Reality Check

This morning I joined a group of people in convoy to Gaza to take food to the people there and to demonstrate against the blockade. We formed up in Jerusalem early in the morning. Four buses full and many cars. The event was sponsored by several Israeli organizations - yes, Israeli - and the people who gathered were wonderfully mixed. Jews, Arabs, all ages, many internationals, religious and secular. We drove to Gaza through a hard rain which cleared as we approached Erez Crossing. Erez, in the north of Gaza, is the only crossing normally open, but of course has been closed the past several days since the blockade was put into effect. You have recently heard about Rafah, the southern crossing into Egypt opened by the people a few days ago. We paused just short of the crossing to wait for other groups to arrive from around the country. When everyone was there we went on foot toward the crossing terminal. Needless to say, soldiers and police were everywhere, but the demonstration was completely nonviolent and there were no confrontations of any kind. There are photos in the slideshow at the right.

We had two large trucks of food and supplies. We were not allowed into Gaza, of course, nor was the food. A legal proceeding had been initiated and the Supreme Court will decide tomorrow whether the food can enter......

A court will decide whether food can be given to people who have nearly none because a government has decided 1 1/2 million people must be punished for the actions of some. What kind of people are we becoming?!?!

I haven't posted anything here in awhile because after the Bush visit, it was hard to find words. This place is sometimes a clinical laboratory in anger management. Everyone here knows that the visit with its talk of "peace process" was a performance; a shell game to distract the world from noticing what really goes on here. Now, the sad events in Gaza ought to make that abundantly clear, but still the efforts to obfuscate go on. We're told that the blockade of food, medicine, electricity, fuel is to force the people of Gaza to refute Hamas. This is such a flagrantly stupid thing to say it's hard to believe anyone actually says it. More about that in a future post.

What's going on here is an occupation. Pure and simple. There is no "conflict" for which "peace talks" are needed. There is one group here with all the power, money, weapons, and control. There is another group who is oppressed and controlled and has no power, weapons, money, or control. Who cannot go to work without showing an ID. Who cannot travel without enduring checkpoints. Who can only eat what is allowed in. Who only have light and heat if the other group says they can have light and heat. It is as though you called in the National Guard when your two-year-old has a temper tantrum in order to "negotiate a peace agreement" and to protect yourself against the "security threat" of flying stuffed bunnies. The power relationship here is just about like that.

Missiles are being fired out of Gaza onto Israeli land, yes they are. Some Palestinians resist being occupied and some of them make very bad, very destructive choices about how to react. But when did it become ok to punish the 1 1/2 million other people who live in the same vicinity? When did it become ok, under any circumstances, to starve people? When did we suspend international law, not to mention human decency?

The brutal, inhuman actions in Gaza have been justified on the basis of "security." In my time here, although brief, I have traveled by myself in the heart of the West Bank on buses full of Palestinians. I have encountered Hamas troops in the streets of Gaza. I have never been threatened or made to feel afraid or been afraid.

You know who makes me afraid? People whose ravenous gluttony for power leads them to starve children for the sake of "security," "national interest," and "geopolitical considerations." Those are the people I think should be watched.

Wilderness

I went to the Dead Sea Saturday. It's only a 30 minute drive from Jerusalem. In the 30 minutes, you drop from the hills of Jerusalem several hundred meters to the lowest spot on earth. The temperature rises 10 degrees C, to 20 (nearly 70 F). Shirtsleeves after the wet cold of Jerusalem was a treat!

There were very few people. We went to a "nature preserve", really just a park for picnicking. Sat at the beach for awhile and did as the locals do, covering ourselves with the rich, dark mud that is supposed to be therapeutic. Feels great. See the slideshow. We stumbled upon a path going up the hillside that surrounds the Sea and had a great climb with a spectacular view of the entire Sea, the surrounding landscape, and Jordan on the other side.

This is one of the areas where John the Baptist hung out. "The Wilderness." And it is. The landscape is harsh, dry, and barren. The hills are steep, rocky, and rough, pockmarked with caves like the one where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found just a few miles away. It's a hard place. John the Baptist wore camel skin, a leather belt, and ate locusts and honey. In the times of the Gospels, the Wilderness represented a place of trial and testing. Of harshness and suffering, pain and death, a place to grow through adversity.

The trip to the Dead Sea was the first time I'd spent out of a city. It was peaceful and relaxing and refreshing. For just a while, we could forget the conflict and what it is doing to people. When we returned to Jerusalem it was the city that seemed harsh and difficult, full of threatening energies and suffering.

The City and its "civilization" became the Wilderness on Saturday. But no prophet was there.

Anno Domini

The very beginning of this new year holds two anniversaries I will note: my 60th birthday and two months here in Jerusalem.

60... WHATTHEHELL am I doing here?! I should be home in a recliner making rootbeer floats for the grandkids I should have and watching Oprah. Instead I'm traipsing around the West Bank and Gaza. Still crazy after all these years, I guess.

Both anniversaries seem the blink of an eye and at the same time without beginning. I can barely remember getting here on Nov 15 and now it's somehow or other becoming a kind of home. Settling in.

During the time of preparation and discernment before coming here, there was alot of reflection about being aware of God's presence: "Where did I see God today?" Now, I find that I don't think about God much......oops, can a missionary say that??? What I mean is I don't think about God much. Being here is becoming being engaged, being involved, being aware, being part of what's happening here. Happening in the simplest, most ordinary of ways.

I pay more attention to how Jesus moved around here. Not alot of theological discourse going on there. It seems like he talked alot more about what people should be doing. I love his Kingdom of God stories: "The Kingdom of God is like..." Then an example everyone could grab onto - "Oh yeah, I get that."

I made my third trip to Gaza on December 31. I kept thinking about those stories. The Kingdom of God is like a man in Gaza who has no bread and prays every day that his house isn't missiled tonight, but graciously welcomes a visitor from America to his home for lunch.

At this time early in 2008 when we make resolutions and plans about the coming year, I invite you again to imagine your Kingdom of God. Is this it? If not, make a resolution to do one thing this year to move in that direction. Anything. Write a check to support something you think is right; write a letter to a decision-maker; volunteer; go on mission; give money to someone who needs it; stop being mad at somebody; stop being mad at yourself; say hello to a stranger; give some of the clothes or stuff you don't need anymore to someone who does.

Do something, so your Kingdom of God will be like................................................................