Tag: Two Sicilies

In Marsala

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

How do we pronounce that word? Apparently try Mar (easy bit) and then add the name of a current famous Liverpool player. Spent last night in Balestrate: here is our van parked and we stayed around the corner:

Nothing too hostile but an interesting place. The ‘host’ for our B&B was a throw back from the 60s (hippy era) and we entered our room to him and his ‘friends’ in a very heated discussion(!!!???) that indicated a certain amount of alcohol and whatever else had been present in the previous hours! The street I photograph is typical of many historic towns in Italy and also Spain. A very intense evening for us with not a lot of sleep involved but prayer and processing. We left Balestrate this morning but with our host opening his arms and ‘Sicily welcomes you’. We take that.

A colleague who has helped us a lot – Michael Schiffmann – had contacted us about a month ago with ‘the South-West holds the keys and you need to go there early on to discover revelation for the island. There is no South West as the island is a triangle. That showed that MS was not looking at a map or doing some google research (all valid) but giving what he had received. So we have been holding and seeking to process that and the South West (without there being a south west) puts us on the coast from Agrigento up. We settled on Marsala as the starting point and have secured for our next 6 days an apartment here. It will give us time to settle (been on the road for 11 days). Marsala was where Garibaldi began his campaign that ended in Italy being united. He landed in Marsala, from there conquered the island and then worked north on the mainland, thus before long ended the ‘two Sicilies kingdom’ as the border (the one we prayed on a few days ago) went and Italy soon united to become what we have today. A place of entry to that movement that interestingly had at its heart politicians, journalists, economists and ‘states-people’.

We know this is the next place for us – unfinished business for sure in Balestrate – but here we will sow something into the ground . Interestingly there is a ‘new gate’ into the city – probably where Garibaldi entered. (Map below… Marsala off to the left, Balestrate is just to the west of Palermo.

Sad to leave the high mountains (and Etna) behind but this is now the right place.

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Onwards today

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

We have stopped in a number of places to see, pray and receive, but yesterday was the most focused of days. We had been given a word about taking time at a border for there we would receive for the ongoing journey and receive some kind of partnership with angels. Borders: Spain to France; France to Germany; Germany to Switzerland; Switzerland to Italy; and of course ‘smaller’ borders between provinces and the sea border between Italy mainland and Sicily is yet to come. So which border?

Borders are important and I am not too fussed what we make of ‘angels, principalities and powers’ but at the minimum they speak of authorities that either shape the context or are shaped by the context. I am not convinced we have to be correct in our theology but it sure helps to do our best to align with whatever the Scriptures are describing. Jacob encountered angels at a border both when leaving his family on the way to Laban’s household and also when he returned. Paul described how God had set boundaries for the peoples (and kairos times) so that they might seek after / stumble and find God. Hence boundaries are important and the crossing of them is what transgression speaks of and is a sure way to remove the environment where people can seek after and find God. (Of course there is much more to it than that, but to ignore the issue of boundaries and land we will miss a whole aspect of the release of ‘good news’.) Paul and Luke seemed to have used the Roman names for territory and Paul’s journeys were led by the Spirit but within defined geographical settings.

So which border?

We were convinced that the border we needed to give attention to was an ancient border – the northern border of the kingdom of the two Sicilies. To the north was the papal lands and to the south the kingdom of the two Sicilies.

It was the “Kingdom” par excellence. Its territory was delineated since the very first years of its creation under Roger II of Altavilla and remained unchanged along the centuries until its fall in 1861: its northern boundary followed a line that stretched out from Civitella del Tronto (south of Ascoli) to Gaeta and touched Leonessa, L’Aquila (north of Pontecorvo) and then continued south to the Tyrrhenian Sea; its southern boundary was the sea itself, including Sicily.

https://realcasadiborbone.it/en/history/an-ancient-and-glorious-kingdom/

For around 730 years this territory holds that boundary. And of course in the history there are the inevitable clashes and alignments between so-called secular powers and the religious powers exercised by the pope. The uneasy history! The annexation of the two kingdoms was the effective start of the unification of Italy under Garibaldi (1860 onwards).

The map to the left is that of the ancient division, and we have been staying approximately 2 kilometres north of the line on the western coast. Noe Limiñana laid an ancient map over the current map of the area and came up with the border as being marked by a river – the Rio Claro. This is where we focused yesterday and (of course could be subjective) the witness in our spirit when we stood on the bridge over the river was very strong. The ancient border! We ‘felt’ (oh yes possibly simply subjective) that there was a difference one side to the other… angels going with us? I am sure there will be though neither of us had specific dreams last night – something that would be expected.

Coming off the bridge we smiled when we saw this sign on the sea front indicating the flow of water divides at that point. One direction back and one direction toward our destination:

As we travel today our prayer and speech will be concerning the open arms of God to one and all. Borders over coming years might change… but let them fit with what will facilitate a ‘finding of God’.

