Living Water

Christ is Risen!

We don’t often think about it in such terms, but our day-to-day lives are governed by a presumption that tomorrow will be mostly like today.  I’ll awake in the morning.  I’ll have coffee and lunch, read the news, get angry at traffic.  Nothing much will change.

We take a certain comfort in this common-placeness of our daily lives.

And we don’t often think about our lives in terms of beginning, middle and end.  We don’t remember our beginnings (thank God!).  Our “middles” are muddled with revisionist-history versions of what really happened, revisions to make us feel better about ourselves, I guess. 

And our ends….  We don’t give much thought to our ends.  After performing or participating in a myriad of funerals over the years, one comes (as clergy) to recognize that funeral services are not for the departed, but rather for the living.  “You are going to be here where you see your loved one or friend, and it is coming sooner than you think.”

But that sobering message is very often ignored by those who come to honor the departed, and who refuse to see themselves in his or her position.

St. Photini today goes to Jacob’s well to draw water.  It is a daily activity for those in Sychar, or indeed in any town in Samaria or Israel.  Water is needed to sustain life.  Drawing the water was not an easy task, not like for us who get it by the twist of a wrist.  We get it clean (mostly), hot or cold at our choice.  On demand, so we can ask for only what we need.

In St. Photini’s time, she would no doubt come to draw enough for the day.  A heavy bucket-full would need to be pulled by rope from the depths of the well, poured into a vessel, repeat.  And then the vessel would be carried from the well “back home.”  It was difficult—one might even go so far as to saying back breaking.  In the account in the Gospel of St. John of the Wedding at Cana, the waterpots are written of as “containing 20 or 30 gallons each.”  Even ignoring the weight of a stone pot, 20 gallons of water weighs about 170 pounds.

No doubt St. Photini is not carrying a pot this big, but you get the idea.

When Jesus asks her for a drink, He opens the flood gates (pun intended) for her to speak with Him about—water!  In the discourse the Lord tells her plainly, “If you knew the gift of God, and Who it is Who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” (John 4:10)

Water that is alive.  Water than not only sustains the life you have, but water that renews the life you have, water that through baptism gives you birth into a new life, eternal life, water that will sustain you for eternity.  Yes, certainly it is water that would remove your need to carry heavy pots home daily.  But that’s the least of the water’s properties.  Jesus promises her water that “will become a fountain springing up into everlasting life.”

In our modern world, we don’t ever think of such water, any more than we think about the issue of the end of our life.  This is to our spiritual detriment, for without giving thought to that Day when we will stand before the Lord, we can’t find in ourselves St. Photini’s ability to face our sins, to recognize that He knows us along with our sins, to drive us to the place where we confess our sins and face Him now, while we can, before that Day comes and it’s too late.

She drops her water bottle at the well and runs to her townsfolk.  “Come see a Man Who told me all things I ever did.”  She becomes one of the first to evangelize.

She is rewarded by being forgiven, and with becoming one who carried His word to the world.

St. Photini knew that her end would come, and she reconciled with the Lord with time to spare. And she claimed that living water as her own.

The Shepherd At The Sheep's Gate

Christ is Risen!

This Sunday's Gospel reading is from St. John (5:1-15) related to the paralytic at Bethesda.

By Your Divine intercession, O Lord,

As You raised up the paralytic of old, 

So raise up my soul, paralyzed by sins and thoughtless acts,

So that being saved, I may sing to You:

"Glory to Your majesty, O Bountiful Christ!"

(Kontakion of the Feast)

The One Who knows the hearts of men, Who knows the contents of our very soul, Who knows the good and bad about each of us, it is He who comes to the pool of Bethesda on this day and poses what has to be viewed as a most improbable question.

“Do you want to be made well?”

Who could ask such a question.  The God Man Christ knows that this man had been in this condition (as St. John records) for thirty-eight years.  How could He ask such a thing?

But we, who read the Gospels, must know that our God has His reason for every action, every word that He came to leave as a gift to us.

What reasons could there be for what we encounter in this particular portion of Scripture?

