The light from Jerusalem

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Saturday before Easter Sunday is called Sabt en-Nur (Saturday of Light/Fire) by Christian Palestinians. According to Orthodox tradition a holy fire is lit without any human intervention in the Holy Sepulcher (the church held to stand on the place of Golgatha as well as the grave of Jesus). The lighting of the fire has taken place at least since 1066, maybe even centuries before that. The fire is thought to be the flame of the resurrection power, and also the fire of the burning bush that Moses encountered at Mount Sinai. It is brought from Jerusalem by special flights to many Orthodox countries, such as Russia, Serbia, Greece, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Syria and Lebanon, and welcomed on the airports by state leaders.

The fire also travels through the Wall to the Christian communities at the West Bank. I was at the reception in Beit Sahour. It was a great party, people had dressed up and were crowding the streets, scouts were marching and playing drums and bagpipes. The sound of at least 40 bagpipes playing in unison is pretty intense! I recognized a few of the tunes, the "Symphony of Joy" by Beethoven and then -of course- "My Heart will go on" from Titanic. It was an impressive celebration.


Scouts marching.


More scouts marching.

After speeches, music and marching, at last the light came, the holy light of the resurrection -in a taxi! After it came the prime minister of the Palestinian authority, Salam Fayyad. People surrounded the two cars, out stepped the patriark with the lantern, to the flashing of cameras and the smell of incense. Then we all started a procession through the streets of the Old City. On the balconies more people were watching, some throwing candy down at us. We arrived one of the many churches in Beit Sahour. There was a stage filled with scouts, and people could go into the church to light their own lanterns with the holy fire.


The patriarch stepping out of the car.

With my Lutheran background, Sabt en-Nur reminded me more of the Norwegian constitution day than Norwegian Easter. Still I see that there is no intrinsic link between Christian celebrations and organs. And there was something about this celebration that made sense, even to a Norwergian Protestant. Maybe it was the life and joy of the event. It seemed to suit a resurrection. There was a nationalistic touch to the celebration as well, with the prime minister present and kufiyyes and flags on the bagpipes. But for Christians struggling to stay in the land of the resurrection, as it is called in the Kairos document, I suppose your religion is also about your geografical roots.

But the strongest impression was maybe to see a celebration of a light coming from a city inaccessible to most of the Christians in Beit Sahour. In general, Palestinians are not allowed to go to Jerusalem (East Jerusalem was occupied by Israel in 1967, and is being separated from the West Bank more and more). During religious holidays, people can apply for a permission to go, but many don't get it. Some object to the whole system of permissions. Why should they apply for traveling in their own land? On Palm Sunday there was a demonstration where 100 people managed to pass the checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem before they were stopped by police on the other side. This was part of an annual procession that used to go between the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem and the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem every Easter Sunday. It's so sad to talk to people about their holiday plans, knowing that they can't go to the city where Easter started, in order to go to the Holy Sepulcher, or to see friends and family. But the light of the resurrection crosses the Wall. Maybe it will someday also tear it down.
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Checkpoint gospel

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These days there's a conference going on in Bethlehem, arranged by Bethlehem Bible College. "Christ at the Checkpoint: Theology in the Service of Peace and Justice", it's called. Between 200 and 25o Evangelical Christians from the US and Europe, as well as Palestinians, are gathered to work with theology in the Palestinian context. Christ is at the checkpoint. What does he have to say to people there?

Gjermund and I attended a lecture yesterday by Gary M. Burge, who is a professor in the New Testament at Wheaton College in Chicaco. He talked about the New Testament and the Land, a topic that he has just finished a book about. I'm sure I didn't catch everything that Dr. Burge said, but I'd like to render a few points he made.


From the lecture. Thank you to Gjermund for letting me use his picture.

First of all, he pointed out that Holy Land theologies was a highly debated issue among Jews in Jesus' time. Jews were under Roman occupation. Should they fight to get their sovereignty back? What about Jews living in diaspora, who were actually the majority? Could you really be a good Jew living outside the Holy Land? Considering this debate, Jesus' silence about this issue is a loud silence, Dr. Burke argued. Still the question is touched upon in some passages in the gospels, for instance in the Beatitudes: "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth." (Matthew 5:5). According to Dr. Burke, the word in Greek for "earth" can also be translated "land", as in the Greek version of the strikingly similar verse in Psalm 37: "But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace." "Land" and "inheritance" were conceptions tightly linked to the promise to the Jews. But here Jesus does not say that the land belongs to a certain people, but to those who are meek. Does this mean that Jesus gave the land to his followers? No, says Dr. Burke. The rest of the New Testament interprets "the land" in relation to the Kingdom of God.

This is reaffirmed by the practice and writings of the early Christian church. The gospel is preached to Diaspora Jews. But Jews or non-Jews who receives the new faith, are they asked to move to the Holy Land? Never. They can stay where they are. There is no territorial theology in early Christianity. Paul is in his writings strikingly uninterested in geography. Terms connected to Holy Land theology are reinterpreted. For instance, Abraham's seed, that the promises were spoken to, is not the Jewish people, but Jesus (Gal, 3:16). And what was Abraham promised? According to Paul's letter to the Romans 4:13, not today's Israel, but "the world"! Also in the other texts in the New Testament, "land" is not connected to territory. For instance, in the Book of Revelation, Jerusalem is a city newly built by God, not the city in Judea. The country the Christians are longing for, is not Israel, it's heaven or the heavenly renewal of the world.

For those who have an idea about the support Evangelical Christians have given to the Zionist cause especially in the USA, this message and this conference is potentially revolutionary stuff. Of course the people present at that lecture do not make up a big percentage of Evangelical Christians. Some of them are still traveling around Israel in buses with slogans like: "I will not keep silent for Zion's sake. Christians united for Israel." But the change in many churches around the world is noticed and even warned about by those in Israel who support their country's policies, as can be seen in this article in Jerusalem Post. The Kairos document might, with it's urge for churches to revisit theologies that are justifying the occupation and to stand up in support for the oppressed, add momentum to this change. It might actually mean a difference. It might be good news at the checkpoint.


From the wall. Thank you to Gjermund's father, who took the photo.
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