Today was a surprise Sabbath. We had the morning off, but were given the afternoon off as well. The plan was to go the Dead Sea (the same resort we stopped at on our Masada trip), but it was a solemn day in Israel for the Holocaust Remembrance and the resort was closed. We used our time to explore our area a bit more.

There is a shop across the street from St. George’s, called St. George’s Gifts. It is owned by an Armenian man named Abraham who sells icons, ceramics, rosaries, and many other religious gifts. Some of his items are the typical (better quality) tourist items. Others are true treasures so it is a fun to browse and see what you can find.

Time disappeared during our COVID retreat. It was basically one day with lots of naps and few forays into the real world! We were super dodgers, so this was new to us. We also decided early on to avoid Paxlovid because we did not want to screw anything up with COVID rebound. Let’s just get it over with.

My pink line showed up the second the drops touched the strip. Even before the control line popped up. Jim was still negative but had symptoms, so Wednesday was Day 1 for both of our quarantines. He tested positive that evening.

We were disappointed, but we were also very lucky. Our symptoms were mild - basically a bad sinus infection with cough from a post-nasal drip.  We were feverish for about 36 hours and then in recovery mode. We would be able to rejoin the group for the final eight days, which had the most important visits. We simply surrendered to the enforced retreat and let recovery happen.

We did miss the Judean wilderness, but we had driven through it to Masada. 

We have our first official pilgrimage visits today! The bed was harder than I would have looked, but it turns out that’s exactly what my back wanted. I was stiff, but fully mobile when I woke up and moving around during the day only made things easier.

The agenda called for an archeological orientation discussion followed by a visit to the Mount of Olives to get an overview. We will then follow the time-honored pilgrim tradition of visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for devotions at the site of the Crucifixion, Resurrection, and discovery of the Cross.

After being on the go, we had a light day. Thinking checkout time was 11, we got all packed up for the move to Saint Geroge’s College. For Friends fans, we were channeling Ross who would stay in his hotel room until the last possible moment to get every penny’s worth. As we lounged in the hotel lobby enjoying fresh juice, we were asked if we could be more comfortable in our rooms since checkout time was Noon. D’oh! Apparently we were channeling Homer Simpson.

Peaks and Valleys! (Literally)

Our jet lag makes getting up early somewhat tolerable! We had an appointment with a 7:15 tour bus that would pick us up at a hostel about 15 minutes away so we had to get moving.  Our pilgrimage would not include a stop at a powerful site important to Israeli and Jewish history - Masada.  (Our pilgrimage was about the lift of Jesus and Masada’s importance comes before and after the time of Christ.)

“Masada” means fortress. This Masada refers to a fortress and palace compound on a high mesa in the middle of the Judean desert. Herod the Great (Jewish monarch at the birth of Jesus) had built two palaces on top of the plateau overlooking the Dead Sea about 30 years before Christ.  The compound became a siege site and fortress during the Jewish - Roman War in the 70s AD, which ended in the suicide of the remaining soldiers before Roman troops breached the fortress.  The common interpretation is that soldiers chose their own death (forbidden by Torah) rather than submit to Roman tyranny.  It is a site of Israeli national pride to this day.

Saturday. The Sabbath!  The Sabbath is a BIG DEAL in Israel. Everything is closed. Closed tighter than a Southern town during the peak of the Blue Laws! The museums we wanted to see were closed, and even public transportation doesn’t run. Sabbath had actually begin at sunset the night before. We were lucky we had found one of the few restaurants open on the Sabbath. As we walked to at dusk, we could see places closing up and people heading home. A siren even sounds at sunset to let people know that the Sabbath has begun.

However, a couple of hundred meters to the East and we would be across the Green Line in Palestinian territory where Muslims and Christians follow a different schedule. Fortunately, the Old City of Jerusalem is also across the Green Line so after breakfast we made our way there.

I started my sabbatical blogging with the intent of creating periodic posts about what I was doing, or what God was doing with me, in his sabbatical period. Instead, I started posting little snippets on my Facebook page, took part in a very packed daily schedule, and kept time for reflection, prayer, and rest as well as local community engagement.  Oh, and I got COVID, which in and of itself was also a spiritual opportunity as much as it was a pian in the neck (or sinuses).

Now that I’ve been back and had more time to reflect and organize, I will post daily summaries of what our trip to Israel was like, share some of my own spiritual highlights and questions, and prepare for the next phase of this sabbatical which will be our trip to one of my ancestral homelands of Norway. This series will be mostly a travelogue with further fruit to blossom as our ministry together at St. Peter’s continues.