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That you have turned their hearts back

 I read Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography about 20 years ago. I talked to a pastor while we were going to a National Youth Event with youth and I told him I was trying to figure out how I could make my own clothing. He smiled and replied, "Most people come away with that urge after reading his book." Mahatma Gandhi read the Christian Testament and was very impressed with Jesus of Nazareth, especially the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes. He also relied heavily on his cultural and Hindu roots as well. When he took on the British Empire, he employed "soul force" or satyagraha. Satyagraha is about non-cooperation, or what Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would call "non-violent resistance" and the basis of this was to ground themselves in love and disrupt the evil of oppression. It was through these acts of have Indians make their own salt, make their own clothes, and fasting to call attention to the unjust system that he was able to free India from the British Empire without firing a single shot. 

In our story today of Elijah versus the four hundred and fifty prophets of Ba'al, we miss the ending of where after the sacrifice and altar are set on fire by God, Elijah calls upon the people of Israel to kill the prophets and all who follow them. Ba'al, which means 'Lord', was the son of the god "El", who was the king of gods in Canaanite mythology. Ba'al, who was the god of thunder and rain, eventually supplanted his father. Why the people of Israel throughout their history abandoned God for Ba'al is a little bit of a mystery, especially since Ba'al demanded child sacrifices. But time and time again, the ancient Hebrew people forsook the God who freed them from Egypt and went after this idol. 

This is a great story, in that Elijah wants to demonstrate the power of God and the powerlessness of this god Ba'al. So he challenges them to a sacrifice-off and allows them to have four hundred and fifty priests to set up a sacrifice (no children involved in this one) and they dance and pray and cut themselves to bleed for their 'god'. They pray and chant and dance for hours and nothing happens. Elijah taunts them, asking if their God is maybe meditating, on a journey, left the phone off the hook, or sleeping. He then rebuilds the altar of God and sets upon it the firewood and the bull. He then has them dose the altar and wood with water, not once, not twice, but three times. He then prays simply to God, asking God to answer him so that the people may turn their hearts back to God. Elijah doesn't say how to do it, but God answers with fire that burns everything including the water and the stones. When the people of Israel saw it, they fell to their faces and proclaimed that God is Lord indeed. 

Father Eleazar Chacour is a Palestinian Christian who in the 60's and 70's tried to bring peace to Palestine and Israel by copying Martin Luther King and Gandhi. The Catholic Church even brought priests over from America to help organize marches and sit-ins and other protests to let the Palestinian people have their freedom and return to their homes that they were driven out of in 1948 and sat empty for 20 plus years, if not occupied by the Jews. He even met with Prime Minister Golda Meir in 1972 to negotiate a peace between the Israeli's and Palestinians. She cut him short in saying he and all others would never return home. Love did not win the day. When I was in Israel and Palestine in 1996, we got to meet with this man and at the time the Oslo Accords were being negotiated. He told us all the problems and limits of what was happening. I asked why he supported it, even though it wouldn't be good for most Palestinians and he wouldn't be able to go home. He replied, "A chance for peace is better than no chance at all."

In today's conflict, we have to separate the group Hamas from the people of Palestine and the Muslim religion. We also have to separate the Israeli government from the people of Israel and the Jewish religion. They both represent a hard line faction that believes that only through violence can there be victory. If the Israeli government followed their faith from the Pentateuch, especially in Exodus 21:23-25 "23 If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe."

The Hamas of the Gaza Strip caused great harm and has committed great atrocities in killing 1,400 people and abducting over 240 others. Israeli government has killed over 9,400 civilians and continues to bomb them daily, destroying homes, churches, mosques, and refugee centers as a prelude to a full scale invasion. They have paid back the Palestinians in spades and have given no sign of stopping. May the leaders of modern day Israel turn their hearts back to God and say enough and commit to a cease fire and just peace negotiations. May our government be an honest broker in working for peace. 

Let us pray, "O God of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Ishmael, may our brothers and sisters in the Middle East study war no more. May they lay down their arms, hear each others' stories, grieve for all who are lost, and build a better way of life for all, especially the children. Amen."




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