The search for wisdom at home and in the Middle East
Evensong 22.10.23
Proverbs 4.1-18,
1 John 3.16 – 4.6
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In terms of priorities, let me first get out of the way that having reached the semi-final weekend in the rugby world cup, England being the only home nation still involved at that stage, they may have lost to the world champions, but it was still a far better match than expected and a great achievement to lose only in the last three minutes of time. In the ICC cricket world cup, we were world champions but lost to Afghanistan but how marvellous for them. Sport is often a great leveller and better to have the conflicts between different sides and the races between different athletic individuals, as we had last week in the Great South Run, and the wins and losses on the sports fields, and race tracks rather than the killing fields of conflict zones. If only we could contain them to those usually gentler settings but we now have the backdrop of the latest developments in the Middle East to come to terms with.
I will come back to that but first this evening we have readings which talk to us about what wisdom looks like. The Book of Proverbs is not just a collection of short two-line sayings or proverbs although that covers the majority of the last two thirds of the 31 chapters ending as it does with a whole chapter that starts with the words ‘a good wife, who can find?’ and then going into the lengthy attributes of a good wife. I did once get to read that at St Mary’s, Portsea, just after Karen and I got engaged which raised a smile or two but before anyone gets too worked up about the perfection thereby displayed, that chapter, chapter 31 which we did not hear tonight, is really a summary of the entire book which is all about wisdom in its various forms. In the passage we heard tonight from chapter 4, it was all just being set up, and we were told to keep Yahweh’s commandments, to get wisdom and prize her. The tone and approach throughout was personal and it is enhanced by the personification of wisdom itself or I should say herself because throughout the book wisdom is personified in the feminine. So the end of the book is not so much a description about perfect but impossible standards of wifeliness, as about the perfect attributes of personified wisdom as something which all of us, men and women, need.
In chapter 4, as well as getting wisdom, we are exhorted to get insight and not to walk in the way of evildoers. It is important to note that avoiding evil on its own is not enough. It is not just about a conscious avoidance of what is wrong, it is also about a conscious engagement with what is right, which is to keep the commandments, and to get wisdom and insight.
The second reading was from the first letter of John, which is the letter where later in chapter 4 he says: ‘God is love and those who abide in love, abide in God and God abides in them’, words used also in the marriage service and sometimes at the Peace. In the section we heard tonight, he talks about us knowing love because, Jesus Christ first laid down his life for us echoing the gospel of John where Jesus says, ‘Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’.
John, in the letter, also talks about God’s love abiding in those who have the world’s goods and see someone in need and are willing to help them. It is about love and action, active not passive.
So, we get from both readings something about the need for and importance of wisdom, insight, obedience to commandments, love, and action. We can interpret that individually of course and that would not be wrong, and is important, but if we only interpret it individually then it seems to me that we lose some important aspects of its meaning, and we need also to consider what it means in our collective life as well. That means due consideration needs to be given to how we do that as a Cathedral, as a city, community, diocese, and nation but it seems to me tonight that it is more urgent for us to consider what it might mean on the international stage given the situation in the Middle East. So tonight I am going to take the risk of tentatively saying a few things about the situation. We cannot just ignore it or bury our heads.
So the question is where do we find wisdom, insight, understanding for the Middle East, and right now for Jews in Israel who have been so blatantly attacked by Hamas. Where do we find it also for innocent Palestinians in Gaza, victims of an overwhelming bombing campaign? The one thing we know for sure is that there are no easy answers and almost everyone involved has an element of bias one way or the other. We know also that there is at the same time an information war going on, so it is impossible to know who or what to believe from what we are told. If we find ourselves only wanting to condemn one side rather than another, perhaps we should ask if we are missing something.
