Journey to Bethlehem in Advent

Rachel is Weeping for Her Children

2010-12-31T08:32:00.000-08:00

Matthew 2.13-18

Tuesday on the church year calendar was the commemoration for the Holy Innocents, Martyrs, December 28. The day reminds us that throughout history, children have been the victims of the struggle for power. God’s command to Joseph is clear, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” (Matt 2.13)

As Joseph, Mary and Jesus fled to Egypt, they would most likely have traveled the road through what is now Gaza. Today in Gaza, children are routinely wounded and even killed by Israeli soldiers when they gather gravel to sell. During Christmas week, four people were injured, including a fourteen-year-old boy was shot in the head, as they gathered gravel in the northern part of Gaza, near the border with Israel. (Read the story: http://www.france24.com/en/20101223-israeli-gunfire-wounds-four-gaza )

In May, in Beit Ummar, just south of Bethlehem, I met the parents of a 14-year-old boy, Ibrahim, who had been arrested the week before for “throwing stones” (which he denied). His uncle and aunt had invited our Compassionate Listening group to their home. They were all part of a group called Wounded Crossing Borders, which brings together people on both sides of the conflict (Jew and Arab) who have been wounded or suffered the loss of loved ones. At the time, Ibrahim was still in detention and his parents had great difficulty being able to see him. (Read more about his story in a previous blog entry – Ibrahim was released and charges dismissed in mid-December, with the help of the Israelis in Wounded Crossing Borders.)

The statistics are alarming: According to Israeli police, 1200 Palestinian children have been arrested, interrogated and imprisoned in the occupied city of Jerusalem alone this year. The youngest of these children was seven years old. Children and teen-agers were often dragged out of their beds in the middle of the night, taken in handcuffs for questioning, threatened, humiliated and many were subjected to physical violence while under arrest as part of an ongoing campaign against the children of Palestine. Since the year 2000, more than 8000 have been arrested by Israel, and reports of mistreatment are commonplace. Further, based on sworn affidavits collected in 2009 from 100 of these children, lawyers working in the occupied West Bank with Defense Children International, a Geneva-based non governmental organization, found that 69% were beaten and kicked, 49% were threatened, 14% were held in solitary confinement, 12% were threatened with sexual assault, including rape, and 32% were forced to sign confessions written in Hebrew, a language they do not understand. Minors were often asked to give names and incriminate friends and relatives as a condition of their release. Such institutionalized and systematic mistreatment of Palestinian children by the state of Israel is a violation international law and specifically contravenes the Convention on the Rights of the Child to which Israel is supposedly a signatory. (source: http://www.al-awda.org/alert-children3.html )

Gracious God, you protected your son from the brutality of empire. Help us continue your work by protecting the children who are endangered in our world today, including the children who live today in the land where your son Jesus walked. Help us bring Jesus’ healing touch to those who suffer. Amen.

Use the action alert below to protest the treatment of children by the Israeli military:

Petition - Free The Children of Palestine!
December 17, 2010

ACT NOW!

Please take a moment to read and sign the online petition at: http://www.gopetition.com/petition/41467.html

This petition demands that President Barak Obama direct Israel to release all Palestinian children detained in its prisons and detention centers immediately, and to end all forms of systematic and institutionalized abuse that it practices against the children of Palestine.

Please ask your friends and contacts to do the same.

Until Return,

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel: 760-918-9441
Fax: 760-918-9442
E-mail: info@al-awda.org
WWW: http://al-awda.org

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC) is a not for profit tax-exempt educational and charitable 501(c)(3) organization as defined by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States of America. Under IRS guidelines, your donations to PRRC are tax-deductible. To donate, please go to http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the instructions. To become a member, go to http://al-awda.org/membership.html

Tonight in Bethlehem

2010-12-24T06:00:00.000-08:00

Last-minute note: On Thursday, Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh was arrested in Al-Walaja, where he is involved with the demonstrations against Israel’s building of the separation wall (see map—Al-Walaja is in upper left, dotted red line is where the wall is now being constructed). Watch a video where he describes his arrest and subsequent release: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaa_6I-PMoM . More demonstrations are planned for Friday, Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve, Luke
Luke 2.1-20

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. (photo: Bethlehem checkpoint, 2008)

All went to their own towns to be registered. (photo: Bethlehem checkpoint, 2009)

Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. (photo: Bethlehem's main street, divided by the wall)

He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. (photo: family being evicted, Al-Aruqib, July, 2010)

While they were there the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. (photo: Bedouin village of Al-Araqib, demolished by Israeli soldiers July, 2010)

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel sais to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. (photo is Beit Sahour, "Shepherds' Fields," where Israeli military is building a guard tower)

This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
Glory to God in the hightest heaven,
And on earth peace among those whom he favors!” (photo: Christmas Lutheran Church, Bethlehem)

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” (photo: the Wall in Bethlehem)

So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.

God of all miracles, you sent your son into a suffering world. He healed the sick, cast out demons and fed the hungry. Be with us tonight as we ponder all that we have seen and heard. Guide our hearts in your way of reconciliation, and stir us to action in the name of our savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Waiting in Hope

2010-12-22T06:00:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve, Titus
Titus 2.11-14

“While we wait for the blessed hope….”

While we sit in our pews and sing, “Silent Night,” Christians in Bethlehem and the rest of the West Bank and Gaza, struggle under the occupation. In their daily lives there is no silent night, no calm and brightness, little sleep. While we sing “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” its people do not experience stillness or quiet; their dreams are interrupted by nightmares of families separated, sons arrested, children who must move away to find work. Take a look at Bethlehem behind the wall and view some of the realities of their daily lives:

“Christmas Canceled in Bethlehem”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5is-SAPSrQ&NR=1

You might expect them to be feeling hopeless this Christmas Eve, but that is not the case. You see, they really believe the grace of God HAS appeared; and they like to remind visitors that it happened right there, in their town. So they live their lives “zealous for good deeds” –living AS IF the wall did not exist, doing whatever it takes to create a full life for them and for their children behind the wall. They have been “zealous for good deeds,” building a school for all the children of their community—Christians and Muslims alike, believing that miracles are possible because they have seen it in their town.

God of all hope, your words call us to remember your Son and your promises of salvation, signs of your faithfulness. Help us to trust your promises and to be zealous in good deeds for the freeing of all people living under oppression, in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, and all over the world where there is suffering and injustice. Amen.

The Un-Stable in Bethlehem

2010-12-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve
Isaiah 9.2-7

"For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders,
The rod of the oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian." (Is 9.4)

Isaiah’s message addresses a particular historical situation. The words of the prophets, in fact are messages from God addressed to a particular people in a particular time. When Isaiah spoke, the people of Israel were living under military oppression and his words address specific suffering human beings. They were threatened from the north by the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III, who had already conquered the northern kingdom (732 BCE).

On Christmas Eve we will each hear these words in our own context. If you live in Bethlehem and are sitting in the pews at the Christmas Lutheran Church Bethlehem, you will hear these words and quickly identify with your long-ago ancestors, fearful of an attack by the Assyrian armies. Because the people of Bethlehem know how it feels to be threatened by foreign armies. On Christmas Eve, Israeli soldiers are patrolling the roads of Bethlehem near the settlements of Har Homa and Gilo, which have been built on Bethlehem’s land. On Christmas Eve, Israel’s army stands at the entrances to their town and decides who will enter and leave.

Christians in Jerusalem and the West Bank have been accustomed to traveling to Bethlehem to worship at the Church of the Nativity or Christmas Lutheran Church on Christmas Eve. Both churches were built to commemorate Christ’s birth—the Church of the Nativity was first dedicated on May 31, 339. Both churches, along with many of the buildings in the old part of Bethlehem, were built over caves, where people had once lived. Jerome writes from Bethlehem in AD 395, about “the cave where the infant Messiah once cried…” He lived and wrote in Bethlehem for many years; this is where he made a new translation of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament—the Vulgate, which was the authoritative translation for Catholics until the 20th century. Thus we know that Bethlehem was an important center for Christian pilgrims, at least from the fourth century.

Christians today still come to Bethlehem. So, if you were coming from Ramallah to Bethlehem, even though both are cities within the West Bank nominally under Palestinian governance, you would have to go through several Israeli checkpoints. If you are a Palestinian living five miles away in Jerusalem, you would have to enter Bethlehem through the checkpoint, where the soldiers have the authority to permit or deny you entry. If you live in Bethlehem and want to visit your family in Jerusalem, you would need a permit; most permit applications are refused.

