I gave my fourth sermon at Georgetown University on Sunday, February 1. This was the same evening as Super Bowl XLIII. Kick off for the game was scheduled for 6:28 p.m. Since this would conflict with the regular 6:30 p.m. service, the Protestant Ministry decided to combine the two regular (4 & 6:30 p.m.) services into one at 5 p.m. I was given the opportunity of writing the liturgy for this service and preaching at it. Both of the ministers for the two services had decided to take the evening off, and so it was solely my service to develop and lead. Because I knew that students from both worship communities would be present, I tried to write something closer to a three point sermon, which is popular in the gospel tradition and which might relate better to the 6:30 crowd, as there would probably be more of them present.

The gospel lesson for the sermon is Mark 1:21-28, in which Jesus taught in the Capernaum synagogue and cast out (exercised) an evil/unlcean spirit from a man. The text of the sermon is below.

The Power of Christ Compels You

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, the Holy One of God, who is our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

I want to talk today about unclean spirits, about demons, about those things that infect us and take over our lives, and rule our wills, and seemingly won’t let go. Do you have an idea of what I’m talking about?

In today’s passage in Mark, near the beginning of the gospel, Jesus is in a synagogue. This is right at the beginning of his ministry. A few verses earlier he called his first disciples who were fishing along the Sea of Galilee. Now Jesus is giving his first teaching in the synagogue, and the people recognize that he teaches with authority, but they still don’t quite know what to make of him. And then in walks a man with an unclean spirit, a demon. Have you ever seen someone with an unclean spirit? Have you seen someone who’s been possessed or struck with seizures, maybe someone who’s disturbed, who comes into a room and starts talking incoherently or disrupting the peace? Can you imagine this?

How many of you have seen “The Exorcist?” I have to mention this since we’re at Georgetown. Have any of you visited the Exorcist Steps between Prospect & M Street over by the Tombs? I had the chance to visit them for the first time on my way here today. They’re quite steep. Anyway, you may remember from that film all of the crazy and violent things that the possessed girl does. At points she levitates and throws people across the room, meanwhile spouting off vulgarities and blasphemies. And then there’s the famous scenes where she turns her head around 360 degrees and the one where she crabwalks down the stairs. These are quite vivid images, certainly something for a movie.

Make doesn’t tell us if anything like those things happened in the synagogue. We don’t have anything quite that vivid here. The man with the unclean spirit shouts at Jesus and later he convulses after he is rebuked by Jesus. This is a lot less cinematic, but still it’s quite out of the ordinary, and possibly scary for those watching.

What are we to make of this man with the unclean spirit? He seems like a foreign character to us. But in what ways is he like us? How might we be like the man with the unclean spirit? How have our spirits been tainted and made unclean? Do you have something in your life which is holding you back, some demon that is keeping you from being your true self, from being the clean, healed person God wants you to be? And how does this cause us to react to God?

This is something interesting in this passage. Out of all the people in the synagogue who are hearing Jesus teach, only one truly understands and knows, and names who Jesus is. This man with the unclean spirit knows Jesus’ true identity. He shouts at Jesus, “I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” What a revelation. The people gathered can see that Jesus is a teacher. They even acknowledge that he teaches with more authority than the scribes. But for all their recognition of who Jesus is, they see only his teaching and the miracle that he performs. It is this man with the unclean spirit who is able to truly see and know who Jesus is. All the others seemingly miss this fact.

Do you sometimes feel this way, like you have a clearer or better understanding of who Jesus is when you’re overtaken by the world, by pressures and temptations and the demons in your life? Do you see more clearly how much you need Jesus to help you? Does Jesus seem more powerful, more holy to us when we’re without power, without holiness or cleanliness? Does the power of Jesus seem strongest to us when we need it the most? When we’re so low we know we can do nothing without his grace and love and forgiveness?

Well, Mark has a message for us about Jesus today. He tells us through the possessed man that Jesus is the Holy One of God, that Jesus is the one who can take away our unclean spirits and make us new again. He tells us that God’s kingdom is drawing nearer to us, that Satan’s power has no more hold on us, because the Lord has come to redeem his people.

