The real Christ for the Orthodox Church is the Christ of the gospels and Acts; the Christ of the writings attributed to the apostles John and Paul, and Peter and James and Jude. There is no other Christ for the Orthodox Church. A Christ produced by scholars, mystics, poets or politicians – or even by creative theologians, charismatic elders or crusading activists within or without the Church – is never the real and whole Christ of Orthodox doctrine, liturgy, spirituality and sanctity. He is surely not the Christ of Orthodox mission.
To know the real Christ requires a diligent and critical study of the Bible. Before anything else, Christians are disciples, i.e. students (mathetai). They are students of Christ before they are his “members” as members of his Church. They are his disciples before they are his apostles and missionaries (i.e., “those who are sent”). And they are certainly his disciples before they are bishops, presbyters, elders, and theologians of his Church.
Jesus appears in the gospel narrative first as rabbi, master and teacher (didaskolos, magister). He instructs his students in the right understanding of the old testament writings. Risen from the dead he opens the minds of his disciples to understand the scriptures and explains to them how “the law, the psalms and the prophets” speak about him (cf. Lk 24).
Critical study of scriptures is a reading and hearing of the biblical words without prejudging or predetermining their meaning. Through such study the student (who may in some circumstances be unable to read) wants to know what the writings actually say and mean, first for those who originally wrote and heard them, and then for people today, beginning with oneself. Such study uses all available means to illumine and explain (but not to constitute or determine) the biblical texts as written and received in the Church. It employs, for example, the knowledge of languages, literature, history, religion, geography and archeology. It welcomes the guidance of those skilled in such fields. But though this study is done within the Church community with the help of others, it must be done for oneself. Each individual believer must personally engage God’s Word in the Bible. Without such engagement, especially today in North America, and especially by the Church’s leaders, there is no genuine Orthodox mission.
Bible and Liturgy
The hearing and reading of the Bible essential to Orthodox missionary work occurs in the context of the Church’s self-actualization in corporate worship, i.e. the liturgy. The Church assembled in Christ’s name before the Face of God in the Holy Spirit for instruction, petition, praise, remembrance and thanksgiving is the hermeneutical condition and context for interpreting God’s Word recorded in the scriptures. As such, it is the point from which the Church’s apostolic mission originates and the point toward which its activity is directed.
Not only is the Bible read, heard, contemplated and explained at Church services, but the services themselves are thoroughly biblical in content, form and spirit. Biblically informed believers have an immediate awareness and experience of the Bible’s message in Orthodox liturgical worship. Or rather, more accurately, the God and Christ witnessed in the Bible become immediately accessible to believers in liturgical contemplation and communion in the Church.
Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko The Mission of the Orthodox Church in North America with thanks to Matthew Baker
