Where would we be without Judas?

I run the risk of alienating some with this title, though it is a 'matter of fact' question, and not intended to startle, shock or annoy. This question is not to be taken lightly either, because Judas Iscariot was, after all, one of Christ's disciples and, yes, even an apostle during His earthly ministry. Not only this, but Christ loved him as He loved His other followers, and He would lay down His life for him too, if he had only accepted it. "I have watched over them and not one is lost except the one who chose to be lost, and this was to fulfill the scriptures" (John 17:12 JB).

Yet, here's the mystery:
That someone whom Christ called, someone He loved, someone who loved (or thought he loved) Christ and even believed in Him, was capable of turning his back on the Light of the world, to go back to the darkness "spiritually called Sodom and Egypt" (Revelation 11:8), and sell the One he called his Master for a mere "30 shekels of silver" (Zechariah 11:12). How could anyone do such a thing, and why? The poetry of the Greek services blames it simply on avarice.
Could it be that simple, is it that simple, even today?

What I'm thinking about is this "spirit of Judas", if it can be named at all, and how it has followed us all through history since that Day like the proverbial Kartóphilos, the "wandering Jew," except that it's no Jew, but our Christian brother who sometimes worships with us one day and betrays us the other six.
Where would we be without him?

As a young man just born again in Christ, I was sent to work in a furniture factory where the conditions were extreme. (See Love without limits.) The man I worked under was a true Christian man and my first mentor, 32 years my senior. Working with him was an unlooked for blessing but, thank God, we worked together in an environment where co-worker abuse and even near homicidal violence often erupted. Thank God? Well, yes, thank God!

It was working there and living, sometimes, in fear of getting beaten up or ambushed on the way home (I rode the bus in those days), that began to draw my life into the Word of God, that filled the pages of the Book I carried with me everywhere every day with living words. It was living in "the world as a jungle" that opened the words of holy scripture to me, making me read about my own life in its pages so that, after so many years, I could honestly say, "my name is written on almost every page." Sometimes I still wonder, is that what is meant by saying our names are written in "the Lamb's Book of Life" (Revelation 13:8)?

Back to my question, where would we be without him?

I know a company where the good workers, the productive workers, are kept in subordinate positions and paid low wages. Periodically, they are called into closed door meetings by their supervisors, accused of misdemeanors (many of them unjustified or hearsay), and threatened with termination. Of course, these workers are never terminated, but they are bullied and humiliated so they don't dare to ask for raises or promotions, since they're conditioned by this treatment to consider themselves "lucky to have a job." This is, of course, criminal, but it's happening here in America and throughout the world every day.

What really pains me is when it is managers who are or claim to be Christians, or who are non-practicing offspring of Christian parents, that do this bullying. I remember how disappointed I was the first time a Christian employee I had hired and mentored made a conscious choice to subordinate the Truth in a situation and fall in line with the corporate cult. I knew this happened to unbelievers, but I really had a hard time accepting that Christians could act this way. That incident happened years ago, and it's been repeated since then. I've historianed my memory, and I notice the pattern has always been there, in my lifetime, and throughout history. The "spirit of Judas" is still with us. But what for?

It squeezes us out of the world system, those of us who are trying "to keep our robes from being dirtied" (Revelation 3:4). It makes us "still hold firmly to Christ's name and not disown our faith in Him"
(Revelation 2:13) even when we live or work "where Satan is enthroned". It gives us the opportunity to suffer with Christ, "to keep His commandment to endure trials" (Revelation 3:10), and thereby be kept "safe in the time of trial which is going to come for the whole world, to test the people of the world."

Right up to the end, to the last second of the last minute of the last day, the lure of riches will continue to seduce men, even those whom Christ has called.

"It is not those who say to me, 'Lord, Lord,' who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven."
Matthew 7:21

Easy as 1-2-3

To view the three links at the head of this post, just use the back button to return here and click the next link!

How can God
help us
to see God's miracles?
Just say Yes!

The arrangement of the previous three posts, all quotes from saints that I love and respect, was apparently no accident. Their words are my witnesses, they are my apologia for a life in Christ that others find fault with. As I said in a recent post, I have nothing new to say, and I'm guilty of every evangelical crime in the Book—at least I'd like to be! But Father Alexander, Elder Païsios, and Mother Gavrilia, three of my Orthodox friends, I hope will speak up for me when I am judged by men, if not by God.

Just say Yes

The only thing I know that I have permanently—and I do not speak out of conceit or imagination—is what I have day and night, wherever I may be… It is first, faith; second, faith; third, faith. That's it!

There's nothing else I can say to you. It animates and guides my life.

Since I have faith, if someone were to come and tell me, "Will you go with me to Lebanon?" I would answer, "Yes!"

"How can you say 'yes' just like that?" they may ask.

"Yes, I say 'yes' because I believe that if it is not for my own good, God will arrange things so that the very same persons who invited me will say 'no'. For instance, there may be some delays with formalities which will prevent our departure, and so on. I have seen that occur in my life, regularly, these last fifty years—not just for one or two years, as I am now ninety-one years old! I wish you all to reach that age!"

I read in the Gospel again and again something extraordinary.

Jesus comes and says to the Apostles, "Leave your fishing nets now, and follow Me!" If they had answered, "Who are you? Why should we lose the day's work? Why should we lose our profit? Where will you take us? What will you do with us?" If they had answered so, what would they be? They would have remained in darkness. They said 'yes' to a Stranger Who came and told them "Come, leave everything, and come!" Why? Because they had faith in God and were expecting the One, Him Who would tell them "Come!" And this is how it began. Whereas if they had said, 'No', what would have happened?

