Lent 3, Romans—Since We are Justified by Faith

Since we are justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…
Romans 5.1-11

So, as Martin Luther once said (or is believed to have said), "sin boldly!"

I have used this blog to help North Americans read the Bible through a lens of the Palestinian experience. This necessarily entails examining Israel's occupation and confiscation of their lands, since this is at the heart of the Palestinian experience. This critical look at Israel's policies and treatment of Palestinians always provokes resistance, even in me, because I was raised in an America that deeply regretted the holocaust—I, like many Americans vow, "Never again."

But support for Palestinians and criticism of Israel does not equal hatred of Israel or Jews. Support for Palestinians is not anti-Semitism. In fact, while criticizing Israel is NOT anti-Semitic, labeling all Jews as supporters of Israel's policies, IS racist. It is no different than labeling all Jews as money-grubbers. It is a racial/ethnic stereotype that harms people. Jewish Voice for Peace and other Jewish peace groups are adamant about this.

Recently, campus groups of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) have been targeted on their campuses for actions they have taken, speakers they have invited, etc. This clamping down on free speech on several college campuses is an orchestrated effort to silence those who hold a critical view of Israel. Their speech is NOT anti-Semitic. (An aside: "anti-Semitic" is misleading anyway, since Palestinians are also Semitic people.)

There is an active SJP group at DU, but I have not heard of any problems they have encountered.

Christ Hedges wrote a comprehensive article in TruthDig on Monday, explaining what is happening on college campuses, "Israel's War on American Universities." I commend it for your reading today: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/israels_war_on_american_universities_20140316

The article begins….

he banning of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Northeastern University in Boston on March 7, along with a university threat of disciplinary measures against some of its members, replicates sanctions being imposed against numerous student Palestinian rights groups across the country. The attacks, and the disturbingly similar forms of punishment, appear to be part of a coordinated effort by the Israeli government and the Israel lobby to blacklist all student groups that challenge the official Israeli narrative.

Northeastern banned the SJP chapter after it posted on campus replicas of eviction notices that are routinely put up on Palestinian homes set for Israeli demolition. The university notice of suspension says that if the SJP petitions for reinstatement next year, “No current member of the Students for Justice in Palestine executive board may serve on the inaugural board of the new organization” and that representatives from the organization must attend university-sanctioned “trainings.”

In 2011 in California, 10 students who had disrupted a speech at UC Irvine by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren were found guilty, put on informal probation and sentenced to perform community service….continue reading

Gracious God, we are freed by your son, to act boldly in using our wealth and power to defend those who are poor and powerless. Help us see where we have this opportunity in our lives this Lent and embolden us to act. Amen.

Lent 3, Exodus - Remembering Rachel Corrie

Exodus 17.1-7

"Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink." Exodus 17.6

Today is a good day to remember Rachel Corrie. Eleven years ago, on March 16, Rachel, a US citizen, was killed by an Israeli bulldozer as she was protesting to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home in Gaza. To honor her memory and her willingness to put herself in danger for a cause she strongly believed in,  read one of her emails home shortly before her death: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/mar/18/usa.israel

It would be wonderful to report that things have changed in Gaza, but Gaza is worse off today than it was in 2003, with severe malnutrition, damaged infrastructure, intermittent electricity—all under Israel's blockade. Gaza's water supply has been tapped for Israeli use; in fact, Israel claims to own all the water in areas it occupies—even the rainwater.

Gracious God, we are grateful for your servants who stand against injustice. Open our eyes to the suffering around us. Touch our hearts with your mercy, compassion and generosity. Bless Prime Minister Abbas's meeting with President Obama today with your wisdom and courage. Amen.

Lent 2, John—Testifying to What We Have Seen and Heard

We speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen...
John 3.1-17

I heard it again last week—"I needed to tell everyone what is happening. I was convinced that if they knew, the situation will change."

The first time I heard these words I was at the coffee hour at Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem and it was a personal plea to me—the young man wanted to make sure I would tell the people in the US what was happening to the Palestinians in the West Bank. He earnestly said to me, "Surely if people knew what is happening here, things would change for us."

