05-27-23

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
May 27, 2023
I was checking the news headlines, and in the science section of CNN’s website, I read:

Ancient toilets unearthed in Jerusalem reveal a debilitating and sometimes fatal disease.

I had to stop everything and read the article. These toilets were from a time about 700 years before Jesus, and they were fancy. Middle-class people did not have toilets. These belonged to the uber-wealthy, yet what we learn from digging up their poop is that even the wealthiest of the wealthy were drinking water contaminated by poop. Scientists found dysentery-causing parasites. I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but diarrhea was sort of the great equalizer in the ancient world. I’m sure it killed the poor at a much higher rate than the rich, but a lot of people, especially children, were killed by drinking water with some not-so-pleasant critters living in it.

Like so often, if you’ve read this far into the Etching, you might be asking yourself, "What does this have to do with anything?" I’m not absolutely sure if I can fully answer the question, except to say that I can fall so easily into a fantasy reading of the Bible—making sections of it idyllic and clean. We turn the nativity scene of Jesus’ birth into a well-sterilized, scent-free utopian birthing center, but it is thought that even the animals in the ancient world had the trots quite often, which would have made the stable a less than ideal setting.

Now that you are somewhat nauseated, I invite you to read scripture through a lens of earthiness and common discomfort and the downright yuckiness of the ancient world. Those of us living with indoor plumbing and clean drinking water forget how good we have it.

​I am thankful, O God, for the dramatic improvements I enjoy without really acknowledging how good I have it. And in my gratitude, let me not forget those in the world who continue to die because they lack access to clean water and good sewers. It should not be that way. Amen.