This is important. Sometimes Protestant Christians look at the Bible and believe that not much happened between the time of the apostles and the time of the Protestant Reformation. But the Orthodox believe that the Holy Spirit was guiding the early church and that, therefore, the Christians of the first five centuries were important interpreters of the Scriptures. The writings of these Christians function for the Orthodox in some ways like the Mishnah and the Talmud (scriptural interpretations and commentaries) function in Judaism. The Protestant idea of "sola scriptura" (Scripture alone) is unheard of in the Orthodox tradition. Scripture is the primary basis of authority in the faith, but it must be interpreted with the help of the Holy Spirit and the wisdom of the church through the ages as collected in many of its writings. This material includes stories of martyrs, letters, sermons, and other writings from the early church, things with which most Protestant Christians are not even familiar. These writings begin in AD 96 with the First Letter of Clement and stretch for hundreds of years. This material contains the thoughts of Christians as they reflected on the faith, trying to understand what it means and how one lives it.
One story in these writings is about an early Christian named Polycarp, who is represented with icons in many Orthodox churches. He was bishop of the city of Smyrna and a leading spokesman for Christianity, and he became one of the great saints of the church. Polycarp was eighty-six years old when the persecutions by the Romans began. Christians, accused of being atheists for their refusal to worship the Roman gods, were rounded up and put to death as many of the townsfolk cheered. Polycarp was among those arrested, but no one wanted to kill him. He and the others were given the opportunity to repent of their Christianity; a simple vow to the emperor would spare them. Polycarp refused, ending a bold exchange with a proconsul by defiantly declaring, "Bring forth the fire."
The authorities lit the fire, which did not consume Polycarp at first. When it finally did, onlookers smelled the sweet scent of a sacrificial offering to God rather than the acrid stench of burning flesh. Finally, because Polycarp refused to die in those flames and was still alive and praying, the authorities drove a dagger into his heart, then burned his body.
Now, when Orthodox Christians read such stories, which are unfamiliar to us as Protestant Christians, they say, "How could you ignore these? These are stories of the witness of the saints who have gone before us!" Orthodox Christians do not literally worship icons of such saints, but they do venerate them and look to them for inspiration in standing firm as they meet their own challenges. They say, "When I am tempted to fall away from the faith, I might pray to the saint, 'Help me to have your resoluteness in claiming Christ as my Savior. Let me be a bold witness for the faith.' " You can imagine how inspirational such figures and writings could be for our Orthodox friends.
Seeing the " Real World":
Liturgy, Sacred Architecture, Icons, and Prayer
There are many areas in which we would agree with the Orthodox, and a few areas where we might place a different emphasis or even disagree. For me, the most-compelling dimension of Orthodox faith and practice is the emphasis on what is ultimately real. I have had people say to me at times, "Well, this is the church; but in the real world. . . ." The Orthodox remind us that our daily lives (our jobs, our schooling, our relationships) are not the real world. The real world is heaven, God's eternal kingdom; and real life is found in participating in that divine kingdom now, here on earth. We will spend only a small amount of time here on this earth; we are, in the words of Scripture, just pilgrims and aliens here. There is a heavenly realm that we cannot generally see. It is invisible, but it is all around us; and if we really knew and understood this, if we participated in this realm, our lives would be radically different.
How would you live differently if you knew absolutely that God was constantly by your side? How would you look at retirement, illness, pain, sorrow, and tragedy if you had actually seen heaven and knew it was more real than anything you see on this earth? How would you react to temptation if you knew that Jesus watched over you; that this life was only temporary; that the saints stood around you, cheering you on? When you are sick, or discouraged, or feeling alone, how should your faith sustain you?
Orthodoxy challenges us to live with this certainty, and much of Orthodox worship is designed to help the worshiper "see" divine reality. An Orthodox church is a building whose very purpose is to transport the worshiper to the heavenly realm. The dome we often see on the top of an Orthodox church is aimed at giving the worshiper a sense of being encompassed or embraced within that realm. The ceiling itself represents the heavens. Often a mosaic or fresco of Jesus graces the dome or ceiling, looking down on the congregation, a visible reminder that Jesus is constantly looking down on us. In this way the dome is portraying what is real.
The front of the sacred space (what we would call the chancel, what they would call the "sanctuary") is separated from the nave, where the congregation gathers during worship, by an icon screen or wall containing painted images of Jesus and his life, Mary, and the apostles. These images are teaching tools that were particularly important when people could not read. Believers could look over the various icons and learn the story of Jesus' life and reflect on its meaning. This icon wall served the same function as the curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Temple in Solomon's time. (You will remember that Solomon's Temple was meant to be an earthly picture of the very throne room of God. The Orthodox perceive of their buildings as fulfilling a similar function.) Behind the icon wall is the altar, which represents for Orthodox Christians an earthly foreshadowing of a real place in the heavenly realm where God sits in judgment and rules the earth. On the side walls of this place of worship are more icons—this time of martyrs and saints who have died and have already entered God's eternal kingdom. These icons are not just reminders of people long dead, however. These icons are visible reminders that the saints are around the throne of God today and that they are praying for us and seeking to encourage us to continue to focus on Jesus and to run the race set before us.
Finally, the liturgy itself—what happens in worship—is meant to usher the worshipers into the heavenly realm, to remind them of who they are, Whose they are, and what is real. The liturgy is meant to replicate on earth the kind of worship that is taking place in heaven. It is filled with prayers of praise and thanksgiving shaped by the Scriptures and includes the reading of Scripture, chanting, a message, and the Eucharist. The use of incense is meant to remind worshipers of the glory of the Lord and to stand as a scented reminder of the prayers of God's people ascending to God. The bread and the wine of the Eucharist are a way of tasting and experiencing God. In this setting, in the scent of incense, in the use of lighting, in the sounds of the liturgy, and in the taste of the Eucharist, all senses are used to transport the worshiper to the heavenly realms.
"In Orthodox liturgy," says Father Sawchak, "we experience nothing less than heaven. We mystically join in with the angels, who are singing the Thrice Holy Hymn, 'Holy, Holy, Holy,' and with the saints of the church who have gone before us." The first half of the liturgy, the liturgy of the Word, includes readings from the Gospels and from the epistles of Paul. That is followed by the liturgy of the Eucharist, "part of which is remembering and being thankful for all of the things that have happened for us. We remember the cross, the tomb, the resurrection on the third day, the ascension into heaven, and the sitting at the right hand of the Father; and then we remember something that has already happened, and that is the second and glorious coming. We are experiencing something that has yet to happen in earthly terms but has been accomplished in mystical terms—is done and over with. We are able to fully participate, again, in nothing less than heaven."
This is the essence of faith: remembering what is true and real even though we cannot see it. This is part of what is meant to happen when any Christians gather for worship. That is, this is part of why we need weekly worship, because there