I left mom's at 3:45 this morning and got to the Enterprise lot at 9:30. That included a stop for b'fast and a 20 minute nap south of Portland. I only had traffic for a brief stretch around Salem because of some ODOT work. I don't enjoy that drive at all but it went smoothly so I can't complain.
Getting home that early means I got some tasks done here - mostly garden work. We have a problem with deer so I got new net coverings made for the Marion berries and the raised beds. I need just a little more 1/2" PVC pipe to make one more frame and I'll get that along with some pressure treated lumber tomorrow morning. We've got several days of nice weather ahead and I hope to take full advantage of it.
We got up to 60 today! I wore shorts and a T-shirt on my run this afternoon and then stayed in that while I worked in the garden. It felt wonderful. And it's nice to see things coming alive. Fresh leaves on the berry vines, the rhubarb putting up stalks and leaves, the blueberry bushes showing buds....
On the drive home I listened to an extended story on BBC Radio (the Portland NPR station) about the sites in Jerusalem that are holy to the three religions that consider that city central - Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. The reporter interviewed members of all three and talked about the Al Aqsa mosque, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. In each case the site creates tension between two of the three religions.
That got me thinking about the notion of holy sites. Is there such a thing? Yes, if the term "holy" means a status conferred upon a particular place by a religious body. Any group can say, "We deem this place (or structure) to be of special significance." But does God deem any place on earth holy, sacred, of special significance?
Moses, when he encountered the burning bush, was told to take off his sandals because the place where he stood was holy ground (Ex. 3:5). That was the same place where, 40 years later, Moses would receive the Law. At that time the Israelites are told not to set foot on the mountain or they would be put to death (Ex. 19:12).
Interestingly, we don't know where Mt. Horeb, aka Mt. Sinai, is located. We think it's at the southern end of the Sinai Peninsula but beyond that we can't say which of the many "mountains" (rocky outcroppings) the biblical narrative refers to.
That's the only place in the Bible - at least that I can think of - where God designates a site holy. Jacob built an altar at Bethel after his ladder dream but that was his call, not God's.
It seems significant that we also don't know for sure where key events in the Gospels took place. A big deal is made out of where Golgotha and the tomb are located but the guides will tell you those locations are at best traditions that date to the 4th century. We know the crucifixion happened at a spot outside the city but we don't know where the 1st century city walls were located. And the original Church of the Holy Sepulcher was built by Constantine's mother.
(Ok, she didn't do the actual building; she didn't even own a hammer. But she authorized and financed the construction.) And the cave in Bethlehem is just a good guess.
If there's another potential holy site it would be what's called Temple Mount, the current site of the Dome of the Rock, El Aqsa Mosque, and the Western Wall. It's the location of the Second Temple - the one built by the Jews of the return in the time of Ezra.
Abraham offered up his son Isaac on Mt. Moriah (Gen. 22:2).
NOT (!) coincidentally, Solomon built the Temple on that same location. David bought that hill from Ornan (aka Arunah) the Jebusite who used it as a threshing floor (2 Chron. 21). That is, the location of Solomon's Temple and then the Second Temple was at a place chosen by God when he directed Abraham to the precise site where he was to offer Isaac. But by the time Christ walked the earth that location was the place where worship had been prostituted and the tables were overturned by Christ's holy wrath.
It is reasonable to assume the millennial temple will be located on the same site.
OK, I just spent all that time working down a road that went................nowhere.
Nope, no point. No big reveal, no important take-away, no theological bombshell.
Just my mental exercise spawned by an NPR story that got me thinking about sites, about specific places of ground and whether any of them held special significance per God's intent.
Now that's out of my head. So I'll go heat up a cup of coffee, grab a chocolate chip cookie from the batch Pam made before I went to Seattle, and call it a day.
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