Living in Coronavirusworld 229: Third Sunday in Advent, view from Palestine

 

12/15

                                                             Harlem Meer floating tree                                                                                                                                                                          

Today I join in the Advent prayer and Bible from the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem (https://sabeel.org/) led by my friend Naim Ateek. I have known Naim for 35 year now. He is the father of Palestinian Liberation Theology and has endured much criticism and accusations of antisemitism for his critiques of Israel as a colonial power oppressing the Palestinians and his non-violent activism including theological support of the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) movement. With his sense of humor, he introduces himself as an Israeli, but not a Jew; an Arab but not a Muslim and a Palestinian and not a terrorist.

Today we are studying the John the Baptist appearance in John1:6-8 and 19-28. He stresses the humility of John, And his call to “make straight the path of the Lord.” (v.23) He says to do this, we’ve got to confront all that is crooked. And in the Palestinian context, so much is crooked beginning with the occupation by Israel. There is crookedness in how the land was taken in the first place and crookedness in the continuing illegal appropriation of Palestinian land, house seizures and demolitions and the contain drive to normalize the occupation through trying to make the territories part of the state of Israel and have it recognized. (Which only the United States would do, despite almost universal condemnation.) And crookedness in the ongoing perversion of legal strategies designed to displace and disempower Palestinians. And crookedness in the business dealings that entice the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabiaand Morocco and other Arab states to abandon solidarity with Palestine in pursuit of closer economic ties with Israel. As the Roman Empire occupied and oppressed Palestine in Jesus’ day, so does Israel today. All this crookedness must be made straight. 

Turning to 1 Thessalonians 5: 17-24, he  sees Christians as having three obligations: to rejoice in the Lord, to pray without ceasing and t give thanks in all circumstances. He stresses that means in all circumstances, not for all circumstances.All circumstances are not God’s will, but we can work with God as partners in all things and be thankful for God’s solidarity with us. We are also to test everything, in a accordance to following the path of Jesus, the path of straightening the crooked, and ante abstain form all evil, which includes exploitation. This is the  context in which we can understand sin, not just in individual shortcomings, but in collective, corporate, societal actions that create, sustain and support, even if only through silent acquiescence, exploitation, crookedness.

In classic Liberation Theology practice, the leader's reflection is followed by group reflection. The group is made up of men and women form Palestine and also the wider world, the US, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom. A Palestinian woman says that the Palestinian voice has been crying out in the wilderness, and like on ZOOM, has been muted. Like the people yearning for ransom, release in the Advent hymn, ‘O come, O Come Emmanuel,” Palestinians mourn as captives, in lonely exile in theor own land. There is nothing romantic about the “little town of Bethlehem” in the day. As in Advent we look to the coming of a savior, a liberator, as we celebrate God with us, in our midst, from th wilderness comes the word that the savior will come to shepherds and ordinary people. Our celebration honors a savior who was given to the world by Palestine. And especially we in western Christendom, in the heart of the Empire, are called on to test everything we hear and are told against this one whose coming we celebrate, whom we seek to follow. 

It’s good to be with friends from the Holy Land and be called to remember what has been all but forgotten by the  world. 

                                                                                                        ****

My walk leads me through Central Park, after dark. The Harlem Meer tree has been detached from the community building and is floating on the water. 

and still do...

A local coffee shop has built winter shelter but has not forgotten the cry  for justice from last summer. 

When I stop in my local Cantina for my Tuesday tacos, I commiserate with the manager over the shut down of in-house dining. Business is way off. He remodels me that the last tome went though the, people you drift up for the Park for a drink and some food. No one I sou drifting now. People aren’t stopping in, stopping  by for takeout. No one’s sure how long this will last. Survival is not certain. Outside things are spooky quiet. And cold.