Fredrica Here and Now - Remember Basil
In this podcast, you will be introduced to Orthodoxy through two wonderful individuals, Fredrica, a brilliant woman, a pastor's wife, and cultural commentator, and her friend and former member of her parish, Basil, who has lost his wife but who is filled with faith, hope, and love. You will see that Orthodoxy is a joyful faith for everyone, with tools for overcoming the difficulties of life and preparing for death. We will also see that Orthodoxy is definitely not legalistic. Even though it is not mentioned in this episode, Fredrica was converted to Christianity through a miraculous vision, which she seldom talks about.
When Basil says that sinners can come to Christ just as they are, all they have to do is stop sinning, what does he mean? He doesn't mean that you have to get cleaned up before God will accept you. Absolutely not! Frederica helps him clarify what he means. The child of God is united to Christ by faith and that relationship is so deep that it begins to conquer and destroy the sin in our lives. As a Christian we will still sin because our weakness. We will never be perfect and will always lead a life of repentance that is beautiful to God. But Christians also fight against sin by cooperating with the sin destroying activity of the Holy Spirit within us. It is a spiritual battle. What Basil means is that once you repent and confess your sins and receive forgiveness that you should not willfully go back and sin, but rather, you should fight sin. A nominal Christian might go through the motions and say the "sinners prayer" and never fight against sin but instead indulges himself in sin because he thinks he is automatically forgiven. Since salvation is a whole life turned toward Christ in prayer and love by faith through grace, this kind of attitude is completely alien to genuine Spirit filled Orthodox Christianity. As you will see in the next installment, you can fall seventy times a day, but as long as you get up each time there is evidence that the Holy Spirit is working within you.
When Basil says that the Holy Scriptures and the Church and the Priest all together can save us, what does he mean? Does he mean that Christ doesn't save us? No. Obviously, from the context of everything else he says, he doesn't believe that anything else but Jesus Christ saves us. But Orthodox Christians believe that God has given us the Holy Scriptures and the Church and pastors as a means of healing our souls. The Holy Scriptures contain the words of life. The Church is the community where the Body of Christ helps one another to grow spiritually through admonishment and bearing each other’s burdens. The pastor is an icon of what true spiritual priesthood is so that each Christian can live more fully into our vocation as spiritual priests. Orthodox Christians do not believe that salvation is purely spiritual, but is manifest in the world and communicated to us through vehicles or means such as the Holy Scriptures, the Church, and the sacraments. These are not ends in themselves, but a means to pure union and communion with Christ.
What are the tools for the salvation of the soul? Not works. They are not ways of earning our salvation. That would be impossible. This is another way of talking about the time-tested & charismatically directed methods of keeping our hearts turned toward God in prayer. These tools are simple Holy Spirit filled instruments of soul healing that we enter into as a way of co-operating with the saving activity of God in our lives. The end result will be a life transformed by grace, emptied of self-sickness and filled with Christ in order to be a Christ bearing prayer warrior for a world in need of reconciliation and ready to enter the Presence of God.
Fr Thomas Hopko - Demon and Swine
Fr Thomas Hopko, former dean of St Vladamier's Seminary, is a very well known theologian and speaker in American Orthodoxy. His straightforward yet informal and whimsical style allow him to speak the truth with love. He speaks in this podcast about the importance of keeping Christ central and not letting external things crowd in and distract us from our high calling. Often times, our religiosity is only a thin veneer that covers a dangerous secular apathy that Fr Tom calls demonic. Often we like our pigs just the way they are and would prefer it if Christ stayed out of our lives and stopped interfering, stopped healing our souls, stopped demanding our total surrender to his lordship. Christianity, especially true Orthodox Christianity, is not and cannot be a religion, it is not ritualistic and mechanical as if God responded to magic words. Orthodoxy, or Life in Christ, is a living and dynamic relationship of love between man and God. God fills us with every grace, not because we say the right words or perform the right ritual. No! He heals our souls and makes us one with the super-abundant giving and receiving of Trinitarian Life because he loves us and we are united to his Son. Orthodoxy is militantly anti-legalistic.
