My problem with Jesus

Actually, did I mislead you with this title?
It's not my problem with Jesus, but actually someone else's, someone whose comments on a brother's blog drew these words from me. That's why the format of this post will be three quotes, each followed by my response.
It seems a lot of people have "a problem with Jesus," and so I decided to post this for the benefit of anyone who might be open to some solutions to this "problem."
Here't goes…

"My problem with Jesus is that I am not sure if it is fair or possible to let him off the hook for the majority of the history his followers have in the world."

Sorry, but this makes no sense to me at all.
The followers of Jesus have done nothing injurious to anyone in all of history, that they did not repent of and make restitution for. “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” This is the human condition even of the disciple, who sometimes falls, but never fatally. It's unthinkable to a disciple of Jesus that he should willingly injure anyone.
Well then, who are all these other people in the history of Western church and state, those who preached crusades against the infidels, who butchered harmless and defenseless people, who socially and mentally imprisoned millions in false teachings, exploited the people, and destroyed so many souls through deception and manipulation? They are those of whom the Lord says, “Depart from Me. I never knew you!” (cf. Matthew 7:21-23)

"No matter how good a teaching sounds if it constantly gets acted out criminally mustn’t there be something inherant in it that makes that the likely outcome? Actually I hope I’m wrong on this, but it's what we are wrestling with at the moment."

There's nothing in the gospel of Jesus that can be acted out criminally, nothing in any of His teachings that, if followed to its logical conclusion, leads to sin and death. It's exactly and emphatically the opposite.
What, then, is the problem you see in the historical unfolding of Christianity?
It is the overt subsitution of worldly and satanic principles for the pure gospel of Jesus, in the church, and in the state. This is not inherent in Jesus' teachings or in His once and for all self-sacrifice for us on the Cross. Things like it are inherent in all kinds of false philosophies like Islam and Papalism, Marxism and Capitalism, which is why all of these lead to sin and death.

What you are mistakenly thinking are crimes of the Christian Church are not that at all. They are, instead, crimes against the Church from within her. In Orthodox Christianity, this is called "the dark double" of the Church. Jesus knew it would happen, and He tells us this in His Word. When the world isn't persecuting and killing His disciples, the church is, but not the true Church, made up of the disciples of Jesus.
We are not equipped to judge between the true Church and the false in its members or in any discriminatory way. We just sense it when we're in the presence of the anti-Christ in the church, even as we sense it when we're in the presence of Christ.
Jesus says, "My sheep know My voice."
That's all we can count on, but that’s enough for us.

"I want to continue to be a follower but feel that means in some way taking responsibility for what we have done and finding a path of repentance."

Then continue being a follower, of Jesus, though not of the church.
Only Jesus can and does call us.
The church, on the other hand, when it presumes to call, to commission and to instruct on its own authority, in its own name, is again falling into the ways of the world system.
Church can and does at all times manifest the visible Body of Christ on earth, but not necessarily in all places.
Again, the spirit within us bears witness when the Church is cooperating in faithful accord with God, and when it isn't.
Our problem is often that we are afraid to act or speak against a churchly structure or device, when we know there's something wrong there, some hidden poison.
We often just go along with it, so everything can be "church as usual."
This is very, very wrong, and the source of much confusion and destruction of souls.
This is what is afflicting the Church right now, and we have to decide to stand against it, for ourselves, and for the followers of Jesus, at all times.

You are not in any way personally responsible for the crimes perpetrated by “Christian” institutions, except for those you commit yourself.

Your apology for Christ should not be, “I’m so sorry for what we have done wrong all through history,” but rather, “Christ is who He says He is, the Resurrection and the Life, the eternal Word and Son of God, the Savior, the Lamb without blemish sacrificed for you from before the foundation of the world.”

In these last times, you should not cower under the weight of a false accusation thrown against you, but instead “stand erect, hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand.” (Luke 21:28 Jerusalem Bible)

Let us also go…

It’s really quite impossible to save a man. It takes all that God can do to deliver him. Everything that a man’s neighbors do to try to save him is really of no help. As well-intentioned as they are, when mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, friends, neighbors, teachers, pastors, co-workers, psychiatrists and social workers try to save a man, they can do little more than alter his outward complexion, and that’s the best they can do. The worst they can do is push him to profound despair and death, and this despite their good intentions.

But how then can a man be saved?

It’s certainly not by his own efforts, nor is it by the will of the people around him, but it is by God alone. All that is needed on his side is to keep saying “yes” to whatever God asks of him.

How does He ask?
It is by His acts, what He send us, the people, the situations and circumstances that He places in our path. Knowing that God uses everything that happens to us to be for our benefit, regardless of appearances and human judgment, we can rely on Him to save us, unconditionally. This is true, whether we trust God or not, He is out to save us. When we say “yes” to what He sends us, we let Him save us. When we say “no” to what He sends us, we don’t trust Him, we tell Him in effect that we know best, that we can save ourselves—an impossibility.

This seems to be a hard road and, yes, it is the way of the Cross, and following it, as did Mary the Lord’s mother, we are led to a place where the unthinkable happens—the betrayal and sacrificial death of the Good—but that which is beyond all thought and imagination, that which we can only hear told with wonder, happens to us. We are saved. Yes, by His stripes we are healed, and saved. We believed His Word, “I am the Resurrection and the Life” and when He asked us, by these acts in our lives, “Do you believe this?” our response was, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”

“Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
John 11:16 NIV

Mix up mix up

The Sunday of Orthodoxy at Aghía Triás, Portland, Oregon this year, a very cool experience. I've already blogged about it a little, but there's a lot more I could say, things both encouraging and disheartening. The fellowship I shared with many friends whom I don't see regularly because we worship at different churches was great.
It was also good to see the sanctuary so full of people, singing in several different languages.

A wonderful thing it was to hear Rashid Kaady (from the Antiochian Christian Orthodox church of Saint George) solo chant three different hymns in Arabic from the balcony. That was a very good experience. Later, after the service, I heard tell from a couple I've known over twenty years, the tragic story of Rashid's family. His son Fouad was wrongfully slain by the police in a bizarre incident about two years ago. One daughter has become mentally ill because of the loss of her brother. Rashid, his wife and daughters are surviving with the loss, and through it all they have continued to trust in God. Thinking back to how Rashid chanted those hymns, I only feel the more awed. The martyrdom of this family has strengthened their bond to Jesus, their crucified Lord.

