Piously Orthodox Coffee Drinking

As I've said before, to be orthodox (lowercase o) means to be in fidelity with the foundational principles of whatever I happen to be talking about. Well today I'm talking about coffee.

Every day for the past few months I stop at Dunkin Donuts and get my extra large coffee with skim milk and 2 splendas. By the end of each cup I have a terrible aftertaste in my mouth. For lack of a better option I get the same thing every day. I have absolute begun to hate it.

Call me a snob if you want. But as an avid coffee drinker, I buy whole coffee beans from Starbucks (until the day I perhaps find something better...any recommendations???), grind them myself, and brew my own coffee.

It's dark, it's strong, it's a little bitter. But there are deep dimensions to it. Real coffee has body and aroma. Dunkin Donuts coffee keeps me awake. Real coffee has a harmonious balance of acidity and sweetness. I kill my Dunkin Donuts coffee with packets of sugar until I don't really taste it anymore.

Now I know there are probably more zealous coffee purists out there. What I also know is that there is a proper way that coffee is supposed to taste, the way it was meant to taste; the orthodoxy of coffee drinking.

-Steve K.

Regarding my love for fine coffees...

I buy my coffee whole bean, grind it myself, then brew myself several hot steaming cups of coffee every morning to take to work.

Here's the take home Orthodox message:

It may not taste sweet, but it tastes authentic; the way it was meant to taste...

Think about it...

African Roots of Christianity

"Indeed, many of the shapers of Christian orthodoxy were African. Names like Augustine, Tertullian, Origen, Clement, Anthony, and Pachomius were familiar from my undergraduate church history survey. But my professor had not presented them as Africans ministering and teaching in the context of an African culture.
...
The story of Christian theology has been told from a European perspective. Oden wants to tell that story differently: classical Christian theology was heavily shaped by Africans. The language we use to worship the Trinity, the received definitions of the Christ's two natures, the early church's methods for restoring repentant sinners, the basic patterns of monastic life, our fundamental approach to biblical interpretation, the church's devotion to its martyrs—all of these things have their roots in African theological debate, African prayer, and African biblical study."
-David Neff, Christianity Today (full article)

Popular Piety vs. Real Piety

My recent letter to ICON
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Dear All:

In reading the ICON thread about Church music and choir responsibilities, I’d like to reference the following 5-year old video I found on the “other” forum:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3064136024677620812&hl=en

I’m not highlighting some particular aspect of the Patriarchal faction as in error. In fact, I am well aware that the Metran faction indeed has had just as many “mooninmel” and “unchinmel” Qurbanas. My point is that when we, as a united Church, have lost sight of exactly why we come together to celebrate the Eucharist, our most Holy Sacraments are turned over on their heads into a mere spectacle.

Why really do we come together to celebrate the Liturgy? We are gathered together as a complete Church at the Lord’s Table. The focus of the Service is in the hands of the priest who leads the congregation together in a sacred mystery. What happens in the Liturgy, while not just a commemoration, is, indeed in the same spirit as that Eucharist offered on the table by Christ in the upper room two millennia ago. There was no choir and no musical accompaniment.

I am not saying that Church music is unnecessary. What I am saying is that what is really at the core of the Liturgy is the Sacrifice being offered, and around that core we, as a Church, have added many layers. We have chants, vestments, icons, instruments, and particular architecture because there is a mystical experience of the Liturgy that is being enhanced. These layers, though very beautiful and rich, are necessary and vital only as far as they point to the core of the Sacrament. The beauty of the Church, the voices of the choir, or the brightness of the vestments are all a sideshow to the main event taking place on the altar table.

Personally, I’m inclined to say that a Liturgy could (though not should) be simply spoken without any sort of tune. In fact, I’d be willing to say that if we did that many more would actually be in touch with the whole point of the Service. The real experience of the Eucharist is not in the supporting beauty but instead in the Truth that is spoken, which is beautiful. That is why Eucharists have been celebrated throughout history in attics, catacombs, and even in gulags.

