The Middle East: In Search of Life, Justice, and Peace

After being in school for this long, I’m realizing that wisdom and knowledge are not so much about having all the answers as about asking the right questions.

The events in the world around us and in my own life have left me recently asking the question “Who is our God? What is that God like?”

When pondering this question in recent months, I have come up with three broad areas of who God is.

The first is LIFE. God is a God of life. I was talking with my friend Jordan who is in Med School, and I am still struck by our conversation. There are certain people in my life who question what I am doing and studying. “Why do you have to get a theological education?” they ask. “Why don’t you just study your Bible like all Christians are called to do?” It occurred to me that no one ever asks that question about doctors. I don’t know about you, but when I go to the doctor I want to know that they got the best education that is out there to get. I want to see that framed diploma on the wall, to see their credentials displayed. And why is that? What do doctors do? They preserve, prolong and profit human life. And we all agree that this is an objectively good thing.

And I think that’s right—I think God agrees. If we look all the way back to Genesis, we see that God created human beings as the pinnacle of His entire creation. Genesis 1:26-31. We are created in God’s image, and God declares our life and well-being to be “very good.” So by highly valuing doctors and their work, I think we are echoing this value of our Creator.

In Deuteronomy, where God lays out the laws by which His people may live lives that are holy and pleasing unto Him, He sets before them life and death, and beseeches them to CHOOSE LIFE. God values life, and He calls us to value it as well. He calls us to make choices in our own lives that value and uphold and protect human life. Deuteronomy 30:19-20.

Let’s look at the New Testament. John 10:10. Here Christ tells us the reason that He came. Jesus’ purpose was to save human lives. We know that He wasn’t just talking about physical life, but He gave His life that we might receive life, and receive it in abundance.

Second, God is a God of JUSTICE. In the Old Testament, the prophets were so often calling out—and crying out against—injustice. Micah 6:8. This was given in the context of God rebuking and chastising Israel. (To jump ahead and look at the Middle East, to be concerned about justice does not mean to uncritically and unwaveringly support Israel…)

Also, Amos 5:21-24. Again, what God does and does not desire from us.

Lastly, the entire book of Obadiah. I took a Latin class over the summer, and we read the entire book of Obadiah in Latin. A friend who was in our little reading group had recently taken a class on the Prophets, and he explained to us the context of the book of Obadiah. Basically, a group of people called the Edomites were the sworn friends and protectors of Israel. But when Israel—it was actually the southern kingdom during the time when the twelve tribes were divided, and thus called Judah—was attacked, the Edomites scattered and fled and left the Israelites to be destroyed. It’s a terrible, tragic story. So the book of Obadiah is directed toward the Edomites, and the entire book is railing against their arrogance and indifference to what was happening to Israel. In short, it was crying out against injustice.

A bit of application…what Israel was in the Old Testament, the Church is now. We are to be a beacon, a light shining in a dark world. Are we committing the same injustices as Israel? Are we heeding the voices of modern-day prophets? (A little aside…I have this theory that Bono is a modern-day prophet. The lyrics of his songs, his whole AIDS in Africa awareness effort. I don’t think there is necessarily anything particularly significant about the injustices being committed in the Middle East as opposed to anywhere else—God is a God of justice and vindication for all oppressed and underrepresented people groups. And Bono is crying out against it, using every possible means to get peoples’ attention. That is exactly what the prophets in the Old Testament did…So there’s my theory.)

Third, God is a God of PEACE. Fuller seminary is an interesting place, and there are many Mennonites there. Now, until a year and a half ago, I didn’t know what a Mennonite was. But they are a branch of Christianity, kind of like a denomination, and one of the central tenets of their beliefs is pacifism. They think that Christ came to bring peace, and that He modeled this with His life. He rebuked the disciple who cut off the soldier’s ear, and He spoke of a Kingdom that is not of this world. Having many good friends who are pacifists, I have begun to look at the Biblical concept of peace in a new way. Whenever I heard Christians talk about peace—the peace of Christ, the peace of God—I somehow always applied it to my personal life. When I was stressed out, I would take comfort in knowing that Christ left His peace with us. And I think this is true. But I think it’s more than that.

