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December22, 2006: Dr. Paul Wright, Executive
Director
The fall semester
at Jerusalem University College has drawn to a close and nearly all
students have returned to their homes for the Christmas holiday. A
few remain in the Jerusalem area, either working in a Practicum in
Ministry, visiting friends, or just sticking close to campus.
Between friends and family (including students), Diane and I will
host 21 people on Mt. Zion for Christmas dinner.
Our fall semester
ended as usual, with our 8-day trip to Egypt in conjunction with the
Ancient Egypt and the Biblical World course offered every
fall semester. This year 32 people went on the trip, up and down the
Nile and through the Sinai. The 20 students who took the course for
academic credit each presented a portion of their research for the
class at an appropriate site on the trip (eg. at the city lists of
Thutmose III and Shishak in the Karnak Temple; on Tel el-Yehudia in
the Nile Delta; before the Opet Festival relief at the Luxor Temple;
in the Akhenaten Room of the Cairo Museum, and so on. Some students
also recited by memory parts of the Biblical story relating to Egypt
on site. We ended the trip seeing the sun rise on Mt. Sinai, as
three students recited portions of Exodus 3 (Moses and the Burning
Bush) and Exodus 19-20 (The revelation of God on Mt. Sinai) to the
rest of us (who were shivering in the 38 degree morning chill).
I would like to
announce a new initiative that will strengthen scholarship
opportunities for needy students in our graduate program. While
gifts for all aspects of JUC are always welcome and desired, this
new initiative will help us attract and retain more top-notch
graduate students and provide the very best possible learning
experience in Israel for them. There are many examples of needy
students who are unable to attend JUC because of financial
constraints, such as Joshua from Sri Lanka or Fadi from nearby
Bethlehem. By the fall semester of 2008, we would like to have
doubled the number of scholarships offered to our semester graduate
students and tripled the amount of the base-level award to each.
This requires a six-fold increase of our currently available
scholarship funds, plus a little extra for folks like Joshua and
Fadi who come from countries with extremely limited resources. Let’s
call it a Seven-Fold Campaign. Is this ambitious? Yes, but quite
do-able by our growing circle of friends. Amounts up to $3000 per
year are needed for each student. I would like to encourage you to
help us specifically in this way during the upcoming year.
The January
Geographical and Historical Settings of the Bible 3-week course
begins on January 1. Nearly fifty students are enrolled, most from
Greenville College and Asbury Theological Seminary. We look forward
to their arrival, and hope to see each of you in Jerusalem sometime
in 2007. Our programs remain a safe, secure, informative,
challenging and life-changing experience. |
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The Journey Home
The Magi are
among the most interesting, yet mysterious, people to travel across
the pages of Scripture. They were, in our vocabulary, more
astronomers than astrologers, probing the nighttime skies with
mathematical exactness and a deep-seated belief that somehow, the
movement of the stars was connected to events on earth. Apparently
the Magi were urban scholars, at home among the academies and
libraries of Babylon, fastidiously preserving the remnants of a
4,000 year-old Mesopotamian civilization. Yet they also knew the
stories and prophecies of the Jews, who had been residents of
Babylonia since the Exile almost 600 years before (eg. Num 24:17;
Isa 60:3).
And so the
Magi—tradition says three in number—set off on a most remarkable
journey, to find a baby who was beginning an even more remarkable
journey of His own. They would have followed one of the great
caravan routes of antiquity, north, west and then south along the
bend of the Fertile Crescent toward Judea. By doing so, they
traveled roughly the same path that Abraham had trod two millennia
before as he left first his home, then his family, for a land known
only to God (cp. Gen 11:31—12:4). And for these urban Magi, like
Abraham, this was not only the journey of a lifetime, but a matter
of tremendous personal risk, taking them far from their comfort zone
and into the great unknown.
Geographical
logic suggests that once the Magi reached Damascus, they probably
would have continued to follow the caravan route due south, toward
the Arabian Peninsula. It was this ancient highway that supplied the
Roman world with exotic goods such as frankincense and
myrrh—aromatic gum resins—and even gold. By the time of the birth of
Jesus, the Arabia-to-Damascus “spice route” was controlled by the
Nabateans, known today as the builders of the rose-red city of
Petra. Perhaps it was somewhere along this route that the Magi
purchased their gifts for the Christ child.
Geographical
logic also suggests that the Magi left the caravan route at a point
northeast of the Dead Sea and turned toward Jerusalem, crossing
through Jericho on the way. If so, they would have passed by the
shadow of the large and sumptuous winter palace of King Herod, which
he built to bring the wealth and comfort of Rome to a most
inhospitable land. Today, just enough of his Jericho palace remains
to indicate the personal grandeur that Herod sought to portray to
his subjects: “You’re in my land now. Don’t cross me.” Did
the Magi pause to suspect what a meeting with this despotic king
might bring?
They pressed on.
Climbing through the rugged wilderness of Judah, the Magi reached
Jerusalem and eventually Herod himself. So far from home, vulnerable
and alone—yet face-to-face with one of the most ruthless rulers the
world has ever known. Undaunted, the Magi continued to Bethlehem:
When they saw the star, they were
overjoyed beyond measure. Entering the house, they saw the child
with with Mary His mother, and falling to their knees, they
worshiped Him (Mt 2:10-11a).
Facing
insurmountable difficulties, the Magi were resolute in their goal.
The passage of time, personal hardships, dangers both intentional
and unknown, all failed to sway their advance. Overcoming every
obstacle, the travelers persisted—and rejoiced when at last they
gazed at the divine Child face-to-face.
Eventually, we
read, the Magi returned to their own country (Mt 2:12). They were no
more at home in the land of Promise than was Abraham (cp Heb
11:8-16). Yet at the same time, both touched the face of God for
having journeyed into His land.
Where is your
journey taking you? Eventually we’re heading home, to live forever
with Jesus. But in the meantime, while our journeys may be hard, we,
too, have opportunities to commune with the Divine. And whenever we
do, its as if we’re already there. |
