The Need to Believe

 Often I go back and review past bulletins and sermons for ideas to refresh and offer anew.  In many of those reviews, one encounters words encouraging a fledgling little community to go forward, to seek the Lord’s will—in their lives, but also within this, His little local church.

Belief is at the core of this.  Let me start with an old story.

In an interview with a Russian monk, a woman asks what is from the world’s perspective a very logical and simple question.  How are we to understand the resurrection of the dead?  Such things don’t happen in the world.

We’ve heard of people who have died and been resuscitated. But that’s different from resurrection.  Resurrection by our Savior promises a new life in heaven, eternally near to Him.

The Russian monk was not even slightly put off guard by the woman’s question.  His answer was simple and direct.  If God created the world out of nothing, if God established all the laws of nature, what could be impossible to Him?  He added, Is it more difficult to resurrect life than to give it?  It’s all in what you believe.

I wonder how often we consider what we’ll encounter after we die.  It should be a component of every day of our lives.  Am I closer today to the perfection to which my Lord has called me than I was yesterday?  Have I taken steps today to reconcile myself with someone who might be at odds with me?  Have I prayed for my enemies?  And the most important question—If God calls me today, have I done everything I should have done to be ready to stand before Him?

Today’s Gospel lays at our feet the commandment, Do unto others…  Before we look into our own standing with respect to this commandment, we must first recognize a couple of things.  First—God has the power to do as He wills.  Next—He always wills for us that which is best for our salvation, that which will secure a place for us near to Him for eternity.  This is why He chose to take on my flesh.  This is why He voluntarily chose to die on the Cross for us.  This is why He resurrected Himself first from the dead, that I and you and all who believe might be able to follow where He has gone first.

“Knowing” that I believe is therefore essential to my place in eternity.  How do I “know”?

Most assuredly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. (John 6:53)

We are all here today to make this commandment of our Lord the central part of our week.  Today we eat His Body, we drink His Blood, and He faithfully carries us through the coming 6 days to be strengthened once again by Him.

All because I Believe.

Remember that little community we began this piece with?

On any given Sunday as we began, attendance at Liturgy would be around 20 people.

Ten years later, amongst a group of faithful, Liturgy would be attended by about 25 people.

Now ten further years later, amongst a group of faithful, Liturgies are attended by 45 or more people.  We prayed for a building, and to the faithful the Lord granted one.  We prayed for growth, and amongst the faithful the Lord has blessed that request.  He has blessed it to the extent that we’re looking for ways to reconfigure our worship space to make it more comfortable for larger groups of faithful.

How is all this possible?  I don’t know!  What I know is that together we believe, and in that firm faith, the Lord has blessed us beyond our wildest expectations of only a few years ago.

Think of what more He can accomplish in a little place like St. Herman’s—if only we continue to believe!  Because with Him, all things are possible.

The Lukan Jump

 No, it’s not some veiled Star Wars reference.  It has everything to do with when the Liturgical calendar of the Church begins to read Gospel lessons from the Gospel of Saint Luke.  And we find ourselves in the middle of it this week!

So let’s first look at what Gospels are read when during the Liturgical year.

Things begin with Pascha.  John 1:1 starts the cycle of Gospels for the year on the day of Pascha.  We continue to read from the Gospel of Saint John from Pascha until the Liturgy of Pentecost.

Starting with the Monday after Pentecost we begin to read from the Gospel of Saint Matthew.  His Gospel is setup for readings for up to as many as seventeen weeks from this point forward.  From the twelfth week forward, it is read on Saturdays and Sundays, while the Gospel of St. Mark is read on the weekdays.

And now comes “the Lukan Jump”!

Beginning with the Monday after the Sunday after the Feast of the Elevation of the Cross we read from the Gospel of Saint Luke.  Why the reference to “jump”?  Because the number of weeks between Pentecost and the Elevation of the Cross is dependent on the date of Pascha,  This number of weeks is different from year to year, longer when Pascha is “early”, shorter when it is “late”.  The seventeen weeks of Matthew already mentioned is the LONGEST distance possible between the Feasts.  When the calendar finds the distance shorter, gospel readings from St. Matthew are “jumped over” in deference to reading from the Gospel of St. Luke.  More on that in a moment.

Finally, with the exception of the Sunday of Orthodoxy, the Gospel of St. Mark is read during the season of the Great Fast on Saturdays and Sundays.

Based on all of the above, many people assume that the Lukan Jump is related to the Feast of the Elevation of the Cross. 

In fact, this is not the case.

The Elevation of the Cross falls on the “Fixed Calendar” of the Church, each year on September 14th.  In close proximity to this date is September 23rd, the Feast of the Conception of the Forerunner and Baptist John.  Since this event is best recorded in the Gospel of Saint Luke (Luke 3:23-4:1), we “jump” to the Gospel of Saint Luke with this Feast and continue in St. Luke until we approach the Great Fast the following spring.

On your calendars, the Sundays of the Gospel of St. Matthew are simply referred to as “The N^th Sunday After Pentecost,” with N being the number of weeks following Pentecost.

