House Church

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world…

The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

— William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming (1919)

These lines, written in the aftermath of the Great War (1914-1918) could very well have been written as the prologue to the new age in which we live, an age even closer to the Day than any that have passed before. This is probably when the ‘Church Age’ actually ended, though we didn’t notice it at the time. The Jehovah’s Witnesses, living as they always have on the edge of their seats waiting for the Second Coming, declared that it had come, only it was a ‘spiritual’ event in the heavens, whose manifestation would not yet be revealed for some time—so much for false prophecy!

The Church Age has ended?
Well, this is a statement that will have a multitude of meanings for people. What I mean by it is, the age when the Christian Church was at its pinnacle of earthly power and influence, had definitely come to an end. For sure, in many places, down to this very day, the Church Age has not come to an end, though these are local instances of it, some related to sectarian or ethnic bases. In general, however, the Church Age is over. That’s why we can no longer speak of England or America as ‘Christian nations.’ The underlying culture is ‘Christian,’ but what is now built on that foundation is anything but Christian.

Hence, we have churches struggling to find ways to perpetuate themselves as institutions, to regain relevance for their version of Christianity. Some have morphed into reflections of the world with only a thin overlay of selective ‘Christian’ ideology, by this hoping to claim their share of the demographic pie. Others, more at a grass roots level and intending fidelity to what the Bible actually teaches, have snubbed authority structures, denominational labels and history, and organized themselves as house churches. ‘After all, that’s what the early Christians did.’ They do well to fellowship and worship in an environment at once familiar and spiritual. This is, in fact, an appropriate format for the Christian koinonia for an age like ours, but wait—there is more!

The visible Church, “as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners” (C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters) is the aggregate result of the fundamental reality of the invisible Church, “an ordinary simple Christian kneels down to say his prayers” (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity). What we see and experience when we ‘go to church’ is going to be the net result of what we, and everyone else, have invested of our ‘real’ lives, individually and in our families, in the following of Jesus, and in the worship of our heavenly Father ‘in spirit and in truth.’ The witness and ministry of the Church rests squarely on the foundation of the families and individuals that effectively constitute—the house church.

For that’s the real truth about the ‘house church’: it is the Christian family. Even in the first few generations of believers, though a larger group met together at someone’s house, the family that occupied that house was the house church. Larger and wealthier families had larger houses, and those would later evolve into the building for worship that early began to be called a ‘church.’

If today we see churches in disarray, worship services that are not reverent and focused not on God but on the people, should we be surprised? The Roman Catholics turned the altar away from ‘facing East’ toward the Deity, and towards the people, returning the altar to the dinner table it started out as. The concept isn’t wrong per se, but in so doing that community demonstrated that it too had fallen into confusion about what worship is, what fellowship is, and sacrificed the one for the other. This, however, is not the mind of Christ or of the Church. We meet the Lord in both places, at the altar, and in dining together. Each is distinct and proves that Christ is indeed among us, whenever and wherever we gather (it goes without saying) in His name.

Tampering with communal worship is one of the first signs that the house church isn’t really happening, though the need for it remains. The Christian family, as has been received by Orthodox Christians, is the house church, the basic building block of the temple of the living God. It is within the family that God’s Kingdom is taught and learned to be put first, the Word of God honored and given the highest place, the virtues of order and self-discipline practiced and handed over (with the rest of tradition) from the older to the younger generation, and brotherly love firmly planted in every soul.

If there are no house churches, then a non-liturgical Christian assembly tries to create one in its communal life, but it is out-scaled and the efforts result in useless rounds of novelty that satisfy no one and do not please God, who seeks only the salvation of our souls.
If there are no house churches, then a liturgical Christian community, the Orthodox for example, can devolve from an extended family of house churches that lives, prays, ministers, witnesses and worships in spirit and truth, into a mere mechanical performance of now meaningless and irrelevant rituals, and the need which the house church satisfies remains unfulfilled.

The family as house church thus divides all Christians into the haves and have-nots. “I tell you, to everyone who has will be given more; but from the man who has not, even what he has will be taken away” (Luke 19:26 Jerusalem Bible). It all comes down to ‘what are you doing at home?’

When my family first came to the Orthodox Church (we had been evangelical Episcopalians), we were presented a copy of the book Making God Real in the Orthodox Christian Home by Fr Anthony Coniaris. We didn’t have to buy a copy. The Church just gave it to us as part of our ‘welcome package,’ because the idea of house church had to be impressed on us, as on any new Orthodox, right from the beginning. It was a priority then. What our new brethren and priests didn’t know about us, was that we were already living that way, even as Episcopalians. Daily prayer and bible reading as a family, daily instruction, observing the fasts, including the children in every spiritual activity according to their age and capacity. The book they gave us merely reinforced what we already were doing—being a house church.

“Staying over at our house,” warned one of my sons to his friends, “is like sleeping in a church.”

Yet, being a house church is not living in a religious and sanctimonious environment. Discipline, due respect and proper ceremony have their places, but being a house church is not the same as the game we used to play when I was a child, or that I even used to play with my sons when they were very small—having processions, practicing liturgical gestures, etc. We always knew we were ‘just pretending,’ but that’s how becoming a real Christian usually starts out. Children play at what they want to be when they grow up, and so we, like children raising other children, played at being followers of Jesus, so that in the end that’s what we would be—all of us.

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Matthew 6:33 New King James Version

The sumptuous banquet of the Word

Today is the Sunday of Zacchaeus, just one week before the beginning of Triodion, the Orthodox division of chrónos time in which we make our preparations for the journey to Pascha, to the new paradise of the Tree of Life, the cross on which our Savior Jesus Christ hung as a ripe fruit, beckoning us to eat of it, that we might live forever. “I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world” (John 6:51).

The entrance gate to that new paradise is not permanently locked as was the gate to the old, from whence our first forefathers Adam and Eve were expelled for their transgressions, and we for ours. We have been invited, no, commanded, to open that gate and to enter, to seek Him whom our heart loves (cf. Song of Songs, 1:7), and we have been shown how, in the example of Zacchaeus, a man who though rich had come up short in his accounts with the Master, yet who was called to welcome the Lord into his house.

He entered Jericho and was going through the town when a man whose name was Zacchaeus made his appearance; he was one of the senior tax collectors and a wealthy man. He was anxious to see what kind of man Jesus was, but he was too short and could not see Him for the crowd; so he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus who was to pass that way.

