Meditation on Luke 23

When Pilate learns that Jesus is a Galilean, he sends Him to Herod, as Galilee is in Herod’s jurisdiction. Herod is elated at the news, because he had heard of this Man’s teaching, and the miracles that He had performed, and he wishes to be entertained. Jesus, however, refuses to acquiesce. Elsewhere, in St Matthew’s Gospel, we read the words of Jesus, “Woe to you…for if the mighty works done here had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago…but I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you in the day of judgment.” (Matthew 11:21-22).

See, it’s this very idea that Tyre and Sidon had never received these teachings, or these miracles; thus their unbelief was to much less condemnation than it was for these other nations, who had received this witness and still rejected the Truth. Jesus here knew that Herod would never come to believe, thus His silence here was an act of compassion. Had He revealed such great mysteries in the face of such unbelief, such blasphemy; He would have brought Herod to even greater condemnation. Herod here represents all unbelievers, all unrighteous, who, if they choose not to recognize Jesus as the Christ, will never be able to see His miracles or understand His words. Consider those who disbelieve, how strongly they usually do so. The Psalmist tells us that all of creation bears witness to His glory (Psalm 18:1 LXX), and St Paul teaches us that “since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen.” (Romans 1:20). Herod represents those who “suppress the truth in unrighteousness,” those who, having lost communion with God through tasting the tree of human knowledge, continue to hide behind that tree; thus blinded by human wisdom are unable to see the witness of creation of proof of His existence. He represents all who will believe any theory of men before they would ever consider to accept the Truth of God. Consider how many times we see evidence of the existence of God, and yet, those who refuse to believe will find any human logic that would discredit that belief.

After meeting with Herod, Jesus is sent back to Pilate, and upon His return, the people demand that Jesus be crucified. Thrice does Herod seek to free Him, and the people refuse to allow it to be so. They demand that Barabbas, a rebel and a murderer, be released, while Jesus be crucified. A man named Simon, meanwhile, is tapped to help to bear the cross as they march to Golgotha. Simon, whose name means “obedience,” represents all the faithful who, to follow Jesus, must bear the cross that He places on them. Barabbas, on the other hand, whose name means “son of the father,” represents the world, the children of Satan, who is the ruler of this present world (John 14:30).

Thus, in this passage, we see this stark contrast between Simon and Barabbas. Barabbas, who represents those who “are of your father the devil,” (John 8:44-45) will escape this earthly persecution and will be allowed, be accepted by the world. Meanwhile, Simon, who represents all who are obedient to Christ, will face this earthly persecution and must bear their cross, suffering for the kingdom of God. However, it is those who bear their cross that shall be remembered in the kingdom of God.

This is the example that we must always bear in mind. Rather than seeking the ease, the comfort, the acceptance of the world; we must always remain steadfast in the faith, willing to endure endless persecution and suffering for the name of the Lord. We must obediently bear our own cross, neither grumbling nor complaining, aware that at the last, it is those who suffer for the kingdom that are counted worthy for entrance into it.

“Blessed are you when men shall revile and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven.” (Matthew 5:11-12, Divine Liturgy); “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets.” (Luke 6:26).

May the grace of the Lord be with us all, my beloved family.

Meditation on Luke 21

We see here all the rich putting their gifts into the treasury of the temple, and a widow. As Jesus watches this occur, He turns and says to the disciples, “this poor widow has put in more than all of the rest, for all of these have put in out of their abundance, but out of her poverty, she has put in all of her livelihood.”

It’s important for us to understand a concept which may be hard for us to grasp. Tithing is not about a dollar amount. Tithing is never about a bottom line. Jesus doesn’t need out money. So, when we give to the Church out of the feeling of obligation, figuring out how little we can get away with giving to Him, we accomplish nothing. When we glance around to see whose watching before we drop a few dollars into a collection plate, we have to ask if this bare minimum approach is even pleasing to God. See, we tend to think in terms of this bottom line. All the times in the world, we see the wealthy and the affluent receiving this special treatment because of their tax bracket. And here, we learn a very valuable lesson from Jesus, He is no respecter of men. He doesn’t care about this tax bracket. To Him, the millionaire who gives a thousand dollars gives nothing compared to the poor homeless man who gives twenty.

No, and this is an important fact for us to remember, the Lord accounts the value of a gift based on what is withheld, not what is given.

See, we think of tithing as being about the money itself. And on some base level it might be. Yes, in earthly terms, there are pragmatic purposes for giving to the Church. Various ministries, schooling, operational expenses, etc. Spiritually, however, tithing is about the heart, it’s about treasures being stored up, it’s about what we are trusting in. Are we trusting in Jesus to provide for us, or are we trusting in earthly riches? Are we storing up treasures here for ourselves, or are we denying ourselves those creature comforts and storing up eternal treasures? Remember the story of the rich young ruler. When he asked Jesus what he must do to be saved, Jesus tells him to “keep the commandments.” After that, however, when the ruler proclaimed that he had, Jesus, knowing his heart, commands that he sell all and give the money to the poor. To this command, the ruler’s response is to walk away sad, for he is so in love with his riches, that he could never sell everything. His heart was such that he could deny himself everything else, but never his comfort, his possessions, his wealth.

