Jesus sleeping through the storm

Here's the sermon that I shared at St Catherine's Wickford this morning:

With Jesus in the boat,
we can smile at the storm,
smile at the storm,
smile at the storm.
With Jesus in the boat,
we can smile at the storm
as we go sailing home.

Who remembers that old children’s chorus? It’s based on the idea that Jesus stills our storms enabling us to sail serenely through life until we weigh anchor in heaven. But to read this story in that way you have to ignore everything else that happens in the story in order to focus only on Jesus’ stilling of the storm which the song then makes normative for our Christian lives (Mark 4.35-41).

In other words, it ignores Jesus sleeping through the storm, the disciples panic in the storm, and Jesus’ rebuke of them for their lack of faith. It would be a very different song if it took on board the rest of the story, maybe something along these lines:

With Jesus asleep in the boat,
we can panic in the storm,
panic in the storm,
panic in the storm.
With Jesus asleep in the boat,
we can panic in the storm
as we go swiftly under.

We don’t like the idea that God might be sleeping on the job while we are going through crises, so we naturally concentrate on the moment when Jesus saves the day and make that part of the story the part that we teach and remember. But to be true to scripture, we can’t simply pick and choose the bits that we like and ignore the rest. Instead, we need to deal with all that is involved in a story like this and, when we do, then a very different point emerges.

Why is Jesus asleep during the storm? Presumably, he is able to sleep because he trusts his disciples to get him safely to the other side of Lake Galilee, even in the midst of a storm. After all, many of them are fishermen, experienced sailors, while he is, as a carpenter, a landlubber. The disciples know boats and they know the lake, it makes sense that he would trust them to sail safely from one side of the lake to the other. He trusts them enough that he can catch up on some sleep while they get on with doing what they are actually very good at doing. The disciples have skills and knowledge of sailing and Jesus expects them to use these and trusts that they will use them well.

The problem comes, of course, when they don’t use their skills and knowledge well. The strength of the storm is such that they panic and don’t take actions (like taking down the sail, bailing out the water, and steering against the storm rather than with it) which would have enabled them to ride out the storm and get to the other side of the lake. They made the situation worse by panicking and it was their panic which could have got them killed.

This, I think, is why they are rebuked by Jesus for lack of faith. Essentially, he was saying, “If you had trusted in God to see you through the storm, you would have done the sensible things that would have enabled you to survive. But, because you didn’t trust in God to see you through, you panicked, didn’t take sensible actions, nearly got us all drowned, and needed me to intervene to save you.”

God does not, and cannot, simply intervene to save us from crises and storms. If he did, he would take away our free will and we would be automatons rather than humans. John Shepherd writing in The Times put it like this:

“Why doesn’t God miraculously intervene, and take things over? Dictate how everything should go, and what we do, and how we live our lives?

But then, of course, we would have a world of fixed laws. Our lives would be totally regulated and controlled. We couldn’t decide anything for ourselves. We would not be allowed any choices, or any freedom of action.

So our lives would become non-lives ...

Knowing everything will be all right because God will make it so is no longer to have life.”

But, if God isn’t there to save us in any and every circumstance, what is the value and point of faith? Again, John Shepherd is very helpful in a way that links up with what we are discovering about this story:

“We all need someone to believe in. And we all need someone who’ll believe in us. Think of the number of times we’ve told someone we have faith in them — that we know they can do it, that they’ll achieve their goal, pass that exam, get that job, survive that relationship, recover from that bereavement. We tell people we have faith in them all the time. “You can do it,” we say.

“I believe in you.”

And it happens to us as well. Think of the people who have told us they believe in us. They gave us confidence. They told us they had faith in us, and they believed we could do it.

We know how important faith is, because we’ve known what it’s like for people to have faith in us. And we all have this faith, consciously or unconsciously. We’ve all given it, and we’ve all received it. We know what it is and how it works. Having faith in others, and others having faith in us, isn’t a sign of weakness or mental deficiency. It’s reasonable and logical.”

What we find through this story is that God has faith in us. Jesus trusts himself to his disciples by sleeping while they sail and expects them to act responsibly during the storm in order to keep them all safe and to survive. What annoys him is when they don’t do this, when they don’t trust in the skills and knowledge with which God has gifted them. He wants them to see that the skills and knowledge with which God has gifted them are enough for them to come through the storms of life. He has faith in them but at this point they don’t have faith in all that God has given to them. Later, after the Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension and Day of Pentecost, they do develop such faith and go on to do great things for God.

