We made it! After crossing several oceans and the Swiss & Italian Alps, we landed in Tel Aviv to connect with Victor, to meet our tan bus family for the next 8 days, and to head cross country for our first few nights.

(Alps from the air as captured by Julia)

If you’re driving along the road between Tiberias and Tel Aviv heading toward the Sea of Galilee and look way way way over to your right you’ll see a set of Golden Arches perched miles away up a hill. To be perfectly honest everywhere I go I see McDonalds. The chain’s founder, Ray Kroc, would be delighted. Hamburgers for all; and although I remain uncertain I bet you can’t get that disgusting McRib in Israel. It is, among other things, unkosher. This particular McDonalds just happens to be in Cana. Yes, that same Cana of Galilee where Biblical history records Jesus having performed his first miracle. Rather than stopping our tour group cruised by rapidly racing toward our Tiberias hotel.

(We were so far away I couldn’t snap images; these are Google’s)

This is exactly what happened on my first trip. Thus, I was really excited to see Cana on an itinerary I read in preparation for today.

As luck would have it, or lack thereof, the same thing happened today. Guess who clicked on the wrong tour? (Brian Barger: I contemplated taking an Israeli Uber back over, but then I remembered that article you e-mailed me. I’m not even sure they have Uber in Israel, but I’ll get back to you on that ‘cause going to the mall later).

We didn’t get to go to Cana…the wedding site…where He turned water into wine! I had been hassling my wife: No, Thaedra, they would not miraculously have shown us how to turn Deer Park into Cake Bread or Rombauer Chardonnay. And even though she wouldn’t say it back to me she’s thinking: Honey, you’re weren’t going to see anybody turn water into Maker’s Mark (we are, afterall, traveling with the Kentucky Conference of the United Methodist).

I love a great party…hosting one and attending one. The wedding party chronicled in Cana may be the most epic, enduring and discussed party in history. Can you imagine being there? Can you imagine being the father of the bride? After preparing for who knows how long to join your daughter to her betrothed while your neighbors watched and judged every social move you made. And then, the unthinkable happens. You run out of wine. Yep, the bar is dry … and the wedding singer is still going strong (what in the world must that have sounded like in first century life…I’m thinking Adam Sandler’s character strumming a lute in ancient middle Eastern garb—-really bad imagery).

Among my group of friends we crack up and goof off often. Fishing, card games, fire pits, monthly prayer group, dinners with our wives, and plenty of good times are characterized by many toasts & cheers. You can bet someone ALWAYS throws in the perfectly timed humor and quick witted “Dilly Dilly” made famous by the prolific Bud Light tv commercials. If, by chance, you are not familiar with these, then you probably didn’t watch the Super Bowl earlier this month or any television in the last six months. You need to YouTube them——it means you need a quick lesson in pop culture and to get out a little. If you don’t know what YouTube is, then please seek help from the nearest teenager or millennial (quite seriously).

It just so happened that among the guests at this wedding in Cana were Mary and Jesus. Now there’s a guest list for you…top that! As the scripture goes Christ’s first miracle was turning multiple large cisterns of water into wine. The result was fine wine, too, not the lower quality wine guests would customarily have expected toward the end of a wedding banquet maybe after their senses were dulled from overindulging already. Jesus made certain that not only could the host provide quality wine through the main part of the wedding party, but He provided the best wine for last. As importantly, people took notice and talked about it.

The story, found in John 2:1-12, reveals the same truth: a Life of faith in Christ offers us the best a along the way culminating in His loving salvation in the end. Just like the wine didn’t run out, the love and life God offers, like the wine at the wedding, are abundant.

Here’s to the hosts who extend hospitality, here’s to the partiers in Cana, here’s to Jesus for extending His grace & love through His first miracle, here’s to the people who realized what He did – and still accept His gift, talk about it, and share it with the people around them today. I remains something to celebrate and something to recognize. To this I give a resounding Dilly Dilly!

Interesting Fact: it is historical, sanitation, and health care fact that ancient people used wine and other low grade alcohol to purify their water. It was the only practical way they had to kill bacteria. When boiling water was not an option as little as a 2% of a vessel’s volume and sometimes more, included alcohol for it’s antiseptic properties. Likely, people developed an “immu

Did you see it? The Hangover….the first one. It’s the hilariously funny, sickly offensive, highly immoral movie about a bachelor party in Las Vegas. One of the first scenes features the bride’s brother, the nerdy, dopey dude in the group played by Zac G. taking the other 3 much better looking, sophisticated guys to the hotel roof on the Vegas Strip. He wants them all to cut their hands and make a blood pact to become a Wolf Pack. It was stupid! Next, the guys have a toast (which Zac has ruffied) and insanity, which none of them recall the following morning save for a small point and shoot camera, begins.

