Blessings Demand Self-Denial: Homily for the Conception of the Forerunner and Baptist John and the 1st Sunday of Luke in the Orthodox Church

Galatians 4:22-27; Luke 5:1-11

           It is a heavy burden for married couples not to be able to conceive and bear children.  That is true today in our society, and it was certainly the case for Jewish couples in the first century.  Zechariah and Elizabeth had waited a very long time for God to bless them with children, and they had likely given up hope at their advanced age.  When the Archangel Gabriel told the priest Zechariah, as he was serving in the Temple, that God had heard his prayer and they would have a son named John who would be a great prophet, Zechariah responded with skepticism.  He asked “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.” (Lk 1:18) Instead of remembering how God had done something quite similar for Abraham and Sarah in their conception of Isaac, Zechariah doubted.  As a result, he could not speak until the birth of his son.

When months later the pregnant Theotokos visited the pregnant Elizabeth, the older woman recognized the Savior and His Mother, exclaiming “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”  John even leaped in her “womb for joy” when they arrived.  (Lk 1: 42) After Elizabeth gave birth, “her neighbors and relatives…rejoiced with her” in response to God’s great mercy and blessing to the woman who had been barren. (Lk 1:58) When it was time to circumcise the baby on the eighth day, Zechariah wrote that the child’s name was to be John.  That was when his speech was restored and he proclaimed “You, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, with which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Lk 1:76-79)  Things had turned out very differently for Zechariah and Elizabeth than they, or anyone else, had expected.

In today’s gospel reading, Peter, James, and John had worked hard all night trying to catch fish, but they had landed none at all.  They were not even in their boats, but were instead washing their nets as they put things in order to call it quits.  And that is precisely when Jesus Christ, who had been in the boat as he taught the people who were on the shore, told Peter to do what must have seemed completely pointless: “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”  Despite his understandable doubt, Peter obeyed and caught so many fish that their nets were breaking and their boats started to sink.  That must have been quite a sight, and it was so extraordinary that Peter kneeled before Christ and said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” The Savior responded, “Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men.”  At that point, Peter, James, and John “left everything and followed Him.”

The reaction of the disciples shows that they knew Christ had blessed them for something larger than their own immediate satisfaction.  Notice that they did not simply take all those fish to market in order to make a lot of money.  They did not ask the Savior to become a partner in their business as a fishing guide.   No, they left it all behind in order to offer their lives to the Lord, even to the point of death as martyrs.

The same is true of Zechariah and Elizabeth, for the miraculous conception of their son did not occur so that they would have someone to care for them in their old age or extend their family line.  A couple of years later, Herod’s soldiers murdered Zechariah when they were trying to kill John after the birth of Christ.  Elizabeth died forty days later, and their son grew up in the wilderness as he prepared for his unique ministry of calling Israel to repentance in preparation for the ministry of the Savior.

The examples of Zechariah and Elizabeth, as well as of the fishermen, remind us of the importance of persistent faith and obedience.  All had seemed lost both to an elderly couple without children and to professional fishermen who knew that even their best labors had failed.  It made perfect sense for Zechariah and Elizabeth to despair of ever having children.  It was entirely understandable why Peter, James, and John had gotten out of their boats and begun to wash their nets.  Likewise, it is not at all surprising when we despair of ever finding healing from habitual sins that have held us captive for years, perhaps as long as we can remember.  It may seem only reasonable to think that our broken relationships will never be healed or that we will never have the strength to respond to the persistent challenges of our lives in ways that bless others and bring peace to our own souls.  It may seem entirely rational to give up and accept our spiritual barrenness as simply the way life is.

