Listen now to this sermon by Pastor Brooks in which he points to sources of hope in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Scripture Reading—Psalm 122
Henry Siegman who was once the head of the American Jewish Congress and the Synagogue Council of America recently reflected on what he sees as the great lesson of the Holocaust. He said the great lesson isn’t that there are evil people in this world doing horrible, unimaginable things. The great lesson is that people we would otherwise consider good and decent allowed such evil to happen. Siegman had in mind the German public—people who were not monsters but people who nevertheless gave ascent to the Nazis. One the beautiful aspects of our scripture today is how it encourages the opposite of this. We are encouraged not to be passive spectators in this world even if we are pious about it. Rather, the psalmist not only prays for peace in Jerusalem but also says, “I will seek your good.” Yet, if any of you are like me, this can sometimes be easier said than done. In facing some of the problems of this world, we might sometimes ask ourselves, “How can we do more than pray? How can we seek the good of the other?”
Even before the recent violence in Gaza many of us have long been troubled by the conditions and circumstances there. In thinking of Gaza, Siegman cites an ancient rabbinic saying that evokes the golden rule: “Don’t judge your neighbor until you can imagine yourself in his [or her] place.” Siegman imagines what it would be like if the Jewish population of Israel was locked into less than two percent of their land. He imagines that they are then told to behave, to not resist, and to cease their efforts to be a Jewish state. Moreover, the reality of being occupied would also weigh heavily. Another country controls who and what crosses your borders. Another country controls how much food children get to eat each day. In June, a Norwegian trauma surgeon filed a report to the UN that cited how 57% of households in Gaza were food insecure and how 80% depended upon aid. Those under the age of two suffered from high rates of anemia, stunted growth, and wasting. On top of this, 90% of the water in Gaza was deemed unfit for human consumption. How can we do more than pray? How can we seek the good of the other?
As we all know, the deplorable health conditions of June were followed by the violence that we have seen across our television screens as nearly 1,900 have been killed with more than 400 being women and children. To understand how all of this could happen, it is important to listen closely to what the political leaders of Israel have had to say. One member of the Israeli parliament explained that terrorists wouldn’t exist without those who support them. Their mothers and all those around them are enemy combatants and should therefore follow them in their death. “Nothing would be more just,” the politician declared. The homes in which these mothers “raised the snakes” should also be destroyed in order to prevent “more little snakes” from being raised. When Palestinians become racialized as terrorists, enemy combatants, and snakes, it becomes easy to see how they are to be exterminated through bombs and how the Israeli Prime Minister can declare his support for making sure Palestinians never have their own country. How can we do more than pray? How can we seek the good of the other?
I realize there are lots of different opinions about where blame should be placed. With Gaza, there is often this sense that one needs to be fair-handed and understanding of both sides—Israeli and Palestinian. I fully support being fair and understanding of all involved. At the same time, I recognize that both sides are not equal. Power is far more heavily weighted on one side than the other. Low-grade rockets that hardly ever hit their target versus a highly weaponized army with nuclear capabilities isn’t a level playing field. Hamas simply isn’t capable of inflicting the level of violence that Israel has already inflicted. How can we do more than pray? How can we seek the good of the other?
Fortunately, as a third party, we are in a good position to seek the good of both sides. We don’t have to feel like it is us against them. Moreover, history suggests that as citizens in this country we are in a unique position to be hopeful. One of the best ways to do good is to stop aiding those who would do bad—in other words, to help level the playing field. We currently give Israel around $9 million in military aid each day. Israel’s military depends on us. We also know from experience that withdrawing support works. A South African foreign minister once bemoaned back in 1958 how his country had fallen out of favor with the other countries of the world because of apartheid, but he was grateful that they could still count on our country’s support. That was the case until at least 1988 as we branded Mandela and his party terrorists, but our eventual withdrawal of support for apartheid became a pivotal factor in its demise. In 1999, a similar phenomenon happened when we quietly withdrew our support of Indonesia and thereby helped end their destruction and decimation of East Timor. How can we do more than pray? How can we seek to do good? Luckily, the answer isn’t that difficult.
The real test isn’t an intellectual one. We know how to do good. The real test is a spiritual one. How can we sustain ourselves in making sure that the good so desperately needed of us gets done? Again, I find our scripture for today helpful in this regard. Our Psalm imagines a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Jerusalem has suffered destruction, but those in exile re-imagine it as a city of peace. I like this idea of thinking that we are on a pilgrimage to peace. We might often wish that peace came by way of instant gratification, but usually it requires a journey.
To help visualize the journey required, I like to imagine a mother and her son walking across a prairie on a long trek. They don’t have much. They scarcely have enough scraps of bread and mouthfuls of water to survive, but they are able to keep placing one foot in front of the other. They know where they want to go, and while they may sometimes doubt whether they will get there, they keep on placing one foot in front of the other. All the while they are able to keep each other company, to sings songs, tell stories, and even occasionally laugh. They are pilgrims on a journey. They don’t have much, but they have enough. They don’t have much, but they have each other, and they have the love that they share.
In the broad scheme of things, we may feel like struggling pilgrims on a long trek, but as people of faith, we have this vision of one day placing our feet in a city of peace, a city that will realize the deep aspirations that we hold. We might have some differences of opinion, but we all want to get to that city, and as we walk, we take it step by step. We enjoy each other’s company. We sing, we tell stories, we laugh. We keep going with the knowledge that we have each other, we have the love that we share, and somewhere in the midst of all of this is the God who sustains us every step of the way. Let’s rejoice in what we have. Let’s continue to pray for peace, and let’s continue to seek the good of others. Amen.