When Jesus reached the spot he looked up and spoke to him,
‘Zacchaeus, come down! Hurry, because I must stay at your house today!’

And he hurried down and welcomed Him joyfully. They all complained when they saw what was happening. ‘He has gone to stay at a sinner’s house,’ they said. But Zacchaeus stood his ground and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Sir, I am going to give half my property to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody I will pay him back four times the amount.’

And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek out and save what was lost.’

Luke 19:1-10 Jerusalem Bible

How can anyone who hears this true story not feel his spirit leap within him? Another chance to make good on everything that I have ruined, another chance to welcome back joy into my shattered life. Though I have filled my house with every good thing, it has been through pillaging what was not mine. Though I have exploited the poor, defrauded widows and orphans, He has seen hidden inside me the man that He created, and He is giving me another chance. He is letting me serve Him, letting me dine with Him, in my own house which He now has made His. “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek out and save what was lost.”

And so the Word of God comes to our personal Jericho, and we, having heard of Him, maybe knowing more about Him than we care to admit, run ahead to find a comfortable spot from which to view this parade of His followers, and actually lay our eyes on Him. All we wanted to do was just that—take a look. But what happens to us proves beyond all shadow of a doubt, that His love bestows on us more than we bargained for. Though we thought, ‘I am one of so many, I can hide among the leafy branches above this crowd, and see Him without being noticed,’ He sees us.

The crowd doesn’t see us, no matter what we do, good or bad, whether we try to be visible or invisible. No one ever sees us as we really are. We don’t even see ourselves. Yet we cannot hide from the One who made us, and who is all Eye. Though Jesus had never seen him in this world, He looked up and saw Zacchaeus and called him out by name, just as He calls each of us by name. ‘How do you know me?’ asks another man whom Jesus called by name. For that man, as for Zacchaeus, there was no gradual development into a follower of Christ; it happened in an instant, in a moment of kairós time
(cf. John 1:48).

It always must be this way. Jesus doesn’t wait. He calls us, and we either respond, or not. What must it feel like to be someone who has heard the voice of Jesus, and still turned away?

So Zacchaeus welcomed Jesus Christ into his home, prepared a feast, and dined with the Lord. No one had to tell him what to say or do. “Blessed are you... because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 16:17 NASB), he just said it, and did it. “I am going to give half my property to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody I will pay him back four times the amount.” Zacchaeus returned to his senses, drawn back to reason by the Son of Man, remembered the covenant, came back to the commandments. Why? Because he heard the voice of Jesus say, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham.”

We too are the sons and daughters, not only of Abraham, but of God our heavenly Father, through Christ our heavenly Brother, Friend, Master and Lord, who says to us, “I shall not call you servants any more, because a servant does not know his master’s business; I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father” (John 15:15 JB) and “You are My friends, if you do what I command you” (John 15:14).

What an opportunity! Jesus calls us by name—even if we don’t know Him, He knows us—to the sumptuous banquet of the Word! With Zacchaeus, let’s return everything that doesn’t belong to us—sin itself—so that we can travel light, as we run the way of His commandments, because He has set us free.

Remember these things

I will show you another work that can establish man firmly on his way from beginning to end. It is to love God with all his heart and intention and to worship Him. God will then give him great strength and joy, and all the works of God will become to him as sweet as honeycomb. So will all labors of the body become light and sweet, along with his meditation, vigil and carrying the Lord's yoke.

However, on account of God's love for man, He unleashes upon him adversities so as not to be conceited, but stand firm in his struggle and proceed further in his growth. Instead of strength he feels languor and feebleness, instead of joy, sadness; instead of sweetness, bitterness. Many similar things befall him who loves God. Nevertheless, he is all the more strengthened in his struggle against them and eventually overcomes them. Once he does so, the Spirit of God stands by him in all things and strengthens him so as never to fear anything evil.

— Abba Anthony

If you were praying...

...for Nancy, who was suffering acutely from her fifth bout with cancer, and who had decided (with her husband’s agreement) to seek relief in assisted suicide, I am reasonably certain that she has passed away. The family's privacy needs must be very extreme, as I haven't found a public death notice, and it was only today that I found out by making some careful personal enquiries, that she may have died last Saturday. May God have mercy on her and her family.

Thank you, brethren, who have been praying for her since I first brought her grievous sickness to our attention. Now, let's just pray for her husband and son to have courage to carry on.

In You, Yahweh, I take shelter…

It is impossible to read the Psalms and not come away with more than you have given. The Lord speaks to us through them to the very details of our lives, answering all our concerns, all our prayers even before we ask Him. He is a good and loving God.

Psalm 71, one of the Psalms appointed for the fourteenth day of the month, always stops me in my tracks, especially when I read the words, “To many I have seemed an enigma…” How true, Lord, how true! This was true when I used to pray this Psalm twenty-five years ago, and it’s still true today, but so is the second half of that verse, “but You are my firm refuge.”

God is faithful. He maintains us in our first call, and in our first love. All we have to do is stay close to Him.


Psalms for the 14th Day
71 72 73 74

Psalm 71

An old man's prayer

In You, Yahweh, I take shelter;

never let me be disgraced.

In Your righteousness rescue me, deliver me,

turn Your ear to me and save me!

Be a sheltering rock for me,

a walled fortress to save me!

For You are my rock, my fortress.

My God, rescue me from the hands of the wicked,

from the clutches of rogue and tyrant!

For You alone are my hope, Lord,

Yahweh, I have trusted You since my youth,

I have relied on You since I was born,

You have been my portion from my mother's womb,

and the constant theme of my praise.

To many I have seemed an enigma,

but You are my firm refuge.

My mouth is full of Your praises,

filled with Your splendour all day long.

Do not reject me, now I am old,

nor desert me, now my strength is failing,

for my enemies are uttering threats,

spies hatching their conspiracy:

‘Hound him down now that God has deserted him,

seize him, there is no one to rescue him!’

God, do not stand aside,

my God, come quickly and help me!

Shame and ruin on those

who attack me;

may insult and disgrace cover those

whose aim is to hurt me!

I promise that, ever hopeful,

I will praise You more and more,

my lips shall proclaim Your righteousness

and power to save, all day long.

I will come in the power of Yahweh

to commemorate Your righteousness, Yours alone.

God, You taught me when I was young,

and I am still proclaiming Your marvels.

Now that I am old and grey,

God, do not desert me;

let me live to tell the rising generation

about Your strength and power,

about Your heavenly righteousness, God.