Since then I have heard this from so many Israelis and Palestinians that I have lost count—almost everyone I meet expects us to come back and tell our government. They are fully convinced that if people in the US knew what is going on, the US will stop funding Israel's occupation and their lives will change.

Then last week I heard it again—from a young Israeli, a former IDF soldier, Eran Efrati. This time he was talking about his own witness.

As a 19-year-old, he served in the IDF, stationed in Hebron, where 800 settlers have forced their way into the heart of the old city, at first occupying rooms in a hotel, then claiming property above the market. The settlers create conflict with the Palestinians, by occupying their property illegally. Then the Israeli military is called in to protect the settlers.

In Hebron, there are 800 settlers—with 500 Israeli soldiers and 300 Israeli police to protect them.

Israel has divided Hebron into two zones, H1 and H2—one zone for Israelis and one for Palestinians. Then the soldiers moved the Palestinians out of the Israeli zone. Today the once-busy market street, Shuhada Street, is empty, stores closed and shuttered—only Israeli settlers, American tourists and the patrolling soldiers are on the street.

Eran was one of these soldiers—raiding Palestinian homes in the middle of the night, asserting Israel's authority, terrorizing adults and children. He tells about testing new Israeli weapons—on these very real live people—and being praised for combatting terrorism when his unit accidentally killed a boy.

At the beginning, Eran had been so very sure that if he told his family and friends and other Israelis about what their army is really doing in the West Bank, it would change. Like me, he learned that telling what we have seen may change some hearts, but it does not change government policy.

Eran Efrati is traveling the US with Maya Wind, telling their stories—"The Soldier and the Refusenik," telling stories about their dawning realization that Israel's military occupation of the Palestinians is rotting the core of Israeli society.

Eran and Maya's story is our story too—when, after years of assuming that Israelis and Palestinians would eventually agree to terms and there would be peace, we are confronted with a different reality, one that is not so popular in the news we follow or with our friends.

It's painful to realize that my country is supporting this violence against an indigenous people.

Gracious God, we are so grateful for the good news your son Jesus preached on the hillsides of Palestine. We know that evil does not have the last word, but it is so painful to watch—in Palestine and in so many places on our nightly news. Forgive us our complicity in the oppression we see and empower us to speak out as the victims implore us. Amen.

Lent 2, Romans—Wandering Children of Abraham

For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith.
Romans 4.1-5, 13-17

A Tale of Two Peoples and Two Realities

Jeff Halper is the founder and director of the Israeli non-profit, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). Salim Shawamreh is a Palestinian whose home has been destroyed more than five times and rebuilt by Jeff Halper and ICAHD volunteers. Dalia Landau is an Israeli who opened the door of her home one afternoon and met the Palestinians who had been forced from the home in 1948.

Click on the "Steadfast Hope" study guide below and listen to these Israelis and Palestinians, children of Abraham, talk about living together in a land shared by two peoples.

Watch a video about the rebuilding of Salim's house last summer, July 2013.

Lent 2, Genesis— …so that you will be a Blessing

Genesis 12.1-4a

“Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” Gen 12.1-2

God’s blessing to Abram is difficult to imagine today, as we listen to the news from the land where Abram journeyed. Abram and Sarai traveled from Ur near the Euphrates, north along the river through present-day Iraq, into Syria and then south. His journey took him near places whose names are now familiar to us: An Najaf, Karbala, Fallujah, Ramadi, Aleppo, Homs, Damascus, Amman, Jerusalem, and Hebron, where he received a gift of land from Ephron the Hittite for a burial place for Sarah. Because Abraham was a sojourner in the land. He did not own any land; he was a nomad, a guest.

Does God’s blessing endure? Is God’s blessing being shared by the descendants of Abraham, the people of the land today? How are they reflecting God’s desire for the land?

I think of Eran Efrati, who was in Colorado last week, telling us the story of his own journey—a Jewish Israeli who served in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), and is now speaking out about the harm being done to Israeli society by the practices of Israel’s military. Like Abraham, Eran’s family also journeyed to the land that is now Israel. They came from Iran, from Iraq, from Hungary. Eran, who is in his late 20s, is a seventh generation Jerusalemite.

