Reflections of Stewart through online worship on Trinity Sunday (15th June)

There was no in-person worship in Jerusalem or Tiberias this morning - Trinity Sunday - as gatherings in Israel have been banned. Read Stewart's reflections below.

Reflection

A. Feeling like it has been a long two days … and two nights.

The escalation of conflict has brought more death and destruction … and grief, and fear.

And more of the kind of questions we have been asking for many months: Are you safe? Are you well? You and yours? In Israel, on the West Bank, in Gaza, in Jerusalem?

When will our prayers for peace be answered? For a ceasefire? For the release of hostages? And prisoners? The free flow and just distribution of medical and food aid?

It seems farther away with each passing day now.

B. The readings

In Proverbs we are presented with the person and work of Wisdom, Woman Wisdom, and asked a major question: Does not wisdom call? And does not understand raise her voice? The implication being: yes, of course wisdom, present at the creation, calls and cries out – why are you not listening to her?!

It reminds me of the prophet Jeremiah asking, out of great hurt within him, which is his vicarious hurt for the hurt of his people, asking, ‘Is there no balm in Gilead/’ The implication being: of course there is a balm in Gilead, why are you not availing yourselves of it?!

Yes, Wisdom is calling and crying out at the gates. At the crossroads. Why are you not listening for her? Hearing her crying out to the city to seek life?

In the gospel, we are presented with Jesus introducing his disciples to the need to seek the deeper truths of the Spirit, promising that the Spirit of truth will guide them into all truth. A longer journey awaits. They do not yet have all truth, or all wisdom.

In my reflect I attempt to hear wisdom calling … and to delve more deeply into the truth of this moment in our lives and our faith in the God of compassion, justice and healing.

C. Alerts, Sirens and Shelters I

At 3.00am Friday morning, 13 June, Extreme Emergency Alerts appeared on all our screens, announcing ongoing Israeli air strikes on Iran’s nuclear programme and instructing Israelis and residents to prepare for retaliation.

This at a time when the USA had been in negotiations, however fraught, with Iran over its nuclear programme. Particular concern had focussed on uranium enrichment at the time the talks broke down.

The Israeli attacks, required for the defence Israel’s existence said its Prime Minister, and the retaliation by Iran these last two nights, mark a sharp escalation in hostilities and have further destabilised the Middle East.

Within Israel we are in lockdown, and the West Bank has been sealed.

The shelter at St George’s College is 90 seconds away from my flat. I am safe and well and adhere to the safety protocols.

One heartening factor is that members of our congregation from both sides of the wall have been checking in and encouraging each other on our WhatsApp group. That said, our worship on Trinity Sunday will be (or, was) online. We are back to that, not wishing to ask people to risk themselves on the roads, or ask them to meet at a time the government has banned gatherings. Praying we will be able to return to worship together in our churches in Jerusalem & Tiberias next Sunday.

D. Reflection: Alerts, Sirens and Shelters II

The alert issued by the Israeli Government at 03h00 Friday morning announced an extreme emergency that runs deeper than the current cycle of strike and retaliation between Israel and Iran. It encodes generations of hostility, fear and conflict, and of the failure on all sides successfully to resolve it.

The sirens that sounded Friday night, as missiles launched in Iran began to arrive over Israel, warned of more than the need to move to the nearest protected location. The sirens warn of the long-term psychosocial and political consequences of decades of Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian Territories, and of the violence of resistance to it; and now of 20 months of death and destruction in Gaza. All parties have been dehumanised – Palestinian, Israeli, and International.

The bunkers and protected locations – in homes, schools, firms, and public places – offer shelter from missile launches and drone deployments, but can offer no protection from rage, fear, and enmity.

They can be, however, and have been made into, places of pastoral support, of conversation, and prayer. Of psychosocial care and strengthening.

E. Hearing Wisdom, Encountering Truth

These points are not new, but today is a good time to remind ourselves of them, and to encourage ourselves in faith in the presence of God above, beside and within us. Encourage ourselves in listening for the voice of Wisdom, to the calls and cries of Wisdom to choose life and the things that make for life. In opening ourselves to the deeper truths of the Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth.

The truth of God embodied in our Lord Jesus Christ. Such that the deeper truth of the Spirit is something we can encounter. Not in an abstract line of thought, or handbook of protocol and prudence, but in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The truth that says the law of God is the law of love … that this is the way of life, the deeper truth of God.

How far we are from it! How strongly we are called to it!

God bless us in his Spirit. God reveal his deeper truth in Christ to us. God grant us the wit and wisdom and strength to stand for the truth today.