Today is November 8. Don’t
know what day it is; my iphone says Tuesday.
We started the day with a walk through Old Bethlehem. We walked from the hotel up the hill, and
through the streets to the Church of the Nativity (which, incidentally, was
built by Helena, Constantine’s mom. She
also had St. Katherine’s built, I believe…).
There were just TONS of people there, and one of the things Peter told
us is that in an Orthodox Church, you are not to cross your legs while
seated,. I wonder if that’s where the
rule comes from that clergy aren’t to cross their legs while they have their
robes on….
The original columns of the church were Constantinian. Justinian came along later and remodeled the
church, raising the floor. Beginning in
the 1970s, it has been renovated and people have been able to see pieces of the
original 4th century building.
In my pics, for example, you can see where the floor has been cut away
to reveal pieces of the original fourth century tiling.
All the icons, we learned, are from the Crusader
period. The balls hanging down appear
somewhat tacky and gaudy at first, but they are symbols of fertility and birth.
Our modern day Christmas tree ornaments mimic these. Some are egg-shaped, but most are
ball-shaped. The paintings on the wall represent the different ecumenical
councils. Even though much of the
interior of the church has been restored, this church HAS BEEN IN CONSTANT USE
for 1700 years. They say that when the
Persians were going through the area destroying all Christian churches, they
saw murals on the walls of this church that had Asian features. Because they recognized their own features on
the wall, it’s said, they did not destroy the church.
We were making our way down to the caves underneath the
church, to see the place where Jesus was supposedly born. There is also supposedly the place where He
was placed in the manger, as well as the place where the magi stood when they
adored Him. As we waited in the lines
and listened to the Romanian Orthodox priest who wouldn’t shut up despite the Greek
Orthodox priests continually asking everyone to be quiet; as we listened to the
Orthodox congregants chatter and (IMHO) behave badly; as we looked at humongous
lines of people crowding and bustling to get down these stairs and look at a
little hole in the ground, it occurred to me that Heaven HAS to exist outside
of space and time as we know it. It just
HAS to.
Part of the reason for the delay was there was an Orthodox
liturgy going on. Folks would come out
and ask everyone to be quiet, and people kept talking. I wondered why people would come out to a
church and disrespect it like that, but Richard explained that the people in
these lines are not all pilgrims; to many, this is like a museum. That thought had never occurred to me.
So after we went down and looked at the spot, we came up and
looked at the original Constantinian Mosaic again. We chatted about the apparent Orthodox sense
of superiority. For us as Protestants,
God intersects human history in the Person of Jesus Christ. For Orthodox Christians, God intersects human
history in certain revered Places. That’s
why the sacred Places are so important, and why they reverenced them so much.
We attempted to go down into the caves where Jerome
translated the Vulgate, but some Orthodox group went down and chained it off
from everyone else. So we went outside
and took pictures of the statue of Jerome and the front of the church.
While we were waiting for our bus driver, I met a woman who’d
been born in Palestine, but who now lives in Jordan. She and her husband had lived in the US for
several years. They have two sons, a
year and seven months apart, who are both mechanical engineers. We talked, and she wanted me to tell the
world about how life is for the Palestinian people. It is for them, she said, like living in a
jail. That’s why I keep going back to
Israel and that’s why I keep blogging about it – America, we need to recognize
what’s going on here and how complicit we are in the systematic oppression and
attempted genocide of a people.
I do what I can. But
what happened for me today was that in the midst of everything that went on, instead
of being annoyed with people or things outside my control, I began to praise
God – not For anything, not Because of anything – just praising God because I
could.
Glad I did. After we
left the Church of the Nativity, we went to the Herodion. We climbed it. I don’t know how high it was – after Mt.
Sinai, nothing seems all that high. It
was a bit taxing, yes, but no big deal.
I have pictures. The Herodion was
Herod’s summer palace. He made it, of
course, higher than any other structure in sight, literally having guys chop
the top off a surrounding mountain and move it to his to make his palace
higher. In direct view of the Mt. of
Olives, it is possible that Jesus was watching this feat when he talked about
people having the faith to move mountains.
Herod (don’t remember which one this was) was something.
