Dan and Ilona’s Wedding

The location was wonderful for an outdoor wedding and celebration.  The Burlingame Chrystal Springs Golf Course has a beautiful overlook that is the choice of many wedding couples.

 

The couple rehearsed themselves for the real thing.

Then it was time for Dan and Ilona to be joined in matrimony.  The flower girl did her part perfectly.

The Bobosh party was ready – photo op for sure.

The rehearsal worked!  All went well and the newly weds rejoiced.

 

The wedding party showed a little flair.

 

The Bobosh contingence which invaded California was happy with all things.

 

 

The wedding brings new folks together who start off on a new path.

 

Mr and Mrs Bobosh and friends.

 

May God grant them many years of concord and joy!

Cheering a Troubled Soul

While Christ commanded us to love one another, it is we who have to incarnate that love in our every day life situations.  That love can take more forms, some counter intuitive.  The stories handed down to us from the desert fathers often help us see incarnated and acted out the nature of Christ like love.

“Three old men, of whom one had a bad reputation, came one day to Abba Achilles. The first asked him, ‘Father, make me a fishing net.’ ‘I will not make you one,’ he replied. Then the second said, ‘Of your charity make one, so that we may have a souvenir of you in the monastery.’ But he said, ‘I do not have time.’ Then the third one, who had a bad reputation, said, ‘Make me a fishing net so that I may have something from your hands Father.’ Abba Achilles answered him at once, ‘For you, I will make one.’ Then the two other men asked him privately, ‘Why did you not want to do what we asked you, but you promised to do what he asked?’ The old man gave this answer, ‘I told you I would not make one, and you were not disappointed, since you thought I had no time. But if I had not made one for him, he would have said, ‘The old man has heard about my sin, and that is why he does not want to make me anything,’ and so our relationship would have broken down. But now I have cheered his soul, so that he will not be overcome with grief.’ ” ( The Sayings of the Desert Fathers translated by Benedicta Ward, pgs. 28-29)

The Creed of Tertullian

On the 7th Sunday of Pascha (the Sunday after the Feast of the Ascension), the Orthodox Church commemorates the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council (325AD).  These Fathers were working to preserve the unity of the Church by defining what it is that Christians believe.  They began formulating what we know today as the Nicene Creed – a basic statement of faith which all can use to defend the basic teachings of Christianity and to define what exactly does a Christian believe.

What the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council adopted, was not a statement they invented suddenly, but was a summation of what Christians agreed was the basic teaching of Christianity about the Triune God.   Already in the Second Century we see the elements of the Creed expressed in other church fathers such as Tertullian.

“Quintas Septimius Florens Tertullianus (c. 160- c. 225)[…] Tertullian was not, at heart, a philosopher: his training had been in rhetoric and law.[…] He certainly had a good grasp of legal theory and principles.[…] He has no time for ‘Stoic Christianity’ or ‘Christian Platonism’ and continually, time after time, lays stress on the Rule of Faith, the truth of the teaching of the Church. And what is the Rule of Faith? None other than those beliefs, immovable and immutable, set forth in Tertullian’s Creed; the Rule, that is, of believing in one omnipotent God, the Creator of the world, and his Son Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, on the third day raised again from the dead, received into the heavens, where now he sits at the right hand of the Father, destined to come to judge the living and the dead through the resurrection of the flesh.”    (David N. Bell, A Cloud of Witness: And Introduction to the Development of Christian Doctrine to A.D. 500, pg. 91)

Images of Salvation (PDF)

The blog series reflecting on the theology of salvation which began with the blog Images of Salvation (I) is now available in one document at Images of Salvation (PDF).

You can find links to all my blog series available as PDFs at Fr. Ted’s PDFs.

Image of Salvation (XIX)

This is the Nineteenth and last blog in this series exploring ideas about and images of salvation.  The first blog is Images of Salvation and the previous blog Images of Salvation (XVIII).

The Church in its long history has offered many images of salvation – the teachings are rich and varied, a veritable treasury of knowledge to help us understand and enter into God’s salvation.  Unfortunately, sometimes Christians themselves engage in theological reductionism and limit ideas of salvation to one theme (this is done with other ideas as well, such as an understanding of baptism).  Andrew Sopko notes:

“… the mystery of redemption itself has gradually been reduced to a system of morality, or more properly, ‘appropriate behavior’ regulated by legalism.”  (FOR A CULTURE OF CO-SUFFERING LOVE, p 16)

We have seen though that baptism is a river of salvation in which we are washed and cleansed by its many currents (see The Baptism of Regeneration).  Baptism accomplishes many things – the many things necessary for the restoration and salvation of a human being.   Among the benefits of baptism are

Renewal, the remission of sins, healing, regeneration,

redemption,  incorruption, sanctification,  illumination,

the final destruction of demons, purification, adoption,

the loosing of bonds, a new birth, transformation,

clothed upon with the new man, a partaker of Christ’s resurrection,

numbered with the first-born whose names are written in heaven.

