Long-Awaited Consolation: A sermon on Luke 2:22-40

Written by Rev. Susan Wilder, IPMN co-moderator

“Long lay the world, in sin and error pining…” That is where we have to start today’s sermon. I promise, though, it will not be where we leave it in the end. 

As many of you know, I’ve just returned from a ten-day trip to Palestine. I was part of a global Christian delegation of 20 people, mostly from South Africa, and also from Canada, Ecuador, and the US. Our mission was two-fold: to show solidarity with those who are suffering and to carry their voices and pain back home and share these with the world.

I want first to thank all of you for your support – for your prayers and concern and for your financial support. Everywhere I went I stressed that I was there to represent this congregation and Presbyterians in the US broadly. Together our delegation represented millions of Christians around the world, and this fact alone brought hope and encouragement to the Palestinians who feel deeply, terribly, alone right now. Our Christian brothers and sisters in Palestine especially feel overlooked by Western Christians who often don’t even acknowledge their existence much less their suffering because of misguided theology, theology that reveres the state of Israel and can justify and excuse almost any action, no matter how destructive, in support of this misguided view. 

You, all of you, went with me, to demonstrate a different reality – to show by our presence that there are Christians who care. To show that our brothers and sisters in Palestine are not overlooked. They are seen. This was our message of hope, and it was well received.

It was received by a people who are longing for all the things our passage promises – redemption, salvation, consolation.  Jesus was presented in the temple, according to the Mosaic law, at six weeks old. Mary and Joseph brought him there to fulfill the laws, both the laws of purification for Mary after giving birth, and the laws commanding that a first-born son be dedicated to the Lord.

They came to the temple, to fulfill their duties under Jewish law, while they themselves and all the Jewish people lived under that boot of the Roman occupation.

And it is the same today, faithful and faithfilled people in Palestine, living out their faith under Israeli occupation, and longing as did those of the first century, for redemption, salvation, and consolation.

On our trip, we heard about the suffering and pain that is ongoing now – the suffering our neighbors hope and pray will come to a swift end. The suffering for which they desperately long for consolation.

From the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem, we heard about a Christian cultural center in Gaza which took 15 years to build – demolished in an instant by Israeli bombs. We heard about people huddled in churches, running out of food, water, medicine, and every kind of supply. With hospitals turned to rubble, we heard about surgery performed without anesthesia. The solar panels and water tanks for a parish complex were targeted. Nothing and no one is spared as Gaza is systematically and relentlessly reduced to dust and rubble.

We were told, if you get sick or injured in Gaza, it is only a matter of time before you die.

The people we met with also emphasized that we should not ignore what’s happening in the West Bank. While all eyes are on Gaza, the Israeli military and Israeli settlers are wreaking havoc across the West Bank. Israel has put all West Bank towns and villages under closure – Palestinians cannot leave their towns. This is why I couldn’t go to see our friends in our partner church in Nablus. But I did send them greetings (on WhatsApp) and I know our congregation and many of you individually did as well. And I received their greetings in return. Now more than ever these ties are critical. These bonds of fellowship that cross the boundaries and barbed wire of occupation are lifelines of hope. 

I got to see Doug Dicks, our Presbyterian representative in Bethlehem. And at one of the church services I attended in Bethlehem I ran into our guide, Elias – it was a great joy to see him.

And I got to see Daoud Nassar of the Tent of Nations and his wife Jihan in Bethlehem. Many of you here have been to the Tent of Nations on our Grace trips. It’s a Palestinian farm near Bethlehem which the Nassar family has also turned into a peace center, with the motto, “We refuse to be enemies.” A real treat for me was having lunch with Daoud and his family at his family home in Bethlehem and meeting his mother.

Daoud has been staying in Bethlehem but checking on the farm as often as possible. He says that so far the farm is intact, but villagers in the surrounding area have been attacked by settlers.

We met with the cousin of one of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas – a young man who only wants, who desperately pleads for, the release of this cousin. We met with a Muslim sheik who was recently detained by Israel and questioned about one of his sermons before being released. He said that this is a regular occurrence – he is detained by the Israeli authorities about once every six months.

There are regular violent incursions by the Israeli military into WB towns including Bethlehem and Nablus. Unemployment is sky high, and the economic situation is dire.

Since October 7 around 280 Palestinians have been killed in the WB. Many have been taken prisoner.

And even as some Palestinian prisoners are released in prisoner exchanges, more are being kidnapped and incarcerated. I was able to visit Father Ibrahim and his family in Jordan. Father Ibrahim was the priest in Nablus when we first started our church-to-church partnership 16 years ago, and now he serves two parishes in Jordan. I conveyed to him and his family your love and they asked me to send theirs to you. Seeing them was a joy, but they also told me that in recent days, Christian friends of theirs in Ramallah had been arrested by the Israeli military. 

One of the most difficult meetings we had, at least for me, was meeting with a young Palestinian man who had just recently been released from prison. At age 27 he had been in an Israeli prison for 10 years. When he said his age, I got a lump in my throat because he’s the same age as our son, Calvin. He was arrested for throwing stones. Even if he had done that, keep in mind that would be throwing rocks at armored tanks. In any case, he was at home at the time, not in the vicinity of where stones were thrown.  He told us about conditions in jail, never good, but deteriorating since October 7. The prisoners lack medicine, food, and blankets. They had been given a mattress to sleep on – from precisely 11 PM to 5AM when the mattress was withdrawn. But now sometimes the prisoners are not even provided with a mattress.

