CBC Happenings
CBC Happenings
Sunday, May 14 The Dead Sea
The next time you see me I will be better looking. I know that's so because the young people at the Dead Sea today told me so.
Today we left Jerusalem. We drove down into the Dead Sea Valley, going to over 1,000 feet below sea level. As you make the descent, you enter a different world. It is a world where Bedouin still tend sheep and goats. They sometimes
ride pick ups and sometimes donkeys. We saw both today.
It is a world that Israelis have made green in many places with date and orange orchards -- islands of green in desert wilderness. A place so empty of life that the New Testament says that Satan led Jesus into this area to be tempted. It is not hard to visualize that here.
It is a world with echoes of Jewish life from 2,000 years ago. Qumran, where a separatist sect of Jews, the Essenes, lived in community desiring to draw closer to God and further from the world. It is from their writings that the Dead Sea Scrolls came, discovered 55 years ago by a Bedouin shepherd boy in a cave above the remains of their buildings.
And of Masada, the rock mounain fortress that Herod the Great built here to be impregnable. His palace and fortress were occupied by the Essenes in a revolt against Rome seventy years after Herod and forty years after Jesus. Masada fell to the Romans, but the defenders committed suicide rather than be killed or enslaved by the Romans. Today, in the Israeli army, each person taking the oath of allegience to Israel climbs Masada and swears, "Masada will never fall again."
And it is the world of the Dead Sea, that body of water in the lowest place on earth. Because it has no outlet, the Dead Sea has an extremely high mineral content. The salt content is so high that a person can not sink in the water, but any swimmer soon learns that the salt also hurts on any little scratch and
is painful in the eyes.
The minerals in the water make a mud on the bottom of the Sea that are so rich that they make you beautiful. At least, that's what the people who were rubbing it on themselves told us. So two of us decided to try it out. Terri and I put the black, gooey, sulfur smelling mud on ourselves and waited for it
to dry. Then we got back into the water and washed it off. Voila!! We are beautiful, or at least my wife says so. You can tell me what you think when you see me back in Alabama. For me, I think that I will go take another shower -- the mud smell is still on me. It is not beautiful.
Monday, May 15, Sea of Galilee
In the Galilee, you can finally exhale. That is one way that I explain the difference between Jerusalem and the area around the Sea of Galilee.
In Jerusalem there is so much emotion and so many intense feelings that you often feel as if you are clenching your fists and holding your breath. I do not mean because of the political situation, though I could. I mean because of the spiritual feelings. It is true for Jews and Muslims. And it is true for Christians. How could you pray in the Garden of Gethsemane, touch the rock of Golgotha or enter the tomb of Jesus and not be overwhelmed?
In the Galilee, it is different. There is an atmosphere of peace.Today we walked for a while by the Sea of Galilee. We skipped rocks and picked up shells. We sang. And we expected Jesus to walk around the bend and join us. My wife, Gloria, sang "We Walk Today Where Jesus Walked" to me.
We walked in the remains of the city of Capernaum where Jesus had so much of his ministry. We stood at the chapel remembering the time when Jesus took two fish and five loaves of bread and fed thousands. And we expected to be able to sit down and join the crowd.
It was a glorious day - temperature in the 80's, clear blue sky, light reflecting off of the water. Where were Peter and James and John and Andrew in their fishing boat?
We stood on the side of the hill and read from the Sermon on the Mount and watched it come to life -- the house built on rock that stands-look there is a house on the rocks; a town on a hill that cannot hide itself-like the lights in the little town across the Galilee that glowed at us all last night; the birds that do not worry and the beauty of the flowers-just listen and look at them. And we somehow thought that Jesus might walk through the banana plants below us and smile as he waved at us.
The Galilee is different. A place to calm down and relax. A place to exhale. Gloria, our friend Debra and I walked up on two of our group, Joey and Terri, sitting under the shade and soaking their feet in the headwaters of the Jordan River. The rest of us had been busy walking and exploring the ruins of Ceaseara Phillipi. I think that I know which group Jesus would have joined.