You have done great things;

who, God, is comparable to You?

You have sent me misery and hardship,

but You will give me life again,

You will pull me up again from the depths of the earth,

prolong my old age, and once more comfort me.

I promise I will thank You on the lyre,

my ever-faithful God,

I will play the harp in Your honour,

Holy One of Israel.

My lips shall sing for joy as I play to You,

and this soul of mine which You have redeemed.

All day long, my tongue

shall be talking of Your righteousness.

Shame and disgrace on those

whose aim is to hurt me!

[Amín!]

Da’at – דעת

Polytheism is man’s guess at God.

It’s not so much the plurality that is the problem, but the fact that it’s man making God in his image.

A manufactured God is still only an idea, and regardless of how beautiful or how true the stories about the gods are, they don’t lead anywhere, they only entertain.

That’s why even a monotheism that is man’s guess at God is no good, cannot raise us to a higher state of being, cannot save us or bestow life to those in the tombs. All it can do is incite us to efface and destroy the evidences of the common lie, that man can and does make up God or gods in our image. If it buries every polytheism or monotheism that is not itself, perhaps it will not be noticed that it too is a lie. Since human freedom results in abuse of freedom, it seeks to eliminate freedom because it has no power to grant true freedom.

Then, we are right to be atheists, if it is these gods or that God that we refuse to believe in. Until the revelation of the true and only God, an honest man must be an atheist. If God does not reveal Himself, we have nothing to go on, only speculation.

When God does reveal Himself, we find that all our ideas about Him fall short. We finally see that we have been wrong all along about Him, except for our guess that He must be.

When God reveals Himself, we discover that He is One after all, because His love, His will, and all His acts are one. When God reveals Himself, we experience that He is more than one because He is among us.

Our guesses about Him no longer must be judged as right or wrong, because now we know they were only stories, only ideas that we had made, without power to help or hinder us, to free or enslave us.

The games we played when we were children are finally over.
The real life has begun, we can now be men, we can think and speak and act, as men.

The Real Life has come, the desired of the ages has arrived.
It is only Jesus.

For no other reason

Commandments.

A new wife willingly submits to her husband in all things as to her lord, and he lays down his life for her in all things, loving her as he loves himself. These are commandments, but why do they do them?
For no other reason, but love.

A son patiently listens to his old father’s advice, given unasked again and again, and continues to abide by his old mother’s household rules, fussy though they seem. This is commandment, but why does he fulfill it?
For no other reason, but love.

I have heard of people—indeed, I have seen them and known them—who go about performing their acts of righteousness without a hint of joy, carrying their burdens as if they were heavy, and bullying others, even trying to impose their unhappy fate on them.

Then, I have met people who, pretending to be amicable and full of joy beneath masks of boastfulness, flaunt their freedom from commandments, and solicit our approval of their immorality by the nice way they greet and treat us.

Last night, I was helping a young married couple move out of their old place to a new townhouse just around the corner. Just as we were loading the last few items into my van, another red vehicle almost identical to mine pulled up in the spot next to us.

A dad who looked about my age hopped out of the driver’s seat, followed by a young couple from the other side, and after a mutual greeting between us, they explained they were moving into the townhouse right next door.

After propping the house door open, the kids started carrying small items in. I assumed this was another young couple, “twenty-somethings,” moving in with the assistance of one of their dads, not an uncommon situation. I’ve done things like this.

The dad waxed very loquacious with me and the mom of the young couple I was helping. “Yeah, I’ve had five kids, and done this moving thing a lot. This is my daughter, one of the five. She’s 23 and all ready to live on her own.”

“Oh, she’s moving in by herself?” we asked. “Well, yeah, but I’m sure her boyfriend will be spending most of his time here,” responded the dad with a little laugh and a mischievous look on his face. Ah, so he knew, he even expected, this. He approved.

This is not going to be a rant about young men and women sleeping together and making love before they are married. This way of “courtship” is now almost universal, even in the case of church-going young adults. It’d be embarrassing to be a 26 year old virgin.

Modern churches, like modern society, being accustomed to a “cart before the horse” mentality—that’s what the automobile age has brought us—little preach or teach biblical morality, or if they do, they practice “safe sex” with their members: “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” It’s better for all concerned.

“Cart before the horse” mentality? Yes.

Communion before (or without) confessing the faith: the means to unity, not the fruit of it.

The “Christmas season,” not the 12 days starting with Christmas and ending with Epiphany, the culmination and satisfaction of the 40 days of fasting leading up to it, but the two months starting practically with Hallowe’en: the means to happiness, but not happiness, or even joy, itself.

Living together, with all that it implies, as a sort of “practice run”—though not a dry run—of the idea of marriage: Like the offer of a “no strings attached” trial of a confidently good product such as the Oreck vacuum cleaner.

“No strings attached” means you can return it with no loss to you, not exactly the same as a “money back guarantee,” but in either case, the offer is simply not unconditional or free.

Virginity is a gift that a man brings a woman, and a woman brings a man. It’s a gift that can only be offered once. There’s no taking it back, either. Why is it we’re not troubled by these uncomfortable words? “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one.” (Ephesians 5:31) Don’t we ever wonder what this means?

Back to the dad helping his daughter move into her new place, with her boyfriend’s help. Friendly people, comfortable to be around, affable. Commandments? What are they? What do you say? They’re things that God (whoever or whatever that is) wants us to do or to refrain from doing? Oh, I see, you mean the “thou shalt not’s”.
Give me a break. We’re not 5 year olds!

Commandments.

The positive ones are like invitations from an impossibly wealthy Benefactor to perform a simple task, so that He can reward you.

The negative ones are like lines that you must not, at all costs, cross. It’s the same Benefactor, but now He’s warning you of imminent disaster.

Think of the lines painted on millions of miles of automobile roads all over the planet. Have you ever noticed that no one, but no one, and especially during rush hour, just drives his car meandering all over the highway in total disregard of the lines? What would happen if he did is too terrible to imagine. We have all witnessed terrifying things on the road, a car veers out of its lane—the driver distracted, drunk, or even having a heart attack or stroke—and in no time at all an often fatal pile up of fast-moving vehicles takes place.

If only we could see that the lines we’re commanded not to cross are like that.

Every action has its consequences, yet because we no longer really believe in “cause and effect” we are like drivers who play hop-scotch on highways during rush hour, dodging in and out of traffic to get where they want to be faster than anyone else. We believe in luck, if we believe in anything. Yet, even luck runs out in the end, for everyone who relies on it.

