Category: Uncategorized (Page 8 of 14)

Icon - Tree of Jesse

The Sunday before Christmas is known to the Orthodox as the Sunday of the Holy Genealogy.  On this day the Church commemorates the ancestors of Christ from Adam to Joseph the Betrothed.  Christ’s full humanity meant not just that he possessed a human nature but that he had blood relatives, and that he came from a long family line.  One of the shortcomings of modern culture is the tendency to leave the past behind and focus on the now.  This has resulted in people feeling rootless and incomplete.

In Orthodoxy we remember our ancestors because they are part of us.  To remember our family and our family roots is to affirm our humanity; likewise, to overlook our family connections is to diminish our humanity.  To remember is an act of love and faithfulness.  We all came from somewhere.  Our family heritage is a source of blessing and sometimes a source of pain.  As Christians we have both a biological and a spiritual family lineage.  Salvation in Christ extends to both family lines.  St. Paul writes in Ephesians 3:14-15:

For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth is named….

Here Paul is looking to the future when all of humanity and creation become one family under the fatherhood of God.

The Matins Service, which precedes the Divine Liturgy, has been likened to Orthodoxy’s equivalent of Sunday School for adults.  It is liturgical in structure being made up of fixed prayers and hymns.  It also contains didactic teachings.  The passages below are taken from the Synaxarion of the Matins Service.

On this day, the Sunday before the Nativity of Christ, we have been enjoined by our holy and God-bearing Fathers to make commemoration of all them that from the beginning of time have been well-pleasing unto God, from Adam even unto Joseph the Betrothed of the Most Holy Theotokos, according to genealogy, as Luke the Evangelist hath recounted historically; and likewise for the Prophets and Prophetesses, especially of Daniel the Prophet and the three holy youths.

It is also known as the Sunday of the Holy Genealogy.  We remember the aforementioned names, those in the Old Testament who were related to Christ by blood, and those who spoke of His Birth as a man.  In the Divine Liturgy, we shall read of Jesus Christ’s lineage from the Gospel of Saint Matthew.  In this way, the Church shows us that Christ truly became a man, taking on human nature.  He was not a ghost, an apparition, a myth, a distant imagined god, or the abstract god of philosophers; such a god does not have a family tree.  Our God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  He has flesh and blood, human ancestors—many of whom sinned greatly, but like David, also repented greatly.  Yet, all of these righteous ones in every age had been well-pleasing to God because they loved Him.  By taking on human nature, the Son of God became like us in all ways, in flesh and blood, in mind and soul, and in heart and will. He differed from us in only one way: He could not sin.  Since we know that Christ’s human nature remained sinless, He is also fully divine, and He shows us the way in which we can avoid sin, and so improve and transform our human nature.

By their holy intercessions, O God, have mercy upon us and save us. Amen.

The first paragraph teaches us that it is part of the Orthodox Tradition to remember our ancestors in the faith.  The Sunday before Christmas is an appropriate time to remember the ancestors of Christ.  It provides us an opportunity to reflect on the way God works mysteriously and sometimes obscurely in our family history.  It also reminds to have faith that God is working redemptively in human history.  Sin might be present but God’s grace even more so (Romans 5:15).

The second paragraph affirms Jesus’ blood relatives.  The second paragraph asserts that Jesus was a real historical person and not some mythical figure.  This means that Christian theology is ultimately grounded in the empirical events of the birth of Jesus Christ, his life and ministry, his crucifixion under Pilate and his third day resurrection.  The truth claims of Orthodox Christianity rests ultimately on a historical chain of testimony pointing to the historical events of Christ’s life and teaching.

There is a hunger among many Protestants and Evangelicals for a historically grounded Christianity.  This is evidenced by a recent upsurge of interest in the early Church Fathers and ancient liturgical practices.  It is also evidenced by many Evangelicals becoming enamored with the writings of the original Reformers like John Calvin.  But it will take more than reading ancient theological writings and incorporating long forgotten practices to fill this hunger.  The Sunday of the Holy Genealogy is a reminder that the Orthodox Church has a historical lineage that reaches back to the original Apostles.  Those who are hungering for the historic Christian faith would do well to consider the Orthodox Church.

Robert Arakaki

Icon - Nativity of Christ

The hymns of the Orthodox church are rich in meaning and symbolism.  Unlike many Protestant churches that have hymnals that the pastor can pick and choose which hymns will be sung this coming Sunday, in Orthodoxy the priest and the church follows the prescribed order of worship down the songs and prayers.  What may seem to be a stifling approach to worship allows Orthodox parishes to draw on the rich liturgical and theological heritage of the broader church.

Thou dost bear the form of Adam, yet Thou are all-perfect, being in the form of God.  Of Thine own will Thou are held in human hands, who in Thy might upholdest all things with Thine hand.  To Thee the pure and undefiled Virgin spake aloud: ‘How shall I wrap Thee in swaddling clothes like a child, how shall I give Thee suck who givest nourishment to all the world?  How shall I not wonder in amazement at Thy poverty beyond understanding!  How shall I, who am Thy handmaiden, all Thee my Son?  I sing Thy praises and I bless Thee, who dost grant the world great mercy.’

Icon - Vladimir Mother of God

The undefiled Virgin, beholding the pre-eternal God as a child that had taken flesh from her, held Him in her arms and without ceasing she kissed Him.  Filled with joy, she said aloud to Him: ‘O Most High God, O King unseen, how is it that I look upon Thee?  I cannot understand the mystery of Thy poverty without measure.  For the smallest of caves, a strange dwelling for Thee, finds room for Thee within itself.  Thou hast been born without destroying my virginity, but Thou hast kept my womb as it was before childbirth; and Thou dost grant the world great mercy.’

