Thoughts from our trip to Israel #2: Size is relative

Masada: Looking across to the Dead Sea to the mountains of Moab

The Jordan River, we've got two bigger river flowing through Franklin

Looking across the Sea of Galilee, we'd call it a lake here.

Size is relative, that's a phrase you'd heard before, and one that hits home when you see with your own eyes the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River.  In many parts of the world, especially places with much higher yearly precipitation totals, neither of these bodies of water would be all that remarkable.  A decent sized lake, albeit a deep one, and a narrow river, wouldn't feature prominently into the narrative of very many historical moments if they weren't located in a place as significant as this one.

Because important things in the Bible, and especially in the life of Jesus, took place around (as well as upon and in) these bodies of water, they have an outsized place in our collective imaginations that looms larger than what familiarity with them would have otherwise given.

Another way to look at it, however, is to wrap your mind around how important these two bodies are water are in this land precisely because freshwater is scarce.  The Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River have been vital to life in the Holy Land for thousands of years, and remain so today, even if they look unremarkable to those who, like me, grew up on a peninsula surrounded by the Great Lakes.  

The picture from the top of Masada emphasizes that the Jordan River Valley, like its namesake river, isn't all that wide (further upstream it is narrower even than this).  As we journeyed south from the Sea of Galilee toward Jericho, it was easy enough to see both side of the river valley from our bus windows.  At times the two hilly/mountainous regions that the river runs between were no more than a couple miles apart, the fertile valley (thanks to the river) between them only a farm or two wide.

For Americans, in particular, used to the vast Great Plains, the Mighty Mississippi, and trips in the car where you can drive for hour after hour without seeing much change in the landscape, this truncated scale takes getting used to.

Lastly, while it is indeed a small land when compared to other places on the planet, the events described in the Bible were taking place at a walking pace, we might be able to drive from Galilee to Jerusalem in considerably less time than it takes to cross Ohio on I80 (mores the pity: it is obligatory to make as many Ohio jokes as possible when you grew up in the Mitten), but it still took a goodly number of days to make that journey on foot.

Sermon Video: A Remnant Chosen by Grace - Romans 11:1-6

When his Covenant people rejected the Messiah, how did God respond?  Did he reject them and walk away?  No, God continued to be faithful by working with the remnant that did accept Jesus.  God did the same thing in Elijah's day, working with a faithful remnant to continue through a period of darkness (i.e. the reign of Ahab).

The same thing holds true in the Church Age.  During generations of turmoil or faithlessness, God has held true with his remnant.  Whatever comes in the future, God will continue to keep his promises to the Church, continuing to work with those who by grace have been called.

Sermon Video: Seeing isn't Believing - Romans 10:16-21

The Gospel message of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus is an easy one to share and comprehend, children are more than capable of fully believing it.  So, why did the Israelites in Jesus' generation, who saw his miracles, refuse to believe in him?  What is it about humanity that we're capable of this?

Willful and stubborn human pride is the answer.  The human heart is capable of looking at overwhelming evidence and ignoring it because we would rather not believe it.  It isn't the Gospel message that needs to change, but the hard hearts of those who won't accept God's love for them.

Sermon Video: Bring them the Good News - Romans 10:14-15

Believing in Jesus is simple.  Salvation can be attained by anyone.  But only if they know about it, only if they get the chance to accept Jesus.

Which is where we come in.  God entrusted this task to us, to those of us who have already found Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Thoughts from our trip to Israel #1: The Global Church

 

There were many things that Nicole and I experienced during our seven days in Israel this May, all manner of insights and wisdom were available to us as we toured site after site connected to the stories of the Bible, and the life of Jesus in particular.  I won't try to list them all here, they're better one at a time with context, so let me just share one observation that jumped out at me again and again during our trip:

The Church is global.

I know, I already knew that, and I hope you did too, but it is the kind of truth that sometimes slips from our minds and hearts as we naturally focus in upon the needs and issues facing our own slice of that global entity and begin to think that most Christians look, think, and act as we do.

At many of the sites we visited, such as the one pictured above at the Church of the Primacy on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, there were these pavilions set aside that tour groups could reserve for a time of instruction, prayer, or worship.  In other words, there are so many groups coming to these places to visit them that those who are the custodians of these sacred spaces have invested resources into setting aside spaces for them.  We often saw them being utilized, and took advantage of a number of them ourselves (such as at the Garden Tomb, pictured below)

What these pavilions don't immediately reveal is the great diversity of peoples making use of them.  English was the minority language in use, people who look like most of our group were not the norm, and frankly the Western Church was less often represented than the South American, African, and Asian.  While waiting to visit various places we had fascinating interactions with brothers and sisters in Christ from Brazil, Nigeria, India, and South Korea.  

In fact, just after the picture above was taken, our group celebrated communion at the Garden Tomb site, and while we did so we could hear a nearby group lifting up, "In Christ Alone" in song through deeply accented English.  Thanks to the layout of the area, we couldn't quite see them, but a number of us began to quietly sing along; it was beautiful.

Statistics about the Global Church are useful, they paint a two dimensional picture, but actually standing in the midst of men and women from all over the world to whom Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, all as eager to learn about the places he visited as we were, really drives home in a powerful way the wondrous breadth of the universal Church.