Jesus offers healing to the paralytic, certainly, and knowing his heart sees that he indeed loves God.  And so by His Word, He brings healing to the man.  “Rise, take up your bed and walk.”  Such simple words, so very few, yet filled with such love of God that they reverse thirty-eight years of suffering.

But our Lord offers the same healing to the jealous Jews.  His healing of the man certainly solves the illness of the paralytic, but the man's walking brings the opportunity for healing to the Jews who have not yet found the heart of God within Jesus.  In the Gospel of St. Mark our Lord plainly tells the Pharisees, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." (Mark 2:27)  But today the Pharisees still stubbornly choose to cling instead to a human misinterpretation of God’s mercy for His creation.  For these men, the Sabbath takes precedence over the human condition of the man.  For Christ, the exact opposite is true.  In demonstrating this opposition to God’s will, Jesus gives the Jews a glimpse into the heart of God, offers them the same healing from the same event—”Come, and be made well, too!” 

They however remain blinded to this benevolent love of the Creator for His creation.  He has in essence told the Jews as well, “Take up the rancid place in which you have lain all these years and come into the fullness of the Love of God.  Leave your spiritual illness behind and arise!”  And they refuse.

Our Lord’s healing of the paralytic is shown to have produced in him the proper effect, that of seeking God and offering thanks for the gift he had received, for he goes to the temple to offer this thanks.  It is there that he gives testimony to the Jews, offering as an evangelist the words that healed him, and which our Lord would have heal them as well—if their hearts, like the man’s, were truly aligned with the recognition of God’s love.

But there is yet another reason for our Lord's words, for His question, "Do you want to be made well?"  Can we not see that these same words are offered to us?  Do we want to be made well?  If we answer, “Yes,” then the consequence of such an answer is that we, like the paralytic, must choose to align ourselves with God’s will in our lives.  We must effect a change in our hearts, the change that the Jews were unable to make, that same change remains for us to make in ourselves. 

Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Mat 6:33), love your neighbor (Mat 22:39), love your enemies (Mat 5:44), care for the poor and needy (Mat 25).

But most of all, repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand (Mat 4:17). 

They are simple words, very few, very easy to understand.  But our hearts must be right to follow where such powerful words lead.

Jesus comes to the pool at Bethesda, a name which translates to “house of mercy.”  Our Lord told the Jews (and thereby He tells us), “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’” (Mat 9:13, Hos 6:6)  It is a verse that points lovingly at Chapter 6 of the book by the Prophet Hosea, which begins with the words, “Come, and let us return to the Lord…”  (Hos 6:1)

Today’s Gospel is a gift to us to remind us, now three Sundays after Pascha, the repentant path that we walked during the Fast, and that we dare not lose in our hearts what we gained while making that walk.

Do we really want to be made well?  We can’t shout joyously “Christ is Risen!” if we don’t!

Christ Is Risen!

These three words have changed the course of human history.

Christ is Risen!

From the time that Adam at the devil’s prompting chose to seek the means to become “like God”, mankind has lived in a world without hope.  Through the fall, the place for which we were created by God was taken from us.  Eating from the tree to become like God, Adam was forced to live in a place that would show him how unlike God he still was, for where there was warmth and joy and communion with God before, now there was hardship and toil and pain and suffering, and a seeking for God which would go unfulfilled.

And so by sin death entered into the world.  And we became partakers of death, even though we were created to be partakers of eternal life.  The recognition of this is present in every human soul.  It is why we are so unsatisfied with life.  There is an inherent understanding that there must be something better than this.

And indeed, there is.  It took 4000 years for Christ to come to recall Adam.  Within that time there was both joy and suffering in Israel, but there was no salvation, no visible path back to God and eternal life in His heavenly kingdom.

It is not until Jesus comes, until He teaches us the true meanings of the Scriptures, gives us commandments for living lives that are pleasing to God, showing us our need for repentance, showing us His Divine love for us in His openly forgiving the sins of those who come to Him with the request, from the cleansing of the lepers, to the healing of the blind and the lame.  And ultimately, He showed us the full extent of that love as He restored the dead to life, especially the life of Lazarus, who was dead for four days. 

