Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost and Youth Sunday

Sermon by Chase Melich, Carmel High School

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen

Modern Syria was created as a French mandate and attained independence in April 1946.  Its system of government is considered non-democratic.

This summer I had the opportunity to visit Syria, which is bordered by Lebanon and theMediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israelto the southwest.

The population of Syria is mainly Sunni Muslim.

Damascus, the capital of Syria, is widely regarded as one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.

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On our way out of the Zenobia Cham Palace Hotel in Palymyra, Syria and as we were walking through the ruins of Palmyra toward Q’alaat Yervan  a bedouin (a traditional nomadic Arab man) was trying to get our attention by calling to my father and me.

My father kept saying no shukran (no thank you).  The Bedouin was persistent and he kept calling to us until he could no longer see us and we could no longer see him.

I thought the Bedouin finally decided to seek out more tourists.  But after about a minute, we heard a motorcycle start, which isn’t unusual for that area because there are a lot of motorcycles in Syria .  And when we looked back, we saw the persistent Bedouin driving towards us with a big grin on his face.  He then stopped and walked over to us, because by then, we were halted in our tracks because we were amazed at how persistent he was.  The Bedouin got off of his motorcycle and said his name was Ali.

Ali then grabbed a box off of the back of his motorcycle and set it down in front of us on the remnants of a pillar and started to show us his goods.  He had camel bone bracelets and necklaces, which he insisted were made by his wife, keffiyeh (traditional headdress typically worn by Arab men made of a square of cloth), and bedouin silver jewelry which he wanted us to buy.

Finally after showing us all of his wares, he grabbed the red keffiyeh, and started putting it on my head.  When he was done he said “You look like Lawrence of Arabia” I was very surprised because his voice was very deep, jolly and welcoming.  If I close my eyes, I can still hear his voice in my head.

***

My father then looked at me and he told Ali that we would buy the red keffiyeh, after a little haggling over the price, of course.

The thing that struck me about this moment and Ali was that he sounded and acted different that what I expected.

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Before I left for Syria I was worried because of the stories you hear on the news about the people and things, in particular the terrorist attacks and strained relations between Syria and Israel and the subsequent bombings that occur because of the strained relations.

However, once I got there and spent some time amongst the people, I found out that all those prejudices were only true for a very small part of the population of the Middle East.

They are actually a very nice and respectful people.  Here was a man, Ali, whose religion was different than mine, who was dressed different than I dress, who native tongue was different then mine yet here he was speaking to me in my language, making references to things from my culture and doing his best to make me feel welcomed in his country.

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It also struck me that the Syrians had prejudices against us as Americans such as when my father and I went to a restaurant in Latakia and the gentlemen who waited on us asked us if we were Americans.  We replied that we were and he said, “We do not serve alcohol” making it appear as if he thought all Americans drank a lot.

So much as we do not want others to stereotype us, we too must not judge people by how they look, where they are from or how they talk.  We should always try to take the time to truly get to know a people or a person before we judge them.

***

Two days before I left Syria, my father and I went shopping in Damascus’ old city.  My father’s friend and driver, Iman, took us to his friends shop to buy mementos from my trip.  Once we got to the shop, after walking through the very hot souks (markets), the shop owner sat us down and served us a cup of tea.

This struck me as very similar to St. Dunstan’s and how after the service, as a way of getting to know people, we serve them coffee.  In both instances, we welcome strangers in our life without even knowing them.  “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”