OrthoAnalytika

The Last Judgment

2012-02-20T20:22:00.000-05:00

The Sunday of the Last Judgement

St. Matthew 25:31-46; 1 Corinthians 8:8-9:2

If you break the rules long enough, eventually you are going to suffer. Or, put another way, if you act stupid long enough, it will eventually catch up with you.

Examples:

Bad Budgeting. If people insist on spending more than they make long enough, they will eventually run through all their savings and all the affordable debt and go bankrupt. They will suffer the consequences of their bad choices.
Unhealthy Habits. In general, if people mistreat their bodies, whether it is through things like smoking or doing drugs or overeating or maintaining an over-scheduled lifestyle, it will eventually catch up with them and they will get mentally or physically sick. They will suffer the consequences of their bad choices.
There are plenty of other examples. Each is based on the violation of certain “laws”. The laws of economics and accounting describe the consequences of bad money management. The laws of medicine describe the consequences of unhealthy habits.

The Law of Love

Some of these, are man-made and some are built into the world we live in. Today's Gospel is meant to remind us that there is a law that is deeper than any of these. A law that is at the very foundation of everything that is. A law through which this world was given form. This law, this logic, this Logos, is love.

You have heard this so many times before. E.g. the “great commandments” to love God and love you neighbor. We are meant to live in unity with one another and with God. The way this is achieved and the expression of its realization is LOVE. As important as the laws of physics, medicine, and economics are, they pale in significance next to this one. And because it is so primal, so powerful, so utterly unavoidable, we should expect consequences when we act against it.

This is the point of today's Gospel: God is telling us that our lives matter, that what we do has consequences. That He made this world to be perfected in love and that if we violate this logic, we will suffer. In the great judgement, only those who have dedicated themselves to love - love of God and love of neighbor - will be rewarded. And this judgment is not based on an evaluation of our feelings about God or our neighbors, but what we have actually done with our time, talents, and treasures.

“When did we see you suffering and not help you?”

“When you saw your neighbor suffering and did not help Him.”

Coming just before the beginning of Great Lent, this iGospel s meant to be a warning; a challenge for us to look at our lives, how we have spent our time, our talents, and our treasures and to repent of our idleness and rededicate ourselves to a life of love.

What would this look like? What would we do if we really loved our neighbor?

The most obvious is giving money, food, clothes and so on to alleviate our neighbor's suffering. We can do this in so many ways. Our food pantry is not huge, but through it several families are able to make it just a little bit longer. More importantly, through it love is incarnated and creation rejoices.
Another is the way we treat our coworkers, friends, and adversaries in our communities. Are we generous and charitable in our dealings with them? Do we allow our time with them to become a witness to the transformative power of love - or the degenerating power of pride and apathy?
Another is less obvious, but no less real. Do we pray for the suffering people in this world? Do we join the Church as it prays for the suffering people in this world? This liturgy or “work of the people” is something everyone can do. Something that costs nothing but brings real results. It is, therefore, something that we all MUST do, or else we have “seen Him” and His suffering, and ignored Him.

In conclusion, love is more than a feeling or an idea. It is more, even, than a simple law or logic. The Law or Logic or Logos of Love became man. He is our Lord, Jesus Christ. If we are living in Him, then He is living in us. If He, the source of all love is in us, then everything we do – every breath we take and every move we make - is an expression of His perfect love. This, after all, is the real goal. Not to love because it we will suffer if we do not; not to love because we will be rewarded if we do, but to love because we have been transformed through Christ into love. This is achieved most mightily through our actions here and now: the Holy Eucharist is both the mechanism and the expression of our union with Christ; relating to today's Gospel, it is the greatest way for us to end the suffering in our world. We participate in it not because we are scared of the judgement, or because we want some kind of spiritual pat on the back, but because – through Christ - we are being transformed into living gods of love.

Eating Pig Pods - and loving it

2012-02-12T07:15:00.000-05:00

Homily on the Prodigal Son
St. Luke 15:11-32
1 Corinthians 6:12-20

A Metaphor on Food

One of the best ways to understand sin is as those things that damage our health [explain].
We were made so with feedback loops so that we could diagnose the things we had been eating that were causing us harm [explain].
Imagine a world where we had short-circuited the feedback loop so that we did not really notice the damage bad food and health habits were doing to us.
Moreover, imagine a world where we had engineered things so that we not only craved unhealthy food and then subsidized them (made them cheaper) so that such cravings were easily satisfied.
What would happen to the health of a population in such a system.

We don't have to imagine, do we? In America, we are suffering tremendously from just such a system. Unhealthy food is engineered to taste great and subsidized so that it is the normal choice for most of us. And look at the consequences - most of us are overweight, and a substantial minority are obese. And this starts early. But instead of being heartbroken and repentant at what we have done to ourselves, instead of rededicating ourselves to a healthier way of life, we recreate the world so that it indulges and supports us in our sickness.

To go back to the parable of the Prodigal Son, we are eating the pods of the swine - and loving it. We are as happy with these empty pods as a pig in mud. In the parable, the younger son recognized the damage he had done to his health. He repented and turned back. If nothing else, his belly woke him from his stupor. But what if it had not? What if his society and his pride had woven an illusion over him, convincing him that he was neither hungry nor sick. What could have awoken him to the seriousness of his situation?

I worry that this describes our world all too well. We have all but removed the most obvious consequences of our poor decisions (the feedback loop) and made ourselves victims of those we haven't. We do not take responsibility for our actions because we see nothing wrong - or at least nothing that is a consequence of our own mistakes. Great Lent is designed to wake us from this dangerous dream, to help us recognize not only the many compromises we have made but also the affect these have had on our own health and the health of our community. The Lord warns us, through His apostle Paul; "For all have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Today's epistle about the danger of sexual immorality hits the mark - this is another area where our culture and our pride conspire to set us all up for failure. But there are so many other ways. Even more obvious sins like theft have become routinized and so commonplace that there is no shame felt despite the fact that so many ipods are full of stolen music and computers full of pirated software and movies.

Even those of us who manage to follow the Ten Commandments and avoid all the temptations this world throws at us, there remains the sin of the older brother. The one who, though technically blameless, has lost his soul to bitterness and selfishness.

Yes, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We have all compromised. We have all sinned.

But the great part of the story is that all that is behind us now. Today we have repented and turned back to our Father. And here He is running to meet us. Let the music and the hymns of the Liturgy be as His arms enfolding us. He has killed the fatted calf and prepared a feast for us. Blessed Communion awaits.

Glory to God that despite our many shortcomings and pride, He welcomes us home with open arms.

Homily - Publican and Pharisee

2012-02-05T07:31:00.000-05:00

All of creation is pregnant with potential - less full of lifeless atoms or particles than of seeds just waiting to be brought forth into fruition. And here I speak not just of literal seeds (although it is almost time to start working with those and getting them ready for transfer into the garden come Spring), but of everything. All of creation is ready to grow, made that way by its Maker, just waiting for our attention - the attention of its stewards - to bring it from possibility into realization. When sown by stewards of pure heart and understanding, these seeds will be nurtured into beauty, offering the best possible fruit, [and] manifesting the glory of God in very tangible ways. When sown by stewards of ill will, apathetic spirit, or twisted rationality, these seeds will grow into something much less savory, twisted testimonies to pride and carelessness. Think of these examples:

The relationship of the newly wedded couple contains so much potential. It is a very pregnant seed. Will they be good stewards of that seed, nurturing it into a marriage that will be a blessing to themselves, their families, and their communities? Or will they warp it with the waters of their own pride, forcing it to grow into a noxious and bitter weed with reeking flowers that foul the air and harm all those who rub against it? The seed could grow either way - it is up to them; their decision.
Starting even earlier, take the example of the literal seed within the womb. There is so much potential there. What will it become? A child of light or a spreader of darkness? Or, like a quarter of such perfect seeds, will it be sacrificed to the false gods of irresponsibility and liberation long before it sees the light of day?
Take the first interaction between strangers - will this potential relationship manifest itself as an application of love and friendship, or as a selfish transaction between a hustler and his mark? Or will the potential remain just that as the two strangers remain just that - strangers - and the possibility for the incarnation of perfection through their friendship remains unrealized.

Perhaps these are too abstract - we are not used to thinking about relationships in these terms. Americans tend to be more practical - so let us turn to the building blocks of this society: money and time. Each dollar within our wallets, our purses, and our accounts is a seed. It has such potential to change lives - will it grow into a beautiful fruit that feeds and heals, or a stunted sacrifice designed to slate our selfish addictions for a moment longer. It has such great potential - what kind of stewards will we be?

And what will we do with our time? Every moment is so pregnant - what will it become? How will it be redeemed? In idleness or action? In prayer or prelest? As an offering to love or selfishness? Today we have a great lesson in the use of time - will we work the time in a way that brings us into closer union with perfection, or will we work it in a way that moves us only deeper into our own delusion?

Today we have a lesson from the Creator Himself describing this very dynamic.

The Pharisee. He was praying. How could he go wrong? He had tended his garden so well... but then poisoned it with his pride.
The Publican. He was praying, too. No matter what a mess he had made with all the previous potentialities, in this moment - he was pure. And God moved within that seed and it became like that mustard seed - growing to crowd out all that had been grown before.

The seed of perfection is within us all, ready to manifest itself through every moment and action of our lives. But we can pervert with our willfulness and pride. Instead, let us take this seed and water it with our tears of repentance and thankfulness - and nourish it with the love that desires the works towards the unity and perfection of all.

20120206 A Pregnant Creation, Mail Call, and Islam

2012-02-04T14:48:00.003-05:00

Podcast Notes

Homily on Zacchaeus et al. (due to the delay in recording, this was bumped by a Homily on the Publican and the Pharisee)

Mail Bag

What should I do if there are no regular Orthodox services in my area?
What are the most healthy expressions of sexuality? (note on recent decision to ban indoor prostitution here, and on movies like "The Scarlet Road"). How much is this culturally determined? Is there a difference between extra-marital sex between gays or lesbians or straights? Between different sex acts?
What are your thoughts on the court ban on the school prayer banner in Cranston RI?

First, here is the text of the banner:

Our Heavenly Father,
Grant us each day the desire to do our best,
To grow mentally and morally as well as physically,
To be kind and helpful to our classmates and teachers,
To be honest with ourselves as well as with others,
Help us to be good sports and smile when we lose as well as when we win,
Teach us the value of true friendship,
Help us always to conduct ourselves so as to bring credit to Cranston High School West.
Amen.

This court decision had led to a lot of discussion here in Rhode Island, especially in New England. Especially among clergy. Me? I'm pretty ambivalent. Given all the drek that our schools are teaching, does it do more harm or good for prayers to hang in schools? Does it lead to conflation of authority in the minds of students? What if a "Christian prayer" is one of many from various traditions?

My good friend, an Orthodox priest here calls for diversity rather than atheism in the schools. I think he is confusing atheism with secularism, but he has a good point. The RICC executive director came out in support of diversity, and applauds the decision (without any seeming cognitive dissonance). If we join my friend in seeing atheism as a religion, then taking it down is wrong.

What do you think?

Me? I don't trust the government to do much at all right, and I certainly don't trust it to represent religious authority to children. But then again, I am willing to homeschool my kids and dig deep to send them to Christian schools (BTW, school prayer was what led to the creation of such a great system of Catholic schools in the first place - and if there had been as many Orthodox as Catholics (but still in the minority), we would have done the same).

I have said many times that a growing government cannot help but infringe on Orthodox morality. The government is, by Constitution, secular. This means that when it tries to help people, it can only really do so using a lowest-common-denominator humanist morality. If you drew a Venn Diagram, you would see quite a bit of overlap between humanist and Orthodox morality (murder is wrong, stealing is wrong, we should help people when we can), but as the government does more (and as our society becomes less and less "Christ-haunted"), it inevitably moves out of the union of the two sets and enacts policies that are at odds with Orthodox (and thus BY DEFINITION harmful to society).

This leads us to another question that came up - "Did you see our bishops' statement on the HHS ruling requiring everyone to provide free contraception?" Yes, I did. Here it is. This may seem trivial, but it is a sign of more to come. On this earth, when it comes to government, there is no ideal solution. But I am convinced that the government that does the least is the least likely to bugger things up. The nanny state isn't just a nuisance, it is dangerous. It's messing up what should be its core competencies (public goods like defense, protection of the market, transportation, and education) and finding new things to mess up. God save us from a heterodox government that thinks it knows what is best for us and has the power to enforce it! [and by the way, I would feel the same - perhaps even more so - if the majority of voters were Orthodox and/or our leaders were Orthodox. There is too much fuzziheadedness even among the Orthodox for a big government solution to work. Take Russia - the close cooperation between the government and the Church in the 19th century nearly led to its bankruptcy there, and its support of Russian imperialism certainly undermined its legitimacy elsewhere. While the Moscow Church has distanced itself a bit from the Russian government of late, could you imagine if silly ideas like the "PYCCKUU MIP" had the force of law? Symphonia is a beautiful idea, but let the symphonia do as little as possible and empower the grass-roots parishes, secondary organizations, and citizens flourish!]

Seems like some of you were upset that I was speaking ill of our servicemen and women (my response to the video of a few Marines urinating on Taliban corpses). I stand by what I said: they are some of the best we have to offer, but they are still just us. And they are us under a lot of pressure (and worse). Physical combat, they can handle. They are brave and efficient. But spiritual combat? Look around you - how capable are we of meeting even the "normal" temptations/assaults that come against us here at home? We aren't. And it's a lot harder there. Why are suicides so high among war veterans? Our best and brightest, and we are using them up, sacrificing them to what? To bring peace to Afghanistan? To bring stability to the Middle East? And because our armed forces are so good, we keep using it again and again. The good idea fairy keeps waving her wand and our young men and women are suffering for it. And without any clear sign that it is worth it. Again I ask - what is this sacrifice for? Is it like with the Azteks, designed to keep the Sun on its regular course? Is it like with Rachel's children, silenced so that we can have sex apart for responsibility? Unlike those two examples, at least our men and women go voluntarily - but does that excuse us for using them like this? We've got a lot to answer for. I have no doubt that we can do better than this.

Before I go to our last piece of mail, we really need to pay the bills. So here is a word from a sponsor (warning, satire!):

Genesis 6:2 Gene Blocker!
There is a plan to save the human race - but will it include you? It's all in the DNA - and yours is not safe. In the dawn of time, pan-dimensional shape-shifters used genetic manipulation to pull humanity away from this plan. They corrupted every gene line but one, the one from which you come. As history's greatest prognosticator: those days have come again. Alien abductions and crop circles are just the tip of the iceberg. With the cooperation of the world's most powerful governments and industries, they are using the very stuff of life to do it all again: corrupt our DNA. Fluoride in your water, GMO's in your belly: you cannot escape! The very air you breath is being perverted by chemtrails and off-gasing. Your genes are mutating as we speak. You are not safe! The plan of salvation is anthrocentric, keyed to pristine human DNA. The body and blood cannot save you if your body and blood are not pure. Which is why you need Genesis 6:2 Gene Blocker! Genesis 6:2 Gene Blocker goes into your body at the macro-cellular level and protects each cell from genetic manipulation or drift. Get Genesis 6:2 NOW! And for those who fear that they are already less than human, get our strongest product yet: Ephesians 2:13 Blood Transfusion. There is power in the blood! In Stores Now!

Which is a great setup for my answer to the next question: what happened to the paranormal? What about transhumanism? Three main narratives I want to present:

The radical tranhumanists
The Enochian fundamentalists
The paradigm of holistic health (body, mind, and soul; aka Orthodoxy)

Today let me talk share a brief summary of each. Later, when there is time (and if you are still interested), I'll develop them more for you.
As for the paranormal, I'm still actively researching etc. Just need to put my thoughts together. I'll start adding more to the news segment (next show, hopefully).

And now for our segment: Prepping with Pawlo!

Prepping is all about making it through the Cross, being ready to that you can make it through whatever the world throws at you. The most authentic Cross is the Xpect. Last week, I talked to you about the first letter of Xpest, the "K", for Kommunity. It's not about going it alone, but about being part of a community that can work together through easy and hard times. No Robinson Crusoe bug outs. If you try to do everything on your own, not only will you fail, you will not be able to exercise your gift. Even small communities allow people to specialize. Sure, there are common skills that everyone should have - but you should also be an expert in something useful, something beautiful, something that will make the community a better place. Yes, Kapitalism also starts with K - work hard and your community will thrive.
This week, I want to talk about the "R" in Kpest: responsibility. You have to know that you are the one that needs to get things done. If you see something broken, fix it. If somethings can be done better, make it happen. This goes for your preps, too. If you are in debt, get out. If you don't have money saved for an emergency - both in the bank and in the cookie jar - then start saving. If you don't have a good supply of water saved, stop throwing away your empty containers, fill them with water, and store them. If you don't have a good supply of food set aside, start buying an extra of everything that keeps each time you go shopping. In tough economic times, this is what grown-ups do: they make sure they can do what needs to get done even if they lose their jobs, get sick, or the grid goes down. Community is important, it will only be healthy if it is comprised of prepared individuals looking out for one another. Community doesn't mean relying on others to do the kinds of thing everyone should be doing as a matter of course. So that's the K and P of the Cross - the way to survive the worst.

