Like her

On the drive home from work today, I happened to notice a homeless person slowly pushing his cart uphill along the busy avenue. It’s been overcast for several days, and temperatures cool, and this young man—for he looked to be about 30 years old—was clad almost in a kind of autumn uniform and seemed rather too grand to be a homeless person, a street person. He seemed to be a prince among them, if he was, or perhaps he was homeless by choice. His hair was long and black, wavy and tied in a ponytail behind his back. He wore at least a leather jacket, though he seemed to have other black leatherwear about him, decorated with silver studs. He wasn’t pushing a grocery cart, but some kind of wheeled cart, that was filled with personal effects, but neatly. Then, he stopped and instead of pushing, switched to pulling it behind him, and that was all I saw of him as the traffic signal turned green, I drove off.

The impression that stayed in my mind’s eye like the remnant of a bright light, was that of a man pulling all that he owned behind him, as his portable home, everything that he had collected so far in his life. It made me see that everyone is doing what this young man seemed to be doing, dragging his life behind him, consisting as it did of whatever he’d been able to scrounge or snag from the world’s clutches, only we do it on a larger, apparently more permanent, and systematic scale. The psalm verse came to mind, “I am Your guest, and only for a time, a nomad like all my ancestors” (Psalm 39:12b Jerusalem Bible). I saw in a flash that we are all street people, all homeless—at least when we are racing against time to acquire as much of this world’s goods, even intellectual property, as we can. Like ancient Egyptians, we are saving to adorn the interiors of our own tombs, which we hope will be safe from grave robbers.

It made me consider the saying of brother Giles of Assisi. “This world is this kind of field: he who has a larger part of it has the worst part.” Although I try to live simply and frugally, having only enough to offer help and hospitality, I also fail. We are people who think that it will benefit us somehow to accumulate goods more and more as we are heading for old age and the grave. This just doesn’t make sense! It seems to me that we should live our lives wanting not to amass more for ourselves, but to give away as much as we can. This would be much easier to do if we saw even a few others doing likewise, but because we seem to live surrounded by people whose god is their bank accounts, their houses and cars and fine clothes, we are afraid that we’ll lose our footing in the rat race, and slide away into oblivion, or worse, into real homelessness.

Yet the Truth is clear, that God is our provider, and the more we give away, the more He gives us. I’m not talking about ‘prosperity gospel’ pledges and tithes that enmesh our hopes with the mechanistic god of the whore of Babylon, so that like her we come to resemble corpses with death masks, with powdered wigs and faces, trying to ape youth and disguise decay. No, not that! If we are Christians, faith, not religious conventions, is what God has given us as His first gift which, if we accept it, will make us recipients of such abundance that we will rejoice to give it all away. Speaking of earthly treasures, Francis of Assisi cried, “All of it! All of it, my brothers! Throw it all away! It will only make you miserable!” Can anyone deny that he is right?

We still have to live, of course, and do best with what God has provided us. We cannot and probably should not go about as completely moneyless beggars, that is, unless we are one of those rare souls whose call is to do exactly that. But unless you are called to that lifestyle, to imitate it is just another possession, another decoration for your future tomb. Like Mary of Nazareth, the Theotokos, we should live our lives in such a way that when they look into our tomb, they will find nothing, not a trace, nothing even to show that we passed this way. Like her, we have found the greatest Treasure, the Son and Word of God, whose friendship is the greatest wealth, who clothes us with His righteousness so that we can claim absolutely nothing as our own. Like her, we “have left houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children or land” for His sake. Repaid a hundred times over? And also inherit eternal life? How can we not? For He is eternal Life, and we are His.

Such were my thoughts, as I drove home, and I wanted to share them with you, brethren, not that they are anything special, but just as an encouragement to you, and to myself, to “set your hearts on His kingdom first, and on His righteousness, and all these other things will be given you as well” (Matthew 6:33), and like the saints of all times, especially like Mary of Nazareth, the mother of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to free ourselves from the work of “gathering into barns,” but to go forward to meet the Lord as she did, having set aside the cares of the world, and so like her, to receive the King of all, and be received by Him. It may be true that there are ‘no pockets in a shroud,’ but for those who trust in the Lord with all their might, there need be no shroud, as Jesus says, “Unbind him, let him go free!” (John 11:44)

NOTE: By the way, it is virtually impossible to find an Orthodox ikon of the Virgin Mary alone, without Christ, except for those in which she is depicted before His birth, such as the Annunciation ikon, or that of her own birth. The reason for this, is that Christ makes her the Theotokos, the "God-birthgiver" and her ikonographic presence is never sought apart from Christ, who makes her what she is.

Creatures

None of us have seen our birth. None of us remember it. Hypnotists cannot take us back to relive it. Mystics cannot dig it out of our akashic record or our primeval brain cells where it might be stored. Our births are simply beyond our memory.

Not all of us will see our death. True, some will see it and experience a brief and intense moment, of fear, of impact, of explosion, of searing light or heat, and maybe some pain. Then, darkness, again for a brief moment, but by then time will have ended for us.

If we are fortunate, we will die in the company of loved ones, fully conscious in our passing, feeling the final tender touch of our relatives on this side, hearing their farewells, intermingled with the first touch of our relatives on that side, hearing their reassuring words.
Light will yield to light.

Each of us is a visible between two invisibles. We are creatures not of choice but of chance, but only on the human side. Very little is in our control, very small knowledge within our grasp. Some of us hop, skip and jump through life, others hobble, plod along, warily creeping, hoping to escape, but from what?

