Lesson Seven: Christianization – Enchurchment?

We all saw the Twin Towers go down on 9/11, and any observant person knew from the very first moments as the first tower was falling, that something new was at work here.  Had the buildings “pancaked” as is the official claim, the materials left, the pile of rubble would have been, floor on top of floor, in rubble some 20plus stories high.  It was obvious to the architects and structural engineers that even if it was a controlled demolition as many immediately suspected, that would not account for the missing material. We also knew that different than any other controlled implosion, where the dust follows the building toward the ground, massive amounts of dust from the Twin Towers implosion was lighter than air, and blew away. What people at first took to be “smoke” from burning fires a great cloud that rose from the site for weeks was 99 percent dust.  Dr. Judy Woods said in her excellent book “Where Did The Towers Go” two things that we can apply here to our quest to understand the reality and nature of The Way. (we speak of THE WAY that is truly healing and life engendering) “When you have eliminated all the known possibilities, the facts you are left with is the answer no matter how improbable or impossible it may seem.” And “A new technology requires new terminology.” So she coined the word, “Dustify” to explain how the greatest portion of the twin towers, did not pancake by implosion, but dustified in mid-air and blew away.

Part of my exercise in writing about The Way, is to challenge people to look at our relationship with Jesus from new and different angles, to bust up hackneyed words and phrases that have lost all meaning or have been distorted out of any relationship with the Ancient Christian Way.  We have to, to say anything REAL, create a new vocabulary or cleanse our old vocabulary for English speakers, especially Roman Catholics, and Evangelicals and even for some birth Orthodox, because in the West the vocabulary for salvation theology (soteriology) has become so corrupted by rationalistic/scholastic/legalistic meaning, the LIFE has been drained from it.  Protestant/Evangelical truncations have created such distortions, that when you use the words in their proper context, (inside the paradigm of The Way) those who are other wise religious, (heterodox) hear them in a competing and different context (inside paradigms that are NOT The Way).

When an evangelical uses the word “Saved,” as a friend just did yesterday saying, “In the simplest terms - what is necessary for salvation?”  What can you say?  “The Orthodox Christian answer is death, uh . . you gotta die.” As the famous father and teacher and former president of Saint Vladimir’s Seminary, Thomas Hopko, famously said many times.  Yet even that answer in the Western Paradigm is nonsensical. “Didn’t Jesus say, ‘I came that you may have life and life abundantly?”’  Fr. Tom (Memory Eternal) would have quickly said, “Yeah, but you gotta die to get it.” You see what I mean or you don’t. Either way let us do some eliminations of known possibilities that don’t and won’t work so that we may discover what is left, as improbable and impossible as it may seem, and accept that as real.  So let us invent some new terminology capable of giving us a better Icon, a better verbal picture and conceptual approximations of, The Way, and the LIFE of The Way.

Evangelism is REAL, it has been real from the day that Jesus sent his disciples out two by two to preach the good news.  But I have to ask you, if you are an Evangelical, and are familiar with the “Born Again” theology: Have you ever wondered why there isn’t a single instance of Saint Paul quoting Jesus, saying, “Remember, ye must be born again.” Did he write to anyone and admonish them to go tell everyone they needed to be “born again.”  Well, it is most likely that Saint Paul never heard Jesus teach, and he did most of his writing even before the Gospels were written. Paul finished his writings and was martyred a decade and probably two, before Saint John wrote his gospel where you find the quote, “Ye Must Be Born Again.”  Can’t you see the bumper sticker? For Paul, any quotes coming from Jesus would have had to be verbal and second hand, or given him by direct revelation. 

