The irony of believing

Fr Stephen's blog is always a rich source of reliable and honest truth about Christian faith, and the Orthodox in particular, and so for any who might not have visited his blog Glory to God for All Things, I want to introduce it again, and give you a sample of what he writes about, from his most recent post entitled The Irony of Believing...

There is a deep need for the appreciation of irony to sustain a Christian life. Our world is filled with contradiction. Hypocrisy is ever present even within our own heart. The failures of Church and those who are most closely associated with it can easily crush the hearts of the young and break the hearts of those who are older.

I can think of at least two times in my life that the failures of Church, or its hierarchy, drove me from the ranks of the Church, or what passed for Church at the time. As years have gone by I haven’t seen less that would disappoint or break the heart – indeed the things that troubled me as a young man barely compare with revelations we all have seen in recent years.

No hands are clean. Evangelical, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, the failures and coverups are in no way the special province of any. The question of truth remains – but in a contest of the pure, everyone loses. The irony remains. Our failures would not be so poignant if the Kingdom were not so pure. Judas’ betrayal is darkened all the more by the fact that his victim is God Himself.

All of which brings us back to the irony that remains. The greatest irony of all is the God who forgives and remains ever faithful to us despite the contradictions.

These are questions that any follower of Christ, or anyone for that matter, has a right to ask. Some very famous non-Christians have asserted that they respect and admire Jesus Christ, but it's His followers that they can't stand. They're talking about the Church... well, actually, they're not talking about the Church (capital C) but about what they (and even we sometimes) call church. That's another discussion. But Fr Stephen examines this well, and his entire post is worth reading. It's all right HERE.

Apologia

I don’t want to entertain,
I want to communicate.
Meaning and relationship are
what is most important to me.
I am a Greek Orthodox Christian,
but not Orthodoxy,
only Christ matters.

Church has its place,
but it cannot be substituted for
one’s personal response
to the call of Jesus Christ.

The above has been my summary ‘statement’, written back in 2006 when I first started blogging. These words, combined with my choice of “Cost of Discipleship” and a quotation from this book by its author, Protestant hieromartyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer as the name of my blog has kept it off the ‘Orthodox’ blog rolls of most other bloggers who confess this faith. A handful of other Orthodox have listed me as an Orthodox blogger, including two priests, one Antiochian and one Serbian. They must have seen through whatever it is that keeps me ‘off limits’ to all the others. Truthfully, I do not promote Orthodox Christianity as a church or religion. My intention is to confess Christ and to be His witness, sharing with others what He shares with me, and following Him with my whole being, not just with my words, by doing what I see Him doing, saying what I hear Him saying. It doesn’t seem honest, prudent or safe to do anything other than this.

But thinking about my ‘statement’ I can see that it could easily be misunderstood. It is vague enough that my enemies, if I have any, can say that I am a pseudo-Orthodox, or worse. After all, I seem to be saying that Orthodoxy isn’t important, that it doesn’t matter, that only Christ matters. And actually, starting in reverse order, that is what I confess—only Christ matters. But if that were true for me without qualification, why even mention Orthodoxy at all? Anyone who knows me personally, who goes to church with me, knows that I am a practicing Greek Orthodox, that I participate in regular worship and have at various times held responsible positions in this church.

What I mean when I say that Orthodoxy doesn’t matter, or that “Church has its place, but it cannot be substituted for one’s personal response to the call of Jesus Christ,” is that in every context, our individual response to the living Christ is incomparable in importance to anything else we might think about or do. Everything about Holy Orthodoxy springs from the reality of that response to the living Christ, the resurrected Lord, everything! Yet, we can have an ‘Orthodoxy’ that is the work of man, not the work of God which is what Holy Orthodoxy is.

The Orthodox Church is everything that it claims to be, nothing more and nothing less, but Orthodoxy itself is an inexhaustible reality that overfills and overflows the visible Church. Wherever Christ is truly welcomed, followed and confessed, there is the Church, there is Orthodoxy. I do not promote Orthodoxy as a church or religion, because it is neither. It is a living reality that is the work of God, not man-made, and it is not something I can lure people to. I simply witness for Christ, as I can do nothing else, and He does all the work, as a homely saying runs, “We catch the fish, He cleans them and sorts them.”

So do I recant? Does Orthodoxy matter or not?
Of course it does, but it’s not something I can give you. It is the work of God, and to Him alone it belongs. It is a humble work, I know, to simply witness for Christ, but by our lives and actions, not by our words alone, are people drawn to the One we follow and, if they truly want Him, they will, like the two disciples, ask, “Rabbi, where do you live?” and He will always answer, “Come, and see!” (John 1:38-39).

We witness for Christ, we never argue.
We read the Word aloud and speak it to people without adding anything or taking anything away, and by so doing disarm our detractors. It is “not ourselves that we preach” (2 Corinthians 4:5) and promote, only Christ, and who can argue with Him? They may try, but Christ Himself never argues, He simply is who He is. Sometimes His sheep even “recognize His voice” (John 10:27) long before they know it is He, and when they finally do know who is calling them, to Him they run. He leads them “to graze close by the shepherds’ tents” (Song of Songs 1:8).

I was reading some passages in the book Hymn of Entry, by Archimandrite Vasileios, and it made me stop and think the foregoing thoughts. I really just wanted to quote more of the wise words of this modern church father, rather than write anything of my own, but that’s not what happened. Sometimes the end of our motivation is different than what we supposed. But let me, brethren, quote at least a little bit of what I was reading, as these words will be more edifying than mine...

