A Little Piece of Heaven

Everyone needs some place – at least one place – that can serve them as a little piece of heaven. 

For me that place is a little 6’ x 8’ part of my study which is my prayer corner, although to be honest, it’s actually morel like a tiny Orthodox Temple. It’s a place where I can weep for my sins and rejoice in the gift of salvation which has been given, is being given and finally on the Last Day will be received. That fact that I use these words to describe the gift of salvation – been given (past tense), being given (present tense), and will be received (future tense) is not in any way to posit any weakness in God’s salvation. No, the weakness is in me.

I am unable to receive the fullness of the Gift of Salvation given in the Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension of Christ my true God. I am not – not yet – strong enough, whole enough to receive it and contain it, for it is all of heaven: union with Christ Himself.  I remember hearing someone once remark, “We mortal men and women are like sieves: we leak!”    God pours forth His grace, it sometimes it just flows right through me – seeming to make no difference at all. Of course It does make a difference. It always does. But I am too weak, to small-minded to perceive It, let alone fully receive It.

And so I need a little piece of heaven to enlarge my mind and heart. It doesn’t have to be immense or cathedral-like, just a little piece of heaven. And in that little piece, surrounded by the saints and myriads of angels, heaven gets a little piece of me. That’s how it seems most often to work. A little piece at a time, the tiniest amount at times. And even when I think I am giving an immensity of self, in those moments of prideful fantasy I likely give over even less.

And this little piece of heaven which I call my Prayer Corner – even this is more than I need although I love it. You see, I cannot take this with me when I leave my home, when I go shopping, when I go to classes. But even then, when I leave behind this little piece of heaven in my study I have a little piece of heaven with me. So that as I hold onto this little piece of heaven, Heaven Himself – our Master Christ – holds on to me.

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.

Divine Love

 

Divine LOVE given freely to a soul that does not desire it (for whatever reason) burns like fire and is torment. 

Divine LOVE given freely to a soul that desires it wholeheartedly brings illumination. 

To desire this Divine LOVE wholeheartedly is a definition of true REPENTANCE.

As for the idea of Divine punishment being “appointed” by God, it is not as if God has spend eternity ruminating on our rebelliousness and finally came up with something with which He could punish and afflict people because they turned away from Him. The 5th Ode of the Canon of Repentance, noting our slavery to the passions to which we submit, ends each Troparia with the refrain: “O MY SINFUL SOUL, IS THIS WHAT THOU HAST DESIRED?” God simply allows us to have what we, in our indolence and submission to the passions, have desired.

Discerning the Will of God

What does it mean to follow God's will? Does it mean that God has a plan for our lives and that if we're not in the right place we've somehow left the will of God? These are important questions and many people struggle with them.

I suspect that God's will for each and every one of us is not very much like a holiday plan or itinerary in which each detail has been planned and in which any deviation means that we've departed from the plan and are in trouble.

No, God’s will for us – His plan for our lives – is simply that you and I achieve salvation, which is union with Christ – theosis.

The details of our lives are not “planned out in advance” as if choosing something else means we've left God behind, or so that we have to repent if we choose something else. Such makes a mockery of God (as if we could ever go somewhere in which He is absent) and His gift to us of free will. The details of our lives are what we as free beings freely choose, and what others in their free-will choose for themselves and for us, for we are all inter-connected, and just as our decisions take us places and often drag others along with us, so do the choices and decisions of others. God’s will for us – His desire and plan for our lives – is that we find Him in all of these various and often unpredictable details of life, and that finding Him we return to Him if necessary and cleave to Him, .

The point about living in the will of God – living according to His plan – is not that we are constantly second-guessing our decisions to do this or do that, or the manner in which we have ended up doing this or that, for not everything is in our control, but that in every moment we seek union with God, and ask not “Is this what God had planned for me?” but rather, “Where is God in this, and how can I draw closer to Him in this and through this?”

Only this way can we truly say, "Glory to God for all things!"

