The Church – The Israel of God and The New Creation

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.  (Galatians 6:15-16)

In Galatians 6 St. Paul speaks about the Israel of God and the New Creation.  The Israel of God in this case refers to the Church, the Body of Christ.  St. Paul did believe that Christian believers were the Israel of God – not the New Israel (as versus the Old), but the continuation of the only Israel of God.  St. Paul does not use the phrase the “new Israel” but does believe that in Christ we are a new creation.  As Sergius Bulgakov wrote:  “The end of the world is not physical but metaphysical. In reality, the world does not end but is transfigured into a new being, into a new heaven and a new earth. ”  It is not just Jews or Christians who are renewed and transfigured but the entire cosmos.   St. Paul (and the entire New Testament) also does not use phrases like “True Israel” or “True Faith” when speaking about the Christian Church.  Actually the Church’s claim to be the “True Faith” is based upon the idea that we have received a true understanding of Christ and the world.  It is Christ as Truth that makes Orthodoxy true and the fullness of the truth.  “The greatest gift of Orthodoxy is its conviction of being the true faith, that is, a way of faith and life which possesses and proclaims the truth as a gift of God. At the heart of this awesome claim is Christ Himself who said; “I am the way, the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6). Based on the truth of the person and saving work of Christ, the Apostles and Church Fathers have bequeathed to Orthodox Christians a remarkably coherent and universal vision of truth pertaining to God, man, creation, salvation, Church, ethics, society, family, marriage, vocations, and so on.”        (Theodore G. Stylianopoulos, The Way of Christ)

The Christian Temple: A People Not a Place

“We ARE THE TEMPLE OF THE LIVING GOD”  (St. Paul, 2 Corinthians 6:16)

In Paul’s own letters…the implication is clearly that the Temple no longer functioned for him as the focus of God’s presence and as  providing the means whereby a positive relation with him can be maintained.  Thus he transposes the category of the Temple from a geographical place to persons and their immediate relationship with God through the Spirit; ‘Do you not know that you are God’s temple…?’ ‘Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?’; ‘We are the temple of the living God…’ (1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16) …. More striking still is the way in which the focus of divine presence (in ‘structural terms’) was  located for Paul not so much in the Temple as a sacred building, but in the body of Christ. … To the bulk of his first readers the  significance of this body imagery would be clear… In fact, we need look no further than the quite common comparison in Greek thought between the polis (city) and the human body… The point, then, which Paul’s first readers would readily have appreciated, is that the Christian communities of the diaspora could be said to have a corporate identity, as that of any city or corporation. … This means that Paul saw the small group of  Christians meeting in a member’s home as the body of Christ come together as church (1 Cor. 11:18). To be noted, then, is the fact that it was this coming and worshipping together, rather than the place where they met, which made them Christ’s body… For Paul, the point it clear: as members of the body of Christ, each has a function (Rom. 12:6), each has a ministry (1 Cor. 12:5), each has a charism (1. Cor. 12:5, 7; Rom. 12:4).       (James D. G. Dunn, The Partings of the Ways)

The Mission of the Church

 They forgot the mission of the Church is to engage the world directly as the Lord himself engaged it through His incarnation and said to the disciples: “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (Jn 20:21). In the end, the option of a “Holy Byzantium” distorts the universal, dynamic character of Orthodoxy, surrendering it to sectarianism, legalism, authoritarianism and obscurantism. It tends to foster an unloving, cultic and fanatical religiosity that once stood in mortal opposition to Christ Himself. We find a different vision in the thought of Father Thomas Hopko, of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. In an article on Orthodoxy and culture, Father Hopko is forthright, almost to the point of pessimism, about the grave dangers of Orthodoxy in the post-modern world. Nevertheless, he insists that to deny engagement with contemporary society by escaping to a world of our own making is to live “for illusions and delusions.” His vision of the task of Orthodoxy today is a clarion call to action. In his own language, which he describes at one point as “violent but true,” Father Thomas advocates numerous urgent priorities. Chief among them are to: 1) put Christ and His Gospel at the center our concerns; 2) think and act in truly conciliar spirit apart from narrow agendas, whether as individuals or parishes or entire Churches and patriarchates; 3) abandon the lie that the universal truth of Orthodoxy can equally be served while fully retaining our ethnic cultures and even the set forms of ecclesiastical institutions; 4) resist the temptation of viewing Orthodoxy as an ideology, a sort of hypostatized entity, unconnected with how we actually think and live, and 5) be wisely open and vulnerable to the world, both witnessing to the truth and accepting criticism because “wherever truth is, Christ is there.”         (Theodore G. Stylianopoulos, The Way of Christ)

