Ikons don't lie

That’s a curious notion. I don’t think I’ve ever heard it said that way before, but it’s a statement of a truth that Orthodox Christians take for granted. “Ikons don’t lie,” means something like this: You can depend on an ikon to faithfully represent what is written in the Holy Scriptures, or what we know from the life of the Church in history. Anyone pictured in an ikon has to have existed, not exactly as they are depicted (though often the image is nearer their real appearance than many think). Any thing and any event shown in an ikon has to have existed or taken place. Modern historical critics notwithstanding, we believe what the ikons show us; we accept them as “Gospel truth.”

A limited number of figures in an ikon are known representations of invisibilities. “Thrones, Dominations, Sovereignties, Powers,” and other “bodiless powers” (cf. Colossian 1:16 JB), or of intangible yet real entities, “that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray” (Revelation 12:9 NIV). The former are depicted as winged men, winged wheels, flames of fire, and the like; the latter is often shown as a dragon (a mythological monster) or as a dark-hued human. We understand what’s going on. We’re not taken in, we know the reality is there but can’t be shown directly, so we accept what’s been handed over to us.

When a person really understands this, that ikons don’t lie, he can begin to explore the writer’s mind and share in his spiritual vision. (The painter of an ikon is called its writer.) Many people are drawn to Orthodoxy at first because of the ikons, attracted to them by the experience of the holiness of beauty. Hopefully they won’t stop there but, following the path indicated by the ikons, soon come to the beauty of holiness. Ikons are there partly to assist in dividing the wheat from the chaff in us, and among us. This is an invisible winnowing, outside the ken of most of mankind, but it has effects.

Why are ikons so important to the Orthodox?
Why are they considered indispensable?
It’s supposed to have something to do with the Incarnation.

If the invisible, eternal God never came among us, He could not have been depicted—hence, the iconoclasm (ikon-breaking) of the Jews who believe in the pre-incarnate God and cannot conceive of Him any other way. If the Eternal had not come and “pitched His tent” among us, we would indeed be transgressors in depicting Him. As such, in Orthodox ikons, the Father is never depicted, “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father” (John 6:46 NASB); nor is the Holy Spirit, “The Spirit breatheth where he will; and thou hearest his voice, but thou knowest not whence he cometh, and whither he goeth” (John 3:8 Douay-Rheims). Only the image of a dove, the sign not the appearance of the Holy Spirit, or flames of fire, again a sign of His presence, yet not His face, are shown in the ikons.

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”
John 14:8-9 NIV

Jesus Christ, who is the Word of God before all ages (cf. John 1:1), tells us that to see Him is to see the Father. The holy apostles continue in His teaching, writing “He is the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). All these testimonies are foundational to the Orthodox Christian understanding of ikons. Jesus Christ is the ikon of the Father. We are ikons of Jesus Christ. Whoever honors Jesus Christ, whoever honors the Word of God, honors the Father. Whoever honors human beings, who are ikons of Jesus Christ, honors the Lord. This is the less talked about meaning of ikons.

Why is it less talked about?
Maybe, because it has practical significance. Maybe, because people would rather not admit it.

If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.
1 John 4:20 NIV

Hebrew ikon of Eliyahu ha-Navi

The ikon of holy prophet Elijah, Elías, or Eliyahu, that illustrated the post Hebrew Orthodox Christianity can be downloaded as a PDF file with Hebrew inscriptions in various script styles.

The inscription reads in Hebrew, Eliyahu ha-Tishbi ha-Navi, ‘Elijah the Tishbite, the Prophet’.

Then, the text of 1 Kings 17:4 is written in smaller script under the prophet's name and title, ‘You can drink from the stream, and I have ordered the ravens to bring you food there.’

There are six versions of this ikon with Hebrew inscriptions. Download and print a full-sized ikon by clicking the link beside the detail image. These ikons were adapted from the standard Greek ikon by removing the Greek text and replacing it with the Hebrew.

Torah Sofer script
16th Century AD






Isaiah Scroll script
2nd Century BC






Moabite Stone script (brown)
9th Century BC





Moabite Stone script (black)
9th Century BC





Yavneh Yam script
7th Century BC






Standard Hebrew script

Chosen people

Chosen people (Deuteronomy 14:2), God's holy nation of priests and kings (1 Peter 2:9), and right after saying 'Jews first, but Greeks as well' Paul adds, 'God has no favorites' (Romans 2:10-11). This can be very confusing.

What is clear to me is that God's hereditary people was the Jews. Another way of saying it, from another angle, is that the God of the Hebrews (for before they were Jews, Judaeans, they were known as the Hebrews) has turned out to be the only real God.

That may seem unfair somehow, but the selection by the Divine Nature of the 'God' of Israel to be His identity was something that He had a right to do, since God is God. He could have taken up the 'God' concept of any people and said, 'I am That.'

The Hindu religion, for example, in spite of its polytheism (which is a way of seeing the One God in His innumerable aspects), is very profound and very true, and even approaches the Hebrew concept of 'Eyheh asher ehyeh' (I am who I am) with 'Tat tvam asi' (That thou art).

Yet the Divine Nature did not choose the Hindu religion to be His self-expression. Clearly, all these expressions result from people's encounters with the Divine Nature, and the ideas and traditions grew out of those encounters, or epiphanies.

