Every day I am bombarded by images of starving and wounded children in Gaza. I sit at my own dinner table with my own children and feel the insane dissonance between the lives of my two kids. So, we turn to scripture for our grounding.
In Genesis 18, God and Abraham have a famous conversation. It starts like this:
20 Then the Lord said, “How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their sin! 21 I must go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me, and if not, I will know.”
22 So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before the Lord. 23 Then Abraham came near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” 26 And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.”
From there, Abraham (like a pesky child) negotiates with God. What if there are 45 righteous people? What about 40? Until he gets God to agree that even if there are just 10 righteous people, God will not destroy the city.
As I see the events of the starvation and killing of innocent people in Gaza through the lens of this story, it holds up for me just how unacceptable this war is because of the way that there is no distinction between the starvation of the righteous from the wicked. (As a Christian, I have thoughts about even the validity of killing or starving the wicked, what with the whole commandment not to murder and the fact that ALL people are made in the image of God, but we can save that for another day.)
Last week we felt the horror of gun violence in the United States as two children were killed at their school in Minneapolis. In Gaza, on average 28 children die every day due to bombardments, starvation, malnutrition, or lack of services. That’s an entire classroom of kids, every single day. It is not ok.
Our legacy is to follow in the way of Abraham. To beg, plead, negotiate, advocate and GET OBNOXIOUS in our perseverance to insist on the safety of these innocent Palestinian children.
Here are the phone numbers for our representatives:
Representative Sara Jacobs - 202-225-2040
Representative Darrel Issa - 202-225-5672
Representative Scott Peters - 202-225-0508
Senator Alex Padilla - 202-224-3553
Senator Adam Schiff - 202-224-3841
Save these numbers into your phones and call them every week. It only takes a few minutes. Leave a message letting them know that it is important to you that they support legislation that will get food and safety to the children of Gaza. Look up bills that you can specifically ask them to support. Google call scripts if you’re not comfortable without one. Ask me and I can help you if you’ve never called your legislator before!
Consider giving money to World Central Kitchen (wck.org/relief/chefs-for-gaza) or Save The Children (http://www.savethechildren.org) or Lutheran Disaster Relief (elca.org/our-work/relief-and-development/lutheran-disaster-response).
Pray that the world with be infected with the fervency of Abraham who would not stop until he had the assurance from God, that innocent lives would be protected.
You don’t have to be an expert to take a small step to ensure that Palestinian children are protected and fed.
Peace,
Pastor Bekki