FROM THE PASTOR
If Anyone Saves a Life . . .
Like so many of you I have been distressed and heartbroken by the continued suffering in wars and conflict across the globe. I am always thinking about Ukraine, especially since some of our members look to relatives suffering there. And in this holy Advent season our hearts go toward the Holy Land and the ongoing conflict and suffering there: from a horrific terror attack, to remaining hostages, to civilian deaths in Gaza. Previously I had shared some reflections from a journal I kept in a visit to the Holy Land. Today, with Advent hope and waiting on the coming of the Prince of Peace I share verses from Jewish and Muslim scriptures and a final entry in that journal.
Advent 2023
“if anyone saves a life, it shall be as though he had saved the lives of all mankind.” (Quran 5:2)
“anyone who destroys a life is considered by Scripture to have destroyed an entire world; and anyone who saves a life is as if he saved an entire world.” (Talmud, Sanhedrin 4:6)
In the Advent season of waiting and hoping for God to tear open the skies and come, our hearts go out to the suffering in the Holy Land, Ukraine and places of conflict and suffering across the globe. Below is an entry from the journal I kept in a visit to the Holy Land in 2003.
Home: The wing of the plane tips low toward the jumble of Tel Aviv and the blue Mediterranean. Down there are the refugee camps and schools and hospitals we had visited. Busses and cars move like tiny ants. Friday prayers on the temple mount at El Aqsa Mosque will begin in a few hours, then in the evening Sabbath will again approach the faithful as a lover. On Sunday morning the bells of Redeemer will again ring out in the old city. The rocks and hills and living stones begin to disappear. The intensely local recedes, dissolves into a birds eye view. Below us now is only the water as we climb up and away from the Holy Land. As the engines drone, hurtling me toward the holy land of New York I pray this psalm:
“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers. For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, “Peace be within you.” For the sake of the house of the Lord our God I will seek your good.” (Psalm 122: 6-9)
Stephen Paul Bouman
