Sabbatical Reflection 2: Familia Sagrada, Amphitheater, and Alcossebre.

Hi Bridge Church family! As I said in my last post, I’ll try to give you an update on our sabbatical every couple of weeks. However, I won’t take even the slightest offense if, when I come back, I find out you haven’t read any of these. I’ll only take offense if Kevin Bradshaw hasn’t read them, since he’s the one who asked me to do it (which I’m grateful for!).

We flew to Barcelona about a week ago, on Monday the 26th. The first few days were a joyful (?) experience with jet lag: straining to stay awake until 8pm and then starting the day at 2am. Despite that, we were blown away by Barcelona’s beauty. We walked everywhere: almost 15km of walking a day, which the kids were almost entirely good with. There’s so much to see, boredom didn’t really enter into the picture. There were a lot of highlights, but near the top of the list would be visiting the famous Basilica de la Sagrada Familia. This was the magnum opus of the architect Antoni Gaudi. The degree to which I’m ignorant of architecture is revealed in the fact I had never heard of Gaudi until watching a Rick Steves video about Barcelona the week before our trip- but the guy’s legacy is everywhere in this area of Spain! Here’s the incredible thing about this basilica: Gaudi took over the project in 1883, and it’s still not completed. Seriously. Over 140 years and they’re still working on the thing! And to think that some of us felt like getting our church building finished took a lot of time. Apparently Gaudi knew that there was no way the project would be completed in his lifetime, which drove him to complete one part of the building before he died. He figured that if he could accomplish that, it would make it more difficult for the project to be abandoned after he was gone. In reality, he didn’t even make it that far before dying! Regardless, the vision has been carried forward for generations. I think there’s an important illustration there. As Scripture says, we are but vapors, here today and gone tomorrow, while the Lord God is eternal. I want to give my life to something bigger than me, something that will last longer than my short life span. I want to live for the glory of God.

There was so much else that was impressive about the Familia Sagrada. The architecture itself was stunning, the main columns resembling trees and the whole main space meant to evoke a forest. Every aspect of the basilica is intentional. Even the height of the tallest tower is just a little lower than the nearest hill top. Apparently Gaudi wanted to make sure the work of man wasn’t exalted above the work of God. Every image, every inscription, every dimension carries a message of some kind. In that way, it reminds you of the Jerusalem Temple in the Scriptures. Of course, being in a building like that also produces conflicted feelings in someone like me. Yes, it’s beautiful and impressive and bears witness to the Gospel in various ways. Millions of people are seeing that. They’re walking through the building with an audio guide or a human guide and hearing about that biblically-informed intentionality to this structure. God gave us gifts, He gave us artistry and creativity, and an achievement like this is a reflection of His own character. I think there’s good fruit in that. On the other hand, as we talked about our experience afterwards as a family, we thought about how a building like this doesn’t do much to facilitate authentic community. It’s not a home in the way we feel about our own space at The Bridge, a warm and welcoming place where you are going to grow in relationship with others as you encounter God together. For all its glory, a basilica like this- and this would be true of many of the old Catholic church buildings we’ve already seen- seems to be more of a tourist attraction than a place where the living, breathing body of Christ meets together. That’s just my take, feel free to disagree!

After a few days in Barcelona, we rented a car and made the trip down the Spanish coast to a little town called Alcossebre, which will be our home for the next month. First, though, I’ve got to tell you about a city we stopped at on the way, Tarragona. There are a bunch of ruins there dating back to the Roman Empire, even as far back as the first century AD. One of those is a Roman amphitheatre that overlooks the Mediterranean Sea. Amphitheatres like this were sites for races, animal fights, and gladiator fights. Another use was public executions. In the middle of the third century AD, during a period of incredible tumult in the empire, the Roman Emperor Valerian began persecuting Christians. Tertullian, a Christian leader and thinker from that time (who also wrote a whole tract against amphitheatres and what took place there), complained, “If the Tiber rises as high as the city walls, if the Nile does not send its waters up over the fields, if the heavens give no rain, if there is an earthquake, if there is famine or pestilence, straightway the cry is, "Away with the Christians to the lion!" That seems to have been Emperor Valerian’s mindset, at least. As a result of this persecution, the bishop of Tarraco (ancient Tarragon) was arrested along with a couple of his deacons. His name is pretty fun: Fructuosus. I say it and I can’t help but think about strawberries. In any case, they were brought to the amphitheatre and burned at the stake there to the delight of a bloodthirsty crowd. Before being executed, Fructuosus was commanded to worship the Roman gods. In response, he is said to have declared: “I worship the one God Who made heaven and earth, and all that is in them”. It was powerful for our whole family to be in a place where an ancient Christian had testified boldly and publicly to the truth of the Gospel, even at the cost of his life.

Later that day, on Friday, we arrived in Alcossebre. There are no cathedrals or Roman ruins here. It’s a small, relatively unknown village on the coast between Barcelona and Valencia. We had found an incredible deal on AirBnB for a month-long stay in what looked like a beautiful apartment. It is everything we hoped it would be and more. I can’t think of a better place to spend this part of our sabbatical. It’s quiet and out of the way, but stunningly beautiful. There are endless trails along the sea, alternating between sandy beaches and rocky coves and inlets. We’ve settled into a routine of work and outdoor exploration. I’m wrapping up my research and reading and am planning on beginning to write my book this week. Carolyn is doing an awesome job of homeschooling the kids and we are so, so grateful for the gift that this place has already been. I’ve been praying that the Lord would refresh me and refresh us during this sabbatical and I can see it happening.

Thank you so much for your prayers for me and for our family. We think about you often and pray for you regularly. We miss you! We were able to drive to Valencia (about an hour and a half away) on Sunday to attend an international church there. It was good to be there, and we could tell that the Lord is at work there. However, nothing compares to being together with our church family at The Bridge! We praise God for the work that He has done and is doing there and we look forward to hearing all about it when we return.

In Christ,

Craig, Carolyn, Natalie, and Zachary