No other name

The image above and all the images used in this post are psalm paintings by Christa Rozier, and can be viewed at Psalm Paintings. Prints are also available at this site.

Years ago, when you wanted to buy a copy of the New Testament, not the whole Bible, especially in a pocket-sized edition, what you would get was usually The New Testament with Psalms, Authorized King James Version. As I remember it, I don’t believe I ever saw a New Testament ‘by itself’ until I bought my first copy of Good News for Modern Man, possibly the first colloquial English version, now available as the Good News Bible, even with Apocrypha!

It’s a good thing to have the New Testament by itself for portability. I have an NIV version that I carry in the cigarette pocket on the left sleeve of my hoody, and I read it whenever I’m caught somewhere with time on my hands. I still wish it had the Psalms in it, though. That wouldn’t really make it much bigger.

Publishing the New Testament alone without the Psalms makes it possible to just read the Bible for knowledge without being put in a position where an encounter with God is not only possible, but probable. Sure, most people who have a pocket NT probably are already committed Christians, but this isn’t about one’s ‘status’ as a Christian; it’s about the Reality to which the scriptures point, and that is God Himself.

Of all the books of the Bible, the Psalms are most full of the ‘worship in spirit and truth’ that our Lord spoke to the woman of Samaria about. The Old Testament division called the Torah, or the Pentateuch, has books detailing the ceremony of worship and the layout of ancient Israel’s sacrifice-based religious system. In the division called the Nevi’im, or the Prophets, we see glimpses of the worship that ‘the Father wants,’ and this carries us back again to the Psalms, many of which were already in existence at that time.

The Psalms are the heart of the ceremonial worship of both Judaism and historic Christianity, and in the personal worship of Judaism and ancient Christianity represented today by Orthodox, Roman Catholic and ‘high church’ Protestantism. Among some of the modern forms of Christianity, the Psalms are just another book of the Bible to be mined for props to their ever-redundant ‘pop worship.’ If a text can’t be made to fit what the band is playing up there, they just change or replace it. The Psalms are a timeless melody from God’s heart that the world wants to fit into its concept of ‘praise.’

The first psalm appointed for the 29th day of the month, is Psalm 139. Can anyone find a passage in the Bible to rival this psalm in both revealing the secret door of the soul that leads to the Father, and then take them through it?

Yahweh, You examine me and know me,
You know if I am standing or sitting,
You read my thoughts from far away,
whether I walk or lie down, you are watching,
You know every detail of my conduct.

The word is not even on my tongue,
Yahweh, before You know all about it;
close behind and close in front You fence me round,
shielding me with Your hand.
Such knowledge is beyond my understanding,
a height to which my mind cannot attain.

Where could I go to escape Your Spirit?
Where could I flee from Your Presence?
If I climb the heavens, You are there,
there too, if I lie in She’ol.

If I flew to the point of sunrise,
or westward across the sea,
Your hand would still be guiding me,
Your right hand holding me.

If I asked darkness to cover me,
and light to become night around me,
that darkness would not be dark to You,
night would be as light as day.

It was You who created my inmost self,
and put me together in my mother’s womb;
for all these mysteries I thank You:
for the wonder of myself, for the wonder of Your works.

You know me through and through,
from having watched my bones takes shape
when I was being formed in secret
in the limbo of the womb.

You had scrutinised my every action,
all were recorded in Your book,
my days listed and determined,
even before the first of them occurred.

God, how hard it is to grasp Your thoughts!
How impossible to count them!
I could no more count them than I could the sand,
and suppose I could, You would still be with me...

Psalm 139:1-18 Jerusalem Bible

Compare the experience of this psalm in praying it with what goes on typically in a worship service. There really is no comparison, is there? The intimacy that indwells this psalm is absent from most church services. In my experience, though, it can be found in the public worship of synagogues, churches and assemblies in proportion to how much of the Bible, in particular the Psalms, are in those services. It would be difficult to imagine Christ being very impressed with many of the things we do in our public worship. This isn’t a matter of ‘what would Jesus do (or think)?’ but rather, ‘what does Jesus do?’ for you see, He is present at those worship services, at least at those where He is welcome. As for those where He is unwelcome, He comes anyway still looking for His sheep. Christ can and does go anywhere.

When I have worshiped with the Jews at their synagogue, I noticed immediately how often I heard the name ‘Jesus’ recited or sung in their congregation. Being able to read Hebrew, I would hurriedly try to find the place in their siddur or prayer book where the name occurred, so I could see the context. The prayer books are Hebrew on one page and English on the facing page.

What I discovered was that it wasn’t the name ‘Jesus’ they were singing—after all, how could they? They’re Jews!—but the word ‘salvation.’ When they were singing ‘yeshu’ató’ they were saying ‘His salvation’ and so on. What were they reciting and singing? The psalms, of course! The word ‘salvation’ and its verbal counterparts occur many times in the Psalms. That is in fact what the psalms are concerned about more than anything—salvation.

The original meaning of salvation wasn’t as we now mostly think, ‘dying and going to heaven,’ but rather being saved from the life of bondage in Egypt. In this sense, Moses was both liberator and savior of Israel. In this sense Joshua was a savior. After Israel came into the land of Canaan, the judges were there to lead Israel and save them from the assaults of their heathen neighbors. As such there were many saviors in Israel, some of them women, like Esther and Judith, who saved their people Israel from grave danger.

The entire Old Testament is actually a record of God’s saving acts on behalf of His hereditary people Israel, to bring them from bondage to freedom. At the end of the long line of saviors in Israel appears the One who is the Savior, the one who is Salvation, so much so that the Most-High sends His angel to impart the name to this Child—Yeshua, Salvation. He saves His people from bondage, but not just from bondage to an earthly tyrant, but from death itself, from She’ol. For what worse tyrant can there be than death?

In the same way that Jesus Christ does not point to the truth but Himself is the Truth, so does Jesus not lay out a religious system to dispense salvation but Himself is Salvation. This is why true Christianity, if we can even use the word ‘Christianity’ to describe it at all, is emphatically not a religion, but a personal encounter with the crucified and resurrected Living God, the God-Man Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and who by His very name Jesus, is the Salvation of the world.

The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand. The next day the rulers, elders and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the other men of the high priest’s family. They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?”

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

Acts 4:1-13 NIV

What it's all about

Christianity is not all about doctrine. Christianity is all about grace. It is all about mercy and love. This is not, however, what one would think, looking at the Church. But the Church is Christianity, and Christianity is the Church. We must look deeper than the externals of history, and more finely at what the Church is, really is, in day to day life. Even there, we may find masquerades going on, but also the true.

Orthodoxy is true not because of the heroic stand against papal claims by such saints as Photios or Mark of Ephesos. Orthodoxy is true because it sings, and because it sings even in the face of sin. It is true because such saints as Elder Porphyrios can love and bless prostitutes. It is true because of such confidence in the victory and mercy of Christ that it can be gracious to sinners, because Christ is.

Doctrine and dogma are the results of a qualitative analysis of the life of the Church, that is, what the Church actually does. They are formed and accepted spontaneously and organically. When they are formulated in lecture halls or in convocations they often reflect nothing real, are merely ideologies, which the evil one uses to divide the undivided Body of Christ. Anything that resists the love and work of Christ is not Christianity, no matter what it is called.

