How much of the world's nonsense did you buy this year for Christmas?

Today’s Gospel Reading: Luke 14:25-35 - At that time, great multitudes accompanied Jesus; and he turned and said to them, "If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build, and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends an embassy and asks terms of peace. So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? It is fit neither for the land nor for the dunghill; men throw it away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

Today is the fourth day of Christmas. Have you chosen to follow Christ or are you still a slave to the worldly things? Did you attend Liturgy for Christmas, or was your Christmas merely a celebration of gift-giving and family feasting around a decorated tree. Were you so “tired of Christmas” by the time December 25^th FINALLY arrived that you were glad to wake up on December 26^th so you could start packing up your decorations for next year? The world has much to say about how we “should” behave as citizens, but much of it is nonsense and should be ignored.

Your willingness to ignore the worldly advice is the essence of today’s Gospel reading. When Christ says, “If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life...” He is speaking about your willingness to ignore the secular advice the world was trying to sell you during the holidays. How much of the world’s nonsense did you buy this year?

Questions and Answers: Wedding Rings and the Meaning of Marriage

Did you know there was a reason why the Priest placed your wedding ring on your right hand? Are you one of the many who have changed your ring to your left hand to “fit in” to our American society? In this week’s episode of Be Transfigured! we will answer the question, “Why do Orthodox Christians wear their weddings on their right hand?” You may be inspired to change it back...if you have the courage. 

Being Christian in a Pluralistic Society Requires Love

We live in a post-modern, many suggest post-Christian world. Without doubt, we live in a secular and pluralistic society, which includes Christians of ALL denominations, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Atheists, Baha’i, Humanists, Wiccan, and many more I don’t know the name of. For centuries, Christians have been the recipients of legal protection of their way of life from governments of all sorts. But times are changing.

With the growing reality of our secular and pluralistic society, it has become fashionable to declare “Christian persecution” and “intolerance” of our Christian ideals. I can’t speak for everyone, but we must admit that there does exist persecution and intolerance, but is it warranted? Is it government sponsored? Just because a growing number of Americans believe that marriage should be redefined, doesn’t mean Christians are being persecuted. If anything, we are feeling the sting of no longer being the majority moral followers of our nation. I suppose that could “feel” like persecution, but it isn’t really.

Living in a world with other people requires a deeper Christian love than we might need living in a Christian compound.  As Christians we believe that God has given us free will, and with that free will, come consequences. As Saint Paul reminds us, “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful.” (1 Corinthians 6.12) Just because people have the free will to live their life, doesn’t mean their choices will be helpful in their relationship with God.

But I don’t want to write about other people today, I want to write about us, Orthodox Christians. WE are called to use our free will to live according to the commandments of God. WE are called by Christ to a life of holiness dedicated to God. “The body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 6.13) But most importantly, WE are called to love our neighbor as ourselves, and when we love, we have to allow the same free will that God allows.

Loving others doesn’t mean condoning or endorsing their behavior. It means that we allow them the same opportunity to exercise their free will that God has allowed to us. It also doesn’t mean forcing them to live according to our Christian way of life. The benefit of a so-called Christian society supporting our moral codes hasn’t been about us forcing our way of life upon others. It has been a result of mutual respect for a minority to live in a society based upon foreign moral standards, while remaining privately dedicated to their chosen way of life. And we are slowly becoming a minority.

Sexuality, while possibly the most popular moral shift of our times, is not the only difference in our moral codes, but since it is so popular, I use it as an example. There are many other morals standards which the Orthodox Church frowns upon that are upheld by our society, not the least of which is abortion. While we as Orthodox Christians teach against such behavior choices, we cannot lose sight of the fact, that until WE are forced to behave according to such standards, we are not being persecuted, even though such behaviors are endorsed and sanctioned by the society at large.

So how do we coexist in such an environment? As members of our society, we each have a say in the common moral codes of our society. This is the rich blessing of living in a democratic society. We cast our votes and debate in the public square, but once the votes have been cast, we agree to accept as lawful while not helpful, the decisions which we, in our private lives, would never endorse. This is not selling out. Rather, it is an expression of love to allow free will.