How frequently the Lord would stop people who wanted to start a “theological” conversation with Him. They ask, “Will those who are saved be few?” and the Lord replies, “Strive to enter by the narrow door” (Luke 13:23-24). Again, with the Samaritan woman who is surprised when the Lord asks her for water, and explains her surprise, “For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans” (John 4:9), Jesus cuts short her comments on the relations between the religious communities with the command, “Go, call your husband” (John 4:16). In a moment He leads the conversation into the field of personal life, of true theology. In every case He is interested in the person, not in theological discussion as an isolated occupation remaining out of touch with life and with the very person who is speaking. “I seek not what is yours, but you” (2 Corinthians 12:14), says Paul; I seek the person and his salvation.

Therefore, while the Jews of Christ’s day were so eager for theological discussions, He let them go unanswered; “But He was silent.” For He did not come to discuss, He came to seek out and save the one that had gone astray (Matthew 18:11). He came and took on our whole nature. He entered into us, into the shadow of death where we are, and drew us to the light. We passed into His life: we live in Him.

Archimandrite Vasileios, Hymn of Entry, pp. 32-33 passim

The passage quoted above is the commentary on and explanation of what I mean in my ‘statement’ when I say, “Meaning and relationship are what is most important to me.” Even, and especially, in Orthodoxy is that personal response to the call of Jesus Christ the most important thing, that “which will not be taken from” us
(Luke 10:42).

The unchanging Change

What the [Church] Fathers require and give is the change which comes from the Spirit. If we want to approach them outside this reality, they will remain for us incomprehensible as writers, and scorned as persons.

Communication of the patristic word, the word of the Holy Fathers, is not a matter of applying their sayings to this or that topic with the help of a concordance. [The Kingdom of God is not a Talmud, nor is it a mechanical collection of scriptural or patristic quotations outside our being and our lives. ibid., p. 34.] It is a process whereby nourishment is taken up by living organisms, assimilated by them and turned into blood, life and strength. And, subsequently, it means passing on the joy and proclaiming the miracle through the very fact of being brought to life, an experience we apprehend in a way that defies doubt or discussion.

Thus the living patristic word is not conveyed mechanically, nor preserved archaeologically, nor approached through excursions into history. It is conveyed whole, full of life, as it passes from generation to generation through living organisms, altering them, creating “fathers” who make it their personal word, a new possession, a miracle, a wealth which increases as it is given away.

This is the unchanging change wrought by the power that changes corruption into incorruption. It is the motionless perpetual motion of the Word of God, and its ever-living immutability. Every day the Word seems different and new, and is the same. This is the mystery of life which has entered deep into our dead nature and raises it up from within, breaking the bars of Hell.


How beautiful it is for a man to become theology. Then whatever he does, and above all what he does spontaneously, since only what is spontaneous is true, bears witness and speaks of the fact that the Son and Word of God was incarnate, that He was made man through the Holy Spirit and the ever-virgin Mary. It speaks silently about the ineffable mysteries which have been revealed in the last times.

Archimandrite Vasileios, Hymn of Entry, pp. 35-36 passim

Today in your hearing

Thus says Yahweh,
“Let the sage boast no more of his wisdom,
nor the valiant of his valour,
nor the rich man of his riches!
But if anyone wants to boast, let him boast of this:
of understanding and knowing Me.
For I am Yahweh, I rule with kindness,
justice and integrity on earth;
yes, these are what please Me
—it is Yahweh who speaks.
Jeremiah 9:22-23

See, then, that the days are coming—it is Yahweh who speaks—when people will no longer say, “As Yahweh lives who brought the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt!” but, “As Yahweh lives who brought the sons of Israel out of the land of the North and back from all the countries to which He had dispersed them”. I will bring them back to the very soil I gave their ancestors.
Jeremiah 16:14-15

Doom for the shepherds who allow the flock of My pasture to be destroyed and scattered—it is Yahweh who speaks! This, therefore, is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says about the shepherds in charge of My people: You have let My flock be scattered and go wandering and have not taken care of them. Right, I will take care of you for your misdeeds—it is Yahweh who speaks! But the remnant of My flock I Myself will gather from all the countries where I have dispersed them, and will bring them back to their pastures: they shall be fruitful and increase in numbers. I will raise up shepherds to look after them and pasture them; no fear, no terror for them anymore; not one shall be lost—it is Yahweh who speaks!
Jeremiah 23:1-4

Yahweh says this:
Now I will restore the tents of Jacob,
and take pity on his dwellings:
the city shall be rebuilt on its ruins,
the citadel restored on its site.
From them will come thanksgiving
and shouts of joy.
I will make them increase, and not diminish them,
make them honoured and not disdained.
Their sons shall be as once they were,
their community fixed firm in My presence,
and I will punish all their oppressors.
Their princes will be one of their own,
their Ruler come from their own people.
I will let Him come freely into My presence
and He can come close to Me;
Who else, indeed, would risk His life
by coming close to Me?—it is Yahweh who speaks!
And you shall be My people and I will be your God.
Now a storm of Yahweh breaks,
a tempest whirls,
it bursts over the head of the wicked;
the anger of Yahweh will not turn aside
until He has performed and carried out
the decision of His heart.
You will understand this in the days to come.
Jeremiah 30:18-24

Every believer is called

Every believer is called to live theologically, and the whole body of the Church is creating theology in its life and its struggle. Thus the ex cathedra of Orthodoxy, the way in which it expresses itself infallibly, is from the Cross. The responsibility that is spread over the whole body of people is a cross. Apophatic theology is an ascent to Golgotha. The spiritual life of each believer which provides the overall balance is a cross. On the Cross, the Lord “stretched out His hands and united what had previously been sundered.”

From all this we see why every term has a different meaning in the mouth of a saint, a different weight and force; it is because he is born and lives in another world. What commands his enthusiasm and concern is something altogether non-essential and unimportant to the present age, which comes and sees it, and passes by on the other side. That which is the life, the joy and the certainty of the Orthodox, does not exist for the world: “The world will see Me no more, but you will see Me” (John 14:19).