We left the Herodion and went to the Orthodox Shepherd’s
field. I’d always gone to the Franciscan
one, so this was a treat. We started by
reading Luke 2: 1-15. Except, of course,
that we were interrupted by a group of Orthodox Christians on a tour. I wondered how you could interrupt someone
else when you see them reading the Bible (or the Quran or the Torah, for that
matter), but I was reminded that people reverence PLACE. At least, that’s what I chose to believe.
There was a BEAUTIFUL fragrance in the Garden. We ultimately found that it was Myrrh, likely
incense used to sanctify the Greek chapel.
Then we went down into the cave and explored the chapel.
After that, we went to the Dollar restaurant. The owner just got his US citizenship a month
ago. He applied several years ago, using
refugee status. Again, US, we’ve got to
do better. If we acknowledge that Palestinians are refugees, why in the world
are we supporting the government that oppresses them?
Lunch at the Dollar was amazing: we all ordered chicken sandwiches. They came with appetizers of hummus, some
sort of corn salad, some cabbage salad, and a mixed green salad. And lots of pita bread. By the time the free appetizers were over, we
were stuffed. I took half my sandwich
with me, and still haven’t eaten it.
After lunch, we went to the Mount of Olives and looked out
over the City of Jerusalem. Peter gave
us history lessons, and I shared with him my thoughts that I tend to look
things up when they interest me. There’s
lots of good history here and he helps to contextualize it; I just can’t write
fast enough, so I take in what I can and look up the rest.
One of the things I learned was that Jerusalem has had over
6,000 years of continuous human history, or 3,000 years before the
Israelites. While Jerusalem is the
Hebrew word for city of Peace, or City of Abundant Peace, it is also an
Arabic(?) word that means foundation of Shalem.
Shalem was a Canaanite god. If we
look in the 30th and 31st chapters of the book of
Jeremiah, we see references to the god Molech in the Hinem valley, which is
right outside Jerusalem. The point is
that there were, and always have been, non-Israelite people in the city and in
the region, long before the Israelite people laid claim to it.
As Peter introduced us to the history of Jerusalem, we
talked about how Saul was the first king of the United Monarchy, the first of
three monarchs: Saul, David, and
Solomon. Saul established “The High
Place,” his family place, as the seat of his kingdom. That showed a preference for his own
tribe. David, on the other hand, established
the capital in Hebron in the South, and then moved it to Jerusalem. Jerusalem was on the border of the tribes of
Benjamin and Judah, thereby showing no tribal preference and attempting to
unite the Kingdom. But this City of
David is near the Hechom (Gushing) spring, in Jerusalem.
We looked at 2 Samuel 24:21-24. There we saw David coming to Arauh’s
threshing floor. What was interesting
was the land. Even a covenant does not
automatically give you the land; you still have to respect and negotiate with
the people who are there. We were told
that Araunah is the place where the Dome of the Rock sits.
We talked a bit about the traditional theological issues
dividing Muslims and Christians.
Specifically, in the Muslim
tradition, the son Abraham was about to sacrifice was the firstborn (you always
sacrifice the firstborn or the first fruits.
See Cain and Abel), who was Ishmael.
In the Judeo-Christian tradition, we believe Abraham was about to
sacrifice Isaac. We Christians believe that Jesus is the first-born son of God,
and Jesus was the sacrifice for all humankind.
We looked at the Solomonic temple mount, and Peter talked
about the significance of placing the temple on a raised platform, but I wasn’t
paying attention.
Next we walked on to the Garden of Gethsemane. This was a different spot than the one we
normally go into, and we didn’t have the opportunity to celebrate Communion
here. The spot we went to was Dominus Flentius,
our “Our Lord Wept.” Here we read Luke
19: 35 – 38 or so… In the earlier
passage Luke 2:14), the angels proclaimed, “Glory to God in the Highest, and on
Earth peace…” In this passage,
the angels proclaimed, “Peace in Heaven and glory in the high
places….” The Pharisees, told him to rebuke the disciples, Jesus said “If these
remained silent, the stones would cry out…”
and then Jesus looked out over the City of Jerusalem and wept over it,
saying (v. 42) “if you, even you, had discerned in this day the things having
to do with peace – but now they have been hid from your eyes.”
All the above is what is commemorated in this Dominus
Flentius spot.
We spent some quiet time in the Garden, took some pics, and
then went into the Chapel. I couldn’t
help myself --- the acoustics were AWESOME, and while I didn’t sing it, I had
to at least hum “I Come to the Garden Alone.”