Vol'ya Segment: An Orthodox Explanation of the Heresy of Islam.

Homily - Zachaeus Sunday

2012-02-01T16:33:00.001-05:00

Run the Experiment in Your Life! (they did - and look at them!)

Zacchaeus Sunday, the Commemoration of St. Peter's Chains, and the Eve of St. Anthony the Great.

Gospel: St. Luke 19:1-10
Epistle: Acts 12:1-11

What if we lived as if we believed all this was true? What if we stopped hedging our bets and gave ourselves over to Christ and His teachings. What if, instead of simply “going through the motions” and reciting the words, we allowed to the love of Christ dwelling within us to animate our bodies and guide our actions. What if we were really willing give up everything and follow Him?

How different would our lives look? How different would our world be?

Today I would have us remember three who took this step, who were willing to make their lives living experiments on the value of incarnating love and perfection: Zacchaeus. Peter. Anthony. By an “experiment”, I mean less the part about holding all variables but one constant and measuring how that variable affects the outcome and more that when you run an experiment you have to be all in. You can't judge the effect of new eyeglasses on our sight unless we actually wear them; you can't determine the effect of a given health regimen unless you actually follow the plan. We do this all the time with things like diets, why not with love? Why not with the Orthodoxy that we profess every day? These three did just that.

Zachaeus. [Review of the mess he had made of his life.] Then, opening his heart to perfection, he saw the many ways he fell short. He accepted Christ into his heart – even into his home! (would that we would do the same) and made his life part of this experiment. This led to a radically different way of life. From a man who cheated as much as the circumstances (and law) allowed, to one who gave away everything he did not need. Did he benefit from this? How did the experiment work out for him?

Peter. Giving up his own ideas of what perfection and a life of love demanded; recognizing his inability to achieve this on his own – he gave himself over to Christ. He changed his life, dedicating it and everything he had to spreading the Gospel. We cannot imagine the sacrifices he made for the Church and for the Truth. How did the experiment work out for him? Even his chains became a source of healing!

Anthony. In 285, at the age of 34, he decided to follow the words of Jesus, who had said: "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven; and come, follow Me." Taking these words quite literally, Anthony gave away some of the family estate to his neighbors, sold the remaining property, donated the funds thus raised to the poor, placed his sister in the care of a convent, and dedicated his life completely to prayers of unity, love, and perfection. How did the experiment work out for him?

These who have gone before us began no different than we are now. Then they made a decision. A decision they reaffirmed every day: to give their lives over to unity, love, and perfection through Jesus Christ. To the world, it looks like they gave up too much. After all, the constitution tells us that all we need to do is come to church, participate in the sacraments of Confession and Communion, give a bit of our money – and we will be members of God's club, followers of Jesus Christ. But is that really living the life? Is that really taking part in this great experiment?

Doe the child that goes to school just two hours a week become truly educated?

Does the man who only diets just one or two days a year lose weight?

Does the woman who invests just one percent of her income save enough for retirement?

Would we take such people seriously when they told us that they were interested in learning, in losing weight, or in having a secure for retirement?

When it comes to Orthodoxy and living the life of Christ, the paradox is that those who give up the most, gain the most. As the tropar to so many of our saints proclaims: we obtain the heights by humility and riches by poverty. We gain our lives by giving them up. The experiment has been tested and confirmed by all the saints. We will we join them?

20120120 Theophany, Local News, and a Review of History

2012-01-21T21:47:00.001-05:00

Podcast Notes:

Talk a little about Theophany.

Before the news...

A word from a sponsor (satire) - Guido-vich and Mak-mech-enko Revenue Consultants.
With the new immigration comes new opportunity. The first immigration brought hard work and selfless dedication to building communities and parishes. The second immigration brought a faith that had been forged by circumstances too difficult to imagine. The third immigration brought their desire to share their economic success in the New World with the parishes that they attend. Now there is a new generation with a whole new set of skills, honed in the back-alleys and bars of Moscow, Kyiv, Hoboken, and Hell's Kitchen. A group that, while perhaps lacking in some of the traditional aspects of their ancestral faith, are more than willing to share their skills with the struggling parishes their grandparents built.

As far as we can tell, the biggest problem facing today's parishes is money. They already have their priests, their choirs, their buildings, but they can't pay the bills. That's where we come in. In times of economic trouble, certain industries flourish. Our aim is to corner the market in these industries for the building up of the Kingdom of the world. Our forefathers had the right idea when they threatened those who refused to pay dues with defacto excommunication and a cross-roads' burial, but they didn't go far enough. We have the muscle to do extortion right! Our forefathers had the right idea when they offered gambling to people with little to no discretionary income - but bingo doesn't go far enough! We have the facilities to run things right, with all the addictive side-revenue streams that come with them! Not to mention a hundred other revenue enhancers that our forefathers never even considered. Sure, you can pin your hopes on fantasies like "evangelism and church growth" and "tithing and sacrificial giving", but why go with fantasy when you can have proven fact. Our ways have worked in every place they have been tried - why not put them to work for you and your parish!? Guido-vich and Mak-mech-enko Revenue Consultants are here to help.

The news.

Here at home:
Things are well, thank God. Sprouting? Less nowadays, but rejuvelak has become a regular staple, as has homemade kefir. Next up? Kombucha! I'm also deciding what to add to the garden this year.

Around the country:

Fr. Gabriel has been busy! Gentle souls: Church bestows blessing on animals.

As has Fr. Peter Preble! ‘Weeping' statue coming to Southbridge church.

But what do theologians and mladasartsi do with this? They use it as an excuse to bash Orthodox churches that they don't like - shame on you!

Talking MLK (and abortion) with New England theologians: emasculating MLK and the civil rights movement (and insisting conservatives do the same about abortion).

Prepping with Pawlo!

Bugging out or digging in? What to do when TSHTF. Proper preparation prevents [pretty] poor performance. Basic ideas - KPECTь: Kommunity (communal sufficiency, autonomy), Redundancy, Excellency, Simplicity, and церковність. And please, stop wasting water!

The Vol'ya Moment: Telling history another way (Take II).

Homily - Repent... and change the world

2012-01-16T18:38:00.000-05:00

The Sunday before Theophany; 2 Timothy 4:5-8, St. Mark 1:1-8

This is the Sunday before Theophany, when we remember St. John and his ministry, and how he prepared the world for the God-man Jesus Christ through his ministry of repentance.

History of Saint John.

Saint John the Baptist was the son of Zachariah and Elizabeth (the two saints who, along with Joachim and Anna, adorn the back walls of our nave). Zachariah was a Jewish priest; Elizabeth was the cousin of the Birthgiver of God, Mary. You will remember that when Mary, in her third month of pregnancy, visited Elizabeth, the child in her womb - John the Baptist - leapt in her womb. You may not remember what came next.

The Angel Gabriel had prophesied to Zachariah while he was serving in the temple that John would "... be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." (St. Luke 1:13b-17)

But the road to the fulfillment of this prophecy would not be easy. Last week, we heard how, when John was still quite young, the wise men came and alerted Herod of the Messiah's birth. Since they refused to identify the Christ-child, Herod decided to kill all the boy children ages two or younger. This would have included John. As a result, Elizabeth took John and hid in the wilderness. When soldiers came to the temple to question Zachariah about his son, Zachariah refused to tell him and was martyred there between the temple and the altar (St. Luke 11:51). Tradition says that Elizabeth died soon thereafter and that John grew up in the wilderness and remained there until he began his ministry of repentance, "preparing the way of the Lord".

The Promise of Theophany

I have shared with you my love for Theophany. It is the realization of mankind's proper relationship with creation. From the time of the Fall until then, man had been unable and unwilling to live up to his high calling. Creation responded to him as God ordained, but because of the accumulation of sin, it responded as much to his sin as to his goodness. Christ had no sin, so He was a blessing to nature. His purity was so great that corruption and evil could not abide His presence. We see this in the hymnography of Theophany, most notably in the oft repeated Psalm verse; "the Jordan was driven back"(114:5). All the wickedness in the water fled from Jesus' presence and the water itself became holy. Through Christ, we are able to do the same. We are to join His holy body and to bring healing and blessings to this broken world.

The Need for Repentance

But first we have to listen to John. First we have to prepare. And the way to Christ begins with repentance.

Why? Because if we act in the world without shedding our sin, the blessings we bring to the world are always tainted. We are as much a curse as we are a balm. Why? Another story may help.

Disease Kills, Despite the Bearer's Intent

In 19th century Vienna, child mortality was high. Doctors did their best, but their actions were ofter ineffective. In fact, their help was so dubious that some claimed that babies died from fright at their approach. Ignaz Semmelweis did a study and found that doctors who washed their hands before delivering babies were more effective. Hand-washing was correlated with infant survival. That means that doctors who did not wash their hands were actually doing harm. It seems obvious to us now, but it wasn't then. Some were even offended by the suggestion that gentlemen doctors were somehow unclean and needed to wash their hands. But they were wrong. No matter how good their training was, no matter how good their intentions, if they did not wash their hands, they were going to do harm.

It is the same for us. We have tremendous power to change the world around us. With our money, with our time, with our love. But as long as we are tainted by the disease of sin, we are a danger even to those we seek to help.

This is why the message of St. John the Baptist continues to resonate today; "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand!" The Kingdom of God is within you. Repent. Wash your soul, and let God's healing mercy work through you.

20120113 Spirituality of Christmas and Theophany

2012-01-14T23:12:00.000-05:00

In this (welcome back) edition, we go back to the old format; starting with a reflection, covering a few news stories and satirical advertisements and the like, then finishing with the Volya (Freedom) segment that treats a topic of interest in some detail.

But before we begin, I reckon that I owe you an explanation: why so long between podcasts?

Well, I told you that I was teaching Spirituality at seminary this past Fall, and that I looked forward to sharing some of that with the OrthoAnalytika audience. And I did. Unfortunately, hesychasm, the way of silence, does not work well in the podcasting world! (sorry, a bit of Ortho-geek humor there).

Actually, It's been a sort of perfect storm of laziness, a growing family, busy parish life, teaching engagements, technical issues, and an attempt to take a few hours off every week. But I recently talked to a wonderful mentor of mine about my frustration at not getting any podcasts out - and he told me that if I enjoyed it that I shouldn't hesitate to use my "free day" to do it. And honestly, I enjoy this much more than what I did with my free day through much of the Spring and Summer (at least until Claire was born): play golf. I was really grokking some Mark Twain - golf often threatens to spoil a good walk.

Lord willing and the creek don't rise, the Orthoanalytika team and I will get back into the routine and start pushing out more episodes. There are still technical issues to overcome (I still have not recovered from switching servers over a year ago), but I think I have almost cracked the code on that. A few more hours by our technical guy (he's the retired intell chief) and we'll be cooking with gas.

A bit more before we head into the meat of today's show.
For whatever reason, we've picked up a lot of new listeners over the last year. Those who have been around for longer than that have seen the show change over time. From basically a homily and some local music (often me on my old baritone) to a show that tackles issues - like prepping and the paranormal - that aren't really being covered in the high-profile podcasts. Since we are an independent podcast, we're able to say some things that others might not want to mess with. From the superficial, like when we made fun of people who are dogmatic about beards, to the more serious, as when we mocked hyper-ecuminicists by presenting a "metric of orthodoxness" (complete with numerical ratings and percentages). We can get away with this because while we take the Truth (and our pursuit of it) seriously, the same cannot be said about ourselves. We are, as one iTunes reviewer put it; "goofy". We are also completely in love with God's people and the One who made and draws them all together.

Enough with the navel-gazing: let the podcast begin!

Homily: God has been born in Bethlehem... and in our hearts.

[but first, another aside!] One of the guiding bits of folk wisdom that guides this show is that "when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." For the past few months, more than at any other time, I have been trying to eat, drink, sleep, breathe, and live hesychasm. The idea that God lives within the center of our nous, and that through certain disciplines (most notably those that develop peace and self-less love) we can encounter Him... well, let's just say that it is a pretty big hammer. Next semester, I am teaching comparative religion in America - that means that I have been reading a lot on American spirituality (think Emerson, Smith, Manley, and Bloom). There are some real spiritual geniuses out there. They take this very real idea of the Kingdom of God dwelling within us, and they run with it; engaging all their genius to develop new and beautiful theologies and approaches to perfection. Unfortunately, as another such genius, Tolstoi, noted when commenting on Joseph Smith's Book of Mormon, such attempts end up being 20% inspired and 80% deceptive gobsmack (I am paraphrasing). This is one of the great joys of Orthodoxy: it's a safe place to take this idea and see where it goes. People who have done this before have published warnings about where inspiration ends and delusion begins. Anyways, hesychasm is a wonderful hammer, and every homily for the past few months has been yet another nail (for instance, the men who made up excuses not to attend the Landowner's banquet became stand-in's for the many logismoi that distract us from spending time with the God-Emanuel within our hearts). Here's what the hammer does in the hands of this unskilled laborer when it comes to the Nativity.

The Christ-child in the World and in our Hearts (the Sunday after Nativity)

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Before we get to the news, let's have a word from one of our sponsors (warning: satire coming).

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Now on to the news.

World news: I know y'all just love it when I talk about the Taliban, but I can't resist weighing in on the news about the Marines urinating on Taliban corpses. I have to say something because I heard a local talk show personality defending the behavior of these Marines, and I just don't think that's right. My point is not to judge them, but just to use this as yet another data point that shows that no nation, and especially not one that has allowed the morality of its culture to decline to the extent that ours has, (no nation) can make it through a war without causing spiritual damage to itself and others. I love our servicemen and women. I am a retired soldier. But I don't walk around with my eyes closed. How can we expect a culture like ours to prepare our men and women for the temptations war brings? We have not even prepared them for the temptations civilian life brings! If we are willing to put stickers on our Chevy pick-ups showing our disdain for Ford pick-ups the way we do (using urination to get the point across), why in the world should we be surprised that we are willing to show our disrespect in this manner when we run across something really despicable like the Taliban? War may bring out the best in men, but it also brings their shortcomings, and the shortcomings of the cultures that nurtured them, into stark relief. We really need to stay away from it as best we can.

Paranormal News: If you've been listening for any time at all, you know I love playing with alternative history (speaking of which, if St. Brendan started a monastery here over a thousand years ago, doesn't the flag planting theory of Orthodoxy suggest that all American Orthodox should be under the Celtic Orthodox Church? And given the early efforts of the Celtic missionaries among the Slavs, I think we can trump Patriarch Kirill's claim for a "Russkie Mir" with a no less preposterous Celtic Orthodox Commonwealth that covers all of Europe and North America!). Anyways, our buddy Pawlo Amerikanchuk sent us this; "Ruin in Georgian Mountains Show evidence of Mayan Connection". Some archeologists are trying to debunk this, arguing that it is simply an example of parallel development. Pawlo argues that it may be the remains of the monastery that Prince Madoc's chaplain, Hieromonk Cadfan, established among the Cherokee of the southern Appalachians.

Health News. In a flash of counter-counter-intuitive insight, scientists have found that "Extra calories, less protein are culprits in weight gain." They varied the proportion of proteins and carbs across different groups while giving them all 1,000 more calories than recommended. The low protein group gained less than the others, but they lost muscle and gained fat, whereas the high protein group gained more weight, but if was lean muscle mass. How cool is that? Yet another reason to cut WAAAAAY back on sugars and grains and move towards a high protein diet.

Crunchy News. I had asked Pawlo Amerikanchuk to send in a voice report in hopes of renewing the "Thinking Green with Pawlo" feature. He did, but Theophany has him thinking about the sacredness of water, why it was wasteful (if not blasphemous) to use water to flush and carry waste, and how composting humanure was a sacred allegory for God's desire to make good blossom out of even the worst things. It was a bit much, so we are going to try again next podcast.

[Church News. In November of 2011, Patriarch Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyivan Patriarchate, visited his parishes in the United States. During this time, he ordained a deacon of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA to the priesthood without canonical release from his bishop, His Grace Daniel. This newly minted priest showed his humility and devotion to Christian unity by publishing a letter on the internet attacking his former bishops for not being devoted enough to Holy Ukrainianity. As he wrote in his letter, by joining the UOC-KP, he will better be able to "to honor [his Ukrainian] ancestors and to be faithful to and serve [his] ancestral motherland and its people."]

