OrthoAnalyika Show: 5 September 2010
Labor Day: a chance to rest and reflect.
This is one of those great long weekends, the last hurrah of Summer and the punctuation mark that signals the transition from it to Autumn. For many, it is the opportunity to make one last trip before the school and work year begins in earnest. For those who have it off, Labor Day sits outside of time. That is the beauty of it. It’s called Labor Day, but the point of the whole thing is to do anything but work. It’s a fantastic concept; the one time of the year when it is socially acceptable to relax and do nothing more than enjoy the company of friends and family. We work so hard all the time, but not then. Labor Day is when we take a well-deserved break from the grind and try to enjoy ourselves.
This just feels right somehow, doesn’t it?
Well, it feels right because it resonates with a couple of fundamental truths: we were made to work, and we were made to rest.
We were made to work
One of the great virtues of this nation is its commitment to work hard and to work well. This virtue does not allow us to see work in purely economic terms; it isn’t just about paying the bills, providing for the family, or having enough to give freely to those in need. The virtuous worker recognizes and celebrates the sanctifying quality of work done well. He recognizes that there is something inherently good in applying himself completely – mind, body, and soul – to the application of his craft.
Why is this? Why is hard work so satisfying? I think Genesis 3: 17-19 provides a clue. That is where God is describing how difficult life will be in the fallen world outside of Eden; the ground is “cursed”, it will take “painful toil” and the lots of “sweat of the brow” to get anything useful out of it, it produces “thorns” and “thistles” along with the harvest vegetables we need.
As a consequence of the Fall, the world that was created to cooperate with us for our mutual benefit became a source of difficulty and sometimes even despondency. King Solomon captures this attitude in Ecclesiastes (2:22-23); “For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun? For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.” It is all too common to see work in this manner; it doesn’t just break our backs, but our spirits as well.
But here is the point: when we apply ourselves in a certain way, we can reclaim through grace and virtue that was lost through our sin. When we do this, Creation responds to the image of God within us, bringing it [Creation] and us closer to the perfection we were meant to enjoy. But it’s not just about working harder or working smarter – in order for us to really turn the patch of thorns and thistles we are called to till into a sanctified garden; in order for our work to make us nobler rather than simply tired; in order for it to be something other than the “vexation” and “vanity” Solomon spoke of, it must be offered up to the Lord.
If you do the work for yourself, you may keep yourself alive; if you do the work for your family and your household, you may manage to pay your bills; but if you do the work out of Love and dedication to our Lord; if you offer it up – along with every part of your life – to God, then it may still do these things, but it will also bring you joy. It will bring you the temporary joy of work done well, – after all, we only offer the best of what we have to the Glory of Our God – but it will also bring you the lasting joy of one who is being restored to perfection through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (e.g. 1 Corinthians 10:31; St. John 6:27; Ephesians 6: 5-9). This is what we were designed for, and when we follow that design, things naturally move toward the glory of God.
We were made to rest
But just as we were made to work hard, we were also made for rest. This is such an important part of nature of things, that it is included in the first creation story in Genesis. After applying Himself for six days to His craft, God rested; “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”
Genesis was not given to us to provide a mechanistic and materialist description of creation, but rather to teach us the most important things about that creation. Foremost is that God made the universe – and especially mankind – as an outpouring of His love and perfection. But the point about God resting is also important. This is also why God made the rule to “remember the Sabbath and keep it holy” one of the Ten Commandments. Nor is this a vestigial historical artifact. As our prayer book says (p. 387), “The Orthodox Christian is obligated to follow [the Ten Commandments] because they are the foundation of the Old Testament, which was fully realized and fulfilled in Christ”. Because of the Resurrection, we observe the Sabbath on the 8th Day (Sunday) rather than the 7th (Saturday), but the command remains.
It occasionally becomes trendy for scientists and journalists to point out the [secular, and thus “real”] benefits of taking a day off. They tip their hats to the conservative Jews who completely eschew any sort of work, congratulating them in the half-mocking sense of “even religion occasionally gets something right.” This secular recognition of the utility of regular rest dates at least back to the ancient Greeks who recognized the need for rest and recreation in order to begin living “the good life.”
