The issue of free will and compulsion is behind much of the material in Proverbs. Behind the metaphorical slavery is the economic fact that has been true in many cultures through most of history: impoverishment can end, if not in death, then in debt and slavery. One could be sold for the sake of one’s creditors. Thus: “The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor” (Proverbs 12:24; ESV).
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Episode 46, Trinity and Tabletalk, Conversation with Robert Rothwell
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From the faculty room of Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Pastor Brito interviews Associate Editor of Ligonier Ministries, Robert Rothwell. The famous TableTalk magazine, read by over 250 thousand people around the globe is one of the most treasured devotional in our day. Robert writes those devotionals as well as contributes to theological articles.
In this interview we discuss the history of the magazine, as well as delve into some questions concerning the Trinity. Robert is considering a dissertation on the topic. Take a listen.
Resources:
Pantokrator
Caesar Augustus was one emperor in a long line of rulers in a world that God constructed back in the days of the prophet Daniel and king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. God revealed this new world order to Nebuchadnezzar, and it is recorded in Daniel 2.
Nebuchadnezzar had a dream. This dream was of a statue that had a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, abdomen and thighs of bronze, legs/shins of iron, and feet of iron mixed with clay. A stone was cut out of a mountain without human hands, rolled down, hit the statue at the feet, and brought it down to the ground. The stone that destroyed this statue itself became a great mountain-kingdom that filled the entire earth.
Daniel interpreted the dream for Nebuchadnezzar. The statue is one, but it is a succession of empires. The head of gold is Nebuchadnezzar. The chest and arms of silver are the Persians. The abdomen and thighs of bronze are the Greeks. And the iron and iron mixed with clay are all in the time of the Roman rule. The stone that is cut out of the mountain will roll down some time during the time Rome rules the empire-world, and it will bring down that old system. It will become the kingdom that will cover the earth of which all nations will be its provinces.
When Luke tells us in Luke 2 that during the days surrounding Christ’s birth that Caesar Augustus decreed that all the world should be registered for taxation, this world set up during the days of Daniel is the world of which he is speaking.
Caesar Augustus, like rulers before him, arrogated to himself more than what God allowed. After putting down Mark Antony and all rival claimants to the throne, Augustus proclaimed his adopted father, Julius Caesar divine, thus, making him “son of god.” Through massive bloodshed Augustus ushered in the Pax Romana, Roman peace, and was, therefore, called “savior.” He ruled the world and was acclaimed “lord.” Provinces began celebrating his birthday as the beginning of the year. The proclamation of his birthday as well as all of his exploits was the “gospel,” good news, for the world.
But his time and the time for all of his ilk was coming to an end. Luke tells us that the one born of Mary is “the Son of God” (1.35). At his birth the angels proclaim the “gospel,” the good news, of great joy which shall be to all people (2.10). The Savior is born, who is Christ the Lord (2.11). Through him there will be peace on earth (2.14).
The parallels are not incidental or coincidental. Luke knows exactly what he is doing. This baby born in Bethlehem is the rock that is coming from the house of David that will bring down the giant statue. The time of the old empire-world is coming to an end. The kingdoms of this world are becoming the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ (Rev 11.15). Caesar, the embodiment of all world powers, must yield to their true Lord and Savior.
The Son of God was revealed to us, not merely so that we may have some internal work done on our hearts so that we can escape this world and go to heaven when we die. Jesus came to take down the old world structures and rule the world. He came to set up a new empire of which all the nations would be provinces.
The mission of bringing in the nations to submit to and worship the Lord Jesus Christ has been left to the church. Because all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus, because he is the Lord of all, we, the church, are to proclaim the gospel of the king and disciple the nations (Mt 28.18-20). Moreover, we can be assured that because Jesus is already reigning that our mission will be successful.
This is a great task. It is overwhelming for a person or a local church to think about. But the entirety of the task is not given to one person or a local church. It is given to the entire church, every congregation in the world. The responsibility of each individual, family, and local church is hold the line and press the crown rights of king Jesus right where they are. Sin is to be put to death in my personal life, my family, and my church. We are to continue to work and pray right where we are and trust that our brothers and sisters are doing the same all over the world.
So, pull your weight. Man your post. Continue to fight. And never forget that we are fighting a winning battle with brothers and sisters all over the world.
Extending the Christmas Season
Guest post by Steve Wilkins written on December 23, 2016 & published by permission
Stretching Christmas
For many people Christmas comes on December 25 and is over December 26. The tree is taken down along with the lights and the other decorations, and everyone begins setting the house in order for the new year. No more Christmas hymns. No more celebrations (well, until New Year’s Eve). Christmas comes but once a year – and thanks be to God, because we’re exhausted!
