In my previously connected article, I spoke of Fr. Alexander Schememann’s desire to see Christianity replaced with Christ, and I gave my commentary regarding the various religious institutions in America which made him feel as he did. In doing my research, I came upon one such example of the problem that I will share with those who have the stomach to read such drivel.
This article rather typifies what is wrong with so-called “Christianity” today. It is an example, along with the many angry tirades in the comments section, of how people want to do what they want to do, and then paste the name of “Christian” on top of their wretched and rebellious behavior. Apparently, the author has never read, or if she has, has little regard for the Sacred Scriptures which prohibit women from taking positions of authority, such as priest or bishop, in the Christian faith. But like all those who wish to have their way and pretend to love God, she ignores the history of the faith, as well as the many scriptural injunctions against homosexual behavior (she is the “pastor” of a Metropolitan “church,” a hive of preaching acceptance of homosexual behavior!) While I agree that love and service to our fellow man is the heart of the Christian faith, for her and those involved in the Metropolitan church, the word “love” means tolerance of immoral sexual behavior. In His love, Christ did no such thing. He healed those spiritually wounded and enslaved to their disordered passions. A prime example of this is the saint we celebrated today in the Orthodox Church – St. Mary of Egypt. The love of God changed her from wanton harlotry to chastity, from pursuing sexual pleasure to ardently pursuing God.
The anger of this “pastor,” and that of the commenters, against the “institutional church,” and her desire that traditional Christianity die off, can certainly be traced back to an abusive ecclesial background, which makes it understandable. But her response, rather than to find and submit to the Christian faith which Christ taught to the Apostles, and then use that faith as an example of true Christian love to others, is to seethe in rebellion and anger. This is simply an acerbation of the problem.
The answer to the question, what then is to be done, is that, as Fr. Schememann noted, Christ must be resurrected. There is a reason that we in Orthodoxy are so fond of reading and quoting the Early Fathers of the Church. They lived closest to Christ, learned from the Apostles, and zealously guarded, often unto death, the faith which was handed down to them. We must replace notions of Christianity and institutionalism with an experiential knowledge of Christ and a determination to do as He would in every situation. This is the stark difference between Eastern and Western Christianity. The scholasticism of the West reduced faith in Christ to a set of rules and intellectual understanding about God. In the East, where monasticism really got its start with St. Antony, the call is not to understand God, but to experience Him.
In the beginning, the Christian faith was called “The Way” because through His life and His teaching, Christ left a way of behavior to follow. Christianity was called “The Way” in the New Testament because it emphasizes that the Christian faith is not just a set of beliefs, but a way of living and following Jesus. The early Christian community was referred to as “The Way” before they were known as Christians. The early Christians were followers of Christ and His way of dealing with the world. Unfortunately, following Christ slowly became replaced by following an institutionalized church which in the West, left the teachings of Jesus for the teachings of the Roman Empire.
Sometime in the 1990’s, the phrase “What Would Jesus Do?’ became popularized. Small bracelets began to appear on the wrists of believers, with WWJD? engraved on them. I think this is a fair question to ask.
Would Jesus establish and worship in hundreds of different churches (if such were to exist in the first century) or would He worship only in that faith which was established by God? I think the answer should be abundantly clear: Christ established one and one only Church. The earmarks of that Church are one, holy, apostolic, and catholic.
One: That is, a single established body with one set of leaders, not thousands, each with a little pulpit pope running the show and demanding complete fealty to his thinking, his prejudices, and his interpretation of scripture.
Holy: The Church is holy. That is, it exists unto God and God alone. It is not to be the handmaiden (one might say whore) of political whims or powermongers. Also, it exists to make men and women holy, or dedicated totally to God. To be holy simply means that a person or even a thing, is dedicated totally to God. This should be the example and prime motive of our lives, and the Church exists to make us this way.
Apostolic: The Church teaches what the apostles taught. This is the “Deposit of Faith,” found in both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. Through them it is preserved, taught, and handed on from the apostles. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, through the seven ecumenical councils, we know what the Church taught from the beginning. Any organization teaching new ideas, such as Indulgences or Holy Communion is not the very Body and Blood of Christ, has deviated from the apostolic faith and is not part of the Church which has zealously guarded the apostolic faith through the centuries of history.