New Beginnings - Again

I have been away from this for far too long. My sincere apologies to any who have tried to follow this blog.
Today I returned to school after a thirty year hiatus, and part of my "new beginnings" will be to post more regularly on this site - and also to do a bit of reflective writing about the experience of being a "mature" student. For this purpose I have started a new blog: http://amongothersagain.blogspot.ca/

O Human Flesh Most Noble

Published in yesterday's issue of our local weekly newspaper, The Fort Saskatchewan Record

 

Forty days after the Sunday of the Resurrection – known as Pascha in the Christian East, and Easter in the West – Christians celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of Jesus Christ. All four Evangelists refer to it, and St. Luke tells us about the Ascension twice – once at the end of the Gospel which bears his name [Luke 24. 50-53] and again at the start of his letter which we know as The Acts of the Apostles [ Acts 1. 1-11]. But because it always occurs on a Thursday, many Christians miss out on it completely, or know it only from references in Scripture.

Ancient Christian teaching on the Ascension – much of it now in hymn form – tell us that Ascension is connected to the fullness of Christ’s Incarnation. We can conclude from that that we can not separate spirit and flesh like so many people have attempted to do, both in ancient times as well as today. You may be familiar with what I’m referring to. People are sometimes given the message that the spirit is good but the flesh is bad. After all, they say, it is the flesh that continually gets us in trouble. In addition we may have been taught that salvation is primarily something “spiritual” which doesn’t really concern our bodies.

But Jesus Christ came in the flesh. Taking a body from His holy Mother, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; (and) we have beheld His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.” [John 2. 24]  

 If God the eternally begotten Son of the Father took our flesh upon Him for our salvation, then human flesh – our human flesh – cannot be “bad”. 

Again, if He took flesh for our salvation, then our bodies need to be active participants in both receiving and participating in our salvation.

In the Ascension of the Lord we are faced with the astounding reality that He “Who sitteth on the right hand of the Father” – as the Nicene Creed affirms – does so in the flesh! One of the ancient prayers of the Church declares: “O Thou Who by Thy glorious ascension didst vouchsafe that the flesh which Thou hadst assumed should sit at the right hand of the Father, thereby ennobling it…” This reference, part of a centuries old prayer said by Orthodox Christians before receiving Holy Communion, along with other prayers and hymns like it, reminds us that not only is this flesh of ours not “bad”, it is of highest esteem – made noble in fact – because of and through Christ’s Ascension.

Real Christianity never leaves the body out of its worship and devotional practices. 

Apostolic Christianity always includes bodily actions such as eating and fasting, standing attentively or bowing to the ground, because you and I cannot be saved apart from our bodies.

And when we get into trouble particularly in the area of what are often referred to as “sins of the flesh”, it is not our bodies which have got us into trouble, but our passions, which are those thoughts and inclinations we give in to and which, if not curbed – very often through the exercise of physical disciplines – can even lead us out of salvation.

Therefore, let us praise, bless, and worship the Lord with both body and soul, rejoicing in Christ our true God.

"I WANT NOTHING OF THIS WORLD"

Last Friday evening I had the honour of attending a Memorial Service for His Holiness Pope Shenouda III at St. Mary and St Mark Coptic Orthodox Church in Edmonton. Part of the evening included a youtube video based on one of His Holiness' poems "I Want Nothing Of This World", published in 1957 in his book "The Release of the Spirit." I found myself quite moved by the depths revealed in this poem, and by it's resonance in my soul. Truly His Holiness tapped into a universal Christian desire - the true desire of the Christian heart: to forsake all for the sake of the everlasting Kingdom of Heaven.

May his memory be eternal!

Sunday of Orthodoxy, 1903

A Homily of Holy New Hieromartyr Tikhon, Metropolitan of Moscow.

Given when he was Bishop of the Aleutian Islands and North America

This Sunday, Brethren, begins the week of Orthodoxy, or the week of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, because it is today that the Holy Orthodox Church solemnly recalls its victory over the Iconoclast heresy and other heresies and gratefully remembers all who fought for the Orthodox faith in word, writing, teaching, suffering, or godly living.

Keeping the day of Orthodoxy, Orthodox people ought to remember it is their sacred duty to stand firm in their Orthodox faith and carefully to keep it.

For us it is a precious treasure: in it we were born and raised; all the important events of our life are related to it, and it is ever ready to give us its help and blessing in all our needs and good undertakings, however unimportant they may seem. It supplies us with strength, good cheer and consolation, it heals, purifies and saves us.

