A Meeting Place for Evangelicals, Reformed, and Orthodox Christians

Category: Worship (Page 5 of 10)

Taking the Incarnation Seriously

 

Coptic Icon of the Nativity

In a recent blog posting Pastor John Armstrong wrote about his paradigm shift on the Incarnation.  I found his article very helpful for illustrating the different ways Protestants and Orthodox approach the Incarnation.  Armstrong wrote:

For now I have been thinking about how the Orthodox Church has a doctrine of salvation that includes the whole world, or the teaching of cosmology. Simply put the Orthodox do not treat the incarnation, the cross, and resurrection as separate events when explaining our salvation. I have concluded that this approach has to be correct because it fills in some holes in our Western way of thinking that is too individualistic. It also challenges the tendency in the West to center on legal categories when it seeks to explain the cross and God’s love. (Emphasis added.)

The Incarnation is one area where Reformed and Orthodox Christians frequently talk past each other not being fully aware of the differences separating them.  When I became Orthodox I criticized some of my friends for not taking the Incarnation seriously, and some felt insulted by this.  As bible believing Evangelicals they strongly believed in the Incarnation, so how could I accuse them of not taking the Incarnation seriously?  I felt frustrated because I did know quite how to explain the reasons for my criticism.  Over time I became aware that the differences were paradigmatic, that is, the role/function of the Incarnation in the Protestant theological system is quite different from its place in Orthodoxy.

Evangelicals do believe in the historicity of the Incarnation, but theologically they view it as a preliminary step, secondary to the big event of Christ’s atoning death on the Cross.  For many Protestants all salvation is assumed in Christ’s death.  Humanity’s chief problem was solved; the sinless Son of God took on our guilt on the Cross and if we believe in Christ our sins will be forgiven — our legal standing before God will be restored (righteousness) thereby entitling us to certain benefits in the kingdom of God, e.g., eternal life, resurrected bodies, a place in heaven, the right to ask God for things (intercessory prayer) etc.

But for Orthodoxy the Incarnation is just as significant for our salvation as Christ’s dying on the Cross, as well as his third day resurrection.  We are saved by the person of Jesus Christ, not just by that one thing he did on the Cross.  In baptism we are united to Christ’s death and his resurrection, we receive the Holy Spirit and are incorporated into his Body (the Church).  We cease to be autonomous beings and now live in the context of the liturgical and sacramental life of the Church.  In the course of the liturgical cycle of the major feast days of the Orthodox Church we participate in the mysteries of Christ’s Incarnation, his Nativity, his presentation in the Temple, his Baptism in the River Jordan, his Transfiguration, his ascent to Jerusalem, his entry into Jerusalem, his death on the Cross, his Resurrection, and his Ascension.  In the Incarnation the Eternal entered into history.  The life of Christ recounted in the Gospels is not a sequence of events but transcends the limitations of chronological time.  Through the Church’s liturgical life we participate in the baptism at the River Jordan or Christ’s Transfiguration on Mount Tabor as if we were there.  The Orthodox Holy Week services are more than Sunday School lessons.  In these services we participate in Christ’s last week on earth.  This is ontologically possible because of the Incarnation.  We are no longer separated by two thousand years of time, because we are in the Body of Christ, the Church.

Despite the differences in theological paradigms it appears the lines of communication are becoming clearer between Reformed and Orthodox Christians.  We are no longer talking past each other.  Below is an excerpt from a recent Facebook thread that I participated in (emphasis added).  I wrote:

Charles, In Protestantism the focus is on an event – Christ’s dying on the cross for our sins. In Orthodoxy the focus is on a Person and the life He lived — the arc of Christ’s life beginning with his taking on human nature, his birth, his growing up, his ministry and teachings, his death on the Cross, his third day resurrection, his ascension into heaven, his sending the Holy Spirit, and his glorious Second Coming. Jesus is the Second Adam who recapitulated our life. When I was a Protestant I couldn’t quite figure out how all the events fit together. It seemed that the Cross was the essential thing for our salvation but all the other things weren’t as important. With Orthodoxy’s emphasis on the Incarnation — the God-Man entering into human history — all the pieces fit together into one coherent picture. –Robert

Charles replied:

Robert, I agree that Protestantism in general can focus on the cross a little too much. That is why I am glad that I am Reformed =D.  I agree that the cross isn’t the only component to the gospel–it is crucial to also take into account the estates (humiliation and exaltation) and offices (prophet, priest, and king) of Christ. The period between the Incarnation and the Crucifixion would signify the estate of humiliation, and the period between Resurrection, Ascension, Intercession, and the 2nd Coming would be the estate of exaltation. So in essence, I guess we would disagree about the role of the Incarnation–to the Eastern Orthodox, it seems that it is the core. For me (and Reformed theology), it seems that the Incarnation is merely a step in the process for eschatological inauguration, fulfillment, and realization. -Charles

So while Charles and I agreed to disagree, a genuine dialogue did take place between the Reformed and Orthodox traditions.  This is a small but important first step in Reformed-Orthodox dialogue.

