This is a short meditation on what types of things affect both our spiritual lives and others, as well as to show part of the nature of Christian love (agape).
I was sitting on a beach in San Diego, on the night of January 16. I was on a retreat with my church and our priest gave a short talk. Among the topics he touched upon was this.
He said in order to live the Christian life, easy, little things have to be done like taking out the trash, washing the dishes, even smiling.
It makes us think how much it will witness to Christ, as well as to open up others to ask about Him, if we do these simple things. For example if someone is having a bad day and a person smiles to him or her, that person might be uplifted and encouraged for the rest of the day. It might even be that this person is waiting for you specifically to smile to him or her. These are the sort of simple things that bear witness to Christ and His love.
Other things like being a help to others will show this character, like working tirelessly.
Sometimes it is the manner of speech, movement, and behavior that will bear witness to Christ. We always have to remember that we are representing Him to those who are not of the Church as St. Paul says, “we are ambassadors for Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:20). If people see that we cuss all the time, we treat people with contempt, we ignore others for a dumb reason, and behave essentially no different from anybody else, how is then that people can see a difference in us, the difference that comes from Christ? We are the children of the King, and the children of the King don’t live like the rest of the world, there is a distinction between them and the rest of the people. This distinction, Jesus tells us in the Gospel of John where he says, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).
This distinction will separate us from the world, because the world does not know God, and without knowing God, love (agape) is not realized. This is so because agape is unconditional love, but the world has only tribal love or friendship love. They will not necessarily go help someone who is a stranger to them, and they will not seek justice for all, but only for their relatives or friends, even if they are not just. It is the Christian who looks at humanity as all equal whether they be his family, friends, or even the innocent person who he does not know. So impartiality is part of Christian love.
This last part about impartiality is part of Christian love reminds us to show love to everyone and to love only requires the simple things. Don’t think of getting big gifts or taking great trips, the simple, little things here and now will have more effect overall than those big things and will be remembered by those who receive it.
So remember smile, say hi, greet a person, take out the trash, wash the dishes, and do all similar “little things,” and you will live in the way Christ showed us and commanded us.
Thank God for them.
Glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Simplicity
"The LORD preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He saved me." -Psalm 116:6
Without simplicity of heart faith is nearly impossible, and without faith everything else that is Christian is impossible.
Faith is essentially simple because through faith we know that God is and what he wants us to do and how to live in the beauty of God.
We don't need anything else if we have faith, just as we don't need to do any more things than to eat, drink, and breathe to live. So this is the same with the Christian life.
Expanding on the above, it is like when we go to biology class and start learning HOW the body works and HOW it converts food into energy or HOW it maintains itself. These things are interesting but we don't NEED to know them to live, because living itself is way beyond understanding how the body works. So the same is with our faith, even though the Church Fathers wrote many things about God, what they wrote is not LIVING the faith. What is essential to our faith is praying and living in the way Jesus showed us. The rest is the how, not the Way.
Jesus referred to the Kingdom of Heaven of being like the little children that were coming to him, and no doubt little children are simple, therefore we have to be simple in order to get into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Now simplicity does not cause trouble between friends, it doesn't hold grudges for a long time, and is quick to forgive.
A simple person might be bothered by something someone said to him, but after a while, whether shorter or longer, they forgive the person who bothered them and are reconciled with him or her.
Simplicity also doesn't judge. It's only through complication and loss of simplicity that people start changing and entering into sin. Loss of simplicity leads to gossip, judging, malice, lying, hatred, shamefulness, disobedience to parents, hurting others around you, and the rest of the sins.
The Ten Commandments if contemplated upon can be seen to be simple in nature.
In Commandments I-IV, a simple person knows who his God is, and worships Him in Spirit and Truth.
In Commandments V-VIII and X, a simple person is content with life, so he or she doesn't want to disobey parents for anything else's sake, nor to murder, nor to steal, because nothing can be gained with these; with these only loss can come.
In Commandment IX, a simple person loves all unconditionally, not some more than others, this is why one won't bear false witness.
Therefore simplicity's nature causes one to live in virtue. If one tries to lead a complex life, it is hard to live in the Christian way. Simplicity of heart is essential in Christianity because through it faith, hope, love and the rest of the virtues come.
Live in simplicity.
May the grace of Jesus Christ be with us all, and glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
Without simplicity of heart faith is nearly impossible, and without faith everything else that is Christian is impossible.
Faith is essentially simple because through faith we know that God is and what he wants us to do and how to live in the beauty of God.
We don't need anything else if we have faith, just as we don't need to do any more things than to eat, drink, and breathe to live. So this is the same with the Christian life.
Expanding on the above, it is like when we go to biology class and start learning HOW the body works and HOW it converts food into energy or HOW it maintains itself. These things are interesting but we don't NEED to know them to live, because living itself is way beyond understanding how the body works. So the same is with our faith, even though the Church Fathers wrote many things about God, what they wrote is not LIVING the faith. What is essential to our faith is praying and living in the way Jesus showed us. The rest is the how, not the Way.
Jesus referred to the Kingdom of Heaven of being like the little children that were coming to him, and no doubt little children are simple, therefore we have to be simple in order to get into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Now simplicity does not cause trouble between friends, it doesn't hold grudges for a long time, and is quick to forgive.
A simple person might be bothered by something someone said to him, but after a while, whether shorter or longer, they forgive the person who bothered them and are reconciled with him or her.
Simplicity also doesn't judge. It's only through complication and loss of simplicity that people start changing and entering into sin. Loss of simplicity leads to gossip, judging, malice, lying, hatred, shamefulness, disobedience to parents, hurting others around you, and the rest of the sins.
The Ten Commandments if contemplated upon can be seen to be simple in nature.
In Commandments I-IV, a simple person knows who his God is, and worships Him in Spirit and Truth.
In Commandments V-VIII and X, a simple person is content with life, so he or she doesn't want to disobey parents for anything else's sake, nor to murder, nor to steal, because nothing can be gained with these; with these only loss can come.
In Commandment IX, a simple person loves all unconditionally, not some more than others, this is why one won't bear false witness.
Therefore simplicity's nature causes one to live in virtue. If one tries to lead a complex life, it is hard to live in the Christian way. Simplicity of heart is essential in Christianity because through it faith, hope, love and the rest of the virtues come.
Live in simplicity.
May the grace of Jesus Christ be with us all, and glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Faith
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).
Faith is the gateway to Christianity.
Faith is the first step in the Christian life.
We do not need to know every single detail to believe (as St. Augustine said, “I believe in order to know”), but to trust.
Trust and faith go together.
An analogy would be if I were to tell people about myself and my life story. They would believe me first and through believing then they would know. The reason they would believe is because they trust me therefore faith and trust go together. They are almost inseparable.
Patience and faith go together.
To keep the faith that we start in we must have patience. Patience when something troubles us in the faith, and we wait for an answer from God. The virtues of the Christian way are like a network; when you grow in one virtue, the others grow as well. Faith and patience go together, because without other virtues growing, faith won’t grow as well.
Humility and faith go together.
In Hebrews 11:1, St. Paul the Apostle says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for.” Substance in Greek (as well as Latin from where we get our English word), means “standing under.” Therefore in order for us to have true faith we must be humble, not focusing on ourselves but on God our hope. We have to submit to God and to our spiritual fathers if we are to continue in the faith of Jesus Christ.
