Marlin & Sally in Jerusalem

Grandbabies and Jimmy Carter

On Sunday Sally and I sent out the following email to our supporters.  As a follow up I would recommend an article in Ha'aretz Newspaper (Israel's largest).  It is an interview with Carter.  I am impressed by Carter's gentle and patient tone, but also note Carter's need to preserve his place in the history of this conflict.  The article is entitled "Jimmy Carter: Israel Must Talk to Everyone."

Dear Friends,

Sally and I are in North Carolina this week loving every minute of time with Mahalia, our new grandbaby (belonging to son, Joshua, and daughter-in-law, Kimberly).  Our daughter Leah, husband Jory, and family were able to be here last week, so we had Emma and Brayden time as well.  Our Nana and Papa hearts are filling up again.  We thank God for each member of our family, and are grateful to have some time to be with them.

Our hearts are also filled with sadness as we listen to the news of the Middle East, and absorb, along with you, all the fear and prejudice fueled by our politicians and media players.  It's very disheartening to hear the many distortions presented as fact, and the facts that are never reported at all, or spun in such a way as to give the American public a false picture of what is happening in the region.  The truth is that there are good guys and bad guys on all sides in this troubled part of the world, and of course, we followers of Jesus understand this from the gut (the biblical meaning of "heart.")  We know our own hearts, and we know them to be conflicted in every way.  We too, as individuals, are good and yet at the same time corrupted.  This is a basic tenet of Judaism as well, yet one more key theological principle that we share with our Jewish cousins.

At the same time, our hearts are lifted by the courage of Christian brother, and former president, Jimmy Carter.  Think what you will of this man, and I know that many of you don't think of him at all, or that when you do you do not think of him well, but at least give the man his due.  He is a man who follows his own convictions of what it means to follow Jesus, even to his own hurt.  This week Carter plans to meet with the enemy, (the Syrians and members of Hamas), in order to influence them toward a nonviolent path for peace.  Already Carter is being mocked and berated as a fool and traitor, an enemy of our friends and a friend to our enemies.  I pray for his success and ask God to give folks like you and me the courage to act on our convictions as well, even when so doing brings us nothing but derision and dislike.  I'm not asking you to agree or disagree with President Carter, but to simply stand up and be counted for something that seeks to influence your part of the world toward Jesus, especially Jesus' courageous call for us to seek blessings in making peace.  I'm not completely sure what Jesus meant when he commanded us "to love our enemies," but I'm pretty sure that Carter is closer to what Jesus had in mind than most. And I will pray for him this week.  I am asking you to do the same.

Our hearts are filling with renewed conviction of the importance of little people like you and me - people who profess to follow Jesus - to follow Jesus all the way and not just as far as feels good to us or is good for us and our families.  God's Kingdom is bigger than any one country, or any one people, and includes within it people from every corner of the world.  Along with God, Sally and I long for the day when all God's children move in harmony toward one lofty, divine goal - the redemption of the world.  We are invited into this work, and we stand in awe at God's gracious invitation.  Let's say "yes."

We love you.

marlin and sally

Friday Prayers

Third Sunday of Easter Lectionary:

    Acts 2:14a, 36-41
    Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
    1 Peter 1:17-23
    Luke 24:13-35

Acts 2:14a, 36-41

14aBut Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them,

36Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified." 37Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, "Brothers, what should we do?" 38Peter said to them, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him." 40And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." 41So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.

Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19

1I love the LORD, because he has heard
my voice and my supplications.

2Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.

3The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.

4Then I called on the name of the LORD:
"O LORD, I pray, save my life!"

12What shall I return to the LORD
for all his bounty to me?

13I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the LORD,

14I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people.

15Precious in the sight of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.

16O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the child of your serving girl.
You have loosed my bonds.

17I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice
and call on the name of the LORD.

18I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people,

19in the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.

Praise the LORD!

1 Peter 1:17-23

17If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile. 18You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. 20He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. 21Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God. 22Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. 23You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.