Eran began his story by telling us about his grandmother, a holocaust survivor who lived with his family. When she was a small child, her father had been taken away by Nazi soldiers, and she was eventually imprisoned at Auschwitz. He tells how she would awaken in the middle of the night, screaming. From a young age, Eran had a strong desire to make sure the horrors of the holocaust would never happen again and he vowed to guard against such violence.

After high school, like all Israeli teenagers, he served his term in the IDF. His unit patrolled the West Bank city of Hebron—if you’ve been there, you have seen how the city is literally a military zone—500 Israeli soldiers and 300 Israeli police protecting 800 ideological settlers intent on claiming the Palestinian city for Israel. 

Hebron is where Abraham received the gift of the land from the Hittites. He buried his wife Sarah here. The Ibrahimi mosque also houses the tombs of Abraham, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah.

Eran tells that during a night raid on the home of a Palestinian family, soldiers in his unit overreact and shoot a small boy. In the confusion, the boy’s father is arrested because he is screaming at the soldiers. Eran hears the boy’s grandmother screaming her grief, and it is the scream of his own grandmother in the night.

Her scream was a turning point for the uneasy soldier, who sought out people who were opposing Israel’s occupation and soon found himself on the other end of the IDF weapons in a protest against Israel’s wall.

Eran joined a group called Breaking the Silence, which records testimony of Israeli soldiers who question what they were ordered to do in enforcing the occupation. He is now touring the US, with his wife Maya (“TheSoldier and the Refusenik”) telling their stories.

See Eran and Maya tell about their journeys in their own words: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fR8_Kn9tQ0 

Gracious God, we have not lived up to your promises for us. Strengthen us in our desires to be a blessing to those we live among. Amen.

Lent 1, Genesis—Tilling and Keeping

Genesis 2.15-17; 3.1-7

Dear God,

It’s me, Eve. Again.

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 good-looking 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—we have made a mess of your good creation. Marchers in the square, guns and tanks on every corner.

In Bil’in, in the Judean hills, the bulldozers are still building the wall, cutting the village off from its farmlands. Tomorrow, after Friday prayers, the people will march from the mosque, out onto the road, past the memorial to Bassem Abu Rahma, killed by Israeli soldiers firing a tear gas canister in 2009. Photo shows Bassem flying a kite in protest against the separation barrier around Bil'in, in July 2008.

The protesters will be joined by Israeli supporters, working to free their country from the tyranny of militarization and occupation, and by peacemakers from all over the world, with a dream to free Palestine from M-16s, the boots of Israeli soldiers hitting the ground and tear gas canisters. 

They will march to the wall, singing freedom songs, waving hopeful Palestinian flags—middle-aged men, old women, young mothers carrying babies, young men wearing the traditional Palestinian kuffiyeh and the young boys, who will pick up handfuls of stones from the road and throw them, in a protest of resistance, at the 27-foo-high concrete barrier blocking access to their land.

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 kill our children.

We try to figure out which side to support, but 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. Help us to see you walking with those who continue to seek their freedom; keep them safe today. Amen.

A Lenten Geography—an Invitation

Although it has become a message for every age, Jesus’ ministry happened in a specific place and time. As I have walked the streets of Jerusalem, sailed on the Sea of Galilee and traveled the winding roads down to the Jordan, I remember that Jesus walked the same dusty roads and climbed the same dry hills—the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea 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 land.

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 put down violently, with all the protesters killed or crucified and entire towns burned to the ground. Finally the Roman Emperor Hadrian defeated the Judeans for the last time in the third rebellion in 135 CE. By renaming the land Syria Palaestina (and renaming Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina) he hoped to wipe out all trace of the Judeans. Rome brought foreigners 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 land which was to have become a Palestinian state is under armed occupation.

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.” (Matt 2.1).

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, is ongoing.

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

The stories of the “living stones,” the people of this holy land, show us God’s work. Each time I visit the Holy Land, the people I meet beg me to tell their stories. They speak with confidence that if the world knew what was happening, their lives would change and the occupation 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. Join me to hear some of these stories from these “living stones”—people working for justice and peace in this much-ravaged land today.

