FROM THE PASTOR
Never Again
We live in a time of increased hate crimes, a time when people are singled out and attacked for who they are. GLBTQ people, racial groups, Jewish people live in a time of heightened prejudice and hatred, just for being who they are.
A couple of decades ago I led, with, a rabbi, an interfaith delegation of Jews and Christians on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. One of the most gripping and painful moments in the pilgrimage was a visit to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum. In the midst of testimony to the numbing reality of the deaths of millions of Jews was a small note of grace. There were a few who said “No!” to the slaughter. Too many did not or said nothing. Too often it was religion as usual in the Nazi world, as policies and actions which led to the “final solution” took their ugly course. It was painful for this descendant of German Lutherans to experience evidence of the horror of the holocaust. The newest exhibit at Yad Vashem was a children’s museum, a hall of lights and mirrors where children’s names and pictures punctuated the endless reflected lights of remembrance for the slaughter of innocents. One does not even try to comprehend. Just remember, and in some way join the angry chorus. “Never again!”
In a grove of trees and memorial plaques are remembered those who risked and gave their lives to save Jews, to hide them, to speak out against the horror; in one way or another, to say, No!” It is called the Garden of the Righteous Gentiles. Name after name – French, Dutch, Yugoslavian, German, Ukrainian, Norwegian, Czech – were reminders that the last freedom, to say “No” to evil, can never be taken away. Their remembrance by the State of Israel is a small sign of grace and healing. the memory of these names joined the remembrance of victims in a chorus of blood and deed-bearing witness to the truth.
In our troubled days of polarizing hate and bigotry there is always a need for more witnesses, a remembrance of victims, a resolve to say “no!” in the name of God.
At a memorial service for victims of the Holocaust at th end of our time at Yad Vashem, Rabbi Freedman asked me to lay a wreath. As I did; this Lutheran pastor of German descent blessed God for the gracious gesture of my Jewish brother.
Prayer: Give us opportunities, dear Lord, to cause wreaths to be placed, to forgive one another, to face the future together in your redeeming love. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Pastor Stephen Bouman
