A ramble on history

The old photos scattered about this post have nothing to do with the topic, except that they're part of my personal history, and I enjoyed looking at them again, and maybe you will too.
(They will get a bit larger if you click on them.)

I like to read history. No, I love to read history. I admit it. I read history books (and other books besides). But my favorite history book is, again I admit it, the Holy Bible. [Stage left and right, almost inaudible gasps of horror from unseen characters off stage.] Yes, though almost no one with whom I went to university (or even high school), and certainly no one educated in the last decade at any respectable institution (we’re not talking about Oral Roberts’ “school”), would agree with me when I say that the Bible is a book of history (gasp!), that’s still what I believe it to be, my favorite history book and, in my humble opinion, the best and most useful history book on the planet.

That being said, I want to add that most of my favorite books about the history of religion, particularly the Christian religion, are not books written by Christians, or at least not by authors who allow their confessional sympathies to interfere with their “objectivity.”

Two of my favorite history books are ones I had to read for college courses. I come back to them and read them year after year; they always seem interesting and fresh at each reading. One of them is simply entitled A History of England, and the author is David Harris Willson of the University of Minnesota. Though a history book, the history of England is inseparable from the history of Christianity in Britain, and as such reading it has edified me not just educated me. My professor was the great Dr. John Forbes, a member of the Society of Friends (Quakers) who was passionate about the Book of Common Prayer (as am I).

The other book is The Western Heritage of Faith and Reason, authored by five scholars, though the first listed, Eugene G. Bewkes, is usually shown as the author. I’ve quoted passages from this book on my blog before. It says truer things about God, the human condition, and His remedy for it, than many a book that has meant to, but didn’t. And it does so without taking sides, any more than the Bible itself takes sides. Neither book forces the reader to believe in the Jewish God or the Jewish Messiah; both simply give you the facts, and leave it to you to decide. I like that. That’s real history.

So tonight I was eating a humble supper made by my own hands and reading one of my perennial favorites, A History of Knowledge by Charles Van Doren. (I rarely read the scriptures when I’m eating, because I don’t want any accidents to happen with my clumsy eating habits.) I’ve read this book cover to cover several times, but the author’s style is congenial and reasonable, and I can always find something interesting no matter where I pick it up. This evening it was the chapter “Wisdom of the Ancients,” and the section entitled Judaism, that I read. I like the way this man writes, even when I disagree with him. He often comes close to confessing faith, but then prudently backs off, so as not to distract his readers. He tells us the story of Abraham, as though we were total strangers to it…

Abraham was the founder of Judaism. The account of his life in Genesis, though considered today to be not entirely historical, is nevertheless in accord with historical facts dating from the beginning of the second millennium BC. According to the story…

And he retells the story in his own words, how Abraham and some of his family members migrated from Ur ultimately to Canaan, and then asks…

Was there such a journey between Ur, a real place, and Canaan, another real place? There is historical and archaeological reason to think so, apart from the biblical narrative. Why did Abraham leave Ur? Was he fleeing religious persecution, seeking new economic opportunities, or was he driven by some divine command, real or imagined?

The author seems to be writing one of those multiple choice questions that is designed so only a complete fool would choose the wrong answer. We all know the answer is (c) “driven by some divine command” even though he tries to throw us off with that half-hearted “real or imagined.” Then, he goes on to say…

At any rate, within a few hundred years there were many Jews in Canaan, worshipping one god, Yahweh. In a world full of polytheistic religions, they had become monotheists—the first, probably, in the history of the world.

Yeah, right! If you’ve read much history yourself, or gone to university and studied, you can easily see through Van Doren’s popular history style: it’s got more holes in it than Swiss cheese, but it’s just as tasty, and you don’t have to worry about getting poisoned!

Of course, it’s oversimplifying to say that “Abraham was the founder of Judaism,” since most people now know that the Muslims consider him the founder of Islam, or at least one of its founders. And it’s a blatant anachronism to say “within a few hundred years there were many Jews in Canaan,” because we know that there were no people called “Jews” until at least the time of the division of the land of Israel into a northern kingdom, Israel, and a southern, Judah. And it’s very largely speculative to say the Jews “had become monotheists—the first, probably, in the history of the world.”

Or is it? Van Doren, remember, is trying to write from an “objective” and secular viewpoint, one that believes in evolution both biological and cultural. That point of view, ignoring much contrary evidence, posits that pre-historic man was an animist and a polytheist, worshipping as gods anything powerful or mysterious outside his ken. By gradual improvements in his powers of observation and reason, ancient man works his way up to higher forms of religion. Human sacrifice gives way to animal (that’s their usual interpretation of the biblical account of the sacrifice of Isaac), then to symbolic, then given up altogether. Many gods are seen to begin a process of liaison and mutual assimilation, first into pantheons, then triads, and finally to a monad, just one god. But then, is that god the god of just his own people, or of everyone? At this point, Van Doren doesn’t blush to ask…

Yahweh at first was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Did that mean he was not the God of mankind, the only God? It is impossible to determine when Yahweh, or Jehovah, took on the universal character that he possessed by the time of Jesus, and that he possesses to this day. Suffice it to say that the God of Abraham, perhaps once a tribal deity and as such one (perhaps the greatest) among many, is now the One God worshipped by Jews, Christians, and Moslems the world around.

Hmm, yes. I knew that last line was coming. Why? Because I’ve read it before about ten times, I also know he’s writing “popular” history and, let’s face it, he has unknowingly fallen under the spell of Western academia’s moral anemia in regards to an objective assessment of Islam. No, Charles, Yahweh is the One God worshipped by Jews and Christians yes (though some Jews don’t think so), but He is not the god worshipped by Muslims as a whole, unless by some known to Him alone. The Muslims themselves admit it; in Malaysia they have forbidden the Arabic word “Allah” to be used as a translation for “God” in Christian publications. Why? Because they don’t want the name of Allah profaned by being applied to a Being who is patently not him. Amín, Muslim brother, and again I say amín! Your Allah is not the same Being as the Living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the One whom Jesus (not the prophet, but the Saviour of the world) called His Father. Yes, we are in agreement there!

It wasn’t my intention to write a polemic against Islam or any religion, but merely to show that there is history, and there is history. Some books are well-written and interesting, others less so, but their authors are never quite free of inherited biases oft well-buttressed with pseudo-rational arguments and a priori assumptions. This is true of history books written by Christians as well as non-Christians. This is true of books in general. This is true of blogs. No wonder Father John Goodyear’s reply to me, years ago when I was wavering in my Christianity, in response to my plea for a word, only said three…

Guard your reading.

