"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.

Reflections After Serving The Royal Hours of Theophany

I mentioned just before Nativity the price we pay for neglecting daily Services [here]. How else will we be shaped for eternity and gain the Mind of Christ – the Mind of the Church – unless we are at least as exposed to the doctrine of the Church as we pray as we are to the “doctrines” of this world through our exposure to various media. Not to mention the need for this for our children’s sake, with a daily exposure to a world-view that is less than Christian and possibly less than human,  in so-called “children’s television”, on the internet, and in both our public and separate school systems.

This morning at 9 am I was in our simple Temple for the Royal Hours of Nativity, with my dear wife, Khouriya Debbie, at the Reader’s Stand. We exercise the option given us by our bishop to serve all the Hours and the Typica consecutively at the time of the Third Hour, in part because several of our most active parishioners live at a fair distance and it is more likely that that would drive for one Service than four.

Services like The Royal Hours of the Nativity and then, less than 2 weeks later – today – The Royal Hours of the Theophany, expose us to Prophetic readings from the Old Testament which point to the great events of the Nativity and Theophany of our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ. They help us to make connections – connections we might never otherwise make – between what was promised by God either through a direct prophecy or through a type, and which has now been fulfilled as witnessed by the New Testament.

“Types” may be persons and/or events in the Old Testament (as with Jonah’s three day “burial” in the great fish) or simply phrases, like this one from the Psalms which is seen to be fulfilled in Christ’s Baptism in the Jordan River, and in the Great Sanctification of Water which occurs tonight at the conclusion of the Vesperal Divine Liturgy of St. Basil for the Theophany:

Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. [Psalm 73/74:13]

When such connections are made, we begin to be able to think with the mind of the Church – the Mind of Christ. With such connections, our Orthodox Christian world-view grows and develops and replaces the decidedly un-Orthodox worldviews prevalent in our society.

The same can be said for Great Vespers or the Vigil Service which is served on the Eve of every Feast. On these Feasts we find Old Testament prophecies which help us to connect with the Feast – not to mention the opportunity of sharing in the Artos Bread which is the tangible representation of the multiplication of God’s blessings:

“in the houses of those who celebrate this feast and in all thy world, and sanctify the faithful who partake of them.”

I love the way our worship enables and makes it possible for us to make these connections and grow in the attainment of the Mind of the Church. I pray for the day when more and more North American Orthodox Faithful will discover the growth that participation in Services like The Royal Hours and the Vespers/Vigil Service of Important Feasts brings to our lives.

Until then, we keep praying – and we keep making these realities available by offering these Services and trying to encourage the Faithful to participate without laying on guilt.

Glory be to Jesus Christ! May His glory be for ever!

In Our Church

ADVANCE NOTICE: the following joke could be used with almost any christian group - because in fact, many groups want to make this claim - but in my experience, it works best this way:

Once upon a time, there was a meeting of the Pastors of a local community who had gathered to address the issue of what could be done to help those who were in need,  the hungry and homeless. After some discussion on the subject and after they had made some decisions about outreach the hungry and homeless the discussion shifted to they way they each conducted worship services. The Orthodox priest in the group kept pretty quiet, neither asking questions nor volunteering observations. Finally, they all turned to him and said, “Father, you’ve been very quiet. Don’t you have anything to say about our different worship styles, or perhaps you could share how you guys do worship?”

After trying to get out of answering – he just wanted to go home by this point, but realized he’d missed his chance on that – he answered.

“Well, I guess we all have different ways of worshipping the same God. . . . You Roman Catholics like your vestments and bells and are committed to following along your tradition. And since there’s lots of folk who grew up in the Catholic Church I guess it’s OK that you to do things your way. . . . And you Charismatic folk – well, you seem to shy away from any kind of formality and like louder music and a contemporary sound and not much structure, but since many folks like things that way, I guess it’s pretty good that you do things your way. . . . And you Baptists and Alliance fellows – you’re very much committed to evangelism which I think is a wonderful thing, and you stick pretty close to the Bible when it comes to preaching and you try to find out where people are at when you design your worship services. I guess it’s pretty good that you do things your way. . . . And you Reformed folk – you’re pretty conservative I noticed, and you don’t really like much change, so you’ve stuck with the older style of music and a more traditional order of worship. I guess that since there are lots of people who grew up with that and like it, it’s OK that you folks do things your way as well.”

“But what about you guys in the Orthodox Church? How do you do things when you worship? They all asked him.

“Well, as I’ve said based on the people you want to reach and the different traditions you’ve all come from, you’ve all become pretty committed to worshipping God in your own different ways. We Orthodox, on the other hand, from the very beginnings have simply tried to continue to worship God in His way.”

A little blunt, perhaps, but at it’s core, it’s a pretty good summary of why we Orthodox Christians worship they way we do – with very little change And we all – many millions of us – worship God day in and day out in pretty much the same that that its always been done. In fact our “Contemporary Service” dates back a holy man named John Chrysostom., and the late 4^th Century – almost yesterday in the eyes of the Holy Church!

