+ROAC Subdeacon Nathanael Kapner
THE "SISSIFICATION" OF CHRISTIANITY
I grew up as a Jew. From the age of 4 years old I attended Sabbath services. Jesus also attended Sabbath services. Are any of you familiar with this: "And Jesus came to Nazareth where He had been brought up. And as His custom was He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book he came to the place where it was written, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me..." Luke 4:16
This is what is known as the "Haftorah" reading. First there is a reading from the "Torah" (the first 5 books of Moses), then there is this a "Haftorah" (along with the Torah) reading from one of the prophets. These readings are done in a pre-appointed cycle throughout the Jewish calendar year.
Needless to say, I grew up on the Prophets. I would hear as a tender child passages such as these: "I will lift up thy skirts over thy face that thy shame may appear before all." Jeremiah 13:26.
Or even more "scandalous" "I will spread dung upon your faces even the dung of your sacrifices and one will cart you away in the dung pile." Malachi 2:3
Every Bar Mitzvah boy when he reaches the age of manhood, 13 years old, is called up to the Bemah and "is delivered unto him a book of one of the Prophets. My reading at my Bar Mitzvah was this: "The voice of one who crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord." Isaiah 40
My "wilderness" experience began when I entered into the Orthodox Church for the first time in the winter of 1987. Don’t get me wrong. As soon as I entered I said to myself, "I.m home." This was on a Saturday night for the Vigil service at Holy Trinity Cathedral, an OCA church in downtown Boston. It was the next day when the priest gave his sermon that my "wilderness" experience began. Not one word of scripture was spoken. The following weeks were no better: not one word of scripture was spoken.
I can’t say that things got any better with my experience at St John of Damascus Church, an Antiochian church, in Needham Ma where I resided. There was absolutely no Scripture referred to in the priest’s many sermons. The ROCOR church I started attending was the same. HOCNA was no better.
Recently I posted "The MP-The Whore Upon Many Waters" on the Orthodox- Forum Discussion Group.
Well the "stuff " hit the fan when many of the more sensitive amongst us of "christian" sensibilities starting whining, "This is not chreeestian." "What is this doing on the list?" "How dare he say, "I am going to lift up the skirts of those who pretend to have righteous motives!" "This is from the "National Enquirer." "Is this chreeestian?"
Then I received an email from the List owners who said that my language was not "chreeestian" and that I was now on review. I wrote back, "you have just put the book of Jeremiah on review. Of course you probably never heard of the book of Jeremiah. Okay - so you have heard of the book of Jeremiah. But I guarantee you, you have never read it and never will."
The "sissification" of Christianity has begun. Once you stop making the "effort" (and believe me it takes a manly effort) to read the Scriptures every day, "beginning with Moses and all the prophets," (Luke 24:27), a creeping "sissification" sets in.
Jews are no "sissies" for they read "Moses and all the prophets" every day. Neither are the Jews for Jesus. Southern Baptists are no "sissies" either. But the Episcopalians and the Roman Catholics are a bunch of "sissies," mostly among their priests.
And now, alas! The sissies have invaded the Orthodox Church.
+ROAC Subdeacon Nathanael Kapner
November 9/05 +Old Calendar Orthodox Church
+St Nectarios of Pentapolis
"I.m going to stop the sissies’ vote."