Out of Egypt-June 3, 2006

Hello All,

It is really helping me so much to be able to write my journal entries and then get feedback from many of you. It is helping me process the magnitude of feelings and emotions and thoughts about the experience. Thank you.

Yesterday we went to a place called Abu Sambul--it is an island near Nubia. In fact, Nubians aka Cushites, live here. To see people who look like me and my colleagues was exciting. When we got off the tour bus, people were saying,"Hey Cousin"--it was mind blowing!

The reason we went to Abu Sambul was to see the Temple of Rameses II and his wife Nefertari. I can't wait to show you the pictures. Rameses was a Narcissist--at the entrance of his temple were 4 statues of himself 7 stories high. I don't know if you all know this, but the Pharoah's and their subjects--considered them gods. There was one section of hieroglyphics that showed Rameses bowing down to himself. Hmmm, can I get a sermon out of that one?

So many of our rulers and even church leaders, do the exact same thing, only they are not as audacious as Rameses to admit it. This applies not only to certain rulers and church leaders, but all of us have a tendency to elevate ourselves--get full of ourselves, and believe that the world centers on, and revolves around us. We do this when we fail to take into account other perspectives and other voices. We bow down and worship ourselves when we think our knowledge of a thing is the ultimate and only perspective. We bow down and worship ourselves when we live as if no one can tell us anything new...we know all we need to know about God, Christ, the Holy Spirit and the Church.

We bow down to ourselves when we fail to be open to God's leading and the possibility of divine revelation that might contradict our long standing embedded theology.

Whew, Sermon Over! Especially since I'm in an Internet Cafe in Komombo with no air conditioning and I know it's 115 degrees.

Oh, I must have forgotten to mention that we arrived at Komombo on a Cruise ship down the Nile River.

Blessings,