Monday, February 18, 2013

Packing...

As I continue to blog about our trip to the Holy Land, please know that I'm leaving for Burkina Faso, Africa from O'Hare tomorrow afternoon. I hope to continue to blog daily, but expect that my access to internet access will be spotty over the next 2 weeks and my blogs might not be as regular as I would like. That being said, this morning I'd like to post a few thoughts and pictures about our second day in the Galilee Sea area in Israel.
We began our day on a boat traveling over the sea of Galilee! And a wonderful day it was! The sun was brilliant in the sky with no clouds to be seen, the breeze fresh, clear and warm, the people joyous, the doves surrounding the boat beautiful, the fisherman who cast his net over the side of the boat rugged and skilled, the music was a little canned, and Bishop Mike's meditation on our trip across the sea was "spot on." On this day, we "sailed in the boat with Jesus"!
We then hopped back on the bus and headed to Caesaria Philippi in the far north part of Israel (a place we were not able to get to when I went to the Holy Land in 2007) the place where Peter affirmed Jesus as Messiah, "You are the Christ!" and Christianity began. Beautiful! We then hopped back in the bus, headed back to the Sea of Galilee and visited the site of an ancient Galilean fishing boat one much like the one that Jesus and his disciples would have used. We then traveled to Nazareth to the Church of the Annunciation.
We ended our day at the Mount of Precipice which is believed to be the site of Jesus rejection from his people after his teaching, recorded in Luke 4.

16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”[f]

20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.

23 Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”

24 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy[g] in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.


It was a great day!

No comments:

Post a Comment