Sunrise Over Jerusalem

4:20 AM, a time that I have become very familiar with over the past three years.  This time however, I was not about to head to the Fox River, but I was going ot walk to the top of the Mount of Olives. The streets of Jerusalem were unnaturally quite as the twenty of us who decided to wake up for the sunrise walked around the wall of the Old City from our college on Mount Zion, up to the top of the Mount of Olives on the east side of the city. We reached the top around 5:15, and the sun was supposed to rise at 5:30. We wandered around the streets for a while trying to find a good vantage point. After wandering around for a few minutes, I learned that most people wanted to get to the eastern side of the mountain to watch the sunrise out of the wilderness to the east. This is not what I had in mind, so my friend Gareth and I turn back and found our own vantage point that overlooked the city of Jerusalem. Since we were on the east side of the city the sun would be rising from behind us, behind the Mount of Olives and slowly illuminated the city. From our spot we had a perfect view of the Old City and the entire basin  that Jerusalem is in. I set up my GoPro to take a time-lapse of the sunrise (It will take some time to edit and I don’t have the software to do it now, but eventually, it will be up). As we sat there before the sun peaked over the mountain behind us, we looked over the sleeping city of Jerusalem, and saw clouds surround the city, over the mountains but not the city. It was a really powerful image, that just as Jerusalem was protected on all sides by the mountains, it was also being protected by the clouds; the image of God coming in the clouds, that we see so often in the Bible, came to mind. It was a beautiful reminder of how God protects and takes care of his people. As the sun continued to rise and light began to shine on the city, I read the Psalms of ascent, and was again struck by these images of protection. “I lift my eyes up to the mountains, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth…indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep,” Psalm 121:1-2, 4. “Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forevermore,” Psalm 125:1-2. This images in the psalms and what I could see right in front of me where in such an amazing parallel. I could see how God has been with and is still with those who believe in Him, protecting them both physically with the mountains but also spiritually.  

            As you look out over the Old City from the Mount of Olives, the gold, and beauty of the Dome of the Rock, dominates the view. However, as the light covered more and more of the city, the first golden gleam that caught my eye were the small, golden crosses on the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. Both of these building are easy to find if you know where they are, although they are not prominent in the foreground. It wasn’t until after both crosses were illuminated, gleaming in the sun, that the Dome of the Rock got its first ray of light. I think that this was a good parallel to Christianity in society. While, it may not be the flashiest and most (visually) appealing, thing out there, at the end of the day (or in this case the beginning of the day) Christ comes first. It was great to have time to think, reflect, read the Bible, and look out over the city of Jerusalem.

            After the sun had covered the whole city, we headed down the mountain, quickly stopping in the garden of Gethsemane. It gave the city a whole new feel to walk around the streets without thousands of tourist, as we made our way back through the Old City, we went ot a relatively deserted Church of the Holy Sepulcher. I was able to go up to the empty tomb. It is so great to see the empty tomb and know that He is risen.  I headed into the New City for some coffee and ran into Drs. Cohick and Kalantzis doing the same thing. We were able to have a good discussion of different theologies over our coffee before we all went to the English service of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. It was good to be back at a Lutheran church; it was nice to have the familiarity of the liturgy and the hymns, even though I was far from home.

            In the evening, most of us went out to Saint Anne’s Church, on the Via Dolorosa, to see an Austrian choir perform. This was amazing. The acoustics of the building are incredible; there is a seven second echo. That coupled with a very good choir made for an amazing concert.  It was such a joy to listen to these amazing voices resound around the building as the pieces progressed from the Baroque to the Romantic period.

            After this long day, when we came back to JUC, I quickly packed for our excursion to the Galilee that we are leaving for early tomorrow and called it a day.