Rev. Valerie's Reveille

As I am writing at my desk in Monmouth Junction, NJ, looking out at an absolutely gorgeous day – bright blue sky, a pleasant 72 degrees and low humidity – my thoughts and prayers are with those on the Gulf Coast as they endure yet another natural disaster. It is poetic irony that on the 7 th Anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Isaac comes ashore and reminds all of us that nature will take its course, for good or ill.   We must remember, however, that weather is weather and not a judgment by God.   There really isn’t “good weather” and “bad weather.” That is a conclusion made by our expectations of what we want and how it effects us.   Rain on a wedding day may be considered “bad” by a bride and “good” by a farmer.   We think of hurricanes as “bad” because they disrupt our lives in extreme ways, but they are not a punishments meted out by an angry God. Weather is part of the mystery and wonder of creation in which humans are an integral...

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the world (outside of Israel) the Olympics are being held, Syria is a mess, people continue to struggle with their finances, family members die.   As amazing as my pilgrimage to the Holy Land was (and trust me, you will be hearing about it for years to come), the reality is we don’t live in Jerusalem 2000 years ago, and neither does Jesus.   He is alive today in you, me, our church, our community and our world.   Coming back to St. Barnabas only reaffirmed my belief in our need for Christ in our lives and commitment to sharing his love even more than before.     Reflecting on the past helps us understand how it shapes our present and what that can do to our future.   Can we willingly be like those olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane and be graphed onto old roots to sprout a new future?   I think we have already begun to do this at St. Barnabas, and there is more we can do, with God’s help.   Nothing is more powerfu...

Thursday evening, our pilgrimage (which consists of 27 people, including the Bishop) was invited to meet with The Rt. Rev. Suheil Dawani, the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem. Due to an emergency in Ramallah, we met at 9:30 at night (no rest for a Bishop!). Bishop Dawani was very gracious as he told us about his Diocese, which covers 5 (yes, 5!) countries. At this point only about 1% of those living in the Holy Land are Christian. They need our prayers and support. Bishop Dawani mentioned that he is the 4th indigenous bishop, and his people trace their Christian roots back to Pentecost. These people are the first Christians and we need to keep Christianity in the Holy Land. They refer to their ministry in the Diocese as "The Living Stones," and from what. we have experienced here, they certainly are. One Friday we began our final sessions together with a reenactment of the Palm Sunday walk. We started in Beth-fa-ge (the correct pronunciation of Bethpage). We couldn't g...

We got up early on Tuesday morning to begin our journey back to Jerusalem with a stop at Mt. Tabor, where many believe is the site of the Transfiguration (Matt 17; Mark 9) - where Jesus is raised up in front of Peter, James and John in clothes of dazzling white and Moses and Elijah appear with him. (We celebrate this event on the last Sunday of Epiphany, right before Ash Wednesday). There is a magnificent Roman Catholic Church dedicated to that event on the top of the mountain. We had to take vans up a switchback road to get to the top (Bishop George said he experienced it for the first time in a small Mercedes going about 110 mph - not something he missed this time!) Once again, because of Iyad's, our guide, insistence on an early start, we were the first ones there that morning. It was beautiful - though a bit windy and foggy. We saw several groups, including Youth Groups, that were making the trek up or down the mountain on foot - that would take awhile! It is a rather ...

I've been away for several days because the Internet access in Nazareth was not cooperating. To pick up where we left off, on Sunday, we went to St. Paul's Anglican Church in Shefar'Am, a town just outside of Nazareth. Fr. Fuad is the rector there. He not only was the priest, he was the organist, acolyte, altar guild, and he spoke in perfect English as well as Arabic. It was awesome and terrifying. (No, I will not be learning Arabic or the organ anytime soon!) He and his congregation were gracious hosts. We sang "Stand up, stand up for Jesus" "Alleluia, sign for Jesus" and 2 other hymns I can't remember now - our group in English and the congregation in Arabic. It was amazing. Bishop George preached an amazing sermon (that Fr. Fuad instantly translated) on how much God loves us that we are His "pre-occcupation" in a world that is so "occupied" with other things. In a country where the word "occupied"has such powe...

I didn't post last night as we had to get up for a 5 AM departure time this morning, and I ended up getting maybe 3 hours of sleep. So this post will not be an academic masterpiece. On Friday we journeyed in the West Bank (that is the west bank of the Dead Sea in order to visit Tekoa, the mount on which the prophet Amos made his home. It was a climb up a rather steep hill to get to a barren, rocky area. Looking out, there wasn't much to see, not even a cave - unless you looked with very good eyes. Indeed there was a cave, which we climbed down into - every member of the group - young and not so young, able and unable (we have 2 people in walking casts). The revelation is that it was such a cave in which Jesus was born. And the manger, a shepherd's watering trough, is STONE, not wood. From there we traveled to Bethlehem, where we shopped at a Christian Co-op (very important to support Palestinian Christians, as they are only 2% of the population). We had THE BEST ...

The most significant Christian site in Jerusalem is a Greek Orthodox Church that is shared by many different traditions, such as the Armenians, Coptic, Syrians, Romans and Ethiopians, to name a few. Mostly the different traditions can be thought of as the Eastern tradition (orthodox) and the Western (Roman). The western churches call it the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (or tomb), while the Eastern churches call it the Church of the Resurrection. Which sounds more hope-filled for a Christian? We learned many fascinating things about the history of Jerusalem and the church that deserve more time than I can give now, but needless to say I learned quite a bit that will surely be inflicted upon you at some point. Inside the church we first climbed up some rather steep stairs to Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified. It was very crowded and the crush of humanity was almost oppressive, as some were less than Christian about wanted to get their turn to touch the stone. During that time, as ...