25Nov2010 Day 3

25 November 2010 Day3

Nee tried to teach us the Hebrew numbers, saying she would call our groups by those numbers:

1 – Ehad

2 – Shtayim

3 – Shalosh

4 – Arba

5 – Hamesh

6 - Shesh

PSLE results are out today. Yun Ying made it to Paya Lebar Methodist Secondary. Another group member’s grandchild had 270+ marks.

On the morning bus ride, Rev Chua asked us which road we will choose to travel on: God’s road or the road that culture or the world offers.

We went up Mount of Beatitudes. At the entrance, as for all the other churches and mosques in Israel, women are told to cover up and men are told to remove their hats/caps before entering.

The church there used to be located nearer the foot of the hill, but has been relocated up to the top. Rev Niam shared from Matthew 5:1 “Jesus sat down…” It is a Jewish custom to let their teachers sit down. Hence Jesus was on the mountain as a teacher. Those who wanted to learn, to be His disciples, sat in front. The mountain doesn’t seem that tall. It was more sloping than tall. You can see the Sea of Galilee from the grounds of the church. We spent time alone meditating on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. The sermon has 9 verses, each starting with "Blessed are the..." or in Latin "Beati ...". The Latin word gave this hill its name - Beati-tudes. In this place is a Roman Catholic Franciscan church built between 1936-1938 to a design by the Italian famous church architect, Antonio Barluzzi. Visitors enter from the north-east side. The verses and symbols related to the sermons are written on mosaics on the floor of the church and around the altar. Some of the marble stone excerpts are from Matthew, one of which was from Matthew 5:10 (Latin): "Beati qui persecutionem patiuntur propter justitiam: quoniam ipsorum est regnum cælorum" - "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Outside the church grounds is a pathway, along which are placed rectangular stone slabs which have one beatitude etched onto each slab.

We passed by Corazin. Jesus had scolded them in Luke 10:13 - "Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. - For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land-- a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.

We were asked to read Deut. 8:7-9

We went to Capernaum. Luke 10:15 - And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. Jesus scolded Capernaum, which was the centre of Jesus’ activities in the Galilee. Jesus taught in the local synagogue there and it was also the home of Peter, James, John, Andrew and Matthew. The village of Capernaum is located at the north corner of the Sea of Galilee, on the side of the ancient road from Tiberias (capital of Galilee) to the east of the Sea of Galilee. We saw the house of Simon Peter and the synagogue.

Luke 4:22 - All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked. Rev Niam said Jesus had power in Him because He lived out His teachings. She said that power doesn’t come from powerful words – power comes from a life that has lived out the words spoken.

We went to Tabgha (Ein Sheva), to the German Benedictine Church of Multiplication. It is a 4^th and 5^th century church. Surprisingly, the brighter colours in the church are from the 4^th century. The familiar fish and loaves mosaic has only 4 loaves and 2 fish. Nee asked us why the mosaic only has 4 loaves. The group offered a range of funny answers. Nee shared that, while she didn’t know the actual reason, the one she liked most (not given by us) was the one that said we are the missing loaf. She asked if we are willing to be broken up for God to use.

We are now at the place where Jesus had breakfast with His disciples after His resurrection. John 21:12 -  Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast."

John 21:15-17 - When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?" "Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my lambs." Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me?" He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep." The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you."

Rev Niam shared that love should be the motivation for our service. She shared that this love can help us overcome the rigors and difficulties of Christian ministry.

John 21:19 - …Then he said to him, "Follow me!" Rev Niam said that we are to follow Him as He does His work, and not to grit our teeth and do ministry in blind faithfulness without God’s leading. I went down to the beach to where the waves lapped the stones on the beach. There was a small film crew there filming a young girl. There were also two Orthodox priests there with their flock, wading in the water.

We had a fish lunch. It cost 20 US dollars each. Each of us got a whole tilapia. Our Singapore tour guide, Jenny, brought out her sambal belachan and shared it with the group. At the end of the meal, the waiter came with Turkish coffee. He poured us each a tiny cup. The coffee tasted unusual, like it had spices in it. Jenny tipped the restaurant on our behalf. She was carrying a whole sheaf of envelopes marked with tips for all the restaurants we would be eating at during the entire trip. It seems that Israel expects tipping in their sit-in restaurants. The standard is to give 10-15%.

We went to the Sea of Galilee for a ride on a wooden boat. The Sea of Galilee is the largest freshwater lake of the country. The jetty was just next to our hotel! On the sea, we saw Golan Heights on our left. It is a mountainous area north-east of the Sea of Galilee. It was occupied in 1967 by Israel, annexed in 1980, but still claimed by Syria. We were pleasantly surprised when the crew brought out a Singapore flag. One of the crew members marched past us to the front of the boat and started hoisting the flag up the pole there, next to Israel’s flag. We started standing up, saying we should sing Majulah Singapura, seeing our flag was being raised. We could hardly believe it when the crew played our national song. It was a very rousing orchestral version, one that I have never heard before. It was miles better than any other versions we’ve been subjected to in Singapore. Nee said that when Jesus spoke about the salt having lost its saltiness, it was when He was passing by the town where the people fish for a living and all the uneaten/unsold fish were salted (to prevent them from spoiling) and kept away. She also asked us to look at a city on the hill coming up on the right, which could be seen clearly from where we were, even though it was very far away. Nee said that the people could hence understand immediately when Jesus spoke about the city on a hill. Rev Niam spoke on Matthew 14: 24-27 (but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid.")

She said that when life batters us and we are paralyzed into inactivity, Jesus speaks to us and says, “Take courage! It is I.” From Luke 28-31, she said that the disciples’ eyes were opened after Holy Communion. Rev Niam said that we would be having Holy Communion on the boat and she hopes that it will open our eyes too. She then put on a red pastor’s stole which had grapes embroidered on it. Rev Niam said that the pastor’s stole is a symbol of the towel, showing that the pastor is to serve the people with a servant heart, and is not a symbol of rank or power. We then had Holy Communion with a wooden goblet of grape juice and a dark round loaf of bread. It was very moving to see both pastors administering the Holy Communion together. I haven’t seen other husband and wife teams doing this together.  It’s just something about the equal level of commitment of a husband and wife doing ministry together that is so powerful to the onlooker.  After that, the crew sang us two songs and taught us a Jewish dance. After we disembarked, we were brought to an exhibition of a 2000 year old ship housed in the ‘Boat in the Galilee Museum’, in the Yigal Allon Centre. This Roman boat was discovered by accident in the winter of 1986, after a dry season when the lake was very low. 

 It was found on the muddy shores of the Sea of Galilee between Ginnosar and Magdala. After 12 days of excavations on site it was transferred, and now exhibited in the museum. The boat was dated to the 1^st century  A.D., the times of Jesus and the Jewish Revolt against the Romans. To date the boat, Carbon-14 tests were done. Additional dating information came from the artefacts that were found in the boat: cooking pot, arrow head, nails, hooks and oil lamp. At the shop there, a fairly large number of shofars were on sale. We asked the salesman there to demonstrate the shofar to us. He was very obliging and blew it outside the building for us. The sound was super beautiful. He said that they were not allowed to blow it indoors.At the night vesper, Rev Niam said that Jesus didn’t ask us to believe Him. He called us to follow Him.

That night, God spoke clearly to me as I was about to fall asleep. He said “Celest is okay”. I took it to mean she made it back to MGS.