We should not be surprised that scientists, journalists, and philosophers appreciate the value of rest to our minds and bodies. The benefits of rest are obvious. But just as work is not sanctifying unless it is done to the glory of God and His Love; neither is our rest sanctifying unless it is similarly offered up to Him. And here we must be very specific. Our Church does not simply instruct us to avoid work on Sunday, but tells us that the proper place for every Christian for at least part of every Sunday is in Church, celebrating the Divine Liturgy. You can get a certain joy and temporary relief from your burdens just by taking a day off, but if you want to truly redeem the time and enjoy the blessings of life, you need to take that day off and dedicate the best portion to Orthodox worship. This is what we were made designed for, and when we follow that design, things naturally move toward the glory of God.
We love Labor Day. It feels right because it resonates with two fundamental truths: we were made to work, and we were made to rest. But God didn’t create you to limit yourself to enjoying this blessing once a year (for example Genesis doesn’t say, “and on the 365th day, God rested”!). So make rest – and worship – the beginning and end of every week.
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Mail:
Some history on that cool Thai icon of the Theotokos w/ Christ incarnate.
A listener wrote; “These types of images are actually very old. My guess is that this icon is based on “Kuan Eim” who is a Buddhist “boddhisatva” of compassion, so not Hindu. When Christianity came to Asia, (before 1500?) a most natural comparison happened between Kuan Yin (Kuan Eim in Thailand, called Kannon, in Japan; Avalokitesvara in Tibet; Kuan Yin in China;) and the Virgin Mary. Kuan Yin is not a god or a buddha but a bodhisatva, which is a being who has decided not to become fully enlightened so that they may save others and help them on the path to enlightenment. A very simple, surface comparison is to compare them to the Saints, where they are not worshiped but are intercessors. Kuan Yin means “She hears the cries of the world.” so when Christianity came to Asia, Kuan Yin began to be depicted with a child in her arms and sometimes with halos. The people recognized the compassionate and intercessory qualities of Mary and adopted her endearingly even if they didn’t convert. In Japan these images became known as “Maria Kannons”. Of course when Christianity came to Asia, it was through the Catholics and because they do not have such a strict cannon on iconography, these images didn’t seem too unusual.”
Is exercise for the sake of vanity really useful?
Did you know you were published at www.pravmir.com? Not until now – but thanks (and welcome to new listeners who ended up here as a result!).
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News!!!
World News:
So when do de-classified files resort back to being classified? When the government changes!? In fact, there are a lot of ugly things going on in Ukraine. The problem isn’t so much with a new regime changing the government’s attitude towards secrets, for me it’s more about the arbitrary nature of their execution. Government needs to be predictable in order to be legitimate and stable.
Religious News
How much do science and religion overlap? Tim Crane (NYTimes “Mystery and Evidence”) makes an excellent point: our faith relies on facts (1 Corinthians 15:4). Then he kind of sidesteps the implications of this by saying that this kind of truth claim is not the same kind science deals with (testing of hypotheses, etc.). However, the main thrust of the article is to explain (mainly to scientists and atheists) that the real difference between science and religion is that they are alternate paradigms (i.e. world views); one (religion) looks for significance/meaning/mystery while the other (science) looks for generalizable patterns. People seem to like the religious worldview more than the scientific one (according to Crane). The implied challenge for scientists is to show what their findings say about the big questions. Personally, I think we can handle facts better than they can handle meaning.
NPR did an interesting story on All Things Considered called “Is Believing in God Evolutionarily Advantageous?” The basic idea is that religion – and even numinous encounters – are prevalent because they enable communities to solve the free rider/collective action problems. The article is based on bad science (e.g. assuming that because something is prevalent, it must make practitioners more “fit”; not giving a sense of how legitimate the claims made are within the scientific community; not describing the standard/alternate explanations), but I liked it because it reinforces the point Christ made in the parable of Lazarus (St. Luke 16:19-31); “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.” Data alone won’t get people to accept reality – it takes humility. One of the things we can do to help is give nonbelievers a good example! As part of this, let’s be charitable enough to take their work seriously rather than simply writing it off or caricaturing it (who knows, more unbelievers might then offer us the same courtesy). Rational understanding comes through dialogue, but more importantly, dialogue can provide an opening for honest love and communion to grow. This cannot happen in a proud and fallen world except through humility – and this is a kind of evangelism that we are all called to practice.