We see in the blessings and benefits of baptism a wealth of images, experiences and understanding.  We find in Christian the riches and depth of the experience of salvation.  St. Leo the Great (d. 461AD) sums it up this way:

“Our Saviour, dearly beloved, is born today; rejoice!  For it is not fitting that we give any place to sadness when Life is born, the Life which, consuming the fear of death, has filled us with joy because of the eternity He promises.  No one is excluded from this gladness.  One reason for joy is common to all, since Our Lord, the destroyer of sin and death, as he found no one free from sin, came to deliver us all.  The saint is to exult, for he is nearing his palm.  The sinner is to rejoice, for he is invited to forgiveness.  The pagan is to take courage, for he is called to life…

… And so, dearly beloved, we are to give thanks to God the Father, through His Son, in the Holy Spirit, to Him who, in the abundant mercy with which He has loved us, has had pity on us, and ‘when we were dead in our sins, has brought us to life together with Christ’, so that we may be in Him a new creature, a new work.  Let us, then, take off the old man with his works, and become partakers in the generation of Christ, renouncing the works of the flesh.  O Christian, realize your dignity: you are associated with the divine nature, do not turn back to your past base condition by a degenerate way of life. Remember that you have been rescued from the power of darkness, you have been transported into the light and the kingdom of God. By the sacrament of Baptism, you have been made the temple of the Holy Spirit.  Do not make such a guest take flight by perverse actions nor submit yourself again to the devil’s slavery, for you have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, for He will judge you in truth, He who has redeemed you in mercy, He who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.”  (THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT & THE FATHERS by Louis Bouyer, p 530)

Ascension (2013)

Today we celebrate the Ascension of our Lord which commemorates the events described in Acts 1:1-12.  Forty days after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, He ascended before their very eyes into the heavens.  Very early on in church history the Christians celebrated the Ascension as one feast together with Pentecost as part of the closure to the Paschal feast.   Though our minds are shaped by a ‘historical’ reading of Scriptures and a liturgical calendar which somewhat follows the events in Christ’s life as they might have happened historically, the early Christians did not concern themselves with keeping the Ascension 40 days after Pascha, but celebrated it together with Pentecost.  Eventually the Christians embraced or ‘invented’ the historical way of keeping events in Christ’s life and thus was born a separate Feast of the Ascension forty days after Pascha and a calendar year of liturgical celebrations.  Archimandrite Job Getcha writes in his book about the Church’s liturgical life and development says:

“Indeed, in the early centuries, the entire fifty-day paschal period was a time of rejoicing in the resurrection of Christ, during which fasting and kneeling were suppressed.  The integrity of this period was fractured, out of concern for historicity, by the introduction of the feast of Ascension on the fortieth day.   (footnote:  ”Epiphanius of Salamis… writes: …during the 50-day Pentecost, during which we do not bend the knee or fast…”)        . . .     As we have already seen, the fiftieth day after Pascha, at least in Jerusalem, originally marked the completion of the paschal season, as Egeria witnesses in her description of the feast of Ascension-Pentecost…   By the first half of the fifth century, however, the Armenian Lectionary already indicates two distinct feasts.”    (THE TYPIKON DECODED, pp 263, 275)

How the feast has been kept has changed over time, but its significance as an event in the salvation of the humankind has been recognized and honored by Christians through the centuries.

St. Thalassios the Libyan (7th Century) writes:

“God, who gave being to all that is, at the same time united all things together in His providence. Being Master, He became a servant, and so revealed to the world the depths of His providence. God the Logos, in becoming incarnate while remaining unchanged, was united through His flesh with the whole of creation. There is a new wonder in heaven and on earth: God is on earth and man is in heaven. He united men and angels so as to bestow deification on all creation.” (The Philokalia: Volume Two, pg. 312)

Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow (d. 1867) writes:

“The effect that Christ’s Ascension had on the Apostles, according to the testimony of the evangelist Luke, may seem surprising: ‘They returned to Jerusalem filled with great joy.’  We might have expected them to be dismayed at their separation from their Master and Savior, yet they are full of joy… Why is this?  They rejoice because now their faith is made perfect and their minds are open to the understanding of the mysteries of Christ.  They believe, and they know that as Christ, by His Resurrection, broke the gates of hell and led the faithful out, so, by His Ascension, He opens the gates of Heaven and leads the faithful in.”   (Michael Quenot,  THE RESURRECTION AND THE ICON, p 189)

Image of Salvation (XVIII)

This is the Eighteenth blog in this series exploring ideas about and images of salvation.  The first blog is Images of Salvation and the previous blog Images of Salvation (XVII).  The next blog is the last in this series.

