Sunday in Jerusalem

Today we went up to Jerusalem to go to Christ Church again. It really is quite a lovely church and they run a nice church service. It’s just hard to go to church on the other side of the wall. When we go up to Jerusalem we, in effect, cross a border. It is the “border” between Palestine and Israel. And Christians on the other side of this border tend to like to forget about what lies on the other side. They like to let the wall do its job and block out the “bad people.” We sat in church this morning and listened to an impassioned prayer for Israel, for Jews all around the world, even for Muslims. It was well spoken and I agreed with most of it. There was just, in my opinion, a glaring omission. As I sat there I couldn’t help but feel a little sick to my stomach. What about the Palestinian Christians?

It’s so easy to put them on the other side of the wall with all the “undesirables” and not have to face the fact that our support for Israel often comes at the cost of some very dear brothers and sisters in Christ. Take Miss Grace for example. This woman works tirelessly for this school, for the idea of Christian education in a Middle Eastern context. She has never married probably because she’s practically married to this school. Her sister has just undergone surgery for a brain tumor. In spite of what has been going on with her family as of late she has stopped at nothing to make us feel welcome and appreciated ever since the day we got here (now just over a month ago). She is a wonderful woman with a deep faith in Jesus. So as I sat there this morning listening to this prayer I thought of Miss Grace. Not of number or of a percentage but of a person who was a face and a name.
So please join us, as you pray for us, please pray for Palestinian Christians. People ask me my opinion all the time about the problems here in the Middle East and I can honestly give no better answer now that we’re here. Jesus is still the answer. If you press me I can clarify my answer a little better now. It’s up to believers. When Palestinian Christians and Jewish Christians can come together to pray we’ll really have something. What something? I don’t honestly know. An end to all this? Probably not. But maybe a beginning to something better.