Do you remember what Our Lord Jesus said to the Samaritan Woman when they had their discussion about worship?
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
Do you remember what I wrote a couple of days ago about the Samaritans? They are the descendants of the intermarriage that happened between the Israelites that were left after the exile of the 10 northern tribes to Assyria and the peoples who were moved in by the Assyrian Empire to populate Israel. The Kingdom of Israel ceased to exist, and only the Kingdom of Judah was left. It only lasted less than two hundred years before God also had them exiled.
Now, let’s move the clock back to the nearly three hundred years when both the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah existed at the same time. Which kingdom was the one which was the “true” kingdom? That is easy because Jesus himself said it to the Samaritan woman, “…we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.” Please note that Judah was actually the much smaller kingdom and that they were a remnant of what had been under King David and King Solomon. Since Judah was the true kingdom and since Israel worshiped in the wrong place and in the wrong way, this must mean that God stopped working with them, right? No, that would be quite wrong. Even after the division, the Old Testament records that God kept sending prophets to Israel. And, those prophets were born in Israel, never moved to Judah, and died in Israel. Nevertheless, Scripture makes it clear that they were true prophets, that they spoke the true word of God, but that they were also loyal to Israel and loved Israel.
So, God kept working with a people who had rejected his full truth? Yes, because God’s covenants and promises are unchangeable and eternal, and they also were descended from Abraham. In fact, one of Jeremiah’s most poignant prophecies, and one that is beloved by Christians, points to a re-union between the two kingdoms at some time in the future.
“The time is coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD.
“This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
Well, what does this have to do with us? Well, re-read the various posts on tight shoes. And, for the sake of finishing this post, I will put it in brief fashion. I think that the Orthodox are like the Kingdom of Judah. We are the remnant. We “worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Church.” But, those Orthodox who keep expecting God to not work with anyone else are quite mistaken. God has continued to work the the “larger” kingdoms, like the Roman Catholic Church. Exactly as he did in the Old Testament, so our God who does not change is doing now. He has continued to send prophets to those who are mistaken and worship wrongly. He has continued to work with them through his Holy Spirit, even though they are mistaken, for his promises are unchangeable.
I think this is the explanation as to why God has not permitted another Ecumenical Council or permitted the Orthodox to name a replacement Patriarch of the West or to declare that the Church of the West is completely ended and that a new one must be raised in its place. I think our spiritual insides recognize that God is at work and that somehow we are reliving in the Church part of what happened at the time that the United Monarchy split into the two kingdoms. Yes, they are wrong and need to return to truth, but they are not so wrong as some Orthodox would write nor are they so devoid of the Holy Spirit as many Orthodox would care to believe. And, there yet remains hope of a reunification, a time when “Israel” and “Judah” will become one again.
From where I sit, “We are ALL schismatics”, and I believe that this is providential. There are four major iterations of the Apostolic Tradition, communions in direct descent from the Apostolic Church, and they agree about 95% of the time. A rope of four strands is generally stronger than a monfilament, and, given the way in which these jurisdictions have evolved, no one can seriously say that they all agree the way they do as a result of some centralized conspiracy emanating from, say, Rome.
Further, all of these communions continue to produce Saints. “By their fruits you shall know them.” Where there is Apostolic faith and practice, coupled with Apostolic order, there is the Church.