The Orthodox faith is also dear to us because it is the Faith of our Fathers. For its sake the Apostles bore pain and labored; martyrs and preachers suffered for it; champions, who were like unto the saints, shed their tears and their blood; pastors and teachers fought for it; and our ancestors stood for it, whose legacy it was that to us it should be dearer than the pupil of our eyes.

And as to us, their descendants - do we preserve the Orthodox faith, do we keep to its Gospels? Of old, the prophet Elijah, this great worker for the glory of God, complained that the Sons of Israel have abandoned the Testament of the Lord, leaning away from it towards the gods of the heathen. Yet the Lord revealed to His prophet, that amongst the Israelites there still were seven thousand people who have not knelt before Baal (3 Kings 19) . Likewise, no doubt, in our days also there are some true followers of Christ. "The Lord knoweth them that are His." (2 Timothy 2.19)

We do occasionally meet sons of the Church, who are obedient to Her decrees, who honor their spiritual pastors, love the Church of God and the beauty of its exterior, who are eager to attend to its Divine Service and to lead a good life, who recognize their human failings and sincerely repent their sins.

But are there many such among us? Are there not more people, "in whom the weeds of vanity and passion allow but little fruit to the influence of the Gospel, or even in whom it is altogether fruitless, who resist the truth of the Gospel, because of the increase of their sins, who renounce the gift of the Lord and repudiate the Grace of God" (a quotation from the service of Orthodoxy).

"I have given birth to sons and have glorified them, yet they deny Me," said the Lord in the olden days concerning Israel. And today also there are many who were born, raised and glorified by the Lord in the Orthodox faith, yet who deny their faith, pay no attention to the teachings of the Church, do not keep its injunctions, do not listen to their spiritual pastors and remain cold towards the divine service and the Church of God.

How speedily some of us lose the Orthodox faith in this country of many creeds and tribes! They begin their apostasy with things, which in their eyes have but little importance. They judge it is "old fashioned" and "not accepted amongst educated people" to observe all such customs as: praying before and after meals, or even morning and night, to wear a cross, to keep icons in their houses and to keep church holidays and feast days. They even do not stop at this, but go further: they seldom go to church and sometimes not at all, as a man has to have some rest on a Sunday (...in a saloon); they do not go to confession, they dispense with church marriage and delay baptizing their children.

And in this way their ties with Orthodox faith are broken! They remember the Church on their deathbed, and some don't even do that! To excuse their apostasy they naively say: "this is not the old country, this is America, and consequently it is impossible to observe all the demands of the Church.", as if the word of Christ is of use for the old country only and not for the whole world. As if the Orthodox faith is not the foundation of the world!

"Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil doers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel into anger." (Isaiah, 1, 4)

If you do not preserve the Orthodox faith and the commandments of God, the least you can do is not to humiliate your hearts by inventing false excuses for your sins!

If you do not honor our customs, the least you can do is not to laugh at things you do not know or understand.

If you do not accept the motherly care of the Holy Orthodox Church, the least you can do is to confess you act wrongly, that you are sinning against the Church and behave like children!

If you do, the Orthodox Church may forgive you, like a loving mother, your coldness and slights, and will receive you back into her embrace, as if you were erring children.

Holding to the Orthodox faith, as to something holy, loving it with all their hearts and prizing it above all, Orthodox people ought, moreover, to endeavor to spread it amongst people of other creeds.

Christ the Saviour has said that "neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candle stick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house." (Matthew 5, 15)

The light of Orthodoxy was not lit to shine only on a small number of men. The Orthodox Church is universal; it remembers the words of its Founder: "Go ye into the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Luke, 16, 15), "go ye therefore and teach all nations." (Matthew 28, 19)

We ought to share our spiritual wealth, our truth, light and joy with others, who are deprived of these blessings, but often are seeking them and thirsting for them.

