The Cappadocian Fathers
Sermon
A SEASON OF SAINTS
Sermons For Festivals And Commemorations After Pentecost
June 14
Basil the Great, Bishop of Caesarea, 379
Gregory of Nazianzus, Bishop of Constantinople, c. 389
Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, c. 385
Today we're commemorating three Greek theologians of the fourth century: Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa. None of the three is likely to be familiar to Christians today. Basil and Gregory and Gregory are often called the Three Great Cappadocian Fathers. But their title is unlikely to mean anything to most of us, either. These three men are not household names. So today might be a "so what?" day in our church calendar, when we say, "What is so important about three bishops who lived in Asia Minor 1,600 years ago, and why do we devote a Sunday morning of worship to remembering them?"
I'd like to mention two things in particular that are important about the Cappadocian Fathers: two things they represent in the history of the church that we do well to be reminded of today. But first, let me just tell you who they were.
Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa were brothers and Gregory of Nazianzus was their close friend. They were natives of the region of Asia Minor called Cappadocia and they all came from prominent Christian families: in fact, Basil and Gregory's sister, both parents and all four grandparents became saints. All three of our honorees were wealthy, well-educated and cultured, but they gave up their promising public careers and their fortunes to enter a monastery. All three eventually became bishops and important theologians.
The most important thing we remember about the three Cappadocian Fathers is their contribution to Christian doctrine. They were active at a time when the great doctrines of the church were just being developed through long and intense debate. Basil and his brother and friend played leading parts in defining the true Christian teaching, especially concerning the Trinity. Some of the issues they debated sound obscure to us today, but in the fourth century, Christian orthodoxy hung in the balance and the abilities of bishops like Basil and the two Gregorys to define terms carefully and precisely allowed the Christian faith to develop and survive in the form we hold today. For example, when we say that the Trinity is one God in three persons, we confess a belief the Cappadocians helped preserve and explain. They defended the idea that God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are coeternal with the Father, against opponents who claimed God the Father created God the Son and the Holy Spirit later, and that therefore the Son and the Holy Spirit are separate and secondary Gods. The debates over these questions were bitter and intense, and often involved the Roman emperors themselves, and the bishops who defended the orthodox faith did so at great personal risk.
The memory of these men and their struggle to defend the faith reminds us that what we believe is important. That's easy for us to forget in our age of religious toleration and pluralism. Many people seem convinced that "It doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you're sincere," and "It's not what you believe, but how you live your life." Now, toleration is a great achievement of modern religion, and we're rightly thankful that Christians don't slaughter one another over fine points of doctrine anymore; but what we believe still matters. We confess that Jesus is the Truth, and therefore knowing what the truth is, is a matter of life and death to us.
The Cappadocian Fathers' theological writings show us something else, as well. Christianity has a credibility problem in the modern world. Things that can't be proven or documented by credible scientific evidence don't carry much weight in our world anymore. Many people regard all religion and belief in the supernatural as ancient mythology.
That problem was around in the fourth century, too. The Cappadocians lived in the world of the great Greek philosophers, the masters of wisdom. In that world, a religion that worshiped a man who was also God, who was born in a barn and executed as a rabble-rouser, was ridiculed. And when Christians started talking about their one God who appeared to be three Gods, or three persons of God who were actually one being, they were hooted at. But Basil and the two Gregorys expressed Christian beliefs in a way that was intellectually respectable. In fact, far from being beneath the intellectual abilities of the scoffers, the puzzling aspects of Christian theology actually are far beyond people's ability to understand. When Christians accept great mysteries by faith, we're not being foolish; we're acknowledging a wisdom far beyond our grasp.
Besides their theological contributions, the Cappadocian Fathers played a major role in showing how Christians ought to live in the world. They lived in a difficult time for Christians. Until 20 years before these three men were born, Christianity was illegal in the Roman Empire, and no one was a Christian who wasn't absolutely committed to Christ and willing to die for their faith.
But beginning in the year 312, Christianity was first legalized and then made the official religion of the Empire. Suddenly the masses of people considered themselves Christians, whether or not they really cared about religion. The Sunday-morning Christian was born, along with the Christmas-and-Easter Christian and the socially-correct Christian. People who were serious about trying to live out their faith in true devotion felt out of place in the church, and many, like the Cappadocian Fathers, went to live in monasteries as full-time practitioners of intense discipleship.
Again, it isn't hard to see the parallel in our own time. Christianity is practically woven into the fabric of our American culture, and for that reason it is often absent from our culture. Because we think of America as a Christian nation, many people think all there is to being a Christian is to be a good citizen, a nice guy, a good father or mother, perhaps a church member. In recent years, calling oneself a born-again Christian has become a status-badge in certain political circles.
