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Geography 101 - the triangle of Jesus ministry

2/27/2019

"Think small"
"Adjust your mindset in terms of distance"
"Don't think Canada in terms of size"
Ongoing reminder from our tour guide and an ongoing process of adjustment for us. After all you can put Israel on the same sheet of paper as the whole Okanagan or all of British Columbia or even all of Canada. It is a matter of scale. So what did I learn as I adjusted to issues of scale.

GLOBAL MULTI-CULTURAL IMPACT GROWS OUT OF VERY LOCALIZED FOCUS
Part of the adjustment of scale included an understanding of the area of Jesus ministry. I did not realize that Jesus spent the majority of his ministry time within a small triangle at the northern end of the Sea of Galilee. The triangle is formed by three cities: Korazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum. Biblical scholar Daniel W. Casey (1) suggests that the total ministry time here was as high 80%. All 12 of his disciples, with the possible exception of Judas were from the Galilee area. This verifies the label given to the disciples in Acts 1:11 and 2:7, as "men of Galilee" or "Galileans". The Nelson Illustrated Bible Dictionary estimates that 18/33 of the recorded miracles were performed in this small area and 25/33 in the general Galilee area.

Jesus made his home in Capernaum, probably in the home of Peter. What struck me is the believed proximity of Peter's house to the synagogue. Even if it is not as believed, things would not have been far apart since Capernaum is thought to have only 1500 people at the time of Jesus. The house is close to the water which makes sense for a fisherman. As everywhere, people build on the ruins of the past. The synagogue, whose ruins are from the 4th century, is believed to have been built on the ruins of the synagogue present at the time of Jesus. A 5th century AD church was built over what the Christians at that time understood to be St. Peter's house. Today a modern church stands on top of it but built in such a way that a part of the original building can be seen.

Layout of Capernaum at the time of Jesus.

View from the synagogue looking over to supposed location of Peter's house.

The synagogue in the background. Picture taken from the supposed location of Peter's house shows foundations of buildings that would have been between synagogue and house.

Despite the surmises made, the reality of Jesus living in a city (town by our standards) among people became more real to me. The proximity of Peter's house and the synagogue to each other and the sea where Peter caught his fish and ran his business allowed me to envision Jesus being part of everyday life. On the Sabbath, the synagogue was an important place for him as indicated in the following passage. Yet at the same time he transitioned so naturally and quickly into the cares of every day life
And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. And he was teaching them on the Sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority. And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, 3“Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm. And they were all amazed and said to one another, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!” And reports about him went out into every place in the surrounding region.

And he arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon's house. Now Simon's mother-in-law was ill with a high fever, and they appealed to him on her behalf. 39 And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her, and immediately she rose and began to serve them. Luke 4:31-39 (ESV)

The more I study this, I begin to see Jesus's strategic plan. For three years, he will be the Rabbi (teacher) for twelve men he has chosen. He will live among the people in a small geographical area and call one place—Capernaum—his home. Certainly at the end of Christ's life it seemed that little had been accomplished. The cities he focussed on rejected him. One of the twelve betrayed him and the other eleven did not stand with him in his hour of greatest need and trial. Of course the resurrection was a great victory but only a few seemed to have believed. Yet it was to explode with the dramatic addition of 3000 when the disciple were empowered with the Holy Spirit..

View of the Sea of Galilee. All days were cloudy and rainy.

COMING TO GRIPS WITH THOSE WHO REJECT THE MESSAGE OF CHRIST
Even after seeing all these miracles, the citizens of these cities rejected the Son of God. I find that amazing but obviously had not read passages such as Matthew 11:20-24 and Luke 10:13-14 with the kind of understanding resulting from 'being on location'. My mindset—where Jesus was present and did great miracles, people believed. But NOT SO! In fact the rejection was so strong that Christ denounced them and warned that judgement on the rest paragons of wickedness—Tyre, Sidon, Sodom—would be more "bearable" at the Great Day than for them. This rejection puts contemporary rejection around us into perspective. Although we need to witness with wisdom, creativity, passion, clarity and integrity, we also need to realize that at some point, certain people, in their blindness and sinfulness, will reject the truths of Christ, no matter what. We need to feel no more guilt than Christ did at that point.

