Tag Archives: First Corinthians

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.

Fools for Christ

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The church which is popularly known as St. Basil’s Cathedral on Red Square in Moscow is associated with St. Basil, the fool-for-Christ, who dared to rebuke Ivan the Terrible. It was built in the 1550s. Actually, only one of the chapels is dedicated to St. Basil.

For it seems to me that God has displayed us apostles at the end of the procession, like prisoners appointed for death. We have become a spectacle to the whole world, to angels as well as to men. We are fools for Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honored, but we are dishonored. To this very hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed…. (1 Cor. 4:9-11)

St. Paul says that he and those who support him are fools for Christ. He mocks his Corinthian opponents who claim to be wise and strong and much more honorable or respectable. St. Paul is happy to be considered a fool if that means he is being faithful to Christ.

Many saints, especially among the Eastern Christians, have also embraced the appearance of foolishness–i.e. craziness–in order to remain faithful to Christ. Some of these saints might have been people that we would now consider mentally ill. Others were not ill but so devoted to following the Gospel that they looked crazy to everyone around them.

Fidelity to Christ and the Gospel does in fact demand that Christians look at least a little bit crazy. The word for blessed in Slavonic is the same as the word for crazy. So Jesus’ words, “Blessed are the peacemakers…. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness…. Blessed are the meek…,” can also be understood as “Crazy are the peacemakers…. Crazy are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness…. Crazy are the meek….”

Many of the most famous fools-for-Christ were the saints who were crazy enough to rebuke vicious secular rulers, such as Ivan the Terrible, who committed mass atrocities against their people. Others were ascetics who renounced social norms to such a degree that they seemed crazy to their contemporaries.

See the essay on “Foolishness for Christ” in Wikipedia here.

Excommunicate Evil

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Detail of a late medieval Greek Orthodox icon showing Saint Nicholas slapping Arius at the First Council of Nicaea.

In the letter I wrote to you not to associate with sexually immoral people, not meaning the sexually immoral of this world in general, or the avaricious and the greedy, or the idolatrous, because then you would have to leave the world. Now I write to you not to associate with someone who bears the name of brother or sister and who is sexually immoral or avaricious or idolatrous or slanderous or a drunkard or greedy. You should not even dine with someone like that.

Who am I to judge outsiders? Shouldn’t you judge insiders? God will judge outsiders. Expel the wicked one from your midst. (1 Cor. 5:9-13)

St. Paul refers to a previous letter that he had written to the parish at Corinth; alas, that letter has not survived. But in that previous letter, the apostle had instructed the Corinthians to shun the immoral. He hadn’t told them to shun everyone who was immoral because that would mean that they would have to shun the whole world! He had told them to shun those who were members of the Church but who behaved as if they were not Christians. St. Paul told the Corinthians not to worry about outsiders; God will judge the non-Christians. St. Paul told the Corinthians that they were responsible for maintaining the discipline of the “insiders” and that they should not even have dinner with the Christians who denied the faith by such notorious, public misbehavior.

The practice of shunning those who repudiate the Church by their public misbehavior came to be known as “excommunication” as the Christians being shunned were “former communicates” who were now forbidden to receive Holy Communion; in Latin ex, out of, and communio or communicatio, communion — exclusion from the communion). They were excluded from the fellowship, the koininia, of the Church. Excommunication was seen as spiritual medicine and not a spiritual punishment as it was not intended to punish the excommunicated person but was meant to correct the excommunicated person and bring them back to the path of righteousness.

As the Church developed in Western Europe, two kinds of excommunication developed. One was called “lesser excommunication” in which the person was not allowed to receive Holy Communion but could still participate in other aspects of parish activities. The “greater excommunication” involved the public shunning that St. Paul describes. A person who was a “greater excommunicate” was forbidden to participate in public communal life in any way: the members of the parish in good standing were not allowed to speak or eat or do business with or associate in any way with a person placed under the “greater excommunication.”

A lesser excommunication was issued if a person either hit or attacked a priest in public or associated in public with someone who was under a greater excommunication. Lesser excommunications have not been issued since 1869.

A greater excommunication is issued if a person denies the Christian faith in public, promotes incorrect teaching, throws away or mistreats the consecrated Eucharist, or if a priest reveals what someone said in confession. Great excommunication can be forgiven if the public misbehavior stops.

St. Nicholas–of Santa Claus fame–is said to have been so angry at the heretic Arius that he slapped Arius during the first ecumenical council held at Nicea in AD 325. Arius has become the “prototype” or “model” of those who are excommunicated or cast out of the Church for notorious misbehavior or incorrect belief.