Tags
Abram, Genesis, listening, Lot, Peace, separate, surrender, the Holy Land, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, willingness
Occasionally – not often but once in awhile – when I read the lectionary texts from the Bible I long for “the old days” – a simpler time. This morning’s reading from Genesis (GN 13:2, 5-18) has Abram and Lot in conversation about their many possessions and how the land can’t support both of them; their herdsmen were quarreling. So Abram simply says to Lot, “We’re kinsmen; we don’t want any strife between our herdsmen or ourselves. Let’s separate. If you want to go left, I’ll go right and vice versa.” So Lot went east and Abram stayed in Canaan – just like that.
Would that things could be settled today in like manner. But no, the strife in “the Holy Land” goes on and on with no peace on the horizon. How are we to interpret God’s promises in these complex times? Certainly not with contentious rhetoric or weapons. How can God break through to the hearts of all parties in a way that will bring peace to the Middle East? Only, it seems, by listening more deeply to the hearts of one another and allowing love for God and for the land to be the impetus for reconciliation. It will take great leaders and great willingness to surrender on the part of everyone in order to see the truth that all are one in God and that there is enough for everyone’s need. May it be true in our day. May peace come to reign once again, I pray.
The Sophia Center for Spirituality 
’m afraid that massive, well-meaning Western immigration to the Holy Land when the State of Israel was created in 1948 was (and is) a major factor in the Israeli-Palistinian conflict. My daughter-in-law Randa’s (Palistinian/Antiochian Christian) family which had lived peacefully in a multi-cultural community in Jaffa for generations were forcefully evicted from their home, which was appropriated for American settlers. Her father’s gold jewelry factory/business was also taken. With help from other family members and after living in a refugee camp, they finally were able to re-settle in Lebanon. The Archbishop of Baghdad, Jean Sleiman, OCD, eloquently described the same dynamic when the Americans entered Baghdad in the recent war with Iraq. I have copies of a few of the Carmelites’ messages as the shelling began and a videotape of his conference at an OCDS conference. His talk was punctuated by obvious grief due to the loss of their peaceful relationships between the various cultures. btw, the Carmelites had lived in Iraq peacefully since the 1600s. I blame Western aggression, greed, thirst for power and hunger for domination for these terrible events – they remind me of the Roman occupation of the Holy Land in the time of Jesus.