For this Sunday, 8 September 2024, here are some words to speak and pray
for the six hostages murdered by Hamas
In my previous blog post, I wrote about an Israeli couple, Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jon Polin, who, with other hostage families, launched A Week of Goodness, in the hope that extra kindness, good deeds and generosity in the world could help bring about the release of the hostages in Gaza, including their 23-year-old son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
Last week, Hamas provided the world with a very different message, brutally executing Rachel and Jon’s son and five other young hostages held in a terror tunnel, shortly before their rescuers could reach them.
This has been one of the toughest weeks for Israelis and for Jewish communities everywhere since the horrors of October 7. There are no words adequate to describe what they are going through. However, the message of this blog is that Christians must not abandon Jews in this moment. Church leaders must find the words to be a united voice of justice and compassion, to protest this despicable act of antisemitic terror, and to ‘walk with’ their Jewish brothers and sisters in their grief and ongoing ordeal since October 7.
In short, I am urging Christian leaders to ‘step up’ this Sunday and speak to their congregations about what just happened.
To assist, a Statement & Prayer is freely provided here for church communities to use this Sunday. Essentially, it is a one-page document that can be read, prayed, printed, shared, as a whole or in part (with or without acknowledgment). It can also be adapted to your audience - I just ask that the essence and spirit of the Statement be maintained.
This resource is not a general statement/prayer for peace or for all victims of war. (There are many of those kinds of statements circulating and they are important and necessary.) This is a specific prayer and statement about what occurred last week, when Hamas executed six innocent civilians and filmed their final statements for a vile purpose.
It is about confronting evil, a task which can be daunting and even unpopular, and I understand that it can be challenging to find the right words for one's audience. This one-page resource suggests words that can be spoken and prayed, lest Christians find themselves paralysed and silent while Jews are abducted, tortured and murdered by those who deny their right to exist.
Thank you for speaking up in your church, your home, your workplace and other Christian circles. May God bless your efforts for justice and for peace, and for being a clear voice for Jewish communities in the face of rising antisemitism.
Teresa Pirola, ThD is a Sydney-based freelance writer, faith educator and author of Catholic-Jewish Relations: Twelve Key Themes for Teaching and Preaching (Paulist Press, 2023). www.teresapirola.com
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