Lent, Have Mercy

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Giving up TV for LentWell, friends, it is that time of year again: the (annoying) time of year when a great number of people in the world – for seemingly no particular reason at all – “give up something” for Lent. Buddhist, Protestant, Latin, Agnostic … they’re all in.

For many, it is nothing more than an attempt at “discipline.” We can liken this to “new year’s resolutions” – those pesky ideals that help drive retail sales of vitamins, energy bars and exercise equipment around the first two weeks of January. I say “an attempt at discipline,” because – for the most part – no one really follows through or makes it out of January alive. This is not because the ambitions are beyond one’s potential reach, necessarily, but because we live in a culture of excess, self-satisfaction and pleasure, and are simply ill-equipped (most of us having a “will” that is in bondage to sin and not wholly “free”) to handle the prospect of extended discipline.

In these cases, it doesn’t really matter what “faith tradition” one comes from, and the “fad” of “giving up stuff for Lent” is neither spiritual nor inherently Christian. It is empty, bare, legalistic, pseudo-asceticism practiced by those without any experience of true asceticism (or what that requires) at all. Like most things in America today, it is a trend that will eventually go by the wayside. One can only hope, honestly.

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Origin of the Bible – Historical Context

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A page from Codex VaticanusIn my short life, I don’t know if I’ve ever heard a topic discussed that involved more anachronisms than the topic of the Bible and its origins.

Perhaps this is because of the fact that – in the evangelical circles in which I grew up – the idea of Christian history older than your own parish (or “denomination,” back when American evangelicals still cared about such distinctives) was virtually unknown. We were entirely a people “of the moment,” and oblivious to any real history beyond our own generation or lifespan. This is, of course, a major part of the reason these groups are lacking any connection (whether real or ideal) with the Church of the Apostles. But more specifically, this is why they have a hard time engaging in dialogue about the “origins of the Bible” without anachronistically forcing present-day context onto the discussion.

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The Book of Tobit – Chapters 1-2

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The Archangel Raphael

As we discussed previously, the true importance and meaning of the Book of Tobit for us as Christians is that it teaches us about Christ (as is the case with all of the old testament scriptures). Of this book, then, the Venerable Bede (c. AD 673-735) says:

“The book of the Holy Father Tobit is clearly of saving benefit to its readers even in its superficial meaning inasmuch as it abounds in both the noblest examples and the noblest counsels for moral conduct, and anyone who knows how to interpret it historically (and allegorically as well) can see that its inner meaning excels the mere letter as much as the fruit excels the leaves. For if it is understood in the spiritual sense it is found to contain within it the greatest mysteries of Christ and the Church …”
Venerable Bede, On the Book of the Blessed Father Tobit

Chapter One: The Righteousness of Tobit

From the onset of our study through this wonderful book, we learn that Tobit is a man of Israel (the northern kingdom) who was among those exiled to Assyria by “Shalmaneser, king of the Assyrians” (Tobit 1:2). As a faithful servant of the God of Israel, Tobit walks “in the paths of truth and righteousness” and did much “almsgiving to my brethren and to the people who journeyed with [him] as exiles to Nineveh” (Tobit 1:3).

From an allegorical perspective, Bede believes that this exile at the hands of Assyria is a type of our exile from Eden at the behest of the Evil One. We have all been estranged from the “promised land” of Paradise and with a great longing (and need) to return. The mission of the Orthodox Church, therefore, is to reunite the life of this world with the life of Paradise – the reunification of heaven and earth and a reunification of God and man (and we participate in a foretaste of this through the Holy Eucharist). The Lord’s Prayer reflects this desire as well.

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Orthodox Milk

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“We have much to say [...] but it is hard to explain because you have become slow at understanding. For although by this time you should be teachers, you still need to have someone teach you even the basic principles of God’s oracles. You have come to need milk, and not solid food. Everyone who lives on milk is not experienced in the word of righteousness; such a person is a baby. But solid food is for those who are fully grown, who have trained their senses to discern good and evil.”
Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews 5:11-14

Milk from GreeceI think we Orthodox Christians in the United States underestimate just how much our culture influences, shapes and controls us, and that in a profoundly negative way. Orthodox Christianity “across the pond” has been through some interesting times, to say the least.

What was once really no more than a small, newly-founded missionary effort has since become a place of excitement and the locus of promising growth for the Orthodox Church – even in spite of the many difficulties that were presented by the communist rule over Russia and into eastern Europe in recent memory (and our disconnect with their past). But still, despite the introduction of Orthodoxy to the American culture in the last century or so, we must come to grips with the predominate, individualistic, “whatever works for you” worldview that pervades every aspect of society (and churches).

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Origin of the Bible – Definitions and Clarifications

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A folio of the book of GenesisWhen talking about the origins of the “Bible,” it is a given that a discussion around the “canon” of the scriptures should take place. So what is the canon, exactly, and do all view it in the same manner?

For most, the canon is a list of writings (or “books”) that is considered to be both authoritative and divinely inspired. In other words, it is the “table of contents” of one’s Bible. The word “canon” comes from Greek, and means “rule” or “measuring stick.” For the Hebrew people prior to AD 70 (when the second temple was destroyed by Roman forces), the canon was supposedly set according to whichever scrolls were in the temple itself (per Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian, c. AD 37-100); that is, within the Holy of Holies. If one wanted to know if a particular text or copy of a scroll was “canonical,” they only had to lay it alongside the canonical scroll and make comparisons. It was almost a literal “measuring stick,” if you think about the action of rolling out a scroll and laying them side-by-side.

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Hinting at a Future Post

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The so-called “Lord’s Prayer” (the “Our Father) is a prayer for the “end of the world,” or the “end of the age.”

It is a prayer for the apocalypse, the parousia of Christ.

It is a prayer for Maranatha.

“Thy Kingdom come […] on earth as it is in heaven.”

But … it isn’t a prayer about the future.

More on Melchizedek as Christ (and Elohim)

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Just a brief addition to my previous post:

“And it will be proclaimed at the end of days concerning the captives, as He said, ‘To proclaim liberty to the captives.’

Its interpretation is that He will assign them to the Sons of Heaven and to the inheritance of Melchizedek; for He will cast their lot amid the portions of Melchizedek, who will return them there and will proclaim to them liberty, forgiving them of all their iniquities. And the Day of Atonement is the end of the tenth Jubilee, when all the Sons of Light and the men of the lot of Melchizedek will be atoned for. And a statute concerns them to provide them with their rewards.

For this is the moment of the Year of Grace for Melchizedek. And he will, by his strength, judge the holy ones of God, executing judgement as it is written concerning him in the Songs of David, who said, ELOHIM has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgement [...] And Melchizedek will avenge the vengeance of the judgements of God [...] and he will drag them from the hand of Belial.”

Dead Sea Scrolls, Cave 11 (11Q13), the “Melchizedek document”