Reading Scripture: Bread, Wine and Oil

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return not thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”(Isaiah 55:10-11)

Because the Word of God is living, that Word interacts with all those who receive Him.  The Word of God is not to be confused with letters printed in a book, though sometimes He may come to us under the guise of those letters.  The Prophet Jeremiah testifies over and over:

Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, …

God’s Word speaks to us, in our hearts, leaping off the pages of the bible and actively engaging our hearts, minds, souls, imaginations, bearing spiritual fruit for God in this world.   The word of God becomes seed in our hearts where it can germinate and bear fruit.

As for what was sown on good soil, this is he who hears the word and understands it; he indeed bears fruit, and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”  (Matthew 13:23)

We see there is no “one size fits all” mentality regarding the Word of God.   God’s Word bears fruit differently in each person – in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.  The living Word is not a static one, fixed on a page; rather, the Word interacts with the believer at the spiritual level of the person.  There is not just one message in a verse but an abundance of seeds in each – and and all can bear varied fruit in the believers, and so it does.  We each may hear the same Word, and yet like on Pentecost (Acts 2:4-12), it will be in the language we understand, even if we understand the  Word on different levels due to abilities, experience, education, intelligence, perception.  That sown seed will blossom in us proportionate to our abilities.    What speaks to each of us from the same Word may be slightly different than what speaks to our fellow believer, but we receive from God what we need to know and hear.   Nikitas Stithatos expresses this quite well in THE PHILOKALIA:

“The reading of the Scriptures means one thing for those who have but recently embraced the life of holiness, another for those who have attained the middle state, and another for those who are moving rapidly towards perfection.

For the first, the Scriptures are bread from God’s table, strengthening their hearts (cf. Ps. 104:15) in the holy struggle for virtue and filling them with forcefulness, power and courage in their battle against the spirits that activate the passions, so that they can say, ‘For me Thou hast prepared a table with food against my enemies’ (Ps. 23:5).

For the second, the Scriptures are wine from God’s chalice, gladdening their hearts (cf. Ps. 104:15) and transforming them through the power of the inner meaning, so that their intellect is raised above the letter that kills and led searchingly into the depths of the Spirit (cf. 2 Cor. 3:6; 1 Cor. 2:10), In this way they are enabled to discover and give birth to the inner meaning, so that fittingly they can exclaim, ‘Thy chalice makes me drunk as the strongest wine’ (Ps. 23:5. LXX).

Finally, for those approaching perfection the Scriptures are the oil of the Holy Spirit (cf. Ps. 104:15), anointing the soul, making it gentle and humble through the excess of the divine illumination they bestow, and raising it wholly above the lowliness of the body, so that in its glory it may cry, ‘Thou hast anointed my head with oil’ (Ps. 23:5) and ‘Thy mercy shall follow me all the days of my life’ (Ps. 23:6).”    (Kindle 38302-38331)

What Stithatos does is to remind us of the Parable of the Talents  – Jesus says the master gives differing amounts of wealth to the various people each according to their ability (Matthew 25:15).   And there are differing expectations as to what each person will do with what God gives them – to whom much is given, much is expected (Luke 12:48).  So too when we hear the Gospel, we receive it in different degrees/amounts according to our abilities.  Some are able to give away all they have before following Christ, others give to charity while still owning homes and holding jobs and supporting families.  Some are able to accept martyrdom, some are able to bear having their face slapped and turning the other cheek, some are able to pray for enemies.    Some bear fruit, 30 or 60 fold, and some 100 fold.   We all hear the same Gospel (same words) but it becomes incarnate in each of us differently, according to our abilities, our spiritual maturity and according to what God gives us and expects from us.  Some repent as soon as they hear the Gospel and spend the remaining time of their life in repentance, while others repent on their deathbed.     Whether they come at the 1st or 11th hour, they are accepted.  Reading the scriptures is not our reading meaning into God’s Word, but rather is hearing God’s Word within our selves and interacting with that Word and allowing Him to bear fruit in us.  [And, as in the Parable of the Talents, there is a right handling of the word, and one can mishandle it as well – not all possible meanings one can get from the text are in fact right.]