This is the distinction between popular piety and real heartfelt piety. Are we the real Church, the body of Christ, or are we just a shadow of that body, turning over that which has been handed down to us over for that which we like instead? Do we have clericalism or do we have priesthood? Do we have rituals or sacrament? Do we have legalism or Faith? We would do more to act like the real Church than merely saying that we are so.

When our real piety is turned over on its head, we end up with things like 101-mel Qurbanas. The real organic participation in the Eucharist, and the movement of the soul that takes place, has been replaced with a spectacle of color and sound. The priests and deacons have become actors instead of mediators. The choir, which has a real necessary role in the Church, has become a show on its own.

When we forget the heart of our Sacraments, we end up with the “Manglish” transliterations. What is the point of these? Transliterations are so non-Malayalam speakers can feel as if they are participating, and so non-English speakers can feel like there is unity in the Church. Perhaps this is why I can’t expect to see a transliteration of English into Malayalam script.

When we lose sight of the real core of our Apostolic heritage as the Church, we end up desperately searching for a way to stem the tide of people choosing other faiths. I can not blame someone for leaving the Orthodox Church because they have never felt ministered to nor that their identity in the Church is central to their being. If Sundays are taken over by performance and not sincere worship, than hearts truly searching for Christ will wander. I am truly convinced that the Orthodox Church is complete and has everything to offer anyone who will receive it, but that message of completeness and continuity has no real weight unless it’s genuinely and clearly conveyed on a Sunday to Sunday, parish to parish basis.

Very Cool

Visual Journey into the Indian Orthodox Church

Sermon on the Healing of the Leper...Podcast???

I was given the great chance to speak on Leper Sunday at St. Thomas Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church of Philadelphia (Mascher St.). I also happened to bring my bootleg mp3 player/recorder. So, for the first time ever here is the closest thing I have to a podcast:

sermon

Here are the things I already know:
1) If English is your 2nd language...I speak very fast.
2) I slipped up and stuttered through a few words...no need to remind me
3) I talk like I have a mouth full of marbles.

So enjoy..comments are welcome..Here is the full text:
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Glory to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, One True God, Amen + + +

Beloved Achen, my brothers and sisters in Christ…

We have together embarked on this sacred and penitential journey culminating in our commemoration of the suffering, death, and Glorious Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. On this the 2nd Sunday of the Great Lent, we remember how a leper, considered unclean and an outcast in the Jewish community came and spoke with the Incarnate God.

The dialogue was simple but powerful.

Falling on his face he says, “Lord if you are willing, You can make me clean.” And the Lord, daring to even reach out and touch him, who was most reviled and despised of all people, responds, saying, “I am willing, be cleansed.”

We’d like to consider ourselves to be living lives of adversity. What is it that burdens our minds? Is it our studies? Is it the bills we have to pay? Perhaps we are burdened by our strained relationships. Or, perhaps we’re simply not living the lives we had aspired to?

We have adversity, that is sure, but how many of us can say that we have been truly made outcasts? I consider myself blessed to have never endured a sickness which has debilitated both my health and appearance. Yet, the leper, being both separated from the community and suffering the torments of a vile disease, in the midst of his sufferings, turns to the Lord and says, “Lord, if you are willing, You can make me clean.”

Our Lord, being perfectly God, perfectly man, having existed throughout all eternity and before all creation, both holds the universe in His hands and transcends through it. This very same Lord knows our sufferings and our perils exactly, deeper than we know them for ourselves, just as he knew the anguish of the leper. And when he asks the Lord if he was indeed willing to make him clean, emphatically, the Lord answers “I am willing!”

The leper had asked if the Lord was willing, and Christ in his compassion complied. He did not merely say, “Lord, heal me,” or “Lord, end my sorrows.” He asked the Lord to heal him if that was indeed the Lord’s will to do so. Though his own plan for himself would most assuredly have been for his own healing, whatever he had willed for himself was submitted to the will of the Lord.

Similarly, do we not also ask if the Lord is willing to carry us through our hardships? How often do we feel discouraged and disenchanted when these hardships don’t seem to end? Whereas the leper desired healing, submitted his will to Christ’s will, and was consequently healed, does God heed us individually for our most heart-felt desires?

