Christian Worship at St George's Cathedral

Archbishop Suheil Dawani, me, and Rabbi Aviva Fellman

I have written before, on this blog, about Amy-Jill Levine and her book, Jesus: A Misunderstood Jew. (A nice outline of that book can be found here.)

Professor Levine, who is an observant Jew, teaches the New Testament at Vanderbilt. She came and spent some time with our diocesan clergy in Western Massachusetts a few years ago and one of the things we talked about was how preachers might become more intentional about avoiding antisemitism in our worship generally, and in our preaching in particular. "Don't say things that are going to get my kid bullied on the school bus," she told us. In a similar vein, she told us that when we preach, try to imagine her child in the back pew taking it all in...

Archbishop Dawani, the Bishop of Norwich, England, me,
and the Revs. Nancy Stroud and Meredyth Ward

Over the years, I have taken this to heart. While I cannot say for sure I always get it right, I do try to imagine how what I say about Jesus might be heard by people of different faiths, especially Jewish friends, as well as people who have no faith, or who have been deeply hurt by the Church. We need to be able to speak from an authentic place, about Jesus; but I think it is possible to do this without bearing false witness against our neighbors and in charity and love. This is particularly challenging, however, when the New Testament readings themselves have preserved first-century "family feuds" in ways that make it difficult to develop twenty-first century relationships. (Holy Week is perhaps the most challenging time of the liturgical year to do this.)

I am ruminating this day on this topic because we worshiped together at St. George's Cathedral, where I spent my last two pilgrimages to the Holy Land. It is a place that means a great deal to me, a home to Palestinian Christians who are increasingly a small number in this part of the world. I was glad to share this place of worship with our group of pilgrims today. And I was also profoundly grateful that Dean Naoum preached a hopeful, inclusive sermon inviting all of the sons and daughters of Abraham to work together for peace in Jerusalem. His sermon, I think, would have made Professor Levine proud. After church, we had an opportunity to visit with Archbishop Dawani at coffee hour in the garden. He, too, was gracious in his hospitality to our group.

Photo of the separation wall, on the Bethlehem side

This afternoon we traveled to Bethlehem, across the border to the Palestinian territory. While I've decided to focus in this post on morning worship, in previous posts from previous years I've reflected on this experience and shared some photos. You can check those out here for 2010 and here for 2016.

For now, all I'll add is that we have our work cut out for us. The work that people of faith share is about breaking down walls and building bridges. Or as one Palestinian graffiti artist puts it in the photo to the right, "nothing lasts forever."

We have our work cut out for us - not only in Israel, but in our own nation as well. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem and listen for the song of the angels to the shepherds keeping watch in their fields, singing of  "peace on earth, and good will to all."