To do so, however, would be to abandon our Lord, Who against all experience and knowledge of how the world works, rose from the dead after three days.  It would be to step outside the blessed story of how God has brought salvation through an unlikely cast of characters that includes elderly, infertile couples and rough fishermen.  They did not have perfect faith, for Zechariah doubted the message of the Archangel and the disciples misunderstood the Savior until He opened their eyes after His resurrection.  But despite their clouded spiritual vision, they stumbled along with the obedience of which they were capable.  After decades of frustration, the elderly couple offered themselves to receive the blessing of a child. After a long night of empty nets, Peter and his partners let them down one more time into water which they could not imagine contained any fish.  Against all odds and contrary to everything they had learned to expect in the world as they knew it, these people had the surprises of their lives when they opened themselves to receive the Lord’s blessings through persistent obedience.

The conception of John the Baptist and the miraculous catch of fish were not instances of people trying to use God to make them happy on their own terms.  Zechariah and Elizabeth died when their son was quite young, and John the Baptist was killed for fulfilling his prophetic ministry.  Christ used the great catch of fish to call Peter, James, and John to abandon their nets and follow Him as “fishers of men” in drawing others to the salvation of the Kingdom. Their great blessings were also callings that required profound self-denial.

We must learn from their holy examples that the same is true of our lives.  God does not bless us in order to make us happy on our own terms, but in ways that require obedience for the healing of our souls.  We should all count and give thanks for our blessings every day, even as we prayerfully discern how to use them to fulfill the Lord’s purposes for the salvation of the world.  That will require the persistent faith and obedience of those who know that our lives are about something far more profound than satisfying our self-centered desires.  It will require a refusal to give up when all appears to be lost and we can see no sign that anything will come from casting out our nets just one more time.  It will require the humility to see that the story of our lives is not all about us, but about what our Lord is doing through those who lack the ability to save themselves.  There is no other way to open our souls to the blessing of the One Who alone can turn our barrenness into abundance and fill our empty nets to the point of breaking as He draws us into the new life of the Kingdom.

The Struggle to Take Up the Cross: Homily for the Sunday After the Exaltation of the Cross in the Orthodox Church

Galatians 2:16-20; Mark 8:34-9:1

          In some ways, people today are too familiar with the image of the cross.  Some wear it as just another a piece of jewelry or otherwise use it to symbolize values or organizations that have nothing to do with the cross through which our Lord conquered death.  Unfortunately, those who confess its true spiritual significance can easily rest content with beliefs about the cross without actually obeying the clear instructions of our Lord that we must deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Him. Celebrating the Exaltation of the Cross with integrity requires that we confess truthfully with St. Paul:  “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ Who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

The Lord’s Self-Offering on the Cross for the salvation of the world is unique and all encompassing.  As we chant when we especially celebrate the cross, “Before Thy Cross, we bow down and worship…”  We must not respond passively to the cross, however, as though all the work has already been done in a way that requires nothing of us.  For the only way to share in the Savior’s life is to enter personally into the deep mystery of His sacrifice.  He offered Himself fully and in free obedience to the point of death, burial, and descent into Hades in order to conquer the corruption to which we had enslaved ourselves.   In order to embrace the liberation and healing of our Crucified and Risen Lord, we must die to all that holds us back from embodying the fullness of His great victory.  That means offering ourselves without reservation for union with Christ in holiness as we become “partakers of the divine nature” by grace.

In the world as we know it, doing so requires a perpetual struggle of the soul.  The fight is not against other people and certainly not against God.  Instead, it is a battle with ourselves because we have all accepted the lie that true fulfillment comes from our own will being done.  In one way or another, we have all come to identify with our self-centered desires such that we think we could not exist without gratifying them.  Consequently, to put the demands of loving God and neighbor first in life requires us to deny ourselves and to abandon our well-settled habit of living in the service of our passions. We must all be “crucified with Christ” in the sense of dying to the corruptions that keep us from sharing in the Savior’s restoration and healing of the human person in the divine image and likeness.

The Lord’s command to take up our crosses, deny ourselves, and lose our lives has nothing to do with appeasing an angry Father by our suffering.  It is not concerned with the pointless task of trying to earn forgiveness by paying a debt or meeting a legal obligation.  Instead, it is about doing what is necessary to find healing.  In order to regain physical health, we may have to do some painful and difficult things at times, like having surgery, going to physical therapy, or changing our diet.  Those are not punishments, but simply what is necessary for us to regain our health in light of our particular physical condition.  If we want to get better, we will put aside our preferences and accept the inconvenience.

