Valerie Hess

Four of us just returned from a driving trip through Israel. At one point, we took a public bus from the Damascus Gate (outside the Muslim quarter) in Jerusalem to the check point for Bethlehem. Since a wall twice the size of the Berlin Wall now isolates entry into Bethlehem, we had to get off the bus, walk through the check point. We stood in a concentration camp-style building in line with Palestinain male workers returning home and Israeli soldiers with loaded guns walking the catwalk above us. We were encouraged to use our American passports to cut in line ahead of the workers but chose to stand with them. Of course, we did not have to have our papers examined and our hand prints checked as those blue passports waved us through. On the other side of the wall, taxis were lined up and worked hard to get our business. We chose an older gentleman who then waited for us while we saw the Church of the Nativity and walked the streets of a town that has “zero hope,” to quote one of its residents. We bought some souvenirs from the taxi driver’s relatives’ shop, mostly as an attempt to help their failing economy, and the bag of nuts I bought in a small store ended up being distributed among begging children who were obviously hungry. The needs are overwhelming and I wondered: where does one even begin?
The hard thing is that The Wall has virtually ended suicide bombings in Israel but it is also destroying life for the rest of the Palestinians trapped behind it. Going to the airport with a Palestinian Christian taxi driver brought more security at the airport than we would have normally had to go through. In fact, we were encouraged to not even mention that we had gone to Bethlehem to the Israeli soldiers at the airport check point while the car was examined under its hood and in its trunk. We were mildly interrogated (the gist being: what are you doing with this Palestinian scum?).
There are no easy answers here but I do know that the Christian witness in the Holy Land is primarily Palestinian and they are a part of the persecuted church who desperately needs our prayers.

I have just come through one of the most amazing, powerful Maundy Thursdays of my life. Not only did we have our usual two services at Trinity but we had a full military honor funeral for a young man whose mother and sister/her family have been long-time members of the Trinity. (The other siblings are scattered and he never really lived in Boulder after the family moved up from New Mexico.) This 32 year old wanted to go to Iraq. After 9/11, he was so committed to doing something, he tried to join the Israeli army (he was living in Israel at the time) but had no Jewish blood in him anywhere in his ancestry and so couldn’t join. Even though he was in the Army and loved being in Iraq, he was more of a green tea drinking, bicycle everywhere Boulder hippie type. He had traveled the world doing all kinds of amazing things and was a witness to living life to its fullest no matter where you are or what you are doing. (more…)

I have a wonderful three volume series of books called “Imaging the Word.” They are lectionary based and have art, music, and poetry for the Sunday readings of the three-year lectionary cycle. On page 168 of volume 1, relating to the Fifth Sunday in Lent, there is a powerful prayer by Ruth C. Duck: (more…)

If “giving something up” for Lent seems excessive or hard, try to moderate something. For example, if you don’t want to give up a food item, cut in half your intake of it. Or if you don’t want to give up movies or TV, cut in half the amount of time you spend watching them. (more…)

I subscribe to HarperSanFrancisco’s “Daily Insight” e-newsletter. Today’s quote was from Scott Cairns’ book Short Trip to the Edge: Where Earth Meets Heaven–A Pilgrimage. Mr. Cairns writes, “As most of us one day discover, the greatest hindrances to spiritual maturity, spiritual equilibrium, and wholeness are the countless distractions that keep the head turning to and fro, keep the mind flitting from one fragmentary blip to another and the body more or less twitching in response–not to mention the heart racing along as if pursued. This composite ‘white noise’ keeps our brains buzzing, and our persons dissipated.”
Decide to use the forty days of Lent to eliminate as much “white noise” as you can from your life and the lives of your children.