this night Jesus says, “one of you will betray me.” (13.21), and “before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times.” (13.38) Whoaa!! Now, that changes everything. While Jesus may have convinced Peter that it makes some sense for Jesus to show his love by washing the feet of his students, these verses in the “comma” reveal how ridiculous Jesus’ command really is. Love the ones who betray us? The ones who set a trap for us, to kill us? (read John 13.1-38)

Yet, Jesus is very precise: “as I have loved you,” knowing full well what will happen later that night when Judas identifies him for the Roman soldiers and the temple police. “Love one another,” even when the congregation includes betrayers and deserters. This is not merely one of the commandments of God; it is THE “new commandment” Jesus brings from God for those gathered at his table.

The Palestinians I have met know intimately what it means to be betrayed and deserted.

In“Lawrence of Arabia,” you may remember that British officer Lawrence gains the support of the Arab sheiks in the fight against the Turks by promising them autonomy. While the movie is not history, it reveals a very real promise made to the tribes living in the land between Egypt and Turkey—the lands which today are part of Jordan, the state of Israel and the Palestinian Authority (West Bank and Gaza). The people of the region, who had suffered under Ottoman occupation, were promised freedom in exchange for helping to defeat the Turks. The Arab leaders were betrayed by Britain when its Cabinet agreed to support “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” (Balfour Declaration of 1917, from the appendix of A Palestinian Cry for Reconciliation, by Naim Stifan Ateek, Orbis Books, 2009).

While the movie is historical fiction, the promise of autonomy is very much a part of the real history of the Palestinian people. In The Olive Grove, (Saqi, 2009) Deborah Rohan writes the story of the Moghrabi family (who eventually emmigrated to Colorado). The grandfather, Kamel, was arrested by the Turks for joining with the British. His family’s story tells how the broken promise of Palestinian autonomy haunts him for the rest of his life and becomes an important part of the family story. In May, 1948, they are forced to flee for their lives, abandoning their home in Akka as the Zionist soldiers take over the town. Kamel Moghrabi died in Lebanon, heartbroken that his efforts to reclaim his home, his farmlands (the olive groves) or even the money he had in the bank, were futile. Bureaucratic regulations put in place by the newly forming State of Israel prevented Palestinians from claiming their property and money—declaring it “abandoned.”

Every Palestinian I have met has a similar story of betrayal—of abandonment by a world that watched more than 800,000 Palestinians fled their homes as the Zionists took over Arab towns following the withdrawal of the British troops from Palestine in 1948. The families all thought they would return to their homes after the fighting. Like Kamel Moghrabi, they believed that the world would not stand by while such injustices were committed. They were betrayed by the international community, which named the injustices in United Nations resolutions, but did nothing to help them reclaim their possessions.

But even in this 62nd year of their suffering, the Palestinians welcome visitors to their land—visitors like me from the very country that is still betraying them with $2.55B in military aid to Israel to support their occupation. Photo: Iptysam and her family welcome me into their home in Beit Jala.

“Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” I have experienced this Christian love in the welcome I receive when I visit the Palestinians in Bethlehem—even the Muslims. A love that transcends the betrayal and the desertion they still experience—while US dollars buy more ammunition for the Israeli soldiers who arrest their sons marching in protest of the Wall.

How can this be? It is a mystery to me—like the resurrection that awaits at the end of this most holy week.

Gracious God, you command us to follow in your way of love. You sent your son to bring us your message of reconciliation and peace, knowing that your love would be returned with betrayal and desertion, even by those who called you teacher and friend. Give us courage to be agents of reconciliation today—to carry your love even to those places where we will be betrayed and deserted. Amen.

Evening, Palm Sunday, 2010

2010-03-28T17:46:00.000-07:00

Luke 19.28-40

“When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples….” (Luke 19.29)

As we lifted palms in church and heard the familiar words of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and shouted “Hosanna!” we were reenacting, as many Christians have done through the centuries, the event that begins the holiest week in the Christian calendar. Each year, Christians from all over the world retrace Jesus’ steps, processing down the Mount of Olives and into the Old City of Jerusalem. Palestinian Christians from Bethlehem and the rest of the West Bank have participated in this procession for many years.

Even in Luke’s account, there are mixed reactions to Jesus and the adulation of the crowds. As they shout for joy and throw their cloaks on the path to welcome him, “some of the Pharisees” are worried and warn that this public acclamation should stop.

Not much has changed in the past two thousand years. The procession of palms in Jerusalem—Christians parading through the streets, praising God and marking this holiest of weeks, are still seen as a threat.

Although pilgrims from Ireland, the Philippines and Utah walked in the Jerusalem procession today, most Palestinians from the West Bank were denied entry into Jerusalem. In spite of the efforts of Palestinian church leaders who have been working with Israeli officials for weeks, no permits were given for their congregations to travel to Jerusalem, and Palestinians do not travel anywhere without permits. The five or so miles from Bethlehem to Jerusalem have become a divide that cannot be breached.

In Bethlehem today about 150 Palestinian Christians, with their Israeli and Muslim supporters, (along with two donkeys and a horse) did manage to get past the checkpoint. But they were quickly stopped by soldiers who piled out of their jeeps—beating and arresting the marchers. Eleven Palestinians were arrested at the main tourist checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, the place our tour buses go through when we visit. (See photo with the palms and the soldiers arresting one of the marchers.) Four Israeli peace activists who were also detained were later released by the Israeli soldiers. See more photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/activestills/ Read the story from Ma’an news agency: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=272253 ; more details from Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh’s blog: http://www.qumsiyeh.org/rightsblog2010/

Other Palestinians did manage to celebrate Palm Sunday at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. And others walked with palms in the village of Al-Zababdeh near the West Bank town of Jenin (see AP wire photo at top).

Even Jesus would not have been able to walk today from Bethany to Jerusalem. The Israeli security wall cuts off the main road, between Jericho and Jerusalem, the road that goes through Bethany. (photo shows where the wall blocks the Jericho road).

Today we marked Palm Sunday, not only with readings and reenactments of the procession, but also with the reading of the story of Jesus’ passion—the suffering he endured at the hands of the Roman empire, his arrest, the beating, the insults of the soldiers……….

Gracious God, you sent your son to show us your way of liberation and peace. Help us, who call ourselves by his name, to be messengers of peace and reconciliation in your world today. Help us break down the walls that divide us—to find one small thing we can do to bring reconciliation to the places where we live and work. Amen.

Lent 5, Gospel of John

2010-03-24T10:53:00.000-07:00

John 12.1-8

Bethany is one of the Arab villages on the outskirts of East Jerusalem in the West Bank. The Arabic name is Al-Azariya (pronounce it quickly and you can hear then name of its namesake, from our story today—Lazareth). Its name comes from the Greek “Lazarion,” or “place of Lazarus.” Some mosaic pavement, the remains of a fourth century Byzantine church, can be seen there today outside the Franciscan Church of Saint Lazarus. The journal of Egeria tells us that pilgrims have been coming here since at least 384. She writes, “so many people have collected that they fill not only the Lazarium itself, but all the fields around.”

Today’s pilgrims drive to Al-Azariya in tour buses and make the short but difficult walk down the uneven steps to the Tomb of Lazarus, a small burial chamber with an anteroom. They might also visit the two churches and the mosque that mark this site. Muslims also venerate the raising of Lazarus, and by the fourteenth century the church built over his tomb had become a mosque.

Jesus came here for supper with his good friends shortly before his journey into Jerusalem, much like we gathered around these verses of John’s gospel the week before we celebrate that journey with hosannas and palms.

Before Israel’s security wall was built, Bethany was a stop on the main road between Jericho and Jerusalem. As you can see on the map, today it is isolated from neighboring Arab communities by the security wall, which snakes its way through East Jerusalem, carving out an easy passage between West Jerusalem and the Israeli settlements built in the West Bank.

On the map, the name for Bethany is spelled Al-Eizariya. The green line is the unofficial border between Israel and the West Bank; Israel’s security barrier is shown by the red and purple lines. Brown areas are Arab towns and lands.blue areas are Israeli settlements and lands claimed by them. Click on the map to see it larger.

This is why so many Arab towns have been protesting the building of the wall in the past couple of weeks—the wall has carved up their communities, dividing farmers from their fields, families from their grandparents; cutting off commerce between Jericho, these Arab villages and Jerusalem. Jericho is east of Bethany—off the map to the right.

Last week in Beit Jala, protesters marched with banners of Rachel Corrie, a young woman from California who died seven years ago on March 21, as she stood in front of a bulldozer, hoping to prevent it from destroying the home of her friends in Gaza. Beit Jala is south of Al-Azariya on the map.

They also marched in Al-Ma’sara (at the bottom of the map, just south of Bethlehem), where Omar Alaaeddin (see photo), a 25 year-old community organizer lives. This week he spent six days in Israeli six different Israeli prisons before being released on bond, without charges. During this time he was beaten and interrogated. One of the soldiers told him "do you think the international solidarity will protect you?" You can read his story and see pictures of his injuries online: http://www.flickr.com/photos/activestills/ and http://www.imemc.org/index.php?obj_id=53&story_id=58264

In the coming Holy Week as we contemplate the suffering of Jesus, and his death at the hands of the Roman Empire and the church officials who chose to cooperate with that system, I will be remembering the suffering of those today who organize for justice and peace, those who are punished, beaten and bruised, for their protest against the injustices they suffer every day. I will also remember the members of the Lutheran congregations in Beit Sahour and the Bethlehem region who will be gathering around the same stories and remembering their own suffering and losses—the family members imprisoned, the businesses ruined, the olive groves on the other side of the wall, the family members in far-away countries who have left for a safer, more peaceful life. I will also be thinking of their faithful witness, as they speak out for reconciliation and peace in their weekly non-violent protests.

O God, you have given us life abundant and, in Mary’s anointing adoration, you have shown us your way of faithful discipleship. Embolden us to anoint the feet of those for whom suffering and death is a daily threat. Help us become your prophets of peace and reconciliation, standing against the forces that use terror and intimidation to silence those who proclaim justice and freedom. Amen.

Lent 5, Isaiah

2010-03-22T10:01:00.000-07:00

Isaiah 43.16-21

“I am about to do a new thing;
Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43.19)

This week once again we heard prophetic words proclaimed to a people in exile—they have been forced from their homes and marched across the wilderness to a strange land; they have been uprooted from their homeland. The Israelites had been conquered by Nebuchadnezzar and removed from their homes in Judea. Far from all that is familiar, cut off from the temple which has been the center of their faith, they even feel cut off from God because they believed that God dwells in the ark in the center of the temple. They despair.

But the prophet has a message from God—God will do a NEW THING! “Do not remember the former things….I am about to do a new thing…..I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” God announces to a people who have lost everything—their homes, their lands, even those who feel estranged from their God—that all will be restored.

This is the promise that Palestinian Christians cling to; it is what they hear when they read scripture…..God’s promise that all will be made new, that all will be restored. Their suffering is not the end of the story.

Their hope is not based on hopeful signs from US, Israeli and Palestinian leaders on the nightly news. Their hope springs from good news like this from the prophet Isaiah.

This week I’ve listened to the tally of fatalities, as Palestinians march in protest of the seizure of their lands and Israeli actions limiting access to their farms and crops. They have also been marching in memory of Rachel Corrie, who was killed in Gaza seven years ago, run over by the bulldozer she tried to stop, hoping to prevent the destruction of another Palestinian home. These non-violent protest marches have been met by Israeli soldiers, tear gas canisters and rubber bullets, and, apparently, even live ammunition.

Doctors have provided x-rays that show live ammunition in the skull of nineteen-year-old Ousayab Qadous who died over the weekend in a demonstration in his village of Iraq Burin, near Nablus. http://palsolidarity.org/2010/03/11855. Following midday prayers on Saturday, the villagers were marching to protest the restrictions that prevented them from accessing their lands beneath the nearby Jewish-only Israeli settlement of Har Brakha. The marchers carried no weapons.

Similar events took place this weekend in other areas of the West Bank and Gaza, and Israeli security forces, deeming the marches to be “an existential threat” to Israel, arrived in the village with tear gas and rubber bullets http://palsolidarity.org/2010/03/11724. This is in the West Bank, on land that most of the world believes will someday become a state for Palestine. http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/03/21/israel.clashes/index.html

This weekend four, Palestinian youths have been killed in these incidents. And Palestinian militants fired a rocket that killed a Thai farmworker in a greenhouse in an Israeli agricultural community just north of Gaza on Thursday. Israel retaliated with airstrikes on Gaza that killed twelve.

To see how Palestinians are resisting the Israeli security wall, read a story and watch video of the weekly protests in Bi'lin in the West Bank: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/02/2010219142048591226.html.

Even the news that peace talks will soon start again does not give hope to people yearning for peace in their communities in Israel and Palestine. It is God’s promises that bring hope into communities like the ones Isaiah addresses.

You may note that the verbs in this passage from Isaiah are in the present and future tenses. Yes, God has saved God’s own people in the past, but this God of past miracles is also a God of a future we cannot imagine….a future of liberation and homecoming and refreshing waters in the desert. A God who can make what seems impossible a reality.

O God of liberation and new life, you have shown us your ways—of restoration, reconciliation and homecoming. Help us to follow where you lead. Give us courage to do our part to make the world a reflection of your good creation; strengthen us for your work to bring home the captives and bring refreshing waters of hope and well-being to parched, inhospitable lands. Amen.

Lent 4 - Gospel of Luke

2010-03-17T13:10:00.000-07:00

Luke 15.1-3, 11b-32

The much-loved story of the Prodigal Son has inspired literature and art for two thousand years. We love to read about our God, so generous that nothing—not even total rejection of God and all the ways God would have us live—can cut us off from God’s unfailing love and mercy. No matter how far we stray from what God has intended for us, God will always welcome us back. All we need to do is return, turn toward God (“turning” is the definition of repentance); the door is always open. It’s interesting that the prodigal son had not reformed his life; he had not gotten his life together. He returned at the lowest moment, when he had lost everything. And this darkest moment is precisely when God welcomed him back with a lavish party, an extravagantly abundant celebration.

How different this notion of God is from the God who punishes evildoers by rewarding suicide bombers with a special place of honor in heaven; or the God who has promised all of the land, from the Euphrates to the sea, to descendants of the Israelites who practice one particular form of religion. How large and grand God seems in the story of the Prodigal Son; how tiny the God of the young man who walked into the Park Hotel in Netanya and killed 30 people with his suitcase-full of bombs, or the settler attacking schoolchildren on their way to school in the Hebron hills…..or the God who smiles upon American hegemony in the world, for that matter.

The signers of the Kairos Palestine document know a very large, generous, abundant God. The God of this document, “A Moment of Truth, a Word of Faith, Hope and Love from the Heart of Palestinian Suffering” is the prodigal God of our story today. Palestinian Christian leaders of thirteen denominations issued their call to the world in this document on December 15, 2009. It calls upon the international community and, in particular, the church community, to recognize their complicity in the occupation of Palestine and to take action and stand against this occupation that is causing so much suffering and despair.

Photo: signers of Kairos Palestine, Lutheran Bishop Mounib Younan, second from left

Like the South African Kairos Document issued by church leaders in 1985, the Palestinian church leaders hope that this document will begin discussion in churches around the world, encouraging them to talk about the injustice of the 43-year occupation of Palestine by Israel. The document calls the military occupation of their land a sin and defines true Christian theology as “a theology of love and solidarity with the oppressed, a call to justice and equality among peoples.”

The document begins with a list of ways that the occupation is making life unlivable for Palestinians and discusses the ways Israel’s actions violate international law. Proclaiming, “The land has a universal mission,” the document sets forth the theological and biblical understandings that shaped their statement. It identifies signs of hope and proclaims a prophetic mission for the church, “to speak the Word of God courageously, honestly and lovingly in the local context and in the midst of daily events.” Finally, it looks to the future with faith and hope.

Do we believe we are created in the image of God, or do we imagine a God created in our own image? How is God looking at the lives of Palestinians and Israelis, two peoples in one land, suffering the effects of sixty years of war and terror? What is God doing there today, and what would God have us do?

These church leaders invite us, “Come and see.” They promise to welcome us as pilgrims. They invite us to “know the facts and the people of this land, Palestinians and Israelis alike,” and “to see the face of God in each one of God’s creatures.”

And they look to the future: “In the absence of all hope, we cry out our cry of hope. We believe in God, good and just. We believe that God’s goodness will finally triumph over the evil of hate and of death that still persist in our land. We will see here "a new land" and "a new human being", capable of rising up in the spirit to love each one of his or her brothers and sisters.”

AMEN!

Read about the document: http://www.aaper.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=quIXL8MPJpE&b=5492575&content_id=%7bCE92264D-510D-419B-9524-93966890E472%7d¬oc=1
View the document itself: http://www.kairospalestine.ps/sites/default/Documents/English.pdf

O God, you welcome us home with a love so much greater than anything we can imagine. We have sinned against heaven and before you. We are no longer worthy to be called your sons and daughters. Yet you throw open doors of exclusivity and shame, and you welcome ALL who enter, without judgment or conditions. Help us, who have been created in your image, to follow your example of extravagant love. By your generous welcome, break down our barriers of fear and shatter our so-carefully-guarded opinions. Give us courage to use our own prophetic voices in your work of reconciling the world. Amen.

If you would like to accept these Christian leaders’ invitation to “come and see,” think about making your own pilgrimage to the Holy Land. There are many opportunities, and we have a group going from the Rocky Mountain Synod. Check it out: http://www.pilgrimageholyland.blogspot.com/

Lent 4, Joshua

2010-03-15T08:28:00.000-07:00

Joshua 5.9-12

“Today I have rolled away from you the disgrace of Egypt.” Josh 5.9

As they stand poised to move into the land God has promised them through their ancestor Abraham, the Israelites pause to remember who they are—liberated slaves—and where they have come from…….Egypt. And who has brought them here? God. They did not do it on their own. God has taken their shame away and today they stand tall and proud, ready to claim for themselves their inheritance.

More than three thousand years later, Christians in Palestine feel their own disgrace. The humiliation of standing for hours at the checkpoints, the tanks that can roll into town anytime, day or night, the terror of not knowing if they will ever see their loved ones again. And then they hear God’s promise—the God who brought the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt has surely not forgotten these present-day slaves held in bondage by the Israeli occupation.

