Day 01 - Miletus, Didyma, Priene

"Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

Marty posed that question to our group this morning as the sound of placid waves from the Aegean Sea accompanied his devotional. The calm oceanside setting enhanced the meditative queries posed to us on our first day. Who are we, what are we doing here, and how can what we learn from this trip impact our lives and communities back home? As it turns out, our group was not the first to face this query - to some degree, the Apostle Paul also had to wrestle with these very questions.

We delved into that topic at our first stop of the day - an ancient theater in Miletus. There Marty taught us how Paul shifted from who he once was and what he thought he was meant to do, to realizing who God made him to be and God's true calling for him. Once a "Hebrew of Hebrews" who persecuted the early church, Paul then became one of the most instrumental people to bring the gospel to both Jew and Gentile. We were taught that Paul has a Hebrew heart, a Greek tongue, and a Roman mind. On the surface, the first quality seems a bit obvious while the other two qualities seem a bit out of place - until Marty started teaching us the kind of world Paul faced. 

As our group traversed through ancient Miletus, Marty explained the four pillars of Hellenism that Alexander the Great ushered in during his rule - Theater (entertainment), Gymnasium (education), Arena (sports), and Healthcare. Throughout this site - and for the rest of the day - he tied the concept of "the medium is the message" with how Hellenism brings its own message through its specified mediums... and I say "brings" (i.e. present tense) because the reality is is that the majority of our group comes from a culture that is incredibly Hellenistic. For me, it led back to how critical it was that Paul used his Greek tongue and Roman mind to engage his culture so that he could bring a very Jewish message through a medium different than what Asia and Asia minor were accustomed to.

So what did this look like practically? That is what Marty ended our day with at the ancient city of Priene. There he led us to a house synagogue that made so much of a positive impact on the community, the city allowed them to break some of our modern day ideas of "building codes" just so this house synagogue could become a more prominent presence. The first century Jews - Paul included - knew that they could not compete with the medium Rome was using (i.e. the four pillars of Hellenism). But because they engaged with Greco-Roman culture just enough, they knew how to subvert the Hellenistic medium with the gospel's medium of love and unity with one another. The medium is the message - while Rome medium of Hellenism subliminally taught that prosperity comes through self- preservation, the early Jewish/Christian medium of radical unity, inclusion, and love for one another taught a message that took Rome by surprise.

If it seems like what I wrote was a bit much and somewhat disjointed... well, that was kind of the point. Marty likes to spend day one of his trips throwing so much information at his groups that it feels like drinking from a fire hose. Some of it clicks instantly for us, but most of it we are still processing. The rest of the trip is when the details start to come together to the point where we each get closer to answering the question, "Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

- Doreen D.