Sacred Sweets and Heavenly Fields

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The sky has a light fog, as we drive from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The air is this strange combination of cool and very dry.

We met our lovely guide, Shany.  (Meir will join us in a couple of days.) She welcomes our weary selves. Shany has been leading trips for seven years. She shared with us while taking her leave during her time in the military; she discovered her love for the outdoors and hiking. At some point on her journey, she began asking herself (because as she noted some of your greatest conversations are the ones you have with yourself) She said, “Shany?” “Yes, Shany?” “Isn’t it about time you started living a life you love?” She said she remembered her first days at studying to be a guide. “This is it!” This whole new world opened up. She saw the beauty of this land she had been born in and realized she could share that love with people week after week. “I think I have the best job in the world. My office is always changing. The people I get to work with are varied and always provide the opportunity for a fresh challenge and outlook for me and for them.”

As we continued to Jerusalem, the subject on the bus turned toward seasons and agriculture. We were driving through farmland and fields of wheat. Shany shared with us that we are in between the flowers and the fruit. The spring flowers have come. Pastor Josephine Fleming (South Carolina) spoke up and asked, “What fruits are in season?” Shany replied, “They all are about to be.” Glory! We are about to step into a season of great fruitfulness! Can you feel it?

It was on my heart (Elizabeth) to sing a song as went drove along. All week, “We’re Marching to Zion” kept flooding over me. It has been many years since I have sang the second verse, but I was blown away. We had spent the last half hour talking about seasons and fruit. And we were headed to Jerusalem. Then this:

The hill of Zion yields
A thousand sacred sweets
Before we reach the heav’nly fields,
Before we reach the heav’nly fields,
Or walk the golden streets.
Or walk the golden streets.
 We’re marching to Zion,
Beautiful, beautiful Zion;
We’re marching upward to Zion,
The beautiful city of God.

“Sacred sweets? Heavenly Fields?” But we haven’t even walked “the golden streets!” Oh! It’s before all that. I love when God stamps His presence in ways beyond our ability to figure and premeditate. It was a testimony to me of Him being with us. There it was: His signature ways, ways that are higher.

Quietly at the back of the bus, Molly and Taylor begin to worship:

“Your praise will Ever Be on my lips.”

We entered Jerusalem. We passed the remains of some kind of celebration in a park. Flags and tents. Shany explained that it was the remnants of the Jerusalem Marathon. It had happened the day before. And because it ended leading into sundown on the Sabbath, they left everything up and would come back to clear down after sundown on Saturday. There were 30,000 runners in this 26-mile race that wound around Jerusalem (new and old). She said, “Personally, I don’t get it- running forever. I did speak to a member of the group I was leading who came just to participate in the marathon about what it was like to run in Jerusalem. They responded, “I don’t know how its possible, but everything is uphill. You are running uphill for 26 miles.”

I am sure there are many a reader familiar with marathons of running uphill. The uphill battles in and around our lives can wear us down, but

“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Keeping running your race! We drove past a place where their race… it was finished. All that remained was the evidence that a race had happened there. We witnessed the remains of a finished race.

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2

We reached our overlook and gathered for a moment to pause and perform the ceremony of blessing as we entered the City. Before us, was a gorgeous view of the City of David, the Pilgrim Steps, the Old City Walls. Just as the sun was setting. There is little like it.

It was on Pastor Thomas’s heart that we pause here. Roby Mizrahi had met us at the airport and road with us to Jerusalem. Pastor took a moment to remember the fact that it was the Lord who had established our relationship with the Mizrahi’s so many years ago. Roby’s father, Joseph, had work with the leader of our group, Rev. Loran Helm, from the 70’s on. Pastor Jerry and Pastor Thomas have been working with his son Roby. And we have dear friend in Joseph’s grandson, Erez (who met us at the airport for a few minutes, but will be joining us later in Jerusalem).

Pastor Thomas took a moment to thank Roby for his hard work in getting this trip together and to offer our condolences at the loss of his mother Sarah, Joseph’s wife. Pastor Thomas expressed his appreciation for Joseph and ask that we all pray for him as he has stepped in the twilight of his days at 96. He asked for me to sing, “Hine Ma Tov Umanaim” in appreciation. It is based off of the first verse of Psalm 133:

 “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!”

Pastor Jerry began to share about not getting distracted in this time. About doing our best to disconnect from home for these moments so that we can embrace the fullness of them to bring them back to all of you. So dear friends, if you have loved ones on this trip, give them the grace of not being fully available to you because they need to be fully available to God.

He encouraged us not to go into full on tourist mode. Just looking through a camera lens and taking selfies. (I couldn’t help it and spoke up, “Deny Selfie!”) He reminded us we are here on assignment and we must be at attention to obey and move together.

Shany then explained she had a special surprise arranged by Yarkon Tours. We were going to bless this first moment together as the Jewish pilgrims do when they come to Israel. It is a blessing that gives thanks to God for being able to experience a special or new occasion:

 The Shehecheyanu Blessing
  “Barukh ata adonai elohenu melekh ha’olam,
shehecheyanu, v’kiyimanu,
v’higiyanu la’z’man ha’zeh,” 

Translation:

 “Blessed are You Lord our God,
Ruler of the Universe who has given us life,
sustained us, and allowed us to reach this moment.”

You drink a little cup of the vine.  As we poured the wine, Molly sang “Jerusalem of Gold.” We drank and toasted “L’chaim!” “To life!”

And then we ripped off a piece of bread and dipped it in salt. We took and ate.

It was very much like communion. So not only were we doing it in “remembrance of” Him, we partook to bless God and remember the moment we were in.

--> We received the sacred sweets of this holy place and this holy hour. And while we neither marched, nor ran to Zion, our entrance into this city, this country, this hour was heavenly. -->