But the Divine Nature decided that the Hebrew people would be His people, He became their hereditary God, for His will to be perfectly revealed, and among other reasons we cannot know, at least so that He could come among us as a man through them.

In the same way that God took up a human race to be His chosen people—He could have chosen anyone—He took up a human literature to be the expression in written form of His Divine Word, again choosing what was ours to become His.

That literature was, at first, the books of the Old Testament. Not as cut and dried at first as they are now, He inspired the people He chose in their selection of just which books were to be included in that literature that He had chosen before they did.

Up to this point, everything I have just written could be mere conjecture, just an opinion or a speculation, or a tribal patriotism, even though myself I am no Jew, yet I adhere to it. But the final part of the story, the place where the Divine Nature enters uninvited and unexpectedly.

One people’s hereditary God is chosen by the Divine Nature to be His identity. Then one people’s religious literature is chosen by Him to be the sole expression of His Divine Word. But just as Christ said, ‘Which is easier, to say to this man, your sins are forgiven, or, Take up your mat and walk,’

and then, knowing what His critics were thinking commanded the cripple, ‘Take up your mat and go home’ (Mark 2:11), in a similar way, to those who think, ‘Anyone can say they are the chosen people,’ He proves what they think easy by performing the impossible, He becomes one of them.

It is the fact of the God-Man, Jesus the Christ, the one who said ‘I am in the Father and the Father in Me’ and who proved it, proved Himself and all things, being proclaimed the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead (Romans 1:4), that substantiates everything else believed of God.

That the Hebrews are the chosen people, that their literature is the only holy and divine scriptures on earth, was demonstrated by the intrusion into the human universe by the only living and true God that is, and not by mere teachings or even miracles, but by His defeat of death.

Now that the resurrection has occurred and continues to fill the cosmos with divine and eternal life, now that the Divine Word has taken up the human race as the vehicle and housing of the Divine Nature in time and in eternity, what has become of the chosen people?

‘As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12-13). And as Paul further explains, we are grafted on to the original stock (Romans 11:17).

Because of Jesus Christ, the God of Israel has been revealed to be the only true and living God, the people of Israel to be His chosen people, their writings to be the only holy and divine scripture, all chosen by God, and through Christ, all of this handed over to us who have believed in Him.

The God of Israel is our God, we are one of the chosen people, the writings of the holy evangelists and apostles have been taken up into the scripture, the division that separated Jew and gentile has been erased, and death the wages of sin has been trampled down by Him who is, God as Man.

Chosen, yes, chosen, but before the foundation of the world, and hidden in Christ until the time that He was revealed, a mystery before all ages that even the angels wanted to learn about, when the Divine Word and Son of God fulfilled all hopes of all hearts from the first to the last.

To be with you

During my endless wanderings through the corridors of the Butyrka Prison in Moscow, I suddenly met Father Valentin Sventitsky. Rather foolishly I asked him, “Where are you going?” His face lit up with a kind of inner warmth as he answered, “To be with you!” He was always such a reserved man, severe, exclusive, but that day I felt a ray of kindly, all-seeing saintliness shining at me. He approached my soul, which was in need of his help. He was like a “staréts” [an elder]. This is what prison life can make you see

— Sergei Fudel, Light in the Darkness, p. 108

Walking

What follows is nothing of my own, except that I’m offering it as an example of a good Orthodox sermon. When I returned to Orthodoxy at the age of 37, there were many good Orthodox sermons like this one—we heard them almost all the time. They were fervent, faithful and spoken as from one loving heart to another. They did not excel in eloquence. They were simply true.

This sermon was preached by Fr Gerasimos ‘Jerry’ Markopoulos four years ago almost to the day. If you aren't an Orthodox Christian, but want to learn what Orthodoxy is at its best, Fr Jerry tells it in brief and challenges the ‘Orthodox’ to practice it. This is a ‘good Orthodox sermon’ as we used to hear before the world got hold of us. After the service, I blessed Fr Jerry, kissed him and thanked him for speaking to us what the Lord spoke to him, for passing on ‘the message’ exactly as he heard it. Whatever community has him for their pastor will have a treasure.

Matthew 9:1-8

Our Gospel reading this morning is about a man who couldn't walk at all until he had an encounter with Christ God. As I reflected on this, I wondered what the man's first steps looked like after Jesus had healed him with a word. I pictured a small child learning to walk but couldn't really connect the two images. It sounds like the man just rose and went home. In but an instant, God had transformed this man's life as well as the lives of the multitude who witnessed the restoration of the paralytic. God transformed the man's life when He saw their faith. There was something about their collective “walk” that touched Jesus.

The Holy Prophet Micah wrote, “…He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

Just as when a child is born, and that child must grow and eventually learn to walk, the Christian must also learn to walk humbly with God. Now, just the mention of the words “walk with God” emphasizes to us that the Christian faith is about having a relationship with God. Orthodox Christianity is not about a list of do's and don'ts, but rather it's about growing in a loving relationship between the Creator and His creation, a Father and His child. And the term “walking” implies also that this is to be a relationship that is constantly moving forward. As we continue down the path, we should be walking closer and closer to God and maturing spiritually as a result. We wouldn't call a two-year-old immature when he plays with his food—that's what toddlers do! However, by the time that youngster becomes an adult his behavior should have changed as dramatically as his body. He should have made continual progress toward maturity.

