Rev. Sandra Olewine
United Methodist Liaison - Jerusalem

September has always been one of my favorite months, one I looked forward to with great anticipation. I loved watching children returning to school. I loved those last cookouts of the season. I delighted in the slow changes in weather indicating summer was giving way to autumn. I was eager for the planning to begin for the upcoming seasons of Advent and Christmas. These days were invigorating for me.

Now, however, September comes with other more painful associations. For those of us living in Palestine/Israel, September is now associated with the beginning of the second Intifada, so far a two-year brutal new phase of the conflict. For those in the US, September will forever more be marked by the horrific events of September 11, 2001, a day that changed the world in ways we don't even know yet.

A month that held associations of life, change, anticipation, and energy, at this moment holds associations of death, destruction, war, helplessness and fear. Life and death, death and life, intermingled now. And as the drums of war seem to grow louder in their intensity this September, I grow anxious about the future of creation.

Wrestling with these realities, I couldn't help but remember the words of Deuteronomy 3:19-20a "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him..." (NSRV)

Choose life! Seems simple, doesn't it? The one quiz in life in which the answer is given to us - choose life. Yet, we human beings seem to find it so much easier to choose death, to choose curses rather than blessings. And now, we hold the power to choose death for so many. But, as people of faith, is death what we truly want to be the final word?

If not, then we have to change. We can no longer live with simple answers to complex questions, with simple portrayals of good and evil. We must demand life, even when death seems the natural answer. Yes, people of faith today must stand up and shout out that justice is more powerful than evil, that creating neighbors is more powerful than destroying enemies.

As METS alumni, you stand in a unique position for you have done what few Americans have. You have traveled throughout Middle East and have met the people behind the stereotypes. You've experienced warmth and hospitality in refugee camps. You've played with laughing children in kindergartens. You've talked with university students who long for a bright future. You've met Palestinians and Israelis striving for a just and secure peace for all people.

This is the time for you to draw from those experiences, to share the human dreams, questions, fears, hospitality and hope that you found. Now is the time to help break both the cycles of ignorance and of expicit deceit. As you stay connected with one another, stay connected to this region of the world as well. You can help build bridges of real understanding, of deeper trust, of shared dreams. You can be a people of faith who help move us from destruction to hope.

Yes, September is a month of life and death, death and life, intermingled now. But, in the name of God, choose life that you and your descendants might live!

Shlaam - Peace - Shalom,

Sandy