We had a day off, naturally this means we had to do some traveling. A group of us, some 60 students, rented vans and traveled to the beach in Tel Aviv, about an hour from Jerusalem. Tel Aviv is a very typical modern city. The poor part of town was perhaps a little less developed then comparable areas in US coastal cities but the nice parts were very much like any city in Southern California. The whole beach was public so we could wander up and down the coast without fear. The infrastructure is incredible with bathrooms and trash cans and volley ball courts spread all over the place.
We visited Joppa and saw the house of Simon the Tanner. That’s the house where Peter was instructed that the Gospel could be shared with the gentiles. Because of that house I received the Gospel. I’m not sure I completely appreciate what happened there.
We attempted to find a museum but being thrifty we tried to walk. About 2 hours later we discovered that the place we were going wasn’t on any of the three maps we were following but was a couple miles even further up the coast. My companions tossed in the towel and headed home while I joined another group and spent some quality time digging in sand and swimming in the same port that Jonah sailed from. I found no fish.
It was a spectacular beach town, very pleasant.
Today we started to ease back into the work week with Field trip time. We entered the West Bank for the first time and visited Jericho. It was surprisingly different from the historical sites controlled by Israel. It felt much more like a tourist site and much less religious. In Jericho we saw the ruins of the oldest human building ever found dated at 8,000 BC based on human remains found in it. We read dozens of scriptures about the place, Joshua knocking down the walls, Elisha healing the well (it was overcast and windy but it was still incredibly hot, the kind of heat that burns through the layers of clothing. My tan (and sunburn) have intensified greatly over the last two days) Christ healing Bartemaeous, and the tree of Zaccheous the sinner.
We also climbed to an Ivory Tower; a Greek Orthodox Monastery built on the Mount of Temptation. When I say built on I mean it was carved into the side of a cliff overlooking Jericho. The monks saw some caves that were associated with the 40 day fast of Christ and decided that was the place to move in. A few hundred years and some clever builders and there is a monastery carved into the hillside.
We stopped briefly (Jericho is only 15 0r 16 miles down from Jerusalem in the Jordan rift valley so it drops about 3000 feet in that time) in the rain-shadowed hills known as the Judean wilderness. Somewhere in that dry desolate expanse a certain man when down the Jericho and fell among robbers and gave all humanity a pattern for our own lives. We are all fallen and searching for salvation. That wilderness also contained a certain camel-hair clothed prophet who was called the greatest of the prophets. Christ was somewhere there when he communed with God. Elijah negatively impacted the locust population somewhere in those dusty hills, akin to the dry hills of the Mojave Desert (still no Joshua trees though!).
The modern day monks are out there looking for the same thing that the ancient holy men were searching for. Actually, the self-imposed isolation is exactly what I mean by Ivory towers. The Monks are seeking to draw closer to God through years of solitude, study and prayer. They are the wise men in the tower. Although for many such a life might have seemed disastrous for me such solitude and peace seem very alluring. At times I dearly wish for such a life. I recognize however that it isn’t the full solution. Christ was there for 40 days, then full of the spirit he returned to Galilee and began his ministry. John lived his life there out of protection until it was time for his ministry, then he left. Elijah also was not content to hide in the wilderness. You see, what makes a wilderness special is that it is an unusual harshness. You have to rely on higher powers because you sacrifice control over your life, becoming dependent on the powers that be. It is a wonderful place to commune with God and receive knowledge. But revelation is intended to be used. I believe God is delighted when we come seeking his help, but he grants us knowledge with the hope that we will implement it. If we never descend from the hilltop isolation we can never fully utilize the powers that he has given us.
We returned to Jerusalem by noon and we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the city. I need to write more about that but I neglected homework for the sake of adventure and now I am cutting into sleep. Only one moment will I share.
In one church here in Jerusalem (Anglican, St George) we were delighted to find a woman practicing the Organ. As we wandered around a while she eventually noticed us and asked us to sing the song she was practicing. It was fantastic. She found out we were from the Mormon University and mentioned that she practiced on our organ on Fridays. Turns out she is a wonderful women from Mexico City (I could hear the accent and soon had her going in Spanish) who moved here 12 years ago because she felt a call to go to the holy city. One of our group could play the organ so she let him play. He did okay with Bach but soon asked for a hymn since that’s what he was used to playing. She happened to have a copy of “I believe in Christ” with her (undoubtedly from the center as it was photocopied out of our hymnal) so there in a stone silent 100-year-old Anglican Cathedral we sang out Elder McConkie’s hymn. Churches are so much cooler when they have organs filling them. So Scott, you’ve been in Mexico City a few days now, and I happen to run into someone from there 8,000 miles away. We aren’t all that far apart.
I better get some sleep, tomorrow we have to get back to classes for a good two days before heading to Egypt, yeah that’s right. EGYPT!
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