And God wants to transform our life. The more we walk with God, the more our hearts will change. A person cannot walk with God, be growing in communion with God, and remain unchanged.

But in reality, walking with God requires a choice. A lot of people are not better spiritually because they don't want to make the choice required to get better. They don't want to choose to repent of their sin because they're enjoying it too much. They don't want to let go of that grudge against someone, even though they know it's hurting them more than it's hurting the other person. They want to get well, but they don't want to take the steps that would bring about healing.

A lot of people are hurting spiritually. They don't feel close to God, they don't feel like praying, they feel empty. They say that they want to be closer to God, they want to be growing in union with God, but if we want to walk closer and closer with Jesus Christ, then it means that we need to change. We need to lay down the things that hinder our walk with Christ.

It also means that we have to choose to walk with God instead of doing our own thing. That's a difficult choice because we don't like for others to tell us where to go or what to do. We don't like for others to have authority over us, but the Christian life is one of complete submission to the lordship of Christ God. And it's only when we can say, “Not my will, but Yours, be done,” that we will find peace and joy in Christ.

Now, this choice to follow Christ also involves getting rid of any excuses we may have.

Do we want to walk with God, or not? There's nothing prohibiting our growing in union with God except our own choices.

Now, the second thing here about walking with Christ God is that in order to walk with Him, it requires obedience on our part. If our walk with God is going to be productive, if we're going to grow closer to Him and in union with Him, then we need to do what He tells us to do.

Isn't it interesting how many times the working of God is linked to obedience?
Christ told the man with the withered hand to stretch forth his hand, and when he did, he was healed. (Matthew 12:9-14)
He told the blind man to go wash in the pool of Siloam, and when he did, he received his sight. (John, ch. 9)
He told the disciples to feed the crowd of 5000 with 5 loaves of bread and two fish, and when they did, the miracle happened. (Matthew 14:13-21)
He told the lepers to go and show themselves to the priest, and when they went, they were healed. (Luke 17:11-19)

Many people want God to work in their lives, but He's waiting on them to start acting in obedience to what He's already told them to do. God has told us to forgive those who have hurt us, but have we been obedient, or are we still holding a grudge? God has told us to love one another and to even love our enemies, so why is it that we're filled with hate? We cannot walk with God and experience His working in our life unless we place our trust in Him and are obedient to Him. God wants what is best for us, and He wants to walk with us, but He asks us to walk obediently with Him.
How does our collective walk appear to Christ?
Have we made that choice?

Let love be genuine. Hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Never flag in zeal, be aglow with the Spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints, and practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
(Romans 12:9-14)

…Whoever keeps His Word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
(1 John 2:5-6)

Now, let me ask this question.
What if, for one day, Christ became YOU?
Nothing changed about you. You still lived in the same house, same job, same family, same health. The only difference is THIS:
His heart becomes YOUR heart.
What would it be like?
Do you think people would notice a change?
Do you think He would keep the same schedule you would keep?
the same commitments?
and the same priorities?
How do you think you would feel?
Would you still be stressed out over the things in your life?
Would you still hold that grudge against that person?
What would change?

As Orthodox Christians we have within us the heart of Christ God.
So we need to ask ourselves: Is that heart showing?
Are we truly “walking the walk” or are we paralyzed?
As we walk with God, can others tell?
Will God see us and be touched by our faith?

How is your walk with Christ this morning?
Have you made that choice?

The Markopoulos Family

Love, love, love

‘Love, love, love! That’s all you ever talk about! Why not just tell us about the saints, about church history, about the truth of Orthodoxy? Why not remind us of all the wrongs done to us, so we can be motivated and mobilised to go on the offensive? Why not, like some pentecostal preacher, provoke us with phrases like ‘Becoming armed and dangerous!’ The faith must be taught, understood, accepted, defended. The borders of the Church must be defined, the doors barred and guarded. We have a job to do. Keep out the sinners who want to sin, so that the righteous within can be saved, them, and only them—I mean, us!’

Nobody has said this to me, or written this, but maybe some have thought as much, even as I have. What is so great about love that it can take over one’s life, that it can be a worthy pursuit? Isn’t love the product of all these other things? Don’t we acquire love like we acquire the Holy Spirit, by doing lots of works of purification, guarding the mind, fasting, praying, study and all the rest? Yes, charity is part of the plan, but isn’t it only just a part?

I wonder about this sometimes. I wonder why I feel more love than I can express. I wonder why I never seem to be able to give or receive enough love. I wonder why love seems to be missing in so much of what passes for Christianity. I wonder why people are afraid to accept love. I wonder why they want to limit their love to person, place and time. I wonder how something so universal can be so rare. I wonder how something so true can be so easily counterfeited. I wonder how something so valuable can be so cheapened.

The evangelist John writes about love too. ‘God is love,’ he says, and though church fathers have warned us that the reverse is not necessarily true, ‘love is God,’ it can still be proven by the willingness to lay life down for a brother. That is the extreme, but everyday to smile at, to speak kindly to, to encourage, sometimes even to tell the truth to a fellow human being, these are the proofs of a love that can be God, because only God can do such things, in us, through us, and for us. Helping not harming, blessing not cursing, freeing not oppressing.