If you have visited the Holy Land, you probably went to the Shepherds’ Fields, where it is believed that the shepherds heard the angel’s announcement of Jesus’ birth. If so, you have been in Beit Sahour (“the place of the nightwatch”), one of the three towns that make up the Bethlehem District. During the intifada Israel levied special taxes in Beit Sahour (a form of collective punishment because it penalized everyone, not just the rock-throwers)—a glass tax for broken windows, a stones tax for damage done by stones, a missile tax for the Gulf War damage, among others (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beit_Sahour#Tax_resistance).

The people of Beit Sahour refused to pay these taxes: “No taxation without representation – No taxes without a government.” “We will not finance the bullets that kill our children.”

Israel responded, led by Israeli defense minister Yitzhak Rabin, who said: “We will teach them there is a price for refusing the laws of Israel.” In retaliation, after a joint prayer service of Israeli Jews and Palestinians at Beit Sahour’s Orthodox Church, the Israeli army imposed a 45-day curfew; they also blocked food shipments, cut telephone lines and seized millions of dollars in money and property from the homes of the tax resisters; 40 people were arrested.

When the UN Security Council debated a resolution condemning the siege and the indiscriminate seizure of property, the United States vetoed the resolution, even though it was supported by the eleven other member countries.

They organized nonviolent demonstrations, and with the support of Israeli and international peace activists, the people of Beit Sahour were successful. They continued to refuse to pay the taxes until 1995, when the Palestinian Authority (PA) assumed governance of Beit Sahour.

Even though the PA governed Beit Sahour, Israel maintained an army base nearby at Oush Grab. In 2006, after the Israeli army abandoned the base, the residents of Beit Sahour built a Peace Park on the land, with plans this year for a new playground. However, early this year the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) declared the area a “closed military zone.”

Last month soldiers showed up with bulldozers to begin construction of a watchtower. Why a watchtower? …..to protect the Israeli settlements that surround the entire Bethlehem district, cutting off Bethlehem, Beit Sahour and Beit Jala from the rest of the West Bank. (see map—brown/tan areas are Palestinian; blue areas are Israeli settlements—all lands to the east of the green line are in the West Bank; red and purple lines are the Israeli separation wall)

The residents of Beit Sahour, 75% Christian, hear God’s promise, “Today I have rolled away from you the disgrace of Egypt,” and they are responding again nonviolently. On February 22, they marched on the road to the Peace Park, carrying signs protesting the building of the watchtower. Israeli soldiers attacked with tear gas. See video of the marchers and the soldiers, along with more details of the latest Israeli incursion onto Palestinian lands: http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1276

Although we usually see only the stone-throwers on TV, there is a large nonviolent movement in the Palestinian communities throughout the West Bank—Muslim and Christian. I’m part of a book group which reads books that help us understand the conflict, and our latest book is Once Upon a Country, a Palestinian Life, by Sari Nusseibeh, a staunch advocate of nonviolence. (You can join us for discussion of this book on March 30, 7 pm at my house; email me: janlmiller@q.com.)

Gracious God, your servants in Beit Sahour are suffering. For sixty years, our government has supported the occupation; forgive us our part in supporting their suffering and turn our hearts to new ways of living together. Help us to recognize the places where your kingdom is breaking in—around the world and in our own communities—and give us the courage to join in. Amen.

Lent 3, Gospel of Luke

2010-03-10T10:57:00.000-08:00

Luke 13.1-9

Our Lenten journey with Jesus is taking us closer and closer to Jerusalem, where we know the horrific fate that awaits him. In this portion of Luke’s gospel, we are reminded that Jesus is not the first Galilean whose blood will be spilled in the Holy City—Jesus lives in dangerous times, when one’s politics can get one brutally murdered, even in the precincts of the temple. The drama of Jesus’ crucifixion intensifies for us in this third week of Lent.

While his followers may have hoped that this disaster story would frighten Jesus, perhaps dissuade him from his death march toward Jerusalem, Jesus will have none of it. He uses the story to show that they have it all wrong—God is not an avenging superhero; God does not zap people for their sins (much as we might hope). Instead, Jesus uses these disaster stories to teach an important lesson about repentance.

This is a lesson we, too, can understand, in the wake of Haiti and Chile and Katrina. In times of overwhelming disaster, people ask, Why? Because these people were more sinful than the rest of the world? Jesus shows us how foolish our usual answers are.

Jesus shows us that there is more than one kind of perishing—the physical death under the collapsing tower, and the perishing of the soul because there has been no repentance, the soul has not changed course and turned toward the kingdom of God. God’s kingdom HAS broken in. Jesus has already called out for people to change their ways which produce only suffering and death.

Today we again witness God’s kingdom breaking in when we see people who refuse to cooperate with the death-dealing ways of the world, people who do not allow their anger and despair to define who they are. We have witnessed this in people like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi. I have also witnessed this in the Palestinian town of Jayyous, where Israel’s security wall is cutting the farmers off from their fruit orchards.

The parable of the fig tree is something every Palestinian can understand, because fruit trees are the riches of their land, too rocky and barren for wheatfields or vegetable gardens. And patience is a hallmark of a people dependent on olive trees that take seventeen years to produce fruit. In Jayyous, Israeli soldiers uprooted more than 6000 olive trees to clear the way for their wall. Then the wall cut the farmers off from their fields, so that now they have to go through a checkpoint to get from their homes in the village at the top of the hill to their olive groves at the bottom of the hill. Sometimes the checkpoint is not open; sometimes the soldiers will not let them pass, even though they have the proper papers. Photo: Jayyous farmers waiting at the checkpoint, June 2008

But the villagers of Jayyous, these cultivators of olive trees, are a patient people. They do not let the wall define who they are. They do not let the Israeli soldiers’ rudeness and arbitrary behavior determine their reaction. When the soldiers are demeaning, the farmers smile. When the soldiers rough them up, they organize nonviolent demonstrations against the wall. They march and carry signs. They sort through centuries-old documents to prove their claim on their lands. They file lawsuits in Israeli courts, using Israeli law to prove the validity of their claims. They welcome international visitors with hospitality—a delicious lunch prepared by the women of the village. They want the world to see how Israel is behaving unjustly—first by building the settlement of Zufim on their farmlands and then taking more of their lands to build a wall to protect those settlers from attack….from the villagers of Jayyous, who, by Israel’s reckoning must be very angry about all the land that has been taken from them by the bulldozers. But the Israelis have it all wrong.

The people of Jayyous are suffering physically—many of these farmers now depend on UN food aid and families are separated because the young people must go elsewhere to earn a living. Forty of the men of the village are in Israeli prisons, some held for years without even being charged with a crime.

But their souls are not perishing. Even under occupation, they are taking charge of their own lives, CHOOSING a nonviolent response to the violence being done to them and to their hundreds-of-years-old olive trees by the bulldozers. Surely we are witnessing a tiny sign of God’s reign; surely we can join in. Surely we can heed Jesus’ call for repentance, turn from our own ways of military domination, and join them in their nonviolent resistance.

Gracious God, you patiently tend your fig trees, planting, cultivating, nourishing us in faith, as we slowly learn to trust your bounteous goodness. Help us flourish in your tender care. Make us messengers of your good news. Help us bear good fruit for the life of the world. Amen.

Lent 3, Isaiah

2010-03-07T21:27:00.000-08:00

Isaiah 55.1-9

“Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;
And you that have no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”
Is 55.1

The pulsing heart of every Middle Eastern city or village, is the marketplace. With its geographical location on the sea, between the great cities of the ancient world, this strip of land that is now Israel has long been a commercial center—a stop on the way between Rome and Egypt and Mesopotamia, a marketplace for Egyptian cotton, spices from India, bronze from Rome, and silk from China. In Jesus’ day, food and other goods passing through Palestine fed and clothed the widely scattered cities of the Roman Empire.

On a walk today through the market in Bethlehem or Jerusalem, the pilgrim traveler encounters the descendants of the first-century merchants, still calling out, “Come into my shop!” “Come inside and let me show you my beautiful…..Hebron pottery, Druze weavings, Bedouin rugs.” “Come taste my spices, sample my honey and pistachio pastries.” “Come see my photographs; let me get you something cold to drink!” Palestinians today stand in a long heritage of commerce and hospitality that we hear in Isaiah’s call to the people, “Ho, everyone who thirsts….”

In today’s text, Isaiah stands in the marketplace, hawking his merchandise: “come, buy and eat!” But he shocks his listeners when he adds a new twist to the familiar sales pitch: “….Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”

Isaiah is calling out to his people—the exiles, the Israelites who were conquered by Nebuchadnezzar and had been marched hundreds of miles across the desert to Babylon after the destruction of Jerusalem. The prophet is speaking to a homeless people, refugees longing for the land they had been forced to leave by the soldiers, many years ago.

What Isaiah offers, however, is more than food and water. When he tells these suffering people that water and delicious food is available to them “without price,” he offers hope, hope for a future unlike the captivity of Babylon.

All they need to do is listen…. “Incline your ear…listen so you may live.”

This is a message that Palestinian Christians hear very clearly today. This message speaks to their exile as well. The message speaks to 60 years of living without a homeland. Sixty years since they were routed out of their homes by conquering soldiers—many forced to march long distances, to end up in refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon. Sixty years of living in a foreign land, governed by other people; sixty years of living under occupation—first by Jordan and, since 1967, by Israel.

Isaiah calls out to them, hawking his wares—refreshing water, tasty wine, nourishing milk—promising new life and abundance, calling on them to “listen…..so that you may live,” offering a covenantal promise, “my steadfast, sure love….” “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thought than your thoughts.”

This is where these Palestinian Christians place their trust—not in missiles and M16s, not in peace proposals and elected leaders—but in God’s ways. And so, they build schools, train leaders for a future Palestinian state, teach their children traditional Palestinian dances and songs, and continue to worship each Sunday and, as Holy Week begins, walk the Palm Sunday road into Jerusalem…..whenever they can get permits to travel, that is. They listen to God’s covenantal promise…..it is the only thing that gives them life. Photo: Bright Stars of Bethlehem after-school program for children

God of promise, you come to us in every age, offering again your covenant, if only we will listen. We pray today for open ears to hear your good news of hope and plenty. Help us to call upon you and follow in your ways of justice and peace. Amen.

Lent 2, Gospel of Luke

2010-03-03T05:00:00.000-08:00

Lent 2, Gospel of Luke
Luke 13.31-35

Standing on the Mount of Olives, millions of pilgrims have beheld Jerusalem; then they walk down the hill, remembering Jesus’ last days. The Mount of Olives is the highest point in Jerusalem, and this is the view Jesus would have seen as he walked into Jerusalem.

Each time I stand there, my heart weeps for this city, with its gold domes and towers, a magnificent testimony to love for God. For centuries, religious people have built churches, mosques, synagogues, monasteries and holy shrines. The view is breathtakingly beautiful.
Photo: Jerusalem from Dominus Flevit, the Mount of Olives

On Sunday, as we were listening to these words from the gospel of Luke, young Arab men, hiding in a mosque built where the temple stood in Jesus’ time, started throwing stones at the people visiting the Temple Mount. They were angered by Israel’s decision to designate holy sites in Hebron and Bethlehem as Israeli heritage sites (see Monday’s meditation).

“Four policemen were lightly wounded by Arab stone-throwers yesterday during riots that began on the Temple Mount but soon spread to the alleyways of Jerusalem's Old City. Eight rioters were arrested….Senior police officers attributed the riots to the [Israeli] government's recent decision to declare Hebron's Tomb of the Patriarchs and Rachel's Tomb near Bethlehem national heritage sites. That decision has sparked days of rioting in Hebron, and yesterday it spread to Jerusalem, police said. But Arab residents of East Jerusalem said the riots broke out because the police allowed a larger than usual number of Jewish visitors to ascend the Temple Mount yesterday.” (Haaretz: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArtVty.jhtml?sw=temple+mount&itemNo=1153021 ml?sw=temple+mount&itemNo=1153021)

Protests continued on Monday, as seven Palestinians were arrested (photo of protest from Palestine Network News): http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7907

The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians appears so intractable that resolution seems hopeless, that these places where Jesus walked will never see peace. Israeli confiscation of Palestinian lands and stone-throwing young protesters have been constant news over the past 60 years, especially since 1967 when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza.

“Go and tell that fox….” Jesus’ words in this week’s gospel are a stark reminder that the powers of the world, whether Israeli, Palestinian or American, are not the last word. “Jerusalem,” the seat of religious and secular power, is the object of God’s mothering love. Behind all Herod’s foxy maneuvers for power, God waits…..not in judgment, but to surround Jerusalem with her mothering wings, protecting her chicks. God, whose spirit hovered over the waters at the birth of the world (Gen 1.2), is Lord of creation—not Herod.

If world peace depended on the efforts of the Palestinian Authority or the Israeli Knessett or the U.S. Congress, or our President, we would surely despair. “Jerusalem….the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings….” Today, as Palestinian youth, express their desperation and frustration at their own powerlessness by throwing rocks, Jesus reminds us of God’s plan to nurture us into new life, and gives hope for the future.

Mothering God, you have loved us since you birthed your creation. When we forgot your covenant, you sent your son to reclaim us. Nurture in us the courage to be messengers of your love for all the world. Help us find ways to bring hope—to the people who live in the shadows of despair, both here at home and in your troubled homeland. Amen.

Lent 2, Genesis

2010-02-28T19:23:00.000-08:00

Genesis 15.1-12, 17-18

“On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying,’To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates…” Gen 15.18

The Al-Haram al-Ibrahimi or Haram al-Khalil, or Tomb of the Patriarchs is the most significant pilgrimage site in Hebron—built by Herod the Great in the first century CE, on the site believed to be the cave of Machpelah, where we are told Abraham buried his wife Sarah after purchasing the land from Ephron the Hittite (Gen 23). Abraham and Sarah lived in Hebron as aliens among the Hittites, one of the Canaanite peoples. Genesis later recounts that Abraham (Gen 25.7-10), Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Leah (Gen 49.29-32) were buried here as well. The building that stands today, the only fully surviving structure built by Herod, is thus sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians.

Photo: Tomb of the Patriarchs, Hebron

Last week, on February 21, Israeli Prime Ministry Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the Tomb of the Patriarchs (and another burial site, Rachel’s Tomb, or Bilal Ben Rabah Mosque, in Bethlehem) would be included in the list of some 150 national heritage sites that his government plans to protect and renovate under a $170m restoration plan. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights notes that the announcement was made on the eve of the sixteenth anniversary of the massacre of 29 Palestinian worshippers at the mosque by Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli settler. Hebron is a town of 160,000 Palestinians and a few hundred Jewish Israeli settlers, who have set up residence in the area at the center of town, near the market and the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

On Monday in Hebron about 100 Palestinians rallied to protest this move. Rock- and bottle-throwing protests continued during the week, and on Friday Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad attended prayers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, as a sign of Palestinian opposition to Israel’s actions.

Read how the events were reported in Al Jazeera: http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/02/2010225111933403649.html
In the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/02/21/world/international-uk-palestinians-israel-sites.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=tomb%20of%20the%20patriarchs&st=cse
In the Jerusalem Post: http://www.jpost.com/Home/Article.aspx?id=169404

Although there is no final peace settlement, I’d like to note that Hebron is in the West Bank, the area that most of the world thinks will some day become a state for Palestinians. Under the Oslo Accords in 1993 and a subsequent agreement between the PA and Israel in 2000, Hebron is designated Area A, under full Palestinian Authority control. Nevertheless, Israeli soldiers patrol Hebron….to protect the Israeli settlers.

As we read this week’s lesson from Genesis and ponder Abraham’s faithfulness, we see in the patriarch an example we might follow—of engaged, questioning faithfulness to God, who has also provided us with uncountable blessings and wealth. News from Israel and Palestine will also remind us of the ongoing struggle over these promised lands today. So what do we make of it all?
Abraham took seriously God’s presence and power in his life. Abraham challenges us to notice where God is present today—even in seemingly hopeless places like Hebron. For, above all, God is revealed to Abraham as a God of foolish, unreasonable hope—for childless Abraham and Sarah……and for us, living in a world of seemingly irreconcilable conflicts.

God of Abraham and Sarah, we confess that we underestimate your goodness; we limit your love and mercy by our own narrow interests. In this Lenten season, open our hearts to your love, and make us witness to your limitless love for all. Amen.

Lent 1, Gospel of Luke

2010-02-24T05:00:00.000-08:00

Luke 4.1-13

“‘You are my son the beloved. With you I am well-pleased.’” (Luke 3.22) With these words, Jesus is identified by God and sent out to begin his ministry. But first, Jesus goes into the wilderness to learn what those baptismal words mean for him.

And in the wilderness, Jesus encounters the devil. Now, we expect the devil to be evil, but what the devil offers Jesus are GOOD things. First the devil offers Jesus the chance to make bread—just think how many hungry people Jesus could feed with this bread! Next, the devil offers Jesus the chance to rule the kingdoms of the world—Jesus could govern the people differently, with justice, and bring peace to the world. For the third test, the devil simply wants to see the saving power of God in action—a demonstration of God’s faithfulness. All seemingly GOOD things!

So it is with all the evils of the world. The evil offered up by the devil in today’s story masquerades as good. On the surface, what the devil offers sounds good, but Jesus is not fooled.

Today there are many places in the world where something which appears to be good actually produces evil consequences. Israel’s security barrier is only one example. Feeling threatened by suicide bombers, the Israelis are building a wall to keep them out—this seems like a good thing, right? Protecting people from danger, keeping children safe? Isn’t this what we all want? This is a good thing!

But where I have seen the wall, it only masquerades as a security barrier. The wall is not being built on the border between Israel and Palestine. It is being built many kilometers into the West Bank. All the area between the border and the wall, then, becomes Israeli territory because it is now on the Israeli side of the wall. The wall is a way of claiming more land for Israel, gobbling up olive groves belonging to Palestinian farmers. As I stood in the hilltop village of Jayyous, an Arab village in the West Bank, north of Jerusalem, I saw how the wall had been built to protect a nearby Israeli settlement, which had also been built on confiscated Palestinian farmland. The wall ate up more of the farmers’ orchards, cutting them off from the village. From that hilltop, the wall looked to me more like a way of stealing land from Palestinian farmers. More than 6000 olive trees were uprooted to build the wall, destroying an agricultural economy and reducing the income for the village—now many of these farmers, unable to get to their fields, depend on United Nations food aid for survival.