Why do we follow the commandments? Is it to “gain heaven,” or earn our way into a respectable family? Are our good deeds like bargaining chips which we’ll be able to bring to the table of eternity? Can they pile up like the “excess merits of the saints?”

No, as holy prophet Isaiah sings,

Like a young man marrying a virgin,
so will the One who built you wed you,
and as the Bridegroom
rejoices in His Bride,
so will your God rejoice in you.
Isaiah 62:5 Jerusalem Bible

Someone loves us like that, and we in turn have no desire anymore but to return that love.

Commandments? They are our joy, we fulfill them, we follow them because we follow Him who is our Joy, and all for no other reason, but love.

I run the way of Your commandments,
since You have set me free.
Psalm 119:32 JB

Breaking bread together

The Lord’s supper.

If there is one thing that characterizes true Christianity in a way that almost no other faith community has, it’s the priority that the followers of Jesus give to eating together.

If you think of this idea in churchly terms, we have the word “eucharist” that defines for the (numerical) majority of Christians the most important aspect of communal worship. The Orthodox have the Divine Liturgy which includes (as part 2 of 2) the Liturgy of the Gifts (another name for the Eucharist). The Roman Catholics have the mass. The “high church” Protestants (for lack of a better term) have the Holy Communion or Eucharist. Almost all other groups calling themselves “Christian” have some form of “breaking bread with one another” that is ceremonially administered and commemorative of the last supper of Jesus with His disciples, which was a modified Passover seder (by most accounts). Only groups like the Salvation Army and the Quakers do not make much of this, and not because they’re not truly Christian, but just because they spiritualize the concept of communion with Jesus and other believers to the degree where outward signs are abolished.

Still, almost no other faith community puts “feeding together” on such a high level as Christianity. At the same time, many or most Christians somehow lose part of the meaning and experience of this “communion” by restricting it to “the Lord’s table” as enacted as part of church services, not making the connexion that any and every act of dining with others can partake of the same real Presence that is experienced in the services.

I just realised this morning, after talking to my best friend, who is away for an indefinite period of time, on the telephone, how much I miss him, and the first image that came to mind was, how much I miss having breakfast, lunch or dinner with him. Though our friendship has many aspects and a wealth of shared experience, learning together, working together on projects, and witnessing for Christ together, it’s sitting down at table together, just he and I, eating, drinking and fellowshipping, that somehow is the apex of our friendship. When we are dining together, I experience Christ in our midst to an incredible degree. He is always with us, but I experience that Presence most when having supper with my friend. It seems like it's always been this way.

Thinking along these lines, I remembered just last night going to dinner with a mother and daughter after the four of us (yes, the daughter’s husband worked too, but had to go to his “real job” at the plumbing store and missed eating with us) had spent all day moving the young couple into their new townhouse. We are all Christians, and we dined together with Christ and had wonderful fellowship with one another, and then ordered some “take out” to share with the young husband when he returned home from work. To eat together satisfied our tired and hungry frames, but we were fed far more than the sum total of what we ate and drank. As Jesus says, “I have food to eat that you do not know about” (John 4:32), and “My food is to do the will of the One who sent Me, and to complete His work” (John 4:34).

How sad it is to have to eat and drink alone!
If food and drink were all that we required to truly feed us, this would be no problem, but it isn’t. When I have to eat alone, often (though not always, and I’ll explain later) it is a quick food break. I grab a sandwich, a drink and a book, sit down, wolf it down, read a few lines, and then I’m up and off to work or wherever, and my stomach is no longer growling, but it’s almost as if I hadn’t eaten at all.

When I am eating with even one other person and we are fellowshipping together as we eat and drink, I almost forget the food and am fed more by the interaction of our minds and spirits than I am by the food. This is when I am with others who are followers of Jesus, and even when we are not talking directly about Him, our conversation is still in His Presence, and He is among us, and our time together is so full of Him, that we feed on that Bread that He gives by which we live forever. The earthly food, as good as it can be, is just a condiment.

There are times, though, when I do relish eating and drinking alone, but at those times it is intentional, and I really am not alone, and neither do I dine alone, “for He is with me. His rod and His staff comfort me” (cf. Psalm 23). When a dear brother or sister is not with me, the Word of God still is, and the Book goes with me wherever I go, and internal Prayer “prepares a table for me, even in the presence of my enemies,” and so I do not dine alone, but with Him “whom the world cannot grasp” (cf. John 1:5).

To all my brethren and friends in Christ I say, I cannot wait to dine with you in person and in the Presence of our risen and living Lord Jesus, and may He grant it to come to pass, both now in this world and in the life of the world to come.

Christ is born! Glorify Him! He is among us!

Who forgives sin?

To suggest to someone that the Christian faith might work better for them in a life crisis than the religion or philosophy they are perceived to hold does nothing but pit one religion against another. It also underscores the American mentality about religions in general, which is quickly becoming the world mentality: Religion is a commodity or product, and as such, religions can be compared and selected based on ROI (return on investment), versatility, customer service, and even by what’s covered in their (limited) warranties. This is especially evident in the world of media and mega-church embodiments of “Christianity.” There are auto rows, where all the car dealers are lined up in one place. There are also, in some places, church rows. Acres and acres of parking and stadium-like worship centers, some boasting as many as six or eight services on a Sunday. (Luckily, their main product, ecstatic, entertaining “worship” is usually available only one day a week. Their God has apparently turned tables on the biblical division of time. Instead of work six days, rest one, it is work one day, rest six.) See also Commoditized Religion, a poem by Jim Swindle.

It is not what “the Christian faith” has to offer a man who has been publicly caught in a private sin that will do him any good. At this level we’re still comparing apples to oranges, still some kind of home remedy. Buddhism is rarely practiced, even in America, but there are many people who, admiring some of its ideas and imitating some of its practices as a leisure activity, consider themselves “Buddhist.”

Just the other day, having a friendly chat with a cashier at a large book store, a French woman who described herself as a “Buddhist,” I experienced a little of the depth of her painful past, and patiently listened as she blamed her unhappy girlhood as a Catholic on the Christian God. She actually opened up the chat, noticing I was buying a book on linguistics, and proudly announced that she had a favorite new word, “isangelous,” and asked me if I knew what it meant.