Fr John Goodyear holding John Seraphim (center) after his baptism in the baptistry of Saint Mark's church, Portland. Romanos (left), Anastasia and grandmother Nana (right), 1985

Fr Leo's visit to the EP

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
AT THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE

by Presbyter Fr Leo Schefe,
Holy Transfiguration GOC,
Anchorage, Alaska

Back in 1998, Presbytera and I lived in Thessaloniki. I had been ordained as a presbyter there in 1996 and served as a priest of the Church of Greece for nearly three years. In 1998, the two of us, with some of our paréa, went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. On Holy Saturday we were in the Holy Sepulchre Church at the site of Christ’s tomb. It was a great blessing to receive the holy light from the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, to be a personal witness to this recurring miracle which faithfully occurs in the Holy Sepulchre Church each year. This was truly an amazing experience and, although people have written about it over the centuries and in recent times submitted videos evidencing this miracle on the Internet, there is nothing that compares to being there in person.

As soon as I returned to Thessaloniki from the Holy Land, I made another pilgrimage, this time on my own. I was given the opportunity to serve as the “on duty” priest at the monastery of the Holy Trinity at the well known theological school on the island of Halki, which has been closed since 1971, a half-hour ferry ride from the city of Constantinople. It was my privilege to serve there for seven weeks.

I arrived during Bright week and left at Pentecost, thus it was my blessing to serve the Pentecostárion there. Before I left for Halki, I was advised that I should dress in “street clothes,” i.e., not in clerical clothing. The country of Turkey does not allow clerics to dress as clerics in public. For me, that meant no cassock or rasso. Way back then I still had a business suit tucked in the back of my closet at home, why I am not sure, but it came in handy for the trip and I made sure I was wearing it when I arrived in Turkey. After ordination, I had no use for the suit any longer, but inertia being what it is, I still had it. It was a good looking suit and it still fit. I will admit, though, that after two-plus years as a priest it felt very strange to be in a suit again and I looked rather odd wearing it with my very long hair and long beard. The locals on the island of Halki made sure I was aware that obedience to the country’s laws not be taken lightly. That is, if I were to be arrested for whatever reason, I could disappear and never be heard from again. There’s no habeas corpus there.

I learned I could relax the suit idea and instead wear simple black trousers and matching black long sleeved T-shirt with my black kondo (vest) instead. I gave the suit to a grateful young Armenian man who was employed at the defunct theological school at Halki. He related to me how he couldn’t keep a job in the city once his employers found out that he was a Christian. Sadly, this problem was not just his.

Once I shed the suit, I ended up looking the part of an eccentric hippy instead of an uncomfortable, out-of-place presbyter. A researcher I met at Halki suggested I looked akin to a 19th century Russian peasant.

His All-Holiness, Bartholomew, would visit the school regularly, often with guests. I had the privilege to meet with his All-Holiness several times. I found him personable and easy to communicate with. He was very warm and kind to me during my stay. As I related at the beginning of this article, there is nothing quite like experiencing things first hand. All during my stay, I learned of the plight of the Patriarch, the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Orthodox Church in Turkey from those who had lived there all their lives. I learned of property confiscations, vandalism, personal threats and riots against Christians. It was disheartening and shocking to learn that just a few Christians live in Constantinople these days—Constantinople, the great Byzantine city. Countless numbers of Christians have been forced from their lives there.

The librarian on Halki, George, befriended me. He was a former tour guide and exceptional musician, although I cannot now remember the name of the mandolin-like instrument that was his favorite—it may have been the Oud. George received a blessing to take me on a tour of Constantinople.

Our first stop, of course, was the Church of Holy Wisdom—Agia Sophia. The scale of this church is immense and, once more, the personal experience is what communicates the grandeur, not to mention all the history and suffering that has taken place there since the fall of the city. I stood in awe of the beauty and could only imagine what it must have been like when the Emperor of Rome was present before the Ottomans stormed the city on May 29, 1453. Imagine the Patriarch, a dozen visiting bishops, a small army of priests, seven or so deacons and two full choirs, perhaps two dozen or more in each, choir members with topnotch skills, adding to this the Emperor with all his retinue; billowing clouds of incense and bells. We have a description of what the envoys from Vladimir, the prince of Kiev, saw when visiting Agia Sophia, their report noted that the worship struck them as though that they didn’t know if they were in heaven or on earth. Even in the current state of the Great Church, now held as a state museum, I could, in my mind’s eye, envision their wonderment.

George commented to me that it was against the law to pray in Agia Sophia. One can only guess how many silent, fervent prayers are offered there routinely.

I saw many beautiful and amazing sites in the city, but Agia Sophia always remains at the forefront of my mind. After the tour, George and I walked by the many shops that had been taken from Christians during some horrible uprisings against the Orthodox. It is because of these firsthand experiences that I do not hesitate for a moment to testify for the adoption of the Alaska Senate Joint Resolution 28 this Friday, March 26, at 1:30PM. I encourage as many who feel sympathy and concord with the Patriarchate as I do, to follow suit. You can read more details of human and religious rights violations against the Ecumenical Patriarchate at http://archons.org/.

The situation of the Patriarchate in Constantinople actually requires more than our sympathy, it requires our action as the continued existence of the Patriarchate is at stake. It is a sacred duty to speak in support of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The Turkish government insists that it must approve of any new Patriarch and that candidate must be a Turkish citizen having served in the Turkish army. This cuts the field of candidates very thin indeed. How many unmarried Orthodox clergy can boast Turkish citizenship and military service?

As an aside, as I was leaving Constantinople by bus, I came across a twenty-something American couple who were leisurely traveling around the world. When I met them and we began to chat, I was attired in my “Russian peasant garb” and dark sunglasses. However, as soon as we crossed the Greek-Turkish border, I reached into my bag and pulled out my cassock and quickly attired myself properly. As is often the case with world travelers, we exchanged email addresses. Later, to my surprise, I read on their website that they had met a man who looked like a member of ZZ TOP and was suddenly transformed into an Orthodox priest before their very eyes. Now, I wonder who that might have been?

Lovers are the greatest fighters

The Greek word φιλοτιμο (philótimo)

How to explain it in English?

Perhaps an example would help.
Let’s say someone shows me that he considers me worthy enough to undertake an expedition. If I honor the idea of undertaking an expedition, then I’m trying voluntarily to fulfill his expectations, expectations not in any way forced upon me, this way protecting the ground of our relationship, because this relationship can be essential only if based in our common appreciation and understanding of the specific value of undertaking an expedition.

Thus we understand philótimo to mean love for the continuation of an honor someone reveals for me, my will to become worthy of our common appreciation of a value, in order to protect and advance my relationship with the other.

This means also that our common value has at the same time a primary and a secondary importance. A primary, because without it a relationship is impossible, and a secondary, because the relationship by itself is the ultimate purpose, and not the cultivation of a value. The wish of my friends for me to become better, takes inside me the ‘form’ of philótimo — or, philótimo is the ‘existing in me’ equivalent of their hope and love for me — or, philótimo is my better self, trying even from the outside, to make me better.

To have the virtue of philótimo, you need societies where forces such as the feeling of obligation, of duty, etc, are not very important, compared with the demands existing in love and friendship. What a ‘mechanical’ society achieves through discipline, sense of duty, ideologies, etc., a society in friendship achieves even more strongly through philótimo. This is why Plutarch said that lovers are the greatest fighters, because they avoid by all means to appear to their beloved ones as cowards or as anything inferior and unworthy of their expectations.

