Olive tree and its fruit

Ancient Olive Tree --

possible site for

Garden of Gethsemane

Because Gethsemane means "Olive Press," scholars think it’s likely that the garden where Jesus prayed before his crucifixion was an Olive Grove.

Our guide told us that olive trees are long-lived. We’re talking 1500 – 2000 years. The one in the photo is about 1700 years old. The main trunk has died. You can see the old gnarled trunk held in place by stonework.

Note, however, the shoots coming up next to it. New trunks. It’s purpose continues.

Perhaps the olive tree is symbolic of Christianity – as early workers pass on, new people appear to carry on their purpose. The olive trees, old and new, continue producing wonderful olives.

Christianity, though, has become rather more complicated. Starting in 325 AD, Roman politics and men’s opinions began meddling with the original stock and in the process the trunks have grown further and further away from it.

Women’s original role as Jesus valued them has been diminished. Also, early writings excluded from the official canon, were labeled heresy and nearly destroyed.

Some of these branches have strange fruit – intolerance, arrogance, pride, conceit, small-mindedness, exclusiveness. Those who have had nothing else to eat, say they like the taste, but to outsiders, it can be unattractive.

Happily, it isn’t that hard to get back to the original stock. First, identify your God –most people can identify with a God who is infinite Love, unchanging Truth, the Mind of the universe, light, goodness.

And then honor this God’s creation with respect, appreciation, and care. Find common ground for unity and communication, and build on these. Help meet human needs where you see an opportunity.

These strong new trunks grow close to the original and bear the intended fruit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Looking to the original is helpful if we want to follow that example.

Hope and Renewal

Light breaking through

dark clouds in Jordan

Mishi, our Israeli guide on the Carroll-Fischer Holy Land tour, is a terrific teacher. He gave us lots of historic, political, Biblical, and geographical information – a small portion of which I wrote in my journal each day.

He cast helpful light on the ancient story of Ezekiel’s vision of resurrecting a valley full of dry bones into an able-bodied army. This story had always been a puzzle for me. Mishi explained it as promising fresh hope for Israel; that God could take a people who had died spiritually, had lost their hope, and revitalize them with life and purpose.

More broadly viewed this story gives hope for today, for everyone. God, whom I think of most often as ever-present divine Love, speaks even to those who feel spiritually dead, lost, discouraged – to revive hope and expectancy of good, to inspire with purpose and renewal.

With today's flakey economy, the anticipation of resurrection in this story is timely. A good God doesn't plan evil for His/Her creation; rather that infinite God has a useful and unselfish purpose for each of His/Her children. No matter how tough things seem, there is a way forward.

“Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity,” is a maxim because people have found it true. No situation is hopeless when a person is willing to turn to a power higher than themselves for an answer.

The catch is not to limit that answer by outlining how we think results should come about. What we think should happen is usually too small compared to God’s good plan. This divine Love has the broader picture, and knows what needs to happen to bless His/Her creation.

When I’ve been discouraged and small in my thinking, God’s grace has always turned out to be much larger than anything I could have imagined. That grace becomes active in my life as I let go of self-centered thinking, and become more interested in what I can do for others.

As I see it, God doesn’t play favorites – His/Her love is universal and impartial – equally here and now for you and me, for everybody.

A happy surpirse

Following our guide -

home!

On our last day in Jerusalem, our guide’s wife invited our whole busload of Americans and Canadians to have afternoon tea and cookies in their apartment.

What fun to be welcomed into their home. To be, for an hour or so, in a family – a warmth and affection worlds away from hotels and buses and tourist stops. To hear who’s who in family photographs, to inquire about vacations and hobbies.

Suddenly conversation ceases as the sobering answer to a naive question is the holocaust. Only our hosts’ grandparents survived. None of the grandparents’ siblings or family. Suddenly the barbarity of genocide past, hits home. We are talking to direct descendents of a few survivors. This country is full of such descendents.

The hosts deftly move the conversation to lighter topics. We snap their photos. It’s time to return to the bus, and dinner, and the airport.

--------------------------------------------

Picture this large tour bus on a small quiet residential street in Jerusalem, moving carefully between cars parked on both sides. We spill out, following Mishi like children behind the pied piper.

Police in a squad car, blocked behind our bus, beckon Mishi who they know is a tour guide. He has a brief conversation, then returns to the sidewalk grinning.

“What was that about?” we ask.

“They asked me, ‘What could possibly be of historical interest in this neighborhood?’”

