Read James 5.7-10
The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth,
Being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. (James 5.7)
It is the season of Advent….the church’s season of waiting. A countercultural season. As the world lined up at Wall-Mart to be first in line for the midnight opening the day after Thanksgiving, we began our four weeks of the intentional practice of waiting.
If you have ever planted seeds, you know that for a few days, nothing happens. You plant, you water, you fertilize …but there is nothing else for you to do but wait for the first shoots to appear.
The olive tree is the mainstay of agriculture in the Middle East. In Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives, there are trees that are believed to be more than 2000 years old. Last fall when we visited the Church of All Nations at the foot of the Mount of Olives
, workers were picking olives from these ancient trees, which may have provided fruit in Jesus’ time and still are producing fruit today (see photo).It seems like every Palestinian family has at least one olive tree. Even in the cities, there is at least one olive tree in every yard; olive groves surround all the villages and towns; olive trees stand in vacant lots. They are persistent; they survive even drought and neglect. But growing olive trees is not for the impatient. After a tree is planted, it takes four years for it to produce fruit—four years of watering, cultivating, weeding.
In her book, The Olive Grove, Deborah Rohan, writes about the Moughrabi family, who now live in Colorado. Their great-grandfather Kamel was an olive grower near Akka, and, in the late 1930s, he followed the Palestinian tradition of planting an olive grove for each of his children, knowing that by the time each child was sixteen, he or she would have an income from the fruit, a business which could support a family.
I am an extraordinarily impatient person, so I have been amazed by the patience of the Palestinians I have met. Like Kamel Moughrabi, they build and make plans for a future they cannot see. Every refugee camp has a preschool full of exuberant children. Palestinian families are insistent that their children attend college—it is their creative response to the occupation.
While Presidents, Prime Ministers and diplomats talk-talk-talk, Palestinians are preparing leaders for the day when they will have their own state. On November 30, the first building for Dar Al-Kalima College in Bethlehem was dedicated—the first Lutheran college in the Middle East! They began classes in 2007, and can now expand their enrollment with this new building.
Dr. Nuha Khoury, Dean of the College, describes their work: “We don’t expect change to come from outside. Palestinians have great sources of strength. In Palestine institutions are being built to empower the young and women, to provide people with skills, and to hold up a vision for the future.” A future when there will be fruit to pick from the trees that have been planted.
Read the rest of this interview with Dr. Khoury - Learn more about Dar al-Kalima college.
God of hope, in Advent we pause for a moment today, in gratitude for the hope you promise. Slow us our frantic pace of life, and teach us patience as we cultivate and plant and water, waiting for the fruits of the work you have given us to do. Amen.
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