— Quoted almost verbatim from the Éllopos blog

Brothers, philótimo is one of the two primary virtues of our Orthodox Christian faith. (The other is philoxenía, love of strangers, hospitality.) This is because everything we do in our following of Christ is done freely and willingly, without the sense of obligation or duty, but only for love. This is the gospel as applied to our lives. Christ is the Friend who invites us to the expedition, Christ the one who calls us áxios, áxia, worthy of it, and Christ, through the Holy Spirit, the implanter in us of philótimo, the love of honor.

Yes, Plutarch was right. Lovers are the greatest fighters.

Keep Me Awake

In the dawn...
keep me awake, O Lord
keep me awake
I want to see You
and sing to You a hymn of praise and honor

Lord, our Good Shepherd,
may You find me
because I am lost and weak
but I really long for You and Your Love
Cleanse me O Lord and grant me Your mercy
to come near, closer to You

My sin is ever before me
and I am ashamed
Lord, heal me and restore me
so that I might gaze upon Your Beauty in awe
and Your faithfulness and deliverance
shall be in my heart and mouth

Lord, how great and trembling it is
to follow behind You
in the steps of Your Holy Feet
Joy! Joy! Joy!
even the way is narrow
and the thorn bushes along the side
but gazing upon Your Humility and Love,
strengthens us and comforts us

in the day light...
May Your blessing be upon us
teach us and guide us with Your commandments
to walk patiently in the rocky, stony roads

Lead me in the Beautiful path among the loving brothers and sisters,
Your rational flock
those through whom You also manifest Your Love
may we be united in one voice, mind and spirit
to glorify You, our Master!
and to love our neighbors

In the night...
let us rest and take shelter in You
because You are our Only Joy!

Keep me awake,
keep me awake O Lord,
that I may sing to You
in fervent Joy that comes from You!

— Yudhie Kristanto

Fellowship of Orthodox Christian University Students at the U of NSW

Though I don't post a "followers" gadget for the same reasons as expressed in the quote from Elder Epiphanios which is found on this featured blog F.O.C.U.S. UNSW, I found these brothers by checking the list of "followers" at my dashboard this morning. I'm not sure how long they've been there, but I noticed that a follower had been added since the last time I checked. I've placed a permanent link to this new (to me) blog in the sidebar under Orthodoxy. When you visit the blog for the first time, make sure your speakers aren't cranked up too high unless you want to be blasted with some robustly male Greek Byzantine chant. Our Australian brothers have the right idea, opening with the praise of God, and right up front they witness to the spirit of Orthodoxy with the words of Elder Epiphanios...

I want whoever is near me to feel that he has room to breathe, not that he is suffocated. I don’t call anyone to me. I don’t hold onto anyone. I don’t chase anyone away. Whoever wants comes, whoever wants stays, whoever wants leaves. I don’t consider anyone a supporter or a follower.

There is nothing else

I read something last night that is really sticking with me today. When we pray, even simply, “Lord, remember…” and invoke someone by name, all is fulfilled. For in that moment we have done what all of creation is purposed to do: the one praying, the one prayed for, and God have all been brought near.

There is nothing else.

— David Dickens

Η Ανάστασις - Resurrection

In a recent post I wrote about the importance of believing in the parousía (pah-roo-SEE-ya), the return of Christ, and how there is a correlation between such belief and our lifestyle. Those to whom the Second Coming is a distant or possibly symbolic event are less likely to conform their lives to the gospel, whereas those who do believe in it, regardless of whether it is sooner or later, usually attempt to live as the gospel and the apostles teach. You might say, “That’s not true! I know people who say they believe in Christ’s coming again, and they live more worldly and decadent lives than even unbelievers!” I agree, of course, but saying you believe, even preaching it, doesn’t qualify as real belief, that is, real faith. The world has seen enough of this pseudo-Christianity to last it a thousand more years of determined rejection of Christ—that is, if there were a thousand more years left. But that wasn’t what I was writing about. Real faith and real belief have consequences, as do false faith and merely formal belief. We have Christ’s word for it, “By their fruits you will know them” (Matthew 7:16).

Today, driving home from work, I was thinking about a friend and co-worker of mine, a lovely and intelligent woman, mother of two wonderful kids, and wife of an industrious and responsible man. Her husband is a Roman Catholic, and for this reason perhaps the children have been baptised and attend religious services. I’m not exactly sure how much or how often, but they know who Christ is. The younger one, my special friend Jesse, proudly told me one day when he was visiting me at work, “I’m a Christian!” (I was explaining to him some of the photos and pictures I had hanging up on my wall at the time, and we were talking about languages as well, and names, and I showed him how to write his name in Hebrew, and in Chinese!) I don’t censor my conversation in terms of mentioning God or Christ, even with children, but neither do I have an agenda to push on others. When I talk to whomever, I am just myself, and the bible, and Jesus, and God, are just what’s inside of me. What’s inside just comes out.

But I was thinking about his mom, with whom I often work on marketing projects. She is one of the most intelligent women I’ve ever worked with, and possibly the most logical and dispassionate. We’ve talked about personal things sometimes, and I know that she is from a Christian family, mainstream small town Protestant, but that somewhere along the way her childhood faith escaped her. From our occasional talks, reading between the lines, it seems that she first gave up the idea of ‘church’ being a worthwhile pursuit, and later the whole premise of Christianity, that a man can be God in the way that Christians say Jesus was. “Well,” I asked myself, “how could she have done that?” And an idea similar in importance to the one I wrote about earlier impacted my thoughts.

It is not only important but indispensable to believe in the anástasis (ah-NAH-stah-sees), the resurrection of Christ, and there is a direct correlation between such belief and our world view. Those to whom the Resurrection is a religious and possibly symbolic event are less likely to conform their minds to the gospel, whereas those who do believe in it, regardless of whether they rationally understand it or not, usually attempt to think and reason from the gospel and the apostles, rather than into them. In other words, they are able to accept the bible as it is, to let it examine and direct them in their thoughts, rather than subjecting the bible to their thoughts, which will have quite different intellectual and practical results.

Thinking back to my friend, I know she is a person of good will, and honest and impartial in her deliberations, yet she can let her partial knowledge of human history in general and her personal experience of ‘church’ and ‘Christians’ dissuade her from faith in Jesus Christ. To her, He was just a man, a great teacher perhaps, but just a man. She doesn’t even consider whether He really rose from the dead, because to her that’s a scientific impossibility, and even if He had been resuscitated somehow, He would still have died as an ordinary mortal. He’s just a historical person at most, maybe interesting to some, but certainly not worth taking seriously or building your life around. She’s happy enough to just try to live a good life, even knowing her idea of good still derives from what she knows of Him, and if there is a God, she’s covered; if not, at least she lived well.

I don’t know for sure, to be honest, if this is her state of mind, and if it is not, I apologise should she read my words. I would be happy to be proved wrong, and glad to shut my mouth, if she in fact does believe in Jesus, but prefers to conceal her faith, as she may have reasons. The point I am trying to make is that real belief in the resurrection of Christ produces in the person who has it a firm and unshakable conviction, hope and faith, and in their actions an unremitting love for others, “love never gets tired” (Mother Gavrilía).