See, here’s the breakdown. Riches themselves aren’t bad, it is the dominion over our heart that we give them that becomes sin. Wealth isn’t bad, greed is. When we view our riches as a tool given to us for various services, for good, then they are good. It is when we place our love of riches before the love of God or of our fellow man that they become wicked. Tithing is given to us as a spiritual tool to maintain this discipline, to remind us that what we have is not ours. It helps us to maintain control over our possessions rather than allowing our possessions to possess us. Tithing and almsgiving aren’t about what we give, they are about what we keep for ourselves. They’re about the ascesis that the Lord commands of any who would come after Him; the self-denial that truly loves the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength; and truly loves our neighbor as ourselves.

When we practice this virtue through the discipline of tithing, then we are able to maintain the mindset that our money is not ours, it belongs to the poor, it belongs to the hungry, it belongs to any who are in need of it. Each of us is a slave to something, and the spiritual discipline of tithing helps to guard us against becoming a slave to earthly riches. It helps us seek not to serve two masters, but instead keeps this wealth in it’s place. This poor widow gave all the material possessions that she had, because she understood that none of them meant anything in light of the riches of the kingdom to come. The wealthy gave a portion of their earthly riches; this widow gave everything because she understood that earthly riches are unprofitable in the kingdom. As St Paul states, “And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” (1 Timothy 6:8-10).

Let us all remember this lesson from the widow. Let us place our love for God and for one another before our love of riches. And let us be cautious of the trap of thinking that the warnings for the rich are only about the Bill Gates and Donald Trumps of the world. Remember, as you are driving in your car from your job to your home to cook your warm meal, to the homeless beggar on the street, you are that rich man. And let us remember also, that you need not possess money for money to possess you. A poor man who dreams of being rich is possessed by money just as much as the wealthy man who hordes his riches.

May we never fall into this trap of Satan. May we all keep the love of God as our central thought, and pray diligently for the fortitude to stand against these temptations, taking full advantage of the disciplines that the Church has prescribed for us to maintain this right heart. Prayer, fasting, tithing, almsgiving; each of these will help us to keep our hearts focused away from these worldly pursuits and instead, as the widow in the passage, focused solely on the Lord.

May the grace of the Lord be with you all.

John 2:13-17

When Jesus enters the temple, He is aghast at what He finds there. There were men selling live animals to be offered as sacrifices; rather than each person offering sacrifices of their own belongings, they would just walk in and buy whatever sacrifice seemed the best, and the merchants convincing them that this would be more pleasing to God than whatever they already had to offer. Consider this thought for a moment; now contrast that to the sacrifice that God demanded of Abram. His own of his own, his very son Isaac, laid on the altar. Consider the very sacrifices of Cain and Abel, one considered worthy of the Lord, and the other rejected by the Lord. Now consider the fact that the very leaders of the temple were allowing this practice here. This sort of illustrates the state of affairs in the temples when Jesus arrives there. Worship and sacrifice had become sort of like this checklist, it became the “what you do” in the culture, with no real meaning or heartfelt intention. People would go to the worship service on the Sabbath so that no one would say anything about them, but their real desire was to not go anywhere else. I’ve seen this in our culture, where people will go, sort of half-heartedly listen to whatever the preacher/priest was talking about, and then sigh and open their wallets when the collection plate is passed.

And beyond that fact, the temples would not accept Roman coins for the tithe, as they bore the face of Caesar, thus the temples taught that to accept these coins would be to defile the temple. So, the leaders would station people who could exchange Jewish coins for Roman coins, at a high exchange rate I’m sure, so that the Jewish people could exchange their money for coins that the temple could accept; with a portion of the exchanges themselves going to the temple. The leaders had managed to completely turn the worship of God every Sabbath into a highly profitable business venture; and the people had accepted this because it freed them from any thoughts of preparation, of reverence; they could merely awaken on the day of worship and half-heartedly wander into the temple with no thoughts or concerns, and coldly enter in and recite the same prayers that they had always been taught but never truly believed.

Even more than removing this sense of reverence to the Lord, these leaders had done something else that was strictly opposed to the Lord. See, in making the temple a place of business, they had brought these earthly concerns into the temple. Part of this lack of reverence was that instead of entering into a heavenly place of worship, those who sought to pay true homage to the Lord must instead be concerned about what nation their coins were from, what their cattle looked like, things which had no place in the worship of the One True God. Jesus referred to the temple as a den of thieves not only because they were being unfair in their business practices, but because they were robbing God Himself of the honor and worship due to Him.

In His cleansing of the temple, we see a two-fold fact. We see, on the one hand, that the Church itself must be free from these earthly pursuits. While there are righteous deeds and actions which the Church must pursue, caring for the needy, feeding the hungry, taking care of the widows and the elderly, etc; things like a profit margin, restaurants, televisions stations, mansions for church leaders, private jets, etc, have no place in the “Church budget.” Secondly, and equally importantly, we know from St. Paul that “you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God resides within you. If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him, which temple you are.” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). Jesus cleansed the temple because of the earthly desires and cares that had been allowed to intrude on it’s purity and defile it; so too are we each a temple of God, and thus we must allow this same cleansing to take place within our hearts. There is no place within us for these earthly cares, wants and desires; and each time we allow them entrance into us we are defiling the very temple of God.

We need to be extremely guarded against this spirit of the age which constantly knocks at the doors of our hearts; this deceitfulness of Satan beckoning us and tempting us to allow entrance into the Holy temple which God Himself has created each one of us to be. Gluttony, lust, anger, greed, sadness, despondency, vanity, pride; each of these are normal in our culture. Oftentimes, these vices are even celebrated, so much so that we stand labelled as an outcast if we stray from any of them. Yet, each one of those things, whether by their archaic names, or by their modern names; depression, self-esteem, self-love, ambition, passion, desire; once you allow them quarter, will defile the temple of God within you.

