Jerusalem, Day 1, Part 2

If you have not read part 1 yet, please go back and read it.  Scroll down.  Up.  Whichever way it is on yoru computer or browser.  

At least read the introduction to part 1 so this part 2 of the blog will make sense.

Did you ever get a problem you just couldn't solve?  Even though you know you are smart, and everybody in the world is trying to help?  Even though everyone is praying and hoping that it can be solved?

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Such is the reality of the living stones of this region, the Palestinians and Jews of Jerusalem.

I hope that if you have never read any history of this region, you will take the time to do so.  There is nothing like it, no place like it on earth.  

I'll leave it at that.

I am not educated, informed, or learned enough to make suggestions.  But I did make some observations.  

This is how the Jericho road comes to a screeching halt in East Jerusalem.  I did not know until we drove it.  I am such a novice -- so naive as to how and why things like this are built.  But the walls are here.  And they are seeking to divide people.  How can that be good?

I don't find a single verse in the mouth of Jesus saying to divide ourselves from our neighbors.  Or our enemies for that matter.

This is the irony of Jerusalem.  So many stories intersect here.  And one wonders - if the walls keep going up, will the stories intersect anymore?  The wall has stopped the ancient road to Jericho (the most important road in Jesus's life?  Just maybe).  How can that be good?  How can that be a way to make peace?

This ancient and modern beautiful intersection of so much of the world - past, present, and future, has those walls stopping the Jericho road just miles away.  Only unlike the walls in this picture (which is near the Jaffa gate in historic Jerusalem) which have gates, the walls in East Jerusalem along the Jericho Road have no gates at all.

We met with two young women today who shared their work and passion for a peaceful future for Israel.  I have not shared their names as I did not get their permssion to do so.  I'll say they both described themsleves as activitsts.  We met with them because, quite frankly, they were willing to meet with us.  And available.  We don't meet with many activists.  I don't really know very many - a few in North Carolina, but not that many.  We all did wonder how the story would be different if we spoke to and Israeli army officer.  But they don't say much on street corners, at check points, or when they board the bus. 

I will say the women were fair.  They did not condemn the army, they understood the threat Israel faced, and they were sympathetic to check point officers.  I think they want a future for Israel which is different than the one in which they were raised.  One with less fear.  And I think that they think that the walls and the settlement movement only increase the fear in their country.  

I should note they were both Israeli citizens.

As we overlooked Jerusalem, this huge fire burned to the South.  It was late in the afternoon and it made this eerie effect.

The smoke sort of covered the sun.

I don't go looking for metaphors or signs.  But what of this?

Can Jerusalem survive?  Will its future drift away like smoke on the breeze?  What of the living stones here?  The people who live and work side by side each day but who rarely say one another's names or know one another's children?  What of the future?  Will it be as conflict prone as the past?

There are more players, interests, and politics here than I have time to write about.  That is for sure.

What is equally sure is this question - call it the connundrum of this place.  Will the people who live here care as much about the living stones who are their neighbors as they do about the ancient stones which undergird their faith?

"Almighty God:  Jesus wept for this city.  Does he still weep today?  Hear the cries of your people Lord:  peace, peace, peace.  In the Savior's name we pray.  Amen."