No Thanks Hollywood, You Can Keep Your son of god

The new movie The Son of God opens in theaters today…

I make no secrets about my dislike for “the Hollywood agenda” when it comes to the moral direction our society continues to engage. But when it comes to movies about Jesus and His Church, I can no longer sit quietly under the guise of, “at least they’re talking about Jesus,” without offering a serious warning.

The Orthodox Church throughout history has fought courageously to maintain the truth about who we know Jesus Christ to be, as that truth was revealed by the Holy Spirit to the Holy Apostles. We have defended the truth of Orthodoxy down to single letters when the meaning of who Jesus was and is might be misunderstood by the faithful. We have maintained this truth, “once and for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1.3) through the holy and sacred tradition of the Church.

We would not sit quietly when Arius spoke falsely of Christ, and we cannot sit quietly when contemporary “theologians” under the guise of producing Hollywood blockbuster movies, as these movies are often times fictional representations of the Gospels and early history of the Church. This is nothing new, of course, as Hollywood has a long tradition of altering history for big screen for affect, while defending their actions in “the name of entertainment,” and warning viewers they are not responsible for educating our children.

I remember growing up being warned, “You can’t trust a movie with the facts. You have to read the book!” Teachers were, and probably still are, very good at forming questions that required knowledge of the book rather than just the movie. We can all think of movies where multiple characters from the book were blended into single portrayals on the big screen. So what makes us think this is not also happening when the Bible is produced on the big screen?

The reading of Scriptures is a crucial part of every Christian’s spiritual journey, but there are verses which don’t flow well, for the big screen. If movies were limited to just the written verses, the classic “Ten Commandments” would have been much shorter a movie and Charlton Heston would have been much less famous. I noticed the last time I watched the movie, (and I LOVE the movie) I had my Bible open. What was said in two verses in my bible was more than thirty minutes on the screen. How? Fiction and fantasy is the only way.

But it isn’t only the fictional additions that we must be concerned with. The Orthodox Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, has been interpreting the Holy Scriptures since they were first written (speaking specifically of the New Testament) and the Sacred Tradition requires us to “stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.” (2 Thessalonians 2.15) We must be extremely careful anytime we hear the Holy Scriptures interpreted by anyone, including within the Church. Are the interpretations consistent with the Teachings of the Holy Apostles? Are they in line with the understanding of the Church Fathers, who themselves were loyal to the teachings of the Holy Apostles when they first sanctioned the Bible with Canonical Authority.

If you plan to watch this new movie about Jesus, or Noah opening March 28^th, then I caution you to sit with your spiritual father afterward about what the movie teaches. The visual impact of the movie will make it difficult for you to “forget” the incorrect teachings in favor of the Church, but prayer and the guidance of the Holy Spirit will help as well.

I suppose, from my vantage point, these two movies might comprise a new attack on the Church, since they are being released during the Great Lenten journey while we are seeking a closer relationship with God. Many will flock to the movie theater “seeking a deeper relationship” rather than finding it in the Church. What they are likely to find is partial truth and fantasy about a god who is not the same as The God who revealed Himself to the Church.

So……You Think You’re Special?

I often encounter faithful Christians who share their frustration about the temptations in their lives. Many faithful Christians also question why they struggle in life. There seems to be belief, unfounded in Sacred Tradition and the Holy Scriptures, in which faithful Christians shouldn’t be tempted nor suffer. This myth is perpetuated by “The Prosperity Gospel” which suggests that God desires for His followers to be comfortable and prosper in worldly fashion. Preachers such as Joel Osteen fill huge arenas filling people with hopes of future comforts and worldly success. Just believe God wants it for you, and you will achieve it….so they preach.  And when the believer doesn’t become rich or they suffer what they consider an “injustice” from God, the cause is their lack of faith and positive thinking. And all along, the preacher becomes wealthy in the process.

Some cannot deal with the pressure of suffering in a world they are told they should not be suffering. Many turn to drugs and alcohol for comfort, or a life of moral decay and financial collapse. When they hit rock bottom, if they survive the decline, the preachers are gone and offer nothing but, “You didn’t have enough faith.” They have nowhere to turn, so they think, and finally become angry with God for letting them down.

