Friday, March 9, 2012
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Love Your Enemy
Thursday, March 8 2012
Love your enemy. I wrote about this a couple of days ago but
it’s hard to get around this command in Palestine. It’s humbling to hear Palestinian Christians
and Messianic Jews talk about their experiences of learning to love their
enemy. We have the theology of love but
most North American Christians haven’t had to put it into practice the way
Christians in Palestine have. Preaching
love for enemies and actually doing it are two different worlds and this is not
lost on me as one who preaches from Sunday to Sunday. Today, I listened to speaker after speaker who
have real enemies and who have taken Jesus’ word as a direct order. One man I’ve listened carefully to is Sami
Awad – a Palestinian Christian born and raised in Bethlehem. He has an incredible story which is too long
to relate here but see if something he said grabs you the way it grabbed me:
“You can’t talk about loving your enemy until you’ve achieved oneness
with them.”
That’s a lot further than I want to take things. Love for my enemy means putting up with them
but not becoming one with them. It’s
difficult to get my mind around what that would mean in real-time with a
real-world context like Palestine. I’m
challenged here because my “love your enemy” theology has only been done in
theory and not in practice.
Mike
Kooy and I took a field trip (sponsored by the conference) to the ancient city
of Hebron. Remember that place? Abraham settled there when he came into
Canaan. When Sarah died he bought a cave
there. In fact, we took a tour of a
mosque built over the tomb of both Sarah and Abraham. It used to be a church (via the Crusaders)
but was turned into mosque once the crusaders were defeated by Saladin. Hebron is of interest in modern history too
because it has been literally cut in half between Palestinians and Jewish
settlers. In order to accomplish this
the Israeli government blocked off key roads and even divided buildings between
Palestinians and Jews. The mosque of
Abraham and Sarah is divided into two halves with a section for Muslims and for
the Jews. The picture I posted is of a
netting or fence stretched over the top of a marketplace roadway which is
beneath the apartments of some of the Jewish settlers. Garbage is thrown down on the Palestinian
shoppers by the settlers so protection had to be constructed over the
marketplace. Just take Oak Lawn as an
example and imagine erecting a barrier that would cut it in half. It’s almost impossible to imagine such a
scenario. What I saw today was tragic,
sad, and nearly unbelievable.
I’m
hearing and seeing all of this from the Palestinian side. There are, of course, two sides to this
story. This comes out very clearly
listening to the conference speakers.
The danger is to paint a one-sided story. When that’s done, people/nations get
demonized; victim mentalities prevail; and it becomes impossible even to think
about reconciliation. I appreciate the
fact that this perspective is emphasized by the Palestinian Christians speaking
at the conference. I’ve been writing
about one side of the story and it’s important to at least recognize that this
is one-sided. But it cannot be denied
that, on the whole, the Palestinians have taken the brunt of the suffering in
this conflict. Like the city of Hebron,
they are a people who have been cut off by the wall. Life gets hard when you effectively become a
prisoner within your own town. Your
world shrinks down to the size of a few square miles and that brings on a whole
host of hardships. Again, that’s one
side but it is safe to say that it is a more difficult one.
Friday
is the last day of the conference. I
never expected to be challenged in the way that I have been in the last few
days. I do pray I can be a good steward
of the perspective gained here. On
Saturday, Michael Kooy and I will be heading to Jerusalem for a few days of
seeing the sights. Looking forward to
that too and to share our times with you.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Christian Zionism
Wednesday, March 7 2012
Woke up
late and came back to the hotel early – that’s one way to summarize today. I was supposed to go to the Israeli check
point early this morning so I had set my alarm for 5:00 PM. It never went off because it was set for 6:00
PM. There’s actually an old Seinfeld
episode about alarm clock mishaps in hotels so this has to happen to other
people, right? I was disappointed
because I really wanted to go. I came
back to the hotel after dinner today and didn’t stay for the evening
speaker. By my fifth or sixth speaker
today everything started to sound like “blah blah blah blah.” Better for me to get some space so that I can
refocus for a new day!
Today’s
conference topic had mostly to do with something called Christian Zionism. Truth be told, this isn’t something that a
lot of folks from my tradition (Reformed Christian) have heard a lot
about. If you haven’t either then you
should know that there is a large swath of what’s called Christian
evangelicalism in America that promotes Christian Zionism. Believe me, I am no expert but basically it
works by taking mostly Old Testament prophecies and the book of Revelation and
constructing a theology that says that Jesus will return once the Jews have “taken
back” the Holy Land. Christian Zionists
want Israel to flourish and completely take over Palestine so that the stage is
finally set for the second coming. This
is sort of simplistic to say but if you want to know a key reason the United
States is such a huge supporter of Israel, it has to do with what are called
Zionists – both Christian and Jewish. As
you can imagine, this theology ends up being quite a problem for those who live
in Palestine and are not Jews – i.e. Arab Muslims, Arab Christians, and Israeli
Christians (yes, the last two actually exist in Palestine). Arabs have lived in Palestine for thousands
of years and essentially the goal of Zionism is the displacement of all the Arabs
from Palestine. I’m at a Christian
conference in the Palestinian town of Bethlehem so you can imagine how
Christian Zionism ends up being an extremely hot button topic. Again, my own Christian tradition has never
held to a theology of this sort but that doesn’t mean that we haven’t been
swayed to some extent by the mainstream American tenor that advocates it. It is a serious issue that should be paid
attention to but for the purposes of this space it’s a case of “enough said”. If you want to talk about it later, just let
me know and I’ll try to help fill in some of the blanks I’ve left here.
