While we in Americas have been focused on Ukraine, Sudan, and China, over the past several months Christians have been the target of nasty and violent actions by far right Israelis. Several months ago worshippers at the traditional burial site of Mary, the mother of Jesus, were attacked during a worship service.
Last week a group of Evangelical Christians at the Jerusalem Archaeological Park were spat upon, insulted, and threatened. The far right Noam party went after them because they were close to the Western Wall, albeit on its south side, outside of the place where Jews traditionally worship.
Churches in the Holy Land have become increasingly concerned by attacks from extremist elements in Israeli society. The attacks have been emboldened by the lack of response by the right-wing Israeli government. The Holy Land belongs to all of us who are the children of Abraham: Jew, Christian, and Moslem. How God must weep over the divisive intolerance shown by those who claim to be God’s children.
Prayer for the Day
Grant us peace, your most precious gift, O Eternal Source of Peace,
And enable us to share your peace with other faiths;
Help us to become a voice for peace among others.
And plant the bond of friendship among your children.
Free us from ungenerous judgments and presumptuous claims,
Moving us from fear into hope and from anger into forgiveness,
In the name of the One who points the way,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Violations to the Status Quo bring division, hardship, and violence, [must cease] to keep Jerusalem as a city that respects the rights of all the people in the Holy Land.
- Rev. Jerry Pillay, President, Word Council of Churches
The frequency of these attacks, the aggressions, has become something new. These people feel they are protected … that the cultural and political atmosphere now can justify, or tolerate, actions against Christians.
- Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch for Jerusalem
How lonely sits the city that once was full of people!
How like a widow she has become, she that was great among the nations!
She that was a princess among the provinces has become a vassal.
Lamentations of Jeremiah, 1: 1