Pastor and Rabbi--Ch of the Annunciation
From this beautiful place we continued our journey to Nazareth, passing towns and villages of Arab Israelis. There are as many minarets, denoting a mosque, in these towns as there are steeples in a Southern U.S. town. When we were in Nazareth, we heard the Muslim call to prayer, which was a cacophony of several cantors amplified throughout the city. The Christian population is Nazareth is shrinking as the Muslim population grows.
We visited the Church of the Annunciation, located on one of two sites hailed as the place where the angel announced to Mary that she would be blessed with a miracle child. Beneath the Church are ruins from a First Century Home that contain evidence of Christian veneration. So the tradition is that this was the home of the very young Mary.
What makes it difficult to “go back” in time when you are at these sites, is the omnipresence of modern city life with all its sights and sounds. So it is not unlike the difficulty we have praying in modern life, with all its distractions.
The highlight of the day for me was Capernaum where we saw what is proported to be the home of Simon Peter’s mother in law and possibly where Jesus stayed when in that town. We also traveled up to the Mount of the Beatitudes. It was nothing like I had pictured it in my mind. I was asked to deliver the sermon at the mount location and it was at sunset on a beautiful day and everyone was looking past me to a beautiful blue Sea of Galilee. Can’t blame them. But we had some spirited discussion about Jesus’ most famous sermon. What a place!
I hope to post again tomorrow.
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Well, I hope you get to post again tomorrow, too. What an experience just to stand on the hill where Jesus delivered his Sermon on the Mount and to get to speak there yourself! Wow!
Blessings on all of you.