On the topic of same-sex marriage, it might sound like, “No, I don’t agree with same-sex marriage. I know it’s legal, but we don’t believe it is proper, but I can’t stop you for expressing your own free will.” I try to remind faithful Orthodox Christians all the time, “Legal does mean moral.”

But there is another difficulty in our coexistence. As with the recent attempt in Arizona to “protect religious freedom”, many confuse tolerance with acceptance. Part of this problem is a natural result of the western concept that certain sins are worse than others. In Orthodoxy, ALL SIN separates us from God. Whether someone falls to sexual sins, greed, gluttony, etc., ALL SIN is seen by God as against His will. So if we would “do business” with greedy fat people, we should be willing to “do business” with skinny gay people.

Again, Saint Paul has great advice,

“I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner -- not even to eat with such a person. For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges.” (1 Corinthains 5.9-13)

It isn’t a betrayal of Christian morals to photograph a gay marriage any more than it is to bake a cake for fat people.

Where this get’s a “little murky” might be IF you are in a certain profession in which you are required to PERSONALLY ACT in a way that is against the will of God. This is often the difficulty in medical circles in regard to abortion. So, until an Orthodox Christian Priest is ‘ordered’ to perform a same-sex marriage, the legal status of such marriages is not a matter of persecution.

Will it ever get to this point? I suspect it will. Jesus said,

“If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (John 15.19)

The day will eventually come when Christians are forced to act against Christ, and the blood of martyrs will once again flow through the streets. It is already happening in other nations. But until it does…remember what Jesus said,

“In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16.33)

Two Plus Two Equals Five; Really…..It Does

I live in a city filled with Bible studies. They take place mornings before work, afternoons during lunch, evenings after dinner, and just about every other throughout the day. They are lead by ordained and non-ordained pastors, pious men and women trained in regional seminaries, and otherwise faithful believing Christians that encourage the study of the Holy Scriptures. There are Bible studies just for men, just for women, just for seniors, just for “at home” moms, and any other subcategory you can think of. Oh….and I host an Orthodox Christian Bible study at our Church FOR ANYONE every week.

You might wonder what Bible study and first grade math have in common. Well, because there is such a plethora of Bible study options in Florence, several Orthodox Christian faithful who desire to learn the Scriptures, attend some of these Bible studies with their friends. Some also come to the Orthodox Christian Bible study, but not all. If you haven’t noticed, with more than 30,000 Christian, not every Christian Church interprets the Scriptures the same, and herein is the parallel.

If your children attended a math class with declared 2+2=5, you would IMMEDIATELY remove your children for fear they would learn incorrect math. You may still not see the comparison. What would do if that same math teacher insisted that 2+2=5, and then further insisted that you as parents were overreacting by removing your children? Right….you would remove them because EVERYONE knows 2+2=4, and refuse to allow your children to be influenced by ignorant math teachers.

It’s possible the reason you still don’t understand the comparison, is because, well, everyone DOES know that 2+2=4 and NOT 5. You can’t even imagine otherwise, and when you think of the Bible, you can’t imagine Churches would teach something wrong. You may even say to yourself, (I’ve actually heard it) “Well, at least they’re learning the Bible.” So, why not react to math facts with the same open-mindedness? I suspect it is because you don’t think there is only ONE interpretation of the Scriptures, so why get so worked up about it.

The reality is, with over 30,000 denominations of Christianity, EVERY Church thinks they are correct in their interpretation of the Scriptures. Let’s face it. There wouldn’t be over 30,000 denominations if everyone agreed. As Orthodox Christians, we believe other Churches do not teach the complete truth about Jesus Christ, His Church, His way of life, the Holy Apostles, Church History OR Doctrine. So why would we trust our children (or adult family and friends) to a Bible study that is not the complete truth?

Let me offer an example. For more than two years, a man was attending the Orthodox Christian Bible study in my parish. He almost never missed a week. I would watch him week after week nodding his head in agreement with what I taught. One evening, I mentioned to his friend who was a parishioner of mine, to be “on the lookout for confusion” of his friend. He wouldn’t be able to continue to balance the truth being taught in my Bible study and the “truth” he was hearing from his pastor. The very next day, the friend received a call, “I can’t accept what your Priest is saying. My pastor says he’s wrong.” And we never saw him again. From the Orthodox Christian point-of-view of course, the pastor was wrong rather than the Church. It was as if the pastor was saying, “2+2=5, REALLY….don’t believe that Priest who is trying to tell you 2+2=4.”

