“For we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” Part of the passage from St Paul's letter to the Romans, which I'm going to be referring to, so you may find it helpful to have it open in front of you.
Sighs too deep for words and not knowing how to pray. That has been my experience in the past few weeks. It is nearly a month since we returned from our visit to the Holy Land; a two week study tour. It left me angry and deeply troubled. Witnessing first-hand the injustices and oppression of the powerful over the weak left me enraged. And I am still working through it. It's the first time I have been in a military state and experienced the intimidations and restrictions which local people face on a daily basis. Let me give you one example. From 5 o'clock in the morning till 7 we walked with Palestinians as they moved through a checkpoint from Bethlehem to Jerusalem where the wall separate the cities. It was Friday, a much quieter day than others. Nevertheless, some of the men we spoke to had left home at 2 am to catch buses in time to go through the checkpoint (something they did every day). We queued slowly through the cage, stop/start, stop/start in three separate stages until free at last they ran onto their buses to take them into Jerusalem. (Palestinians are not allowed to drive into the city, they must take a bus). And often, for no good reason, the line gets held up, as the Israeli soldiers slow it down, and the men miss their bus to work, and lose their jobs. At the final ID check I stood waiting to show my passport whilst the young woman soldier texted on her phone. Eventually she looked up, saw that it was NOT a Palestinian in front of her, looked slightly embarrassed and said “Oh wow!' and waved us through without hesitation. I then watched as the Palestinians who came after me were treated with less respect and speed. We met a man selling coffee at the checkpoint. He told us that he had lived nearby but his house was demolished to make room for the 8 m high wall. When he tried to protest at losing his home he was arrested and imprisoned for three months, one month in solitary confinement. On release he had a record so was not granted a permit to cross to Jerusalem (where most of the work is). So now, to make a living he sells coffee to those who can cross. Every day we heard story after story like that. And the injustice eats into your soul.
But anger and moral outrage need handling. Anger is energy which can either drain you or galvanise you into action. So this morning I want to share something of my struggle with you. Maybe it might help when you hear news of people suffering, whether it's millions starving in Somalia or atrocities in Norway leaving families devastated. Last week the Dean spoke about this in his sermon, from the previous verses in Romans 8. He suggested there were three ways of responding to the world's suffering and you may recognise yourself in one of these:
One is to be overcome by it all: to spend life harassed and hopeless, always feeling that we can't ever do enough to sort it out, that we must give all we can all the time;
Another response is that of compassion fatigue, of being so overwhelmed by suffering that we turn off and turn away, unable to cope and closing our hearts to charity.
And the third way to respond to the world's sufferings is the way St Paul urges us in the reading from Romans ch.8: the way of hope through suffering, and hope through Jesus Christ.
If you want to read the rest of the sermon it's on the cathedral website.
So how do we move from feeling overwhelmed by the sufferings we see and switching off, to the way of hope through Jesus Christ?
When Paul writes to the Christian community in Rome he is writing to a people he has not yet met. But he knows their circumstances. They are witnessing to Christ in the face of great opposition. In preparation for visiting them as soon as he can, Paul encourages them to hold fast to Christ in the challenges they face. This was around 55 -57 AD and Rome was not pleased to have another confident and expanding religious sect in its city, one which claimed divine authority over imperial power. So persecution of Christians was underway. Look at vs 33 onwards. 'Who will bring any charge against God's elect? Who is to condemn? Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? ' Does God save them from this suffering? No, he saves them in this suffering. Vs 37 'In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.' So there is the key: 'through him who loved us'. That means Christ must be present in the suffering. So the secret is to look for Christ in the conflict; where is He at work? I believe we saw Christ in the occupied territories. We saw Him in the attitudes of Palestinian Christians and yes, in some Palestinian Muslims in their patient peaceful response, and in some Israeli activists who work for better treatment of Palestinians.
The plight of Palestinians has been a painful one since the mid 19th Century. For decade after decade they have seen land illegally taken from them and conditions imposed which makes them virtual prisoners in the land that their families have had for centuries. And yet, time and time again, we met, not despair and bitterness, but grace and hope . And it spoke to us of Christ. The light of Christ shone out of Amal, a woman whose name means 'Hope'. My father always says 'Don't give up hope.' Amal and her family live on a farm near Bethlehem. They have the deeds to the land going back over 100 years and yet the Israelis have tried to drive them off their land. Demolition orders have been passed and many buildings have been demolished. Israelis settlements have been built all around and the farm is deprived of electricity and running water. 'We decided to stay, but to be peaceful' she says. 'We try to break the circle of violence. We teach our children to express their anger in writing and not with violence. In 2002 local Israeli settlers came onto our land and uprooted 250 olive trees. So we have since planted 500 trees. As Christians we have a responsibility to love our neighbours and our enemies but it is not easy. We are provoked many times. When settlers come onto our land they bring weapons. We ask them to leave their weapons at the entrance to the farm and offer them refreshments.' Amal - hope.
And there is hope in that troubled land. Since we returned there have been dozens of emails from those we went with, helping each other to process what we heard. As I finish by reading an extract from one, the words could be applied to any story of suffering. The news headlines, Famine in Africa, terrorist attack in Norway, crackdown in Syria or whatever, only give us the cold facts; behind these, somewhere, Christ will be present. We need to look for Him. Nothing, no suffering can separate us from his love. Here it the extract:
'I am hugely encouraged to hear of the ways in which the Palestinian people have resisted the injustices they are suffering, and they haven't given up to this day.
This, for me, is clear evidence of the light of Christ being present, as always, in the darkness. It is humanly impossible to carry on day after day, year after year, resisting without violence without the help of Christ. Here, for me at least, is the truth of Jesus' words that He is always present, always coming to those who welcome him and giving grace, strength, endurance, patience, humility, hope against all the odds, and love. A reminder that the darkness will NEVER put out the light, and that injustice will cease at some point, when evil has run its course. There are so many, many places in the world which are suffering from injustice and oppression, but I believe that if we look beneath the 'big stories' we will find Jesus in people and situations, bringing hope, peace and new life. This is the only way I can cope with the pain of what is happening in Palestine, and other places. Somewhere Jesus is there even if I can't see Him, and I can pray, and do any other simple actions that He gives me to do.'
“For we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words... Who will separate us from the love of Christ?” |