Marlin & Sally in Jerusalem

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.

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.