Part 1. Turkey:Intro

(Original Post on Corner Booth Musing's Website) 

The past couple of months have been a whirlwind! I began the month of May turning in final papers for my M.Div at Duke Divinity School. Within the first week and a half of the month, I found myself a graduate of one of the greatest universities in the world; I hold a document in the palm of my hands that has deemed me master of all things divine (okay, so not quite, but it’s fun to say!!). I’m not sure there was anything, during my three years at Duke Div, that could have prepared me for what I was to experience.

36 hours after our baccalaureate service, I was heading to the airport for an adventure of a lifetime. I, along with 14 other students and faculty members were headed to Turkey for 11 days of intense travel where we visited over 15 biblical and significant Christian sites (I lost count), experienced modern Turkish culture, heard the adhan (call to prayer) in the wee hours of the morning into the dark of night, and reflected on the words of scripture and on the significance of the sites we visited in the context of the Christian tradition.

There is an endless amount of things to say about my experience in Turkey. It is an indescribable experience to be walking along ancient Roman streets knowing that Paul, and other early Christian key figures, walked them thousands of years before. It was an emotional journey to walk where many were persecuted for their faith in Christ. I found myself wanting to just sit and be in some places in order to take in everything that my senses were telling me. There is no way to describe the experience of being able to sit in the coliseum where Paul likely addressed the community at Ephesus or what it is like to walk through a baptismal pool that has been carved into the ground and carefully preserved by the earth around it. There are little words that describe the feeling one gets when walking through a church that dates back to the Byzantine period or what it is like to stand in front of mosaics that have survived being hidden for centuries or what it is like to see crosses bleeding through plaster and paint used to cover up the symbols of Christianity.
I did not simply leave America to find myself in a foreign land set in the 21st century; I felt as if I had travelled back in time, having removed myself from the world I knew, and stepped into the world that Paul lived in. No longer was I driving down a crowded highway in my vehicle that transports me from point A to point B in a relatively decent amount of time. I was walking the uneven, dirt roads of Ancient Pergamum, Sardis, Smyrna, Ephesus, Philadelphia (though there isn’t a lot left of the ancient city), and of Laodicea (6 of the 7 churches of Revelation). I was standing next to ancient ruins that stood at least 10x my stature, and I’m an average 5’6 American female. I stood where many early decisions were made about Christian doctrine in the church. The First Ecumenical Council, which resulted in the Nicene Creed and dealt with the nature of the Son of God, was but a mere peek over a waterfront; the site believed to be the meeting place of the first council is currently under water. (You can read more about that here–I stood on that shoreline!!!)

It is one thing to sit in a classroom and learn about the decisions that were made at various locations, or to read scripture and try to imagine what it might have been like to be part of the world in which scripture was written. But, it is a completely different, new, and exciting experience to be able to visit the places that you are reading about and learning about. No longer was my imagination simply something in my head, but it was now a reality. I no longer wonder what it might have been like to walk through the baptismal pool, because I have walked through it (now I only wonder what it would have been like to have been surrounded by water). It truly is an indescribable experience to be able to walk the path that I, along with my classmates and professors, were able to walk in Turkey. 

While there is a long history of Christian-Muslim relations in modern day Turkey, there are still many Christian foundations, even where Muslim mosques lay. Realities such as this bring to question what sacred space truly is and urges us to ask questions about the sacredness of decommissioned churches. Are these once sacred and holy places no longer sacred and holy because they do not worship the Triune God? That is not a question I am going to answer. I have my own opinions and struggles with it, and I will get into it a bit in a later post, but it is not a subject I am going to tackle today. 

I can only imagine that this experience is going to allow me to be a better pastor, particularly a better preacher and Biblical interpreter. No longer is my scriptural imaginative world limited to the pages of books, instead it has been broadened to my experience of walking through ancient cities–the very cities and settings in which portions of scripture were written and addressed to. 

There is so much to say about Turkey. There are things that I have processed through and things that I am still processing, even weeks after returning to the States. Because there is so much to talk about, this is just the first of several posts! Stay tuned for more (photos to be included in the following posts!)