world news or outside my window.

Yesterday the Annapolis peace conference took place with every major Arab player in attendance (except Iran…oops) where for the first time in seven years the leaders of Israel and Palestine met to discuss a peace deal.  The results seem to be gaurdedly positive with more talks to commence in Russia in about two weeks or so. 

I was privileged to observe Palestinian university students watch the speeches of Palestinian Prime Minister Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Olmert live- can you imagine speeches where ever single word is critical?  every. single. word. Their reaction was notable dismay forAbbas who lacked compassion and a sense of respect for Olmert- weird.  I’d have to agree with them though after reading the following excerpt from Olmert’s speech:

Many Palestinians have been living for decades in camps, disconnected from the environment in which they grew up, wallowing in poverty, in neglect, alienation, bitterness, and a deep, unrelenting sense of humiliation.

I know that this pain and this humiliation are the deepest foundations which fomented the ethos of hatred toward us. We are not indifferent to this suffering. We are not oblivious to the tragedies that you have experienced.

I believe that, in the course of negotiations between us, we will find the right way, as part of an international effort, in which we will participate, to assist these Palestinians in finding a proper framework for their future, in the Palestinian state that will be established in the territories agreed upon between us.

Israel will be part of an international mechanism that will assist in finding a solution to this problem.

It seems as though Israel (or maybe just Olmert) is beginning to show some compassion for Palestinians and their living situation which has been missing from past negotiations.  This is HUGE as it becomes increasingly hard to marginalize people when you recognize them as… well … people. 

Of course, the proof of a commitment to peace will come when Israel and Palestine start to make some concrete concessions.  Concessions? The main issues are: 

1) the building of Jewish settlements on Palestinian land. Israel says yes.  Palestine says no. 

2) the refugee problem:  either allow refugees to return to their familial homes which were taken in 1967  or compensate refugees.  Palestine says yes.  Israel says that would be an economic nightmare. 

3) Moving borders back to pre-1967 area- Palestine says yes. Israel says no.

4) allow East Jerusalem to be the capital of Palestine.  Palestine says yes.  Israel says… are you kidding? 

Perhaps I’m an optimist but it seems that on their side- remarkably- is that George Dubyah is leaving office in less than a year and desparately wants something good to come from his foreign affairs record: Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel/Palestine?  Of course- you could say that Bill Clinton tried the same thing just before he left too…

So I guess we’ll just wait and see.

more pics.

At the Wailing Wall.

My favorite class at Tyndale was probably History of Biblical Interpretation with Dr. Walters.  In that class I wrote a fairly large paper (relative to my undergrad) on Isaiah 14:12 that traced the various interpretations of the passage throughout history.  I was particularly happy to find a distinct interpretation from Jerome- whose original grave is pictured above. 

In the courtyard at the Church of the Nativity.

New friends Samar (left) and Saad (right). 

One particular morning I looked out the window.

I found this digerent at a store in BirZeit- apparently it gets your clothes really clean. 

more from Newbigin.

 

I am completly astounded that this book was first written in 1978.  The reasons I like these quotes:

*  the first one keeps Christians humble.

*  the second one gets me fired up.

*  I can’t get over how completely prophetic the third one is…1978!

“The parable of the Good Samaritan is a sharp and constantly needed reminder to the godly of all faiths that the boundaries between religion and its absence is by no means to be construed as the boundary between light and darkness.  There is something deeply wrong when Christians imagine that loyalty to Jesus requires them to belittle the manifest presence of the light in the lives of men and women who do not acknowledge him, to seek out points of weakness, to ferret out hidden sins and deceptions as a means of commending the gospel.  If we love the light and walk in the light we will also rejoice in the light wherever we find it- even the smallest gleams of it in the surrounding darkness”.

“To work for the reformation of structures, to expose and attack unjust structures, and, when the point is reached at which all other means have failed, to work for the overthrow of an evil political and economic order is as much a part of the mission of the church as to care for the sick and to feed the hungry.  Part of it, but not the whole; and if the legitimate call to political action is allowed to replace the call to compassionate service, then the church has betrayed its gospel”.

“The ideology of the free market has proved itself more powerful than Marxism.  It is, of course, not just a way of arranging economic affairs.  It has deep roots in the human soul.  It can be met and mastered only at the level of religious faith, for it is a form of idolatry.  The churches have hardly begun to recognize that this is probably their most urgent missionary task during the coming century”.

—

In other news, one of my best friends Ian Mclaren is blogging like it’s 2005 – it’s worth a read.

mouse trap II

In other news it looks as though I’m going to Bethlehem tomorrow for a day or two.  I’ve heard its going to be a mini-retreat with a group of students from the centre and involve some cite seeing, free time and a couple sessions about character development.  Let the good times roll.

two weeks.

Time here is funny.  It seems as though the trip to Elat was two years ago and not two weeks.   It also seems like I’ve been here for ages and simultaneously like I got off the plane yesterday.  Weird.

Here’s an update since my last one in no particular order.

