Der Voghormia – Lord Have Mercy!

This quote is taken from Grigoris Balkanian’s book called, “Armenian Golgotha”. During this past week, I was fascinated with the rich liturgy of the Armenian Apostolic Church and was particularly touched by this hymn called Der Voghormia (Lord Have Mercy).

Balkanian in his book recounts a scene where the singing of this hymn is presented. Grigoris Balkanian was born in 1876 and was one of the leading Armenian intellectuals of his generation. In Ottoman Turkey he attended Armenian schools and seminary; and in Germany he studied, at different times, engineering and theology. He was arrested by the Turkish government on the night of April 24, 1915 and deported to the interior. He survived nearly four years in the killing fields. He later became a bishop and prelate of the Armenian Apostolic Church in southern France. He died in Marseilles in 1934.

English Translation:
Lord have mercy (4X)

All Holy Trinity, give peace to the world

And healing to the sick, heaven to those who are asleep.

This took place after the Turkish officials exiled the Armenian population of Constantinople and imprisoned them in the armory of Chankiri.

“And now we, the more than 150 intellectuals and comrades exiled from Constantinople, assembled – irrespective of political party or class, of piety or skepticism – to hold evening service at dusk, by dim candlelight, behind the high walls of the huge armory of Chankiri, with the icy spring gale blowing through the broken windows. When Archimandrite Komitas began his melancholy and heart-wrenching “Lord Have Mercy” [Der Voghormia], the sobbing was impossible to contain. We all cried like boys, cried over loved ones left behind, cried over our black fate, our nation’s misfortune; we cried over the bloody days we had just passed, even without knowing that we were on the brink of unprecedented storms of blood.

Perhaps Archimandrite Komitas had never in his life sung “Lord Have Mercy” with such emotion. Normally he would sing it ex officio, as solace for the pain, grief, and mourning of others; this time he sang out of his own grief and emotional turmoil, asking the eternal God for comfort and solace. God, however, remained silent.”

God Has Not Forgotten!

Historian George Santayana is well known for the saying: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”

This is probably the hardest post that I’ve ever written on my blog. I have so much to say, yet I have nothing to say. What can one say about a period of history that witnessed the cries and anguish of children, women and men? What words are there in human language that can perfectly convey the meaning of what pictures are depicting from the years in between 1915  and 1923. Nothing I say here can be as meaningful as someone else’s testimony who either witnessed it or heard about it from his or her parents and grandparents. I am talking about that crime that is committed against not only Armenians but also against entire humanity and most importantly against God.

I am Turkish. I was born and raised in Turkey and I love being from Turkey and I love my country. But what I am saying here is probably too dangerous for a Turk to say. The word genocide is a taboo that people are terrified to utter, let alone accepting it. What I am saying here can cost me my life and possibly be treated as treason but I beg to differ. I am thoroughly a Turk and I am thoroughly fed up with my country’s denial of what happened in 1915. I am going to call it a genocide and I am not afraid of doing so because my Lord Jesus Christ taught me to speak the truth even if it cost my life and defend the cause of the weak and not pervert justice.

It is not my intention to prove here what happened in 1915 in the eastern part of Turkey. Those who want to be opened to the facts will not find it hard to find them if they look for them. The literature is filled with first hand and documentary evidence regarding this atrocity and it leaves me speechless that there are some people who have the courage and audacity to deny it. It is easier to deny that we’re breathing air than to deny that over 1.5 million Armenians were killed.

But again denial stories are quite common in Turkey. I was raised in a country where the Bible’s differences from Quran is explained by distorting historical facts and not providing the real evidence. I was raised in a country where people who are supposed to have degrees have the courage to say that the Council of Nicea was convened to decide which books belong to the New Testament canon. Christians changed the Scriptures, they say, but without a single shred of evidence how that came about. It is not so surprising to me that Armenian genocide is denied as a historical fact. Turkey has forgotten how to read history and maybe more than that, it has forgotten that it is a crime to rewrite and distort history.