“Well,” I said, “it sounds like a Greek word, but I can’t tell for sure from the way you’re pronouncing it.” She offered to write it down, and handed it to me on a slip of paper. “Oui,” I said, switching over into her native French, “c’est un mot grec,” and continuing, I told her it was a Greek word meaning “equal to an angel” much as the word, “isapostolos” means “equal to an apostle,” which is a title, I explained, that the Greek church gives to men and women whose life and work in Christ was comparable to the apostles. Then, switching back and forth between French and English we had a friendly dialogue, talking about what an angel is—pas ces bébés à ailes dans les peintures de la Renaissance, “not those flying babies in the Renaissance paintings!”—even talking about Christ, and as I took my leave with a “bon soir,” she said, “Hope to see you again.”

If being forgiven for sin were simply a matter of feeling good about yourself again, then, yes, probably any religion or philosophical or self-help discipline would work, and some might work better than others. The thing about Buddhism, for example, and the Buddha, is that though it expresses itself as a religion, it is fundamentally not about God (there is none) but about the unending struggle throughout space and time of numberless consciousnesses to extinguish their illusion of separateness. To follow Buddha and be a Buddhist, you accept that theory of “how things are” and you integrate yourself into that, hoping for the best, but knowing that your life is still ultimately your responsibility. Even the Buddha can’t change that.

But being forgiven for sin is not just about feeling good again. It’s about gratitude to our Owner, to the One who made us, whom we acknowledge as our Creator and even more, our Father, because of a new relationship and a new form of being that has been bestowed on us by Someone who is at one and the same time a man and “beyond being.”

Being forgiven for sin is to hear that Someone speak His Word into our torn and ravaged hearts, “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.”

Do we do what He says? Can we do it? We try, and yet somehow we fail again. Are we abandoned? Does He leave us in our sins and turn away from us in impatience and disgust? No, He doesn’t. He knows that His work in us, from our point of view, is not the work of an instant, though to Him it is. He worked hard to create us, even harder to redeem us. Do you think after all that, He would turn away from us? No, only we might turn away from Him.

Tell a man who is in bondage to sin not about “the Christian faith,” but about Christ. Tell a woman caught in the act of adultery—or a man caught in it—what the Master says to them, not what you say to them. He is more gracious, more forgiving, more loving than we are. In fact, He is the Only Lover of mankind. The rest of us are just trying to follow Him and do what we see Him doing. Some people said of Him, “How dare he presume to forgive sins! Only God can forgive sin!” True, and we agree with them, but in a different way: No one can forgive like That Man, and that man is Jesus Christ.

All is nothing, except by faith

Last night, the beautiful vesperal liturgy of Theophany was celebrated, followed immediately by the Great Blessing of the Waters. “The waters saw you, O God, the waters saw you and were afraid. The Jordan turned back when it saw the fire of the godhead descending in bodily form and entering it.” The priests chanted, the ikon of the life-giving cross was immersed in the font of water, the Holy Spirit was invoked and petitioned to enter the waters, so that they would become for us life-giving and healing. Afterwards, we lined up to receive our first drink of those blessed waters, and to receive a small bottle of the same to take away with us and use to bless our homes. Outwardly, to some, this might seem like a magical vestige of ancient superstitious belief, but holy water is not magic. Whether or not the Holy Spirit literally enters the waters and in some objective sense remains in them for our healing, the water remains water, and the blessing we receive still comes to us by faith. Either all the waters of the earth have received the Lord of Life and have become blessed till the end of time, or none have. As one of my sons said when a three-year old entering a church with me as we past a holy water font, “Dad, all water is holy water!”

We drink the holy water, and use it to bless ourselves, yet we still fall into sin, sometimes right after drinking it. How little faith we have! We say, ‘What are we to eat? What are we to drink? What are we to wear?’ But it is for the pagans to run after these things, not for us. What we chiefly need to run after is not these things. “Seek after the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness before everything else, and all these other things will be given us as well.” Yet not just in terms of these generalities, even the holy water cannot keep us from wrongful desire or malice towards others or even against ourselves. We suffer the old man in us to continue to afflict us, though himself dead, and we are loathe to let him go. Christ have mercy! We trust You, Lord, but help the little faith we have!

A very dear friend of mine sits today with his son and their dying wife and mother, grieving for the end, because her suffering is acute, unbearable to the point where they have opted for euthanasia—not the ‘good death’ we pray for in every liturgy, but what the world calls ‘good death.’ The poison is to arrive today, and this dying sister wants it to be administered right away. She has made her farewells, and after suffering now for the fifth time the reoccurrence of the fatal disease, having no more will or strength to undergo a doubtful remedy, is ready to depart this life. After today, she will not be in this world anymore. We will look for her, and not find her.

We all know that mercy killing is wrong until we find ourselves in that very small room with ourselves, our loved one, and hopefully Christ. It is no longer ‘the whole world’ that we are among, letting its yeas and nays direct our lives and our opinions. No, we are now cornered, our backs against a wall and facing the enemy in our last battle. Yes, the Lord is with us, but do we know that? Do we believe that? In that tiny room, do we know He is there with us? Will He step in and save the day, and make everything right again?

Yes, but maybe not in the way we wanted, or expected.

Not many of the people among whom I live read my blog or even know about it, so I feel safe to ask you, brethren and friends, to pray for Nancy (her real name) as soon as you read my plea, for God’s will to be done, and for the salvation of her soul, if she surrenders her life this day. There is always time for a miracle, if it is God’s will. We don’t know His purposes, but we do know His faithfulness and His loving-kindness. He is the only lover of mankind, and in this as in all things, we turn to him in our weakness for Him to be our strength.

Christ, who is baptized in the Jordan for our transgression this day,
have mercy on us!

The life of Christ, lived in us

An excellent article by Fr Stephen to which I would direct your attention, Having Then Gifts Differing, contains the following passages which speak strongly to my mind and to some of the thoughts that I have been struggling with for years. What he says here also helps me to understand why I was so disturbed by what was going on in my local church recently. Thankfully, that difficult time has passed, and we're already on the road to recovery. I won't explain any further, but let you read these passages, and hopefully use the link to read Fr Stephen's entire post. Those of you who know me personally, or even those who have shared these troubling times with me, will already know why I am encouraged by these words…

The question, “What is my place in the Church?” seems to me to be a question whose origin is to be found more in the culture of our modern economy and its view of the human than it is to be found anywhere within the pages of Holy Scripture.

…“What good thing must I do to be saved?”