The people of Bethlehem also live in daily fear that Israel’s armies will enter their town with their tanks and machine guns and grenades, as they did in 2002. Palestinians have no army; they have only the police who are ineffective to protect them from tanks and mortars.

So Christmas Eve’s lesson from Isaiah is very good news for the people of Bethlehem and for all of us:

“For all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire.” The end of the bloodshed and fighting. This is what the Lutherans living in Bethlehem long for—an end to Israel’s occupation, an end to the bloodshed, peace in their land.

Take a look at the Bethlehem checkpoint: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5is-SAPSrQ&NR=1

Lord of light in the darkness, Prince of Peace, fill us with your presence this Christmas. Like the babe born in the stable, we are your body in the world. Give us strength and courage to be your coworkers for peace and justice, bringing good news to those who suffer under the burden of oppression and fear. Amen.

Out of the Messiness

2010-12-17T06:00:00.000-08:00

Advent 4 – Matthew
Matthew 1.18-25

“Joseph, being unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.” (Mt 1.19)

Our Advent preparations may include spending lots of money on the most beautiful Christmas tree, spending long hours in the kitchen to make the perfect Christmas cookies, planning family outings that will delight everyone—laboring to create the ideal Christmas full of love, peace, joy and harmony. But this week’s gospel reminds us that in the real world, things are never perfect. And this is where God works miracles—right in the middle of our messy, confused and chaotic lives.

Bethlehem’s Christmases in the past few years have not been picture-perfect. While we eagerly anticipate sitting in our pews on Christmas Eve and singing “O Little Town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie,” the people of Bethlehem stand in line for permits to visit their families; most of the permits will be denied. While we sing “Above thy deep and dreamless sleep,” Suleiman cannot sleep because he worries that he will not be able to pass through the checkpoint tomorrow morning to get to Jerusalem to guide the tour group he is scheduled to meet at 8:00 am. While we sing about the “silent stars” going by, the people of Bethlehem hear the droning of the bulldozers and the earth-movers, building even more of the 25-foot-high security wall that surrounds their town, cutting them off from their friends and families.

While we drive fifteen minutes to church, the Palestinian Christians who live in Ramallah or Jerusalem will spend hours driving on the back roads which they are allowed to use, or waiting at checkpoints, on their way to worship at the Church of the Nativity or the Christmas Lutheran Church, where they have gathered for centuries to observe Christ’s birth.

Out of the chaos and scandal of Jesus’ birth, God delivered a savior for the whole world. Out of the chaos and the scandal of Israel’s occupation, God still works redemption today.

On November 30, in Bethlehem, people gathered from all over the world to dedicate a new college, Dar al-Kalima. The school began admitting students in 2007 and they have graduated two classes of students already (see photo). Now they are moving into a new building which will enable them to admit more students, expand their programs from two-year degrees to four-year degrees and serve their students more effectively. It is the first Lutheran college in the Middle East. In the West Bank, where Israel grants few permits for students to study abroad, students are now able to train in the Arts, Multimedia, Communications, and Tourism Studies. Students learn documentary filmmaking, ceramics and glass, and contemporary fine arts.

With around 57% of the Palestinian population under the age of 19, the college is a sign of hope for the future of these people who feel imprisoned behind the wall and the barbed wire. The college is a sign of God’s intention to bring forth life out of death. The birth of the college is a sign of hope and new life, a sign of Emmanuel, “God with us.”

Read more about the college and see pictures. Learn how you can support this work.

[Good news note from last Friday's post: Ibrahim has been released by the court. The Wounded Crossing Borders members wrote letters and testified in court on behalf of the family -- to read his story see: http://apilgrimstales.blogspot.com/2010/10/each-of-us-has-part.html ].

God of new possibilities, you have shown us your grace, which brings life out of death, hope out of darkness. Quite our fears of chaos and give us courage to partner with others and share in your life-saving work. Amen.

Redemption and Hope in the Holy Land

2010-12-15T06:00:00.000-08:00

Advent 4 – Romans
Romans 1.1-7

In this very beginning of Paul’s letter to the Romans, we read what we often forget—that Paul was called first to be set apart for the gospel of God. Paul clearly sees the gospel of Jesus Christ as a mission. According to Paul, just as Moses and the prophets were God’s word to the Israelites, Jesus is God’s word to the Gentiles—to the non-Jews. As God had already spoken to the Israelites through the prophets, Paul now experiences God speaking to the rest of the world through Jesus Christ.

In the narratives of Advent and Christmas, we are made very aware of Jesus’ Jewish identity and his Palestinian birth—his connection to the land, to the town of David, Bethlehem. And so we are reminded, on the eve of the birth of our savior, that we, too, are shoots from these same Jewish and Palestinian roots.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul is working out a dilemma. Does Christ’s coming mean that the Jews are no longer God’s chosen people? By failing to receive Christ, have the Jews forfeited their place with God? Paul answers with certainty, “No.” Just as the Israelites came to faith in God through Moses, so now the Gentiles have been invited to faith in God through Jesus Christ. His conclusion becomes most clear in chapter 11, when he concludes that “the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.” (v. 29). Through God all things are possible.

Just as God led the people of Israel through the Red Sea to the promised land, so God continues to offer redemption and hope through Christians today.

Most of us have grown up with the myth that enmity has existed for centuries between Jews and Palestinians. Therefore, there is not really much we can do—they will never get along.

This is not the reality I have seen on the ground in the West Bank and in Israel, where I have met many people working to bring reconciliation When I was traveling with a Compassionate Listening delegation in May, we met with Sami Awad, Executive Director of the Holy Land Trust. We sat mesmerized as he talked about his work to reconcile Palestinians and Israelis.

He told us the story of his father, who was forced to leave his home in Jerusalem in 1948. Sami’s grandfather was killed by a sniper. His grandmother, unable to provide for her children, placed Sami’s father in an orphanage, where he grew up in a building overlooking his old house; he was nine years old. Although Sami’s father could have grown up resentful of the soldiers who killed his father, his mother was careful to instill in her children the value of forgiveness and reconciliation. She taught her children, “If the Israeli soldier who shot your father knew who he was, he would not have pulled the trigger.” Sami lives by his grandmother’s values today.

Seeing the need to recognize the holocaust as a human tragedy, he has traveled to Auschwitz twice, spending ten days there each time, in prayer, in meditation and experiencing the death camps. Watch a 5-minute YouTube video of him as he tells us his story: http://leahdgreen.blogspot.com/2010/05/sami-awad-on-auschwitz-fear-and-meaning.html

If you have a chance to see it, his story is also featured in the film, “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” http://littletownofbethlehem.org/

God of all hope, in your son’s death on the cross, you showed us true reconciliation and the way to peace through forgiveness. Help us to follow in his way of peace, building bridges where there is enmity and nurturing understanding where there is fear. Amen.

Not in My Name

2010-12-13T07:09:00.000-08:00

Advent 4 – Isaiah
Isaiah 7.10-16

Jerusalem is under grave threat. The Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III is planning to attack the smaller states in the region and those leaders are forming alliances to defend themselves. Because King Ahaz has refused to join them, two kings of these smaller states are planning a coup to install a ruler who will join them in their defense against Assyria. Ahaz and all the people of Judah are terrified, “and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.” (Is 7.2)

In this time of terror, God sends Isaiah to tell King Ahaz, “do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint.” (Is 7.4) Isaiah carries a reassurance from God—soon these two kings will be destroyed. Isaiah is sent to remind Ahaz that his job is to trust in God for safety—not rely on alliances with his neighbors.

Isaiah offers him a sign, but Ahaz refuses, pretending piety, saying he does not want to put God to the test. But the bottom line is that Ahaz does not want a sign from God. Ahaz would rather rely on allies with weapons and armies than depend on God and God’s puny little prophet promising salvation. Isaiah gives him a sign anyway—a pregnant woman announcing salvation with her pregnant belly, carrying “God with us” through Jerusalem’s streets.

