Romans 15:1-7; Matthew 9:27-35
So much of what
passes for religion in our culture is very self-centered. Some develop a spirituality to help them feel
a certain way, while others want to use God to promote political and moral
agendas in their own image. Their nation
or their people then becomes the highest good. Regardless of the particulars, those
who make their faith all about themselves will end up worshiping a false god of
their own creation.
One of the reasons that our Lord’s
ministry in first-century Palestine was so shocking is that He blessed not only
His fellow Jews, the chosen people of the Old Testament, but also the Gentiles. That is what He did in today’s gospel reading. The blind men were obviously Jews who called
to Him using a traditional title for the Messiah, “Son of David.” But the crowds said “Never was anything like
this seen in Israel” because the demon-possessed man He enabled to speak was
not a Jew, but a Gentile. The Jews of
that time had overlooked the clear teaching of the Old Testament that God would
bless the entire world through them and draw all nations to Himself. That is why the crowds were so surprised, for
they did not expect the Jewish Messiah to help anyone outside their own
community.
This past week we celebrated the feast
day of the Prophet Elijah. The gospel
reading for that day described the shocking scene of what happened when Christ
reminded the people of His hometown that God had once sent Elijah to help a
Gentile woman during a famine, which also affected many Jews. He also mentioned that God sent the Prophet
Elisha to heal a Syrian of leprosy when many Jews suffered from that
disease. Do you remember what the people
of our Savior’s hometown did when He told those stories? They tried to kill Him by throwing Him off a
cliff, for they had no use for a Messiah Who cared about foreigners and
enemies. (Luke 4: 22-30) Here we have a clear and terrifying portrait of where the
hatred and rejection of other people in the name of God leads: to the hatred and rejection of the Lord
Himself.
Thank God, the
Orthodox Church from her origins has recognized that our Lord’s mercy extends
to all who call upon Him with faith, love, and humble repentance, regardless of
their background or heritage. We read in Acts of the founding of the first Gentile
church in Antioch, where our Lord’s followers were first called Christians. (Acts
11:19-26) That same awareness that God’s salvation is not limited by nationality,
race, culture, or any other human division remains characteristic of the
Antiochian Orthodox Church to this day. Very few of the members of our parish are
of Arab or Middle Eastern descent, yet we have all been welcomed as full
members of the Body of Christ. The very
existence of Orthodox churches in unlikely places like Abilene reflects the
same universal evangelistic spirit that we read about in Acts. Regardless of human ancestry, we are all one
in the Savior Who came to bless and heal the entire world.
As members of the
Christ’s Body, we must not rest content with receiving our Lord’s mercy through
the ministries of those who have shared the faith with us. We must not fall into a self-centered distortion
of religion in which we seek simply to please ourselves. Instead, we must serve and strengthen those who
suffer and struggle, especially in the homeland of our faith in Syria. Today in
our Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America we take up a collection for the relief
of our brothers and sisters in the Archdiocese of Bosra-Hauran. We do so as we remember St. Timon, one of the
seventy apostles sent out by Jesus Christ and one of the original deacons
mentioned in Acts (Acts 6:5). St. Timon was the first bishop of what is
now the city of Bosra, and he died as a martyr.
He played a key role in evangelizing a region where our Lord Himself
often ministered (Matt.4:25) and where St. Paul took refuge after he escaped
from Damascus following his conversion. (Gal. 1:15-18)
In the very same region from which we have received the
great blessings of the Orthodox Christian faith, hundreds of thousands have
died and millions have become refugees due to six years of brutal armed
conflict. In Bosra-Hauran, many towns
and parishes have been abandoned, and His Eminence Metropolitan SABA leads the
Church in doing everything possible to care for those in need. As with the relief programs of the
Patriarchate of Antioch and IOCC, these efforts extend to all who suffer,
regardless of religious affiliation or anything else. Even as our Savior’s mercy extended both to
blind Jewish beggars and to demon-possessed Gentiles, the Orthodox of Syria strive
to show His love to all their neighbors as best they can.
It is surely impossible for us to understand fully how
difficult it is to do so in a setting of ongoing war, sectarian strife, and humanitarian
catastrophe. Despite the problems of our
own society and our own personal struggles, our hearts must go out to the people
of Syria as they suffer in ways well beyond our own experience or
knowledge. In response to their plight,
we must follow St. Paul’s advice “not to please ourselves” but for “each of us
to please his neighbor for his good, to edify him. For Christ did not please himself…” If we
are truly in communion with Christ, then His selfless love must become
characteristic of us. The healing of our
souls is neither a legal transaction nor a storm of emotion, but our
transformation in holiness as we participate ever more fully in the eternal
life of our Lord by grace. By offering a portion of our resources to help
our brothers and sisters in the Archdiocese of Bosra-Hauran, we unite ourselves
more fully to our Savior. In the parable
of the last judgment in St. Matthew’s gospel, those who enter into the Kingdom
of Heaven are those who ministered to Christ in their needy neighbors. “In that you did it to the least of these my
brethren, you did it to me.” (Matt. 25:
31-46) The application to St. Timon Sunday should be obvious. Here is an opportunity to do precisely that
for the very people from whom we have received the fullness of the Orthodox
Christian faith.
Contrary to dominant perspectives in our culture, true
religion is not about finding ways to feel better about ourselves. Neither is it a means to gain worldly power
and influence. Instead, it is a calling to respond to the
universal love of God by embracing a life of holiness, a life in full personal
union with Jesus Christ. He calls
everyone to respond to His mercy in ways not limited by nationality, race,
class, politics or any other human characteristic. That is an important part of the reason that His
ministry was so shocking to the Jews of first-century Palestine. It is why true Christianity remains offensive
to those who worship their own prejudices and agendas to this very day. It is also why those who limit their list of
neighbors to those who are like them in conventional human ways are at grave
risk of turning away from Christ. If
they end up serving only themselves and those like them, they will be in the
same position as those who thought they were justified in trying to throw the
Lord off a cliff.
The way of Christ, and of His Church since her origins,
is characterized by a holy love that wants to bless and save the entire world. In our Savior, there are no foreigners and
strangers. And in His Church, even
people who live on the other side of the globe are members of our own
family. We must support them by our
constant prayers and generous offerings on their behalf. When we do so, we show proper thanks to those who
welcomed us into the Orthodox Church.
When we do so, we reject self-centered distortions of the faith that
tempt us to the idolatry of putting culture, politics, and nationality before
the way of our Savior. When we do so, we
follow the Lord Whose mercy extended both to blind Jewish beggars and to
demon-possessed Gentiles. For us all,
that is the path to the Kingdom of God.
No comments:
Post a Comment