Luke 24:13-35

13Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17And he said to them, "What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?" They stood still, looking sad. 18Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, "Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?" 19He asked them, "What things?" They replied, "The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. 22Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. 24Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him." 25Then he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?" 27Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. 28As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29But they urged him strongly, saying, "Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over." So he went in to stay with them. 30When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 32They said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?" 33That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34They were saying, "The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!" 35Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

O Lord Jesus, we love you.  And we thank you for all the risks that you took for God’s sake, and ours’ as well.  Thank you for coming through the Virgin Mary’s womb.  Thank you for every step you took, from the first to the last, and all the big ones in between.  We marvel to think of a child’s first step by the God of creation’s first moves, and a Savior’s first step from an empty tomb.  We wonder if the one wasn’t like the other.  Thank you for one miracle after another, and the humility to look to heaven as the source of them all.  Thank you for believing in Easter morning light while it was still dark on Friday night.

We praise you for Peter’s first words on the church’s first day.  We thank you that Peter spoke this word with the eleven by his side.  We ask you, O Lord Christ, unite us around the amazing message of possibilities unlimited, of a God never to be beaten, a Lord who will not stay dead, and a Savior you can’t hang on to but who will never let you go!  Humble the messengers and exalt the church!  Open our eyes and give us a glimpse of your glory for a glimpse is all we need.  Then vanish from our sight so that we can be seen as people of faith.

We pray for the Muslim orphans of Hebron who are being forced to abandon safe refuge, and also for Jewish soldiers who are being forced to abandon ancient codes of honor.  Do not abandon us.

We pray for those who will die today alone in battle, because we do not know how to live together in peace.  Forgive us.

We pray for those who lead and for we who follow.  Grant that we might listen to one another and in so listening, hear your words of wisdom.

We do not ask you to meet us on the road, but simply to point the road on which we are to travel.  Then give us companions to join us on the journey.

Finally, Lord God of Resurrection, raise our hopes for life abundant that begins today and goes on forever.

Amen.

Remember the Orphans

(I received this too late to post by Sunday, but not too late to pray on Monday.  Hope you will too.  When I read these kind of stories, I wonder what has happened to Judaism.  How can Rabbis the world over keep silent in the face of this grievous breach in Torah teaching and admonition?  Where are the Jewish prophets?  And so you know, I know these Christian Peacemakers in Hebron, and I know of none other to be more integral and honest as them.  They are telling the truth!)

Christian Peacemaker Teams in Hebron is calling for Christians around the world to make Sunday, 30 March a day of prayer for the orphans of Hebron. On 25 February 2008, the Israeli army raided all of the buildings and institutions funded by Islamic Charities and gave orphanages and boarding schools until 1 April to evacuate students. On 6 March 2008, the Israeli army again stormed storage buildings of Islamic Charities, confiscating food, children's clothing, and kitchen appliances used to prepare meals for the orphans. These centers house, feed and educate 6000 children in Hebron.

Christian Peacemaker Teams will visit the orphanages and will resist the forced expulsion of children if the Israeli army carries out the order.

Pray for the children of Hebron and for all of those affected by the actions of the Israeli army. Pray that the Israeli civil administration will rescind the order.

To learn more about the Israeli army confiscations from Islamic Charities here are links to recent articles:

Gideon Levy, " Twilight Zone / When charity ends at home"
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=964067&contrassID=2&subContrassID=14      

 
Khalid Amayreh, "Palestinian Orphans protest after their facilities are raided by Israeli troops" http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2008/03/13/palestinian-orphans-protest-after-their-facilities-are-raided-

Oakland Ross, "Hunkering down in Hebron"

http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/350060 

Telephone Conversation

I found it on the street, just lying there on the hard stones of East Jerusalem – a cell phone with a rubber cast image of Nemo hanging from one end.  I thought, “Marlin found Nemo.”  I had a good laugh with myself over that one.  Get it?  See, Marlin was the father fish looking for Nemo, his son – never mind.

Anyway, I find a seat on a stone bench newly placed by the Israeli Municipality.  They are renovating the entire area and it is beautiful.  Come and see!  The phone is exactly like my own except that everything is in Arabic.  But the good news is that I know how this phone works and I can read enough Arabic to figure out a name or two in her contact list.  I am guessing by the Nemo thing that this phone belongs to a young girl.  I find the name Samira and I punch in a call to her.  After a few rings a young girl answers, “Hello.”

“Is this Samira?” I ask in Arabic.

“Aywa (yes),” she answers.

