The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter;
   he utters his voice, the earth melts.
The Lord of hosts is with us;
   the God of Jacob is our refuge.(Psalm 46:6-7)

Dear friends in Jesus and of Jesus:

For a week now we have watched and listened in horror and outrage at what is unfolding in Israel. The killing of the innocents, especially the babies, is unconscionable and without warrant. All our “teeth are set on edge”. With every hour and day, the anxiety mounts as the toll on both sides grows. The dead, the wounded, the hostages, the families that wait in fear to hear some word that brings resolution, the masses waiting evacuation all evoke grief and fear even for those who are far away. None of us are very far from this. It is in our faces and on our hearts. We are affected. None of what is being experienced or observed is occurring in a vacuum.

But aside from being affected, are we moved to respond from where we are. We are always called to pray. In fact we are encouraged to persist in prayer. We all grow weary of the call to pray especially in times of  crisis. But I am convinced that God in Christ anticipated such weariness (Luke 18:1-8). So I intend to pray about this current crisis even if I am frustrated in so doing. And by the way expressing our frustration and rage in prayer to God is legitimate. God, I assure you can handle the muddle of our prayers.

As always, our prayers are hollow if not connected to action. As followers and friends of Jesus the Christ we are called to engage in and with the world no matter how troubled we think it is. You might be thinking what can I do about conflict in the Middle East from where I am? All I can do is pray. Actually, that is not true. In our interdependent and connected world opportunities to engage are abundant. But let’s keep it simple. In many of our communities we have neighbors both Jewish and Palestinian. Let’s choose to build or strengthen relationships with these neighbors. Let’s choose to advocate for their safety. We know to a certainty that when hostilities escalate in the Middle East the threat of violence toward those who live here but see that as home escalates. Let’s be a neighbor to all our neighbors. Finally, let’s choose to break the cycle of hateful rhetoric that is rife in this hour. The cheap invectives that are being hurled only serve to diminish our common humanity and are vacuous efforts to gain influence, votes or money.

In a few weeks we will start a new cycle in the liturgical calendar. We start with Advent and Christmas. We’ll get all gooey eyed as we sing and or listen to the seasonal music that portrays Jesus as Prince of Peace. But if we are not careful we will once again gloss over the obvious truth that if our Lord and Savior is indeed the Prince of Peace then we as his followers are called to be peace makers. If indeed in his self-giving Jesus was and is the “reconciler in chief”, can we do any less than seek to give ourselves to the work of reconciliation in all of our relationships – personal, systemic, political, ideological, theological, geo-political?

“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.” (2Cor. 5:18-19)

Your friend in Christ Jesus,

+Gregory V. Palmer