First Take the Blog Out of Your Own Eye

I've discovered that this blog has a number of subscribers. Thank you to everyone who read my posts. I would love it if anyone who is subscribed to this blog would subscribe to my new Wordpress blog. If you would like to subscribe to my new blog, I've provided a subscription link below to my new blog below. I hope to see you there.

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April 9, 2008 at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 07, 2008

I'm Moving!

I have moved my blog to my new Wordpress blog site. If you would like to continue reading my blog, please be sure to update your bookmark and/or your RSS reader to the following:

http://www.jzahariades.wordpress.com

I hope to hear from you over at my new blog.

Jason

April 7, 2008 at 06:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 25, 2008

Fr Stephen and "Salvation by Grace"

Fr Stephen has a wonderful post about the Orthodox perspective of salvation as transformation rather than a forensic salvation. One of the points he makes is that because salvation is transformation, it takes a lifetime and requires constancy. As Fr Stephen puts it, at its core, a life of transformation requires "just showing up."

It's a great post and you can read it HERE .

It's this kind of stuff that attracted me to Orthodoxy in the first place.

February 25, 2008 at 08:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

February 20, 2008

The Fullness of the Church

I want to broach a subject that I know is fraught with controversy. And I know it's a subject that I am very inadequate to discuss. However, a comment in a recent post got me thinking about an area of Eastern Orthodoxy that was initially a major hang-up for me. It's the idea that the Orthodox Church is the true Church. Anyone exploring Orthodoxy will bump up against this concept very quickly.

At this point, I don't have much to offer to any theological debate about this topic other than my limited experience thus far in the Orthodox Church.

I had voiced my discomfort with Orthodoxy's ecclesiological claims several months ago to an Orthodox friend while we were discussing my interest in exploring Orthodoxy. He advised me to view Orthodoxy's ecclesiological claim as being the "fullness of the Church" rather than being "true Church," a phrase that I kept hearing as "the only and only real Church."

As I have been exploring Eastern Orthodoxy the last couple of months, I've discovered something. So far in my experience, Eastern Orthodoxy lacks nothing good, beautiful and true that I had known previously in my experience as a Protestant Charismatic Evangelical Christian and pastor. In fact, I believe Eastern Orthodoxy possesses a fuller version of all that I had previously experienced, plus abundantly more goodness, beauty and truth.

In other words, not only do I find a parallel commitment to biblical study and praxis, mission, sound theology, life in the Spirit, community and worship, but all of that is enhanced with deep historical connectedness, real communion of the saints, art, music, liturgy, prayers, icons, ascetic practices, spiritual direction, spiritual formation, sacramental life, and much more.

And the few aspects of Protestant Charismatic Evangelicalism that I miss are either stylistic preferences, areas of personal comfort or peripheral issues.

This makes the alternative of my past experience pale in comparison. For example, as a member of the Vineyard denomination, my church history only goes back about 30 years. As a Protestant, it goes back about 500 years. Even with my best intentions to be a missional community, I couldn't dismiss the fact that when our house church gathered, we were completely disconnected historically. We were a small group that had splintered off of a larger splinter, which had come from a larger splinter, which came from a larger splinter. But in Orthodoxy, I am deeply connected to the wisdom, teaching, example and communion of the entire Church all the way back to its beginning.

Another example is my experience in worship. As a member of the Vineyard, corporate worship was practically experienced as 30 minutes of singing followed by a 45-60 minute sermon. Even our attempts at constructing a more liturgical worship in our house church ended up being disjointed and disconnected from anything historical. In Orthodoxy, I engage in full-sensory, liturgical worship that has been practiced for twenty centuries and rooted in the full life of the Church.

Is the Orthodox Church the "true" Church? All I can say is at this point in our journey east, the Orthodox Church certainly seems to be the fullest expression of the Church.

If you're interested in exploring this a bit more, Father Stephen has a good podcast about this subject. You can listen to the podcast HERE.

February 20, 2008 at 07:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

February 16, 2008

Good Introductory Resources to Orthodox Christianity

If anyone reading this blog is interested in reading some introductory essays to Eastern Orthodoxy, click HERE to go to a resource page of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese.

February 16, 2008 at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A Much-Needed Update

I can't believe it has been over a month since I posted something here. Things have been going well on all fronts for our family. And one of the reasons why I haven't made the time to post anything is that I've been spending all of my spare time enjoying my family. I can't think of anything else I'd rather do than spend time with Debbie and the kids. So for those who are interested, this post is an attempt to bring you up to speed.

Our family had a wonderful Christmas vacation. Prior to the break, Debbie was working double hours at her job and I was working my new full-time job at the school district and putting in part-time hours at Asian Access. It was nice to have ten full days off to spend with the family.

January started off being much more manageable. Debbie is now working her normal hours and I only have the school district job. But the wedding season is quickly approaching and I'll be spending several Saturdays beginning in March filming weddings. But I don't feel as burned out as I did last year and I'm approaching this season with a much better attitude.