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Festival of the Resurrection, Easter Sunday

Bishop Younan’s Easter Message of Resurrection
“Sadness Transformed into Easter Hope”

They stood still, looking sad. Luke 24.17

As we have journeyed these 40 days, these Lenten meditations have been full of the sorrows and suffering of Palestinians. Bishop Younan, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church or Jordan and the Holy Land writes of suffering and of the hope. Below is an excerpt. Click here to read the entire letter….

….The resurrection news is that Jesus continues to come into our midst, walks with us, and accompanies us along our road to Emmaus. We often do not recognize the risen Jesus in the stranger who has become our companion. Jesus is there in the ones accompanying us, the young and the old, men and women, people of all nations and ethnicities, people who speak languages so

different from our own. Jesus is there in the other—the one walking with us along the road, the one listening to our stories, the one empathizing with our plight, the one lifting up our eyes to see beyond the present moment….

The good news is that Jesus continues to give us a reason to hope. “We had hoped,” we often say as if the reason for our hopes has died, as if our hopes had been nothing but a fleeting fancy, as if our hopes were blown away with the dust of the ground by the strong April winds. “We had hoped,” we say in despair, and Jesus reminds us that ours is a God of everlasting hope. Jesus directs us to the unfailing promises of God, to read the Scriptures until our hearts burn with excitement and longing, to focus on Jesus’ own teaching that it was necessary for the Son of Man to suffer, and to rise again, and that he lives in Jerusalem, in the whole Middle East, and to the ends of the earth.

We live in hope, no matter what our circumstances, no matter what the rumors, no matter what the media says to the contrary. We live in hope, because Jesus is alive and with us until the end of the age. We Arab Christians, who received this message of the resurrection so many years ago, now keep the hope alive from generation to generation in order to continue to transform hate and division into a living hope that we might have life, and have it abundantly. And as long as this Middle East Church continues its faithful witness, the world will have a tangible sign of the truth of the resurrection.

The resurrection revives in us the hope that emanates from the cross and the empty tomb. Not a triumphal hope, but a hope that works against the odds. If the resurrection offers us the least expected surprise, so our hope opens the window to a future of surprises full of love and dignity. This is why we continue to affirm our commitment to the two-state solution with a shared Jerusalem for Jews, Muslims, and Christians, for Israelis and Palestinians.

The good news is that Jesus continues to feed us with bread for the journey so that our eyes are opened to the needs of the world and our souls are strengthened to return to Jerusalem. We are no longer standing still, immobilized by our grief and our fears, but hastening on our journey, running with the wind at our backs. We are no longer looking sad, but filled with joy, our mourning songs turned to dancing. The good news is that Jesus has called us to be his witnesses, to proclaim with confidence that Jesus is risen. He is risen indeed.

This is the reason that the Church has a mission today. It has the calling of the resurrection. We are to run back from Emmaus to Jerusalem nourished by the Eucharist and full of hope to join with the whole community of believers. We are to run back to Jerusalem to strengthen those who are sad, who feel confusion, who are uncertain. We are to run back to Jerusalem to remind our sisters and brothers that, the more the darkness of Good Friday seems to hover still over the Middle East, the more we are convinced of the strength of resurrection. We are to continue to run back to Jerusalem to proclaim that Christ is alive in our world today, despite all the odds. He is risen indeed.

Al Masih Qam! Haqan Qam!
Alleluia! Christ is Risen! Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!

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Good Friday, 2012—Stations of the Cross

Good Friday, 2012—Stations of the Cross

Jesus’ way of the cross is something Palestinians know intimately. Every day in the West Bank, Gaza and in Israel, Palestinians suffer at the hands of the governing authorities—standing at the checkpoints; watching their homes being demolished; seeing their sons and daughters, brothers and husbands arrested or killed by Israeli soldiers. This is daily life for Palestinians.

