The Beginning, and the End

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,
the Beginning and the End.
Revelation 22:13

Jesus Christ is one Person fully human and fully divine, but as He enters and permeates time, we experience Him as He describes Himself to John the Revelator, as the Beginning and the End. Philosophers and theologians have written volumes about this, but I only want to say a few words about the Good News of Jesus Christ, which I believe also is experienced and works in us as the Beginning and the End.

The Good News “looks” different when it is the Beginning. It is a word that could be written down: The beginning of the Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is written in the book of the prophet Isaiah… (Mark 1:1-2a)

The Good News is a word that could be spoken, that can be preached: Jesus went into Galilee. There He proclaimed the Good News from God. “The time has come,” He said, “and the Kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News.”
(Mark 1:14b-15)

The Good News as the Beginning is what the Church through the ages and up till today has busied itself with, planting the seed of the Word, laying the foundations for the Kingdom, that which is the Good News as the End. It is just as necessary that the Good News should be the Beginning, as it should be the End. And though there is only one Good News, it “looks” different when it is the End.

The first Christians evangelized the world by bringing to it the Good News, the Beginning: Remember the Good News that I carry, “Jesus Christ risen from the dead, sprung from the race of David.”
(2 Timothy 2:8)

Yet even back then, the Good News, the End, was revealed: For I am not ashamed of the Good News: it is the power of God saving all who have faith. (Romans 1:16a)

The Beginning of the Good News was proclamation such as this:
“Yes, God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not be lost but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

The End of the Good News was demonstration such as this:
This has taught us love—that He gave up His life for us; and we, too, ought to give up our lives for our brothers. (1 John 3:16)

The Good News, the Beginning, consists of transmitting the teaching of Jesus and the story of His saving acts: “I was born for this, I came into the world for this: to bear witness to the truth; and all who are on the side of truth listen to My voice.” (John 18:37b)

The Good News, the End, consists of Christ living in us and gathering His lambs into the Kingdom: Jesus knew that the hour had come for Him to pass from this world to the Father. He had always loved those who were His in the world, and now He showed how perfect His love was. (John 13:1)

I’m not entirely sure that I have been able to express my meaning well. Let me try again.

The Good News, the Beginning, is doing all the explicit evangelizing, missionary work, church life, everything that lays foundations for the building up of the Kingdom in spirit and truth, which is itself the Good News, the End, of which it is said, it “is close at hand.”

The Good News, the End, is letting Christ in us do that which He alone is capable of doing: “You are the Light of the world. A city built on a hilltop cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp to put it under a tub; they put it on the lampstand where it shines for everyone in the house. In the same way your light must shine in the sight of men, so that, seeing your good works, they may give the praise to your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16)

Our world, our culture, has been irradiated repeatedly and for a very long time with the Word of truth, and yet most people do not accept it, do not accept that Word which alone can save them—Jesus Christ. The same was true in the days of the Roman Empire. Yes, many were “added to their number,” through the preaching of the Good News, the Beginning. But back then, far more were added by their witnessing the holocaust of the martyrs, who went to their deaths without explicit preaching, who were transformed before the world by the love that they had, not only for their brothers, but for their enemies. That was the Good News, the End.

It is the demonstration of the Good News, the End, that is revealing Jesus to the world in this final age, effecting the true ‘end times harvest’ of saints.

Do not keep the prophecies in this Book a secret, because the Time is close. Meanwhile, let the sinner go on sinning, and the unclean to continue to be unclean; let those who do good go on doing good, and those who are holy continue to be holy. Very soon now I shall be with you again, bringing the reward to be given to every man according to what he deserves. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
(Revelation 22:10-13)

Immediacy

The offense of Jesus and of the entire New Testament record consists of one thing—immediacy. The words and deeds of Christ and the holy Apostles are too immediate, too direct, too alarming, too disarming, for the natural man, the man that wants to bury himself in the finery of illusion.

We spend our lives laying on more and more layers of finery to hide ourselves from the One who created us Naked so that in time He could cover us with His very own self, and beyond time that we might appear before Him as His very own sons.

In which direction do we find ourselves moving? Whether we call ourselves Christians or not, are we burying ourselves, like those who cry out to the stones at the Lord’s coming, ‘Bury us! Hide us!’ Are we wrapping ourselves in the winding bands of our shrouds?

Or have we found out the truth, that we need to make peace with our Opponent on the way to the court, so that there need be no trial? That to divest ourselves of our finery, divulge voluntarily the secrets we have collected, is the only safe work we can undertake?

Expose yourself to the Word of God. Enter the world of the Kingdom immediately. Let the words He has spoken convict all that is false in you, that you may approach Him in spirit and truth. Turn around and hear the Voice, as did John the Revelator, loud as trumpet blasts.

The offense of Jesus and of the entire New Testament record consists of one thing—immediacy. Modern man (and woman) wants to be free, but on their own terms, wants no one to tell them what to do, how to do it, or especially when. They don’t like to be rushed.

But Jesus has a way of just showing up, saying the most unlikely things. Unlikely because we don’t want to hear them, because we know as soon as we hear them, that His words are true. Truth, if we must hear it at all, we want to hear as spectators, not as doers.

That’s why so many of us don’t mind ‘going to church’, because there we may be a captive audience, but more importantly, He’s a captive Lord, and whether our ears are itching for the latest news or gossip, we might hear the good news, only to let it ‘in one ear and…’

It seems to me that once all the labor-saving devices and self-improvement programs had done their work, freeing us from wasting our precious few years ‘sweating to make a living’, we might have remembered why we invented these things in the first place.

We were created to be gods, but sin has slain us root and branch and thrown us on the fire and, had it not been for the Firebrand snatched from the flames by the Only Spirit, who now burns in the shrub of humanity without consuming it, we could never have done a thing.

Closer than our jugular vein, more immediate and necessary than our next breath, more faithful than our beating hearts to keep life pumping in us, the words of Life lodged in our ears, meshed into our minds, yet we deny them and Him who speaks, whose immediacy offends us.

Tear us away from our deaf deadness, O Lord. Liberate us like newly molted serpents from our tight, scaly skins. Unstop our ears that we may hear Thy unsettling sayings and receive Thee, the living flame of Love, transforming our cold blood to internal, eternal Fire.