Let’s look at the Old Testament. Psalm 122:6-9, Psalm 128, Psalm 34:12-16, Numbers 6:24-26 (the Priestly blessing—how Moses and Aaron were to bless the Israelites), Isaiah 9:6 (famous passage about who the Messiah would be, He will be called the Prince of Peace, ties the Old Testament and the New Testament together), Zechariah 9:9-10 (messianic prediction, prophesies peace, the end of weapons and war).

How about the New Testament? John 14:27. This is the verse that I always applied to my own life, and didn’t even think about on a national or international level. But think about it…How does this idea connect with the justice that the prophets spoke of? 1 Peter 3:8-17 calls us to live in way that the world knows nothing of. We are called to not repay evil with evil. And then there’s Matthew 5:9—“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” This is in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, the greatest sermon ever preached. Teachers who teach preaching will say that this sermon breaks all the rules that sermons are supposed to follow; structurally it’s a mess. And yet it’s the greatest sermon in human history, preached by Christ Himself. It says that peacemakers will be called “sons of God.” Well who was the Son of God? And what did He do? We are called to have the same mind as Christ Jesus (Phil. 2:5). We are Christ’s ambassadors to the world, called to represent and be about the same things that He was about.

OK, so what does this all have to do with Israel and Palestine? Well, I think for me, it all started when I watched the movie Munich. Have any of you seen it? The film is about the 1972 incident at the Munich Olympics. A group of Palestinians snuck into the Olympic athletes living quarters and kidnapped 11 Israeli athletes. They took them hostage, and as they were leading them onto a helicopter, the German authorities opened fire on the Palestinian kidnappers. The kidnappers opened fire on the athletes, and there was a massacre—almost everyone involved died, including all of the Israeli athletes. Well, the movie is about Israel’s reaction. The Prime Minister of Israel—Golda Meir—commissions a super secret team of Israeli militiamen to hunt down and assassinate the top Palestinian leaders who planned the Munich kidnappings. Eric Bana plays the main character, the lead assassin, and you watch as his entire life becomes dark and distorted as he hunts down these Palestinian leaders.

The first time I watched the movie I was absolutely horrified. I was in shock. All I could do was weep. I watched it a second time and was able to catch some of the dialogue. And I was blown away. Some of the dialogue in that movie parallels exactly things that I read in the Economist Magazine this past summer—during the most recent war between Israel and Lebanon. Israel having to “look strong,” for example. It’s the same story, being played out over and over again.

Spielberg openly calls his film “historical fiction,” not claiming that all of the details are exactly accurate. And he has a very pacifistic agenda. He shows how for each Palestinian leader the Israelis assassinate, something bad happens to Israel—a bombing, theft, destruction. But the film raises some pretty poignant questions and tragic truths, and I have not stopped thinking about it since.

In the Middle East, people are dying every day. God is a God of Life—as Christians, we ought to be concerned if for no other reason than that human life is being destroyed at an alarming rate. Unspeakable injustices are being committed, and the few times that peace has existed over the past decades (or centuries?), it has been fragile and short-lived. These things ought to concern us.

Sometimes I think about the modern state of Israel, and I wonder if the people are really that different from the Israelites in the Old Testament. It seems to me that they struggle with the same sins, they hold out the same hopes, and they are searching for the same things as the Jewish people in the Old Testament.

But something is different now. There’s the church. What is our role in this situation, in this conflict? It cannot be indifference.

Moreover, this is our spiritual heritage. Galatians 3:7 tells us that those who believe are the children of Abraham. Wait, I thought Abraham was the father of the Jews…Well, he is. But those who believe in Christ are also called children of Abraham.

In John 4:22, Jesus tells the woman at the well that salvation is from the Jews. Again, I don’t think that this translates to uncritical and univocal support of Israel. But it’s like our family tree. I took a class during my MDiv on Family Systems. As our final project, we had to create a genogram and write a paper about our family. Do you know what a genogram is? It’s like a family tree, but it charts and tracks dysfunction. The purpose behind them is that they almost always reveal hidden and shocking patterns of generational dysfunction. And through working them out and looking at them in visual form, you begin to understand why people in your family act the way that they do. Looking at our story—and our history—helps us to understand who we are, where we come from, and where we’re going.