Finally we have to be simple to have faith. There were many great theologians in the past, as well as in the present, who were very studious and they were great apologists and wrote so many things about the Christian way. They studied a lot of theology, a lot of history, a lot of languages, and a lot of many other subjects, yet in the end they came to the realization that ultimately the faith is simple. Also if we are to be worshippers of God in spirit and truth, we have to be simple, as Jesus said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). Children are simple and believe, therefore we have to be the same according to the words of our Lord Jesus.
Glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
Faith is the gateway to Christianity.
Faith is the first step in the Christian life.
We do not need to know every single detail to believe (as St. Augustine said, “I believe in order to know”), but to trust.
Trust and faith go together.
An analogy would be if I were to tell people about myself and my life story. They would believe me first and through believing then they would know. The reason they would believe is because they trust me therefore faith and trust go together. They are almost inseparable.
Patience and faith go together.
To keep the faith that we start in we must have patience. Patience when something troubles us in the faith, and we wait for an answer from God. The virtues of the Christian way are like a network; when you grow in one virtue, the others grow as well. Faith and patience go together, because without other virtues growing, faith won’t grow as well.
Humility and faith go together.
In Hebrews 11:1, St. Paul the Apostle says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for.” Substance in Greek (as well as Latin from where we get our English word), means “standing under.” Therefore in order for us to have true faith we must be humble, not focusing on ourselves but on God our hope. We have to submit to God and to our spiritual fathers if we are to continue in the faith of Jesus Christ.
Finally we have to be simple to have faith. There were many great theologians in the past, as well as in the present, who were very studious and they were great apologists and wrote so many things about the Christian way. They studied a lot of theology, a lot of history, a lot of languages, and a lot of many other subjects, yet in the end they came to the realization that ultimately the faith is simple. Also if we are to be worshippers of God in spirit and truth, we have to be simple, as Jesus said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). Children are simple and believe, therefore we have to be the same according to the words of our Lord Jesus.
Glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Utopia
Many of us have heard people, including many Christians, say that they don’t go to church because of the hypocrites who go. I just had a conversation with a person who falls into this category, interestingly a science professor (and it was a very interesting and non-offensive conversation), two weeks ago. The real problem here is not that Christians, especially those who go to church, are hypocrites, but that the people who make that judgment have an idea of utopia when they think of going to church.
The word utopia as most of us have heard essentially means a perfect and ideal place. The word “utopia” was coined in the 16th Century in the English language, taken from two Greek words, which mean “no” and “place.” Hence, utopia means “not a place.”
The Bible does teach that we as Christians tend toward ideals that would be considered a utopia, but also emphasizes the fact that that vision will not be fully realized in this age, but in the one to come, after God judges humanity and those who are deemed righteous will spend eternity with Him in Heaven, and those who are deemed unrighteous will spend eternity in Hell.
Heaven is the only Utopia, and in a sense it meets the definition of “not a place,” in that it is not like what we know now on earth, but something that is beyond our understanding now as St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:9, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
The word utopia also applies to this world in that “not a place” can be found which sin has not damaged. This is why, only the Kingdom of Heaven, is the real Utopia.
As for the complaints that critics raise about church-going Christians being hypocrites, and they are the reason why they themselves don’t go to church, the Bible has an answer to this complaint.
In the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares in Matthew 13, Jesus talks about the Kingdom of Heaven.
He says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn”’” (Matthew 13:24-30).
Here the Church (the community of believers) is likened to Wheat, while the community of nonbelievers, Christians who are not concerned with their spiritual life, and all other groups, is likened to Tares. Now the interesting thing about Tares are that while they grow in the early stages, as well as also while growing, they are very hard to distinguish from Wheat, in that they look very similar.
The enemy in the Parable is Satan; in fact that is what “Satan” and “Devil,” mean. Satan sows seeds while men, those in the Church most likely the clergy, sleep.
They wake up and find that there are Tares growing among the Wheat and ask their lord what to do. They make a suggestion to uproot the Tares while they are still growing. Their lord answers “no” because uprooting some of these Tares might also uproot Wheat with them.
The Harvest is the judgment day at the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels God will send to “gather together His elect” (Matthew 24:31).
The separation of the Wheat and the Tares at the Harvest is the actual judgment, and the Tares are first burned up, go to Hell that is, and the Wheat is gathered into the barn, go to the House of God, Heaven that is.
This Parable gives us an answer to give to the critics, and to Christians as well if they reply that they don’t go to church because there are hypocrites there. Jesus Himself addressed this issue prophetically before it happened.
Satan planted certain people in the Church to counter God’s work, and God will leave the Tares (those Christians who aren’t so in truth), to continue in the Church until the Judgment Day. He directly says so to the “men” in the Parable who symbolize the clergy or even the laity.
It is important to point out that Jesus tells the men not to gather the Tares, because telling Tares from Wheat is hard, and if one tries to remove Tares he might accidentally remove Wheat as well. This reminds us not to judge others as Jesus also commanded. We cannot be judges because then we are raising ourselves to God’s perfection who knows everything and thus that is the reason why He is fit to judge because He has all the facts, hidden and unhidden, while we have very limited knowledge.
So let us not be tempted by the idea that we should not go to church where “hypocrites” are, not listen to teaching that says going to church with hypocrites is not right. Both these ideas do not agree with the Bible and are temptations from Satan to keep us away from church and away from edification.
Therefore let us keep our eyes only on God, and judge only ourselves, so we may grow in Him and remember that a utopia is “not a place” that is here, and the only Utopia will be Heaven.
Glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
The word utopia as most of us have heard essentially means a perfect and ideal place. The word “utopia” was coined in the 16th Century in the English language, taken from two Greek words, which mean “no” and “place.” Hence, utopia means “not a place.”
The Bible does teach that we as Christians tend toward ideals that would be considered a utopia, but also emphasizes the fact that that vision will not be fully realized in this age, but in the one to come, after God judges humanity and those who are deemed righteous will spend eternity with Him in Heaven, and those who are deemed unrighteous will spend eternity in Hell.
Heaven is the only Utopia, and in a sense it meets the definition of “not a place,” in that it is not like what we know now on earth, but something that is beyond our understanding now as St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:9, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
The word utopia also applies to this world in that “not a place” can be found which sin has not damaged. This is why, only the Kingdom of Heaven, is the real Utopia.
As for the complaints that critics raise about church-going Christians being hypocrites, and they are the reason why they themselves don’t go to church, the Bible has an answer to this complaint.
In the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares in Matthew 13, Jesus talks about the Kingdom of Heaven.
He says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn”’” (Matthew 13:24-30).
Here the Church (the community of believers) is likened to Wheat, while the community of nonbelievers, Christians who are not concerned with their spiritual life, and all other groups, is likened to Tares. Now the interesting thing about Tares are that while they grow in the early stages, as well as also while growing, they are very hard to distinguish from Wheat, in that they look very similar.
The enemy in the Parable is Satan; in fact that is what “Satan” and “Devil,” mean. Satan sows seeds while men, those in the Church most likely the clergy, sleep.