Our worship is perhaps the greatest reason why the most effective evangelical invitation we can give people is that of our Master, 

 

                  “Come, and see.” [John 1.39]

And why would this be so?

First, “Come and see” is a most effective evangelical invitation because worship is prayer, and prayer is an encounter expressing and leading to our union with God, and that’s what converts folk – encounters with God. You and I may very well be instrumental in bringing people to Christ our God, perhaps even to the point where we become as parents to them in the Faith, but ultimately conversion is a matter between God and each individual.

I remember attending a seminar on evangelism in my pre-Orthodox days, and I was struck by something one of the presenters said. He asked the rhetorical question,

“What’s the most important thing about the evangelical encounter?”

And his answer, delivered after we’d had a few moments to consider it, was:

“Duck! – or, in other words, get out of God’s way!”

Each of us has the ability – perhaps disability would be a better word – to get in God’s way when it comes to drawing people into the Faith once delivered. I know this because I am among the first in this area. I love to talk about the Faith. Let’s be honest, I love talking and perhaps even love the sound of my own voice too much! And it’s all too easy for me to drown a fragile enquirer in my words. So much simpler just to say “Come and See” and let them be confronted with the Word Who is revealed and encountered in Orthodox worship – Christ Jesus Himself.

Second, “Come and see” is the best evangelical strategy because it is in our worship that who we are as Orthodox Christians is most fully revealed. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, and heard of, people reflecting on an Orthodox worship experience with such words as “It’s all about Him, isn’t it.” And, “You do all this when there’s so few people present? Wow!”

May we find such joy in our participation in the liturgical life of the Church that we may be bold enough to say “Come, and see.”

Glory be to Jesus Christ! May His glory be for ever!

Revolution Not Resolution – The Problem with Resolutions

Every year it happens, the light of a new year hits us and we make resolutions – resolutions to do better than we did last year at just about anything: dieting; quitting smoking or any other vice; getting more exercise; doing more reading; spending more time with family...the list just goes on, doesn't it?

And then, as if the harsh light of New Year's Day wasn't enough, we go back to work, the kids go back to school, and everything "gets back to normal" – whatever normal is. And that "normal" is usually powerful enough to resist our best intentions and spoil our resolutions! In fact, some of us reading this may have already found that we haven't kept our New Year's resolutions for 2012 – and it’s still New Year’s Day!

What's up with resolutions, anyway? Why do we make them, and, more importantly, why do we so often fail to keep them?

Resolutions come from deep within us. The Church teaches that we are fashioned in God's image but that that image is marred – covered over and stained, if you will. The Good News is that it's still present in us. If it weren't still there, we'd cease to exist.

And that overlooked and almost forgotten image of God deep within is why we're never quite satisfied with our condition, and why we're always seeking self-improvement, to better ourselves.  The image of God within us causes this, and it's a good thing.

One of the more contemporary Fathers, St. Nicholai of Zicha, describes this in terms of memory – a memory of Paradise that exists in some manner beneath thought and emotion – in the bone of our bones, if you will – a deep and forgotten memory that both unsettles us and makes us yearn for more.

And so the problem is not with our desire to be better. The desire to improve is God-given.

And the problem is not with making resolutions to fulfill that desire. Taking steps to act upon this God-given desire – matching our will to our desire – is a good and noble thing.

The difficulty is that our well-intended and firmly desired resolutions are not enough. It is the resolution itself – how we respond to that God-given impulse to get rid of the stuff in our lives that isn't right, or to get more of the stuff that is right - that is our problem.  This is because most of the time our resolutions only address the surface issues – what professions refer to as "the presenting problem".

Let's pick just one: theft. 

Now, we all know that theft is wrong, but it's not enough to just decide that we won't steal again. Nor is it enough to just tell someone to stop stealing. Nor is it really enough to tell me to stay away from opportunities to steal. 

What’s needed is a change on a much deeper level, at the depth of our - of my - hidden motivations. In the Christian Faith, these "motivations" are referred to as "the passions", and they're what rule us, for good or ill, but usually not for good. St. Peter said:

"Beloved, I beseech you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh that wage war against your soul." [1 Peter 2.1].

Bruegel's Seven Deadly Sins

The reason why our resolutions so often fail is because we usually attack our "problems" instead of attacking their cause, the underlying passions which drive us.  What we need is not a resolution, but a revolution – the violent overthrow of the power within us that imprisons and captivates us.

In many of the writings of the ascetical Fathers of the Church, it is a violent revolution that is required in order to attain to the Kingdom of God. Good intentions are never enough! The battle within – the war to quell the passions that govern us – is just that – it's a battle!

The drive to improve, to get rid of the bad stuff in our lives and get more of the good stuff, is a God-given drive – part of being made in His image. And the Christian life – everything that happens after we become Christian – is  all about dealing, in God's Grace and by His help, with the passions, so that day-by-day, month-by-month, and year-by-year the image of God in us grows brighter and clearer. St. Paul declared that

"Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." [Galatians 5.24].

This year, no matter what your resolutions have been, let's start a revolution, by facing and attacking the things that control and motivate us, so that we can grow back into the image that is ours: the image of God.

“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” [Matthew 11. 12]