Reading God’s Word is not quite the same as discerning the meaning of the words in the bible.  It means allowing the Word to act upon our hearts, minds and souls so that we together with the Word produce spiritual fruit for God in His creation.   The Word of  God is living and active.  It’s animating vitality is not found in the pages of a book, but when written on the heart of the believer.  Only in our hearts does it reveal its vitality and vigor.

Being Meek and Being Blessed

“Meekness means having a heart that is humbled and peaceful.

Children are meek. This is why the Lord says, ‘If you do not become as children, you shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven’  (cf. Matt. 18:3). 

A proud person is never satisfied; everything bothers him, and he follows his own will. We must be obedient to the will of God in order to learn humility and meekness while we are still in this life, while there is still time. A heart that is full of love thinks not of itself, but of others. It prays for all living things and for the whole world.”    (Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica, Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives, p 89)

Orchestrating Orchidaceae

I was asked once by a high school student how my spiritual life impacted my daily life or if it made any difference at all about how I see or experience the world.  Indeed, it has.  My interest in photography is an extension of what I believe.

Beauty and truth are the same reality: together they reveal the Creator.   If we take the time to appreciate beauty in the world around us, even in the delicate form of a tiny flower, we also experience the love with which the Creator shaped it.  This becomes obvious in an orchid show where each flower represents the intentional and patient care of its owner.   Humans devote great time and skills to produce one short-lived blossom.  God, the great horticulturalist, is the originator of all that beauty throughout history and throughout the world.   We realize beauty is love made manifest – it is the invisible God showing us signs of His tender love.

Each exquisite flower is a twinkle in the eye of the Creator.   When God planted the first garden, he no doubt found special delight in the how the Orchidaceae took seriously His command to multiply.

I know nothing of the names of these wonderful orchids, let alone how to propagate them. I’ve no green thumb, nor even the desire to raise them.   Shakespeare thought a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.  Yet they speak to me – I’m awed by their comeliness in endless variety.   I have not been drawn to learn more about them, though their myriad shapes, colors, contours and scents make them . . . splendiferous!

The ones above are so alive, they appear to be in motion – a graceful dancer in festive costume.

And those above are like great winged bird in graceful flight, whose downward flap of the wings propels them across a lake.

Or perhaps like so many winged insects approaching a fruit tree beckoning to be pollinated.

Some folk are gifted with creating beauty through the variety of human arts – in color, sound, shape, motion, words, etc.  They take their talents and the resources of earth and offer it back in the form of grace and beauty.  Orthodox icons are theology in lines and colors.  Beauty and truth portray the same divine reality.   If we each created beauty every day, the world would be transfigured and transformed.  Some of us, like myself, are not so talented, so I do not create beauty, but perhaps can capture the beauty I see in God’s world all around me in a photograph.  My faith, my theology, compel me to do this.

Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed such as these.  Taking photos for me is an extension of my faith.  Faith propels me into the world of nature, and with eyes of faith I see these things I might ignore or momentarily admire.  Faith tells me to seek them out and to take the time to allow their resplendent, ethereal timelessness to enter into my soul.

All of the above photos were taken at the Cox Arboretum during the The Miami Valley Orchid Society Show, February 14-15, 2015.   You can view all of the photos I took at The 2015 Miami Valley Orchid Show.  You can find links to all my photoblogs at  Fr. Ted’s Photoblogs.

Overeating Our Way Out of Paradise

Few of us would disagree that Genesis 3, the story of Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Paradise, is a spiritual story.  Interestingly enough it is focused on eating, which is for us a most physical activity.  That eating explains the spiritual malaise of humankind will surprise some.  But today as the myriad ways in which food and health are related become central to mainstream medicine, as well as alternative medical practices and popular culture too, we realize just how food is related to our health, spiritual, mental and physical.  The Genesis 3 narrative connecting eating and spirituality becomes far more realistic.

There is little doubt that our culture has problems with over eating:  diet plans and places abound, obesity is said to be an epidemic, there are food addictions and food allergies, we have no sense of proper food portions, junk food is a normal part of our diets, endless and competing ideas are presented as to how to eat our way to better health.

