Books: Cloudy with a Chance of Mulberries

Today has been cloudy and cool. And it's mulberry season. Mulberries come in purple and white. I've seen several people helping themselves to mulberries that grow wild here and there.

I found Jungle Book translated into Hebrew. I don't remember if I liked it in English or not. After reading the first chapter I decided to try something else.

So I tried Bambi. I really liked it in English. I read it when I was a child and cried myself sick when Gobo died. I read it again as an adult and it was even better (and not quite as sad). But after reading the first chapter in Hebrew, I decided to try something else.

So I tried The Prince and the Pauper. After one chapter, I think it's going to be good. It's about the right level for me, with only six words on the first page that I had to look up.

I have not yet mastered all the vocabulary in Little Princess, Doctor Doolittle, and Black Beauty. It's sad to realize I will never catch up in Hebrew to where I want to be, and I don't even really need to. I'm trying to let it go, with just a little time each day reading various things, including the manuals to appliances--do not use ladder as a bridge, do not connect cable with wet hands, do not eat the ice you take out of the freezer when you defrost it; or instructions on food and medicine--store in a cool, dark place, out of the reach of children, away from moisture; or recipes--bring to boil, cook over low heat. I hate trying to read utility bills or the news.

Caesarea

 

 

Pretty nice place to visit.

Summer, Passover, Easter, the Lord's Supper

Now I think you can call it summer. I got out the clothes I didn't wear during the winter because it was too cold, and now I can't wear them because it's too hot. Spring happened in there somewhere, but it wasn't much.

This week everyone is preparing for Passover. This includes both Jews and Christians. To keep Passover as the Jews do seems to me to be very complicated. To even briefly summarize what they do is so burdensome to the mind that I can't even begin. The way the Christians do it, it just means a Passover meal, where they serve some of the traditional foods, and make mention of Jewish traditions but explaining how Christians differ from it. Easter happens at a similar time of year, but calendars are complicated and I don't pay much attention to what day it is. People see similarities between Passover, Easter (for some, the Holy Week; for others, simply Resurrection Day) and the Lord's Supper.

I can't unravel all these. I try to understand how people think, but I don't really follow it. Some will tell you that Passover is the equivalent of Easter. Some say that Passover and the Lord's Supper are the same thing. Some Jewish Christians will go to both, others only to Passover.

Me, I celebrate the Lord's Supper when possible, and would be glad to do so every week if there were opportunity.

I have been to Christian Passover seders before, mainly for the social aspect of it, but it's a lot about food, which doesn't interest me, and it's usually crowded and noisy. So this year I am staying home, and not the least is that my conscience tells me to. Which makes it a lonely occasion, but what's new. I will enjoy the quiet.

Doves and Pigeons

You can read about acts of terror on the news (one yesterday), but on this blog today I choose to write about something not so terrible. I don't feel particularly terrorized or afraid, just disturbed. But it is not just an incident that is disturbing, but conditions in the world and church, which will not be remedied until...until Messiah comes back? That's what a lot of people say. Which leaves room for a sort of hopeless attitude, as if nothing we do now is going to do much good anyway. That is not how I see it. Look at all the promises Jesus gave us about the Holy Spirit. Is the Holy Spirit somehow weaker than or inferior to Jesus?

But today I am thinking about birds. Last night, all through the night, crows were squawking loudly.  And at daybreak many small birds were chirping, loud and shrill. I don't see a lot of birds from my window, but I hear them. (Not like in southern Indiana, where we saw many varieties every single day, just a few feet from the window--robins, juncos, nuthatches, brown creepers, cardinals, chickadees, blue jays, orioles, bluebirds, sparrows, doves, finches, starlings, wrens, and a woodpecker that always notified me when the feeder was empty. And there were hummingbirds at the hummingbird feeder. And down the street were indigo buntings, but they never came to my feeder. And warblers in the tops of trees. And a thrasher in the woods. And wood ducks on the pond, along with a green heron, a bittern, and sometimes visiting large herons. And swallows over the barn and in it, and red-wing blackbirds in the pasture. And owls hooting at night. Etc., etc., etc. Not to mention our own chickens and our neighbor's guinea hens.)