In other news, Oliver Smith divorced his wife in favor of divorce' Jezebel Doe. He said that his old wife was no longer up to snuff and that his love of the Holy Sacrament of Matrimony forced him to marry a woman who could better meet his needs. When asked about the unexpected move"She [his former wife] didn't do everything I expected her to do, and she was far too nice to ugly people. Jezebel is beautiful like I am and is a more fitting recipient of my great love for marriage and unity." Jezebel herself has quite a history. Several years ago, she divorced her own husband of many, many years in hopes of marrying a man that she had previously adamantly and unequivocally claimed did not even exist. May God grant Oliver and Jezebel many blessed years together - they certainly deserve one another!

And before we go on to our Vol'ya moment on the spirituality of Theophany, let's hear another word from our sponsor! Warning - Satire Alert!

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New from Fourth Rome Press: Reclaiming Their True Faith: how and why many 11th Century Ukrainians forsook Orthodoxy for their heart's true home. Learn how some nationalist Rusyn's of the 11th century rejected the spiritual patronage of Constantinople in favor of the true faith of their fathers, paganism. "Prince Volodymyr and his delegates to Hagia Sophia were duped by Greek sophistry", claimed one disenchanted clergyman, who left the Orthodox "Church of the Tithes" in Kyiv to become a priest at the "Temple of Saint Perun, guardian of Ukrainianity, a temple of the True and Independent Pagan Church of Kyivan Rus'". He wrote this and other things in an open letter alleged to have been posted on every crossroad signpost in Greater Rus'. "The Greek religion is for Greeks - paganism is the faith of our fathers and should be our faith, as well!", his letter continued, just before attacking all the Ukrainian bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church for being "turncoats" and "Helenophiles". This book is sure to be of interest to all those who study the sociology of conversion and reconversion and the interplay of nationalist xenophobia with salvation history.

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Editorial Note: Before we go on, let me just say that the clergymen and parishes that forsake their own bishops in favor of ones who better strike their fancy and then try to claim the Orthodox moral high ground are like the man who leaves his wife in favor of his secretary and claims to have done it to preserve the sanctity of marriage. And the bishop that actually encourages such things puts himself in the role of homewrecker. Enough said.

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Vol'ya Segment

On Theophany and the Economy of Our Salvation.
(I gave this talk to the RI Council of Churches "Faith and Order Commission").
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Thanks for listening, and thanks for all your e-mails encouraging me to get back on the stick!

Homily for the Sunday after Nativity - the child Christ in the world (and in our hearts)

2012-01-08T07:29:00.002-05:00

Gospel (Sunday after Nativity): St. Matthew 2:13-23
Epistle: Colossians 3:12-16
Epistle (Sunday after Nativity): Galatians 1:11-19

Summary of today's Gospel:
God humbles Himself to save mankind, leaving His rightful inheritance as God and becoming man; being born as a baby in Bethlehem. And how does the world He has come to save greet Him? Is He born in a temple? In a palace? These would have been seemed more fitting than what it gave Him: a manger in a stable. Worse yet, when the leaders of the day learned of His birth from the wise men - what was their reaction? Did they submit to the Ruler of All Ages? Did they nurture, serve, and protect Him so that He could grow into manhood as their prophet, priest, and king? No. In today's Gospel, we hear how the Holy Family had to flee the Holy Land into Egypt in order to avoid assassination. The Holy One, the Savior, had come into the world and it tried to kill Him, with the murder of "Rachel's children" as the sacrifice on the altar of their own selfish rage. It is a shameful tale, and it serves as a warning to us all. As always, it is less useful for us to see ourselves in the place of the angels, or the wise men, or the shepherds in this bit of history - not when we are so often the very people who humble Christ, persecute Him, and drive Him out of our lives.

Re-summarizing the Gospel
Yes, just as Christ humbled Himself to become a child in Bethlehem so that He could transform the world; so to has He humbled Himself to into our midst - the temple of our hearts - in order to transform us. And unfortunately the parallel between these two stories continues: how is the heart into which He comes? Is it a place befitting the Ruler of the Ages? Or is it more like an animal's trough in a forgotten section of our lives, our own equivalent of the stable manger?

And having learned that God is within us, how do we react? Do we center our lives on this reality, or do we persecute Him and drive Him our of our minds, out of our thoughts, out of our plans, and out of our lives?

Gnosticism - we need no king but (our divine) ego!
In American, scholars have noted that the dominant religion is not and has never been Christianity - it is instead a form of Gnosticism. A belief that we are in union with the divine, that the divine light of immortal wisdom burns within us and is at the core of who we are. They note that, to the extent we look Christian, it is because we use Christian words to describe this belief. So when we hear - as we have today - that Christ has come to dwell within our hearts, we hear a validation of what we already believe to be true: that we are divine.

The problem is that it isn't true. God is God and we are not. And while it is His desire to transform us into something more (this is the whole point of the Nativity, after all), when we claim divinity we are doing the same thing Herod did: setting ourselves up on the throne and driving Christ into the margins of our lives. Think about it: why did Herod seek to kill the Christ child? He was following His instinct for self-preservation. Christ was a threat so He had to be dealt with in the same way all rivals must be dealt with. If we are not careful, we will do the same. And in the reality we construct around our selfishness, we will be the good guy (the good god!). God will be working through us. He will be our guiding light. Our powers of self-delusion (prelest) will be so strong that we will claim to have created the greatest temple to God within the best part of our hearts - when all we have done is ratify the continuing worship of our own pride.

The danger of delusion
Christ really has been born within us. He lives in the center of our souls. But our souls are so clouded by our thoughts and by our feelings that we do not even notice. If we are not very careful, if we do not work against our fallen natures, instead of nurturing the Christ within us, we will nurture our own pride and call it "God". But the god we create is a pale shadow of the true god - enough to delude us, but not enough to save us.

Ego or Christ; Pride or Agape - how do we know?
This has all been a bit abstract, so let me put it in terms that are easy to understand; let me give you a means of evaluation to determine who really sits in the temple of your life. As our bishops reminded us the their Nativity Epistle, the Messiah did not live for Himself - every action, everything He did (His very life!), was in sacrificial service to others. And not just to others, but to others who were not like Him, who rarely understood or appreciated what He was doing. And He did it not out of fear of damnation or hope of a reward (eternal or otherwise), but because He was truly devoted to others - He was love incarnate. If your life really is characterized by this kind of selfless action - then there is no doubt that Christ is growing within your heart. But let me warn you: the god of our pride is the master of illusions. It will attempt to convince us that we are more generous with ourselves than we really are. The practical test is this: are we willing to live outside our comfort zones, deny yourselves (take up the cross, St. Matthew 16:24), and do things for others without the slightest concern about receiving something in return(St. Matthew 5:43-48)? Because this is love of Christ, and it is this kind of attitude that is the sign of the real Christian (St. John 13:34-35).

Perhaps I am still being too obtuse. Let me get specific. What is our attitude towards sacrificial giving and tithing? To secretly giving more than people around us (so that they may give less)? How much time are we willing to give up each day to get down on our knees and pray for the healing of those in need? What does our prayer rule look like? Did we say our communion prayers before coming to church? How much effort are we willing to spend building healing connections with the broken people in our families, our parish, and our communities?

If we are like most men, when challenged to actually do something selfless, our egos will stand up on their thrones and begin making excuses. Christ never made an excuse a day in His life. He rolled up His sleeves and did what needed to be done - and He did it.

Christ is Born! And He has made His home within the manger of our souls. The rest is up to us. [Through Him, we can do well.]

Homily: New Year's Resolution - Sunday before the Nativity

2012-01-01T14:55:00.003-05:00

Sunday before the Nativity
Hebrews 11:9-10,17-23,32-40
St. Matthew 1:1-25

On this first day of the year, we look backwards and forwards; taking stock of what has gone before and and deciding what to do in the year to come. It is the same with today's Epistle and Gospel readings.

Looking backwards
The first thing we notice when reading today's scriptures is all those names. We are looking backwards through time to remember and evaluate what has happened up to this point in history. There are so many things that we can learn from this genealogical history - today I want to focus on what it says about charity. Those of us who have studied the Hebrew Bible are familiar with the deeds of many of those described in today's readings. What stands out when we reflect on their lives is that the were very real people. I don't just mean that they had flesh and blood and walked the earth at such and such time, but that they sometimes did things that don't look so good. Some people use this as an excuse to dismiss the scriptures. We know better. We know that it is not their mistakes that are being held up for us to emulate, but their faith. We find it immensely reassuring that God accomplished such wondrous things through His fallen people [more on this later].

The references to the "ancestors of God" in today's readings serve as a model how we categorize, value, and interact with all the people in our lives. Charity sees the good in others, despite their shortcomings. "The strong must bear the burdens of the weak" (Romans 15:1) is a good gateway verse as it engages and begins to train our pride (it is spiritual milk/ice cream); but the stronger approach is that we are in need of such charity ourselves, even more powerfully, that everyone is made in God's image and has His breath animating their lives. Everyone really is worthy of love no matter how they have tarnished the image of God within them. The point of naming all these lives is to show how God works through His fallen people to accomplish truly great things. Rather than dismissing the ancestors of God for their sins, we are called to recognize celebrate their faith and their role in salvation history; and in so doing, we are called to recognize and celebrate the way God is working through all His people (no matter how fallen).

... and seeing the present
The second part of today's Gospel takes us right up to the birth of Christ. All of history led up to this single point - a radical singularity of cosmic significance. God became incarnate as a man in Bethlehem of Judea. The one who is outside of time and matter joined Himself to it to redeem it; the one who is undefinable and incomprehensible translated Himself into something we could see and touch. [hymnography of the Church captures this the best, riffing on these themes over and over again] But this happened two thousand years ago - what is the point of celebrating it again and again? Are we historians? No. We are realists. The singularity is here - Christ is born within each of us. Just as He condescended to leave the glory of His rightful abode to be born in Bethlehem of Judea, so now has condescended to incarnate Himself within your heart and within this church. This is the living miracle of Christmas - that Christ has come into our hearts to bring us His peace, love, and salvation - and through us (His Church) brings His peace, love, and salvation to the world. Which brings us to my final point: what do we do with this blessing?

A resolution to love God (and neighbor)
New Year Resolution - nurture your soul. Allow the Christ "child" within you to grow; allow His power and grace to transform your life. You have accepted Him as your savior; now renew your love for Him and nurture that love every day. Resolve to live a life in Christ - not because you should, but because you love Him, desire to live in His peace and joy, and desire to share His love with His people. When we say profess to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind; when we say that we love our neighbors as ourselves, we mean something very real. We do love ideas or platonic concepts, but a living God and living persons. And because they are real, our love for them requires real charitable and sacrificial action. It would be strange if a man confessed love for his wife, but did nothing to help, nourish, and serve her; if he sacrificed nothing for her well being. We would doubt the sincerity of his confession. Similarly, it would be strange if we confessed our love for God and mankind and sacrificed nothing on their behalf. Real love requires real action.

Let's resolve in this new year to live lives more consistent with our confessions than ever before; to pray more consistently and sincerely, to be more steadfast in our worship, to be more sacrificial in our giving, to be more charitable in our evaluation of others, and to allow the grace of God to transform our hearts, our lives, and relations with others. If we do this, then we are sure to enjoy a prosperous and peaceful new year, no matter what challenges it may bring.

Homily: Preferring Religion to God

2011-12-11T07:28:00.002-05:00

"Get out of the way and let God do His work!"
St. Luke 13:10-17

In today's Gospel, we have an instructive encounter between Christ and the religious authorities. Christ was teaching in the synagogue and in the midst of the usual activities or scripture reading, psalmody, lecturing, and discussion, something unexpected happened: Christ healed a woman who had been suffering for 18 years. It is interesting to see the reaction people had to this miracle.

To the leader of the synagogue, the healing was a violation of the prescribed order of things - he was offended that such a thing was allowed to taint the service and the Sabbath itself. This is what religious people, and especially "leaders" (whether ordained or self-selected) do: they preserve tradition. We do that here. We have an order that we follow. And here I talk less about the "order of the service" (e.g. the things that are sung and how they are sung, when to stand, sit, bow, and cross yourself, how to take Communion, etc.), but the various local and personal traditions that have almost inextricably woven themselves into this order (e.g. who sits where and with whom, what language we use for what, whether and when to kneel, midnight or morning, old or new calendar). All these things have created a pattern of expectations that we expect to have met every time we come to Church. This sort of ritual behavior and expectations is what is known as "religion".

The danger is when we confuse this "religion" for Orthodoxy. And this is easy to do. The pharisees and sadducees of Christ's time certainly did it. They argued with one another over rules and missed the fact that God Himself was among them to show them the proper way to live and worship. This is what is most amazing about today's Gospel: the One who gave the Law - who knew its letter and its intent; the One who IS its letter and intent - is accused of breaking the law. Do you see how ludicrous this is? It is as if a scientist accused the heavens of breaking the rules of astronomy. Such a person has made a mockery of themselves and shown their traditions to be a poor guide for understanding.

Often, when we see such encounters and try to apply them to our own lives, we look around us and through our memories to identify all those people whom we have seen put rules and religion above Orthodoxy and the Truth. This is completely backwards and unChristian. When we do this, all we are really doing is identifying those people whose opinions and feelings about religion went against our own [opinions and feelings about religion]. Standing or kneeling; midnight or morning; American or Ukrainian; these things are important, but they are religion, not Orthodoxy. If we allow our own opinions about how things should be done - even if it is the way things have "always been done" - to get in the way of Orthodoxy, then we are that leader of the synagogue who corrected God in the middle of His own house. We are coming in between God and His purpose: the salvation of His people.

And remember, when we exegete the Jews in the New Testament, we are never really to think about other people: we are to think of and judge ourselves. In Christ's time, we are the Jews. And so when it comes to applying today's Gospel to our own lives, we are to ask ourselves; "how am I like the leader of the synagogue? What have I done to impede God's work in this parish and in this world?" This is a useful meditation, especially if you combine it with a couple of guidelines.

The first guideline is that you cannot trust your feelings. The man who follows his feelings and allows them to determine his opinions and actions is really just an overgrown boy. The grown-up is the one who lives up to his responsibilities - in this case, Orthodoxy - no matter what his feelings are on the matter. We allow Christ to train our feelings, not the other way around. We do this through asceticism, a structured prayer life, attending worship, serious study, meditation (hesychasm), sacrificial giving, and (most of all) putting the demands of God and the needs of our neighbor above our own.

The second is the recognition that Christ's mission - and that of this parish that He Himself established - is to heal. As members of this parish, that is what we are here to do: to be healed ourselves and to bring Christ's healing to everyone in this community. The "rules" that we follow - our truly Orthodox religion - must always be understood in this context: they are the treatments that the Great Physician has given us for the healing of our broken hearts and of this broken world. They are the embodiment of God's complete love and knowledge; thinking of them as things to be imposed or using them to assert our own pride turns this great and powerful medicine into poison, a poison that starts in our hearts and spreads into the hearts of those around us. We follow God's teachings because we are good patients; we share His love with others because we are good doctors.

The leader of the synagogue showed that he didn't get it when he got upset that someone was healed at church on the day of worship. But we know differently. When Christ was in the synagogue, the "doctor was in the house"; just as He is here and now. Through Him, we are allowed to become His healing touch and His loving voice; through Him, we are His body and blood, given for the life of the world. And so we sacrifice ourselves, our opinions, and our feelings to Him and His service.

And thus we join the other Jews in today's Gospel's who "rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him."

Homily for the Entrance of the Theotokos: a witness on offering our best to the Lord

2011-12-05T08:39:00.001-05:00

Homily Notes for the Feast

[Tell the story of the feast]:

Joachim and Anna had always wanted and worked for a child, but without success. One day, the priest at the temple refused Joachim's offering because he had no children. He and his wife turned to the Lord in prayer, promising to offer any child he gave them back to the Lord. Their prayer was answered. Mary was born (we celebrated this on September 8^th, it is the first feast of the Liturgical year).
When Mary was a young girl – around three years old – Joachim and Anna followed through on their promise and took her to the temple to stay.
The icon shows what happened: the young virgins led the way with torches and singing. Mary ran forward to be embraced by the priest Zachariah. Mary was then brought up in the temple, nourished by angels, growing in holiness and love of the Lord.
[later, when she was too old to remain, they found an old widower who would protect her and allow her to maintain the same life, dedicated to chastity and holiness, that she had embraced in the temple. This man was Joseph. We will celebrate the next part of their story, the birth of Jesus Christ, in just a few weeks].

