PRAYER

November 2023:

Pray for the strength to be a neighbour to Palestine and Israel

We must all be wondering what our response as Christians should be to what is currently happening in Israel. As each new conflict comes to the fore, the others lessen in our awareness – Ukraine, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq. As Christian Action Research Education (CARE) say, “It is remarkable how quickly we settle into a new acceptance of how things are. War has ravaged Ukraine now for more than a year and yet now we barely speak of it. And within a fortnight, we have just grown accustomed to daily headlines of bombings, deaths and violence dominating the BBC news feed.” We are barely aware of all the other conflicts - 45 armed conflicts are currently taking place throughout the Middle East and North Africa. There are 100 million displaced people in the world with 50% in, or from, Syria, Ukraine, and Afghanistan.

Human rights are a major concern in Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Central African Republic, China, Colombia, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Libya, Mali, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Yemen, and Zimbabwe. There are currently over 40 million slaves in the world including an estimated 186,000 in the UK.

In response the attack of Hamas from Gaza there is talk of a “just war”, the right of a country to “defend itself” and of a “proportional” response.

What would Jesus say about Gaza and Israel, and what do the Gospels say? The phrase ‘just war ’does not appear within Scripture, but the concept was developed by Augustine and developed more by Thomas Aquinas. Yet history tells us that any just war comes with a big price. When the British moved out of what is now Israel, in 1948, the Arabs attacked from all the surrounding countries, but were pushed back by the Israelis in an unexpected show of defence. The Arabs tried again and again, particularly in the defeat and humiliation after the 6 day war in 1967. To hate defeat and seek redress is in human nature.

It is worth reflecting on the story of Troy in Greek mythology. How do you end a conflict which has lasted for generations? How can people co-exist who have spent their lives fearing, fighting and even killing one another? How do you break the cycle of violence, rather than merely seeking revenge? The tale of the Trojan War is one of the earliest and deepest stories ever told, as the combined armies of Greece took on the might of the city of Troy. The Trojan prince, Hector kills in battle the cousin of Achilles, Patroclus. The next day Achilles hunts Hector down and takes his revenge. Hector’s cousin asks Achilles, “You lost your cousin. Now you have taken mine. When does it end?” Achilles ’response provides an insight into human nature: “It never ends.”

And yet it could end if only we heeded the Gospels and the words of Jesus.

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Mathew 22, 37-40

Paul reduces it to just one commandment, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Galatians 5.14

Paul understands that loving God is the same as loving neighbour. We cannot do one without the other. There are those who say they don’t believe in God, yet seem to show love and kindness greater than ourselves. It is impossible to not believe in God and we now speak of agnostics rather than atheists. God is incomprehensible, ineffable. People who profess to be unbelievers, may love God but by another name, another concept, something undefinable, such is God.

To grasp something of the essence of God, recall that St. Athanasius said, “"For the Son of God became man so that we might become God”. He understood that the divine essence pervades us all, that God is within us. Pope Francis goes so far as to say, and no doubt he wasn’t the first to say it, that God is in every speck of dust. And in this world, God acts from within us. This is captured in an interesting definition of petitionary prayer, from the Vatican to Catholic bishops, sent recently. Most of you won’t recognise it. “We must believe in the efficacy of intercessory prayer, which is not about bending God’s will to ours. Rather, intercession is about asking the Lord to enlighten our hearts with the power of his life-giving Spirit so that we might discern and do his will. ‘To intercede ’also means to assume responsibility, to declare before God our participation and our involvement.

And so, with respect to what is happening in the Middle East God does not expect us to ask Him to fix it, He asks that we use His power through ourselves to fix it. He came to Earth to show us how to fix it, to fix it by living the life of Christ and doing in all circumstances what He did, and would do were He here now.

But we don’t do we? Sister Margaret Atkins, Canoness of St Augustine in the community at Boarbank Hall, Cumbria reminds us of Pope Francis ’words in speaking of the “globalisation of indifference” and “structural sin”. She speaks of the pressures within the world leading to structural sin – consumerism and hedonism

Jesus did not cry out for vengeance against the man who betrayed him, the disciples who abandoned him, or the soldiers who crucified him. Instead, he loved them all. “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”. Nowhere in the Gospels does Jesus speak of anything but love and forgiveness. Jesus came with that message to change the world. And so it must be with us. “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Mark 16:15. And how do we do that? Often attributed to St. Francis of Assisi are the words, “Preach the gospel at all times and if necessary, use words.”

We will not change the world by exerting a right to defend ourselves, by “just” wars, or by “proportional” responses to aggression. It is clear that those things have never worked and never will. We must first accept our personal complicity in structural sin and pray for the strength to change ourselves and advocate for change in others.

We must act out peace and advocate for peace. We must pray for peace with a personal commitment to back it up in whatever we can, understanding that in praying for peace, we are praying that we ourselves can acknowledge our leanings to consumerism and hedonism, that we can acknowledge our personal complicity in all that follows from structural sin, that in this way we can

all make our own individual contribution to alleviating unfairness and injustice in the world, and that we can show others how they can do likewise.

But what does that actually mean? Be aware – don’t shy away from knowing because it sickens you, live more simply in the knowledge that we are living on the backs of those less fortunate than ourselves, but be aware that we don’t give to the poor, we only give back to them what is already theirs, advocate for Church and Government to speak the language of peace and justice, wear a white poppy, pray and remember that prayer includes acceptance of responsibility in allowing God to act through us. Pray for the strength to do the things we can do all the things that are in our power to do. Pray that little by little we can do more each day to change ourselves and make our contribution to changing the world.

Lord and Lover of Souls, when will the violence end?

When will difference cease to justify murder and war?

When will your creation be at peace?

 

Our sin nailed Your beauty to a cross,

Our fixed views, prejudice, greed and blindness tries to hold You there

Blessed Christ we take hold of You now as your people kill and maim

 

Blessed Christ we lift you down that You might in turn hold us up high

To see beyond the limits of our sight and our fallen world,

To see the kingdom of heaven within each one of us and let it reign

 

Help us each be who you want us to be and so strike back against war and derision

Help us draw closer to You every day as a step toward peace

Help us love our neighbour as ourself and see you in all things.

 

Lover of souls, save us from ourselves

We cannot change the world but You can change us

Come, Lord Jesus, Come!

 

Lord in Your mercy, hear our prayer.