Jerusalem, Jerusalem!

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, but you would not!" - Mat. 23:37. How many times in the preceding verses did Christ say, "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees!" The common people had recently welcomed Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ, Who was to come. What could have been if the crowds had their way? Could the Kingdom of God have been directly ushered in? We simply don't know, and can't know.

Could we now be saying the same for Ukraine? - "Crimea! Crimea!" ...and "Donetsk! Donetsk!" ...and "Mariopol! Mariopol! The opportunity for your peace and healing was so close!" What if, as I suggested four weeks ago, the Roman Pope Francis and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew would meet in Kyiv, bring together those two Churches under their respective jurisdictions, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), and direct them to begin working together for peace and healing in that country which has been torn apart for centuries by rulers misusing religion as an excuse to grab territory? But instead, religious leaders are among those stirring up the mobs to violence and fratricidal war.

Yes, instead, people continue killing each other in order to grab the other's chunk of real estate! Then they construct memorials to the dead... very much like what Christ said - "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and decorate the tombs of the righteous, and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we wouldn't have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.' Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are sons of those who killed the prophets" (Mat. 23:29-31).

It was the religious leaders of the day, the Pharisees - ironically those who believed in resurrection of the dead - who stirred up the masses to have Christ crucified. But He rose from the dead! And by His resurrection, He destroyed mankind's bondage to sin and death. From Christ's resurrection onward, humanity is now free to choose sin and its deadly wages, or life and becoming partakers of His Divine nature - transformation into the likeness of Christ.

We are still free to choose peace and healing, if we speak up and demand from our political and religious leaders that they stop this madness! Or we can passively sit back on our couches, watching the world slide toward WWIII, wringing our hands and saying - "Chicken Little! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" In our last issue I reminded you of what the Psalmist David wrote, "If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?" (Psalm 11:3). David was a military commander and king, so he knew precisely what to do: rebuild the foundations!

We need to return to the foundations of Christianity: ministering to "the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind, to widows and orphans," not fighting over real estate. Roman Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants must all receive one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, realizing that we are not on opposing teams, but members of the Body, one team, each with our own strengths and weaknesses, working together for the Kingdom of God.

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 11 May 2014.)