Which Way to Sanity? - Living Prayerfully

Which Way To Sanity? - Living Prayerfully.
By Archpriest Symeon Elias

A Christian friend said to me, “I don't know when to help, when helping is really helping and not hurting. Some need to experience being really down and out to have hope of a better way.” She's right. She was speaking of the difference between intelligent help vs helping for ones own emotional needs - I think. I won't lay my interpretation on it, but this is what I had in mind thinking about how one knows and does the will of the Lord. How one knows that their actions will have good result.

So to the basic question when to help and when not to help? For the Christian I really don't believe there is a wrong answer. Acts of love (charity) are not a philosophical quest, and there is no pre-knowledge of result, except in the humility to know who is really in charge. Really this basic knowledge extends to a host of decisions. But this is assuming that the person is living prayerfully. And what could living prayerfully mean or as I would frame it, “What does it mean to participate in the Liturgy of Living”? I can only think of living prayerfully in terms of the earliest biblical reference to Christianity, when it wasn't Christianity, but "The Way."

When Adam and Eve were removed from the Garden, Genesis has this strange way of explaining how and why they were barred from returning. "So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep THE WAY of the tree of life." (To preserve The Way) A literal translation of the Hebrew would be "to create a hedge around the entity, the life road." (The entity, the living road).

The Christian grasps that "the way" "the entity" "the life road" was restored to us and it is primarily NOT a religious thing. (Those who worship God won't worship at this place or that place, but in spirit (small s) and truth (small t). Literally in the truth of their own spirit. As my brother use to say, "From the gut.”

What allows this true worship to happen? It is an existential presence, Jesus, himself. His words come into focus when he says, "I AM the Way, the Truth and The Life." Although there are some excellent religious means of relating to Jesus, the vast majority of the experience of The Way, The Truth and The LIFE is not religious but lived, encompassing a 360% view of every moment. (The eternal moment - always alive in the moment - no past, no future, just now). Actions in that moment are without regard to past or future and are guided only by what is REAL NOW.

Grasping that knowledge one can easily see why the first Christians didn't use the name Christian but spoke simply of 'The Way." Isaiah didn't say, "I've lived in your judgements, O Lord" but " "Yea, in THE WAY of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee." Paul never taught "salvation" but "the way of salvation" the apostles never expounded upon the subject of God, but "the way of the Lord" and "the way of God." Not peace the concept, "but the way of peace" People were instructed in "the way of the Lord" a lived experience.

The Way is All action, all path not theory. So the concepts are the road-map not the road. The living is the road. It is why the Bible is scripture and the most perfect Icon of God, Icon of the Living Word , but Jesus is The Living Word; not to be confused. The LIVING is the road, and every moment lived isn't accidental but synergistically lived, the Holy Spirit in charge of every breath, of every apparent incidental moment, passing, meeting, sight, step. So rejecting "the world" isn't absenting ourselves from life, rather engaging life creatively - but rejecting the mind/soul numbing illusions and delusions of the world. (the myriad idols) And BECOMING that is, coming into BEING - His Being - along The Way, isn't becoming religious but rather becoming truly human. He is the True Human, we are to become as He is - truly Human.

There is huge freedom in this and massive creativity and the peace "to be" never to "act" as the actor, but upon the firm foundation of who we are. Actor and hypocrite share the same root word. A man cannot act contrary to his own nature, it is simply a metaphysical fact. If he chooses to act dishonestly and with pretense he is still acting upon the Truth of his nature, that is a liar, an actor, a hypocrite. In this it matters not whether his actions appear good, or appear bad, in both instances they share the same root: the lie.

The freedom To BE and not to Act is an enormous power. Because it also means that there is no time that is not right. No place that one can be "out of place" even if that place is hell. Any place we are is then "perfect" any state of our spiritual development is "perfect" (not complete) just perfect, in this time, at this place upon The Way. The honesty that is possible in this is healing, because no pretense is necessary before God and far less needed before men. You see, healing and salvation are synonymous – they share the same word in Greek SOZO. What must I do to be saved? What must I do to be healed? Same question. - same answer: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be healed and your entire household.

How can that be, they are sinners, unbelievers, deluded, confused, hurting? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be healed and your household. This is stone cold fact!

Even those in rebellion, having heard the Good New of the restoration of the "Live Road" "The Way" that is a person, are preparing to be healed. "And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left." Turning to the right - that hurt. Turning to the left - that hurt. NO This is the way, walk ye in it. It is this imagery where the saying, "The Way of the Lord is Straight and Narrow." Religionists read this as if it means that the way of the Lord is a "Straight Jacket" an impediment to living instead of the creative catalyst to liberty.

In the last few months I've spent an inordinate amount of time debating with young people over politics. Challenging them to see past their "fan based idolatry" and learn the history so that all claims may be viewed in context; to learn the system, learn the power structures, learn the core philosophies, the drivers of the candidates and so on. The ones claiming the greatest Liberty (the libertarians) are seen to hold the greatest mental/emotional bondage. And that is the trick of evil, the twist to everything, that what to the coldly rational or wildly emotional person seems self-evidently good is most times poison. This is the basic lie and deception of the un-regenerated heart. All the religions and philosophies, utopian plans, hope, change, American Constitution or Communist Manifesto cannot create anything but a slow or accelerated march to death without the leavening of the sons of God, actively alive in the mix, guiding, withstanding, teaching, reproving, leading or empowering others to lead. "Lord, if there are a hundred righteous?” the Patriarch asked.

A Christian can no more approach the function of citizenship, the right to empower leaders with a vote, the discussion of ideas and ideals removed from the Life Giving Flow than he can approach charity solely with reason, or solely with emotion. There is a higher way. The Way. And for the true Christian even the function of “secular governance” that MUST be secular and religiously neutral, is informed of what is Life engendering and Death engendering via the nature of his own nature, as he experiences LIFE in The Way.

"For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope; for what anyone sees, why does he also hope for it?  But if we hope for that which we do not see, then we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He searching the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, for Him to be the First-born among many brothers."