Greece Journal #4: Phillippi & Meteora

Ahhh, nothing like the Smoke-aholic smell of a nicotene infested internet cafe in Athens Greece! My goodness people, please read the labels on those things! That is one thing that may shock many of you Americans if you have never traveled over seas. EVERYBODY and I mean Everbody must smoke like 50 packs a day. It’s so bad I am gonna need to go see CADE when I get back to check for lung cancer. Paul had to deal with snakes, shipwrecks, soldiers, and I get smoke, Frankfurt and some psychotic drivers! Pick your poison =) Even though I am probably inhaling what kills me and the hotel concierage warned us not to go to any internet cafes in the area as they are dangerous, I have found a place that is only 2 Euros a hour as apposed to 20 from the hotel. (NOW I KNOW WHY THE HOTEL SAYS DO NOT LEAVE HOTEL) Although, the man in front of me is researching Islam, and is wearing authentic muslim clothing….. Hmmm this could be interesting but once again such is EUROPE…. well enough rambling, although I hope I did paint the picture of where I now sit.

Today I play catch up. I will try in snip – it’s with really poor grammar to catch you up on the several stops that we have made. I also plan on dedicating all of NEXT Wednesday night to talking about and discussing about the trip. For those of you reading this, you will allready have a lot of background on what I would like to share.

Lets start with with the trip up to Phillipi which led us along one of Rome’s major accomplishments which was the Via Ignatia. This is the major road that connected the western and eastern world and would have been a road that Paul walked on much and often. Our first stop up to Phillippi was at one of those classic tourist pullouts for pictures… I FELT CHEESEY but hey here I am so I will do the tourist thing… We hopped out of the bus – myself, Glen, and pretty much everyone else over 50. So some hopped, some crawled, and some fell. =) Really some fell not here but there was like a fall a day on this trip. (One great guy from the underground church in China nicknamed me STRONG MAN. He called me that everyday…..YES, IT WENT TO MY HEAD!) We got out of the bus and made our way to the point that overlooked both the Via Ignatia and Neopolis. Neoplois is the port town where Paul took his first steps on European soil. Pretty sobering. The Harbor still has the foundation of the same docking area that was used in Paul’s day. From there we made our way up to Phillippi where we went to the spring where Lydia was saved. If there were not 10 men in a town they would not have a synnagogue, so the Jews would make their way to Water (place of purity) to pray. In Greece it was common to see the Synnagoges first outside the cities and 2 next to water. So this is where Paul went and where Lydia and her home came to know CHRIST. From here we made our way to Phillippi.

Phillippi is a spectacular archaelogical site with much for the Christian to learn from. Phillippi is small in comparison to much of the other towns he would have went to (Think prineville) … I won’t go into the city design but rather what I came away with here.

1. I was able to see the very first BEMA seat of my life. Platform where a man was judged, rewarded, or in early Grecian History, could speak to the entire town if he was a citizen. Very cool to have full understanding of this word. It is the same word used to describe the BEMA (judgment) seat of CHRIST…. Paul spent several occasions before the BEMA of this life and will be highly rewarded before the BEMA of CHRIST.

2.Theological thought in Acts 16:17 – There is a woman that comes and is really bugging Paul and Silas. She says and I quote- THESE MEN ARE THE SERVANTS OF THE MOST HIGH GOD, WHICH SHEW UNTO US THE WAY OF SALVATION. Now for years I have wondered about this verse. Why would a demon possesed woman declare the truth of GOD? How can this be? I know the arguments – that Paul did not want her speaking these things because she was false, but there is something more here. My tour guide (who is Greek, he speaks Greek, he is trained in greek, and he is a confessing believing Christian) says this – The word there, “THE WAY”, in that verse- SHOULD be translated “A WAY.” In other words, she was saying these men shew A WAY of salvation… Just like lucifer, she tweaked the WORD…. Paul was showing the ONLY WAY!

3. Practical thought: We saw a church there in ROME— THE earliest known CHURCH BUILDING— It had 3 phases to it— IN ITS original form it looked like a square . The people likely sat at a table or around the room and they where able to see everyone in the Body at all times. This was most likely how early christianity was – NO STAGE, NO PULPIT. What we have now actually resembles THE THEATRE of the greeks… Where everyone is a spectator and 1 person is the speaker/actor.

The next stage of the church perhaps because it grew took on a OCTAGON SHAPE – more byzantine in style.

The 3rd stage is really intriguing. This is during the time of CONSTANTINE and the church became state based. They added a STAGE LIKE AREA FOR THE ALTAR (WHICH WAS NEVER THERE BEFORE) and an area for the priest to speak from. No longer do you look at eachother and have community but now you are all focusing on the altar COMMUNION EUCHARIST.

Those were some interesting things from Phillipi.

ON TO METEORA- Google this place! It’s breathtaking! The place is famous for the 20 monasteries built on top of and into the rocks. It started with a bunch of hermits that came to escape the world and live in the cleft of the rocks. After living in the rocks, they began to build monasteries for the many people that followed them. The idea was that the church’s early persecution was good for the church, it cleansed the church, and now that the church was not being persecuted it had become impure with SIN! LAODICEANISH…. So men and women left the worldly life and moved to monasteries. This area was pretty cool to me for a number of reasons, but I think most impacting was how God used these men to preserve SCRIPTURE. These men separated for centuries where the ones that tediously made copy after copy of the scriptures—- There was no MONK-ey buisness there! We have them to thank for the Bibles we can hold in our hands today. Also this place gave me a better understanding of the Greek orthodox ICONs … I will try to explain….

The Icons came about early on in the church because— First the church was very illiterate, and second, paper was not at their disposal. So they painted PICTURES ICONS that told stories of Jesus’ resurrection and crucifixion, and continued on to the early church Martyrs. The intention was good. On one Icon you can understand a whole PARABLE. They where like comic books, or Children’s illustrated bibles. Simple to understand…..That was the purpose—

THE PROBLEM- was people began to worship the Icon itself, and worship the one behind the icon. This was a culture that was originally brought out of Greek mythology with many gods and godddeses. It was a honor as we see in some areas of the Old Testament to have as many gods as possible. So the icons went from a picture to a idol– THAT’S A PROBLEM… Our tour guide who shared his powerful testimony today told me that he himself has and continues to buy icons. To him they are simply the story of Jesus; HOWEVER— when his greek friends are in his home he removes them as not to stumble them… This is Liberty and Love at its finest. Going into this monastery all over the ceiling in the first room told the story of the martyrs– VERY SOBERING— when you enter into the main sanctuary all over the ceiling is the Gospels illustrated…. Pretty powerful!