It is at that moment when I ask, “What makes you think you’re so special that you shouldn’t suffer?” This may sound tough, but it was self-oriented advice that brought them to this low place to begin with, and just as a drug addict must be shocked into sobriety, I have found (in my experience) that selfish addict requires the same shock treatment. “After all,” I say, “Jesus was tempted and suffered. Do you REALLY think you’re better than Him? Do you REALLY think YOU deserve not to suffer, but He did?”

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. (Matthew 4.1-2)Then they spat in His face and beat Him; and others struck Him with the palms of their hands. (Matthew 26.67

Some will say to me, “Sure, but that was Jesus. He could handle it because He’s God.” Then I remind them Christians have been suffering all along.

Have you suffered so many things in vain -- if indeed it was in vain? (Galatians 3.4)For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans, who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they do not please God and are contrary to all men. (1 Thessalonians 2.14-15)

So Jesus Christ and His Church have suffered and were tempted to help us.

For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted. (Hebrews 2.18)

You may be in the midst of a great struggle, or you have just completed a great struggle and “licking your wounds” looking back and wondering why it all took place. You may be tempted to blame God for your struggle. You may be tempted to think you deserve better in life because you believe in Jesus Christ. You may believe Jesus let you down. Please keep this in mind…..you are TEMPTED to believe these things about God, because someone doesn’t want you to know the truth.

The truth is; you don’t deserve better, not because you’re bad, but because nobody deserves better.

The truth is; nobody deserves God’s love, but He loves you anyway.

The truth is; you will suffer, and God didn’t make you suffer, but He is holding your hand right now.

The truth is; God has NEVER left you.

We are all in the same boat. We “all fall short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3.23) but He loves us anyway. You’re not special, but you are one of us. Join us and we can struggle together.

On the Eighth Day of Christmas – The Circumcision of Christ and Sacred Tradition

And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the Child, His name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. Luke 2.21 

A few days ago I came across a Washington Post article about the Jewish Rite of Circumcision, and more specifically, the growing “but small” number of Jews rejecting the practice. I particularly found this article intriguing as we Orthodox were about to commemorate the Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. How could it be, I wondered, that Jews would so boldly reject the earliest Covenant with God? So I read the article, and found it answered my question. This “small number” of Jews weren’t rejecting God; they were embracing secularism which rejects tradition based upon Faith.

Here are some excerpts from the article…

Speaking with God, the 37-year-old screenwriter and grandson of Holocaust survivors explained he was using the “free will and brain you gave me” to reject circumcision. God, he concluded, wouldn’t be impressed by the desire to do something simply “for tradition’s sake.”

 Several factors are fueling the trend, including growing secular discomfort with the practice, mixed data on medical necessity and an American culture increasingly open to reinterpreting religious practices and texts.

 “Because the American Jewish community is significantly educated, they’re more likely to do organic and wanting everything to be natural and snugly, and a bris is sort of primal and ancient,”

 “We live in a more cosmopolitan world, and Jewish families have become very intercultural,” said Biber. “For those families, a ceremony which regards Jewish males as privileged seems problematic, to put it mildly.”

 I found the final paragraph the most telling, as it captures why this issue isn’t trivial.

When it comes to religious evolution, she asks, “Where is the line? At what point is it no longer Judaism? Each choice distinguishes Jews, and it’s a slippery slope.”

If Jews are no longer Jews, ‘just so’ they fit into a secular world, which means they no longer consider themselves as God’s Chosen People, although I doubt they would agree to this point.

Living in a secular world has its challenges. We Orthodox Christians face a similar problem when it comes to living our Orthodox Christian life. It is becoming strange and even ‘exotic’ to be Orthodox Christian in our contemporary world. Many of our faithful aren’t comfortable allowing their faith to ‘show’ beyond their membership card for fears that they may be ostracized by their friends. We, like the Jews in this article, desperately desire to fit in to the society around them.