As I said, the day had its bright moments, but also some darkness. Though the worship was inspiring, the message spoken by our proistámenos pierced us through like a lance. What he delivered, despite the eloquence, was devastating to many people that I spoke to afterwards. One woman was nearly in tears as she told me how his words affected her. What he "preached" was strangely discordant to the theme of the day, the triumph of Orthodoxy…

It's not important to be right, he said, and to insist on what we believe is true. This intolerant attitude only divides people. If we are not part of the solution to world peace, then we're part of the problem. Zeal is a bad thing, and it only makes the people who have it miserable themselves and hateful towards others. Although we think it would be a great thing if we could bring America to the Orthodox faith, our preacher said he doubted that it would be a good thing, because the Orthodox Christians in America by and large do not have a mature attitude, especially towards the non-Orthodox. We can't be trusted to want for others who differ from us the same rights we want for ourselves. Such things as these are what I remember hearing, even though I was reading my bible with my head down during the homily, as usual.

What do I think? Sometimes people accuse others of the very things they're guilty of themselves. It's called projection, isn't it?

My experience at church on Orthodoxy Sunday was indeed a mixed bag. It reminded me of a Bob Marley song, Mix Up Mix Up.
Yes, I like reggae music.

Oh Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord, yeah!
Well, it's not easy,
It's not easy
Speak the truth, come on, speak.
Eh, now!
It ever cause it what it will:
He who hide the wrong he did
Surely did the wrong thing still.
Get in the studio of,
Studio of time and experience
Here we experience the good and bad;
What we have, and what we had
This session (session),
Not just another version (version).

Oh Lord, give me a session (session),
Not another version (version)!

They're so much stumbling blocks
right in-a our way:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday;
There's so much wanting,
so much gaining,
so much have done.

Too much little mix-up, in the mix-up, yes!
Too much little mix up!
Too much of this mix up - mix up!

I was born in the country,
right on top of the hill
I still remain, I know I still, I will,
But through your f...in' respect
and through your false pride
Someone wanna take
Jah - Jah - Jah children for a ride!
Shut up! Open the gate,
and let the saints through.

Please make it a session (session);
Not another version (version);
Ooh, please make it a session (session);
Not another version (version)!

Hey, you been talkin' all your mouth full of lies,
Sitting there toppling and, Lord, they criticize.
So through the eyes of the fool the deaf is wise,
And through the eyes of the wise the fool is size.
Saying is too much mix up - mix up!
Saying is too much mix up - mix up!
…

If you don't like reggae lyrics, please forgive me for posting them. But they do speak to me, especially the refrain in this song, asking the Lord for a session, and not another version.

A session means to be seated at the Lord's feet, as Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus sat at Jesus' feet, drinking in His words. A session happens when you go to a church service or a bible study, and you hear the Master's voice, you know you're in His presence, you're at a session.

A version, on the other hand, means to be a captive audience before a purveyor of mere human wisdom, someone who knows how to say true things but never comes close to the Truth, never having known Him, and you don't hear the Master's voice, just the blandishments of the hireling, someone turned inside out, becoming depthless not deathless, you just know you're getting fed a version.

Sarakostí is a time of struggle, a tincture of the battle that rages in the world every day, a concentrated, high-risk venture into the wilderness of our flesh.

Let's ask the Lord for mercy, and He who endured those forty days, being tempted of satan, will come to our help. Meanwhile, brothers, let's keep praying for each other.

Rightly glorifying God

Though I'd never read it before, I could tell almost immediately that this quote sent me by Presbytera Candace was a word from Fr John of Kronstadt, a dynamic presbyter of pre-Revolutionary Russia. What Fr John writes is true, but not only for "Lent," when folks try to be more pious, more observant. This is the true way of life in Christ for us at all times. That's why the special "obligations of Lent" have little meaning for us, when we follow Jesus closely. So I offer this word of faith to you, as it was offered to me, as a word for us today, and always. When we are not glorifying God, we can dispense with these things. But since our holy Orthodox faith stands for "rightly glorifying God", let's keep this word of Fr John in our active mind every day…

We are told: It is no big deal to eat non-Lenten food during Lent. It is no big deal if you wear expensive, beautiful outfits, go to the theatre, to parties, to masquerade balls, use beautiful expensive china, furniture, expensive carriages and dashing steeds, amass and hoard things, etc. Yet what is it that turns our heart away from God, away from the Fountain of Life? Because of what do we lose eternal life? Is it not because of gluttony, of expensive clothing like that of the rich man of the Gospel story, is it not because of theaters and masquerades?

What turns us hard-hearted toward the poor and even toward our relatives? Is it not our passion for sweets, for satisfying the belly in general, for clothing, for expensive dishes, furniture, carriages, money and other things? Is it possible to serve God and mammon, to be a friend to the world and a friend to God, to serve Christ and Belial? That is impossible. Why did Adam and Eve lose paradise, why did they fall into sin and death? Was it not because of one evil?

Let us attentively consider why we do not care about the salvation of our soul, which cost the Son of God so dearly. Why do we compound sin upon sin, fall endlessly into opposing to God, into a life of vanity? Is it not because of a passion for earthly pleasures? What makes our hearts become crude? Why do we become flesh and not spirit, perverting our moral nature?

Is it not because of a passion for food, drink, and other earthly comforts? How after this can one say that it does not matter whether you eat non-Lenten food during Lent? The fact that we talk this way is in fact pride, idle thought, disobedience, refusal to submit to God, and separation from Him.

Father John of Kronstadt

Εκκλησια — the true United Nations

Greek εκκλησια ekklisía, from εκκαλειν ekkaleín, to summon forth: εκ- ek-, out; + καλειν kalein, κλη- kli-, to call. Hence, the called out people.

Called out from what? from where? and why?

"…you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."
1 Peter 1:29 NIV

Today was the Sunday of Orthodoxy, the first Sunday falling within the kairós of sarakostí, the forty days of the Great Fast before Pascha, the resurrection Sunday of the Lord, Jesus the Christ. On this day, the Orthodox Church commemorates its victory over heresy, culminating in the Seventh Ecumenical (Greek οικουμενη ecumeni, the inhabited world) Council, famous for the restoration of the Icons. Cut away every other facet of Orthodox Christianity, what's left is the veneration of icons, known to no other church. “Icons are just pictures,” as I've heard said. “They don't replace, and aren't meant to replace, the Verbal Icon, the Holy Bible.” Pictures may be worth a thousand words, but this Word is worth a thousand pictures. Maybe that's why I didn't carry a pictorial icon during the procession around the outside of the temple. I carried my Bible. (I saw some others doing the same.)

Back to the theme of this post, the called out people, the ekklisía, more properly the ekklisía tou Christoú, the called out of Christ.

One of the first things that converts were taught twenty years ago when I rejoined the Orthodox Church was that Pentecost is a reversal of the Tower of Babel. What started happening in that upper room where the disciples along with the mother of Jesus were praying together on that fiftieth day, pentikostí, after Pesach, the Jewish Passover, the coming of the Holy Spirit, the speaking in various languages, was the beginning of a great reversal for mankind.

