Sharing a Water Pipe, a Leather Fashion Show, and a Outdoor Concert in Dutch? THIS is Ephesus?

If you would have asked me what I was going to do last week Friday when I awoke (again at a few minutes before 5 AM, thanks to our friendly neighbourhood Muezzin!), I never in a million years would have guessed this one.
We were staying in Selcuk, a sleepy town other than the bustle of some tourism, just 3 kilometres from Ancient Ephesus. Our tour operator, Adem, had hooked us up with a great tour guide, Yesim, who was a lecturer in University on Turkish history. Her job for the day was to be the tour guide for the 13-or-so of us as we traipsed our way through the ruins of Ancient Ephesus and four other spots of significance – Meryemana House (the house locals believe the Virgin Mary lived in at the end of her life), the Ephesus Museum (where the statuary, coins and other small artifacts from Ephesus are house), and the ruins of the ancient Temple of Artemis. Carol and I headed out, umbrellas and cameras in hand, for an adventure-filled day.
Our first stop was Meryemana house, and with no disrespect, it was a bit of a let-down. First, the sheer volume of tour buses was overwhelming. Dozens of 45-seat buses filed, honked, and nudged their way around the cramped hillside parking lot, jockeying for position to let their passengers out. Dozens of buses, we came to realize, means 100’s or even 1000’s of tourists. This was entirely different from our tour of Philippi where we were the fourth car in the parking lot. The homo-sapic mass, marched ant-like to the tiny stone entry-way to a small cottage, filled with silent candle-holding, camera-hiding devotees. After exiting the little cottage, overly adorned with all-things-religious, the crowd snaked around to a fountain of ‘holy water’ and a wall of ‘prayers’ left behind by the hopeful hundreds.

Next stop was Ancient Ephesus. In its day, Ephesus was a sea-port of 250,000, third largest city of the Roman Empire behind Rome and Antioch. It had been the major port for all of Asia Minor and the center of religious life for the incredibly influential Artemis/Diana cult. With the silting in of the Cayser River, Ephesus now sits six miles inland; with the collapse of religious interest in the Artemis cult, the temple fell to ruins. Today, no-one LIVES in Ephesus, but each year over 1,000,000 tourists flock there for a two-hour visit. The tour was spectacular. An incredible amount has been unearthed and reconstructed and restored, and with the swarms of tourists around us, it felt like a bustling city. We saw baths, temples, marketplaces, prytaneions (where they burned offerings), and hordes of inscriptions and carvings. We saw a library loom 30 feet into the sky, inscriptions of Caesar Augustus (yes, the one of Luke 2 fame!) over arch-ways, and streets of marble, warn down from centuries of footsteps. It occurred to me that the footsteps of Paul himself had been a part of wearing down those steps. He had been here for nearly three years 2000 year ago. He had preached in the “hall of tyrannus” for 18 months or so, and eventually preached right in the main theatre. Going to the very spot he had preached from proved to be a highlight in unexpected ways.
When Paul came and preached to the Ephesians, the Holy Spirit was deep at work, changing the hearts of thousands and turning them from idols to follow and serve the living Christ. In turning from their idols, the effect on the economy was noticed, such that the silversmiths, headed by Demetrius, began a riot to oust the Apostle. With one voice, they cried out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” There is a scene in Acts 19, where the theatre again comes into play as the crowd of 25,000 seize some of Paul’s travelling companions and drags them into the theatre. To think that I was visiting this same place was incredible. But then, something even more personally memorable occurred.
When I was a boy, I loved math, geometry, shapes. Entering the theatre on Friday, I was fascinated that this 25,000 seat ancient stone edifice had perfect acoustics and was determined to find its “sweet spot.” Tracing an imaginary line from one side stair to the other, and another equally imaginary line from the center stair and an arch behind the stage, I calculated which of the marble stones in the floor of the stage was likely the ‘sweet spot’ from which a coin drop or voice could be heard from the very top row, what they call at the ACC, ‘the nosebleeds.’ Carol willingly climbed the theatre steps and when she was at the top, I asked in a quiet voice, “Can you hear me?” to which she shouted back, barely audible to me, “perfectly!” As I stood, contemplating the moment, wondering what Paul had said, wondering what I should say, a group of heavily accented men to my right were singing, “Glory, glory, hallelujah, the saints go marching in.” As they finished their song, they began talking to each other in Dutch. Then it hit me, I could sing the only song I know in Dutch, and when I do, maybe these guys will join along and Carol won’t kill me for singing a solo . So, I suggested it, and before they responded, I started singing. As we lustily belted out the words, a crowd gathered, filing into the seats atop. When we ended minutes later (yes, we sang the WHOLE song!) there was a rousing applause. Glory to God indeed! Who could have guessed it? That my parents could immigrate to Canada from Holland, then have their son head off to school in the United States to come back to Canada, pastor a church who support him in a trip to Ephesus where he leads a group of Dutch tourists in singing the only song he knows in Dutch. If God has days where he simply laughs at what his kids are up to, I’m guessing he at least got a chuckle out of this one.

