He is eternal Life, and we are His

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.

Psalms for the 14th Day

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

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

God is faithful. He maintains us in our first call, and in our first love. All we have to do is stay close to Him. Here I share with you, brethren, a psalm of a man in his age, and a psalm of the same man in his youth, the sinner but servant of God, Romanós.

Psalms for the 14th Day
71 72 73 74

Psalm 71

An old man's prayer

In You, Yahweh, I take shelter;

never let me be disgraced.

In Your righteousness rescue me, deliver me,

turn Your ear to me and save me!

Be a sheltering rock for me,

a walled fortress to save me!

For You are my rock, my fortress.

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

from the clutches of rogue and tyrant!

For You alone are my hope, Lord,

Yahweh, I have trusted You since my youth,

I have relied on You since I was born,

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

and the constant theme of my praise.

To many I have seemed an enigma,

but You are my firm refuge.

My mouth is full of Your praises,

filled with Your splendour all day long.

Do not reject me, now I am old,

nor desert me, now my strength is failing,

for my enemies are uttering threats,

spies hatching their conspiracy:

‘Hound him down now that God has deserted him,

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

God, do not stand aside,

my God, come quickly and help me!

Shame and ruin on those

who attack me;

may insult and disgrace cover those

whose aim is to hurt me!

I promise that, ever hopeful,

I will praise You more and more,

my lips shall proclaim Your righteousness

and power to save, all day long.

I will come in the power of Yahweh

to commemorate Your righteousness, Yours alone.

God, You taught me when I was young,

and I am still proclaiming Your marvels.

Now that I am old and grey,

God, do not desert me;

let me live to tell the rising generation

about Your strength and power,

about Your heavenly righteousness, God.

You have done great things;

who, God, is comparable to You?

You have sent me misery and hardship,

but You will give me life again,

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

prolong my old age, and once more comfort me.

I promise I will thank You on the lyre,

my ever-faithful God,

I will play the harp in Your honour,

Holy One of Israel.

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

and this soul of mine which You have redeemed.

All day long, my tongue

shall be talking of Your righteousness.

Shame and disgrace on those

whose aim is to hurt me!

[Amín!]

Psalm 73

The triumph of justice

God is indeed good to Israel,

the Lord is good to pure hearts.

My feet were on the point of stumbling,

a little further and I should have slipped,

envying the arrogant as I did,

and watching the wicked get rich.

For them, no such thing as pain,

their bodies are healthy and strong,

they do not suffer as other men do,

no human afflictions for them!

So pride is their chain of honour,

violence the garment that covers them;

their spite oozes like fat,

their hearts drop with slyness.

Cynical advocates of evil,

lofty advocates of force,

they think their mouth is heaven

and their tongue can dictate on earth.

This is why my people turn to them

and lap up all they say,

asking, 'How will God find out?

Does the Most High know everything?

Look at them: these are the wicked,

well-off and still getting richer!'

After all, why should I keep my own heart pure,

and wash my hands in innocence,

if You plague me all day long

and discipline me every morning?

Had I said, 'That talk appeals to me',

I should have betrayed your children's race.

Instead, I tried to analyse the problem,

hard though I found it—

until the day I pierced the mystery

and saw the end in store for them:

they are on a slippery slope, You put them there,

You urge them on to ruin,

until suddenly they fall,

done for, terrified to death.

When You wake up, Lord, You shrug them off

like the phantoms of a waking dream.

When my heart had been growing sourer

with pains shooting through my loins,

I had simply failed to understand,

my stupid attitude to You was brutish.

Even so, I stayed in Your presence,

You held my right hand;

now guide me with advice

and in the end receive me into glory.

I look to no one else in heaven,

I delight in nothing else on earth.

My flesh and my heart are pining with love,

my heart's Rock, my own, God for ever!

So then: those who abandon You are doomed,

You destroy the adulterous deserter;

whereas my joy lies in being close to God.

I have taken shelter in the Lord,

continually to proclaim what You have done.

[Amín!]

Hymns on Paradise

Some stanzas from St Ephrem of Syria's Hymns on Paradise…

Hymn VI

1

The keys of doctrine

which unlock all of Scripture's books,

have opened up before my eyes

the book of creation,

the treasure house of the Ark,

the crown of the Law.

This is a book which, above its companions,

has in its narrative

made the Creator perceptible

and transmitted His actions;

it has envisioned all His craftsmanship,

made manifest His works of art.

Response

Blessed is He who through His Cross

has flung open Paradise.

2

Scripture brought me

to the gate of Paradise,

and the mind, which is spiritual,

stood in amazement and wonder as it entered,

the intellect grew dizzy and weak

as the senses were no longer able

to contain its treasures—

so magnificent they were—

or to discern its savors

and find any comparison for its colors,

or take in its beauties

so as to describe them in words.

4

Paradise raised me up as I perceived it,

it enriched me as I meditated upon it;

I forgot my poor estate,

for it had made me drunk with its fragrance.

I became as though no longer my old self,

for it renewed me with all its varied nature.