 

Paradigm Shifting

My paradigm shift began when I did some reflecting on the Nicene Creed.  I noticed that the particular location of the word “salvation” in the Creed.  The Nicene Creed states: “For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and was made man. . . .”  The Creed then proceeds to recount Christ’s suffering, his death on the Cross, his third day resurrection, his ascension to heaven, and his future return in glory.  I thought to myself that if a Protestant were to write the Nicene Creed they would state that Christ came down from heaven, took on human flesh, then died on the Cross for our salvation etc.  As I followed the grammatical structure of the Nicene Creed I began to see that our salvation stems from a whole series of things that Jesus Christ did as the God-Man.  Reciting the Nicene Creed Sunday after Sunday had a powerful influence on my thinking.  It shook me out of my more narrow Protestant thinking and reoriented me to the holistic thinking of the early Church.

Pastor Armstrong’s “it fills in some holes in our Western way of thinking” describes well what happens when one encounters a better paradigm.  One does not reject the earlier data as one experience a better and more comprehensive understanding of how the data relates to other data.  I found in the Nicene Creed a theological paradigm at odds with an often exclusive Protestant penal substitutionary model of salvation.  Salvation history is more than just the singular event of the crucifixion; salvation encompasses God’s sovereign mercy in the flow of human history culminating in the coming of the God-Man Jesus Christ who through the Incarnation entered into the flow of human history.

 

Holy Thursday Service at St. Mary Orthodox Church in Cambridge, MA.

Holy Thursday Service at St. Mary Orthodox Church in Cambridge, MA.

Doing Theology Through Worship

One thing that struck me on my journey to Orthodoxy was how much of its theology is done through worship. In the West much of theology is done through books and sermons; in Orthodoxy much of its theology is articulated in its liturgical services.  Much of what I learned about the Orthodox understanding of the Incarnation came, not from a book, as from Orthodox hymnography.  Liturgical worship in Orthodoxy has a theological function unparalleled to that in the Reformed tradition.  There seems to be nothing similar to it in the Reformed tradition.  I learned much of my Reformed theology from books, not hymns.  It is as if “Reformed hymnography” is an oxymoron.

This is why inquiring Protestants will be invited to attend the Orthodox services.  This is not about a “warming of the heart” experience that “confirms” a religion as some cults would claim.  We invite people to the services because one simply cannot grasp the fullness of the Orthodox Faith by just reading theological books.  One or two visits will not suffice; it takes several months of faithful attendance before one begins to grasp how Orthodoxy does theology.  One does not become an expert on Orthodoxy after attending a few services.  It takes time to absorb all that’s goes on during an Orthodox service. So, you will be asked, “Come and See.”  It is in the Liturgy that one sees Orthodox theology in action.

In the liturgical hymns and prayers of the Church we learn about the significance of the Incarnation.  One frequent theme is the paradox of the Incarnation, e.g., the Infinite God becoming a finite human being or the unapproachable Judge approaching sinful humanity in humble mercy.  We find this paradox in the prayer below sung during the fifth week of Lent:

The angelic nature was wholly surprised at the great act of thine Incarnation; at beholding the Unapproachable (in that he is God) becoming Man approachable by all, walking among us, and hearing from all, Alleluia.  (Triodion, Saturday of the Fifth Week, Nassar p. 11; underscore added)

Christmas is a natural occasion for celebrating Christ’s two-fold nature.  In the example below we see the paradox of the invisible God becoming visible for our salvation, and the infinite Son becoming confined to the womb of a Virgin.

Today the invisible Nature doth unite with mankind from the Virgin.  Today the boundless Essence is wrapped in swaddling clothes in Bethlehem.  Today God doth guide the Magi by the star to worship, indicating beforehand his three-day Burial by the offerings of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  Wherefore, we sing to him saying, O Christ God, who wast incarnate of the Virgin, save our souls.  (Menaion – Sunday after Christmas, Nassar, p. 412; underscore added)

Another example of the Incarnation’s importance to Orthodoxy can be seen in the service for Christ’s circumcision.  Here the Incarnation is linked to Christ as the perfect Jew who fulfilled the Law and in so doing paved the way for the New Covenant.

