Category Archives: Saints

Apostolic Invitations

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Apostle James, brother of St. John the Theologian (the Divine)


We celebrate the feast of the Apostle James on Tuesday, July 25th. He was a very popular saint in the Middle Ages and his shrine at Compostela in Spain was one of the most popular pilgrimage destinations in Europe. (The pilgrimage has become popular again in recent decades and several Episcopalians from New York have made the pilgrimage—some, several times!—in the last few years.)

St. James was an apostle, a preacher of the Good News of Jesus Christ. He spent his life traveling and sharing the message of Christ with others. He was killed because he would not deny his faith in Christ. We are likewise called to share our faith and in Christ with other people—not necessarily by traveling around the world and talking to strangers but by talking to the people we already know who live right around us already.

Our faith is important to each of us in personal and unique ways. We might feel foolish or embarrassed to discuss these reasons with people we know but we should not be embarrassed to invite people to come to church with us. If we want our parishes to grow and thrive, flourish and outlive any of us who are currently alive we need to invite people to join us on Sunday morning or at a weekday event. There are plenty to choose from.

We don’t need to wait for a special event. Every Sunday is special in some way—the music, the sermon, the fellowship at Coffee Hour. Who might you invite to join you on Sunday?

We should be praying for our neighbors as well as inviting them to come to church with us. Our prayers for the welfare of those around us can help us—and our neighbors—be more open and responsive to opportunities for sharing faith.

We believe “in one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church.” That means the Church is directly connected to the apostles and shares the same calling as the apostles. That means that each of us personally—because we are members of the Body of Christ, that one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church—also share that same calling among our neighbors and friends. We can use the feast of St. James as a reminder of our callings to be apostles just as he was. 

Read previous blogs about more of the Apostle James’ adventures in Spain here.

Let Light Shine

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Depictions of St. Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus, blinded by the divine light of Christ who spoke to him as he was going to arrest Christians for execution in Jerusalem.


On the contrary, we have renounced the deeds one hides for shame; we do not practice cunning or falsify the word of God, but through the open preaching of the truth we commend ourselves to anyone’s conscience in the sight of God…. it is the same God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has caused his light to shine in our hearts to spread the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor. 4:2, 5-6)

St. Paul was accused by his enemies in Corinth of “cunning” financial business; i.e., they accused him of shady and dishonest business deals with church money. They also accused him of “cunning” ways to read the Bible that were also shady and dishonest. He tells them that he has not been involved in any “cunning” behavior–not with money and not with reading the Bible. His interpretation of Scripture is open and honest and available to anyone with an honest, open conscience.

St. Paul alludes to Genesis 1 (“Let there be light”) when he paraphrases the Father’s command, “Let light shine out of darkness.” He might also be paraphrasing the prophet Isaiah: “O people walking in darkness, behold a great light: you that dwell in the land and shadow of death, a light shall shine upon you.” (Is. 9:2) St. Paul is saying that the same light that overcame the darkness in the beginning of the world and at the destruction of Death has shone in his heart-mind and shines in the hearts-minds of all honest people.

The light of God that shines in St. Paul and in honest people reveals the truth of the Gospel. (Remember the light that shone on St. Paul at his conversion? It struck him blind in order to heal his heart, St. Augustine said.) People “see” the brightness of the Gospel and then personally adopt it and are transformed by it; they are transformed into the image of the glorious Christ and communicate it to others who are “illuminated.” (One ancient way to refer to baptism is to call it “illumination.” Old prayers for those about to be baptized asl God to bless “those preparing for holy illumination.”)

But our actual daily experience is not bright and glorious. We are wasting away and eventually die. Yet what is strong already manifests itself in what is weak and the future erupts into the present. The eternal breaks into the perishable and enlightens what is temporary and transient.

Knowing Christ as the true light, inaccessible to falsehood, we learn this, namely, that it is necessary for us to be illuminated by the rays of the true light. But virtues are the rays of the Sun of Justice streaming forth for our illumination, through which we lay aside the works of darkness and walk becomingly as in the day and we renounce those things which shame conceals. By doing all things in the light, we become the light itself so that it shines before others which is the unique quality of light. If we recognize Christ as sanctification, in whom every action is steadfast and pure, let us prove by our actions that we ourselves stand apart, being ourselves true sharers of his name, our deeds–not just our words–coinciding with his power of sanctification.

St. Gregory of Nyssa, On Perfection

You are washed-illuminated-sanctified

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Baptism is always by immersion in the Orthodox Church. If we die and rise in the water, then there should be enough water to drown our sinful selves in. Arising from the water, the person is always anointed with chrism by the priest [i.e. confirmed], no matter how old they are. The chrism is washed off at the end of the service using water from the font and with the words of 1 Cor. 6:11.

You have been washed, you have been made holy, you have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor. 6:11)

St. Paul is urging the Christians of Corinth to refrain from suing each other in civil courts. He says that they could find trustworthy members of the parish to settle an argument rather than “washing the dirty laundry” of the parish in public court in front of pagan judges. He points out that the Church–the Body of Christ–will judge even the angels on Judgement Day and that as the Body of Christ it would be better for them to settle disputes without involving the sinful world which they will be called to judge at the End of Time. He reminds them that they were once immoral and notorious sinners themselves but now they have been washed [i.e. baptized] and sanctified.

The baptized Corinthians are washed-sanctified-justified. These are taken to be three aspects of one reality: they are in a new, right relationship with God. They are justified. (In Greek, the same word means “justified” and “made righteous.” It can also mean “vindicated.”) It is therefore now appropriate that they be the judges rather than the judged.

However, the reception of the gift of salvation is not a one-time event but a life-time process. St. Paul employs the verb “to save” (sozesthai) in the past tense (“we have been saved,” Rom 8:24; Eph 2:5); in the present tense (“we are being saved,” 1 Cor 1:18; 15:2), and in the future tense (“we will be saved,” Rom 5:10). He can think even of justification as a future event and part of the final judgment (Rom 2:13, 16).

These words of St. Paul, reminding the Corinthians of their new status in the Kingdom of God, are used to wash the chrism from the newly baptized in the Orthodox Church. The candidate for baptism is always anointed with chrism after their immersion into the baptismal waters, no matter how young they are. Later, as the priest dips a small sponge into the font and then uses it to wipe the chrism from the person’s head-hands-feet, he says, “You are baptized. You are illuminated. You are sanctified. You are justified. You are washed: in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” He keeps repeating these phrases until all the chrism is wiped off. Baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection and anointed with the Holy Spirit, the person is a new creation.

Immersed in the waters of baptism and sanctified by the holy chrism –whether in 1st century Corinth or 21st century New York–the newly justified child of God faces the challenge to live up to the righteousness given at baptism and to integrate it into their life thereafter.

The idea that Christians should not take their problems to civil courts eventually led to a separate church court system to resolve issues among church members. Such church courts still exist but deal primarily with issues among clergy or about church membership.