To love neighbor as self

In last Sunday’s sermon I mentioned that I would follow up on two things. Here they are:

I mentioned a podcast called “For Heaven’s Sake”, co-hosted by a man named Donniel Hartmann and Yossi Klein Halevi. I met Yossi Klein Halevi in 2005, here in Seattle, when I was working to persuade the Presbyterian Church (USA) to replace a plan to divest from companies that have contracts with the State of Israel with a plan to shift investments to joint Jewish-Arab nonprofits that are trying to improve water management (a life-and-death issue in a place where potable water is growing ever more scarce. 

In 2006, I went to Israel with a group of Christians, Jews, and Muslims from the Houston, Texas, area as part of this effort. While I was in Jerusalem, I met with Yossi at the Cafe Hillel, and we talked at length about Israel, the ethical dimensions of Zionism, and the possibility that there could ever be a two-state solution to the cycle of violence and warfare. During our conversation, as he was describing the factors that mitigate against a lasting peace, he said,

“Jerusalem is a city that is traumatized in all four directions.”

What he meant was that the human factors that necessarily come with life for Israelis and Palestinians include the trauma of displacement. And anyone who understands trauma knows that it has to be factored into the possibility of breaking cycles of violence and war. That is a tall order!

In this time when many among us, who know little about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, much less who have lived it, are too quick to form opinions, as if they see with a wisdom they do not actually possess, I find it very valuable to listen to voices like those of Yossi Klein Halevi and Donniel Hartmann. Here is a link to their podcast’s most recent installment.

https://www.hartman.org.il/israel-at-war-the-new-plan

I also said I would share my favorite Greek verb: splangthnizomai (σπλαγχνίζομαι). Here is what it sounds like: splangth-NIDZ-oh-my.

This verb can be translated as, “Had compassion for,” or, “Felt pity for.” However, it is a deponent verb, meaning that it does not have an active form (though it can be active in meaning, as the two translation examples offer). Strictly speaking, it is not something we do, or make happen, so much as it happens to us. This is why I prefer English transitions such as, “filled with compassion,” or, “was moved with pity.

The best paraphrase, in my opinion, is, “Her heart went out to him.” There is the sense, here, of an involuntary response to someone else’s suffering. And that is Jesus’ point. To love neighbor as self is to have our heart go out to another who suffers, regardless of their “tribe” or any other dividing calculation.

In Christ,

Lee