On Social Justice

Archdeacon Mark Soliman | June 17th, 2020

Transcription

In the name of the Father, the son and the Holy Spirit. Alright. So, Anba Serapion and Bishop Kyrillos and I’ve kind of been talking with them on the phone a little bit today, and I think they're going to release maybe some kind of official position about all this stuff that's happening. They will release the church’s official position on these things and not me. I'm sure you guys are all on Instagram and everyone's Instagram is blowing up, and everyone's talking about everything.

So I just kind of wanted to give my perspective on some of this stuff, and I hope to just give some perspective and at some level, and hopefully I upset all of you at some point during the talk, which would mean I was balanced and fair. So if everyone leaves upset at one point, that's a good thing.

At some level I don't want this to be discussion. I want this to be a presentation. We can discuss, if you promise that if you ask a question, that isn't like. “Why does Trump suck?” or something along those lines or something very political. 

You guys know that there's some stuff that happened, that's getting posted on Instagram. I'm sure that you all saw, and this is morphed into a racism issue that’s big... and there's, you know, Copts for Black Lives Matter and all kinds of different groups that have emerged. 

And I kind of want to just talk about sort of what our perspective should be as Christians about all this stuff, because I think what's happening is really unprecedented.

There's so many factors that have converged in such a way that it's making it hard to have clarity. And I'm not saying I'm having clarity. I'm struggling a lot with a lot of things. Like what role should we take? How involved should we get? How upset should we be? These are all things that I'm struggling with.

I'm talking with people with and discussing with people I trust and I respect. I'm differing with people I trust and I respect. Agreeing with people I trust and respect. This is, you know, really hard stuff. 

The first thing that I'll say, and this is kind of my own personal stance to a certain degree, is that the church and politics don't mix well. There's nothing more dangerous for a churchthen to get involved in politics. We saw this in the Western church, in the 11th century, right? We saw what happened when Catholicism mixed with the empire, and the Pope would enthrone the new emperor. And we see what happens when power enters the church through politics. With politics comes power, and power corrupts absolutely.

Christ took the world and he flipped it upside down. Last week, we talked about this poem from St. Ephraim, when we said “the creator of the world knelt down and washed the feet of the creation.” That's the kingdom that Christ came to bring.

So we have concepts of power that don't apply in the church. Right? Sometimes we think silly things like “Anba Serapion is powerful”. Anba Serapion is the biggest servant in the church.  And this is something that's made painfully obvious on Maundy Thursday, when Anba Serapion is asked to wash the feet of everyone in the church. The Church wants to make sure that we know that when you follow Christ, it's not a power thing. It's a servant thing. Like a servant, servant. 

So the church and politics don't mix and the church shouldn't take political positions. This is something I personally disagree with: When I see a lot of the right wing Christian organizations, they're really involved in politics.

They have political action committees. They try to get people elected. They try to move policy. The church is above policy. Right? The church doesn't succumb to the policy of the country it’s in, at some level. Morality is not legislated by the government. So the church shouldn't take a position on politics, but it should take a position on justice and what's right. Right?

The church needs to be the light of the world. Of course. But it can't impose that light on anybody. It just has to be a light. Like a lighthouse. It doesn't stop a ship from crashing into the rocks. It can't stop a ship that wants to crash into the rocks. All it can say, “rocks are here - I’d go somewhere else”.

Okay. And once it does more than that, once it imposes its will on the ship, then it's no longer a lighthouse. Right? Now it's something else. It's a tractor beam. It's whatever you want to call it. Right now it's pushing the ship in a certain direction and that ship no longer has a freewill and we have to let the ship have a free will.

So the church has to be a light. It has to be the voice of justice. It has to say what's right, and what's wrong. And I imagine in Nazi Germany, I hope again, that if I was in Nazi Germany, when I saw what was happening, that the Church would stand up and say, “this is not okay”. Even when a lot of the population went along with Adolf Hitler and said, “yeah, this is the right thing to do”. [I’d hope] someone stood up and said, “no, at the cost of my life. I can’t not say this isn’t right”. So this is the church's role and it's something very important. So the church should take a position on what's right in confusing times. But the question is, is that the same as justice? And I want to kind of poke at this word a little bit.

