Meditations: Nativity-Theophany 2005-2006

The Nativity of Christ

January 6, 2006 - Theophany, The Feast of Lights

Dear Parish Faithful,

Today is the Feast Day of Theophany, or the Manifestation of God, also called the "Feast of Lights."  Yesterday evening, we celebrated a wonderful Vesperal Liturgy followed by the Great Blessing of Waters.  With many parishoners in attendance and receiving Holy Communion - including families with children - it was a very festal and joyous celebration.  With so many people present and taking some of the Holy Water home in containers, as is the tradition surrounding this Feast, there is not a drop of Holy Water left!  Therefore, we will again perform the Great Blessing of Waters on Sunday following the Liturgy, as is our custom.   And we also cancel our Church School classes on the Sunday After Theophany, so that our children can be present for this service.

Theophany is the original Christmas, for in the early centuries it was on this day (Jan. 6) that the Birth of Christ was commemorated together with the Coming of the Magi, and the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan, as a series of "manifestations" (literally "shining forths") of God to the world.  Here is a fine summary of the Feast taken from The Synaxarion, the book that records the Lives of the Saints and the Feast Days of the Church on a daily basis.  Under "The Sixth Day of January" we read the following:

At the completion of the thirty hidden years in which he had passed through all the stages of the common life of man and had shown exemplary humility in all that he did, obedient to his parents, and submissive to the Law, Our Lord Jesus Christ entered upon His public ministry - the path that would lead to His Passion - by a dazzling revelation of His divinity. For the Father and the Holy Spirit then bore witness that Jesus is truly the Only Son of God, consubstantial with the Father, Second Person of the Holy Trinity, Word made flesh for our salvation, the Saviour foretold by the Prophets; and that, in His Person, the Godhead is united without admixture to our humanity and has made it shine with His glory.  Hence this feast of the Baptism of Christ has been called the Epiphany ('manifestation') or the Theophany that is to say, the showing forth of the divinity of Christ and the first clear revelation of the Mystery of the Holy Trinity.
The Synaxarion, VolumeThree - January, February, p. 64

The light of the glory of God was shown forth when the Lord was baptized, for Christ is Himself the "Light of  the world" Who dispels the darkness of ignorance and sin.  He reveals the glorious Light of the Holy Trinity in all of Its undivided and everlasting splendor.  Expanding this theme, The Synaxarion goes on to tell of a certain tradition concerning this divine light:

        Some say that this blaze of Divine Glory, this light brighter than any light of this world, became
        perceptible at the moment of Christ's baptism, like as it appeared at Tabor on the day of the
        Transfiguration (6 Aug.), for it is actually in the brilliant light of the divinized humanity of Christ
        that we are initiated into the Light of the holy Trinity.
 
        O Word all-shining forth from the Father,
        Thou art come to dispel utterly the dark and evil night
        And the sins of mortal men,
        And by Thy Baptism to draw up with Thee, O blessed Lord,
        Bright sons from the streams of Jordan.  Second Canon of Matins, fourth ode
 
        Accordingly, the feast of Theophany is also known as the Feast of Lights.  This first revelation of
        God as Trinity (Tri-unity) is also the manifestation of the final vocation of man, who is called to
        become the adoptive child of God, the anointed (christ) of the Holy Spirit and partaker of the
        threefold Light through being made conformable to Christ in the sacrament of holy Baptism, which
        finds its origin in today's feast.  The Synaxarion, Vol. Three - January, February, p. 67-68

    We therefore understand that our path to this heavenly Light takes us through our own baptism, when we "put on Christ" by entering, sacramentally, into His death and resurrection. 

     The water we bless in Church through the magnifcent prayer of sanctification, used at this Feast and every baptism, is identical to the water that was blessed and transformed when Christ was immersed in it at His own Baptism.  We pray that "now as then" the water we bless will receive "the blessing of Jordan, the grace of redemption."  The Synaxarion goes on to tell us of some of our practices stemming from the presenc of "holy water" in the Church:

        Therefore, after being sprinkled with it in the church today, the faithful  drink of it and put it into
        bottles which they take to their homes in order to sprinkle it in their houses ... and things of
        daily use.  Remaining miraculously pure for months and even years, the waters of the Theophany
        and all water sanctified by the Church  can be used in every situation to accomplish the renewal
        and the sanctification of the world and to make  of the entire Christian life an unceasing Theophany,
        a revelation of the light of the Glory of God.  The Synaxarion, Vol. III - January, February, p. 70

     Following Pascha, the two great Feasts of the Church are Nativity and Theophany, two glorious commemorations that flow one into the other as one holy celebration of God revealing Himself to the world in the face of Christ as a saving and illuminating and sanctifying Light.   

     As I mentioned yesterday, the day is fast-free, though a Friday, in honor of the Feast.  As we may enjoy the relaxation of the fast, may the joy of the Feast be uppermost in our minds and hearts as the sanctification we received in the Liturgy and the Great Blessing of the Waters carry over throughout the course of the day.

Fr. Steven

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January 5, 2006 - The Battle Of The Calendars

Dear Parish Faithful,

We received our new Church wall calendars (from St. Tikhon's Monastery Bookstore) this week and they will be available for purchase this coming Sunday.  They are very well made and contain a good deal of information for each day:  the main Feasts or saints being commemorated, the daily scriptural readings, and the rules for fasting.  Each month has a fine reproduction of an icon at the top; and there are excerpts from Archbishop Paul of Finland's excellent book These Truths We Hold.

