"The icon is a song of triumph, and a revelation, and an enduring monument to the victory of the saints and the disgrace of demons."
~St. John of Damascus
I will never forget the first time I experienced worship in an Eastern Orthodox church. As I entered the Nave through the large wooden double doors, it was as if I was stepping out of this world and into another. My senses were overcome with the unexpected beauty of sights, sounds, and smells that crashed into my cognisance. I was awed...elevated...transported to a different realm...a realm of transcendent beauty and holiness that has yet to be matched in my earthly experience.


Growing up as a protestant evangelical, I had been subliminally taught that the senses were unsanctified creatures that needed to be denied in order to achieve holiness. Touching, tasting, seeing, and smelling were ways to get around in the world, not a means to encounter God. I thank God however for the witness of the ancient church that seems to say, that if faith comes by hearing, then how much more can it come through seeing, tasting, touching, and smelling!
Our protestant, puritanical roots suggest that the senses should be suppressed so that we can succeed in seeing no evil, hearing no evil, and speaking no evil. However, in doing so, our imagination, given to us by God, is quelled and our senses are dulled to a point where life is limited to the hereafter instead of being eternally present in the now! When God created Adam, He gave him natural senses that He might be able to interact in the eternal and temporal realms. Though he failed, God's design for humanity was never in err, and thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ, the second Adam, our senses have been redeemed and will one day be ultimately glorified along with our bodies. Holiness cannot be achieved by focusing on what we must deny, rather holiness is attained by beholding that which we will soon become like! "But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." ~1 John 3:2 When we behold Him, we shall become like Him! So why not start now?
Enter Icons
For most Christians in the West, icons are nothing more than the little pictures on our computer screens that direct us to a document, photo, or some other application when we click it. However, icons have been a part of our Christian heritage since the first centuries of the Church. Early Christians, many of whom were illiterate, understood that icons (Greek for image) were not only vital for helping the faithful to remember spiritual truths, they were used to activate the imagination to bring the unseen into the seen.

Eusebius saw with his own eyes a bronze statue of Christ and the woman with the issue of blood as well as portraits of Peter and Paul. (Church History Book 7, Chapter 18). Saint Gregory of Nyssa in the fourth century mentioned being brought to tears while gazing upon the painting of "The Sacrifice of Isaac", while his contemporary, Gregory of Nazianzen speaking of the image depicting the cruelties that befell Christians in the arena under the emperor Julian said, "The images venerated in public places still bear the scars of that plague."

It has been said that Icons are windows or portals into heaven; that they serve the sincere believer as a sort of gateway into the eternal. The ancient Celtic Christians had a similar idea of certain geographical locations which they called "thin places". These were special, physical settings where significant spiritual events or encounters took place, and thus the veil between heaven and earth became very "thin". Icons, for the more ancient faith followers, also become physical agents or locations where one might taste and see that the Lord is good! Fr. Jack Sparks in his essay No Graven Image: Icons and Their Proper Use, sums our discussion up this way, "...icons (along with the Scripture readings, prayers, and hymns) help us worship God, help us grow in the image and likeness of God. Though visible and material, their content, theology in color, helps us to see and know the invisible and spiritual."
In Icons: Part Two and Three, we will explore the Biblical theology of icons, their use and unique identity in Christian worship; and in Part Four, we will conclude our discussion with the findings of the 7th and final ecumenical council as well as the doctrinal significance of icons in Christian worship. So stick around and check back often for updates! I am going to try to have the three remaining parts finished by the end of November.
In the Lion, In the Lamb,
Fr. Mark
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