What is the love and work of Christ? It is what we see Jesus doing in the gospels. It is what we see the Holy Spirit doing in the acts and epistles. It is what we see the saints doing who have abandoned all to follow the Lord. It is what we participate in when we follow them. It is mercy applied to the undeserving. It is love lavished on the unlovable. It is refusal of the claims of the unreal. It is forgiveness of offenses. It is justification of the sinner.

Study the scriptures. Turn to them and learn. They mean what they say and will give you language to say what you mean. They uncover the truth about you, but then cover you with the truth about Christ. They baptise and chrismate you into the life of the new creation. They offer you the water that once drunk will quench your thirst for ever. They feed you with the bread of heaven that once eaten preserves you to life eternal. They are mercy, grace and love.

Aνάληψις - Análipsis

Although Mark closes his gospel with a brief mention of it, Luke reports it twice, once in greater detail, writing to Theóphilos both times. Perhaps Theóphilos was intrigued with what he read in the evangélion and wanted to know more, so Luke obliged him in the opening words of his book of the acts of the apostles, the práxeis.

It was angels, not men, who gave its name to this other most hidden mystírion of the Lord Jesus, when they said to the disciples who were looking up in awe, “Why are you men from Galilee standing here looking into the sky? Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, οὗτος ὁ Ἰησοῦς ὁ ἀναληφθεὶς ἀφ’ὑμῶν εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν,
this same Jesus will come back in the same way you have seen Him go there.”

ὁ ἀναληφθεὶς—o analiphtheís, he who has been taken up—the source of the name of this mystery—ἡ ἀνάληψις—i análipsis, the Ascension.

“Will wonders never cease?” was probably the cynical retort of unbelievers when the holy apostles and the Lord’s mother came running back into town with the news. Wasn’t it enough that these dreamers, racked with grief, had made up the tale of the rising from the dead of the imposter? Now this!

The words of the Son of Man had circumcised the ears of those who would listen, preparing them for the blood atonement that He was to suffer and offer to His heavenly Father, sprinkling them with it, as Moses had sanctified the children of Yisrael in the wilderness, only this time, not figuratively, but in spirit and truth.
The deeds of the Son of Man had unthroned the worthy in their own eyes and restored to favor in the eyes of His Father those of low estate, those the others called unworthy, people like His own mother and brothers.
No, O world of men! Neither His rising from the dead nor this, His ascent into heaven to be seated at the right hand of Divine Majesty, are lies. Christ is risen from the dead, not merely was raised, but is risen, He who speaks to us now and always, who was, who is, and who is to come, the Pantokrátor, He who was dead but is alive, and alive forever.
“Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, this same Jesus will come back in the same way you have seen Him go there,” just as the angels told us.

His ascent to the Father did not inaugurate an absence, but a hidden presence—hidden from the eyes of the world, but revealed to all who trust in Him as an abiding presence, to all who believe His word,

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.
Go therefore, make disciples of all the nations; baptise them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you.
And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.”

Common sense

As the British referendum whether to remain in the European Union or not looms—the now famous ‘Brexit’—the scare tactics of the non-elected and anti-democratic rulers of the world banking systems are coming on full force, with bankers from all over the world chiming in.

This bunch believes that everything that is important in life revolves around them and what they can give or withhold from the common man. Naturally they think so, because their lives surely depend on it. If they decide to crash their own system, they know they will survive.

And common man won’t? Oh, please, give me a break. This world is still a place where survival of the fittest holds sway, despite the wordplay and the mirages they use to deceive the public. The major issue with Brexit is not economic, so their shadowbox world is about to fall.

The major issue is about freedom. In fact it is about the freedom to survive. That’s why what happens on 23 June 2016 has far greater implications for the survival of nations than anything the bankers and their payrolled minions offer in that regard. Not just for Britain’s, for the world’s.

People can be deceived for only so long. The United States, once the wealthiest and freest (yes, it is spelled that way, but pronounced ‘free-est’) nation on earth has, due to the hegemony of the banking cartel become, in real terms at street level, one of the poorest and least free.

When a nation suddenly wakes up and realizes what’s been going on, and how little freedom they have to make the life choices that will enable them not just to survive but to prosper, their would-be masters and guides have to think fast. This time they haven’t thought fast enough.

We have long been living in an unreal world where we are pandered to and dumbed down much as the Roman populace was in the days after the end of their Republic, and paying the price of artificial stability and prosperity from a diminishing wallet of inalienable rights and freedoms.

Those rights are, not were, inalienable, which means we must not, cannot, give them away, surrender them, and yet here we are, having woken up to find Big Brother hovering over us and our limbs secured by shackles of conditioned materialism, told what we must do by our betters.

How much this actually resembles the way black slavery was maintained by the southern States in pre-Civil War America is astonishing, but we’ve grown so used to it that we don’t recognize it for what it is. Even the splitting apart of families on the auction block routinely happens.

Get the picture? And this is not a revolutionary revelation. It’s common sense, if we stop and give it a serious think. Big banking fuels big government, and big government is a monster that swallows its own offspring when it doesn’t get enough of what it wants. Hence, the wars.

It’s time, Britain, to become Great again, and America, I think you’ve already been told the same, even if it was by someone the bankers and governesses have demonized and made out to be another Hitler, all of which is nonsense. When push comes to shove, people, please shove hard.

The world, though perhaps not the European Union, will survive if the United Kingdom remembers itself and takes back what it never should have surrendered. If there are economic repercussions, we will survive, we will all survive. We always do, and the world will be the better for it.

Ramadan رمضان

Ramadan 2016 begins Monday, June 6
and ends Tuesday, July 5.

Ramadan (Arabic: رمضان) is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and the month in which Muslims believe the Qur’an was revealed.

Fasting during the month of Ramadan is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. The month is spent by Muslims fasting during the daylight hours from dawn to sunset. Muslims believe that the Qur'an was sent down to the lowest heaven during this month, thus being prepared for gradual revelation by the angel Jibra'il (Gabriel) to the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Furthermore, Muhammad told his followers that the gates of Heaven would be open all the month and the gates of Hell (Jahannam) would be closed.

This is exactly how religion works. There are laws to be followed. There are acts of self-denial to be performed. There are unprovable—maybe even improbable—beliefs to be accepted, explanations of ‘why things are the way they are.’ Finally, there are promises—in reality a variety of perks, again unprovable—that give the average believer a motivation to follow the laws and perform the ceremonies and customs that will ensure him a better existence in whatever happens after physical death.

It's always about death, and the fear of it. Sometimes it's also about sex. Indeed, sexual instincts and death seem to be intertwined somehow, defying reason by insurmountable paradox. Maybe because sexual activity procreates, keeps living beings from extinction, preserves them from permanent death, as a species. So religion, like the funeral industry, has an inescapable relevance to humans everywhere, and the former usually incorporates the latter in every culture. That's religion for you, pacifying unanswerable need.

Whether or not the Word of God (that unwritten eternal Book, that incarnated in Jesus son of Mary) came down to man's level, or very close to it, by being revealed to Muhammad, Gabriel may know. I don't. To me it seems slightly less credible than what happened in the Incarnation, but both claims must seem like nonsense to the believing Jew. Everyone knows that there is only one YHWH, and therefore only one real religion, the one that was revealed to Moses at Sinai. Even Jesus son of Mary followed it.

