Over the years, I have read many accounts of the justice-seeking, peace-making efforts of (un)common folk, every day citizens in the Middle East. With you, I was discouraged by the terrible violence in Israel and in Gaza that has, in a matter of days, seemingly wiped-out years of peace-making effort.
It starts young. A little sister spends an hour making a castle out of bricks only to have her jealous older brother come and knock it down in mere seconds. Creating takes time and effort, but not destruction.
I can also remember as a young lad at the beach working to build the world’s greatest moat around my sandcastle to stave off the tide. I never won. But each day I would start again, believing this would be the day I would overcome the tide.
May those who seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with their God, those who would beat swords into ploughshares and fashion spears into pruning hooks, have the same resilience in the face of the tide of violence, injustice, and oppression.
May we remember Emmanuel – God is with us. Jesus came and fashioned a life and a community of healing, hope, forgiveness, reconciliation, and care for the least. In just a few hours that life was violently and unjustly destroyed and his community scattered.
And yet we believe the tide did not have the last word, because God raised him from the dead and vindicated his way of life. God sent the Spirit and reconstituted the community of Christ. And thereby gave to us the assurance that the Way, the Truth, and the Life would ultimately overcome.
May we never lose hope. And may we never quit doing the hard work of healing, hope, forgiveness, reconciliation, and care for the least.
Reverend Tom Telfer, Kilchrenan and Dalavich l/w Muckairn