The map shows the wall snaking its way into the West Bank so that the Israeli settlement of Zufin can be included within Israel (Green Line is boundary between Israel and West Bank; red lines are the completed wall; purple lines are the wall under construction and planned). Read more about Jayyous and the wall:

U.N. report

Photo essay of uprooting trees in 2004

An Ecumenical Accompanier’s story from Jayyous in 2009

My experiences in Jayyous in 2008

Photo: Jayyous farmers' olive groves, seen from the hilltop village

Our unconditional support of Israel has seemed like a good thing. For sixty years, the U.S. has supported Israel with military aid, equipment and training. We have sided with Israel in the United Nations. The U.S. has refused to condemn Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands. We have been uncritical of Israel’s arrests, interrogation and torture of Palestinian professors and students. We have stood by while Israeli soldiers, using American ammunition, have attacked Palestinian schoolchildren and peaceful protestors. Aircraft attacking Gaza in 2009 were manufactured by Boeing, as were the smart bombs they carried. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11743. These are complicated matters, and I don’t mean to suggest easy answers, but we need to examine our country’s actions and make changes.

Jesus was baptized as he began his ministry and so are we. This Lenten season offers us a “wilderness” time, time for testing our own purpose in the world. What are the devil’s messages to us? What is the work God would have us do to help bring God’s vision of justice, mercy and peace?

Gracious God, you sent your son to show us your way of justice, mercy and peace. Help us to be led by your Spirit during these forty days in the wilderness of Lent. Transform us by the power of your Holy Spirit and strengthen us to be your partners in building the world you have promised. Amen.

Lent 1, Deuteronomy

2010-02-22T06:00:00.000-08:00

Deuteronomy 26.1-11
“Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate...” (Deut. 26.11)

For a variety of reasons, Israelis live in settlements constructed in the West Bank, on land where the international community expects a Palestinian state to be eventually located. Not all settlers are there because they are religiously or ideologically staking a claim on all “historic Israel.”
A few radical settlers claim all the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean; they want all Palestinians removed from that land. But most Israelis either are oblivious to the settlement-building or support the settlements because they provide a less expensive housing alternative. Housing in the settlements is subsidized, either by wealthy American and European Jews, or by the Israeli government. According to ICAHD (Isreali Committee Against House Demolitions: http://www.icahd.org/ ), most of the young families who buy homes in the settlements live there because the housing costs much less than in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.

Some settlers, however, are fiercely militant, loudly and sometimes violently defending their right and obligation to populate all of the land between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, and they prove their claims with passages like these verses from Deuteronomy. So, when I read “the land that the Lord your God is giving you,” I cringed. These are the very words that I have heard settlers utter in defense of their illegal occupation of Palestinian homes and lands.

I was surprised to hear in today's text, however, that once the people of Israel have offered their first fruits to God in gratitude for this gift, they are instructed to celebrate “together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you.” In the gift of the land, God does not assume that the Israelites will remove all the prior inhabitants of the land. God apparently did not envision 1948, when soldiers broke down doors and forced Palestinian families out into the streets and on up the road, out of town, most ending up in refugee camps, some as far away as Jordan and Lebanon. These verses in Deuteronomy present a different plan. God’s plan for the land is that it will be a place where the Israelites (who, we are reminded were once aliens themselves, “afflicted” and “oppressed”) can thrive, but also a home for the “aliens.”

This is not the reality of this land today. Non-Jews cannot thrive, cannot participate in the abundance God offers Israel in these verses. Non-Jews live under different rules. West Bank Palestinian cars must have green license plates, to ensure they do not drive on Israeli-only roads. Palestinians applying for building permits, whether to build an addition to their homes or a new school in their community, are routinely denied—for years. Palestinian homes are still being demolished. In January a home was demolished in Jaffa. Palestinians must have a permit to do anything. Even the Palestinians who live in “autonomous” areas of the West Bank, like Bethlehem, must have travel permits to be allowed to leave their town—even when they are traveling to another town within the West Bank. Israeli soldiers stand guard at the entrances to Bethlehem and check identification of everyone entering or leaving—except my own busload of American tourists.
Photo: House demolition in Jaffa, January 18, 2010

Wouldn’t this celebration described in Deuteronomy be a grand vision for peace in Israel/Palestine? Jews and Palestinians together, in one great big party, celebrating the abundance of the land, offering up their abundance in gratitude for God’s gift. After all, God is God of Jews and Palestinians (whether Muslim or Christian), all descendants of that “wandering Aramean.”

God, you led Abraham and Sarah to a land of milk and honey, with enough bounty for all the inhabitants of the land. We thank you for the plenty in our own lives. Help us to trust in your promise of abundance, opening our hands and hearts to share our bounteous harvest with the alien in our midst. Amen.

Ash Wednesday--Mortality

2010-02-16T16:26:00.000-08:00

Ash Wednesday, February 17, 2010
2 Corinthians 5.20b-6.10

Today we receive the ashes on our foreheads, a sign, to ourselves as much as to others, of our mortality, a reminder that “we are dust, and to dust we shall return,” as the words of the liturgy so brazenly proclaim. For, in America, it is easy to ignore our mortality, to think that we can live forever. After all, don’t we spend thousands of dollars on health clubs, vitamins, anti-aging creams, cholesterol-lowering drugs and spend our weekends on the ski slope or the treadmill—expecting to add a few years to our lives?

For Palestinians, living under Israel’s occupation, mortality is a daily reality—not some distant possibility. No matter how careful they are, at any moment the soldiers can knock on their doors, drag them or their husbands, wives, sons or daughters off to prison, or present the family with a demolition order, executable in two hours. For Palestinians, even if they obey all the rules (no additions to your house, no travels outside your town, no demonstrations against Israeli authority), there are no guarantees that the soldiers will not come.

When I read Paul’s words about all the hardships he has endured, I think of the Palestinians, “in great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger…” (2 Cor 6.4-5). The young men who work in the secret tunnels under the border between Egypt and Gaza endure hardships, working underground in hastily-dug dirt tunnels….and they know mortality. Take two minutes to hear them in their own words: "Tunnel youth."

Remember these two young men as you finger the grit of the ashes on your forehead and ponder your own mortality.

Gracious God, in your incarnation, you experienced suffering and death. Comfort those who today suffer hunger and imprisonment, especially the people of Gaza. Let your suffering accompany us on our Lenten journey. Teach us be your lips and hands, offering words of encouragement and support and sharing our abundance with the people of Gaza, who have nothing. Amen.

If you have another 3.5 minutes, learn more about the tunnels by watching “The Tunnels of Survival (Gaza).”

Beware of Your Good Deeds—for Lent

2010-02-07T13:25:00.000-08:00

Ash Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Matthew 6.1-6, 16-21

Strange, on this first day of the season of Lent, a season historically marked by intentional practices of piety, that in our gospel text Jesus warns us against these very practices. Most of us are familiar with the practice of “giving up” something for Lent; giving up chewing gum was a popular Lenten discipline in my high school days. Scripture calls for three specific pieties for the faithful: almsgiving, prayer and fasting. I suppose chewing gum fell under the rubric of fasting.

Here, in his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is very clear: BEWARE of almsgiving, prayer and fasting. BEWARE of the very practices God requires of us. Jesus does not say that we are to be the guardians of how others live out their piety. We are to concentrate on ourselves and, particularly, our own “good deeds” and our motivations.

The U.S. claims that standing in solidarity with the State of Israel is one of its good deeds—standing with the victims who suffered so terribly during the holocaust. We claim to stand with a democracy surrounded by hostile nations. Isn’t it noble to stand with those who suffer, to stand with those whose lives are endangered simply because of their ethnicity? Who could possibly argue against such a heroic undertaking?

But Jesus warns us to examine our motivations—are we really noble heroes protecting the weak and powerless, the widow and the orphan? Jesus calls on us to discern what God might be calling us to do as we participate in this conflict between two peoples who wish to inhabit the same land. What is God’s will for these people and for their land and how can help bring it about?

It is easy for me, having seen how Palestinians are persecuted and demeaned under Israeli occupation, to point the finger at the evil Israelis who bulldoze houses, shoot non-violent protesters in the streets and imprison children who throw stones. It’s always easier to point the finger at others’ motivations—much harder to examine my own. But here is Jesus, reminding us that it is my own house I must examine, not Israel’s. Even though I do not carry the gun or drive the bulldozer, how do my own tax dollars work in Israel to support the weak and powerless?

What I see when I visit Israel and Palestine, is that my tax dollars bought guns and ammunition used to destroy property and people in Gaza last year. One Palestinian friend whose family was not allowed to leave Gaza to come with him for graduate studies in Denver, told about his daughter’s puzzlement: “Daddy, these airplanes and missiles are from where you are, from America.” My tax dollars have been used to construct checkpoints where Palestinians wait in long lines every day just to get to work; my tax dollars have been used to fund an army that bulldozes Palestinian homes simply because they cannot get a permit to add a bedroom.

I cannot blame Israel—I have not bothered to pay attention to how my money is used. U.S. unconditional military support for Israel (2.3b in 2008) —this is not Israel’s problem; it is mine. The foreign aid I have supplied to Israel has been used to assuage my conscience for atrocities committed sixty-seventy years ago, when the world chose to turn its back on the Jews, refusing to intervene in the killings or to accept the millions of refugees fleeing the carnage. But it has not brought about justice God demands for the people of the land, either for Israelis or for Palestinians. This Lent, as I ponder what I can do to bring peace and justice for the Palestinians and Israelis, Jesus’ sermon is a timely reminder for me to examine my own part in the oppression and violence.

Gracious God of mercy, as we enter into this season of introspection and penitence, preparing to remember your son’s life, death and resurrection, help us to examine our role in life, death and resurrection in our own small world where we seek to live out your justice and mercy. Help us find signs of your will and join in efforts to raise the dead where we live and work. Amen.

Easter Greetings from Bethlehem

2009-04-10T15:00:00.000-07:00

Bright Stars of Bethlehem
Lenten Reflections 2009
Easter Sunday, April 12

Dear Sisters and Brothers, Dear Friends,

Salaam from Bethlehem during this Passion Week.

The passion story could have ended with 3 men hanging on the cross: the first a criminal who was taking advantage of the instability under the Roman occupation, the second a fighter resisting the foreign dominance, and the third an “innocent” proclaiming the reign of God. And Palestine could have proved to be yet again only a battlefield on which empires can demonstrate their powers, or a cemetery full of tombs of martyrs. And the disciples could have just indulged like so many others in singing litanies of death, cursing the Romans, taking an oath to retaliate or going around trying to win sympathy for their just struggle. This would be a normal scenario in Palestine.

But what happened on Easter Sunday had nothing to do with normality. It was something extraordinary, an occurrence never heard of, and an event truly revolutionary. It wasn't a continuation of the human tragedy in Palestine, but it was a divine intervention. Through this intervention, the land known formerly as a battle field became a Holy Land, and where once cemeteries stood turned into a garden where angels appeared; and those mourning their hero became agents of transformation. The disciples could have spent their entire lives weeping over their lost cause, their killed victim and their shattered hopes. Instead and because of the divine intervention, they caught an incredible vision, they acquired tremendous courage, and they went around proclaiming the crucified as living. They were not anymore mere victims asking for help, but they were transformed to become people with a message that the world is eager to hear. What they have experienced firsthand was an answer to a global longing for life abundant that grows in the context of death, for true hope that shines through helpless situations and for lives that bloom in windy seasons. What God achieved in Palestine on that Easter Sunday through the resurrection of Christ from the dead is still felt today. This is the reason for our being here, and this transforming power is what our ministry is all about.

Thank you for being to us a resurrecting power and support. He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Rev. Dr. Mitri RahebSenior Pastor, Christmas Lutheran ChurchPresident, Diyar Consortium

Bethlehem, Easter 2009

Learn more about the work of the Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem: http://www.brightstarsbethlehem.org/ and http://www.annadwa.org/

No King But the Emperor

2009-04-10T05:00:00.000-07:00

Friday in Holy Week
April 10, 2009
John 18.1-19.42

“We have no king but the emperor.” (John 18.15)

There is a contest going on here, between those who uphold the status quo and those who want something different—the people of Israel, living under the occupation of the Roman army want new life. The temple authorities were an integral part of the power structure that ruled Palestine in the first century. This is how it worked: the Roman governor left much of the governance to the king, Herod, and the temple authorities. So long as they could keep the peace and the taxes coming in, the Romans were happy, their army well provided for. Because he wanted to keep the Romans happy, Caiaphas had said earlier that it was better to have one person die for the people (John 11.50). Someone had to preserve order and Jesus, with all his parading through Jerusalem on the donkey, was riling the people up as they shouted “Hosanna” and cried out for freedom.

The present-day occupants of Jerusalem and its surrounding towns also cry out for new life. The Jews long for peace and an end to the threats of suicide bombers; they long for a state where they can feel safe, a state of their own, where they are protected from persecution and hate crimes. The Palestinians long for restoration of their lands—a country without walls and checkpoints and travel permits, a country where they can live in their homes without fear of eviction and bulldozers.

For the residents of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem, the threat of eviction is a daily reality. Their story is reported this week in ei, the Electronic Intifada news. "’We are like the roots of a tree. The Israelis may cut us in places, but we will never die. We will not be transplanted from Jerusalem. I will not leave this house,’ Maher Hanun tells a crowded room of Palestinian community members supported by Israeli and international solidarity activists. Hanun is one of 51 residents of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem living in two housing units that are facing imminent eviction by Israeli authorities….

The people living in these housing units, belonging to the al-Ghawe and Hanun families, are due to be forcibly removed from their homes this week….The courts have justified these evictions by saying that the land that the houses are built on is disputed. Yet, the houses were built under a joint construction project by the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) and the Jordanian government in 1956, 11 years before Israel occupied East Jerusalem. The houses were given to the families, both made refugees in 1948 after Palestinians living in what became the state of Israel were expelled and dispossessed during what Palestinians call the Nakba, or catastrophe.Now these families are threatened with another Nakba. Israeli settlers that have moved into Sheikh Jarrah have falsified documents claiming ownership of the land. The Hanun and al-Ghawe families have presented their legitimate documents and an Israeli judge has not yet ruled on the legality of these papers. Yet the eviction orders are still proceeding, even though no official decision has been reached as to whom the Israeli courts recognize as the true owners.Both the Hanun and al-Ghawe families were forcibly evicted once before in 2002….” Read more….

A member of the al-Ghawe family stands beside a poster inside his threatened house in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

O God, your cross reminds us that your suffering is the way of the world. As we look upon your cross today, help us to be bearers of the suffering of others—in our own neighborhoods and on the other side of the world. Amen.

Footwashing Love

2009-04-09T05:00:00.000-07:00

Holy Week
Maundy Thursday, April 9, 2009
John 13.1-17, 31b-35

“Just at I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

Today we commemorate Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. April 9 is also the commemoration of the death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the commemoration of the massacre at Deir Yassin in 1948, just before the end of the British Mandate. Deir Yassin was an Arab town west of Jerusalem, which happened to be in the way of the Israeli militias as they removed Arabs to make way for the state of Israel.

If you have 33 minutes, watch the video—with pictures of Deir Yassin today, written accounts from 1948, and survivors, historians and researchers telling the story: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=341600202419569830

The Deir Yassin web site also tells the story:

“Early in the morning of April 9, 1948, commandos of the Irgun (headed by Menachem Begin) and the Stern Gang attacked Deir Yassin, a village with about 750 Palestinian residents. The village lay outside of the area to be assigned by the United Nations to the Jewish State; it had a peaceful reputation. But it was located on high ground in the corridor between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Deir Yassin was slated for occupation under Plan Dalet and the mainstream Jewish defense force, the Haganah, authorized the irregular terrorist forces of the Irgun and the Stern Gang to perform the takeover.

In all over 100 men, women, and children were systematically murdered. Fifty-three orphaned children were literally dumped along the wall of the Old City, where they were found by Miss Hind Husseini and brought behind the American Colony Hotel to her home, which was to become the Dar El-Tifl El-Arabi orphanage.

Part of the struggle for self-determination by Palestinians has been to tell the truth about Palestinians as victims of Zionism. For too long their history has been denied, and this denial has only served to further oppress and deliberately dehumanize Palestinians in Israel, inside the occupied territories, and outside in their diaspora.

Some progress has been made. Westerners now realize that Palestinians, as a people, do exist. And they have come to acknowledge that during the creation of the state of Israel, thousands of Palestinians were killed and over 700,000 were driven or frightened from their homes and lands on which they had lived for centuries.”

Deir Yassin is regarded as the turning point—the beginning of the Nakba, the “catastrophe”—the massacre created a panic and terrified Palestinians fled from villages all over the land that was to become Israel. Between 1947 and 1951, more than 400 Arab villages were vacated and/or demolished. The Nakba continues today, as Palestinians are still losing their homes and lands.

To read a more detailed account of what happened at Deir Yassin, see: http://www.deiryassin.org/shimontzabar.html, an account of what happened at Deir Yassin from Dr. Me'ir Pa'ill who was a member of the Knesset in the 1970s, representing the Meretz party. In April 1948, he was known as Colonel Me'ir Pilavski, a liaison officer representing the Palmach in the headquarters of the Haganah Israeli forces in Jerusalem.

A year later, the Jewish town of Givat Shaul Beth was built partially over the ruins of Deir Yassin. Today the site of Deir Yassin lies in suburban Jerusalem, 1500 meters north of Yad Vashem, the Israeli holocaust museum.

Read an article by Anis Hamadeh about the Deir Yassin massacre, comparing it to the attack on Gaza in December. About the author: http://www.anis-online.de/1/cv.htm

O Lord God, your Christ tied an apron around his waist and washed the feet of his followers, showing them his way of love and peace for the world. Help us, who profess to be Christ’s followers, to show your way of love to the world with acts of servanthood. Amen.

