Happy Valentine's Day! Today was another unbelievable day. We started very early, about 7:30, with a trip to the Mount of Olives. From there we could look out over all Jerusalem, seeing the Dome of the Rock, e Church of the Nativity and more stuff than I'll ever remember.
We came down from the Mount of Olives and went into the old city of Jerusalem. We went in through the Lion's Gate. I remember that we went to the pool by Bethsaida where Jesus healed the paralytic. We went into a church outside the pool site where we gathered together and sang a couple of songs. The church had wonderful acoustics. We walked through the old city, and along the route that Jesus carried the cross. We didn't do all the stations of the cross, though we did get some pictures of a group doing them. As I struggled to navigate my way along the narrow, uneven cobblestoned streets, and their hardness made me feel the weight of my body on my every joint, I could only imagine how Jesus must have struggled to carry the very cross upon which He was to be crucified.
We went to the Lithistratos in the Sisters of Zion Convent. The Lithistratos is a section of pavement preserved from Roman times. It has a board game on it, "The King's Game." It was a game that Roman soldiers played with condemned prisoners. They moved them in various places around the board, and toyed with them, doing things such as putting on a purple robe or a crown of thorns on them, slapping them around, and generally belittling them until it ended in them killing the prisoner. The pavement also had grooves in it from the chariots the Roman soldiers used.
On this Valentine's Day in Jerusalem, there in the Lithistratos, it was my turn to deliver the morning devotion! While it wasn't exactly preaching, I did get to speak to our little group (from behind a lectern, no less) here in Jerusalem. That was good, but it certainly was not the highlight of the day.
We continued on to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. (I think four of the stations of the cross are here). We got to see the slab that Christ's body was laid on and annointed in preparation for burial. I got a picture with it. Then we went on and spent much of the morning waiting to get into the place where Jesus was buried. We must have stood on line for over an hour. But finally we did get in! It was awesome to be able to enter in (we had to stoop down to enter and my pack scraped against the opening). It was great to see that the Greeks had put inside a pillow embroidered with the words "Christos Anesti" (Christ has risen). I got this silly smile as I responded to the pillow: "Alithos, Anesti!" (Surely, He has risen!) who'da thunk I would remember my Greek so automatically after all these years?!? We wandered through the old city somemore, and stopped for lunch. Another Falafel shop. I had the schwarma this time. Sorry, but both the falafel and schwarma are tastier (and less greasy) in NYC than what I've had here in Jerusalem.
We continued on through the City, and went to the Western Wall. It's often called the Wailing Wall, but the proper name is the Western Wall. We had the opportunity to pray and speak to God there. It was the Sabbath, so we were not allowed to take pictures. Despite all my prior plans, I was obedient and not only did I not take pictures, but I also went to the women's side and didn't try to go to the men's side. There's no real difference in the two sides (except that from the men's side you can see another archaeological site), and it was good to be in the company of women for such a sacred moment. Somehow, it actually seemed right. What I noticed was manyh of the Orthodox women left the wall walking backwards. My assumption is that's because they would not turn their back on the presence of the Divine. While I would have liked to have shown that sort of respect, I was concerned that I might fall voer backwards if I tried that, and decided that the most respectful course of action was to cause the least interruption. It was AWESOME! And yes, Cheryl, I remembered you by name at the Wall.
After that, I believe our next stop was the Garden of Gethsemane. We went into a private side and celebrated the Eucharist there. Then we took a few minutes to explore, have some teaching, and have some photo ops. By this time, I think everyone was in their own special spiritual space. It's hard to describe -- it was just great. Our group of 20 pilgrims has become a family.
We went to Herod's tomb for a quick minute before going to the shepherd's field. This is one of the fields where the shepherds received word that Christ was born. We went inside a small, cavelike church and had Scripture, prayer, and song.
There's probably more, and if there is, I'll edit it in later. My knees are absolutly killing me, but I got some Jordanian stuff called Voltaren that is quite good. Supposedly it helps treat the arthritis by reducing the swelling. As an example of how the economics are here, this stuff cost 3.9 Jordanian dinars, which was maybe 6-7 dollars. It cost 37 New Israeli shekels, which is over 10 dollars. The reason is because I'm inside a Palestinian area and the Palestinians have to pay extra taxes on all their goods. Life is so unfair for them. I realize that the view I'm seeing is only from the Palestinian side -- I'm not seeing the Israeli side for balance -- but what I see is really quite horrible. I won't repeat yesterday's rant....
I also got something called isofen, which is like an ibuprofen gel. I'll try to get some rest tonight. But it's finally dinnertime, and I'm pretty hungry, so I'll stop here.
Happy Valentine's Day once again! I hope your day was as awesome and as full of Love as mine was!
But for now
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