Since November 8th, contributors to Public Orthodoxy have advanced various responses to the unexpected victory of Donald J. Trump. Fr John Jillions proposes that the Church needs to practice a politics of communion, which includes charitable works, prophetic political witness, and renewed ascetical life.
Aristotle Papanikolaou asserts that the Church needs to vigorously denounce racist, sexist, and xenophobic rhetoric. Samuel Bauer maintains
that before the Church can effectively contribute to the healing of our
country, she must “seek forgiveness from the marginalized of society,
the very individuals whose dignity it has at times assailed.” Each
proposal has merit, but each lacks that one needful thing, the
proclamation of the gospel itself. The Church has one word that she, and she alone, can speak to the world–Jesus is risen! There
are many penultimate words that the Church may and must speak; but if
she does not proclaim Pascha, not just one Sunday a year but every
Sunday, all other prophetic and pastoral words are emptied of
significance.
Since my retirement I have heard numerous Orthodox homilies. With few
exceptions, they have been horrid–poorly constructed, poorly delivered,
and lacking in substance. But bad technique may be forgiven if the
preacher is at least attempting to proclaim the good news. Alas that has
not usually been the case. What I have heard is exhortation … to
imitate Christ, obey the ten commandments, be nice to my neighbors,
pray more often, confess my sins … even a lengthy harangue scolding the
congregation for its failure to support the parish festival. Exhortation
and more exhortation–dreary, impotent words that do not convert, do not
heal, do not transform, do not deify. A few years ago I listened to an
interview with Fr Theodore Stylianopoulos in which he described the
kinds of sermons he heard growing up. He called them “try harder”
sermons. Yes, I thought, that’s what I’m hearing now. No wonder church
is so depressing. If “try harder” is the only word the pastor has to
share, then it would be far better to skip the sermon and allow the
Divine Liturgy itself to enact the good news of Pascha.
Jesus is risen! This is the apostolic message
that transformed the Mediterranean world. It did not refer merely to an
event in the past but to an eschatological act that had made possible a
radically new kind of discourse–a discourse of unconditional promise and
unconquerable hope. Jesus is risen! and you are free from the bondage of sin. Jesus is risen! and you have been liberated from the power of death. Jesus is risen! and you have been freed from the law and every moralism. Jesus is risen! and your existence is good. Jesus is risen! and you may live in the hope that your deepest and truest hopes will be fulfilled. Jesus is risen! and you may embrace your very different neighbor with extravagant love. Jesus is risen! and you may share generously from your bounty. Jesus is risen! and you may dare to live the politics of the coming Kingdom. Jesus is risen!
When was the last time you heard a truly evangelical sermon proclaimed in your parish?
I vividly remember my first Orthodox Pascha. It was all quite
glorious … but then came the homily. Instead of announcing the
wondrous news of the resurrection and its implications for our lives,
the pastor urged us not to celebrate excessively and to maintain niptic
sobriety. He concluded his homily with a reminder that non-Orthodox were
prohibited from receiving communion (this I already knew) and the
Orthodox only permitted if they had kept the Holy Week fast and made
their confession. My heart fell. So much for the eucharistic
manifestation of the Kingdom. It was as if the Paschal Homily of St.
John Chrysostom had not been recited only an hour earlier.
“Behold, the days are coming,” the prophet declares in the Name of
the Lord, “when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread,
nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord” (Amos
8:11). We are experiencing this famine today. Many priests and
congregations pride themselves on their dogmatic orthodoxy and steadfast
adherence to tradition, yet the good news of Pascha remains unpreached.
To these congregations–but especially to the priests who have been
entrusted with the stewardship of the gospel–the
terrifying condemnation of Jesus is spoken: “Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like whitewashed tombs, which
outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men’s bones
and all uncleanness” (Matt 23:27). Exhortations and admonitions will
never create the righteousness that justifies. Those who are dead in
sin cannot raise themselves from their graves; they cannot pull
themselves up by their Pelagian bootstraps. Only the unconditional
promise, spoken in the power of Spirit and absolute Love, can bestow the
new life that is repentance and faith. But if that word is never
declared, where will faith be found?
While it is tempting to think that post-election America needs a more
prophetic, socially conscious Orthodoxy, I respectfully suggest that
this is wrong-headed, a putting of the political cart before the
evangelical ox. If Orthodox Christians are not thinking through their
politics with a Christian mind, then this is probably because parish
priests are not preaching the gospel and thus not creating a
gospel-converted people. And if parish priests are not preaching the
gospel, then that, and not something else, is the urgent task now
confronting the Church.
The good news of Pascha is the liberating news that our congregations
need to hear, the news that America and the world most need to hear.
Only the Church can speak it.
Christ is risen from the dead,
Trampling down death by death,
And upon those in the tombs
Bestowing life!
Fr. Aidan Kimel is a retired priest of the Western Rite (ROCOR). He blogs regularly at Eclectic Orthodoxy.
Please join us on Monday, February 6, 2017
at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus for “Out of the Flames:
Preserving the Manuscript Heritage of Endangered Syriac Christianity in
the Middle East,” a lecture presented by Columba Stewart, OSB.Αναρτήσεις