11-3-2020

Colossians 2:20-3:3

St Paul here continues to condemn this notion of false asceticism. By false asceticism, he refers to those things which intrinsically feed the fleshly passions; the craving for attention, self-righteousness and pride. These are those ascetic principles which are not prescribed by His Holy Church. It’s this whole idea that if the primary goals of the ascetic life are obedience and humility, then following an ascetic rule which you yourself have devised is of no profit. “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” he proclaims, “these things have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.” Consider the one who deigns to give up social media during Great Lent. What purpose does this serve? It diverts their attention away from those things which they should never have been party to to begin with, true. Otherwise, it turns to the self-righteousness of doing more than they have been instructed (although quickly returning) and then quickly dissolves into the pride of taking this digital “monastic vow of silence,” only to return once Lent is passed. Further, since it was self-imposed, it leads to this autonomous self-reliance and declaration rather than obedience. Or consider the one who determines to never again eat pork or shellfish, or any other “unclean” substance. Again, this ultimately leads to this false sense of superiority, this “holier than thou” mindset, which far from being spiritually profitable, leads to feelings of pride and arrogance. The Lord Himself declared that it is not that which goes into the stomach which defiles a man, but that which comes out of his mouth (Matthew 15:11), and that because “that which comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart and these things defile a man” (Matthew 15:18).

There are certain ascetic practices which the Lord commands, but these practices must be done in obedience to the Lord, and thus His Church, the “pillar and foundation of truth” (1 Timothy 3:15), or else they serve the opposite function. For example, during the whole of Great Lent, we abstain from meat, fish, dairy, eggs, oil and wine; and yet during the week which follows Pascha (Bright week), we are expressly forbidden to fast; lest in maintaining the fast we might become self-righteous. Likewise, during our daily prayers and during the Church services of Lent, we often offer prostrations, a sign of submission to our Lord. And yet, on Sundays and at various points throughout the year, prostrations are forbidden, again, lest we become filled with spiritual pride and self-righteousness. At the point that we allow those vices to enter into our hearts, then all of our ascetic labors have become in vain. Humility is the admission that we are not in control; obedience is acting in accordance with the commands of God through His Holy Church. The moment we seek control over these practices ourselves, we are no longer obeying God, but our own passions and desires.

St Paul ends this passage powerfully. Using Holy Baptism as his backdrop, he begins to counter those heretical practices that they have encountered. Unlike what the gnostics have exploited, he states that the goal is not to solve all of the mysteries of the universe. Our goal is to not even set our minds on earthly matters at all. We will all die, nothing can prevent this. We will shed this mortal shell and enter into the heavens. If history has taught us anything at all, it is that all mortal men shall die, all emperors shall pass away, all nations shall ultimately crumble. Thus, our concerns should not be on these temporary fleeting things, but rather we should “seek those things which are not above; not the things of this earth.” We have received His exalted resurrection in Baptism, and must continue seeking the glorious age to come. We must never fear earthly perils or death, but rather live according to His resurrection. We must seek our true life in Christ, regardless of what this world may breed.

My brethern, the world is crazy. Anxiety runs rampant all throughout the land. In the West, today is election day. And many are anxious about what we will face, regardless of who may win. But, we must not focus on this anxiety, on what will happen here based on which emperor takes command. Instead, let us each focus on the glories of the things above, “not on the things of the earth.” There is solace in knowing that no matter who is president, there is only one King, and regardless of what happens here, we must never fear, never waver in our faith. Paul, imprisoned and enchained on account of his faith, wrote the words, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Let us look to him as an example of our faith. We can never surrender our faith, our hope, our love, and our devotion to Christ, regardless of how dark the days seem to become; and we can never let the circumstances of the world come between us and the truth of our Savior, to Whom is due all glory, honor, and worship.

Christ is in our midst.

9-29-2020

Ephesians 2:19-3:7

The Church is humanity unified and renewed through union and communion with the incarnate Son of God. And this Church is built on the foundation of Jesus Christ, the teachings of the apostles, and the prophets. And from this foundation come not only all doctrines and traditions to which we must cling, but the Holy Scriptures themselves. I have frequently heard that the Church is not necessary for salvation, only the Scriptures and our own experience with God. And yet, if the Church is the “pillar and foundation of truth” (1 Timothy 3:15), then how trustworthy are those things in absentia of the Truth? How trustworthy is our interpretation of the Scriptures, if not being guided by the Church? We become the Eunuch and the Church, Philip. In Acts we read that “the eunuch was reading from the Prophet Isaiah and Philip asks, “do you understand what you are reading,” to which the eunuch replies, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” (Acts 8:30-31). If not through the lens of the teachings of the Church, how can we understand the words of the infinite God? GK Chesterton said that the logician is more likely to go mad than the poet, because “the poet seeks only to get his head into the heavens, the logician seeks to get the heavens into his head.” And that is us without the guidance of the Church. We can seek to understand, but without that pillar and foundation of truth, we leave ourselves far too open to error.