The gift of life can only be imagined by those who have not risked death, but not appreciated. For them the unseen is not proved by the seen, as the poet says, but remains an unattainable but unwanted mystery. Indifference clothes the soul that seeks not the unmade Maker.

Again, they are foxes who cannot eat the wild grapes, and so call them sour. Unable or unwilling, nine healed lepers head off without giving thanks for their purification. And one undoubtedly born blind betrays the Creator of his newly socketed eyeballs to His enemies.

Chronos drains away, moment by moment, like lean cows devouring fat, like poor ears of corn consuming rich, and the gainsayers still tread unknowingly the slaughterhouse floor, their feet wading in their own blood. Man in his prosperity forfeits intelligence. He is one with the cattle doomed to slaughter. (Psalm 49:19-20 Jerusalem Bible)

What cannot be shaken

The church that ceases to speak the word of Jesus ceases to be the Church. No amount of pious rationalization can cover up that fact. Of course, I am speaking here of the official spokesmen, the governing authorities, the teachers, the pastors, even the missionaries. Since the Church claims that there is no such thing as an ‘invisible’ Church, only a ‘visible’ one, and that the institutional Church is none other than that, it brings upon itself the judgment of God for
“holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power” (2 Timothy 3:5).

Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”
John 9:41 NIV

But the Church is not its leaders, its spokesmen, its policy makers, its dogmatists or its ministers. To think that would be to make the Body all head, though only in the human sense, for the Church has no other Head but the Messiah, Jesus. “Christ is the Head of the Church, His Body, of which He is the Savior” (Ephesians 5:23). Instead the Church is in reality the people of God, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord” (Romans 10:13), “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God”
(1 Peter 2:9).

No, this Church is not ‘invisible’ at all, because it is “a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden” (Matthew 5:14), yet to the world rulers, both outside and inside the borders of the ‘visible’ Church, it remains invisible, because neither can bear the sight of it. The apostates of Christ say of this Church, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” and the world rulers coyly and obligingly respond, “Shall I crucify your king?” “We have no king but Caesar,” the leading priests shout back (John 19:15). This is because the Church of Christ, hidden in the side of Christ as His unwedded Bride, receives the same mockings, the same blows, inflicted on Her divine Master.

No, brethren, “Do not be afraid, it is I,” says the Lord Jesus (John 6:20), of whom it is declared, “the One who calls you is faithful” (1 Thessalonians 5:24), and will not fail you. You are indeed those to whom He declares, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). This is not only a promise, but an accomplished fact. The Father ‘has been pleased,’ and why? Because of His Only-Begotten Son to Whom He says eternally, “You are my Son, today have I begotten You” (Psalm 2:7), because of that Son in Whom we are hidden, His “dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places on the mountainside,” to whom He sings, “let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely” (Song of Songs 2:14).

The Church embraces all those, and only those, whom the Father draws to His Son. Jesus says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:44). This knowledge comes before all human reason, especially that which tries to build on a different foundation, to replace the Wisdom of God, which says, “No one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11). The people of God, built on the word of Jesus, and doing what He commands, has found an unsinkable ark, that is, faith. “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). This is the Church that speaks the word of Jesus, and does it.
There is no other.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:

“My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.

You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.” The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words ‘once more’ indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”

Hebrews 12 NIV

Building pyramids for Pharaoh

Be careful not to squander your valuable strength on superfluous and vain cares, exhaust yourself physically and aimlessly dissipate your intellect and, then, give God your tiredness and yawns at the hour of prayer, like the sacrifice of Cain.

It is only natural that your inner condition will be like Cain's, full of stress and sighs from the devil, who will be next to you.

The one who neglects his prayer and duties unjustifiably and works all the time (building pyramids for Pharaoh) is estranged from God, becomes wild, constantly and cruelly hitting his guardian angel with kicks of disorder, until he finally drives him away.

Then, he accepts the devil as his ruler, who immediately makes the following changes: (1) abolishes the prayer rope, replacing it with worldly worry beads and (2) does away with spiritual study completely, replacing it with worldly magazines and newspapers.

In the end, the devil conquers him and he suffers internally and desires to be entertained, like Saul did, when he was alienated from God and demon possessed.

Spiritual study greatly warms the soul and disperses the cares of the day, and then, with the soul liberated and transferred to its spiritual divine atmosphere, the intellect moves about undistracted.

— Elder Païsios

The elder's word is for the individual Christian, but what of churches, large groups of people who say they are 'the Body of Christ'? Can what is applicable to us as individuals be applied to large groups of people? Or perhaps the application is still to an individual, but to one who has exerted his will over others. Perhaps it is still applicable. And do the pyramids for Pharaoh have to be secular structures? What if they are copies of things heavenly? Or, what if even temples to God can still be idolatrous monuments to mortal man's pride and rebellion? The tower of babel comes to mind, when I read things like the following...

This is just an image, not an actual video.

Solomon's Temple in Brazil would put Christ the Redeemer in the shade

One of the world's largest and most controversial Pentecostal churches has been given permission to build a $200m (£130m) replica of Solomon's Temple in Brazil's economic capital, São Paulo.

The 10,000 capacity "mega-church", which is the brainchild of Brazil's Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, will also house a replica of the Ark of the Covenant and be built according to "biblical orientations".

According to the Estado de São Paulo newspaper, planning permission was granted this week and church officials say it should be completed in four years.