May we all, as one Church united, lay aside these earthly cares and pray daily that the Lord would cleanse His temple, our body mind and soul, that we may stand together in praise and hymn of He who is worthy.

May the peace of the Lord be with you all, my beloved family.

On Idols

Meditation on Zacchaeus, Luke 19

Here is the image of this man, Zacchaeus. While physically short, the fathers also view this as one who is lacking in faith and virtue, spiritually short of stature as well. As he hears of Jesus’ arrival, being crowded by the multitude of all of these sins and earthly pursuits, he finds himself initially unable to see the Messiah come. All of these sins, these earthly pursuits and desires, these passions, block his vision of the Lord. So strongly, however, does he desire to finally be free from all of this, that he removes these tethers that are tying him to this world, ascending a tree, removed from the earthly level of carnal desires. The moment that he is able to sever those ties, he can see above all of the temptation and find the vision that he seeks, that of the Lord. At that very moment, freed from those things which had trapped him here, had kept him blinded, Jesus beckons him to come join Him.

How unfortunate that, so often, we allow ourselves to remain blinded by these same concerns. Jesus is ever-present, always willing to come to any who are willing to bring themselves to believe and repent. But to do so, we must, as Zacchaeus, be willing to sever those ties which have bound us to this life. Our possessions, our careers, our passions and pleasures; we too must be willing to cast off these chains and “climb the tree.”

When Jesus beckons, we see Zacchaeus immediately respond. He restores that which he had acquired unjustly, thus fulfilling the Law. Beyond that, though, he also freely gives half of all that he has to help the poor, thus displaying the love of the Gospel. And, the chronology of this is important to notice as well. Notice that he doesn’t compensate those from whom he had stolen and then give half of the remainder to the poor; rather, he gives half of all that he has to the poor and then compensates what is owed fourfold to those from whom he had stolen. It’s important to notice that, because, as he was a man driven by greed, to then leave himself basically penniless was the ultimate sacrifice, the ultimate ascetic action. It shows that he recognizes that anything that he has on this earth that he loves more than the Lord means nothing, thus he is truly fulfilling the commandment to “deny himself, pick up his cross, and follow Him.” Church tradition maintains that Zacchaeus went on to become a bishop of the Church.

This all serves to teach us a very valuable lesson. See, Zacchaeus, who was motivated by a love of money, sacrificed that very thing which would have stood between him and the Lord. So often in our lives, we choose those things that we are willing to sacrifice to walk in the faith, but then cling to those things which we are not willing to sacrifice. This becomes a problem when those things are things which are held in a higher esteem than the Lord. And they aren’t always necessarily bad things. Sometimes it’s a sin which we are clinging to, something which we enjoy which we see as “not that big of a deal;” sometimes it’s a lifestyle which we cling to, whether it’s affluence or the like; sometimes it’s something as simple as a hobby. It’s playing music, and we find ourselves dedicating the time that we should be using to commune with the Lord to write music instead. And sometimes it’s something which is basically good, it’s family, or a job. We need to evaluate our lives and determine if there is anything which we hold in higher esteem than the Lord. Remember, anything that we place before the Lord becomes an idol in our lives, and we need to pray to the Lord that He would grant us the grace to remove those idols from our lives. Sometimes, by granting that we could remove it completely from our lives and remove it’s power over us, such as with sinfulness; and other times by guiding us through His grace to place them in their right place in our hearts, such as family, employment, wealth.

Zacchaeus was a man who willingly sacrificed the one thing in his heart that would stand in the way of walking with the Lord, may we also be willing to do the same. May we seek Him, His kingdom, His righteousness with our whole hearts and ask Him to help us remove anything which would stand between us and Him.

May the grace of the Lord be with you, my beloved brothers and sisters.

Meditation on Luke 14 (Part 1)

Jesus teaches us a parable here about a dinner party. He teaches us that when we are invited to a dinner party, we should always choose the lowest seat. It’s the image of a man who is invited to a dinner party and assumes the seat of honor. When he is told to move from that place to a lower seat, and each time this happens, he is further humbled. Jesus tells us that the preference would be to begin in the lower seat and thus be honored if we are told to assume the higher, rather than this supposition that we deserve the higher to begin with. Ultimately, it’s this idea that the higher our opinion of ourselves, the easier it is to suffer from disgrace and dishonor when we are humbled. The self-righteous man caught in his hypocrisy is far more greatly disgraced than the humble man when he is rebuked.

This is an important lesson for we in Christ. See, especially in our culture where we base everything on this “obsessive comparison disorder,” it’s so easy for us to fall into Satan’s trap, his temptation towards self-righteousness. It’s so tempting for us to find our holiness in comparing ourselves to another’s shortcomings. It’s ever so easy for us to proclaim that we are better than anyone else because of our convictions, to make statements like “I don’t watch that, because I’m a Christian.” It’s an afterthought almost for us to look at someone else’s missteps and trumpet our own righteousness in comparison. We cast judgment on those who are caught up in addiction, on those who are caught up in adultery and fornication, on those who have demons that they are struggling against, and see ourselves as “better” than them because of it, thereby feeling as though we have accomplished something. It is much better that we should maintain a clear account and awareness of our own sinfulness, and then, out of the humility of our own awareness; extend our love humbly to others, rather than our judgments. Chrysostom teaches us that the Church is a hospital to heal the sick, not a court to judge them. A cancer patient would never mock someone whose cancer is further progressed than theirs, neither would they judge someone whose cancer refuses to go into submission. Of course not, they would extend their hand lovingly and say, “can I get you anything?” They would offer to help and attempt to build one another up. So, why would we, aware of our own sinfulness, judge someone else whose sin has progressed further? Why would we slander someone whose struggles with their sin have been less successful than ours? Shouldn’t we instead, as the cancer patient, also lovingly reach out to help them? To help them through it. To build them up so that they would have a better chance at overcoming?

