Safety Pants

Our theme of the day on Wednesday was “embodiment and Incarnation Bethlehem and the messiness of faith”. One of the many stories that resonated with me was shared by our guide in Bethlehem (I will need to clarify the spelling of his name before sharing it here). We know that the Persian conquest of Jerusalem took place in 614 CE – almost every church was destroyed and there were mass killings of the local Christian population (Side note: more accurate at this time in history would be to call these particular peoples “Romans” instead of Christians because that is how they likely referred to themselves. And these particular groups were essentially the pre-curser to monastic life – these particular groups of people left the Roman Empire, seeking a better understanding of their faith life by creating settlements, if you will, in The Holy Land. They lived together in small communities, likely did not call themselves Christian, and although they lived together in order to cook, and tend to the needs of the community, they lived very separately each in their own living quarters – think St. Francis of Assisi here)…thank you for Dr. Farag’s History I course at Luther Seminary in St. Paul.

What I did not know was why the Church of the Nativity was spared this fate…

Apparently when the Persian Army got up the mountain (or very large hill – I am having a hard time telling the difference), what they encountered surprised them and they decided not to destroy this particular church. According to our tour guide, there was a huge mosaic or artwork of some sort above the doors to the church (no longer there) that depicted the Magi or as many of us know them, “The Three Kings”, and in this representation, they were all wearing pants. Which makes historical sense since the Magi were from the East. The Persians wore pants, unlike the Christians of this time, who wore what might resemble what many of us clergy wear today when officiating worship services or Mass, long robes. When the Persians saw this, they identified with it, thinking of this particular church a place where their own people might be.

So there is wisdom in wearing pants…

Or not.

I think the real wisdom here is still opening to us as we still see so much intolerance and hate of people that do not look or dress or talk like us. I just finished Rabbi Brad Hirschfield’s book, “You don’t have to be wrong for me to be right: finding faith without fanaticism”. And if anyone should know about and can speak clearly on this topic, it would be Rabbi Brad, who in his early 20s (in the 1980s) had been a “religious fanatic”, leaving his “family’s upscale North Shore Chicago neighborhood to join a group of settlers in the West Bank city of Hebron” (where we just were while visiting Remi Levy Market). In his book, Rabbi Brad details his experience, including what “shook him to the core”, finally changing his perspective and ultimately bringing him back home for more self-discovery – which he generously shares in his book. I highly recommend you read it if you are a human being. As the book begins, we are offered this poem by Yehuda Amichai, “The place Where We Are Right”:

From the place where we are right
flowers will never grow
in the spring.

The place where we are right
is hard and trampled
like a yard.

But doubts and loves
dig up the world
like a mole, a plow.

And a whisper will be heard in the place
where the ruined
house once stood.


There is so much more I want to share with you as this day was incredible and needs more attention, especially our conversations with Shaoul (from an organization called Roots, www.friendsofroots.net)…and I will share more, but today we leave early and our theme today is “Whose story gets told? Temples, walls and other testaments” – today will be hard.

Be well. Read and study. Do good work. More from me here soon.