The Orthodox Heretic: Salvation for a Demon

Isn't this an interesting title for this tale? This tale is about a priest who is known for this loving and giving nature all throughout the land. His generosity is known to attract people from far and near. One night while he is in the middle of his prayers there is a knock at the door. He rushes to answer it and finds a demon waiting for him. The demon asks to come in and the priest allows him to do so. As the priest returns to his prayers, the demon begins to break every religious artifact that he can see all the while spewing curses at loud as possible. When the priest was finished praying he started for home and the demon asked if he could come along too. The priest didn't hesitate and welcomed the demon into his own house. Once inside the demon once again began to rip down every religious artifact and spew curses as loud as possible. As they ate the demon asked the priest for one more thing, to come into his heart, and the priest without hesitation invited him in. The demon left defeated because by the priest giving him everything he robbed the demon of the one thing he wanted, his kindness, hospitality and generous spirit.

This tale speaks of hospitality and to whom we offer it. Too often in my own life, my hospitality was only offered to those who were safe. But that is not the way that Jesus lived. Jesus modeled hospitality to everyone that he came in contact with, especially the sinners and those deemed unclean. So why is it that we usually take the easy way out? Maybe during Lent we can begin to really examine such matters in our life.

The Orthodox Heretic: Turning the Other Cheek

Our next tale is about Jesus giving the famous Sermon on the Mount but at the end he turns to the West and says that this teaching was not for us, instead we will be the ones that people will turn their cheek to and who carry our packs and give us their cloak. He closes out the teaching by saying that these people will be his message to us and that if we heed it we will live, if not we will perish.

I will have to admit that these are the kind of stories that really haunt me sometimes. I live a comfortable life right now. I have a nice roof over my head, too many gadgets and things to occupy my time and thinking, too many books that I hope to one day read on my shelves and debt that I'm trying to pay off as a result of trying to capture aspects of the American Dream. But where I'm usually struck is that in my comfort I have continued the plight of some of the least of these in the world through the things I buy and the people that I support. I think one of the greatest tragedies in the world is how simply looking for a lower price we in turn perpetuate systems that do violence to others in the world. As a Christian I so want to rectify the situation but do not know where to begin. It seems that education is a good starting point but how about juggling wise choices with a fledgling bank account? No one ever said it was easy. God give us the ability to do without from time to time.

The Orthodox Heretic: Translating the Word

This tale is about a woman who has a vision of God in which she is asked to distribute the Word of God to her native land. She lives in a time when the Bible is only in latin and there are very few printing presses available. So in order to complete the request that she believes that she's been given, she will need to raise a lot of money. So she begins to raise the money necessary to complete the task, but winds up giving it away to those in need who lived in a nearby town and had been afflicted by a flood. She once again set out to raise the money again and just when she almost had finished a plague struck her town and she spent her money on medicine and food for the sick and land for the dead to be buried. She once again started her quest to raise the necessary funds and just before her death she was able to finish the task she set out to do. It is said that she actually translated and distributed the Word of God three times in her life.

Here Rollins is wanting us to think about what it really means to translate the Word of God and distribute in our homeland. While it is great to give someone a Bible so they can read the Word of God, it is far more valuable to live it out each and every day and in each and every situation. Yes it is difficult to embody the Word of God, but that is what we are called to do. In this season of lent we are called to turn from our sin and cling to Christ. In doing so we should be reminded that Christ was the very embodiment of the Word of God.

The Orthodox Heretic: Jesus and the Five Thousand

Today's tale is a twisted retelling of Jesus feeding the five thousand. It is twisted in that instead of Jesus and the disciples distributing the food amongst those in attendance, they in turn eat a full meal right in front of them. To top it off there isn't a crumb left to fit in the hand of anyone in attendance.

Rollins is wanting us to understand how Christianity is viewed by those outside of power in this tale. To much of the world this is what Christianity looks like. We are perceived as greedy and as if we could care less about the poor and needy around us, much less the world. It has been my experience that most of the church in the West is apathetic towards this issue. It seems that our comfort has gotten the best of us in that regard.

The Orthodox Heretic: No Conviction

Today's tale is about a person who is put on trial for being a Christian. This person lives in a land where it is illegal to be a Christian and there is a lot of evidence to condemn this person. They have pictures of them being in church, of leading prayers and the most damning evidence of all is a well used Bible. After a time of deliberation the judge gives this person a verdict of not guilty because even through all of this evidence the life this person leads does not stand as a threat to the state.

This was a heavy first tale to reflect on. I have thought about such things many a times but yet don't know where to start. I'm not by nature a person who rocks the boat. I usually try to pick my spots that will knock the boat off of center from time to time. I don't think that Rollins is telling us to be rebels about everything, but instead to understand that belonging to the Kingdom of God is different from the kingdom of the world. What we have to wrestle with is why do we so easily sell out to the kingdom of the world. I think that is a good question to ponder today.

Journey through Lent

This year my journey through Lent will be centered on two things. The first is I will be reading a parable a day from Peter Rollins' "The Orthodox Heretic" and I will be following a reading plan found in "The Voice of Psalms" that is geared for lent. If you have never heard of Peter Rollins I suggest that you do. His work stretches my mind, in a good way, and I recommend everything that he has written. It should be an interesting time of reflection and I'm excited for what God may reveal in my life.