Special August Program
A Rare Treat from the Holy Land
 

  Tuesday, August 5, 2008 - 11:00 AM    
Trinity Undercroft  

Gary and Cindy Bayer in a field near where Gideon chose his Army, overlooking the Harod Valley. The flowers are ranunculous....grown for their seeds. There were ribbons of red, orange, pink, yellow and white flowers............ beautiful !!!!!

 

Gary and Cindy Bayer will speak on their experiences as American Christians and life in the Holy Land. They have a fourth floor apartment in the Old City on the Via Dolorosa and a new home on the Sea of Galilee in Tiberias, where they entertain extensively. Cindy is a writer and Gary is connected with music, photography, and films in New York and Hollywood.

Some of you have been email recipients of their most interesting "JERUSALEM JOURNALS".  I was put in contact with them through a pastor friend some time ago and have found their Journals on life in the Holy Land most informative. When I became aware that they would be passing through Asheville, I contacted and scheduled a program for Seniors-At-Trinity in the Undercroft  for Tuesday, August 5, 2008 at 11:00 am (Coffee at 10:30).

Lunch will follow with a Special Mediterranean Platter at Jerusalem Garden Cafe.  The cost for lunch is $10 and the Trinity bus will be available for transportation to the Cafe.  

Reservations / Cancellations are requested. A sign-up Sheet for lunch at the Jerusalem Garden Cafe may be found at the Trinity Reception Desk or you may cal Mary Summersette at 253-9361 or you may contact her by email.

All are welcome regardless of age!

Yours in Christ,   Margaret Ensley

 

Jerusalem Journal # 136

Do you remember the cantankerous, but loveable milkman, Tevye, in Fiddler on the Roof? Set in pre-revolutionary Russia, when anti-semitic segments of Russian society instituted pogroms intended to cleanse the land of Jews, Tevye’s words could ring true for Israelis today. “A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? But here, in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn't easy. You may ask 'Why do we stay up there if it's so dangerous?' Well, we stay because Anatevka is our home. And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word: Tradition!”  

That same resolve is a core conviction of Israelis who witness events like this past week when a terrorist on rampage commandeered a bulldozer on one of the busiest streets in Jerusalem, intent on destroying as many Jewish lives as possible. With continual threats from without aimed at Israel by Iran, Syria, and Hizb’allah, and those from within by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and others, people living here ask themselves if it is worth staying. Most, agree that it is, but all long for a place where they don’t have to fear a walk to the market and music in the streets is not from the sound of sirens.        

The Brock family of The International House of Prayer (in K.C.)were "fiddlers" on our roof as they played out over the Old City  (photo left)

Music throughout the ages has been a valuable treasure.  Even as early as Genesis 4 the three main professions listed were shepherds, musicians, and metal workers. Evidence of how valuable musicians were in ancient Israel shows up in an Assyrian text which includes musicians, along with gold and silver, in the list of costly tribute Judah’s king, Hezekiah, sent to Nineveh to appease Sennacherib during the siege of Jerusalem in 701 BC .  

Many Biblical figures used music to tell stories, to give a prophetic word, to call troops into battle, in funeral dirges, and to rejoice in victory. Artists through the ages have depicted musicians with a variety of instruments on vases, in mosaics, through paintings, and in sculptures. In the Psalms, David’s heart for worship is expressed as he calls for praise with harp, lyre, trumpet, tambourine, stringed instruments, pipes and cymbals. I’m thirsty for his extravagance and abandon in praise of The Creator, aren’t you?         

A woman plays a double pipe in this mosaic floor at a Roman city rebuilt by Herod's son, Antipas, only three miles from Nazareth (photo right)

One of the places where I find my heart particularly stirred is the balcony off our apartment in the Old City. From there, Jerusalem’s history swirls in an aroma which rises like incense. Ancient stone houses mound upon one another in a mosaic ascending from Ha-Gai Street (Valley Street) just below us, to the western ridge. It can be intoxicating. 

Only 3' by 6', the balcony is a place where, on summer mornings, when the sun has not yet rounded the hodgepodge of water heaters and satellite dishes on our roof, I can stay cool in a hammock strung from railing to railing, suspended somewhere between heaven and earth. Church bells, muezzins, and the blasts of a ram’s horn take their turn filling the air with worship music in a type of heavenly competition. 

Long before the Sabbath horn sounded last Friday, I was enjoying the music of a clarinet lesson being held on the Jewish seminary rooftop below, where pupil and teacher took turns with the instrument. I was thinking on the theme for this journal…something about “music on the rooftops of Jerusalem.”      

From our balcony the fabric of the Old City from Ha-Gai St. serves as a backdrop for a clarinet lesson on the Yeshiva roof (photo left)

Suddenly, as a type of celestial confirmation on the theme, the reverberation of a full orchestra playing Beethoven’s “Hymn to Joy” came wafting through the air. I only sang through the first stanza of the modern lyrics, “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee, God of Glory, Lord of love…,” before I was out of the hammock (out of my shorts and into capris…remember, I live in the Muslim Quarter) and down the stairway to find the source.

  At the corner, I rang the entry bell at the majestic Austrian Hospice (Guesthouse). At the sound of the buzzer I entered through a weathered double door, climbed up a flight of cave-like stairs and out into the sunlight through a courtyard of pink oleander, before stepping into the colonnaded lobby.  On the right was the reception desk, where Constantine (I remarked to him that his name sounded quite aristocratic) asked my business.  

“I heard music and came to find the source,” I said, excitedly, as though I was drawn into some kind of hunt for treasure. “Yes, the orchestra is in rehearsals for tomorrow night’s concert here,” replied Constantine. His blue eyes matched his crisp cotton oxford shirt and there was a European accent to his English.  “Tell me about the concert, please,” I begged. “It is called, ‘Sounding Jerusalem’ and will be played by members of an international chamber music festival from four different rooftops here in the Old City after sunset.” Surely I had a look of disbelief on my face as I followed his directions upstairs to the rehearsal hall. 

Young musicians sauntered from the elegantly ceiled hall with their instrument cases in tow as I introduced myself to Rainer Auerbach, a German trumpet soloist who would direct the evening’s performance. Pen and paper in hand, I jotted notes as he shared with me the artistic director’s vision for encouraging peace between Jews and Palestinians through the medium of music. As Rainer spoke of Israeli and Palestinian musicians joining the internationals for the concert, one of the lines from “Hymn to Joy” flashed into my mind, “Teach us how to love each other, lift us to the joy divine.”      

Guests gather at sunset on the roof of the Austrian Hospicebefore musicians filled the nighttime air with the sound of music  (photo left) 

Saturday evening I prepared chicken with a white wine mushroom sauce, Gary set a candlelit table for two on the balcony, and hanging low in the twilight sky…was the imprint of God’ssmiling kiss on the evening…a slender sliver of a new moon. Music filled the Old City in a romantic combination of emotion and the sounds of “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee” played from rooftops around us as we, too, became participants. In a life of uncertainty and imbalance, we all, like “fiddlers on the roof,” need to look for opportunities to break out into songs of joy as David modeled in Psalm 150. “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

Hallelujah!”   Let the concert begin!