Tradition: Catching the Wind of the Holy Spirit

In a previous blog, Tradition: The Ship of Salvation’s Sail Not Its Anchor, I noted that while some see Tradition as an anchor holding the Church in place, it really is more appropriately to be considered the sail of the ship which catches the blowing of the Holy Spirit which takes the Church on its great sojourn to the Kingdom of heaven.  Here is another very similar thought from Metropolitan Kallistos Ware:

“I was particularly impressed by the manner in which Orthodox thinkers, when speaking of their Church as the Church of Holy Tradition, insist at the same time that Tradition is not static but dynamic, not defensive but exploratory, not closed and backward-facing but open to the future. Tradition, I learnt from the authors whom I studied, is not merely a formal repetition of what was stated in the past, but it is an active re-experiencing of the Christian message in the present. The only true Tradition is living and creative, formed from the union of human freedom with the grace of the Spirit. This vital dynamism was summed up for me in Vladimir Lossky’s lapidary phrase: ‘Tradition…is the life of the Holy Spirit in the Church.’ Emphasizing the point, he adds: ‘One can say that “Tradition” represents the critical spirit of the Church.’ We do not simply remain within the Tradition by inertia.” (The Inner Kingdom, p 9)

Tradition is not about orienting us to the past, for that is the wrong direction for the Church.  We are not anchored in the past like some maritime museum.  Rather, the Church is living and breathing the breath of the Holy Spirit, that wind which blows where it will (John 3:8).  We are always to be moving toward the eschaton, toward God’s Heavenly kingdom.  If we remain mired in the past we will never make that great voyage to the Kingdom.  As St. Paul says in Philippians 3:13-14 –

Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Tradition is not supposed to anchor us to the past.  What is supposed to be unchanging is the ship of salvation, not the location of the ship!

 

I will also add that the ship of salvation is not supposed to stay anchored in some calm haven, but is more like Noah’s ark which is a place of salvation amidst the surging storm of life.  In the Akathist, “Glory to God for All Things,”  we praise God for His Church:

“Glory to You, building your church, haven of peace in a tortured world.”

The world is awash in sin, sighing, sorrow and suffering.  The Church is to be that haven in the midst of all of this.  But that is only one thing the Church is to be, for it also must be a light to the world and the salt of earth, the Body of Christ and the temple of the Holy Spirit.

The Scriptures Written for Us

This is the fourth and final blog in this series which is looking at passages from the New Testament which help shape the way we read and interpret not only the Old Testament but all of our Scriptures. The first blog is The Scriptures Bear Witness to the Word of God  and the previous blog is The Word Interprets the Scriptures.

The Bible consists of a collection of varied writings which bear witness to the Messiah.  Jesus Himself taught this (John 5:37-47; Luke 24:25-46).   There is an implication that the Old Testament is not about God’s commandments, but is about God’s Christ for Moses, Christ says, writes about the Christ.  All of the Scriptures whether produced centuries before Jesus Christ was on earth (i.e., the Old Testament) or decades after His death and resurrection (aka, the New Testament) have the same focus.  They aim to help us know God and the Messiah God sent into the world.  As such, the main purpose of the Scriptures is not so much to be a medium for history, law and science but to open our eyes to the revelation which God is showing to us about God’s Trinitarian nature.  The Scriptures present to us history and prophecy written with the inspired intention to reveal the Christ, the Son of God.   The Scriptures are thus not past oriented but are both Christocentric and eschatologically oriented to the coming Kingdom of God.   Those who put so much effort into the search for the historical Jesus while denying the revelation of the Kingdom to come completely misunderstand the message and power of God’s revelation.  St. Paul himself makes it clear that the Jewish Scriptures were not written just to remember the past.

