08-12-2020

1 Corinthians 16:4-12

Paul is concluding his letter to the Church in Corinth here. He speaks of the collection for the Church in Jerusalem which is taking place and speaks of others who may go to Corinth as well. He states that if Timothy goes, he is to be received, and also explains that Apollos will not be visiting any time in the near future, but perhaps at a later time. Obviously word had reached them about the coworkers in Christ which Paul had kept, and they had written out of excitement to meet some of them.

As to his own presence there, he makes a statement which I find very worthy of notice. He states that “I do not wish to see you on the way; but I hope to stay a while with you, if the Lord permits. But I will tarry in Ephesus until Pentecost.” It seems obvious that when he does come to visit, he wants to be able to spend time with them, not be rushed, and that wouldn’t be possible if he stopped on the way, so he determined to tarry in Ephesus until after Pentecost so that he would be able to stay for a length of time in Corinth.

There are two main points in this statement however that I’d like to touch on. The first of which is that he desires to stay in Ephesus until Pentecost. This is so important because the apostle Paul himself bears witness to the fact that the early Church, the Church of the apostles themselves, had already begun to follow a liturgical calendar. And that it was Pentecost is even of more importance, because this wasn’t a feast that was held by the Jews or any of the other religious groups, it was a feast that was exclusive to the Church of Christ. It is a feast held fifty days after the Passover, and was a celebration of the Church receiving the Holy Spirit of Christ after the resurrection. And he goes on to state that he desired to stay there because there were many adversaries, implying that many of the Jews, who frequently caused him problems in his ministry, stood in opposition to this feast.

See, this is of importance to us, because there are so many in the West who oppose these same celebrations. There are many who oppose the celebrations of Pascha (Easter), the Nativity (Christmas), Pentecost, etc. claiming them to be traditions of men and therefore blasphemous. But, to do so would be to proclaim the very apostles themselves as guilty of this same blasphemy. St Paul himself here states that he intends to celebrate this blessed feast, which Church tradition has declared sort of the birthday of the Church. While I am not declaring it blasphemous to not celebrate these feasts, I am defending the idea of those who wish to celebrate in the full liturgical calendar of the Church. As Paul also states, “so let no man judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival…” (Colossians 2:16) and again, “one person esteems one day above another, another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind.” (Romans 14:5).

The second point which I wish to address, and more importantly than the celebration of feasts, is his humility that lies in the statement, “if the Lord permits.” This is so important to us because it recognizes the providence of God. In one of the prayers of the Church, we pray, “whatever news may reach me during the course of the day, teach me to accept it with a calm soul and from the conviction that all is subject to Thy holy will.” It is hard, but absolutely necessary, for us to recognize that everything that happens is allowed by God. Thus, when we get angry about something happening, it is because it is our will, not God’s, which has been offended.

I once heard a story about a person who was scheduled to go on a missions trip. The day the flight was supposed to leave, a bad storm came which cancelled the flight. This young person had been so excited to “go and do God’s work” and was upset that the flight had been cancelled. Now, herein lies the true question. If it was truly God’s will that this person left on that exact day, would a storm have been able to delay the trip? Was the storm more powerful than God, that it could overcome His will? Was this person offended because nature had interfered with God’s plans? Or, was this person offended because their will, their plans, had been interrupted?

That’s why this passage is so important. If anyone who ever lived had the right to righteous indignation, it was St Paul. If ever anyone lived who deserved to be upset over the delay of cancellation of his plans to visit a church that he had planted, it was Paul. And yet, he almost sort of brushes off the thought of his plans and desires because, in his humility, he recognizes that it is not his will which determines these things, but God’s. And a large part of that is in recognizing that if it is God’s will, nothing will prevent it from happening. All that happens comes by the will of God, and it is only when we are seeking our own personal will that we become angered or frustrated when something intercedes to interfere with our plans. Nothing is more powerful than God, thus nothing could actually prevent His will from happening.

In this generation, especially in light of recent circumstances, many Christians are angry with the government, with priests, pastors, elders and heirarchs alike, for being unable to meet together. To attend worship services, or doing so only in limited capacity. And yet, for the laymen, for the regular believer; we have no control over such decisions. And thus, we have the option to allow that anger to fester within us, feeding those fleshly passions of anger and betrayal because our will has been offended. Or, we can humbly accept that this is allowed by God in accordance to His will and allow this time to help us grow in our faith. Attend as many services as we are able to, devote ourselves more strongly to prayer and fasting, spend more time reading the Scriptures and the Church Fathers, speak regularly to our spiritual father, spend more time and energy helping our neighbor and giving alms; and recognize with St Paul that all will return to “normal” within the Church, if the Lord allows.

My brethern, let us not allow our anger to rob us of our salvation. Pray for our leaders that they will be able to discern the right time to allow our church buildings to reopen, and until such time, allow our homes to become our monasteries. Rest assured, we will not be judged for being unable to attend the services, however, we very well may if we allow our anger over our desires to be in church to rob us of our love. Let us not forsake prayer, fasting, the Scriptures, and most importantly, let us not forsake the love for one another by which the Lord Jesus Himself declared would be the very way that the world would see that we are truly His disciples. Repent of our anger, repent of any harsh words or feelings that we have had towards any of our leaders, and instead accept that all is allowed to happen according to God’s will.

Christ is in our midst.

