Halloween morning, and I was on the Sea of Galilee. Our group and pastors and guides climbed into an oversized fishing-type boat, greeted by the Star-Spangled Banner as the crew raised the American flag alongside the Israeli. Very corny and touristy, but I had to get over my self-consciousness at being perceived as a tourist. Well, what else was I? Not quite Jewish, although my friend Christian in Singapore told me I was on my way as I finished reading my Israel book in Singapore.
But somewhere between Pastor Daniels’ comments and Nir & Itay’s rousing rendition of Hava Nagila, I got quiet as I looked out onto the water. This was where the apostles went through several trials; the most notable was their lack of faith after just witnessing the miracle on the Mount of Beatitudes of the feeding of 5000 families with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread. And then, thinking they’d be drowned, they saw a ghost. Peter, doubtful at first, decided that if the ghost on the water was actually Jesus, then he should be able to walk on water, too. So he jumped out, keeping his eyes on Jesus and believing it was Him, and walked on the water of the Sea of Galilee. Of course, then he looked down, thought that he couldn’t actually be doing this, got scared, and started to sink.
So big prayers, was it? That was yesterday’s epiphany, and today’s was that I didn’t have the faith for big prayers. Prayers need to be prayed in confidence. Yes, my good friend Mary died of cancer when I would have bet my life that she was going to be healed. I still struggle with this one, as most everyone else on the planet who has prayed for a loved one to be healed or a peace to end conflict, and yet people still die young and tragically everyday. But confidence in prayer is not confidence in how God responds. That’s none of my business. Confidence in prayer is knowing God hears, sees the situation from His perspective, and acts, with all the prayers in mind, on behalf of everyone involved (which is usually a lot more than I know). Now immediately as I write this, I know I’ve opened up a whole other realm on prayer. How can horrible things happen if God answers all prayers with love? How can God let certain things happen if He loves each of us? Why should I bother praying at all if God already knows what’s going to happen? (because, after all, the Bible says this). Why would my prayers affect anything?
While I was in France, I read several of CS Lewis’ books (of Narnia fame). He wrote a whole book on pain and why it has to exist, even while God loves us. First, He put us in a world bound by 4 dimensions, and we understand our world only in this way. If my dad falls off his roof, God can’t just make the cement driveway into a swimming pool so he wouldn’t get hurt. And conversely, when my brother falls out of a boat while rafting and is underwater by a strong current, God can’t just raise the rock bed up from the river floor to get him up into the air. All these things change the way the world works, and what is good for my dad (water), isn’t good for my brother, and so everyone would be operating in their own worlds. Besides the fact that if our world was pain-free and individualized for each of us, why would we need God, or even think about Him? Pain certainly brings me closer to God, whether my own pain and shock and grief, or someone else’s. It makes me grow up (sometimes), depend more on God (sometimes), and be comforted (sometimes). Of course, then I want to believe pain can be avoided by a miracle. But how can I expect God to save me or my dad or anyone when I first run to 911, doctors, and every other hope on this earth, then remember God as a last resort? Besides, I don’t need a miracle to know He’s there. God does miracles to show Himself, so that I can believe Him. He does this when I need it. God cured me of an affliction that I would call a miracle – doctors hadn’t done much for me. But life continues and I still look for God. I guess this is the part where I looked down into the water that I was walking on and couldn’t believe. Luckily, each day is filled with miracles if I just realize it. I was, after all, being very well taken care of, even on a mundane Halloween morning, even with most of my possessions somewhere between Paris and Tel Aviv.
Above the Sea of Galilee, we hiked the Mount of Beatitudes, the most likely place that Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount and His disciples fed the 5000 families with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread. Now, by anyone’s standards, this is a miracle – not only the food, but the after-dinner entertainment of Jesus speaking to such a huge crowd without the assistance of an AV/IT team and Bang&Olfsen speakers.
In Matthew, Chapters 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount is recorded. It begins with the Beatitudes and also contains the Lord’s Prayer and some of the better known teachings of Jesus: don’t resist evil, turn the other cheek, do unto others…, salt of the earth, light of the world, and don’t judge others unless it’s how you want to be judged.
The Beatitudes (from Latin beatus, meaning "blessed" or "happy”) are encouraging and comforting, showing how to find God, both in thought and action. They also give the perspective Christians should have of the afterlife, the Kingdom of Heaven, alongside a healthy detachment from this life.
