Our First Day in Greece

            We flew into Athens late last night and arrived at a protestant youth campus, affiliated with Dr. Kalantzis’ church, where we’ll be staying while were in Athens. This will be our “home base” for the next few weeks; we’ll do some short two or three day excursions around Greece, but come back here to Athens. It will be like JUC was while we were in Israel. It was a relaxing start to our time in Greece.  We were able to sleep in, have a leisurely breakfast and then walk around the neighborhood. We then went to Dr. Kalantzis’ church, an evangelical Greek church where he grew up and where his family still goes. Dr. K actually gave the sermon today. It was a great experience. They would sign a few songs in Greek, then our group would sing a few songs in English. The songs that were sung in Greek were well known so as the congregation was singing in Greek, our group of forty Americans sang in English. It was a beautiful thing. To hear the two languages mixing together in praise to God was amazing. This was especially moving since today was Pentecost. To know that we could worship God in our own languages, while together, helped to show the depth, diversity and yet unity of the body of Christ.

            After a traditional Greek lunch and the Greek version of a siesta, we headed south through Athens, along the coast until we reached the southernmost tip of the mainland, Sounion. It was an amazing drive, the coast was stunning and the water was so blue. There were countless people windsurfing and sunbathing. When we reached Sounion the beaches were pretty secluded, so we had most of the beach to ourselves. We spent the rest of the afternoon here at the beach; the water was so clear and peaceful. We all were able to just relax and have fun together in the water, I even got to bring out my GoPro. We then got dinner at a restaurant right next to the harbor, again we had delicious traditional Greek food.  On the cliff above the beach where we had been all day, stood the ruins of the Temple of Poseidon, overlooking the sea. Most of the columns and part of the roof was still standing. The temple was on the cliff of the southernmost part of land, with the sea and the islands on the horizon. The sun was setting over the mountains surrounding the Sounion Gulf as we got there. It was a was a beautiful sight, the water setting over the ocean, the boats rocking with the waves, the sun sinking behind the mountains and water, and the warm reds illuminating the columns of the temple. It was a fantastic sight to end our first day in Greece.

Our Last Day in Israel

“The Bible doesn’t come alive to you, you come alive to the Bible.”

            We said goodbye to the four students leaving us this evening, who are not staying for the second half of the trip, and are departing with us before we leave for Greece tomorrow. Tonight we had the last group meeting of all of us here in Jerusalem. It was bittersweet. One the one hand, it was sad to say goodbye to those leaving us and to Jerusalem, but on the other hand, it is exiting to move on to a new country and new adventures. It was good to gather together one last time and worship together. Dr. Kalantzis told us this above quote as we started gathering, a student had told him this the last time he led this program. It really struck me; I came into this program really willing and open to what God had to day to me. As I have lived and learned here for the past few weeks, I have seen myself go and my attitude change. But it is important to remember that this did not come as a result of the Bible becoming any more real to me, the Bible was always real. It was me, my attitude and way of thinking that needed to change not the Bible.  The connections that I have made are a result of me coming alive to Bible and what it is saying. The Bible is not coming alive to me, it has always been alive.

            Today we went to the two sites that remember the crucifixion and resurrection, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and The Garden Tomb. Our first stop was The Garden Tomb. This site has a relatively recent history of being remembered as the location of the crucifixion and resurrection, dating to the late 1800’s.  Whereas the Holy Sepulcher dates its history back to the 3^rd century. The Garden Tomb was thought to be the place because of the proximity of ancient tombs to remains of a garden to a hill that looked like a skull. The site also had early Byzantine churches near the tomb, indicating that it was a holy site. The site is also located just outside the gate of the Old City, near the where ancient Jewish and Roman executions would have taken place. One thing that our guide stressed was that the important thing was not whether or not this was indeed the physical site of the crucifixion and resurrection, the important thing was that these events happened and that the tomb was empty. Regardless of the accuracy of this location, it was still a great feeling to come to a place in order to reflect on the amazingness of God and what He was done for us, while being in a place filled with people from all over the world doing the same thing. The most important thing was indeed to walk into the tomb, see that it was empty, and visible know that Jesus had conquered death through the resurrection.

