God shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more

The image of the weapon turned into the farming implement is one of the primal reversals that our scripture toys with to illustrate Judeo-Christian hope. Like a cross, which was first a symbol of the just execution of the scum of society being transformed into the symbol of justice and caring love; or the image of the powerless baby transformed into the symbol of the power of the King of Kings, the reversal of the implements of war into the very act of agrarian and pastoral peace is provocative, comforting, warming and a key symbol for those who find their spiritual nurture in peace activism.

Swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, in Jayyous where I served as an Ecumenical Accompanier for three months in 2005 and which I visited as part of my three weeks in Palestine and Israel is an interesting conversation in that pastoral/agrarian setting. The village of 3300 people has about 12000 dunams of land, a duman is about a ¼ acre. Many farmes there have been greenhouse farmers and on a one dunam greenhouse,they can produce about 80,000 lbs of tomatoes a year. Some farmers have irrigated their lands and grow a broad variety of fruits; loquats, figs, amngo, apples, oranges, these wonderful blue plums, grapes, guava, cactus fruits, pears and every imaginable vegetable. All of this is resting on the societal base crop – the olive, whose trees branches are the biblical symbol of peace. It is in many respects in the otherwise dry and barren land of Palestine and Israel, a little visage of the garden of Eden – and a dear corner of the world to me, with families who give extreme hospitality, laugh quickly, entertain Christian internationals, Israeli Jewish peace activists and talk of God’s great message of peace as revealed to them in Islam. It is also a village with the problems of many – there are garbage smells, poor street planning, disagreements and petty rivalries. Their women occupy a different power strata within their village and their society and all wear the head scarf. It is strange, foreign, familiar and lovely all at once and I can tell you truthfully that if you went there as I did for 3 months it would be inescapable for you not to lose a part of your heart to them forever.

And so seeing the wall that the government of Israel has built, ostensibly to protect its citizens from Palestinian militants, separate the people of Jayyous from 2/3 of their farm land and all of their water, seeing that scar on the land snake around the village starts to cut you the way it cuts farmers from their land. I can’t recount to yout he whole of the history of Palestine and Israle ot you, so I’ll give you some basics, and hope you can read the handout that we’ve provided to you in your bulletin when you get home. Jayyous is 6 miles from the border with Israel – you can see on the map on the handout, the second map the lines drawn after the conflict in 1948 which gave rise to the State of Israel and Jayyous is in the northern ½ of the West Bank.

In 1967, after the 6 day war, Israel began its present occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza strip, including the village of Jayyous. As a signatory to the Geneva Convention, Israel along with Canada agrees it cannot acquire territory by conquest, and therefore can’t convert to its own use the land or import its own citizens. On Jayyous lands, in 1993, as Israel was signing treaties in Oslo saying it would build no more settlements, they built the settlement of Tzufim on the farm lands of Jayyous. And when they built the Wall, which I will call the Apartheid Wall on Jayyous lands, they took more land s tot build it, a mile and a half inside of the settlement. It seems like more than a coincidence that where they chose to put the wall, also followed the water resources for the community. And now, as they are at Annapolis saying they will build no more settlements, there are signs up in Tzufim saying you can buy a new home as they plan to extend the settlement down onto the farmers land, building another 1500 homes to join with the 185 houses already in the settlement – making it more than 8 times the size it is presently. And…as they do this, they will build closer and closer to the Palestinian village which Israel says it needs to be protected from.

Being in Jayyous is knowing with every fibre of your being that the Government of Israel is not a honest broker in peace treaties and that this is about stealing land, breaking international law. Being in Jayyous is seeing the pastoral, agragrian culture replaced with 18 year old soldiers with huge automatic weapons hassle 70 year old farmers with donkey carts who are trying to go to their land. Being in Jayyous is seeing the reversal of the agragrian into the instruments of war. As my good friend and our host, Abu Azzam joked with me 2 years ago, as he sat waiting in line to go to his land on his 23 year old 35 horsepower international tractor – "This is not a tractor, this is an F16, and I am not a farmer, I am a pilot, for if it were not so, would the whole Israeli army have to check me every day, coming and going from my fields?" Two years later, Abu Azzam cannot go to his farm – nor can his sons – only his 63 year old wife with a bad hip can go and for the first time in her life, direct the workers. Abu Azzam was denied a permit after going overseas and talking to church groups about the Occuaption – he is now a security risk to the State of Israel. And his sons, including the one who owns a company that repairs and installs elevators in Jewish owned business in Israel, who can get permits to go to Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, can’t get a permit to go to his father’s fields for "security reasons". Being in Jayyous is seeing ploughshares turned into swords by a military occupation, blatantly evil in its bureaucratic efficiency, which you can’t help but compare with Nazi efficiency in the ghettoization of Europe.