Icon - Gifts of the Three Magis

The pure Virgin spoke in wonder, as she heard the Magi standing together before the cave, and she said to them: ‘Whom do ye seek?  for I see that ye have come from a far country.  Ye have the appear-ance, but not the thoughts, of Persians; strange has your journey been, and strange your arrival.  Ye have come with zeal to worship Him who, journeying as a stranger from on high, has strangely, in ways known to Himself, come to dwell in me, granting the world great mercy.’

“Forefeast of the Nativity of Christ – Vespers service” — Festal Menaion, page 200.

The first stanza consists of the Virgin Mary’s contemplation of her child being the eternal Son of God.  The reference to “form of Adam” echoes Romans 5:14 where St. Paul describes how the first Adam who sinned foreshadowed the second Adam (Christ) who would redeem humanity.

Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. (emphasis added; NKJV)  

The references to the “form of God” echoes Philippians 2:6-7 where St. Paul describes Christ’s great humility in emptying himself for our salvation.

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. (NKJV)

The second stanza describes how the Virgin Mary accepted Christ into her life (to use the Evangelical lingo).  In receiving Him she gives praise and worship to Him.  This stanza gives us an insight into the icons that show her kissing her Son and her Savior.

The third stanza has missionary undertones.  The coming of the Magi represent the ingathering of the nations around Christ.

Behold, these come from afar, these from the north and these from the sea, and the others from the land of the Persians. Be glad, O heavens, and rejoice exceedingly, O earth.  Let the mountains break out in gladness, and the hills in righteousness.  For the Lord had mercy on His people, and comforted the humble of His people.  (Isaiah 49:12-13; emphasis added, NKJV)

The Christmas hymns teach important lessons about the Orthodox Faith: Christ the Second Adam who recapitulates human nature for our salvation, Mary’s joyful and loving embrace of Jesus Christ, and the missionary implications of Christ birth.

Let us like Mary the God-Bearer joyfully receive Jesus Christ into our hearts.  Let us also help others discover the joy that Christ came to bring to the nations.

Robert Arakaki

Icon - Nativity of Christ

As we are now in the Christmas season I plan to take a more reflective approach over the next several weeks.  Excerpts from the various Orthodox service texts will be posted accompanied by a brief commentary.

One of the major sources of Orthodox doctrine are the hymns of the church.  These songs are often biblical commentary put to music or they may commemorate an important event or person in church history.

The hymns are also important for Orthodox discipleship.  In Orthodoxy our theology is shaped by our worship.  This follows the ancient principle lex orans, lex credens (the rule of prayer is the rule of faith).  Under this principle liturgical worship frames and defines our theology.  This is radically different from Protestantism where much of theology is expressed in terms of an elaborate system of propositions and definitions.  In Orthodoxy theology becomes doxology.  Doxology ultimately leads us to union with Christ and to life in the Trinity.

Many of these hymns are chanted during the Saturday evening Vespers or Sunday morning Matins services.  Together they provide the context of Orthodox worship.  Many people have the mistaken notion that the Liturgy is Orthodox worship.  While the Liturgy constitutes the high point and the core of Orthodox worship, it cannot be separated from the other services.  To do so would risk distorting the worship we offer to the Trinity.

Here is one such hymn sung every year on the Forefeast of the Nativity of Christ:

Let us sound the cymbals: let us shout aloud in songs.  The revelation of Christ is now made manifest: the preachings of the prophets have received their fulfilment.  For He of whom they spoke, foretelling His appearance in the flesh to mortal men, is born in a holy cave and is laid as a babe in a manger, and as a child He is wrapped in swaddling clothes.

With uprightness of mind let us lift up our voice in song, celebrating the Forefeast of Christ’s Nativity.  For He who is equal in honour with the Father and the Spirit, has from compassion clothed Himself in our substance, and makes ready to be born in the city of Bethlehem.  The praises of His Nativity past speech the shepherds and the angels sing.

The Virgin was amazed, as she beheld a conception past telling and a birth past utterance.  Rejoicing at once and weeping, she raised her voice and said: ‘Shall I give my breast to Thee, who givest nourishment to all the world, or shall I sing Thy praise as my Son and my God?  What manner of name shall I find to call Thee, O Lord whom none can name?’

“Forefeast of the Nativity of Christ – Vespers service” — Festal Menaion, page 199.

The first stanza tells how the Old Testament prophecies find their fulfillment in the Incarnation.  It also presents the Incarnation as a revelatory event when God who revealed himself through the prophetic word now reveals himself in human flesh.

The second stanza tells how the Christ child is one of the Holy Trinity.  The Incarnation is explained as Christ assuming the substance of our humanity.  He who is consubstantial with the Trinity is consubstantial with humanity.

The third stanza describes the Virgin Mary’s response.  She is overwhelmed by the seeming contradiction of her being pregnant with the Creator of the universe.  He who sustains all of creation with his providential care now comes under her motherly care.  As her son he is under her but as God he is over her.

The hymns of the church teach important lessons to the Orthodox faithful.  Here we learn about the Old Testament prophets, the Trinity, the Incarnation, and Mary’s love for Christ.

Let us like Mary be overwhelmed by God’s grace revealed in the birth of Christ.

Robert Arakaki