As an example, for today, January 5, we read on the calendar:  Strict Fast - Eve of Theophany.  The Eve of Theophany is always a "strict fast day" - no meat, fish, dairy products, oil or wine - as a means of preparation for the great Feast Day of Theophany, a Feast as significant as that of the Nativity.  This is the first day of fasting since Christmas.  This is meant for everyone, but it needs to be especially observed if you are intending to come to the Vesperal Liturgy this evening and receive Holy Communion in celebration of Christ's Baptism and manifestation in the Jordan.

For January 6 itself, you will read:  The Theophany of Christ - No Fast.  Even though as Friday it is a normal fasting day, the fast is set aside in honor of the Feast, always a day of rejoicing.  We are celebrating the Feast this evening with the Vesperal Liturgy - "in anticipation" if you like - in order to enable more of you to participate.  So, the Liturgy that we celebrate this evening, is the Liturgy for January 6.  This is liturgically sound, for we begin the new day at sundown with the celebration of Vespers which, in this case, precedes the Liturgy.  The Great Blessing of Waters will follow.

In the past I have used the term "the battle of the calendars."  This is meant to express the tensions we may feel and experience as we are often balancing our lives in the Church and in the world.  We may have two calendars up in our kitchens or some such spot in the house:  a Church calendar and a secular calendar.  They each express a particular "way of life" beyond the dates and appointments penciled in.  The Church has a definite rhythm that is centered on its liturgical cycles and seasons of fasting and feasting.  This is totally foreign to "the world," which will ridicule such a "rhythm" as archaic and irrelevant.  Yet, such a tension should, ideally, not even exist, for Christ came "for the life of the world."  For Christians there really doesn't exist a "religious" life and a "non-religious"/secular life, as if the two were neat compartments of experience.  There is no aspect of life that has not been redeemed and healed by the presence of Christ, at least potentially.  There is simply the one Christian life, known by the earliest Christians as "The Way."  The rapid secularization of our society and culture drives us toward this awkward and artificial compartmentalization, for such a society is publically indifferent to God or the very idea of the transcendent, and insists on containing God within the subjective abode of private conscience or the objective walls of a church building.   Hence, the "battle" that presents itself to us as we are repeatedly forced to establish priorities, and make choices that reflect our commitments.  Perhaps it is here that we need to recall the words of Christ:  "Where your treasure is, there shall your heart be also." 

As we fill in our secular pocket planners or calendars with more and more activities, dates, plans, etc.,  the Church is "squeezed out" and the Church calendar is reduced to a quaint and colorful ornament on the wall that has no real significance beyond Sunday - the family "Church day."   A Wednesday or a Friday is not meaningful because we recall the betrayal and crucifixion of Christ on those days, and thus fast as liberating ourselves from the world that ignores or rejects Christ; but because that may be the day we have classes, planned activities, appointments, or sit down to our favorite sit-com.  The commemoration of a great saint - and January is 'loaded" with them - cannot compare with the latest movie star's marital or divorce status, or the mind-boggling size of the lastest "superstar's" multi-year, zillion dollar contract.  And the scriptural readings given to us on a daily basis don't stand much of a chance up against the TV guide listings! 

So we "battle" to give God, and our Lord Jesus Christ, more time and attenion in our lives.  The cycles and rhythms of the Church calendar invite and introduce the Lord into our daily lives. The Church calendar in and of itself is meaningless, if not harmful, if it becomes some kind of an idol formally adhered to - but at least it will point us in the right direction. 

Fr. Steven

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January 2, 2006 - A Tale Of Two Sundays

Dear Parish Faithful,

What a stark contrast between the last two Sundays in the church!  On Christmas Sunday the church was overflowing with people as we assembled together to worship the Son of God become flesh.  One week later, on the Sunday of the New Year, the church was conspicuous for its lack of people.  Far fewer than on a "normal" Sunday.  We often begin the Liturgy with a small group, but the church usually fills up as the Liturgy unfolds.  Yet not this time.  More than a few people even shared the same observation with me yesterday.  As far as I can recall it is the only Sunday that I did not see a single person standing in the open space in the back of the church during the procession for the Great Entrance.  More than half of the Church School seemed to be absent.   The line to venerate the Cross at the end of the Liturgy had all passed through well before we had completed the post-Communion prayers, etc.  So, as I began, there was a stark contrast between the last two Sundays. 

Perhaps all of this was simply coincidental, and many people were absent for "a cause worthy of a blessing" as the Liturgy mentions.  But was this actually due to the fact that yesterday was New Year's day?    Please forgive my naive observation, but wouldn't that be the very reason for the church to be filled up once again?  As in:  let's begin the New Year by getting our priorites straight - God comes first!    Or, as in:  let's make a point of being in church even if New Year's day falls on a Sunday, so that we can faithfully seek the blessings of God for a good and fruitful year as we face the uncertainties of 2006.  How faithful are we being if "parties" and "sleeping in" prove to be intrusive and keep us away from church?   What do all of those "Happy New Years" and exchanged kisses even mean without the one unchanging reality of Christ - "the same yesterday, today and tomorrow?"   Of course, our "Christmas Orthodox Christians" will not be back until they fulfill their role as "Easter Orthodox Christians" at Pascha, but for those who are more faithful perhaps there exists a need to re-assess any New Year resolutions to ensure that Christ is at the center of any and all commitments to change for the better in the upcoming year of 2006.  One of the special petitions that we offered up to God at Great Vespers on Saturday evening, is rather close to that thought:

That He will renew a right spirit within us, and strengthen us in the Orthodox Faith, and cause us to make haste in the performance of good deeds and the fulfillment of all His statues, let us pray to the Lord.