Yes, love, love, love.

Knowing Jesus

I am not going to read the rabbi's book, but there is a meaning to ‘You don't have to be wrong for me to be right.’ That meaning, though, comes from a location where right and wrong in the usual human sense simply don't exist. That location is the presence of God, before whom all our ideas, even all our beliefs, simply pale into insignificance. Did we love the ones God sent to us? or did we pester them to death with our probings?

I don't believe that all spiritual paths lead to God in an institutional sense. For example, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, even Judaism do not lead you to the living God, the only God there is, but then, neither does Christianity. All these ‘paths’ are only containers for our souls to keep us from spilling ourselves to death, but also from which we can offer ourselves as drink to others.

If that's not what we use our religion for, as Christians anyway, then we've got nothing to look forward to except staleness, and maybe evaporation. I believe what C. S. Lewis writes (quoting from memory), ‘All who persistently seek joy will find it,’ and that is what Christians mean by salvation, if they tear away all the fantasies they have about it. I also believe what he writes about knowing Jesus, that ‘no one can be saved without Him, but does one have to know Him to be saved by Him?’ (again, quoting from memory).

How many Christians really know Jesus? True, they may confess Him with their lips, even before men (I do the same), but do they, do I, really know Him? He’s not impressed even by the miracles we do in His name or by our calling to Him, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but He rewards those with ‘the joy of the Lord’, with salvation, if we have noticed Him walking among us, and done for Him what He does for us. Knowing about Jesus is not knowing Jesus.

Study and even confession is not doing what He does. To answer His call requires hands and feet, even if they must be pierced. The path of joy, of salvation, can only be walked. Heaven cannot be reached any other way. Yes, we must walk with Him, but like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, we may not recognize who He is, yet we walk with Him just the same. The issue of who is right and wrong is meaningless in His presence.

The Lord is truly among us, alive, enlivening, walking with us, within us, among us, and we do not know Him, nor are we worthy to undo the straps of His sandals, but if He asks us, ‘Whom do you seek?’ let’s be bold enough to ask Him, ‘Rabbi, where do you live?’ and when He says, ‘Come and see,’ let’s not hesitate, but laying aside all earthly care, follow Him, so that He can teach us all things, how to do what He does, how to live the life of heaven on earth.

If we haven’t found the way here and now, we won’t find it anywhere or anywhen, because we will have let the Christ slip through our midst and disappear, because in truth we have sought to stone Him for His blasphemies. Sought to stone Him or throw Him off a cliff, the One who has come not to judge the world, but to offer the only life that is eternal to us, who can only receive it when we are willing to offer it to others, with whatever it takes.

Chapter 11

Definition: Chapter 11
A bankruptcy option in which a trustee is appointed to reorganize the bankrupt firm. Although the existing claims of security holders are likely to be reduced or replaced with different claims, it is expected that the firm will continue operating.

What was bankrupt?
The old law and religion.

Were the existing claims of the security holders reduced or replaced?
Both. If they continue to grumble and not accept what the appointed Trustee offers them, their claims are reduced.
If they fully accept the reorganization of the firm, their claims are replaced with something better.

What firm is it that is expected to keep operating?
The business of the Trustee's Father, the One who said,
"My Father continues working, and so do I."

Who is the Trustee?
The God-Man, Jesus Christ.

Here is His version of Chapter 11...

Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of the realities that at present remain unseen. It was for their faith that our ancestors were commended.

It is by faith that we understand that the world was created by One Word from God, so that no apparent cause can account for the things we can see.

It was because of his faith that Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain, and for that he was declared to be righteous when God made acknowledgment of his offerings. Though he is dead, he still speaks by faith.

It was because of his faith that Enoch was taken up and did not have to experience death: he was not to be found because God had taken him. This was because before his assumption it is attested that he had pleased God. Now it is impossible to please God without faith, since anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who try to find Him.

It was through his faith that Noah, when he had been warned by God of something that had never been seen before, felt a holy fear and built an ark to save his family. By his faith the world was convicted, and he was able to claim the righteousness which is the reward of faith.

It was by faith that Abraham obeyed the call to set out for a country that was the inheritance given to him and his descendants, and that he set out without knowing where he was going. By faith he arrived, as a foreigner, in the Promised Land, and lived there as if in a strange country, with Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. They lived there in tents while he looked forward to a city founded, designed and built by God.

It was equally by faith that Sarah, in spite of being past the age, was made able to conceive, because she believed that He who made the promise would be faithful to it. Because of this, there came from one man, and one who was already as good as dead himself, more descendants than could be counted, as many as the stars of heaven or the grains of sand on the seashore.

All these died in faith, before receiving any of the things that had been promised, but they saw them in the far distance and welcomed them, recognising that they were only strangers and nomads on earth. People who use such terms about themselves make it quite plain that they are in search of their real homeland. They can hardly have meant the country they came from, since they had the opportunity to go back to it; but in fact they were longing for a better homeland, their heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, since He has founded the city for them.

It was by faith that Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac. He offered to sacrifice his only son even though the promises had been made to him, and he had been told: It is through Isaac that your name will be carried on. He was confident that God had the power even to raise the dead; and so, figuratively speaking, he was given back Isaac from the dead.

