Seeking Just Our Own

Presbytera Candace Schefe sent me this quote from John Chrysostom:

We cannot be saved by seeking just our own individual salvation; we need to look first to the good of others. In warfare, the soldier who takes to flight to save his own skin brings disaster on himself as well as on the others, whereas the good soldier who takes up arms on behalf of his comrades saves his own life along with theirs. Many of our brothers and sisters have fallen in this battle, wounded and covered with blood, with no one to care for them. There is no one to look after them, no layman, no priest, no comrade, no friend, no brother, because we are all of us seeking our own individual salvation, and thereby spoiling our chance of attaining it.
Psalms for the 17th Day: Psalms 86~89This morning, the psalms appointed for the seventeenth day really spoke my prayer. Here is one of them…

Listen to me, Yahweh, and answer me,
poor and needy as I am;
keep my soul: I am Your devoted one,
save Your servant who relies on You.

You are my God, take pity on me, Lord,
I invoke you all day long;
give your servant reason to rejoice,
for to You, Lord, I left my soul.

Lord, You are good and forgiving,
most loving to all who invoke You;
Yahweh, hear my prayer,
listen to me as I plead.

Lord, in trouble I invoke You,
and You answer my prayer;
there is no god to compare with You,
no achievement to compare with Yours.

All the pagans will come and adore You, Lord,
all will glorify Your name,
since You alone are great, You perform marvels,
You God, You alone.

Yahweh, teach me Your way,
how to walk beside You faithfully,
make me single-hearted in fearing Your name.
Psalm 86:1-11 Jerusalem Bible


Later, this evening, we went to vespers at Saint Nicholas of Myra church. Today, as it turns out, was the commemoration of holy Prophet Obadiah, and his entire prophecy was sung by the cantor, followed by a lengthy, utterly quiet pause. It made us feel we were in a Quaker meeting house. Brock noticed, and remembering it with me afterwards cited the verse, "… there was silence in heaven for about half an hour" (Revelation 8:1). Somehow the quality of the silence after the singing of Obadiah's prophecy had this effect on us both. How could there not be silence after hearing these momentous words?

Yes, as you have drunk on My holy mountain,
so will all the nations drink unsparingly;
they will drink, and drink deep,
and will be as if they had never been.

But on Mount Zion there will be some who have escaped
—it shall become a holy place—
and the House of Jacob will despoil
its own despoilers.

The House of Jacob shall be a fire,
the House of Joseph a flame,
the House of Esau stubble.
They will set it alight and burn it up,
and no member of the House of Esau shall survive.
Yahweh has spoken.

Men from the Negebwill occupy the Mount of Esau,
men from the lowlands
the country of the Philistines;
they will occupy the land of Ephraim
and the land of Samaria,
and Benjamin
will occupy Gilead.

The exiles from this army, the sons of Israel,
will occupy Canaan as far as Zarephath;
and the exiles from Jerusalem now in Sepharad
will occupy the towns of the Negeb.

Victorious, they will climb Mount Zion
to judge the Mount of Esau,
and the sovereignty shall belong to Yahweh.Obadiah 16~21 Jerusalem Bible
This prophecy made me think of the current restoration of Israel in the land which is not, as many churchables think, an accident of history, but the fulfillment of prophecy, specifically of prophecies like that of holy Prophet Obadiah.

This was a very good day.
Thank you, Lord.

Michael Beautiful

Andrew performing his composition, Michael Beautiful.

I recently discovered that my son Andrew has upgraded his musical presence on the internet. In addition to his regular MySpace site, he also has a YouTube presence, jazzpsalti. Though the stated aim of my blog is to communicate, not to entertain, to advertise Andrew's music and give you a sample here is not, I hope, going back on my word. Music can be merely entertainment, but it can also be a testimony of one's life in Christ, and it can also minister to others. Andrew's music ministers to me, and I think it does the same for others as well. Sometimes I have his music in a loop on this blog. For now, there's no loop running, so you can view and hear this sample.

If you like this music, you can link to it anytime from my blog side panel, or open it and save it in your favorites. You will also see in Andrew's MySpace, a calendar of where and when you can see and hear him "live". He also lists the services at which he will be singing as a psalti (cantor) at Aghía Triás Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Portland, Oregon. I encourage you to check out his music and video sites and get in touch with him.

Thirty-two years later

Psalms for the 6th day were Psalms 30 to 34.

After getting home from work,
I read them and meditated on the meaning they've had for me these many a year. And I spoke them in prayer, and received back, as the Lord never fails me, He's the faithful one.

Hear, Yahweh, take pity on me;
Yahweh, help me! (Psalm 30:10)

Back in 1975, we were still on the trail of that elusive commodity, the "perfect" commune.

Chuck and Tish owned a half section of land on the western slope of a mountain outside of Harrisburg, Oregon, and another half section down in the valley. The upper section was organized as a commune called "Ahimsa" (Sanskrit for "non-violence"), and they had invited us to live there if we could make it work.
They were letting their friends build homes out in the wilds, and the commune was going to be very (as we say in Greek) idio-rhythmic. In other words, people did not share everything in common materially or spiritually. They only shared the land and each other's company. Everyone was expected to have their own income and build themselves a home at their own expense. The ethos of the commune was to be "spiritual", but in the New Age sense—all paths ultimately lead to God.