Real belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is what divides the Church right down the middle, separating ahead of the Day of Judgment the sheep from the goats. “My sheep recognize My voice” (John 10:27), says the Lord Jesus, “who is, who was and who is to come” (Revelation 1:8). Those who really believe in the Resurrection know for sure that Jesus is alive, alive as Man, alive as God, as one “who became dead, but is alive forever” (Revelation 1:18), and so they cannot speak of Him in the past tense, “Jesus was, Jesus said,” except when describing an action of His that He did once on earth, and yet even there, they draw the line very close. They may say, “He was crucified, suffered and was buried, and on the third day rose according to the scriptures” (Symbol of Nicaea), but in everything else they speak of Him as if He were with them, in their midst, even now, at this present moment, because He is—“Christ is in our midst! He is and ever shall be!”

For those who live in the knowledge of His real Presence with us, because of their belief in the Resurrection, to hear His voice, to receive His call, to follow Him today and to say and do what they hear Him saying and see Him doing in the scriptures and in the world, these are mystíria (miss-TEE-ree-ya) yet not mysterious. This knowledge and what flows from it is not esoteric (hidden) unless you want it to be, as holy apostle Paul writes, “There are no hidden meanings in our letters besides what you can read for yourselves and understand” (2 Corinthians 1:13 JB).

This is the foundation stone of Orthodox faith: that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, and that He is with us now, and to the ages of ages, and where this Jesus is, there also His disciples are. For this reason, we speak not only of Christ in the present tense, “Jesus says,” but also of His holy apostles and beloved saints, His sheep, “Paul writes.”

Why is this?
Because in Jesus, all who believe in Him are alive, as He is.
This is the Communion of Saints, forever alive in the Living God.

Like the Jews who to this day cannot accept Y’shua ha-Mashiach as their Messiah, because they do not believe in His resurrection and for no other reason, “They hated Me for no reason” (Psalm 69:4, John 15:25), so also the Christians and non-Christians who cannot accept Jesus Christ and believe in Him for who He really is.

It’s not because of what He did or didn’t do, what He fulfilled prophetically or didn’t fulfill, what He taught or didn’t teach, “the sabbath was made for man not man for the sabbath” (Mark 2:27), but because they do not or will not believe that “Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more” (Romans 6:9 KJV). To do so would immediately and irrevocably turn their world upside down. Hence, within the Church enclosure, religion, outside it, derision, is how the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is tamed for the safety of the world in place of its salvation.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.
John 3:16-21 NIV

I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?
John 11:25 NIV

Another like C. S. Lewis ?

I haven't been blogging much of late, nor visiting many blogs, just those of a few well-gifted friends, and I have nothing of my own to post at the moment. I just wanted to bring to your attention a new book—and I the anti-apostle of books, for sake of The Book!

Visiting Fr Milovan's blog, I was directed to Fr Stephen's blog, and then to a news page, and finally to a landing page advertising this new book by an author whom I'd never heard of, but who, I think, may be another like C. S. Lewis, a former atheist graciously apostatized into the Christian faith. This author is Peter Hitchens, relatively unknown brother of the more famous Christopher Hitchens, outspoken, public atheist. (From a comment posted on Fr Milovan's blog by orrologion, I learned that Christopher Hitchens is also a "formal" apostate Greek Orthodox, as he was chrismated into Orthodoxy before marrying his first wife, a Greek Cypriot.)

From a single quotation in Fr Stephen's post, I was able to discern that here we have a formidable confessor, one apt for our anti-Christian age, and drawn no less from the bowels of the mother of latter-day impiety and even from her favored class, the world intelligentsia. Peter Hitchens writes,

Why is there such a fury against religion now? Because religion is the one reliable force that stands in the way of the power of the strong over the weak. The one reliable force that forms the foundation of the concept of the rule of law. 
The one reliable force that restrains the hand of the man of power. In an age of power-worship, the Christian religion has become the principal obstacle to the desire of earthly utopians for absolute power.

Perhaps on the surface it may seem he is not saying much, not much that we didn't already know, but I have a feeling that this brief thought is the tip of an iceberg, one that can withstand the effects of the all-pervasive and over-confident global warming of the world culture, as it tries to steer us all into the abyss.

If you have time and inclination, check out that news page linked above, and read a little more of what this Peter Hitchens has to say. Not that Lewis doesn't still speak, even in this day and age, but perhaps he will be joined by another who speaks out of and into the particular world of today.

God be with you, brethren, as we finish our temptation in the wilderness before Pascha, and let's stay together and follow our Lord and Master to His life-giving death in Jerusalem, so that we can witness again His resurrection, hidden as it is from the world.

Preparation

And a voice came from the throne, saying, “Give praise to our God, all you His bondservants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.” And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude and as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty peals of thunders, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.”

Revelation 19:5-7

Who is the Bride? It is the Church of the Lamb, of Christ. Who is that Church? It is those who make themselves ready for the coming of the Lord. The holy apostle John writes, “if we walk in the light as God is in the light the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). That takes care of the contamination of sin on God's side. If we walk in the light of Christ, His Blood cleanses us from all sin. But we too must prepare ourselves.

And everyone who has this hope purifies himself as He is pure.

1 John 3:3

This verse speaks about our becoming like Christ, when He returns. What is the one mark of those who have the hope of Christ’s return in their hearts? They purify themselves constantly. Everyone who does not have the hope of the parousía, the return of Christ, can be identified by this fact: He does not purify himself in his daily life to Christ’s standard of purity.

Having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, and [let us] perfect holiness in the fear of God.

2 Corinthians 7:1

The Temple of God has no common ground with idols, and that is what we are—the Temple of the Living God. We have God's Word for it: I will make My home among them and live with them; I will be their God and they shall be My people. Then come away from them and keep aloof, says the Lord. Touch nothing that is unclean, and I will welcome you and be your Father, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Almighty Lord.

2 Corinthians 6:16-18 Jerusalem Bible

The condition for these promises to be fulfilled is that we cleanse ourselves. What do we have to cleanse ourselves from? From all defilement of flesh and spirit. It is thus that the Bride of Christ makes herself ready. It's obvious that not all believers can claim to be part of the Bride of Christ, because the vast majority of them don’t have the slightest interest in cleansing themselves.

In a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honour and some to dishonour. Therefore if a man cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honour, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.

2 Timothy 2:20-21

We all start out as dishonourable vessels, christianized, maybe even converted, but not Christ-like. But we can cleanse ourselves and become honourable, sanctified (separated from sin first by will, then by deed) golden vessels that are useful to the Master for every good work that He has in mind for us. It all depends on how seriously we take our calling to cleanse ourselves.

I have heard the saying for many years, "What to do until the Messiah comes..." and often it comes from a very irreverent and even flippant attitude, even from people who call themselves believers. People even write books about it.