-  Last week a new friend Saad invited myself and Rebecca to be guests in his English class at BirZeit University.   When we arrived the professor welcomed us and then asked what we’d like to do.  So- we ended up fielding questions from the students for almost on hour about lots of differerent topics including but not limited to:  politics, American vs. Canadian culture, Western perceptions of Palestine (no one here calls it the West Bank), and even the war in Iraq (I graciously let Rebecca field that one).  My favorite part may have been the ‘Western perceptions of Palestine’.  I explained how nearly every person I told that I was coming reacted with “oh my goodness, is it safe there?”- their laughter was contagious.

- On Sunday I went to church in Jerusalem followed by a tour of some of the holy sites.  My favorite part of the day was visiting the wailing wall.  I grabbed one of the visitor yamulkas (mandatory for going down to the wall)  found a handy little hebrew prayer book for public use on a table near by and said a little prayer at the temple wall.  Life goal #73 can now be crossed off the list.

-  A number of Christians I have met seem to be what the early church Christians may have been like.  Their stories are unreal, their faith is palpable and the Bible verses they talk about are not allegorically or spiritually applicable- they speak directly into their living sitution.  Possible examples to follow later.

-  My second favorite country to cheer for in the Winter Olympics will now be Norway.  Sorry Uh-merica. This could prove problematic come the gold medal curling matches….

-  I finished The Open Secret and it now ranks as one of my favorites of the year- if not the last five years.  Epiphaneia would be pursuing Lesslie Newbigin as a speaker if he was still alive- no question.  More quotes from the second half of the book to follow.

-  We found another mouse (rat?)  in the apartment and this time actually trapped it.  I did not trap it which you’ll see in the soon to be posted video (its seems like there are a lot of posts coming).  The Norwegians played a large part in this venture which is one reason why Norway is my new second favorite country to cheer for.

little elat video

The trip to Elat in six pictures or less…

Some pics from the trip to Elat… in mostly chronological order:

The first stop: a hilltop overlooking Jericho…

————-

A theologians dream – viewing the Qu’mran caves.  ie.- where the Essenes hung out and where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found….

————-

The Dead Sea.  We stopped for a swim on the way down and it truly is the strangest swim I’ve ever had.  We also covered ourselves in mud.  My theory about the mud (which is supposed to be therapeutic) is as follows:  some kids were playing in the mud one day and some tourists interpreted this as a local custom of significant value.  Now many people do it while I believe the locals sit back and think they are crazy.  It’s a working theory….

————

The Red Sea:  We went snorkling in this beauty and saw the fishies and the corel reefs and everything.  It was like magic.  Either the hills of Jordan or Saudia Arabia are in the background….

————–

We went to visit a group of Sudanese refugees who are living in a Kibbutz in Elat.  Below are some of the kiddies partying like it’s 1999….

————

Benjamin was not in Elat but it would have been great if he was.  It was his birthday on October 31st- so he gets a pic on the blog, along with Katrina….

mission.

Every once in a while I come across a book that I love.  I have found another one of these books in Lesslie Newbigin’s The Open Secret.  While I have only read the first half so far I have been underlining like crazy and pausing for reflection more than I have in a long time.  Essentially the book is an introduction to the theology of mission- which Newbigin argues needs to be at the core of Christian doctrine- not as a side subject we take as an add-on to the real theology.  It needs to be present because it is who we are.  So far he has framed mission as the proclaiming of God’s kingship over all human history, the presence of God and kingship of Jesus in the church and the previousness of the kingdom.Here are some quotes that are worth a read…

The concern of those who see mission primarily in terms of action for God’s justice in embodied mainly in programs carried on at a supra-congregational level by boards and committees, whether denominational or ecumenical.  The concern of those who see mission primarily in terms of personal conversion is expressed mainly at the level of congregational life.  The effect of this is that each is robbed of its character by its separation from the other.  Christian programs for justice and compassion are severed from their proper roots in the liturgical and sacramental life of the congregation, and so lose their character as signs of the presence of Christ and risk becoming mere crusades fueled by a moralism that can become self-righteous.  And the life of the worshipping congregation, severed from its proper expression in compassionate service to the secular community around it, risks becoming a self-centered existence serving only the need and desires of its members.  -11

What is being communicated here is not the revelation of a timeless truth, namely, that God forgives sin.  It is the giving of a commission to do something that will otherwise remain undone:  to bring the forgiveness of God to actual men and women in their concrete situations in the only way that it can be done so long as we are in the flesh- by the word and act and gesture of another human being” – 84

When we read that God is “infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts or passion, immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute” we recognize that we are in a world different from that of the Bible.  The Bible remains in the world of stories.  Its God, in the famous words of Blaise Pascal, is not the God of the philosophers, but the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.  The Bible does not tell stories that illustrate something true apart from the story.  The Bible tells a story that is the story, the story of which our human life is apart.  It is not that stories are part of human life, but that human life is part of a story.  It is not that there are stories that illustrate ‘how things are’; it is that we do not begin to understand how things are unless we understand how they were and how they will be.” 83