"We are preparing ourselves to build the temple, in the same mold as Solomon's," the church's leader and founder, Bishop Edir Macedo said in a televised service, posted on his blog. "[Solomon's] Temple … used tonnes of gold, pure gold ...We are not going to build a temple of gold, but we will spend tonnes of money, without a shadow of doubt."

Macedo said his church had signed an $8m contract to import stones from Israel. "We have signed the contract and commissioned the stones that will come from Jerusalem, just like the ones that were used to build the temple in Israel; stones that were witnesses to the powers of God, 2,000 ago," he said. "It is going to be a knock-out, it is going to be beautiful, beautiful, beautiful — the most beautiful of all. The outside will be exactly the same as that which was built in Jerusalem."

The 55-metre high temple, the equivalent of an 18-storey building, would tower over central São Paulo and be "twice the height of [Rio's] Christ the Redeemer statue", the blog said.

The project, drawn up by Brazilian architect Rogério Silva de Araújo, includes a car park for 1,000 vehicles, TV and radio studios, and classrooms for 1,300 children.

Founded in Brazil in 1977, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God claims an estimated 8 million followers in 180 countries worldwide, with a TV channel and a free newspaper, the Folha Universal, which it says has a weekly print run of 2.5m. The church claims its leader's blog receives up to 4m hits a month.

The church supports so-called "prosperity theology" – by which acts of faith including donations are rewarded with material wealth.

In 2009, São Paulo's public prosecutor accused 10 senior members of the church, including Macedo, of siphoning off billions of dollars of donations to buy cars and property. Macedo, who denied the charges, owns a $45m private jet.

Yes, "the outside will be exactly the same as that which was built in Jerusalem."
But what about the inside?

The Song of Songs

The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's.

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.
Your love is more delightful than wine;
delicate is the fragrance of your perfume,
your name is an oil poured out,
and that is why the maidens love you.
Draw me in your footsteps, let us run.
The King has brought me into his rooms;
you will be our joy and gladness.
We shall praise your love above wine;
how right it is to love you.

FIRST POEM

I am black but lovely, daughters of Jerusalem,
like the tents of Kedar,
like the pavilions of Salmah.
Take no notice of my swarthiness,
it is the sun that has burnt me.
My mother's sons turned their anger on me,
they made me look after the vineyards.
Had I only looked after my own!

Tell me then, you whom my heart loves:
Where will you lead your flock to graze,
where will you rest it at noon?
That I may no more wander like a vagabond
beside the flocks of your companions.

If you do not know this, O loveliest of woman,
follow the tracks of the flock,
and take your kids to graze
close by the shepherds' tents.

To my mare harnessed to Pharaoh's chariot
I compare you, my love.
Your cheeks show fair between their pendants
and your neck within its necklaces.
We shall make you golden earrings
and beads of silver.

While the King rests in his own room
my nard yields its perfume.
My Beloved is a sachet of myrrh
lying between my breasts.
My Beloved is a cluster of henna flowers
among the vines of Engedi.

How beautiful you are, my love,
how beautiful you are!
Your eyes are doves.

How beautiful you are, my Beloved,
and how delightful!
All green is our bed.

The beams of our house are of cedar,
the paneling of cypress.


I am the rose of Sharon,
the lily of the valleys.


As a lily among the thistles,
so is my love among the maidens.


As an apple tree among the trees of the orchard,
so is my beloved among the young men.
In his longed-for shade I am seated
and his fruit is sweet to my taste.
He has taken me to his banquet hall,
and the banner he raises over me is love.
Feed me with raisin cakes,
restore me with apples,
for I am sick with love.

His left arm is under my head,
his right embraces me.

I charge you,
daughters of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles, by the hinds of the field,
not to stir my love, nor rouse it,
until it please to awake.


The Song of Songs, taken as a whole book, is the gospel of the Old Testament. True, it does not contain specific prophecies of the coming of Messiah, but it sings of His nature, and the nature of His undying love for humanity, and that too is prophecy, of the most intimate kind.

The book can be read on at least three levels. For the man and woman united in marriage, it can be read and fulfilled in their physical and spiritual intimacy. This is commanded and consecrated by the God who made us. For the lover of God, it can be read and fulfilled in the personal relationship with the Lord, which is not only possible but also commanded, as He has called His lovers to be holy as He is holy. Finally, in the historical sense, the book contains the good news, the gospel of God's love for humanity, starting with His love for His hereditary people Israel, and then, through their denial and diaspora among the nations, finishing with His love for His spiritual Israel, all who call on His name, both Jew and Gentile.

My reading this morning was the book of Song of Songs, and as I read and prayed, I remembered my own salvation history clinging to many verses, as tufts of wool are snagged on thorn bushes when a sheep passes near them, to remain as evidence that it has passed that way. I wanted to copy the whole book into my blog, but I realised that what I wanted to do isn't really possible using this kind of media. The text is from the original Jerusalem Bible, and I have not put in the verse numbers, but the selection runs from chapter 1, verse 1 through chapter 2, verse 7. Reading parts of it also from the NIV version, I understand that different versions divide up the speakers differently, and because of that, sometimes the translations are slightly different. I am using little images and coloring the text to distinguish the Bride, the Bridegroom, and the Chorus. Perhaps I will continue posting the other four poems comprising this book in the future, but for now, just the first.

Life as it is

Forgive me, brethren, for this is a very long word, and I forgive you too, if you decide to pass on it, and I especially thank you, if you turn it off and go read your bible.

Today, I was reminded by my son Johnny, that the Obon お盆 festival was taking place at the Oregon Buddhist Temple, and that’s an event I like to attend, or at least visit even briefly, as I did today.