O most compassionate Lord, while yet God after thine essence, thou didst take human likeness without transubstantiation; and having fulfilled the law thou didst accept willingly circumcision in the flesh, that thou mightest annul the shadowy signs and remove the veil of our passions.  Glory to thy goodness, glory to thy compassion, glory to thine ineffable condescension, O Word.  (Menaion – The Circumcision, Nassar p. 423; underscore added).

Orthodox hymnography interweaves the Incarnation into Palm Sunday in an absolutely stunning way I never imagined when I was a Protestant.  In the Palm Sunday hymn the Incarnation is subtly introduced by means of comparing the exalted heavenly throne with the lowly earthly throne.  There is nothing in Protestant theology that would disallow this blending but it is striking that the theme of the Incarnation is not usually heard when Protestants celebrate Palm Sunday.

The Word of God the Father, the Son who is coeternal with him, whose throne is heaven and whose footstool is the earth, hath today humbled himself, coming to Bethany on a dumb ass. (Menaion – Palm Sunday, Nassar pp. 733-734)

Orthodoxy’s liturgical cycle can have a tremendous formative influence on one’s theological thinking.  Pastors frequently lament how hardly anyone remembers their sermons.  This is not so much the pastor’s fault as the inherent limitations of didactic teaching.  We are not brains on a stick but embodied souls; as creatures made in God’s image we need to be engaged with our whole being in our worship.  This is the advantage of liturgical worship.  After hearing the hymns about the Incarnation sung repeatedly the theology gets engraved both consciously and subconsciously on our souls.  All this is complemented by icons, incense, prostrations, and Scripture readings which interweave with each other to form the fabric of Orthodox worship.

 

Conclusion

Both Protestants and Orthodox affirm the historicity of the Incarnation.  (Protestant Liberals who reject the historicity of the Incarnation have left the historic Christian Faith.)  This has resulted in two quite different understandings of the Christian faith.  First, with respect to God’s saving grace in Christ Protestants tend to view salvation as a point in time, an event — Christ’s death on the Cross; Orthodoxy on the other hand views salvation as an arc – Christ’s descent from heaven, his life and death, and his ascent to heaven.  Second, with respect to salvation Protestants tend to define it as accepting a message about what Christ has done for us on the Cross.  Among Evangelicals it has been reduced to “making a decision” to accept Christ.  Orthodoxy views salvation as union with Christ.  In Orthodoxy accepting Christ as Lord and Savior means undergoing baptism.  Life in union with Christ means life in the Church, the body of Christ.  The Incarnation means the embodiment of divine grace: in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the Church, the sacraments, the Eucharist, etc.  There is a certain subjectivity in the Protestant understanding of the sacraments as an outward sign of an inward grace.  But the fact is even in the presence of an unbeliever the sacraments of the Orthodox Church are vehicles of divine grace in a very real sense.  The efficacy of the sacraments is the result of the Church being the body of Christ.

 

ripples-in-waterPastor Armstrong’s recent paradigm shift on the Incarnation is significant.  It will likely have a ripple effect on his Reformed theology.  He noted taking the Incarnation seriously opens the way to understanding salvation as union with Christ and in turn to the real presence in the Eucharist.  These two themes are prominent in Mercersburg theology.  While not as prominent as other theological schools, Mercersburg Theology probably represents the strongest point of contact between Reformed Protestantism and the early Church.  I anticipate that Pastor Armstrong’s paradigm shift will stimulate further Reformed-Orthodox dialogue.  Paradigm shifts can have unexpected cascading effects.  In my case and other Reformed Christians Mercersburg theology became a bridge that took us to the early Church then eventually into the Orthodox Church.  It will be interesting to see how Pastor Armstrong’s theological paradigm shift will unfold over time.

Robert Arakaki

See also my earlier article: “Do Protestants Take the Incarnation Seriously?

References

Mother Mary and Kallistos Ware.  2002.  Festal Menaion.  St. Tikhon’s Seminary Press.

Seraphim Nassar.  1993.  Divine Prayers and Services of the Catholic Orthodox Church of Christ.  Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese.  Englewood, New Jersey.

 

Family Concerns and Converting to Orthodoxy

 

Making the transition to Orthodoxy is often far from easy.  Even if the inquirer comes to the conclusion that Orthodoxy is the true Faith, they may have family concerns that hold them back from taking the final step of converting to Orthodoxy.

I have included an excerpt from ‘C’ who expressed his concerns for his family spiritual wellbeing and Fr. Isaiah Gillette’s response to these concerns.