Let’s look again at Jesus’ actions in this passage. When Jesus confronts the man with the unclean spirit, we see three things happen:

First, we see the man with the unclean spirit cry out to Jesus. “What do you want with us,” he cries, “Have you come to destroy us?” The spirit speaks fearfully, hesitantly, and then tries to defend himself by claiming knowledge of Jesus. How does this resonate for you? When you encounter God, are you afraid? Do the demons and guilt and sins inside you cry out to be left alone? Do you seize up afraid to let God look in and through you, to see what your life has become? When Jesus comes looking for you at your darkest hour, is your first instinct to ask “What do you want with me?” Are you afraid to be seen in your helpless state? And then when Jesus asks you whether you want to be made well, like the sick man at the Bethesda pool, are you ready to accept his healing or do you fear that your life might be destroyed, or transformed beyond recognition? Our natural tendency, it seems, is to protect ourselves, to continue with the status quo, because it’s what we’re used to. Although we know the power of God—the power of Jesus to transform our lives—it’s often easier to stay right where we’re lying and continue to let the unclean spirits live within us, to let our demons holds us back.

But Jesus won’t let us have our way. He knows that we need his healing and renewal and transformation. And he has the power and authority to bring them. And so the second thing we see in this passage is Jesus rebuking the unclean spirit and ordering him to be silent and come out of the man. This word rebuke is the same one that we see later in the gospel as Jesus stills the storm on the Sea of Galilee. Recall where the gospel says that Jesus woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Sometimes the demons haunting us feel like a storm raging around us. And we need Jesus to come and rebuke them and quiet them. Later again in the gospel, after Jesus foretells his death and resurrection to the gathered disciples, we see Peter rebuking Jesus only to be rebuked himself, as if he is an unclean spirit. Mark says that Jesus rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting you mind not on divine things but on human things.” “You are setting you mind not on divine things but on human things.” How typical is that? How often do we get bogged down in our own, human, short-sighted ways, where we can only seem a sliver of God’s big picture for us? How often do we need Jesus to come and rebuke us, to rouse us from our stupor, to make our lives whole again? “Be silent,” he tells us, “Be still, and know that I am God, that I am the Holy One of God. Let go of your unclean spirits, let go of your demons. Let them go.”

And then comes the hard part, the painful part. They say “no pain, no gain.” And here we see the third thing in this passage that Mark shows us. The unclean spirit convulsed the man and cried out with a loud voice, and came out of him. You may doubt and you may fear God, but he has the power to clean you and bring you back to fullness. Yes, it won’t be easy. There will be a struggle. We may convulse as we wrestle with the changes that must take place in our life. We may cry out in pain or in fear. Transformation changes us. Healing changes us. It takes our brokenness and fixes it. It takes our old selves and makes them new. Through the power of Jesus and through the power of God, we are made anew, we are forgiven of our sins, we are given new strength. We are given another chance to live our lives for God and follow in the paths where he leads.

Are you ready? Will you follow? Are there demons or unclean spirits in your life that need exorcism, that need Jesus’ healing touch? He’s here today, like he is every day, to listen to you and bring you to wholeness. He’s ready to make your spirit clean again.

So, I say to you today: Rejoice! Jesus has come, and he has rebuked the unclean spirits and demons in our lives. He has been made fully known to us as the Holy One of God. We know his teaching and his authority and we also know his true self, and he knows ours.

Please join with me in prayer: Lord God, when we’re in our darkest hour, and when we’re not, in those really hard times and in those times of great joy, when our demons get the most of us and hold us down, and in those times when we feel freed and renewed, Lord, help us to know that you are here with us. Help us to know that you love us and care for us and want the best for us in our lives. Lord, in those times when we are afraid and unsure of what direction to go in and what help to seek, help us to stop, and be still, and be silent. Help us to pray to you and help us to listen for your voice. Help us to relax as are worries are taken off of our chest, as our cares are taken on by you. Lord, help us to know your peace and forgiveness and healing and transformative power in our lives. We pray this all in the name of your Son Jesus Christ. Amen.

On Wednesday, I got after 5 a.m. to get ready to leave at 6 a.m. for our group walk along the Via Dolorosa.  The College had printed up service booklets with readings and prayers for walking the Via Dolorosa.  We walked from the College to the Old City and then slowly made our way along the Via Dolorosa, stopping at each of the stations of the cross (mostly marked with numbers) throughout the city, listening to the readings and prayers.  The last five stations we observed around the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, not wanting to conduct our service inside the church.  After finishing our walk, we sang a hymn and then headed off to a wonderful breakfast at Papa Andrea’s.

Our next stop was the Temple Mount/Al Harim Sharif (The Noble Sanctuary).  To get onto the Temple Mount, we had to go through security, where those of us who had Bibles with us had to leave them with Stephen outside.  Our guide Nasser took us onto the Temple Mount, recounting the history of this spot, originally the site of the Jewish Temple until the Muslims took over and built the Dome of the Rock as a shrine commemorating the almost-sacrifice of Ishmael/Isaac.  We walked around the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque taking pictures.  Then we headed down to visit the Western/Wailing Wall as a group.  Many of us went up to the wall to pray, inserting papers with pray requests into the wall.