The temple itself has made a complete cultural shift to American religious ways: The sanctuary is a converted Protestant church with a raised stage at the front, and pews, complete with prayer books and hymn books in racks on the back sides, a piano at the front, even a Buddhist flag on the right, and an American flag on the left. The Buddhist flag looked something like the rainbow flag of the ‘diversity’ movement, but the stripes go the other way, both ways actually. That’s really diverse!

This temple follows the largest Buddhist sect in Japan, the Jōdo Shinshū 浄土真宗, or ‘True Pure Land School.’ I started going to the Obon festival because of seeing it in a Karate Kid movie years ago, and I’ve also been attracted to East Asia for most of my life, at least from my teen years. The Obon festival is something like Memorial Day, or the Christian feast of All Souls. It’s about remembering and honoring the ancestors.

I quote from the handout I received at this year’s festival…

The origin of Obon is traced to Buddhist legend. One of Buddha’s disciples, Mogallana, was concerned about the whereabouts of his deceased mother. With his extraordinary sensory powers, Mogallana saw that his mother was suffering in the realm of the Hungry Ghosts. In sympathy, he sent her some food, but when she tried to eat, the food burst into flames. Mogallana went to the Buddha for help. The Buddha told him to bring offerings of food to the monks who were in retreat for a period of meditation and study during the monsoon season. On the 15th day of the 7th month, Mogallana brought the offerings to the monks. Upon doing this, Mogallana saw that his mother’s sufferings were relieved. He was so happy that he danced with joy. Everyone around him joined in his dancing.

In the Jodo Shinshu sect of Buddhism, we do not believe in ghosts. We see this legend as an example of the joy one experiences in seeing life and death clearly. An important part of this joy is to remember and appreciate those who have gone before us. Obon is a time when relatives and friends visit gravesites and columbariums of loved ones. Offerings of flowers and incense are made and special temple services are conducted.

Obon is a joyous time that expresses an acceptance of life as it is.
It is a Celebration of Joy.

I can tell that this is exactly what Obon is to the Japanese, a celebration of joy, because their happiness, expressed even in comical and slapstick ways untypical of ordinary Japanese behavior, is so very obvious. Like many things in Asian culture, we sometimes come upon what we least expect. It would be like seeing someone break dancing at a funeral dinner. We are so solemn in the presence or the memory of death. For many Asians, it’s different. And that surprises me, in view of the fact that they have no certainty about the state after death, or do they?

When I read what they wrote, that “Obon is a joyous time that expresses an acceptance of life as it is,” it made me ask myself just what people think life and death are. We think we know what life is, and some of us think we know what death is as well, and in detail. I’ve always been attracted to and intrigued by what poet Walt Whitman wrote,

I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men and women,
And the hints about old men and mothers, and the offspring taken soon out of their laps.
What do you think has become of the young and old men?
And what do you think has become of the women and children?
They are alive and well somewhere,
The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,
And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it,
And ceas'd the moment life appear'd.

All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.

Has any one supposed it lucky to be born?
I hasten to inform him or her it is just as lucky to die, and I know it.
I pass death with the dying and birth with the new-wash'd babe,
And am not contain'd between my hat and boots…

Two lines in particular speak to me, each in a different way, “to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier,” and “[I] am not contain'd between my hat and boots.”

The first speaks with a hopeful voice, the second with defiance. I don’t know about uncle Walt, but for me it is the indefatigable, undefeatable fact of the resurrection of Christ that loads each of these lines with meaning. Reading his entire book ‘between the lines’ I hazard a guess that uncle Walt could only have written as he did, had he known the One that we confess as Jesus Christ. Perhaps he didn’t confess Him openly, simply because he was, after all, a Quaker, one of those who hold Christ too precious to try to imprint Him directly on others’ minds, being satisfied to drop hints here and there by their actions more than their words.

Back to what grabbed me in the festival handout, the phrase “an acceptance of life as it is,” and laying aside now my musings, what is the hard rock reality of this saying?

It seems to me that one word from Jesus is more than enough to cut the question to the quick. “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:22-23 KJV).

In Greek, single is απλους (aplús), evil is πονηρός (ponirós), related to the word πόνος (pónos), pain, and therefore they are an unusual pair to be contrasted. The normal word in Greek for evil or wicked is κακός (kakós), and we note that πονηρός is Christ’s word to designate satan, ‘the evil one,’ at the end of the Lord’s Prayer, απο του πονηρου, ‘[deliver us] from the evil one.’

What ‘life as it is’ can only mean is ‘what we see of it.’
Hence the word of Jesus, speaking of that eye which is single, or diseased (as another translation has it). Every human soul is desperately seeking joy and is quick to fasten it onto anything that gives at least a little hope, even to nonsensical things. Whole cultures can be animated by a single thought, like that single eye, and the same is true of the diseased thought, like that diseased eye.

It’s pitiful to seek and convince oneself to find joy in pain, in what causes the ultimate pain, πονηρός, and that is, death, because you cannot see its opposite, that which is απλους, and that is life, the single life that gives true and even eternal life to the world. Yet, even in this pitiful state, people dream dreams that give waking hints of the real ‘life as it is,’ which still eludes them.
Why does it elude them? They’re afraid to really awaken.

“Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
Ephesians 5:14 NIV

It’s ironic how the one form of Buddhism which has become the largest in Japan so minutely mimics the truth that is in Christ. So much of true doctrine is already there in a foreign garb.