In our natural state, this is man:
“Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” Genesis 11:4 NIV
Because of the contamination of sin, God would not allow us to destroy ourselves, so He confounded us, that is, divided our languages from one into many. This was to be in effect until the kairós (appointed time) of His grace, when, freed from sin through the Blood of His Only Son, mankind could be entrusted with the Holy Spirit, through whom “we hear them [the apostles] preaching in our own language about the marvels of God.” Acts 2:11 JB
By accepting the Christ of God, Jesus, we receive the Holy Spirit, who makes everyone speak the same language, in the spirit. This is how Pentecost is a reversal of Babel.

With that in mind, as I looked around me from time to time during the liturgy today, it all became quite clear in my mind's eye. I was granted a glimpse of this…

“After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
Revelation 7:9-10 NIV

Truly, gathered together was the whole Orthodox community of Portland in the little space of Aghía Triás cathedral. People from all over, at least you could read their ancestry in the faces and forms. Eritreans from the Red Sea coastlands. Phoenicians from Lebanon. Arabs from Syria. Copts from Egypt. Greeks from Europe and Asia Minor. Blonde Slavs and Scandinavians from the east and north of Europe, Celts from the utter west of it (one brother in full Highland regalia, kilt, boots and all!). A Native American from Alaska. An Indian from the coast of Malabar. A Balinese woman, the first-fruits of her native island. And of course, Americans whose families are by now so well mixed of several nations amd races that we can now finally be called Americans.

Add to this picture the fact that I was not watching this on TV, am not a stranger to these people. I actually know many of them personally, I know their stories. Their stories in His story.

On such a day as this, when the Church commemorates its victory over iconoclasm, what gave meaning to it all was not knowing the history of churchly struggles, but the presence of the living icons around me, praying and worshipping with me. I wish this could be carved in big letters on the bronze doors of the church…

“What you have come to is nothing known to the senses: not a blazing fire, or a gloom turning to total darkness, or a storm; or trumpeting thunder or the great voice speaking which made everyone who heard it beg that no more should be said to them… But what you have come to is Mount Zion and the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem where the millions of angels have gathered for the festival, with the whole Church in which everyone is a first-born son and a citizen of heaven. You have come to God Himself, the supreme Judge, and been placed with the spirits of the saints who have been made perfect; and to Jesus, the Mediator who brings a new covenant and a Blood for purification which pleads more insistently than Abel's. Make sure that you never refuse to listen when He speaks.”
Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24 Jerusalem Bible

Orthodox Christian Church, Taipei

Will He know me?

"What matters supremely is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it—the fact that He knows me." — J. I. Packer

This idea took hold of me one day when as a 22-year-old furniture maker's apprentice in Edmonton, Alberta, my mind took a leave of absence as my body was doing the mindless job of sanding furniture tops on an old-fashioned belt sander. There I was, pushing the sanding table in and out with one hand, the other pulling down on the lever of a sanding shoe, trying to achieve a level surface on each piece.

I was thinking of how important it was to believe that Jesus would come back some day. Funny, though, because I was still not a believer, but rather a philosophic hanger-on to the New Age kind of spirituality that combines "belief" in Jesus with a grab bag of other "spiritual" concepts.

Why should it matter to me that Jesus would be coming back, if he were only one of many "saviors", as is currently being taught by people like Deepak Chopra? I think deep down my original Christian upbringing was pushing its way back into my consciousness. I was starting to see where New Age thought was leading, and it must have been unsettling the real me, the one that would live forever… or suffer the second death.

As I was pushing that sanding table in and out, my limbs automatically sensing the right amount of pressure to get the work done, my mind was drifting into the realm of pure thought.

I kept thinking, "He's really going to come back. He really is. What will happen to me then? Will He recognize me? Will He know me?"

Suddenly, in my mind's eye, I could see something like an image of Jesus above me, and a little behind me to my left, looking down at me with a serious but not angry stare, just looking at me very hard. Without moving my head for a closer look, something in me just said, "When You come back, will you know me? Will You recognize me?" Pausing for the answer, there was none. He just kept looking, almost sadly.

All this, you understand, in my mind's eye. I don't know how else to put it.

After a few seconds more, and something external to my thought roused me to physical action, and the chink in time closed. But that moment of kairós time, and that thought "Will He know me?" was the beginning of my conversion to Jesus Christ, which came about after two more years of struggle against the good testimony of others.

Brethren, keep witnessing!

"Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven."

Matthew 10:32-33 NIV

Even geeks can witness

“We have to hand it to Christian Orthodoxy for its honest willingness to make room for non-conformity. Unlike other forms of religion, Christian or not, that allow, nay, even demand, that their followers put up with all kinds of immoral and irrational individualism in their midst, Orthodox inclusiveness and its live-and-let-live mentality is not based on ethical, philosophical or dogmatic relativism. Believing themselves to be the heirs and custodians of unchanging truth in their Head and members, they make room for the unlimited personal expression of that truth among them. Any deviation from this practice and principle can be traced to an unconscious adoption of unorthodox attitudes and always results in an alienation from Orthodox identity that, once noted, is just as unconsciously corrected by mass reassertion of Christian liberty.”

What's the practical application of the above?
Even geeks can witness.

The painting reproduced above depicts the Russian priest and martyr Pavel Florensky (left) walking with the philosopher Sergei Bulgakov. Although both men are notable for their Christian witness, it's Pavel Florensky, the geek and martyr, that is the subject of this post.

Pavel Alexandrovich Florensky was born in 1882 into a middle class family in western Azerbaijan (Russian Caucasia). After graduating from Moscow State University in 1904, he refused to accept a teaching position at the University. Instead, he proceeded to study theology at the Ecclesiastical Academy in Sergiyev Posad. Together with his fellow students Ern, Svenitsky and Brikhnichev he founded a society, the Christian Struggle Union (Союз Христиaнской Борьбы), with the revolutionarly aim of rebuilding Russian society according to the principle of Vladimir Solovyov. Subsequently he was arrested for membership in this society in 1906. However, he later lost his interest in the Radical Christianity movement.

After graduating from the Academy, he taught philosophy there and lived at Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra until 1919. In 1911, he was ordained into the priesthood. In 1914 he wrote his dissertation About Spiritual Truth. During his life he published works on philosophy, theology, art theory, mathematics, and electrodynamics. Those who are interested in finding out more about Pavel Florensky can read the article about him in Wikipedia, but our interest in him is not for his ideology, writings or other accomplishments, but his simple, matter-of-fact Christian lifestyle, which was a potent witness to those around him, and which led to his martyrdom in 1937.

After the Russian Revolution he formulated his position thus: “I am of a philosophical and scientific world outlook developed by me, which contradicts the vulgar interpretation of communism... but that does not prevent me from honestly working for the state service.”
Can you tell from this that he was a geek? Well, I can.

