I went on a study tour of the Middle East back in
1995. It was probably the most peaceful
time in the last seventy years to visit the region. In 1993 Israel and the
Palestinian Liberation Organization had struck a deal for peace in which they
recognized each others right to existence.
Their leaders at the time – Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, and Yasser
Arafat – received the Nobel Peace prize for their efforts. In 1994 Israel and Jordon had signed a peace
treaty that opened their borders to each other.
These leaders were all men of war who saw that peace would not be
wrought in the Holy Land by means of war.
More importantly, the realization came with accepting the responsibility
that a peaceful future for their children meant they had to act to break ranks
with their political bases and popular sentiments rooted in hate and fear and
make the difficult decisions that would make peace a reality.
Given that everyone has their flaws, Prime Minister
Rabin, President Arafat , and King Hussein were the type who believed that
problems were best handled face to face. Prime Minister Rabin and King Hussein chose to
work face to face rather than from behind negotiators. Rabin and Arafat also met several times, not just
in cold offices, but also in each other’s homes in the presence of each other’s
families. At one such meeting Chairman
Arafat actually got on the floor to play with Rabin’s grandchildren. How different the world would be today if
global leaders actually put their prejudices aside and befriended one another
as family?
Of the three the character of Hussein truly needs to
be noted. As the leader of a land-locked
nation in the heart of the most troubled area of planet Earth, he is remembered
for his courageous kindness, his courage to speak the truth to his Arab and
Israeli neighbours, and his willingness to open his land to refugees at great
cost to Jordan. His gracious hospitality
in the matter or war refugees revealed his fierce generosity.
One of his gestures of kindness speaks more loudly
than any to the character of this king.
On March 13, 1997 on the north end of the Israeli/Jordanian border, a
Jordanian soldier open fired on a group of Israeli school girls killing seven
and wounding six. Hussein immediately
returned to Jordan from an official visit he was on in Spain. He then immediately went to the Israeli town
of Beit Shemesh to sit with the grieving families. When he arrived he went on his knees before
the families saying the incident was “a crime that is a shame for all of
us. I feel as if I have lost a child of
my own. If there is any purpose in life,
it will be to make sure that all the children no longer suffer the way our
generation did.” He also sent
compensation to each of the families.
With respect to what happened to the bright light of these
peace-filled leaders and their efforts, Rabin suffered assassination by an
Israeli right-wing extremist in the fall of 1995. Benjamin Netanyahu, who did not share his peace-filled
sentiments, succeeded him. Netanyahu
soon began escalating tensions with the Palestinians all but eradicating the
work of Rabin and Arafat. The breakdown
of peace in the region took its toll on King Hussein. His wife, Queen Noor, reflected
on the king’s feelings at this time. She
said: “Everything he had worked for all his life, every relationship he had
painstakingly built on trust and respect, every dream of peace and prosperity
he had had for Jordan’s children, was turning into a nightmare. I really didn’t not know how much more
Hussein could take.” Hussein died in
1999 of cancer. Arafat remained a
figurehead leader of the Palestinian Authority until his death in November of
2004. The Palestinians suffered as much
from infighting as it did in its struggles with Netanyahu. Arafat may or may not have been poisoned. Ironically,
the one Palestinian leader who sought a peaceful resolution with Israel
was seen by both the Israeli and American governments as an obstacle to peace. One might ask “peace on whose terms?”
Our passages today speak of the quality of character
of Christ Jesus, the King who is to return and put the world to right. The Psalmist says he will judge the people
with righteousness, which means he will act to set things right. He will defend the cause of the poor, bring
deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor. Isaiah writes that the Spirit of the Lord is
on him, the spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel and might, the spirit of
knowledge, and his delight is the reverence of the Lord. He is dressed in righteousness and faithfulness. When he comes he will act, his executive
orders will be judgements for the good of the poor, laws that will actually
bring economic equity rather than just tax breaks for the super wealthy. His words of truth will be like an iron rod
striking the earth. By his breath, i.e.
the Holy Spirit, he will kill wickedness.
Isaiah continues and says that a day is coming when there
will be no more predation. The Temple
Mount will no longer be a reason for people to hurt or destroy one another. And…he says, “The earth will be filled with
the knowledge (the personal knowing) of God as the waters cover the sea.” This is the day we await and work for, the
day when King Jesus returns, a day when the world will be led by peace-filled
leadership. This day is what our talk of
waiting in Advent is all about.
These passages set the stage for our Advent longing
for peace. Advent isn’t about building
our nostalgia around the birth of the Son of God in a cozy manger where he cooed
with the doves so we can eat some turkey and open some presents and proclaim it
to be peace on earth and good will towards men; fa-la-la-la-la. Advent is about our deep longing for the day that
is coming when Jesus returns with judgement in hand to set the world to
right. Advent is about us…US…sleepers
awaking from our drunken stupor of consumerism, materialism, individualism, and
greed that has turned the first coming of Jesus into some sort of sick
celebration of debt, economic slavery, and environmental devastation. (Sorry if
I’m ruining your Christmas with my conscience.)
In Advent we look at the world today and say, “Where
are you King Jesus?” No head of state on
earth today in any way exhibits the quality of character or exercises
judgements in the way the psalmist and the prophet Isaiah says they
should. Instead wickedness abounds. The present leader of Israel is being brought
up on charges of corruption. The
American President is about to be impeached.
The Canadian Prime minister says one thing in public and another thing
in private and should have more to say to the American President than just
complaining about being late for a cocktail party because of the President’s
love of theatrics. In America, children are getting locked in
cages at borders. In Canada, children on
reserves are still getting sick from tainted water. Refugee children are still washing up on the
shores of the Mediterranean. All these
children will grow up in a world that is in an environmental crisis that our
current global leaders do not have the courage to fix while they can because those
sorts of decisions curtail campaign funding and are prohibitive to re-election.
Historian Ronald Wainwright in the last of his 2004
Massey lectures in which he was remarking how global leaders were ignoring the
environmental crisis at hand, he said, “Adolph Hitler once gleefully exclaimed,
‘What luck for the rulers that the people do not think!” What can we do when
the rulers will not think?” He wrote that 15 years ago. Today we have people who don’t think and
rulers who will not think and all anybody seems to care about is what they see
and hear on social media. Nobody is thinking about the future of our children!
If there was ever a time for Jesus to return it is
today. Regardless, let us his followers
awake and by the power of the breath of his Holy Spirit that he has breathed
into us bear fruit worthy of repentance and live in harmony with one another to
the glory of God. Let us live in the
image of the coming one who gave his body for the sustenance of the world and
let his blood be shed for the forgiveness of our sin. Amen.
