Month: October 2023

In 1729, Jonathan Swift wrote a proposal for solving a big problem of poverty and starvation of poor people in Ireland. His friends were aghast that he would suggest roasting young babies and small children to provide food for the starving and money for the parents who bear the delicious meat. Yes. He wrote that! I studied this essay as an example of satire. Today, I am thinking of a modest proposal for Gaza and I’m wondering why since the original partition took place, no one has come up with a solution. I hope we would recognize the need for a solution, but not eating small children.

In 1947, the United Nations drew lines to create a state for Israel and a state for the Palestinians who lived on the land that we call Israel. Today 2 million people are crammed onto an area the size of Washington DC… crammed into what one writer has called, “an open air prison.” When I pilgrimaged to the Holy Land in 1990 and 1991 I could not travel freely, and our Arab guide could not travel from Bethlehem into Jerusalem. I thought it was odd, but I was “an innocent” as many of us are. In the Gaza, 2 million people are on a piece of land totally separated from the West Bank which used to be called Trans Jordan. They are angry that they can’t get out of tall walls and gates. They can’t get to medical care in Jerusalem. They have nothing in the tiny enclave called “The Gaza Strip.”

So why don’t they move? Because no one wants them. Egypt and Jordan have denied passage. So we must rub our foreheads and woof a giant “Wow!” Their own Arab people won’t take them in. There must be a place over there in the West Bank bordering Jordan, Egypt or Lebanon for these people to settle. It will take a lot of money to rebuild a city for 2 million. Let these people live!!!!

My friend who helps me write and edit my work, Mike, asks “With so much violence and hatred, why do American citizens move to live in Israel ‘on purpose'”?   I answer with my own family story. My father wore out a record with songs by Irish lyric Tenor John McCormack who crooned a tune, “Sure, a little bit of heaven fell from out the sky one day, And it nestled in the ocean in a spot so far away And when the angels found it, sure it looked so sweet and fair They said suppose we leave it, for it looks so peaceful there…” My father, a first generation American, cherished the dream of “returning to Ireland.” He planted that idea in me and I did go and I loved it… “this is my homeland, I whispered in Shannon airport.” For my father, Ireland was heaven. To go there was the dream of his life. For the Jews who have survived for centuries reading the Old Testament stories of God’s promising them the land, Israel is “their country.”  They died for Israel with the word “Israel” on their lips. … Palestinians always lived there… farmers, many in tents, wandering to find grass for their herds.  For Jews, Israel is “the Biblical Holy Land.” The Old Testament tells the story of how God promised the land to Abraham and his descendants. While the Jews were in exile in Babylon and then later dispersed by the Romans who colonized the land (the dispersion called the Jewish diaspora) Jewish prayer was, “Next year in Jerusalem.” Jews wait in Jerusalem for their savior. “According to the Midrash, the earthly Jerusalem is the place where God will arrive even before reaching the heavenly Jerusalem. As the Midrash imagines God saying, ‘I will not come into the city of Jerusalem that is above until I first come into the city of Jerusalem that is below.’” (Dasee Berkowitz 2013) “By the rivers of Babylon, there we wept as we remembered Zion.” (Psalm 137)   The dream to return to Israel survived the Babylonian exile, the Russian Pograms, and the German Killing camps. For centuries, with Jews dispersed over Russia, Europe, and the regions of old mesopotamia, the Ottoman Turks controlled a great part of the middle East until the end of WWI when the Turks (some of modern day Turkey, Egypt, and much of what is southern Russia), who supported Germany, lost to mostly British fighters.  Some “countries” (Palestine has never been considered a country) gained independence in 1922 after WWI. Governing of the remnants (Palestine) passed to the League of Nations, and the League turned the governing of the Jews and Arabs remaining in Palestine over to Britain because Britain previously had control of or defeated the Turks in Egypt, Persia, India, Afganistan, Trans Jordan, the Sinai and more. There was no provision for the future of Palestine. Arabs were shepherds, they roamed the land, and many never set up “governments,” rather they were ruled for centuries by Sultans and kings who didn’t develop governments like the west did. With the British “Mandate,” attempts to set up a government with an Arab majority were soundly rejected and finally on May 14, 1948, as Britian pulled out, David Ben Gurian led the declaration of Israel’s independence. Jews declared Israel their homeland and the fighting began.

