February 21: Second Sunday of Lent

Luke 13: 31-35

Dominus Flevit (“The Lord Wept”)

The site commemorates two New Testament passages, Matt 23:37-39 and Luke 19:41-44, Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. That there was a Byzantine monastery here is evidenced by the mosaic-floored wine tank locatedoutside at the far end of the property overlooking the Kidron Valley. In front of the chapel itself is the lovely seventh-century mosaic floor depicting the “pearl of great price” being pierced and dividing a fish (the fish may be a symbol for the Last Supper). The modern chapel was built in 1955 by the Italian Barluzzi. Its dome is shaped as a tear drop surrounded by four vases in which it was the custom to collect one’s tears upon the death of a beloved. 

Down by the wine tank the view can be instructive. The Garden of Gethsemane is to your right, marked by the golden onion domes of St. Mary Magdalene Russian Orthodox convent. To the south of the Temple Mount is the City of David. Behind the golden Dome of the Rock mosque is the double-domed Church of the Holy Sepulcher: the smaller black dome is over Golgotha and the larger grey dome is over the Tomb of Christ.

Sunday, February 14: First Sunday in Lent

Luke 4:1-13

Jericho in the Judean Wilderness; Traditional Mount of Temptation

At 1,300 feet below sea level Jericho is the lowest and, with city walls and tower built 10,000 years ago, the oldest city on earth. The primary excavations at Tel al-Sultan were conducted by Kathleen Kenyon between 1952 and 1958 as she developed the nascent archaeological method of stratigraphy, i.e. dating by layers of civilization (she found 23!). The top of the tel (under the canopy where there is seating) provides an excellent view of Mount Nebo to the east from which God showed Moses the Promised Land and Jericho is clearly visible. To the northwest is visible the traditional “Mount of Temptation” where twelfth-century crusaders located Jesus’ temptation by Satan to view and receive all the nations of the world and where in 1895 the Greek Orthodox Church built a monastery which can be reached by foot or using the gondola at the base of the tel. To the south is “Elisha’s Spring” (2 Kgs 2:19-22) which accounts for the existence of the ancient oasis and the lush vegetation you see before you (it can be visited by crossing the street at the base of the tel on the gondola side). Between Mount Nebo and where you are standing, Joshua brought the Israelites into the Promised Land and Jericho was the first Canaanite city they encountered.

Transfiguration of Our Lord

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Churches which follow the Revised Common Lectionary always celebrate the last Sunday of the season of Epiphany commemorating the Transfiguration of Our Lord. This year the reading is from the Gospel of Luke 9:28-36.

Mount Hermon and the Upper Golan

The site of the Transfiguration is Mount Hermon, known in the ancient Near East as Har Tzafon, the mythical mountain of the gods, whose peak is 9,000 feet above sea level. Jesus and his disciples had fled the threat of Herod Antipas by traveling to Caesarea Philipi. It would make no sense for them to turn around and return to Galilee in less than a week. The traditional veneration of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor was a Byzantine decision. Six days after what is generally known as Peter’s Confession (Mark 8:27-9:1 and parallels) Jesus took Peter, James, and John to the top of the mountain, which climb itself must have been a spiritual experience. One can imagine the air becoming thinner, breaths getting shorter, as they ascended perhaps into a cloudy mist. Elijah, of course, did not die but was taken by God to heaven, and the mysterious circumstances surrounding Moses’ death, “So Moses the servant of the LORD died there, in the land of Moab, at the command of the LORD. He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, near Beth-peor; and no one knows his burial place to this day” [Deut 34:5-6, JPS], led to the belief that God had also taken Moses to heaven. Hence the two great pillars of the Old Testament Law and Prophets are able to appear with Jesus on the mountain of mystery. For just a moment the curtain is pulled back and Jesus’ chosen three are able to peer beyond the mundane into the really Real, beyond the empirical to the Truth. But for now Jesus must descend the mountain, all the way to Jerusalem.

Mount Hermon is actually a small mountain chain, a third of which today is shared by Israel, Syria, and Lebanon. It is visible throughout your drive in the upper Golan. A good place to stop for lunch and pictures is in the Druze village of Mas’ada at Berkat Ram, a natural crater lake at Berkat Ram Kiosk: Oriental Food, tel. 04-6983362 (there is sufficient parking for buses). The specialty is a Druze homemade pita spread with lebane and zatar, but falafal and schnitzel are also available. Be sure to try the home cured olives, perhaps the best in Israel! The Druze in Israel are congregated in the upper Golan and on Mount Carmel. Their religion, an offshoot of Islam, originated in Egypt in the eleventh century, was influenced by Persian mysticism, focuses on the attainment of Wisdom, and includes reincarnation into the Druze community. They are a closed society of secret doctrines, and their sages can be distinguished by their black pantaloons and white turbans. They are also a kind and loving people ready to help the stranger and welcome guests with generosity. Their biblical patron is Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, whom they venerate at a tomb constructed below the Horns of Hattin just west of Tiberias. Head south on Highway 98 and stop at Kuneitra to observe the U.N. peacekeeping force on the Syrian border and for a good view of Mount Hermon. Looking to the east, the cluster of white buildings immediately before you is the U.N. compound in the “no man’s land” and beyond that is the Syrian village of Kuneitra. The Israeli surveillance behind you is able to read a license plate in Damascus.

Ascension of Our Lord

All four Gospel writers as well as St. Paul make it clear that the period of the risen Jesus's appearances was limited. St. Luke concludes his Gospel with "Then [Jesus] led [the disciples] out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God." Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) explains,

"Ascension" does not mean departure into a remote region of the cosmos but, rather, the continuing closeness that the disciples experience so strongly that it becomes a source of lasting joy....The departing Jesus does not make his way to some distant star. He enters into communion of power and life with the living God, into God"s dominion over space. Hence he has not "gone away," but now and forever by God's own power he is present with us and for us. [Jesus of Nazareth, Part Two, pp. 281, 283]

St. Luke (Acts of the Apostles) locates the Ascension on the Mount of Olives, forty days after Easter. Today on the Mount of Olives, just down the road from Bethany and Bethphage, is the Convent of Pater Noster. The cave at the center of its courtyard was, in pre-Constantinian tradition, where Jesus would seek refuge, teach his disciples, and was associated with his Ascension. Eusebius reports that Constantine built three churches over three caves which were sites of the three chief mysteries of the faith: the stable in Bethlehem, the tomb cave near Golgotha, and the Ascension here. Helena built the first church dedicated in 334, the apse of which can be seen in the cave, using the title “Church of the Disciples and of the Ascension.”  When the focus of the Ascension moved further up the hill to the Mosque of the Ascension, the significance of this cave was increasingly associated with the teaching of Jesus, then specifically the giving of the Lord’s Prayer. In 1102 a pilgrim reported a marble plaque with the Lord’s Prayer and in 1170 another pilgrim likewise saw a Greek inscription beneath the altar. The sisters are trying to post the Lord’s Prayer in every language of the world and are now approaching 200.  The Aramaic of Jesus is just outside the cave.