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 that it was in the place of the two moons. ie Where you can see the actual and the reflected moon, and so the place is known as Qumran.

Here I am reminded of the four sorts of Jews of Jesus’ day. I suspect there was a 5th called the Silent Majority or those just trying to get on with life. But you might recognise some of these alive and well still in the Church.

The Essenes saw everything as a spiritual battle between light and dark and so the solution was to avoid People and real life as much as possible. The Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) were mostly focussed on using power and politics to get things done, keep things calm, keep the staus quo, no need to upset people with change. The Zealots were keen for change even to the point of forcing people to buy into their idea of the kingdom. Then the Pharisees who added layers of caution and policed these wider fences, to make sure God was kept happy. (nb the modern rabbinic movement that emerged out from this was a little different)

After Qumran, then Masada and then Ein Gedi where David hid from Saul. New fact for today is that Abraham, whilst not sacrificing Isaac used an Ibex ram not a sheep ram.

And so to the Dead Sea. Dont shave the day before you come here. Sit back and just bob. Dont try swimming on yuor front it will just hurt. When you try to standing vertically you find that the water level is at you chest instead of your nose as in the swimming pool.

There’s a Nigerian man in front of me (I guess because he’s carrying a tour bag that says which tour company hes with and it has the words Nigeria boldly stamped on it). He’s wearing a T-shirt that says ‘I stand for an end to FGM in my generation’. I wonder what faith and courage it took him to wear it and at what other issues people in other cultures are dealing with that i know nothing about.

Another Three Angels come over to me, again a father, a son, a friend. We four bob together in the sea and they tell me their stories whilst we eat cubes of melon (no thats not usual and just a little risky)

I am learning to bob. But it is a little scary.