It was February 7, 2016. Drizzling, freezing cold rain fell on the members of the “red bus.” Victor Nammour, my friend whom I proclaim as Israel’s greatest tour guide and Ambassador, led the group including Mark, Juna, Susi, Brandon, George, Julie, Bob, Rusti, Sharon, others and me through the streets of Old City Jerusalem. Old City is much like it was in Christ’s day (except for the electricity, duh!). Merchants, ancient stone streets, incense aroma, hustling crowds characterize this center of commerce.

 

 

(From 2/7/16: part of our group on the Jerusalem streets).

Our feet were wet; lips were purple; we were freezing. In certain places streets were so narrow that when cars would pass by we’d have to step into doorways and allies to let motorists pass. When stinking exhaust fumes warmed us, we gladly welcomed the choking stench. At one point one of the ladies tripped. The lens from her exceptionally nice camera hit so hard it popped off a rolled a few feet away. We were hungry, we were tired, we were walking the path of Jesus Christ along the Via Dolorosa, we did not have anything but complete awe and reverence.

And then, there it was: The Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

 

 

It is Golgotha; the place where Christ was entombed, the place from where he was resurrected. From here the Romans tried to end His story. From here the story lives!

 

 

You might ask yourself: What the heck does a secular, rated R movie like The Hangover have to do with anything Holy Land? We’ve all heard it: “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” And those guys did a pretty good job keeping their trip to themselves (remember them going through the camera shots at the end….Carrot Top?…I’ll leave it there).

Paragraph disclaimer: this is all over the place, try to follow me: Zac didn’t get his 4 man blood wolf pack in the movie. The events of Christ’s 33 year life, death & subsequent resurrection did not stop with four guys (12 in Jesus’ case) stifling the story of how Christ bought our salvation with His blood. Pentecost came, the Holy Spirit moved, and fast forward all the way to 2017 where we live in His world marked by His life. In every culture, even when it is not acknowledged, some aspect of modern living is set as a result of Christian tradition. I speculate that even ole Kim Jong’s Juche calendar (created in 1912) was, in some backward way predicated upon, if not set in protest to the Gregorian Calendar. Somebody want to let him in on that? He might spontaneously combust—-but I completely digress.

The Holy Land’s beauty is that what happened there did not stay there. It radiated and shone throughout the world. News spread so that His story could unfold throughout creation.

Wait a minute.

Am I using the past tense?

I’ll rephrase my conclusion.

The Holy Land’s beauty is what happens there shines through the world. News spreads so that His story can be told throughout creation.

(Below: lamps above place where Christ’s body believed to have been prepared for burial.  The stone beneath the lamps dates to Christ’s time. )

 

 

(Top right: place believed to be where the cross of Christ stood on Golgotha; 2nd right: top of entry to Christ’s tomb where He remained  for 3 days (photo prior to 2017 restoration); bottom left: best shot I could get of entire tomb enclosure: it’s HUGE)

One week from today 4 incredible women and I shall depart to meet Victor in Tel Aviv to venture through the Holy Land. As in February 2016 I invite you to join us on the journey through Galilee, Ein Gedi, Palestine, and Jerusalem. Hopefully, you’ll see a fresh approach to an ancient land…peppered with relatable pop culture analogies….all of which pervade modern living. This is my approach to telling the story because I believe God can be found everywhere and related, in someway, to every situation, to tell a timeless story of His never ending Mercy & Grace.

Let’s roll! Next stop: Ben Gurion International, Tel Aviv.  

Two last things:

(1) I intend no disrespect whatsoever to Christian faith and intend no comparison between the secular movie and Bible other than to say some stories spread; some stories do not. If we cannot live in a secular world and reflect the love of Jesus Christ by our actions, then we might as well hang it up.

(2) If you read the first blog back in 2016, there still isn’t a Hard Rock Cafe in Israel, but the hummus and falafel are killer! Can’t wait.

 

What is it that stirs your affection for the Christmas season? After already shopping on Amazon, decorating a “Grinch” themed Christmas tree, and getting excited about a blow out party, this question hit me hard on the first Sunday of December. Our church’s Chancel Choir performed Lessons & Carols attempting to put us in the correct mindset for Advent, scripture was read, hymns and carols sung. This year, however, I could not help but wonder about the journey to manger while they performed “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” To hear the words and imagine the scene this heralded classic conjures up is to envision a quiet, still, sleepy town. Without much commerce and a boring existence by it’s residents one might think of a place from folklore…from the pages of a children’s bedtime story.

The truth about Bethlehem began to unravel itself to me not quite two years ago. To remember my grandparents saying “The more things change, the more they stay the same,” best summarizes the reality I internalized about the small modern day Palestineian town I visited in 2016 to see where God entered the world more than two millennia ago.

Driving south approximately 10 miles from Jerusalem we arrived by charter bus into the Westbank station. On foot tourists pour onto narrow traffic filled streets bordered by businesses and ladened with car fumes. Enterprise thrives. Touristy shops woo passersby to purchase a “special” gift for someone back home. Carved olive wood figures of the Holy family, Holy water and bronzed postcards promise Bethlehem’s memories will linger well beyond the day’s tour. Business people capitalize on trendy Western ideas…think Stars & Buck….latte anyone?… and the Hard Rock (not even close). Incidentally, it took me a while to figure out why I couldn’t find Christmas ornaments in this predominantly Muslim populated region.