WE WILL ALL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR WHAT WE ARE GIVEN
On the other hand, we need to feel the weight of responsibility concerning what we are given.
I echo George Robinson's observation.
It is a stunning warning to any who have seen first hand the goodness of the Lord and grown numb to it (He. 6:1-6). (3). It should be an arresting thought to covenant children who have never known a day that they were not aware of the manifold grace of God in Christ (Lk. 13:34, 35). And it should be a halting consideration to all ministers of the Gospel who can grow cold in their handling of holy things (Ja. 3:1).

BE FAITHFUL WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED
Sometimes I have longed for a more wide reaching ministry than what I was given. But over the years God has quietly and repeatedly reminded me that I am to be faithful where he sends me and leave the rest up to him. I thank God for social media and other encounters that give me enough of a glimpse of what God is doing with what I gave him to be at peace. And I thank God for the present ministry which allows me to 'go deep' with a few key individuals and churches in Canada and Eurasia.

1 (http://www.seetheholyland.net/tag/el-tell)
2 (https://firstpresaugusta.org/resource/chorazin-bethsaida-capernaum-the-evangelical-triangle-mt-111-24-2/)
3) Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. Hebrews 6:1-6 (ESV)

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Geography 101 - Up to Jerusalem

2/27/2019

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Almost the first fact our tour guide Aron mentioned on our first was, "Forget Canada when thinking of size".. Israel is SMALL! Average driving time from north to south is 6 hours and 1 1/2 to 2 hours east to west in central Israel (Tel Aviv - Jerusalem - Jericho)
Israel stretches 424 km (263 mi) from north to south, and its width ranges from 114 km (71 mi) to, at its narrowest point, 15 km (9.3 mi).

From a Canadian perspective Israel is .7 of Vancouver island! Or the graphic shows the size of Israel in relation to Kelowna and the Okanagan Valley. Population is 8.8 million which is roughly the combined population of Toronto and Montreal. 21% of the population is Arab (1.7 million).

Interesting, but the vertical span more relevant. The Dead Sea is 378 metres below sea level which for those gathering trivia knowledge tidbits this is 128 metres lower than the maximum depth that submarines operate at. So as you join others by the Dead Sea you are together with the lowest humans in the world. Jerusalem is 754 metres above sea which makes for a difference of 1132 metres or 3714 feet!

Now Jericho is 250 metres below sea level which means that when Jesus went up to Jerusalem (assuming he took the Jericho route), he would have climbed approximately 1000 metres (3280 feet). That, together with all the other travelling we did, has given me a new appreciation for all the walking that Jesus did. Some suggest that Jesus walked 3,125 miles (5,029 km) during his ministry and a total of 21,525 Miles (34,640 km) in his life. That is almost the distance around the world at the equator. I take these figures with a grain of salt but they do underscore the fact that Jesus walked a lot. When the bus when up to Jerusalem from Jericho - climbing, climbing, climbing - the simple phrase "up to Jerusalem" took on new meaning. The phrase occurs a number of times in relation to Christ and approximately 25 times in the Scripture.

During my time as conductor of the Ambassador Choir, one of our programs was based on the Psalms of Assent (Ps 120-134). Many believe these psalms were sung as the Israel people went up to Jerusalem for the feasts three times a year.. Quite the journey and the road must have gotten crowded the closer you got to Jerusalem. You might say it was the first century version of the hundreds to tour buses that are seen in Jerusalem during the tourist season. We read these psalms, sung portions of them, recited them but now they have new meaning to me - especially the following verses In my mind I can see and hear the pilgrims encouraging one another on the steep climb. In my imagination I see Jesus among them, as a young boy, then as a man on his final ascent to face death for us.