There’s a story of a monk who lived in a monastery, and each night the other brothers would see him drunk. And then one day he fell asleep in the Lord. The brothers approached the elder of the monastery and asked, “aren’t you happy that the drunkard is finally dead? He was an embarrassment to the monastery.” The elder explained to them that the monk had been very sick when he was a child, and his parents had given him alcohol to quiet him down, which as he grew older developed into an addiction to alcohol. Once he joined the monastery, he fought and fought against that addiction, and by the grace of God, had gotten down to one drink a day before he died. And the elder taught them, it is not for us to judge him for the work that Jesus had done in the man’s life, because we do not know where someone has come from or what has lead them to where they are. He explained to them that this man had spent his entire life there in repentance, struggling against these demons, while still obediently obeying all of the rules of the monastery and laboring intensely for the sake of all, always willing to help anyone who ever needed anything and never judging anyone. Because he was aware of his own sinfulness, he never looked on any other to judge them, and because of his weakness, he saw the power and grace of God. The brothers had fallen into the sin of pride and self-righteousness, and because of that, they saw only a drunk of whom they were embarrassed.

When we see someone who is struggling with something, may we all remember this lesson. May we not see someone as their sin, but rather, focusing on our own sins, see each person as someone who needs love, who needs prayer, who needs brothers and sisters who will build them up, rather than judge them. May we remain aware of our own shortcomings, and allow our weakness to humble us to where we see only God’s grace, working in us and in everyone around us. May we truly display the love of Christ to all the world, through our words, through our thoughts, through our actions, through our very lives.

Christ is in our midst.

Meditation on Luke 10

Here again we see Jesus sending out His disciples, to preach the kingdom, to heal the sick, to cast out demons. And He commands us again to cling to no earthly possessions or luxuries, but rather to rely on His provision and mercy. Even more strongly, He twice tells them to eat and drink whatever is put before them. This statement has multiple facets to it which we must pay heed. On the one, they are told to receive with gratitude whatever is placed before them, regardless of what it may be. Considering that many are those who embrace the faith and live with meager means, oftentimes the food which was offered to them would be poor and simple food. It’s this sense of receiving, with thanksgiving, whatever is given regardless of how offensive it may taste to you to begin with. Consider someone in our culture who is sent out and having spent his entire life living on buffets and fast food, now sent to a culture where he is offered lentil soup daily, because it is all the family can afford. If he were to reject that meal because it wasn’t “up to his standards,” how strongly would he offend the one for whom that very meal is a feast? It also serves to illustrate a second lesson that we must pay heed to. Remembering that many of the disciples came from a strong Jewish background, where there were many varied food restrictions, and many foods were considered unclean, it served the lesson that reception of their hospitality was of far greater importance than these dietary restrictions. Also, we know that the disciples, and even the Church today, recognized various seasons of fasting, including those of a twice weekly fast. But neither these dietary restrictions nor this fasting rule were to detract from the compassion of receiving their hospitality. Jesus tells us that “when we fast, we must do so as to not be seen by other men.” This is sort of a reiteration of that statement, where He is teaching that offending someone by placing the rule of fasting over their hospitality is to place the rule of fasting over the command to love our neighbor. Fasting is useful, it is necessary; it is commanded multiple times by Jesus Himself, however, it is never to be placed before the command to love your neighbor. Imagine a missionary who is received into the house of a poor family and they sell all they have to prepare a feast for the missionary who is come to teach them about Jesus, and he rejects the meal because it is a fasting day. Yes, fasting is useful and necessary, but the Law of God demands charity, compassion, mercy, gratitude and love.

Then we see an interesting image. The disciples return from their mission, and we see them rejoicing in the power that they have been given by Jesus over the demons and to heal the sick, this mighty power which they wield in His name. And He responds with the gravest of warnings. He warns them against being consumed with this power. He teaches them that Satan himself was once a mighty angel, wielding all of this power given to him from the Lord, but he became consumed by it, swollen with the pride that this power can bring, seeking glory for himself. See, it’s this warning that we must be careful with the gifts that God has given to us. We must remember that they have been given to us as tools with which we are able to help others. As they were casting out demons, their focus was on the power that they had over these mighty demons, instead of love for the ones that they were healing. Our thankfulness should never be for the ability to “stand out” that our gifts bring to us, but rather it should be for our opportunity to do the work of the kingdom, to bring joy and love into the lives of others. We should be thankful that our names are written in the book of life, and that until then we are able to serve others in whatever capacity it has been given to us. Riches, healing, teaching, whatever gift we have been given has been given to us for the purpose of serving others, not to seek after our own glory. Consider that our Lord has commanded us that our prayers, our almsgiving, our fasting; all of it be done in secret, so that none of it would be done out of the desire for recognition. I once read the statement that “feeding the poor is great, but the moment you take a photo of it and post it on social media, it’s no longer the poor you are feeding, but your own ego.”

