The Ascension

“…lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” (Matthew 28:20)

Metropolitan Tikhon returned late Wednesday afternoon from his annual visit to the family’s ancestral home in the village of Les Contamines-Montjoie in south-eastern France, an hour from Geneva, nestled in the Alps.

After Divine Liturgy yesterday for the Ascension, staff and members of the Saint Sergius Chapel community met for a festal breakfast with His Beatitude and a slideshow of his trip.

This was all very pleasant, but the juxtaposition of our Lord’s departure and Metropolitan Tikhon’s return struck me also as theologically meaningful. The Lord leaves His disciples but at the same time promises that He would remain with them, that He would not abandon them as orphans. And it is precisely through the sacramental life of the church that His promise is most clearly fulfilled, with the bishop at the center, surrounded by presbyters, deacons and faithful. So, the Lord departs, but the return of the metropolitan is a living reminder that He remains with us, “even unto the end of the world.”

Boris: “What if there is no God?”

Sonia: “Are you joking?”

Boris: “What if we’re just a bunch of absurd people running around with no rhyme or reason?”

Sonia: “But if there is no God, then life has no meaning!  Why go on living?  Why not just commit suicide?”

Boris: “Well let’s not get hysterical.  I could be wrong.  I’d hate to blow my brains out and then [gesturing upward] read in the papers they found something.”

As is often the case, Woody Allen reflects the assumptions of the common man.  As well as reflecting here some of the nihilism and perplexity of his time, he also reflects the assumption that all truth is essentially scientific truth, and that truths about God, if they can be discovered, will be discovered scientifically.  Like all scientific discoveries, it might be the case that “they” (the scientists) poking about in outer space (to which Boris was gesturing) finally “found something”.  It reminds people of my vintage of the story that when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin returned from his quick journey in space he reported that he looked and did not see God while in space.  (The authenticity of the quote is disputed, but that is another question.  The atheistic propaganda version of what the cosmonaut said stuck.)  Like Woody Allen, this view presupposes that God can be discovered through telescope, or microscope, or through scientific theorizing.  It is true that they haven’t discovered anything yet.  But hold on—maybe one day they will find something.

Actually, they already have found something.  But not through scientific theorizing and laboratory experiment.  God is not an inert substance to be stumbled upon, nor a rare breed to be discovered in the remote wilderness, like the creatures Darwin discovered in the Galapagos.  Rather, all the initiative for contact between God and man lies with God, and He has said that He will only allow Himself to be found by those that seek Him with their whole heart (Jeremiah 29:13).  It is therefore not surprising or disturbing that God was not discovered by scientific poking about beyond earth’s atmosphere.  What would have been more disturbing to Christian theology would be if He had.  But God has allowed Himself to be discovered by those seeking for truth.  And long ago, they did “find something”.

Specifically, they found an empty tomb, with the grave clothes left behind and neatly folded up.  Read all about it in the eye-witness document known as the Gospel of John:  “Then Simon Peter came and, following John, went into the tomb; he saw the linen cloths lying and the napkin which had been on His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but rolled up in a place by itself” (John 20:6-7).  Eventually they would meet the Lord Himself, and see His wounds, and eat and drink with Him over a period of forty days (John 20:19, Acts 1:3).  That is, proof for the existence of God/ the truth of the Christian Faith was found historically, not scientifically.  This is because, as said above, God is not a thing which can be put under a microscope and examined, but a Person who can be met and loved.  And in Christ He chose to enter human history as a flesh and blood person like the rest of us.  After He did this on the first Christmas day, He grew to manhood, and did many other strange and miraculous things, including rising from the dead and leaving His grave-clothes behind, neatly folded up.

