Jane Philpott - "A Botanist in the Holy Land" (October 8, 1972)

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	(harmonious choir music)	0:03
	(soft pipe organ music)	0:42
	(harmonious choir music)	1:31
-	Seek ye the Lord while he may be found,	5:13
	wholly upon him while he is near	5:17
	let the wicked forsake his way,	5:21
	and the unrighteous man his thoughts	5:24
	and let him return unto the Lord.	5:28
	And he will have mercy upon him	5:31
	and to our God for he will abundantly pardon.	5:34
	Therefore, let us pray.	5:40
	(harmonious choir music)	5:51
	Oh, mighty God.	6:26
	We come before thee as a disobedient church,	6:28
	Our loyalty to thee has often been lost	6:35
	in the conflict of human loyalties.	6:38
	Our own self-interest has sometimes made us insensitive	6:43
	to thy I commands.	6:48
	Our past is precious to us	6:51
	and we have allowed it to set limits upon the future.	6:55
	Our worship and our service have at times been feeble.	7:01
	We have not always responded in love to thee,	7:06
	nor to the needs of thy church,	7:10
	break our apathy and any arrogance with the judgment	7:14
	of thy love.	7:22
	And then in thy mercy,	7:24
	heal us with thy holy spirit causing us as a community	7:27
	to be born a new in Jesus Christ our Lord	7:33
	Amen.	7:41
	And hear these words of the assurance of pardon,	7:43
	thus set the high and holy one that inhabited the eternity,	7:49
	whose name is Holy.	7:55
	I dwell in the high and holy place,	7:58
	but with him,	8:03
	with her also,	8:06
	that is of a contrite and humble spirit	8:08
	to revive the spirit of the humble	8:13
	and to revive the heart of the contrite one,	8:17
	knowing that in confidence,	8:23
	let us offer unto God in unison, the prayer,	8:25
	which Jesus taught his disciples.	8:29
	Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,	8:33
	thy kingdom come.	8:38
	Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.	8:41
	Give us this day our daily bread,	8:45
	and forgive us our trespasses.	8:48
	As we forgive those who trespass against us,	8:50
	and lead not into temptation,	8:54
	but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom	8:57
	and the power and the glory forever.	9:01
	Amen.	9:05
	(soft instrumental music)	9:10
	(harmonious choir music)	9:50
	The Lord be with you?	14:33
-	Amen.	14:36
-	Let us pray.	14:37
	Let us offer unto God our unison prayer, thanksgiving.	14:40
	Blessed and eternal God from whom we come	14:46
	by whom we are sustain and to whom we shall return.	14:51
	We thank thee for the good things bequeath to us	14:57
	by the journey generation.	15:01
	Others labor and we have entered into	15:04
	the profits of their labor.	15:07
	Churches we did not build are centers	15:10
	for our worship and inspiration.	15:13
	Liberties we did not earn are our birthright.	15:17
	Truths we did not discover are lamp to our feet	15:21
	and a light upon our path.	15:26
	As we have freely received so may we freely serve,	15:29
	make us wise in the arts churches.	15:35
	Granted we so live and work that those who come after us	15:39
	shall rejoice, that we pass this way	15:44
	through Jesus Christ our Lord.	15:48
	Amen.	15:52
	Let's offer prayer of intercession for the world in trouble.	15:54
	Oh God, the Father who has made of one blood	16:00
	all the nations of the earth.	16:05
	We pray that's strength and courage, abundance	16:08
	be given to all who worked for the world of reason	16:11
	and understanding.	16:15
	We pray that the good which lies in every man's heart	16:17
	may day by day be magnified.	16:21
	We pray that men will come to see more clearly	16:25
	not that which divides them, but that which unites them.	16:29
	We pray that each hour may bring us closer	16:35
	to a final victory,	16:38
	not of nation over nation,	16:41
	but of man over his own evils and weakness.	16:45
	And all this we pray for Jesus Christ sake.	16:50
	And let us offer a prayer of intercession	16:56
	for the laypeople.	16:59
	Oh, mighty God whose son our Lord was on layman	17:03
	long before he was called prophet, priest, king, Messiah.	17:07
	We offer this special prayer on this special day	17:14
	on behalf of the layfolk, useful men and women	17:19
	who loved thy sons church and make it function,	17:24
	in choir and classroom and board meetings and sick visiting.	17:29
	Who usher and collect and read the lesson,	17:37
