Going to Israel this summer?

Do you know someone traveling to Israel this summer? Pass the following along to them:

Summer is approaching and with it summer trips! As Evangelicals, the Holy Land, has a magnetic attraction for people who want to “walk where Jesus walked.” Many don't realize, however, what they are getting themselves into or what the situation is really like in the "Holy Land."


There has been much talk in recent years about the concept of ethical tourism. It is nowhere more relevant than in Israel/Palestine (note that I don't just call it Israel. Part of "Israel" is disputed as to whose it actually is). In Is/Pal thousands of Christian tourists flock each year and simultaneously a conflict rages between Israelis and Palestinians that most are unaware of. The question for them should be: How can every part of my life, including my travels, be done in a Christ-like manner?

As one who has done the “touristy” thing in Israel I can speak from first-hand experience. Generally, tourism in Israel, especially when done for Christian pilgrims, focuses on historical monuments (such as, say, the Mount of Beatitudes), but largely does its best to steer free from the harsh realities facing both Israelis and Palestinians today. Tours are generally led by Israelis who do their best to present the best possible picture of their land. Rarely are tourists taken into the West Bank or given an opportunity to meet Palestinians. In short, tourism often in Israel becomes the equivalent of tourists in Mexico who stay at beautiful beach resorts, completely ignorant of that fact that two miles down the road are thousands of people living in a slum without running water or electricity. Furthermore, for Christian tourists who have visited Israel, it comes as a shock that there is actually such a thing as a Palestinian Christian. They might have visited all the Christian archaeological sites, but have never encountered the “living stones” of the land, the present day Palestinians who share their faith and worship regularly in a similar manner.

One’s trip to Israel can do one of two things: it can either make worse the existing conflict or it can play a part in encouraging peace. A one sided trip only serves to worsen the conflict by furthering ignorance and by allocating resources lopsidedly. A carefully thought through trip can serve to open one’s eyes to both sides of the story.

SO, several quick tips toward an ethical trip:
1) Read up on the political situation before you go!
2) Make an effort to spend time on both sides of the divide. Make an effort to meet both Jews and Palestinians. Listen to their stories. Travel within both Israel and the West Bank (Gaza is hard to get into presently).
3) Make an effort to attend a Palestinian church service on a Sunday.
4) Be aware of where you spend your money. Try to be evenhanded in your distribution of resources.
5) By all means, leave your tour group every once and a while and meet real people! Be adventurous.

Here are some links to some information about ethical tourism in Israel/Palestine as well as resources on tours while you are there:

1) The Alternative Tourism Group is a Palestinian NGO specializing in tours and pilgrimages that include critical examinations of the history, culture, and politics of the Holy Land
2) The Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions is an Israeli group which among other things offers political tours of East Jerusalem:
3)The Holy Land Trust Travel and Encounter is an organization based out of Bethlehem which focuses on arranging trips within the West Bank and Israel
4) Sabeel is an ecumenical Christian organization which seeks reconciliation and justice between Israelis and Palestinians. They also offer tours.
5) Discussion of alternative tourism: http://www.ethicaltraveler.org/guidelines.php
6) The Ethical Challenges of Managing Pilgrimages to the Holy Land (paper) http://www.cc-vw.org/articles/cre2000.htm

Update and Overview

O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and light rises up in darkness for the godly: Grant us, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what you would have us to do, that the Spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices, and that in your light we may see light, and in your straight path may not stumble; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Summer Update:

For those who have been asking, here is the run-down on my summer plans:
1) 2 Weeks at Eastern Mennonite University( www.emu.edu/spi/) I will be participating in the Summer Peacebuilding Institute and will be taking classes in peacemaking and reconciliation. This will be an incredible opportunity to gain some real skills in Christian peacemaking that will be invaluable for future work in the Middle East.

2) 2 Weeks in the Middle East?? I am still praying and waiting to hear about an invitation to go to this summer's Global Anglican Future conference in Jerusalem and Jordan.

