The Land of Living Stones

The Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in the Old City of Jerusalem has a service annually on October 31^st, and not for Halloween! No, this day is remembered by many Christians (especially Lutherans) around the world as Reformation Day, a commemoration of that fateful day when Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Church. Now, I am an Episcopanabaptiquaker by virtue of my various religious affiliations over the years and Luther never really grabbed my imagination or my interest too long. I was more into the shady dealings that brought the Anglican Church into being to curb papal power in England or the brilliant, brave martyrs of the brethren who were hunted down across Europe and killed indiscriminately by Lutherans, Calvinists, and Catholics. So I’ve never read his stuff though I’m a bit blindly prejudiced against him based on some things I’ve heard fifth-hand about his views.

 

Maybe it will all change this year with my weekly attendance at Redeemer, and my frequent contact with all the Lutherans in the Holy Land—there are eight American internationals I know in Bethlehem affiliated with them, plus countless in Jerusalem. There are I think at least three Lutheran private schools in Bhem too. They’ve really made a name around here. It’s pretty close to what I’ve experienced service-wise in Episcopal congregations…though I can’t say I know many of the hymns. The service for Reformation day included Arabic, English, Danish, and German speaking congregations that meet there for worship, and what a crowd we were! A school from Bethlehem got their choir kids special permission to enter Israel for their performance and it was great.

 

I’ve heard one good quip here attributed to Luther, that clergy are like manure. Spread them out and they encourage growth, but when all together, they stink. I saw dozens of people in clerical vestments, some not actually from Lutheran churches, but it was funny to see so many in one place. Having three languages alternating was interesting, and it was difficult to sing or recite when the voices around were speaking completely different words. I like though, that pentecostal sense of things, many tongues united for worship.

 

A few days ago I finished a book that I’ve long desired to read based on many positive recommendations: A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. I think it qualifies as some sort of American classic. I was extremely moved by the narrative and I found myself very much identifying with the voice of Johnny Wheelwright who tells Owen’s story from his perspective. As the best friend of a very unique individual who believes he is directly an instrument of God, Johnny plays the role of “Joseph”, the obedient observer, the man on the sidelines. I don’t want to ruin anything if someone hasn’t had the chance to read it, but it provokes a lot of interesting questions about faith-doubt, divine intervention, miracles-coincidence, the morality of war, etc. All those things that I like to ponder.

 

Especially in the extended scene of the Christmas pageant, I was struck by the story’s resonance with my spiritual journey/personal experience of life in the Episcopal church and then with being here in Bethlehem town—the original. Just as it’s the cast of characters in the pageant who make it profound, it is the living stones, the people of this land that make it holy, not the place itself.

It’s hard to imagine a more fitting setting for a first-time olive harvester than the very Mount of Olives. I even know it in Arabic: Jabal iz Zeitoun. Actually there aren’t too many olive trees still in the area–it probably wouldn’t get that name today. But up at Augusta Victoria Hospital, home to the Lutheran World Federation offices in Jerusalem, from which MCC rents an office, there are over 800 olive trees belonging to LWF which are harvested every year to make Olive Oil which is sold in a fundraiser for the hospital. the Mustasfa (not to brag about my Arabic again…wink) provides care for Palestinian children and adults who have limited resources and they turn no one away. The Lutherans do great things here in the Holy Land. I cannot afford to send home 10 bottles, as is the base amount, but if you are interested in purchasing some of this fundraising oil (in pretty glass bottles) let me know and I can help you.

So on October 11th, friends gathered to kick off the six week season of olive picking by arriving at the LWF grove ready to take down those olives, like yours truly who hadn’t a clue what the process might involve. It’s actually pretty simple: get the olives down gently and collect them minus branches and stones. We used hand rakes and tarps to increase our efficiency, basically combing the branches so the little olives would plunk onto the tarps and then we could lift them en masse into burlap sacks. Simple doesn’t mean easy. It is quite a labor intensive process and the branches are a lot like tangled hair without conditioner that you’re going through with a nit comb. Also, olives are really quite heavy when collected. With my friends from church and other places the time was quite fun though, hours of work with plenty of hilarious interludes. At the end of the day we had a celebratory picnic with tasty Palestinian dishes.

I must say that our experience was substantially more pleasant than it will be for many Palestinians whose olive trees are on the wrong side of the wall or in “closed military zones” or near settlements, who will have a terrible time negotiating permissions, attacks, and other obstacles to collecting their harvest. It takes a long time–we got through maybe 30 trees of 800 in one day–and this season is filled with tension and sometimes hardship as people attempt to sustain themselves with the livelihood of olives. Many internationals go out and help with Palestinian olive harvest efforts and there has already been some serious violence in certain areas. Pray that everyone who is harvesting will be able to safely do so and that crops will be plentiful to aid this hard economic time.

Pictures soon!