We are bound together by the common faith which, in accordance with tradition, each of us has found and finds personally through the exercise of his own responsibility—“so each of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12)—and through the communion of the Holy Spirit. The Church leaves the believer free to feel Christ dwelling within him; free to live in fear on the sea of this present age; free to be crushed by his responsibility; free to cry out to the Lord, “Master, we perish,” and to see Him in the night of the present age, walking on the waters for him personally and for the whole Church; and free to hear the Lord say to him, “It is I.”

Archimandrite Vasileios, Hymn of Entry, pp. 50-52 passim

This is the Orthodoxy that we adhere to, this is the Orthodoxy that is the foundation of the world, as we proclaim on Orthodoxy Sunday. This is the unchanging Orthodoxy of Jesus Christ, the holy apostles, the fathers, the martyrs and all the saints, of former ages, in this present time, and in the age to come.

Glory to You, our God, and our hope,
glory to You who have shown us the Light!

The descent into Hades

The Apostles’ Creed, an ancient Western baptismal confession of faith, not actually authored by any of the holy apostles but rather believed to contain their teaching, includes the phrase, “He descended into hell.” As a young child in a Polish-American family, I learned this creed by heart in preparation for my first holy communion. All I could picture when saying the phrase and thinking about it was a fiery horizontal with dozens of hands and heads bobbing up and down in it, to the din of screams and moans. “Do they mean Jesus went down into that?” I thought to myself, “Ugh!” No further explanation was thought necessary. Somehow, there was also a notion that the hell that was being talked about was actually a place called purgatory, because no one ever got out of hell, but you could get out of purgatory if you knew how. It had something to do with having your living relatives say hundreds and hundreds of Hail Mary’s and naming you as the beneficiary. Again I thought, “Ugh!” But on first holy communion day, I was dressed up like a little bridegroom, given a black prayerbook and a black rosary, and marched into church side by side with a buck-toothed girl dressed up like a little bride carrying a white prayerbook and white rosary. Her parents and mine thought we made a cute couple, and made sure we would receive the sacrament side-by-side, like little newly-weds. And yes, now that we had come of age, we had the tools of our trade and expected to be little prayer warriors. I liked to read my prayerbook because it was written in Polish, and I was already becoming a linguist. The rosary got some half-hearted, dutiful use, and then used to hang on the crucifix above my bed till I went off to college, draped across the nailed hands of Jesus.

The foregoing ramble was conjured by my reading of Fr Stephen’s post Metaphors of the Atonement, in which he compares the Western Christian beliefs about Christ’s descent into Hades to those held by Eastern Christians, that is, the Orthodox. In my passage from the Episcopal Church to Greek Orthodoxy twenty-two years ago, those odd beliefs surrounding “He descended into hell” somehow disappeared unnoticed, along with many other facets of my childhood ‘faith.’ The richly-colored, mysterious ikons inundated my bewildered imagination as I attempted to adapt my mind to the Eastern Church as quickly as possible. The phrase “He descended into hell” disappeared, never to return, and so did all those poor souls tormented in the fire.

As an Orthodox catechumen, I discovered that faith was not formulated in creeds, but in the Σύμβολον της Πίστεως, the Symbol of the Faith (of Nicæa), in which the holy apostles and their successors, with fear and trembling, defined in human words the deposit of the Faith in a statement called The Symbol, from the Greek σύμβολον, sýmvolon, from the root words συν-, meaning ‘together,’ and βολή, a ‘throw’ or ‘volley,’ thus having the approximate meaning of ‘thrown together.’

“Thrown together?” I thought, and asked my catechist, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

The answer was unexpected but convincing. The Symbol was the bringing back into unity the tongues that were divided and the peoples that were scattered at the destruction of the Tower of Babel. The opposite of The Symbol was the Diabol, the splitter, that which divides, the root phoneme of words such as diabolic and devil. The opposite event in scripture to the dividing of the tongues at Babel is the unification of the tongues that happened when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the holy apostles on the day of Pentecost. “Does that mean that we’re overriding God’s human containment policy?” I wondered. Not really. The people who received the Spirit of the living God were so changed that though they spoke a multitude of languages, they all could be understood to mean the same thing. “Everything begins to speak with strange dogmas, strange words and the strange teachings of the Holy Trinity” (lauds and vespers of Pentecost). What was received by the holy apostles in their anointing by the Spirit on Pentecost was handed over to their successors who handed it over to us. The Church therefore, I was told, does not teach this or that, as if it had teachings of its own. It only hands over the teaching that it has received from Christ and the apostles. To me, brought up as a Western Christian, these certainly were “strange dogmas, strange words and the strange teachings of the Holy Trinity,” and yet I was very glad to know them.

Returning to the topic, the descent into Hades, Fr Stephen writes,

The doctrine of the descent of Christ into Hades occupies an essential place in the works of Cyril of Alexandria. In his Paschal Homilies, he repeatedly mentions that as a consequence of the descent of Christ into Hades, the devil was left all alone, while hell was devastated: ‘For having destroyed hell and opened the impassable gates for the departed spirits, He left the devil there abandoned and lonely.’ This imagery is also found in John Chrysostom’s famous Catechetical Homily: “And not one dead is left in the grave.”

...[Contrast] this with the Descent into Hades’ development in Western Christianity:

The general conclusion can now be drawn from a comparative analysis of Eastern and Western understandings of the descent into Hades. In the first three centuries of the Christian Church, there was considerable similarity between the interpretation of this doctrine by theologians in East and West. However, already by the fourth to fifth centuries, substantial differences can be identified. In the West, a juridical understanding of the doctrine prevailed. It gave increasingly more weight to notions of predestination (Christ delivered from hell those who were predestined for salvation from the beginning) and original sin (salvation given by Christ was deliverance from the general original sin, not from the ‘personal’ sins of individuals). The range of those to whom the saving action of the descent into hell is extended becomes ever more narrow. First, it excludes sinners doomed to eternal torment, then those in purgatory and finally unbaptized infants.