3) 1 Month at Mepkin Abbey. This is a trappist monastery that is an offshoot from Gethsemane where Thomas Merton was in KY. I will fully participate in the monastic life here, including rising for 3:30AM prayers! I am hoping that this will be a "desert" experience of seeking God and his calling and direction on my life. I am hoping to really grow in prayer and in silence. As I consider establishing a monastic-esque community in the Middle East, this will a chance to learn from the Great Tradition of monasticism.

4) Several weeks in NC with my family. This is also very important! Rest and time with the fam. will be great.

Prayer Requests:

-A Mennonite mentor. I am hoping to meet someone at EMU with whom I can maintain a long relationship. Currently I have no peace mentors, someone who can really guide me in the tradition of peacemaking. My path is often misunderstood by those within Anglican denominational home and so I need a mentor in this area who does understand.
-Invitation to GAFCON. I am still praying that I will be able to go back to the ME this summer.
-That this summer would be a time of growing in prayer, the Holy Spirit and the Lord. That he would guide my steps, day by day.

Thanks for reading and for praying! I desperately need it always!

Personal Update

Alternating between "soap-boxing" and personal updates, it's now time for a personal update.

God has been good! Some quick answers to prayer have been:

1) Moving back to Wheaton after 4 months, or so, of praying. Now it is a five minute bike ride to class rather than an hour and a half drive. Wheew!
2) I received a scholarship from Wheaton that will pay for the rest of my grad school! Praise the Lord! It also commits me to working overseas for four years, sealing a bit further the path that I am on toward the middle east.
3) I have received some specific guidance and direction regarding both this summer and the near future.

In other news, I am still hoping and praying to be able to return to the Middle East this summer in order to connect with Anglican leaders with whom I will probably work in the future as well as to participate in the historic Global Anglican Future Conference. Please pray with me for an invitation to go to this conference and for my church here to provide the funds to go (I have applied to the missions committee for this).

God has been teaching me so much these days, it's really hard to put down in writing or summarize in a blog. I would love to share with each of you face to face what I have been learning.

The Peace of the Lord be with you.

The Politics of the Eucharist

O God, the Father of all, whose Son commanded us to love our enemies: Lead them and us from prejudice to truth; deliver them and us from hatred, cruelty, and revenge; and in your good time enable us all to stand reconciled before you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Two summers ago I spent five weeks in Lebanon. Three days after I had left the airport from which I flew out of was bombed. War had broken out between Lebanon and Israel. In the coming weeks over 1,000 Lebanese, mostly civilians, had been killed. My friends were in danger, places I had visited were bombed to smithereens. The summer after that I was in the West Bank, in Israel/Palestine. There I heard story after story of death, violence and injustice; I saw posters and spoke with the families of suicide bombers, of so called martyrs, who took their own lives and others with them. I heard stories such as that of an 18 year old girl whose life had been taken by an Israeli sniper.

These images and stories will haunt me for the rest of my life. They have left their mark on me. I have seen the true face of violence and war: it is a face marked by the very fire and suffering of hell. Here in the U.S. we are SO removed from these realities. When it does come to our shores, as it did in 9/11, we are shocked beyond belief. We are not shocked, however, by our response to it, and have no idea of what it means to live in a country where between 30,000 and 300,000 people have died (where we don’t even bother to count the “enemies” causalties) and where roughly 6 million people have had to flee their homes. These are the realities of a world marked by war and violence.

God, however, is not removed from these realities. He is not a stranger to violence, war and suffering.

When Christ came to earth, he entered a nation under siege, an Israel under a brutal Roman occupation. This Roman force would eventually give him the punishment of an insurrectionist: crucifixion. This Roman force would free Barabbas (a true, violent insurrectionist) and would, in his place, crucify our Lord.

Christ in his life and death, modeled for us the path of nonviolence, of non-retaliatory love of the enemy. When we celebrate the Eucharist, the breaking of his body and the spilling of his blood, we remember the one who took our violence upon himself and freed us from its dominion.