Coincidentally(?) a camp site on the border is named ‘Anastasia’, after the goddess. It was Paul’s proclamation of ‘Jesus and the resurrection (ἀνάστασις)’ that was central and misunderstood as two deities: a new one (Jesus) and an ancient Greek one (Anastasia). A good reminder – Jesus cannot be proclaimed without the resurrection… and if proclaimed then everything has changed and we have to live from that perspective, the perspective of the new creation.

Tonight we should be right down in the south ready to get a ferry tomorrow to Sicily. For sure angels go with us as they do with all who seek to partner with God.

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Never had a doubt…

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

With or without a question mark? Doubt – not an enemy of faith, though it can be, or it can be a servant on the journey of faith.

First the big picture. Yes I have doubted many times and asked the question – even the question of ‘is there a God’? When all is well maybe the doubts don’t come, but I have noticed there are times when not all is well with life. Then there are the huge issues of suffering that I think demand a VERY heavy leaning into a God who does not control. Anyway what bottoms things out for me I think are three aspects:

The resurrection of Jesus. People just do not rise from the dead in that way – crucified, buried and on the third day not simply revived but resurrected. Fulfilling the Jewish hope that at the end of the ages those who died in faith will be resurrected. Ever such a crazy faith that we buy into. That in an obscure eastern province of the Roman empire someone has been crucified (there were times when thousands were crucified within the same immediate time frame) and has been raised from the dead and as a result there is a public message that Caesar is certainly not lord etc… And the first believers were Jews. WOWOOOWOOW.

The testimonies of Scripture and within history – many have gone before me, many through martyrdom. (Maybe other faiths would claim the same, but tied to the resurrection of Jesus, my convictions are strengthened.)

And thirdly my own experience. It lines up with what I read, and the Christian faith is experiential; it is relational. Paul wrote to the Galatian believers and appealed to their experience as one of the reason to pull back from legalism with ‘Did you experience so many things in vain?’. John Wesley had as one of his quadrilaterals ‘experience’.

Yes doubts, and yes if I were God things would be different! But faith like an anchor that holds on to heaven’s realities.

And the small picture. Last night we had a look at Pisa’s leaning tower. Amazing. But today we will hit the old border of the ‘Two Sicilies’. Sounds crazy but the border is between Rome and Naples – the two Sicilies being a kingdom that had a centre in Naples and one in Palermo. The night we have just had was restless and disturbed. Doubts on the one hand – what are we doing… nothing certain; no accommodation set before us… Are we simply stupid (no answers on a postcard).

And not surprising…. we are small people so small adventures can be very challenging to us; but also angels are waiting. They are often encountered at night at borders (read the entry and re-entry of Jacob). We will stay on the border two days… who knows? Maybe we will leave with doubts; maybe we will leave strengthened; maybe we will encounter some hospitality and never realise there were angels involved… maybe 100 possibilities.

Whatever takes place for sure I will have my doubts but underneath it all will not be strong faith, but the eternal God. So be encouraged today should any reader have a doubt or two!

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Only 1800kms to go

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Updates

We are en route – honestly we are. Just took a very important detour:

‘Home’ to Freiburg

The detour is simply to spend 2 days with Yannick, Jenny, Pheline, Samuel. A family we have known over the last decade or so. Honest, earthy, pray-ee type people. Why detour – to be with them, but also following the incident with Paul where he was ‘dragged out of the city… he got up and went back into the city’ we are absolutely standing with them for that. One more day here in an open city – and open of course to all kinds of spirituality. A creative, innovative city, alive with and for young people.

And a great piece of advice on the side of the kiosk: ‘pray… love… eat… sleep… repeat’. Wow – we can all do that and wherever we live would be healthier for it.

Another day here and then through Switzerland and into Italy, stopping one night (somewhere) and then on the following day to the old border between ‘the papal states’ and ‘the kingdom of the two Sicilies’. On the west side that border ran roughly half way between Rome and Napoli. The kingdom of the two Sicilies had two centres – Napoli and Palermo and was very active during the Bourbon reign – the royal line from Aragon in Spain. A few weeks ago we had a call with Jenny and Yannick (where we are currently staying) who both contributed that when we crossed a border there was to be a meeting with angels… we sensed immediately this was not a current border (France / Italy for example) but an ancient border. Research and up comes this ancient border. In Scripture angels are encountered at borders (see the travels of Jacob in and out of his land. Who knows what that will look like, but if there is a contribution that heavenly servants of God are to make to these two ‘close to clueless’ earthly travellers we are up for that.

Anyway that is 2 days away… and I must quickly get a shower as the next few days showers might not be accessed on a daily basis!!!

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