8th Sunday after Pentecost/Martyr Callinicus of Gangra – 2012 July 29

[soundcloud id=’57552712′] Increasingly we see that our society is polarized, that there are many things that divide us today on moral and political grounds.  Sadly, this is true even in the Church, where other sources of our identity, be they political, ethnic, or other, divide us from one another, causing great harm to our unity in the faith and the mission of the Church, hindering our healing in Christ, and leading some astray.

Division is nothing new to society or the Church.  Orthodox have faced it countless times before, as we see to be the case 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, for instance, St. Paulpleads with the brethren in Corinthto 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.  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 put the fear of God in them.

The ‘fear’ of being labeled ‘schismatics’ may seem strange to us today, but in the early Church and throughout the Church’s history, being a schismatic, a divider, one who separates people from the Church and the Orthodox Faith in Christ, was on par with being a heretic, one who outright preaches or teaches doctrines or morality contrary to the Gospel.  Both lead to ex-communication, separation from the koinonia, communion, with Christ and the Body.
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You can see how this warning would have made them pay attention.  St. Paul wasn’t accusing them of being schismatics, but warning them that if their divisions and competing identities continued, and 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.   Those who stand in the way of so-called ‘progress’ are labeled by our culture ‘bigots,’ ‘narrow-minded,’ or worse.  The Christian founder of Chick-Fil-A, for instance, now faces a boycott because he publicly supports traditional marriage.  Those of us who signed the petition to place marriage on the ballot in November have had our names put on a list to be targeted for harassment.
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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 Christ and His Church.

We strive to love those who have committed any sin.  We love the sinner.  And because of our love for them, we stand firm in our faith with that which Christ God has revealed to us as the way that leads to life, healing, and salvation through repentance.

The pluralism of this culture divides us when we allow those forces to infiltrate the Church and change our beliefs from what God has revealed, when we prefer them over the timeless teachings of the Church.  When that happens, we no longer share the same faith that unites us together with all other Orthodox believers around the world, as well as all our beloved ancestors in the faith.  When we allow the temporal beliefs and identities of this particular time and culture to define us, we separate ourselves and each other from that great communion with Christ and His Church.

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, which unites us.  Our unity of faith means we can be united with Christ and with one another in the truth.  In the Orthodox Church, we believe that the truth is a Person, Jesus Christ, God’s revelation to us of Himself and the way of salvation.  Through our profession and our striving to live the truth that Christ is, we are united to Him as we partake of the Sacraments and the life that is in Him alone.  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  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” so that “the world may believe that You sent Me”  (John 17:21).

Contrary to those who see the Church as a divider for not changing with the times, the Church is in reality the upholder of unity among people.  The Church calls us all into this communion of love and life with God the Holy Trinity—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 relationship with God and with one another.  We’re all invited into a loving relationship with the God of the universe, Who made all things, Who sustains all things, Who is life itself, and our hope for salvation, for eternal life.  We share in this communion with all those professing, believing, ancestors who have come before us.  See how beautiful is God’s plan for mankind!

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, 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 can see through their testimony that this is the way that leads to life, the way of healing for our souls, for salvation.  Only in this way, can we all be united as one.

We’re called as Orthodox Christians to love our so-called ‘enemies,’ our persecutors, those who hate us, those who would divide us, who think they can divide the Truth, the Person of Jesus Christ. We love by standing up for the Truth that Christ is, we love by calling all to the repentance that we ourselves are called to exemplify.  Christ sets us free from our delusions, our divisions, our humanistic ways.  Those ways, instead of leading mankind to progress, actually lead us further away from God, His love, and the blessed life of the Kingdom.

The Orthodox Church has seen empires, heretics, schismatics come and go.  She’s weathered Islam, Communism, and every other ‘ism’.  And she will weather secular humanism and postmodernism as well, but at a cost.  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—be that Anglo, Russian, Romanian, Georgian, or anything else, the culture certainly cannot save us, but Christ God, He saves us and calls us to the best of ourselves, of whom we are created to be.  He calls all to new life in Him, communion with Him in the unity of the Faith of His Church.

The only way that this baptism and transfiguration of our culture can happen, is, if we, the Orthodox Christians in this land, stand together, united, prayerful, humbly articulating and living to the best of our abilities and with God’s help, the timeless Truth that is Christ as He has revealed it to His holy Church.  By repenting ourselves of our sins, by striving to live authentic Christian lives of integrity, by making the most of the Fast and the Feasts before us, we too witness to the truth of our Faith, the Truth that is Christ and the life that is 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.

Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
29 July 2012

Epistle: I Cor. 1:10-18
Gospel: Matt. 14:14-22