It’s about time we start to insist with equal zeal that our children (or adult family and friends) learn the truth about Jesus Christ from the Church. It might not be as clear as 2+2, but it is eternally more important.

Politicizing Morality – Good, Bad, or Unavoidable?

By definition, morality is a communal agreement about behavior or attitude, and by definition, is relative to a particular group. For example, one group agrees to share the use of a local pond. By agreement, the pond can only be used for swimming and fishing, but no powered vehicles are allowed. By definition, then, it becomes immoral to boat on the pond. If someone wants to use their boat, he must either defy the moral code by boating, or politic to change the moral code to allow boating. It’s during the politicking process, that I’m concerned with for this blog post.

The process of arguing morals within a particular group, can take a variety of tangents. But the common thread is, one person (or several/many people) wants to engage in a behavior that another person (or other people) believes to be against the agreed morality. And so the debate is engaged, and the group is divided into the boaters and the swimmers, the fishers and the players, the environmentally conscious and the polluters. Every member of the group is forced to align with one side or another of the debate, each for their own reason.

As the debate rages on, the common goal of the group (in this case, the use of the pond) is forgotten in exchange for the goal of winning the debate. Once this happens, the division of the group is complete – winners and losers. NOBODY wants to be a loser, so the debate degrades further into name calling and bullying. At this point, oftentimes, the boaters (the ones who originally desired to alter the moral) take matters into their own hands and, boldly violate the moral code causing further division of the group into law abiding and law breaking. Then comes sanctions followed by sympathizers who just want to keep the peace. The debate has become personal and THIS MEANS WAR!

I purposefully used the common use of a local pond to outline exactly what is happening in our nation about a variety of topics. I was asked recently for advice about how an Orthodox Christian should “function” within their work environment while such debates are occurring within the office. The example given was in regard to “non discrimination policies” and what categories should be included. The initial thought of the Orthodox Christian was simple, and genuine. “We do not discriminate! Why isn’t that enough?”

The reason it isn’t enough has to do with boaters and swimmers. As a society, we discriminate ALL THE TIME. (Think local pond) Society is a group of people who have agreed to discriminate based upon certain categories. Yes, we DO discriminate every day. We discriminate “against” pedophiles, bank robbers, short people, tall people, skinny people, fat people, married people, single people, gangbangers, polluters, dog walkers, dog owners…..you get the point. It isn’t that we don’t discriminate, but HOW we discriminate. The moral code – the agreement of the group – is what we are debating, and currently there is a growing agreement that certain characteristics should be included in the “not allowed” category.

Just like the local pond, we each have aligned ourselves with a particular group for our own personal reasons. And just like the local pond, the debate has degraded into personal attacks and NOW we are either haters or sympathizers. So, how do we “function” as Orthodox Christian within this environment? I suggest we consider Saint Paul’s advice:

 I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner -- not even to eat with such a person. For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore "put away from yourselves the evil person." (1 Corinthians 5.9-13)

If we heed the advice of Saint Paul, we will remember the proper focus during the constant debate of society morals. We are held to a higher standard as members of the Church. We participate in the process only so far as we are able to avoid the degradation of the process into haters and sympathizers. However, just like our local pond, I believe the degradation is unavoidable.

Whether the topic is discrimination policies, marriage, property rights, immigration status, it really doesn’t matter. The process is the same and continuous. The boaters will eventually be allowed to use the local pond, simply because the swimmers don’t want to be considered haters. And they will find another place to swim, until someone wants to go boating. THEN…the whole process will start all over again.

Too Much Focus on Gay Marriage

Gay marriage is the “civil rights movement” of our day it seems. Everywhere you turn around, the question of same-sex marriage is being battled in the media, courts, and legislative chambers of our Nation. If you ask me, which of course you didn’t, it’s all a bit too much.

