September 23, 2001 — Mudeif Productions

TV is back - well, not all of it, but at least we've got BBC News, our link to the world (we also can get CNN, but we like BBC better, especially for international news).

Marthame preached at St. Matthew's Anglican Church of Zababdeh this morning, with Fr. Hossam translating. The lectionary for today was Luke 16:1-13 - or so Marthame thought. It is a particularly difficult passage to understand, and there is no agreement among scholars as to the meaning of the story Jesus tells. Marthame arrived a little before 8:30 with a sub-par sermon (but aren't all sermons, in the end, sub-par?) to discover two things:

1) The service wouldn't begin until 9:00, and

2) The Arabic Anglican Church is on a completely different lectionary calendar!

*Marthame preaches in English; Fr. Hossam translates.*

He grabbed a Bible, did some quick calculations, and ditched the original text in favor of five minutes of prep. It seemed appropriate to preach on serving a living God when preaching by the seat of one's pants.

Preaching for translation is a different art, though - the time is shorter (to allow for two sermons, essentially), the language is simpler (despite Fr. Hossam's excellent English - translating on the fly is difficult enough), and the phrasing is shorter (because of translation) - but it's fun. How Pentecostal!

*Vintage family photos from across the Middle East.*

We then visited with one of the parishioners, an older lady whose English is quite outstanding. She spent twenty years living in Baghdad (was married in the Presbyterian church there, in fact), before spending ten years in Amman, and then retiring ten years ago to Zababdeh. She's from a family of quite well-learned folks, and she loves living in the simplicity of Zababdeh's village life. We spent most of the time traveling down memory-lane with her photo collection from living in Jerusalem, Nazareth, Zababdeh, Iraq, and from travels and travelers. It was especially fun for us to see her photos of sites we visited in Iraq (like Hatra and Babylon) - maybe 50 years after she did.

The power was not turned off today, which was something unusual - we think it was because of the wedding this afternoon, which began at 5:00 (about 1/2 hour before the power is usually turned back on). The wedding, in the Latin Church, was for one of the P.E. teachers in the school, so it was a pleasure to get to celebrate with her. Marthame assisted in the wedding. Part of the traditional ceremony is that the priest leads the bride, groom, best man, and maid of honor around the altar three times.

The party was later on that evening. As night arrived, we discovered perhaps the electricity compromise - the street lights were cut off, making walking at night in Zababdeh a stumbling adventure. Arriving at the party was interesting - we were reminded of the many stories from the Bible about weddings. As children were being kept at bay outside, we thought about the wedding guests waiting to enter (Matthew 22). As we noticed the table behind the door in the back, we thought of Jesus' advise on choosing seats at a wedding party (Luke 14).

*The newlyweds are held aloft as they dance together.*

Wedding parties are quite the extravagant affair - the hall of the church was packed. Normally, the party would have been outside, but during the Intifada, celebrations are kept to a minimum, out of respect for the many deaths here; we have been told that in the first Intifada, most people were very strict about this, and there simply were no parties after weddings. Our friend's wedding had already been postponed a week because of the situation. But finally they got to wed and celebrate. Best guess, maybe a thousand people came (this is quite normal). Everyone is fed (hummus, pickles, snacky beans, bread, meat and rice and sauce, cola, and beer), and there is (of course) dancing and music.

Families spend a lot of money on parties, and when there is little money here, this is quite a hit to the pocketbook. As a result, the families usually forgo gifts and simply give each other money. But these events are an essential part of the rhythm of life here, and still provide people with an outlet to celebrate. It carried on late into the night - wonder how bleary-eyed kids will be in the morning!