They wake up and find that there are Tares growing among the Wheat and ask their lord what to do. They make a suggestion to uproot the Tares while they are still growing. Their lord answers “no” because uprooting some of these Tares might also uproot Wheat with them.
The Harvest is the judgment day at the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels God will send to “gather together His elect” (Matthew 24:31).
The separation of the Wheat and the Tares at the Harvest is the actual judgment, and the Tares are first burned up, go to Hell that is, and the Wheat is gathered into the barn, go to the House of God, Heaven that is.
This Parable gives us an answer to give to the critics, and to Christians as well if they reply that they don’t go to church because there are hypocrites there. Jesus Himself addressed this issue prophetically before it happened.
Satan planted certain people in the Church to counter God’s work, and God will leave the Tares (those Christians who aren’t so in truth), to continue in the Church until the Judgment Day. He directly says so to the “men” in the Parable who symbolize the clergy or even the laity.
It is important to point out that Jesus tells the men not to gather the Tares, because telling Tares from Wheat is hard, and if one tries to remove Tares he might accidentally remove Wheat as well. This reminds us not to judge others as Jesus also commanded. We cannot be judges because then we are raising ourselves to God’s perfection who knows everything and thus that is the reason why He is fit to judge because He has all the facts, hidden and unhidden, while we have very limited knowledge.
So let us not be tempted by the idea that we should not go to church where “hypocrites” are, not listen to teaching that says going to church with hypocrites is not right. Both these ideas do not agree with the Bible and are temptations from Satan to keep us away from church and away from edification.
Therefore let us keep our eyes only on God, and judge only ourselves, so we may grow in Him and remember that a utopia is “not a place” that is here, and the only Utopia will be Heaven.
Glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
The Martyrs
“The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church.” -Tertullian the Scholar
I was recently talking with a Protestant acquaintance of mine and asked him if he knew about the Martyrs. He referred to Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (which is a Protestant Reformation era book about the early reformers). Then I told him that the martyrs I was talking about are about a thousand years older than the martyrs mentioned in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. However when I said really old, he mentioned St. Polycarp (who was a disciple of St. John the Apostle), who as I was told, was actually mentioned by Fox. This made me think that the martyrs are not really that well known in the West, even more so in the Protestant Church.
The Martyrs, however, were of extreme significance in the early church up until even after the Protestant Reformation. The fact that a book like Foxes Book of Martyrs was written bears witness to this.
The word “Martyr” comes from a Greek word which originally meant “Witness.” This is because the Martyrs are those who bore witness to Christ, even giving up their lives for that witness. Jesus called us His friends in the Gospel of John, and right after that He said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13). Just as Jesus laid down His life for all of us, we lay down our lives for Him. It is the mutual love that causes us to do this. And just as He rose again by dying for us, we will rise again by dying for Him. This sort of language of the mutual death can be seen in the Epistle to the Romans applied to Baptism. But the interesting thing is that the early fathers saw Martyrdom as also a Baptism in itself. In Orthodoxy, Baptism is essential to Salvation, for without it one cannot put on Christ and become a member of the Church. But there were those who were catechumens (those coming to the faith and about to be baptized) that were killed. So what happened to them? The early church had this doctrine of “The Baptism of Blood.” This doctrine said that if one was killed as a Martyr for Christ, this was counted as Baptism. This doctrine actually goes back to the Bible, and we see Jesus referring to it when he says to the Apostles (11 of which became Martyrs), “‘Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ They said to Him, ‘We are able’” (Matthew 20:22).
Martyrdom also has a paradox that is even though Christians are killed for their faith, the number of Christians increases afterward. This is what is meant by Tertullian the Scholar when he says, “The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church.”
The most severe ancient persecution of Christians came under the reign of Diocletian the Emperor, who ruled beginning in 284 A.D. up until about 303 A.D. The longest list of ancient Martyrs comes from this period.
Some examples of these Martyrs are Saints like St. Maurice and the Theban Legion. Saint Maurice was the leader of a Legion of soldiers from Thebes in Egypt. He and his Legion were very successful in military campaigns and they were summoned by the Roman Emperor to go to Switzerland to fight off the Empire’s enemies. They succeeded, so the Emperor asked them to offer up sacrifices to the idols in celebration of the victory. They refused saying that even though they were loyal to the emperor and would obey him, they would not obey him concerning something that was against their faith. Following the example of St. Peter and the other Apostles, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). The emperor then began decimating the Legion, who numbered at 6600 to try to intimidate them and cause some of them to offer up the idols. But they remained steadfast, and all of them ended up being martyred for their faith in Christ.
Another example of these Martyrs is Saint Demiana and the Forty Virgins. This young lady was of a noble family, with her father being the governor of a city called El-Borollos in Northern Egypt. She told her father that she wanted to dedicate her life to Christ, so he built her a palace. St. Demiana might have been a sort of proto-nun, because essentially what she established was a convent for her and her forty companions. One day the Emperor called her father to come and offer sacrifices to idols with him. Her father weakened and did. St. Demiana heard about and went to her father and rebuked him. So her father went back confessed his faith in Christ and was martyred. The emperor who happened to be infuriated sent soldiers to St. Demiana and her companions, tortured them, and killed them because of their confession of Christ.
One more example of is St. Hripsime the Armenian. St. Hripsime’s story is a little bit similar to St. Demiana. St. Hripsime was also a sort of proto-nun who lived in Rome. The emperor Diocletian sent painters all over the empire to paint the most beautiful women so he could see them and choose to marry one. That one ended up being St. Hripsime who had dedicated her life to Christ. When she heard this, she fled to Armenia with some of her companions and hid in a beat up garden. However, some reports arrived to Diocletian and the king of Armenia, Tiridates found out that she was hiding and the emperor wanted her. But when he saw her, he decided that he wanted her too. So he brought her before himself and asked her to marry him and she refused saying that she had dedicated her life to Christ. He asked her again and again, and the answer was always the same. So he tortured her in the most gruesome ways along with her companion and finally killed her and they threw her body and her companions in some heap. The king afterward was upset and was advised to go hunt so he could get over this episode. While he was hunting he became possessed by some demon. One of the ladies in Tiridates’ court, maybe his sister, I don’t remember clearly, prayed to God, and she remembered something after her prayer. Fourteen years earlier, Tiridates had thrown a Christian bishop who was evangelizing Armenia into a pit. This lady told some of the people in the king’s court to go to the pit, so they threw a rope and the rope tugged, and the bishop, St. Gregory the Illuminator, came out. Shortly after he was thrown into the pit, a woman living nearby was warned by an angel to throw a loaf of bread everyday into the pit. She did this for fourteen years. They brought St. Gregory to the king, and he told the king if he was to pray for him, he would stop persecuting the Christians and would convert, the king agreed, and St. Gregory exorcised him. St. Gregory then went to find the bodies of St. Hripsime and her companions and gave them a proper burial and a church was later built over their bodies. This church is one of the holiest churches in Armenian Orthodoxy. Tiridates declared Christianity as the official religion of Armenia in 303 A.D., and is now known as Tiridates the Great.
All these examples of martyrs come from the period of Diocletian’s reign, however St. Maurice was killed by Diocletian’s companion emperoror, Maximian.
