Goodness

Tags

Atheists, Christmas, Church and State, Communism, Holy Spirit, Jefferson, Secularism, St. Ambrose, Truth

In the American culture, especially in the last century where we have twisted Jefferson’s separation of church and state to mean exactly the opposite of what he meant,* speaking about religion and, especially, theology and dogma is uncomfortable and difficult. A knee-jerk reaction is to ask: Why is the writing of St. Ambrose (and his steadfast arguments over dogma concerning the Holy Spirit) so important? Why can’t we just get along? Isn’t being a good person enough?

Recently, a survey was done that demonstrates that this attitude is overwhelmingly prevalent among American Catholics. Here is a response from Fr. Barron, a Catholic apologist, that does a very good job of explaining why doctrine (a much more palatable word than dogma, which I think is more the accurate term) is so vitally important:

 

To place what Fr. Barron is saying in context of St. Ambrose, note this passage from the fifth chapter of the first book of On the Holy Spirit:

Good, then, is the Spirit, but good, not as though acquiring but as imparting goodness. For the Holy Spirit does not receive from creatures but is received; as also He is not sanctified but sanctifies; for the creature is sanctified, but the Holy Spirit sanctifies. In which matter, though the word is used in common, there is a difference in the nature.

Goodness comes from God — imparted by the Holy Spirit, our contact point and source of communion with God. If we get rid of God, or even if we have an improper understanding of God (and therefore a dysfunctional relationship with Him), we get rid of the source of goodness. Therefore, being a good person is not only not enough, but becomes impossible.

When one takes into consideration Fr. Barron’s examples of both the ancient and modern (communist, fascist, atheistic) worlds where the Christian God is absent and the complete disregard these worlds have for entire classes of human beings, it puts into perspective the radical change brought about by the Nativity and the Incarnation of Christ. As St. Ambrose points out above, all good in the world comes from God. It is an external reality imparted by God.

The coming of Christ changes this dynamic completely. By uniting Himself to human nature, He makes humanity the temple of God, capable of housing the Holy Spirit. Thus goodness can now be internal — gushing forth from a human nature united to the divine.

In other words, what St. Ambrose is arguing about is vitally important. We cannot just get along and be good people without God, without Christ or without the Holy Spirit.

*Jefferson wrote these words in defense of a group of Baptists in Rhode Island, where they were a religious minority. He was arguing that it was right and proper for them to be Baptists in the public sphere. A separation of church and state allows their religion to mix with their politics and their ability to be bold about speaking their own beliefs in the political sphere. Thus, when modern Americans use the words separation of church and state to try and remove any symbols or discussion of religion from the public sphere they are actually doing the very thing Jefferson was writing against.

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Finding Our Own Egypt and Damascus

Tags

Christmas, Church and State, Cross, Gospel, Resurrection, St. Paul, Truth, Worship

Merry Christmas! Christ is born! Glorify Him!

I do hope everyone realizes that, in the Orthodox Christian world-view that this period — after Christmas — is when we should be celebrating Christmas, not in the days prior to Christmas. In many ways, our American culture has Christmas upside-down. We focus on the material — buying, getting and giving presents. We celebrate Christmas for months prior when we should be preparing and anticipating for the celebration. We see Christmas trees taken down the day after Christmas. We have made it politically incorrect to say ‘Merry Christmas!’ Our children are bombarded with the message that we need to “save Christmas” or find the “Christmas spirit” when the whole purpose of Christmas is to participate in the reality of God becoming a babe in cave for our salvation.

Imagine a world, for a moment, that stepped back from the material world, that fasted for 40 days prior and spent more time in prayer in preparation for a celebration that lasted a week. That is what the Orthodox Christian is supposed to do. In fact, if we didn’t have to get ready for Epiphany, I’m sure the Church would figure out a way to celebrate even longer.