Pregnancy and birth—the messiest and most dangerous time in the life for both mother and baby—and universally a source of joy and hope, even in the most dire circumstances. Babies are signs of a future we cannot imagine, a future beyond our lifetime. And Isaiah’s baby, in the womb of the young woman, bears God’s own presence, right there in Jerusalem, among the people whose hearts are quaking.

Things are much the same in Jerusalem today. Palestinians in East Jerusalem live with the daily terror that the police might show up at breakfast and drag them into the streets, evicting them from their homes to make way for Jewish families to move in. Jewish residents are fearful of suicide bombers, or that they will soon be in the minority, that the Palestinians will outnumber them. Other Jewish residents fear that Israel’s unjust treatment of the Palestinians is undermining the very fabric of their society; militarization of their country is teaching their children that Palestinians are less than human, that Palestinians’ well-being does not matter.

We might ask, Where is Isaiah today? Who is speaking out, offering God’s wisdom and reassuring the rulers and the people of God’s faithfulness? Who is calming the fears?

I met one such prophet at the weekly demonstration in Sheikh Jarrah, a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, next to the Old City.

Over the past few years, the Israeli government has been evicting Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah. The day I was there we met Nasser Ghawi, whose family had lived in their home in Sheikh Jarrah since the early 1950s, when they were given the home by the U.N. Nasser’s father was a refugee fleeing from the Israeli paramilitaries like the Hagannah, that were removing Palestinians from their homes in 1947-49 (for a complete history of the removals, read Ilan Pappe’s The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine). Nasser’s father gave up his refugee status, trading his refugee status for the home, but now an Israeli court has ruled against his petition to keep the home and his family was evicted. The new occupants have erected a giant orange menorah on the roof.

After we talked with Nasser Ghawi we went to the demonstration, a noisy sort of street fair—orange juice vendors, poster-waving protestors, children playing, fathers carrying toddlers in their arms, and an Arab family escorted by a band of drummers (see photo). Across the street were the Israeli soldiers and the police—some were standing at barricades blocking access to the Ghawi home; some were taking photos of the demonstrators.

I was surprised to realize that almost all the demonstrators were Jewish. I couldn’t read the Hebrew on the signs, so I asked one young woman what her sign said. She told me “Not in my name.” She said that she did not want her government to remove Palestinians from their homes for her sake. She was in no danger from these families and she did not want her government using her tax dollars to commit such an injustice. She wanted everyone to live in peace and security. She was speaking boldly to the ruling powers of Jerusalem; she was offering her face to the police cameras; she was risking arrest as she used her voice to calm the fears of her people. She told me her parents were divided on the issue; her father supported the government; her mother did not. But her family supported her in speaking her mind.

I don’t know the young woman’s name, or even whether she was religious. I do know that she spoke God’s truth, and that she was not the only Jewish prophet there that day, proclaiming good news to the rulers and to the people of Jerusalem, offering them a future and a hope. Please keep her and the other demonstrators who gather every Shabbat (Friday evening) in Sheikh Jarrah in your prayers.

God of the prophets, you sent your messengers to declare hope for the victims of injustice, to calm the fears of the terrified. Help us to recognize your messengers of hope in the confusion and terror we are feeling today. Help us to trust your promises and to boldly live into your promises through our actions. Amen.

Go and Tell What You Hear and See

2010-12-10T10:58:00.000-08:00

Advent 3 - Matthew
Matthew 11.2-11

“Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear and the poor have good news brought to them.” (Mt 11.4-5)

I wouldn’t be sitting here at the computer if I had not heard these very words from people I have met in Palestine and Israel. Each time I visit, I hear stories of how the occupation makes life very difficult for Palestinians. Workers wait two hours at the checkpoint in Bethlehem each morning on their way to work. Furniture, light fixtures and other supplies for building the new college in Bethlehem sit for days at the checkpoint awaiting Israeli approval. Fourteen-year-old Ibrahim is dragged from his home in the middle of the night, beaten by the soldiers in front of his family and hauled off to jail. Sousan must order merchandise for her dress shop in Beit Jala over the internet; she cannot see the quality of the clothing she orders because she cannot get a permit to attend the trade shows in Tel Aviv. Angie has been denied a permit to travel to Jerusalem to get a visa to come to graduate school in the U.S. George must be sure to fill the water tanks on top of his house when the water is flowing because it is shut off most of the time, even though the nearby Israeli settlement has plenty of water for its lush landscaping.

When I hear these stories I always ask people I meet what they need from me. Even though I hope for something simpler (like sending a check), the answer is always the same: “Tell our story. Go and tell what you have seen and heard.” It has become my mantra, my guiding principle—and I’m sure many people are tired of my stories.

But I cannot stop telling them because of the miracle of sight I have received as I have walked the dusty roads of the West Bank and the cobbled streets of Jerusalem’s Old City. I HAVE seen healing miracles. I have heard the miracle of God’s good news to these people in God’s own land.

And I have seen the miracle of deafness cured.

For most of my life, I have known that there were people in Palestine who were suffering. They were far away in a land I didn’t understand. I felt sorry for their plight, but I thought they probably brought many of their troubles on themselves—with their suicide bombers and their uncompromising demands for their land. I was deaf to their cries for help; I was deaf to their insistence that America had anything to do with their problems. America is too far away; what can we do? I thought eventually, when they choose wiser leaders, when all the details are worked out, there will be peace. I shut my ears.

When I went to the Holy Land for the first time in 2005, I was shocked. My ears (and my eyes) were opened and I could no longer be silent. It’s not that now I understand the situation, but I cannot stop reading and listening. I learn something new every day, because once my ears were opened, I could no longer shut out the cries for justice.

Photo is Sami Awad, a Palestinian Christian and Executive Director of the Holy Land Trust in Bethlehem, telling us about his reconciling work with Israelis.

A year ago in Advent, on December 15, 2009, our Palestinian sisters and brothers in faith issued a call to action to the world’s Christians. Kairos Palestine: A Moment of Truth, tells the world about the “Glory of the grace of God in this land and in the sufferings of its people.” They ask us to hear their cries and stand with them as they resist the injustice they are suffering. They ask us to work for a just peace. Read their call to us: http://www.kairospalestine.ps/

God of miracles, in Advent we prepare to celebrate the miracle of the birth of your son, who brought healing and sight to those who were blind. Cure our blindness with your healing touch. Open our ears to the cries of your people in troubled places all over the world…and at home. Make us your agents of healing and hope. Amen.

Holding a Vision for the Future

2010-12-08T06:12:00.000-08:00

Advent 3, 2010 - James

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.

Making the Desert Bloom

2010-12-06T07:01:00.000-08:00

Advent 3 – Isaiah
Isaiah 35.1-10

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,
The desert shall rejoice and blossom (Is 35.1)

Most scholars agree that this portion of Isaiah was written during the exile in Babylon. The people of Judah had been forced from their homes to make the long march across the desert to Babylon. They had lost everything they knew…their homes, their culture, and probably most importantly, their temple, the center of their worship and the dwelling place of their God. They were aliens in a strange land, without status or means of making a living, feeling separated from God, abandoned by God.

In the depths of their despair, Isaiah proclaims good news—this is not the end. Captivity is not the end of the story! God will bring something new out of their present misery. Isaiah speaks to the peoples’ longing for home. He tells them God will come “with vengeance…to save you.” God will do what seems impossible—bring life to the dry, barren wilderness, making the desert blossom. The people will know that God has not forsaken them. Isaiah promises that God will end their exile, lead them back home…through the wilderness…to God’s dwelling place on Mount Zion. “…Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

Like the ancient Israelites, Palestinians today hear these words as exceedingly good news!

Like their ancient sisters and brothers, today’s Palestinians, are a people in exile. Only a small minority of Palestinians today are living where their families lived prior to 1948. Every Palestinian I have asked has a story to tell about what happened to his/her family in the late 1940s. The lucky ones point to hills we can see in the distance and tell me, “My family lived in a village over there. In 1948 they were forced from their homes and came here to Bethlehem and lived with relatives. They were never permitted to return, so they stayed and made new lives for themselves here. I can see the hill where the village was, but I have never been able to visit it.” Photo is of the Wall in Bethlehem--see where it stretches into the distance.