Mother Gavrilía Papayanni

To see God's miracles

When someone leads a simple life, humbly looks upon himself and feels the need of God's providence, then he puts aside all his concerns and worries and has faith in Him. When God sees that his soul totally depends on Him and not on itself, He will mercifully protect it. Thus, this soul will intensively experience the sense of God's providence and feel contented.

God wants our souls to be simple, without many thoughts and too much knowledge, like an infant that expects everything from its parents. That is why the Lord said, "If you do not become like children you will not be able to enter in the Kingdom of God." We must humbly pray to God and admit our weakness, and this way we will be able to free ourselves from our concerns and worries. Just as our shadow closely follows our body, God's mercy will follow our humility and faith.

When we believe in God and have trust in His fatherly providence and concern, then we do not think of ourselves. Instead, we know that God is aware of all our needs and looks after our problems, from the simplest to the most serious one. The only thing we must want is to allow God's love and providence to function in our lives, when He wishes to and in the way He thinks is best for us. When we have this kind of faith and inner disposition, we are able to see God's miracles—God Himself—who is always close to us under all circumstances.

Elder Païsios of the Holy Mountain

How can God help us?

Constantly, each day, each hour, God is sending us people, circumstances, tasks, which should mark the beginning of our renewal; yet we pay them no attention, and thus continually we resist God's will for us. Indeed, how can God help us? Only by sending us in our daily life certain people, and certain coincidences of circumstance. If we accepted every hour of our life as the hour of God's will for us, as the decisive, most important, unique hour of our life -- what sources of joy, love, strength, as yet hidden from us, would spring from the depths of our soul! Let us then be serious in our attitude towards each person we meet in our life, towards every opportunity of performing a good deed; be sure that you will then fulfill God's will for you in these very circumstances, on that very day, in that very hour.

Alexander Elchaninov

The Diary of a Russian Priest

Let no man seek his own…

…but every man another’s.
(1 Corinthians 10:24)

That is the principle of the saints of God, both in times past and at the present time, from all ages to the end of the world. That is the principle of all true social structure. On that principle can be founded a human society that is the most perfect, the most pleasing to God and the happiest. It is a saving principle in every kind of difficulty that people today encounter, against which they struggle without victory and without hope.


A holy soul cares for his neighbor, either close at hand or far away.

He cares where the homeless will spend the night, how the hungry will be fed, with what the naked will be clothed.

He cares and he prays for the salvation of his neighbors; that their hearts may be filled with love towards God, that their minds may be directed towards God, that the wicked may turn from the paths of wickedness, that the hesitant may be confirmed in the Faith, that the firm may persevere, that the departed may behold the Face of God, that the living may be written in the book of Life in the Kingdom of Light.

Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic

Bad alliances

If you make yourself a friend of the world,
you cannot be God’s friend.

The father of the prodigal son was a pious and God-loving man, because only such a man could have allowed his sons their full freedom and still receive one of them back with love and honor (and unself-conscious forgiveness) after he had abused his freedom and defiled himself.
The boy was ‘brought up right.’

A good marriage and family life does not come about by magic. It begins with mutual faith. It grows and is sustained by mutual faith and faithfulness. And it continues blessed and good right to the end only as long as the first faith and trust is preserved inviolable.

What can destroy it? Wanton breaking of the commandments, adultery, bearing false witness, theft and covetousness—all of which stem from forgetting who is the Lord: “I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.”

I have passed on to my sons what my dad passed on to me, “If you are looking for a good wife, you don’t go looking for one in bars. You go to church and find one.” Though I did not exactly follow his instructions—he told me this after I was married—I followed a slightly different route, which is maybe even better: Pray to the Lord to send you a wife, and then watch closely whom He sends to you, just as you watch for friends that He sends you, and one of these will be your wife. It goes without saying—or does it?—that you are living a life of discipleship when you make this prayer.

How simple all of life is, especially family life and our circle of relationships, when we follow the commandments! Jesus says, “If you love Me, you will follow my commandments.” That’s what I’m talking about, not some rigorous set of rules whether biblical or self-improvement-minded, neither of which will ever succeed in really making anyone better. “Branch out for a time they may, but when you look for them they will be gone, vanished like their vain hopes.” Christ is at once the source of all righteousness, the way to it, and the achievement of it. “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” says Jesus (John 14:6).

Even being raised in a pious family, a son does not become a Christian by magic. As soon as he reaches the age of independent decision, his parents’ faith no longer speaks for him the moment he makes the conscious choice to take the world for his friend, instead of God. Even after making that choice, he can repent, and God our heavenly Father, can and will take him back. But just as the father of the prodigal son did not restrain that son from the choices he made, neither does God, or the parents, restrain him or constrain him. They may advise, they may teach, they certainly must pray for him to turn away from his friendship with the world, but they cannot force him to give it up. He must want a better friendship.

So it is, that a man who has taken the world for his friend no longer thinks of God, except of the punishment that he will receive after everything he does is done and his life is over—if there is a God.

Instead of memories of a youth spent in innocent fun and friendships, he finds memories only of riotous relationships, infidelities, the waste of his virginity and that of one he might have truly loved and been wedded to, and years of profound loss: spoiled friendships, missed opportunities, time and money wasted, and all for what? Now the mercy of God can only drive him to even more miserable states, to where he, like the prodigal son feeding unclean animals (pigs) and not even being given their slop for food, finds himself at another point of decision: To utterly despair, or to return to his Father.

Rather than flee from house to house, or from town to town, to escape his brown girls and their offspring, like John of Puritania this son needs to turn around and start traveling Home, facing East. The road back will look very different than that same road looked when he made the world his friend and followed it to the place of bondage. By making God, in Christ, his Friend, the road will turn into something very, very narrow, but he won’t mind that, because he will hear his Friend going ahead of him, saying, “Follow Me.”