St Paul spent around 18 months in Thessaloniki, teaching and preaching day in and day out. And, remember, at that point, there was no New Testament. Bear in mind, this was a man who was so verbose that he once preached until a man (Eutychus) fell asleep and fell out of a window and died, and St Paul ran out to raise him from death so that he could finish his sermon (Acts 20:9). Now, this man was there for a year and a half teaching them daily, and then once he left he sent them two letters, a total of eight short chapters, reiterating certain points. Now, bearing in mind how thorough and verbose he was, could you ever realistically consider that all of his teachings could be summarized in eight short chapters? Of course not, in fact, in his eight short chapters, he never touches on any of the foundational points of the Church. Rather, he references them briefly by stating that they are to “cling to the traditions which have been handed down to you, whether by word or by epistle,” that is to say rather by oral tradition or by his letters, which served to correct errors that they had made. It’s preposterous to think that after 18 months teaching them, the only thing that would have mattered were the points that he brought up in those two short letters.

I know I write at length about the importance of the Church and her teachings, and the importance of Holy Tradition. But there is a very real reason for this, as we are seeing in our generation. We are personally witnessing the utmost importance of this ideology. Here, in the West, we are seeing a strong movement for the secularization of the Church. Millenia old traditions are being eradicated to accommodate worldly views on abortion, on LGBT, on gun control, etc. And, in absentia of our recognition of the importance of Tradition, we have no leg to stand on. We have no footing to stand against these worldly views, this “spirit of the age” that St Paul constantly warns us against. And, in the East it is no better. Especially in Communist China, we are seeing the literal rewrite of gospel accounts. The CCP, which controls every aspect of life in China, has begun rewriting the gospels themselves to convince people that “even though the leaders may be corrupt, the party itself is what is important, and it is flawless and above those corrupt people who carry out it’s wishes.” They have rewritten the gospel account of the adulteress (John 8) to show Jesus killing her once the would-be executioners have left.

I think of these things and it grieves me. Considering how strongly those in the West reject the authority of Holy Tradition, how long before the gospel stories, that which we are able to consume, become corrupt. It is only through the Holy Tradition and the teachings of the Church that the integrity of our faith can be maintained, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, together with His Father who is without beginning and His all-Holy, Good, and Life-Giving Spirit, unto the ages of ages.

Christ is in our midst.

9-23-2020

Galatians 6:2-10

Paul here begins with what seems to be a contradiction. He teaches on the one hand that we should bear one another’s burdens, and then quickly after states that each one of us should carry our own load. And yet, this is by no means a contradiction, since we are in fact called to serve one another. Both of his statements here are true, we are to bear our own load while simultaneously helping to bear one another’s burdens. What he is teaching here, however, is that we ourselves should never be an unnecessary burden on others, but rather we should seek to bear our own burdens while initiating caregiving to others. This could be considered both materially and spiritually. Materially, it would be easy to understand this fact as one who has food should give to the one who has none; or the one who has “two tunics give one to the one who has none,” or perhaps one who has more money than necessary to give some to one who is struggling to pay their bills. But, it’s the spiritual aspect that truly stands out in the passage.

Notice also that he states immediately to us to “let everyone test his own work: then he can take pride in himself, not in comparison to someone else.” All too often, we tend to be guilty of doing exactly what he is herein warning against. We read through the Scripture with our eyes fixed on our neighbor’s failings rather than our own. How often do we read a line of Scripture and immediately we consider someone who “needs to read this passage?” We evaluate our righteousness by comparing it to the shortcomings of another. We watch the collection plate closely to see who has given less than we have. We contemplate the sins of others in an effort to justify our own sinfulness. We begin to think, “well I may have done that, but at least I didn’t (fill in the blank) like so and so did.” Our goal shifts from holiness to holier, from righteousness to more righteous than. We look to the failing of others because it’s less painful to see than our own failures, and then we begin to feel better about our mistakes. Well did Mark the Ascetic speak when he taught us that “the truly humble and spiritual man, when he reads the words of Holy Scripture, will apply them to himself and not to others.” The Holy Scripture is given to us to aid us in our own seeking of righteousness, not to give us a bar by which to judge others. When we seek to bear our own burdens, observe our own sinfulness, we have little time to see the sins of others. We lift one another up instead of tearing one another down, and in so doing, we bear our own load while helping another to bear their burdens.

There is a story of a monk, told by St Paisios, “Once on Mount Athos there was a monk who lived in Karyes. He drank and got drunk every day and was the cause of scandal to the pilgrims. Eventually he died and this relieved some of the faithful who went on to tell Elder Paisios that they were delighted that this huge problem was finally solved.
Father Paisios answered them that he knew about the death of the monk, after seeing the entire battalion of angels who came to collect his soul. The pilgrims were amazed and some protested and tried to explain to the Elder of whom they were talking about, thinking that the Elder did not understand.
Elder Paisios explained to them: “This particular monk was born in Asia Minor, shortly before the destruction by the Turks when they gathered all the boys. So as not to take him from their parents, they would take him with them to the reaping, and so he wouldn’t cry, they just put raki into his milk in order for him to sleep. Therefore he grew up as an alcoholic. There he found an elder and said to him that he was an alcoholic. The elder told him to do prostrations and prayers every night and beg the Panagia to help him to reduce by one the glasses he drank.
After a year he managed with struggle and repentance to make the 20 glasses he drank into 19 glasses. The struggle continued over the years and he reached 2-3 glasses, with which he would still get drunk.”
The world for years saw an alcoholic monk who scandalized the pilgrims, but God saw a fighter who fought a long struggle to reduce his passion.
Without knowing what each one is trying to do what he wants to do, what right do we have to judge his effort?”

