Praying for the Peace of Jerusalem

Today, May 14, 2018, as the U.S. dedicates a new embassy and people are dying in the streets of Jerusalem, my regular rotation of praying through the Psalms brought me to 44 and 74. I found myself unable to articulate words as I contemplated this ironic and tragic juxtaposition. I had already done my lectio divina on the Lectionary lessons for next Sunday (Pentecost, May 20) which includes Romans 8:26-27. I trust the Holy Spirit is translating my inner groaning, and those of all who pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6) into intercessions too deep for words according to the will of God.

I have written earlier suggesting that the line in the Lord’s Prayer “lead us not into a time of testing” or “trial” may address our time of confusion and uncertainty for faithful Christians about basic presuppositions for our understanding and response to troubling and complex issues in our world. http://nstolpepilgrim.blogspot.com/2018/04/lead-us-not-into-time-of-testing.html I suggested that our divided opinions about how to respond as Christians to our government may parallel the challenges faced by the Confessing Church in Germany 1934ff which they so eloquently articulated in the Theological Declaration of Barmen. (Please understand I am not making some sort of simplistic accusation of Nazism that degenerates into unsubstantiated name-calling and misses the significant challenges unique to our time.) My encounter with Scripture today prompts me to ponder the testing and trial of confusion about how we as followers of Jesus should pray for the peace of Jerusalem in light of current events in our own country and in Israel/Palestine and elsewhere in the world.

The particular theology of some of my good friends with whom I have shared loving fellowship and close service sees the moving of the US embassy to Jerusalem as support for God’s intent to restore the promise of all the land from the Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt (Isaiah 27:12 and elsewhere) as a specifically Jewish nation as a necessary and good part of preparing the world for the return of Christ. Many of my other colleagues in ministry and partners on the journey with Jesus are compelled by the universality of the Gospel in which “there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28 and elsewhere) to pray for the peace of Jerusalem that will include Jews and Palestinians as expressing God’s blessing and mandate to Abraham that “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3) I am not going to attempt to sort out these arguments. I know that vigorous partisans of both persuasions are easily provoked to discount and dismiss the others as deficient in theology and discipleship. My point is that this is another aspect of our time of trial and testing from which I pray, along with Jesus, that we may be delivered.

That confusion is quickly evident in exploring how Psalms 44 and 74 are understood in light of today’s events. So as I groan out my wordless prayers, I entrust them to the Spirit’s intercessions too deep for words. I cannot believe that the hostility and violence we are witnessing today is the will of God. With all of the confusion and conflicting theology and politics among those of us who aspire to follow Jesus, O God, deliver us from this time of trial and testing! Despite all of the confusion and conflict, all the devious political machinations, O God, bring your peace to Jerusalem!