All of these things, occurring in history, are susceptible to historical verification, not scientific verification.  To demand scientific proof for historical claims is not to demand rigorous proof.  It is to confuse science with history, and prove oneself an incompetent scientist.  One proves the truth of historical claims (such as whether or not Nelson won the Battle of Waterloo) through historical methods, such as the credible reports of eye-witnesses and other records.  One proves the truth of scientific theorems (such as whether or not water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit) by repeated scientific experiment.  Only an idiot would try to prove whether or not Nelson won the Battle of Waterloo in a lab.  That is the work of an historian, not a scientist.  The term “scientific proof” has come to be “conclusive proof”, but a moment’s reflection reveals the nonsense.  “Scientific proof” can only be had when proving matters of science; whereas proving whether or not something occurred in the past—i.e. matters of history—requires not scientific proof, but historical arguments.  And the presence of the empty tomb, and the testimony of the apostles, and the astonishing volte-face conversion of the persecutor Saul of Tarsus, and the countless experiences of Christians ever since—all constitute just such historical arguments.  Nihilists should indeed refrain from blowing their brains out in a pique of nihilism.  It looks like they found something after all.

Apollos and our Mission

When Aquila and Priscilla heard [Apollos], they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. (Acts 18:26)

Christ is risen!

It must have been tough for Apollos to accept the mentoring of Aquila and Priscilla. After all, he was apparently already quite successful as a new Christian preacher. He was widely known as “an eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures.” But he had enough humility to accept that he still had things to learn. He wanted to be better.

One of the striking facts about the missionaries in Acts is that they were not satisfied with mediocrity. Recently someone reminded me of Jim Collins’ bestseller, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t. After studying more than a thousand companies over forty years of performance Collins concluded that two basic factors distinguished the great from the good. 1. Unwavering will to succeed. 2. Unwavering willingness to face reality with brutal honesty.

We have a task in North America, to bring the message of Christ, as we know him in our Orthodox Church, to those who have never heard, or may have turned their backs on Christianity. Do we have an unwavering will to succeed? Can we look reality squarely in the face and ask searching questions about who we are, how we are perceived and who we are trying to reach?

Apollos had experienced Christ and the Church as life-changing. He wanted to share this and he was willing to do whatever it took—even at the cost of his own pride—to do this well.

This morning at the Chancery we celebrated the leave-taking of Pascha with the same bright Paschal Liturgy we sang in the middle of the night forty days ago to begin the Easter season. One last time I take a look at the hundreds of Paschal photos from around the Orthodox Church in America. We are a tiny speck on the North American religious scene, but even so as I look at our communities it is a sign to me of God’s presence that this “strange Orthodox Church,” as Father Lev Gillet called it, finds a home in the hearts of such a diverse range of people across this continent. And when I wish that our numbers were greater, I remember that it doesn’t take many of us to fulfill the Lord’s commission to be that pinch of salt our world needs.

Engaging the Athenians

…in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ (Acts 17:28)

In considering how we as Orthodox should reach out to the increasing numbers of people who classify themselves as “spiritual but not religious,” we would do well to look closely at Saint Paul’s encounter with the Athenians in Acts 17. Eventually he gets around to speaking of Christ, but he begins by acknowledging positively their own experience and formation, quoting from a popular Hellenistic Stoic philosopher-poet. “For we are also His offspring,” is a line from
Phaenomena by Aratus (3rdc. BC) who worked mainly in Macedonia but may have been from Saint Paul’s home town, Tarsus.

Phaenomena is about the natural ordering of the universe under the ultimate guidance of one divine force, Zeus. While we think of Greek religion as polytheistic, there was widespread acceptance of philosophical monotheism, which is one reason that an increasing number of gentiles found Judaism attractive. Here are the opening lines.

