Providing Christian resources from the YMCA past and present to nourish inclusive, equitable work in our diverse and global neighborhoods that build up healthy spirit, mind and body for all.
A friend shared this song with me the night before Easter. Each time I’ve listened to it, I get teared up. It’s taken me by surprise, this rarely, if ever happens to me and music.
When I reflect on what I find so moving about this virtual church choir, there a few things that come to mind.
One, I love seeing city churches like this coming together to bless a city, especially when everyone is going through a hard time. Rev. Roger Reece of Associated Churches is the one who shared this song with me, and I appreciated his Easter greeting and gift, particularly since his work everyday is about knitting together churches to bless our city of Fort Wayne.
Two, it’s a really good song, performed by talented singers who are obviously moved by the music as well. A few of them captivate my attention, they seem so caught up in the message and moment, it really is inspiring. Makes me wish I could sing, or inspire like that, to encourage others and make this kind of connection with God for others.
Three, when I think of the mission of the YMCA, of the different leaders and Christians who are part of the Y, across the city, and when I listen to this song, it resonates deeply in me. The Y can be a powerful catalyst for connecting different kind of churches to be a blessing in their city. Yes, each church can be a blessing on their own. But how much more powerful when we do it together. This song points me to John 17:21.
Fourth, it reminds me of what I want my children and family to experience with the Lord. That God is for them, and with them, and he hears them and wants to bless them with his presence and calling, to pour his favor upon them, that they, that we might be a blessing to those he sends us to.
May the peace, favor and blessing of the Lord Jesus Christ be upon you.
Peter Nasir standing between four of his fellow Y leaders.
“If we don’t care for them, they are gone.”
There are still walls in and around Jericho. For too many youth and adult men, they are prison walls. Too many families are hemmed in by refugee walls. Border walls loom ominously, protected by barbed-wire walls and guard towers.
“We are in the business of selling hope; we keep kids out of prison. Youth choose violence out of revenge, despair and hate.”
Peter pointed out to us the unending anxiety that undergirds Palestinians regarding their displacement from their homes, villages, fields and land.
The YMCA in Jericho seeks to bring down the walls of despair that imprison Palestinian youth, subverting the foundations of injustice that support those walls with the gospel of Christ Jesus.
This gospel is embodied through a safe place with wise and loving mentors, practical training in vocational trades that can equip youth to care for their families and take responsibility for their own welfare, as well as forge friendships that support a new hope and justice.
Electrical Workshop
Metal Workshop
Metal Workshop
Metal Workshop
Metal Workshop
Wood Workshop
Pool & Plumbing Workshop
Graphic Design Classroom
“Palestinians want skills, not relief; we want your friendship.”
Peter Nasir sharing with Jared of Washington and John of North Carolina
As a minority people in the Holy Land, Palestinians face complicated and dire circumstances. Palestinian Christians are a smaller minority amongst their people, yet they play a crucial role amidst the violent conflict as peace-makers.
The YMCA is a place where Palestinian Muslims and Christians can come together to build up hope, skills, wisdom, and aspirations for justice using non-violent, constructive means.
They were thrust into dangerous, chaotic, desperate situations amongst their displaced people, whereupon they immediately began to put their Y mission into practice, organizing efforts to love, care and serve. Many Palestinians were sent to Jordan, thus going through Jericho, which is where Peter Nasir’s father concentrated his YMCA work.
The experiences in Jericho with the Y caused me to reflect deeper about the youth in my own community who have their backs to a cliff. What is our Y doing for them? What can we learn from our fellow Palestinian YMCA leaders?
For me, I was struck by their clarity and resoluteness, how they grounded their Y work in the Christian mission, specifically for Peter it is the gospel of Jesus Christ. I was inspired by how they welcome and serve all the Christian and Muslim youth in their community that came to them.
What will be the motivation for our YMCA to come alongside youth with their backs to the wall?
Mike Bussey, former CEO of Jerusalem International YMCA with Jericho YMCA youth
Youth are driven to the cliff’s edge by violence, anxiety, vengefulness, despair, hate. What will motivate us to meet them in the darkness? To stay with them as long as it takes?
Jericho YMCA youth in a computer information technology class
Where does the light come from that we are seeking to bring to their place on the cliff?
From whence comes our strength, perseverance, loving-kindness, wisdom?
For Christians who engage in this kind of youth work, it becomes clear how much we must draw upon the strong, uniting, merciful Spirit of Christ, who calls us to such work, equips us for it, and sustains us.
A 1,500 year old sycamore tree in Jericho.
Our visit with the Jericho YMCA ended with a devotion next to a sycamore tree, much like the one Zacchaeus climbed to see Jesus. This sacred place reminds us that Jesus sees us where we are; he sees us when we come looking for him.
And like this tree-climbing sinner, when we are seen by Jesus, we too are sent with a mission to embody the good news. We are sent to make right what we have wronged, to be generous with our resources, and to add light where there is darkness.
As little Christ’s, when we see youth with their back to the cliff, may they see Christ in us and respond to the invitation to a life of hope, meaning, justice, and peace. And may the YMCA continue to be a space where new life takes root, for all.
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.
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)