	and even grace the pulpit.	17:43
	We offer this prayer in the name of him who was a layman,	17:46
	and who chose layfolk to be his disciples	17:52
	and attendants in thy worship.	17:55
	Let us offer a prayer of supplication	18:01
	for the conserving about natural resources.	18:05
	Oh, mighty God, creator and sustainer	18:10
	now made us the world and named it good	18:13
	and gave us to our management.	18:19
	Make us concerned enough and wise enough	18:24
	to keep air clean and water pure,	18:29
	and natural beauty, beautiful.	18:34
	Prevent us from destroying lands and falling streams.	18:39
	Let us treat lovely things with love and courtesy	18:44
	so that all folk may enjoy thy earth.	18:51
	And let us offer a short supplication for ourselves.	18:58
	Oh, God, may there be nothing done this day	19:05
	of which we shall be ashamed when the sun has set,	19:11
	not in the even tide of our life.	19:18
	When our task is done	19:22
	and we come home to see thee face to face.	19:25
	Amen.	19:32
	(soft pipe organ music)	19:37
	The lesson of the morning is taken from the Old Testament.	20:28
	First, from the Book of Numbers, the 13th chapter	20:32
	verses 17	20:37
	and 18.	20:39
	Children of Israel are about to enter the promised land	20:42
	and Moses is sending spies ahead	20:46
	to find what kind of a country it is.	20:50
	Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan	20:54
	and said to them,	20:57
	"Go up into the Negev beyond and go up into the hill country	20:59
	"and see what the land is,	21:06
	"whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak,	21:09
	"whether they are few or many?"	21:15
	And the spies returned.	21:20
	And they brought a divided report,	21:23
	but Moses decided to risk it.	21:26
	And so we read this second passage	21:31
	from Deuteronomy chapter eight, verses seven to 10.	21:33
	He's speaking to the children of Israel.	21:44
	The Lord, your God is bringing you into a good land,	21:47
	a land brooks of water,	21:53
	of fountains and springs flowing forth in valley and hills.	21:56
	A land of wheat and barely, of vines and fig trees,	22:01
	and pomegranates.	22:06
	A land of olive trees and honey,	22:09
	a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity,	22:13
	in which you will lack nothing.	22:19
	A land whose stones are iron,	22:22
	and out of whose hills you can dig copper	22:26
	and you shall eat and be full	22:31
	and you shall bless the Lord your God,	22:34
	for the good land he has given you.	22:38
	He render the less.	22:43
	(harmonious choir music)	22:47
	Let us together affirm our faith in God.	23:29
	We believe in God who has created and is creating,	23:34
	who has come in the true man Jesus	23:39
	to reconcile and make new,	23:42
	who works in us and others by his spirit.	23:45
	We trust him.	23:50
	He calls us to be in his church to celebrate his presence,	23:52
	to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil,	23:58
	to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen,	24:03
	our judge and our hope in life in death.	24:07
	In life beyond death, God is with us,	24:13
	we are not alone.	24:17
	Thanks be to God.	24:20
-	Good friends,	24:44
	I usually tell botany students	24:46
	that I wished they'd had the curiosity	24:49
	they had as three-year olds.	24:51
	The interest in growing plants they would have at age 50,	24:53
	along with their present ability to think critically,	24:58
	what students of botany they would make.	25:01
	I ask you too, to conjure these talents and qualifications,	25:05
	because I want us to visualize the plants and the landscape	25:10
	of the Holy Land in relation to Christ present presence	25:14
	and mystery and ministry on earth.	25:19
	It is in this area alone that this laywoman	25:22
	in the pulpit today can claim the least bit	25:26
	of intellectual competence.	25:29
	Where are the of your ears in this great chapel?	25:31
	I have prepared this topic,	25:35
	not in the spirit of an academic exercise	25:37
	nor to glorifying nature,	25:41
	but to show how this interest for me	25:43
	has made the scriptures come alive.	25:46
	The Holy Land referred to as Palestine	25:52
	before the modern state of Israel was carved from it	25:55
	covers about the same area as the promised land	25:59
	showed to Moses from the top of Pisgah.	26:02
	For political reasons,	26:06
