Matthew 3.1-12
REPENT, for the kingdom of heaven has come near (Matt 3.2)
Preparing for Christmas—my checklist:
✓buying cards and writing Christmas letters
✓shopping for friends and family
✓decorating the house
✓baking cookies
✓buying plane tickets…..what is wrong with my Advent?
In my party-world preparations for Christmas—baking, lots of eating and gift-shopping—John’s words are shocking. There’s NOTHING on my list about repentance.
John’s rantings ground me in a very different reality—the geography of the Judean wilderness, the Jordan River, the land where Abraham herded his animals and hoped for an heir, the dry almost-desert of Judea, where Jesus was born. And, John, who has been sent to help me prepare for Christmas, does not tell me to head for the mall. John demands my repentance.
Repentance…..the real preparation for Christmas—self-examination, confessing my sins and then repenting—turning away from these sinful practices.
When I visit John’s wilderness, I see how the separation wall is causing suffering as is cuts between a Palestinian’s home and his olive groves, or in Bethlehem where it forces workers to stand in line at the checkpoint for two hours every morning on their way to Jerusalem, I wonder…..what I can do to change things?
When I ask the Palestinians I meet what I can do to help their situation, they never hesitate. They say: change the policies of your government—
✓stop America’s one-sided, unconditional support of Israel
✓stop sending Israel the money and weapons that oppress us
It is a harsh answer for me. It points a finger at me and names my own sin, my role in the wall-building and imprisonments, my role in maintaining the che
ckpoints and demolishing Palestinian homes. It is my tax dollars that finance all their suffering. Photo shows my tax dollars at work: Israeli soldiers protecting the bulldozers that are destroying the Bedouin village of Al Aruqib, as residents watch, horrified, July, 2010.[The US is now giving Israel $2.5 billion in aid every year . The Senate has approved President Obama’s request for $3B in military aid for 2011. (The Jewish Virtual Library provides similar statistics). $500 Million (Congressional Research Service) has been appropriated for the Palestinians in 2010. According to Wikipedia, there are 7.5 million Israelis (1.5 million of whom are Palestinian or Syriac), and 4.1 million Palestinians (living in the West Bank and Gaza). So, the population of the area is pretty evenly divided, roughly: 52% Jewish Israeli and 48% Palestinian.]
I cannot fix the problems that divide Israelis and Palestinians. I cannot dictate the terms of a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. I can only do my part—repent. Repentance is a turning—away from the US policies that have supported injustice, not only in Palestine, but all over the world.
Crazy John in the wilderness, wearing animal skins and eating insects and honey, shouting nonsense, announces what we must do to prepare for Christ—and it’s nothing from my Christmas checklist.
Take a few minutes to write a letter to your senator, representative or to the President, expressing what you want them to do with the money you pay in taxes.
- President Obama: http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/
- Senator Michael Bennet: http://bennet.senate.gov/contact/
- Senator Mark Udall: http://markudall.senate.gov/?p=contact
- Other Senators: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
- Representative Diana DeGette (Denver): http://www.house.gov/htbin/formproc_za/formdegette/issue_subscribe_parm.txt&form=/issue_subscribe_v2.htm&nobase
- Other Representatives: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
Read more about Haaretz's coverage of the destruction of Al Araqib: http://un-truth.com/israel/al-arakib-some-background-via-haaretz
God of new beginnings, as we begin the church’s new year, help us heed your call for repentance; turn our hearts toward your love and mercy and strengthen us for the work ahead. Help us to bear good fruit, working to bring hope and healing to your creation. Amen.
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