Sunday, April 28th - Old City of Jerusalem and Bethlehem - Day Four

Our day began with worship at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, ELCJ, in the Old City of Jerusalem at 9 am. Pastor Azar had asked me to preach on Friday afternoon, and he was pleased to have some respite from preparing. He provided translation for the sermon into Arabic. Worship attendance began with about 10 people in the sanctuary, and people came in steadily throughout the service. The checkpoints around Jerusalem are notorious, and many people find that they cannot plan for what will happen each time they go to church, or when they will be able to arrive.

Pam and I presented a stole to Pastor Azar with the rainbow colors on white, a reminder of the covenant that God has made with us. Following worship, the community gathered for tea around the courtyard inside the church complex, and people were quite expressive of their gratitude for our being with them. It was during this tea time that we met Jonathan Frierichs, who is the communications specialist for Lutheran World Relief. He was to have led a tour a few weeks ago, but it was cancelled. So he made plans to travel here for the week by himself, and for the afternoon joined up with us.

We had heard about a protest that has been taking place every Sunday for the last few weeks at the closed entrance into Bethlehem. We decided that we would go and be a part of it, and we were pleased to see that the group was made up of a large mix of expatriates, religious leaders and Palestinians. The media covered the event quite well. The group swelled to a group of about 150.

As we prepared for the march to the soldiers' line across the road, we watched as an armored personnel carrier came with an additional group of 20 soldiers to "fortify" the line. It struck me that a group of Christians and Muslims and peace activists posed enough of a threat that the original twenty or more soldiers were not deemed adequate for the job. We prayed at the Israeli line and, after 20 minutes, went on our way peacefully. One soldier we met on our way to his post spoke with us. He was born in Maine and regretted that he needed to take up arms. He spoke of his house in the Gilo settlement being fired upon by Palestinian militants, and so he expressed his fear and his need to protect his family. We asked about the fear of the Palestinians, and on that count he had a difficult time relating. We told him of Nabil who was bound and gagged in his own home for twelve hours and beaten. The soldier asked, almost incredulously, "And he didn't have any weapons or bombs in his house?" No, he had no weapons or bombs.

At this point we worry that we might not be able to get into Bethlehem by the end of the week. Almost no one has had the chance to visit Pastor Mitri Raheb there, and he has been in poor health. They've suspected pneumonia.

Later this afternoon, we ate lunch on the roof of a restaurant overlooking all of the Old City and the Mount of Olives, and made our way slowly back to the hotel. Bishop Younan just returned this morning from an important trip to Sweden, so we met him for the first time this visit at our hotel this evening. He shared much more than can be shared in this space at this late hour (it's after midnight), but he has been the target of a campaign by the Israeli government to discredit him with the Scandinavian churches and states. But his credibility is high, and thankfully the campaign has been mostly unsuccessful.

Tomorrow we will be taking a brief respite in the Galilee region, with an overnight beside the Sea of Galilee at a kibbutz.

Hans Arnesen

Return to the "Journey to the Holy Land" main page...