	I was enabled to cross the Israeli Jordan border	26:08
	to get the overall view Moses had.	26:12
	But I did drive to other high vantage points	26:16
	within the borders of Israel	26:19
	to get sweeping views of the landscape.	26:20
	The boundaries of the Holy Land are not precise,	26:24
	but nevertheless, familiar to most of us,	26:27
	the area is dominated by the deep Jordan Valley rift	26:31
	running roughly parallel to the shore	26:36
	of the Mediterranean Sea, about 40 miles inland,	26:38
	and the resected mountains west of the Jordan Valley,	26:43
	including the regions or provinces of Galilee,	26:47
	Samaria and Judea.	26:50
	the long narrow and vertically oriented map,	26:53
	which accompanies gospel literature,	26:57
	shows the Lebanese and Syrian borders on the north	26:59
	and the Dead Sea at the lower edge of the map.	27:04
	The entire distance from	27:08
	the Lebanon Syrian border to the southern end	27:10
	of the Dead Sea is about 150 miles.	27:14
	It is a small Holy Land, indeed.	27:18
	The Mediterranean Sea forms a western border	27:22
	of this long narrow map,	27:25
	but little is written about this great sea in the Bible.	27:28
	Most of the coastline of Palestine	27:32
	is straight and unintended.	27:35
	I learnt from a Bible Atlas published by Macmillan	27:41
	that we have no ancient maps depicting	27:45
	the Holy Land in the biblical period.	27:48
	Furthermore, if such did exist,	27:51
	it probably would have a horizontal orientation,	27:54
	not a vertical one.	27:58
	This odd orientation is inferred from double meanings	28:00
	of certain words in the Hebrew Bible.	28:05
	The word for south also means right,	28:08
	the word for north means left,	28:12
	east, forward,	28:15
	west, behind.	28:17
	The map that we are most accustomed to seeing in this day,	28:20
	of course is the modern political map of Israel	28:24
	and the surrounding Arab states.	28:28
	Paradoxically five of the modern states,	28:32
	eminently involved in the most recent tense situation	28:35
	since the Olympic fracas, can claim the presence of Christ	28:40
	during his lifetime on earth.	28:44
	There is a vast literature on most aspects of the land	28:48
	of the Bible and its people.	28:51
	Theologians, historians, archeologists and naturalists,	28:54
	since the end of the 18th century	29:00
	have been increasingly scientific	29:02
	in their approach to Bible research.	29:04
	But I am from the show me state of Missouri,	29:08
	I had to go see for myself.	29:11
	As a botanist I was familiar with	29:14
	the arid parts of our western states.	29:17
	I wanted to make some comparisons.	29:20
	I was terribly interested in everything that I saw.	29:24
	My experience was out of doors.	29:28
	I had too little time to see inside many of the shrines.	29:31
	That was not my mission.	29:35
	I did not expect to see Verdin beauty everywhere	29:37
	and our comfort at every turn.	29:42
	I feel that I must however,	29:46
	confess a fleeting thought I had on my return flight	29:48
	across the Atlantic.	29:52
	I thought to myself now that I have seen where Jesus	29:53
	had been on earth,	29:58
	I hope he can see some of the other places	30:00
	many of us have been.	30:03
	Quite Western sacrilege, I pray for forgiveness.	30:06
	In the next few minutes however,	30:11
	I think you will find that I will paint	30:13
	perhaps a more palatable picture of the Holy Land,	30:15
	than did my fellow Missourian, Mark Twain,	30:18
	who visited there more than a hundred years ago.	30:21
	I quote, "Of all the lands, there are for dismal scenery.	30:25
	"I think Palestine must be the prince.	30:30
	"The hills are barren, they're a dull of color.	30:33
	"They are unpicturesque in shape.	30:36
	"The valleys are unsightly deserts fringed	30:39
	"with a feeble vegetation that has an expression about it,	30:42
	"of being sorrowful and despondent.	30:45
	"The Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee sleep in the midst	30:48
	"of a vast stretch of hill and plain,	30:51
	"wherein the eye rests upon no pleasant thing,	30:54
	"no striking objects.	30:58
	"It is hopeless.	30:59
	"It is a hopeless dreary heartbroken land."	31:01
	Mark Twain must have been there in August too.	31:05
	But even if it were all this bad,	31:10
	what more appropriate place on the face of the earth	31:12
	would there have been for the Son of God	31:15
	to show himself to earthlings,	31:18