The Jews from concentration camps and from various hiding places in Europe traveled “home” towards Zion / Israel…Meanwhile the Temple mount has gone back and forth between Jews and Arabs: The Temple originally built by Solomon in 957BC and rebuilt under patronage of King Cyrus in 515BC was destroyed in 70 AD.  The Rock was taken by Arabs (Mohammed went to heaven from the rock in 691AD) and retaken by Jews in 1967. When I went to Jerusalem we were allowed to tour the holy site which was guarded by Jewish soldiers. Jews will not go any further than the western wall of the temple which is sacred to Jews. Meanwhile…. Jesus celebrated Jewish feasts in the Jewish Temple, and he was crucified, buried, and Resurrected in Jerusalem (actually outside the wall as crucifixions took place outside the Jerusalem walls). Queen Helena of Greece, Mother of Constantine, found the sites of the crucifixion and burial and built churches over them.  Those churches are shared by the Christian church as beloved sites in the life and death of Jesus. We also travel on pilgrimage to Nazareth and other sites written about in the Gospels.

So now, my dear Mike, why live in Jerusalem? Why Live in Israel? Each faith will answer according to their belief:  for me, I cherish the weeks I spent in the Holy Land… Because Jesus lived there. His blood was shed there.  Walking the streets of Jerusalem is the same for me as walking down the aisle of a church. Jesus walks here. This fervor is over 5000 years deep for Jews who will tell you Abraham walked up Mount Moriah with his son Issac. It is 2000 years deep for Christians.  Fight for Jerusalem? Yes. And Pray for Jerusalem. House of Peace. Peace in your heart Mike. 

Our church, Saint James, had a day of prayer yesterday for 24 hours. I went at 4pm to 5pm, and I went again at 7am until 9am this morning. I sat down and looked at God and I started to tell him everything that is wrong in this world that I worry and weep about… Then I zeroed in on who is fighting… mess of Kings, Shieks, Ayatollahs, old military men turned government leaders. Old men and women who hate each other. .. I was shouting at God because a mess of old mean, woman-hating men are fighting. Emphasis on mean and old. Then I realized. He knows. He knows. “They” have been killing for thousands of years in their meanness. I went back in my Bible to Cain and Abel, Babel, the Caanites and the Jebusites, David and Goliath, the Assyrians who dispersed Israel, and the ones who killed Jesus… they hated, and they killed him. Why would they be in power? I slid to a halt, and practically scrubbed the pages of John’s Prologue for my answer. Oh. He knows. He knows. Well then… and I proceeded to beg for my family. My sister who died away from the church.  My sister’s children who have rejected me. And I realized… He knows. He knows. Then, “me”. “Wait,” he said. But Lord, Bring me peace. Peace so I can love. Bring me peace so I can just Love.   So I put down my pen and I waited. Like he said. I just wait on the Lord.   

You God are Creator, Lover, Inspirer, Breath of Life (Ruah). If I could just touch the tassel on his cloak, the hem of his garment… if I could just touch his feet. I reach out my heart to him.

“The Jews” were an angry bunch. (John 1:19). As religious leaders, the Pharisees and Saducees did not do their jobs of taking care of the people. They hated and they encouraged hatred (of Samaritans for example) and of heritics. To the leaders, Jesus was a heritic, and he was to be hated. They killed Jesus and his followers to wipe them out, and still a small remnant of the children of God persisted. The situation didn’t and hasn’t changed.

So, I looked up at God and I said, “So how must I act? Wait, huh?” He said “Yes.” Wait on the Lord. Be the remnant; the small remnant of the children of God. Persist. Love, and make straight the way of the Lord.

