Declaration of the Living Christ

A Declaration of the Living Christ

“I do not wish to give offense to any of my Christian colleagues who use the cross on the steeples of their cathedrals and at the altars of their chapels, who wear it on their vestments, and imprint it on their books and other literature. But for us, the cross is the symbol of the dying Christ, while our message is a declaration of the Living Christ. …

“… The lives of our people must become the most meaningful expression of our faith and, in fact, therefore, the symbol of our worship.”

President Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008), “The Symbol of Our Faith,”Liahona and Ensign, April 2005, 3.

BYU Center for Near Eastern Studies

Over a year ago, the Professor received information that his paper had been accepted at the Israel - 

Canada conference.  The conference was held at Hebrew University on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem.  Even though I was looking forward to the conference, I got nervous and apprehensive just before our plans to leave on May 15th.  I always do before a trip.   Fortunately the Professor is very patient with me and understands that when I get to our destination, I will be happy to be there and will enjoy being a  tourist/visitor.  

Some how the Professor managed to arrange a three night stay at Brigham Young University's Center for the Near Eastern Studies, commonly referred to as the Jerusalem Center.  It worked out perfectly for us.  We arrived in Jerusalem on Thursday evening and were able to stay at the Center until Sunday morning when we moved across the street to the faculty club at Hebrew University.  

View of the Center from across the Kidron Valley.  The Kidron Valley is situated between the Temple Mount (Dome on the Rock) and the Mount of Olives - one of Jerusalem's most sacred locales. The Center is built on a slope with terraced levels going down the hill.  It has 8 floors.  The top 2 floors are open to the public while the remaining floors house a private cafeteria, dormitory rooms and laundry facilities.  

Entrance door

Hallway on the main floor

This is the view that the congregation sees each Sabbath Day (Saturday to coincide with the Jewish day of worship).  It is the venue for not just sacrament meeting but organ concerts and other concerts throughout the year.  

The organ is located in the back of the concert hall.

The Oasis is the name of the cafeteria at the Center.

If I remember correctly, these are ancient mosiacs that are on loan to the BYU Center.

Exterior view of the 8th floor of the center where the concert hall is located.  The four models of the city of Jerusalem are off to the left in this photograph. 

Looking across the Kidron Valley from the terrace at the BYU Center

  

Four models of Jerusalem from four different periods in history

The gardens on the entry level to the Center

Jars to store olive oil.  I thought of the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves when I saw these. 

The Professor and I visited the Center before its dedication in the spring of 1989.  When we were there,  the structure of the building was complete but the gardens were not.  Truman and Ann Madsen were the directors of the Center.  Martin and Joann Hickman were also part of the faculty.  The students were housed there and while we visited, they traveled to Egypt as part of their educational program.

During our stay I went for a walk around the grounds with Truman Madsen.  He told me about the plans that had been made for the garden around the Center.  At that time there were already millstones on the property.  Professor Madsen talked to me about the pressing of olives to extract oil and compared this process with the suffering of our Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane.

He also talked about the verse from the scriptures that talks about the fate of anyone who abuses God's little children:   Luke 17:2.  It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.

I was familiar with the verse, but never before had the meaning of the scripture been impressed upon me as at this time.  I looked at the millstone and vividly imagined the incredibly heavy stone tied around the neck of an offender and then both cast into the depth of the sea.  I have known people who have been sexually abused and I cannot think of a more fitting punishment...except that the millstone would be a better consequence of their sins.

In that brief walk around the center, I learned so much from this great teacher.  I will always be grateful for the time he took to teach me.

Winepress

Visiting the BYU Jerusalem Center was one of the highlights of our visit to this ancient city.

Note to the Family from the Professor

Family:

We had a very nice experience at church today on the "Sabbath."  The chapel's  front wall is a vast window looking down on Old Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. To the left of us were the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane. The sacrament hymn was "In Humility, Our Savior" and the verses are as follows:

1. In humility, our Savior,
Grant thy Spirit here, we pray,
As we bless the bread and water
In thy name this holy day.
Let me not forget, O Savior,
Thou didst bleed and die for me
When thy heart was stilled and broken
On the cross at Calvary.