There are plenty of examples of marriage in which the Orthodox Church doesn’t participate:

1. 4^th, 5^th, 6^th, 7^th, 8^th, etc Marriage are forbidden by the Church
2. Marriage between first, second and in many cases third cousins is forbidden by the Church
3. Marriage between “God-siblings” is forbidden by the Church
4. Marriage between an Orthodox Christian and a non-Christian is forbidden by the Church
5. Marriage between two Orthodox Christians OUTSIDE the Church is forbidden by the Church
6. Oh yeah….and same-sex marriage is forbidden by the Church

There are also examples of marriage in which the Orthodox Church doesn’t even bother to acknowledge because it takes place outside the spiritual boundaries of the Orthodox Church.

1. Any marriage in a courtroom performed by a “Justice of the Peace”
2. Marriage between two non Orthodox Christians
3. Marriage between a Christian and a non Christian
4. Marriage between two non Christians
5. Oh yeah…..and same-sex marriage performed in a non Orthodox Church

While I do believe the question of marriage to be a major spiritual struggle within our society, I don’t believe it is prudent for the Church to become vigilant on the question of same-sex marriage, as it will just be another marriage the Church either forbids or refuses to recognize. When the time of national recognition arrives, which it will, the Church will simply “get out of the legal marriage license” business. We’ve done that before and we can do that again.

Orthodox Christian spirituality has always been deeper focused than on any one particular sin, excluding blasphemy against the Holy Spirit of course, so we would do well to remember our Sacred Tradition. The Orthodox Christian way of life is beyond the realm of societal approval or trends, because it is a way of life based upon the Heavenly Kingdom. We would do well to keep our attention on those members inside the Church who, unfortunately are being taken captive by secularists and humanists, and remind them of our need to overcome our passions, and to live in communion with our Lord.

We need to stand up for the Church, within the Church, as a growing number of “members” have sided with the society on many moral questions. I’m not sure it is because they have actually chosen to reject the Church, so much as they have fallen trap to a constant and very well strategized effort from outside the Church to convince them the Church is out of touch. The Church has allowed the society to shape the argument and form the premise without engaging our own members in an authentic spiritual struggle. It’s time to speak the broader truth of our spiritual struggle, and to stop allowing the society to drag us into the pit.

It isn’t about same-sex marriage being more fair; it’s about life NOT being about sex.

What does it mean to be a Church?

I have many times in this blog suggested a goal for revitalizing the Church in our lives as Orthodox Christians. I realized, having said that, many not know what I mean by Church, so I have decided to dedicate the February Newsletter to the theme of “Church” and what it means for us practically speaking. How does it affect our daily lives? And quite frankly, why should we care?

It is no secret the Church has changed over the past several decades. We “see” and “feel” the difference on a weekly basis, so I will begin with the obvious fact. WE ARE NOT THE SAME COMMUNITY we were fifty years ago, and I don’t just mean the actual people. The Church is the Body of Christ, made up of individual people, like you and me, jointly working out our salvation. As a community, we gather for prayer and worship as we, together as a united body, struggle to live in communion with Jesus Christ. So it is no surprise that we are different today than we were fifty years ago. We have different struggles that keep us from our Lord.

Fifty years ago, many Orthodox families were focused on establishing themselves in a new world. The Church was a safe place to gather as Orthodox people, considered exotic by most and even strange by others. The Church was a place we could be comfortable being Orthodox – fasting, having Holy Icons in our homes, celebrating weddings, baptisms and funerals, and coming to Church for the Divine Liturgy. We celebrated birthdays, wedding anniversaries and namedays AS A COMMUNITY. We depended upon our Church for our spiritual AND our social life.

Today, our families have long since been established. Even new families have been welcomed as “our  extended families” by the American culture. Today, as many non-Orthodox friends can be found at birthdays and anniversaries as Church members. Today, our families are no longer considered strange and exotic, but respected members of society. We now have a new struggle. We live in a society in which Orthodox Christianity has less in common than ever before. Fifty years ago we lived in a society that was at its core, Christian. Today, we live in a society that encourages same-sex marriage, while arguing that the traditional understanding of gender (males and females) is no longer relevant. The Christian morality is tolerated by most, but persecuted by some. But we still need the Church.

