Marlin & Sally in Jerusalem

The Elephant Sitting in the Middle of Ben Yehuda Square

The modern State of Israel and I share something in common – we’re both 60.  My birthday celebration was a quiet one, spent with a handful of friends here in Jerusalem.  My Lutheran pastor gave me a coffee mug and a T-shirt that proclaim me an “Old Lutheran.”  I told him I’d wear it while working just to spite Luther’s slight of the Book of James.

Israel’s celebrations are not quiet, but they are curiously subdued.  Every night this week, we are treated to the most amazing displays of fireworks and laser shows.  During the day, jets roar overhead as Israeli pilots practice for air shows and salutes to visiting dignitaries such as President Bush.  In the middle of Monday morning this week, a siren went on and stayed on for a full minute, and a full minute is a long time for a siren to sound.  There are Israeli flags everywhere – well almost everywhere.  You won’t see many Israeli flags on our side of town.  You do see them on the municipal buildings and courthouse, as well as on the army jeeps that patrol the neighborhood.   Israeli soldiers have mounted huge flags onto their vehicles and they love to draw near a group of Palestinian youth and just idle there for a few minutes.

In East Jerusalem and all across the West Bank and Gaza, people are in mourning as they remember the “al nakba” – the catastrophe.  One people’s Independence Day is another people’s day of disaster.  For the Palestinians, all this celebrating and flag waving is a little like having someone dance on your father’s grave.  On the streets we can feel the temperature rising.

What the State of Israel has accomplished in 60 years is nothing short of stunning.  Israel’s advances in the tech industry and in medicine are benefiting the whole world.  Their agricultural achievements are phenomenal.  And militarily, they are now a world power, with nuclear arms and every tool they need to dominate the region far into the future.

So why is the celebration subdued?  Why are so many Israelis conflicted, even as they are justifiably proud of what they have done, and what they have withstood in order to do what they have done?  It is because there is an elephant sitting in the middle of Ben Yehuda Square – Jerusalem’s main drag – and everyone sees it squatting there, and no one knows how it got there, and anyone who dares to point to it there is demeaned and then dismissed from there.  There is something that is not right here, and all here and most everywhere else know this is true – something is not right here!

The Jewish people didn’t come here in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries intending to run the Palestinian people out.  The Jewish people were running themselves.  They were running for their lives, in fact. You know the story of Nazi Germany.  Do you also know the stories in the rest of Europe and in the United States as well?  No country was going out of its way to treat Jewish people with respect and dignity.  They were harassed everywhere they settled.  So they settled on settling here, in the land of their ancestors.  They settled in the place of Abraham and Sarah in order to find a place where they could be safe – a refuge, a place to recover from centuries of abuse.

But let’s be fair and finally acknowledge that the place in which they chose to settle was not unsettled.  There were people living here.  And the people living here, the Palestinian people, weren’t a part of the abuse being heaped on the Jewish people in Europe.  For centuries, Jews and Christians and Muslims lived side by side in Palestine, in little villages where people live and let live, because anything other than that made no sense to sensible people who lived by the sweat of their brow.  The first of the Jewish immigrants were received reasonably well, rather like Abraham and Sarah when they immigrated into Caanan all these centuries ago.  The new arrivals bought land, dug wells, built homes, farmed and opened shops.  There were some problems, of course, but by-and-large, these new Palestinians were given a chance to grow and prosper.

However, as the Jewish population doubled and then tripled and then wave after wave of Jewish immigrants literally washed up on the shores near Hiafa, the Palestinians began to worry.  The Arab population began to push against the Jewish immigrants, and well, one thing led to another and each side points the finger at the other, and each has their own narratives to tell and retell. The end result is what we have today – something not quite right.  An elephant is sitting in the middle of this land and spoiling the celebration.  The person on the street wears a tense expression, the politician a fixed smile.  Newspapers hint at the beast, and some even have the audacity to almost name it, but not quite.

The nation birthed to be a light to the nations, is anything but, and all the successes in the world will not change that one burning truth.  That one burning truth is the elephant that the Jewish people do everything they can to hide, and yet cannot hide from themselves.  You cannot deem your dream come true, when that dream come true means another people have to live a nightmarish life, the kind of life you know only to well.  You can tout all your accomplishments, and there is a long list of them to tout.  You can marvel at what you have become, and in such a short time too.  And yes, you have become a powerful nation, a force to reckon with. 

But then, at the end of a day of dancing and singing and slapping one another on the back, there sits that dang elephant, and you are reminded that for everything you have done, there is one thing missing, and that one thing is really all that really matters.  You are not who you are meant to be, and you will never be until the Palestinian people are free!  The people of the State of Israel, along with all of us who love them and want the best for them, will not be free to fully celebrate independence, until the Palestinian people, a people longing to be loved as well, are able to celebrate the same.  Until then, get to know the elephant well, because the behemoth is not going away, and not getting any smaller either.