I returned to church in the morning. I looked at the Lord. You, Lord know, and you love. I believe that. Now who are the people who today live in that narrow strip of land where the Philistines of Goliath lived? Starving, shivering, thirsty, sick, frightened. Their babies crying or dead too. … Do they know what the governments are doing? Could I escape if I were with them, or would I just shiver in fear next to them in what’s left of my home or in a blood-spattered street. Waiting… for the next barrage of missiles. I look to God, our Creator, and he answers me. “Wait.” Do the little bit that I can do. Ruth picked up bits of wheat left after the harvesters finished. A little bit for Naomi. A small insignificant action. Pick up the scraps and make a king. (For Ruth is the Grandmother of David). Pick up the scraps. Give the scraps to God, and make them work. No pushing! But… “It’s not your business,” says the Lord. “Just teach what is.” God is. In the beginning was the Word. Darkness was there and he did not eradicate it. Wait. I thank you Lord that you brought me to the church. To the Cross. To wait. There is nothing that I can do except to love. If the thing is within my venue then I may speak, but speak and let it go. God takes in the children that we destroy, but this is not my pain to bear. I am to love and to have hope. And to wait. God bless us.

Mount Rushmore! WOW!. As we walked up a lot of stairs in Mount Rushmore National Park, I looked up to see, George Washington! Then his 3 companions appear next to him. Carved out of granite, the 4 presidents govern over the Black Hills. The carving of Washington is amazing and very clear. The others are more rugged. I don’t think Washington wanted to govern… He was a general like Eisenhower. “Let me move people to win,” he might have said… And so today, let us all look up to George Washington and let us be inspired to win, and to prosper. We aren’t going to shut down… but we aren’t winning either. Let us love with wisdom! Let us love one another.

After we saw Mount Rushmore we drove to Crazy Horse. It isn’t finished as only one man carved for many years, and now the foundation he set up at the behest of the Native people, will not let the Federal Government help. Crazy Horse is all carved by the people of America. It’s taking a while… but it’s American people working on it. If only we spent so much fervor on our cities. Clean up the streets. Rebuild the burned buildings. Fill the churches. Take care of the babies and young women who think they can’t take care of babies. God touch us with wisdom to help others.

We have finished the bucket list items! Next on the schedule was to visit two friends whom we have known (all her life Rebecca Skipp) and Kyla Gehm (a dear friend whom we exchanged houses with in Clear Lake Iowa and Big Pine Key.) Kyla helped Chuck get over his confusion about his head injury by describing her own head injury and listening to him describe his fears and confusion. In their weakness, they helped each other. This year, Kyla is alone having lost her husband a few years ago. She cares for her daughter and her mother, and I hoped to see her and bask in her beautiful courage! BUT… we are going home.I started coughing a little on this trip. I remember I coughed some in Tucson in air conditioned rooms… Lately, in the wind of the monuments where the temperature was down in the low 40s, I coughed a lot. It finally hit with a vengence this last Friday… I coughed all day until Chuck looked at me with a little tilt to his head and said, “do I have to take you to the emergency room?” “NO!” I said, “I’ll be OK.” Well I do sound a little like I did when I went into the hospital with pneumonia in Kingman, Arizona. That night, as I lay uncomfortably coughing, I said, “I want to go home. OH NO!!!!” Many people said I wouldn’t last 4 months! I’m tired out, but we have seen so much. So I turned to Chuck, and I said, “You won’t like this, but I want to go home.” “OK!” said Chuck. Just that. It’s frightening to get sick. We don’t want it, but, as much as we try to be healthy, our bodies have some irregularities, some weaknesses, that are going to get us. So we are going home. I can see the Finget Lakes of New York another time… We will drive gently and look out at America. We will be inspired by the Great Missouri River and the Great Mississippi River as we cross over from West to East. I’ll be back home early! I’ll be able to help the Garden Club and the church ladies as soon as the coughing stops! All is well. Let us now turn and work on our government. Let us be kind to one another. Be sure you are registered to vote. Get out there and say what you want. Let your politicians know if you want Ukraine supported. Pray. Ask God to help us. Love this our country and love our neighbor. God bless us.