After the closing down, by the Bolsheviks, of the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra (1918) and Sergievo-Posad Church (1921) where he was the priest, he moved to Moscow to work on the State Plan for Electrification of Russia (ГОЭЛРО), under the recommendation of Leon Trotsky who strongly believed in Florensky's ability to help the government to electrify rural Russia. According to contemporaries, Florensky in his priest's cassock, working alongside other leaders of a government department, was a remarkable sight.

Can you imagine that? In a country controlled by atheistic, anti-Christian communism, here was a man who was not only a practicing Christian, but an ordained priest, working a secular job, doing his best for bosses who he knew hated everything he believed in and was, dressed in the visible garments of his true profession, and doing his best! And he really was a geek, thinking and knowing things that he could only have learned from his conversations with God, things others can hardly understand to this day. Among other things, for example, he proclaimed that the geometry of imaginary numbers predicted by the theory of relativity for a body moving faster than light is the geometry of the kingdom of God. Somehow, he was even able to publish his books during those awful times.

But there he was, as the record shows, “in his priest's cassock, working alongside other [communist] leaders of a government department.” Even if he didn't witness to them in words (though he probably did), his presence among them was witness enough. And among people, let's remember, who were his declared enemies.

Pavel Florensky is an extreme example, maybe, but the fact of his witness for Christ among his contemporaries is a challenge, and an encouragement, to me every day. Like Christ, he did not run away from the world of sin and death. Instead, again like Christ making His descent into Hades, Florensky descended to the prison of his lost neighbors, at work and in the street, a priest of God without a visible church in a God-hating land.

In 1928 Florensky was arrested and exiled for “agitation against the Soviet system and publishing agitation materials against the Soviet system.” What were these “agitation materials”? His monograph about the theory of relativity. Duh…

Later, he was moved and served at the Baikal Amur Mainline camp until 1934, when he was moved to Solovki, where he conducted research into producing iodine and agar out of the local seaweed. In 1937 he was transferred to Saint Petersburg (then known as Leningrad) where he was sentenced by an extrajudicial NKVD troika to execution. He was shot immediately after the NKVD troika session in December 1937. Most probably he was executed at the Rzhevsky artillery range and was buried in a secret grave in Koirangakangas near Toksovo together with 30,000 others who were executed by NKVD at the same time.

“Anyone who loves his life loses it; anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it for the eternal life. If a man serves Me, he must follow Me, wherever I am, My servant will be there too.”
John 12: 25-26a Jerusalem Bible

A clash of kingdoms

Everyone in the Church, each one who has been baptised into Christ and into the fullness of the Holy Spirit, must inevitably confront the enemy in the wilderness of this world as long as he lives, though, as with Christ, this takes place under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is because man’s very acquisition of the Spirit of truth constitutes a declaration of war on the spirit of falsehood.
“The Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” (John 14:17)

The world cannot tolerate God’s chosen, the children of God, who have received the Holy Spirit and are led by Him, “for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” (Romans 8:14)

When we examine this inevitable conflict with the enemy and study its causes and aims, we find, amazingly, that it is the Holy Spirit who is the instigator of war with the powers of evil and darkness, and that it is He too who is the guarantor of victory and the effective power that can never be overcome. As soon as Christ was anointed and filled with the Holy Spirit, He was led out by the Holy Spirit Himself to be tempted by Satan.

So it is with us: as soon as we receive the Holy Spirit and are baptised and anointed and enlightened and filled with the Spirit of truth, it is as if we have declared war on the devil, and we immediately enter into the struggle with the powers of darkness and the spirit of falsehood, which holds sway over the thinking of this world and forces it into evil and sin.

It is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of wisdom and right guidance, who alone can reveal in power and righteousness the movements and sly tricks of the devil in his thinking, conscience, behavior, and his body itself, no matter how deceptive they may be. The Holy Spirit has a greater, deeper, and wider power than the deception of the devil, and He brings it to bear when we throw ourselves down beneath the Cross and ask for help. The Spirit of truth is immeasurably stronger than the spirit of evil and reveals all the tricks of the devil, firmly overcoming them one by one, and giving illumination, understanding, and irresistable, divine wisdom. As the Apostle Paul says, “We are not ignorant of His designs.” (2 Corinthians 2:11)

Perception, enlightened by the Holy Spirit and committed to divine truth, is the strongest weapon that can be used to defeat the devil when he is at work in the mind of man, trying to corrupt the conscience to allow the follies of sin and evil.

The devil can only enter us through our mind and imagination, for sin begins with a movement of the mind and can only be ended by enlightenment that reveals how false falsehood is. We can only acquire this mental enlightenment by the Holy Spirit, or by the Word of God (Scriptures), for the Word is at one and the same time a work of the Holy Spirit, the power of God bearing divine authority, and the essential mind that forms and build all minds.

This is why the Lord uses Scripture, a terrifying weapon against the deceit of the devil: “It is written, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God’”. (Matthew 4:7) Neither must we ever forget that the Word of Christ is itself spirit and life, or that the whole Bible is inspired by God, written through the Holy Spirit. It is for this reason that the “Word” found in the Gospel is an effective means of directly and constantly drawing near to the Spirit and mind of God for anyone who believes in Christ, for it bestows mental illumination, and even the power and authority of God, that reveals and brings to nothing all the maneuvers of the devil. The result of this is victory over the world and a greater share in the mystery of eternal life.
…

Christ defeated the devil for us so that we would not be defeated by him, and for this reason our names are written in heaven. Christ was victorious because He is the Son of God, and we because He granted us victory, for we have become sons of God in Him. Victory over the devil is therefore first and foremost a sign that we are chosen and adopted in Christ and through Christ. He did not give us authority to trample on every power of the enemy simply so we would rejoice and boast of our power; it was rather so we would not fear the enemy and be defeated by his deceptions and falsehoods, becaused then he would deprive us of mastery and victory that are ours in Christ, and deprive us of our salvation and everlasting life as His chosen.

To put it more clearly and concisely, we may say that we have been given the power to defeat the kingdom of the devil so that the Kingdom of God might rule supreme, and the power to cast out the devil, so the Holy Spirit may dwell in us and trample on every power of the enemy, so that the power of the Holy Spirit may control our whole life. It is also the power to bring to nothing all the tricks and ideas and plans of the devil, so we can acquire the mind and holiness of Christ. This is the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit against the devil and all the power of the enemy in our lives, and this is how the Kingdom of God is found on striving, sweat, tears and through constant, relentless struggle.

