Holy Land Tour Part 4

(For the next several months this blog will contain memories,  reports, journals of international tours I have led or workshops I have conducted. They will include The Holy Land,  China, Finland et al. Each blog will contain a portion of the original reports.)

Holy Land Tour Part 4 

The Sea of Galilee

Now this was a surprise. We are all together in the boat. The Sea of Galilee is calm. We are about to leave the seashore at Tiberius. The boat crew hoists a flag: Old Glory. The recorded music blares out “The Star Spangled banner”. What can you say? I stood at attention, full of pride - and hopeful of peace

But the highlight came when we stopped in the middle of the Sea of Galilee. Ruth (as always - decked out in just the right attire) opened the Bible and with deep reverence and just the right intonation read the account of Jesus walking on the water and of Peter’s not completely successful effort to do the same.

My mind was flooded with reflections. Suppose it was I whom Jesus invited to take that walk. I decided Peter was a better man than I.

Outside Bethlehem

Angels We Have Heard On High

It was hard, very hard to really feel the presence of Christ or to recreate his walk along the Via de la Rosa - midst the shops, the noise and the solemn cross-bearing pilgrims. It got really tough to feel reverent at the Tomb of the Holy Sepulcher as warring denominations argue over who controls what portion of the floor, or door, or even tomb - while ornate brass lanterns give the whole scene and almost bazaar atmosphere.

But when we walked out of that cave on the hills of Bethlehem, when we sang, “Gloria in Excelsis”, I got it. I could see that angel and then the heavenly host. I could feel the rustle of angel wings. I could hear the announcement, I could get the impulse and say the words, “Come, let us go to Bethlehem to see this thing which the Lord has made known to us.” I was ready to go with haste - to the manger.

The Wailing Wall, The Holocaust, The Holocaust Children’s Museum

I combine these three for they all speak to me of a profound spiritual mystery: The Silence of God.

The Wailing Wall is a magnet. It draws to it Jewish people of all subgroups from the ultra-orthodox to the secular. It speaks of past glory, of great mourning for the temple which was destroyed, deep anger because of the Islamic Dome of the Rock now sitting above, of great hope for the restoration of hope for the ancient chosen people of God.

Access to the Wailing Wall, especially also for non-Jews, is not guaranteed. Some recent travelers had told me they had not been allowed to approach it. Issues regarding where non-Jews or inappropriately dressed people, or women kept surfacing.

So I was grateful when I knew we were going, men and women, just as long as men’s heads were covered and we stepped away from the wall before turning our backs to it.

 For obvious reasons security and access were carefully controlled. I fully understood why we went through the metal detectors, etc. The men and the women went to different sections, although we were in sight of each other.

I had expected more people, even though the entire area was crowded by an eclectic mass of people: Hassidic Jews, pilgrims from all over the world, Sri Lanka, Poland, Rwanda, Canada, Thailand, Russia and USA. About 20 feet from the wall scholars sat with their texts. Nearer the wall many bar mitzvahs were being celebrated by ecstatic young men with their fathers and male friends while mother and females “cheered them on” from beyond the barrier which separated men from women.

I wrote my simple prayer, approached the wall, placed my hands and head in reverent attention and placed my prayer between the cracks. I added a few more petitions, just reflected a few moments and then stepped back.

On one level it was only a ritual. On another level it was much more. (See below.)

I am glad we had time on our last day (and paid the extra $15.00 fee) to go to the Holocaust Museum. Nothing really new there. We all know the tragic history so well. But the presentation was so exquisitely well done, just the right tone, the architecture moving us along from the early stirrings of German patriotism to extreme nationalism, super-race belief, blind followers of clever politicians. Then came the prejudices, the faultfinding, the exclusion of “the other” and on to  (as we all know - and so movingly narrated by survivors) the pogroms, the Star of David, the trip to the concentration camps, to the ovens.

Who can possibly have this experience without deep moments of reflection, repentance, and resolution! And the realization that instead of “Never Again” we humans repeat the tragedy again and again: Mao Tze Tung, Cambodia, Rwanda, Darfur, Myanmar.

The Holocaust Children’s Museum overwhelms with its stark simplicity. Almost total darkness. Just illuminated with candles, one for each child victim. And a reading of the names and ages of the killed children, solemnly and slowly read - one, by one, by one...

In it all I experience the Silence of God. Where is God when the temple is destroyed and mad men throw children into ovens? My heart screams, “My God, my God, why has Thou forsaken us?” It is in these often deep periods of reflection that I find God; and God is not absent, but just beside me, and then I notice that God too is weeping. God’s tears mingle with mine and the many. God made the decision way before time began to give to human beings freedom of the will. They were not to be automats programmed to do only good. God gave us choice. So often we have chosen very, very poorly - and God weeps.

