Today we had the privilege to visit the Muslim and Jewish quarter of the Holy City of Jerusalem. For those of you who have never studied it or had the privilege to see it, it is split up into four sections that are controlled by representatives of each section. It is a sacred site to the three monotheistic Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. They all lay claim to the site and they all claim privilege over the site. The Holy City is split into four quarters, the Armenian quarter, the Muslim quarter, the Christian quarter, and of course the Jewish quarter. They are each unique in their own way and the predominant culture surrounding that faith is present in each area. This experience again reminded me of Iraq as I noticed alleyways of tall stone walls with peddlers and shops on either side manned by Arabic speaking men. The Jewish quarter however reminded me of a local shopping area with fine eateries back home. It was an interesting contrast.
Another interesting contrast was the exclusivity of the entire situation. Muslims enter their sacred site through their entryway, Jews through theirs, and well you see where this is going. There is no interaction. They then proceed to their own sacred site and pray. Both allow Christians to visit, although currently, Christians are not permitted to enter the Dome of the Rock. The Dome of the Rock has an inscription that discredits the divinity of Christ while acknowledging Jesus as a prophet of God. Muslims are not allowed into the Jewish quarter or vice versa. Bibles and ritualistic items would be confiscated if I had attempted to take mine in through the Israelite controlled entrance. There are a lot of rules to say the least. What is most intriguing is these rules don’t bring us closer to each other they bring us closer to objects. These objects are incredible and they are sacred, I cannot deny that, however, they are sacred because of what they remind us. What they remind us is we are all people of the monotheistic God of Abraham.
What I found most disconcerting was the same feeling I had in Bethlehem, God wasn't in the rocks, or the gold dome, or the step I placed my hand upon in hopes that Jesus had taught or walked there. God was in the faces of the young boys playing soccer with each other at the Temple mount. Where I didn’t find God was in the hands of the pickpockets, the tourists (including ourselves) pushing and shoving each other to touch a rock. The experience gave me a perspective on the story but not hope in the continuation of it.
I know this is controversial, maybe even heretical (good idea, seminarian trying to get ordained!) but it made me wonder if we have become engaged in a religious idolatry. I’m not just talking about our Jewish brothers and sisters, not our Muslim brothers and sisters, and not just Christians, but if truly WE value our religion more than humanity can we honestly say we love God? True love of God is reflected in a love of something besides ourselves. Not a love for our own kind, those who believe like us but those we hate, we despise. We all quarantine ourselves from those we hate. Isolation is our greatest comfort in a world we consistently envision as unsafe and violent. I suppose what was most disturbing is I found a deeper concern in their claims, our claims, god’s claims (yeah, I know that isn't upper case, it’s not just my poor grammar). We have made god’s out of our commitment to being right instead of making lives that are tools for God’s mission in the world.
It isn’t that I don’t believe in religion, I do. It isn’t that I am spiritual and not religious (I hate hearing that and no, I do not subscribe to that). If we pray to stones, rocks, and yes (deep breath, here it comes) wooden crosses but we do not act on God’s mission in our lives are we really practicing a true faith? If you c say a prayer in the back of an airplane and then come back to your seat and curse the Palestinian intentionally kicking your seat for no other reason than your being a Jew you can't call yourself a follower of God. You can’t strap a bomb to your chest, say a prayer to a geographic direction and kill innocents and call yourself a follower of God. You can’t pull land out from under suffering people and reference a divine right and call yourself a follower of God. You can’t participate in a divine meal and then cutoff a bad driver on the way home and call yourself a follower of God. God gives us do-over’s over and over and over. No matter how many we get we always need another. That’s okay, whats not okay is when we stop trying to get rid of do-overs. It doesn’t matter that its not possible but we have to try and we don’t do it by consistently denying another’s right to claim God as their God. We don’t do it by consistently denying we need to love one another. We don’t have to be right, we just have to try, and we are really bad at trying.
Today I put my foot on the original road where Jesus walked when he overturned the tables outside the temple. It was awesome. I even got a picture of my foot but He wasn’t there an awful lot today. He wasn’t there when I, along with hundreds of other tourists pushed each other up the steps into the Jewish quarter’s eateries and shops. Today I went to one of the most sacred sites in the world and I found sacred objects that WE continue to build into a wall. Not just between each other but ourselves and God. That my friends is heresy. Taking something sacred and using it to build a wall such as that. I pray God returns to the temple, the dome, the wall, all of them. With the lack of love I witnessed today at these sites it made me understand this idea of Jesus returning like a thief in the night. If Jesus walked through those security checkpoints into one of the most sacred sites in the world, would anyone notice? I don’t think they would, but I am sure he would get pushed on steps, or his pocket would get picked, or maybe he wouldn’t be allowed into my
quarter.
quarter.
Today I had the opportunity to walk where Jesus walked. I pray tomorrow I can learn to walk the way Jesus walked. I pray we all can.
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