I once visited a Coptic Orthodox parish for a weekday meeting. Before the meeting began, a “praise and worship team” came into the church with their instruments and began singing a couple of Protestant songs.
As odd and surreal as it was to hear these songs in a holy place in which mystical and spiritual hymns are chanted, this is not our present focus. 1
Rather, it is the song that was chosen, a song entitled “Amazing Love” or “You are My King.” One of the verses of the song contains the following words:
I’m forgiven because you were forsaken
I’m accepted, You were condemned
I’m alive and well
Your spirit is within me
Because you died and rose again
These words are not merely reminding us that we are healthy and happy, but rather, they speak to us about salvation itself (especially in the context of also speaking about forgiveness and acceptance). As such, they remind us why Protestant songs should not be used in Orthodox Christian services and meetings without careful scrutiny.
At first glance, the words seem innocent. They express the reality that, because our Savior was forsaken, we are forgiven and accepted. So far, so good. But then we hear, “I’m alive and well. Your Spirit is within me because you died and rose again.”
Is that right? Let’s think about it for a moment.
We Orthodox Christians don’t go around proclaiming that we are “alive and well,” but rather, the opposite. The Holy Fathers teach us that the first step of the spiritual life is coming to the realization that everything is not well. Our Christian lives begin with the realization and understanding that something has been lost. God created us to exist in glory and ultimately perfection, but because we disobeyed God, we now find ourselves in a completely different state. Our spiritual lives begin with this realization… something is wrong in the world today. This is not the way God intended us to live. Man disobeyed God and lost communion with Him.
For this reason, we don’t proclaim we’re “alive and well” in our prayers and liturgical services. In fact, all of our Orthodox prayers and liturgies can be summed up in one phrase: “Lord have mercy.” If we are “alive and well,” why do we ask for mercy? Why do we ask for the intercessions and prayers of the saints towards God so “that He may forgive us our sins?” Why do we continually pray the Jesus Prayer, “My Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner?” If I am “alive and well” as the song tells me, perhaps I don’t need any of these things. Perhaps I don’t need the Mystery (Sacrament) of Repentance and Holy Confession. If I sing this song enough, perhaps I don’t even need to go to Church, because “I’m forgiven because You were forsaken. I’m accepted, [because] You were condemned. I’m alive and well.”
The words of “Amazing Love” beautifully reflect a concept of salvation and spirituality, but sadly, not an Orthodox concept. The song reflects the common view in Protestant society that people are saved instantly by our Savior’s sacrifice on the Cross when they “accept Jesus” as “their personal Savior.” In light of this view of salvation, the song makes sense. In contrast, for an Orthodox Christian used to crying out, “Lord have mercy” and seeking union with Christ through the Mysteria (Sacraments) of the Church, the words “I’m alive and well” are confusing and perhaps even counterintuitive.
This is one of the reasons why it’s not a good idea to blindly welcome popular Protestant songs in Orthodox churches: the spirit of many of these Protestant songs (many, but perhaps not all) doesn’t match the spirit of Orthodox worship and oftentimes conflicts with dogma, as well.
The spirit of Orthodox worship has been handed down to us in an unbroken line from the time of the Holy Apostles until the present day on the basis of the Holy Scripture, the Holy Fathers of the Church, the Divine Liturgy, the sanctified lives of the holy saints, etc. In contrast, the spirit of many of these Protestant songs come from contemporary men and women who were never exposed to these things.
The tragic reality is that they inherited an ever-changing type of Christianity in which it’s perfectly acceptable to think one is “alive and well,” even while living a sinful life, because Christ paid the price once and for all, and everything is going to be okay in the end, no matter what. This is the sad result of not being exposed to (or perhaps rejecting) Apostolic Christianity, and sadly, we Orthodox make such people our spiritual guides whenever we repeat these songs. Our spiritual guides should be those who have mastered communing with God in the ways He has appointed, not those who were never exposed to these things.
So, does all of this mean that we Orthodox Christians are depressing people who don’t want to be “alive and well?” Are we “downers” who just can’t enjoy such an uplifting message?
Of course not! We fervently hope and pray that we will be “alive and well” in the Kingdom, but we know that this can happen only if we struggle in this world to be united with Christ by imitating Him and His saints, obeying His Commandments, entreating His mercy, and communing with Him through the Mysteria of the Church.