So, if I were to ask, “How’s your Christmas going?” most people would give me the blank stare. But according to our calendar (and I mean the Church calendar), Christmas is just getting started on December 25. Christmas day is just the beginning of a “season” numbering twelve days (the “twelve days of Christmas”).
During this season of celebration we remember not only our Savior’s birth (the feast of the Nativity on December 25) but our first martyrs (St. Stephen, December 26), St. John the evangelist, and the murder of the boy babies in Bethlehem by Herod (“The Feast of Holy Innocents”). Then on January 1, we commemorate the circumcision of Jesus (circumcised on the 8th day). All that before closing out our celebration of Christmas with the Feast of Epiphany on January 6!
Christmas is intended to be a “season,” not just a day.
You say, “But who can stand this? By Christmas day I’m already worn down to my last frazzle!”
Well, granted, given the way things are presently, changing our practice and getting into the new rhythm of the Church calendar is going to take some time — and realistically, it may now be impossible to turn the culture away from the present “tradition.” I’m not quite sure how to go about it or what it would look like. But somehow, I think it would be good to try to get back to the old rhythm of the Christmas season.
The fact that we have lost the rhythm of the various “seasons” has contributed, at least in part, to the fleeting joy (and often extended depression and disappointment) we have during these times — and here, I’m speaking especially about Christmas — the celebration is simply too brief to be appreciated fully. The traditional Christian calendar gives us a different rhythm for life and time — especially Christmas time.
And following the Christian calendar is not just another way to thumb our noses at secular ideas of the “Christmas season.” The twelve days are important because they give us time to reflect on what the incarnation and birth of Jesus means. We need the twelve days to celebrate the wonder of God becoming man and all that was accomplished by our Savior.
Why twelve days? No one knows for sure. Perhaps this was to be an analogy to the twelve tribes of the old Israel that have now been transformed into the new Israel. Or maybe the 12 days signify the twelve months of the year pointing to the fact that Christ is with us not just one day but year-round.
Whatever the intention, the twelve days give us an opportunity truly to rejoice and reflect on the great mercy and grace of God in giving us His Son.
We have been baptized into Jesus’ death and resurrection and have now entered the “new heavens and new earth” (though not yet perfected). Whether we are called to martyrdom, or to prophetic witness, or simply to faithful living in the joys and sorrows of our daily lives, we must live all of our days in the knowledge of our blessedness: redeemed by Jesus and in Him made acceptable and beloved in God’s sight. We are part of the society of people whose world has been turned upside down, and we are to live out this truth that overturned the old world and made all things new.
Observing Christmas as a season helps us to move beyond the sentimentalism that has become so much a part of “Christmas” and commemorate the true significance of Jesus’ birth. It enables us to see that Jesus’ coming truly transforms all things. It marked the end of the old world (under the dominion of sin and death) and the beginning of the new. And it reminds us of our new identity and purpose. We are now children of the King and are called to rejoice and give thanks and show the world the new destiny that now has come in Him. To celebrate for twelve days (as opposed to one) enables us to realize afresh the significance of what happened in Bethlehem and it declares to the world the remarkable reality that Jesus has destroyed the works of the devil and established a kingdom that shall have no end.
So, I don’t know exactly how to begin to do this, but it sure seems like a good idea to me. Stretching Christmas out over a number of days — making it a more full (and perhaps a more relaxing and refreshing) celebration — might bring far more benefits than frustrations; it just might bring us more joy than worry; more peace and less hustle and fuss. Whaddaya say? I think we should give it a shot.
Steve Wilkins is Pastor of Church of the Redeemer in West Monroe, Louisiana.
As Far As The Curse Is Found
Is Zechariah confused? What is singing about in Luke 1: a political, sociological, national deliverance or a spiritual deliverance? On the one hand he prophesies about “being saved from our enemies and all who hate us,” and on the other hand he speaks about John giving the “knowledge of salvation in the forgiveness of sins.” Maybe Zechariah is still trapped in the thinking that the Messiah would come as a military leader to deliver Israel. But wait, he also speaks about the forgiveness of sins. Can it be both?
Zechariah’s song resonates with the song of Moses after Israel’s exodus from Egypt. Words such as “visited,” “redeemed,” and “remember” all have echoes of the Exodus. Phrases such as being “saved from our enemies” and being “delivered from the hand of our enemies that we might serve him without fear” all point to Zechariah understanding what is happening with the birth of his son and of Jesus as being a new exodus.