In the gospels we see Christ, proclaim his message in word and deed. The message he preaches in the Sermon on the Mount: “Do not resist an evil person” he lives out in Gethsemane by not resisting arrest violently and by condemning Peter’s use of the sword. He heals the bloody ear of one who was to soon to turn him over to the bloodshed of the cross. Some theologians (such as John Howard Yoder) read Christ’s greatest temptation in Gethsemane, when he prayed for the cup to be taken from him, of that of bringing the kingdom through violence, rather than through death. As Christ says: “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of Angels?” No, this is not how the kingdom comes. It comes not by force and the taking of other’s lives, but through giving of our own life, through death.

The disciple Matthew, as he enfolds the drama of the passion, continues to present Christ as a model of non-violence. We see this further, with the contrast between Barabbas and Christ. Barabbas, a known insurrectionist and murderer, was released instead of Christ. The people clamor for the release of a murderer and the murder of Christ. The one who deserved the cross, is replaced by the innocent, non-violent Christ.

This is what we celebrate in the Eucharist, this is part of what we proclaim: Christ’s death, and our freedom from the way of violence, the breaking of his body, so that we are freed to no longer break the body of others. We are freed to take the path where giving is receiving. Christ’s sacrifice is the once and for all sacrifice. No more blood is needed.

The relationship between violence and the Eucharist is illustrated well by Schlabach. It is worth quoting at length:

What most regularly and quite literally prompts Christians to pause and to keep rethinking the question of war, however, is the proclamation of the gospel and its celebration in the Eucharist. The Eucharist and the Jesus whose “real presence” it invites into the gathering of believers are not just one reason among many for staying unsettled about Christian participation in warfare. It is the core reason, and the one that simply refuses to go away. The Eucharist is an offer of life, a promise of hospitality to strangers, a sharing of peace, a taste of God’s generosity, a breaking that opens space for healing. It commemorates God’s victory over every cosmic and historical force of evil by a lion-no, of all things! – by a lamb who was slain and by the blood of the martyrs who follow this lamb (Revelation 5 and 12:11; cf. Weaver, 2001:20-33). As Christians now celebrate the Eucharist around the globe, it makes more real than even what was already clear when the God of Israel offered new life to Gentile nations through Jesus Christ: this is a gospel that bursts the confines of even the most sacred nationalism…[at the table] Christians learn and re-learn the practice of generosity toward others… [we should find ourselves] quietly disquieted when [we] fail to show others anything less than the generous non-violent love that God as shown [us]. In other words, if tension is evident at the very table that is the pre-eminent sign of human community and ultimate communion with God, the Eucharist is doing its work. Christians who participate regularly, mindfully, and bodily in the Eucharist testify that the ritual is powerful in part because it works on them ay many levels. At each, there is a proper tension. (367-368, Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics, Hauerwas and Wells).

Alelluia He is Risen!

From the Easter Vigil Liturgy:

O God, who made this most holy night to shine with the golry of the Lord's resurrection: stir up in your Church that Spirit of adoption which is given to us in Baptism, that wem being renewed both in body and mind, may worship you in sincerity and truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen

As Provebs states, when words are many sin is not absent. These words seem to be particularly applicable to bloggers! :) So during the season of lent I largely took a break from writing. Many of the spiritual writers talk about how we can only truly speak God's words after we have entered into silence. It is also true that communing with God in silence is good in and of itself (and often doesn't "birth" any radically new words). So on returning I was hoping to have all these amazing insights to offer, but at the moment that is not the case. :)

Some personal updates:
-God miraculously provided a house for us to move into back in Wheaton (no more commuting!)
-I am still praying and hoping to receive an invitation to this summer's anglican conference in Jordan/Jerusalem (gafcon.org).
-I have been taking a class on recovering monastic wisdom and have been really challenged to think of ways to incorporate these practices and concepts into my future work in the M.E.
-I am in the process of discerning, along with my mentors and those close to me,several large decisions. I appreciate your thoughts and prayers.

Some Updates on the Middle East:
-In case you haven't noticed, the situation in Gaza has been increasingly deteriorating. As of a couple weeks ago, a totoal of nearly 150 people had died (mostly civilians) as a result of Israeli incursions and attacks. Of course, the continual rocket fire out of Gaza hasn't helped things. There is no way, thjough, that these actions can be placed on the same level. Check out my friends blog (under the link section) for more details.

The shalom/salaam of the Lord be always with you.

