THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF
ORTHODOX RENEWAL
Part 6

If we are honest with ourselves, we have to admit that, despite the sacraments that are administered in the Orthodox Church, there is no evidence of change in the church. The lives of the people who participate in the sacraments do not seem to be transformed.

I wonder if anyone expects any change? The Eucharistic life and experience do not seem to extend beyond the close of the Liturgy. Raffles, bingos, festivals, carousing continue to absorb much of the attention and energy of the people between Liturgies. Prayer seems to be restricted to public and formal worship.

More often than what we would like to admit, the Divine Liturgy is celebrated unto condemnation. St. Paul warns us: "Ye come together not for the better, but for the worse" (1 Corinthians 11:17). When Orthodox Christians live carnal lives, they receive of the Body and Blood of Christ unto their damnation.

Is it any wonder that we need a special renewal movement in addition to the sacraments that are administered in the Orthodox Church? Anything like this would take us beyond familiar religious routine.

The nostalgia, therefore, for Pentecost continues unabated. The awareness for a spiritual renewal keeps growing. Religious formalism does not seem to satisfy this inner hunger in terms of a tangible transformation of lives, which is noticeable outwardly as well as inwardly.

The moment the Divine Liturgy is concluded all thought of God and the Holy Spirit seems to become irrelevant. If anyone names the name of Jesus at the coffee hour after services, he is labeled a religious extremist. He is one of those who doesn't realize that "the Liturgy is over with." This was told by a church board member to a born-again Orthodox who was witnessing about Christ as he greeted people after the service.

Thus the longing for a new Pentecost remains in the hearts of the Orthodox who feel are living a wilderness experience. The thirst for the experience of Pentecost abides unfulfilled. This is true also with regard to Roman Catholics. They, too, have felt indeed painfully the need for renewal in the power of the Spirit of God.

Pope John XXIII at the Second Vatican Council publicly and solemnly shared his vision of "a new Pentecost." He composed a prayer for the Council, which was offered up to God by Catholics the world over: 0 Holy Spirit, sent by the Father in the name ofJesus, You are present in the Church, guiding it infallibly. We pray you to pour forth the fullness of your gifts upon the Ecumenical Council...Renew your wonders in this, our day, as by a new Pentecost...

God answered the appeal and prayer of the Pope and of the Council with the inception of the Charismatic Movement among the Roman Catholics in 1966. How wonderful it would be if our own Orthodox Church leaders would publicly acknowledge the need among Orthodox Christians for a new Pentecost! 0, that God would take away the self-righteousness that desensitizes us!

The Lord, however, is faithful and merciful. Despite our pride and disobedience, He has begun to pour out of His Holy Spirit upon the Orthodox, as well as upon Roman Catholics and Protestants. Believers in all three main branches of the Christian world have been talking about coming into the "baptism in the Holy Spirit" and a born-again experience. They are part of this end-time move of God that bonds them together in a common personal experience of Pentecost.

It is paradoxical that Christians should be looking for Pentecost as if it were a thing of the past, forgotten and irrelevant to the present life of the church. It is an unmistakable sign of the bankruptcy of the church. It is evidence that the apocalyptic apostasy is already upon us!

As I pointed out above, Pentecost should normally be with us as a daily experience of the Holy Spirit. Theoretically, the very life of the church is pentecostal and charismatic. But, while our theology says one thing, the facts tell us something quite different. It is admirable to be concerned over saving our doctrines; I'm all for it. It is, however, much more admirable to be concerned-about saving souls.

. It is not only Orthodoxy. All the mainline churches have felt the need for a new Pentecost. The only difference is that the non-Orthodox are more vocal in expressing the need for a new move of God in their denominations. We Orthodox have Pentecost legally but not experientially. We could use more humility in admitting that we are not enjoying the fullness of our spiritual inheritance.

Whether we like to acknowledge it or not the historical fact remains that the new Pentecost did not take place inside the Orthodox Church. The fire of the Holy Spirit in this twenty-first century did not fall in St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, nor in the Canterbury Cathedral in London, nor in the Cathedral of Athens.

It need not surprise us if the end-time outpouring of the Holy Spirit occurred in an old abandoned wooden frame building used variously as a church, a stable and a warehouse. We should know by now that God works in strange and unexpected ways, as He did especially when His only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, was born in a stable.

I am well aware that some of my Orthodox readers will rend their garments in outrage and want to stone me when they note what I am about to mention. If God Incarnate appeared for the first time in a stable and the church was born in someone's borrowed attic, why is it unthinkable that the new Pentecost would take place in a building once used as a stable? Why should it be all that reprehensible that God should use the preaching of a black minister, blind in one eye, to spark the apocalyptic outpouring of His Holy Spirit? "Things which are despised hath God chosen..."

How obscure, humble and base the physical surroundings of the new Pentecost! In a day when blacks were looked down at as inferior and were kept segregated from the whites, God singled out William J. Seymour, a black, blind in one eye, to be the central figure of the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles in April 1906. He was the vessel chosen of the Lord to spark the worldwide Pentecostal revival. I feel inspired and fascinated at the wonders of God, as I read and reread the account of this new Pentecost that came not only to Los Angeles but also to all the cities and nations of the world. It is very simple. I rejoice to see Jesus proclaimed and exalted! And when He is, it has to be the Holy Spirit that does it.

In the Orthodox Renewal movement, God is restoring the charismata or gifts of the Holy Spirit (as enumerated in the New Testament) individually to believers and collectively to the Body of Christ. It represents a new awareness of the importance of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, which leads the believer into a deeper experience of Jesus Christ and makes him a recipient of the spiritual gifts. In other words, it brings him into the charismatic life of the Church.

The gifts of His Holy Spirit are listed in 1 Corinthians 12:8-11: "To one is given through the Spirit a word of wisdom, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discerning of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretations of the tongues."

Then there are also the body ministry gifts: "God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, the healers, helpers, administrators" (1 Cornthians 12:28). "And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers" (Ephesians. 4:11).

The spiritual gifts are necessary tools for spiritual growth. They are given individually to each believer and to the church collectively for service and effective witness. God's word tells us they are conferred "for the perfection of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:12, 13).

Unquestionably, gifts (charismata) are part of the spiritual inheritance of each individual who receives Jesus Christ as his personal Savior and is baptized "in water and in the Spirit." They are not for a few elite in the Body. They are not given as a reward for perfection. They are given to repentant, forgiven, but imperfect children of God as a means for growth and perfection. They are a heavenly provision for helping us fulfill our purpose of becoming in the "image and likeness of God"