Hope & Justice

MFSA 2025 Lent Devotional: Week 2

by

Methodist Federation for Social Action | March 12, 2025

Hope is the capacity to see God in the midst of trouble, and to be co-workers with the Holy Spirit who is dwelling in us. From this vision derives the strength to be steadfast, remain firm and work to change the reality in which we find ourselves. Hope means not giving in to evil but rather standing up to it and continuing to resist it. We see nothing in the present or future except ruin and destruction. We see the upper hand of the strong, the growing orientation towards racist separation and the imposition of laws that deny our existence and our dignity.

Kairos Palestine: A Word of Faith, Hope and Love from the Heart of Palestinian Suffering (2009)

Hope in the midst of bleak reality - these are the words of Palestinian Christian theologians, written 15 years ago, which I read for the first time this past devastating year. Perhaps these words speak to you this Lent, as you walk your personal road to Gethsemane; as our nation hurtles down a highway of cruelty and greed.

I and others in my church have been on our own journey, finding ways to talk together and learn together about the long struggle for Palestinian liberation.  We are an urban church with a commitment to social justice, yet in the fall of 2023, ours was a tentative voice about the genocide unfolding in Gaza, quieted by concerns about being seen to be antisemitic.  Many of us, like many in the USA, were also woefully behind in our education and exposure to the history of Palestine.  After a year our voice is stronger. Our church, Park Slope UMC, recently joined over 450 congregations and communities who have signed the Apartheid-Free Pledge, reflecting the sentiment of most of our congregation, even as some individual members hold different perspectives and concerns. 

In the spirit of reflection – and with interest in what you, too, have done – here are a few thoughts about what’s been helpful to us:

Find others to join you 

We rooted our process in conversations between individuals, held over Zoom, over coffee, and over shared meals.  As we listened we decided on our next step, responding to questions and curiosity.  These are some of the ways we acted in community:

  • Chatted at coffee hour after church
  • Met at a local coffee shop with a few interested folks 
  • Invited congregants to watch a MFSA-UMKR webinar like “Methodists in Palestine In a Time of War” and host a discussion.
  • Offered a three week virtual study group discussing the Kairos Palestine document referenced above.  
  • Offered another three week virtual study group, this time grounded in A Dossier on Israeli Apartheid: A Pressing Call To Churches Around The World (2022) 
  • When we had built wider understanding we brought the Apartheid-Free Pledge to our whole church, seeking affirmation of this open ended commitment to “join others in working to end all support to Israel’s apartheid regime, settler colonialism, and military occupation”.
  • Now we are discerning how to live into the pledge in ways that make sense for our context.    

Connect with others beyond your congregation

There is a wealth of resources within our denomination to support your work, and many other opportunities to join collective actions that sustain your spirit as you work within your church.

Bring Palestine into worship

In whatever ways you can, lift up Palestine and Palestinian voices during worship.

  • Offer your own prayers for peace and justice in Palestine and Israel during prayers of the people.
  • Sing songs or bring other dimensions of liturgy into worship - UMKR offers many possibilities.
  • Light a peace with justice candle during worship, sharing one dimension of Palestinian’s lived reality as you do.
  • Take up a special offering for a specific family or organization, highlighting their concerns in front of the congregation.
  • Create a special service with a focus on Palestine. Many resources are available online to help with planning.

I didn’t know where our journey was taking us when we began, and I don’t know what is ahead.  Each step has led to the next.  There have been moments of impatience and moments of deep connection; long walks in the park with a congregant who held different views and quick planning meetings carved into full days.  A sense of helplessness has been a steady companion as our nation’s unrelenting bombs destroyed precious life and all that supported it in Gaza while a separate and unequal system of laws and ongoing illegal occupation shape life for Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank.  And there has been faith, too, that our actions matter.   In the words of writer Nadeem Aslam, shared at the Apartheid Free convening, “Despair has to be earned.  I personally have not done all I can to change things.  I haven’t yet earned the right to despair.”

What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?  Micah 6:8

The author, Kathy McCullagh, and contributors Emmy Brett Judy O’Brien, Yazmine Nichols and Sarah Lilly, are all congregants at Park Slope United Methodist Church in Brooklyn, NY (a Justice-Seeking Congregation). "Between us all we have chaired Social Action and Staff Parish Relations Committees, been a delegate to Annual Conference, provided music leadership, organized church retreats, taught Sunday School, served as Children and Youth Ministries Coordinator and ministered to a neighboring United Methodist church," the author writes.