“My name is Abu Issa (Father of Jesus or Joshua – my Arab name.) I found this phone,” I tell her.  “Do you know whose it is?”

“Yes,” she responses, a little cautiously.  “It’s Nadia’s phone.”  She can tell by the call back name, I’m guessing, which is what I was hoping.

“Do you know where Nadia is?” I ask.

“Yes,” she says.  “Nadia is with me.”  Then I hear her talk to someone else.  She speaks rapidly in Arabic, of course, and I only understand the phrase, “your telephone.”

“Where are you?” I ask.

“By Bab Al-Amoud” (Damascus Gate).

“I’m near there,” I say.  “Wait there and I’ll bring you the phone.  I’m an old man with white hair carrying a black backpack.”

“Okay,” she says.

I begin walking toward Damascus Gate.  As I near, I see heading toward me a gaggle of six or seven young girls wearing blue school uniforms and white headscarves.  They are talking and laughing and pointing at me.  As I stop, they all gather around.  It has to be a curious sight because everyone along the street slows down to rubberneck.

One of the girls steps forward.  “Nadia?” I ask.

“No,” she says.  “I’m Samira.”

“Which of you is Nadia?”  Her identical twin steps up and stands beside her.  I smile.  “Nadia?”

“Aywa.”

“Here’s your phone.”

“Thank you very much,” she says, taking the phone.

“Our father would have been angry,” says Samira.  “Nadia is always losing her phone.”  There is general agreement on this among all the girls.  Nadia doesn’t bother to defend herself, probably because she has no defense, but more likely because she doesn’t have to defend herself with this group of friends.  She just smiles.

“I understand,” I say.  “I’m a father too.”

They all laugh.

“Where are you from?” one of them asks in English.

“I’m from America,” I say in Arabic.  “But I live here in Jerusalem, close by here.”

“What do you do here?”

“I am a Christian,” I say.  I want them to know this and I love using the Arabic word for Christian - "Ana Masihi" (I'm Christian).  It carries with it the meaning “Messiah.” 

“I work at Saint George’s College,” I explain.  “I bring people to this place so they can see the beautiful places, and meet people like you girls.”

They know of Saint George’s College.  They go to Schmidt’s School for girls, which is just down the road from Saint George’s Anglican School.  Schmidt’s Girls’ School is famous in the city - one of the best schools in all of Jerusalem, as is the Anglican School for Girls.

We have to go, they tell me.  We are already late.

We part company, me walking into the Old City, and they down Nablus Road to their school.  As they get across the street, they all stop, turn around, and wave at me.  I wave back, of course, and the day moves forward for all of us.  And forward is the word I choose because this is a small step forward in breaking down barriers between people.  Today this group of teenage Muslim girls got to meet an American Christian who took the time to track them down and return a phone that he could have just as easily kept – happens all the time here.  I’ve lost one myself.  And I got to have a conversation with a group of teenage girls who are very much like any group of teenage girls anywhere in the world.

One small step forward for one small, older man and a group of teenage Palestinian Muslim girls. Nothing much more than nothing at all, and yet this will be the talk of the Schmidt Girls’ School today, and that’s something at least.

One Woman's Choice

(I normally do not post material from sources other than my own eyewitness accounts.  Here's an exception.  This is from friend Raymond Weiss, former RCA missionary in Basra, Iraq.  He sent it over from Christian Peacemaker Teams, an organization that sends out peacemakers willing to put themselves between waring factions for the purpose of preventing violence.  They are extraordinarily brave people.)

In the first two months of 2008, Israeli security forces killed 146 Palestinians in the Palestinian Occupied Territories and Gaza Strip (http://www.btselem.org/english/press_releases/20080228.asp). At least forty-two were bystanders, who had not participated in the fighting.

Between 28 February and 3 March, at least half of the 108 Palestinians killed by the Israeli military in Gaza, were civilians (http://www.btselem.org/english/Press_Releases/20080303.asp).

On 27 February, the Israeli military targeted the civilian Interior Ministry in Gaza, damaging nearby buildings and killing a six-month-old baby. The same day, Palestinian military groups in Gaza targeted the Israeli town of Sderot, killing a forty-seven year old civilian.

