Biblical Submission To Authority - What is the real story?

From a friend:

I believe as you do that this so called election is a sham. I am one of those waking up out of a deep sleep and seeing for the first time what has been there all along. I respect your wisdom and ask for your help. I am most likely missing the obvious but Romans 13: v1-7 escapes me as it applies to our elections. Could you shed some light on this for me? I would greatly appreciate it.

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Rom 13:1  Let every soul submit to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except by God, and the authorities that exist are instituted by God. 

Rom 13:2  Consequently the one resisting the authority has opposed the ordinance of God, and those opposing shall receive judgment to themselves. 

Rom 13:3  For rulers are not a fear to good works, but to evil. And do you wish not to fear the authority? Do what is good, and you shall have praise from the same. 

Rom 13:4  For he is God's servant to you for good. But if you do evil, fear; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's servant, an avenger for wrath to the one practicing evil. 

Rom 13:5  Therefore it is necessary to be subject, not only on account of wrath, but also for conscience' sake. 

Rom 13:6  For on account of this you also pay taxes, for they are ministers of God, always giving attention to this very thing. 

Rom 13:7  Render therefore to all their dues: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. 

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Father Symeon: There is no mystery in it. The key is the framework Saint Paul himself gives it. He is not speaking of all authority, but only a certain kind of authority that fits the parameter he gave it, "For rulers are not a fear to good works, but to evil." What happens when they have become a fear to good works, as certainly they have in this country? None of the rest governs then. Saint Paul would argue against Holy Writ, if he argued that we are not supposed to resist evil and actively do so. "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? . . .And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday . . " This is the language of Liberty and Justice and NOT of servitude, to evil and injustice. Nothing St Paul could say could contradict it.

This passage is talking about what is true and acceptable religious service, so that Liberty is our Bounded Duty and apathy and compliance to and with evil is participation in the evil. When we take the cornerstone of basic Christian theology and understand how we may participate in another's sin, we may also participate in a group's sin, in a community's sin, in a state's sins, in a nation's sins and hundreds of millions have and do. So how can that happen? Christianity 101, we can participate in the sin of another by counsel, by command, by consent, by provocation, by praise or flattery, by concealment, by partaking, by silence, by defense of the sin committed. Where does that leave us?

One degradation of Orthodox Christianity, not part of her Big T Traditions but part of her small t tradition - the rationalism for capitulation to evil rulers, and institutionalized injustice and oppression, Czars, Caliphs, Atheist Dictators, the Muslim Brotherhood, has been this perversion of the very text of scripture you site and ignoring Saint Paul's own words in the text and the understanding of the whole. The Judeo/Christian scriptural Tradition is the record of LIBERTY and not servitude, across centuries of time and multi-cultures. It is the record of the recognition of the dignity and Liberty of the individual. That recognition is firmly held in the words of the Declaration of Independence, which at this moment is our Countrymen's ONLY legitimate rule of law.

A Message To A Special Catechumen.

Dawn, I want to offer you a special gift for your Chrismation, something that will effect your thinking and hopefully, your heart every time you step into an Orthodox Church to worship. I hope that you will be reminded that all life is “liturgy” that what we seek is the “liturgy of living” continually in his presence. What happens in the Divine Liturgy is indeed special where if we become open to it we experience the “eternal moment” the realization of the actual presence of The Eternal Word of the Father, with us physically in the Body and Blood and spiritually in the work of the Holy Spirit. All the air becomes luminous in his presence and angels accompany our worship and sometimes we are blessed to hear it, see it.

Years ago, during the reign of a bad warden I was celebrating Divine Liturgy and your father was serving as my “helper” at the altar, taking the roll of “deacon” reading the liturgy. We were meeting in a temporary chapel set up in a very large room next to the Gym. Our liturgy took one and a half “periods” to complete. The warden stopped letting some inmates attend both periods. So during the liturgy about the time of the dismissal of the catecumens, the loud bell would ring and half the inmates present would have to walk out. This particular morning, shortly after the liturgy began, I found myself looking around at the bunch of inmates, about 40 or 50 present . . . The musician in me I guess was trying to identify the especially beautiful voices. The sound was to this day the most beautiful singing I've heard anywhere in a Divine Liturgy except in a large and grand church and then only on a special occasion. It came time and the bell rang, I paused and dismissed at least half of the men who had to leave with a blessing. When the door was closed and the noise of the gym at least reduced, I turned and we continued our chant. I looked over at your father and he was looking back at the men with a joyful shock on his face. He started to speak and I motioned for him to remain silent. In a moment I managed to whisper to him, “Don't say a word. At the end of the service write down what you have experienced so that later you will not be tempted to dismiss it.” You see, after half the men left, the volume and the beauty of the chant was not reduced one whit. We were going through a particularly tough patch and the angels let all of us know that we were not on our own.

