wfn.org | Advent Letter from Jerusalem

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

"A voice was heard in Ramah,
Wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
She refused to be consoled,
Because they are no more."

Jeremiah 31:15

Grace and peace to you from the Holy Land.   We are well into the season of 
Advent & the season of waiting and watching, listening for the wilderness 
voices crying to prepare the way and make straight the roads of the Lord.

To make straight the roads & a poignant cry in a land whose roads are 
blocked in hundreds of places by checkpoints, barriers, fences and the 
Wall!  The only roads that are straight, the hundreds of miles of bypass 
roads, are primarily forbidden to Palestinians.  For them, there is no 
straight road.	(www.btselem.org, Forbidden Roads, August 2004 report)

In this season when our eyes turn towards Bethlehem, we can see what is 
tragically taking place across the whole of the West Bank. If Mary and 
Joseph were to arrive in Bethlehem today, not only would they need permits 
to pass the checkpoints, but they would have to take a detour to get into 
the town.  The main historic street into Bethlehem is being completely cut 
off by a wall, ostensibly because of Rachel and her tomb, located on that 
road.  This place has had religious meaning not only to Jewish women, but 
historically was a gathering point for Christian and Muslim women as well, 
as they prayed for the gift of a child. The tomb area was also the main 
burial ground for Muslims in the city but is no longer available to 
them.  Now, Rachel s tomb has become a fortress, an Israeli military 
outpost at the entrance to the city.  Only Israeli Jewish and foreign women 
and men are allowed access today. As part of the Wall project, the area is 
being cut off from Bethlehem, making way for a new Jewish settlement, 
displacing more Palestinian families and separating others from their olive 
groves or businesses. 
(http://www.poica.org/casestudies/Bethlehem%2026-01-04/index.htm)

If one manages to get close enough to the Tomb, though, past the razor wire 
and around the 20 inch thick concrete walls, one can almost hear Rachel 
still weeping for her children.  She weeps for Iman al-Hamas, a 13-year 
Palestinian girl riddled with machine-gun bullets by an Israeli army 
officer on her way to school in Rafah, as she weeps for the 652 Palestinian 
children which have been killed in the past 4 years alone.

She weeps for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Sudanese children, and 
the over 2 million children who have lost their lives in armed conflicts in 
the last decade alone.	She weeps for children left without parents, 
without food and water, without housing and education, who are victims of 
the world's obsession with violence, a world so bent on destruction and war 
that it spends billions on bullets, bombs and brutality, responding to 
symptoms of conflict rather than proactively investing in solutions to the 
causes.

In the United States alone, we have poured over $150 billion into the war 
on Iraq. immunized every child in the world for almost 50 years; provided 
health insurance for almost 90,000,000 children in the USA; put over 
19,000,000 kids in Head Start or over 2,000,000 more public school teachers 
in place for a year; built 1,300,000 new homes for those struggling to make 
ends meet; given over 7,000,000 students 4-year scholarships to public 
universities; or fully funded global anti-hunger programs for 6 years or 
global AIDS programs for 14 years.  If we add the amounts spent by nations 
worldwide on arms and conflict, what we could have done for children around 
the world is almost unimaginable.  (www.costofwar.com)

Living and working in this land called holy, we cry with Rachel for all of 
the children -- Palestinian, Israeli, Christian, Muslim, and Jewish.  We 
weep for children everywhere who pay the price for the arrogance and greed 
of adults the world over.  We long for the crooked places to be made 
straight so that the most vulnerable among us might know life before death!

Yet Advent reminds us that in the midst of weeping, there is another 
cry.  It is the sound of a newborn child crying, bearing new life, hope and 
light into a broken world.  This stable-born savior was born to change the 
world by transforming our love of power into the power of love; a love that 
blesses the poor, embraces the unworthy, forgives the guilty and liberates 
the oppressed.	During this sacred season, we wait with faith and longing, 
even in the midst of tears and fears, for the fullness of God s reign on 
earth.	We reflect on our lives and our choices, and we watch every day for 
signs of the Child.   We center our lives on the gift of Love that came to 
us in a child and we seek renewed conviction to give ourselves to the work 
of justice and peace.

This Advent, we go to Bethlehem, where Love is born, to see if there is any 
room in our busy, important lives for the Child.  We go as the scared and 
surprised shepherds, to watch for angels and listen for Glorias!  We go as 
Mary, pondering and treasuring in our hearts what this Child means for us 
all.  And, yes, we go as Rachel, to wonder at how each of us can reach out 
to change our priorities for the well-being of children everywhere.

Please pray for us in this little town of Bethlehem and all over this Holy 
Land, for the good news of steps toward a just peace, towards healing and 
reconciliation.  Pray that we may all live so that Rachel s weeping is 
transformed into joy as children the world over discover the opportunity 
for life.

May the peace of the Christ Child be born in you again this Christmas, and 
carry you with joy and blessing into the New Year.

Sincerely,

Rev. Alex and Mrs. Brenda Awad
General Board of Global Ministries
Mission Personnel - United Methodist Church

Douglas Dicks
Presbyterian Church (USA) Regional Liaison
Israel, Palestine and Jordan

Nancy Dinsmore
Development Officer
Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem

Kathy Kamphoefner & Paul Pierce
Quaker Service - Jerusalem
American Friends Service Committee

Rev. Paul Lillie, deacon
St. George's Cathedral, Jerusalem

Sri Mayasandra
Mennonite Central Committee

Catherine Nichols
Global Ministries Personnel Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) & United 
Church of Christ

Rev.  Sandra Olewine
United Methodist Church Liaison Jerusalem
General Board of Global Ministries

Rev. Julie Rowe
Communications for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and Jerusalem

Tim and Chris Seidel
Mennonite Central Committee

Rev. Russell O. Siler, pastor
English-speaking congregation
Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, Jerusalem