When the goal of our faith is true communion with God, relationship with Him, then we cease asking what must we do to enter the Kingdom or if we can lose salvation, and instead strive to allow Him to change us through whatever means He offers us. No one ever enters the bonds of marriage by merely asking what they just do to avoid divorce, rather they are elated to enter marriage regardless of what they must surrender; they understand that the covenant love they have attained is far superior. When we legalistically begin asking “must I do this,” it is only love for self that we are displaying. It is only when we are willing to sacrifice of ourselves that we truly love another, as Jesus Himself not only taught, but exemplified on the Cross.

So often, there are those who use suffering and pain to conclude the lack of the presence of God in our lives. I so often consider those thoughts, and then contemplate what life would be without suffering and pain. A child who never felt the pain of being burned would never know that fire can be deadly. A newborn, feeling for the first time the pains of hunger, cries out to their mother for food.

We are not given pain that we may suffer, we are given pain and suffering that we may learn and grow. Father Seraphim Rose teaches that “Why do men learn through pain and suffering, and not through pleasure and happiness? Very simply, because pleasure and happiness accustom one to satisfaction with the things given in this world, whereas pain and suffering drive one to seek a more profound happiness beyond the limitations of this world.” It is when we are tested by the rigors of pain that we find ourselves no longer content with all that this world has to offer. It is through those lessons that we learn to grow spiritually. If a man never felt the pain of hunger, he would merely wander through life until he eventually fell down dead. Similarly, spiritually, if we never felt the pains of the world, we would be perfectly content to wander through this life until we fall down dead, never seeking to grow beyond what is right before our eyes.

Pleasure and gratification are impermenant, whereas through the loss of those things, we learn to seek that which will never cease. We begin to learn to see worldly pleasures as fleeting, and only then do we mature to seek those things which are spiritual. It is for this very reason that the Lord warns that whoever should come after Him should deny himself, pick up his cross, and follow. And it is only through heeding that warning that we will ever be able to grow in our spiritual lives.

Our faith can only be molded and shaped when it is placed within the furnace of loss, pain, and suffering.

Christ is risen!

Acts 8

We see the Samaritans, men and women, each baptized in the name of the Lord. And, when the apostles hear that the Samaritans have received the word and been baptized, what is their first response? Scripture tells us that, immediately, they send Peter and John to them to pray that they might receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Scripture tells us that “as yet, He had not fallen on any of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus…(then) they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. (V 16-17).

This is so important for us to learn. So often, in our generation, we teach that this is all one act. Especially in the Western Church, we teach that the moment someone is baptized, they immediately receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is the “seal” of their baptism. Yet, not once, Scripture directly contradicts this teaching. We see it later in the Book of Acts also. Paul asks Apollos, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” to which Apollos responds, “We have not so much as heard whether there was a Holy Spirit.” (Acts 19:2-3), and this to the same end, “when Paul laid hands on them, they received the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 19:6).

See, it’s important for us to recognize and understand that, as early as the Book of Acts, baptism and the reception of the Holy Spirit have always been separate Sacraments in the Church. Our baptism is referred to as “sealed with the Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 1:13), and yet, consider the writing of a letter. We write the text of the letter (Baptism) and then after is sealed. The process of sealing the letter completes the writing of it, but it is not a part of the writing. An unsealed letter is still a fully completed letter, the process of sealing it is a separate process completely. Yet, though separate, they are equally important in allowing the letter to fulfill it’s purpose. An unsealed letter could not be mailed, and a sealed but unwritten letter is of no profit to anyone, either writer or receiver. Likewise, in Baptism, each the Baptism for the remission of sins and the reception of the Holy Spirit of of equal importance for us to fulfill our purpose given us by the Lord, but each is a separate process. As Apollos and as the Samaritans learned, baptism alone will free us from the guilt of our sins, but leave us powerless to guard against them; for without the strength and presence of the Holy Spirit within us, we are left to our own willpower and desire to fight against these sinful desires that we hold.