	and to have an effect that could spread other nations.	31:21
	This little strip of heavily populated land	31:24
	was the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe.	31:27
	In the eyes of the entire world today,	31:32
	it remains an important strip of land.	31:34
	In spite of Mr. Clemens dismal description	31:38
	and my impudent fleeting thought,	31:41
	I savored the Palestine landscape.	31:44
	I knew I would,	31:47
	although my two weeks gave me just a glimpse.	31:50
	Although I went during a very hot part of the year	31:54
	when annuals and herbacious perennials	31:57
	are dried to a crisp in much of the land.	32:00
	Although I saw the far bidding tangled,	32:04
	barked wire and armed officials near borders	32:06
	and cease fire lines and an occupied Arab SIS Jordan	32:10
	and an occupied Golan Heights.	32:14
	Although most of the hallowed sites are overrun with	32:17
	some of the ugliness of mankind and his too many edifices.	32:20
	Although there are devastating and depressing remnants	32:26
	of very recent ruins as well as ancient ruins.	32:30
	Although driving in overpopulated places like Jerusalem	32:35
	and Tel Aviv is precarious.	32:39
	And driving over a lonely roads across the Judea	32:41
	and Judean Desert Hills brought to mind	32:45
	the end of Bishop Pike	32:48
	and other modern pilgrims in the wilderness.	32:50
	Although ugly and crowded high rise buildings have altered	32:54
	the landscape of numerous places	32:58
	to accommodate many, many immigrants.	33:00
	Although my last three days were in bed recouping from	33:04
	the mid east gastrointestinal malady.	33:07
	I had no real disappointments.	33:11
	I knew discomforts and some eyesores would be,	33:14
	I saw the great outdoors of antiquity	33:18
	where peoples have lived for 8,000 years.	33:22
	I saw the landscape and conditions	33:26
	that account for expressions	33:29
	and imagery in many passages in the scriptures.	33:31
	The hills and valleys and plants and animals	33:35
	in the Bible are still there.	33:39
	There are reasons to believe that devastation	33:41
	of the land today is not much greater than it was	33:44
	in the time of Christ.	33:47
	The ecology crisis had already occurred in his day.	33:49
	Away from modern cities and industry and modern irrigated	33:55
	and mechanized agriculture.	33:59
	Some peoples live today,	34:02
	much like they did thousands of years ago.	34:04
	And much of this life is visible.	34:07
	I saw Bedouins with their sheep	34:10
	and goats wandering over vast areas of arid land,	34:12
	gleaning and grazing over sparse	34:16
	and dried up vegetation, often roots and all.	34:19
	I saw women in villages, carrying pictures on their heads.	34:23
	In small villages in late afternoon,	34:28
	I saw black roped Arab men	34:32
	with their white headcloth stooping under	34:35
	the shade of small trees.	34:38
	I saw the ancient beasts of burden,	34:42
	the surefooted harsh or donkey and the dromedary camel.	34:45
	In this tiny land, there are deserts,	34:51
	steppes, and woodlands,	34:54
	rainfall and temperature are of course the chief factors	34:57
	that determine which.	35:01
	Providing, of course there is a soil	35:03
	and providing the vegetation is undisturbed.	35:06
	In the western parts of Palestine	35:11
	the winters are wet and mild,	35:13
	and the summers are hot and absolutely dry.	35:15
	The winter winds blow from over the Mediterranean Sea	35:20
	so that the coastal plain,	35:24
	the foothills and the western slopes of mountains	35:26
	and most of Northern Galilee could be,	35:30
	or might have been thousands of years ago	35:33
	covered by woodlands and forests	35:36
	because the winter rains amount to 20 or more inches.	35:39
	This climax woodland,	35:44
	if undisturbed consists of evergreen trees	35:46
	with leathery leaves,	35:49
	commonly dominated by either evergreen oaks or pines,	35:51
	but except for the western slopes	35:58
	and heights of Mount Carmel, Mount Tabor and Mount Hermon,	36:00
	they're only tiny remnants	36:06
	of natural woodland left in this land.	36:08
	Mankind had cut trees for fuel	36:11
	and timber even before the lands	36:14
	were cleared for agriculture.	36:17
	Animals overgraze the land,	36:19
	goats especially are disruptive to trees,	36:24
	they can even climb trees.	36:28
	Only recently is systematic reforestation occurring.	36:30