Real religion—if there is such a thing—doesn't so much need to be in accord with man's power of reason, as to not offend common sense, which is not always the same thing. Laying down laws and making promises just for their own sake, now that is what we expect religions to do, at least the ones we've had to deal with so far. Adding a good dose of supernatural fantasy is also on the agenda. After all, if there is something or Someone ‘up there,’ they will have to keep our interest. Makers of religions know their stuff.

But I find plenty of assurances of Divine mercy, plenty of revelations of what and Who really exist in the pages of the Bible, starting with the Old Testament. There's nothing old about what I find there, except in the sense of  ‘always being the same from before time was.’ If I had to start with that Book, and no other, I would be at a loss to create a religion for myself or for others. There's just something too real, too immediate, about that Book. Yet people use its text to erect religious towers, fortresses, armies, and banks.

Religion has a certain characteristic to it. It is almost always predictable. It will be rich in stories and legends. It will be colorful, even beautiful and seductive to the senses. It can be expected to mobilise people and employ them in tasks that have no earthly object. It always holds out a better tomorrow or hereafter. I doesn't have to limit itself, though, to the future life. The most pungent religions are those that completely take your life over, and use you for anything from sheep to be fleeced to soldiers to be sacrificed.

Heaven is the goal. Earth is just a waiting room, a school, a place of preparation, a ‘foyer leading into the world to come.’ Yes, I know. I believe some of these things too. No, actually, I believe all of them. Earth is temporary, but I still need to take it seriously. Why? Because it is my chance—possibly my only chance—to acquire a truly higher education. Knowing the curriculum, knowing what those lectures and labs should look like, helps me to stay away from schools that are not only unaccredited, but dangerous.

Well, what is it then? Religion or no religion? I believe in three facts that are unprovable, just as unprovable—and maybe just as improbable—as the stories one hears told of the founders and saints of mankind's religions. These three are, the Incarnation, the Resurrection, and the Ascension. People have founded religions on these three, and yet what they found themselves saddled with seems inconsistent, indeed often seems completely unrelated, to these three facts. How can this be? What is belief? Even mine?

Religions have to be maintained, cared for, in order to continue. They have no life in themselves, only what people give them. Just as the idols in a temple have to be washed, dressed and ‘fed’ daily, religions need us. The fact of God's becoming a human being in Jesus of Nazareth, the fact that He lives beyond His historical identity and still moves among us, the fact that He has opened paradise—not some ‘pie in the sky’ magical place where we can be rewarded after a life of unnecessary toil—that transcends religion.

We can recognize the door only when we have tried them all and found which one really opens and is not just a picture of a door. We can distinguish the truth only when we have listened to all the stories and found which one really lives and is not just a fairy tale. We can embark on the way only when we have walked our chosen path long enough to see that it leads nowhere, that it dead ends, and that beside us has been walking He who is the way we sought but could not find. Religion ends at His feet, and relationship begins.

There is no Ramadan, no fasting, no revelations, no religion where we find ourselves when we meet Him, and no paradise except Him who is, and in His presence is peace.

Spiritual warfare

Who shall roll away the stone from the door of the sepulchre...for it is very great? (Mark 16:3). Who rolled it away? An angel, at God's command. He will likewise roll away the stone of insensibility from our hearts, when the time is right for this. We must show faithfulness to the Lord during times of callousness, faintheartedness, doubts, coldness, times of sorrow, illness and various misfortunes. We must exert our will power to strengthen faith in ourselves when, by God's allowance, it seems to be all but extinguished. He permits this in order that we may show again and again what it is we are striving for, where our choice lies.

There is a saying among the elders: a good deed is either preceded or followed by a temptation. A good deed, such as heartfelt prayer, or especially Holy Communion, will not pass without the devil taking revenge. He uses all his might to prevent fruitful prayer and/or communion. If unable to achieve this, he then tries to spoil everything after the fact, so that not a trace of the benefit acquired remains. This is very familiar to all those who have some experience in spiritual endeavor. For this reason it is necessary to ask the Lord, with humility and contrition of heart, that He preserve us from the snares of the devil, who acts either directly upon the soul, or indirectly, through people subject to his power.

Do not be surprised at this. This warfare is fierce. Except the Lord build the house, in vain do they labour that build it. Except the Lord guard the city, in vain doth he watch that guardeth her (Psalm 126:1-2). We must surrender ourselves into the compassionate hands of God, acknowledging before Him our weakness and inability to guard ourselves from visible and invisible foes. Do not be afraid. The devil does not do what he would like, but only that which God allows him to do. Take a look at the book of Job.

May God's blessing always be with you. Never despair. May Christ's Cross always serve to remind you of God's boundless love toward fallen man. Is this thought not enough to inspire one to wholly give oneself over into God's hands? One must make at least a small effort to seek the Kingdom of God, and then the Lord will not leave such a person without His help and comfort. The Lord loves you! Have patience with the Lord.

— Abbot Nikon (Vorobyev) 1894-1963

Letters to Spiritual Children, published by Nikodemos Orthodox Publication Society

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

He has overcome the world

Last Supper with the Street Children, by Joey Velasco

I am sorry for anyone who thinks they can offer me something more than what I already have, which is Jesus Christ. I am sorry for anyone who thinks they can divide the seamless robe of Christ, which is the Church. I am sorry for anyone who thinks they can sow doubt in salvation in people of faith who know their ‘salvation is not in sight’ as St Paul writes, but something which we must hope for with confidence, because our God is the Holy Triad, who is Love. I am sorry for anyone who thinks that it is love that compels them to sow these doubts, no matter how heavily they are armed with arguments and canons. I am sorry for anyone who boasts of anything, especially their own humility, except the Cross of Jesus Christ. We are Orthodox because we follow Jesus, and as He Himself says, He will turn away no one who comes to Him, under any circumstances. I stand by my saying, He is mercy to those who run to Him, and judgment to those who run away.

Now I will tell you what I love. No, let me tell you what I don’t love first. I don’t love my own opinion more than that of the Universal Church, that which is the Bride of Christ, even when I think she’s wrong. Why? Because it’s not a matter of wrong or right, once again, but of love, the willingness to die for one another, even the willingness to die rather than hurt the Bride. Now I will tell you what I love. I love God the Holy Trinity. I love the God-man Jesus and His holy apostles. I love the Church. I love the saints. I don’t care if these latter are not perfect, if they don’t know everything or have all the answers. I love the whole human race that Christ died for, and I love the work that He gave us to do, to hand on to this fallen and confused humanity the Good News—yes, the Good News!—that their sins are atoned for, and that now they are free to live Godly lives, even unto Théosis. I love that Christ is present with us in full no matter when or where we are, and that we have absolutely nothing to fear for ourselves or for others, because He has overcome the world.

Zealots

Zealots, no particular cause.

The Orthodox zealot follows the Holy Fathers and the Canons so closely, you cannot slip a razor between them. You may substitute any other zealot for him, and the effect will be the same, with no more than an exchange of names of those persons or beliefs or laws that put him a notch above the rest. He has more in common with zealots of all persuasions and creeds than he has with other Christians, even other Orthodox (although from his point of view, we are not genuine).