2. Fill our hearts with sweet forgiving;
Teach us tolerance and love.
Let our prayers find access to thee
In thy holy courts above.
Then, when we have proven worthy
Of thy sacrifice divine,
Lord, let us regain thy presence;
Let thy glory round us shine.

Mom and I started off singing but the setting was so powerful that tears started to flow.  It was a very touching moment, to say the least, and we have so much for which we are grateful, especially the sacrifice of our Savior and having you as our beloved family members. We do hope and pray that we can all be together as we regain His presence and live in joy and happiness for eternity.

Dad and Mom

After visiting the Mahane Yehuda Market we took the light rail back to the Old City and found a great area in the Jewish Quarter with half a dozen fast food places.  We bought some chicken and salad and found a place to sit down to eat.  I am sorry now that I did not take a picture of one of the tables with a note on each of them saying that only dairy products could be eaten at it.  

In one small area we encountered a bunch of boys who were around 10 years old playing ball.  They did stopped when a group of police walked through the square but not when we did.  :o)  


 A 13 year old boy was being walked through the streets under a "canopy" to his bar mitzvah at the Western Wall below us.  There were balloons and two men beating on drums as well as a man playing a horn.  Everything was being captured on film just as we might do any birthday party or especially a wedding.  





We spent the evening at the introductory session of the conference and at dinner.  We have met a lot of interesting people and have come to the conclusion that we are the only people from the US here.  Lots of Canadians of course since it is a conference put on by the Canadian studies program here at Hebrew University.  

Most of the people who live in Jerusalem who were sitting at our table had attended concerts on Sunday nights at the BYU center.  Not only LDS people perform but some of the best musicians in the area.  One man told us how amazing it was to sit and look out across the valley to the walls of the Old City as he enjoyed a musical evening at the BYU Center.  

This is a view from the concert hall/sacrament meeting room at the BYU Center. The Organ is at the back of the room.

If you look closely at this picture you will see a car next to the number three on the date.  That should help to give you some perspective of how wide and deep the valley is that separates the center on Mt Scopus from the Old City.  In front of the wall you can see a cemetery where all of the graves are raised above the ground.  It is believed that these people buried on the east side of the city are among those who will be resurrected when the Messiah arrives from the east.  






This shows the area where the Center and the Old City are.  The Islamic Dome of the Rock is built on the Temple Mount.  The Center is in the area where The Mount of Olives is.  The Center and the Old City look so close together as you look across the valley.  But it is not a short walk.  

  

   

Mahane Yehuda Market

I was very cocky yesterday and went out without any sunscreen on my neck and exposed adjacent parts.  I had been in Israel for several days, right?  I came back yesterday from wandering in the city with the Professor with a very sun burned neck and "chest."  So much for my over confidence that I would not get burned.  Of course, my legs are just as white as they have ever been. 

This morning the Professor went to a session of the conference.  My plans were to go to the botanical gardens.  They are on the campus not far from the faculty club where we are staying.  I was struggling with an old Friday New York Times puzzle that I had brought with me and just drifted off to sleep.  I woke up not long ago and realized that the Professor should be back here in the room in less than an hour.  Ahem.  I'll have to confess that I slept this morning instead of exploring the garden. 

Yesterday we hopped on the bus and the light rail to see a bit of the city beyond where we are staying.  We got off at Mahane Yehuda Market and spent an hour just wandering through the alley ways of the  fruit and vegetable market.  We got some pictures of a hot and sweaty Elaine in front of the olive stall and some of the vegetable stalls.  It was a huge area and fun to look at. This was definitely the largest food market that I had ever seen.   

The only item that we purchased was 10 shekels of gummy worms.  I was very much tempted by the apricots but the Professor was dubious about whether they  were ripe of not.  The green grapes were such a bright vivid green that I was skeptical about their ripeness.  We could have used some knowledge of Hebrew so that we could ask for a sample before buying.  

Memorial Day

Two veterans spoke today in Sacrament Meeting.  Sister Loretta Duncan and Norman White.  

