(ABP) — On a recent trip to my hometown, I was surprised to hear some beautiful Russian Orthodox music performed by the “Singing Christmas Tree” in my childhood Southern Baptist church in North Carolina. Perhaps I should clarify this. I wasn't surprised the music was beautifully sung; the choir always does a wonderful job. The surprise was hearing Orthodox music in a Baptist environment.
This ecumenical moment led to some research on my part. The anthem was titled “Salvation is Created” and its composer was Paul Tschesnokoff (1877-1944), who wrote a good deal of music before he was silenced during the Stalinist attempt to destroy the church in the U.S.S.R. This very piece became the unofficial anthem of the Russian Orthodox Church after the collapse of the Soviet government.
The sole verse of the anthem, sung in rich and majestic harmony, is: “Salvation is created in the midst of the earth, O God. Alleluia.” The fact that he composed this during the dark days of anti-Christian persecution is surely testimony to the hope God gives us even in our darkest moments.
Across the centuries, the universal testimony of the Church – East and West – is that God is faithful. As the Russian saying goes, “The Orthodox Church is like a nail: The harder you hit it, the stronger it becomes.”
As 2007 draws to a close, we Christians in the U.S. might be well advised to count our blessings. The church still suffers in many parts of the world. We might be persecuted here, but I'm not too sure. In those lands where Christians suffer persecution, the constrasts are drawn very starkly. The darkness against which we struggle is much more subtle.
We are not tempted to deny Christ in the threat of violence but rather to whittle the gospel down until it makes no demands on our lives, or to imagine we still possess a power long since evaporated. As Flannery O'Connor once observed: “What people don't realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross. It is much harder to believe than not to believe.”
For the past few years it has been commonplace among some cultured commentators to lament a supposed “war on Christians.” A recent example is the omission of Christmas from the calendar of important December dates published in a newsletter from the Spokane, Wash., public school system. Authorities explained this was mere oversight, and I have no doubt that this is true. It illustrates not hostile intent toward Christians but rather how little we are noticed or needed by the culture surrounding us.
And all too often, the Christian response has been either anger at some perceived injustice or a knee-jerk attempt at relevance. Surely, we tell ourselves, if only we could make our music a little more appealing, our sermons a little more practical, our education programs a little more accommodating. Surely then our churches would be successful.
Writing these words during Advent, I recall the pointless and magnificent action of lighting the first candle in the Advent wreath and proclaiming the once and future appearance of the light of Christ in the world. What difference can it make?
For me to answer that question is to return to those powerful words of Tschesnokoff: “Salvation is created in the midst of the earth, O God. Alleluia.” The present tense is as important as the passive voice. God is the primary actor, creating salvation in our lives right now. Such salvation is not therefore only about life after death (though it surely includes that). Nor is it simply about the fate of our personal souls. Like original creation, salvation is cosmic. It is God's new creation in our midst, and it is identified most fully with the church. Neither persecution nor our own unfaithfulness can ultimately destroy God's new creation in Christ.
By the way, in my research, I discovered that Tschesnokoff never heard his anthem performed. And it is a sign of God's grace that this finally didn't matter. The music was composed for the glory of God. And it happened to strengthen the faith of a band of brothers and sisters in North Carolina more than half a century later.
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— Beth Newman is professor of theology and ethics at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. [email protected]