‘I am the Resurrection and the Life. Do you believe this?’ What more can be said than that which forever is spoken on every page of holy and divine scripture in innumerable ways? ‘Blessed is He who is not offended by Me.’ Let that person be the one reading this.

The Apostolic Rule: Ephesians

The teaching of holy apostle Paul…

Before the world was made He 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 own 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.
Ephesians 1:4-7

You have heard the message of the Truth and the Good News of your salvation and have believed it, and you 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.
Ephesians 1:13-14

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.
Ephesians 1:17-19

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.
Ephesians 1:21-23

It is by grace that you have been saved, through faith, not by anything of your own but by a gift from God, not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit.
Ephesians 2:8-9

We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning He had meant us to live it.
Ephesians 2:10

You are no longer aliens or foreign visitors. You are citizens like all the saints and part of God’s household. You are part of a building that has the apostles and prophets for its foundations and Christ Jesus Himself for its main cornerstone. As every structure is aligned on Him, all grow into one holy temple in the Lord, and you too, in Him, are being built into a house where God lives, in the Spirit.
Ephesians 2:19-22

Pray, kneeling before the Father.
Ephesians 3:14

Lead a life worthy of your vocation.
Ephesians 4:1

Bear with one another charitably, in complete selflessness, gentleness, and patience.
Ephesians 4:2

Do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together.
Ephesians 4:3

There is one Body, one Spirit, just as you were all called into one and the same hope. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God who is Father of all, over all, through all, and within all.
Ephesians 4:4-7

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ who is the Head by whom the whole Body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to its function. So the Body grows until it has built itself up, in love.
Ephesians 4:15-16

You must give up your old way of life. You must put aside your old self which gets corrupted by following illusory desires. Your mind must be renewed by a spiritual revolution, so that you can put on the new self that has been created in God’s way, in the goodness and holiness of the truth.
Ephesians 4:22-24

From now on, there must be no more lies. You must speak the truth to one another, since we are all parts of one another.
Ephesians 4:25

Even if you are angry, you must not sin. Never let the sun set on your anger, or else you will give the devil a foothold.
Ephesians 4:26-27

Anyone who was a thief must stop stealing. He should try to find some useful manual work instead and be able to do some good by helping others that are in need.
Ephesians 4:28

Guard against foul talk. Let your words be for the improvement of others, as occasion offers, and do good to your listeners. Otherwise you will only be grieving the Holy Spirit of God who has marked you with His seal for you to be set free when the day comes.
Ephesians 4:29-30

Never have grudges against others, or lose your temper, or raise your voice to anybody, or call each other names, or allow any sort of spitefulness.
Ephesians 4:31

Be friends with one another, and kind, forgiving each other as readily as God forgave you in Christ.
Ephesians 4:32

Try to imitate God, as children of His that He loves, and follow Christ by loving as He loved you, giving Himself up in our place as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God.
Ephesians 5:1-2

Among you there must be not even a mention of fornication or impurity in any of its forms, or promiscuity.
Ephesians 5:3

There must be no coarseness or salacious talk and jokes. All this is wrong for you. Raise your voices in thanksgiving instead.
Ephesians 5:4

You were darkness once, but now you are light in the Lord. Be like children of light, for the effects of the light are seen in complete goodness and right living and truth.
Ephesians 5:8-9

Try to discover what the Lord wants of you, having nothing to do with the futile works of darkness but exposing them by contrast.
Ephesians 5:10-11

Be very careful about the sort of lives you lead. This may be a wicked age, but your lives should redeem it. Do not be thoughtless, but recognise what is the will of the Lord.
Ephesians 5:15-17

Do not drug yourselves with wine. This is simply dissipation. Be filled with the Spirit.
Ephesians 5:18

Sing the words and tunes of the psalms and hymns when you are together, and go on singing and chanting to the Lord in your hearts, so that always and everywhere you are giving thanks to God, who is our Father in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 5:19-20

Give way to one another in obedience to Christ.
Ephesians 5:21

Wives should regard their husbands as they regard the Lord, since as Christ is head of the Church and saves the whole body, so is a husband the head of his wife, and as the Church submits to Christ, so should wives to their husbands, in everything.
Ephesians 5:22-24

Husbands should love their wives just as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed Himself for her to make her holy.
Ephesians 5:25-26a

Each one of you must love his wife as he loves himself, and let every wife be subject to her husband.
Ephesians 5:33

Children, be obedient to your parents in the Lord, that is your duty.
Ephesians 6:1

Parents, never drive your children to resentment, but in bringing them up correct them and guide them, as the Lord does.
Ephesians 6:4

Slaves, be obedient to the men who are called your masters in this world, with deep respect and sincere loyalty, as you are obedient to Christ, not only when you are under their eye, as if you had only to please men, but because you are slaves of Christ and wholeheartedly do the will of God. Work hard and willingly, but do it for the sake of the Lord and not for the sake of men.
Ephesians 6:5-7

Grow strong in the Lord, with the strength of His power. Put God’s armor on so as to be able to resist the devil’s tactics.
Ephesians 6:10-11

It is not against human enemies that we have to struggle, but against the Sovereignties and the Powers who originate the darkness in this world, the spiritual army of evil in the heavens.
Ephesians 6:12

You must rely on God’s armor or you will not be able to put up any resistance when the worst happens, or have enough resources to hold your ground.
Ephesians 6:13

Stand your ground with Truth buckled around your waist, and Integrity for a breastplate, wearing for shoes on your feet the Eagerness to spread the Gospel of Peace, and always carrying the shield of Faith, so that you can use it to put out the burning arrows of the evil one. You must accept Salvation from God to be your helmet, and receive the Word of God from the Spirit to use as a sword.
Ephesians 6:14-17

Pray all the time, asking for what you need, praying in the Spirit on every possible occasion.
Ephesians 6:18

All texts are taken from the Jerusalem Bible (1966).

Love letter

I love this picture, even though it is an artwork with a deliberate theme—refuge. It is an image of the care of a father for a son. I want to be that kind of father, but I don't think I have succeeded. That is the kind of father I want, and the kind I want to be, like the father who wrote this letter to his son, whom he hadn't seen for a long time. The best father any man can hope to be, is one who tries to love like the Father loves.