When I was still living in my sins, an unbeliever who didn't deserve by any means the grace of God, I was working at my job, sanding some desk tops (I was trained as a furniture maker). My mind was never idle but always bristling with thoughts about God, the true God that I was beginning to understand was nothing and no one I had up till now known, the living God that I was beginning to suspect might actually exist. (I believed in the God of religion, but only as a man believes that there is fire because he gets burned by it.)

Suddenly, I felt that someone was standing behind me, actually not standing on the floor that I was standing on, but somewhere else, higher up and behind me, a little to my left. I could see Him, somehow, though I never actually turned around. I knew who He was, and I asked Him,

"When You return, will You know me, will You recognize me?"

No answer, just the feeling of His persistent, sorrowful, pitying look, as He gazed upon me long and hard, saying nothing. Then I found myself answering my own question. "No, He won't recognize me, because I don't recognize Him." The experience faded and I spent the rest of the work day thinking about what this meant.

It became clear to me, then, that it is more important to believe in Christ's return than anything else. It was to be held as a certainty beyond all doubt. This was the beginning of the my conversion to Christ, to know that He would come again for sure. Everything else that I learned and believed about Him flowed out of this.

And when He comes again, what then?

Will He know me?

I ask myself these questions every day... waiting.

The Lorica of Saint Patrick

Patrick made this hymn: in the time of Loegaire macNeill it was made, and the cause of its composition was for the protection of himself and his monks against the deadly enemies that lay in ambush for the clerics. And it is a lorica of faith for the protection of body and soul against demons and men and vices.

I arise today in vast might,
in vocation of the Trinity,
belief in a Threeness,
confession of Oneness,
towards the Creator.

I arise today
in the might of Christ’s Birth & His Baptism,
in the might of His Crucifixion & Burial,
in the might of His Resurrection & Ascension,
in the might of His Descent to the Judgment of Doom.

I arise today
in the might of the order of Cherubim,
in obedience of angels,
in ministrations of Archangels,
in hope of resurrection for the sake of reward;
in prayers of Patriarchs,
in predictions of Prophets,
in preachings of Apostles,
in faith of Confessors,
in innocence of Holy virgins,
in deeds of Righteous men.

I arise today
in the might of Heaven,
brightness of Sun,
whiteness of Snow,
splendor of Fire,
speed of Lightning,
swiftness of Wind,
depth of Sea,
stability of Earth,
firmness of Rock.

I arise today
in the Might of God for my piloting,
Power of God for my upholding,
Wisdom of God for my guidance,
Eye of God for my foresight,
Ear of God for my hearing,
Word of God for my utterance,
Hand of God for my guardianship,
Path of God for my precedence,
Shield of God for my protection,
Host of God for my salvation,
Against snares of demons!
Against allurement of vices!
Against solicitations of nature!
Against every person that wishes me ill,
far and near, alone and in a crowd!

I invoke therefore all these forces
against every fierce, merciless force
that may come against my body and my soul:
Against incantations of false prophets!
Against black laws of paganism!
Against false laws of heresy!
Against encompassment of idolatry!
Against spells of seductresses,
tinkers and druids!
Against all knowledge that is forbidden
the human soul!

Christ for my guardianship today
against poison,
against burning,
against drowning,
against wounding,
that there may come to me a multitude of rewards.
Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ under me,
Christ over me,
Christ to right of me,
Christ to left of me,
Christ in lying down,
Christ in sitting,
Christ in rising up.
Christ in the heart of every person who may think of me,
Christ in the mouth of every person who may speak to me,
Christ in every eye which may look on me,
Christ in every ear which may hear me.

I arise today in vast might,
in vocation of the Trinity,
belief in a Threeness,
confession of Oneness,
meeting in the Creator.

Salvation is of the Lord,
Salvation is from the Lord,
Salvation is in Christ!
May we always remain in Your Salvation, O Lord!
Amen!

Click HERE for a PDF pamphlet of this powerful prayer.

Silence

What can we do outside of God's blessing? Even to say a single prayer, to live out our faith and especially to overcome temptation, the first and ultimate thing we need is... God's mercy!

I haven't much to say about anything, but I am profiting by silence. I haven't much to offer anyone, so I wait till I am called on. This morning I looked in on my dear friend and brother in Christ, Yudhie Kristanto, a college student in Indonesia, and read a reflection on silence that he wrote on his blog. The short passage quoted above brought all other thought to attention. Like words of holy and divine scripture, sometimes a brief word spoken or written by a brother can have more than a slight ripple effect. I am going now to read psalms, pray, and reflect on what Yudhie wrote. Indeed, God's mercy… and nothing else, is what we need, for…

Apart from Me, you can do nothing.

cf. John 15:5

Friendship

The essence of life is friendship
What a desert the world is, without a friend.
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The greatest Friend I have in life
has brought me here to dwell
awhile among your green, green hills
and by the watery well,
the water from that wondrous well
that made my eyes to see
and loosed my tongue to sing with joy
that such a Friend can be.

The greatest Friend I have in life
was hidden long from me
above the mountains cold and wide
beneath the sacred tree
that sacred tree whose bark I touched,
whose leaves did tell to me
the ancient tales that made me sure
my Friend would come to me.

My greatest Friend a song has given
to sing where I may go
to sing among the green, green hills
and where the waters flow,
the waters from that wondrous well
that made my eyes to see
and made my mind to ever show
my greatest Friend to me.

My greatest Friend a song has given
of where I do belong
upon the rainbow road of Heaven
before the starry Throne
within that sunrise, emerald City
of His eternal love
where waiting till His friend is ready
He guides Him from above.

Greatest Friend, lyrics by Mike Heron
except last stanza, by Romanós

Orthodox Churchianity

Even Orthodoxy has its punks.

I received a link to this cartoon from a dear friend of mine, who sent it with the humble quip, "Who doesn't struggle like this?" but I know she is not like the character in the cartoon, nor am I, nor are anyone in my paréa that I've noticed, but...

I've come close, and so have some others I know, especially at the beginning of our walk with Christ. If you keep following Him, He has a way of cutting this sort of stuff out of you without you even noticing that He's doing it.

The cartoon is called Morning Routine. During Lent we try harder than at other times to keep from judging our neighbor "…keep me from judging the things that other people do…" and here am I posting this critical look at an imaginary Orthodox hypocrite. Sorry!

Wearing the komboskini (a knotted cord supposedly used to keep track of prayer) on the wrist, our Orthodox parent is shown chewing out his or her children, even using expletives.
What an example for the kids!

Driving a car that has that prideful bumper sticker Orthodox Christianity–Founded 33 AD on it, (I used to have one on my car 20 years ago) our Orthodox subject blasts the horn at another motorist that is somehow in his or her way or not using their turn signals. What a testimony!

At the office in his or her cubicle decorated with an ikon (so that others will notice that I'm Orthodox, just in case they can't tell by what I do at work), our Orthodox internet communicator leaves a scathing blog post or comment vilifying a fellow human as if he or she were shredding cole slaw. What a way to keep the Great Fast!