We see this pattern of anticipation and celebration expressed on Sundays with the Sunday before and the Sunday after Christmas. Last Sunday we studied the genealogy of Christ — we were getting prepared for Christ taking on our humanity. Today is the Sunday after Christmas. The Gospel tells us of the Christ Child’s flight to Egypt in the face of Herod’s slaughter of the Innocents. This helps us to answer the question “Now that we have the Nativity of Christ, what are we supposed to do with it?”

In order to help us piece together this answer, the Church also gives us the words of St. Paul in his letter to the Galatians:

When he who had set me apart before I was born, and had called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia; and again I returned to Damascus. — Gal. 1:15-17

Paul, on his way to persecute Christians, gets visited by the Risen Lord and is told that he needs to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. In response, Paul goes to Arabia and Damascus. He tells us that he doesn’t return to Jerusalem for three years.

In other words, the Church is drawing a parallel between the Christ Child and Paul and therefore between the Christ Child and us. In both cases the world hates us and reacts with violence. Imagine if Paul immediately returned to Jerusalem claiming to be Christian. He would have entered into the teeth of persecution and retribution.

The peace that the angels declare to the shepherds in the field is God’s peace, not man’s. In fact, those who seek earthly power understand and see Christianity as a major threat to their goals. We and our King stand in the way. When we claim a God who is wiling to sacrifice Himself in order to protect and save us, there exists an eternal and unchanging rule of ethics and morality that holds that everybody, no matter who they are, has value. Such an understanding gets in the way of the power-hungry from making up their own version of morality (or lack thereof) that suits their present needs. It doesn’t allow them to determine who has value and who doesn’t. This is why the Church has always been under assault and, until we see the Second Coming, it will always be under assault. This, by the way, is why we are told to say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas!”

In the face of this assault, neither the Christ Child nor the newly enlightened Paul were ready for their appointed tasks. Each had to retreat and prepare. Christ had to allow his humanity to mature. Paul had to gird himself for the trials and tribulations that awaited him on his missionary travels around the Mediterranean.

In other words, celebrate the Nativity of Christ. Glorify the Living God that was willing to be born in a cave for our salvation. Revel in the reality that God so loves His creation; but be prepared for the assault that will come. Each and every one of us will be called to be martyrs — to witness to the reality of the Christ Child, of God Incarnate, of Christ on the Cross and Christ risen from the dead. We will be forced to make choices everyday between the morality of the world and the morality of God. Everyday we will be challenged to see the value in our fellow human being the way God does when the world wants to throw them away and turn their back on them. Someday, we will be called to boldly declare that Christ is our King instead of the politicians of the moment.

This is why the Orthodox Church gives us her services and encourages us to live our lives in anticipation and celebration. It gives us an opportunity to retreat into our own Egypt and Damascus. It gives us a spiritual place to find an internal silence where we can hear God in the stillness. As Elijah learned on the mountain, God isn’t in the business and noisiness of the world outside — the wind, the earthquake or the fire. God is in the stillness. Living in the cycles of the Church gives us the tools to learn to silence that business that invades our internal life. It allows us to fill ourselves with God. It gives the means and the power to return to the world and boldly declare the Gospel with our words, with our actions and with our very lives.

Today I pray that we hold on to Christmas a little longer this year — that we take advantage and celebrate the reality of Christ born in cave for our salvation. Allow that reality find its way into our heart and our inner life so that we find the stillness where we can hear God. Let us find our own Egypt and Damascus to prepare for the tasks that lay ahead. Let us gladly pick up our cross and do His will. Amen.

Anne Rice & Secular Myths about Christianity: Politics

Tags

Abortion, Anne Rice, Church and State, death penalty, Democrat, Philemon, Politics

I quit being a Christian. I’m out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.

The above quote was posted by Anne Rice, author of the Vampire Chronicles, on her Facebook account. Continuing my series of posts in reaction to this quote, today I will write about Rice’s fourth complaint — that Christianity is anti-Democrat.