7-17-2020

1 Corinthians 4:5-8

I remember being a kid, and when ever birthdays or Christmas, or whatever occasion for celebration came around, and there were always those kids who would brag about what presents they got. They were filled with such a sense of pride about what presents they got and they flaunted them and made everyone else feel bad because they got so much better presents than anyone else. Some of them even perfected the art of “one-up-man-ship,” they would begin with the smaller gifts and eventually build up to the “coup de grace” present, the one that literally everyone wanted. And looking back on those days now, it’s easy to recognize how unloving that behavior is, how mean and uncompassionate it was to evoke these “I’m better and you’re inferior” emotions in the other kids.

In today’s reading, we see Paul dealing with division in the Corinthian Church, and most of it is based on pride and arrogance. As we’ve already seen, they had divided one from another based on who their teachers were, and looked down upon any other disciples of a different teacher. “You say I am of Paul, or I am of Cephas, or I am of Apollos,” and each considered themselves to be superior to the students of the other. So, St Paul here chooses to address this topic in an attempt to vanquish this sense of pride that they have developed.

He brings it down to the teachers, “so that you may learn in us not to look beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up, one against another.” “Not to look beyond what is written” is an obvious reference to the Old Testament, as is any reference in the writings of St Paul to the Scriptures, considering his writings themselves compose over half of what would become the New Testament. And, all throughout the Old Testament, we find various warnings against contentiousness and pride. St John Climacus warns us that “pride and nothing else caused an angel to fall from heaven,” and St Macarius of Optina warns us that “the worst of all sins is when we are overwhelmed by our pride and our own opinion about everything.”

And Paul goes on to address this topic with a very powerful rhetorical question. “What do you have that you did not receive?” he asks. That is, what do you have that was not given to you freely by another, what do you have that you acquired on your own? And this is a powerful question in spiritual matters, because the answer is nothing. These believers who were students of Apollos had no spiritual knowledge that wasn’t freely given by Apollos. Similarly Paul and Cephas, each were teachers who freely gave knowledge because of their great love. And the Corinthians had turned this free gift into an occasion for boasting. There is nothing that justifies thinking of yourself as better than another. And especially when the cause for boasting is something that you had no control over to begin with. See, they each considered their teacher to be better than the other teacher, therefore they took this false sense of superiority of their teacher and applied it to themselves. All of a sudden Joseph, the disciple of Paul, claimed himself to be better than David, the student of Apollos, because Joseph considered Paul to be a better teacher than Apollos (arbitrary names given to illustrate a point).

And this same erroneous way of thinking still exists today. I see it all the time in the Western Church. I’ve actually heard teachers speaking to their congregation referring to other teachers as “unqualified,” which in turn leads the congregation to believe that they are better than the congregation of the other teacher. This is especially true in the case of some of the more popular “rockstar” pastors in the American Church. We find people whose sense of ego is inflated by the number of their book sales, and so they consider themselves superior to other teachers and find themselves looking down on those who spend their time in prayer for their flock rather than writing exegetical theses. But, the danger with that is that their congregation adopts that same mindset. Rather than praying for the unity of the Church, they spend their time creating arguments for why the Church should never be unified, or apologetics to argue why God created the world in 144 hours rather than accepting the possibility that the six days of creation may have been an allegory. What’s worse is that because of this hermeneutical approach, they determine that the goal of Scripture is to gain knowledge, rather than obey it, and then they look down on those who seek to read the word of God and obey it, rather than “figure it out.” I’ve been told by a Protestant pastor to “be careful reading the Church fathers, because their theology was very naive.” Well did Paul speak when he wrote that “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” See, when we take this scientific approach to Scripture, we tend to allow that knowledge, that almost gnostic sense of knowing, and allow it to become a dividing point in our Church. We cling to those who have found these hidden meanings and cling to them, and based on our own elevated opinion of them we begin to think more highly of ourselves than we ought. And, my beloved brothers and sisters, this must never be so.

Do not misunderstand. We will find teachers that we have more chemistry with than others. There are different teaching styles and different learning styles and each must mesh. Further, we must also each find a spiritual father who can help us and guide us as we grow spiritually. But, we must never allow either of these to puff us up to the point of where we consider ourselves better than those of different teachers, of different spiritual fathers. God has given to each of us according to our own needs, and if anything, perhaps it should humble us to consider that we have a stronger spiritual father than another, perhaps that’s the Lord’s way of telling us that we need a stronger support to stay faithful. We must remember, however, that each of us can no more than receive what has been freely given, and, much like the child with his birthday gifts, it is unloving and foolish to boast in what has been given to us. Rather, we should receive what is given in humility and gratitude, knowing that “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3).

Christ is in our midst.

So, I’ve been reflecting much lately on the story of the paralytic. There was this pool, and the people all believed that an angel would come down and stir the waters, and once the waters were stirred, the first one to enter the waters would be healed from whatever infirmities that they had. And the story focuses on one particular paralytic, who would sit by the edge of the pool. And one day, Jesus approaches him and asks him, “do you want to be made well?” Which really is the question that we are all asked by Jesus, we just don’t realize it.

See, most of us would say “of course I want to be made well.” But, notice the paralytics response. He immediately begins making excuses of why he can’t be healed. And that’s so often what each of us does as well. We want to say that we want to be made well, but ultimately, it’s a grievous but powerful testimony to the power of sin that we have allowed into our lives. Consider for a moment, if you could be healed of all of your sins; not just forgiven, but actually healed, would you? Again, I think a lot more of us would say that we want to say yes than would actually say yes. For so many of us, the struggle against sin isn’t so much a struggle against sin as it is a struggle against ourselves. We want to be holy and righteous without the need to actually be holy and righteous, because for so many of us, if we’re honest, we like our sins. I don’t drink to excess because alcohol is more powerful than God, I drink to excess because I like to drink. The viewer of pornography, the fornicator, any of a mass myriad of sinners doesn’t struggle with their sins because their sins are stronger than God, they struggle with their sins because they like their sins. Most sins actually require more effort to commit them than to not. An alcoholic has to go to the store and spend their money to buy alcohol, whereas they could easily just sit at home for free to not become drunk. The thief has to contemplate what they will steal and how they will get away with it, and then go and execute their sin; instead of sitting at home doing nothing. The actual execution of sin requires much more effort than not committing those self-same sins. So, when someone says that they are struggling with a sin, are they really? Do we really want to be healed? And, without fail, those who are truly in love with their sins end up condemning those who warn us against them.