And finally, as the ultimate testament to the triumph of Orthodoxy, here is our Orthodox brother or sister being careful to keep from breaking the dietary rules that hedge the path to Pascha, by subtly letting the barista know that he or she is fasting.
What a witness for the true faith!

One of the desert fathers—I can't remember who—said something like this, "During the Great Fast, you may eat anything; just don't eat people." That's probably a modern paraphrase of what he really said, but it cuts through all our excuses and spiritual materialism right away.

But then, all of this comes back to the Word of God Himself, who teaches us even more simply, "When you fast…" (Matthew 6:16-18).

O Lord and Master of my life,
take away from me the will to be lazy and to be sad,
the desire to get ahead of other people
and to boast and brag.
Give me instead a pure and humble spirit,
the will to be patient with other people
and to love them.
Help me to see my own mistakes,
and keep me from judging the things
that other people do,
for You are blessed,
now and to the ages.
Amen.

Πατριάρχης Γρηγόριος Ε΄

As we head into the final stretch of Μεγάλη Σαρακοστή, the Great Fast, it is well to remember our illustrious martyr-patriarch Gregory the Fifth, who suffered for Christ on the day of Pascha, 1821. Here is his story, from the two Wiki's, first from the regular Wikipedia…

Gregory V was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 1797 to 1798, from 1806 to 1808 and from 1818 to 1821. He was responsible for much restoration work to the Patriarchal Cathedral of St George, which had been badly damaged by fire in 1738. At the onset of the Turkish Massacrees, as Ethnarch of the Greek Millet, Gregory V was blamed by Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II for his inability to suppress the Greek uprising. He was taken out of the Patriarchal Cathedral on Easter Sunday, 1821, directly after celebrating the solemn Easter Liturgy, and hanged (in full Patriarchal vestments) for three days from the main gate of the Patriarchate compound by order of the Sultan; his body was then taken down and delivered to a squad of Jews, who dragged it through the streets and finally threw it into the Bosphorus. The body was later recovered by Greek sailors and was eventually enshrined in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens. He is commemorated by the Eastern Orthodox Church as an ethnomartyr, Εθνομάρτυρας. In his memory, the main gates of the Patriarchate compound were welded shut in 1821 and have remained shut ever since.

From Orthodox Wikipedia…

Our father among the saints Gregory V of Constantinople was the 234th Patriarch of Constantinople. He served as patriarch for three separate periods at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and was martyred during the Greek War of Independence. He was glorified as a saint by the Church of Greece in 1921 and is commemorated as an ethnomartyr on April 10.

Life

Georgios Angelópoulos was born in Dimitsana, Arcadia prefecture in 1746 to poor parents. A studious child, Georgios attended school at Dimitsana before continuing his education in Athens for two years. With the help of his uncle he continued his education in the theological school at Smyrna for another five years. Having been raised in the hesychastic environment around the Monastery of Philosóphou he turned to a monastic life and was tonsured a monk in Strophades with the name Gregory. He continued his education in theology and philosophy at the School of Patmós.

After completing his education at Patmós, Gregory returned to Smyrna where he was ordained a deacon in 1775 by Metr. Procopius of Smyrna and subsequently became an archdeacon. Over the following years he was ordained a priest and a protosyncelos. In 1785, he was elected by the Patriarch of Constantinople to the position of Bishop of the Metropolis of Smyrna succeeding Procopius who had become Patriarch of Constantinople. In what was becoming a volatile political atmosphere, Gregory was elected to the patriarchal throne of Constantinople in May 1797. In a year he was deposed and deported to the Monastery of Iviron on Mount Athos where he lived an ascetic life of study. On September 23, 1806, the synod recalled him to the patriarchal see. With the shifting Turkish politics and the revolt of the Genitsars, Gregory’s second stint as patriarch ended in 1810 when he was expelled first to Pringipónisos, and then again to Mount Athos, where he stayed for nine years. On December 15, 1818, for the third time Gregory was called to the patriarchal see, this time at a crucial and tense time in the Greek struggle for independence.

In 1818, Gregory became a member of the Filikí Etería (Society of Friends) that was preparing for a revolt against the Turkish rule. However, when Alexander Ypsilantis crossed the Prut River, starting the Greek revolt in Romania, Gregory felt it necessary to excommunicate him to protect the Greeks of Constantinople from reprisals by the Ottoman Turks. The reprisals did come during Holy Week in April 1821 after the Greeks revolted in the Pelopónnisos. During celebration of the divine liturgy, with eight hierarchs, on the night of Pascha of April 10, Gregory was arrested and, by order of Sultan Mahmúd II, hanged on the front gate of the Patriarchate compound in his full Patriarchal vestments. The gate has been closed, locked, and not used since. After hanging for three days and being mocked by the passing crowds, his body was taken down and given to a group of Jews who dragged it through the streets of Constantinople before throwing it into the Bosphorus.

Gregory’s body was recovered from the sea by a Greek seaman, Nicholas Sklavos, and secreted to Odessa, then in Southern Russia, where it was buried with honors at the Church of the Holy Trinity. Later his relics were enshrined in the Metropolitan Cathedral in Athens. His statue, along with that of Rigas Feraios, stands outside the University of Athens as great martyrs of the Greek Revolution.

Jesus' sense of humor

The shortest verse in the bible is not "Jesus laughed" or "Jesus smiled", but "Jesus wept."
And He is not known as a laughing deity, like some buddhas are, but rather, as "the Man of Sorrows."

Looking for an image that I could use to illustrate this post, I was unable to locate one that showed Jesus laughing, or even smiling, that I felt was not irreverent.

Is it any wonder, then, that people have a hard time imagining that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, could have a sense of humor, or enjoy many other things that regular human beings enjoy. Why is this?

It's a form of latent Gnosticism, isn't it, that Christians in all times and ages have had a difficult time getting used to Jesus as a Man with all that it implies.

Jesus Christ is the θεανθρωπος, theánthropos, the "God-Man" as we call Him in the Greek Orthodox Church. We're eager to confess Him as Lord and God, but we sometimes don't know how to be comfortable with Him as Man. I notice that many of the trends in modern evangelical worship tend to make the experience not far removed in atmosphere from a club or coffeehouse. This shocks the Orthodox, but we return the favor by shocking our liturgically antipodal brethren with our over-the-top ceremonialism. Touché!

Worship is how we relate to the God half of the indivisible God-Man, but everything else about our Christian life needs to proceed from our relationship to the Man half of that same, unique Being. Why? Because He has somehow taken up our humanity with Him into the Godhead, so that the Holy Triad should no longer seem alien to us, as we are indwelt by Him and live in Them.

Jesus the Man had a sense of humor, as we can see if we read the gospels without a religious predisposition. In fact, His attitude toward religion itself was sometimes quite humorous.

It's because the Church throughout much of her history has been in bondage to religious spirits rather than in manly relationship with the Saviour that all kinds of atrocities have been committed in His name—wars, persecutions, tortures, you name it. Nothing that satan hasn't tried outside the Church hasn't also been tried inside her—not by Christians, of course, but by the bad seed that the enemy has planted there.

