The Peace of Jerusalem

In one sense, Jerusalem has run its course and it is time to be moving on. It is a small town and there is only so much religion I can take!

In another sense, however, I have only just come to feel at home here. Something of that which drew me to this city in the first place has moved from magic to familiar. The intensity of spirit which threatened to singe me when I first came has some how become folded into my spirit.

I'm not sure what it will be like to not be here, to not be at the intersection of times and faiths: Judaism; Christianity; Isalm; the Wall; the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; the call to prayer five times a day; Shabbat -- preparation, stillness and quiet, breaking.

Someone asked me if I felt like I'd stepped off of the world when I came here. Actually, I feel like I stepped into the vortex of our human realm.

I don't know what I was looking for or expecting coming here for two months, but what I found is a centre and, in the midst of all the chaos, the press of peoples and the often irritating proximity of that which is so different, I have found peace.

The Psalmist exhorts us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. As Jesus is in the habit of reminding us that the Realm of God is already at hand, in our hand, peace is already in Jerusalem, woven into its turmoil and tension.