Like Jesus, we are called to take up the cross by speaking out against war, by saying that the death of any one person is too much, that violence leads to violence; it will never lead to peace.    

In the fifteenth century, Jewish and Muslim families fled Christian persecution in Spain, and came to build new lives in Hebron. For hundreds of years, until 1929, these families co-existed harmoniously.

In 1929, Muslim rioters attacked and killed sixty-seven Jews in Hebron (and wounded many others). Although some chose to participate in the riots or stand by and watch, some Muslim families sheltered and saved hundreds of their Jewish neighbors.

Just across the alley from the CPT apartment, in a building now evacuated and requisitioned by the Israeli military, the Muslim Shaheen family saved their Jewish neighbors, the Mizrahi family.

Rioters were at the door, sure that Jews were in the house. The Hajia (eldest woman of the family) went to the roof of her home, tore off her veil, and tore her clothes (a shameful act in Islam), swearing to those below that all who were in the house were her family. The rioters, horrified to be the cause of dishonor to an old, respected woman, left the area. The Mizrahis survived.

In the face of such violence the Haji refused to stand silently by.

Do we?    

Easter on the Mount of Olives

Easter is not about place.  Easter is about people.

Christianity is not about place.  Christianity is about people.

Jesus was not about place.  Jesus was about people.

Jesus is not about place.  Jesus is about people.

It’s early Sunday morning, dawn, and two women make their way to the place of the dead – the place of a dead friend.  His mother-swaddled body lay in the tomb of a generous Jewish man named Joseph.  The two Marys come to see the tomb, touch the tomb, the tomb that held the body of Jesus.  For grieving people, seeing is believing, even though believing is unbelievably painful.  The women can’t believe Jesus is dead.  They come to see again the place where he was buried.  For those who do not have the body of the one they love, then the body’s burial place becomes a holy place.

Jesus, of course, is not there, not in that place.  The angel tells the women that they can come and see the place, but that the place is not Jesus’ place anymore.  Jesus doesn’t have a burial place.  “Come, see the place where he lay.  Then go quickly and tell his disciples; …” (Matthew 28:7).

Come, see the place, if you must, but then go quickly and tell the disciples.  And then, just a few short verses later, Jesus is telling his disciples to “Go” and tell the people of the world.  See?  The story of Jesus is not about place.  The story of Jesus is about people.  Two women, a group of guards frozen in fear, and a pinched dozen disciples who have to be told so that they can tell the world.  “Come, see, then go quickly and tell …”

Tell what?  Tell the story of Jesus raised from the dead … from the dead!  Tell the story of God breaking into history in a way that breaks all the rules, all the formulas, all the laws of nature.  Tell of possibilities unlimited, of a God unfettered, free, set loose in the world.  Tell people of the place where this happened.  Bid them come and see if they must, but don’t dwell on the place.  Dwell on the people.  Come, see, if you must.  Then go quickly and tell … because you must!  Jesus is raised from the dead.

Easter worship on the Mount of Olives is a wonderful place to remember that Jesus didn’t seem to care a lick about place.  Jesus cared, and Jesus cares, about people.  As the preacher was preaching I was looking around at the place.  I was looking to the East, where I could see the Moab Mountains, the Dead Sea, and directly across the valley, the Jewish settlement of Ma’ale Adumiim.  More than 30,000 Jewish people live in this modern city, named from the Joshua story of the conquest of Canaan.  Ma’ale Adumiim has coffee shops, malls, a swimming pool, city water and sewer, and a system of roads to rival any, anywhere in the world – some of these roads are only for the residents of Ma’ale Adumiim.  But it is the people that come to mind for me, most of whom live oblivious to the fact that they are living on land that was stolen from other people.  The people of Ma’ale Adumiim would tell you that for the most part they just want a place to live in safety, with opportunities to prosper and grow.

Just below the settlement of Ma’ale Adumiim is the city of biblical Bethany, called El-Aziriyeh by the Palestinian people – city of Lazarus.  El-Aziriyeh is a depressed city, separated by a barrier that prevents them from prospering.  The people of El-Aziriyeh want the same thing that the people of Ma’ale Adumiim have.  They want a place where they can live in safety, with opportunities to prosper and grow.

