Benito Montoya Graduation, November 2011

 For several years now, Messiah Lutheran Church has been supporting the Lunches for Learning Program and one special school in Honduras.  This is the text of the Temple Talk delivered by one of the two missionaries who visited our school on the occasion of their graduation ceremony.

Two Sundays ago, you commissioned Sarah and me as your ambassadors to the 6th grade graduation ceremonies at Benito Montoya school in El Barrial Honduras. We promised to love them for you and we kept our promise.

Now let me try to tell you what it means to them. First just a few tourist pictures. The tropical storm at the end of the rainy season in October tore up the pan-american highway. There was room for one lane of traffic. These are sesame seed shocks harvested on the side of Elephant Mountain. We visited 2 other schools up there. The wildfowers had not dried up before our visit. Different varieties of red, pink, white, yellow, purple and orange flowers were hiding among the rocks and brush.

 Now I will try to convey what God has done in El Barrial because of you. If you made and donated a craft, shopped or worked at the Handmade market, made tacos or ate tacos at the spring taco lunch, designated your offering to L4L or prayed for their ministry then you are responsible for what I’m about to show you. You know the old saying “if mama’s not happy ain’t nobody happy?” Here’s a new one “when the kids are fed everybody’s happy.”

Remember the original kindergarten? Here is the new one. Gerard deJong secured funds for its construction from benevolence grants at his employer. Remember how the school looked when we began our sponsorship? This is the school now.

By sharing with them what God first gave you, the community and the school have blossomed like Miracle Grow in number and in spirit. About 150 children, parents, grandparents and friends came to El Barrial to celebrate not only an achievement, but also a new feeling of significance in a place where they have felt forgotten for a long time.

To make their day more like what the schools in the city do, the graduates of 6th grade and kindergarten wore new shirts, conducted a candle ceremony, and danced all afternoon.

They loved receiving the Bibles you sent. The parents especially seem to love them. For many homes that will be the only book they have. They loved the books and supplies for the new kindergarten. Each student was given a stack to carry over to the building.

And yes we did check on Deysi. The nurse from Healing the Children became a sponsor of a school and she went with us to see Deysi and offer once more the possibility of corrective surgery for her knee in the US.

The principal, the upper grade teacher, and the kindergarten teacher attribute the growth of their community to the relationship and cooperation we have together with them. They thank you with a gift and hope the relationship will continue to inspire the community

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Israel Pilgrimage: Masada, Qumran, Dead Sea

Church at Masada

Karen and Sue in front of caves at Qumran

Bill and Marcie in front of cave #4 where Dead Sea scrolls were found

November 8-9, 2011

As Jesus came out of the temple and was going away, his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple.  Then he asked them, “You see all these, do you not?  Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”  When Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?”  --Matthew 24:1-3

The end?  A thread running through the desert places we visited today (as we are nearing the end of our time in Israel) was the end. 

At Qumran we saw 2,000 year-old remnants of the Jewish sect usually called the Essenes.  These devout Jews grew so disgusted with what was happening in the capitol (Jerusalem), especially in the Temple, that they withdrew to the desert awaiting a final apocalyptic battle between the forces of light and darkness.  (Of course, they were on the side of light.)  Before the Romans arrived to destroy their community, they hid their precious writings in desert caves.  Those writings, discovered only about 60 years ago, are called the Dead Sea Scrolls.  They give us the oldest existing copies of the Hebrew Scriptures, our Old Testament.

At Masada we rode a cable car that took us up over a thousand vertical feet to see remnants of King Herod’s opulent palace/fortress perched atop an immense rocky plateau.  Though built by Herod, Masada is most remembered for being the location of the last stand of almost 1,000 Jewish zealots.  This was the Jewish version of the Alamo.  It took a long time, phenomenal effort, and ample resources, but an estimated 13,000 Roman soldiers finally breached the fortress walls and prevailed.  This finally ended the Jewish War, which already had brought about the destruction of Jerusalem including the Temple in 70AD.  This ending was exactly what Jesus foretold 40 years earlier (see above).  To the very end, those Zealots prayed for and set their hopes upon the Lord rescuing them.

In recent years I often have been asked by people, “Do you think this is the end?”  Usually that question has come after the most recent in a dreadful string of disasters.  Some have been distant earthquakes and tsunamis, but others have been tornadoes and hurricanes and tragedies that have hit us where we live.