Others tell of long wanderings—from villages in Israel walking south, over borders newly-drawn in 1949, searching for a place to stay….any place where the soldiers would leave them in peace. Many of these Palestinians ended up in Gaza, where they remain today, one million prisoners in a land too small for survival, hemmed in on all sides by Israeli soldiers—even on the west where the Mediterranean is their border. (Read Ramzy Baroud’s My Father Was a Freedom Fighter to hear one such story.)

Life looks hopeless, but God’s promise is firm: “The desert shall rejoice and blossom.”

In Palestine there are many people working to make the desert blossom. One group from Sweden, visiting Bethlehem, heard a pastor who works with youth tell them that when you grow up behind a wall, the most important is to be able to see the ”windows” in the Wall—”to see possibilities, to try to understand the fear that builds walls and to realize that you have friends on the other side of the wall.” He told them that is the only way to tear down walls, the only way to build peace.

The two groups of young people, Swedish and Palestinian, have worked together to create ”windows” in the wall with an Advent calendar of messages from the youth of Vasteras, Sweden and Palestinian youth. They want to show that walls between people can be torn down. ”It is the story of love and reconciliation by telling others your story. Just to show that we all are equal.” Take a look at their Advent calendar and meet some of these young people from Palestine and Sweden who are breaking down the West Bank wall. Photo shows how grafitti "cracks" break down the wall, and make it a joke.

This is also the message of Advent, we wait for a better world to come! Take a look at their one-minute YouTube messages: http://www.byggenbro.com/home.html (the site loads slowly, but the messages are short and worth it!)

God of the wanderers, you accompanied your people through the desert—to the promised land, to Babylon, to Gaza and beyond. Be with us in our desert of sometimes meaningless lives. Help us to find a way to connect with other wanderers and nourish the desert so that it blooms. Amen.

The Rachel Corrie Foundation is also making the desert bloom—figuratively, by working for justice for Palestinians—but also literally, by planting olive trees where they have been uprooted. Rachel, a young American volunteer, was killed by an Israeli bulldozer as she tried to prevent the demolition of a home in Gaza in 2007. Read her story and give a Christmas gift of $25 to plant an olive tree: http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=2368

Preparing for Christmas, According to John in the Wilderness

2010-12-03T06:35:00.000-08:00

Advent 2 – Matthew
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 checkpoints 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.

"Our God Wishes the Best for Us"

2010-12-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

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.

I Give Them the Courage of Love, Not to Hate

2010-11-29T06:00:00.000-08:00

Advent 2 – Isaiah
Isaiah 1.1-10

“A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse….He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear…”

Isaiah cries out for a wise ruler who will bring peace. His cry touches my heart because I, too, long for such a leader, a president with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of knowledge. In these days when we long for our sons and husbands and fathers to return from Iraq and Afghanistan and Korea, we pray for wise leaders to make the world a safer place for us and for our children and grandchildren. We say—if only we had the right leaders, we could live in peace.

In his description of the ideal king, Isaiah touches on a key principle held by the Palestinians I have met who have not given up in their struggle for human rights. Time and again I have heard these tireless leaders echo Isaiah’s words, saying: We do not focus on the way things are for us here in Palestine. We do not dwell on the injustices of the past; we choose to focus on the future, on the way we believe things should be.

Instead of bemoaning the difficulties of life under occupation—the endless lines at the checkpoint in Bethlehem, the humiliation of the soldiers’ guns pointing at shoppers in the market in Hebron, the demolition orders on so many of their homes—these leaders focus instead on the future. They build schools and health clinics; they start a business exporting olive oil or beer. These leaders have made a choice. Each one has refused to “judge by what his (her) eyes see.” Instead, they choose to judge by the life they can imagine for their children. They judge by what will surely come…..someday.

These Palestinians have learned well from their ancestors—prophets like Isaiah, who lived in their land centuries ago. They are patient, willing to wait for the change they know will come. They have waited sixty years for justice following forced removal from their towns and villages by Jewish paramilitaries. They have waited in prison for charges to be brought, for trials to begin and for sentences to be finished. They have waited in line for building permits that are never issued.

In the West Bank village of Beit Ummar, I met Farhan Alqam, who was elected mayor of the town in 2006, but never got to serve because he was jailed, along with most of the officials elected on the Hamas ticket. He is an engineer and a poet, and the people of Beit Ummar thought he was the one with the wisdom to be their leader when they elected him mayor in 2006. Israel has confiscated the land on three sides of the town for its settlements and Israeli soldiers have built a guard tower on the one road into Beit Ummar that is still open. Each day, Israeli soldiers decide whether to open the only entrance into Beit Ummar, or not.

Farhan, who was eventually released from prison, is a gentle man with an engaging smile. Sitting in his mother’s home, with his youngest son, Salah Ad-Din, on his lap, he told us, “The human feelings will have the victory.” Salah Ad-Din was five the last time his father was arrested. Farhan’s mother smiled proudly as he said he believes “in the power of people to give human rights for all the humans.” He has been arrested three times for resisting Israel’s building of the wall, the confiscation of Beit Ummar’s land, and the building of settlements around the town, cutting it off from the rest of the West Bank.

Where does he find hope? “Every good action, even if very small, gives me more hope—a hole for the light to pass through.” This Hamas leader told us, “I teach my sons and daughters to love, not hate; I give them the courage of love, not to hate. Love needs courage; hate does not.” But, he says, “love is stronger than hate.” He tells us this is what the prophet Mohammad taught: “Hate is very dangerous for the human being. War is easy; peace is hard.”

“When we change, the leaders will be changed.” As the prophet Mohammad said, “As the people are, the leaders will be.”

O God of wisdom and understanding, we thank you for prophets who do not see only with the eye and hear only with the ear, but see your good creation and declare your way of peace for the world. Give us discerning hearts and the courage to proclaim your ways in the political marketplace. Help us become people who raise up wise leaders and support them in their efforts for peacemaking. Amen.

Advent 1, Week of November 21 - Gospel of Matthew

2010-11-26T09:04:00.000-08:00

Advent 1
Read Matthew 24.36-44
“Therefore you also must be ready,
For the Son-of-Man is coming at an unexpected hour.” (Matt 24.44)

When Americans “discover” that there actually are Palestinians who are Christian, our first impulse is to ask, “How did your family become Christian?” We assume that these Arabs must have converted from Islam, perhaps in the last century when the European colonizers were busy staking out their claims to the Holy Land.

How did your family become Christian? They answer: “Well, you’ve read about us in the book of Acts.” Remember? When the Holy Spirit came in the wind? And the tongues of fire that rested on each of them, and the people of Jerusalem came and heard the disciples speaking in their own languages? The ancestors of the Palestinians were there; they heard Peter’s sermon and were baptized.

In recent weeks, watching the frantic efforts to keep the “peace talks” moving—or, more accurately, getting them started— it has felt a lot like the chaotic scenarios the writer describes in Matthew’s gospel. No one knows about “that day and the hour,” so diplomats and special envoys and presidents and prime ministers and secretaries of state fly back and forth—Jerusalem to Washington and back again. The news we hear is as capricious as the fate of the two men in the field—there seems to be no rhyme or reason to offers made to get the talks started. The situation seems totally out of control.

Everyone is talking, but no one seems to be listening and, despite all the talk, nothing has changed for the Palestinians, who are still waiting for hours at the checkpoint to get to work. Nothing had changed for Izz Ad-Din Al-Kawazba who was killed October 3, by Israeli soldiers’ bullets on his daily commute to work—as he sneaked past the wall to work illegally in Jerusalem (read the news account from Ma’an News).
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So, what are we to do? Strap bombs to our chests and board a bus in Jerusalem? Go Christmas shopping so we don’t have to think about it? Do we boycott Israeli goods made in the occupied territories, or do we wait, trusting that President Obama’s plan will bring justice for Palestinians?

Like the Palestinians, the disciples who heard Jesus’ words were living under an occupying army. Their daily reality was uncertainty—like the two women grinding meal, they never knew when they might be snatched away by Rome’s soldiers. Like the writer of Matthew’s gospel, we know what the disciples listening to Jesus did not know—that two chapters ahead, this is what will happen to Jesus.

So, what are we to do? Jesus encourages his disciples with his vision of the future—a future when God’s way will reign. A future when they will no longer suffer Rome’s abuse. To prepare for God’s future, Jesus tells them, be watchful.

