Hoops, Circles, and Mustaches

Recently I have been thinking on what it would look like to over think. Yes this is a problem I find myself wrestling with. You are blessed if this question has never popped into your head. I apologize if this inspires circular thought processes that never seem to end. So here is a warning for all of my readers; do not read this if your head already hurts, because I cannot promise resolution only the potential for new connections. If you are still reading awesome!

A few weeks back I attended a lecture series here at Calvin which focused on worship which was awesome. This lecture series drew in people from all over the nation some of whom represented seminaries that I have an interest in (if you don't know me personally it is only fair to say I am looking into going to seminary if I am still up to the academic environment...). One of these seminaries had an informative meeting for prospective students and free dessert. I found myself there looking at a pamphlet and yeah. This is where it got interesting. I am a short white guy of no real physical presence which is never helpful at these things, because I am not the token minority or the handsome 6 foot tall basketball player with all the charm of a class A actor. Naturally the representatives flocked to the senior whom they already knew was committed to the school and a friend of mine who is a great guy and is from another country. I am not one who needs attention that's why I have a blog. I sat down and decided to wait and see what this seminary's presentation would be like though. It was just a couple graduates who talked about their experience and where their education got them today. They ended the presentation with an exhibition of one of their innovative teaching tools. This was a research project which recorded and commented on a church's Sunday morning services. These were collected over a number of years (the exact number escapes me), and seemed like a lot of work. They showed us a clip from the church's Easter service and there was a prayer and petition portion in the service which went about 20 minutes. The researcher started criticizing the planning of the service because the prayer portion which was led by a handful of believers was not broken up with some sort of song or whatever. I wanted to scream at this researcher. Who is he with his fancy suit and long mustache to tell this church how to run its service?! And that is when all of this started.

I have been a student for almost 16 years now. I am a year and a few months away from graduating with majors in both History and Greek. I don't want to be an academic who sits in the ivory tower and casts down my two cents on all the plebs who walk on the streets below. My vocation is to be the Church and that I know for sure. I hesitate to commit fully to more schooling because school likes to keep me thinking and not doing so much. I want to be a man of words and deeds (classical major in me). I've been emphasizing the words so much to the point that my deeds are either half attempts or simply ideas waiting for time. Then I look at what it is I truly want to do which is preach and in this country to be ordained means to go to seminary. Hmm..... I've invested myself to studies beyond my school work to work towards deepening my theological understanding. I am able to write when given the time and can work on delivering sermons with friends. If I was not in a classroom I would have the time and motivation to study on my own, but it seems no one would give me a chance because I lack an acronym before and/or after my name. I understand more the depth of responsibility I have taken on in my calling to preach which keeps me believing seminary would be responsible of me. In the same moment though I wonder if it would be irresponsible of me to lock myself in another classroom for three or more years....

This is a selfish post and I apologize. I realize we are all busy and confused in our cyclical thought processes. I don't worry though at least not yet. I have a summer internship ahead of me which will be helpful in my walk. Each day is a blessing whether there is rain or sun.

In HIM Always may you be Blessed.

An Imam, Rabbi, and Priest walk into a McDonalds

Here is a short reflection on my time in Israel.

If I had the opportunity to choose a country that would cause the most division within academia I would choose Israel. Historians and archaeologists argue about the significance of Israel in their respective fields while theologians from three of the world’s religion argue over sacred sites. In my experience the politicians’ arguments to figure out peace in the Middle East and Israel’s role in bringing that about are the most popular arguments in America today. However, all this bickering distracts from the rich cultures found in Israel. My experience showed me that there is a very dynamic culture in Israel that has more to offer than Zionism and Hamas.

I am embarrassed to say this but my first impressions of Israel shattered most of my preconceived notions. I remember learning in Sunday school that Jerusalem was in the hills, but I did not imagine these hills being anything of real substance. Then my ears popped as my shuttle ascended the hills that I would later learn to appreciate. Scale of place was another aspect of Israel and specifically Jerusalem which I quickly reconsidered. The perimeter of Jerusalem’s Old City is only around 3 miles and Bethlehem was only 6 miles from the Old City. This means I could jump in a car or bus and be in the West Bank in less than half an hour if traffic is reasonable which it usually was not. It is this closeness that struck me most in my first weeks in Israel.

In the United States there is a lot of space to spread out which has allowed people to expand and develop new towns and homesteads for over two hundred years now. This is not entirely the case in Israel though. Jerusalem itself is split in to four quarters which are in fact distinct from one another. The Muslim Quarter is very densely zoned with narrow alley-like streets and lots of shops and small restaurants while the Jewish Quarter is more spacious with fewer shops. Spending most of my time in the Christian Quarter I can say that it is a good mix of the two quarters mentioned earlier, because it has the organized feel of the Jewish Quarter while still resembling the bazaar-like look of the Muslim Quarter. The religions of these three quarters overlap each other throughout the city. For example in the Christian Quarter across from the courtyard of the Church of the Holy Sepulchere there is a very old mosque. The best example of the layering of place and culture in the city though is the traditional upper room believed to be where the Jesus’ last supper took place. It is here that we find an architecturally Jewish building with Christian Crusader renovations inside and more renovations done by the later Muslim kingdoms. This layering of cultures is the result of the closeness experienced by the people that make up these cultures.