“I said, ‘I am bringing them to my home!”

It was truly special.

I am smiling still.

Travel broadens

Sunrise on Galilee

(Lake Kinneret)

People ask, “What did you learn on this trip?”

I ask them, “How many hours do you have?”

I’ll try to keep it brief. Here are a few concepts that totally knocked my sox off. Some may be old hat to you, but they were new to me. Bear in mind that our guide in Israel was a Jew, so we saw history, geography, politics and peace through his eyes.

1. Israel is celebrating its 60th birthday as a country this year. In that short time its people have taken a desert and turned much of it into a garden. A “tree department” is reforesting the land. Thousands of years ago, the hills were forested.

2. Bible archeology sheds new light on some Bible “traditions” we have grown up with. For me that’s OK. Aside from the initial jolt, it doesn’t matter to me that Jesus’ dad, Joseph, was a stonemason rather than a carpenter – due to the fact that in his day there were not many trees to keep carpenters in business. Stonemasonry was an honorable profession.

3. The holocaust is recent and very real history for most of the Jews in Jerusalem. They can tell you the names of family members who perished in labor and extermination camps, and also the names of those few who survived – usually their grandparents.

4. One solution for Mid East peace is water. Our guide firmly believes, “Give me enough water, and people willing to work hard, and I can guarantee peace.”

5. The tinderbox of the Mid East, and thereby the whole world, is religion.

Temple Mount - built on the remains
of the Jewish Temple

6. Jesus’ Jewishness. I guess I knew, but it just never penetrated – Jesus was a Jewish boy who became a rabbi, and was crucified as a rabbi. There was nothing new in what he taught (he came not to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfill them). Rather he was highlighting what was important and rebuking what men had imposed on their fellows.

7. I became more aware of unfortunate translation errors in the King James Bible. Don’t get me wrong; I love King James. But it is sometimes misleading because of uninspired translators and uninspired scribes who made the copies.

8. This trip redefined “old.” In America if a building is 200 or more years old, it’s historic. In Israel we saw streets, theaters, aqueducts, and grain storage facilities constructed by Herod the Great – the brilliant engineer and ruthless ruler – who reigned during Jesus’ lifetime. We’re talking 2000 years ago.

2000 years ago, this aqueduct

provided fresh water

to Caesarea by the Sea

9. We saw mounds of cities built upon the remains of older cities until it formed a high hill. Sometimes as many as 20 civilizations had called one spot home over the centuries.

10. Americans really stand out. Is it our cameras? The Nike shoes? The baseball hats? Body language?

11. A Palestinian merchant surprised us on November 5, smiling and chanting, “Obama! Obama!” Our President-elect has indeed struck a chord of hope for peace overseas.

12. I gained a firsthand understanding, after a camel ride in Jordan, of why camels are called “ships of the desert.” When atop a camel, you sit high as though on the deck of a ship. Their gait rocks you gently, as a boat might rock on the sea. Of course camels also traveled as cargo caravans long ago, as ships carry cargo on seas.

There's more, but that'll wait for another post.

Universal beauty

Sunset - heading south from Amman

Beauty is universal.

We saw it in the stars over Wadi Rum in Jordan.

About 3:30 am my tent-mate and I, returning from the ladies’ room, paused to look up, and stood there in awe for perhaps 20 minutes. (And yes! Even in the Bedouin's desert there are now tourist comfort facilities.)

Planting our feet in the sand, we gazed up to find the good old Big Dipper, Orion’s belt we think, although it seemed early in the season for the great hunter; and Cassiopia’s Chair. These Mid-East constellations are the same ones I grew up with in Palos Heights, Illinois. Isn't that something to think about!

Reluctantly we gave up counting the infrequent shooting stars as the desert chill drove us into our little tent.

There were dramatic daytime thrills of beauty as well.

Here is another:

Light challenging darkness

And my prayer for the people of Jordan -- that the silver lining be a promise of education, peace, and prosperity for all the country. And why not now?

Generosity in Jordan

Amman,

bustling Jordanian capitol

At the border crossing between Israel and Jordan, our Israeli guide took us skillfully through his side of the passport crossing; on the other side, our Jordanian guide shepherded us through his country’s passport stamping.

The first evening we were very privileged guests of an American Foreign Service worker at the US Embassy in Amman. Her Muslim friend catered a meal of attractively prepared Jordanian foods for our busload of 28 American and Canadian tourists. Our hostess loves Jordan and its people.