Lastly, we see a lawyer who, quoting from the Law, proclaims that the greatest commands are, “Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind” and “love your neighbor as yourself.” But then he challenges Jesus, asking, “and who is my neighbor?” And, we read this and it’s so easy to condemn him for making this statement, almost as easy as it is to overlook each time we do the same in our life. When we drive by a homeless man and cast judgment, presuming to know how and why he is homeless; when we see a drug addict and immediately judge them for their own struggles with their demons; when we declare that our nation should stop immigrants from entering into the country; every time we look at anyone with less compassion and love than we have for ourselves, we repeat this question in our heart, “who is my neighbor?”

Jesus tells the story of a man who is robbed, stripped and bleeding, lying half-dead in the street. From a distance, it would be hard to tell exactly what had happened to him, it would be easy to think him a man who had drunkenly stumbled out to the street and fallen down. And a priest approaches, sees him lying there, and crosses to the other side of the street to avoid him. Soon, a Levite approaches, and likewise, crosses the street to avoid him. Finally, a Samaritan, a despised foreigner, sees him and goes over to help him. And Jesus asks the lawyer, “so, who was the better neighbor to this man?” The lawyer responds, not the priest, although he may have bypassed him and then gone and prayed for his soul; not the Levite, although he may have gone to the temple and offered a sacrifice on the man’s behalf; but the foreigner, the one who stopped and showed the mercy and compassion of God.

Jesus’ command to him, and to us, is to go and do likewise. See, as Christians, as followers of Christ, we have to remember the commands of the Lord. Forgiveness is not optional. When we bear a grudge against someone, we bear it against ourselves, who pray daily, “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” Mercy, compassion, love, these things are not optional. When we see someone in need, it is not optional to turn away from helping them, even if we go and pray for them afterwards. James tells us, “If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warm and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for their body, what does it profit them?” (James 2:15-16). This homeless man, this hungry man, this naked man; this is a man who has been made in the image of Christ, and it is not our place to look to their circumstances or to judge them; it is our place to help them, to love them. Chrysostom teaches us that “if you do not find Christ in the homeless man at the Church gate, neither shall you find Him in the chalice.”

We must remember that each of us was made in the image of Christ, each human being is an icon of Christ, and as Christ Himself tells us, “whatever you do to the least of these, you do to Me.” Let us remember that, let us see this icon of Christ in each person, in any circumstance, and let us react accordingly, my brothers and sisters.

Christ is in our midst.

A meditation on the parable of the sower, Luke 8.

To understand a mystery is not to have a logical comprehension of it, but rather to attain to the Spiritual meaning of it; and this can only be attained through faith. So often, we think of comprehending a mystery as unlocking the secrets of the mystery, of using logic to completely remove the mystery and thus the need for faith itself. Faith tells us that God created the sun, logic seeks to unlock how and why He chose to do so. GK Chesterton once said that the poet will never go nearly as mad as the logician, because the poet seeks merely to get his head into the heavens, while the logician seeks to get the heavens into his head.

See, when we search the Scriptures with logic, we become blinded by our own knowledge, often finding meanings that were never truly there, while missing the very lessons that are the reason that we were given them. And when we do this, we become truly blind. As Jesus here states to the disciples, “to you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom, but to the rest it is given in parables, that ‘seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand.'” The kingdom isn’t a riddle to be solved, but rather, a mystery to be embraced, and that by faith. Take the Eucharist, for example. Jesus clearly states in the Gospel that “this is My body which is broken for you…this is My blood of the New Covenant…behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” In our minds, we claim to believe that He is with us always, we claim to believe all that the Scriptures tell us, but our logic teaches us otherwise. In our faith, we believe that God created all things out of nothingness, but in our logic, we don’t even believe that the Holy Spirit can turn bread and wine into flesh and blood. Logic tells us that the Eucharist is symbolic at best; whereas faith tells us that the Eucharist is transfiguring, it is literally partaking of that very sacrifice that the apostles partook of, creating this union, this synergy with God, this oneness between us and Him. And, this defies logic. So, what do we do? In the West, so often, we bow down to logic and ignore the faith necessary to believe the words of Scripture, the words of Jesus Himself. Like 21st century Eunomians, we deny anything that doesn’t make logical sense, we disbelieve anything that requires true faith in lieu of what our finite minds can comprehend.

Here we see the parable of the Sower. To those who hear by faith, this parable has such a deep lesson concerning the kingdom of heaven. The seeds which fall by the wayside are those who hear the words of God and are immediately filled with doubt and disbelief. Satan immediately makes them question everything that they see and hear, taste and smell. The words of faith are immediately removed before there is any chance of them ever taking root in the heart of the hearer. Often, they are blinded by “logic” and thus are unwilling to allow the words of faith to even take effect, they immediately cast the words aside as being nonsense. The seeds cast onto the rock seem to be most of the Western church. The hear the words and receive them with joy; they begin going to services, become a church member, even proclaimed themselves saved. But, it is a faith based on this one initial superficial emotional response. It is those who raise their hand during an altar call and “receive Christ” and yet do not open themselves up for a moment even for the Holy Spirit to work on changing their hearts. It is the one who calls themselves a Christian but are unwilling to cast aside any of their earthly cares, thus the moment temptation comes to them, having no foundation in the truth of the Church or her traditions, they walk away. They succumb to the temptations of carnal desires and leave the path of repentance and holiness, usually justifying it with statements like “once saved, always saved,” or, “I just want my own relationship with Jesus, I don’t need the Church.” And the further they distance themselves from the Church, the easier it becomes to fall away from the Church. The world becomes their church very quickly. The seeds which fall into the thorns are those who truly hear and receive the words of God, but are unable to cast aside earthly cares, concerns, pursuits. While they truly, fully believe in the words of God, and even the teachings of the Church, they are unable to cast them aside, to fully commit to the word of God. They very quickly find themselves trying to follow two masters, to chase after the things of the world while still abiding in the word of God, which Jesus teaches us is impossible to do. Ultimately, when the two come into conflict, you must choose one over the other, and someone not given to the ascetic life while inevitably choose the world over the Lord. They choose work over attendance in at the liturgy, they choose to indulge in sleeping over awakening to keep the hours of prayer, they choose the opinions of men over their faith in God. Rather than arriving late for an event, they determine that they don’t need to attend the Saturday vespers service; and eventually all of these cares of the world, these thorns, rob the seeds of faith of the nourishment that they need to grow. They may not fully fall away from the Church, but often become very lukewarm in their faith, finding joy in their belief but lacking the conviction to follow it.

