Susan's Blog: Pilgrimage to Israel/Palestine. Transfiguration: Mt Tabor to Jericho.
28 Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. 29And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. 30Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. 31They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Luke 9:28 - 31.
Protestant scholars believe the event happened on top of Mt. Hermon. I, frankly, do not care where it happened. Either way, the point is, he didn't take an afternoon stroll up a hill. They hiked a serious mountain that was miles away from where they started. We, on the other hand, took the bus halfway up, and then the switchbacks on the mountainside got too hairpin-turn-y for our bus, and we got in taxis to go all the way to the top.
The view from the top of Mount Tabor is breathtaking--this photo is too hazy to really see how high up we were. We celebrated the Eucharist in an outdoor shrine there, and reflected on the idea that Jesus' mission among us was to renew and reveal the image of God in humanity. 'God in man made manifest,' as the hymn goes, so that we would ourselves join God's divine life. Powerful, beautiful, transfiguring words.
And then, got in the car and drove south down Highway 90, toward Jericho, through the Judean hills and along the River Jordan. In this part of Israel, the river is the border with the country of Jordan. On the other side, things are green and lush. Israel, west of the Jordan, is barren desert hills. And Rt. 90 is fairly barren itself, since it's surrounded by military areas, and cuts around Palestinian towns instead of through them.
Jericho is a place of a different kind of transfiguration.
You remember that this is the biblical city where Joshua made the walls fall down. Jericho is one of the oldest cities in continuous use in the world--it dates from before 10,000 BCE. In the Gospels, Jesus heals a blind man here. It's also where he sees Zaccheus up in the sycamore tree. Jericho was a significant city in first-century Palestine, as a stopping point between Galilee and Jerusalem. Nearby (though way the heck out through the desert) is the place where, by tradition, Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan. We met Jericho today as a place to stop for lunch.
Since Jericho is warm in the winter due to its low altitude and desert oasis climate, the city has long been a place where wealthy Arab families kept winter houses. Now, though, not everyone can get to Jericho. It is a Palestinian city, the first one to be given into the control of the Palestinian Authority after the Oslo agreement in 1993. That means that the town's administration and security are entirely handled by the PA. Israelis cannot go there at all since the Intifada in 2001. The casino that stands at the edge of the city, which used to bring in a great deal of money (it's the only casino in Israel at all), is now closed. The town has seen better days.
We had a great lunch at al Rawda Restaurant there, and drove through town to see the ruins of the old city of Jericho.
On the way home, despite the heat, we stopped in the desert to make a brief hike up to the top of a hill and look down into the Wadi Kelt--it's a remainder of the road that people used to take from Jericho to Jerusalem. Beautiful, stark, harsh, brutal landscape.
And I got to ride a camel, so I was pretty darn happy about that. We were greeted at the desert stop by a Bedouin family selling keffiyyeh, jewelry, and camel rides. There are two kinds of Bedouin in Israel, according to our guide: those who took the Israelis up on their offer of land, citizenship, and assimilation--and those who didn't. Those who didn't remain nomadic herders, and very poor. The construction of the wall means that they cannot leave Israel, but they cannot get into the cities, either. They have no nationality, no citizenship, and no rights.
Stop for a moment and scroll up to see the photo of the landscape looking down from Mt. Tabor in the Galilee. Now come back here and look at the photo above of the Judean desert. These two places are about 2 hours' drive from each other. Amazing. And amazing, too, how stark the transition is from the bustle and wealth of Jerusalem to the eerie quiet and unkempt buildings and empty lots of Jericho.
Finally, take five minutes and read this NPR article about the increasing divide between American and Israeli Jews over a bill in the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) that would legally define which conversions to Judaism 'count' for the sake of the state of Israel. American Jewry tend to belong to more liberal branches of Judaism, whereas the Orthodox have the most power and people in Israel. Such a law might, some fear, be the first step in formalizing which Jews have rights in Israel, and which do not. If you have been reading this blog you have already noticed that there's a clear interest, here in defining who is IN and who is OUT. One wonders how much farther they can push this issue.
Today's theme of transfiguration has taken a few unexpected turns.