Bob’s Sabbatical
November 8, 2009 – “Towards the Galilee of the Gentiles”
This is
Sunday morning, really Monday for people here.
The streets are busy, horns honking, school children running for buses,
shops are open, etc. Seems very strange
for a Sunday. We’ll be doing Eucharist
this evening in Nazareth.
Today we
will head for Caesarea, 
empire (and Pilate), then on to Nazareth, now one of the largest cities in
Israel, divided into two parts – the Hill is Israeli, and the lower part is
Muslim. In Jesus’ day, there were
probably 200-400 residents.
Andrew,
on the bus reminds us that there were two uprisings in Jerusalem, one in the 4th
Century BC, and the second, which resulted in the destruction of the Temple in
66 AD. In Jesus’ day, not long before
the second uprising, there was great tension between Rome and the Jews. Also, there was a large gap between the rich
and the poor. Three classes on the top
of the pyramid were: 1. Urban elite, (including Priestly families), who lived
in aristocratic centers; 2. Civil servants, Scribes Pharisees, Tax Collectors;
3: Merchant class. This group accounted
for about 2% of the population. At the
bottom of the pyramid were: 4. Skilled workers (Jesus); 5. Artisans; 6. Peasant villagers, day laborers, etc. (some
had been landowners, forced to sell to pay taxes, etc. This group made up about 98% of the
population. Leaders were very aware of
the tension and unease, and acted quickly to put down any potential threats.
We
arrive in Casearea, today the wealthiest city in Israel. As we near the Mediterranean, we pass a golf
course. There are marinas, hotels,
etc. Herod the Great built Caesarea for
himself and Augustus Caesar. He also
built a much-needed port to enable trade.
He built a Temple 
There was a huge theater, hippodrome, and an aquaduct. Nice place for a beach get-away!
We next
headed to Nazareth, via Megiddo, which sits in the middle of a vast plain
between the Mediterranean and the hills near Nazareth. The road up to Nazareth is steep, with
dramatic views of the plain. After lunch
we walk to the Basilica of the Annunciation.
This is a very contemporary building,
traditional place (still inside, a Byzantine era grotto) 
Gabriel announced to Mary that she would bear a son. The 2-400 people who lived here then could
fit in one corner of the place. As our
guide put it, “quite a building for a humble unwed mother!”
During
our quiet time, I went up to the Church of St. Joseph, at the other end of the
complex, built in 1914 on the site on 12th Century Church. The depiction of the Holy Family over the
Altar was very interesting. It shows
Jesus as a 10-year-old. Usually we see
him as a baby or as an adult.
We
walked up to the well Mary would have gone to daily, then another block to the
Greek Orthodox Church of St. Gabriel, which also celebrates the Annunciation to
Mary. There were lots of icons and
paintings, including one, on an arch opposite of St. Peter, of St. Paul.
Like many
places in the Holy Land, there is no clear way of knowing where exactly these
events took place. Churches, through the centuries, have built shrines
celebrating various scriptural events, which may or may not be on the actual
sites. In many cases, there are “competing’
sites as well. It is wonderful to see
the many ways we recall, celebrate and honor the people and events that are
central to our faith here in its “cradle.”
One of
the realities that I had not been aware of was the subject of an article in
today’s paper. The U.S. State Department
issued a finding that Israel’s government discriminates against non-Jewish holy
sites here. They do not provide
resources to maintain them, as they do Jewish sites, much less protect them.
We are
staying the next two nights at a very nice Monastery, 
Italian order, here in Nazareth.
Peace,
Bob
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