Clipped From Sermon #1
A couple of days ago, Shimon Peres died. He was the last "founding father" of the modern state of Israel, at the age of 93 - many of the others had been older to start with and died many years ago, but he was only 25 when the state was established in 1948. Over the past 68 years, he has been privy to many high-level decisions, a good portion of which were no doubt difficult and yet necessary in light of the never-ending possibility of Israel simply vanishing in what Iran's ex-president called a "sea of fire." He probably cannot be called a "good" man - we feel our "good" men need to somehow be wholly good and not merely proportional - but he did the best he could.
I was remembering the death of another "founding father" of Israel, however, when I was composing a story about the possibility of one day touring Israel, making my "pilgrimage" as one seems to expect of a man of the cloth, never a mind a person of strong Christian belief. In 1995, the pastor of my home congregation led a group on a tour of the Holy Land, an 8-day excursion that ended too soon in some ways, and just in time in others. Around the time their plane took off, a fanatical young man, who felt that Yitzhak Rabin was leading Israel down roads that might lead to their destruction, approached the then-prime minister, whipped out a pistol, and shot him. The borders instantly slammed shut as Israeli authorities tried to figure out if this was a lone gunman or a conspiracy; the plane was not called back, although I was told the temptation was there to do so. Shimon Peres was sworn in as Rabin's replacement as PM.
In the movie Tombstone, Doc Holliday dies in a hospital some time after the events at the OK Corral; the scene never made sense to me until just a few days ago. Wyatt Earp says his farewell, and as Doc watches him go, he notes that his feet are sticking out from the bottom of the covers, with no boots on them. "Who would have believed it?" he gasps - he had always hoped that he would die 'with his boots on' in a gunfight instead of in the relatively undignified manner of a hospital bed.
Surprisingly, most of the founders of Israel, including David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meier and Chaim Weizmann, died of old age - surprisingly because I'm sure they were sure at times that God would withdraw His hand and they would be arrested and shot by invading forces at some point. But they never did. It would be nice if we could see peace in the region in my lifetime - you've got 35 years, folks, or less!! Make it happen!
I was remembering the death of another "founding father" of Israel, however, when I was composing a story about the possibility of one day touring Israel, making my "pilgrimage" as one seems to expect of a man of the cloth, never a mind a person of strong Christian belief. In 1995, the pastor of my home congregation led a group on a tour of the Holy Land, an 8-day excursion that ended too soon in some ways, and just in time in others. Around the time their plane took off, a fanatical young man, who felt that Yitzhak Rabin was leading Israel down roads that might lead to their destruction, approached the then-prime minister, whipped out a pistol, and shot him. The borders instantly slammed shut as Israeli authorities tried to figure out if this was a lone gunman or a conspiracy; the plane was not called back, although I was told the temptation was there to do so. Shimon Peres was sworn in as Rabin's replacement as PM.
In the movie Tombstone, Doc Holliday dies in a hospital some time after the events at the OK Corral; the scene never made sense to me until just a few days ago. Wyatt Earp says his farewell, and as Doc watches him go, he notes that his feet are sticking out from the bottom of the covers, with no boots on them. "Who would have believed it?" he gasps - he had always hoped that he would die 'with his boots on' in a gunfight instead of in the relatively undignified manner of a hospital bed.
Surprisingly, most of the founders of Israel, including David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meier and Chaim Weizmann, died of old age - surprisingly because I'm sure they were sure at times that God would withdraw His hand and they would be arrested and shot by invading forces at some point. But they never did. It would be nice if we could see peace in the region in my lifetime - you've got 35 years, folks, or less!! Make it happen!