Blindfolded

2009-04-08T05:00:00.000-07:00

Holy Week
Week of April 5, 2009

“Some began to spit on him, to blindfold him, and to strike him, saying to him, ‘Prophesy!’” (Mk 14.65)

painting is by Nabil Anan

It is hard for most of us to imagine being in this situation. We, who are privileged—white, middle class, straight—are unlikely to be falsely arrested, accused of crimes we did not commit or tortured into confessing. It does sometimes happen even in this country where we pride ourselves on the rule of law—but not often, and most assuredly not to us. Even if we are arrested, we do not expect to be spit upon, tortured, or mocked by the police. Our privilege protects us from such dangers.

Most of the people of the world do not enjoy such privilege. On yesterday’s news I heard an audio tape of a 17-year-old young woman in Pakistan being publicly flogged by members of the Taliban, who rule the town of Swat without restraints. She was flogged because she had rejected a marriage proposal from a Taliban fighter, who later saw her walking with another man. French police have been accused of unlawful killings, beatings, racial abuse and excessive use of force, mostly against ethnic minorities and foreign nationals. In Myanmar pro-democracy activists and prisoners of conscience, Hla Myo Naung and Min Ko Naing are suffering without proper medical treatment; one is in danger of completely losing his eyesight, having already gone blind in one eye whilst in detention after being denied specialist medical treatment. And even our own soldiers guarding prisoners at Guantanamo have been accused of beating the prisoners in their charge.

That's why so many people, even non-Christians, identify with the torture and humiliation Jesus received from the temple authorities and the Roman guards. It is why even Muslim artists painted Jesus on the cross for an art competition, "Christ in a Palestinian Context," in Bethlehem in 2002. The crucifixion was what spoke most convincingly to them about Jesus' ministry. Christ's experience was theirs.

April 28, 2004 - A detainee at an ad-hoc roadblock outside the village of Huwarra. His handcuffs were very tight and were only loosened at the request of B'Tselem staff.
Photo credit: Eliezer Moav, B'Tselem

March 31, 2002 - Arrested Palestinians being guarded by IDF soldiers during Operation Defensive Shield. Photo credit: Osama Silwadi, © Reuters

Both images are from B'Tselem, the Israeli Center for Human Rights

O God, your cross speaks to those who suffer humiliation and death at the hands of the powerful. Help us, your followers, to carry your message of the cross to the people in pain in our world today. Amen.

She Has Done What She Could

2009-04-07T05:00:00.000-07:00

Holy Week
Week of April 5, 2009
Mark 14.1-15.47

“She has done what she could” (Mark 14.8)

The Jesus portrayed in the gospel of Mark is concerned that his disciples take up the cross and follow in his way. This is what he takes great pains to explain to them. While they are bickering about who will be first and who will sit next to Jesus and how much money is being wasted on expensive ointments, Jesus keeps calling them back to what is needed, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant…” (Mark 10.39).

The disciples are to follow in the way Jesus has shown them—to do what Jesus has done…heal the sick, comfort the afflicted, cast out demons. To do what they can to bring about the reign of God, to be signs of God’s intentions for the world—to bring God’s mercy and justice to the world.

This is what the unnamed woman with the alabaster jar of nard does for Jesus. She does what she is able to do with what she has been given. And this is the good news. It is what all of us can do—what we are able to do. With respect to the injustices being suffered by Israelis and Palestinians, we cannot all do the same things. Rachel Corrie traveled to Gaza and stood in front of a bulldozer, trying to prevent a home from being demolished. Jeff Halper travels all over the world telling about the expansions of settlements while Palestinian homes are demolished in the same Palestinian neighborhoods. Dennis Healy has been the captain of the Dignity on several recent voyages to break the blockade of Gaza and bring medical supplies, humanitarian aid and international visitors to witness and report what they have seen in Gaza.

The farmers of Jayyous, a village I visited in the West Bank last June, are doing what they can—this week they are planting trees as a way of demonstrating against the Israeli security wall which has been built between their village and their farmlands, and against the permits needed to travel between the village and the farmlands: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10448.shtml

The photo shows two farmers from Jayyous planting a tree.

We cannot all do what Rachel and Jeff, Dennis and the farmers if Jayyous are doing, but we can do whatever it is that we have been given to do—read the news about what is going on in occupied Palestine, write letters and send emails and visit our elected officials, telling them what we have learned. We can talk to our friends and neighbors about what we have learned. In the U.S., there is a gaping black hole of accurate information about the lives of Palestinians; we are not paying attention. We often hear a great deal about the suffering of Israelis, but we do not hear about the suffering of the Palestinians. This is where each of us can make a difference, where we can anoint the suffering with costly ointment—for the healing of the world.

O God, in your suffering and death on the cross you showed us what it means to follow in your life-giving way. Give us the strength and good courage to go out, bearing your name and your holy cross to the world you loved, even to death. Amen.

Palm Sunday in Jerusalem

2009-04-06T05:00:00.000-07:00

Holy Week
Week of April 5, 2009

"Many people spread their cloaks on the road and other spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, 'Hosanna!'" (Mark 11.8-9)

Yesterday as we lifted our palms and shouted "Hosanna!" pilgrims from all over the world gathered in Jerusalem to walk the route that Jesus walked, to remember the events of Holy Week in the place sacred to three religions, in the place where Jesus brought hope of a new way of life, a way of life intended by God. Here is the story of the day for Lutherans of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, led by Bishop Mounib Younan:

Palm Sunday begins for Lutherans at Palm Sunday services at the Arabic, English-speaking and German-speaking congregations in the morning. Today, there was procession that began at Lazarus' Tomb in Bethany, where Jesus' Holy Week journey began with the death and resurrection of Lazarus.

Now, the Separation Wall cuts off the traditional Jericho to Jerusalem road that Jesus would have used. So Christians in Bethany and just on the other side of the Mt. of Olives can't celebrate the traditional Palm Sunday procession with the rest of the Christian community in Jerusalem. The journey begins at the Bethphage Church, with a portrait of Jesus on the donkey and the stepping stone, and continues up and over the Mt. of Olives, past Dominus Flevit church, where Jesus wept over Jerusalem, past Gethsemane, where he prayed on that Thursday evening, and up into the Old City.Thousands come from all over the world to celebrate, sing and process in this historic tradition.

This photo shows the Israeli separation barrier in Abu Dis, where it blocks the Jerusalem-Jericho road where Jesus rode the donkey from Bethany to the temple in Jerusalem. Many Lutherans in Bethlehem and the rest of the West Bank are denied permits to make the traditional Palm Sunday pilgrimage.

"I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,
a light to the nations,
to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness." (Isaiah 42.6-7)

Watch the Palm Sunday procession in Jerusalem in 2008: http://www.elcjhl.org/galleries/Videos/08marpalmsunday/myvideoplayer.html

Christ in a Palestinian Context, 2

2009-04-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday
Week of March 29, 2009
Mark 14.1-15.47

Continue today with the reading of the passion narrative. This painting is from "Christ in a Palestinian Context," an exhibit by Palestinian artists during the months-long curfew in Bethlehem in 2002-2003 (see story below). It is described in "Bethlehem Besieged," by Mitri Raheb, pastor of the Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem. (see April 2 post below for more) This painting is by Nabil Anani.

O God, your cross shows us your way of love and mercy. Help us, your children, to be your cross-bearers, bringing your message of reconciliation to those who suffer. Give us courage and patience for our work as we wait for your promised reign. Amen.

Christ in a Palestinian Context

2009-04-02T05:00:00.000-07:00

Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday
Week of March 29, 2009
Mark 14.1-15.47

Today’s text speaks for itself. It is the heart of the message of the good news, understood best by those who suffer.

During the many months of curfew in 2002-2003, Palestinian artists, Christian and Muslim, were invited to submit paintings for an exhibit, “Christ in a Palestinian context,” set to open at the International Center in Bethlehem in February of 2003. Two of the paintings would be selected to send to Sweden for an exhibit there. When all the entries were in, 60 per cent of the artists were Muslim—and all but one of them painted the crucifixion.

This is all the more remarkable because Islam teaches that Christ was not crucified; for them crucifixion means losing and God cannot be on the losing side. But for these artists, the message of the cross was so strong that they risked betraying their religion to paint the crucifixion because for them the crucifixion is the most vivid image of Christ in the Palestinian context. The passion story we read this week takes place in the context of the land where these artists live—where even today Israeli soldiers can ride in on their tanks, terrorize the citizens and impose a curfew at any time.

Take the next two or three days to read the passion story according to Mark and reflect on the text through this image, one of the paintings submitted for “Christ in a Palestinian Context.” It was painted by Adibe Abu-Said.

View the rest of the paintings. (Click on the images to enlarge them.)

O God, your cross is powerful comfort for those who are suffering. Show us, your followers, how we can be bearers of your cross for those who suffer in your world today. Amen.

Peacemaking: a Work of Community

2009-04-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday
Week of March 29, 2009
Philippians 2.5-11

These words of Paul are addressed to the people of Philippi, part of his instruction on becoming an authentic Christian community. He encourages them by telling them that they have been given all that they need to follow the example of Christ in their care for one another. It is this supportive community that Christ’s followers also needed as they witnessed Jesus’ trial and crucifixion. It is also the community we need as we follow this path.

As we hear the story of the events of the coming week, we see that Jesus refused to use his power over others, his strength and his might, to avoid being crucified. He maintains, at great personal cost, his humility and his servanthood, the source of his true power. The exaltation of God comes because of Jesus’ obedience, not from his mighty arm or his miracles. As Paul tells the Philippians, we cannot follow in this path of obedience on our own; we need the community of faith.

Peacemaking is not easy work. Contrary to what they say, few people really love a peacemaker. Peacemaking calls us to a different way of life; it asks us to change our priorities, to give up our domination of others and our control over our lives. Peacemaking asks us to open our minds and hearts, to change our opinions, to risk getting to know the other and to listen. Peacemaking makes us and the people around us uncomfortable.

The people working for peace in Israel ask us to give up our ideas of who is right and who is wrong—to listen to the stories of people on the other side and to change our hearts and minds. This is what happened for Dalia the day she opened her door to Bashir. Her family had lived in the house in Ramle since 1948, after they arrived as refugees from Bulgaria. They were told the house had been abandoned, and they were thrilled to live in such a beautiful place with the lemon tree in the backyard. As she got to know Bashir, she learned that his family had been forced to leave this house with the lemon tree by the soldiers expelled all the Arabs as they cleared the way for the state of Israel, earlier in 1948.

Dalia was curious about this Palestinian family and met with them on several occasions. As she listened to their story, she realized that her happy childhood came at great cost for Bashir’s family. She tells her story in the book, The Lemon Tree, by Sandy Tolin. Since hearing their story, she converted the house, which she inherited from her parents, into a community center in Ramla—a place for building peace between Palestinians and Jews, and a place where international visitors can come and hear the stories.

Changing our viewpoints is not easy—it takes community. This book challenges the stories we have all heard about the creation of the state of Israel; the joyful creation of a Jewish homeland also has a dark side. Read the book and discuss it with a group on Tuesday, May 5, pm at our house, 1965 Hudson St., Denver. (RSVP: janlmiller@qwest.net)

Denver Rabbi Adam Morris traveled to Israel with a group of youth from Denver. Although he had many connections to Israel and had been there many times, he had never heard the stories of the Palestinians until last summer. In the community of students he accompanied, his eyes and ears were opened and he was changed. Last fall he preached a sermon on Yom Kippur, telling of his transformation. You can read the sermon that tells his story.

O God, you came among us to show us your way of peace and reconciliation, the life you intend for us. As we journey through the holy week ahead, open our minds and our ears. Make us mindful of your ways of peace so that we can find communities of peacemakers to support us in our work. Amen.

Servants Healing the World

2009-03-31T05:00:00.000-07:00

Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday
Week of March 29, 2009
Isaiah 50.4-9a

The text comes from a section of Isaiah that describes the nature of the “Suffering Servant.” If we compare this section to verses 1-3, we see a contrast—two very different ways of wielding power. Verses 1-3 speak of a God using forceful action—to dry up the sea, turning rivers into desert. Beginning with verse 4, a different kind of power is explored—the power of the tongue, the power of teaching, and the power of listening, a power that submits to the mistreatment of others as a way of overcoming them. This power comes, not from the servant’s own skills, strength and endurance, but as a gift from God.

Gandhi used this kind of power as he led thousands of Indian peasants in passive resistance which eventually brought down the powerful armies of the British Empire and liberated India. The writer of the Suffering Servant song is thinking of this kind of power—the power of a skilled tongue, open ears, perseverance, standing together. Isaiah says that this kind of power has been promised to us by God.

Many people in Israel today are using this gentle power that quietly resists injustice. They see that Israel’s armies, its tanks and helicopters, its missiles and bulldozers are not making Israel safer. This is the power of a group like the Families of the Bereaved, which brings together families of people killed on both sides of the conflict—Palestinian families whose sons have been killed by Israeli soldiers and Israeli families whose daughters have been killed by suicide bombers. They come together to listen to one another, to hear the story of the other, to find their common humanity and to endure their suffering together.

This is also the kind of power a small synagogue in Denver is using to bring people together—Palestinians and Israelis—for a concert for peace and reconciliation. They are doing it to raise money for Open House, a community center founded to bring reconciliation between Palestinians and Jews in the town of Ramle or al-Ramla, now in Israel.

In 1948, the Palestinians living in al-Ramla had been forced to leave their homes; Bashir’s family fled to Ramallah. Later that year, Dalia’s family, refugees from Bulgaria, moved into Bashir’s family home, with the lemon tree in the backyard; they were told it had been abandoned. In 1967 Bashir and Dalia met and through the years they listened to one another’s stories and got to know one another. With the support of both families, as well as a Palestinian Christian family, the house with the lemon tree was transformed into a community center named Open House, to support healing and peacebuilding for Jews and Palestinians and for visitors from around the world.

Open Minds, Open Hearts, Open House - On April 25, in Denver, Temple Micah is hosting a concert to raise funds for Open House, a place of healing and hope for their rabbi, Adam Morris, who visited Open House last summer. Musicians David Ross and Hal Aqua will lead the concert band in an evening of music of peace, hope and justice. The concert is at 7:30. You can be part of this work of reconciliation: Purchase a ticket online for $18, or $20 at the door. Read more about Open House: www.friendsofopenhouse.org Read The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolin.

Reading for Peace -The Lemon Tree is the book for the next Reading for Peace book discussion in Denver, Tuesday, May 5, 7pm, at my home, 1965 Hudson St. You are welcome! Learn more about Israelis and Palestinians through their stories and join us for lively discussion, even if you don’t finish the book.

Oh God, your suffering servant shows us a new way of power, your gift to your people. Help us to be your servants—in large or small ways, in the ways you show us, among the people you give us. Open our ears and our minds; open our hearts to your leading. Help us to be healers of your broken world. Amen.

From Bethany to Jerusalem Today

2009-03-30T05:00:00.000-07:00

Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday
Week of March 29, 2009
Processional Gospel, Mark 11.1-11

Standing at the top of the Mount of Olives, we can see the whole geography of Holy Week. Looking west, we see the way down and across the Kidron valley and up the other side to Jerusalem, its picture postcard gold dome shining on the temple mount. Looking east, we see the Arab villages of East Jerusalem and beyond—Silwan, Abu Dis, and Al-Eizariya, Arabic for “the place of Lazarus,” Bethany, home to Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha. From as early as the fourth century, writings tell of large crowds of pilgrims visiting the church there, which was built to commemorate Jesus’ raising of Lazarus. One such pilgrim, a woman named Egeria, wrote, “so many people have collected that they fill not only the Lazarium [the church] itself, but all the fields around.” As the Muslims conquered the Holy Land, they, too, venerated Jesus’ miracle of raising Lazarus and Christian pilgrims continued to come and were welcomed here.

From the top of the Mount of Olives, as we look out toward Al-Eizariya (fr. Gk., Lazarion) the countryside looks a lot like Colorado—dry, rocky hills, no visible vegetation, except for a few junipers here and there, especially in the gulches where water flows from Spring rains. This is land where only a goat or a Bedouin could find sustenance, but Arab villages dot the landscape, houses clustered around a spring or a well. The land we see is part of the West Bank, designated for Palestinians in the partition of the Holy Land in 1948. Israel took the West Bank in the 1967 war, however—a pre-emptive strike. Since then Israel has occupied the West Bank and for the past forty years has placed its own settlements on this occupied land, in between the Arab villages, carving out space for Jews among the Arab towns, bolstering its claim to the land.

Just to the east of Al-Eizariya, we can see a gigantic Israeli settlement, Maale Adummim, sprawling over the hills, construction cranes visible above the new apartment buildings. When I visited there in June, we saw the new recreation center and playground built for the Israeli settlers, as well as the new police station, built to protect Maale Adummim, from the Palestinians who lost their land to the settlement. Beautiful landscaping welcomed us to Maale Adummim. A large, hundreds-of-years-old olive tree and a fountain stand at the entrance, an olive tree uprooted from some Arab farmer’s olive grove, perhaps removed for the construction of Israel’s security wall, winding up and down the hills, separating the Arab villages like Al-Eizariya from the Jewish settlements, walling the Arabs out and making Palestine a Swiss cheese country.

This is the picture of the land today, where Jesus came to begin his procession into Jerusalem. Like the Palestinians, who battle their occupation every day—petitioning the courts to keep their land, or to get permits to travel from one Palestinian village to another through the checkpoints. Jesus sets out from Bethany as a protest against the occupation of his day—the Roman occupation of the Holy Land and Jerusalem, its holy city. As Jesus rides from Al-Eizariya, down the Mount of Olives, the crowds shout, “Blessed is the coming dominion of our ancestor David!” They cheer Jesus because they see hope for a new way of life, free from the excessive taxes of Rome and the domination of the Roman army. In Jesus’ ministry of healing and raising the dead, the people have gotten a glimpse of a world as God intended it—a world where justice reigns and people are liberated from the yoke of oppression.

This is the world that the people of Bethany await today, as they watch Israeli settlements being built on the hills surrounding them. In 2004, the U.N. issued a report: “The construction of the Barrier in Al 'Eizariya east towards Mount of Olives near Beit Fagi monastery is moving rapidly. The Barrier is in the form of 8m concrete slabs, which will close the remaining section of the passage from Al 'Eizariyah to the Mount of Olives.” Today the wall is finished and Jesus would not be able to make his journey. The photo shows grafitti on the wall between the Arab towns of east of Jerusalem--like Abu Dis and Al-Eizariya--and the city.