I want you to know, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same supernatural food and all drank the same supernatural drink. For they drank from the supernatural Rock which followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless with most of them God was not pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

Now these things are warnings for us, not to desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to dance.” We must not indulge in immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put the Lord to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents; nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as a warning, but they were written down for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages has come.   (1 Corinthians 10:1-11)

The actual events, St. Paul says were a warning to the ancient people, but were  written down in Scripture not for the sake of those involved in the events, but for our sake.  The scriptures are by nature forward looking.  For the scriptures instruct us in the revelation of God and orient us toward the end times.  The Scriptures serve to help us understand that this world will pass away, and in fact we live in a time which is giving birth to the end times.  Just to know the history will do us little good if we don’t orient ourselves toward the coming Kingdom of God and live in movement toward that Kingdom.   What we are looking to learn from the Scriptures determines how well we interpret them.  St. Paul says:

That is why his faith was “reckoned to him as righteousness.”  But the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him that raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification.  (Romans 4:22-25)

The words from Genesis 15:6 that God reckoned to Abraham as righteousness the faith which he placed in God, become not a record of a past event, but become lived in those who believe in Christ and who embrace the faith and faithfulness of Jesus the Son  of God.   Words originally penned about one man, Abraham, become a description of each believer who recognizes that Christ’s own faith and faithfulness leads to the salvation of us all.

For Christ did not please himself; but, as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached thee fell on me.” For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.   (Romans 15:3-4)

What was written in the Scriptures in the past is written to give us hope in the future and in what God is now accomplishing or is going to accomplish.  This is the orientation of St. Paul and the New Testament and the Church which remains faithful to the Lord.

Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  (Philippians 3:13-14)

The New Testament reminds us that there is a correct way to read and understand the Scriptures of the Jews.  The Scriptures help point the way to coming Kingdom of God.   St. Paul shows us that way when he takes passages from the Old Testament which are completely understandable in their own context and in a literal interpretation but then shows the literal reading of the text is inadequate for comprehending God’s intentions and revelation.

Do I say this on human authority? Does not the law say the same? For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of a share in the crop. If we have sown spiritual good among you, is it too much if we reap your material benefits?   (1 Corinthians 9:8-11)

The Scriptures were written to give us hope – to orient us toward the Kingdom of God which is to come.  They were written to reveal the Messiah and to help us make Christ central to our understanding of God’s will, plan for salvation and God’s self-revelation.  The Scriptures serve God’s purposes and bear witness to the Word of God, namely to Jesus Christ the incarnate Word of God.  The Scriptures bear witness to the Holy Trinity and to the call to love one another even as God loves us.   The Scriptures are not geared toward the past Law written upon tablets of stone but toward the Living Word, Jesus Christ.  St. Paul reminds us that God:

“… has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not in a written code but in the Spirit; for the written code kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the dispensation of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such splendor that the Israelites could not look at Moses’ face because of its brightness, fading as this was, will not the dispensation of the Spirit be attended with greater splendor?”  (2 Corinthians 3:6-8)

If we seek nothing but the written code about regulations and rituals, then we will find them to be lifeless, and even ending life.  When we realize the written code is important in that it bears witness to the Christ, then the Scriptures become life giving and open us up to the Holy Spirit.  The scriptures rightfully read orient our lives to the coming Kingdom of God, and in so doing guide in how to live now on earth.

All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.    (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

St. Herman of Alaska and Future of the OCA

Today we commemorate the repose of St. Herman of Alaska (d. 1837).  St. Herman was among the first Orthodox missionaries to come to North America and to work to establish the Orthodox Church in the New World.  It is his missionary spirit – leaving Old World Orthodoxy behind in order to establish a new vine of Christ’s holy Church – which makes the Orthodox Church in America so unique in North America.   The OCA has a particular witness to offer: not just establishing a branch of an Old World Orthodox jurisdiction in America, but a new vine being planted to grow into an indigenous Orthodox Church.

There are those who want the Russian Church to be in America, or the Greek Church or Syrian or Serbian, Romanian or Albanian or whatever Old World tradition they want to establish and preserve here.  All of that is OK for whatever the reason, they all are establishing Orthodoxy here.  As St. Paul describes it:

“Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel; the former proclaim Christ out of partisanship…”   (Philippians 1:15-17)

But for me, there is something about the autocephalous Orthodox Church in America which represents a special potential for Orthodoxy in America to not simply be a transplant of an ethnic Old World Orthodoxy in the New World, but rather to truly be  an Orthodox Church in America as fully Orthodox and unique as are each of the Old World Orthodox Patriarchates.  That idea has inspired me to stay in the Orthodox Church and to work for its development.