The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12)
Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them saying:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
These 8 characteristics of the Beatitudes are those needed to be blessed or happy in the sense of having an internal peace that isn’t based upon what is happening in this life at the moment. To me this also sounds kinda Buddhist, with the 4 or 7 tenets to achieve enlightenment. I suppose this kind of “find peace by detaching from the world” thinking is common to most religions. And I think most people agree on it, even if it can’t be practiced perfectly. I guess I believe Jesus’ way, though, because He is different than other founders of religion in that He said that He was the Son of God. No other leader said this, and conversely were quite emphatic that only God should be worshipped and not himself. So it would be quite correct to say that Jesus was a bit crazy, except for the fact that He made the Pharisees and Sadducees, the top religious leaders and university professor equivalents, feel threatened and agitated to the point that they wanted to kill Him. So Jesus can’t really be considered a great leader, on par with Buddha, Moses, or Mohammed, because He was demanding worship of Himself. Unless, of course, if He really was a spirit – more than a man. He could have been the Devil, though, but then He went and did all those well-documented and compassionate miracles…
(My beliefs are actually based on more than this, but I’m trying not to get on the soapbox for too long at a time)
OK, so after hiking back down to the Sea of Galilee from the top of the Mount of Beatitudes, we went to Capernaum. This town had a prosperous fishing industry, (about 230 fishing boats on the Sea of Galilee, according to Flavius Josephus, a first-century Roman historian) and also strong trading due to its location on the Damascus-Egypt trade route. Jesus moved to Capernaum after leaving Nazareth, probably because such a large community with international merchants gave good opportunities to preach. His first apostles came from Capernaum: the fisherman Peter (Simon) and his brother Andrew, as well as John and James, also brothers. At Capernaum, we saw the ruins of the city, including the Temple at which Jesus had taught and amazed the elders (and the demons) by His knowledge, as well as Peter’s house. Finally, after a St. Peter fish lunch (they really have a great fish called “St. Peter’s fish”) at a kibbutz by the water, we drove to the top of the Golan Heights, where we learned about Israel’s victory over the Syrians there in 1967.
The following morning, we toured Tel Dan (“Mound of Dan”, where Dan is one of the 12 Tribes of Israel) and Cesarea Philippi (where Peter first recognized Jesus as God’s Son). Both of these sites are in the northernmost regions of Israel, within bombing distance of the Lebanese and Syrian borders, and both are archaeological sites as well as Biblical sites. At Tel Dan, we saw ancient city ruins and learned about life in the cities from 2000-3000 years ago, as well as seeing an altar which looked quite similar to the Israelite altars from 3000 years ago (around the time of Kings David and Solomon), but was altered enough to be recognized as a degraded – one used for Golden-Calf worship. Jeroboam, and subsequently Rehoboam, became king of the 10 northern tribes of Israel after Solomon died. They both thought that the pilgrimage to Jerusalem 3 times a year was too much – it hurt the economy and tired the people – so under Rehoboam, two new pilgrimage sites were founded, in Dan and Bethel. But giving people what they think they want to make them happy rarely makes them or God happy, and these new Golden Calf altars slid the Israelite kingdom into centuries of decline. (The story is in 1 Kings 11-14.) As far as archaeology, I was most impressed by the discovery of Tel Dan’s 3-arched city gate, which puts the engineering of arches at the time of the Canaanites, rather than the Romans.
The afternoon ended at a baptism site on the Jordan River (the exact location of Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist is not known, but thought to be north of the Sea of Galilee). Several of our group were baptized, some for the first time and others to renew their commitment. While I was baptized as a baby in the Presbyterian Church by my parents, my pastor James in Cannes convinced me to be baptized by immersion because it is the method of baptisms in the Bible. In the Book of Acts, written by Luke, a doctor (same guy who wrote the Gospel of Luke), the early church is documented. They only baptized adults, and then by immersion, because it is making a commitment to Christ – something like a marriage vow. I don’t know what the future holds when making a commitment to marriage (which is why I’ve neatly avoided it), and I also don’t know how Christ will change my life. But I’ve offered my life up, just as to a spouse in marriage – and done out of love and respect. So I was finally convicted, and Pastor James baptized me in 2005, and I didn’t feel that I needed to be baptized again in the Jordan.
Our touring days were long and hurried, but even with all my introspection, I couldn’t help but laugh so much with our group and our guides. We ate our meals together, and several times I found myself at the loudest table (imagine that!). It started feeling like a kibbutz, at least for me, as I was wearing clothes and sunglasses and shawls from some of the other women, while I waited for my suitcases, and borrowing Julie’s camera because mine was so temperamental. (These are the little miracles God does for me – provides for me – that I so often overlook.) Our last night on the Sea of Galilee at a gorgeous resort, our table was rolling on the floor laughing as we plotted out a CSI enactment starring some of our fellow church-goers who were sharing a bottle of wine poolside as a gorgeous sunset gave way to night… And then, of course, Dan had to bust-a-move in front of our bus driver David, but I don’t think I can quite describe that properly.
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