The workers for the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and B’Tselem Israeli Center for Human Rights monitor this land—what is walled out, what is built up and what is bulldozed. This is work that will bring justice to these rocky hills and a glimpse of God’s intention for us.

O God, you sent your son to remind us of your way of justice and mercy. Give us courage to shout our Hosannas when we see signs of your reign in our broken world. Amen.

Resisting the Rulers of the World

2009-03-27T05:00:00.000-07:00

Lent 5, Week of March 22

"...now the ruler of this world will be driven out." (John 12.31)

Resisting the powers of the world is what Jesus was doing; his resistance was seen as a danger by the Roman rulers and by the temple authorities, ruling at Rome's behest. His resistance is what led to his crucifixion.

In Israel today young people are resisting the rulers of their world--the powers that enforce and finance the occupation, arrest Palestinians and imprison them without charges. We can support them by leaning about their nonviolent resistance and telling others, by contacting our Senators and Representatives and by donating money to the campaign to encourage more young people to refuse to serve in the army in occupied territories (see details below). Read one woman's story....
Dispatch from Israel:

I am Sahar Vardi. I am 18 years old, a senior in high school in Israel. As you probably know, all Israelis must serve in the Israeli Defense Forces, starting right after our last year of high school. I and dozens of other students, on examining our values, International Law, and what we believe is best for Israel, refused to serve in the Occupied Territories and be a part of a mechanism that suppresses millions of Palestinians.

For our refusal, we were sentenced to jail. Some of us were held in solitary confinement. Sometimes we were not allowed even to brush our teeth or change our clothes.
Some of us contacted Jewish Voice for Peace for help, and they rallied so many people! People like you, who are pressuring the Israeli Military to let us out and to cooperate with international law. As a result, several of us were freed from jail, and conditions have greatly improved for all of us.

I am writing to you in this e-mail for three reasons:

1) Please know that if we could, we would write to each of you separately and thank you personally for all you did to help us. Your support produced tangible results, but also gave us the courage and commitment to continue our struggle, even to this day.

2) Please continue your support for our struggle. If you are American, your tax dollars finance our occupation. The United States provides Israel with more military aid than any other country. Given the economic turmoil in the USA, we believe that this money ought to be used for health and well-being.Israel needs to build a more democratic society, and not use the military to solve deep-rooted problems.

3) And, please support Jewish Voice for Peace. They need your financial help, in addition to your activist help, to continue their work. Take a moment right now to become a MEMBER of JVP if you aren't one already. You can do this easily online - just click this link.

Jewish Voice for Peace is such an important part of our struggle here. We are told that by serving in the Israeli Defense Force we are protecting the security of Israel, but lasting security will only come through peace and negotiations, not weapons. Inside Israel, people like us do all we can to work for peace, and we do so with hands stretched across the water, joined with you.
Become a member of JVP today Thousands of members have a stronger voice than just being on a e-mail list. Lift up your voice - we hear you and we are so thankful!

---Sahar Vardi

A Different View from Holon

2009-03-27T04:55:00.000-07:00

Interesting to compare the AP story with the one in the New York Times (from Thursday's post).

Judging the World

2009-03-26T05:00:00.000-07:00

Lent 5, Week of March 22
John 12.20-33

“Now is the judgment of this world;
Now the ruler of this world will be driven out.”

Jesus is speaking here of his crucifixion, trying once again to explain what is about to happen, the purpose of his ministry. Now, he tells them, the world will be judged by his crucifixion—the world and its rulers, the powers in charge, the systems that control us.

Because we know the end of the story, his passion and crucifixion, we know that Jesus acts to repudiate violence, refusing to participate in the system, exposing the system for what it is—the oppressor of people, the way of death. Once we see the system for what it is, we no longer want to cooperate with its death-dealing ways. Through Jesus’ death, we have seen another way…a way of nonviolence and peace and healing.

Like the grain of wheat, Jesus dies to the way of the world; he dies to the system of control by violence and power and he rises to new life. The question is: What are we, the followers of this Jesus, to do? What is the work of the church that claims Jesus as Lord?

It’s a little like what happened in Gaza in January. The soldiers and tanks and helicopters descended on the towns and villages and marched right into the city itself, leaving a swath of destruction and death. It was a moment of awakening for many people, who saw the flames and explosions on their television screens. They saw death and destruction—and they saw the system of oppression of the Palestinians for what it really is. The attacks on Gaza shined a spotlight on Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. What had been going on in the shadows, out of our view, for years, was now exposed: the brutality of life under occupation. It brought the elusive conflict out into the open where everyone could see it, and people all over the world, including some in Israel, were outraged. Once we have seen the system exposed, we no longer want to cooperate in its death-dealing ways. There were mass rallies and peace vigils in Tel Aviv and angry articles in Israeli newspapers, condemning the attacks, the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, and the brutality of the Israeli military. The old systems of oppression are beginning to crumble.

Like the grain of wheat, a resurrection sign was reported in yesterday’s New York Times. An orchestra of young Palestinian musicians played a concert for elderly Jewish holocaust survivors in Holon, a suburb of Tel Aviv. The young musicians were from the Jenin refugee camp, one of the places where Palestinians fled when the soldiers routed them from their homes and villages in 1948, to make way for the state of Israel. That was the year Zehava Zelevski, one of the elderly holocaust survivors, fled Poland and came to Israel, after her three brothers were killed. In 2006 a young Palestinian from Jenin blew himself up in Holon, one of the last suicide bombers. The Strings of Freedom orchestra performed and the elderly audience learned that not everyone from Jenin is a terrorist suicide bomber. The students were delighted to be traveling outside the West Bank, to escape the prison of the security wall for a day. See a picture and read the article….

Jesus chose to stand in solidarity with those who were suffering under the systems of oppression—the Roman government and the high priestly rulers of Jerusalem. What is the church who follows Jesus to do?

O God, by your death on a cross, you exposed the systems that destroy life. By your death and resurrection you freed us all from the bonds that imprison us. As we strive to follow you, help us use your liberating power in our world today, in all the places where people are suffering and dying. Amen.

Through Suffering

2009-03-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

Lent 5, Week of March 22
Hebrews 5.5-10

“he learned obedience through what he suffered…”

Most of us who live in North America have all that we need—food, clothing, shelter and the freedom to get an education and make what we want of our lives. It’s the American dream, after all. When we have much we think that we can do it all for ourselves and that, in fact, we have already done it all ourselves—that our wealth, success and power is simply what we are entitled to because of our extraordinary cleverness, shrewdness or talent. We deserve what we have.

When we suffer we learn that we cannot. We cannot do it all on our own; we need strength and support from our friends and family and sometimes from our government. Those of us in a faith community also count on our faith in God to get us through the dark times. These are the lessons Jesus learned in his suffering, the lessons the writer of Hebrews is talking about.

For most Palestinians these lessons are the daily reality—of life lived behind the security wall, life lived at the whim of a soldier pointing a machine gun at the checkpoint, life lived waiting for the sound of heavy boots on the street and a knock on the door. In suffering there is no control—we are not in charge; that is part of the suffering, the lesson Jesus learned on the cross.

This has been the life of the people of Gaza, not just in December and January as they were attacked by IDF soldiers in Operation Cast Lead, but long before the columns of tanks and the helicopters fired on Gaza City. That’s what most Americans do not know about Gaza—that the suffering started long before the war. Gideon Levy wrote about their suffering in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz this week, as news came out about the atrocities committed in Gaza, civilians targeted by soldiers with no regard for Palestinian life.

Levy writes what we in America, resting comfortably in our homes, rarely hear about—
“The soldiers' transgressions are an inevitable result of the orders given during this brutal operation, and they are the natural continuation of the last nine years, when soldiers killed nearly 5,000 Palestinians, at least half of them innocent civilians, nearly 1,000 of them children and teenagers.

Everything the soldiers described from Gaza, everything, occurred during these blood-soaked years as if they were routine events. It was the context, not the principle, that was different. An army whose armored corps has yet to encounter an enemy tank and whose pilots have yet to face an enemy combat jet in 36 years has been trained to think that the only function of a tank is to crush civilian cars and that a pilot's job is to bomb residential neighborhoods.

To do this without any unnecessary moral qualms we have trained our soldiers to think that the lives and property of Palestinians have no value whatsoever. It is part of a process of dehumanization that has endured for dozens of years, the fruits of the occupation.

‘That's what is so nice, as it were, about Gaza: You see a person on a road ... and you can just shoot him.’ This ‘nice’ thing has been around for 40 years. Another soldier talked about a thirst for blood. This thirst has been with us for years.

Ask the family of Yasser Tamaizi, a 35-year-old laborer from Idna who was killed by soldiers while bound, and Mahdi Abu Ayash, a 16-year-old boy from Beit Umar who was found in a vegetative state, another victim of recent days, far from the war in Gaza.”

This is probably too much suffering to contemplate, but if you want to read the article: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072821.html

O God, you know suffering and you hear the cries of those who suffer. As we prepare for the holiest week of the year, keep us mindful of those who suffer as you did on the cross, that we may find ways to bring healing and hope to our world. Amen.

Training for War

2009-03-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

Lent 5, Week of March 22
Psalm 119.9-16

On Friday I read an article in Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper—about some debriefings of Israeli soldiers by their superiors in February, shortly after the Gaza war, Operation Cast Lead. They were reviewing what had happened in the war so that they could plan for future operations. Their comments were startling—but then, again, their comments were the product of war, any war. The soldiers themselves are the product of war, a horrible proving ground, a terrible field for the formation of young women and men, 18-19 years old.

"Toward the end of the operation there was a plan to go into a very densely populated area inside Gaza City itself. In the briefings they started to talk to us about orders for opening fire inside the city, because as you know they used a huge amount of firepower and killed a huge number of people along the way, so that we wouldn't get hurt and they wouldn't fire on us. "At first the specified action was to go into a house. We were supposed to go in with an armored personnel carrier called an Achzarit [literally, Cruel] to burst through the lower door, to start shooting inside and then ... I call this murder ... in effect, we were supposed to go up floor by floor, and any person we identified - we were supposed to shoot. I initially asked myself: Where is the logic in this? Read more….

This week’s psalm, 119.9-16, by far the longest psalm in the bible, is about the formation of young people, about the training of the young to walk in the way of God:

“How can a young man keep his way pure?—by holding to Your word,”

The entire psalm is in praise of Torah—God’s goodness expressed through God’s teaching of the Torah, the way we are to live in harmony with one another and with all of creation.

“My soul is consumed with longing for Your rules at all times….I cling to Your decrees.”

My thoughts keep returning to the young people of the Holy Land today—to the way they are being trained up to be the people of God in a land dedicated to their faith. And I remember the posting I made Saturday—one Israeli aunt’s concern for her nephew, serving in the Israeli Defense Force. If you missed this post, talk a look at the story now: http://apilgrimstales.blogspot.com/2009/03/soldiers-aunt-struggles-living-her-own.html

O God, in your holy word, you teach us your ways of peace and reconciliation. The ways of the world fail us; help us be faithful teachers of the young, to train them in your ways of harmony and peace. Amen.

Broken Covenants

2009-03-23T05:00:00.000-07:00

Lent 5, Week of March 22
Jeremiah 31.31-34

ANOTHER new covenant (a very loud sigh!)? How can this be?

So far, in our Lenten texts, we have witnessed three—with Noah, Abraham and with Moses and the people of Israel—covenants that were broken, repeatedly. Although God has remained faithful, we, God’s people, have not. So God, relentless in pursuit of us, offers yet another chance today through the prophet Jeremiah, to a people exiled by their faithlessness. This time the covenant will not depend on our actions—doing God’s will or keeping God’s rules. This time there is no flood, no fire, no verbal contract. This time God will write the covenant on our hearts. It will not need to be taught; it will not depend on us. This time the covenant will simply be part of our DNA.

It’s a bit like the peace process in the Middle East. Agreements that were made over the years—1979, 1994, 2007—have been broken.........on both sides. If a peace process depends on the people who are fighting, it will never succeed. After all, we are human. Humans get angry; we are easily misled to think we are more important that we are; we are impatient to get our way, and stubborn in our demands.

Camp David, Oslo, Madrid, Wye River—the names are seemingly endless. But because we are human, the agreements are always broken—new settlements are constructed on Palestinian lands; more rockets are fired on Israeli towns; more Palestinians are harassed at checkpoints; a suicide bomber explodes on a bus; the construction of the wall keeps going on, right on Palestinian land, even though the international community has called for stopping the building. It’s a lot like God’s repeated attempts to get Israel to be faithful.

But our story tells us that God is eternally hopeful; God does not tire of trying again; God will not abandon this stubborn and fickle people, no matter how obstinate or rebellious they are. It is simply not God’s nature to abandon us, even when all logic would say, Give up!

And this is the story that lives in the hearts of the people who work for peace—people like Hannah and Angela and Mitri and the teachers at Dar Al-Kalima, the school in Bethlehem, teaching nonviolence as a way of life in a community where violence has traumatized everyone—killings, beatings, imprisonments and the daily humiliation of lifting your shirt to show the soldiers at the checkpoint that you don’t have any weapons. This story of a God who does not give up on us is also the story of those working for peace.

And we, who follow this God in North America? What are we to do? Give in to our hopelessness that this conflict is not resolvable? Give in to our boredom with the same old-same old ways of the world? Some people are not giving up, but stubbornly continuing their work for peace. And we need not give up. Sign up for email alerts, subscribe to email lists and learn about action you can take to change things, here in the U.S.:

End the Occupation: http://www.endtheoccupation.org/
JStreet: http://www.jstreet.org/
Jewish Voice for Peace: http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/
ePalestine: http://epalestine.blogspot.com/
Churches for Middle East Peace: http://www.cmep.org/
And listen to David Wilcox's song while you do it: "Three Brothers": http://davidwilcox.com/

O God, you do not get bored waiting for us to behave. You do not give up; your love keeps on pursuing us, reminding us of your way of peace and justice. You have written your hope for us on our hearts; show us where we can begin. Amen.

Dead Palestinian Babies and Bombed Mosques

2009-03-21T14:40:00.000-07:00

from Haaretz, Israeli newspaper, March 21, 2009, Adar 25, 5769

Dead Palestinian babies and bombed mosques - IDF fashion 2009
By Uri Blau

The office at the Adiv fabric-printing shop in south Tel Aviv handles a constant stream of customers, many of them soldiers in uniform, who come to order custom clothing featuring their unit's insignia, usually accompanied by a slogan and drawing of their choosing. Elsewhere on the premises, the sketches are turned into plates used for imprinting the ordered items, mainly T-shirts and baseball caps, but also hoodies, fleece jackets and pants. A young Arab man from Jaffa supervises the workers who imprint the words and pictures, and afterward hands over the finished product.

Photo is A T-shirt printed at the request of an IDF soldier in the sniper unit reading 'I shot two kills.'

Dead babies, mothers weeping on their children's graves, a gun aimed at a child and bombed-out mosques - these are a few examples of the images Israel Defense Forces soldiers design these days to print on shirts they order to mark the end of training, or of field duty. The slogans accompanying the drawings are not exactly anemic either: A T-shirt for infantry snipers bears the inscription "Better use Durex," next to a picture of a dead Palestinian baby, with his weeping mother and a teddy bear beside him. A sharpshooter's T-shirt from the Givati Brigade's Shaked battalion shows a pregnant Palestinian woman with a bull's-eye superimposed on her belly, with the slogan, in English, "1 shot, 2 kills." A "graduation" shirt for those who have completed another snipers course depicts a Palestinian baby, who grows into a combative boy and then an armed adult, with the inscription, "No matter how it begins, we'll put an end to it."

There are also plenty of shirts with blatant sexual messages. For example, the Lavi battalion produced a shirt featuring a drawing of a soldier next to a young woman with bruises, and the slogan, "Bet you got raped!" A few of the images underscore actions whose existence the army officially denies - such as "confirming the kill" (shooting a bullet into an enemy victim's head from close range, to ensure he is dead), or harming religious sites, or female or child non-combatants.

In many cases, the content is submitted for approval to one of the unit's commanders. The latter, however, do not always have control over what gets printed, because the artwork is a private initiative of soldiers that they never hear about. Drawings or slogans previously banned in certain units have been approved for distribution elsewhere. For example, shirts declaring, "We won't chill 'til we confirm the kill" were banned in the past (the IDF claims that the practice doesn't exist), yet the Haruv battalion printed some last year.

The slogan "Let every Arab mother know that her son's fate is in my hands!" had previously been banned for use on another infantry unit's shirt. A Givati soldier said this week, however, that at the end of last year, his platoon printed up dozens of shirts, fleece jackets and pants bearing this slogan. Read more...

Read about the concerns of an Israeli aunt, whose nephew is in the IDF, conscripted for service. She worries about how his military service is changing him (and her country), and what her role might be: http://www.apilgrimstales.blogspot.com/

Three Brothers, David Wilcox

2009-03-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

Today, I invite you to listen to some music by David Wilcox that Pastor Garrett Struessel shared with me. Click here http://www.davidwilcox.com/, scroll down the right side and click on the "play" arrow next to Three Brothers. Close your eyes and listen or come back to this page as you listen and follow the lyrics:

All three brothers love their father,
And he’s brought them here today,
To see these papers and these lawyers,
And divide the old estate.
All three feel that they’re the favorite.
He loves each of them the best.
And these documents he gave them
Will now put them to the test.
So they opened all the writings
That will prove the rightful heir
To this home that they remember
And the right to settle there.

Their own sister is a prisoner;
They don’t see her face to face.
They’ve not heard her song of beauty,
Felt the movement of her grace.

She lives behind those bars of steel
And waits for her release.
Will she die, or will we see Jerusalem in peace?

Each one looks at what he’s given,
And he studies what he’s shown.
They hold their maps that show possession
To this place they call their home.
First they sigth with satisfaction
When they see what’s on their maps.
Each one’s given all he wanted
But the boundaries overlap.
So do you wish us to be brothers?
Father help us understand.
Will we each kill off the others
To claim this same piece of land?
Do you mean there to be hatred
In this place you built to last?
And will faith just die a prisoner
In the dungeon of the past?

She lives behind those bars of steel
And waits for her release.
Will she die, or will we see Jerusalem in peace?

She lives behind these bars of steel
And waits for her release.
Will she die, or will we see Jerusalem in peace?