 

 

On foot and donkey Mary arrived with Joseph in Bethlehem, his ancestral home, to find a town robustly alive as each Jew had been ordered to return to register for the Roman census. Commerce and bustling activity enlivened the small, countryside village to the point no one could adequately accommodate the pregnant girl. Like the modern streets today’s tourists encounter, the Holy couple found them crowded and commercialized…at least by first century standards. They settled in for the evening in the stable….umm…make that the cave where the local innkeeper housed livestock. Not far from this cave is the field…the only livestock field in Bethlehem (not something history could mistake) where the lowest class peasant shepherds would be stunned by angels announcing the Messiah’s birth. It’s funny…maybe even sad…depending on how you look at it…that when you visit the field now it is marked by a large entry arch resembling a theme park attraction that says “Gloria en excelsis Deo”

 

 

We ascended the hill toward a rock like fortress topped by a belfry. One could liken the Church of the Nativity more to a medieval European castle or prison than to a holy shrine. Here, through an incredibly short door (constructed low so that people from days of old mounted on horses could not enter and deface the church) and through the highly ornate Greek Orthodox worship space pilgrims arrive at the entrance to a grotto a few steps downs. To your right you see a space where Mary is said to have given birth to God’s Son. Steps away is the spot marked by structure that reminds guests of a fireplace structure marking where the child was placed…in those swaddling clothes…among the animals in the stable. If you rewound time and stripped away the silk fabric coverings, gilded gold and silver oil lamps, and marble floors, you would be standing in a cave. The present day embellishments are nothing more than man’s attempt to honor Christ’s birthplace….Christ’s birthplace….it bears repeating because in this place they tell us Christmas, as God intended it to be, originated.

 

 

Centuries before Martin Luther erected the first Christmas tree, a world away from Bing Crosby’s idealistic White Christmas, in a culture that could never imagine a festive rum beverage like an Egg Nog, before some genius Coca Cola marketing person introduced us, somewhat sadly, to a secular St. Nicolas, guides proclaim Jesus Christ entered the world in this space. Wow! That He entered the world at all should be gift enough; to be near the space…potentially in the very space He entered should be life altering, perspective changing.

So much has changed since Mary gave birth to His son. So much has changed since February, 2016 when my travel group first experienced Bethlehem. The world is a different place; my world is a different place. North Korea is a larger threat, the Opioid crisis has exponentially proliferated; a president with no political experience was inaugurated; children graduate; Alzheimer’s claims our loved ones; dear friendships change and change us; people we love become afflicted with cancer; young couples fall in love and marry; #MeToo victims step forward …. and this list could go on ad nauseam.

This coming February Julia Brotherton, Cindy Carpenter, Katie Dirks, Thaedra & I shall join my friend, Victor Nammour, in the Holy Land to follow the steps of Jesus through His homeland. We shall be in the Church of the Nativity at some point during our pilgrimage. It is not a vacation, rather a mind opening, heart broadening exercise.

Someone created an online video recently I can only loosely recall. It’s message: “God doesn’t hate gay people, you hate gay people. God doesn’t love America, you love America.” Fill in the blank with almost any hot button religious or socio-political issue (prayer in schools, 2nd amendment rights, taxes, partisan politics, Confederate statues, etc.) and you can get mad. It’s easy to get mad at Nancy Pelosi, Paul Ryan, Roger Goddell, Meryl Streep, Kim Kardashian, and cancer, and taxes, and AIDs, and crystal meth, and Racism, and… anything that does not fit into our subjective plans. The video’s message made me think about how we put, if not force, God into our proverbial box, to be shaped by our individualized paradigms. We conveniently make God into what we want Him to be so that we can rationalize our perspectives. We build ourselves and condemn other people so that we can feel good about our lives. This truth can be a tough pill to swallow, until we humble ourselves to consider we are all, as we are told in Genesis, created in His image, to honor Him. Christ came not only to redeem us, but to be a great equalizer among us. Like it or not, we are all His children loved equally by Him.

This Christmas through the fudge, the “Let it Snow”, broken blown glass ornaments, piles of wrapping paper, lost gift receipts, travel frustrations, already looking ahead to New Year’s Eve plans and being completely irritated by another radio station playing “It’s Christmas” (r.i.p. Tom Petty) I am reminded of a single Bible verse. It might be the Bible verse people remember most often; it may be the most quoted….almost to the point it sounds cliche. But, the words of John 3:16 are never cliche: “For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” This is the gift of God to us; the true gift of Christmas.

It took me almost two years to realize it. Having been in the place He arrived and anticipating a return to it complete with the thoughts and emotions it evokes stir my affection for Christmas.

What stirs yours?

Merry Christmas