Where is the Witness of the Church?

Dr. Mae Elise Cannon

Screenshot photo: Banksy

The following is a transcribed portion of Dr. Mae Elise Cannon’s talk from “Christ at the Checkpoint 2024.” To listen to her full talk, click the video above:

“I don't know about you, but over the past eight months or so when I experience joy, I feel guilty…The passage that got me through that I think for me answers the question of what does it mean to be a Christian witness in the midst of oppression is Romans Chap 12. It says to, ‘abhor what is evil and cling to what is good’ and in some ways I think it's easier to abhor what is evil because all I feel is angry. I keep speaking to churches and I just start yelling and my husband says, ‘Mae you know you are doing this at home too right’ and he said, ‘stop yelling at me.’ And I say, ‘I'm not yelling at you, I'm just yelling, I'm so angry.’ But underneath that anger, my heart is broken.

I've given more than a hundred talks since October 7th. I'm not nervous about talking…I've rewritten this talk 10 times and I don't have any wisdom. I know that broken hearts are not enough…One of the prayers we often pray at World Vision is ‘break my heart for the things that break the heart of God.’ The founder of World Vision used to pray that prayer and I don't know about you, but if you really pray that prayer, that takes a lot of courage because my heart is not big enough to hear the things that we hear each and every day and to see the things that we see each and every day. And that the world is not abhorring what happened on October 7th and when there was a government that said turn off the water, the gas, and the food, and the electricity of 2.3 million people and that the entire world was not in an uproar. My heart is not big enough to be that broken. And so the other prayer I've been praying is, ‘not only break my heart for the things that break the heart of God, but it's also God expand my heart…’

I heard Bashara tell the story of the Nakba and the Palestinian people and I just began to weep. I just wept the whole time he was talking. If you come to my office in Washington DC, you'll see this picture of me with tears in my eyes and it was the moment. It was my Damascus Road experience where scales fell from my eyes…

My point is, what does it mean to be a witness? It means to allow our hearts to be broken and for God to give us eyes to see. Witness is about eyes to see the oppression that is before us, but also the role that we play in it. You know the hard part about these prayers and the hard part about this message is that we as human beings can't face the reality of our own sin and our own contribution. Do you remember when Moses was on Mount Sinai? He could not see the face of God. It was too much for him. The passage in Exodus 33 tells us that in our own human frailty we do not have the capacity on our own for the glory of God. It is too much to handle. We both don't have the capacity to see the goodness of God but also the truth about who we are in the midst of this story. And so the Lord gave Moses a greater revelation of his visible glory which is the outward manifestation of God's character and nature. So you'll recall that when God said he would turn his back and allow Moses to walk by, God only reveals to us as much as we can handle…

If you use Romans chapter 12…it talks about by the grace that God gives us right now. And so if we pray for God's grace, guess what? It's not going to get easier, it's going to get harder. I promise you, this is the hardest work I have ever done and I'm not saying that because I feel sorry for myself. I'm saying that because I don't have the courage to do it. I'm saying that because we have to admit the hatred within our own hearts. And friends we have more hatred within us than we even know. If we really want to be peacemakers and witness the oppression of the Palestinian people we have to come to terms with that reality…

Why is the church okay being silent? We have been speaking to as many churches as we can speak to saying, ‘Don't be scared, don't put your head down, have courage. Please, please, please be angry. Children are dying and the ones who aren't dying are being starved so much so that they are going to have mental disabilities for the rest of their lives. We should be more angry than we are, but in your anger do not sin…

I was sitting in January at Shireen's kitchen table and I love her children like my own. Palestinian mothers, how many Palestinian mothers do we have in the room? You are the heroes. You are the heroes of this conflict raising your children to love and not hate. Little May (Shireen’s daughter), asked Shireen to buy her lots of candy from the store. Shireen says, ‘Well you can't eat all this candy. What do you want this candy for?’ So little Mae takes the candy to school and sells it for three or four times more than the candy…She's just an entrepreneur and being un-selfish guess what she's using the money for? She's using it for children in Gaza. We're sitting at the kitchen table and we're talking about this and we're talking about this beautiful little girl who they call Mae says, ‘I want the bombing to stop. I want the bombing to stop.’ Then she says, ‘But I want them to keep bombing Israel.’ She didn't say that because she's hateful. She didn't say that because she's Palestinian or she’s a terrorist. She said that because she's a little girl who lost two aunts, an aunt and an uncle, and another aunt that's been injured. She said that because she's in pain.

