Church Blog #3 - Different Socioeconomic Background

Bethlehem Christmas Lutheran Church
Bethlehem - Palestine
March 9, 2014
Different Socioeconomic Background



Describe the Service, was it similar to your regular context?
I was in Israel Palestine with the Wheaton student group who attended the Christ at the Checkpoint conference in Bethlehem. It was the trip of a lifetime for me. And being in Church in Bethlehem was definitely a distinct privilege. Being there was especially special for me because one of my close family friends was one of the pastors and his wife read the scripture for the day. I really liked the service! The scripture she read was psalm 91 (definitely one of my favorite psalms) it was read in english but translated into arabic in the bulletin. It was just a well done service and the pastor spoke with conviction and care. The Pastor was Mitri Raheeb who is an avid Pastor and Author who has written many books about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Christians' necessary response. He was a great guy to get a chance to talk to. He was highly regarded by Dr. Gary Burge, a man I profoundly adore. So I enjoyed hearing him preach and also learning from him at the Christ at the Checkpoint conference. The building was beautiful it had a sort of dome shape in the front. There was stain glass in the windows but it had been imported from Germany (LUTHeran...). The service was set up in the evangelical style so in some ways it was actually kind of similar to my normal context but just being in a different culture was so different that it is hard to pick out what was so different about the service.



What was most interesting/appealing about the service?
The chance to worship with people in a different country who spoke a different language but still worship the same God is just an amazing experience. I had trouble appreciating some of those moments at the time, only upon further reflection can I appreciate how awesome it was to be there and experience that culture in the context of being with all those fellow Christians who spoke arabic and Hebrew. That was probably the most interesting part of the service which was not apparent to me at the time. But the fact that they read Psalm 91 was special to me because it is a passage that God has used in my life to remind me to trust him because he really is a mighty fortress. And yeah, sharing that with a bunch of people from a differnet culture just made it that much cooler. And then hearing that scripture read from your “Aunt” was just a crazy cool time. I loved the hospitality we received all week and it was especially clear at the church that day. The ministers were all in White except for our friend “Uncle” Victor, who was wearing black. I told him after the service that he looked like Johnny Cash in all that Black. I'm still pretty sure he did not understand me but its fine. Being able to worship and participate in the larger body of Christ which is bigger than just america was a big moment for me that I had actually never really experienced or come to terms with so that was what was most interesting and appealing.



What was most disorienting or challenging about the service?
There were definitely some cultural barriers between us and them. After the service we had a nice time of fellowship with the people of the church and had coffee and I remember feeling uncomfortable in the big crowd of people because I was not at all sure if people were supposed to be touching in crowds or what, I did not want to be thoughtless or rude. We had lunch with everyone after that and I did not get to dialogue with the people of the church that much. I did not really appreciate my connection to those people in Christ at the time. If I had I probably would have been mote active in pursuing conversations with those people but I really did not think that they would want that a whole lot from me in those moments. I felt kinda out of my place being there. I did not feel worthy of being considered better than them. Also it was just kinda daunting being in another culture and at this point we were really just getting there so we were not comfortable with the culture yet so yeah, if I could do it again I would have tried to connect with the Palestinian Christians better. But That's a hard thing to do and it certainly is not just something that I could do without reciprocation but still it would have been nice to talk more with them. It was just hard to culturally be ready for all that that church service had to offer after only getting there about 30 hours prior to that moment.



What aspects of Scripture or theology did the service illuminate for you that you didn't get in your regular context?
I was drawn to the care the ministers has with the scriptures. It was definitely a very liturgical service but it still seemed evangelical. Almost like a liturgical service for evangelical people who had similar beliefs as me about God. I did feel that in some way.  I would say that the aspect of theology that came out in this context was that of the theology of suffering.  The fact that palestinians and israeli chrisitans have experienced so much badness on both sides is terrible and there is not clear paths to peace or reconciliation.  So recognizing this as a place for Christians who are trying to appreciate Christus Victor over any other atonement theory was interesting to experience.  When Dr. Lee talked about oppressed people resonating more with that particular one i thought it was cool but that I would not really get to see that be a thing.  But it totally was.  It is a cool way to see Jesus and it definitely came out in the preaching but also in the conversations we had with Palestinians through out the week in a more general way.  I felt great about the church and it brought out Christ's victory over death and oppression more than any other experience ever gave me before.  It also helped me see that two groups of Christians could disagree about some pretty huge things and still be willing to come together to worship God.  WHich was eccumenically encouraging for me.    Thats all.  Thanks Dr. Lee.