“I urge then first of all that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone…This is good, and pleasing God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth” (I Timothy 2:1,3)
Our world has no lack of religion. Regardless of how it’s expressed or the forms it takes, we live in a religious time. They are incorrect who claim that faith is passe, something for an era now behind us. Osama bin Laden is a committed believer, certain of his cause. Those who follow him call themselves martyrs. They are more than willing to die for the god whom they feel is pleased with what they are perpetrating on our world. The men who wear dog masks at the Cleveland Browns games are devoted to the cause of cheering their team to victory. If religion is complete commitment to a cause, they too are believers. The CEO’s who were willing to sell out the companies entrusted to their responsible care worship money and things that it brings them. They are religious men. Our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ loves all of them.
Despite His love for us all, so many just do not know Him. He depends on those who do to go out in search of all who serve other gods. And I don’t think we Orthodox Christians care enough about His plan to bring it about. We offer numerous excuses as to why we have not been more successful in our missionary activities. We say that we are an immigrant church comprised of foreigners for the most part. Not true. We are fragmented into an array of separate jurisdictions without any central authority or organization here in America. True, but not acceptable as an explanation. Despite our failure to unite into one great Orthodox Church of America comprised of all ethnic communions, that in itself should not prevent us from reaching out to our neighbors and fellow Americans with the gifts and treasures of the Orthodox faith.
We appear to be a peculiar, exotic Church with ways of worship that are out of keeping with whatever we think of as contemporary America and its perceived needs. That’s partly true. Unfortunately, some of us seem even to flaunt our differences. Our clergy wear strange garb. Nothing wrong with that, unless it distances us from those who would wish to identify with us. St. Paul wrote in another passage: “I am all things to all men, so that by the grace of God I might save some. Somehow I have the feeling that some of us would rather be admired than followed. If we want to win the hearts and minds of our contemporaries, they must be able to identify with us. If our appearance and customs are exotic and foreign, what does it do to our image among those in search of salvation? Obviously appearances are not the reason why people are attracted to or repulsed by our Orthodox Church, but it does express an attitude. The language we use in our services, the attempt to reach out and explain what we are praying are all part of our mission efforts. Beyond that is a way of behaving that others perceive: Either we are eager to share our precious, sacred and true faith with strangers, or we just don’t care about them.
Of course we cannot and dare not minimize or alter the basic teachings of our precious faith. Our fathers and mothers struggled to preserve the true faith through the ages, and it’s our solemn duty to keep it intact and defend it with our lives, if need be. But I’m concerned not with the gift, but with the wrappings. Even our own children may be leaving not the true faith, but what to them is a caricature of truth.