At the end of the service I wrote on a piece of paper. “Wonderful blessing . . more voices than men present” and I handed it to your father. Three inmates handed me slips of paper, including your Dad and they said, in one way or another, “Angels worshiping with us.” Regardless of what the fleshly perceptions are, in the Divine Liturgy the Gates of Heaven open and we worship with the standing witness of the saints and angels. Remember this when the chant is out of tune, and the choir is terrible. <smile> I have to.

Now here is the part I want you to burn into your memory – that wonder of the Divine Liturgy where we join worship with the angels and the saints of all ages, carries through to every moment of our lives, if we practice continual prayer. “Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do. And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; And to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. And be at peace among yourselves. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit.”

Saint Paul wrote about the reason for Divine Liturgy and it is quite an amazing text and I've always been amazed that most do not see the imprint of the liturgy upon the verses. Being raise in a home where scriptures were given an arbitrary interpretation, often times devoid of their truth (just as you were raised) the first verse of the 12^th Chapter of Romans was used as a sledge hammer upon me.

I'm sure you are very familiar with it, and I know it is likely that your Dad used it like a straight jacket so that to “LIVE” you had to live in rebellion, just to have a life. Been there, done that.

This text is amazing – and I want you to hear it for the first time:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

When studying the Greek text I discovered that the word “present” “present you bodies” was a military term. It holds an echo in English where the military color guard commands, “Present Arms!” It means standing at attention, for a collective purpose. It is talking about the gathering in Liturgical worship. How do we learn to do it? By God's mercy. Only those drawn to Christ's Body, by the Father, Through the Holy Spirit have received the mercy to stand in the presents of the Saints and Angels, before the opened Gates of Heaven, joining in the FORCE of the Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal. It is HERE in the Divine Liturgy that be begin to learn the discipline of “presenting our bodies” standing together giving full attention, to the best of our ability having no passion or sin to mar our effort. Since we cannot be sinless we stand in the Mercy of He who is sinless, in an intimacy unimaginable communing in his very body and blood. And for what purpose? “which is your reasonable service” is translated literally from the Greek to the English as, “this is your rational liturgizing” - I kid you not this is the literal translation, “rational liturgizing.” Those people stuck with just the KJV, miss so much. That Greek word, “liturgizing” latreia

1) service rendered for hire

1a) any service or ministration: the service of God

2) the service and worship of God according to the requirements of the Levitical law

3) to perform sacred services

We present our whole selves not just our bodies, but our rational mind into the “work” of liturgizing. That is what “reasonable service means.” And why do we do it? So that we can learn by practice the heavenly way, the way filled with REAL life, so that we can give up our conformity to the worldly way of thinking, seeing, hearing, tasting, feeling, all those thing associated with the first and second paths, and become transformed upon the third path . . . How? By the “renewing for our minds.” And it is powerful language here, “Be ye transformed” the closes literal translation would be, “metamorphisized” - - Like a caterpillar out of the cocoon, like the tadpole to the frog, like mortal clay to immortality. And how does this metamorphisizing happen – by the “restoration of the NOUS”

by the anakainōsis of the mind = NOUS.

1) a renewal, renovation, complete change for the better
of the NOUS

1) the mind, comprising alike the faculties of perceiving and understanding and those of feeling, judging, determining

1a) the intellectual faculty, the understanding


1b) reason in the narrower sense, as the capacity for spiritual truth, the higher powers of the soul, the faculty of perceiving divine things, of recognising goodness and of hating evil

1c) the power of considering and judging soberly, calmly and impartially

NOUS is best understood as the intelligent spiritual connection with God, the facility that the Holy Spirit uses to communicate with us – a capacity of comprehending what is incomprehensible, not to conquer or reduce to our understanding but to “experience the reality of HIS eternal presence.”

And when we begin the Liturgizing it is a good thing and instantly we know that we have turned from the bad to the good. And God accepts that state where we have turned to the good and it is His will for us. And even if we are very, very damaged by the ravages of sin, we still stand solidly in God, in this GOOD will. And as we grow we grow into his acceptable will, where the major part of our effort is healed and finally we grow into his perfect will, where our deepest thoughts and actions are always healing.

So what happens in this microcosm of the Divine Liturgy, becomes the reality of our state in the macrocosm of our every day.

Dawn, this old priest, hopes something that I've said, catches fire in you.




Your special friend, Archpriest Symeon Elias - aka Father Rob.