Denial is killing those saints twice. Denial is the worst form of defense. My dear Turkish friends, have you ever seen someone other than a Turk patting you on the back for denying it? Have you ever convinced someone by the way you deny it? You may not realize that “we have not killed anyone” does not constitute any virtue, but it’s confession and asking forgiveness that can make a Turk or anyone worthy to listen. What you don’t realize is that by denying a worldwide known crime, you’re actually making everyone else hate Turkey. Thank you, I’ll love my country another way.

By saying all of these, my fellow countrymen who read this post will doubt my commitment to my country. They’ll say: What kind of a Turk are you? You’re selling out your country. You don’t deserve to be called a Turk. Well, if being a Turk means that I have to close my eyes to murder, injustice, racism and nationalism, then so be it, I’m not one and I don’t want to be known as one. But that’s not the truth. Being a Turk cannot mean any of that. Being a Turk cannot be equated to see ourselves better than others and I am pretty sure there are millions of Turks all around the world who will agree with me. The comments section below my testimony video on Youtube will attest to this fact. People think I am actually not Turkish and some others think that I have ulterior motives for becoming a Christian. I sometimes read them and try to pray for those who make those comments. But the Armenian Genocide and the issue of racism in general are bigger than that. It is an atrocity not because those who were killed were Armenians but they were human beings who were created in the image of God. That means God placed the greater honor on humankind by creating them in his image. This is a crime committed against Armenians who bore the image of God and hence it is a crime committed against God himself. If you think being a Turk is something to be proud of and Turks are better than anyone else, then again it is a sin committed against the God of the universe who created everyone, let me say it again, everyone in his own image. My reaction to ultra-nationalism has nothing to do with my political or national sentiments for or against any nation but my firm conviction that crimes committed against a human being is a slap in God’s face and an insult to his character.

But this post is not about me, it’s about the memories of those who were brutally killed during those years. If you’re an Armenian and reading this post, I dedicate it to you and your ancestors who suffered this inhumane act from my ancestors. If it is any consolation to you, I beg you to forgive me. I have my hands open and have nothing to offer other than my breaking heart for the people of Armenia. As a Turk, I am ashamed of my country’s stance today and I beg you to not hate them the same way they did back then. I have a better option.

As I read about the genocide and watch documentaries and listen to testimonies, one thing jumps up in my heart: hatred toward what’s been done. Then I remember the One who was tortured and killed by those who hated him. Yet he gave his life for the very people by whom he was crucified. I’m talking about that man from Nazareth who gave his life for the sins of the world. His death accomplished so much more than this but in the least He accomplished this: He taught us who God is and what a human being ought to be. I know that my Armenian friends’ wounds won’t be completely healed as long as Turkey denies that there was ever a genocide but those who have seen Jesus on the cross can truly and genuinely forgive.

Tilmann Geske was killed in Malatya in 2007 for his faith in Jesus, and his wife openly forgave the killers of her husband. In a recent interview, when this news reporter asked one of Tilmann’s sons as to what he would say if he was given an opportunity to talk to the murderers of his father, he said: I would give them a big hug and tell them that I love them. This is what Jesus has done in that boy’s life and this is what I pray for the people of Armenia and Turkey.

Of course, forgiveness does not and cannot mean forgetfulness. Even if Turkey one day acknowledges what happened, I will not stop remembering the memories of those victims and I will not stop asking forgiveness… over and over again. Whatever happened happened, let’s forget about it cannot be the solution for I know that God has not forgotten it. I have a great sympathy with those Christians who believe that God’s love is so immense that in the end, he will save everyone. I’m sorry but I just cannot buy that worldview. At this point a great quote from Bishop N.T. Wright comes to mind: “I find it quite impossible, reading the New Testament on the one hand and the newspaper on the other, to suppose that there will be no ultimate condemnation, no final loss, no human beings, to whom as C.S. Lewis puts it, God will eventually say ‘Thy will be done’. I wish it were otherwise but one cannot forever whistle “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy” in the darkness of Hiroshima, of Auschwitz, of the murder of children and the careless greed that enslaves millions with debts not their own. Humankind cannot, alas, bear very much reality, and the massive denial of reality by the cheap and cheerful universalism of Western liberalism has a lot to answer for.” I am going to add Armenian genocide to Wright’s list of darkness acts and agree with him that God will take the vengeance. Now I can’t remember who said it but someone in church history gave this answer about revenge: “I’d rather let God take my vengeance and do it perfectly rather than taking it into my own hands and act unjustly”. Today I hope my Armenian friends lift their hands to their Creator and read the Psalms of David. Again turning to Tom Wright: “We judge child abusers and find them guilty. We judge genocide and find it outrageous. We have rediscovered what the Psalmist knew: that for God to judge the world meant that he would, in the end, put it all to rights, straighten it out, producing not just a sigh relief all around but shouting for joy from the trees and the fields, the seas and the floods.”

