• Apr. 12, 2007 - Bright Thursday Homily
"God so loved the 'world', He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the wolrd to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." John 3:16-17
Today, we went to St. Sava's in Plano for liturgy. Fr. Seraphim there gave such a good homily, which is especially helpful as I confront some of the New Age issues and influences in permaculture. They are biased against Christianity because they do attribute our modern cultural failures to western civilization which historically has been predominantly Christian.
In Fr. Seraphim's sermon, he mentioned that the Greek word used, that is translated in the King James as "world" in the above quote, is actually cosmos. The King James translation is a bit misleading, because cosmos doesn't just refer to this world/planet, but all of Creation. According to the Oxford Dictionary: "Cosmos-— the world, or universe, as an ordered harmonious system." God so loved the Cosmos (His Creation), that He chose to bow down and enter it..."not to condemn it, but to save it."
An accusation against Christianity (particularly in the permaculture text I have been reading lately), is that modern religion (it seems to be referring to Christianity), is man centered and has no regard to the environment at all. That western religion teaches man to 'subdue', ie. conquer it, and that is why things are the way they are today. But Fr. Seraphim's words directly addressed this misunderstanding. He said the Scriptural word 'subdue' didn't mean conquer, but rather to put things into order. And for me, that is exactly what putting together a permaculture system, rather than leaving the ground completely wild, is all about! :-). Honestly, permaculture, in itself, is man-centered too, in that the permaculture system is designed to serve man. Otherwise, why mess with nature in the first place? From a Christian point-of-view, man is the crown of God's Creation. Yet, we are commanded to be good stewards and 'subdue' it, (put it back into harmonious order). This does fit perfectly with the permaculture concept.
Fr. Seraphim said, that rather than putting the world around us into order as God had originally intended, man instead has chosen to destroy it, using it strictly for his own personal gain without any regard for anyone or anything else. This is all the direct result of the fall.
And he emphasized the love of God, entering into His Creation in hopes of establishing communion with His Creation. God loved us, before we loved Him and it was for that reason, that He sacrificed Himself for our sake.
Just getting a feeling for how much God loves His entire Creation (the Cosmos), really helps put everything into perspective. We can also show our love for God by also loving His Creation (what being a 'good steward' is all about). One of my concerns of the permaculture movement is its tendency to worship the earth and nature. But what I learned today really helps me to keep all of this within a Christian perspective. And just maybe, if someone is not hostile to Christianity, but has questions regarding these things, I will have the tools of understanding to help them get passed any misconceptions. Anyway, it was a really good sermon.
Also, I have gathered many photographs (and some photo books), that show the common use of barrel vaulted adobe buildings in Greek architecture, both for homes and churches. I feel very secure now, that we have documented well enough, the previous use of these types of structures within an Orthodox context. Our parish is largely Russian and used to timber construction since that is what is most plentiful in that part of the world. But what we will be doing, though more Mediterranean, also is well within Orthodox tradition, and hopefully, won't look New Age or strange. I really like the simplicity too, of Greek interior design. It also will be a model for our interior decorating.
We haven't made a whole lot of progress in our first building because of heavy rain and the many services of Holy Week and now Bright Week. But I hope we can get started again next week. We did visit the land yesterday, and it was beautiful. The trees are finally coming into full leaf. The country is definitely a zone or so behind here in the city. The wildflowers, particularly Indian Paintbrush, were plentiful.
Christ is Risen!
Indeed, He is Risen! |
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