Week 31 + 32
From April 26th to May 10th, I was pilgrimaging in Israel with Trinity Lutheran Seminary. It was part of a class called the Middle Eastern Study Seminar or “MESS.”
Those two weeks were filled with so many places and memories that I could write several pages without explaining everything. We traveled all over Israel and Palestine from the north down to southern parts of Israel. We went to Tel Dan, Samaria, Galilee, the Dead Sea, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem. So much in such a little time that it all whirled together and blurred. So, instead of listing every place I went to, I’ll write down my initial thoughts and reflections as I will probably be processing things long after this post.
Before going on the trip, I was looking forward to seeing the incarnational nature of the Holy Land. What I mean by this is that God became man for my sake. I walked where Jesus walked, where He healed, and where He preached. Even though 2,000 years had passed since my savior walked here, I connected in a way to God that I thought I couldn’t have before. The incarnation became more real to me and fully hit me when I was at the Church of the Nativity. Jesus was born here. He truly was born and lived amongst us. I am not saying that going to the Holy Land will give you a connection to God, but being in that physical place allowed me to have a fuller understanding of how my savior lived while He was on this earth.
The incarnational reality of the Holy Land moves well into sacramentality. Before I left for the Holy Land, I did write a paper about the sacramentality of pilgrimage and this trip has confirmed it. I wanted to grow my worldview into seeing how God views His creation. All of creation points back to God and His sacraments. It is by the mystery of the incarnation that sacramentality is possible. Going to the Holy Land has strengthened my view of the sacredness and sacramentality of creation and how creation points back to God. Also, it has helped me try to live into that sacramentality in everyday life.
Intersectionality was the third thing I was looking forward to on this trip. I was so excited to see how the text of scripture would interact with the land, the stories/traditions of the people there, and our stories and how we would incorporate the texts into our own stories once we left. I loved seeing how each text interacted and played with each other. For example, when Jesus asked the disciples “who do you say I am?” he asked it in front of the Gates of Hell which was a temple dedicated to Pan. (Pan was a Greek god). Knowing that this conversation happened right in front of this temple adds so much more depth to the scriptural witness.
The Fifth Gospel was one of the best terms I learned on this pilgrimage. It’s a term that has been in use since the 4th century to describe the Holy Land as a witness itself to Jesus. I touched upon it a little bit in the three pervious points but looking at the land, hearing the land, and experiencing the land as a sensual experience helped me experience the life-giving witness of the Gospel.
The Sixth Gospel was a term we coined during the pilgrimage to describe the “living stones” that we would see along the way. These living stones were the people who lived in the land and whose stories and traditions we had learned. We talked to them and saw how they lived their lives on this piece of land for generations. Hearing their perspectives again added another layer of meaning to this pilgrimage.
One thing I struggled with during this pilgrimage was the Israeli-Palestinian question. I thought it was complicated already, but it is so much messier than I had thought. Many of my presumptions were challenged regarding the Palestinians and even the Israelis. The division and hate I saw broke my heart. At some points, it was like looking at a mirror in regard to reflecting on my experience in America. At other points, it was like a flashlight revealing my biases that I had. In the end, all I can do is to pray and tell my experiences—that’s all anyone can really do sometimes.
Overall, the pilgrimage was one giant blessing—every expectation I had was blown out of the water (which is easy when you have the bar on the ground haha). Every day was a blessing from the places, to the people, the food, my fellow pilgrims, and the conversations. It was such a blur and a whirl and things are already being forgotten and blurred together (curse my memory). So much to take it, and I hope and pray that it all settles like a seed within my heart that will sometime sprout as I ponder on my experiences more. As long as I come away from this pilgrimage with a deeper appreciation for the Lord, that is all that matters. A pilgrimage is a mountaintop experience in the life of faith; I have to come down from the mountain sometime and when I do, I need to make sure I bring some part of the mountaintop with me.
Praise you God for every blessing. Thank you Lord!
If you want to discuss with me about my experience, please either comment or email me! I would love to talk to you about the Holy Land. Below is a picture of my pilgrim certificate. Blessings and peace to you! Thank you for reading!
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