This brings to my last comment. It’s not over. When God comes back to its creation with all his glory he will resurrect those Armenian Christians from the dead and it will be a day of celebration for them. Though they suffered so much during their life time, God will wipe away those tears from their eyes and all those ugly pictures of that time, hunger, thirst and pain will give way to satisfaction, exuberant joy and glory. And I speculate that somewhere in this picture those who killed them mercilessly will watch all of this and those who were so proud of being Turk will watch other Turkish Christians and Armenian victims rising up from their graves to run to each other with full speed to hug and kiss each other to celebrate the victory of Jesus with big smiles on their faces then and Jesus will turn to them and say: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34).

Now can we not agree with Paul that we groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies?

I, for one, cannot wait for that day to come when I will be hugged and kissed by those Armenians who were killed 97 years ago.

In light of these realities, I find this stanza from a great Armenian poet Atom Yarjanian most fitting. With him, I can cry to the Lord as :
Oh, make haste! Our aching bodies are frozen in these pitiless glooms.
Make haste towards the chapel, where life will be more merciful,
The chapel of the graveyard where our brother sleeps!

So my dear Armenian friends,

God has not forgotten and God will remember!

Jesus the Advocate (Acts 7:55-56)

Although I have tons of papers to write, and reading to do I haven’t been able to do them because my mind is fixated on the memories of Malatya martyrs and the tiny Turkish church which is hated by all who surround them. I spent the day in tears and prayers and I am dead sure that my God heard all of our prayers

Another thing I did was to look at persecution accounts in the New Testament. I read the story of Stephen over and over again and thought what it would be like to be there as he was being stoned… to see his angelic face, to hear his cry : Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!

However, as I was reading this particular story, something particular caught my eye and I have been contemplating on this all day.

The verse 55 and 56 reads: But he [Stephen], full of the Holy Spirit, gazing into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

Now you may ask, what’s so special about these verses? I admit that I may be reading into the text and make too much out of it but as far as I know, this is the only instance where Jesus is depicted, not as sitting at the right hand of the Father but as “standing”. I think this is an amazing detail that Luke would not want us to miss. In his own Gospel, he never used that same Greek word for the Son of Man discourses. Other New Testament authors linked Jesus’ coronation with Psalms 110 and this Messiah was always perceived as sitting on a throne as a King. But here, Luke uses the same word twice and portrays Stephen’s vision from that lens.

If my interpretation or observation is correct, then this verse gives us a great picture of Jesus’ relationship with Christian’s suffering. I once had a friend who asked me this question: If God truly loves you, then why does he allow you to suffer as though he is displeased with you? This tells me that he does not really exist”. At the time I was a new believer and I was contemplating the same question myself, only without denying God’s existence or his love. But the answer is right here: Jesus does care! This glorious King, who could simply watch the entire thing from his throne decides to get up and be seen by Stephen as standing at the right hand of the Father. This may have different meanings; Jesus was getting up from this throne to receive Stephen or he was standing as an advocate of Stephen.

Imagine a courtroom where the judge sits in judgment and to vindicate and justify the person who is wrongly accused, he not only speaks for him but gets up from his seat to shut the mouths of those who revile him. I believe that when a Christian is persecuted, Jesus feels their pain intimately. When someone wants to destroy a church building or believers, Jesus sees it as an attack to his own body. And he rises up in glory.

Fast forward to April 18th, 2007. These 5 young Muslim men entered my friends’ office and then tied them to their chairs and asked them to recant and say an Islamic prayer. But they refused and said: Jesus is Lord and I will not deny him.

