The door of their hearts

An Orthodox pastoral intern at a hospital was trying to minister to a patient who turned out to be a Latter Day Saint and who requested a copy of the Book of Mormon, or a Bible, if the first mentioned could not be found. He began to be troubled by the thought: "Is my getting her this Book of Mormon aiding in the spread of what I believe to be a heresy?" You can read his post by clicking here.

I added my humble two cents to the equation by leaving the comment which follows, in which I tried to broaden out the idea to one of ministering to any non-Christian.

I haven't gone to seminary and I'm not a priest, so please, if this disqualifies me in your mind, don't read the rest of my post. I am aware that for many Orthodox Christians, an unordained, non-seminary trained layman is not qualified to speak about anything having to do with the Bible or the Christian life. Since obviously that thought has never occurred to me, I foolishly continue to do both, in my "real life" and in the blogosphere. Brethren, if I am in error, please pray that I may be delivered from my fault. As for the rest of the visitors to my blog, I only ask your indulgence in putting up with my one-track mind. Here't goes…

[The pastoral intern decided to look for a copy of the book requested, but could not find a copy, and so returned to the patient with a bible instead.]

Right up front, I want to affirm, that you did the right thing, exactly the right thing, and God, our God and her God, came to your help.

Mormons are not Christians in any real sense of the word, but rather a modern form of Gnosticism, but you already know all this as being seminary trained.

If a Hindu was the person to whom you had to minister, that would seem to be a bit more complicated, but actually it is not.

Two things are the same, no matter who it is that we find placed in our path:

I am a Christian, a follower of Jesus, and I do what I see Him doing.
The other person is always a person for whom Christ died, and to whom Christ comes (in me).

Looking upon another person with the kind of love that the Father has when He looks upon them, and having a welcoming and loving spirit, hoping for them the same salvation that you hope for yourself, the other person can sense that.

Having this heart of hospitality that does not stand in defense, in offense, or in argument, but simply in love, even had you found a Book of Mormon and given it to the patient, that were no betrayal of our Orthodox faith, for the Holy Spirit as well as the Word of God, the true Spirit and the true Word are with you, and you would have revealed them in your action, and that would effect a better cure for the woman's probably ignorant heresy than a frontal witness would have.

Christ alive and at work in us, when we love the people and serve them, effects their salvation, not anything we do on our own initiative, even if it is at the behest of a troubled conscience.

If the person that God places in your path is a non-Christian, such as a Hindu or Muslim, or a Jew, or an atheist, the practice is the same, we "love the Lord our God with all our mind, heart, soul and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves," wishing for him or her the same salvation that has come to us, and going forth in that spirit of humility, God can convert hearts.

When I have prayed for and ministered to a Hindu, for example, I search out his heart by the stethoscope of that love I am describing, and find the place in him where he has a cave of need that only Jesus can fill, and then praying to the Only Living One, he senses that there is nothing offending, and he is ministered to by God, the God he doesn't yet know.

Sometimes, then, the Lord begins to help them open
the door of their hearts.