Israel-Palestine

A PASTOR'S PLEA

INTRODUCTION

It is hard these days to know the truth of what is happening in Palestine because so much of what we read or hear in the media is biased towards one side or the other. Rather than relying on the media, however, I believe that as Christians we should be listening to what our brothers and sisters who actually live in Palestine and who are daily experiencing the reality of the conflict, have to say about it. One of my goals in putting this material together has been to amplify their voices because it seems to me that they are not being heard by Christians in the West.

CHRIST IN THE RUBBLE: THE SERMON

Rev Munther Isaac is a Palestinian pastor, author, and theologian based in the West Bank. He is currently the academic dean of Bethlehem Bible College and he also pastors two churches, one of which is the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem. In December 2023, his church's nativity scene depicting Jesus lying on a pile of rubble and his sermon Christ In The Rubble: A Liturgy of Lament went viral. Preached in Bethlehem in December 2023 in the aftermath of the deadly Hamas attack on October 7, this is a sermon that every Christian who wants to understand the Palestinian Christian perspective on the conflict needs to hear. You can either watch the video or read the transcript of the sermon below. 

Transcript
We are angry. We are broken. This should have been a time of joy; instead, we are mourning. We are fearful.

20,000 killed. Thousands under the rubble still. Close to 9,000 children killed in the most brutal ways. Day after day after day. 1.9 million displaced! Hundreds of thousands of homes were destroyed. Gaza as we know it no longer exists. This is an annihilation. A genocide. The world is watching. Churches are watching. Gazans are sending live images of their own execution. Maybe the world cares? But it goes on. We ask: Could this be our fate in Bethlehem? In Ramallah? Is this our destiny too?

We are tormented by the silence of the world. Leaders of the so-called ‘free’ world lined up one after the other to give the green light for this genocide against a captive population. They gave the cover. Not only did they make sure to pay the bill in advance, they veiled the truth and context, providing political cover. 

And, yet another layer has been added: the theological cover with the Western Church stepping into the spotlight. The South African Church taught us the concept of ‘the state theology’, defined as ‘the theological justification of the status quo with its racism, capitalism and totalitarianism.’ It does so by misusing theological concepts and biblical texts for its own political purposes.

Here in Palestine, the Bible is weaponised against us. Our very own sacred text. In our terminology in Palestine, we speak of the Empire. Here we confront the theology of the Empire. A disguise for superiority, supremacy, chosenness and entitlement. It is sometimes given a nice cover using words like mission and evangelism, fulfilment of prophecy and spreading freedom and liberty. The theology of the Empire becomes a powerful tool to mask oppression under the cloak of divine sanction. It divides people into us and them. It dehumanises and demonises. It speaks of land without people even when they know the land has people – and not just any people. It calls for emptying Gaza, just like it called the ethnic cleansing in 1948 ‘a divine miracle’. It calls for us Palestinians to go to Egypt, maybe to Jordan, or why not just into the sea?

‘Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?’ they said of us. This is the theology of Empire.

This war has confirmed to us that the world does not see us as equal. Maybe it is the colour of our skin. Maybe it is because we are on the wrong side of the political equation. Even our kinship in Christ did not shield us. As they said, if it takes killing 100 Palestinians to get a single Hamas militant then so be it! We are not humans in their eyes. (But in God’s eyes - no one can tell us we are not!)

The hypocrisy and racism of the Western world is transparent and appalling! They always take the words of Palestinians with suspicion and qualification. No, we are not treated equally. Yet, the other side, despite a clear track record of misinformation, is almost always deemed infallible! To our European friends: I never ever want to hear you lecture us on human rights or international law again. We are not white – it does not apply to us according to your own logic.

In this war, Christians in the West made sure the Empire had the theology needed. It is self-defence, we were told! In the shadow of the Empire, they turned the coloniser into the victim and the colonised into the aggressor. Do not forget that 80% of Gazans are refugees from the 1948 Nakba and that the state of Israel was built on the ruins of the towns and villages that once belonged to them.

We are outraged by the complicity of the church. Let it be clear: Silence is complicity, and empty calls for peace without a ceasefire and an end to occupation and the shallow words of empathy without direct action - are all under the banner of complicity. So here is my message: Gaza today has become the moral compass of the world. Gaza was hell on earth before October 7th.

If you are not appalled by what is happening; if you are not shaken to your core – there is something wrong with your humanity. If as Christians we are not outraged by this genocide, and the weaponising of the Bible to justify it, there is something wrong with our Christianity and we are compromising the credibility of the Gospel. If you fail to call this a genocide, it is on you. It is a sin you willingly embrace.

