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| Scoping Mt. Scopus |
This day was given to walking the footsteps of Jesus. When you read about places like Jerusalem, Bethany, the Judean hillside, Jericho, etc., we have this childlike association from the tales in Sunday School. They take on a fairy-tale like quality. "Once upon a time, there was a city so fair that people said God was found in her walls."
Visiting the holy land means being covered in the dust that our forebears walked through, struggling over the hillside that the disciples hiked, and sitting in a garden of olive trees that Jesus prayed in. The cities have measure and distance, and if you're up for a bit of a walk and have a bottle of water to refill, the paths are easily walked in a day.
And if you happen to be a priest and have a willing audience who comes along and lets you tell her these Bible stories and is hearing them for the! First! Time! Ever! ... well, you might consider yourself the most blessed person in Jerusalem.
We started out with a couple of opposing viewpoints. First was the Jerusalem side of the border:
And then the Jericho side:
The differences in the pictures speak for themselves. You'll see some of wall in the latter, cutting through the countryside and cutting us off from a few sites -- Lazarus's tomb and Jericho, to name a couple -- that I didn't trust myself venturing out to as the solitary guide.
As we walked along, I read the story of Jericho, telling of how Moses would never see the Promised Land, but how Joshua was entrusted to the lead the next generation into the promise. Getting to tell new ears about this also meant that Melissa got the whole story of Rahab, a prostitute who helped the two Hebrew spies in the city and was thus spared the coming slaughter of all the lives of Jericho. In the genealogy of Jesus, she was recorded as being the mother of Boaz, who was the husband of Ruth and father of Obed, father of Jesse, father of David. Scandalous.
Shortly, we entered the town where we ran into the Chapel of the Ascension. The road itself transitioned abruptly from the groomed feel of Hebrew University into a dusty place devoid of vegetation or Hebrew script, but had some graffiti written in English with unrepeatable hatred towards Israel and, inexplicably, a proclamation of love for Grand Theft Auto V.
The Chapel of the Ascension is built on the highest point of the Mount of Olives. It's seen the turmoil of various conquerings and is now officially under the Islamic Waqf of Jerusalem. A humorless man took our shekels to enter into an imageless stone structure.
The feast of the Ascension is a feast not high in favor on the Christian calendar, falling 40 days after Easter -- and who goes to church on a Thursday evening? It celebrates the ascension of Jesus to the Father, but no one seems to want to celebrate it.
I get that, and not just the Thursday night thing. But really, who believes in a God sitting off somewhere in the clouds where airplanes buzz by? More seriously, who wants a God who says, "Right, I'm off now, but I'll be sending a replacement along here shortly. You'll like him a lot. Ta-ta!" And the last glimpse you get is a pair of feet in the clouds?
Martin Luther has this wonderful idea (to balance his terrible other ideas) about the Ascension, and says, Look. Christ had to ascend to God rather than stay here in the flesh – one guy to rule 5 billion people? This is logistically impossible for personal access. What if you were born on the wrong side of the world? How would he have time to answer all the letters? What if the post office goes out of business and he can’t get your mail?
With the Ascension, he becomes present to all hearts. Nothing is so great, be it in heaven or on earth, but he has power over it. Through the word he comes down and through faith we ascend up.
The ascension is not an abandonment of creation, but the step to bring all of creation into redemption. Christ again is the focus point, the mediator through which heaven comes to the world, for what happens to him happens to all.
Shortly, we entered the town where we ran into the Chapel of the Ascension. The road itself transitioned abruptly from the groomed feel of Hebrew University into a dusty place devoid of vegetation or Hebrew script, but had some graffiti written in English with unrepeatable hatred towards Israel and, inexplicably, a proclamation of love for Grand Theft Auto V.
The Chapel of the Ascension is built on the highest point of the Mount of Olives. It's seen the turmoil of various conquerings and is now officially under the Islamic Waqf of Jerusalem. A humorless man took our shekels to enter into an imageless stone structure.
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| For Walt |
I get that, and not just the Thursday night thing. But really, who believes in a God sitting off somewhere in the clouds where airplanes buzz by? More seriously, who wants a God who says, "Right, I'm off now, but I'll be sending a replacement along here shortly. You'll like him a lot. Ta-ta!" And the last glimpse you get is a pair of feet in the clouds?
Martin Luther has this wonderful idea (to balance his terrible other ideas) about the Ascension, and says, Look. Christ had to ascend to God rather than stay here in the flesh – one guy to rule 5 billion people? This is logistically impossible for personal access. What if you were born on the wrong side of the world? How would he have time to answer all the letters? What if the post office goes out of business and he can’t get your mail?
With the Ascension, he becomes present to all hearts. Nothing is so great, be it in heaven or on earth, but he has power over it. Through the word he comes down and through faith we ascend up.
The ascension is not an abandonment of creation, but the step to bring all of creation into redemption. Christ again is the focus point, the mediator through which heaven comes to the world, for what happens to him happens to all.
I lit a candle at this holy site for Walt and we went on our way.
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