So one of the hymns from Meatfare Sunday, though written hundreds of years ago, has some modern eating themes in it:

WE ARE GLUTTONS, WHO REVEL IN OUR FALLEN NAKEDNESS;
EXILES BANISHED FROM THE FACE OF GOD!
THE DELIGHTS OF FOOD HAVE BECOME EXCEEDINGLY BITTER FOR US!
LET US RETURN THROUGH REPENTANCE, AND ENLIST FOR THE BATTLE!
LET US COMPLETE THE DAYS OF FASTING, THAT OUR FLESH MAY BE CLEANSED.
STRENGTHENING OUR HEARTS WITH THE HOPE OF GRACE,
LET US NOT LABOR FOR THE FOOD WHICH PERISHES,

FOR THE LAMB OF GOD WILL FEED US
ON THE RADIANT NIGHT OF HIS RESURRECTION.
HE IS THE VICTIM OFFERED FOR US.
HE COMES TO EAT WITH US
ON THE NIGHT WHEN HIS MYSTERIES SHALL BE ACCOMPLISHED:
THE CHAINS OF DARKNESS WILL BE DESTROYED,
AND WE SHALL ENTER INTO THE LIGHT OF HIS RESURRECTION!

Overeating is habitual for many of us – fasting, if it brought us to the level of eating only the amount necessary for our survival, would accomplish for many of us a great thing. It would help restore our humanity to us as it would return food to serving its purpose to nurture us, rather than to control us.   The goal of fasting is not to reduce fat , alcohol and cholesterol, nor is it to reduce the risk of diabetes, but if it also did those things, that would be a good thing.   Fasting is to confront our habitual pattern of over-indulgence, starting with overeating.   The delight of food has become bitter for us – it is killing us with obesity, diabetes, heart and cancer problems, not to mention allergies, auto-immune problems and a host of other diseases as well as attempting to anesthetize our emotional discomforts.  Fasting is to learn to say “no” to the habits which control us and to the desires which are polluting our stomachs and arteries as well as our souls and minds.  Fasting can be a means of restoring sanity to our lives when it comes to food.    Fasting is to help prepare us to be fed by Christ, the Paschal Lamb of God.

And, we are to remember fasting is not only or even mostly about food – for there is the real fast which is pleasing to God.  As another hymn from Meatfare says:

DANIEL THE PROPHET, AND GREATLY BELOVED MAN, WHEN HE SAW THE POWER OF GOD, CRIED OUT: THE COURT SAT IN JUDGEMENT AND THE BOOKS WERE OPENED! CONSIDER WELL, MY SOUL:

DO YOU FAST?

THEN DO NOT DESPISE YOUR NEIGHBOR!

DO YOU ABSTAIN FROM FOOD?

THEN DO NOT CONDEMN YOUR BROTHER,

LEST YOU BE SENT TO BURN AS WAX IN THE FIRE.
BUT MAY CHRIST LEAD YOU WITHOUT STUMBLING INTO HIS KINGDOM!

See also my blog  Fasting: The Rules and the Individual

The Psalter in the Early Church

The Psalms, in Orthodox thinking, are often represented as being “the mind of Christ.”

They are read from this perspective – as prophecies of Christ as well as helping us to see the world as Christ sees the world.   It is precisely because they can be read in this way that they became so popular in the worship of the early Church.  Jean Danielou notes that it is the messianic nature of the Psalms which made their appropriation by the early Church so complete.   They became the basis for early Christian worship because they were read as being primarily messianic.   Their historic value was not their main appeal to the early Christians.  It is not their Jewish nature which gave them their authority; rather it was their messianic nature.

