Advent 4, Week of December 20, 2009 - Luke

Advent 4
Luke 1.39-45 (46-55)

What an unlikely God those Israelites have been following—from Ur to Palestine, from Egypt across the Sinai Desert, and back to Palestine. The God of Mary’s rejoicing favors the lowly, not the powerful. His strength brings down the powerful. Unlike the gods of the armies who occupy the land, the Roman pantheon of gods, chasing after beautiful women and defeating their enemies in battle, Mary’s God uses strength and power to feed the hungry. What an odd God! Not at all what the rest of the world was looking for.

And so God continues to appear to us—not as a mighty woman- and enemy-conquering god, but as a small, vulnerable, powerless baby-god, born to a woman who describes herself as “lowly,” and her people as “servants.” Not only does Mary’s god bring down the powerful, but also sends the rich away with nothing—no reward, no lavish feast for the rich. The poor are the only ones who receive this god’s mercy and riches.

In the “hill country” of “Judah” today (scholars find little evidence to indicate the location of the town where Mary visits Elizabeth), the poor and powerless still count on God’s promised blessings; they still trust that God will fill their hungry stomachs and their aching souls with good things. The Christians who live in some of these hills outside Jerusalem today—in Bethlehem, Beit Jala, Beit Sahour, and south to Hebron hills—have learned that they cannot count on the promises of the Israeli government or the U.S. No matter what the treaties or peace agreements say, these humble hill country people have learned that they can count only on God, and so they live as if they are receiving God’s promised abundance, their guiding principle: “that they may have life abundant.”

Like the rest of us, these Palestinian Christians are preparing to celebrate the arrival of the Prince of Peace. This morning (Saturday, December 20) I worshiped with them, gathering with a small group at Bethany Lutheran in Denver—a service simulcast with those gathered at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. Bishops, pastors and lay people committed to peace and justice read lessons and sang carols as we prepare to receive the Prince of Peace. This is the abundant life our Palestinian Lutheran sisters and brothers are creating—a life lived as if the wall were not separating us, a life lived, trusting that God’s promises of life abundant are indeed true. Photo: Lutheran Christmas Church, Bethlehem

Please join in praying one of the prayers we prayed this morning:
Incarnate God, your angel host announces that peace is born among us, embodied in frail flesh. With confidence in the power of that miracle, we bring you our prayers for the church and the world. That the child born to us may awaken us to heal this broken and hurting world, and that the peace proclaimed by angels in the shepherds’ field will be realized in every place of war and on every violent street, we pray to you, O God…Come now, O God of love. Reconcile your people and make us one body. Amen

Advent 4, Week of December 13, 2009 - Micah

Micah 5.2-5a

And they shall live secure,
For now he shall be great to the ends of the earth;
And he will be their peace. (Micah 5.4b-5a)

Security…..we are willing to do some very strange things in the name of security—it’s why we stand in line in our socks for half an hour at the airport, and spend our money on alarm systems for our houses and cars. It’s why we let strangers paw through our backpacks before we can get into the Rockies game.

We think that if we can just eliminate our enemies, we will be secure. It’s why we have thought that it is a good idea to sacrifice 4689 American and allied soldiers in Iraq and 1538 in Afghanistan (http://icasualties.org/), deeming this sacrifice necessary for our security.

That’s how we think in America, because we have power. We are not “one of the little clans.” We are the big guys……with the big guns.

But the people who live in the “Little Town” in Ephrathah today, don’t have any big guns—Palestinians have no army, no tanks. So they have to find other ways to be secure. They are building their security by making their town a safe place to live, by giving their young people a future of hope. Instead of taking up arms, the young people of Bethlehem can learn to use a camera to document their lives, to tell their stories to the rest of the world. Dar al-Kalima College offers classes in documentary filmmaking and communication. Instead of throwing rocks at the Israeli soldiers who charge into Bethlehem in their tanks, the children of the Deheisheh Refugee Camp in Bethlehem can take classes after school in the Bright Stars of Bethlehem program, taking swim lessons or music and art lessons, play on a soccer team or paint a picture. Photo: Bright Stars Christmas program, 2008

While Israel builds its security with a 24-foot high wall and guards armed with automatic weapons, the people of Bethlehem, walled in by this barrier, are building security with after-school activities for the children and youth of Bethlehem—Christian and Muslim. In a region we see as divided over religion, they are building bridges of understanding and peace, starting with the children.

You can support their work by reading more about their work and contributing to these programs: http://www.brightstarsbethlehem.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2&Itemid=4

This Saturday, December 19, you can worship with these remarkable Christians in their church in Bethlehem, via a simulcast. A special prayer service joining Christians living in Bethlehem, Palestine—the place of Jesus' birth—and Christians in Washington, D.C., will be offered in a live simulcast service at Bethany Lutheran Church, 4500 East Hampden Avenue at 8:00 a.m.

