{"id":590,"date":"2012-11-23T11:45:32","date_gmt":"2012-11-23T17:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pilgrimsofibillin.org\/?p=590"},"modified":"2015-05-23T18:44:46","modified_gmt":"2015-05-23T23:44:46","slug":"peace-made-visible-isaiah-22-4swords-into-plowshares","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pilgrimsofibillin.org\/archive\/peace-made-visible-isaiah-22-4swords-into-plowshares\/","title":{"rendered":"Peace made Visible\u2026. Isaiah 2:2-4\u2026Swords into Plowshares"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Cara<\/a>
Cara Hochhalter, “Muslim Woman, Prayer for Peace”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Homily for Community Thanksgiving Service at Mary Lyon Church\u2026Nov. 20, 2012
\nThe Rev. Cara B. Hochhalter, Charlemont, MA<\/h5>\n

When we were driving here tonight\u2026a beautiful white owl flew by our window and we thought perhaps it was a sign of peace\u2026Good evening\u2026<\/p>\n

When we decided to be thankful for peacemaking on this night\u2026 we didn\u2019t know then that there would be such violence erupting from Israel and Gaza. I DID know that I would be just coming back from a 2-week study\/tour through Israel\/Palestine with \u201cthe Pilgrims of Ibillin\u201d and I figured I would have at least one story to share\u2026.but I did not imagine that I would share about peace out of this global context of bombing and fear\u2026 I hear that a truce may be imminent \u2026May it be so!<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a little snapshot of two people\u2026two peacemakers\u2026one Palestinian Arab Christian, the other, a Jewish Israeli\u2026both are women.<\/p>\n

Her name is Amal\u2026 she is a Palestinian who comes from a long line of generations who have lived on top of one of the highest hills about 7 kilometers from Bethlehem in the West Bank. Her family has deeds of ownership for this 100 acres from the Ottomans, then the British, then the Jordanians, as well as the Israelis, but in 1991 their land was called \u201cstate land\u201d and Amal and her brothers were not to farm there\u2026.but they are. They continue to grow olive trees, almond trees, fig trees and cactus among many flowers\u2026.They invite classes of 80 to 100 students to come for camping sessions to learn about living off the land, how to collect water from the rain and use solar for electricity. They teach non-violence and peace to people who come from all over the world to learn from this family of peace-makers.<\/p>\n

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Amal told us a story\u2026 because their farm is not supposed to exist, there have been boulders placed at the lower part of their hill so they cannot use vehicles to get in or out\u2026.but one day she was in a town nearby at the bus stop, she saw a Jewish woman who was going to the settlement that covers the hilltop across from where Amal lives.<\/p>\n

Instead of ignoring each other and looking down, Amal, decided to make conversation\u2026and in these few words\u2026 she began to form a small bridge\u2026a beginning at making peace! She introduced herself to the other woman who asked where Amal\u2019s home was\u2026she told her that her family lived on top of that mountain.
\n\u201cImpossible,\u201d said the woman, \u201cNo one lives on that mountain. We were told that no one lives there\u2026we are people on land where there are no people\u2026\u201d But Amal assured her that for generations, her family had lived there. She told her about their farm and their efforts at educating young people. Amal handed her her card as they parted.<\/p>\n

A few weeks later, Amal received a call from her. She wanted to come and see. And so she did\u2026she was served a beautiful lunch, just as we were served\u2026and they talked at the long table looking out over the expanse of hills, a distant Palestinian village, and Jewish settlements.<\/p>\n

Amal told us, \u201cYou have to know your neighbor if you are going to love them.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few months after this visit, Amal received another call from her Jewish neighbor who asked if she could bring her husband to visit because he didn\u2019t believe her when she told him of the family who lives on the mountain and teaches environmental classes and peace-making. He came\u2026 And the bridge between these neighbors is building\u2026But it is very hard. Their farm is called, The Tent of Nations as their goal is to bring many different people from all religions and nationalities\u2026together.<\/p>\n

The second story is about a woman that some of you may have already read about\u2026in the book The Lemon Tree<\/span>, by Sandy Tolan. On a rainy evening we pulled up to the very home in Ramla, near Tel Aviv, where the Palestinian family had had to flee and the Jewish family moved in after 1948. In this true story, the Jewish daughter, Dalia Landau, becomes friends with Bashir of the Palestinian family and through their life-long communications, they decide that their home should be used for a preschool for children.
\nIt is now called \u201cThe Open House.\u201d\u2026What a privilege it was to sit on little preschool chairs in a circle with Dalia, now a grown woman with reddish hair and a kind smile \u2026The house is not just a place where Muslim and Christian children come to play, but many programs that bring people together are sponsored from this once contested home, summer camps for Jewish and Palestinian youth who seek the creative space that is in the middle between them\u2026women of all faiths work on projects together\u2026<\/p>\n

Dalia said it isn\u2019t easy\u2026but she says that \u201cnot knowing the other, is a tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

When I sat listening to her\u2026just a week ago\u2026she told us about something that was going to happen on November 20\u2026 today! In light of the turmoil\u2026I can only hope they were able to continue with this program\u2026Today they were to celebrate a Day for Prayer and Action for the rights of children!… How poignant this is as the news images we have seen coming from this same region are pictures of injured children\u2026From \u201cThe Open House\u201d they are going to teach about the rights for education and safety and non-violence\u2026.The staff were to go into Hebrew and Palestinian Schools \u2026and make stories or plays that demonstrate these rights\u2026they were also to stress the power of prayer from all religions. Today\u2026 they were to bring Jewish and Palestinian volunteers into a Bedouin school\u2026and the children would see an example of peace-making in action.<\/p>\n

Dalia said that HOPE is a spiritual quality\u2026and I hope and pray that these bridges of peacemaking continue and continue and continue\u2026I give great thanks tonight\u2026for the people whom I met in Israel\/Palestine and the people I know right here among you\u2026who dare to reach across to the \u201cother\u201d \u2026.and in that space, in that reach\u2026I believe something of the Holy, enters in\u2026and peace is made visible!<\/p>\n

Shalom, Salaam, Peace\u2026Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Homily for Community Thanksgiving Service at Mary Lyon Church\u2026Nov. 20, 2012 The Rev. Cara B. Hochhalter, Charlemont, MA When we were driving here tonight\u2026a beautiful white owl flew by our window and we thought perhaps it was a sign of peace\u2026Good evening\u2026 When we decided to be thankful for peacemaking on this night\u2026 we didn\u2019t … Continue reading “Peace made Visible\u2026. Isaiah 2:2-4\u2026Swords into Plowshares”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,42,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-peace-building-partners","category-pilgrims-of-ibillin","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsofibillin.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsofibillin.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsofibillin.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsofibillin.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsofibillin.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsofibillin.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1136,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsofibillin.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions\/1136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsofibillin.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsofibillin.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsofibillin.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}