Today we remember the fathers of the 7th Ecumenical Council and their work in preserving the Doctrine of the Apostles, and overthrowing heresy. The heresy had to do with destroying icons as idolatry. 350 holy Fathers attended this council representing the Christian Church all over the world under the holy Patriarch Tarasius. The Synod of 787, the second to meet at Nicea, refuted the Iconoclast heresy during the reign of Empress Irene and her son Constantine VI. The Council decreed that the veneration of icons was not idolatry (Exodus 20:4-5), because the honor shown to them is not directed to the wood or paint, but passes to the prototype (the person depicted). It also upheld the possibility of depicting Christ, Who became man and took flesh at His Incarnation. God became visible in the Incarnation. The Father, on the other hand, cannot be represented in His eternal nature, because “no man has seen God at any time” (John 1:18). But this needs understanding too, we know that Christ is God, He Himself said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” Jesus has made God visible, yes, but the Father remains a spirit. As with the Holy Spirit, He is not seen, so they are not portrayed in icons. But, on the other hand, Jesus is truly God and truly man, He must be portrayed in icons. He made Himself appropriate for icons. Jesus Christ is the express image of the Father. Image and icon are the same word. The definition of ikon is image. St. Luke, according to the Tradition, created the first icon. He used this pose that we see here on our iconostasis. Assuming this to be true, if this was wrong, the other Apostles would have stopped this in the Church. They did not. We have proof from archeology that the most ancient churches had icons on walls, on the sides of baptismal fonts. Crosses. A cross is an icon. This is such a significant event in the Church that we remember this twice a year, in October and during Great Lent, on Orthodoxy Sunday. What the Holy Fathers said, in my opinion, is this: To deny icons is to deny Christianity. To not have sacraments is a denial of the True Church. How is this so? To deny icons is to deny the Incarnation. It denies that God took on flesh and appeared as a man in order to redeem mankind by rebirth, defeating our enemies, death, sin, corruption, and the evil ones. To deny relics is to say that God does not sanctify matter. That in fact, our own matter, our own bodies, are not being sanctified. I totally understand this. It is not their fault. People who claim to be Christians and deny these things, have been taught these things as if they were Christian ideas. This doesn’t mean I have disregard for these groups, nor that they are going to hell. The vast majority of them don’t know what they are doing when they deny icons, they are following their leaders. I understand this due to the fact that I too was raised in that same environment. Here is the current reality in terms of Christian churches. The Protestants have given away too much of the Apostolic faith, they have boiled it down to common denominators, stripped it of ancient tradition, and made up a new way of knowing and experiencing God that is alien to The Apostolic Church. The Roman Catholic Church has added to the Apostolic Faith. Both ways distort the Truth, the Tradition handed down to us from the Lord and His Apostles. I never saw an icon growing up. I didn’t know anything about relics, they were outside the realm of my reality. I never knew that churches used incense. When Nancy and I started studying The Ancient Church, the teaching of the Holy Fathers, we were shocked to find these things had existed since the very beginning, including in the Old Testament. We weren’t aware that the Orthodox carry on the very ancient practice of fasting. That fasting is the norm for Christians, not only something we do when we want something. For a while there we went to churches that even forbade the use of pictures of Jesus in a child’s Bible story book. How very sad. Heresy like this has wide rippling effects on how we understand who God is. It gives us a very distorted view of God and the world, and humanity. All these things are very damaging to people and their souls, as they are false teachings. Our culture tempts us to be constantly in a hurry and distracted. We expect answers for the deep struggles of our lives with the speed of looking something up on the internet. So many today have lost respect for the many years of preparation that it takes to develop skill and expertise. The same is true of our disregard for the pursuit of wisdom, which typically comes through the long experience of a life well lived. We must be on guard against becoming so accustomed to accepting quick, easy, and superficial answers that we lack the patience and focus necessary to mature to the point that we are able to bear good fruit for the Kingdom of God. The short cut method is for everyone to think they are all equally able to properly interpret the Scriptures. In many churches there is no longer an authoritative source to appear too, every one beliefs as it seems right to their own eyes. The words we hear in the epistle reading are instructive here: And I know such a man – whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows – how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. The great apostle is speaking in the third person out of humility, he is talking about himself. He was caught up into paradise and heard and saw things that are beyond description. He was asserting his authority as an apostle that had divine revelation about such things, and about the spiritual world. He was proclaiming that some are given greater gifts than others. Some are set aside to teach and to preserve the faith. Not everyone has equal abilities or clear understanding of the Holy Scriptures. Holy men and women who spend their lives studying and praying have a greater ability to interpret reality for us today, and to pass on what has been delivered once to the saints. You have heard the saying “he is a fool who goes into court without a lawyer.” We say something similar when it comes to theology and spiritual warfare. He is a fool who has himself for his spiritual father. The Church of Jesus Christ is a hierarchy, different levels of gifts, roles, authority, The bishops of these councils have clear authority to pass down the True Faith, to say to the Church, this is what we have received from our fathers. So let me bring this down to today, to you and I. Icon means image. Let me remind you, you are an icon; you were created in the image of God. The icon of God. We are taught to see our fellow humans as icons, we are taught to see Christ in every person. Icons are a way for us to see the world as sanctified and to help us sanctify it. They are a way for us to learn that spiritual reality is all around us. They help us see a spiritual reality in all creation. They are windows into heaven. They stretch our minds to comprehend a deeper reality that is beyond taste, touch, smell, or feel. Icons remind us that we are icons, but the image of our icon must be cleaned in order that it portray a new person, one that more accurately expresses divinity. You will notice this when we cense the church. When the censer is brought out of the altar and we go up and down with the censer; we are censing and sanctifying. What or who are we censing? Everything. The space, the building, the icons, each one of us. We are living, breathing icons. For those who have eyes to see, icons portray the entire plan of God for the renewal of the universe. Everything in the universe is and was created to declare the Glory of God. We have a part in this, this is our mission for ourselves and our families. It is not just what we see, it is also the reality behind all that we see, what all things are to become in Christ, including you. Our task is not to destroy icons, but to clean them, to join Christ in sanctifying the world, starting with our own souls, our own hearts, our personal icon.