The Trajectory of the Church

Alexiana led devotions this morning with a beautiful reminder and encouragement that we can only face struggles and challenges in life when our identity is in Christ, first and foremost. If we miss this most vital piece, our actions and our lives will not be an overflow of the work, grace, and the life of Christ; instead they will be our own attempt to do life by ourselves.

Our first visit was to the church of Saint Mary Major or Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. (One thing noted as an “ad lib” was that this location used to be a location for the worship of Kibela. After Christianity became the official religion of Roman Empire they turned that location into a chapel focusing on the Mother Mary.)

We saw one of the 13 obelisks in Rome on our walk over to Archbasilica of St. John Lateran. This obelisk had Egyptian hieroglyphics. St. John Basilica started with a very large statue of Constantine and the statues continued into the basilica depicting saints, apostles, and biblical stories. We noted the similarities of these statues and artwork to what we already seen in both Greece and Turkey. However, this wasn’t Greek gods or emperors. This was church saints and biblical heroes. Our Roman Guide, Lori, showed us the huge main doors currently unused, which dated back to the Roman Empire (Second century, we believe). They were massive and made quite a statement.

Our next visit was to Baptisterio of Battistero Lateranense, which was where some of the first baptisms of the church would have happened. Some of the original walls from the 4th Century can still be seen. The baptismal area and tub is no longer used but has been designated a sacred spot for the church. We looked at more artwork depicting saints through mosaics, statutes, and paintings. There was a statute of John the Baptist at this location where he was standing in an “emperor” stance.

Across the street was location of the Holy Stairs. This is a holy place for Catholics who go to his place to kneel on each step while saying a prayer, whether asking for something specific or to pray your loved ones out of purgatory. The stairs are said to be the actual stairs from the Antonio Fortress in Jerusalem where Jesus would have climb to his trial with Pilate. During the reign of Constantine, his mother traveled to Jerusalem and sought to bring them to Rome. (Rod said this is highly likely based on the power of Constantine’s mother.)

These holy stairs were the location that Martin Luther came to a point of crisis in his own faith. As he approached Rome, he had memorized the book of Romans. As he ascended the stairs praying for loved ones, he remembered Romans 5:1: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” This began his journey of questioning some of the Catholic traditions.

Our final stop for today was at St. Peters Basilica in the Vatican. We had an amazingly swift entrance into the Basilica; even our tour guide was thrilled with the short line through security. This Basilica was impressive. The height of the dome of 400 feet high which is equivalent to roughly 1.5 Statue of Liberties and the gold stripe with words surrounding the dome are 10 feet each. The Basilica is believed to be built above the tomb of St. Peter and houses the Pietá by Michaelanglo, a marble statue of Mother Mary holding the crucified Jesus in her arms. St. Peters was being built at the same time when Martin Luther nails his 95 theses to the door, starting the Reformation.

From this point our group was able to take in Rome on their own. We were part of the 19 who decided to enter the Vatican Museum and visit the Sistine Chapel. Once again, the wait time was characteristically short for the busy tourist season. We were able to snake our way through many relics of both Rome and the church before entering the famous Sistine Chapel, a very crowded place. It was difficult to take in “The Creation of Adam” by Michelangelo from such a distance among such chaos but it was still beautiful and worth the wait.

Tensions we feel from today’s sights after learning about history and the Bible through our Greece and Turkey travels (also…dinner conversation tonight):

· After experiencing such beauty and grandeur of the Catholic places of worship today, we are left wondering when art and beauty enters the gray area of worshiping things other than God alone or making a graven image (read Exodus 20:4-5).

· When does honoring a person take our eyes off preaching “Christ crucified”? (Read I Corinthians 1:23).

· Do these cathedrals, basilicas, and artwork reflect more of their cultural context of the day or do they display the church as distinctively different from their culture?

· After seeing the simplicity of the early church through house churches (seen in Priene) and now experiencing the majestic and magnificence of cathedrals and basilicas, we wonder about each one’s effectiveness at reaching the lost and preaching Christ crucified and His grace.

· Personally after visiting Israel and experiencing the meager, humble beginnings of many of the biblical greats, we cannot help but wonder how a Peter, Mary, and John would feel about what we experienced today. Would they be humbled by the fact that they are still remembered and honored thousands of years later or disappointed that they may be taking our attention away from Christ, who alone deserves all of our glory, honor, and praise?

We don’t have the answers. These are just great questions that every person needs to wrestle with as we serve our King Jesus. Even over dinner tonight we had great discussion among friends who come from various traditions. In so many of those conversations we landed on the importance of the heart. Each person must take these tensions seriously within their own faith walk – reflecting on their heart’s motivations while asking for wisdom and clarity from their faithful Father.