Encased behind heavy glass, a five-foot menorah lampstand made of 24 karat gold stands in a courtyard overlooking the Western Wall and the site of the ancient temple in Jerusalem. The lampstand is ready for use in a theoretical Third Temple on a part of the Temple Mount (or “Noble Sanctuary”) where Dome of the…
Category: Uncategorized
Like the first syllable of shiitake
What would it take to make Saint Paul cussing mad? Fellow Jews or Christians maintaining barriers that kept others from full acceptance in the faith community, that would do it. Harsh language about such exclusion in Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi makes me consider how easy it is to raise the bar in…
Subversive women in the Judean hills
Fleeing violence in her native Honduras, Maria made her way through Guatemala and Mexico to Indiana and our congregation in Elkhart. Now she daily awaits word that a nephew has safely completed the same perilous journey. A cousin died in the desert attempting that crossing, and his body lay undiscovered for a year. Mary of…
We live in an age of martyrdom
Thousands of Christians have been slaughtered by Boko Haram in Nigeria in recent years, and most of the Western church barely seems to notice. Lord, when did we see you homeless, or hungry, or kneeling in the killing fields? When in Jerusalem, I pause at St. Stephen’s Gate to remember martyrs of the ancient and…
Time to forgive Judas?
On the morning Jesus was condemned to die, Judas took his own life at the Field of Blood. His death makes me sad, since suicide always leaves a devastating wound among family and friends. Such a violent end for Judas is tragic, because good intentions may have motivated his decision to turn Jesus into the…
Are you going to wash my feet?
Two days after open heart surgery in January, I peed on my socks. You perhaps would do the same if a surgeon so recently had split open your chest, stopped your heart, and grafted in three bypass arteries taken from your leg, arm and inner torso. Heavily sedated for pain and unsteady on my feet,…
The conflict ladder of shame
Do you know that Muslims daily lock and unlock the most hallowed building of Christianity, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem? This ancient structure encompasses Golgotha and the tomb of our risen Lord—both within one great edifice. Christians have so much trouble getting along that we cannot agree how to share the task of…
Thank you, apostle Paul
Dear Apostle Paul: I know this comes almost two thousand years late, but I want to thank you for helping carry the gospel to Europe where my ancestors eventually came to know Jesus. Sometimes in your mission travel you faced ferocious opposition, even attempts on your life. So it probably is no surprise that…
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem
“I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. . . The wolf and the lamb shall feed together . . . They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.” Isa. 65:18–19,…
Our foes are monsters!
“The land that we have gone through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are of great size.” Num. 13:32 Look closely at the grisly scene on the great amphora vase in this photo. The center figure—Odysseus, hero of Homer’s epic poem—thrusts a pointed…
Holy Lands Peace Pilgrim 