Before he exposes himself fully in your presence, he skips around the churches—let’s be clear: There is only One Orthodox Church, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic, but it’s grouped (not divided) into national churches, wherein the language of worship, the customs and traditions may be unique to each. He skips around them and verbally knocks them, subtly at first so as not to appear to be giving offense. Small criticisms become greater, and if you do not object, so does his boldness.

Before you know it, you find yourself outside the Church through some technicality, and he assures you ‘it’s not your fault,’ but the fault of those who have beguiled you into believing that they are patriarchs, metropolitans, bishops, and priests, when they are no such thing. The monks of Mount Athos and carefully selected, if peripheral, authorities are touted in support of his now open views. Though he doesn’t mention it, your godparents, maybe even your parents, are also imposters.

Shaken by what, it seems to you, are his impious assertions, you object. What about the good thief? He was saved, and he wasn’t baptised, nor did he know the bible or probably practice any religion, and he was perhaps even a murderer, and yet Christ saved him. The zealot corrects you, ‘There is more than one kind of baptism.’ No, not sprinkling, not pouring, no, the baptism of blood! You counter, the thief was saved by his confession, ‘Lord, remember me when you come into Your Kingdom.’

You now understand, by the signs given, in whose presence you are struggling. Of course, he’s only a man, just like you. He claims to be a Christian, even an Orthodox, but he has drawn you out of the peace of the Church by controversy, by argument. This is the sign of the splitter, that unclean spirit that tempted Christ in the wilderness, using truths to battle the Truth. He has never learned, even from that experience, that you cannot argue with the Word of God, Jesus Christ, or His disciples.

The Gospel is proclaimed. It is never subjected to argument and disputation. That’s why the rabbinical Jews despise it so much even to this day. They would have religion be exercised in the form of challenging and correcting each other, by what is called the ‘give and take’ process. That’s how they formulated their later scriptures, such as the Talmud. The New Testament scriptures are a slim volume of twenty-seven ‘books.’ The Jewish equivalent is a library of seventy-three tomes.

Discussion stopped after he defeated you with his baptism of blood thesis. You know that the good thief was saved by faith in Jesus, by turning to Him instead of away from Him. That is the teaching you had received from those who catechized you, and whom you trusted. You remember the maxim, ‘When the Word chooses to be weak, be weak with Him, and withdraw, and only when the Word chooses to be strong, then let Him be strong through you, and advance behind Him, behind Jesus.’

Baptism of blood, yes, but this is not just any death, otherwise death without repentance would qualify us for paradise. The good thief, as he himself confessed, deserved to die as punishment for his sins. That kind of death is not baptism of blood. Even though he repented by those words he spoke to the other thief, his death was still not baptism of blood. He was not being executed for his belief in and confession of Jesus, which is the baptism of blood. He entered paradise by faith in Christ’s word.

That’s a Christianity, even an Orthodoxy, that the zealot cannot abide, because it instantly cuts through the layers of preparation, instruction, discipline, sacramentalism, and canon law, that rightly or wrongly have accumulated in the Church, demonstrating who Jesus Christ is, what He has accomplished for us, and how we can receive from Him life eternal, the only life worth living. Though only one sinner entered paradise as the good thief did, as far as we know, that is enough.

It shows us that in every circumstance a man finds himself salvation is possible, membership in the Church is not only possible but inevitable, because of Christ. He instituted the Church and He lives in the midst of her, commissioning her to be His presence on earth till the end of the age. Where the Church is, we must try by all possible means to enter, accepting and following her. That’s the usual way we experience being members of one another, but Christ accepts all who turn to Him with faith.

The Church is a little bit like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, a Kansas farm girl, as innocent as a dove, who finds herself in a beautiful but strange and even dangerous land. Her ruby slippers, their powers unknown to her, are envied by the Witch of the West, who tries to take them from her, because she is ‘the only one who knows their power.’ The zealot is a little bit like the Witch of the West. She may frighten and threaten Dorothy, but in the end, a bucket of water thrown on her by a little girl melted her.

‘Oh, what a world! What a world!
Who would have thought a good little girl like you
could destroy my beautiful wickedness?’

There will be weeping

It must come as a shock to bibliolators (Bible worshipers) to hear that the Word of God is not the Bible, but the Divine Logos, Jesus Christ, and that the Bible is a sacred scripture given by God’s permission to the Church, taking up human literature to represent, verbally, what Christ is, existentially.

It must come as a shock to ecclesiolators (Church worshipers) to hear that the Salvation won for us by Christ cannot be limited by anything we decree, define, or demand in the way of doctrines or requirements, but that it is universally bestowed on any and all who do not resist it.

It is nothing short of preposterous that the saving work of Jesus Christ, finished by Him as He hung upon the Cross, and effected universally by His descent into Hades and His liberation of its captives, was accomplished for the sake alone of those few congregants in that little chapel down the road.

Yes, He tells us that the way is straight and narrow that leads to life, and that only a few find it. Look about you in the world, the world of unbelievers. How many do you see going into life all on their own, without Christ? Then, there is the Church, that huge array of humanity, flocking toward heaven.

It’s a veritable stampede, and so massive that many, if not most, cannot see Who’s ahead, leading this vast multitude, yet they follow. And follow is all that He asks, that Shepherd of the sheep. The straight and narrow few could find, He has revealed Himself to be, who says, ‘I am the way, the truth, the life.’

A Man appears who speaks as no man ever spoke, He acts with an authority that no man before Him has ever exercised, yet even seeing His miracles does not satisfy the unbelieving, untrusting heart, does not reveal who this Man is. Only the Father can give us the faith that reveals who He is, but we must ask.

Our asking, if we dare, becomes the answer of our lives. We look at this Man, but we see God. In the same manner, we look at the Church, that all too human thing, and we see Salvation. Yes, the Church is what Salvation looks like. Disappointed? Did you expect something more? Yet she too works miracles.

We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’

Nothing that the Lord, Jesus Christ, says ever fails to come true. He is not only prophet, in that regard, but the Son and Word of God. He tells us that nothing that comes against the Church will prevail. This includes all our speculations, rumors, and regulations, and all who think they rule instead of serve.

Nothing that we can do can prevent the work of Christ in this world. All we can do is prevent it in ourselves, one by one betraying Him, disowning Him in ourselves. He has put all mankind on the road of salvation, but they are filthy, they must be washed, they are illiterate, they must be taught.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

We hear the Alliluia in the Divine Liturgy. If we were sitting, we stand up. We sign ourselves with the Cross and turn from all directions to face the Gospels held aloft and glistening with gold and icons. The Book is opened, the deacon reads, and we listen respectfully to that Holy and Divine Message.

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its savor, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bushel. Instead, they set it on a lampstand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.

To everyone in the house. Yes, to everyone. This is the word of Christ, written and bound in a Book, lived and liberated in us, the salt that preserves the flesh, humanity, so it does not rot, the light that we are, that we cannot help but be, because Christ says so, that we must be reminded not to hide away.

Because light cannot be hid, no matter what we do to hide, control, or contain it. The nature of light is to spread, to be diffused through time and space, scribing larger and larger as it moves out from its source the territory that it enlightens. Where do we shine, on a lampstand or under a bushel?