Salvation is about restoration and hope.  The unity of the universe which had been sundered by sin, is restored.  And though this renewal and restoration and regeneration of all things at times requires struggle (taking up the cross daily to follow Christ) and even suffering for the truth, it offers the hope that in the resurrection of Christ we see God triumphing over everything including sin and death itself.

“Therefore, we must never weaken in our trust of God or fall away from Him.  Though a soul be overburdened with sins, through it be guilty of all the crimes in the world, though it be defiled beyond all imagination, that soul must trust in God.  If that same soul uses every means and endeavor to become free of sin and turn to the path of good, but cannot get stabilized in anything upright, and even sinks ever deeper into evil, still that soul must continue to trust.

That soul must not abandon its spiritual weapons and labors, but must fight and fight, struggling with itself—and with its enemies—with all its courage and with untiring effort.  We must know and understand that in this unseen war, all are losers except that person who never ceases to struggle and to keep faith in God.  For god never abandons those who fight in His armies—although at times He allows them to suffer wounds.”  (Jack Sparks, VICTORY IN THE UNSEEN WARFARE,  p 34)

The restoration of the entire cosmos involves work – thus the Divine Liturgy is the work of the people of God to bring all things into the right relationship with the Creator.  At the Liturgy we work together with God for the salvation of the world.  St. Augustine  (d. 430AD) writes:

“We have to remind ourselves that our Lord Jesus Christ came not only for the salvation of the poor but also of the rich, not only of commoners but also of kings. He refused all the same to choose kings as disciples, refused rich people, refused the nobly born, refused the learned; but instead he chose poor, uneducated fishermen, in whom his grace would shine through all the more clearly…And if he had first called a king, the king would have said it was his rank that was chosen; if he had first called a learned man, he would have said it was his learning that was chosen. Those who were being called to lowliness and humility would have to be called by lowly and humble persons.”  (POVERTY AND LEADERSHIP IN THE LATER ROMAN EMPIRE, p 93)

Through the Cross joy has come into ALL the world.  God saves and offers His salvation to all.  It is not God who rejects us, but we can reject God and His salvation.  God has been working lovingly for our salvation through the centuries, acting to bring all people to Himself.

“Thus God, from the beginning, fashioned man for his munificence; and chose the patriarchs for the sake of their salvation; and formed in advance a people, teaching the uneducated to follow God; and prepared the prophets, accustoming man on the earth to bear his Spirit and to have communion with God; he himself, indeed, having need of nothing, but granting communion with himself to those who stood in need of it.   To those that pleased him, he sketched out like an architect, the construction of salvation; and to those who did not see, in Egypt, he himself gave guidance; and to those who were unruly, in the desert, he promulgated a very suitable Law; while to those who entered into the good land he bestowed the appropriate inheritance; finally, for those converted to the Father, he killed the fatted calf and presented them with the finest robe.  Thus, in many ways, he harmonized the human race to the symphony of salvation…”  (John Behr, ASCETICISM AND ANTHROPOLOGY IN IRENAEUS AND CLEMENT, p 53)

A beautiful phrase:  God “harmonized the human race to the symphony of salvation.”   God the great poet creates the words and the melody of salvation for the world.  His salvation has been offered to us in various times and ways (Hebrews 1:1).  Entering into God’s salvation is not a matter being at the right place at the right time.  St. John Chrysostom (d. 407AD) proclaims that salvation is not available only to those who are born in a Christian culture or at a time when holiness abounds.  Chrysostom says:

“How can I, Scripture says, be in the world and in the midst of so much troublesome business and be saved?  What do you say, O man?  Do you want me to demonstrate briefly to you that the location does not grant salvation, rather, the way of life and the deliberate choice?  Adam in paradise, as if in a harbor, suffered shipwreck.  Lot in Sodom, as if in the open sea, was saved.  Job was justified upon the dunghill.  Saul, who was found in the midst of the treasuries, fell out of the earthly and heavenly kingdom.”  (ON REPENTANCE AND ALMSGIVING,  p 126-127)

Accepting and believing in salvation is not a matter of predestination nor of location in space and time.  It is a matter of faithfulness to God, and of love for God, wherever we happen to be.

Next: Images of Salvation (XIX)