The same thing is true for us spiritually.  Offering ourselves to the Lord for the healing of our souls in whatever circumstances we face is how we take up our crosses.  From the origins of the Church to this very day, that has meant literal martyrdom for those who refuse to deny Christ when the powerful of this world kill them as a result.  For all who unite themselves to Christ, there must be some form of martyrdom as we die to self-centeredness by putting faithfulness to the Lord and service to our neighbors before satisfying our own desires.  If we do not take up our crosses in the challenges that we face daily, whatever they may be, then we show that we are ashamed of Christ and of His Cross.  We show that we want no part of Him and prefer to gratify our own desires instead of offering ourselves for the service of His Kingdom.

Like Peter before He denied the Savior three times, we may well believe that we would never do such a thing.  Like Peter, however, we may have such a poor understanding of the Messiah we serve that we will be unprepared when our eyes are opened to the truth.  Today’s gospel passage comes right after Peter tried to correct the Savior when He predicted His death and resurrection. The Lord said to him in response, “Get behind me, Satan, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”   Peter had likely envisioned the Messiah as a successful military leader who would defeat the Romans and give the Jews a powerful earthly kingdom.  The idea of following someone like that appealed to his pride, for being the chief disciple of the new King David would bring riches, power, and glory.

When the Savior made clear that the religious leaders of Israel would reject Him, that He would be killed, and that He would rise from the dead, Peter was horrified to the point that he tried to set Christ straight.  That is when the Lord said in no uncertain terms that to reject the cross was the way of the devil, the way of completely rejecting His ministry for the salvation of the world.  Remember that Satan had tempted Christ in the desert by promising Him worldly power if He worshiped him.  Now Peter provided the same temptation.  That is when Christ told the disciples that they would have no part in Him if they did not also take up their crosses. In this light, it is not surprising that Peter later denied He knew the Lord three times after His arrest and abandoned Him at His crucifixion.  At that time, he and the other disciples were ashamed of a Messiah Who died on a cross.

Likewise, we show that we are ashamed of our Lord when we refuse to take up our crosses.  Our lives are filled with opportunities to turn away from prideful self-centeredness as we put the needs of those around us before ourselves.  Instead of indulging in gluttony, greed, hatred, envy, or other passions, we must redirect the energy of our souls to blessing our neighbors.  Remember that the Lord did not go to the cross for His own benefit, but for ours.  We will offer ourselves more fully to Him as we offer ourselves to serve those in whom He is present to us each day. If we do not, we will show that we are ashamed of our Lord.

The same is true whenever we refuse to keep a close watch on our hearts.  The ancient idols of sex, money, and power are worshiped openly in our culture, and we must be ready to embrace the cross of rejecting their powerful temptations.  Today reserving sexual intimacy for the union of husband and wife in marriage is widely considered archaic and oppressive.   Pornography is easily available and generally accepted, even though it is poisonous in so many ways.   Money and what it can buy often become the measure of our lives, regardless of what we say we believe.  Many people today seem to take pride in hating those with whom they disagree about politics and in self-righteously and hypocritically condemning them.  Nothing could be more contrary to denying ourselves and taking up our crosses than to embrace such temptations in our hearts.  Nothing could be more deadly to our souls.

Thankfully, there was hope for Peter and there is hope for us also through our Lord’s great victory over sin and death on His Cross.  Let us celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross by showing that we are not ashamed of His Self-Offering for our salvation.  No matter the circumstances of our lives, let us deny ourselves as we embrace the crosses of our lives.  That is how we may all enter into the joy of the Kingdom.