Orthodox Mission in West Feliciana, Louisiana

St. John Orthodox Mission in Starhill – West Feliciana parish, Louisiana   Source: The Advocate

‘C’ wrote:

You asked what would I miss if I were to leave an evangelical church for Orthodoxy. The main thing is this.

A.     Family focused ministry
B.     Feeling welcomed and pushed to love others
C.     Feeling challenged in growth by the pastor

 

Even with all this I would probably be joining a Orthodox church because I do believe they hold the truth. The main reason I have not done so is due to my family. My wife has pretty much followed me on my journey intellectually in accepting the truth that the Orthodox church teaches. However, neither of us feels that the Orthodox church is the best place to raise our children in teaching them to love Christ and love others. This has been the biggest concern for first my wife and then me as she has spoken to me about it.

 

Fr.  Isaiah’s reponse:

A. Family focused ministry

I hear this phrase often used about evangelical churches. Too often what it means is that they split the family up for almost every activity, especially the most important activity, the Sunday morning worship service. I am a firm believer in the importance of Christian education: Sunday School, yes. Youth group, yes. Adult Bible study, yes. But it should not come as a substitute for attending worship together as a family. Here’s why:

1. The Divine Liturgy is by far the most important teaching tool for our faith. Even without a sermon, every vital truth of the Christian faith is there: the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation of the Word of God, the Cross, the Grave, the Resurrection, the descent of the Holy Spirit, and Christ’s eternal presence with us in the sacrament of Holy Communion. A good sermon is frosting on the cake.

2. Modeling. Children will never grow properly to a strong adult faith without seeing their parents pray and worship God. When children see and hear parents proclaiming the faith through the Nicene Creed, or singing “Lord, have mercy” sincerely, or going to the priest for confession, or making the sign of the Cross, they learn that this is important.

3. Simply put, even very young children know when there is something exciting going on, and they are being shuffled off to the nursery, “children’s church,” or whatever. “Let the children come to Him,” learn the hymns, smell the incense, cross themselves, help Mama bake communion bread. And don’t forget that your home is a “little church,” the place where children learn to bring the faith home and practice the lessons they learn at Church.

Do young children get antsy in worship? Of course! Take a book or a doll, or, better yet, help them get interested in what’s going on: “Look, here comes Father with the incense… Now we are going to stand up to hear the Gospel, because it is very important.” Etc.

If you still think your local Orthodox Church needs to do more for children, talk to your priest, and volunteer to get involved. There may already be more going on than you know. Most Orthodox Churches in the U.S. have a link to a Church-sponsored summer camp. Many of my fellow priests are the products of such camping ministries.

See: Antiochian Village (near Pittsburgh, PA) & Saint Nicholas Ranch (near Fresno, CA)

 

B. Feeling welcomed and pushed to love others 

I have never attended an Orthodox Church where I did not feel welcomed. OK, maybe there have been a few people who were put off that I did not speak Greek, or Russian, or Arabic, or Serbian. But a smile and handshake usually breaks the ice. And showing a sincere interest in the Orthodox faith usually results in meeting people who are happy to share their traditions. There may be a few parishes where people are not used to others converting to the Orthodox faith, and wonder why you would go to all the effort. But most Orthodox in this country know people in their own parish who have made the leap – they are likely to be the first ones you meet.

Having said that, I can also say that I have never attended an Orthodox Church (or any other kind) where there was not someone who I did not get along with. There are just some personalities that are so different from mine that it is much more work to love them as I should. That’s where the “push” comes in; worshiping alongside “difficult” people (like me!) is our opportunity to lay down our own will out of love for our neighbor.

In any Orthodox Church, you will have plenty of opportunities to feel welcomed, and to be pushed to love others.

 

C. Feeling challenged in growth by the pastor 

Here is another opportunity to talk with the local priest about your needs and hopes. Try to be open to the many ways that growth can take place. If you are coming from an evangelical background, you probably have a good exposure to the Bible. That’s great, bring it with you and let it grow, now fertilized by the Spirit-inspired teaching of the Church fathers. Listen to the words of the Divine Liturgy and other services of the Church. They are completely filled with Scripture.

The total burden for spiritual growth cannot rest on any one person, not even the most gifted and devout priest. He’s not going to preach for 30-40 minutes like your evangelical pastor (even though St. John Chrysostom and other early priests and bishops certainly did!). Keep reading! Get suggestions from your priest and fellow Orthodox Christians. Find out where the nearest monastery is, and visit as often as you can. This gives your children exposure to some real heroes of our faith.

I’m sorry to go on so long. I feel passionately about growing faith in families of our Orthodox Churches. This can be a most exciting and enriching environment in which to teach children to love Christ and others. Please let me know if there is any way I can be helpful to you on your journey. May God bless and lead you.

