The Forerunner

 It is good for us to try to learn as much as possible about a man who our Lord described as the greatest born of woman. (Luke 7:28) And so let us study St. John.

What things are important about this man beyond the manner of his martyrdom?

The first thing we’ve just touched upon—our Lord’s endorsement of his status.  Some ask, “Isn’t Jesus the greatest born of woman?”  The answer is no, because Jesus was not born of a woman (a married female) - He was born of a Virgin.  To illustrate the importance of the Forerunner inside the Church, we must recognize that there are six (6) feasts in the annual calendar dedicated to St. John.  In the calendar, his conception is commemorated on 23Sep, ‘the Synaxis’, 07Jan.  The second finding of his head is commemorated on 24Feb.  Third finding is 25May.  His nativity is celebrated on 24Jun. And his beheading is commemorated on 29Aug.

His parents Zachariah and Elizabeth are saints, great and holy people whose prayer to be released from barrenness was answered with the birth of the Forerunner.

Saint Elizabeth is the sister of Saint Anna, the mother of the Theotokos.  And so John is ‘family’ to our Lord!

St. John is also given the title of Prophet.  But this title is more than just a descriptive name.  He is the final (last) prophet in the Old Testament (that is BEFORE the coming of Christ).  And he is also the first prophet in the New Testament.  This has the Church describing him as a point of joining the two through this one man.

St. John is also the first martyr in Christ, giving his life about three years before the Protomartyr Stephen, who is known as the first martyr AFTER our Lord’s Resurrection and Ascension.

St. John is also the first to live a fully monastic life.  For this reason he remains to this day the patron saint of all monks.  We recall in the Gospel read today the young man coming to our Lord to ask what more he needs to do to inherit eternal life, and the answer is to sell all, give to the poor, and come and follow Christ.  This is the message that changed the heart of St. Anthony the Great, leading him into the desert to imitate the life of the Forerunner.

St. John’s message was simple.  Repent!  As Forerunner, his position as such was cemented in this preaching when our Lord’s first public message was identical to John’s—Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!

St. John showed no self pride.  While he had disciples, after our Lord’s coming to him for baptism, he instructed two of his own, Andrew and Peter, to go and follow Christ.

One of the cornerstones of the monastic life is obedience.  St. John showed this totally in the interplay with our Lord when He came to John for baptism.  John spoke of his unworthiness to baptize the Lord.  Jesus instructed him to let it be for now to fulfill all righteousness.  And John obeyed!

We’ve not touched on fasting, or his manner of living.  We haven’t even mentioned Herod, and yet we’ve filled a page with accounts pointing to the worthiness of the Forerunner to be called the greatest born of woman.  St. John—intercede before the Lord for our souls!

11th Sunday After Pentecost

   We don’t need to be theologians to know what our Lord is telling us as He opens today’s Gospel reading.  A certain King wanted to settle accounts with His servants!

The “certain King” is God.  His is coming again with awesome glory and mighty power to judge the living and the dead—to settle accounts.

And my debt is huge.

I know we’ve done this before, but it bears repeating for the sake of effect.  Ten thousand talents of silver is equivalent to roughly 375 tons.  The price of silver as this is being penned is $38.32 per ounce.  That 375 tons equates to about 11 million ounces, or a monetary equivalent of just under $422 billion (with a “b”) dollars.

Why does our Lord offer an example such as this?  I think there are two reasons.

First:  In showing that the “certain King” is willing to forgive such an enormous debt, there is a loud and clear statement about the magnanimity of the King.  For someone to NOT be attached to such an incredibly large sum, He would have to be the Possessor of everything.  And so without defining God, the words show clearly that this is in fact God.

Second:  In showing the possibility of incurring a debt this large, one cannot ascribe it to the world at large.  Who could amass a debt of a half a billion dollars?  Countries do.  People don’t!  And so the parable must be pointing to something other than a financial matter.

Remember the third paragraph?

My debt is huge!  My sins are beyond numbering.  And my repentance is shallow, not commensurate with the sins I have committed.

And so, like today’s servant, my only recourse is to fall down before the King, offering the very same words as my own petition—Master, have patience with me.  In short, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner!”

Now here comes the hard part.

