This is a picture of the girls decorating Christmas ornaments at the Museum of Russian Icons in nearby Clinton (about 12 miles door-to-door from Sts. Anargyroi).  Last Saturday was “Family Day” at the museum and it was pretty cool – in addition to the usual exhibits there were ornament and cookie decorating stations as well as story readings and tours.  Our visit was partially a reconnaissance mission – next year we will definitely make this a church outing for our youth.

When I pick up a dictionary and look up a word I usually end up jumping from one entry to another and what should take twenty seconds becomes five or ten minutes.  Usually another word will catch my eye, I will read the definition, and then think of something else to look up.  This was especially fun when I was growing up because our house had an old Webster’s with a “Pronouncing Gazetteer” as well as a “Historical People” (or something like that) section – you have no idea how much fun this was for an only child who loved to read.  Nowadays I mostly look up words online.  My Nook Color even has a feature where I can press a word and I have the option of looking it up in a dictionary or on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is far from perfect, but it is a good jumping off point for things and I do find it useful.  The internet as a whole is great for the kind of adventures I would have with a dictionary, and Wikipedia is no exception.  I was reading the epistles of John and Jude today (I am catching up on my 2011 New Testament Challenge reading) and I got to wondering which epistle was the shortest book in the Bible – clearly it was II or III John.  Well, I immediately looked it up on Wikipedia.  III John has the fewest words while II John has the fewest verses.  I will go with III John as the winner.  My ramblings took me to this cool page – non-canonical books referenced in the Bible.  Great stuff.

I should add a corollary to the above.  Books that never made it into the Bible and that sort of thing are fascinating and have much to offer but I always encourage people to resist the fascination until they are fully familiar with the Bible, which we as Orthodox Christians should know inside and out.  This came up when The Da Vinci Code was a best-seller.  I had many people asking me about other Gospel narratives and that sort of thing.  That stuff is great if you are already familiar with scripture – we need a reference point.  I say the same to people who approach me with an interest in the Qur’an – get your Bible down and then knock yourself out.  Incidentally, the short Johannine epistles got me to thinking of the short passages in the Qur’an.  The Islamic holy book is set up from longest sura to shortest, with the shortest being only about three lines.  You can read about it here (I prefer the Yusuf Ali translation both in this case and in general – for my M.Div. thesis I did my own translations that largely mirrored Ali’s).

In the past few days we have had the deaths of three prominent people – Christopher Hitchens, Kim Jong Il, and Vaclav Havel.  All will be remembered, for different reasons.  I am out of gas – more tomorrow…

His Eminence gave the sermon below after vespers last Sunday night for the feast of St. Spyridon.  Please pass it around:

Christmas Reflection 2011

Beloved in the Lord,

“And the Logos became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).

On Christmas day, the Church proclaims to humanity the good tidings of the birth of the Savior who is “Light of Light, True God of True God, begotten not created… who, “for us men and our salvation came down from heaven and was Incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man” (Confession of Faith).

Holy Scripture, the hymnology of the Church, and the Orthodox Christian icon help us to focus on this, the greatest of mysteries. “He who knows no beginning now begins to be, and the Logos is made flesh” (Doxastikon of Christmas Orthros).The Divine Logos, “He who by nature is invisible is seen today in the flesh”. “He lowered the heavens and came down to fashion corrupt Adam anew” (hymns from the Lity authored by John the monk).

St. Paul writing to the Galatians proclaims that God sent forth His Son, “so that we may receive adoption as Sons” (4,5). To the Romans, he speaks of the consequences of this salvific miracle: “If we are children of God, then we are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:17).

Studying the icon of the Nativity, we learn that Christmas is a Paschal mystery which culminates in the passion, death and Resurrection of Christ. The Incarnate Savior is seen in a sepulcher–shaped manger. He is wrapped in a winding burial cloth foreshadowing His repose in a sepulcher hewn from rock following his Crucifixion (Luke 23:53). The infant Jesus is not placed in a cradle, but on an altar of sacrifice symbolizing His death. The icon of the Nativity, however, points beyond darkness and death. A brilliant ray of light and an image of a dove pierce the darkness of the cave to symbolize the presence of the Holy Spirit. Above is the hand of the Father, the source of life. On the altar lies the incarnate Christ. In the poverty and misery of a manger, the three persons of the Holy Trinity appear. God is present and makes Himself known.

