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.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
From Bethany to Jerusalem Today
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.
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.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Resisting the Rulers of the World
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.
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
"...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
Interesting to compare the AP story with the one in the New York Times (from Thursday's post).
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Judging the World
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
