Sweeping away the moist with the dry
Its an odd phrase from Deuteronomy 29v19. I wonder what you make of it but it caught my eye as I finished reading my bit of Bible today. I think its about seeing in any small amount of water the hope, glimmer, and possibility of life, and so – of faith, repentance, of peace. My […]
All my Christmasses
Todays blessings started with rain. Then a guided tour around the Old City and through the Via Dolorosa. More of a blessing than the places I go to is the person I am with. This is a tour gide, taking a day off to tour me. He is super kind, smiles and says Hi to […]
All Ears
The photo shows a keen head with large ears. The note next to it says Votive heads of worshipper, perhaps 2000 BC (so that would be after Moses and before David). Its a cunning, pagan, idea to pay for a model of you as a model worshipper to attend to your deity without having to […]
The Work of the People
The word Liturgy literally means the work of the people. So my prayer for you today is that you might pray, perisist in prayer and pray again. We walked to the Western Wall. Here lots of Jewish men are praying in front of the wall that leads up to where their Temple once was. […]
Ground Zero
There are certain spots in the Holy Land that you can say with some certainty – Jesus walked here. The photo is of the Southern wall of Temple Mount, the bedrock behind me would have been Jesus’ last step as he passed through the tripple gates up on to the temple mount. That’s Brian in […]
I was trying to make sense of today when I got chatting to a woman from Singapore. Patricia, who is working on a dementia resource, reminded me of the text of Isaiah 49v16 – I will not forget you, see I have written you on the palms of my hands. I got the opportunity to […]
Beit Sahour
The day ended with me shopping for Christmas presents, in a suburb of Bethlehem, called Beit Sahour which means ‘Shepherd Fields’, in a shop that is run by a very kind man called Joseph. Of course. Round the corner from here I had had lunch in Ruth’s Restuarant (you may remember that that the […]
Having the courage to bob
I got home last night to a text inviting me to see Massada and a swim in the Dead Sea. Perhaps yesterdays prayers were being answered. It startedd with a trip to Qumran and the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls. When one bedouin was asked where he found it, unable to lie he said […]
Entertaining Angels
Three angels bumped into me this morning. I had taken the long walk to Gethsemane and was just east of Temple Mount/ Al Aqsa Mosque enjoying the view and the heat and thinking about Jesus remark to the Woman at the well: Give me a drink. I had stopped looking down at Absolom’s Pillar in […]
Hear O Israel
I was thinking about the text from Deuteronomy – a prayer known as the Shema – Hea O Israel, the LORD your God, the LORD is one. Do you like airports? I think that the opening and closing scenes of ‘Love Actually’ are brilliant in depicting the emotions of love that you see at an […]