Enacting the Kingdom

"I'm not your mom, and you're actually a dog". A ridiculous reply, without a doubt (especially taken out of context, but you'll have to listen to the podcast for that).  Tragically, the Church sounds precisely like this most of the time.   A blocking response like this one is based on fear.  Fear that we cannot let go of control of the narrative, fear that the story will not unfold in the right wa...

"Assessing Status" is a game that improv actors use to develop their skills, and it's also a game that we play daily as we interact with other people.  It's part of the context of every relationship, every encounter. High and low status are neither good nor bad in and of themselves, but both are assumed as roles and can be used to move the narrative forward.  Status is also complex and is hardly f...

In this episode, Fr Yuri and Fr Geoffrey reflect on a chapter in Improvisation: The Drama of Christian Ethics by Samuel Wells... well, Fr Yuri improvises his part in the reflection (and a good job he does, indeed!). We make a mistake when we think of ethics as only being issues and struggles that interrupt our "normal life".  In fact, this view is entirely unbiblical and untraditional. We need to...

If life is a play, indeed a drama, what are our lines? Fr Geoffrey and Fr Yuri explore the analogy of God's story as a five act play, where we have intimate knowledge of the three acts that have come before, book-ended by intimate knowledge of the final act, while in the midst of act four.   As Christians we often look for a script, or mistakenly think we already have and know the script, when in...

We enter into our new series, Narrative Theology, by considering what it means to do the right thing, and by what methods we should discern what the right thing is anyway. Ethics are based on stories such as what a human person is, what the goal of our being is, and what constitutes a good life. As Christians, our ethics are based on the greatest story of all: the story of God. Fr Geoffrey and Fr...

We come to the final episode of our series on Your Liturgical Bible, which has been focused on the pillars of the bible and its narrative themes, connecting what's written in the bible with what we do through ritual.  We have seen that in the Orthodox church, liturgical worship is the primary way we experience the Scriptures, express our faith and experience our relationship with God.  There is a...

The core theme of the Scriptures could be considered to be the theme of monarchy.  Initially the biblical narrative seems to imply that having a king would be desirable, despite prophetic warnings against, and then we see the kings of Israel fail again and again.  So is it a good idea to have a king, or not?  The fact is, our human expectations of kingship result in kings that fail.  All kings wil...

The imagery of land and promised land in the Scriptures can be lost on those of us who live in lands of abundance.  But we must also be careful to understand that the promised land is not merely imagery.  It is a very real parcel of territory from which God's promises are shown to move out into the world.   There can be a tendency amongst Christian to universalize everything, insisting on symbolis...

As we see in the Scriptures, the Israelites had a very mature, deep and rich understanding of what it means to be an image of God.  Interestingly, the word used for being an image of God is also the same word that is used for an idol, showing a duality we need to be cautious of, and the importance of ordering ourselves according to the divine and not according to our own flesh. Fr Geoffrey and Fr...

Christians like to tout that the Bible is all about family values, but what do we really mean by that?  In fact, the very first thing that happens in God's plan of salvation is that Abram is told to abandon his family and nation in order to form a new family by which, God promises, all families will be blessed. Fr Geoffrey and Fr Yuri discuss this ambiguity around family that runs right through th...

What did Second Temple Jews believe about Sheol, the realm of the dead, and resurrection?  There are resurrection - or bodily resuscitation - accounts throughout the scriptures, so how did the various sects interpret those accounts?  Were they considered symbolic, historic or prophetic, personal or communal? In this episode of Your Liturgical Bible, Fr Geoffrey and Fr Yuri search the scriptures to...

Typically, and sadly, when we hear the words "life after death", we think of what happens to our soul after our body dies.  Maybe it even spurs us to make sure that we are doing the proper things, thinking the proper way, checking the right boxes, achieving a spiritual condition that will assure we are on the right side of that equation. The scriptural narrative of life after death shares a much d...

When we hear the word "ark", many of us think of Noah or Moses (...or perhaps Indiana Jones).  What is an ark?  What are we meant to call to mind when we read about arks in the scriptures, and how does this biblical imagery express itself in our liturgical worship? Fr Geoffrey and Fr Yuri explore these questions, and caution that we are not meant to be stuck within an Old Testament understanding o...

