Today, there are
\nshepherds of Christian flocks in America for whom even the appearance of angels
\nwould not persuade them that the returning Christ will not set His brogans
\nright down on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem \u2013 and soon.
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\n<\/p>\n
\nJuly 10, 2008\n<\/p>\n
\nFrom: Bethlehem\n<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nI stood yesterday at the
\nedge of Shepherd's Field in Bethlehem
\n\u2013 that place where we are told that an angel appeared before a group of
\nshepherds tending their flocks in the darkness of night.\u00a0 The Scriptures tell us that these shepherds
\nwere \"living\" in those fields \u2013 likely nomadic Bedouin tribesmen.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nThe American Christian \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nI conjecture, however, from \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nThe angel and an \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nDon't be afraid.\u00a0 \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nThis news was inclusive \u2013 \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nThe Hope of Shepherd's Field:<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nWhat once was Shepherd's \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nDown through the middle \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nIt may well be those \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nWalled off from the rest \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nOnly as a matter of time \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nWhere is this \"\u2026peace to \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nThe scene is no more \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nMysteriously, the history \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nProphet of Hope:<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n\u00a0<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \nThere are many \"living \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nI spent time with Mitri \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nHis is the phrase, \"The \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n\"Peace in the Middle East\" has become a sound bite and a smoke screen \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nSince Oslo, \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nTwelve thousand \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nA concrete wall 27ft high \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nThe Mixed-Blessing of the Wall and the \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nThe borders of Israel, \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nAmerica has unwittingly been complicit in this \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nThe American \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nMeanwhile, Palestine, a land of \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nIsrael is not the gateway to freedom for Palestine.\u00a0 The gateway to freedom for Palestine is the human spirit that must be drawn \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nAs I gazed over what once \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nThe peace of Palestine may very well come \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nLeave the illegal wall in \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nThe justification for any \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nFor Israel, there \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nShepherd's Field, then, \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nMy vote would be to shift \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nBut then, who is asking \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nI have no right, however, \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nLet us pray, then, that \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n[1]<\/a> Halper, Obstacles to <\/em>Peace, (Jerusalem: PalMap, 2005, 3rd<\/sup>
\naccount \u2013 the New International Version of the Bible \u2013 suggests that these
\nshepherds were Jews raising sheep for temple sacrifice (annotation<\/em>: Luke 2:8).\u00a0
\nPerhaps so; nevertheless, I prefer my version, as it adds a global flair
\nto the story, the birth of the Christ child being first witnessed by 3 Arabian
\nkings and a small group of Palestinian shepherds.\u00a0 Who but outsiders and enemies of God's people
\ncould more effectively announce the coming of a Messiah who \"\u2026came to His own,
\nbut His own received Him not\"? (Romans 8:16, 17).\n<\/p>\n
\nmy room, a quarter mile from Manger
\nSquare, without benefit of biblical commentary or
\nreference.\u00a0 The notion that the Jewish
\nMessiah could be born anywhere other than to royalty in Jerusalem would seem to
\nme to have become so entrenched in ancient Israel that even angels could not
\npersuade otherwise.\u00a0 Today, there are
\nshepherds of Christian flocks in America for whom even the appearance of angels
\nwould not persuade them that the returning Christ will not set His brogans
\nright down on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem \u2013 and soon.\n<\/p>\n
\naccompanying host of others, however, are reported to have had something more
\nimportant to say:\n<\/p>\n
\nI bring you good news of great joy that will be for <\/em>all the
\npeople\u2026Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor
\nrests <\/em>(Luke 2:10-14, NIV).\n<\/p>\n