The Martyrs gives us the greatest example of the love of Christ because as He said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13). They also give us the greatest example of showing us that the Christian life CAN be lived. Let us learn from them and always keep their life stories in front of us.
May their prayers be with us and glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
I was recently talking with a Protestant acquaintance of mine and asked him if he knew about the Martyrs. He referred to Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (which is a Protestant Reformation era book about the early reformers). Then I told him that the martyrs I was talking about are about a thousand years older than the martyrs mentioned in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. However when I said really old, he mentioned St. Polycarp (who was a disciple of St. John the Apostle), who as I was told, was actually mentioned by Fox. This made me think that the martyrs are not really that well known in the West, even more so in the Protestant Church.
The Martyrs, however, were of extreme significance in the early church up until even after the Protestant Reformation. The fact that a book like Foxes Book of Martyrs was written bears witness to this.
The word “Martyr” comes from a Greek word which originally meant “Witness.” This is because the Martyrs are those who bore witness to Christ, even giving up their lives for that witness. Jesus called us His friends in the Gospel of John, and right after that He said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13). Just as Jesus laid down His life for all of us, we lay down our lives for Him. It is the mutual love that causes us to do this. And just as He rose again by dying for us, we will rise again by dying for Him. This sort of language of the mutual death can be seen in the Epistle to the Romans applied to Baptism. But the interesting thing is that the early fathers saw Martyrdom as also a Baptism in itself. In Orthodoxy, Baptism is essential to Salvation, for without it one cannot put on Christ and become a member of the Church. But there were those who were catechumens (those coming to the faith and about to be baptized) that were killed. So what happened to them? The early church had this doctrine of “The Baptism of Blood.” This doctrine said that if one was killed as a Martyr for Christ, this was counted as Baptism. This doctrine actually goes back to the Bible, and we see Jesus referring to it when he says to the Apostles (11 of which became Martyrs), “‘Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ They said to Him, ‘We are able’” (Matthew 20:22).
Martyrdom also has a paradox that is even though Christians are killed for their faith, the number of Christians increases afterward. This is what is meant by Tertullian the Scholar when he says, “The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church.”
The most severe ancient persecution of Christians came under the reign of Diocletian the Emperor, who ruled beginning in 284 A.D. up until about 303 A.D. The longest list of ancient Martyrs comes from this period.
Some examples of these Martyrs are Saints like St. Maurice and the Theban Legion. Saint Maurice was the leader of a Legion of soldiers from Thebes in Egypt. He and his Legion were very successful in military campaigns and they were summoned by the Roman Emperor to go to Switzerland to fight off the Empire’s enemies. They succeeded, so the Emperor asked them to offer up sacrifices to the idols in celebration of the victory. They refused saying that even though they were loyal to the emperor and would obey him, they would not obey him concerning something that was against their faith. Following the example of St. Peter and the other Apostles, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). The emperor then began decimating the Legion, who numbered at 6600 to try to intimidate them and cause some of them to offer up the idols. But they remained steadfast, and all of them ended up being martyred for their faith in Christ.
Another example of these Martyrs is Saint Demiana and the Forty Virgins. This young lady was of a noble family, with her father being the governor of a city called El-Borollos in Northern Egypt. She told her father that she wanted to dedicate her life to Christ, so he built her a palace. St. Demiana might have been a sort of proto-nun, because essentially what she established was a convent for her and her forty companions. One day the Emperor called her father to come and offer sacrifices to idols with him. Her father weakened and did. St. Demiana heard about and went to her father and rebuked him. So her father went back confessed his faith in Christ and was martyred. The emperor who happened to be infuriated sent soldiers to St. Demiana and her companions, tortured them, and killed them because of their confession of Christ.
One more example of is St. Hripsime the Armenian. St. Hripsime’s story is a little bit similar to St. Demiana. St. Hripsime was also a sort of proto-nun who lived in Rome. The emperor Diocletian sent painters all over the empire to paint the most beautiful women so he could see them and choose to marry one. That one ended up being St. Hripsime who had dedicated her life to Christ. When she heard this, she fled to Armenia with some of her companions and hid in a beat up garden. However, some reports arrived to Diocletian and the king of Armenia, Tiridates found out that she was hiding and the emperor wanted her. But when he saw her, he decided that he wanted her too. So he brought her before himself and asked her to marry him and she refused saying that she had dedicated her life to Christ. He asked her again and again, and the answer was always the same. So he tortured her in the most gruesome ways along with her companion and finally killed her and they threw her body and her companions in some heap. The king afterward was upset and was advised to go hunt so he could get over this episode. While he was hunting he became possessed by some demon. One of the ladies in Tiridates’ court, maybe his sister, I don’t remember clearly, prayed to God, and she remembered something after her prayer. Fourteen years earlier, Tiridates had thrown a Christian bishop who was evangelizing Armenia into a pit. This lady told some of the people in the king’s court to go to the pit, so they threw a rope and the rope tugged, and the bishop, St. Gregory the Illuminator, came out. Shortly after he was thrown into the pit, a woman living nearby was warned by an angel to throw a loaf of bread everyday into the pit. She did this for fourteen years. They brought St. Gregory to the king, and he told the king if he was to pray for him, he would stop persecuting the Christians and would convert, the king agreed, and St. Gregory exorcised him. St. Gregory then went to find the bodies of St. Hripsime and her companions and gave them a proper burial and a church was later built over their bodies. This church is one of the holiest churches in Armenian Orthodoxy. Tiridates declared Christianity as the official religion of Armenia in 303 A.D., and is now known as Tiridates the Great.
All these examples of martyrs come from the period of Diocletian’s reign, however St. Maurice was killed by Diocletian’s companion emperoror, Maximian.
The Martyrs gives us the greatest example of the love of Christ because as He said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13). They also give us the greatest example of showing us that the Christian life CAN be lived. Let us learn from them and always keep their life stories in front of us.
May their prayers be with us and glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Freedom and Discipline
Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32).
Today we are discussing the Christian understanding of freedom, and to understand and apply the Christian understanding of freedom, discipline inevitably comes into the picture.
First off, let’s define what we are talking about for clarity:
Freedom basically means (as defined today) to be in control of your own life with no one forcing you to do anything. We will see another definition below, the more appropriate one.
Discipline means to live by some type of rules.
Moving on we will discuss the origin of freedom, how it is misunderstood, and how to use freedom to glorify God.
Freedom’s origin is God; God gave us freedom because He created us in His Image. We are free because God is free, and an image must reflect its source. This is why we also as humans have many other capabilities which animals do not have such as language and speech which allow us to share our thoughts with each other, animals have no such faculty; their form of communication is limited, not like language and speech.
To be free allows us to do so many things which we might not think of at first, such as love. Unless one is free, one cannot love, because love requires the person to act in a selfless way toward one another. As Pope Shenouda III, current Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, observes, “Love is always giving.” We cannot give if we aren’t free, therefore we can’t love if we aren’t free.
This also allows us to enjoy our relationship with God. He didn’t just create us to worship Him, He doesn’t need our worship, He is God and has glory whether or not we choose to glorify Him. He created us out of love, and just as when we love others we want the best for them, He also wants the best for us. He wants us to enjoy our relationship with Him. But we can’t do that if we aren’t free, kind of how if you pull out a woman from society today and you tell her that she is going to marry a man she doesn’t really know against her will, it will not be as enjoyable (if at all), as if she willingly entered into the marriage relationship. The same with God, in fact this analogy of marriage is used quite a few times in the Bible to signify God’s relationship with humanity.