This service brings together Christians from the Middle East and the United States for a unique opportunity to share the true mean of Christmas, the gift of God's love given to all the world through Jesus Christ. The service will be broadcast from the Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, Palestine, where the Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb is Pastor, as well as from the Bethlehem Chapel at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

Loving God, you have formed us and we are yours. You do not forget us, even when we are among the “little ones.” We rejoice in this Advent season as we prepare to receive you once again, the one of peace in a world in need of peace. Help us to be faithful followers of your way of peace, trusting in the security only you provide. Amen.

Advent 3, Week of December 13, 2009 - Luke

Luke 3.7-18

Bear fruits worthy of repentance...Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees…. (Luke 3.8)

I cannot read these words without thinking of all the olive trees I saw in Israel and Palestine that have been cut down.

On the road from Jerusalem down to Jericho, on the left hand side of the highway, there is a whole orchard of stumps of the trees that have been cut down to make way for the settler road, linking Jerusalem to its settlements in the West Bank, where even today, the Israeli government has given permits for more illegal building, the “natural growth” expansion on land I always thought would eventually become the Palestinian state.

In Jayyous, where I stood in the village at the top of the hill and looked down on the olive groves which now lie on the other side of the barbed wire security barrier, I could see where hundreds of trees had been cut down to build the barrier, a twenty-foot-wide swath of dirt and barbed wire. Each morning and afternoon the checkpoint between the village and its olive groves is open for an hour to let the farmers pass through from their village at the top of the hill to their olive groves at the bottom. Seventy-five percent of their olive groves have been cut off from the village by the security barrier.

When we toured the village, Dr. Abdul Latif told us that one third of the villagers lost their land when the barrier was built because they could not provide adequate documentation of their ownership and were therefore denied permits to cross at the checkpoint and tend their olive trees. Fifty percent of the villagers must now depend on food aid because they cannot farm their land. Photo: view of the security barrier and checkpoint separating Jayyous from its olive groves.

The residents of Jayyous have been engaging in non-violent demonstrations against the building of the Israeli security barrier, and now 40 of the village’s 3000 residents are in prison. An additional 3000 people of Jayyous live abroad, many of them leaving because they were unable to find work and make a living in Jayyous.

Land confiscated from the village has been used for the construction of the Israeli settlement of Zufim. A report in 2004, describes one of the confrontations between settlers and the people of Jayyous: “On Dec. 9, Zufim settlers uprooted 117 olive trees at Jayyous, the Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported. Villagers said dozens of settlers, some of them armed, entered the olive grove owned by Jayyous resident Mohammed Salim that morning and began razing it with a bulldozer. Villagers alerted the occupation authorities, but police and troops only arrived in the afternoon--long after the trees had been destroyed. "How would you like to buy one of my trees?" a settler told an international. The uprooted trees were carted away in the direction of Israel, possibly to end up in Israeli nurseries for sale, construction workers reported. The phenomenon of Palestinian olive trees uprooted by Israel in the building of its separation barrier ending up being sold as trophy plants in Israeli nurseries was well documented in "The battle of the Olive," by Danny Adino Ababa, Meron Rapaport and Oron Meiri, Jan 22, 2003, in the Israeli paper Yediot Ahanorot . Read the rest of this story: http://ww4report.com/105/palestine/jayyous

Read another article about Jayyous in The Nation, by this same writer, David Bloom: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20040308/bloom

Gracious God, help us to heed John the Baptist’s call to repentance. In this Advent season, awaken us from our apathy and turn us to your way of justice and mercy, that we may bear fruits worthy of repentance. Amen.

Advent 3, Week of December 13, 2009 - Zephaniah

Zephaniah 3.14-20

And I will save the lame
and gather the outcast,
and I will change their shame into praise
and renown in all the earth. (Zephaniah 3.19)

Prophets see what others cannot; they proclaim what others dare not; they shout the words that we do not want to hear. In the opening verses of his book, Zephaniah sees a Jerusalem filled with pride, ignoring God’s commandments, and pronounces a judgment they do not want to hear: “I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth.” (Zephaniah 1.1)

But he also sees that this is not the end of the story. After the oracles judge Israel for its sinful idolatrous behavior and announce a cosmic destruction, Zephaniah looks beyond her failings and sees a future the people cannot imagine—a future of hope and joy, a time when God will stand with them, protecting them from all danger, freeing them from their oppressors.

