The Holy Lands

In recent days I have been on a trip of a lifetime to the Holy Lands. My goal had been to write everyday but internet has not been easy especially in Bethlehem, on the West Bank. It is nearly impossible to express all in one writing… It may take a lifetime. St Jerome said that a pilgrimage to the Holy Land is like a fifth Gospel I now understand what he means by such a statement. Scope of the landscape has really surprised me. On a single trail I walked down the Mount of the Beatitudes and into Capernaum. There they found what is believed to the home of Peter and not far…. A minute away is the synagogue. I have looked into the Chapel called “Peter’s Primacy where Jesus as Peter ‘do you love?’ 3 times and commissioned him to ‘feed my sheep’. I have taken a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. Been to the ruined chapel of St. John where the head of John the Baptist was once entombed and met the lone Christian in the village who cares for these ruins. I walked to the top of Masada by the way of the Snake Trail and walked down by the way of the Roman Rampart. I have looked down upon the most ancient walls of Jericho that were built thousands of years before Joshua and the People of God came a-knocking. I have seen the Valley where David killed Goliath. Today I touched the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and walked a tunnel beside the wall learning the history and tragedy/triumph that shaped this Holy City. This is only a portion of what I have experienced.

Together Pastor Martha and I have walked more trails and descended into more tunnels, cisterns and caves. Through it all we have come to admire the ingenuity of an ancient people and their journey of faith and faithlessness.