The last of these is the good soil. It is he who receives the words of the Lord with gladness, who fully embrace it. It is he who has counted the cost, and found it worth it. It is the man who is willing to obey, to fully abide in the Lord, to sacrifice all for the sake of Christ. It is the man who chooses love, compassion, almsgiving, and thankfulness rather than personal pursuits. The man who fully embraces the asceticism that the Lord demands of all who would follow after Him, to truly “deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow Me.” And, it is of these that the Lord speaks at the close of this passage when He states, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.” May we all break up the fallow ground of our hearts, hardened by years of being in the world, and become this good soil that will allow the word of God to take root, to change us, to make us willing to sacrifice anything and everything that would come between us and the Lord. May we cling to the teachings of the Church and the words of the Holy Scripture and allow them to take root within us to help us to grow, by God’s grace, into the perfection of His holy likeness; becoming through His grace what He is through His essence. There are only two options given in Scripture, each of us has a Father, and we are either sons of the Lord, or sons of Satan. The goal of our life is to “hit the mark,” the target, and we must choose which target we are aiming towards. Anything that doesn’t make us more like Christ instead makes us more like Satan. May we all choose the aim of being more like Christ, and may the Lord lead us in this pursuit.

Christ is in our midst.

John 2:6-12

Waterpots in Jewish teaching were made of stone, unlike the leatherskins used for wine, so that they would not be corrupted and thus made impure. There was very little water in Cana, thus these waterpots would never have had anything other than water placed within them. It’s important to understand this, because it’s imperative to the integrity of the miracle that we see Jesus perform here. See, were there any chance that there was already any amount of wine contained in the pots, then anyone could have claimed that the wine was already there and then merely diluted with the water, diluting but multiplying. When I was a child, my father would do the same with ketchup, he would use the bottle until it neared emptiness, and then add water to increase the yield from the bottle. However, in this instance, since the pots were filled by others, and there was no chance that there were anything contained beyond whatever water was already there, then it serves to preserve the integrity of the event that occurred. It is for this reason also that our Lord converts the water which others had brought in, rather than merely creating the wine out of thin air, or even creating the water Himself and then converting it; either of which would seem to be the greater miracle. No, in seeking the labor of others to fill the pots, those who had done so become unintentional witnesses to the miracle being performed.

And note what the apostle tells us, these pots were reserved for “Jewish purification.” Thus, the waterpots themselves represent the Law, the Prophets, the Jewish traditions. That there were six (one less than the heavenly number of perfection, seven), illustrates that the Law itself was incomplete, imperfect, unable to bestow life. The six waterpots themselves served their purpose, but were unable to satisfy the needs of the wedding feast until the coming of Jesus. Being filled with water, then converted to wine at the feast illustrates the old covenant being fulfilled in the new, with the water of the Old Covenant being brought to completion in the wine of the New Covenant, through the intercession of Jesus Christ, Who alone is able to bestow life and bring all things to completion. The sheer amount of wine that He brings forth displays the overflowing, abundant grace that He offers to any who would partake.

And notice that the master of the feast, when he had tasted the wine, did not call the servants, who knew from whence the wine had come, but rather, upon the bridegroom. See, many times in Scripture, we see Jesus perform a miracle and tell the recipients of that miracle to not speak of from whom they had received it. Here, we see a similar fact, for He knew that it was not yet His time to make all known. Thus, while He had created the servants to be unintentional witnesses to the miracle He had performed, He did not yet wish that miracle to be revealed.

So often in our generation, we seek for signs and miracles to help us to solidify our faith. We seek for evidence, that what we are believing is true. We want to understand our faith in our rational minds, rather than following in true faith. We seek the red sea in our swimming pool, the raining of fire at our cook-out. So many in our generation just feel as though they just need this one bit of evidence and then they will believe; that if they could only witness a miracle, then they would just believe. And yet, when presented with a miracle, they seek to explain away the miraculous. They observe a natural disaster and seek to explain it with weather patterns and the like, disregarding the miracle of those patterns themselves. So often, we say that we will only believe in what we can taste, hear, smell, touch, see; and yet as St Paul teaches us, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for.” (Hebrews 12:1) and in his letter to the Romans, “hope that is not seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he has seen?” (Romans 8:24). If faith itself is the assurance of things hoped for, and hope that is seen is not hope, then faith in something that you have seen is no longer faith. Knowing that I have a pencil in my hand requires no faith, for it is something that I can physically see. Faith therefore, by Paul’s definition, is that very thing intangible, that very thing supernatural. That very thing that cannot be explained in human terms. Faith is joining into the liturgy and being assured that you are joining into the choir of angels singing and praising His holy name. Faith is taking the Eucharist and knowing that you are partaking of the body and blood of our beloved Lord. Faith, by definition, requires mystery; and not a mystery that we undertake to solve, but a mystery that we accept we will never understand. Our Lord Himself warns us that “this evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign and no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah.” (Matthew 12:39;16:4).

