A Prayer for Israel & Gaza

This is my song, O God of all the nations,
a song of peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my home, the country where my heart is;
here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;
but other hearts in other lands are beating
with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

One month ago on October 7, Hamas militants launched a coordinated attack on people in Israel. The attack was swift, bloody, and reprehensible. Its ripples are felt across the world, especially among Jews, many of whom carry in their bodies the painful memories of past trauma done to their people. And we are not okay. We will not get over this soon.

“Jesus’ most radical words were, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’ He didn’t say how, he just said to do it.”

The Hamas fighters may well have thought this misguided series of attacks was retaliation for decades of blockades in Gaza and human rights abuses by the Israeli government. But really, its was another step in a generational cycle of violence that solves nothing. And now their Palestinian kinfolk are being targeted by an Israeli military that feels the need to respond in kind. We abhor and condemn the violence of that date, as well as the violence that led to that date. Israelis and Palestinians each have a right to exist.

In the midst of all of this bloodshed, it is easy to point the finger and to lay blame on one side. While that may help in the short term as we try to make sense of the horrors of war, our stance as peacemakers and justice seekers needs a different and better voice. There is another way forward, rooted in scripture and painted on our hearts. Jesus’ most radical words were, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” He didn’t say how, he just said to do it. He also said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”

God, save us from the easy answers.
God, help us to live with Gospel-inspired courage
to forge a way in this wilderness of despair.

God, point us toward the path of peace.
The path is strewn with the shells of homes,
the stench of bloodied corpses,
the smoke of a thousand dreams.
We pause on this path
and tend the wounds of those torn apart in body, mind, and spirit.

Help us to not demonize an entire race or religion
because of the violent actions of the most extreme zealots.
It is our job to forge a path toward peace, while caring for those who have been hurt.
So we pray for our Jewish kinfolk, traumatized again.
Help us to eschew generalizations and demonizations of our Jewish kinfolk in our own scriptures.

We pray for our Palestinian kinfolk,
forced to live in the Gaza Strip that is both narrow, and narrower.
Homes confiscated, land stripped, resources inhumanly confiscated.
Multiple wrongs do not make a right.
We pray for an end to the colonial annexation of Palestinian land.
We pray that clearer heads and compassionate hearts
will forge a new path to peace
that embraces justice for all people in the Holy Lands.

May we live into the vision articulated by the Prophet Isaiah:

If you remove the yoke from among you,
the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
if you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted…
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to live in. (Isaiah 58:9-12)

O hear my song, O God of all the nations,
A song of peace for their land and for mine.