Secret
Debbie Blane
7/7/2024
Nowadays most people probably think of
Rome
As the home of the Church…..
(and yes, this is going to be one of my fam ám ous mini (I’m thinking of Mini Pearl here) sermons)
But it is not. The home of the church that is. (This is definitely a mini sermon.)
No, no, no, no.
The home of the church is in Jerusalem.
It is called the Church of the Sepulcher.
Let us start at the very beginning though….
To do that of course we would have to go back to creation
And that would take all day and all night,
So I will tolerate
A short cut.
We will begin in Bethlehem.
In Palestine.
I do marvel sometimes that the Church of the Nativity
Which is erected over the manger where the baby Jesus was
Born,
Has survived 2,000 plus years. It is not quite that old,
But close enough.
In the lower level of the church there is a beautiful gold star
It has been laid over the place where the trough that
Served as crib
In which he was laid
Was sure to have been.
In the manger.
In the barn below the family of the innkeeper.
I am a poetic theologian, not a theologian historian
So I am likely taking
Some small pieces of
Poetic
license……..
do not , I say, do not
begin giving me the fifth degree
or the fourth,
or whatever the heck it is.
Over details.
Now we go to Jerusalem, to the Old City.
2,000 years ago it would have been by foot.
It would have taken some time.
For different reasons
And yet,
Not unlike today
With the checkpoints of illegal occupation by Israel,
No longer Rome…..(which occupied Palestine 2,000 years ago)
Where roads are blocked,
Babies are sometimes born waiting to get through
People die from their heart attacks that cannot wait the hours
That are forced upon them
By arrogant young Israeli Defense Force soldiers.
So now in our mind’s eye we come to the last days of
Jesus’ earthly dwelling.
The Holy Sepulcher still has worship services
Of very many different kinds
I have been to several of them.
Amazed to worship in places that are so very,
Very,
Ancient.
When Jesus was crucified it was in a garbage dump outside of the city known as Golgoltha,
The Rock of Calvary. (Later the dump was brought within the city walls and became a part of this church in the fourth-century)
Jesus was buried in the Holy Sepulchre,
An unused tomb of a Jesus believer,
And when he rose from the dead on Sunday morning it was
Within the confines of the same
Holy space.
Thus.
The. Secret. (Not really a secret because it is known. But if one contemplates it in one’s heart it is like a secret that grows and blooms and speaks to the heart of the one in whom it is planted).
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is the place
Where Jesus was crucified
Buried
And rose again.
Thus it is the home of Christianity.
Rome is Empire, which in many ways
Is entirely a different thing.
I have been to the church several times.
I remember one of the last times thinking,
How amazing that it has become familiar,
Like a church on my own block at home.
How blessed am I to have been in the place of the
Birth.
Been In the place of the
Crucifixion
Burial
And Resurrection.
Not once, but several times to both.
I have also been to Rome
And Vatican City
To the Sistene Chapel.
I was there in 2006 on one of the rare days when the
Museum
Is free , no admission charged
So I went, free, paying no admission
I remember thinking,
How can fundamentalists not understand
That God’s ways
Are not
Our ways?
????????????????
Looking back I am grateful
That I already understood
The Bible
Not
To
Be
A science book
Or a history book (okay, sometimes I struggle a bit with this, I admit))
And I wonder,
Do they have many fundamentalists show up at the
Museum?
Do they have to call ambulances very often to take
Shock victims to hospital
Or break up fights when fundamentalists try to,
You know,
Destroy a display?
Anyhow.
It is time for me to end.
While the genocide in Gaza continues I am not able
To take my poetry away from the
Suffering people
So we shall continue to see
How God works through me in this.
End of mini sermon. Ameeeeeeeeeeen.
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