Sunday Musings: Thoughts from Church

I'm going to try to post every Sunday until July in hopes to jot down a few ideas, not enough for full posts, to let you all in on what I'm thinking each week. This first installment comes from the Scripture and hymns from the church service today at Christmas Lutheran in Bethlehem where I plan to now be a regular attendee (I've been church hopping to different Lutheran churches for the most part, but now I think I'm going to stay at the one in Bethlehem, down the street from Manger Square).

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I think it's interesting how certain passages in Scripture speak to us differently based on context. This can be seen in how different communities may find relevance in particular readings of the Bible, but I have also found it to be true in how I experience the Bible based on my own context, location, and life happenings. I was recently reading a book where the author pointed out that the amazingness of the Bible is not that it happened, but it still happens. The Spirit continues to breathe life into our world and our reading of Scripture and while the Bible comes from a historic, literary, and cultural context distinct from ours, God unites it all and continues to work through God's Word.

Today we read from Psalm 119: 81-96:

My soul has longed for your salvation; I have put my hope in your word.

My eyes have failed from watching for your promise, and I say, "When will you comfort me?"

I have become like a leather flask in the smoke, but I have not forgotten your statutes.

How much longer must I wait? When will you give judgment against those who persecute me?

The proud have dug pits for me; the do not keep your law.

All your commandments are true; help me, for they persecute me with lies.

They had almost made an end of me on earth, but I have not forsaken your commandments.

In your loving kindness, revive me, that I may keep the degrees of your mouth.

O Lord, your word is everlasting; it stands firm in the heavens.

Your faithfulness remains from one generation to another; you established the earth and it abides.

By your decree these continue to this day, for all things are your servants.

If my delight had not been in your law, I should have perished in my affliction.

I will never forget your commandments, because by them you give me life.

I am yours; oh, that you would save me! For I study your commandments.

If I had read this passage last year, perhaps I would have applied it to a particularly busy week, which there is no shame in doing. Maybe I would have sought God's comfort for a strain in a relationship, or asked God to be revived from the stress of classes and work. Yet, the pleading in this Psalm struck me as I realized my place among my Palestinian friends and coworkers at the church. Imagine reading this Psalm as a Palestinian, suffering all of the effects of the Occupation of the West Bank (or Gaza). There are many faithful God-lovers throughout Palestine who have put their hope in God. When, God, will there be comfort for the Palestinian situation under Occupation? When will hope be more tangible? "I am yours; oh, that you would save me!"

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At the end of the church service today we sang the hymn, "I'm But a Stranger Here" (that is hymn #238 in our Arabic book here, but I have no idea if it corresponds to the LBW back home. Can anyone find out what hymn this is or if it's any of our ELCA hymnals? Answer in the comments section, please!). I know there is much deeper meaning that can be taken from hymns but sometimes I take them at face value when I first sing them. The second verse of this hymn was not different...

"What though the tempest rage, Heaven is my home

Short is my pilgrimage, Heaven is my home

Time's cold and wild wintry blast soon shall be over past

I shall reach home at last, Heaven is my home."

As some of you know, it is SO COLD this time of year in Palestine and Israel! I have managed to figure out a schedule of when to put the space heaters on, and in what rooms so as to get it a little less cold in my apartment, but it is still a wee bit chilly. So, yes, the cold wintry blast soon shall be over! 

Also, "short is my pilgrimage". As this past week marked the halfway point for me, I have been keenly aware that one year is both a very long time, and really short. There are so many amazing things I've done and been able to participate in, but soon I will leave. I will return home to you all back in the States and be able to share my stories in person, but how will I do that? This is a question that has started to creep into my mind.

Ah, and then, "heaven is my home". That's kind of the point of the whole hymn. Yesterday I was able to Skype back home to the Seminary community and talk about YAGM for a few minutes. Before I went "on air" I caught up with my friend Julie, who now works for the Admission Office at LTSG, and we talked about hope and idealism. I have so much hope for this region and the relationships between Palestinians and Israelis and between Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Perhaps it is very idealistic to think that peace could come to this area in the next 50 years, but I can't give up that vision. Sure it's not easy, but if we think it's not possible, then what is the point? If we give up the work for peace because it doesn't look like it can ever happen, why do anything at all? Again today, I met some EAPPI (Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel) volunteers working in Bethlehem and we talked about this necessity for hope. Sometimes this is really challenging. The volunteer I talked with most mentioned that before church they had put some time in at the Bethlehem checkpoint and it didn't seem like they accomplished much...but they had helped a little boy get through to Israel for kidney dialysis. That's a pretty big deal, especially for that young child. But even the hope that brings can get get clouded by the daily struggles- the rest of the things that happened that worry, stress, sadden us.

The hymn today reminded me that there is hope, both for now and also for the future. At the beginning of my newsletter I have a quote from a the poem "Passover Remembered" by Alla Bozarth-Campbell: I am with you now and I am waiting for you. Heaven is my home, but heaven is also here, although seemingly hidden at times.