Our hostess, caterers,
and a feast of local food

On the way to the capital, our guide had assured us that all Jordanian children go to school. Yet that day we saw school-age children herding goats; and the next day school-age children were hawking bracelets and necklaces in Petra. “Oh pretty lady, you have beautiful eyes! Nice bracelet for you, one dollah! One dollah, pretty lady!”

My friend, Emilie, didn’t buy any jewelry, but she took a chocolate bar from her bag, and offered it to the enterprising little girl. The child’s whole body danced, from her eyes to her feet, as she accepted the gift. The chocolate might not educate her, but it clearly brightened her morning.

Queen Noor, American-born wife of the former King Hussein, has been a strong advocate for the empowerment of women in Jordan from establishing health care services as well as institutions providing microloans and technical assistance for start-up businesses.

This desert country with a bustling capitol and Bedouin herders is now more than a place on the map on the other side of the world to me. It is real people I met and talked to; it's where I rode a camel. It's what you see when you stand on the West Bank and look across the Dead Sea -- the mountains on the other side are Jordan.

I gain a sense of how important peace is to this region of Jewish-Muslim-Christian neighbors. And how important prosperity is to peace. And how important water is to prosperity.

I will pray more intelligently about peace.

Barren and beautiful -- Wadi Rum

Wadi Rum formation, Jordan

Next time you watch “Lawrence of Arabia” trotting along on his camel, notice the background. Notice Wadi Rum. In Jordan we camped in Lawrence’s desert.

Wadi means valley. Rum doesn’t mean liquor; I don’t know what it means. Just Rum Valley . These eerie and beautiful rock formations remain from an ocean that once covered the whole area.

Wadi Rum Tent Village

The Bedouins provide tent villages for tourists. You can hike the dunes, or climb the rocks during the day, and come to your tent village for an evening of dancing. No kidding. The belly dancer invites tourists to join her. After she departs, Arab men start a round dance ending up with a long line of hand-holding, Europeans snaking merrily around the dance area.

In the morning we are awakened exactly at 7 by a bellowing camel behind our tents. Enterprising young men offer camel rides to early-rising tourists.

Bedouin alarm clock

Did the Children of Israel traverse this land in their forty years of wandering? It’s possible. Nobody knows for sure. The sandy desert would have been considerably harsher than the wilderness to the north.

O’Toole’s Lawrence had a horrendous ego problem that became his undoing. Moses didn’t. The Bible refers to him as the meekest of men. I take “meek” to mean Moses was a good listener. He listened to God because he couldn’t figure out how to lead his people on his own. Which is a pretty good reason!

So my lesson here is to learn to be as good a listener as Moses. That means silencing the inner chatter, silencing ego, silencing the desire to be right, silencing distractions. And listening to that one Mind who created all those stars glittering above us around 3:30 am.

Knowing what is ours to do

View of the Promised Land

from Mount Nebo, Jordan

Theories differ as to why Moses didn’t cross over into the Promised Land with his people. He had been guiding thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of grumblers and complainers for 40 years.

They complained about lack of water, and God gave them water. They complained about not having food, and God gave them food. They complained about Moses' leadership, and God strengthened Moses’ ability to lead. For forty years.

Some theorize Moses was being punished for his temper – like when he threw down the tablets with the Commandments on them. He was angry at how quickly the people had reverted to the pagan practices of their slavery days.

Others feel Moses had completed his job. There was simply no need for him to travel any further. His contract with this group was over.

I think it was God putting a reassuring arm around Moses' shouder and saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Here, take a look at where your people are going. And you, Moses, got them here. You guided and nurtured and encouraged them till they grew in readiness – prepared mentally, spiritually, and physically – to go forward under Joshua’s leadership. You have done a great job. I know it wasn’t easy most of the time. But here are the results.”

Traveling with the Carroll - Fischer Holy Land trip, we stopped at Mt. Nebo in Jordan, from which Moses is believed to have viewed the Promised Land. It presents quite a view in all directions.

I had always imagined their trek was mostly flat – through land like the desert in Arizona. Not so. Those escapees had a lot of ups and downs, mountains and sand dunes, to traverse during those four decades. Their route wasn’t at all simple or direct.

So perhaps one lesson for us is to discern, like Moses, what God has given us to do, and to do it to the best of our ability; and to discern what God has not given us to do, and to let whatever-that-may-be go with grace and peace.