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Against the Wall
Reconciliation is the very heart of the
gospel. To
separate out and isolate "evangelism" as a subject is to distort the
gospel by wrenching it from its biblical context of holistic
reconciliation.
Indeed, to stress evangelism without also being agents of
reconciliation
betrays the full truth of the gospel and the mission of God.
The title of this
article is intentionally provocative. It is meant to elicit reaction
and
hopefully engender thoughtful concern. When mentioned in an
Israeli/Palestinian
context, “the wall" immediately brings to mind the picture of the
rapidly
advancing barrier crisscrossing the land. For most of the residents of
Israel,
the existence of the wall, otherwise known as the "security fence,"
is viewed as an unavoidable necessity. The painful reality, though, is
that
believers in Yeshua live on both sides of this wall and it is becoming
increasingly difficult for them to meet one another.
The peoples divided by
the wall view it through very different lenses. Roger Cohen, a
columnist for
the International Herald Tribune puts it this way:
To the Palestinians, it
is a “racist,
separating wall.” It is a part of their “ghettoization”, a term that
deliberately or subliminally borrows from the Jewish holocaust
experience. It
is history through a glass darkly. To most Israelis, on the contrary it
is
merely a barrier, a rational construct that facilitates rather than
complicates
a two-state solution, represents their abandonment of any idealistic
notion of
brotherhood in favor of cool pragmatism, protects them from suicide
bombers and
enables them to look away. It is the next best thing to an escape from
history.
The Other Side
Walls have two sides; you live
on one or the other. On whichever side you find yourself, you are
barred from the reality of what exists on the other side. Walls are
of many different sorts and they are not always physical. They are
inescapable and often necessary. We all live behind one sort
or
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another of them. There
is,
however, one wall that has been forever eradicated, and that is the
wall of
separation and enmity between all those who are in Messiah.
Unfortunately, too
many followers of Yeshua continue to live as if that wall were still in
place.
This obstructs and hinders the expression of the unity of Messiah's
body.
In Israel today,
reconciliation initiatives are on the increase. Local Messianic
congregational
leaders are meeting on an increasingly frequent basis with Arab pastors
and
leaders of Arab-speaking congregations in Israel. The bi-annual
Messianic
leaders' prayer retreat, Sitting at Yeshua's Feet, now includes
a number
of Arab Israeli pastors. Each year the Caspari Centre’s leadership
training
programme, Hearts to Serve, has an increased number of Arab
Christian
participants and, occasionally, Arab and Jewish pastors will exchange
pulpits.
There is a developing consciousness that the Bible requires an embodied
expression of the "one new man" in Messiah, in whom ethnic, social,
and gender differences are no longer grounds for division.
Growing numbers of
local Messianic congregations are
making efforts to reach over to "the other side of the wall”. In Tel
Aviv,
Haifa, Netanya, Jerusalem and Tiberias, to name a few, local
congregations are
involved with aid distribution that reaches the Arab community. For
example,
over the Christmas holiday season in 2006, collections of money and
clothing
were sent by Messianic congregations and individual believers to the
needy
Christians of the Bethlehem area.
Hand in Hand
Yad b'Yad – Hand in Hand – is a
recent reconciliation
initiative involving high school pupils from the Israeli Messianic and
Arab
Christian congregations. This is the third year in which, during the
summer
holidays, groups of young Jewish and Arab believers will be hosted in
Germany,
meet with young German believers their age, and visit Auschwitz
together. These
trips are powerful times of encountering history together, and the
healing and
reconciling power of God is evident among the young participants.
In the context of
conflict and wide cultural diversity that is Israel/Palestine, Musalaha
is
the only faith-based reconciliation ministry in Israel that
intentionally
involves Arab Palestinian Christians from the Palestinian territories
and Gaza
together with Arab Israeli Christians and Messianic Jews. The
activities of Musalaha
have increased dramatically during the past four years. Working from an
unambiguous basis of common faith in Messiah, it brings together people
from
these different communities in order to deepen understanding and
relationships.
Conferences, seminars,
outings, trips, prayer meetings and camps are available for many
different
population subgroups. There are specialised activities for children,
women,
leaders, families, and youth. Working with a core group, who are
involved long
term, new people are brought into each of the activities. Over time, as
people
become more comfortable with each other, there is an engagement with
some of
the harder issues. While it is fundamental that spiritual unity is the
basis of
our relationship, there is a recognition that this unity neither erases
our
individual and corporate identities nor renders them unimportant.
The women's work of Musalaha
has expanded over the last four years from one large conference a year
to a
network of five smaller groups of women, meeting on a regular basis. Musalaha's
youth work has also grown and now includes the training of youth
leaders. Trips
are also organised in which young people spend three to five days
hiking, camel
riding and camping in the deserts of Israel or Jordan. This experience
is
uniquely suited to levelling differences between people, as survival is
a joint
task. Everything must be shared. The participants bond quickly and many
ongoing
friendships begin in the desert environment.
The situation in
Israel/Palestine today is one of separation, animosity, hostility and
destructive conflict and imbalance of power. Walls will not aid the
situation.
The only help is from God who has demolished the wall of separation and
hostility. He alone is able to bring true reconciliation. As his
followers,
having been entrusted with his ministry of reconciliation, our
proclamation of
this truth is that reconciliation is ultimately a matter of God's power
and
victory. Just as our lives are individually transformed by the power of
God, so
our life as a community should reflect this transformation. As someone
has
written, "The pursuit of reconciliation is an ongoing struggle. This
quest
should not be expected to end conflict in this world, but rather to
transform
it”.
Lisa Loden
Lisa Loden (Chairperson
of CWI Israel) is a member of the International Coordinating Committee
of LCJE.
This article is
an edited version of a paper presented at the LCJE
International Conference, 2007. The full text can be found at www.lcje.net/papers/2007/intl/Loden.doc
This article first
appeared in the Winter 2007 edition of the Herald
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