Danielou writes:

“But the fact is this: the whole of ancient tradition concerning the liturgical use of the Psalms rests on their messianic significance.  For one thing, it is the significance which constituted all their value for the primitive Christian community.  It adopted the Psalms, not because of their religious value nor because of their inspired character, but only because it thought that they were concerned with Christ.  Their whole use in the Church rests, therefore, on a messianic meaning.  If this is no longer their real meaning, their liturgical use is based only on an accommodated symbolism and loses all dogmatic significance.  This use is of value only to the extent to which the christological interpretation  is not something added, but truly corresponds to their literal significance.”   (THE BIBLE AND THE LITURGY, p 315)

In other words, their use by the early Christians was not because David wrote them, nor was their meaning best discovered through researching their original historical context and purpose.  They were valuable because for the early Christians the Psalms literally were about Christ.   Whatever their original context was or their author’s intentions were, the early Christians understood them to be about Christ – they revealed Christ and were revealed by Christ.  They were chanted and sung by the early Christians because they brought the believer into a relationship with Christ.

Jesus said: “These are my words which I spoke to you, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in … the psalms must be fulfilled.”  (Luke 24:43)

The Last Judgment: Wearing Christ as a Garment

 And He will come again in glory

to judge the living and the dead,

whose kingdom shall have no end.

(Nicene Creed)

At each Divine Liturgy we do profess a belief that Jesus Christ is Lord who will one day return to earth to judge all humanity when He comes in His Kingdom transforming everything into that Kingdom in which God’s will is done.  In the Orthodox calendar year, we also have one day devoted to commemorating this Final Judgment – a day which comes one week before we enter into the Great Lenten period.   We are reminded why we need to repent of sins before that Fearful Day of Judgment.   The Gospel lesson for this Sunday of the Last Judgement is Matthew 25:31-46, in which Christ clearly speaks about the judgment.  Interestingly, he speaks directly about the judgment not in dogmatic terms but as a parable, and does not mention a judgment against sin, but a judgment about whether we each loved the weak, the needy, the vulnerable, or not.

“When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. Then the King will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’

Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.’ And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

St. Gregory Nazianzus writes:

“Has a poor person come to you? Remember how poor you were and how much you have been enriched. Has someone in need of bread and drink, perhaps another Lazarus, thrown himself before your gates? Respect the mystical table that you have approached, the bread of which you have partaken, the cup in which you have participated, having been initiated through the sufferings of Christ.

A stranger has fallen before you, homeless, a foreigner. Receive into your house through him the one who became a stranger for your sake, even among his own, and dwelt in you through grace, and drew you toward the dwelling place on high. Become Zaccheus, who was a tax collector yesterday and today is magnanimous. Bear every fruit for the entry of Christ that you may show yourself as great, even if you are small in bodily height, nobly looking upon Christ. Does someone sick and wounded lie before you? Respect your health and the wounds from which Christ freed you.

‘If you see someone naked, cover him,’ honoring your robe of incorruption. This robe is Christ, ‘for as many as have been baptized into Christ have been clothed in Christ.’ If you receive a debtor who falls before you, tear up every contract, whether unjust of just. Remember the ten thousand talents that Christ forgave you. Do not become a cruel collector of a smaller debt. And this from whom? From your fellow slaves, you who have been forgiven so much by the Master. Otherwise you may have to give a recompense to his loving kindness, which you have not imitated, though you were given an example.”  (Festal Orations, pp 126-127)

The Christian in the World

“True Christians live in this world as travelers, pilgrims, and sojourners, and they look ever toward their heavenly homeland with faith and with the eyes of the soul, and they strive to reach it. You should also be a pilgrim and sojourner in this world and constantly look toward that homeland and strive to obtain it, and so the world with its enticements and lusts will become abhorrent to you. Whoever seeks eternal blessedness and desires it and strives to reach it will despise everything temporal, lest while seeking the temporal he be deprived of the eternal.”   (St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, Journey to Heaven, p 163)

 

Early Spring Flower Show

“… that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord…”  (Acts 3:19)

I had a wonderfully pleasant surprise  this week when I visited the Krohn Conservatory in Cincinnati.

They were having their 2015 early spring flower show.  This year it is entitled, “Falling Water Gardens: A Modern Work of Nature.”

I was using my day off to re-create, and I was uplifted to a renewed creation.

I happened to pick a time when very few people were there, so there was no sense of needing to keep moving.  One could stop and smell the flowers for as long as one wanted.

The fragrance was wonderful.

The fans in the hot house were running creating the sensation of a refreshing spring breeze.