After visiting the Western Wall, we moved as a group down to the Jerusalem Archaeological Park.  Here beside the walls of the Old City, we were able to see the larges stones of the Temple drown down by the Romans from the Temple Mount onto the road below, the traces of Robinson’s Arch which originally stood over the road, and the ruins of the palace of the Umayyad Family who built the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.  We also visited the Ophel/Southern Steps to the Temple, which Jesus would have walked, dotted by mikvaot, ritual baths for purification.  Walking up the steps, we could stand before the Huldah Gates, originally entrances to the Temple closed during the Umayyad Period.  As we were walking around and taking photos, Benny Hinn came up on the Southern Steps visiting with his bodyguards.

After finishing at the Jerusalem Archaeological Park, we went back into the Old City to the Lutheran Guesthouse, where we had lunch and then talked with dessert in the lounge area.  After lunch, we went to St. Anne’s Chuch and the Bethesda Pools ruins.  There were two pools here, reservoirs for cleaning and purification before entering the Temple.  This is one of the most definite places in the Holy Land.  After walking around and taking photos, we gathered for a reflection by Susan on the pool story from John 5 where Jesus heals the crippled man at the pool, with a focus on the themes of desperation, restoration, and abundance.  Then we went in St. Anne’s Church to take photos and sing.

Afterward, I left with Amy, Jess, and Drew to go shopping in the Muslim souq, where we both some clothes and then visited the Moriah Books & Judaica bookstore in the Jewish Quarter.  I had the opportunity to approve the price of skirts that Jess and Amy were buying, as the shopkeeper was want to deal with the male member of the group over the females.  Then we all walked back to the College.  I went alone to Evensong at the Cathedral, joined only by the gentleman leading the service.  After dinner, we had another lecture at 8 p.m. by Dr. Bernard Sabella on “Christians in the Holy Land.”  I was quite tired at that point and found it hard to pay attention to the lecture, so I went to bed after 10 p.m.

On Tuesday, after breakfast at 7 a.m. and a break, we met upstairs for a seminar on “Preaching through the Holy Land” led by Bob Edmund and Chaplain Lois, regarding their experiences of preaching back home on their experiences in the Holy Land and those has shaped their preaching.  After a break, we gathered for another lecture by Stephen about the Church of the Holy Sepulchre/Church of the Resurrection and its history as the (other) site of Christ’s crucifixion, burial, and resurrection.  After lunch at 1 p.m., we headed off at 2 p.m. for the Old City, stopping on the way to notice the “third wall” located near Nablus Road and Noamis Kis Street not too far from the Ecole Biblique.

We walked through the Old City to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, entering first through the Ethiopian Chapel, before coming out front to note the disputed ladder on the balcony outside and recalling the turmoil amongst Christian groups who all claim space to this sacred church.  We then went inside up to the top Greek Orthodox chapel, where we were able to touch the foundation of Calvary cresting up through the floor beneath the altar.  Many also lit prayer candles and took pictures of the silver and gold and icons that decorated the altar area.  Going down from the chapel, we noticed the stone of anointing, moved through the Chapel of Adam, and then Greek Chapel of the Scourging of Christ with its memorial pillar, noticing the Cavlary bedrock in the walls throughout.  The Church seemed quite dark, lit mostly by candlelight, and there were many pilgrims moving about inside.  We moved down the stairs bordered by walls covered in carved pilgrim crosses to the Armenian Chapel of Helena (with a stepped altar) and then to the Chapel of the Finding of the True Cross.  Moving back up through the church, we saw another Armenian Chapel opposite the apse of the Greek church, the Greek Chapel of Longinus (the solider who pierced Jesus’ side), and two sets of arches (one built by the Crusaders, the other by Constantine).  Then we went into the Prison of Christ Chapel where we prayed for those who are imprisoned.  Next we walked by the Latin Chapel on our way to the Syrian Chapel, where we were able to go in koch/oven tomb with a rolling stone with two niches carved for Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus.  The ownership of the Syrian Chapel is disputed with the Armenians and so it has not been restored like the others.  A Syrian man who spoke to us in the Chapel also sang the Lord’s Prayer in Aramaic for us.  Our last stop in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was a quick visit to the Tomb of Christ entered through the Chapel of Angels, where we were only able to pray quickly in small groups, so that others could move through.  Overall, our visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre didn’t strike me as deeply as I had thought it might.  I don’t know if it was because of all the tourists or the history of fighting between Christians over its space or what, but it wasn’t as touching for me as I know it was for other members of our group.

