It's me blogging today.
Today started on the Mount of Olives. We went to the to of top of the Mount of Olives at the Church of the Ascension where Jesus is said to have ascended into heaven and will return to earth there as well. We read the Scripture of his ascension to heaven in Acts 1 and then sang "Praise God from whom all blessings flow..." What a great way to start our tour! The voices echoed off of the walls and I'm sure could be heard well in the courtyard where other pilgrims awaited their turn inside.
From there we went to the Church of the Pater Noster where Jesus is said to have instructed his disciples to pray with the words, "Our Father, who art in heaven..." The traditional location there on the Mount of Olives is actually a cave. Instead of saying the Lord's Prayer, we sang it. Like Cindy said yesterday about her experiences...wow! Again, the sound echoed and the group of Spanish priests behind us could hear us well.
Next, we travelled down the mountain to a church built at the place where Jesus looked out on Jerusalem and wept over it. There was a seating area there, so our guide, Ezra, sat us down and talked at length about the history of Jerusalem. What was great about it was the seating area was on the edge of the Mount of Olives overlooking a panoramic view of the Old City of Jerusalem. Ezra would talk about something that took place in Jerusalem, then point to it. "Look just above the Dome of the Rock at that building with the gray roof. There is where it happened." Talking about a living history and Bible lesson! I was able to sort out a nagging question about the difference between "City of David," "Jebusite City" and "Jerusalem," which in my mind were all the same thing. They are connected, but separate. Ezra explained by pointing and telling stories from history. Amazing.
From there we went to the Garden of Gethsemane. We had a private part of the Garden reserved and had a service of singing, brief message, and period of quiet to walk around the Garden. In my message, I said that in the Garden of Gethsemane, the events of the final work of God in the mission in Jesus were set into motion. The first question for all to ponder is what catalytic event needs to happen to set into motion God's larger mission in our lives. I also said that Jesus literally walked through a cemetery to the south on his way to Gethesemane; he walked through death to get to this point that would ultimately lead to life. The second question I asked was what needed to die or be set aside in our lives in order to live into the life God wants for us. I also said that three separate times Jesus said or referred back to "not my will, but Yours." Not his will, but the Father in heaven's will be done. The third question was what area in your life have you been trying to make it all "my will" and need to make it "God's will." We left the private garden and went through the public garden with the 2,000 year old olive trees. Jesus would have seen those trees!
Next was a walk through the Kidron Valley, which is the valley formed from the base of the Mount of Olives and the mountain on which Jerusalem sits. We walked along the valley floor and had a biblical and historical lesson on prophets and kings who were buried or at least memorialized there.
At the end of the Kidron Valley as we walked south, we made a sharp right turn straight into hell, or Gehenna. "You are now in hell," Ezra said. Not to often you can say that and actually mean it. All of the imagery of the city dump in ancient days or places of human sacrifice or burning unclaimed bodies of dead criminals was associated with this place. For Jesus to speak of better to have an eye plucked out than the whole body thrown into hell ("Gehenna") brought instantaneous connections to... this place. Amazing.
After that, we went to the birthplace of Jesus, or Bethlehem. This city is located in the West Bank so our Israeli tour guide left the bus and our bus driver took us to Bethlehem where another tour guide, a Palestinian named Ramsey gave us the tour of Bethlehem. We went to the oldest continually working church in Christendom, the Church of the Nativity. We touched the place where legend says Jesus was born. We went to the shepherds' fields and went into a cave typical of the kind of place they would have laid the baby Jesus in the manger. We also went to the Church of the Angels there at the shepherds fields. There we read Luke 2, the account of the birth of Jesus that includes the announcement to the shepherds. And again, we sang. This time, we sang Christmas Carols.
One interesting thing about the fields around Bethlehem (photo above). They are not smooth, easy, flowing stretches of land filled with warm, cuddly sheep. This land is hard and rocky and rugged. The life of a shepherd is not for the faint of heart. These people were hearty and determined.
After dinner, we had a presentation by Rev. Alex Awad of the Bethlehem Bible College. He gave us, as Paul Harvey used to say, "the rest of the story" of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is long and complicated, but suffice it to say that neither of the two presenters on this trip who have talked about the issues - Ezra or Alex - seemed to provide many specifics on the complaints of the other. Perhaps it is because we would be there all week. This is complex and peace needs to be negotiated as has happened in the past. We prayed for peace. This place desperately needs peace. None are overly optimistic, but all trust that nothing is impossible with God.
Off to bed... shalom.
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