Before we moved down here, we visited Ahimsa in the spring of 1975. That's when I took the photos that illustrate this post. At that point, I was still a New Age spiritual seeker myself, though Anastasia was a "born again" Christian. We didn't go to church, though, because I had a problem with the hypocrisy I heard tell of. Our visit left us both with a positive impression of the commune, and so we packed up our transportable belongings in about 120 boxes and shipped them via Canadian Freightways to the Portland terminal. Our irreplaceables went into a car carrier that I built out of plywood and mounted to the top of my 1972 Pinto hatch-back. (In the end, we didn't join Ahimsa. Chuck and Tish ended up becoming Mormons. We became Christians. I don't know what became of the others at Ahimsa.)


We arrived in Corvallis the evening of Rosh Hashonah, September 5, 1975, and stayed with a young Jewish couple we had known in Edmonton, Debbie and Harold. (Next morning we drove to Salem with them for our first experience of synagogue worship.)

This is not going to be the story of how I smuggled my wife and child into the U.S., but rather how I found myself, on the Thursday morning of November 6, 1975, ready to meet the Lord.
(Let the reader understand: I'm not now talking about just any Lord.)
Let me cite a verse from the psalms for the 6th day…

Happy the man whose fault is forgiven,
whose sin is blotted out;
happy the man whom Yahweh
accuses of no guilt,
whose spirit is incapable of deceit!

All the time I kept silent, my bones were wasting away
with groans, day in, day out;
day and night Your hand
lay heavy on me;
my heart grew parched as stubble
in summer drought.

At last I admitted to You I had sinned;
no longer concealing my guilt,
I said, "I will go to Yahweh
and confess my fault."
And You, You have forgiven the wrong I did,
have pardoned my sin. (Psalm 32:1-5)

That morning I was at work, a rough sawyer in an old furniture mill in Albany. It was cold outside. The wind was blowing through the cracks in the barn-like plank walls. My fingers were freezing, even though I had gloves on. Behind me, a large planer was roaring. My off-bearer was shivering as he slid the scrap off the saw with one hand into a waste bin, while with the other guiding the good rips onto a cart.
I heard a voice inside my head, "Why do you resist Me…?"

I will instruct you, and teach you the way to go;
I will watch over you and be your advisor.
Do not be like senseless horse or mule
that need bit and bridle to curb their spirit
to let you get near them. (Psalm 32:8-9)

Quickly, I sensed this was not just my imagination. I waved my off-bearer a signal, "Go empty the wood box!" That would take him at least 15 minutes, maybe longer, because it meant dragging a heavy load of wood down to the boiler hut. "He's probably going to want to warm himself there," something in me quipped. As he hauled his heavy load away to be burned, another heavy load was going to be hauled away and burned, one only I and the Off-bearer could see.

You, who have seen my wretchedness,
and known the miseries of my soul,
have not handed me over to the enemy,
You have given my feet space and to spare. (Psalm 30:7b-8)

The talk began, slowly at first, then more heatedly. I argued with the voice. Sometimes I seemed to switch sides. I wanted to surrender, but then, I had investments. How could I give these up? Would I get something to replace them? What? How can you bargain with Him? What are you expecting? He's already told you everything, and you know it's all true.

The Word of Yahweh is integrity itself,
all He does is done faithfully;
He loves virtue and justice,
Yahweh's love fills the earth.

By the Word of Yahweh the heavens were made,
their whole array by the breath of His mouth… (Psalm 33:4-6)

My temperature was rising, in spite of the biting cold around me. With every last ounce of my will, my flesh resisted the voice, and I kept feeling hotter. "This can't be happening to me! You know I want to accept You, but I can't, I can't!" Finally, I asked Him to remove what was binding me.

Hear, Yahweh, take pity on me; Yahweh, help me! (Psalm 30:10)

That which I couldn't do of my own power, somehow He called forth from me. "All that I am, and all that I have, I surrender to You, Lord, to You, Jesus. I don't want anything now, nothing but what You want me to be and to have." This was the jist of what came tumbling out of my lips, along with sobs, because by now my face was a liquified mess. A coolness like a stream of icy water flowed over my head and then my body. I don't know what it was, but it pacified me. The planer with its attendee still roared behind me, none hearing or seeing what was happening to me, and me hearing and seeing nothing outside of me.

Every face turned to Him grows brighter
and is never ashamed.
A cry goes up from the poor man, and Yahweh hears,
and helps him in all his troubles.

The angel of Yahweh pitches camp
around those who fear Him; and He keeps them safe.
How good Yahweh is—only taste and see!
Happy the man who takes shelter in Him. (Psalm 34:5-8)

Something that can't be put into words really, yet I've tried on this and other occasions. This time I'm only hinting at it. What is this thing that happens to us? A year ago I wrote a post, Born again? When? in which I tried to recount what happened to me that morning. That's my testimony, or at least part of it, because the new life in Christ, the birth from above, is really an event in kairós time—though you can sometimes pinpoint it on a calendar, it really encompasses more than a moment. You can't look at it, you can't even remember it, as it really is, was and is to come, because it's hidden with the One who will give it back to you on the last Day.

Our soul awaits Yahweh,
He is our help and shield;
our hearts rejoice in Him,
we trust in His holy Name.

Yahweh, let Your love rest on us
as our hope has rested in You. (Psalm 33:20-22)

Praying the Psalms

Orthodox Christians have a lot of standard prayers that we can use when we pray, and many of us use them. If we're not careful, we can let addressing God this way become something like a personalized but still impersonal prayer wheel, spinning off words yet feeling justified because we've "said our prayers." Having a relationship with the living God can be bypassed this way, exchanged for something like a business agreement with a heavenly accounting firm.

