A word on forgiveness

‘I will not judge who is worthy of forgiveness (since I also need forgiveness), but will leave that final judgment to God…
…it is as close as I can come to forgiveness of predators and sociopaths at this point in my Christian development.’

It is not an essential condition of your salvation, I don't think, to have to forgive predators and sociopaths, except, of course, for any that have committed aggression against you personally.

If you do have predators and sociopaths in your life that you have not forgiven, then I would ask, who is there, who is being unforgiving? Is it you, really, or is it the image of your injury that you call yourself?

In my life, a great injury has been done,
life-changing if not life-threatening.
The person who injured me is alive and well
and thinks that no wrong was committed,
thinks that God is pleased.

How can I forgive that? How can I live with that? How can I see that person standing a few feet away from me in church? How can I speak to that person, if I am addressed? How can I live day to day without resentment?

The Lord is good.
He purifies us of ourselves
when He sees we cannot cleanse ourselves,
which is most of the time.
He renews us.
He makes us into different people.
Though we may live in the same house,
wear the same clothes, go to the same church, or work,
He has changed the inner man.
It is a different heart inside, a renewed mind.

If it weren't for that, to live next to such injustice,
such triumphant denial of one's being by another person
who thinks they are doing you a favor by destroying you,
would be impossible.
It would certainly lead one to suicide.
It would have led me to that door.

But no.
God is good.
He is always there, patient and receptive of our tears.
He dries those tears and puts us to sleep,
so He can allay our loneliness, and when we awake,
if not a helpmate in the flesh taken from our side,
then what is better.

‘For me the reward of virtue is to see Your face,

and, on waking, to gaze my fill on Your likeness.’

Psalm 17

Light of the world

‘This is my planet.’ I used to say that to justify my enjoyment of being out in nature, especially in the winter, here in Oregon wearing just my trousers, bare-chested, with unsocked sandaled feet, as I walk through the forests near my home. Pretending to be a Native American, I still look forward to living here someday, out in the wilds, like an ‘Indian.’ But that may just be the private dream of a person who never was. In the real world, aside from my leisure hours at home, I dress and conform to mainstream culture like everyone else. No, I don’t wear Birkenstocks.

Traveling anywhere on this planet is for me another following of the call. I have no idea of what I will do there, or of why I am being sent. I have no delusions of ‘being on a mission’ any more than the next guy. My whole life is a mission, and I am not in charge of it. Like a poor beast of burden, but one lavishly loved by its owner, I just keep moving in a direction He only knows. Beast of burden? Well, no, that was a very poor choice of words. Our good and gracious Lord treats no one, absolutely no one, that way. Not as a dumb beast, not even as a servant, not even as a son, but as an only son and a firstborn: that’s how He treats us, all of us.

It is a beautiful, rainy/sunny day here in Oregon. I love my homeland and country so much, but strangely, I love even more wherever and among whom the Lord sends me. Fr Louis Evely writes, somewhere in his book That Man Is You—I can’t find the exact place—it’s because the saints have no home anywhere that they can feel at home everywhere. By saints, of course, he means you and me. (Sometimes I forget just how much I owe to this Belgian Roman Catholic priest who finished his course outside the institutional priesthood, and with a good conscience.) Where I’m headed, always seems home.

I greet you all, my friends, and my enemies too, if I have any. What would life be without your friendship? What would life be if I were not wearing these chains? The way of Christ is perfect, because it is a life of mercy, of forgiveness, of affirmation, of freedom, of love. It is being transformed beyond all that you once could recognize. It is being poured out and yet never emptied. One blood, one body, one heart, the human race redeemed and ransomed by the head sorely wounded, to be part of that, to be knitted into the seamless robe of Jesus Christ, what is called ‘the Church,’ who is called ‘the Bride.’ Yes, always, not ‘what,’ but ‘who.’

Once we were lumps of clay, but the Threefold Radiance breathed soul into us. Once we stumbled and broke ourselves, but the Only-Begotten fell with us into that deepest of all pits, and then stood up, taller than the sky, and raised us on high with Him. To free us from our passions, yes, the Merciful Lord, having done all that He was sent to do, releases us now in Himself to do even greater works, because the Divine Nature before all ages, has come among us as a newborn Child, and invites us also to appear before the world. The First-Born from the dead, first-born in every way, invites us to become as He is in the world. ‘You are the Light of the world…’

Only beginnings

Before our Lord began His public ministry, the world was prepared for Him by someone who Christ Himself called ‘greater than any man who ever lived!’ Saint John, the great Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist, was this man.
        John is best remembered for baptizing Christ in the Jordan River. He had a great following, which took to heart the message of repentance that he preached throughout the vast wilderness region surrounding this famous river. Many thought that he was the long-awaited Messiah, but John was always quick to point out that ‘There comes one after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose.’
        John's life was brought to an abrupt ending, largely because of his criticism of Herod's taking of his brother's wife. He refused to be silenced, raising his voice in protest of this immoral act, even though it meant his arrest and imprisonment.
        Herod was reluctant to punish the Baptist any further, for he was intrigued by John's preaching. He was forced to take action against him, however, after promising the daughter of Herodias [his brother's wife whom he had married] any request she wanted to be granted when she entertained the King with her dancing at his birthday feast. After conferring with her vengeful mother, the daughter approached Herod with this chilling request: ‘I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.’
        The Church solemnly remembers the day of John's beheading with prayer and fasting [August 29]. We are asked to follow his example, and we are urged to fearlessly defend God's laws. We must never waver in protection of the sacred truths upon which our entire Christian faith is based.

The words quoted above seem harmless enough, pretty standard fare for the backs of church bulletins, giving us some examples and then urging us to imitate them, something to read while getting settled into the pew to enjoy the service, I mean, to participate in the service. What caught my eye and ear was the words in the very last paragraph, ‘we are urged to fearlessly defend God's laws. We must never waver in protection of the sacred truths upon which our entire Christian faith is based.’ And quick as lightning, the Christian equivalent of Islamic jihad came to mind—the Crusades, and every other ‘Christian’ application of this admonition to ‘fearlessly defend’ and ‘never waver in protection’ of the truth of our faith and our God. Terrorism in the name of God, even if you are not literally killing those you think are offending God's laws, but only emotionally maiming them, is still, when compared to the words of Jesus Christ, the service of satan, who is called ‘the accuser’ in the book of Revelation (12:10).

My mind quickly reinterpreted what I had just read, as I have tried to apply it in my own life. For me, to ‘fearlessly defend God's laws’ is to live my life in a way that proves the righteousness of God, so that if someone had no access to the bible, whether through mere ignorance of its contents or by prejudice against it, they could ‘read’ the laws of God in observing my behavior. Stop! I am not saying I do this faultlessly or consistently, but this is my intention, and in spite of my human weakness and ability to sin, by God's grace I sometimes succeed. The same is true of the principle to ‘never waver in protection of the sacred truths,’ again, I believe with the surest certainty, that this means that it is our responsibility as Christians to be a good witness. And a witness to what? Why, nothing else but what the holy gospel really is, not a religious perfectionism or a moral righteousness that we impose on others, but what holy apostle Paul says it is, ‘Remember the good news that I carry, Jesus Christ risen from the dead’ (2 Timothy 2:8 JB).

Thinking about what we have seen in the world since the resurgence of religious fundamentalism, it's hard for me not to recoil when I read or hear words such as these in the context of Christianity, especially within Orthodoxy, because I fear that for many, the only interpretation of ‘defend’ and ‘protect’ is the one which causes us to impose on others, not on ourselves, standards of belief or behavior that we cannot achieve in our own lives. Again, the holy apostle Paul addresses this in the second chapter of his letter to the Romans. It is very ironic that religious fundamentalism—is there any other kind, even when it expresses itself as political?—focuses not on the whole text of the scriptures being used, but only on those that fulfill its ambitions. If we are historians, and if we are honest, we will see these same anti-Christian forces at work throughout the history of the Church, committing not crimes of the Church, but crimes against it, and against Christ.

After two thousand years, except for fits and starts, it seems like the Church has made only the beginnings of following Christ in every generation. It seems that very few have understood what it means to declare that Jesus Christ is ‘the new Man.’ This is not a religious declaration. This is a declaration of war on our fallen human nature, coupled with a means of escape from what we have become, to a new nature that is accessible to us even now. Christ Himself says, ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’ This is not a carrot on a stick held ahead of us to keep us going forward. Christ almost never tells of that which is unattainable here on earth but only in heaven. He is the most practical of men, following His heavenly Father who likewise, having made the heavens and the earth, is most practical. What Christ tells us is for the here and now first, and later, what shall it become?

Jesus said, ‘I tell you solemnly, there is no one who has left house, brothers, sisters, father, children or land for my sake and for the sake of the gospel, who will not be repaid a hundred times over, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and land—not without persecutions—now in this present time, and in the world to come, eternal life.
Many who are first will be last, and the last first.’
Mark 10:29-31

The beginning of the Good News about Jesus Christ,
the Son of God…
Mark 1:1

Peace at last

It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.
Philippians 1:15-18 NIV

We have become so accustomed to the breach of order in the Body of Christ, so used to seeing love and discipline and faithfulness universally discarded, that we take for granted that ‘preachers of the gospel’ must be doing what they say, even when we disagree with what they are saying. But the reverse is almost universally true. The pulpit has become a standing throne for unbridled intellects to show off the treasures of their knowledge of scripture, even as young men who know nothing but are deceived by their own lust to consider themselves worthy of belief.

To give testimony of Christ is the work of a sincere heart. Anyone of any age can and does do that. But to presume to preach when one has not been tried and tested in the furnace of humiliation, at best is harmless foolishness, at worst dangerous delusion—strong delusion that infects both preacher and hearers, but whose sickness does not show immediately, but only after a time, and by then, it is sometimes incurable. And yet they promote themselves in place of Christ, using His name as bait. Lord, have mercy!

Hence the Church fathers have taught such things as, ‘A man should know that a devil’s sickness is on him if he is seized by the urge in conversation to assert his opinion, however correct it may be. If he behaves this way while talking to his equals, then a rebuke from his elders may heal him. But if he carries on in this way with those who are greater and wiser than he, his sickness cannot be cured by human means’ (John Climacus). Yes, the devil’s sickness. What audacity he has to whisper his lies into the ears of men, telling them they are ‘someone great,’ as He did to Simon Magus…

Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, ‘This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.’ They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery.

But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw. When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria.

When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, ‘Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.’

Peter answered, ‘May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God.

‘Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.’ Then Simon answered, ‘Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.’
Acts 8:9-24 NIV

Although this account is well-known as the condemnation of the church disorder now known as ‘simony,’ paying money for priestly ordination, it indicates a deeper disease.

As Peter told Simon Magus, ‘I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin,’ this is what is at the root of the disorder affecting the factious, those who ‘preach Christ out of envy and rivalry.’ They preach ‘out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble’ for the Holy Church, that divine Body whose Head is Christ alone, her only Mediator and Advocate, the only Teacher, the only Lover of mankind.

Yet they do what they do, trampling the love of Christ while aping it, stirring up trouble but not knowing how to bring peace.

Though great love has been shown them, though they may have gone up in an altar call, gotten baptised, anointed, prayed over, ‘though they speak with the tongues of men and of angels,’ they have no love, they ‘are full of bitterness and captive to sin,’ and unless they come to their senses, and humbly and unconditionally repent as did Simon Magus, ‘Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me,’ they will only go from bad to worse.

This is a very hard word, but the same Rock that is the foundation of the saints, for them becomes a stumbling-block.

Pray, brethren, for mercy to be shown them, that they find the gates of repentance open, and enter into peace at last.

A fish story

‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing’ (Luke 23:34). What a fitting prayer for the human race in all times and places. We secretly hope that the man who prayed these words was who He claimed to be, ‘I and the Father are one’ (John 10:30), because that means we’ll be let off the hook. We measure our words carefully as we think our way through, ‘Yes, let me off the hook. Throw me back into the sea. I’m not big enough. I haven’t sinned nearly as much as the really big fish in this pond. Yes, let me off the hook, and I promise that the next one you catch will be worth it!’

Little we know there’s no need for this anxious monologue. God isn’t listening. No, not at all. Besides, that ‘really big Fish’ has already been hooked. He’s already been caught, and cleaned, and fried up for our feed on the shore of the lake, all by Himself. ‘Come and have breakfast’ (John 21:12). Yes, ‘for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many’ (Mark 10:45). Yes, we’ve been let off the hook, alright. That is, if that’s what we really want. We may yet be caught in the net, nonetheless. Any way we look at it, for us it’s still frying pan, or fire.

The boy left with the angel, and the dog followed behind. The two walked on, and when the first evening came they camped beside the Tigris. The boy had gone down to the river to wash his feet, when a great Fish leapt out of the water and all but swallowed his foot. The boy gave a shout, and the angel said, ‘Catch the Fish! Do not let it go!’ The boy mastered the Fish and pulled it on to the bank. The angel said, ‘Cut it open. Take out the gall, the heart, and the liver. Set these aside and throw the entrails away, for the gall and heart and liver have curative properties.’ The boy cut the Fish open and took out the gall and heart and liver. He fried part of the Fish for his meal and kept some for salting. Then they walked on together until they were nearly in Media…
Tobit 6:2-6 Jerusalem Bible

‘That's just a fish story. Don't try to fool me. He's a master at the fish tale. Maybe he should be a politician.’

The deeper call

Youth, or for that matter, Christians of any age group, are not ‘attracted’ to church activity by making it seem more like what they’re used to. Every church that has tried this has found itself getting caught up not in the gospel or real spiritual life, but in an endless recycling of half-baked ideas that moves them further away from what they thought they were seeking, or did they have it right in the first place?

Church attendance is not increased by devices or by attractions, or by replacing the ‘same ole, same ole’ with something new. The church thinks it’s doing us a big favor when they throw out the liturgy books we’ve finally gotten used to, replacing them with slim, abundantly illustrated, footnoted, and explanationed versions, that have even the Greek transliterated into phonetic English.

Few people will pay any attention to the transliterations. The Greeks, myself included, know most of the services by heart and don’t need the books—know them by heart in Greek. I used to pray and sing the English versions of the texts, but except for the Lord’s Prayer, I have given up, tired of the frequent re-translations of once familiar texts. Hasn’t the experience of the other churches taught us anything?

No, church attendance is not increased by anything short of taking the time to really make disciples, not just telling the people in your congregation to ‘disciple themselves.’ The language issue is really a non-issue, because it doesn’t matter what language the liturgy is in, because if you’re there for the right reasons, you already understand what’s going on.

The Church, like everyone else, wants to take shortcuts, wants to do as little with as little as possible to achieve as much as possible. Much of what? Whatever looks good, feels good, sounds good, is fun, gives us a chance to show off our religion or our charity, but what of the gospel, what of the life of sanctification? Yes, we preach it and teach it, but there is almost no follow-up.

‘Invite your neighbor or an unchurched family member to come to church.’ Does this exhortation sound familiar? It doesn’t matter what church you go to, this message is preached. ‘Hey, fish, go and do your job! Invite others to become fish caught in a net like you are. It will be fun. We have so many programs for you to do, the more the merrier.’

Now, there’s nothing at all wrong with this exhortation, but itself, it is not the Message. ‘Come to church’ is simply not the Message. It is not the good news. If it were, then people would be attracted to it like a poor man is attracted to a rich man who had limitless wealth to give away. People are not that stupid, and some are even too smart for their own good. ‘Nobody could be that rich!’

Why isn’t the church filled on the Lord’s Day? Where are the youth? Is salvation and the life of discipleship so unknown to them, that all, young and old, would exchange it at the drop of a hat for a trip to the beach, the mall, or the golf course? And if it is so unknown to them, why? Here we are in the Apostles’ Fast. Why not try to read a chapter each day of the gospels?

A chapter each day? Not a chapter each ten minutes, and the whole book in three or four hours? Can people who spend hours of their time pursuing lifeless drama not turn aside and be quiet with the Word of God longer than one chapter’s worth a day? The suggestion even sounds apologetic, even sounds as if you know that no one is listening, no one is going to listen. No one obeys.

No, the Word of God is eternal life between two covers and an inch and a quarter thick. It needs eyes to read it mentally, and lips as well if read aloud, which has the added benefit of possibly drawing others in to listen. Hours of church attendance are nothing compared to the hour and a half it takes to read Paul’s epistle to the Romans, in effect, that is. And what is the effect? To truly be present when we are worshiping in church.

Myself, I am an unworthy, living an unworthy life. Like the Church, I don’t go seeking the lost sheep, I don’t go out on the sea at night casting my nets to bring fish into the Kingdom. I wait for the sheep to come to me. Like the Church, I should put up a sign that reads, ‘Fish wanted. Please apply within.’ I receive the call of Christ, and I respond. I don’t think about who is doing the work, but about Who is calling.

Once I was told by a fellow church member, that I should not wait for the church to ask me to volunteer; I should call the church and say, ‘I have free time. What can I do?’ I told her, ‘sorry, that isn’t the way I do it.’ That puts me in control. That puts discipleship to death. The call of Christ is not volunteerism. Christ accepted those who responded to His call, not those who put themselves forward and asked Him, ‘what can I do for you?’

The Church that acts on the call of Christ goes forth to make disciples, and making disciples, opens doors to their hearts to the deeper call of Christ day by day. It doesn’t wait for the lost sheep to find its way back to the fold. It doesn’t hang out a tiny net and wait for fish to jump in, or for a whole school of fish. It doesn’t turn people into sheep and then scold or shame them for being just that.

I was told once by a man who claimed to be a priest (and his claim was good, canonically speaking, he had been duly ordained) that he was afraid of the people he came to serve. I was astonished! But watching him ‘work’ in the community, I could see that for him, at least, his statement was true. He was afraid of us. He said that all priests are afraid of their people. I disagree.

But a priest should do one thing that many are afraid of doing today—actually, there are many things, but let’s concentrate on just one—that is, of identifying the real spiritual resources among their people, and call those who have them. In this, the priest of God is truly an ikon of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was not afraid to call any man to any task, especially to the impossible.

Day by day, never perfect, never worthy, never righteous, never wise, but trying to walk by faith, not by sight, trying to follow the Master whose blessed feet tread not the tame path of religion, but get dusty from the world’s roads, following Him even when it hurts, even when tired, even when unhappy, even when tempted, even having sinned, even when accused, judged and imprisoned falsely, day by day.

Curing the sickness of Pharisaism

Most people know that the famous ‘Fr. Maximos’ in the well known book Mountain of Silence is the Metropolitan of Lemessos, Athanasios. He was a monk on Athos, who had the opportunity to spend time with such holy elders as Elders Paisios and Ephraim of Katounakia and others. He was, at the time of the writing of the book, the abbot of the monastery of the Panaghia Machera. Since then he was consecrated bishop of Lemessos (or Limassol). His Eminence gives talks almost weekly and these talks—in the thousands—have now circled the globe, being reproduced by his spiritual children.

Transcript of a tape-recorded homily
by Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol, Cyprus

Having promised yesterday that we would say a few words on the topic, I will say a few things, just so that I won't be untrue to yesterday's promise. As a follow-up to all those things, one wonders: all these things that take place—everything that we do—our pilgrimages, our candles, our night-vigils, our prayers, our fasts, our gestures of charity—everything that we do in our life—are for what purpose and what is the reason that we do them? The answer to this question is very important, because our correct or incorrect spiritual life is dependent on it.

Let me give you an example: I ask the children at the summer camps that we have now: What is God's greatest commandment? What is God's most important commandment, my children? And all the children—all of them—quote various commandments: do not steal...do not lie....do not be unjust to your fellow-man....respect your parents.... how should I know?......love your neighbour... but not one child has suspected that none of these commandments is God's first commandment.

People think that the first commandment is ‘love thy neighbour,’ and when I'd tell the children ‘no, that is not the first commandment,’ a child would reply ‘yes, yes, I know which one it is...’ ‘Which is it?’ I would ask. ‘Increase and multiply.’

Well, of course that wasn't the first commandment either, right? God's first and only commandment—the first and only one, as all the other commandments are the result of this first one—is to love God with all of your heart. Christ Himself said that the first commandment is: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all of your soul, with all of your heart, with all of your might and with all of your mind.’ And a second commandment—a second one, similar to the first—which springs from within the first commandment—is the one that says ‘love your neighbour.’ Everything else is a result of these.

If you love your neighbour, you will not rob him, you will not lie to him, you will not be unjust with him, you will not take his things, you will not tamper with his wife, you will not interfere with his home, you will not censure him... that's what we mean by ‘results of the first commandment.’  The ‘love your neighbour’ is likewise a result of the first commandment.

If you truly love God, it is impossible to not love your neighbour. A person who loves God will have—as a natural result of his love towards God—a love towards his brethren also. Therefore, the first and only commandment by God is to love God Himself with all our heart. Subsequently, whatever we do in church, has that precise purpose. And that is why we go to pilgrimages, why we fast, why we pray, why we go to confession, why we light candles, why we read the lives of saints, why we do everything: it is our way of loving Christ.

Now, where is the mistake? The mistake is that unfortunately, we say that we do all these things in order to just become good people.... to become better people....and that is where the big hoax lies. It is the step that we all stumble over. Because, if the purpose of the church was just to make us better people, then there wouldn't be any need for a personal relationship with Christ, nor would there be any reason for Christ to have come to the world.

Why do you think we aren't able to understand the saints? Or, to say something simpler, why we can't understand those who love God? We tend to say ‘is it necessary to do this thing in order to be saved—to be near to God? Is it necessary—let's say—to depart to the mountains? Must we go and do all these things?’

Of course not. It is not a necessity. If we could understand that our relationship with God is not only for the sake of salvation, but is a relationship of love, only then will we understand the saints also and why they did the things they did (which can't be interpreted rationally). This is because love transcends logic. Even secular love—the way that one person loves another person—for example when one wants to get married he loves his wife; he loves the young lady that he will wed—and the same applies to the young lady—then they do things that seem totally irrational.

If, for example, you were to ask her or him who is the most beautiful or handsome one in the world, they will probably say it is their beloved. Naturally, they are seeing the other through their own eyes.... Our eyes see other things.... If, for example, you were to ask her who the best man in the world is, she will describe the man she loves with the finest words. She sees no flaws in him, no faults... she can't see anything bad about him, because love transcends all these things.

Love cannot be forced into the molds of logic. Love is above logic. That is how God's love is. God's love surpasses human logic. That is why we can't judge with logical criteria those people who love God. That is why the saints reacted with a logic of their own—they had a different kind of logic, and not the logic of humans; because their logic was the logic of love.

So, the church does not teach us just to become good people—not in the least. It is only natural, that we have to become good people, because if we don't, then what have we succeeded in doing? These are nursery school things.

Our Church teaches us to love Christ—to love the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Inside the church, a relationship develops. It is a personal relationship between man and Christ; not with the teaching of Christ—no—not with the Gospel. The Gospel is something that helps us to reach the point of loving Christ. When we reach that point of loving Christ, the Gospel will no longer be needed. Nothing will be needed... all these things will cease... only man's relationship with God will remain.

That is the difference between the Church and religion. Religion teaches you to do your duties, the way the idolaters did. An example: let's say that we went to our pilgrimage sites, paid our respects, left some money in the charity box, left some lit candles, some oil, or even our entreaties, our names, our offering-bread, everything. All these things are religious duties, but our heart has not changed in the least. The hour of duty ends, and we are the same as we were before: we are ready to attack the other, ready to protest about the other, ready to be sour again, the way we were before.... Our heart doesn't change. We do not acquire that relationship with Christ, because we simply confine ourselves to duties—to religious duties. And you must know that such people—you know, ‘religious’ people—are the most dangerous kind in the church. Those religious people are truly dangerous. May God preserve us from them...

Once, when I was officiating in church and we were citing the words ‘Lord, save the pious,’ a Holy Mountain monk jokingly remarked: ‘Lord, save us from the pious...’ In other words, God save you from those ‘religious’ types, because ‘religious person’ implies a warped personality, which has never had a personal relationship with God. These types [of persons] merely perform their duties towards Him, but without any serious relationship involved and that is why God does not say anything about this type of person. And I too must confess that—from my own experience—I have never seen worse enemies of the church than ‘religious people.’    

Whenever the children of religious people, or of priests and theologians—or even of those who in church act like theologians and with self-importance—tried to become monks or priests, they [the parents] became even worse than demons. They would become exasperated with everyone. They became people's worst enemies. I remember parents who would bring their children to homilies, and when their child moved one step further, they became the worst of people, who would say the worst about others. And I would say to them: ‘But you were the ones who brought the child to the homily; I didn't bring it.’

One other time, I told a father whose daughter I could tell had a zeal for the church: ‘Make sure you don't bring her again to any homily. Don't bring her to talk with me, because your daughter will become a nun and afterwards you will say that I was to blame.’ He replied: ‘Oh no, father, far be it! We adore you!’ And his daughter did in fact become a nun.... It has been seven years now, and he still isn't talking to me...

People who wouldn't miss a homily—not a single homily—those who were always the first... at homilies, night-vigils, reading books.. I don't know... at doing everything.... they would also bring their children along, but when the time came for the child to exercise its freedom—to decide by itself which path to choose—then those people would move to the extreme opposite camp, thus proving that Christ had never spoken to their hearts.... They were merely ‘religious people.’  That is why religious people are the toughest kind in the church. Because, you know what? Sometimes, people like these will never be cured, because they only think they are close to God. Sinners, on the other hand—the ‘losers,’ so to speak—at least they know they are sinners.

That is why Christ said that publicans and whores will go to the Kingdom of God, whereas to the Pharisees He had said: ‘You, who are 'religious', shall not enter the Kingdom of God. Because the word of God had never changed your heart.’ They had merely adhered to the observance of religious formalities. 

Therefore, we should all pay close attention and understand that the church is a hospital that cures us and helps us to love Christ, and our love for Christ is a flame that ignites inside our heart so that we can examine ourselves, to see if we are within God's love. If we discern all those forms of malice and selfishness and wickedness inside us, then we should be concerned, because it is not possible for Christ to be in our heart when we are full of ‘vinegar’ inside.

How can you be praying and at the same time be full of bile towards another person? How is it possible to read the Gospel and not accept your brother? How is it possible to say “I have been in the church for so many years”—either as a monk or a priest or whatever—and yet, where is that alpha and omega, which is love? Where is that patience—showing some patience towards your brother? By not embracing that, it means you have accomplished nothing. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

We saw how Christ reached the point of telling those virgins that He would have nothing to do with them. He threw them out of the wedding hall even though they had all the virtues, because what they didn't have was love. Because He would have wanted to tell them that ‘you may have external virtues, you may have remained virgins, you may have done a thousand things, but you didn't achieve the essence of that which is the most important.’ If you can't achieve that, then what do you need the rest for? What's the use, whether I consume olive oil today, or I don't? 

I may [fast and] not eat olive oil, for example, but I devour my brother from morning to night.... They used to say on the Holy Mountain ‘Don't ask if I eat fish; as long as one doesn't eat the fisherman, he can eat fish’; or, ‘As long as you don't eat the oil-bearer, you can have a drop of olive oil to eat’...

To devour someone with a sharp tongue is far worse than consuming a spoonful of olive oil. And yet, we focus on things like that: we eat oil—we don't eat oil; we eat fish—we don't eat fish... I don't know what to say... someone may dip his spoon into another dish and this could be the cause of an argument—a cause for a huge quarrel with another person, just because he dipped his spoon earlier on into another dish... You can see how ridiculous these things are and how the demons make fun of us, as well as they who are outside the Church.

And when they do approach us, instead of seeing the people of the Church transformed into Jesus Christ, into sweet-natured people and mature people—well balanced, fulfilled people—full of harmony inside them, unfortunately, with all those passions of ours and all that sourness, they will inevitably say: ‘What? And become like one of them? I'd rather not!’ You, who are a churchgoer, tell me how the church has benefited you. As we said yesterday you went to the pilgrimage sites, you saw the fathers, you saw the holy relics, you saw the Holy Mountain, the Holy Mother at Tinos Island—all those places that we went to, and returned.

What was the end benefit of all those things? Was our heart transformed? Did we become humbler people? Did we become more sweet-natured? Did we become meeker people in our homes, our families, our monastery? Or at our place of work? That is what counts. If we did not achieve those things, at least let us become humbler... from within our repentance.... let us become humbler... If we didn't manage that either, then we are worthy of many tears—we are to be pitied. Because unfortunately, Time flies, and we are counting years....

When asked how many years he had lived on the Holy Mountain, the Elder Paisios used to say: ‘I came here the same year as my neighbour's mule.’ (His neighbour, old Zitos, had a mule—and you know how every cell on Mount Athos has an animal, a mule, for carrying their things. That animal has a long life span; you don't buy a mule every day—they are too expensive).

‘Well, the year that I came here, to the Holy Mountain, my neighbour purchased his mule in the same year. We have the same number of years on the Holy Mountain, and yet that poor beast remained a mule, but then so did I. I didn't change at all.’ So, we quite often say ‘I've been here for forty years’—and we priests and monks tend to say these words: ‘I have been in the monastery for forty years.’

But what you don't realize is that those years are not in your favour. God will say to you ‘Forty years, and you still haven't managed to become something? You are still angry after forty years, you still censure, you still contradict, you still resist, you still don't submit? You've had forty years, and you still haven't learnt the alpha—the first thing—about monastic life, about Christian life? What am I supposed to do with your years? What am I to do with you, if you have spent fifty years with confessions and you can't respond to another person with a kind word? What use are all these things to me?’

These all weigh against us. And I am saying all these things, firstly about myself. Because they apply to me first... And because I know these things from myself, that is why I'm telling you about them (and why you must think I'm saying them to each one of you). People think that I'm referring to them, but it is not you I'm referring to. It is firstly about me that I mentioned these things... about me first.... We need to say these things to at least humble ourselves; to keep our mouth shut, as all those egotistic and other displays unfortunately ridicule us and make us look foolish in the presence of the Lord.

If we humble ourselves and cease to have grand ideas about ourselves, maybe then can a person begin to correct himself gradually through repentance—which is born out of humility. A person who doesn't strive to justify himself truly repents. He who keeps justifying himself will never repent; and that person who always justifies himself—either externally or internally—will never learn what repentance means. That is why we should always examine ourselves.

‘Test yourselves, brothers,’ the Apostle says. Test yourself, to see if there is a love of God inside you. And not so much that, but more so if we are living within the realm of repentance, so that God can cure our existence—so that this kind of association with the Church can heal us, and so that we can become people who have been cured of their passions and their sins.

Many ask how we can reach that point. How do we get there? 

Well, when we leave ourselves in the hands of the good physician—God; when we leave ourselves trustingly in God's hands; because when we are in various circumstances, in difficulties, God knows what is best for each one of us and will lead us along those paths that will slowly, slowly, slowly over the years perfect us—they will perfect us... All we need to do is give ourselves to God with trust, the way we give our trust to a doctor, or—say—the captain of a ship.

We show trust. He leads us, and we don't worry about the destination and when we will arrive, because we know that the one steering the ship is mindful, vigilant, and he knows the way and is careful.

Another important element that I would like to say something more about (also because some of you have asked me to) is the matter of time. Did you notice during these days that we have been spending on this ship, how we had no external distractions? We had nothing to draw our attention elsewhere, like at home—for example television. Did you see how much time we had available? We even conversed among ourselves. You who are married had time to talk to each other—the spouses and the children. The children played together, they talked amongst themselves, and we had lots of time to ourselves and we communicated with each other, and that is the most important element of all: that we could communicate.

The most tragic thing is at home, when everyone is sitting in front of the television and they don't talk to each other... time slips away and people do not communicate with each other. And the worst of all? It is the things we see on television... that's the source of the worst corruption for the ones close to us, our children and our souls.

One of these days, when we had disembarked and were walking about the place, I noticed in one of those places where the youngsters serve different things, where they are offered refreshments, that they had a television switched on which was playing, and even though nobody was paying attention to it, it was still on. So I stood there for a moment, to see what it was showing—although I don't know what kind of film it was... I guess it was something... it was showing some people who were chasing after some other people all the time, and there was a constant chase....there were guns, bullets, cars, explosions, jumping from one house to another... But these are things that your children—your young children—sit and watch; so much violence... and I'm not even talking about all the other obscenities that I don't want to mention, which have even destroyed elderly people.

And don't you tell me that it's not like that, because I know it is, first hand: these are admissions that we hear during confession. Elderly people, very old people, who are otherwise very respectable, have been ruined by television, from all that vulgarity that they are exposed to every day. I'm not referring to that specific damage right now; I am referring to all the other things—all the violence that the television projects.

How do expect the children to not become familiarized with violence? They will naturally become unruly and disobedient and do things that are entirely foreign to their nature! Have you any idea what an ugly sight it is, when you see young children mimicking older people? They mimic adults, and they destroy their innocent childishness.

Sometimes, when I'm invited to an event, they bring along tiny toddlers and tell them to dance. And you see these little girls or boys, ten or twelve years old, full of innocence, making dance moves that they have seen older women do—women who are entirely disgraceful, with another morality altogether. You can actually see how those children are being destroyed, with their emulations of the adults that they see on television. And also doing all sorts of things and entertaining themselves with choices that are catastrophic. And I am not saying this from the spiritual aspect only, but from every aspect—psychological and social and family.

Keep them as far away as you can from all these things. Help your children to not be dependent on television, because they will be filled with all those obscene images, and so will you. If you don't allow your children to watch obscene movies, but you the adult does, then what's the use? And what about those silly warnings that they write on screen—that the movie is not suitable under 18 or something... or whatever else it says... younger than 12 or something like that.... Does that mean that if they turn 12 the sight is a suitable one?

Of course those warnings only arouse the youngsters' curiosity and every one of them will inevitably watch the film. They think to themselves that if this movie is forbidden for those younger than 12, it must have something that is deserving of every curiosity... In my opinion, the destruction that is inflicted on people's inner world is incalculable. Because, as we said yesterday, all positive images, all the good images that one absorbs are extremely beneficial in one's spiritual life. The same applies in reverse, with the bad images that a person observes—they create so many bad situations, that the damage caused is literally incalculable and sometimes we can't tell if it can be cured.

But if someone were to observe matters and study them, he will see just how great a catastrophe television can wreak on a person's psyche, and especially in younger people. But it is not only that; you see, one evil will bring on another. It will be a whole chain of evils, because it destroys communication, it destroys time, it destroys the innocence of a person's soul, and then man becomes exhausted, and being exhausted, he has no desire to do anything. Because his soul was filled with things that wearied him, and then he wonders why he is tired - he can't understand why...

Try to experiment, by eliminating or at least minimizing these evils, and you will see how much more relaxed you will become and how much free time you will have at your disposal, which will be far more fruitful for anything else that you may do. Naturally, these things are not unrelated to our spiritual life, because a person's spiritual life is a product of all the activities that a person has. By this, I don't mean to say stop watching television altogether. I am not against it per se; it's just that things like these make our life more difficult instead of making it easier, and they destroy it, the way it was destroyed by technological ‘progress’ which has otherwise facilitated our lives.

You catch a plane, and you're there. You get on a ship, and you get there quickly—you don't need to row with oars like they used to do in olden times.... or a thousand other conveniences... which in the long run are conveniences that may have facilitated our lives, but they also trapped us inside one big difficulty and made us lose ourselves, they made us lose the beauty of our life and we eventually destroyed the world we live in, and now we want even more sciences and discoveries, to see if we can salvage what is left of it...

Of course all these things that constitute the tragedy of our Fall and the mangling of our personality make it abundantly clear just how impossible it is to humanly tackle the problem, and yet, if one turns to God, then we will see that which Christ had said: that whatever is impossible for man to accomplish, is possible by God. Whatever seems impossible for people is possible for God—and we can see around us that miracle by God, which, even in our day, with all the information and all these provocations taking place around us, and the accessibility to sin, still, there are people who love God and from among the thorns, we see roses spring forth... Roses blossom from among the thorns, and the immense miracle of man's salvation becomes reality, regardless of our own human weaknesses, our wretched state, our problems, the difficulties with our self, our church, our family, our society and the other elements that unfortunately bombard every person.

That is why—to return from all these things—we need to return where we started from, when we said that the solution and the answer to all problems is for man to turn towards loving God, and that when man loves God, then God will cure him, God will resurrect him—even if that person is dead and decomposing—God will restore him, provided man discards from inside him all that is useless and put in his heart a love for God, and build his life around that love for God, and atop that love for God—to build his life, his marriage, his family, his path, his studies, his course.

If man does that, then he will truly come to enjoy life and his life will become a paradise, because paradise is nothing more than God's love, whereas ‘hell’ is nothing more than the absence of God's love. So, it is my wish, as a conclusion to our broadcast, that the love of God will always accompany all of you, and that we should not forget that everything we do, we must do for that reason, and not just to be religiously behaving people. We must become God-loving people, so that our lives can be transformed correctly and we ourselves be transformed into Jesus Christ our Lord.

Crushed

Alas! All judgment, especially my own, of all people and all things, is impeccably flawed. Even my best efforts, for the best reasons, fall short of anything I had hoped for in life.

Yes, God works on us through other people and through situations around us. How can He not? He is ‘all there is’ out there, meeting us in every moment, so how can the people and things that fill time not be His actions upon us, either willed or permitted? A thousand objections rise up to stone this idea, and me along with it. I don't care. It's still true, though we hate to believe it. That means God can do or permit some goddarn awful things, and get away with it.

No matter how much it hurts, no matter how long it takes, no matter how little we understand it, no matter whether we like it or hate it, no matter whether we see good or evil come out of it, the fact is certain: We are being operated on, and either the Physican is a good God, and we're just impudent, complaining ignoramuses, or He is a mad scientist, wanting only to do experiments on us to see what will happen.

I choose the former explanation. Why? Because the latter is just too horrific, and though I am as blind as anyone, through my darkest despair, I still feel a friendly hand reaching for me in that darkness, and it is calming and reassuring, not terrorizing.

Churches, well, what can I say? They're just people just like me. Like you, I don't let them pull the wool over my eyes, if I happen to notice. And I've learned that absolutely nothing I could ever say to them will change them to be what I think they should be. The Church is, as Sergei Fudel says, ‘a miracle of unexpected joy,’ but also a moment ‘that doesn't last very long.’ It is all like love, a ‘catch as catch can’ game.

God is God. That's all that you and I know for sure, and then, anything He shows and tells us about ourselves. The ancient fathers used to say, ‘Live as though only you and God existed in this world.’ I can see their point. In the end, no one can die our death but us, and no one know our name but the One who named us. And there is no place on earth for us, because we know deep down, there is no place like Home.

And yes, ‘Grapes do not yield wine, till they are crushed.’ [*]

Apostles Fast

A time of growth.

The seed has been planted,
now it sprouts and grows.
Fasting, praying, acts of love, the practicum of the hidden life in Christ.
All Saints day inaugurates.
Feast of the Holy Apostles concludes.

Mismatch of Old (Julian) and New (Gregorian) calendars often reduces this fast to as few days as one for those on the New calendar.
This year an average year, with the New calendar the fast is about two weeks long. Old calendar is always 13 days longer, so this year the fast is about four weeks long.

Why is the Apostles Fast the least popular?
It is not even announced.
It occurs during summer which is vacation and barbecue time
in the Western world.
It is considered nonessential.
What then of a life of sanctification?
What then of the apostolic life?

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
Matthew 6:21 KJV

After the time of growth, then the harvest.
After seed time and planting and growth,
the fields are white for harvest.
The Holy Apostles were sent to gather the harvest.
They were themselves prepared.
And what of their disciples?

“Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”
Matthew 9:38 KJV

Even now

All of your efforts will come to nothing in the end, unless you submit yourselves to the truth of God’s Word, who says, ‘What comes out of a man is taken from what he puts inside himself.’

The practical application?

Rather than try to focus on and ‘cure’ the symptoms, go for the root, and axe it.

How do you do that?

By filling up on the Word of God, not on television;
on the Word of God, not on the internet;
on the Word of God, not on computer games;
on the Word of God, not on newspapers and magazines;
on the Word of God, not on the contents of your iPod;
on the Word of God, not on the latest Christian books;
on the Word of God, not on rumors;
on the Word of God, not on hanging out with your friends.

Can you see the connecting idea from the practical application above?

The downfall of the churches as assemblies of God’s people, and of people themselves as individuals, comes from the utter lack of respect for and immersion in the Word of God, i.e., the Holy Bible.

Read the Word of God every day, throughout the day, fill yourselves with it, rather than filling yourselves up on that which cannot last and which divides and slays the spirit.

Remember, it is not just money that Jesus is talking about when He says, ‘You cannot serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or love the one and treat the other with scorn. You cannot serve both God and Mammon.’ The bottom line on Mammon is that it is anything that diverts your attention, unlawfully, from the Word of God.

Again I say, don’t just try to cure the symptoms, strike at the root of worldly attitudes in yourselves by using the axe of the Word of God. Christ has already used it to fell the world tree of death. Now He has given it to us to do the same in ourselves. It’s never too soon, but it could be too late.

‘Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees…’

Πιστεύω…

…εἰς μίαν, Ἁγίαν, Καθολικὴν καὶ Ἀποστολικὴν Ἐκκλησίαν.

I believe… in one, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

— Symbol of Nicæa

I am firmly convinced that the only Christian church that will survive to the end of the present century will be the Orthodox Church. But it will not be the Orthodox Church we have known for the past thousand years. It will be the Church whose faith is the Catholic faith of Irenæus of Lyons and Vincent of Lérins. The Information Age will have done its work as a purifying filter, enabling mankind at last to drink from the pure source of true revelation, and renewing the courage of Christians everywhere to follow Christ and His holy apostles. The prophetic outpouring predicted by the holy prophet Joel will supersede the endless controversies that have frayed the seamless garment covering the Body of Christ, and prove itself to be the true anointing by fulfilling the high priestly prayer of Christ, ‘that they all shall be One, even as You and I are One.’

I am not saying that the sects will disappear altogether, far from it. There will always be those who prefer their own opinions to the Truth, which does not inhere in opinions, but in love. But these will grow smaller in extent as the Church is enlarged, and both of these movements in history will be recognized as the acts of God, not of men. And even greater things shall come to pass as on the winnowing floor of this century the wheat is separated from the chaff.

Even Israel, yes, even the Jews, will not remain unmoved or unchanged but, beholding the supernatural honesty and love of wisdom, and the worship in spirit and truth manifest among the followers of Jesus, shall remove the veil covering the eyes of their hearts and finally recognize their Messiah. Again not all, but those who hold back shall be as those sects that call themselves Christians but are so in name only. This will be the earthly realization of the ‘great divide,’ the unbridgeable gulf that is fixed between the rich man alone and in torment, and the poor man Lazarus being refreshed in Abraham’s bosom.

Stages of Christianity

1.

Appearance of the Word of God in human form, the God-Man Jesus Christ; this event is now called the Incarnation.

2.

On the authority of the prophet John the baptizer, some of his disciples leave him and become disciples of Jesus.

3.

By his personal call, Jesus attracts more disciples to himself.

4.

Jesus preaches the Word to the people, some of whom become interested in him for various reasons, but his following remains very small, the group we know as the disciples.

5.

Jesus sends these disciples out from him, in twos, to preach the same message in the local area to the Jewish people.

6.

Knowledge of Jesus and his message grows throughout the region of Palestine and even a little outside of it; his audience, but not his disciples, increases in number.

7.

Still having a small number of disciples, and a slightly larger number of followers, Jesus Christ comes into sufficient conflict with the religious establishment, for them to take action against him; they bring him to the civil authorities and request his execution.

8.

Jesus Christ is judged in a series of irregular legal proceedings and is condemned to death; he dies, crucified, as a common criminal, abandoned by all but one disciple, his mother, and a few women followers.

9.

Some of his sympathizers among the local notables request and are granted possession of his corpse from the civil authorities; they temporarily place it in a newly excavated tomb.

10.

The civil authorities station guards at the tomb to prevent his followers from retrieving and hiding the corpse; this is done at the request of the religious authorities, who fear that the disciples will steal the corpse and pretend that Jesus is resurrected from the dead.

11.

Despite the guards, the corpse disappears within two or three days; at first, some women begin to testify that Jesus is alive and has spoken to them.

12.

For a period of forty days, Jesus appears alive, first to his disciples, later to his followers as well, teaching them the rest of his message, especially explaining the significance of his death; this event is now called the Resurrection.

13.

Jesus Christ, in the presence of at least his disciples, but probably also of some of his relatives and followers, disappears in an event now called the Ascension.

14.

Ten days after the disappearance of Jesus, a mixture of his original disciples and followers experience a prophetic anointing during a prayer vigil and begin to publicly preach the message of Jesus Christ.

15.

The distinction between disciple and follower disappears, as the group of believers in the message rapidly grows, combining latent followers with new hearers.

16.

The community of disciples becomes organized, and those who preach the message emerge as apostles; there is no break with the established religion, only a revision of its content, among the disciples.

17.

The established religion excludes the brotherhood of disciples, who assemble separately outside it; the apostles are succeeded by their personal disciples who emerge as elders and bishops.

18.

The disciple community with its elders and bishops is recognized by the state as an entity, which institutionalizes it; the distinction between disciples and believers appears, the former becoming ascetics and monastics.

19.

The institutionalized community of disciples and believers becomes the established religion, taking on many characteristics of the state, as the state erodes; non-conforming elements in the community are suppressed.

20.

The state revives, localizes and divides the community, and makes citizenship and membership in its own established religion compulsory; discipleship is contained in special structures and marginalized.

21.

Discipleship revives both within and outside the established religions; the state withdraws its support from them except as cultural constructs; divided communities of disciples and believers emerge.

22.

Discipleship to the God-Man Jesus Christ supersedes the established religions and institutional forms of Christianity; the distinction between disciples, followers and believers disappears, and Jesus reappears in the same way he disappeared in an event called the Parousia.

Apocalypse now

Our God is very economical in His dealings with us. He never arrives too early or too late. He never provides too little or too much. He harmonizes all that He creates to function symphonically, synergically. Everything, as He creates it, He declares good. He makes nothing without the Son and the Holy Spirit, thus revealing Himself to rational beings through Them, as the Father, and together with Them, as Holy One and Unearthly Triad.

He has taken from us words that He spoke by His holy prophets, proved by the history of His holy nation, sent out by the writings of His holy apostles, and sealed by the testimony of His holy martyrs, transforming them by the human and divine nature of His Son the Word, and given them back to us as the only divine scriptures on earth, the Bible. There it is, a Book transfigured into a Door.

Open it and you meet not just human words, but the Word. Entering with bowed head and bended knees, we are made to stand upright again with heads held high and straightened backs, renewed in the Father’s image, the God-man Jesus Christ, as we find Paradise as Him, and find ourselves in Paradise.

Yet our God is very economical. He knows what we are made of, because He makes us. He knows our nature from within, having become One of us. From the first-created Adam to the last-born Adam, He knows us all in our billions. The Book that He has given to us is written in words drawn from us. It speaks of things He wants to tell us in our own human language, precisely so that we can understand them.

The book of Revelation, the Apocalypse, is a book that the Church has almost avoided since the beginning, because it contains so much of a mysterious nature that it can easily be misunderstood. At one extreme, the Orthodox Church never reads it in the context of services, and at the other extreme are the many personality cults that are practically erected on the foundation of some man or woman’s interpretations of it.

Let’s listen to what the book of Revelation itself says and, without presuming to interpret the mysterious elements, pay attention to the things it plainly reveals, for they are not few. Approaching the Apocalypse, the phrase that immediately greets me at the door is the word of Jesus Himself, Μη φοβου! ‘Don’t be afraid’ (Revelation 1:17). We can trust Jesus here just as we trust His words in every other book of the Bible.

Many people even forget that it is Christ who is speaking to John and revealing these things, but if you have a red letter edition of the Bible you’ll see that there’s a lot of red printed in the book of Revelation. Like the rock that followed Israel in its migrations and gave them water to drink wherever they went, the Apocalypse has been following the Church in its earthly pilgrimage and follows us still.
Are we drinking from its living water?

For us and for every generation it is the Apocalypse now, and time itself has been carrying within it the seed of its own destruction, as the Day of the Lord draws closer to us. There never was a time not to do as the book of Revelation prescribes, ‘Read the prophecy aloud, listen to it, and keep what it says.’ Why? Because John, the servant and beloved disciple himself testifies, ‘it is the word of God guaranteed by Jesus Christ,’ and ‘because the time is close’ (Revelation 1:2-3).

The book of Revelation contains things both hidden and plain. It is our privilege to have this prophecy and our blessing to do what it says. Even in the first three verses comprising the Prologue, we find the truth both hidden and plain.

Hidden? When John writes ‘about the things which are now to take place very soon.’

Plain? When he writes, ‘John has written down everything he saw and swears it is the word of God guaranteed by Jesus Christ. Happy the man who reads this prophecy aloud, and happy those who listen to him, if they keep all that it says, because the Time is close.’

The hidden? The meaning and significance of the apocalyptic visions, when they are to take place, or whether they already have, and how, and where; the meaning of ‘now’ and of ‘very soon.’ Notice that these are exactly the things which have caused divisions, provoked and supported pride, and given occasion to scandals and crimes among the believers, allowing the planting of bad seed among the good. Christ says plainly to us in the gospels, ‘No man knows the day or the hour.’ Believing and obeying His word, we are saved from the despoliation of the hidden, wherever in the Bible we find it.

The plain? What is written as having factually occurred, ‘John has written down everything he saw.’ What we can trust on the word of an eyewitness and disciple of Jesus, ‘he saw and swears it is the word of God guaranteed by Jesus Christ.’ What will be the result for us if we follow the instructions in faith and obediently, ‘Happy the man who reads this prophecy aloud, and happy those who listen to him, if they keep all that it says.’ Why we should have faith and obey, ‘for the Time is close.’ Notice that the Lord never tells us too little or too much.

Brethren, I encourage you always and ever, to read the Apocalypse now because it is like a fifth gospel, the final seal of the good news, which began in the preaching of John the Baptist, was accomplished in the sacrificial and life-giving death of our Lord on the tree, and which is ‘now’ about to be perfected in us and in our world. Be like the humble and wise, who receive with joy and obedience the clear words of their Master and await with patience for the revelation of all that He will accomplish at His glorious coming, the parousía.

Remember what the Book plainly states, ‘The One who guarantees these revelations repeats His promise: I shall indeed be with you soon,’ and by our faith and obedience to His word, let us say with the saints, ‘Amen; come Lord Jesus!’ (Revelation 22:20)

The Beginning and the End

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fruit doesn't lie

It’s a sobering thought, “For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known” (Luke 8:17). This has its good and its bad implications—good, if we’re waiting for justice, bad if we’re afraid of it; good, if we’re waiting for mercy, bad if we want revenge. Why? Well, if we’ve suffered unjustly, we hope our hidden righteousness will vindicate us. If we’ve been lying, cheating, and privately abusing others, we don’t want everyone to find out. If our lives have nothing but failure and brokenness to show, we hope that maybe there’s something about us that will still attract God’s mercy and pardon. If we feel that others have oppressed and hurt us, we’re worried that in judging them, God might let them off the hook after He sees our hidden sins. Deep down we all know that no one deserves reward, not even ourselves, but we still hope for mercy to be shown us and punishment to be dealt to our enemies. In this we ourselves are our worst enemy.

Or again, we’ve heard it repeatedly yet we try not to understand,
“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit” (Luke 6:43). A tree can only bear the fruit it produces by nature. If it’s a good tree, the fruit is good; if it’s a bad tree, it can only bear bad fruit. So we apply this saying to ourselves when we prosper and see ourselves in the limelight, when we can confidently claim ‘the promises’ in scripture. “God has blessed me. Why? Because I’m good!” we think to ourselves. We look at our next door neighbor. His life is a shambles. His house is a ruin. His family is destroyed. He’s wracked with sickness and pain. He’s nearly friendless. Yet he says that he tried to live the right way, he tried to follow Christ, but to no avail. He has come to destruction just the same. He shrugs his shoulders not resentfully but resignedly, “I guess I’m just a bad person, because my fruit is bad.” We don’t help him understand the truth, because that will hurt us. Inwardly we think, “Fruit doesn’t lie.”

But there are things that happen. Yes, a good tree produces good fruit as it was meant to, but trees don’t often grow alone. They are planted in orchards where they can stand and grow together, often behind a windbreak. They are cared for and given every incentive to be what they are, good trees, and to bear good fruit. Even those that may have some defect are worked on and improved to make their fruit better. Most good trees bearing good fruit, though, do so because they’ve been grafted onto root stock of another, more faithful tree. They don’t remember this, but instead attribute their good fruit to themselves, remembering only this, “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.” All the same, however good they are, they can be attacked by blight, and their fruit can become corrupt. This happens. Even a good tree is sometimes overcome by disease, often catching it from other trees that likewise may be good. And whose fault is it when this happens? Can the tree be blamed?

The fact remains, there is a law of cause and effect that is part of the reality of this world. If you plant seed, you get the plant that grows from that seed. If you want an apple tree you don’t plant an acorn. The kind of tree you have dictates the kind of fruit you get. “Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers” (Luke 6:44). When your life doesn’t seem to have turned out the way you had hoped, for better or for worse you have had a hand in making it what it is. Even though others have impacted your decisions, you still made them, and so you have to suffer or enjoy the consequences. We find ourselves in a world where “Abraham cannot deliver Ishmael, [and] Isaac cannot deliver Esau” (Talmud, Sanhedrin 104a). We have to face the facts of our lives, and about ourselves, knowing that “No good tree bears bad fruit,” and wait for the mercy of God to be shown us, patiently but confidently. Why? Because “there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known.” This revelation will be the mending of all that is broken, and the healing of every disease in the trees that stand.