There is really so much here that it is hard to give an adequate summary. Really, everything we need to know about Orthodoxy can be learned in this lesson. Orthodoxy is about embracing Christ with our whole heart and mind and strength, being healed, emptied of self, and filled with the Holy Spirit to bring Christ to the world. It is quite brilliant.
CHURCH YEAR - The Church year is a way of remembering the story of Christ and the history of salvation by celebrating various feasts commemorating the Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection of the Son of God. Even more, the cycle of the Church year represents or illuminates different aspects of the way our souls enter into and accept the Life in Christ. The most basic form is to celebrate the Nativity and the Resurrection. During Nativity we prepare our hearts for Christ to be born within us. During Resurrection, also known as Pascha, we prepare our hearts for Christ to give us Resurrection life. The Orthodox Church is privileged to celebrate a full calendar that sanctifies and transfigures time while shedding light on our relationship with God. Traditionally, from the earliest centuries, the Church has organized certain Scripture readings for the days throughout the year to help Christians enter into this sacred movement through time and to help them understand the mystery of Life in Christ. These readings are called a Lectionary. Additionally, each day our hearts are drawn to remember great prayer warriors and Christ bearers throughout history reminding us of our high calling to "be holy as God is holy" and be Christ to a hurting world.
PRIEST - Don't be alarmed. Orthodox Christians don't have priests who stand in our place as mediators between God and man. Christ is the only mediator between the divine / human relationship. Christ became exactly what we are (except for sin) in order to heal us completely and make us exactly like he is by grace. Priests are just pastors, spiritual fathers, or the servants of God's servants. We don't have a hang up about using this word for the following reasons: 1) We realize that even in the Old Testament the priest did not mediate between man and God. This is a common misconception. A priest is simply a person who prays and offers a spiritual sacrifice of praise to the Lord. This means that all Christians are priests. 2) There are different degrees of priesthood, the heavenly priesthood of Christ our God, the particular sacramental priesthood of our spiritual fathers, and the spiritual priesthood that belongs to all believers. We fully understand that the sacramental priesthood is not "better" than the spiritual priesthood because all human priesthood is only possible by being united to the perfect priesthood of Christ and his once for all sacrifice on the Life Giving Cross. 3) Lastly, the spiritual father of a particular worshiping community is an icon of true spiritual priesthood so that the Christians under his care can better learn through his example how to be a "royal priesthood" offering our bodies as living sacrifices through Jesus Christ. Also, priests in the Orthodox Church can be married unlike the Roman Catholic Church.
ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM - Saint John was named Chrysostom, or Golden Mouth, because he was the greatest preacher of the early Church. He taught people the Bible and encouraged people to purchase at least one book of the Scriptures and read it daily. His many sermons were written down and are used as Bible commentaries even today. St John helped organized the ancient worship services. These services had been passed down from the Apostle's themselves, particularly the Liturgy of St James. St John organized them into a coherent whole now known as the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom. This liturgy is still used today throughout the world as the primary communion service of the Church. St John also stood up for holiness even when it was not politically correct. He died in exile for comparing the empress to Jezebel from the Bible in the year 407. His last words were, "Glory be to God for all things."
ST SILOUAN - Saint Silouan was a Russian peasant who traveled to Mt Athos and became a monk. He lived a simple life, humbly and quietly. Following a vision of Christ, St Silouan devoted himself entirely to prayer. He was a spiritual father to hundreds of young men. He was known to withdraw to his cell to pray with tears for everyone under his care. For more than fifteen years he struggled with demonic attacks during prayer until he was almost in despair. At this point Christ spoke to him in a vision, saying 'The proud always suffer from demons.' Silouan made humility his discipline in every moment of his life, and became a great charismatic prayer warrior. He fell asleep in the Lord in 1938. St Silouan demonstrates that the Church's true Theologians are those who manifest in their own lives the fruits of quite prayer, however insignificant they may appear to the eyes of the world.