Champion of Orphans

This blog is in response to the closings in Hebron of two orphanages, a bakery, a factory run by grown young women from the orphanages, offices of an Islamic charity organization, and several schools.  The whole affair is an embarrassment to any civilized person and one that we as Christians ought to worry over at best.   The use of children to make a political point is unacceptable.  The picture near the end was taken at a gathering to support the children.

We are a people of the covenant, or we are not a part of the people of God.  That’s what my Reformed theology teaches: We are a people of the covenant – the covenant God made with Abraham and Sarah, renewed over and over again with their seed, and then revisited anew in the flesh and blood person of Jesus.  We are a people of the covenant!

And what does that mean?  Well, it means a lot of things, and one of them is this: We are to provide for children.  Not just for our children, however you or I might designate them as ours, but for all children, especially the ones who are orphan or outcast.  We are to put a roof over children’s heads, clothes on children’s backs, food in children’s stomachs, medicine for their hurts.  This is a part of the covenant agreement God made with us.

The Jewish people took the care of the orphan seriously, because God took care of the orphan seriously. The rabbis teach: “Wherever you find the strength of the Holy One, blessed be He, you find His humility.” Wherever you find the power of God, you find that God is using that power and might to care for creation.  God is supreme in power and might, riding the clouds, yet also humble—down to earth and caring for those human beings who need a champion for their cause.

It is written in Deuteronomy, “For the LORD your God is God of gods and LORD of Lords, the great God, mighty and awesome” (10:17), and it says right after “who executes justice for the orphan and the widow” (10:18).  It is repeated in the prophets: “For thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy” (Isaiah 57:15) and it says right after “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with those who are contrite and humble in spirit” (57:15).  It is reiterated in the Writings, as it says: “… lift up a song to him who rides upon the clouds” (Psalm 68:4) and it says right after “the father of orphans and protector of widows” (v. 5).

As is always the case, an admonition to do the same is not far behind.  “Every third year you shall bring out the full tithe of your produce for that year, and store it within your towns; the Levites, because they have no allotment or inheritance with you, as well as the resident aliens, the orphans, and the widows in your towns, may come and eat their fill so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work that you undertake” (Deuteronomy 14:29).

The orphans of Hebron need a Champion.  I believe that they have one in God Almighty, and that God is not standing alone.  Many are coming to the aid of the orphans of Hebron, who are being punished because of the accusation that they are under the care of people with ties to Hamas, the evidence of which, according the the Israeli Army, is secret.  And where have we heard this before?  And because of this, Israel will shut the orphanages down.  The Israel Defense Force has already closed down a bakery that served the needs of the children of the orphanage, as well as hundreds of children served by the schools in Hebron.  They have raided the orphanage building and schools and taken or thrashed anything that was not tied down.  Some of these raids have been at night, thereby scaring the children half to death.  These soldiers literally put 3 and 4-year-old terrified children out on the street!  What kind of army does that kind of thing?  They closed down a small factory run by young women who were at one time orphans from the orphanages now stripped of everything.  These young women make embroidered items for sale in the public marketplace.

Speaking to an audience made up mostly with Christian activists and Muslim school personel, with a handful of press - none from any major news organization - Rabbi Arik Aschermann, head of  Rabbis for Human Rights association, stated that closure and confiscation of the orphanages and boarding schools and affiliated institutions were  “incompatible with the Jewish concept of justice.”  

“If the army had any evidence, let them present it  before a court of law; the army can’t  act as plaintiff, prosecutor, and judge and policeman at the same time.”

Aschermann said that Jewish people who follow the Torah can’t accept  what the Israeli army was doing in Hebron.  His statements are consistent with centuries of rabbinic teaching.  Where are the rest of his rabbinic brothers and sisters?  Why are the scholars and leaders of Judaism silent?

I am no fan of Hamas, but neither am I a fan of those who would use children to make a political point.  Make your point some other way!  Know this for a certainty: The Father of orphans and the Protector of widows does not approve!

Fireworks

(The photos are from Hebron.)

It is Passover (Pesach) for the Jewish folks and Holy Week for Orthodox Christians – Greek, Coptic (Egyptian), Russian, Romanian, Armenian, Ethiopian, Syrian and a few more.  That means fireworks!  Every night, as the stars come out, we are treated to a magnificent display of fireworks over West Jerusalem, the Jewish side of town.  Sally and I watch from the roof of our apartment.  The Orthodox Christians present fireworks of a different nature.  On Palm Sunday we watched as a Greek Orthodox and an Armenian priest squared off and pummeled each other over a breach in protocol in the Empty Tomb located in the Church of the Resurrection, Old City Jerusalem.  It seems that a priest of a rival faction stayed in the Tomb longer than his brother thought appropriate.  And I am using the term “brother” loosely.  There exists here the constant scandal of turf wars waged in the most sacred Christian site in the world.  The Israeli police were called in to intervene and the crowd tried to beat them off with palm branches – not a pretty sight.

