Greetings in that Divine and Most Precious Name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
The church that's being built is a spiritual one. It's all about having the law written on our heart not following the law as the Hebrews used to. It's about what makes a person clean or unclean which is determined by what's in a heart and what flows from a mouth.
If the church were a visible church then it would be easy to tell the wheat from the tares but it isn't easy because we can't see and judge another's heart.
It seems to me that only the overview of Orthodoxy is different to Protestantism -- the external dogmatic shell. The internal mess seems remarkably similar to how the rest of Christendom claim to be guided by the Spirit and believe a multitude of different things backed up with the odd patristic quote or two from various denominations jurisdictions.
But sister, the Visible Church remains Spiritual as does not the visible human race also mutually have a spiritual existence? The Body of Christ is Spiritual, we are spiritually united both to Christ and to our Brothers and Sisters in the human family. When we say Visible Church we are not speaking in strictly physical or tangible terms. It is not our physicality that makes us Christians, it is our spiritual participation and synergetic cooperation with the Spirit of God through Sacramental Worship in the Divine Mysteries. The Invisible Church is equally alive, active and interconnected with the Visible Church, however these are no longer tangible physical beings, but this does not negate their existence and mutual fellowship. The Angels are not physical beings and yet we accept their almost tangible presence interacting within our physical world, why should the Invisible Church (called the Church Triumphant) be any different?
You mistake our Sacramental worship as being an attempt to follow some kind of Law, but that is not our approach. We are not Baptized or Confess of our Sins, or receive the Holy Communion, or revere our Ordained Clergy out of some kind of legalistic obligation. Rather, we are brought to celebrate these out of the Grace of God, in precisely a spiritual manner which you are referring too. However, we remain physical in the Church Militant (the Visible Church) and so our spiritual existence is merged with our physical, through the Mysteries. When we are Baptized the physical senses perceive water, but the spiritual faculties of man experience the depth of the Grace of God inherent in the Mysteries. If all you see is the water, you are not looking deep enough in the heart. Further, when we receive Holy Communion to the perception of the senses Our Lord is merely Bread and Wine, but in the depths of the Spirit we understand we are Communing in the Spirit with the very real presence of the Son of God Incarnate! See, it is as they see, more than skin deep.
In the Orthodox then, we also believe in the Communion of the Saints, and this is in a spiritual way. The Saints are real in our lives, they are not simply dead and buried, for as Paul says, if such were the case where would our hope be? Even within the Church, our fathers do not attempt to Judge as Christ has the tares from the wheat. Further, do you fully understand what Christ was saying in that parable? God has spared the tares and the wheat to grow alongside each other, not necessarily because He plans to universally destroy the tares, rather that because of His mercy and love for Mankind He allows the tares to continue to grow that they might become Repentant. In Orthodox we are not predeterminists or Calvinists in our theology, there is not a set margin or number of Saints vs Sinners. The roster for Heaven was not filled at Creation, the Book of Life is written with the eraser of Jesus Christ's Precious and Holy Blood!! So God allows the tares to live and grow in His Mercy that these might also come to repentance as we in Orthodox have. Before our Repentance, before our acceptance of the Seven Divine Mysteries, we are also the tares!! So we do not vaunt over the tares rather we pray they grow in God's Grace into wheat.
The Lord is not tardy as to the promise, as some are deeming tardiness, but is patient because of you, not intending any to perish, but ALL to make room for repentance."
2 Peter 3:9
The Mission of the Church is to proclaim Salvation and dispense the Divine Mysteries which are the means of Salvation. The Church is not out there trying to find those pre-determined to be saved, rather the Church is honestly and sincerely out in the world praying for sinners that ALL might come to Repentance, that ALL might come to His Church, that ALL might find God's Love. We operate under the basic assumption that all people have an equal opportunity towards Salvation because all people were equal-opportunity Sinners before God's Grace came into their lives. Just as we all sin, we can all find God, there is no pre-destined Salvation for some and pre-determined damnation for others, God loves us all.
stay blessed,
habte selassie