A New Creation Through the Cross: Homily for the After-Feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos and the Sunday Before the Elevation of the Cross in the Orthodox Church

Galatians 6:11-18; John 3:13-17

       

Our worst arguments are often with the people closest to us, especially members of our own family.  Perhaps the more we have in common with others, the easier it is to disagree about how things should be done and about what is really most important.  That is true not only in our families and marriages, but also when it comes to religion.

            In today’s epistle reading, St. Paul argues against fellow Christians of Jewish heritage who thought that Gentile converts had to be circumcised in obedience to the Old Testament law before becoming Christians.  He rejected that practice because those who put on Christ in baptism become “a new creation” through faith in the One Who fulfilled the law through His Cross.  By conquering death, the wages of sin, through His resurrection, the Savior has made it possible for all people to participate in His salvation.  As He said to Nicodemus in today’s gospel reading, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God sent His Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” 

            Even as we look ahead to the Elevation of the Holy Cross this coming week, we continue to celebrate today the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, remembering especially her parents, Sts. Joachim and Anna.  These commemorations remind us that the God-Man Who vanquished Hades for our salvation had a human ancestry, which was necessary for Him to be both a human person and the particular human person in Whom all the promises to Abraham were fulfilled.  His grandparents Joachim and Anna were not like the people Paul opposed in his letter to the Galatians, for their role in the coming of the Messiah was not based on what they had achieved by their own ability to obey a law.  Instead, it was the complete opposite, for they lacked the ability to conceive and bear children, which was understood as a requirement for fulfilling their role in the ongoing life of the Hebrew people.  As a childless couple, they despaired of their place among the righteous of Israel.

            In their weakness and pain, however, God heard their prayer and miraculously blessed them in old age with a daughter, whom they offered to the Lord by taking her to live in the Temple as a three-year old. That is where she grew up in purity and prayer as she prepared to become the Living Temple of the Lord, the Theotokos who would contain the Son of God in her womb as His Virgin Mother.  Joachim and Anna had not relied on their natural ability to conceive children, for they were old and barren.  Instead, they trusted in the Lord’s mercy to bless them as He had blessed Abraham and Sarah. And He not only blessed them in that way, but with a daughter who would give birth to the Messiah in Whom the ancient promises to the Jews would be fulfilled and extended to all with faith in Him.

            Of course, even the strictest obedience to the Old Testament law could not conquer death.  The cycle of birth and the grave had reigned ever since the corruption of our first parents.  The “wages of sin is death,” and the law was powerless to fulfill our calling to become like God in holiness as "partakers of the divine nature." The path out of slavery to corruption was not in the human ability to obey rules and regulations to some extent; instead, it is found in the merciful love of God Who blessed an elderly, righteous Jewish couple to have a daughter named Mary.   She, in turn, would become the recipient of a unique and unbelievably gracious blessing as the Virgin Mother of the God-Man, the Second Adam, Who would set right and fulfill all that the first Adam had gotten wrong.  The Theotokos is the New Eve through whom Life came into the world.  Her birth is already a foreshadowing sign of our salvation.  

            In the Savior’s conversation with Nicodemus, who was at that time a legalistic Pharisee, He did not speak merely of obedience to a law that could make people more religious or moral.  No, He spoke of life, saying “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”  The reference here is to an event described in Numbers 21:8-9, when the Hebrews were saved from deadly snake bites when they looked at the bronze snake held up by Moses in the desert.  Christ does not focus in this passage on Moses as the one through whom the Ten Commandments were given.  Instead of portraying him in terms of the law, He describes him as foreshadowing His victory over death through being lifted up on the Cross. Of course, the Savior’s Passion does not save people merely from poisonous snake bites on a certain day, but enables us to share in the eternal life of the Kingdom of God for which He created us in His image and likeness.

            To unite ourselves to Christ by faith also has a connection to the Cross.  St. Paul wrote, “far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.”  Truly to believe in Jesus Christ is not merely to have ideas or feelings about Him, but to be united to Him in holiness, to participate personally in the salvation that He has brought to the world.  In order to do so, we must take up our crosses as we die to whatever holds us back from offering ourselves to Him in humble obedience.

