The Unlikeliest Pilgrim Speaks

I just got back from church. I was invited to the Monday morning staff chapel at ten a.m. On the way out, I checked the kitchen to see what kind of shape I would be in the next time I wanted to make pizza. While I was there, I got drafted to cook. I produced four pizzas and three dozen garlic rolls, and I ended up leaving at 2:30!

That place has a gravity well. You have to be careful about getting close to it.

I don’t know what to do about recording all the experiences I had when I was in Washington last week. They started weeks before I made the trip, which makes the problem even worse. I have too much material to deal with. God has been driving me crazy.

For weeks, I’ve been asking God to be bold and obvious in my life. It looks like he was listening. I am overwhelmed by the constant flow of remarkable events.

Let’s see.

In 2007 (I think), I got involved with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, an organization which funnels money to needy Jews and which provides aid in Israel. Virtually all of the money comes from Christians. Last year, the local field rep–Linda–called me and asked me to meet with her, and I went. Reluctantly.

It turned out she was a committed Christian who shared many of my beliefs and interests. We became friends. Last year she invited me to visit a Messianic synagogue in Boca, and I went. Since then, I have been trying to get my church involved with the IFCJ, and I have been trying to get people from my church–starting with my prayer group–to visit the synagogue.

We tried to set dates, but people kept cancelling. Finally, we managed to work it out. The leader of my prayer group–John–is the volunteer leader for my church (over 700 volunteers), and all of the guys who went to the synagogue are volunteers.

At the service, the congregation was singing about the jubilee. This is a special year observed by the ancient Jews. After seven weeks of years, on the fiftieth year, they cancelled debts and so on. Here is a passage from Leviticus 25:

And you shall number seven sabbaths of years to you, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty and nine years. Then shall you cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall you make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee to you; and you shall return every man to his possession, and you shall return every man to his family. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be to you: you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of your vine undressed. For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.

In the year of this jubilee you shall return every man to his possession. And if you sell ought to your neighbor, or buy ought of your neighbor’s hand, you shall not oppress one another: According to the number of years after the jubilee you shall buy of your neighbor, and according to the number of years of the fruits he shall sell to you: According to the multitude of years you shall increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years you shall diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits does he sell to you. You shall not therefore oppress one another; but you shall fear your God: for I am the LORD your God.

After the singing, the rabbi referred to Jesus (“Yeshua”) as “our jubilee.” And when the teaching began–the subject was the baptism with the Holy Spirit–guess what part of the Bible we heard? Look:

“The Spirit of Adonai is upon me;
therefore he has anointed me
to announce Good News to the poor;
he has sent me to proclaim freedom for the imprisoned
and renewed sight for the blind,
to release those who have been crushed,
to proclaim a year of the favor of Adonai.”
Luke 4:18-19; CJB

Jesus is the speaker. He is reading from Isaiah, in the synagogue at Nazareth. I don’t recall which translation the rabbi used, but the phrase I recall hearing is “the year of God’s favor.”

I knew, without knowing, that “the year of God’s favor” was yet another reference to the jubilee.

As I listened, I took out my driver’s license and showed it to John and to Jo-el, another friend who was sitting to my right. Why would I do that? Because I wanted them to know it was my birthday. My 49th birthday. The first day of my fiftieth year. The year of jubilee.

Coincidence, right?

Remember this: “And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee to you; and you shall return every man to his possession, and you shall return every man to his family.” I feel that I am experiencing a time of intense restoration. Things that were taken from me and my family are being returned. Telling this story disrupts the chronology of this blog entry, but I don’t see any way to avoid it.

A week or two before the service, fellow blogger Richard from It Baffles Science sent me a startling email, recounting his testimony. I wrote about it here. God is repairing his marriage and leading him out of his destructive habits. He is doing shocking things as he works to bring Richard and his family into the safety of obedience and faith. I was so amazed, I forwarded the email to three Christians. One was Linda. In her response, she asked if I was free to go to DC in May.