From Zeus let us begin; him do we mortals never leave unnamed; full of Zeus are all the streets and all the market-places of men; full is the sea and the havens thereof; always we all have need of Zeus. For we are also his offspring; and he in his kindness unto men giveth favourable signs and wakeneth the people to work, reminding them of livelihood. He tells what time the soil is best for the labour of the ox and for the mattock, and what time the seasons are favourable both for the planting of trees and for casting all manner of seeds. For himself it was who set the signs in heaven, and marked out the constellations, and for the year devised what stars chiefly should give to men right signs of the seasons, to the end that all things might grow unfailingly. Wherefore him do men ever worship first and last. Hail, O Father, mighty marvel, mighty blessing unto men.

Chancery Update

This past weekend marked the 50th wedding anniversaries of two pillar-couples of the Orthodox Church in America. Father Joseph and Shirley Lickwar and Father Thomas and Anne Hopko were both married on the same hot day in June 1963. May God grant them many years!

The Hopkos were interviewed recently by Father Alexander Garklavs and Father John Shimchick (posted on Ancient Faith Radio).

The theme that keeps being put in front of me these past days is the steadfast service of faithful priests and their families. I was in Hartford, Connecticut last night to join Archbishop Nikon, about 20 clergy and a church full of mourners to sing a memorial service for Father William DuBovik. I didn’t know him personally, but one after another the people I spoke with acknowledged his steady commitment to the faith and his service as a priest in the face of much personal sickness and suffering. His funeral and burial are today. May his memory be eternal!

I will be at Saint Vladimir’s Seminary this morning with the OCA’s social worker, Cindy Davis (Coordinator, Office for Review of Sexual Misconduct Allegations). We will be speaking about ensuring healthy, spiritually vibrant parish life with candidates in the Diaconal Vocations Program (directed by Archdeacon Kirill Sokolov) who are having their annual summer practicum.

Big Change in the Early Church

As I’ve said before, the biggest question that faced the early church and threatened to tear it apart was what to do with Gentile converts. The Jewish elements within the Church insisted that Gentile followers keep the full Jewish Law, just as Jesus had and just as they did. Kosher laws, circumcision—everything about the Jewish tradition was to be kept strictly and faithfully. Hadn’t Jesus Himself said, “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished” (Matt 5:17-18)?

Peter’s experience with the Gentile Cornelius (Acts 10-11) placed a question mark over this position. Then the experience of Paul and Barnabas with Gentile converts added to the questioning. And it all came to a head in the council in Jerusalem described here in Acts 15, where there was “much debate.” Peter argued that the old ways no longer applied. And in any case, the old ways had been virtually impossible for even Jews to fulfill. “Now therefore, why do you make trial of God by putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?” (Acts 15:10). He went on to insist that the coming of Jesus had brought in a new order that made obsolete much of the past tradition. He argued for a much simpler faith centered now on the saving work of Jesus that applies equally to Jews and Gentiles. “But we believe that we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will” (Acts 15:11).

When the council’s debate and dissension were over, James, as the leader of the Jerusalem community, and who himself sympathized with the Jewish Christian position, summarized the discussion and gave his own recommendation, that aside from a few basic stipulations (see Acts 15:20-21), “We should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God.”

This was accepted by the body as a whole, and the decision was promulgated, but not without much continuing dissent from conservative Jewish Christians who believed in upholding the full Jewish law. For many decades this huge change in practice was a source of tension and division. But convinced that they were acting under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Peter, Paul, James and the early church set aside this tradition for the sake of opening the full life of the Church to as many as would receive the saving message of Christ.

Chancery Update

Yesterday was a busy day at the Chancery. His Beatitude is still in France on vacation visiting his family, but Father Eric, Melanie and I reached him for a brief call to update him on various matters.

Our highly-valued and much-liked Executive Assistant, Andrew Boyd, is leaving for an excellent position in private industry. He will continue as director of the Youth Department, but we will be advertising early next week to fill the post of Executive Assistant, who primarily works as secretary to the Metropolitan.

The Sexual Misconduct Policy Advisory Committee (SMPAC) is working on final redrafting of the OCA’s policies in this area following the Holy Synod’s review and recommendations for changes.