“This is faith,” John Shepherd writes, “trusting in God without specifying what will happen. God has let the darkness be, so we may have life. But as well, God has given us Jesus, so we may have faith that the darkness will not destroy us.” God will not, and cannot, continually intervene because then life would be fixed instead of being free. So we are not to depend on God to save every time we encounter difficulty but instead to trust that he is with us in the storms of life and that he has given us what we need to come through.

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Iona - Brendan's Voyage.

Close to nature: Life in Lenten environments

Sermon preached at All Saints Church, Tooting on the first Sunday of Lent and the beginning of their Lent in Pictures project.

Readings: Job 38.1-7, 25-29, 36-41, 42.1-6; Revelation 22.1-5; and Matthew 4.11-17, 24. 1-3

Around the mid-point of his life, my father switched careers from community work to retrain as a landscape gardener. We moved from the city of Oxford to a village in Somerset and, although the change was to some extent forced on him and caused financial difficulties for us as a family, he came to greatly appreciate the enhanced sense of being in nature and of living closer to the natural rhythms of the seasons and the circle of life.

However, while our awareness of nature is undoubtedly enhanced by times in the countryside, we don’t need to live in a rural area in order to aware of and affected by the natural world. Those who live here in Britain are, for example, well known for being obsessed with talking about the weather. According to research, 94% of British respondents admit to having conversed about the weather in the past six hours, while 38% say they have in the past 60 minutes. Kate Fox, who performed the studies in 2010 for an update of her book Watching the English, says “This means at almost any moment in this country, at least a third of the population is either talking about the weather, has already done so or is about to do so.” This is because there are several features of this country’s geography that make our weather the way it is: mild, changeable, and famously unpredictable. For many the changing seasons and weather affect our mood and can, for some, cause depression with Seasonal affective disorder (SAD), for example, being a type of depression that comes and goes in a seasonal pattern possibly linked to reduced exposure to sunlight during the shorter autumn and winter days.

Our theme for today, based on your Lent project, is relationship with the natural world, thinking especially of the environments in the Lenten stories. Our readings illustrate key aspects of that relationship – challenge, awe, mission, healing. In fact, these readings can be ordered to suggest a journey through the environments of Lent and life, involving environments of remove, ruin, renewal, and recuperation.

The readings from the Book of Job are about the expansive nature of the universe in which we find ourselves; both the breadth and depth of creation in macro and micro dimensions. We move through a series of questions that range from the earth’s foundations in creation through the patterns of the weather to the hunting practices of predators. Job is asked whether he was present at creation, how creation occurred, whether he understands the workings of the natural world, and whether he can provide for the creatures of the world. The answer to all these questions is clearly ‘No, he does not’ and that realisation brings him to his knees with a sense of awe towards the God who can answer such questions and a sense of humility through a realisation of his place within a world that is immense and teeming with myriad forms of life.

Job has an experience of the vastness of the universe and the awesome nature of the God who created; a God who is removed from us because we have no means of comprehending the length and breadth, height, depth or diversity of his nature, activity and potential. All Job can do in the environment of remoteness is to stand in awe and wonder, aware of his insignificance in the face of such expanse.

I wonder whether you have had such an experience; maybe lying on a hill contemplating the night sky or at the peak of a high mountain on a cloudless day seeing what seems to be the whole earth laid out beneath you or in the depths of a wood or forest surrounded by an amazing array of flora, fauna and creatures. That same sense of immensity can also be found in the micro as well as the macro if we learn to look with attention; the beauty of a snowflake or the intricacies of a cobweb, the patterns of a leaf or the hues of a petal. I wonder whether you can find an environment – literal or virtual – in which you can experience a sense of remove bringing awe and humility. I wonder too whether you can capture something of that sense of remove in a photo, poem, painting or other creative work for your Lenten project, exhibition and film.

In Matthew 24 we hear Jesus conjure up an environment of ruin for his disciples. His disciples came to point out to him the magnificence of the buildings of the temple and he assured them that, in the near future, not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down. All human environments are subject to decay yet the natural impermanence and temporality of our constructions and creations was not the point that Jesus was making here. His statement was a prophecy regarding events that would occur within the lifetime of his disciples – the fall of Jerusalem in AD70 – which would be a confirmation to those disciples of the truth of Jesus’ words and a vindication of him as a true prophet. His words were also a warning preparing his disciples for a time of trauma and trial when their lives would be at risk and their faith tested.