Time to get uncomfortable!  Instead of trying to explain away the "lowercase g" gods, Fr Yuri and Fr Geoffrey define what is meant by the "Divine Council", both in common parlance and also within the Orthodox context and understanding.  As we read the scriptures and participate in the liturgy, it's important to understand what monotheism is, and what it isn't, so that we can engage in theosis and...

Wind, breath and spirit.  In English we have these three words, but there is just one word in the Hebrew (ruach) and the Greek (pneuma).  In fact, there are many more metaphorical applications of this word, such as air, anger, blast, courage, despondency, quick-tempered, inspired, trustworthy and wrath. This spirit, breath and wind portrays God's action in the world - from the life-giving and anim...

When we think of fire in the Bible, we may come up with images of hellfire, the judgement of God and a casting away from His presence.  In actuality, fire is used in scripture as a way of God revealing Himself and His holiness.  Fire is God's presence which humans encounter, which refines and purifies - and in this way, it's not wrong to think of fire as being God's judgement.  Could it be that th...

People are trees!  Except it's a bit more nuanced than that because you need to also keep in mind... trees are people! Right from the Genesis story, we see that trees (and seeds) feature prominently in the scriptural narrative, and often mirror the human story.  Fr Geoffrey and Fr Yuri offer tools for your "biblical literacy toolbelt" to help you unpack the full meaning when you come across trees...

To be human is to experience times of wilderness.  That is, wilderness the way Israelites understood and lived it.  In modern times we tend to think of wilderness as a lush getaway, a place of refuge from our urban environment, but in the Scriptural context it is a place of desolation and lack and need, a place of testing, and a time of drawing nearer to God, learning to be completely and utterly...

Symbolically, to be on a high place is to be on secure dry land, where creation flourishes and where God dwells among His people in an awesome and awful (or rather awe-full) way.  In this episode, Fr Yuri and Fr Geoffrey discuss the ways mountains appear in the Scriptures, how we understand the meaning of mountains throughout the scriptural story and how they come up in our liturgical life. In thi...

Continuing on with the theme of water, in this episode Fr Geoffrey and Fr Yuri plunge into the Waters of Death - the chaotic, deadly, stagnant waters that are the counterpoint to the lifegiving waters that were explored last episode.  Throughout the bible, in Genesis, Exodus, the prophets and the gospel accounts, the power of water is revealed.  More than that, the power of the one true God is rev...

While the themes of the waters of life and death are intertwined in the Scriptures, in this episode, Fr Yuri and Fr Geoffrey explore the aspect of water that is life-giving and fruitful. From the creation account, through the prophets and into the New Testament, the Scriptures are woven through with experiences of living water.  As Orthodox Christians, we enact this story in our liturgies, recalli...

 We have now gone through the seven pillars of biblical literacy as outlined by the Bible Project podcast, but there is a pillar that was missed.  This forgotten pillar, or perhaps better called the Pillar of Pillars, is the bible as Liturgical Literature.   Of course the bible precedes our Divine Liturgy, yet if the Liturgy is understood as the experience of who God is, of being with God and God...

"Your Liturgical Bible" is our new series created just for our patrons.  We will be exploring what the bible is - and what it's not.  We will discuss how we're meant to read Scripture, how it connects with Liturgy and our life, and how we can use it to enact the Kingdom. In this second of half of our series introduction, Fr Yuri and Fr Geoffrey explore the remaining pillars of biblical literacy wh...

 We are so excited to begin our new series created just for our patrons, Your Liturgical Bible.  The Scriptures are the source material for our liturgical services, either directly or indirectly.  The goal is to provide our listeners with the tools to read the Scriptures in a way that informs how we experience Liturgy, and then ultimately allows us to bring that Liturgy into our everyday life. The...

In our final episode on the sayings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, Fr Yuri and Fr Geoffrey reflect on the impact these words can have on our modern lives.  Even those sayings that deal with becoming a monastic (which at first may seem too far out of reach) can apply to us who live in the world, as we share a common call to asceticism. In this sixth season of Enacting the Kingdom, we are releas...