Category: peace

CW: Israel/Palestinian Current Events
I am praying for peace in Israel and Palestine, knowing it is fraught and that everyone is hurting and that there is real violence going on. I am aware that Hamas created real evil, atrocities and terrorism, that stirred up Anti Semitism, and yet it seems they also are getting the war they desire. I am also aware that many are trapped in Gaza and that the policies in Gaza are not just or right and the Palestinian people are vulnerable and abused by a power hungry government. The United States is loathe to speak against Israel in any way, ever, for many reasons, some of them good and some of them because we have failed our Jewish siblings so horribly in the past.
There is no simple solution. So I am praying from a place where I am trying to acknowledge a nuance that is hard to talk about in the United States, especially in Christianity where Israel is confused with the Biblical image and Evangelicals the country to pray for the enditmes which is bad theology, and bad theology kills. So…with all of that said, here is the prayer. It is from my faith system, because I cannot appropriate anyone else’s, I can only speak from my own. So that is what I have done. If you know that it’s going to be upsetting for you and you need to practice self-care and skip it, obviously, do what is right for you.

God,
There are so many questions
About what qualifies as a war crime
It rings through the air
well its when…
It about…
civilians
…murmur…
…Soldiers..
Governments…

And in-between the chaos of corruption and despair
and the naming
the important, hard nuance work
the differentiating
between Hamas and Palestinians
the Israeli people and Jewish people and the Israeli government
The cruel excuses for Anti-Semitism,
The drumbeat of Never Forget and The seeming unending Policies that hem people in in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip–

Meanwhile the people themselves, the civilians,
do the work of humanitarian aid
help those at the border and Gaza,
while both governments–
most of the governements,
maybe all of the governments–
seem only to worry about war

(all while Syria, Ukraine and all the unnamed African and South American Countries and the Conflict in Armenia
fade into the background)

All I can think of these are all our fellow humans
these are our human siblings
They are not animals
or dogs, monsters
or whatever kind of names
that are echoing
As vows of revenge

remind me terribly of 9/11

and other moments where we promise
to get “them”

I search for words of mercy
Like drops of water in the desert
And find only ashes on my tongue

The idea that the only way to teach these people
is to destroy them…

And then Jesus whispers
Lay down your sword

And heals our broken
bleeding ears

I pray for
the whispers
of humanity
in our broken ears
today

Amen.

Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta