Churches and such

Yesterday I had the chance to actually go to two different churches for two different reasons.

In the morning I went to St. Andrew's Scottish Presbyterian Church, just across the Hinnom Valley from my school. (Maria, I thought of you!) It was a pretty good service. (I liked the windows too.)
The message was on Matthew (specifically 25:31-46). Of course. I seem to be unable to escape Matthew. My pastor at home has been going through Matthew for a couple years now. I'm taking a class on Matthew this semester. I don't claim to know much about the church calendar for readings and such, but apparently the book of Matthew has been part of the scheduled readings for this semester. Therefore, since of the 4 times I've been able to attend church this semester, I've gone twice to an Anglican church and once to a Presbyterian church, those three services have been on Matthew. It's kind of funny, but hey, it's a good book, so I won't complain. Anyway, I'm not sure that I would agree theologically with everything that was said, but for the most part it seemed pretty solid. The preacher started out with a story of how world renowned violinist Joshua Bell had once gone to the train station in Washington DC and started playing like a student trying to earn some extra cash. He played for nearly an hour and only a couple people stopped to listen. He earned something like $32, when just nights ago hundreds of people had payed hundreds of dollars to hear him play in a large concert hall. How often are we so busy with our life that we miss things like that? In the context of Matthew 25:31-46, how often are we so busy that we miss opportunities to do good? Jesus here doesn't judge people based on the bad that they did but on the good they failed to do. Hmm...

After the service we stayed around for a bit and talked to people. I gather that it's normally a pretty small congregation. There were probably about 10 of us from JUC and then there was a group of about 20 visiting from Edinburgh. All together, we must have made up over half the congregation. The only people I ended up talking to were the visitors, but they were very pleasant people. It makes me sad, though. There are so many huge church buildings over here representing so many different denomonations, and they have such tiny memberships. I kind of get the feeling that they are just surviving, not thriving. I do hear, though, that the palestinian church is growing quite a bit, which is encouraging.

As we were heading out Vernon showed us the sight of "Ketef Hinnom" (meaning "the shoulder of Hinnom"). This site was excavated by my own archaeology professor, Gabby Barkay. In fact, it was kind of the sight that made him famous. It also provides numerous problems for the minimalists, which is always a good thing. :) I don't know much about it, but maybe I'll ask in my next archaeology class.

Last night, after finishing my Matthew paper, I headed out with some people to the Dormition Abbey for a free brass ensemble concert! I hadn't been inside the Dormition Abbey before, and it was pretty impressive. As Cameron said, one wonders where they get the money for that sort of a building. (I guess in this case, Kaiser Wilhelm probably provided most of it.) And I wonder if the money could be better spent elsewhere? I mean, how important is it for a church building to be beautiful? I don't think that it's entirely unimportant, but it seems like there are so many other things that should take precidence. Anyway, the concert was a lot of fun. The group was, I believe, from Germany, which means that most of the explanations were done in German. Unfortunately, I understand very little German. Oh well. I enjoyed the music anyway, and recognized some of the songs. And yes, they definitely played Mary Bennet's song ("Slumber dear maid....") It made me smile and wish for someone who would get the joke. They may have not been the best ensemble ever, but since pretty much the only concerts I've been to in recent years have been High School bands, well, I thought they were pretty decent. :) It was fun hearing the resonance in the church too. It made me think fondly of all my brass playing relatives and friends. Miss y'all!

Oh, and while we were there, Peter noticed something about the floor of the church. You may remember a while ago from our Galilee trip I mentioned that a lot of Synagogues in that region had the Zodiac in mosaics on their floor? Well this church did too. Which I find very odd. Why would they do such a thing? It makes even less sense than it did in Jewish Synagogues. Odd.