If we feel as if God does not answer our prayers as he answered the request of the leper, than we must understand that God has created each and every one of us for a specific purpose. Just as God created Adam and Eve in Eden to dwell and commune with Him, so also God wants each and every one of us to abide with Him in His Kingdom. This path we take toward this restoration is designated for each and every one of us uniquely.

While some of us are called to the priesthood, others of us may be called toward monastic vows. Some of us may be called to preach the Gospel in far off lands, while others of us may be called to teach the Faith in their home parishes. Some of us may be called to bear witness through righteous living, while yet still others may be called to receive the glorious crown of martyrdom.
Indeed, in our lifetime or the lifetime of our children, we Christians may be called to suffer persecutions for our Faith once more.

Whatever our calling is, whatever God’s plan for us uniquely is, the plan that we have for ourselves in our minds may not be the plan that God has for us. In fact, while we measure the worth of a calling in terms of wealth and comfort, God’s criteria is vastly different.

We plan for ourselves lives of comfort and wealth. Our dream is to do exactly what we love, everyday, and get paid lavishly for doing so. However, God’s plan is not for every one of us to be materially prosperous in this world. In fact, how many of our saints have discarded their wealth and careers in order to put all of their focus on Christ?

What God wishes; what His will for each of us is: is that we all turn our hearts away from ourselves and towards Him and His precepts.

It can be said, then, that our potential as human beings in the sight of God is maximized absolutely when our own personal will is surrendered unto His. For this reason, Christ Himself instructs to pray to the Father, “Thy will be done.”

We are healed, redeemed, and restored in God’s time. What we suffer today, or for the foreseeable future, is, if we trust in the Lord, and love Him completely, the path that God has set for us. We should not despair in our sufferings nor give in to them. Rather, we should rejoice that God has accounted us worthy to suffer for His name, towards His goal of renewing this fallen world.

This is why the great martyrs of Christian history, for two millennia, have gone to their martyrdom constantly bearing the joy of being in Christ. Whether they were being crucified, stoned, fed to wild beasts, or beheaded, they did not seek to escape, nor did they seek solely to live. They did not question or forsake their belief in Christ, while they suffered tremendously for Him. They simply allowed God’s will to supersede their own, and in death, became truly glorified in resting with Christ.

The well-known Church Father, Polycarp of Smyrna, typifies the Christian martyr. When as an elderly man he was arrested by Roman soldiers for being a Christian, he said “For 86 years I have served Him, and He has never done me any harm. How can I possibly blaspheme my King and Savior?”

When they went to nail him to the post where they would set his body on fire, St. Polycarp refused saying, “He who gives me the strength to stand the fire will give me the strength also to remain on the pyre without moving.”

Just as the Lord worked his will in St. Polycarp, as He did in the struggling leper, so too he calls each of us personally saying, “I am willing.” The Lord is willing to take us to the fullness of our potential in Him.

If we only conform our ambitions to Him, if we open our hearts and our minds and allow the fullness of the Holy Spirit to work within us, than we will indeed achieve spiritual heights beyond our comprehension. In doing so, we will fulfill our true purpose, communion with our Lord Jesus Christ, to Him belongs praise, honor, and thanksgiving, for ever and ever, Amen.

Why I Can Do Without the Choir

Oh yeah...I'm going there...


What exactly am I experiencing in the Liturgy? I'm at the table, really participating in the Living Sacrifice of our Lord. When I decided that the Liturgy was "not a commemoration" I really meant to say it was "not JUST a commemoration."

I am not saying that we should, but I feel that we could take away the vestments, the colors, even the very tunes, and still have a very meaningful Eucharist in an austere simple spoken word format. There was no keyboard accompaniment or background singers for Christ! While I have access to many objects which can help my mystical experience of the Liturgy and are therefore necessary, I am more struck by the sense of sheer simplicity in the heart of our worship.

Bottom Line: I'd sometimes prefer my priest to simply read the Liturgy without tune as opposed to the raucous circus that the Service has become. Even if I liked the very "in your face" kind of Church music I've heard, I imagine what I like isn't nearly as important as what's good for me.

-Steve K. (ranting)