Even the hymns for the repose of St. Herman speak of the missionary nature of his work: moving forward into the New World to establish the Church of Christ:

REJOICE, HOLY TEACHER OF CHRIST’S NEWLY-CHOSEN FLOCK!
BY THE GRACE OF THE WORD OF GOD,
YOU ENLIGHTEN HEARTS IN THE SHADOW OF IGNORANCE.
BY THE SPIRIT OF MEEKNESS AND HUMILITY,
YOU INSTRUCT US IN GODLINESS,
BY BROTHERLY LOVE AND COMPASSION,
IMPLANTING THE TRUTH OF FAITH.
WONDER-WORKING FATHER HERMAN,
PREACHER OF THE LIGHT OF CHRIST,
AS YOU BANISHED THE DARKNESS OF DEMONS,
ENLIGHTEN OUR HEARTS,
THAT SET FREE FROM THE DARKNESS OF UNBELIEF,
WE MAY OBTAIN GREAT MERCY!

Orthodoxy is about brotherly love and compassion, meekness and humility, enlightenment and freedom, godliness and grace.  It is not mostly about being Greek or following Russian rubrics.   It is about the Gospel, the Kingdom of God and our Lord Jesus Christ.  Orthodoxy is about salvation and joy.

Joyful North Star of the Church of Christ,
Guiding all people to the Heavenly Kingdom;
Teacher and apostle of the True Faith;
Intercessor and defender of the oppressed;
Adornment of the Orthodox Church in America:
Blessed Father Herman of Alaska,
Pray to our Lord Jesus Christ
For the salvation of our souls!

Orthodoxy is not about living in the past or even living the past now.  Rather Orthodoxy is always moving us toward the eschaton, that Kingdom which is to come.  We have received a tradition which we are to live in the 21st Century in America.  We are not trying to recreate the 19th Century or some other golden past.  We are to live the Gospel now in order to witness to its life and power and in order to pass it on to the next generation of Christians where ever they may live and of whatever ethnic makeup they are.  Again St. Paul gives us the direction:

“… one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”   (Philippians 3:13-14)

In addition to commemorating the repose of St. Herman of Alaska, December 13, 2013, marks the 30th anniversary of the falling asleep of Fr. Alexander Schmemann.  For me he was a great inspiration as well, showing that Orthodoxy is about the coming Kingdom of God and is not mostly a museum of the past.   We are to live the Gospel, and Fr. Schmemann showed us how we can do that through the liturgical life of the Orthodox Church.

It is the inspiration of St. Herman of Alaska and Fr. Alexander Schmemann that also causes me to invite all of you to share in the vision, mission, and hope which the Orthodox Church in America represents:  Orthodoxy not just preserving its past and promoting ethnic culture, but Orthodoxy living and proclaiming the Kingdom of God to North Americans in the 21st Century.

Fr. Alex Kuchta, the Diocesan clergy representative to the OCA’s Metropolitan Council asked us to join him in a renewed support of the mission and vision of the OCA.  He wrote recently:

But if you believe that the Orthodox Church in America is much more
than just a collection of parishes and dioceses.
If you believe that we share a common vision of what the Orthodox
Church can be to serve the people of North America.
If you believe that the mission and ministries of the OCA can make a
difference in people’s lives.
Then I hope you will consider taking the step to add your name to the
band of Stewards who feel the same way.

I join Fr. Alex and all of those who have recently committed themselves to making an extra donation to the Orthodox Church in America to support its mission and ministries.  This Christmas season if you want to make a difference, give a Christmas gift to the OCA in support of its work and vision: Become a Steward.  I have.

You too can support the work and vision of an Orthodox Church in America at :  Support the Vision and Mission of Orthodoxy in America.  

See also St. Herman of Alaska and the Future of the OCA (II)

The Church Present and Future

“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”  (St. Paul to the Philippians 3:13-14)

Orthodox Christian vision does not orient us to the past, but to the coming eschaton. We read the Scriptures not so much to learn history, but to orient ourselves to what God is doing and to move toward where God is directing us.  The Old Testament is about Christ.  The New Testament is about the Kingdom which is to come.