I am going to assume that since Rice capitalized the word “Democrat” that she is referring to the political party, as opposed to the form of government. In either case, Christianity has always had an intriguing relationship with civil power. On one hand, we are to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s (Matt 22:21). This can be seen in both the liturgical practice of praying for our civic leaders — even those Roman emperors who were actively persecuting the Church. In the Apostolic Constitutions, it implores Christians to “Be subject to all royal power and dominion;” however, it does qualify this statement with these very important words: “in things pleasing to God.” Thus, when faced with the prospect of sacrificing to the idol of the Emperor, early Christians were compelled to refuse, thus breaking the law and choosing, in most cases, to be tortured and killed as martyrs.

Thus, in a Christian world-view, politics always play second fiddle to Christ. Indeed, Christ Himself demonstrated this in the sixth chapter of John:

Jesus, as He realized they were about to come and take Him by force and make Him king, fled back to His hills alone. (John 6:15)

Christ did not come to play politics. Thus, as Christians we should always be wary of politics and political parties and ultimately be willing to rise above them in order to be what God wants us to be.

Case in point, let us examine some very unChristian aspects of each political party here in the United States:

• Republicans tend to defend the death penalty for violent criminals. As Christians, we need to understand that even these vile examples of humanity are still made in the image and likeness of God and that they should be afforded every opportunity to repent and turn back towards God. The death penalty denies them this chance.
• Democrats tend to defend abortion. As Christians we see even the unborn as fully human, unique and unrepeatable. To destroy them inside the womb is murder, dehumanizes the unborn and ultimately denies humanity to an entire segment of the human family.

Thus, both parties fail to uphold a Christian world-view. That isn’t to say that they do not have redeeming factors, but we are called to transcend politics and do what is right in the sight of God. When we place our loyalty to any political entity — whether it be a party, a nation or an ideology — above God, disaster follows. One need only look at the early 20th century in places like Germany, Russia and China to see the outcome of party above God. It cost the world millions of lives.

For an excellent example of a Christian transcending politics, see St. Paul’s letter to Philemon. He is obedient to the law of the land — he sends back the run away slave Onesimus to his master Philemon; however, he calls Philemon to welcome back his run away slave, not as a slave, but as a brother. Thus, Paul, while obeying the law moves beyond the law to something greater — a vision of the world where:

by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free — and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. (1Cor 12:13)

Indeed, according to tradition, Philemon does welcome back Onesimus as a brother. Not only is Onesimus freed, but is eventually ordained as a bishop.

Thus, Christianity is not anti-Democrat. Rather it is beyond Democrat (or Republican).

Hiding from the Truth

Tags

Atheists, Church and State, Communism, Gnosticism, History, Soviet Union, St. Ireneus, Truth

Recently, His Grace Demetrios of Mokissos, Chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago wrote a letter to the editor of the Chicago Tribune. He was responding to a story that ran on June 17 entitled “Secularists spreading the word to skip church.” He very correctly calls into question their declared motivation to spark a public conversation because they, as His Grace states, “resort to tactics that preclude debate and insult the very people they seek to engage.”

This letter reminded me of my history professor in college. His specialty was Russian history and he had done doctoral work at Moscow State University at the height of the Cold War. One of the stories he told us continues to amaze me to this day and stands as a cautionary tale. Soviet Russia was famous for erasing history. People were removed from photos, news stories and history books the moment they no longer toed the party-line or disagreed with those in power. In such an environment, studying history is not possible, because history does not really exist. All that matters is the propaganda of the moment; however, the USSR also had a need to attract Western scholars with their hard currency. Thus, locked away under armed guards were the unaltered documents that chronicled the history of Soviet Russia. My professor would study in this room with an armed Soviet soldier on the other side of the door.