If I make this sound like written prayers are to be avoided, that's not my intent. Formal prayers are there to launch us into the life of prayer. If we stop and linger with them, then we have no one but ourselves to blame. What I want to share with you today is some reflections on the Psalms, God's own "prayer book" which He has given us to teach us how to pray, what to pray for, when to pray, and by which He speaks back to us when we pray them faithfully.

The Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England established a very easy and consistent way to pray the Psalms. They arranged them in a 30 day cycle, dividing them up into morning and evening portions for each day. (I know some months have 31 days. See the note at the end of this post.) Rather than making things complicated by following the Lectionary or grouping psalms by content, they just started with Psalm 1 and divided them up as they come, ending with Psalm 150. No flipping back and forth of pages, that would only be a distraction. Just simple, Psalm 1, 2 and 3, and so on.

The first day of the month has eight psalms, but depending on length, some days have more or fewer. When you get to the longest psalm (and longest chapter of the Bible), we find that it takes two and a half days to pray it! But the first day has eight. Not too many, not too few.

To pray the Psalms, just make a point of going aside to a quiet and secluded place, your "prayer closet" as the Lord says, and that can be anywhere. Just don't take anything with you into that place but your Bible. Open it reverently. Kiss the Book if you dare and then, open it to the first psalm of the day. Today is November 1st, so it's Psalm 1. Read this psalm, standing before the Father and in His presence. Though it may not seem like you're praying or asking the Lord for anything, in fact you are. Your very act of standing in His presence and reading His Word is the fact of prayer.
Go ahead, read it…

PSALM 1
Happy the man
who never follows the advice of the wicked,
or loiters on the way that sinners take,
or sits about with scoffers,
but finds his pleasure in the Law of Yahweh,
and murmurs his law day and night!
He is like a tree that is planted
by water streams,
yielding its fruit in season,
its leaves never fading;
success attends all he does.
It is nothing like this with the wicked, nothing like this!
No, these are like chaff
blown away by the wind.
The wicked will not stand firm when Judgment comes,
nor sinners when the virtuous assemble.
For Yahweh takes care of the way the virtuous go,
but the way of the wicked is doomed.

Then, just say "Amen!" to seal the praying of this psalm with your will and testimony. And continue to the next one, Psalm 2. Read it the same way, clearly, and listening to the words with your heart as well as your inner ear. This too is a prayer. Do you sense His presence with you in the room? While you're reading, praying, don't pay attention to anything outside yourself or any mental distractions. Pause if you want to pause, reread a line if you want to reread it. Pray the psalm through more than once, if you need to, before going on to the next one. Most of all, don't rush, don't put a worry about finishing by a certain time on yourself. You're standing in His presence, you're in His kairós (acceptable time) and have, in act, left the world.
Go ahead, continue with Psalm 2…

PSALM 2
Why this uproar among the nations?
Why this impotent muttering of pagans—
kings on earth rising in revolt,
princes plotting against Yahweh and his Anointed,
‘Now let us break their fetters!
Now let us throw off their yoke!’
The One whose throne is in heaven
sits laughing, Yahweh derides them.
Then angrily he addresses them,
in a rage he strikes them with panic,
‘This is my king, installed by me
on Zion, my holy mountain.’
Let me proclaim Yahweh’s decree;
he has told me, ‘You are my son,
today I have become your father.
Ask and I will give you the nations for your heritage,
the ends of the earth for your domain.
With iron sceptre you will break them,
shatter them like potter’s ware.’
So now, you kings, learn wisdom,
earthly rulers be warned:
serve Yahweh, fear him,
tremble and kiss his feet,
or he will be angry and you will perish,
for his anger is very quick to blaze.
Happy all who take shelter in him.

Again, say "Amen!" at the end of this psalm. You have only six more to go. By the time to get to Psalm 8, you'll not want to leave. Also, beginning with Psalm 3, you will find yourself standing in King David's place, sharing his prayer, noticing little by little how you can pray these words as coming from your very self! The first time this happens isn't the last. If you persevere in praying the Psalms, you will enter into the Biblical world, being taught how to address the living God, understanding more and more of His will for your life.

Soon enough, between reading each psalm, your personal prayers will begin lodging themselves, at first by words maybe, but then gradually by spiritual groanings (I can't find a better word, but I don't mean something negative by "groan"). It's impossible to explain, but as you faithfully pray the Psalms, not only does your personal prayer and dialog with the Lord become more real, more lasting, but soon, you will find that the Lord has been speaking to you more constantly and clearly than you had ever realized. This is what the Orthodox mean by "practicing theology" rather than studying it. This is where a personal relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ becomes more than just an expression.

Anyway, back to the Psalms.
I could copy the rest of the Psalms into this post, but instead, I am just going to list the numbers, and let you go and pray them yourself. For those who want to try praying the Psalms, I will provide a list of the 30 day cycle. The Book of Common Prayer lists them as "morning" and "evening" psalms, but I have never divided them this way, and so my list excludes this. The Bible version I use is the original (not the New) Jerusalem Bible, but you should use any version that works for you. In my Bible I have added the day numerals using some rub-on numbers that I got at an art supply store. The image above is the Bible I use when praying (the sprig of laurel is a bookmark, picked up from last year's Descent into Hades service). This is just to give you an idea.

If God allows it, my intention is to continue this post on praying the psalms throughout the month, though I may not write something every day. I just wanted to share with you this ministry of God's Word to me, hoping that you too can be ministered to by the Word of God, for prayer, as I have been.