They were playing a very relaxing, ambient music which was so appropriate at the time as one could just stop and peacefully enjoy the sights, the sound and the smell.

There was the added joy that though we still are in winter here, one spiritually can appreciate the arrival of the Lenten Spring.  A season of renewed hope and spiritual rebirth.

Winter, like all things does pass away.  However, so also do spring flowers and spring flower shows.

You can see all the photos I took at Krohn 2015 Early Spring Flowers.

You can find links to all my photoblogs at  Fr. Ted’s Photoblogs.

 

Building Upon the Virtues

“Abba John said: ‘Personally, I would like a person to participate a little in all the virtues. So when you arise at dawn each day, make a fresh start in every virtue and commandment of God

with greatest patience,

with fear and long-suffering,

in the love of God,

with all the spiritual zeal and much humiliation;

enduring affliction and constriction of the heart,

with much prayer and intercession,

with groans,

in purity of the tongue and restriction of the eyes,

being reviled and not getting angry,

living peaceably and not giving back evil for evil;

not noticing the faults of others;

not measuring oneself (being beneath the whole of creation),

having renounced material goods and the things that pertain to the flesh;

on a cross,

in combat,

in poverty of spirit,

in determination and spiritual asceticism;

in fasting,

St. Maria Skobtsova

in repentance,

in weeping,

in the strife of battle,

in discretion,

in purity of the soul,

in generous sharing…’ ”

(John Colobos in Give me a Word: The Alphabetical Sayings of the Desert Fathers, p 139)

St. Paul and the Prophet Isaiah

My previous blog, The Prophet Isaiah and the Righteous Simeon, shows how in the Orthodox Tradition Scriptures are interpreted.  A hymn from the Feast of the Meeting of the Lord in the Temple shows the integration of Old and New Testament events and how through the Gospel Christ is seen, made visible, in the Old Testament.  The prophecy of Isaiah is shown to be a prophecy of Christ, even if Isaiah could not understand completely what he was seeing or describing.   The prophet’s words in Isaiah 6 make sense, he describes what he was permitted to see and experience.  However, as the festal hymn weaves the events together, the tapestry is made clear.  The pieces of the mosaic are finally arranged so that the portrait hidden in them is revealed.  Isaiah sees a burning coal taken from God’s heavenly altar by a pair of tongs carried by an angel and he is saved from death when his sins are forgiven as the burning coal touches his lips.  We can see already an image of the Eucharist – receiving the incarnate God in the Body and Blood of Christ.  The divine fire saves us and takes away our sins.

The festal hymn of the Meeting of the Lord shows us that the tongs and burning coal were foreshadowing the Virgin carrying Christ into the temple.  As Isaiah is saved from death though he sees God, so too Simeon the Righteous sees the salvation of God and is released from all fear of death –  seeing God is salvation, not death.

That the writings of Isaiah permeated the thinking of the New Testament authors is well known and can be seen in how frequently he is quoted or referenced in the New Testament.   The extent of Isaiah’s words permeating the Orthodox vision of salvation is obvious in the festal hymns of the Church.   It is not simply that the theologians and hymnographers quote the Prophet Isaiah, his imagery is found embedded in the liturgy, icons, sacraments and theology of the Church.  We saw that in the previous blog, and it is noted even in the writings of Protestant biblical scholars.

“Paul seems to have had a special interest in Isaiah. In the seven letters generally acknowledged as authentic, Paul quotes Isaiah 31 times (out of approximately 89 OT quotations overall).[…] That Paul attributed particular significance to the prophecies of Isaiah, and that he found some portions of this prophetic book to be particularly useful in his interpretation and defense of the gospel. The reasons for this are not difficult to fathom. Isaiah, more clearly than any other OT book, links the promise of the redemption and restoration of Israel to the hope that Israel’s God will also reveal his mercy to the Gentiles and establish sovereignty over the whole earth.[…] Paul had read and pondered the scroll of Isaiah as a whole, over the years of his apostolic ministry, and developed a sustained reading of it as God’s revelation of ‘the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith’ (Rom 16:25-26).”   (Richard B. Hays, The Conversion of the Imagination, pp 25-27)