Keep our eyes on Jesus

Though the Bible says that Jesus was followed around by multitudes of people, we don't know exactly how many in most cases, and the overall population of Palestine was probably three million or even more at the time of Christ, yet I doubt His audiences were usually as large as the following that most modern evangelists and church leaders have. On a percentage basis, Christ's message probably didn't attract more than 5 or 10 percent of the total population of Palestine. Most of Christ's authentic followers are even named in the New Testament. Just because Jesus was followed by crowds doesn't mean that they were even attracted to Him for the right reasons. Notice, there were only about 120 disciples immediately after Christ's ascension. It wasn't until the day of Pentecost that 3000 were added, all in a single day.

What we see in America and other modern cultures is a population that by and large functions out of religious habit, or out of irreligious habit. Most of us are educated enough to know who Jesus is and what the claims of Christianity are, and we just don't need it. I have known people who are very intelligent and yet joined groups like the Mormons because their system works, that is, because it helps create successful (I won't say healthy) family life, even though they did not believe the mythology or any of the doctrines behind it! They just go through the motions. Since they think it's impossible to know what is really true, they grab what simply works. In the same way, our sophisticated but spiritually dead neighbors can afford to be indifferent, and actually slightly hostile or contemptuous, to Christ, because they've made it in life. As an old issue of Zapped Comix put it, ‘Who needs God? I'm independently wealthy!’

Churches are stuck at all different places.

Some churches function as though they're still in a Christian world—in fact, whether or not they admit it, I think that's what most Christian churches do. They are usually houses of worship surrounded by unbelieving neighborhoods that they never even attempt to evangelize, and most of their members live elsewhere. This, I think, is a remnant of Christian world mentality. All the territory has been claimed, so there's no need to go out on forays into the hinterlands anymore. But the reality is, it just isn't so.

Still, can you imagine your church, pastor or preacher and congregation, engaging in the evangelization of the neighborhood around your house of worship? How would you do it? The neighbors aren't primitive barbarians living in the forest, to whom you can bring the light of the gospel to teach them not to keep killing each other and stealing each other's wives, or material improvements to alleviate their low standard of living. No, for most of us, the neighbors are pretty affluent and either belong to a church out of habit, or take Sunday morning walks with their significant others, their families, their pets—or just sit in the sun room with a cup of coffee, a sweet, and the newspaper, until they fall asleep. After all, Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest!

Even those of us whose house of worship is in a working class or poor neighborhood, what would it cost us as congregations and as individuals to evangelize our unsaved neighbors? Here, we really could do some good, we might find souls that need help, but the help might be too costly for us to deal with. And then, the resistance when it occurred might not be very polite.

Our world is in some ways very different from the world that Jesus and the first generation of disciples lived in. For one, they lived in an age when if you could convince a man of something, he would give in. Nowadays, you can convince a man, but he won't give in. If he loses the debate, he protects himself from being convinced by saying, ‘It's just your opinion.’ Our education system has failed us miserably, by taking away the certainty that there is a real right and real wrong, not only in morality, but in almost every other field, sometimes even in science.

I think the Church—now I'm using capital C, meaning all of us—has to realise that its responsibility is not to save the world, but to make disciples of all nations, starting with ourselves, and that making disciples cannot mean that we force our neighbors to be disciples. If it turns out that where we live, our honest efforts to share the good news with those around us are met with disinterest or hostility, so be it. But if it turns out that the good news is given a hearing and is accepted by some, but at a price, we have to be content to share what we have with them.

Finally, we have to realize that the populations around us are not static, but that there is a rate of turnover. That means, we don't just try to evangelize for a year and then give up. The work of sharing the good news goes on 24/7 because it is the responsibility of every member of the Body of Christ. There is no one who cannot share the good news with at least one person, acquaintance or stranger, every day. The sharing needn't be an overt or verbal testimony. It can be so much as a smile or a kind word outwardly, and a prayer ‘Lord, give the increase’ inwardly. Since it is all the Lord's work, not ours, we needn't trouble ourselves either about the visible results. This is where, I think, we run into trouble the most, and to no avail. Stop looking at ourselves and weighing our efforts against our accomplishments, stop looking at our works.

It's not about works, it's about grace.

Keep our eyes on Jesus.

The witness

God is one, and God is sovereign. No one can dispute that. On that everyone who even thinks about God can agree. Those who know God as well as think about Him can add even more details. God is forgiving. God is merciful. Those who follow God as well as know Him can add yet more. God is among us. God has pitched His tent among us. God is love.

What kind of witnesses are we? Do we witness for the God we think about? Or about the God we know? Or about the God we follow? What? Am I being presumptuous in assuming that all of us witness? Some of us don’t think it’s proper to witness, to ‘get in other people’s faces about religion’ because that’s a private matter? Well, I’m afraid I have to disagree on two counts: All of us do witness, and religion is not a private matter.

What do I mean by saying ‘all of us do witness’?

You can’t hide what’s inside you, as hard as you try, whether what you have inside is clean or dirty, wise or foolish, faithful or careless, whether you are full or empty. Hence, if you don’t believe in God, it shows, and if you do believe, it also shows.

But what is that belief?
An intellectual assent to mere ideas?
A fussy following of traditions?
A braggadocious and cynical otherworldliness?
Or is it, hopefully, based on what the scriptures refer to as faith, that is, trust in the living God?
If your belief is that, it cannot be like any of the other types of ‘belief’ I just mentioned.

We witness all the time whether we speak or keep silence. It’s evident in the flow of our daily life and activity, the way we interact with others, whether they are Christians or not, Jews or not, Muslims or not, Hindus or not, Buddhists or not. Do we treat all of them with the same respect, whether they are of our fold or not?

