Day 04 - West Central Turkey: Aphrodisias, Philadelphia

In keeping with our previous days, we started out with an inspirational time of devotion led by Sarah Anne. Our first stop of the day was to visit a place named after the goddess Aphrodite.

Aphrodisias was the favorite city of Caesar Augustus. It was said that Aphrodite saved his life… so in return, Caesar Augustus gave the town tax-free status.

The first part of the town we visited was called The Sebasteion. The Sebasteion consisted of 200 marble carved slabs each 5‘ x 5‘. 100 slabs on one side of the street and 100 slabs on the other side. On each slab was carved a significant event in Roman history. Together, these slabs depicted the stories of the Roman conquests overtime. Walking through the Sebastian would tell the story of the power of Rome. The slabs were the medium that carried the message of Rome’s influence and power to the people who lived there.

In a similar matter, Paul challenges the early Christians to be the medium that carries His message… His handiwork to the world. The question we asked each other is “who is shaping the story depicted in slabs of your life?” 

It became a powerful moment to stand by the Sebasteion and wonder about the slabs of our own lives as well as the slabs yet to be carved. Will they be of our own doings? Or might they reflect our intentionality of living a Christ-focused life? Are we focused on our own gain or are we intentionally making this world a better place?

We then walked over to a building called the Odeon. An Odeon was the smaller theater used for musical performances, singing, city council meetings, and things like poetry and art competitions.

When Christianity became legal, they discontinued the sculpture school and many of the artistic competitions thus shutting down a primary way of communicating to the people. In doing so, they set culture back instead of taking the opportunity to communicate a new story going forward. That generated conversation about the role of Christians in media today. Is there an opportunity for Christians to continue influencing culture in a positive direction or do we, like these earlier Christians, bail from it entirely and leave a vacuum of positive influence.

After some robust discussion, we walked over to the stadium. It is the best-preserved stadium in the ancient world and it has 30 rows of seating… 20 of which are currently exposed. It sat about 30,000 people. It is three football fields long and 65 yards wide. Gladiators, athletes, and others competed here to see who was the best of the best. It was at this site that we talked through many of Paul’s references to racing, finishing good, and fighting the good fight. The Christian life is like race that needs to be run and completed… and done in such a way as to win the prize. We need to train and run with the purpose. So how are we doing in our own race? How might we help others get back on course and get back in the race? How might we encourage others who are still in the race? Those who have gone before us now sit in the stands cheering us towards the finish. What a comfort to know that we are not alone and when we stumble in our journey, we have people cheering us on to take the next step, and then the next step toward the finish.

In a moment of inspiration, we took to the field ourselves and ran a lap in one of the oldest stadiums in existence. Video included :-)

After a little time of excitement, we boarded the bus again and took off to our next stop: the ancient city of Philadelphia.

In Revelation 3, Jesus is reminding them that he has ultimate authority… Not Caesar. The letter is all praise and no correction. Jesus basically says to them “I see you”. I know life is hard and I know that you are suffering. But you, Philadelphia, are suffering well. Meaning, they turned to God in their suffering and not from God. He’s encouraging them because they didn’t get bitter or shut down… they just keep taking the next step. They’ve made a choice to hold onto Him and not onto things of this world. For us, we see there is a difference between suffering and suffering well.

Off to the hotel and hopefully a good night's sleep!