What makes it foreign? The culture?
No, not at all. It’s the substitution of a myth for the reality. It’s much the same in India, where the monotheistic but mythological religion of Lord Krishna has evolved or perhaps even received theological truth but attaches it and attributes it to a mythic god who never actually existed. Certainly, there was a man called Buddha in history, and so also was there a man called Shinran 親鸞, the monk of the Tendai school who founded the Jodo Shinshu sect.

This Pure Land religion of Amida Buddha, a mythic being who never existed, mimics the theology of Christianity. Other Buddhists try to attain liberation by jiriki 自力 (self-power), in Christian terms, works. The Pure Land Buddhists insist that man is too hopelessly corrupt and sinful, and must rely on tariki 他力 (other power), in Christian terms, grace.

Pure Land Buddhism is considered the ‘easy path’ because one is not compelled to perform many difficult, and often esoteric, practices in order to attain higher and higher mental states. Jesus said, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29 NIV). He really said this, because He really exists.

All the various esoteric practices of the other Buddhists are considered useless to the followers of Shinran. Only the constant remembrance of Amida Buddha, especially by repeating his name (though not as a work, only as an offering of thanks to him), will bring salvation, entrance into the Pure Land. Again, holy apostle Paul writes, “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” (Ephesians 2:8-9). In essence, the monk Shinran had come to the very same conclusion about mankind’s sin as had the apostle Paul. His only mistake was not knowing Whose grace, Whose tariki, it was that would bring him and his followers to the Pure Land, Paradise.

This is not a condemnation of Buddhism or the Japanese culture, but a testimony that the Word of God is He who enlightens all men, as holy apostle John declares in his gospel. There is nothing in Buddhism or any other religion that is seeking joy that is inimical to the gospel. In fact, it is the gospel, the good news, and that alone, which is ‘the desire of the ages,’ of all people, in all times. All the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve cry out with the same voice, “Save us!” and all to the same Holy and Mighty and Immortal, the Being, even when they do not know Who He is. And He hears their cry, and He calls out to them, “I am coming!” and to us, “Whom shall I send?” As the Lord Jesus commands, “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matthew 9:38).

He is the completion and the fulfillment of every people’s ‘old testament’ and will take each one up to glory with Him on high, but only when they allow their past to die, so that He can raise it and them to Life immortal. That is when they will finally be able to really see ‘Life as He is.’

Holy Transfiguration

Just as gold is found, washed out of a great amount of sand and it amounts to very small grains like millet, so also out of many human beings few will be approved.

For those who seek the Kingdom are clearly manifested, while those who merely wear its word as a beautiful ornament are the ones most conspicuous.

For the same reason those are manifested who are seasoned with the heavenly salt and who speak out of the Spirit's treasures.

The vessels appear in whom God is pleased and to whom He gives His grace. There are also others, who, with much patience, receive the sanctifying power in many different ways, as God wishes.

— Abba Makarios the Great

On America's God

An American theologian, Stanley Hauerwas, “whose theological writings occasionally veer into the area of paleo-orthodoxy,” has pronounced some strong criticisms of Christianity in the United States which I read first at Fr Milovan's blog Again and Again, and then where it first appeared online at The Living Church News Service, ‘reaching out to Anglicans everywhere.’ It is a very long article, longer than I am willing to post, but here are two of many interesting passages (in the first paragraph Hauerwas is actually quoting another author and then amplifying)…

In an era of Western ascendancy, the triumph of Christianity clearly meant the triumph of the states of Christianity, among them the most powerful of modern states, the United States. Though religions have survived and flourished in persecution and powerlessness, supplicants nevertheless take manifestations of power as blessed evidence of the truth of faith. Still, in the religiously plural society of the United States, sectarian faith is optional for citizens, as everyone knows. Americans have rarely bled, sacrificed or died for Christianity or any other sectarian faith. Americans have often bled, sacrificed and died for their country. This fact is an important clue to its religious power. Though denominations are permitted to exist in the United States, they are not permitted to kill, for their beliefs are not officially true. What is really true in any society is what is worth killing for, and what citizens may be compelled to sacrifice their lives for.

America is a culture of death because Americans cannot conceive of how life is possible in the face of death. Freedom names the attempt to live as though we will not die. Lives lived as though death is only a theoretical possibility, moreover, can only be sustained by a wealth otherwise unimaginable. But America is an extraordinarily wealthy society, determined to remain so even if it requires our domination of the rest of the world. We are told that others hate us because they despise our freedoms, but it may be that others sense that what Americans call freedom is bought at the expense of the lives of others.

Much of what Hauerwas says in his address (for that's how it was originally presented) made me uncomfortable. I left a comment on Fr Milovan's post, and I want to share it along with the article with those who are interested in such things. Here's my comment…

Very, very heady stuff here, lots to think about.

Stanley Hauerwas, the author, says a lot of seemingly very true things here. I felt a little bit self-defensive for America as I read his words, even while I suspected his observations could very well be correct. I still feel somewhat defensive of "Americanism," at least what I mean by it, even when his criticisms seem accurate. I also have had the experience of hearing a speaker (for example a clergyman) say a lot of true things in a sermon while still not speaking the Truth. I don't think that's what Hauerwas is doing here, but I still feel a little uncomfortable with his overall assessment of religious America.

As a Christian who does not believe in denominations ("there is only one Church and it cannot be and never has been divided") I tend not to accept most of the nit-picky naming and dividing of Christians and especially of theologians into this or that category. Having researched Hauerwas, I see that he is considered a "paleo-orthodox" as opposed to a "neo-orthodox" theologian, but I feel that such naming and categorizing is misleading. It is this kind of thing that all Christians need to forego, need to abandon, and turn not to systems with human philosophical boundaries into which they can divide themselves, but instead return to that heartland of faith whose borders have been defined not by themselves, but by the non-Christian world around them, and which reveal their essential unity rather than their ephemeral differences.

