Flourishing Life

Today was the last day of our group Holy Land Pilgrimage. It has been an amazing journey and I have truly enjoyed sharing it with a wonderful group of people! It's been a blast getting to know the folks from Tri-Lakes UMC in Monument, Colorado, and others from California and Alabama and elsewhere, and of course, our little group of Kentuckians.

Model of Jerusalem, 2nd Temple Period

We made a late start this morning, by design. We rode to the Israel Museum and viewed a 1:50 scale model of the late 2nd Temple period Jerusalem, the way it existed just before the Romans destroyed the city in A.D. 70. The model is quite accurate and offers a unique view of the city as it existed during the life of Jesus. We toured the museum, viewing artifacts from that period of history. At the Israel Museum is the Shrine of the Book. The Shrine contains and exhibits many of the famous Dead Sea Scrolls which were produced by the community at Qumran, which we viewed yesterday.

The next item on our agenda was a visit the Holocaust Museum, also known as Yad Vashem. It's difficult to describe this place. How does one memorialize 6,000,000 people who were systematically murdered because of their religious and racial identity? It is a somber place, but a place of hope. The hope is, that by highlighting this terrible attempt at genocide, the world community will never let it happen again. Life is a precious gift, as humans we need to work to promote true tolerance, the dignity of each human being as a person created in the image of God, and life, itself.

Lydia at the Garden Tomb

We then made our way to the Garden Tomb. In the late 19th century Protestants were looking for their own holy site for pilgrimage and because of the gaudiness of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, an alternative burial site for Jesus was sought. British Major-General Charles Gordon supplied one. Next to a large rock hill that resembles a skull a tomb was discovered cut into the rock. Gordon developed a theory that this could be the true tomb of Christ. Unfortunately, the tomb dates from the 9th to 7th century B.C. Jesus was buried in a newly cut tomb, so there is zero probability that the Garden Tomb is the actual tomb. However, it does provide a better view of an ancient tomb than the traditional site and it remains in a quiet garden setting. The British trust controlling the site opens it freely to the public and maintains several gathering areas for groups of pilgrims to worship. It has become a tradition for Protestant groups to celebrate Holy Communion here, and this is what we did. It was a beautiful end to an wonderful pilgrimage. Bob read Mark 1:14-15 and shared a brief message, asking what has God been saying to us and what do we think he's calling us to do? We shared in small groups and then celebrated Holy Communion, ending our time of pilgrimage singing "God Be With You 'Til We Meet Again."

Communion at the Garden Tomb

We traveled back to the hotel and shared dinner together before the majority of our group returned to Tel Aviv for their flight back to the U.S. Others are heading to extensions in Jordan and Egypt. Bob Kaylor and I are headed back to Nazareth, where we will begin our trek on the Jesus Trail, a foot path from Nazareth to Capernaum. It was not an easy task putting Lydia on the bus to Tel Aviv. She's had a great trip, but I think she's ready to be home. I know Roz is ready for her to be home. I can't begin to describe the blessing it has been sharing this time with her. It's really amazing to see all of the folks who are here for the first time. I've done my best to describe what we've been doing and what we've seen and experienced, but there's no way to describe how the Bible jumps off the pages and comes to life here. It's been 15 years since my last trip here. It will not be 15 years until the next.

I look forward to blogging from the Trail. This will be a new experience for me. I think it's going to be a real blessing.