            Later we were able to tour around the Church of the Holy Sepulcher with a professor at the Hebrew University, It was really great experience to get an explanation of many of the different aspects and history of the church. The professor was a protestant, but her favorite church was the Holy Sepulcher. To her, this was not a disunity of the church here, but a unity. She explained to us that often we see little arguments that a result of people being together, and we expound on that, and point to that as disunity in the church. As she sees it, which I thought was a really good way to look at it, was the fact that these six churches come together in this one place that Christians come here from all over the world is a sign of the unity of the church. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is the only church in the world where eastern and westerner churches come together to worship and haves services under the same roof. Often times signs of unity are not highlighted and the disunity is what shines through.

Following the Gosple

            Today we explored the area around the Sea of Galilee, and we followed the gospel narrative around the sea. We headed out early from our hostel on the north shore and headed to the east side of the lake. There we were able to get on a boat and head out to the middle of the lake. The wind had been howling all morning and blowing from the west. This meant that the sea was pretty choppy and rough. As we sailed out into the rough waters one of the guys in our group read Mark chapters 4 and 5 for us. It was really cool to read about how Jesus calmed the same sea I was on. It was an awesome connection to have. As we sailed around the sea, I could just see how awesome Jesus was, to calm a greater storm in a smaller boat that was taking on water. When we docked we were at Kursi, the site that is remembered to have the caves where the man possessed by the demon named Legion from Mark 5 would have lived. It was again such an experience to read this story and then look out and see the cliff the pigs would have jumped off of; another layer was added to the story. Today was so amazing because I got to see these sites where Jesus walked and performed miracles, and the stories in the gospel felt very real.

            We then headed back north to Capernum, Jesus’ adopted town. We wandered around this ancient trade and fishing center and we saw the remains of Peter’s house, which had been turned into a church at the very beginning of Christianity. Today there is a church above the site. I walked out and sat at the edge of the sea. Here I decided to continue reading Mark, and decided read from chapter four, where Jesus preached his first parable, the parable of the sower, to those on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. What really stood out to me was verse 19, “but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and desire for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce crop,” Mark 19-20. The past few months have been hard on me. I have seen the limitations of my body, through injury, and it’s been hard and frustrating trying to figure out my own limits and figuring out my situation in general. I also am very unsure of what I want to do in my future, and as old plans I had for myself start to fade away and graduation is coming nearer, I am very worried about what I should be doing. Through these hardships and doubts, it’s been hard to trust that God has a plan for me, and recently I have been wrestling what it means practically to put my hope in God. I have been scared of what it might mean to put my full trust in God. I had just been reflecting on all of this as I read this parable. The words of verse 19 just really stood out to me.  These worries that have been consuming my thoughts for the past few months, worries about my health and my future career, have been taking me away from the hope I have in God. This worry will lead to unfruitfulness, but putting my hope in God will cause a, “crop to be produced.” It is so awesome when scripture speaks to us in the moment.

            Next along our trip around the lake was the typical Galilean town of Chorazim. Here we talked mostly about the Jewish culture and customs. One interesting topic that we addressed, was marriage. Once married, the groom would take his bride to his father’s house, a compound really, the Bet Ab, where a room would have been prepared and built for them to start there life and family in. It is this image that Jesus uses as her to prepare a room in his father’s house, the Bet Ab, heaven, were, one it is ready, we will join him for eternity.

            Our last stop of the day before returning to Jerusalem, was along the cliffs of Arbel. It was a 2000 foot drop from the top of tis cliff to the sea below us. We got to hike down the side of the cliff and explore the caves in the cliff face. It was awesome to climb down having to use the staples and rope that were put in place. It was nice to get a chance to really explore the awesome landscape of the country. It was pretty gnarly!