This is of vital importance here, because the pilgrams and the monks saw only an alcoholic who was a blight to their “perfect image,” because they were so focused on what they perceived were his failings that they never took the time to look into their own hearts. Rather than bearing their own load and helping their brother bear his burdens, they focused on his shortcomings and saw themselves as “holier” than him.

And so Paul concludes this passage with a solemn warning. “God will not be mocked.” For what we sow, we shall also reap. The one who sows “to the flesh,” (our fallen nature, seeking sinful pleasures and passions, greed, anger, lust, avarice, selfishness, judgment of others, etc) will reap according to the flesh, corruption and wickedness. But he who sows in the Spirit (humility, self-denial, compassion, righteousness, holiness, edification, etc) will in the Spirit reap everlasting life.

My brethern, no shroud has pockets in it. Nothing worldly will remain with us after we leave this world. Only our good deeds will ascend to the dread judgment seat with us, where “He will judge each according to their deeds” (Matthew 16:27, Romans 2:6). Let us never grow weary of doing good. Let us seek to turn away from the sinful passions of the flesh; let us seek to bear our own burdens, looking to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Scriptures, and the teachings of the Church to reveal to us our own unrighteousness and weaknesses. Let us each one of us focus on our own faults, seeking holiness while at the same time building up our brethern to help them carry their own burdens. Let us seek after the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, knowing that through His grace, we can attain it; and continue in all humility and love to serve one another.

Christ is in our midst.

9-18-2020

Galatians 4:8-21

Paul hearkens back to when before the believers knew God, before they knew Christ. And he states that “before you knew God, you were in bondage to those who by nature were not gods.” They served the Jews, who had twisted the Law to be an end in itself, rather than a tool to help us in growing closer to God. They had established this rigid observance of the traditions that they had created, not only circumcision, but also a rigid observance of feast days, new moons, etc. But, they had created this system of observation for the sake of the feast days themselves. Pascha (Easter) was worth celebrating for the feast itself, and not for the observance of the Resurrection, as an example. And now the believers were running back to this idolatry, accepting the teachings of these teachers over the words of God. See, God had given Israel these feasts, these holy days, but He had given them for the purpose of pointing the nation towards Christ, towards the Kingdom. Passover had become Pascha (Easter); the giving of the Law had become Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit; etc. It became a renewed calendar for a renewed world, and yet the Judaizers had clung to the old calendar, the old feasts. And this clinging was for the sake of the feasts themselves. We place the dates and times of the feasts above their meaning in the terms of the Church. Pascha becomes a gluttonous feast of the flesh, rather than a celebration of our Lord’s victory over death. Nativity becomes a celebration of materialism, rather than a celebration of the birth of our Savior. It is not the feasts themselves that Paul is here attacking, but rather the superificial meaning that they have attached to them.

And then we see a compassionate plea from the apostle; “I am afraid for you, lest I have labored in vain.” Here, he inspires both alarm and hope. “I am afraid for you,” he states, fearing for their eternal security. He is fearful that so quickly they have turned away from the teachings which they have received concerning Jesus. This is neither pity nor a reprimand, but rather heartfelt concern. No one fears for the safety of someone for whom they do not care. Yet, he states, “lest I have labored for you in vain.” It’s important the way he words this. Notice that he does not state that he has labored in vain, but rather “lest” I have labored in vain. He is afraid for them, but it’s not too late for them to return to the faith once and for all handed down. The ship has not yet wrecked. While there is still a chance that all of his work, his blood and tears has been in vain; there is still the opportunity to return.

And he appeals to them to look towards him as an example. Considering his education, his background, it is of paramount importance to remember that he was educated as a Jew, under the guidance of Gamaliel of the Sanhedrin. He had dedicated his life to the strictest observance of the Law, to maintaining the old feasts, to the necessity of circumcision in the life of the believer. And yet, he let each of these things go, because though they were tools for growing in the faith, they were not salvation itself, which he had been taught. We have seen that he embraced the new liturgical calendar (1 Corinthians 16:8), and yet he had been taught that while these observances were important, they in and of themselves were not the means of our salvation, rather a celebration of Christ and of His Church.

He goes on to state that when he first came to them, they welcomed him as an “angel of God,” which in the Old Testament was a manifestation of God the Word (Theophany) Himself. They accepted what he taught them to be the unequivocal truth, and yet they had quickly turned to another gospel, rejecting him. They had made him an enemy on account of the same truth which he delivered once that they had plainly accepted, yet now because of outside influence, the Judaizers, adamantly rejected.