When man fell after The Fall, several things happened. One of them: sin entered the world. Death entered the world. Disease entered the world. Corruption entered the world, and injustice entered the world, and it happened real fast for Adam and Eve. Didn't it? What did the two kids do? One killed the other one– for real stupid reason.

So it didn't take long for Cain to go kill Abel because he was jealous, right? This is the consequence of the fall. This injustice is in the world. Hatred is in the world. Anger, bitterness, jealousy, resentment. It's in the world. It's in us. All of you. Me too. All of us. Right? So now the question is, what do I do about that?

Where do I go from there? And so what we have to think about as Christians is how we combat this thing. The question is, do we try to solve injustice on earth? We talked about this last week when we talked about Abba Abraam, the bishop of Faiyum. We talked about poor people, poverty and what we asked, what was Christ's promise? 

“The poor you will always have”. Don’t even try to *fix* it. You're not going to fix it. They're not here to be fixed. They're here to be loved. They're here for your salvation. That's why they're on earth. You're not going to eradicate homelessness. You're not going to eradicate poverty. I mean, if you're in an NGO and that's your job. You can try it and that's fine. Right? But that shouldn't be your goal as a Christian. 

It has to be to love that person. Mother Teresa has this beautiful quote that says, “if you can't feed a hundred people, feed one”. 

So there is injustice. It exists on earth. Have any of you been unjust? Yeah. All of us.

So where does the fixing start in Orthodox Christianity?

Have any of you lied?

So if I see someone, if I want to eradicate lying, how do I eradicate lying?

Right here. *point to self*

Michael Jackson- “I’m starting with the man in the mirror. I’m asking if he’ll change his ways… if you want to make the world a better place, take a long at yourself and make the change”He said it best. Right? So this has always been the Orthodox stance. If you want to start somewhere, if you want to eradicate anger, or whatever sin, good luck eradicating it. And you know, and I've talked about this when I talked to you guys about marriage. Good luck eradicating whatever vice you want to pick, there’s a million of them. Good luck eradicating it in your spouse.

“My spouse has an anger issue. I'm going to change him.” Good luck with that. You can't even change you. It's going to take you a decade to change you. You think you’re going to change him? You're nuts! Do you think you're going to change her? You're not, that's not happening. So you think you're going to change earth?

You think that's going to happen?! 

So justice and injustice is in each of us. And if you want to change it, that's where it starts. Once I get into the business of, “I see a sin in you, and I'm going to fix that sin in you”. Well, now I got a long list. I got a lot of people on my radar. Everyone who I don’t like or who does something wrong, it’s like “I need to change you”.

Now I'm in a dangerous game, right? Because this is “devil 101” - “Don't look at yourself, look at other people”. That's the funnest thing to do. Right? As soon as I have a problem, let me just talk about somebody else.

“At least I'm not as bad as her, at least I’m not as bad as him”.

“Look at this guy's issue, look at her issue.”

This is why we love reality TV shows. We love to see people who are so screwed up. And we think, “wow, look how messed up she is. This is fantastic! Come watch!”

 Right? Did you ever see Bridezilla?

*while laughing*

You’ve look at YouTube. Let's pick the craziest human on earth, in her craziest time and record her. And then you know, they're trying to provoke her. They're like, “so you know the flowers aren't on time. Are you okay with that?”

So it's the oldest trick in the book by Satan to say, “don't look at you, don't fix you. What you gotta do is you got to fix him. You got to fix her and this isn't you.”

Right? How many times have we gone to church, and seen somebody messed up. Somebody who is a hypocrite, someone who's judgmental, someone who's a liar, someone who's angry, someone who's whatever. 

Let me rephrase. How many times have we gone to church and not seen that? Zero! Right? They're all over the church. And so many times in the past I’ve heard people say, “you know, I used to go to church, then I stopped.” Why? “Well, you know, I met this person, this uncle, he said something to me and I realized he's a hypocrite, and so I said ‘nah’.” So I’m like “really”?! So you gave up the message of Jesus Christ because you met a guy who was a jerk?!