Dear Son,
I have been praying for you this morning and asking the Lord to help you, to comfort you and to give you confidence and save you from the evil one, who attacks you to make you think badly of yourself, so that you will hide yourself from the Lord, and from me. Always remember, Son, that our heavenly Father really is our loving Father, that He knows everything we go through, everything we feel, everything we desire or think we desire. He knows our mistakes and He understands them. He knows our weaknesses. He watches us when we do good things, and when we do things that are not good. But He knows and loves us no matter what we do, as long as we keep running to Him for strength, for forgiveness, for understanding, for love.

I am not God, and I am not your heavenly Father. I am just a man like you. But I do what I see Jesus doing, and Jesus does what He sees the Father doing. He comes to us to show us the Father, and to demonstrate the love of the Father. Watch Jesus closely, Son, and follow Him. Follow me, too, and imitate me, as long as you see that I am also following Jesus. Let's follow Him together. Let's keep our eyes on Him, you and me, son and father, both of us children, sons, of our heavenly Father, brothers of our liberator and savior and teacher, Jesus.

Never fear to say to me, ‘I have to confess.’ It doesn't matter what it is that you must confess, because whether I have an answer for you that I can tell you in writing, you know that my arms are holding you, and my heart loving you, and that you are clean to me, from the top of your head to the soles of your feet, clean. Your thoughts, or your deeds, good or bad, are just happenings, they are on the surface, but what you are, and who you are, are always the same, always clean, because Christ has washed you in His own precious Blood, and that washing stays forever. Christ loves you infinitely, and I, as a man, and as your father on earth, love you, welcome you, approve of you, and want you, just as He does.

I know that sometimes you will fall under weakness, that does not change anything. I fall under weakness too. Son, this is the human condition. Do not let weakness define you, but define yourself by the bright brilliance of the light of Christ, whose righteousness is your righteousness, who swallows you up, your strengths and your weaknesses, your successes and your failures, in His limitless love, in His love that has no limits. He is never tired of us, or impatient with us, or angry with us, and not even disappointed in us. Why? Because He sees and knows us as we really are, and He knows that all these limitations and weaknesses and failures of ourselves are going to be removed forever, in fact, in act, in will, even in memory, when this life is over, and when we join Him in the life to come.

It is your faith, Son, that must carry you over the thorny path and get you through all obstacles, even through the ones you yourself place in your path, but also those that the world places there, to catch you, to trip you, to damage you, to annoy you, to frighten you, to disappoint you, all to make you lose your faith, but I am telling you, like the scriptures say, ‘Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.’ Believe the words of holy and divine scripture, and believe the humble words of your father who loves you, yes, your dad who loves you, yes, you know I do, just as I know that you love me, that you love God, that you love Christ, that you love righteousness, even when you out of weakness, fall. That falling is part of learning to walk, Son, beloved Son, you are learning to walk, just as sometimes your blindness is part of learning to see.

Everything we do here in this life is partial, nothing of it is perfect, nothing complete or whole, everything, everything is partial. That is the human condition. Never despair, never give up hope, never deny faith. Never stop loving. Never stop loving, Son, no matter what it looks like from the outside.

I love you, Son, and I keep you with me always, and we will be together very soon. No matter what happens, remember who you are, in Christ, and who you belong to.

Love you, always,
Dad

Absolute

Remember the Good News that I carry, ‘Jesus Christ risen from the dead, sprung from the race of David’.
2 Timothy 2:8 Jerusalem Bible

Μνημονευε Ιησουν Χριστον εγηγερμενον εκ νεκρων εκ σπερματος Δαυιδ κατα το ευαγγελιον μου

“Truth is so absolute, so real, so personal…”

We have grown so accustomed to be told that what we believe or know to be true is just our opinion, that we have retreated into a subservience, into a state of submission, to the prevailing culture, where there are no absolutes in anything.

Yet, most of the facts of our everyday existence, as well as the findings of hard science and the immutable laws of mathematics, are absolute truths. We fail to notice this, or else are forced to think that these are ‘objective’ while everything else is ‘subjective.’

The world wants us to believe that there are no either/ors in the world of truth, only a continuum of opinions, infinite at both extremes, and as long as we’re willing to be located at some point on that continuum, smiling in both directions, they are happy.

Yet, if we are Christians, it is not because we belong to a ‘faith tradition’ but because we have come to know a Person, and we have evidence that He has come to know us, and not only come to know us, but has changed us in a very absolute way.

Something called ‘the Good News’ really exists. It has an ‘objective’ reality. It is not something we made up, nothing we could have invented, any more than we could have invented the flow of history or the principles of mathematics. It’s real ‘all on its own.’

Yet, some Christians think that it’s their private possession, a kind of consolation prize for having to put up with living in such a contrary and sinful world. Owning it justifies them in feeling superior, or embattled, foxes unable to eat the wild grapes.

This Good News is absolute, is real, and is personal, no matter how you look at it. Jesus Christ risen from the dead, sprung from the race of David. Either it’s true, absolutely true, real and personal, or it’s simply false, a personal opinion, an assertion.

If it is true, why are we not shouting it from the housetops? If it’s true, why are we not living as if it really happened? If it is true, why do we let people tell us, ‘it’s your opinion, it’s just a story, like every thing else that’s too good to be true’?

No, brothers. There is absolute Truth. You can’t own it. He owns you. It’s not a spade to dig with, unless you dig your own grave. It’s not a crown for you to wear, but one for you to cast at His feet. Never surrender to the lie, not even by being nice.

There is absolute Truth. He is there, always, and He is with those who accept Him. He has made them the children of God. There is also the lie, and the father of lies, and however he dresses it up, the lie is still what it is, a denial of Him who is.

As holy apostle John writes,
‘Children, be on your guard against false gods.’

