Koss opplever jødar som trur på Jesus, situasjonen i Midt-Austen etter krigen i sommar? Eg har nettopp lese Lisa Loden sin artikkel Reflections from a Messianic Jew in Israel i det amerikanske Christianity Today. "When questions are too hard to answer, we must still be about our Father’s business", skriv ho.
Lisa Loden er leiar for Caspari Center i Jerusalem, eit teologisk ressurssenter for den litle, men veksande messianske bevegelsen, dvs dei jødane som trur at Jesus er Messias (ca 1-2 promille av jødane i Israel!). Eg har tidlegare skrive om senteret her, i samband med at eg besøkte dei i fjor.
Hennar perspektiv er spennande å lesa. Dette er ein type synspunkt som kjem lite fram, og det at dette kjem frå ein jøde i Israel gjer det ikkje mindre interessant!
Her er nokre utdrag frå artikkelen:
We all identify with our own people, especially when
they are under threat and suffering. Identities are complex and
shifting but basic elements remain unchanged—the commonality of our
humanity is one of these constants. I am a human being, created in the
image of God, just like every other person in the world. I am also a
Messianic Jew and an Israeli and have worked for many years in
ministries of reconciliation between Jews and Arabs in Israel. My
brothers and sisters are suffering, wounded, and perhaps even dying on
both sides of the border.
Is this war just? If so, for whom? These are
questions that I do not ask. As a committed follower of God and his
Son, my task is to pray and to actively do God’s will. And pray I do
for his purposes to be accomplished in the Middle East. War does not
alter what has always been clear: God loves all people equally, and his
will is for all men everywhere to come to him. As God’s people in the
Middle East, our responsibility is to work and pray for this. Our
voices need to be heard calling our peoples to repentance. We should be
the first to give aid, alleviate suffering wherever we can, and above
all share the Good News of the gospel with all.
(…)
There are signs of hope, and if our eyes are open,
we can see them like small roadside flowers. Messianic congregations
are sending aid to Christian Arabs in the north, a Christian
Palestinian ministry center in the Bethlehem area has opened its doors
to Jewish believers from the north of Israel, groups of Jewish and Arab
believing young people are together in reconciliation-based camps and
conferences in Norway, Holland, Burundi, Finland, and elsewhere.
It is easy to sit in the United States or in Europe
and pass judgment on the situation, to blame Israel for brutally
overacting, to see Hezbollah as evil incarnate, and to miss the
opportunity to do what God desires. Extremism and polarization make
much better press than small grassroots activities that bring people
together. Let us be the first to pray, to give aid, to weep with those
who weep, and to mourn with those who mourn. Let us be about our
Father’s business, calling men to repentance, reconciling men to God,
and reconciling men to men at all times and in all places.