Real Love is always shared, and God created us to worship Him so we could also share in love. His love toward us is always perfect and complete, but our love toward Him is always struggling toward perfection, not really quite there, but this is why He condescends to our level, while we are always ascending. His condescension ultimately manifested itself in the Incarnation of the Son who united His divinity with our humanity taking it to Heaven as He ascended. God is love, and when we love Him by first loving those who are around us created in His Image, we become in union with Him and start sharing in the grace of His divinity. This is known as deification (theosis in Greek). This doesn’t mean that we become gods, but rather that we share in His nature through the grace of the Son’s Incarnation (because He united His divinity to our humanity in the Son).
Today, however, some people reject this idea of God giving us freewill, but the greatest evidence that we have been given freewill by God is the fact that most of humanity has rejected Him.
The world confuses freedom with shameless behavior.
The world defines freedom as doing ANYTHING you want to do. However this definition is very seductive and misleading.
The real definition of freedom, in addition to above, is being able to say NO to anything. That is the very essence of freedom, that nothing is controlling you.
If the world would apply that definition to their actions, they would really find that they are under the control of so many things, and in essence they are enslaved by the things they think they want to do.
You see, how is it freedom when you aren’t able to control what you are doing?
Jesus applied this to sin (that which separates one from God), “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:35-36).
Here Jesus is telling us about the Church, the house that is mentioned. After we were baptized we become a part of the Church, but not all even after Baptism follow God. Some follow their sins, those become enslaved to sin, and those cannot abide forever, meaning the full realization of the Church’s goal, that is to be with God in Heaven. However we should understand that there is a difference between occasionally sinning, and walking in sin. Occasional sins are covered by Jesus’ blood which He shed on the Cross. Walking in sin is different, because it becomes an outright rejection of Christ, and is what St. Paul refers to as trampling “the Son of God underfoot,” and “counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing” (Hebrews 10:29).
The latter part of this passage says, “A son abides forever.” If we follow God and Christ, we become sons of God by grace, not by nature like Jesus Christ, but by adoption by God. Just like every family has rules set up by the parents of the house, and the children should obey them to show their parents that they indeed love them, God (Our Father), sets up some rules for us, as well as the Church (Our Mother).
This is where discipline comes into the picture. Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32). Here Jesus connects for us freedom with discipline.
Freedom by itself is very, very dangerous. A while ago, I was having a discussion with someone, and this person said that there should be no government, and the world should be an anarchy. So I said, “Suppose for one day all government was suspended, and you got your wish, that this world would be an anarchy,” I told him, “This city that we are in would not be left standing by nightfall, it would have burned down to the ground.” Now the reason this person was saying all this stuff was probably not because of malicious intent but because this person thought that the world was really good (this person at this time had some type of Christian belief, but not Orthodoxy). But the truth is, this world is not really good, in fact it is quite the opposite, it is really evil. People are malicious, they don’t care about each other, they want revenge, they don’t forgive, and all this because they are far away from God. If the world was granted to be an anarchy for even just one day, I am convinced that most of it would be burned down to the ground.
This is why the Christian understanding of freedom is inseparable from discipline, and this is exactly why Jesus has them connected when He talks about them.
So what type of rules should we follow to keep our freedom?
They are mentioned in 1 Corinthians, “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any” (1 Cor 6:12), “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; All things are lawful for me, but not all things edify” (1 Cor. 10:23).
So unless these things build edify (build us up) in the faith, we should keep away from them. Now this doesn’t always happen, but God’s grace is upon us. But this should be our guide, that’s what discipline essentially is, a guide. Also this verse too, “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13).
These things we should keep in mind because we are free: are we being controlled by anything, does it build other people up, and are we showing love to others and to God?
Our freedom should be used to glorify God.
Here is an example, if someone attends an Orthodox school, and on Wednesdays and Fridays except in the Holy Fifty Days, only fasting food (vegetarian) is served in the Cafeteria, so everybody, including this person, is essentially “forced” to eat that type of food. But someone else not attending an Orthodox school is in the school cafeteria and they offer him hamburgers and chicken wings, and he does not eat from that food and only eats the acceptable food for fasts, this person has glorified God and used his freedom in the correct way, in that he said “NO” to the non-fasting type foods from his own will.
So how do we acquire this discipline?
Well, of course we have to ask God in prayer, if we don’t have it, and if we do have it we should thank God for giving it to us. But we should force ourselves (self-control as mentioned in Galatians 5:22, the fruit of the Spirit). Self-control is not passive (a reaction), but it is active (you actually doing things), such as fasting.
The Psalm says this concerning spiritual progress, “I have kept back my feet from every evil way, that I might keep Your words” (Psalm 119:101)
What are the benefits of discipline?
We can actually get things done!
As it says in the Psalm, “You word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths” (Psalm 119:105). Without light one virtually cannot do anything. Our spiritual life is likened to a walk along a road, and unless we see the road, we will not be able to follow it easily, if at all. So we should always remember to read the word of God for guidance.
What should we do to ease the way to discipline?
“Turn away from me, you evil-doers; for I shall search out the commandments of my God” (Psalm 119:115).
This is Bible language for saying “Get away from me!” to those who are always hindering us in being close to God, whether it be friends at school, or co-workers, we should be cautious because their influence might rub off on us.
So, looking back, freedom without discipline is a path to destruction, this is why in the Bible freedom and discipline are connected. God gave us freedom so we could enjoy our relationship with Him, just as a man and woman mutually entering into a marriage relationship enjoy it.
So we should pray, and practice our discipline so we can use our freedom in the right way. In the Bible, read Galatians 5, it talks about freedom, I cited a verse from that chapter above, and it ends with the famous fruits of the Spirit.
And remember, the word disciple comes from discipline, so if we want to be good disciples of Christ, we should have discipline in our lives.
Glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
Today we are discussing the Christian understanding of freedom, and to understand and apply the Christian understanding of freedom, discipline inevitably comes into the picture.
First off, let’s define what we are talking about for clarity:
Freedom basically means (as defined today) to be in control of your own life with no one forcing you to do anything. We will see another definition below, the more appropriate one.
Discipline means to live by some type of rules.
Moving on we will discuss the origin of freedom, how it is misunderstood, and how to use freedom to glorify God.
Freedom’s origin is God; God gave us freedom because He created us in His Image. We are free because God is free, and an image must reflect its source. This is why we also as humans have many other capabilities which animals do not have such as language and speech which allow us to share our thoughts with each other, animals have no such faculty; their form of communication is limited, not like language and speech.
To be free allows us to do so many things which we might not think of at first, such as love. Unless one is free, one cannot love, because love requires the person to act in a selfless way toward one another. As Pope Shenouda III, current Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, observes, “Love is always giving.” We cannot give if we aren’t free, therefore we can’t love if we aren’t free.
