January 30 - Golden Mouth

January 30 – Golden Mouth

If you are a wonderful preacher, some might say you have a golden tongue. Well, that’s exactly what people said about a young man named John. The good news was that the Greek word for golden mouth is ‘Chrysostom’ (kri – SOSS – tom). John Chrysostom lived in Antioch as a pastor. At one point, the emperor Theodosius decided to tax the people and they were furious! They began rioting, but when it was finally dealt with, they were assured of severe punishment by the emperor. While the bishop of Antioch, Flavian, tried to deal with the emperor, John spoke to the crowds. His sermons “Homilies on the Statues” (because they defaced a bunch of statues of the emperor and his family), was profound, prophetic preaching. Flavian brought good news – the emperor wasn’t going to massacre the people for their uprising and John encouraged them to change their lives.

John had been well educated and joined a monastery after his mother died. His main focus was on Biblical texts and took a literal approach to the Bible. This was in direct opposition to those from Alexandria who looked for the secrets behind the text (the heresy never really was dealt with, eh?). He preached messages on the Genesis, Matthew, John and Romans – which still exist and wrote commentaries on other Biblical books.

In 397 AD, Emperor Arcadius called on him to become bishop of Constantinople. While this was quite prestigious, John certainly didn’t let it go to his head. He opposed the Bishop of Alexandria, the large Arian community in Constantinople and spoke out clearly against the priests who were immoral. He preached against the suggestive dress of women and managed with that to offend the Empress.

Finally, he accepted several monks back into the fold who had been disciplined and the Bishop of Alexandria had enough. He called a synod and they banished him from the church.

He came back when the Empress got superstitious and gave a bunch of money to his church. But, he didn’t quit preaching his mind and in 403 was exiled again.

This time, however, the people were furious, burned several buildings and some of his supporters ended up dying. He died in exile, but Pope Innocent finally cleared his name.