It sounds like an excuse. Sounds like a demonic one. Sounds like a thought that was planted in our heads, by not us. And so sometimes we miss the mark. 

I want to read you a quote from a saint. It's just such a great quote. He says:

“Often when someone throws a rock at a dog, rather than rushing at the person who threw the rock, the dog will run and bite the stone. He chases it and attacks it because this thing attacked him.” And the dog couldn't process that I threw the rock. So [the saint] says “Rather than rushing at the person who threw the stone, the dog will run and bite the stone. We do the same thing. The tempter Satan uses someone else to tempt us. Either in word or in deed. And rather than deal with the tempter who threw the stone, we bite the rock– our fellow man. Our fellow man that the hater of the good used against us.” 

So our fellow man is the stone that we chase after. We see injustice, we see evil, we see bitterness, we see hatred, we see all the things. Right? 

And instead of chasing the tempter, we chase each other

And what I've seen on social media is nuts. I mean, everyone's just going hog-wild right? And they're attacking each other viciously. Right? I'm not going to talk about any post or any other things.

TIMESTAMP: 14:44

But like Christ said, you'll know them from the fruits. Right when someone hates someone else, and their opinion is so strong that “I hate you for your opinion”. And what is that? Is that from God? Can it be, can it come from God? 

And I have never seen this kind of thing. I mean, I'm an old guy, right? There's no middle.  It's now you're either here, or you're here and it's like, “I hate you for what you're saying. And I will do everything in my power to destroy you for what you're saying” rather than “what are you saying?” I'm sure we probably agree. Right. In fact, most of my political arguments with people end up with us in agreement.

I think we all actually agree on this too. Right? But only when someone listens and someone listens and someone listens and someone listens, eventually we end up at, “Oh, that's right. You're a human being, and I'm a human being and we kind of all want the same thing.”

So when someone says, I used to go to church, but I stopped because X happened. Someone was judgmental. Someone was angry. I saw Abouna being hypocrite. I saw the deacons, whatever, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right. You know, you have to ask her yourself, if you're an animal that's dying of thirst and you find a cool stream running in the middle of the African Savannah, and you put your face down to drink so that you don't die of thirst.

Are you going to any point look up and go, “I'm going to stop drinking because I don't like the giraffe at the other end of this river? I don’t like his neck. So, yeah, I'm about to die of thirst. This may be the living stream, the fountain of living water. But I'm not going to drink from it. I'm not going to go. Why? Cuz I don't like the guy drinking upstream or the girl drinking downstream. 

Think about it. Can you say that?

Can someone say, “I'm not going to go take the Eucharist. Because I don't like a guy at the church or a girl at the church:? You're going to give up the fountain of living water, because “I don't like some of the other people.”

So I want to read you guys a poem. I love this poem. It's kind of long. 

Have you ever thought that everything that concerns you, concerns Me, also? You are precious in my eyes and I love you; for this reason, it is a special joy for Me to train you. When temptations and the opponent [the Evil One] come upon you like a river, I want you to know that This was from Me.

I want you to know that your weakness has need of My strength, and your safety lies in allowing Me to protect you. I want you to know that when you are in difficult conditions, among people who do not understand you, and cast you away, This was from Me.

I am your God, the circumstances of your life are in My hands; you did not end up in your position by chance; this is precisely the position I have appointed for you. Weren’t you asking Me to teach you humility? And there – I placed you precisely in the “school” where they teach this lesson. Your environment, and those who are around you, are performing My will. Do you have financial difficulties and can just barely survive? Know that This was from Me.

I want you to know that I dispose of your money, so take refuge in Me and depend upon Me. I want you to know that My storehouses are inexhaustible, and I am faithful in My promises. Let it never happen that they tell you in your need, “Do not believe in your Lord and God.” Have you ever spent the night in suffering? Are you separated from your relatives, from those you love? I allowed this that you would turn to Me, and in Me find consolation and comfort. Did your friend or someone to whom you opened your heart, deceive you? This was from Me.