	In Israel, an Israel botanists told me	36:35
	that Zionism is synonymous with reforestation.	36:39
	This is certainly in evidence.	36:44
	I believe even Mark Twain would be impressed	36:46
	with some of the new greenery.	36:49
	Native Jerusalem pine, cypress, tamarisk,	36:52
	and the humanist carob trees are planted by the thousands	36:56
	because of their modest soil and water requirements	37:00
	and their resistance to hot winds.	37:05
	Some introduced species are also planted.	37:08
	It seems strange to see eucalyptus	37:11
	and Keisarinna from Australia,	37:14
	the eucalypts were brought in	37:17
	to help drain swampy malaria infested land	37:18
	in the Hula Valley, along the upper Jordan River,	37:22
	where the valley had been damned naturally	37:26
	by volcanic elf lifts,	37:28
	but eucalyptus was found to be hardy also	37:30
	in dryer situations.	37:33
	Deserts generally occur where the annual rainfall	37:38
	is less than four to six inches.	37:42
	With 12 to 16 inches of precipitation,	37:45
	natural steppe vegetation occurs.	37:48
	Both steppe and desert are timberless landscapes.	37:52
	Steppes can have a sparse winter grass cover	37:57
	and widely spaced thorny early deciduous,	38:01
	small leaves crops.	38:05
	The world steppe is a European and Asian term,	38:08
	in the United States, our driest Western short grass plains,	38:12
	are synonymous with the steppe concept.	38:17
	Dry land farming of certain crops can take place	38:22
	in the steppe, but one gambles with the crop,	38:25
	unless it is irrigated.	38:28
	Deserts, have a similar vegetation to that steppe	38:31
	if and when moisture comes.	38:36
	But the ground cover is more sparse or even lacking.	38:39
	In Israel today, increasing amounts of desert	38:43
	are being successfully irrigated for crops	38:47
	to feed the increasing populations.	38:50
	But this is also true in our western states,	38:53
	the eastern slopes of the higher mountains	38:58
	and the Jordan Valley are in a rain shadow	39:00
	because the western winds	39:04
	from the Mediterranean Sea lose their moisture	39:05
	by the time they clear the higher mountain tops,	39:09
	the summer southerly and easterly winds are hot and dry	39:13
	because they tend to come from the great deserts	39:17
	adjacent to the Holy Land.	39:20
	There are no summer rains,	39:22
	natural desert land in Palestine occurs below the latitude	39:26
	of Beersheba and the southern end of the Dead Sea.	39:31
	Beersheba is as far south as I went,	39:36
	this is a Negev Desert.	39:42
	The Judean Desert familiarly known as a wilderness	39:45
	in the New Testament,	39:48
	occurs on the eastern slopes	39:50
	and shadowed valleys of the central mountains of Judea,	39:53
	except for the banks of Jordan and oases here and there,	39:57
	especially Jericho.	40:02
	The southern half of the Jordan Valley is real desert land.	40:04
	Steppe vegetation forms	40:10
	a west-east band above the Negev Desert	40:13
	from the Gaza Strip to the Judean Desert	40:17
	and northward on the higher eastern Judean slopes,	40:20
	as well as all the eastern slopes	40:24
	of the lower Samarian Mountains	40:27
	and the northern half of Jordan Valley.	40:30
	As far as we know, Christ left the borders	40:34
	of the Holy Land, only twice.	40:37
	To Egypt, Joseph and Mary fled with a child Jesus	40:40
	from Bethlehem in the lee of King Herod's orders	40:44
	to kill all boy babies.	40:47
	In Christ's later life,	40:50
	he wants journey north away from the traditional Holy Land	40:53
	to retire briefly from growing opposition.	40:57
	Lebanon can claim this visit .	41:01
	The rest and major portion of the documented travels	41:05
	of Christ can be claimed by Israel, Jordan and Syria.	41:08
	Much of the Bible narrative takes place	41:14
	in the rocky hill regions.	41:17
	It is rocky because the trees had been destroyed	41:19
	and the soil had eroded away.	41:22
	There was a legend about an angel	41:27
	who carried two bags of stones to spread over entire earth.	41:29
	One bag broke over the hills of the Holy Land.	41:35
	The gospel story begins and ends	41:39
	in the high Judean Hills in Bethlehem,	41:42
	and finally in Jerusalem.	41:45
	Both are on a single mountain range,	41:48
	about six miles apart in a slight depression	41:50
	between higher mountains to the north	41:54
	and to the south of this same range.	41:56