I don’t know if I have expressed myself very clearly here, but these are things I feel very strongly about, which I have written up in many different ways in my own blog, trying to visualize for myself and others how one Orthodoxy, even a nameless Orthodoxy, is the heritage of all believers and followers of Christ, and how this can be achieved by a deliberate effort on the part of all to cut through the spiritual materialism of appearances and grab hold of the undoubtable, living tradition of Christ and His holy apostles, available to us through a divine icon accessible to all, the holy scriptures.

The modern ‘schools’ of Christian thought and what many think of as ‘theology’ are tools rather of further division and controversy, and more than mere tools, weapons actually, that must be cast aside, so that not only ‘theologians’ and ‘thinkers’ can become reconciled in the unity of the Mind of Christ, but the whole Christian people as well, many of whom are very close to it, maybe even holding to it, in spite of what their bellwethers want to believe.

Name day saints

On Sunday after church I went to visit Ethos bookstore to pick up some rolls of charcoal (for my censer) and a couple of crosses of San Damiano, one for a gift and one to mount on my front door. I’m always looking for bargains. I used to run this store and know how we do it. If something doesn’t sell in 6 months, it goes on the bargain shelf. The problem is, sometimes it even sits on the bargain shelf way too long. What? No takers, even if we give it away?

Well, Sunday was different for an ikon of Saint Elefthérios which I had noticed months before, and which kept drawing my eyes every time I’d walk past it. Once I almost bought it—it’s a large ikon and at full price would be too much. This day it drew me once again. I picked up the ikon and stared into the saint’s face as I always do. Something about his look just captures me. It’s too real, or something. I flipped the ikon over to check the price again. Eighteen dollars! Well, that’s a lot of money, but I bet Christina will knock even more off. So I picked it up and walked over to the counter.

Christina, a woman who even in her 90’s looks glamorous—she was a salesperson in a high end women’s boutique most of her life and is still the queen of fashion—was still not looking well, unusual for her. She was grieving deeply the loss of a young granddaughter, and not that long after the loss of a favorite nephew. She looked tense as she counted up my bill, letting me have everything for $20 even, a good chunk off the sticker prices. We talked a little, I trying to console her, but finally words seemed inadequate, so I just bent over and gave her a gentle hug and kiss, and said “Take care of yourself, dear. I’ll see you next Sunday.”

I brought Elefthérios home and looked around for a blank wall to hang his ikon. On the wall inside my bedroom just above the light switch and next to the door hangs the ikon of my name day saint Romanós. He was an early Christian saint, a Jew of Antioch, and is known as the Melodist, because of his musical and lyrical gifts. I identify with Romanós both for his Jewish ancestry and his music. I also bear his name to honor my Dad, whose name is also Roman (the Polish equivalent). I’ve already told the story of how I got the name Romanós elsewhere.

Between the door to my bedroom and the door to my spare room, where I keep a bowflex machine for my workouts, hangs an ikon of my other saint, my birth day saint, Theódoros Stratelátes, Theodore the General, who is commemorated on February 8. If I had been named after the saint of my birth date, I would be Theodore. I’ve always been deeply drawn to him and his story, and so I claim his as another of my nameday saints. Yeah, you can call me Theo, if you like. I hung his ikon between the doors, so that as I enter my workout room, I can remember him and his example.

Where was I to put the new ikon I’d just brought home, of my new saint, Elefthérios? I looked and looked at the ikon of the general. “Hmm,” I thought to myself, “let’s see what it looks like to have Elefthérios where the general is, and elevate Theódoros Stratelátes to the place above the doorway to my ‘phys ed’ room. That way I can still honor him by passing below his ikon.” And that is what I did, and both ikons look very happy. At sunrise, the sunlight falls on them as they’re on an east-facing wall. Since my new saint seems to have adopted me as his living ikon, I thought I should look into his story. It’s amazing, and I am glad that he chose me, and I will remember to honor him whenever I see his ikon. It feels like having a long lost brother in the house. So now, I have another nameday saint, so you can call me “Lefty” (short for Leftéris, demotic Greek for Elefthérios, koiné Greek, just a different dialect).

Now, a little bit of the testimony of Elefthérios, who suffered martyrdom in the reign of Emperor Hadrian…

Elefthérios was a child prodigy in Rome. His widowed mother, Anthía, had accepted Christianity with all her heart. It followed, therefore, that the boy's talents would be applied to Christian endeavor, and he was as quick to embrace Christ as he was to acquire knowledge. His enormous capacity for learning so accelerated his intellectual pace that he outdistanced his teachers, one of whom suggested to Anthía that she take this marvelous boy to bishop Aníkitos, who after witnessing the boy's intellectual prowess took him under his personal supervision.

Elefthérios, acquiring before he was twelve the equivalent of a college education, was tonsured a reader at the age of thirteen. At fifteen he was ordained a deacon, at seventeen a priest, and at the age of twenty he was ordained a bishop in Illyricum, the youngest bishop ever consecrated up to that time.