It is of paramount importance for us “to arise and behold the divine condescension from on high that is made manifest to us.” (Sticheron of the Sixth Hour). This is indeed difficult. The obstacles to Christian faith and practice raised by secular culture have unquestionably affected our lives. We are immersed in an environment beset by cynicism, apathy and selfishness — in a society that has lost its spiritual roots. Our culture has no time to reflect upon the “reason for the season.” It is reported that 98% of the references in various media highlight the impact of Christmas on the economy, on travel, on retail sales, etc. Few stories refer to the Son of God. Sadly, the media is only part of our culture which is determined to push Christ out of our sphere of interest. Public and private schools throughout America have removed references to Christmas from the classroom. The lyrics of traditional Christmas songs have been changed. ‘Silent Night’ has been changed to “Cold in the Night”. “We wish you a Merry Christmas” has been changed to “We wish you a swinging holiday.”

Under the influence of hedonistic consumerism, Christmas has lost its true meaning. Recently, shoppers filled retail department stores beginning at midnight in what has come to be known as “Black Friday”. Regrettably, some individuals — armed with pepper spray cans! — proved that they knew the price of everything and the value of nothing. The wisdom of the world claims that happiness comes from what you own, how much money or influence you have, how important other people think you are. St Paul reminds us that we celebrate the birth of Him who, “through he was rich, yet for your (our) sake became poor, so that by his poverty you (we) may become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). We celebrate the birth of Him who asks us,“what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? (Matthew 16:26)

Christmas has always disturbed the conscience of the materialistic world. It has always challenged those who are on a frantic race to enrichment at all cost. It has always challenged those individuals whose selfishness and greed exploit the dignity and rights of their fellow human beings.

My brothers and sisters,

This Christmas, let us pause from the hustle and bustle of our daily routines to be alone with God. To pray. To read Holy Scripture. To read and reflect upon the beautiful hymns of our church which help us to focus on the Christmas miracle. Let us turn off our radios and televisions, our IPhones and IPads and everything else that is electronic. Let us hear the voices of the archangels proclaiming the birth of the Savior. Let us close our eyes to the blinding lights of the world so that we may see the light emanating from the cave in Bethlehem.

May that light radiate in our hearts and enlighten our minds this Christmas and every day of the New Year 2012.

With Archpastoral love

in the Incarnate Lord,

M E T H O D I O S

Metropolitan of Boston

A few years ago I was at the Jewish Home in Worcester visiting someone and took the stairs at the same time as a young man who turned out to be a devout Jew.  We had a great discussion about riding elevators on the Sabbath – it was an issue he struggled with but ultimately he decided he would ride the elevator if someone else was getting on (his job there had him constantly going up and down to different floors).  I thought of him yesterday when I encountered this sign at Children’s Hospital in Boston – they have embraced the idea of a “Sabbath Elevator”, which in a very small way brings a little comfort to some of the people who work and/or have children who are patients there:

Tonight was the last WPI Blues Jam featuring Liquid Fuel of the semester, and was also the last featuring the current configuration of the band.  Drummer Rob is leaving the area and so we will see how things work out.  Here is the set list from tonight, as best as I can figure out (there were several random jams thrown in – this is an attempt at listing songs that were played):

Born Under A Bad Sign

Yellow Ledbetter

Hoochie Coochie Man

Mustang Sally

Gotta Serve Somebody

Sympathy

Dirty Dishes

The Thrill Is Gone

Willie The Wimp

Run Run Rudolph

Pride & Joy

I often refer on this blog to certain clergy as mentors, and today I was thinking of a mentor whom I knew only fleetingly but who made a tremendous impression on me in my Virginia days and I think of him from time to time.  I knew him as Pastor Johnson, a preacher who had been a client of the law firm I worked at for many years before my seminary days.  Pastor Johnson (who has been deceased now for some years) was a client of the firm back in the day when blacks and whites lived separately in Charlottesville, and few attorneys would represent blacks.  I remember meeting him and he asked me my interests.  I mentioned theology and said something about how it was not a real science or something like that; he responded “it is the _only _ exact science.” He was diminutive in stature but everything he said was a supreme profundity – I remember another great quote – “I study hermeneutics, the study of that which is not there”, as he put it – a very intriguing definition!