This is not a question (in its original meaning) of “what must I do in order to earn my salvation?” There is no question of merit whatsoever. “What must I do to be saved?” is one of the primary questions asked within the pages of the gospel. Christ directs the rich young ruler to the commandments within the Law. When pressed, He answers the young man more directly, “Sell what you have, give to the poor and come and follow me.” The young man goes away sad. Today the young man might say, “But what will be my role within the Church?”

Our role within the Church is to seek our salvation – to follow Christ.

We may indeed have gifts that differ (how can we not?) but our gifting is not about ourselves but about our service to others. And our service to others is not about ourselves (watching ourselves “do ministry”).

All ministry is simply the act of love – whatever form it takes.
And if it is not love, it is not the ministry which Christ gives.

The failure to seek salvation – always and at all times – is a failure which is a distraction. We are too easily distracted by our “ministry,” when that ministry is about our own “role.”
A Reader “sees” himself reading instead of simply praying to read well for the benefit of others. A priest becomes aware of his “place” within the Church rather than simply doing those things which a priest must do.

Of course, we are fallen creatures and our life within the Church is easily corrupted.

But it will be less corrupted if we do not import into that life the false images created by our economy. For the vision offered by our economic life is itself false: “Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” (Matt. 6:25). Our existence is not defined by our job titles nor our careers. Nor is our life in the Church defined by our job title – even though the title may sound spiritual.

Our life within the Church is lived towards salvation when it is the life of Christ, lived in us. That life is manifest when it is consistently laid aside for others. It is the shape of love at work within us.

Legion (the movie)

From wikipedia, the plot of the upcoming new film Legion.

“After God loses faith in humanity, the archangel Michael (Paul Bettany) is the only one standing between mankind and the apocalypse. This time using angels as the act of Biblical judgment, God's wrath descends on Earth to exterminate the world's population. In a desperate, last-chance gambit, Michael leads a group of strangers to a small New Mexico diner to protect a young waitress who may be pregnant with Christ in his second coming.”

The links above were put there by wikipedia and whoever wrote the article about the film. Any links below are mine. The image is, I presume, of the archangel Michael, a very good-looking human for being one of the bodiless powers—according to Orthodox concepts maybe a little too human, right down to his mini-tattoos and the frontal hair. I suppose it's only cultural updating that puts an automatic weapon in one hand and—what is it?—a dagger? in the other.

Like the film I once saw some years ago about Noah and the Ark, in which pirates were attacking the ark (actually, it was Lot and his gang, having escaped from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, shown in the film as having taken place before the Great Flood!), the creators of this movie simply don't know their bible. And should we expect them to? Well, yes, if they intended to produce a film worth seeing. Michael the Archangel is the one who said "Who is like God?"—in fact, that's why we name him as we do, "mi ka El" are the words he spoke, confronting Satan who aspired to be like God. No one, in fact, knows what this archangel is really called, or even if it has a name that human lips can utter. Angels are a completely different species, as a matter of fact. They're not of this earth. In this film, Michael is recast really into the role of the fallen angel Lucifer, aka Satan.

As for the abuse of the concept of the Apocalypse, what can we say? This kind of thing is not new, but the topic has made it to Hollywood a lot lately, for example in the flick 2012. I much prefer watching fantasy movies that admit to being fantasies, like District 9, to ones like 2012 (which regretably, I did go and see) or this newest one, Legion. The title of this film signifies to me only one thing, the name of the demons inhabiting the Gerasene demoniac.
I wonder if the producers of this movie recognize the connexion.

The final touch to this whole farce, and a blasphemous one at that, is portraying a poor New Mexico greasy spoon waitress as the possible mother of a second incarnation of Jesus Christ.

Do these authors not know that Jesus Christ came the first time, born of woman, in a place that everyone knows, because He is Messiah ben Joseph, the suffering Servant who was put to death to atone for the sin of the world? Don't they know that He was rejected by the chief priests, pharisees and scribes, and handed over to the Romans to be put to death, because the messiah they wanted was the other one, Messiah ben David, who is not born of woman, who comes from a place no one knows, and who will execute judgment on the nations, and reign in Israel as eternal King?

Having been born once, put to death once, risen from the dead once, and ascended to the right hand of Divine Majesty, He no longer has to be born of woman. He is alive forever, and His second coming is not another incarnation or avatar, as the world calls it, but simply a return, a reappearance, a parousía, in which He will return, as holy and divine scripture declares, in the company of His saints, to execute judgment on the unbelieving world.

Films like this one do much for Hollywood (maybe) but absolutely nothing to help people understand the times we are living in, or the danger involved for those who choose to live in myths rather than the Truth. Film makers like those who produced this film as well as others with similar warped messages, such as the lately released and highly acclaimed Avatar, are predators enriching themselves at the expense of the loss of millions of souls, most of them too young and inexperienced to tell the difference between reality and fantasy.

It is in this direction that the prince of this world has been leading humanity ever since he deceived our first Fore-Mother Eve, and now that his end is approaching, with the scythe of his lies He is harvesting a wide swath of souls.

May the light of Christ that is shed abroad in this dark world by His holy Theophany enlighten those who live in darkness, as the prophet sings (cf. Isaiah 9:2), and may Christ deliver those who are otherwise condemned to die. For He is risen and has emptied Hades once, and taken men as tribute to His Father on high, from whence He shall come with them to judge the living and the dead.

Δοξα Σοι, ο Θεος ημων, δοξα Σοι!
Glory to You, O our God! Glory to You!

Give way to one another

Home.

What is that supposed to mean?
Isn’t it supposed to be a place where you go after a long, hard day in the world, to relax, to restore yourself, to feel welcome in the company of family and friends?
That’s what I’ve always thought it was supposed to be, but that’s not what it has always been.

What we find is that, unless we live alone, home is often none of these things.

Instead, for some, home is a place to throw down your things, dump yourself into a comfortable chair, and try to blot out the memories of the day by immersion in television or a computer game. For some, it’s a place where there may be food laid out on a table, or left sitting on the stove, where you might hear somebody call out, “Supper’s on the table if anybody wants it!”

It may be a place where you’re afraid to come home, because the criticism you encounter there is a 24/7 experience, where you feel disapproved of, pushed around, and in general made to feel less worthy than you’re made to feel even in the world. “Don’t do that! Don’t touch this! Hey, that’s mine, hands off! You’re messing up my kitchen (or bathroom, or livingroom)!”