Once "a vision appeared to Paul in the night, there stood a man from Macedonia and prayed him, saying, come over into Macedonia, and help us," (The Acts 16, 9) after which the apostle started for this province to preach Christ. We also hear a similar inviting voice. We live surrounded by people of alien creeds; in the sea of other religions, our Church is a small island of salvation, towards which swim some of the people, plunged in the sea of life. "Come, hurry, help," we sometimes hear from the heathen of far Alaska, and oftener from those who are our brothers in blood and once were our brothers in faith also, the Uniates. "Receive us into your community, give us one of your good pastors, send us a Priest that we might have the Divine Service performed for us of a holy day, help us to build a church, to start a school for our children, so that they do not lose in America their faith and nationality," those are the wails we often hear, especially of late.

And are we to remain deaf and insensible? God save us from such a lack of sympathy. Otherwise woe unto us, "for we have taken away the key of knowledge, we entered not in ourselves, and them that were entering in we hindered." (Luke 11.52)

But who is to work for the spread of the Orthodox faith, for the increase of the children of the Orthodox Church? Pastors and missionaries, you answer. You are right; but are they to be alone?

St. Paul wisely compares the Church of Christ to a body, and the life of a body is shared by all the members. So it ought to be in the life of the Church also. "The whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love." (Ephesians 4.16)

At the beginning, not only pastors alone suffered for the faith of Christ, but lay people also, men, women and even children. Heresies were fought against by lay people as well. Likewise, the spread of Christ's faith ought to be near and precious to the heart of every Christian. In this work every member of the Church ought to take a lively and heart-felt interest. This interest may show itself in personal preaching of the Gospel of Christ.

And to our great joy, we know of such examples amongst our lay brethren. In Sitka, members of the Indian brotherhood do missionary work amongst other inhabitants of their villages. And one zealous brother took a trip to a distant village (Kilisno), and helped the local Priest very much in shielding the simple and credulous children of the Orthodox Church against alien influences, by his own explanations and persuasions. Moreover, in many places of the United States, those who have left Uniatism to join Orthodoxy point out to their friends where the truth is to be found, and dispose them to enter the Orthodox Church.

Needless to say, it is not everybody among us who has the opportunity or the faculty to preach the gospel personally. And in view of this I shall indicate to you, Brethren, what every man can do for the spread of Orthodoxy and what he ought to do.

The Apostolic Epistles often disclose the fact, that when the Apostles went to distant places to preach, the faithful often helped them with their prayers and their offerings. Saint Paul sought this help of the Christians especially.

Consequently we can express the interests we take in the cause of the Gospel in praying to the Lord,

·  that He should take this holy cause under His protection,

·  that He should give its servants the strength to do their work worthily,

·  that He should help them to conquer difficulties and dangers, which are part of the work,

·  that He should not allow them to grow depressed or weaken in their zeal;

·  that He should open the hearts of the unbelieving for the hearing and acceptance of the Gospel of Christ,

·  that He should impart to them the word of truth,

·  that He should unite them to the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church;

·  that He should confirm, increase and pacify His Church, keeping it forever invincible,

·  we pray for all this, but mostly with lips and but seldom with the heart.

Don't we often hear such remarks as these: "what is the use of these special prayers for the newly initiated? They do not exist in our time, except, perhaps, in the out of the way places of America and Asia; let them pray for such where there are any; as to our country such prayers only needlessly prolong the service which is not short by any means, as it is." Woe to our lack of wisdom! Woe to our carelessness and idleness!

Offering earnest prayers for the successful preaching of Christ, we can also show our interest by helping it materially. It was so in the primitive Church, and the Apostles lovingly accepted material help to the cause of the preaching, seeing in it an expression of Christian love and zeal.

In our days, these offerings are especially needed, because for the lack of them the work often comes to a dead stop. For the lack of them preachers can not be sent out, or supported, churches can not be built or schools founded, the needy amongst the newly converted can not be helped. All this needs money and members of other religions always find a way of supplying it.

Perhaps, you will say, that these people are richer than ourselves. This is true enough, but great means are accumulated by small, and if everybody amongst us gave what he could towards this purpose, we also could raise considerable means. Accordingly, do not be ashamed of the smallness of your offering. If you have much, offer all you can, but do offer, do not lose the chance of helping the cause of the conversion of your neighbors to Christ, because by so doing, in the words of St. James, "you shall save your own soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins."