This kind of legalism was alien to the Orthodox East, where the descent into Hades continued to be perceived in the spirit in which it is expressed in the liturgical texts of Great Friday and Easter, i.e., as an event significant not only for all people, but also for the entire cosmos, for all created life.

During the Portland Greek Festival, the first weekend of October every year, as a church tour guide people are always asking me, “What’s the difference between Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism? They’re pretty much the same, aren’t they?” They often look startled when I tell them, “No, they are really very, very different.” They won’t let go, “But you guys look like Roman Catholics, you’ve got holy pictures and candles and statues and the mass, and all that stuff, don’t you?”

I blow the whistle (metaphorically), “CUT! No statues, no masses, yes ikons, yes candles and incense, yes ceremonial, but look more closely, please. There is no meaningless detail in Orthodoxy. Everything teaches, and more than just teaching, everything preserves us in the true following of Jesus, in true faith. When Jesus suffered for us, He descended into Hades, and emptied it of its captives, opening Paradise for them through the open gateway of His pure body, while trampling death by His death. Devil, here’s mud in your eye!”

This is the way I talk to them. Hmm, maybe that’s why I only get to give the tour by default, when no clergy show up on occasion.

A final thought on the descent into Hades.

Many Christians have never even heard of this act of God in Christ, being ignorant of the Symbol of the Faith and also of the scriptures’ foundational testimony. The first Christians knew and believed the fact of the resurrection of Jesus on the third day. They knew and believed the testimony of the holy apostles, with whom the resurrected Lord physically sojourned for forty days after His victory over death, teaching them all that they in turn handed over to us.
The Orthodox ikon usually called The Resurrection is actually an ikon of the descent into Hades. Notice, there is no fire anywhere. Just the poor old devil lying there in the dark with his hands and feet bound, surrounded by broken locks and chains and severed gates.
What a relief!

Christ is risen from the dead. By death trampling down death, and to those in the tombs, bestowing life.

The Word is for you

For we do not write you anything you cannot read or understand.
2 Corinthians 1:13 NIV

This verse has always strengthened me, and it is from the epistle that most closely reflects my own life, 2 Corinthians, though I best not call it my favorite... every word of God is my favorite!

I knew a Baptist pastor once, who wrote that John's gospel should not be given to new Christians to read, because it takes years and years of study, even seminary training, to understand it.

On the other hand, it is John's gospel, his three letters, and his startling book, Revelation, that I give to new Christians, indeed all Christians, to read, and in teaching evangelical Greek, our lessons are always drawn from John's writings.

Not only that Baptist pastor, but many others, warn us against reading the bible on our own, unaided. They tell that the Word of God is too high and holy, too full of mysteries for the layman to grasp.

Read the church fathers (Orthodox), read imprimatured authors (Catholics), read so-and-so's commentaries (Protestants), or run the risk of personal heresy. Such are the warnings I have heard.

My general educational background, my life experience, my adherence to the norms of Orthodox Christianity, and my ongoing participation in the life of the Church, these are what qualify me to read the Word, understand and interpret it, on the human side.

The Word itself promises, “But you have not lost the anointing that He gave you, and you do not need anyone to teach you, the anointing He gave teaches you everything; you are anointed with truth, not a lie, and as it has taught you, so you must stay in Him.” (1 John 2:27 Jerusalem Bible)

Whatever depths there are to be learned and understood in the Word of God, these the Spirit in us will teach us, nothing contrary to what the fathers have taught through the world and the ages. In fact, we will be confirmed in our faith, as we see our understanding and theirs agree, since there is only one Spirit.

Brethren, read the Word, live in it, do what it tells you and do not let yourselves be deceived by false humility in yourself or false authority outside. Christ has not left us orphans. He has left us the anointing that teaches us everything. He is with us. Do not be afraid.

The origins of the Church at Rome

An interesting history from The Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church ...

Shortly after the ascension of our Lord and after the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Mary Magdalene received the strong desire to go to Rome to expose the unjust actions of the Governor Pilate and the High Priests Annas and Caiaphas. She obtained permission from the Theotokos [the Mother of Jesus] and booked a sailing vessel for Rome. Once in Rome she went immediately to the palace of Caesar. There she was initially refused but as she was about to depart up came a high ranking official Puplius who was very familiar with the situation. He showed her a letter that he wrote to Caesar. In part it read,

"The truth be told, there are some astonishing things concerning this Christ. Miracles abound. He raises the dead and heals the sick with but a word. He is a man of average height, handsome of countenance with an air of majesty. Those that encounter him are enjoined either to love him or fear him. His hair is the color of walnut, which extends to his shoulders and glistens. He belongs to the group known as Nazarenes. His forehead is smooth and calm. His face is without wrinkles or blemishes. His nose and lips are regular. His beard is dense and the same color as his hair. It is not long, but it separates in two at the middle. He has a serious look that can excite fear. He possesses a power like a ray of the sun...
His manner of addressing is pleasing... He often walks barefooted and without a head covering. Some laugh at him, while others tremble in his presence from their astonishment. He never preaches anything to promote himself in the world...
This Christ has never urged anyone to do anything displeasing, but rather he exhorts the people to perform good deeds…"

His knowledge of the situation led Mary to tears. He told her that Caesar had received his letter and that even Caesar respected Jesus.

After hearing Mary’s plea for justice in this matter Puplius committed to have Caesar to issue an order to call Pilate, Annas and Caiaphas to Rome for a trial. He asked her to give him two months to recall them. Mary thanked him and took up residence in Rome establishing the first house church there where they gathered almost every night praying and discoursing.

Three months after her first arrival the trial was set to begin. It was known that Caesar was incensed with the three who had been recalled because they killed a wonderful man who worked many miracles to benefit the people. As the trial began Mary appeared marvelous as she walked in the midst of the court toward the autocrat. She was clad in a brown tunic, with a leather belt. She wore a long orange-colored veil the inner kerchief was a deep orange. Her whole appearance created a marvelous impression.