Palestinian Christians have taken to heart what Jesus teaches here. Rather than being distracted by the chaos, they hold God’s purposes in front of them as they build for the future of their country. They do not waste time sitting around lamenting their plight. Instead, next Tuesday Christians in Bethlehem are dedicating the first buildings of a new college, Dar al-Kalima—the first Lutheran college in the Middle East. Although the wall surrounds Bethlehem, these descendents of the early followers of Jesus know this is not the future God has planned for them. And so they live into a barely-imaginable future, preparing leaders for a time when there will be a Palestinian State. Photo: middle school students I met at Dar al-Kalima School in 2009.

We do not know the future. We do not know when God will make all things new. But Jesus assures us all that God’s future WILL come. And while we wait, Jesus tells us, our job is to be ready.

Gracious God, you created us for good things. Your abundance fills the world. Help us to stay awake so that we can be your faithful stewards, assuring that your good creation is shared among all. Amen.

Advent 1, Week of Nov 21 - Romans

2010-11-24T06:00:00.000-08:00

Advent 1
Read Romans 13.11-14

“It is now the moment for you to wake from sleep….” Rom. 13.11

A year ago, in December, 2009, Christians in Palestine presented the world with a document, calling all Christians to stand with them in confronting the oppression they are suffering under Israeli occupation of their lands. The document, “A Moment of Truth,” is called the Kairos Document—testament to the urgency of their appeal. Kairos is a Greek word meaning “time,” in the sense of an opportune time, a decisive time, a moment of truth.

For Palestinians, this is indeed a decisive time—for more than sixty years they have been waiting for resolution to their claims for land. When families fled from their homes in 1948, they locked their doors and took their keys, planning to return in a few days or weeks when the violence ended. They planned to return to harvest their olives and their lemons and apricots. Most of them left in a hurry, taking only a few belongings—old blankets for sleeping along the roads, some old pots for cooking or carrying water. They left most of their possessions—linens, dishes, clothing—safely locked in their homes, awaiting their return.

Now is a decisive time for all of us—President Obama began his administration with strong words supporting a peace agreement, strong words expressing respect for Arab rights. In early 2009, it seemed that it was a decisive time—that now something would finally be happening to bring resolution to the long-festering conflict. This fall we saw Palestinian and Israeli leaders meet face-to-face for talks. We have heard strong support from Secretary of State Clinton, strong words encouraging Israel to cooperate by freezing settlement construction.

Unfortunately, it has been all words and no actions. As Mitri Raheb, pastor of Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem said when he was in Denver in September, “Enough dialogue; now it is time for action.” For seventeen years, the PLO and Israel have been negotiating, but there has been no action. Palestinians have seen no improvements in their daily lives; their situation is worse now than it has ever been.

Israel’s security wall is still being built; it winds around Israeli settlements in the West Bank, annexing lands for a buffer zone between the settlements and Palestinian villages. It is now projected to be twice the length of the Green Line, the border between Israel proper and the West Bank, which it claims to enforce. The wall is built, not on land owned by Israel, but on land owned by Palestinians—it carves up their olive orchards; it slices off pieces of their farmland; it snakes around water sources, making sure the water is on the Israeli side of the wall.

Palestinians stand at checkpoints waiting for the soldiers to recognize them and look at their travel papers so they can go to their orchards and tend their trees. Palestinian men are forced to lift up their shirts to show they have no weapons.

Photo: Waiting at the Bethlehem Checkpoint. 2000 Palestinians stand in line for two hours at the checkpoint in Bethlehem every morning, on their way to work. They must pass through checkpoints even if they are traveling to other parts of the West Bank. The wall totally surrounds many communities, forcing the people to go through a checkpoint to go anywhere, even to the neighboring Palestinian village.

The language Paul uses projects an urgency—NOW is the time for you to wake from sleep. The Palestinians know this urgency—enough is enough—NOW is the time for peace. NOW is the time for Israel to leave the West Bank. NOW is the time for freedom!

NOW, in this Advent season, is the time for Americans, too, to wake up—time to shout “Enough is enough!”

Gracious God, you are ever wakeful, watching over every one of your creatures. While we sleep, you are vigilant, protecting the weak, watching over those who suffer. In this Advent season, wake us from our slumbers. Stir us to move from words to action and join you in your liberating work. Amen.

Take a look at “End the Occupation”, which sends email action alerts to contact your elected officials to press for a resolution to the conflict. Consider subscribing to these action alerts.

Advent 1, Week of Nov 21 - Isaiah

2010-11-22T08:00:00.000-08:00

Read Isaiah 2.1-5

“In the days to come,
the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains…
All the nations shall stream to it….
‘Come, let us to up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’” (Is. 2.2-3)

If you are reading this in the morning, it is already late afternoon in Jerusalem. Today, all day long, pilgrims have been streaming into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; the only time there is no crowd there is at 6:00 am, just after the doors are unlocked. By 8:00 or 9:00 the courtyard in front of the church is filled with people from all over the globe—groups of Africans in their colorful caftans, sturdy-looking older women from Eastern Europe, and groups from Asia and Germany and America. Cameras around their necks, they cluster around their tour guides to hear about this odd-looking building, which looks like two churches stuck together like mis-matched Siamese twins. The two churches fight for space over this place where it is believed that Jesus was crucified and buried. According to the tradition of the Jerusalem community of the followers of Christ, this is the place where Jesus was crucified. In the first century, this area was outside the walls of the city, near an abandoned stone quarry, where tombs were carved in the rock. Pilgrims have been coming to this site since the first century. Photo shows today's pilgrims entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is in the heart of Jerusalem. Last summer, as the sun rose over the hills to the east, I stood on the terrace of the guesthouse at the convent of Ecce Homo, and looked out over all of the city. Jerusalem is built on a cluster of hills—the Old City is on one of the highest hills; across to the east is the Mount of Olives, to the west the new city with its highrise apartments. The sun reflects off the white stone and the city shines. As I looked to the south I could see, just a block or two away, the Temple Mount. In recent years, the Temple Mount has gained notoriety as the site of protests, where rock-throwing young men protest Israeli restrictions on Palestinian movement, or the killing of Palestians by the Israeli military. But the Temple Mount is more that that; it is the mountain of the Lord where the house of the God of Jacob was built; it is the mountain Isaiah sees in his vision. Photo is the Temple Mount from the Ecce Homo convent.

Touring Jerusalem, I have seen the fulfillment of Isaiah’s vision—a holy mount where “all nations” come to hear God’s teaching and walk in God’s path through the streets of the Old City. Each day thousands of pilgrims walk Jerusalem’s streets—walking the cobblestones through the suq to reverence the first-century pavement in the Antonia Fortress where Jesus was brought before Pilate, to see the cells hewn out of the stone beneath the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu where prisoners were held before being brought before Herod. Everywhere I walk in Jerusalem’s Old City, I see people of all nations—here Jews walk by the Arab shopkeepers’ stalls on their way to the Western Wall for Friday Shabbat; Muslims stand in line to go through security so they can pray at the Al Aksa Mosque, on a walkway built above the Western Wall where Jews rock as they pray with their prayerbooks. Christians from Senegal and Ghana and Italy and the U.S. pray with the Jews at the Wall and walk the grounds on the Temple Mount as Muslims gather for prayers.

That’s on a good day—when there are no rock-throwing groups of young Muslim men protesting the closure of the Temple Mount by Israeli soldiers, when there are no barricades blocking access to the streets of the Old City for fear of violence.

But every day, always and everywhere, there are the green-uniformed soldiers of Israel’s army and the blue-uniformed Israeli police. One time when I was walking back to our tour bus after praying at the Western Wall, I was watching a line of Jewish schoolgirls who had been praying with me. They, too, were walking in single file back to their bus, lined up with the other buses at the Lion’s gate. Suddenly I noticed a young man with a machine gun strapped to his backpack, following the girls. What was this man doing? Was he going to attack the girls? Shoot at the crowd? It was a big gun and I began to panic. I looked around and no one else seemed concerned. Why wasn’t anyone paying attention? Luckily, I didn’t scream or run over to the police, but I did keep watching the man, as he continued to follow the girls….to their school bus, where they filed onto the bus as he stood guard by the door.