Praying the Psalms has been my main personal prayer life since I accepted the Lord at the age of 24. I have not been faithful or consistent with it, but it is the place I always return to whenever I notice I've been drifting. And why is this? Because the Lord is there, He's the faithful and the true, the only lover of mankind, the merciful Father, and I can always depend on Him to save me, and enfolded in His psalms I can come and stand before Him, with Jesus.

30 DAY CYCLE
Day 1 — Psalms 1-8
Day 2 — Psalms 9-14
Day 3— Psalms 15-18
Day 4 — Psalms 19-23
Day 5 — Psalms 24-29
Day 6 — Psalms 30-34
Day 7 — Psalms 35-37
Day 8 — Psalms 38-43
Day 9 — Psalms 44-49
Day 10 — Psalms 50-55
Day 11 — Psalms 56-61
Day 12 — Psalms 62-67
Day 13 — Psalms 68-70
Day 14 — Psalms 71-74
Day 15 — Psalms 75-78
Day 16 — Psalms 79-85
Day 17 — Psalms 86-89
Day 18 — Psalms 90-94
Day 19 — Psalms 95-101
Day 20 — Psalms 102-104
Day 21 — Psalms 105-106
Day 22 — Psalms 107-109
Day 23 — Psalms 110-115
Day 24 — Psalms 116-119:32
Day 25 — Psalm 119:33-104
Day 26 — Psalm 119:105-176
Day 27 — Psalms 120-131
Day 28 — Psalms 132-138
Day 29 — Psalms 139-143
Day 30 — Psalms 144-150
*Day 31 — Pray the psalms for the day of the month on which you were born.

The enemy's inroads

The enemy's inroads through the forests of my flesh
go deep.

He seeks not open country. See how he hides between
rows of manicured foliage where he works unseen
or by night, insinuating out of sight
subtle trappings, seductions, and thoughts unclean,
while watchmen and woodsman are away, or sleep.

Many they be who stand along the march and fend,
many on the roads aware, beating the bush to find

the fever feeding on the shadows there
— oh, and the woodsman,

helpless one brandishing one axe against the ambush,
— all on the Day depend.

Deep in the darkest and thickest ravine, or high
in the narrowest, windiest pass, where trees

rise so close beside the trail one can scarcely squeeze by,
there comes the enemy out from his covert nigh,
uncomfortable, mean — oh, how he taunts,
afraid of one woodsman's axe even then,
— by mere suggestion, how he plies his victories.

Hand-bound and toe-nailed in a death-dusty heap,
would man were not jailed so, in such misery weep,

— but oh, at the summit, skirting the tree line
the first whispering of warmth, rumor of radiance divine,
and in streams gravitating to the gullies below
the same lustre of healing in the animate flow,
— but watchmen and woodsman most certainly know

also hidden a ransoming fire does not sleep, though
the enemy's inroads through the forests of my flesh
go deep.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx—Romanós

Start with the recovery of the Gospel

This morning an interesting article was emailed to me by an old Portland friend, Presvytera Candace Schefe, of Holy Transfiguration church in Anchorage, the only Greek Orthodox church in Alaska.
The article is entitled Orthodox Leadership in a Brave New World, and you can read the whole article by clicking the link. Although written from an Orthodox viewpoint, I think Christians of all stripes can profit from what its author writes about witnessing in the world of today. Following are just a couple of points lifted from the article, which I found particularly apt.

If Orthodox Christians should understand anything, it is this: Salvation is a concrete, existential encounter with the living God.

Moreover, this Lord gives gifts, including wisdom, knowledge, insight, and courage—all the elements needed to confront the maelstrom of confusion in which our culture finds itself, and all meant to be applied in the work of daily life, whether as mother, researcher, mechanic, priest—whatever our vocation may be.

Salvation is not understanding the correct theological concepts;
it is not nostalgia for civilizations past;
it is not formal membership in a long-standing parish;
it is not social activism;
it is not morally appropriate behavior;
it is not mastery of the moral vocabulary.

Further, it is not enough to recall the certainty of the past.
Nostalgic impulses, as comforting as they may be (including the Orthodox variants, such as the longings for Hellenistic Greece or Holy Russia), simply won’t meet the challenge.

Orthodox leadership today requires great courage.
Courage, said Winston Churchill, is the one quality that lets all other virtues flourish.
When Solzhenitsyn delivered his address three decades ago, he spoke not as a philosopher, but as a voice crying in the wilderness. He cried out against the dehumanization of men he experienced in the East and saw advancing in the West. Only people with moral clarity and courage could successfully challenge it, he exhorted. What the world needs is not more philosophers, but moralists.
The exhortation drew from a supreme confidence in the power of truth. Solzhenitsyn believed that truth is self-verifying. When the truth is spoken, its veracity is self-evident to the hearer. This is a profoundly Christian notion rooted in the teaching of the apostle Paul: When the Gospel is preached, Christ (who is Truth) is revealed.

Any Orthodox response to the cultural challenge must first presume a recovery of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The wisdom of the Fathers, the artistry of the poets, the healings of the miracle workers, the courage of the martyrs, the knowledge of the scholars, the patience of the teachers, the foresight of the bishops, the faithfulness of the priests—all the elements that shaped and forged the moral tradition that founded Western civilization and must renew it today—start with the recovery of the Gospel.

As Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

Christianity as religious artifact

The Portland Greek Festival is happening right now. It started yesterday at 10 a.m. and will continue today and right up through the end of Sunday evening. This is an annual event at Aghía Triás (Holy Trinity) Church in Portland, Oregon, that began the year I was born. It's been going on for fifty-six years. I've heard that it was the first of its kind in America, and that all other Greek Festivals stem from ours. Who knows if that's true, or just part of tradition. I've been "working" at the festival every year since I was thirty-eight years old. I put "working" in quotes, because what I do is not considered work by some of the Greeks around here. Why is that? Because I am an usher or guide in the sanctuary—I stay in the church and assist visitors in understanding what they are seeing there, and I also witness for Christ, without Whom there would be no sanctuary, and no festival.

I could write a book about the encounters I've had in the eighteen years I've been doing this ministry, but I won't. Just one example, though.

Yesterday I helped a woman who wanted a copy of a prayer that was printed inside the back cover of our service book, "O God, who accepted the gifts of Abel, the sacrifice of Noah and of Abram, the incense of Aaron and of Zachariah, accept also from the hand of us sinners these gifts…" (a prayer based on one in the Liturgy of James, the brother of Jesus). She asked if the prayer was printed anywhere, in a pamphlet or tract, that she could have a copy of. I didn't think so, but I told her I'd copy it out longhand on the back of a tract and give it to her. While I was doing this she told me about herself.

Thelma is sixty-five years old. Her husband is deceased. She does street ministry, on her own, without church endorsement, but also works with churches in various ministries, as the Lord directs. Since her husband died, she has been a missionary, having gone to China twelve times, and many other countries. She was with another elderly lady. She had just made a decision to accept an invitation to join some missionaries going to Mozambique, and will be leaving soon. Besides telling me about herself, she also told me about many things she had encountered in her ministry. It was hard for me to stay concentrated copying this long prayer while listening to her, and my back was starting to ache because I was bent over a low table.

She startled me when she asked, "Have you ever been to the Throne Room?"
I responded, "No, how do you get there?" and she told me, "When you go to your private room to speak to the Father, become as a little child, and ask Him!"
At another point she asked me if I knew that Paradise (the Garden of Eden) was still in existence? I said, the Bible doesn't say it is not, and the Orthodox Church says it is, so "Yes," I told her, "I know it still exists." She asked if I'd ever been there, and I said, "No," but I told her I'd read of someone who had, the monk Euphrósynos, and asked her if she'd ever heard of him. Her eyes just lit up, she smiled and nodded, "Yes!" That really startled me. A non-Orthodox Christian elderly woman missionary knows about an obscure ancient father who was allowed to enter Paradise while still alive! And she also claims that if one becomes as a little child and asks the heavenly Father, He would do even that, and He has done that for her! This may all sound like hysteria, but I was with the woman, and it really wasn't. I don't know what it was, but the Lord wanted me to meet this woman to know that she exists, and I've just shared the story with you.

So, I'm going back to the festival in about forty-five minutes, and what I wanted to write in this post still hasn't been written yet. Here it is.

The Greek Festival is successful for many reasons and in many ways. To some, it's the money that matters. For others, it's the whole community pulling together, each according to his or her ability, to roll out a huge welcome mat for others to see what the Greek culture is about, to practice "philoxenía" (hospitality, literally "love of strangers"), the most highly valued of virtues to the Greek mind. These people really do live up to this ideal, they are willing to help and to accept others, even incorporating them into the Greek kinonía if they want to be. But sometimes I wonder if they are too welcoming, too accepting.
I wonder if they are susceptible to a kind of Trojan Horse in reverse. They know that the world is patronizing them as a cultural and religious relic, a beautiful anomaly in today's world, a kind of harmless entertainment. It doesn't seem to bother them.

The sanctuary being open to the public has been a part of the Festival as long as I've been in this community. It symbolizes what is at the heart of any of the goodness we are perceived by others to have. The church tours we have are informative, and delivered in a spirit of modesty, tailored to the audience's background whenever possible. But to witness to our guests about Jesus Christ is left to the laypeople who man the sanctuary. The clergy will tell you everything about the church, its history, its culture, its tradition, even its understanding of scripture and theology, but that's the extent of it. People can listen and even ask questions and carry away just a little bit more knowledge about something beautiful and arcane, but what of Jesus Christ? Did anything they heard produce faith in them? Was the seed of the Word planted in them? Let's hope that it was and is, and may God give the increase.

But are we just playing into the world's matrix, letting it turn our faith into a commodity, Christianity as religious artifact?
Take Jesus out of the equation, and that's what you have, whether we're talking about Orthodox Christianity, or any other. Our form of church just has more tools than some of the others, but without Christ, those tools become mere toys, something for the world, or for us, to play with.

For us, the "game of church." For the others, just more interesting artifacts to decorate their drawing room.

May it shock my readers to view the image below, from Phoenix Home & Garden magazine (July 2001 issue).
Here is a room decorated with a collection of authentic icons, on the wall arranged in a cross-like pattern.
Notice the icon of the Resurrection is at the very bottom, near the floor. On the coffee table lie five icons just as artifacts to be handled (one of them in a glass frame). Let's hope they're not being used as coasters! (Of course not, that'd ruin the finish!)
To the right of the arranged wall icons is an art piece of what looks like a male nude, and there are other objets d'art all over the room.
Brothers, this is where we are headed, if we don't reveal to the world the One in whom we live and move and have our being (cf. Acts 17:28), not just at the festival, but every day, wherever we are sent. The world will love us if we make it feel better, on its terms, but like the icons in an Arizona businessman's great room we may find ourselves hung, arranged in a cross, and ignored.

Without Jesus, welcome to the world "as it is."

