Dale assisted by Pastor Karl Reko of the ELCA
Pastor Judith Williams's daughter and family with Stockwell Day.
Easter Breakfast at the Brown's
Bishop Younan preaching at the joint Arabic-English 9:00 a.m. service at the Church of the Redeemer
Entrance to the Garden Tomb
Easter Sunday was a memorable day in many ways. First of all, on Saturday morning, Mark Holman, pastor of the English speaking congregation at Redeemer, called me and asked me to preach and preside at the sunrise service. He had been fighting a strep infection all week and realized on Saturday morning that it was getting the best of him. So, I was on! Saturday wasn’t quite as relaxing as I had expected.
We gathered at 5:15 am. Our congregation holds its sunrise service in a small stone amphitheatre just to the southeast of AVH on the edge of the Mount of Olives looking east toward the Dead Sea and the mountains of Jordan. The mountains prevent us from seeing the first light of dawn, but rather we are bathed in a more general light that gets brighter as the sun begins to rise above the mountain peaks.
Mark had already prepared a sermon. He told me that I could do as I pleased with it or dispense with it completely. It was a fine sermon. Fortuitously Mark and I are in concert regarding the political situation here in the West Bank, and neither of us hesitates to expression his opinion. So I took advantage of Mark’s preparation, made a few minor changes and additions to make it sound “Dale”, and preached it. I have attached the sermon to this post.
Our Easter sunrise congregation was comprised of regular congregants, numerous expats, students from Hebrew University just down the road on Mount Scopus, and a major surprise! Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety, was there representing PM Harper and the Canadian government.
After worship, we all crossed the street to Mark and Susanne Brown’s home for Easter breakfast. Mr. Day joined us. The temperature had climbed into the mid 20’s C and the sun was shining. It was only 7 am. The earliest and hottest Easter in memory, I was told.
At 9 am the English speaking congregation joined the Arabic congregation at Redeemer where Dale assisted in serving communion. Bishop Younan preached in Arabic and summarized in English.
After the 9 am worship we walked a few steps to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and took a peek at the crowds around Jesus’ tomb, and then walked through the suq an out the Damascus Gate to the other place on Nablus Road where some say that Jesus was buried – the Garden Tomb. The crowds were impossible and the Israelis had blocked the entrance so the pilgrims had to enter single file. That was our Easter morning!
What a joy it was to preside and preach at the Easter Sunrise Worship, and what a blessing to do it all here in Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives!
We gathered at 5:15 am. Our congregation holds its sunrise service in a small stone amphitheatre just to the southeast of AVH on the edge of the Mount of Olives looking east toward the Dead Sea and the mountains of Jordan. The mountains prevent us from seeing the first light of dawn, but rather we are bathed in a more general light that gets brighter as the sun begins to rise above the mountain peaks.
Mark had already prepared a sermon. He told me that I could do as I pleased with it or dispense with it completely. It was a fine sermon. Fortuitously Mark and I are in concert regarding the political situation here in the West Bank, and neither of us hesitates to expression his opinion. So I took advantage of Mark’s preparation, made a few minor changes and additions to make it sound “Dale”, and preached it. I have attached the sermon to this post.
Our Easter sunrise congregation was comprised of regular congregants, numerous expats, students from Hebrew University just down the road on Mount Scopus, and a major surprise! Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety, was there representing PM Harper and the Canadian government.
After worship, we all crossed the street to Mark and Susanne Brown’s home for Easter breakfast. Mr. Day joined us. The temperature had climbed into the mid 20’s C and the sun was shining. It was only 7 am. The earliest and hottest Easter in memory, I was told.
At 9 am the English speaking congregation joined the Arabic congregation at Redeemer where Dale assisted in serving communion. Bishop Younan preached in Arabic and summarized in English.
After the 9 am worship we walked a few steps to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and took a peek at the crowds around Jesus’ tomb, and then walked through the suq an out the Damascus Gate to the other place on Nablus Road where some say that Jesus was buried – the Garden Tomb. The crowds were impossible and the Israelis had blocked the entrance so the pilgrims had to enter single file. That was our Easter morning!
What a joy it was to preside and preach at the Easter Sunrise Worship, and what a blessing to do it all here in Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives!