In the Exodus God saved his people with many signs and wonders. He destroyed the entire old creation world of Egypt, burying Pharaoh and his armies in the Sea. Zechariah sees that God is doing this again.
Was this a “political deliverance” or a “spiritual deliverance?” You might hear that Pharaoh and his armies are a “picture” or “representative” of the problem that each of us has with sin. The Pharaohs of the world are not the problem. Sin is the problem. When Jesus comes, he will deal with sin of which Pharaoh was only a picture. This leaves at least the strong implication that the Pharaohs of the world–the wicked rulers and systems of the world–will be untouched by Jesus while he does some sort of internal work on us.
Zechariah wasn’t confused. He knew exactly what salvation from sin would look like when it happened. Sure, the indwelling power of sin in each of us would be a target of Christ’s work of forgiveness. But that is not where salvation would end. Salvation from sin would reach as far as the curse is found.
The Pharaohs of this world–the oppressive governments in China and the Middle East, for example–are expressions of sin in the world. Before Jesus came, Pharaohs would be destroyed, but the power behind Pharaoh continued to live its deathly existence. Jesus came to deal with the power behind the powers. Once the empowering sin is dealt with, then the structures that they support will eventually fall.
Jesus didn’t come merely to work on your individual heart to make you a better person and give you a ticket to heaven when you die. Jesus came to bring the whole world order down by striking at the foundations built by Adam, tearing down kings and kingdoms animated by sin. He came to break the power of sin that rules over individual lives and the power of sin that corrupts societal structures. Salvation touches every part of our human existence, which means that salvation touches everything in the world.
Our Advent hope anticipates the day, not only when we will be freed from the power of indwelling sin, but also when nations will be freed from unrighteous, ungodly rulers. These two aren’t antithetical. This is the salvation that was promised of old and is coming to pass in Christ Jesus.
The Incarnation & Chintzy Christmas Decor: A Defence
I recently attended a Christmas party held at a prominent, beautiful country club. The trees, which were many, stood tall and elegant; the wreaths were fresh and full. The air smelled of cinnamon and pine and Handel’s Messiah could be heard coming from the keys of a grand piano. “Fit for a King,” read one sign. On the way home, I passed by decorations of all sorts. Some, like the decorations at the club, were hung with care and taste. Others, less so—strings of mismatched lights making their way only half way up the tree; damaged, worn lawn ornaments leaning in exhausted resignment.
When I got home, I started reading Fr. James V Schall’s newest work, Reason for the Seasons. The book, which offers a poetic, playful commentary on the Christian liturgical year is perhaps Schall’s best work, something I don’t say lightly. After reading the below section on Christmas, I realized that the sign “Fit for a King” is just as appropriate a descriptor for those decorations bought two decades ago at Kmart as it is for this year’s tree from Restoration Hardware. Says Schall:
“Christianity is a revelation not to the few but to the many, to everyone: to everyone, whether he knows it or not, whether he likes it or not. The few know how to respond to delight in a sophisticated way. The vulgar, the common, do not. But they do respond—with rough rowdiness, with gossip, with horseplay, with coarseness of speech. They do not know how to respond otherwise. But we are not to think that because of their vulgar manners and ways of expressing things that that over which they rejoice and delight does not exist. They are the ones who wave their spoons and shout when the plum pudding is lighted because they are the very ones who realize the risk that God took in dwelling amongst us.
The feast, which we still celebrate, is brought first to whom? The good tidings are of ‘great joy.’ They come to the shepherds and thence ‘to all people.’ The text does not say ‘unto Joseph and Mary’ is born a Savior. It says that He is born unto the shepherds and to all the people. We should note too that what is born this day in the city of David is not an idea. It is not a political movement. It is not a formula of physics. What is born is a particular Child, ‘which is Christ the Lord.’ The Word, we are told, was made flesh and dwelt amongst us. We are the ‘us’ amongst whom the Lord dwelt and still dwells.
This Incarnation and Nativity into the world is not an abstraction. Nor is it meant for only a few; nor are the elite few even likely to appreciate what happened in the city of David as well as do such folks as shepherds, ‘sore afraid,’ and delightful youngsters whose eyes open wide when the pudding is alight.
The fact that God accepted the danger of the reactions of common folks to his intervention reveals much about God. The risk of God, so to speak—and one that we encounter again at every Christmas—is that we will remain unmoved, dull, unperceptive about the greatest event in the history of our kind, which occurred in a little out-of-the-way place because of that decree of Caesar Augustus.”