Jerusalem is sending her voice
From inside the prison of disbelief.
Stand up you people of the one God
To bring about her release.

O Lord our God, you are God alone, God of three peoples. We come before you today, humbled by the generosity of your gifts to us, especially the gift of your holy city, Jerusalem. Help us find the places where your people are sharing this precious gift so that we can join in. Amen.

The photo is of Dominus Flevit, "Jesus Wept," the church at the top of the Mount of Olives, commemorating Jesus' weeping over Jerusalem, Luke 19.41.

Make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem - travel October 17-31, 2009.

Art Resists the Occupation

2009-03-19T05:00:00.000-07:00

Lent 4, Week of March 22, 2009

If you’ve read Pastor Mitri Raheb’s book, Bethlehem Besieged, you have heard about the art competition that was organized in 2002, during the Bethlehem curfew. The idea began when the Church of Sweden asked them for two paintings to be included in an exhibition, Christ of the World, at the Cathedral of Uppsala, which would then tour other churches and galleries in Sweden. The Swedish exhibition was to encourage the people in Sweden to look at their images of Christ and to start to think about them in a new way.

Pastor Mitri and the art coordinator Faten came up with the idea to hold a competition for the paintings to be sent to Sweden, but because of the curfew, it seemed a difficult undertaking—but one that had the potential to help Palestinian artists overcome their depression and imprisonment, a sort of creative resistance to the curfew, which kept the people of Bethlehem prisoners in their homes for five weeks. Thereafter, the curfew was reinstated periodically and between the announcement of the contest and the deadline for submissions, November 2002-February 2003, the town was under curfew continuously.

They used telephone and email contact to announce the competition and by February they had received paintings from all over the West Bank—Nablus, Ramallah, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Hebron. Some were well-known artists, some beginners. 60% of the artists were Muslim and all but one chose the crucified Christ as their subject, to represent the context they were living in.

Pastor Mitri writes: “It is the suffering and crucified Christ who can best speak to our occupied nation in our suffering. And it is he who can best tell our story to the world.” (Bethlehem Besieged, 109). Take a look at the paintings, Christ in a Palestinian Context exhibit: http://www.bethlehemmedia.net/photos_ed12.htm

And come hear Palestinian artist Samia Halaby talk about her work, Sunday, April 5, 3 pm – “Palestinian Resistance Art” at Montview Presbyterian Church, 1980 Dahlia, Denver (corner of Montview Blvd. and Dahlia) Free and Open to the Public—Light Refreshments served. Sponsored by Friends of Sabeel-Colorado.

O God, when you chose to be born in Bethlehem, you entered into our world and into our suffering. Give us courage to be witnesses to the suffering of all your people and let us become agents of healing and hope where we live and work. Amen.

The Way of the Cross

2009-03-18T05:00:00.000-07:00

Lent 4, Week of March 22, 2009
John 3.14-21

Just as the Israelites were given new life as they gazed on the bronze snake after they had been bitten by the deadly snakes, so those who witness Christ’s elevation on the cross will receive new life. Now, we usually like to associate new life with Christ’s resurrection, not his death. But this well-loved passage from John, about the profound love of God, is not about resurrection, but about death, about surrendering a beloved child to the ways of the world. This is the sign of the depth of God’s love for us—the death of a beloved son on a cross.

No wonder we love darkness rather than light. This light is strange and painful to behold. It is not pretty or successful. It is simply obedient. No wonder we love the darkness.

Just as the Israelites beheld God’s love as they gazed on the bronze serpent, so those who witness Christ’s crucifixion behold God’s love, there on the cross. These words don’t seem so joyful to those of us who are living high—plenty of food, freedom to travel and spend time with our loved ones, living in security in the heartland of America. But to those who are suffering, the cross is a comfort—God, too, knows suffering. God knows pain and abandonment; God knows persecution; God knows powerlessness in the face of military might.

So this image of Jesus lifted up on the cross, distasteful to us, is a comfort to the people of Beit Jala, near Bethlehem—to Sousan, who has a dress shop, but cannot go to Tel Aviv to the merchandise shows to purchase the clothes for her shop. She has to buy them without seeing what she is getting, which makes the quality difficult to control. Sousan knows what it is like to be at the mercy of the authorities, who control where she can travel and what she can ship to her store and what she can ship out.

Perhaps this is why Holy Week is such a big deal to the people of Bethlehem. While we in America would prefer to skip from the triumphant procession of Palm Sunday to the glorious musical production of Easter Sunday, the people of Bethlehem spend the entire week celebrating Jesus’ life and death and resurrection. For them, there is no skipping over Holy Week to get to Easter. For them, there is no skipping over the painful part to get to the victory, in Holy Week or in everyday life.

Because the story of Holy Week is a story of geography—Jesus travels to Jerusalem for the Passover and processes outside the city carrying the cross—the people of this area have, for hundreds of years, spent much of their week going to Jerusalem to re-enact the holy travels, the Way of the Cross.

So it is especially disappointing when they are denied travel permits to go to Jerusalem—as they have for the past few years. In particular, the students at the Catholic Bethlehem University were denied permits, even though the visit was part of their studies. Because Easter and Passover often occur during the same time, Israel is especially sensitive to their security and tightens the restrictions on Palestinians’ travel.

Another sad reality is that many of the tours arranged for Western pilgrims do not even go to Bethlehem when they visit for the holy days. They are told that it will be too dangerous. While these pilgrims walk the holy streets of Jerusalem, the Christians five miles away in Bethlehem are denied the travel permits to walk with them.

O God, you loved your people so much that you gave even your most precious son so that we might have new life. Help us, who live in comfort and security, to make time during your Holy Week to walk in solidarity with those who suffer in your world today. Amen.

Rachel Corrie, 1979-2003

2009-03-17T05:00:00.000-07:00

Lent 4, Week of March 22, 2009
Ephesians 2.1-10

“For you were dead….following the course of this world….”

Harsh words, you say—taken out of context, you protest. I imagine that the people of the early church heard these words in much the same way we hear them today—indictments of the way of the world, our own way of life.

“But God,….out of the great love with which he loved us…..raised us up.” Now that is more like it—we are not left for dead. Life and death—we are caught up somewhere in between these two, between the lives we live and the life God has created us to live.

We find ourselves suspended between birth and death, death and new life. But what if the life God has created for us is death? It was certainly so for Jesus. And for many who stand up, like Jesus, in protest against the “course of this world.”

This is how it was for Rachel Corrie, whose death was commemorated yesterday, March 16. Yesterday was the sixth anniversary of her death by bulldozer as she stood in front of it, trying to prevent yet another house from being demolished in Gaza in 2003.

Some excerpts from Rachel’s emails—two years ago, but still today the way of the world in Gaza and the West Bank.

February 2003--
…Now the Israeli army has actually dug up the road to Gaza, and both of the major checkpoints are closed. This means that Palestinians who want to go and register for their next quarter at university can't. People can't get to their jobs and those who are trapped on the other side can't get home; and internationals, who have a meeting tomorrow in the West Bank, won't make it. We could probably make it through if we made serious use of our international white person privilege, but that would also mean some risk of arrest and deportation, even though none of us has done anything illegal….

…I have been in Palestine for two weeks and one hour now, and I still have very few words to describe what I see. It is most difficult for me to think about what's going on here when I sit down to write back to the United States. Something about the virtual portal into luxury. I don't know if many of the children here have ever existed without tank-shell holes in their walls and the towers of an occupying army surveying them constantly from the near horizons. I think, although I'm not entirely sure, that even the smallest of these children understand that life is not like this everywhere. An eight-year-old was shot and killed by an Israeli tank two days before I got here, and many of the children murmur his name to me - Ali - or point at the posters of him on the walls….

… When that explosive detonated yesterday it broke all the windows in the family's house. I was in the process of being served tea and playing with the two small babies. I'm having a hard time right now. Just feel sick to my stomach a lot from being doted on all the time, very sweetly, by people who are facing doom. I know that from the United States, it all sounds like hyperbole. Honestly, a lot of the time the sheer kindness of the people here, coupled with the overwhelming evidence of the wilful destruction of their lives, makes it seem unreal to me. I really can't believe that something like this can happen in the world without a bigger outcry about it. It really hurts me, again, like it has hurt me in the past, to witness how awful we can allow the world to be…. Read more: http://www.rachelcorrie.org/

“For we are what God has made us, created in Christ Jesus for Good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” (Eph. 2.10).

O God of birth, death and resurrection, as we journey through these days of Lent, make us mindful of those whose daily lives are death. Help us follow in the way God has set out for us and to be messengers of resurrection along that way. Amen.

The Women in Black

2009-03-16T05:00:00.000-07:00

Lent 4, Week of March 22, 2009
Numbers 21.4-9

“…everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.”

How terrifying, this plague of snakes, sent by God, who had lost all patience with this recalcitrant people. They don’t like the water, the food; they are thirsty, hungry for meat. On and on….they complain. Finally, God had enough of their complaining and sent the poisonous snakes that bite and kill.

The photo is of Giovanni Fantoni's sculpture on Mt. Nebo, in Jordan, where Moses looked out over the promised land he would never enter, and where he died.

Their suffering is great; they are dying of the poison. And so the people repent, Moses intercedes and God relents. God tells Moses, Make an icon of the serpent and look on it; gaze on the bronze serpent and through it, see my mercy and promise. It will give you life. God’s remedy? Repent; face your fear, and through your greatest fear, you will see God’s promise and be healed.

What are our fears? We must know them, for, if we don’t, they will bite us and their poison will kill us.

The Women in Black have stared down their fears and they gather, all across Israel, every Friday, 1-2 pm, to silently protest their government's occupation of Palestine.

One of the greatest fears of all Israelis and the American Jews who visit Israel, is that they will get on a bus or drop their children off at the mall or even at school and a suicide bomber will attack.

When I first visited the Western Wall, the holy place of prayer for devout Jews, I prayed with the women on the smaller side, the area reserved for the women—with old women wearing headscarves and sturdy shoes, younger women in long black skirts, American tourists with colorful shawls over their bare shoulders, young women with babies in strollers, and a whole group of schoolgirls with their classmates. The girls didn’t need any instruction; they had been here many times before; they knew just how to approach the wall reverently, stand at the wall and say their prayers, walk backwards, facing the wall as they left. But once on the promenade and on their way back to the bus, they were laughing and playing, teasing one another and sharing secrets, like schoolgirls everywhere.

Like schoolgirls everywhere, except for the young man following them with the assault rifle. At first I was terrified when I saw this young man with a backpack, carrying this combat weapon; I panicked, but I looked around and noticed everyone else seemed perfectly calm. I still wasn’t sure, so I followed the group and watched as the girls got on the bus, the young man with the automatic weapon standing guard, looking around at the crowd, as they boarded the bus.

This is what fear does. It changes our behavior. It makes us hire bodyguards, buy automatic weapons, put up walls and barbed wire to keep the danger at bay, and start wars by attacking our enemies before they can attack us. According to the Women in Black, this is what Israel has done—given in to its fears. And the fears have changed the people. The fears have taught 18-year-olds to handle automatic weapons and absorb their power; taught them to disregard the suffering of the Arabs waiting at the 110-degree heat in the sun at the checkpoint; taught them to ignore the pleas of the husband with his pregnant wife who is going into labor, ignoring the desperation in his pleas to let them through to the hospital. Their fears have taught the guards to regard every Palestinian as a terrorist, so that they come to believe it is so.

Hannah, a Jewish grandmother living in Jerusalem, told me that she monitors the checkpoints and protests the occupation because she sees how the occupation is changing the people. Everything is military, she says, Military, military, military. Nothing else matters anymore. She protests so that her grandchildren will have a different future, a future not controlled by fear and submachine guns. She is not naively ignoring the danger of terrorists, but she has looked her most dreaded fears directly in the eye and seen through the fear to God’s promises of peace and wholeness and new life. She has gazed on her fears and they have healed her and she is now working to heal her country’s wounds. If we don’t look our fears in the eye, they will bite us and we will die from the poisonous venom. But if we look at the serpent of bronze, we will live.

O God, liberator of Egyptian slaves and creator of a people, look upon your terrified children with compassion. Give us courage to face our worst fears and through them to see your loving compassion and your promise….for the sake of our future, our grandchildren. Amen.

"Is Peace Out of Reach?"

2009-03-13T06:48:00.000-07:00

Thirteen Minutes to Understanding Peace Prospects in Israel/Palestine

Kudos to CBS coverage of peacemaking in Israel/Palestine!!!!!!

Spend 13 minutes and take a look at Bob Simon's report on 60 Minutes on January 25, "Is Peace Out of Reach." He does an excellent job with on-site interviews and video footage of what is happening on the ground in Israel/Palestine to show why peacemaking is so difficult: http://endtheoccupation.org//article.php?id=1811 (the report comes on after a short commercial)

If you have already seen this report, watch it again and think about what you can do to help bring peace in Israel and Palestine or in your own community. Or click on the link above and look at other action alerts posted on the U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation.

Gracious God, we confess that our lives, too, depend on the displacement of others from the land. Like the settlers, our homes sit where others once lived and hunted, providing food for themselves. Help us, as inheritors of this legacy, to become agents of change - overturning the tables of authority wherever we see power misused in our world today. Amen.

Why does all the talk lead to nothing?

2009-03-12T05:00:00.000-07:00

This 2-minute video says it all:
AFSC
"Israel-Palestine: A Land in Fragments"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ewF7AXn3dg

Write your Representative and encourage him/her to support HR 130, supporting Senator George Mitchell as Special Envoy for Middle East Peace and urging bold actions for Middle East peace: http://www.cmep.org/Alerts/2009.March3.htm

O God, the land where you revealed yourself to us is groaning in pain. Your people are suffering--on both sides of the conflict. Give us healing hearts and willing hands to begin the work of reconciliation, here, where we live and work. Amen.

Women of UNconventional Wisdom

2009-03-11T05:00:00.000-07:00

Lent 3, Sunday, March 15, 2009
John 2.13-22

If we want to know God, we must look to Jesus. Not to our priests or our rituals, not to our Bibles or even our potluck suppers. If we want to know God, we must look to see who Jesus is. This story in John’s gospel makes it very clear—God is the one who turns everything upside-down. He overturns all the rules, all the ways of doing “business as usual.” Jesus stands in civil disobedience to the ways of the world, against the conventional wisdom, the wisdom of the rulers and the powerful religious leaders.

And he calls us to follow him.

In Israel the conventional wisdom says, guard yourself against attack—build a wall to keep out suicide bombers; require travel permits for anyone who looks or acts suspicious; keep the dangerous people walled up inside their West Bank towns—like Bethlehem and Ramallah. Conventional wisdom says imprison people who you suspect might want to harm you—even if you can’t charge them with any particular crime. Just to be on the safe side, keep all Arab young men out of Jerusalem; you never know who might be a suicide bomber.

The women of Machsom Watch, however, are UNconventional….AND very wise. These Jewish grandmothers have had enough of war and weapons and the militarization of their grandchildren who are trained in Israel’s army to harass Palestinians at the checkpoints. The women of Machsom Watch are turning the tables on the checkpoint system. These 500 women show up at the checkpoints and watch what happens there. Then they write down everything they see and compile reports of the way Palestinians are treated as they try to leave Ramallah or Bethlehem or Qalquilya or any of the 50 checkpoints they monitor.

These Jewish grandmothers turn the tables on the system of checkpoints by stepping in to help in situations where Palestinians are being harassed—like the man who was returning home after surgery to remove his leg. He had entered Israel for his surgery with both legs attached to his body; he tried to leave with one of his legs in a bag—he was taking it home so that it could be buried and when he died the leg could be buried with him. But the soldier at the checkpoint held him there because the man had his own ID card, but he had no ID card for the leg and no permit to bring a leg through the checkpoint. For ten hours this man sat at the checkpoint while the soldiers summoned a doctor to look at the leg to verify that it was indeed his leg and that it had no explosives in it. And Hannah waited with him, determined to see his ordeal through to the end.

Hannah is one of the grandmothers of Machsom Watch. She told us this story and many others—stories of families trying to get their children to the hospital for cancer treatment, unable to get through the checkpoint because they did not have the proper papers—papers for the child, but not for the mother to go along; papers for the mother, but not for medical purposes; papers faxed to offices the family cannot get to because they are on the other side of a checkpoint.

Hannah has seen it all and she does her best to overturn the tables, to turn the rules upside down so that people’s needs are met—the hungry fed, the sick given medical care, the poor helped.

Watch a 3-minute video of the checkpoint in Bethlehem, made by one of the grandmothers of Machsom Watch. Every morning more than 2000 workers stand, pressed in the crowd, to get to work. American USAID money was used to “humanize” the checkpoint—money spent on decorative “welcome” banners, flowers and shrubbery, and twelve guard stations, only a couple of which are open each morning.

O God, your foolishness turns our worldly wisdom upside down. Give us courage to act in unconventional ways so that our rules do not impede your justice. Open our eyes to see those places where we confuse our need for safety and security with your will for your people. Amen.

A Foolish People

2009-03-10T05:00:00.000-07:00

Lent 3, Sunday, March 15, 2009
1 Corinthians 1.18-25

“Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?”

Let’s face it, we ARE all perishing. We see it every day—suicide bombings in Iraq, deadly drug wars on our Mexican border; new wrinkles and gray hairs, aching joints, foreclosure notices in the mail, the plummeting value of our 401Ks. Perishing is all around us, sometimes threatening to suffocate us.

Faced with these daily signs of perishing, the wisdom of the world swoops in for the rescue. For, faced with perishing, the world reacts by resisting: spend more time at the gym; buy more expensive face creams; color your hair; build deadlier weapons, preferably weapons that fire from a safe distance; build bigger prisons; strike the enemy first, before they have a chance to strike you; build a bigger wall for to keep the danger our. This is the wisdom of the world—to protect and isolate ourselves from death.

This is why we have Lent—to remind us that this is only the way of the world, not the way of new life. For God’s way, the way of life, is not worldly wisdom; to the world, God’s way is foolishness.