Here in Jerusalem I have seen only pigeons, crows, bulbuls, sparrows, hummingbirds (very iridescent black) -- [actually it's called Palestine sunbird, but it has a long curved beak and it hovers somewhat like a hummingbird], and bright green parrots. Flying overhead, at some distance, some kind of cranes. Maybe a couple others.

Lately doves have been hanging around, inspecting my balcony and my bedroom window, and trying to get through the lattice by the laundry room. They must be looking for nesting locations. One of the pigeons is gray and white-streaked, with purple and turquoise on its neck, and rusty-orange eyes. It is tempting to provide them with a nesting box or nesting materials. Or some kind of feeder, if there were a way to keep the crows out of it.

O that I had wings like a dove; I would fly away until I find rest.

 

O dass ich Flügel hätte

wie die Taube;

ich würde davonfliegen

bis ich Ruhe fände!

 

Terminology

Sunday, as usual, was a bit lonely (as are Fridays and most other days), but I listened to some pretty good sermons on-line.

There are some who are very particular about terminology. They don't like the term "church" or "Knesia," you have to say Kehila/assembly/congregation/body of Christ. Some don't say "Jesus", and don't like it when you do either (it's Yeshua). And you can't say Christian, you have to say Meshihi, (or maybe believer) and what is inferred by or from either depends on whom you are talking with.

The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. Those were Jewish Christians. Greek speakers wouldn't have called them Meshihim. I speak English, but I read the New Testament, which was first written in Greek, and the Old Testament, which was first written in Hebrew. If I call myself Notsri, I might be taken for a Roman Catholic, so I prefer to say Protestant. But then Jesus was a Notsri, so I guess it doesn't really matter, except I wasn't born in Nazareth. If I say Protestant, they say, oh, you mean like Luther? who said some really bad things about Jews.

But the Roman Church is not wrong on every single point, neither was Luther. And if I say Reformed, all Reformed are not right on every single point, either.

So I guess I will just say I am a Christian, although that is a broad term.

I will not say I am proud of my Jewish heritage (I am not Jewish), neither will I say I am proud to be a Gentile. I am happy that God chose me, and it is all for the glory of Messiah/Jesus/Yeshua that he chooses both Gentiles and Jews. The word "proud" doesn't work here. To the extent that my ancestors/descendants were/are believers, I am happy for that, and for the promise "to you and your seed." But God works how he will, and he brings many from darkness into his marvelous light, and many of them are not from believing families.

Lord's Day

This is Saturday, looking forward to Sunday.

"Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

There'll probably be just three of us, as usual. So that makes four.

What Next?

Nothing new, of course. The next is the same as the last, and identical to the one in the middle.

So to break the monotony--We knew a guy once who they said used to preach to his dog, which was a hyperactive Saint Bernard. I wonder what his text was. Maybe "be still." Or "what aileth thee?"

And if you get tired of the daily routine, you can just go out and see how many disappointments you can find. If a guy almost runs you over, you think, what an idiot (him, not me), but anyway I survived. But if a person of the more friendly type says we don't want you here, it's harder to take. And if you're the sensitive type, you think, what an idiot (me, not him), for presuming. And then you can watch someone else's cute kid and remember that you used to have such kids once, and cactus plants are a poor substitute.

So I bought frozen spinach, but it wasn't frozen in leaves, but in blocks of leaves. I think that was intentional, and not just a result of inconsistent freezer temperatures.

And then there are probably things to do, but if I die tomorrow, and they're not done, no one will notice. What is actually essential, anyway? At this very moment, there is probably some right thing to do. If I figure it out, I'll do it. If I can't figure it out, I'll just do something anyway. Is there anything that, if I don't do it today, I will regret tomorrow? I wish I had energy, ambition, wisdom, good health, imagination, or any of the above. The only thing I do have is determination, such as it is.