This is a remarkable story, and there is much we can learn from its spirit and details. Let me reinforce the pertinent details: there was a couple who wanted something – a child - very badly. They worked and prayed for it. Then when their prayer was answered, they rejoiced and offered the child back to the Lord. They took this thing that was the culmination of their hopes and dreams and offered her to God in the temple and allowed her to be raised by others there.

There is no doubt that their example is one that we should follow. We must offer up our children – along with everything else in our lives – to God. Nor is this simply an idea designed to develop a sense of thanksgiving in our hearts. We are to literally bring the best of everything we have to the temple and leave it there. Our time. The money we earn. Our children. (no we are not going to set up a boarding school at the rectory – please take your children home with you at the end of the day!). This does something more than develop a sense of gratitude in our hearts for the blessings God has given us: it allows God to work within our hearts. He takes those things and uses them to bless us and our lives. Not only does the money we give up get used for noble purposes, our entire budgets are blessed through this offering. Not only are we transported towards God while we offer up our time in prayer and worship, all the time in our lives are blessed. Not only are are children improved by their time spent in the temple, our families and communities are blessed by their improvement and changed by this offering.

There is a reason why we go against worldly reason and the custom in much of the Christian world to baptize our children while they are quite young and bring them to Communion every week throughout their childhood: we are offering them to the Lord, thanking Him for them, and allowing Him to protect their purity and to prepare them for the challenges that are to come. A love and devotion to the Lord and His Church is the foundation for a prosperous and peaceful life. This will not happen on its own. Parents and godparents know this and do everything they can to ensure that their children grow up knowing about God, growing in His mysteries, and desiring to live a good and holy life. This is not about religion, but about setting up their children for true success. They know that the most important decision an adult ever makes is not about colleges or careers, but about living a life in God through Jesus Christ. Their first goal is not their child's happiness or success in sports or school, but that they become holy as God is holy; resting assured that true success and happiness are the automatic fruits not of a good education or making the traveling team, but of sainthood. In short, we set our children up for success by allowing Christ to live in their lives. So we do what Joachim and Anna did: we bring them Church and allow the Church to teach and mold them.

What comes next in the story? What happens to Mary as a result of the counter-cultural way her parents raised her? Did she suffer because they made sure God came first in her life? No. She found success. She was ready for the real world when it came.

Nine years after her entrance into the temple, she made the most important decision of her life; a decision our children will also be called to make: “will you accept the Lord Jesus Christ into your life”. Because of the way she had been raised, the answer that came flowed naturally and humbly from her heart. She said yes. And now every generation calls her blessed.

We want the same for our children. So we take the best of what we have, and we offer them up to the Lord. May they embrace the Lord just as she did.

An Explanation of the Heresy of Islam for Orthodox Believers

2011-11-30T08:54:00.001-05:00

A friend of mine has been encouraging me to put something together on this for a church publication. I wanted to write so much more (e.g. presenting more of the patristic work on the subject), but time and space didn't allow for it. I am guessing that some of the audience will find the title provocative. But a spade is a spade and almost always takes the hand (and denial of Christ is always wrong and, without repentance and mercy, always gets set). Anyways, here's a draft of the article for your consideration.

An Explanation of the Heresy of Islam for Orthodox Believers.

Islam has been around for a long time (the 7^th century) and currently has over 1 billion adherents throughout the world. This leads to the first thing to recognize about Islam: it is marked by tremendous theological and cultural diversity. For example, you can no more assume to understand the faith and motivations of the Muslims in Pakistan based on your knowledge of your Muslim neighbor in Pittsburgh than you could the faith and motivations of a priest in Kyiv based on your knowledge of your Methodist coworker. There are, however, certain things that all Muslims profess. What I would like to do is explain these things both as they are understood by Muslims and how they relate to the Truth and Fullness of Orthodoxy.

One God. The Muslims are “radical monotheists”. They believe that there are other spiritual beings (e.g. the angels and djinn), but explicitly deny the Trinity; “They do blaspheme who say: Allah is one of three in a Trinity: for there is no god except One Allah.” (Koran 5:73a). So while they recognize that there is only one God and that He is the creator and sovereign over all things, they are missing the salvific truth about Christ and the Holy Spirit. Muslims often reach out to Christians by sharing their respect for Jesus, but they only recognize his role as a great miracle-working prophet; Islam refers to Jesus as the Messiah and confirms his virgin birth, but it denies His divinity, His death on the cross, and His resurrection (e.g. Koran 5:72b). Presaging anti-Christian scholars like Prof. Bart Ehrman, Muslims claim that the leaders of the Christian Church made up these things about Jesus and modified scripture to support their claims.

While we can certainly affirm the Muslims worship of the unity and uniqueness of God, out of love for them we must affirm that their rejection of the divinity of Christ and the Holy Spirit will – should they be left to accept the consequences of their own beliefs – leave them outside of salvation. For the God-man Christ Himself said; “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (St. John 3:36)

The Perfect Word of God. The prophet of Islam was Mohamed. It is tempting to compare his role in Islam to that of Christ in Orthodoxy, but this is mistaken. A more useful theological comparison is between Mohamed and the Virgin Mary. Why? Because while Orthodoxy confirms that the perfect and pre-eternal Word of God was incarnate in this world through the Virgin Mary, Muslims believe that the perfect and pre-eternal Word of God was brought into this world through Mohamed. The true Word of God is Christ Himself; Islam offers in His place a book, the Koran.

When we see this connection (i.e. that Muslims believe the Koran is the Logos, the Perfect Word of God), we gain a new appreciation for some of the things that Muslim do. For example, something that perplexes many non-Muslims is why such an emphasis is made on reciting the Koran in its original language, something that is unintelligible to so many of the faithful. Why would someone recite something they do not understand? Why would sainthood be bestowed on those who manage to memorize and recite it from beginning to end, regardless of comprehension? If the Koran is seen as simple scripture, something to be studied and understood, then these things make no sense; but if one believes it to be the Incarnation of Perfection, then having it on ones lips and bringing it into ones mind becomes a genuine mystery, a way to commune with the divine. Sound familiar? None of us understand the Body and Blood of Christ in communion, but we are transformed by taking it onto our lips and into our bodies.

Even the iconoclasm of Muslims can be understood in this way: they ban the use of images because they have no Christ that could make the human form worthy of veneration. We venerate icons of saints because the image of the Word (Christ) is revealed in them. Muslims decorate their temples not with images of The Word as found in the saints, but with verses from the Koran. This is also why Muslims treat their Korans with such respect and become upset when others do not. The defilement of a Koran is theologically less like the defilement of a Bible and more like the torture of Christ Himself.

Muslims revere and venerate the Koran because their faith in its divine perfection. Unfortunately for the Muslims, the Koran is not perfect. It is a mixture of beautiful psalmnody, fractured parodies of Hebrew scripture, proclamations of pseudo-Christian heresy, and situational verses designed to support the politics and desires of a 7^th century warlord. God reveals Himself most perfectly through Jesus Christ, not the Koran (or any scripture); and we commune with Him most perfectly through His body and blood. As Christ said; “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (St. John 6:51)

Islamopraxis. You may have heard of the “Five Pillars of Islam.” These describe the main practices of Islam. The first is the profession of faith in Allah and Mohamed as his prophet. This implies a belief in the perfection of the Koran (the thing that was revealed through Mohamed) and the righteousness of Mohamed as a role model for all believers. Unfortunately, Mohamed spent the last half of his prophetic ministry as a warlord. While his behavior may have been enlightened by 7^th century Arabian standards, it – especially as elaborated in the official Haddith (the sayings of Mohamed and his followers) and Sunnah (the biography of Mohamed) – it is hardly civilized by modern (much less Christian) standards. Tyrants and terrorists are not making things up when they claim to be acting in accordance with Islam. Thank God that most Muslims are more selective in deciding which of Mohamed's behaviors to follow.

Three of the other pillars – prayer, fasting, and almsgiving (tithing) - are very similar to our own, although Muslims often seem to take them more seriously than we do. For example, every Muslim sets aside several parts of each day for prayer. This prayer is marked by prostrations and is often done in common, especially on Friday, the holy day of the week in Islam. Daily prayer rules and prostrations are proscribed for the Orthodox, but seem most often honored in the breach. This practice develops a sense of community, humility before God, and piety among the Muslims that we would do well to recover for ourselves. Similarly, almsgiving is a set percentage (2.5%) of total assets that sets the minimum yearly standard for Muslims. The resulting charity is greater than the “dues” expected in many of our parishes. Real sacrifice satisfies the goal of charity of assisting the poor and developing compassion for the oppressed and thanks to God among the giver.

The fifth pillar, the holy pilgrimage or haij is similar to our own concept, but on a much grander scale. All Muslim men who are able are required to go to Mecca at least once in their lifetime. The closest many of us get to the solidarity of the yearly hajj is homecoming in a major football town. Now imagine that, but with over a million people all renewing their dedication to God and building solidarity with other Muslims of every race and culture. If we had a sense of the true universality of the Church and the transcendence of the Divine Liturgy, every Sunday would be a greater Hajj than theirs and would have and even greater impact – for our pilgrimage is not to a holy place but to heaven itself and all are called to make it every week. We would recognize the unity of the Church and the divisions between us would simply melt away.

Jihad – the Sixth Pillar of Islam. Jihad means “struggle” and there are generally thought to be two expressions of it within Islam. The first is the “inner” struggle. It is the Islamic equivalent of Orthodox asceticism: all Muslims are called to continually submit to God and live righteous lives. The second can range from a political struggle for righteousness to violent conflict or holy war (there really is a lot of the latter in the scriptures of Islam). When it comes to violent jihad, all Muslims are called to support it when they live in an Islamic state and that state is invaded by non-Muslims. This is why al-Qaeda and the Taliban insist that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were Western invasions of Muslim lands: to the extent Muslims accept this frame, they must support their efforts. The legitimacy of other violent jihad varies: a minority of Muslims find support in their scripture for a continual violent war against unbelievers; and while all believing Muslims desire that all men submit to Allah and Islam (like Christianity, it is an evangelical faith), few support violence in getting there.

More on Jihad. Those who are familiar with our Old Testament, and especially books like Joshua, will note that it can be quite violent: God calls for a holy war against many nations just as Allah does in the Koran. So what is the difference? Why is the modern world threatened more by Islamic jihad than Christian jihad? There are two main reasons, one sociological and the other theological. Sociologically, majority Muslim nations feel themselves to be disadvantaged (not without reason) by the world system and express their rage using the idioms and expectations of Islam, to include jihad. Theologically, Christians do not base their actions and faith on scripture, but on Christ and His Church. The violent parts of the Old Testament are interpreted through the love, mercy, and salvation of Christ and the Church teaches this correct understanding. The Muslims have no such filter for their scripture: the Koran is perfect. The only filters between the violence in the Koran and violent action by believers are the humanity of each Muslim and that of their teachers. Glory to God that His image and breath are in them and His Spirit tries to bring them to the Truth!

In Conclusion, Islam contains enough of the truth for it to be considered a Christian heresy. It is not the Truth, but has enough echoes of it to point the earnest seeker in the right direction. It is our responsibility as Orthodox Christians to use the things we share with the Muslims as bridges so that we can lead them to the hope, joy, and truth that are most perfectly found in Christ and His Church. We cannot demonize Islam or Muslims, nor can we pretend that their heresies are trivial. It is Christ's desire that all be saved, and it is only through Him that this is possible. Mohamed set a sever stumbling block before Muslims when he made the rejection of Christ a fundamental part of Islam. We must help them over this obstacle. As Christ Himself said (St. Matthew 28:18-20); “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

Fr. Anthony is the priest at St. Michael's in Woonsocket and teaches about spirituality at St. Sophia Seminary. He wanted to write more. He encourages you to speak up if you want to know more about Orthodoxy and Islam or want to point out the problems in this presentation.

Homily - 2 Corinthians 4:6-15

2011-09-25T19:49:00.001-04:00

Apostle: 2 Corinthians 4: 6-15
Gospel: St. Matthew 22: 35-46

2 Corinthians 4: 6-15; St. Matthew 22: 35-46

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

Today, St.Paul teaches that; “…it is the God who commanded light to shine out ofdarkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of theglory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

Do you see thedepth and majesty of this fact? As we are taught in Genesis;

“In thebeginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was onthe face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of thewaters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it wasgood; and God divided the light from the darkness.”; then later “… Godsaid; ‘Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the dayfrom the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on theearth’; and it was so.” (Genesis 1:3; 14-15)

What is thislight that God brought into the world? What did it do for the world? For mankind? The light isboth the revelation itself and the very thing that grants the ability for it tobe revealed. The revelation itselfis the logic, beauty, and love that is the world’s foundation and drivinglaw. And it must be admitted thatsuch an underlying order is necessary for revelation: nothing intelligible canbe revealed and understood if it has no logic or meaning. Chaos cannot be revealed, only endured:there is no sense to it. But inaddition to creating the thing that would be revealed, God was also allowingfor the possibility of its revelation: light was given so that man might seelogic, beauty, and love and through this to know his Creator.

As an aside:this shows just how silly Dawkins, Hitchens, and all the other scientificatheists are. They are playing ajoke on themselves when they use the logic of scientism in an attempt toundermine faith in God. WithoutGod there would be no order to creation for science to perceive and describe;and without light it could not itself be seen or understood. It is as if the well-fed man, satedfrom an excellent meal at his favorite restaurant and now reclining by a warmfire with a drink in his hand, used his satiety [that is, his comfortablefullness] as proof that there was no such thing as a farm.

But it is notjust well-fed atheists that miss the Glory of God that shines through Hiscreation. St. John describes thissituation in his gospel;

In thebeginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, andwithout Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness,and the darkness did not comprehend it… That was the true Light which giveslight to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the worldwas made through Him, and the world did not know Him. (St. John 1:1-5;9-10)

It was forthis reason that the Light that was created before the world itself – the veryLogos Himself, the pre-eternal and unending spring of reason and understanding– became flesh. The Son of God andthe Sun of Righteousness become man so that man might see and know Him, andthrough Him know His Father. Or,as St. Paul puts it today; “to give the light of knowledge of the gloryof God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

There is greatbeauty in this world; God is its center and its source. This beauty is visible to us throughthe God-man Jesus Christ. To knowChrist is to know the Truth: that it is love that resonates through creation;that it is love that endures; and that when we embrace this love no hatred ordarkness or despair can find its way into our lives. We may suffer the pains of a world that [itself] groans insin, but they cannot overcome us any more than they can the world itself.

Through JesusChrist, even the pain and death that press down on us transform us into more purebearers and messengers of God’s light and love. As St. Paul continues:

We arehard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not indespair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— alwayscarrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesusalso may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that thelife of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-11)

Remember thePaschal tropar: Christ trampled down death with His death. He conquered death so that life mightbe renewed and perfected through His resurrection. When we suffer and when we die, Christ is made manifest inus; and we know that “He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us upwith Jesus” (2 Corinthians 4:14)

And thismanifestation, this Light that illumines all, will shine not only so that wemight see and know all things in truth; but so that “grace, having spreadthrough the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.”(2C4:15)

There is aLogic to world. This Logic is bothbeautiful and the bestower of beauty; the Logos is both love and the fount oflove; He is both Sacred and the cause of sanctification; He is both Perfect andthe source of all perfection. Heis our Lord, Jesus Christ. If youcome to know Him; if you accept His salvation, then all these things which Heis by nature you can gain by grace. Know Him. Accept Him. Become like Him.

My RICC F&O Presentation: Sacramental Theology through Genesis and the Psalms

2011-09-20T12:23:00.000-04:00

Genesis, thePsalms, and the Church's Calling to Heal and Perfect Creation

(An introduction to OrthodoxSacramental Theology)

Fr. Anthony Perkins (for the RICC F&O,September 2011)

Comments and critiques are encouraged

Bottom line up front: We aremade in the image of God; the world responds to us,our actions, and our beliefs. It suffers because we have notbeen loving and true. The Good News is that we can become lovingand true through Christ. Through Him, we can become the stewards of Creation we weremade to be. In Him, we can participate in the healing and perfectionof all. The transformation of the world is the power and calling ofthe Church (i.e. the mystical union of all those who are in Christand Him in them). When it affects the changes that contribute to theperfection of creation, be it through teaching, preaching, feeding,clothing, healing, praying, forgiving, or blessing, its work is“sacramental”. This synergetic power is transformational,changing the world and allowing us a foretaste of the greattransformation that is to come.

