Putting Words in Your Mouth

The reality is that the Message of the Incarnate God in Christ is going to cause conflict with the darkness. And sometimes we get caught up in that conflict.

Someone sent me a video of a group of Chinese Christians getting a box of Bibles. The scene was touching and tragic at the same time. Here are these followers of Christ, in a hostile environment, getting a copy of the Bible in their language for the first time. They rushed to get the Book, then they wept, then they kissed the Book. Then, a sacred silence fell on the room as these persecuted believers stood in the moment, knowing this very act could get them arrested. It was powerful.

Those of us who have lived in an amazing time of freedom can’t quite grasp such a moment when we have such an abundance of Bibles and even translations of the Bible in ways that would seem a bit silly to believers through the centuries. Translations like the NASB, ESV, NIV, NKJV, The Message, and even “The Ragamuffin Gospel.” Amazing! We reduce the Gospel to a marketing tool and wonder why the Faith isn’t taken very seriously in our culture.

But now, we in this society have lived long enough to see Christians become hated and rejected citizens. The culture has now reacted to our frivolous practice of the Faith and turned on us. Maybe we, too, will now begin to understand our Chinese brethren in their purifying “fire” of persecution.

Look at our lesson today in Mark 13:9-13:

The Lord said to his disciples, "Take heed to yourselves; for they will deliver you up to councils; and you will be beaten in synagogues; and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear testimony before them. And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. And when they bring you to trial and deliver you up, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say; but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. And brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; and you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved."

Jesus is preparing His disciples for the life they will have as they follow Him. And, as usual, Jesus insists we deal with reality. There is no hiding from the reality of the conflict between Christ and a world governed by the narcissistic rebellion of being slaves to our desires and passions. These two ways of living are always and forever incompatible and in constant conflict. Pretending we can have “peaceful coexistence” with darkness is a fantasy that always leads to unfaithfulness. Always. There is no peace between Light and darkness. Ever.

Notice how the Lord begins teaching His disciples to deal with this spiritual warfare. He starts by commanding them to “Take heed” to themselves FIRST. The first discipline to prepare you for the inevitable conflict is to deal with yourself first. That means your best defense against succumbing to the allure that we can compromise the Faith with the “spirit of the age” is to allow the Faith to transform you inside and out. That means being a purposeful student of the Faith AND EVEN MORE, in mutual communion with a spiritual father and communion with the community of Believers that form you and shape you and equip you to deal with reality and not hide in the fantasy of “can’t we all get along?”

Then Jesus says that when you’ve taken heed to yourself, you are not to be “anxious” when reality strikes! A mature follower of Jesus Christ isn’t wringing their hands when darkness acts like darkness. The chaos and confusion gripping our current society is an expression of that darkness when society tells our young people to indulge their delusions and embrace that “I was born this way” as a way to be authentic; you know there is no way a timeless Faith can reconcile with that delusional immaturity. But you also know that screaming at the darkness won’t work.

The Lord promises His disciples that He will “put words” in their mouths when the time comes to face the hatred of a society gripped by their own childish rebellion against wisdom. And even with our own families turning against us, we can know the beauty of faithfulness will sustain us no matter what the temporary costs might be.

Look at the saint we remember today, St. Photini, the Woman at the Well. Christ confronted her, and her life was changed forever. She and her whole family were baptized as Christians, and they became great witnesses to the Faith in the hostile pagan Roman society. So much so that she was arrested by the authorities and brought before Nero, that ancient antichrist; he demanded she renounce her faith in Jesus, and she refused, even when she had been brutally tortured. Apparently, Nero knew her story and finally condemned this great saint to death by throwing her down a well. She was martyred in the year 66 AD.

Today, are you beginning your defense against the madness of the day by starting with your own purposeful discipleship in Christ? In a peaceful spirit broguht on by serious practice of the Faith, we don’t need to worry what we will say when the deluded world confronts us. Christ will give us the words to say IF our souls are quiet enough to hear Him as we live a Normal Orthodox Christian life.

P.S. All illumined by the Holy Spirit, you did drink with great and ardent longing of the waters Christ the Savior gave to you; and with the streams of salvation were you refreshed, which you abundantly gave to those athirst. O Great Martyr and true peer of Apostles, Photini, entreat Christ God to grant great mercy unto us.