Orthodox tradition and iconography also maintains that when Saint Mary appeared before Tiberius Caesar Augustus, she presented him with an egg dyed red, greeting him with the words: Christ is risen! This is a custom that has since spread among Orthodox Christians throughout the world. The prayer read at the blessing of the eggs says near the end, "Thus have we received from the holy fathers, who preserved this custom from the very time of the holy apostles; therefore the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene first showed believers the example of this joyful offering."

The trial proceeded and Mary clearly explained how Pilate had conducted the trial in Jerusalem against Jesus Christ. On hearing the case Caesar said, "Those who are guilty will be punished." Caesar asked for advice from his counsel Claudius who confirmed that he (Pilate ) "acted not only in an irregular manner but even unlawfully by condemning to death this man whom he found no reason in our penal code that deserved death."

Mary then gave further testimony about the tortures that took place. She said, "When they arrested my Teacher in the garden on the mount of Olives, they brought him bound to Annas, and then to Caiaphas... They thrashed Jesus pitilessly and inhumanely throughout His holy body. They brought him to the Praetorium, to the Roman Governor Pilate…"
She continued, "The instruments of torture, O Caesar, they used to scourge my Teacher was a bull-whip, rods with knots, and ropes with iron stars and hooks positioned at a short distance from each other. These lacerated His flesh to the bones. Sixty soldiers struck again and again. The virginal and noble flesh of the God-Man was shred to pieces… when they saw His bones and blood running like a river from His veins, they were rejoicing and laughing among themselves with inexplicable satisfaction... The executioners were as dogs, bulls, tigers, and wild animals."
And she went describing the horrible treatment He had received. As she finished, the crowd at the trial began to chant, "Death! Death to the god-slayers! Death!"

Caiaphas never made it to the trial as he died on the trip to Rome. Tiberius Caesar sentenced Annas to a tortuous death and imprisoned Pilate who was eventually killed. Mary Magdalene remained in Rome for several years until the death of Pilate. She then returned to Jerusalem after having established an energetic church in Rome.

I still believe

I've been in a cave for 40 days
only a spark to light my way
I want to give out, I want to give in
This is our crime, this is our sin
I still believe, I still believe
Through the pain, and through the grief
Through the lies, through the storms
Through the cries, and through the wars
I still believe

I'm flat on my back out at sea
hoping these waves don't cover me
I'm turned and tossed upon the waves
When the darkness comes I feel the grave
But I still believe, I still believe
Through the cold, and through the heat
Through the rain, and through the tears,
Through the crowds, and through the cheers
I still believe

I'll march this road, I'll climb this hill
Upon my knees if I have to
I'll take my place upon this stage
I'll wait until the end of time for you
I'm out on my own walking these streets
Look at the faces that I meet
I feel like I want to go home
What do I feel? What do I know?
But I still believe, I still believe
Through the shame, and through the grief
Through the heartache, through the tears
Through the waiting, through the years
For people like us in places like this
We need all the hope we can get
Oh, I still believe!

— The Call, Reconciled

Loveless

Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to Him to call his attention to its buildings. “Do you see all these things?” He asked. “I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down…
Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold…”
Matthew 24:1-2, 12 NIV

The love of most will grow cold.
This verse came to me this morning and I’ve been meditating on it all day. It comes from Christ’s discourse on the end times, and there are many seemingly more startling predictions than this one in the passage—impersonators of Christ, wars and revolutions, famines and earthquakes, persecution, apostasy, and false prophets—and then this, the love of most will grow cold. It seems almost anti-climactic. Yet Christ included it. It must be an important sign, and a sign it is.

This is my experience practically every day.
This is our experience, though because its presence is so pervasive, we’ve all become used to it and don’t notice it. If we did, it might drive us to despair. What am I talking about? “The world’s not all that bad!” Sorry, brothers, sorry, but it is. Even close to home.

At first I wanted to say of this love growing cold, that unwillingness to affirm the other person is its hidden root, but no, even that root doesn’t go deep enough. Jesus plainly calls its cause—wickedness—in Greek anomía, lawlessness. Ironic, that lawlessness causes lovelessness? I should have stopped here, but forgive me, brethren, for this worthless ramble.

We love because we feel we are loved. Loved by whom? Well, for starters, think of a child, one who knows that his parents love him, especially that his mother does. That makes it possible for him to love, and love he does. But what if his mother doesn’t love him, and he knows it? Right from the beginning, the inner emptiness caused by that lack of love can turn his love inwards, to self-love. “Well, if mommy doesn’t love me, I’m looking out for number one,” or, as we read in C.S. Lewis’ The Last Battle, “The dwarfs are for the dwarfs!” A lot of loveless people start out this way, crushed children grow up into crushing adults.

In a general sort of way, the love of most grows cold because they don’t really believe that God loves them, personally. Why don’t they? Well, it’s probably because they don’t believe that God exists at all. Imagine this—living in a universe without God. If you don’t open your eyes in the morning and look at the universe, it may not even exist! When you die, for sure the universe is gone. But if there is a God, could that be why the universe continues, whether any one of us is alive to experience it, or whether we are dead? This God, like the character of Christ in the film Jesus of Nazareth, doesn’t even blink. If He did, what would become of us?

This is my experience practically every day.

People protect themselves from the imposition of others. They see that something they know and could say or do would lighten someone’s burden, help them in some way, but they withhold it. “Why should I lend a hand? I’m busy,” or worse yet, “Serves him right, he’s old enough to know how to do that. Too bad, you dope!”

Parents turning away their children, eager to push them out of the nest. Children abandoning their parents, ignoring them until they want something. Employees making a co-worker’s job difficult because they can’t be bothered to share what they know. Drivers cutting people off, making other unsafe manoeuvres, honking their horns at anyone who gets in their way. Customer service people who respond only to your exact question, unwilling to help you ask the right question to solve your dilemma. Why? What would it cost them?

