A WEEKEND IN THE SINAI

Taba

Gulf of Aqaba

St. Catherine's Monastery

Mt. Sinai in the background

And up we go!

Sinai Rose's Bedouin stop--end of camels
On foot from here on up.

The end is in sight!

At last--we've reached the summit!

On top of the world!

Let's rest awhile!

On the way to the Coloured Canyon

You mean the Canyon's down there?

Wow!

You mean we go through there?

No wonder we're exhausted!

Ahhhh!!!

Nuweyba on the Gulf of Aqaba

Shopping at the Bedouin Market

This is the life! Waiting for Dale..

Ma 'is salame - Au revoir!

Time is running out--only two and a half months until we fly home! Got to pack in as much as possible in the remaining time! Hence only two weeks after our trip to Jordan, we were off to the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt for a 4-day weekend.

We were joined by a friend we met at Redeemer. Suzanne is a UCC (United Church of Christ) pastor from Connecticut here for a year of study. We made an awesome threesome!

Not to waste any precious time, we caught the 7 a.m. bus from the Central Bus Station in West Jerusalem for the four-hour drive to Eilat, Israel, where we crossed into Egypt. The border crossing was less troublesome than the Allenby Bridge to Jordan, but when is border crossing easy, especially in this part of the world!

We arrived at our resort in Taba—the Sol y Mar Sea Star—just before 2 p.m. where we discovered that we’d gained an hour and were there just in time for a wonderful buffet lunch! So after unpacking and resting a bit, we luxuriated in the all-inclusive features of the hotel. After booking our tour for the next day, we enjoyed the beautiful pools and deck chairs, walked the short distance to the hotel’s beach on the Gulf of Aqaba where we tested the waters and met some cute Bedouin kids, took advantage of the open bar for “happy hour”, and had a delicious buffet dinner. Exhausted after our early start, we turned in, unable to enjoy the luxury of a T.V. of our own. (That tells you how tired we were!)

The next morning at 8 a.m. we were off to St. Catherine’s Monastery. Located at the foot of Mt. Sinai, St. Catherine's Monastery was constructed between 527 and 565. It is built around what is thought to be Moses' Burning Bush, which has a chapel built over it. It is a spectacular natural setting for priceless works of art, including Arab mosaics, Greek and Russian icons, Western oil paintings, paintings on wax, fine sacerdotal ornaments, marbles, enamels, chalices, and reliquaries. But of even greater significance is that it houses the second largest collection consisting of 3500 volumes of illuminated manuscripts (The Vatican has the largest). The Monastery even has a small 10th or 11th century mosque which was probably built to appease the Islamic authorities of the time.

St. Catherine's is a formidable fortification, with granite walls 40 to 200 feet tall, surrounded by gardens and cypresses. Unfortunately there were so many bus loads of tourists that it was impossible to move on our own and take time to view the works of art in the chapel where we were forbidden to talk and take pictures. Our guide had to give his explanation outside the monastery. Also, the mosque was closed and so we felt that we had a very rushed and inadequate view of the interior.

From there it was off the short distance to mount our camels for the 1 ½-hour ascent up 7,497-foot Mt. Sinai, believed to be the mountain on which Moses received the Ten Commandments. After dismounting our camels about 2/3 of the way up, we walked several hundred metres along a winding path until we reached the 750 “steps” that would take us to the summit where the Chapel of the Holy Trinity was built in 1934 on the location of the original chapel built in 363 and rebuilt by Justinian in 530.

After many stops and much huffing and puffing, we finally arrived at the top and were rewarded by a truly breathtaking view. The only problem with reaching the top was that we also had to descend and this time no camel eased the way. So, we clambered slowly down the rock “stairs”, and then following a different path from the one taken by our camels, arrived after several hours back at St. Catherine’s, rewarded all the way down by the amazing scenery.

The three-hour drive back to the hotel gave us a chance to rest so that on our return we could reward ourselves with a glass of wine—did I say “a”?—by the pool before enjoying another delicious late dinner.

The next morning we were off again, this time to the Coloured Canyon. The description sounded like a nice easy day compared with the trek up and down Mt. Sinai. At Nuweyba, our taxi transferred us to a 4x4 van. At first, the road to the Coloured Canyon was well paved, snaking through magnificent mountains and rock-formations of awe-inspiring beauty. Then, by a cluster of date palms, it turned onto a bumpy gravel road for about 15 minutes.

As we shakily descended from the van, we were shocked with the realization that in order to start our trek through the canyon, we had to descend 820 feet to reach the canyon floor!! Oh no! Twenty minutes later, we were ready to enter the 800-metre canyon. It felt like walking through a dry riverbed with walls reaching some 20 stories in height and rock formations varying from sandstone to limestone and granite with veins of basalt.