The youngest Apostle John who was constantly present with Jesus is the only one to record Jesus’ statement about being “born again” and repeats the theme in his “letters” speaking of being born of the “spirit, water and blood”, also about being born into righteousness. He says in effect if you can DO righteousness, then you are born into righteousness, because righteousness is born of him.   Then speaking of the work of The Way, John says that those who are born of God do not commit sin; for HIS seed remaineth in him: and HE cannot sin, because HE is born of God. (The HE is Jesus Christ. This is a statement from God the Father’s perspective. Grace in Jesus Christ covering our sinfulness, not yet conquered.) Then he says, the part that the Born Again people leave out, that is, if you do sin you are not born of God. “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.”  “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God.”  He says that there are three witnesses in heaven to our spiritual birth, The Father, the Eternal Word and the Holy Ghost, and that upon earth the witness is the “spirit, water and the blood.” Let us be clear, this is “The Spirit of Christ, the water from His side, and the blood of His sacrifice.” We have to BE of all three.  Yet even with Saint John in his writings there is not a single instance recorded where he stood and reminded, “Remember Jesus said, "Ye must be born again.”  Not once in all of Saint Paul’s teaching or Saint Peter’s teaching or any of their successors is recorded them standing and imploring men and women to be “born again.”   Why?  When it is the constant theme of the Evangelical sects, the foundation and pillar of their theology and preaching. All of the New Testament writers talk about being “perfected” in love.  Jesus said, “Be ye perfect (complete and whole) as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” How can that ever be except we become PART of HIM?

Saint Maria of Paris, when writing about the very real Evangelical Way of the Church, stating that it was the shining light and was even reflected in the faces of some, outside “The Church”  - she was talking about the Orthodox Church, and admitting that she witnessed genuine “evangelicals” outside the church, people holding in their core the true Icon of Christ.  I’ve known a few.  I use the stark example of the SAINT, Corey Ten Boom, whose teaching and presence exuded Jesus Christ, yet she acted anything but like a modern evangelical. After speaking about the true evangelical light shining “outside the church” St Mary quickly cautioned, “Here one must immediately introduce a clarification so as to prevent well-intentioned or deliberate misinterpretations of the evangelical way of religious life. Obviously it has no relation to the current evangelical sectarianism which has extracted only a selected list of moral precepts from the Gospel, added to this its own distorted and impoverished doctrine of salvation — about being “born again” — spiced this up with hatred of the Church, and then proclaimed this peculiar hodgepodge as a true understanding of Christ’s Gospel teaching.”

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Wow! That was harsh, impolitic, and uncalled for, “We all believe Jesus is Lord don’t we.” The sectarian evangelical responds, “You are just sowing division in Christ’s Body.  The Orthodox Church is no more real than any other denomination.”  And the rejections roll on and on.  But what does Saint Maria mean here? Does the Born Again theology of Evangelical Sects match what the apostles taught?  No it does not match even what Saint John taught, and he was the one to use the imagery the most.  In the opening lines of lesson one I stated “Christianity is the LIFESTYLE created by gaining a relationship with a Person and with many people.” I used the word lifestyle so that this would not be confused with solitary spiritual discipline, or religious pursuit, because I know just as Saint John states, “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love.” Then he explains the sacrificial meaning of THIS love, using the image of Jesus’ incarnation, and suffering, and stated that Jesus went through it all so “that we might LIVE THROUGH HIM.”

So let us dangerously and just for the purpose of creating different perspective, like an artist painting the same scene from different angles, throw out some words.  First Christian.  Why, because it has come to mean everything and thus nothing. In the Ancient Christian Church it had huge meaning a meaning that created millions of converts and martyrs. Today it means culture, nothing more. Most “Christians”, especially Evangelicals and Mainline Protestants, have abdicated even that reference to Christ and call it Judeo-Christian.  Some even see themselves as Judeo-Christians, they have fallen in love with the particular name Yahweh, since that makes them feel more Jewish, and from their NIV Bibles, I think, (Translated Jehovah in the King James and LORD in the English Septuagint) and are clueless that the name Yahweh, really was the name of a primitive pre-Jewish, Canaanite fertility god. There is nothing uniquely special in the name Yahweh, no more than in the generic name God in English, Deus in Latin and Theos in Greek. Like Sunday, and Easter, these are adopted words.  So out goes Christian, and we will use the phrase, The Way, in its ancient meaning, associated with Christ. 