I swam around in its magnificent waves;

and in the place that, burning like a furnace,

had made Adam naked,

I became so inebriated

that I forgot all my sins there.

5

Although I was not sufficient

for all the waves of its beauty,

Paradise took me up and cast me

into a sea still greater;

in its fair beauty I beheld

those who are far more beautiful than it,

and I reflected:

if Paradise be so glorious,

how much more glorious should Adam be,

who is in the image of its Planter,

and how much fairer the Cross

upon which the Son of its Lord rode.

7

God planted the fair Garden,

He built the pure Church;

upon the Tree of Knowledge

He established the injunction.

He gave joy, but they took no delight,

He gave admonition, but they were unafraid.

In the Church He implanted

the Word

which causes rejoicing with its promises,

which causes fear with its warnings:

he who despises the Word, perishes,

he who takes warning, lives.

8

The assembly of saints

bears resemblance to Paradise:

in each day is plucked

the fruit of Him who gives life to all;

in it, my brethren, is trodden

the cluster of grapes, to be the Medicine of Life.

The serpent is crippled and bound

by the curse,

while Eve's mouth is sealed

with a silence that is beneficial

—but it also serves once again

as a harp to sing the praises of her Creator.

9

Among the saints none is naked,

for they have put on glory,

nor is any clad in those leaves

or standing in shame,

for they have found, through our Lord,

the robe that belongs to Adam and Eve.

As the Church

purges her ears

of the serpent's poison,

those who had lost their garments,

having listened to it and become diseased,

have now been renewed and whitened.

22

The East has grown luminous with the saints,

with them the West has become brilliant,

the North is raised up by them,

from them the South has learned.

They have ascended to the firmament and opened it,

they have gone down to the sea and explored it;

the mystery that the apostle revealed

in a parable

have they extended to all humankind,

reaching every corner;

all creation has embraced it

to draw strength from it.

23

One of them cleft

the air with his chariot;

the Watchers rejoiced as they met him,

seeing that a body

had lately taken up its abode among them;

and just as an earthly being

ascended in a chariot

and put on splendor,

so did the Lord, in His grace,

descend and put on a body;

He then mounted a cloud and ascended

to reign over high and low.

25

With love and instruction,

commingled with truth,

the intellect can grow

and become rich with new things,

as it meditates with discernment

on the treasure store of hidden mysteries.

For my part, I have loved, and so learned,

and become assured

that Paradise possesses

the haven of the victorious.

As I have been held worthy to perceive it,

so make me worthy to enter it!

Response

Blessed is He who through His Cross

has flung open Paradise.

And you too

Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ.

Before the world was made, He chose us, chose us in Christ,
to be holy and spotless, and to live through love in His presence,
determining that we should become His adopted sons,
through Jesus Christ, for His kind purposes,
to make us praise the glory of His grace,
His free gift to us in the Beloved,
in whom, through His blood, we gain our freedom,
the forgiveness of our sins.

Such is the richness of the grace
which He has showered on us
in all wisdom and insight.
He has let us know the mystery of His purpose,
the hidden plan He so kindly made in Christ from the beginning
to act upon when the times had run their course to the end:
that He would bring everything together under Christ, as Head,
everything in the heavens and everything on earth.

And it is in Him that we were claimed as God's own,
chosen from the beginning,
under the predetermined plan of the One who guides all things
as He decides by His own will;
chosen to be,
for His greater glory,
the people who would put their hopes in Christ before He came.

Now you too, in Him,
have heard the message of the truth and the good news
of your salvation,
and have believed it;
and you too have been stamped
with the seal of the Holy Spirit of the Promise,
the pledge of our inheritance
which brings freedom for those whom God has taken for His own,
to make His glory praised.

May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed, to bring you to full knowledge of Him. May He enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope His call holds for you, what rich glories He has promised the saints will inherit and how infinitely great is the power that He has exercised for us believers.

This you can tell from the strength of His power at work in Christ, when He used it to raise Him from the dead and make Him sit at His right hand, in heaven, far above every sovereignty, authority, power, or domination, or any other name that can be named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. He has put all things under His feet, and made Him, as the ruler of everything, the Head of the Church, which is His Body, the fullness of Him who fills the whole creation.

This, then, is what I pray, kneeling before the Father, from whom every family, whether spiritual or natural, takes its name:

Out of His infinite glory, may He give you the power through His Spirit for your hidden self to grow strong, so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith, and then, planted in love and built on love, you will with all the saints have strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth; until, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, you are filled with the utter fullness of God.

Glory to Him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine; glory be to Him from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 1:3-14, 17-23; 3:14-21 Jerusalem Bible

Why the Lord came

The Lord came, not to do something easy, but to do something true. He came to bring truth and life. By His obedience unto death, He rent from top to bottom the veil of corruption and rebellion that separated us from God, and He opened to us the entrance to the Holy of Holies of freedom and unity. He did not come to unite men among themselves by making light of their differences. He did not come to exhort us to mere "peaceful coexistence." He came to unite us, through Himself, with His Father and our Father. "For through Him we have access in one Spirit to the Father" (Ephesians 2:18).

