The Sabbath

Today was the Sabbath, a time to rest. We didn’t have any plans together as a group until after lunch, so we had the morning to ourselves, to experience the Sabbath in the way we needed to. I got up early and went into the old city with a group of students and to go to the Holy Sepulcher.  The city had an eerie feeling to it; it was still early in the morning, but the streets were deserted. We entered near the Jaffa gate and the streets were uncharacteristically clear. Most of the streets were blockaded with police and security personnel wandering about. It was very clear that this was for the Pope’s visit to the city.

It was still early enough, that we were able to make it the Holy Sepulcher without a problem and without running into many closed streets. We got into the church a little before seven. This morning the Greek Orthodox Church would be the church that was holding the service. As we entered the church, there were already tourists lining up to enter the sight of the empty tomb. The priests were setting the sanctuary up for the service, but we were soon allowed to enter, as the tourists still waited in line. We stood along the side of the sanctuary and in the middle of the room, chairs were set up in a U-shape, with two ornate chairs at the bottom of the U.  Soon the procession of priest and other clergy began to enter in procession. It was around this time that I noticed all the men who looked like private security guards and the photographers with professional level equipment. At the end of the procession came a man dressed in ornate robes, the ends of which were being cared, and he carried a scepter. As it turns out this was the Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, the head of the Eastern Orthodox Church. As soon as he entered the room, the cameras went off, and continued to go on for the entire time he was there. Theophilos III the Patriarch of Jerusalem was also present. It was interesting to be in small, worship setting with these important men in the church. The service was three hours long, all in Greek, and it was mostly done in chants. Since I couldn’t understand what was being said, I looked around and marveled at the beauty of the church, the icon of Jesus on the dome above, the beautiful painting around the room, and all the ornately decorated pieces. It was beautiful to see how this completely foreign style of worship , and yet they were still worshiping the same God; it was comforting to see that once the details were stripped back, we were all there for the same purpose, worshiping God. We talked about this a little bit during our class session in the afternoon, which is when the Pope and the Ecumenical Patriarch would meet at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The Pope and the Patriarch are meeting not to bring the church back together but are meeting as an expression that the unity in the church already exist; the church is already one church.  “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” Ephesians 4:4-6.

The unity of the church has been on my mind a lot this past week. Walking around Jerusalem, you can see the division between religions so clearly, and you can see the divisions within the religion as well. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher has six different churches that claim a stake in the church. Even back home in the United States, the division between the different denominations is so prevalent, especially at a Christian school, in a city with the most churches per capita in the nation. Both here and back in Wheaton it easy to become cynical about unity of the church. However, all branches of the church are exactly that, branches, with the same trunk and the same roots. There is only one church, however through our brokenness it is often hard to see it as unified. Tonight we had a worship service with the whole team. We closed with a song that took its lyrics from the verse in Ephesians. As we were singing and worshiping in an upper room at JUC, bells from churches throughout the city of Jerusalem were ringing, people were going to church, back in Wheaton, and all over the world people were worshiping God. That is a unified church. All differences a side, in that moment, and countless more moments, the church came together to fulfill its purpose of giving praise and thanks to God!