(that’s me in the “Maranatha Church” t-shirt with the hat and glasses, standing on the ‘sweet spot’)
After touring the ruins of Ephesus, we went to the museum to see the statuary – ten foot statues of Artemis found buried near the Prytaneion, statues of Hermes, Zeus, Hercules, and Aphrodite. All impressive as art forms and artifacts, but hardly worthy of worship. We were simultaneously impressed and saddened as we thought about how many people in Paul’s day were not convinced to turn from false gods and put their trust in Christ. If only there had been more people filled with the passion of an encounter with Christ and empowered by the Spirit and compelled by a calling to follow the great co-mission. If only there were more in Paul’s day; if only there were more in ours.
After lunch, Yesim invited us to go with her to a local leather artisan. This was tour-code for “If you come with me to this vendor, and buy a leather coat, I will get a cut of the profit.” When we got to the leather shop, we were given glasses of apple tea and whisked into a room with a stage and runway for models to come and show us the leather. It was interesting to see the many different types of leather coats and pants and fun when, at the end of the fashion show, one of the male models invited Carol to come up and model some leather jackets for us. She was a great sport and had fun with it but we escaped without buying any of the $600 leather coats.

Our final stop of the guided tour for the day was the Ancient Ruins of the Artemis Temple. This was actually in the city of Selcuk. In the days of Paul, Artemis (aka Diana, goddess of fertility) was revered as the giver of life and was the reason Paul was run out of Ephesus. It was something to go to the ruins of Artemis and see that it was nothing more than a meadow with rocks in it. In the background, a little higher up, is the IsaBey Mosque. We had been by the Mosque earlier in the day and bought a souvenir of Mary and Jesus from a vendor in the wall there. The vendor, a Muslim, was selling souvenirs to Buddhists (little Buddhas), Christians (Madonna/Child), and even of Diana/Artemis, but nothing particularly Muslim. I wondered if the general thought amoung Muslims in Turkey toward Christianity and Buddhism weren’t the same as our thoughts about Diana/Artemis, that it was a failed historic movement with no contemporary relevance or power. Back to the ruins of Artemis, as I looked at the ruins, and up a bit to the IsaBey Mosque, IT caught my eye. The highest mount in the city, a fortress, walls built in the middle ages to stop the attacks on the Monastery of St. John the Theologian. Built by Emperor Justinian around 450 AD, the monastery was built in the memory of St. John, the writer of Revelation who it is locally believed came to Ephesus/Selcuk at the end of his life.

The tour day ended. We thanked Yesim for her wonderful guidance throughout the day, stopped at a corner store to buy some Efes (Ephesus Beer) to cool off after a hot day, and then sat down to review the day. In the evening, we went out for dinner to an outdoor patio, but not before a lovely New Zeeland couple invited us to share their water pipe with them. While it looked conspicuously like some illicit bong pipe, it was really harmless and we were glad to be invited to share it with them and meet yet another kindly pair of fellow travellers.
Ephesus. While the fashion show, the water pipe, the local beer, the Muslim marketeer, and the Maryemana prayer wall all stick in my mind, the overwhelming gift of God I received that day was the privilege of sharing in praise with a group of Dutch tourists in the Ephesian theater. Ere zij God! Glory to God indeed!