Sometimes it’s even a place where the people you live with are always on the edge of hinting, by gestures if not by words, “Are you still here? Why aren’t you out on your own already?” It seems like they just can’t wait to get you out. And why? Can being alone really be that much fun? Always an unwanted guest, sometimes even in your own house. That’s what it can be like for some people, even for Christians.

What do we want? What do we expect? Does the golden rule not apply here? “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” or even its silver equivalent “Do not unto others what you would not want done to you.” As C. S. Lewis says, there’s been no shortage of good advice around since the beginning of human history, yet we never seem to take it. And the golden rule is no mere advice, it’s the words of Jesus Himself.

The holy Apostles teach us to “give way to one another, just as we give way to Christ” (cf. Ephesians 5:21). What do we think this means? It’s not another legalism, though we might want to make it one. It’s a word of encouragement to us, to be humble, welcoming and supportive of others, in whom Christ lives, and for whom Christ died, to love others as we love ourselves—something we can only do if we really do love ourselves, because a friend is another self.

A perfect example of making “home” a reality is shown in the hospitality of Abraham. He and Sarah were camped out at the oak of Mamre. He was sitting in front of the tent.
Out on the horizon of that desolate landscape he saw three figures approaching.
Did he wait for them to come closer?
Did he pick up his blanket, go back into his tent and pull the flap over the opening, pretending to not be at home?
No, he didn’t.

He went running towards the three figures and when close, he bowed before them, much as the Japanese do today, and offered to make them comfortable, to let them rest, refresh themselves, and be fed in his humble home. He called them, “my Lord,” and then made good his offer, with Sarah’s help, to welcome them “home,” be it ever so humble. He never thought of himself, only of his guests.

Even before Christ came in the flesh, here was a man on the lookout for God coming to visit him, and He did, and in a manner that suggested something more than we could have guessed. Even though God is One, He is also Love and therefore must be more than One. Abraham made his guests feel at home, made them feel as though they belonged there, as we sometimes say without really meaning it, “Mi casa es su casa.”

I want where I live to be home, not just for me, but for anyone who knocks at my door.

Home, because the door is never locked.
Home, because anyone can take off their shoes and coat
and sit down anywhere.
Home, because whatever is in the kitchen is to be eaten.
Home, because there’s always a spare pillow, blanket and bed.
Home, because your thoughts
and feelings are as much respected as my own.
Home, because you are safe here, just as I am,
from the world’s guile.
Home, because Jesus lives here with us.
Home, because you know that I want to be with you.

How can we make home a reality for ourselves and for others?
How can we make Christ welcome, since He is in our midst?

Christ is born! Glorify Him!

The Word of God is alive

Lord, I have nothing that I have not received, and I am nothing but what You have made me.
Glory to You, O God, glory to You!

The Word of God is something alive and active…
Hebrews 4:12 Jerusalem Bible

Alive… that means it's actual, being spoken at this very moment, continuously and tirelessly repeated, born again in God's heart every day to be transmitted to living men, and it's always fresh, new for each and every man, personal, meant to illuminate him individually.

This Word is "the true Light that enlightens everyone who comes into the world" (John 1:9). There's not a soul on earth that God doesn't speak to.

Do we believe wholeheartedly in His living Word, in that everpresent voice which keeps uttering for each of us the words that can heal?
"Say but the Word…" (Luke 7:7, Matthew 8:8).

Our faith in God's Word is measured by our faith in His love. We don't really believe He speaks to us because we don't really believe He loves us.

What's a saint?
It's someone who believes that God loves him.
"We've come to know and believe in God's love for us" (1 John 4:16).
Anyone who believes God loves him knows that God speaks to him.

God hasn't ceased being revelation any more than He's ceased being love. He enjoys expressing Himself. Since He is love, He must give Himself, share His secrets, communicate with us, and reveal Himself to anyone who wants to listen. His sole delight is to confide in us and give Himself to us.

God's revelation began with Adam in the Garden of Eden. There, too, began the Passion. Don't we say when someone trusts us, that he's put himself in our hands? He would come into the Garden in the cool of the evening and talk to Adam as to a friend. He was starting to manifest Himself and share His thoughts, trying to make us understand Who He is and delivering Himself up to us. And from the outset, He was shunned and rejected. "His own didn't receive Him" (John 1:11). From the beginning, from the first day, Adam interrupted the dialogue, scorned God's confidences and shattered the alliance they gave proof of. From the very start it was man who walked away, man who turned a deaf ear to God's words. The Passion began in Paradise.

But God has never wearied of talking to us. He keeps reopening the conversation, hoping we'll listen. He keeps offering His friendship, however often we spurn Him.

In the desert, He used to visit Moses in his tent and speak to Him "face to face, as a man speaks to his friend" (Exodus 33:11). "At various times in the past and in various different ways, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; but in our own time, the last days, He has spoken to us through His Son…" (Hebrews 1:1 JB).

His communications had grown so urgent, He'd given and entrusted His Word to us so completely, and He'd reached out toward man so far that the Word, His utterance, became flesh. The Incarnation was God's crowning prophecy, His supreme attempt to reveal Himself. He had created flesh, and He so ardently wanted it to accept and understand Him, that He became flesh Himself.

He took the Word, which He'd never been able to transmit to us without our garbling or forgetting it, voiced it fully, and made it man.

God doesn't repent His gifts. He placed His Word in our hands and has never taken it back.

Once and for all, He came down to the level of each of us. He became flesh so we could eat Him in His mystery, love Him in our neighbor, and hear and follow Him in the Gospels.

The Gospels are God's message directed to every one of us. We must believe that God inspired the evangelists in such a way that their words were really dictated by Him. Are we truly aware of that when we open our Bible? Yet that's what the charism of scriptural inspiration means. If God is the author, how can He fail to move us directly every time we take up His Book and expose ourselves to His influence?

"…the Advocate, the Holy Spirit,Whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you" (John 14:26 JB). This promise, made shortly before Jesus' death, indicates that the words He spoke once will have to be studied constantly, and that He said all of them while He was in the world precisely so that the Spirit might expound them till the end of the world.

The letters kills. Only the Spirit gives life, because He is alive. When we read a passage in God's Book, we must think of it not as a text to be perused, or an idea to be dissected, but as God Himself coming into our tent to speak to us face to face as a man speaks to his friend.