The environment of ruin – whether physical, emotional, spiritual or all three – is a place of real trauma which can nevertheless become the place where God becomes more real to us than ever was the case in times of prosperity. That was the experience of the Israelites in exile as Babylon was the place where their scriptures were written down and compiled. For Christ, the letting go of life through the agony of the cross was inextricably united to the astonishing renewal of resurrection. For the first disciples, the destruction of the Temple and the perils of persecution were the crucible in which the Early Church was fashioned.

This lockdown Lent it may be that the pandemic has formed an environment of ruin for us and for our world as economies have contracted, jobs have been lost, restrictions enforced, and millions have died. As we survey the devastation that has been caused, can we encounter God with us in new ways and in new depths of experience as we see the myriad ways we can find at this time to be with others through in-person care and virtual connections. I wonder how you can reflect on the environment of ruin through your Lenten project and Lenten experiences.

By contrast our reading from Matthew 4 sees Jesus leave the place of trial and restriction to make his home in Capernaum by the sea and to go on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, to Galilee of the Gentiles proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven has come near and that light has come to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.

This is the environment of renewal; a place of activity and vocation, of gatherings and shelters, of journeys and arrivals, of farming and fishing. In three short years, Jesus travelled throughout Galilee and beyond, calling and training disciples sending out 12 and then 72 while others supported them financially from their homes. This is the environment in which his teaching was shared; whether sermons on mountains, stories from boats or acted parables in upper rooms. The stories he told were also set in this environment and peopled by farmers and fishermen.

This environment is one of daily life and work. It is ordinary, everyday and mundane yet the kingdom of heaven is near and the light of illumination is at hand. I wonder what you will find of heaven in your everyday life and work this Lent. How will your stories and sharing, your activity and travel – whether literal or virtual – be blessed and broken for revelation and renewal? How will you picture or describe the in-breaking of the kingdom in the environment of renewal for your Lenten project?

The final environment in our readings is that of recuperation. Our destiny, our destination, is a city where the river of the water of life flows through the middle of the street with the tree of life alongside and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. This is a place of restoration where nothing accursed will be found any more, where God will wipe every tear from our eyes and death, mourning and crying and pain will be no more. The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. They will not hurt or destroy for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Our experience in this world is of being led to green pastures and of being led through the valley of the shadow of death, but our ultimate end is to dwell in the house of the Lord forever where goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives. I wonder where are the green pastures and still waters to which we can be led this Lent in order that we experience a taste of the restoration we shall experience in that final environment of recuperation. What images and words can we find to illustrate and illuminate that experience for those that will see your Lenten project, exhibition and film?

If you seek out these environments and experiences this Lent and if you share them through pictures, photographs, films for your Lenten project, then you will have the experience that my father knew, in moving from community work to landscape gardening, of coming closer to the natural rhythms of the seasons and the circle of life. By coming into these Lenten environments of remove, ruin, renewal, and recuperation, you will experience challenge, awe, vocation, and healing while coming closer to the pattern of death and resurrection, letting go and receiving back that is the natural rhythm of the spiritual life. It is my prayer that that may be your experience this Lent. Amen.

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John Tavener - Eternity's Sunrise.

Start:Stop - Steer us through storms

Bible reading

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:35-41)

Meditation

Jesus' reaction to the storm (to sleep) and his response to his disciples after the stilling of the storm ("Why are you frightened? Have you still no faith?") suggest that he had expected the disciples to ride out the storm both by acting as responsible sailors and trusting in God to see them through. Jesus is able to sleep because he trusts his disciples to get him safely to the other side of Lake Galilee, even in the midst of a storm. After all, many of them are fishermen, experienced sailors, while he is, as a carpenter, a landlubber. The disciples know boats and they know the lake, it makes sense that he would trust them to sail safely from one side of the lake to the other. He trusts them enough that he can catch up on some sleep while they get on with doing what they are actually very good at doing. The disciples have skills and knowledge of sailing and Jesus expects them to use these and trusts that they will use them well.

Instead, they are panicked by the storm, forget to do the things that sailors should do in a storm and, as a result, come close to going under. The problem comes, of course, when they don’t use their skills and knowledge well. The strength of the storm is such that they panic and don’t take actions (like taking down the sail, bailing out the water, and steering against the storm rather than with it) which would have enabled them to ride out the storm and get to the other side of the lake. They made the situation worse by panicking and it was their panic which could have got them killed.