These armed guards were necessary because the information gathered behind those locked and guarded doors was dangerous. When compared to history, to actual events and the truth, communism had and has no answers. In any real debate, given an honest examination of history and not a bunch of showy propaganda, communism had no chance of winning the argument. Thus, it shut the opposition up through the threat of imprisonment and death. They were more than happy to carry out such threats. Indeed, we probably will never know the true number of victims, but conservative estimates range in the tens of millions.

Thus, whenever someone or some group resorts “to tactics that preclude debate and insult the very people they seek to engage,” I think of my history professor. I find myself questioning whether or not these people actually want a debate. My gut feeling is that they actually don’t. I say this because I was once one of those secularists who happily spoke out against Christianity and lamented friends “lost” to the clutches of the Church; however, whenever I would honestly engage the historical record, I found that the arguments I so desperately held onto fell away like so much chaff in the wind. A major turning point in my life was when I sought out the Gnostics in order to prove that they were the real expression of Christianity suppressed by a power-hungry Church authority. I necessarily found St. Ireneus, one of our primary witnesses to Gnosticism in the early Church. In the end, I was forced to acknowledge that this great Christian apologist spoke the Truth.

Thus, I challenge those secularists who think they want to engage in a real conversation about Christianity to actually read the words of Christians throughout the ages. I dare them to seek those documents that proclaim our point of view. I invite them to understand history from a Christian perspective. If they are truly interested in engaging the Church, these are the things secularists would do, instead of “spreading the word to skip church.” Instead, they should point to the historical record and show all of us how Christianity has not made the world a better place. Otherwise, they are no better than the Soviets who cowardly hid the truth behind the barrel of a gun.

Meditation on St. Constantine

Tags

Church and State, Cross, Gospel, Psalms, St. Constantine, Worship

Those of us who have read Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code and/or seen the movie based upon his book know that St. Constantine is a controversial figure. There are a great many accusations made about Constantine and all one has to do is do a search on YouTube for “Constantine Da Vinci” to get a taste. To name just a few:

• He became Christian for political reasons and corrupted the Church.
• He was a pagan who worshipped the sun and had Christmas moved to December 25th.
• He took over the Church and had Jesus declared a God at the First Ecumenical Council.
• He became a Christian because no pagan religion would forgive him for murdering members of his own family.
• He edited the Bible and had books that didn’t call Jesus God removed.

I could go on. All of these have been used by secularists, opponents of the Church and even Protestants. Their purpose is to make a straw man out of Constantine. It allows them to dismiss the Church as a whole, in the case of secularists and other opponents of the Church, or the 1200 years of Church history between Constantine becoming the first Christian Emperor of Rome and the Protestant Reformation, in the case of some Protestants. What always seems to be missing from these accusations about Constantine is the voice of the Church. To that end, I’d like to take a look at the liturgy that the Orthodox Church celebrates on May 21, the Feast of Sts. Constantine and Helen.

The Church holds up three figures which it uses as metaphors for Constantine: King David, the Apostle Paul, and the person of the bishop.

King David

In the hymns surrounding the feast, the Church invokes the name of King David several times. For example, the First Kathisma from Matins:

In your ways, you were another David; you received the gift from Heaven, in the oil of the Kingdom upon your head. The Word transcended in essence, the Lord of all, anointed you with the Spirit, O glorious one, and you received the royal scepter, wise Constantine, who asks great mercy may be granted to us.

This equation is repeated with the Prokeimenon of the Matins Gospel as well as the Alleluia verses sung between the Epistle and Gospel readings during Liturgy:

I have raised up one chosen out of My people. I have found David my servant, with my holy oil have I anointed him (Acts 13:22; Psalm 89:20).

This calls attention to how St. Constantine and St. David are similar. Obviously, both are kings; but more importantly, both are kings chosen out of God’s people — Israel and the Church. Something that many of the videos on YouTube fail to mention is that Constantine’s mother, St. Helen, was a very devout Christian. Thus, he was raised in context of the Church. Through her, Christ was always present in the life of Constantine. Although he was only baptized at the end of his life, he was, in fact, baptized. He was, in fact, the first Christian Emperor of Rome.