Setting Up the Narrative: Creationand the Fall

Among the many messages of Genesis1:1-2:3 is this: it is through the cult that we are enabled to copewith evil, for it is the cult that builds and maintains order,transforms chaos into creation, ennobles humanity, and realizes thekingship of the God who has ordained the cult and commanded that itbe guarded and practiced. It is though obedience to the directivesof the divine master that his good world comes into existence.

Jon D. Levenson.1988. Creation and the Persistence of Evil: The Jewish Drama ofOmnipotence. p. 127.

Introduction

A foundational narrative ofChristianity is that creation “groans in sin” (Romans 8:22), butthat it is redeemed through Christ (St. John 3:17; Colossians 1:20;Ephesians 1:10; 2 Corinthians 5:19). This is a teaching this iscommon to all “mere” Christians.

One of the great Charisms of EasternOrthodoxy is its sacramental theology, a theology that flows from arecognition that Christ's Body (the Church, the “NewAdam/Humanity”) is the mechanism of this perfection. We arecalled, through Christ, to be participants in the continual healingand perfection of creation. Like the Liturgy and Law it assumes,Levenson's words (above) are given even more meaning when filled bythe New Covenant: it is through “obedience” and “cult” thatwe and the world are transformed and brought into the Unity and Lovethat is with God. This is how God works through His saints to bringabout His will.

Act One: The Fall

The structure of Genesis One isintentional: God is establishing and ordering the world as a Templein which everything is purposeful and good (1-25; see also Isaiah66:1). We are created last of all, ordained to be God's image andcommissioned to be stewards of this world (26, 28, 31; repeated inPsalm 8:4-9). We are to preserve, tend, and continue perfecting it aswe ourselves are being perfected (ibid). It is designed to respondto us just as it naturally responds to its Creator. Had we remainedtrue, this synergia would have led to an eternity of growth aseverything moved from one joy to another forever. Unfortunately, wechose another way separate from God. His image within us becameperverted and, as a result, our actions spread curses rather than joythroughout creation. As it says in Genesis three: the ground was“cursed” due to Adam's sin, bringing forth “thorns andthistles”, and requiring that he “sweat” for his “bread”(Genesis 3:17-19). Sacramental theology goes both ways: blessingsand curses are ontological; creation responds to its steward.

Act Two: The Great Flood as aVariation on a Theme

Going back to the priestly theme,mankind (Adam) had desecrated the Temple of Creation through his sin. This desecration continues through the next few chapters of Genesis,culminating with a collapse of the order God had first established;“all the fountains of the great deep [were] broken up, and thewindows of heaven were opened.” (7:11) God had tamed the watersand the dragons that were in it “before the ages”, (Psalm73/74:12-14);

Why withdrawest Thou Thy hand, even Thy right hand? Pluck it outof Thy bosom. For God is my King of old, working salvation in themidst of the earth. Thou didst divide the sea by They strength; Thoubrakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. Thou brakest theheads of Leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the peopleinhabiting the wilderness. Thou didst cleave the fountain and theflood: Thou driedst up mighty rivers.
(Psalm73/74: 12-14, ; see also Psalm 88/89:10-12 & Job 40:25-32(Septuagint)),

Order had been established, but mankindhad forsaken his part in the maintenance of this condition. As apunishment, God withdrew His power from the water and allowed it tobring chaos (disorder) across the earth; But this was not the end:God preserved the vessels of His Temple and the re-establishment oforder in the ark. After God pulls back the water, Noah (the onlyrighteous one) demonstrates his willingness to serve as God'ssteward; “then [after taking care of the animals under his care],Noah built an altar to God, and a took of every clean animal and ofevery clean bird, and offered whole burnt offerings on the altar.” God ends this lesson by re-affirming mankind's commission (Genesis9:1-7) and promising never again to allow the floods to destroy alllife, offering the rainbow as a sign of His promise (Genesis 9:8-17).

And so we have the image of God'scomplete control over the waters (chaos). For example, Psalm 103/104(the Creation Psalm and the first Psalm chanted each day), echoingGenesis One, doesn't just describe the ordering of the elements(1-6), but also how God keeps the chaos of the waters at bay; “AtYour rebuke [the waters] shall flee; at the sound of Your thunder,they shall be afraid.” (7) Moreover, the waters now bring thepotential for life and refreshment (10-13). Even the Leviathan andall the sea dragons within the waters have become tame (26). AsPsalm 28/29 says;

“The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of glorythundered; the Lord is upon many waters... the Lord sat enthroned atthe Flood and the Lord shall be enthroned as King forever” (3,10).

To reiterate the theme, God is activelymaintaining the borders between order and chaos and mankind is calledto be steward of this order. Psalm 32/33 reaffirms this state;

By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all thehost of them by the breath of His mouth. / Who gathers the watersof the sea together as in a wineskin, Who put the abysses instorehouses/...

The counsel of the Lord abides forever, the thoughts of His heartfrom generation to generation. / Blessed is the nationwhose God is the Lord, the people He chose as an inheritance forHimself. (Psalm 32/33: 6-7 & 11-12)

Act Three: The Division and Tutelageof the Nations

To summarize what came next, mankindsoon forsook its commission and joined together to misuse its power. God saw that there was no end to the curses that would come from itsintentions and protected creation (and mankind) by dividing thenations and assigning a divine guardian over each to guide and teachit (Genesis 11:6-8; Deuteronomy 32:8; Daniel 10:13; Psalm 81/82; andeventually Psalm 95/96:5). The Lord Himself remained as theGod/Guardian/Protector of His chosen people (later called Israel;Deuteronomy 32:9). He gave His people Law and Liturgy (“commonwork”, commonly referred to as cult) to guide them in their work[NOTE: should add a section on Exodus and the parting of the water - ed.]. Through St. Paul, Christiansoften focus on the Law as it relates to the individual believer orperhaps to the ordering of a more just society. These are fine, butthere is a sense in which the righteous are participating insomething greater. So, for example, Leviticus is not just teachingpeople how to behave, but allowing them, through their behavior, touphold the order of creation (e.g. 20:24b-26). When this order ismaintained, blessings follow; when it is not, curses do (e.g.Leviticus 6). The Psalms describe this dynamic many times, both withregard to the cursing of “the nations” and wayward Israelites aswell as the blessing of the righteous. They reaffirm the fact thatthe cycle is repeating itself again, with the Israelites unable (andoften unwilling) to live up to their high calling. By this time, theother nations had given themselves over to idolatry and demon-worship(Psalm 95/96:5) - and many of the Jews, either voluntarily or underduress, joined them. As in the days of Noah, creation suffered. Butthe Psalms, along with the prophets, do not just describe theproblem, they also speak to the hope and promise that a newequilibrium – a new world and a new temple - would be establishedwhen the Messiah came (e.g. Psalm 88/89:26; Psalm 2:8; Psalm109/110:1-3; Psalm 17/18:9-17). But the Psalms could only hint andthe change that would be wrought through Him – and they themselveswould find their meaning deepened.

The Penultimate Act: The New AdamFulfills Mankind's Task

The Second Temple was a difficult time– the faithful Jews were hard pressed. Many were falling away. But as in the days of Noah, a righteous one was found through whomthe commission might be renewed: the Virgin Mary gave birth to the God-man Jesus Christ, the “new Adam” (1 Corinthian 15:45,47), the “New Mankind”,the one whose every thought and action would be a blessing to theworld around Him. Creation responded to Him in a special way, theway that is should respond to its master, the way that it was meantto respond to its mankind from the beginning. He resisted thetemptations that mankind could not (St. Matthew 4:1-11; Hebrews4:15). The accumulated curses that resulted from generations ofmankind's perversions were annulled by His presence; evil fled fromHis touch. For most, this is manifested in His healing ministry, butthere is another event in His life that gives great witness to Hispower over all of creation: His baptism in the Jordan (St. Matthew3:13-17, St. Mark 1:9-11; St. Luke 3:21-22; St. John 1:32-34). As inthe case of the Crucifixion, the details of Christ's baptism asrecounted in the Gospels are filled in by the Psalms (e.g. Psalm21/22 for the Crucifixion). While this presentation does not presentthem, the composite picture thus created is then preserved (andoccasionally embellished) in Liturgical hymns.

Christ's Affect on Creation: Theexample of Theophany

As the celebrationof Theophany moves from the pre-feast, through the each of the festalhours, Vespers, and Matins, culminating in the festal Divine Liturgyand the Great Blessing of Water, one is struck by the number ofPsalms that deal with the theme of water. Superficially, the Psalmsalways serve as a framework of these services (even in their dailyform), and one would expect the composers of the Theophany servicesto select ones that deal with water. But at a deeper level, thePsalms are prophetic, contextualizing the event for the participant. In the case of Theophany, we have the same Psalms (and other Hebrewscriptures) that inform the narrative I have presented: that there issomething primordial and dangerous about water; that it is God'spower that holds back the water and preserves order; that evil isdoomed by water (e.g. the Exodus crossing, Psalm 77/78:53;105/106:11); that God will work through mankind to hold back thewater (Exodus 14:21); and that water can, through grace, become ablessing (Exodus 14:25; Psalm 103/104:10-11,16). The most profound,though is the one that is repeated often throughout these services;“The waters saw Thee, O God, the waters saw Thee; they were afraid:the depths also were troubled.” (Psalm 76/77:16) and the even moreprophetic Psalm 113:1-8/114 (note that the Septuagint continues withPsalm 115(MT), declaring the glory that came next);

When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people ofstrange language; Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion. The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back. The mountainsskipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.

What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, thatthou wast driven back? Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; andye little hills, like lambs?

Tremble, thou earth, at thepresence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob; Whichturned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain ofwaters.

The wickedness in the water,personified in Psalm and iconography as “Jordan” had to flee fromthe presence of the source of holiness (opt. cit. the strongestdescription of the effect is Psalm 15/16:10 about death). The waterwas purged of its corruption. Thereafter, it was able to take on itsnew purpose. This two-fold operation: the exorcism of demons fromthe water followed by its sacramental change into “Holy Water”occurs before every Baptism. The service of the Great Blessing ofthe Waters describes all the many blessings with which thistransformed water is imbued (e.g the expelling of demons, thesanctification of homes, the cleansing of soul and body).

The Role of the Church

This act is referred to throughout the(very long and thorough) prayers as the “blessing of the Jordan”.Note that a subtle change has occurred here: the Church is continuingthe transformational ministry that Christ began during HisIncarnation. The theology here is sound: the Church is the body ofChrist; through Him (and it) mankind becomes holy as God is holy. Mankind becomes the “New Mankind”, the “New Adam”, the “NewIsrael” through and in Christ. It is then commissioned once againto serve as God's proper steward for creation. Creation responds tothe Church as to its maker, and mankind's touch becomes the source ofunity, love, and perfection that it was originally meant to be.

This is the calling of the Church andof every Christian. It is transformational. For the Church, itbegan at its formation; for the individual Christian, it begins itbegins at Baptism and Chrismation and is constantly renewed through every sacramental act (e.g. prayer, repentance, diaconia). Through baptism the Christian “puts on Christ”,through Chrismation, the Holy Spirit is brought into his heart. Forboth the Church and the person, it ends – and finds a new beginning- when all curses and the possibility for such are removed as theworld is remade in glory (the eschaton).

Until then, it is the calling of theChurch and every Christian (that is, for all those whose humanity hasbeen fully realized and engaged) to heal, comfort, and bless creationthrough sacramental action. The Divine Liturgy (the Divine "Work of the People") with thedeacon proclaiming to the principle celebrant; “It is time for theLord to act” (Psalm 118:126); The Lord acts through His Church andthrough its Liturgy. This action is nothing more or less than thesacramental perfecting of creation.

Homily - A History of the World

2011-09-18T07:53:00.000-04:00

20110918
St. Matthew 22:1-14 (The Wedding Feast)
Saints Zachariah and Elizabeth

Today is the first day of Church School, so I would like to provide a lesson of sorts. You are familiar with the events, but perhaps not with how they fit together or how they affect us today. It is a huge story, running from the very beginning until now - and just a bit into the future. Obviously there isn't time to go over all the nuances of this story - that would literally take forever; but there is time to speak of the general contours. Mel Brooks did it in two hours - I propose to do it in much less. And while the story I tell will not be funny like his, understanding it can be a passage through which you can understand and rejoice in this world and your place in it.

Act I: In the Beginning
God brought order to things. Even the waters - the ancient sign of chaos - were divided and contained. Creation was established as a very special sort of place. A place of wonder and the deepest magic. And the greatest wonder was that he made a creature from the dust of that place and enlivened it with his own breath. He gave that creature special power, endowed Him with His own image and likeness, then commissioned that creature to use its powers for the benefit of others. It was the steward of creation. Its power was such that everything in creation responded to its intentions. The was the design of the God, that everything be interconnected so that every thought and action of His steward would be a blessing. That everything would grow in perfection, unity, and love as His steward grew in perfection, unity, and love under God's own example and instruction.

But this new creature, this steward with the power to affect everything in the world around it, ignored its calling and used its power for something else. It still had this power, the world still responded to its thoughts and actions, but instead of bringing blessings, it brought curses. Instead of fruits, the world offered up thorns and thistles. Instead of a joyful abundance of life, it brought pain and death. The steward became perverted and warped, and it warped and perverted the world. It groaned in sin.

Act II: The Flood
This steward was mankind. One might expect that mankind would learn its lesson. That it would grow tired of thistles and pain and death and disorder and separation, that it would return to its original commission and the world to its original purpose, but it did not. It continued to use its powers to curse creation; it even turned its magic against itself. Mankind became a living blight on the world. When it seemed that all was lost, when perversion had twisted almost everything and everyone, God could allow it no more. He withdrew His powerful protection that separated the waters and kept the destructive might of chaos at bay. The world was flooded. The last remnant of good was saved - life was given a new chance. Mankind rejoiced at this and offered up its thanks to the Lord. God commissioned mankind once again to tend to creation and promised never again to allow the waters of chaos in. The world once again felt the blessings of love and unity.

Act III: The Tower of Babel and the Instruction of lsrael
But this state did not last. Mankind soon drifted away from its purpose once again. It joined together, uniting its great power to work against the order and love that created and sustains the world. God saw that if this continued, there would be no end to the evil mankind would do. He divided them into nations, assigning divine guardians to watch over and instruct each of them and He Himself took up the instruction of one of them, the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He established a new covenant with them through Moses, and gave them the Law. He used the Law to teach them how to use their powers for good, to teach them the proper order of things and how they can be maintained, and to forbid those things that would sow discord and chaos. He demanded that they keep themselves pure and holy as He is holy so that mankind would become the blessing to creation that it was created to be. When they went astray, he sent prophets to guide them back.

Act IV: The New Adam
But even with the Law and the Prophets, this nation - the Israelites - could not stay true. The nations around them had given themselves over to demons and many of the Jews had joined them. As in the days of before the flood, it seemed as though all creation would be destroyed by the wickedness of mankind. But among them there were some that still stayed true, most notably the Virgin Mary. And through her, the most amazing thing happened: God's commission to mankind was finally realized in full. Adam's power was perfected and completely turned to its proper purpose. How was this done? Through the Incarnation of the God-man Jesus Christ. He is called the "New Mankind", the "New Adam", because all the things mankind was called to be and become were brought about in His person. Creation responded to Him and it was a blessing. Remember how, when He went into the river Jordan at His baptism, all the filth and evil that had accumulated in its waters from generation after generation of curses was turned back by his presence - the Jordan turned back! Sickness fled at His touch. Leprosy was healed. The blind could see. The lame could walk. Creation finally had the steward she was made for, and it responded in joy! But evil did not rejoice - it retaliated. It could not tempt The New Adam from His purpose, so it conspired against Him. The fallen powers of the world hated Him for His goodness. They condemned Him to death and crucified Him on the Cross. But they underestimated His power - death itself fled from His power and from His love. No curse, no disease, not even death itself, can abide to be in the same place as the New Adam.

Act V: Unity in Christ
But the story does not end there. There is a New Covenant and there is a new power. Jesus Christ is the New Adam, the new mankind, the One who can live up to the high calling of steward to creation. His presence, His thoughts, intentions, and actions, bless the world and transform it. They bring about its healing, unity, love, and perfection. But the most amazing thing about this act of history is that we are called to join Him! Through Him, we, as created beings, can be purged of all filth. Through Him, we can become true stewards. We can become the New Adam. We can become a blessing to the world. The Church is the Body of Christ. Those who are baptized (in the water He transformed) have "put on Christ". Those who believe in Him have Him in them and they in Him. Through Him the unity of mankind is restored and it is finally ready and able to go about the work of its original calling. Matter is transformed by the intentions and actions of the Church: water is sanctified, oil heals, a prayerful touch brings the remission of sins, another brings the charisma of ordination, another unites man and woman into one flesh, through the actions and intentions of the Church even bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ! The world is transformed around the New Adam, and all of us are part of that. This is the most heroic epic ever written - and we are offered the part of heroes!

