Good news!

To my delight, last week I graduated from Woman at the Well, to the position of Tour Guide (Oh, and also Substitute Weaver.  But I embarrass myself when I try to spin wool, and Evon was not shy about showing me that she had undone my weaving and done it over again herself.  So I need a little more training before I can claim that title). 

As a tour guide, I have a wide variety of tasks... I of course facilitate the movement of tourists through the Parable Walk, an attempt to give people an idea of the physical objects and locations behind the parables that Jesus used to teach first-century crowds, and show what a working first-century farm might have looked like. 

I also help Ibrahim in the gift shop, and when my groups have paid for an authentic first-century lunch, I help serve it and clean up afterwards (in other words: I help eat the authentic first-century left-overs).  

Today I gave tours to two groups of 40+ people.  On the second one I got to use a nifty mike system that allowed me to speak into a headset and directly into earphones of all 40+ people. The great thing about that is that you can speak in a normal tone of voice to the whole group even as they're meandering s l o w l y along the path, but the bad thing is that when you try to talk and climb a hill at the same time they can hear all of your labored breathing... How embarrassing. 

One thing I'm especially grateful for is my recent student teaching experience. Last semester I got some practice making my voice heard in a classroom full of not-so-enthusiastic 7th graders... I'm not sure I ever quite succeeded with that task, but I didn't realize until now how much my confidence and public speaking skills had improved over those months.  Besides, thanks to my 7th graders, eager groups of Christian pilgrims seem like an awfully easy audience.  ...I'm pretty sure that's also where I picked up the highly-specialized skill of bossing people around while keeping a smile on my face.  This comes in handy.  A lot. 

So, Mr. Ewert's classes, any success I have here, I owe to you! 

Another great thing about being a guide here is getting to hang out with the real guides, the locals whose job it is to show tourists a good time in the Holy Land. As a group they seem like a great people, friendly and very knowledgeable. When I hang out with them I get to laugh knowingly about the entertaining tendencies of tourists, and pretend for a few minutes that I'm not a tourist myself... That is, until they say something like, I've been doing this for 25 years, how long have you been here? er.... uh..... Let's change the subject. 

My favorite part of the parable walk is actually the part when I take the groups into the synagogue in Nazareth Village. At this stop on the tour I get to talk about the inaugural speech that Jesus gives in Nazareth, after traveling around the Galilee. Bear with me--I know it doesn't sound exciting...Yet! 

Luke reports that Jesus's reputation had preceded him to Nazareth, and the people there were eager to hear what he had to say on this hometown stop of his Galilee tour. Jesus, as the last synagogue reader that particular day, chose to read a passage from Isaiah 61, and included his own editorializing:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has annointed me
to preach good news to the poor
to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
(Luke 4:18-19)

He then sat down and proclaimed, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." and Luke reports that the people are amazed and excited (albeit skeptical about the likelihood that their town, and Joseph's house in particular, could produce a Messiah).

But, Jesus doesn't choose to read the rest of the Isaiah 61 passage, the parts that promised the "day of vengeance of our God" or that he would "rebuild the ancient ruins." He doesn't read the section that promises the Jews that "Aliens will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards, and you will be called the priests of the Lord... You will feed on the wealth of nations."

Instead of reading those parts of Isaiah 61, Luke tells us that Jesus recalls two examples of Gentiles who God worked through--the widow from Sidon to whom Elijah was sent, and Naaman the Syrian who Elisha healed of leprosy.  

...Amazing, isn't it?

Justice and freedom--but not vengeance, or a continued cycle of oppression.
Justice and freedom--not only for a select few, but a promise that would extend to all the peoples of the world.

To be honest, so far my time here has given me a lot of direct challenges to my faith and ways to get discouraged about Christianity (and religion in general). But in the face of all of that, the message of Luke 4 is something that I can feel confident about--and a message that gives me hope.