GREETINGS TO THE CHILDREN OF GOD, WHO BEAR GOD’S IMAGE TO THE WORLD,
Our adult study focused on the Israel-Gaza Conflict: No End in Sight which was an article printed in May 2021. The cycle has repeated and the creators of “The Wired Word” curriculum didn’t think they could add anything new, and the Bible references continued to stand firm. They took this opportunity to consider intransigent problems in our own lives and look for what help the scriptures may offer on those issues.
One of the first questions was, what does it mean to live by faith when surrounded by troubles that seem beyond solution? My response is to pray and listen to God. Our culture and fellow Christians often criticize this answer, at least the first part, prodding for more action than only prayer. Walk the talk, do something.
And so, I pray with scriptures and listen to God as I listen to others. Try praying with Habakkuk 1:2-3
O LORD, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not listen?
Or cry to you "Violence!"
and you will not save?
Why do you make me see wrongdoing
and look at trouble?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise. (For context, read 1:1--2:3.)
God and Habakkuk were in conversation with each and God told him that he would continue to live in a time when justice would be hard to find and Habakkuk would have to wait in faith in a future yet to come. Habakkuk response with this:
Though the fig tree does not blossom,
and no fruit is on the vines;
though the produce of the olive fails,
and the fields yield no food;
though the flock is cut off from the fold,
and there is no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD ... (3:17-19)
Habakkuk bears witness to a difficult and painful relationship with God and the world he lives in. He keeps his focus on God and trusting God. And when it is a struggle to pray let the words of Romans 8:26 ring in our ears.
Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. (For context, read 6:18-30.)
Prayer, conversation with God is the place to start but it is not the end. Listening and acting on the Holy Spirit’s prodding comes next. On Monday as I visited Lou Ann Myers, I was reminded to pray the Psalms and at staff on Tuesday, our devotions led by Kevin Edens encouraged praying the Psalms in response to news from Israel and the Gaza Strip.
As I listen to God and continue to pray and continue to reflect on my time in Israel. I want you to know that Israel’s population is 9.7 million people, 2 million in the Gaza strip and 3 million in the west bank all created in the image of God. I want you to see more of Israel than just the news you hear. Before I went to the Holy Land, I thought it a very dangerous place and I wondered how they could live daily with the threat of terrorism. I was safe while I was there and I was treated well. I saw a great diversity of people, living together trying to navigate in complexity and seeing the humanity of the other. It is not easy, but they are strong and determined people and I pray for them all and trust God. As for my action, I will continue to remind you that in the heaviness of what we hear in the news, there are so many people in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and Israel trying to find a better way. My hope is in these people who live each and every day in the Holy Land and who won’t make the news but yet strife for peace in their land.
As Paul, from prison encouraged the Philippians, so I encourage you – keep on doing the things we have learned and received and heard and seen and the God of peace will be with us.
Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,
Pastor Connie Spitzack