Today Christ refers to this calling as a wedding feast. He desires that His people join Him in His joy. But do you remember how they reponded? They had other things to do! They mocked and turned down His offer. They even killed His messengers. But others did come in. We have joined them. We have put on our wedding garments and bask in the glory of Our Lord.

But the story does not end there. We, here at St. Michael's in humble Woonsocket, we have the fullness of the Church. We are the New Adam. The world is groaning in sin - the people suffer. We must go out and be the source of healing, joy, and unity that we are meant to be. It is time for us to live up to our commission. Through Christ, this is possible.

A 9/11 Homily - We are All Connected

2011-09-11T07:05:00.000-04:00

This day we commemorate the beheading of St. John the Baptist. The slaughter of such a righteous man by the wicked is hard for us to accept. It causes us great grief, and so, on this day we observe a strict fast. On this same day ten years ago, thousands were killed by the wicked. This, too, is hard for us to accept. It causes us much grief, and so the depth of our fast becomes even more profound.

Let us take a moment of silence in commemoration of 9/11 and its aftermath.

It has been ten years since the attacks. Many lost their lives that day. Many more have done so since then in the wars that followed. All of our lives have changed. I know mine did. I would like to take the next few minutes to offer a reflection on "lessons learned" from that day. As you know, I teach about the Taliban down in Newport. But this is not about thatI teach. About something bigger; more important. Something that can actually bring healing and hope to ourselves and our nation.

We are all connected. It should be obvious, but on 9/11 it really hit home. The wickedness of people all the way across the world reached across us. The malice of strangers - people we had never met - changed our lives. This is the way evil works. It infects our world like a mutant virus; unseen, invasive, and devastating; like the evil eye or some kind of malicious spell. Wickedness, meanness, spite, selfishness, deceit, - they are curses inflicted on the world by careless and malicious men. They spread throughout the world, infecting and perverting everything, so that creation itself becomes cursed by their power. This is why the world groans in sin, and why we worry so much about our salvation, our society, and our world.

We are all connected (in sin). Some of the wicked things we do seem to have more of an effect than others. The malice of a handful of men who hijacked planes brought the greatest superpower in the history of mankind to its knees. We are still suffering from the effects of their sin. Other sins are more subtle, but all have the same basic effect, spreading perversion, blight, and darkness across communities and creation itself. There is no such thing as a private sin. We are all connected. For example, the secret sin of a spouse can destroy a family, even if it is never discovered. This is how things work - the negative energy we create does not just poison our own hearts, it spreads through these connections and mixes with the poison that others have brewed within their own lives, until creation becomes a giant cauldron boiling with a witch's brew that is guaranteed to suck the joy and life out of the world and create a real apocalypse of the animated dead.

We are all connected (segue). And because there is malice, because there are lies, because there is deceit, because there is sin, we suffer from this connection. What did 9/11 teach us? The same thing that every tragedy teaches us: we are vulnerable. For some, the obvious response is isolation. Like the broken-hearted lover, we think we can protect ourselves by severing the connections. And while it is proper to separate ourselves from sin, there is an even better response. One that doesn't stunt our growth our undermine our humanity the way such isolation does.

We have seen the power of hate. We have seen the suffering it caused to those in the planes and those in the buildings and in the families of the martyred victims. We have felt it ourselves. Yes, we know the power of hate. But there is something even more powerful. Something better. Something deeper and wiser. We are connected. Yes, those connections have been used to transmit terrible damage. Yes, they have become the source of constant pain and anguish; but they were made for something else. They were made to share something stronger than spite and something much, much older than sin. Something that can purify the arteries that run between us, that can destroy the poison that courses through our collective veins, and nullify the curses that mark our doom. Something that can perfect us and clean our connections. Something that can bring us into a perfect union, united into one healthy corporate body that can properly tend creation, heal it of all its wounds, and bring it to a state of glory. Our connections were not meant to carry sin, they were meant to carry something greater. They were meant to carry healing and perfection. Through Christ, this is possible.

This is the Gospel message. We are all connected, but we need not be joined in sin. If we repent, then the blood of Calvary will wash away the accumulated filth that has polluted our hearts and our collective heart. The blood of the New Covenant will transfuse us, bringing us new life. The Communion of Christ will destroy all curses and turn our connections into carriers of joy.

Think back to those days ten years ago. As much as 9/11 taught us about our vulnerabilities and the effects of sin, it taught us more about the power of redemption. How many families renewed their love for one another after 9/11? How many of us stopped taking each other and our many blessings for granted? How many men and women took the opportunity to devote themselves to serving others? How many communities were drawn together like never before as we recovered from the attacks? Remembering those things, we have a small taste of what these connections were made for. Not pain, but healing; not misery but joy; not malice, but love.

Just as sin multiplies as it spreads from heart to heart, polluting and corrupting everything along the way; so to does love grow and gain momentum as it moves among us bringing peace and perfection as it courses. And as the pre-eternal building block of life and the foundation of all things to come, love trumps sin. It is the perfect antidote and universal cure.

So let us devote ourselves to this love and, through it, to the healing of a broken world. And, moreover, let us not be ashamed to look forward to the coming day when the threat of malice and sin is removed forever.

Homily - The Requirements of Eternal Life

2011-09-04T06:55:00.000-04:00

1 Corinthians 15:1-11 (Epistle)
St. Matthew 19:16-26

"How must I live to enjoy eternal life?" Let's be honest, this is not the kind of question people ask Christ or His Church much anymore. And it's not because people don't care about life after death. Based on the books we read and all the other media we consume, we remain fascinated by the topic. I could be wrong, but it seems to me that people don't ask Christ this question because they already know the answer. Sociologists describe how even the most religious among us are more interested in their own opinions on these and other moral questions than they are in what the "Mind of the Church" is. And if they do ask this question of the Church, then it is only to find out the Church's opinion on something - they do not recognize it as being any more authoritative or informed than the one they came up with on their own.

But Christ is offering more than just one of many opinions on this question: He is The One who loves you enough to sacrifice everything to rescue you from darkness, The One who knows "good" not because He has thought about it but because He is the Source of Goodness, and He is the One through whom is the only path to eternal perfection. This One who is complete love, complete goodness, and the path to eternal perfection is doing more than giving an opinion. Nor is He telling you what you want to hear. He is even doing more than teaching you the Truth: He is holding out His hand to guide you towards the very thing you most desire.

So what does it take?

First, we have to follow the Commandments that delineate right from wrong. Not our opinions about what is right and wrong. Not what our politics tell us is right or wrong.

'You shall not murder,' 'You shall not commit adultery,' 'You shall not steal,' 'You shall not bear false witness,' 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' " (St. Matthew 19:18-19).

And don't think that these are easy steps. Christ teaches that each of these must be interpreted in the broadest way possible:

Murder? So you have never taken up a knife and stopped someone's heart with it. But have you born a grudge? Gossiped? Lost yourself in anger? If so, then you have committed murder, and unless you repent and avoid such behavior, you cannot enjoy life eternal.
Adultery? This is not limited to every act of fornication committed outside of marriage, but includes pornography, and the entertainment of lustful thoughts. If you have done any of these, then you have committed adultery, and unless you repent and avoid such behavior, you cannot enjoy life eternal.

And so it goes with the others. These are challenging standards. But they are challenging because that is what is required. It is hard to be perfect, and only the perfect are good enough to enjoy life eternal! In fact, only the perfect are good enough to enjoy life at all. No one but God is good enough, and no one but God is really alive.

So, aside from repenting and trying harder, what can we do? What do we learn next from today's Gospel?

Second, give up everything and follow Christ. Yes, give up EVERYTHING and follow Christ. What do we have that is more important than life itself? What do we have that will bring us greater joy than perfection? Nothing compares to the life in Christ. Not our wealth. Not even our health. And certainly not our opinions about right and wrong, our own righteousness, or what it takes to live forever. Anything that comes between us and complete love of God and complete service to our neighbor must be removed. We are to empty ourselves of every distraction so that holiness can make its home in our hearts. Many people get hung up about giving up their attachments to wealth, but the fact is that it is that most of us would find it much easier to part with our savings and other stuff than our misguided opinions about God, morality, our communities, and ourselves than we are to our wealth. We have to give all of it up. All of it. And then we have to follow Christ. This is what Jesus told the rich young man two thousand years ago, and it is what he is telling us today.

But what does "following Christ" mean in practical terms? It means recognizing Christ's authority over this world and everything in it. It means accepting His authority over our lives. And it means allowing Him into our hearts so that His love can transform us into the saints we were made to become. It means releasing ourselves from the shackles of sin and delusion and accepting the freedom and truth that come when we dedicate ourselves completely to love.

When the rich young man heard the truth, he went away sad because it sounded too hard. And it is hard. Impossible, even. But as Christ goes on to say; "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." So what are we waiting for? Let us repent of our sins, turn our lives over to Christ God, and enjoy the eternal abundance that is the inheritance of all the saints.

20110829 Hurricanes, Babies, and Education

2011-08-29T22:22:00.018-04:00

Shownotes. Click to listen to/download.
Local News:

The Weather. Irene

Hurricane. Need to be prepared more generally. Spiritually, you don't prepare for specific traumatic events (and demonic assaults) that have been forecast, you maintain constant vigilance. Then we are ready for everything that comes along. This fits in with a couple pieces of traditional Christian wisdom:

Christ told us that we do not know when we will be called to answer for our lives (be it through our own death or the Great Judgement), so we have to live prepared for that time. Sometimes that is described as living in constant awareness of death. Another way to think of it is that we should always be holy as God is holy. This isn't just the best way to be prepared, it is the perfect way to live even if there was no such thing as death, judgement, or spiritual crises.
Don't live in the past or the future, but doing what love requires at that moment. Worrying about the future doesn't add a bit to our stature or make us any more prepared. Relax, trust God, and do what needs to get done.

What does this mean? What does living in the moment do to help you prepare for future crises? Let me give you some examples:

The prayer rule. If you follow your daily prayer rule, then you will develop self control, defense against logismoi, battle experience through demonic skirmishes, discernment, and the instinct and ability to effectively reach out to God and His Church in times of need. You will have turned your heart into a defensible fortress defended by seasoned warriors.
Fasting. It is true that we fast in part to build up anticipation for a coming feast, but there is so much that this discipline does for the soldier of Christ. It also shows how present activities work to get us ready for something. In this way, you can see that delayed gratification is not about living for the future, but about how living correctly and well today leads us from glory to glory. It also teaches us how to be holy (i.e. compassionate, humble, selfless, strong) when we are tired, hungry, and surrounded by increased temptations. These are skills that make us great warriors when times are really tough.

Hopefully you get the picture. One last digression and I'll get to the point: it sounds like I am trying to sell you survival gear; "pray and fast, and you will be able to defeat even the most experienced and entrenched demonic foe!". But the real idea is that, while good things inevitable come from being good, we should be good not because we want power in return, or because we are scared not to, or even because someone who really knows what's best for us (God!) told us we should, but because it puts us in conformity with the will of the Perfect Love that is God. What more could anyone really strive for?
So what is my point? Learn lessons from the hurricane. Don't be one of those yahoos that panics at the last minute because he doesn't have bread in the pantry or milk in the fridge. Keep your pantry stocked all the time. The wise virgins had their oil and were thus ready for the bridegroom in the middle of the night. Be like them.
So how was the hurricane? Honestly, it was dwarfed by the feast we celebrated in its midst: the Dormition of the Theotokos.

The Birth of Our Daughter: Claire. A beautiful time. What lessons am I willing to share?

Love has obvious rewards. This was a real epiphany for me. It is something that I have know at some level - it's something we've even talked about here. But I felt it, KNEW it stronger than ever before. There is love. There is unity. My favorite atheists - the thinking ones who appreciate the varieties of human experiences that come through community, sacrifice, and devotion - love to point out that the connections we feel with one another and with God are completely located within our own skin. There is no invisible string connecting us, no psycho-spiritual bond between us. Moreover, we go gaga over babies not because they are the fruit of flesh made one in love, but because this ensures that we give up things we want so that new life might live and our genes continue beyond our death.
But the epiphany is that the things happening within our skin ARE the connections between us. Or, at least, they are enough to demonstrate that unity and love are real. Scientists are skeptical about shared lives because they can describe the chemistry that leads lovers to bond with one another - and because they can manipulate things so that this chemistry gives "false positives". But what kind of evidence for bonding would you expect? Do we need some kind of pineal tractor beam to REALLY allow us to love one another? Isn't the fact that the touch of a lover causes our chemistry to change the same sort of thing as a pineal tractor beam? Isn't the fact that (forgive me for being so descriptive) the mixing of bodily fluids, shared between husband and wife during an act of mutual sacrifice, leads to new life - life to which both the husband and wife are automatically devoted and which completes their life together proof of something more than evolution? What would you expect love to look like? If it looked any different, then we would assume that it, too, was too "normal" to mean anything as grand as theology would claim for it. And because it would exist in a fallen world (just as do the chemicals and organs, and procedures we have now), it would be subject to misuse and misdirection (Type 1 and Type 2 Errors).
The birth process also provides some useful balance to our approach to transhumanism (I haven't forgotten my promise to do a show(s) on this - I'm still researching). Remember our discussion about artificially-induced longevity, and how it went against God's gift of shorter life (a gift because it protects us and this world from our sinfulness)? We have to be careful. Obviously, if we are driven to embrace technological extensions by fear of death/mortality, or by a desire to achieve theosis through any other means than Christ, we are setting ourselves up for disaster. But the issue is not black and white. There are other motives, and there are degrees. Genesis 3:16 describes some of the punishments of disobedience. One of them is the woman's pain of childbirth. I have seen that pain four times now. What about the epidural? Is this contrary to God's desire? Are we setting ourselves up for disaster, as when man tries to get around his punishment - the toil of agriculture - through destructive fertilizers, monoculture, and genetically manipulating crops? Or is it more like adapting permaculture techniques, something that allows us to be more of the humans we were called to be by using our knowledge in a way that serves life and creation? The epidural is proof that a fundamentalist, black and white approach to interpreting scripture to explain technology is misleading. Orthodoxy demands discernment.

My new gardening hobby: sprouting. Seeds, canister, and lid (and lessons) courtesy of Sprout People. I've also built a trial hugelkultur bed. I'll let you know about it once I have more to report.

From the Sartyr's Trident (Satire).
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The Mail Bag.
Thank you for your kind words, prayers, and encouragement! A new reader (I don't think he is a listener yet) took me to task for claiming that the UOC-MP is conciliatory. What do you think? Should the UOC-MP abandon the Russophiles in its flock so that it can better cater to the needs of the rest of Ukraine? Or is it best to give bishops and priests the tools and authority to respond to the needs of their flocks as the Holy Spirit leads them? The UOC-MP is in a difficult spot. All who minister to the needs of diverse people are (just ask any priest or bishop here in the USA!). But is the answer really to give half your people a stone instead of bread? And the point about the EP being the natural home of the UOC (vs. the MP) is a red herring: the Ukrainian Church should be autocephalous. Period. This should be obvious to everyone.

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Volya: On Education
Review: crunchy is an intentional, holistic approach to holiness. We call it "crunchy" because it roughly aligns with some of the goals of granola types (ecology, love, humility, equilibrium, communitarianism). In the libertarian crunchiness that I espouse, it adds the concepts of personal responsibility, self-reliance, a love of tradition, and virtue. Education is a big part of this. What does this mean in practical terms? It means recognizing that the standard solution/pattern may or may not be what is best for you and your children.

For younger children, public schools may be fine. But public education must be augmented by Church school, camps, retreats, pilgrimages, liturgical worship, and home learning. Actually, this is exactly backwards. The family is the parish of the home. And it MUST be the institution that drives education. How else will the child learn to build his life on the solid rock of Christ?
For teenagers, public schools in many areas start becoming more problematic. Consider homeschooling, Classical and Orthodox co-ops (and if there isn't one, I guarantee there is interest/demand in your community - you aren't the only parent who wants this). Church camps, retreats, and pilgrimages become even more important, even trumping things like sports and secular music camps (if you teenager is musically inclined - why not send him to chanter's camp!?).
The situation really reaches a crescendo when it comes to choosing a college. You really have to ask yourself; "What are the goals of the next 4-6 years? What are the non-negotiables" If growing as an Orthodox Christian (or even remaining one) is a non-negotiable goal, then act like it! Don't even entertain campuses that do not have an OCF or a local parish! Why would you!? If you are not intentional about this decision, then strange things will happen. They may still happen, but shouldn't you do what you can?