So, is this the end?  Only God knows.  More important for us as Christians are Jesus’ promises that the end of this age will be good news for us.  Some have gone before us. All of us will join them in the end that our Lord has prepared for His children.  God’s end, God’s final judgment on you was announced in your Baptism.  That was when our Lord promised, “You are mine.  That is forever.”  So now, as we are…

Waiting for the end: We have been told that this good news is for us to share.  God even uses us to bring more into His kingdom.  The risen from the dead Jesus told his first disciples and tells us, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.  But, you shall be my witnesses, in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:7-8).

While we wait: Tomorrow our pilgrim band will celebrate the Lord’s Supper at the Garden Tomb.  (The Garden Tomb is another possible location for Calvary where Jesus died on the cross and the tomb where his body temporarily rested.)  In that simple meal we will again get the promise first announced to us in Baptism, and the nourishment needed to keep walking and witnessing as disciples of the risen Lord.

This is the end of this blog for me, but I hope and expect this is a new beginning for many of us pilgrims through life.  That is what we all are.  We are chosen and called to share the good news of our living Lord that has named and claimed us so we might be his witnesses.

Shalom from Jerusalem.  

The Dead Sea

Swimming in the Dead Sea

Israel Pilgrimage: Mount of Olives, Upper Room, Israel Museum

Marcie Emerson in front of Jerusalem model at Israel Museum

Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed." --Luke 22:7

TRAVELOGUE:  Start from the top of the Mt. of Olives, walk the path of Jesus' Palm Sunday procession into Jerusalem, stop where He wept over Jerusalem for rejecting the ways that make for peace, and near the end of that descent skip ahead four days to Thursday night to visit the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus retreated for impassioned prayer immediately before his arrest.

Wait there is more....

Next, go to the room where Jesus celebrated the Passover and transformed that ancient ritual meal into his Last Will and Testament.  Jesus bequeathed to disciples in every age all he had to give away--that is his very body and blood.  (He did this so that when we receive the Lord's Supper we get the forgiveness, life, and salvation he came to bestow.) Then--before lunch--walk the short distance to the home of High Priest Caiaphas where the arrested Jesus was brought for trial and imprisonment that same Thursday night.

That was our morning.

How does a person process all that in a few hours?  One does not.  A lifetime of learning and contemplating the majesty and mysteries of those events are not nearly enough time to digest what God was doing for us in those events.

Yet, being here to see and touch and listen does shed light on it all.  Some call the land here 'the Fifth Gospel' because it opens our eyes to the places and ways that our Lord used to work out his saving work on earth.  I would encourage those who know someone on this pilgrimage to ask her/him, "What came to light for you in the Holy Land?"

If you asked me that question right now, I would say, "God came to earth for you and me.  I saw and touched where that happened.  That did not change God, but it changed me and my comprehension of God's work for you and me."

We are very safe, but some of our group have been ill.  Today six of the 44 on our bus did not leave the hotel because of illness.  Please pray for health for all in the last few days of our time here and for our return travels.

Grace and peace!

A view of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount from the Mount of Olives

Dominus Flevit Chapel:  Shaped as a tear drop representing Jesus weeping over Jerusalem

The Upper Room

St. Peter in Galicantu

Steps on the outside of St. Peter of Galicantu where Jesus would have walked

Israel Pilgrimage Day 5: Via Dolorosa and Western Wall

Matthew and Jutta in front of Church of the Holy Sepulcher

Matthew kneels at the site of Calvary 

Christine in front of the Western Wall

Janet and Lee standing on the Teaching Steps

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
--Romans 6:3-4

Today we arrived at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher at 8:00am.  God worked a miracle there this morning.  That is, 37 of us were nearly alone as we climbed the steps up to the chapel perched on top of Calvary/Golgotha.  It was relatively quiet and unhurried  as below the altar we knelt to touch the rock that held the cross of Jesus.  Then we descended the steps and, after a short wait, all were able to enter the tomb of Christ.

It has two chambers.  Bending low we got into the chamber of the angels.  Tradition says this is where the angel told the women on Easter morning that Jesus had risen from death (Mark 16:5-6). Then five of us at a time squeezed into the compact area believed to be where the body of Christ laid from Friday evening until Sunday morning.