So, why do we so often overlook what’s going on in Israel?

1) The issue is overwhelming—we are bombarded with news flashes, and it’s devastating and dizzying.

2) We don’t know all the details—who’s right? Who’s wrong? Who do we listen to?

3) It’s pretty depressing…I’m reading a book by Thomas Freidman, and he talks about the situation in Beirut in the 80’s. Frankly, I can’t imagine that it has changed all that much since then…But people basically just went about their days amidst unspeakable and unthinkable death and destruction. You literally just step over the dead body in the road and continue your conversation about what’s for dinner.

4) The history is all really confusing. Chaos and warfare has been going on there forever. Where do you even begin to gain an understanding of it all?

5) We don’t have time to keep ourselves informed. The situation is constantly changing, wars seem so commonplace they’re hardly even surprising anymore.

6) It’s pretty messy, and tough to sort through. Well, let’s look again at Jesus. He did not hover above the messiness of our world. He engaged it, He lived among the messiness, and He ultimately died under the messiness. We too need to engage the messiness…

Some resources for us to check out:

a) Christian Peacemaking Teams (www.cpt.org)

Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) arose from a call in 1984 for Christians to devote the same discipline and self-sacrifice to nonviolent peacemaking that armies devote to war. Enlisting the whole church in an organized, nonviolent alternative to war, today CPT places violence-reduction teams in crisis situations and militarized areas around the world at the invitation of local peace and human rights workers. CPT embraces the vision of unarmed intervention waged by committed peacemakers ready to risk injury and death in bold attempts to transform lethal conflict through the nonviolent power of God’s truth and love.

Initiated by Mennonites, Brethren and Quakers with broad ecumenical participation, CPT’s ministry of Biblically-based and spiritually-centered peacemaking emphasizes creative public witness, nonviolent direct action and protection of human rights.

b) American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (www.aipac.org)

AIPAC activists help pass more than 100 pro-Israel legislative initiatives a year. Through information, education and experience, AIPAC professionals and members throughout the United States continue to work together to ensure that the U.S.-Israel relationship is strong and remains vibrant long into the future.

c) Some authors to know about:

• Gary Burge, Whose Land? Whose Promise?: What Christians Are Not Being Told About Israel and the Palestinians; Who are God’s People in the Middle East?

• Elias Chacour, Blood Brothers; We Belong to the Land…

• Thomas Freidman, From Beirut to Jerusalem

• Colin Chapman, Whose Promised Land?

• Stephen Sizer, Christian Zionism

• Naim Ateek, Justice and Only Justice: A Palestinian Theology of Liberation


But….a word about books on the Middle East:

I recently had an email exchange with Gary Burge, author of “Whose Land? Whose Promise?” and I asked him if it was possible to get an objective understanding of the history of the Middle East. This was his response:

“Objective? The Middle East? No such thing. At some point, everyone looks at the suffering and injustice and makes a commitment to which side seems to own more of the misbehavior. And more often or not, other things (eschatology, predisposition to Israel, Islam) factor themselves in…At the end of the day you have to make a theological commitment that will shape your approach: Is Israel a theological reality or a political reality? That's where the conversation begins.”
--Gary Burge, author of Whose Land? Whose Promise? What Christians Are Not Being Told about Israel and the Palestinians

Author Colin Chapman is not so bleak in his estimation of neutrality, and offers some wonderful theological frameworks that seem to offer much hope and promise for the future of the conflict.

So while I certainly do not have all of the answers, and I doubt anyone does, I think this is an issue that deserves our attention and our prayer. I wish to leave you with a verse from the Psalms, and a harkening back to our call from Matthew to be peacemakers.

“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
‘May those who love you be secure.
May there be peace within your walls
and security within your citadels.’
For the sake of my brothers and friends,
I will say, ‘Peace be within you.’
For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
I will seek your prosperity.”

Covenant Theology

On Monday night, I had the opportunity to go to a lecture by Colin Chapman, author of Whose Promised Land?: The Continuing Crisis over Israel and Palestine. After having been told by Gary Burge (another Middle East scholar) that objectivity with regard to the Middle East is impossible, I was pleasantly surprised at how unbiased Chapman's assessment of the situation was.