Abuna Matta el-Meskeen

(Matthew the Poor)

1919-2006

Kosovo, another Orthodox wake up call

For me as a Greek Orthodox Christian, what has happened to Kosovo is a terrible loss, not only to my brother Orthodox Serbs, but to the world. Yet, it was expected. The Western powers, beginning with the popes of Rome, and down to the latest NATO aggression, have fought against and forcibly tried to assimilate the lands and peoples of Orthodoxy. Even Russia, the only large Orthodox country left, had to bow to their demands. Serbia as usual has been demonised by the world press, the Albanians lionised. This is all consistent with what Jesus Christ said, “They hated me for no reason, and if they hated me, they will hate you too, if they called me a devil, so they will call you.” I'm not now trying to emotionalise and lionise the Orthodox as if they were the only followers of Jesus. Admittedly, atrocities have always been committed by people on all sides. But if an impartial observer compares the histories of the Orthodox East and the Catholic-Protestant West, it's not hard to see which has been the more imperialistic and aggressive. Why does the West always want to put down the East? “Byzantine” means devious or hopelessly convoluted, in common parlance. Is it not surprising, then, that the West is now on the brink of disaster for abandoning their Christian roots? This is not even at the level of a political or sociological question. This self-betrayal is more basic, abandoning the foundation which gives the West the freedom to think and the power to act on what is right. Yes, more than the tragedy of Kosovo is coming towards us, something far worse than the Nazis, Fascists and Communists rolled into one. This was predicted by the Greek church fathers centuries ago. The enemy is, when all is said and done, Islam, the slayer of the soul.

The President caved in when he called Islam a religion of peace.
Why did he do this? Was he hoping to prevent a premature outbreak of jihad on the American continent? Was it anything more than just playing politics? It seems it was, just as he is playing politics and is prepared to sell out the English national character of the Union by welcoming in and encouraging Mexicans to immigrate and continue using Spanish as their primary tongue. Canada has already been lost by foolish, indeed traitorous, betrayal of the English civilisation in their country, and is now a Canuckistan.

As an Orthodox, I also am ashamed at the reckless and treasonable pronouncements of the patriarch of Constantinople, Patriarch Bart as we affectionately call him. Not only is he in bed with the Roman pope Benny, but he’s sold out to the “Green” ecology cultists and portrays himself as “the Green patriarch.” He sweet talks and accomodates the Muslims because he’s afraid of financial martyrdom. The Turkish government is constantly trying to seize more and more church properties in Istanbul and elsewhere in Turkey. But they’re just playing a “cat and mouse” game with him, just as he’s playing it with the pope and with us, his American and Oceanic flock (Aussies and New Zealanders belong to his jurisdiction as well). Besides doing these kinds of things, he persecutes the monks of Esphigmenou Monastery on Mount Athos (the true center of Orthodox Christianity) and many of them have already died because of his embargo against them, no food, no drugs or medical supplies. The Greek government obeys him, and they’re enforcing the embargo. What’s the crime of these old men? They say the patriarch is a false ecumenist, betraying Orthodoxy and surrendering to the pope. It doesn’t matter that this charge is probably true. For us Orthodox, we at least have the traditional teaching that “the faith is guaranteed by the people, not by the leaders.” For us that means, if the leaders go astray, we just don’t pay them any heed, and they die. Then, hopefully we elect someone who understands what the true faith is, and helps us maintain it.

Let’s not ignore this wake up call. It’s not just Kosovo that is being stolen and destroyed, and it’s not just a political issue. This is part of the last act in the story of Christ’s suffering for humanity, His resurrection, and His second and glorious coming. Let Him find us as He left us, brothers! United, of one mind, one heart and one spirit, in the Word and the Mysterion. Pray for our brothers, all of them, martyrs for Jesus, suffering throughout the world, under the lash of Islam and other fascist régimes, as we wait together to be released from this world system, this kósmos of sin and death.

“Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20)

Sarakostē

For forty days, for us, He struggled with the tempter in His humanity.
For forty days, for Him,
let us struggle with the tempter in our humility.
What is this humility?
To know that we, who are but dust and of yesterday, have been raised on high with Him, and made worthy to share with Him the glory of His victory over sin and death.

The Christian soldier

Do you think that the title of this post poses an anomaly, a paradox, or a contradiction of terms? Didn't our Lord Jesus Christ preach non-violence, and non-resistance to evil?
Doesn't Fr Paul, the proistámenos of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral, teach that not even God can conquer evil, that evil can only be transformed?
How then can anyone speak of the Christian soldier?

What about the hymn, Onward Christian Soldiers?

Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
with the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;
forward into battle see his banners go!

At the sign of triumph Satan's host doth flee;
on then, Christian soldiers, on to victory!
Hell's foundations quiver at the shout of praise;
brothers, lift your voices, loud your anthems raise.

Like a mighty army moves the church of God;
brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod.
We are not divided, all one body we,
one in hope and doctrine, one in charity.

Crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and wane,
but the church of Jesus constant will remain.
Gates of hell can never gainst that church prevail;
we have Christ's own promise, and that cannot fail.

The lyric of this hymn is careful to avoid anything that would suggest that our battle is anything but spiritual, but from my reading of the Bible and of the history of the martyrs of Christ, it’s clear to me that there is no way one can draw the line between internal spiritual warfare and the struggles that we face in the “real” world. There is only one arena of spiritual combat, and it takes in all possible worlds, internal and external, psychological and social, by word and deed, in the inner and the outer man.
Yes, as Christians, we too fight a jihád, but with the knowledge that the victory is Christ’s and that He bore the punishment for our transgressions in His flesh, hanging on the Tree.

Today is the feast-day and commemoration of the holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, as well as the last day before the onset of the Orthodox sarakostí (“40 days,” or Lent). It is a fitting reminder that we are to follow Jesus into the wilderness, where He provoked satan to do battle, and where He won the victory in word that He would later seal by His deed, shedding His blood on the Cross.

Why was there no mention of the 40 Martyrs, or of their witness and martyrdom (one word in Greek, μαρτυρια) in church today?
Why wasn’t their icon put out for veneration?

True enough, Fr Paul rattled off their commemoration in pure koiné Greek at the end of the service, but they were never mentioned in a tongue anyone could understand. You’ll hear nothing about battle from this pacifist priest, he spoke only of peacefulness and reflection, and forgiveness… Yes, again asking us to forgive him, “a sinful and unworthy priest.” Well, it is hard, I know, to forgive your enemies and pray for those who deceitfully use you, but… I suppose we must. We forgive you, Fr Paul! God knows you deserve it.

But of the 40 Martyrs, thought by some to be the Thundering Legion, let’s make ourselves aware, and join them in carrying forward the battle, behind Jesus our King, against the world, the flesh, and death itself!

Yes, “blessed are the peacemakers,” especially when they are soldiers, policemen, and others we have commissioned to keep the peace and who, like the 40 Martyrs of Sebaste, do not flinch from doing what they know is right, no matter what the cost, even at the cost of their lives.
U.S. soldiers pray in a circle before leaving Camp Victory for their patrol mission on the streets of Baghdad.