He concludes this passage with a statement which rings even more true perhaps in our generation than at any other time throughout the history of the Church. These Judaizers excluded the truly faithful, those who accepted the teachings of Jesus, for the purpose of making them compromise the words of Jesus in exchange for the acceptance of man. They would reject the faithful, knowing that the response would be to seek acceptance. And, in a different form, we see the same rejection daily. In our generation, thanks to the internet, we constantly see and hear those who reject us if we take the actual words of Jesus over their interpretation of His words. How often do we hear the statement, “what Jesus meant by this was…” rather than hearing the words of our Lord and doing them, as though their gnostic wisdom is of more value than the actual teachings of God Himself.

Let us my brethern be wary of this. Let us never compromise the words given to each of us by our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Himself in the name of human acceptance. Legalism, antinomianism; each are equal heresies. I personally, on that dread judgment day, would rather stand before Christ and say, “I’m sorry I took your words too literally,” than stand before Him and say, “but I did everything reverend so and so told me I needed to.” Let each one of us embrace the words of our Savior whole-heartedly, leaving no room for the error of human wisdom; leaving no room for the heresy of thinking that a particular Pastor or Priest knows better what we should do to inherit eternal life than our Lord Himself.

Christ is in our midst.

9-3-2020

2 Corinthians 10:7-18

St Paul here begins to reveal not only his authority, but also the dangers that so many of the apostles had contended with; infiltration, false apostleship, and false teaching. He tells them here, “you look at the things that are before your face.” That is to say that they are basing their beliefs on those things which are right in front of them, those teachers who are readily present. Those teachers that had come into the Church and claimed to have the authority to teach them, they judged based on the appearance of piety and holiness that was presented to them. “If any man trusts that he is in Christ,” an indictment of these teachers, who though they may have been sincere in heart, had in reality deviated from the true teachings of the apostles and of Christ, “let him again consider this, that just as he is in Christ, so we are Christ’s.” Those teachers that had come in perhaps sincerely believed that they were doing Christ’s work, perhaps even moreso than the apostles themselves were. And Paul reminds them here that just because they believe that they are Christ’s doesn’t mean that the apostles weren’t. Rather, they should be laboring for the same cause. But, some teachers had coming in claiming that they had this special, hidden knowledge about God that only they knew, and so they sought to usurp his authority. Thus here we see Paul out of necessity exalting himself, though seeking to do so in a manner which is not offensive by it’s egoism. He manages to do so in a manner which establishes his authority, but is by no means boastful in himself. However, he also recognizes the necessity to do so because the boastfulness of his enemies must be revealed to be not only empty, but destructive to those who believe in them.

See, it’s this boastful gnosticism that says, “this is what God says, but here’s what he really means.” And, unfortunately, it is a system of teaching which has never fully gone away, we still see the remnant of it daily in our lives. It’s this system where certain people have proclaimed that they alone understand the Scripture and that anyone who doesn’t agree with their point of view is, at best, “unqualified,” and at worst heretical. And we see this all the time in our generation, teachers who take even the “red letters” and interpret them to fit into their own agenda, instead of reading the words of God and doing them. And the true danger with this comes when you reject the authority and Holy Tradition of the Church. It becomes dangerous because once you remove that foundation, then suddenly each person’s individual bias has the authority to change foundational dogmatic principles. Suddenly, “feed the poor” becomes “feed the poor in spirit, nourish them by teaching them Scripture, but don’t actually give them food,” and “love your neighbor” becomes “pray for your neighbor, but never open your door for them.” I’ve heard a sermon teaching on the parable of the widow’s mite that taught that Jesus wasn’t happy that she had given away her two pennies because He had given that to her to survive; and on the parable of the Good Samaritan that explained that the parable had literally nothing to do with helping those in need. I’ve heard lessons which proclaimed that we should forgive, but that it’s not necessary to salvation and to make forgiveness a requirement of being saved is a heretical works based system, in spite of Jesus direct teaching that “if you do not forgive another, neither will your Father in heaven forgive you.” (Matthew 6:14-15). These are just a few examples of the exact thing that Paul is warning us against here.

Paul goes on to state that though his letters are powerful, they have declared his body to be weak and his words contemptible. And that makes perfect sense considering what he has previously stated, because we know that they were already twisting his written words (2 Peter 3:16), whereas his verbal teaching would have him there to explain it. Therefore it makes sense that they would encourage people to obey his letters but ignore what he verbally gave them, because they wouldn’t be able to twist his teachings if he were there to defend them. And he responds here by stating that not merely his written words, but also his verbal teachings and actions have the same authority. Basically we see the same lesson from him here that we see in his letter to the Thessalonians, to “cling to the traditions which have been handed down, by word (verbal teaching and tradition) and by epistle (written word). He recognizes and espouses the need for each of these to maintain the integrity of the doctrines which the Church is teaching. Relying solely on either leaves too much room for corruption to enter in. Rather, the words of Scripture and the lessons therein must never be tampered with or corrupted, and that adhering to established Holy Tradition is the best way to ensure that never happens.

