Jane Philpott - "A Botanist in the Holy Land" (October 8, 1972)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(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 |