Chancery officers met in a conference call with Father David Garettson, chair of the Metropolitan Council’s Human Resources Committee, to go over staffing and budget issues.

Maureen Ahearn (Pension Plan Administrator) and Jessica Linke (Chancery Assistant) had birthdays this week so yesterday we gathered around the kitchen table for “many years,” “happy birthday” and a cake.

The Pastor as Minor Poet

It’s a beautiful morning at the Chancery and I took the opportunity, before anyone arrived, to prepare this diary entry while sitting in the garden by the bell tower, surrounded by towering pines and cedars and the singing of at least a half-dozen kinds of birds.

My friend Father John Shimchick recently sent me a book with this title, The Pastor As Minor Poet, by M. Craig Barnes (Grand Rapids, 2009). He says it’s his new favorite pastoral book, and though I’ve only dipped into it so far, I love the basic premise. Like a poet, the pastor’s challenge is “to bid parishioners to join in the search for mystery beneath the surface of the ordinary.”

That’s often a tough sell, because the noise and pace of the ordinary don’t leave much room for the time, silence and reflection of poetry, scripture and prayer. Even pastors get swamped with so much ordinary stuff that the savor of mystery is lost and life can become a tasteless ticking-off of tasks on an ecclesiastical to-do list.

That isn’t to say we shouldn’t be working hard. As Pope John Paul II once said when people complained that he was doing too much, “Sometimes it’s necessary to do too much.” In readings Acts it’s striking just how much work the apostles do. The travel alone—on first-century roads—is daunting, even if they were the best Roman roads of the day. In today’s reading Paul and Barnabas pass through a large part of Asia Minor—Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, Pisidian Antioch, Pamphylia, Perga and Attalia—before ending up where they began their missionary journey, in Syrian Antioch. There, “ When they had come and gathered the church together, they reported all that God had done with them, and that He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles” (Acts 14:27).

Yes, demanding work is needed of pastors. But in the midst of work, the ascetic effort of poetry is also required. For how else, like Paul and Barnabas, do we see the hand of God at work in what we do?

The present Imbomen structure is not very impressive, especially when compared to the area’s well-adorned churches, or even to the mosques in Jerusalem.  But it does mark the authentic place where Christians have commemorated the Ascension of Christ since the fourth century.  (It does not, however, mark the site of the actual Ascension itself.  In Luke 24:50, we read that Christ led His disciples out “as far as Bethany” and ascended from there—in other words, over the summit of the Mount of Olives and down the other side towards Bethany.  But it is hard to built a chapel on a hillside, and we can scarcely blame the Byzantines for building their chapel on the more obvious spot, on the hillock’s summit.)

The roofing over of the Imbomen is not of merely architectural significance.  The Christians who worshipped in that original roofless shrine could look up into the sky, in their imaginations following Christ as He ascended from earth to heaven.  There is always something inspiring and uplifting about looking up.  The sky is one of the many miracles surrounding us, whether we see it filled with clouds or with stars.  Sorrow makes our heads hang down and look towards the earth, while joy lifts up our heads.  At every Divine Liturgy, the priest bids the faithful “Lift up your hearts!” and the instinctive response is to lift the heads as well.  Joy makes us look up to heaven, to God, the Giver of all good gifts.  I have no doubt that the ancient worshippers at the roofless Imbomen often looked up while they worshipped there.  Our destiny as Christians is to eventually share Christ’s heavenly glory (Romans 8:29-30) and to join Him in His heavenly Kingdom.  Little wonder then if we often look up to heaven, our destination and home.

It is just here that the roofing over of the Imbomen becomes significant, for those who bricked it up did not believe that men could share the glory of the heavenly God.  Better then to look not up, but toward Jerusalem or Mecca.  But in fact we can share the glory of our heavenly Lord, and His Ascension to glory is a promise and prophecy of the glory that by grace awaits all His disciples.  I enjoyed my visit to the Imbomen.  I enjoyed even more stepping outside the chapel, and looking up into heaven, following the path blazed by our ascended Lord, and knowing that we would all one day follow Him home.