We see these teachers that he is warning about had gone into the churches that he had established and claimed responsibility for raising up those churches. And in so claiming that, they also claimed that they had knowledge equal to if not exceeding that of Paul. They disregarded his teachings completely or twisted them to mean whatever they so chose. They would interpret the Scriptures as they saw fit, rather than, like the Eunuch, seeking the interpretation of the Church to help them to understand them. And he says that having removed the foundation of the Church and it’s Tradition, they “measured themselves by themselves and compared themselves among themselves.” See, once they removed the Traditions that they had received, there was no longer any truth to measure their own opinions against, thus they measured themselves based on what they already believed. In so doing, they managed to create themselves to be their own authority.

My brethern, we must be ever so careful. This very mindset is so prevalent in our generation. Paul here warns us of the danger of rejecting Holy Tradition. When we reject the teachings of the Church, then we no longer have a foundation by which to measure the teachings that we receive. We have the Scripture, but if we accept only that, then we are doomed to fail because of the myriad of interpretation that is allowable if there is no true foundation to test it against. Likewise, if we reject Scripture and accept only Tradition, then there again is no foundation to test the Tradition against to see if it is Scriptural. It is only through acknowledging both that we are able to ascertain the truth; the words of Holy Scripture through the lens of Holy Tradition. The fathers handed down to us the Holy Tradition for the purpose of making it harder for false teaching to infiltrate the Church. Much of the Tradition that we have comes from councils which were convened for the purpose of striking down multiple heresies. If we reject that teaching, that Tradition, our own history; then we leave ourselves defenseless against those same heresies. Let us instead cling to those traditions and allow the God’s Church to truly be the “foundation and pillar of truth” in our lives (2 Timothy 3:15).

Christ is in our midst.

On August 30, the 17th Sunday after Pentecost, Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America & New York celebrated Divine Liturgy in the Synodal Cathedral of the Sign in New York City. Concelebrating with His Eminence were Archbishop Gabriel of Montreal & Canada and Bishop Nicholas of Manhattan, as well as cathedral clergy: dean Archpriest Andrei Sommer, Archpriest Edward Chervinsky, Hieromonk Peter (Milanovic; rector of St. Anastasia the Serbian Chapel in Astoria, NY), Protodeacon Nicolas Mokhoff, and Hierodeacon Panteleimon (Jigalin). The choir sang under the direction of Protodeacon Vadim Gan.

Many parishioners, who came to pray at the service, confessed their sins and communed of Christ’s Holy Mysteries.

Upon conclusion of Liturgy, Archbishop Gabriel addressed the faithful with a sermon, in which he said, in part:

“In today’s Gospel reading, we heard how a certain young man approached the Savior and asked what he must do to inherit eternal life. It is interesting that this narrative is found in all three Synoptic Gospels, and according to the Apostle Mark, it is directly indicated that our Lord loved the young man, because He saw that he approached with a sincere question. Our Lord then recounted the commandments that must be followed in order to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.

“The young man replied that from his youth he had followed all of the commandments. The Lord then told him to sell his belongings, distribute the proceeds to the poor, and follow Him. The young man left saddened, because he was very rich and it was difficult for him to part with the wealth that had allowed him to live a comfortable life.

“The Lord told the apostles that it is difficult for a rich man to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. The apostles were surprised that it was difficult for a rich man to be saved, because in the Old Testament it was said that wealth is a blessing from God. Christ clarified that the main obstacle to saving the soul is not wealth, but when a person himself is a slave to this wealth, and if a person wisely disposes of this wealth and helps those in need, then wealth serves for his salvation. Other passions of a person, which prevent him or her from following Christ, can serve as an obstacle to salvation, just as wealth does.”

Archbishop Gabriel urged the faithful to read the Gospel every day, through which the Lord Himself speaks to us, and wherein are all of the answers to the question of what is needed for the salvation of the soul and the inheritance of eternal life.

Taken from: https://eadiocese.org/news_200902_2

9-2-2020

2 Corinthians 9:12-10:7

Here, St Paul replies to some of his opponents. We constantly read of groups who would go wherever he was preaching to discredit him. In responding to them, he teaches us a very valuable lesson as well. Though he may appear to be weak, he is in reality amazingly strong. However, one thing that we must understand with that statement is this: as Christians, our strength is not a physical strength, it is a spiritual strength. And that spiritual strength can often appear to the world as a weakness. The “meekness and gentleness of Christ” can be misunderstood as weakness by those who are not spiritual. We see this in the very scene of the crucifixion. The Jews are mocking our Lord, saying, “if He is the Son of God, let’s see Him get Himself down from there,” and “He claims He can save the world, and yet He cannot save Himself.” And yet, while they are mocking Him, He in turn bows His head and prays that they be forgiven for their ignorance. See, to pray for the salvation of His persecutors would be viewed as weakness by the crowds gathered around, but which is truly harder? Is it harder to grow angry and strike out against those who wrong you, or compassionately intercede for their forgiveness? Is it harder to verbal strike the co-worker who angers you, or to love them and constantly pray for them? Is it harder to pay your bills on time, or to feed the poor knowing that you may end up sacrificing your comfort for their sustenance?

