The Theological - and Practical - Necessity of the Church
"Manifesting Thyself to Thine Apostles, Thou didst send them forth to preach; and through them hast granted Thy peace to the world, O Thou Who alone art plenteous in mercy."
From a Resurrection Troparion (hymn) from Matins.
The Church from its first days has been essential to the post-Ascension activity of Christ. Incarnate ministry, prayer, teaching, preaching, touching, healing, suffering, being killed, rising to new life, ascending to the Father-- God has always been involved with humanity, and in Christ God became human, and continues being involved with humanity. Through His Grace the life of the Orthodox Church (on a good day) is the Life of Christ. We're not just followers or adherents or believers in Him: WE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST. Western Christianity devalues this reality in its emphases on popes or reformers or "bible" or "spirit." (Though Vatican II may have turned a corner here.) This is why breaking away from the Church is so problematic. Both schism and heresy are de-theos-izing actions, they turn Christianity into a merely human project. It's not just human church-politics!
Why didn't God just say 'peace to the world'? Because God's Peace is a relationship, and not just an esoteric one, but a concrete, face-to-face one. If you're at peace with the Orthodox Church, you're at peace with God. (Though that's only a beginning, and Orthodox still must struggle.) It's also by the Mercy of God that He allows us to reach Him through the Church and its means. And God's Peace is comprehensive: The Orthodox Church is God's community of peace for humanity. Even when this fact is obscured by our sin, Communion isn't lastingly disrupted like among nation-states.
The organic and doctrinal continuity between Christ and the Orthodox Church, from the past to the present, from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, is a weighty thing.
From a Resurrection Troparion (hymn) from Matins.
The Church from its first days has been essential to the post-Ascension activity of Christ. Incarnate ministry, prayer, teaching, preaching, touching, healing, suffering, being killed, rising to new life, ascending to the Father-- God has always been involved with humanity, and in Christ God became human, and continues being involved with humanity. Through His Grace the life of the Orthodox Church (on a good day) is the Life of Christ. We're not just followers or adherents or believers in Him: WE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST. Western Christianity devalues this reality in its emphases on popes or reformers or "bible" or "spirit." (Though Vatican II may have turned a corner here.) This is why breaking away from the Church is so problematic. Both schism and heresy are de-theos-izing actions, they turn Christianity into a merely human project. It's not just human church-politics!
Why didn't God just say 'peace to the world'? Because God's Peace is a relationship, and not just an esoteric one, but a concrete, face-to-face one. If you're at peace with the Orthodox Church, you're at peace with God. (Though that's only a beginning, and Orthodox still must struggle.) It's also by the Mercy of God that He allows us to reach Him through the Church and its means. And God's Peace is comprehensive: The Orthodox Church is God's community of peace for humanity. Even when this fact is obscured by our sin, Communion isn't lastingly disrupted like among nation-states.
The organic and doctrinal continuity between Christ and the Orthodox Church, from the past to the present, from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, is a weighty thing.
posted by me at 10:50 PM
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