Life as a Sojourn on a Stormy Sea

Matthew 14:22-34

Then Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was many furlongs distant from the land, beaten by the waves; for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear.  But immediately he spoke to them, saying, “Take heart, it is I; have no fear.” And  Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus; but when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “O man of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret.

 This Gospel lesson (9^th Sunday after Pentecost) immediately follows the Matthew 14:14-22 Gospel lesson of Jesus feeding the 5000 (used on the 8^th Sunday after Pentecost).    In the Orthodox Church lectionary these two Sunday Gospel lesson are linked by one verse, Matthew 14:22:  “Then Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.”  In the earlier reading (14:14-22), the disciples experience a foretaste of the Kingdom of God when Jesus multiplies the loaves and fishes in the wilderness feeding the thousands who had listened to him preach all day.  The event takes place in what Matthew calls “the desert” a place which is not well known for providing fish or wheat to feed the hungry!  This is how Matthew highlights the miracle for the event is reminiscent of the great Exodus where the Jews also hungered for lack of food and God provided for them.  (You can read my comments on that Gospel at Christ & the Crowd: You Feed Them).

After giving the disciples and the crowd that foretaste of the Kingdom of God, the same experience the Jews had during the Exodus in the desert, Jesus compels the disciples to get into the boat “to go to the other side” of the sea.  The disciples obey Jesus, but soon find themselves in great difficult struggling against a sudden squall which had blown up on the sea.

We have in this story an imagery of the Church.   We do experience with Christ a foretaste of the Kingdom – He converts bread and wine into His Body and Blood and feeds us every Sunday.  But we can only foretaste the Kingdom in the Liturgy – it is not a place for us to stay, but a moment for us together to give thanks to the Holy Trinity and to receive the grace of the forgiveness of our sins and nurture for our continued sojourn on earth. 

Like the disciples we are compelled not to stay in that mystical moment of experiencing God’s provision but to go ahead to the other shore – to continue on with the sojourn of our daily lives.  Like the disciples, just getting on with our daily lives can prove to be tempestuous and a trial of our faith.  The sea of life surges with the storm not only of temptation but of all manners of threats to our luxury not to mention our lives.   We are doing what Christ tells us – go ahead to the other shore – only to find the journey is arduous and dangerous.  And we wonder where Christ is in the moments in which our faith is put to the test.

There is in our Gospel story an unexpected lull in which the disciples think they see a ghost, and perhaps have come face to face with death itself; instead it turns out to be Christ coming to their rescue walking on the churning sea.  From this point of view the story is a resurrection story.  It is also a Transfiguration story for they see Christ able to do something not normally possible for humans and something they have never seen Christ do.   He is revealed as having a mysterious power to fearlessly walk through the storm as well as on the water. 

The storm and the transfigured mystery of Christ are given a hiatus when Peter asks to join Christ – is he thinking this is a dream or a vision?  Is he remembering the foretaste of the Kingdom and now he wants to experience a bit more?   In any case, Peter walks out into the storm toward Christ.  He suddenly is shaken out of his reverie.  For the text surprisingly says that only once out on the water does Peter “see the wind.”   Perhaps he was asleep or in a trance for the wind was a major part of what the disciples were already experiencing.  And then another startling phrase.  Peter “begins to sink.”   Now I think most of us know it takes but a second to sink in water.  One hardly “begins to sink” for one plunges into the water.   Peter is given grace though apparently entering into this transfigured moment, for as he comes to his senses as to where he is – as he awakens to reality he only begins to sink.   Jesus immediately reaches out and embraces his doubting disciple.  As reality dawns, Peter’s faith sinks.   Jesus will not allow His chosen leader of the disciples to be humiliated before his brethren.  Jesus saves not only his life but even his dignity. 