Come to Me

There is a lot of pain and suffering going on in the world, and even in my tiny corner of it—none of it to me personally—but I suffer just the same. One example, a friend and former co-worker recently lost his mother, who died unexpectedly, and just as unexpectedly, he inherited a very large sum of money. Just as unexpectedly, his wife disappeared one day with nearly all the money, abandoning her husband, her kids, her grandkids (my friend was her second husband, and had no kids with her). Simply, disappeared, and later he found out that she ran away to join a man whom she met on the internet, and is now at the opposite end of the country, her exact whereabouts still unknown. I grieve for my friend on many levels. He is not a Christian. Pain is pain, and the unexpected, even the impossible, happens to us just the same.

I happened to read an article in an online version of the local newspaper, celebrating that lesbian couples can live anywhere openly in the town I work in, which is supposedly the sixth most gay friendly city in America. So much for the statistics. But what is really going on here? What is happening in the lives of the two women featured in the article that has placed them in the ‘category’ they are in? And who placed them there? These are all important questions, but everyone would rather ask and answer the questions that please them, not those that would dig deeply into their reality. They themselves, do they ask the real questions? Or do they ask, and answer, the questions that society around them has taught them to parrot? I left the following words as a comment to the news story, something I rarely do.

It's pretty pointless to talk to anyone on the topic of 'rights' for homosexuals, whether they are for them or against them, because nearly everyone who has given it any attention (I am not saying 'thought', which isn't the same thing) has already made up their mind.

This is simply a difficult situation we find ourselves in, because even to homosexuals (or to those who prefer others of the same sex, for whatever reason) it's obvious that biologically we are made to fit man-woman not any other way, regardless of religious teachings.

But even to Christians (I am one, Greek Orthodox) it is obvious that there can be man-man, woman-woman love relationships, and that many of them are far stronger and even more selfless than the man-woman relationships.

The answer is neither to deny and even blaspheme God, nor to denigrate and demonise human beings. Those who do the former, as well as those who do the latter, will both have to answer for it before the judgment seat.

Social change will always give preference to one or another class, viewpoint, religion or race. In my office I am dismissed as an idiot because I am a Christian and politically conservative, because people tend to categorise rather than really investigate.

Why is this? Because investigate means to invest oneself in something, and that takes commitment. It's easier to categorise (from the Greek word meaning 'to accuse') because you can do that, and then go your way, oblivious of the other person's reality.

Whether a person is Christian or not, straight or not, white or not—or reverse all the terms—to me there is no alternative but to investigate, to listen, to observe, to encourage the good, the right, the just, the true, in dealing with others.

Nothing can be done wholesale, in bulk. People appear one at a time, and disappear the same. We have usually only one chance to know a person, and to leave our mark on them, either way, if we are Christians, we must ask, 'Lord, when did we see You...?'

Agreement or disagreement, approval or disapproval, love or hate, all these things are still external, and we still stand, at every moment, at the threshold of our own death and ultimate judgment. 'Seek peace, pursue it,' say the scriptures. Do what you see Jesus doing.

That is the easy yoke, and the burden light, but we still have to do what He says, 'Come to Me.'

The Apostolic Rule: Galatians

The teaching of holy apostle Paul…

If anyone preaches a version of the Good News different from the one we have already preached to you, whether it be ourselves or an angel from heaven, he is to be condemned. If anyone preaches a version of the Good News different from the one you have already heard, he is to be condemned.
Galatians 1:8-9

The Good News is not a human message given by men. It is something learned only through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
Galatians 1:11-12

All baptised in Christ, you have all clothed yourselves in Christ, and there are no more distinctions between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female, but all of you are one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:27-28

When Christ freed us, He meant us to remain free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.
Galatians 5:1

You were called to liberty, but be careful or this liberty will provide an opening for self-indulgence.
Galatians 5:13

Serve one another in works of love, since the whole Law is summarised in a single command: Love your neighbor as yourself.
Galatians 5:14

If you are guided by the Spirit you will be in no danger of yielding to self-indulgence, since self-indulgence is the opposite of the Spirit.
Galatians 5:16

When self-indulgence is at work the results are obvious: fornication, gross indecency and sexual irresponsibility, idolatry and sorcery, feuds and wrangling, jealousy, bad temper and quarrels, disagreements, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and similar things. Those who behave like this will not inherit the Kingdom of God. What the Spirit brings is very different: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control. There can be no law against things like that.
Galatians 5:19-23

Since the Spirit is our life, let us be directed by the Spirit. We must stop being conceited, provocative and envious.
Galatians 5:25-26

If one of you misbehaves, the more spiritual of you who set him right should do so in a spirit of gentleness, not forgetting that you may be tempted yourselves.
Galatians 6:1

You should carry each other’s troubles and fulfill the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:2

Don’t delude yourself into thinking God can be cheated: where a man sows, there he reaps.
Galatians 6:7

We must never get tired of doing good because if we don’t give up the struggle we shall get our harvest at the proper time. While we have the chance, we must do good to all, and especially to our brothers in the faith.
Galatians 6:9-10

All texts are taken from the Jerusalem Bible (1966).

Open Door

We are still the early Christians, at least,
we can be if we want to.

This doesn’t mean trying to set up yet another church denomination to ‘purify’ the Church of all the accumulations of tradition and what not that seems to obscure the Good News. Actually, it isn’t the traditions per se that obscure the Good News. Administered rightly, the traditions do what they were designed to do: amplify the Good News and integrate it into our personal lives.

What obscures the Good News is something so close to us that we can’t often see it. It’s our tendency to want the appearance rather than the reality of anything. The mind awake knows better, knows this tendency and refutes it, saying as C. S. Lewis writes, ‘I want God, not my idea of God.’ This is what the Christian mind awake realizes about God and, this being its starting point, begins to untie the knot of its self-deception.

Acknowledging the holy scriptures formally does nothing to promote our life in Christ. We must with the fear of God, with faith and love draw near to them. We must humbly bow our stiff necks and tender our tough hearts into the faithful care of the Word of God. Studying them in this way, we are drawn to the same life that the holy apostles and early church brothers lived.
Why? Because we realize we want it.

When I read the first letter of holy apostle Paul to his spiritual son Timothy the other day, I didn’t read a daily portion. I couldn’t read any less than the whole book, cover to cover, short as it is. It drew me into itself, not in the imagination, but in the spirit of the life it contains. Reading it this way, I was placed right then and there, living the same church life that they live, with them.
Why? Because it’s still happening.