And sends a Redeemer to forgive, to point to better possibilities, to kindle more pious plans, to relight the candle of hope in the darkness - and finally, the darkness does not overcome it.

Holy LandTour, Part 3: Christmas Lutheran Church

     

(For the next several months this blog will contain memories,  reports, journals of international tours I have led or workshops I have conducted. They will include The Holy Land,  China, Finland et al. Each blog will contain a portion of the original reports.)

It had been very difficult to convince our tour company, NAWAS to include Bethlehem on our tour. There were issues: security, no four star hotel in Bethlehem, the Nawas family is Lebanese and

Lebanon/Israel relations are strained. Yet, I insisted we go to Bethlehem or we don’t do this tour.

Bethlehem was included.

My work with Wheat Ridge Ministries called upon me to assist in supporting Lutheran work in

Bethlehem. Wheat Ridge funded the Wellness center there. Wheat Ridge friends helped build the

school. Wheat Ridge helped establish a Parish Nurse program and sponsored short mission trips

for doctors, audiologists, nurses who donate their time for brief periods of time there.

So we visited. We listened to Pastor Mitre who tries to keep hope alive in a place where hope

is a rare commodity. And we worshipped on Sunday at Christmas Lutheran Church.

We had agreed (or more accurately, I had decided) to have our group sing a special

number during the service. I decided it should be Stan’s version of The Lord’s Prayer. We

rehearsed it (especially on the bus). I loved it and so did others. However, others with better

musical ears than mine came to me and said, “Mel, this is not working. Listening to our botched

up harmony does not make it easy to feel like a prayer. We must go to Plan B.” Plan B was to

sing “Alleluia”. Great song. I didn’t think it fit. I felt it kind of went on without an ending. I

made an executive decision. We will sing that old Lutheran favorite “Beautiful Savior.”

Problem: We didn’t have the music for that with us. Through Barbara I e-mailed Jane to fax it to

both our hotels in Jerusalem and in Bethlehem. She tried. Both hotels had their faxes turned off.

But we got just the right arrangement when we visited Bethlehem ministries on Saturday, 33

copies clearly copied.

Sunday morning found us at church 30 minutes ahead of time (a minor miracle for folks

from Calvary) but in time with that specific request from Pr. Mitre. As we entered the beautiful

chapel with its exquisite stained glass windows we were met by a large group of white people,

certainly not the Arab members of the congregation. It turned out to be a big brass band from

Germany. They had come to support the Lutheran ministry in Bethlehem, had a benefit concert,

taught children in the Lutheran school there how to play some band instruments and donated instruments. They were led by a gentle, tall Lutheran pastor. Now we needed to negotiate how their playing and our singing would work together to enrich the worship. Surprisingly, my German was better than the director’s English. Beautiful Savior is well known in Germany by its German name, “Schoenster Herr Jesu”. The band director thought we wanted her to accompany our group. Not a good idea. When I mentioned our hymn choice to Pr. Mitre he said, “Wonderful. This is a favorite hymn of

my congregation. Why don’t you folks sing the first 3 verses and the congregation and the organ

will join in on verse 4.” We did that. It was stirring: “Beautiful Savior, Lord of the Nations.”

I was also glad that we had dropped singing “The Lord’s Prayer “ when Pr. Mitre said,

“We do the same thing every Sunday. When we pray “The Lord’s Prayer” during the service I

ask each person to pray it in the language of their choice. It was powerful, Arabic, German,

Swedish, Norwegian, English. (I chose Cantonese.) God sorted it all out.

Another decision had to be made. Pr. Mitre had asked for someone from our group to

read the Epistle lesson for the day. Of course, many wanted to do that. Several volunteered. I

chose to offend them all and made the decision that I would read the lesson. And what a lesson it

was to hear God’s call for justice, peace and consideration for the poor. Once again, the right

word of God for exactly that time and place.

Two disappointments: The sermon was, of course, in Arabic. Pr. Mitre chose to not give

a brief summary in English. I learned later that Pr. Mitre struggles on Sunday in finding a

balance between being the pastor for the members of his flock, and also paying adequate

attention to the needs of guests.

The second disappointment: The church was built by German Lutherans more than 100

years ago. The stained glass windows all depict the life and ministry of Jesus in and near

Bethlehem. Stunningly beautiful! My disappointment: The Bible verse accompanying each

window was there in German. I wish it had been in an Arab language. To compensate, upon the

100th anniversary of the church, the congregation had the words of the Gloria in Excelsis done in

beautiful Arabic script around the dome.