Why did I include these other groups, even though I am a Christian? Do I think all paths are the same?

No, there may be many paths, but there is only one Way, and that is Jesus. Out of respect for those who seek the God that is the One, the Living, who revealed Himself to the prophets of Israel and finally and fully only in Jesus the Christ. Out of trust in the words of my Master that ‘he who seeks shall find,’ and hoping that they who seek are doing just that, and not merely play acting.

So, we all witness, whether we intend to or not. As for religion being a private matter, I recant. I was wrong. Religion is a private matter, as private as our fantasies. Religion is what we make God out to be when we do not seek Him with our whole heart. Religion is that net we make in which we hope in vain to capture the big Fish, for He cannot be captured, though He can capture us. Religion is being satisfied with approaching God through a veil, so we don’t have to see His face or hear His voice.

Yes, religion is a private matter.

But as for Jesus, He came to His own, and His own received Him not.

Why? Because they were out fishing for God with their nets, half-knowing He could not be caught. They were satisfied to let one man approach the Holy One by passing through the veil, so they did not have to. They would rather say to themselves, ‘Love the Lord with all your heart…’ because they knew it was safe to do so, because they knew He was somewhere ‘up there,’ because they didn’t really believe in the prophet, who called Him, ‘God among us,’ Immanu-El.

I was just thinking what it will look like someday when a young man in love with God, the One, the Living, Him who is among us, is ready to go out and, following Jesus, gather His lambs from among the people who walk in darkness of this world's night. His witness will come out of a heart that does not just think about God, does not just know Him, but actually follows Him step by step. He will be like the Pied Piper who, after luring the rats of Hamelin to their deaths in the river, then led the children of the unrepentant and stingy townspeople through the Gateway into the Mountain, to Paradise.

We know that Mountain. It is called Golgotha, and we know where that Gateway leads.

That eye which is single

Tradition.

In a positive light, the word brings to mind images that speak a sense of welcome familiarity, of comfort, ‘there’s no place like home,’ and maybe of security as well, safety from unwanted change. In a negative light, the word conjures up notions of irrational and oppressive conservatism, ‘it’s always been done this way, don’t ask why,’ and a challenge to personal freedom.

Considered from a Christian perspective, tradition is also viewed both positively and negatively. As one would expect, ancient Christian communities like tradition; ‘reformed’ and modern sects hate it resolutely, basing their rejection on Christ’s indictment of the traditions of the scribes and Pharisees.

Tradition, as it has been handed over to me (for that’s what tradition means, ‘handing it over,’ παραδοσις, parádhosis) is something at once progressive, efficient, practical and effective.

Though many think tradition hidebound, it is actually progressive in the sense of moving us forward without hindrance, without waste, without danger to ourselves or others. Having evolved over time, it is not the product of a single individual or even a small group. It’s not limited either to time or place. For all these reasons it is uncontrollable, and rather than being controlling, which is one of the chief criticisms against it, it liberates. We just go along with it, and with no direct effort on our part, it ploughs furrows in us which it then plants with good seed. It’s when we harden ourselves to it as dry, thirsty soil ironically repels water, that we remain sterile.

When does tradition become the enemy? When it is no longer true to itself, when men of today try to capture it and harness it to their own ambitions for personal power and advantage. In doing so, they actually depart from tradition while they say they are enforcing it. Tyranny then replaces the free give and take from which tradition draws its very life. Again, the paradox that those who force tradition on others are in fact distorting and betraying it. Why? Because tradition is life being aware of itself and living in that awareness, not allowing itself to be eclipsed by temporal demands, not sacrificing truth for the sake of ideologies. Tradition is no ideology. It simply is.

Those who consider themselves progressive and believe most firmly in evolution are ironically the chief opponents of tradition. Yet tradition is the proof of evolution and a demonstration of God’s hand in it.

That God should create things instantaneously and that we should experience these creative acts as evolutionary trails stretching over immensely long periods of time only adds more weight to the probability that creationism is true. It is a function of scale, that what is instantaneous for the Being should appear verily to take ages from the viewpoint of those whose existence is part of the act of creation. The chasm between the Creator and His creation is more than one of size or even of being; it is immeasurable because it is unfathomable. This makes it all the more remarkable that the Being has bridged the chasm for us, and opened to us a possibility of transformation that defies analysis and reveals evolution itself to be very much ‘an indoor affair’.

The door that has been opened to us gives us egress out of what we thought was an immensity but upon looking back turns out to have been nearly nothing. The nihilist is right after all, but of what use is being right, if you cannot have what really is.

One final thought, brothers, and then I will quiet down before I do any more damage.

Without human society the individual doesn’t exist. The individual is a construct based on ideas, whereas the true state of humanity is that of an organism composed of a multitude of coordinated units. It is for this reason that the Body of Christ is so significant a perspective on human history, and why becoming ‘one body and spirit’ with one another is more than a mere metaphor. He shouldn’t have revealed this truth to His holy apostles if it weren’t significant, nor spoken to us so insistently about His being in the Father, and with the Spirit as well, in us and among us. What has been revealed is so much more than any one of us can imagine or behold.

Hence, back to tradition.

It is that eye which is single,

so that the whole Body can be full of Light.

Under the light of the full moon

Here it is, pre-dawn of Friday and almost through Publican and Pharisee week successfully. I mean, I was able to remember to eat steak on Wednesday and fill my belly with good things that I will soon be foregoing: my favorite sandwich, beef pastrami and swiss on rustic wheat bread, at least once almost every day—my panini press hasn’t been so busy since I first got it. Use up all the meat and cheese in the fridge, get ready to become a grass eating ox during the great fast! What a Pharisee I can be while proving to myself that I am an utter publican! Did Luther really say we’re still sinners, even in the best of life? If he did, I think I know what he meant.