It was by faith that this same Isaac gave his blessing to Jacob and Esau for the distant future. By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, leaning on the end of his stick as though bowing to pray. It was by faith that, when he was about to die, Joseph recalled the Exodus of the Israelites and made the arrangements for his own burial.

It was by faith that Moses, when he was born, was hidden by his parents for three months; they defied the royal edict when they saw he was such a fine child. It was by faith that, when he grew to manhood, Moses refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and chose to be ill-treated in company with God's people rather than to enjoy for a time the pleasures of sin. He considered that the insults offered to the Anointed were something more precious than all the treasures of Egypt, because he had his eyes fixed on the reward. It was by faith that he left Egypt and was not afraid of the king's anger; he held to his purpose like a man who could see the Invisible. It was by faith that he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood to prevent the Destroyer from touching any of the first-born sons of Israel. It was by faith they crossed the Red Sea as easily as dry land, while the Egyptians, trying to do the same, were drowned.

It was through faith that the walls of Jericho fell down when the people had been round them for seven days. It was by faith that Rahab the prostitute welcomed the spies and so was not killed with the unbelievers.

Is there any need to say more? There is not time for me to give an account of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, or of David, Samuel and the prophets. These were men who through faith conquered kingdoms, did what is right and earned the promises. They could keep a lion's mouth shut, put out blazing fires and emerge unscathed from battle. They were weak people who were given strength, to be brave in war and drive back foreign invaders. Some came back to their wives from the dead, by resurrection; and others submitted to torture, refusing release so that they would rise again to a better life. Some had to bear being pilloried and flogged, or even chained up in prison. They were stoned, or sawn in half, or beheaded; they were homeless, and dressed in the skins of sheep and goats; they were penniless and given nothing but ill-treatment. They were too good for the world and they went out to live in deserts and mountains and in caves and ravines. These are all heroes of faith, but they did not receive what was promised, since God had made provision for us to have something better, and they were not to reach perfection except with us.

Hebrews Chapter 11

Only

And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there: and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go. So he brought down the people unto the water: and the LORD said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink. And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water. And the LORD said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place.
Judges 7:4-7 KJV

God is not interested in numbers but in the quality of our faith, as has been demonstrated by the action He commanded of sending the army to drink, and then accepting only the minority who lapped up the water like dogs.

I often wondered what was the meaning of that decal I see on the rear windshield of cars, especially minivans, that says "Only God" in white letters.

Myself, I don't hold by decking my vehicle with stickers or decals proclaiming my faith. To my way of thinking, that's not a witness—it's impersonal—and witnessing can never be impersonal. It just seems like a numbers game. "If enough of us Christians slap Jesus is Lord stickers and Ichthys fish on our cars, the world will know we're out there, and that there's lots of us."

So that's what's behind the slogan “Only God,” the idea that “only God could do something like that.” The idea is talked about in a book called Axioms, by Bill Hybels (which I haven’t read, but heard about).

What I thought it might mean is, "For me there is only One priority, only One ultimate concern, and that is God."

It reminded me of the Bible study sessions we used to have with our former pastor, Father Jim. He called the sessions, "Only Christ," and the emphasis was this: That when we met together to study the Word, we each and every one decided ahead of time to put away our own thoughts and opinions, and be ready to hear what Christ Himself, the Divine Word, would speak to us as we read the bible together.

Having this attitude had a tremendous effect. There was very little time wasted by people opining and speculating, or worse yet, pontificating. It's like, when you know in Whose presence you are sitting, at Whose feet (that's the meaning of session) you are waiting open-eared to hear His voice, like Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus. Those bible studies were the best I'd ever been too. We were really taught by God, not by men.

A reggae song has this lyric: "Gi' me a session, not another version" (Bob Marley, Mix Up Mix Up).
This is what divides the "Only Christ" from the "Only Man" attitude.

To whose voice are we willing to listen, to His, or to our own?

Light of the world

For some reason I wanted to wear white clothes to church this morning. I have a very nice white shirt with white embroidery, but I have no white pants—ah! my workout pants which are half of a martial arts outfit, without pockets, and a draw string for a belt! Perfect! No pockets in a shroud! So that’s what I wore today, standing out in the crowd for all that whiteness. It turned out to be a metaphor for the gospel I heard today,

The Lord said to his disciples, ‘You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.’
Matthew 5:14-19

How I hate church politics! Notice, I did not capitalize the word ‘Church’. That’s because church politics has nothing at all to do with the real Church, though it does its best to write history with big and loud letters, to make sure we know who’s in charge. But in spite of it all, it is the living God, the Christ, who makes His home in the praises of His people, as from olden times till now. He is the King, the Only.

So a former priest who like a wild boar let loose in a vineyard wrought havoc in my local community before he was finally shown the door, he writes a letter in a local newspaper publicly challenging an article published there, written by the learned and sanctimonious (but very correct) deacon who once supported him in everything and told us, told me, to do the same—though I would not.

I did not read the letter of the man now called ‘Mister’ instead of ‘Father’ and whose marriage and family morphed into irreconcilable strangeness, crossing too many lines of conventional gender and sexuality to be of any further use to the Orthodox community. I did read a declaration by the Orthodox episcopate in America opposing same-sex ‘marriage’ in the parish newsletter, but didn’t know why it was there. It seemed to me unnecessary rhetoric.

