Didache 1:1-4
Today we are beginning a reading of the Didache, which will take us most of the winter season. The word Didache means “teaching” or better even “training.” Scholars believe this was a training manual for people who wanted to become followers of Jesus in the first and early second century. It’s a short book, probably rarely committed to writing. Instead the verses would have been memorized as a guide by those who wanted to join one of the communities which used this manual.
For many years people knew that the manual once existed because it was referred to in early Christian writings, but no one had seen or read it. Then in 1873 a copy was found in a book from the 12th century in a monastery library in Istanbul. Because writing materials were expensive and precious, it was the practice to copy manuscripts tightly on the pages of a book and to begin a new manuscript as soon as another ended, just on the next line of the page. The Didache has been copied between two other writings and overlooked, sitting on the shelf for centuries until a scholar happened to read more carefully and realize what was hidden in plain sight.
The Training would have developed over time among one or more early house churches. It involved assigning an interested person to a mentor, who helped the person learn to behave in a Christ-like way, teaching the convert those things that Jesus taught the disciples about how to be a community. The first six chapters cover how to act as a follower of Jesus. The following 10 chapters talk about how to organize the community, what we now know as a church. Scholars guess that a person worked with their mentor until the mentor was ready to certify that they had mastered the behaviors – they could live like Jesus. Then they would be baptized and admitted to the meetings and meals of the community.
Remember that the first century was a dangerous time. Most of the people were poor or even enslaved. Roman soldiers were everywhere, keeping order. Roman citizens knew this as a time of great peace, but it was a peace maintained by pervasive violence and punishment for small infractions included crucifixion – often mass crucifixions. It was a time when you could get into big trouble with a word or glance, so learning to control how you acted in public was lifesaving. Followers of Jesus were attracted to his words of love and compassion while they were surrounded by this violent society. They were learning how to live by Jesus’ values without drawing attention to themselves or getting into trouble. The Didache teaches them how to master those skills.
“There are two ways: one of life and one of death! And there is a great difference between the two ways.” This is the first line of the training. It has both practical and spiritual meanings. Believers wanted to follow Jesus’ way of life on a spiritual plain, and they wanted to stay alive in this world to do it.
We recognize the first teachings as familiar: Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. It’s reinforced by what we call the Golden Rule: What you don’t want someone to do to you, don’t do to them. Everything else is an explanation of how to live by the rule of love. Last year we gathered qualities we wanted to live by and wrote them on our windows. The final quality was LOVE and we said it summed up everything else. The Didache begins with because it sums up everything else.
Almost immediately the training reminds us that we’re to love everyone, not just those who are easy to love. We put words of love in our mouths, even when others speak harshly or lie about us. We pray for enemies – putting the best interest of people first, even when that’s hard to do. I’m intrigued by the suggestion that “if you love the ones hating you, you will not have an enemy.” We’ve all known people who treated us badly. They make our “enemies list.” The training isn’t suggesting that these people will change if we are kind. It’s suggesting that WE will change if we are kind, and over time when we speak and think only the best about others, we will see them differently. We will no long have an enemies list.
The second list of rules for behavior in today’s passage also has familiar ideas: turn the other cheek; go the extra mile; if someone takes your cloak, give them your tunic. In the first century these were real-life situations. Jesus spoke of them because they reflected the way soldiers treated folks in order to establish power over them. They reflect unjust situations, but you don’t stay alive by fighting back. You can give in when pressed, but still retain your dignity and humanity in your own mind. And live for another day.
The training was compiled by people who knew what Jesus had said when he was teaching. They took it as practical instructions for real difficult life situations. Often we think of Jesus’ teaching as spiritual guides for what we are to believe. These early followers saw them as instructions for how to behave. There’s a progression, I think, in mastering this training. First you learn to do what Jesus tells you to do. Over time doing kind and loving things every day shapes you into a kind and loving person. What you do becomes the way you think becomes the person you are. When you ARE like Jesus, you have found a new way of life.
I suspect you are already drawing lines between first century circumstances and twenty-first century realities. They are very different times, and not so different. We’re still confronted with those who stir up hate among us, those who act without justice or compassion, those who make life difficult for people with relatively little power. The news is full of stories of abuse without due process. We pride ourselves on having evolved away from a barbaric empire, but maybe not as evolved as we’d like to think.
It’s not just a pleasant exercise to list values and to reflect on how to live like Jesus. We say that the United States is a Christian nation (a claim we’ll unpack another time). At the same time we say loving your neighbor is for the weak. Treating others with respect and dignity is no way to get ahead. When we’re jarred by policies and principles, we find unsettling, it’s important to remember what Jesus taught us. The Didache is going to help us do that. It can help us prioritize the values we identify with Jesus and it can help us examine our own lives for ways we can be more Christ-like. Even those of us who’ve lived decades can consider who we might become.