This young man spoke at great risk to himself. For speaking out, he could easily be rearrested and put back in prison. Afterward I told him he’s the same age as our son – I hugged him, and gave him a box of chocolates, and told him to come visit me in America. I hope he does.

His courage was moving. One of the interpreters explained to our group, “Our ambition is not to escape jail. Our ambition is freedom.” 

In Jerusalem we also met with a young woman – an activist and journalist who works for Amnesty International documenting what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank. She talked  about how the situation is Apartheid. And this is something the Presbyterian Church has affirmed as well. But she shared with us what she called the less visible elements of apartheid. The hierarchy of laws and regulations that fragment the lives of Palestinians. She said that life all the way from the womb through death and even after death, Israel controls the bodies of Palestinians. And by this last part she was referring to the fact that Israel often holds onto the bodies of Palestinians who die in prison, denying their families even the chance to give them a proper burial.

She talked about how in Gaza families are completely decimated. They and all their possessions including phones and photos are destroyed by bombing. No tangible evidence

is left that a family ever existed. And I share this now because it is our duty to know and remember – these families existed. She said that since October 7, Israel has been trying to put Palestinians on mute. People are charged as criminals for what they post or even for liking post.

Although she spoke articulately, she said, “we no longer have the vocabulary to describe what is going on.”

She added, “My only consoling idea is that we need to bear witness. This is also a war on memory, you can fight this war by remembering.”

Remembering and telling are acts of resistance – acts of redemption, and salvation, and consolation.

We also went to the Deheishe refugee camp in Bethlehem. Some of you have visited this Palestinian refugee camp on one of our Grace trips. There we met with the former minister for prisoners for the Palestinians. The very fact that there is a position in the Palestinian government – minister for prisoners –tells you something. There are thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, and as I said earlier, more are being arrested all the time. Our host described the ill treatment of these prisoners, including the lack of food, and called their conditions “barbaric.”  He, like our other hosts, emphasized to us that it was important to see us there –  to have us present, as witnesses to the suffering. And he added that, having heard, he hoped that we will now be their voice.

Also in Bethlehem, we heard from another young woman who has family in Gaza. They are hiding out in churches, and they’ve dispersed themselves among different buildings so that if one is hit, not all the family members will be killed. As the atrocities continue, she said it seems to her that “humanity is in a coma.”  

As humanity was in a coma in first century Palestine, the devout Simeon and Anna, both elderly, waited patiently for consolation. Their faith inspires ours. The faith that calls us to weep with those who weep. To come alongside our suffering neighbor and take their hand and look into their eyes with the consoling love of God. God became incarnate in the baby Jesus in the little town of Bethlehem 2000 years ago, and God invites us to the holy task of incarnating the Spirit of God in Bethlehem and all over the world today. 

Our delegation wanted the people we met with to know that they are seen and heard. They feel abandoned by the world, but we were able to say – God has not abandoned you – we are here and carrying in our hearts the love of millions – you are seen, you are heard, you are loved, you are not alone. 

On December 23 our delegation attended the worship service at Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem where Palestinian priest Munther Isaac gave the sermon. This is the service that was live-streamed around the world – maybe some of you were able to watch it. Thousands tuned in. It took place in the sanctuary where the now iconic manger scene is on display – with the baby Jesus wrapped in a keffiyeh (black and white Palestinian scarf) lying atop a bed of crumbling concrete. In answer to the lament, “Where is God in all this?” Rev. Munther declared, “God is under the rubble.”

He warned his listeners that silence is complicity and he called for an immediate ceasefire.

He said, “We are angry, we are broken, we are fearful.” The world is watching, churches are watching, and we are tormented by the silence of the world.” But he went on – this Christ child, under the rubble, is, he said, “our hope and inspiration.” In his weakness, his meekness, and his vulnerability, Jesus is the long-awaited consolation.

Munther Isaac did not mince words as he said in the US, they sent us bombs while celebrating Christmas in their land. One member of our delegation found two tear gas canisters near the wall in Bethlehem – he took a photo of them – they are clearly marked with their place of origin – Pennsylvania, USA.

As an American, it is a hard truth to swallow – that our tax dollars fund the atrocities taking place now, and our diplomatic cover stops ceasefire resolutions in the UN Security Council and gives a green light to the continued violence. 

But in these cold, hard truths, we also find our calling as Christians. We are called to be the voice, hands, and feet of Christ –speaking and acting against the suffering we witness. We are not helpless.  This is made clear in our passage where the elderly Simeon and Anna, the mother Mary—a woman in a patriarchal society—and the tiny newborn baby Messiah are the ones who herald a new day of consolation.

The message we have will not be welcomed by all. Simeon prophecies to Mary that her own soul will be pierced. That this child will be the cause of rising yes, for many, but also falling, for others. This is God, breaking into the world where sin and error pine – disrupting the status quo, disturbing the veneer of calm.  And doing this to bring peace, real peace.

How can we be God’s voice and hands at this time? We will each find our way; we’ll be guided by the Spirit. We can and should contact our elected officials. And we can use our social media voices to call others to do the same, to raise awareness. On January 13 there’ll be a rally in DC – some of us can attend that. The plea our delegation heard from those with whom we met was this, “push your congregations and your nations to end this war.”   

It was a tremendous privilege to be a part of this delegation – and it also gave me a responsibility. And because it was not my trip, but belongs to all of us, we all have this responsibility. We have heard the cries of suffering. And with Simeon and Anna, we have witnessed the inbreaking of God into the world – bringing redemption, salvation, and consolation. May we go into this New Year giving voice and action to this living hope. Amen.