In Hebron, the site of the tombs of Abraham, Sarah, Rebekah, Isaac, Leah, and Jacob, the Israeli Defense Force is waging war on the children.  The children are losing, of course.  In these fights, the children always lose.  Almost 350 of these children are orphans, and the IDF is trying to close down the orphanage.  And they will succeed.  They always succeed.  On a day last week, the IDF closed a bakery that fed the children, raided the schools and orphanage, not once but twice, the last time in the middle of the night, causing beds to be wet and tears to be shed.

Here’s the irony in this for me:  Jewish people are shooting off fireworks to commemorate and celebrate God’s miraculous liberating activity in the Exodus event.  The oldest branch of the Christian Church is fighting over time and space in the one place on earth where peace ought to prevail.  Neither of these groups seems to care a lick about the orphans of Hebron.

But God does, I think, and so do some very good Christian organizations.  I thank God for World Vision, Save the Children, Christian Peacemaker Teams, and many others who are fighting for the Muslim children affected by the cruel actions of the IDF.  In the end, I fear that the champions for the children will not win the battle, but they will have at least fought the good fight.  The Muslim community knows who is trying to help and why.  And it will make a difference.

Speaking about her church, the Greek Orthodox Church, one Palestinian Christian friend said: “All the Fathers (priests) care about are their positions and their sacred spaces.  They don’t care about us.”

How true that is, I can't say, but this is true: The Father does care.  And in the name of Jesus, one with the Father, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, sent from the Son, we care too.  You and me, we care about the children of Hebron and Gaza and Sderot and all the other places in the world where children are suffering.  We care!  Right?  Please do what you can, wherever you can to stand up for children – no matter who they are.

Why should you?  Because, and you already know this, but for the grace of God go your little ones.  And if you did not have the power to care for your children and grandchildren, wouldn’t you hope and pray that someone with power did it for you, and with you?

"They do not listen ..."

Jesus told a parable about a rich man and a poor man.  The poor man’s name was Lazarus.  The rich man is not named.  But it is important to note that the poor man carries the same name as the man that Jesus raised from the dead – Lazarus.

Skipping the details of the story, which I hate to do because in this case the devil is in the details, both Lazarus and the rich man die.  We too will one day die and so this story soon becomes our story.  The rich man ends up in what sounds an awfully lot like hell, and the poor man winds up in the bosom of Abraham, himself a rich man.  So we know that this story of Jesus is not primarily about rich and poor, but rather about something deeper, something that seems to be troubling Jesus, something about all people and especially something about his people, the Jewish people, those to whom Torah has been given, the people to whom Jesus has come.

The rich man wants the poor man to serve him, to give him a taste of water, life-giving water, one of humankind’s basic human rights.  In this story, it is Abraham who speaks for God.  It is Abraham who delivers the bad news to the rich man.  No, Abraham tells him, Lazarus will not be serving you.  No one will be serving you again.  You had your times of being served, now it is Lazarus’ turn to be served, and I, Abraham, your father and his father, will do the serving.  And then Abraham delivers the worst of all possible bad news - after death there will be no reversal of fortunes.  But in this worst of all possible bad news is hidden the best of all possible good news: The time to repent is in life before death, not later, because then, in life before death, repentance is possible.  In other words, you and I can change.

The rich man accepts this as his lot in life after death and now turns his attention to those whom he loves and who are still in the land of the living before dying – his five brothers.  The rich man begs Father Abraham to send to his brothers poor Lazarus, whom he still does not see as his brother as well.  Let Lazarus come from the dead as an eyewitness to tell them what is coming to them if they do not turn around and live differently than the way they are now living.  We can only surmise that by this the rich man means that they should be more generous, more about giving than taking, more about helping than being helped.  It seems that they are have seconds and thirds while some, like Lazaras, have not been through the buffet line even once.

But Abraham slams the door in his face, just as the rich man daily had done to Lazaras as Lazaras lay begging for crumbs by the rich man’s gate.  “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead” (Luke 16:31).  If the living word cannot convict them of the need to be servants than even an eyewitness to the consequences of greed will not change their minds and hearts is the gist of it, I think.

It seems to me that Jesus is making sad commentary about we who live in the land of living before dying.  We are so easily caught up in getting all we can for ourselves and our families, that we are unable to listen to the living word of God, or to those who would give an eyewitness account of the sufferings of so many who are so far behind that they can never catch up without our help.  We believe the truths that best suit our own situation and refuse to listen to any witness, whether it be the still living word of God, or any other that might challenge those convenient truths, even when those witnesses tell us what they have seen with there own eyes.