David chose Jerusalem as his capital. He placed the Ark of the Covenant there, establishing Jerusalem as a Holy City. Constantine moved the capitol of the Roman Empire from Rome, with all of its pagan temples, to Constantinople, or as Constantine called it “New Rome.” He built it as a new, Christian city wherein he built churches instead of temples. This new city established a Christian Empire that lasted a thousand years.

Finally, and I would say most importantly, the Church declares that Constantine was given “David’s meekness and gentleness” in the Stichera of the Vespers. Constantine murdered his own wife and son. What many of us forget is that King David is also a murderer — he sent Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, to die in a suicide mission in order to cover up his own adultery with her. The result of this affair was a son who died in infancy. In response, David wrote Psalm 50(51), which begins with these verses:

Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight — That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge (Psalm 51:1-4)

Constantine, in order to stay in good standing with the Church and to be baptized, would have had to do the same. Christ came to save all of us, even murderers and adulterers.

St. Paul

The Apolytikion of Sts. Constantine and Helen states:

Your Apostle among the Rulers, St. Constantine, who once beheld in the sky the image of Your Cross, and who like Paul received his calling not from man, once entrusted the Ruling City into Your hand. We entreat You to restore it in peace forever, at the intercession of the Theotokos, O Lord who loves humanity.

This comparison is emphasized by the Epistle Reading, Paul’s account of his encounter with the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus in Acts 26:1-2; 12-20:

In those days, King Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and made his defense: “I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining round me and those who journeyed with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It hurts you to kick against the goads.’ And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and bear witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from the people and from the Gentiles-to whom I send you to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ “Wherefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those at Damascus, then at Jerusalem and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God and perform deeds worthy of their repentance.”

The Church is drawing comparisons between Paul’s conversion moment and Constantine’s. Prior to the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, where Constantine defeated his rival Maxentius in October of 312, Constantine saw a light in the sky in the form of a cross and the words “By this you shall conquer.” That night Christ came to him in a dream. Upon waking, he immediately made a standard of the cross inscribed with the name of Jesus Christ. His victory at the battle secured his position as the Emperor of the West. By 324 he was the sole monarch of the whole Roman Empire.

Paul persecuted the Church. So did the Roman Empire. Paul converted to Christianity and then became one of the Church’s greatest Apostles, spreading the Gospel all over the Mediterranean. Constantine ended the persecution of Christians by the Empire and made it possible for every Christian, in every place that Paul preached and beyond, to practice their faith openly without fear of harassment.

The Bishop

One of the more intriguing, and subtle, aspects of the feast of Sts. Constantine and Helen is the Gospel reading. The Orthodox Church has specific readings, both for the Epistle and the Gospel, for various feasts. The Epistle Reading for Sts. Constantine and Helen is an example; however, not all saints have specific readings. In these cases, the Church has readings for classifications of saints. For example, Mark 5:24-34 — the woman with a flow of blood that is healed by touching Christ’s garment — is read on the feast of a woman martyr. The Gospel reading for Sts. Constantine and Helen (John 10:1-9) is one of these readings; however, it comes from a surprising source — it is the Gospel reading for bishops.

In the Orthodox understanding, the person of the bishop presents the Church Universal to his people. He is the means by which Orthodox Christians are in communion with the rest of the Church. The bishop also presents his people to the rest of the Church, through other bishops. For example, the Metropolitan of Chicago is in communion with the Metropolitan of Denver. Those Orthodox Christians living in the Metropolis of Chicago are in communion with the Metropolitan of Denver through their bishop, and through the Metropolitan of Denver they are, in turn, in communion with all of the Orthodox Christians in the Metropolis of Denver and vice versa. Using the same model, the Metropolitan of Chicago is not in communion with the Catholic Bishop of Peoria. Thus, neither are the Orthodox Christians in the Metropolis of Chicago. In turn, they are also not in communion with the Catholics in the Diocese of Peoria.