Not unlike the servant in today’s Gospel reading, I demand recourse for sins associated with my fellow servants.  It may not be so much related to what they “owe” me.  Typically my failure in dealing with my fellow servants is judgmentalism.  “Look at what you’ve done!”  “You deserve to be punished for that!” 

Having received the great blessing, the promise that my sins will be forgiven because of my repentance, I immediately turn on others making myself judge, jury, and hangman.

And for this, I, like today’s servant, deserve the same recall before the King and to be re-sentenced to an even greater punishment.

Why is it so difficult to be loving to those who surround us, regardless of how they treat us?

St. John Chrysostom says this.  No one can feel hatred towards those for whom he prays.

St. Paul speaks in numerous places about this.  Bear with each other and forgive one another if you have any grievance against someone.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you. (Col 3:13)  Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Eph 4:32)

Lord, give to me a heart that is as forgiving as it is repentant, and grant me sincere repentance while You bless me to continue in this life!

The Sign of the Cross

 

Homily - Transfiguration

 This may seem like an odd way to start a sermon on this great and glorious Feast, but let me ask us all individually a question:

 Who is your God?

 I don’t pose this question to be argumentative, nor to simply be rhetorical.  Really – Who is your God?  Who is MY God?

 As I look at my own life, I can see phases in my life when my “God” was my job, my house full of nice things, my education, my pleasure….  There have been quite a number of “things” that I’ve allowed to creep into my life and become, at least for a time, my “God”.

 The First Commandment says, “I am the Lord your God.  You shall have no other gods before Me.” (Ex 20:1) So, clearly, I have sinned, I have violated God’s law, and I have shared in Adam’s failings by not obeying what is a rather simple set of rules for life.

 But to answer the question, “Who is your God?”, we must first, I think, define the characteristics of God, so that when we encounter Him, we recognize Him.  What are the characteristics of our God, so that we can know Him?

 First, there are a number of items that we should describe as “natural attributes.”  These things we ascribe to God from our own limited conception of creation, with God being outside space and time.

 Natural Attribute #1 – God is at all times and in all places present.  He is not confined in space.  And He is everywhere at all times.  In Acts 17:27, we are told “He is not far from each one of us.” 

 Natural Attribute #2 – God is eternal, and it is by way of this characteristic that we can in some limited fashion understand His ability to be in all places at the same time.  2Peter 3:8 teaches us that, “With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”  Since God is eternal, we also come to understand Him as ‘unchangeable’.  This is a very difficult concept for us as humans, for we as beings constrained by time know things are constantly changing, different.  Tomorrow will not be like today.  Tomorrow even I will not be like I am today.  Yet, for One who is eternal, there is neither tomorrow nor today.  There is no time.  And therefore, if there is no time, then there can be no change, for change is something measured as a function of time.

 Natural Attribute #3 – God is almighty.  Luke Chapter 1 Verse 37 teaches, “For with God nothing will be impossible.”  Hebrews 1:3 teaches, “The universe is upheld by His word of power.”  Now, I know that skeptics offer absurd arguments, “Can He create a rock so large that even He cannot move it?”  But such questions are not in line with the meaning of this attribute.  God can do whatever He WILLS.  He does not do whatever He can.  Saint John of Damascus teaches that God CAN destroy the universe, but He does not WILL to do so, and so He upholds it by His will. 

 God also has what we can describe as “logical attributes.”  These include:

 Logical Attribute #1 – God possesses all knowledge.  From the book of Job (28:24) we learn, “God sees everything under the heavens.”  And from Psalms (94:11) we learn, “The Lord knows the thoughts of man.”  This applies to things that we see as in the past, but also those things that we will see in the future.  This characteristic is often described by those same skeptics as “pre-destination”.  Their thesis is that if God already knows you’re going to do something, then He must have somehow “made” you make that choice.  But nothing could be further from the truth.  The fact that His Natural Attributes show Him to be in all places and at all times indicates that we continue in time to have our own “free will,” but in His timelessness He knows what paths we have taken, even before we choose those paths.

