girltheology

I arrived in Israel on January 8, 2008. I'm staying at Allenby 2 - Flax B&B in the Romema district of Jerusalem. The owner, Danny Flax, is a very congenial host, and enthusiastic about making sure his guests have a good experience of Israel.

Other guests here come from all walks of life - am joined by a Christian Zionist, Orthodox Jews, two young Swiss men - one a Persian Jew the other his friend, a PhD candidate from Heidelberg who is half Persian half German - she studies Jewish art, and two Americans on a 15 day whirlwind tour of the middle east - 5 days in Egypt, 5 days in Jordan, 5 days in Israel. Also - yesterday President George Bush arrived in Israel, apparently to try and promote peace talks between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority. There were protests in Gaza, and several mortars launched into Israel from northern Gaza. I've been following the news on the International Herald Tribune's webpage. So far everything's seemed peaceful in Jerusalem, with the exception of helicopters.

Today I'm hoping, if it stops raining, to go to the Museum on the Seam. It was suggested that I go to the Rockefeller Museum, but I find I'm not actually all that interested in the archeology - and while I really appreciated my friend Sophie's tour of the Ecole Biblique, I think that my archeology needs will be more than adequately accounted for by visits to such places as the Garden Tomb and the Old City of Jerusalem.

"The Museum on the Seam is a unique museum in Israel, displaying contemporary art that deals with different aspects of the socio-political reality.

Through the works of artists from Israel and abroad, who respond to the stress and tension between and within groups, the museum invites the visitors to examine the degree of influence of the social environment on the individual and vice versa.

Between the local and the universal, between pluralism and extreme ideologies, the message of The Museum calls for listening and discussion, for accepting the other and those different from us and respect for our fellow man and his liberty."

Click HERE for more information.

So, I am leaving tomorrow for Israel for the first time. This morning's reading from the Revised Common Lectionary included Psalm 72, and it struck me as important... I include here Eugene Peterson's version from "The Message":

Psalm 72
A Solomon Psalm
1-8 Give the gift of wise rule to the king, O God, the gift of just rule to the crown prince.
May he judge your people rightly,
be honorable to your meek and lowly.
Let the mountains give exuberant witness;
shape the hills with the contours of right living.
Please stand up for the poor,
help the children of the needy,
come down hard on the cruel tyrants.
Outlast the sun, outlive the moon—
age after age after age.
Be rainfall on cut grass,
earth-refreshing rain showers.
Let righteousness burst into blossom
and peace abound until the moon fades to nothing.
Rule from sea to sea,
from the River to the Rim.

9-14 Foes will fall on their knees before God,
his enemies lick the dust.
Kings remote and legendary will pay homage,
kings rich and resplendent will turn over their wealth.
All kings will fall down and worship,
and godless nations sign up to serve him,
Because he rescues the poor at the first sign of need,
the destitute who have run out of luck.
He opens a place in his heart for the down-and-out,
he restores the wretched of the earth.
He frees them from tyranny and torture—
when they bleed, he bleeds;
when they die, he dies.

15-17 And live! Oh, let him live!
Deck him out in Sheba gold.
Offer prayers unceasing to him,
bless him from morning to night.
Fields of golden grain in the land,
cresting the mountains in wild exuberance,
Cornucopias of praise, praises
springing from the city like grass from the earth.
May he never be forgotten,
his fame shine on like sunshine.
May all godless people enter his circle of blessing
and bless the One who blessed them.

18-20 Blessed God, Israel's God,
the one and only wonder-working God!
Blessed always his blazing glory!
All earth brims with his glory.
Yes and Yes and Yes.


I read along with the Psalm this morning wondering, as I'm about to leave for this conflict-stricken place, how it is that so much praise and so much conflict can all come from the same place. I am both excited and melancholy about going...

I'll try and keep posting from Israel, but if not, definitely when I get back.

Epiphany blessings to all.

- Carmen.