The first chapter of Mark's Gospel has the Greek word meaning 'immediately' 11 times. (It's not always apparent in the English translations, because the translators use different words). Here is the first use of the word - 'And just (Greek - immediately) as he was coming up out of the water ...'
As soon as Jesus enters the story, things take off. There's an urgency about the Mission. But, before the mission can begin, Jesus is baptised and affirmed as God's son.
To know who we are can take a lifetime. The journey of self understanding can be a tortuous one for many. The most important part of our identity is our place in relation to God. God's child. Everyone should be able to know this, and be afforded this dignity by others.
I have just been watching the documentary film 'Occupation 101' about Israel/Palestine. Palestinians are treated by many Israelis as second class citizens. The are treated by the Israeli state as people with no rights.
They have to stand in line to cross checkpoints to get to work, or school, or hospital. There is a recent documented incident of a Palestinian woman dying in childbirth because she was not able to get to hospital. (Her new born child also died)
I could say much more about this, and probably will. The trauma of living in a war zone in conditions of poverty, and oppression has had devastating effects on the Palestinian people.
The children of Gaza will need an army of psychiatrists to help them if they are ever to live anything like a normal life.
The wall that separates Israeli from Palestinian is called the wall of separation. In South Africa there was no wall, but Apartheid (which means separation) meant that black South Africans were treated as less than human in the same way that Palestinians are treated by Israel.
One small thing that we can do is to treat everyone with the same respect. We all need to know our identity as a child of God
Did God make a rod for everyone's back by telling the Jews that they were really special and then, because of His love (as orthodoxy would dictate) allowing them to suffer/ "be disciplined" probably more severely than any other race in history? It's little wonder they have found it hard to view things as the rest of the world (the gentiles)do. I'm not saying that Israel is lily white, patently they are not. I am trying to address the question "why are they as they are?"
ReplyDeleteWe probably need to be just as careful, as Christians, that we don't consider ourselves so special that we can't see the extent of God's love for the rest of the world. Nobody likes suffering/ being disciplined (even Christians). We don't like it when our feathers are ruffled and we have to conclude that God has at least allowed it to happen even if He has not actually made it happen. We need to be just as careful as anybody else that in judging (any)others we do not heap even greater judgment on ourselves.