Sunday of Orthodoxy

I love Sunday of Orthodoxy.  I mean, I LOVE Sunday of Orthodoxy.  I look forward to it throughout the year, and this year did not disappoint.  On the anniversary of my Chrismation, I remember what it meant to personally become Orthodox.  On this day, I am overwhelmed by the magnitude and beauty of the Church, and I thank God for leading me to the One, True Faith.

In 787 A.D., the Seventh Ecumenical Council met to finally reach some peace on the issue of icons.  This hadn't been just a mild disagreement.  This had been years of icons smashing and martyrs dying.  Even though we celebrate on this Sunday the day that brought icons back into the Church, this day did not bring icons back into the world.  We were blessed to have Fr. Stephen visit us this weekend, and I thought a lot about what he said at our city's Pan-Orthodox Vespers, which also made me think about other things.  (On a side note, what a lovely man Fr. Stephen is!  My priest knows him, so he spent some time at our parish.  It was a pleasure to remember my roots and chat with him in that truly unique Appalachian way.)

Icons are the first thing that separate us as Orthodox from the rest of the Christian world.  Most Protestants think we're wrong to have holy images.  Even the Catholics, who do have images, don't quite get our use of icons.  When I was in college studying for the comparative arts component of my Humanities degree, I was glad when we sped through the flat, dullness of the Byzantine era to get to the plump cherubs of the Renaissance.  Icons were kind of the definition of bad art.  Just what people did before the talent showed up.

Icons aren't just art, and they certainly aren't bad art.  They are a visual link between us an God.  When we venerate an icon, we aren't worshiping it.  We don't think the wood and paint is a god.  Instead, we pass on our love and respect to the person the image represents.  It isn't about the icon.  It's about God.  And if the Word became flesh, then it is right to make an icon of Him.  Christ was God and man.  The icon is our visual proof of the Incarnation.

God created us, and He created us to use all our senses.  Come to any Orthodox service, and you'll know that.  We touch, we kiss, we prostrate, we fast, we feast, we cross ourselves A LOT, we use our entire bodies to worship God.  Our worship celebrates both our humanity and our divinity.  Icons encapsulate all of that.


I drifted through many flavors of Protestant before I converted, and near the end, I attended the non-descript mega churches that are a trend now.  One of them inparticular looked exactly like a school auditorium.  Plain walls.  Plain stage.  Plain everything.  This was supposed to help everyone have an unimpeded experience with God.  So, what happened?  Well, like I said, God designed us to use all of our bodies to worship Him, and since the eyes were out, everyone focused on another sense...hearing.  At these churches, it's all about the music.  The ups and downs are crafted to give people that sensual experience they crave.  And interestingly, if you look around, a majority of people have their eyes closed.  The sterile surrounding in fact does not encourage interaction with God.  It leaves something lacking, so people have to close their eyes to reach their hearts.  They desperately search for that connection between their bodies and their worship.  Taking the Church out of church left a hole that ever-changing denominations are still trying to fill.  

At an Orthodox Church, we have much to complete our sensual experience.  When I sing about Christ, I can look at a cross, His face, or stories of His life, and those images surrounding me make God present in real ways.  Christ was born...there's the picture.  Christ heals...there's the picture.  Christ died and rose again...there's the picture.  Meditating on the events of Christ's life is more effective when those stories are everywhere you look.  Additionally, the harmony of the hymns and the cling of the censer bells fill my ears, and it sounds like Heaven.  I watch my prayers literally rise like incense, as the sweet-smelling smoke fills the building, and when I go home and catch a whiff of incense in my daughter's hair, it's an "Amen" to my soul.  I cross myself, bow, kiss and use my touch.  I taste the body and blood of Christ as my lips glow.  My whole body worships, and that makes it much easier for my heart to do the same.  Our worship is not a concert or a performance, and it's not just me and my personal experiences thinking about God.  Our worship is living out God and every aspect of His Creation.  Close your eyes and you just might miss something!


I doubt there's hardly an American home that doesn't have pictures.  We have pictures of our families, vacations, departed loved ones, and friends far away.  Even those plain churches often have pictures on the walls of founding members or clergy.  As humans, we like those visual reminders.  Get out a baby book and watch a mother come alive with stories.  The past crosses over to the present, and it becomes as real and fresh as if it was happening today.  Icons are the same thing.  By making pictures of Christ and His Saints, we open up the past and realize that with God there is no time.  Standing among icons is being surrounded by God yesterday, today, and forever.


Our culture doesn't get icons, though.  They don't get the wooden version, because they don't get the human version.  Whenever the priest or deacon censes the icons, he always turns to the people at the end and censes them.  Why?  Because we are the ultimate icons.  We have Christ literally within us.  We are the holy images of God in flesh and blood.  Seeing God in an icon makes it much easier to see that God is in you and me.  I'm a hypocrite if I love my icons and hate my brother.  I'm a hypocrite if I treat wood with a gentle touch of respect and give a harsh and unforgiving slap of the tongue to my fellow man.  


I am so grateful to live in an area that is full of Orthodoxy.  We have Orthodox churches everywhere of all types.  At our yearly Sunday of Orthodoxy celebration, we gather together from Russian, Serbian, Greek, OCA, Antiochian, Ukranian, Romanian, and other backgrounds.  To say the Creed together is a powerful experience.  This is the unity of the Faith, the knowledge that even though our ethnic backgrounds are different (or non-existent!), we all believe the same thing.


I cry every Sunday of Orthodoxy.  When I used to stand in that plain church with my eyes closed, reaching and searching for God, I felt something lacking.  I wished for the nameless place that had all the pieces.  I found that place.  It is the Orthodox Church.  I don't have to make it up as I go along anymore, and I can't tell you the depth of the peace that brings.  We have our share of problems in Orthodoxy.  Our parishes are screwed up sometimes!  Our people are really screwed up sometimes!  But that's just humanity.  It doesn't change the fact that our Faith hasn't changed for 2000 years.  The icons tell that story of rich heritage.  Surrounded by different languages and different stories, I blubber like a baby every year when the gravity of the gift God has given me in leading me to His Church hits me.  It's not just me and my Bible anymore.  It's me and a great cloud of witnesses.  

So, last night I cried and blinked through my blurry contact lenses as my favorite part of the service came.  The children and the priests had processed around the church carrying icons.  They stood in the front representing all those who have come before and who are yet to come.  Their icons spoke of blood and tears and joy.  Their icons spoke of man and God.  Everyone stopped singing and spoke the following words.  First gently, then building to a crescendo.  This is the day of God in His Church, God in His icons, and God in you and in me.  Thank you, God, for bringing me to this place... 


"As the prophets beheld, as the Apostles taught,
As the Church received, as the Teachers expounded dogma,
As the Universe has agreed, as Grace has shown forth,
As Truth has revealed, as Falsehood has been dissolved,
As Wisdom has presented, as Christ has awarded,


Thus we declare, thus we assert, thus we preach,
Christ our true God, and honor His Saints,
In words, in writings, in thoughts,
In sacrifices, in Churches, in Holy Icons,


On the one hand worshiping and reverencing Christ as God and Lord;
And on the other hand honoring the true servants of the same Lord of all,
And accordingly offering them veneration.

(loudly and with feeling!)

This is the Faith of the Apostles,
This is the Faith of the Fathers,
This is the Faith of the Orthodox,
This is the Faith which has established the Universe."