Joachim and Anna certainly bore their cross of the pain and embarrassment of childlessness.  When they were miraculously blessed in the conception and birth of Mary, they offered her to grow up in the Temple.  After decades of disappointment, they knew that God’s blessing was not their private possession, but for them to offer back to Him for the accomplishment of something much larger than their own personal happiness. They surely bore a cross in leaving their young daughter in the Temple, and years later she obeyed the strange message of the archangel in agreeing to become the Virgin Mother of the Son of God.  As St. Symeon declared to the Theotokos at her Son’s presentation in the Temple, “a sword will pierce your own soul also.”  (Luke 2:35)  Her cross was to see Him die on His after being rejected by the leaders of His own people.

            As members of Christ’s Body, the Church, we are quite fortunate to be in a position to reap the blessings of the faithful obedience of Joachim and Anna and of their daughter the Theotokos. We have become “a new creation” in the Lord Who releases us from the spiritual barrenness of bondage to sin and death that had enslaved humanity since the corruption of Adam and Eve.  Through His Cross and glorious resurrection, He has brought life to our world of death in a way that obedience to the law could never have accomplished.

It is only by taking up our crosses that we may unite ourselves to His.  It is only by dying to the old ways of death that we may live faithfully as His “new creation.”  “For God sent His Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”  Let us celebrate the birth of the Theotokos as a foreshadowing sign that His gracious mercy extends to all who, like her and her parents, offer their lives to Him in humble faith.  That is how we may participate personally in His great victory over sin and death for our salvation.

           

How to Accept an Invitation to a Great Wedding Feast: Homily for the 14th Sunday of Matthew and the 14th Sunday After Pentecost in the Orthodox Church

2 Corinthians 1:21-2:4; Matthew 22:2-14

          It is entirely possible to view participation in the life of the Church as a burden, as just another obligation that we have to fulfill. When we think that way, just about everything else in life seems more appealing than worshiping God.  Of course, the more we neglect the spiritual life, the less interest we will have in it.   Before we know it, we can easily shut ourselves out of the joy of the Kingdom because we think that we have more important things to do.

The Savior spoke the parable in today’s reading today from St. Matthew’s gospel against religious leaders who had become so obsessed with their own desires for worldly power that they rejected the Messiah in Whom all God’s promises to Abraham were fulfilled.  The prophet Hosea envisioned the relationship between God and Israel as a marriage, and weddings were great celebrations of God’s faithfulness in blessing the Jews from generation to generation.  It is not surprising, then, that Christ often compared the Kingdom of God to a wedding feast. His first miraculous sign in St. John’s gospel was at the wedding in Cana of Galilee.  He is the Bridegroom and the Church is the Bride.  The book of Revelation also describes the fulfillment of the heavenly reign as a marriage banquet.

How tragic, then, that the religious leaders who should have been in the best position to enter into the joy of spiritual union with Christ refused to do so.  They were like the guests invited to the wedding in the parable who “made light of it and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.”  In the parable, the king then sent his servants out into the streets to invite whomever they could to the celebration, “both bad and good; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.”

The Savior points here to the Church in which the distinction between Jew and Gentile is overcome, for He invites everyone to enter into the great joy of the heavenly banquet.  His fulfillment of the human person in God’s image and likeness is not reserved for those of a particular ancestry or nationality.  It is not reserved for those who have never fallen short of doing what is pleasing to God.  If that were the case, it would have nothing to do with us.  The good news is that, even as the king in the parable wanted the banquet hall to be filled, Christ came to save the entire world and turns no one away who responds to Him with humble faith, love, and repentance.

It is one thing to believe that as a theological concept.  It is very different and more difficult, however, to embrace this truth spiritually.  The knowledge of God is not a matter of having the right thoughts or words, but of being united with Him from the depths of our souls by participation in His grace.  When we find ourselves despairing of God’s forgiveness and mercy for our personal brokenness, we must open our hearts to His healing mercy.  Instead of being paralyzed by shame, which is simply hurt pride, we must cultivate daily the mindful prayer of the heart:  “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.”  Instead of allowing obsessive guilt to keep us focused on how we have failed our illusions of perfection, we must focus on His mercy as we become fully present before the Lord through prayer.

