{"id":8195,"date":"2024-04-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/blessed-are-the-peacemakers\/"},"modified":"2024-12-09T17:16:25","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T17:16:25","slug":"blessed-are-peacemakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/en\/stories\/blessed-are-peacemakers\/","title":{"rendered":"Blessed are the peacemakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mennonite World Conference has no formally associated Anabaptist member churches in the Middle East. This was a missiological decision not to start another church in a region replete with variety.  <\/em><\/p>\n

However, Palestinian Christians are a witness to the Mennonite communion around the world. Where theory meets reality, they have shown those who are paying attention what it is to be faithful to Jesus\u2019 call to nonviolence. <\/em><\/p>\n

Since 7 October 2023, the eyes of the world have been turned to the Middle East where an act of violence and violation has unleashed a flood of death and destruction. <\/p>\n

As Christians, we may look to our Bibles to interpret today\u2019s realities in light of long ago promises.  <\/p>\n

The answer to this question is different for each faith community, says Dorothy Jean Weaver. A Jewish community\u2019s answers arise from the Hebrew Bible, but as Christians, we are called to live out of the new covenant where geography is \u201cno longer a factor for the disciples of Jesus.\u201d <\/p>\n

She joined several Mennonite scholars with experience in the region to reflect on what we read today. <\/p>\n

A trajectory of inclusion <\/h4>\n

Starting in Genesis 12, we see the trajectory of inclusion that can be followed throughout Scripture, says J. Nelson Kraybill. It speaks of blessing and cursing but of these coming through the people of Israel to others.  <\/p>\n

\u201cIn Amos 9:7, God frees not only the Israelites, but also other people, even those who are considered the enemy of Israel,\u201d adds Paulus Widjaja. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the themes that comes through in the Old Testament in passages like Leviticus 26 or Jeremiah 7 is that covenant with God\u2019s people is contingent upon acting justly,\u201d says J. Nelson Kraybill.  <\/p>\n

\u201cJesus then picks up on Isaiah\u2019s vision of all nations streaming toward the mountain of the Lord\u2019s house (Isaiah 2:2) when he says the Temple Mount is supposed to be a house of prayer for all nations (Matthew 21:13),\u201d says J. Nelson Kraybill. <\/p>\n

Matthew (which is a very Jewish Gospel) ends with the disciples leaving Jerusalem, leaving Galilee and going to make disciples of all the nations, says Dorothy Jean Weaver.  <\/p>\n

And the very same thing happens in the Gospel of Luke. There\u2019s a lot of focus on Jerusalem in the early story of Jesus, but by the end and even more so in Acts, \u201cthe gospel is moving from Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth,\u201d says Dorothy Jean Weaver <\/p>\n

A different framework <\/h4>\n
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\u201cLet Gaza Live,\u201d artwork by Leyla Barkman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is sometimes a problem of ignorance even among some Christians, says Paulus Widjaja. \u201cThe Israel in the Bible and the modern State of Israel are two different things. We cannot just bring it together as if the modern Israel is the biblical Israel.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes me sad is that what has been created today is hatred, not love. Both Israelis and Palestinians have become victims,\u201d says Paulus Widjaja. <\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to Leviticus, the land is God\u2019s \u2013 people are tenants and aliens in the land,\u201d says Alain Epp Weaver. This applies whether talking about Israel or North America or any place.  <\/p>\n

\u201cRemember, as Mennonites, we have historically rejected the idea of the nation state and the sovereignty of kings,\u201d says Jonathan Brenneman.  <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we read the Bible carefully, Abraham was chosen not for himself but to bless others,\u201d says Paulus Widjaja. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in the New Testament, we see that these ideas are being taken and broadened to include the people of God who are followers of Jesus (1 Corinthians 6:19, 1 Peter 2:9),\u201d adds Dorothy Jean Weaver. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe test of whether we are faithful stewards of the land we inhabit is whether we are doing justice in the land. We need a humane theology for Israel and Palestine, a theology that recognizes the image of God and each person \u2013 in Israeli, Palestinian, Muslim, Christian, Jew. God calls people to do justice and to stand against the violence of the nation-state that mars that image of God,\u201d says Alain Epp Weaver. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs an Anabaptist, I seek deeply for a transnational, grassroots, non-state-based system. It\u2019s not related to ethnicity. There\u2019s no justification for violence in the life of any Christian because we follow one who \u2013 even in his capture by the imperial army (the cops) \u2013 said \u2018it\u2019s not coming in through violence\u2019 and healed Malchus\u2019 ear (John 18:10),\u201d says Sarah Nahar. <\/p>\n