“To return to the first centuries of Christianity in the life of the Church is to reject history. The concern of the Church lies not behind her in the past centuries, but in the present and ahead in the future. The true understanding of tradition consists not in a mechanical repetition of the past, but in the principle of the uninterrupted flow of life and creativity, in the undiminished grace that abides in the Church.”  (Nicolas Afanasiev in Tradition Alive, pg. 43)

Remembering the Kingdom Which is to Come

Philosopher George Santayana famously warned us that ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’

Orthodox Christianity is a religion that each year runs through a cycle of Feasts and saints which remembers the past, though its goal is not to keep us there but to ever push us toward the future restoration of all things by God our Creator.  We never forget the past and do repeat it yearly through our liturgical cycle.

Unfortunately sometimes Orthodox seem to forget our goal is to be ever-moving toward the eschaton – the coming of God’s Kingdom – and instead forever want not only to remember but even to relive the past – the glorious past where things were so much more Orthodox, at least in the selective memory of the few.  Reviewing the past is safe – we cannot make any mistakes in the past, and frequently we have at least learned from our mistakes.  But the temptation is to stay in the past because somehow we imagine that will prevent us from making mistakes in the present.  And for the Orthodox – the right thinking and correct believing Christians – nothing is worse than being wrong.  So we withdraw to the fantasy of a safer past in which we do not make mistakes.

We do not remember the past in order to become focused on the unchanging past, but rather our yearly commemorations are meant to keep us ever focused on what is yet to come – the Kingdom of God.

“Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on for the goal toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 3:13-14)

We will soon remember the events of Pentecost, when God poured forth His Holy Spirit upon the earth.  We remember an event which is not geared toward the past but rather directed toward the future – toward the coming Kingdom of Heaven.

The coming of Christ into the world and then the coming of the Holy Spirit are not events intended to focus us on the past.  Both are events that gear us toward the future.   We are not trying to go back in time, but are always striving to move forward.

Pentecost is not just about remembering what happened to Christ’s disciples 2000 years ago.  For Pentecost is the empower of all disciples to go into the all the world and proclaim the Good News of God’s kingdom.

Certainly St. Paul is called by God to “get the show on the road” – get Christianity beyond Jerusalem and into all the world.

Note how often the Apostles are playing catch up in the Book of Acts – they hear about a new congregation and have to send someone to investigate –  God is way ahead of the chosen apostles calling them into the future.  The apostles are the chosen leaders of the church and yet they are watching where the church is going as it is led by the Holy Spirit.  For throughout the Book of Acts, those apostles are being sent into all the world at the prompting of the Holy Spirit.  They are watching the Kingdom of God break into this world in order to prepare us all for the next.

In Orthodoxy we remember the past and repeat it annually, not to become focused on it, but to use it as the talent (Matthew 25:14-30) given us to bear fruit for God and to have something to offer Christ when He comes again.

Modern Orthodox Theology: Do What the Fathers Did, Not Just What They Said

St. Paul

”…one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,  I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

I found the article by Dr. Pantelis Kalaitzidis  Director of Volos Academy for Theological Studies, “From the ‘Return to the Fathers’ to the Need for a Modern Orthodox Theology” in Volume 54, Number 1 2010, of the ST. VLADIMIR’S THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY to be one of the most uplifting and exciting  articles I have read in years (I haven’t used the word exciting with an Orthodox writer for a long time!). 