Four Counrties, One Day, and High Tensions

            Today I saw four counties; Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. However, we could only stay in the one we were already in, Israel. We started the day at Hazor, which is one of the largest sites that we went to, over 200 acres. As we drove from the Sea of Galiee up to Hazor, we had to cross the Jordan River a few times. One of these time brought us within a few hundred feet of the Israeli Jordanian border. Excavation is still in progress and it is expected that many important discoveries will be found in the next few years. While were here, we mapped out Joshua’s conquest of Hazor as described in Joshua and I was actually able to see the military strategy that he employed, because we had been to all the places that the text listed. I could see the thought process behind this event. It was pretty awesome to see how these few verses that I would have usually just skimmed over now had an extra layer of meaning. It has been awesome to have these extra little layers added to passages all over the Bible. I am very thankful for this knowledge I am gaining, it is allowing be to see things in the Bible that I would have just skipped over before.

            After Hazor we headed up to Dan, the northern most point of ancient Israel. We were able to walk around in a nature preserve here and it was so green and full of life. If you had dropped me here, I would have no idea of where in the world I was; I could have guessed anywhere, and I probably would not have guessed Israel. Dan has the largest springs in the entire Middle East, and it is here that the headwaters if the Jordan River can be found. From the remains of a Northern Kingdom temple, we could see the Israeli Lebanese border.  This border was distinct in the nearest town, where half of the town was in Israel, and the other half was in Lebanon, with just a line of trees down the middle of the town signifying the border.  We passed an excavation site where a few years ago JUC students were digging just as tank fire from Israeli and Lebanese forces started to fly overhead. It is so crazy to see be on a site that is still somewhat disputed and very recently was the site of armed conflict.

We then went to Caesarea Philippi the site of an ancient pagan temple and Roman era ruins. Here we were able to hike for a bit through the trees along the Jordan River until we reached a waterfall. Because today was Pentecost, we read the first two chapters of Acts, and compared how we would tell the gospel to how Peter did. It was interesting to see Peters focus on the Jesus’ fulfillment of scripture, and how most of us focused on our own salvation through Jesus. It was also interesting to see the emphasis of the Triune God in Peter’s explanation, and the lacking of the Holy Spirit in most of our explanations.

Our last stop was the top of a volcano in the Golan Heights. From here we could see the Syrian border, maybe a mile or two away. This is still disputed land and in between the countries, there is a town whose buildings are still there, but whose inhabitants were forced to leave. It is strange to be in a country whose neighbors do not want them there, whose neighbors have fought, very recently, against them, and whose neighbors do not recognize them as a country. These mixed feelings were escalated by the signs that were right off the side of the road for most of our drive, warning civilians about mine fields and tank paths.

Is God Here or There

What really stood out to me most about today, was something one of the girls, Sarah, said as our group was sitting around on the shore of the Sea of Galilee tonight debriefing about the program so far. It was one of the last comments of the night but it really hit me. She said something along the lines of, “I’m glad that God isn’t here anymore than he is a home. He isn’t present here more, we don’t need to come here in order to find Him. God is present everywhere.” I think that this was a good reminder that God is also back home, I can grow and learn about him just as much there as I can here. While I have learned a lot this trip, both in my faith and understanding of God, when I go home it the learning doesn’t have to end. I think that recently I have just been closed off to what God was doing in my life, and not wanting to see His presence. Coming to Israel, and being in the program I am in, I had a mindset to be very focused on what I was studying, how it applied to my life and understanding of the Bible, and I came here with a great desire to be open to what God was saying to me.  While it may have taken this program to really push to being more open to what God was saying, God was there with me back in Wheaton, back in Santa Barbara. This offhand comment at the end of our long debrief was such a good reminder of the constant presence of God and His constant love for us; He will not abandon us, he will love us to the ends of the earth.

