A wise man once said there really is nothing new under the sun.
Technology may have changed,
the world may have grown taller with sky scrapers,
our horizons may look different as city upon city emerges out of the dust.
But basically at the end of the day nothing has changed.
We have not changed,
the human race is still the same.
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Now many would disagree with this,
many people would say that we have evolved,
grown more intelligent,
even grown taller,
but deep down inside us we are exactly the same,
no dramatic changes have ever occured in the hearts and souls of human kind.
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All of us have the same basic fears,
the situations we face each day are basically the same Even relationships are the same,
how we relate to others and how we relate with God has not really changed,
Ecclesiastes was right there really is nothing new under the sun.
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So what could this possibly mean for us,
for the people who live at the noisy end of the twentieth century.
I know one thing it means for certain is that we can learn from the past,
We can look to the past for answers to the problems of today.
This is often what we do when we open our Bibles and read,
we look at events that happened 2000 plus years ago, in the hope that they will speak to us today.
The customs clothing and culture may be different,
but more often than not the problems faced in the pages of the Bible are the same.
There is wisdom in the pages of this book.
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What we are going to do then is take a step back in history,
Not as large a step as we would normally take though, this time we are only stepping back 1600 years
To the end of the fourth century.
My hope is that we can take a look at the life of the Christian Church from that period and learn an important lesson for our lives today.
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The period were looking at is a period of stability in the life of the church,
infact it was the first time anything like stability had ever occurred.
Prior to this time the church had always had to face death and persecution,
this could mean anything from burning at the stake to imprisonment, all because Christianity was an illegal religion.
This all changed when an emperor came to power early on in the fourth century.
The emperor was Constantine
who just happened to be a Christian.
All persecution stopped almost overnight,
no one had to fear imprisonment or death anymore for the sake of the faith.
And so it became safe to declare your faith publicly, infact it not only became safe but you might say it became fashionable,
Christians actually became favored by the Roman Empire.
No longer did Christians have to hide in the cupboard, or live under the sole of Roman boots
The Church could now stand proud,
happy days were here again
only better times were ahead as Constantine began to show the Church his favor.
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Strangely enough many Christians didn’t like
this many Christians objected strongly to this,
They saw the favor of the Emperor as a curse, because Christian became just like every body else.
You see while the church was being persecuted,
while the church was being hunted down by Rome,
it was able to live set apart from the world.
The church and the world had an invisible wall between them, a wall that Constantine removed.
Persecution had brought with it martyrs
hero’s of the faith. To be a martyr was to be truly following Christ,
To be a martyr was to truly take up your cross,
to be a martyr was to turn your back on the world and walk the way of the Calvary road.
With Constantine though martyrdom ceased to be an option,
you could no longer be put to death for the faith when everybody was embracing the faith.
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The would be martyrs had to find another way,
another way to take up the cross,
another way to show that Christianity swims against the flow of society,
Another way was needed to show the world that Christianity is not a ho hum religion but a way of life.
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Then one day it happened.
Just outside of Egypt
in the desert this new way began,
like a phoenix rising from the ashes a movement rose. No one was quite sure who started it or exactly where it had began
but something happened.
Christians began to turn there backs on the world
now it wasn’t in big numbers
well not at first anyway, but in small numbers.
Yes in very small numbers of people began to again take up their cross,
and to make that impression,
to swim against the stream.
Christians again began to show what they were made of.
The movement that grew was called asceticism,
the followers or ascetics as they were called were hermits.
Men and women who would go out to the desert and live by themselves for years and years on end.
During there time in the desert they would punish themselves physically and mentally,
eating just enough to survive on and sleeping as little as possible.
But it wasn’t all fun and games for them because they were about a very serious business,
self sacrifice was the name of it.
There only company apart from the demons that haunted their minds was God’s word.
As they would meditate on scripture morning, noon and night.
At every opportunity they would read the scriptures, taking in every word and precept like it was sweet nectar.
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Occasionally though they would receive a visitor and this was where the problem started,
because like the martyrs of old these hermits became hero’s of the faith.
And so the pilgrims came to see them seeking wisdom,
and guidance,
Just the odd one or two at first
but it didn’t take long before everyone was heading out to the desert.
The desert soon became a crowded place as 1000 and 1000 of pilgrims headed there
To live as an ascetic monk soon became fashionable, and the desert became the home of the upwardly mobile,
as well as the hermit.
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As you can probably guess the inevitable happened, the desert ceased to be the desert
It was no longer a lonely place because communities started to grow there.
Communities of like minded people seeking the ascetic lifestyle,
but just as Jesus received help from Simon of Cyrene so these people would help each other
and together they would turn there backs on the world and to take up the cross.
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A problem struck in the form of extremism
you see these monks began to behave like spoilt school boys
daring each other, these Christians drove each other to increase the punishment they inflicted on them selves.
For the sake of the cross they became fools and undertook foolish lifestyles.
Some bound themselves in chains
others took to eating grass and straw like animals.
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Contemplation became more and more difficult as the pains of hunger increased
and so these communities eventually fell apart.
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All was not lost though,
despite the break up of these communities.
As these Christian monks headed back to the towns and cities
they discovered another way to live as Christians
as true followers of the living Christ,
they discovered the role of servant.
Amazing as it may seem but these monks came to a
realization
The best way to turn your back on the world was to go straight into the middle of it,
and live life as a servant to others.
Enlightenment and self realization came as they served the people the world had rejected,
the poor the needy, the crippled and the sick.
These monks discovered inner peace as they served the downtrodden.
Fulfillment came as they attended to others needs.
The closer they came to these people the closer they came to the heart of the cross.
The Monks who had lived a life of misery in the desert found a life filled with Joy in the towns and cities.
They discovered what joy there can be in serving.
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I hope you can see then why there really is nothing new under the sun.
Because the way for us to take up our cross today is the same.
The way for us to swim against the tide of the world is the same.
The way for us to make an impression on the world is the same.
Its not in locking our selves away from the world,
nor is it in punishing ourselves mentally and physically.
But it is in service,
in service to the ones that the world has rejected