\u201cReading the Bible through to Revelation, we find our call to be egalitarian, boundary-breaking groups of people who are living with integrity with deep respect for the land and each other,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a call to complexity, not simplicity. We seek to be people living without a need to control others,\u201d says Sarah Nahar. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhite churches of European heritage inherit legacies of anti-Jewish theologies that say that God has repudiated the Jewish people. We need to examine and reject anti-Jewish theologies which have fueled antisemitism,\u201d says Alain Epp Weaver. <\/p>\n

\u201cAntisemitism historically has been part and parcel of European colonialism and racism. As Anabaptists, we need to stand firmly against antisemitism as a forms of racism,\u201d says Alain Epp Weaver. <\/p>\n

Readers of Scripture everywhere have the same call: love mercy, seek justice, free the oppressed, release the captives, declare Jubilee (Micah 6:8),\u201d says Jonathan Brenneman.  <\/p>\n

The answer to \u2018who is chosen\u2019 is in the Beatitudes: blessed are the peacemakers; blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness; blessed are the poor (Matthew 5:3-10).  <\/p>\n

\u201cBlessed are those who are oppressed, basically,\u201d says Jonathan Brenneman.  <\/p>\n

Some commentators, including human rights organizations, have referred to the Middle East today as an apartheid reality. How can Mennonites support a place where all people, Palestinian and Israeli, can sit securely under vine and fig tree (Micah 4:4)? <\/h4>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very hard to see what road map can chart a path from the current reality of violence and structural discrimination toward a future reality in the land in which both Palestinian and Israeli peoples can live freely, securely and at peace,\u201d says Alain Epp Weaver.  <\/p>\n

\u201cWe pray, we support Palestinians and Israelis who are working to bring down the dividing walls that keep people from seeing each other as children of God and those dividing walls. We need to stand against the dividing walls in our hearts \u2013 and against the very physical walls erected by the Israeli state \u2013 that harm, degrade and kill people,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in a world that has been divided up, where there are plots of land that some group says, \u2018this is ours!\u2019 But our calling to be faithful from wherever we are in society is to push for God\u2019s justice on earth to the extent that we have the energy to move toward that goal as we are empowered by God: \u2018your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth!\u2019 (Matthew 6:12),\u201d says Dorothy Jean Weaver.  <\/p>\n

\u201cWho is responsibility for God\u2019s will to be done on earth?\u201d she asks. \u201cThe ultimate answer is that God is powerful over all. But God will also call us into action in bringing God\u2019s will into existence on earth. We need to pray the Lord\u2019s Prayer boldly and courageously.\u201d <\/p>\n

For those in Canada and the USA, the Mennonite Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery Coalition is helping people do the challenging work of recognizing that sin is structural. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe tasks that I can do include understanding how dynamics of power show up everywhere; recognizing systems of displacement and dispossession; asking at what cost and whose cost I gain privilege in society,\u201d says Sarah Nahar. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe gospel offers a new way of thinking about our lives and encouragement to reach across barriers no matter where we are or who we are,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn ethics, if we want our action to be meaningful, that action should be based on a narrative because otherwise the action will not be meaningful at all,\u201d says Paulus Widjaja.  <\/p>\n

There is opportunity for those who seek meaningful narratives to ground action and understanding regarding the Holy Land. Bethlehem Bible College, an evangelical school in the heart of the West Bank, is hosting their 7th Christ at the Checkpoint conference 21-26 May 2024. \u201cDo Justice, Love Mercy: Christian Witness in Contexts of Oppression\u201d \u2013 an invitation to \u201ccome and see!\u201d, in person or on livestream. (Click here<\/a> to learn more.) <\/p>\n

