wfn.org | ELCJHL - Bishop Munib Younan's Easter message

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Bishop Munib Younan's Easter message for 2010 is provided here. For more
about the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, explore
the church's website: http://www.elcjhl.org/

> He has taken my hopelessness away
> Easter message 2010
> John 20:1-18

Bishop Dr. Munib A. Younan

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL)

> Dear sisters and brothers in Christ:

Is there anyone on earth who hasn?t experienced a loss of hope? This
experience is so common to humanity that I?m sure we all know the signs:
tears, lack of energy, confused thinking, fear, withdrawal. So we can
easily imagine how Mary Magdalene was feeling that day as she went to
Jesus? tomb. She had seen her Lord and Savior, Jesus, crucified on the
cross just days before. She went to the garden, prepared to anoint the
lifeless body of her beloved Master with spices. But when she arrived, she
didn?t even have the comfort of performing this traditional ritual. Jesus ?
body was gone.

"They have taken my Lord away," she cried. Her Lord ? who represented her
hope for this life and the next ? was gone. She ran to tell the disciples,
who ran to the tomb and confirmed the awful truth ? Jesus? body was  gone.
They believed Mary?s words when they saw his grave clothes lying where his
body should have been. And then, the text says, they went home, hopeless.

But Mary stayed ? perhaps to lament, perhaps to solve the mystery. There ?s
no way to know what went on inside her broken heart and tormented mind.
Standing outside the empty tomb crying, she looked inside again, as though
to convince herself of the sad reality. This time, there were two angels
inside. ?Why are you crying?? they asked her. Again, a man she did not
recognize asks her, ?Why are you crying??

She answers with the same words she said to the disciples: ?They have
taken my Lord away.? And her tears, her demeanor and her body confirm,
?They have taken my hope away.?

Jerusalem, as the site of the resurrection, should be the city of hope.
But many people here, Israeli and Palestinian alike, find it easy to
relate to Mary?s sadness. We feel there is no hope. We cry. We lack
energy. We don?t think clearly. We are afraid. We withdraw into our
territories, our political positions, our arguments and opinions, and lock
the door. Extremists try to justify their erroneous positions with holy
writings, which threatens to turn the political situation into a religious
war. The demolished houses, the ruins of the peace process, the bloodshed,
the mistrust, the violence, the fear, the hate, the military action make
us see our circumstances as a frightening, dark tomb. We are like Mary,
standing at the empty tomb saying, ?They have taken my Lord away. They
have taken our hope away. And we do not know where they put it.?

Where do we find hope when all seems hopeless? Martin Luther finds it in
the very act that brings us into the Christian family: ?Through baptism,
we are restored to a life of hope, or rather to a hope of life.? Baptized
into life in Christ, our hope comes from our resurrected Lord, who
sustains and renews our hope, enabling us to endure difficulties,
vulnerability and weakness. And he not only implants this hope in us but
commissions us to carry it to all. This is why we in Jerusalem continue to
shout out the message of the early church: the resurrection of Christ is
our sole hope in this world. This has been our message for 2,000 years,
and will continue to be our message until Christ returns. For the living
Christ will never allow our hope to fade away, for he is a God of hope and
wants us to be messengers of hope.

I experienced this deeply this past January at the general assembly of the
Fellowship of Middle East Evangelical Churches (FMEEC) in Beirut, Lebanon.
I had gone seeking a word of hope ? and I received it, as I listened to
the testimonies of our sisters and brothers in Christ in Sudan, in Iran,
Iraq and other countries in the Middle East. To me, it seemed as though
the risen Lord was commissioning us for a new mission; that, like Mary, we
are to revive hope in our fellow disciples by reminding them that ?the
Lord is risen?; that, like St. Paul admonishes, we are to strengthen our
sisters and brothers in need.

Likewise, my sisters and brothers of FMEEC wanted a word of hope from
Jerusalem. I told them how the evangelical message of grace was having an
impact in the Middle East. I told them about how we were dialoguing with
interfaith partners to bring justice to our region. I told them how the
risen Lord gives me hope even in a hopeless situation.

Their asking me for hope made a deep impression on me. Isn?t this exactly
what our Lord intended ? that our communion is deep and mutual? In God?s
family, there is no majority or minority, rich or poor, big or small.
We?re not divided into ?the hopeful? and ?the hopeless? ? we all  may
experience both simultaneously. As one who experienced hopelessness,
Jesus? resurrection gives hope that is not cheap but expensive, not lip
service but genuine. The Lord commissions us all ? not to bemoan our
relative disadvantages but in all things to spread hope with our words,
prayers, solidarity and help.

When Mary?s hope was restored by meeting the risen Lord, did she become
silent or hide herself away? Quite the opposite! In her hope, she found a
new mission ?the mission to proclaim this hope to the disciples and,
perhaps, many more people. We can relate to this, can?t we? For those who
have experienced hope after hopelessness cannot keep the hope under a
bushel basket, but must go and proclaim to the world that ?Christ is
risen!? This is the foundation of our hope. This we share with everyone
who wants to hear. So, the resurrection commissions us to be proclaimers
of hope.

Likewise, we in the ELCHJL feel we have an important mission in our
society. Like Mary, we stay in this land dying for peace and justice. As
Jesus called Mary as his apostle of the resurrection, so we Palestinian
Christians are called as apostles of hope despite our struggle, despite
our hopelessness. Our congregations, schools and centers play an important
role in providing hope and developing Palestinian society. Our
parishioners? daily struggle to maintain a Palestinian Christian witness
in this land is an encouragement to our many partners and friends all over
the world. Our efforts at building bridges between Palestinians and
Israelis prepares us to live together peacefully after a political
settlement is reached. Our dialogue with Muslims and Jews inspires other
Christians to cross borders to build peace in this broken world. As St.
Paul says of Jesus, ?In his flesh he has made both groups into one and has
broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us?
(Ephesians 2:14b).

The resurrection calls us Palestinian Christians, given our current
circumstances and our steadfast hope in the victory of life, a special
call to impart hope where hopelessness exists in the world. We can
encourage persecuted Christians in Asia and Africa; advocate for innocent
civilians in war-torn countries like Afghanistan and Iraq; stand up for
oppressed minorities like Dalits in India; share our resources with
countries like Haiti destroyed by earth quakes. We can facilitate
reconciliation between majority and minority populations of Bangladesh,
Central America, Burma and Turkey. We can teach people who fear unfamiliar
cultures, religions and political realties about celebrating diversity. We
can welcome refugees, migrants and trafficked people from among the poor
and disempowered around the world. We can share with others the hope that
comes from dialogue.

Surely everyone in this justice-deficient land, Israeli and Palestinian
alike, longs for the day when they will hear words of peace like those
found in John 14:27: ?Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do
not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled,
and do not let them be afraid.?

As long as I believe in the risen Christ, despair will never overcome my
hope; hopelessness will never overcome my trust in the living Lord. He is
commissioning us, like Mary, to go and tell the world that he is risen.
And, like Mary, I must not look for hope in a tomb. For Jesus is not there
? he is out in the midst of life, beckoning us to follow him in his
mission for peace in our beloved country. No, our Lord is not in the tomb,
but he is with all of us who long for and work for justice, forgiveness
and reconciliation.

May this hope, which began in Jerusalem with the risen Lord and continues
in us today, inspire you to boldly say with us and all believers:

> Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

> Al Masih Qam! Haqan Qam!

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL)
PO Box 14076, Muristan Road
Jerusalem, Israel 91140
+972-2-626-6800
administration@elcjhl.org
www.elcjhl.org