Not only does Schall provide cover for chintzy Christmas lights, he also defends the act of gift-giving, what we’re often told is the underbelly of the otherwise holy season. Instead of seeing the act as mere consumerism, Schall shows that it actually incarnates the principal of incarnation, and what could be more appropriate than that? He says:
“About Christmas, an incredible concreteness is found. We most associate Christmas with a gift. A gift is not something we can demand, not something that is due to us. Ultimately, the structure of the universe is first to be understood as a gift.”
Again, I commend the whole book to you, particularly for reading this Christmastide.
How Should We Then Understand the Left?
Guest post by G. Shane Morris
The progressive project is pure utopianism. You won’t understand anything or anyone on the left until you grasp this.
The progressive worldview centers on the idea of inevitable moral evolution toward an ever-receding mirage of a perfect world where transcendent constraints are gone and human will reigns supreme. This is why appeals to tradition, history, revealed truth, biology, and even logic fall on deaf ears, because these are precisely the constraints we must overcome! This is why “it’s 2017!” is considered a valid and compelling argument. And this is why positions progressives commonly held when my four-year-old daughter was born are now treated like medieval barbarism. The progressive eschaton will be so perfect, we don’t even possess the categories yet to comprehend its perfection. So every year, we must elevate our moral consciousness to a new level.
Conservatives often fail to understand progressives, because they think of them as their opposites. They’re not. Progressives aren’t trying to bring our society into closer alignment with an unchanging moral standard that merely differs from the conservative moral standard. They are actively changing the moral standard itself from day to day. And as long as there are constraints holding the human will back from complete conquest over nature, there will be an endless supply of new causes du jour to take up and advance under the cry that no one except a barbarian from last year would oppose them.Edit: Thanks to Ben Carmack for this outstanding comment:
“It was the late great Joe Sobran who used to ask liberals–rhetorically–“In what kind of society would you be a conservative, one contented with the status quo?” The question was rhetorical because there was no answer to it. Liberals don’t know when the progress will stop. They don’t know what kind of society would make them conservatives.
They only want more and more, and it will never be enough.”
this post appeared originally at patheos and is here reublished by permission of the author
Election Day & the Prophetic Imagination of a Missionary
Today is election day and there’s a lot of talk about what will happen if certain candidates are elected—disaster is all but assured, ruin will inevitably befall the Republic. In each campaign ad, we’re asked to imagine another world, one in which a particular candidate loses. Occasionally, a politician will run on an optimistic message, asking us to imagine not a worse world if his opponent is elected, but a better world if he himself is elected. This platform is more rare because it’s more difficult. In a decadent culture such as ours, it’s easier to imagine more of the same—decay—rather than it’s alien feeling opposite—revitalization.
It’s certainly not wrong for Christians to imagine a worse world—to do so might just be what our fathers would call “prudence.” A missionary—and if you’re a Christian, you’re a missionary—who doesn’t recognize the dangers, weaknesses, and sin in a culture is as useless as a doctor who refuses to diagnose his patients. Yet, God gave us two eyes for a reason: we mustn’t stop at seeing the brokenness in our culture, we must also acknowledge its beauty. The same hands that build bombs can also build shelters, which is another way of saying that the same hands the build swords can bend them into plowshares.
I’m not sure anyone showed us how to dream with a prophetic, missionary zeal more than the great pastor, theologian, and missiologist of the last century, J.H. Bavinck. Bavinck (nephew to Herman) spent much of his life as a missionary to Indonesia. He wrote profusely about the people he was trying to reach with the gospel. He saw their idols and evils the way only an outsider could. Yet, he always wrote about them with compassion, affection, and, indeed, love.
As I read the aspirational words below, I felt the need to repent. In this political moment, I’ve used the imagination God gave me perversely. I’ve imagined a world where the only force at work is sociological, political, and natural. But there is indeed a metaphysical, spiritual, supernatural force at play that, if reckoned with, can infuse our imagination with an apocalyptic, missionological, prophetic hopefulness. Listen in as Bavinck dreams about what his culture, Asian, could become:
“When a living, blossoming church will certainly arise in the world of Asia, Christ will accomplish amazing things there. Asia has gifts and abilities that will then render its people exceedingly suited to understanding the meaning of the gospel. From childhood, they are more strongly convinced than we of the all-encompassing religious nature of everything pertaining to daily life, so they will then be well positioned to see the hand of Christ in all of life. They are not as far removed from the miraculous as we are, and for that reason Christ will do amazing things among them. They also listen better that we do, and they are capable of waiting more quietly for the voice of God and depending on God more submissively.