This, I think, is why they are rebuked by Jesus for lack of faith. Essentially, he was saying, “If you had trusted in God to see you through the storm, you would have done the sensible things that would have enabled you to survive. But, because you didn’t trust in God to see you through, you panicked, didn’t take sensible actions, nearly got us all drowned, and needed me to intervene to save you.”

This seems a saluatory tale for us in the unanticipated storms of life – whether, the credit crunch and the recession it caused or more personal storms such as ill health or redundancy. Instead of panicking and looking for a miraculous instant solution to the storm in which we find ourselves, the faithful thing is to act responsibly, securing what can be secured and steering our way through the storm, trusting that we will come through, battered and blown, but alive nevertheless.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, help us respond to the challenge of your question to the disciples as we face the storm of this time of austerity. May we trust, and in our trust, take the responsible and sensible decisions that will secure our futures and those of others, both those we support and those who depend on us.

Steer us through storms, as we trust in the skills and experience you have given.

Lord Jesus, guide us as we make decisions in difficult times – the storms of life. Enable us to take the long view as we decide rather than acting only in the short-term, enable us to act in the wider interests of others – the common good – rather than thinking and acting primarily in our own self-interest.

Steer us through storms, as we trust in the skills and experience you have given.

Lord Jesus, thank you for giving each of us skills and experience. We pray that these will not be negated by a sense of panic in times of storm and difficulty but that we will trust enough in all you have given us to believe that if we use our skills and knowledge well, we will come through.

Steer us through storms, as we trust in the skills and experience you have given.

Blessing

Trust in God, trust in God’s leading, trust in responsible actions, trust in the skills and experience God has given, trust in the midst of storms and difficulties. May those blessings of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rest upon you and remain with you always. Amen.

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Belle and Sebastian - The Ghost Of Rockschool.

Start:Stop - Steering through storms

Bible reading

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:35-41)

Meditation

Jesus' reaction to the storm (to sleep) and his response to his disciples after the stilling of the storm ("Why are you frightened? Have you still no faith?") suggest that he had expected the disciples to ride out the storm both by acting as responsible sailors and trusting in God to see them through. Jesus is able to sleep because he trusts his disciples to get him safely to the other side of Lake Galilee, even in the midst of a storm. After all, many of them are fishermen, experienced sailors, while he is, as a carpenter, a landlubber. The disciples know boats and they know the lake, it makes sense that he would trust them to sail safely from one side of the lake to the other. He trusts them enough that he can catch up on some sleep while they get on with doing what they are actually very good at doing. The disciples have skills and knowledge of sailing and Jesus expects them to use these and trusts that they will use them well.

Instead, they are panicked by the storm, forget to do the things that sailors should do in a storm and, as a result, come close to going under. The problem comes, of course, when they don’t use their skills and knowledge well. The strength of the storm is such that they panic and don’t take actions (like taking down the sail, bailing out the water, and steering against the storm rather than with it) which would have enabled them to ride out the storm and get to the other side of the lake. They made the situation worse by panicking and it was their panic which could have got them killed.

This, I think, is why they are rebuked by Jesus for lack of faith. Essentially, he was saying, “If you had trusted in God to see you through the storm, you would have done the sensible things that would have enabled you to survive. But, because you didn’t trust in God to see you through, you panicked, didn’t take sensible actions, nearly got us all drowned, and needed me to intervene to save you.”

This seems a salutory tale for us in the unanticipated storms of life – whether, the credit crunch and the recession it caused or more personal storms such as ill health or redundancy. Instead of panicking and looking for a miraculous instant solution to the storm in which we find ourselves, the faithful thing is to act responsibly, securing what can be secured and steering our way through the storm, trusting that we will come through, battered and blown, but alive nevertheless.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, help us respond to the challenge of your question to the disciples as we face the storm of this time of austerity. May we trust, and in our trust, take the responsible and sensible decisions that will secure our futures and those of others, both those we support and those who depend on us.

Steer us through storms, as we trust in the skills and experience you have given.

Lord Jesus, guide us as we make decisions in difficult times – the storms of life. Enable us to take the long view as we decide rather than acting only in the short-term, enable us to act in the wider interests of others – the common good – rather than thinking and acting primarily in our own self-interest.

Steer us through storms, as we trust in the skills and experience you have given.