I allowed this frustration to touch you so that you would learn that your best friend is the Lord. I want you to bring everything to Me and tell Me everything. Did someone slander you? Leave it to Me; be attached to Me so that you can hide from the “contradiction of the nations.” I will make your righteousness shine like light and your life like midday noon. Your plans were destroyed? Your soul yielded and you are exhausted? This was from Me.

You made plans and have your own goals; you brought them to Me to bless them. But I want you to leave it all to Me, to direct and guide the circumstances of your life by My hand, because you are the orphan, not the protagonist. Unexpected failures found you and despair overcame your heart, but know That this was from Me.

With tiredness and anxiety I am testing how strong your faith is in My promises and your boldness in prayer for your relatives. Why is it not you who entrusted their cares to Myprovidential love? You must leave them to the protection of My All Pure Mother. Serious illness found you, which may be healed or may be incurable, and has nailed you to your bed. This was from Me.

Because I want you to know Me more deeply, through physical ailment, do not murmur against this trial I have sent you. And do not try to understand My plans for the salvation of people’s souls, but unmurmuringly and humbly bow your head before My goodness. You were dreaming about doing something special for Me and, instead of doing it, you fell into a bed of pain. This was from Me.

Because then you were sunk in your own works and plans and I wouldn’t have been able to draw your thoughts to Me. But I want to teach you the most deep thoughts and My lessons, so that you may serve Me. I want to teach you that you are nothing without Me. Some of my best children are those who, cut off from an active life, learn to use the weapon of ceaseless prayer. You were called unexpectedly to undertake a difficult and responsible position, supported by Me. I have given you these difficulties and as the Lord God I will bless all your works, in all your paths. In everything I, your Lord, will be your guide and teacher. Remember always that every difficulty you come across, every offensive word, every slander and criticism, every obstacle to your works, which could cause frustration and disappointment, This is from Me.

Know and remember always, no matter where you are, That whatsoever hurts will be dulled as soon as you learn In all things, to look at Me. Everything has been sent to you by Me, for the perfection of your soul. All these things were from Me.

TIMESTAMP 21:51

Sometimes we don't see that. We see the world as the end. And I think many of the people who now are looking for justice in the world, want justice in *this* world.

And the reason they're holding on to this world so tightly it's because they don't see another world. They don't see a world after this world.

Christ promises “in the world, You will have tribulation”. That's the world we live in. And so sometimes we try to, like I said before, weaponized God, “make the temptation go away, make the trial go away, make the problems go away”. But that's not the point. The point isn't to make this world, this fallen world, perfect for ourselves. It won't be. 

The best you're going to do, the best you're going to do is just make a dent in you. And if we all make a dent in us, that's where hatred ends and that's where all of these things end.

Yesterday, I was at the liturgy, and in the sixth hour of the Agpeya. The gospel was read then this verse hit me, which, you know, I've heard many million times: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.”

Blessed are they when they revile you and persecute you. Not “if”, but “when” Then it continues “just like they persecuted the prophets who were before you”. It happened then, and it's going to happen to you. So our goal of saying, “we need to stop all these bad things out there and the way I'm going to do it is I'm going to make other people be better” isn't a very Orthodox approach. 

The goal isn’t that I’ve got to make everyone good, like me. I got to make everyone see what I see. Everyone righteous like me. Hatred ends, in you first. Okay. So in the end, we're sojourners in this world, we're travelers, this isn't our world. This is a fallen world and it's full of crap.

You ain't even seen half the crap you're going to see... you ain't see nothing yet. It sucks. 

*laughs*

You're going to see a lot of people that you're just going to be like, “wow”. I didn't think that was possible. Right? And it's not your friends in the youth meeting that I'm talking about that are all that bad. Worse.

So our job isn't to overcome this world and say, “I'm going to make everyone, all these other people be good like me”. So we have an obligation. No doubt. We have to be a light in the world. Right? And I struggle with this. What degree, how bright do I shine, like a light?

How many posts do I [send]? How do I effectively send out this light? But this is no different. This issue, this racism and hatred and injustice. This is no different than every other issue. It's sin, right? Racism. It's simple - “It's you against me. It's us against them. I don't feel that you and me are one in the body of Christ”.