Another petitions mentioned "a sinless life in health and abundance."  I do pray that on behalf of one and all in the parish.  Yet, we are "realistic" enough to know that that will not be the case for each and every one of us.  Joys and sorrows are facing us in this new year.  Our anchor and stability will be Christ.  Somehow all will be well if we can glorify Him in our joys, and cling closely to Him in our sorrows.  The Church is the Ark of salvation.  When we are on board, we will not sink in the flood waters of danger and instability. 

Let us fill the church up again!

 

For those who missed the schedule for the upcoming week, it is as follows:

Fr. Steven

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December 29, 2005 - Towards a Godly New Year's Celebration

Dear Parish Faithful,

Being away from the parish from Monday morning until today, I have not had the opportunity to offer a few comments on our celebration of our Lord's Nativity.  Very briefly, we had an "awesome" Liturgy last Sunday morning that was truly festal and beautiful.  With a full church there was a great sense of liveliness and energy in addition to a genuine sense of worship and prayer.  The church was crowded as it is for Pascha.  How gratifying and encouraging for me as the parish priest and your pastor, to see that (seemingly) no one fell prey to the utterly foolish temptation to not come to church on Sunday morning because it was Christmas Day!   And we had  many faithful present at the festal Matins on Saturday evening.  I hope that beyond that, everyone had a blessed Feast Day that was filled with the peace and joy that we began the day with in the Liturgy.  Again, a truly wonderful celebration of the awesome Feast of our Lord's advent in the flesh!

With the Civil New Year approaching this weekend, perhaps we are forced (there is never a let up!) to struggle and overcome something of a similar temptation:  to miss church on Sunday morning after a late-night New Year's celebration.  If New Year is on a Sunday for 2006, then so be it.  It is the Lord's Day on which we also commemorate the Circumcision of the Lord and St. Basil the Great.   So, our first priority is to be in church for the Liturgy Sunday morning and to treat our Saturday evening in such a way that makes that possible.   In fact, I would strongly urge those of you who will "celebrate" the New Year in one manner or another, to first come to church for Great Vespers and the special prayers that we will offer to God for a blessed beginning to the New Year.  To celebrate or commemorate the New Year as a Christian would be to first turn to God in prayer and thanksgiving, and then to go our way to a party, a dinner engagement, social gathering, etc.  Since Great Vespers begins at 6:00 P.M. there is plenty of time to do this.  Don't worry about being inconvenienced.  Or needing time to "dress up" or prepare for the evening.   Let the pagans, the secularists and atheists ignore God!  But let Orthodox Christians attend first to the things of God! 

Even though we remain in a Fast-free period (until January 4), we still need to show care and vigilance in our eucharistic fast before the Liturgy and the reception of Holy Communion.   In other words, we still use "midnight" as the time that we begin our fast in preparation for Communion the following morning.  However you may decide to spend New Year's Eve, that should remain the  basis for being prepared or not in relation to the Eucharist on Sunday morning.

Fr. Steven

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December 23, 2005 - God Comes To Us As A Child

Dear Parish Faithful,

A short, but wonderful passage from Fr. Alexander Schmemann on one of the central "themes" of the Nativity.  The first two themes that he outlined were the re-opening of Paradise through the coming of Christ; and the "humiliation of God," as He descends to our level in order to raise us up as His newly-created children.  He then writes the following:

The third theme of the Pre-feast is the appearance of God as a child and the meaning of this birth.  The icon of Mary and the Christ Child is an adequate representation of Christianity.  It is the icon of the incarnation.  Christ appears there as a child as He does on that first Christmas for which we are preparing.  There is a unique experience in a child for adults.  Childhood is a symbol of joy for the child as well as for adults.  We love a child for itself.  The child gives us pure joy.  We love the child for the joy of the child's presence.  The child then is a revelation of joy and happiness.  God then manifests Himself to us first as a child, as joy and love.  God's love is a child's love and the meeting place of God and man is in a child.  A child's faith is pure and simple faith.  We are all called to believe as a child and we are called to respond to God as we do to a child.  This is the reason for Christmas being a Feast for children.

If we can shed some of our "sophistication" - a euphemism for scepticism - then we will be able to celebrate the Feast of our Savior's Nativity in the flesh with child-like simplicity, something different, of course, then being "childish."

I hope to see everyone in church on Saturday evening for the festal Matins and Sunday morning for the Divine Liturgy.