SERMON: “Look Not In, But Out”
(prepared by Pastor Mark Holman, and edited and preached by Pastor Dale Finch)
Through early morning darkness, they made their way to the sepulcher. The two Mary’s simply needed to “look in” on the scene. They had been there when the tomb was sealed but they just needed to look in on the burial site, much the way many of us have done on our first return to the grave of someone we love. Was everything all right, they wondered? Were all things as they left them? Had it all been real – the grief, the pain, the loss?
The last thing they were expecting was that the whole world had been shaken to its core. Perhaps the rumbling earthquake was a clue. But then, such tremors are not that rare here in Jerusalem. We’ve had a few minor ones in the last few months. Expecting nothing more than a sealed tomb, the two Mary’s trudged in darkness to the vault.
But, the women soon discovered, the whole world - more than that - the whole cosmos had changed. And for the rest of their lives – and the lives of all believers to come – they would be looking, not in, but out!
Most of us have heard the Easter stories from the four gospel writers so many times that we’ve blurred the four into one composite. The women coming to prepare Jesus’ body – Mary Magdalene’s encounter with the gardener who was really Jesus - Peter & the beloved disciple running to the tomb – Mary Magdalene sent by the risen Christ to announce the Good News.
But, today’s account from Matthew is different and more pointed - it deserves consideration on its own. Let me mention just two of the unique elements in Matthew’s account.
First, only Matthew tells of the women’s instant recognition of the Resurrected Lord. Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene immediately fell to Jesus’ feet and worshipped him. No longer was he merely son and friend, but Lord and Savior.
Second, in Matthew’s account, we hear the unique instructions pointing to Galilee. First the angel, and then Jesus urged them, “Go, tell the disciples to go to Galilee.” That’s where the believers would see him.
Reflecting upon this last point, Dr. Deborah Krause , professor of New Testament at Eden Theological Seminary wrote:
When the angel’s direction is read in the context of the whole gospel story, Galilee seems less a specific place than it is a direction to a particular kind of ministry. Galilee is the place of Jesus’ ministry to the “least.” There he crossed over the boundaries that separated the clean from the unclean. There he ate with the tax collectors and sinners and proclaimed all of God’s children holy. It is to this activity that Mary and Mary are to direct Jesus’ disciples. It is in the mission of Galilee that the disciples and all of Jesus’ followers will see the risen Lord.
I know that the gathering of worshippers on this spot at Easter sunrise has become a tradition for our congregation and community. Before first light we leave our customary place of worship – just 60 paces from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre - to gather here on the Mount of Olives. From this highest point in East Jerusalem, on the campus of the Lutheran World Federation’s Augusta Victoria Hospital, we come together in community looking East and awaiting the new day.
We greet one another with “He has risen! Alleluia! He has risen indeed!”
This drama, played out every Easter morning, serves as a small but important
testament to God’s message that death has no power over life. We remember that
first morning when the earth shook and the whole Cosmos was forever changed.
It is a thrilling Easter worship experience; yet, in many ways, the sunlit view from the Mount of Olives is pretty much the same as yesterday. Just like yesterday, before the sunlight hits the Mount of Olives, the beams have to go across the imposing Ma’ale Adummim, the largest of the illegal Israeli settlements built on confiscated Palestinian land. This settlement, housing over 30,000 Israeli settlers, has been built in violation of international law and many United Nations resolutions.
Today, the population of Christians in the Holy Land is shrinking in numbers. Christians now comprise less than 2% of the Palestinian population. It was close to 20% in 1948. The majority of remaining Christians (including Lutherans) are Palestinians whose religious roots go back many generations. An outsider looking in on today’s worshippers may wonder, “What is so new about this day? What are the signs that God’s gift of life has shaken off the clutches of death?”
Also, same as yesterday, the imposing “Separation Wall” stands in plain view as it snakes across the land of the West Bank. This evil construction, sometimes towering 25 feet in the air, stands to separate family from family, worker from job, patient from hospital, farmer from field, and parishioner from church and mosque.
This barrier uncoiling across the landscape is so formidable, that only an earthquake – or the Easter power of God – could shake its foundation and stop its creeping path across the land and its long-established communities.
What really has changed? What sustains peoples’ Easter hope of new life?