Orthodox people! In celebrating the day of Orthodoxy, you must devote yourselves to the Orthodox faith not in word or tongue only, but in deed and in truth.

"Horton" Hears A Tiny Orthodox Mission

Some people have asked from time to time what life in a tiny Orthodox Mission Community is like.

The best answer to that question comes from my wife, who made the following comparison after lunch today:

There is a wonderful climax in “Horton Hears A Who”, the delightful 2008 American CGI-animated comedy feature film based on the Dr. Seuss book of the same name. No one – except Horton the elephant – believes that there can possibly be life on a tiny dust speck on a flower, until, finally, at the end, the citizens of the microscopic Whoville gather together and shout “We are here! We are here!” They are not heard until JoJo, the teenaged son of the mayor of Whoville, adds his amplified voice to the proclamation pushing them over the top. The animals of the jungle hear, Horton is vindicated, and Whoville is saved.

My wife says: 

Life in a tiny Orthodox Mission Community is a bit like that. At Holy Protection in Fort Saskatchewan Alberta we are but a tiny dust speck on the flower of Orthodoxy, doing all we can to proclaim “We are here! We are here!”

May God grant us people like “Horton” who will champion us because they “have ears to hear”, and more folk like "JoJo" whose efforts will add to those already being offered and make the difference.

Glory to God for all things!

The Scourge of Minimalism

Minimalist Art - Artist Unknown

Today's post is from an article I have written for our Local weekly paper, The Fort Saskatchewan Record, for their regular column, “Pastor’s Pen” which is shared by the clergy of the city and region. The article will appear in print on February 6th.

You've likely experienced minimalism, since it’s all around us. 

 Minimalism is when someone (including collections of "someones" like corporations or even nations) does the very least that they possibly can get away with.It's one of the things at the heart of our "do the least to get the most" society.

 It’s what we experience when a salesperson is helpful, but just barely, without a smile or any eye contact, making it plain that he or she really isn’t interested in helping out. 

 It’s what we have when a politician tells us the truth, but again, just barely, neglecting the fullness of the truth that doesn’t fit in with his or her goals. 

 Minimalism in public education is what has happened when students graduate from secondary school who can’t add up a column of numbers without a calculator, who can’t spell properly without a spell-checker, and who can’t express themselves well because they’ve never been taught to communicate without text-messaging.

 And minimalism is what we practise when we give minimal directions to someone who is lost instead of saying,“Come on. I’ll take you there.”

 Minimalism is all around us, and sadly it has even become present, perhaps even dominant, in the forms of Christianity practised in North America. 

 Minimalism in Christianity is what we get when people teach that all that’s needed to get into God’s heaven is to say a short prayer and be a good person. That’s not Christianity, at least not as taught by the Apostles, all but one of whom died for the truth of Christianity.

 Minimalism in Christianity is what we get when worship styles are determined not by Scripture or enduring Christian Tradition, but by secular pollsters telling us what kind of music and preaching people really like to hear, and when the liturgical worship witnessed to in the Bible as a reflection of the reality of heaven [Isaiah 6.1; Daniel 7.9-14; Revelation, Chapters 4 and 5; and Hebrews 8.1-6] is tossed out because it’s difficult, and demanding, and because “people just aren’t into that, you know.”

Minimalism in Christianity is what has happened when the narrow way of struggle taught by Christ and His Apostles seems more like a paved highway to heaven, Phase Three at West Edmonton Mall or the Grand Promenade on a luxury liner.

 And minimalism in following Christ is what has happened when a growing number of people outside the Faith observe those within (if they even trouble themselves to look) and say “Why bother?”

 Our Lord and God did not model such minimalism when He Who is the Creator of all that is took upon Himself the flesh of His creation, or when He agonized in the Garden of Gethsemane before His arrest. Nor was such minimalism modeled for us on the Cross, or in the deaths of millions of Christian believers since then. The Bible does not recognize minimalism except when it refers to those who worship God with their lips while their hearts are far from Him. [Isaiah 29.13; Matthew 15.8], or to the Pharisees, whose teachings are not evidenced in the way they live. [Matthew 23.3]

 Minimalism is a scourge (What’s a scourge? Think about the Black Plague which decimated Europe in the Middle Ages) … Minimalism is a scourge that is decimating our society and our Christian assemblies. It dulls the witness of the Christian Faith and robs Christians of the fullness of the saints.