Except for a few obstacles, it was a fairly easy hike. At one point, we had to slide down through a vent, where the two sides of the canyon almost touched each other leaving a narrow opening which dropped several feet to the path below. A few minutes later, another obstacle appeared where we had to squeeze through an opening in the satiny smooth rock created by a huge rock and drop another two metres. So much for an easy hike!

We finally reached the end of the canyon and looked up only to realize that our 4x4 was waiting for us 820 feet above us! Fortunately a Bedouin tent and a cool drink awaited us at the top where we regained our breath in the 34-degree heat.

Our trip ended with a visit to the Bedouin market in Nuweyba. Sitting in a comfortable open-air tent on the Gulf of Aqaba, we regained our energy with our less-than-appealing box lunch, but made up for it by browsing through the shops before returning to the hotel.

We spent the rest of our weekend enjoying the resort and nursing our sore muscles; soon it was time for the 4 ½-hour bus ride back to Jerusalem. The excursions were tougher than we’d expected, but are we proud—we rode a camel for 1 ½ hours, climbed Mt. Sinai, and hiked the Coloured Canyon! Were we or were we not an awesome threesome!

Ramblings from a Police State

Kurt is an Ecumenical Accompanier. His job, along with his fellow EA’s from several European countries, is to monitor any situation in which abuse is meted out by Israelis against Palestinians. Kurt and his colleagues go to checkpoints to observe the countless ways in which Israeli soldiers dehumanize individual Palestinian men, women, and children. They can’t intervene, but they can report on what they see. Needless to say, the Israeli military doesn’t like Ecumenical Accompaniers.

Donna sees dehumanizing abuse every day at the Bethlehem checkpoint which looks like a huge military compound. Last week she saw an elderly man refused entry into Jerusalem because he had bought too much produce outside of Jerusalem. You see, Palestinians in Jerusalem must buy Israeli fruit and vegetables, and it’s more expensive. So, until recently, they would brave the checkpoints and buy less expensive Palestinian produce in Bethlehem or Hebron. The Israelis caught on and passed a law that Palestinians, or anyone else for that matter, cannot bring more than one kilo of produce into Jerusalem. The man Donna saw was forced to empty all his bags containing the fruit and vegetables to show to the soldiers and then was turned back. This time Donna expressed her dismay to the soldier who checked her passport. Good for her for taking the risk! Every day Donna witnesses episodes like this while she’s on her way to school in Bethlehem, and this one was the proverbial straw.

Back to Kurt! He reminds me of a young Max von Sydow. He’s strong and stoic. He never says much, but a couple of days ago he was visibly shaken. In his capacity as an EA, he had been asked to witness the demolition of a house belonging to a Palestinian family. The family was given no notice. Soldiers suddenly arrived, threw all of their possessions out of the house, and razed it to the ground with a couple of bulldozers. They owned the land but they had not obtained a building permit. Kurt said that the screams of the wife and daughter will resound in his mind for the rest of his life.

House demolitions happen all the time in East Jerusalem. It’s part of Israel’s intentional policy to make Palestinians “disappear”. What happens is that Palestinians who own a piece of land in occupied Palestine want to build a family home. Or they want to put an addition on an existing house. So, they apply to the Israeli authorities for a building permit, pay a large fee, and wait. The permits are never issued. Sometimes, after years of waiting, frustration prevails, and they build without a permit. It may take the Israelis a while to bring in the bulldozers, but the demolition eventually happens.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is in Israel now. Winner of the 2002 Nobel peace Prize, he came to broker peace. The Israelis don’t like Jimmy Carter. Not long ago he authored a book called Palestine: Peace not Apartheid which exposed Israel’s internal policy regarding occupied Palestine, much to Israel’s dismay. Of course Israel doesn’t acknowledge the existence of Palestine. Israel calls Palestine “Judea and Samaria”, and considers it part of Israel. Jimmy Carter hit the nail on the head in calling Israel’s policy “apartheid”. All we need to do is look at a United Nations OCHA map to see what Israel has done to occupied Palestine. The apartheid wall, the illegal Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory, the exclusive settler roads that join the illegal settlements to one another, and the ubiquitous checkpoints have turned occupied Palestine into a series of “Bantustans”, just like in apartheid South Africa. This is an ongoing Israeli policy in spite of a number of UN motions asking Israel to cease and desist. So, there is no chance of a two-state solution because there is no state for Palestinians to live in – just a series of isolated “Bantustans”. Jimmy Carter was right on! Of course, the top Israeli leadership ignored President Carter, and publicly insulted his ability.

