Steve on Sabbatical: Part 4

Friday, June 18, 2010

“Yasu” (“hello”) from Greece where Darlene and I have spent the last two days! After three weeks in Israel, we journeyed through Jordan and Italy, and now are “suffering” on a cruise ship that took us from Rome to Sicily, Ephesus (Turkey), Athens and today Crete. My only significant challenge has been keeping Darlene from gambling all our money away in the ship’s Casino and smoking too many of her cigars on the back deck. Good food with new friends has helped distract her.

Want something a bit more serious (and honest)? Even on this cruise, and especially during the nine days prior in Jordan and Rome, we continue to sense God showing us sites that stir significant reflection. As examples, let me mention four places we stood to look and marvel:

• In Jordan, we stood on Mount Nebo where Moses looked across the Jordan River to see the land promised to Israel. There he died without crossing after leading the people through the desert for forty years. See that story in Deuteronomy 34. I stood there, thanking God for his promises and for faithful servants like Moses, and praying that I might have a vision for what God has not just for me, but for generations to come.

• Also in Jordan, we stood (after long hot hiking) in the amazing city of Petra, first built in desert canyons by the enterprising nomadic Naboteans, and then taken over by the Romans. I marveled at the ingenuity of humans made in God’s image, as well as the vast reach of that Empire just before and after Christ. They say “all roads lead to Rome.” Truer is this: Rome built roads to almost everywhere. In Israel, we had already explored some of the Empire’s fortresses, cities and temples. Further east, we saw yet more in what is now Jordan.

• And then we came to Rome itself. Along with navigating the chaotically congested streets and loving great Italian cuisine, we stood in lots of famous places: e.g. the Forum where the republic was born and the Empire administered, the Coliseum where a million foreigners and slaves died as free entertainment for the city’s citizens, and the Vatican (including St. Peter’s and Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel) where a form of Roman power still is a tangible reality in the lives of millions. My impressions are in terms like beauty and brilliance, immensity and power, and then both evil and redemption. Our last day in Rome, we happened upon the Baths of Diocletian (the viciously anti-Christian Emperor). There he had forced several thousand Christian slaves to build a huge Temple for the pagan gods (and himself). When the work was done, the expendable slaves were killed. Now however, that Temple is a Basilica, consecrated to Christ in the 4th century – an external sign of what followers of Jesus, like Paul and Peter and those unknown slaves, boldly held up to change lives and even that city.

• Standing in the ruins of Ephesus was a gift. Again, we could see the presence of the Romans in this large portal city (today’s west Turkey). Yet again, Paul and others stirred up the city declaring Jesus as Lord (see Acts 19).

• Yesterday, in an Athenian heat wave and a typical mob of tourists, we climbed the marble steps up to the Acropolis to see the famous Parthenon and other Temples – the hub of Greek civilization that reached its heights about 400 years before Christ and greatly shaped much of our own society’s way of living. The high point for us, however, was standing almost alone on a nearby rocky hill where the first century Greeks had a central market place and informal assembly point called the Areopagus (“Mars Hill”). There, as you can read in Acts 17, the Apostle Paul let conversation with spiritually curious people become an opportunity to speak of a Jewish prophet raised from death by God for people he made to seek and find him. Once again I was struck by the way ordinary people walked among the world’s best and brightest with a story that seemed weak and foolish, and yet finally is the greatest good and strongest light.

There could be more to say and show, but Darlene says it’s time for some afternoon ice cream. At least, she’s stopped wanting cigars. Starting Sunday (20th), we get to spend four days in Assisi, Italy, and then five more in England, and finally fly home.

With love and prayers for God’s peace to you all,

Steve


Basilica at Diocletian Baths

Steve on Sabbatical: Part 3

Friday, June 4, 2010

Shalom – i.e. “peace” – from Israel… even if the tensions here between Jews and Palestinians have all the more surfaced since the incident near Gaza a few days ago. Personally, we have been richly blessed in fresh learnings, new friendships, and encounters with God. Shalom indeed!

