Riviera Maya

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Playacar, Mexico. My cousin's wedding was beautiful, on the beach, just a touch windy, not too warm, but not cool at all. Made for some great pictures. Unfotunately I forgot my camera, so I didn't take many (just when I could steal my parents camera).

The highlights of the trip (in no particular order) were: spending time with my aging grandparents, seeing my immediate family, chilling with my two male cousin's who were there,
swimming in the ocean, playing basketball in 5 feet of water, interacting with the people who worked at the resort, enjoying the beauty of the jungle, almost getting peed on by a monkey from a tree over my head (I swear it was on purpose!), smoking fine cigars and drinking about ten thousand mojitos (seriously I probably had 20 mojitos in 6 days).

There were two highlights that stood out above the rest.

The first was the trip I convinced my immediate family to go on. We went with a tour guide and some other tourists to the ancient Mayan city of Coba. It was amazing walking through the jungle (having to carefully avoid a certain type of poisonous tree) where the Maya had walked two thousand plus years ago. We saw the ball courts where the winning team had the honor of being killed and then eaten by the spectators (only after the "big" games). It was thought that you got to go to heaven if you won the game and were sacrificed. The captain of the team even became a god! Not a bad deal.

We also climbed the second highest Mayan pyramid which is in Coba.
It rises over 120 feet, well over the level of the jungle, allowing a grand view of the crater lakes and the salt pyramid about a quarter mile away. There was something majestic about being on top of the pyramid. Our guide was half Mayan and taught us a lot about Mayan culture. He explained how the ruling class of the Mayan world (the priests) used their knowledge to convice the common people that they were connected to the Gods and had special powers. They made it appear as if they sun set and rose from the pyramid as the high priest stood on top. They also knew how to use acoustics and from the top of the pyramid voices could be heard for 5 kilometers before the site became overgrown.

As he told us about the deception of the priests and we discussed the barbarism of the culture I couldn't help but draw parallels to the church. First off the connection of cannibalism with the Eucharist is strong. Early Christians were often arrested under charge of cannibalism because of the Eucharist language. Martyrdom was also a huge problem for the early church (though it might not have realized it). Martyrdom was so worshiped that it was almost intentional sometimes, people wanted to be sacrificed for God to prove they loved him and to ensure a good spot in heaven.

I also really feel like our church leadership often holds their position over the heads of their flocks, or at least pretends to be the purveyor of truth and God's word in his region. As a youth minister I was guilty of this, if you needed a question answered, and wanted to know "God's will" then you came to me to ask for it, and I pointed you in the right direction.

We criticize the "barbaric" Mayan culture while we have just taken their physical violence and turned it into other forms of oppression. The church still refuses to touch certain topics, and certain people groups that are somehow a part of the hot issues. Mayan civilizatoin disappeared rapidly, in the cities at least, am I being overly cynical to wonder if the church is on the same road to irrelevance? Or are we already there?