I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth. Psalms 121:1-2 (ESV)

Jerusalem—built as a city that is bound firmly together,
to which the tribes go up,
the tribes of the Lord, as was decreed for Israel,
to give thanks to the name of the Lord. Psalms 122:3-4

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion,
which cannot be moved, but abides forever.
As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people,
from this time forth and forevermore. Psalms 125:1-2 (ESV)

For the Lord has chosen Zion;
he has desired it for his dwelling place: Psalms 132:13 (ESV)

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New layers of meaning for the word 'Shabbat'

2/17/2019

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The word Shabbat (Sabbath) took on new meaning for me through the following insights.

It is Saturday morning when we are eating breakfast in our hostess's small kitchen. She is standing by the door getting ready to leave when she says, “Don’t forget to turn off the water heater switch when you leave.” (We had turned it on earlier in order to have hot water for a shower). Since she was standing near the switch, I innocently said, “Oh, we have showered already. You can turn it off now so that we won’t forget:” Her response, “I can’t turn anything on or off during Shabbat. Since you turned it on, you need to turn it off." Jewish law forbids those who observe it from undertaking various forms of "work" on the Sabbath, including that they may not create sparks or fires. In recent times, this has been extrapolated to also cover the operation of electrical equipment.
While in the synagogue, I take out my pen to write down the title of the English copy of the Torah and readings that allows me to follow what is being done in Hebrew. Smoothy, lovingly, tacitly but firmly a young man walks by, leans down and whispers, “We don’t write on Shabbat.” I quickly put the pen away.
As we walk through the Jewish quarter n the Shabbat, everything is quiet. No cars, no stereos, no bicycles, not taxis, no shops open. Only some people walking. Our tour guide even urges us to keep our voices down as we move through the Jewish quarter. “People live here”, he says.
Hotels provide a Shabbat elevator during Shabbat that is specially programmed so that not electrical equipment needs to be operated. This is forbidden as mentioned in #1.
The Israeli Knesset passed a special Shabbat elevator law in 2001, ordering the planning and building of all residential buildings, and public buildings which have more than one elevator, to install a control mechanism for Shabbat in one of the elevators.
In this mode, an elevator will stop automatically at every floor, allowing people to step in and out without having to press any buttons. Otherwise, Jewish law prohibits observers from using an elevator on Shabbat in the normal manner, because pressing the button to operate the elevator closes a circuit, which is one of the activities prohibited on Shabbat and may also indirectly lead to "writing" of the new floor number in the display.
At the Shabbat of a Lifetime, our host—a Rabbi—made an insightful comment that moved the concept of a Shabbat from a seemingly meaningless set of rules to a meaningful relevant principle. “God rested on the seventh day. He did not cease to govern the universe but ceased from creative work. And so we also rest from all measure of creativity. Where it is necessary to maintain that which has already been put into motion, we will do it but no more.”

Since creative output constitutes the major part of every working day for me, I felt God’s Spirit challenging me to consider observing a Sabbath by ceasing creative activity beginning Saturday night. What was significant for me is that the principle creates a meaningful division between that which is necessary and that—which for me—would bring beneficial rest by ceasing from creative output. At times ministry would make that impossible but I can certainly have a Sabbath on a different day.

So not only does the word Shabbat have new meaning for me, for I am challenged to evaluate my life. Am I experiencing the benefits of a Sabbath? A lot of food for thought here.

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Shabbat

2/13/2019

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We arrived in Tel Aviv, just before the beginning of Shabbat and went to bed with the sounds of Marisa our hostess friends enjoying the Shabbat meal.

One of the things we had hoped to do on the sabbath was visit a synagogue. Our hostess told us that there were two within walking distance. Assured that is would not be a problem to come and go, she suggested that we visit both services to get a feel of two different congregations. As well the second service would have an English copy of the readings. Services can last up to three hours and when you don't understand the language, that is a long time to observe.