Jesus is condemned to death

Palestinian children gather around the body of Hisham Saad during his funeral in the Gaza Strip, April 4, 2012. According to Palestinian medical sources, Saad was killed by Israeli forces near the border between Israel and the east of Gaza City. (Reuters/Mohammed Salem) http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=474015

Jesus accepts the cross

Marwan Barghouti, a popular Palestinian leader arrested in 2002 for his leadership in the second intifada (the popular uprising against Israel’s occupation) is serving a prison term of five consecutive life sentences. Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery has called him the “Palestinian Mandela.” This week he was placed in solitary confinement for calling for “a large scale popular resistance” against the occupation, based on Israel’s continuing settlement-building. He said the settlements show that Israel is not an honest partner in peace negotiations. The peace process is a sham. http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2012/04/05/what-marwan-barghouti-really-means-to-palestinians/

Jesus falls the first time

On December 11, 2011, Mustafa Tamimi, participating in the weekly protest in his village of Nabi Saleh was shot in the face with a tear gas canister and died from his wounds. In the photo, taken by other demonstrators, Mustafa is protesting the presence of Israeli soldiers and the theft of village lands for the building of the wall. The red circles show the tear gas canister being fired by an Israeli soldier from inside the armored vehicle. http://972mag.com/mustafa-tamimi-a-murder-captured-on-camera/29459/

Jesus meets his mother

Hana Shalabi, imprisoned again in December, began a hunger strike to protest Israel’s practice of administrative detention. In this photo, her mother holds a poster supporting her. She and Hana’s father also participated in the hunger strike. Hana was released last week—not to her home and her family, but exiled to Gaza for three years. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17582868

Simon of Cyrene carries the cross

Vittorio Arigoni was one of many international activists who come to Palestine to support the popular movement against Israel’s occupation and theft of land. He had dedicated his life to Palestinian freedom and he was kidnapped and killed a year ago, in Gaza. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13088630

Veronica wipes the face of Jesus

Lisa teaches English at Dar al-Kalima (school) in Bethlehem, a ministry of the Christmas Lutheran Church. In the midst of suffering and humiliation that the children of Bethlehem and their families experience daily, Dar al-Kalima teaches the children skills they will be able to use as leaders of Palestine, giving them self-confidence and hope for the future.

Jesus falls the second time

Mahmoud Zakut was shot dead on March 30, in a Land Day protest of several thousand people on the Gaza border with Israel, when dozens of youths walked towards the border fence. After firing warning shots, Israeli troops opened fire on the crowd, killing Mahmoud and wounding 37 others. Watch a USA Today news report.

Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem

A weekly sit-in by the families of Palestinian political prisons inside Gaza’s International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) http://mondoweiss.net/2012/04/in-pictures-gaza-rally-welcomes-hana-shalabi.html

Jesus falls the third time

The suffering of Palestinians is so often described in shootings, beatings, imprisonment—but daily deprivations are probably the most damaging to the people. Israel controls the importation of diesel oil to fuel the generators for Gaza’s electric power. http://www.pri.org/stories/world/middle-east/gaza-residents-granted-temporary-reprieve-from-fuel-crisis-but-shortages-still-loom-9288.html

Jesus is stripped of His garments

When Hana Shalabi was arrested in December, she reports that she was strip searched by a male Israeli soldier and an afidavit filed with her lawyer documents her humiliation. http://gazatvnews.com/2012/03/hana-shalabi-on-hunger-strike-for-22-days/

Jesus is nailed to the cross

Most every day in Palestine, someone is arrested and imprisoned by Israeli soldiers. After the prisoner exchange that released 477 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, there were still 5300 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, including 22 elected legislators. Photo: parents of Ibrahim, who was arrested in June, 2010 for throwing stones in the village of Beit Ummar.