As I said at first, we are the early Christians, and that’s that, but only if we want to be. Once you discover that through living in the holy scriptures, once you have had a taste of that life, that real Church life, you realize there really isn’t any other kind, everything else seems fake, seems contrived. Fellowship with the saints becomes more than a review of history, and you realize what it means to have an indelible baptism.

Christ is not religion to me, nor are He and His holy apostles and saints too exalted to be my friends, nor is the Holy Spirit an excuse for me to rest in comfortable exile from my heavenly home.

Instead, the Book is the door that was left open in my path, and I walked through it to find that all it says is true, that there is a heavenly country, that paradise still exists, that the Church has never changed, never been divided, and that it’s my Home now, and to the ages of ages.

Behold, I have set before thee an open door,
and no man can shut it.
Revelation 3:8

Ιδου, δεδωκα ενωπιον σου θυραν ανεωγμενην,
και ουδεις δυναται κλεισαι αυτην.

Prayer for the Church

Lord, how quickly and easily we get corrupted!

It’s easy to see what should be the form of the church, what should be its ministries, its worship, its lifestyle, from reading the gospels, the acts, and the epistles. Yet, we somehow always drift away from that which spiritual logic indicates and into the paths of our own devices.

In the first generation, we know that the holy apostles were set aside by God and they themselves accepted this, that they should have a ministry based on what was given to them, and that is what they lived for. Their daily needs were taken care of in whatever way each day afforded, whether some of them did manual work for their living as well as preaching, or when the Spirit had them preach or minister so totally that the church, that is, the people to whom they ministered, taught, evangelized and so forth, helped them out with their daily bread and a place to sleep. The same was true of all those whom the Spirit touched: they lived for You and the spreading of Your gospel, for the making of disciples of all nations. They had no private lives or needs, for what could be private to them who had given up everything to follow You?

And so it was through the ages and so it is today. The apostolic life can no more change than You can.

The lifestyle of the flock, the members of the church, also flows logically from the gospels, the acts, and the epistles. If we stayed in the scriptures, our lives and lifestyles would flow out of and be formed by the same spiritual logic. We would all minister to one another from our abilities according to each other’s needs.

The form of the church outwardly in various ages has wavered between what is formed by the spiritual logic of the scriptures, and what we want to make of them to fit our own imagined needs, which are really wants. In most of our history, those who were called or set apart to minister, still supported themselves by the work of their hands, to the extent of their real needs. Married priests had to farm, or do crafts, or teach, to earn their earthly keep and support their families. To the extent that they put themselves out to do the church services they were recompensed out of what their flock had and were willing to offer. Themselves, even when married, remained in actual fact not just in name, servants of the people of God, without private lives or privileges. Only those who gave themselves over completely to the needs of the church, and whose work really took up all their time, were supported out of common funds, and that only according to their needs, not their wants. But how quickly and easily these ways were corrupted, both in West and East. And at the present day, the ways of the church have so far drifted into the ways of man and so distant from Your ways, Lord, that we cannot even recognize, in the light of the logic of your Word, anything of the true in what we see in the church. We have drifted so far, that to even speak as I am now, is considered foolishness or even heresy. But You, Lord, know what You gave us, what Your holy apostles handed over to us, and what we have done with it.

Grant us, Lord, mercy in these last days, and let Your servants find the way of life that You have clearly revealed in Your holy scriptures, and deliver us from ourselves and our selfish plight. In the time that is left to us, help us to live as You live, so we will be ready to meet You without fear at Your second and glorious coming.

Come, Lord Jesus.

Stone Age Christianity

There are three ages in the history of the Church: the Golden Age, when the Church was opposed to political governments; the Iron Age, when she was politically directing Europe’s kingdoms; and the Stone Age, when she has been subdued to the service of political governments. What a humiliation for the present generation to live in the Stone Age of Christianity!

Trying to unite Church and State we are trying to unite what God separated from the beginning of our era.

To separate the Church from the State does not mean, as many think, to separate soul from body; it means to separate two quite opposed spirits unakin and hostile to each other, like Cross and Capitol.

The worm of comfort and human inertia has reconciled Christianity with secular, pagan governments, and so paralysed the most divine movement in human history. Go to the bottom of all those clever advocacies for unity of Church and State, and you will meet, as their primus motor, the worm of comfort and human inertia.

All Churches and Christian institutions of the present time, however wonderful they may be, are only a dim prophecy of the coming Christian worship in truth and spirit. Through them we look now to the future as through a glass.

Christianity is neither monarchical nor republican. It does not care about institutions but about the spirit living in them. That institution is the best which is fullest of the Christian spirit. From this point of view, an autocracy may be better than a republic, and vice versa.

The true Christianity has been hidden from us as iron and coal were hidden from the men of the Stone Age. They walked over iron and coal but they used stone and wood only. So we are walking over and around Christ, still using in our daily life the pagan gods of old.

If there is to be a new geological epoch, with a new type of man, it will be the Christian epoch. All the existing types have been made by revolutions and influences of earth and water, or of air and fire. Now only the Christian revolution—I mean literally and not allegorically—can produce a higher type of the human animal.

— Nikolaj Velimirović, Bishop of Ohrid and Žiča

The Apostolic Rule: Corinthians

The teaching of holy apostle Paul…

Pray to our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 1:2

Never stop thanking God for all the graces you have received through Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 1:4

Make up the differences between you, and instead of disagreeing among yourselves, be united in your belief and practice.
1 Corinthians 1:10

Instead of the spirit of the world, we have received the Spirit that comes from God, to teach us to understand the gifts He has given us. Therefore we teach not in the way in which philosophy is taught, but in the way that the Spirit teaches us. We teach spiritual things spiritually.
1 Corinthians 2:12-13

The temple of God is sacred, and you are that temple.
1 Corinthians 3:17

There must be no passing of premature judgment. Leave that until the Lord comes.
1 Corinthians 4:5

Keep to what is written.
1 Corinthians 4:6

The Kingdom of God is not just words, it is power.
1 Corinthians 4:20

You should not associate with a brother Christian who is leading an immoral life, or is a usurer, or idolatrous, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or is dishonest. You should not even eat a meal with people like that.
1 Corinthians 5:11

