A Sunday Only Christian

For the longest time, I was very vocal that one of our biggest problems in our Church was that we were "Sunday only" Christians  i.e., we attend Church "religiously" on Sunday, but on all other days returned to our normal world.

More and more though, I'm beginning to understand that our issue is actually not that we are Sunday-only Christians, but rather we're not even Christians on Sunday! 

St. John Chrysostom from his homily on 1st Timothy:

Let us learn at last to be Christians! If we know not how to pray, which is a very simple and easy thing, what else shall we know? Let us learn to pray like Christians. The Christian's (prayers) are the reverse, for the forgiveness and forgetting of offenses against us.

St. John then used St Stephen, who is remembered in our Church as the chief of the deacons and the first of the martyrs, as an example:

Hear Stephen saying, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." Instead of praying against them, he prayed for them. You, instead of praying for them, utter imprecations against them. You then are wicked in the degree that he was excellent. Whom do we admire, tell me; those for whom he prayed, or him who prayed for them? Him certainly! And if we, much more then God. Would you have your enemy stricken? pray for him: yet not with such intention, not to strike him. That will indeed be the effect, but let it not be your object. That blessed martyr suffered all unjustly, yet he prayed for them: we suffer many things justly from our enemies. 

The Saints understood that we had to learn to be like Christ.  Moreover, they had no instruction on how to live their own life other than the life of Christ Himself.  No excuses were given that the teaching was not "practical" to our day-to-day life ... instead, our holy role-models dedicated their life to God and eagerly sought not what improved their own wealth, health or stature but rather changing themselves to be like Him.

If we were truly were "Sunday-only" Christians - one who at least one day a week, completely gave up our own life to learn and become like our Lord, there is no doubt that this world would become a better place. 

Again, leaning back on the wisdom of St. John Chrysostom, this time in his homily on the Gospel of St. John:

And we shall be able to do this, if we are bold, and give heed to the Scriptures, and hear them not carelessly. For if one should come in here regularly, even though he read not at home, if he attends to what is said here, one year even is sufficient to make him well versed in them; because we do not today read one kind of Scriptures, and tomorrow another, but always and continually the same. 

The blessed Saint then acknowledges the pitiful state of those who call themselves disciples of Christ even in the ancient days, and what really is the core of the issues of our Church today:

Still such is the wretched disposition of the many, that after so much reading, they do not even know the names of the Books, and are not ashamed nor tremble at entering so carelessly into a place where they may hear God's word. Yet if a harper, or dancer, or stage-player call the city, they all run eagerly, and feel obliged to him for the call, and spend the half of an entire day in attending to him alone; but when God speaks to us by Prophets and Apostles, we yawn, we scratch ourselves, we are drowsy. 

Rather than being the problem, the solution is really that we need to START by becoming Sunday-only Christians! As we see in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Christ (i.e., the Samaritan) brings the wounded to the Church (i.e., the Inn), and there starts our healing.

On Sunday, in the Presence of the God, through prayer, fellowship (Matthew 18:20 i.e., "For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them"), through Scripture and the Body and Blood (John 6) ... our lives can and should change.  We learn that we cannot look at anything in the same manner, for in Christ all things are made new (Revelations 21:5).  We become healed.

And from Sunday, after learning from the fullness of the Word, we start to become like Him if we truly mean all the prayers, responses and hymns that are sung.  The experience of Divine Worship brings within us His Presence, and like the Prophet Isaiah we become completely and totally "undone" (Isaiah Chapter 6).  The more we understand and grow, our whole life will change and we naturally continue through the week with a greater understanding of how a Christian should live.

Being a Sunday-only Christian is really not a bad starting point.

#comeonbro

Hash tags (or whatever they are called) often make me laugh out loud .. one example is #comeonbro, and this comes to mind at work or when I read something just crazy ...

Here in Chicago, there's a very popular pastor that invokes this reaction more often than I like to admit ... most recently, he wrote:

"We often let customs and traditions overwhelm the dynamic life of our relationship with God. Think about your Sunday routine for a minute. Can you explain why you do each of the things you do? Or is your spiritual life simply “what I’ve always done”?  I don’t want to come to church and learn about customs and traditions. I want to know what the Word of God says. I want a church to be biblical. I don’t care about preachers wearing hats that are three feet high or capes. I don’t want anything that isn’t in the Scriptures."

Really? Come on bro!

We all have to learn about who Christ is because ... He is God! In the words of C.S. Lewis,  "I want God, not my idea of God".