I called her, and she told me the IFCJ had some seats at the National Day of Prayer, and they were inviting some donors. There was also going to be a tour of the Holocaust Memorial, a dinner with Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein (founder of the IFCJ), and an invitation to the Ninth Annual Solidarity Event at the Israeli Embassy, where we would hear the ambassador speak to a small group!

I had no idea what the Naitonal Day of Prayer was, and I didn’t really want to spend money and go to Washington, but the invitation sounded like God’s favor to me, so I agreed. I figured there had to be a purpose.

I was not happy about spending money for airline tickets, but I got online and started looking. Fares were really cheap. And when I mentioned the trip to my dad, he suggested giving me the tickets for my birthday. Crazy.

Guess who happens to live in DC? Mike. I gave him a call, and he said he would be available during the week I would be in DC. He offered free lodging (that part didn’t pan out), and of course, he would run me around and find stuff for us to do. I let Linda know, and she got him invitations to the events! He has never had anything to do with the IFCJ. If you don’t think God does weird, obvious things to people, this should prove you’re wrong.

I’ve been trying to get Mike to try an Assemblies of God church near his home. I don’t know much about churches up there, but I found one with a nice website. Trinity Assembly of God, in Lanham, Maryland. Just happens to have the same name as my church. Mike and I made plans to visit Trinity on Sunday. The events took place on Thursday and Friday.

The night before the trip, I decided to dust off my MP3 player and put some more music in it for the flight. I added several albums and some Christian teaching (Perry Stone), but when I tried to add the last recordings, a Ricky Skaggs two-CD set, I found that the disks were missing. I had no idea where they were. I gave up and went to bed.

It was a little odd that I was trying to add Ricky Skaggs. I rarely listen to him, but on that night, I felt like it was time to rip his CDs.

I dreaded the flight. I hate the screening process, and I don’t like airline seats much, because they’re built for pear-shaped people with all their weight in their rear ends. But at the airport, there was no line when I checked in, the screening process was quick and painless, and I had the odd sensation that I was floating as I walked to the gate. Everything around me seemed clean and bright. When I took my seat, I found I had a whole row to myself. The trip was a breeze. The airport in Baltimore was another great surprise. It was quiet and clean, and it seemed almost empty. I had no delays at all.

Mike and I fiddled around all afternoon. We went to a Salvation Army thrift store to check out their cast iron cookware inventory, we visited his son’s school, and we tried Rita’s Italian Ice. This is a chain that sells gourmet ice and soft-serve ice cream. I couldn’t believe how good it was. I had a gelati made with strawberry custard ice cream and wild black cherry ice. At Rita’s, “gelati” means ice cream on the top and bottom, with ice in the middle. I fell in love immediately. I think we had Rita’s four times before I went home.

The next morning, at nine a.m., I was inside the Cannon Office Building on Capitol Hill. This is where they held the DC event for the National Day of Prayer. I would say the room held three hundred people. It was about fifty feet by a hundred, by my guess. The cable networks were there. Michele Bachmann was seated about ten feet away, in the row in front of me. I didn’t recognize all the Senators and Congressmen who were there, but I know there were at least two. And here I was. The nearly nonexistent guy with the tool blog.

I wish I could recall everyone who spoke. James Dobson and his wife were running the show. Gary Bauer was there. We heard from a Navy admiral and an army chaplain. The Cactus Cuties sang the national anthem and God Bless America. The main speaker was Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham.

They also had male musical performers. Early on, I had noticed an old hippie up front. He had long silver hair. At first, I had no idea who he was. I had him figured for an official from a liberal church. But I eventually realized I was wrong, because one of the speakers introduced RICKY SKAGGS, and the hippie got up on stage with his Martin guitar. Ricky’s curly red hair and his famous moustache are long gone!

I felt like grabbing him and telling him the story of the MP3 player and the missing disks, but I didn’t want to be tased and waterboarded so early in the day.

I’m pooped. More later.