Surely it is foolishness to build a new school for the children of Bethlehem, when the Israeli soldiers can come any time of the day or night and surround the school with tanks (this happened in 2002). Surely it is foolishness to build a cultural center in Bethlehem, a place that encourages Palestinian artisans, houses art exhibits, holds concerts and films series. Surely that is foolishness when the huge tanks can come rolling down the narrow streets, breaking all the glass in the windows and firing mortars, making holes in the building (this also happened in 2002). Surely it is foolishness to purchase computers for the International Center and the offices of the schools and church, when the soldiers can break down the door, march in and smash the computers to bits (this also happened in 2002). Surely it is foolishness to begin again after all that destruction.

But the people of God in Bethlehem, the congregation of the Lutheran Christmas Church, take their cue from their very foolish God and flaunt their foolishness—building their institutions and rebuilding them when they are destroyed; building bridges with people of other faiths and nationalities.

Foolishly, the tiny Lutheran community in Bethlehem builds for a future that seems impossible. They follow their ancestor Abraham, believing, beyond all reason, that there is a future for them and for their children, and that God will be faithful to that promised future.

The people of the Lutheran Christmas Church and their foolish pastor, Mitri Raheb, are building a university in a community where the young people are leaving because life is so hard there. Their two-year academy offers media training and tourism, so that the world will come to Bethlehem and learn about their lives and their culture. Although the Israeli tourism industry deems Bethlehem too dangerous to visit, the people of the Lutheran Christmas Church foolishly train the young people of Bethlehem for future they can barely imagine, walled in on all four sides by a 24-foot high wall and prohibited from leaving Bethlehem by an impossible permit system. See some of their foolishness!

I travel to Bethlehem because there I can witness God’s foolishness, the hoped-for future that God promises. Walking Bethlehem’s streets, I witness God’s foolishness at work in the lives of the people, bringing hope where none seems possible. The lives of these remarkable people and their supporters like us all over the world witness that “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.” THIS is proclamation of Christ crucified and risen!

O foolish God, we praise you for the foolishness of your glory! You have promised a bold future for us and for all your creation. As we follow in the footsteps of your son, help us find ways to build this bold future, proclaiming your good news to your wounded world, bringing hope where none seems possible. Amen.

Remembering the Sabbath in Jerusalem

2009-03-09T06:31:00.000-07:00

Lent 3, Sunday, March 15, 2009
Exodus 20.1-17

“Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy.”

With our western devotion to liberty and freedom, it is hard to imagine a celebration of the law. Especially for Lutherans, who take great pride in our understanding that God does not value us according to our obedience to the law, but that our relationship with God depends, not on us, but only on God’s mercy and grace, God’s pure gift to us.

So we Lutherans, sometimes too intent on abolishing the law, can learn something from our Jewish neighbors. “Rejoicing in the law” is the theme of a Jewish holy day, Simchat Torah, a holiday which follows Sukkot, in the fall of the year. Simchat Torah is the celebration of the Torah, marking the completion of the annual cycle of Torah readings and the beginning of the new cycle. In a year the entire Torah is read, beginning with Genesis 1 and finishing with Deuteronomy 34. This is a joyous occasion for the Jewish community. The scrolls of the Torah are carried in procession around the synagogue with high-spirited dancing and singing—an exuberant celebration of the gift God has given us in the Torah, the rules by which we live our lives. The law is God’s gift to us because it shows us how to live in harmony with God, with our world and with our neighbors. When we live by these rules, we find we are living in peace and contentment. Without the law we would be miserable, living in chaos.

The ten commandments which we read today, then, are not God’s “gottcha!” God’s rules for living are, rather, a gift. These rules are how God provides for our well-being and happiness.

When I was in Jerusalem, I got to participate in another lively celebration, Shabbat, which happens every Friday at the Western Wall, the only remnant of Solomon’s famed temple. Toward sundown on Friday, children, women and men walk from all over Jerusalem, entering the gates of the Old City and making their way to the Wall, where they dance and sing and celebrate the beginning of the Sabbath, another of God’s gifts to them—a time for rest and relaxation—a time set by God in the these commandments we read today. Friday evening Shabbat is a time for bar-mitzvah and bat-mitzvah parties and for family gatherings, a time for Jewish pilgrims to the holy city to pay their respects and make their prayers at the Wall. A time for the joyous gathering of the community. Women gather in circles, singing traditional Jewish songs and dancing. The men do the same. It is a festive time as the shopkeepers close up and the city quietens for the night. It is a brief time of joy and harmony and peace, in a city that is sometimes more known for conflict than peace. The photo shows prayers, written on small pieces of paper and left in the cracks of the Western Wall, the remnant of Solomon's Temple.

Central to the Jewish faith is the understanding that God’s laws are for our benefit and happiness, a gift to us because of God’s great love for us. Earlier that Friday, just before the beginning of the Sabbath, I had walked the streets with the Franciscans on their weekly Stations of the Cross, a Friday ritual commemorating Jesus’ walk through Jerusalem’s streets carrying the cross, on his way to death. Jerusalem is an amazing city, with room enough for three great religions and a multitude of peoples, all of us descendants of Abraham. May we live to honor God’s city and God’s gifts to us.

O God, you desire only what is best for your creation. You give us beautiful gifts of time, your creation and one another. Help us to honor your laws, your gift to us for our happiness, so that, obedient to your laws, we may live lives of peace and find our true freedom. Amen.

Living Under the Cross - Shawan Jabarin

2009-03-06T07:36:00.000-08:00

In the Occupied Territories, it is not only Christians who find themselves living under the cross. Shawan Jabarin, executive director of the Palestinian human rights organization al-Haq, has not been allowed to leave the West Bank since 2006, when he was appointed to this position. Between 1999 and 2006, he was permitted to leave eight times, but his petitions for permits have been denied since 2006, on the grounds that he is active in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He was given no opportunity to confront these allegations, however, and he was never questioned about his activities.

Last month, along with the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, he was awarded the “Geuzen Resistance 1940-1945” prize. The prize will be awarded in ceremonies on March 13, but has been unable to gain permission to leave the West Bank to receive the prize.

Jabarin is not alone, however. He has many people helping him carry his cross—Israelis and Palestinians, including Rabbis for Human Rights, which has members in the US. They and nine other human rights organizations have written to the Defense Minister and to the Commnander of Military Forces in the West Bank, protesting the denial of freedom to Jabarin.

This happens every day in the Occupied Territories—both the denial of movement for Palestinians and the support from others on both sides of the separation wall. B’Tselem is an Israeli organization which monitors human rights abuses in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Read more about Jabarin’s story on B’Tselem’s web site, as well as news about planned settlement expansion and the story of Adham Ghaneimat, 14, in his own words, the story of his beating by settlers last month as he walked with two friends on his family’s land near his village of Surif near Hebron in the West Bank, a few miles south of Bethlehem.

Find out what happens with Al-Haq's appeal for Jabarin's travel permit: http://www.alhaq.org/ The outcome of the hearing March 5 is posted here (the hearing was continued): http://www.alhaq.org/etemplate.php?id=434

Shawan Jabarin and Al-Haq are engaged in important work to combat human rights violations in the Occupied Territories. Because of his work he himself is in danger of imprisonment as well as living under the travel ban. Many human rights organizations have been working to support him and his work:

Asil's Story

2009-03-05T05:00:00.000-08:00

The story of Asil comes from Sam Bahour, a telecommunications executive in Ramallah. Asil's story shows the Palestinian dilemma. Note especially the comment at the end: the Palestinian Authority operates under diminished capacity because Israel is still withholding taxes collected from Palestinians but not released back to the Palestinian Authority, their punishment for the Hamas electoral victory.

The Death of Asil
written by Dr. Dudy Tzfati

With a heavy heart I write about Asil, a six year old girl from the Palestinian village of Wadi Fuqeen, near Bethlehem. Asil was sick with tuberculosis, which got complicated and reached the brain. She was referred to the Israeli Hadassah Hospital and her parents managed to get the needed financial coverage for day treatments from the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Two weeks ago she arrived to the hospital and underwent several tests. A CT scan was needed, but since it was not included in the coverage, Asil was released home without it.

Asil’s parents tried to get additional financial coverage for the CT scan and for full hospitalization, which was needed, but their efforts were in vain. The Palestinian Ministry of Health refused. Helplessly, they tried to get an urgent appointment for a CT scan in a Palestinian hospital, but the waiting line was too long.

A few days later, on a Friday, Asil’s condition deteriorated. She needed urgent hospitalization and treatment of her escalating brain infection. But since she did not have the coverage for hospitalization at Hadassah, she was taken to a hospital in Bethlehem, where they didn’t have the necessary medicine and expertise to treat her. Her parents continued to beg for approval of the financial coverage to send her back to Hadassah, with no success. By Sunday morning her situation worsened.

She still had the coverage for day treatments in Hadassah so the doctors wanted to send her there in an ambulance. However, when they called Hadassah, the Hospital management told them not to come, knowing that emergency room and full hospitalization would be required. Asil’s parents and the Israeli doctor caring for her in Hadassah begged the manager, with no success. Without upfront financial coverage, Asil was left in Bethlehem and started to take the medication advised by the Hadassah doctor. But this was too late and too little. On Sunday night Asil passed away.

How can we accept such an unbearable situation and denial of life-saving treatment, which was available by a 15 minute drive from Asil’s home? And Asil is not the only one. In Hadassah Pediatric Hemato-oncology department alone, the financial coverage for 57 kids was cut in the midst of their treatment – a death sentence for many of them. A physician friend is spending his time and own money to buy expensive medicine for the children he saved by performing bone marrow transplants, because their parents cannot cover the post- transplant expenses. Otherwise they would be lost.

Who knows how many more patients are dying because they have no access to life-saving treatments available in Israeli, but not in Palestinian, hospitals. Apparently, the Palestinian Authority recently decided to cut the financial coverage for transferring Palestinians for medical care in Israel, while the Palestinian Authority’s tax money continues to be illegally held by Israel.

The Israeli hospitals refuse to treat patients without financial coverage, and the Israeli government denies its responsibility for the Palestinians living under its control. Meanwhile, innocent children pay with their lives.

What can be done? Is there not enough suffering around? Can we demand from the Palestinian Authority to leave the children and sick out of the struggle? Can we demand from the Israeli government to assume responsibility for the Palestinians under its control? Or maybe we can all raise donations for this purpose?

Dr. Dudy Tzfati teaches Genetics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
February 22, 2009

A Hope Built on Nothing Less than Jesus' Blood...

2009-03-04T05:00:00.000-08:00

Lent 2, Sunday, March 8, 2009
Mark 8.31-38

In this season of Lent, we Christians do something quite extraordinary. Although we spend the rest of the year trying to avoid pain and suffering—inventing fixes for disease and pain, alleviating suffering with charitable deeds, and even entertaining ourselves to distract us from the suffering of the world—in Lent we choose to spend 40 days entering into the suffering and death of our God. It is not natural; some would even call us masochistic.

As Mark tells it, Jesus has just laid out the plan: great suffering…rejected…killed. Awful stuff! No wonder Peter is horrified. This is not what the world expects from a messiah, a savior, a king. The world expects triumph and glory, not nails pounded through bone, thorns pressed into flesh, the agonizingly painful wait for death while hanging on a cross. Our God, who promised Abraham a bright future, our God who gives life to the dead, will suffer excruciating pain and die a shameful death. It IS a gruesome scenario.

This week’s gospel points unflinchingly to the distinction between what Martin Luther calls theology of the cross and the theology of glory. While we would like to see God in the triumphant and beautiful things of the world, Luther reminds us that God’s own self-revelation is accomplished through suffering and the cross (Heidelberg Disputation, thesis 20).

Just in case this is not ghastly enough, Jesus says we, too, must take up this cross and prepare for death. No wonder Peter protests!

It’s easy for those of us who live in relative safety and security in North America to become very attached to a God of glory and triumph and winning. But this is a God of our own making, not the God who revealed God’s own nature in Jesus Christ.

This is why I like to go to Bethlehem. There, in the midst of the suffering of God’s own peoples, in the very places where God entered into our human condition, I encounter the God who knows suffering. Visiting Bethlehem and other areas of Palestine and Israel I cannot escape into the world of the God of glory and success and better-and-better. Bethlehem grounds me.

That is not to say that Bethlehem is a gloomy, depressing place. On the contrary, it is a place full of hope—hope based not on our efforts to become better people and change the world, because that has not been their experience. Living under the control of an occupying army, the Christians in Bethlehem rely on a hope given by God in a most impossible promise to Abraham.

Standing in line at the checkpoint in Bethlehem at 5:00 am in the press of 2000 bodies, as they wait for the guards to recognize them and motion them forward to one of the two stations open this morning, the people of Bethlehem cannot rely on the world’s promises, for the world’s promises have failed them for sixty years as they have waited for a just resolution to the conflict. Theirs is not the hope of Camp David or Oslo, but a hope built on God’s promised future even where no future seems possible.

Photo: Dar al-Kalima (school) in Bethlehem

So the Lutherans of the Christmas Church in Bethlehem build for this unlikely but promised future. A school, a wellness center, a cultural center with an auditorium for concerts and locally-produced films. An academy that teaches filmmaking and news reporting. A craft center for women to learn pottery and stained glass-making so they can provide food and shelter for their families. A senior center where the elders visit with one another and eat a nutritious meal. In a time of uncertainty and despair, these Christians live as if God’s promises are true, as if there is a future for them.

O God of the nails and thorns, you know our suffering and pain. May those of us who live in security bear some of the load of suffering that burdens our sisters and brothers living in uncertainty and fear in so many parts of the world, especially those in your Holy Land. Amen.

Calling into Existence Things that do not Exist

2009-03-03T08:04:00.000-08:00

Lent 2, Sunday, March 8, 2009
Romans 4.13-25

“for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, ‘I have made you the father of many nations’”

What God did for Abraham, Paul does for us. Turns our whole world upside down. What Abraham thought he knew about the world—his life and work, his family (or lack of it), his gods—God changed everything when God claimed Abraham and gave him a new name and a new identity.

And Paul turns our world on its head. Forging our way in the world with our talents and charm, we think we are the children of our parents, using our heritage as a stepping stone to greater things. I usually think of myself as the daughter of Maury and Marian, making my way through life, bearing what they have taught me and adding my own experience to the heritage they have given me. But Paul tells me I am more; I am Abraham’s child, not who I thought I was at all. This is God’s good news for us all.

In the Holy Land all of this gets played out dramatically by Abraham’s children—a drama of heritage and land—enacted every day in the schools and factories, on the bus, in the market, in the offices for permits, at the checkpoints. If we are ALL Abraham’s children, as Paul tells us, then our God is one.

Who is this God? Paul tells us God is “the one who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.”

Abraham refused to believe that God would not give him an heir, even when his advanced years made the possibility laughable. As heirs to Abraham, Paul tells us, we also are people who refuse to settle for what seems possible.

Right now, peace seems impossible in the Middle East. But we are God’s people, people who, like Abraham, refuse to believe what seems so obvious. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s presence in the region this week is testimony to this faithfulness—that even though peace seems dead, the promise of peace is alive. We have heard that promise proclaimed in our holy book. Our God is one who gives life to the dead…life to dead peace processes, life to weary bodies waiting at checkpoints, life to besieged nations struggling for peace under threats of death.

Our God is the one who gives life to the dead…in Lent we journey toward that day of resurrection. God’s promise is sure.

O God of our hopes and dreams for peace, keep us steadfast in your promises; mold us to be life-givers. Make us your peacemakers, calling into existence those things that do not exist, things we cannot even imagine. Strengthen our leaders for your work of peace in the world. Amen.

Jerusalem: Sign of the Covenant

2009-03-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

Lent 2, Sunday, March 8, 2009

Genesis 17.1-7, 15-16

“Your name shall be Abraham…..you shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations.”

Walking the streets of the Old City of Jerusalem, the pilgrim walks the covenant God made with Abraham—God's promise that he will be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. The Temple Mount is holy to Muslims, Christians and Jews, all descended from Abraham. Muslims hold that it was from this spot that Mohammad ascended to heaven. Jews venerate it as the place of the Holy of Holies in the Second Temple. Christian pilgrims have come here for almost 2000 years.

As I walked through Jerusalem's suq, the old open-air market, a pilgrim myself, I took in its diverse aromas—the cumin, nutmeg, and cardamom of the spice merchants, the zaatar blended for dipping the bread with olive oil. I tasted its sweetness in the honey, walnuts and figs in the pastries in the next shop. My eyes were dazzled by the brightly painted ceramics, the stone jewelry, the diamonds and gold. The red and black Bedouin embroidery, and the red, orange, blue and purple of the Druze weavings.

Photo: Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount and Lutheran Church of the Redeemer at left

Jerusalem is the crown of the covenant God made with Abraham, not because it is the property of the Jews or the Muslims or the Christians, but because it is the place where the “multitude of nations”—the descendants God promised Abraham—live and work together in the old market. Walking across the Old City, I had tea with the jeweler in the Armenian Quarter, bargained for the best price on a stone bracelet in the Arab Quarter, and stood, mouth gaping, at the gold and diamonds in the windows of the jewelers in the Jewish Quarter, all in one afternoon, in the space of less than a mile. In Jerusalem, the covenant—the multitude of nations—is a visible reality; it can be tasted and smelled.

God has been faithful. God has kept the covenant. It is we who have broken it with our scheming for territory; with our weapons delivering death to our enemies, fired by computer from the safety of a control center miles away; with our armies breaking down the doors of homes and dragging sons off to prison.

We have enjoyed God’s promised abundance, but we have forgotten our part of the bargain—we have forgotten that our names, too, have been changed, that in our baptism we are now new people. But even though we have forgotten, God has not. God’s message to Abraham is God’s message to us today. In spite of everything we do to break the covenant…in spite of military occupation, imprisonment, suicide bombings and security barriers, God is faithful to the promise made to Abraham. God keeps the holy city for the multitude of nations.

And the people of Jerusalem today live in the midst of the multitude. Peace groups like B’Tselem Israeli Center for Human Rights, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, the Mothers in Black, Sabeel Christian Palestinian liberation theology movement, and the women of Machsom Watch stand as icons of the multitude of Abraham’s descendants. People from all over the world come to Jerusalem to work for peace—from Israel, Palestine, Europe, the United States, and some have returned from the places they have fled to for safety. God’s promises are everlasting.
O God, we confess that we have forgotten your covenant with us. We repent our unfaithfulness. In this Lenten season, you call us back to your covenant. Strengthen us for the journey. Amen.