We see a firsthand account of this almost immediately. In the account of Simon the Sorcerer. We read that he comes to the faith and is baptized; yet having come to the faith he is led astray by his own hardhearted desires. He had not received the Holy Spirit. Scripture records this account, stating, “When Simon saw that through the laying on of the Apostles’ hands, the Holy Spirit was given, he offered money, saying ‘Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.'” (v.19). Even Simon, whom tradition tells us ultimately became a fierce opponent of the Church, understood that it is through the reception of the Holy Spirit that the Lord allows miracles to be worked through those who follow Him.

Consider this for a moment. Someone who became a fierce opponent of the Church understood better than what we in the West teach our own generation. A baptized believer, he understood that it was through the anointing of the Holy Spirit that the Lord worked the supernatural through His people. Even he, “poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity” had a clearer understanding of this teaching of the Apostles than our wisest theologians teach today. Scripture is quite clear on the path to salvation, “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38). Repent, turn away from your life and embrace the life that is offered in Christ; be baptized for the remission of your sins, and then receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Three separate steps. It is to our detriment if we neglect any of the three of them. And Scripture multiple times shows each of the three of them happening at different times. We see, after Jesus’ ascension, Apollos and the Samaritans, having been baptized, and then later receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. If it were the same thing then John and Peter would never had to go to Samaria, and Paul would never have had to visit Apollos.

May we learn from this and recognize that there is no shortcut to salvation. There is no abbreviation, no way around it. Jesus was very clear on this teaching; “He who does the will of my Father in heaven, he it is who is my brother and sister and mother.” (Matthew 7:21) And again, “whoever hears the words of My Father and does them, He is like a man who built his house on the rocks, and when the storm came, the house stood, because the foundation was strong.” (Matthew 7:24). And again, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14). When we start abbreviating the path to salvation, when we start searching for the broad gate and the easy path, we will find it, but it will not lead us to where we wish to go. Obedience to His words lead us to the humility that we need to be healed of the sickness of sin which we love so strongly.

May the grace of the Lord be with us all. Christ is in our midst.

In his letter to the Galatians, St Paul writes “God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Galatians 6:14). Thus, what he is truly saying is that “it is by the cross of the Lord that the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” So, that then begs the question, why by the cross? Why does he not rather say on the cross?

What Paul means here is that the cross itself is the main standard and the criterion of truth. It means that, on the cross, we should crucify our human ideas, our philosophical views, our political agendas, and that we should then measure each of these ideas by the cross to determine if they are truth or fallacy.

See, far too often, we begin with our own ideas, our own politics, our own philosophies, and then search the Scriptures trying to find verses that can justify them. Rather, we should begin with the Scriptures and see the truths that are contained therein, and then when an idea comes to mind, we can properly evaluate them by the cross to determine the truth of it. Rather than beginning with a particular political party, or a particular conviction, begin with the words of our Lord and see what He says about a topic before we try to stretch a verse across our own ideology.

The hardest part about doing this the correct way, is that there are lifetimes of studies that would need to be done in order to properly apply Biblical truth to all manner of topics. So we, in our pride, rather than bowing to the knowledge of two thousand years of those who have dedicated their lives to the study of those Scriptures, adopt this mentality of being able to unravel the greatest mysteries of all of humankind in a few hours, and adopt every principle that we find to be the truth.

Let us instead measure everything that comes to our mind by this criterion given to us by the cross, and the teachings passed down to us over millennia by the Church, and we will at once see the difference between the truth and the lies, what and who we should and should not vote for, what we should and should not support. This is the message of the Church itself!

The Church should not meddle in civil affairs. It should never interfere in political, economic, or social processes, but rather it holds out the divine criterion of the cross for all to use as their judgment. In the West, the term “Christian” has grown to represent nothing more than a political demographic; but the Church can never become that. It is for that very reason that so many flee the Church, because they are treated as anathema if they have differing political views as others in their congregation. The pro-life Christian who supports gun control and immigration is considered a heretic in most of our American churches, because they support stances that are opposed to one of the two major political parties. It’s as though we have allowed and accepted the idol of political leaders into the Church, much as the Romans declared the emperor to be a god.

