Last week, His Beatitude Theophilos III, Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem, led the annual interfaith lighting of a Christmas tree inside Jerusalem’s Jaffa Gate. “This [tree lighting] is a powerful reminder that Jerusalem is a beacon for the whole world,” he said, “especially in the face of the turbulence and violence that affect the lives of so many.”
Many of the estimated three thousand persons who gathered—Christians, Muslims, other Heads of Churches, and members of the diplomatic corps, civil society organizations, and elected officials—were likely reminded of a similar time of “turbulence and violence” when Jesus was born under the brutal occupation of Rome.
It turns out that for Palestinians, the celebration of Christmas—on town squares, in churches, and in homes—is itself a creative act of nonviolent resistance. Take, for example, the setting of Patriarch Theophilos’ tree lighting and Christmas greetings. He spoke from a balcony of the Imperial Hotel, a Greek Orthodox property that Israeli settlers sought to occupy earlier this year. It was a sign to believers and those of goodwill that the settlers may have their way now but that, in the long run, the way of love—the embrace of one’s enemies through reconciliation, forgiveness, and grace—will win the day.
In his comments from the balcony and in a celebration held after the lighting, the Patriarch spoke frankly about the many attacks on Christians and their holy sites by “radical Israeli groups, especially in the Holy City… a deliberate attempt to expel Christians from Jerusalem and other parts of the Holy Land.” Still, he said, “This simple ceremony of the lighting of a tree shows us the way and shines as a sign of hope in the darkness.”
It may seem to some that to follow the one who Christians herald as the Prince of Peace—to practice his way of creative, nonviolent resistance—is a weak and ultimately failing strategy. One can argue that the nonviolent methods with which Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. confronted injustice brought only incremental changes. But these examples—along with others such as the 1989 Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia—show a better way, what Christians would describe as evidence of a new age that is breaking now, the kind of community the coming for which they pray “on earth as it is in heaven.”
Asked to comment, the Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac, pastor of Bethlehem’s Christmas Lutheran Church, replied via WhatsApp, “What is amazing in the Bible’s story is that in the midst of dark times, in the midst of a ruthless Imperial rule, in the midst of a forced registration from an emperor, the Gospel narratives dare to speak about Good News, dare to nurture the people’s wearying hope, dare to proclaim that they believe in a new era.”
“To me,” Isaac said, “that’s defiance, that’s resistance, that’s persistence, that’s saying, ‘The empire and its forces will not prevail. We will continue to celebrate. We will continue to be.’ So we Palestinians will continue to be and to proclaim Good News,” Isaac asserted, “despite—even in the midst of—darkness and tyranny.”
In the 2009 document, A Moment of Truth: a word faith, hope and love, Palestinian Christians affirmed their right and duty to resist the occupation. But, they wrote, “it is resistance with love as its logic…, a creative resistance for it must find human ways that engage the humanity of the enemy.” In an email, Palestinian Nora Carmi, a retired community builder, said, “No matter how bad the situation is, Christmas will always come to remind us that the birth of Jesus is announcing the way of the kingdom of God and peace through active nonviolent resistance.”
Having reminded the crowd at the interfaith tree lighting that the true character, the long history of Jerusalem (the name means City of Peace) is an “experience of multi-cultural, multi-ethic, multi-religious life together…, of co-existence and mutual respect,” Patriarch Theophilos said, “This is the society we seek so eagerly to preserve and continue to build. We long for peace, and so let us not rend this fabric of our historic common life that has provided room enough down the ages for all who call the Holy Land their home.”
Surely this is a wish—if not the prayer—of persons throughout the world.
Jeff Wright
Jeff Wright is an ordained minister of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
Didn’t that church lease its property to the Zionist settler group?
https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/real-estate/article-710903
I’m not an expert, but I am reliably told that the Jerusalem based churches are compliant in the face of the Israeli government and the settler groups. Pls correct me if I am wrong.
This is not a direct response to the Christmas celebration nor even to the struggles of ownership and dominance, but instead a response to a place. I lived in Jerusalem from 2006 to 2011 and in most other intervening years since 2000 I have visited most every summer for at least a month. The jaffa gate or bab el halil is the part of the old city i visit most often. I am not claiming ownership, but using my neighborliness as a platform to imagine a better future. To see the makolet or store under the balcony of the hotel is to remind me of home. Shalom aleichem!