No Shorts

No Shorts at Holy Places

 Today we woke up and due to a fortunate change of itinerary, started rather than ended our day on the Sea of Galilee.  Floating on the large lake surrounded by the hills of Galilee it was not hard to calm our minds and reflect on the significance of this place.  I know for me, I was thinking about John 21, when Jesus invited his disciples after his resurrection to "come and eat."

Floating on Galilee

As you float on the Sea of Galilee you can look up and see many churches dedicated to Biblical sites:  the church on the Mt. of the Beatitudes, the spot also where Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes, where he fed his disciples (as I mentioned above), and so on.  A large portion of the three years of Jesus' ministry was in the locality of Galilee.  And, while it is not so big, it holds quite a bit of history and is pastoral and beautiful.

a communion table at Tabha

The Church at the Mt. of the Beatitudes

We then began our day in earnest all around the Sea of Galilee.  But first, Gershon shared his story of life on the Kibbutz (we are staying on a Kibbutz right now).  The Kibbutz offered community for the Jews returning to Israel and provided the structure around which they rebuilt the land.  Everyone had jobs and everything was communally shared, Gershon talked about what they lost when the Kibbutz system broke down (there are only a few left from the upwards of 200 there were in the early days) in telling a story about a time when Frank Sinatra visited his Kibbutz one day and Gershon was with Mr. Sinatra when he asked to see Ben Gurion (look him up if you don't know him) and they went to find him at his home, he wasn't there, his wife said to go to the dining hall, and he wasn't there, but they were told he was in the kitchen and they found this leader of Israel at the time in the kitchen performing his Kibbutz duty of washing dishes.  The sense of everyone responsible for the whole and everyone sacrificing for the ideals of the country was the grease that made the machine function.  When it was lost, a lot of the hope for the country's future was tested.

What has struck me the most is something that has surprised me, and it is not always the holy sites, but rather the cacophony of people of different cultures and faiths that this small place holds.  Both pilgrims and residents are as varied as any melting pot could ever hold.  The history of this place up to this very day is awesome to consider.  I think I may have seen someone from every part of the globe in our three days here, and just like the colorful food, you can imagine how colorful all the sounds and sights are.  It is humbling to be here far from my little bubble of a world back home and realize what a small dot I inhabit.

Every square inch of this place seems to have historical significance.  I suppose you could spend a lifetime  here looking at every little nook and cranny and not take it all in.  I can't believe how many buildings/ruins we fly by on our tour bus that must be ages old, but aren't even mentioned by a sign or marker.  It is endless.

Capernaum

Speaking of ruins, we went to Capernaum, which is the site where Jesus lived for a time, where he healed  Centurion's servant and Peter's mother-in-law, and we saw the ruins of a synagogue and the ruins as well of Peter's house.  Which was  discovered to be Peter's house by the graffiti on the wall.  The amazing thing was that they had built a visitor's center over the house (obviously not knowing it was there) and later it was discovered.  After they had built the visitor's center...so now you walk and look under the visitor's center to see the house.  We walked around and saw the many carved columns and ruins of small houses that were part of Capernaum from the time of the early church.  It had been destroyed by an earthquake.  The ruins are beautiful, the carvings are full of wheat, barley, pomegranates, grapes, dates, and olives which are symbols of the blessed fruits of the Jews.  Anyway, I only mention all this because the carvings are still very vibrant and one can only imagine how beautiful it must have been in the 1st century.

We then visited Tabha where there is a small church dedicated to Peter's commissioning and it was right on the shores of Galilee so that we could wander along the shore taking it all in.

the fish we ate, so good

The last thing I will share is our lunch in Tiberius.  We drove down late in the afternoon and stopped in this Galilean town to eat together at a small restaurant on the banks of Galilee and were offered St. Peter's fish for our lunch if we chose.  It was delicious, a whole fish (head to tail!) which we had to gingerly eat to avoid the bones...it might have been best if there had been a iPad tutorial or something to teach us all how to attack the fish (we were hungry!).  It was fun to sit and digest our food and digest our day together.  I am enjoying so much all the women in the group, it is a little like we are at camp together and the memories we are making are great.

Tomorrow we will head down to the Dead Sea area and the rumor is that there will be camels.   The adventure continues.