Easter and Christmas

Mary, Did You Know?

Easter Egg Tree

Today was Easter in parts of the Holy Land.  The Orthodox Church, as well as many others churches, celebrates a week later than we do in the West. So after a leisurely morning with devotions beside the Sea of Galilee, we set off to Nazareth for worship.  


Our first stop was to the well where Mary had her angelic encounter with Gabriel. The Orthodox Church of St. Gabriel was built over a natural spring, one that the first century women visited regularly. Imagine being a young girl in a village made up of several families. The caves where they lived in could be contained within one football field. Making her daily walk to gather water at the well, Mary is visited by an angel who tells her she will become pregnant with the Messiah. This small village girl must have dropped her water jug!  

The Orthodox Church feels ancient. Built in the 1700s, you could feel the thousands upon thousands of prayers that have been offered in this place. As old and adorned as it was, the Easter Egg Tree outside the entrance enchanted us. None of us could imagine such a display in our home churches.

The "Wrong" Baptist Church

We walked around the corner to the Nazareth Baptist Church. I recognized the area but was surprised when we entered a church building because I remembered the church being located in a school.  Rami, our guide, spoke to the elder and we were assured we were in the right place.  

Only we weren't.  

This only dawned on me when the service started and I didn't see anyone I knew. It was only then that I realized that the Local Baptist Church must still be meeting in the school next door.  We had stumbled into the wrong church. Yes, it was a baptist church but not the one where I had been invited to share in the service. Since I sitting in the front pew, I couldn't stand up in the middle of the Easter service and leave. 

The people in the "wrong" church were lovely. They invited Paige to play the piano and between us signing in English and the congregation in Arabic, it was a rousing worship service.  When the service ended, I scooted out and went to the other church, just as they were singing their final song.  They graciously asked me to speak despite being an hour late.  Afterwards, we enjoyed fellowship with this vibrant congregation.  

My dear friend, Dr. Yohanna Katanacho, lingered afterwards and gave us a bit of an orientation to his perspective on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. Yohanna is a New Testament scholar and a dear friend of many years. Joy radiated from every pore of his being as he spoke of the call to love the enemy in what he called "ortho-pathos,"  - right suffering for God. He emphasized that union with Christ is the greatest thing in the world and should that mean suffering with him, he would do so with grace.    

After these two Easter services, we returned to the Christmas story with a a tour of the Catholic Church of the Annunciation. Here we saw the home of both Mary and Joseph. The church is adorned with depictions of the Madonna and Christ Child. Each of us had our favorites.  

We arrived back to the hotel with our hearts full. We had bookmared the day with sites and stories of our two greatest Christian holidays. But what probably may have moved us the most was the memory of the early morning sunrise on this Easter Sunday. When the sun peeked over the mountains, creation delightfully proclaimed, "He is risen!"  Many of us noted that it was this same sunrise that Jesus saw throughout his ministry in Galilee. Yes, he is risen and he is truly with us here!

Easter Sunrise Over the Sea of Galilee