The study of inspired Scripture…

…is the chief way of finding our duty, for in it we find both instruction about conduct and the lives of blessed men, delivered in writing, as some breathing images of godly living, for the imitation of their good works. Hence, in whatever respect each one feels himself deficient, devoting himself to this imitation, he finds, as from some dispensary, the due medicine for his ailment.

St. Basil the Great

Let's pray now!

I don't have very much to say these days that's bloggable. A drowning man doesn't talk much. Well, not drowning exactly… I'm exaggerating. But learning to walk on water is tough, and I can't even swim!
I found this cartoon on the OrthoDixie blog, and it shows visually something that I practice and sometimes preach, "Let's pray now!"

Early in my life as a Christian I'd meet people who'd say things like, "I'll pray for you," or "Please pray for me."

I thought the first was a kind of pious ‘put on’, and I'd say "Thanks!" and I always felt very uncomfortable with the second and hastily responded, "Of course, I will!" and then I'd just forget about it, like the guy in the cartoon. Clergy and pious old ladies usually said the first, and ‘humbler than thou’ wannabees usually said the second. Occasionally both the offer and the request were genuine, but rarely.

One day, I just sat up and decided to do what the Word of God says, "Pray all the time, asking for what you need, praying in the Spirit on every possible occasion" (Ephesians 6:18 Jerusalem Bible).

One thing that meant to me was this, I never again (or almost never again) told someone I'd pray for them. If someone needed to be prayed for, I'd just drop everything, including the pretense, and say, "Okay, let's pray now!" and start praying right then and there.

This readiness came with not a few surprises. Some people actually wanted to pray and wanted to be prayed for. Others simply excused themselves and so much as said, "Don't bother!" with an embarassed grin.

Being ready to pray at the drop of a hat (or yarmulke) is a very good way to increase your faith, because you have to rely on God to give you the words—and that's how prayer is supposed to be. If you haven't thought about this before, try it out. It has the same wonderful and incredible results as wearing a smile does. It catches people off guard and disarms them, and you too, and puts you in a place where, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, faith becomes possible.

The only time I express something like "I'm praying for you" is in a letter or email, and I am doing just that while I am writing it. Never the future tense, not even in a letter. Always the present. Always in His presence. He's with us here, with me while I type these words, with you as you read them. And in this written tabernacle I can ask your prayers for Romanós the sinner, and I can know that if only for a moment you're now bringing my cause before the Father, because that's all it takes, and that's all that's possible.

Your cross isn't meant to be a burden

In the process of looking for images to use in my previous post, I ran across a blog called Sisters' Weblog: It Bloggles the Mind, and also this short post by one of the sisters, Susan Price. I'm using the title of her post as the title for mine, and I want to start off by quoting her words, which I found strangely meaningful:

Christians often assume that to "take up our cross" means simply to carry a burden. When we run into a life trouble, we will say things like "oh, this is just my cross to bear". We basically shrug it off, totally missing the significance of the cross.

Ever consider that the cross is not meant to be a burden? It is meant to cause death.

The cross is meant to kill us! It is an instrument of death! Oh that wonderful cross!

Change of scene:
The tail end of a baptism service at Aghía Triás.

My son Andrew is a Byzantine cantor, trained in Greece, and is often asked to chant at family services, such as baptisms. This past Sunday he chanted at a baptism and asked me to pick him up afterwards so he could get to sleep right away. (He is also a virtuoso guitarist and probably was going to be playing at a club that evening, so he needed to pre-rest.) He gave me a time to return for him, but when I arrived, the service was still going on. The actual anointing and baptism by triple immersion (of an infant) in the silver goblet-shaped font had already occurred, and what met my eyes as I entered the temple was a procession of Fr Paul, the godparents with the newly illuminated infant, and an entourage of small children from toddlers to maybe 4 or 5 years, around the font, some holding candles.
It was like suddenly coming upon a secret ceremony in the depths of the forest, like the marriage procession of the foxes in Akira Kurosawa's film Dreams).

It was all at once mysterious, solemn, joyful and bright.

I watched it for some minutes, and then it broke up and gradually resolved itself into other arrangements of grownups and small children.

Orthodoxy is, above all, a childlike religion.

It made me ponder once again the mystery of the cross. Little did these babies following the priest in a primitive procession around a sacred font know, let alone understand, that what they had just performed and witnessed was the death of the old man in a small child and the birth of the new. Easily described on paper and challenged by many different points of view, this mystery would, if God has His way, usher that newly illuminated child, at some future time, into the mystery of the cross. The cross that Jesus was nailed too, yes, and from which His body was taken down, and which was the implement by which, through His death upon it, paradise was opened, first to the good thief, and then to everyone who had ever lived from Adam and Eve onwards. Yet also, the cross that she (I believe the infant was a baby girl) would have to bear, if she would, and upon which she would someday also die, if she let God have his way with her. These are the thoughts that passed through my mind as I witnessed the innocents processing around the mystery that they knew not yet.

Christianity can be many things to many people, but unless it is first and foremost the cross, it can devolve into ritual, culture, or magic. Not that everyone will have the same cross to bear and to die on, not that what it looks like or feels like will be the same for all, not that those who follow Christ to Calvary will all understand what is happening to them the same way, but nonetheless the cross awaits us all, at least all of us who seek to follow Jesus.

Mother Gavrilía recommended after the Bible itself, the book The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas à Kempis. Except for the fourth book of this work, which deals with medieval Roman Catholic worship of "the blessed sacrament," the Imitation is good reading for the disciple of Jesus. Here are some passages from book 2, chapters 11 and 12, that I'd like to share in concluding this entry:

Jesus has many who love His Kingdom in Heaven, but few who bear His Cross. He has many who desire comfort, but few who desire suffering. He finds many to share His feast, but few His fasting. Many follow Jesus to the Breaking of Bread, but few to the drinking of the Cup of His Passion.