Lord Jesus, thank you for giving each of us skills and experience. We pray that these will not be negated by a sense of panic in times of storm and difficulty but that we will trust enough in all you have given us to believe that if we use our skills and knowledge well, we will come through.

Steer us through storms, as we trust in the skills and experience you have given.

Lord Jesus, we pray for the EU and Greece in this week of crisis and decision. May all those who negotiate this week over the fate of these nations and their economies know your leading and take responsible actions which will enable all involved to draw back from disaster.

Steer us through storms, as we trust in the skills and experience you have given.

Trust in God, trust in God’s leading, trust in responsible actions, trust in the skills and experience God has given, trust in the midst of storms and difficulties. May those blessings of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rest upon you and remain with you always. Amen.

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Cat Stevens - Morning Has Broken.

Windows on the world (329)

The Galilee, 2014

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Arthur Honegger - Le Roi David.

Windows on the world (328)

Galilee, 2014

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Eric Whitacre - Water Night.

East London Three Faiths Forum Tour of the Holy Land: Day 4 (2)

While on the boat crossing Lake Galilee, I shared the following reflections based on the story of Jesus sleeping in a boat during a storm on Galilee (Matthew 8. 23 - 27):

Jesus is able to sleep because he trusts his disciples to get him safely to the other side of Lake Galilee, even in the midst of a storm. After all, many of them are fishermen, experienced sailors, while he is, as a carpenter, a landlubber. The disciples know boats and they know the lake, it makes sense that he would trust them to sail safely from one side of the lake to the other. He trusts them enough that he can catch up on some sleep while they get on with doing what they are actually very good at doing. The disciples have skills and knowledge of sailing and Jesus expects them to use these and trusts that they will use them well.

The problem comes, of course, when they don’t use their skills and knowledge well. The strength of the storm is such that they panic and don’t take actions (like taking down the sail, bailing out the water, and steering against the storm rather than with it) which would have enabled them to ride out the storm and get to the other side of the lake. They made the situation worse by panicking and it was their panic which could have got them killed.

This, I think, is why they are rebuked by Jesus for lack of faith. Essentially, he was saying, “If you had trusted in God to see you through the storm, you would have done the sensible things that would have enabled you to survive. But, because you didn’t trust in God to see you through, you panicked, didn’t take sensible actions, nearly got us all drowned, and needed me to intervene to save you.”

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Gerry & The Pacemakers - You'll Never Walk Alone.

East London Three Faiths Forum trip to the Holy Land (5)

Today I have given short talks at the Church of the Beatitudes and on the Sea of Galilee plus a participation in an open discussion tonight about the Annunciation with the Imam on our trip, Dr Fahim. My contributions have aimed to stress the incarnational distinctive of Christianity.

Our visits today have all been around Galilee beginning at the Church of the Beatitudes with its beautiful grounds over-looking Lake Galilee. Then we went into Capernaum where we saw the home of Simon Peter's Mother-in-law and the synagogue where Jesus preached. This was followed by a boat trip across Lake Galilee to Kibbutz Ein Gev where we had lunch.

After lunch we went to a viewing point and war memorial in the Golan Heights before ending the day in the Old City of Tsefat discovering the Hassidic and mystical traditions which underpin its art galleries and synagogues. While there I discovered the work of Asia Katz which offers an engaging and relational combining of cubism and folk art. See examples of her work at http://www.zissil.com/topics/Asia-Katz-Gallery-Safed.

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Hasidic dance - Tsefat.

East London Three Faiths Forum trip to the Holy Land

I'm looking forward greatly to the tour of the Holy Land that has been organised by the East London Three Faiths Forum. Our itinerary includes the following:

• Muslim members of our tour will have the opportunity of joining the vast crowds for Friday noon prayers at Al ‘Aqsa Mosque. Jews and Christians will visit the synagogue at the Hadassah Hospital close to Eyn Kerem, birthplace of John the Baptist. This modern synagogue is famous for its 12 huge stained-glass windows by Marc Chagall. 
• Visiting all the most important sites - Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock - in the old city of Jerusalem, In the late afternoon, we shall watch Jews welcome in Shabbat at the Western Wall.
• Bethlehem (birthplace of Jesus) and Hebron (Al-Khalil), to visit the ancient mosque above the Cave of Machpelah, where we shall see the tombs of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob and Leah. 
• We leave Jerusalem to make the long and steep descent through the dramatic Judaean Desert to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on the earth’s surface. Close by the road we shall pass Qumran, beside the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. Along the shore of the Sea to Masada, King Herod’s impressive fortress and palace (Roman-era). Up by cable-car to the summit. Swim in the Dead Sea.
• A long drive north following the course of the River Jordan. We shall pass Jericho, the oldest continually-inhabited city in the world. Eventually, we shall reach Nazareth, capital of the northern Galilee region, where Jesus spent his early years and began his ministry. 
• We leave Nazareth to drive though the Galilee to reach the shore of the Sea of Galilee, visiting Capernaum, the Church of Beatitudes and other sites of Jesus’ early ministry. Then a lovely boat trip across the Sea of Galilee to Kibbutz En Gev, beneath the Golan Heights, where we shall eat a lunch of St. Peter’s Fish (talapia), caught in the Sea. Return to Nazareth via the Golan Heights and the Huleh Valley.
• Shopping and a brief tour of Nazareth, visiting the Church of the Annunciation (where Mary was told by the Angel Gabriel that she would give birth to Jesus). Drive on through the Galilee region to the hill-top town of Tsefat, visiting several beautiful 16th-century synagogues of great rabbis and Jewish mystics. 
• Return to the Mediterranean coast to visit Akko (Acre), the capital of the Crusader kingdom. We shall visit the ancient harbour, the khan (mediaeval travellers’ lodge) and the hammam (hot baths), the wonderful 17th-century Ottoman mosque and the astonishingly well-preserved remains of the great Crusader citadel.
• We will drive through the modern port city of Haifa, via the lovely gardens of the Bah’ai Temple. We will reach the top of Mount Carmel, where the prophet Elijah (Elias) challenged the prophets of Baal. The large Druze town of Isafie (the religion of the Druze is secret), then descend to the Mediterranean coast to visit the ruins of Caesarea, the Roman capital and port, mentioned several times in the New Testament. Then we continue south along the coast, to the modern city of Tel Aviv.
• We will climb back through the Judaean Hills to Yad Vashem, the very impressive and moving national memorial museum to the victims of the Holocaust. At the Arab village of Abu Ghosh, we shall see the brand-new & second largest mosque in the Holy Land, after Al ‘Aqsa. 
• Back down to the Mediterranean Sea for a quiet and relaxing afternoon in Jaffa, the ancient port, from where Jonah (Yunus) boarded a ship in order to escape from his Divine mission. We might be able to visit the beautiful 18th-century Ottoman Mahmoudiya Mosque as well as see the 17th-century St. Peter’s Church (Franciscan) – commemorating St. Peter’s raising of Tabitha from the dead (Acts 9 &10).

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Matisyahu - Jerusalem (Out Of Darkness Comes Light).

East London Three Faiths Forum guided tour to Jerusalem and the Holy Land

The fifth guided tour to Jerusalem and the Holy Land organised by the East London Three Faiths Forum will be from Wednesday 22^nd October – Wednesday 29^th October 2014 and will be led by Imam Dr. Mohammed Fahim, Rabbi David Hulbert and myself.

Don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit places in the Holy Land (both Israel and Palestine) sacred to our three faiths:

• Jerusalem: Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock (including Friday prayers on the Muslim New Year 1436); Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Jesus’ tomb); Western Wall; Via Dolorosa; and Yad Vashem (Memorial to Holocaust victims).
• Dead Sea: Masada; swim in the Sea.
• Bethlehem: Jesus’ birthplace.
• Hebron: Tombs of Abraham, Sarah and other Patriarchs.
• Nazareth: Jesus’ home-town; site of the Angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary.
• Jaffa: 16^th-century al-Bahr Mosque; St. Peter’s Church
• Golan Heights
• Caesarea
• Boat-trip across the Sea of Galilee

And many more!

COST - £1,200 per person, sharing twin room. £320 single room supplement. Fantastic value for money – price includes:

• Return coach from Woodford to Luton Airport
• Return flights
• Half-board in top-quality, modern hotels
• Travel in comfortable air-conditioned tour coach
• Qualified tour guide, with us for the whole week
• All entrance fees

If you are interested in joining us for the spiritual experience of a lifetime, please send your name, telephone number and full postal address to david.hulbert@whsmithnet.co.uk, and you will be sent the full details, itinerary and booking form, with the full terms and conditions.

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Matisyahu - Jerusalem (Out Darkness Comes Light).