As I contemplated this passage, over and over in my mind, I couldn’t help but ask myself even, do I want to be healed? See, we each of us sit next to those living waters, wallowing in our sins and paralyzed with fear. We sit there waiting for this mystical inspiration to come to us to take up our bed and leave, to take up our cross and follow Him who can heal us. Jesus is even standing right there, each time we’re filled with this conviction to be holy, “do you truly want to be healed?” And so often we fall into this same pattern of making excuses why we can’t be healed; we justify our own rejection of His healing. We convince ourselves that it’s okay to continue in our beloved transgressions, and we will still be forgiven for all our iniquities. But, what happens when we say yes? What happens when we say yes and He tells us that it’s time to pick up our lives and move on? That’s what scares us more than anything.

We have to ability to answer yes to Him when He asks us that ubiquitous question. Through His grace, our faith in Him can make us well, He can heal us of these ailments that we have allowed dominion in our lives. The great Physician, through His hospital, the Church, can help us to overcome these passions. We need only be willing to accept the treatment which He offers us. Through obedience to Him and His church, we can overcome the passions which plague humanity. The apostle St Paul writes of “bringing his body into submission,” lest at the end he “be found unworthy.” Through obedience to the Church, we bring ourselves to humility, accepting that we are not the ones in control. We overcome the passions of the flesh through the obedience and asceticism that the Church calls us to. And in so doing, we allow ourselves to be opened to the guidance of the Holy Spirit to lead us to true righteousness. Much as the paralytic was told to take up his bed and walk away, so we must be willing to obey the prescribed manners in which our Lord will heal us of our infirmities.

We are saved through the grace of Christ, and in being saved we must abide in His commandments, and through His grace, we will be saved, God willing. St Paul called the Church the “pillar and foundation of truth” (1 Timothy 3:15), and it is through His Church that we receive the teaching which will lead us to the “righteousness of God” (Romans 1:17) rather than the “ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18). It is through our obedience to the Church; fasting, prayer, almsgiving, that we are able to free ourselves from the passions, and be truly healed. To bring our bodies into submission.

Like a doctor, the Physician has offered to us treatment for our condition, and like a patient, we must follow this treatment soundly; if we truly wish to be healed. We must remember that Jesus did not come to forgive us of our sins, but to save us from them. And He will never force us to accept this healing. Love that’s demanded is never love. But, should we choose to follow Him, to give ourselves to Him, to not try to serve two masters, then He will never leave us.

Christ is in our midst.

My apologies for the format of this. This is not a study of Scripture directly, but instead is taken directly from my journal this afternoon.

6-24-2020

I saw something earlier today that really seemed to strike a chord in me. As I was on Facebook, I saw someone who had posted about everything that has been going on in the world. Between the pandemic, which is not only still going on but apparently making a resurgence of sorts in different areas; the violence and rioting with statues being torn down, etc; there was one voice, in text, crying out like one alone in the wilderness. “With everything that’s going on, this world is alien to me.” That statement really resonated with me.

See, this statement resonated with me so strongly because no matter how hard I try or how much I want to, I am just unable to understand the state of the world today. And no matter how hard any voice tries to be the peacemaker amongst all of the chaos and turmoil; it is not only to no avail, but normally paints the person to be taking the opposing side of whomever they are speaking to. No matter which side of the political fence one is on, if you say anything about unity, then you are immediately cast into the other camp and written off. I don’t understand any of it.

Or, I didn’t. Until now.

St Paul tells us in the Book of Hebrews that “here we have no continuing city,” that is to say that we have no permanent home on this world. St Peter instructs us “as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from earthly lusts and keep your conduct honorable…submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors…that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of the foolish man. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.”

These are important to me, because until that very moment, I understood, but never fully grasped the admonition to be “in the world but not of the world.” At the very moment that I read those words, this warning of the Lord became real to me. I don’t think that I’ve ever felt more distant from the world than at this very moment. I don’t think I’ve ever felt like more of a foreigner than the moment of that realization. The world truly does feel completely alien to me.

And yet, it has also given me the chance to better understand what St Seraphim meant when he told us to “acquire a spirit of peace and thousands around you will be saved.” See, when I recognized that this isn’t my home, this world, this culture, it didn’t bring with it feelings of fear or anxiety, but rather a sense of calm. A sense of peaceful contentment. A sense of the knowledge that my goal isn’t to save the world, but to keep my eyes turned towards the heavens. To sincerely act in love towards others, even in a land I don’t recognize. Patriarch Kirill states that for the believer, “every fatherland is a foreign land and every foreign land is a fatherland.”

Once we recognize that this world isn’t our home, that we are here temporarily as strangers and pilgrims, then it becomes easier to obey these teachings. We begin to understand that in obeying our civil authorities and keeping our behavior honorable, we honor the name of Christ. And that is our goal in being here. To honor His name, to teach His word, to spread His message, and to display His love. And none of those things can be done if we get so caught up in the political rhetoric of either side of the polemic political fence that we begin to disrespect the other.