What is frustrating about all of this is that everybody here, observing all the things I’ve described above, knows what is happening. But the story doesn’t get out. There’s never more than a muffled whisper in the North American press of what’s really happening to the Palestinian people in their own country. The Israeli lobby in North America and influential organizations like the Canadian Jewish Congress do a good job of stifling the truth and upholding Israeli propaganda. When the Israeli Air Force attacks Gaza City with smart bombs and kills dozens of Palestinian civilians, the Israelis are described as courageously defending themselves against an implacable enemy. When the Palestinians launch their homemade rockets, attack a checkpoint, or, worst of all, find an individual who is so dehumanized by Israeli aggression and oppression that he is willing to launch a suicide attack against his enemy, the North American press calls it terrorism. A simple definition of terrorism is “the act of instilling terror in the hearts of the enemy”. If Palestinians are terrorists, then the Israelis are even more so.

Jewish organizations that record acts of anti-Semitism now include all anti-Israeli statements as anti-Semitic. If any of these organizations read what I have written, then I guess they will call me “anti-Semitic”. Let me state categorically that such a judgment would be patently untrue.

I am, however, definitely against Israeli policy.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Bethany beyond the Jordan





View from Mt. Nebo

Madaba mosaic map

Amman Beach Resort on the Dead Sea

Jerash Castle - Oval Plaza

Donna and the Roman Centurian in the Hippodrome

Dale with the Gladiator

Ajlun Castle

Dale at Umm Qays

Pella's archaelogical digs

View from Karak Castle

Entrances to passages at Karak Castle

Wadi Rum - lunch in the Bedouin Tent before the tour in the 4x4 jeep

With the camels at Wadi Rum

Entrance to Lawrence of Arabia's cave

Wadi Rum

Qasr Al-Kharrana, 8th Century Desert Castle








Amman

Just returned from a 5-day trip to Jordan. We got a taste of it last November when we went to Petra; had thought of going back sooner but the hassle of crossing the border was somewhat of a deterrent. However, being better prepared for it, we decided not to let that keep us from seeing the sights we were interested in while we’re so close. So, we resigned ourselves to the 4-hour trip from Jerusalem to Amman--which should take no more than an hour and a half--, the numerous checkpoints, exit and entrance fees, and line-ups; and made our arrangements.

We arrived on Friday at about noon and after settling in, hooked up with Mohammad Ali (no, not Cassius Clay), a taxi driver who spoke some English, and ended up hiring him each day to take us to the places we wanted to see.

On the way to Bethany beyond the Jordan, we drove past Elijah’s Hill where the Prophet Elijah ascended into heaven (2 Kings 2:11) and could see the monastery that attracted pilgrims well into the medieval period. John the Baptist lived in Bethany beyond the Jordan and it was there that he baptized Jesus in the early 1st century A.D. (John 1:28)

At Madaba, “the City of Mosaics”, in the Greek Orthodox church of St. George, we saw the wonderfully vivid 6th century Byzantine mosaic map showing Jerusalem and other holy sites. With two million pieces of coloured stone and a full 25x5 metres in its original state, most of which can still be seen today, the map depicts hills and valleys, villages and towns as far away as the Nile Delta.

Ten minutes away is Mount Nebo where Moses is buried and from which he saw the Promised Land—the vast panorama that encompasses the Jordan River Valley, the Dead Sea, Jericho, and Jerusalem--that he was not allowed to enter. It is considered the most revered holy site in Jordan.

We ended Friday’s tour with a peaceful and relaxing couple of hours at the Amman Tourist Beach resort on the Dead Sea. Although we didn’t have swimwear with us, we enjoyed wandering around and then, over a cappuccino, watched families and visitors frolic in the wonderful pools and amenities that the resort had to offer.

Saturday’s itinerary took us to the ancient city of Jerash/Jarash/Gerasa which boasts of an unbroken chain of human occupation dating back more than 6500 years. The city’s golden age came under Roman rule and the site is now generally considered to be one of the best preserved Roman provincial towns in the world with its theatres, paved and colonnaded streets, soaring hilltop temples, public squares and plazas, towers, and gates, etc. At the hippodrome, we enjoyed the performances of the “Roman Army and Chariot Race”, complete with ten gladiators fighting “to the death”!

Ajlun Castle is a fine example of Islamic architecture. Imposingly built on a mountain top by Saladin’s general in 1184 A.D., it dominated the three main routes leading to the Jordan valley and protected the communication routes between Jordan and Syria.
Umm Qays was the site of Jesus’ miracle of the Gadarene swine. Here we explored the ruins of the ancient city once referred to as “a new Athens” with its black basalt theatre, colonnaded main street, and had it been less hazy, a spectacular view of the JordanValley, the Sea of Galilee, Syria, and the Golan Heights.

We ended the day at Pella, a favourite of archaeologists with its excavated ruins from the Graeco-Roman period, the remains of a Chalcolithic settlement from the 4th millennium B.C., remains of Bronze and Iron Age walled cities, Byzantine churches and houses, an early Islamic residential quarter, and a small medieval mosque.