How can anyone have such hatred towards another creature? They see someone crushed, they crush him lower. They see someone in distress, they say, “It’s none of my business.”

And when do these people attend? When do they extend themselves for others? When there is profit to be had, plain and simple. Calling ourselves Christians, we try our best to live in love according to our ability, because we know that “he who lives in love lives in God” (1 John 4:16) and “whoever loves his brother lives in the light… but whoever hates his brother is in the darkness” (1 John 2:10-11), and yet we somehow are able to provide ourselves with reasons why we should withhold our love from this or that person. “Why should I help him after all he’s done to me?” or “Let her learn for herself what I had to go through!”

Christ help us!

Why doesn’t our own past suffering soften our hearts towards those suffering now? Do we think by handing over a five-dollar-bill we can satisfy the justice of God? Does making a party for our friends and being generous to those from whom we expect benefits or praise make up for our callous hearts?

We draw near to the time of Christ’s resurrection, or rather it draws us near, the Father draws us near to His Son, if we will let Him. We confess, “All is forgiven in the resurrection,” echoing the teachings of the fathers. We shout at the end of the midnight service of Pascha, “Epikranthi! It was vexed!” speaking of Hades’ state when it discovered it had tried to hold the uncontainable God, and “Anesti Christos! Christ is risen!” speaking of the single event in the universe that has annihilated annihilation.

Are we willing, at last, to rekindle in us the only fire worth having, the only flame that never goes out? “Come, receive the light from the unwaning Light!” Though in this world of darkness that Light still shines, without being put out, yet also without being grasped, can we walk in that Light? Can we live in love? Or is our love going to grow colder? “Upon those who walked in darkness, a Light has shone” (Isaiah 9:2).

Φωτίζου, φωτίζου, ἡ νέα Ἱερουσαλήμ, ἡ γὰρ δόξα Κυρίου ἐπὶ σὲ ἀνέτειλε. Χόρευε νῦν καὶ ἀγάλλου Σιών…

Patience, generosity and meekness

You complain that your life is 'rough and rugged.' But whatever we do is always like that. Where there are men, there are passions, narrow-mindedness, selfishness, conceit. Thus it is all the more necessary for us to maintain ourselves at a certain depth, to keep in mind the all-embracing, final goal before us, to destroy in ourselves all that is petty and trivial: then we shall find it easier to suffer with the faults of others. O God, send us patience, generosity and meekness. We are working, not for ourselves, but for God: and therefore all conflicts will be settled, not through our own great efforts, but through God's wisdom.

— Fr Alexander Elchaninov, The Diary of a Russian Priest

The hearing of the Word

Father Stephen's words came to me this morning as a drink from that well that springs unto life eternal that the Lord offered the woman of Samaria. I can't help but quote most of what he wrote, but if you want to read everything, here is the link. Italics in the following text are mine.

I am convinced after years of preaching and listening to preaching that the bulk of Scripture has become lost to our ears. We hear it, but fail to “hear” it. And I do not mean this merely in the moral sense (doubtless we fail to be “doers” of the word). Rather, I am aware of a kind of dullness, of seeing a very narrow set of things that become the lens through which we see and understand. We read amazing statements as though they were commonplace, and we make commonplace that which should be utterly astounding.

Much of my conviction on this matter has come in the last 12 years or more and my immersion into the services of the Orthodox Church. These services, long and with ample “hymnography” that is but a poetic commentary on the Scriptures and doctrines that surround any particular feast, are probably the richest surviving engagement with the Word of God to be found in a 21st century Church. Here no Reformation has occurred and reduced all Scripture to a “riff” on Justification by Faith, or a subset of Calvin’s paradigms. Here no Enlightenment has shown with its darkness of doubt and obfuscation.

Instead, there is a constant wonderment at the Scriptures themselves, as if the hymnographer were discovering something for the first time or had found a rare gem to share to any willing to listen – and all in the form of praise and thanksgiving to God.

It is true to say that in Orthodoxy, “Theology sings.” It is possible to be lulled into a near trance as the choir or chanter utters mysteries to God and to miss treasures that should truly astound. But careful attention is always rewarded with something you never considered.

I am further convinced that our modern complacencies have made us deaf to the form and shape of Scripture so that we listen like sceptics and frown like Pharisees. In our modern context most people have either been shaped by fundamentalist literalism; by modernist historical criticism; or by nearly nothing at all. In each case the Scriptures will not sing – they will not yield up their treasures.

…

The inspired (I know no other word) imagination of the early Church that took the “Apostolic Hypothesis,” as St. Irenaeus would call it, and fashioned the framework on which the Old Testament would be read, is the same early Church that gave us the Gospels (inspired indeed) and the other writings of Scripture. Their treatment of prophecy is not obvious. Where is the three day resurrection prophesied (only in Jonah’s sojourn in the belly of the whale – now that is inspired interpretation)? The writers of the New Testament believed that everything in the Old, when read rightly would yield insight into the Messiah and the mystery of our salvation. But their creative insight (again, I believe it is inspired) is far removed from the flat-footed nonsense that we hear out of modern fundamentalist “prophetic” scholars, whose reading of the Old Testament is almost as poorly constructed as the 19th century false prophecies of the book of Mormon! Neither bear any resemblance to the treatment of prophecy found in the New Testament.

And thus I return to my original point. We have become deaf. We listen with ears either hardened by modernist scepticism, or by a false literalism that has substituted Darbyite nonsense for the Apostolic faith, or reduced Scripture to delicate harmonizations. None of them have the boldness and audacity of the patristic hymnographers who stood in the proper line of succession, proclaiming the faith as it had been taught and received and continuing to expound its mysteries.Thank God that somewhere in this modern world, you can still stand and listen to the wonders of our salvation, sung and unraveled before the unbelieving heart of man. Glory to God who has so loved mankind!