May we never again vote for Baal just because Baal is less wicked than Satan, but instead order our lives in the manner that the Lord has set before us. We worship the risen Christ, whoever sits in the White House is neither the savior, nor the anti-Christ; our job is to obey (1 Peter 2, Romans 13) and to pray for their wisdom and discernment, always remembering that there is nothing that they can do to us that we can not overcome, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ is risen!

“‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” Matthew 22:37-40.

“For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself'” Galatians 5:40.

We see so often these commands in the Scripture. Many of us can fully quote the entire text, never once allowing it’s meaning to enter into our hearts. We read these words, and we can quote these words, but we don’t even begin to contemplate the practicality of these words. What does it mean to love the Lord with all of our hearts, souls, and minds? What does it mean to love our neighbor as ourselves? See, for me, this question is powerful, because it becomes a matter of this; do we read Scripture to know Scripture, or do we read Scripture to live it? Do we read the teachings of Jesus and immediately begin to dispute and look for excuses to not obey Him, or do we read them so that they can change us?

See, when I read this, my first question becomes; how do we do this? How do we love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and might. How do we love our neighbor as ourselves. In the story of the Good Samaritan, we learn that our neighbor is anyone in need. It is anyone that we come into contact with. It is the person who lives next door to you; it is the drunkard on the street corner; it is the immigrant seeking entrance into the land. It was the lawyer whom Jesus rebuked who asked, “and who is my neighbor.” It is the rich man who ignored Lazarus who was condemned to eternal punishment. What we find is that our neighbor is anyone in need, and to “love your neighbor as yourself” becomes the mystery. How do we do this?

In St John’s second epistle we find the very answer to that. We read, “And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning: that we love one another. This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.” (2 John 1:5-6). In this very passage he defines the love that the Lord speaks of. This is love, that we walk according to His commandments.

See, we make the mistake of replacing the commandments with the command to love, and in so doing, replace His command to love with our emotional definition of love. When Jesus tells us that in loving our neighbour and loving God, we fulfill the commandments, we immediately begin our meditation with love. But John paints for us a different image. John paints for us this idea that to love our neighbor, as to love God, we first begin with the commandments. Rather than explaining what, he here gives us how. And this is important. To love our neighbor doesn’t mean that we attempt to force ourselves into this insincere emotional attachment to them. No, rather, love consists in walking in God’s commandments. We do not enter into hysterics, summoning emotional strength, attempting to force ourselves to feel this emotional love that our culture has ingrained in our hearts. Rather, if we fulfill God’s commandments, which are ever so simple, then in so doing, we reveal the mystery of love of our neighbor. To begin with love is to create a human, emotional ideal. However to begin with God’s commandments, His life, how He loved; then we understand how to love our neighbor as God did. Then, our love becomes the fulfillment of the commandments, because Christ becomes the foundation of our love. We stop trying to define love by our standards, and instead look at how He loves, both while He was present in the flesh, and how He loves us now. We see Him caring for the poor, for the hungry. We see Him forgiving those who have wronged Him. We see Him praying for His enemies, rather than seeking retribution for the wrongs done to Him. We see the very image of love when Jesus shares the bread and wine with he who would betray Him and then prays on the cross for the very ones who are crucifying Him.

When we meditate on this command to love the Lord with all of our heart, soul and might; and the command to love our neighbor as ourselves; we must always bear in mind John’s epistle lesson here, that to walk according to His commandments is true love. And in walking in His commandments, in keeping His commandments, we will fully love God with all of our hearts, souls, and minds; and we will truly love our neighbors as ourselves. And, in so doing, the one will fully complete the other.

Christ is risen!