            We started out the morning leaving our hostel in Nazareth, and heading to Sepphoris. Here we saw many ancient mosaics still intact. The most striking one however, was the one found in the ancient synagogue. This mosaic depicted scenes from the Pentateuch and symbols of the synagogue, but also the zodiac calendar. We discussed what it meant to be Jewish in this time, but more importantly, how does one deal with and reconcile their faith and the culture they are in.  Christianity is countercultural, both now and in antiquity. How can we love our enemies and care for the poor in a culture that is so materialistic and all about me. It was good to think about this issue here, as this example, albeit not one we want to emulate, of the combination of religion and culture sat in front of us. We saw another such mosaic at Bet Alpha, which we visited later in the afternoon. Here again there were images of the temple, Biblical stories, and a zodiac calendar.

            We then headed back to Nazareth and went to up one of the hills that overlooked the Jezreel Valley. We able to look out upon the fertile valley below us and see the rocky hills of Nazareth  It was easy to understand why Nathaniel would say, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” John 1:46. After we left this mountain top and went to Bet Shean. The prevalence of the Roman Empire in the area was so evident here.

            We drove north, further into Galilee, until we reached our hostel that was right on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. We all immediately ran to the water and jumped in. The water was cool and refreshing after a long day in the sun. As we ventured out farther in to the water, and as our feet sunk into the mud on the bottom of the lake, one of the girls, not so sarcastically said, “I can see why Jesus walked on top of the water.” After this time we had to relax, we got together as a group and for the first time had the chance to debrief with one another. It was good to hear how everyone was doing and thoughts that we were wrestling with. I was good to get together and work through our thoughts and questions, that many of us had had, together.

Heading to Galilee

Today began our four day journey to the Galilee. We left JUC and Jerusalem early in the morning and headed out west. Our first stop of the day was at Caesarea. This city was built on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea by Herod the Great. He made this city a port even though there were no natural harbors. Herod built a breakwater and harbor at Caesarea, the ruins can still be seen today.  Over the years many empires had conquered the city and as we walked around, we could see the different structures from the different empires that controlled the city throughout the years.  The ocean was beautiful, with unbelievable clear, blue water. While we sat on the shore, we went read from the book of Acts because both Peter and Paul spent time at Caesarea.  Here at Caesarea is where Peter really realized that God’s mercy and love was for everyone. “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life,” Acts 11:18. The remains of Herod’s palace could be seen out on the remains of the break water, now in the sea. We were able to walk out there and see the ruins as the waves crashed around us. It was great to be back at the ocean, and to sit for a while, looking out towards the horizon, hearing the crash of the waves. It reminded me of home.

            Our next stop was Mount Carmel. It was great to be on top of Mount Carmel, I have heard the name many times throughout the Bible and it was great to be able to be here myself. From the top we had a great view of the whole Jezreel Valley. On the top of the mountain there was church that was dedicated to Elijah and his shaming of the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. We sat on there on the top of the mountain, reading and discussing the story found in 1 Kings. It really brought the story to life to sit there on the same spot, and know that it was here thousands of years ago that the people exclaimed that, “The Lord, he is God! The Lord, he is God!” 1Kings 18:39. All these years later we are still proclaiming that our Lord is the true God, and there is a a sense of amazement, awe and wonder in that.

            From here we went to Megiddo. On this Tel, there was evidence of twenty five civilizations in the city’s history.  The city faced continual warfare, destruction, and rebuilding, which has led to a wide variety of ruins that can be seen today. This cycle of the city can be explained by the important location of the city along a trade route at the entrance of a crucial valley into the Jezreel Valley. Megiddo is also the site that many say is the site of Armageddon mentioned in the book of Revelations. It was interesting to think about this as we walked around seeing the many level of destruction.

            On the west side of the Jezreel Valley, we stopped at Jezreel. Here went again went through the Biblical narrative that occurred at Jezreel, the stories of Gibeon, Saul’s death, and Ahab. Again, as we read these stories, they became much more real, knowing that they happened in this location, at certain time. The words came off the page and I felt as though I could see the story around me.

            We pulled into the not so little town of Nazareth late tonight, where we will spend the night. In the morning we will get a chance to look around the city and then continue north into the Galilee.

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.