The 3-feet high hats and capes .. they do have a meaning.  We are plagued by the fact that many in our Church are not aware of this meaning .. but facts are facts, and Truth is Truth.

For the ancient Church, all these images are supposed to invoke the understanding that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the 2nd person of the Holy Trinity .. the same who knocked the Apostles to the ground through His Glory (Matthew 17:1-9, Mark 9:2-8, Luke 9:28-36).  The same Jesus Christ who in His Second Coming is described in the Book of Revelations by St. John, the Apostle whom many say was very close to Christ, in terms that are beyond description.

We do not approach Church to worship God with the mindset that we know everything there is to know about who He is - rather, with humility and willingness and, as the Divine Liturgy says, with our hearts and minds - our job is to learn and grow in Him through Scripture, prayer, fellowship and the Body and Blood.  This is our understanding of the early Church as explained in Acts 2:42.

My Church is Biblical - 100%.  And yes, my priests and Bishops wear hats and capes. #comeonbro

BHAG

At the simplest and the most fundamental level, the goal of every Christian is to be like Christ.  Our Big Hairy Audacious Goal is to "be perfect, therefore, like your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48).

Some will counter that the goal is rather to simply be with Christ forever (as opposed to spending eternity with the Devil) ... others argue our goal is to escape punishment.  Some even teach that we have no control over what God does to us, and essentially we are born lucky or unlucky, loved or unloved.

The message in the Gospel emphasizes a God who is Love, and the early Church writings uphold this Truth.  Moreover, Christ provides clear instruction to His followers e.g., teaching in the temple, Jesus taught, "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12).  But, in the Sermon on the Mount, we see Him seated with His disciples and teach, "You are the light of the world" (Matthew 5:14). 

The message throughout the Gospel is clear i.e., be like Christ.  But, to be like someone, we have to know who that person is ... so to be like Christ, we have to know who He is.

The start of the Liturgical Calendar of the Indian Orthodox Church is known as Koodhosh Eetho, or Sanctification of the Church, and in the Gospel reading for this day we hear Christ asking His disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" (Matthew 16:13-23).  The following week (Hoodhosh Eetho, or Dedication of Church), we hear Christ say, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.  And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand." (John 10:22-38).

We have to know Christ and recognize His voice, and through a personal relationship with Christ we continue to know Him.  Each interaction is one of growing understanding and enrichment, and our relationship goes well beyond any obligation or namesake.

For a Christian, these interactions occur through prayer (i.e., talking with God) and Scripture (i.e., the written Word) ... but we also know from the Holy Scripture that there is direct interaction with Christ when we have fellowship with others (Matthew 18:20, "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them”) and the Eucharist, the real Body and Blood of Christ (John 6:53-58).  

This was the marks of the early Church i.e., Acts 2:42 - "And they continued steadfastly in the Apostle's doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in prayers".  

If we avoid, disregard or diminish the importance of any of these opportunities to know God, we simply will be unable to experience the fullness of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God.  Let's be clear - there is no doubt that there are Christians who, even without having this fullness, live very Christ-like lives. But, this really is not for us to judge.  We can definitely learn and apply the good actions and behaviors to our own situation ... but we are not to make any conclusions on the "effectiveness" of Scripture over prayer, Eucharist over fellowship, etc.  This fullness in Christ is what we simply know "The Way", and we are to willingly and obediently follow even if things don't quite make sense.  This is the definition of Faith.

Not surprisingly, we can again turn to the Gospel for guidance - in Luke 24:13-35, two disciples (St. Cleopas and tradition says the 2nd was St. Luke himself) were walking away from Jerusalem to Emmaus after the Crucifixion of our Lord.  As they were walking, Christ Himself came into their midst but "their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him" (v16).   During this memorable walk, the disciples gave witness, they discussed Scripture, they were in fellowship .. we see they had passion, as their hearts were "burning" (v.32) .. but not until Christ "sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them" (v.30) were there eyes opened and they saw.

The Orthodox Study Bible notes, our hearts do burn as this is "the inescapable effect of hearing the Holy Scriptures taught correctly and with faith.  This burning is the conviction that the words and promises are true".  And then, when "all who commune with the Lord in His risen Body in faith", our eyes are opened, "for the Lord is known most perfectly in the breaking of the bread". 