Jesus the Jewish Messiah?

“…[A]ccording to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior – Jesus…” (Acts 13:23)

“Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.” (John 6:14)

One of the facts of early Christian history is that relatively few Jews accepted Jesus as the promised Messiah. Instead, the Church very quickly came to be dominated by gentile converts. We should consider this carefully because, while there are many examples of faithful Jews who did and do accept Jesus as the Messiah, most do not. Why is that?

Christian history is one reason. Over the centuries persecution and pogroms haven’t much encouraged faithful Jews to become followers of the “Prince of Peace.” For many, symbols of Christian faith and life—the cross, Christmas trees—are reminders of oppression. To even consider such a possibility—becoming Christian—is a betrayal of the memory of family and past generations abused by people calling themselves Christians.

But there are more fundamental reasons that Jews do not accept Jesus as the Messiah. Rabbi Jacob Neusner is a prolific scholar who has carefully studied the New Testament and the Jewish response. In A Rabbi Talks With Jesus he says that he found many attractive and Jewish features in the teaching and person of Jesus. But he still hears something in Jesus’ teaching that is so fundamentally different that he must reject it as a faithful Jew.

It was not that I was not persuaded in the virtue of the man, or the wisdom of some of what he said. It was that I did not hear from him the message the Torah had told me to anticipate…God had bound the people to God in a covenant, giving the Torah as terms of agreement, engraving even into our flesh the very sign of the covenant. Nothing I heard from Jesus spoke of covenant, nothing of Israel, nothing of obligation of the whole of Israel…

If I had heard what he said, for good and substantive reasons I would not have become one of his disciples. And for these same reasons, I am not one today. (A Rabbi Talks With Jesus, New York: 1993, p 138, 139, 143)

As Orthodox Christians for whom Tradition is central, we should be sympathetic to faithful Jews who reject the innovations of Jesus and his followers. But their hesitation points to a new factor that radically distinguishes Jesus from the classical Jewish prophets.

Jesus did not have the same “return to the old teaching” message of the other prophets. He wasn’t calling Israel to merely go back to faithfulness to the ancient covenant. He was calling them to look forward. He was proclaiming fulfillment of the prophetic promises and the opening a new covenant. In other words, he was saying that the God of Israel was speaking in a new way. While the prophets had emphasized faithfulness to the old Law, Jesus was announcing the new age of the Kingdom. He was announcing that the new Messianic age was upon them.

This was different from the Jewish prophets of old in one key respect: listeners to the prophetic message in the past, calling for reform, could look back at the Law. The tradition supported what the Old Testament prophets proclaimed. The hearers may not have like it, but they could see it written in the records of the past. John the Baptist’s message of repentance could be seen in this way too.

Jesus’ message was not verifiable in the same way. His message of the Kingdom required discernment, not just repentance. It required that people do more than read the past texts of scriptures and scribes. It required more than faithfulness to the Torah and tradition.  It required that they become prophets themselves, listening for the word of God spoken directly to them. They now had to read God’s word in their own experience and to verify whether or not what Jesus was saying was true, whether the new era was in fact beginning.  And this is very different from just picking up the baton from the past and running with it. Hence in Jesus’ message and in the earliest church there is an emphasis on personal verification and conversion, not just communal faith. This is precisely why Rabbi Neusner finds it impossible to follow Jesus. Because the message he sees in Jesus is not the Torah as he knows it.

As much as we correctly have rediscovered the Jewishness of Jesus in the last few decades, the fact remains that His message was a challenge to Judaism because it required something radically new.

First Rank:  Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones

Second Rank:  Authorities, Dominions, Powers

Third Rank:  Principalities, Angels, Archangels

This structuring of the celestial hierarchy has had an enormous influence on the angelology of the Church.

