Organized Religion

Hey dear ones,
God bless you.

Thanks for tuning in.

I have a reflection for you today
that I'm entitling "Organized Religion".

"Organized Religion".

For 30 years,
I've heard as a pastor,

as a priest of the church.

I've heard reference
of organized religions

by people who are frustrated
with their religion.

And who are abandoning
their commitments

and their promises to God
to practice it.

And, I heard this
from the very first days

after my Ordination.

When I was first ordained,
I was a mission priest.

I had a very small mission,
a fledgling mission

that we were organizing.

And I was trying to win
one of my charges,

one of my dear parishioners,
to a more faithful Christian life.

And when I speak to him
about the importance

of faithful attendance at worship,
and placing commitment

to the sacraments and the preparation
for interception of the sacraments

at the top of his list in his life.

And he said to me,

"Father, I just find that I feel
much closer to God

and I pray better in nature.

So I like to go out in the woods,
instead of going to church."

That was from the beginning
of my pastorate,

and I've been hearing
this ever since.

In fact, I've heard two references
to people not believing.

Serious Orthodox Christians saying
that they don't believe

in organized religion anymore,
they aren't practicing religion.

I've heard this twice in a week,
in a single week.

So evidently, three decades
after being ordained,

this grotesque excuse
for abandoning sacred vows to God

to practice our faith in the church,
hasn't lost its potency.

It's still very commonly referred
to as some sort of justification

for not participating
in the community life

in the sacred koinonia
of the church,

and not remaining faithful
to the church to the end,

which is such an important thing
for Christians to do.

In fact, all traditional religions,
all significant religions

in human history
have been highly organized.

There is no such thing
as a influential world religion

that isn't highly organized.

And, certainly, the one true religion
revealed from Heaven by God

to save the human race
and redeem the cosmos

is highly organized.

It's highly organized.

In fact, we see in the Old Testament,
tremendous organization.

We see Priests and Levites,
and their duties articulated

in great detail,
with levels of accountability.

Sacrifices, the nature of worship
and how it's to be done.

The organization of singers
and readers, on and on.

So, in the Old Testament,
the Jewish faith was revealed by God,

through Moses and developed
under King David,

and the Prophets in great detail,
in great organization.

And, in fact,
Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself,

Well, He loved to pray in nature
to His Father.

He liked to retreat to the hilltops
and to pray in the gardens,

and yet, He also participated
most directly and faithfully

in organized religion, both
in the synagogue and the temple.

He was faithful growing up
in Sabbath after Sabbath,

participating in the worship
of the synagogue.

And He kept all of the feasts
as God's faithful and true servant.

And when Our Lord Jesus Christ,
in the fullness of His ministry,

set forth for us the nature
of Christian worship

and inspired His Apostles.

He gave them also great
detailed instruction about organization.

He had His three, He had His Twelve,
He had His 70.

And then, by His Holy Spirit,
after His precious cross

and His three day entombment,
and then His resurrection from the dead,

and the descent of the Holy Spirit,

He gave great detailed instruction,

and inspired His apostles
how to organize the church.

The church is His Body.
And it's not an invisible body.

Bodies are highly organized,
thank God.

And when they are not highly organized,
they collapse.

And, so we see in the gospels
not only does our Savior make reference

to the process of building His church,
but he guides the apostles very clearly

on how to hear confessions,
how to retain and remit sins,

how to deal with matters
of church discipline.

Texts like these are found
in Matthew 16; Matthew 18; et cetera.

And then as you see the acts
of the apostles developing,

you see the ordination
of the sacred deacons

who were to assist the apostles
and the apostles organizing their lives

around prayer and the ministry
of the Word,

and delegating many
charitable acts of the church

to the diaconate, (Acts 6).

You see in Acts, Chapter 14, verse 22,
Saint Paul ordained.

That's a very highly organized action.

He ordained presbyters, priests,
in every church.

And in the Epistles,
you see the detailed working out

of the early organization
of the early church,

including such things
as the nature of ordination,

the laying on of hands, the bestowal of
spiritual gifts in ordination.