When we meet the saints of today, those who, as Martin Luther said, "canonize themselves," we find human beings who are fully human and yet partake of the Divine Nature in some way we cannot quite fathom, but whatever it is they have, we want, that is, if we really want Jesus. Otherwise, the saints are merely an annoyance at best, or an embarrassment and conviction at worst. "Just ignore them. Maybe they'll go away!"

Following Jesus, we can laugh at the world and its schemes and threats, because He defeated it on the Cross and He defeats it in us who believe and follow Him every day.

There is a time for laughter, and a time to be serious, even solemn. And there too, let Jesus the God-Man show us the way. Let's worship Him as did His disciple John the Revelator, in fear and awe, but let's also walk with Him as did His disciples on that road to Emmaus, except, unlike them, let's hope we recognize Him right away.

Hebrew, why bother?

Years ago when I first started blogging, I wrote a post entitled, Greek, why bother? This was in response to a fellow blogger who wrote an article about the reliability of modern Bible translations. He thought that it wasn’t good for Christians to learn the original Greek in which the New Testament was written, because by doing so they were likely to pit themselves against the translators and subject the scriptures to an even deeper risk of poor personal interpretation than before. This opinion was voiced not by an Orthodox Christian but by a Protestant, reacting perhaps to the excesses that a ‘sola scriptura’ belief can produce. For me, as an Orthodox, I accept the teaching of the Church as a given, and without question, in the essentials of the faith, in the knowledge that the Word of God speaks to us as individuals in particulars that fit our time and place, and that we can hold to these particulars without departing from the Holy Tradition, what has been handed over to us by Christ and the Apostles. With this in mind, I have pursued the study of biblical Greek and biblical Hebrew as best I can for one of my education and station in life.

Having the advantages of belonging to the Greek Orthodox community has helped me considerably, since in our worship the Greek that we use is not the modern dialect, the dhimotiká, but rather the kiní (koiné, as it is usually spelled) which is itself very similar to the ‘high Greek’, the katharévousa of scholars even today. When we speak about God and the spiritual life in modern Greek, we find ourselves speaking a mixture of dialects, weighted in favor of ‘high Greek’ and ‘koiné’. Why is this? Because all the words that we use come from the scriptures. Hence, modern ‘Christian’ Greek can be almost considered another dialect. And when we speak modern ‘Christian Orthodox’ English, we find ourselves using the same biblical Greek vocabulary. Why? Because the usual English words carry too much dubitable cultural baggage. And we keep expanding this ‘Christian Orthodox’ vocabulary, the more we become familiar with the scriptures in their original tongues. As my oldest son Jacob once remarked, “I will be learning Greek for the rest of my life,” so I also add, “and Hebrew too!”

If it is not beyond you to study and pray the scriptures in the original languages, then take it up, but you will never know until you try. As I said, it is an advantage to belong to the Church that has preserved the biblical Greek in its active mind, but if that isn’t possible, to have friends who do. To visit a Greek church from time to time can be very helpful. With the study of Hebrew, we did a similar thing, since we are not Jews and cannot belong to the synagogue. When we first started studying Hebrew in earnest, we attended the local Sephardic synagogue for shabbat evening services, so that we could get a feeling for the language as it is pronounced. After that, we obtained a copy of the entire Old Testament on CD, read by a Sephardic rabbi in Israel. Having that audio Tanakh (T=Torah, law, N=Nevi’im, prophets, K=Ketuvim, writings) is like having a Jewish friend who you can always rely on to help you. Listening to the Hebrew psalms read by the rabbi is what I use to gauge my progress, not only in pronunciation but in understanding.

Now, why did I start reading and studying the Greek New Testament? I wanted to hear exactly what the apostles and evangelists had really written, and understand it as they wrote it. I wanted to hear their voices. And yes, I even wanted to hear the voice of the resurrected Jesus Christ, who speaks Greek to John the Revelator, who faithfully records what He heard. Εγω ειμι το αλφα και το ω λεγει κυριος ο θεος ο ων και ο ην και ο ερχομενος ο παντοκρατωρ, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8). Bible scholars write volumes of commentary on the meaning of verses just like this one. If you know the Greek of the bible, you know all its connexions and its implications, and so you understand, so to speak, what is ‘written between the lines’ without having the burden of all those commentaries. I know that some will dispute this, and ask me to prove it, but I am more interested in reading and understanding than in writing commentaries. Those who know Greek know what I am saying. It’s only esoteric if you want it to be.

Back to Hebrew, why bother? Yes, a good question. I’ve been able to read Hebrew falteringly since a young teenager, but only in the past couple of years have I been studying (and praying in) it with daily consistency. My prayer life has centered on the Psalms for my entire adult Christian life, and now, I pray them in Hebrew almost every day as well. I am always amazed, the more I read, the more I learn, at how concise and simple Hebrew is as a language. So small a vocabulary compared to Greek, yet such a wealth of meanings and how poetic!

A very good example of why studying the Word of God in Hebrew is an advantage comes from the name of Jesus, in Hebrew, Yeshua. We Greek speakers had to be told by the apostles (who were all Jews) that this name means ‘salvation’ and so even Christ’s personal name speaks of His mission. But when you know Hebrew, you see how deep and pervasive this idea goes. We discovered this when we started attending synagogue services. We were surprised to hear the Jews constantly singing about Jesus! At least, they kept saying His name quite a lot in their prayers. Studying their prayer book, which had Hebrew on one page and English on the facing page, we saw what they were singing and praying. It wasn’t about Jesus (that they knew of) but of being saved by God. After worshipping with them for two months, we departed, as our presence among them (we could see) was causing them some confusion: They knew we were Christians, but they couldn’t understand why we would want to be with them. Following the fire and the cloud, it moved, and so did we.

One more example of the heightened experience of the Hebrew bible (and there are too many to describe them all here), comes from the story of Jacob and Esau. In Genesis 25:24-26 their birth and their naming are described. Esau is born and described as reddish in color and hairy; that much, everyone who reads the bible knows. Jacob is described as coming out with his hand clutching Esau’s heel. Now, the word ‘heel’ in Hebrew is achív and it is related to the name Jacob, in Hebrew Ya’akóv, which means ‘heel-holder’ and has no negative connotation. In English translation this has come down as ‘supplanter’ with a definitely negative connotation. We wonder how God could be so unfair, as we read the rest of the story, and show His favor to Jacob, the trickster, the supplanter, that conniving son of Rebecca, that momma’s boy. But we have been told that God can do what He wants, and therefore, we look the other way and let God do what He pleases (!)… But going further into the Hebrew text of the story, we find that the usual translation of certain words seems to have been done with a prejudiced attitude about Jacob. When in the text he is described as tam (Hebrew for ‘perfect’ but in the sense of ‘blameless’ or ‘without blemish’), we find that word is translated ‘quiet’. He was a ‘quiet’ man, contrasted with Esau, who was a man’s man, an outdoors kind of sportsman, rugged, manly, honest. Jacob is described as one ‘dwelling in tents’ who stays home and cooks, again an unfavorable contrast with Esau. But what is understood in the Hebrew is a contrast, yes, but simply that between a man who was a shepherd, living a settled life, a householder, in contrast to one who was a wandering man of the field, a hunter.