“Marlin, why is it that almost everyone who lives in Israel/Palestine for a good length of time comes back with a very different story than the one we hear from our media sources here in the States?”

I have a different set of questions.  Questions that go deeper, I think.  Questions that I think help us go to the heart of the matter that was troubling Jesus when he told the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man.  Why was the Rich Man blind to the sufferings of Lazarus when Lazarus lay right before his eyes?  Why are we blind?  Think of how many times Jesus used this analogy to describe the people of his day, especially those who were rich and prosperous.  Blind guides, he called them.  Let me get painfully specific.  Why is it so few believe the eyewitness accounts of people like Sally and me?  Why do so many label us as anti-this or anti-that, instead of listening for what we are for, which is peace and reconciliation in this region and around the world?  Why is it that so many do not believe us when we say that what we want more than anything else is for Jewish people to have a safe and secure place where they can recover from the abuses piled upon them over the centuries?  Why is it that we cannot want and work for the same kind of safe and secure place for Palestinians, especially Palestinian Christians who are slowly being choked out of the place they have called home for generations?  Why is it that we are so afraid of the truth about Israel and her oppression of the Palestinian people, and our complicity in what is happening here?  And why can we not see that this oppression is as bad for the Jewish people living here as it is for the Palestinian people living here? Why are we so easily led to believe that the problems here are caused by only one group of people?  Why can we not see victims on all sides of this ongoing conflict?  Why is it that even some who come and see for themselves the suffering of the Palestinian people, whether in Gaza or the West Bank, cannot bring themselves to believe that the cause of their suffering is not entirely, or even primarily, the result of their own behavior?

And then let me leave you with two more questions, please.  Why is it that so many of us in the evangelical community refuse to see that these matters of injustice deeply bother God?  Is it because if we acknowledged this basic biblical truth, then we would have to be bothered as well, then we would be forced to ask questions of ourselves, our leaders, and our Bible that we would rather not have answered?

And Jesus said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions” (Luke 12:15).

Carter Shunned

(I'm indebted to the Haaretz Editorial Board for getting it right as concerns Jimmy Carter.  I would love to see something like this in an American newspaper as well.  Haaretz is Israel's largest newspaper.)

Our debt to Jimmy Carter
By Haaretz Editorial

The government of Israel is boycotting Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States , during his visit here this week. Ehud Olmert, who has not managed to achieve any peace agreement during his public life, and who even tried to undermine negotiations in the past, "could not find the time" to meet the American president who is a signatory to the peace agreement with Egypt . President Shimon Peres agreed to meet Carter, but made sure that he let it be known that he reprimanded his guest for wishing to meet with Khaled Meshal, as if the achievements of the Carter Center fall short of those of the Peres Centre for Peace. Carter, who himself said he set out to achieve peace between Israel and Egypt from the day he assumed office, worked incessantly toward that goal and two years after becoming president succeeded - was declared persona non grata by Israel.

The boycott will not be remembered as a glorious moment in this government's history. Jimmy Carter has dedicated his life to humanitarian missions, to peace, to promoting democratic elections, and to better understanding between enemies throughout the world. Recently, he was involved in organizing the democratic elections in Nepal , following which a government will be set up that will include Maoist guerrillas who have laid down their arms. But Israelis have not liked him since he wrote the book " Palestine : Peace not Apartheid."

Israel is not ready for such comparisons, even though the situation begs it. It is doubtful whether it is possible to complain when an outside observer, especially a former U.S. president who is well versed in international affairs, sees in the system of separate roads for Jews and Arabs, the lack of freedom of movement, Israel's control over Palestinian lands and their confiscation, and especially the continued settlement activity, which contravenes all promises Israel made and signed, a matter that cannot be accepted. The interim political situation in the territories has crystallized into a kind of apartheid that has been ongoing for 40 years. In Europe there is talk of the establishment of a binational state in order to overcome this anomaly. In the peace agreement with Egypt , 30 years ago, Israel agreed to "full autonomy" for the occupied territories, not to settle there.

These promises have been forgotten by Israel , but Carter remembers.

Whether Carter's approach to conflict resolution is considered by the Israeli government as appropriate or defeatist, no one can take away from the former U.S. president his international standing, nor the fact that he brought Israel and Egypt to a signed peace that has since held. Carter's method, which says that it is necessary to talk with every one, has still not proven to be any less successful than the method that calls for boycotts and air strikes. In terms of results, at the end of the day, Carter beats out any of those who ostracize him. For the peace agreement with Egypt , he deserves the respect reserved for royalty for the rest of his life.