This is our understanding of the Holy Eucharist (i.e., the Holy Qurbana) - not as rituals, customs, rules .. but as a Holy and most perfect interaction with our Lord.  And, it's very important to note, if we partake without prayer, preparation or understanding, we are condemning ourselves (1 Corinthians 11:27-29).

We must know Christ, and we must be like Him - not just partially, but in His fullness.  That is our goal - our BHAG.

After the crossroads ...

I continue to be humbled when questioned why I haven't written in awhile.  I began this blog many moons ago out of exasperation and feelings of confusion, frustration and often anger against the Orthodox Church ... however, looking back even to my earliest days as a child (and as the title of this blog reflects) I never doubted that there was and always will be only One Jesus Christ.

I just didn't know who He was, and everything that had been explained to me wasn't consistent with the Christ I had been reading about in the Gospels.

The past several years have been an incredible blessing, and the best way to describe the feeling was like I had been banging my head against a wall for so long, and then looked up and realized there was a door just slightly to my right.  Long and memorable discussions with (now) Fr. Zachariah Diju Skariah years back before he entered Seminary accelerated a process of learning so much about early Christian teaching and the realization that our Indian Orthodox Church, as broken as it may appear on the outside, did uphold the fullness of the Faith.

Yet, my writings have gone down ... and when asked, I usually use a few of the excuses in my arsenal - 3 kids (the little one just about to enter her terrible twos), living in a 2-income house, busy work/life balance, an unexpected job hunt last year, more involvement with the Church, getting older, etc..

But, as I was looking back at the crazy stuff I wrote, and the 132 incomplete blog posts that I started writing and never completed ... I know deep down the main reason is best explained in one of my favorite books, 'The Orthodox Way' -

'The traveler on the Spiritual Way, the further he advances, becomes increasingly conscience of two contrasting facts - of the otherness and yet the nearness of the Eternal. In the first place, he realizes more and more that God is mystery. ... Yet, in the second place, this God of mystery is at the same time uniquely close to us, filling all things, present everywhere and within us.

The more I learned and became aware that there indeed was a Truth, and keep being amazed at the overwhelming evidence that our God is a God of Love and His Incarnation had nothing to do with a "pay-off", and that He indeed did not create a place called Hell but rather His love never forces anyone to love Him back the same way He does us ... everything changed.  As the prophet Isaiah wrote, I became undone. 

Ironically, I still am often left with the same emotions of confusion, frustration and anger, but in a different way as it's not about me, the individual, any longer.  There's also the overwhelming realization and understanding that I continue to fail and be a sinner (Lord have mercy).

But, the strongest emotion that always prevails is one of hope in the future of the Indian Orthodox Church in America.  Especially as a father of 3 beautiful children and a wife who has genuinely tried to learn alongside my ups and downs, this is so important that we keep moving forward and strive towards the vision that all Orthodox Churches are commanded to have - one of a mission-oriented, Christ-centered family that worships together.

The road ahead will no doubt continue to be a test of patience and I know that sadly it'll be more with my own generation than the leadership of this Church.  But, perhaps writing again will spread the awareness ... an if nothing else, may help pass the time until we see a Mission Church in Chicago, which I'm convinced is not only necessary but critical to help us continue working on our Christ-like transformation (theosis).

There is a beauty in Christianity that surprisingly very few seem to know, and the potential of our Divine Liturgy (Holy Qurbana) in America to teach the beauty of the Christian faith will never cease to excite me.

I continue to ask questions, as I continue to love God with all my heart, soul and mind.  But my questions are no longer grounded in doubt and anger, but rather awe, love and humility (James 1:2-8).  I beg forgiveness if my future writings offend anyone, as that is not my intent ... at the end, there is a beautiful simplicity in Christ as He is taught through the ancient teachings and hope that as I share more of what I learn and the mistakes I make, it'll be learning points for others to get to the realization a lot faster in life than I did.

In Christ,

One Lord, Jesus Christ ...

"But the faith is given. There is one faith, one hope, one baptism, one Lord, one God and Father of us all. There is one church. There is one truth. And that is there from the beginning. But the teaching about it, the defense of it, the explanation, the testimony, the witnessing, the praying, the doxologizing, the hymning, in a sense, you might even dare to say that the expressions of that are virtually infinite, because as we move through history, and as new people come and as new questions arise, those explications and formulations and defenses will continue. But the truth is one and the same. It says in the letter to the Hebrews, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever.” He brings all things new, but beyond Him, there is no new thing essentially to be added."

- Fr. Thomas Hopko