Now look up above, Jesus is ready to get up from his throne as their murderers pulled their knives out and began stabbing them. I do not know what they felt and what their exact experience was but I’d like to think that before Christian martyrs die, they see their Lord standing, not sitting as they learned from the New Testament, at the right hand of the Father. Jesus is their advocate, their precious love, their ultimate judge and Savior. Jesus stands up for his saints and pays attention to their sufferings.

You know what happens when the King stands up: everyone stands up and bows. When my friends Necati, Ugur and Tilmann were being tortured, angels and archangels and the entire host of heaven with all its saints watched what happened as Jesus stood up.

Thank you St. Luke! Thank you my Lord Jesus for caring for my friends and brothers and be known in heaven as JESUS THE ADVOCATE.

Do not weep, for they are not dead but sleeping (Luke 8:52)

“Almighty God, by whose grace and power your holy martyrs Necati, Tilmann, and Ugur triumphed over suffering and were faithful even to death: Grant us, who now remember them in thanksgiving, to be so faithful in our witness to you in this world, that we may receive with them the crown of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Book of Common Prayer, 1979, p. 247)

I’m trying to write this blog post but I am having a hard time seeing the screen of my computer because of the tears that fill my eyes. I can’t stop. Necati’s soothing voice rings constantly in my ears. The first prayer that I prayed as a Christian and how I was shaking and embarrassed and his gentle touch on my shoulder to encourage me to keep praying is still fresh in my memory. It was almost 11 years ago that I confessed faith in Jesus and Necati Aydin was the first Christian that I ever met in my life. 

One day I heard a knock on my door. Necati had been told that I was the only Christian in that little town and he was asked to visit me and encourage me in my faith. He drove all the way from Izmir just to see a new convert and pray with him. I was first concerned about letting him into my house but not long after I let him in, I was able to see that I could trust this man. After he left, I thought to myself: If all Christians are like him, then I love Christianity.

He left but he would send me Bible verses via text messages every other day to encourage me. From time to time, he would call me up and ask how I was doing and we would pray together on the phone. I was the only Christian in my university which had a student body of 20,000. I was sharing my faith with others but often times I would be responded with ridicule. Campus police had also heard about my conversion and they told me: “From now on, we’ll be watching you”. Now you can imagine how encouraging and important those text messages were to me. Thanks to those text messages, I was able to read the Scriptures on the bus or wherever I was and I would look up to heaven and smile for knowing Jesus. 

On April 18th, 2007, I was at our church building and working on a translation of John Foxe’s “The Book of the Martyrs”. I was already having a hard time translating some of the very touching stories and from time to time I had to take a break from it. Then I receive this phone call from my pastor who said: Yuce, Necati was killed in Malatya. First I thought it could be a joke but then I realized the solemnity in his voice. I put the phone down and began staring at the wall. I lost all sense of time and space. I didn’t know where I was and who I was. When I finally got it together this sense of lostness engulfed me. I was the only person in the church building and the doors were wide open. I thought to myself : “What if someone comes in and slits my throat right now”? But I just couldn’t leave the building. I had this thought that once I stepped out, I would be killed too. After an hour or so I went to a place where I can find a TV. And there it was, news channels showing the murder scene and Ugur’s tortured body being brought into the ambulance. I burst out in tears. 

Oh how I miss Necati! I wish I could hear his laughter now. He was one of the most humble man I’ve ever known in my life. He was godly, humble, gentle and caring. He was always there when I called him and though you may find this hard to believe, I have never met anyone who might be classified as his enemy. He was loved by everyone. The Lord took away the best one from among us. 

They were stabbed so many times that their bodies were literally mutilated. But there was one thing their killers didn’t know: Resurrection. Necati, Tilmann and Ugur are not going to remain in heaven but will be resurrected to life with everlasting crowns. They will have a glorious body says Paul. Today, that’s my consolation. Just as Christ was raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of God, so will they be raised on the last day and will reign with Christ and with honors as his martyrs. I imagine Jesus will give them a greater honor than most of us. Those of us who lived a comfortable life will bow down before them with respect and then rise and hug them with joy inexpressible. 