At the same time, a bishop cannot function without any people. This is expressed when Orthodox clergy are ordained. The deacon, priest or bishop is presented to the people, who respond with the exclamation, “Axios!” which means “He is worthy!” It is an expression by the people that they accept this man as their deacon, priest or bishop.

St. Constantine is like a bishop because, in his person, he presented the Church Universal to the entire world as the first Christian Emperor of Rome. He radically changed the way the world saw the Church. Through him, the whole of the Empire moved towards the Church and communion. At the same time, he was beloved. Very shortly after his death, he was recognized by the people as a Saint of God.

One must also not forget that the First Ecumenical Council was convened by Constantine. This event saw bishops from around the world gather at Nicaea and help formulate the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed which Orthodox Christians still recite today at every Divine Liturgy.

Conclusion

All too often, figures within Church history are taken out of context in order to justify various theories about Christianity, most of which are aimed at discrediting the Church. These men and women are taken out of context, because when seen within the context of their own time and within the Church, these theories very quickly fall apart. This can be demonstrated with St. Constantine. The picture painted by the Church is of a very human leader — he was flawed as we all are; however, with Christ he overcame those flaws and established an empire where Christianity could finally thrive and give voice to the unity found in Jesus Christ.

If there is one thing we walk away with from this meditation, I hope it is the image of the people crying “Axios!” One thing many of Constantine’s detractors fail to mention is the average person on the street. The people are as important to the Church as Her bishops. We know from the Fathers and other sources that the city of Constantinople during the 4th century was a place where theology was discussed by everyone in every venue. One could hardly buy anything at the market without having to declare a position on the person of Jesus Christ. Throughout Church history, the people have played an important role in rejecting both councils and teachings of the hierarchy that they felt did not represent what was handed down to them by the Apostles. Had Constantine fit the cynical portrayal popular on YouTube, the people would never have accepted him as a saint, let alone the popular saint he still remains to be to this day.

Sunday After the Nativity

Tags

Christmas, Church and State, St. Stephen

Acts of the Apostles 6:8-15; 7:1-5, 47-60 • Matthew 2:13-23

Today is the Sunday after the Nativity, which falls, at most, seven days after Christmas. We’ve declared to the world that Christ is Born. We’ve sung with the angels, “Glory to God in the Highest and peace, good will toward all!” We’ve freely given gifts in honor of the awesome, holy, pure, divine, immortal, and life-giving gift that God has given us in His Son. Yet, the Gospel reading today tells us of Herod’s genocide of all the male children in and around Bethlehem who are two years or under.

In addition, since today is the 27th of December, we celebrate Stephen the Archdeacon and First Martyr. So, the Epistle reading is from Acts where we see the account of Stephen’s death by stoning.

We aren’t even done celebrating Christmas (we still sing the Christmas hymns and are fast free until the Eve of Theophany on January 5th, a sure way of knowing when the Church is in a festive mode) and here we are highlighting the murder of children and the Church’s first martyr.

Note who is responsible for the violence: Herod, the high-priest and leaders of the Jews. These are people who are interested in power — people who put faith in this world. In other words, today we highlight the way the world and those interested in power react to the Gospel — violently.

Let us examine how these people operate and think. Herod, knowing that the Messiah has recently been born, that He is to be a male and that He will be born in Bethlehem condemns everyone who fits all of those categories. St. Stephen was a Hellene, his first language was probably Greek. He was ordained as a deacon in order to serve those members of the Church community who spoke Greek, because they were being neglected.

Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. — Acts 6:1

The people that first rose up against Stephen (those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia) were from Hellenic communities that were probably angry that Stephen was being so accommodating to non-Hebrews and to the Greek language.

