The Sunday of Orthodoxy
Today, the first Sunday in Lent, the Church celebrates the Triumph of Orthodoxy over Iconoclasm.
In the 8th and 9th centuries, there was a dispute over whether icons of Christ and the saints were appropriate.
Some people even argued that they were heretical.
The Orthodox, however, insisted that icons were an essential part of our faith: Christ became enfleshed and could be seen.
In other words, he wasn’t just a ghost and the icons preserve the fact that the Son of God did, indeed, walk among us.
And so, today is a celebration of that triumph.
But, what does triumph look like in this life?
We know, at the end of time, our bodies will be resurrected, but what does this victory look like in the here and now?
Scripture: Hebrews 11:24-26, 32-40; 12:1-2 (Click here to read)
Bottom Line: Even though victory may look like losing, our faith tells us otherwise.
Discussion Questions
- What images come to mind when you hear the world “triumph”? How does it make you feel?
- The Sunday of Orthodoxy was never meant to be a celebration of “We got it right and everyone else got it wrong.” How can we humbly celebrate this feast? How can we humbly engage with others (especially on social media)?
- What does it mean to you that God took on our flesh? How does it inspire you or strengthen your faith? What meaning does it have for your life (and death)?
Moving Forward
Lent is a time of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
Through our ascetical efforts, we ‘exile’ ourselves from the pleasure of this world in order to weep with Adam and Eve.
They may have been the ones thrown out of the garden, but we still live with the consequences: we live in a fallen world.
Victory, during Lent, is trump over sin because we are engaged in a spiritual war.
Victory is to conquer our passions and maintain self-control.
Success is to love our neighbors just a bit more.
But, like Christ, the world is against us.
As we heard in the epistle lesson, the world will mock us, whip us, stone us, or even saw us in half!
This, my friends, is what our victory looks like in this fallen world.
It’s not about a parade of icons.
Instead, it about overcoming the fallenness of this world.
Glory to God that our faith points us to Christ’s death and resurrection and ensures us that we too will one day rise with him in glory.
Changing Your Mind
“Therefore, we also, having so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, having with such ease put off every encumbrance and the sin besetting us, let us run the contest set before us.” (Hebrews 12:1)