Visit to the Holy Land

Address given at St Mary Abbots, London
Sunday 12th December
“You who call evil good and good evil; who put darkness for light and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”
Isaiah 5.20
1. I am just back from a 10 day visit to the Middle East; based in Israel we toured the borders of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon as well as visiting the Palestinian Authority Area.
2. In this season of Advent we look to the great themes of
Bethlehem
Peace
Coming again of Jesus

3. George Mitchell returns this week to the region to try to restart the peace process all over again.
Israel/Palestinians/US/EU have all issued statements appealing to both sides to keep on talking.

4. Peace between Israel and the Palestinians – massive piece in the world peace jigsaw
5. Key issues:
The right of the Palestinians to have autonomous area with all resources
The removal of several Israeli settlements on Palestinian land
6. To understand the complexity of the area it is worth looking at three towns which feature in Christianity to remind ourselves of how the land is complicated.
Nazareth: relatively peaceful/Israeli Arabs/sees few problems
Bethlehem: separated by the horrendous wall: monument to human failure
Jerusalem: divided between East (Arab) and West (Jewish)
7. Amos Oz: “We are talking not about guilt and penitence but about concluding a sensible agreement between two parties with no love lost between them.”
8. What we learn, of course, that the history of Israel is consistent with the kind of issues we are facing today – t’was ever thus.
A quest for God’s peace in a hostile world
Jesus wept over the City and prayed that God’s Kingdom would come
9. Bernard Lewis – in his new book Faith & Power writes:
“With steadfastness and patience, it may now be possible at last to bring both justice and freedom to the long tormented peoples of the Middle East.”
“You who call evil good and good evil; who put darkness for light and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”
Isaiah 5.20
Don’t use semantics to cloud the real questions facing the Middle East.