The Holy Land is revered by millions of Jews around the world, along with billions of Christians and Muslims.
Jerusalem is a sacred city, the epicenter of the story of these three Abrahamic faiths that make up the majority of the world population.
The Psalms call us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem – one that we would all love to see answered in our lifetime.
For the religious among us, it’s almost as if Jerusalem is the center of the world, the point where heaven and earth have met, still meet, and one day will reconvene.
To be a peace-maker in the Holy Land is to embody the deepest hopes and calling of those who identify as children of Abraham.
And yet war, terror, fury, revenge, and hate corrode the foundations of what is most beautiful about the Holy Land.
So what is the YMCA doing in this land?
As an organization with Christian origins and heritage, with a commitment to living out the kingdom of God in the world harmoniously and for the common good, it ends up having a unique role in many communities across the world.
Especially in the Holy Land.
What does it mean for this kind of organization with this kind of Christian legacy to advocate for inclusivity amongst its membership and leadership?
At one level it creates space for Jews, Christians, and Muslims who do want to work, pray and play together to do so.
The synergy and love that develops around their efforts together not only becomes compelling attractive but healing as well as inspiring.
For those that feel like their only options are withdrawing from violence into safe enclaves of like-mindedness or wading into the conflict to show how right they are, there are other ways of being a peace-maker without being identical.
There are plenty of similarities and differences between the Jews, Christians, and Muslims who serve with the YMCA in the Holy Land.
But it’s the inclusive nature of the mission that both allows them to draw on the best of their faith traditions without requiring strict adherence to their religious doctrines or spiritual practices.
Mutual respect, compassionate caring, genuine honesty, and mature responsibility go a long way in allowing talented people of different faiths to do YMCA mission-work together.
Within Christian traditions, there can be the belief that God will only bless his people when they are holy and loving.
Thus there is always a striving to be more holy and more loving.
The problem is that these two desires can sometimes (often) cause conflict with each other.
Sometimes to be more holy I might feel the need to withdraw from those who are different or less pure than myself.
But to be more loving is to be more compassionate and healing to those least like me.
We can see this tension being played out in the stories of God’s people throughout recorded history. Including in the YMCA.
Since 1878 the YMCA has worked in Jerusalem to work for holy and loving peace among Jews, Christians, and Muslims as well as between international political and ethnic powers seeking to control the land.
There is still much more peace-making work to do in this place that sits at the center of the universe.
The Y is in the middle of it, striving to nurture loving, caring and serving with flourishing for all.
Let’s find a way to join in it.
(featured image is the domes of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the foreground, the Dome of the Rock mosque in the middle, and a Jewish cemetery in the far background)