— Fr. Stephen, Glory to God for All Things

"The boldness and audacity" of the fathers, who are described elsewhere as "notoriously holding to the faith once delivered to the saints" is the mark of biblical, apostolic and orthodox Christianity, the Orthodoxy that I affirm and in which I hope to finish my race. Grace, peace and courage, brethren, as we now enter into the week of the mysteries of Christ's last week before His passion. Let's pray for each other as we go to meet the Lord on the hill of our own Calvary, and after the three-day burial, find ourselves together, in the light, awakened to gaze upon His likeness.

Now the hour has come

for the Son of Man to be glorified.

I tell you most solemnly,

unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies,

it remains only a single grain;

but if it dies,

it yields a rich harvest.

Anyone who loves his life loses it;

anyone who hates his life in this world

will keep it for eternal life.

If a man serves Me, he must follow Me,

wherever I am, My servant will be there too.

John 12:23b-26a Jerusalem Bible

Have mercy, Lord

Yahweh, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for help,
do not stay deaf to my crying.
I am Your guest, and only for a time,
a nomad like all my ancestors.

Psalm 39, verse 12

Psalms for the 26th Day: Psalm 119, verses 105~176

Nun (verses 105-112, Jerusalem Bible)
Now Your Word is a lamp to my feet,

a light on my path.

I have sworn to observe, I shall maintain,

Your righteous rulings.

Yahweh, though my suffering is acute,

revive me as Your Word has guaranteed.

Yahweh, accept the homage that I offer,

teach me Your rulings.

I would lay down my life at any moment,

I have never yet forgotten Your Law.

The wicked have tried to trap me,

but I have never yet veered from Your precepts.

Your decrees are my eternal heritage,

they are the joy of my heart.

I devote myself to obeying Your statutes—

compensation enough for ever!

Tav (verses 169-176, Jerusalem Bible)
Yahweh, may my cry approach Your presence,

let Your Word endow me with perception!

May my entreaty reach Your presence;

rescue me as You have promised.

May my lips proclaim Your praise,

since You teach me Your statutes.

May my tongue recite Your promise,

since all Your commandments are righteous.

May Your hand be there to help me,

since I have chosen Your precepts.

I long for You, Yahweh, my Saviour,

Your Law is my delight.

Long may my soul live to praise You,

long be Your rulings my help!

I am wandering like a lost sheep:

Come, and look for Your servant.

Ευαγγελισμός της Θεοτόκου

I could not let this day pass unnoticed, even by Romanós the sinner, and so I am posting my favorite painting of the Annunciation to Mary (Greek, Ευαγγελισμός της Θεοτόκου, Evangelismós tis Theotókou), which is commemorated this day. Happy feast day to all whose names are Evángelos and Evangelía, as well as those Mary's who sometimes celebrate their nameday on this feast. Chronía pollá! Many years!
Aside from her virginity, which is an act of God in her life, the Orthodox also see Mary as the first Christian, the first to have received (accepted) the first words of the Good News of salvation, preached not by flesh and blood, but by the angel Gabriel,

Rejoice, so highly favored!
The Lord is with you.
Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favor.
Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son,
and you must name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called
Son of the Most High.
The Lord God will give him the throne
of his ancestor David;
he will rule over the House of Jacob forever
and his reign will have no end.
The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will come
and cover you with its shadow.
And so the child will be holy
and will be called the Son of God.
Luke 1: 28-35 passim

Mary’s response?

I am the handmaid of the Lord.
Let what you have said be done to me.
Luke 1:38

The symbol of Nicæa says that Christ was born of a virgin, and that is what we believe. Something extraordinary about that birth carried itself forward and colored everything in its path, to be sure, and as the early Christians pored over the scriptures (of the Old Testament) they began finding what they felt were prophetic utterances that could be applied to Mary. Hence, the Akáthistos Hymn, written by a convert from Judaism who was a deacon in the Church of Antioch, my name day saint Romanós, which hymn is sung on Fridays during the Great Fast.

Wrong turns

Sometimes, in spite of all your hopes to the contrary, the evening visit of a dear friend can take a wrong turn, and you both find yourselves strangely at odds with you know not what. Still, God is with us, and His Word remains hidden in our hearts, that we might not sin (cf. Psalm 119:11).

And this same kind of mis-chance can afflict not mere visits, but lives shared over many, many years. Despite all your hopes to the contrary, a wrong turn taken early and unknowingly can likewise set you strangely at odds with you know not what, and so with each other.

It's no mistake that the story of Adam and Eve's sin and their expulsion from Paradise should have to this very hour more meaning than all the books on psychology and gender relationships ever written.

This may be the most dangerous time in all of history to be alive and trying to be married and raise a family (unless, of course, you are living in a primitive culture untainted by feminism. or in a Christian isolationist sub-culture).

Despite all your biblical faith and idealism, you may not make it through, unless you both agree to utterly accept (and put into practice) what the Word plainly teaches—giving no accommodation to the new "truth" of the world system—and be ready to suffer for it.

Half-hearted struggles

Forgive me, brothers, but this is not a new post, but one from last December which somehow got taken off the air, and I found it again while doing blog housekeeping. I reread it and decided to post it for today, as it is somewhat appropriate as a topic during the Great Fast. Thank you, brothers, who commented on it when it was first posted. Your thoughts are still there.

As I often see on the cardboard signs held up by people begging at the ends of interstate off-ramps, "Anything helps," the same is true in the macrocosm, such as this call to action promoted by Jeff Goins.
I suppose I can go to the jeweler’s and have them cut off my gold wedding band (my finger has grown too large to get it off, even with soap), sell the gold, and turn in the money to the poor. Better yet, I could sell anything I have that is just an expensive hobby or valuable investment. Who cares about what or who will support me when I am retired? God cares. He will provide.

