The Struggle for PeaceBy Rev. Jamie Green KlopotoskiBased on Isaiah 11:1-10December 5, 2021First Baptist Church, Gloucester, MAWatch here:
The sky was a crisp clear blue, without a single cloud. A light breeze brushed my skin, the warm 70 degree air was a welcomed change after being in the hot 100 degree desert all week. It was September 2008, and I was on a 12-day tour in Israel. On this particular day, I found myself in the middle of Jerusalem, and in front of me stood the only remains that belong to the Jews of the second temple built in the year 70 AD, the Western Wall of the platform where the temple originally stood. Tucked into every little nook and cranny of the wall were prayers written on scraps of paper in many different languages, Hebrew, English, Spanish, French. People swarmed left and right, praying and bowing, kissing and touching the wall, taking pictures, talking to their companions. Orthodox Jews in black top hats with little boxes tied around their foreheads with leather straps, old men in Yamacas, tour groups like mine wearing nametags. A group of young children on a school field trip, escorted not by parental chaperones, but by heavily armed soldiers. All have come to see this one wall, this one place that is more important than any other place in the world, the most holy of holy sites. I stood in awe at the wall, feeling connected to the multitudes of people over almost two millennia who have left their scribbled prayers, who have touched this wall, who have knelt and prayed at this wall, when suddenly, a sharp shrieking siren rang through the crowds, alerting us that something was very wrong. An announcement boomed over the loudspeakers in three languages. There was a bomb threat. We needed to evacuate from this most holy place, which had become a place of extreme unrest and violence. As we hurried back through the metal detectors, I took one last glance at the large majestic wall, and I couldn’t help but wonder, “Does it have to be this way? Can’t we all just get along?”
Later that day, we walked to the top of the platform where the temple used to stand. The platform now belongs to the Muslims, where they have built the most majestic golden-domed mosque called the Dome of the Rock. Israeli Jews never go to the top of this platform, unless they happen to be tour guides. The temple remains are clearly divided between Jew and Muslim; the Jews “own” the Western Wall and the Muslims “own” the temple mount, much like the City of Jerusalem itself is divided into four distinct, non-equal neighborhoods: Muslim, Jewish, Arab Christian, and Arminian Christian. As I walked the platform, atop Mount Moriah, where so many amazing religious events have taken place throughout history, where Abraham was sent to sacrifice Isaac, where Solomon built the first temple that housed the Arc of the Covenant, where the Prophet Muhammad ascended for a night-long journey to Heaven, I wondered, Does Jerusalem need to be divided like this? People of all Abrahamic faiths understand the very tremendous and powerful way God has been experienced in this place. Would it be possible for Jews to experience their understanding of God, known as Yahweh, at the Dome of the Rock, or for Muslims to experience their understanding of God, known as Allah, at the Western Wall? The real question behind these thoughts was persistent throughout my trip in Israel…. Is peace possible in the Middle East? Is peace possible in the world?
Hope and Love and Peace and Joy are the themes of advent, represented by the four candles on our advent wreath. This Sunday’s theme is Peace, which is why I chose to read a scripture passage from Isaiah. The prophet Isaiah paints a picture for us of a golden age of peace. He writes that a man shall spring forth from the line of Jesse, the father of King David, who will have the spirit of the Lord upon him and will judge the poor, the meek and the wicked, with righteousness. And the fruit of this righteousness will be peace. There will be reconciliation in the world of nature, and the ancient hostility between man and beast will vanish. Predators will lie down next to their prey. Wild beasts and young children will play together absolutely unafraid. And the whole earth will no longer act in hurtful or destructive ways.
Isaiah wrote that once this man came to earth, this vision of peace in the animal kingdom and extended to the human world would become a reality. But as we know, that’s not exactly what happened, the world wasn’t miraculously peaceful the day Jesus was born. So now many Christians are waiting for Jesus to come back to earth again, for his second coming, for the apocalypse, and many believe that only then will there be a peace like this. In the meantime, for many Christians, while waiting for this day in the future when Jesus will return and finally usher in an era of peace, it is okay to be violent, to own guns, to kill, to not practice peace.
My tour group leader in Israel was one of these Christians. His name was Michael. And Michael believed that peace and nonviolence were not possible in Israel. He said, "It doesn't make sense here in Israel... it won't work here. Why do we need to have peace here now? There hasn't been peace here in the last 5000 years, so why now?" Michael was waiting until the Messiah comes back to expect peace. And until the Second Coming, he believes it is right for Israelis to fight and to kill, and to ignore calls for peace.
But my friends, I offer you a new way to look at the second coming of Jesus. A way that I wish I could have explained to Michael that day, but I was too afraid to speak up. When Jesus first came 2000 years ago, he said, “the kingdom of God is within you. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” He was trying to tell us that the Kingdom of God is not somewhere far away in some distant future. The Kingdom of God is here, right here on Earth as it is in Heaven. It’s in you! It’s in me! So many of us are waiting for Jesus to come back to make everything better. But Jesus has already come, this is what we celebrate on Christmas, the coming of Jesus. Jesus has come and has taught us how to live and how to love. That is what will result in Isaiah’s vision of peace. Jesus has called each and every one of us to do the work to bring about the kingdom of God here on earth. No more can we wait for someone else to do the work. Jesus wants US to seek peace now.
We’ve been waiting 2000 years for the second coming of Jesus, but the second coming has been here all along. The second coming of Jesus happens every day, when people clothe the naked, feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, forgive their enemies, and work for peace on earth.
As Christmas approaches, I can’t help but think back to my trip to Israel, especially the day I spent in Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. As a kid, when I read the Christmas story in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, I always pictured Bethlehem as a cute, little village town, bustling with people and animals for the census, but small and quaint nonetheless. But as my tour bus approached Bethlehem, my vision disintegrated. We stopped at tall rod iron gates, at a checkpoint guarded by armed soldiers. Bethlehem is now technically part of Palestine, and Israelis are forbidden to enter the city. This included our tour guide, Michael, and our bus driver, Avnar, both Israeli citizens. We had to get off of our Israeli tour buses, with our passports in hand to prove that we were not Israelis, and board a new bus on the Palestinian side of the checkpoint, with a new driver and a new guide, both Palestinian citizens. As we drove through this foreign land, through tons of traffic and noise, through murky and smoky air, through streets littered with hecklers and street vendors, nothing like my idyllic visions of Bethlehem, our new guide told us an interesting story.
Originally, the name “Bethlehem” in Hebrew literally meant House of Food (“bet” was the word for “house” and “lehem” was the word for “food”). When Jews lived in Bethlehem, they were mostly farmers and made bread from their crops as their main staple food, so the word “Lehem” transformed from meaning “food” in general to meaning more specifically “bread”, making “Bethlehem” mean “House of Bread”. However, when Arabs moved into Bethlehem, they were mostly shepherds and their main food was “meat”, so word “Lehem” in Arabic was translated more specifically as the word “meat”, making “Bethlehem” mean “House of Meat”. “House of Bread” vs “House of Meat”. Our guide commented, "There is always a struggle." This was my experience in Israel. A struggle between the different meanings of the word “Lehem”, a struggle between the ownership of the temple ruins, a struggle between Jews and Muslims and Christians and their holy sites. A struggle between Israelis and Palestinians which made my bus driver Avnar and his family live and sleep in a bomb shelter. But there won’t always have to be a struggle. There will be peace on earth when there is peace among nations; there will be peace among nations when there is peace within the nations; there will be peace within nations when there is peace among neighbors; there will be peace among neighbors when there is peace within families; and there will be peace within families when there is peace within our own hearts. Peace begins with you and me. Amen.
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