The world is very good at being the world. And this is a fact that every one of us in the Church needs to understand. In fact, I would wager to say even that the world is better at being the world than anything else, including the Church, could ever be. And it’s so important to note this, because if the Church confronts worldly people using worldly means, then the world is going to win.

It’s important for us to recognize one very important fact, the Church will never be as good at worldly things as the world is. When I consider “contemporary Christian rock/pop” artists, I think about the fact that if you removed the lyrics, they would be completely indistinguishable from secular rock/pop artists. When our worship becomes indistinguishable from the rest of the noise in the world, it will be very hard to reach the world. It reminds me of the Prophet Amos, through whom God said, “I hate, I reject your feast days….take away from Me the sound of your songs, for I will not hear your musical instruments.” (Amos 5:21,23 LXX).

See, this is what happens when the Church allows the world in, the Church becomes like the world, and you can’t out-world the world. Our worship is to be a clarion call, singing beautiful hymns and praises up to the heavens, not merely noise which is indistinguishable from the noise of the world. When the Church joins into the noise of the world, it’s very easy for the world to ignore the Church, much as it does so much of the world. We are to join in the heavenly choirs, singing and praising the all honorable and majestic Lord on high, not trying to hit the top of the charts. Again, when we use worldly means to reach worldly people, a strange thing happens, the world wins. And there’s a very good reason for this.

It’s because instead of using the means prescribed by the Lord to reacch people, we are using our own logic, our own wisdom. We are deviating from the words of Solomon, who admonishes us to “trust in God with all your heart, and do not exalt your own wisdom” (Proverbs 3:5 LXX). We are undermining the very God that we claim to believe is all-powerful and all-knowing. It becomes about us and our ideas, not about Him. It becomes about whose marketing strategy is working better and whose voice sounds better. It becomes about us trying to be better than the world. I remember hearing a popular pastor talk about going to a Christian rock show, and while he was there, a kid came up to him and said, “man this is horrible, I thought you people had something different.” And that kind of sums it up.

Our Sunday morning services are usually, in Western culture, 15-30 minutes of contemporary rock under the name of a “worship band,” sandwiched around a 45 minute lecture. That service format is basically the same as any motivational speaker, using human psychology to channel their focus on the stage, listen to an inspirational message, and then bring them back down through an emotional moment of one person praying. The goal of the Church isn’t to have a more motivational or charismatic speaker during that period than the TED talk down the street, but rather, our service should be fully dedicated to worship and prayer. In the Western Church, the center of any service is usually the sermon, exalting one man’s wisdom, his own personal interpretations of something. Consider this, if you went to a service on a Sunday, and there was no theological exegesis, no lecture, no sermon, what would the service consist of? And, how would you feel about it? Would it be an hour and a half of worship? Would the entire congregation spend the entire time in prayer? Would you even want to attend if you knew that there would be no lecture?

And, all of this extends to the place where it is most apparent, which is our very lives. When we attend a Western service, we usually see pride on display. We see a worship leader, who is frequently front and center, then sit through a lecture, where the speaker is front and center, and off in the distance behind them we see a bare cross as a reminder that we are in a church building. And then, the moment the final worship hymn is done, we pack up, grab the kids out of the dungeon where they were entertained by toys and such, and head out with no time of fellowship, with no time of reflection; and return to our “real lives.” There is no sincerity in our faith, and our children see that. And then we wonder why they choose to leave the Church as soon as they are old enough. For years, they are entertained by worldly distractions and building no theological foundation, while their parents sit through sermon after sermon; and then, as teenagers, they are finally “allowed” to be in the sanctuary. Think about this. Imagine if once a week, you were forced to go to a concert for a band that you didn’t like, and forced to sit, halfway through it, through a lecture about something that you didn’t understand and had no interest in. And even worse, let’s face it, half of the time, the parents don’t want to be there either. We see all of these people who, while their intentions aren’t inherently malevolent, the outcome is. You get people leaving churches because the music doesn’t appeal to them. You get people only going if a particular person is speaking. Ultimately, you get celebrities. Most people don’t leave a Western Church praising God and speaking about how great He is, you get people walking out of those gatherings talking about the power of the speaker’s sermon. You get people talking about the worship band’s ability, “the keyboardist is really good, but the bass was turned up too high, and did you hear that one note the singer missed?” You get people being praised or insulted based on their own abililties, and that translates to a life centered around ambition and vainglory. You get an entire Church where everyone is seeking to do better than everyone else, one where they are all trying to “out-world the world.”