But, if we are able to keep our minds focused on the kingdom, then, through the grace of God, we may be able to embody St Seraphim’s teaching. I’ve come to understand that statement more truly now than ever, because through the voice of one random stranger on the internet, I finally realized that the goal must be the Spirit of peace, not the salvation of thousands.

Christ is in our midst.

Genesis 14

We are very briefly introduced to a man, the King of Salem, Melchizedek. This name is a powerful name, about which St Paul declares in the Book of Hebrews, “if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood, what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the Order of Melchizedek, and not be called according to the Order of Aaron” (Hebrews 7:11), and further that Jesus Himself “became the author of salvation to all who obey Him, being called by God as High Priest, according to the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 5:10).

See, we see this Melchizedek here, bringing bread and wine to Abram, sort of prefiguring the High Priesthood of Christ, who Himself offered up bread and wine at the apostles’ feast and even now uses those same elements to unite us unto Himself, with His Body and Blood in the Eucharist. And then Melchizedek blesses Abram. This is vital to remember, for us, as Aaron is a descendant of Levi, who is descended from Abram. Thus, in blessing Abram, he blesses both Levi and Aaron. And it is always the greater who blesses the lesser. We see this fact displayed today in the church, a Priest would never ask for the blessing of his parishoner, neither would a bishop seek the blessing of a priest, but rather always the opposite. Thus, in Melchizedek blessing Levi and Aaron, we see that it is in fact Melchizedek who is the greater and Levi and Aaron who are the lesser.

Lastly, we see a vital lesson from Abram. The king of Sodom offers Abram his cavalry, and yet Abram refuses. He refuses this offering and displays his complete detachment from material wealth. He knew that everything that he already had was a gift from God, and to ask for more would be to say that God had not offered him enough. Further, he shows that it is God whom he loves, not merely the gifts that he had received. He shows that all that he has been given by the Lord was fully sufficient, and he needed not to indebt himself to a man to fulfill himself, for he was already fulfilled in the Lord.

It’s so easy for us to lose sight of this fact in our culture. It’s so tempting to fall prey to this trap of always wanting more, newer, different. It’s easy to become discontent with that which we have been blessed and to always be seeking the “latest and greatest,” the newest phone, the fanciest toy, the most innovative technology. To not be content with merely transportation, but to long for a car that can drive itself, or one that can provide climate control for each individual passenger. It’s almost ingrained in our nature that to be happy we want more, but the moment we get what we want, we sense the emptiness that still resides within us, and thus we seek something else. And so, we turn again to our culture and find that next great thing that promises to fulfill us and to bring us happiness. Especially as we peruse the pages of social media, we fall into this trap of covetousness. We are constantly pounded with advertisements telling us what we need, what we deserve, how much better our lives would be if; and we lose sight of what we have already been given. Or, we start to lay claim to it and place our trust in it. We forget that all in our lives, our lives themselves, are a gift from God, and we begin to believe that we have earned all of it, thus we have a right to it.

And eventually we learn a frightening fact. We find that it is no longer we who possess our possessions, but our possessions which possess us. Rather than thankfulness for what we have, we become despondent for what we don’t. When we lose sight of the fact that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights,” (James 1:17) we begin to think that we have the right to whatever we desire, and become bitter when we are denied it. As James continues to warn us, “where do wars and fights come from? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and yet cannot obtain” (James 4:1-2).

Abram tithed of all that he had to Melchizedek, and then refused to accept from the king of Sodom? He returned to the priesthood of what he had been given from God, and then refused to accept the spiritual bribery from the government. Do we do that in our time? Do we receive according to the Lord’s blessing and then give back to His priesthood a portion of what we have been given? And then, refuse to accept the money from the civil government knowing that there will be repercussions for this bribery? Do we allow ourselves to become indebted to the world, or do we live within the means that the Lord has given to us, trusting that all that we need is what He has given, and that if it is not enough then it is we, not God, who are in error.

Only once we have overcome our servitude to material things can we truly surrender to God. Any one of us who has anything that we value more than the blessing of the Lord, according to Scripture itself, is not worthy of the Kingdom. As Jesus Himself warns us, “no one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24).

May we each seek to find this truth in our hearts. May we break the chains of this materialism and instead focus solely on seeking after the Lord in our lives, as Abram did, living in humble obedience to His commands rather than seeking to make deals with the world and it’s offers of pleasure and leisure. May we repent of our materialism and having cast out the spirit of greed, instead be filled with the spirit of gratitude for all that the Lord has given to us. Let us stop seeking our fulfillment from the world with it’s empty and powerless promises, and instead find our fulfillment in the One in whom it is truly possible.

Christ is in our midst.

Romans 1:18-27

The wrath of God, St Paul begins, is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. To even begin to consider this, we must seek to ascend beyond our understanding of this “wrath of God.” We so easily imagine this expression based on our understanding of wrath, but to do so is a grievous error on our behalf. The wrath of God must never be thought to be the equivalent of a child throwing a temper tantrum; it isn’t a loss of temper or self-control. Rather, the wrath of God is His holy and righteous judgment, the divine revelation of His truth, His love, and His power confronting those who reject Him.

It’s important to understand this because it helps us to recognize not only the importance of our faithful obedience to Him, but also helps us to understand His response when we do happen to fall. A God who rashly strikes out and impulsively reacts vengefully to our mistakes would be a God of whom we would rightly be fearful with each sin we fall into. It would be a cold, unforgiving, reactive God, and thus straying from the path even momentarily could lead us to be stricken down, thereby leading to despondency and heart wrenching fear with each transgression. Whereas a God whose wrath is His judgment before those who reject Him would be, in our human minds, a God much more able to cleanse us and forgive us once we recognize our sinfulness and turn to Him in repentance. It is a God from whom we would allow the grace that He offers to help us overcome our weakness, rather than the surrendering of our aspirations to holiness the first moment we fall.