At this point I want to interject an observation from my own Orthodox Church. During Great and Holy Week, it's strange how the Wednesday evening service is packed to the doors (it is the Maundy Thursday morning service, held in the Greek tradition the evening before) when everyone comes to receive the blanket absolution and anointing with holy chrism for healing of soul and body. Absolution without personal confession! And the very next evening, the longest service of the week except for the Pascha (Easter) services themselves, the Passion of Christ service, also called the 12 Gospels service, in which the entire passion is read aloud and visually enacted with icons and ceremonies, the church has ample room for more. Probably a third of those who came the night before come to this service. Why? It's about 4 hours long! The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Many follow Jesus to the Breaking of Bread, but few to the drinking of the Cup of His Passion.

Again, from the Imitation:

Why, then, do you fear to take up the Cross, which is the road to the Kingdom? In the Cross is salvation; in the Cross is life; in the Cross is protection against our enemies; in the Cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness; in the Cross is strength of mind; in the Cross is joy of spirit; in the Cross is excellence of virtue; in the Cross is perfection of holiness. There is no salvation of soul, nor hope of eternal life, save in the Cross. Take up the Cross, therefore, and follow Jesus. Christ has gone before you, bearing His Cross; He died for you on the Cross, that you also may bear your cross, and desire to die on the cross with Him. For if you die with Him, you will also live with Him. And if you share His sufferings, you will also share His glory.

See how in the Cross all things consist, and in dying on it all things depend. There is no other way to life and to true inner peace, than the way of the Cross, and of daily self-denial.

Go where you will, seek what you will; you will find no higher way above nor safer way below than the road of the Holy Cross.

Thomas à Kempis is not talking about making up some masochistic religious routine to follow to buy your way into heaven by your own blood, sweat and tears. Don't kid yourself or waste God's time. If pain and suffering in themselves were good, we would be right to wear hair shirts and beat ourselves bloody with cat-o'-nine-tails like some misguided medieval "saints" did. But no. The way is simple. Follow Jesus, and the world itself will supply every obstacle it can find to trip you up, keep you down, sadden and discourage you, trample your joy (if it could, if you let it), but in the following of Jesus, real following (not lip-service), you can laugh at "the world, the flesh, and the devil." The martyrs, it is written, often went to their deaths, singing. This is history, not some fairy tale. His story, as the pun goes, and it can be ours too, if we follow "the Royal Road of the Holy Cross" as Thomas à Kempis entitled chapter 12 of book 2 of his Imitation of Christ.

If you've patiently read this far, brethren, only three more words from me:

Just follow Jesus.

Where are the Radically Changed Lives?

This is the title of a blog post by a local Baptist pastor. You can read his original post here. Although I read his post and left a short comment, I want to share the second comment left there with anyone who visits my blog. The comment which follows was written by pilgrim, and is as well-written an apologia as I've ever read for why a follower of Jesus might refrain from "going to church." As one who still attends church services, I nonetheless agree with and endorse the statements he makes here. In my humble opinion, what the holy apostles were talking about when they said "don't stay away from meetings of the believers, as some do" (cf. Hebrews 10:25) is precisely NOT what goes on in most churches today. I know for a fact that he who wrote the following DOES fulfill the commandment to fellowship and worship—it's just not "in church."

Asking "Where are all the radically changed lives?" actually reveals why I and many others have stopped spending their energies on an institutional church and their services. Why bother going to church when all you ever hear is,"We don't have it right yet," or "How do we follow Christ--now"?
What impedes people from following Christ is often the institutional church and Christian culture, of any sect or denomination. We are told that they have the answers, yet, when we get there, they seem just as confused as the world. All we see is a Christian bubble that mimics the trends of the world. The world does this, the church follows, trying to outrun and draw off clients. The world has YouTube, the "church" has GodTube. The world has DirectTV, the "church" has SkyAngel.

This is just a part of the problem. The problem is simple. People are just professing Christians, people have been "Christianized", they are in a state of "Christianosis". These are the lukewarm ones whom Christ will spit out of His mouth. Either you are born from above, or you are still a fetus, waiting to be born by the Spirit, which gives life. You cannot be in the womb and yet claim to be born.

Being a disciple of Mashiach has always been simple. Hold to the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus and witness for His name sake in all areas of life. Love one another and in loving one another, abide in the light. Look for the Parousia of Christ and hope in the resurrection and αλλαγησομεθα (the change or transformation) of the saints when He comes. And forsake the world and its corruption and pollution, living as if you are looking for the heavenly city, the one made by God, prepared by Christ.

This is the will of God, revealed in the Scriptures, by the apostles and prophets. Again, Christ has words for the churches, if they would look to His Apocalypse and have ears to hear, but I think for the majority, they are scared of doing this and will not choose to hear. As Messiah spoke to the church of Laodicea, so He speaks now to many churches: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with Me."

Seeing that Christ is outside the door, shows that He is not present inside. That He knocks, shows that He is a stranger, for only strangers knock for entrance; those who are known freely come in. His call is to anyone, which shows that it is always an individual call. Anyone who chooses to, can go to the door and let Mashiach in. Thus they will have fellowship and break bread together.
At the Parousía of Messiah, will the church inhabitants shrink away, or will the morning star rise in their hearts as they go to stand before the Son of Man? This a question we should each ask of ourselves.