The conversations after the service were an important part of the experience. Once again

the tour members were wonderful as all of us met the Arab members, some ELCA youth

volunteers from America and guests from Norway and Germany. My conversation with one of

the members was sobering. He explained the great difficulty he has getting around the “security

walls” to land which has been in his family for generations. He said to me, “I must get there. I

must continue to plant olive trees there. If I fail to go, if I fail to plant, my family’s ancestral

lands will immediately be ‘appropriated’. So I go. I plant with my bare hands. I have planted 400

olive trees.”

“Mitre, how do you feel about the future?” “Not hopeful”, he said. “I see almost no signs

of us moving toward a peaceful solution.” “Yet”, he said, “we must keep hope alive.” As Martin

Luther said, “Even if I knew I would die tomorrow, today I must still plant an olive tree.”

(Luther, of course, had said, “plant my apple tree” but in Bethlehem the apple tree became an

olive tree.) I heard that and tried to keep my teardrops from becoming too obvious.

Holy Land Tour Part 2

(For the next several months this blog will contain memories,  reports, journals of international tours I have led or workshops I have conducted. They will include The Holy Land,  China, Finland et al. Each blog will contain a portion of the original reports.)

Holy Land Tour– Sea of Galilee (2008)

We had come down from the mountain where Jesus preached, “The Sermon”. We had visited the home of Peter’s mother-in-law and the synagogue next to it. Now we were on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was the place where Jesus appeared to the disciples after his resurrection. It was the place where Jesus restored his apostolic call to a Peter who had thrice denied him. I liked the metal sculpture depicting Jesus restoring Peter. It felt right to look at the large stone formation running from the church to the shore of Galilee.

I made a decision. I would walk to the seashore. I would take off my shoes and socks and stand in the shallows. Then I would hear the voice of Jesus,

“Melvin, do you love me?”

“Yes, Lord, you know I love you.”

“Then feed my sheep.

Melvin, do you love me?”

“Yes, Lord, you know I love you.”

“Then feed my lambs.”

“Melvin, do you love me?”

“Yes, Lord, I love you.”

“Then feed my sheep.”

My mind went back 58 years and 10 days. That was the date the bishop’s representative ad St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Tracy, California, commissioned me to serve as an officially rostered teaching minister in the Lutheran church. The text was the one above, the call to Peter.

And what a ministry it has been! (But that’s a topic for a different set of reflections.)

Holy Land Tour –Cana (2008)

It was startling! As we got off the bus to walk to the place remembered as the site of the first miracle of Jesus, I nearly walked into a huge banner hanging next to the street. I don’t remember the exact words, but the impact was there. It was something like, “Remember there is only one God, Allah, and his prophet is Mohammed.”

I refocused as we all entered a room reportedly the site of Jesus’ first miracle. We saw an excellent sample of a clay water pot capable, according to the King James version of the Bible, of holding 30 firkins of water. The first miracle!

Then we went to the chapel which Anes, our Guide, had reserved for our Sunday worship service. (A major accomplishment, as couples reserve this chapel for their wedding at all hours of the day with reservations required months in advance.) We had just come from Nazareth so we began our service with Julie doing her usual amazing and stirring introduction to the Annunciation as sung in Holden evening Vespers. “An angel sent by God, to a town called Nazareth, to a woman whose name was Mary…” And we responded with Mary’s Magnificat.

I very intentionally asked 92 year old Gerry Hendrickson to read the lesson for the day, the account of the first miracle. I wanted Gerry to read this because he was the first president of Calvary Lutheran Church. Just like Jesus began his ministry of miracles, Gerry has led and been faithful at Calvary, a congregation alive and active because of God’s continuing miracles.

We prayed very purposely at this wedding site where Jesus was present. First, I asked each of us to recall one marriage for which we especially thanked God (our own, our parents, some friends…) Each in their own way thanked God. I thanked God for Jane and our marriage of more than 57 years.

Then I asked each of us to pray for a marriage that is facing special challenges and threats. I had promised one particular Calvary couple that I would do this and I was pleased to keep this promise.

Our third prayer was for God to find a partner for someone currently unmarried but having a desire for marriage. I imagine some prayed for themselves or for a friend. I prayed for the one member of my family who is not married but would like to be. I continue to ask God to hear that prayer.

I closed with the thought, “God still changes water into wine.” There are times in our life when we run out of wine. All we have left is simple H²O. We turn that over to God and the first miracle is repeated: God once again changes the water into wine!