The Church continues to be a place we can feel safe being Orthodox, but TODAY we must teach our children that our society considers our morality wrong. The Church continues to be a place where we struggle to overcome our sinfulness and grow closer to Jesus Christ, but TODAY we must teach our children that our society considers our idea of sin “outdated.” The Church continues to be a place where help each other find Jesus Christ, but TODAY we must teach our children that our society places individual happiness above communal interconnectedness.

I suppose as many things have changed in our Church, one thing has remained the same. We are still considered strange, but now for different reasons. Through all these decades, the Church has never abandoned us. It has remained here for us to gather as Orthodox Christians so that we could safely, and according to our own Sacred Traditions, follow Christ. What does it mean to be a Church? Being a Church means we are dedicated to living in communion with God, and helping each other struggle to overcome the temptations and distractions of daily life, so we can find Jesus Christ. And that will never change.

There are “some” things in life I just don’t understand…

I know this is football playoff season. I know football fans across the nation are boasting the talent and prowess of their respective teams. I ‘even’ know that the Super Bowl is only a few short weeks from yesterday. No, this isn’t a football post. I’m just using football as an illustration about a trend I find completely baffling.

I just do understand how someone can know so much “meaningless” detail about something such as “insert sport here” and so little about the Church they claim is important. Insult someone about their pro sports team, and they respond as if you were insulting their mother. I actually do this, especially during Super Bowl season, just to expose the lunacy of sports mania. What would happen I wonder if their Church were under the same slanderous attack…

In fact, the Church IS under attack every day, and it isn’t ‘only’ by Satan, although he is at the root of all attacks against the Church. Every day, the Church is being attacked by Christians who judge Orthodoxy either as pagan because of Sacred Icons, or for being out of touch and bigoted because of our moral stance on marriage and family. And how do members of the Church respond?

This is where I get confused. JUST LIKE pro sports, when someone attacks the Church, her members defend her with zeal, proudly displaying their icons (albeit hidden from public view) in their homes and business. But UNLIKE pro sports, there seems to be no true allegiance beyond the verbal defense. Pro sports fans spend hours watching their teams, and studying the rules of the game. They even know the most trivial statistics of players they have NEVER met in person.

How do members show their allegiance to their Church? Most of us know very LITTLE of Church history. Most of us have no clue as to the “rules” of the Church, unless we are declaring how wrong the rules we “think” we know might be in our minds, although in my personal experience, the rules we “think” we know, are in fact NOT RULES or even statements of the Church. But when we learn of the truth, we shrug the information off as unnecessary.

I mentioned this wasn’t a football post. The trend I’m concerned about is how we, as members of the Church, have allowed certain idols to replace God in our daily lives. Idols don’t have to be golden statues. They can be:

• Sports
• Money
• Outdoor Recreation
• Physical Fitness
• Prestige
• All sorts of hobbies
• Politics

The trend I find so confusing, is how we have allowed so many activities to replace God as priorities in our lives. Sure, we “say” God and His Church are important in our lives, but when our allegiance requires more than just a few words in defense, our commitment runs short. I wish I knew why…

Monastics

The 40 Days of Blogging Challenge has asked us to blog about this important, yet often ignored, component to the Orthodox way of life. Monasticism is an ancient way of life that evolved out of the freedom granted ultimately by the Edict of Milan in 313. With the ending of often violent forms of persecution, many felt the need to separate themselves from the world as an offering and martyrdom for God. As the persecution, which led to martyrdom, offered the faithful an opportunity to be inspired by the faith and dedication of the martyrs, monasticism offered a similar level, albeit no unto death, of inspiration to the faithful who were struggling to maintain their Orthodox way of life in the world.

Over the centuries, monasticism has, due to its separation from the world, been able to assist the Church maintain the fervor of Orthodoxy without being “watered down” by the worldly influences. As a reader of this blog, you know my commitment to guiding Orthodox faithful to rebuilding a real practice of their faith. Thus, the subtitle of my blog, “Live a New Life in Christ,” so I am pleased to address this important topic of monasticism.

In the Church ecclesiology following the Edict of Milan, with the establishment of Monasticism, a dual ecclesiology developed which the Church referred to as “Monastic Rite” and the “Cathedral (or city Church) Rite” as two valid expression of the Orthodox way of life. BOTH were valid and BOTH were honored by the Church, and BOTH had their proper place in the greater ecclesiastical scene. It would not have been proper for monastics, for example, to enter into a city Church and expect the exact form of religious practice to take place as they would experience in the monastery. It would have also been improper for a city Priest to enter a monastery and expect the same experience.