In all of these things, God coming, putting on our flesh, and speaking to us and with us directly showed to us His plan for that salvation.  He took on the death that Adam brought to all humanity, showing in Himself the fullness of His own humanity.  He suffered with Adam and all of his descendants.  He suffered for and with all who would be born from the time of Cain until the last person who will exit the womb before His return at His Second and Glorious Coming.  St. John Chrysostom writes, “Are we only dying with the Master and are we only sharing in His sadness?  Most of all, let me say that sharing the Master’s death is no sadness.  Only wait a little and you shall see yourself sharing in His benefits.  ‘For if we have died with Him,’ says St. Paul, ‘we believe that we shall also live together with Him.’  For in baptism there are both burial and resurrection together at the same time.  He who is baptized puts off the old man, takes the new and rises up, just as Christ has arisen through the glory of the Father.  Do you see how, again, St. Paul calls baptism a resurrection?”

We sing today, “As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ!”  We come to take His precious Body and Blood into our very beings, transforming us so that we carry Him with us wherever and whenever we go.

Being baptized we are born again into His Resurrection.  Being partakers of His Precious Body and Blood we are made to be partakers of that Divine Nature that Adam sought in Eden.

It is not only St. Paul who speaks to us this day, but also St. Peter, who tells us “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous Light.” (1Pet 2:9)

So when we gather, as today, and as we will now for the next 40 days, we greet each other with the Royal Greeting—CHRIST IS RISEN!  We speak it boldly, we proclaim what our God has done for us unapologetically, forcefully, so that others may come to see His victory in the faces of His people who still live in this fallen world bodily, but who are residents of the Heavenly Kingdom already in spirit.

We can do this because CHRIST IS RISEN!  We can be brave, enduring all sorrow and suffering, for we know that it is temporal, and that means it is temporary.  When we hold in our hearts and proclaim with our lips that CHRIST IS RISEN!  , we lose the attachment to this life, and proclaim His victory—a victory that raises Adam from the fall, a victory that has emptied the tombs and decimated Hades, a victory that has changed the world, both for those who dwelt in the 4000 years before Christ, and those in the 2000 years after Him.

So let us proclaim with the utmost joy, CHRIST IS RISEN!  to all that will hear.

Fruits of Repentance

Having passed the preparatory Sundays before the Great Fast, we see on the Sunday of the Last Judgment the fruits of what the Church has been preparing us for since the Sunday of Zacchaeus.

Zacchaeus?  Repentance.  Publican and Pharisee?  Repentance.  Prodigal Son?  Repentance.

But on this day, the Church gives us a concrete warning from the very lips of our Savior.  The warning is, “The time will come when repentance is no longer available.  Therefore do it today, while there is still time.”

Our Lord’s familiarity with us as fickle people is evident in the words He crafts for us to absorb today.  And His representation of human nature is equally evident.

We owe it to ourselves to look at the imagery the Lord gives us within this Chapter 25 of the Gospel of St. Matthew.  He starts with the parable of the ten virgins.  Fully half of them were clueless, while the others were shrewd.  The shrewd ones recognized that they were there to serve the Bridegroom, not He to serve them.  And so they came prepared.  “I don’t know when He’ll arrive, but when He does, I’ll assure that I’m ready,” and so they came with oil for their lamps to spare.

The foolish ones were only concerned about themselves.  “I’ll go to the wedding, He’ll come, and we’ll celebrate the wedding feast!  Let’s party!”  For this, they are separated from the Bridegroom’s joy.

The wise virgins, as they denied the foolish some of their oil, were not unloving of the foolish.  But serving the foolish ones was not why they were there.  They were present to serve the Bridegroom!  “We must serve our purpose, and if we help you, our goal is in jeopardy.  Go and get for yourselves!”

The parable of the distribution of the talents is a similar tale.  Those who were given more knew that they would have more required of them.  And so they labored—not so that they could give back to their Master His original gifts, keeping any increase for themselves.  No, their hearts were aligned toward pleasing their Master.  The wicked servant who hid his talent had no concern over improving his Master’s lot, a perspective which is itself self-serving.  And for it, he is condemned.