            I returned to the College with Stephen and Lois around 4:30 p.m. while others stayed around to further explore the Church.  After others returned we went up on the roof of the College for some fellowship.  Then we went to a reception to meet Bishop Suheil Dawani in the main floor dining room, where spoke about the work of the diocese and we took a group picture with him.  After dinner at 7 p.m., we had an 8 p.m. lecture on “The Peace Process: An Israeli Perspective” by Ophir Yarden.  It was very interesting to get an Israeli perspective from him after having heard mostly from Palestinians during the duration of our trip.  I went to bed after 10 p.m.

            On Monday, after breakfast at 7 a.m., a group of us decided to go visit the City of David excavations outside the Old City.  I headed off on foot through Jerusalem with Judith, Sara, Jess, Meredith, and Drew.  Arriving at the City of David site, we later met up with Phil and Krista who joined us on our 10 a.m. tour.  Led by a cute tour guide named Adiya, we began our tour with an interesting 3D movie telling the history and ancient geography of the area.  Then we went up to a high point where we could see all around the ancient city.  We moved next to Area G, which contains a stair structure and the excavations of a house (possibly David’s palace).  Then we went down to the Gihon Spring, where a tunnel and shaft (Warren's Shaft) had been excavated during the 19th century, closed afterward, and then reopened in 1979.  This may have been the means by which King David attacked the original city before making it his own.  We walked through one of the runoff tunnels, and then we visited Hezekiah’s tunnel, which one can also walk through.  After coming outside again, we saw the Shiloach Inscription, which marks the meeting of the two groups who worked from opposite sides to carve out the tunnel, as well as tombs that date to the David dynasty, the Shiloach pool, and steps that originally led up to the Temple Mount.

            After finishing our tour at the City of David, we ventured into the Old City to eat lunch at the Quarter Café Restaurant in the Jewish Quarter.  Then we walked through the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim quarters, coming eventually to the Arab Orthodox Society’s Fair Trade Women Cooperative where Judith and others had ordered stoles.  Parting ways with Judith and Sara, the rest of us continued back through the Christian, Muslim, and Armenian Quarters, stopping at shops, before finally returning to the College.

Back at the College, we ran into George Roberts, also from VTS, who was visiting the Holy Land on his own (after having taken the GOEs).  We talked and watched tv in the Common Room before dinner at 7 p.m.  At 8 p.m. we gathered again in the lecture room for a talk by Bob and Deb Edmunds about the Diocese of Jerusalem.  I went to bed around 10:30 p.m.

On Sunday, we got up early to rain, and met inside for (what was supposed to be an outside) Eucharist celebrated by Judith, where Hugh-John preached about Peter’s bumbling, how God can use us despite our faults, and the imperative to come and follow.  Then after breakfast as the rain stopped, we headed off to Mount Tabor.

Traveling up to Mount Tabor, we got off the coach and took taxis of 8 people up the mountain, the drivers driving quite quickly around the steep and narrow curves of the mountain.  At the top, we visited the Church of the Transfiguration.  Outside the church, Phil gave a reflection on “Revelation and Violence,” recalling the revelation on mountains which is followed by violence in the Bible, finally leading to Christ’s transfiguration on the mountain ending in his crucifixion.  Inside the church, we prayed and visited the many chapels dedicated to Moses, Elijah, and St. Francis.

After finishing at Mount Tabor, we traveled next to Jericho through the Jordan Valley, stopping briefly to take pictures of the Mount of Temptation and the Monastery of the Temptation built in the cliff face.  We stopped in Old Jericho (Tell es-Sultan), where the first settlement was started in the 8th century BC and existed for ten millennia.  We visited the excavations of the city’s walls and the ruins of a tower.  There wasn’t much distinct to see and very few plaques with information.  Unlike many other Holy Land sites, because of its location and ownership, little has been done to restore and excavate Jericho.

Outside of Jericho we stopped for a lunch of “salad” as well as meat (finally!) at Al.Rawdali restaurant.  After lunch, we stopped for more souvenir shopping at Hebron Handicrafts.  Then we returned to St. George’s around 4 p.m.  Some of us tried unsuccessfully to make plans for the next day, which we would have free, to visit Masada, but some were unable to get the needed cash from the local ATMs to make the trip possible.  After a quiet and uneventful dinner and evening, I retired around 10:30 p.m.