 Orthodoxy’s efforts to define itself by adopting an absolutist and oppositional attitude Western Christianity has caused the Orthodox to become exclusivist and even sectarian, despite proclaiming in the creed a belief in a universal/catholic church.  “Oneness” in much of current Orthodox interpretation of the Creed has come to mean not One universal church of all those who acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord, but a sectarian view of a never pure enough remnant whose major task seems to be not just to stand against those who don’t measure up but even to expel as many people from the fellowship of Christ as is possible.  Kalaitzidis notes:

 “The consequences of this ‘return to the Fathers’ and the subsequent overemphasis on patristic studies were, among other things: (1) the neglect and devaluation of biblical studies; (2) an ahistorical approach to patristic theology and a subsequent exaltation of traditionalism;(3) a tendency toward introversion and Orthodox theology’s near total absence from the major theological developments and trends of the 20th century; (4) the polarization of East and West, and the cultivation and consolidation of an anti-western and anti-ecumenical spirit;  and (5) a weak theological response to the challenges posed by the modern world and; more generally, the unresolved theological issues still remaining in the relationship between  Orthodoxy and modernity.”

Fathers of the 1st Ecumenical Council

 In a sense what the Patristic Revival in Orthodoxy has devolved to is a parroting of the Fathers, rather than understanding them and how and why they came to the conclusions they did in their day and age.  The Fathers actively engaged their culture and time, today in Orthodoxy we assume that simply repeating the Fathers ought to be a defense against the modern age.  The Fathers did not simply parrot the Scriptures, they interpreted and used them with authority, as Christ Himself had done in His lifetime (Mark 1:22).  Kalaitzidis says this occurred because “Patristic theology was mythologized” – or perhaps even worse we treat the words of the Fathers as some kind of magic against the dark powers of modernity: simply by repeating their words we assume the truth will be established in hocus pocus fashion.  Kalaitzidis says we have lost sight of the history of the battles that took place to adopt the language of the Patristic age.

 “Today, we have come to regard that encounter as self-evident, forgetting the titanic battles that preceded it. Perhaps we are unaware or fail to notice how difficult and painful it was for primitive Christianity (with its Jewish and generally Semitic roots and origins) to accept and incorporate Hellenic concepts and categories such as nature, essence, homoousion,hypostasis, person, logos, intellect, nous, meaning, cause, power, accident, energy, kath’holou, cosmos, etc.   But this ahistorical approach to patristic theology is in fact a ‘betrayal’ of the spirit of the Fathers inasmuch as it betrays and ignores the very core and essence of their thought, i.e., a continuous dialogue with the world, and an encounter with and assumption of the historical, social, cultural, and scientific context of their time…”

The end result of this process is that the Orthodox by invoking  the Fathers for every problem we face has simply created a “patristic fundamentalism”  exactly like the biblical fundamentalism Orthodox reject, including an endless proof texting of the Fathers.  Passages and quotes are totally removed from their context and put in collections of sayings that are treated like magic.  No longer do the Orthodox feel the need to study, wrestle with or interpret the Scriptures for now all they have to do is read quotes from the Fathers which become the Scriptures for Orthodox.   Orthodoxy today sometimes behaves as if it is a house which must keep its doors shut and blinds drawn on its windows so as not to see the world, yet somehow hoping the world will be attracted to the house by its strangeness.  It is also why I found Kalaitzidis’ article so exciting: he is opening the blinds and the doors and telling us Orthodox to take a good look at ourselves AND to see the world around us.

Kalaitzidis wrote:  “Orthodox people content themselves with theory, and make no progress or fall tragically short when it comes to practice; that we prefer to ‘contemplate’ and ‘observe’ rather than to act…”  I found this statement to resonate with the Orthodox of Russia, especially as I listen to the lectures, A HISTORY OF RUSSIA: FROM PETER THE GREAT TO GORBACHEV, by Professor Mark Steinberg.  For decades crossing centuries Russian tsars and noblemen discussed reform and freeing the serfs without doing anything about it.  It all seemed to be exercises in philosophy with no changes being brought about.  The lack of reforms though allowing decades of discussions on such topics contributed to the Bolshevik revolt simply sweeping aside those who had no intention of changing anything.