Those who killed my friends or other Christians truly do not know what they are doing. As Jesus said in the gospel of John: They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me (John 16:2-3). Joining with Jesus we can pray for them as : Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34) and with Stephen: Lord, do not hold this sin against them (Acts 7:60). 

Lastly I am always encouraged by these words of Tertullian 

“Crucify us, torture us, condemn us, destroy us! Your wickedness is the proof of our innocence, for which reason does God suffer us to suffer for this. When recently you condemned a Christian maiden to panderer rather than to panther, you realized and confessed openly that with us a stain on our purity is regarded as more dreadful than any punishment and worse than death. Nor does your cruelty, however exquisite, accomplish anything: rather, it is an enticement to our religion. The more we are hewn down by you, the more numerous do we become. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christians!”

I have millions of things to say but I’ll end here. Now all I want to say : I’m proud of you boys! Jesus is proud of you! He’s not ashamed to be called your Lord for you were not ashamed of calling him Lord and Savior when the knife was placed on your throats (Hebrews 11:16). Just wait a little; I’ll meet you guys on the day of resurrection. 

The Holy Week

But Easter week itself ought not to be the time when all the clergy sigh with relief and go on holiday. It ought to be an eight-day festival, with champagne served after morning prayer or even before, with lots of alleluias and extra hymns and spectacular anthems. Is it any wonder people find it hard to believe in the resurrection of Jesus if we don’t throw our hats in the air? Is it any wonder we find it hard to live the resurrection if we don’t do it exuberantly in our liturgies? Is it any wonder the world doesn’t take much notice if Easter is celebrated as simply the one-day happy ending tacked on to forty days of fasting and gloom?

N.T. Wright

Shut Your Mouth!

These are the kind of lines that you want to remember for the rest of your life. None of us (especially I) can claim total innocency in this matter and partly that is why it’s so crucial for the life of the church. This is taken from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book, “Life Together”

“So often Christians, especially preachers, think that their only service is always to have to “offer” something when they are together with other people. They forget that listening can be a greater service than speaking. Many people seek a sympathetic ear and do not find it among Christians, because these Christians are talking even when they should be listening. But Christians who can no longer listen to one another will soon no longer be listening to God either; they will always be talking even in the presence of God.”

The Last Supper According to Kush

 

This interpretation below is taken from the artist’s official page:

This painting is an allusion of the Christ’ history and one of the versions of the “Last Supper.” It is most similar to the classical mural Leonardo da Vinci created in the period of 1495 to 1497 in the monastery in Italy. According to the artist’s idea, the “language of the flowers” is able to translate the tints of the feelings, evoked by the famous words of Christ: ”One of you will betray me.” In this painting there is a metaphor of the whole spectrum of all 12 apostles’ characters developing before our eyes in front of the Inevitable. The usual interpretation allows the viewer to easily find Judas among the apostles – he is geometrically and imaginary opposite to the Christ. If the Christ is open to the sun and to the Kingdom of Light, Judas is hiding his face into the “hood”, representing the Kingdom of Darkness. The cut-off grape branch placed on the edge of the table symbolizes the Christ’s loneliness on this Earth as the god’s son. “I am the true vine, and my father is the vine grower”, says Christ in the Gospel of St. John. The head of Christ is turned to the sky, as if looking up to the Father, who sent him to the Earth to save the human souls. Only the Christ knows what his true mission is. He foresees his own destiny and knows his soul is already in a different space. This exit into the different space is anew in the imaginary depiction of the event. The very choice of the Last Supper allusion as a flower’s gathering or in the garden isn’t just at random. In the ancient traditions the image of the ideal world is often lost and gained in paradise. In the Gospel of St. John Maria Magdalena did not recognize Christ standing behind her back, thinking that it was a gardener. The history of the Christ after his arrival to Jerusalem is presented by the development of the flowers- symbols: Palm branches symbolize the triumphal arrival of Jesus to Jerusalem and the greeting of Jesus -the king. The broken Pomegranate symbolizes the crucifixion of Christ and his blood. The grapes are the symbol of the spiritual revival (as well as a symbol of Christ’ blood) The butterflies are the symbol of the resurrection. They create an unusual halo around the head of Christ, pre-announcing the celebration of the resurrection.