We need more songs focusing on this reality and helping us along this difficult path in the Church. Consider the words of a contemporary Orthodox saint, Mother Maria of Paris (1891-1945):
It would be a great lie to tell searching souls: ‘Go to church, because there you will find peace.’ The opposite is true. The Church tells those who are at peace and asleep (i.e., the “alive and well”): ‘Go to church, because there you will feel real anguish for your sins, for your perdition, for the world’s sins and perdition. There you will feel an unappeasable hunger for Christ’s truth. There, instead of become lukewarm, you will be set on fire; instead of pacified, you will become alarmed; instead of learning the wisdom of this world you will become fools for Christ.
This is what it means to be “alive and well.”
Notes
- This is not directed at any particular parish, because these songs are sung in many meetings. ↩
Marina Habib the quote was here 🙂
Fr. Moses- for clarification (and there truly is no agenda here)- what do you mean by the “spirit” of the songs? Is there a place at all for “contemporary” songs, or are only ancient chants/hymns appropriate? Thank you!
Dear Sofia Michael, my humble opinion in response to your question is that there shouldn’t be a place for non-Orthodox contemporary songs in any Orthodox gathering. On the one hand, we have one extreme in the awesome and mystical ancient hymns, which the Church reserves for the crown of Her worship, the Divine Liturgy and other liturgical worship. On the other hand, we have another extreme in the oftentimes Protestant contemporary songs, which Orthodox tend to reserve for meetings and non-liturgical gatherings, etc.
We’re missing something in the middle. We need more non-liturgical music that is more Orthodox in nature. It’s hard to precisely define what this means, but at the very least, I’m speaking about music that reflects correct Orthodox dogma, music that somehow enriches us to be better Orthodox Christians, music that doesn’t conflict with our Faith and what we do liturgically. Perhaps the music may even be contemporary, but the words themselves won’t reflect Protestant dogma.
This is very important, because, when you think about it, Chris Tomlin, Hillsong, and other contemporary Protestant songwriters are, I’m sure, very nice people and sincere Christians, but what qualifications do they have for guiding Orthodox Christians in praise? Who ordained them? Were they even baptized in an Apostolic Church? How do they pray? What do they believe? For example, the vast majority of them don’t believe in the holiness of the Holy Virgin Mary or her ever-virginity, which is why she is glaringly absent from their songs. How can we Orthodox, who proclaim her to be “more honored than the Cherubim and more glorious and exalted than the Seraphim,” use songs written by people who openly deny her, not to mention the Church and Her Mysteries (Sacraments)?
We love these Protestant songwriters and pray for them to come to the fullness of the Truth, but we shouldn’t make them our spiritual guides by singing their songs, because they don’t believe as we believe. A Protestant song can never capture the fullness of our Faith, because its author doesn’t believe as we believe.
Thank you for the response. The prayers of the saints be with you.
Interesting. Abouna Moses you always present viewpoints I have never considered. Thank you for being Radical for Christ and boldly declaring your convictions. 🙂
Thank you for reading, Fr. Deacon. May God help and grant us wisdom to deal with this issue.
Father
I have certain issues with your post. When I read the lyrics, my only objection was to the word forsaken. I don’t think Orthodox Christians believe that Jesus was forsaken by the father.
I am really upset that your objection is to the word alive and well. Take Ephesians 2:1. We have been made alive. This does not mean that we are sinless. We have been made alive through the work of the Holy Son who died on the cross, and paid the price of sin in his body. And rose from the dead.
Being alive is accepting Jesus as lord and saviour. ( in our orthodox terminology) repenting sin and living for Christ. It does not mean sinful living that agreed, but Protestants do not preach sinful living.
Being alive and well is knowing that I have forgiveness in Christ. So I believe in him and be one with him so that I am forgiven.
We do not imitate the saints. We love them, we pray with them and they with us, but we only strive to be like Christ, only.
We do not become alive and well by imitating Christ. Because we will never reach the fullness of his righteousness. But we become alive and well by accepting His grace and in response, we live through the Holy Spirit.
Lastly, there are certain issues with the teaching of our Coptic Orthodox Church, take for instance that women cannot receive communion during certain periods of their menstual cycle, which is definitely none biblical nor orthodox. there were dark times in the Orthodox Church were teachings were not accurate and wrong.
I love hymns. But I cannot deny 1 Corinthians chapter 9, where St Paul clearly explains how he jumped through hoops to reach out to people. We on the other hand insist on sticking to a language extinct for at least 10 centuries. And to add to that, we tell people to day that there is no other road to salvation, besides this church.
If we never admit where we have gone wrong, then we are blindly defending certain stigmas
With a humble heart full of love I say this, for the glory of Christ and the growth of His kingdom into the hearts of all people.
John