First Sunday in Lent
Lutheran Church of Hope in Ramallah
With Norway's Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bundevik

Genesis 3:1-24
Bishop Dr. Munib Younan
Feb 13, 2005

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ, salaam and grace to you.

It is a great privilege and honor for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land and for the whole Palestinian people (Christian and Muslim) to welcome all our guests, especially His Excellency, the Prime Minister of Norway, Mr. Kjell Magne Bundevik. Your presence in this community strengthens the Palestinian Church in its role to work for just peace, education and reconciliation and to promote a culture of forgiveness, tolerance and abundant life. We see this as crucial spiritual work that is an integral part of our mission today. By worshipping with a normal Lutheran Congregation here, you have set an example for visiting politicians to remember the witnessing Palestinian Church. We also can express our gratitude and blessings for your demanding mission of mediation for just peace and dignity for both peoples.

The preaching text for this Sunday is the story of the Fall. It is easy to point fingers and ask; WHY did Adam and Eve fall in sin and leave us with this terrible heritage of calamities? But, if we are honest and reflective, we would see that every day we fall into sins much bigger and greater than theirs. Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree of knowledge, but we allow sin to consume us deliberately. The difference between them and us is that:

They were ashamed of their sin and we don't even see it.
They accepted the responsibility of sin and we in this post-modern world are not even conscious of it.

People don't know or understand what the Bible teaches on sin. They don't seriously confess their sin or bear any responsibility for them. They are self-righteous.

In the time of Dr. Martin Luther, reformers were troubled by sin and kept asking: how can I, a sinner, please god? Today we are not sinners, and we look for who to blame. We don't worry about pleasing God, we worry about pleasing the corporate bottom line and efficiency. Sin has no place in this world.

Maybe consumerism, materialism and globalization have made us immune to sin? Our faith tells us that the one who does not confess or even acknowledge sin will not have a place with the living Lord. God's questions to Adam and Eve are for us, too: Adam, where are you? Eve, where are you?

I believe the major sin of our time is that people are blind to justice. Sometimes, from a simple bishop's point of view, I wonder what justice really means to the world and the politicians? Does it mean pleasing the electorate, or narrow-self-interest, or world powers? Is justice the rhetoric that benefits those who have wealth and power? The grave sin of today is that justice isn't even in today's consciousness. Sometimes I think that we are back in 8th century Jerusalem when Isaiah preached to his people:

The way of peace they do not know,
And there is no justice in their paths.
Their roads they have made crooked,
No one who walks in them knows peace.

Therefore, justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us;

We wait for justice, but there is none;
For salvation, but it is far from us;. Isaiah 59:8-9,11a

If there were justice in our world today, why would countries in the South not enjoy the same blessings as the countries in the North?

If there were justice, why would some countries consume almost all of the earth's resources and so many enjoy almost none?

If there were justice, why would we spend $87 billion for the war in Iraq, and barely over $1 billion for aid to Tsunami victims?

If there were justice, the world would surely listen to our Palestinian children yearning for freedom, and work urgently to solve this Israeli/Palestinian conflict, which is the core problem for peace in the Middle East and the world?

As much as we are cautiously hopeful at this moment, every day we still live under occupation and in a culture of prison and fear. Why should Palestinian or Israeli children continue to have to live in constant fear and unrest?

Why should conditions here be so harsh that they force so many to emigrate and leave their homeland? So many Palestinian Christians have left that there may not be any left in 10 or 20 years.

Only justice – a just peace -will transform this land from a culture of fear, occupation and spiral violence into a culture of hope, equal co-existence and tolerance. This is now the kairos moment for just peace and coexistence. I feel that God calls all those in power to remember the words of the prophet Micah:

The Lord has told you, O mortal, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?

As we enter this Lenten season, some will talk about fasting, about "giving something up" for Lent. The concept of "fast", though, can also mean to hold fast to something important, to let the less important things go and cling to the essential. Isaiah gives us a clear look at what is essential to God:

"Is not this the fast that I choose;
To undo the thongs of the yoke;
To let the oppressed go free
And to break every yoke?

to be healers of the breach." Is. 58:5-12, Selected verses paraphrased

During this season of Lent, let us focus on these words.
During this time of peacemaking, let us remember to do justice.
During this time, we as the Palestinian church will hold fast to our role as:
:
• instruments of peace and healing,
• brokers of justice,
• bridge-builders,
• defenders of human rights including women's rights,
• initiators of dialogue and
• ministers of reconciliation and forgiveness.

We ask the world: Help the ministry of the Palestinian Church to continue. The future of Arab Christianity is not in war and fighting but in just peace and reconciliation. Help our children to live in peace and dignity as your children do in the North, in countries like Norway. It is our joint responsibility, church and state, to walk together the path of just peace and reconciliation.

May God Bless all who seek a just peace and prosper the work of their hands.

And now may the Peace which passes all understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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