Next:  Tradition: Revealing the Eschaton Not Seeking the Past

God Questions His Creation: Genesis 10:1-14 (a)

See:  God Questions His Creation:  The Conclusion of the Flood (b)

Genesis 10:1 These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth; sons were born to them after the flood. 2 The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. 3 The sons of Gomer: Ash’kenaz, Riphath, and Togar’mah. 4 The sons of Javan: Eli’shah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Do’danim. 5 From these the coastland peoples spread. These are the sons of Japheth in their lands, each with his own language, by their families, in their nations. 6 The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. 7 The sons of Cush: Seba, Hav’ilah, Sabtah, Ra’amah, and Sab’teca. The sons of Ra’amah: Sheba and Dedan. 8 Cush became the father of Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the LORD.” 10 The beginning of his kingdom was Ba’bel, Erech, and Accad, all of them in the land of Shinar. 11 From that land he went into Assyria, and built Nin’eveh, Reho’both-Ir, Calah, and 12 Resen between Nin’eveh and Calah; that is the great city. 13 Egypt became the father of Ludim, An’amim, Leha’bim, Naph-tu’him, 14 Pathru’sim, Caslu’him (whence came the Philistines), and Caph’torim.

Since according to the Genesis story of the flood all humans except Noah, his wife, his sons, and his daughters-in-law drowned, it really is through Noah that all the nations of the world come to exist as was noted in Genesis 9:19.   All other lines of humans – including Cain’s were destroyed by the flood.  So whatever accomplishments they did, or skills they learned or cities they built, would have died with them.  Here in Genesis 10 comes the story of the nations – of populating the world with different people all of the same stock.  This chapter does offer a family tree for all of the known people of the ancient Jewish world. 

Japheth’s descendents include those people who occupy Asia Minor and territories to the East. 

“…each with his own language…”    This text seems to suggest the occurrence of diverse languages and nations was simply a natural process of expansion.   The text seems unaware of the tower of Ba’bel story (Genesis 11) which explains the confusion of tongues among humans as a result of human arrogance and sin.  Here at the beginning of Genesis 10 the multiplication of language has nothing to do with punishment but with the diversification of humanity as it spread throughout the world.  This again gives suggestion that Source Theory is correct – there was more than one author of the Genesis text that we have today, or at least the one author/editor of the text blended different stories into the final text. 

The list is fathers and sons.  Wives/mothers are not even mentioned let alone named.  No sisters are mentioned either making one wonder where the women who gave birth to all of these sons were coming from.

Ham gives birth to the founders of many great nations and kingdoms which included Arabia, Egypt and Africa.  Because Ham defiled Noah, is there some sense of prejudice indicated in the fact that Ham’s descendents include Arabs and Africans?   The “Land of Ham” will become in the Old Testament another way for the Israelites to speak of Egypt.  Canaan who is cursed into servitude to his uncles has plenty of brothers to witness his enslavement.    Ham’s other sons are not cursed by Noah and show great promise and success in starting great nations.

Hunter with Dog

“Nimrod a mighty hunter”        This is the first mention in Genesis of a hunter and the first indication that humans are killing animals for food.  Hunting would by implication also suggest the development of hunting tools to capture and kill animals, which would be the precursor to weapons of war.   Nimrod the hunter begins the Kingdom of Ba’bel, which is the ancient Jewish reference for Babylon.  Indeed one day the Babylonians will hunt down the Jews.

The genealogies.   Scholars have noted that Americans (with their disinterest in history and their constant striving for what is new, ever looking hopefully to the future) have a hard time grasping the biblical sense of time. In the Old Testament one is always facing the past.  The past is what is before us, it is the only thing that we can see for it already exists and is known.  The future on the other hand does not exist yet, so it cannot be seen; the future in this thinking is thus always behind us, out of our vision, the unknown, waiting to catch us by surprise.  The genealogies help keep the past right in front of us.  The Old Testament keeps us looking to the past in order to help us see truth and to give us hope for the future.   The genealogies put before us what we can see – that which already exists/existed.  They connect us to all that is real and known, and we learn from history about ourselves and our mistakes.   In this thinking what can be seen is what we can remember, and what we can remember is what we can truly see.   Remembrance and seeing are thus the same thing. 

