A Lament for Israel and Gaza

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Dear Synod,

As we lament the acute human suffering made so visible to us in the media coverage of the war between Israel and Hamas, I invite you to respond out of the faith we share: in genuine compassion, with personal support and care for our neighbors, and with fervent intercessory prayer and advocacy.

Words can hardly express the terror of being ambushed and hunted, the desperation of being trapped. Our very souls are rent with anguish for the people who have been taken hostage and for those who have seen friends and family members killed, their homes destroyed, their neighborhoods violated.

We ache with those who feel they have no place that is safe from their enemies, who experience living as targets of hate and violence simply because of their identity. With the prophet Jeremiah, we cry out:

All you who pass this way,
look and see:
is any sorrow like the sorrow
that afflicts me?

Lamentations 1:12a, Jerusalem Bible

Holy Scripture tells us that when Christ was moved with pity at the death of his friend (Jn. 11:33) and for those who were like sheep without a shepherd (Mt. 14:14), he responded with acts of care. Act on the compassion in your own heart to reach out to your friends and neighbors who know they are at increased risk these days. Pour your own troubled spirit into your daily prayers. Strive for justice and peace in all the earth, as your Baptismal covenant calls you to do. And be of good courage, for your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

With you in Christ,

Bishop Kurt F. Kusserow