But the day is also
important to us on our nation’s level, being the day on which we commemorate
this country declaring its independence, its political severing of ties with
the King of England. We’re not going to
make this homily into an explanation of the Declaration itself, but if you
haven’t read it in a while (or perhaps at all), it’s worth the time and effort
to read exactly why our nation’s forefathers chose to take this bold step.
Independence. It carries meanings that include
self-governing, self-rule, self-determination, self-reliance, self-sufficiency. Do you note the dominant theme of “self” in
all of these? In short, it indicates
that we are choosing to establish a means of governing based on the needs and
choices and desires of “self”. It’s a
very important distinction between the American way of thinking about life as
compared with the thinking of others around the world about their own
governance and their ways of life.
I’ve had the blessing of
traveling to the Far East, and it has revealed to me the stark realization that
this emphasis on self, while not uniquely American in today’s world, it is not
found in many places throughout the world.
I’ll give two examples.
When in China, while
speaking with an associate who lives near Shanghai, I asked, “What do you have
to do if you want to have a large family here?”
I asked because I knew that the Chinese government had imposed limits,
and instituted policies for contraception, abortion, and sterilization for
those who would have more than one child in a household. The person’s reaction was, “Well, it’s the
rule. We are told that we must, and so
this is what we do.” In short, there was
little to no evidence of “self” in the response. I do what I’m told – everyone does!
The second example
happened in Japan, where again, an associate who lived in Tokyo traveled to
another city to be with me to work in a car factory. We worked one full week, Monday thru Saturday
before he returned to Tokyo for the weekend.
Each day we got into a rental car and drove about 10 miles from the
hotel to the factory, and so I became familiar with the way to get there. For his part, my associate at the start of
each day programmed the car’s GPS to direct us from hotel to factory. When he returned the following Monday, we got
into a different rental car and repeated the trip. As we neared the factory, we sped past the
lane we had turned down six times before.
I asked my associate why he didn’t take the road we had used so many times
before. In the most serious response
possible, he said, “Well, this is a different car.” The GPS in the different model told him that
he must take a different road, and he simply obeyed without question. There was little to no evidence of “self” in
this example!
In today’s Gospel, we
find two encounters in which our Lord calls disciples. In both cases He calls men who are brothers. He is establishing His core group of
followers to have ties with family. But
the more important aspect to both accounts is the call itself. To Peter and Andrew the Evangelist records
our Lord’s words – “Follow Me!”
In the case of James and John, we only hear that “He called them.” But in both instances the same word is used
to describe the response of the brothers.
The Gospel of St. Luke records that James and John were “partners” with
Simon and Andrew. St. Luke further
records this calling to be associated with the miraculous catch of fish, which
causes Peter to fall at our Lord’s knees and say, “Depart from me, Lord, for
I am a sinful man.” St. Matthew
records that both sets of brothers answered our Lord’s call “immediately.” The Greek word is eu-the’-os, and it
carries the meaning that they stopped what they were doing and at once
conformed with the call! They set self
aside, and obeyed the voice of the Master.
It is just before the
beginning of today’s Gospel that St. Matthew records our Lord beginning His
ministry, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The Study Bible states that these four had
already heard the preaching of St. John the Forerunner, and so their acceptance
of our Lord’s call with immediacy is conditioned by their already recognizing
in Christ something beyond this world, something Messianic.
Still, we must come to
grips with the fact that these four men, when our Lord called them, and before
they were witnesses to myriads of healings, miraculous displays of authority
over nature, and even raising of the dead, before any of these components were
in their observed understanding of Jesus, they walked away from their
livelihoods. Those boats, those nets
were their connection to the world, to provide a living. They just left them. There was no asking for time to sell their
goods. Jesus called. They went!
Why this focus on being
called and the response? Because today
is “Independence Day.” And earlier we
suggested a reading of the Declaration so that we can better understand the
rationale behind the beginning of this great country.
But in thinking about
those issues, my own mind began to wrap around the concept of a need for a
“Declaration of DEpendence,” a statement that we, as followers of our Lord,
need to find ourselves giving up individualism and placing self at the fore in
favor of being the servant He calls us to be.
There was a sermon given
by a guy named Jonathan Edwards on 8Jul1731 that spoke to the issue of being
dependent on the Lord. He focused on
1Cor 1:27-31, which reads, “But God has chosen the foolish things of
the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the
world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of
the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things
which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should
glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for
us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and
redemption— that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in
the Lord.” In short, the
concept of self puts me above others, and applies the concept of glory to
me. This is counter to what St. Paul is
teaching the people in Corinth!