The Divine Liturgy is the Christian remembrance (anamnesis).   When we remember as Christians we see what we remember, we make Christ present before us – Christ crucified and Christ risen.   The priest prays at the Liturgy:  “Remembering this saving commandment and all those things which have come to pass for us: the Cross, the Tomb, the Resurrection on the third day, the Ascension into heaven, the sitting at the right hand, and the second and glorious coming.”  We remember in order to see the reality of God in the world.  We remember what God has done so that we can have hope that God will act again as He has done in the past.   The future does not yet exist for us ephemeral beings, so we cannot see what God will do, but we can see clearly what He has done and from this know where He is leading us. Remembering the past is thus the firm foundation for hope and faith.   We call to remembrance salvation, which means we can see salvation – what God has done –  for it is real, even if it is but the tip of the iceberg, the foretaste of the kingdom which is to come.   The Christian Liturgy, especially that of St. Basil the Great, is a true calling to remembrance all that God has done for us so that we can see salvation, see God’s hand in the world, see the breaking into the world of the Kingdom of God.  Knowing what God has done is the firm foundation for our hope in what God is going to do.  Yet it is happening in time, and so we often experience it as happening way too slowly.   But the reality of salvation is that we need to fit eternity and divinity into our world, into that which is “not God”, into our lives, into our hearts.   That takes time – not because God needs time, but we do and we can only receive things in time.  God enters the world through the incarnation – it took the history of humanity to bring about the Theotokos, the one who could receive God into her womb.  Then it took nine more months for the Incarnate Word to be born and a lifetime for him to mature;  it now additionally takes the time of the Holy Spirit to allow God’s Kingdom to be revealed in the world.  Each Liturgy reminds us of what has happened, so that we can see it, and understand it is coming.  We are to be thankful for what we know is coming even if it also requires infinite patience on our part.  We remember the past not to recapture some Golden Age, but rather as Fr. John Behr says, to help us envision the future.  What we can see of what God has done speaks to us about how much more glorious is what He is doing.   “Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).    As St. Paul has it, “one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

Next:  God Questions His Creation:  Genesis 10:1-14 (b)

Metropolitan Council September 2009

The Metropolitan Council has its annual Fall meeting this week in New York.   The agenda is daunting with an intense schedule which includes joint sessions with the Synod of Bishops.   There are important discussions about  1)  finances (which though the normal business of the Metropolitan Council also are usually related to the problems of the OCA),  2) legal matters (which I now interpret as the “cost of doing business” in America – some of  it is like the tribute that has to be paid to the pestilent invaders to keep them at bay and some of it is the result of decisions and actions which “the church” has taken and now must pay the price for its choices),   3)  the policies and procedures of the central administration and pushing everyone at work in the OCA to adhere to them rather than treating them as discretionary suggestions  which are to be capriciously or serendipitously inforced or ignored,    and 4)  the future direction of the OCA through vision and strategic planning.    

 Truly all of the discussions deal with the important question of “what is the church?”   We profess the Church to be “one, holy, catholic and apostolic.”   What does that look like incarnationally – legally, financially, administratively, ethically, and in terms of policies, procedures, planning and vision?

Certainly our ancestral church leaders answered some of these questions in relationship to the Roman Empire, Byzantium, the Turkocratia, Holy Russian and communist regimes.   But what are they to be in a country which has a constitutionally defined separation of church and state – in which the state is forbidden from interfering in the internal affairs of the Church?    Are the structures and policies and canons capable of addressing our situation in which officially the state is neutral or indifferent toward the internal workings of the church and its processes for selecting its leadership?   The state is forbidden from controlling the church in America.  We cannot look tot the state to resolve our problems in leadership or in corruption.   We are given the “freedom” to solve these problems and so must have the Mind of Christ – not just the decisions of past generations – to deal with our issues today.  

Our bishops for example are wearing all of the signs of Byzantine imperial power and yet they cannot in the United States have the power of state.   What do we need to change within the Church to best reflect the Mind of Christ in the 21st Century?   What insignias and signs need to be changed and what internal church structures, policies, procedures do we need to allow us to be the Church of God in 21st Century America and into the future?   Hopefully our vision and strategic planning efforts will look at these questions as we structure a church to carry out its mission to North America as we move through this 21st Century. 

“Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  Let those of us who are mature be thus minded; and if in anything you are otherwise minded, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained”   (Philippians 3:13-16   RSV).