Mystery is at the center of Orthodox religion and theology; and for most of us, Orthodoxy has remained the mysterious cousin in our extended Christian family.
But the more contact I have with Orthodox believers the more delighted I am to be connected to such people whose way of following Jesus is, in some regards, so different from mine.
But when I read a document like “A Declaration on the Russian World Teaching” published this week by Orthodox scholars and pastors through the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University, I give thanks to God and mutter to myself: “I have a lot to learn. Thank God for the Orthodox.”
It reads like the Barmen Declaration of 1934 when German Christians boldly repudiated the ungodly and unjust ambitions of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich. It extols the Lordship of Jesus the Risen Savior; it rejects the pretensions of grandeur of a worldly dictator; it denounces aggression, violence, and war; it affirms the common aspirations of the whole human race against the wickedness of tyranny.
At the place where readers are invited to add their name, I did so, proudly and prayerfully. I invite you to do the same.
This emotional conversion to Orthodoxy began almost two decades ago when a student of mine at Georgetown College called to invite me to his wedding.
“Congratulations,” I said. “Tell me when and where.”
St. Michael Orthodox Church in Louisville, he replied.
“Oh my,” I said. “You are marrying an Orthodox woman?”
No, he explained. I am marrying my high school sweetheart from southern Illinois. We both have converted to Orthodoxy.
After a moment of silence, I ask, “Where did this come from?”
And he said this, perhaps the most powerful commentary of learning that I have ever heard from a student. Remember the book you gave me to read? When I read the book, I discovered myself.
Yes, I remember the book, I thought to myself: The Orthodox Faith, by John of Damascus. My student had registered for a tutorial on the history of Christian thought in preparation for a semester of study at Oxford University. That book was one of perhaps 15 I had given him to read and discuss. He went on to enter and graduate from St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Seminary in New York.
And in 2010, when I hosted the first of nine National Festivals of Young Preachers, my student showed up with his dean in tow. Which lead to others coming to preach, and professors coming to assist, and my traveling to New York to visit their campus and discuss their preaching.
Who knew the Orthodox were interested in preaching? But my assuming they were not was itself an indictment of my narrow mind, my impoverished soul.
That memorable introduction led me to attend Orthodox worship services in New York, Kansas City, Lexington, and elsewhere. Each time and every time, my awareness of Orthodox ways and means was enhanced, and my appreciation of Orthodox understanding of gospel work enriched.
All of which has reminded me of how provincial has been my own formation in the ways of Christ; all of which has moderated my natural arrogance in gospel things; all of which has pushed me to embrace (in words paraphrased from a hymn) the wideness of God’s mercy as like the wideness of the sea.
Now, I am paying attention to what Orthodox preachers and theologians are saying and doing. The recent “Declaration” is saying something of lasting significance and is mobilizing people to do something that has global impact.
The Orthodox believers of Ukraine led by a Jewish president are inspiring a world that has grown indifferent to the distinctions between democracy and autocracy, between freedom and bondage, between courage and fear.
No, I am not converting to Orthodoxy; but I am discovering that there has been in me from the beginning an element of faith and works that is borrowed from my Orthodox brothers and sisters. Or rather, that we both—Baptists from the American South and Orthodox from the cities and fields of Ukraine, have much in common, much that has been graced to us by the God of the universe and the Savior of the world.
Thanks be to God.
Glory to Ukraine.
To read my article on the flurry of Orthodox documents in recent days, HERE
(March 2022)
