Given By Rev. Madison Shockley July 23, 2017
Today’s inspiration comes from a show tune from Les Miserable. Our reading today is appropriate because our church has visitors from Hands of Peace. This passage and many others are part of the root of the Palestinian and Israeli Conflict. In today’s reading, Jacob has a dream. God tells him that the land on which you lie, I will give to you and your off-spring. The U.S. has played a major role in this conflict. At the end of WWII, Britain over-promised the Jews coming from Europe. The U.S. added to this tragedy by not accepting more refugees. Today, we continue to encourage the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. There are many groups in America who believe that the Palestinians are new comers to the area known as the West Bank. It is interesting that the word Palestinian translates to Philistine. Philistines have been around for just as long as the Jews in the Bible. Jacob’s dream is the Palestinians’s nightmare. Since 1946, the land that Palestinians can freely inhabit has dramatically shrunk. Originally, Palestine was to be an independent state. It is this struggle to balance democracy, the land, and a Jewish state, that causes such conflict. You can only have two, not all three. We must ask what is our role in this conflict today. Our church calls us to promote a just peace. God does not draw political maps. We dream a different dream, a dream of peace.