	This range is but nine or 10 miles cross country	41:59
	from the Dead Sea, but 4,000 feet above the Dead Sea.	42:03
	The steep slopes east of Bethlehem are in the rain shadow	42:10
	thus steppe and desert.	42:16
	This is of course the Judean wilderness	42:19
	of the New Testament,	42:21
	more gentle slopes and foothills to the west of Bethlehem	42:24
	have a Mediterranean climate with mild wet winters	42:28
	and dry hot summers.	42:33
	Bethlehem is on the western slope near the ridge.	42:36
	The flat top houses are of white stone,	42:42
	vineyards and olive archers,	42:46
	and some fields of grain are partitioned	42:47
	or terraced with walls of stone.	42:51
	Where else could they put the stones?	42:54
	In August when I was there,	42:58
	the grain fields look completely barren,	42:59
	but some sheep were still grazing perhaps off the stable	43:02
	and very sparse vegetation among the stable.	43:06
	We must discard the idea unless we already have	43:11
	that the manger was anything like our familiar barns	43:15
	or stables as pictured or modeled	43:18
	in so many Christmas crushes.	43:22
	The manger, no doubt was in a cave under	43:25
	a one room flat top stone house.	43:27
	After Herod's death,	43:32
	Joseph and Mary took Jesus to their home land of Nazareth.	43:33
	The principal's center of lower Galilee	43:37
	overlooking the fertile valley of Jezreel	43:40
	that separates the Hills of Galilee	43:42
	from the Hills of Samaria.	43:45
	The economy of Nazareth today is based on tobacco, olives,	43:48
	grapes, and deciduous fruits.	43:54
	It was here that Jesus spent his youth and begin	43:58
	his teachings.	44:03
	He no doubt climbed Mount Tabor on many occasions as a boy,	44:05
	it was just five and a half miles to the east.	44:09
	Probably the lumber for his father's carpentry shop came	44:13
	from Mount Tabor.	44:16
	We actually know a little about Christ childhood,	44:19
	except for his visit with his parents	44:21
	away from Nazareth at age 12 to Jerusalem	44:24
	for the Feast of the Passover.	44:28
	At about age 30, Jesus left his home land of Nazareth	44:31
	after preaching his famous sermon	44:35
	for which he was angrily rejected.	44:38
	Meantime, John the Baptist	44:42
	was preaching baptism of repentance in the Jordan Valley.	44:43
	There was a deep spiritual ferment in Judea at that time.	44:48
	Among the multitude who flock to be baptized	44:53
	was Jesus himself.	44:56
	This probably occurred in the Jordan River,	44:59
	near Jericho and the Dead Sea.	45:03
	The cease fire line prevented my getting to this spot.	45:06
	Thou I did indeed try,	45:10
	but my drive from Ramallah	45:14
	where I visited Professor Cartwright's daughter	45:16
	who was teaching Arabs in a Quaker school	45:19
	to Jericho over a winding lonely little used road down	45:23
	the steep incline through steppe and desert	45:29
	and ever so suddenly to the oasis near Jericho	45:33
	was the perhaps the most imposing experience I had.	45:37
	At the Jericho Oasis and adjacent irrigated valley lands.	45:42
	There are banana, date, palm, pomegranate,	45:47
	and citrus plantations,	45:51
	and tropical fruits such as mangoes,	45:53
	as well as deciduous fruits, grapes,	45:55
	garden vegetables, and green crops.	45:58
	I look back at the Jordan Wilderness through which I drove	46:02
	to think about the 40 days Jesus spent in seclusion.	46:05
	I was glad my Hertz rented car	46:09
	had been in good running condition during my drive.	46:11
	After a quick visit to Qumran and the Dead Sea,	46:15
	I drove up the valley road to Tiberias.	46:19
	Jesus, we recall, ended his 40 days in the wilderness	46:23
	in Jerusalem and he probably traveled through Samaria Hills.	46:31
	Although this was not the usual custom for Jews.	46:36
	He traveled to the Sea of Galilee.	46:41
	Although Tiberias had been built	46:46
	during Christ's childhood.	46:47
	There is no record that he ever went there.	46:49
	He adopted Capernum on the northern shores of the lake	46:53
	as his home city.	46:56
	It was in this land of the upper Jordan and on the shores,	46:59
	shore cities of the lake that Jesus gathered his disciples,	47:04
	healed the sick, preach to throngs,	47:08
	gave the Sermon on the Mount, still the waters,	47:12
	fed 5,000 from a few fish and several loaves of bread.	47:16
	And finally was recognized by Peter as the Messiah	47:21