And in Matthew’s Gospel this transfigured moment leads to the disciples bowing down in worship before Christ.  For those who doubt that the first Christians recognized Jesus as more than a mere prophet, Matthew, considered to be the most Jewish of the Gospel writers, has them on their knees worshipping the Son of God.

For us, the recognition in our worship that Jesus is Christ, and Lord, and Son of God is what sustains us on our own spiritual sojourn.  We like the disciples in the Gospel lesson have not reached our destination – the other side.  Like them we experience the surging storms in life, and find comfort and strength even in the face of death in the presence of Christ in our midst.  He is and ever shall be.

You are the Church, God’s Temple

  1 Corinthians 3:9-17

We are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become manifest; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.

“That is why the Christian message, in such circumstances, is not a law that is imposed but something attractive that is proposed. It is not the business of the Church to dictate the laws on behalf of the State or to behave like some pressure group in obstructing them. The Church inspires and sanctifies, it does not compel; its business is to change hearts…The Church is, in Christ, the Church of the Holy Spirit; it is based not on hierarchy but on holiness…In the present crisis, which is a crisis of meaning, we must learn to see the Church once again as essentially the mystery of sanctification, abounding in paschal joy and the peace ‘which the world cannot give’, which ‘passes all understanding’. It is the chief task of the Church to nourish us with that peace and joy, renewing the Church in the parishes, making them real Eucharistic communities where people can learn to live in communion. In places like this we could take refuge from a life which is both frenzied and solitary, where all we are offered in compensation is anarchy and the chance to lose ourselves in instant sex or political extremism. Coming to these places without any ulterior motive, we could at last find beauty and tenderness, and the knowledge that death has been overcome, that there is no more need for scapegoats; being united in adoration, we could talk to each other freely. The first Christian communities were each called an agape, divinely inspired love, and the word more specifically denoted the meal of fellowship which followed, or surrounded, the eucharist. The Church urgently needs to restore these occasions of sharing and mutual help, around the eucharist (otherwise the common meal would remain mortal food) where the presence of the sacrament makes our service of one another sacramental also, and our need of celebration is purified and fulfilled…So the Church appears as the spiritual place where we are apprenticed to the Eucharistic life, where we learn what it means to be priests and kings; through the liturgy the world is revealed as transfigured in Christ, henceforth cooperating in its final metamorphosis. The Church’s cosmic mission is multiplied in the world by every liturgical person humbly exercising his kingship. It is in blessing that we are blessed.”     (Olivier Clément, On Human Being)

The Church: Realizing the Ideal

Our Lord Jesus Christ taught us Christians how we are to live in relationship to one another – in love and service to one another.  No Christians are exempt from this way of life.  All come to church, not supposedly to see what they can get out of it, but in order to imitate Christ – as the one who serves and looks to the interest of his/her neighbor before his/her own interest.   Two quotes from the saints below about how they think we should be living if we are following the Gospel commands which Christ gave to us.   The first by St. John of Kronstadt on “the Kingdom of love”:

Dislike, enmity, or hatred should be unknown amongst Christians even by name. How can dislike exist amongst Christians?  Everywhere you see love, everywhere you breathe the fragrance of love. Our God is the God of love. His kingdom is the kingdom of love. From love to us He did not spare His only-begotten Son, but delivered Him up to die for our sakes, “to be the propitiation for our sins.” In your home you see love in those around, for they are sealed in baptism and chrism with the cross of love, and wear the cross; they also partake with you in church of the “supper of love.” In church there are everywhere symbols of love: crosses, the sign of the cross, the saints who were pleasing to God by their love to Him and to their neighbor, and Incarnate Love Itself. In heaven and upon earth everywhere there is love. It rests and rejoices the heart, like God, whist enmity kills the soul and the body. And you must show love, always and everywhere. How can you not love when everywhere you hear love preached, when only the destroyer of mankind, the devil, is eternal enmity!                                      