Paul goes on to state that from the beginning, all of humanity has been able to recognize the natural revelation of God, of His power, simply by observing the glories of creation. Thus, those who “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” and reject God do so of their own free will. There remains no longer the excuse of lack of knowledge of Him, as St Paul tells the men of Athens, “these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). So often, people ask about those people to whom the gospel has not spread, and here we find in Scripture the answer to this question. The Lord declared to the Prophet Jeremiah, “I will surely put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts…each man shall not teach his neighbor or his brother saying ‘know God’ for all men shall know Me” (Jeremiah 38:33-34 LXX). It’s this idea that we have to deny the wonders of creation, and even deny our own hearts and minds, to reject God. And so, because of this, those “times of ignorance” are no longer excused. Because of this fact itself, the wrath of God is kindled against those who suppress the truth. But, it’s important to recognize that this wrath is not God punishing us for a single transgression, but rather it is the divine revelation of His truth and His power in the face of those who reject Him.

So, Paul goes on to describe one such revelation of God’s truth, of His power. The people had begun to worship idols. Paul states that “they changed the glory of incorruptible God into an image of corruptible man – and birds and four footed animals and creeping things.” Refusing to worship the one true God, they had instead created their own gods. And, as so often is the case, when man creates their own gods, they create gods in their own images, as caricatures of their own vices. A man likes to fight, so he creates Ares, the god of war. A man likes to consume wine, so he creates Dionysius, the god of wine. When man creates god, they tend to create a god who suits their own desires, thus when they indulge those desires, it becomes an act of worship.

And so, God’s judgment here is strong. Remembering the two greatest commands, the first being that we shall love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and might; to fall into idolatry is to violate the greatest command of all. Thus, His judgment here is the strongest judgment that we could experience…He abandons them. He gives them over to their own decadence and the darkness of their hearts. He gives them over and they find anarchy and chaos, exchanging that which is natural for that which is desirable. Rather than remaining and leading them to seek repentance, He judges that they will not repent, and allows them instead to be ruled by their own passions. And it’s important to recognize that while Paul here is focusing on sexual sin, this could be applied to many other sinful activities as well. Also, notice that it was for their embrace of sexual sin that He gave them over to their passions, which led to many other sins, in sort of a downward spiral. St Paul warns us in his letter to the Ephesians “do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil” (Ephesians 4:26-27) for the very reason that once you give quarter to the enemy, like leaven in dough, sin will continue to expand until it consumes you. In freely embracing sexual sin, they had allowed the enemy the room necessary to fully corrupt them.

We see this so strongly in our own generation. What begins once in our nation, or more personally, in our life, as one sin, often grows to begin to encompass our lives in the form of the allowance of various other sins. Those sins which could lead on a personal level to the ruination of our souls, or on a larger level, to the very destruction of our civilization. As we read all throughout the Old Testament, when a nation turns away from God by embracing, and sometimes even celebrating our sin, then it can rapidly expand to lead to the destruction of our entire nation.

We have to be very careful here, when it comes to this idolatry that St Paul is warning us against. St John of Krondstadt teaches us that “it is extremely difficult, and without God’s grace and our own fervent prayers, impossible, for you to change for the better.” It’s so easy to read about the Romans embracing these idols and condemning them for so doing, or reading about Israel worshiping the golden calf and separating ourselves from that narrative. And yet, idolatry is not just graven images, golden likenesses, and statues; it is anything that we trust in more than Jesus. If we find ourselves caught in recurring sin and each time resolve to overcome these sins but never seek the help of Christ, we make an idol of ourselves. Yes, we must make the willful decision to overcome these weaknesses, but in so doing we must repent and seek the Lord’s grace to overcome those sins. So long as we constantly turn to Him for grace and mercy, for forgiveness, then He will grant it. But if we reject Him, if we trust in our own ability to overcome, we may like the Romans find that His judgment is that we will be handed over to those passions.

Let each of us, my brothers and sisters, never reject Christ, but instead remembering this lesson that His judgment is the revelation of His truth to those who reject Him. So long as we walk in faith and seek after Him, He is faithful to forgive us when we turn in repentance. Let us seek His grace, calling humbly on Him for the strength to truly repent; embracing His truth and obediently seeking His will.

Christ is in our midst.

Jesus in the Wilderness

Matthew 4:1-11

We see a very interesting phenomenon in this passage. Jesus, having just been baptized, is led by the Holy Spirit into the desert to be tempted. To be tempted is to be tested in those fundamental areas of faith. And this serves as such an encouragement for the faithful, because it helps us to realize a ubiquitous fact; this temptation itself is perfectly normal. Further, however, we see from this passage that resisting this temptation is fully possible, so long as we remain focused on God. Through His grace, each of us is aided by this same Holy Spirit, and through that fact alone, temptation can be conquered. This wilderness that we read about is a battleground, an image of the world itself and all of it’s temptations; the dwelling place of both man and demon.

Jesus herein reverses the failings of Israel in the desert by overcoming to the temptations which they had allowed to conquer them. The Israelites were tested time and again and proved to be disobedient and disloyal. Thus, God humbled them and allowed them to become hungry, and then gave them manna to help them to learn to depend on Him, rather than their own resources. And yet, even with the many signs that they had been shown, even with the many miracles that they witnessed, they still failed these trials that He gave them. Jesus, on the other hand, is tested with 40 days of hunger, 40 days of self-denial, and never once sins. Rather, He used the fast to overcome temptation, setting for us an example of the power of fasting to overcome the passions. The hunger of His flesh He did not allow to control Him, rather, through His fasting, He gained control of His hunger.