Salt of the earth

We who are called of Jesus Christ know for sure that we are at least what He says we are, “salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13), and “a city set on a hill,” and even “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14).
The last epithet He also said of Himself (John 8:12), but it butterflies my stomach when I hear Him saying something of me that He says of Himself.

So what does that make us? It’s true, some are called to be prophets, some teachers or apostles (Ephesians 4:11). But all of us are called to be “salt,” that is, the world’s preservative, and in another sense, the bite, because, as Martin Luther quipped, “what’s the good of salt if it doesn’t bite?”

Must America be a theocracy?

After a succession of Republican-sponsored theocracies starting with the presidency of Ronald Reagan and continuing to the present administration of President George W. Bush, the Democratic party has just about had enough, and it believes the same of the American people.

Gradually increasing in strength from a modestly God-affirming but strongly ground-standing President like Ronald Reagan, who could perhaps be compared to one of the Crusader kings of the Middle Ages, the Republican dynasty came close to establishing a new emperor Constantine in George W. Bush. More aggressively supportive of Christian causes than his father the elder President George Bush, his career relative to his father’s in some ways reflected that of emperor Contantine relative to his father, Constantius Chlorus. But unless you know the history of the later Roman Empire, such comparisons are probably irrelevant. Suffice it to say that in the current President we have as close as we could expect to come to having a Christian emperor like Constantine the Great. Since the critics of Republican politics call it a theocracy, let me ask this question.

Which do you prefer, a theocracy with an anointed emperor at the helm, or a theocracy centered on a divine savior? America seems to be hell-bent on having one or the other. Oddly, though, since we are possibly the most materialist nation of all time and, though we give lip-service to whatever we are free to call “God,” we’re much better at trying to save others than we are at saving ourselves. I mean, economically, politically, socially and religiously, we want to save the world, but we would rather be left alone ourselves, to pursue our private “dreams.” We’re very generous with others, very reckless with ourselves, and our brand of Christianity follows suit.

Again, I ask, which do you prefer, a theocracy with an emperor, or one ruled by a god?

Myself, there is only one Theocracy, and it’s neither emulated nor represented by any current institution on earth, not church, not state. Despite America’s “manifest destiny,” I cannot and will not attribute to America the role of savior-nation to the world. There’s only one nation that has been given that role.

Who knows why we have this fatal bent in our American psyche, but we must have a theocracy at all costs, at any cost, even if it means giving to a mere man the worship that belongs only to the Most High.
πολλοι ελευσονται επι τω ονοματι μου λεγοντες οτι εγω ειμι και πολλους πλανησουσιν (Mark 13:6)

How can you say you love Jesus…

…but not the Church? This is a common saying nowadays of people who pretend to be believers but pit themselves against the Church.
I should say, they've made a rather big mistake, and one that's sure to cause them endless grief later on, if they don't come to their senses.
The ground of their complaint is itself a deeper mistake. They've mis-identified the Church, thinking it's one thing, when in fact it's quite another. They've had plenty of help doing it, too, from the institution itself, from the institutional church.

What the institutional church often does has absolutely little to nothing to do with the actual life of salvation. You simply cannot limit yourself to thinking that the institutional church is what Christ calls the Church. It's not.

The Church of Christ, His Bride, is present wherever He really is present in their midst, in reality, not in mere imagination or in shows of public piety.

When Christ is in our midst, we don't have to force ourselves to believe it; we know it, because the Spirit guarantees His presence by the signs that follow. And that presence among us which reveals the invisible church, making us visible to each other, bestows on us actual grace, not pretended, and establishes us in the Kingdom, and the Kingdom in us. That's the Church, the Bride of Christ, against whom no one who truly loves Jesus the Bridegroom can ever find fault, because He is with her and in her, and she with and in Him.

Brothers, find this Church and find yourself within her, and no matter what happens to the institution called "church" your faith can never be shaken; not because of her, but because her Spouse is with her, and hence with you, always.

The Border

Originally, the border between the Church and the world was put up, not by the Church, but by the world, which could find no use for, and would not tolerate, this indigestible people. The Church constituted something like an Indian reservation or a ghetto, or even worse, a leper colony within society, a social entity which should not be, but nonetheless was. It was an embarrassment for and accusation against the classes that ruled the world.

Among those untouchable and unmentionable people, leaders arose, chosen not for their excellence or eminence in any worldly endeavor, but for their abject surrender to the service of the others. The world looked on in wonder at these hopeless imbeciles following a crucified criminal, surprised that they could have so much love for one another, but even more stupefied at their lack of survival instinct—they didn’t fight back when attacked by the world, they prayed for, and even more incomprehensibly, thanked those who injured and killed them!

They would not contribute any more than was exacted from them for the maintenance of the world system. They didn’t stand up for their own rights. They didn’t agitate for social reforms or strive for the betterment of any society except their own. Only among themselves, by common and unwritten consent, did they abolish customs that the world regarded normal, but which they abhorred—infanticide, sexual license, slavery, the “festivals.” In this regard, the world felt justified in labeling them “haters of humanity,” in segregating and controlling them by an elaborate system of “tests,” such as the performance of acts of public worship to the state deities.

The charge of atheism brought against them was designed to infuriate the working masses of the world, which by and large were “religious,” and which could be depended upon to punish the Church at the slightest provocation, thereby freeing the world rulers from overt responsibility for the persecution of these deranged trouble makers, undeserving of the name “human.”

No, the world had no use for, and would not tolerate, this indigestible people. It would give them no avenue for worldly success or security—economic, educational, social—not unless they, individually, renounced their allegiance to their pathetic God by publicly conforming to the world system and taking what they called among themselves “the mark of the beast.” If they did that, they were allowed the cross the border. They were free at last from the unreasonable restrictions placed upon them by their crazy beliefs.

After some time had passed, the Church, to the astonishment and discomfort of the world and its rulers, had grown much larger than had been anticipated. The elaborate system of tests and containment strategies that they devised could not keep the borders of this neglected area from expanding. The Church even crept into places it had never been seen before. It was to be expected that among the unschooled rabble, some would defect to this weird cult, lured by the rumors of “brotherly love” and other such nonsense. Everyone knew that these were just cover-ups for their unnatural practices, hypocrites all of them.

But now, and with more and more regularity every day, it seemed that once responsible citizens of the world were becoming uncooperative and difficult, excusing themselves from participating in the rites and rituals, even refusing the world’s most reasonable demands. The infection had spread, from the mere denizens even to the rulers of the world order. What was to be done? How was the world to maintain the border between itself and the Church?

There was nothing else to do but, swallowing its pride (just for a moment), the world would have to “become” the Church. It would have to get inside (disgusting!) the barricade where all that refuse and filth calling itself “human” was holed up, and somehow harness that teeming multitude to a new “world machine” under its benign and rational management.