There it all was—everything in Isaiah’s vision….the power of the sword, but also, in this holiest of holy places, the power of God’s holiness and God’s goodness, that power of God, which will ultimately prevail, to bring us all—Christians, Muslims, Jews, Africans, Europeans, Americans, Asians—from all the corners of the globe to “the mountain of the Lord’s house.” Isaiah’s vision has not fully been realized, but in Jerusalem it is possible to get a glimpse of what God’s future will look like….a reminder to us that what seems impossible is possible for God—hope for us in this season of hope. Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord…..consider traveling to the Holy Land to see the places where Jesus walked.

God of all hope, in this season of waiting, you remind us that our reality is not the last word. Help us to hold fast to Isaiah’s vision of reconciliation between the nations; give us energy and courage to work for reconciliation, so that someday we can take our unused swords and beat them into plowshares for the feeding of the world. Amen.

Advent 4, Week of December 20, 2009 - Luke

2009-12-19T14:41:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-14T17:56:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-07T06:00:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-02T01:00:00.000-08:00

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.

Advent 2, Week of December 6, 2009—Malachi

2009-11-30T06:00:00.000-08:00

Malachi 3.1-4

For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. (Malachi 3.2b-3)

It is tempting for me, sitting here in Denver, far removed from the conflict over land, water and religion in the Middle East, remembering the stories of suffering I heard from the people of Bethlehem, to read these words and shout……YES! At last, God will bring justice for the Palestinians! God will burn away all impurities….the fear, the hatred, the jealousy….and finally the people of Israel, transformed by God’s scorching love, will treat the Palestinians with justice and with dignity.

But the fiery conflagration Malachi promises is not for the people of Israel. It is for all of us….Jews, Palestinians, Christians, Muslims, Arabs and…..yes, Americans an ocean away.

In God’s own good time, we will all be purified—Israelis, Palestinians, Egyptians, Jordanians, and even Americans. It is my own purification the prophet foretells, God’s own fiery way of turning the world into the creation God intended, with the bounties—the freedom and security—God intended for us all.

The news Malachi tells sounds like hope to all the people who are now suffering—whether it’s having to lift your shirt for the soldiers at the checkpoint at Qalandia, or being unable to get the papers to leave Gaza for chemotherapy, or whether it is losing your baby in the unexpectedly turbulent waters as you flee across our own southern border in search of safety and a full stomach.

Malachi offers hope, but he also foresees pain. Since I’m not one of the hopeless ones, Malachi’s prophecy is a bit terrifying. What will be burned out of me?

Whatever it is, I’m sure it will be painful. If it’s my greediness, then I’ll have to give up admiring those beautiful shoes in the window in Cherry Creek. If it’s my apathy that will be refined in the fire, then I’ll have to give up my hour of Law and Order SVU. If it’s my self-righteous indignation that burns to ash in the flames, then I’ll have to give up feeling superior to everyone. Whatever is burned away, I’m sure to miss it. Or will I?

God’s refining fire promises to make all things new, but, like childbirth, even the most welcome and exciting new things do not come without the pain of change.

Photo: Ruth, one of the Women in Black--Israeli Jewish women who have been protesting the occupation of Palestinian lands at a busy intersection in Jerusalem for 30 years.

What pain would I have to endure for peace in the Middle East? Cheap gas? Admitting that the U.S. does not always have the right answers? That this “Landofthefreehomeofthebrave” has not always lived out its promise? Taking a chance that Palestinians are capable of choosing their own leaders?

God of the cleansing fire, we pray today for the flames that will refine and purify us, making us the people you have created us to be…people formed in your image We ask forgiveness for our selfish, prideful ways and ask you to use us to complete your creation, looking around us to see how we can make your world more like what you intended for us. Amen.

Advent 1, Week of November 30, 2009—Gospel of Luke

2009-11-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

Luke 21.25-36

People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world,
For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. (Luke 21.26)

What a strange way to begin our season of Advent preparation! This is certainly no stroll through the Cherry Creek Mall to admire the decorations and do a little shopping.

Jesus’ words are far removed from “Sleighbells ring, are you listening? In the lane, snow is glistening” that accompanies us as we prepare for Christmas with visits to Target and Macy’s. These words are not the kind of preparation for Christmas that we in America are used to! This apocalyptic language sounds very strange to us.

But as the Christians in the Bethlehem prepare for Christmas, these words describe their daily reality. Their daily routines—going to school, to the market, to work—are filled with uncertainty and fear and foreboding. Uncertainty about whether they will be able to get to work in Jerusalem in the morning. Foreboding that the soldiers will come with bulldozers and demolish their homes because they could not get a permit and so they added a bedroom and a bathroom for their growing family anyway. Fear that the helicopters flying overhead will start shooting again.

And they have a keener sense of the nearness of the dominion of God too. We, who depend on our detailed plans, our bank accounts and our calendars, do not need God’s dominion. In fact, God’s dominion will probably interrupt our plans. The coming of God’s dominion will probably interfere with the Bronco game on Sunday and our night out on Saturday.

But in Bethlehem, where getting to work is uncertain (you might be stopped by the soldiers at the checkpoint and your permit confiscated), and people are fainting in the crush of bodies waiting to pass through the Bethlehem checkpoint, and you never know when the next war will begin……these words of Jesus in the temple might actually be comforting. Because he reminds us that whatever tumultuous events happen on the earth, they are not the end of the story. God is. If your brother is arrested or your home is bulldozed, this is not the end of the story. God has promised us that. And God’s dominion, God’s rule, God’s way of life, is not far away. It is near, as near as the sprouting fig leaves in springtime. And we can be part of this new life.

If we are alert, on guard, we can give children hope for the future. We can create spaces for healing in our communities. We can give our youth a sense of their own worth and abilities.

This is what the people of the Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem are doing in their community. Read about their peace-building work, bringing “life abundant” to the people of Palestine: http://www.annadwa.org/ . Watch their life-giving programs scroll across your screen. Click on the icons at the bottom of the page and read about their work. And join in this work by making a Christmas gift to support their programs. Or volunteer with a community program giving abundant life to our own children, who also need more than bank accounts.

Photo shows swimmers in class at the Wellness Center in Bethlehem.

God of the roaring sea, you are our only security and your promises are sure. Keep us mindful of your faithfulness and renew us in this season of the church’s New Year, so that we rededicate ourselves to being your partners in renewing your broken world. In the name of your Son, our teacher. Amen.

Advent 1, Week of November 30, 2009—Jeremiah

2009-11-18T10:15:00.000-08:00

Jeremiah 33.14-16

The days are surely coming, says the Lord,
when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house or Israel and the house of Judah. (Jer. 33.14)

When I asked him how the tourist business had been this summer, our tour guide Sami said it had been slow, but that the tourist season was picking up with the cooler fall weather. In the summer, during the quiet season, he and his wife and three small children had been able to spend time with his wife’s family in Jordan. They visited his wife’s aunt, who is now 80, and she spent a lot of time telling them stories about the past—about the days of terror, when her family was forced out of their home in a small village near Ramle, on the road between Jerusalem and the Mediterranean. She remembered their long journey on foot, across the dry hills and through the desert to safety in Jordan, carrying a few possessions grabbed in haste. Thousands of families trudged this same road, carrying only what they could grab quickly, along with the keys to their homes, which they thought they would need in a few days or weeks when the soldiers left their village and it was safe to return. Many families still have their keys, and, sixty years later, in Jordan, this 80-year-old woman still carries the story, telling it for the children, so they can remember who they are, where they have come from.

Photo: Poster commemorating the 50th anniversary of the forced removals of Palestinian families from their villages and the tents they lived in while they stayed in the refugee camps.

Not much has changed in 2500 years. Today we hear Jeremiah speaking to the Israelites, who, like the 750,000 Palestinians in 1948, were routed out of their homes by soldiers, and forced to make the long march across the desert to Babylon. Sami’s aunt tells her story again and again, lamenting the loss of her home and her girlhood, separated from friends and family and everything familiar—the olive trees and oranges, the lemons and persimmons, the cinnamon and other delicious smells of her childhood.

Every Palestinian family I have met has a story like this one.

But, in this Advent season the prophet calls out to us, in our exile of broken treaties and hopeless peace negotiations, “the days are SURELY coming….” The promises of the Lord are sure, words of living water, spoken to all who long for justice in the land, all who long for a world where righteousness is lived out—where everyone lives according to the hopes and dreams God has for us. As we wait in Advent and yearn for God’s righteousness, we know God’s promises are sure…for we have met this babe that is to be born, the one “who shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.” We have seen him and we know God’s promises are sure.

