But how does the written Word of Scripture have the power to “instruct for salvation”? The answer is through the Person of the Holy Spirit. Quoting Duke University Divinity School’s Adjunct Professor, Edward Rommen, Dr. Dragani said, “The Holy Spirit participated in Creation and has spoken through the prophets. The Holy Spirit continues working through Pentecost and through the Sacraments. The power of the Holy Spirit gives life to the Church. It is the guiding force of our community, and through the ministry of the Church, brings salvation.”

It is not uncommon to have someone walk up to you to ask: “Are you saved?” The Eastern Christian answer is not a simple yes. It is not a done deal. We are currently being saved; our salvation is taking place inside by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Eastern Christian term for this is Deification or Theosis. Just as we begin our journey at Baptism and Chrismation as spiritual children, we need to come to share and grow in God’s own life through the air we breathe (prayer) and the food we eat (sacraments). We work through these mysteries under the guidance of the Church.

“It is the Holy Spirit who brings about Salvation/Theosis,” Dr. Dragani said. “One of the vehicles by which he does this is Sacred Scripture.” We believe that all Scripture is “inspired – brought into being by God’s very breath. And what is this Breath, but the Holy and Life-Creating Spirit?”

Some may argue that since the Bible was written by human (imperfect) beings, how can it be the inspired Word of God? Dr. Dragani countered, saying, “The Bible expresses God’s Truth through human authors – we see the Holy Spirit working through their humanity – human elements, including cultural biases.”

Dr. Dragani gave for example, 1 Cor 11, where it says “it is disgraceful for a man to have long hair.” Some Christian sects take that quite literally. But in Corinth, a seaport and crossroad of its time, for a man to wear his hair long was to advertise his services as a prostitute. Long hair on men just does not have that context today. The Scripture was speaking to a specific community in a specific cultural context, and was not intended to be taken as a universal truth.

Today, there are fundamentalist Christians who take the Bible as Science, following the tenets of strict Creationism, etc. Eastern Christians, however, have come to believe in the Bible as a book of Faith that was written to “instruct for Salvation” – it was never written as a scientific or literal historical text. While fundamentalist Christians hold that Scripture alone (Sola Scriptura) is truth for Salvation and this may be received and interpreted individually, the Eastern Christian holds that Scripture should never be broken open in isolation, but rather within the light of the Church and Tradition as shaped by the Holy Spirit.

“The Holy Spirit is the same Spirit found in the writings of the Church Fathers and in the Councils, but in the Sacraments and the Divine Liturgy we come to experience the Holy Spirit in a most tangible way,” Dr. Dragani said.

The readings from Scripture that are taken in the Divine Liturgy, and the Liturgy itself, being grounded and interwoven with the same Scripture, have been designed by the Church under the guidance of that same Spirit. Through the Divine Liturgy, the whole Church proclaims the Word of God – in Scripture and in Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

“In our Byzantine Tradition, we understand Scripture within the larger context of the Divine Liturgy and the yearly cycle of readings,” Dr. Dragani added. He suggested studying Sunday’s readings before going to Liturgy to deepen our understanding and open our hearts to what the Church desires to reveal to us about a particular feast.

He concluded “In our Tradition, it is in the Holy Scripture and the Divine Liturgy that we experience the Face of God.”

As he addressed the conference attendees, bearing in mind the Scripture that was foundational to his talk, Mr. Long retraced his journey from ministry in a Fundamentalist church to Eastern Christianity. That Scripture was “My child, keep my words and store up my commandments with you…Keep my teachings as the apple of your eye.” (Prov 7:1-2)

He came to understand and appreciate the place of icons and the role of Mary in the Church. And, even more importantly, he admitted, “as I grew, God confirmed it for me: Now we come to understand Scripture through the Church.” Long was growing into a Faith that he could cherish and treasure.

Mr. Long reflected on the term “treasure” found in Lk 6:47 and Mt 13:44. He said, “every heart has a treasure, but what makes it good or evil?” He reflected on the Book of Proverbs which begins with chapters of instructions on how to find a home and wife, describing a prostitute and then describing a “beautiful woman” who will guard and guide. This woman is Holy Wisdom, “who not only guards and protects good choices, but even more so, guards against bad philosophy. Wisdom is not about stories with morals, but about how the heart changes, so that we will make good decisions.”

Long found in his earlier life experience that the influence of individualism is so UnChristian, UnByzantine, UnOrthodox: “Unless I have my preference; unless I can have my way, my warm and cuddly comfortable service, I cannot worship!” We have all been guilty of this at one time or another. He warned the conference attendees to “focus not on your emotional preference or your heritage, but rather on the Mystery of participating in the Divine Life in our Liturgy that is so real, so compelling as the earth to Heaven and Heaven to earth that is truly so embracing, so fresh – I don’t think I could ever get tired of it.” He expressed his puzzlement: “Why is this Church where we are, not the biggest Church in the area?”

