God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship Him. You worship what you do not know we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain and Thou sayest that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that Thou art a prophet. Let’s hear that selection one more time, just to bring it again to our memory: And it is precisely through the lens of Pietism that many people interpret the Gospel reading from this morning, especially the passage on worship. What matters is mostly that you have strong conviction and/or that you are a good moral person. Without getting too deep into the history of the movement, let us define it simply as the feeling-not so much the teaching, mind you, but the feeling-that the details of doctrine and worship do not really matter. What ties both of these attitudes together is a movement from the churches of the Reformation that began in the 17th century, a movement called Pietism. It’s nice in some sense that all that complexity is there, but they can’t be bothered with learning it or trying to understand it in any way but the most superficial. They regard discussion of the details of our worship to be annoying and tedious at best, something reserved for ecclesiastical nerds with nothing better to do with their time. They do not bother to come to church services aside from liturgy on Sunday morning. They do not care too much what the liturgical season is. It is probably not articulated out loud, but it is spoken by their actions. When they look at our vast liturgical tradition, all they see is Pharisaical rules and regulations designed not just to confuse people but to control them, to numb their spirits, to destroy any spark of faith within them.Īnd there are even some people, perhaps many people, inside the Orthodox Church who have a similar view. To them, what we do in worship is just “going through the motions,” a sort of dedication to pointless tradition for its own sake. There are those outside the Orthodox Church who say that Orthodox worship is empty and meaningless ritual, that it is “dead religion” at its worst. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Sunday of the Samaritan Woman, June 2, 2013Ī recording of this sermon is available via Ancient Faith Radio.

For Evangelical Protestants: Quick Questions & Answers on Orthodoxy.For Roman Catholics: Quick Questions & Answers on Orthodoxy.Looking for an Orthodox Church in the Lehigh Valley?.Archpriest John Kahle, Founding Pastor (1987-1999)

Archpriest Andrew Stephen Damick (2009-2020)

Antiochian Archdiocese of North America.

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