God of all righteousness, in this Advent season we wait…and yearn for your justice and peace. While armies bulldoze homes in East Jerusalem, we wait in exile and long for the peace you have promised, to live in safety. Help us to be your agents of change, to bring about the new day of peace for all your people. We pray this in your holy name. Amen.

Advent 4 - Week of Dec 21, 2008 - Romans

2009-02-25T22:29:00.001-08:00

Romans 16.25-27

Now to God who is able to strengthen you…be the glory forever! Amen.

It is a challenge for Palestinian Christians, grounded in Holy Scripture, to hear people cite the Bible as the authority for taking their land. Many of these families can trace their ancestry back generations, finding themselves in the stories in Acts about the early church. It might seem easier to reject the Bible and turn to political arguments.

But God speaks loudly to the Palestinians through the occupation, and the Palestinians turn to the stories of their faith for sustenance and strength. These same words have a far different message in their Palestinian context. Living under occupation, Bishop Mounib Younan, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, and Pastor Mitri Raheb, of the Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, have become excellent and practiced theologians, interpreting these texts from the perspective of people who are oppressed.

Lutherans in the Holy Land today bear this good news, giving God the glory for the strength God provides for them. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land is made up of six congregations, four in the occupied West Bank—in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahour; one in Jerusalem; and one in Amman, Jordan, intent on bringing hope to their communities, even when their people often feel hopeless.

Each of these congregations has a school, because, as Pastor Mitri says, education is the key to achieving freedom and equal rights and creating a just and flourishing society. These schools, attended by both Muslim and Christian children, teach understanding and respect for other cultures. They nurture a curiosity about the world, a thirst for learning and creative problem-solving. The teachers encourage their students to resist the occupation by learning their own Palestinian culture, creating art and music that celebrates who they are and caring for their bodies with exercise.

As I walked into the Wellness Center in Bethlehem, Hamid grinned and practiced his English, saying “Hello, how are you?” When he saw my camera he made faces and jumped about, posing for a picture. His two friends walked in with their mothers for their swim lesson and he got them to mug for the camera too. I took several pictures, showed them to the boys and they giggled with excitement and posed some more. Although his English is limited, Hamid is curious about the bigger world. He wants to make friends with strangers. He has been raised to welcome the other, to approach the other without fear. He is the legacy of the Lutheran churches’ educational philosophy. The photo shows Hamid and his friends hamming it up for the camera.

Some in Israel claim election—that Israel is God’s chosen people by virtue of their ethnicity. Pastor Mitri has written, however, that God’s election is “a promise to the weak, encouragement to the discouraged and consolation to the desperate….Election is not a special privilege, It is much more a call to service, above all a service ‘to the other.’” (I Am a Palestinian Christian, Fortress Press, 1995, p 66) He cites Torah where Abraham is blessed, not for his own benefit or for the amassing of wealth, but so that “all families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12.3).

God’s election is not for personal or national gain, but for the benefit of others. The formative story of Israel is the Exodus, the tale of a people oppressed and enslaved by a powerful nation, rescued by God. Palestinians today see themselves as the Israelites, deprived of their freedom by a strong military power, bent on imprisoning them. God is for them their savior, strengthening them for God’s work in the world.

—For what work is God is strengthening us?

O Lord our God, you have chosen us and made us your own. In our baptism you have claimed us. As you strengthen us daily for your work in the world, help us to discern your will and give us the courage to go out and do that work in our own community. In the name of your Son, the babe of Bethlehem, Amen.

Journey to Bethlehem in Advent

2009-02-25T22:07:00.000-08:00

Tales from Bethlehem, Reflections on the Weekly Lectionary in Advent

I invite you to join me --- This is the first in a series of meditations for your Advent devotions, reflecting on the weekly texts for Advent through my experiences on two trips to Israel and Palestine this summer and fall.

Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us"....Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. (Luke 2.15-19)

The stories of Jesus’ birth are pilgrimage stories—Mary and Joseph walking the rocky hills and winding roads on their way to Bethlehem, the shepherds’ trek to the stable and the Holy Family’s flight along the coast to Egypt.

Today Bethlehem is in the West Bank, land designated by the Oslo Accord to be administered by the Palestinian Authority. But on my recent pilgrimage to the Holy Land, I saw that the reality on the ground is far different. Like Mary and Joseph, traveling pregnant from Nazareth to Bethlehem on the orders of the occupying Roman government, Palestinians’ lives today are shaped by the whims of the Israeli soldiers occupying their towns, guarding the checkpoints, controlling all movement. As I entered Bethlehem in June, 2008, I was shocked at the changes in the three years since my first visit. In the summer of 2005, when our bus arrived in Bethlehem, the Israeli security wall was being constructed. We saw the 30-foot high concrete barrier as it snaked around hills, cutting through Bethlehem’s olive groves, and, like a holiday parade, marching down the yellow line in the center of the main road into Bethlehem. That summer there were gaps in the wall, places where you could see through to the other side or walk around the wall….like the time we walked over a little hill to catch a bus into Jerusalem, avoiding the hassle at the checkpoint and the expense of two taxis.

When I returned in 2008, the Wall at the main entrance to Bethlehem was completed. There was a new checkpoint, with flower gardens and welcome banners proclaiming “Peace be with you.” Peace for the American tourists, with their blue passports, but not for the residents of Bethlehem. While our bus breezed through with a welcoming wave and a smile from the Israeli soldiers, Bethlehem residents stood in long lines to get to work. They must apply for permits weeks ahead of time, and only for a specific purpose. And, even if they are lucky enough to get a permit, they must wait, sometimes hours, every time they leave Bethlehem—daily for those who work in Jerusalem. We were told the beautification of the checkpoint came from USAID money, earmarked to make the checkpoints more “humane.” More humane for us perhaps, but not for the Palestinians on their way to work.

Today the wall divides the main road into Bethlehem, right down the middle—separating the houses on one side from their neighbors across the street. The stores selling olive wood nativity sets and religious jewelry are mostly closed now. Few tourists visit Bethlehem—they are told it is too dangerous. And no one wants to stop on this dreary street anymore, suffocating beneath the wall.And Mary kept these things and pondered them in her heart…

These meditations were written for pondering during Advent, the time when we wait for a miracle—the birth of a savior for the whole world. Bethlehem today is in desperate need of salvation, but as they wait for their miracle, these faithful people of the Holy Land—in Bethlehem, Hebron, Jerusalem, Gaza, Ramallah—take God’s promises to heart and use their energy to create a new reality for themselves and their children, a world where children are educated, the sick are healed and all can celebrate their rich Arab culture.

As I read the weekly Sunday texts for Advent this year, I remember the land I walked on my pilgrimage and the amazing people I met. These are some of the stories I heard—stories of desperation and stories of hope from the Christians, Jews and Muslims living today on the holy land of Jesus’ birth.

—Jan Miller, Advent, 2008

Advent 4 - Week of Dec 21, Luke

2008-12-21T17:26:00.000-08:00

Luke 1.26-38

The angel said to her….“For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord…”

Mary’s simple declaration of trust in God so vividly captures the spirit I have seen in those who have chosen to remain in Palestine and nonviolently resist the Israeli military occupation of their land. Trusting that “the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you…” is how they get through each day with dignity and hope. They say, with Mary, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord.”The angel says to them, “Do not be afraid…for you have found favor with God.” And they believe the promise. When I hear these words, I think of the day we met the mayor of Ein Hod, Muhammed Abu al-Haija, who told us about his family’s story of terror and rebirth. He and his family and all of the other residents fled this village in 1948, during the Arab-Israeli war.

When the war ended, the Israel authorities did not permit them to return to the village, so, rather than go to the Jenin refugee camp, Muhammed al-Haija’s grandfather and 35 other families trekked up the hill to their farmland and lived in their olive groves and the fields where they grazed their sheep. They built houses to live in, but, because the new village at the top of the hill was “unrecognized” by the Israeli authorities, they could not get access to electricity or water. The Israelis bulldozed some of their homes because they were built without permits.