 

 

A Spotify Experience

Tags

baroque violin, pietro locatelli, violin virtuoso, youtube

I’m sure you all love Spotify. So do I. It’s very convenient to be able to listen to an entire album without having to purchase it. However, if you are using the free version of Spotify, it comes with different ads tucked in between your songs and popping out from places and times that you never expect.

So after a long day, I put my headphones on, lit the candles and decided to listen to some Baroque and chose Pietro Locatelli, a late Italian baroque violin virtuoso. As I was listening to this :

Immediately, I was startled with this song below from Spotify, asking me to check it out.

Quite honestly, I’m still shaking…

Theology Through the Arts

Jeremy Begbie is one of those people that I highly regard as a theologian, academician and a musician. Instead of me talking about him, I’ll let him do the talking. Enjoy:

A Review of Beyond Smells and Bells: The Wonder and Power of Christian Liturgy by Mark Galli

This book was absolutely a delight to read. Not only the content was captivating but also the writing style and the general tone were alluring as well. This is not a “Why you have to worship this way or else” kind of books that I unfortunately wasted so much of my time reading over the years.

Mark Galli is a fellow Anglican and his perspective in this book is laden with examples from what one can encounter in an Anglican worship service. Most of the examples are taken from the Book of Common Prayer which is the liturgical prayer that Anglicans from all over the world use.

The first chapter is about Christianity itself and how its story is absolutely needed in our story deprived world. Galli points out that the liturgy takes us out of this chaotic world and its somehow misshaped stories and puts us into the biblical story. What I really like about the Lectionary in particular is that the one who is preaching on a given Sunday is forced to go through the biblical story week by week instead of his own personal preferences, theologians and political views. The liturgy helps us in grounding the sermon, not on the morning news or the book of the month, but on the biblical story.

The second chapter deals with the subject of church calendar. This is a subject that I am trying to pay more attention to. The beauty of church calendar is that our view of time and life is determined by the biblical story of redemption instead of the popular events that are happening in the world. Galli says: The church calendar is not about the cycle of life—school or sports or harvest time—but about the movement of history toward a glorious goal.

The third chapter is concerned with the Otherness and majesty of God and yet how the liturgy brings intimacy between us and this God we adore.

The rest of the chapters deal with how the liturgy creates community with both present, past and future : The gift of the liturgy—and it is precisely why I need the liturgy—is that it helps me hear not so much “my little voice” but instead the still, small voice (Psalm 46). It leads away from the self and points me toward the community of God.

And another quote I absolutely love about the liturgy:

The paradox of these daily liturgies is that we never pray alone despite praying by ourselves. In saying the prayers of the Book of Common Prayer’s service of Morning Prayer, I’m praying with all who that morning are also praying it. And I’m praying prayers crafted not by my lonely piety, but by the church. I’m praying prayers that have their origin in another time and place—going all the way back to the early church—and thus I find myself mysteriously connected with believers that have gone before me.

Galli also talks about the mystery of worship which I almost never hear of in evangelical circles. Everything is quite white and black and in the Reformed world, sadly, everything is either right or wrong. This may sound odd but I said a heartily amen after reading these words:

A liturgical corollary of this truth is this: authentic worship of this God must, at some level, remain incomprehensible. Worship that enables us to encounter the living God should leave worshipers a bit stupefied; they should leave their pews, pump the minister’s hand, and enthusiastically blurt out, “I didn’t understand large portions of the service. Thank you.”

There are so many points and illustrations that I would like to share from this book but it’s supposed to be a review not a paper on it So I highly encourage you to purchase this book and read it. It’s a very well written and one of the best books I’ve ever read on worship and the liturgy. If you’re skeptical about the liturgy and the first thing that it reminds you of is deadness or dullness or the Catholic superstitions, Mark Galli can change your mind. I would give this book a five star.

 http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Smells-Bells-Christian-Liturgy/dp/1557255210