So many times we find ourselves behind closed doors or out of view from most people. The question I ask today is when we are out of view of the world, are we still acting like Sunday Morning Christians? Who knows? Well, that is the door I want to open today and challenge everyone to try to be Orthodox throughout the week, even when the worlds walls are crushing the breath out of our lungs. Are we then still smiling and treating every one with respect and love?
Over the years I have heard many stories of Sunday morning Christians that walk the walk and talk the talk on Sunday and then spend the rest of their week dancing with the devil. The evil one is a mighty fine dancer and he doesn’t step on your toes, but I Will! The Apostle John writes: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us”? (1 John 1:8) Or in other words have we accepted our slothfulness and flaws as a norm? Have we then found happiness in sin, in the darkness of its shadows? St. Nicholas of Serbia reminds us: “God and the devil are found at opposite poles. No one can turn his face to God who has not first turned his back on sin. When a man turns his face to God, all of his paths lead to God. When a man turns his face away from God, all of his paths lead to perdition. When a man finally rejects God by word and in his heart, he is no longer fit to do anything that does not serve for his complete destruction, both of his soul and of his body.” (St. Nicholas of Serbia, Thoughts on Good and Evil)
Is your life outside the church walls a sloppy mess? More than likely then, we have let our choices of worldly delight taint our nous a bit. I was remembering back with I worked graveyard at the poultry plant for a month or two and how that sunlight poked its way through my curtains as I was finally trying to nod off to sleep, flavoring my sleepy darkness with brilliance. We Christians need light to feed our nous. And that light can be found when we seek an Orthodox lifestyle, all the time. Bathing in sin, darkens our soul! We come to confession for repentance, but their needs to be an effort to loosen our deathly habits from gaining power over us. Or like St. Peter writes: “The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.” [2 Pe. 2:22] Repentance (metanoia in Greek) literally means “a change of mind” and heading in a different direction towards God. It represents a necessary act in a Christian life.
St. Peter continues to shed light into our darkness: “For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked, then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment. (2 Peter 2:4-9) The late Orthodox theologian, Father Thomas Hopko, said "hell is getting to do what you want to do all the time", or in my words, maybe we accepting a false narrative that we are god and there is no life to come!
The psalmist David writes: “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.” (Psalm 14)
We have all types of Akathist prayers to help us in our struggles. We have confession and absolution, and the most precious Gifts await us to wash away our abuse. We have services full of prayer and scripture. We have the lives of the saints to encourage and challenge us. Just as the saints when they fell into sin, rose up again seeking the light, there is hope for us all, Glory to God! Archpriest John Moses always said: “Failing to plan, is planning to fail!” Make time to enlighten your nous and be a steady, every day Christian!
O bearer of the Healer, heal the perennial passions of my soul. Guide me to the path of repentance, for I am tossed in the storm of life. Deliver me from eternal fire, and from evil worms, and from Tartarus. Let me not be exposed to the rejoicing of demons, guilty as I am of many sins. Renew me, grown old from sinless sins. (Jordanville Prayerbook: Prayer 7, Morning Prayers) And may the doors of our heart be warmly opened to the Light that leaves no shadows.