Fr. Steven

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December 19, 2005 - The Nativity 'Holy Week': Preparing For The Feast

Dear Parish Faithful,

The Feast of our Lord's Nativity has its own form of a "holy week" that begins on December 20 and culminates, of course, on December 25 and the Liturgy of that day.   This holy week lacks the over-all intensity of the primary Holy Week preceding Pascha; as, for example, there are no prostrations that accompany the services.  However, we continue and complete the Advent Fast that began on November 15.  It is our responsibility as Orthodox Christians to maintain this fast as well as possible- especially during this "holy week."  As usual, we find an eloquent explanation in the writings of Fr. Alexander Schmemann:

    We fast in preparation for the One who is our salvation.  This fasting is not fasting for salvation in negative
    terms.  Negative salvation is salvation in terms of reward and punishment.  This Christmas cycle explains
    salvation in positive terms, that is our return to Paradise in Christ.  It is a time of anticipation or
    expectation.  In this sense, during this time we are already in the Feast, but we wait and will partake of it
    fully when it comes.  This pre-celebration then anticipates the Feast.  The theme of this prefeast is man's
    return to Paradise.  We can partake of it through Christ's birth.  The Christmas cycle of services explains
    positively what Paradise is.  The liturgical services feed us a taste of Paradise until we experience the full
    impact on Christmas day.  Then we can fully rejoice.
 
    We must prepare for the Feast.  There is no entrance into in without preparation.  And to prepare we must
    direct our inner-vision toward what is to come.   We cannot participate in the feast unless we anticipate it
    seriously and fasting is one of those means of preparation.  Our fasting must be positive - cleansing of one's
    self to prepare for the power and joy of the Feast, and not a negative fast in which we remove unnecessary
    things.

Of course, we pray and give alms in the name of Christ during this time.  And we confess our sins if we still need to. Liturgical prayer is made possible through the cycle of prefestal services, some of which are scheduled here in our parish.  We will serve the prefestal Vespers on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings.  Then Royal Hours on Friday morning; and Festal Matins Saturday evening at 7:00 p.m. before Sunday's Liturgy.

 

Fr. Steven

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December 16, 2005 - The Church: The Radical New Family of Christ!

Dear Parish Faithful,

    My frustration level is currently quite high.  I spent a good deal of time yesterday preparing a meditation that would go out today after some further additions as "Fragments for Friday."  However, due to some slight computer problems, I  managed to lose the entire piece!  I cannot possibly re-write it at the moment, but will simply summarize - in a less polished and somewhat hurried form - some further reflections I was offering on the article I discussed last Friday, "When Christmas Falls on Sunday, Megachurches Take the Day Off."   The article posed the question:  should churches encourage people to stay at home within the warm atmosphere of their families on Christmas Day; or should they venture out to church on Christmas Day in order to assemble together to celebrate the Nativity of Christ.  I would maintain that it would take a colossal misunderstanding of the nature of the Church, worship, the fellowship of believers, and the Christian meaning of "family," to "cancel" the services on any given Sunday - even Christmas Sunday! - for the sake of "family happiness."  Since such cancellation of services will never happen within the Orthodox Church, the issue remains somewhat of a theoretical one, but since such an issue also reflects the types of discussions current among other Christians, perhaps we need to offer an Orthodox response.

    Therefore the purpose of my lost meditation was to get across the point that as Christians concentrate and focus on their own "natural" families, this is often at the expense  of realizing that there exists the "ecclesial/Church" family of which they are members.  (Although I am not so sure just how well a "megachurch" with its thousands of members and multiple "programs" divided among genders, age groups, and needs, can maintain any sense of the church as "family" even though they promote themselves as "family friendly").  Our natural familial ties are universal, strong and instinctive.  Our lives begin within the primary, if not primal, "social" context of the family.  We learn about love, care, sharing, and compassion within our families.  That is why our hearts are so troubled when we encounter abused, abandoned or orphaned children.  We realize what they have been deprived of.  To a great extent, we are genetically and environmentally shaped by our family background.  The nature of our families - within a range that includes the large, cohesive and loving; to the small, fragmented and miserable - shapes the adult that we will one day be.  A "healthy" family is the basis for  the eventual and hopeful emergence of a "healthy" adult.  Human being know and experience this outside of the biblical revelation - though that revelation (GEN. 1-2) imparts to it a theological depth that is essential.

    Yet, for all of our current talk of "family values" today, the New Testament concentrates on the "family" of Christ's disciples - the "family" of the Church - much more than on the natural family of everyday experience.  Christ, the evangelists, and the apostles may presuppose the family as we know it, but it is the new reality of the Church, called into existence by the very advent of Christ, that is at the center of their teaching.   In fact, one of the most radical teachings of Christ actually "subverts" some of the notions of the family that we take for granted:

 

        Peter began to say to him, "Lo, we have left everything and followed you."  Jesus said, "Truly,
        I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children
        or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses
        and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to
        come eternal life.  (MK. 10:28-31)

 