	Josephus and early historian describe	47:29
	the lake land of Galilee as so fruitful	47:32
	that all sorts of trees grow upon it,	47:36
	especially walnuts, palms, figs, and olives.	47:38
	My most pleasant drive was north toward Mount Hermon	47:43
	through the drain Hula Valley,	47:47
	and to several of the sources of the Jordan River.	47:50
	A young Australian couple and I cooled	47:54
	a small round watermelon in a very cold spring	47:56
	at Caesarea Philippi.	48:00
	Jesus of course made his last trip away from Galilee,	48:03
	and his entry into Jerusalem.	48:08
	After a very short ministry,	48:10
	the story is familiar to all of us.	48:14
	My hotel in Jerusalem was on the Mount of Olives,	48:17
	overlooking the wall city.	48:20
	The Old Wall City of Jerusalem	48:23
	was much changed from the time of Christ,	48:25
	but there is a sizeable carefully reconstructed model	48:28
	of the Old City at the time of the Second Temple	48:32
	on the grounds of the Hotel of the Holy Land	48:35
	in the western section of the newer part of Jerusalem.	48:38
	This is much worth seeing.	48:41
	In closing let me summarize by saying,	48:45
	Jesus Christ in his home land taught his followers	48:48
	to have faith in God and to love and serve mankind.	48:53
	To have faith in God, we should be quiet and reflective.	48:59
	To love and serve God we should live outside of ourselves.	49:04
	To do all these things our daily chores,	49:09
	and personal problems must not consume us,	49:12
	but Christian faith and love need bolstering,	49:16
	and nurturing, and periodic renewal.	49:19
	I have found that my professional interest in botany	49:22
	can lead to rather than away from the scriptures,	49:25
	and thus rekindle	49:30
	and maintain the natural instincts of religious need	49:32
	as well as an active identification with Christianity,	49:37
	and a thirst for more understanding.	49:41
	If a plant or a habitat or a geographical center setting	49:44
	brings to mind or causes me to search	49:50
	for either some part of the life	49:54
	or teachings of Jesus Christ	49:55
	or the historical setting in the Old Testament,	49:58
	I have been nurtured and blessed.	50:01
	Matthew Claudius a German quote wrote,	50:05
	and this is a English translation.	50:07
	See what you can and use your eyes	50:10
	and let God's word bind you to the unseen	50:14
	and all that is eternal.	50:17
	The scientific training that I've had	50:20
	has not helped my understanding of God and his grace	50:22
	in any explicit way.	50:26
	But I like Voltaire's aphorism,	50:28
	"If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him."	50:31
	Let my closing prayer be a rephrasing	50:38
	of Matthew Claudius's few lines, let us pray.	50:41
	Our father, let us see what we can and use our eyes	50:46
	and let your word bind us to the unseen	50:52
	and all that is eternal.	50:56
	Amen.	50:58
	(soft pipe organ music)	51:04
	(harmonious choir music)	51:48
	(soft pipe organ music)	54:12
	(harmonious choir music)	55:30
	(soft pipe organ music)	58:54
	(harmonious choir music)	59:46
-	Oh God, father of all mercies receive this offering,	1:00:48
	which we present to thee as part of our worship,	1:00:53
	may these gifts be the symbol of our consecration unto thee	1:00:58
	and to thy son, Jesus Christ our Lord.	1:01:04
	Amen.	1:01:09
	And may the blessing of God come upon you abundantly,	1:01:16
	may it keep you strong	1:01:21
	and tranquil in the truth of his promises	1:01:23
	through Jesus Christ our Lord.	1:01:28
	(harmonious choir music)	1:01:33
	(bell rings)	1:03:04
	(soft pipe organ music)	1:03:27
	(group chattering)	1:03:57

Item Info

Title:

Jane Philpott - "A Botanist in the Holy Land" (October 8, 1972)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r40p11s40

Date:

October 8, 1972

Speaker:

Philpott, Jane

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0635
ref6473_nt8
uachapelsermaud
duke:628656
dcrau002620
ark:/87924/r40p11s40
b58f737f-1b65-4075-98b5-05c392b12752

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Language:

English

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United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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Jane Philpott - "A Botanist in the Holy Land" (October 8, 1972)

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