Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: 'May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers.' For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, 'Peace be with you.' For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your good. (Psalm 122:6-9)
It is hard for me to imagine a romantic trip through the Holy Land - seeing where Jesus was born, where 5000 were fed, where demons were cast out, where crucifixion and resurrection took place - and not be painfully aware of the current strife that defines Israel / Palestine. It seems downright disrespectful to long for a transcendent divine experience in a land so full of brokenness, strife, enmity, and violence. How does one encounter the Prince of Peace in the midst of such intense hatred? But Psalm 122 directs us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Reinhold Niebuhr taught us that the core of the Gospel message is that there is hope in the midst of tragedy. For the sake of our relatives and friends, and for the sake of the world, we turn to this Holy Land, the birthplace of three great religions, and we seek its good. This Holy Land has been a land of strife and contention throughout its entire history (beginning with the book of Joshua, c. 1200 B.C.E.). Indeed, the three religions that find their roots in this Holy Land have been both source and victim of strife and contention during different times in history. Yet, ultimately we find hope in the midst of tragedy. We do not divorce beautiful stories of the Bible from today's ugly reality. Rather, we witness through the stories how divine beauty can transform the worst expressions of human tragedy.
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