Justin Appel

Dear Friends,

In today’s first lesson, St. John writes about love, but prefaces his remarks with this idea:

‘Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.’
- I John 3:13

Throughout the book of I John, we hear ‘the world’ mentioned repeatedly as an antithetical force. We are exhorted here to reject the world and ‘the things of the world’, such as ‘the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life’ (2:15-16).

According to John, it should be normal for the world to hate us.

That’s a strong statement, and one that does make me worry, if I’m honest. For instance, does my life bear the marks of belonging to Christ without ambiguity? Do I find my identity in something which is, in a real sense, counter-cultural? Do I find my self-worth in the world’s system of legitimacy? Or in Christ?

Then the circle starts to grow: Do I find my identity not merely in my nuclear family, but in the family of my church community? Do I associate myself with the church fully or do I hold out for some sort of independence? As a church, are we countercultural?

I don’t have any fast or easy answers, but one thought is finding its way into these ruminations: We need the saints. The saints provide a wildly counterculture example of what it means to follow Christ, often through culturally unacceptable patterns of life.

One practical way to keep the saints in front of us is through icons. These images, far from being benign religious artworks, are a means of keeping ourselves directly connected to the body of Christ. The faces depicted there are the old and wise people we desperately want to get to know and ask their advice.

Of course, having the saints around doesn’t guarantee one a truly counter-cultural existence, as I can prove to you! However, I do know that any time I have spent gazing at icons is time well-spent, and they do remind me of a different priority scheme than I will find anywhere else in ‘the world’.

Yours in Christ,
Justin