Lists of qualifications
for priests and deacons.

You see guidance that Paul
provides bishops,

like Timothy and Titus,
his spiritual sons.

The whole section known
as the Pastoral Epistles,

1st and 2nd Timothy
and Titus;

absolutely chock full
of detailed organizational guidance,

given from Saint Paul
to the early church.

1st Corinthians,
details on the celebration

of the Holy Liturgy
and the distribution of the Eucharist.

If someone doesn't believe
in organized religion,

they don't believe
in Jesus Christ.

And they don't believe
in the church that He established.

And they don't believe
in the Bible.

The New Testament climaxes
with the Books of the Apocalypse

in which heavenly worship
is revealed.

The great door to heaven
is open and John sees

what's going on
in the next life,

and, what do you know?

The worship of God around His Throne
is highly organized.

As is, the new heavens
and the new earth.

So, dear ones, this is not
a good thing to say,

"I don't believe in organized religion."

That doesn't mean that the truth faith,

the Christian faith,
is externalisitic.

Organized religion
doesn't mean externalistic.

It just means serious,
and big, and old.

And, if fact, you would expect
the Holy Church,

which is 2000 years old,

and has been growing
and filling the world,

and winning men and women
to salvation for the last 2000 years.

You would expect that she would be
highly organized and developed.

And, in fact, she is.

It doesn't mean externalistic.

If we are externalistic,
then we're not being true

to the core organization
of our faith,

which Our Lord and Savior gave
to us, which is to build from the heart.

Our faith is a matter
of the purification of the heart

and the transformation
of the inner man.

But, we're real men
with real bodies.

Collectively, our koinonia
has real structure to it.

And the church isn't just

an invisible reality
of spiritual communion,

but also a tangible reality
of loved expressed,

and sacraments consumed.

And people, body and soul
being healed and transformed.

Usually people say comments like this
about organized religion,

"I don't believe in organized religion."
And they 'poo poo' organized religion.

Because somehow they have suffered
from aspects of the organization.

Perhaps they have been abused
by this or that leader in the church.

Or, they've suffered some
terrible injustice.

Or, they've been slandered
or hurt in some way.

And, so this is a protective mechanism
in their minds.

They're overreacting to the fact that
the church is not perfectly organized,

and not perfectly living her life
because the church

on earth, while true,
is not perfect.

And, that has been the case
since the time of its founding.

Read the Acts of the Apostles
and look at how many traumas

the holy Apostles had to work through
and to guide the church through.

That didn't allow people to say,

"Well, I don't believe
in the organized church

that the apostles were establishing
everywhere, in fulfilment

of their obedience to Christ."

If you separate yourself

from that community
and from its organization,

you separate yourself
from Christ,

because those that receive
the apostles, receive Christ.

And those that rejected
the apostles, rejected Christ.

So, this is my encouragement.

If you ever think that thought,
banish it.

That you don't believe
in organized religion.

You certainly do
if you're a believer and a Christian.

And if you have suffered,
don't allow yourself to overreact.

Instead, invest more in the church.

Contribute to her proper organization.

From the heart,
and in the body.

Contribute to her health by
a greater investment

to the integrity
of the body of Christ.

We absolutely believe in
and love the organized religion,

which the most Holy Trinity
has bequeathed to man

as the locusts

in the church of Communion
with Him.

God be with you dear ones.

I ask your prayers.

(Narrator)

Patristic Nectar Publications
is pleased to present

the proceedings of the 2022
annual PNP conference,

entitled Holy Orthodoxy:
Presenting the Christian Faith.

This seven lecture series
is designed

to present a broad exposure
of the contours of the Christian faith.

Both to prepare
inquirers and catechumens

for holy baptism,
as well as deepening

and renewing the faith
of believers.

These lectures are delivered
by a collage of catechists.

Four by the deeply respected petrologists,

Archimandrite Maximos Constas

with additional single lectures

by Father Josiah Trenham,
Father Bogdan Bukur and Dr. Tikhon Pino

for these as well as other conferences

and available titles,

please visit our website

at patristicnector.org

(Music)