The Call of the Dignified
When the Rev. Wesley Arning said he wanted to do a series on heresies for this season of the Wayside Podcast, my reaction sounded something like this: “Why should our listeners care about old, convoluted ‘heresies’ that Church fathers and mothers through the centuries have put to rest?”
Now that we are on our third episode in this four-part series, I am convinced my reaction was only 50 percent correct. The heresies we are unpacking are certainly “old and convoluted” – even with scholarly guests helping us untangle the web of dense Church history and theology, it’s tough sledding! But I was incredibly wrong about their relevance for believers like you and me in 2024.
Last week, we welcomed back Bishop Dorsey McConnell to the show, this time to discuss the 4th-century heresy “Arianism.” One of the most essential things to know about Arianism is that teachers of this doctrine believe that God the Father is superior to God the Son, whom He created - and, by extension, God the Father did not send Himself to be our redeemer. You will have to listen to the episode to get the full picture of Arianism and its implications; but something Bishop McConnell said has stuck with me since we chatted.
If Arianism is true (which it is decidedly not), then Jesus Christ is not the fully divine and fully human Savior we need to redeem us. That’s why, as orthodox Christians, we believe that God the Father through Jesus Christ became incarnate in human flesh and, as a result, dignified our human nature. Don’t gloss over that grace-filled truth! Our God took upon Himself our human nature not as it was before the Fall, but as it is now. So what?
If Christ plunged His fully Divine self into the realm of fallen humanity, then humanity receives His dignity in the Incarnation and, most radically, that means there is no such thing as a “special person” — we are all the same. Think about that for a second — the same human nature that you woke up into today is the same human nature that Vladimir Putin, the person you see in H-E-B, the unhoused person living under a bridge off I-45, and I also woke up into - all because God Himself through Christ dignified that human nature as Jesus of Nazareth some 2,000 years ago. As Bishop McConnell says, “In the end, if you’re alive to this, that means you and I are tied inescapably to the lives and fate of every other human being.” The implications of this are hard to overstate.
In two days, on Maundy Thursday, we will again hear Christ's call to “love one another as I have loved you.” In preparation for that call, let us pray:
Help us, Lord, to be alive to this reality of who you are, who you became, and who you call us to be - a fallen people, dignified by your grace, redeemed by your mercy, and called to be conduits of your never-ceasing love.
Amen.