This also allows us to enjoy our relationship with God. He didn’t just create us to worship Him, He doesn’t need our worship, He is God and has glory whether or not we choose to glorify Him. He created us out of love, and just as when we love others we want the best for them, He also wants the best for us. He wants us to enjoy our relationship with Him. But we can’t do that if we aren’t free, kind of how if you pull out a woman from society today and you tell her that she is going to marry a man she doesn’t really know against her will, it will not be as enjoyable (if at all), as if she willingly entered into the marriage relationship. The same with God, in fact this analogy of marriage is used quite a few times in the Bible to signify God’s relationship with humanity.
Real Love is always shared, and God created us to worship Him so we could also share in love. His love toward us is always perfect and complete, but our love toward Him is always struggling toward perfection, not really quite there, but this is why He condescends to our level, while we are always ascending. His condescension ultimately manifested itself in the Incarnation of the Son who united His divinity with our humanity taking it to Heaven as He ascended. God is love, and when we love Him by first loving those who are around us created in His Image, we become in union with Him and start sharing in the grace of His divinity. This is known as deification (theosis in Greek). This doesn’t mean that we become gods, but rather that we share in His nature through the grace of the Son’s Incarnation (because He united His divinity to our humanity in the Son).
Today, however, some people reject this idea of God giving us freewill, but the greatest evidence that we have been given freewill by God is the fact that most of humanity has rejected Him.
The world confuses freedom with shameless behavior.
The world defines freedom as doing ANYTHING you want to do. However this definition is very seductive and misleading.
The real definition of freedom, in addition to above, is being able to say NO to anything. That is the very essence of freedom, that nothing is controlling you.
If the world would apply that definition to their actions, they would really find that they are under the control of so many things, and in essence they are enslaved by the things they think they want to do.
You see, how is it freedom when you aren’t able to control what you are doing?
Jesus applied this to sin (that which separates one from God), “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:35-36).
Here Jesus is telling us about the Church, the house that is mentioned. After we were baptized we become a part of the Church, but not all even after Baptism follow God. Some follow their sins, those become enslaved to sin, and those cannot abide forever, meaning the full realization of the Church’s goal, that is to be with God in Heaven. However we should understand that there is a difference between occasionally sinning, and walking in sin. Occasional sins are covered by Jesus’ blood which He shed on the Cross. Walking in sin is different, because it becomes an outright rejection of Christ, and is what St. Paul refers to as trampling “the Son of God underfoot,” and “counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing” (Hebrews 10:29).
The latter part of this passage says, “A son abides forever.” If we follow God and Christ, we become sons of God by grace, not by nature like Jesus Christ, but by adoption by God. Just like every family has rules set up by the parents of the house, and the children should obey them to show their parents that they indeed love them, God (Our Father), sets up some rules for us, as well as the Church (Our Mother).
This is where discipline comes into the picture. Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32). Here Jesus connects for us freedom with discipline.
Freedom by itself is very, very dangerous. A while ago, I was having a discussion with someone, and this person said that there should be no government, and the world should be an anarchy. So I said, “Suppose for one day all government was suspended, and you got your wish, that this world would be an anarchy,” I told him, “This city that we are in would not be left standing by nightfall, it would have burned down to the ground.” Now the reason this person was saying all this stuff was probably not because of malicious intent but because this person thought that the world was really good (this person at this time had some type of Christian belief, but not Orthodoxy). But the truth is, this world is not really good, in fact it is quite the opposite, it is really evil. People are malicious, they don’t care about each other, they want revenge, they don’t forgive, and all this because they are far away from God. If the world was granted to be an anarchy for even just one day, I am convinced that most of it would be burned down to the ground.
This is why the Christian understanding of freedom is inseparable from discipline, and this is exactly why Jesus has them connected when He talks about them.
So what type of rules should we follow to keep our freedom?
They are mentioned in 1 Corinthians, “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any” (1 Cor 6:12), “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; All things are lawful for me, but not all things edify” (1 Cor. 10:23).
So unless these things build edify (build us up) in the faith, we should keep away from them. Now this doesn’t always happen, but God’s grace is upon us. But this should be our guide, that’s what discipline essentially is, a guide. Also this verse too, “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13).
These things we should keep in mind because we are free: are we being controlled by anything, does it build other people up, and are we showing love to others and to God?
Our freedom should be used to glorify God.
Here is an example, if someone attends an Orthodox school, and on Wednesdays and Fridays except in the Holy Fifty Days, only fasting food (vegetarian) is served in the Cafeteria, so everybody, including this person, is essentially “forced” to eat that type of food. But someone else not attending an Orthodox school is in the school cafeteria and they offer him hamburgers and chicken wings, and he does not eat from that food and only eats the acceptable food for fasts, this person has glorified God and used his freedom in the correct way, in that he said “NO” to the non-fasting type foods from his own will.
So how do we acquire this discipline?
Well, of course we have to ask God in prayer, if we don’t have it, and if we do have it we should thank God for giving it to us. But we should force ourselves (self-control as mentioned in Galatians 5:22, the fruit of the Spirit). Self-control is not passive (a reaction), but it is active (you actually doing things), such as fasting.
The Psalm says this concerning spiritual progress, “I have kept back my feet from every evil way, that I might keep Your words” (Psalm 119:101)
What are the benefits of discipline?
We can actually get things done!
As it says in the Psalm, “You word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths” (Psalm 119:105). Without light one virtually cannot do anything. Our spiritual life is likened to a walk along a road, and unless we see the road, we will not be able to follow it easily, if at all. So we should always remember to read the word of God for guidance.
What should we do to ease the way to discipline?
“Turn away from me, you evil-doers; for I shall search out the commandments of my God” (Psalm 119:115).
This is Bible language for saying “Get away from me!” to those who are always hindering us in being close to God, whether it be friends at school, or co-workers, we should be cautious because their influence might rub off on us.
So, looking back, freedom without discipline is a path to destruction, this is why in the Bible freedom and discipline are connected. God gave us freedom so we could enjoy our relationship with Him, just as a man and woman mutually entering into a marriage relationship enjoy it.
So we should pray, and practice our discipline so we can use our freedom in the right way. In the Bible, read Galatians 5, it talks about freedom, I cited a verse from that chapter above, and it ends with the famous fruits of the Spirit.
And remember, the word disciple comes from discipline, so if we want to be good disciples of Christ, we should have discipline in our lives.
Glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Racism
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." -Galatians 3:28
Racism is something that plagues society, causes division among humans, and is by no means a stranger to our society. Not even fifty years have passed since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, which so many people consider as the end of racism in America.
Outside of America, in South Africa for example, who are hosting the World Cup this year, racism was a regular part of life, until very recently, 16 years ago, when the elections were held in 1994, and Nelson Mandela was elected. It was then that apartheid (segregation in South Africa) ended.
These are just some stories among many others of racism throughout the world over the years.
But it makes us wonder, where did this idea of race come from?
Well, it is hard to say.
We can look at the origin of the word “race” and see what the word originally meant, maybe from there we can start determining how it began. This process of examining the original meaning of a word and from where it is derived is known as etymology.
Many dictionaries say that the origin of the word “race” comes from the French word “razza” which is unclear as to what it actually means. The French word is derived from an Italian word “razza” which is also obscure.
So the original words for race, were just words without meanings, maybe a sort of slang. This actually helps us understand more about the origin of racism.