The second quote is from St. John Chrysostom in which he offers us an ideal for the church.  However, Christianity is not mostly about ideals, but rather about love incarnate.  We are supposed to realize the ideals!   Here is Chrysostom on the unity of the Church: 

 He [Christ] brings us into unity by means of many  images…He is the Head, we are the body;…He is the Foundation, we the building; He the vine, we the branches; He the Bridegroom, we the bride; He the Shepherd, we the sheep; He is the Way, we they who walk therein; again, we are the  temple, He the indweller (enoikos); He the First-begotten, we the  brothers; He the Heir, we the co-heirs; He the Life, we the living; He the Resurrection, we those who rise; He the light, we the illuminated. All these things indicate unity; and they allow no void interval, not even the smallest. For he who removes himself but a little, will go on till he has become very distant.          

Being a Christian: Neither a Spectator’s Sport, Nor Theater

St. John Chrysostom once compared the Christian life to theater in the sense that at the end of the play as the actors take off their masks and go to their real/normal lives, so too Christians when their lives are over will be revealed for who they really are when they leave the stage of this world. 

 In a theater of this world at mid-day the stage is set and many actors enter, playing parts, wearing masks on their faces, retelling some old story, narrating the events. One becomes a philosopher, though he is not a philosopher. Another becomes a king, though he is not a king, but has the appearance of a king for the story…but when evening overtakes them, and the play is ended, and everyone goes out, the masks are cast aside.  …  The masks are removed, the deceit departs, the truth is revealed. He who is a free man inside the theater is found to be a slave outside; for, as I said, the deceit is inside, but the truth is outside. Evening overtakes them, the play is ended, the truth appears. So it is also in life and its end. The present world is a theater, the conditions of men are roles: wealth and poverty, ruler and ruled, and so forth. When this day is cast aside, and that terrible night comes, or rather day, night indeed for sinners, but day for the righteous, when the play is ended, when the masks are removed, when each person is judged with his works-not each person with his wealth, not each person with his power, but each person with his works, whether he is a ruler or a king, a woman or a man, when He requires an account of our life and our good deeds, not the weight of our reputation, not the slightness of our poverty, not the tyranny of our disdain-give me your deeds if you are a slave but nobler than a free person, if you are a woman but braver than a man. When the masks are removed, then the truly rich and the truly poor are revealed.  …   The same thing happens when this life ends.  

Being a Christian is not a spectator’s sport – we don’t attend church services to watch actors in a drama.  We are to engage in the Christian life daily.  We are called to ministry, to serve one another, to love one another, to pray for one another, to worship God, to keep the commandments of Christ, to give thanks to the Lord.   We don’t “go to church” to get something out of it, rather we go to work, labor, serve, minister, use the gifts of the Spirit bestowed upon us for the building up of the Church.   We don’t go to church for show either – we are not actors playing out our parts but waiting to return to the real world or to escape the real world by running to the play.   We are to always be ourselves at home, at work or at church, living out the Gospel life to the glory of God and for the love of neighbor.

From Shepherd to Hierarch

This is the 2nd blog in a series based upon the book, THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SPIRIT by Russian Orthodox priest and scholar Nicholas Afanasiev.   The first blog in the series is  The Grace of the Bishop. 

As in the first blog, I intend to mostly quote Afanasiev to let him speak for himself.  He offers in the book an historical overview of the development of hierarchy and clergy in the Church while defending the priesthood of all believers and noting that all in the Church (including priests and bishops) are also always part of the laity of the church and part of the flock of the One True Shepherd, Jesus Christ. 

“The faithful are shepherded by Christ, and only in a narrow sense of the word by their bishops, for all are Christ’s sheep and are in God’s flock.  Bishop preside over God’s flock, being themselves the sheep of this flock, just as the rest of the sheep led by Christ.”

“Tend the flock of God that is your charge… not as domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock.”  (1 Peter 5:2-3)

Afanasiev writes that in the early church (he calls it the primitive Church), the entire people of God shared the responsibility of discerning the will of God.   This is not a job for the bishop alone, for the Church is a living community, the Body of Christ and requires all members to be active for the Body to be healthy.

