Substitution

Brokering a 12-hour Ceasefire

Israel and Hamas have agreed on a 12-hour humanitarian ceasefire.

It seems odd that we can kill each other with conviction and then stop fighting so medical supplies and aid can be brought in for the victims.

Meanwhile, back here in the U.S., our President meets with leaders from Central America to tell them to stop sending their children here.

Last night we watched the movie Monuments Men, based on the true story of art experts enlisted by the U.S. Army to go to Europe near the end of World War II to find and save masterpieces stolen by the Nazis.

Something the Lieutenant told his men early in the movie bothered me.  He told them that you can kill people and they will come back and rise again, but if you destroy their achievements, you kill their history and it is as if they never existed.

To me, that sounded like things matter more than the people who own them.  In other words, human life is inconsequential.  It certainly seems like that is true today, when we can fire missiles over walls and not be concerned who they hit.

What God are we serving when we make things more valuable than people?

If you transgress the covenant of the LORD your God, which he enjoined on you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from the good land that he has given to you." - Joshua 23:16

In today's reading, Joshua is an old man and is near death.  He summoned the elders together to tell them that though God has done great things for them, they can blow it.  The very thing they treasure, the land given to them, can be taken away, if they fail to keep their promise and serve the one God.

As Mayor Koch used to say, "How am I doin'?"

What does it mean to be truly humanitarian?  And, more importantly, is that what we desire to be?

It is easy to fight against a country or an organization and ignore the fact that they are people just like us.  In fact, we convince ourselves that they are not like us, but are evil, so we can make them inhuman.

And by we, I mean both sides, all sides.

Maybe the right strategy is to stop and ask ourselves what God sees us doing.  From God's perspective, are we sticking to the promise or have we made a substitution?

What do you think?

More to come...

Photo Credit: Voice of America