This shows that racism, just as the original meaning of the word race, has no meaning. As many slang words are made in society for the purpose of denigration and hatred, it is possible that the word “race” was made in the same way.
It is safe to say that racism is a result of hatred which is in turn based off strange ideologies as is clearly seen throughout history with such events as the lynchings (murder hangings) that occurred in the Southern United States. And also with such organizations as the Ku Klux Klan who were devoted to maintaining the power of those who were of Northern European descent and were Protestants at the same time. And even the Mormons in their beginnings, with their ideas that black people should not receive the gospel, and that they were cursed.
We have seen the effects of racism in history and even sometimes today.
Slavery is probably the first thing that we think of as Americans when we hear the word “racism.” Slavery of Africans lasted in America for at least three hundred years before it was abolished because of such people as Abraham Lincoln. However, the end of slavery did not mark the end of racism by any means. Abraham Lincoln lost his life because of his actions that helped free the slaves. The Ku Klux Klan was still at large and even reformed a couple of times up until the 1960s, and segregation (legally) ended in the United States only around the decades of the 1950s and the 1960s.
An interesting note is that birth control (in the way we think of it now) began as propaganda in the early 1900s to try to get working class people, many of whom were of “undesirable races” to stop reproducing and according to the hopes of the racists that their physical features would eventually disappear. The racists did this in a deceptive way because it appeals to people. Birth control will help them avoid having ten children, which was not uncommon back then, and instead maybe having 2 or 3 children. Just an interesting note, the opposite of their expectations has happened, these “undesirable races” have actually continued to give birth to many children, while it is the “favored races” meaning white to them, that have actually begun to decrease and even disappear. A famous example of this is that of the Germans, their “race” is running out faster than the amount of children they have; in order for a country to maintain its population size they have to at least have two children (called the replacement rate), if they have more they will grow. The Germans are having 0-1 kids on average these days. As someone I know says, “Their own sorcery has worked (turned) against them.”
Racism is still present today, though hidden. It is clear in the workplace, when less qualified people are given jobs or promotions and such, and more qualified aren’t then when you compare them, you see there is a correlation (connection) between whiter people, less qualified, and getting jobs. I was sitting in my microeconomics class earlier this year, and my teacher was talking to me and the group I was working in about how racism is still around. She is white and her husband is black, and the city they live in is predominantly white and not “friendly” in terms of race. She talked to us how an obese, black woman, is the least likely to get hired for a job, because people like hiring based on outward appearances. I personally know, non-European white people who have been discriminated against, just because of their nationality, in very professional jobs. It’s a sad and vicious continual repetition and failure to learn from history and change that causes this sort of discrimination.
Now what does the Bible teach about race?
Well, race is nonexistent.
The Bible teaches that all human beings are descended from Adam and that Eve is "the mother of all living" (Genesis 3:20).
St. Paul the Apostle told the Greeks that God "has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth" (Acts 17:26).
As seen from the above verse there is only nationality present in the Bible, not race. There is no such thing in the Bible as all Europeans are “white,” or all Africans are “black.” Rather there are Spaniards, Italians, Greeks, and so on for Europe, and for Africa, there are Egyptians, Libyans, Ethiopians, and so on. There are no hasty generalizations which lead to racism.
The history in Genesis preserves the fact that the entire world as we know today, are descended from Noah and his three sons: "Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth… These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated" (Genesis 9:18-19).
In Genesis 10, sometimes referred to as the Table of Nations, it talks about Shem, Ham, and Japheth’s children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and in some cases even further. This chapter shows from where such people as the Egyptians, Ethiopians, Libyans, Jews, Greeks, Russians, and others came from. Of course, the names written here are the Hebrew names. For example Egypt is called Mizraim in Genesis 10 (because Mizraim is Egypt in Hebrew), and we still call it Misr in Arabic.
If one wants to generalize and isolate groups from these three sons of Noah (not for the sake of racism but of study), then Shem is the father of those who became Middle-Easterners, Ham is the father of those who became Africans, and Japheth is the father of those who became Asians and Europeans. The Bible doesn't refer to people by skin color (race), but by nation. It is never racist.
What about God’s choosing the Jews as His people for approximately 2000 years until the Advent of Christ?
God chose them to prepare them and give them His Holy Law, so that there would be a people on the Earth that preserved the history of God’s working in the world. He also did this so that the people from whom he would become incarnate, would be following the Law of God, and would not be living in total sin. But God revealed Himself and appointed prophets also from the Gentiles even after He had given the covenant to the Jews. Job the Righteous, was not a Jew, nor were his friends. He was an Edomite, yet one book is devoted to his story in the Bible as an example for us from which to learn, and God spoke to him. Balaam also was a prophet (Gentile), although he had issues with fulfilling what God told him.
After the New Testament has come into effect, the people of God are no longer limited to a geographical and ethnic line. There are a couple of prophecies in the Old Testament pertaining to the creation of a new people that will worship God, other than the Jews.
In Psalm 22, which talks about Our Lord’s Crucifixion, it says, “A posterity shall serve Him. It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation, they will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, that He has done this” (Psalm 22:30-31). So this psalm links the Christ to the birth of a New People.
Another prophecy says, “This will be written for the generation to come, that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD” (Psalm 102:18). This psalm refers to the psalm itself, saying that a purpose of the psalms is for the people who are not yet created to praise the Lord. And this is in fact what happened. Ever since the beginning, the Church has used the psalms to pray the canonical hours (known as the Book of Hours, also known as the Agpeya in the Coptic Orthodox Church).
At this point it should be noted that the word “Christian” does not mean “little Christ” as some assert, but it actually means “From the nation of Christ.” The ending of the word Christian, the –an, is like the word American, or Armenian, or Mexican, or Italian. It designates a nation.
Jesus commanded His disciples saying, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).
The Apostles fulfilled this commandment by preaching all over the world from Britain to India.
The Book of Acts highlights three cases of conversions, they can best be remembered as Acts 8, 9, and 10, which show one person who is descended from each of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, becoming Christians. This is to signify that all of humanity was saved, not just certain "races." It is also interesting to see that God Himself intervened directly and clearly to bring these people to the faith.
The first of these was the Ethiopian Eunuch, who was descended from Ham (Acts 8).
The second of these was Saul of Tarsus, who we know better as St. Paul the Apostle, was descended from Shem (Acts 9).
The third of these was Cornelius the Centurion, who was descended from Japheth (Acts 10).
So what can we conclude about racism from our faith?
It is wrong. It has no basis in the Bible. It is in fact hatred. St. Paul the Apostle writes, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). "For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him" (Romans 10:12). "The new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all" (Colossians 3:10-11).
So when we hear the word “race” let us think of the race that we have to run as Christians, which is symbolic of the spiritual life.
Therefore the only races there are, are the ones to run.
And glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
Racism is something that plagues society, causes division among humans, and is by no means a stranger to our society. Not even fifty years have passed since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, which so many people consider as the end of racism in America.
Outside of America, in South Africa for example, who are hosting the World Cup this year, racism was a regular part of life, until very recently, 16 years ago, when the elections were held in 1994, and Nelson Mandela was elected. It was then that apartheid (segregation in South Africa) ended.
These are just some stories among many others of racism throughout the world over the years.
But it makes us wonder, where did this idea of race come from?
Well, it is hard to say.
