NEST Newsletter – December 2020
Message by Dr. George Sabra, President
Near East School of Theology
“ … for darkness is as light to you.” (Ps. 139:12)
Darkness covers us these days in Lebanon; the light around us has become night. Darkness has set upon us because of the COVID19 pandemic and the way it has transformed and damaged our personal, professional and social lives. The devastation and suffering resulting from the Beirut port explosion cast clouds of darkness over our capital city and over the lives of hundreds of thousands of killed, wounded and displaced people.
The economic and financial collapse of the whole country has landed us in an abyss of darkness that engulfs everyone and everything. Our politicians seem to revel in their collusion with the powers of darkness, for they are not lifting a finger to do anything about the darkness that overwhelms the people. But the message of Christmas is that darkness does not have the last word, for “by the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death..” (Lk. 79-78 :1). We trust in the God to whom darkness is not dark and the night is as bright as the day. We hope in the God for whom darkness is as light, and so we continue with our lives and with our ministry of theological education and ministerial training in the midst and in spite of the darkness that encircles us. Our activities and events have been curtailed, as this short Newsletter shows, but we are still alive and witnessing.
Arise, shine; for your Light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!
Merry Christmas to all our Friends and Partners