As bishop, Elefthérios promoted Christ vigorously, even at a time when the merciless persecutions not only made it difficult to win and hold converts, but also at a time when the gravest danger was in being a bishop. Oblivious to this threat, he was acclaimed as the brightest luminary of Christian Rome since the apostles. Even those whom he failed to convert held him in the highest esteem, and with this immense popularity he grew bolder and thereby more offensive to the state. This outstanding theologian, orator and benefactor of Christian and pagan alike was finally mentioned to Emperor Hadrian, who ordered his arrest.

Ordinarily the emperor would have questioned him personally because of his high station, but fearing a reprisal because of his popularity, Hadrian dispatched his most trusted centurion, a man named Felix, to bring the bishop before the prefect of Rome for trial and punishment. The centurion decided that rather than run the risk of seizing Elefthérios publicly he would seek out his place of worship and arrest him there. After some time Felix found the well-hidden church and entered just as the bishop was commencing a sermon. The oratory of Elefthérios was spellbinding, and when the sermon was over Felix came forward and asked to be joined to Christ.

This done, Felix exposed his purpose and apologized for having come to the house of God with treachery in his heart. He was easily forgiven by Elefthérios, who thereafter instructed the centurion to return him to the prefect lest judgment be passed on both of them. With a great deal of reluctance Felix took the bishop to what appeared to be a sealed fate, offering along the way to help him escape. But the bishop would not hear of it.

With the emperor conspicuous by his absence, Elefthérios went on trial before the prefect, but not even his oratorical power could save him. The bishop was cast into prison, tortured, and put to death. He died for Christ on December 15.

She points the Way

Mary of Nazareth was invited to the wedding in Cana. Her son Jesus and His disciples were also invited. This shows that if you invite Jesus into a situation, anything can happen. This shows that Jesus will come to as mundane a thing as a village wedding. This shows that no one and nothing is unimportant to Him.

Things don’t go as expected. They run out of wine. Mary turns to Jesus and says, “They have no more wine.” She knows her own son. She knows what He can do. She bore Him, she raised Him. It wasn’t as if she was going to force Him to do anything, but three things are being demonstrated here.

She is His mother, so as a son He will honor her by doing what she asks. She trusts Him to do what is right. Without even having to ask Him, she merely brings it to His attention, saying in effect “Thy will be done” in this situation. She believes that He is the Son of God, and that He can do all.

His response, “What has this got to do with you and me?” draws out the fact that what happens next is the result of man (in this case woman) and God working together. When He says, “My time has not yet come,” demonstrates that faith can even move mountains, “If you undo your will for the will of heaven, heaven will undo its will for yours.”

John has to record this miracle, because it’s the first of the miracles of Jesus, and the first of anything always shows the characteristics of all the rest: A miracle of Jesus always has an objective beyond itself. It is never done just for show, as a magic trick is. It never does anything that is not already being done in the natural world, though in a different way, as regards time or sequence.

In the miracle of changing the water to wine, the objective beyond itself was to reveal the Son of God to His disciples, to initiate their faith in Him. The miracle was not made into a spectacle. Only the man who brought the new wine to the master of ceremonies knew exactly what had happened. The disciples would have noticed something had happened, and the truth of it would have circulated only among them. Water does not normally change into wine without going through several more natural steps: being absorbed into the grape vines, being stored in the grapes, being fermented with the juice of the grapes, and being stored in wineskins to preserve it from changing further into vinegar. Jesus merely eliminates some of the steps.

Is the focus on Mary or on her divine Son Jesus of Nazareth in this story? Or is the focus on the miracle? Each part of the story—a true story by the way, not a didactic myth—is of equal importance.

What is important here is to understand that nothing happens without the synergy between man and God. If God willed to do all without man’s participation, we would not have been created. God has chosen to include us in His divine plan so intimately that He comes to dwell in our midst, not a spiritual presence only—a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night—but as one of us. When He comes to live as one of us, He follows His commandments perfectly, even to the point of honoring his mother. What draws Him into participation in the life of man is… our invitation, our trusting His righteousness, our bringing to His attention our concerns, our belief that He can do all, our doing what He asks of us.

As always, Mary of Nazareth, the first Christian, shows us the way, shows us her Divine Son, who He is, what He does, what He wills. That is why one of the ikons of Christ’s humanity showing His mother holding him in her lap and pointing towards Him is called Οδηγήτρια, Odigítria or “She points the Way.”
True to her prophecy, we are among those generations who call her “blessed” till the end of time, and for good reason. She has followed Him to the uttermost, and so He has glorified her in Himself, just as He will glorify all those who, imitating her faith, will be glorified above the denizens of mere earth, and raised on high, will live in the family of the Holy Triad forever.

Mary of Nazareth

Everyone has heard of and perhaps even seen the film Jesus of Nazareth, by Franco Zeffirelli. First seen in the United States as a television broadcast on Easter Sunday, April 3, 1977, it has been a standard ‘religious’ movie ever since, though its extraordinary length, over 6 hours, makes it difficult to watch in one sitting. It is still my favorite movie about Jesus, although I have reservations here and there. One of them—and I still have a hard time understanding why they did this—is in the scene in which Christ bequeaths the keys of the Kingdom to the apostles, saying “and upon this rock I will build what I must call my church.” Since when is Christ in a position where He ‘must’ do anything? It sounds like a sheepish capitulation to some kind of political correctness, and who, if not Jesus, was the ultimate in political in-correctness? But that’s alright. Other scenes amply make up for it, especially the scene where Christ tells the parable of the prodigal son, and Peter standing in the doorway of Matthew the tax collector’s house but refusing to go in “to his blood sucking enemy” is self-consciously caught in the web of divine logic, realising that he is the older, dutiful son, that Matthew is the prodigal, and that Christ is the all-loving and all-forgiving father. The words of his Master, and His direct eye to eye look, draw Peter completely out of himself and directly to the Lord, of whom he asks forgiveness with tears in his eyes, and adds, “I’m just a stupid man.” At that moment, watching the scene my entire being dissolves as I realise, with Peter, that Christ is the Pantokrator, and I am less than nothing, and yet He loves me. Who says movies can’t be ikons?


