Lessons from Mar Elias

I looked at him and I said, "Thank you for your work.  My wife is a 7th grade teacher, her mother was a teacher, so was her father.  And my mother," I told him, "has been an educator for 45 years.  We are a family full of teachers."

"Your work has touched my heart."

Perhaps it is that I have been away from my family for a while.  Perhaps it is that school is an every day, sometimes hour to hour, conversation at my house.  Maybe it is because I love teachers because the people I love most are teachers.  Maybe it is because I believe - personally and theologically - that education is the most important community undertaking and responsibility.  But when I said the above words to the Headmaster of Mar Elias School, a school in Ibillin, in Northern Galilee, I said them from the heart and I'll confess to choking back a tear.

(Most students have Fridays off here.  This is one of the few places anywhere in this country where Muslims, Jews, and Christians study and go to school together.  Here are the students who came in today to be our lunch hosts - these youth are all 9th and 10th graders.)

(Earlier in the day 11th and 12th graders gave members of our group a tour of the school.)

(We made a donation on the part of our group to the library.  Mostly fiction books requested for the older students taking English classes, but also hard to import books on teaching excellence and teaching theory.)

(Other members of our group visited a regional program for gifted students hosted at the schools.  These students are among the top 1.5% in their grades, and they come from all over the region on Fridays - 30 Fridays a year - for an extra day of school to be in class with other exceptional students.  These 6th and 7th grade girls are taking a class which encourages them to think about cities of the future.  What architectural, environmental, and artistic needs will they have?)

(These 8th graders - also part of the 1.5% program - are in debate class.  As we entered they were practicing point and counter-point about raising the legal age of marriage.  They wanted to know the legal age of marriage in the United States.)

(The high school building.)

(The Melkite Catholic Church at the center of the school.  The Beatitudes -- see Matthew 5 -- are inscribed in four languages going up the steps.  The school is currently 60% Muslim, 40% Christian, and welcomes many Jewish teachers.  The faith of this church community drives all they do.  From the Beatitudes, the words of Jesus which call for peacemaking.  To the call of Jesus to welcome children in his name.  This is the driving faith of this school).

(Members of the group prepare to hear the school's founder, Archbishop Elias Chacour speak.  We were joined by a group of students from Notre Dame as well as Kate Tabor, PCUSA's new facilitator for peace making partnerships in Israel/Palestine.)

(Archbishop Chacour address our group.)

Here is where the blog will get thin.  For two hours Elias Chacour told us stories, called us to action, told us that peacemaking was the primary call for Christians (as in others will know who God and Jesus are by the peace we make in the world), talked about the children of the school he founded, and told of his friendships with incredible people all over the world.  It was spellbinding.

And not just because of the qualities of the stories.

Because of the qualities of the man.  The faith of the man.  The courage of the man.  The way his devotion to Jesus and to the beatitudes have guided his witness in this small town of Ibillin and then, across the planet earth.  If you have never read his book, Blood Brothers, I hope you will read it.  And soon.  It is an important a book as I have read in many years.

He said so many things.

He speaks with courage and conviction about the violence that has hurt his land.  He calls all to remember that Jewish folks are created in God's image.  He calls all to remember that Palestinian folks are created in God's image.  He calls all to remember that there is ministry to do, there is faith for Christ and the love of Christ to share, where ever anyone of us may be ("I came to Ibillin for a one month assignment, but my bishop forgot me, and I forgot myself, and I have been here for almost 40 years").

And then he said this, "Please tell your friends in America that the Palestinians and Jews don't need to learn how to live together in peace...tell them that we just need to remember how we did it long ago."

I pass that on to any who read it, as I was asked to do.

There are people who talk about what they should do to make peace, help a need, love a neighbor as themselves and make their actions a witness for Christ.  No matter where we are there is a need for our faith and for our helping hands in our zip codes, county, or country.

And then there are those who do what is needed.  Who break ground.  Till soil.  Raise a helping hand.

Archbishop Chacour is a doer.  Devoted to God, lover of Christ, he has devoted his time and attentions to doing precisely what Jesus said.

When such a great example of service to God and the kingdom of God -- when something like this occurs in your midst, it is good to take notice.

I noticed today.

And it brought tears to my eyes.  It reminds me of the idealism with which I began seminary.  And it made me proud of our shared faith.   It made me humble before the  Lord, the  Lord Archbishop Chacour has so devotedly served.

(I write these words tonight from the Old City in Jerusalem.  The calls to prayer have just begun.  They echo through the city and its tight streets.  Darkness has fallen.  Tomorrow will come, and with it, Lord willing, the dawn.  And with the dawn explorations into the complexities of this city and explorations into the trial, death, and resurrection of Christ.)

We have come up to Jerusalem.  This trip - from Jordan, through the Negev, to Galilee, now to here, have given us much to think and pray about.

"Jerusalem - city of so much pain and joy.  The drama of crucifixion.  The wonder of resurrection.  Help us O God to see our faith clearly through what has happened here.  And then help us O God to see Jerusalem today - that we might know how to pray for peace in this complicated land.  Carry us forth to discover your good news, for these things we pray in your name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen."