Everyone knows it

An emissary of the King, wrongly accused of cloaked aggression by the one he was sent to, exiled to a trackless waste, attacked by enemies, tries to return Home while protecting the one that is the reason he is being attacked, succeeds in making his way to the house of mud, where the ship he expected is not to be seen, and perishes in a final combat, knowing that he lives forever.

Deep down inside every human being the Truth that God placed there, the true Light that enlightens everyone who comes into the world (John 1:9), remains for each one to discover. It shines in the darkness of human ignorance, and though that darkness cannot comprehend it, it also cannot extinguish it. (cf. John 1:5).

The Truth revealed openly and fully only by Jesus Christ in His person, His teachings, His ministry, His miracles and His victory over death, that Truth being instilled in the depths of every human being, still shines through, shedding Light in every culture, even in those ignorant of Christ.

Yet the Truth does shine in the non-Christian world, in every culture. That's the way God is. He's faithful. He wants everyone to be saved, though only if they want it too. The challenge of the true missionary to the non-Christian world is to be able to find those sparks of God's Truth in their pagan traditions and, without admitting anything unchangeable by grace, to build on these native "old testaments" wherever they turn up.

As an Orientalist by training and inclination, I watch a lot of East Asian films. Recently I bought a copy of the Korean film Musa the Warrior. After viewing it for the first time, I waited a couple of weeks and watched it again this weekend. It is a very good film, historically, a realistic portrayal of a violent time in the history of China, the period when the Ming dynasty was liberating the country from Mongol control, around AD 1375. It's about a Korean delegation that was wrongly accused of spying by the Ming and exiled to the Gobi Desert. Their adventure in escaping, trying to return to Korea, and helping to rescue a Ming princess from the Mongols, is the subject of the film. It may not sound interesting, but it is.

Watching it a second time, I got a lot more into the details and my understanding was deepened. My favorite character is the young General Choi Jung (pictured above), and I was startled by one scene near the end of the movie. Something that Choi Jung said to his men, just before their last battle, really hit me, went through me like a lance.

If the soldier attempts to live, he'll die.
but if he attempts to die, he'll survive.

The film is in Korean with English subtitles, and the translation is awkward. But the way Choi Jung looked when he said this, somehow brought the whole meaning of the film, for me, into sharp, burning focus.

In the pre-Christian Korean culture, here was a man shedding the true Light on his fellow men. They all had this Light in them, otherwise his words could not have had the effect they did. Without knowing it, he almost quoted Luke 17:33:

Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it,
and whoever loses his life will preserve it.

This is the Truth speaking.
Everyone knows it.

It always encourages me to see this kind of thing in a movie because, whether people realize it or not, the seeds are there to be planted in the good soil. Let's hope that we're part of that good soil, to hear the Word, accept it, and produce a crop—thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown. (Mark 4:20)

If anyone would come after Me…

The feast-day of the Holy Cross was last Friday, September 14. Today, the Sunday following, had some reminders of the Cross in the hymns sung and in the scriptures read, Galatians 2:16-20 and Mark 8:34-9:1. "What a great theme to preach on," thought I to myself. So at sermon time, I decided I would give listening a try.

Fr. Paul started his sermon by recounting an incident from the life of neo-martyr Father Dmitri Klepnin who along with Mother Maria Skobtsova and her son Yuri were martyred by the Nazis during WWII. Father Dmitri was questioned by an officer named Hoffman, who said he’d let them all go if only they promised to stop helping the Jews. Fr Dmitri said, how could they? It was their ministry. Hoffman slapped him, "How dare you equate being a Jew-lover with ministry?" At that point, Fr Dmitri took hold of his pectoral cross and pushed it close into Hoffman’s face saying, "Do you know, do you know this Jew?" He suffered a beating for that, and soon afterwards he and Yuri were sent to Aushwitz to die.

After telling us the story, Fr. Paul moved on to preach a story (oops! I meant sermon) based not on Christ's words or on the teaching of holy Apostle Paul, but intead on his meditations on some of the words read in the service of Proskomidí (the preparation of the eucharistic gifts). To put what he preached in perspective, let me quote a little from the service book. Rubrics are like stage directions, and are printed in red, hence the name rubric (red letters):

Rubric: Putting on the pectoral cross, if he has the right to wear one, the Priest says:
Whoever would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. (Matthew 16:24)
…
Rubric: Then the Priest, taking a prosphora (the Eucharistic loaf) in his left hand and the Lance in his right, makes the sign of the Cross three times over the seal with the Lance, saying each time:
In remembrance of our Lord and God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Rubric: Then the Priest thrusts the Lance into the right-hand side of the seal, beside the letters IC NI, and says:
Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter. (Isaiah 53:7)

Rubric: As he cuts along the left side, that is, beside the letters XC KA:
And as an unblemished lamb before the shearer is dumb, so he does not open his mouth. (Isaiah 53:7)

Rubric: As he cuts along the upper side:
In his humiliation judgement was denied him. (Isaiah 53:8)

Rubric: As he cuts along the lower side:
Who will declare his generation? (Isaiah 53:8)

I have witnessed this service myself, but it is not normally in view of the congregation, especially since it takes place before most of the people arrive, and behind the iconostasis. It is a very moving service.

What Fr. Paul made of all this was a four-point program for imitating Christ in His humiliation, as a way of dealing with evil in the world. The four cuts made in the eucharistic loaf and the scriptures cited at each cut, he said, can represent, resist not evil, protest not evil, expect not justice, care not for reputation. Then, he explained his ideas a bit further, and related them to the sayings of Jesus, regarding going the extra mile, turning the other cheek and, of course, Jesus' very words, "Offer the wicked man no resistance." (Matthew 5:39) Then, he quoted himself from a sermon he delivered earlier in the year, "Evil cannot be defeated. Evil can only be transformed." He taught us, moreover, about Mahatma Gandhi's wonderful concept of satyagraha, active non-resistance, and how we can practice this for the good of the world.

If only I had paid more attention to his sermon, I'd be able to report it a little more faithfully. But my mind kept drifting back to the words of Jesus, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." (Mark 8:34 NIV)

Cheap grace versus costly grace

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession.
Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has.
It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods.
It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.
Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.
It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.
It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner.

Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: 'ye were bought at a price', and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.
Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.

—Dietrich Bonhoeffer (martyr, 1945)
The Cost of Discipleship, Ch. 1 Costly Grace

Don't interpret, just listen

When you forget your religious ideas—what you have heard, what you have been taught by preachers, religions, and denominations—and let the Word of God speak; when you listen instead of interpreting, you will have no trouble understanding Revelation.

—Oliver B. Greene, The Revelation, Verse by Verse Study

© 1963 by O. B. Greene, published by The Gospel Hour, Inc., Greenville, SC

The faith of the Apostles

There's a lot going on in "church" in America these days, and even in the rest of the "first world" (is there such a place, the "developed" countries?). From inside the doors of Orthodoxy, the outer courts are looking pretty chaotic, buying and selling, of religion, of blessing, of comfort, of self-realization, of culture, of anything that the world sells, only dressed up in a "Christian" cover.

Sadly, even holy Orthodoxy is being slowly but subtly lifted onto the bandwagon of "successful" programs and outreach "strategies," hoping to become as "relevant" as everybody else. Convert priests are foisted on kindly, welcoming and naïve congregations, convert priests who have no Orthodox root, no understanding of what a priest is. Do the hierarchs do this to test us, or do they hope we'll train these enthusiasts?

Orthodoxy fights back without striking a blow, the sheer intransigence of the flock, and the unchangeable liturgical forms, adding drag to the hasty, impatient boys. But they still have their way with us, for the time being.

Vespers is now vestiges of the evening service. Why?
So that neophytes can have more time to enlighten us with their worldly learning? Why pray, when prayer can be talked about, instead of just doing it? So, little by little these axeheads try to chip away at the Tree of faith.
What's happening, from another perspective, is the transformation of the Bride of Christ into a mystical business, of priests into businessmen in black, of pastors into administrators, of preachers into entertainers. This has been rampant outside of Orthodoxy; now it's seeping in. The words of holy Apostle John ring true now as always, "Children, be on your guard against false gods." (1 John 5:21 JB)

If the church where you live is experiencing any of these things, here's some good words written not long ago (1983) by Fr. George Papademetriou, a Greek Orthodox theologian, that I hope will encourage you to remember that the truth of Orthodoxy is the Truth of the Word of God, which Christ has told us "will never pass away" (Matthew 24:35). Even when the local church, for a time, is ravaged by wolves in sheep's clothing, we have to remember, THAT is not the Church; THIS is…

Today, especially when great confusion exists about the ministry of the Church in the world, Orthodoxy must reinforce age-long values and the faith of the Apostles.
"And His gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the Body of Christ." (Ephesians 4:11)

This verse gives the true objective of the clergy; that is, the ordained priests have the unique function to equip all members for the apostolate or ministry.

The apostolate is not the monopoly of the clergy, it is the responsibility of all, and the role of the clergy is to help all to fulfill it.

There is always a danger of clericalism, and this we ought to avoid. Since the time of Saint Paul, the Church avoided clericalism with its emphasis on defining the Church as the Body of Christ.

In the Church the promised unity of all things in Christ is foreshadowed (Ephesians 2:1-22), and for this reason the Church must be the place where God's plan is made known to the whole kósmos (Ephesians 3:7-10). In the Church the people of God must grow up into full maturity as the embodiment of the love of God for His whole creation (Ephesians 3:14-21). Within this context we can understand the task of training the whole membership of the Church to share in God's purpose for the whole creation. Only then will we be doing Christ's work as the people of God—both clergy and laity.

Invasion of the Body snatchers

I wasn't going to publish this post, because it seemed too polemical, and I don't want my blog to become a billboard for my internal struggles.
But maybe others are going through similar things.
Though the post is unfinished, here's as far as I got.
I don't know if I'll leave it open to view permanently, so if there's anything here you want to keep, best copy it to your PC.
And don't let the Body snatchers get you!

I hope this is not the case where you go to church, but this is what's happening in select locations of the Greek Orthodox Church in the Americas, a phenomenon I call "the invasion of the Body snatchers." It's not something out of a science fiction movie, though it could be. It is something that our Lord, Jesus Christ, told us would happen (Matthew 16:5-12), and something that the holy Apostles warned us about (2 Peter 2:1-22). "Certain people have infiltrated among you, and they are the ones you had a warning about, in writing, long ago, when they were condemned for denying all religion, turning the grace of our God into immorality, and rejecting our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ." (Jude 1:4 JB) One thing more, this is not a phenomenon only of modern times or of America, or even just of the Orthodox Church, but a perennial invasion, what Sergei Fudel calls "the dark double of the Church" whose crimes are not of the Church, but against it, even while it claims to be the Church, but it is not! (Revelation 3:9)

The invasion of the Body snatchers.

What Body? Why, the Body of Christ, His Bride, she who waits for her Lord's coming, His parousía. She waits, but she is told, "Well, where is this coming? Everything goes on as it has since the Fathers died, as it has since it began at the creation!" (2 Peter 3:4 JB) The Church is told anything to get our minds off the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, even as we blow the words, "I expect the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the age to come." We are told anything, and then we're given a task list of things to do, busy work, fund raising, intellectual navel gazing, and best of all, partying.

"They" have been despatched by the father of lies to snatch the Body, to abduct the Bride, and moments before the Bridegroom arrives.

How does this look locally, and in Greek Orthodoxy?
Where once nothing was done for show, everything is done for show.
Where once our faith was not for sale, cheap grace now is for sale.
Where once we gathered to feed on the Word of Life, we are now penned to feed the vainglory of a speed-speaking talk show host.
Once a people partaking as one Body of the resurrection of Christ, now simply stage extras and a captive audience watching a New Age drama.

I take back what I said before. Maybe it IS something out of a science fiction movie… or maybe all a bad dream.

I used to dream of waking up in church, as a little boy.
Everything as it must be,
at home with Jesus.

Easy as 1-2-3

To view the three links at the head of this post, just use the back button to return here and click the next link!

How can God
help us
to see God's miracles?
Just say Yes!

The arrangement of the previous three posts, all quotes from saints that I love and respect, was apparently no accident. Their words are my witnesses, they are my apologia for a life in Christ that others find fault with. As I said in a recent post, I have nothing new to say, and I'm guilty of every evangelical crime in the Book—at least I'd like to be! But Father Alexander, Elder Païsios, and Mother Gavrilia, three of my Orthodox friends, I hope will speak up for me when I am judged by men, if not by God.

Just say Yes

The only thing I know that I have permanently—and I do not speak out of conceit or imagination—is what I have day and night, wherever I may be… It is first, faith; second, faith; third, faith. That's it!

There's nothing else I can say to you. It animates and guides my life.

Since I have faith, if someone were to come and tell me, "Will you go with me to Lebanon?" I would answer, "Yes!"

"How can you say 'yes' just like that?" they may ask.

"Yes, I say 'yes' because I believe that if it is not for my own good, God will arrange things so that the very same persons who invited me will say 'no'. For instance, there may be some delays with formalities which will prevent our departure, and so on. I have seen that occur in my life, regularly, these last fifty years—not just for one or two years, as I am now ninety-one years old! I wish you all to reach that age!"

I read in the Gospel again and again something extraordinary.

Jesus comes and says to the Apostles, "Leave your fishing nets now, and follow Me!" If they had answered, "Who are you? Why should we lose the day's work? Why should we lose our profit? Where will you take us? What will you do with us?" If they had answered so, what would they be? They would have remained in darkness. They said 'yes' to a Stranger Who came and told them "Come, leave everything, and come!" Why? Because they had faith in God and were expecting the One, Him Who would tell them "Come!" And this is how it began. Whereas if they had said, 'No', what would have happened?

Mother Gavrilía Papayanni

To see God's miracles

When someone leads a simple life, humbly looks upon himself and feels the need of God's providence, then he puts aside all his concerns and worries and has faith in Him. When God sees that his soul totally depends on Him and not on itself, He will mercifully protect it. Thus, this soul will intensively experience the sense of God's providence and feel contented.

God wants our souls to be simple, without many thoughts and too much knowledge, like an infant that expects everything from its parents. That is why the Lord said, "If you do not become like children you will not be able to enter in the Kingdom of God." We must humbly pray to God and admit our weakness, and this way we will be able to free ourselves from our concerns and worries. Just as our shadow closely follows our body, God's mercy will follow our humility and faith.

When we believe in God and have trust in His fatherly providence and concern, then we do not think of ourselves. Instead, we know that God is aware of all our needs and looks after our problems, from the simplest to the most serious one. The only thing we must want is to allow God's love and providence to function in our lives, when He wishes to and in the way He thinks is best for us. When we have this kind of faith and inner disposition, we are able to see God's miracles—God Himself—who is always close to us under all circumstances.

Elder Païsios of the Holy Mountain

How can God help us?

Constantly, each day, each hour, God is sending us people, circumstances, tasks, which should mark the beginning of our renewal; yet we pay them no attention, and thus continually we resist God's will for us. Indeed, how can God help us? Only by sending us in our daily life certain people, and certain coincidences of circumstance. If we accepted every hour of our life as the hour of God's will for us, as the decisive, most important, unique hour of our life -- what sources of joy, love, strength, as yet hidden from us, would spring from the depths of our soul! Let us then be serious in our attitude towards each person we meet in our life, towards every opportunity of performing a good deed; be sure that you will then fulfill God's will for you in these very circumstances, on that very day, in that very hour.

Alexander Elchaninov

The Diary of a Russian Priest

Finally, an honest pope!

It's about time that a Roman pontiff comes clean with what papal authority teaches its followers as infallible truth. After admitting that any churches not recognizing him as head of the Church are not really churches, but only ecclesial bodies (we already knew that from the documents of Vatican II), he even admits that the Greeks and other Orthodox are "indeed 'churches' because they have apostolic succession," but that "they lack something because they do not recognize the primacy of the pope," which is "a defect, or a 'wound' that [harms] them."

Holy Father, what is this "something" that we lack? Is it what Jesus told the rich young man who wanted to follow Him? "Jesus said unto him, 'If thou wouldest be perfect, go, sell that which thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.'" Matthew 19:21 ASV

What do you think now, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and New Rome? What do you think of your friend's behavior? You kiss him and exchange visits and presents, while you persecute the men of Esphigmenou without restraint. Could it be you know they are right? Could it be that the pope of Rome is only up to his old tricks, or the tricks of his master?

I refer the brethren, those who call on the heavenly Father in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to call to mind once again what our forefathers in faith replied to the monster manifested in their days, and what they notoriously held on to, that faith "once and for all delivered to the saints." Here is a link to the letter of the Orthodox patriarchs replying to a letter of Pius IX, styling himself "bishop of Rome," in which he also tried to assert his (false) authority over the Christians of the ancient faith:

Encyclical of the Eastern Patriarchs, 1848 — A Reply to the Epistle of Pope Pius IX, "to the Easterns".

What is written in this letter (and it is a long one, but worth the read if you have patience) was true when it was written, and just as true today. No pope or papal authority can withstand it, because it rests on the Truth of God's Word, and is alive through the continued presence of His Spirit in the true Church, the Bride of Christ, the little flock "who follow the Lamb wherever He goes."

Let no man seek his own…

…but every man another’s.
(1 Corinthians 10:24)

That is the principle of the saints of God, both in times past and at the present time, from all ages to the end of the world. That is the principle of all true social structure. On that principle can be founded a human society that is the most perfect, the most pleasing to God and the happiest. It is a saving principle in every kind of difficulty that people today encounter, against which they struggle without victory and without hope.


A holy soul cares for his neighbor, either close at hand or far away.

He cares where the homeless will spend the night, how the hungry will be fed, with what the naked will be clothed.

He cares and he prays for the salvation of his neighbors; that their hearts may be filled with love towards God, that their minds may be directed towards God, that the wicked may turn from the paths of wickedness, that the hesitant may be confirmed in the Faith, that the firm may persevere, that the departed may behold the Face of God, that the living may be written in the book of Life in the Kingdom of Light.

Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic

Three Mysteries…

…One Answer—Mashíach

A profound essay on what I call

"the triple mystery of the pairs"…

Christ as God-Man,
Marriage as Man-Woman,
Church as Jew-Gentile.

I invite anyone who visits my blog to click on the link and read it.
I have never read anything as comprehensive yet brief in modern writers, only in the early Church fathers.

Can it be that when one accepts nothing but the Word of God for Truth, the Holy Spirit steps in with teaching that unifies all minds in the Mind of Christ?

How could I have forgotten…

…to bring to remembrance this event
of Forty Years ago?

Follow the link to a post I just put up today but pre-dated to the anniversary, even to the minute.

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 a week ago today. 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?

What's important about church?

I was visiting the blog of a Christian brother in Australia, and I left a comment on his post entitled Expositional preaching, why I prefer it. You can follow the link to read his post. The comment I left was my response to his questions: In your opinion, what is the most important aspect of your church? Is it the style of worship, the music, preaching on current social issues, or something else?
I decided to post my comment on my blog (slightly edited) for your consideration. I didn't exactly respond to his question, because this is how I think things should be, not how they are. This is where my thinking is right now. Excuse the folksy style please; this is not a formal piece of writing, just some scratches on the wall…

Hey brother, here's a possibly off-the-wall comment, but I hope you won't consider it un-intelligent.

In your post you asked what we thought was the most important focus of the service in our home churches. Your own answer seems to be "the pulpit." Of course, in a "Bible church" or in any congregation which finds its roots in the evangelical (Protestant Reformation) faith, I would agree… to a point.

My home church is an Orthodox Christian congregation… Aghia Trias (Holy Trinity) Greek Orthodox church. Officially, the focus of our church is on worship, namely the Divine Liturgy. The pulpit in an Orthodox church normally does not take center stage. In my congregation it's starting to try, because our proistamenos (head pastor) is a former Baptist. His preaching, however, is so full of worldly and trendy "New Age" allusions, that when he preaches (actually just talks) I generally either pray or pray and read my Bible (which I never go anywhere without), so as to avoid hearing his "message." (God save us from his preaching as soon as possible, the sooner the better!)

Anyway, what I want to say is what I think of preaching in church, and also what I think the main focus of "church" should be.

I don't mind the Orthodox services at all. They're almost entirely sung a capella, and consist almost entirely of Bible texts strung together by the ancient fathers. That's why a non-Biblical sermon stands out so awkwardly. Anyway, I don't mind the long services. They keep filling you up with the Word of God, without human manipulation or interpretation. They leave it to the individual worshipper to take in and digest. That's the "temple service" for you.

But what I really think the prime focus should be in any congregation, even among the Orthodox Christians, is constant, consistent, intense scripture STUDY combined with prayer. This is what it is like in the Jewish synagogues, especially in the conservative, the Orthodox, and the Hasidic ones. The Jews really know the Word of God, at least in the Tanakh (Old Testament part), and the average synagogue-going Jewish male puts most Christian church-going men to shame. And they don't even know the identity of the Messiah!

So, that's what I think should be the focus. And also, the men should study together (no women allowed), with male elders. And women should study together (no men allowed), with female elders. The usual Christian Bible study night, with men and women together, does not allow for real study to take place, because of female competition against males. It wears us down with wrong concerns. Women study for one set of reasons, and men for another. This was always the procedure of the ancient Church, used to be the way the Orthodox Christians were until the last 30 or 40 years (in America), and this is the way the Jews do it.

So there you have it.

I'm not saying the church should not do other things, but you asked about what the main focus should be. The church building (sanctuary) for liturgical (temple) worship. The parish halls for Bible study (every evening, not just on one or two evenings). The other parish facilities for poor relief and neighborhood outreach. This is for the church to do as a group.

What about evangelism? This should be the primary focus of the INDIVIDUAL Christian (working two by two, ideally), and NOT something the church does as a whole. You can have a revival or preaching crusade once or twice a year (or in the case of the Orthodox, four times, each correlating to our four yearly fasting periods), but most spiritual outreach is the responsibility of the people of a parish as individuals and as families. I don't believe that "church roundups" and expensive, flashy evangelism services do anything except build up the egos of the church "leaders" who put them on. Very few people get saved that way. Many do find real salvation in Jesus just by the lovingkindness of a Christian neighbor, friend or relative. That's how ancient Christianity spread. That's how Orthodoxy works. That's how the church should be today. Anyway, that's my take on a few things.

The Lord is coming back soon. Amen.

Why do we love the fathers?

Because the fathers of the Church love the Word of God, receive everything they have from it, give everything they give from it. Because they live in it, making the Word their home. Because they feed on it, becoming what they eat. Because they know and believe that the words of Jesus are Truth and Life. That's why we love and honor the fathers of the Church, because they love and honor the Word, and keep reminding us of it in their every encounter with us. Here's an example sent me this morning by Presbytera Candace.

What does it mean to take up your cross? It means the willing acceptance, at the hand of Providence, of every means of healing, bitter though it may be, that is offered. Do great catastrophies fall on you? Be obedient to God's will, as Noah was. Is sacrifice demanded of you? Give yourself into God's hands with the same faith as Abram had when he went to sacrifice his son. Is your property ruined? Do your children die suddenly? Suffer it all with patience, cleaving to God in your heart, as Job did. Do your friends forsake you, and you find yourself surrounded by enemies? Bear it all without grumbling, and with faith that God's help is at hand, as the apostles did.
—Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich

We are not alone…

…but in fact, we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses (cf. Hebrews 12:1-2), the invisible Church, that extends throughout time and space, in the past as well as in the present moment, that bends no knee to Baals (cf. Romans 11:4), no matter what form they take, church, state, class or family, and knowing the one unchanging Truth of the Gospel, Jesus Christ risen from the dead, we can do nothing other than witness to it, against all the proud, man-centered doctrines which have infected the visible church in this final period of history (cf. 2 Timothy 3:1-9, 4:3-4).

As I began to read the reply of the Orthodox patriarchs to the solicitations of Pope Pius IX which they wrote him in 1848 and which is linked in my previous post, I remembered how good it always is to feel their brave words falling on my mind. In case my warning that the letter is long deterred any of you from following the link to its target and reading the letter, I just want to provide an excerpt to whet your appetite and encourage you, especially the Christ-loving evangelical brethren whom the pope say are "not a church," to read what the spokesmen of our ancient faith took upon themselves to patiently but firmly explain to him and to the whole world. Here's how they start their letter…

“The holy, evangelical and divine Gospel of Salvation should be set forth by all in its original simplicity, and should evermore be believed in its unadulterated purity, even the same as it was revealed to His holy Apostles by our Savior, who for this very cause, descending from the bosom of God the Father, made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form of a servant (Phil. ii. 7)…”

“But the Prince of Evil, that spiritual enemy of man's salvation, as formerly in Eden, craftily assuming the pretext of profitable counsel, he made man to become a transgressor of the divinely-spoken command. So in the spiritual Eden, the Church of God, he has from time to time beguiled many; and, mixing the deleterious drugs of heresy with the clear streams of orthodox doctrine, gives of the potion to drink to many of the innocent who live unguardedly, not giving earnest heed to the things they have heard (Heb. ii. 10), and to what they have been told by their fathers (Deut. xxxii. 7), in accordance with the Gospel and in agreement with the ancient Doctors; and who, imagining that the preached and written Word of the LORD and the perpetual witness of His Church are not sufficient for their souls' salvation, impiously seek out novelties, as we change the fashion of our garments, embracing a counterfeit of the evangelical doctrine.”

—Encyclical of the Eastern Patriarchs, 1848 — A Reply to the Epistle of Pope Pius IX, "to the Easterns".

Be on your guard against false gods

I posted this briefly last August but then withdrew it as possibly too polemical. While doing some upkeep work on my blog, I ran across it and decided to publish it again, at the risk of offending many folks by my collage as well as my words. My intentions are not to offend but only to warn. These are perilous times…

Totalitarianism is always an attempt by an outside power to subvert the purpose for which God created Man, to have free and full communion with the Father.

The human world is always and from every angle being accosted by an outside power which daily invents new forms of totalitarianism. These can have a multitude of names, depending on the context of the attack. When most people hear the word totalitarian, they think political, they think of Naziism, Fascism and Communism. Now that these have been replaced by better ideologies for the most part, some believe that humanity is finally at the threshhold of "peace at last," and they dreamily subscribe to the words of John Lennon's new world hymn, "Imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if you try, no hell below us, above us only sky, imagine all the people, living for today... "

But no, unfortunately, as we are beginning to realise, even in the political context, a new totalitarianism has arisen, and it's worse than all others of modern times, because it combines its aim of enslaving humanity to an ideology with a form of piety—Islám. Even the Lennonists have to wake up from their dream. Too bad! …and just when they thought that we were "home free," though not as a modern apostle cried out, quoting an old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Last night my wife Anastasía went to an orientation meeting presented by a health product company that operates on the classic pyramid scheme model—you get people enrolled under you, they do the same, and gradually you get elevated higher and higher, richer and richer, happier and happier… A friend, Irína, whose family are recent immigrants from the same Carpathian village that my wife's ancestors came from over a century ago, and who is like us Orthodox in faith, invited her. Irína is a beautiful, flashy woman, who really can make use of her natural communication talents (she mainly markets the product within the Russian community) and also her natural empathy with others, to achieve success. Anastasía says that this company has brought out all of Irína's best personal features. The downside, of course, is that the product, the company, has completely taken over Irína's life. She knows that, but seems to be happy with it. Though she is a Christian, believing the truths of faith, she has become, as Anastasía says, "an evangelist for [product name withheld]". We do see her in church occasionally, and considering she grew up in a militantly anti-Christian environment, Soviet Russia, she has preserved her faith remarkably well. She's never understood that a life of discipleship is a possibility for her—she thinks, that's what the monastic life is for—and she sees her new job with all its perks as a reward for her dedication to family and faith. Anastasía's final take on it, though she is herself now in sales, and though the product seems good, it's not for her. This is an example of economic totalitarianism that most of us have encountered. In terms of the damage it does to the individual (without them realising it), it's every bit as bad as political totalitarianism, because you must give it your entire life.

