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The monster as an inhabitant of the margin is a token of that which does not fit Within what we know cannot be measured in the categories that we are aware of it appears as a as a freak as the ultimate unexpected So monster the monster is both the encounter with the surprise of the future as we move forward in time so to encounter the unexpected The monster is also the encounter with the surprise of the edge as the church Expands to the dark corners of the world, but also the dark corners of our own lives As the spirit of God transforms us for most of us there are always be foreign elements monsters hiding in our garments of skin So here in Pentecost this monster is represented as not yet in the church But as part of the potential into which the church can grow as part of that which can hear the gospel in its language I Want to issue I just before I keep going I want to issue a caveat if there are some Cryptozoologists in the room or like conspiracy types who who talk about lizard men who live under the earth Who talk about lizard men who live under the earth like you don’t you don’t have to identify yourself, but this next part is for you We have to be extremely careful when we read ancient accounts We don’t we don’t want to interpret that we interpret them in our rather materialistic Categories of genus and species in the Bible a bird is an animal with wings so a bat is a bird and A fish is something in the water so whales and dolphins are fish And so we don’t have to imagine some kind of Cenocephalic people out there that would have some genetic relationship to dogs any more than we should think that a hippopotamus Or a river horse need have a genetic genetic relationship with horses Just as the ancient called those they could not understand Barbarians that is those who bark like dogs the notion of dog-headed men appears as this encounter with an aspect of humanity which we can barely see because they’re far so far removed from our capacity to properly see them if I If I hear someone speaking Cantonese, I am NOT going to understand them. I will hear chaos And if it’s difficult to have that experience now because we’ve seen everything But if you just maybe imagine seeing an Australian Bushmen 500 years ago The it is possible to see chaos Now the most famous dog-headed man some of you know where I’m going with this Is of course st. Christopher St. Christopher’s traditional icon represents him as a dog-headed warrior There are many who have tried to say that this tradition of st. Christopher as a dog-headed man is late and like I said is just a misunderstanding of ancient texts and I Don’t know it depends what you mean by late This is a the first image of st. Christopher we have it’s from the sixth or the seventh century So it’s before iconoclasm which means that we’re lucky we even have this image There are probably many more but they’ve just been destroyed by the iconoclasts It’s a ceramic icon depicting him next to st. George each killing snakes And this is just one of my favorite images in the world So here is the the monster and the monster killer the monster killer two warriors facing the dragons And it’s funny how they they they keep telling us that the legend of st. Christopher killing the dragon is you know from the 12th century or something So yeah It always seems like scholars are are telling Christian that we’re deluding ourselves and that a world cannot exist without a textual reference But here it is So there was an attempt to eliminate this icon in the Russian tenotal period because it did not fit modern sensibilities And I’ve had many people especially priests tell me that they’re really bothered by this icon And it’s funny because although I have tried to explain it in a certain manner Defend it for example I wrote an article about st. Christopher in the Orthodox arts journal and it is one of our most popular articles It has been viewed over 20,000 times And when an article about a dog-headed saint is one of your most popular articles I Would call that a sign of the times people But having said that I would be a bit disturbed Myself if we were not at least bothered by this icon. I mean my goodness. It is a dog-headed man after all And I think that in a way that that’s the point I think that that’s The point I always like to say that st. Christopher the icon is st. Christopher is the last icon It’s on the very edge of iconography and because it is so it will always appear as ambiguous and straddle the border of what is acceptable or unacceptable in icons in The Greek tradition the icon as st. Christopher was actually placed above the exit door of the church So that it would be the last thing you saw Going out into the world And in the West it was the last thing you saw And in the West st. Christopher was placed on bridges Where he would represent the uneasy space of the transition the in-between space I Think st. Christopher is crucially important to understand right now Basically, I think that st. Christopher is the patron saint of the end of the world And although he’s not my official patron I would say that he’s become so unofficially Having lived abroad for many years And having traveled much I’ve witnessed many miracles and I’ve seen many signs surrounding his presence in my life So this is the icon that hangs one of the icons that hangs in my workshop And also I think that we’ll need st. Christopher when the zombies come I Want to tell you the story of st. Christopher You’ve all heard it I want to tell it maybe in a different way The version of the story which we know best actually comes from the Western tradition In the Western tradition st. Christopher is not a dog-headed man, but a giant He’s not a canine night, but a canine night And in an important way he’s a canine night That is a descendant of Cain who associated with the Nephilim the giants of the Genesis flood so although he’s not a dog-headed man in the Western tradition and Some people have felt safe and represented this version of the icon in their churches because they didn’t like the dog-headed version and that’s understandable But even though he’s a canine night st. Christopher is still like the canine night woman That dog on the edge of the table who asks Christ for the crumbs So as hard as you try you will not get the dog out of st. Christopher These are a few hybrid icons joining the Western tradition with the eastern one The story of st. Christopher has him as a vicious warrior in Canaan Who is looking to serve the most powerful man in the world? He found the most renowned and powerful king until he sees that this king is afraid of the devil So he goes to serve the devil And in this we can see st. Christopher going all the way to the end all the way To the end all the way To what to the edge of what is imaginable and becoming a servant of the evil one directly? Then st. Christopher notices that the evil one is afraid of the cross so he decides he will serve Christ Now in the story at least in the virgin in the version that’s in the golden legend St. Christopher is also a trickster Because he tells those he serves for example He informs the king that unless the king tells him who the devil is that he will no longer serve that king But in answering st. Christopher this becomes the very reason why st. Christopher stops serving the king And then looks for the next most powerful person which is the devil and then He does the same to the devil He tricks the devil himself in revealing Christ to him We need to pay attention to this detail because I think it’s an it’s It’s an image of what st. Christopher can be for us the key to The double inversion which transforms the fall and death into resurrection the trampling of death by death In his search for Christ he comes to a hermit in the desert who teaches him the way of christianity But when it comes to the practice st. Christopher cannot follow the rule He cannot follow the standard. I mean he is a monster after all The hermit says to fast to abstain St. Christopher replies that he cannot The hermit says to pray I think st. Christopher says he cannot So the hermit says to think that st. Christopher should stand next to the river And cross those who need to cross on his shoulders He says he cannot stand next to the river On his shoulders I want you to notice how profound the story becomes here We often think of the ark built by noah as a holy thing in a certain way it is We often imagine the nave or even the whole church as a holy thing and in many ways it is But in another very very important way the ark is a boat full of beasts and The church is a hospital full of the sick So since christopher stands on the edge of the world he stands on the bank of the flood When the logos the christ immanuel who is the logos implicit the seed of god in all things comes to the edge Well It is the monster like an ark who can carry him across I want you to think of that hermit You see the hermit did not tell st. Christopher That it was fine that he could not follow Fasting and prayer. I mean he didn’t say that since st. Christopher, you know Thought that it was against his nature to fast and pray the hermit didn’t tell him that the church had been wrong all along. No But the hermit in In wisdom and in economia he brought st. Christopher to the edge He brought st. Christopher into the narthex on the edge of the flood Where he could be the ambiguous figure he was in the first place and eventually And mysteriously become a vehicle for his lord You