Who is salvation for, brethren, for them, or only for us? Did Christ die only for our sake, or for all mankind? Are we willing to share the inexhaustible treasure of God’s grace, or reserve it to those few who claim to know ‘the secrets of the universe’ and have ‘the fullness of the faith’?

That little chapel down the street, whitewashed and silent, except for festal days, behind its fences, plunked amidst neighbors who ‘do not know their left hand from their right’ because they have no one to teach them, no one sent to preach the Gospel, nobody to be the Message of life to them.

He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Just a small stone

Here is an age-old pattern (and no pun intended) that as people get older, they have a tendency to remember the past in rosy hues and talk about the ‘good old days’ in contrast to the present, which seems cold, corrupt and indifferent to them. I know this well because I see it happening in myself, as I am now in my sixty-sixth year, but I don’t let it get past my vocal chords but nip it in the bud. No, the past is not an idyllic world, only a world to which we cannot just turn back the clock and return. It had its problems too, just as the world of the present. Scripture says, ‘Do not be hasty with your resentment, for resentment is found in the heart of fools. Do not ask why earlier days were better than these, for that is not a question prompted by wisdom’ (Ecclesiastes 7:9-10 JB).

Yet, though the first step in the direction of wisdom is to understand this, that the past was not categorically better than the present, the second step in that direction is to be able to see the present in the light of wisdom, to appraise it and, yes, even compare it to the known (not the imaginary) past, and if the present is found wanting, to work to better it. Human society as a whole is not monolithic. At any given time there will coexist healthy societies and sick ones, but one must be free to analyze them with reason, unrestrained and unaffected by political, religious or social conventions. What I mean is, if a sick man has been told repeatedly that he is not sick but the very picture of health, he will hesitate to complain of the pain in his lower right abdomen, and not seek medical attention, until it’s too late.

As I look out of my window and step out of my door into an America that has drifted so far from its moral foundations that it is almost a nation of free people no longer, but a slave state, with slave behaviors, immoralities and expectations, I realize that my country is in very deep trouble. We seem to have, many of us, lost all trust in human systems to the point where we are living just for the day, and so in effect inhabiting a world that functions as an anarchy regulated by an institution that is already dead but is hiding the fact from us. We see this in state, in church, in business, almost everywhere we look. Scripture prophesies, sees straight through us, ‘everyone tries to catch his brother in their father’s house to say, You have a cloak, so you be the leader, and rule this heap of ruins!’ (Isaiah 3:6 JB).

There has been no golden age, not since mankind exiled himself from the state of Paradise. The past was not categorically better than the present, but human society has risen and fallen in the seven thousand years we have inhabited this world. The world of today has many improvements over what we had before, but it has also many corruptions of what came before. It does us no good to cling to the past and dream, but even less good to cling to the present and not look back. At the moment the only country I know is declining rapidly because it is clinging to the present, abandoning the past, and destroying its future. ‘O my people, oppressed by a lad, ruled by women. O my people, your rulers mislead you and destroy the road you walk on’ (Isaiah 3:12 JB). I am not inciting rebellion, only revolution.

And not political, not religious, but social. What was wrong with us in the recent past was indicated by the rise of Godless Communism, which acted as a threat and containment to prevent us from devolving further. What is wrong with us now is indicated by the rise of militant Godly Islam. The one was Godless, the other claims to be Godly, but it is God Himself who chastises us into remembrance and will finally provoke latent champions to action by these forces He raises against us. There was much in Communism that was right, and there is much in Islam that is right. But the first failed as a system, and so will the second fail, because they were not sent to succeed, and because humanity never has been, never is, and never will be saved by systems, political, religious or social. Ideologies are the last and subtlest of idols.

‘I am Yahweh your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no gods except me’ (Exodus 20:1-3 JB). Yes, this is the first of the ‘Ten Commandments’ and the most easily glossed over. Since God, our God, the living God—if He exists—does not interact with us in a manner we would like, we feel perfectly justified in imprisoning Him deep inside the human conscience—not in ours, of course, but in others’. The so-called separation of Church and State has given us permission, even a mandate, to allow every atrocity, from ‘the slaughter of the innocents’ renamed ‘a woman’s right to choose,’ down to the least noticed legalizing of institutions we would recoil from if given their true names, high-interest debt seduction formerly called ‘debtors’ prison.’

What more can I say? A better question is, what more can I do? For we have become a people of unintelligible speech, and have smiths who twist words to reshape our thinking, to shackle our wills. But the man of action, whoever he (or she) be, from least to greatest (especially since the ‘greatest’ refuse to show themselves), now can fell a giant with just a small stone by careful aim. To be faithful wherever we are, to encourage the good, to correct the teachable, to be patient with the ignorant, to be strong for the weak, to stand upright when others lie, to openly confess so imprisoned hearts may be loosed. These are the acts, not mere words, of the disciple of Christ, and also of His true friends wherever they may be, who work for the good they know, for ‘happy are the merciful, for mercy will be shown them.’

He will surely come

It must hurt deeply to be a conservative today in countries like France or America. Here in the States, to be a conservative means one wants to live a common sense and decent life, to be responsible in one’s personal economy, to do as one wants to be done by. It means wanting to conserve the principles of the American Revolution (if one has had enough education to know what these are).

It doesn’t have anything to do with gay bashing or blowing up abortion clinics, or even with standing around for hours protesting with placards, or having ‘tea parties.’ It doesn’t necessarily mean living in the past either.

It does mean, however, that one believes in America, in its moral strengths (not the publicity kind, but the quiet kind that keeps the country moving forward, inch by inch). It pains the conservative here, to see one’s President bowing and kissing the hand of a Sa’udi king, as if he were his liege man, while not even nodding before the current Queen of our ancient royal line, of whom George III was our last king.

And for the conservative Frenchman, what to make of a president whose ‘First Lady’ was almost this one, then was that one, but insecurely because of the possibly next one. Even for the French, this really must be too much.

I dropped out of political debate ages ago, and even though my precinct card shows me as a Republican, it’s not with the Republican Party that I identify.

I identify with reason. I associate with tolerance. I support compassion. In actual fact, I inherited my party affiliation in the same way I became a Catholic: it was handed down to me by my parents. I thought that being a Republican meant that I held up as my hero the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, who came from my home state, Illinois, and I loved the party mascot, the elephant, strong and wise and able to remove obstacles like a Hindu god of the same species.

But I grew up. I saw what was happening to my country, and whether run by this or that party, we were drifting off course. Our captains were becoming smaller and weaker of stature, until finally we found ourselves with no captain at all. I thought to myself, ‘It’s time to move to Japan.’ But I didn’t do that. It was just a frustrating dream. When problems are on the rise, it’s not time to fall asleep and dream of escape. It’s time to awake.

This is not a time to criticize or to denounce what it is that is wrong with America, or France, or any of the countries of the declining West, but a time to draw ourselves together and really seek the good that we desire. Not a time to divide or keep divided what mere rhetoric and slogan has torn apart, pitting brother against brother, and sisters against both.

I remember a time, just barely remember, but it did happen, when there was a spirit in the air over my country that infiltrated many hearts and warmed them to right action, to compassion and commitment.

