Friday: A Desert Experience

This morning we set our alarms for a 5:30 a.m. departure from St. George's Guesthouse to experience sunrise in the desert. It was truly amazing - the vast expanse of seemingly endless desert peaks, consisting of sandy rock. Off in the distance we could see settlements on the hillsides, and in the valleys below, green where the occasional spring provides life-giving water.

On arrival at a lookout area, Mother Beth Hoffmann celebrated the Eucharist and preached about desert experiences, including Jesus' forty days and forty nights in the wilderness during which he was tempted by the devil. We then spent some time in silence, contemplating three questions: Why the desert? Why did the early contemplatives go to the desert to live? What are we looking for in the desert? And finally, Where is the desert for us? We continued to ponder these questions throughout the day.

A short way from where we celebrated the Eucharist, we went to another overlook to see off in the valley St. George's Monastery, one of the only monasteries in this area that allows women -- a practice which resulted from a miraculous healing that took place there long ago.

We then traveled to Jericho, where we enjoyed a wonderful outdoor breakfast in a beautiful garden area. We are all getting used to Middle Eastern breakfasts, which at St. George's always include a pita, tuna salad, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, smoked meats and cheese, hummus and yogurt, herbs, eggs and smoked sausages and, of course, cereal. This morning's was slightly different, but many have us have commente4d on the fact that we have eaten combinations of food that we wold never think of eating when at home. Ahh, the benefits of exploring and experiencing the "other."

Jereicho is about 10 miles north of the Dead Sea, and about four miles to the west of the Jordan River at the spot where John the Baptist was baptizing. It is more than 800 feet below sea level, so nearly 3,000 feet lower than where we are staying in Jerusalem. There was a lot of ear popping this morning! Jericho is also the site to which Joshua led the Israelite on their return from bondage. It is believed to be the lowest level in the world of continuous habitation by humans, and perhaps the oldest continually inhabited city in the world.

After breakfast we went to take the cable car up to the top of Mount of Temptation, the mountain on which Satan tempted Jesus with the third temptation -- that all that is seen below and all the world would be given to Jesus if he would but bow down to the Devil. This is one of those spots where you can just feel yourself in Jesus place as you look down to the fertile valley below, the city and surrounding towns, the sheer expanse before you. It is an incredible sight.

But wait, there's more. We continue our climb on foot up to the monastery at the very top of the mountain -- a physical challenge for even the most fit among us. The monastery is completely hewn out of rock, and we prayed in the chapel area, before many beautiful icons, for God to empty our hearts of earthly temptations so that we might make room to deeply breathe in God's spirit in their place.

Before leaving the Mount of Temptation, we had time for coffee on the top of the mountain and, of course, there were vendors ready to provide us with opportunities for memorials of our time on the mountain.

Safely at the bottom of the mountain, we then walked over to Elisha's Spring, referred to in 2 Kings 2:19-22--the waters which Elisha healed by throwing salt into them. Ever since, they have provided sufficient water for the whole Judean Valley.

We then visited a store which is owned by a family from Hebron, where we were able to purchase the famous Hebron glass and ceramics, along with cosmetics from the Dead Sea. This was an opportunity for us to obtain some of the Hebron products in the event we do not make it to Hebron upon our return to the Jerusalem area next week.

We were all reminded of what a small world it is when I discovered this evening that I am rooming next door to two professors from Drew University who are leading a group of students on an interfaith tour through Israel for a period of 3 weeks. The small world part is the Professor Yehezkel Landau of Hartford Seminary is also on the faculty at Drew, and that he would have been a part of this tour were it not for a personal scheduling conflict. Meanwhile, Yehezkel was e-mailing all three of us for different reasons. This evening, I also spoke with Dalia Landau, co-founder of Open House, a place where Arab and Israeli children learn the art of peaceful coexistence. Dalia lives in Jerusalem and we are hoping she will be able to join our group next week to discuss the book, The Lemon Tree, which is about Open House. We are also hoping that some of us will be able to visit Open House to see its work first hand.

Tomorrow we leave for the Galilee Region to the north, the place where Jesus conducted most of his active ministry. While up there, we will be staying on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee at Ein Gev Resort Kibbutz. Please remember to join us at 11:30 on Sunday morning in the library of Trinity Church, immediately following the 10 a.m. service, for our live Skype broadcast from Ein Gev.

Have a question? Want to comment? Please post it on the comments section. Salaam, Shabbat Shalom, Peace, Don