Source: Tulsa World
August 17, 2016
The Rev. George Eber, pastor of St. Antony Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church. BILL SHERMAN/Tulsa World.
The shooting death of a Tulsa Lebanese man has attracted media attention around the world, but media hoopla will not be part of his Orthodox Christian funeral service this week.
Khalid Jabara was killed outside his house Friday. His next door neighbor has been arrested in the shooting.
Dozens of people are murdered in Tulsa every year, but something about this killing touched a nerve. It was covered by ABC, BBC, Good Morning America, CNN, Al Jazeera and scores of newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic.
I talked about it Wednesday in a downtown coffee shop with Jabara’s pastor, the Rev. George Eber, of St. Antony Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church.
Eber said he thinks the shooting drew global attention because “at the core, we’re alienated from a peaceful and loving God, and in a world without God, chaos reigns. ... There is a lot of blaming going on.”
Khalid Jabara
Eber said some Americans don’t realize that many Arabs are Christians, descendants of the early Christian church, which started in that part of the world.
“The funeral is important,” he said, “to address, ‘Where was God?’ and ‘Where does evil come from?’ ”
He said the service will be a traditional Orthodox funeral service. It will be long and will consist largely of prayer, chanting of readings and Scripture, and some responsive readings by worshippers.
He said he will speak briefly about the deceased, but unlike a typical Protestant funeral, there will be no time for others to talk about Jabara.
That will take place later at a “meal of mercy” for family and close friends.
Eber said he is taking steps to ensure that the funeral does not become a media circus.
“We don’t know who will show up,” he said, noting that several national media outlets have been reporting from Tulsa about the killing.
He has hired off-duty city police officers as security, and the church will not allow cameras or recording devices into the service.
“We will avoid all politics,” Eber said. “We will keep demonstrators off of our property.”
He said the service will be a time to reflect on biblical realities of Orthodoxy, that “It is a fallen world, and there have always been tragedies, but God is not the author of evil and never wanted that to happen.
“God is weeping with us, weeping for us.
“We commit these crimes, yet God, in his mercy and love, comes to bail us out, so he became as one of us. ... God has turned the grave into a new being.”
Eber said he has known the Jabara family since just after he took the pastorate of the church in 1981, a year after graduating from Oral Roberts University.
They are Antiochian Christians, historic descendants of the Christian church founded in what is now Lebanon, he said. Followers of Jesus were first called Christians in Antioch.
Eber said the Jabara family members are kind and thoughtful and, like many people of Middle Eastern culture, very social and community-oriented.
Khalid Jabara was bright and good with computers, he said.
“He had a funny side to him. He could be silly.”