But maybe the situation is not as dire as we suppose. Sending a child off to college - even a secular bastion of liberalism - may not be akin to sending him off to Babylon to worship false gods.

Next we have an interview with a good friend and listener, Matthew Woessner. He is smart, well-educated (PhD, OSU), a wonderful teacher (he's a professor at Penn State Harrisburgh), and intentionally traditional/conservative. One of his areas of expertise (one he shares with his wife, April Kelly Woessner - also a PhD from OSU and a good friend) is the politicization of academia and how it affects - or doesn't affect students. They found that the fears of conservatives about liberal brainwashing were largely unjustified - at least when it comes to political science (a field dominated by liberals). I find this reassuring. However, we cannot extrapolate too far from their evidence (and their evidence is good): college is still full of siren songs. We should be far more concerned about the culture of egoistic hedonism that dominates many campuses than about the political opinions of professors. And, as Matthew hints in the interview, there are departments whose overt anti-clericalism and hostility towards traditional mores may still be poisonous to the innocent (actually, this is my opinion - he just recognized that other departments are hostile towards conservatism).

Well, enough from me! Let's hear what Matthew has to say!

Liturgy - Worship and the Maccabean Martyrs

2011-08-13T21:19:00.000-04:00

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Chapter Six of Second Maccabees

Introduction: Orthodox Christians live and worship a certain way
We are Christians. We have accepted Christ as our Savior. We have brought the Holy Spirit into our lives. We have given ourselves, mind, body, and soul, over to God. We have offered ourselves as living sacrifices to love. As Orthodox Christians, this means that we live a certain way. Yes, it means that we are generous and long-suffering and virtuous. But perhaps the most obvious expressions of our faith are the extra disciplines that we devote ourselves to. Disciplines like following a prayer rule, fasting, and especially participating in the Divine Liturgy every Sunday and feast-day. And while these are the most obvious expressions of our faith - the things that most clearly distinguish us from other Christians and people of good will, they are more than that: they are mechanisms of our salvation. God works through them to change our hearts and draw us into a deeper union with the perfection that is in Him. If we choose to ignore these disciplines in favor of other ways, it isn't just that we have decided to identify with the world rather than Orthodoxy, it is that we have forsaken the Orthodox Way - the only path to perfection - entirely. That is to say, we have not really "accepted Christ as our Savior." We have not really "brought the Holy Spirit into our lives". And we have certainly not really "given ourselves, mind, body, and soul, over to God". In other words, we are not really Orthodox Christians at all.

The example of the football player.
Perhaps an example will help clarify this a bit. Football season is almost upon us. Here in New England, you know football and you know football players. What would you say if Tom Brady decided not to come to practice except when he felt like it, or decided he only wanted to play in games when it didn't clash with his vacation schedule, or decided he would prefer to watch all the games from the stands? Would you still consider him a great quarterback? Would you still respect him? Would he be fulfilling the terms of his contract? Would he be allowed to to stay on the team? Would he even be a real football player? The answer is that a football player that refuses to practice and play would not be a football player for long. He would not be taken seriously by his teammates or anyone else who loves the game. I hope you see the point. Just because someone says they are an Orthodox Christian does not mean they are. If they don't live a Christian life, with all the joy and sacrifices that this entails, then no matter what they say or think of themselves, they have some serious repenting and changing to do before they are back on the team.

So many distractions.
It's not that such people are willfully dishonest or that they have necessarily made an intentional decision to reject Christ. More likely, they have simply been distracted from Him; they have allowed the many temptations and entertainments this world offers to lure them off the Path. And this world is great at offering such distractions. We have entire industries devoted to, as one sociologist put it; "distracting ourselves to death." But Christ and the Church are quite clear. There are only two ways: the Orthodox Way and that of the world. And while our imaginations try to convince us that we have found some sort of "third way", we haven't. We have replaced the truth with imitations; we have missed the mark. This is true whether it involves the decision to choose pornography and licentiousness over chastity; the decision to choose self-indulgence over generosity and patience; or even the decision to choose entertainment or laziness over coming to the Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning and feast days. The world and our fallen consciences will give us plenty of good excuses to justify these choices, but they still mark us as being of the world rather than of Christ. And while our first reaction is to defend the decisions and compromises we have made, only repentance and renewed dedication will get us back "onto the team".

The example of the Maccabean martyrs.
The Maccabean martyrs that we commemorate today lived in a time when there were a lot of temptations to forsake God and find another way. There was no "freedom of religion" and the Jewish religion was under attack. It was the tumultuous aftermath of Alexander the Great conquests and death. His rule had brought Helenism to the region from Persia and the Middle East all the way across to Afghanistan and down into India. This did not just include Greek philosophy and rationality, but the worship of the gods of the Greek pantheon, as well. Alexander died young and the events of 1st and 2nd Maccabees describe what happened to the Jews when his successors attempted to consolidate control over the empire he had created. Among other things, they put pressure on the Jews to assimilate to their ways, to participate in blasphemies and to worship their gods. Many Jews gave in. They redefined their Jewishness to incorporate Greek customs and ceremonies.

But some of the Jews refused. They remained true to the faith of Isaac, Abraham, and Israel. To the Laws and the Prophets. They recognized the siren song of the world for what it was: an attempt to draw them away from the Most High God. They were willing to suffer not just their own pain and death, but that of others whom they loved so dearly. Let me be very specific: they were willing to be cooked to death rather than eat pork. They died rather than eat pork! The modern mind recoils at this - not so much at the barbarity of the kind of government that would force such a choice on people, but that anyone would be willing to sacrifice something so great for something so trivial. Our world teaches us that such faith and commitment is irrational and sick.

What about us? When the sweet voices of the world and our consciences tell us that it is okay to violate the disciplines of our faith? The Maccabean martyrs remained strong despite the threat of imminent pain and death. Are we like them, or are we more like Esau, betraying our inheritance for a bowl of warm gruel?

Unlike those martyrs, we live in a country that honors and protects our religious freedom. The very First Amendment of the Bill of Rights ensures this protection. So there is no government demanding that we forsake our Orthodox faith and Orthodox practices. No one is going to punish us if we refuse to eat meat during a fast, or if we tithe, or if we attend the Divine Liturgy every week. No, when we break with our Orthodox tradition, we do it on our own. We have created a new Orthodoxy, one that incorporates the ways of the world. We no longer see the tension between the two. We have lost our way. We have missed the mark.

The Church knows how strong this temptation is. And so it gives us the witness of the Maccabean martyrs. May their example - and their prayers - rouse us from our delusion so that we can live in holiness and truth.

Liturgy - The Place of Scripture in Orthodox Life & Worship

2011-08-07T14:06:00.001-04:00

8th Sunday after Pentecost
The Sunday of Saint Olympia, deaconess of Constantinople
Gospel: St. Matthew 14:14-22 (The Feeding of the Five Thousand)

What a beautiful day to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ! Today's Gospel reading is an affirmation of our faith, of our worship, and especially of the holy Eucharist which we celebrate today. It is at the very core of what it means to be Orthodox and demonstrates the relationship between Scripture and the way we live and worship.

Today I would like to continue our series on the Divine Liturgy by focusing on three ways that the Holy Scripture informs and itself informed by this liturgical Eucharistic celebration.

Prelude: some Christians accuse Orthodox Christians of not taking scripture seriously enough. They think we should spend less time kissing the Bible and more time reading it. We can all certainly spend more time reading and studying Scripture, but the accusation is way off mark. Scripture is the very air we breath, the language of every thought. Accusing us of ignoring Scripture is like accusing fish of ignoring water.

First: Everything we say during the Divine Liturgy is either a quote from Scripture or a paraphrase of it. One of the things that I really like about our UOC-USA Prayer Book is that it lists the Scriptures referenced throughout the service. Attending the Divine Liturgy is a lesson in Scripture par excellence. Evangelicals have their children memorize scripture. Each week they will have an important verse or two to memorize. This is a good practice that can only help them. Our approach is different. Rather than focusing on a verse or two, we essentially have them start with "Blessed is the Kingdom" and internalize everything from there until the last "Amen." And then, just to make sure they get it, we repeat this lesson with them every Sunday throughout their lives.

Second: The central act of the Divine Liturgy - partaking of Christ's body and blood - is Scriptural. Everything from the letters of St. Paul to the Gospels makes it clear that the Eucharist has been the focus of Christian worship from the very beginning. It is so central that it helps us understand the full meaning of passages like the one we heard today. Christ took the five loaves, blessed them, broke them, then gave them to His disciples to share with the people. What else is this but an echo, prefiguring, and conceptual preparation for the Eucharist? So many passages fall into place when considered in this way. It isn't really that we celebrate the Eucharist because the Bible says we should. That correlation is true, but the causal arrow is exactly backwards: Communion is in the New Testament because the Orthodox have always done it and they were the ones who wrote the New Testament describing it, what it means, and how it started.

Third: Scripture describes the economy of salvation - we are participating in this economy through the Divine Liturgy. (expound)

Homily - Notes on Christian Leadership

2011-07-31T09:52:00.000-04:00

20110731: The Sunday of the Installation of the New Parish Board

Is there any doubt that leadership is important?

More than functional expertise.

Lead from the front. First in... first in repentance. If leading from the rear, just pulling people back

20110729 Monasteries, Survival, & Gardening

2011-07-28T21:19:00.043-04:00

Shownotes. Click to Listen. A bit late getting this podcast published. I blame the computer malfunctions that led to a loss of Friday's work!

Happy (belated) St. Vladimir/Volodymyr Day. This is a wonderful reminder that things can change, that benighted nations can find enlightenment, and that Christ really does work in a fallen world.

Local News

We had our festival, a UOL sponsored pig-pickin', and Heritage Days Church School Camp in the space of a month: time to take the summer off! Each of them went great, by the way.
Still waiting to meet our youngest little girl (tentatively named "Claire Evangeline", which is English (from the French) for Photina the Evangelist. Nick didn't know that when he suggested the name. The kid's got a gift.
I got to take a few days spiritual retreat at St. Tikhon Monastery. Man, that was awesome, way overdue, and something I look forward to more of.
Homilies? I've been doing a series trying to encourage deeper participation in the Divine Liturgy. Check it out!

Crunchy Consumer News:

From the Sartyr's Trident: a word from another of our sponsors (WARNING: SATIRE ALERT). It's an oldie (The MP stopped importing cigarettes almost 15 tears ago) - but I can't really say it's a goodie! (music in background; "Let my prayer arise..."). From Anaxios Industries comes a new product designed to bring you closer to God: Rim Tretii Cigarettes! Why smoke cigarettes that do nothing but fill your lungs with tar? Turn every smoke break into a Moleban of Thanksgiving. In addition to satisfying that nicotine craving, Rim Tretii cigarettes are designed to "Let your prayer arise!". Now available in traditional, frankincense, and gardenia aromas. Remember, nothing brings you into the bosom of your maker better than Third Rome Cigarettes.

Shoes. Vibram KSO five fingers, Sockwa Black Amphibians (and Dojos), and SoftStar Black Ramblers. I like them all better than regular shoes (which I almost NEVER wear anymore). The Vibrams are good for regular everyday wear, but you will need to wash them every week or two. It takes a couple of days to train your toes, but after that they are (almost) as quick to put on as lace shoes. The downside is that you can't wear them to work or church. They are pretty durable, but the mesh on the top has started to rip a bit. The Sockwas are like the Vibrams, but your toes get to live together. This led me to like them even more. I wore them everyday for a year. After that, my big toes poked through and I had to toss them. I think that if I had only worn them with socks, they would have lasted another year. They don't attract attention like the Vibrams, so you can wear them to some dress casual type stuff. One of the monks at St. Tikhon's saw me wearing the Sockwas. That led him to show me his Softstars. They are the best dress casual minimalist shoes I had ever seen. It was at St. Tikhon's that my toes started poking through the Sockwas, so I got authorization from Pani to order a pair. I LOVE THEM. They are comfortable, rugged, and look really good with a cassock. I can't speak to their durability, yet, but so far, so good.
Rainbarrels and Lazy man "bag gardening".
French press and hand grinder.
Here's the Next Thing I'll Add to the Perkins Homestead (unless Pani Matka has her way): chickens. We have friends that live out in the country. They have a few hens that keep them well supplied with eggs. I think that is SO cool. We live in a rectory in the city. A chicken coop is WAY out of the question (the accent alone makes some people here think the Clampets have moved in): they smell bad and attract unwanted attention. The solution? The chicken tractor. These things are awesome. As far as I can tell, there is no real downside. I'm on a budget, so it may take me a while to build one (and even longer to convince Pani Tina that it's worth doing), but I think it's a no-brainer for the crunchy crowd. Why? Eggs are awesome. The tractor allows the hens to eat the bugs and weeds in a small part of your yard or garden, fertilize and aerate the soil there, then move on to a different spot before the fertilizer starts accumulating and smelling bad. Not all cities allow people to keep chickens, but Woonsocket does (it does not allow other domestic livestock such as goats and cows). Are you as excited by this as I am?

Transhumanist Cthuhlu Knight

Movies and Television: I just got back from seeing Captain America. It combines many Orthoanalytika themes (transhumanism, good vs. evil, even a bit of Lovecraft!). I've also been enjoying the Spielberg series, "Falling Skies". It is roughly similar in feel to other favorites like Jericho, Survivors, Walking Dead, and Firefly. Alas, of those, only Walking Dead is the only one that seems destined to make it through a second full season.

Church News:

From the Sartyr's Trident - a public service message from Fr. Vasili! I know many of you are leaving your homes during this Summer season to go about your many sinful pleasures. It will shorten the length of your confessions and the pain of your penance if you visit a good Orthodox Church while you are away. But not every Orthodox Church is a good one. Some may actual hurt your cause with the Almighty Judge! In order to help you find the right place, I suggest that you ask the parish you plan to attend to send you their answers to the following test: How Orthodox is Your Priest? (from Saint James Kids - thanks Fr. James!).
Well, the Assembly of Bishops met again and seems to be heading in the right direction.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church held a "Jubilee Council Meeting" earlier this month. The good news is that it reaffirmed its autonomy and a desire for the healing of all local schisms. The bad news is that we don't seem any closer to that goal than we were ten years ago.
The Russian Orthodox Church is actively discussing the issue of the language to be used in liturgical worship. The Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Volodymyr of Kyiv and All Ukraine said this; "In the church environment the issue of translation of the worship in modern language is actively discussed. In the Ukrainian Orthodox Church the church communities , if desired and with the blessing of the ruling bishop have a right to perform worship services in Ukrainian, Romanian, Georgian, Greek and other national languages. But in this regard one should steer the golden mean. We have to take care of the preservation and study of the Church Slavonic, but do not forget that it is not a man for the language but the language for men. The believers must understand the meaning of chants and rituals." As you can tell, the UOC(MP) continues to try to be conciliatory in its approach to difficult issues. I find it hard to believe that a rational person could defend the use of Church Slavonic (or Latin) in services, but I know serious Orthodox Christians who do - so perhaps this is something that should be approached in a conciliar fashion (note that this is what typically happens in Ukraine and America - it is not what happens in Russia).
Every other bit of Church news that has made the radar is too depressing. The issue of homosexuality seems to be getting a lot of play (check out OCA Truth and OCA News if you have the patience). While it's not something I'm willing to get worked up about, here's what's been going on around here. In Rhode Island, the initiative to allow legal same-sex marriages failed to pass muster, but the one to legalize civil unions passed. Social libertarians will find out just how hard this will make it on Christian parents and communities who find same-sex sex unacceptable and want their children to grow up believing the same. That doesn't mean that the civil union law isn't a reasonable compromise, only that Christians must be even more vigilant to raise their children to believe in the unchanging truth of Christian teachings (i.e. Christian love and interdependence are always healthy regardless of gender, but that sex is an appropriate and salvific expression of that love and interdependence only under certain conditions). Those of you who live in the South may not appreciate just how hard this is going to be. Many of those everywhere else have already accommodated their faith to it. Then again, I don't see how this is any different AT ALL from all the sex that takes place everywhere outside of marriage - and you can see how the whole country has bought into that. Come to think of, it the legalization of same-sex marriage is insignificant when compared to the death of chastity everywhere, even within Orthodox marriages. So pardon me if I don't get upset or excited about the issue of same-sex marriage or civil unions. The government has very few duties, one of them is the enforcement of contracts. Now it is allowed to do that between people of the same sex. If Christians want the signatories to these contracts to stay chaste, then we might want to start by setting an example ourselves - are we even teaching our children to "wait until marriage" and equipping them to do so? I think this herd was let out of the barn a loooong time ago, and it had very little to do with any gay agenda. It had to do with our surrender of chastity as a virtue, chastity, and celibacy as the default moral position for human sexual expression.