But God has called us to another way of life.

Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16.24-26)

 If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. "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. "Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. (John 15.18-20)

If following the Sacred Traditions of Orthodox Christianity seem unnecessary, as this “small but growing number of Jews” feel about circumcision, consider the words of Saint Paul.

Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle. (2 Thessalonians 2.15)

Following the Sacred Traditions of the Holy Apostles, handed to us by the Holy Fathers and protected by the Church for twenty centuries, is not always the easy way, but it IS the Holy Way of life which leads to eternal life with God in Heaven. So a few neighbors see you as being strange; God sees you as being loyal and faithful. Which do you want to please?

Is Jesus Returning Soon or not?

2013 New Testament Challenge – Day 20 (Reflections on 1 & 2 Thessalonians)

Every year I participate in a special effort called the New Testament Challenge sponsored by a priest of the Orthodox Church in America. He encourages Christians to spend the Christmas Fast, also known as Advent) reading the entire New Testament as a preparation for Christmas. Each year I have done this, it has been blessing to me and I pray this year will be no different. As part of the New Testament Challenge, I endeavor to blog a bit about the reading for that particular day. I may miss a few, but I pray for those who follow this blog (NOW ALSO ON FACEBOOK) it will be a blessing.

Two things, though interrelated, struck me as worthy of today’s blog while I was reading for the New Testament Challenge. The first, though not very profound, is that it seems Christians have ALWAYS struggled to live free of sin.

Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God  for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit. (1 Thessalonians 4.1-8)

But while it may be true that Christians seem to have ALWAYS struggled with sins, especially sexual immorality, that does not mean that the early Church, and especially Saint Paul, did not consider these sins to worthy of stopping. In other words, just because everyone did it, didn’t mean the Church accepted it as “ok” or acceptable for the Christian life. To make this point extremely clear, Saint Paul said,

But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary in doing good. And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. (2 Thessalonians 3.13-15)

If the early Church had considered certain behaviors, such as sexual immorality and greed, as acceptable “just because” everyone struggled with those sins, There wouldn’t be as bold a warning against those who “didn’t obey” Saint Paul’s teaching. Of course we can’t ignore that the overall teaching of Saint Paul didn’t include perfection. He knew well that many would fall short. Rather, he emphasized the importance of the EFFORT and acknowledgment that certain behaviors were not appropriate for Christians.

This practice extended into the later centuries of the Church when Holy Canons were written to forbid Christians from pursuing certain professions because, by association, certain professions (acting for example) exalted a lifestyle not keeping true to Christian morals. We could, and I might suggest we will again soon, begin enforcing such prohibitions in the near future. How difficult is it to maintain Orthodox Christian morals WHILE being a Hollywood actor or Nashville, singer. There have always been, and will most likely be, professions in which Christians shouldn’t participate.

I find many contemporary Christians “endorsing” certain behaviors as non-sinful just because they have always existed. For a Christian to embrace sin because there has always been sin, would be suggesting that Christ did not call us to a higher moral standard, albeit when we fall along the climb.

The second thing that struck me today was the emphasis on the end times. It would seem that the Thessalonians were a bit preoccupied with the return of Christ, to the point of anxiety.

Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. (2 Thessalonians 2.1-4)

We know the early Church believed Christ would return within their lifetime, but here Saint Paul is reminding them that certain things must occur first. For me the most disturbing element is the, “falling away” that must come before Christ returns. The Church spends much energy in growing the Church, both personal spiritual growth as well as corporate Church growth. And yet, there is growing evidence that many Churches, and Orthodox Church are not exempt from this either, are declining in attendance and participation. Does that mean we are “in the falling away” and that Christ will return soon?

If it does mean that Jesus is coming quickly, at least maybe we will once again, as the early Church, live as if we will witness His return. Then, maybe, just maybe, we will take seriously our need for repentance and FINALLY get ready for Him.

Until tomorrow…..take an inventory of your moral compass and ask yourself, “Is my life what Saint Paul would approve?” If it isn’t, consider what you might put into action to correct it before it’s too late.