See, we always seek these signs, this empirical evidence, before we will believe. But time and again in Scripture, we see the exact opposite. Time and again in Scripture, it is once someone believes that they see the miracles. Consider how many times, in the Gospels, we hear the statement of Jesus, “your faith has made you well.” Consider that Jesus admonished the multitudes who had returned after the feeding of the five thousand, “I say to you, you seek Me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.” (John 6:26). Consider His admonishment of Thomas, “because you have seen you have believed, blessed are those who have not seen yet still believed.” (John 20:29). Now, put this into a modern context, how many times have we heard, or perhaps even said ourselves, “Jesus, if You do this, I’ll believe,” or “Jesus, if you give me this, I’ll go to church.”

See, so often, we do it backwards. We dismiss everything that we don’t understand, and accept that which we can grasp and call that faith. We demand the miracle be performed as the foundation of our faith rather than having the faith and then seeing the miracle that follows. To have true faith is to believe in those very things which we can not understand and grasp. It is only through the true light of the Gospel, the true light of Jesus, that we can see the miraculous heavenly things. St Paul teaches us that “the god of this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe, lest the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ should shine on them.” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Jesus doesn’t seek those who demand signs and miracles to believe in Him, He shows those signs and miracles to those who do. To a cynic who demands miracles, every sunrise is just another day, but to those who are zealous in their faith, they see every sunrise as the miracle it is, and every day as another gift given to us to do His work, to spread the joy and the light of the Gospel to others. And we see it all through Scripture, signs and wonders and miracles done through men and women who first held great faith. Noah believed God, obeyed Him, and was saved. Elijah believed God, prayed unto the Lord, was able to call forth fire from the heavens. But with each of them, faith was first, followed by the miracles. May we call forth those great witnesses and ask their prayer that we would be the same. May we have faith in the unseen, that, by the grace of God, our eyes may be enlightened to the things of the Lord.

The peace of the Lord be with you all, my beloved brothers and sisters.

12-10-2018

Mark 9

The disciples were disputing amongst themselves over which one of them would be counted the greatest, the most pious, the most loyal of the Lord. Once Jesus makes known His knowledge of this dispute, He immediately rebukes them, stating that, “if anyone amongst you desires to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” See, He is teaching us that this desire to be the first, to be the most zealous for the things of God, is not a desire rooted in holiness, but rather in pride, in selfish ambition and self-righteousness. See, while the striving for holiness is a command of the Lord, the striving for being the “holiest” is nothing more than maintaining the outward appearance of holiness. To be “holier” than someone else means that you are looking at their walk and comparing it to your own, rather than focusing on God and trying to be like Him. It places you in the position of acting as judge on God’s behalf. You being to note every flaw, every shortcoming and weakness of the one to whom you are comparing yourself. Suddenly, your target becomes the person to whom you are comparing yourself rather than Jesus. Even moreso, at the moment you begin to compare yourself to another, you lose the main characteristic of holiness, humility.

See, humility is the most important characteristic of holiness, because it is one which is impossible to feign. See, you can maintain outward signs and in doing so feign things like being honest, like being ethical, even loving through care for the poor. But, humility is the one trait that the moment you begin to boast about it, you reveal yourself. In fact, the moment you open your mouth concerning any topic, you reveal your humility or lack thereof. Pride poisons your heart, and “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth will speak.”

I find it interesting, though unsurprising, and a very strong indictment of our culture, that the Scripture moves immediately from this dispute over who will be the greatest to the telling of a man whom the disciples had commanded to stop casting out demons in Jesus’ name, because he wasn’t with them. I think of the many various factions in our Church, each claiming that they are the “rightest” and that all others are wrong. I think of the numerous servants of God that others, due to personal preference, consider to be “unworthy” and “unqualified” to teach the word of God. I think of an evangelical pastor in North Carolina who has been directly declared “unqualified” by a very prestigious California pastor. I think of the “Bible Answer Man” who was declared anathema when he became Eastern Orthodox. And then I consider a shepherd who was neither the child of a prophet, nor was he himself educated nor desiring to prophesy, but who did so obediently when the Lord commanded (Amos). I think of the band of fishermen, tentmakers, and tax collectors, various assorted “unlearned men,” who were each chosen to teach the word of God to the Scribes and Pharisees, the religious holy men of the time.

The Lord Himself established one holy catholic and apostolic Church, and declared that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. And yet, we are doing everything in our power to prove Him wrong. We are constantly causing turmoil and grief, tearing each other down, telling one another not to listen to anyone else, that there are only certain teachers who are qualified to teach the Gospel. Much like the Church in Corinth, to whom St Paul wrote, “for when there are envy, strife and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For when one of you says, ‘I am of Paul,’ and another, ‘I am of Apollos,’ are you not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one?” (1 Corinthians 3:4-5). Jesus told us that the world would know that we are His children by the love that we have for one another; given the turmoil amongst so many of us, it is little wonder that the world doesn’t believe in what we believe, we seem not to either.

