CPTnet
15 December 2006
HEBRON REFLECTION: We are the message
by Jerry Levin
I recently received a question from a reader who wanted to know, "What is
CPT doing over there to share the Gospel of Jesus?" å The following was my
answer.
"I'm not sure exactly what you mean. I thought our reports made it clear
that we share the Gospel of Christ by trying to exemplify its meaning. It's
something we do every day. By our actions, CPTers witness [to] what kind of
followers of Jesus we are trying to be. In so doing, we demonstrate, we
hope, the power of nonviolence, the power of Gospel love, sacrifice, and
hope to the terribly oppressed Palestinians, as well as our solidarity with
and thanks to the many Jewish Israelis with whom we work who are standing up
along with us in the West Bank for their Palestinian neighbors. They too
are demonstrating that they understand His message.
"But that's only part of what we do. Through our reports we hope that
fellow followers of Jesus elsewhere in the world will take seriously to
heart the words and pictures we send back of the desperate conditions under
which Palestinians are obliged to live debilitating minute by debilitating
minute. We hope that these readers in turn will be encouraged to take part
in the struggle in their home countries to influence an end to the
oppressive occupation that is tragically so similar to the Roman occupation
two thousand years ago and the Crusader conquest a thousand years after
that.
"Some of the Palestinians we are trying to stand with, by the way, are
Christian. But can you imagine? Where Muslims with whom we interact daily
are concerned, we don't have to say a thing about the Gospels. By our
willingness to risk standing with them, they get the message powerful and
clear.
"Here's something else that may be difficult to imagine; but it's true.
Many many of the Muslims whom we try to help are already living the kind of
life that Jesus taught. They put their trust in God [Allah] unhesitatingly.
They admire, respect, and love Jesus greatly (They call him Issa.) They
pray much more often and regularly than many Christians do. And when they
do pray, they seem to be far less interested in what God can do for them and
much more in what they can do for God. Powerful sentiments for a people in
the Holy Land from whom much has been taken with nothing given back in
return.
"Finally our experience here and what we know is taking place in the United
States convinces us that an extremely fertile ground for sharing the Gospel
of love is back home amongst millions of Christians, some of whom are the
nation's most powerful political and religious leaders. By their actions,
they are tragically complicating the lives dangerously of the very people
here in Palestine and Israel whom they would like to see become followers of
Jesus too. Clearly a self-defeating process.
"I hope this explanation helps."
_______________
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Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) seeks to enlist the whole church in
organized, nonviolent alternatives to war and places teams of trained
peacemakers in regions of lethal conflict. Originally a violence-reduction
initiative of the historic peace churches (Mennonite, Church of the Brethren
and Quaker), CPT now enjoys support and membership from a wide range of
Christian denominations.
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