Then we see Satan, the deceiver, the tempter of men, arrives and begins to tempt Jesus. His first temptation is to challenge Christ’s relationship with the Father. “IF You are the Son of God…” Satan says, challenging the very words of the Father at Jesus’ baptism, “This is My Son, in Whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). See, Satan is tempting Jesus to act independently of the Father, in much the same way as we read from Adam and Eve. He desires to see Jesus detach Himself from the Father and go His own way. And we must remember that although Jesus is in fact One with the Father, in His full humanity, He still possessed free will and suffered from human frailty, as each of us do. And yet, in the face of this, He still makes the conscious decision to remain obedient to the divine will of the Father.

It’s important that we realize that in rejecting this first temptation, Jesus rejects this earthly kingdom and the pleasures of the flesh. Unlike Esau, who for a morsel of food sold his birthright, Jesus here rejects the idea of chasing after the “food which perishes,” similar to Paul’s teaching that he “disciplines his body and brings it into submission” (1 Corinthians 9:27). Adam was given one commandment, which was to fast, to deny himself the fruit of the one tree, but allowed himself to be given over to physical temptation. Jesus, the second Adam, conquers all temptation by the words of the Father and obedience to His commands. In so doing, He overcomes the power of temptation for all of us, giving each of us the power to conquer these passions and, through the grace of God, conquer the power of Satan himself.

After seeing that Jesus uses the Scripture to resist his first temptation (each of Jesus’ answers quoted Deuteronomy), Satan then determines to use Scripture to tempt Him a second time. Satan quotes from the Psalms attempting to tempt Jesus to throw Himself from the cliff, quoting the passage from the Psalmist that “God will give His angels charge over you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against the stone.” Jesus responds by once more quoting from Deuteronomy, “It is also written that you shall not tempt the Lord your God.” This is such a valuable lesson to all of us. God does allow for trials and temptations to come for a reason. He allows for them to come to help us to purify our faith. However, we must always remember that He alone chooses when and how they should come. We must be ever mindful to never place ourselves intentionally into hazardous situations or in the line of danger to test or to prove God’s protection. To do so is to truly “tempt the Lord,” as Moses wrote, “you shall not tempt the Lord your God…you shall do what is pleasing and good before the Lord your God that it may be well with you” (Deuteronomy 6:16,18 LXX).

This also serves another valuable lesson. Satan was not wrong in his quote of Scripture. In fact, he directly quoted words of Scripture that many would have taken to be truth. In much the same way as the Scripture truly says, “God who richly provides us all things for us to enjoy,” (1 Timothy 6:17). However, it’s so important that we cling to the teaching of the Church for the proper interpretation of Scripture, because as David did not mean that you should throw yourself off of a cliff to see if God will protect you, neither did Paul mean that God would richly bless us so that we could enjoy our life on earth, but rather he was warning the wealthy to not be haughty, but rather to use those riches to supply the needs of others so that the wealthy could enjoy the life of doing the work of the Lord in caring for others. It’s imperative that we understand the teachings of the Church concerning the Scripture as those teachings are not as susceptible to the ebb and flow of the times as the individual interpretation of any one person at any given moment. It’s so easy for us to be led astray by an errant teaching should we trust in that person’s teaching more than the traditions of the teachings passed down for thousands of years.

Finally, with the last temptation Satan offers, he tempts Jesus to choose an earthly kingdom over the heavenly one. See, God’s kingdom has nothing to do with earthly possessions or earthly power. Rather, those very things are the icon of the kingdom of the fallen one. Jesus calls Satan the “ruler of this world,” (John 12:31), Paul calls him the “god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Jesus refuses the road to earthly glory which would lead Him away from the will of the Father; away from His suffering, but also away from the redemption of the world. And remember, this is fully in His humanity. This is fully in the same humanity that caused Him to beseech the Father to “let this cup pass from Me.” And yet, in His obedience to the Father, guided by the Holy Spirit, He rejected this temptation as well.

We face each of these temptations in our life, and Jesus gives us this teaching to serve as an example by which we must live. The Church has given us fasting as a discipline, through which we can overcome the power of the passions over us in our lives; to make our bodies our servants, our passions our slaves; rather than serving our bodies and becoming slaves to our passions. Every day we face the temptation of testing God; driving recklessly, arguing unjustifiably, anything that needlessly places our lives in danger. We are constantly tempted to place earthly needs and passions ahead of our obedience to God. We build up for ourselves our own earthly kingdom. We decorate our homes with ornate beds to sleep upon, luxurious floors to traipse upon with muddy feet, the finest dishware that can only be used on special occasions. We accrue for ourselves all of these material things because we think that they give our lives meaning, but only one thing can give our lives meaning, and that is doing the work of God.

Israel spent their time in the wilderness, and throughout that time, they grew distant from God. They were disobedient, disloyal, they sought after other things and forgot Him. Jesus spent His time in the wilderness and used it to draw closer to Him, to secure His faithfulness. At this point in our culture, we are in a similar situation. Many are unable to attend Church services, many are unable to see God in His home. And how are we responding to this time that we have? Have we made our home into our own Church? Have we, like Jesus, used this time to draw closer to Him than ever before? Or have we, like Israel, allowed this time to weaken us? To lead us into discord? To forsake brotherly love and fellowship, and seek after our own needs and desires.

