I sat by a Holocaust survivor on the plane

On my flight from Tel Aviv to Frankfurt I had the privilege of sitting next to an ex-pat Holocaust survivor who now resided in Tel Aviv. It was certainly one way to book-end my trip, as our first event when we got to Jerusalem was to visit the Yad Vashem (the Jerusalem Holocaust Memorial). Sonja was eight years old when she went into a work camp (Perhaps Camp Gurs or Rivesaltes in southern France as Sonja indicated they escaped through the Pyrenees into Spain). She was lucky in that her whole family survived and made it out of the camp because the man who ran the camp ("a good Christian man") let them go when he found out the camp would be closed and all prisoners would be sent to Auschwitz.

Sonja knew I was not a Jew but had no problem with me being a Christian. In fact, she seemed quite pleased. We talked about faith a bit. She said she believes in God but she doesn't understand him. Why would God allow all these awful things to continually happen upon the earth? "When I look at what happens in Africa..." She did not directly adress the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza but she did say she did not judge people based on skin color or race or origin. "Arab or non-Arab, it shouldn't matter."

I reflect on this because of Sunday's lectionary text. In the Revised Common Lectionary we read Romans 6 and Paul's thoughts on sin and grace. It would seem that the world has continued to sin inspite of the grace show to us through Jesus Christ.

Like Sonja, I don't understand why God "lets" things happen and doesn't stop the apparent evil and sin we perpetuate as human beings. Perhaps we chalk it up to difficult questions regarding theodicy or deposit it into the realm of mystery surrounding God. What I told to Sonja and what I still try to cling to in my tenous faith is the knowledge that it is part of our human nature to be broken-in big and little ways. Sin and evil are ever present in the world. But at the same time, God's love is ever present and superior to sin and evil. Sonja's life has been completely affected by her experience in the work camp but it didn't stop her from living her life or telling her story or entering into relationship, even with those who are different from her. The occupation, the settlers, the wall don't stop the Palestinians from living their lives, from continually striving for some sort of solution to the evil that is visited upon them, from being the happy people they are and demonstrating kindness to those who visit them.

Paul asks, "Shall we sin so that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?" We live with two realities. People are only interested in serving themselves and their own interests which inevitably leads to sin and brokenness. People are only interested in working for peace and love and an end to sin and brokenness. Death is certain in the realm of sin. But life is certain when grace is juxtaposed to that realm of sin and in the end will turn the realm of sin into grace and death into life. It simply has to be that way.