Above all, they are less attached to externals like money and material things, like honor and making a name for themselves. They know better than we that the things of this age are fleeting. The gospel of Christ will thus also enable them to see more fully that we may not despise this world, since it is God’s handiwork and is the context in which he will realize his external counsel. The same gospel will also guide them to look upward and to expect the everlasting kingdom that will one day appear and for whose coming we all yearn with great longing.
Thus, we can expect great things with regard to the faith. We stand at a point of terrible crisis, of struggle and confusion. Our modern world bears guilt of every kind; no one can tell where all of this will lead.
But blessed is the person who believes, waits, and knows that in Christ Jesus the power to accomplish great things in this amazing world has come. May we simply learn to expect those great things from him.”
America still stands “at a point of terrible crisis, of struggle and confusion.” Instead of taking this cultural moment to be pundits, may we be prophets. Yes, we can debate, but first lets dream. Lets imagine what America might be, what strengths and beauties she has that might be redeemed. And lets wait in expectant hope as we ask the God who is able to accomplish great things.
The Genesis of Adulthood: Proverbs 3:13-22
Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding, for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called blessed.
The LORD by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens; by his knowledge the deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew.
My son, do not lose sight of these—keep sound wisdom and discretion, and they will be life for your soul and adornment for your neck (ESV).
Many people want to know and have wanted to know what comes next in the Christian life. Once you’ve “been saved,” is there anything more you need or need to do in this life? What is this life for? Why does God keep us here?
Some groups of Christians push evangelism as the answer. We don’t need much but we are left with the remaining years of our life on this planet to get other people saved. In some quarters, it seems that learning how to present the Gospel as simply as possible, and doing so as often as possible, is a Christian’s main purpose in life.
Other groups have developed new quests for Christians to pursue. In some traditions, all Christians are supposed to acquire some kind of “complete sanctification” that often must be pursued for a while. Later, we got other groups that made “the baptism of the Holy Spirit” the mission that all Christians are supposed to pursue.
I differ from those traditions, but instead of talking about what might be wrong with them, I want to address what the “Christian quest” is actually supposed to be.
God’s Purpose for Humans
Obviously, evangelism is important, but do we really want to imply that there is only a point to the Christian life because there are non-Christians in the world? If everyone was a Christian, and the Lord hasn’t returned, what would be the point of the Christian life? Would it have no point?
More activist-oriented Christians might argue that the quest of Christians is to build a certain kind of community or even Christian nations. And, like evangelism, I think this has some merit. The Great Commission, in the context of Scripture, seems to encourage us to do that.
But again, does that mean once we were to form an ideal community, whether a church or something else, that there would be no point to the Christians remaining in this earthly life?
What I’m asking is: Is there a purpose for our passage through this life even apart from the issue of sin and salvation? (more…)
Russian Orthodox Schism: Autocephaly and Eucharistic Communion
As of October 15, 2018, the New York Times is reporting “The Russian Orthodox Church on Monday moved to sever all ties with the Constantinople Patriarchate, the Orthodox mother church, to protest its moves toward creating an independent church in Ukraine.” In more ways than one this represents a real schism in the Eastern Orthodox Church and can undermine the Orthodox claim to be a faithful representative of the historic Christian faith. For the non-orthodox, this is a challenge to our understanding of institutional and denominational Christianity.
(ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO – Getty Images)
Political and Religious Schisms
It is important to note that this schism is hardly a surprise to any who have seen the political undercurrent in this ongoing feud between the Hellenic and Slavic Orthodox Churches. Certainly every church conflict can be said to have some degree of political posturing, whether it is Rome’s Imperial power grab of the Great Schism, Henry VIII in England, or even the German princes that enabled Luther’s work. But this present schism presents a greater crisis to the contemporary Orthodox church and its American diaspora.
The jurisdictional authority of Constantinople as an important patriarchate is an ancient tradition, one that can be traced back to the “pentarchy” – a term used to describe the five self-governing jurisdictions of the undivided church. Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem were to be considered chief jurisdictions with special honor, authority, and significance. The stability of this five-headed church begins to fall apart in the 7th century as the Eastern territories are brought under Muslim rule, which happened to coincide with Rome’s increasing claims for universal jurisdiction. After the Great Schism between the Eastern and Western Churches, Constantinople becomes the Ecumenical Patriarch of the East and is recognized as “first among equals” of the Eastern Churches.