Catholic: Not Roman Catholic. Universal. This is the meaning of the Greek word “katholicos.” St. Vincent of Lerins defined the Catholic faith as “that which has been believed everywhere, at all times, and by all peoples.” Christianity faith is a universal faith which is found everywhere you go on this planet. You cannot lump Protestantism, with its myriad of opposing beliefs, nor Roman Catholicism, with its inventions, into the definition of St. Vincent. There is one Church which has kept the teaching of the apostles, exists to make its members holy, and in which the beliefs are the same no matter where you go in the world — the Orthodox Church. If this offends, I am sorry, but the onus is on you to prove me wrong.
If we read the Sermon on the Mount, we must ask these further questions: would Jesus believe in something called “Just War Theory?” or would He die rather than to bring harm to a fellow human being? The history of Christianity in the West is a rather lurid tale of war after war being conducted at the behest of rotten, greedy, and corrupt “Christian” kings. One wonders what Bible they were reading when they declared war on those who also proclaimed themselves to be Christians. This pacifism (“Blessed are the peacemakers”) is perhaps the most challenging part of the Christian faith, yet the very one which we see exemplified in the earliest of believers and throughout history. The glorious stream of martyrs, who accepted death with joy and confidence, is a rebuke to those of us who think we must guard this life, and all that is in it, with a constant progression of war toys and violence. Would such pacifism mean death at the hands of evil men? Certainly. That is Christian history. But the blood of the martyrs has been the seed of the Church. Their testimony of faith in death has created legions of converts. We are told that death is merely a doorway into life eternal, but in reality, I doubt that we really believe it. Our actions speak louder than the fine words we say.
Would Jesus really be a Capitalist? Would He congratulate men on their fat bank accounts, their fine clothing, their possession of a BMW in the driveway, a million-dollar house in which to live, and memberships in the most expensive country clubs in the area? Would He look at their bank accounts and say, “Well done! Thou good and wise servant!” Perhaps the existence of billionaires and multi-millionaires in this country is a testimony that the country is not a “Christian country” after all.
Did Jesus use fear to make men and women follow Him? Did He preach about a burning eternal hell into which His Father would throw all sinners and leave them there without hope of mercy or healing from their sin sickness? I have read numerous testimonies of people who have left the Christian faith because they found such an idea to be utterly horrific and obnoxious to their thinking. The Christian faith of the first five hundred centuries was overwhelmingly centered on a love of God which came to earth to redeem all mankind (1 Timothy 2:4; John 12:47; Romans 5: 15-21; 1 Corinthians 15:22; Colossians 1:20; Romans 11:32; 2 Corinthians 5: 14-15). Even Augustine admitted that in his day, there were a “great many” who believed in the universality of God’s salvific program. All mankind would be saved because God is love.
If we want to do what Jesus would do, the simple question is this: would love really do that?
LOVE IS THE ANSWER
God came to earth in love. We are to be followers of Him in this manner. Would love ignore the plight of the poor in order to build up a fat bank account? Would it love and pursue war as a way of life, to the detriment of the innocent while fattening corporate bank accounts? Would it justify immoral behavior such as pornography and sex trafficking, in which it is women who suffer at the hands of wicked men? Would it promote lies such as transsexual behavior, rather than seeking help for those who are in need of counseling and care? Would love rebel against authority in the Church and demand its own “rights”?
We have lost our way because we do not understand what love really is. Love is not emotionalism. It is not seeking to get my own way at the expense of others. Love is self-sacrificial, self-giving, and cruciform. It puts to death my own passions and selfish desires for the good of others. There are those who do not understand these things. We labor under the false idea that love is an emotion, a feeling, rather than doing good to others, even if it costs us.
The way I see it, there are two kinds of people who do not understand what love is: those who whine and complain, “You don’t love me.” because they want their own way, usually because they wish to pursue actions which are both selfish and immoral (especially sexually immoral), and those in the Church who do not understand that love means that I crucify my own desires and act in a manner which blesses others. The world is hungry to see and experience love. They are looking for that Church of which the first century pagans said in amazement, “Behold, how they love one another!” That love attracted men and women, even though they knew that to become a Christian in the Roman Empire was a death sentence. Unfortunately, in the Western church, those seeking God have seen pretty much nothing but condemnation, snobbery, greed, immorality, hypocrisy, and the threat of an angry, vengeful God of hellfire.
I think it is past time for this corruption of Christianity to indeed die.
Muddling Through Life 