And if you’ve been there, and you care, and you’ve given them your heart, inside you, or at least inside me, you confront your own demons of fear, for your own neck, of hatred – I can’t imagine someone seeing how this Occupation really works on Palestinians and not comprehending how people turn to the desperation of suicide bombing. And for me, an activist in this cause who has decided he will no longer have truck nor trade with forces that say we should talk about balance, even on my most noble and peace loving days, I want a horse riding across the sky, a dramatic all powerful king to vindicate the oppressed, to set the oppressor under his foot, I want a conquerer, a king, a messiah.

God shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

You know, welding, the recycling of metals into other shapes is an intricate process and a learned skill…different metals heat differently, and the fires must come from certain sources…even watching it requires specialized glasses so that the artisan can be present without being harmed or blinded. It is essentially an act of patience and detail. And the work of plowshares..farming is not what you could call exciting in the sense of an emergency room or a stock exchange floor. It is a practice of patience and delight with the rhythms of nature. It is also deeply intelligent work, requiring planning not just for the season, but for the generations. Olive trees take 25 years to mature and bear fruit for 500 years and more, and so you plant them for your great, great great grand children more than for you. Swords into plowshares like infant kings is diasappointing and slow and inevitable, because at some point, no one can eat bullets. The first weekend I was away, before I went to Palestine, I went to hear Archbishop Desmond Tutu speak at a conference held by a Palestinian liberation theology centre – Sabeel. Desmond Tutu along with UN special rapporteur John Dugard, Jimmy Carter, Maya Angelou and a host of others have risked reputation to work hard to end Israeli Apartheid against Palestinians and are called anti-Semites as a reward. I wanted to see Desmond Tutu badly. He is sort of a minister superstar after all, and given our particular connection – not just in our first name but because of it, I endured being called Tutu as a nickname in high school, so he sort of owes me I think…so I really wanted to hear him tell us that we will overcome, that just as in South Africa, this evil will be crushed. I wanted a conquering hero. And I got a quiet, deeply theological, even dull little man, who laughs a lot and lights a cathedral with a smile. He told us of how they found their comfort in the words of the prophets, in our common spiritual ancestry with Abraham. He plead with Jews around the world to offer leadership to end the scourge of the Occupation. Reciting how he could have recounted the similarities with apartheid, the painful images and how things are even worse under Occupation than Apartheid, he said:

I have not gone that route. No, I have a different approach. My addres sis a cri de Coeur, a cry of anguish from the heart, an impassioned plea for my spiritual relatives, the offspring of Abraham like me – please hear the call, the noble call of your scriptures, of our scriptures, to be with the God of the Exodus who took the side of a bunch of slaves against a powerful Pharoah, be on the side of the God who intervened through His prophet Elijah on behalf of Naboth, hear the plea of your scriptures and stand with the God who intervened through his prophet Nathan on behalf of Uriah against King David. Be on the side of the of God who revealed a soft spot in his heart for the widow, the orphan, and the alien, be on the side of the God whose "Spirit sends us out to preach the good news to the poor". Don’t be found fighting against the God, your God, our God who hears the cry of the oppressed, who sees their anguish and who will always come down to deliever them. Be not opposed to this God whose Spirit when it anoints you makes you concerned for the poor. This is your calling. If you disobey that calling, if you do not heed it, then as sure as anything one day you will come a cropper. You will probably not succumb to an outside assault militarily. With the unquestioning support of the USA you are probably impregnable. But you who are called are they wyho are asked to deal with the oppressed, the weak the despised compassionately, caringly, remembering what happened to you in Egypt and more recently in Germany. Remember and act appropriately. If you reject your calling you may survive for a long tie, but you will find it all corrosive inside and one day you will implode.

God shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Swords into plowshares – the hope of the Coming Jesus of God in Advent – is not a hope that is going to come down with pomp and fanfare and complete vindication of all evils. A sword comes into a plowshare through the relentless efforts of those who can stand in front of the sword holder and say NO, and NO I won’t hurt you either. And in the case of the Palestinians, whom the sword goes through daily, that person who can do that is ME and it is YOU. Small and weak compared to a tank we may well be, but yet bigger and stronger than a newborn babe. This is not small hope, and it is not hope vested in the things that the world will tell you are powerful like swords, but in the things that are commonplace, like plowshares.

 

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