What I was thinking as I was looking and not listening was that Jesus was raised for the people of both these cities, the Jews of Ma’ale Adumiim and the Palestinians of El-Aziriyeh.  That’s it, nothing more profound than that – Jesus was raised for the people of both these cities.  I don’t know if telling them that will make much difference, but telling you might.  So I’m telling you.  God loves both the Jews and the Palestinians.  And you and I are called to love them both as well.  We can get into the politics of this place, and we ought to, because politics is a part of life and we ignore politics at our own peril.  We can get into whose place is which place, and we ought to, because place matters, especially when people are taking places that don’t belong to them.

But ultimately, if we don’t love the people of this place with the same fierce love that the God of this place loves them, then we ought to stay out of this place.  And this is true not just of this place, but of every place.  The core of Christianity is not a place, but a person – Jesus.  And this person loved people.  This person was killed by people, buried by people, but raised by God who loves and forgives even those who didn’t know what they were doing when they did what they did to his Son.  This is the same God who loves us even when we don’t know what we are doing when we are doing the very same thing all over again, and that’s what we are doing when we put one people above another, or elevate place over people.

Wherever you worshiped yesterday, it is the people you worshiped with that made worship just that and nothing less than that – worship!  And if our worship is going to transcend the experience and translate into positive, God-loosed action in the world, then it begins with love of the people, and not just the people we like or identify with most naturally, but all the people so loved by God.

Mahalia

Ah Mahalia, you make me smile!  I have you front and center on my computer, and every time I look at you, you make me smile.  And I look at you a lot.  I sit with my computer on my lap and I look at you, and you make me smile.  And it is an easy smile you make on me, the kind that simply begins the moment you come into focus.  Ah Mahalia, you make me smile.

You are new, so fresh out of the womb, unblemished, untarnished, and clean both inside and out, and you make me smile.  I can see your mom in you, of course, and your dad as well, but really, Mahalia, you look like you and not like anyone else but you.  And you look so good to me.  You make me smile.

I can’t wait to meet you face to face, to touch your arms and put my finger into your hand so that you can squeeze a bond between us.  Ah Mahalia, you make me smile.  Soon I will kiss those soft, sweet cheeks, and run my finger over your eyes and nose, and I love that nose Mahalia – such a great nose.  I’m smiling now Mahalia.

Who are you, little one?  In the likeness of your mom and dad, yet made in the image of God.  Does God look like you sweet child?  Is God ever new, always fresh out of the womb, unblemished, untarnished, and clean both inside and out?  Mahalia, do you define holiness?

Ah Mahalia, you make me smile!

The trip from darkness to light was along a narrow path, wasn’t it sweetheart?  Hurt too, didn’t it?  Your mom will tell you all about it one day, but she won’t talk much about the pain for her.  Because when she tells you about the day you and she had your first good cry together, she’ll be looking right into your eyes, her eyes, and she will not remember how badly it hurt to bring you into daylight.

Your dad can’t take his eyes off you.  You think he was a worrier before you came along, well now he has something to worry about – someone who’s happiness has become more important to him than his own.  He has you.  And guess what, little one, you have him too.

Ah Mahalia, you make me smile! 

Your Nana looks at you, Mahalia, and cries soft tears, which are for her a smile from deep inside.  She travels back to your daddy's first day, and the memory of it binds you to her in ways too mysterious for a man like me to understand.

So I sit back and listen to her as I look at you, and Mahalia, I smile!

Palm Sunday Pictures

Yesterday was the yearly first Palm Sunday walk - first because Orthodox Palm Sunday is a couple of weeks away.  The walk begins at Bethphage (House of Figs) and proceeds down through Lion's Gate and into Saint Anne's Church located just inside the city walls.