“The ecclesial assembly is the place where God’s will is revealed, while it is the people of the Church who examine the revelation and attest to its truthfulness.”

“In the early Church all administration, just as the whole life of the Church, was public.  Everything began and ended at the ecclesial assembly.”

“As with all of history, that of the Church is irreversible.  We cannot return to the time of early Christianity, not only because of radically changed historical conditions but also because the experience of the Holy Spirit’s guidance of the church accumulated through the passage of time, cannot be laid aside.”

The early Church in Afanasiev’s thinking is not just an ideal, a golden age, to which we must go back, but it did represent a very unique moment in the Church’s history which shaped the  growing Christian movement and was shaped by multitude of issues the expanding Christianity faced.

Change, sometimes subtly occurred.   For example, “The episcopal principle of unity of the local church replaces the eucharist.”   Afanasiev strongly believes that the Eucharist was the original unifying symbol of the Church.   The Church is the Body of Christ and this is made manifest in the Eucharistic assembly where the Bread and Wine are shown to be the Body of Christ because the Church is present and manifest in the Assembly of all believers.  But as the role of the presiders of the Eucharistic assembly subtly changed, so did the focus of the assembly.  The bishop became to be seen as the unifying factor in the assembly and all were to be in unity with him and he alone presided at the Eucharist.   This setting apart of the bishop meant he was no longer seen as part of the royal priesthood of all believers, but that he had a special priesthood that the rest – the laity – did not.   As the roles of the bishop and presbyter became more standardized in the emerging church, the bishop eventually replaces the senior presbyter as the one who presides at the Eucharist in each assembly.    As the bishops role became more clear, the role of the presbyters became less pronounced.    As time moved on the bishops become more diocesan hierarchs who then gave priestly ministry to the parish priests.   The presbyters role re-emerged as priest while the bishops became archpriests, hierarchs.

“Beginning with the era of Constantine, the Church becomes a body governed by law in the eyes of the Roman state authorities.  It is quite natural, but in turn, the Church recognizes the law as indispensable for itself.  This was the step that inevitably led to destruction of the primordial concordance or symphony between the people and the bishop.  The bishop becomes a high official and prince of the Church whose subjects are the people and clergy.”

Afanasiev claims that the increased emphasis on the apostolic succession used to combat heresies and false teachers eventually was combined with a notion that emerged over time in the Church: the notion of the high priesthood of the apostles.    Basically the argument which evolved was that  Christ was the high priest and the apostles received and preserved the high priesthood of Christ.   The apostles then passed on the high priesthood to the bishops.    This is how the bishop’s role changed in emphases from being pastor/shepherd to high priest (hierarch).

Next:  The Church of the Future: From Hierarch back to Shepherd?

Multiplying Ministries Enables Church Growth

Sermon for the Sunday of the Myrrhbearing Women  1984         Epistle Lesson: Acts 6:1-7

Do you think the early Christians ever complained about the way the holy apostles were leading the Church?

Can you imagine someone saying, “That St. Peter plays favorites in the community.  He talks to the same few people and always makes sure his ‘friends” are taken care of first.”

O how about, “There’s St. John, he’s a good Gospel writer, but he never has time for anything important and he doesn’t even teach in the church school!”

Well, today’s Epistle reading, Acts 6:1-7, shows us exactly that people did complain about things in the church from the beginning – even when the original hand chosen disciples of Jesus were leading the church.

“Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a murmuring against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution”   (Acts 6:1).

With such a complaint, how were the Christians to handle the problem?  Ask Jesus for a new set of apostles?  Quit the church and join a different one?  Demand the disciples do more work?

As the text indicates, the problem was brought to the attention of the apostles, and once aware of the problem, what did the apostles do?

They tell the people, “We have certain ministries to which we have been appointed (preach the gospel, teach the Word of God, pray), and it would not be pleasing to God for us to give them up.  Therefore we are going to set up a new ministry (deacons) with which to serve you and appoint new ministers for this task.”  In effect the apostles both expand leadership by creating a new ministry and share power with more members in the church so that the church’s mission can continue and grow.