How can Mennonites be peaceful but not passive? When there seem to be two sides, is it possible to be neutral without implicitly siding with the oppressor?  <\/h4>\n

\u201cNeutrality is a very dangerous word for us because it allows us to imagine that things are equal and very often things are not equal,\u201d says Dorothy Jean Weaver.  <\/p>\n

In much of the world, especially the USA, Christians are assumed to be on the side that of the military that is committing the genocide. As Christians, if we are not speaking out, we are assumed to be on the side of militarism, of violence and of genocide,\u201d says Jonathan Brenneman. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we look at that question from the theological perspective, then yes, we take a side, but not on the people, certainly not on a state \u2013 we take a side on values: justice, peace, reconciliation,\u201d says Paulus Widjaja.  <\/p>\n

The Israelites in the Bible assumed that God was always on their side, but there were times God said: \u2018I\u2019m on your side when you are oppressed, but I\u2019m also with others when they are oppressed.\u2019  <\/p>\n

Just look at the biblical prophets. They could never ever be accused of being neutral about the situations in which they lived,\u201d Dorothy Jean Weaver adds. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019m taking the side of the Christian principles of justice, love and reconciliation. Whoever is being oppressed, then I will be with them regardless of their nationalities,\u201d says Paulus Widjaja. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been really meaningful to do theology out on the streets together, working for a ceasefire with Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Baha\u2019i and humanists,\u201d says Sarah Nahar who sees far more than two sides. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had a chance to do theology alongside anti-Zionist Jewish people who are experiencing great grief when their beautiful, multifaceted, deep faith is being smashed on one side by nationalism and crammed in on the other by militarism,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

Christians are still recovering from CE 313 when the empire took over Christianity, so we can understand people who say they don\u2019t want a state force to be associated with who they are.  <\/p>\n

\u201cState violence does not protect me: relationship protects me. We can have safety and space in a shared world,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn an eschatological sense,\u201d says Alain Epp Weaver, \u201cthere is one side, the side of humanity, the humanity God is reconciling back to God\u2019s self through the work of the Spirit, the Spirit that breaks down walls of division and hatred.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cFor the church to witness within this broken world means speaking out against all forms of injustice, including the structures of military occupation that build walls and deepen divisions. When we speak out for justice, people will sometimes accuse us of creating division, but we are doing it animated by this vision of a reconciled humanity that God is calling back to God\u2019s self, calling us back to our created nature,\u201d says Alain Epp Weaver. <\/p>\n

Palestinian Christians raised a call that was published at the end of October: \u201cWe hold Western church leaders and theologians who rally behind Israel\u2019s wars accountable for their theological and political complicity with the Israeli crimes against Palestinians,\u201d they wrote. (Click here<\/a> to read the full document.) <\/p>\n

\u201cI saw and affirm that call,\u201d says Alain Epp Weaver. \u201cThe Western Church has been complicit in the dispossession of Palestinians. And the time for speaking out in action is long overdue.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThe wide Palestinian Christian coalition that wrote that letter are working together in significant concord with each other and they are calling the bluff of the Western Church. I pray that the Western Church has ears and heart to listen,\u201d says Dorothy Jean Weaver.  <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m grateful for the tradition of pacifism so we can boldly and humbly not only take stances, but do action and be in prayer with a commitment to not eliminate others,\u201d says Sarah Nahar.  <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are wrong, we can seek, repair and learn. I\u2019ll carry some of these questions into our 500-year anniversary which some believe should be a celebration because we have been faithful and others think this should be a moment to grieve that our Christian body was torn,\u201d she adds. \u201cThat is also a complex question.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe all continue to work and pray for wholeness in that broken part of the world and in our own broken lives,\u201d says J. Nelson Kraybill. <\/p>\n

Contributors<\/em> <\/h4>\n