     Thank God that today most of us do not have to make that choice!  Yet, the receiving of new and different "houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children" clearly refers to the new relationships formed between Christ's disciples which are related to us using the language of the family that we experience as indicating deep and lasting bonds.  If a believer in Christ encounters unbelief in his own home, among his own family members, he may have to look elsewhere for a new family!  And he will find that family in the Church.  The very language of the Church reveals this quite clearly.  In the Church we, as the adopted children of God, worship our heavenly Father in His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, as "brothers and sisters."   As the Evangelist John, we have been placed under the maternal care of the Theotokos:  Woman, behold, your son!" ... "Behold, your mother!"  (JN. 19:26-27)  We gather together as a family for the eucharistic meal that we share from a "common cup."  Newly baptized members of the Church have sponsors that we usually refer to as godparents, thus making them godchildren.  In other words, a profound new set of relationships develop among members of the Church that are best described, in order to capture the proper sense of intimacy and closeness, using the language of the family.  Because of the biblical nature of this language, nothing sentimental is being implied here. These are new "spiritual" relationships" that transcend the merely natural/biological:  "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."  (JN. 3:6)

    This does not occur, however, as instinctively and "naturally" as do our natural family relationships.  This is really an organic process that takes time and great effort before we are able to actually experience the Church, and our local parishes,.as a family united in Christ.  There are many obstacles to overcome - including human sinfulness.  We generally experience our fellow parishoners as friends, acquaintances, or even as nameless strangers.  However, the Church as a family of believers does remain the ideal.  Since we usually equate the "ideal" with the unreal or unattainable, perhaps we should say that this is the vision that we are forever striving towards.  We thus learn to expand our hearts to embrace many others, and to extend our love to, and care for, a great diversity of human persons - perhaps even people that we would not be naturally inclinced toward.  By the grace of God, I have had a slight taste of seeing small and neglected children slowly learn to become a family in Christ and be healed by the grace-filled life of the Church. This occurs by the grace of God that "heals that which is infirm."  That expansion and extension of our love, concern and fellowship can frankly go a long way in helping us overcome a sort of "family idolatry" that is a real temptation when we remain insular and overly-protective and preoccupied with "our own."

     In the article that is behind these reflections, we read of the "family friendly" strategy of one particular megachurch:  "What we're encouraging people to do is take that DVD and in the comfort of their living room, with friends and family, pop it into the player and hopefully hear a different and more personal and maybe more intimate Christmas message, that God is with us wherever we are."

     How hopelessly vapid and banal!  Not even a "drive-by" Nativity scene!   We fully believe that Christ is Emmanuel, "God with us;'" and we should state that we need to minister to unfortunate peope who are "shut ins" due to illness or other misfortunes.  But the "coziness" implied in the above approach reflects a sad misunderstanding of what it means to first gather as the Church for worship, thanksgiving and fellowship before all else on a great Feast Day such as the Nativity of Christ.  Perhaps this is an inevitable result in a-liturgical churches that focus more on entertainment than genuine worship.  

     To state the obvious, our families are essential to all of us.  We enjoy various family traditions, many of which are actualized every year at Christmas.  Yet, as baptized and chrismated Christians, we belong to the family of the Church.  We are truly blessed with an ongoing Tradition of unimaginable depth and beauty.  We are responsible to live  this Tradition to the fullest -  not only to live off the Tradition.  We assemble as a Body, as brothers and sisters in Christ, especially on Sundays and Feast Days.  And now the two are combined on December 25 of this year of our Lord 2005!  As I stated last week, it would be inconceivable to miss this celebration unless dictated by unforseen or unfortunate circumstances.  In coming to church for the Liturgy that day, we will rejoice in the Lord and marvel as His mysterious and ineffable Advent in the flesh.  We will venerate the holy Theotokos and continue to call her blessed.  We will be in awe as to how the Uncontainable One is contained in a cave.  We will be the family of the Church, thus receiving the grace and blessings of God in return.

Fr. Steven

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December 14, 2005 - St Herman of Alaska: Living Reproach to Worldliness

Dear Parish Faithful,

For many Orthodox Christians in North America - especially those in the OCA - December 13 has become a very imporantant feast day that falls during the Nativity Fast.  This is the day that Blessed Fr. Herman of Alaska reposed in the Lord (and it is also the day that Fr. Alexander Schmemann reposed in the Lord in 1983).  Fr. Herman, a humble Russian monk and missionary to Alaska 1n 1794 was glorified/canonized as a saint of the North American Church in 1970, the year that the Orthodox Church in America received its autocephaly.  Churches, missions and people have been named afer him ever since.  On his path to the Kingdom of Heaven, St. Herman became a living reproach to "worldliness."  This is admirably - and rather sharply! - stated by Fr. Thomas Hopko in the chapter "The Feast of St. Herman" taken from his well-known book The Winter Pascha.  Even though this mailing is a day behind, I found the following two paragraphs to be very challenging at a time of year when we join together Christmas and consumerism, perhaps in too uncritical a manner:

 

        American Christianity desperately needs the witness of Saint Herman, for the American way of life
        is so radically opposed in so many ways to the life of this man and the Lord Jesus whom he served.
        Power, possessions, profits, pleasures:  these are the things that Amercians are known for.  These
        are the goals that we are schooled to pursue.  These are the things in which we take pride.  And,
        sadly  enough, these are also the things that many of us are taught to value by our "religious leaders,"
        both by their words and their examples.  But this is not the way of the Lord Jesus Christ.  And it is
        not the way of His saints.