In Christ our Savior,
Fr. Isaiah Gillette

Childrens' Church

Protestant Childrens’ Church – Notice the difference?

 

 

 

John Calvin on Incense

 

Orthodox Deacon Censing

Orthodox Deacon Censing

Protestant visitors to the Orthodox Liturgy are often surprised by the abundance of images in the sanctuary.  Where Orthodox churches have icons all over, Reformed churches shun icons having only bare walls.  Another surprise for the Protestant visitor is the smell of incense when the priest comes out swinging his censer.  Aside from the smell of the ink on the bulletin or from the bible in their hands Protestant churches are odor free.

 

Profile pictureRobin Phillips recently wrote an insightful blog posting “Recovering the Spirituality of Scent.”  In it he describes how Calvin’s denigration of the sense of smell in worship stems from a tendency to Gnosticism.

He points out that Calvin in his commentary on the Gospel of John chapter 4 saw the use of incense as inappropriate for worship in the Christian age.  I wasn’t aware of this until I read Phillips’ article, but was even more shocked when I read Calvin first hand.  I was surprised to find out how sweeping Calvin’s exclusion was.  No candles, no vestments, no altars, no liturgical rituals as well as no incense!

Formerly incense, candles, holy garments, an altar, vessels, and ceremonies of this nature, pleased God; and the reason was, that nothing is more precious or acceptable to Him than obedience. Now, since the coming of Christ, matters are entirely changed. We ought, therefore, to consider what he enjoins on us under the Gospel, that we may not follow at random what the Fathers observed under the Law; for what was at that time a holy observation of the worship of God would now be a shocking sacrilege.  (Emphasis added.)  Source

The curious fact here is that nowhere in the New Testament do we find a teaching, explicit or implied, that the old form of worship has been abolished and replaced by a new order of worship.  One would have to read certain assumptions into the New Testament to reach these conclusions.  Underlying Calvin’s puritanical approach to worship is an early form of JN Darby’s dispensationalism.  Calvin sees a major break between the Old and New covenants including their forms of worship.

 

Calvin’s Break from Historic Christian Worship

 

Robin Phillips points out Calvin overlooked the fact that the use of incense and liturgical worship has been part of historic Christian worship.  In other words Calvin is advocating a major break from historic Christian worship.  Phillips notes:

It is true that the Christian church has never ceased to use smell in its liturgical piety. In the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions, incense made from Frankincense and other odor-producing plants forms an important part of their worship. Nevertheless, it is still safe to say that the spiritual importance of scent has been largely eclipsed in the Western world, especially among evangelical Protestant.  (Emphasis added.)

This suggests that the Reformed, especially Puritan, approach to worship marks a break from the historic pattern of worship.  It is like a branch broken off from the main trunk.

 

Mind-Body Disconnect

mindovermatterRobin Phillips has done some excellent work recently on the Gnosticism within the Protestant world and this disembodied approach to worship would explain the cerebral nature of Reformed Protestantism.  If that is the case then we can see the emotionalism in Baptist revivalism and Pentecostal exuberance as reactions against Reformed cerebralism.  See: “Are Calvinists Also Among the Gnostics?” by Robin Phillips

 

The Fragrance Filled House

When I was a Protestant, I read the story of Jesus’ anointing at Bethany with a mixture of wistful longing and curiosity (John 12:1-3).  This beautiful gospel scene was so unlike anything I had experienced as a Protestant.  I felt this disconnect when I was a Protestant, but now that I am Orthodox I have some idea of what it must have been like to be in Jesus’ presence with the fragrance all around me. Orthodox liturgy helps me to connect with the Bible.  It gives me an inkling of an idea of the smoke filled temple Isaiah described in Isaiah 6 and helps me to anticipate the heavenly worship that the Apostle John wrote about in Revelation 5:9 and 15:8.

The smell of incense is more than aroma therapy; it is profoundly theological.  The sense of smell is an affirmation that I have a body.  Christ in his Incarnation came to save our entire being – body, soul, mind, and spirit, not just our intellects.  The Orthodox approach to worship provides an embodied approach to worship; the Reformed approach on the other hand is quite cerebral and disembodied.  Robin Phillips’ recent blog posting raises some important questions about Reformed theology and worship.    The absence of incense is not curious aberration but the tip of a theological iceberg, i.e., the tendency to Gnosticism in Reformed theology.  While quite provocative, his questions deserve consideration.

Robert Arakaki

 

See also

Defending Incense

Response to Robin Phillps: Are Calvinists Also Among the Gnostics

 

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