The walk starts just on the other side of this wall, which separates biblical Bethany from the Mount of Olives.  This picture was taken from the Bethany side of the Separation Barrier, just five minutes from tradition's site for Lazarus's tomb.
And here they come - the procession proceeds down the Mount of Olives toward the Old City, let by four Israeli soldiers.  Tourists often remark about how odd it is to have soldiers in full battle gear leading the Palm Sunday procession, but for locals these soldiers are just part of the landscape.  They are there as a presence for the purpose of keeping order, but it does serve to put in perspective Palm Sunday in contemporary Jerusalem.  You have to wonder where the soldiers were on the first Palm Sunday walk, the one Jesus led seated on the back of a donkey.  Roman soldiers were there of course, watching the crowd as it made it's way toward the city of Jerusalem.  These Roman soldiers worried over the crowd as well, wondering if the motley crew made up mostly of children was planning celebration or revolution.  Imagine their relief when Jesus led the crowd into the Temple through the Beautiful Gate and not toward their stronghold, the Antonio Fortress, by the then Sheep's Gate.  I know, it's confusing, but stay with me.
And there they go, into the Old City, and because the Beautiful Gate is no longer there, and the Golden Gate, near where Beautiful Gate once stood was closed by one of the Muslim sultan's, the crowd passes through the gate that would have led up to the Antonio Fortress, where Pilate was no doubt staying for the dangerous time of the  festival of Passover.  Was Pilate watching too?  Who is watching this crowd?  Are they dangerous too?  It could be that we are a danger to the principalities and powers.  At the very least, we should be.  Right?  Not because we would revolt, but because we follow that first parade marshal who came riding on a donkey, unarmed except for a divine, internal resolve to redeem the world by the only means possible - his own self.  And if it meant suffering, then so be it.  And if it meant death, then so be it.  And if there was something more to come, something transcending suffering and death, something like resurrection, well then, so be it as well.  A man on a donkey rode into a city rife with corruption at every level, sold out completely to violent solutions to every problem, conflicted and factioned, and the man on the donkey knew by then that only the children would understand the significance, because only the children were willing to follow a man on a donkey rather than a man with a sword.

Who is following the man on the donkey today?  And where is the man on the donkey leading us?

Prayer Evangelism

Sally had walked on ahead of me.  I was locking the outside door of our apartment building.  Head down, I turned to walk up the street and on to work.  I ran right into him.

He’s a small man and old.  Over the years he has lost his teeth.  On most days he wears his false ones, but they don’t fit him very well.  Today, he chooses to go toothless.  However, in demeanor, he is anything but.  He bites.

“Where have you been,” he demands.  “I have not seen you in three years.”  This is his way of chastising me for not having the good manners to stop by his hair salon and give my regards.

“Sorry," I tell him, "but I’ve been busy taking care of people from the States.”

“Come have tea,” he says.  He takes my arm and begins pulling me toward his shop.  I nod to Sally to go ahead without me.  She does.

As soon as I am in the salon, he tells me that his youngest son is in jail.  I ask why.  “They say he throw stones at the police, but he was in the shop.  He no throw stones.  He no throw stones.”  He is shaking his bony old finger in my face as if I am somehow disputing this.  I gently reach up and take his hand in mine.

“I’m sorry, my friend,” I say.  His oldest son is sitting in the barber chair pretending to read the newspaper, but I catch him watching me in the mirror.  The old man begins to weep.  “He no throw stones.  He no throw stones.”

I do not respond.  “Fifteen soldiers come to my shop.  Fifteen."  His voice is now high pitched and vibrating.  "They have their big guns out in front of them, and their little guns on their belts.”  He demonstrates how they hold their guns.  His face takes on the the expression of authority. He is the soldier.  “They put the wrist holders (handcuffs) on my son.”  He shows me how his son was holding his hands.  I notice a scar on his left thumb.  His hands are shaking.  “What we can do?  What we can do?”  Then he mutters, “Nothing.  We can do nothing.”

“We can pray,” I offer up – rather a lame thing to say I know, but really, what to do?  What to say?

“Yes, pray to Allah.  Yes, we pray to Allah.”

“But I will pray for you and your son too.  And I pray in the name of Jesus, you know.”  The oldest son looks up from his paper and stares at me for a long moment.  I raise my eyebrows and move my head slightly to the right, a gesture that asks his permission to go on.  He nods.  “Is it alright with you if I pray in the name of Jesus.”

“Yes, yes,” he says, putting his right hand on my arm.  “Yes, pray for my son.  Pray to Jesus.  You are a good friend to us.”

So I did.  Right there in that shop I prayed for his son.  I prayed in the name of Jesus.  My hands shook as I did, as this was the boldest act I have ever done in my life.  But it seemed right to me, and so I did it.  When I finished, I looked up to see what I had done.   The son was sitting with the paper in his lap, his head bowed, and the old man was weeping.  I stood there wondering what I had just done, and what to do next.