I’m
still loving the food here and there is no shortage of it. Today, I went to lunch with sort of a networking
group and then dinner with a different networking group. I know it’s easy to get tired of restaurant food
easily but I think it’s more just not being hungry when I eat! Another plate is put in front of me and I
just look at it for about two minutes: “Can I really eat this? I’m still full from my last meal.” And then I eat it all. Yikes!
Tomorrow
holds a field trip to Hebron so that’s going to break things up for me. I’m looking forward to the experience and to
sharing some of it with you. Thanks for
tracking with me on this little trip and thanks especially for your
prayers. Peace, or since I’m in
Palestine: Salaam!
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Blessed Are the Peace Makers
Tuesday, March 6 2012
The conference
began today. You know the drill: speaker
and then another speaker and then another speaker and then another speaker and
then, oh yeah, one more speaker! They
were all very good and I’ll share in just a second but here’s a little secret
about me – I’m terrible at sitting still for very long. I always have been which is one of the
reasons I stand on Sundays during church instead of sit. So while a day like today is challenging for
everyone, it ends up being a just a liiiitttle extra challenging for your
truly!! (insert feeling sorry for me
now) I’ve been wondering what my posts
will be about for the rest of the week during this conference but as I listened
to some of the speakers it dawned on me – some of what was shared today can be
heard in only a few places in the world because much of it comes from
Christians who have suffered a great deal for the cause of Christ. As a North American I’ve actually never heard
first-hand what some of the speakers shared today. Maybe you’re like me and would be blessed to
hear this also?!
So
a quote from a Palestinian pastor, Labeeb Madanat, who has been up to his
eyeballs in peace making between Israelis and Palestinians. He told his story of how he went from bitter
hatred for the Israelis to learning how to genuinely love them. This quote comes from this pastor – a man who
actually had a friend and work partner killed as a result of the conflict in
Palestine:
“We can become so consumed
with our own pain and suffering that we cannot feel the pain and suffering of
our neighbor. God calls us to deny
ourselves regardless of who has suffered more.
It requires us to deny our own pain.
Jesus wants our relationships to be defined by what he has done for us
while we were yet enemies of God. We
easily say: But what about our pain?
What about us? But we begin
correctly when we begin with forgiveness.
Are we victim or are we victor?
We can always play the victim or throw the pity party. But this is not what Christ wants us to do or
be. The world sees foolishness and
weakness but God sees it as strength and wisdom.”
I was going to edit this quote to shorten it but I keep
reading it over and can’t bring myself to do it. The words certainly speak to me as one who
enjoys being the life of the pity party.
But then I think: What do I have to complain about? Whatever hardships and difficulties I have
(if any) are nothing compared to Christians living in a land like this. These are Christians that are actively
practicing the gospel under some of the worst conditions on earth. They are living what has to be the most
difficult life possible. They are
working to love their enemy. I know I
can talk about loving my enemy but I’m not sure that I actually ever have done
it. What would that take for me to learn
to do that? What would have to change
within me? Would I actually be willing
to change to love my enemy? Truthfully,
I don’t know. Just being honest.
Remember
Michael? He’s the restaurant owner who
asked “How are you with God? And with
the Holy Spirit?” Our little pastor
posse found him after lunch and we had coffee together. It was fun to visit and laugh. We got to hear a little more about his family
and his life in Bethlehem. He exudes
thanksgiving to God in a way that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen before. I think that’s what drew us back to him. We just wanted to sit and enjoy his love and
laughter some more. We ended our time
together with prayer and promised to meet again before the end of the
conference.
Got to
get up early tomorrow morning (5:30 am) and go on a field trip to watch what
happens at the check point of Jerusalem every morning. Any Palestinian that wants to go into Jerusalem
has to first get a permit (and I’m told that’s an iffy proposition) and then
get in line to go through the security check point. It can take up to three hours to get through
the check point so people that have to be in Jerusalem early start lining up at
3:00 am. Jerusalem is just 6 km
away. I’m also told that sometimes
Israeli guards can be somewhat abusive during the process. At the very least, it has to be degrading to
go through that just to leave your town to get to the next town over. Obviously, the check points are there for a
reason and the history of bombings against Israelis has been well documented
for a long time. I’d probably want a
check point too if I lived in Jerusalem.
But it sounds like the check points have become far more than just a “check”. It is a way to control and marginalize an
entire people group that lives in the same land as you do. I’m sure more stories to follow on this one.
Got to
get to bed!
Monday, March 5, 2012
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