First Presbyterian Church of Watertown
Isaiah 9 and Luke 2
“Endless Peace”
The Rev. Dr. Fred G. Garry
Christmas Eve - 2007
Tony Blair was in Bethlehem last week. The former British Prime Minister has a new job. He is the Envoy to Palestine for economic development. The scuttlebutt is that Blair is biding his time to become the first president of the European Union once it goes to five-year terms and has real clout. Right now it is a one-year ceremonial job that has a greater chance of embarrassing the president than anything else.
It’s hard to say exactly what Blair has in mind. Yet, whatever his motivation was in terms of getting involved with Palestine it is always a risky business. His new job may be step down in prestige, but I want to say he has stepped up, risen on the ladder of challenge. Governing the UK is far less intimidating than doing anything in Palestine. The politics of Gaza and Ramallah are daunting: the complexity of Arab culture mixed with the pan-Muslim desire for Jerusalem and then you toss in a little Zionism and disaster is a real option at any moment.
It may just be me, but peace in Palestine seems to be a kind of Holy Grail for world leaders. They all want to be the one who makes it, finds it, signs the accord. The state of Israel was born of holocaust guilt and a kind of déjà vu of the Treaty of Versailles. We seemed to forget that creating nations on paper simply leads to decades of violence and ethnic/cultural divisions, which is exactly the obstacles that stand in the way of the Palestinian economy. It’s like a perennial, penitential crusade for the West.
Having said all of this, though, there is real hope right now. I am not sure if I have ever said this, but I believe we will see peace in Palestine in our lifetime. If it were not Christmas Eve, such a statement might be summarily laughed out of the room, but this is the night for big dreams. Maybe I am still a kid who falls asleep on Christmas Eve believing there will be a horse downstairs, but so be it.
Part of my hope for peace in Palestine is grounded in our 2006 visit to Bethlehem. The city is booming. Cranes are lifting steel girders, cement trucks are pouring foundations, the streets are immaculate. There is a pulse of people getting ahead, a kind of thriving.
The hope is born in me because this was not the case on my first visit in 1999. In that year, just a few months before the intefada would erupt, Bethlehem was a dump. It was dirty and it looked abandoned. More stores were shuttered than were opened. The children openly insulted pilgrims and when they were not rewarded with a few shekels were just as likely to hit you as curse you. Bethlehem was the last place I ever wanted to see again.
So you can imagine my surprise as we passed by the enormous security wall the Israelis have constructed. Once past the checkpoint, it was a new city. Stores were open everywhere, venders were on the streets, children weren’t roaming the alleys accosting people- they were in school. In 1999 we were herded from the bus to the Church of the Nativity and didn’t feel safe until we bowed to enter the door of humility; in 2006 the group dawdled, strolled, lingered and just enjoyed such a beautiful city.
My first impulse was to believe that the security wall had created the stability fostering such a boom. In the past five years the Israelis have constructed a huge wall creating two states. It has echoes of the Berlin Wall and is close to what we are trying to build along our border with Mexico. It is very controversial. Seeing it though I couldn’t help but wonder if a wall meant to create security had not spurred some economic opportunity as well.
A Palestinian guide quickly corrected me. We hate that wall, that wall is oppressive. The city is booming because the Israelis surrendered control. He went on to describe that one of the tactics of harassment Israel used with Bethlehem was to never issue a building permit for fifty years; for fifty years no one got a permit. So once the Palestinians were in charge of Bethlehem, everyone got a building permit; fifty years of waiting was over. That is why it is booming, he said, we are helping each other; the wall isn’t helping us.
Tony Blair was in Bethlehem to see this remarkable transformation. There are other cities under Palestinian control, but none that has seen such a transformation as the city of Christ’s birth. Reading the article it struck me: what if peace in the Middle East, not just Palestine, was born in Bethlehem? Peace being born in Bethlehem works for me. Isn’t that what it became when Jesus was born of Mary there? I know we’re protestants and we are not supposed to believe that places take on a special meaning and value; the kingdom of God is within us not within a certain place. I know that, but it just sounds right: peace is born in Bethlehem.
And not just any peace according to Isaiah: endless peace. Now, that is the really big dream. Tony Blair might feel even more intimidated if he knew people like me were not just looking for a thriving economy in Palestine, but an endless peace that spreads like a light is shone.
While it might be a bit farther than someone like Blair had imagined it is what is hoped for. And I would dare to say it is his dream as well. It is such because he knows that peace in Palestine and peace in the Middle East is peace at home; as there is peace in Beirut, Gaza, and Baghdad, then there will be peace in London, peace in New York, peace in Paris.
I was speaking to a kindergarten teacher this week. She shared with me a secret weapon used at this time of year to achieve peace in a room with twenty-five sugar fueled, vacation ready five-year-olds. Once things spin out of control she has a kind of weapon, it’s like those bombs on 24 where it knocks out the power everywhere, but doesn’t hurt anyone. The bomb is to say, “you know . . . I haven’t mailed my Santa letter yet.” There is a deafening hush over the room she says. It buys you about an hour once a year.
Santa letters have never had a big impact on me. Looking back on the year as a kid I maintained a rather pragmatic gamble, I figured Santa was just looking for you to be in the plus category, having done more good than bad. And even though there were some bonehead moves that created a deficit, I figured on the whole I was safe for the most part. Knowing some five-year-olds I would say that is what they are doing for an hour; it takes about an hour to do a naughty and nice balance sheet in your head, and then you move on. I can see them sitting still and doing the math and sighing with relief- good presents, no coal.
Maybe it’s just a Christmas feeling, maybe it’s the time of life I am in, but I don’t believe so. More and more I am growing hopeful for peace. And by peace I mean far more than a pragmatic gamble or just personal safety. I find myself believing in a peace like Isaiah dreamed of, hoped for- the peace that was born in Bethlehem.
For the last few months I have been enjoying emails from Bob Krenzel who is stationed in Northern Iraq. I wrote him a few months ago and said, from now on every Sunday as a congregation we will pray for peace. And the peace we are praying for is the kind that will bring Bob home with honor, with hope for tomorrow, with a sense of trust that the world is a better place.
Tony Blair is not a magician, nor is he a kind of miracle worker. But what if he too believes in this peace, and what if true peace is born in Bethlehem in our lifetime? Believing this has not come easy to me. Maybe I needed to get to know enough people in harms way, maybe I needed to get enough letters from my missionary friend living in Ramallah to be convicted unto hope. Pragmatism, as much as I love it, will not shine a light for the world to see, the kind of light that was born in Bethlehem so long ago.
Remember, we are this light. You are light of the world. Shine your light. Hope, believe we will see peace in our lifetime. Not just a cease-fire, not a modest gain, not just stability, but also a peace where we don’t remember war any more. This is what Isaiah had in mind when he said, “there shall be endless peace.” Amen.