Just then another man walked into the shop and the moment passed.  I needed to go as I had a bus full of pilgrims waiting for me.  I told them just that and moved for the door.  The old man had collected himself by now and walked out with me.  “Thank you,” he said.  “I’ll tell my son that you stopped by for tea.”

“Will you tell him that I prayed for him?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said, “I will tell him.”

We stand there on the street, both of us lost for a moment in our own thoughts.  Then I lean down to kiss him first on one cheek and then on the other.  Neither of us have shaved, which makes for a rather strange feeling, at least for me.  The old man is shaking his head, the sadness in him oozing out of every pore.  “He’ll be alright,” I say.

“No,” he said, “he won’t.”

I frown slightly and nod my head.  “No,” I say, “probably not.  I’ll keep praying.”

“Issa?” he says with a little smile.  (Issa is Arabic for Jesus.)

“Malum,” I respond with a half grin.  (Of course.)

And he laughed.  Honest to God, he shook his head and laughed.  I don't know what to make of that laugh, but it might have been the only laugh he had all day. 

One True Religion

(Today a small treatise on a subject important to me and the work I do in this place.  Tomorrow a story to illustrate, or at least to try.  Because try is what we keep trying to do.)

Is there only one true religion, one faith that fits all?

I believe there is, and furthermore, I believe the one true religion to be mine – Christianity.

Am I right?  I  believe that I am.  I don’t know that I am right in this, but I believe it – believe it most of the time and with most of my heart.  Sometimes I believe this wholeheartedly, and these, of course, are the best of times.

I don’t say this to please anyone but myself, and my God.  I am a follower of Jesus.  I have been a follower of Jesus my entire life.  My parents and grandparents, and theirs before them were all followers of Jesus too.  Our daughter and son follow Jesus.  They are raising our grandchildren to follow Jesus as well.  I love Jesus!  I adore Jesus!  I talk about Jesus to anyone who wants to talk about anything important, and as far as I am concerned anything that is important always comes around to being about Jesus.  My entire being revolves around talking about Jesus.  I teach about Jesus to whoever wants to learn what I believe the Scriptures want to teach about Jesus.  Nobody here in this place questions my loyalty to Jesus.  And I do mean nobody.  I am transparent, vocal and stubborn about my faith in Jesus as Lord of the Universe.  As concerns the birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and return of Jesus, I do not compromise!

And yet, I am respectful of others’ faith.  I respect the Jewish person who believes in the God of his/her mothers and fathers just as strongly as I believe in Jesus. I respect the Muslim who is every bit as passionate about his/her faith as I am about mine.  I respect them.  In fact, those who are most passionate are the ones I respect the most.  And I find they respect me as well, that most people do not respect someone who is not serious about his faith.  And I am extremely serious about my faith in Jesus as Lord. 

I talk with them.  I listen to them.  I try to influence them toward a fresh look at Jesus.  They try to influence me as well.

I struggle most with Muslims, mostly because most of my contact is with Muslims.  Ninety-eight percent of my neighbors are Muslim.  Islam seems to me like the Johnny-come-lately of the three monotheistic traditions.  I read the Qu’ran and it seems more than a bit farfetched to me, more than a bit made-up to fit the need of Muhammad to make a place for himself and his people.  The Jewish people read the New Testament in exactly the same way as concerns us.  I humbly recognize this, put away my sword, and try to listen to my Muslim neighbors as they try to convince me of the missing chapters in my story of God.  I nod my head in understanding of what they believe, and then I tell them what I believe.  And they listen back.  I call that evangelism.  Guess what, so do they!

I’m trying to understand so that I can be understood.  I’m trying to listen so that I can be heard.  I’m asking my friends, colleagues and anyone else who reads this little blog, to try along with me – struggle along with me.

I believe the struggle pleases the one true God who loves the whole world, and wants the whole world reconciled, first with him, and then with one another.

I believe that reconciliation is possible only in Jesus, and that it is the followers of Jesus who must lead the way in humble listening, respectful talking, and most of all in steadfastly supporting one another as we do.