My brothers and sisters, let us look to Christ. As we begin each day, awakening to the wilderness of our lives, let us begin by seeking God in prayer. Let us look to Him throughout the day for guidance and grace to resist each of these temptations, rather than trusting in ourselves and succumbing to them.

Christ is risen! Not just once in some far off caves centuries ago, but every day of our lives. Let us all embrace that truth and show the world the love, the fellowship, and the compassion that the world so desperately needs. Do not allow ourselves to become divided by personal opinions, but rather trusting in the Church and it’s leaders, let us be the light shining in the darkness of the world and the time.

Christ is risen!

A Reflection on Holy Week in Exile

It’s Great and Holy Saturday. Yesterday was Holy Friday, the day that we commemorate the crucifixion and burial of our Lord, and we went to bed last night sorrowful, but hopefully, because we know how the story ends. We went to bed last night feeling that the world lost something great, and even this morning awoke to the world itself crying as the rain fell down. But, we still know that tomorrow morning we shall be celebrating the resurrection. However, as I contemplate this fact, I can not help but think about the disciples on that fateful Holy Saturday. There was a degree of fear, of hopelessness, of uncertainty that they felt which is fully absent in our celebrations normally. However, this year, it’s slightly different. We are in a situation of uncertainty, of mild hopelessness, of discontent. Even though Jesus had taught the disciples over and over again, and even showed them in the Scriptures where it was prophesied that He would be raised from the dead, they were still alone, afraid. And that’s where we are.

This Lenten season has been an unusual one, to say the least. And this week, this Holy Week, is no exception. Where most of us would be spending parts of each day in Church, we’ve been told that we can not do so. We’ve been told instead to remain at home, to avoid large gatherings, to remain “outside the camp,” in exile.

And, it’s a Holy Week that I am extremely grateful for. It’s one, for me, from which there is no return to “normal.” It’s been a season characterized by the Lord’s commandment to “be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 45:11 LXX). With most of our places of entertainment and distraction closed, the government is basically telling us to be still. To remain in our homes, unless it is absolutely necessary to leave. It’s time that I have been able to dedicate to the Lord. To read His Scriptures, to worship Him.

Further, however, it has revealed to me the weaknesses of my own faith. It has forced me to confront, in a time of isolation, what priority I’ve given to which thing in my life. It’s been my own personal time “in the desert,” time to inflect and evaluate my own life. While on effective lock down, how often do I actively go into my prayer corner versus actively seeking distractions in my life. How often do I reach for the Scriptures versus streaming whatever random television show; how often do I stand in prayer versus scrolling through social media feeds.

It’s also given me the opportunity to confront the pride of thinking somehow that I am in control of anything in the world. We have a hard time confessing that most things in our life are beyond our control. James teaches us, “come you who say, ‘today or tomorrow I will go to such and such city…and make a profit,’ whereas you should say, ‘if the Lord wills it, we shall live and do this and that.'” Much like the apostles on that Great and Holy Saturday, it has been very humbling to think that for all of our progress, for all of our science and knowledge, for all of our wealth and plans; we are still subject to the will and the mercy of God. My will, and I confess I don’t know a single Christian, who would have chosen this plan for Holy Week, however, it’s a great moment to remember that we daily pray, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” This Lenten season has been greatly humbling to me as I confront the reality of that very statement. How many times have I deceived myself into thinking that I was doing something that was His will, when in reality it was my own will that I was obeying.

This week has also caused me to confront another painful reality. Every now and again, as I struggle through many things, I frequently neglect prayerfulness and instead struggle (unsuccessfully) with it in my own power; until I could get to Church, confess it, and move on. During this time of “exile,” this time “outside the camp,” it has made me confront this weakness and instead turn more frequently to prayer, seeking the grace of our Lord rather than the advice of others, or, God forbid, seeking the answers on my own.

Further, this week has been such a great time of instruction for me with my son. We’ve been streaming the liturgies, and it’s given me a priceless opportunity to explain each part of it to him, and to answer questions which he had that I would never have been able to answer in the midst of the actual services of the Church. To explain to him why we stand at certain parts, what was going on in other places, what the processions mean, etc. Also, we’ve been following along with the daily Gospel readings and it’s given me the chance to read them, translating them down to a 6 year old’s level of comprehension, and I’ve been able to stop and take the time to explain things to him and to give him visuals. He didn’t understand what a “crown of thorns” was, and I was able to stop and take him outside to show him a thorn and allow him to feel the prick of it on his finger. Then taking that, he could better understand the feeling of a crown of them wound together and placed on Jesus’ head. He didn’t understand what a spear was, so we walked away for a moment and I grabbed a spear and allowed him to hold it, to feel the point, and see how far he could reach with it, thereby bringing more to life to him the situation when the soldier pierced Jesus’ side, while understanding how he could reach His ribs while He was hanging on the cross. And after, I could teach him based on the reading how and what we were to learn from the lesson.

Lastly, and perhaps the reason that I am most grateful for this unusual Lenten seasons is this. As millions of Christians have been forced to celebrate the services in their homes, it’s caused us to become much more intentional about our worship. To find a place in their homes to build their own Church. I saw a meme on social media that I enjoyed, it was Satan and Jesus looking down on the world and Satan says, “well, they canceled Church on Easter, I guess I won,” and Jesus looks back and says, “I just built a Church in the home of every single follower, no you didn’t.” Having to be more intentional has also given each of us the chance to evaluate our faith. Someone once told me that “it’s easy to find God when you’re locked in a Church,” and that statement has never had more power in my life than it has during this season. It’s so easy to stay focused on prayer and worship when you are standing in the middle of the nave, but what about at home? What about with the dogs barking, the kids screaming, the neighbors obnoxiously blaring loud music, Netflix whispering sweetly seductive promises. It’s required me to be more intentional and focused on prayer and worship; to be much more aggressive about seeking after God. It’s become a constant struggle to stay focused, unlike before when I had to be focused enough to get in the car and once I was there, I was free from all distraction.