Paul says that though we walk in the flesh (fallen human nature), we do not wage war according to the flesh. Our warfare is not one which can be obtained through physical warring, or second amendment rights. Rather, our warfare is a spiritual warfare. And our battlefield consists of spiritual fortresses set up to create a divide between the spiritual and the fleshly (strongholds), human reasons which seek logical explanations instead of faith (arguments), it consists of the tearing down of human and angelic powers which seek to exalt themselves above God, this self-will and self-worship which lead to pride. It’s this ideology that we are fully empowered to do all things, that we are the only things that matter and as such have the “right” to do whatsoever we desire whenever we desire to do it.

And our weapons in this warfare are the Cross, the Lord’s weapon of peace; our prayer, wherein we grow in our relationship with God; and the Word of God Himself. We are to bring all of our thoughts and actions into obedience, which is to say into submission to God. And through this obedience to Christ, we are able to overcome self-willed pride. The Church is our fortress, marching against the stronghold of disobedience. And our obedience to the Church leads us to humility, which overcomes the power that so many of us have given to our own arrogant pride, this power which leads us to believe that we are in control. When we read Scripture and interpret it on our own, we actually begin to believe that we have more wisdom than two thousand years of monastics who dedicated the whole of their lives to study and interpretation of Scripture, but we overcome that arrogance when we adhere to the Church teachings on it. When we fast on Wednesdays and Fridays, we tell ourselves that we are not God, that we are not in control, that we will deny ourselves fleshly desires in the name of obedience to the Church. Each time that we obey the Church rather than our own will, we teach our flesh and our will that they are not in control, but rather that we have fully surrendered ourselves to God and His Church, His pillar and foundation of truth (1 Timothy 3:15).

Let us always remember, those very freedoms that are so often celebrated in the world often become their masters, and they slaves to those freedoms. The addict with the “freedom” to live their life however they want often become slaves to that very life that they celebrate. The one who seeks their freedom in money often finds themselves miserable, because that hunger grows and grows. Their greed can never be satisfied, and thus they become slaves to it, spending their entire lives seeking something that they can never have. It is not through the acquisition of goods, nor through any enjoyment of vice, that we can find true happiness, true freedom. It is through recognizing that our warfare is spiritual and taking up those weapons which our Lord has provided to us through the teachings of His Church that we can obtain true freedom in Christ.

And yes, to the world, faith, hope, knowledge, wisdom, honesty, charity, humility, obedience, patience, courage, faithfulness, self-control, chastity, kindness, and gratitude may seem to be weaknesses. But the one who has obtained these has attained true freedom, true strength, and true peace, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is due all glory, with His Father who is without beginning, and His all Holy, Good, and Life Giving Spirit.

Christ is in our midst.

8-27-2020

2 Corinthians 7:1-10

“Let us cleanse ourselves of all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” To cleanse ourselves of all filthiness requires much more than merely repentant thoughts. See, it’s so easy for us to hear a sermon or read a passage of Holy Scripture and become convicted about something, to resolve to ourselves that we will stop doing something. But there are certain sins that just become habitual. And the greatest peril that we face in our spiritual warfare is that those habitual sins create sinful patterns in our life. For example, someone who habitually views pornography may resolve to stop doing so, but as their will clashes against the flesh, they still awaken each morning and immediately check their phone. They check for emails, weather updates, social media notifications, etc. But, in so doing, they’ve created the pattern of having access to their phone the moment they awaken; and even moreso, they’ve trained themselves to do so. Thus, the enemy will determine to strike them in the middle of the night, when they’re guard is down, yet the habit of the flesh is to check their phone the moment they awaken. Thus, in a half waking, half sleeping state, that temptation of sin combined with the passions of the flesh lure the person into sin. Our very will is bypassed by the patterns that we establish and thus we sin automatically.

To cleanse ourselves here means that through the grace of God, we begin to embark on a long, willful journey to struggle for holiness, for righteousness. This struggle involves genuine sorrow for our sins, confession of those sins, heartfelt repentance. It means identifying those sinful patterns that we have established and abolishing them in our lives. It means intentionally avoiding situations which will lead us to sin. It means reconciling with those whom we have wronged or who have wronged us. It means to resolutely practice the Christian virtues. Ultimately, it means clinging to God through faith, through prayer, and through His Church and allowing Him to help us change our entire way of life. When St Paul tells us that “the old has passed away, behold the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17), he is not speaking metaphorically. Jesus tells us that we must die, and be born again, to enter the kingdom (John 3:3). When we are baptized, the process of salvation begins wherein Jesus frees us from the power of sin; but there are remnants of those sins, these habits and patterns, which remain in our flesh, and we must actively fight against them, knowing that through His grace we are empowered to overcome them.

Paul states that he briefly regretted his first letter because he knew it brought the believers sorrow; but then he no longer regretted it because he saw that their sorrow brought them to true repentance. See, contrary to what we may think or feel, it’s not enough to merely feel bad about a sin. We see this so frequently in children where they “feel bad” about something, bad enough to say that their sorry even, but not bad enough to stop doing it. True, heartfelt repentance, on the other hand, doesn’t bring feelings of guilt or despondency. St John Chrysostom teaches us, “Do not be ashamed to enter again into the Church. Be ashamed when you sin. Do not be ashamed when you repent. Pay attention to what the devil did to you. There are two things, sin and repentance. Sin is a wound; repentance is the medicine. Just as there are for the body wounds and medicines, so for the soul are sins and repentance. However, sin has the shame and repentance possesses the courage.” See, the devil likes to invert the two. He likes to convince us that we need courage to sin, and then should be ashamed when we repent. But, true heartfelt repentance should never inspire shame, it inspires courage in you. True heartfelt godly sorrow over your sin doesn’t bring feelings of guilt or despondency, rather it brings strong feelings of repentance and diligence; repentance is when we turn away from not only the actions we performed, but the patterns that led us to it, while diligence is when we zealously pursue holiness and reconciliation.