What must we do to read the Gospels with faith?
To read the Gospels with faith is to believe that everything in them is actually happening now, that they're a book of revelation, a book of discovery, that, far more than history, they are prophecy. They tell us who we are and what we're doing. God continues to live with us. He's always the same, and so are we. What the Gospels relate is still going on today. They show us our life, how God loves us.

— Fr Louis Evely, That Man Is You, pp. 25-42 passim

The beginning of the Good News

Αρχη του ευαγγελιου Ιησου Χριστου Υιου του θεου…

The beginning of the Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is written in the book of the prophet Isaiah: Look, I am going to send My messenger before You; he will prepare Your way. A voice cries in the wilderness: Prepare a way for the Lord, make His paths straight, and so it was that John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. All Judaea and all the people of Jerusalem made their way to him, and as they were baptised by him in the river Jordan they confessed their sins. John wore a garment of camel-skin, and he lived on locusts and wild honey. In the course of his preaching he said, ‘Someone is following me, Someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to kneel down and undo the straps of His sandals. I have baptised you with water, but He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.’
Mark 1:1-8 Jerusalem Bible

This was the gospel reading for today, the first Sunday of the new year, and hearing it was, for me, like being changed back into a child again. I have always loved this passage and the gospel of Mark because of it. ‘The beginning of the Good News...’ This has always been the rekindling of my heart's fire when it was about to go out. Just to hear these words gives new life to my old bones. I am supremely thankful. God's faithfulness surpasses all things. He is there for me, for us, even now at this moment, to receive us, to accept our repentance, and to lead us into the paths of His Kingdom and His Righteousness even now. It is never too late.

I thank the Lord and rejoice that He has come to rescue His people. Once again we have faithful priests to minister to us—old Father John of short stature, who humbly and meekly but with great joy of spirit calls us, ‘dear fellow Christians and friends,’ and young Father Dimosthenis deep-rooted and broad-spreading like the oak, gently shading us, who exhorts us ‘to give way to Christ, since He is our life.’ Like the apostle Paul and his young co-worker Timothy perhaps—this combination of old and young in tandem seems to be a most effective witness—may our two new presbyters ‘continue bearing fruit in old age’ and ‘make many disciples, and flourish like the palm tree.’

By divine appointment, so it was that the 3rd day of January is also the commemoration of Malachi the prophet, so that the last of the Old Testament prophets is remembered along with the one he prophesied, Know that I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before My Day comes (Malachi 3:23 JB), of whom Jesus said, ‘he, if you will believe Me, is the Elijah who was to return’ (Matthew 11:14), and ‘I tell you solemnly, of all the children born of women, a greater than John the Baptist has never been seen’ (Matthew 11:11).

‘Give way to Christ, since He is our life.’ The message of this gospel is simple, the gospel itself is simple, when we accept it as it is, God's words addressed personally to us, and when believing its truth, we just do what it says. Father Dimosthenis read his homily on the gospel because he is freshly arrived from Kavala, Macedonia (Greece) and he still doesn't trust himself to speak spontaneously. His pronunciation of our English vowels is perfect but he has a heavy Greek accent on the consonants. This, however, doesn't make him hard to understand. In fact, his speech in both Greek and English comes across manfully and clearly, and when he chants the gospels and prayers, the words are amplified rather than obscured. May God grant him many years with us. He is worthy. Axios!

Today I heard some distressing news, however, and that from my dear friend Anna, who is the first Orthodox Christian in Bali, Indonesia. She and her husband, an American, live here with us, but her family and relatives live in Bali. She and her husband devote most of their expendable income to building an Orthodox temple in her hometown in Bali, and the building has gone very far with excellent results. Since the Balinese prefer to worship outdoors, there is no roof on the temple, just very high walls and gateways, all carved in bas-relief with Orthodox ikonography in Balinese style. The distressing news is that even in Bali, a Hindu-majority island, the Islamists are demanding that the cross be taken down and other ikonography on the temple be effaced. This demand has been in force for about two months. The Orthodox have not given in, but there is threat of violence. Please pray for the Balinese Christian Orthodox, and for all the Christians of Indonesia.

Indonesian Orthodox (on the island of Java)
I do not have any photos of the temple in Bali.

Always a good word

You cannot be too gentle, too kind.
Shun even to appear harsh in your treatment of each other.
Joy, radiant joy, streams from the face of him who gives and kindles joy in the heart of him who receives.
All condemnation is from the devil.
Never condemn each other.
We condemn others only because we shun knowing ourselves.
When we gaze at our own failings, we see such a swamp that nothing in another can equal it.
That is why we turn away, and make much of the faults of others.
Instead of condemning others, strive to reach inner peace.
Keep silent, refrain from judgement.
This will raise you above the deadly arrows of slander, insult and outrage and will shield your glowing hearts against all evil.

— Seraphim of Sarov

How I needed to hear this word today! I found myself in the company of thinly veiled belligerence and intentional unkindness wherever I went, well, there were occasional breaks, that's true. But the world turned a harsh face to me, and I longed for the fellowship of my dear friend, who is a citizen with me in the kingdom of peace. So, when I arrived home again after my errands in 'the world' it was a welcome word that I found waiting for me, by our holy father among the saints, Seraphim of Sarov, whose feast-day it is today.

To my son John Seraphim, and to all other Seraphims known and unknown to me, a happy feast day!

To the One

Not by us, Yahweh, not by us,
by You alone is glory deserved,
by Your love and Your faithfulness,
by Your love and Your faithfulness!
Not by us, Yahweh, not by us,
by You alone is glory deserved.

Song based on Psalm 115, Jerusalem Bible


God is working His purpose out
as year succeeds to year:
God is working His purpose out,
and the time is drawing near;
nearer and nearer draws the time,
the time that shall surely be,
when the earth shall be filled with the glory of God
as waters cover the sea.

All we can do is nothing worth
unless God blesses the deed;
vainly we hope for the harvest tide
till God gives life to the seed;
yet nearer and nearer draws the time,
the time that shall surely be,
when the earth shall be filled with the glory of God
as waters cover the sea.

A. C. Ainger, 1894
Hymn 538, The Hymnal 1940

μακαριος ο αναγινωσκων και οι ακουοντες τους λογους της προφητειας και τηρουντες τα εν αυτη γεγραμμενα ο γαρ καιρος εγγυς
ΑΠΟΚΑΛΥΨΙΣ ΙΩΑΝΝΟΥ 1

Happy the man who reads this prophecy aloud, and happy those who listen to him if they treasure all that it says, because the Time is close.
Revelation 1:3 Jerusalem Bible