I had the privilege to volunteer at a grade school in the Old City. On Tuesday mornings I would find myself walking through Jaffa Gate and taking a left down St. George Street until I came upon the front gate of the Coptic School. I met with the Coptic Mother who ran the school with some fellow volunteers the week before. She told us that a majority of the kids were either disowned or orphans and they have trouble funding the school and were very thankful for our willingness. She asked me to lead a PE program for 5^th and 8^th graders, and I honestly remember thinking this was going to be easy. Naturally I decided to start my first course with the 8^th graders by stretching our arms and legs. Now I had heard a Hebrew woman describe Americans as a bunch of squares, but I did not believe this until I comprehended the looks I was getting from these 8^th graders. These guys just wanted to play football (yes that would be soccer) in their cobblestone courtyard for an hour and a half. So that’s what we did most Tuesdays though sometimes I would bring an American Football and attempt to teach the throwing and catching techniques of such a strange ball. They would teach some of their Arabic language “La” means no which was very handy with this bunch. “Shukran” is thank you which goes really far in this part of the world.

My favorite linguistic moment was when all the 8^th graders started asking me about the Mississippi River and whenever I said Mississippi uncontrollable laughter followed. I later discovered I had been duped into cussing in Arabic which sounds like something any culture’s merciless 8^th graders would do to a foreign teacher. I did not get to just teach these grade-schoolers, but I also befriended a handful. Sari (pronounced Sorry) was the only 5^th grader out of three who knew English. I feel like he commanded the language better than I did at that same age, and the greatest part was the teachers had not known he knew English this well until they overhear him talking with me during one of our breaks. He would tell me of his pranks and brothers which sounded like some my own exploits. The beauty of this school is that it is run by a Christian Sect but they enroll Christian and Muslim kids who could be native or foreign; one of the 4^th graders was Canadian missionary kid!

I was introduced to Messianic Judaism while I was in Israel too. One of the leaders of this movement came to our campus and described the difficulty Christianity has to overcome in Israel and what Christianity has to do internally to again make room for Jewish converts. He described a historical turning of the tables when it comes to Jews and Gentiles and their relation to Christianity. The Apostle Paul worked against Judaisers of the Christian faith and now they are working to show Jews that Chrisitnaity is the fulfillment of Judaism and allows them to maintain some if not all of their traditional practices of the Torah. Christianity is the minority in Israel which was refreshing for me personally.

I got to interact with some high school kids who came to Jerusalem from Ashkelon and were amazed that my fellow students would come all the way from America to look at a bunch of old ruins for three months. I was amazed that a majority of them actually looked forward to graduating from high school and beginning their compulsory military service. I learned that all of the fighter pilots who were a part of the strikes against Syria and Iraq’s nuclear reactors have enjoyed the title of “War Hero” since their missions and that currently there are so many good pilots in Israel that the military would not have difficulty finding pilots willing to fly over Iran and strike that reactor. Nationalism and patriotism are very present in Israel, but it was not violent. Force was always present in Israel whether it be in the form of an 18 year-old coming on our bus fully armed to check our passports or a cornucopia of aircraft circling overhead after an incident that ended in the death of a Muslim man, force was always present, and I just got used to it. If Canada was recently a former enemy of the United States I am sure our military would act in the same way as Israel has.

This brings me to my last point. Before I left for Israel my younger brother’s school stared and he told some of his friends that I was going to the Middle East. Most of these high school guys thought I was crazy for going where they’ve been told so much turmoil takes place. I do not mean to demean the fact that violence does in fact happen in Israel and it can be catastrophic but rather I make the point that more violence can actually happen in a big city here in the U.S. My Modern Middle East Professor in Israel explained that this past year has been one the most peaceful years in modern Israel’s existence. He also was very emphatic in pointing out that there is no concept of the separation of faith and state like there is in the Western World and this causes events to be loaded with ideals and passion which may escalate the original argument, but this does not happen as often as I had expected.

Israel is still a meshing of the Western and Eastern worlds and is more than a simply a satellite base looking out for U.S. interests. It is a place where McDonalds serves kosher burgers with no bacon or cheese and Muslim kids can be found in a Coptic school in the care of an Egyptian nun. There is a bumper-sticker that was popular in my hometown for while which simply said “Coexist” and it used religious symbols to create the letters. This is a daily occurrence in Israel and specifically Jerusalem and yes it is an imperfect coexistence but it is everywhere. Israel’s people blunted some of those right angles I had as an American square and I pray I helped shape some in return, because in my mind that is coexistence.

May you be blessed In Him Always!