It's 3PM, and we just finished lunch at a rooftop restaurant near the Church of the Redeemer with spectacular views of the city all around us. Can't wait to upload pictures.
Presently I'm sitting in a small stone-walled chapel within the church for a moment of quiet reverie before we get to work in a short while with our efforts to renovate the print room in the basement of the church.
I am half a world away, yet feel entirely at home. There is nothing quite like a little down-time for prayer and reflection, in solitude, in a chapel or church sanctuary. It brings me back to relatively early childhood, sitting in the church sanctuary waiting for Daddy to finish up something in his study.
This morning we met with the Bishop for the ELCJHL (yes, it's a mouthful: it stands for Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land). Bishop Munib Younan is a remarkable man—something of an Arab-Christian version of Gandhi, both in terms of his deceptively diminutive stature and his great moral gravitas. The bishop said so many illuminating things that my pen could not keep up.
I won't try to recreate all of my hand-written notes here and now. But let me share just a few reflections. “Peace is not merely the absence of conflict. It is the presence of justice.”
The Bishop remarked that the resolution of the conflict here in the Middle East could be achieved in one day. Furthermore, the vast majority of all parties involved more or less agree on the means and terms of such a peace. But, the Bishop added, until the people eager for peace stand up and speak out and become willing to get involved, there will be talk and more talk and more talk---so that the solution that could be achieved in one day stretches out until the end of time.
Over lunch, Pastor Siler shared more of his perspective from years of living here. I liked this comment: “A Westerner can come here for three weeks, go back home, and write a book. Or come for three months and go home and write a magazine article. Or stay for three years, and then be unable to write at all. It's just that complicated.” He added: “By far the most marginalized and vilified people in this region are peace-seeking Jews, Christians, and Muslims.”
Dave Dynneson of our group was rightfully irked by all the pessimism and said so. “Where's the hope?”
Yet hope does persist. You see it in the perseverance of the indigenous people here. You see it in the continuing efforts of groups like ours to come over here, see it for ourselves, make friends and establish partnerships with the people here. Why even bother if there's no cause for hope? And finally, as Bishop Younan said, “Hope is fundamental to all people who see truth in resurrection. Hope arises where the culture of life is chosen over the culture of death.”
See what I mean about the Bishop being a cool guy?
Okay, I better head down to the print room and get working. Love to you all, -Evan
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