Dear Church Family,
               The news from Israel this past weekend was deeply disturbing to me.  The violence perpetrated by Hamas was so indiscriminate and immoral. Israel’s reaction certainly will be swift and forceful.  I have been to Israel and the Palestinian territories several times.  I came away realizing any resolution of the political and religious situation there is so complex.  Israel, a democracy in progress, has a right to exist free of threats of violence and yet the Palestinians, within Israel and in Gaza and the West Bank, can rightly feel they have often been treated badly and their claims diminished.  
               Historian Barbara Tuchman claimed many years ago that American Christians tend to have a stake in this area which goes deeper than our political interests.  Rather, to the extent we have been steeped in the Bible, we feel we know these places.  They are part of our heritage, and its peoples part of our sacred story.
               I do not know how this latest conflict will play out or what impact it will have on the long-term well-being of the land and the need for justice for all peoples.  But I do believe there has to be a better solution than violence.  God is a God of peace, who desires we learn to resolve our conflicts in such a way that God’s vision in Isaiah comes to be: “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” (Is 2:4).  So, as we are instructed in the responsive psalm we will be reading this week, “let us pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” (Ps 122:6).
               The texts for Sunday are Leviticus 19:11-18 and Matthew 18:15-20.   The sermon is “Letting the Church be the Church.”
See you in church,
Rich