But being part of a Christian culture robs Christianity of its central significance. Paul wrote that being a Christian means being crucified to the world and everything in it, and living only to God. Christianity as a way of thinking, living and believing, is incompatible with any strictly human or worldly value. And that's what Basil and his family and friends believed was at stake in a Christian society: if Christianity becomes completely identified with nation, society or world, then the only way for Christians to deny the world is to leave it. So they went to the monasteries.
But they didn't just go to the monasteries to avoid getting tangled up with the world. The monastic life was a life rich in devotion, prayer, study and contemplation. It was in the hours of prayer and meditation they spent in the monastery that these men developed their great theologial statements. And it was in prayer, fasting and worship in their retreats far away from the everyday world that they were strengthened to lead the church through its difficult days.
Christians need that kind of spiritual refreshment. The gospels tell us that Jesus often went off by himself to pray: onto a mountain top, or out on a lake in a boat or into the Garden of Gethsemane. One book suggests that a commemoration of the Cappadocian Fathers should include prayers for "pastors who long for time for prayer and contemplation."3
It's something most pastors don't have enough of, but pastors aren't unique in that regard. All Christians can be strengthened and sustained spiritually by spending time every day in devotion, prayer and Scripture reading.
And though they became monks, Basil and the two Gregorys were never preoccupied with their own private spiritual lives. Instead, they devoted their lives to serving both the church and the world. Basil became the chief bishop of all Asia Minor and fought to preserve the church from the meddling of the civil authorities and from internal strife and schism. The two Gregorys led their own churches through conflicts and controversies and continued Basil's work after he died. And their charity and service extended beyond the church, into the community around them. During a famine several years before Basil became a bishop, he sold all his extensive personal property for the benefit of the starving. And as a bishop, he organized charities and relief work, forbidding Christians under his authority from discriminating against non-Christians in their aid to the needy. When he died in January of 379, he was mourned by the entire city of Caesarea - Jews, Christians and pagans alike.
Basil and the other Cappadocian Fathers set us an example of the balanced Christian life that comes close to the biblical ideal. It seems almost impossible for most of us to give proper attention to our own spiritual well-being, our shared life with other Christians and our service to the world beyond the church. Most Christians, and most churches, emphasize one of those at the expense of the others. But the complete Christian life is all those things, and the three giants of the church that we commemorate today can be models for us of such a life.
One day's commemoration will probably not make Basil, Gregory and Gregory anyone's personal heroes. But whether or not the Cappadocians become familiar names in our household, the faith you confess today and the life you lead as a Christian today are shaped by their influence. And their example reminds us of what it means to be Christians in the circumstances in which we live. Amen.
Basil the Great, Bishop of Caesarea, 379
Gregory of Nazianzus, Bishop of Constantinople, c. 389
Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, c. 385
Today we're commemorating three Greek theologians of the fourth century: Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa. None of the three is likely to be familiar to Christians today. Basil and Gregory and Gregory are often called the Three Great Cappadocian Fathers. But their title is unlikely to mean anything to most of us, either. These three men are not household names. So today might be a "so what?" day in our church calendar, when we say, "What is so important about three bishops who lived in Asia Minor 1,600 years ago, and why do we devote a Sunday morning of worship to remembering them?"
I'd like to mention two things in particular that are important about the Cappadocian Fathers: two things they represent in the history of the church that we do well to be reminded of today. But first, let me just tell you who they were.
Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa were brothers and Gregory of Nazianzus was their close friend. They were natives of the region of Asia Minor called Cappadocia and they all came from prominent Christian families: in fact, Basil and Gregory's sister, both parents and all four grandparents became saints. All three of our honorees were wealthy, well-educated and cultured, but they gave up their promising public careers and their fortunes to enter a monastery. All three eventually became bishops and important theologians.
The most important thing we remember about the three Cappadocian Fathers is their contribution to Christian doctrine. They were active at a time when the great doctrines of the church were just being developed through long and intense debate. Basil and his brother and friend played leading parts in defining the true Christian teaching, especially concerning the Trinity. Some of the issues they debated sound obscure to us today, but in the fourth century, Christian orthodoxy hung in the balance and the abilities of bishops like Basil and the two Gregorys to define terms carefully and precisely allowed the Christian faith to develop and survive in the form we hold today. For example, when we say that the Trinity is one God in three persons, we confess a belief the Cappadocians helped preserve and explain. They defended the idea that God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are coeternal with the Father, against opponents who claimed God the Father created God the Son and the Holy Spirit later, and that therefore the Son and the Holy Spirit are separate and secondary Gods. The debates over these questions were bitter and intense, and often involved the Roman emperors themselves, and the bishops who defended the orthodox faith did so at great personal risk.
The memory of these men and their struggle to defend the faith reminds us that what we believe is important. That's easy for us to forget in our age of religious toleration and pluralism. Many people seem convinced that "It doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you're sincere," and "It's not what you believe, but how you live your life." Now, toleration is a great achievement of modern religion, and we're rightly thankful that Christians don't slaughter one another over fine points of doctrine anymore; but what we believe still matters. We confess that Jesus is the Truth, and therefore knowing what the truth is, is a matter of life and death to us.