How dare one of your members take up a complaint against another in the law courts of the unjust instead of before the saints! As you know, it is the saints who are to judge the world; and if the world is to be judged by you, how can you be unfit to judge trifling cases? Since we are also to judge angels, it follows that we can judge matters of everyday life.
1 Corinthians 6:1-3

You know perfectly well that people who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God: people of immoral lives, idolators, adulterers, catamites, sodomites, thieves, usurers, drunkards, slanderers and swindlers will never inherit the Kingdom of God. These are the sort of people some of you were once, but now you have been washed clean, and sanctified, and justified through the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and through the Spirit of our God.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Keep away from fornication. All the other sins are committed outside the body, but to fornicate is to sin against your own body.
1 Corinthians 6:18

Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. You are not your own property. You have been bought and paid for. That is why you should use your body for the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Let each man have his own wife, and each woman her own husband. The husband must give his wife what she has the right to expect, and so too the wife to the husband. The wife has no rights over her own body; it is the husband who has them. In the same way, the husband has no rights over his own body; the wife has them. Do not refuse each other except by mutual consent, and then only for an agreed time, to leave yourselves free for prayer. Then come together again in case Satan should take advantage of your weakness to tempt you.
1 Corinthians 7:2-5

A wife must not leave her husband, or if she does leave him, she must either remain unmarried or else make it up with her husband. Nor must a husband send his wife away.
1 Corinthians 7:10b-11

If a brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she is content to live with him, he must not send her away; and if a woman has an unbeliever for her husband, and he is content to live with her, she must not leave him. This is because the unbelieving husband is made one with the saints through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made one with the saints through her husband. However, if the unbelieving partner does not consent, they may separate. In these circumstances, the brother or sister is not tied. God has called you to a life of peace. If you are a wife, it may be your part to save your husband. If a husband, it may be your part to save your wife.
1 Corinthians 7:12-16

What each one has is what the Lord has given him, and he should continue as he was when God’s call reached him.
1 Corinthians 7:17

Let everyone stay as he was at the time of his call. If, when you were called, you were a slave, do not let this bother you. But if you should have the chance of being free, accept it.
1 Corinthians 7:20-21

You have all been bought and paid for. Do not be slaves of other men.
1 Corinthians 7:23

We all have knowledge. Yes, that is so, but knowledge gives self-importance. It is love that makes the building grow. A man may imagine that he understands something, but still not understand anything in the way he ought to. But any man who loves God is known by Him.
1 Corinthians 8:1-3

The man who thinks he is safe must be careful that he does not fall. The trials that you have had to bear are no more than people normally have. You can trust God to not let you be tried beyond your strength, and with any trial He will give you a way out of it and the strength to bear it.
1 Corinthians 10:12-13

For me there are no forbidden things, but not everything does good. True, there are no forbidden things, but it is not everything that helps the building to grow.
1 Corinthians 10:23

Nobody should be looking for his own advantage, but everybody for the other man’s.
1 Corinthians 10:24

Whatever you eat, whatever you drink, whatever you do at all, do it for the glory of God. Never do anything offensive to anyone.
1 Corinthians 10:31-32

No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” unless he is under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:3b

Love is always patient and kind. It is never jealous. Love is never boastful or conceited. It is never rude or selfish. It does not take offense and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the truth. It is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes. Love does not come to an end.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a

You are not to be childish in your outlook. You can be babies as far as wickedness is concerned, but mentally you must be adult.
1 Corinthians 14:20

By all means be ambitious to prophesy, do not suppress the gift of tongues, but let everything be done with propriety and in order.
1 Corinthians 14:39-40

The gospel will save you only if you keep believing what was preached to you. Believing anything else will not lead to anything.
1 Corinthians 15:2

Never give in, never admit defeat. Keep on working at the Lord’s work always, knowing that in the Lord you cannot be laboring in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:58

Be awake to all the dangers. Stay firm in the faith. Be brave and be strong. Let everything you do be done in love.
1 Corinthians 16:13-14

We are Christ’s incense to God for those who are being saved and for those who are not. For the last, the smell of death that leads to death, for the first the sweet smell of life that leads to life.
2 Corinthians 2:15-16a

We do not go around offering the Word of God for sale, as many other people do. In Christ, we speak as men of sincerity, as envoys of God and in God’s presence.
2 Corinthians 2:17

We with our unveiled faces reflecting like mirrors the brightness of the Lord grow brighter and brighter as we are turned into the Image that we reflect.
2 Corinthians 3:18

The troubles which are soon over, though they weigh little, train us for the carrying of a weight of eternal glory which is out of all proportion to them.
2 Corinthians 4:17

From now onward we do not judge anyone by the standards of the flesh. Even if we did once know Christ in the flesh, that is not how we know him now. For anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation. The old creation has gone, and now the new one is here. It is all God’s work.
2 Corinthians 5:16-18a

It was God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the work of handing on this reconciliation. God in Christ was reconciling the world to Himself, not holding men’s faults against them, and He has entrusted to us the news that they are reconciled.
2 Corinthians 5:18b-19

We are ambassadors for Christ. It is as though God were appealing through us, and the appeal that we make in Christ’s Name is: Be reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:20

For our sake God made the sinless One into sin, so that in Him we might become the goodness of God. As His fellow workers, we beg you not to neglect the grace of God that you have received.
2 Corinthians 5:21-6:1

We do nothing that people might object to, so as not to bring discredit on our function as Christ’s servants. We prove we are servants of God by great fortitude in times of suffering, in times of hardship and distress. We prove we are God’s servants by our purity, knowledge, patience, and kindness, by a spirit of holiness, by a love free from affectation, by the word of truth and by the power of God.
2 Corinthians 6:3-7a

Do not harness yourselves in an uneven team with unbelievers. Virtue is no companion for crime. Light and darkness have nothing in common. Christ is not the ally of Belial, nor has a believer anything to share with an unbeliever.
2 Corinthians 6:14-15

To suffer in God’s way means changing for the better and leaves no regrets, but to suffer as the world knows suffering brings death.
2 Corinthians 7:10