Since the other side of the border was now larger than the world, there was nothing to do but jump the fence. Soon, “under new management” the Church, having become the world, would be so universal, so thoroughly ecumenical, that to be a leader of it would be an even greater honor than it once was to be a world ruler in former times.

It didn’t matter, not really, that the world would have to let go its old props and proof texts and principles. The Church had a Book that it had gathered together from one of those barbaric, backward tribes, adding to it a few chapters of its own. These could be imbued with new meanings, this Book could be used as a kind of Trojan horse by the world rulers to bring their powerful premises into play, first blocking, then replacing the so-called “promises” in that stupid Book.

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.” See? Their own Book is talking about us! Now, no one can oppose us! To make sure of this, all we have to do is establish “tests” to qualify only those who agree with us, send them to school, and teach them to parrot our plans. As for those who won’t…

So a new border had to be put up.
Again, it was put up by the world, not by the Church.

It became difficult, sometimes and in some places, to distinguish just who was on this side of the border, and who was on the other. The world had learned how to juggle names, titles and powers in such a way that sometimes even it got confused about who was who and which was which. The new border, though, did work. The Church was contained, even though imperfectly. The world now had a free hand to save itself, to save the planet, to liberate all humanity from the darkness of ancient superstition—Imagine that! A dying and resurrecting God!—and from the “haters of humanity” who think that they alone possess the truth, and that there is only one way!

“The nerve of that bunch of fanatics who call themselves ‘the Church’—why, we can’t even see them! But we can hear them, and they trouble us still, even to this day.”

But, my brothers, let me remind you of these things…

There is no need to be afraid, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the Kingdom.
Luke 12:32

You must not love this passing world
or anything that is in the world.
The love of the Father cannot be
in any man who loves the world.
1 John 2:15

If the world hates you,
remember that it hated Me before you.
If you belonged to the world,
the world would love you as its own;
but because you do not belong to the world,
because My choice withdrew you from the world,
therefore the world hates you.
Remember the words I said to you:
A servant is not greater than his master.
If they persecuted Me,
they will persecute you too;
if they kept My word,
they will keep yours as well.
But it will be on My account that they will do all this,
because they do not know the One who sent Me.
John 15:18-21

I have told you all this
so that your faith may not be shaken.
They will expel you from the synagogues,
and indeed the hour is coming
when anyone who kills you will think he is doing a holy duty for God.
John 16:1-2

I have told you all this
so that you may find peace in Me.
In the world you will have trouble,
but be brave:
I have conquered the world.
John 16:33

Renouncing Iconoclasm

We have to renounce iconoclasm.
In so doing, we inherently set ourselves against certain forces within modernity.
The truth is eschatological, that is, it lies in the future, but we also believe that this eschatological reality was incarnate in Christ, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega.
We do not oppose the future in embracing the Tradition we have received.
We embrace the future that is coming in Truth, rather than the false utopias of modern man’s imagination.

This thought, embraced and revealed in these few words, I found in the side panel of the blog Glory to God for All Things. A dear friend and sister in Christ forwarded me a link to a post at this blog entitled A Personal Salvation, and after reading it (it was excellent and true), I nosed around the blog and found the words quoted above. As far as Orthodox Christian blogs goes, it seems more deeply and simply Orthodox than many I've visited. The point that made sense to me in Renouncing Iconoclasm was that by faithfulness to the ancient faith, we are not trying to hold back the march of time and progress, the future. Instead, we are standing our ground in the eternal, which was from the beginning, so that we will be found standing there at the end, in the coming Kingdom of God, "the future that is coming in Truth."

Gretchen, thanks for sending me the link. I've added it to the side panel, so I can visit it again and recommend it to others.

Once saved, always saved?

It's funny how "when it rains, it pours," isn't it?

A fellow blogger in Japan has a post entitled
Once Saved, Always Saved?
which I've commented on twice.

Today in his homily, our deacon contemptuously referred to the idea of "once saved, always saved." This phrase is certainly a Protestant logo, but there are probably as many ideas of what it means as there are believers in it.

Still, from an Orthodox viewpoint, is it true or false?

Our deacon, as well as our presbyter, are ex-Protestants, with possible Romophile (lovers of Rome) leanings (the deacon denies it). The average Orthodox believer (and I'm one of them), when we think at all (that is, thinking as the Western Christian thinks), knows that Rome means trouble, and that evangelical Christians are less of a danger, because they're trying to believe rightly rather than conquer others. That is also the Orthodox way, to strive to believe rightly, and so we can learn from each other, and since we know Who the Head of the Church is, we feel no compulsion to "conquer the brethren." Sounds familiar?

So, Fr Deacon ridicules the idea that you can't lose your salvation. "Of course, you can!" he says. But what I say is, "If you can lose it, it wasn't salvation in the first place!" Bringing the subject up at all is not Orthodox, it's divisive, but it's easier to talk about ideas all day instead of just living them, and so it goes. What I commented to my fellow blogger, I'd say to the deacon as well…

Here you're skirting those regions of the mind where the Western Christian has often strayed, saying and thinking things which the human mind cannot fully either comprehend or express rightly. As a result, drifting into these mental countries and settling there, building theological cities surrounded by philosophical walls, they gradually factionalize and soon come to fight over what is now so far removed from their true spiritual fatherland, they have lost sight of it altogether, preferring to strengthen their city walls against each other.


Does the Word of God explicitly say anywhere "once saved, always saved"? Yet the Word does declare that the Lord is faithful, even when we are unfaithful, and many such things that point to the certainty of our salvation once we turn to the Lord, accept Him in faith, and are born from above.
Personally, I believe that salvation is secure, once we have confessed with our lips that Jesus is Lord and believed in our hearts that He was raised from the dead (Romans 10:9), and that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:13). But I live my life in Christ according to the living words that I find in the Bible, trusting in them and not in any derived jingle. You see, the meaning is the same. Eastern (Orthodox) Christians tend to practice theology rather than speak it. I try to practice what the Word of God teaches and in so doing, "once saved, always saved" becomes true for me. Not by anything I do, mind you, but by God's grace, by letting Him do for me what I could never do for myself.

The danger, of course, is that if one builds his spiritual life around a derived saying instead of the whole Gospel Truth (the whole Word of God lived and believed), he's building a house on sand. Not in human words, but in the Word of God, is salvation. Jesus says, he who listens to His words and acts on them is building his house on bedrock (Luke 6:47-48). This, my brother, is what you and I are doing. Let's try to steer clear of the tactics of the one who divides (Greek, διαβολος, "devil") and accuses (Greek, κατηγορος, from which we also get "categorize"), and avoiding pointless controversies (2 Timothy 2:23), let's slip through the pews and escape to walk together with Jesus, guarded by the unity of the mind of Christ (Romans 15:6), which brings all thoughts into obedience to the Word (2 Corinthians 10:5), and in which we share fully when we keep His commandment to love one another (John 13:34).