Everybody was sitting there, and while I didn’t want to intrude on
anyone else’s worship experience, the acoustics WERE awesome. So while I’m sitting there humming, I’m
wondering about people who get slain in the spirit. I wonder what would happen if they got slain
in the spirit on marble floors like these.
Inquiring minds and all. I mean
people say the Holy Spirit will never let anything happen to its children, but
if that’s the case, how come humans always run to cover up women who get slain
in the spirit? If they’re really slain
in the spirit, shouldn’t the Holy Spirit keep them covered?
So while I’m in the midst of these deep thoughts, a group of
Africans came in. They didn’t fall out,
but they did fall on their knees, some prostrated themselves, and they filled
the church with their audible prayers. By
this time our group had left, but again I wondered how we could have sat there
in such a place and not at least sing, so I hung with the Africans for a
while. I was about to leave, since they
were half praying and half taking pictures, but then their leader led a
prayer. So I prayed with them and then I
left. I saw them outside, and they were
all greeting me with “Shalom.” They were
all dressed in purple and gold from the same material, and they looked
awesome. I was proud of my peoples. J
We walked to the foot of the Mount of Olives and met our
driver. Then we went to the Israel
Museum. We saw the 2nd Temple
Model, which looks at ancient Jerusalem from the point of view of the Mount of
Olives. Since we’d just seen the real
thing with our own eyes, this model made a whole lot more sense this time
around. In another 4-5 visits, I might
be able to fully comprehend it. Met an
old couple there – they were from California, doing Israel on their own. He was born in Germany and they moved here;
he’d worked in his own business and had retired, then had volunteered with
SCORE for 20 years, and was now making a return trip to Israel. We talked about it, and about economics in
the US. He thought he was too old to relocate
to Israel, but he was admiring it. There
was a gleam in his eye that comes, I think, from thinking you’re seeing a place
for the last time. It was a pleasure
spending time with him.
When I returned to our group, the question came up, “who
killed Jesus?” Peter’s answer was that
we don’t really know, and that it doesn’t really matter. We are all complicit, we are all in need of
God’s Grace, and Salvation is available to all.
Jesus Christ’s Blood was shed for all.
Then we went into the Shrine of the Book, where the Dead Sea
Scrolls are kept. Or at least parts of
them. I saw a bunch at the exhibit in
San Diego years ago. It talks about the
Essenes, and about Qumran, where we’ll visit in the next couple of days. But as I read the scrolls, I noted that
Jewish people acknowledge that some ancient writings have been preserved in
Christianity but not in Judaism (the scrolls support these texts, and the folks
who created the exhibit called it “ironic” that Christians have preserved these
writings). I saw earlier that the canon
of the Tanakh wasn’t finalized until sometime in the first 3 centuries of the
Common Era; possibly a couple hundred years earlier than the Christian canon
(at most). And remember, some of these
writings they refer to are canonized or extra-canonical in other Christian
denominations. Then I saw a scroll about
the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness, which seems to sort of describe the
apocalyptic battle in Revelation.
And while it is not PC to say, it occurred to me that
Christianity is, indeed, a continuation of the Jewish belief set.
We had dinner at the Tent restaurant. Another feast like lunch. I’ll link the
pictures to the posts later. We’re off
to the Temple Mount and the Old City tomorrow. We went to Johnny’s tonight and got some
souvenirs. Not sure how I’m getting
everything home, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. Right
now I’m going to bed. As long as this post is, it doesn’t begin to
describe the rich experiences I’m having here.
And yes, I’m on my cane, but I climbed the Herodian today.
Another wonderful day, Thanks be to God!!
Oh. And when I left
this morning, Bertolucci, the Italian PM, was definitely not resigning. Now he
is. And we were all wondering why Obama
concedes to Israel like he does. A leaked tape has Sarkosky, the French PM,
stating he can’t work with Netanyahu anymore because Netanyahu is a liar, and it
has Obama saying something like “You can’t take it? I have to deal with him
every day.” I know it’s sticky for him
diplomatically, but that leaked tape gives me renewed hope, both in our
President, and in the possibility of peace and justice in the Middle East. It lets me know at the very least that our
President is aware of what he’s dealing with.
I can only hope that he has a plan, and that his plan is aligned with
God’s plan…
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
No comments:
Post a Comment