The sorrow of the world is the sorrow for “getting caught.” It’s sorrow which is very self-centered, it focuses on us and our reactions, our embarrassment, our punishment. Godly sorrow, on the other hand, is the sorrow which is focused on God, it’s focused on our love for Him and our desire to walk in His ways. It’s the sorrow which leads to sincere repentance and reconciliation to God, which paves our path to salvation and eternal life.

Let us never confuse the two, my brethern. Let each time we fall into sin be a cause for shame, and each time we enter into confession be a cause for courage and hope, understanding that the only sin for which we can not and will not be forgiven is the unrepentant sin. Let us each strive for the righteousness of God and pave the path to our salvation with good deeds and holiness. A monk was once asked what they do in the monastery, and his answer was, “we fall, we get back up, we fall, we get back up.” Let that be our walk as well. Let us each take up our cross and stumble up the mountain, helping one another back up each time we fall; and trust in our Lord Jesus that with each step we take, He takes ten to meet us. Let us feel the shame of our sins when we sin, and the comfort of true repentance each time we confess, knowing that our Lord is with us always.

Christ is in our midst.

8-20-2020

2 Corinthians 4:1-6

In spite of all of the challenges to his apostleship, the various trials that he has endured, his responsibilities to all of the churches which he has planted; in spite of how overwhelming all of these obstacles were, St Paul strongly declares here that “we will not lose heart.” His concern is not for himself, but the glory of God and the mercy through which he received his ministry. “We do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord.” He understands and is teaching the Corinthians, as well as us, that the goal in preaching must never be selfish gain. Our preaching and teaching must never be to feed the passion of vainglory, or to promote or sell books, or any other such selfish ambition. Rather, the true purpose must be to help others comes to the knowledge of Christ so that they in turn can grow in their own relationship with Him. A teacher is an instrument, a lyre in the hands of a minstrel, and the glory of such beautiful harmony never goes to the instrument itself, but rather the source of the music.

St Paul goes on to state that there are some whom the god of this age has blinded to the truth of the gospel; those who are perishing and will not believe. He has blinded them to these truths and tethered them to the darkness of this world. I have often heard it said that the life of the faithful should never make sense in absentia of their faith. To me, this seems an accurate way to “test yourself to see that you are in the faith.” Look at your life from without, contemplate how someone who is not of the faith would view you. Then, remove the name of your faith, and only the name of it, from the equation, leaving in any behaviors that manifest your faith. Now, consider this person looking at your life, your actions, your behaviors; does your life still seem to make sense? If so, it’s a good sign that you need to evaluate your life completely. The faithful are called to love our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us, to forgive everyone, to give even when we don’t have, to deny ourselves, to fast regularly, to serve others, to give expecting nothing in return. None of these things would make sense to the world. Even the philanthropy of the world normally has selfish ambition as it’s motivation; a worldly prince will serve at a soup kitchen, so long as there is a camera present so that all the world knows how much he cares.

This veil which the “god of this age” has placed has been placed over the hearts and minds of those who will not believe. St Paul elsewhere states that the gospel of Christ is foolishness to those perishing (1 Corinthians 1:18) for this reason, that they have been blinded. This veil has blinded them to the eternal, and left them seeking the temporary pleasures of this life, the instant gratifications. “If there is nothing beyond this life then let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.” But to those who have believed, he has shone the light through the darkness of this world and illumined us to see beyond merely what this world has to offer. Jesus Himself teaches us that “he who perseveres to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13).

And it is our job, our duty as Christians, to allow that light to shine through us. To not allow anxiety or despondency to overcome us; to not allow the circumstances of our lives to dictate our very demeanor. To not allow the god of this age to have dominion over our lives. Rather, it is our duty as Christians to allow that joy and hope that comes from knowing that our Lord is risen to shine through in such a way that everyone recognizes that it is not of ourselves that we could ever achieve this, but that it is the source of this hope that empowers us not to lose heart; no matter our circumstances. Consider that when Paul wrote that “Everywhere in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can endure all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:12-13), he was in a prison. When Paul began this passage with that statement, “we will not lose heart,” it wasn’t to glorify his own strength, but rather to glorify the source of that strength; our Lord Christ Jesus, through Whose grace we are given the power to endure whatever circumstances we may encounter.

Christ is in our midst.