We can look at the origin of the word “race” and see what the word originally meant, maybe from there we can start determining how it began. This process of examining the original meaning of a word and from where it is derived is known as etymology.
Many dictionaries say that the origin of the word “race” comes from the French word “razza” which is unclear as to what it actually means. The French word is derived from an Italian word “razza” which is also obscure.
So the original words for race, were just words without meanings, maybe a sort of slang. This actually helps us understand more about the origin of racism.
This shows that racism, just as the original meaning of the word race, has no meaning. As many slang words are made in society for the purpose of denigration and hatred, it is possible that the word “race” was made in the same way.
It is safe to say that racism is a result of hatred which is in turn based off strange ideologies as is clearly seen throughout history with such events as the lynchings (murder hangings) that occurred in the Southern United States. And also with such organizations as the Ku Klux Klan who were devoted to maintaining the power of those who were of Northern European descent and were Protestants at the same time. And even the Mormons in their beginnings, with their ideas that black people should not receive the gospel, and that they were cursed.
We have seen the effects of racism in history and even sometimes today.
Slavery is probably the first thing that we think of as Americans when we hear the word “racism.” Slavery of Africans lasted in America for at least three hundred years before it was abolished because of such people as Abraham Lincoln. However, the end of slavery did not mark the end of racism by any means. Abraham Lincoln lost his life because of his actions that helped free the slaves. The Ku Klux Klan was still at large and even reformed a couple of times up until the 1960s, and segregation (legally) ended in the United States only around the decades of the 1950s and the 1960s.
An interesting note is that birth control (in the way we think of it now) began as propaganda in the early 1900s to try to get working class people, many of whom were of “undesirable races” to stop reproducing and according to the hopes of the racists that their physical features would eventually disappear. The racists did this in a deceptive way because it appeals to people. Birth control will help them avoid having ten children, which was not uncommon back then, and instead maybe having 2 or 3 children. Just an interesting note, the opposite of their expectations has happened, these “undesirable races” have actually continued to give birth to many children, while it is the “favored races” meaning white to them, that have actually begun to decrease and even disappear. A famous example of this is that of the Germans, their “race” is running out faster than the amount of children they have; in order for a country to maintain its population size they have to at least have two children (called the replacement rate), if they have more they will grow. The Germans are having 0-1 kids on average these days. As someone I know says, “Their own sorcery has worked (turned) against them.”
Racism is still present today, though hidden. It is clear in the workplace, when less qualified people are given jobs or promotions and such, and more qualified aren’t then when you compare them, you see there is a correlation (connection) between whiter people, less qualified, and getting jobs. I was sitting in my microeconomics class earlier this year, and my teacher was talking to me and the group I was working in about how racism is still around. She is white and her husband is black, and the city they live in is predominantly white and not “friendly” in terms of race. She talked to us how an obese, black woman, is the least likely to get hired for a job, because people like hiring based on outward appearances. I personally know, non-European white people who have been discriminated against, just because of their nationality, in very professional jobs. It’s a sad and vicious continual repetition and failure to learn from history and change that causes this sort of discrimination.
Now what does the Bible teach about race?
Well, race is nonexistent.
The Bible teaches that all human beings are descended from Adam and that Eve is "the mother of all living" (Genesis 3:20).
St. Paul the Apostle told the Greeks that God "has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth" (Acts 17:26).
As seen from the above verse there is only nationality present in the Bible, not race. There is no such thing in the Bible as all Europeans are “white,” or all Africans are “black.” Rather there are Spaniards, Italians, Greeks, and so on for Europe, and for Africa, there are Egyptians, Libyans, Ethiopians, and so on. There are no hasty generalizations which lead to racism.
The history in Genesis preserves the fact that the entire world as we know today, are descended from Noah and his three sons: "Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth… These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated" (Genesis 9:18-19).
In Genesis 10, sometimes referred to as the Table of Nations, it talks about Shem, Ham, and Japheth’s children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and in some cases even further. This chapter shows from where such people as the Egyptians, Ethiopians, Libyans, Jews, Greeks, Russians, and others came from. Of course, the names written here are the Hebrew names. For example Egypt is called Mizraim in Genesis 10 (because Mizraim is Egypt in Hebrew), and we still call it Misr in Arabic.
If one wants to generalize and isolate groups from these three sons of Noah (not for the sake of racism but of study), then Shem is the father of those who became Middle-Easterners, Ham is the father of those who became Africans, and Japheth is the father of those who became Asians and Europeans. The Bible doesn't refer to people by skin color (race), but by nation. It is never racist.
What about God’s choosing the Jews as His people for approximately 2000 years until the Advent of Christ?
God chose them to prepare them and give them His Holy Law, so that there would be a people on the Earth that preserved the history of God’s working in the world. He also did this so that the people from whom he would become incarnate, would be following the Law of God, and would not be living in total sin. But God revealed Himself and appointed prophets also from the Gentiles even after He had given the covenant to the Jews. Job the Righteous, was not a Jew, nor were his friends. He was an Edomite, yet one book is devoted to his story in the Bible as an example for us from which to learn, and God spoke to him. Balaam also was a prophet (Gentile), although he had issues with fulfilling what God told him.
After the New Testament has come into effect, the people of God are no longer limited to a geographical and ethnic line. There are a couple of prophecies in the Old Testament pertaining to the creation of a new people that will worship God, other than the Jews.
In Psalm 22, which talks about Our Lord’s Crucifixion, it says, “A posterity shall serve Him. It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation, they will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, that He has done this” (Psalm 22:30-31). So this psalm links the Christ to the birth of a New People.
Another prophecy says, “This will be written for the generation to come, that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD” (Psalm 102:18). This psalm refers to the psalm itself, saying that a purpose of the psalms is for the people who are not yet created to praise the Lord. And this is in fact what happened. Ever since the beginning, the Church has used the psalms to pray the canonical hours (known as the Book of Hours, also known as the Agpeya in the Coptic Orthodox Church).
At this point it should be noted that the word “Christian” does not mean “little Christ” as some assert, but it actually means “From the nation of Christ.” The ending of the word Christian, the –an, is like the word American, or Armenian, or Mexican, or Italian. It designates a nation.
Jesus commanded His disciples saying, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).
The Apostles fulfilled this commandment by preaching all over the world from Britain to India.
The Book of Acts highlights three cases of conversions, they can best be remembered as Acts 8, 9, and 10, which show one person who is descended from each of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, becoming Christians. This is to signify that all of humanity was saved, not just certain "races." It is also interesting to see that God Himself intervened directly and clearly to bring these people to the faith.
The first of these was the Ethiopian Eunuch, who was descended from Ham (Acts 8).
The second of these was Saul of Tarsus, who we know better as St. Paul the Apostle, was descended from Shem (Acts 9).
The third of these was Cornelius the Centurion, who was descended from Japheth (Acts 10).
So what can we conclude about racism from our faith?
It is wrong. It has no basis in the Bible. It is in fact hatred. St. Paul the Apostle writes, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). "For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him" (Romans 10:12). "The new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all" (Colossians 3:10-11).
So when we hear the word “race” let us think of the race that we have to run as Christians, which is symbolic of the spiritual life.
Therefore the only races there are, are the ones to run.
And glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)