Jesus dies on the cross

Palestinians die almost daily in the West Bank and Gaza. Juliano MerKhamis was killed April 4, 2011 http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israeli-actor-juliano-mer-khamis-shot-dead-in-jenin-1.354044

A year later, on the anniversary of his death—The UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory called Wednesday for the murderer of Juliano Mer-Khamis to be brought to justice. "On the first anniversary of the murder," Maxwell Gaylard said he would remember Mer-Khamis as a "visionary and courageous peacemaker and a champion of culture and freedom of expression". He called "upon all concerned authorities to intensify the efforts to bring his murderers to justice." http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=473921

Jesus’ body is removed from the cross

Photo shows Hana Shalabi being treated by paramedics upon her arrival in Gaza. She was released from Israeli prison after her hunger strike. http://www.smh.com.au/world/palestinian-prisoner-released-after-hunger-strike-protest-20120402-1w8p3.html

Jesus is laid in the tomb and covered with incense

This artwork on Israel’s security wall in Bethlehem makes a statement about the link between Palestinian suffering and American ideals and values, and between Palestinian oppression and US military aid to Israel.

Holy Week Greeting from Taybeh, Palestine

[Raised in Denver, Dr. Maria Khoury returned to the family village of Taybeh, Palestine, with her husband after the Oslo Accords in 1993. They wanted to boost the economy and raise their children with centuries-old Palestinian Christian values and traditions. Today’s meditation consists of excerpts from her Holy Week greeting from Taybeh. Read the entire message on her blog.]

Reflecting upon my favorite champions of the Church is the easiest of all tasks while I am sitting in the middle of the wilderness. However, it has turned into a lifelong journey to understand these holy people of God and to even attempt to be like them in the smallest way.

As I mentioned many times, I live in a world that has other champions, and this month, the local Palestinian female hero is Hana Al-Shalaby, who has gone way beyond 35 days on hunger strike and near death to protest her unlawful kidnapping and being held in “administrative detention” by the Israeli army.

As much as I try not to be of this world but to live in this world, and survive my own strange world, the evil one continues to play with my mind. When I feel extra sorry for myself for living in the middle of nowhere, I just stare down at the Jordan Valley where St. Mary of Egypt spent more than forty years of her life seeking forgiveness from God, and I figure, if she survived having absolutely no materialist things, maybe I can somehow manage with running water only twice a week, unstable electricity, and total occupation with no freedom of movement whatsoever. I am sure we are all familiar that one must suffer to know God and to gain gifts of the holy spirit.

Since I live in the highest mountain region of Palestine, the West Bank of the Jordan River, not only do I see the Jordan Valley but so many other things like the lights shining at night from Jerusalem reminding me that Christ is the True Light of the world with the promise of eternal life. His holy resurrection took place in this holy city where ongoing bloodshed, hostility, and violence continue until this day. However, Christ always reminds us of true justice, and He always stood with the oppressed. Thus, we, as Christian people, remain peaceful and wait for a just peace.

…..Most people know the story of St. Mary of Egypt well since she walked the streets of Alexandria because she left her parents when she was twelve and sold her body for pleasure and money, but in today’s Middle East culture, she would have been a victim of honor killing for bringing shame to her family. She did not come to the Holy Land for a spiritual experience but saw pilgrims getting on the boat for the Holy Land and came just for the fun of it. Little did she know at possibly eighteen years of age that this would be the life-changing experience she never planned. If God is working in your life, I bet you are doing so many things you never planned on doing.

Did she ever think that she would be a spiritual ambassador? My children still cannot believe it, and they become adults. I remember every April 1^st the joke was, "ok, Mom, if St. Mary of Egypt is really a saint, why did the Church assign her to be remembered on April Fools’ Day?" Well, so goes the conversation again of trying to look down and see the Jordan Valley with a vision not of what we were, but of what we want to be in this lifetime and for eternity. Not sure I have taught my children to be faithful servants of God, but surely this is what St. Mary of Egypt has taught me. I do not know how she lived in the middle of no man's land without absolutely anything, but the grace of God was sufficient for her…..

May we be enlightened to recognize our Lord and Savior and partake of the Bread of Life as St. Mary of Egypt. May this holy resurrection we are about to experience at the glorious Pascha be a life-changing experience for all of us to know the truth. St. Sophronius indicated that God will work amazing miracles and generously bestow gifts on those who turn to Him with faith, who hear, read, and seek light for themselves in the story of St. Mary of Egypt, surely for me, the ultimate champion in reflecting forgiveness….

God of all grace and goodness, we thank you for your saints, who show us your way. Amen.