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باسم الآب والابن والروح القدس. آمين.

“The Gospel as Transforming Power in the work for Peace and Reconciliation”.

+Bishop Dr. Munib A. Younan

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ:

It is a great honor and privilege to attend the 150th anniversary of the FELM. I congratulate you on behalf of our ELCJHL, praying that Christ may continue to commission you to advance his kingdom in our world.

Jesus proclaimed his program in the synagogue of Nazareth: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free to proclaim the year of Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19).

This is the transforming power of the Gospel. It is a power to heal our broken world. Jesus came to embody the reign of God, turning the world upside down by blessing the poor and the peacemakers, breaking the yokes of oppression and inviting all to the table of God’s blessings. There are no themes more fundamental to the Hebrew scriptures than justice and righteousness – right relations with people. When Isaiah called the people of Israel to repent and turn back to their covenant relationship with God, he reminded them it would mean seeking justice and correcting oppression (1:17), letting the oppressed go free, breaking every yoke (58:6). The prophet Micah says: “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (6:8).

I believe that being justified by grace through faith returns us to the real meaning of biblical justice. It describes the ambiguity in which we human beings find ourselves. We are at the same time sinners and saints, always in need of justice and liberation, which God graciously gives us through his cross. It means being simultaneously judged and being freed. Those of us experiencing injustice in this world have the promise of the wonderful hope of justice from the cross and resurrection of Christ. Yes, we are victims of injustice, but as we are saved by God’s grace, the Triune God will never allow injustice to have the final word. Justice and only justice will have the final word, and he convinces us to beinstruments of peace, brokers of justice and ministers of reconciliation.

The Christian church is called to be the prophetic voice for the voiceless, who need release from bondage and captivity. We cannot be silent in the face of oppression and human suffering. If we only sing glories and hallelujahs and say the world’s problems are not the business of the church, we become hypocrites and breeders of apathy.This is not the good news Jesus came to bring. We are to carry our pulpit to the streets. Bonhoffer says: It is part of the Church’s affair of guardianship that she call sin by its name and that she should warn against sin. If the Church did not do this, she would be incurring part of the guilt for the blood of the wicked (Ezek. 3:12).

For this reason, I believe that, in a time thatpoliticians failed to bring justice, the church must be prophetic and is supposed to evangelize the whole of human life, including the political dimension. The Church is to raise its voice to speak about politics with morality and economics with ethics.

For me, Christ always renews me to be an instrument of peace. And, for me, to watch for justice, is not political. It is biblical and spiritual. When my people come to me, hopeless, and ask me why God doesn’t hear the cries of the Palestinians, what do I tell them? One of my teachers in Beit Sahour told me that God is biased and does not listen to Palestinian Christians, because her home fence was transformed by the Israelis into an eight-meter concrete separation wall.

It is our role as a PalestinianChurch to teach the God of love to all who are fearful and oppressed. We are not to be shy to condemn injustice, militarization, occupation, violence and terrorism. That is why we cannot be silent about what is going on in Gaza and call for an immediatehalt to all military operations.

But as a Church we are to give the vision of peace –shalom and salaam – built on justice. And that liberates all people from the sin of injustice and fear. This is the reason that I continue to believe that the security of Israel is dependent on the freedom and justice of the Palestinians,and the freedom and justice of the Palestinians is dependent on the security of Israelis. This is a symbiotic relationship and the key for peace based on justice in the Middle East.

However, I do not believe that reconciliation should take place only when political leaders sign a treaty. I believe the PalestinianChurch should lead. And with interfaith dialogue as we do it in the Council of Religious Institutionsof the Holy Land, that is comprised of Jewish, Christian and Moslem leadership. We want to teach our people to see God in the Israelis and that the Israelis to see God in us Palestinians,and thus accept the humanity of the each other. Then we can mutually recognize each other’s human, civil, religious, national and political rights. Only then will the Holy Land became a promised land of milk and honey for both Palestinians and Israelis.

Martin Luther King said,“As long as there is poverty in the world, I can never be rich, even if I have a billion dollars. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. No individual or nation can stand boasting being independent. We are interdependent.” We journey together with those of other Christian denominations and other faiths. Together with other faiths, we must seek the common values of justice, peace, equality, sanctity of life, coexistence, freedom of religion and the rights of minorities. Together, we must be prophetic and not allow the current path of demonizing other religions, which only builds up extremism. We must not allow the extremists to hijack our religions away from God’s intention that we live in harmony, peace and justice,believing that Christ has come to give all of us –regardless of gender, ethnicity, political or religious affiliation – life and life abundantly.

We thirstfor justice and peace, security and healing in the Middle East.For this reason, we as your partners in mission pray that God through his grace may continue to use us Palestinian Christians to be proclaimers of the good news, brokers of justice, instruments of peace, ministers of reconciliation and agents of healing.

Please, stay with us on the road and continue to accompany us in our ministry of healing and witnessing for just peace and reconciliation.

May God bless you.