After breakfast at 7 a.m., we left after 8 a.m. to travel to Banyas/Banias (named after the Greek god Pan), once known as Caesarea Philippi.  We got there around 9 a.m. and explored the springs and ruins of the Temple and Grotto of Pan and the Temple of Augustus.  Then Christopher gave a reflection on Mark 8:27 where Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?,” noting the context of the area being far in the north, remote, pagan, and Roman.  What does it mean to declare Christ as our Savior in a pagan city and in a Roman empire?  This reflection and visit really helped to focus me on the important question of who Jesus is in my life and also why this trip to the Holy Land, to walk in his footsteps (and those of so many pilgrims before me), held so much meaning and attraction for me.

After finishing our visit here, we traveled up to the Mount of Beatitudes at 11 a.m., where we visited the octagonal Church of the Beatitudes (also built by Barluzzi), with 8 walls containing the 8 beatitude blessings (from Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” in Mark 5), the altar in the middle, mosaics around the church, and windows looking out around each side of the church.  Outside the church, Catherine gave a reflection on “Blessed are the Peacemakers for they will be called the children of God,” speaking about us having open hands and an open heart as we seek to share peace with one another.

            Coming down the mount, we went to the Ginosar Tourism Kibbutz, home of the Jesus Boat.  From here, we took a ride on our own "Jesus Boat" across the Sea of Galilee.  One of the true highlights of our trip, the boat played music over its loud speaker, raising the US and UK flags while playing our national anthems, and we all danced and sang for a bit.  In the middle of the sea, the boat stopped and we sat and reflected in silence, looking out on the same coastline and cliffline that Jesus and his disciples would have seen two thousand years ago.  We got off the boat in Tiberias, where we had lunch outside at a restaurant and took another group photo before reboarding the coach.

            Next we traveled to Yardenit, where we got to go into the Jordan River.  Barefoot with the water up to our shins, Chaplain Lois led us in a renewal of our baptismal vows (while around us African pilgrims participated in full immersion baptisms).  Like other sites, this one had plaques along the wall telling the story of Jesus’ baptism in various languages.  Many gathered Jordan River water in bottles, and we visited the gift shop before leaving.

            Upon returning to Pilgerhaus after 4 p.m., some of the group decided to go swimming in the Sea of Galilee, while I took a nap before dinner at 7 p.m.  After dinner, we met for group reflections on the day, and Judith lectured on preaching.  Some of us finished the night with “choir practice” in the cafeteria, drinking beers and picking hymns for the next day, before turning in for the night after 10:30 p.m.

            On Friday, we gathered for breakfast in the dining room, with the beautiful sunrise shining through the windows.  Then we headed off by coach at 8:45 a.m. to Cana to visit the Catholic Wedding Church.  Not particularly one of the highlights of our trip in the Holy Land, the Wedding Church was still worth a visit.  In the undercroft of the church is a big stone water jug on display, like the one Jesus might have used to turn water into wine.

Then we made our way by coach to Nazareth, where Jesus grew up and may also have been born.  What then would have been a tiny town of maybe 250 people, Nazareth is now a bustling city of activity.  Our first stop here was at the Nazareth Village located at the YMCA.  The Nazareth Village is a recreation of a village in the time of Jesus, with locals portraying people who live and work in the village.  The attraction began inside with some history of the city and the area, and then we moved outside into the village itself.  On our journey through the village, we got to see and visit an olive tree, a donkey, a sheep fold, terraces, a wine press, a watchtower, a cistern/well, an olive press, houses, a woman spinning yarn and weaving, a carpenter working with wood, a synagogue, a rich man’s house, and a donkey fold.  The tour ended with a visit to the gift shop and then lunch with freshly made pita and “salad.”  This recreation of a village during Jesus’ time really helped to contextualize much of what one reads about in the Bible and to give one a sense of what life might have been like back in Jesus’ time.

            After leaving Nazareth Village, we visited the Church of St. Gabriel/Mary’s Well, where the angel Gabriel is said to have come to Mary while drawing water from the well to announce that she would bear God’s son, a story taken from the apocryphal Gospel of James.  Outside the church, Julie and Deb gave a reflection on the annunciation, being called, and saying yes while at the same time being perplexed and confused.  Inside the church, we admired the walls and ceilings completely covered with paintings of the saints.  There is also a small well located in the lower level of the church.