Stephen Hawking declared God irrelevant in his latest book. Some argue that he made a category error (confusing law with agency), but we can’t be so quick to dismiss this; it’s not as simple Lewis’ billiard balls (in “The Laws of Nature”) – Hawkings is claiming that the whole thing automatically generates new universes. It is still obvious to us that such a system requires some agency, but scientists believe they have found the prime mover (and it is neither personal nor outside creation). Let’s pray that the love of a personal God (perhaps expressed through one of us!) moves even such seemingly cold/quiet hearts as these.
Too Good for Lent?
Vegan cupcakes won the Food Network’s “Cupcake Wars”. You can get the recipe at the chef’s website, Chef Chloe.
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Volya Moment: Throwing down the gauntlet – Paul Davies on the incompatibility of Christianity and the Existence of Intelligent Aliens.
Do you agree that the discovery of other intelligences would undermine the faith of Christians? I don’t. Or rather, if it does, it will be for the same reason previous findings (e.g. the age of the universe/world/humankind) have: ignorance.
Can we reconcile the existence of intelligent aliens with Orthodox Christianity? YES!!! Fundamentalists have a harder time (and liberals far too easy a time!), but our Tradition is very universal (especially in its Greek context). We have not been rocked by science in the way that other Christian theologies have. And, FWIW, theologians from each of the major western Christian approaches (e.g. literalist, evangelical, Roman Catholic; not to mention Mormons, Swenbourgians, and Seventh Day Adventists!) have already reconciled the two in one way or another.
Is Christianity really as anthro-centric as Davies claims? No: even the “image of God” described in Genesis has many meanings and is not necessarily a claim of universal exclusivity (Heiser in God, Man and ET: the image of God means that we are His stewards here).
Also, God is the “I AM.” – Fr. Eugene Pentiuc (Holy Cross Seminary) suggests that this is a signal of Christ’s propensity to become what we need. I have not asked Fr. Eugene if he thinks this might include aliens, but it would fit. Thomas Paine et al mock the idea that Christ could incarnate in myriad/manifold places… but Orthodox Theology need not be so limited (Michael Heiser has a great line “Let’s avoid putting “God” and “cannot” in the same sentence). Remember the Ascension Hymn “Christ returned to where He never left”. He took our flesh back into the Three-in-One. Is it possible that (through Incarnation) He brings all flesh there and thus opens the way for all to eternal sanctification?
Doesn’t Christianity claim that Christ come only to save mankind? No. This one is easy: Christ’s actions redeem all creation.
Doesn’t Christianity claim that mankind is the pinnacle of creation? NO! We need saving because we are so low. Also, we believe that Christ would have done everything for the sake even of the greatest simpleton (and there are plenty of animals smarter than him).
These are only a few of the red herrings that “scientists” throw at Christians when it comes to intelligent ET (we’ll cover the others when we review Michael Heiser’s work next week). NONE OF THEM STICK.
In Summary: I think that Davies is right when he warns that Christian leaders and theologians need to take this seriously – if for no other reason than this seems to be one of the “new” fronts in the spiritual battle. But he is completely off in his condescending suggestion that we “fundamentally revise (Christianity’s) salvation narrative ahead of any discovery [of aliens]”.
There is no need for revision, only the reassurance that the Faith is True and that there is no need to either 1) deny real science or 2) water down/change the Gospel. This is why we are taking a few shows to cover this now (hopefully more people with real academic chops will take up from this lightweight dilettante!). [FWIW, the other reason I’m taking the time is because such bizarre questions allow us to appreciate our world in new ways.]
And please don’t think that Davies is a voice in the wilderness: his is one of the modal opinions (another is the materialist spiritualism of the sort you get in the movie Contact). It’s going to take a couple of weeks to do the topic justice, but here is how I envision our OA response going:
Next Week: Literature Review (in place of the news & Vol’ya segments). You may be surprised to learn that there is a lot of serious scholarship on this topic!
In the Future: Point by point refutations by answering the following questions (the framework is adapted from Lewis’ in “Religion and Rocketry”):
Are there thinking animals anywhere else***?
If so, are these animals spiritual/morally cognizant (i.e. rational in the old sense of the word)?
If so, are any of them fallen?
If they are fallen, are they outside of God’s economy of salvation (i.e. redemption/sanctification through the Incarnation and Resurrection of Christ)?
If so, mightn’t there be another facet to God’s economy of salvation that is hidden from us?
***Then, leaving Lewis’ framework, we really need to deal with the possibility that theologians like Fr. Seraphim Rose and some of the the New Agers raise: what are we to make of the UFO/Alien abduction phenomenon? Is it demonic? Angelic?