When I told him I was Greek Orthodox, Pastor Johnson told me a fascinating story.  Back in the day a black couple (parishioners of Pastor J.)  had gone to a Greek-owned restaurant for a meal.  The proprietor told them that he was sorry but he couldn’t serve them because he would get in trouble with the law.  As the pastor told it, he emphasized that the restauranteur was nice and apologetic – he was not some demented racist – he just didn’t want to get in trouble.  Pastor Johnson went to visit the Greek priest and told him what had happened.  The priest at the time – I think this was the early to mid sixties – told him to tell the couple to return to the restaurant tomorrow at the same time.  They did, and received service with a smile.  And so integration in Charlottesville, it seems, got its start with a heart-to-heart between two good Christian men, Pastor Johnson and his colleague at the Greek church.

There is a bit more to the history here.  While blacks were discriminated against by whites in Charlottesville back in the day, so were Greeks.  Greeks were not allowed to own property and had other limits put on them – perhaps this commonality also played a part in this drama.  God bless the memory of Pastor Johnson.

Sal and I have been exchanging emails on the matter of Melchizedek (you can read an Orthodox homily on him here).  Most of us in the Orthodox world are familiar with the name from one of the Sunday epistle pericopes which ends with the following line from Hebrews: “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek”.  Another discussion from an Orthodox perspective is here.

The question we have been debating is what is the exact nature of the author of Hebrews quoting the line from the Psalm.  Another good article is here.  I need to do more research on the subject, but I will come back to one of my most-used expressions when talking about scripture:   the meaning of the name matters.  It is very important to understanding scriptural stories and characters from Aaron (probably Egyptian in origin as is that of Moses) to Zerubbabel (seed of Babel).  Melchizedek – the “righteous king” – has such a powerful meaning that an argument can be made for translating it rather than leaving it as a proper name.

Below is a short piece I wrote for the Cathedral News (St. Spyridon’s quarterly magazine) last winter.  These articles disappear down the memory hole, so I thought I would repost it – it is entitled “The Redemption of the Serpent”.  It has a Christmas connection, which is appropriate for the season.  More later…

One of the most colorful parts of any nativity scene is the three wise men or magi.  They are usually depicted in colorful robes and bear the traditional gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  Often they will be accompanied by the camels or, more rarely but more correctly, the horses on which they rode.  Interestingly, in their appearance in the gospel of Matthew the wise men are not enumerated; the number three is associated with them due to the three gifts.

As interesting and colorful as the magi appear, what is their purpose in the story?  The key to understanding this is in the origin of the term magi, which is from a Greek root meaning magician or one who engages in augury.  This activity is strictly forbidden in scripture as being blasphemous, but the word magi in the Hellenistic era meant a follower of Zoroastrianism, the ancient Persian religion now extinct in Iran but still followed by the exiled Parsi community.  The magi are, in this sense, the ultimate Gentiles; magi is term like “crowd”, “dogs”, and others that in the New Testament denotes a Gentile who accepts the good news of the gospel just as the chief priests and scribes struggle with it.

There is another shade of meaning to the magi story, and it connects the episode to, of all things, the serpent in the Adam and Eve story.  The serpent famously tempts Eve, which is the beginning of their disobedience to God.  The Church Fathers, following a reference in the Book of Revelation, connect the serpent with Satan, but in the story this identity is never made explicit – it is inferred based on the activity of the serpent as a trickster and divider.  Serpent in Hebrew is naHash, which is from a root related to augury.  Here, the “one who engages in augury” has a very different role than the magi.  In this sense, the placing of the magi in the nativity story represents a redemption of the serpent.  Rather than being tempters or dividers, the magi actively engage in doing God’s will.  The transition from serpent to magi is not as stark as it seems.  In Numbers Moses uses a serpent as a staff of healing; the former agent of deception again becomes an instrument of God’s will.  In the Gospel of John Jesus brings the idea full-circle by comparing the raising of Moses’s brass serpent with the raising up of the Son of Man.

The Bible consistently uses unlikely characters – Nebuchadnezzar, a serpent, Zoroastrians, Roman soldiers – as agents of God’s will.  Those who are outside of the scriptural community are often shown as being more obedient to God than the insiders.  The connection of the serpent with the magi is a representational redemption of the serpent.  As we make the transition between the Christmas season, which ends on February 2, forty days after Christmas, and the Lenten period, we can see in this story a representation of the redemptive power of God’s love and mercy.