Worldly Holiness

Friday Fotos–Walkway to the Dome

Walkway to the Dome, originally uploaded by papalars.

With a little help from Wikipedia I need to tell my readers some fascinating stuff about this structure, which for me was the most impressive of all the amazing structures in Jerusalem. The Dome of the Rock, (Arabic: مسجد قبة الصخرة, translit.: Masjid Qubbat As-Sakhrah, Hebrew: כיפת הסלע, translit.: Kipat Hasela, Turkish: Kubbetüs Sahra), is an Islamic shrine and a major landmark located on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. It was completed in 691, making it the oldest extant Islamic building in the world.

The Dome of the Rock is located at the visual center of an ancient man-made platform known as the Temple Mount to the Jews and the Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) to the Muslims. The platform, greatly enlarged under the rule of Herod the Great, was the former site of the Second Jewish Temple which was destroyed during the Roman Siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD. In 637 AD, Jerusalem was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate army during the Islamic invasion of the Byzantine Empire.

The names of the two engineers in charge of the project are given as Yazid ibn Salam from Jerusalem and Raja ibn Haywah from Baysan. Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan who initiated construction of the Dome, hoped that it would “house the Muslims from cold and heat”, and intending the building to serve as a shrine for pilgrims and not as a mosque for public worship. Historians contend that the Caliph wished to create a structure which would compete with the existing buildings of other religions in the city.

Al-Maqdisi writes that he: "sought to build for the Muslims a masjid that should be unique and a wonder to the world. And in like manner, is it not evident that Caliph Abd al-Malik, seeing the greatness of the martyrium of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and its magnificence was moved lest it should dazzle the minds of Muslims and hence erected above the Rock the dome which is now seen there."

Prof. Shlomo Dov Goitein of the Hebrew University states that the Dome of the Rock was intended to remove the fitna, or 'annoyance,' constituted by the existence of the many fine buildings of worship of other religions. The very form of a rotunda, given to the Qubbat as-Sakhra, although it was foreign to Islam, was destined to rival the many Christian domes. [6] A.C. Cresswell in his book Origin of the plan of the Dome of the Rock notes that those who built the shrine made use of the measurements of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The diameter of the dome of the shrine is 20m 20cm and its height 20m 48cm, while the diameter of the dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is 20m 90cm and its height 21m 5cm.

I talked about how this city is a microcosm of our world in my last post. I wonder how things would be different if we did not compete in the world, even with our religions and religious structures. It seems at times like we are all participating in a Divine Beauty Contest for all around the world to see. I wonder what Jesus thinks about all this? None-the-less, enjoy this edition of my Friday Fotos.

April 25th, 2008 Posted by andres | Friday Fotos | no comments

The Stones Will Cry Out–Following the Prince of Peace

Khalid, originally uploaded by papalars.

I've been thinking recently of our trip to the Middle East and to Jerusalem and the experience we had with the shop owner on the Via Dolorosa–literally the "street of pain!" Luke's story of Christ's Triumphal Entry into the very city whose streets we walked is also bouncing around in my head. This is quite a place and our experience seemed to live up to the city's reputation, both in scripture and current day. There is no shortage of tension.

Our new friend, Khalid, manifested some of the ethnic and religious pain when he shouted an insult at us strolling by his shop. We were
noticeably American. And we didn't stop to look at his stuff in the shop. I think
he had some pent up anger toward America and we were his target. It hit
a hot button in my friend, Nate, who had to respond to the insult. So
for the first 5 minutes of our encounter, Nate and Khalid were face to
face, about 5 inches apart, Mid-East style. All other pedestrians in
the area began to swing wide of the incident, perhaps wanting to avoid
any fallout. I came up to Nate and Khalid and began to pray while I
sought to insert calm comments from time to time.

You may remember the scene in the New Testament when Jesus entered Jerusalem near the end of his time on earth. If you are not a Bible scholar that is OK. The story has been re-enacted in movies for some time. Anyway, it unfolds like this. People were all excited when Christ was entering Jerusalem and the people were praising God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles they had seen. The Pharisees must have been jealous because they asked Jesus to rebuke his disciples to which he replied–"if these become silent, the stones will cry out!"

Jerusalem is full of many stones. The old city is built with stones. Cobblestones on the streets, bricks and larger stones in the buildings, gates, and of course the famous Wailing Wall is a formidable tribute to the principle building material in the region. Jerusalem, the city, is full of stones. It is also full of much pain.

Back to our incident with the shop owner, a Palestinian. Bit by bit, and for no reason of my own effort really, things began to calm down and within about 15 minutes were inside the shop talking more calmly on stools offered by our new host. At minute 30 I think we were offered coffee. Within the hour we were shoulder to shoulder for this picture and exchanging emails. Clearly God was with us. We listened, extended our hearts of understanding and empathy and sought to be the presence of Christ. I bought a very nice, simple cross necklace for Carol. Maybe this was our new friends strategy all along. Grin.

I kind of feel that Jerusalem is a microcosm of our current world, especially on the issue of religious and cultural fault lines that now seem to divide us around the globe. I also feel that we are called to be ambassadors for the Prince of Peace in this conflicted world. If we remain silent, the stones of the city of Jerusalem, which have seen so much pain, will probably cry out if they don't collapse in upon us. The world needs to know the Prince of Peace and the message he brings to all–"For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity…" [Ephesians 2:14-15]. By the way, the story of Jesus to which I refer is in Luke 19:40. There are some new protagonists in the story but the storyline is very similar in present day Jerusalem.

As-sallamu Aleykum

April 23rd, 2008 Posted by andres | Daily Journey, Ministry Updates | 2 comments