\nfor all <\/em>the people.\u00a0 Furthermore, for those living in slavery to Rome, accustomed as they
\nwere to violence and death, peace was announced and restricted to \"\u2026men on whom
\nhis (God's) favor rests.\"\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nField is today a demilitarized zone (DMZ) of formerly green pastures
\nincreasingly covered with concrete settlements illegally approved and
\nencouraged by the government of Israel.\u00a0 These settlements enjoy the implicit support
\nof the government of the United States
\nand often are funded by Christian Zionists of the religious right in America.\n<\/p>\n
\nof this DMZ runs a paved highway accessible only to settlers and Israeli
\ncitizens, though Shepherd's Field lies within the designated Palestinian Territory.\n<\/p>\n
\nsettlements that will lead to the fulfillment of the proclamation heard there
\nsome 2,000 years ago: \"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those
\non whom his favor rests.\"\n<\/p>\n
\nof the world by a concrete curtain and by the daily reminder of the fruits of
\nDemocracy \u2013 progress and affluence, Palestinians none-the-less can see through
\nthe hypocrisy of equating affluence with freedom.\u00a0 They can see this from their own poverty (72%
\nearn less than $2.00 per day) that has forced them to find hope in family,
\ncommunity and their religious beliefs.\u00a0
\nThe Cultural Revolution in China resulted in the exile of some
\n5M Christians to remote villages, where community is the mother's milk of
\nsurvival.\u00a0 It is estimated that today
\nthere are upwards of 100M Christians in China.\n<\/p>\n
\nwill that hypocrisy of Israel
\nand the West be seen by those of us who enjoy the benefits of an affluent
\nsociety but who find ourselves enslaved by the greedy, narcissistic culture in
\nwhich we have become trapped.\n<\/p>\n
\nmen on whom his (God's) favor rests?\"\u00a0
\nThe answer lay then and lies now in the definition of the word \"peace.\"\u00a0 If peace is defined as Rodney King's vision,
\n\"Can't we all just get-get-get along?\" we have missed the significance of the
\nMessianic hope and have turned, instead, to the ability of politicians and
\ngovernments to promote the common good.\n<\/p>\n
\npeaceful today than it was then, other than for the missing sheep and the
\nrecently-denuded green spaces leveled to make way for stone and concrete. \u00a0Yet, those of us who believe that peace is
\nless about land and more about liberation of the human spirit can wonder if this
\nillusive peace remains extended to those today on whom God's favor rests.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nand current story of Palestine
\nis one of peace where there is no apparent peace, love where there is no apparent
\nlove and hope where there is no apparent hope \u2013 the Messianic mystery of which
\nthe angels sang over Shepherd's Field.\n<\/p>\n
\nstones\" \u2013 prophets of peace in Bethlehem.\u00a0 Lutheran pastor, Mitri Raheb, stands out as
\nsuch a prophet.\u00a0 You can read his story
\nin his missive (Bethlehem Besieged, <\/em>Augsburg
\nFortress Publishers, Minneapolis, 2002), the account
\nof the April 2, 2002 bombardment of Bethlehem
\nby the Israeli Defense Forces and the terrorism of his family over several
\ndays.\u00a0 He is pastor, entrepreneur and
\nprophet of hope where there is no apparent hope.\n<\/p>\n
\nduring my stay at Dar Annadwa, formerly the International Center of Bethlehem,
\nwhich suffered $1M in structural damages during the bombing siege.\u00a0 Israel,
\nthe aggressor, is the recipient of nearly $5B yearly in undesignated US foreign aid,
\navailable for such unimaginable projects as wall building, settlements declared
\nillegal by the International Court of Justice and the UN, and the building of
\nweapons of mass destruction.\n<\/p>\n
\nbig lie of peace.\"\n<\/p>\n
\nthat strikes terror in the hearts of Palestinians.\u00a0 The Oslo Peace Agreement, signed in 1995,
\ncommitted the region to a process of peaceful resolution of the conflict. \u00a0It was, in effect, diplomatic eye wash that,
\nby failing to set down boundaries and conditions, rendered the solution as a
\nprocess with no teeth.\u00a0 The \"what\" was
\ncovered with self-congratulations; the \"how\" was left undone.\n<\/p>\n
\nthe West Bank and Gaza
\nhave been totally isolated from each other and within.\u00a0 Jewish settlements have since been removed
\nfrom Gaza in
\nfavor of a military state of siege instigated through the collaboration of US
\nand Israeli pressure.\u00a0 One hundred-twenty
\nnew permanent checkpoints have been erected, with temporary checkpoints
\nspringing up as needed.\u00a0 Today, there are
\nsome 650 security checkpoints within Palestine,
\nmanned by the all-powerful Israeli Defense Force.\u00a0 This has left the Palestinian population
\nisolated in some three hundred separate enclaves.[1]<\/a>\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nPalestinian homes have been demolished since 1967.\u00a0 Nearly five thousand of those were bulldozed
\nby Israel since September
\n2000, the beginning of the Second Intifada of Palestinian uprising that was triggered
\nby Ariel Sharon's yr-2000 symbolic taking of the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount
\nin Jerusalem.\u00a0 Thirty mosques and twelve churches have been
\ndestroyed; one hundred thirty-four aquifers have been sealed and one hundred
\neighty-thousand olive and fruit trees uprooted or cleared.[2]<\/a>\n<\/p>\n
\nand meandering for nearly 500 miles is hastily being constructed to cut off Palestine from the world