The Church is not meant to be better than the world, it’s meant to be different than the world.

The reason that so many kids leave the church is that they see in the church a watered down version of the world. They see the same movies, the same plots, the same business strategies, as the world, and usually not as effectively. Christian movies aren’t slandered because they’re Christian, they’re slandered because they’re usually awful and have political agendas permeating them, hammering conservative political ideologies usually in terms of what’s currently in the news (which often is no longer a headline by the time the movie is completed). Contemporary Christian music isn’t insulted because it’s Christian, it’s insulted because it’s usually a subpar version of the same secular music that is available for download, merely with different lyrics. It’s great for Christian youth group outings, but as long as it’s the same as the radio is playing, then it’s never going to reach outside of that circle. And then, when kids get into high school and are able to hear the non-watered down versions of those same songs, it’s more exciting to them. And those same children see their parents living lives with the same goals as the rest of the world and recognizing that, to be a true follower of Christ means that you deny yourself those very goals. When a parent’s goal is to own a bigger house, a newer car, to get that promotion and raise; nothing which we would consider as “evil,” and yet they see those goals and then read the words of Scripture which teach that followers of Christ should have different goals, then it exposes our disbelief. When Jesus says, “forgive your enemies and pray for those who wrong you,” and the children see us bearing grudges for years against someone, or coming home from work complaining about our boss or about a customer, or screaming profanities at someone in traffic, they quickly begin to recognize that we are acting the part, and our real convictions come out when angered.

See, the Church isn’t meant to offer the same things as the world, that’s never how it has been. The Church isn’t a “better version” of the world, it’s meant to be something completely different. It isn’t meant to argue about political topics, or to be “more innovative,” or to be more ethical in worldly terms. The Scriptures say that the Church turned the world upside down because it stood in such stark contrast to the world. It turned the world upside down because it was so counter-cultural. It turned the world upside down because it invited the people to join in the heavenly choir, to sing with the angels, to leave this world wherein we are merely strangers and visitors, and to return to our home with our heavenly Father. To be welcomed regardless of who we are, what color, what ethnicity, what our past looked like. Aristides, a Roman pagan, in a letter to the Emperor Hadrian who was seeking to outlaw Christianity, once said of the early Christians, “The Christians love one another. They never fail to help widows; they save orphans from those who would hurt them. If a man has something, he gives freely to the man who has nothing. If they see a stranger, Christians take him home and are happy, as though he were a real brother. They don’t consider themselves brothers in the usual sense, but brothers instead through the Spirit of God. And if they hear that one of them is in jail, or persecuted for professing the name of their redeemer, they all give him what he needs. If it is possible, they bail him out. If one of them is poor and there isn’t enough food to go around, they fast several days to give him the food he needs. This is really a new kind of person. There is something divine in them.” Compare that to the Western outlook on Christianity, and notice the striking differences between the early (Hadrian was Emperor from 117 to 138 AD) Church and our Republican Church of the West. “If they see a stranger, Christians take him home and are happy, as though he were a real brother.” There is a strong sense of what it means to truly be a Christian, not to be better than the world, to be different completely. To do that which the world would never consider doing. A candle can never outshine a spotlight, but when it is lit in pitch dark, it’s light is like the sun. Our worship, our music, our very lives must be that candle, not submerging itself into the spotlight of the world, but rather shining in those areas that the world would never consider. To stand out and be truly different. To be the beautiful clarion call cutting through all of the rhetoric and noise of the world. To not get caught up in disputes or arguments, to not seek after our own wealth, our own glory, our own pride, but to truly seek after the well being of others. To share life with one another and have a true family, in Christ, to whom is due all glory honor and worship. Together with His Father who has no beginning, and His all Holy and good, and life-giving Spirit.