 

             By American standards, Saint Herman of Alaska, like the Lord Jesus Himself, was a miserable
        failure.  He made no name for himself.  He was not in the public eye.  He wielded no power.  He
        owned no property.  He had few possessions, if any at all.  He had no worldly prestige.  He played
        no role in human affairs.  He partook of no carnal pleasures.  He made no money.  He died in
        obscurity among outcast people.  Yet today, more that a hundred years after his death, his icon is
        venerated in thousands of churches and his name is honored by millions of people whom he is
        still trying to teach to seek the kingdom of God and its righteousness which has been brought to
        the world by the King who was born in cavern and killed on a cross.  The example of this man is
        crucial to the celebration of Christmas - especially in America.
 

     Granted, St. Herman was a monk living alone in the wilderness of Alaska, and we - either married with children or living a single life - are in the spiritual/cultural wilderness of a large urban environment.  Yet, Fr. Hopko, basing himself on the example of the humble St. Herman, certainly touches on some essential points about our approach to our lives in general as Orthodox Christians.  I found one phrase particularly striking when he referred to Christ as "the King who was born in a cavern and killed on a cross."  In those two movements of "self-emptying abasement," our Lord Jesus Christ aligned Himself with the poor and suffering of this world.  Those are two conditions of life that we flee from as from a plague, but which our Savior assumed in His humility, thus sanctifying both and hopefully making us more attentive to those who may find themselves ignored by "the world."  There is no better time than that time of year when we once again celebrate His advent among us as the Uncontainable One contained in a cave.

Fr. Steven

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December 12, 2005 - When Christmas Falls on Sunday...

Dear Parish Faithful,

I came across an article of interest this morning in the New York Times, entitled:  "When Christmas Falls on Sunday, Megachurches Take the Day Off."  This is proving to be quite controversial within the Evangelical Christian churches.  As a prominent Evangelical biblical scholar, Ben Witherington III has responded:

"I see this in many ways as a capitulation to narcissism, the self-centered, me-first, I'm going to put me and my immediate family first agenda of the larger culture. ... If Christianity is an evangelistic religion, then what kind of message is this sending to the larger culture - that worship is an optional extra?"

I find that to be a perfect summation - a "direct hit" - of precisely what is happening within some of these megachurches.  They may be "family-friendly," but they are also offering "theology lite" in the process.  Especially when you are offered an auditorium with cushioned seating and not a sanctuary for the "worship" services, together with a cup of coffee!  This is all very understandable, however, when you find such churches "making it up" as they go along, completed divorced from the living Tradition of the Church and rather arrogant in their dismissal of that Tradition - established on the blood of the martyrs we may add.  The sociologist, Nancy Ammerman, make it clear that the great megachurches around the country are "known for being flexible and creative, and not for taking these traditions, seasons, dates and symbols really seriously."

The article goes on to make the point that a great part of the controversy stems from the fact that this year, Christmas falls on a Sunday for the first time since 1994.  This has fueled the controversy because Sunday is the Lord's Day, and instead of playing into the reluctance of some to "take the day off," the churches should be open because of the special significance of every Sunday.

Perhaps the most startling thing about the whole article is that the Orthodox Church is mentioned!  Here it is:

"In many Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, known for their rich liturgical traditions, Christmas Day attracts far more worshippers than an average Sunday.  Grown children return with their parents to parishes they belonged to when they were young."

In other words, many Orthodox experience a bout of nostalgia around this time of year.  And if that is what brings certain Orthodox to church on a given day, then so be it - there is always the possibility that nostalgia for childhood memories can deepen into something far deeper ...  For some of those "grown children" may also notice some real and substantial changes in their childhood parishes - if indeed those parishes survived the loss of many of its members over the years.  They may now attend a service in a language that they can fully comprehend - English - and therefore hear the power and beauty of the Gospel being expressed in all of its splendor.  I have heard more than once:  "I wish I knew what was being said and sung in the past."   They may also see many young couples and their children filling the church and obviously taking it all very seriously in terms of commitment to the Church and the Gospel.  They may hear more challenging and articulate preaching addressed to a far more educated faithful.  And they just may be "rubbing shoulders" with "converts" to Orthodoxy - people who have made the decision to embrace the Orthodox Faith by entering into the Orthodox Church - One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic.  These are clearly some of the major changes that have occured in our parishes over the last few decades, during which time many of those "grown children" have fallen away.

It is, of course, inconceivable for the committed Orthodox Christian to miss the festal Liturgy of Christ's Nativity.  Our church will be more filled than usual, I am anticipating.  But I would urge everyone to extend their participation to include the beautiful festal Matins on the Eve of the Feast (Christmas Eve) that we will celebrate.  In addition, we will serve the Royal Hours for Nativity on Friday morning, and pre-frestal Vespers all through the "holy week" leading up to the Feast.  This way, you are experiencing something of the full festal cycle through which we rejoice in the Incarnation of the Son of God.  An Orthodox Christian needs to build up an awareness of being part of a larger "family" - the family of the Church, where as "brothers and sisters" in Christ we worship our heavenly Father through His Son Jesus Christ in the power and grace of the Holy Spirit.  There is still more than enough time for our particular family traditions at home. 

The article that I read led to the reflection above.  Frankly, it is rather easy to criticize these megachurches (the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, in Lithonia, GA, has about 25,000 members!) because they are catering to the consumer demands and even the narcissism of our contemporary culture, as mentioned above.  We may shake our heads and smile or groan when we hear of some of the "Jesus entertainment" offered in those churches; but ultimately, we have to "examine" ourselves and understand to what extent are we putting the "one thing needful" in our own lives.