That's it. It's hatred. It's very simple. And it's not new. It's not new at all. Right? And it's no different than judgment or any other sin that we all committed many other times. And what's weird to me, maybe because I'm old is that everyone's like, this is new. This ain’t new. 

Do you think this will end ever? No.

I mean, it makes me sad. Will hatred end? Judgment end? Bitterness and anger murder? No. Right? And all of these sins are the same sin. And instead of chasing the tempter, we chased the rock that he threw. He's just throwing rocks and we're just idiots. We're biting at all of them. We’re just biting at all the rocks. Biting at each other.

So we have an obligation to be this light. How? Our obligation has to be light through our own actions. 

No more words, too many sermons. Too many talks, too many people saying stuff. You can go to SoundCloud. You can go to Anaphora. There's so many sermons, too many sermons, too many people giving talks.

We have to be that light. Actions. Love. 

And believe me, I'm not talking about like “I'll post something on my Insta”. That's not love. That's easy. Right? When someone talks crap about you and you forgive them, now we're talking, that's hard. 

You've all felt this right? Getting in a fight with someone? Arguing with someone, someone being resentful towards you, and then you forgiving them. That's hard. That's love. That's where it begins. Right? 

Post here, fight there, attack on Facebook, dislike... there's no sacrifice, right? That isn't accomplishing much. You want to be a light, you'll be a light.

And I'll tell you what – if you want to be the light, Satan's going to dig in. If it's easy to be a light, you ain't a light. I’ll say it again. If it's easy to be a light, you ain’t doing jack. If you want to be a light. It's real hard. You got to dig real deep, right? Because each of you is going to get a temptation that hits you right between the eyes. 

And I'll tell you what, you know, when the person next to you gets one temptation and you're like, “why is this even bothering you? Like, that's nothing who cares.” Right? And then you get a different one that he, or she says, “well, why are you all upset? That's stupid.” But that’s because for each of you, that was the one, that's the one that really hurt.

Right? And that's why you have to dig deep. So that's where love comes from. That's how it's overcome. St. Seraphim says, “acquire the Holy spirit and a thousand around you will be converted.” Right? That's always been the attitude of Orthodoxy. 

If I'm just shouting and you know, I go to college campus with a, with a loudspeaker and I start yelling at everyone and saying, “You’re all going to go to hell. You're all whoremongers and winebibbers”, this isn’t effective. 

Real love is very hard. And if it's easy, it's not working.

I heard a very nice expression, be like the bee, not like the fly. Two kinds of people in the world... of two kinds of actions. Bees go to honey and they go to flowers and they go to beautiful things. Flies. They go to poopoo, right? 

So be the bee, right? Sometimes we're often attracted to the dirt, the gossip, it's a brideZilla, right? To reality TV shows. We love that stuff. We just love that stuff. 

And that's not where we need to be at. I want to read you a verse. It's perfect.

“Finally, brothers and sisters...”, this is from Philippians, “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right. Whatever is pure, whatever is lovely. Whatever is admirable. If anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.”

 I'll read it again. 

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right. Whatever is pure, whatever is lovely. Whatever is admirable. If anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.”

Don't go to the garbage guys. Plenty of garbage. And I was going to say something a few weeks ago on the feast of Pentecost and I decided not to, and then this topic came up.

We remember that in the tower of Babel, arrogance and pride divided mankind through language, right? The tower of Babel came, God came and he divided them. Right? And they spoke different languages and it divided us. And we were reminded that in the Pentecost, when the spirit of God comes, through language, it united all of us.

And he said, language is no longer an issue. He uncursed the tower of Babel if you will.

But I want to warn you about something. When the antichrist comes, he's going to get us all to unite. This is what the book of Revelation says: All of mankind will unite, but we can unite around something false.

And we have to be aware of that. We can all agree, on the wrong thing, because it sounds right. 

So one thing I want to warn you about is whenever you hear something, I want you to think about what it's uniting you around. Is it uniting you around God? Or is it uniting around men? Is it uniting you around God or man?

Because if he unites you around man, and this world and this earth and this kingdom, then we have to be wary of that. 

If it unites you around God, around something lovely and beautiful and eternal and about the kingdom to come then it is from God. This is what we say in the creed. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

So if we're all united around this world and around the value of man, then we may have an issue. 