Health:

Here's another really good reason to stay healthy (from Secondhand Smoke). Whether it's rationed by the market or by a bureaucracy (or even some mix of the two), with the economy in the skids you really can't depend on anyone to nurse you back to health. What do you think is the most Christian way to ration health care in both the short and long term? If it is done by a bureaucracy, then the choices it makes are not likely to be moral - but isn't the same true of leaving it up to the market? The advantages of market rationing is that it is self-correcting and decentralized. The former means that it provides better care in the long term, the latter that it protects us from tyranny and allows for a greater diversity of offerings (to include ones based completely and unapologetically on Orthodox morality).
The half full glass' water is about to disappear (ibid). Testing newborns for genetic indicators of health problems seems like a no-brainer: it would allow parents to ensure the child is brought up in a way that takes such things into account. Not so quickly, says Smith. If current cultural and economic trends continue (i.e. scarcer health care resources and utilitarian algorithms), then these would become like the gammas of Brave New World: destined for second-class status.

Science and Religion:

Some scientists and media outlets are continuing to push the alleged materialist origins of religion and supernatural beliefs (e.g. this from the LA Times). But they do so without any new evidence: people can be fooled into believing that there is something numinous around (e.g. Persinger's helmet), anthropologists can imagine ways in which religious belief made a culture more "fit" and thus more likely to outlast its competitors, and neuroscientists have ever sharpening views of what happens to the brain during mystical experiences. But none of these pass muster. If so, the use of pornography would be proof that there was no such thing as real sex; the fact that we have mouths that are useful for eating would be used as proof that there was no such thing as food; and videos of vocal cords vibrating as an operatic performer belts out a solo means there is no such thing as an audience. It's silly. But the fact that so many people are willing to live their lives within such a materialist world continues to amaze me.
Here's some more bad science (courtesy of epiphenom): this study found that infant mortality is higher among mainline Protestant and Pentecostal cultures in the USA. Notice that the effects are small and it uses ecological (i.e. community) data. While the author controls for wealth and education, this, too, is ecological. It is certainly true that a certain kind of culture affects health outcomes, but without a plausible mechanism and more convincing statistics, this is just more bad science about religion.
Speaking of scientists connecting non-sequitorial dots, in this article (also courtesy of epiphenom), the following bit of logic is used to undermine the credibility of Christianity; "I think the most interesting things about schisms is that they existed at all - there are so many of them. And many of these communities believed the one thing that apostolic tradition should have rendered impossible; that Jesus wasn’t a historical man. What the schisms demonstrate is that Christianity was not a single message, flowing from a single source that became tainted as it grew. Instead it was a non-centralized body of ideas and literature, which developed independently, and perhaps only later was rebranded or assimilated under the title of a new lord called Jesus. It is impossible to tell which stories or features associated with the story were developed earlier, or later, than the birth of Christianity, because all of the relevant pieces were already developing on their own before his appearance." Do you see the problem in the logic? I can agree that there were many similar versions of Christianity (some of which even predate the Incarnation), but spin it in such a way that it actually supports the truth of Orthodoxy. Such things are only convincing to those who want to be convinced. Which is why it is best to evangelize with our love, hard work, and compassion - and then with words. [BTW, it's a fun article if you take it for what it is: a silly bit of atheist comparative religion, comparing Harry Potter to Christ.]

Politology:

A federal judge in Louisiana ruled that a law defending the funeral industry's monopoly on casket sales was unconstitutional (from CATO). Funeral directors are among the entrepreneurs that priests work with the most. I have a love/hate relationship with their industry. On the one hand, they really are allies in helping people work through the grieving process. On the other, they have gradually taken on responsibility for more and more of the things that religious communities used to do and should still be doing. Take for example the presence of chapels in funeral homes - as if there weren't a zillion churches within walking distance! But it really isn't their fault. We should be more involved in caring for the dead just as we should be more involved in caring for the dying. Another knock on the industry is that their oligopoly and the culture we have allowed them to create and sustain makes getting buried expensive - to the extent that even Orthodox Christians voice a strong preference for cremation. Having inexpensive caskets, prayerfully built by Christian crafters, is a good way to start challenging this new and sinful culture. But it will take intentional effort on our part to really fix this.
What would Jesus cut (CATO)? I love the fact that the deficit is being discussed in moral terms, but it is too bad that there is so little balance between the (forgive my stereotyping) paternal and maternal moral codes. I think CATO is right in arguing that it was an unbalanced concern for the disadvantaged that got us into this mess (and kudos to them for also pointing out the need for serious defense cuts and a humbler foreign policy).
But, just in case you missed the point last week, the fact that CATO is right on calling a spade a spade doesn't mean that Christians - even those living under broke and heterodox regimes - should be comfortable with libertarianism. What used to be called "liberal democracy" (but would not be called libertarian capitalism") may well be the best possible sustainable system in which Christians would be allowed to pursue perfection, but there are moral trade-offs that must be made in protecting it. This means making tough choices and refusing to use the government to correct very real problems. Such decisions may well be necessary, but they are still sinful (at least according to the Orthodox view of sin, which sees it as a cosmic event that has direct and indirect spiritual and physical effects). Which brings us to the second reason Orthodox Christians cannot be completely comfortable with libertarianism: there is no such thing as a private sin. Libertarianism draws the line on government regulation on those actions that harm or bring risk to no one but the actors themselves. While this may be the most effective way to do things, it is fundamentally flawed. The classic modern example is sodomy: the act affects no one but those involved. But if sodomy is spiritually unhealthy, if it is a perversion of the universal order (which is to say, if sodomy is sinful), then it harms everyone in society. The libertarian may take a pass on using the government to protect society from such damages, but the Christian libertarian must not allow such a compromise to affect his understanding of sin or his willingness to confront the issue in other ways. Have no doubt: God will use all of His power to punish those who damage creation when it is remade in perfection and glory. Until then, we get by as best we can and offer continual repentance for our affronts. Personally, I think that a libertarian national government that allows for local variation in the enforcement of moral norms may be something worth trying out. Even if that means allowing the government to enforce contracts in other communities that we find despicable (e.g. sharia).
A final word on the debt ceiling debacle: many of us have seen what the collapse of a great country looks like. In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. Why? There are many hypotheses and only one data point, but the most convincing answer is that it collapsed because it was not set up to be self-correcting. Neither the economic nor the political system were able to adjust to systemic problems. Everything had to be managed by politicians and bureaucrats. They did not get the information they needed to make the right decisions, there were far too many decisions that had to be made, and the incentives were set up all wrong for things to be run efficiently. Sure, with the defense build-up and Cold War in general, we helped affect the timing of the collapse, but the whole thing was destined to fail from the start. Our system was different: the combination of republican-democratic political institutions with vertical and horizontal checks and balances and lightly-regulated capitalist market is decentralized and inherently self-correcting. Or rather, it is until it isn't. Once property rights are undermined, once companies are not allowed to fail, once the market is tweaked so much as to create perverse and risky incentives (e.g. guaranteeing housing loans to everyone, etc.), once debt becomes the foundation of investment and wealth, and so one... it is no longer self-regulating. Most of the people of the Soviet Union survived its collapse. Somehow, they got by and continue to do so. I hope everyone here comes to their senses and supports the hard decisions that need to be made, but in the meantime, you might want to make sure that you can weather a generation or two of really difficult times. The USA is not an empire, so I don't expect it to break apart like the USSR did; but you can expect institutional food to get really expensive, taxes - to include taxes on property - to go through the roof, and a lot of work to consist of things done on the gray and black market. Again, think less Road Warrior or Zombieland and more everyday life in the developing world.

Crunchology.
The Survival Podcast. Thanks to Subdeacon Joshua, I now have a new podcast in my top ten: "The Survival Podcast", hosted by Ukrainian-American, Jack Spirko. The theme of the show is "Helping You Live The Life You Want, If Times Get Tough, Or Even If They Don't". Most of his shows feature interviews with experts on crunchy things like different types of gardening, green energy, home livestock, and home safety. He also has shows during which he responds to listener questions. These are really good, too. As far as I can tell, he is a classic cruchy-con. Here is a summary of the guiding principles of his show:

Everything You Do Should Improve Your Position in Life Even If Nothing Goes Wrong
Debt is financial cancer! Minimize it, pay it off early and stay away from credit cards.
Growing your own food is for everyone not just people that want “organic” fruit and vegetables.
“Tax is theft, the best way to combat it is to understand every legal deduction you can take or create” [This means saving money legally while providing a check on the size/scope of the government].
Food stored is an exceptional investment. Store what you eat, eat what you store.
Plan for disaster in the following order of priority – Personal-Localized-Regional-State-National-Global. The zombies may come, but you are far more likely to lose your job.
The lesson is that the best way to promote “green energy” is via economics (i.e. high mileage cars make sense, but solar panels less so... at least for now). Alternative and off-grid energy systems still make sense because they support self-sufficiency and allow us to be better stewards of the environment.
Owning land is true wealth.
In addition to food, water and other common survival stores use common sense methods of hedging against “disaster” (e.g. cash emergency funds, good insurance and secondary income streams)
Be intentional in how you live.

Volya Moment: Gardening.
Every year, I try to make the garden here a little bit bigger. This year, I kept the tomatoes, oregano, basil, and mint, and added beets, cucumbers, and beans. I've done a better job weeding and added rainwater and organic fertilizer (don't ask, but Pawlo would be proud), but came upon a new challenge: a groundhog! It lives under the rectory porch. The garden is next to the porch. A few weeks ago, it ate the leaves off my beets and cucumbers. They grew back, but then a couple days ago he did it again and also ate the flowers off the sunflowers in the kids' Heritage Garden. I'm starting to wonder how groundhog stew tastes (and he is a big un'!). BTW, if you aren't gardening - even in a window box - why not? So far, the cost of the produce we eat isn't any better than that offered at the local farmer's market, so that's not really the point. So what is the point? From a practical standpoint, it could grow to be a substantial part of our diet, especially during the growing seasons. Given that food prices are really going to go up, this is pretty useful. But even better, there are spiritual things that happen when we garden (Vigen Guroian agrees):

It teaches us how nature responds to us as God's little creators, allowing us to see who we were made to be (and sometimes to better appreciate how big the fall was from Eden!).
It teaches us the importance of commitment and weeding. An untended garden grows weeds; the harvest of weeds is thorns and thistles.
Metaphorically, it makes us appreciate how much effort it takes to garden our hearts. The fruit of an untended heart is hatred, jealousy, addiction, sloth, selfishness, etc.
God tells us that He is the ultimate gardener, and that in the days to come, He will pluck and burn all the weeds. If you have grown those weeds in your heart, then you will feel that fire.

So if you aren't gardening - get going! It's not too late in the season - I just started a bag garden with beans, broccoli, and radishes. It took like five minutes to set up and is prepping that area for more serious efforts next year.

Homily - Liturgy as Hard Work (continued)

2011-07-17T13:23:00.000-04:00

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Romans 10:1-10; St. Matthew 8:28-9:1

Those of you who know me well, may be surprised that I am not going to preach on the subject of angels and demons, and how the Incarnation of Christ marked the beginning of the end of Satan's rule on Earth. Instead, I am going to continue our Summer series designed to deepen our appreciation of the Divine Liturgy. Specifically, I going to continue the theme of the Liturgy as the “Work of the People”. Just to remind you, it is not work in the sense of "busy work": it is the way God has ordained for us to participate in the perfection of creation; to allow us to grow into our roles as God's stewards and imagers here. Not only is not busy work, nor is it work in the sense of an hourly wage or piece-work; it is the application of a vocation that defines and improves you. A vocation that allows you to contribute to society.

Three implications of this approach:

If this is the work you have been assigned, then this is what you should be doing. Just as every soldier, no matter what their specific specialty is, is an infantryman first, so to every parishioner, no matter what their specific calling is - priest, server, cantor, singer, pincher, janitor, teacher, or leader; every member of our species of homo adorans is a worshipper first. If someone is not good at it, then just as with the poor rifleman, it is a sign that he or she needs to spend more time doing it rather than less. An army full of well-trained specialists busy doing their own things may look strong on paper, but if all of them have not maintained their common infantry skills then it is not a reliable military force; an active parish full of energetic people busy contributing through the exercise of their own special gifts may be a viable organization, but if all of them do not engage in daily prayer and regular communal worship then it is not a healthy Christian parish.
If we are not working, then we are hurting ourselves and society. Done properly, work contributes to our perfection and to that of society. We know that unemployment brings incredible temptations, and there is no doubt that a ten percent unemployment rate is harming more than just our nation's economy. When people do not work, everyone suffers. And here I am not really speaking about those who are technically unemployed, but about people who are lazy, people who are content with idleness. People who are willing to live off the labors of others. Such people are as common among the employed as the unemployed, among the rich as among the poor. Laziness - and its corollary sin of ingratitude - is like a poison. This is true not just of our nation, but of our parish. If prayer and worship are our first vocation, the real work that we are called to, what would we say about the health of a parish where the majority of parishioners skipped their morning and evening prayers? Where only half come to Liturgy on any given Sunday, and less than five percent to Festal Liturgies? If a nation fuller of shirkers and idlers is doomed to collapse, what more could be said of such a parish?
We were made for liturgy; we were made to work. Work can sometimes be a chore, but we do it anyways. Christ used many parables that teach us how being a good Christian is like being a good worker. Yet for some reason, we think that being good, being perfect, being a Christian, should be easy, and that expending effort at it is something optional and unnecessary. It is ironic that the same person that would never dream of skipping work thinks nothing of skipping prayers or Sunday Liturgy. We would be concerned about the priorities of the person who regularly blows off work to go to the beach, should we be less concerned about the parishioner who does the same?

Let me finish with one point: God is love and we are to grow in love. Love is only one part feeling and nine parts duty and devotion. If we are to learn to love, then we must learn to work. Yes, the Liturgy is simultaneously the work of the people and the means of its perfection.

Homily - the Liturgy as Hard Work

2011-07-10T07:05:00.003-04:00

Romans 6:18-23; St. Matthew 5:8-13

During the Summer, I am using the few minutes I have during the homily to deepen your appreciation and experience of the Divine Liturgy. The first two weeks, I spoke about how the length of the service was fundamentally related to its function and about how the service draws us into a real and visible union in Christ. This week I want to speak about the Liturgy as the "Work of the People" (this is the meaning of the word, "Liturgy), and I want do so with three points.

1. Liturgy is work and work requires effort. When we garden, its not enough for us to spend a certain amount of time sitting among the plants and flowers or kicked back on the seat of our John Deere. That may check some imaginary box of "spent two hours working on the yard", but it doesn't contribute towards anything worthwhile. It may even be said that such an approach is a waste of time. The same may be said of Liturgy: it's not about spending a certain amount of time in a certain place but about getting things done. So we're here now and don't want to just waste our time - what needs to get done?

2. The cosmic setting: the Liturgy holds back chaos, defeats death, and restores harmony and life to creation. For whatever reason, God chose humans to be the stewards of this world. We were put here to work. To draw the best out of things. Or to go back to the gardening example: to pull weeds and cultivate beauty and health. Liturgy has always been part of this process. Why does so much of the Old Testament deal with ritual? Because there is something about the way creation is made that makes Liturgy - the common and directed effort of God's chosen people - powerful. Unfortunately, the Old Testament ritual - more generally referred to as "the Law"- was not strong enough. Or to be more precise, the chosen people were not up to their assigned task. Their sin kept them from working in unison with God's greater purpose. But, as St. Paul points out in today's epistle, we are no longer bound by sin. Our Liturgy is perfected in Christ. Through Him, our efforts can perfect the world. When we really work with one another, strengthen by Christ and the Holy Spirit, chaos is thwarted, death is defeated, and goodness prevails. It really is that important.

3. But Christ did not just come to save the world. He did not just come to infuse the Liturgy with the power it needed for us to do the jobs we were created to do: He came to save us from sin and perfect us as well. Going back to the gardening example: the good gardener does not just enjoy the way his bit of land looks when he has done a good job. The good gardener is able to keep starvation at bay and nourish his body so that he might live. Through this Liturgy, this bit of land is transformed into a mystical garden in which grows the fruit of eternal life and perfection. We work it hard so that we can enjoy its beauty and so that we can be saved and sustained by its harvest.

So Liturgy takes work. But it is not just "busy work". Done well, it perfects us and all of creation with us. If we shirk this work - or if we ignore it altogether - then how can it do either?