Today is the first day of the Theotokos Fast, and it’s making me think more and more about Mary of Nazareth, the mother of Jesus, whom all generations have called blessed, even to the point of calling her the Mother of God, some going even further and calling her the All-holy, as Anthimos of Chios has, who is quoted as saying, “Our Panagia is the salvation of the whole world, she is the only mother for all Christians. She has much love for the human race, especially for sinners. Let us all run to the Panagia in every circumstance to ask her, to have her as our aid.” The title ‘Panagía’ means, all-holy.

How and why does he call her ‘all-holy’? Surely he doesn’t mean that she is a goddess. Neither did Mary die on the cross for our salvation. She is not the God-woman as Jesus is the God-man. She is still just a human being. Everything that Mary is and has is received from her Divine Son, yet she gave Him something too—her flesh—so that He could become man and be the Life of the world. There is no doubt that their lives interpenetrate in a way that no one else’s does, but Mary is simply not the mediator between man and God, not even between man and her Son, who is God.

For there is only one God, and there is only one mediator between God and mankind, himself a man, Jesus Christ, who sacrificed Himself as a ransom for them all.
1 Timothy 2:5 Jerusalem Bible

Mary of Nazareth, a Jewish girl, daughter of Joachim and Anna, a virgin of Israel living at home with her parents, but already betrothed to a man named Joseph.

New Testament apocrypha, like the Protevangelion of James, written long after the events they try to describe, have painted a very strange tale around this young woman. So strange, that the Church, though accepting some of the tale, has disposed of the rest, and even recommends that these apocrypha not be read by the average Christian. Why? We are told that everything of value that is in these ancient writings has been extracted by the Church and for the Church, so we don’t need to bother ourselves. The fact that even what the Church does accept does not square with the history or the customs of the Jewish people in the time of the 2nd Temple does not seem to matter. The hymns and ikons of the Church are simply true, because they tell the story so well.

My favorite painting of the event in salvation history called evangelismós in Greek, and ‘the annunciation’ in English, is very realistic. I know that it isn’t an ikon and I don’t pretend that it is. Nevertheless it speaks to me, and very profoundly, of the human reality of the Theotokos, Mary of Nazareth, a Jewish girl in the working class, following the commandments as befits a woman of Israel, devout, praying, believing what her parents taught her and what she sang and heard sung by the other women, conversant with the psalms as with her own heart, so much so that without premeditation she could compose and sing a new psalm after hearing her kinswoman Elizabeth greet her, “Of all women you are the most blessed…”

It is night. She is awakened and is sitting pensively on her bed, a blanket hanging between her sleeping area and the rest of the house hiding her from view. The rest of the house is in darkness, but not where she is sitting. A strange light is burning before her, emitting words. We would expect that when the bodiless power appeared, she would have retreated in fear, as she does in the film Jesus of Nazareth. But no, she sits quietly, listening. The angel (for now we know what it was, and even though we cannot see it, she can) has to tell her “Do not be afraid,” but only after he has called her ‘highly favored’ and said, “The Lord is with you.”

In what way is she favored? She trembles. How is the Lord with her? What does He want of her? When he reveals it, she says ‘yes’ to God, even though it will put her in the worst position imaginable. She is a virgin. She has never known a man. She is now pregnant. How to tell father and mother, how to tell her betrothed Joseph. What will people think?
“A virgin will bring forth a child, who will be called Immanuel, God among us…” Was she comforted by this prophecy?

In the Bible, there is only one mention of an angel coming to speak to Mary, and it is this one. But there is also another tradition that the same angel came and spoke to her at least once more (some say more than once more). The angel, whose name we have come to know as Gabriel, visited Mary when she was back in Jerusalem in her old age, still living with John, Christ’s beloved disciple, into whose care He gave His mother. The angel spoke good news to her again. It would not be good news in the ears of some, but it was to her. In just a few more days, her Divine Son would come and take her home to be with Him forever.

You would think that the evangelist John, with whom Mary lived for the remainder of her life, would have told us about her life after Christ’s ascension, that he would have written and told us about, not only the angel’s first bringing of the good news, but also the second, yet he is silent. How much he knew about her, how much he knew from her about Jesus! Yet he limits his writing of the good news to the person and words of his Lord and Master, even admitting that he was ‘barely scratching the surface,’ and that “if all were written down, the world itself, I suppose, would not hold all the books that would have to be written” (John 21:25). And in Christ, the same is true of Mary of Nazareth, and of every one of us who follow Him with her. The whole world could not hold all the books that could be written, but it doesn’t have to. Our lives are hidden with Christ in God, but when He who is our life is revealed…

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Colossians 3:1-4 NIV

Ει ουν συνηγερθητε τω Χριστω τα ανω ζητειτε ου ο Χριστος εστιν εν δεξια του Θεου καθημενος, τα ανω φρονειτε μη τα επι της γης, απεθανετε γαρ και η ζωη υμων κεκρυπται συν τω Χριστω εν τω Θεω, οταν ο Χριστος φανερωθη η ζωη ημων τοτε και υμεις συν αυτω φανερωθησεσθε εν δοξη.