Did anyone see that movie Noah, but with Russell Crowe two years back? It's a terrible movie. Totally blasphemous. It's nothing to do with the Bible, but there is this one part that I loved.

When the rain started coming, the head of the village of the bad people, he turned to God and he shook his fist at God, (because he figured out that Noah knew that God was trying to destroy them). And he shook his fist at God. And he said, “I AM MAN!! how dare you do this to me!?” 

And I thought that was such an insightful line, because we kind of get into that thing. We kind of get into ourselves a little bit too much, a little, think, a little too highly of ourselves and our role on earth, and what we're going to do. And too little on God. 

I just want to read you some more quotes, and then you guys can take away what you want:

“Don't criticize or judge other people. Regard everyone else like an angel.”... (sound like Instagram? [sarcasm]) “Justify their mistakes and weaknesses and condemn only yourself as the worst sinner. This is the first step of any spiritual life.” Sounds like anything we've seen on social media? I read another one. I can read 50. None of them will sound like social media. 

“Christian should judge no one, neither an open harlot nor sinners, nor dissolute people, but should look upon all of them with simplicity of soul and a pure eye. Purity of heart indeed consists in seeing sinful and weak men and having compassion for them and being merciful.” St. Macarius

Sounds like what we're seeing? If it's not what you're seeing, then we have to rethink about it because this is the depth of the church. This is the spiritual life.

A Saint was asked, what is anger? He gave a beautiful answer. “It is a punishment we give to ourselves for somebody else's mistake.”

Very relevant. Anger is a punishment we give to ourselves...for someone else's mistake.

One of my faves– M.L.K.:

“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”

Last week after this meeting, I went home and Justin and I listened to MLK speeches for like two hours. It was amazing. This guy was fantastic. And you know, I started this talk with saying church and politics don't mix, and I still believe that, but I'll tell you what– he's the only guy I've ever heard talk, where I felt like, “yeah, this is the right message”.

Because he inspired with love, inspired to greatness. He never said, “I want this, give us that”. He brought us all up to the level of seeing dignity and men in each other. And it was beautiful.  And when you listen to his speeches, you see the rhythm and it's not just, “I have a dream”, right? He was speaking about the Vietnam war... and you just listen to his speeches over and over.

I highly recommend you do that. If you want to get a perspective on what a real protest looks like. Something else. 

Okay. Well, I'll tell you guys a secret. I was telling Justin. I was kind of a dork in high school and, uh, when I was 16, instead of like hanging out with my friends at lunch, I would go to the library and I would check out speeches of MLK. Back then, you know, we didn't have these things *points at smartphone*.

So I had to get reel to reel, put them on the big machine, put on these big plastic hard headphones, and I would listen to his speeches. I get goosebumps. At 16. He's really amazing because he walks this line of morality - without being preachy. Because he knows he's not giving a sermon at a church, so he can't just give a sermon, but he inspires everyone at all levels to this, to this dignity of God's calling to us which you were called to be. It is amazing.

Another quote: 

“A Christian must not be fanatical. We must have love for and be sensitive towards all people.” 

I like ”to all people.” Right? I mean, again, there's nothing new under the sun here. Brown, white, green, orange, purple, whatever. Sex, race. Name your thing. You drive a BMW. I drive a Mercedes, whatever.

We love to make walls. Right? We love it, in fact, as soon as I buy a house, what do I do? I put a fence around my property, right? And then we put a city, we put a line around the city and then we have a County. We draw a line around the County, says our County, our city, our state, our country. People like to do this.

We like to make walls and boundaries. You and me. Irvine, Tustin. Name it, this high school, that high school. USC, UCLA. We love to do this stuff. It’s you against me. Ohio State and Michigan, (but we know Michigan's better). 

So this is just kind of our nature. And we have to realize that, you know, there's fun games. We can have a high school and we can have a rivalry on football, etc. but that's where it ends. We can't get carried away with this stuff. Right. So hatred is hatred. Racism is just another form of hatred and it's the same sin that's always been around and there's nothing new. Anyway, that's all I have.

Q&A not yet transcribed.