In both cases we see those in power and those interested in getting or maintaining power divide humanity into different categories. Herod targeted the males of the region of Bethlehem 2 years old and under, and the leaders of the Jews targeted Jews who spoke Greek and Greeks. They do this so that they can pit us against each other and define who is human by the artificial categories. We’ve been doing this since the Fall.

We do this all the time here in the United States. We are categorized by our race, our sex, our region, our state, our district, our sexual preference, our age, our religion etc. This allows those in power to get and maintain their power by pitting one group against another and showing favor to the groups most likely to get them re-elected. At its ugliest, we have categorized slaves as property and the unborn as non-viable. Thus, slave owners were and women are a more important category of human being that garners more power and even murder becomes justifiable in pursuit of this power.

The Gospel flies in the face of business as usual. It is antithetical to the way people in power get and maintain that power. The Nativity celebrates Christ taking on humanity — all of humanity — not a category or subset of humanity. He took on our nature — a nature shared with every other human being ever born or that will ever be born. Christ did not come for power — He came as a slave. He ignored the trappings of power at every stage of His life here on earth. He was born in a cave where animal slept and ate. He was exiled to Egypt in His infancy. He grew up in the backwater town of Nazareth. During His ministry, He lived in poverty with no where to lay His head (Matt 8:20, Luke 9:58). When the people tried to make Him an earthly king, He refused (John 6:15). His triumphant entry into Jerusalem was on a donkey followed by a bunch of poor fisherman, instead of on the back of a mighty warhorse followed by a conquering army. Ultimately, He was willing to go to the Cross and sacrifice Himself for His creation.

There is no room for categorization in the Gospel. There is no room for the pursuit of power on the backs of others. There is no room for holding one group of human beings over and above another. Is there any wonder that those who put their faith in power and in this world should react so violently to the Gospel, the Good News?

In the face of politics as usual, in the face of categorization, in the face of violence, St. Stephen is our model. We are to preach the Truth. We are to declare the Gospel. We are to stand up and declare the radical equality that is possible in Jesus Christ. Do we see inequity? Name it. Call it out for what it is. Declare the Truth. Will we suffer for this? Most likely. But we will have Christ at our side and be filled with the Holy Spirit and have the power to overcome what ever the world throws at us in its anger. In the end we will see what St. Stephen sees as He declares the Gospel with His last breath:

Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God. — Acts 7:56

And know, that when we declare the Gospel without fear, a Saul might be listening, just as he was for St. Stephen. We may never get to see that Saul transform into a St. Paul, but our fearless declaration of the Truth of Jesus Christ born, crucified and risen will have made that transformation possible. Amen.

Politics vs. Religion?

Tags

Abortion, Church and State, Health Care

This past week, as the debate over health care drags on, the issue of abortion came up again. Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska threatened to block the senate health care bill from moving forward because he was uncomfortable about the way the bill treated abortion as a health issue.

Fr. Robert Barron, a Catholic priest here in Illinois, expertly dismantles the pro-choice arguments from a political/philosophical perspective:

Though I don’t fault Fr. Barron’s logic (in fact I agree with him), his argument seems to condone the way some of the television coverage has portrayed Sen. Nelson’s delayed support of the health care bill — that religion and politics exist on the same playing field and that the issue of abortion as health care is religion vs. politics.

This is a false dichotomy in the same way the science vs. religion is a false dichotomy. Jesus Christ is more than politics. In John 6:15, after Christ has fed the five thousand,  we are told, “Perceiving then that they were about to take Him by force to make Him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.” There was an expectation that the Christ was to be a political figure that would drive off the Romans and return Israel to glory. Jesus thwarted this expectation at every turn because His was a much higher purpose with a much broader scope.

By voluntarily going to Golgatha, He defeated death by death so that we might enter into the Kingdom of God and that we might raise up all of creation with us into the glory of God. In other words, politics and religion are not on the same playing field. Christ is all and in all (Col. 3:11). Christ, therefore, informs every aspect of our lives, as we pledge at every Divine Liturgy, “let us commit ourselves and one another and our whole life to Christ our God.” This includes our politics.

