Sea of Galilee

If yesterday morning we were more like tourists, today we have become more like conventional Christian pilgrims. The challenge now has to be to connect it all up, and discover for ourselves how following in Jesus’s footsteps gives us the resources to deal with the justice issues and the quest for peace that have been very much the focus of our thoughts and activity for most of this past week.

One discovery today for at least some of us has been that he didn’t have very far to go. We’ve been on and off the bus all day (and we realise of course that he and his friends had to walk everywhere), but I don’t think anything has been more than ten or fifteen miles away. True, it’s a bit further up over the hills to Nazareth: but by once he’d come down to the lake, the whole of Jesus’s Galilean ministry was exercised in a remarkably confined area.

We began the morning with visit to Kursi – like Bet She’an visited yesterday,  one of Israel’s National Parks. (In fact it is situated within disputed territory, lying below the Golan Heights and being part of the land which was taken from Syria after the six day war – but we’re not concentrating  on such recent history today.) Kursi boasts the remains of the largest known Byzantine monastery in the Holy Land, probably built in the 5^th century. However, the Jesus connection is that this is the site traditionally associated with the Gadarene Swine. We duly climbed a little way up the hill to sense the potential for self destruction, and realised that this was an excellent start to the day as we were able to look across the lake back to the north western shore, and recognise where all the activity took place, and where now every spot is marked by a pilgrim church.

We began at probably the best known, the Mount of the Beatitudes. Whether or not this is the exact spot, it’s hard to doubt that he will have talked and taught somewhere on these hillsides. Maybe this is a church that does not sit easily with everyone’s interpretation of the text, but for all the excesses of religious tourism, no doubt many of the crowds (more than ten buses were in when we arrived at 9.45) come genuinely seeking a blessing. We were blessed in having a time together and being allowed a quiet place in the grounds to celebrate holy communion.

 Then we made our way on foot in brilliant sunshine down to the main road, to the sound of birdsong and in the company of darting swallows, while enjoying the sight of spring flowers in fields and hedges.

Crossing the road we visited the Mensa Christi Church, right on the lakeshore, recalling the story of Jesus breakfasting with his friends. And yes, the church shelters of course the rock which he used for a table!  Next door at Tavgha the Eucharistic meal is recalled in the most celebrated mosaic in the Holy Land, replicated on plate and bowl and chalice sold in the every souvenir outlet, yet still moving to see in its original state. Equally beautiful are the ancient mosaics of ibis and other birds, also protected in this modern church building.

Capernaum synagogue

After lunch (falafels again!) it was a case of “all aboard!” as sailed on the lake in a full sized tourist boat, which we twelve had all to ourselves. The sea was mirror calm and the sun shone over the lake, while a slight haze seemed to accentuate the beauty of the scene. Landing at Capernaum, we first visited the Greek church, and then moved on to the ruins of Capernaum – the last visit of the day. Here the Franciscan guardians have managed to build an unbelievably ugly church over the site – but today, unusually, it was open, and from the centre it was possible to look down into the actual ruins of the ancient church below.
To my mind more moving is the ruined monumental synagogue, dating only from the 4^th century, but built of a white stone which is laid on the basalt foundation of an earlier building. In an environment where every church seems to compete to assure the visitor that this was the spot, that he really was here, I like the idea that that earlier layer of stones may have touched his feet, and yet nothing is left to contain him.

Every Christian pilgrim has to make what they can of the story. Those of us from the more liberal traditions are liable to find ourselves using words like “allegedly” and “may be” rather freely – but of course there is no doubting that this is the lake, and these are the hills, and this is the whole natural environment that was the essential backdrop to his ministry and message. But it did not end here in Galilee. For Jesus, Jerusalem beckoned – and that’s the direction we will be travelling in tomorrow.