Even though the Arab villagers were Israeli citizens and paid taxes, the Israeli government would not build a road to their village because it was not on the map. When they petitioned the government for recognition, they were told that it was too small, their land was classified “agricultural” and that they could not build there; they were called “squatters.” Finally, after many years spent in Israeli government offices, contacting officials, organizing with other unrecognized villages and holding protests in Jerusalem, upper Ein Hod was finally recognized in 1992, and their village address could be listed on their Israeli identity cards.

It took fifteen more years, but in 2007, they were finally connected to the electric grid. They built a kindergarten and an elementary school. And they built a road with money they withheld from their taxes, so that their children could ride the bus to the high school in Haifa. And finally they were permitted to install a water system. They still cannot use their cemetery, but they have built a new one at the top of the hill.

The ultimate insult was when Iaraelis “discovered” the “abandoned” village of Ein Hod at the bottom of the hill. Artists moved into the empty buildings, “squatting” on their land, even turning their mosque into a restaurant for tourists. Today the artists paint and tourists drink coffee under the beautiful olive trees which were planted by the Arab villagers hundreds of years ago.

With the electricity, Mayor al-Haija has built his own restaurant in the village at the top of the hill. It has a patio with beautiful gardens and ancient olive trees and people like our tour group come there for delicious hummus and roast lamb. Mayor al-Haija told us that he worked hard for many years to get recognition for his village and then fighting for electricity, water and roads. Now he is tired and he says it is up to the next generation. Only two houses currently have electricity—the others await permits. Their houses can be bulldozed at any time because they still do not have permits to build. The photo shows the new restaurant in New Ein Hod.

--One hundred other Arab villages till wait for recognition.

O Lord our God, you have chosen us and made us your own. Help us to say, with Mary, “I am the servant of my God. I live to do your will.” Then lead us, together in this community, to wisely discern where God is calling us to minister, so that we may be healers of the wounds of the world. In the name of your Son, the babe of Bethlehem, Amen.

Advent 3 - Week of Dec 14, John

2008-12-14T17:40:00.000-08:00

John 1.6-8, 19-28

He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.

Here we are with that Wild Man John again, as he travels through the dry, barren wilderness, dressed in animal skins, shouting to anyone who would listen, pointing to the Messiah, testifying to the light. The elders of the synagogue asked him, “Who are you?” And he replied, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord.” ……John, the announcer, pointing to the Messiah of God, proclaiming God’s good news to the people.

The land where John lived and preached, east of Jerusalem, between the city and the Jordan River, doesn’t look like much—no water to be seen, only rock and dirt and a few tiny, scruffy, dried-out plants. Except for the oasis of Jericho, it’s pretty much only Bedouin who live here, eking out a hard living with their goats and perhaps selling their weaving in the markets. Hard to imagine anyone would fight for this bleak, unfruitful land.

This desolate land, however, is much prized. On the color-coded map drawn up for the Oslo Accords in 1993, the Arab villages and farmlands are tan; the Jewish settlements are blue. Since 1948 when the State of Israel was established, this land has become more blue each year. As the blue areas become larger and larger, the brown areas shrink. In spite of United Nations resolutions, the Fourth Geneva Convention’s laws governing military occupation of lands, and pressure on Israel to cease building settlements in Palestinian areas, new settlements are being built today. Even as Palestinian homes are being demolished. Look at a larger view of the map, a 2MB .pdf file.

When we met Angela at our hotel, she looked like she could be channeling John the Baptist. Dressed in a long black tunic and pants, short hair with a long “rat tale” braid (as my junior high son prized it in the 80s), broad-brimmed straw hat and gestures much larger than her 5’3” frame, she attracted attention and mesmerized us as she told us about the struggle for the land and showed us demolished Arab houses and new construction expanding Israeli settlements.

Angela is a tour guide with ICAHD, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. She stood in the front of our bus as she took us on a tour of East Jerusalem—she showed us what the tan and blue areas of the Oslo map look like from the ground. In the past year, since the November, 2007, Annapolis peace conference, 10,000 new housing units have been built on Palestinian lands. Over the past 40 years, 10,000 Palestinian homes have been demolished. The demolished house in the picture is in Abu Dis, near East Jerusalem.

She took us to Silwan, the East Jerusalem Arab neighborhood, so close to the Old City that it is now prized real estate for Jews who want to live nearby. A new development, Nof Zion, is being promoted, mainly to American Jews, who may not have seen the site and are less likely to realize that it is right in the middle of an Arab neighborhood, perched on the hillside above the town. The “Swiss cheese” pattern of the settlements, makes for a Bantustan-type of political map, the West Bank divided into so many small areas—Israeli and Palestinian—that there is little left to create a state of Palestine. The two-state solution is seems more and more impossible.

Angela is a testimony of hope—evidence that there are Israelis who are appalled by their government’s treatment of the Palestinians. These volunteers take visitors on tours; they rebuild bulldozed homes; and they document and publicize Israeli takeover of Palestinian lands. Israeli peace groups like ICAHD testify to the light—giving hope to Palestinians helplessly watching their country being carved up.

O Lord our God, your people are being made homeless, while the world watches or averts their eyes. Protect those who stand up in protest and who work to rebuild destroyed communities. Help us to find ways to join in this healing work. In the name of your Son, the babe of Bethlehem, Amen.

Advent 4 - Week of Dec 21, 2 Samuel

2008-12-14T17:29:00.000-08:00

2 Samuel 7.1-11, 16

And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more…

Jewish Zionists cite passages like this one to support their claim to the land of Israel. The most extreme want to see all Palestinians removed, so that the Jews, God’s chosen people, have exclusive possession of the land.

Everyone needs a homeland—a place where they feel safe, where they can protect their homes and raise their children in safety. This has been the stated aim of Israel as they set about building the security wall; they have said they want to protect their settlements from terrorists and to keep the suicide bombers out. In a post-holocaust world, this has seemed understandable to Europeans and Americans, supported by us because of our guilt over they way we stood by while 6 million Jews were herded into ghettos, loaded onto trains, transported to camps and slaughtered. So what is wrong with wanting to protect your family?

Hannah, a white-haired Jewish grandmother and a volunteer with Machsom Watch, told us that the occupation of Palestinian lands, the security wall and the inhumane treatment of Palestinians at the checkpoints is eating away at the core values of the Jewish people. It is creating a generation of young people numbed to human suffering by their service in the Israeli Army, and it is destroying the fabric of Jewish society. The occupation corrupts and if she does not speak up, her grandchildren will pay the price. Hannah and the other Israeli 500 women who volunteer for Machsom Watch believe that the wall and the checkpoints are not making Israelis safer. Instead it is transforming them into a people who regard the Palestinians as less than human. They are being trained to hate the Palestinians and they are becoming hardened, accepting injustice as the price to be paid for their safety.

The photo shows resistance to the occupation: Graffiti on the Israeli security wall at Abu Dis.

So Hannah spends her days monitoring the checkpoints and writing reports of what she has seen; the women monitor fifty checkpoints in Jerusalem and the West Bank. There is nothing in writing—no rules—about how the checkpoints are run. It is up to the individual soldier under the orders of the commander. The soldier may ask for any sort of documentation. Because of international pressure, soldiers no longer beat people at the checkpoints, but they make travel so difficult that many Palestinians simply give up, quit their jobs and leave the country.

Hannah worked with a young Palestinian family whose son needed treatment for cancer in his eye. His parents and his grandmother had not been able to get permits to travel with him for the medical treatment. When they got permission, it was for only for one day, not enough time for the treatment. When they finally got a four-day permit the letter was in Hebrew, which they do not speak. The faxed permit was not good enough for the soldier, who required an original, so Hannah called the commanders of each of the checkpoints they needed to pass and the commanders called ahead to facilitate their passage. She told us this happens every day.

Another time she helped a milkman who had permits for himself and his truck, but he was stopped because, “The milk does not have a permit.” Another man was traveling back from the hospital where he had had his leg amputated. He wanted to bring the leg with him so that it could be buried with him according to Muslim tradition. He spent ten hours at the checkpoint before he was permitted to leave with the leg.

When I asked how she happened to become involved in her work, Hannah told us that she could not do this work until she became a widow. Her husband would not have approved and her children do not support her in this work. But for her, living in peace requires justice for Palestinians.

O Lord our God, you desire peace and safety for all of us—your people. Like Israel, may we, too, be a blessing to all the nations of the world. In the name of your Son, the babe of Bethlehem, Amen.