A Progressive Patriarch?

Tags

Church and State, Environmentalism, Patriarch

In conjunction with the Religion, Science and The Environment Symposium The Great Mississippi River: Restoring Balance held in New Orleans at the end of October, His All Holiness, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew wrote the Op-Ed piece Our Indivisible Environment. In it he cites examples of governments and politicians taking on the challenge of climate change:

The Obama administration has committed the United States to a 50% reduction in greenhouse gases by the year 2050. And there are growing expectations that meaningful progress can be made in the United Nations Climate Change Conference scheduled to take place in Copenhagen this December.

With Al Gore’s environmental call to arms, An Inconvenient Truth, being called into question by a new documentary and the British Courts, with some scientists calling into question the science of climate change and with extreme left wing links to environmentalism and some environmental scientists being linked to left wing politics one might start wondering whether or not His All Holiness has confused Progressivism with Christianity.

The Patriarch, for better or for worse, has chosen to write to that part of the American audience most likely to be green — the progressive and unabashedly secular that aggressively believes in the separation of Church and State. Eschewing a Biblical argument likely to alienate such an audience, His Eminence relies on the holistic Orthodox world-view to make the case for the inclusion of religion in the debate over and participation in environmentalism.

As a matter of fact, there is a very strong Biblical argument for a Christian environmentalism. Humanity, having been endowed with the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26-27), is called to co-create with God (Gen 2:19-20). We have been giving a special place in creation:

What are human beings that you spare a thought for them,
or the child of Adam that you care for him?
Yet you have made him little less than a god,
you have crowned him with glory and beauty,
made him lord of the works of your hands,
put all things under his feet,
sheep and cattle, all of them
and even the wild beasts,
birds in the sky, fish in the sea,
when he makes his way across the ocean. — Psalm 8:4-8

As members of the royal priesthood (1 Pet 2:9) we are called to participate in God’s creation by mastering it — caring for it and using it to create something new — and give it back to God. This is the reason we offer bread and wine at the table instead of wheat and grapes. God gave us these gifts, we took them and co-created with Him to produce the bread and the wine. We then offer them up to God who sanctifies them with His Holy Spirit. In consuming the Body and Blood of Christ, we complete our participation in God.

St. Paul calls Christ the Last Adam (1 Cor 15:45) and High Priest (Heb 6:20). This refers to Christ’s incarnation — the taking on of our humanity to Himself, to offer Himself up to God on the Cross, and then sanctifying all of creation by resurrecting our humanity on the third day and ascending with it to sit at the right hand of the Father in glory. This was necessary because the First Adam failed to fulfill his place as priest in God’s creation. He reached for godhood and turned his back on God. In doing so, he introduced sin and death into all of creation.

This must be understood in conjunction with the Christian dogma that God created the world from nothing:

I beseech thee, my son, look upon the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, and consider that God made them of things that were not; and so was mankind made likewise — 2 Macabees 7:28

With God we become, without God we return to the nothing from which we came. Death is the absence of life, which is God (John 14:6). Sin is that which separates us from God (Rom 6:23).

Herein is the importance and the value of Christianity in context of environmentalism. Sin doesn’t merely affect the sinner, but ripples out to affect everyone around the sinner and through them the whole of creation. Our failure as stewards of the earth — our sins — is expressed in the damage we do to our environment. This the progressive environmental movement understands very well; however, they fail to couple it with a relationship with God. In repeating the mistake of Adam — trying to save the world sans God — progressive environmentalism is doomed to fail, possibly catastrophically, and bring more harm than good.

Christianity, with its holistic and sacramental world-view, not only deserves to be part of the environmental discussion, but is necessary. Only through a proper relationship with God — the only one who can save the world — can we fulfill our role as the royal priesthood and caretakers of God’s creation.