As long as the readiness is there, a man is acceptable with whatever he can afford. Never mind what is beyond his means. This does not mean that to give relief to others you ought to make things difficult for yourselves. It is a question of balancing what happens to be your surplus now against their present need, and one day they may have something to spare that will supply your own need. That is how we strike a balance.
2 Corinthians 8:12-14

We live in the flesh, but the muscles that we fight with are not flesh. Our war is not fought with weapons of flesh, yet they are strong enough in God’s cause to demolish fortresses. We demolish sophistries and the arrogance that tries to resist the knowledge of God. Every thought is our prisoner, captured to be brought into obedience to Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5

Examine yourselves to make sure you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Acknowledge that Jesus Christ is really in you.
2 Corinthians 13:5

Try to grow perfect. Help one another. Be united. Live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.
2 Corinthians 13:11

All texts are taken from the Jerusalem Bible (1966).

She points the Way

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Inclusive

Judaism was destined for the people of Israel only. The Christian Church was destined for the people of Israel too, but not for them only. She included Greeks as well.

The Greek polytheism of Olympus was destined for the Hellenic race only. The Christian Church was destined for the Hellenic race too, but not for it only. She included Indians as well.

Buddha’s wisdom was offered to the monks and vegetarians. Monks and vegetarians the Christian Church included in her lap, but also married and social people too.

Pythagoras founded a religious society of intellectual aristocrats. The Christian Church from the beginning included intellectual aristocrats side by side with the ignorant and unlettered.

The Persian prophet, Zoroaster, recruited soldiers of the god of light among the best men to fight against the god of darkness. His religious institution was like a military barracks. The Christian Church included both the best and the worst, the righteous and the sinners, the healthy and the sick. It was a barracks and a hospital at the same time. It was an institution both for spiritual fighting and spiritual healing.

The Chinese sage, Confucius, preached a wonderful ethical pragmatism, and the profound thinker, Lao Tse, preached an all-embracing spiritualism. Christian wisdom included both of them, opening Heaven for the first and showing the dramatic importance of the physical world for the second.

Islam—yes, Islam—had in some sense a Christian ambition: to win the whole world. The difference was: Islam wished world-conquest; the Church, the world’s salvation. Islam intended to subdue all men and bring them before God as His servants: The Church intended to educate all men, to purify and elevate them, and to bring them before God as His children.

And all others: star-worshippers, and fire, and wood, and water, and stone, and animal-worshippers had a touching sense of the immediate divine presence in nature. The Church came not to extinguish this sense but to explain and to subordinate it; to put God in the place of demons and hope instead of fear.

The Church came not to destroy, but to purify, to aid and to assimilate. The destination of the Church was neither national nor racial, but cosmic. No exclusive power was ever destined to be a world-power.

The ultimate failure of Islam to become a world-power lies in its exclusiveness. It was with religion as with politics. Every exclusive policy is foredoomed to failure: the German as well as the Turkish and the Napoleonic.

The policy of the Church was designed by her Divine Founder: “He that is not against us is for us.” Well, there is no human race on earth wholly against Christ and wholly unprepared to receive Him. The wisdom of the Christian missionaries therefore is to see first in what ways Providence has prepared a soil for Christian seed; to see which of the Christian elements a race, or a religion, already possesses, and how to utilise these elements and weld them into Christianity. All that, in order to make Christianity grow organically, instead of pushing it mechanically.

In conclusion let me repeat again: the wisdom of the Church has been inclusive.

Inclusive was the wisdom of her Founder, inclusive the wisdom of her organisation and of her destination. Exclusiveness was the very sickness and weakness of the Church. That is why we in the East in the time of sickness of the Church looked neither towards Peter, nor Paul, nor John, but towards the Holy Wisdom, the all-healing and all-illuminating. For Aghia Sophia in Constantinople, the temple dedicated to Christ the Eternal, includes in itself the sanctuaries of Peter, Paul and John; moreover, it is supported even by some pillars of Diana’s temple from Ephesus and has many other things, in style or material, which belonged to the Paganism of old. Indeed, Aghia Sophia has room and heart even for Islam. The Mohamedans have been praising it as the best of their sanctuaries!

Look to the Holy Wisdom! Look beyond Peter, and Paul, and John—through them and still beyond them! Every Church has her prophet, her apostle, her angel. Look now over them all to the very top of the pyramid, where all the lines meet!

Either Christianity is one, or there is no Christianity.
Either the Church is universal, or there is no Church.

— Nikolaj Velimirović, Bishop of Ohrid and Žiča

Obedient, or just religious?

What can the Lord get out of the one earthly life that I have?
by Pastor Zac Poonen
of Christian Fellowship Church, Bangalore, India

Many religious people are legalistic and are under the law. They think in terms of the minimum necessary in order to please God. This is why they calculate exactly how much 10% of their income comes to and then offer it reluctantly to God. In the Old Testament, this attitude finally ended up in the Israelites offering blind sheep and sick bulls as sacrifices to the Lord (Malachi 1:8).

It is possible to have an identical attitude to the New Testament commandments. A sister can think in terms of the minimum necessary in order to keep the letter of the Word that commands her to be subject to her husband; or the minimum necessary covering required for her head in the meetings—without the beauty of her hair being totally hidden! Men and women can think in terms of the minimum necessary in order to be 'spiritual' without altogether giving up everything. "What is the minimum that I have to give up of this world?" is a question that is always in the minds of such people. Such people can never be spiritual. They can only be religious.

Jesus' attitude was totally different. He never sought to discover what the minimum requirement was, to please His Father. On the contrary, He sought to find out what the maximum was, so that He could offer everything to the Father. Therefore He sought to find
out the spirit behind each commandment. Thus He knew that it was not enough to merely avoid adultery in the flesh (even though that was the minimum required by the law). He understood that the spirit behind that commandment was that one should not even lust (covet) in one's heart. Likewise, He saw that anger and murder were similar. And so on. Thus, He understood the spirit behind each commandment.

An earthly bride who is deeply in love with her bridegroom never thinks of the minimum necessary to please her partner. On the contrary, she thinks of what the maximum is that she can do. This is the attitude of the bride of Christ too.