"Wait a minute!" you say, "no one is forcing people like Irína to do this!"

True, that's part of the deception, part of the angle. Satan is a "shape shifter", as the church fathers teach. Within the context of political freedom we enjoy in America, a host of "lesser evils" arise, "closed circuit" totalitarianisms, like pyramid schemes. Opening the door to economic slavery is nothing new in any human society, so pervasive that it comes up in the gospels many times: "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." (Matthew 6:24 NIV)

I exhort the brethren to continue living in the Word of God, to make the Word your home, and escape the world system, that imaginary world Lennon sang about so sweetly. Don't be "caught like birds in the fowler's net" (Psalm 124:7 JB).

"Be on your guard against false gods." (1 John 5:21 JB)

Keep your eyes on Jesus.

Only Christ Saves

Here is a brief, innocent account taken from the life of Elder Ieronymos of Ægina (+1966), which was emailed to me this morning by Presbytera Candace Schefe of Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church in Anchorage, Alaska. I'd like to share it with my readers, to let them know I'm still alive, though myself, I have nothing much to say right now.

One time a Turk visited the Elder in his humble cell. He said that his master, a judge, invited him to his house. The Elder was somewhat worried. He was not used to invitations for social visits, and he thought that something bad must have happened, a new test. He prayed to God however, and then he followed the servant.

When they arrived at the Turkish Judge’s mansion, the judge himself received him with great cordiality. They sat in the living room and the judge began the conversation:

‘Your Reverence, I am a Turk, a Moslem. But from the salary I take, I keep what is necessary for me and my family, and the rest I spend in charities. I help widows, orphans and the poor, I give dowries to destitute girls who are ready to get married, I assist the sick. I keep strictly the fasts, I pray, and generally I try to be conscientious in my faith. Also when I judge, I try to be impartial. I am not bought by anyone, no matter how high of a position one might have. Do you think that these things that I do, are sufficient to gain for me paradise, as you Christians call it?’

Fr. Vasilios was impressed by what the Turkish judge had told him, and his mind went immediately to the Centurion Cornelius (Acts 10). He discerned in them both parallel lives. He understood that he had before him a righteous and good-willing man, and perhaps his mission was the same with that of the Apostle Peter toward the Centurion. He therefore decided to give testimony to his faith.

‘Tell me, your Honor, do you have children?’
‘Yes I do.’
‘Do you have servants?’
‘Yes, I have servants also.’
‘Who obeys better your commands, your children or your servants?’
‘For sure my servants, because my children sometimes, with the confidence they have, disobey me and do whatever they want, but my servants do always whatever I tell them.’
‘Tell me, your Honor, when you will die, who is going to inherit you: Your servants, who obey faithfully your commands, or your children, who disobey you?’
‘My children of course. Only they have inheritance rights, not my servants.’
‘Well then, whatever you do, your Honor, is good, but it only puts you into the category of the good servant. If you want to inherit paradise, the kingdom of heaven, you must become a son. And this is accomplished only through baptism.’

The Turkish judge was impressed by the example that Fr. Vasilios related to him. They talked about many other things, and in the end he asked him to instruct him in the faith and to baptize him. Some time later the Turkish judge was baptized and became a Christian.