Boundaries & Identity

One of the things you notice as you travel throughout Israel is the
closeness of the borders. On Tuesday, we travelled up into the Golan
Heights to the Valley of Tears, where a major battle in the Yom
Kippur War in 1973 was fought. Less than an hour's drive from the Sea
of Galilee, you stand and look past three abandoned tanks into Syria.
Earlier in the day, we had looked north-west to Lebanon. Today we
traveled down the Jordan Valley. To our left, sometimes within 30
feet, was a double fence, electrified, with land mines in between.
Along it runs a sandy track, which is checked several times each day
for the footprints of border-crossers from Jordan.

On our way from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, we crossed the border - and
the wall - into Palestinian territory. Neither our guide nor our
driver, who are Israeli, could enter; we had to pick up a new guide
and driver for our time there. As we waited at the border to cross
back into Israel, with machine gun toting soldiers passing through the
bus, I was aware that for those residents of Bethlehem, who work in
Jerusalem, just a couple of miles away, this is an everyday
occurrence, and for Israeli Jew and Palestinian alike, it is a
restriction and ofttimes indignity.

Whether you are Jewish, Palestinian, or non-religious living in
Israel, you cannot avoid the understanding that you live among your
traditional enemies. And that has been the case for thousands of
years. Set at the crossroads between Europe, Asia and Africa, this
land has often been fought over. Abraham entered a land that had been
long settled by Canaanites; Moses led the people of God back to a
promised land settled by Jebusites and Hittites and Hivites; David and
Solomon had to defeat the Philistines; the prophets spoke to those who
had experienced the land-hunger of the Babylonians and Persians and
Assyrians. And Jesus lived in a country occupied by the Romans.

Against all that opposition, identity has always been something for
which it was necessary to fight. Clear boundaries have been necessary
- of language, law, and culture. As you travel this land you begin to
understand why law and covenant were so important, setting a people
apart for God. Here, identity has always been inexorably entwined
with religion. And the faith that has grown in this soil is
passionate and fiercely loyal to the God who calls it forth.

Which makes me wonder, what of our faith? For most of us, it has not
been born in the context of enmity. Being Christian in America, we
don't need such rigorous boundaries to maintain our faith. Most of
our neighbors really don't care who or what we believe in. And the
danger is that we too may cease to care.

The Rev. Dr. Raewynne Whiteley