Some have not even called for a ceasefire. I feel sorry for you. We will be OK. Despite the immense blow we have endured, we will recover. We will rise and stand up again from the midst of destruction, as we have always done as Palestinians, although this is by far the biggest blow we have received in a long time. But for those who are complicit, I feel sorry for you. Will you ever recover from this? Your charity, your words of shock AFTER the genocide, won’t make a difference. Words of regret will not suffice for you. We will not accept your apology. What has been done, has been done. I want you to look at the mirror and ask: Where was I?

To our friends who are here with us: You have left your families and churches to be with us. You embody the term accompaniment – a costly solidarity. ‘We were in prison and you visited us.’ What a stark difference from the silence and complicity of others. Your presence here is the meaning of solidarity. Your visit has already left an impression that will never be taken from us. Through you, God has spoken to us that ‘we are not forsaken.’ As Father Rami said this morning, you have come to Bethlehem and like the Magi, you brought gifts - but yours are more precious than gold, frankincense, and myrrh. You brought gifts of love and solidarity.

We needed this. For this season, maybe more than anything, we were troubled by the silence of God. In these last two months, the Psalms of lament have become a precious companion. We cried out: My God, My God, why have you forsaken Gaza? Why do you hide your face from Gaza?

In our pain, anguish and lament we have searched for God and found him under the rubble in Gaza. Jesus became the victim of the very same violence - the violence of the Empire. He was tortured. Crucified. He bled out as others watched. He was killed and cried out in pain: My God, why have you forsaken me?

In Gaza today, God is under the rubble. And in this Christmas season, as we search for Jesus, he is to be found not on the side of Rome, but on our side of the wall. In a cave, with a simple family. Vulnerable. Barely and miraculously surviving a massacre. Among a refugee family. This is where Jesus is found.

If Jesus were to be born today, he would be born under the rubble in Gaza. When we glorify pride and richness, Jesus is under the rubble. When we rely on power, might and weapons, Jesus is under the rubble. When we justify, rationalise and theologise the bombing of children, Jesus is under the rubble.

Jesus is under the rubble. This is his manger. He is at home with the marginalised, the suffering, the oppressed and displaced. This is his manger. I have been looking, contemplating on this iconic image. God with us, precisely in this way. THIS is the incarnation. Messy. Bloody. Poverty.

This child is our hope and inspiration. We look and see him in every child killed and pulled from under the rubble. While the world continues to reject the children of Gaza, Jesus says: ‘Just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to ME.’ Jesus not only calls them his own, he is one of them!

We look at the holy family and see them in every family displaced and wandering, now homeless in despair. While the world discusses the fate of the people of Gaza as if they are unwanted boxes in a garage, God in the Christmas narrative shares in their fate; He walks with them and calls them his own.

This manger is about resilience. The resilience of Jesus is in his meekness, weakness and vulnerability. The majesty of the incarnation lies in its solidarity with the marginalised. Resilience because this very same child, rose up from the midst of pain, destruction, darkness and death to challenge Empires; to speak truth to power and deliver an everlasting victory over death and darkness.

This is Christmas today in Palestine and this is the Christmas message. It is not about Santa, trees, gifts, lights etc. My goodness how we twisted the meaning of Christmas. How we have commercialised Christmas. I was in the USA last month, the first Monday after Thanksgiving, and I was amazed by the amount of Christmas decorations and lights, and all the commercial goods. I couldn’t help but think: They send us bombs, while celebrating Christmas in their land. They sing about the prince of peace in their land, while playing the drum of war in our land.

Christmas in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, is this manger. This is our message to the world today. It is a gospel message, a true and authentic Christmas message, about the God who did not stay silent, but said his word, and his Word is Jesus. Born among the occupied and marginalised. He is in solidarity with us in our pain and brokenness. This manger is our message to the world today – and it is simply this: this genocide must stop NOW. Let us repeat: STOP this Genocide NOW.

This is our call. This is our plea. This is our prayer. Hear oh God. Amen.​

CHRISTIANS AND GAZA

As a result of his sermon, Munther was invited to speak at churches and universities around the USA in 2024. Here is the address he gave on the subject of Christians And Gaza at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, USA. 

CHRIST IN THE RUBBLE: THE BOOK

In 2025 Munther went on to publish a book: Christ in the Rubble: Faith, the Bible, and the Genocide in Gaza. Again this is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the situation in Gaza from a Palestinian Christian perspective. 

THE GOSPEL AND GAZA

Released on YouTube and on FaceBook in October 2025, this is Palestinian Pastor, Munther Isaac's Sermon To The West.

'If we are not outraged by this genocide, and the weaponising of the Bible to justify it, there is something wrong with our Christianity and we are compromising the credibility of the Gospel.' 

Rev. Munther Isaac