Make no mistake, we must call heresy heresy, but we must be ever careful about what we find to be heresy and what is merely different from our beliefs. Arius taught heresy, he spoke against the divinity of Christ. Eunomius taught heresy, he taught that if we were unable to understand something then we must not believe in it. Someone teaching that the world was created in seven 24 hour periods is not a heretic, neither is someone teaching that it was seven undetermined periods of time. Polycarp wasn’t martyred for his belief in a global flood versus a localized flood, he was martyred for refusal to renounce Jesus. In His holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, there is no room for disputes over who is the greatest; there is no place for these trivial divisions. If we allow the Holy Spirit to conform us to the image of Christ, if we display the love and mercy and compassion of Christ to the world, then thousands around us might be saved. The moment we start murdering our brothers and sisters, whether in our thoughts, our actions, or our words; then we are displaying to the world that we are just like them. We are proclaiming to the world that there is no power of the Holy Spirit to save us, to change us, to transfigure us into the image and likeness of Christ.

That pastor in North Carolina is unworthy to teach the Gospel, equally so is the man who accuses him of being unworthy, equally so the fishermen, the tax collectors, the tentmakers, the priests and prophets. It is not any earthly qualification that could ever make us worthy of doing so, but rather the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And with that anointing, each of them is made equally worthy. Let us not divide over trivial matters, but instead stand united as one Church, one royal priesthood, one holy nation; let our lives be characterized with love and our faith with unity, and pray for those who wrong us, not that they be shown the “right way,” but that they would experience the love and mercy, the forgiveness, peace, and grace of God. Let us not quibble over who is the least and who is the greatest, but recognize that all of us are the icon of Christ in the world, and that however we treat one another, however we treat even those who are not of the faith, is how we treat Him.

Let us use the words of Holy Scripture to guide us in the paths of holiness, rather than using them as a guideline of judgment towards others. Let us all help one another, pray for one another, build up one another, and then we leave it for God alone to judge.

May the grace of the Lord be with you all, my beloved family.

12-6-2018

Well, today is the Feast of St Nicholas. As per the words during the homily during the Vespers service last night, it’s sort of like the “half-time” period of the Nativity Fast. It’s the time when we can reflect on how the fast is going, how our preperations for the coming of the Lord are going. Where we are spiritually on our walk.

As I began to write this, I felt as though I were doing very poorly. I felt more distant than ever from the Lord. My patience and temper were as bad as ever, I had given very little in the way of almsgiving; perhaps the only part of the “fast” that I had maintained was the abstinance from certain foods. I realize that I have been clinging subconsciously to things that I was consciously trying to get away from.

As I was walking home the other night, I was walking on a cold, dark, empty street. The sky was covered with clouds, the temperature had dropped to the point that Decmeber should feel like, there were few leaves on the trees, reminding me of the temporality of all things in this life. And, as I was walking, I couldn’t help but reflect on this and see my life in it. I was looking at the perfect reflection of my lie without Christ. I was gazing at the very image of my life a few years ago. And to see it again reflected, in a concrete form, it made me realize that this was exactly what I was walking away from, a life, as I often wrote, of being “alone and trapped within a crowd.”

See, when we experience something, no matter how amazing it is, everyday, we begin to take it for granted. It happens with foods, with weather, with relationships. And this is what the fast does, this is what the nativity does. It reminds us of what we walk away from when we allow Christ into our lives, when we submit to Him. We struggle through all of these earthly attachments that we’ve allowed to come into our lives, we find ourselves face to face with all of these temptations, we feel most distant from God, because He is reminding us of what we had before we had Him.

For the first time, I finally understand through His eyes what the Nativity season really means. We’re in the period of Scripture that Malachi was written, the period of time when things become sort of “routine” and we find ourselves slowly slipping back into old habits that we had been released from. I always kind of “knew” this, but this was the first time I’ve ever experienced it. And, you can never “know” God simply by learning about Him, to know Him, you have to know Him, which requires the investment, the sacrifice.

Am I looking forward to the glow in my son’s eyes when he sees his presents? Of course I am, but for the first time in my life, that isn’t really my goal this season. My goal isn’t to see the lights and presents, or the look of wonder and amazement, all beautiful things. For the first time, I understand that Christmas means that I am no longer alone, no longer forced to walk on that cold, dark, lonely street alone. It means that none of us ever have to.

For the first time, I finally understand that the denial of these earthly pleasures, the Nativity fast, is to deny us of those things which serve to distract us from what’s truly important. I always blinded myself with Christmas lights, eggnog, Christmas movies, shopping, the “war on Christmas,” anything that I could summon to distract me from what the season is intended to do. The meaning is to reflect on life without Christ, to help us to fully rejoice in life with Him. It reminds us that left to our own devices, we acquire all of these things that stand between us and our obedience to Him. We can fight, debate, justify; we do everything we can but obey. We celebrate our “freedom” by becoming enslaved to other things and then argue against the very tools that we have been given to obtain this true freedom.

As I began to write this, I felt that I was doing horribly this season, but as I began to reflect more and more on it, I realized that maybe I’m doing it correctly, it was my expectation that was wrong. There will always be those remnants that we cling to from our lives that we have left behind, and the fasting during the nativity truly spotlights those areas; it hurts to let go of them. But, as we reflect on them, we come to more greatly appreciate the fact that we are able to do so; remembering the words of the apostle St Peter, “he who suffers in the flesh has ceased from sin.”

May we all use this remaining time until the advent of our Lord to reflect on those sins which we still cling to, and to reflect on the life that He has saved us from; and to commend ourselves and all our lives unto Christ our God.

May the grace of the Lord be with you all, my beloved brothers and sisters.