"Our God Wishes the Best for Us"

Advent 2 – Romans
Romans 15.4-13
…so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope… (Rom 15.

When we look around us with our eyes, we do not see much harmony in the world. No matter where we look—American, Africa, Latin America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East—our eyes show us division and enmity, competition and struggle.

In Palestine, no matter where the eye looks, it sees division and struggle—a gigantic 27-foot-high wall, still being constructed, to keep people separated; concrete and razor-wire barriers to keep farmers from their olive groves; rubble piled in the middle of the road to prevent travel between Palestinian towns; rules that exclude some groups of people; government policies in East Jerusalem that build homes for some and bulldoze the homes of others.

These are the scenes the human eye can see, but this is not what God sees. This is not what God intends for God’s creation. Paul is clear here in his letter to the Christians in Rome—it is not sight, but hope that is at the heart of the gospel proclamation. Hope is what enables us to live the lives God has planned—a creation living in harmony, one with one another.

In my travels in Palestine and in Israel, meeting with people who are working for peace with justice, what most amazes me is the hope I experience, the hope of these people, living behind walls and rubble and razor wire. It is clearly not a hope that depends on living conditions getting better and better, or an economy that expands and grows, or a rising line on the stock market graph. The hope I have witnessed among the Palestinians and Israelis working for peace does not depend on improvements in Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. It does not depend on who is elected to lead either the Israelis or the Palestinians—or who the Americans elect president.

The hope I have seen is a hope grounded, not in our plans, but in God’s plans—“plans for your welfare…to give you a future with hope.” (Jer 29.11)

Earlier this week I wrote about Farhan Alqam, a Muslim living in the village of Beit Ummar in the West Bank, who sat in his mother’s living room with us and talked about his hopes for the future. In 2006 he was elected mayor of Beit Ummar. He impressed me as a man of hope, but his hope is not grounded in what he sees with his eyes.

If he looked only with his eyes, he would see his own arrest shortly after the election, when all Hamas elected officials were rounded up and thrown in prison.

If he looked only with his eyes, he would see a village impoverished by its isolation, surrounded on three sides by Israeli settlements which continue to confiscate lands belonging to the village. Beit Ummar cannot expand as its population grows because the lands have all been taken for Israeli settlement construction.

If he looked only with his eyes, he would see 14-year-old Ibrahim, who was arrested a few days before we arrived, “for throwing stones.” Israeli soldiers broke into the house at 2:00 am and dragged 14-year-old Ibrahim outside, wearing only his shirt and shorts. His family was also forced outside—his parents and his nine brothers and sisters, even the baby—to watch the soldiers beat him.

But Farhan does not look only with his eyes. He also sees with his heart of faith. When we asked him where he finds hope, he replied, “I teach my sons and daughters to love, not hate.” Farhan is able to continue his struggle for equal rights because sees with his heart the future God has promised. He told us, "Our God wishes the best for us; he sends the prophets to take us away from the bad things; the worst thing is hate….I would prefer that the Kaaba (Islam’s most sacred site, in Mecca) be demolished stone by stone—that would be better than killing one person….A drop of water will change even a hard surface.”"

When I read the concluding verse of this week’s text from Romans, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,” I see Farhan sitting with his son in his lap and his mother looking on proudly. Photo: Farhan and his mother.

God of all hope, in this Advent season of hope, open our hearts to see your future—a future of hope and harmony. Help us to hold this vision before us as we work for peace and justice for those we meet on our journey. Amen.