8-19-2020

2 Corinthians 3:4-11

I have noted before that when I first joined the Church, I was a part of a Church that refused to acknowledge the supernatural powers of our Lord. The exact quote I once read was, “The Holy Spirit does not give visions – contrary to that whole movement – does not give current revelations, does not enable people to speak in tongues, does not give people future prophecies, does not do fake miracles.” Basically, the statement was that the Holy Spirit does nothing that requires true faith to accept. I also heard from one such sermon that “if you want to see the true supernatural power of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life, watch Him stop a sinner from giving in to sin. Watch Him help an alcoholic stop drinking, or a fornicator remain faithful.” And something always felt off to me about this teaching, that the Holy Spirit of God would limit His own power to only things which can be concretely evidenced, that which can be attributed to sheer human willpower. That the Holy Spirit would stop performing the miraculous, and limit Himself only to the mundane, just seemed very un-biblical to me. Jesus told us that if we have but faith the size of a mustard seed, we could move a mountain, and yet current teachers are teaching us that if we have faith the size of a mountain we can quit smoking. And even worse, that our faith would be evidenced by the number of Bible verses we can recite, mistaking knowledge for maturity. Learning the words that are engraved on stone rather than growing to actually develop a relationship with our Lord.

In this passage, Paul offers up great hope for the faithful. Having previously stated “to some we are the aroma of death leading to death, to others the aroma of life, leading to life. Who is sufficient for such things?” (2 Corinthians 2:16). Here he offers us his answer to that very question. The one who places trust through Christ in God is the one who is sufficient. He’s teaching us here that no matter how studious or elegant any minister may be, or how much knowledge about God one may attain, it is not within our human power to attain to salvation; we must depend fully on the Lord for ministry and for salvation.

He then continues on by contrasting the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The “ministry of death, written and engraved on stones” was external, it was powerless. It focused on “cleansing the outside of the cup, while the inside remained filthy.” (Luke 11:39) and turned the written law, the decrees of God, into a mere judicial system to be superficially obeyed. It was glorious only in that God was in it’s presence, but when removed from the presence of God it was nothing more than the ministry of death, because men were unable to keep it. It offered rules to follow and behaviors to maintain, but no power to do either, thus in attempting to keep the Law, many condemned themselves. It was, in fact, under the “Ministry of the Law,” but not under the ministry of the Spirit. And without that indwelling grace of the Holy Spirit, man will never be able to attain to it. In the Old Covenant, remember, men were unable to even approach God. Moses would ascend the mountain and speak to God and then, with a veil over his face, return to tell the people what the Lord had spoken to him.

Under the New Covenant, however, God is fully present through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Each time we stand in prayer, through the Holy Spirit, we become as Moses when he ascended the mountain. There is no longer a veil to separate us, we approach God directly. When we worship, we join in the songs of the heavenly choirs. In the New Covenant, we are granted the grace of the Holy Spirit to ascend the mountain, to speak directly to God, to behold His glory. The Old Covenant was glorious in the presence of God, but under the New Covenant, we are filled with the Holy Spirit of God Himself. In realizing that, think how much more glorious the New Covenant must be.

My brethern, far too many of us still seek the Old Covenant. Like the countless Pharisees written of in sacred Scripture, we seek to read and learn everything that there is to know about God, but we never seek after Him. Jesus tells us to “seek after His kingdom and His righteousness,” and most of us are content to apply mathematical formulae and analytical reading to His word to figure out how we can make it mean what we wish, what makes sense in our finite minds. GK Chesterton warns us that between the logician and the poet, the logician is more likely to go mad, because while the poet seeks to get his head into the heavens, the logician seeks to get the heavens into his head. So it is with our theology. If we seek to know God, it will be given to us; if we seek to understand every detail about Him, we will either go mad, or create a new God based on our ability to understand Him. Further, we seek our own Moses. We seek a pastor or priest who will climb up the mountain for us and tell us their experience with God, or the miracles that God worked “somewhere else,” and we’re satisfied with that.

But that’s not the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Under the New Covenant, for those who trust through Christ in God, it has been given to us to ascend the mountain, to come into the presence of God, to experience Christ ourselves. Not merely being content to limit our relationship with Him to what we know about Him, but to actually know Him. Let us, my brethern, never reduce our God to a set of facts or merely historical events; but instead let us join in those heavenly choirs and experience our Lord as a very real, very powerful part of our lives.

The Old Covenant was engraved in stone and replaced the actual knowledge of God with written words telling us about Him and His expectations. Let us not repeat that mistake in the New Covenant with ink and paper. The written word of God is vital to our faith, but even it can become an idol. The Scripture, our prayers, Holy Tradition, the Church; it must all work in synergy to help us truly know God; being very careful to “not turn aside, to the right or to the left.” (Deuteronomy 5:32). We read through Scriptures through the lens of Holy Tradition, seeking guidance from the Church on it’s interpretation and application, and then in prayer ask God to help illumine our minds to receive that which we have learned; never neglecting His command to “cease from action and know that I am God.” (Psalm 45:11 LXX).

May we all abide in that command, and truly seek after His righteousness, knowing that we can be the very aroma that leads to life, if we trust through Christ in God. Let us all trust in God, and grow continually in our relationship with Him, and never mistake mere knowledge for maturity. Our faith is not merely in facts, it is in our growing relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ, together with His Father who is without beginning, and His all Holy Good and Life Giving Spirit.

Christ is in our midst.