On Freedom and Responsibility

 

Everyone has the freedom to think, speak, and act as they wish, with the caveat that the speech or action is not illegal. This is the freedom that Jesus earned for us through his redemptive work. This is not simply the freedom to do so but the responsibility to do so. And that responsibility needs to be built on the foundation of love for God, love for others, and the pursuit of holiness.

In this case, the terms ‘love’ and ‘holiness’ are defined by the historic, Christian church, not the individual. The consequences of those thoughts, speech, and action are completely on the individual. Because we each have the ability and the responsibility in this, what takes place because of these is ours to own.

Speaking Well of Others

 

It is interesting that the Protestant/evangelical world is vehemently opposed to the presence of icons within the Christian faith. But at the same time, Protestant/evangelicals have no trouble with the veneration and glorification of musicians, athletes, and artists in their everyday life.

The historic Christian faith is the exact opposite of this. The Orthodox faith calls for the daily interaction with our godly predecessors, who are more alive now than ever before. As the Orthodox Christian stands in worship and lives his everyday life, he knows and understands that he is surrounded by the millions of fellow Christians. The Orthodox Christian understands that death does not separate us from God or from the saints. Our fellow believers continually pray for us as they are in the immediate presence of God.

In modern day American, somehow it is perfectly fine to speak highly of non-believing athletes and musicians, but it is wrong to think of, interact with, and ask for the prayers of godly people from the past. The Christian life is not limited to one's time in church. The Christian life is 24/7 and we should be in constant interaction with God and the saints, through the power of the Holy Spirit, as part of the Church.

Cultural Transition

 

If you are from country “X” and you visit country “Y”, you would expect there to be cultural differences in your experience. This is not a matter of right and wrong but of honesty to one’s culture. For example, when an American visits the UK and eats the food at a McDonald’s, the food will taste different than in the US. Or to speak in even more general terms, even though the US and the UK are very similar, the living experience from one to the other, including food, will be markedly distinct.

This is the way we need to think of our experience in church. No matter what culture one is from, when entering the worship service, the experience should be radically different. One should immediately recognize that he is in a different culture than the other he just left when he crossed the threshold of the worship service.

The music, the behavior, the cultural norms, and the language will be different. If you enter church and the environment is no different than that which you just left, then you have not left your previous culture behind. The Divine Liturgy is a different world, outside of and contrary to any other culture. In the Church, there is no race, no color, and no creed other than the worship of the Trinity, the love of God and love for our neighbor.

The Church is not a place to feel comfortable and distracted. When you enter the Divine Liturgy, you are no longer white, black, brown, yellow, or red, you are no longer American, Russian, Ukrainian, French, Germany or Indian. You are part of the people of God, worshiping as part of the body of Christ, unified in the teachings and practices of Jesus Christ and the apostles.

The Church service is a different world.

Regarding Time

 

Try to think the implications of living in a state where time does not exist. What would this mean? If a person is self-aware and is active, he can recognize that “a moment ago I did X and in a moment I will do Y”. We can always recognize the difference between what just happened versus now versus what will happen after ‘now’.

I believe the error here is in thinking of time as a river through which one travels, rather than our perception of our existence from moment to moment. If there is no sun and moon by which to categorize events, the flow of time would be relatively imperceptible. If death is no longer extant, then one would not think in terms of ‘I only have x many years left to live, especially since days and years are unrecognizable.

We would not even be able to say, ‘meet me at location X in a week from tomorrow’, for aside from an arbitrary/fabricated measuring of moments, the meaning of week and tomorrow are meaningless. It makes the most sense to think of ‘there will be no time’ as “we will live forever”, and death is no longer an issue.

When we say that God lives outside of time, we are ultimately saying that death has no connection to him. Even if there is still day and night, and the regular cycle of days, months, and years, time, for man will still be ultimately meaningless, for we will never die but will always be growing in holiness.

Always ask the question

 

How do you feel/think when someone says to you, “Don’t question me, just believe me and trust that I am right?” No one person has the knowledge or authority to make such a statement. Everything should be questioned within the proper understanding of authority. If you are diagnosed with cancer, you can seek out the opinion of two, three, or more doctors. If they all agree, you are most likely safe in believing their collective assessment.

But even then, the decision to act or not is still yours. And the decision on how to respond is yours as well. Does one ignore the assessment of the experts, does one follow an alternative path to health that may or may not result in the best consequences, or does one fully follow the direction of his doctors? As with anything, there are a multitude of variables and approaches.

It is wisdom that is required to respond in the best way, but a response is unavoidable. To do nothing is a response, to do the opposite is a response and an odd one, and to blindly follow is a response as well. The best response is to gather information, understand it as holistically as possible, and to draw an informed conclusion.

Within the context of the spiritual world, the same argument can be made. One can simply ignore the fact that every known culture has acknowledged the existence of deity, or one can embrace the religious beliefs of his culture without giving it any thought, or one can study, learn, grow, mature and draw informed conclusions, seeking to understand as many variables as possible.

Language, Names, and Identity

 

Regarding angels and demons. What about their language? Do they automatically have the ability to speak any language? Is there any sort of learning curve? 

What about their names? Why would we presume that they were given names at their creation, when men are given names by their parents? If they are given names, from what culture do these names arise? Are there any named ‘Carl’, or ‘Larry’ or ‘Akhenaten’ or ‘Glarb’? In Scripture, we are given the names of some angels, but these names have a very European or Middle Eastern sound to them? Does this mean that when they were named, those locations were somehow normal? 

Or were these names given to their original audience to make them feel more connected? If so, do these beings actually have ‘real’ names? Without names, they can hardly be said to have an identity. Could they be unnamed creatures that are merely part of divisions or categories, such as cherubim, seraphim, etc.?

Every person born since the beginning of time was given a name, which was formed within the culture the child was born into. Without a name, there is no identity. What would a person, an angel, or a demon think of himself as without a name?