Third Sunday of Advent: An Advent Journey of Courage
December 15, 2024
Zephaniah 3:14-20 Isaiah 12:2-6 Philippians 4:4-7 Luke 3:17-18
Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust and not be afraid.
The Lord, the Lord himself, is my strength and my defense;
he has become my salvation. (Isaiah 12:2)
Lections are from the Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings. The online Revised Common Lectionary is a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, a division of the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries.
A Letter of Hope
Wadie Abu Nasser
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
I delayed writing this message repeatedly, hoping that despite my predictions, tensions in our region would de-escalate. I maintained some hope that something positive would come out and that our friends in the international community would help the fighting parties to conclude a ceasefire deal and bring us back on track to a peace process.
Unfortunately, the so-called international community seems to be part of our problem instead of helping us solve the problem of being practically abducted by radical players who think mainly of their own interests instead of peace; meanwhile, their actions hurt everybody involved.
Some people mistakenly understand things in our Holy Land by believing that things began on October 7, 2023, with Hamas’ assault on Israel, while others focus on the suffering of Palestinians and in recent weeks also of Lebanese, in addition to the concern that a broader war may break out anytime in the Middle East, due to growing tension between Israel and Iran.
In fact, some politicians in various countries make many of the conflicts in our region appear as if they are religious conflicts, mainly because they prefer to manage the conflicts instead of solving them. This reality has been present for decades, but it became more problematic with the takeover of radical right-wing elements, who have been trying to employ God by pretending to be His envoys!
Ongoing wars not only lead to the losses of lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians and hundreds of Israelis and thousands of Lebanese but also lead to—above all—our losing faith that our enemies were also created in the image of God and that all of us are children of the same Heavenly Father.
The ongoing wars have led many of those who can afford it, in the Middle East to be in a kind of “departure mode:” either leaving the region, mainly to Western countries; seeking better living conditions; or planning to do so sometime in the future. Christians of the Middle East leave for no less than three different reasons. First, the Christian presence decreases because of the mistaken belief that the conflicts in the region are mainly between Muslims and/or between Muslims and Jews, and that all of these players don’t really care about the Christian presence in the region. Second, many people believe the wars might not end in our region, but could change their shape, and as such, there would be a high risk to continue living here not only to our lives, but also to our well-being. And third, the fact that many Jewish and Muslim Middle Easterners have a lot of anger at Western countries, which are perceived as being Christian, which leads to people sometimes diverting their anger at local Christians, and in Israel, this leads to many attacks on Christians and Christian properties by Israeli extremists and in many Muslim countries by growing disrespect to the Christian role and presence in their communities.
Nevertheless, a group of Christian Palestinian laity in Israel decided in 2022 to create the “Forum of Holy Land Christians,” which aims not only at empowering the Christian presence in the Holy Land in specific areas and the Middle East but also to bring an alternative message of love and hope to Christians and non-Christians alike.*
The Forum was planning to hold the first-ever conference on the history of the Holy Land for Christian youth movements in an attempt to improve the coordination among these movements and to develop a better dialogue with the political authorities and religious communities from all entities in the region.
The ongoing wars and violence delayed these plans, though efforts continue to be invested in keeping the collective spirit and work.
We would appreciate it if those who care about our region in general, and specifically the presence and safety of Christians in the Middle East, to engage more so that you will hear from us and not just about us. We hope that you will stop being pro-Arab, pro-Jew, pro this or that, but will help us bring an alternative message—that of our resurrected Lord, who stressed that all mankind was created in the image of the Heavenly Father.
As we are approaching Christmas, the birth of the light that defeated the darkness, we urge you to pray with us and for us and to work together with us to create hope even when the impression is that this is an impossible mission, so all of us will deserve to be called Christians since He taught:
“By their fruit, you will recognize them.” (Matthew 7:16).
May God bless you and be with you always.
In Christ,
Wadie Abunassar
Wadie Abunassar is the spokesman of the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land. The Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries in the Holy Land includes the Catholic Ordinaries of the various rites (Latins, Maronites, Greek Melkites, Syro-Catholics, Armenian Catholics, Chaldeans, etc.) who have jurisdiction over the territory of the Holy Land. He is also an Honorary Consul at the Honorary Consulate of Spain in Haifa.
* Christians in Israel are estimated to be about 1.5% of the country’s population, and the vast majority of those are Palestinian Arabs.
Response by Charlie Lewis
Does it strike you, as it does me, that so much surrounding Jesus’ birth happens at night? Shepherds are keeping watch over their flocks by night. Wise men follow the star guided by the night sky. Herod meets with his gloomy council by night. It is into the darkness of the night that the light of Jesus’ birth shines out.
We desperately need that bright moment of Jesus’ birth because, within days, things turn dark again with the massacre of the newborns by Herod. Realism keeps hitting us everywhere and at every age, connecting this 2,000-year-old story with the tragedy of life today in Palestine/Israel.
Alongside these heartbreaking stories, like the letter from Wadie Abunassar and his plea to hear from Palestinian Christians and their experiences, the story of our faith tells us about the great hope of the human heart. The prophet Isaiah tells of a ruler that will arise from the stump of Jesse and topple the wicked… a day when “the wolf will live with the lamb and the leopard lie down with the kid…and there will be no more harm nor destruction on all my holy mountain again” (Isaiah 11:6). And the prophet Zephaniah echoed that:
The Lord your God is with you,
the Mighty One who saves.
I will deal
with all who oppressed you.
I will rescue the lame;
I will gather the exiles.
I will give them praise and honor
in every land where they have suffered.
At that time, I will gather you;
at that time I will bring you home.
(Zephaniah 3:17-20)
If we believe this world is destined to nothing but “tooth and talon,” and “the survival of the fittest,” then Isaiah’s dream and Zechariah’s vision would sound preposterous and not remotely possible. But keeping the faith, we believe we’re destined for something greater.
The Advent of Christ helps us renew our hope, reminding us again that, in the midst of unthinkable evil and darkness, a light still shines. God is with us – the life-giving and hope-instilling One is afoot and at work in this world.
Prayer: O God, the word you most wanted to speak to the world, you spoke in Jesus Christ, your word made flesh. We trust in him as the light of this world, a light that no darkness can ever extinguish. May we help shine that light with every effort to resist evil and with each act of compassion to heal wounds. We pray through Christ, your greatest gift to us and our world’s greatest hope. Amen.
Charlie Lewis is a Presbyterian pastor serving in Snohomish, Washington. He serves as the chair of the Steering Committee for the Friends of Tent of Nations in North America. He and his wife, Ann, have served as Co-Pastors for nearly 40 years. They traveled with their two sons for the first time to Israel/Palestine in 2016 with Pilgrims of Ibillin.