Basically, I'm a pretty simple person. My "carbon footprint" is more like a hoof print, not very large.
My house looks spacious and empty compared to most others' because I have only the furnishings that are necessary to offer basic hospitality. My electric bill even in winter is under $25 a month. I have a computer, but I don't have TV or any but the most basic appliances, a fridge, a range, a micro-wave. My door is always unlocked when I'm home, and any number of people know they are welcome here. Some just open the door and let out a "Hello! Anyone home?" and if I'm upstairs in my room, I shout back "Come in! Welcome!" as I descend the stairs to meet them.

Saint Basil the Great says, "We are all deceived." That's what came to mind when I read the opening line of this post by a fellow Christian, "it’s only the space between us that allows [us] to hold on to our delusions that the world makes sense." This is the same Church Father who also wrote, "Property is theft."

Yet, we go on living as if we were here for our own benefit, our own enjoyment. The truth is, and I speak for myself, I am willing to be selfless, welcoming, loving and generous to people whom I like. True, I like everyone I meet at first, and only when they have proven themselves difficult to deal with do I write them off, and avoid them. Such are the ways of the fleshly man, proving that though I claim to be "already dead," I am not dead yet.

The struggle goes on, day by day.

Don't fault yourself for your $5 mocha, brother, especially if you are buying it to share moments with a friend. To be with even one friend is to be with Jesus, who says, "the disciples do not fast when the bridegroom is with them" (cf. Mark 2:19). As for living a wasteful lifestyle, Christ has set us free from that, as well as from all our sins, in the Resurrection.

If you live with Jesus, without guilt-tripping yourself into obedience you can attain a lifestyle that is pleasing to Him. How? By knowing that He is with you, not by imagining what He would do or want you to do, and then trying to do it, but by simply doing what you see Him doing. Another way of saying this is, since you and Christ are one, let Him do in you and through you what He always does. Let Him be your practical righteousness, not just your theoretical righteousness.

Remember, Christ is all and in all. He may be asleep in your boat, so in the stormy sea that engulfs your life, cry out to Him, "Lord, save me, I am going down!"

He is faithful. He will do as you ask.

Quid pro quo

The Church as it has existed at least from the times of the late Roman Empire under Constantine has manifested on earth both as
“a mystery with structure”
and a “structure with mystery.”
She seems to fluctuate between these two poles, which are inversions of each other.

A mystery with structure—that is, a mystery (the presence of God among us and all that it produces) with structure (visible activity, real estate, hierarchy, dogmatic decrees)—this is the pole that reflects the Lord’s teaching, “Set your hearts on God’s kingdom first and His righteousness, and all these other things will be added as well.” (Matthew 6:33, paraphrased)

A structure with mystery—that is, a structure (professionalism and legalism among us and all that it produces) with mystery (clergy privilege, laity subjection, sanctimonious activity and false religion)—this is the pole that reflects the Lord’s warning, “I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.” (John 10:1 NIV, see also the rest of the passage, John 10:1-10)

This morning I found an excellent quotation from an Orthodox Church father, one who knows what he is talking about, and this is what prompted my thoughts above.

A man who takes pride in natural abilities—
I mean cleverness, the ability to learn, skill in reading, good diction, quick grasp, and all such skills as we possess without having to work for them—this man, I say, will never receive blessings in heaven, since the man who is unfaithful in little is unfaithful and vainglorious in much.

And there are men who wear out their bodies to no purpose in the pursuit of total dispassion, heavenly treasures, miracle working, and prophetic ability, and the poor fools do not realize that humility, not hard work, is the mother of such things. The man who seeks a quid pro quo from God builds on uncertainty, whereas the man who considers himself a debtor will receive sudden and unexpected riches.

—John Klímakos

I think that what John of the Ladder (Klímakos) is talking about applies particularly to those who seek to serve Christ in the Church as ordained ministers. It goes without saying that the same observations apply to all of us, but in the case of the clergy, it has far more critical significance. His first paragraph reminds me of some Orthodox clergy, and his second paragraph reminds me of the faith healer type Pentecostals you see on television. The first group are so often carried away by the eloquence and seeming relevance of their own words, that they imagine themselves “lords of the whole world.” The second group reaches the same conclusion about themselves, based on the efficacy of their miracle-working powers.

Those who are called to serve the people of God as shepherds must have only one purpose, to follow their Lord and Master Jesus Christ, and to tend His flock as they see Him tending it. Or, as John of the Ladder so aptly put it in a biblical metaphor, “the man who considers himself a debtor will receive sudden and unexpected riches,” that is, he not only plants the seed of salvation in the hearts of the people, but he is thereby assured of his own salvation as well.

A man ought to be very solicitous as to his salvation, for if the whole world were full of men even up to the clouds, if that were possible, and among all these none was to be saved but only one, yet each should follow up his grace so that he might be that one, for to lose heaven is not to lose a shoestring. But woe to us! There is one who giveth and there is none who receiveth.

—Brother Giles of Assisi

A truly great poem

I keep returning to Jim Swindle's poetry blog to reread this short poem, written in memory of a young boy whose brain tumor cut short his life. My blog is supposed to be about discipleship and its cost, not a venue for entertainment, and I am bewildered to know if I am failing the mark. But if speaking strength to the human heart is to minister, and if discipleship includes ministering to others, then perhaps for me to feature a poem like this is not too far off base.

A Child's Death
by Jim Swindle

Too early, we say, taken—
Gone now, much too soon—
This child, still in his morning,
Sunset before noon.

The Lord, though, has his reason—
Hidden from our eyes—
Permitting such short season,
Tender crop for skies.

He doesn't cause the leaving—
This fruit of Adam's sin—
And tempers our great grieving:
The dead will rise again.

Jesus said,

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live...."
John 11:25

For a thousand years in Your sight…