Christ is risen!

Today is Radonitsa, the day of rejoicing. It’s the joyful day of prayer commemorating those who have departed before us and a celebration of Christ’s victory over death.

Remember, Lord, all Orthodox Patriarchs and Metropolitans; archbishops and bishops; priests and those who serve in holy orders; those who serve the monastic ranks and the blessed founders of our Holy communities. Grant them rest with the saints in Thine eternal dwellings.

(Prostration.)

Remember, Lord, the souls of Thy departed servants, (insert names) . Forgive all their sins, both voluntary and involuntary. Grant them participation in Thine eternal good things and the enjoyment of the eternal and blessed life.

(Prostration)

Remember, Lord, all our departed fathers, brothers, and sisters, the Orthodox Christians who lie here and everywhere in the hope of the Resurrection and eternal Life. Grant them to live with Thy saints under the Light of Thy countenance. Have mercy on us also, for Thou art good and lovest mankind. Amen.

(Prostration.)

(The following is said three times, each with a prostration.)

Grant remission of sins. Lord, to all our fathers, brothers, and sisters who have departed before us in faith and the hope of the Resurrection, and make their memory eternal.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and into the ages of ages. Amen.

Acts 7

When Stephen stands before the council accused of blasphemy, he refuses to answer the high priest directly. Rather than offering his own personal witness and testimony, he uses the charges against his as the foundation of a sermon. Much like Peter’s sermon, which we have just seen before, Stephen preaches Jesus as the Messiah, but does so appealing to the Old Testament. In so doing, it is not his own witness, which is subject to scrutiny, which the priests must dismiss; but the very witness of the Prophets themselves, revealing to the multitudes the hard-heartedness of the priests who stand accusing him.

We see similar events unfold in the Church today. Certain doctrines which are taught today which the strongest witness would not be our personal convictions, but the testimony of the Prophets and the apostles. And when someone would argue against the doctrines, it is not our personal witness which they would deny, but rather that of the prophets and apostles themselves.

To deny our works as a part of our salvation would be not only to deny St Paul’s admonition that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works, or James’ constant teaching that faith without works is dead, but Jesus’ teach Himself that “whosoever believes in Me will do the same works that I have done.” Similarly, to teach that we are saved by our very works themselves is to deny St Paul’s teaching that “we are saved by grace by faith, not of our own works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9). So, in order for both to be right, for there to be no contradiction, then is must be both, in synergy, working together. To teach that Baptism is not required is to contradict Jesus’ teaching to Nicodemus that, “unless a man is born again, by water and the Holy Spirit, he will not enter the kingdom.” To deny the command to asceticism is to deny Jesus’ command to “deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow Me.”

No, when we truly affirm the words of Scripture, when we believe all that God has told us, rather than tens of thousands of denominational differences, we find a truth that looks nothing like the contemporary Western Church, which ironically trumpets it’s own doctrine of “Sola Scriptura” and yet looks nothing like the Church we find in Scripture. We find much more the Church that we find in the Scripture, the Church of the apostles. I have seen a meme on social media that states that a true Christian would be standing at the border offering food and clothing, not a wall and guns; and this is true. The true Church that we see in Scripture is not concerned with nationalistic patriotism; to the contrary, it is more concerned with the people of God becoming a nation unto itself. We find a Church whose largest sect of followers were, at that time, refuted, mocked, assaulted, and sought after for their silence.

May we emulate their example. Christ is risen!