            After this, we made our way to the Basilica of the Annunciation/Sanctuary of Nazareth, originally built by the Prince of Galilee in the 12th century over ruins, with the modern building and cupola built by Giovanni Muzio in 1967.  The building lies over a series of caves, one known as the “Virgin’s Kitchen,” where Mary is said to have lived when Gabriel came to her.  The basilica has two levels, the lower one belonging to the Byzantine era and the upper one belonging to the modern era.  The upper level has a series of frescoes, murals, and mosaics donated by various countries.  Outside the basilica is also a wall of art by various countries.  Some of us also ventured over to St. Joseph’s Church/Church of the Holy Family, which also has a series of caves below it.

            After we finished at the basilica, our group made our way to the Convent of the Sisters of Nazareth, built in 1855.  During the construction of the convent, the grave of the “just man” from the 1st century was found.  Excavations of caves and what may have been Joseph’s house, were also found during the construction.  A nun led us down into the caves, showing us the tombs and graves, a Crusader chapel, a storehouse, and the only remaining tomb with a rolling stone door.  Before leaving, we stopped in the Sisters of Nazareth Church to pray and sing a few songs.

            Then we returned to Pilgerhaus around 5:30 p.m., enjoyed dinner at 7 p.m., and gathered at 7:45 p.m. to walk over together to the Church of the Multiplication, where an 8 p.m. sung Vespers service was held by the German monks.  We returned to the guesthouse to share reflections of the day at 8:30 p.m.  Some shared their thoughts about how Mary was seen as the new Eve, and then if Jesus is seen as the new Adam, the significance of how Eve came from the rib of Adam and then the new Adam (Jesus) came from the new Eve (Mary).  We finished with prayers before heading off to the cafeteria for fellowship, and then to bed.

On Thursday we got up early for a 6 a.m. breakfast and then boarded the coach at 7 a.m. to travel to the region of Galilee in northern Israel.  Our guide for the trip was Nasser Elias, a Palestinian Christian.  Our first stop was in Caesarea Maritima after 9 a.m., where we visited the Caesarea National Park: The Roman Theater.  Nasser introduced us to this port city in the theater, and then we walked through exploring the ruins and excavations of the city which King Herod had built in honor of Augustus Caesar.  We walked down to the seashore and looked at the ruins of Herod’s temple built on the sea, walked through the hippodrome/amphitheatre, and then stopped quickly at the gift shop before traveling by coach a few miles to see the aqueducts of the city.

Next we traveled on for an hour and a half to lunch at the Taureen Oriental Restaurant at 12:30 p.m.  After lunch we visited Capernaum on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee.  Nasser took us to the location of the house of Simon Peter, where the New Testament reports Jesus’ healing of Simon’s mother-in-law, as well as the paralytic, the bleeding woman, and the centurion’s son.  Over the excavations of Simon Peter’s house is built the Catholic Church of the House of Peter, which looks more like a spaceship than a church.  Nearby is also located the synagogue where Jesus is said to have spoken.

After visiting these sites and taking many photos, we headed off to the Heptapegon and the Church of the Multiplication, which commemorates the “Feeding of the 5000.”  We quietly went inside this church, part of a monastery, where we prayed, and then we went down a private path near the sea, where Doris led us in a moving Eucharist service at an outside chapel.  I helped lead the music for the service with the Welshmen, and Judith preached about the connections between the feeding of the 5000 and Psalm 23.

Next we quickly drove over to the Church of St. Peter’s Primacy along the shore.  This site commemorates where Jesus first called the disciples fishing in the sea, and where later after his resurrection he encouraged the disciples to put their net “on the right side” and they caught 153 fish.  The sea used to come up to the church’s foundation, but now there is a wide beach between the church and the sea.  I read for the group the passage in John of Jesus asking Peter “Do you love me?” and telling him thrice to “Feed my sheep” after the resurrection, while they ate their fish breakfast on the beach.  A statue outside the church of Peter and Jesus commemorates this passage.  Some of us also ventured into the church for payer, where a big rock known as the Mensa Christi (Table of Christ) lies before the altar.

            Having visited as many sites as we could in one day, we made our way to nearby Pilgerhaus in Tabgha, a pilgrim guesthouse run by the German Association of the Holy Land.  We checked in, visited the gift shop, had some drinks at the cafeteria, and then had a wonderful dinner, more drinks and fellowship, finally followed by bed after 11 p.m.  What a long but wonderful day!