There can surely be little doubt that the initial starting point must be condemnation of Hamas for the attack on innocent Israeli men, women, and children two weeks ago. They have been attacked in the most awful and despicable way by terrorists who have also taken hostages, and whose aim is to annihilate the state of Israel. But we have to zoom out from that alone and consider Israel’s response. The idea that they should not retaliate in some way or declare a ceasefire seems unreasonable, but it is not unreasonable to question doing so with such overwhelming force involving clearly innocent civilians. There has to be a reasonable limit and it is hard to see where they think that is. We do, though, need to recognise that ‘loving enemies’ is from Christian theology, not Jewish. Judaic theology talks about a time for war and a time for peace, a time for love but also for hate. It does though also talk about ‘an eye for an eye’ which was actually an attempt to limit retribution to something more equitable than thumping the living daylights out of an opponent.
Zooming out further, we recognise that Israel is the only Jewish state in the region and indeed the world, created by us in 1948, and surrounded by mainly hostile other states although some of that has settled down with various peace processes over the years but they cannot do anything without support from allies such as the USA and the UK. And this is part of wider international differences and attempts to control the narrative and sow chaos, between the West and the East, of which the Ukraine is simply another axis with Russia, Iran and sometimes China complicit as well through proxies. None of this is simple and there are no easy answers. The fear is that it could too easily escalate and lead to a much wider conflict which is perhaps what some countries might want. We could zoom out further and consider the various claims to the lands of Palestine throughout history. I could go on, there are multiple dimensions, and detailed histories to draw on, on all sides.
Importantly and sadly, we see here a huge rise in antisemitism. It has not just gone up a bit, it has gone up 500%. It is not surprising but entirely understandable and not right that Jews should feel vulnerable in this country.
At least part of the problem in the Middle East is that everyone feels vulnerable. As Christians we are not immune from the issues but intimately involved. The hospital that was hit last week was an Anglican hospital fully funded by the Diocese of Jerusalem. The Archbishop of Canterbury who was here visiting this diocese the whole weekend last week, is now paying a pastoral visit to Jerusalem. It is almost pointless trying to allocate blame because most people have already decided whom they regard as at fault irrespective of any evidence. What are we to do in such a desperate situation with such awful scenes in front of us? We are confronted by the suffering on all sides, but at the same time we have that challenge in our readings confronting those who have the world’s goods, (and we certainly do have them in comparison), to share and to act. We have to respond but how?
It is not an easy question to answer but here are three ideas. Firstly, we have to pray (as we have just done). We have to pray daily for peace and justice in Israel, in Gaza, and throughout the Middle East. We have to pray for those being held hostage. We have to pray too for those held in captivity by ideologies which blind them to suffering, understanding and compassion for others and especially those with whom they differ. This needs not to be a general, ‘O Lord bring peace’, but a much more thoughtful, targeted prayer for peace, a peace that comes with justice, humility, compassion, and care.
Secondly, we are not able to go there and deliver food or support or care for those who are grieving or injured ourselves, but we can do two things on this – we can give money, support, and visibility to support those who can do that. Christian Aid has an appeal and is looking at how to help both Gazans and Israelis who are affected, but we can also, in our interactions with each other, with others, in our discussions with politicians as well, express care and compassion for all who are caught up and be wary both of being manipulated either by one faction or another but also of colluding with the idea that only one side is all to blame. Neither is perfect and neither has behaved well. If we want to see peace, we need to support diplomatic efforts, especially those aimed at building confidence, reducing vulnerability, and looking for small initial signs of hope that can be built upon to become bigger more significant ones in due course, but it all takes time.
Thirdly we need to be aware especially in the fog of war and conflict, that we don’t have all the information and never will. What we can see, what we have is always only partial and we are not likely get the level of clarity we would like. As I have mentioned before this year, we can, though, hope to get what Bernstein and Woodward described as ‘the best obtainable version of the truth’, and that will have to do. It should also make us humble enough not to expect that anything here is black and white. We might even decide we don’t know enough to express an opinion. That is okay.
The shades may be more or less grey in areas but ultimately, we have to trust in God, who is a God of love, to bring about an end to the immediate conflict and we pray eventually, perhaps over a much longer period, an end to recriminations such that we may still hope for reconciliation that will last. Amen.