Acts 6

Here we see that the Church had basically outgrown itself. The number of believers was multiplying and the priests were having trouble keeping up with the demands of physically and spiritually maintaining them. Here, we see the chaos and lack of order; while the neglect of the Hellenists was unintentional, it served to illustrate that the problems faced by the Church came not only from the outside world, but internally as well. It was necessary to create a more diverse infrastructure. The ministering of the word and the care for the widows were each important, however, this event revealed that both ministries could not be performed by the same people and still receive the proper attention that each required.

Thus it was that the Church began to diversify each of it’s ministries. And it’s important to note the qualifications set forth for each of these ministries. It was necessary on the one hand that each of them be of good reputation and filled with the Holy Spirit, that they could assist in the spiritual needs of the ministry. On the other hand, it was necessary that they had the wisdom to fulfill the ministries assigned to them. See, so often in the West, we think of “mercy ministry” (or as I like to to call it, loving your neighbor) as being either one or the other. We look at everything as a business model, where either it is a non-profit business with no pathway to spiritual growth; something as asinine as throwing a gospel tract into a care package; or to the exact opposite, we think of it as a form of spiritual blackmail, where we invite the hungry into our church building and offer them food after a 45+ minute sermon.

What we see here, however, is neither of these things. It is true compassion. It is taking the time to personally provide for the physical needs while being available, if asked, to assist in spiritual needs as well. It’s a balance between having the ability to care for their physical needs, while still being present and taking the time to answer any spiritual questions that they may have; while not shoving the answers down the throats of those who don’t ask, neither judging them. It’s understanding that whether someone is interested in our theology or not, they are still icons of Christ, still made in His image and likeness, and thus, still deserving of the love and care that we are called to provide. We don’t display the love of the Church by helping only those who have a vested interested in her teachings, neither do we display the love of Christ by lecturing them for an hour on what they should believe before we are willing to care for their physical needs. Caring for only those whom we share beliefs with is the way of the world. The love of Christ, the love of the Church, is loving the unlovable; loving friends and enemies, free from judgment or condemnation. It is for this very reason that those who were anointed into this ministry were to be filled with the love of Christ and the Holy Spirit.

In this passage, we also see the structure of the Church developing. The people chose seven deacons to fill these ministries, but it was the apostles who accepted them and anointed them, through prayers and the laying on of hands. It was no “congregational democracy,” where the people voted and that became the rule. Rather, it was a synergy between clergy and laity, where the congregation elected and the Church leaders determined whether to accept or not, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

And we see what happens when the undivided Church works properly. Scripture says that “the number of disciples was multiplied greatly” (v.7) and that can only happen through the unity of the Church, which allows for proper worship (V.4), evangelism (V.4), and charity (V.3). Displaying the love of Christ, and for Christ, to the multitudes.

See, too often, the Church itself becomes it’s own worst enemy. We constantly are at odds with one another. We fight, argue, and debate over issues which are irrelevant. We argue about 168 hour creations and global flooding. We argue about flat versus round earth (believe it or not). We argue, in our own pride, about if works are a requirement of salvation. We argue about these things which would be considered the “bare minimum requirements” of salvation. Often, we give because we feel it is our “Christian duty” to give, rather than out of love and compassion. The world loves songs like “Stairway to Heaven,” because that’s all they see when they look at the Church. They don’t see someone with a tear streaked face grieving for the suffering of their fellow man, they see someone with a guilt lined face saying “here, take it, I guess.” They see parishioners of the Church waving their “good-guy badge” trying to “out-good” one another, rather than showing the sincere compassion of being the light of life to a world in need. Rather than a Church speaking the truth in love, they hear a church screaming the truth in judgment. The world accuses the Church of hypocrisy while most of us proclaim our holiness. And the sad fact is that, more often, it is the world that’s correct. When we look at the image we try to present to the world, and then look at the life we truly live, there’s usually a large disparity between the two.