On Wednesday morning, after a 7 a.m. breakfast, we headed off by coach to Bethlehem.  The original plan had been to first visit the Herodian outside of the West Bank, but with the turmoil in the country our plans had been changed, and we stopped first at the city of Ein Kerem instead.  Ein Kerem is the city where John the Baptist was born and raised.  Upon arriving there, we stopped first at the Church of St. John the Baptist.  Outside the church, there is a wall of plaques with the “Benedictus” written in numerous languages.  Inside the church, one can go down on the left side to a small cave/grotto where John the Baptist is said to have been born.  It was a beautiful church, and many of us visited the grotto and took time for prayer in the church, admiring its architecture, decorations, and the icon of St. John the Baptist up near the chancel.

Then we walked up a steep hill to the Church of the Visitation (built by Antonio Barluzzi in 1939, who built many of the Christian churches in the Holy Land), where Mary is said to have visited Elizabeth and Zechariah while pregnant with Jesus.  Outside this church is a wall of plaques bearing the “Magnificat” in numerous languages.  First we went into the small Chapel below the church, which has another grotto where John the Baptist is said to have been born, as well as some beautiful frescoes on the ceiling.  Then we walked up the steps to the main church building, a beautiful sanctuary with a huge fresco of Mary holding Jesus covering the back wall.  Many prayed and took photos before gathering again outside in the courtyard.

            After trekking back down the hill, we boarded the coach to cross into the West Bank.  After a quick and uneventful stop at the checkpoint, we stopped briefly to get off the coach and take some photos of the graffitied Separation Wall (a/k/a Israeli West Bank barrier) which extends around the West Bank for 450 miles, preventing Palestinians from entering Israel illegally.  Then we continued on to the city of Bethlehem (which means “House of Bread” in Hebrew).  The city is currently 30-35% Christian vs. 70% Muslim, which is a much higher percentage of Christians that most of the Holy Land.

            Our first stop in Bethlehem was at the East Jerusalem YMCA in Beit Sahour to visit the caves on its property.  We gathered down in the dark caves where Stephen spoke about the angels’ visitation to the Holy Family.  We discussed the translation issue and understanding of manger in the New Testament to refer more properly to a cave.  Mary most probably would have laid Jesus in a stone eating trough rather than a wooden manger.  The cave also would have been where the animals would have stayed.

            Next we traveled on to the Shepherds’ Field, which also has a series of caves as well as a church.  We gathered in one of the caves where Meredith gave a reflection on the angels’ visit, and we shared in prayer and sang a song.  Then we went up into the Gloria in Excelsis Sanctuary, a round church with many paintings inside, built by Barluzzi in 1953, where we took photos and sang a number of carols.

            After visiting the Shepherds’ Field, we stopped nearby at the Holy Land Handicraft Cooperative Society, an opportunity for us to load up on souvenirs.  The Society had numerous items of all kinds, including icons, olive wood, jewelry, pottery, crèches, and much more.  I took the opportunity to buy souvenirs for my family and a crèche for a Burmese classmate who had wanted to come on the trip but was unable.  After completing our shopping, we went to lunch at the Shepherds Valley Village: The Tent Restaurant.  We had a wonderful lunch of pita & “salad” (which refers to humus and various dips) as well as some rare (for us on our trip, anyway) falafel and some refreshing Taybehs.

            After lunch, we entered into Bethlehem proper, where we walked to the Church of the Nativity, a fortress looking church that commemorates the birthplace of Jesus.  It just so happened that the day we were visiting was the Greek Orthodox Christmas Day, and as part of the church was owned by the Greek Orthodox, we got to watch and listen to (and get in the way of the procession for) their Christmas Day service.  The building was massive and built of stone, but in the chancel was elaborately decorated with icons and candles, and incense permeated the air.  The main attraction in the Church of the Nativity is the small grotto beneath the chancel area where Jesus is said to have been born.  In the small grotto is a 14-pointed star.  We slowly descended the stairs down below the chancel, where we each had an opportunity to touch the star in the grotto and meditate on Christ’s birth.  Then we gathered in the chamber as a group and tried to sing “Silent Night” before being silenced by the Greek Orthodox guards.  We then made our way back up into the sanctuary and into the attached Roman Catholic Church of St. Catherine, a more traditional looking church space filled with pews (as the sanctuary of Nativity had been completed empty of chairs or pews).  Below these two churches are a series of unadorned caves, and we descended the stairs to walk through them.  These were the caves where St. Jerome lived and worked on the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible.