ST THEOPHAN - Saint Theophan was the son of a priest. He entered seminary at a young age, but his heart turned increasingly toward the monastic life of dedicated prayer. After serving the Church as a Shepard for eight years, he finally retired to a monastery where he could dedicate himself to unceasing prayer. All of his time not taken up by inner prayer was devoted to translating the writings of the early Church Pastors, also known as the Fathers, from Greek into Russian. His translations and spiritual writings had a deep impact upon Russian spiritual life. He wrote 'The Path to Salvation,' an exposition of Orthodox Spirituality written in clear, plain language for those living in the world. He fell asleep in the Lord in 1894.
RELIGIOUS PEOPLE - An unfortunate person suffering from a form of demonic delusion that attacks people who think they are "religious." Judging others (super correctness and hate), legalism (rule following, external forms without the power), jealousy, envy, pride (proud of how holy we are). People who think they are serving God but they are really serving demons because they are full of ego and self-love.
Fredrica Here and Now - And Baby Makes 12
In this episode we are eavesdropping on a coffee hour conversation between Frederica and Mary Klopcic, mother of 10 in a family of 12!
Mary Klopcic and her husband were previously in the charismatic movement before discovering the Orthodox Church. They discuss the pitfalls they personally encountered in the charismatic movement. Orthodoxy realizes that everyone is hurting and sick from sin. Everything about Orthodox spirituality is healing. The Liturgy (or worship service) is a healing encounter with our Lord Jesus Christ. The Orthodox Church accepts all the charismatic gifts. Mary Klopcic says that she feels that the Orthodox Church is the most charismatic church she had ever visited from the first moment she walked through the doors yet it looks different. She said that in her old church experience they had to work so hard to make the spiritual experiences feel authentic. But in the Orthodox Church the Holy Spirit descends on us effortlessly by grace. For Mary Klopcic there was no more pressure on her to get it right. We don't have to struggle any more, we just rest in the Lord's presence.
The Opinionated Tailor Talks Shop with pastor's wife Krista West - Eye of The Storm
Krista West reflects on Christmas, preparation, twinkly lights, and priorities as she draws closer to Christmas day. All the externals of Orthodoxy are there to either point us to Christ or to prepare our hearts for his coming. The fasts and prayers and rituals heighten our expectation. They are good things.
NOUS - This is a Greek word for the rational soul.
Journeys to Orthodoxy Podcast - Barnabas Powel Fromer Pentecostal Pastor
This is a truly fabulous interview with a former pentecostal pastor who, like I am, is truly thankful for his pentecostal roots and how that tradition imparted to him a hunger and thirst for a real, authentic, and dynamic relationship with Christ, and how he discovered the deeply charismatic essence of the Orthodox Church.
Ancient Faith Presents - Deacon Michael Hyatt - New To Orthodoxy?
Also called "10 things I wish I had known about Orthodoxy before visiting an Orthodox church." Deacon Michael does a great job describing what to expect and also dispelling some popular misconceptions.
ECUMENICAL COUNCILS - When the early Church experienced disturbing disagreements or threats to the true confession of the Gospel the pastors of the Church gathered together in council to seek the Holy Spirit's guidance as they did in the book of Acts. Together they would decide what the true teaching was that had always been believed by every Christian everywhere. When all the pastors of the whole Church gathered together from every corner of the earth, it was called an Ecumenical Council from the word meaning "the whole earth." For instance, there was a false teacher who taught that Jesus was not God causing great distress in the Church. His name was Arius. For this reason, the pastors convened a council in Nicea, a small town in Turkey, in order to declare and thus preserve the True confession of Christ taught in Holy Scripture, that Jesus was God before the ages come in the flesh for our salvation.
There are two points to take away from this. First, the councils did not invent doctrine, such as the divinity of Christ, rather they preserved the truth always believed against false teachers. Secondly, tradition in the Holy Church is not external authority imposed on people from above by some kind of institution. Rather, tradition is charismatically directed Life in Christ leading us into all truth to find healing for our souls. The fathers of the Council of Nicea were able to recognize the truth and defend it against false teachings that don't heal through the internal witness of the Holy Spirit within them and speaking prophetically through them.
