I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge—  God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. – 1 Corinthians 1:4-6

This morning at the HMPC men’s Bible study I started out by sketching a very rough and poorly proportioned map of the Eastern Mediterranean. I started with the “heel” of Italy, outlined the Adriatic, added the thick peninsular that is Greece and then the Aegean Sea. From Istanbul on the Bosphorus I went back to the west and then south for Turkey’s Aegean coastline, turning to the east at Rhodes, then south again at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, Syria then Lebanon then Israel, turning back to the west at Egypt for the beginnings of North Africa.

So What?

I sketched the map for a couple of reasons. First, I believe it is important to have a foundational working knowledge of how this region is laid out. Geography is critical in terms of understanding our world today, and it’s just as important if we intend to be students of history – or even vaguely intelligent about politics.

Also, we have been talking about the Apostle Paul and the spread of early Christianity. And when I reference Antioch, or Ephesus, or Corinth, or Philippi I need to know that we all understand exactly where we are.

Tarboro may well be “the crossroads of Western Civilization” today, but (believe it or not) there were times in history when the epicenter was located a little farther to the east of us here in North Carolina!

Today we started to look at First Corinthians. So the geography of Greece is most certainly part of this story. Paul wrote the letter to the church in Corinth around the year 55AD – while living in Ephesus, on the Aegean coast of Turkey. So an understanding of how the Roman Empire was developing, how trade was moving, and who may have been living in those cities helps when we look at what Paul writes.

So what do we know?

Beyond New Testament studies, a practical knowledge of how the world is laid out is vital. I wonder how we would do, given a “fill in the names of the countries” map of Europe? What about the capital cities?

Another great test would be a blank sheet of paper and pencil. Now try to outline the continents and the major countries, label the oceans and include the equator too, using the classic Mercator projection.

I believe that we must be knowledgable of, aware of, open minded regarding, and sympathetic to the peoples and cultures and the geography of our world.

Try the world map thing – without a guide to cheat from. I dare you!

How can we tell the stories that are important to us if we do not know and understand our neighbors?

I think this line from the creation story in Genesis is instructive: “God saw everything he had made: it was supremely good. There was evening and there was morning: the sixth day” (Genesis 1:31).

That is what the Bible says: “EVERYTHING God has made.” It is ALL supremely good.

Not just good, but worth understanding and respecting and exploring. – DEREK