This, I believe, is the single greatest difficulty in the contemporary Church, especially in America since there are very few monasteries, relatively speaking. It has become fashionable for monastics, or laity who may attend monasteries, to belittle the practices of the city Church as somehow lacking in spirituality. Likewise, many in the city comment about the fanaticism of the monastics. This tension is not always a good thing in an environment when the faithful are under constant attack by the devil and struggling in the society.

I think there is a blessing available for every lay member of the Church to visit an Orthodox Monastery as a spiritual retreat. It is in the monasteries, not bound by the secular limitations and expectations of the society, where every Orthodox Christian can leave the world behind, if even for a day, and devote that day to prayer and communion with God. Even the Lord went off to pray every now and then. Having said that, however, I’m not sure a monastic who is not completely aware of the daily struggle of “the city folk” are able to offer the most nuanced spiritual advice outside of the monastery. It isn’t impossible, as there have been many holy monastics, through whom the grace of God has been present, but not every monastic in a holy elder.

There is also a blessing when a monastic travels to a city Church to offer the witness of a pious and faithful Orthodox way to dedicate an entire life to God. It is still possible to “pray without ceasing” as Saint Paul urges every Christian. The Monastic way of life is not always possible for someone living and working in the world, but monastics can serve a vital role in the constant prayer of the Church.

So there should exist a mutual benefit between the city Church and the monastery, but we must remember that they are both valid expressions of Orthodox Christianity. It is not proper to expect a monastery in the city, nor is it proper to expect a city spirituality at the monastery.

This post is written for the 40 Days of Blogging Challenge sponsored by the Preachers Institute. You may find other blogs participating in this challenge. I hope you enjoy this year’s Advent journey.

Christmas Trees or Holiday Trees?

I’ve been on a kick this week. With all the emphasis on Christmas decorations, I’ve begun to notice something I never really placed much attention on before. First, I MUST say I have NOTHING against Christmas Trees. I know some Orthodox Christians have a BIG problem with the, but I am not one of them. The Mystagogy Blog has a entire Christmas Resource Page which includes articles on Christmas Trees. I HIGHLY suggest reading through these if you happen to be one who does not approve of Christmas Trees. Of course, there is a difference between not having a Christmas Tree and REFUSING to have a Christmas Tree. I would hope you understand the difference.

It’s isn’t the Christmas Tree directly that is the target of my kick this week. It is so-called Christmas decorations in general I’ve been taking notice of. I’ve noticed that there seems to be no difference between the way we decorate our homes and the decorations at the mall, which quite publicly many times refuse to use the term Christmas. Other than the decorations for sale, I have been hard-pressed to catch any glimpse of a genuine Christmas message within the decorations. They are quite beautiful, but they are quite general.

Red and green ribbons, stunning glittery bows, sparkling lights, shining silver and gold ornaments, but hardly anywhere a reference to Jesus Christ. I don’t blame the malls actually, since they are public gathering places in a pluralistic society of Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, along with secularists, deists, and atheists. BUT there should be a difference in the decorations in our home.

I challenge you to take an honest and objective view of your Christmas decorations and ask yourself, “Is there any difference between our decorations and the mall?” Ribbons, lights, bows, wreaths, even decorated trees can be used to beautify any home for ANY season. But we’re supposed to be decorating for Christmas. Do your decorations include icons of the Nativity or Jesus Christ? Do your ribbons express the traditional Orthodox Christian greeting, “Christ is Born; Glorify Him!” or season’s greetings? If the answer is “no,” then maybe you have shopping mall decorations in your home rather than Christmas decorations.

You may think my kick isn’t a big deal, but if a non-believer cannot tell the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian, whether our morals, our actions, or our decorations, then we are we really allowing the Light of Christ to shine or just fitting into the crowd.

This post is written for the 40 Days of Blogging Challenge sponsored by the Preachers Institute. You may find other blogs participating in this challenge. I hope you enjoy this year’s Advent journey.