EUCHARISTIC LITURGY - The worship service where we take Holy Communion. Holy Communion is also known as Holy Eucharist, which means Thanksgiving, because Jesus took the bread and blessed it and thanked God for it. In the Holy Communion, we are intimately united to Christ, we literaly receive him into our bodies, and enabled to make a spiritual sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise.
FR PETER GILQUIST - One of the most famous former evangelicals who came into the Orthodox Church together with thousands of others evolved with his ministry. They were a part of a group of over 100 “home fellowships” across the country formed by men who had left “Campus Crusade For Christ” in search of the "Church of the New Testament." They wanted to know what had happened to the Church after the book of Acts. Had the Holy Spirit abandoned the Church for 1900 years? As these men studied church history they discovered the historic church of the first millennium and decided to model their ministries after it. Eventually they realized the New Testament Church still existed and that it was the Orthodox Church. Today, Fr Peter is the Director of the Department of Missions and Evangelism for the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese. That is the same Church in Antioch you read about in the Book of Acts. You can read more about Peter's journey in his book "Becoming Orthodox."
ICONS - An icon is simply an image. Specifically, icons are pictorial representations of Biblical scenes from the life of Jesus Christ, historical events in the life of the Church (Christ's Body), and portraits of the saints (Christ's Friends). Icons are usually two-dimensional images and may be made of paint, mosaic, embroidery, weaving, carving, engraving, or other methods.
KISSING - We kiss everything. Just like little children very happy to be saved and excited to be invited to the great wedding banquet of God's family, we go around unashamed kissing everyone we meet. Kissing is a ancient sign of love and respect as is bowing.
MARY - Mary is not only Jesus mom, and therefore worthy of our respect, she is also the prototype of Christian discipleship. Everything Christians have she has received first, because she was the first to invite Christ to live within her, quite literally, by faith. When we reflect on the events of her life we begin to better understand what we must do to receive the gift of salvation by allowing Christ to be born in us. Orthodox Christians do not believe that Mary or the Saints can save us apart from Christ. However, we do believe that because we are united to Christ and they are in God's presence death cannot separate us from them. Because they love us very much they pray for us and we can ask them to pray for us.
CLOSED COMMUNION - This is perhaps the most difficult thing to understand for non-Orthodox. Because Orthodox Christians believe that the bread and wine become the Body of Christ, a potent spiritual reality made present by the Holy Spirit, we take St Paul's warning seriously and only give Communion to those who are properly prepared to receive such a holy mystery. Though we do not pass judgement on anyone's salvation or holyness, the Orthodox Church cannot take responsibility for the spiritual health of those who have not entrusted themselves to her care. That is why the Church only gives the gift of Holy Communion to those united as the One Body of the Orthodox Christian Church. Fr Andrew also attempts to answer this question in the next podcast.
Man in Black - Questions & Answers
PART 1 - In these two podcasts we get some basic questions answered. Is Orthodoxy relevant? Is the Orthodox Church antiquated? Where is the Praise and worship in the Orthodox liturgy? Fr. Andrew answers these and other questions generated from a previous podcast with inquirers, Matt and Kevin from the Charismatic Episcopal Church.
PART 2 - This is the second show in the question and answer series and Fr. Andrew tackles some of the questions that center around the Orthodox Church’s services and liturgy, why is the Orthodox Church different from other denominations, and the Idea of the Orthodox Church as a hospital.
FAITH ALONE - Fr Andrew say explicitly that the view that we can earn our salvation by works is anti-christian. So I believe that it is false to accuse Orthodox Christians of legalism. First of all, we do not believe we can earn our salvation. Secondly, the Church does not command people to do things, they recommend healing means in fatherly love. Lastly, we do not see salvation through a primarily courtroom metaphor as if salvation was mostly a declaration of amnesty or the bestowal of a legal status.