He started by reviewing a brief history of the region over the last 2000 years, during which he critiqued both sides for their actions at different points, and commended both sides for their actions at different points. He proceeded to suggest what he sees as possible routes which either side can take in the future. The last part of his lecture---which, for me, was by far the most exciting and hopeful aspect---was a proposal of a new theological lens through which to view the conflict, and the Middle East in general.

He critiqued both dispensational theology (a lens that has been used by many conservative Evangelicals, by which the U.S.'s prosperity is tied to the prosperity of Israel, and the establishment of the state of Israel has great theological and eschatological significance) and replacement theology (a lens which says that God's covenant with Israel was somehow nullified by the coming of Christ, such that the people of Israel hold relatively little continued significance in terms of the progressive course of salvation history).

What he offered instead is what he termed "covenant theology." As he described this fresh and very promising theological lens, much of what he said sounded like a verbatim application of the theology of NT Wright to the political arena. Covenant theology understands God's promises and prophecies of the Old Testament to be fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. (Along these lines, Wright talks about Christ having fulfilled and embodied the five great Old Testament portraits of God--Wisdom, Word, Spirit, Temple, Torah--thereby demonstrating the vivid lines of continuity between the God of the Old Testament and the divine Messiah. According to Wright, Christ's claiming to be one with Yahweh is the "blasphemy" which led to His crucixion. See Jesus and the Victory of God, or for a more accessible version, see chapter 5 in The Challenge of Jesus or http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_JIG.htm).

Messianic Jews believe that Jesus was the embodiment of the long-awaited Messiah, and covenant theology seems consistent by saying that just as the peace and justice and redemption that Christ brought was not brought via military or political victory, Christians today should not expect that the redemption of Israel is going to come through geographical or political advances. This lens frees us from assigning huge significance to the existence of the state of Israel and calls us to focus instead on bringing about the Kingdom of God in the way that Christ incarnated that very Kingdom.

For me, this is still a pretty significant mental shift. Until recently, I had always uncritically assumed that to be a Christian meant to support Israel, and to not support Israel was anti-Semitic. But given the fact that much of Israel is a secular reality, it seems that Israeli nationalism can trump faith in the same way that American (or any other) nationalism often supercedes or interferes with or unduly colors faith. Colin Chapman noted that, in his opinion, the root of the conflict in the Middle East is clashing nationalisms. Much of Christ's whole message is that we are not fighting against flesh and blood, but rather against spiritual realities and principalities.

Anti-Semitism throughout the centuries has been an enormous tragedy with horrific consequences, and we must be concerned with the continued safety and flourishing of the Jewish people. For me, this stance stems primarily from the notion that we are created as God's image-bearers and called to bring about God's reign on earth. God is a God of life, peace, and justice, and these are virtues that are scarcely seen in the midst of the continued atrocities in the Middle East. Our activity of promoting life, peace, and justice is a universal call, a call to stand up against death, unrest and injustice wherever it exists on earth, whether that be in Gaza or North Korea or Darfur or Los Angeles.

We need to be advocating for peace in the Middle East. We need to be seeking justice and promoting life. And we need to do these things in the footsteps of Christ our Messiah, and according to the teachings that He gave us. We need to prayerfully and diligently live out the Kingdom of God, to be ambassadors of a world order that points to the rule of God and not the domination of men. Through the power and guidance of the Spirit, the Church is called to be the light of the world in the same way that Christ was (see John 8:12 and Matthew 5:14). In the words of NT Wright, "The Spirit is given so that we will be for the world what Jesus was for Israel. Our task is not to repeat what Jesus did, but to implement his achievement. That is at the heart of Christian mission" (http://www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk/events/2005/inthechurch.cfm). We need to keep in mind the spiritual realm, the realm in which Jesus acheived His victory over darkness and death. As Christians, to uncritically support Israel in its ongoing fight for land seems to return to an overly literalistic interpretation of Old Testament prophecy, the same type of reading which has led and continues to lead many Jews to the conclusion that Jesus Christ could not possibly have been the Messiah.