In Mohammed Alatar’s fine film, “The Iron Wall” there are many voices of people suffering oppression and striving for justice in Palestine. One man, Samean Khoury, from the Palestinian Forum for Peace and Democracy, speaks of his hope seen through the eyes of faith and with a long view of history. Despite his years in prison, despite the current hardships of the Palestinian people, despite loss upon loss, he holds fast to hope saying, “It is hard to be optimistic, given the circumstances we live under. However, I am optimistic. One day we will be free. I have no doubt about it. Definitely, one day we will be free. No doubt whatsoever.”
As we believers gather on the Mount of Olives today, let’s not dwell either on this momentary sunrise well-being, or yesterday’s powerlessness. Let’s remember the voices of the angel and the Risen Lord: “Tell the others, and go to Galilee.”
Trusting in the long view of God’s salvation history, believers today – here and abroad – roll up their sleeves and, through concrete acts of mercy and justice, join in the unfolding of God’s new day of life.
If we were to walk just one hundred paces Southward. We would have another remarkable view. We would gaze across 15 dunums (about 4 acres) of land that will soon be the construction site for the Mount of Olives Housing Project located on this campus of the Lutheran World Federation. This project will provide 84 apartments for Palestinian Christians – Orthodox, Catholic and Evangelical - who will form a new community that is not fractured by the separation wall. This community will provide safe, secure and reasonably-priced living quarters for Palestinian Christians who, without it, would have no choice but to leave Jerusalem.
With the generous financial support of several European national church bodies, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, as well as of congregations and individuals worldwide, the Lutheran World Federation hopes to break ground for this project in 2009.
Support of this project is just one way for the faithful to heed the risen Christ’s command to “go into Galilee” his work of bringing justice to oppressed people.
About 500 CE theologian John Chrysostom ended an Easter homily like this:
First and last alike, receive your reward
Rich and poor, rejoice together!
Conscientious and lazy, celebrate the day!
You who have kept the fast, and you who have not,
Rejoice this day, for the table is bountifully spread!
Feast royally for the calf is fatted
Let no one go away hungry
Partake, all, of the banquet of faith.
Enjoy the bounty of the Lord’s goodness!
Then, dear friends, filled with God’s grace, go into Galilee and finish the work that Jesus started.
AL-MASIH QAM – HAKKAN QAM
(prepared by Pastor Mark Holman, and edited and preached by Pastor Dale Finch)
Through early morning darkness, they made their way to the sepulcher. The two Mary’s simply needed to “look in” on the scene. They had been there when the tomb was sealed but they just needed to look in on the burial site, much the way many of us have done on our first return to the grave of someone we love. Was everything all right, they wondered? Were all things as they left them? Had it all been real – the grief, the pain, the loss?
The last thing they were expecting was that the whole world had been shaken to its core. Perhaps the rumbling earthquake was a clue. But then, such tremors are not that rare here in Jerusalem. We’ve had a few minor ones in the last few months. Expecting nothing more than a sealed tomb, the two Mary’s trudged in darkness to the vault.
But, the women soon discovered, the whole world - more than that - the whole cosmos had changed. And for the rest of their lives – and the lives of all believers to come – they would be looking, not in, but out!
Most of us have heard the Easter stories from the four gospel writers so many times that we’ve blurred the four into one composite. The women coming to prepare Jesus’ body – Mary Magdalene’s encounter with the gardener who was really Jesus - Peter & the beloved disciple running to the tomb – Mary Magdalene sent by the risen Christ to announce the Good News.
But, today’s account from Matthew is different and more pointed - it deserves consideration on its own. Let me mention just two of the unique elements in Matthew’s account.
First, only Matthew tells of the women’s instant recognition of the Resurrected Lord. Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene immediately fell to Jesus’ feet and worshipped him. No longer was he merely son and friend, but Lord and Savior.
Second, in Matthew’s account, we hear the unique instructions pointing to Galilee. First the angel, and then Jesus urged them, “Go, tell the disciples to go to Galilee.” That’s where the believers would see him.
Reflecting upon this last point, Dr. Deborah Krause , professor of New Testament at Eden Theological Seminary wrote:
When the angel’s direction is read in the context of the whole gospel story, Galilee seems less a specific place than it is a direction to a particular kind of ministry. Galilee is the place of Jesus’ ministry to the “least.” There he crossed over the boundaries that separated the clean from the unclean. There he ate with the tax collectors and sinners and proclaimed all of God’s children holy. It is to this activity that Mary and Mary are to direct Jesus’ disciples. It is in the mission of Galilee that the disciples and all of Jesus’ followers will see the risen Lord.