In his sermon, Edwards
says that the people of Corinth (to whom the Epistle was written) lived in a
part of the world where there was praise for human wisdom. St. Paul says in V22 of this same Epistle, “Greeks
seek after wisdom.” Corinth, not
being far from Athens, was a world renowned seat of philosophy and
learning. St. Paul’s words were intended
to impress upon the pridefulness of those elevating human wisdom that the Lord,
by His incarnation, death and resurrection, has destroyed the world’s
wisdom. By all their wisdom, the Greeks
did not come to a knowledge of God, nor could they find the truth in divine
things. God reveals Himself through the
Gospel, and those who attempt to understand only by human ‘wisdom’ account God’s
revelation as foolishness.
Edwards repeats the theme
that God’s gift to us is HIS wisdom, HIS righteousness, HIS sanctification, and
HIS redemption (1Cor 1:30) In short, to
achieve eternal life, we are dependent on His mercy, through our repentance, to
receive these gifts freely given by Him to us so that we might come to eternal
life in Christ.
When one ponders St.
Paul’s words, one comes to recognize that all who seek to embrace His gift of
salvation, the gift of redemption, depend on Him and only Him for this
gift. There is no other source. There is no other entity whom we must
approach to secure the gift. All of
mankind therefore is dependent upon each person of the Holy Trinity for all
that we seek which is good. We depend
on God the Son, for He is our Source of wisdom, of righteousness, of
sanctification, and of redemption. We
depend on the Father, for He has given us His Son as our Savior and Redeemer,
so that He might be for us all of these things.
And we depend on the Holy Spirit, for it is of Him that we are members
of Christ. It is by the Spirit that we
have faith in the Savior, that we know Him, it is through the Spirit that we
receive Him and become one with Him.
So to a very great
extent, 1Cor 1 is a Christian Declaration of Dependence!
It is not a stretch to
say that mankind’s dependence on God is greater now than it was before the
fall, for then there was no dependence on God to redeem, nor to accept the
repentant soul. Then mankind’s
dependence on God was limited to perfect obedience. Now, we depend on Him to grant us His grace,
we depend on Him to fulfill the promise of eternal life and deliverance from
hell and eternal punishment. As we seek
to achieve the goal of holiness, to become one among the saints, we must
recognize our dependence on His blessing us to progress on that path to
holiness. Before the fall, He had
created us (as He did all of creation) to be “holy”. After the fall, we must seek Him and His
mercy to return to a state of holiness.
“Putting Humpty Dumpty back together again” is only achievable by God
and His grace!
There are many known to
us as saints, even among those whose lives have touched this country and this
continent. There are many more – God
knows how many! – who are known only to God as saints, and “holy ones”. Mankind achieves the state of holiness as a
free gift from God to those who seek to do His holy will with pure and
repentant hearts.
St. Theophan says this
about this day and this subject. “Such
is the law that we have in our soul, that once it has tasted and known what is
better, it is repulsed by what is worse and abandons it. Here is accomplished the same thing that the
Lord described in His parables about the treasure hid in a field, and about the
pearl of great price. The treasure and
the pearl are faith in the Lord and communion with Him, according to the
strength of one’s faith. We have already
been named possessors of this in Baptism.
Why do we value this treasure so little and thus exchange it for barren
ground? Because we are not brought up to
cultivate a taste for this treasure, and it becomes foreign to our heart. Our heart does not know this better
thing. It only knows that there is the
bad, the very bad, and the not so bad, and bases its outlook upon this
assessment. Here is the entire reason
why the Lord calls some and they come, while others, who could be chosen ones,
run from Him.”
As Americans, we embrace
our independence from the oppression originally imposed on us by a tyrannical earthly
king. As Americans, we must remain
vigilant and never lose sight of the world’s desire to return us to a different
and new tyranny imposed by contemporary world powers.
But as Orthodox
Christians, we must embrace our DEPENDENCE upon a loving God, Who has worked
salvation for us in the midst of a fallen world, and given this great gift to
us “for the asking” to those who seek His will in faith, in love, and in
repentance. Let us never seek our own
wills, let us never look to “self” as an element of our faith. The branch does not give life to the
vine. The branch is known by the vine,
and the branch bears the vine’s fruit because of the life it receives from the
vine. As the branch is dependent on the
vine, and is known by the vine, let us depend for all good things on our Loving
Lord!
Glory to Jesus Christ!