 I pray that we who are called by the Name of Jesus Christ – we who call ourselves “Christians” – will demand a robust and strong Christian Faith from our pastors, and not shy away when we get it. To God be glory for ever and ever!

You will have noticed that I haven’t mentioned any particular “brand” of Christianity by name, nor have I referred to the Holy Orthodox Church. This is because of the nature of writing in a secular community newspaper. I also do not imply that the Orthodox Church is exempt from this scourge – we, too, are infected. As our Master said: Let those who have ears to hear, hear!”

Gone, But Only Temporarily

I am off tomorrow morning (Monday, January 16^th) to Alhambra, California for the Annual Clergy Seminar.

This year we will be listening to our main Speaker, Harry Boosalis, Th.D. Professor of Dogmatic Theology at St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, as he addresses the theme: Knowing God, Suffering For Him, Loving the People: The Personal Experience of the Parish Priest.”

As always, it will be a joy to see my Father in Christ, Archbishop JOSEPH, and my brothers from across our two dioceses, which cover the West Coast of North America from the Mexico-US border in the South north to, and including, Alaska, East to the Eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and further to the centre of the Canadian Prairies!

Posts here and on my blog are not likely []:-{)

But The Bible Says.....

Still Life with Open Bible - Vincent van Gogh, 1885

One of the things I learned early in ministry was to stay away from conversations which began, “But the Bible says...”

Whenever I hear those words, I watch out - a fight (or at the very least an argument) is about to break out, because when it comes to the Bible, everybody (and I mean EVERYBODY) has an opinion. The trouble with opinions is like the trouble with free advice - they’re worth about what you pay for them.

 

One of the most challenging questions I’ve ever heard about the Bible was this:

“What is the method by which you interpret the Bible?”

Now I know that the mere question itself upsets some folk. They’ll try to tell you that  “We let the Bible speak for itself” or “The Bible is the Word of God, it doesn’t need interpretation.”

But the truth is, nobody (and I mean NOBODY) reads the Bible alone. Everybody brings something to the table when it comes to the Holy Scripture. What people bring could be almost anything, but no one comes to the Bible without preconceptions and bias.

1611 Authorized Version - "The King James Bible"

Just look at all the different translations out there. Every one has its own bias, and none is free from interpretation. I mean, how can one possibly avoid interpretation? Anyone translating from ancient common Greek (the language of the New Testament) has to do some interpreting in order to make the text understandable to readers. Which is how it should be.

The problem is not about translating Greek into English (or any other language for that matter). The problem lies with what other things affect interpretation - like one’s view of sin, or salvation, or church, or most of all who one believes Jesus is. All of these colour our attempts to say what the Bible really means.

When people say “But the Bible says...” They’re usually not going to tell you what the Bible says, but what they believe it MEANS! And that’s interpretation. The issue is not about whether a person or group has an interpretation, but about which interpretation they have! It’s not about which Bible translation is the purest, or which is the most faithful to the original text. And it’s not about which Christian group uses which translation and which group really teaches what the Bible says. The issue is the means of interpretation is being used, because everyone uses one, and all methods of interpretation are not equal.

If you and I are to be responsible Christians “rightly dividing the Word of God” (2 Timothy 2.15), then we need to ask what the source of our Bible interpretation is, and where it came from. Because, until we do, we will be at the mercy of all the people who stand ready to tell us in no uncertain terms - and in contradictory terms - “But the Bible says...”

We Orthodox – we Slavs and Byzantines, and yes, we North Americans too - interpret the Holy Scripture through the lens of the Church - looking especially at the Church's Councils, especially the Ecumenical Councils, and the Church Fathers – paying particular attention to those Fathers who wrote homilies and commentaries. 

Our method of interpretation is quite simple: we ask the question

“What do the Fathers say?”

and then we do everything in our power to stick with what they have said through thick and thin, trying never to deviate from the path they have scribed. For the Orthodox, novelty and originality are not virtues, but the first steps to falling way from the Truth we have received.