The last ten days have taken Darlene and me beyond Jerusalem to experience more of the history and geography of this land God chose for his most direct self-revelation and self-giving.

• Our group traveled west through the “hill country” and its valleys where Israel frequently contended with the coast-controlling Philistines in the days of Samuel, Saul and David. You can see Darlene holding the very stone David used in his sling to take down a big guy named Goliath (or maybe one a tiny bit like it). Seeing the ruins of various towns and fortresses, the stories read and imagined get filled in with a sense of the rugged realities and complicated politics of those times.

• Moving south, we spent the night in the Negev, then took a long hike through the vast Wilderness of Zin, getting a tiny taste of the harsh environment a generation of two million Israelites circled through after their liberation from Egyptian slavery. The intense baking heat and rare but beautiful springs gave a glimpse of the people’s desperate wandering and need for dependence on God.

• Sometime read about “Masada,” the massive rocky fortress at the southwest edge of the Dead Sea. In 73 AD Jewish rebels held off the Romans before committing mass suicide. Also, David may have spent time there in his flight from King Saul. It was not hard to see there how he would call God his “fortress.” We climbed up and down Masada in 106 degree heat – one of many ways this trip is physical fitness training. Relief came through a strange “swim” in the Dead Sea, and then hiking to the lush En Gedi springs where David definitely found refuge. That day also included seeing the famous caves where the “Dead Sea Scrolls” containing some our oldest biblical manuscripts were discovered, starting in 1948.[more photos below]

• After a couple days back in Jerusalem (with a bit more time to roam and reflect), we traveled north, first to the significant Mediterranean port of Caesarea where God led the Roman Centurion Cornelius to faith through Peter (Acts 10) and where Paul was imprisoned for two years, bearing witness to Jesus before Roman Governors and Herod Agrippa (Acts 23-26). Soon after, our bus took to Mount Carmel where Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18).

• Three days around the Sea of Galilee was an especially meaningful time: visiting Nazareth and then sites near that fresh water body where Jesus spent most of his ministry years. Much has survived from ancient Capernaum, including the house church developed out of the actual home of the disciple Simon Peter. Along the shores, where we stayed at a Jewish Kibbutz run resort, it was not hard to imagine Jesus giving people teaching, healings, deliverances, and multiplied bread and fish. We took a boat across the waters – albeit motorized, not in a terrifying storm.

• Further north, I loved visiting the ruins of Caesarea Philippi where Jesus asks the crucial question “who do you say I am?” It’s here – standing at a center of Roman power and pagan temples – that it’s made know that he’s God’s Messiah and Son. Confusing the disciples, Jesus also begins speaking of the necessity of his cross… and theirs in following him (Matthew 16).

• On our return south, we took in more sites. At the Harod Spring, God reduced the troops of a self-designated weakling Gideon to use them to liberate Israel from oppression. We stood on Mt. Gerazim where Joshua renewed God’s covenant with his people (Judges 24). Nearby is village where about 700 people still claim lineage from the ancient Samaritans and still practice their unique form of worship, based on just the first five books of the Bible. A hospitable Samaritan priest took time to explain his people’s faith… and urged us to be good to the real Samaritans! In the area, a beautiful Greek Orthodox Church houses what scholar’s are sure is “Jacob’s well” where Jesus conversed with the Samaritan woman about springs of living water. From the 100+ foot deep well, we each took a drink of the clear, clean water.

• All that, and so much more!

Today, back in Jerusalem, we worshipped with a Hebrew speaking Messianic Jewish Congregation. One can sense God’s presence even if we could pick up very little of what was sung and said. My Hebrew is a bit rusty!

What now? About ten of us travel into Jordan for three days of more exploring and learning. Then it’s a crazy travel day (6/8), starting at 1 am through Tel Aviv, Germany, England to get to Rome. The British Airways strike meant our flights were cancelled, demanding some new arrangements.

With love and prayers,

Steve and Darlene

(Photos below: Wandering Denverites, Dead Sea, En Gedi, Caves of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Capernaum)