Deanna & Alan_thumbnail.png A couple of weeks ago, our family got to spend time with Debbie's childhood friend, Deanna, and her husband Alan. Deanna and Alan were in California for a conference and we got to spend an afternoon with them. We went out to Newport beach and explored the tidal pools.

Michael is doing pretty well as a sophmore in high school. He started a science fiction class this term and is enjoying it. For good or bad, he seems to have inherited my geek gene. But unlike me, he makes being a geek look good.

Cathy is in 8th grade. She's in a dancing group at school. They had their first competition a couple of weeks ago and her group finished 1st place in their division! I can't believe she's going to be in high school next year.

Danielle is in 5th grade. Her school just held a talent show last night. It was such a blast watching her and her friends having a great time dancing. I can't believe she's going to be in middle school next year.

Chris is in 3rd grade. Last week, he was invited to his first birthday party without his siblings. And the day before, he decided to stay after school without his siblings to help in the book faire. Being the fourth child, Chris is very social and does just about everything with his brother and sisters. So these two moments seem to be marking a shift in his growth. Next year, he will be in his elementary school without his sister.

Debbie is doing well in her job. She does so well with children and is a caring and mature presence in otherwise very immature and broken families. I'm glad God has provided her this job to be Jesus' presence to these babies and their teenage moms.

And I'm absolutely loving my new job as a computer tech for the school district. I enjoy the people I work with and I enjoy the challenge and satisfaction that the job brings. The other day I was setting up computers in a computer lab at one of the elementary schools. While I was there, one of the teachers brought her class for a walk-through. It was so cool hearing these kids "ooh" and "aah" and see their looks of anticipation, knowing they would get to work on these computers next week. Knowing that I help provide support for the teachers and their students in their educational environment is a wonderful thing.

Our family has been attending Saint Peter the Apostle Antiochian Orthodox Church . Our "journey east" so far has been a mixture of wonder and challenge. I absolutely love the worship. The entire experience engages all of one's senses. I love the icons, the incense, the altar, the vestments, the music, the prayers, everything. I didn't realize how much I was longing for a deeper and richer kind of Christianity, especially for something that was non-American. This is basically the way the Church worshipped the first several centuries of its existence, a historical connectedness that is very important to me.

But I must also say that the foreignness of Eastern Orthodoxy has eclipsed much of our experience thus far. Every time we visit, it feels like we've moved to a different country and culture. There is so much we don't understand and, quite frankly, can't understand from a western Christian perspective. I'm glad we've decided to take at least one year to explore Orthodoxy. It would be too easy to make a premature decision in the midst of our immediate confusion and discomfort.

We also like Fr Patrick and the people at St Peter's. Although it is a small parish, there are several families with children our age and a few "newbies" that are just a few months ahead of us. Debbie and I have also begun attending their weekly parish study. Our goal at this early stage in our exploration is to try and view things from their eastern perspective and forgo judging everything from our western perspective. And when I'm absolutely honest with myself, any points of disagreement or challenge that I have found with Orthodoxy really flow from my own issues. Bottom-line, I don't want to die to myself.

While our Orthodox experience is strange for us right now, I agree with something Deb has said -- Eastern Orthodoxy seems to be the only form of Christianity that will help us raise our kids spiritually the way we've been wanting to raise them. That's because Eastern Orthodoxy is not a Christian faith based on ideas of God or emotions of inspiration as we've been accustomed to in the west. Nor is it merely a set of doctrines or beliefs. Rather, Eastern Orthodoxy is a full-life, community-based experience of communion with Christ through worship, sacraments and spiritual disciplines that holds spiritual formation (or what Orthodox call theosis) at its heart. And as part of that experience, Eastern Orthodox theology of the Incarnation, the Trinity, the Atonement, the Gospel, salvation, the sacramental life, Tradition and many other core doctrines are absolutely spot on. So onward and upward we go.

February 16, 2008 at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 28, 2007

Still Thinking about Scripture

Since posting on the Orthodox view of Scripture, I have found myself thinking a lot about the subject. Also, thanks to those who commented on that post. The comments have posed some questions for me that I'm hoping to resolve over time.

To move forward in this process of resolution, I will be posting responses and thoughts to a book my friend, David, gave me to read. It's called, The Mystery of Christ, by Fr. John Behr. Fr. John teaches courses in patristics, dogmatics and scriptural exegesis at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary.

I began reading the book casually, but I've decided to start over and use Fr. John's book as the material for some blog posts over the next few weeks. His book challenges us to approach theology as the early disciples did -- by viewing Scripture retrospectively with Christ's passion as the primary hermeneutic. He writes in the preface:

"But it is a stubborn fact, or at least is presented this way in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, that the one born of Mary was not known by the disciples to be the Son of God until after the Passion, his crucifixion and resurrection... Thus, to speak of the 'Incarnation,' to say that the one born of the Virgin is the Son of God, is an interpretation made only in the light of the Passion."

