Go ye therefore into all nations

​Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost

Today’s blog is a little bit different than the blogs about the saints. Todays post is focusing on a piece of scripture that is very common with in western Christianity, especially among the Protestants. There are some denominations even within the Protestants that call themselves “great commission Christians” because they see themselves as fulfilling this call as stated above. As Orthodox we are called to the same commission. And yet, too often we believe  that this is the work of the clergy, the work of someone else. We put off the responsibility that Christ gives us because we are lazy, we don’t want to do it. It is at this point we become like Jonah before his repentance after being in the belly of the fish. Are we willing to openly break a commandment from God? Are we going to deny Christ? Too many today profess the faith of their fathers in the churches, in the comforts of their home.  As the lives of the saints have taught us, that is not enough. It is not just acceptable to proclaim Christ when we feel like it. Rather it is our duty at every hour and moment on heaven and earth to shout the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. When we fail in this mission, as I have many times myself we deny Christ and deny the very mystery of salvation that has been openly given to us. 

Let us look at today’s Saint on the calendar St Theodore the Commander. St. Theodore the commander was a great and renowned military leader with the ranks of Emperor Licinius. Licinius was not a Christian and was troubled by the reports that Theodore was a Christian. When Theodore refused to offer sacrifices to idols, he was tortured as so many of the saints were. He was crucified and had his private parts severed from his body. He also had his eyes shot out with arrows. The next morning Licinius and his men went to retrieve the body. But, Theodore was still alive. Theodore was unharmed. Licinius even more outraged that this had caused the conversion of his men in droves to Christianity took Theodore down from the cross, and like many of the saints both before and after, Theodore was beheaded. Theodore refused to recant his faith in Christ until the very end. 

As we see in this particular account of the lives of the saints, Theodore was unwilling to accept the pagan gods and never surrendered his faith in Christ. Theodore instead boldly stood for his faith until the moment the executioner’s blade severed his head from the rest of his body. We are called to go, to all the nations, not just the ones we’re comfortable with or just the ones we want to, but to all of them. This commission we are given is read at every Orthodox baptism service because it is our duty as Christians to bring all to His Name. I have always been taught, before my conversion to Orthodoxy, and after my conversion to Orthodoxy, that being someone one place and being someone else at another is a sin. That is being two faced. If you wouldn’t act that way at home don’t act that way in public.  So when I’m in public I act the same way I would at home and vice versa. Oftentimes I’m worried that I might be fired for proclaiming Christ in the schools as a teacher.  However I know that regardless of this, it is not any worse than the fires of hell. I would rather be tortured here on earth than for eternity. That’s what I’m praying for all of you today. I am praying that no matter the situation in your lives that both by your actions and words Christ is proclaimed to all nations. May St. Theodore the Commander intercede for us and may Jesus Christ our God have mercy on us and save us. 

Amen.