My CMS The View from a New City

Today we visited the Wadi which Jesus used to get from Nazareth to the sea of Galilee.  We also visited sites believed to be where He delivered the sermon on the mount, and where he gave the sealing keys to Peter.  The day was so pleasant, it was not hard to imagine the Savior delivering the sermon on the mount to his disciples in just such a setting.

Epiphanies: Dan Peterson taught us that the word for faith in the bible should be translated as trust, as in trust in the Savior not as belief in some doctrine.  We trust Him to do right.  Also saw the dangerous looking thistles which could have given meaning to the statement to Paul, “why do you kick against the pricks.”

After reading the 18th chapter of 1 Kings last night, we visited Carmel today where Elijah challenged the priests of Baal to a duel to see whose God could consume an offering without the humans setting it on fire. The reading was a mere coincidence except that there is no such thing as coincidence.

The day started off with a visit to Caesarea and ended up in Tiberius on the Sea of Galilee. We visited Nazareth where Jesus spent his childhood, but it didn’t look much like the Nazareth of Jesus’ time, it now being a modern city.  But we also visited Zippora, right next door which is an archaeological site from the time of Christ. There we got a real feel for the conditions in which the Savior lived.  Dan Peterson made the point that this experience makes concrete to us that Christ was a real person who lived in a real place and a time certain.

Here we are in Tel Aviv.  On the plane from Prague the young father in the seat next to my wife told her that he was tired of vacationing after five days in Prague and would be glad to get home to Tel Aviv.  The views around Tel Aviv are not nearly as green as the landscape around Prague. What must matter is what you call home.

Coming to Israel requires that one demonstrate one’s bona-fides several times by producing documentation–passport, etc. It is as if the most important thing about a new birth is the certificate. The greatest miracle is that “there you are”, a human being in existence. The circumstances of your birth should be less important than the fact of your birth. I guess it simplifies things a lot to have a certificate that you exist, so people can ignore the fact that “there you are,” a miracle. As Sartre said, “existence precedes essence.” Essence, I suppose, is a mental construct. Existence is undeniable.

Right now I am in Prague, Czech Republic. We are traveling to Israel tomorrow.  Good thing I left the country.  If I had stayed in Utah, I would have died from hay fever.  Even now I continue to suffer, but much less so.  Something is in full bloom in Utah that doesn’t like me.

Had authentic German (or Czech) Swinebratten last night.  As I watched other guests at the restaurant drink their beer, I couldn’t help but think that the beer enabled the sociability they enjoyed and allowed them to tolerate life in an eleventh century town.  It probably had a lot to do with why they are still here, but who am if to judge.  No wonder the Gospel isn’t the rage here.

The town is certainly beautiful. Nothing in Utah like it.