I don’t know when any of this will end. I anxiously await the exact moment when I will be able to once more commune with my amazing family, whom I miss so greatly. Each of my beloved brothers and sisters in Christ. I can’t wait to regularly commune with them again and to be physically a part of the Liturgy again. But, as Lent is a time for spiritual maturity and growth, I pray that the lessons of this Lenten season are not forgotten. I pray that God grant me the grace and the humility, the discernment and the guidance, to never go back to what was my “normal.” Tomorrow we will sing “Christ is Risen!” and I pray that all of us will accept and rejoice in this rebirth that we have partaken of. I pray that this truly Holy Week, this week “set apart” for God, will help me and each of us grow in our spiritual lives, and that we remain intentional, focused, prayerful, and humble; that rather than awaiting the liturgies to seek God, we seek Him every moment of our life.

This Lenten season was nothing like any of us would have chosen, but, for me at least, it is exactly for that reason that I needed it so much. And I am ever so thankful for His providence for that fact.

Christ IS Risen.

Genesis 26

The Word of God, Jesus Himself, appears to Isaac and warns him not to go into Egypt, but rather to stay in the land which the Lord had promised to Abraham. In so keeping with this, Isaac was reminded to keep his focus on the faith of Abraham, which had led to his covenant with the Lord. Further, Egypt represents this sort of fallen world, a world which had been built up outside of the presence of the Lord, whilst the land of promise was built solely on the promise of the Lord and represents sort of this world to come. The Word further reiterates this by telling Isaac to live in this land as a sojourner, never rooting himself too strongly to the this world or the things of this world. This detachment is so imperative to us as the faithful, for when we cling too strongly to the things of this world, we tend to allow them to distract far too much from the things which are eternal. Consider the man who, when beckoned by Jesus to “follow Me,” stated that he would, but first he wanted to go and bury his father. Consider that fact, he had God Himself standing before him, saying come with Me, and he couldn’t help but think about his earthly relationships.

The word continues His promise to Abraham here through Isaac, explaining that He will multiply his seeds as the stars of heaven. “I will give your seed to all these lands; and the nations of the earth will be blessed.” This is another important statement. Notice, it is not certain nations will be blessed, or the nations I have chosen; no it is all nations. It is not a reference to a singular geographic nationality, but rather a promise that both the Jews and the Gentiles, all in fact who receive the promise of Abraham, will be blessed. The Lord then continues with what this looks like and how to receive this promise. To receive the promise of Abraham, we must first look to Abraham to see what this looks like. “Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, my ordinances, my laws.” All who are truly faithful should seek to imitate that behavior, as we read in the Gospel of Luke, “Why do you call to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46). According to Jesus, the truly faithful are those who hear His voice and obey it; or as James admonishes us, “But be doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” (James 1:22).

This chapter ends with an interesting quarrel. A quarrel between Isaac and the herdsmen of Gerar. The two wells, Injustice and Enmity, represent this opposition between righteousness and unrighteousness. On the one side, you have Isaac, who is righteous through his faith; and on the other you have the herdsmen who represent the fallen world. We see Isaac and his servants digging wells seeking fresh water, as the land is in famine; and the herdsmen claiming the water as their own, refusing to allow them to have any of it. Is that so different to how the world would behave today? In the midst of the worst blight, you could find the most perfect garden, and then would be disputing over land ownership rights before any of it’s fruit could be distributed. The herdsmen here fight over possession to the very water that could bring about life. Finally, Isaac and his servants find the well named Room, as a reminder that the Lord WILL make room for the righteous in this world, so that the faith may continue to grow and multiply. But, it’s ever so imperative that we recognize that it was not without tribulation that they found this well. So it ever shall be in the world, those who seek for the faith to continue to grow and multiply will be constantly forced to endure adversity, oftentimes not even realizing that their own resistance is fighting against the will of God, for nothing happens which He does not allow. Many times, it is through the very adversity that we learn the patience and humility needed to persevere.

After this dispute, the Lord once again appears to Isaac and reaffirms the promise of Abraham. which further emphasizes the never changing nature of our God. This is our reassurance that these same promises that were given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, continue to this very day; as Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and always.

Indeed, to this very day, these same promises hold true. Those who obey God, who trust in Him, who abide in Him, persevering even through the trials and adversities, will receive the promise of blessings to come. We must be sojourners in this life, not clinging to worldly labels or allowing our possessions to possess us; forsaking national heritage and pride, and instead, recognizing that we are citizens of a kingdom which is not on the earth, but rather in heaven. We must keep our heart and mind firmly focused on the things of the Lord. And whether in times of joy or sorrow, we must build, as Isaac here does, an altar to Him and offer up our sacrifice; praise, supplication, love.

As children of God, we must never allow the adversity or circumstances of the world overshadow our devotion to the Lord. Currently, most parishes in every nation are shuttered because of the current pandemic. But we must remember that this has happened because He has allowed it to. Never grow angry with these situations. Perhaps the Lord is forcing us to slow down, to “be still and know that He is the Lord.” Make your home your monastery, make your heart your altar, praise Him for all that He has done, and never lose sight of Him, remembering His promise, “the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 24:13).

Christ is in our midst.