Redeeming Hermes

Hermes is the Greek god of both commerce and threshold – of movement from A to B. The Hymn to Hermes was written (around 420 BC) as Greece moved from an economy marked by the exchange of agrarian goods between kin to one that encompassed commerce between strangers for profit.

From Hermes we also get the word “hermeneutics” – the art and science of interpretation. So when one missionary writes, “the church is the hermeneutic of the Gospel”, he means that the church is to interpret the Gospel to the world. Literally, the church is to embody the Gospel as it moves into the world and, by doing so, the church is to invite the world to move into the Gospel.

At the threshold of the City what words will we use to communicate that life cannot be reduced to commerce between strangers for profit? Life comes to those who welcome strangers out of love [Matthew 25:31-46].