I know that the gathering of worshippers on this spot at Easter sunrise has become a tradition for our congregation and community. Before first light we leave our customary place of worship – just 60 paces from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre - to gather here on the Mount of Olives. From this highest point in East Jerusalem, on the campus of the Lutheran World Federation’s Augusta Victoria Hospital, we come together in community looking East and awaiting the new day.
We greet one another with “He has risen! Alleluia! He has risen indeed!”
This drama, played out every Easter morning, serves as a small but important
testament to God’s message that death has no power over life. We remember that
first morning when the earth shook and the whole Cosmos was forever changed.
It is a thrilling Easter worship experience; yet, in many ways, the sunlit view from the Mount of Olives is pretty much the same as yesterday. Just like yesterday, before the sunlight hits the Mount of Olives, the beams have to go across the imposing Ma’ale Adummim, the largest of the illegal Israeli settlements built on confiscated Palestinian land. This settlement, housing over 30,000 Israeli settlers, has been built in violation of international law and many United Nations resolutions.
Today, the population of Christians in the Holy Land is shrinking in numbers. Christians now comprise less than 2% of the Palestinian population. It was close to 20% in 1948. The majority of remaining Christians (including Lutherans) are Palestinians whose religious roots go back many generations. An outsider looking in on today’s worshippers may wonder, “What is so new about this day? What are the signs that God’s gift of life has shaken off the clutches of death?”
Also, same as yesterday, the imposing “Separation Wall” stands in plain view as it snakes across the land of the West Bank. This evil construction, sometimes towering 25 feet in the air, stands to separate family from family, worker from job, patient from hospital, farmer from field, and parishioner from church and mosque.
This barrier uncoiling across the landscape is so formidable, that only an earthquake – or the Easter power of God – could shake its foundation and stop its creeping path across the land and its long-established communities.
What really has changed? What sustains peoples’ Easter hope of new life?
In Mohammed Alatar’s fine film, “The Iron Wall” there are many voices of people suffering oppression and striving for justice in Palestine. One man, Samean Khoury, from the Palestinian Forum for Peace and Democracy, speaks of his hope seen through the eyes of faith and with a long view of history. Despite his years in prison, despite the current hardships of the Palestinian people, despite loss upon loss, he holds fast to hope saying, “It is hard to be optimistic, given the circumstances we live under. However, I am optimistic. One day we will be free. I have no doubt about it. Definitely, one day we will be free. No doubt whatsoever.”
As we believers gather on the Mount of Olives today, let’s not dwell either on this momentary sunrise well-being, or yesterday’s powerlessness. Let’s remember the voices of the angel and the Risen Lord: “Tell the others, and go to Galilee.”
Trusting in the long view of God’s salvation history, believers today – here and abroad – roll up their sleeves and, through concrete acts of mercy and justice, join in the unfolding of God’s new day of life.
If we were to walk just one hundred paces Southward. We would have another remarkable view. We would gaze across 15 dunums (about 4 acres) of land that will soon be the construction site for the Mount of Olives Housing Project located on this campus of the Lutheran World Federation. This project will provide 84 apartments for Palestinian Christians – Orthodox, Catholic and Evangelical - who will form a new community that is not fractured by the separation wall. This community will provide safe, secure and reasonably-priced living quarters for Palestinian Christians who, without it, would have no choice but to leave Jerusalem.
With the generous financial support of several European national church bodies, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, as well as of congregations and individuals worldwide, the Lutheran World Federation hopes to break ground for this project in 2009.
Support of this project is just one way for the faithful to heed the risen Christ’s command to “go into Galilee” his work of bringing justice to oppressed people.
About 500 CE theologian John Chrysostom ended an Easter homily like this:
First and last alike, receive your reward
Rich and poor, rejoice together!
Conscientious and lazy, celebrate the day!
You who have kept the fast, and you who have not,
Rejoice this day, for the table is bountifully spread!
Feast royally for the calf is fatted
Let no one go away hungry
Partake, all, of the banquet of faith.
Enjoy the bounty of the Lord’s goodness!
Then, dear friends, filled with God’s grace, go into Galilee and finish the work that Jesus started.
AL-MASIH QAM – HAKKAN QAM
CHRIST IS RISEN – HE IS RISEN INDEED
PS: Please see our Easter article in the Kitchener Record http://news.therecord.com/Life/faith/article/326174
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