 Logical Attribute #2 – God possesses all wisdom.  From Proverbs (3:19) we learn, “The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding He established the heavens.”  Wisdom indicates that God knows the most excellent of means by which to effect His excellent purpose.  The greatest display of this wisdom is in His effecting our salvation through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

 God also has what we can describe as “ethical attributes.”  These include:

 Ethical Attribute #1 – God is holy!  From Isaiah (57:15) we hear, “Thus says the Most High, who dwells on high forever.  Holy in the holies is His name, the Most High resting in the holies.”  Holy means one who is totally separated from that which is unclean and/or sinful.  It coincides with that which is totally good.  His holiness binds His will to His goodness. 

 Ethical Attribute #2 – God is love!  From 1John (4:7-8) we hear, “For love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God.  He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”  Love shows that God gives takes that which belongs only to Him and gives it to His creation, and especially to humanity.  Love gives its riches to someone else.  Love is meaningless without giving, regardless of the recipient.  It is the antithesis of selfishness.  Love is a living part of God’s essence.  It is within love that we come to fully understand all of the other attributes ascribed to God.

 Natural, logical, ethical – these are the terms we’ve just used to in some fashion try to describe our conception of God.  Yet, there is one more that somehow doesn’t fit even into these categorizations.

 God is Trinity, three Gods are in fact One God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  These are separate and distinct, and yet unity, undivided.  This as a concept is even more difficult for the human mind to comprehend than His timelessness and His eternal nature.  And so, the best we can do is to relegate these characteristics to the category of “mystery” – things that, while we believe them to be true, we have no way within our human frame to understand, except in imperfect analogies. 

 And, this is our God! 

 Now, why are you focusing us on these attributes today, Father, as we are here witnessing the Transfiguration?

 Let us look at Christ on this day.  What do we see with the senses He has given us?

 Natural Attribute #1 – He is everywhere at all times.  We see Christ on Mount Tabor, with His Apostles, and yet also fully with Moses and Elijah.  Neither Moses nor Elijah knew one another as they walked this earth.  And yet by this power of God, the old and the new are united, here on earth, His creation, His handiwork, by virtue of . . .

 Natural Attribute #3 – His might.  Our Lord works this miracle to bring joy to His Apostles, to sustain them AND US through the Cross, through the Resurrection, and through the years until we await His Glorious Second Coming.  He works this gift by His nature as almighty and…..

 Natural Attribute #2 – His eternal nature.  If the Lord Himself were not eternal, He would have no ability to connect past to future, to bring Moses together with Peter, to show Elijah to John and James.  He does this because…..

 Logical Attribute #1 – He possesses all knowledge.  He knows that without this gift, His Apostles will lose heart at His crucifixion, that they will have no glimpse of Him in His glory as God, and thereby be subjected to greater temptation to lose their own faith.  In His….

 Logical Attribute #2 – Wisdom.  In His wisdom He grants this gift to them as a sustaining element of their faith.  And it not only sustained them, but it continues to sustain us, as we await His return.  He could do none of this if He were not…..

 Ethical Attribute #1 – Holy.  In His holiness, His goodness effects His will.  And because He ……

 Ethical Attribute #2 – Loves.  Because He loves us, He gives to us freely that which is His alone.  He shows to us, as far as we can come to understand, His glory.  This is His alone, and yet He shares it with us, showing us the level to which He calls us through His love for us.  He fully reveals Himself to us as…..

 God in Trinity!  The Father’s presence is known in His voice.  The Son is Transfigured and we see Him in His glory.  The Spirit is known in the Radiant Light that illumines Tabor.

 THIS is our God.  THIS is whom we serve.  THIS is the God who supplants all those things that tear at us from this life, which attempt to bind us to this earthly life so that we ignore and thereby lose our way to our own eternal life.

 And that eternal life is a gift of love, of wisdom, of knowledge, and of every other attribute we’ve named. 

More On Prayer

 [From Archimandrite Sophrony, "His Life is Mine," Chapter 6, SVS Press, pgs 55-56]

Of all approaches to God, prayer is the best and in the last analysis the only means.  In the act of prayer the human mind finds its noblest expression.  The mental state of the scientist engaged in research, of the artist creating a work of art, of the thinker wrapped up in philosophy - even of professional theologians propounding their doctrines - cannot be compared to that of the man of prayer brought face to Face with the Living God.  Each and every kind of mental activity presents less of a strain than prayer.  We may be capable of working for ten or twelve hours on end, but a few moments of prayer and we are exhausted.