Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

 

Monday, August 21, 2023


Psalms 121; 122; 123

2 Samuel 20:14-26

Acts 18:1-17


Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.


Once upon a time, when there would be a natural disaster, a particularly heinous crime, or some other such widely-known tragedy, our fearless representatives would stand in front of cameras and microphones announcing that our “thoughts and prayers” were with those suffering. Then there was a campaign by activist comedians that convinced all those representatives that thoughts and prayers were worse than useless, and we discovered that those representatives were not so fearless as we once thought. Now, whenever tragedy strikes, they tell us that those suffering only have our thoughts as consolation.


For some reason this idea of solidarity seems to be a popular way of signalling one’s spiritual connection with another, without having to go through all the fuss of actually believing in the spiritual connection all human beings have. But we are all spiritually connected: the things we think we are doing in private, those things that we believe are purely personal, have wider knock-on effects to the rest of humanity, whether we like it or not.


As Christians, we have a particular responsibility towards Jews. At Holy Communion yesterday, we heard a reading from St Paul (Rom 11:13-32) reminding us that we Gentiles are the wild branch that has been grafted on to the tree of God’s chosen people. Jews are, in a way, the older brother of the Church universal – and our patriarch is Abraham.


God told Abraham that through him, all the families of the earth would be blessed (Gen 12:3). We are spiritually connected backwards, through to Abraham. We are also spiritually connected forwards, to “all the families of the earth”. By virtue of our spiritual connection with Abraham, we must do our part to uphold those words from God, that blessings will flow through us to those around us. Our important part in this spiritual network connecting all human beings is because of God’s mercy in grafting us onto the tree that began in Abraham. So, pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

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