Next let us dangerously throw out (at least for now, for our purposes) the word Church, since it has different meaning for different sects, and Catholic since it has lost its meaning as well.  When you say Catholic to a Protestant they see, robes, funny hats, ritual they don’t understand and some fellow in Rome making outlandish claims.  When you say Catholic to a Roman Catholic they see the structure of the Roman Rite, the Catechism and Vaticanism. The Orthodox sees the same things and have abandoned the use of the word except in specific theological definition similar but different than the Roman use of the word.

We will keep the word (o)rthodox but with a small o, since there are still some orthodox people of The Way, in the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church and even in sects outside the “church” as Saint Maria acknowledged saying, “the evangelical way of spiritual life, which is as eternal as is the proclamation of the Good News, always alive within the bosom of the Church, shining for us in the faces of saints and at times lighting with the reflection of its fire even righteous people outside the Church.”  Then she cautioned that she was not talking about the “Born Again” sects, though she did mean some few, in those sects, I’m sure.  She certainly recognized Corey Ten Boom and her sister, as those reflections when they met and worked together for the inmates inside Ravensbruck Concentration Death Camp.

So we are talking about, (1)The Way, (2) The orthodox Way, (3) let us be specific and say, instead of the misunderstood word Church, “The Apostolic, orthodox, Eucharistic Brotherhood, IN Christ.”  I know that’s mouth full, but we have to be specific because we are NOT, talking about Baptists and their theology, Methodists and their theology, Roman Catholics and their theology, or even the Clericalized Orthodox Church, because Orthodox Christians see, Byzantine Rite, and the Philokalia.  You see, we are not talking about enchurchment, or Christianizing.

Our evangelical friend asked, “I’m considering the Roman Catholic Church or the Orthodox Church, but I don’t have enough knowledge to choose.”   My answer is I don’t care. I’m not going to lead you to a church, I am going to impart to you the tools to grasp the guidance of Christ, why? Because where does Jesus Christ lead us, except to Himself.  Introducing one to a system, without grasp of the object named Jesus Christ, is merely a religious act, and maybe not a life engendering act.  It beats introducing someone to a gay bar, strip club, pool hall, ball team, movie circle, the Masons, but only to the extent that the particular church system does not reflect the same fallen culture.  I’ve signed all my letters for years with the following paragraph (if I was writing a Christian).

“Our Heavenly Father Let us not be caught in the fear of servile religion; keeping Tradition out of ignorance and offering our "correctness" as sign of righteous enlightenment. Let us not be caught in the tyranny of our rational minds, which creates "innovations" upon the faith, which leads us to hold prideful "theologies" that diminish God to the level of our understanding, or worse, which deny Him altogether. Let us not be caught by the tyranny of our emotions, mistaking our soul's phantasy producing powers for the working of the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life. Let us not be caught in the mere form of the visible church, but in the LIFE of it, who is Jesus Christ, the Living Word of God, present to all that truly seek Him. Let our keeping of Tradition spring from the warmth of your Love, from a heart that seeks continual repentance, from a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart you will not despise. Amen.”

Again, Saint Maria of Paris, “Enchurchment” is often taken to mean the placing of life within the framework of a certain rhythm of church piety, the subordination of one’s personal life experience to the schedule of the cycle of divine services, the incorporation of certain specific elements of ‘churchliness’ into one’s way of life, even elements of the Church’s ustav. (ustav = the church’s writings.  For the undivided church the unity of the Ante-Nicene and Post-Nicene Apostolic Fathers, for the divided church the writing of the scores of Roman scholastics, Augustinianism, Thomism, many “ecumenical councils” the council of Trent, then innovative dogmas, the literature of the mystics and popes etc., etc., etc. For the Orthodox, the Philokalia (which means “love of the good”) but don’t tell an “Enchurched” Orthodox that, he will tell you there is magic in the title in Greek and it should never be translated. To publish it with the Title “Love of the Good” would be blasphemous.  For Protestants a SEA, of competing and confusing literature, oceans and oceans of error and shallow inspiration and sentimentality.)