Brother White started his talk by reading the poem written by John Gillespie Magee Jr. 

during World War II:

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
 And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
 Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
 of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
 You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
 High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
 I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
 My eager craft through footless halls of air....

 Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
 I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
 Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
 And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
 The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
 - Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

Magee was actually an American but he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force before the US entered the war (born in China to missionaries - father American and mother British).  John Gillespie Magee, Jr. (9 June 1922 – 11 December 1941)  He died in a mid-air collision over Britain during a training flight. Both pilots died.  

I remember reading his poems in school along with ones that Rupert Brooke.

Brother White talked about his own career in the US Air Force.  He joked that he had been shot at many times but fortunately had never been hit.  I think he served for two years in Vietnam.  He spoke not just about the price of Freedom but about the Founding Fathers and the revelation that Wilfred Woodruff that they wished to be baptized.  

“It was to [President Wilford Woodruff] that the founders of the American nation appeared in the St. George Temple, seeking to have the temple ordinances performed for them. That was very unusual, brethren, and those kinds of miracles and visions and revelations were rather unusual, as you would know. These men of the American Constitution had lived in a day when the gospel was not upon the earth, but they were upright, good men who were entitled to all of the blessings which come to us. (Spencer W. Kimball, ”Preparing for Service in the Church” 47)

Of course, he expressed gratitude to all of those who have contributed to the blessings of freedom that we take so much for granted.  

Sister Duncan was a WAC .  She met her husband while in the military.  They lived in France and several other countries while he was in the military.  

The High Priests sang page 335 Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy.  It was so appropriate and so beautifully sung.  

Brightly Beams Our Our Father’s Mercy(Men’s Choir) 

“335: Brightly Beams Our Father’s Mercy: (Men’s Choir),” Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, no. 335

Fervently

1. Brightly beams our Father’s mercy
From his lighthouse evermore,
But to us he gives the keeping
Of the lights along the shore.

[Chorus]

Let the lower lights be burning;
Send a gleam across the wave.
Some poor fainting, struggling seaman
You may rescue, you may save.

2. Dark the night of sin has settled;

Loud the angry billows roar.
Eager eyes are watching, longing,
For the lights along the shore.

3. Trim your feeble lamp, my brother;
Some poor sailor, tempest-tossed,
Trying now to make the harbor,
In the darkness may be lost.

Text and music: Philip Paul Bliss, 1838–1876

Doctrine and Covenants 18:10–16

1 John 2:10

^ Back to top

It was a good program today.  I am so grateful for family members past and present who have 

been willing to serve and to defend our nation. Thank you especially to Steve and Will. 

I love you both and am proud of you.  

I just learned from my sister Margaret that at my brother Ted's funeral Magee's poem was read.  Ted died when the small aircraft 

he was piloting crashed on  February 7, 1972.

Red Rock Casino

We can see the pools and the mountains from our room.

In our room there are several framed photographs of the canyon.  Over the bath is a large picture framed in a thin black edging.  When I first looked at the picture, I thought it was modern art.  I could see no sense to it.  Suddenly today, I realized that it was a close up of a yucca plant that had been blown up to make a picture that is larger than a poster.  Now when I look at the photograph, I cannot understand why I did not recognize the plant immediately.  It is so obvious that it is a plant.

 I have tried taking a photograph of this unusual picture but have failed miserably.  With or without a flash, with or without the room lights on, I get a reflection.  These pictures give an idea of what it is like but the leaves of the agave or yucca plant are green with red all around them.

The hot tubs are overpopulated with children.  The Professor and I drove a cute little girl away by using the one that was not working very well.  She apparently thought we were too scary.  Her dad was right there keeping an eye on her.  She just went over to the big round pool with the fountain.

I used the pool and did some laps but my arms are horribly weak.  It was comfortable and I had the entire pool to myself.  I guess the small pools to the right? of the lap pools are "cooling off" pools.  Take a quick dip and then go back to sunning/baking yourself.  I am not into the baking part.  I want to sit in the shade...especially my head/eyes so that I can read.  The only way that I ever get tan is from doing yard work or walking on the beach.  

The picture below is of the carpet in part of the building.  It mirrors the layers of rock that one sees in the canyon.