The readings for the day, which are the same in all synagogues in the world, were Exodus 21:1 - 24:18; Jeremiah 34:8-22;Jeremiah 33:25-26.

—Nothing is amplified. The resonant space and good projection make it unnecessary.
—A large part of the service is chanted or intoned and one portion is sung. In the second synagogue that part was sung by "wonder boy' as the posture indicated. With a beautiful tenor voice and charismatic leadership, the young man (boy?) spurred the congregation to response with enthusiasm, good rhythm and tempo.

—The Torah is shown great respect when brought from its storage place on the wall that faces Jerusalem. A call and response song is sung, the Torah makes its circuit as many touch it reverently.
—Young boys have a special place in the service where they enthusiastically sing
—A meal will follow and the young boys are seen carrying out a variety of drinks and food.
—Men and ladies sit separately—the ladies in a separate partition.
—Spoken responses of agreement are common throughout the intoned portions of the service.
—Although parts are more informal with some discussion taking place, the time of personal prayer time fills the room with a holy hush as all face Jerusalem.
—Rocking back and forth is common in prayer. The term for this is shuckling. A number of reasons are given for this practice.
1) Psalm 35,10, we read, “All my bones shall say: ‘O Lord who is like unto Thee”. This is interpreted as an appeal to involve one’s whole body in prayer.
2) Another explanation explains rhythmic movement as a way to concentrate on praying and learning, and ward off distracting thoughts.
3) According to the mystical text Zohar, a person’s soul emanates from divine light. Every time a Jew engages with the Torah, the light of his or her soul ignites, which is why he or she moves like the flame of a candle. This striking image illustrates the desire of many religious Jews to connect directly with God by learning and praying.

TAKEAWAY ITEMS
—high respect for God's Word
—working at total concentration
—working at continuous engagement of the congregation

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Israel Trip Introduction

2/3/2019

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Don't expect great writing for this series of blogs concerning our Israel trip. Just fairly random impressions and experiences that friends and family who would like something more in-depth than the Facebook and Instagram postings, requested. Postings will be sporadic—dependent on schedule and activities.

I cannot remember ever being so well prepared for a trip on the one hand as far as packing is concerned, while on the other hand being mentally completely unprepared. I knew it was happening but even on the plane from Kelowna to Toronto it did not seem real. We left mild winter in Kelowna (+8) and cold -20 temperatures with blowing snow in Toronto) to embrace day temperatures around 20 Celsius.

The approximately 10 hour trip and one hour wait for departure while seated in the airplane was much more bearable because of the entertaining and informative Shimi, a young lady with Canadian citizenship returning to Israel to be with a dying grandmother. The insights were greatly appreciated.

Just before we landed, a stewardess handed me a note indicating that my luggage had not made it on the plane! Took a while to fill out paper work. Then I was handed a small blue package containing black T-shirt and underwear, razor, toiletries.

Part of immersion into a new culture is adding vocabulary or at least bringing new levels of understanding to words that are already part of our vocabulary, in this case, the word Shabbat (Sabbath). We were urged not to delay when we landed because trains and buses will stop running around 2:30 PM and not run again till sundown the next day.

Well, the lost luggage delayed us. Then the train tracks were being repaired meaning no train was running. This had a bright spot since the replacement bus was free. We made it to our airbnb with the help of friendly people - many with excellent English.

Our hostess was in the middle of preparations for a Shabbat meal with friends when we arrived. Our airbnb was located close to the Mediterranean Sea where we enjoyed the sunset, and then a few appetizers before heading off to bed early despite the celebration meal taking place on the other side of the thin wall. Animated conversation in English - often about God - reached our ears as we drifted in and out of sleep. A neat introduction to the country.

More about the meaning of Shabbat to come.

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SWIRLS OF NURTURE

Geography 101 - the triangle of Jesus ministry

Geography 101 - Up to Jerusalem

New layers of meaning for the word 'Shabbat'

Shabbat

Israel Trip Introduction

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