He encouraged the attendees, saying that indeed they did have a treasure and to “keep the command to hide/treasure it in your heart – make a hedge of thorns around it and protect it.”

Mr. Long said that our lives are to be spent in ongoing conversion and repentance to follow Jesus Christ.

Mr. Long said he learned that our Holy Father St. John Chrysostom memorized Scripture to be totally immersed in it, and offered a very Byzantine tool to memorize Scripture by doing each step three times, working with the selected passage: recite it aloud, write it down, and write it down while reciting it aloud. “After this is done, one should have it pretty much in one’s head. Then, take an index card or something small and handy like that, and put down the first letter of each word in the passage on the card. Carry the card around in your pocket or other convenient place and withdraw it from time-to-time, repeating the Scripture. It will soon be yours to treasure.” With this, he gave conference attendees a valuable and practical gift, a key to memorize Scripture.

But even at this basic level, there is a real threat to our understanding of Scripture, which could be termed, eisogesis – the tendency to read it in the context of contemporary experience without regard to the original intent of the author. While we often may accuse the Protestants and especially the Fundamentalists of this, any of us who read and study Scripture may easily become equally guilty.

And yet, at the same time, Fr. Mark noted, “The Sacred Scriptures are a Living Word – the Word is in our common hearing and speaking, our living of the Word of God. This Word is proclaimed, is heard in the Liturgical text.

In the Acts of the Apostles the very teaching of the apostles was dedicated to the Word of God and each feast included the breaking of bread and Anaphora – the remembering of the details, not only of the Last Supper, but of the Sacrifice of the Lamb. Father Mark stressed that “in the Divine Liturgy we find prayer, the Word, and Sacrament or Mystery of the Eucharist. Many New Testament texts are better understood within this context of the Liturgy.”

In the Eucharist which means “thanksgiving”, we see “the Hand of God over His Bride, the Church, and the worshiping assembly rises beneath that touch. The Thanksgiving that is the Eucharist is not merely a duty but rather an open and rising response to the hand of the Bridegroom, it is the perfect impulse of Thanksgiving. In this attitude, we hear the Word of God and rise up to it.

Jesus Christ, the Word of God, dwells within us richly as we come out of the Divine Liturgy. We have called upon the Treasury of Blessings to dwell within us and bring the indwelling God of each Liturgy out into the world where we live by example, by our almsgiving, our charitable works, by our living out our lives in love and peace with one another and our communities where we live and work.

Father Mark again took the Scripture quote given him: “Let the Word of God dwell in you richly. His Word is always Covenant-making. It is the perfect prayer, the dialog between the Father and the Son, the Bridegroom and the Bride, the Holy Spirit and our souls. It should always dwell richly in us, especially in the Liturgical Prayer of the Church, and particularly in the Anaphora.”

The prayer that is the Anaphora, secreted openly within our Divine Liturgy, “is something we overhear, as a child at the top of the steps after bedtime, listening to what our parents say to each other,” Fr. Mark said. He explained that parents can say anything in a child’s presence, but “what they say to each other, that must be true. What we overhear in the Anaphora is what the Father says to the Son and the Son says to the Father. We overhear a Trinitarian discourse – and to overhear God is terribly persuasive.”

Our Lady, the Theotokos, is at the heart of the Church. We are called out of our sleepy roots to growth, to life. Our response takes us into the world with “works of charity and mercy and in our lives, and if our response is so exemplary that other can see and receive, we are probably moving toward sanctity,” Fr. Mark added.

“In the Liturgical setting, our response is to sing hymns and songs and inspired worship, as the Church prays.” Fr. Mark emphasized that songs and worship are to be inspired and not secular in nature. He reminded the conference participants that their Eastern liturgical worship does not come from “secular TV, theater, or even a rock group.” Our chants consist of psalms and songs springing from the Fathers of the Church and the “saints, who were more from Heaven than Earth – inspired to set us fee from all ‘earthly cares’.”

We receive the “heavenly blessing, on so that we may be able to follow the Lamb, to move beyond just being charitable to being self-sacrificial,” he said. As Christians, we are a “people who do not have citizenship locally – our citizenship is in heaven – we can come through this country as pilgrims or tourists and are able to see what those who only live here cannot.” And yet we must “leave for them an anchor, as a sign of God’s love.”

“We belong to Someplace Else, so we can make our passage here with a fuller participation than those who are trapped here,” Fr. Mark added; comparing the pilgrimage of believers to the capacity of tourists to see more of the country they visit than its own citizens.

He gave advice for the Journey: “Receive admonishment with Wisdom. Do all with Thanksgiving. Give everything we have away. Along the way, breadcrumbs have been scattered and lead to the Heavenly Banquet, but we must be open to the Mystery in order to live in its afterglow for the rest of our lives.”