Sunday, May 14 The Dead Sea
The next time you see me I will be better looking. I know that's so because the young people at the Dead Sea today told me so.
Today we left Jerusalem. We drove down into the Dead Sea Valley, going to over 1,000 feet below sea level. As you make the descent, you enter a different world. It is a world where Bedouin still tend sheep and goats. They sometimes
ride pick ups and sometimes donkeys. We saw both today.
It is a world that Israelis have made green in many places with date and orange orchards -- islands of green in desert wilderness. A place so empty of life that the New Testament says that Satan led Jesus into this area to be tempted. It is not hard to visualize that here.
It is a world with echoes of Jewish life from 2,000 years ago. Qumran, where a separatist sect of Jews, the Essenes, lived in community desiring to draw closer to God and further from the world. It is from their writings that the Dead Sea Scrolls came, discovered 55 years ago by a Bedouin shepherd boy in a cave above the remains of their buildings.
And of Masada, the rock mounain fortress that Herod the Great built here to be impregnable. His palace and fortress were occupied by the Essenes in a revolt against Rome seventy years after Herod and forty years after Jesus. Masada fell to the Romans, but the defenders committed suicide rather than be killed or enslaved by the Romans. Today, in the Israeli army, each person taking the oath of allegience to Israel climbs Masada and swears, "Masada will never fall again."
And it is the world of the Dead Sea, that body of water in the lowest place on earth. Because it has no outlet, the Dead Sea has an extremely high mineral content. The salt content is so high that a person can not sink in the water, but any swimmer soon learns that the salt also hurts on any little scratch and
is painful in the eyes.
The minerals in the water make a mud on the bottom of the Sea that are so rich that they make you beautiful. At least, that's what the people who were rubbing it on themselves told us. So two of us decided to try it out. Terri and I put the black, gooey, sulfur smelling mud on ourselves and waited for it
to dry. Then we got back into the water and washed it off. Voila!! We are beautiful, or at least my wife says so. You can tell me what you think when you see me back in Alabama. For me, I think that I will go take another shower -- the mud smell is still on me. It is not beautiful.
Monday, May 15, Sea of Galilee
In the Galilee, you can finally exhale. That is one way that I explain the difference between Jerusalem and the area around the Sea of Galilee.
In Jerusalem there is so much emotion and so many intense feelings that you often feel as if you are clenching your fists and holding your breath. I do not mean because of the political situation, though I could. I mean because of the spiritual feelings. It is true for Jews and Muslims. And it is true for Christians. How could you pray in the Garden of Gethsemane, touch the rock of Golgotha or enter the tomb of Jesus and not be overwhelmed?
In the Galilee, it is different. There is an atmosphere of peace.Today we walked for a while by the Sea of Galilee. We skipped rocks and picked up shells. We sang. And we expected Jesus to walk around the bend and join us. My wife, Gloria, sang "We Walk Today Where Jesus Walked" to me.
We walked in the remains of the city of Capernaum where Jesus had so much of his ministry. We stood at the chapel remembering the time when Jesus took two fish and five loaves of bread and fed thousands. And we expected to be able to sit down and join the crowd.
It was a glorious day - temperature in the 80's, clear blue sky, light reflecting off of the water. Where were Peter and James and John and Andrew in their fishing boat?
We stood on the side of the hill and read from the Sermon on the Mount and watched it come to life -- the house built on rock that stands-look there is a house on the rocks; a town on a hill that cannot hide itself-like the lights in the little town across the Galilee that glowed at us all last night; the birds that do not worry and the beauty of the flowers-just listen and look at them. And we somehow thought that Jesus might walk through the banana plants below us and smile as he waved at us.
The Galilee is different. A place to calm down and relax. A place to exhale. Gloria, our friend Debra and I walked up on two of our group, Joey and Terri, sitting under the shade and soaking their feet in the headwaters of the Jordan River. The rest of us had been busy walking and exploring the ruins of Ceaseara Phillipi. I think that I know which group Jesus would have joined.
posted by John Morgan | 1:58 PM
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