Some Poetry to Share

I would like to share some poetry that expresses well many of the complexities and difficulties of life here in the US and in the Middle East. The first is from my friend and professor Dan Haase (check out his blog at www.4loves.com/poetry). The second and third are my own, written in response to my time in the West Bank this last summer. Enjoy!


The Sounds Of A Thousand Summers

The sky is singing cerulean chords
Across the horizon’s score

The cirrus clouds as feathered wings
Invite by flight: explore

As dragonflies wake the eyes
Like lightening coming forth

Trees, as praise, are rooted deep
And lifted leaves adore

A yellow finch and cardinal join
No human could ignore

A refrain is built on locust’s wings
The orchestration soars

When the children upon the scene
Come bounding out-of-doors

Their laughter yet another piece
That blooms within the flowers

The chorus sweetens like a fruit
When light upon it pours

The touch of gladness in the mind
When tasted peace is ours

A thousand summers; a thousand dreams
Upon a thousand shores

And yet today a world away
Play instruments of war



--------

Waiting


Cuando no hay otra manana
Y el hoy de ayer se ha olvidado,
Cuando la esperanza pierde su aliento,
Te espero.

When yesterday’s wars threaten today’s peace
And to crack the very seams of my soul,
When I can’t bear my burdens anymore,
I wait for you.

معنى او سبب يوجد لا عندما (when there isn’t reason or meaning)
مغلق الشمس باب و (and the door of the Sun is closed)
الشئ هذا الى يحتاج ولا الاشياء بعض الى يحتاجقلبي عندما (when my heart wants anything but this)
انتظارك في انا (I wait for you).

Tu, quien tienes hoy, ayer, y manana
Whose peace the world can’t break
Inta, illi ma lazim 3indak ma3na (you who don’t have to have reasons)
Tu, you, Inta…are worth waiting for.

---


Bethlehem

Thousands come to see the birthplace of Christ
Never seeing the death surrounding the monument they visit
Never realizing that the ½ hour it took them to come from Jerusalem
Is an eternity for the millions of Palestinians who can’t visit the city they call “the Holy.”

The Manger of Bethlehem is now a tomb, slowly sucking the hope away
It’s a tomb made of concrete walls and metal bars
No wonder hundreds leave each year (and thousands more would if able) and never come back
Ironic that that thousands from America come here, sipping their tourist water bottles and complaining of the heat.

A Personal Update

Well, I have done a lot of "soap-boxing," and so I guess its about time for a more personal update.

Here's some of my latest news:

1) Grad school! I started my first full semester of grad. school classes in Intercultural Studies at Wheaton. In some ways it doesn't feel like a lot has changed, though it is nice to feel a bit older when i say "I'm a graduate student." :)

2) Internship: This semester I am doing an internship at my home church in Wheaton, Church of the Resurrection, an an Anglican Mission in America church. The internship title is "prayer and social justice," but in reality will end up encompassing all sorts of things. Mainly I view this as a time to deepen my roots here, to be discipled, and to further prepare for ordination within this denomination. One of my main goals, though, in this, is to help encourage concern for the poor and for justice ministries at our church. It is a time to practice much of what I would like to do in the ME.

3) This summer: I have applied for a scholarship to study Arabic for two months in Jordan. I wasn't planning on returning this summer, but if accepted this would be an all expenses paid opportunity and would also allow me to do two things: a) attend a controversial Anglican Conference in Jerusalem (GAFCON) b) Meet some Anglican leaders in Jerusalem with whom it is possible I could work with in the future.

I have also been accepted to take two week-long classes in Reconciliation and Social Justice at the Eastern Mennonite University.

4) Arab relationships: I have been blessed with several new Palestinian and Arab friends, including a refugee from Iraq. Many opportunities for ministry with them have opened up!


4) Prayer Requests: Openness to God's leading and changing of my plans, acceptance to this scholarship, humility, funds for the summer classes, for my Arab friends.

As a side note, I hope you have been keeping up with the terrible situation in Gaza. I encourage you to read the last two entries in my friend's blog who is over there: Tabulagaza

Peace of Christ be with your spirits!

Jonathan