Good Morning from the ancient city of Old Jerusalem. We returned last night from our 2 day journey in which we acted as regular tourists into the historical region of Galilee.

Monday night we spent in the guest house of the Sisters of the Rosary in Nazareth. It was sort of like spending an evening in a Convent. The food was simple but good. The room was sparse, but adequate. The beds hard and well they were really hard but somehow I managed to get a decent night’s sleep on it anyway. I guess it helps to be exhausted by our travel journeys. We traveled on this 2 day trip using an 18 passenger Mini-Bus with its driver and a tour guide.  Both of whom stayed at the guest house with us. I mention this because the guest house was located off one narrow alley which was accessed from another narrow alley way all of which was filled with park cars. I would not have attempted to drive my car through that narrow passage yet this driver with amazing skills managed to jockey back and forth here and there over and over again until he did it without scratching anything. We were so amazed by the act that we broke into applause. Then this morning he did it again but in REVERSE and with other cars in the alleys wanting to get by and busy honking their horns. At one point, the little nun comes out and begins to chew on the other drivers and with a sudden flashback, I am back in 2^nd grade with good sister St. Thomas and her yardstick correcting my inappropriate behavior. This little nun launched into a rapid and animated Arabic conversation with the shouting driver who was trying to get past us and soon had everyone working in cooperation and we successfully got through the alleyways.  So its 50 years later and thousands of miles away but Nuns and their capabilities are apparently universal in time and space.

Modern day Nazareth is a bustling City which is a far cry from the sleepy little town that existed when Jesus grew up here. The reason being that the water supply is now piped in here from far away and not the ancient little well that village women would have drawn water from.

We toured the Church of the Annunciation which is a huge and amazing Roman Catholic cathedral on two levels dedicated to depicting the Virgin Mary. She has significant status of holiness in the Catholic religion which comes close to Divine status as depicted in the architecture of the cathedral and the paintings depicting her from around the world. The foundation ruins of Nazareth village homes are visible beneath the Cathedral. We then went across the courtyard and toured the much small church dedicated to Joseph, who in Catholic theology would have been the step-father of Jesus.

We left Nazareth and traveled some distance to Mt. Carmel. The “El” in biblical names stands for God as the earliest ancient name for God was “El”. So Mt. Carmel would mean the vineyard of God. It is the site of the great faceoff between the prophet Elijah and the pagan priests of Baal in which he wins because he serves the one true God and they die because they serve pagan gods. The view from on top of the buildings on Mt Carmel is absolutely breath-taking. It is as if you could see all of Palestine laid out before you from the Jordan mountains to the East and the Mediterranean Sea to the West. The only thing that could possibly take away from this “moment of awe” was the present day reality of military conflict which happened when 10 fighter jets roared past on their way to the Gaza Strip.

We then traveled to the Mediterranean Coast (this sea is the bluest and clearest water I have ever seen)and then we spent several hours in Caesarea. This was the site of the ancient City of Caesarea Maritime which was built by Herod the Great so that he could have a major sheltered port for trade with the Roman Empire. Since Rome had made him the first and last client King of Israel, Herod built many things and dedicated them to Caesar, as He knew how to manipulate in order to remain in power. So Herod didn’t simply kill potential opponents to remain in power (although he did a lot of that including a wife and some of his kids) but He was also effective in expanding the Roman Empire through taxes raised, commerce conducted and new cities constructed.  

Modern day Caesarea resembles a rich Florida retirement community and it is a play ground for the rich and famous of Israel. Many of the major national politicians have summer residences here to enjoy the cool breezes coming in off the Mediterranean Sea. This is also what the Roman Governors would have done. They would have ruled Palestine from this comfortable city of the sea rather than from the hot, densely packed and deeply troubled city of Jerusalem. Pilate would have come into Jerusalem only to show the “military might of Rome” when it was necessary to do so. This was particularly necessary for major Jewish Feasts such as Passover when the Jerusalem population would quadruple in size to observe the feast at the Great Temple. So picture that when Jesus was riding through one gate on a donkey leading a small group of his ragged disciples. Herod would be making a grand entrance in a war chariot leading his army through another gate. This presents a stark image of how the power of God works Vs the power of the Empire.

Caesarea is of interest to us as Christians not just because it was the center of Roman power in Palestine at the time of Jesus. It is also the place where Paul was tried and found sufficiently guilty to be held for shipment to Rome to face a Roman trial and then his death. There is a rather large exhibit of the remains of this important Roman city on the coast. So we got to tour a Roman amphitheatre, a  hippodrome (site horseracing and even animal and gladiator matches), the ruins of the City and it’s port, the Crusader Fort built on these grounds and of course lots of statuary and columns and stones etc., etc.  I am not big on touring stone ruins and would have been happy with 1 hour instead of the 3 we spent here. But still it was a great lesson in ancient history.

We then traveled back to Jerusalem which took several hours with the only ones awake in the Bus was me & fortunately the driver. Drivers in the Middle East due to the insane traffic use their horns for various forms of communication almost like a language.  To travel successfully in this land through these narrow streets and congested highways requires a cooperation which is unheard of in our land. Although at times, I have trouble understanding whether the animated discussions with voice and horn are angry or simply the individuals being expressive. J

Last night we had dinner with the Lutheran Bishop of Jordan & the Holy Land. My Lutheran Pastoral colleagues were a bit anxious to be in his presence and I was a bit too casual to be in his presence so Sinclair with her usual wisdom and grace needed to redirect and correct my behavior to be appropriate for a guest.J

The Lutheran Bishop is a Palestinian (which I think may be a first for this area)and he was willing to share with us his wise insights and observations of the conflicts in this troubled land. Religious leaders in the Middle East have significantly more political impact than what we are accustomed to even when they lead a rather small minority religious group such as this Bishop does. As a result, their comments have significantly more impact on this society and force is brought to bear on them when they say things like this Bishop often does which is upsetting to the Governments. Bishop Munib Younana is a powerful witness for the Gospel values of love, peace and justice and I was grateful for the opportunity to hear him share his wisdom.

We are off to a Vocational training center and another school  so it’s back to work today. May God bless us all.