This week's news

At a point where Europe seems to ready to write off Greece, we might reflect that, after Jesus’ death, the world would not have given Christianity much hope. But the good news came to people ‘from every nation under heaven’, who had largely been united and civilised by Greek culture.

If it was the peace established by Rome that would allow a new faith from an insignificant province to spread throughout the known world, the main challenge for Christianity would be to establish its credentials in the intellectual world dominated by Greek thought. The Greeks, following the conquests by Alexander the Great, had come to dominance in the Near East three centuries before Christ. They had learned from the best of the nations they had conquered, particularly the Babylonians. On the Day of Pentecost the Gospel comes to their world, to people of ‘Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia’ (Acts 2.9-10).

We know that:
•    Greek philosophers were unrivalled. We have heard of Socrates and Plato.
•    Ancient Greek dramas remain classics. We know the Oedipus story, the Iliad and the Odyssey, and of the war ended through the trick with the Trojan Horse.

But we have only just realised that:
•    Settled communities, based on growing wheat, emerged in Greek culture in Asia Minor.  Farming did not, it now seems, begin first in the ‘fertile crescent’ of the Euphrates and Tigris, or on the Nile.
•    Greek mathematicians (we know something of Archimedes) were unrivalled. Extraordinary evidence has only recently emerged in the deciphering of a bronze device found 100 years ago, named the Antikythera Mechanism. A recent programme on BBC4 told its story. The topical link is that the device even told when the Olympic Games should be held!

More importantly for religious thinking, the mechanism proves that the ancient gods named after the planets could not be gods. They didn’t control anything. The ancient scientists understood that their motion was a complex but regular pattern, and these movements are exactly charted in the Antikythera mechanism. So, if Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Venus are not gods, then who is? Paul would address that question in Athens (Acts 17.23).

The challenge to which the Apostles responded on the Day of Pentecost was far greater than simply establishing another cult within Judaism. We know, from the discovery of the Dead Seas scrolls and from the differences between Pharisees and Sadducees, that such groups existed. But what Jesus’ disciples did, as this dramatic story reveals, is take on the entire intellectual world. Their victory would be established, in the Greek language, in peace and in gentleness. Remember that even when Paul wrote to the ‘Romans’ he wrote in Greek in order to be understood.

Reflection

Whilst Rome was ruled by an emperor, the Greeks were the founders of democracy. This has two obvious references for today.
With news stories too numerous to mention, we know that the Greek election has given a voice to the people. They can tell the financial community that people cannot be crushed by bankers. Whatever you think of the protests, the dilemma every nation, including Britain, faces is that from 2007 onwards the banks, Northern Rock, Icelandic banks, Lehmann Brothers, the Halifax and others failed. Banking is the problem, not the solution, and the Greek people (and now the French) don’t want an elite group of bankers to dictate to the people. Democracy demands that power should belong to people not to one group. There is no privileged class, no high priesthood, for all are equal in the sight of God and in each others’ estimate.

A more than democratic equality finds its roots in Judaism and is taken up by Peter on the Day of Pentecost. He quotes the prophet Joel: ‘Your sons and your daughters will prophesy... even upon slaves, both men and women...I will pour out my Spirit.’ (Acts 2.17-18)

Bishop Dom Hélder Pessoa Câmara is famous for saying ‘When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist.’

Should we not acknowledge that Camara sees his Christian vocation as both a true democrat and a true follower of the teachings of the prophet Joel? But then, Jesus taught us that we are all equal before God (Luke 18.10-12).

As we start to learn more of other faiths, we realise that they are not all the same kind of thing. Christianity had in some respects to be very different from the Judaism from which it came, yet still faithful to its heritage, if it was to be faithful to Jesus. And only the guidance of the Holy Spirit could ensure that this might happen. But from day one, the birthday of the Church, important insights from a very secular understanding of the world, in Greek democracy, science, mathematics, love of story and expertise in philosophical ideas were embraced and transformed.

Prayer

Fred Kaan’s Hymn ‘For the healing of the nations, Lord, we pray with one accord, for a just and equal sharing......’ might provide an appropriate basis for our prayers.

Questions

• What matters most in Europe today, a stable currency, or peace, or justice, for all?
• What of the Greeks today?

Action

Do you know of an individual or a group that appears to have been written off? Is there a way that you might offer support to enable them to find a place?

Young People

Many people continue to be spellbound by ‘what the stars foretell’. How do you answer them?
Should Christians read horoscopes?

Tom Ambrose

Hypertext links to other websites are for the convenience of users only and do not constitute any endorsement or authorisation by ROOTS for Churches Ltd.