So I'm sitting at home a few months later and I'm visiting with family members, visiting Texas…This story is actually not about his sin it's about my own and we're talking about these issues. And we're talking about what's happening and he's asking all these questions. And he's not really listening. And I tell this story about little Mae. I’m telling this story thinking that he will have empathy for what these children are going through; that children in Gaza are asking, ‘What's America going to give us today? Is it bread or is it bombs?’ That our hearts should be broken for these children. And you know what he says to me after I tell him the story? He says, ‘That proves my point. Look, Palestinians are full of hate.’ I wanted to kill that man. I had so much hatred in my heart. In my home, he said that about someone I love who is so good. That's the message he got out of that story?

Friends, if we want to be a witness to the oppression here, we have to deal with that hatred that is within us. If we want to be really honest when we say, ‘Break our hearts about the things that break the heart of God,’ our hearts should also be broken about what happened on October 7th. It was an atrocity against God. Now I believe there is a microcosm and a macrocosm, you know, a micro way to look at this in a macro issue. I agree 100%, I heard Shireen say the other night this did not begin on October 7th. I agree. The context is important 100%. But that Israeli mother or that International mother who lost a child that day, our hearts should be broken for them as well. If we want to have Christian witness in the midst of our oppression, it does not minimize our calling for justice for Palestinians by speaking out against atrocities against Israelis. It actually strengthens our cause. That is the Christian message on the cross. The task of a leader is to carry the pain of your people…As Christians, where would Jesus be? What does Jesus call us to? If you look at Romans 12, he talks about sacrifice. He talks about not only loving your friend, but loving your enemy…

I am so sorry for the pain and suffering of the Palestinian people. I am so sorry to bring this message because I promise you I really don't want to be bringing it. But friends, if our Christian witness is not different than a worldly witness, what kind of message do we have that points to Jesus?

…Killing and violence is evil against the image of God. Every human being is made in the image of God and we need to abhor what is evil…as we're working to prevent further genocide. This is the hardest work we're ever going to be called to do in so many ways because friends, this is not about Palestine, this is about the witness of the church in the history of the world. This is not about the liberation of Palestine only. Yes but it's about the liberation of the Gospel. This is about the good news of the gospel truth.

Where is the church in this moment? Where is the church? Is the church calling us to more? To enter into that pain; to a sacrificial giving that costs so much? Why is it that secular college students who've never even been here are doing more than the church is doing? They are willing to give up their entire futures, their degrees. Why are they willing to sacrifice more than the body of Christ? What have we lost church? What have we lost? We have to return to Jesus not just for the liberation of the Palestinian people, but for our own liberation; for the liberation of our souls and the good news of the Gospel. It's for the liberation of all people who choose to follow and it's about physical oppression. I mean ironically the Jewish text that's being read in synagogues around the world, at least for reformed Judaism this week, is from Leviticus chapter 25. I sometimes tease, I'm sure that's all of your favorite Old Testament passage. How many of you know what it's about? It's the Year of Jubilee. It's Jesus' very first sermon where he said the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, freedom for the oppressed, recovery of sight for the blind. We're the blind people. The church are the blind. My God, open our eyes and might we not be so audacious to think that we have the answers.

You know Romans 12 says not think of yourselves more highly than you ought. I certainly have been guilty of this…That passage also talks about doing that which God calls us to do and the good news is God has called each of us uniquely and differently. We're each in different contexts. The scriptures talk about being obedient to God, not obedient to humankind. But we do that within the context of community and so might God give us eyes to see. Might God break our hearts for the things that break the heart of God, but expand our hearts so that we have more capacity because of our own limitedness and our own weakness. Might we not think of ourselves more highly than we ought. Might we be obedient to that which God has called us to do. I promise you, he has equipped you to do it. He has given you what you need. I wake up every day and I don't feel that way. When you work every day and the situation on the ground gets worse, we have to hold on to the truth what the scripture says. Hope is that which you do not yet see. God will be faithful to the Palestinian people. I fundamentally believe that to be true. God will set the oppressed free. I fundamentally believe that to be true.

So what role do we play in it? Be obedient to that which God has called you to do and do the hard work. Do that soul searching hard work, that painful, painful work of being really, really honest of what within us needs to be rooted out. It's much easier to point at the other person. Point at the person next to you. Tell them what needs to be rooted out in them. I've had quite a bit of that the last eight months. Do that hard searching work and then by the grace of God, he will give us what we need.

The good news of the Gospel is this, second Thessalonians 3: ‘But the Lord is faithful, he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one and we have confidence in the Lord that what you are doing and will continue to do will be according to his command.’ May the Lord direct our hearts into God's love and into Christ's perseverance.”