Gaza: what do this Sunday’s Bible readings have to say to us?

Thoughts from Paul Spray, member of the Connexional Council.

I have been horrified this week by the photographs from Gaza of starving, emaciated children. There was a mother and child on the front page of the Guardian in the stance of a Madonna and child – but with the child desperately thin.

The people of Gaza are not just starving – they are being starved by Israel’s deliberate action. The Archbishop of York put it clearly: “With each passing day in Gaza, the violence, starvation and dehumanisation being inflicted on the civilian population by the Government of Israel becomes more depraved and unconscionable. In the name of God, I cry out against this barbaric assault on human life and dignity.”

The situation seems intractable – suffering with no way out. But let’s see whether the Bible readings set for this Sunday, 27 July, have anything to say to these horrors.

First to the Genesis reading (Genesis 18: 20-32). God lets Abraham know that he is going to destroy a city. That certainly seems relevant to Gaza: there is manifold destruction of cities going on.

God is going to destroy Sodom because people are being evil. That’s clearly not the point about Gaza - it is true that the Hamas atrocities were evil, but two million Palestinians aren’t.

In any case, Abraham tries to persuade God to hold fire. Likewise, we urgently pray for the war in Gaza to end.

But it doesn’t work. At the end of the conversation, the Bible says, the Lord went his way when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.

Early the next morning, “Abraham went to the place where he had stood before the Lord, and he looked down towards Sodom, and saw the smoke of the land going up like the smoke of a furnace.”

The city was on fire. Just Lot, his wife and his two daughters were saved. Even they didn’t want to go, but had to dragged out by the angels, and his un-named wife of course looked back and was turned to a pillar of salt.

What on earth is going on here? Why was God not convinced? Clearly the crowd in Sodom were bent on evil – but were there really not another six righteous people in the city?

Commentators have speculated that maybe this passage is wrestling with trying to explain a volcanic eruption that overwhelmed towns and villages.

But if so, why would the editors of the book of Genesis include this story of Abraham bargaining with God to try to stop it? And what is in this story for us? Two things, I think.

First, Abraham is sure that God is just and merciful. It may not look it, but that is actually the case. “Far be it from you to slay the righteous with the wicked…Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”

The people of Gaza, and we too, can cling to the thought that God is just, and we can appeal to God.

Second, Abraham asks. He asks God for action. What’s more, he goes on asking, example after example – fifty righteous, 45, 30 and so on. He takes his courage into his hands. “Let me speak again, though I am just dust and ashes,” and then “Do not be angry if I speak just once more.” So, facing calamity, we too can pray and pray and pray, asking God for action and thinking what we can do to help.

What about the Psalm? (Psalm 138) isn’t perhaps the Psalm most appropriate to this moment. There are other psalms of desperation, pleading to God from the bottom of the pit, shouting in protest that God is silent. This Psalm comes from a different moment, praising God because “You answered me, in the midst of trouble.” God did act.

The psalmist speaks of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness.

But, digging deeper, we can see some relevant themes.

First, God is on the side of ordinary people. “For you, the lowly are important, not the great.” The ordinary people of Gaza, in this case. What’s more, God is greater than the powers of this world: “All the kings of the earth shall praise you, for they have heard the words of your mouth.” God is greater than the State of Israel today, greater than anything else.

And the Psalm finishes with a plea. Just as Abraham had said “Far be it from you to slay the righteous with the wicked,” the psalmist says “Do not forsake the work of your hands.” They are asking, pressing the Lord.

It seems an odd, unnecessary thing to do – God is God and doesn’t need reminding what to do. Maybe it’s to tell ourselves what really matters, what we should be asking for. In any case, the Bible is clear that we should ask. We should join with the people of Gaza to plead, even to demand - “Do not forsake the work of your hands.”

So to the Gospel (Luke 11: 1-13). Here is Jesus talking about prayer, starting with the specific short prayer that we have been using ever since.

“Save us from the time of trial,” we are to ask. “Save us from the time of trial.” Or perhaps, as Pope Francis suggested, “Save us in the time of trial.” Nothing could be more relevant.

Indeed, faced with starvation in Gaza, notice the centrality of bread – “Give us this day our daily bread,” in the Lord’s prayer. And the first story is about bread: Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread….”

There’s another point: when we pray to ask God for something, we must do our bit too. “Forgive us our sins,” we ask, “as we forgive those who sin against us.” We don’t just ask God for forgiveness – we are to do some forgiving too. Likewise, we might suppose, if we are to ask God for bread, we might ourselves be expected to provide bread for others.

Finally, on to the stories in this Gospel passage. The women who hammers on the door to wake up her neighbour, and the parent giving her child what she asks for. Jesus promises that God will answer – knock and the door will open, search and you will find, ask and it will be given to you.

This is the moment to turn to some of those angry Psalms. Why are you not bringing peace to Gaza, God? You have been asked over and over again. Why is there no bread?

It is worth noticing that Jesus hasn’t said that God will give anything we ask for. In this Gospel (Luke), Jesus says “If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” In the parallel passage in Matthew, it’s “good things” that God will give those who ask.

It is certainly true that the Holy Spirit is in Gaza. It is everywhere, of course – but in Gaza we can see the Holy Spirit in the doctors who continue working despite being faint with hunger, or in the local partners of Christian Aid such as the Palestine Agricultural Development Association who are providing what food they can. God is there. God’s steadfast love is present.

So what are we to conclude?

Let us go on asking for peace – persistent like the woman knocking to wake her friend, or Abraham pleading to save Sodom. We must go on praying, asking God directly.

We can give to Christian Aid’s Gaza appeal to fund the work of the Holy Spirit there.

And we should press our own politicians.

I started by quoting the Church of England.

Here is our own Methodist Church:

"We have a duty to use our voices and power to challenge what is unjust. The UK government, along with France and Canada in a joint statement, has called on Israel to halt military operations and allow humanitarian aid to enter the territory. It says that ‘If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete actions in response’.

"However, we – the Methodist Church - are concerned that these concrete actions are an empty threat which will not alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people. Therefore, we call on the UK Government to act with decency and morality, and to urgently implement these threatened actions. We encourage people to write to their MPs to echo this call."