Photo by Andreas Solero/AFP

“Advent begins in the dark. It is not,” observes Episcopal priest and author Fleming Rutledge, “a season for the faint of heart.” This Advent I am feeling the darkness especially keenly, and perhaps you are too.

We have now witnessed fourteen months of Israel’s live-streamed genocide against Palestinians. Jesus continues to be born under the rubble, as Israel persists in perpetrating untold atrocities with impunity, in blatant defiance of international law and still with full-on U.S. funding and weapons. U.S. complicity runs deep. On November 20, the Biden administration once again vetoed a Security Council resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Gaza, the only country to do so.

With the incoming administration, we know the struggle for justice and for the human rights of all Palestinians will intensify and become even more fraught and challenging. This is true. And the temptation to give into hopelessness or to become weary and dispirited is real and also true. But – and this is a big ‘but’ – the sustained protests, organizing, and advocacy of Palestinian solidarity groups, university students, denominational PINs and so many more, over this past year, here in the U.S. and globally, is proof positive that we are not “the faint of heart.” We are not going away; we are relentless in our resistance. 

“In a dark time,” wrote the poet Theodore Roethke, “the eye begins to see.” We see the interdependence of freedom struggles. As Nelson Mandela said, “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians." We see that our very humanity requires our respect for and defense of the humanity of Palestinians. 

And in this season, let us also see, and attend to, the signs that the Palestinian freedom struggle is gaining traction. Here are some recent signs of note:

•19 US Democratic senators recently voted in support of all or part of Bernie Sanders’ Joint Resolutions of Disapproval to block arm sales to Israel. The measure failed, but 19 is just shy of 20% of the body.

•The International Criminal Court has now issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (see articles in Breaking the Stories), for their crimes against humanity. 

•Amnesty International on Dec. 5 published their investigative report, 'You Feel Like You are Subhuman': Israel's Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza,' concluding that Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip.

•Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the Palestinian civil society’s Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, reported at a recent Apartheid-Free Communities gathering that 52 countries are now supporting a military embargo of Israel. “The BDS movement,” he observed, “is finally reaching the ‘S’.”

•Artists from Bethlehem designed this year’s nativity display in the Vatican. The babe’s swaddling cloth? A Palestinian keffiyeh. (See article in Breaking the Stories). On Dec. 7 when the keffiyeh-draped manger was unveiled, Pope Frances denounced the profiteering of the arms industry and then offered this prayer: “With tears in our eyes, let us raise our prayer for peace. Brothers and sisters, enough war, enough violence.”

The signs are there, even in the dark. This is good news. May we have the eyes to see and the wisdom to trust these signs. May we not faint or grow weary, but be of strong faith and take bold action. And should our spirits flag, may we heed the words of the British Pakistani novelist Nadeem Aslam, “Despair has to be earned. I personally have not done all I can to change things. I haven’t yet earned the right to despair.”

So may we all continue on, doing all we can to change things. May we muster the courage and the commitment we need to be steadfast in seeking justice and pursuing peace. May we find inspiration from the sumud of Palestinians in their freedom struggle and believe, as we should, that our collective effort is bending the arc towards the justice that all deserve and God desires for all.

“This is no time for a child to be born,” especially a child in Gaza. Yet, as Madeleine L’Engle reminds all in her Christmas 1973 poem, “Love still takes the risk of birth.” This Christmas, when we celebrate God’s love and light birthed into the world in the person of Jesus, Word made flesh, even in a babe born under the rubble, may we have the faith and heart to embrace as our own John’s proclamation that the “light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” May it be so.

This excerpt is from the UCCPIN December 2024 E-Newsletter. To view the full newsletter, click here: UCCPIN December 2024 E-Newsletter.