Question:
I am a seeker investigating the Eastern Orthodox faith. My background includes membership of a very conservative and legalistic Protestant church that advocated penal substitutionary atonement, so I am encouraged by what I find in the Orthodox tradition. The theology seems so beautiful, but I am having difficulty understanding something in the Divine Liturgies of Saint Chrysostom and Saint Basil.
In the Prayer of the Cherubic Hymn, we find verses that say:
- … No one bound by carnal desires and pleasures is worthy to approach, draw near, or minister to You, the King of Glory.
- … Your sinful and unprofitable servant, and cleanse my soul and heart of a wicked conscience.
Before Holy Communion, we find a verse that says
- I believe and confess, Lord, that You are truly the Christ, the Son of the living God, Who came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first.
I find healing in thinking of God as a loving Father, but the above stanzas make me question that understanding of God. Can you please point me in the right direction?
During the Trisagion, there is a verse that says,
- You have granted us, Your humble and unworthy servants, to stand even at this hour before the glory of Your holy Altar of sacrifice and to offer to You due worship and praise.
If we are children of a loving Father, then how is that compatible with thinking of ourselves as unworthy servants?
Finally, in the liturgy of Saint Basil there is a verse in the Trisagion Hymn that reads
- Your lowly and unworthy servants,
I find that when I think of myself as lowly and unworthy, thoughts of shame come to mind. Since Christianity is about healing, this shows that I might not be understanding this verse correctly.
Response:
What a good and (ahem) worthy question. Truly worth thinking through.
The Rhetoric of Unworthiness
As I think about the rhetoric of unworthiness, I am reminded not only of the Divine Liturgy, but of our Scriptures, and how even Jesus’ words have been misused as bludgeons. The following points are important to consider. I offer them for your consideration:
First, let’s ponder the biblical use of “unworthy” rhetoric, even from the lips of Jesus. How and why does Christ (and key figures such as John the Baptist or Paul) introduce phrases like “unworthy sinner” into their preaching, parables, or epistles?
It seems that in Semitic culture and specifically the Jewish tradition, talking about one's unworthiness was less about shame, self-loathing, or a dehumanizing identity than it was an expression of humility and a way to communicate how highly they thought of someone else, especially God. And in that idiom, the typical response was to honor the one who prostrated themselves. In the exchange, those who humble themselves are lifted up, those who bow low were raised up, those who sit at the back are called up.
Jesus even puts such words into the mouths of two of his parable characters who God intended to honor. In Luke 18, Jesus talks about the tax collector in the temple who beats his breast and cries out, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner." Jesus offers us this example of the one who God justifies ahead of the self-righteous Pharisee, not because he is actually unworthy of God's mercy, but because he recognizes his need for it.
In the parable of the prodigal sons, it’s not that the Father had disowned and disqualified his wayward son, but when the young man says, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son," the son shows his father that he has bottomed out on egoism and rebellion and is ready to be restored to the family. In response to the son's self-deprecating appeal, the Father does not say, "Right you are. You are unworthy. But I'll hire you. Go to the servants' quarters." Rather, now that the son been disrobed of haughty entitlement, he is ready to be draped in a robe of honor.
So, the principle is to "Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and he will exalt you" (James 4:10, 1 Peter 5:6). In that context, the rhetoric of unworthiness is a verbal expression of the heart humbled before the generosity of God.
The Wounds of Shame
Second, those who confess unworthiness do so to demonstrate their humility, acknowledge their need, and open their hands to receive the super-generosity of God. But for the Orthodox, as for the Jews, the practice need not be a trigger for shame. We don't literally believe we are worthless slaves or disowned children. These are poetic, idiomatic, rhetorical prayers emphasizing gratitude for the many mercies we enjoy and even expect. OR if we are undergoing a burden of shame, these prayers a method by which the shame is removed. We are never meant to use them to reinforce shame in ourselves or others.
Some former Protestants have trouble seeing this because they bear the wounds of shame. Many grew up under preachers who constantly shamed them through moralistic denouncements. We were encouraged by the doctrines of original sin and total depravity to embrace unworthiness as an identity and to practice self-loathing as our preparation for communion. We opened ourselves to the accuser in the name of "examining ourselves" under threat of death-by-communion or the conviction of the Spirit. We were told that in our deepest hearts, we were wicked and that Christ only covered the dirt with himself so that the Father didn't see how despicable we really were. Just this morning, I read Facebook comment that said,
“I’ll never tell my daughter that she is worthy of the love of God, because she isn’t, but that she has received it anyway in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. … Hearing that I am a hopeless wretch may be difficult, but it will be far better for me than to hear that I have some inherent goodness that, deep down, I know I don’t have.”
Frankly, that is spiritual abuse. We call it “piece of shit theology” because it imagines the heart of every human to be dung, to be wicked, to be unworthy of God’s love. Such a dehumanizing heresy is unworthy of the gospel. It’s also prevalent within church culture and particular theologies.
So, when a former Protestant hears the 'unworthiness' language in the Orthodox service, it can trigger them back into the pain of being belittled and degraded. But for the Orthodox, all the assumptions are so completely different. We know we are God's children, made in God's image, united with Christ, and perpetually under the waterfall of his mercy. Beneath the tarnish is a diamond, wearing the stained dress is a beloved bride.
So, to say we are "sinners" or even, like Paul, "the chief of sinners," is not about identity at all. It is precisely this: I confess that I (not you, never another) live in the daily struggle of the human condition, stumbling forward into the kingdom so that "sinner" is not my identity, but rather, my experience of the struggle. And in that struggle, I come to the table along with all the other "sinners," because the Lord said he did not come to the [self-]righteous, but to dine with “sinners”—those in need of mercy for whatever reason. So, I boldly say, "That's me! You came for ME!"
Jesus Prayer Diagnostic
Over time, I've used the Jesus Prayer, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a SINNER," as a diagnostic tool to measure how much of my Calvinist shame has been cleansed. The word "sinner" no longer triggers me, not even a little. Rather, when I pray it, I humbly bring my struggles (and not just "sins") under the waterfall of Christ’s cleansing mercy, sometimes with tears because the struggle is real. And when, in humbling myself, I'm still prone to bow too low (self-loathing), I know and trust he'll lift me up. Far better to err in my humility and be exalted than to trip over my self-assured egoism until life seems fit to humble me.
In other words, until I’ve learned to distinguish humble, affectionate prostrations before the Lord from groveling, I know that more shame needs to be washed away. And it will be!
So my advice is that when words like “unworthy” or “sinner” come up as triggers, rather than resisting them or deflecting them, you might consider the invitation to pray, "Lord, when I pray these words, I feel more shameful than humble. I bring my heart, battered by my religious past, and I humbly place it in your wounded, caring hands. Have mercy on me, for part of me still thinks “sinner” is my identity rather than my struggle. Lord, please throw your arms around me and lift up my face. For you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, and the Lifter of my head."
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Posted by: John Pogen | June 15, 2021 at 06:58 PM