The Cappadocian Fathers' theological writings show us something else, as well. Christianity has a credibility problem in the modern world. Things that can't be proven or documented by credible scientific evidence don't carry much weight in our world anymore. Many people regard all religion and belief in the supernatural as ancient mythology.
That problem was around in the fourth century, too. The Cappadocians lived in the world of the great Greek philosophers, the masters of wisdom. In that world, a religion that worshiped a man who was also God, who was born in a barn and executed as a rabble-rouser, was ridiculed. And when Christians started talking about their one God who appeared to be three Gods, or three persons of God who were actually one being, they were hooted at. But Basil and the two Gregorys expressed Christian beliefs in a way that was intellectually respectable. In fact, far from being beneath the intellectual abilities of the scoffers, the puzzling aspects of Christian theology actually are far beyond people's ability to understand. When Christians accept great mysteries by faith, we're not being foolish; we're acknowledging a wisdom far beyond our grasp.
Besides their theological contributions, the Cappadocian Fathers played a major role in showing how Christians ought to live in the world. They lived in a difficult time for Christians. Until 20 years before these three men were born, Christianity was illegal in the Roman Empire, and no one was a Christian who wasn't absolutely committed to Christ and willing to die for their faith.
But beginning in the year 312, Christianity was first legalized and then made the official religion of the Empire. Suddenly the masses of people considered themselves Christians, whether or not they really cared about religion. The Sunday-morning Christian was born, along with the Christmas-and-Easter Christian and the socially-correct Christian. People who were serious about trying to live out their faith in true devotion felt out of place in the church, and many, like the Cappadocian Fathers, went to live in monasteries as full-time practitioners of intense discipleship.
Again, it isn't hard to see the parallel in our own time. Christianity is practically woven into the fabric of our American culture, and for that reason it is often absent from our culture. Because we think of America as a Christian nation, many people think all there is to being a Christian is to be a good citizen, a nice guy, a good father or mother, perhaps a church member. In recent years, calling oneself a born-again Christian has become a status-badge in certain political circles.
But being part of a Christian culture robs Christianity of its central significance. Paul wrote that being a Christian means being crucified to the world and everything in it, and living only to God. Christianity as a way of thinking, living and believing, is incompatible with any strictly human or worldly value. And that's what Basil and his family and friends believed was at stake in a Christian society: if Christianity becomes completely identified with nation, society or world, then the only way for Christians to deny the world is to leave it. So they went to the monasteries.
But they didn't just go to the monasteries to avoid getting tangled up with the world. The monastic life was a life rich in devotion, prayer, study and contemplation. It was in the hours of prayer and meditation they spent in the monastery that these men developed their great theologial statements. And it was in prayer, fasting and worship in their retreats far away from the everyday world that they were strengthened to lead the church through its difficult days.
Christians need that kind of spiritual refreshment. The gospels tell us that Jesus often went off by himself to pray: onto a mountain top, or out on a lake in a boat or into the Garden of Gethsemane. One book suggests that a commemoration of the Cappadocian Fathers should include prayers for "pastors who long for time for prayer and contemplation."3
It's something most pastors don't have enough of, but pastors aren't unique in that regard. All Christians can be strengthened and sustained spiritually by spending time every day in devotion, prayer and Scripture reading.
And though they became monks, Basil and the two Gregorys were never preoccupied with their own private spiritual lives. Instead, they devoted their lives to serving both the church and the world. Basil became the chief bishop of all Asia Minor and fought to preserve the church from the meddling of the civil authorities and from internal strife and schism. The two Gregorys led their own churches through conflicts and controversies and continued Basil's work after he died. And their charity and service extended beyond the church, into the community around them. During a famine several years before Basil became a bishop, he sold all his extensive personal property for the benefit of the starving. And as a bishop, he organized charities and relief work, forbidding Christians under his authority from discriminating against non-Christians in their aid to the needy. When he died in January of 379, he was mourned by the entire city of Caesarea - Jews, Christians and pagans alike.
Basil and the other Cappadocian Fathers set us an example of the balanced Christian life that comes close to the biblical ideal. It seems almost impossible for most of us to give proper attention to our own spiritual well-being, our shared life with other Christians and our service to the world beyond the church. Most Christians, and most churches, emphasize one of those at the expense of the others. But the complete Christian life is all those things, and the three giants of the church that we commemorate today can be models for us of such a life.
One day's commemoration will probably not make Basil, Gregory and Gregory anyone's personal heroes. But whether or not the Cappadocians become familiar names in our household, the faith you confess today and the life you lead as a Christian today are shaped by their influence. And their example reminds us of what it means to be Christians in the circumstances in which we live. Amen.