He did not aim to leave behind Him a group of individuals working well together, for even sinners do this: they cooperate with sinners (cf. Matthew 5:47). He came to give us rebirth and to bring a new unity, one which is trinitarian; to bring a peace which passes all understanding, His own: "My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you" (John 14:27).

…He came to give Himself, to distribute His flesh: "Take, eat My Body which is broken." He came to give His Spirit: "Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:22). So He created the little flock of the twelve, the Church. He brought to the world the dynamic force and health of the Trinity, the leaven of the Kingdom which will leaven the three measures which represent the whole of creation (cf. Luke 13:21).

What the world needs is the trinitarian flock, regardless of whether it is small or large. Its greatness is to be found in its trinitarian nature. What man thirsts for is eternity, "even a little part of eternity"; and this is what we have here. To have the character of the Trinity is to be eternal. "This is eternal life, that they know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3).

— Archimandrite Vasileios

Lowly love

This my 888th post… Ιησους Χριστος… εις αγιος, εις Κυριος εις δοξαν Θεου Πατρος, αμην!

If we see all others, Christian or not, as persons to whom Christ comes, without judging them by denominational labels—in this I am following Mother Gavrilía Papayánni who in turn is following Christ—then our appearance to them will be the same welcoming smile that Christ flashed at us when we drew near to Him.

If the Church is to be true, then no one of its adherents should ever close the door on anyone. As for making a mockery of sinners, why cast challenges in their faces? We cannot do that to others, and I confess I have done the same many times in my life, but I repent, I repent, and if I fall into it again, I repent again. We can't do that to others, because that puts them on the defensive, and makes them shut their doors and windows a little tighter to us and, if we are really following Jesus, to the Truth.

We dissuade our children from destructive or nonsensical preoccupations by showing them better things to do with their time, not just superior in some moral sense, but truly better, something that even they can see is more worthwhile. Flaunting the superiority of Orthodoxy or any faith in the face of another is counterproductive and demeaning. If something is obviously true, everyone knows it, even those who don't like it. For example, no need to tell homosexuals that their lifestyle based on perverted sexual acts is wrong. They know it already. They want to try to convince us that it is right and even a moral equivalent of normal sexuality. This will never happen, because there is a fundamental goodness and desire for things "as they must be" inside of everyone, even homosexually practicing persons. If they could be normal, they would be, but they find themselves faced with an impediment they cannot get over, so they give in. This is an extreme example, but I am giving it for this reason…

I used to work in a company full of lesbians. They knew I was an Orthodox Christian. They knew I believed homosexuality is wrong. They also knew they could come to me for comfort and healing when they had run themselves ragged, or were crushed by a broken love affair. They knew I wouldn't judge them. They knew I would just calmly and gently ask them to confess to me, and then pray for them to be delivered from what was hurting and defeating them. I didn't need to spell it out. They just felt my arm around their shoulders as we sat together on the loading dock (it was a cabinet shop), and heard my voice and saw my smile and my eyes peering at them to see if they were recovering. They knew I loved them whatever they did, and that I wanted the best for them. Did any of them ever give their lives to Christ and seek release? I didn't see it happen, but it is only my privilege to love a soul into healing, not to deliver it from death. That is between the Lord and that soul. But what if I simply stood apart from them as from filth and did nothing, or worse yet, laughed at their sin, and mocked them? What then?

If I can do this with a gay or lesbian person, I can do it with anyone.

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy might, all thy mind, all thy heart and all thy soul, and thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Let your words ring true…

…and do not let them appear to create a divide between the systematic and holistic aspects inherent in Orthodox Christianity and all other Christianities.

We can be thankful for what we have accepted from our holy and pious ancestors in the faith and from the saints with whom we are living and working out our salvation today, and we can also praise them.

The opportunity lies in our invitation extended to those who haven’t yet “seen the true Light… received the heavenly Spirit… found the true faith.” This is no scolding, but an invitation to greater love,

that greater love which causes us to lay down our lives for our brothers. And who are our brothers? People even closer to us than our neighbors, and yet even between them we draw no distinction.

We are all met by Christ Himself, regardless of whether we are Orthodox or not, even Christians or not. We are all met by Him and offered eternal life, by the Savior of the world who did not let His divinity overwhelm His humanity.

In the same way, let’s walk together in the seamless faith which confesses no tear, moving through the world as the One Body of Christ wearing His undivided garment, that which soldiers wagered to win.

“He who does not gather with Me, scatters,” says the Lord Jesus Christ, who does not notice anything about us other than our need. Just as holy apostle Paul says, we are unspiritual. The Spirit in us must take us to Himself.

The sheep who were wandering aimlessly without a shepherd have been gathered and are being gathered by the Shepherd of souls, who is presenting us to His Father, the heavenly King.

Come let us worship, and fall down before Yahweh our Maker, for we are the people He pastures, the flock that He guides. Keeping our eyes on Jesus, following Him closely, other sheep follow, if only we give them room.

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