Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Sunday of Orthodoxy
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Epistle: Heb. 11:24-026, 32-12:1
Gospel: John 1:43-51
Today is the triumph of Orthodoxy. On this First Sunday of Lent in 842 A.D. the iconodules—
our “right believing” forefathers who upheld the Apostolic Faith, celebrated their victory over
the heretical beliefs of the iconoclasts—those who would change the faith and deny the validity
of Christ’s incarnation and God’s glorification in His Saints as is depicted in the holy icons.
The holy icons are more than holy ‘pictures’: our Fathers in the Faith, countless of whom shed
their blood and lost their lives in martyrdom to uphold the Apostolic Faith, rightly understood
that without the holy icons, the teaching of the historic reality of the Incarnation would be lost,
the affirmation that the Word indeed became flesh and “dwelt among us” and raised up the fallen
Adam, would come to be understood in increasingly twisted ways that would threaten our faith,
our healing, our salvation in Christ.
Our Orthodox forefathers rightly understood that if the icons of Christ, His Saints, and His
miracles were lost, the reality of God’s glorification of His Saints, as depicted in the icons of
these holy men and women in their deified states, would also be lost.
Mistakenly, many people believe that this triumph of Orthodoxy is solely about our belief in the
vital role that icons play in our worship. Those who fought with their souls and gave their lives
to uphold Orthodoxy (the iconodules), celebrated the victory of the Orthodox as God’s protection
of His Church and the faith once received by that Church, which is the Body of Christ, a
living ‘organism.’ The battle against the iconoclasts was the last of a five hundred year struggle
to uphold the Orthodox Faith against those who would change that faith, what we call heresy.
Each of these heresies altered the Faith of the Apostles and that faith which we still profess.
After a century of persecution, the restoration of the icons brought with it the end of the five-
hundred years of struggle against those who would deny the fullness of the Orthodox Faith—the
Gnostics, the Arians, the Nestorians and iconoclasts—they were all defeated in that 7th Council!
You see, brothers and sisters, the Feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy goes to the very heart of
our belief in Christ and our salvation. As Fr. Alexander Schmemann has put it, “We depend first of all, of course, on the first and the ultimate triumph — that of Christ Himself… the defeat of a man nailed to the cross, who rose again from the dead, who is the Lord and the Master of the world. This is the first triumph of Orthodoxy.” If we miss this fact, what this victory is really about, this ‘reason for being,’ then we miss the real triumph. Our faith starts and ends with Christ!
All other triumphs of our faith stem from this truth: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death
by death,” as we’ll sing at our joyous celebration of Pascha. It’s because of Christ’s incarnation, death,
burial, and glorious resurrection, that we’re here today worshipping Him and participating in His life so
that with Him, we too may be raised from the dead. If Christ had not become flesh, entering into human
nature as man and redeeming it as God, defeating our sin and death, then there’s nothing to celebrate!
Because of the God-man Christ, we who have put on Christ in baptism and walk in the newness of life
given by the Holy Spirit to the glory of God the Father, become co-heirs with Christ, adopted sons of God
(Eph. 1). In the words of St. Athanasius, who proclaimed the true faith in the face of Arianism, “God
became man that we might become gods.” God is glorified in His Saints—in men and women turning
from sin to God, finding healing from sin-sickness, and by God’s grace, becoming the men and women
He created us to be: full of life, joy, discernment, having rediscovered our first beauty.
The holy icons depict this heavenly reality. The holy icons proclaim this truth. It’s a wonderful
testimony to God’s provision for His Body the Church, His beloved bride, that this Sunday of Orthodoxy
happens to be set upon the pre-existing Sunday on which we remember Moses and the other faithful
Saints of the Old Testament. A fuller meaning is here revealed:
“The great cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1), which St. Paul proclaims to us today, are paraded around the
church as we testify to the truth of man’s redemption through Christ and only through Christ. Every icon
of a Saint testifies to this redemptive work of God in us: redemption from a life of sin is real, healing is
real, a new life is real, love and joy are real, salvation is real, the Kingdom of God is real—we see this
reality no clearer than in the faces of the Saints, who worship God and pray for us in Christ God’s near
presence as they continue to glorify Him and testify to the truth of the Orthodox Faith.
Truly, as St. Paul proclaims to us today, “we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses!”. If people
want proof of God’s existence, reality, and relevance, they need look no further than the lives of these
Saints, whose number is too great to count.
We Orthodox who are their progeny, are still “working out our salvation with fear and trembling.” We
do so being spurred on by their witness, their prayers, and their intercessions on our behalf. The days of
battling new heresies may have come to an end; there are really no new heresies—just newly recycled
cardboard models of the originals. But Orthodoxy does face new challenges as our forebears did of old.
In our own day, we are challenged by growing relativism, secularism, consumerism, nihilism, ethno-
centrism—all of which threatens the faithful proclamation of the “Faith once received by the Saints.”
How easily we are swayed by calls for ‘tolerance,’ ‘acceptance,’—the ideas spread by a spoiled
and decadent people, who, if they have a form of Christianity is more often akin to a McDonalds
advertisement, “have it your way,” than to that precious faith once received—that is the truth that is
Christ and His revelation to us men and for our salvation through the Church He Himself founded.
Friends, we can’t ‘have it our way’ if we want to be healed, if we want to grow, if we want to be saved
and glorified by God and become fellow partakers of His inheritance in the Saints. His way is the way
that leads to life because… He IS THAT LIFE. He alone is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (Jn. 14:6).
Many modern groups are always experimenting with new forms of worship, props, music
styles, ‘dumbing down,’ ‘dumbing up,’ and, in some quarters, changing the definition of marriage, of
what chastity means, of who Jesus is, doing away with the idea of sin without curing the disease.
We Orthodox don’t change, we won’t give in. Why? Because our faith is not an idea, a philosophy, or
even a theology; it’s communion with the historic Jesus and life with Him and in Him. We’re practicing
for and participating in eternity, the Kingdom, which begins now in His Body, the Church. We don’t
shape the faith; the faith shapes us through the truth, through our relationship with the Truth, Jesus Christ.
Our God is the God, Who was, and is, and is to come (Rev. 1:8, 4:8, 11:17). He it is who ordered the
images of cherubim to be meticulously depicted on the ark and made the ark to hold the holy objects of
God’s redemption and provision for His people, Israel. Our worship as the New Israel, the Church, is
in continuity with that of the faithful in Israel and the first Orthodox who worshipped God, the Christ-
believing Jews in the synagogues, the faithful in the homes of the converts, the persecuted faithful in
the catacombs, and the faithful in the basilicas and cathedrals, chapels and churches who kept the faith
through the centuries. Our faith and veneration of the icons is in continuity with all these faithful who
kept the Faith proclaimed “to all people, at all times, in every place” (Vincentian Canon, 5th century).
Yes, new threats have arisen in every century: the twentieth century saw more blood shed and millions
more Orthodox killed by godless atheists and communists. We, for our part, stand here today to bear
witness to the Truth of Christ to a people tossed about by “every wind and doctrine” (Eph. 4:14), a people
in great need of the hope, faith, and love of Christ—the fullness of life with Him.
For love of neighbor, for love of those who will come after us, “let us lay aside every weight, and the
sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto
Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our Faith.” The Saints cheer us on in this race of faith! To God be the
glory! Christ is in our midst! He is and ever shall be!
