I am in full blown summer. The need for fans, the pathetic short tempered market goers, the absorbent heat, all seem to mark Jerusalem at this time of year. The heat is as expected: my physical and temporal destinations seem a little less obvious.
I am writing for two distinct reasons. First, I am writing to inform the very few who read my blog that I intend to post more frequently; secondly, to comment a bit on the happenings and drama of my summer.
My comments will follow as they fall on me. I suppose I will talk in brief about Burna and bitterness, the reign of Christ and its affect on the my heart and the church... So here gos... I have found a kind of respite in garden work and mopping over these summer months. Its a little under the radar and a bit dull but it pays the rent and priveledges the doers. My schedule has been more inconsistent due to the draw of trying to make connections and trying to spend time with people who are coming in and out. I have obligations on campus that absorb more time than I should give to them, but soon I will get the balance right. I have had extra time this summer to invest in travel and this only seems appropriate given that I am studying the places and ideologies that have originated and emerged from these very places.
Late June, I was privileged to dig at Tel Burna and you can check out the website to see the details of that excavation. It was headed up by the Bar Ilan team... http://telburna.wordpress.com/
Early July, a short-term student rented a car and invited me to tour with him. We made our way round the country, hiking Mt. Hermon and En Gedi (Ivan ought to remember this one). A little park ranger confrontation only added to the excursion. Late night clean after Holland beat Uruguay and one computer out the boot later, stephen was at the airport.
The next day, we traveled to Tel es Safi and met up with memebers of the Bar Ilan-Burna team that explained the site to us. This is kinda it, in a word. I intend to write more and be a bit more detailed but I thought this would do for the time being...
As for a little digression on Church, I thought I might add... Church, here, is mark with the constant mantras of Jesus' jewishness and the primacy of Judaism as a springboard for understanding the Christian scriptures or Israel is bigger than the lot of Eber and his talodot. I could give examples from both sides of the seam where hermeneutic bleeds by consequence and is, like it or not, predetermined in the eye of the beholder. Caught betwixt and taught, too often I feel un-equipped to test systems, question ideologies and critique the modern progression. Its so inflamed and people are less interested in common sense readings, we are interested in perpetuating a piety of tradition or anti-tradition. On all sides there is a great need for re-evaluation and reformation... At times I am enviable of so many people that divorce theology from its affect on them, though I think that no matter how divorced the two become in word, they are always associated in reality, realized or not.
The encouraging bit runs like this: God will build His church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.