\nas the peace talks monopolize the western news.\u00a0
\nStrangely, the wall that I call the \"Concrete Curtain\" is not a symbol
\nof Israeli victory but an act of surrender.\u00a0
\nBy erecting the wall, Israel
\nadmits defeat of its dream of pushing all Palestinians into the Jordan and Egypt.\n<\/p>\n
\nSettlements:<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n
\npreviously undefined, will have been settled by the wall and not one inch
\nfurther, to the dismay of Christian Zionists of the Christian Right in America
\nwho refer to the wall as \"the fence,\" rendering\u00a0
\nthis permanent structure as temporary.\u00a0
\nIsrael is in the process
\nof imprisoning itself by radical Islam in Lebanon,
\nGaza, Syria,
\nIraq, Iran and its
\nown wall, a strategic blunder of monumental proportions.\u00a0 Fear builds the wall; hope scales the wall.\n<\/p>\n
\nimprisonment by removing the counter-balancing force in Iraq, the Sunni regime, thereby granting global
\nsignificance to Iran, at 70M
\npeople the largest nation in the Middle East.\n<\/p>\n
\nadministration, ideologically sympathetic with Zionist Christians, is complicit
\nin preparing Israel for the imminent return of Christ and the looming Battle of
\nArmageddon, considered by many to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. By paying mere
\nlip service to a peaceful settlement of the Israeli\/Palestinian conflict, we
\nAmericans have trapped Israel
\nas the bull's-eye of a worldwide terrorist target.\n<\/p>\n
\nremarkably peaceful response to American and Israeli terror, has, in the event
\nof statehood, been extended a ray of hope \u2013 a wall to protect itself from
\nIsraeli terrorism.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nout and cultivated.\u00a0 Socially and
\nculturally, Palestinians are experts in hospitality and diplomacy.\u00a0 Terrorism is foreign to the Palestinian
\nnature \u2013 a tactic of last resort.\n<\/p>\n
\nwas Shepherd's Field, hope sprang alive in my own heart.\u00a0 \"What Jewish mother,\" I was asked by Lisa
\ndeWolfe of our church who was accompanying me that day, \"could possibly sit in
\naffluence overlooking an enterprising and vitally-alive people surviving on
\nless than $2.00 a day?\"\n<\/p>\n
\nout of the Occupation and a Jewish sensitivity to social justice that has been carved
\nout of a long history of its own oppression.\u00a0
\nThe answer, upon settling the matter of statehood and the Occupation,
\nmay well be something as radical as to celebrate the wall and cultivate
\ndialogue with the settlers, many of whom have no political or religious ax to
\ngrind.\n<\/p>\n
\nplace for the near future, and Palestinians may one day enjoy peaceful travel,
\nperhaps even taking credit for walling off Israel in this world of revisionist
\nhistory.\u00a0 If this dream can be realized, Palestinians,
\nwho even now enjoy the highest educational standards in the Arab world, will
\nhave achieved an open back door to freedom.\n<\/p>\n
\nof this conflict and oppression can be argued indefinitely.\u00a0 Certainly, Palestinians have contributed to
\nthe process in their past refusal to recognize Israel.\u00a0 Since Oslo
\n1 in 1993, however, that has not been the case.[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Historically, it has been Israel's policy to reject the right of return of
\nPalestinians to their homeland, confirming the continued victim mentality of the
\nnation-state of Israel and the
\ncomplicity of its partner, the United
\nStates of America.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\ncan be no peace until all Palestinians, Christian and Moslem, are driven from
\ntheir impoverished ghettos.\u00a0 History may
\nwell conclude that this was accomplished through the wall and the
\nsettlements.\u00a0 The path to peace for Palestine may well have shifted from Israel to the
\nsettlements within Shepherd's Field.\n<\/p>\n
\nmay once more become the gateway to \"\u2026peace on earth to men on whom his (God's)
\nfavor rests.\"\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nthe emphasis away from tearing down the wall (thereby revisiting the chaos of
\nthe past), toward international pressure to establish the nation-state of
\nPalestine with its capital in East Jerusalem, withdraw the troops over a period
\nof years, withdraw settlements in those places like Hebron where settlers tend
\nto be religious zealots, and seek out and cultivate reason among settlers who
\nhave no political or religious ax to grind.\n<\/p>\n
\nfor my <\/em>vote \u2013 other than, of course,
\nthose of our elected representatives who honor Israeli lobbyists and fear the
\nChristian Right more than they value the welfare of their constituents?\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nto design political theories or armchair solutions for a place in which I am
\nnot obligated to live and for a people unable or unwilling to leave.\u00a0 Yet, as a Christian, I do have an obligation
\nto learn from my brothers and sisters in Palestine
\nwhat it means to be free when imprisoned by ideology and circumstances.\u00a0 I have as yet another obligation to take that
\nnewly-acquired knowledge back to America, introducing to my brothers
\nand sisters there through the Palestinian story what it means to live the
\nvictorious life in the context of suffering.\n<\/p>\n
\nthere will be more here in Palestine and there
\nin America
\nof those \"\u2026on whom his (God's) favor rests,\" and that they may be found.\n<\/p>\n
\n
\nEdition), p. 13.\n<\/p>\n