Actually, Saint John Chrysostom tells us that even these names and “classes” do not exhaust the heavenly ranks of angelic beings.  “There are innumerable other kinds and an unimaginable multitude of classes, for which no words can be adequate to express,” he writes.  “From this we see that there are certain names which will be known then, but are now unknown.”

With his great ability to summarize and synthesize the Church’s living Tradition, Saint John of Damascus (+749) gives us this description of what an angel actually is in his Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith.  “An angel, then, is a noetical essence, perpetually in motion, with a free will, incorporeal, subject to God, having obtained by grace an immortal nature.  The Creator alone knows the form and limitation of its essence.”

I hope that even this very brief description of the true nature of the bodiless hosts of heaven – based on the Scriptures and the Fathers – will restore a genuine sense of awe and veneration before these incredible beings that only further amaze us with the creative power, energy and will of God.

Contending for the Faith

Elymas the sorcerer (for so his name is translated) withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. (Acts 13:8)

Then the Jews said to Him, “Now we know that You have a demon! (John 8:52)

The readings from Acts and John today both give me agita. I, and probably most of us, imagine, or rather fantasize, that as Christians we should be able to just live peacefully with all, serve God, serve our neighbor and enjoy Church. But the picture we get from the New Testament is one of perpetual argument and contention. Here Jesus is being attacked by the Jewish leaders. Paul and Barnabas are being attacked by Elymas. And in both cases the opponents are attacking the experience of Jesus, Paul and Barnabas. Jesus doesn’t really know God as he claims He does. Paul and Barnabas really did not experience the Risen Lord, as they claim they did. And in both cases, it is striking that neither Jesus nor the disciples back down. They continue to insist on their experience, even when that simple testimony provokes wrath.

Jesus they seek to stone, but He escapes. Paul on the other hand does something that I’m sure many of us would wish we could do at such moments. Not only does he not back down, he calls down divine punishment and rebukes Elymas in language we milquetoasts might even call unchristian! “O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord?” (Acts 13:10). Elymas was struck blind, to powerful effect on everyone else, who decided to listen a bit more carefully to the teaching of the Lord.

We should be careful about applying this example too easily, lest we mistake our passions for God’s inspiration. But likewise we shouldn’t dismiss the possibility that a loud public rebuke might on occasion be a way for God to get our attention.

Chancery Update

The Pension Board will be meeting today, chaired by John Sedor, with the episcopal oversight of Archbishop Nikon. Father Gleb McFatter (Dean, South Florida), chair of the Metropolitan Council’s Finance Committee is also a member and arrived yesterday for a preliminary meeting. In the evening Treasurer Melanie Ringa and I met with him to discuss the OCA budget, approaches to investment, stewardship and financial development (Father Gleb is an accountant and has his own accounting firm).

This past Sunday the “Spirit of Orthodoxy” choir sang beautifully in Rahway, NJ. It was a pleasure to join them in the bass section (Father Daniel Kovalak drove in from Williamsport, PA to add his basso profundo.) Father Joseph Lickwar, Chancellor of the Diocese of New York and New Jersey represented Bishop Michael and delivered a gramota honoring the choir and conductor Aleksei Shipovalnikov’s 16 years of service in promoting Orthodox liturgical music.

Meanwhile, Father Eric Tosi was with the chapel community of New Skete Monastery, a community that is under the episcopal guidance of Metropolitan Tikhon (“stavropegial”). They invited him to advise them on organizational matters like setting up a non-profit tax-exempt 501(c)(3). He and the community of monks, nuns and laypeople (about 40) also had a lengthy conversation about outreach to the surrounding community and Orthodox evangelism, which Father Eric defines as, “The proclamation of the Good News of the Risen Christ with an invitation to become a part of the Body of Christ through participation in the Eucharist.”

Metropolitan Tikhon recently spent several days at New Skete during Great Lent. To learn more about the community see www.newskete.com.