Palestinian Pastor Munther Isaac, Christmas Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, December 26, 2023
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Christ under the rubble. We are angry. We are broken. This would have been a time of joy. Instead, we are mourning. We are fearful. More than 20,000 killed, thousands are still under the rubble. Close to 9,000 children killed in the most brutal ways. Day after day, 1.9 million displaced, hundreds of thousands of homes destroyed. Gaza as we know, it no longer exists. This is an annihilation. This is a genocide. The world is watching. Churches are watching. The people of Gaza are sending live images of their own execution. Maybe the world cares, but it goes on. We are asking here, could this be our fate in Bethlehem, in Ramallah, in Jenin? Is this our destiny too? We are tormented by the silence of the world. Leaders of the so-called free, lined up one after the other to give the green light for this genocide against a captive population. They gave the cover. Not only did they make sure to pay the bill in advance, they veiled the truth and context providing the political cover, and yet another layer has been added. The theological cover with the Western church stepping into the spotlight.
Here in Palestine, the Bible is weaponized against us, our very own sacred text. In our terminology in Palestine, we speak of the empire. Here we confront the theology of Empire, a disguise for superiority, supremacy, chosenness, and entitlement.
It is sometimes given a nice cover using words like mission and evangelism, fulfillment of prophecy and spreading freedom and liberty. It speaks of land without people. It divides people into us and them. It dehumanizes and demonizes the concept of land without people again, even though they knew too well that the land had people and not just any people. A very special people.
Theology of the Empire calls for emptying Gaza just like it called for the ethnic cleansing in 1948, a miracle or a divine miracle as they called it.. It calls for us Palestinians now to go to Egypt, maybe Jordan. Why not just the sea? Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them? This war has confirmed to us that the world does not see us as equal. Maybe it’s the color of our skins. Maybe it is because we are on the wrong side of a political equation. Even our kinship in Christ did not shield us. So they say if it takes killing 100 Palestinians to get a single Hamas militant, then so be it. We are not humans in their eyes, but in God’s eyes, no one can tell us that.
The hypocrisy and racism of the western world is transparent and appalling. They always take the word of Palestinians with suspicion and qualification. No, we’re not treated equally yet, on the other side, despite a clear track record of misinformation. lies, their words are almost always deemed infallible. To our European friends, I never ever want to hear you lecture us on human rights or international law again, and I mean this. In this war, the many Christians in the western world made sure the empire has the theology needed. It is their self-defense, we were told. And I continue to ask, how is the killing of 9,000 children self-defense?
How is the displacement of 1.9 million Palestinians self-defense. In the shadow of the Empire, they turned the colonizer into the victim and the colonized into the aggressor.
Have we forgotten, have we forgotten that the state they talked to, that that state was built on the ruins of the towns and villages of those very same cousins? Have they forgot that. We are outraged by the complicity of the church? Let it be clear friends, silence is complicity and empty calls for peace without a ceasefire and end to occupation and the shallow words of empathy without direct action, all under the banner of complicity. So here is my message. Gaza today has become the moral compass of the world. Gaza was hell before October 7th and the world was silent. Should we be surprised that they’re silenced now?
If you are not appalled by what is happening in Gaza, if you are not shaken to your core, there is something wrong with your humanity. If you fail to call this a genocide, it is on you. It is a sin and a darkness you willingly embrace.
Some have not even called for a ceasefire. I’m talking about churches. We will be okay despite the immense blow we have endured, we the Palestinians will recover. We will rise. We will stand up again from the midst of destruction as we have always done as Palestinians. Although this is by far maybe the biggest blow we have received in a long time but we will be okay. But for those who are complicit, I feel sorry for you. Will you ever recover from this? Your charity and your words of shock after the genocide won’t make a difference. And let me say it, we will not accept your apology after the genocide.
What has been done has been done. I want you to look at the mirror and ask, where was I when Gaza was going through a genocide? You brought the gift of love and solidarity. We feel it. We were troubled by the silence of God. We have searched for God and found him under the rubble in Gaza. Jesus himself became the victim of the very same violence of the empire. When He was in our land, He was tortured, crucified, He bled out as others watched. He was killed and cried out in pain, “My God, where are you?”
In Gaza today, God is under the rubble. If Jesus were to be born today, He would be born under the rubble in Gaza. When we glorify pride and richness, Jesus is under the rubble. When we rely on power might and weapons, Jesus is under the rubble. When we justify, rationalize and theologize the bombing of children, Jesus is under the rubble. This is Christmas today in Palestine, and this is the Christmas message. Christmas in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus is this manger. This is our message to the world today. This genocide must stop now. Stop this genocide. This is our call. This is our plea. This is our prayer, hear oh God.
Amen
