Living in Prayer and Hope

When I started my Ph.D. program in theology in 1995, there were many flyers for a trip to Palestine and Israel. I would walk around campus and see the numerous flyers on bulletin boards, hallways and classroom doors. But the price of the trip was too steep for my student budget. Thus I only dreamed and longed to travel to the Holy Land one day.

In 2016, the World Council of Churches (WCC) Working Group on Climate Change held a meeting in Bethlehem, Palestine. Before this meeting, I had a speaking engagement in Virginia and thus was a few days late to depart for my meeting. I took a train from D.C. to Newark airport and before check in I received an email from WCC telling me not to fly as many of our WCC members were being detained at the Ben Gurion airport. Saddened by the events, I grudgingly and sadly took a bus home. My hopes of traveling to Bethlehem, Palestine was crushed.

Then in 2020, Dar al-Kalima University was holding their conference where I was going to speak, but then Covid hit and the conference was cancelled. Finally, in 2023, after so many years of longing to visit Bethlehem, Palestine, I was finally able to travel and participate in the “Land, People and Culture” conference at Dar al-Kalima University.

This was an extraordinary conference organized by Dr. Mitri Raheb who is the founder and president of Dar al-Kalima University. I have attended many conferences where people come, present their research and leave. This conference was different in that it was experiential, meaningful and life changing. They first took us on a tour around Jerusalem, Nazareth and other cities to get a taste of the life, religion, culture of the people living in the land. We were immersed in some of the realities of settler colonialism as many Palestinians lost their homes, land and way of life.

As we visited the different places where occupation has damaged families, land and way of life, I was torn by the cruelty of humanity that not only occurs there but also in my homeland, Korea.

As a theologian, it is important for me to understand how religion impacts our culture, our philosophy and ways of being. A white European patriarchal theology can have damaging effects on people’s lives as it perpetuates colonialism, occupation, white supremacy and domination. We see this happening in the holy land as well as other parts of the world, such as Korea, India, South Africa, and many other places.

Now, in the midst of the air strikes on civilians in Gaza who are suffering unimaginable agony, loss, trauma, and death….we need to stand with the oppressed. Jesus always sided with the marginalized, poor, outcast, lepers, rejected and women. Jesus was born and lived under occupation. He understands what it means to be colonized and to speak out against occupation and empire.

In this time of turmoil, oppression and murder of innocent civilians, I turn to God in prayer and hope. Hope is the tool that pushes us to work for social change and justice. As Dr. Mitri Raheb wrote in his Foreword for my book, Hope in Disarray:

For Martin Luther, hope is the “sum of all Christian teaching.” In Luther’s thinking, hope has nothing to do with optimism. Optimism derives from optimum: the best that ultimately will come. For Luther this would have meant hoping in one’s own merit. But merit leads ultimately to despair.

In the Palestinian context there was a time when our people were optimistic, thinking that peace was coming, that freedom was around the corner, that liberation was dawning, and that we were approaching the end line. Many of our people were waiting for that moment to come. Yet, they waited in vain. Peace did not come. On the contrary, the situation got worse and worse. We realized that our struggle is not a sprint, but rather a long marathon. In a marathon, hope is the art to breath. It is the art to keep one resilient so as not to lose heart or sight of the goal.

Hope is the power to keep focusing on the goal while taking small steps towards that future. Hope doesn’t wait for change to come. Hope is vision in action today. Hope is living the reality and yet investing in a different one.

The Jerusalemite prophet, Jeremiah, is the incarnation of this biblical hope. When his city was burned and the temple where he was serving was destroyed, hope seemed to be lost. Yet while the prophet Jeremiah was in prison, he asked a cousin to buy him a piece of land in Jerusalem. Jeremiah was able to imagine a future beyond the destruction around him. But that alone would not have been hope. Hope was deciding to invest in a city at a time when no sane person would so dare. Hope is what we do today. And only that, ultimately, counts tomorrow. (Mitri Raheb, Foreword in Hope in Disarray ).

As I reflect on the many things I have seen, experienced and witnessed during my visit to Palestine and Israel, I sit in prayer and in hope. As I see the horror of what is happening in Gaza, I turn to prayer and hope. Prayer and hope moves me towards action. Let us all join together in living with prayer and hope that moves us to act for social change and justice.

(“Jesus wept” John 11:35)

Read also:

Praying for Palestine and Israel

On building walls

Special Events:

1. I will be speaking at King’s University College Nov 16 at 7p.m. Please join me for the talk and book signing.

2.I will be preaching at Knox College, Toronto, on Nov 14th followed by a book signing. Please meet me at Knox College.

3.Next Madang Podcast will be released soon. If you would like to sponsor this next episode, please reach out to me, or simply support Madang Podcast here.