“In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country…” (Luke 1.39)
Today we focused on John the Baptist and the birth of Jesus. We went to Ein Karem, the village that was the home of John the Baptist. Ein Karem was an Arab village that Israel took over in 1948. There is a church dedicated to John and a grotto where he was supposedly born. There is also a church dedicated to the visitation of Mary to Elizabeth. Ein Karem is a peaceful village in the hills, similar to the foothills of the Blue Ridge. It was about a 5 day journey for Mary from Nazareth. I sat outside and contemplated her coming over those hills to see Elizabeth and the greeting that followed between these two cousins.
We had a wonderful Palestinian lunch at a local restaurant and then went on to one of 3 “Shepherd’s Fields.” (The one Anglicans are allowed to worship at.) I must say I didn’t like the scraggly field but there is a wonderful large cave there. I could imagine the shepherds sleeping in the doorway of that cave with their sheep inside when suddenly the brightest light they had ever seen shone in the doorway. We learned the shepherds were usually young boys – the youngest son in the family – about the age of the children who play the shepherds in our pageant. We held a short worship service inside the cave.
We next went on to Bethlehem which is in the West Bank. The wall dividing the West Bank from Israel reminded me of the Berlin Wall. The Church of the Nativity has been built over the site where Jesus was born. It is a very ornate Greek Orthodox Church. We waited in line 45 mins to go down to the grotto where Jesus was born. (Yes, he was born in a grotto, not a stable as we portray it.) Then once we got into the grotto the people who worked there told us to hurry up. It was not possible for me to feel very spiritual under those conditions. It was like waiting in a long line at Disney World – except this line was not organized – only to find out the ride had broken. I felt a deeper spiritual connection looking out at the hills in Ein Karem.
Finally we went shopping at a Bethlehem olive wood store. The men waited impatiently while the women spent a lot of money!
Being in a country where there is no freedom of religion has opened my eyes to our freedom. Here you need to know if you are allowed to pray before you do. Anglicans cannot pray at the Franciscan Shepherd’s Field. No one but Muslims can pray at the Dome of the Rock (or Temple Mount). This need to control and prohibit happens not only between the 3 monotheistic religions but between sects of Christianity. It is very sad to see.
Looking Out Seeing Within 