Increasingly we see that our society is polarized, that there are many things that divide us today on religious, moral and political grounds. Sadly, this is true even in the Church, where other sources of our identity, be they political, ethnic, or other, as well as our sins, can divide us, causing great harm to our unity in the faith and the mission of the Church, but also hindering our healing in Christ and leading many to take the Orthodox Faith on their terms.
Division is nothing new to any society or, sadly, to the Church. Orthodox have faced it countless times before, even in the first century Church. The Seven Great Councils of the Church, and many more synods, were called through the centuries to deal with threats to the unity of the Faith, challenges to the timeless truth that is Christ and His revelation to us.
In today’s Epistle, St. Paul pleads with the brethren to be like-minded, to “speak the same thing,” that there may be “no divisions among you.” The word that he uses here to warn them in the original Greek is “skismata,” schism, division. St. John Chrysostom comments on this passage, saying, “the emphatic force of the word, ‘schism’… the name itself, was a sufficient accusation.” In other words, it was enough to make them take notice and, hopefully, repent.
The ‘fear’ of being labeled ‘schismatics’ may seem strange to us today: after all, many are used to thinking that even as Christians we can believe whatever we want and still be considered a Christian, a faithful Orthodox. But this is not the case: in the early Church and throughout the Church’s history, being a schismatic, a “divider,” one who separates people from the Church and the truth of the Orthodox Faith, was on par with being a heretic, one who outright preaches or teaches doctrines contrary to the Gospel. Both lead to separation from the koinonia, communion, with Christ and the Body, the Church, which ministers Christ’s salvation to us through her teaching and sacramental life imparted to us.
You can see how this “warning” would have made many stop and pay attention. St. Paul wasn’t accusing them of being schismatics, but warning them that if their divisions and competing identities continued, if they let those divisions into their communion with each other, that this was where it could lead—separateness from Christ, His Church, communion with each other.
Our culture’s values and beliefs are constantly changing; sadly, at this time, they’re not changing in the direction of Orthodoxy, but away from God’s truth, as we see in the redefinging of marriage, of what constitutes a family, in who should raise children, etc.
Many of the Church’s teachings today stand in stark contrast to that which our culture thinks of as acceptable, good, or even laudable: abortion, homosexuality, sex outside marriage, just to name a few of the many moral issues where dominant and vocal elements within our culture stand in opposition to the truth that God has revealed to us through His Church.
The culture’s pluralism divides us when we allow it to infiltrate the Church and change our beliefs from what God has revealed—“the faith that was once delivered to the Saints (Jude 1:3). When that happens, we no longer share that same faith that unites us together with all other Orthodox believers around the world, as well as all our beloved ancestors in the faith with whom we also hope to share communion. When we allow the temporal beliefs and identities of this particular time and culture to define us, to influence our beliefs, we separate ourselves and each other from that great communion with Christ and His Church; we put our salvation in peril.
The “glue” that holds us together as Orthodox believers is precisely the opposite of what our culture teaches: it’s not conformity to the culture, but holding ‘all things in common’ in the faith, in the Church, which unites us. Our unity of faith means we can be united with Christ and with one another, but only in the truth. In the Orthodox Church, we have always believed that the truth is a Person, Jesus Christ, God’s revelation to us of Himself and the way of salvation. Indeed, this is who Christ Himself proclaims Himself to be, saying, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
Through our profession and striving to obediently live the truth that Christ is, we become more and more united to Him as we partake of the Sacraments and the life that is in Him alone. We as Orthodox are the inheritors and evangelists of that revelation of healing for us, for all mankind. Only in this way, can we fulfill Christ’s high priestly prayer to the Father in which Christ pleads that we “may all be one…” that “the world may believe that You sent Me” (Jn. 17:21).
Contrary to those who see the Church as a divider for not changing with the times, for standing in the way of what the humanists call “progress,” the Church is in reality the upholder of unity among peoples through all time. The Church calls us all into this communion of love and life with God the Holy Trinity—no one is excluded—regardless of race, gender, political preferences, ethnicity, culture, time, geography—whatever otherwise divides secular humanity. In Christ we’re all called into unity with each other by virtue of this new identity, our new birth by “water and the spirit,” baptism and chrismsation, which, when lived out through repentance, brings us into growing communion with God and with one another.
Ultimately, our sin is what divides us in the Church: preferring our way versus God’s revealed way, preferring an earthly, temporal identity to that which God gives us that is eternal as an adopted son or daughter of the ever-existing God. This division also wreaks havoc in the Church wherever envy and jealousies, gossip reign. If we want to see increased unity, we guard our minds and hearts from these passions that would otherwise put a wedge between us and submit ourselves to the faith as it has been handed down to us, entrusted to us.
Submitting ourselves to Christ and the Church means that even while we may wrestle or struggle with aspects of the faith or the Church’s teachings or disciplines, we do so while humbly submitting ourselves to it, praying for deeper understanding, because we know the testimony of countless who have come before us is true. We see through their testimony, their deification, that this is the way that leads to life, the way of healing for our souls, for salvation for all.
Orthodoxy transcends culture. Indeed, the mission of the Orthodox Church is to transform every culture, baptizing it with the truth of Christ and new life in Him. This is how we love God, our neighbor, our people. Politics cannot save us, our ethnicity cannot save us; the culture and ‘new morality’ certainly cannot save us, but Christ God does save us, He alone has defeated sin and death and given mankind the possibility of an eternal identity and purpose to our lives. And He calls us to be witnesses of this timeless truth to the world around us.
The only way we can redeem our culture and baptize it, is, if we, the Orthodox Christians in this land, stand together, united, prayerful, humbly and lovingly articulating and living to the best of our abilities the timeless Truth of Christ as He’s revealed it to His holy Church. By repenting ourselves of our sins of division, by living authentic Christian lives of integrity, by growing this and other missions, we spread the Gospel and the Orthodox Faith, we witness to the truth of our Faith, the Truth that is Christ and the life that’s only in Him. Only in this way, can we hope to love as Christ loves, not condemning others, but bringing them to the same knowledge and love of God that we hold so dear, that is our hope, our life, our salvation. Holy God, unite us together in the knowledge and love of Thee in Thy truth!
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
3 August 2014
Epistle: I Cor. 1:10-18
Gospel: Matt. 14:14-22