In the night my inmost self instructs me, as the psalmist sings.
I remember my astonishment and shame when, visiting the house of fellow Orthodox during a pilgrimage to a local monastery, I noticed a large, very detailed ikon hanging high above a doorway leading to a study off their living room. I was drawn to it because its main feature was a large boat. I love ikons with ships. One of my favorites is St Nicholas saving drowning sailors at sea, where a ship under full sail is the central element. This ikon had a vague resemblance to it, but the ship was larger and there were far more people out of the boat. I went closer to get a better look.

It turned out to be not an ikon one could venerate, but an illustration rendered in ikonographic style of ‘the good ship Orthodoxy’ and the various non-Orthodox and non-Christian ‘forces’ battling against it.

I was astonished and ashamed because I was visiting with a brother who was not an Orthodox Christian by church affiliation, and he too saw this image given a place of honor in an Orthodox home, making him suddenly an outsider and declaring him unwelcome in that home, in our home the Holy Church, and making me a liar and my love for him a pretense. How could he not feel that this image somehow threw him out of the ark of salvation where his faith had placed him?

Many pious people have acquired this image with the best of intentions, but it is not an ikon, it is no more than an angry polemical piece. Of course, it is incumbent on Christians to defend the truths of faith against heresy, but to portray the Pope of Rome, other non-Orthodox, and non-Christians as being demons out to destroy Orthodoxy is not possible in an ikon, which is never political, even if the politics are church politics. Even in ikons of the martyrs, their persecutors are not portrayed this way. Nor do you see the Jewish authorities portrayed thus in ikons of the betrayal, passion and crucifixion of Christ. Looking like an ikon does not make an ikon, just as looking like a Christian doesn’t make a Christian.

Why does this incident come to my memory now? Well, because the Pharisee spirit can so blatantly reveal itself in the guise of piety and sometimes be venerated in the Church as much as that image was honored in that house we visited. The result was the eventual estrangement of my friend from Orthodoxy, seeing in it the same defects that estranged him from his Baptist upbringing, and I can understand why. How can you trust what a friend tells you about the Church when you see the enemy in its very heart? Not having the forbearance of one who has ‘seen everything’ and knows for sure that you must have faith even in the face of sin within the Church, hurt feelings can throw you overboard.

It’s still dark, and the full moon is setting in the west, while I write by its waning light, and the sun won’t rise for over two hours yet. The Pharisee in me writhes with embarrassment, knowing that he can’t hide much longer, and the publican hasn’t yet arisen from the floor, where his face is cast downwards, his forehead kneading the pavement and drenching his pillow with tears. Why is it that we stone one another so frequently? Why is it that we love to triumph over our defects in others but not in ourselves? In my mind’s ear this stanza from Bob Dylan’s song Rainy Day Women keeps sounding…

Well, they'll stone you when you're trying to be so good
They'll stone you just like they said they would
They'll stone you when you're trying to go home
Then they'll stone you when you're there all alone
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned

The heartless reasoning that we put on as mental clothing, wrapping ourselves in the very vanity that we thank God we’ve been delivered from! Don’t we understand yet that fig leaves will not cover our nakedness before the Lord? Don’t we understand yet that He has already provided for us a covering, the fleece of the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world? We stand proud and cast glances of pious false pity at everything and everyone we feel ourselves superior to. We are caught dead in our tracks as we ready ourselves to stone our infidelities in the other harlot, while ignoring the written Word of God, that His own finger carves not on tablets of stone but doodles in the dust of our hearts.

O heavenly God hidden in weakness and rejection! Becoming sin for us, You have taken away our shame and hold out to us in Your open, pierced palms the Bread of Life, yet we turn away to consume the bread of suffering, of tears, we prefer to remain in our camps and grumble at manna and quails! Forty years are not enough to purge us of our insane cravings, we want to enter the land of promise but without walking there on the only road possible, following Jesus. Instead, pining after dead Moses whose body has disappeared, we collect fragments of broken tablets and stay in the wilderness.
Save us, O Lord! Save Your people and bless Your inheritance!

Help us, heavenly Shepherd. Guide us, quietly but firmly, back to the flock, back to dwell close by the shepherd’s tents. Make us meek again, renew our childhood, open to us the gates of repentance.

The fall of Islam

“One day in the next century that Church – tens of millions of Christians trained to die – will be released into global mission and our prayers for the fall of Islam will be answered.”

I read this in a post some time ago, and now I've forgotten where, but it was full of optimism and statistics to prove that Christianity was going to overcome Islam.

Somehow, I got a different picture from this post and its encouraging statistics. First of all, statistics mean nothing. Sorry, but I don't pay them any attention. Only God has the means to measure how many human beings have come to know Him and have accepted His Son and are “trained to die,” whatever that means to you or me.

Second, I saw from comments left on this blog that the more important issue for most people was whether one is a post-millennialist or some other kind of philosopher. Don't ask me, because I just believe what the Word of God says and don't try to interpret, and I don't deal in labels.

What “prayers for the fall of Islam”? I would bet that if any Christians actually pray for the fall of Islam it is relatively few. Pray for the fall of what cannot stand? What kind of prayer is that? We already know that Islam is in the process of falling as we speak. It's not directly attributable to any Christian gang warfare strategy against Islam, though the availability of the Bible through the internet and all the other internet resources is certainly making headway. Yet these resources are not our claim to victory. Those who make use of them on their own initiative—the Arabs and other Muslims themselves—are far more responsible for the melt-down going on in Islam than we are.