Everyone, Orthodox or not, who opposes same-sex marriage, and everyone who approves of it, well, there’s few who ever cross over to the other side, and as for the Church, we don’t need to be blasted by hot words issuing from the throat of hell either pro or con, even when church leaders issue them, because that is in fact where such words come from. The splitter, diábolos, keeps doing his work, but only One is worthy to clear the threshing floor, separate wheat from chaff, and put each in its proper place.

What I saw and heard thundering with carnal authority and the triumph of flesh over spirit from the steps of the soléa today was not the Righteousness of God. Yes, ‘not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished,’ as the Word declares, but that Law and Righteousness is not served by wounded pride lashing out against an offense. When will people understand it is in their power to not take offense or give it? When will we learn that the Righteousness and even the Law of God is empowered for Truth in mercy?

Praise God! and again I say, praise God! that our humble but courageous presbyter revealed to us in his homily earlier in the service that we are the light of the world, and focused our attention on the truth that living the faith, and only living it, has any real effect on ourselves and those around us. Rather than preaching to them, arguing or trying to convince them, our witness, our best witness, is the work of silence, silence and faithfulness.

Yes, ‘not an iota, not even a dot, of the Law is removed’ by the one who follows the commandments in meekness and charity, because that is the purpose of the Law, not only to tell us what is forbidden, but to open the gates of repentance to us, reconciliation, salvation, imitation of Christ and the saints, the Law is for those who obey it in themselves, though it sometimes tastes bitter at first, the sweetness of the Lord.

When we look back at our futile struggles and fighting, if we endure to the end and hear the Lord saying to us, ‘good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord,’ we will see how much time, how many opportunities we wasted, how weak we were in our strength, how sinful in our righteousness, how much we hated when we said we loved, and how mercy was shown us all the same. While there is still time, brothers, let us show mercy to one another, and leave thundering to the Lord of thunder. Let us seek salvation while it is near.

Hung

And I am hung in thy net.
To writhe is exhausting but involuntary.
And I am cut off by its weave
from the world that shines inward upon me.

How consoling that I am so small
compared to the joy I cannot feel.
A net cannot catch sorrows dripping
but oceans of joy will dilute the drops.

My rhyme and my beat are both broken;
Eros is only a ghost that I dream of;
Nature is encased in rigid constructs;
And I, most precious self to me, am lost.

How will you go from me, O God, when I die?
Will you not perish in me?
For what was your creation of me
unless you made yourself, in me,
mortal? Let not your image perish in me.
Let not your world perish when I die.

Like drunks men stumble, in me,
living the gray moment of their death.
And I, most precious self to me, am lost,
A ghost before my time, holding out hands,
clad in white whispers, calling my own name.
My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?

“O Love that wilt not let me go,
I hide my weary self in thee.”
Therefore: no self, no Love, no hiding place.
Death is thy net. I both live and die.

Hidden within the dying woman
may be the the one that, undetected, lives.
Suspecting this, I find no trigger to pull,
no corpse to bury. I must writhe,
divided, exhausted, until thought cease and
the gift is returned, and
light streams in under the door.
But how this may be I know not.

Alana Roberts

I suffer death

his hard blue sting

his theft of breath

his hammering

Yet though worlds fade

before my eyes

I'm not thus made

the thing that dies.

Ikonography in Indonesia

My mind has gone to sleep, but my heart is awakened by the sights and sounds of faith fulfilled in lovely simplicity… life together in the Lord. It rejoices me greatly to have found the blog from which these photos were taken. This is the practice of ikonography in the community of Holy Epiphany church in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Love as taught by Christ

So often when we say ‘I love you’ we say it with a huge ‘I’ and a small ‘you’.

We use love as a conjunction instead of it being a verb implying action. It’s no good just gazing out into open space hoping to see the Lord; instead, we have to look closely at our neighbor, someone whom God has willed into existence, someone whom God has died for. Everyone we meet has a right to exist, because he has value in himself, and we are not used to this. The acceptance of others is a danger to us, it threatens us. To recognise the other's right to be himself might mean recognising his right to kill me. But if we set a limit to his right to exist, it's no right at all. Love is difficult. Christ was crucified because he taught a kind of love which is a terror for men, a love which demands total surrender: it spells death.

If we turn to God and come face to face with him, we must be prepared to pay the cost. If we are not prepared to pay the cost, we must walk through life being a beggar, hoping someone else will pay. But if we turn to God we discover that life is deep, vast and immensely worth living.

Anthony Bloom
Metropolitan of Sourozh

You love me beyond me

A poem by Yudi Kristanto, from his blog Daily Jottings…

live for God

The crown of meaning and beauty is You, O my Joy!
my Lord and Savior
how beautiful it is to pause and remember
How You love me beyond me

That Your heart rejoices upon everything good that You set on me
You gave that trust, that love, that joy
so pure as the glimmering stream of fountain
'Cling on me! Feed on me. I am Good Shepherd'
You call gently
Your embrace warms my soul, the sweetest of all
Everything is on Your mighty hands O Lord
Everything good is from You

Lord, it is trembling for me to draw so close to You
because Your beauty is so splendorous
You are the source of all
of all beauty and joy
Holy are You O God!

Lord, have mercy on Your little servant
which You have created from dust
and that You have given life and gift of being
I am sinful, full of disgrace
but Your mercy I plea and Your love I trust...
that You love me beyond me

May my life be totally for You and for Your Joy O Lord, nothing else
because I find nothing outside You
I can do nothing if not from Your mercy
There's no meaning but in Your bountiful blossom

Lead me, O Lord...
Save me, I am Yours
may I live for You and You alone, O Lord
in loving whom You love, the mankind and my neighbors
in rejoicing in Your joy
in weeping and caring for those who are in need
in taking care and being mindful of Your creation

in each step
in each breath
I am Yours

Bless, O Lord! Ameyn!

Make us want You

The real world is not a map that we can enjoy looking at, remembering the places we’ve been or where we would like to be. No, but it is useful to have a map if we want to find our way to a destination in the real world. In fact, we may never find our way without one.

In the same way, the Christian life is not a book we can enjoy reading, remembering the events it tells of taking place in the remote and harmless past or looking forward to things that are yet to come. No, but it is useful, in fact, it is indispensable, to have a book if we want to live the life that the book describes, but only if we put into practice what we find written in it.

We all know what book it is that tells us the way, but because we are tired of reading it, we never quite get where we say we want to be. We live not by the book but by our feelings about it and ‘love to tell the story of unseen things above, of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love,’ when it suits us, thinking that our word of confession, or holding the right beliefs, saves us.

But no, it isn’t like that, it never was, it isn’t now, and it never will be. We shall not arrive at the promised land by looking at the map, or just reading about others who tried and died trying in the book, or dreaming of arriving at a destination that we’ve made up for ourselves by casual and sporadic study.

The map isn’t real, but the ground we stand on. The roads and places it shows are not the traveling and arriving, just a picture. No matter how long we gaze at it, we will never arrive. The book isn’t real, unless it is more than mere stories. The Jesus it tells of is just a myth unless we give up mere reading and start heeding, and salvation not a tool but a pretty toy to tantalise ourselves and others unless we use it.

Use salvation? Jesus just a myth? The bible just a story? No better than a map for our fantasies? Yes, it is all for nothing, the highest price ever paid for a ticket to the only destination ever worth going, that we simply trash, despise and discard, or play with when it suits us. And we are offended if anyone implies that we are not being faithful.

Lord, have mercy on us. We have despised Your call and preferred to listen to everyone else but You, and changed Your words into anything but what You say. We look at Your picture and worship it, saying it is You we worship, and then we turn to our mirrors and glory in what we see, not knowing it is our shame. You have made us for You, but we have stolen ourselves. Lord, have mercy on us. Call us. Bring us back. Make us want You.

Burdens light and heavy

We have abandoned a light burden, namely self-criticism, and taken up a heavy burden, namely self-justification.

Abba John the Dwarf

Here are more sayings and stories of Abba John the Dwarf (or ‘of small stature’) from the FOCUS NSW blog…

It was said of Abba John the Dwarf that he withdrew and lived in the desert at Scetis with an old man of Thebes. His Abba, taking a piece of dry wood, planted it and said to him, 'Water it every day with a bottle of water, until it bears fruit.' Now the water was so far away that he had to leave in the evening and return the following morning. At the end of three years the wood came to life and bore fruit. Then the old man took some of the fruit and carried it to the church saying to the brethren, 'Take and eat the fruit of obedience.'

It was said of Abba John the Dwarf, that one day he said to his elder brother, 'I should like to be free of all care, like the angels, who do not work, but ceaselessly offer worship to God.' So he took off his cloak and went away into the desert. After a week he came back to his brother. When he knocked on the door, he heard his brother say, before he opened it 'Who are you?' He said, 'I am John, your brother.' But he replied, 'John has become an angel, and henceforth he is no longer among men.' Then the other begged him saying. 'It is I.' However, his brother did not let him in, but left him there in distress until morning. Then, opening the door, he said to him, 'You are a man and you must once again work in order to eat.' Then John made a prostration before him, saying, 'Forgive me.'

One day when he was sitting in front of the church, the brethren were consulting him about their thoughts. One of the old men who saw it became a prey to jealousy and said to him, 'John, your vessel is full of poison.' Abba John said to him, 'That is very true, Abba; and you have said that when you only see the outside, but if you were able to see the inside, too, what would you say then?'

Some brethren came one day to test him to see whether he would let his thoughts get dissipated and speak of the things of this world. They said to him 'We give thanks to God that this year there has been much rain and the palm trees have been able to drink, and their shoots have grown, and the brethren have found manual work.' Abba John said to them, 'So it is when the Holy Spirit descends into the hearts of men; they are renewed and they put forth leaves in the fear of God.'

It was said of him (Abba John the Dwarf) that one day he was weaving rope for two baskets, but he made it into one without noticing, until it had reached the wall, because his spirit was occupied in contemplation.

Abba John said, 'I am like a man sitting under a great tree, who sees wild beasts and snakes coming against him in great numbers. When he cannot withstand them any longer, he runs to climb the tree and is saved. It is just the same with me; I sit in my cell and I am aware of evil thoughts coming against me, and when I have no more strength against them, I take refuge in God by prayer and I am saved from the enemy.'

Abba Poemen said of Abba John the Dwarf that he had prayed God to take his passions away from him so that he might become free from care. He went and told an old man this; 'I find myself in peace, without an enemy,' he said. The old man said to him, 'Go beseech God to stir up warfare so that you may regain the affliction and humility that you used to have, for it is by warfare that the soul makes progress.' So he besought God and when warfare came, he no longer prayed that it might be taken away, but said, 'Lord, give me strength for the fight.'

He also said, 'Humility and the fear of God are above all virtues.'

Abba John gave this advice, 'Watching means to sit in the cell and be always mindful of God. This is what is meant by, "I was on the watch and God came to me." (Matt. 25:36)

One of the Fathers said of him, 'Who is this John, who by his humility has all Scetis hanging from his little finger?'

Abba John the Dwarf said, 'There was a spiritual old man who lived a secluded life. He was held in high estimation in the city and enjoyed a great reputation. He was told that a certain old man, at the point of death, was calling for him, to embrace him before he fell asleep. He thought to himself, if I go by day, men will run after me, giving me great honour, and I shall not be at peace in all that. So I will go in the evening in the darkness and I shall escape everyone's notice. But lo, two angels were sent by God with lamps to give him light. Then the whole city came out to see his glory. The more he wished to Flee from glory, the more he was glorified. In this was accomplished that which is written: "He who humbles himself will be exalted." ' (Luke 14:11)

Abba John the Dwarf said, 'a house is not built by beginning at the top and working down. You must begin with the foundations in order to reach the top. They said to him, 'What does this saying mean?' He said, 'The foundation is our neighbour, whom we must win, and that is the place to begin. For all the commandments of Christ depend on this one.'

Abba Poemen said that Abba John said that the saints are like a group of trees, each bearing different fruit, but watered from the same source. The practices of one saint differ from those of another, but it is the same Spirit that works in all of them.

Abba John said to his brother, 'Even if we are entirely despised in the eyes of men, let us rejoice that we are honoured in the sight of God.'

The old man (Abba John the Dwarf) said, 'You know that the first blow the devil gave to Job was through his possessions; and he saw that he had not grieved him nor separated him from God. Whith the second blow, he touched his flesh, but the brave athlete did not sin by any word that came out of his mouth in that either. In fact, he had within his heart that which is of God, and he drew on that source unceasingly.'

An old man came to Abba John's cell and found him asleep with an angel standing above him, fanning him. Seeing this, he withdrew. When Abba John got up, he said to his disciple, 'Did anyone come in while I was asleep?' The disciple said, 'Yes, an old man.' Then Abba John knew that this old man was his equal, and that he had seen the angel.

Source Orthodox Wiki

Who Says You Can Say These Things?

You speak the sound of thunder in the cloud.
Who says you can say these things?
Out of your book come words that will not move.
Who said you could say them aloud?

There you are in the marketplace,
there in the Hall.
What man gave you such a sword to wield?
Here and there I go for the sake of my will.
Who set you up as high judge over all?

Tell me what you were thinking this morning.
Who told you to lay those words on the page?
What were the instructions whispered to you that
Show the place where truth and words
are joining?

I will answer but first you will answer me—
Who told you to sit on the throne of your own heart?
What visions have you had that narrowed your way?
When you speak on these things, I will answer thee.

— David Dickens, Nothing Hypothetical

Church

Christian parents bring their children to Him, stand them before Him in that holy school, which is called the Church. Here, upbringing is pursued according to all the laws of human development.

First through the senses — by impressions. As a person recognizes and begins to love the beauty of nature in its general features before any learning, by becoming familiar with it through simple contemplation and childhood experiences, so in the Church the first notions of God, the earliest and more important in the person’s life, come through the contemplation of images, actions, symbols pointing to the spiritual world.

The mother, the object of all the love and tenderness of the child, stands with a reverent expression and prays before the Savior’s icon; the child looks at her, then the image — and does not require long explanations of what it means. This is the first, silent lesson of the Knowledge of God.

The child in church: the beauty of the church, the lighting, the bright vestments of the priesthood, the singing and silence of those standing and praying while facing the sanctuary, the holy activities, the lack of everyday objects, the forbidding of irreverent movements, the demand for attention to something higher, special — these are lessons of reverence before God, which cannot be replaced by any fancy speech of a religious teacher.

In these lessons, one cannot notice the moment at which the children begin to understand what is being read or sung in the church; we only know that we loved our Savior long before the lessons in the Law of God, because we often heard readings about Him, prayed to Him often, kissed His Gospel, cried about Him when the Gospel of His Passions were read, and rejoiced with all our hearts, celebrating His Bright Resurrection.

This abundance of blessed influences and the very grace of God is what parents deprive their children of by not taking them to church to receive Holy Communion and not taking them to church from infancy, for the empty reason that the child doesn’t understand anything — as if only an analyzing wisdom is the guide of all influences acting on the development of a person!

Here, especially, is where religious feeling is instilled, the main engine of spiritual life. The loss of this time and this method of developing the heart is a loss that is irreparable. Later, the child will assimilate even abstract notions, and will begin to repeat lessons, but the heart, which is already occupied by other influences and tendencies, will be dull and deaf to spiritual impressions.

—Archbishop Ambrose (Kliucharev)

Version française, ici.