 Fr. Steven

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November 23, 2005 - Building Up Barns?

Dear Fathers, Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

At last Sunday's eucharistic Liturgy, we heard the Parable of the Rich Landowner; or, a bit more provocatively, the Parable of the Rich Fool, from the Gospel According to St. Luke. (LK. 12:16-21)  This parable is relatively succinct, so perhaps it will help to have it before us once again:

        And he told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully;
        and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?'  And he
        said, 'I will do this:  I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all
        my grain and my goods.  And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for
        many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.'  But God said to him, 'Fool!  This night
        your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'  So is
        he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

Right before delivering the parable, Jesus says something that very clearly points toward the meaning and purpose of this particular parable:

        Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man's life does not consist in the
        abundance of his possessions.  (LK. 12:15)

Not a bad summation - timeless in its application - of how we should approach our own abundant possessions!  The parable, then, is meant to drive this point home even further and more convincingly through the telling of a "realistic" story.  The landowner, secure in his wealth and social status, as revealed in his ambitious long-term planning, is transformed, "in the twinkling of an eye" - or at least "overnight" - into a "fool."  His foolishness is based upon the fact that in the process of laying up treasure for himself, he was not rich toward God.  He seems to have forgotten God in the busy process of becoming wealthy and self-assured.  In addition, Christ seems to be implying that to forget the ever-present reality/possibility of death is also a sure sign of foolishness.  The most obvious (and most unpleasant?) truths are the ones somehow most readily forgotten.  In relation to the landowner, I cannot resist the temptation to a bit of moralizing and wondering aloud:  just who wept over him the next morning?

In the Psalms we hear the following:  "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God'."  (PS. 14:1; repeated at 53:1)   I would suggest that this assessemt refers to a form of "practical atheism," and not to the thorough-going "theoretical atheism" of today's world.  In other words, I believe that we can speak of atheism on at least the two levels: the theoretical and the practical.  Theoretical atheism refers to the intellectual conviction , arrived at by various routes, that God does not exist.  God does not and cannot exist the theoretical atheist will assert.    The reasons behind this position can range from the cosmological to the existential.  This particular "belief" is embraced by many today. I would argue that it would be anachronistic to apply this form of theoretical atheism to the foolish man chided by the psalmist. 

Practical atheism refers to the condition of claiming to believe that God exists, but living as if He did not.  In other words,  one may theoretically believe/claim that God exists, for reasons ranging from the cosmological to the existential, but on the practical level of "everyday life" lead a life in which God is marginalized; paid lip-service to through formal means of worship (including "religious affiliation"); or called upon in times of desperation.  A person is then acting as if God did not exist, in that God would have no impact on a life so lived.  The "fool" of the psalms and of Christ's parable strikes me as being this type of an "atheist."  At least the parable gives no indication - as does nothing else in the Gospels - that Christ was referring to a theoretical atheist.  Christ was describing in vivid terms the consequences of living a life as if God did not exist.  Such a person is self-centered and not God-centered.  The self replaces God as the center of both existence and attention, or as the "apple of the eye."   Perhaps the landowner was reduced to such a condition because he was more and more distracted by the accumulation of his wealth, thus creating a false sense of security within his mind and heart. 

Perhaps we can describe this wayward relationship with God by using another expression:  forgetfulness of God.  Absorbed in the cares of life - including our inclination toward a life of ease in which we eat, drink and make merry - we can somehow "forget" about God as He slowly recedes from our everyday consciousness.   As Christians we may continue to observe all of the proper forms, including regular church attendance, but on the deeper level where it really "counts" our energy is directed to our own equivalent of the foolish landowner's "barns."  As we are building our own personal barns, we can be forgetting about God - and even about our own mortality.  Since the death rate continues to remain steady at one hundred per cent, that does seems to be more than a little bit foolish!   Forgetting about God has further consequences for us:  forgetting to pray, give alms and fast; read the Scriptures; adhere to the moral/ethical demands of the Gospel - from honesty to loving the enemy; see our neighbor; and so on.  It is precisely the remembrance of God that our entire spiritual tradition teaches us, including the (healthy!) remembrance of death.

How absolutely enticing it is to "build up new barns" for the future so as to hold our accumulated wealth, and then plan for a time of ease for the soul, in which the delights of eating, drinking and making merry occupy our energy and attention!   How uttery normal and natural!  I am certainly not trying to "soften" the impact of this rather stark parable, but I am also not certain that Christ is speaking against any or all of such earthly joys.  To envision or plan a life one day free of hard work in which we can spend more time with our children and grandchildren - or other leisure activities - is not somehow "unchristian"  or foreign to the Gospel!  But in the Parable of the Rich Fool Christ revealed the tragic consequences of what that may "cost" us on the deeper level of our relationship with God, based on as essential remembrance of God.  "Take heed and beware of all covetousness" taught Christ.  It is the sure path to practical atheism, the forgetfulness of God and even idolatry.  Such is the teaching of the Holy Scriptures.  In the end that could be the difference between serenely saying to God:  "Lord, not lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace;" rather than hearing from God: "Fool!  This night your soul is required of you."