When you look at your calendars starting with September, this same numbering is retained, and it in fact dictates which Tone of the Week is to be used, and also which Epistle is to be read (there’s no “jump” for Epistles!).  But you’ll also see that beyond “Sunday N After Pentecost,” there will also be a note, “Y^th Luke”, indicating which of the nineteen gospels of Luke is to be read in any given week. 

Make sense?

Now you can wax profound with your Orthodox friends about when, where, and why the various Gospels are read throughout the Ecclesiastical year.

Glory to Jesus Christ!

The Weapon of Peace

 “But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” (1Cor 1:23-24)

Preaching the message of our salvation in Christ has never been an easy task.  St. Paul’s words make it eminently clear that this was true in the first century, and it continues so to this very day.

The Greek word for stumbling block is skandalon, from which we derive our English word scandal. 

St. Paul explains that the Jews asked for signs because that is what the prophets gave them.  But still they didn’t believe.  Giving them a message of death by crucifixion to the One Who comes as their Savior is that scandal, for it was a shameful, unthinkable death for any human being, but pushing further to understand death for the One Who comes as God?  Totally unthinkable!  Their Messiah was (in their minds) to be exalted, not humiliated.  While we believe this as well, as Christians we understand the gulf of time between the effecting of our salvation on the Cross and the anticipated Second and Glorious Coming!

You say, “Preach to the Moslems?”  They recognize Jesus as a prophet, but their view is that the sovereignty of God would never permit His servant to suffer a shameful death, but would deliver him from any enemies.

And what of the Greeks?  St. Paul says they consider the message of the Cross to be foolishness.  Why?  Because given human logic, any god worth being called by the name has to be vastly superior to the inferior material world.  Any god who would become a mere mortal would make no sense.  Why would a god choose to take a body that must be exposed to death?  Unthinkable!  The Greek concept of eternity was via amassing knowledge sufficient to free them from the physical world, enabling them to share in a spiritual realm.

That was then.  This is now.  And what has changed?  Perhaps the “names” have—the general category of “intellectuals” would argue along the aforementioned thinking of the Greeks.  Those bounded by some form of faith that is non-Christian, Buddhist, Hindus, contemporary Jews, Baha’i, Hindus, and a long list of others have myriads of reasons to reject a god who breathes and comes to die.  And this ignores the religions that are not religions, the Deists, the Atheists, the Gnostics and others.

Only to Christians in general, and only to the Orthodox in particular, does the Cross mean life, not death.  Only to us is it an emblem of salvation, not a curse.  St. Paul expresses the division beautifully in Phil 2:5-11.  Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.  St. Cyril of Alexandria will end our discussion with the succinct explanation, He became like us that we might become like him. The work of the Spirit seeks to transform us by grace into a perfect copy of his humbling.

May we as faithful Orthodox Christians always look to the Cross of our Lord as the eternal symbol of His victory over death for all of creation, for all time, for all who will receive It in faith and love, embracing through It the salvation that He worked upon It!

It’s a glorious Feast!

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.

"What Do I Have to Do With You, Jesus?"

 

The Multitudes Become Prophets

 The Gospel for today picks up where we left off last week—Jesus is back in the boat crossing the Sea of Galilee, returning to His home.

As has become the case with our Lord, people have come to seek Him out, for they’ve learned that benefits follow Him everywhere.  And so now they bring to Jesus a paralytic lying on a bed.  St. Mark details this event as the one in which these friends of the paralyzed man open the roof of the house where our Lord is preaching because they can’t get near enough because of the crowds.

And we know the story.  Jesus heals again with His word.  “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.”

And just as the sheep have gathered in their faith, the wolves are also gathered.  “This man blasphemes,” say those of the scribes who are present.

What is it that brings this miraculous healing?  Is it the faith of the one who is paralyzed?  We can’t say that this is not PART of the story.  But St. Matthew records, “When He saw THEIR faith…”  Who is it that is described by the word THEIR?  Since we’ve become focused on pronouns, let us be attentive.  THEIR is plural!  What is being referred to here is the faith of those friends who carried this poor unfortunate to come before Jesus.  It is THEY who have believed sufficiently to have THEIR faith rewarded.

The Study Bible reveals that three components of our Lord’s divinity are on display in this account. 

First, He knows the hearts of men (2Chron 6:30—Then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men)).

Second, He grants forgiveness of sins (Ps 103:12—As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us).

Third, He heals simply by the power of His word (Ps 107:20—He sent His Word and healed them).

St. Matthew ends today’s lesson by describing the crowds assembled.  Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, Who had given such power to men.

And herein lies the mentioned “prophecy”!

The crowds see Jesus as a “man”.  And they see in part rightly, for we Orthodox know Him simultaneously as both God AND Man!

But their vision is imperfect.  In this case it is not a “man” who has this power to heal by His word alone.  It is THE “Man”, the God-Man Who does this.

So why are the crowds words prophetic instead of just being “wrong”?

It is because our Lord promises His Apostles, Verily, verily I say to you, he that believes in Me, the works that I do shall he also do; and greater works than these shall He do; because I go to my Father.” (John 14:12)

And so from the very lips of our Lord we find the crowds words, although not by their choice intended to say so, but saying nonetheless that God gives such authority, such power, to men.  It has been proven through all generations of the Church!