            After finishing our exploring and leaving the churches, we made our way back out of the West Bank by coach, with a short stop at the checkpoint where a soldier boarded the bus to check our passports, and then we moved quickly on.  We returned to the College around 4 p.m., where I took a nap until dinner at 7 p.m., and then we gathered for another lecture at 8 p.m. on “The Peace Process – A Palestinian Perspective,” led by guest speaker the Rev. Canon Hosam Naoum, acting dean and priest of the Arab congregation at St. George’s Cathedral.  (Hosam will be pursuing an MTS degree at VTS during the next two years.)  Hosam spoke about being a Palestinian, Israeli, Arab, and Christian and how each of those parts made up his own complex identity in a land where identity is very important.  He also spoke about the peace process, teaching in his congregations, how Christian denominations get along in the Holy Land, and a short history of the Anglican Church in the Holy Land and how it had to get permission from the Greek Orthodox Church to have a presence in the Holy Land.  Before finishing his lecture he sang for us “10 Measures of Beauty (10 Measures of Sorrow)” (written by the Rev. Garth Hewitt, a former canon at St. George’s Cathedral) and then “How Great Thou Art” in Arabic.

Our first Tuesday began with breakfast followed by a group photo taken in front of the College.  Then we gathered upstairs for a day of small groups.  We all split into five groups to go explore the four quarters of the Old City.  Being an odd number of folks, Hugh-John and I formed a two-person group which would explore the Muslim Quarter of the city.

            On our way to the city, Hugh and I decided to stop at the Garden Tomb, located outside the Old City.  This is one site of Jesus’ crucifixion, entombment, and resurrection, currently run by a British group.  The Garden Tomb is near a cliff known as Skull Hill/Golgotha, of which the face looks like a skull.  The location also has a tomb hewn in the rock and a winepress dug nearby in the ground.  We admired the site, took some photos, hurried to make it through before a large African pilgrim group, and stopped quickly at the gift shop to buy some souvenirs.

            Making our way to the Old City, we walked through the Muslim Quarter down the Via Dolorosa again, wandering through the souq and stopping to look at the Muslim shops.  We stopped to talk with a few of the shopkeepers who spoke of how bad the business was right now, this being during the missile strikes with the Palestinian Gaza Strip, now known as the 2008-2009 Israel-Gaza conflict which began on December 27, 2008, and almost prevented our trip due to safety concerns.  The Muslim shopkeeper spoke of how slow business was with very few tourists around and how he had “stopped thinking about it” all because there was nothing he could do about it and it just made him miserable.  He and others begged us to look through their goods, but we decided to move on to the Austrian Hospice, a building Hugh had heard about, where we enjoyed apple strudel on the roof and admired the view.

Then we made our way further through the quarter entering into the Jewish Quarter and visiting the Western Wall area.  What a remarkable site!  It seemed so big compared to the pictures I had seen, but also quite touristy, though its sacredness was still intact.  A divider separated the men and women from praying together at the wall, and all male visitors to the wall were required to wear a yarmulke, of which many cardboard ones were available at a stand; the women had to wear scarves covering their heads.  We watched the Jews pray at the wall, bending and bowing to and fro to the beat of their heart.

Then we returned to the Muslim Quarter where we bought some pita pizzas for our lunch.  We encountered part of the Christian Quarter in the other part of the city, where the shops seemed to become less crowded.  We stopped near the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer for a quick drink, before making our way back through the Muslim Quarter where we purchased some sweets of various kinds for the rest of the group, a souvenir of the Muslim Quarter.  Then we returned to the College for the afternoon.

The course group gathered at 6 p.m. in the lecture room to share the details of their excursions so we each could learn about the different quarters of the city.  Each group spoke of a high place they had visited which allowed them to get a better sense of their quarter and the city as a whole.  Each group also brought back a souvenir from their part of the city.  Our group shared our sweets, while the other group the visited the Muslim Quarter brought back two bags of nuts to share.  The group that visited the Christian Quarter brought back a handful of prayer candles from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  The Jewish Quarter group returned with a mezuzah cover, which is put outside a Jew’s door holding a mezuzah scroll.  And the group that visited the Armenian Quarter brought back a tile with an Armenian cross on it.  Each group had had numerous adventures and much was shared.

            After our presentations, we gathered for dinner at 7 p.m. and then went upstairs at 8:15 p.m. for a lecture on “Bethlehem: Was Jesus Born There?,” in which we discussed the New Testament and Gospel accounts (or lack thereof) of Jesus’ birth and the historicity of Bethlehem vs. Nazareth as Jesus’ birthplace.  It was a very interesting lecture.  Afterward we retired to the Common Room on the third floor for continued fellowship and beers before going to bed.