Listen to the words our Lord uses then at the Last Judgment.  He will separate sheep from goats.  Those who find favor will do so because they have served “the least of His brethren.”  Those who will be accursed will be so because they ignored these same people.

But listen to the words of “human nature” between the sheep and the goats!  Those accounted as sheep are astonished.  “When did we do these things to help You, Lord?  We don’t remember them….”  Those accounted accursed as goats are astonished as well.  “When did we deny You these things, Lord?  We don’t remember finding You in need…”

The sheep, in always doing good, can’t remember doing good to Christ.  The goats, in always serving self, can’t remember “being asked” to help Christ.  “Nobody told me I should look for You in other people….”

The fruits of our repentance are that which produces in us the desire to always serve others, to always do good.  Repentance defocuses us on self, re-focuses us on living as Christ showed us, being a servant to all.  God, the Creator of all things, came and put on my flesh to come and serve me.  Inside of that phenomenal recognition, if there is not a reflexive response to take up that Cross and follow where He has already led, then we’re doomed to be goats.  Today’s Gospel is a reminder and a warning.  It reminds us that there is still time to become a sheep.  It warns us that the time grows short before, if we do not choose to repent, we’ll be doomed to goat-hood.

Your Body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit Who Is In You

On the Sunday of the Prodigal Son, Saint Paul carries us to a place of discomfort before we get to hear the parable from our Lord.  He tells us clearly that our body no longer belongs to us, as he says clearly, “you are not your own.”  For when we accepted baptism into Christ, we put on Christ.  And in putting Him on, we gave our bodies to be His, we became the “temple of the Holy Spirit.”

Why is this important on this day?  Because as we consider the parable of the prodigal, we need to recognize in him that part of us that wants to conform to the world, and not to the Father’s love for us.  We, like him, are enticed beyond our limits to resist, and we choose to spend our precious Father-given resources on things that give momentary pleasure to the body, and simultaneously steal away precious opportunity to grow in spirit.

I can hear you resist.  “Father, I don’t spend wantonly on the kinds of things that the parable implies were the focus of the prodigal.”

Let’s use the Lord’s own words and try to understand His meaning, and how it indeed relates to all of us. 

St. Luke says, “The younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.”

The word used for “journeyed” is apodemeo, which means to go abroad, to visit a foreign land.  Whenever we leave the love of the Father, we place ourselves outside His love, which is a place foreign to His created home for us.  He created us to be with Him.  We neither will nor can we be fulfilled, satisfied, happy outside of being in His presence.

The word used for “far country” is chora, which translates to not just any ‘place,’ but an empty expanse, a place where nothing of import is.  It is the root from which we get the English word “chasm”.

The word used for “wasted” is diaskorpizo, which means to simply strew or scatter.  Literally it indicates that the prodigal could have taken all that the Father had and simply cast it to the wind, and the result would have been the same.

The Greek word translated as “prodigal” is asotos, and it carries the meaning of living riotously, dissolutely, giving absolutely no care for the morality or lack thereof of the actions.  The English meaning of “prodigal” means “recklessly extravagant.”  We need say no more.

Most of us earn comfortable livings.  How many things have I made into “gods” for myself?  Television?  Radio?  Social media?  Internet in general?

How many things do I on a daily basis give attention to that promote my own connection to the Father?  Almsgiving?  Praying for others?  Reading scripture?  Visiting the sick or imprisoned?

You see, we’re all straying in that empty expanse that the world attempts to convince us is in fact important, when in reality the world’s ‘important’ causes us to stray further from the Father and His love.

Our bodies are not our own.  We gave them freely as a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit.  By our ways of life, are we daily welcoming Him and living in His love, or are we driving Him out and boarding the doors?

The temple of the Holy Spirit must ever be open, so that the Father’s love will remain on us, in us, with us, as we attempt not to serve our own flesh, but to serve the least of His brethren. 

Time grows short.  We must seek His forgiveness, return to Him with the same repentant heart that the prodigal discovered.

The Father is looking for us, as well, waiting, for until we find our own repentance, we too are dead to eternal life, wasting our precious God-given life in this foreign land.  He waits to embrace us, too, seeing us chose His life by repenting for our own prodigal living.