An early start on Sunday began a 3-hour drive to Wadi Rum, stopping on the way to see the dark maze of stone-vaulted and endless passageways of the great Crusader castle of Karak which fell to Saladin in 1188. Wadi Rum is the classic picture of sandy desert, with sandstone jabals (mountains) rising sheer out of the valley floor. This is the place where Prince Faisal Bin Hussein and T.E. Lawrence based their headquarters during the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans in World War I and where the 1962 movie “Lawrence of Arabia” starring Peter O’Toole, Alec Guiness and Omar Sharif was filmed.

Our last day of touring took us to the desert castles of Qasr (castle) Al-Hallabat, Qasr Hamman As-Sarh, Al-Azraq, Qasr’Amra, Qasr Al-Kharrana, and Qasr Al-Mushatta where they stand as a testament to the flourishing beginnings of Islamic-Arab civilization. Built mostly under the Umayyads (661-750 A.D.), these seemingly isolated pavilions, caravan stations, secluded baths, and hunting lodges were at one time integrated agricultural or trading complexes located on extensive and elaborately irrigated farmlands. The design and architecture of each castle is unique.

We concluded the day with a tour of Amman, the capital of Jordan. A city of contrasts, it is a blend of old and new, with modern buildings in the heart of the city rubbing shoulders with its much older past.

We caught of glimpse of the palace of King Abdullah 11, where he resides with his wife, Queen Rania, and their 4 children. From the Citadel which includes the Umayyad Palace complex (720-750 A.D.), the Temple of Hercules (161-180 A.D.), and the Byzantine Church (6th or 7th century A.D.), we got a panoramic view of the city. Downtown is the restored Roman Theatre (2nd century A.D.), the Roman Forum, Nymphaeum (ornamental gardens and public fountains), and the Grand Husseini Mosque built on the site of an older mosque from the Umayyad period.

Thus concluded a memorable visit to a fascinating part of the cradle of civilization— although we both agree that we’ve seen enough castles for quite some time!!

The RESURRECTION of OUR LORD: SUNRISE WORSHIP

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!

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

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

MAUNDY THURSDAY & GOOD FRIDAY

Well, one thing different from any other Holy Saturday, and from any other March 22 in my memory, is the temperature. It’s 29 degrees C. Each day of Holy Week has got just a bit warmer.

There are other things that make this Holy Week different, apart from weather and celebrating it in Jerusalem. The continuing bombardment and blockade of Gaza which is like a gigantic concentration camp! Tension in Jerusalem because of the killing of the seven yeshiva students gunned down by a Palestinian gunman seeking revenge for the more than 100 civilians killed by the Israelis in Gaza, followed by the retaliation by Israeli soldiers gunning down 4 Palestinians in Bethlehem for no apparent reason other than being known as activitists! Such is life in this part of the world.

It’s a melancholy week too. Our friends are leaving, or getting ready to leave. Shannon, who worked for Sabeel, left for the US on Friday. Susanne left last week. Kendra is leaving next week. Diana is returning to Germany next week. Our good friend Gillian is packing to leave in a few days. David, also with Sabeel, came back from Turkey expecting a 3-month visa but was given only a month to pack up and get out. Maybe he’ll be able to have it extended, but Sabeel is an organization that promotes liberation theology, and so probably not!

Oh yes! March 20 was the Milad an Nabi (the prophet’s birthday) and so we experienced longer calls-to-prayer and more celebratory fireworks and music from the Muslim communities than usual. And the Jews celebrated Purim this weekend, dressing as devils and clowns and going just a little crazy as they remember what Esther did for the Jewish people during the Babylonian exile. Interesting ingredients in the Jerusalem Triduum mix!

We gathered at Redeemer for the multilingual Maundy Thursday liturgy at 4:30 pm and then walked in procession through the suq to Lion’s Gate, and then across the Kidron Valley to St. Mary Magdalene Russian Orthodox Church on the western slope of the Mount of Olives just above the Garden of Gethsemane for final prayers.

Up at 5 am on Good Friday to make it to the 1st Station of the Cross just inside St. Stephen’s gate by 6:30 am! Lutherans and Anglicans followed the Via Dolorosa, stopping at each of the first nine Stations for readings and prayers. The last five Stations are in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where we could not go, and so we venerated the last five Stations in the few metres between Redeemer and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the completed the Good Friday liturgy in the Redeemer sanctuary.

As we followed the Via Dolorosa, we were assailed with the activity and noises of an awakening suq, and jostled up against shops to make way for the various carts, some motorized, that bring goods to the vendors. We were just a curiosity! It must have been like that when Jewish carried his cross through the Old City. Just an interruption and curiosity to the people he was dying for!