I hear a song echoing from that past time, ‘If I had a hammer…’ and when I even whistle the tune (for I’ve forgotten enough of the words to not be able to sing it) my soul, that which animates this old body and inspires this flagging mind, is aroused by the memory of what once was, and what could yet be.

‘This song would be a better national anthem for today,’ I think to myself. ‘What we need now,’ I muse, ‘is not another president, but a Hero.’ That man is already waiting in the wings, he’s still growing in strength. But yes, he will surely come.

At their own table

I have learned to be indulgent with, but not submissive to, the human weaknesses, whether intellectual or moral, that I find in the clergy. It is so difficult to walk that tightrope for a good priest or other clergyman (not now speaking of just Orthodox clergy). I have known a few Orthodox and Protestant (Episcopalian) priests and bishops who somehow have managed to not walk the tight-rope at all, but merely to fly or leap across the divides among their people.

It is when a man (or a woman, if she is a minister of the Most High) forgets that he has a role to play and an obligation peculiarly ministerial to fulfill that he enters into the realm of a true priest or servant of God. Not too brainy, not biased, not people-pleasing, but lovers of mankind, being able to absorb all their shocks to himself and to God's holy faith, almost without noticing them, no, really, without noticing them, because he has become a doorway for the Lord Himself to walk through, without even knowing it.

I have known people like that.

I forgive all the Orthodox writers, clergy, teachers and whomever for everything from their slips to their crimes, because I don't follow a single one of them. I do follow Jesus, though, whenever He appears under their form, and listen to Him whenever He speaks with their voices. Oh, and this applies to those who don’t go by the name ‘Orthodox’, although that’s what they are, whose names, if I listed them here, would earn me the scorn of every zealot on both sides of the shameful fence of ‘Christian’ denominationalism.

Whether anyone else acknowledges it or not, I know for certain that the Church has never been divided and never can be, but it’s a lonely knowledge that few are willing to share with me, except only when I am willing to sit with them at their own table.

Tricked

It’s not easy to contemplate the possible death of someone you love, or at one time loved—though as few of us can get past the idea of love being a feeling, we may think we ‘one time loved’ but that is not the truth. The truth is that all love that is real maintains itself forever; we need only find it in us again.

It’s not easy to contemplate the possible death of someone we love. I have lost both of my parents already, but I still love them, and remembering them in their virtues and in their flaws is a permanent feature of my life. My life is lived, as it were, by their light, and in their shadow.

What attacks me most with the scourge of sorrow is thinking about how they were tricked out of an earthly life that they could’ve had. The same scourges me when thinking about my own life, how I was tricked, but of course, I’m still alive, and each new day I awake thankful that I have it.

But it is very sad, when we are faced with the possible death of someone we love. Memories begin to clog the mind, up too come those regrets, how we may not have loved them as we could’ve, but for me, that we have been tricked out of what could have been. In the face of death, who can blame?

Once, my mother wrote me a letter in her fifty-fourth year. Evidently she had an intuition that her life might be drawing to a close, and so she confessed,

I sit and think all the time, how we only have one life, and how people can really waste it, like I did. The only time I feel so good is when I’m trying to go to sleep. I talk to God, and I just can’t explain how I feel and what I see, how it will be when I’m gone. You know, I feel so very happy, and I’m not afraid. God will remember me and forgive me, because I never blamed God for my bad life. I only remember what was good, and how happy I was. The rest that happened was only when I went off [on] the side road, and it took me longer to get back. Remember, it was [when we lived] on Ross Street, you were telling and showing us about that road, and how one can stray. It took me longer [to get back] because the devil was stronger than me. I feel I could have done something sooner and will never forgive myself for straying that long, but I know God will forgive me. So now, all there is for me is the straight ahead road, and I’m sure not turning either way. It’s too close to the end to let the devil win again.

My mother was a semi-invalid, her illnesses stemmed from nervous tension, and even from her thirties she was showing signs of a weak constitution inside what was once an athletic body. At some point she’d had a tumor removed which left her with, as she used to say, only about a third of her stomach.

I don’t recall how long after she wrote this letter—it can’t have been long, for it was, I think, her last letter to me—she did not die, but she suffered a very bad stroke which left her paralyzed on the right half of her body, and deprived her of her power of speech. She lived twelve more years in that state.

When I read her letters, many of which contain confessions like the one quoted, I am always brought to my senses about human misery, how we ourselves manufacture it, how we let ourselves be tricked out of what God has planned for each of us, and especially how we hide this knowledge from ourselves.

I am at that point again, with death staring me in the face, as if to say, ‘I win. I tricked you out of what you could have been, stolen all you could’ve had, and made you think it was all your fault, or the fault of others, even God’s fault.’ No, not by my own death, but by the possibility that someone I love may die.

Aretí Vlahákis, a wise old woman whom I knew and from whom I learned many things, even non-verbally, and who has now passed on, or as we Greeks say, reposed, used to say that the monogram we see on icons, IC XC NIKA means ‘Jesus Christ is the Winner.’ The usual translation is ‘conquers.’

I’ve never forgotten her or her wise sayings. Yes, Jesus Christ is the Winner, ‘now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.’ We have been tricked out of the full blessings of God in our earthly lives, yet there He stands, triumphant in His earthly defeat, Himself untricked by our ancient foe, Himself the ultimate Trickster.

Just as He lured Herod’s soldiers to Bethlehem to fill Rachel’s heavenly lap, just as He lured Satan out into the wilderness to be humiliated and rejected for forty days, just as He lured the unbelieving Jews to usher Him in regal splendor on the back of an ass to the Throne whence He reigns between thieves,

He has tricked the deceiver and the liar out of its prey, He has tricked the snake placed in Paradise to tempt our foremother Eve, He has tricked the soldiers who gambled for His clothes, the Jews who went after the myrrhbearers to the tomb, and finally Death and Hell itself.

Yes, in this game of life, Jesus Christ is the Winner.
And so are all who unite themselves to Him.

True man

True man is he who doesn’t want to live long in this world. He wants to give his testimony and return as soon as possible, return home to Christ. He isn’t concerned about living a long life; he only wants to live on earth as long as his Lord wants him to live. Why? Because he is already living with Christ in His kingdom. He knows it with perfect certainty. He is redeemed, delivered from every desire and ambition that snares men and chains them to this world, and he is impatient to be free of this body of death, because he no longer lets it use him to sin. He is already living in heaven with Christ; all he wants is to be living there completely. If he must continue living in this world, he knows it’s only to do here what Christ wants him to do, to do what he sees Jesus doing in this world. He wants only to follow Jesus who, though living visibly in heaven, is alive invisibly on earth. And so, true man lives invisibly in heaven while he is living visibly on earth, following Jesus.