NO, we are only going to examine The Way as taught by the Apostolic orthodox (little o) of Christ’s Eucharistic Society. And in this, it may lead us to be “enchurched” but this is not our goal, that’s for the Father to draw, through his Holy Spirit and Jesus to reveal himself, also through the same Holy Spirit.

An Archbishop I knew thirty years ago used to say, “It is Christianity, not “Churchi-anity”  and he thought he was saying something profound but he was not. Again Saint Maria of Paris, “Christianization,” however, is generally understood as nothing more than the correction of the bestial cruelty of man’s history through inoculation with a certain dose of Christian morality. And in addition to this it also includes the preaching of the Gospel to the whole world.”  That sounds GREAT! Right? And yet no cigar, NOT EVEN CLOSE; Though I suspect that is what most people are thinking when they question, about the “Christian life” and “how do they get saved.”

The Way, The orthodox Apostolic Eucharistic Way, is Christification, and Christification only.  And Yes, like Father Thomas Hopko’s quote above, - “They ask me how do I get saved, how do I get born again, like it is something you pick up at a fast food joint, and I answer, The Orthodox Christian answer is death, uh . . you gotta die.”  And so is the answer on The Way, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).  And quoting Fr Tom, “For most of us that’s gonna take a while.”   The Christ part is all that allows us to flop prone and helpless upon The Way, like the squirming infant we are, unable to feed ourselves and constantly making a mess of everything, next is learning to raise our heads, etc.

Saint Maria taught this lesson in her actions that day when she stepped in line and voluntarily walked into the Nazi gas chamber. It was the same answer Jesus gave, when he created the water and blood, that would allow the Spiritual Birth upon The Way. He chose to suffer and die and die on a Cross. No one KILLED him. HE laydown his life for us.  Again Saint Maria, “The image of God, the icon of Christ, which truly is my real and actual essence or being, is the only measure of all things, the only path or way which is given to me. Each movement of my soul, each approach to God, to other people, to the world, is determined by the suitability of that act for reflecting the image of God which is within me.

“If I am faced with two paths and I am in doubt, then even if all human wisdom, experience, and tradition point to one of these, but I feel that Christ would have followed the other — then all my doubts should immediately disappear and I should choose to follow Christ in spite of all the experience, tradition and wisdom that are opposed to it. But other than the immediate consciousness that Christ is calling me to a particular path, are there any other objective signs which will tell me that this doesn’t just appear this way to me, that it is not a figment of my imagination or my emotional feeling? Yes, there are objective indications.

“Christ gave us two commandments: to love God and to love our fellow man. Everything else, even the commandments contained in the Beatitudes, is merely an elaboration of these two commandments, which contain within themselves the totality of Christ’s ‘Good News.’ Furthermore, Christ’s earthly life is nothing other than the revelation of the mystery of love of God and love of man. These are, in sum, not only the true, but the only measure of all things. And it is remarkable that their truth is found only in the way they are linked together. Love for man alone leads us into the blind alley of an anti-Christian humanism, out of which the only exit is, at times, the rejection of the individual human being and love toward him in the name of all mankind. Love for God without love for man, however, is condemned: “You hypocrite, how can you love God whom you have not seen, if you hate your brother whom you have seen” (1 Jn. 4:20). Their linkage is not simply a combination of two great truths taken from two spiritual worlds. Their linkage is the union of two parts of a single whole.

And as we pointed out, Saint John who used the words, Ye Must be Born Again, explained what being Born of the Spirit was, just as Saint Maria stated, and what being Born into DOING Righteousness was, and what being Born into DOING love means. All of these and many more are steps upon The Way.  On The Way to What? To being Born In Perfection as the Father, which is in heaven, is Perfect!  This is the actual birth, everything before that is mere gestation in the womb of God's Grace. But we are not unconscious fetuses, rather we are choosing moment by moment whom we will serve, what we will feed our minds, how we will protect our NOUS (our spiritual center and intelligence) from poison. This womb, this life requires active participation, not isolation, because our lessons are learned, in the context of our living, in our joy and suffering, in our successes and our failures, in the entire web and texture of our experience.