We commonly think of "getting rich" in terms of the "abundance of possessions."  Yet, in the parable, Christ spoke clearly of being "rich toward God."  In so doing, He clearly places God over the possessions.  That is a choice that confronts us daily.

May your Thanksgiving Day be blessed!

Fr. Steven

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November 16, 2005 - Nothing Like A Good Book

Dear Parish Faithful,

In this week's Monday Morning Meditation, I suggested the possibility of reading a "classic" during the Nativity Fast in addition to the Scriptures and/or a good book on the Incarnation.  I am referring to classical literature, from Homer's Iliad & Odyssey to, let's say, Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, and the other great works of world literature in between that far-ranging  time span.  Every great writer brings a serious moral and ethical depth to his/her work of literature, primarily in the form of raising these issues within a particular dramatic context - the narrative plot - and thus raising our awareness of them.  We always come away greatly enriched by the reading experience;  more aware of life's joys, sorrows, and complexities; and perhaps even wiser through broadening our range of understanding human nature.  And, of course, we all enjoy a good story, well-told and embodied with very human characters that we can relate to. 

I wanted to list some of my own personal favorites as suggestions just in case you were thinking of taking up a good book in the near future but were hesitating because of the myriad of possibilities.  I am primarily concentrating on the English and Russian novel - my favorite genre -  though with an  exception or two; and listing books that I have read myself and immensely enjoyed.  Sorry, no synopses - just titles!

 

The last four novels by Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Pasternak are pretty ambitious undertakings, but well worth the time and effort.  Speaking of "ambitious," there is always The Divine Comedy - Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso by Dante Alighiere

--------------

While I am at it:  in addition to the Scriptures, here are a few suggestions from the wide range of Orthodox theological writings, from both the great Church Fathers and contemporary theologians and pastors.  Some of these books are directly related to the upcoming Feast of the Nativity, but many are not - they are simply excellent books that belong on everyone's "short list" for learning more about our Orthodox Faith and inspiring us in our practice of it:

No doubt, it is a bit of a challenge to make the time in order to do some quality reading.  However, if you are searching for "quality time" or even some sanity-restoring "quiet time," the joy of reading good literature will prove far more than just satisfying.

Fr. Steven

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November 14, 2005 - The Nativity Fast: Our Subversive, Counter-Cultural Call To Arms!

 

Dear Fathers, Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

This Monday morning finds us - in addition to life's many complications - on the eve of the Nativity Fast that begins tomorrow, November 15.  Are we aware and are we prepared?  Nothing like a fast before Christmas to engage in some genuine "counter-cultural" activity!  If taken seriously, and acted upon with vigilance, it is almost subversive of the reigning social order.   Perhaps for the simple reason that the Nativity Fast places Christ at the center of our attention, rather than the multiple substitutes that have accumulated over the years.  That has always been subversive throughout the centuries - even within the Christian cultures of the past.  But from our limited perspective, it seems even more so today. 

Cliches, repeated over time, lose their effectiveness due to their obviousness.  And yet, after abandoning them for that very reason, the truth they declare may become forgotten, ignored, or too easily "tolerated."   At the risk of losing your attention by beginning with a time-honored Christian cliche, I would like to offer, by way of reminder, a blunt restatement of the obvious: Christmas has been trivialized and commercialized.  It has been  overwhelmed in the process.  In short, Christmas has become virtually unrecognizable here in North America.  And yet, ironically, this is the only reason that it has been tolerated in our secular society to the extent to which it is to the present!  Without this downward transformation engineered by the twin processes mentioned above, Christmas would long ago been confined to the Churches as an overtly religious celebration.  All the ingredients for this unavoidable result have long been intact:  pluralism, secularism, capitalism, consumerism, etc. 

Briefly, then, I believe that that is the socio-cultural context in which we begin our own preparation for the Nativity in the flesh of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ - to give the Feast its full liturgical title.  We are certainly going to participate in the above, but we may need to access to what degree and at what cost.  Can we brace ourselves to become "counter-cultural" by being Christ-centered in some meaningful and recognizable form?   I do not mean gritting our teeth and then launching a veritable reign of terror in our households as part of a determined campaign to "put Christ back into Christmas."   That would be one more "abortive attempt at holiness," as Metropolitan Anthony Bloom once wrote.  But I do mean gladly embracing the Church's approach and direction as the "right one" meant  either to build upon an existing relationship with our Our Lord, or to restore a lost one.  According to the teaching of Christ, conveyed to us through the Church, that is only possible through prayer, fasting and almsgiving.   A Church-centered preparation means postponing a good deal of the celebrating that the culture at large offers before the Feast arrives.  There exists, then, an unavoidable tension between Church and "culture" that demands some choices on our part.  Those choices, however, could determine the experiential difference between a quietly-developed joy that is more lasting in duration; and a rather seasonally-generated "happiness" that is basically the equivalent of a "good mood."

I began by writing of an approach both serious and vigilant concerning the Nativity Fast that begins tomorrow.  In addition to setting some realistic - and yet challenging - goals about fasting, prayer and almsgiving, we could also keep the following in mind:

Wherever Christ is present, the "impossible" becomes "possible."  At what other time of the year is that so available than when we prepare to celebrate His advent in the flesh?

 

Fr. Steven

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