New (though quickly aging) Bishop Mike and I hooked up for lunch about a week and a half ago to hand off the prayer kneeler I’d been carrying around in the back of the pickup for three weeks after fetching it from Bethlehem in B’mont ’cause he saw it there and wanted to borrow it and to have lunch together. Yep, he was gonna put the kneeler in his office for private devotions, and I had visions of Thomas Becket and Martin Luther mea culpating it to medieval torch light—not bad company if you’re into kneeling for private prayer; you’ll know they are holy by the calluses on their knees.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that: we each adopt the prayer posture that works for us. When we packed up New Testament Ray’s Audi for Chicago we just had to jam his 3-foot square meditation pillow in last of all, huffing and grunting and smashing the bag of chips I’d bought. My own best prayer posture is sitting on the deck in tee shirt and shorts with with my legs propped up, a glass of tea and a cigar. Chuffin’ with Jesus; thankin’ God. (Though not so much in the winter, leaving my spirit as well as my body pale and torpid. I suppose if I were a real prayer warrior I’d sit out there regardless of the weather. On the other hand, when God wants me to pray she’ll make it sunny and warm.)

In any event, I’m glad that the bishop prays on his knees, and hope he doesn’t let this sincere piety go to his head. (Bush, too, is sincerely pious.)

N B Mike mentioned his upcoming trip to Israel with about 40 other ELCA-type bishops (US and Canada) for the annual ‘bishops’ academy’ or whatever it’s called that had been scheduled before Israel started bombing Gaza just after Christmas, in some grotesque incarnation of Herod slaughtering the children in Matthew: of the 900 Palestinians killed so far, one third of them have been children; of the 10 (ten) Israelis killed, none were adults, and 3 were killed by friendly fire. I haven’t been inclined to give to the Israeli Defense Fund appeal showing up on tv. The Gaza strip is a narrow piece of land 25 miles long and seven miles deep on the Mediterranean coast between Israel and Egypt where 1.5 million Palestinians live, the most densely populated area in the world; about 500,00 live in refugee camps and many of the rest live in poverty and squalor. Even in my historical ignorance about that conflict it strikes me as responding to rock-throwers with a holocaust; or, you insulted me so I’ll take out your family.

I told Mike good luck and mentioned that I’ve never been particularly drawn to visit the place, its status as ‘the holy land’ notwithstanding, ‘Come, see the place where Jesus prayed and buy a postcard’ like kneeling not being my particular cup of tea. Though some years back I started working with a charter company in Turkey to put together a two-week sail across the Med to Israel; but then Beavis and Butthead invaded Iraq, and I knew that idea was kaput. But I was interested in visiting Israel if I could sail there.

Thus it was that the bishop hoofed it off to Israel, and a few days back sent out this post:

First I want to assure you that we are in no danger. Security is high, but we walk the streets freely as one would any international city. The Palestinians are extremely gracious.

We have been listening carefully to both Israelis and Palestinians. Both seem desperate to make their case. The cycle of violence seems unending. The Israeli blockade of Gaza has caused unprecedented suffering. Hamas rockets terrorize Israelis. The current operations seems to only stir more hatred, and provide more excuses to justify violence.

Yesterday we met with the Chief Rabbis (Keene: they still have those?), then the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Today we are at Augusta Victoria Lutheran Hospital on the Mount of Olives. I am impressed at the Lutheran presence here. We have the only Protestant Church in the Old City and the only cancer center in East Jerusalem, thanks to Kaiser Wilhelm. A housing project and sports center are in the works.

LWF and the UN are presenting programs to help us fully understand the situation here. Bishop Younan, himself a refugee, is a incredible person, maintaining good relationships, yet speaking boldly against oppression.

The Reverend Munib A. Younan is the bishop of The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Palestine and the Holy Land. There’s a fun job. LWF is the Lutheran World Federation.

While actually preparing my own sermon on Saturday (for which the crowd expressed it’s deep approval on Sunday) I checked the story of the bishops’ visit on the ELCA website. It sounds like things got interesting (ELCIC = Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada):

The Lutheran bishops met with the two chief rabbis of Israel, Rabbi Yona Metzger and Rabbi Shlomo Amar, who spoke about the current fighting in Gaza.
For nearly eight years Israelis living near Gaza have been subject to periodic rocket attacks on their homes, launched by Hamas from Gaza, Metzger said. Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, but it has the right to self-defense if Israeli lives are threatened, he said.
“When you return to your countries, please be ambassadors to our feelings,” Metzger said to the Lutheran bishops. “We don’t want war. We don’t want to kill innocent people. We want only to defend ourselves.”
The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop, told the rabbis that the bishops opposed the escalating violence. “I hope you hear — it didn’t sound like you have — our rejection of any violence perpetrated upon the people of Israel — the violence of suicide bombers, Hamas rockets, or rockets from the north today,” Hanson said.
The rabbis feel “deep distress” for the loss of innocent lives in the Gaza conflict, Amar said. To help explain the large number of civilian casualties, the rabbis said authorities showed them maps and photos of where they believe rockets have been fired from Gaza. Earlier in the day, a rocket launched from Lebanon into Israel was determined to be an isolated incident. . . .
Hanson said Lutherans and Jews have strengthened the foundation given to them from shared spiritual history and sacred texts during the past 25 years. He referred to the actions of the ELCA and ELCIC in the 1990s repudiating Martin Luther’s anti-Jewish writings. Lutherans and Jews are [at] work together in the Middle East in the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land, he said. In the United States they join together in the National Interreligious Leadership Initiative.
He told the rabbis that “as a Christian leader, on the basis of the Christian tradition of just war-unjust war principles, it is impossible for me to see that the response of Israel to the Hamas rockets meets the ethical test of proportionality or concern for noncombatants.”
Hanson said it was his prayer that Lutherans and Jews could have honest conversations. “If we can’t have honest conversations, who is going to win this encounter with religious extremists and fanatics who thrive on violence begetting violence?” Hanson asked the rabbis.

It seems at first politically ironic if not actually hypocritical that this white Christian bishop from a country that outright rejected just-war principles as anachronistic when it came to Iraq would now be applying it as an ethical norm for somebody else. Yet, Hanson does not speak so much as an American as he does a Christian leader; a religious leader. At the time of Iraq the Bushies would not speak to any religious leaders who did not share their view, blowing off, for example, the grand poobah of Bush’s own denomination, the Methodists, not to mention our guy. But even beyond that, these are, as it were, religious guys speaking religious language, and I admire the way my poobah talks-’dude, we think you’re going way overboard here’. Y’know? Sometimes even with friends you gotta say ‘man, this just ain’t right.’

In the name of our mutual God.