Islam is falling right now not because of our statistics or our efforts. It is simply a false and backward politico-religious system whose time has finally come—for dissolution. The Information Age provided by the humanistic world system that cares nothing for our Christian faith has provided the platform for Islam's fall. We Christians may take credit for it, just like Catholics believe Pope John Paul II was responsible for the fall of Communism, but I think both interpretations are missing the mark.

People want to be free. They want to be happy. They want to live without constant fear for their lives. They want to know that they can raise a family and pass on their heritage to their descendants. The following of Jesus Christ is always possible in every situation, but with various costs. In Saudi Arabia, the cost is probable death. In America, the cost can be apostasy. Why? Because a church that is victorious in the world always becomes ‘Imperial Church.’

We know this, we who are Orthodox Christians. We Greeks have learned our lesson. The throne behind the altar in our churches can be sat in by no one but Christ or His earthly representative, the Christian Emperor. We expect ours to be sat in by Christ alone. Our last emperor went down on the walls of Constantinople in 1453, proving the vanity of worldly power. Some of the Russians haven't apparently learned that lesson well enough yet, despite the murder of their last emperor; many of them seem to be holding out for an earthly emperor to sit on the throne behind their altars.

Islam is dying. It's death throes are proclaimed in the violence of the Mujahideen. We will live to see the fall of Islam, but it won't be like the fall of communism. History never quite repeats itself. The Christian opportunity is never more present than in one's own household. Before we glory in the evangelization of the Islam-enslaved peoples, have we witnessed to ourselves?

A word on stoning

Brothers, as you know, if you know me well, there is nothing good about me or anything good that I have, that I did not receive from someone else. From the Lord (to Him alone be praise!) I have received my being, and from the saints (may God glorify them!) I have received sound teaching and good example. Not without reason are we admonished to remember who our teachers were: They were the prophets, the apostles, the holy elders, the saints, everyone who lived in God and for Him without reserve, in spite of themselves, just as we are trying to do, those of past ages, those recently received into rest, those alive with us today, sharing the same Bread, bearing the same Cross. One of these, elder Païsios of Mount Athos, is my personal example: I want to live like he did, because He followed Christ. I receive willingly his words and his example, and these I also hand over to you with my recommendation: his words are true.

On discernment and fanaticism

A Christian must not be fanatic; he must have love for and be sensitive towards all people. Those who inconsiderately toss out comments, even if they are true, can cause harm.

I once met a theologian who was extremely pious, but who had the habit of speaking to the (secular) people around him in a very blunt manner; his method penetrated so deeply that it shook them very severely. He told me once: ‘During a gathering, I said such and such a thing to a lady.’ But the way that he said it, crushed her. ‘Look,’ I said to him, ‘you may be tossing golden crowns studded with diamonds to other people, but the way that you throw them can smash heads, not only the sensitive ones, but the sound ones also.’

Let’s not stone our fellow-man in a so-called ‘Christian manner.’ The person who – in the presence of others – checks someone for having sinned (or speaks in an impassioned manner about a certain person), is not moved by the Spirit of God; he is moved by another spirit.

The way of the Church is Love; it differs from the way of the legalists. The Church sees everything with tolerance and seeks to help each person, whatever he may have done, however sinful he may be.

I have observed a peculiar kind of logic in certain pious people. Their piety is a good thing, and their predisposition for good is also a good thing; however, a certain spiritual discernment and amplitude is required so that their piety is not accompanied by narrow-mindedness or strong-headedness. Someone who is truly in a spiritual state must possess and exemplify spiritual discernment; otherwise he will forever remain attached to the ‘letter of the Law,’ and the letter of the Law can be quite deadly.

A truly humble person never behaves like a teacher; he will listen, and, whenever his opinion is requested, he responds humbly. In other words, he replies like a student. He who believes that he is capable of correcting others is filled with egotism.

A person that begins to do something with a good intention and eventually reaches an extreme point, lacks true discernment. His actions exemplify a latent type of egotism that is hidden beneath this behavior; he is unaware of it, because he does not know himself that well, which is why he goes to extremes.

— Elder Païsios

“Remember who your teachers were…”
2 Timothy 3:14

Love

To the least promising of men He showed such love…

Zacchaeus the parvenu, the short, rich man everybody hated, the publican who’d made an ivory tower of his ill-gained wealth—this Zacchaeus was freed for good and all by a visit from Christ. All it took was a glance and a cheerful greeting, “Zacchaeus, hurry down! I’m eating at your house today.” Zacchaeus welcomed Him joyfully and vowed, “Listen, Lord, I’ll give…”

People expected nothing good from Zacchaeus, and so he expected nothing good from them. And all at once here was Somebody who loved him, who enjoyed sitting at table with him and showed confidence in him.

Feelings that seemed forever dried up began to flood his being, buoy him up, transport and convert him. Everyone else had pushed him deeper into his sterility. Everyone else had decided to put up with him as he was, hopelessly evil and avaricious.

But Jesus had hoped in him for all time.

Appearances never fooled Him. He knew that people try to look wicked as well as good, and that both kinds are equally piteous. We’ve become so evil because no one’s loved us or discovered the real us, because no one’s inspired us or wanted us to be better.

God loves those to whom He can give the most, those who expect most from Him, who are most open to Him, need Him most and rely on Him most for everything.

God alone knows what He expects of us, what response He’s looking for, and how many people’s destinies depend on ours.

“Simon, there’s something I want to tell you. Those who need little forgiveness feel little love, but those who need much forgiveness respond with great love.” Only God knows how to love. And only those who realize that they’ve been forgiven and loved thus are capable of loving thus themselves.

“Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” Only those who have answered His love by returning and diffusing it will be invited to enter into it more deeply.

“My sheep know My voice and follow Me.” They won’t rest till they’ve done for another what God has done for them. With the same love and the same patience God showed, they’re going to help their neighbor discover in himself the new being God has awakened in them, the face He showed them so they could at last recognize and accept themselves.

They’re going to help someone find out that he, too, is capable of the perfect faithfulness, gratitude and love that were revealed to them, for Jesus didn’t say, “Love one another,” but “Love one another as I have loved you.”

I wish these words were mine, but I have only made them mine by trying to live out what they say. The passages above are taken from Fr Louis Evely’s book That Man Is You (1966). I offer them to you, brethren, following the precept,

“Remember who your teachers were…”
2 Timothy 3:14

Because every moment together is real

Courage

Many people want to tell you the way,
But few will stay, invest in your success.
I mean not to embarrass you my friends,
But to warn you that they are using you.

The work of being, is a living thing
A work of hands, not of words or screeds
No ideal realm, but persons enduring:
Our humanity is filthy to them.

Our hunger offends, our thirst enrages;
That our bodies need clothing, they revile.
Though beaten and homeless we are priceless,
Because every moment together is real.

Made myself a spectacle to the world
So you may see that though I am weak,
You are strong. Though I remain a fool,
You become wise beyond these naive years.

Angels ashamed of me, but God listens.
I’ll know if you listen, when I don’t speak.
If I spoke as others do, they would hear,
But I’m not allowed to give this away.

Time to speak plain, taken by bold spirit,
But it will be useless still for closed ears.
No dark night stands against the waking light.
Before illumination dark is not.

Courage! The enemy is death and is dead!
Nothing born of the pit can stand the sun.
Beloved ones, heed not the fear of heart,
Leave self-hate vanish and know I love you.

— David Dickens, Nothing Hypothetical

Broken

There’s something about Christianity that makes outsiders (if there is such a class of persons) think that it’s a crutch for the weak, a form of consolation for losers, a kind of drug, “an opiate for the masses,” as Karl Marx put it. Well, there is some truth to this idea, but it’s not what Christianity’s detractors think. Moreover, so many Christians are afraid that this idea might be true, that they go to extremes to prove that it isn’t.

Orthodox Christianity says that what’s wrong with man is that the icon of God is broken, and we’re that icon. They say that Christ came to fix the icon. Well, that’s one way to put it, and I want to get over that idea right away, not because I disbelieve it, but because as delicious as it sounds to those who want to creep away from the idea of an angry God who can only be appeased by the death of His Only Son, it can be misunderstood even more than some other theories of how salvation works.

The truth is, though, that man is broken, and some Christians are in such a hurry to fix him, that they actually shove God out of the way in the mad, and hopeless, attempt. Why mad and hopeless? We may be broken, but we can’t fix ourselves, no matter how hard we try.

Being broken is what we are, no matter how some of us try to cover it up. Admitting we are broken does not mean that we’re happy with it. It doesn’t mean that we don’t want to be made whole again. It’s our confession of being broken that places us in a position where God can work on us.

Some people think that Christianity is a kind of self-help and self-empowerment program. They start with the knowledge that man is broken, but then they take charge of the situation. Mining the Holy Scriptures for verses that they can claim as God’s promises and His spiritual principles for overcoming, sure enough, they put God to the test—the proof (of God) is in the putting (allusion intended).

Christian businesses with names like “Believer’s Voice of Victory” or “This Is Your Day” bombard the unchurched masses with slick entertainment and self-improvement promotions. These are not ministries and have nothing to do with Christ or Christianity, except that they draw on the Bible for their vocabulary. They know that man is broken. They know who’s in the audience. They offer to fix them, for a price of course. Yet it’s not their job, and in fact and act, they can do nothing.

I have a brother in Christ who repeatedly confesses that he is broken. Furthermore, he wants to remain broken. How can that be? Doesn’t he want to be whole? He lives a normal life, has a job, goes to church regularly, and he is living victoriously over his enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil. How do I know this? Because of the fruits of his life. But also, when he receives the praise of men, he somehow skillfully evades it, always turning it back immediately to God, and in such a way that you feel he didn't even notice what he was doing. Talk about playing a game of “hot potato”!

Broken, because that state is where we are just by being human, is what draws the love and help of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to us. Admitting it, confessing it always, and turning to Jesus, that’s what opens us to the merciful heart of our loving God. Yet, this is not how Christians are taught to be any longer.

Many churches set human standards before their members instead of the Word of God. The leaders of these churches preach themselves, not “Christ, and Him crucified.” Go to almost any church web page and prepare yourself to hear about the virtues and accomplishments of their leaders. They set themselves up as examples of “successful” Christians, again placing before you not Christ, but themselves. They hold out to you these images of a “happy life,” while hiding the cross, except to wear it as jewelry. But the true cross is the happy life, because it is life with Jesus.

Not “success” is ours for the taking, brethren, but being broken, like the flask of ointment was broken, that the feet of Jesus might be anointed.

Ours is to stay close to Jesus, hanging on to His precious words, not as magic promises that we can force Him to grant, but as they are, the living words of the living God, spoken to us for our hearing, that we may have faith. And what is this faith? It is trusting Christ and only Him to be our saviour, confessing no other, waiting on Him to make us whole, without looking, without measuring ourselves to see if we’ve grown, looking only to Jesus and not at ourselves.