The Apostles recognize the essential nature of both the human needs of the believers and of the additional ministry required to meet this need.   (Putting the situation in modern terms we might say they recognized the importance of the fellowship hour after the liturgy – the membership’s human needs must be met).

The apostles set out 2 principles of church life:

1)     There is a division of labor in the church.  There are some who have special assignments to carry out – to pray, teach, preach, distribute food, wait on tables.  This insures that people with special gifts, talents or assignments can concentrate on the work to which God has appointed by freeing them from other responsibilities.

2)    When needs arise, appoint new worthy people to meet these needs.  Multiplying ministries also helps the community to grow.   This is an important principle for our parish.

In the life of the parish we have to find the ways to free all of the ministers of the Gospel to do what they are specifically equipped, gifted, trained and appointed to do by freeing them from all extraneous responsibilities – help the priests to be the priests, deacons to be deacons, teachers to teach, council to administrate, choir to sing, and all the committees and volunteers to do their appointed tasks.  If everyone steps up and becomes an active minister and takes responsibility for their role in the parish community than all others are freed to take on their own roles.

If there are any people within the community who feel neglected by the priest or the parish council, it is OK for the community to arrange for new ministries to emerge to tend to the needs.

The apostles understood that they could not minister to every need of all the people.  Their response was to have good people – people of wisdom and full of the Holy Spirit – chosen and ordained to carry on the ministry to meet the emerging need.  Every parish has good members – people of wisdom and full of the Holy Spirit – which God provides for the parish to fulfill its mission.

The end result of what the apostles did was that they were freed from being responsible for everything so that they could concentrate on what only they could do in the church.  And new people became involved in new ministries and more needs were met.  As it says in Acts 6:7 –

“And the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly…”

So we are given an example by today’s Epistle lesson as to how to deal with needs and with complaints within the community.  If we followed the example of the apostles and the first Christians we would find that the word of God will grow for us as well, and the number of disciples will be greatly increased.

The Church: We are to be Ministers of the Gospel

In the season beginning with Pascha part of the daily scripture readings  of the Orthodox Church includes lessons from the Acts of the Apostles.  There we learn about the work of the apostles and early Christians as they carried out the ministry which Christ commanded them to do and as they formed the Church in accomplishing the great commission.

All Christians are called to some form of ministry—we are to be actively working to build up the church.  St. John Chrysostom wrote:

Paul writes: ‘Anyone who will not work shall not eat.’ [2 Thess.3:10] The Apostle himself would have been able not to work, since he had been entrusted with a great mission. Notwithstanding that, he worked day and night. All the more reason for others to do the same. ‘We hear that some of you,’ St. Paul goes on, ‘are living in idleness, not doing any work.’ Even if they were passing the time in prayer and fasting, they would not be doing the manual work of which the Apostle is speaking. He concludes: ’Such persons we command and exhort in the name of the Lord Jesus to do their work in quietness and to earn their own living.’ Paul does not say: ’If they are idlers, let the community keep them.’ On the contrary, he demands two things; that they keep quiet, and that they work!    

Chrysostom envisioned all Christians actively working in ministry – not coming to church to see what they can get out of it, but coming to the church ready to serve others.  Our word “liturgy” implies that we are going to work together for the common good (liturgy has the same root word as energy which is the same root as urge and erg – it means work!).  Just prior to being sent into  exile in 403 by the emperor, St. John Chrysostom wrote about what the Church meant to him.   He found strength and encouragement from his flock – his fellow believers:

Tell me, what do we have to fear?…I mock the threats of this world; I disdain its favors. I do not fear poverty, I do not desire wealth; I am not afraid of death; I wish to live only for your benefit…Do you not understand this word of the lord: “When two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there, in the midst of them?” And where so many people are united by the bonds of love, will the Lord not be present with them? I have His word; should I trust in my own strength? I have His word; He is my support, my safety, my haven of peace. Should the world know total upheaval, I nevertheless have this one Word: I can read it; it is my protection, my safety. Which text? “I am with you always until the end of the age.” Christ is with me; what then shall I fear?