The above example is just the tip of an iceberg, and a tantalizing sip of the luscious wine of God’s Word as it has been pressed from His fruit of the vine, the Lógos tou Theoú (in Greek), the D’var ha-Elohím (in Hebrew). Now, having written a little about it, and being tantalized myself beyond endurance, let me go and offer up a psalm, a mizmor, and let the manna fall.

God is good, and everything He is, does, says and gives, is good, good beyond measure, and free to all who come to Him, who says, “you have only to open your mouth for Me to fill it” (Psalm 81:10 Jerusalem Bible).

What does grace mean?

The following are excerpts from the website of Japanese artist Makoto Fujimura. You can visit his website and read the entire essay entitled Images of Grace by clicking his link in the side bar of my blog under Christian Art.

…He asked me, "What does grace mean? Can you explain it to me so I can relay your thoughts to other curators?" I have to fax back to him and tell him that there is not really an appropriate Japanese word for it. There are words similar to grace, but nothing that conveys its full meaning. Then when I thought about the word "grace" in English, I realized that we do not fully understand the word either. Often this word seems "Hallmark" sweet. I have, in the past two years as I prepared for this show, delved deeper into the meaning of this word and found the word to be both practical and complex. Such a search allows us to ask some of the most important questions in life. An artist strives to get at the essence of things; whether they be trees, experiences, flowers or landscapes. The more one understands what this word has to offer in its depth, its reality, the more one realizes how much we do not understand or grasp. You can only get at an infinitesimal portion of this great reality. I have tasted this bittersweet reality of what grace means. This is a heavenly word; it forces us to seek the transcendent, but at the same time this word affirms earthly reality as it is, sometimes grim, sometimes glorious.

…Later, Paul repeats his poetic language to describe his experience at Damascus. He writes in the letter to the Ephesians, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast." He goes on to say, "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do." "Workmanship" in Greek is "poiema" from which we get the word "poem." Notice the curious contradiction there; Paul starts out saying that everything is by grace, grace is a gift, 100% God's gift and then he turns around and says, "For you are God's workmanship," we are God's artworks. But it is only by God's grace that we can become God's artworks.

Paul's experience must have been like the [see his painting "Grace Foretold"] cascading gold of grace. For some, the experience of grace comes very slowly, imperceptibly, like the golden line of "River Grace--Red" [another of his paintings]. Yet, when the line is drawn, because of the unique power of gold, the line dominates the whole. I try not to add anything to my paintings unless it changes the whole. In fact, that's how I know that I have finished the work—when I give up because anything I do will be superfluous. I think this principle applies to our lives. We always try to have these Band-Aids on our hearts; we always try to fix this and that, a little here a little there. What needs to happen, just as I try to do in the painting, is a stroke, a line that changes our entire being. Our entire selves will be made new, different. The prophet Ezekiel, with God speaking through him, says "I will give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you."

My wife experienced grace in this manner about ten years ago through a simple understanding of the Ephesians verse I quoted before, "By grace you have been saved." Before that she was like the man trying to climb up the silver thread, afraid that it might break. She understood for the first time that grace had nothing to do with that; it was something that God had already prepared for her. Since it is God's grace, like the golden line, it will never change. So she rested her heart on this truth that instead of trying to live up to a supposed standard that God had set for her, she would invite him to live her life through her.

I noticed a difference in her being. I noticed the way she treated the Bible differently. She began to see it not as a book of law but as a love letter. So I was surprised by this—I thought I always knew more than her. I used to always try to quiz her about what she knew of biblical history although I did not for sure consider myself a Christian. My wife had invited me to attend church with her and, being a typical artist, I did not like going a church. An artist dislikes anything institutional. I went just to please her. Once there, though, I met many people my own age, who shared their struggles with me, but also their passion and commitment to this Jesus of Nazareth. I understood commitment. I used to measure people against their commitment to their identity, perhaps because I was so proud of my commitment to my own art.

…as my art became a treasure, something I wanted to hold onto, it enslaved me rather than freed me. What was happening was that I didn't want to let go, to lose control, even though my control was not over my life only over my works. I had to be willing to be shown that I was marching against the Creator God himself.

To love is to die—it's a simple way of defining love. I found myself completely surprised that these words of a 18th century poet and artist [William Blake] had exactly the same message as 20th century Christians, those church friends of mine, were trying to share with me. This parallel, this connection, this agreement had profound significance for me—penetrated my heart. Something moved within me; in my heart, my allegiance was then transferred from Art to Christ that day.

As I reflect on this today, using this theme of grace, my life parallels this painting. I have come to understand something unique about grace. It is not silver, it is golden. It comes into your life—in my case, almost invisibly and I'm sure for some of you it comes as dramatically as in Paul's case. In my case, I understood the word grace, and understood that this thread of grace was running throughout history, and that Christ 2,000 years ago on that hill at Calvary was thinking of me and that he wanted to show me how I could reconcile the schism I found in my heart that resulted from a greater schism between my heart and God's heart.

Paul writes in the book of Colossians of the Messiah. "He is the image of the invisible God. The first born over all of creation. For by him all things were created. Things in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross."

…When I got married, I did not want more than one child for fear that I would not be able to support children as an artist. I was afraid of losing control of my life. But for us, having children meant in faith trusting God to provide, and responding to God's grace poured out in our lives. We now have three children. I have certainly lost control. You see, I would never have had the experience at Niagara with C.J. [one of his kids] apart from our decision to trust God with our lives. This decision, like the origin of the falls, then a singular decision based on our response to God's grace, now has literally multiplied to define my life in a greater way. I would not have this exhibit apart from my grace experience. None of these paintings would be here. Each painting, the gold, silver, precious minerals, testify to God's gracious provision for us in these past years. The extravagance of the materials used only contrasts the poverty of my heart. Again, if I take the glory of the substance seen to be of my own glory, I know my heart will be crushed. If I take on the glory of my children and my wife on my own strength, I will fail miserably. I am like Jean Valjean, whose life has been touched by grace; my work of art are my candles. They are God's Images of Grace.

To continue in the Word of Christ...

We shall not care what people think of us, or how they treat us. We shall cease to be afraid of falling out of favor. We shall love our fellow men without thought of whether they love us.

Christ gave us the commandment to love others but did not make it a condition of salvation that they should love us. Indeed, we may positively be disliked for independence of spirit. It is essential in these days to be able to protect ourselves from the influence of those with whom we come in contact. Otherwise we risk losing both faith and prayer.

Let the whole world dismiss us as unworthy of attention, trust or respect—it will not matter provided that the Lord accept us. And vice versa: it will profit us nothing if the whole world thinks well of us and sings our praises, if the Lord declines to abide with us. This is only a fragment of the freedom Christ meant when He said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8.32).

Our sole care will be to continue in the word of Christ, to become His disciples and cease to be servants of sin.

— Elder Sophrony [1896-1993]