Historically, in the Church of the seven councils, there was too much fighting over mere words. The (mostly Greek) fathers indulged in their propensity for rhetoric and argument, nit picking each other to death, looking for the lice of heresy. To be sure, of Arius they had to make an example, the speculative writings of Origen they had to censure, else the Church would have moved from the bedrock of biblical truth and onto the sand spit of human philosophy. But of some of their other deliberations, we can only shudder and pray for mercy.

Why condemn Nestorius for calling Mary Χριστοτοκος (Christ-bearer) instead of Θεοτοκος (God-bearer), and thus alienating an entire branch of Syrian believers? Is the Gospel really diminished if we just call Mary what the bible calls her, "highly favored" (Luke 1:28) and leave it at that? Because of the foolishness of men at that council, the whole body of Protestant disciples (rightly fleeing the corruptions of Rome) is now kept separate by the Orthodox, when in the light of the Gospel we are one.

My fellow blogger wrote that "God purifies by fire," perhaps implying that we need to correct the false beliefs of others? I responded…

Yes, God does purify with fire, but it's the angels' job, not ours (and that, at harvest time), to sort the tares from the wheat, lest we uproot some of the wheat (before it's ripe) as well (Matthew 13:24-30). Practically speaking, what I mean is, within the disciple flock, let's edify and strengthen what is sure and good in each other, and let Christ in His mercy, interceding for us in our foolishness before the Throne (Hebrews 4:14-16), purify us with the fire, not of our words and thoughts, but of His, and inwardly, with the correction of a father for his sons.

Whether you believe that once saved you are always saved, or whether you don't, my point is this: There is nothing to be gained and much to lose in debating and defining such things which, in the end, are all useless, vain speculations. Instead, let's seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to us as well. (Matthew 6:33).

Ramblings on the Body of Christ

Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey …
… 'Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
Matthew 25:14-30 NIV

Did you know that the Body of Christ, that is, the Eucharist or Holy Communion, is actually referred to by Christ in His parable of the Ten Talents? What? No? Me neither! But that doesn't mean it ain't true. After all, Holy Trinity Cathedral's preaching deacon says it is! Here's how…

Coming to church every Sunday but not coming forward to receive the Body of Christ in Communion is like being the foolish servant who was given only one talent and buried it, instead of investing it. That's right. And to confirm this notion, Fr Deacon quoted from a modern English translation of John Chrysostom's Homily III on Ephesians. I tried to find his text on line, but all I could find was Christian Classics Ethereal Library's 19th century "ye and thou" version. It was interesting what John Chrysostom (Greek 'golden mouth', his nickname) had to say, but I still couldn't quite make the connexion between the parable and what Fr Deacon was trying to get across. Here's some of the things the deacon read to us…

"I observe many partaking of Christ’s Body lightly and just as it happens, and rather from custom and form, than consideration and understanding. …

"Oh! the force of custom and of prejudice! In vain is the daily Sacrifice, in vain do we stand before the Altar; there is no one to partake. These things I am saying, not to induce you to partake any how, but that ye should render yourselves worthy to partake. Art thou not worthy of the Sacrifice, nor of the participation? …

"Look, I entreat: a royal table is set before you, Angels minister at that table, the King Himself is there, and dost thou stand gaping? …

"He hath invited us to heaven, to the table of the great and wonderful King, and do we shrink and hesitate, instead of hastening and running to it? And what then is our hope of salvation? We cannot lay the blame on our weakness; we cannot on our nature. It is indolence and nothing else that renders us unworthy."

In his own words to us, Fr Deacon admonished us for coming to church and not receiving the Body of Christ. With Chrysostom he said, without receiving Communion, there's no point in being in church at all. Sheesh! You'd think that'd make people's heads take a tumble. But no! I looked around and the yiayias and pappous (grandmas and grandpas) were quietly taking this all in without batting an eyelash or squirming in their seats. And at Communion time, as usual, most of them, along with many of their juniors, stayed standing, while the rest of us sinners went up to receive. Hmm! And this in the face of the deacon reminding us, that after three absences in a row from the Cup, we are automatically excommunicated!

Orthodoxy can be quite funny. If I was an outsider looking in (is there ever really an 'outsider' among Christians?), over several Sundays in a row, I would be completely baffled. Who are these people who seem to be saying one thing now, and the complete opposite the next? Talk about diversity! Brothers, it wasn't always like this here, nor will it always be…

So, here it was, time for Communion. As usual, the kids and women go up first (and any men who are helping them). Then, it's our turn. We usually have three Cups, Fr Deacon on the left (that's where I usually go), the Proistámenos (senior pastor) in the middle, and Fr Marín (our Romanian priest) on the right. As I consider myself a goat, I go the left and let the sheep go right and center (though who knows, left and right from the nave might be right and left from the Throne). Fr Deacon and I have old ties to a church we both attended once, Saint Mark's. I also like to go to him for Communion because I know he likes to say the "formula" with my Russian-sounding name, "The servant of God, Román, receives the Body and Blood of Christ, to the forgiveness of sins and life eternal," to which I respond emphatically, "Amín!" It's kind of a ritual between us.

Today, however, just the way the line sorted itself out, I found myself standing in front of Fr Paul in the middle, a rare occurrence.
I quickly made a metanoia (bent down, touched the floor with the fingers of my right hand opened forward, and then after straightening up, crossed myself with my right hand), to show respect to Christ in the mysterion. Then, I grabbed a swatch of the red communion cloth and held it under my chin and opened wide like a good baby to receive the Body of Christ into my gaping mouth. The spoon held a morsel of bread like a blood-soaked sponge. As I partook, and wiped my lips on the cloth, all Fr Paul said was, "The Body of Christ." That was it! I still pronounced the "Amín!" as usual, but it just wasn't the same.

Where was "The servant of God, Romanós…"?
In Orthodoxy, every little thing counts. Nothing is added unecessarily, but also, nothing is taken away.
"…if anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him every plague mentioned in the Book; if anyone cuts anything out…" (Revelation 22:18-19 JB) It's because our worship is the earthly counterpart of the Divine Liturgy that is always going on in heaven, according to the book of Revelation, "…and day and night they never stopped singing: "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty; He was, He is, and He is to come." (Revelation 4:8 JB).

Did I learn anything new today? Well, I dunno. Maybe this… Nothin' but nothin' quenches the thirst of a human soul like Jesus Christ, the Word of God. And if I haven't learned to partake of Him always and everywhere I go, then I haven't found Him anywhere.

"Lord, give us that bread always."

Jesus answered, "I am the bread of life.

He who comes to Me

will never be hungry;

he who believes in Me

will never thirst."

John 6:34-35 JB