Have you ever visited the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.? If you haven’t, I highly recommend it. By the way you can visit it online at this site. (Holocaust Museum) About15 years ago I had the opportunity to visit the holocaust museum in Washington, D.C. I was planning to spend just 2 hours there, but as I began to immerse myself in the photos, and letters, and shoes, and suitcases. As I began to not only hear these tragic stories but let them into my heart, I found myself in an existential moment. A moment where I lost all sense of time. When I woke up my shirt was stained with tears and one of the museum workers was patting my back in attempt to comfort me. I looked at my watch and 5 hours had gone by. In some senses I remained in that state for days and weeks and months.
Sometimes I feel like I’m still there reading one of those letters and weeping for not just those 6 million Jews but Palestinians, and Cambodians, and Rwandans. Indeed, for all of humanity. Weeping for every living soul that has been displaced and and persecuted and exterminated by war and hatred and bigotry. What do we do? How do we respond?
This whole Fall season, we’ve been talking about neighboring. About reaching out across the horizon which has not become consumed with a "silo" mentality. We've been encouraging to break out of that "silo" mentality by getting to know our neighbors in big and small ways.
For years, one of Bear Creek UMC’s closest neighbors was Congregation Kol Ami, a Jewish congregation in which we shared worship space and classrooms. About 3 years ago they decided to move from our space to a space in downtown Kirkland. Kirkland, it was believed, was a more strategic place to gather for them. To be honest, I miss that community. I miss having to bend a bit for another community of faith. I miss struggling with what to do with the cross and the Holy Ark. I even miss those times when their high holy days bumped right into ours! Those times when we both had to adjust a bit to make things work! Can I say it: I think I was better when I had to bend a little. When I had to make room for the other!
This week I’ve been thinking about the Kol Ami Community a whole bunch! Hearing the news of terrorist attack by the Hamas, and the ultimate retaliation by Israel, has made my heart sink, for sure, but having a neighbor next to us, so immediately effected, makes it all the more real to me.
This morning, Shelly and Debby Heimfeld, came into my office to talk. Shelly and Debby have been members of both Bear Creek UMC and Congregation Kol Ami for many years. Shelly’s mom and dad, holocaust survivors, moved back to Israel a while back, and now they are both in the arms of God. But Shelly still has many family members and friends in Israel. As they entered my office, I could feel the pain and struggle in their being. As we talked, I was and am so grateful of the breadth and depth of understanding they have of the situation in Israel and Palestine. They know and understand both sides. They are sympathetic not just of the Jewish side of this conflict but also the Palestinian side. They are both so thoughtful and compassionate. They both are so dedicated to doing and being loving kindness in the world.
I asked them what we might do to be with our them and our Jewish neighbors in this situation. They mentioned a card that our choir signed for Kol Ami during a time that Jewish bigotry was running high in Kirkland. How that was read by the Rabbi Kinberg and meant so much to the congregation there. They shared how alone they often feel. I shared with them that I planned to join them tonight for an event at Kol Ami. (Click here if your interested in attending.) As I shared this, I could see their shoulders relax just a bit. And my heart again travelled to that same place I was in at the museum.
War has a way of breaking us up into silos. It has a way of making us feel utterly alone. It has a way or taking away our voice, our agency. But when we show up for folks, we break that myth. We shatter that false belief! We are not alone! We can show up for each other! We can be there!
This week, as we work on being good neighbors, think about ways you can show up for someone out there. To be real. To be human.
Your friend and pastor, learning that showing up almost always has more power than having the answer, Brook