I have enjoyed and have been challenged by what I have read so far in Fr. John's book, so I'm looking forward to blogging my responses and thoughts to it over time.

If you would like to read a synopsis of the book, there is a three-part review at Oozerdoxie (a collection of bloggers who also post at theooze.com ):

PART ONE

PART TWO

PART THREE

December 28, 2007 at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

December 26, 2007

Orthodox View of Scripture

I was reading a new blog post by Fr. Stephen that is challenging the way I view Scripture. If you're really interested, you can read the whole post HERE . But let me give you a quote:

"The Scriptures, as used in the Orthodox Church, are decidedly the Church’s Scriptures, and cannot be rightly read apart from the liturgical and ascetic life of the Church.

"Literalism is a false means of interpretation (hermenuetic) and is a vain attempt to democratize the Holy writings. If they can be read on a literal level, then everyone has equal access to them and everybody has equal authority to interpret them. Thus certain forms of Protestantism, caught up in the various modern theories of the Reformation, sought to do to the Scriptures what many sought to do with their governments. Kill the princes! Kill the priests! Everyone can be his own king, his own priest. Smash the images and any claim to authority. Of course these extreme forms always failed quickly, to be replaced by some version of moderation.

"Thus the Scriptures are not purely democratic - some interpreters are more equal than others."

Fr. Stephen's post causes a "Yeah!... Hey, wait a minute!" reaction in me. One of the things I have struggled with as a Protestant is how anyone with a Bible can interpret it and make it say whatever they want it to say. I've lost count of how many small group discussions I have attended where I have inwardly cringed when someone said, "Well, what this means to me is..."

And a similar dynamic occurs at the academic level, where attempts to discover the author's original intent based on critical study can be incredibly diverse and even contradictory.

The legacy of Sola Scriptura in western Protestantism is tragic. Anyone can believe Scripture says what they want it to say and then find someone to validate that belief. I mean, just watch any National Geographic or History Channel special around Easter or Christmas. All it takes are a few talking heads with letters behind their names to concoct some ridiculous theory to explain the biblical stories. Or skim the titles at any Christian books store and you'll find Scripture being used to support basically any topic.

So, I find myself agreeing with Fr. Stephen's idea, "Thus the Scriptures are not purely democratic - some interpreters are more equal than others."

But I also find myself reacting to his ideas. As one who has spent my entire adult life learning to interpret and teach Scripture, the idea that "The Scriptures, as used in the Orthodox Church, are decidedly the Church’s Scriptures, and cannot be rightly read apart from the liturgical and ascetic life of the Church" is a very foreign, and quite frankly, frightening concept to me. Or, his statement later in his post, "The authority to speak about Christ is given to those whom He has chosen and ordained" really stirred up some reaction in me.

Now I've learned that when I react strongly to something, the first questions I need to ask are "Why am I reacting so strongly to this? What is this exposing in me?" In this case, the answer is very obvious: Pride. I don't like to be told what to believe. I like the fact that I have learned the skills to interpret Scripture and wrestle with Scripture to yield interpretations different than the popular versions of Christianity.

Now it's not all pride. Part of it is a response to having been taught false ideas by well-meaning Bible teachers in the past. Part of it is having been trained in seminary to approach theology with a critical and even a skeptical eye. But a good part of it is pride -- my interpretations are the result of my hard work, my study and my skill.

So I know I need to do several things: First, I know Fr. Stephen's post rings true. Scripture must be read, studied and lived in the liturgical and ascetic life of the Church. So probably the most important action our family must take is finding a parish in which to immerse our lives and to begin experiencing Scripture.

Second, I need to seek some counsel about whether it is possible to merge both a liturgical life in Scripture with a "critical" study of Scripture. Or to come to grips with the fact that they may be diametrically opposed to each other.

Third, I need to bring my exposed pride before my Lord so that he may save me from it. I need to deal with the possibility that not everybody, including myself, has the equal authority to interpret Scripture and that I may need to yield to those whom God has ordained to teach me. This scares me more than I want to admit. And once again, I find myself praying, "Lord, have mercy."

December 26, 2007 at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

First Take the Blog Out of Your Own Eye

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May 03, 2008

Journey Home (1) -- From Evangelical to Emerging Church

David Feliciano and "Orthodoxy Is For Everyone"

May 02, 2008

Another Thought About Interpretation...

Fr Stephen Freeman & "An Orthodox Hermeneutic"

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So, What About Your Kids?

April 28, 2008

A Pascha Surprise

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Post-Pascha Reflections

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April 26, 2008

Great & Holy Saturday

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April 22, 2008

Keeping Vigil Is Our Mission

April 21, 2008

And We're Off

April 18, 2008

An Interesting Convergence

April 17, 2008

Fr Stephen & “Is Hell Real?”

April 14, 2008

"You Can Never Worship God Too Much"

The Saints Are Truly Human

April 09, 2008

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