The Squooshy

So rich is this blessing—this trip. So dense is the expertise and conversations we get access to. I am full to overflowing.

And also. Holy Toledo am I behind!! There is so much to sift through.

Day 4: Sun Mar 30 The Istanbul Death March

Okay—death march is extreme. Our Sunday activities accumulated a mere 15,000 steps. But. Jet lag made it feel like double that. 😮‍💨

Sunday was a long day—I’m not going to lie. It was that inevitable day of vacation where the vacationer I wanted to be met the vacationer I had capacity to be and one of them took her earrings out and waved the other into the back alley (mind you, it was the “alley” of my 1st world overseas vacation but…still…).

Petulant Pilgrim

I still didn’t want to “people” and I didn’t want to follow directives. But I was compelled to do both all day—because I had signed myself up for a #GroupTour after all.

I was grumpy. I was sensitive. There may have been tears. It took energy to remind myself not to be down-right petulant. And it was a matter of time before the right spark hit the kindling under the shredded hamster bedding of my soul. Plus, we did a LOT of things Sunday.  So, these light-the-hamster-bedding tests were frequent.

Theology of Empires

We did start off the day with a reading of a Psalm—the 89th Psalm for the 89th day of the year. And, since this one was about God fulfilling his promises to David (whose name means… “beloved” as we recently learned, 🥹❤️) this made me happy.   Excerpt:

He shall cry unto me, “Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.”

Psalm 89:26

I also found an interesting parallel in how Brian (Zahnd) set the tone for us that day with his explanation of “Christian Empire” under Constantine and the tension of what that empire wanted to be and what it actually was. 

*Disclaimer: There is distinct possibility that my theology or my BZ notes are slightly off.  We’ve covered a lot and I’ve been trying to get time to jot it all down.  On the off chance I mucked something up, just go with it. 🤷🏻‍♀️

BZ talked about the constant tension between killing and peace within an empire.  Empires kill—but what does Christ compel the people within an empire to do?

Constantine grew up under the shadow of empire with a Pagan father and a Christian mother. Then, during Constantine’s rule, Christianity became a sanctioned religion for the first time in the Roman Empire. The empire, thus, began to change for the burgeoning church, from menace (persecuting its practitioners) to ally to, eventually, an entity with whom the church had to compromise.      

I would argue (and perhaps BZ too was implying) that there are parallels today in the US as to who we think we are (in our ideals and who we esteem ourselves to be) and who we actually are in practice.  I can see how the pressure to compromise happens almost instantly; I mean, just try to govern a town using ideals from the sermon on the mount (alone) and see how long it takes before a compromise has to occur. 

It was BZs conclusion that there is an unavoidable conflict of interest in being both a Christ-follower and an Emperor.  Beyond this, I also saw similarities between that tale of two Romes and the tale of 2 Rhondas on Sunday.  Christ in me and the Rhonda who showed up that day were not necessarily the same person. 

Istanbul Speed Dating

We toured/visited a great many places that day. Some things I enjoyed quite a bit more than other things.  All in all, I did not expect to see quite as much as we did in one day.  But, you can’t argue that we did not get value for what we accomplished.  

We saw the Hippodrome and talked about the Byzantine empire as the continuation of the Roman Empire to the east. We talked quite a bit about the split of the church into not just Catholic and Protestant (which is how I think about it based on the church history I had access to), but into East and West when the Orthodox and Catholic Churches split.  And how language (Latin v Greek) played a role in that. I was fairly in the dark about all things Orthodoxy and the things that the early church forefathers hammered out before the church split.

Patriarchy: She Smaht

It was with that context, then, that we visited the Hagia Sophia which translates to ‘Holy Wisdom’ (see? smaht!). Hagia Sophia had once been the Byzantine Orthodox Patriarchal cathedral which, in Orthodox Christianity, is the highest level church (approximately equivalent to Saint Peter’s Basilica for the Catholic Church). Unlike Catholicism, however, in Orthodoxy, there are several patriarchal churches (vs just 1 in Catholicism) and each are considered to be equal to each other. Hagia Sophia has transformed from church to mosque to museum to mosque again. The crusades played a role in some of those changes by weakening the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Hagia Sophia was an impressive building to experience.  I don’t think it has the familiarity to my faith that it would have had if history had taken a left fork instead of a right fork once in a while.  This was quite a significant Christian church of its time in the East, but it did not have a place of significance for me, personally. 

How much of the church’s history has been lost on me because I was born where I was born?  How much have American Protestants—or people with an Evangelical background like me—not had the opportunity to experience?  Would that change what we think?  

Women

Another theme for the day was the role of women in the expansion of Christianity; women were uniquely, and unmistakably important in the Gospel itself.  But they also played significant roles in the expansion of the Christian faith in the Byzantine/Roman Empire (e.g. Empress Theodora—the wife of Emperor Justinian, Saint Helena—mother of Constantine).  The roles they played sounded awfully familiar to me.  I heard stories about anticipating someone else’s next move and adapting to it to get a job done.  And, though I am not saying women should expect or be required to do this, what I am saying is that I found it affirming that it seems that other women have been good at this for centuries.  

Manipulation?  Adaptation?  Potaytoe v Potahtoe, I think women are exceptionally good at being in the in between spaces. 

We also visited the Blue Mosque—the mosque with 6 minarets (vs the 1-4)— and the Topkapi Palace.  Both are beautiful to behold.  Unfortunately, I can’t remember too very much of the details because by the time we got there, I was peopled out, pooped out, and toddler-tantrum-ready.  I was running on fumes.  I think we had lunch at some point.  This was the day we went to the Pudding Shop—made famous in the movie Midnight Express. 

But wait, there is more.  

Next, we visited Hagia Irene (or ‘Holy Peace)—which is on the grounds of the Topkapi Palace.  It’s the oldest church in Istanbul, and the only one in the Byzantine Empire that was never converted to a mosque.  It was there, in 381, that the Nicene creed was adopted. 

That was pretty cool.  Theology lesson for Rhonda:  What do the majority of Christians stack hands on and believe? Why do they believe it?  Well.  Stuff happened in biblical times. Someone wrote it down. Someone else prostletized and spread it and then wrote that down. 

As BZ said in summary, it was the job of the 1st century church to get the “Christology” right. The “who-is-Jesus” part. Human?  God?  Both?  

And then the other things had to get hammered out. So, to do that, an ecumenical (or “church-wide”) council—The First Council of Constantinople—was formed and went to work to agree on what the core beliefs were (I’m betting it got contentious).  And all of that hammering happened in Hagia Irene where I was standing, and where BZ took a moment to read the Nicene Creed.  It was pretty cool.  

Yeah. We were still not done; we had one more stop plus dinner. When in Istanbul, one must visit the Basilica Cistern.  It is the coolest underground water storage facility ever.  It is full of out-of-place Roman pillars (literally swiped from other places across the empire) and cool photo opportunities.  It’s damp and cool and it makes you marvel at the people who accomplished it.  Definitely want to check it out when you are there.  

Having been under-impressed with lunch that day and dinner the prior night, we wanted to experience a really good meal.  We found just that at a Russian steak house, had some wine and some kebab, took an overly crowded tram home, and put our aching bodies to bed.  

😮‍💨