Ties That Bind

            In 2009 a group of Palestinian Christians wrote a document called Kairos Palestine with the subtitle A moment of truth: a word of faith, hope, and love from the heart of the Palestinian suffering. It is an ecumenical confession of faith and a call to action.  It seeks to be prophetic in addressing things as they are in Palestine and Israel at this moment in history and how the Church and its members can respond. Hear these words from the Introduction:

            We, a group of Christian Palestinians, after prayer, reflection and an exchange of   opinion, cry out from within the suffering in our country, under the Israeli   occupation, with a cry of hope in the absence of all hope, a cry full of prayer and faith in a God ever vigilant, in God’s divine providence for all the inhabitants of this land. Inspired by the mystery of God’s love for all, the mystery of God’s divine presence in the history of all peoples and, in a particular way, in the history of our country, we proclaim our word based on our Christian faith and our sense of Palestinian belonging – a word of faith, hope and love.

         Why now? Because today we have reached a dead end in the tragedy of the   Palestinian people. The decision-makers content themselves with managing the crisis rather than committing themselves to the serious task of finding a way to resolve it. The hearts of the faithful are filled with pain and with questioning: What is the international community doing? What are the political leaders in Palestine, in    Israel and in the Arab world doing? What is the Church doing? The problem is not just a political one. It is a policy in which human beings are destroyed, and this must be of concern to the Church.

            We address ourselves to our brothers and sisters, members of our Churches in this land. We call out as Christians and as Palestinians to our religious and political leaders, to our Palestinian society and to the Israeli society, to the international community, and to our Christian brothers and sisters in the    Churches around the world . To read more click here http://www.oikoumene.org/fileadmin/files/wccmain/2009pdfs/Kairos%20Palestine_En.pdf

            Last summer while serving First Congregational Church UCC in Grand Marais, Minnesota, I came across this Kairos Document and the UCC’s Pastoral Letter of Response. I felt the urgency of the call. It reminded me of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Letter from the Birmingham Jail.  As you recall, King was writing to his fellow clergymen, mostly White, about why he had marched in Birmingham and why he was now in jail. He was answering their admonishment to wait and not push the issue too hard. His letter was not only a response to these critics but a call for others to resist, especially for the church itself to condemn and resist racist laws. The letter also reminds the Christian leaders of a time when the church acted for justice:

            There was a time when the church was very powerful-in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed.  In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society… So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an arch defender of the status quo. Far from being             disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent—and often even vocal—sanction of things as they are.

            This new Kairos Document reminds me also of that other Kairos Document written by Black South Africans in 1985 and its call to Christians to speak up and out against apartheid. Finally, it reminds me of my own urgent call to faith communities to see immigrants as human beings not as “illegals”; to shout out against racial profiling now legally sanctioned by laws like SB1070. Finally, it reminds me about why I became a minister in the first place, “To do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God” (Micah 6: 6-8).

             I read the Kairos Document and felt the call. It stayed with me as calls often do, nudging and disturbingly insistent: “Go, learn, witness the suffering, stand with the your brothers and sisters… Follow the Way. Get in the Way. Be a peacemaker. Practice nonviolence. Go. ” The call led me to the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Israel and Palestine (EAPPI). It also led me to become a short term missionary for Global Ministries Board of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ.

            I am honored to be able to serve both the World Council of Churches and the United Church of Christ at this time of incredible change, tension, and hopefully democratic transformation in the Middle East. And as it so often happens with God, the mission is turning out to be much more than I expected; the call even more urgent. And so I am reminded of King again from that same letter:  “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”  Just as the cries for freedom in the Middle East are echoing and mirroring each other so we too are tied to these calls for liberation and freedom. We, too, are inescapably connected to these issues and these people.

            It is for all these reasons I decided to call my blog: Garment of Destiny in acknowledgment and honor of all the ties that bind me, us, to a “single garment of destiny.” As supporters of my mission, I promise to write and send pictures of my life and experiences in Israel and Palestine, exposing and connecting the threads. I will be reporting and reflecting  personally and theologically.  On occasion, I will also try and send video and other multi-media links. I hope you will be inspired to respond occasionally to my posts. May God’s blessing and peace be with us all.

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