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?