It is here that we see the distinction between the servant and the bride. Those under the law can only be servants. The employee works for wages and is therefore very calculative in his service. He measures his work by the clock. If he works overtime, he expects extra wages. One who is a son (or a wife), on the other hand, will work for any length of time—not for reward, but out of love. Herein lies the difference between religiosity and spirituality.

The attitude of mind that thinks "What can I get out of the Lord?" leads to religiosity. On the other hand, the attitude that thinks "What can the Lord get out of the one earthly life that I have?" will lead to true spirituality. It will then become natural for us to go the second mile when the minimum requirement is to go just one mile.

The Apostolic Rule: Romans

The teaching of holy apostle Paul…

Preach the obedience of faith to all pagan nations.
Romans 1:5

It is not listening to the Law but keeping it that will make people holy in the sight of God.
Romans 2:13

You must not let sin reign in your mortal bodies or command your obedience to bodily passions. You must not let any part of your body turn into an unholy weapon fighting on the side of sin. You should offer yourselves to God and consider yourselves dead men brought back to life. You should make every part of your body into a weapon fighting on the side of God. Then sin will no longer dominate your life, since you are living by grace and not by law.
Romans 6:12-14

There is no necessity for us to obey our unspiritual selves or to live unspiritual lives.
Romans 8:12

Everyone moved by the Spirit is a son of God. The Spirit you received is not the spirit of slaves bringing fear into your lives again. It is the spirit of sons, and it makes us cry out, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit Himself and our spirit bear united witness that we are the children of God. And if we are children we are heirs as well, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, sharing His sufferings so as to share His glory.
Romans 8:14-17

We must be content to hope that we shall be saved—our salvation is not in sight—we must hope to be saved since we are not saved yet. It is something we must wait for with patience.
Romans 8:24-25

Nothing can come between us and the love of Christ, even if we are troubled or worried, or being persecuted or lacking food or clothes, or being threatened or even attacked. These are the trials through which we triumph, by the power of Him who loved us. Nothing that exists can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:35-39

The Word, that is, the faith that we proclaim, is very near you. It is on your lips and in your heart. If your lips confess that Jesus is Lord, and if you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. By believing from the heart you are made righteous. By confessing with the lips you are saved. Everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved.
Romans 10:8-13

Think of God’s mercy, and worship Him in a way that is worthy of thinking beings, by offering your bodies as a holy sacrifice, truly pleasing to God.
Romans 12:1

Do not model yourselves on the behavior of the world around you, but let your behavior change, modeled by your new mind. This is the only way to discover the will of God and know what is good, what it is that God wants, what is the perfect thing to do.
Romans 12:2

All of us, in union with Christ, form one body, and as parts of it we belong to each other. Our gifts differ according to the grace given us. If your gift is prophecy, then use it as your faith suggests; if administration, then use it for administration; if teaching, then use it for teaching. Let the preachers deliver sermons, the almsgivers give freely, the officials be diligent, and those who do works of mercy do them cheerfully.
Romans 12:5-8

Do not let your love be a pretense, but sincerely prefer good to evil. Love each other as much as brothers should, and have a profound respect for each other. Work for the Lord with untiring effort and with great earnestness of spirit. If you have hope, this will make you cheerful. Do not give up if trials come; and keep on praying. If any of the saints are in need, you must share with them; and you should make hospitality your special care.
Romans 12:9-13

Bless those who persecute you. Never curse them, bless them.
Romans 12:14

Rejoice with those who rejoice, and be sad with those in sorrow.
Romans 12:15

Treat everyone with equal kindness. Never be condescending, but make real friends with the poor.
Romans 12:16a

Do not allow yourself to become self-satisfied.
Romans 12:16b

Never repay evil with evil, but let everyone see that you are interested only in the highest ideals.
Romans 12:17

Do all that you can to live at peace with everyone.
Romans 12:18

Resist evil and conquer it with good.
Romans 12:21

You must all obey the government authorities.
Romans 13:1

Avoid getting into debt, except the debt of mutual love. If you love your fellow men you have carried out your obligations.
Romans 13:8

You know “the time” has come. You must wake up now. Our salvation is even nearer than it was when we were converted. The night is almost over, it will be daylight soon. Let us give up all the things we prefer to do under cover of the dark. Let us arm ourselves and appear in the light.
Romans 13:11-12

Let us live decently as people do in the daytime: no drunken orgies, no promiscuity or licentiousness, and no wrangling and jealousy.
Romans 13:13

Let your armor be the Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 13:14a

Forget about satisfying your bodies with all their cravings.
Romans 13:14b

If a person’s faith is not strong enough, welcome him all the same without starting an argument.
Romans 14:1

It is not for you to condemn someone else’s servant. Whether he stands or falls, it is his own master’s business. He will stand, you may be sure, because the Lord has power to make him stand.
Romans 14:4

If one man keeps certain days as holier than others, and another considers all days to be equally holy, each must be left free to hold his own opinion.
Romans 14:5

You should never pass judgment on a brother or treat him with contempt. We shall have to stand before the judgment seat of God.
Romans 14:10

Far from passing judgment on each other, you should make up your mind never to be the cause of your brother tripping or falling.
Romans 14:13

The Kingdom of God does not mean eating or drinking this or that, it means righteousness and peace and joy brought by the Holy Spirit. If you serve Christ in this way you will please God and be respected by men. So let us adopt any custom that leads to peace and our mutual improvement. Do not wreck God’s work over a question of food.
Romans 14:17-20

Every act done in bad faith is a sin.
Romans 14:23b

We who are strong have a duty to put up with the qualms of the weak without thinking of ourselves. Each of us should think of his neighbors and help them to become stronger Christians.
Romans 15:1-2

Be tolerant with each other, following the example of Christ Jesus, so that united in mind and voice you may give glory to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 15:5b-6

Treat each other in the same friendly way as Christ treated you.
Romans 15:7

Be on your guard against anybody who encourages trouble or puts difficulties in the way of the doctrine you have been taught. Avoid them.
Romans 16:17

All texts are taken from the Jerusalem Bible (1966).

Mary of Nazareth

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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