To kneel and bow where everything changed for you and me and all humanity for eternity is a moving, humbling experience.  Yesterday in Bethlehem we witnessed where heaven came down to earth.  Today we witnessed the portal into heaven opened for us by our crucified, risen Lord
Jesus.

It was 8:57am. We walked less than a block to the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer.   Before the bells stopped ringing the 37 of us were seated for the 9:00am All Saints' Sunday service of worship.  In the prayers of the church we had an opportunity to speak the names of saints who have gone before us into the Church Triumphant.

So, this morning in Jerusalem, just down the street from where Jesus died and rose, the names of Jeffrey, Margaret, Randolph, Sue and Karen's niece, and many others were raised up.  After that a meal was shared that united us with them and all the saints--past, present, and future.  For us, it was a foretaste of the feast to come.

Do you see the connections?  First, we walked and stood and knelt and touched where our Lord worked out our very salvation.  Then, in worship, we remembered it, took hold of it, celebrated it, and longed for the joyous consummation of all the hopes our Lord has given us: Just like we do every Sunday in worship.  These hopes will not be disappointed (Romans 5:1-5).

Thank you for your prayers.  They are carrying us.

Shalom!

Israel Pilgrimage: Bet She'an and Bethlehem

Roman Ruins at Bet She'an

Pastor Scott and Bonnie Jane are surprised to see Pastor Rolf Svanoe and his daughter, Siri from South Dakota while at Bet She'an

14 point star in Church of the Nativity representing Jesus' birth in Bethlehem

Sue Doubleday and her sister Karen Rushman at Church of the Nativity 

While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the guest room. --Luke 2:6 -7

In 320AD Roman Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan which basically served to make Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire. Shortly after that he sent his mother, Helena, to the Holy Land to find the places where the foundational events of Christianity took place. So Helena came to what now is Israel and began doing her research.

In Bethlehem she built the Church of the Nativity over the location she determined was the place of Jesus' birth. That is where we were today.

It took over an hour in line to have the privilege to kneel at a small altar and touch the place where Helena's research said was the birth place of Jesus.

Think of that. Think of that some more.

God came to earth arriving as a helpless infant. God chose to become one of us. Remember this is the same God who created the heavens and the earth. The God who created sub-atomic particles and the DNA helix and the human brain and the solar system and distant galaxies and black holes, etc. etc. This God beyond our small imaginations and limited minds decided to show up as a babe. Amazing!

As we exited from the Greek Orthodox managed site identified by Helena as where heaven came down to earth, we walked through the Armenian chapel into a lovely, relatively modern Roman Catholic church. We had to be quiet because we were barging into a Baptism already in progress.

A beautiful baby girl dressed in a stunning silk Baptismal gown became a child of God as the water washed over her "In the name of the Father, and of the Son (the One who showed up as a babe), and of the Holy Spirit." What a wonderful reminder that our Lord who arrived as a babe keeps announcing His promises to children of all ages.

As we exited we witnessed something else that is rare here--rain came down upon us. In this dry, dry land, every drop is a blessing. And, that water washed and renewed and reminded us of the unfailing promises our Lord has made to you and me in Baptism.

Shalom

Israel Pilgrimage Day 3

Karen Ulbricht  sitting in Herod's  Theater 

Entertainment in the Theater of Caesarea

            

Remnants of Herod's Caesarea

Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth

November 4, 2011

In the days of King Herod of Judea…

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David.  The virgin’s name was Mary.  And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one!  The Lord is with you.”  --Luke 1:5,26-27

Today we visited Caesarea and Nazareth.  At Caesarea many of the remnants of that remarkable development are still evident.  Nazareth today is a traffic choked small city with an uneasy mix of Jews, Moslems, and Christians.  In Jesus’ time, the contrast between these two places could not have been much greater. 

Caesarea was a wonder of Roman architecture and ingenuity.  It was one of the gems built by Herod the Great.  Caesarea had an aqueduct over three miles long serving a remarkably constructed port.  Herod’s palace was on a peninsula into the Mediterranean that sported his fresh water swimming pool.  For the community Herod built an amphitheater for drama and debates, a hippodrome for sporting events and public proceedings, and residential villas to house this bustling community.  Herod the Great was a bad man who did remarkable projects. 

Nazareth, on the other hand, was an out-of-the-way little Jewish village with just several hundred residents.  When disciple Philip told his friend Nathanael he just had to meet this guy Jesus of Nazareth, Nathanael responded, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46)  It was a fair question to ask.