Wilderness, the Place Between Baptism and Ministry

2009-02-28T05:00:00.000-08:00

Lent 1, Sunday, March 1, 2009
Mark 1.9-15

“And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.”

As our bus drove down the winding road from Jerusalem, east toward Jericho and the Jordan River, I looked out the window at the vast, dry landscape. Occasionally on the brown, rocky hills, I saw a goat or a camel, nose to the ground, but I could not imagine what they could find to eat in such a barren place. There was nothing green visible from the bus. The only color enlivening the palette of dirt-brown and dusty tan were the orange or blue plastic tarps stretched between sheet metal walls, used to shelter supplies or equipment for the Bedouin who make their camps in some of the gullies. The corrugated sheet metal also forms pens for their animals. Otherwise this terrain appears to be uninhabited—no water supply, nothing visible to graze on, no shade for the weary.

This is the wilderness where Jesus was cast out—a very scary place for one person, on foot, without my air-conditioned bus.

This scary place of wild beasts and angels is a bit like the season of Lent—a season that offers us the opportunity to cast off the comforts and distractions of life and enter into a wilderness time, 40 days for encounter, formation and change. What we know about his time in the wilderness is that this was the place where Jesus was formed for his ministry. Immediately after his time in the wilderness Jesus is preaching his message of hope, announcing God’s reign—giving good news for the world.

For Jesus this wilderness was the place between baptism and his ministry—much like our Lenten journey, poised between our baptism and our work to bring hope to the world.

The people of the Lutheran Christmas Church and their pastor, Mitri Raheb, always live in this Lenten time—between baptism and ministry. Their lives are lived in the wilderness—literally, because their town sits on the same landscape—and figuratively, because their Lent is yearlong, their entire lives lived in a time of testing and in the company of both wild beasts and angels.

In this time of testing, many of the residents of Bethlehem emigrate. Everyone I met had relatives in Europe, America, South America or Africa. And most had plans to join their relatives if things get worse. In this never-ending Lent of Palestinian existence, the people of Bethlehem encounter the wild beasts: the wild beasts of insecurity, never knowing whether an Israeli army bulldozer will come down their street to demolish their home; the wild beasts of hopelessness, because peace seems even further from becoming a reality because they watch Israeli settlements still being constructed on Palestinian land today; the wild beasts of depression, because finding work to feed the family gets harder and harder because Israeli soldiers arbitrarily detain goods being shipped into or out of Bethlehem and commerce happens at a snail’s pace, if at all.

But the Christians living in Bethlehem live their in this Lenten time under the sign of their baptism. They have heard God’s baptismal words, “you are my beloved.” For to be baptized is to be born anew into hope—not a hope based on a new technology or improvements in lifestyle, but the hope of things not seen. The certain hope of knowing that someday the curtain of the temple WILL be rent, their world will be torn in two and resurrection will be birthed from destruction. And the 24-foot high security wall surrounding their town will be broken in pieces. They live in this baptismal hope, like the writing on the wall in Bethlehem: “Love and kisses - Nothing lasts forever.” (The photo shows this part of the wall.)

God of all beginnings, in our baptism you claimed us and your voice named us your beloved. Journey with us through the wilderness of this Lenten season as we prepare for our ministry, the work you would have us do in a world which so desperately needs to hear a word of hope. Amen.

Standing with the Farmers of Gaza, in Their Fields

2009-02-27T05:00:00.000-08:00

Lent 1, Sunday, March 1, 2009
1 Peter 3.18-22

“Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous…” (1 Peter 3.18)

Always, suffering….from the beginning, we are told in our holy book. Some suffering is simply part of being human—we are ill or we grow old. Other suffering is the result of not living in the way God intends for us. Because the world’s bounty is not shared equally with all, people suffer. Because we are not able to forgive our neighbor, we suffer. It’s the way of the world.

Standing against the way of the world also brings suffering. The world does not deal kindly with those who protest its ways. Resisting injustice brings condemnation. Jesus’ death on the cross at the hands of the Roman occupiers puts this kind of suffering at the center of the Christian life.

Today in Gaza, a month after the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, Palestinian farmers are still being shot at while they harvest their crops in their fields. Israeli soldiers patrolling the border fire at the farmers in northern Gaza almost daily.

And international human rights workers (HRWs) are standing with the people of Gaza, walking with them in their fields, standing with them in their suffering. In defiance of the continuing Israeli attacks on farmers trying to harvest their crops, these human rights workers, wearing bright yellow vests and carrying megaphones and video cameras, accompany the farmers to their fields each day. Their bodies shield the farmers from the snipers’ bullets and their voices through the megaphones proclaim to the soldiers that these are unarmed farmers, not terrorists, and they are not alone.

On Tuesday of this week, Palestinian farmers from the village of Khoza, near Khan Younis, and the human rights workers accompanying them, were fired upon by Israeli forces. The farmers and HRWs were attempting to work on land around 300m from the ‘Green Line’.

One of the human rights workers reports, "We were accompanying farmers to gather peas from their lands. The farmers, for the most part, were elderly men and women with their sons. There were many farmers spread out over a large area. We were only in the fields for about five minutes before the Israeli forces began firing. I believe the firing was coming from four army jeeps and a Hummer. The shots were coming very close, and were sniper-type of shots.”

Before the shooting started, the soldiers had sat in their Hummer for about 30 minutes, watching the farmers harvesting their crops while the yellow-vested human rights workers stood lookout. As the farmers began to leave the field to return to their village, the soldiers started firing. See video of the attacks: http://www.freegaza.org/

"We are accompanying these farmers to harvest their crops because they have a right to their land. Palestinians who live or have land within 1 kilometre of the Green Line are being driven out by Israeli military violence. We consider this to be a form of ethnic cleansing. Withinternational accompaniment, these farmers are able to harvest their crops with a much greater degree of safety than if they were to come to these areas alone" Andrew Muncie (Scotland) —International Human Rights Worker

On February 18, a deaf farm worker, Mohammad al-Buraim, 20, was shot in the right leg as farmers, together with the international human rights workers, attempted to leave, having worked on their land for 2 hours in full view of the Israeli forces. Mohammad al-Buraim supports his family of 16 persons, but he will not be working for some time; the bullet penetrated his ankle and landed in the tire of the truck he was pushing because it was disabled. The photo shows Mohammad at al-Naser hospital.

Gracious God, comforter of those who suffer, lead us in ways of freedom and justice so that our lives stand against the suffering that can be prevented. Amen.

The Rainbow: Sign of the Covenant

2009-02-26T05:00:00.000-08:00

Lent 1, Sunday, March 1, 2009
Genesis 9.8-17

The covenant—at once a sign of promise and hope and a sign of grief, loss and despair. For the people living in the land of the biblical stories today, the covenant God made with Noah is not a simple matter.

On the way to Efrat, an Israeli settlement just south of Bethlehem, our bus took the “Israeli road.” Once it leaves the city limits of Jerusalem, the highway is built on Palestinian West Bank land because there are many Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Beautiful landscaped gardens welcome us to the settlement of Efrat. Olive trees and palm trees greeted us; waterfalls welcomed us from the dry dusty roads.

We sat in the synagogue listening to Ardie Geldman, who has lived in Efrat since 1985. He has raised his six children here. Efrat is a modern middle class town. Most of the residents are orthodox Jews and most commute to Jerusalem for work.

Ardie immigrated to Israel from the United States in 1982. Judaism had become the focus of his life and he and his wife came because of their “belief in the Torah, ” because of “the special relationship between Jews and Israeli land.” He told us that living here is a fulfillment of his obligation as a Jew to live on this land. His understanding comes from the covenantal relationship of the people of Israel with their God, a covenant we first hear about in the Bible in the story of Noah we read this week.

Ardie told us that, although the Palestinian community calls the West Bank “occupied territory,” he calls it “an area of disputed territory.” The Palestinian community refers to Efrat as a “settlement,” but he calls it a “solid, stable community,” and he tells us, “It ain’t goin’ nowhere.” The town has been here 25 years, “and with God’s help we will be here 25 more years.”

He told us it is different here from the U.S. Integration is valued in North America, but not here. Israelis must work on more basic issues before they can live together with the Palestinians. There are no Palestinians in Efrat, just like there are no Jewish families in Bethlehem, he tells us. He does not mention that it is not the Palestinians but the Israeli government that forbids Jews to live in Bethlehem, or even to visit.

He told us that the Palestinians “forfeited” their right to the land given them in 1948 because they rejected the partition of the land. Because the Arabs wanted all or nothing, they ended up with nothing. He also told us that the Jews are a people, not a religion; the land is part of their identity. He tells us, “We don’t have to demand. God and the Bible proclaim it our right. The land is our home. The Bible is the source of our origins. We are not into conquering other people’s territory.”

Ardie talked to us for about an hour. It is clear that he feels no responsibility for the suffering of the Palestinians. The Palestinians could have lived better lives if they had accepted the State of Israel. Their suffering is the fault of “their own failed leadership; Israel is not doing this to them.”

God’s covenant with Noah is a beautiful story. We love rainbows because they are a sign of a hopeful future, God’s faithfulness to us. But we must also remember that God’s covenant turns everything upside down, forms a people from nothing. Our rainbow hope is that with God we, like Noah, can do the impossible—create a people, Israeli and Palestinian, from a foolish band of dreamers who trust God’s promises.

O God of foolish hope; you call new life out of the debris left by catastrophic flood. Like your rainbow, make us signs of your promise. Use us to create new life out of the ruins of war in the land where you walked and taught. Amen.

Looking Good

2009-02-23T08:47:00.000-08:00

Ash Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Matthew 6.1-6, 16-21

Looking good. It’s what we all do, and we are so good at it that we sometimes come to believe that we really are those good-looking people.

When I close my eyes and picture the “hypocrites” giving their alms as the music of a trumpet fanfare fills the streets, I hear the Israeli government in December, claiming that their attack on Gaza was a matter of self-protection, a response to Hamas’ rocket attacks in violation of the ceasefire. In January I watched Israeli spokespersons portray Israel as the innocent victim of Palestinian terrorists firing rockets at Sderot and other towns in southern Israel.

What they said is, in fact, true. But it is only part of the story—the part that makes Israel look good. Violation of the ceasefire did not begin with Hamas’ rockets. It would be impossible to trace it back and figure out who violated the ceasefire first, but Israel had already been violating the ceasefire—actually, ever since it began. Israel had not kept its part of the agreement.

When Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, and removed the illegal settlements, it seemed a time full of hope—an opportunity for Gazans to govern themselves, live in freedom, and begin the economic development so desperately needed for survival.

However, Israel’s occupation of Gaza did not end with the pullout. Israel continued to control Gaza’s borders, and thus all trade and commerce, preventing needed supplies from entering Gaza—essentials like food, fuel and medicine, as well as supplies for building and manufacturing were denied entry. In June, 2007, things got even worse when Israel imposed a blockade (which the United States supports)—making Gaza totally dependent on Israel for food, fuel, electricity, cooking gas, medical supplies, building materials, etc. Things got so bad that even before Israel’s December 27 attack, the people of Gaza were living at a subsistence level, children were malnourished and most sick people were unable to receive treatment in Gaza; nor were they permitted to leave Gaza to seek treatment in Egypt, Israel or anywhere else. Even before December 27, 80% of the people of Gaza were living below the poverty line, subsisting on less than $3 per person per day. 80% of Gazans would literally have starved if they did not have food from international assistance agencies.

In November, UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon issued a statement: “The Secretary-General is concerned that food and other life saving assistance is being denied to hundreds of thousands of people, and emphasizes that measures which increase the hardship and suffering of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip as a whole are unacceptable and should cease immediately.”

Every once in a while, Israel would lift the siege of Gaza and let a few supplies trickle through the checkpoints, keeping people at a level of mere survival. Before the embargo, 500-600 truckloads a day would enter the Gaza strip. When Israel “opened” the borders, they increased the number of trucks from about 70 to about 90.

We in the West are more aware of what Israel says than what it does. We hear Israel say they are lifting the embargo, but we do not know that they still do not let in enough goods to feed the people and care for the sick, let alone enough goods to reopen the closed factories and rebuild the country. Israel denounces Hamas because it will not recognize the state of Israel, but few Americans know that Hamas has agreed to a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders; they expressed this to former President Carter on his last visit to Syria.

There is no justification for Hamas rockets being fired at Israeli towns, but these rockets (which seldom hit their targets) are being fired as a way of resisting the occupation of their land by Israeli troops. To learn more, read Sabeel’s report on Gaza in its entirety. Sabeel is a Palestinian Christian liberation theology movement located in East Jerusalem.

O Lord our God, you teach us how to live in harmony with our neighbors and our world. Help us today, as we go out into the world with the ashes on our foreheads, to follow where you lead us. Amen.

Marked by the Cross of Christ

2009-02-23T07:37:00.000-08:00

Ash Wednesday, February 25, 2009
2 Corinthians 5.20b-6.10

As we begin this holiest season of the church year, Paul reminds us of the very core of our faith—that our God, against all human reason, reaches out to us in reconciliation. God will not let us go. God reaches out again and again, refusing to give up on us. In the ashes today, God once again reaches out and touches us with God’s own surrendered life so that we might be reconciled to God.

The ashes show us that reconciliation is at the very heart of the Christian life; it is what we are called to do above all else—reconciliation with God and with others. The Christians at the Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem know this well. They have taken God’s invitation to reconciliation seriously and they have stayed in the land of Jesus’ birth, working for reconciliation with their neighbors. They have become peacemakers, bridge-builders, in the political landscape of the Holy Land. Living under the cross, they have been transformed by God’s reconciliation and have stayed in Bethlehem to be repairers of their broken world.

Because life is so hard in the Palestinian areas, many people have left—there are no jobs, commerce is made almost impossible by the Israeli permit system, educational and medical institutions struggle because Israeli authorities prevent them from getting the equipment and supplies needed for their work.

But many have chosen to remain in Bethlehem. If you look at the web site of the Diyar Consortium, formed by the Lutheran community there, you can see all they are doing to strengthen their community, to “equip the local community to assume a proactive role in shaping their future”—the schools, the Wellness Center, the concerts, the after-school children’s programs. The children's swim class in the photo above is one of the activities of the Wellness Center.

This month they are hosting one of many film festivals. The films name what oppresses them and celebrate efforts to overcome the oppression. The first film in February was “Bethlehem Checkpoint, 4 am,” a 2007 documentary made under the Project "Images for Life" which trains Palestinian refugees in photography and video. The film shows the “Carnal density of the queue, bodies piled up, squeezed, pushed, contrasts with the stillness of the cold metal bars,” as 300 workers queue up at 4:45 am, permits in hand, ready for the guard stations to open at 5 am, so that they can be scrutinized by the guards on their way to their jobs in Israel.

Take a moment to look at the ways they are bringing reconciliation to their community: http://www.annadwa.org/

Reconciliation—how very hard it is for us. Much easier forget the God we have already abandoned; much easier to walk away from the pain of our own broken relationships with God and with others. But reconciliation is what God offers us in Jesus Christ. God does not let go. God does not give up. This is what the ashes tell us.

O God of the ashes, may your mark on our foreheads remind us who we are and lead us to actions of reconciliation and hope. Amen.

The Restorers of Streets to Live In

2009-02-20T09:45:00.000-08:00

Ash Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Joel 2.1-1, 12-17
Isaiah 58.1-12

“and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt…you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.” (Is 58.11-12)

Before dawn on April 2 of 2002, Pastor Mitri Raheb and his family crouched in their apartment adjacent to the Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem. They listened in terror as the tanks rolled down the streets on both sides of the walled compound which housed the church offices, an artisans’ workshop, a cultural center, media center, and a guesthouse, in addition to their home. They could hear machine guns and shattering glass; they heard the tanks shelling the buildings on their street. They ran from one side of the house to the other, to stay as far away from the shooting as they could. They watched TV to find out what was happening and they learned their neighbors, a mother and her son, had been killed. This day, and the curfew that followed, lasting nearly four months, was one of the worst times the Rahebs had experienced under Israeli occupation. (Read Pastor Mitri’s book, Bethlehem Beseiged, Stories of Hope in Times of Trouble, to learn the rest of the story.)

The Israeli tanks were too big for Bethlehem’s narrow streets. As they came up the streets on either side of the Lutheran compound they destroyed ancient walls of the buildings, broke all the glass in the windows, and the shells fired from the tanks put huge holes in their buildings. The soldiers came into their offices and smashed their computers.

Even though they were living in a town where the Israeli Defense Forces could enter at any time of the night or day arresting young men and demolishing homes with bulldozers, Pastor Mitri and his congregation spent many years building for new life in their community—especially for their children. With financial assistance from Europe, they built a new school, an artisans’ workshop and a community center; they created after-school and summer programs for the children of Bethlehem, Muslim and Christian.

They built the International Center of Bethlehem (ICB), a cultural facility adjacent to their church and guesthouse—a place for concerts, film festivals, speakers and community meetings. The ICB has opened a restaurant and bar, where people from Bethlehem come for a peaceful dinner on the terrace in summer. Sitting in the gardens on the terrace with friends, sipping some wine and having an excellent dinner refreshes the spirit and gives a sense of hope and promise for the future.

Even as Israel’s 30-foot high concrete security wall encircles Bethlehem, cutting off access not only to Israel, but to surrounding Palestinian towns in the West Bank, Pastor Mitri and his congregation have been building for the future. A poster hangs in the ICB, a reminder of the days of destruction in 2002, when the Israeli tanks, shot holes in their walls. “Destruction May Be, Creativity Shall Be,” it proclaims. The poster hangs in the artisans’ workshop, where beautiful jewelry and stained glass are created by women who have no other possibilities for employment.

These are the people Isaiah is talking about, the “repairers of the breach and restorers of streets to live in.”

While the people of Bethlehem are rebuilding, the Israeli government is continuing to demolish homes. In January and February, 2009, 10 homes have been demolished in East Jerusalem (West Bank, Palestinian area occupied by Israel since the 1967 war); one of the homeowners had an Israeli court decision to postpone the demolition until March 31; the soldiers carried out the demolition anyway. An additional 21 homes were demolished in Area C, an area between East Jerusalem and Jericho. As a result, 133 people were displaced. Source: Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, 2/2009.

O God, through your people you repair the breach and restore the streets for the living. Work your will through us so that we may be like a watered garden, a spring of water, refreshing and rebuilding our communities and our world. Amen.