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Reconciliation
Reconciliation: Sharing living water in the desert
By Salim Munayer READ: Reconciliation Part 2
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Editor’s Note: This column is the first in a series. It is excerpted from a speech given in November 2005 at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif. Salim Munayer, PhD., is the founder and director of Musalaha, a reconciliation ministry based in Jerusalem.
The Church faces many challenges in the birthplace of Christ.
The first challenge always is to communicate the Gospel to Muslims and Jews. Much has been written and said about the difficulties and challenges in that endeavor.
As important as that is, Christians who live among the Israeli Jewish people and Palestinian Arabs face an equally important challenge—to build a unified body of Christ in the midst of conflict.
Reconciliation among believers in this land is integral to their testimony and relevance.
Testimony and relevance can be defeated, though, if believers become dominated by the culture of hatred and division inherent in our societies. If the Church does not respond to the major issues that both societies struggle with—particularly the violence and hatred from Israeli-Palestinian conflict—we will suffocate. In the process we also will be unfaithful to our calling and our Christian mandate.
The mandate spelled out
The mandate for reconciliation is clear in the Scriptures, yet the challenge lies in how we as the Church apply Biblical teaching in our context.
Believers in the Messiah often find themselves on either side of the conflict. How do we reconcile with our fellow brother or sister who belongs to the other side? How do we put into practice “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and especially “Love your enemy”? How do we become a living testimony of Christ’s embrace and reconciliation?
Christ’s act on the cross reconciles humanity to God. “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them” (2 Cor. 5: 18-19).
Jesus’ obedience compels us to obey His commands for unity and to experience the fellowship and community of believers. “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier…. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross…” (Eph. 2: 14-16).
Our unity in Him is essential to our proclamation that He is the Savior of the world. Jesus prayed that believers’ unity would be a message of His salvation: “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21).
This Biblical foundation is driving force behind reconciliation.
Breaking through
Musalaha has been promoting and pursuing reconciliation among Palestinian and Israeli believers for more than 15 years. Although believers in the Messiah share a common faith, great cultural, historical and language differences stand between them. Both sides remain emotionally charged by their pain and enmity. The conflict represents a continuous struggle between two peoples.
“How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity” (Ps. 133: 1). In the years of the first intifada (1987-1993), Palestinian Christian and Messianic Israeli leaders observed that many meetings between Israelis and Palestinians did not reflect this scripture. Instead the two sides moved to accusations and blame. Many left hurt and hopeless.
The challenge before us was to find a forum where Israelis and Palestinians could meet with each other, develop relationships and build a certain level of trust that would help them deal with some of the core issues of the conflict. Leaders from both sides founded Musalaha as a vehicle to bring people into the process of Biblical reconciliation.
Finding water in the desert
Because relationships are key to reconciliation in Middle Eastern cultures, it is important to bring people together in an atmosphere that is conducive to building those relationships.
In an area with such complex problems, it is difficult to find common ground. Few locations are neutral and easily accessible. To solve this problem, Musalaha developed the Desert Encounter, where different groups of Palestinian and Israeli youth, young adults and leaders travel together on a desert journey.
We have found the desert to be a uniquely neutral atmosphere where everyone is in the same position, working together through the hardships of the desert sun or a stubborn camel. The desert strips participants of their comfort zones and forces them to relate on a different level.
The challenges of survival and cooperation provide an excellent occasion for open communication. In the desert, they share devotions, life stories, narratives, fears, struggles and hopes; and in doing so they reach a certain level of intimacy. The journey provides a perfect space for interaction and relationship building, and creates a sense of oneness and cooperation.
Participants often get negative pressure after Desert Encounters from peers who question their loyalty to the group. To counter this we designed follow-up projects so that participants can keep in contact with one another. There are two goals with this: to continue the process begun in the desert and to expand the process into communities.
In many cases the follow-up projects help to deepen relationships and to deal with difficult issues. As part of the follow-up, participants select a social service project through which they can serve both Palestinian and Israeli communities, building on their experience in the desert.
From the Desert Encounters, Musalaha expanded to projects such as youth encounters, summer camp, women’s retreats, family conferences, theological seminars and books on reconciliation and related issues.
Many people ask about the impact of reconciliation efforts. Research on various programs has found positive results. Some encouraging insight comes from a study by Gavriel Salomon from the University of Haifa on the impact of peace education in Israeli and Palestinian students. Saloman found that peace education programs had a lasting effect, that expressions of hatred were reduced, and the building relationships helped to change perceptions and deepen understanding of the other side.
Many Palestinians and Israelis who have been involved in Musalaha’s activities over the past 10 years have expressed that the experience greatly impacted their lives and led to a change of heart. As a result of the process, participants have interacted and built trust with the “enemy.” Many have experienced spiritual growth and a deeper understanding of the meaning of being one body.
The unity developed when believers encounter one another makes a tremendous impression on observers and impacts the unbelieving community. In this way, believers are fulfilling Jesus prayer in John 17. People from Muslim and Jewish communities, such as tour guides, accommodation staff, security guards and bus drivers who interact with our groups ask questions that have often lead to long discussions in which the Gospel is presented.In the past non-believers have joined a desert encounter or conference and become believers as a result!
Palestinian and Israeli believers coming together is a powerful testimony of what Christ did for us on the cross, bringing redemption and reconciliation with the God who loves us.
© 2006 Called and Sent Magazine. All Rights Reserved.