We so often say, “Christ is in our midst,” yet, do we live like we truly believe that? James tells us that pure and undefiled religion is to care for the poor, the widow, the orphan. Jesus tells us that whatever we do for the least of all men, we do to Him. Paul tells us that we were created in Christ Jesus for good works. Jesus tells us that our love for one another is how the world will recognize that we are His followers. If we truly believe these things, do our lives reflect that? Do we truly love our neighbors as ourselves? Are we giving and helping out of sincere compassion, or just to check another thing off of our holiness checklist? Is our almsgiving a tax write off, or is it reverence to the One who created each one of us, who knitted us together in the womb? Jesus proclaimed, “these people worship Me from their mouths, but their hearts are far from Me.” Was He talking about us?

If that is us, I pray that we repent, break up the fallow grounds of our hearts, and, like the prodigal son, return to Him.

Christ is in our midst.

Acts 5

In the creation, we read that God had created everything, but, “there was no man to till the ground.” (Genesis 2:5 LXX). God Himself had created this beautiful creation, and then chose to create something to care for His creation, man. Similarly, when He became incarnate, He chose to do so as a human child, from birth, thereby allowing others to tend to His well-being, to care for Him. This is important for us to realize, that both in the initial creation, and in the new creation, that God has always used men to exercise His powers. It’s important to realize that because, after His ascension into heaven, He had established His Church to fulfill this role. Rather than individual men, it is the Church itself which He uses to exercise His power.

Here, we see two such examples. First, we see Ananias and Sapphira. A married couple who had sold their land and promised to commit the proceeds from the sale to the Church. And yet, they had allowed Satan to fill their hearts with greed and deceit, breaking the trust and integrity of the Church. Notice, however, that their sin was not withholding the money itself. Peter expressly states that the land that they possessed was theirs from the beginning, and that even after the sale of such land, the money was theirs. No, the sin was not the money or the sale, but rather the dishonesty concerning the withholding of the money. It wasn’t that they sold the land and desired to keep a part of the money, it was the fact that they had promised all of the money to the Church and then withheld a portion of it. And Peter equates this dishonesty not to lying to the Church, but rather lying to the Holy Spirit Himself. “You have not lied to men, but to God Himself.” Their sin was not the desire for money, but rather the hypocrisy of saying one thing and then doing another, of promising to God that they would do something, and then not following through on it. It was the sin of offering to God “lip service” while their lives reflected something completely different.

Secondly, we see many believers bringing the ill into the streets, hoping that even the shadow of Peter walking through the streets might touch them, bringing them healing. This again shows the power of God working through His Church. See, God alone has the power to heal, yet He has chosen the Church as the means through which He will tend to His creation. The power of God rests in His Church, which He established to do His work. He Himself tells us, “whoever believes in Me, the works that I do, He will also do,” and those works extend beyond mere philanthropy. Yes, Jesus fed the poor, He helped the homeless, but He also performed great and many miracles and cast out evil spirits. And we can never neglect these mysteries in our lives, even though they may deny our human logic.

The Lord continues to work these miracles through the sacraments of the Church, which He Himself established to be His beacon of light in the world. Consider that self-help can help one quit smoking, willpower alone can overcome addiction, but only the power of God working through the Church can bring about the miraculous.

In my local parish, recently, there was a two year old who had gotten into her grandmother’s purse and eaten a bunch of her blood pressure medicine. Word spread immediately, and through the parishes prayers and intercessions, this child, whom doctors stated “if she makes it 24 hours, she’ll be okay,” was up and playing within two hours. That is the power of the miracles of our Lord. The hopelessness of the doctors saying “if she makes it 24 hours” became the joy of the Lord, of her being a two year old again, in the span of a few mere hours. This could only have happened through the power of the Lord, working through the Church, who literally dropped whatever they were doing to entreat the Lord in fervent prayer for her recovery.

May we all recognize that the Lord does perform miracles, and those through the Church, which is the power of the Holy Spirit and the Body of Christ, all working in synergy. May we not neglect that the Lord performs miracles, and does so through His Church, for the salvation (healing) of all mankind.

Christ is in our midst.