Zephaniah’s heirs, the people of the Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem have claimed their own prophetic voice. Where the view from Bethlehem is a 24-foot high wall, the people of the Lutheran Christmas Church see beyond the wall. In a town where going to work means a 2-hour wait in line to get through the checkpoint, these people hear Zaphaniah’s prophecy and build a college for the young people of Bethlehem. Where I saw empty hotels and shuttered stores, they see a future when their town will once again be a bustling pilgrimage site for Christians from all over the world.

Founded three years ago, Dar al-Kalima College offers degrees in tourism and media production. It provides practical skills and hope for the future for Christian and Muslim young people of Bethlehem. The people of the Lutheran Christmas Church are building, not for what they CAN see—the rubble and barbed wire closing all but a couple of the roads into Jerusalem. They are building for a future they CANNOT see—the future God has promised in these words of Zephaniah. A promise to all God’s people—Israeli and Palestinian—as they have seen it embodied in Jesus Christ. Photo shows instructor and student at Dar al-Kalima College.

I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth……A promise also for Hannah, living in Jerusalem on the other side of the wall, the Israeli grandmother I met who sees her grandchildren losing their compassion during military training that teaches them how to shoot Palestinian children who throw stones at them. Hannah stands at the checkpoints and monitors the soldiers’ behavior, helping Palestinians get through when they are denied passage for no reason. Zephaniah offers Hannah a promise that will change her shame into praise.

I will change their shame into praise….And a promise for Americans like me who sit by while our tax dollars provide weapons and ammunition and bulldozers that kill Palestinian children and destroy their homes…..a promise that God will change our shame into praise.

Read more about Dar Al-Kalima College in Bethlehem

Gracious God, we have sinned against your good intentions for your creation. We have made a mockery of your peace, with our insatiable need for comfort and security, which has made us deaf to the cries of your people who desire freedom. We rejoice that you have not abandoned us, that your mercy extends even to us in our disobedience. Help us to follow in your ways of peace and understanding and renew us in your love. Amen.

Advent 2, Week of December 6, 2009—Luke

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler* of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,
‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
'Prepare the way of the Lord,
Make straight the paths of the Lord
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'” (Luke 3.1-6)

In the sixty-first year of the reign of the State of Israel, when Benjamin Netanyahu is Prime Minister of Israel and Nir Barkat is mayor of Jerusalem, and the Israeli Defense Forces rule over Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, during the Presidency of Mahmoud Abbas and the reign of HAMAS, the word of God comes to the people of the Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, living between Jerusalem and the wilderness that stretches down to the Jordan River.

And the people of the Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem go out into the whole region of Bethlehem and gather in the children, the elders, the sick, the refugees, the hopeless…urging them to “repent,” to turn from their hopelessness and desperation, and follow a new vision, a vision announced long ago by the prophet Isaiah.
"....the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God."

The people of the Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem go out, saying to all the people, “We live under occupation. The state of Israel controls our travel, our roads, our businesses, and the Israeli army enforces the edicts. We cannot fly out of the airport in Tel Aviv; we cannot travel to the trade shows in Tel Aviv to purchase goods for our stores. Although we pay our taxes to the government of Israel, we cannot even drive within the West Bank, from Bethlehem to Hebron, on the ‘settlers only’ highway, but we must take poorly maintained back roads and sometimes drive around piles of rubble pushed onto the road by the soldiers’ bulldozers.

Photo: the settler road, walled off from the surrounding Palestinian lands, tunnels under the town of Beit Jala in the West Bank.

Then they say to the people of Bethlehem:

But the occupation does not define us; the occupation does not shape us and make us who we are; we will shape our own future. We will build a future for our children AS IF the occupation does not exist. We will build a school for our children, Muslim and Christian; and a Wellness Center for our tired and stressed-out people, weary from waiting for permits to travel or add a bedroom to our homes or repair our roof, weary from waiting in lines at checkpoints. We will build a senior center where our elders can find some peace and a place to share their stories and their wisdom. We will build a college where our young people can learn a profession and maintain our cultural identity—offering degrees in tourism, media and the arts. We will start a leadership circle, where our young people can learn skills and meet mentors who will enable them to be leaders in a future Palestinian state.”

Photo: waiting with the taxis, trucks loaded with supplies, buses and even ambulances at the checkpoint in Hebron.

Learn more about the gospel being proclaimed in Bethlehem through the building of schools and community gathering places: http://www.diyar-consortium.org/

As you shop for friends and family this Christmas, give a Christmas gift to the work of the people living in Bethlehem today: http://www.brightstarsbethlehem.org/

Gracious God, you exhort us to “make straight the paths of the Lord.” Help us to find ways to cry out in today’s wilderness of apathy and greed, hatred and ethnic superiority. Make us proclaimers of your “baptism of repentance.” Help us to turn from our despair and hopelessness and work together to make your world whole, in your holy land and in our own. Amen.