Some First Week Thoughts from Tantur

First, let me assure you that we are perfectly safe here at Tantur.  Perhaps you heard about the bulldozer attack in Jerusalem.  We were nowhere near where that occurred.  Of course, there are safety issues here, but Tantur’s director assures us that he feels safer here than in Washington, D.C. — or Chicago, for that matter.

Tantur says that being in the Holy Land is like the “fifth Gospel.”  That idea goes back to St. Jerome in the 4th century — who translated the Bible into Latin (known as the “Vulgate”) in his monastery just down the hill from Tantur.  We had a couple lectures this week on biblical geography and Jesus’ cultural milieu.  Being here in the Holy Land and learning/seeing what life is like here both now and in Jesus’ day helps make the Bible so much more meaningful.  More on this should turn up in my sermons.

The last two days have been an interesting study in contrasts.  I met a Jewish man in Cambridge whose wife is a rabbi here in Jerusalem.  He invited me to come to their Sabbath/Shabbat service and the potluck dinner afterwards.  His wife leads a group called “The Jerusalem Community for Jewish Renewal”; their worship was like a combination of traditional Jewish worship with charismatic/evangelistic praise music.  In addition to their spirited worship they also seek to work on peace and other social issues.  The meal afterwards was less a potluck than a continued celebration of the Sabbath, complete with food and drink and prayer and singing — and even a sermon of sorts — in honor of several Americans present, a comparison was made between the Exodus and the American Revolution (an interesting way for me to celebrate the 4th of July, but the comparison made me a little uneasy.)  Then today we walked to Bethlehem, going through an Israeli checkpoint into that Arab city which is part of the West Bank.  We went to the Church of the Nativity and saw the shrine at the traditional site of Jesus’ birth — a definitely moving part of the day for me.  That experience, though, was surrounded by haggling with taxi drivers over the price of our ride to Manger Square and avoiding all the people who want to sell you something you don’t want.  Another highlight included walking to the International Lutheran Center and Christmas Lutheran Church — we intend to worship there later and perhaps attend some events in the attached cultural center.  Lutherans have a small but sigificant presence in Bethlehem.  So two days and two quite different experiences — observing both Jewish and Palestinian experiences.  More on this as the month goes on.

Are we here as tourists or as pilgrims?  Sometimes as people seek to be religious pilgrims here, they get caught up in being tourists — trying to make sure to see every important site, dealing with the hassles with people trying to sell you everything from postcards to camel rides.  Sometimes people who are here as tourists get touched or overwhelmed by the spiritual significance of what they are seeing on their tour.  I’m sure that we will be fluctuating back and forth on that spectrum during our stay here.

P.S. I’m having trouble including pictures.  I hope to figure out how to do it better.

Advertisement