The true transformation will come then, when the sons of God are revealed to all creation.

Martyrdom

Martyrdom—this is a word we’ve heard a lot lately, especially on the news. Muslim fundamentalists commit martyrdom. Christians suffer martyrdom. But what is martyrdom, really?

It comes from the Greek word μαρτυρια, meaning “witness”. It’s one of the four characteristics of Orthodox Christianity: liturgía “worship” literally “the people’s work”, dhiakonía “servanthood”, martyría “witness”, and kinonía “fellowship”.
A modern addition to this foursquare scheme is paidheía “instruction”.
It used to be considered sufficient that the idhiótes, that is, the laity, were educated and edified by the original four. But the modernist Orthodox wants to make sure the world understands that we are “educated” too. “Nobody who speaks only Greeks is anybody!” as Spiro exclaimed in the film My Family and Other Animals.

Back to martyrdom.
Muslims commit it,
Christians suffer it.

A Muslim terrorist firmly believes in the reward of paradise and seventy-two black-eyed virgins if he commits martyrdom by, for example, strapping a bomb to himself, walking into a crowd of “enemies of Allah”,
and blowing himself and them up.

A Christian who suffers martyrdom
at the hands of unbelievers
because of his testimony,
his witness to Jesus as Lord and Savior, firmly believes that Christ will stand up for him, based on His word of promise, “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:32 NASB)

The Christian doesn’t know the particulars or details of the reward, if you can call it such (though Jesus does, cf. Matthew 10:42), but he believes in it just as firmly, and with good reason.
“The Word of God says so.”

So, martyrdom means “witness”.
It seems strange that witness can be committed as an act of violence towards oneself and others by the followers of Muhammad, and at the same time suffered as violence committed against oneself by others. But that’s how it is. Has it always been this way?

Have there been Muslim martyrs who suffered rather than committed martyrdom?
Well, yes, of course there have. Think of the Crusades, when Roman Catholic armies attacked the Muslim states of the Near East. Of course, they were only trying to win back what the Muslims had conquered in the first place. Maybe that’s not a good example.

How about the case of Mansur al-Hallaj (AD 858-922), who was martyred for his faith? Well, yes, it was by his fellow Muslims. He wanted to testify of his relationship with God to others, even at the price of his own life. He also referred to the martyrdom of Christ, saying he also wanted to die ‘in the supreme confession of the cross’. Many Muslims of his time criticized him as a crypto-Christian for distorting the monotheistic revelation in a Christian way. Well, maybe that’s not a good example either.

Have there ever been Christians who committed martyrdom?
Well, again I think you could cite the Crusaders, though reliable contemporary sources, Francesco of Assisi for example, expressed the opinion that the Crusaders needed Christ more than the Saracens did, so that’s probably not a good example.

I think the closest I can come to finding a Christian equivalent to ‘committing martyrdom’ is the acts of the Greek neo-martyrs during the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire. These were (usually) men who had gotten into trouble with the Turks, but who escaped punishment, fled and lived in hiding. Later, after repenting for their apostasy (most of them had been forced to become Muslims, and then had backslid), they would return to the places where they had denied Christ and ‘commit martyrdom’ by boldly confessing Christ and denouncing Muhammad in front of Turkish authorities, who then had them executed (not without trying to induce them to recant, rejoin the Muslim fold, and be pardoned). They could have stayed in hiding (and most former apostates did), but something inside these men couldn’t be silenced. Perhaps they read the passage in Matthew, “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men…”


Are we any closer to defining martyrdom?
I think not. What martyrdom really is can be learned only by following Jesus, going where He goes, doing what He does. Here’s what martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about some aspects of martyrdom:

Neither failure nor hostility can weaken the messenger’s conviction that he has been sent by Jesus. That his word may be their strength, their stay and their comfort, Jesus repeats it. ‘Behold, I send you.’ For this is no way they have chosen themselves, no undertaking of their own. It is, in the strict sense of the word, a mission. With this the Lord promises them his abiding presence, even when they find themselves as sheep among wolves, defenceless, powerless, sore pressed and beset with great danger. Nothing can happen to them without Jesus knowing of it. ‘Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.’

… Jesus never called his disciples into a state of uncertainty, but to one of supreme certainty. That is why his warning can only summon them to abide by the Word. Where the Word is, there shall the disciple be. Therein lies his true wisdom and his true simplicity. If it is obvious that the Word is being rejected, if it is forced to yield its ground, the disciple must yield with it. But if the Word carries on the battle, the disciple must also stand his ground. In each case he will be combining wisdom with simplicity. But wisdom, however spiritual it may be, must never lead the disciple along a path which cannot stand the test of the word of Jesus.

… It is not our judgment of the situation which can show us what is wise, but only the truth of the Word of God. Here alone lies the promise of God’s faithfulness and help. It will always be true that the wisest course for the disciple is always to abide solely by the Word of God in all simplicity.

… The return of Jesus will take place suddenly. That fact is more certain than that we shall be able to finish our work in his service, more certain than our own death. This assurance that in their suffering they will be as their Master is the greatest consolation the messengers of Jesus have. As is the Master, so shall the disciple be, and as the Lord, so the servant. If they called Jesus a devil, how much more shall they call the servants of his household devils. Thus Jesus will be with them, and they will be in all things like unto him.

—Dietrich Bonhoeffer (martyr, 1945)
The Cost of Discipleship,
Ch. 24 The Suffering of the Messengers

Modern Martyrs Website