True man lives in the Word of God, and that Word is everything to him, and it makes him a child of the Kingdom, it makes him a disciple of Jesus. And Jesus and the Father come and live with him there, making him one of them by giving him the Spirit to live inside him. The Word of God is everything to him, it is his home, his food, his covering, his companion, his teacher, his protection, his inheritance. He is never without it, whether the Book is in his hand or not. The Word of God becomes his words, becomes his thoughts, becomes his actions. It is his strength, it guards his purity, it is his defense against all the lures and snares of the enemy. The Word of God proves His unalterable faithfulness to him and in him, and makes him faithful to God. The Word of God never leaves him, never leaves him alone, becomes a hedge around him, and makes him a hedge around the Kingdom in which he lives with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

True man is the implacable foe of the evil one, and doesn’t yield for a moment even an inch of territory, because the Word of God lives in him, and he lives in the Word. That is his world, and that world is the Kingdom. His citizenship is there while in the body he lives here. He is an unregistered alien in this world, which either shuns him as it goes along with its trifling affairs, pretending not to see him, or when it can’t help but see him, he is seen as a threat, he is seen as dangerous, and he is opposed with every injustice that can be brought against him in the name of the world’s justice. Because he obeys another Law, fulfills another commandment, that of His Lord, he falls under the condemnation of the laws of men and suffers with His Lord, who is put to death every day by the world. This too is an earthly evidence of his heavenly citizenship. He has nowhere to lay his head, no place in this world where he is comfortable, seeing that everywhere is under the dominion of the evil one, and with Jesus he is turned away at every inn, turned away because he is a God-bearer.

True man is too strong for the men who seek their home and their security on earth, and so he finds no friends among them. His strength is not from himself. He seems to wear his strength effortlessly, while others who claim to be strong or who try to be, make excuses for their weakness. But his strength is not from himself, it is from Christ who lives with him and who supplies him from His armory. His eye looks stern and unfriendly to men who have eyes only for the world, because his eye is single, and it looks always upon heaven, and from heaven where he already is living with Christ. His strength is from his Lord, and it shows in his walk and in his stance, in his speech and in his silence, in what he does and in what he does not do. All of this is a threat to other men who seek their strength only in things of this world, in things man-made, in what will not endure.

True man is in the world, but not of it. Why? Because he lives already in the Kingdom of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. He lives there and he knows it. He has his proof of citizenship in the Word that never leaves him. He has his passport ready and can come and go through a door that to him is never shut between worlds, a door which, if he chooses to shut it, no one can open, and if he chooses to open, no one can close. He has been given this kind of authority because he can be trusted. Why can he be trusted? Because he has proven himself faithful to his charge, because he renews his faithfulness every day in the presence of his Father, by following the Son of God, by doing only what he sees Him doing. He has already been given the crown of life, because he is willing to lay down his life in this world, because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

Brothers, this is our call in Jesus Christ. This is the guarantee of our salvation. This is the life that has no end. This is the treasure hidden in the field that a man finds and then sells all that he has to purchase the field. This is the true man that has been recreated in the image of the Holy Triad who said, ‘Let us make man in Our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters…’ 

Brothers, this is true man.

We shall be free

Christ came not primarily to make us happy, but to make us true. However, if you do want to be happy, He does give us an eight point program that will ensure our happiness. Perhaps, we should look at it right now.

Happy are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Happy are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Happy are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Happy are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Happy are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Happy are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Happy are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

And there is maybe one more point, but people seem to have left this one out. It would be point nine.

Happy 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.

Perhaps this one is left till last because in the first eight points, Christ simply tells us, anyone, what to do to be happy, take all eight, or even just one, and give it a try. But in the ninth He is speaking pointedly to those who are His disciples, who do what they do because of Him.

Now that we have that issue out of the way, happiness, we’re left with truth, specifically as it applies to us. I repeat, Christ came not primarily to make us happy, but to make us true. Take this out of religious context, especially those of you who do not identify as Christians, and what’s left?

There is something terribly strange and awesome about Christ. Born under the Law and submitting to it, He behaves towards us, everyone, not just Christians, as though we’re excused from doing what He did. Most of us, believers or not, think the Law is over us. He, on the other hand, thinks the opposite.

Not long afterward Jesus was walking through some wheat fields on a Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, so they began to pick heads of wheat and eat the grain. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to Jesus, ‘Look, it is against our Law for your disciples to do this on the Sabbath!’ Jesus answered, ‘Have you never read what David did that time when he and his men were hungry? He went into the house of God, and he and his men ate the bread offered to God, even though it was against the Law for them to eat it—only the priests were allowed to eat that bread. Or have you not read in the Law of Moses that every Sabbath the priests in the Temple actually break the Sabbath law, yet they are not guilty? I tell you that there is something here greater than the Temple. The scripture says, ‘It is mercy that I want, not sacrifices.’ If you really knew what this means, you would not condemn people who are not guilty; for the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.

‘If you really knew what this means, you would not condemn people who are not guilty.’ This is where Jesus does what nobody expects. He defends and excuses lawbreakers, drawing down on Himself the charge against Him which the Jews maintain to this very day, that He was ‘the lawless one.’

But the appearance of Christ among the Jews, though intended for them, proved to be the reconciliation and liberation of all mankind from the curse. What curse is that? Being almost fated to self-destruction because of our sins, our conscious preference for our ways, not God’s. Almost fated? Well, yes, we’re not born that way.

That conscious preference for our ways, not God’s, which gets all of us in trouble all of the time, sometimes plays a trick on us. It attaches itself to holy and divine things, like the Bible, like the Church, even like Jesus Christ. We get so used to our own thinking, that we mistake it for God’s, even while quoting Him.

This is nothing new. This is what keeps people out of the Church, in fact, because the Church is full of humans just like themselves, with as many failings. All of us, believers and non-believers, have our own chosen set of rules and regulations which help us feel justified, put us on the ‘right side.’

The right side of what? For believers, it’s God. For non-believers, I don’t know, but I know enough people who are indifferent to religion and God to know that they still believe in a standard that they try to stay on the right side of. Both religious and irreligious, thus, believe in sin, but think it means breaking the rules.

Both of us—still talking about believers and non-believers—have this tendency to legislate for God, making some actions right and others wrong, dividing up the sheep from the goats in a way that is both untimely—it’s not Judgment Day yet—and mistaken. Why? Again, because sin is not about breaking rules.

It’s about not being true. This is what lies behind all of Christ’s moral teachings, though we seem to miss His point most of the time, as we follow consciously or unconsciously the example of the Pharisees. When we finally understand that God is saying to us, ‘What I want is mercy, not sacrifice,’ we shall be free.

Risen

From Risen (2016): Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and another disciple

It must be a great risk to write a screenplay for and to produce a Bible movie. There are many people involved, and what they add, or take away, from the Bible story depends on what faith, or lack of it, they have. Even a ‘believing’ artist can betray a superficial connexion to the God who has chosen human literature, music, art, and yes, even movies, to be vehicles of His Word.

Today I watched for the first time the recent film about the resurrection of Jesus, Risen (2016). It is often billed as ‘a great addition to movies about the life of Christ’ joining The Passion of the Christ (2004) and other such films. Neither of these two movies is really about the life of Christ, but only about small snatches of it, arranged with a specific object in mind, His death, His resurrection.

In The Passion of the Christ, we were treated to a film that attempted to be so historical that the only languages spoken were Aramaic and Latin (not a word of Greek, which was the other Middle Eastern tongue in Jesus’ time) and we had to read subtitles in whatever our modern language was. The additions, and the actual portrayal of Christ’s passion, were slanted towards Catholic fundamentalism.

We’re more accustomed to viewing Bible films slanted towards Protestant fundamentalism. The only film which, for all its shortcomings, I still think the best, Jesus of Nazareth (1977), tries to be faithful to history, casting the characters in conformity to Orthodox icons, yet it too adds or changes what should not be tampered with, this time not from a religious slant, but political correctness.

