Can I get a witness? I was reflecting on my rocky twisting path to Orthodoxy this week and I was remembering that very phrase: Can I get a witness? It has been widely used here in the West in sermons and Christian rock but that perspective it is very limited? Let me explain where I am coming from. With that statement some in the West are asking for testimonies of what God has done in your life and others are asking if you are a living example of Christ’s teachings. That is nifty, but there is lot more meaning to the phrase for me now as an Orthodox Christian!!
It just happens that today the church remembers some of those witnesses like the unmercenary healers, the Saints of Russia, Bulgaria, Romania and the Czech lands and of our saints here in North America, just to name a few! Why do we do that? Abott Tryphon Parsons writes: “The saints show us what a glorious destiny we have in God, and through the example of their lives, point the way to our becoming “partakers of divine nature.” The saints, as the cloud of witnesses in heaven, are present in the divine services, worshiping the Holy Trinity with us. They, as our friends, intercede before the Throne of God on our behalf, having won the good fight, and we are encouraged by the memory and example of their lives, as we struggle on our own path to God.
It has been said that there are two kinds of people in the world: sinners who think they are saints, and saints who know they are sinners. A saint is a Christian who lets God’s light shine through, and whose life has been transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.
We venerate the Saints as we seek their intercession with God, but we adore and worship only God in Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We venerate the Images (Icons) as well as the relics of the saints and martyrs. Yet according to the decisions and Canons of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, this veneration relates not to the icons as such, but to their prototypes, or to the persons whom they represent.
The interior walls of our temples are adorned with the icons and frescoes of the saints as a reminder that we are surrounded by the cloud of witnesses, the saints, and that the Church Militant (here on earth) is not separated from the Church Triumphant (in heaven). In Christ, death does not divide us, for the saints are not dead, but alive in Christ Jesus.”
Todays Epistle in Hebrews reads: “Therefore we also, having so great a cloud of witnesses which is set around us, and having laid aside every weight and sin that is easily circumvented, let us by means of patience be running the course which is set before us.” [Heb. 12:1] St. John Chrysostom defines this scripture in this way: “The memory of those saints establishes and recovers the soul, which has been exhausted by ills, as a cloud that provides shade from the most flaming heat of the sun’s rays.....‘Let us lay aside all things’ (ajpoqevmenoi pavnta). All what? That is, slumber, negligence, mean reasonings, all human affairs. And sin ‘which easily circumvents us’ or ‘that is easily circumvented’ (eujperivstaton)—but rather this latter. For it is easier, if we wish, to prevail over sin.” [Hom. 28, P.G. 63:256 (col. 193).]
Fr. John Moses of blessed memory touched on this topic years ago and instructs us: “God uses flesh to dwell among us. He also uses water to baptize us and make His Spirit present to us. He uses oil to anoint us and incense to remind us of his omnipresence. He uses bread and wine, and transforms it to commune with us. He uses paper and ink to bear His Grace to us in the Holy Scriptures, and he uses paint and wood and the skill of an iconographer to bear His Grace to us as well. With icons, we find ourselves surrounded with “a great cloud of witnesses,” and we see real men and women, sinners just like us, transformed by the Grace of God into Christ-likeness.
When some enter an Orthodox Church, especially if they come from a stark sanctuary devoid of imagery, they think that an Orthodox sanctuary is a riot of color. Some even think that it’s a bit gaudy. They don’t understand that it displays our fundamental belief in the Incarnation, a belief that tells us that whatever the Divine touches or enters into is transformed by that Presence. If this is not so, then having “Jesus in our heart” may not transform us either. (The Victory- Archpriest John Moses 2012/03/05)
So the answer to my question of “can I get a witness” is overwhelmingly yes!! We are surrounded by them. And hopefully in the near future, our ceilings and walls here at Holy Myrrhbearers will be filled with that living riot of color that Fr. John spoke about, tightly wrapping our Earthly existence into hope for the future. We are no alone! We will fill this temple with witnesses, and of course you can help by sponsoring this fresco project. Everything that is, is His!!! (Psalm 23)
