Breaking Rank And Growing Our Souls

Today’s date – October 7 – has become one of those dates like September 11 due to what was set in motion on that day in 2023. By many accounts, it was the beginning of the current Israel-Hamas conflict which has now spread across the region and has been a flashpoint in our country.

To date Al Jazeera says that there are almost 42,000 Palestinians (including nearly 17,000 children) who have been killed, almost 100,000 who have been injured and more than 10,000 missing in the conflict (this does not even count the displaced people). In the occupied West Bank, almost 800 Palestinians have been killed with more than 5500 injured. In Israel, more than 1100 people have been killed and almost 9000 have been injured. About 101 people remain as hostages.

Just pause for a moment and notice what is coming up for you.

If you’re like me, the mere mention of October 7 sets a lot in motion. I feel some deep emotion – especially when I start engaging the numbers of lives lost or impacted by this war. And please note that those numbers do not even begin to speak of the destruction of non-human lives, vital infrastructure, sites of cultural significance, etc. that have been destroyed in the current war – with almost all of the destruction happening to Palestinians in Gaza.

I recently came across an article by activist and educator, Ali Michaels, that I found helpful as as she reflects on this time in history. 

In it she says, “Last year at this time, October 6, 7, and 8th were dates with little widespread meaning…[but] this year we observe three grim anniversaries:

October 6—the anniversary of a time when conflict in Israel and Palestine was mostly visible and vital only to those most directly connected to that land and its people.

October 7—the day on which we remember and grieve the Hamas attacks on Israel.

October 8—the day on which we remember and grieve Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza and the West Bank.”

All three dates are important to our reflection because, contrary to what some in the media have espoused, history did not begin on October 7. There is much that came before it that influenced the events of October 7, and there is much that has now come after it.

Michaels goes on to say that so many conversations about the conflict have conjured very deep emotion in us because the situation has hyper-aroused our nervous systems (like so many conflicts do). Many have engaged in protests, sit-ins, demonstrations, counter-demonstrations, social media posts, etc. in an effort to live out their own moral values. And most of us have done so out of a deep grief that we feel and a desire to do something to try to stop further harm from happening.

“Everyone wants a solution yesterday, “ she says, because “that’s what facilitates peace.  That’s what stops the killing.” And yet the killing continues, and a solution seems quite far off – especially now that the conflict has spread wider.

My friend and public theologian, Tommy Airey, who has done a deep dive into this conflict since October 7 last year, encourages people to “take a rigorous moral inventory of your sources and your social network.” He asks us to interrogate where we are getting our information from, whom we are in relationship with and how this is influencing how we frame what is going on.

It is no secret that the United States government has a very tight relationship with the state of Israel and has, in fact, been a major supplier of the weapons that Israel has used in this conflict. This has deeply shaped what we hear about here in our news and on our social media feeds.

Tommy says that – especially for Western Christians – it can be “scary as hell coming to grips with the fact that [we] might actually be getting duped (or being gaslit) by an imperial agenda” and that it is “much easier to go along with the propaganda than to face the fact that harsh realities rarely cooperate with conventional wisdom.” He goes on to ask, “Will we seek safety and security in the familiar confines of the establishment, or will we break rank and grow our souls in the movement?“

In our first reading today, Paul tells the Galatians, “I am amazed that you are so quickly forsaking the one who called you by the grace of Christ.”

In the world that we live in, it seems so easy to fosake the gospel as we follow conventional wisdom and the status quo.

Yet we forsake the gospel message when we accept violence as the normal course of things.

We forsake the gospel message when we accept oppression and marginalization for one group of people.

We forsake the gospel message when we allow imperial agendas to determine our priorities and/or our perspective.

In the gospel (Luke 10), Jesus tells the story of the “Good Samaritan.” In what might be one of his most famous stories, he talks about how numerous “righteous” people justified themselves in walking past the man dying by the side of the road. They all had “good reason” not to get involved. It is the Samaritan, however, the outsider, who stops and gets involved in the situation – breaking ranks and disregarding the politics of the day – instead focusing on the humanity of the person in need right now.

How we “read” a story like the Good Samaritan – and whom we put into each part in the drama – might change our perspective or our action.

Where would you put the Palestinian people?

Where would you put the United States government?

Where are you in this story?

It is my hope that we will pause on this anniversary of October 7 and consider more deeply the needs and humanity of the people “on the side of the road” who have been so deeply impacted by this conflict.

It is my belief that people of faith can, in fact, embrace the gospel and respond to the needs of and harm against the Palestinian people of Gaza in a way that does not contribute to further anti-Jewish sentiment or hate. And it is my hope that we as a people may reflect more deeply on our country’s role in this conflict. And to do both we must consider not only October 7th but October 6th and October 8th.

This will take courage, fortitude, creativity and community. And we – like the Samaritan – will need to forego the “familiar confines of the establishment…break rank and grow our souls in the movement” in order to do so.

May a way forward emerge that enables us all to move into a new reality that does not require anyone’s diminishment/dehumanization and enables all who may be by the side of the road to feel cared for and made whole.