Numbed by the ongoing toll of death and destruction, it is easy to cut ourselves off from the grief, chaos and anguish, of those living the Gaza nightmare. The war in Gaza grinds on, with people herded from one area to another, presumably, safer place. Yet that safety explodes in the reality of false promises and daily bombings.

A set of newborn twins die, in the space between when their dad leaves to get their birth certificates and his return home. Their apartment bombed and these precious newborns, along with their mother and grandmother killed. Just days earlier, it had seemed a miracle that they and their mother had survived the pregnancy.

It’s the multiples that grab our attention. Ten year old quintuplets, their mother and 18 month old sibling die a day or so later. Only broken pieces of the children’s mangled bodies, are left to gather, and put in a single bag.

Except for brief pauses, there has been little break from the slaughter. Leaders in Israel’s military have said for months, their military objectives have been met. Yet the war continues, with goal posts toward peace moving constantly.

Peace activists in Israel and Palestine tell us, so little Palestinian land is left, that only a One State solution, will ever achieve peace. A Jewish Israeli human rights activist, and a Lutheran Pastor from Bethlehem, make that point. Peace requires justice. Justice looks to them like a country that erases borders, walls come down, there are no checkpoints, everyone is valued and all have the same rights.

The pastor wonders why Christian churches in the United States are silent, in the face of the great suffering, death and destruction of Palestinian people. He yearns for a day, when Jew, Muslim and Christian are able to live at peace together, in the Holy Land.

In the complexity of an election year and a polarized environment, the temptation is for silence. Yet, prophets of old spoke truth, when it was both inconvenient and unwelcome.

Amos, the shepherd prophet from Tekoa, would cry out at us, to do what we are able to do, that “Justice,” might, “Roll down like the waters and righteousness as an ever-flowing stream.” Amos 5:24