Disciple sitting side by side with Clavius. (Isn't this a modern way of sitting?)

Only The Gospel of John (2003) is entirely true to the scriptural record, even to the point of using the text of the gospel as dialog. Its shortcomings are understandable—casting of a ‘white’ Jesus and apostles, a folksy familiarity in the behavior of the characters, a kind of ‘Good News for Modern Man’ approach. Of all the films I’ve seen, only this one could probably be trusted to use in media evangelism.

Back to Risen, there is no problem with the character of Jesus. In this film, He is only seldom in view, and He is cast as a short or medium tall, dark skinned white typical of the Mediterranean races. His apostles, though, range from exuberant, wild-eyed American hippie to solemn Levantine man. Casting must have ignored the icons. Peter looks like what we expect of Paul, in features and temperament.

The theme of Risen is, of course, the resurrection of Jesus. What makes it unique, is that it chronicles the life of a Roman tribune, Clavius, who is assigned by Pontius Pilate to produce the body of Jesus, or at least find out what happened to it. This is entirely fictional, but forgivable because that is understood from the outset. We know there was no Clavius, but inventing one shows ‘what might’ve happened.’

This kind of device, for drama’s sake, or to bring out the point of a particular event or personage, is not limited to modern times. In ancient times all of literature, even history, even what later became the scriptures, was permeated by dramatic or poetic license. ‘It might’ve happened this way’ often became ‘It must’ve happened this way’ and finally ‘This is exactly what happened,’ or even ‘God’s own words.’

Examining the shroud in the empty tomb. (Wow! So the Shroud is authentic!)

Risen starts out with scenes of carnage. Out of these scenes arises the figure of a Roman officer, a tribune, a position in collaboration with that of the Roman prefect, Pontius Pilate. The chronology of the opening scenes is the very day of Christ’s crucifixion. We get to see Him on the Cross just after He expired. The legs of the thieves are broken, and His side is pierced to make sure He’s really dead.

Clavius gives the order not to break His legs but to spear Him, apparently upon Jesus’s Mother being pointed out to him, to spare her any more grief. Clavius is portrayed as a rational and moral man who is disgusted with killing, and who somehow gets to be the Roman most involved with ‘this case.’ The Bible story is followed closely at this point, with the addition of Clavius, as the plot develops.

Finding the tomb empty, Clavius is ordered to investigate. The film takes a short turn into the genre of ancient detective story, if there is such a thing, as well as propaganda for a certain relic. When examining the shroud, Christ’s face appears on it, exactly as depicted on the Shroud of Turin. This causes him to ask a Jew standing by (probably Joseph of Arimathaea) if the body had been anointed.

Seeing that the evidence points not to grave-robbery but to some unusual event—the ropes holding the stone in place are pulled apart, not cut, and the seal is melted, as well as the facial image being burned into burial clothes, Clavius pursues his mission to find out what happened in earnest. He tracks down people who are known to have been followers of Jesus, and interrogates them, without effect.

Roman Tribune Clavius enters the room a second time and is welcomed by Jesus.

One follower, Bartholomew, is a hippie mystic and acts so silly, Clavius doesn’t know what to make of him. Mary Magdalene is a mature matron with a definite mystique about her, but staunchly refuses to tell him anything he doesn’t already know. Finally, Clavius does find out where the disciples are holed up. He goes there and breaks down the door, leaving his second in command, and men, down in the street.

With sword in hand, in the light of the opened door, Clavius sees a bunch of ragged native men, and in the midst of them, the Man he saw crucified and dead. Stunned, he goes back outside and tells his companions to stand down, that he doesn’t need their help. They depart, and he returns to the room.

That second time he enters, another young Jew scuttles in alongside him in the doorway and falls down in front of Jesus, who is sitting on the floor with His disciples. Clavius lets his sword fall from his hand as he sees Jesus showing His wounds to the newly arrived Thomas, and he hears Jesus welcoming him and asking him to join them. Very, very unscriptural, but theological. Jesus says this to everyone of us.

After a few minutes, suddenly Jesus is gone. Peter recounts what he had been told by Mary Magdalene (who is actually in the room and was standing behind Jesus when Clavius first entered) that they were to meet Him in Galilee. They decide that is where they are to go next, and Clavius follows them, though at first, disbelieving that they would accept him, at a distance. On the journey they begin to trust each other.

The risen Christ in Galilee hugs a leper and heals him.

All this is, of course, dramatic license and non-history, but it works well. Pontius Pilate sends a squadron of soldiers after Clavius, hearing from his second in command, that he may have come to believe in the resurrection and joined the disciples. They evade them, and arrive in Galilee, at the lake, where the disciples complain of being hungry, so Peter takes them all, including Clavius, out fishing in a boat.

Here, the gospel story picks up again. All night fishing and no fish. Suddenly a man on the shore calls out ‘Catch anything?’ and tells them to put down the nets on the other side, at which point the boat nearly capsizes from the load of fish. Next, everyone abandons ship, but Clavius, and wades to shore where they do a group hug around the Man who called out to them. Finally, we see Clavius with them.

Another extra-biblical scene is interjected. A woman nearby is furiously beating a leper and driving him away. Jesus gets up and goes to the man, sits on the ground with him, giving him a big hug, and then returns to the disciples. Next, the leper still looking leprous gets up and walks away. After about ten paces, he turns around and you see his face, normal and clean, and he shows his hand, also clean.

I suppose the writer wanted to add something a little miraculous because except for the empty tomb and the Ascension, in this film Jesus doesn’t really get to do any miracles. He just (usually) sits there, smiling and hugging His disciples. When the time comes for Him to ascend into heaven, which happens next, you see Him on a hilltop with a big sunrise behind Him as He shouts the Great Commission.

At night, Jesus talks to Clavius, and asks him, 'What are you afraid of?'

This is out of historical context, but it doesn’t matter, since we already know how the film must wrap up. And wrap up it does indeed, just like any Sunday School flic, but with a novel twist. As He walks backwards telling them He will be with them always, suddenly He is absorbed into the sun, which gets brighter, and a powerful blast of wind practically knocks down the disciples standing in a row watching.

This reminded me of a lot of extra-terrestrial encounter movies, a nice blending of science fiction, religion, with a hint of nuclear energy. The movie ends this way, and, I forgot to mention, practically the whole film is a flashback and a narrative by Clavius, who is shown later in life as a desert father. He stops at an inn, was telling the inn-keeper the story, and then pays him by giving him his tribune’s ring.

All in all, I can imagine why this film was given a mediocre rating by moviegoers. As a Christian I almost always want to check out any bible movie that is produced, though some I can tell are not worth looking at, just from the descriptions and trailers. This film is saved by Joseph Fiennes (Clavius) presence, not so much his acting, but just by his presence and his mastery of facial emotion.

Watched once too many times, this film could become tiresome, but as it is, I’ll probably want to watch it at least once a year, but I still wonder, maybe the Bible, especially the Gospel, simply can’t be turned into a movie, unless you change absolutely nothing. And that, if I were a film maker, that would be, I hope, what I would do.

The disciples are blinded and nearly swept off their feet by the flash of light and the fierce wind that issues forth as Christ withdraws from their sight at His Ascension.