Hear, O kings; give ear, O princes;
   to the Lord I will sing,
   I will make melody to the Lord, the God of Israel. 

Judges 5:3 (NRSV)

Image by Jörg Peter from Pixabay

A moving exhibit…a firebrand prophet…

Last Sunday a few intrepid seekers from Pilgrim headed into Boston for an interaction with the exhibit: “Auschwitz: Not Long Ago, Not Far Away.” The program will be up at the Saunders Castle in Copley Square through early September. If you’d like to attend, tickets are available here.

A few words of caution: this exhibit is challenging, and full of imagery and stories that I felt were quite disturbing. They don’t recommend children under 12 attend. I agree, but for another reason: the exhibit is long. It took us a full two hours, moving at a brisk pace, and we could have lingered longer. There are benches where you can take breaks, but believe me: once you’re in it, you’re in it until you’re all the way through.

So why go?

Honestly, we seek to understand. Not how something like this could happen. That’s easy. There are many stories from Nazi Germany about how the public just kept accepting the incremental changes as they came, and failed to question the eventual ends. It could happen anywhere. Facism is on the rise around the globe. And it tends to move hand in hand with a familiar partner: anti-Semitism.

We must understand human history and be vigilant. We must be careful that critiques of the Israeli government do not degenerate into blanket condemnations of the Jewish people.

And of course, there’s the Bible…

This week our focus scriptures are from the book of Judges. I plan to speak about the judge and prophet Deborah, as part of a series Paul Sanderson and I are doing together, addressing important but often overlooked figures in the Bible.

You can read the scriptures I’ll use here: Judges 4:1-7 and Judges 5:1-5. To be fully prepared, you could just read the entire rest of chapters 4 and 5 of Judges, but the above selections are what we’ll read.

Why Deborah? Well, you’ll have to join me at Pilgrim Church at 9:30 am to find out! But I will say I hope to use her story to better understand some of the history of Israel and how that narrative could influence where we are today. I hope to present the material so you can draw your own conclusions.

I continue to pray for peace in Israel, Palestine, and throughout the Middle East. There is too much at stake to give up on a peaceful solution for all.