Yes, brothers, let’s be broken for Jesus, who said…

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Matthew 5:1-11 NIV

Let your light shine

Here is a snippet or teaser of a post entitled Let Your Light Shine that I found on the blog Metanoia…

…if we believe that we are created in God’s image. If we believe that love is better than hate. If we believe that mercy is better than condemnation. If we believe that helping is better than hurting. Where does our logic break down? See, I believe that these things are true. I believe that it is closer to the reality of the “is-ness” of life to say that we should love each other. But often I take a backward leap of faith and I don’t do it. I act in small selfish ways. I take the resources I’ve been blessed with and I squander them and refuse to share with people around me who are hurting. I believe that it is my job to help bring heaven to earth, but then I ignore all the hells on earth (and all too often I help create them).

So I encourage anyone who believes in the chance plus time version of life to continue to look at the logic of the position, but to continue to make that leap of faith to work towards love and justice. Even if you don’t believe in God, when you work for love, you are working for God. And I encourage Christians to follow the logic of your faith. If we believe what we claim to believe then it will change the way we act towards those around us. Christianity can’t just be a social club for people who “get it.” If the Gospel is good news, then it has to be good news for everyone. It should be good news to the person you’ve been hateful to that you are being changed by the Spirit. It should be good news to the downtrodden, the poor, the orphans, the immigrants, that you are being made new.

If Christianity is just about you getting right with God, then you are missing the point. Re-birth is the starting line, not the finish line. Let your light shine.

— Andrew Mills

To be preserved to the end

It is no small wonder that the Word of God has been found hidden in the thoughts and traditions of many peoples, since it is He who created all and is the life of all. He is the Light that enlightens every man who comes into the world, and though He revealed Himself fully only to Israel and through Israel, in our Lord Jesus Christ, He is, as Patriarch Bartholomaios writes, ‘asleep in the night of the different religions’ and He will awaken in them, to save them also from the perilous darkness. The Chinese classic, 道德經 Dao De Jing, The Book of Tao, or The Way and Its Virtue, is particularly filled with wisdom such as this…

Bowed down, then preserved;
bent, then straight;
hollow, then full;
worn, then new;
a little, then benefited;
a lot, then perplexed.

Therefore the sage embraces the One
and is a model for the Empire.
He does not show himself,
and so is conspicuous;
he does not consider himself right,
and so is illustrious;
he does not brag,
and so has merit;
he does not boast,
and so endures.

It is because he does not contend
that no one in the Empire
is in a position to contend with him.

The way the Ancients had it,
‘Bowed down, then preserved’,
is no empty saying.
Truly it enables one
to be preserved to the end.

— 道德經, Book 1, XXII

The gates of repentance

Open to me the gates of repentance, O Giver of Life,
For my spirit rises early to pray towards Your holy temple.
Bearing the temple of my body all defiled;
But in Your compassion, purify me by the lovingkindness
of Your mercy.

Lead me on the paths of salvation, O Mother of God,
For I have profaned my soul with shameful sins,
and have wasted my life in laziness.
But by your intercessions, deliver me from all impurity.

When I think of the many evil things I have done, wretch that I am,
I tremble at the fearful day of judgement.
But trusting in Your lovingkindness, like David I cry to You:
Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your great mercy!

We are not at the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee yet, but it's never too soon to pursue repentance, as the hymn quoted above testifies. This Lord's day we will meet these images once again, spoken by the Word of God in human form, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Nor is it ever too soon to yearn for true discipleship, for the grace of God who alone bestows it upon us, praying in the words of Ephraim of Syria…

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

This prayer is associated with the time of Sarakostí, Great Lent, the forty-plus days of fasting before the feast of the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Pascha, the ‘Passover of God’, the Lamb without spot, slain before the foundation of the world.

Yet the fast is not a program of ascetic discipline designed for our pride. As the fathers teach, ‘Eat what you please, anything, but not the flesh of your brothers.’ To remember this prayer and say it faithfully and with all our heart, even if only once in this fast, with prostrations or without, it doesn't matter. God knows our hearts. He knows our lives. All we have to do is bring our burdens to Him, and lay them down before His Cross, and receive from Him what we do not deserve but what He longs to grant us, great mercy.

Prayer. Speaking to God. He speaks to us, we speak to Him. In our own words, or in words that we make our own, partaking of the mind of the Church, when we read aloud or inwardly what we find in our prayer books. Do you think it is really any different, whether we speak to Him out of our private treasury, or out of the treasury that the saints have bequeathed us? Maybe to some of us, but not to Him. Again, He is listening to our hearts, and our hearts are listening to Him. ‘Remembering our most-holy, most blessed…’ and praying with her and all the saints, as we join them in the heavenlies, ‘a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb… wearing white robes… holding palm branches in their hands,’ there we are, together, one in faith, one in hope, one in charity: there is the Church, and there is no other. Prayer is the language of welcome between heaven and earth.

How beautiful

Religions and churches can be bought and sold,
but our faith is not for sale.

Ideologies and dogma can be written up and down,
but the substance of faith is things unseen.

Conversion is not the exchange of one currency for another,
as Christ proves by overturning the tables of the money changers in the Temple.

Sacrifice is not the purchase of a victim by the work of our hands,
but the purchase of our lives by the death of the Victor.

No one can attain the truth by the acquisition of knowledge,
but the truth walking in a man is unmistakable.

When you have staked all you own in a game of dice and lost, and then stake yourself and lose again, what is there left to lose? Nothing more stands between you and the Kingdom except the battle against your self. Will you listen to the Lord, and slay what was never real to obtain what can never be lost?

These truths are lodged in the heart of every man as the hook is caught in the fish’s mouth, yet both try to pull away, to break free. Though the line is strong, it can still be snapped. Will you be caught by hook, or trapped with many in a net?

Compared with the good news of Christ, all other stories are like the braying of an ass, but even an ass can speak the truth. Yet how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns’
(Isaiah 52:7).