The Birth of the Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church is born centuries later, first as a subordinate jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, but then as the Byzantine Empire crumbled the Russian Church claimed its own canonical independence. It is interesting that just as Rome claimed control as the East fell to the Muslims, the Russian church claims control as Byzantium falls. It would be over a century before this movement of self-government or “autocephaly” was officially recognized by the other Orthodox Churches. Today, the Russian Church represent a large chunk of Orthodox Christians and claims canonical jurisdiction over the Slavic Orthodox churches in Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Estonia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan as well as Orthodox Christians living in other countries who voluntarily submit to its jurisdiction.
The conflict between the Russian Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate over the canonical status of Ukraine has reached the point of schism. The Russian church is currently disallowing any of its members from celebrating communion with Churches under the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In the United States, two-thirds of the Orthodox Christians are under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople – what are commonly called Greek Orthodox. And over a hundred thousand Orthodox Christians in America are under Russian-origin jurisdictions like the Orthodox Church in America (autocephalous), the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, and the Churches of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Jurisdictional Multiplicity
Many American Christians are familiar with this sort of jurisdictional multiplicity and conflict. In my own tradition as an Anglican we have jurisdictions with identical prayer books, liturgies, and vestments, but completely out of communion. Some is justified, no Christian can or should commune with a female “bishop” as she prays to God using feminine pronouns, and denies the literal resurrection. Other breaks are similar to this current Orthodox struggle in that they are historically complicated and deeply political.
But this Orthodox question of canonical jurisdiction and authority of autocephalous churches poses an issue for all Christians. Many have fled the denominational chaos of Protestantism for the greener pastures of Orthodoxy as a solid, unified church. Perhaps believing that she was the sole representative of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church. Others frustrated with the canonical division of Orthodoxy turned to Rome, hoping the Pope to lead the church through these conflicts and the Lord gave them Pope Francis.
It is a great sadness that the Russian Church would bar an otherwise faithful Christian from its communion altar. Functionally, the schism excommunicates the majority of American Orthodox Christians, at least temporarily. Can any branch of Orthodoxy claim to represent the unbroken tradition while denying real Christians access to the Body and Blood of Christ? As an Anglican Priest ordained in the Western Apostolic Succession of Sts. Peter, James, and John, and Paul – I recognize that the seeds of these poisonous canonical divisions were planted nearly a millennium ago with the Great Schism of 1054.
Bishops and Princes
The temptation for Catholic-minded Christians is to abuse our Apostolic identity as license to become the sole institutional representatives of Christ’s Kingdom. Bishops and Archbishops, Patriarchates and Metropolitans, are tempted to leave their chief calling to be shepherds of souls for the form of princely rule and worldly control.
Should the Russian Church maintain its stand against the Ecumenical Patriarchate, what effect does this have on the Orthodox identity as the faithful representative of the undivided church?
It is likely that Orthodox Christians in both jurisdictions are troubled over this – I’m sure they want Christ’s Church to be one. But perhaps rather than attempting to maneuver the canons into the favor of one jurisdiction or another, may we seek a humbler solution. Perhaps this moment is a time for Orthodox, Catholic, and Apostolic Churches to revisit what it means to be “one church.”
A Eucharistic Ecclesiology
In evaluating the merits of Russian autocephaly or the canonical authority of the Ecumenical Patriarch, perhaps we have overlooked the basics of Christian ecclesiology. The Holy Spirit brings the risen Life of Christ to us through faithful proclamation of the Gospel and His Sacraments. Imagine what it might look like to return to the simple eucharistic unity of our Apostolic fathers like St. Ignatius of Antioch who wrote: “Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.”
The Eucharist is the symbol and the means by which the Church becomes one with Christ and thus one with each other. St. John Chrysostom declares that Christ “mixed Himself with us and dissolved His body in us so that we may constitute a wholeness, be a body united to the Head.” To extend Eucharist fellowship is to recognize another Christian (and their doctrine) as part of the body of Christ. As St. Paul teaches, “For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.” Just as to deny or bar one from Eucharist fellowship is to declare them outside of the body.
Perhaps at this time, when the dangers of building entire ecclesiastical structures off the flimsy merits of institutional jurisdictions are most visible, we can seek renewal around the Eucharist. The wounds suffered at 1054 have not healed, but the institutions that emerged have limped their way through a thousand year desert. Here now, as the churches become more and more divided – may we return to the Eucharistic promises of Christ’s real presence and to the reality of a undivided church around a shared altar.
