New Lamentations
For the past several weeks, I have been in prayerful contemplation following my revision of the sermon I delivered at Union Theological Seminary. I made that revision to remove an anti-Semitic reference, and to assure Jewish members of the Church of God that I do not intend to walk the path of anti-Semitism—even though I believe the political founding of the State of Israel in my homeland, Palestine, was based upon it.
The reactions I received have given me a deeper understanding of the complex reality of being, or attempting to be, a Palestinian Christian theologian—let alone a Palestinian Christian priest, should my discernment lead me there. A central part of this difficulty, and opportunity, is navigating a world of Political Realism where Zionism is considered anti-Semitism, and thus a Palestinian Christian priest is always considered an anti-Semite twice over—not to mention a Supersessionist. By these definitions, I am all three.
In my particular case, it is understood, according to current Scripture, that a Grandson of an Archbishop of Jerusalem holds the same rights as any congregant: the right to love, to use his gifts for the Church, and to pursue God. I possess no special authority, no claim to leadership, and no inherited privilege. My path to any church leadership must, according to Scripture, be paved by personal character, spiritual maturity, and a clear calling from God.
These matters are further complicated by prophecy. Some are aware of the prophecies concerning God's hand in Sinai—the very place where the Law was first given to Moses, and the same place where _________. Yet, there are those who claim the New Covenant will only become truly manifest through the arrival of a False Prophet—a name my own "allies" in the pro-Palestine space have already bestowed upon me, just as some within the Church of God have. Oh, how wrong you are. How wrong you are!
No doubt my personal character and spiritual maturity may also be called into question. Like you, I am a sinner, deeply flawed. I say to the Teachers of the Law, “Cast the first stone!” And they respond, “You, who have cobbled the Episcopal Church to death by proposing a Church of Palestine—you are an anti-Semite! You are an anti-Semite!” The Political Realist in me knows their accusation contains a truth. Yet the Palestinian Christian priest in me still answers, “Then cast the first stone!” In this regard, I point to the revision of my sermon and the commitment I continue to uphold: I will not pursue the path of anti-Semitism. And so, you shall not cast the first stone.
I leave you then with the words of Carlo Carretto, sent to me recently by an Asian-American theologian:
How baffling you are, oh Church, and yet how I love you! How you have made me suffer, and yet how much I owe you! I would like to see you destroyed, and yet I need your presence. You have given me so much scandal and yet you have made me understand what sanctity is. I have seen nothing in the world more devoted to obscurity, more compromised, more false, and yet I have touched nothing more pure, more generous, more beautiful. How often I have wanted to shut the doors of my soul in your face, and how often I have prayed to die in the safety of your arms. No, I cannot free myself from you, because I am you, though not completely. And besides, where would I go? Would I establish another? I would not be able to establish it without the same faults, for they are the same faults I carry in me. And if I did establish another, it would be my Church, not the Church of Christ. And I am old enough to know that I am no better than anyone else.
—Carlo Carretto