So, what does that say about our God who chose to announce His eternal plans for saving us from sin and death in Nazareth (rather than Caesarea or Jerusalem or Rome)?  For sure, it says a lot more than I could possibly put in this blog and infinitely more than I will ever understand.  Yet, I do believe God has some good news here for you and me.

Our Lord shows up and works among common people in common places.  The God who makes the final, eternal decisions about this world and each of us, is not impressed by architecture or ambition.  Our Lord’s ways are not our ways.  God was certainly just as present with you today, as He was when we visited the place where Gabriel announced to Mary and Jesus grew up (Luke 1-2) and St. Paul stood on trial (Acts 25-26).  Hopefully both you and we were open to hearing that.

Grace and peace to you.

Israel: Day in Galilee

Sea of Galilee: view from boat ride

Bill's St. Peter fish at Ein Gev Kibbutz

Israel Pilgrims at the Jordan River

Lois standing beside the Jordan River

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  --Mark 1:1

BEGINNINGS: Gospel writer Mark certainly had in mind Genesis 1 (In the beginning the Lord created the heavens and the earth.) as he opened his gospel.  Like Genesis, Mark’s gospel begins packed with action. No nativity scenes here; Mark jumps in with the prophecy of Isaiah pointing ahead to John the Baptist (1:2-4).

By verse 9, Jesus is baptized.  Verse 14: Jesus begins preaching in Galilee. The first disciples—four fishermen: Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John—are quickly called and immediately follow Jesus (vs. 16-20).  Then Jesus entered the synagogue in Capernaum and healed a man with an unclean spirit.  After that Jesus went with his disciples to Simon Peter’s house and healed his mother-in-law and many others.  All that and we are not even through the first chapter of Mark.

TODAY WE SAW ALL THOSE BEGINNING PLACES and more.  We dipped our hands and in water of the Jordan River, walked along the shores of the Sea of Galilee where Jesus called those first disciples, saw Simon Peter’s house where Jesus did all that healing.  Not only that, we visited the location believed to be where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), and the site traditionally identified as the place Jesus miraculously fed over 5,000 with just five loaves and two fish (Mark 6:30-44).  What a beginning to our time in the Holy Land!

AN ENDING TOO: We also saw the mensa Christi (table of Christ) located where it is believed the risen Jesus fed breakfast to disciples after He guided them to haul in 153 large fish with just one drop of their fishing net.  That is my favorite fishing story in the Bible and brings to an end to the fourth gospel (John 21).  I picked up seashells and stones from the beach there to bring home to show you.

Wish you could be here with us.  Yet, you do not need to be here to know that Jesus is with us from the beginning, calls us to follow Him just as He called the first disciples, comes into our homes to bring healing, faithfully feeds us, and as our risen Lord sends us out to feed His sheep.

Shalom!

Israel Pilgrims Land in Tel Aviv

November 2, 2011

I lift up my eyes to the hills--from where will my help come?  My help comes from the Lord, whom made heaven and earth.   Psalm 121

LIFTED UP: Our pilgrim band was lifted up three times.   Most of us lifted off from Huntsville, Atlanta, and finally (all 14 of us) from New York City.  We landed in Tel Aviv at 2:00pm.  There we were joined with others who will be touring with us.  They swelled the group to over 40.  We met our guide, Hillel Kessler, and got on the bus to Tiberius.

TO THE HILLS: I am writing from the Royal Plaza hotel perched on a hillside above the Sea of Galilee.  On the way here Hillel pointed out the hill named Mt. Carmel where Elijah and the prophets of Baal dueled (I Kings 18).  And, with darkness falling he pointed to the lights of the city crowning a hilltop which likely prompted Jesus to say, “You are the light of the world.  A city built on a hill cannot be hid.”  Tomorrow morning we begin on the Mount of the Beatitudes: the traditional site of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

OUR HELP COMES FROM THE LORD:  That certainly is evident in the safe travels, the stories that ooze from this land, and the kind people who have brought us thus far on our journey.

Our guide Hillel opened his Bible for the first time to read and said, “I like to read this Psalm as groups of pilgrims arrive in the Holy Land because I think it is a fitting way to begin.”   Then he read Psalm 121.  This moved me deeply because at my father’s funeral on Monday the Bible passage written on the memorial folder and read in the service of worship was Psalm 121.  Indeed, in life and in death our help comes from the Lord.