The point here is not to feel a certain way or try to get something from God, but to share in His life as we become more fully human.  As those created in God’s image and likeness, we do that by becoming more like God in holiness.  This is a journey of humility in which we do not hide our weakness and pain, but instead use them as opportunities to unite ourselves more fully to Christ as we offer even the dark and corrupt dimensions of our lives to Him for healing beyond our own ability.

“Many are called, but few are chosen.”  Those words end the parable right after the king ordered that the man without a proper wedding garment be thrown out of the celebration.  In that time and place, the host provided guests with the proper attire.  This fellow, after being invited to the great banquet, did not respond with decent gratitude and respect toward his host.  He refused to put on the garment, but apparently wanted the benefits of being at the party on his own terms.  Thus, he excluded himself from the celebration.

We enter into the Body of Christ through baptism, in which we put Him on like a garment.  “As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ,” wrote Saint Paul. (Gal. 3:27)  That is only the beginning of the Christian life, however, and we must attend mindfully to living each day as those who are participating in the Kingdom of God by grace.  If we do not, then the entire life of the Church will leave us cold and we will find basic spiritual disciplines to be burdens we would rather do without.   If we define what is truly important in life as fulfilling our usual set of daily obligations, satisfying our self-centered desires, and finding ways to distract ourselves from truths we do not want to hear, then  we will always think that we have better things to do than to unite ourselves to Christ.  At most, we will become like that man who wanted the benefits of being a wedding guest without accepting even the most basic expectations of the invitation.  He was completely focused on himself, and shut himself out of the great celebration as a result.

In order to avoid his fate, we must recognize that the Body of Christ is not here to give us what we want on our own terms.  Instead, it is in His Body, the Church, that the Savior shares His life with us and makes it possible for us to enter into the joy of heaven even as we live in a world of corruption with all our daily cares. The Divine Liturgy is not a beautiful ceremony for our entertainment or a means of escape from reality, but truly an invitation to participate already in the joy of the heavenly banquet as we struggle to live faithfully each day.  We must live out the truth of the Liturgy in everyday life, making our most mundane gifts and challenges opportunities to unite ourselves more fully with the Savior’s great Self-offering for the salvation of the world.

We cannot do that simply by being present for the Divine Liturgy, however.   We must offer the daily liturgy of our lives by: praying and reading the Scriptures each day; fasting regularly as a way of humbling ourselves before God; and reaching out to become a sign of God’s blessing to the needy and lonely.   We must keep a close watch on our thoughts, mindfully refusing to allow self-centeredness in any form to capture our hearts.  We must open our souls to Christ for healing through regular use of the holy mystery of Confession, for that is how we are assured of the Lord’s mercy as we name and repent of our sins.

If we neglect these disciplines, we should not be surprised when life in the Church seems more like a burden than blessing to us.  If we want to enter into the joy of the great wedding feast that is the Kingdom of God, we must prepare our hearts, souls, and minds for something far more profound than a religious or cultural event that gives us what we want on our own terms.  We must truly unite ourselves to Christ in holiness if we want to participate in the salvation of the human person that He has brought to the world.  That is what it means to become truly human as someone created in God’s image and likeness as we wear the wedding garment of the kingdom of heaven.

On Tending the Vineyards of our Lives: Homily for the 13th Sunday After Pentecost and the 13th Sunday of Matthew in the Orthodox Church

1 Corinthians 16:13-24; Matthew 21:33-42

I sometimes hear from my students that they think that Jesus Christ was a very nice person who never said anything harsh or critical about anyone.  Those who say that are certainly poor students, for the gospels make quite clear that our Lord spoke prophetic words of judgment to those who corrupted the faith of Israel in their quest for worldly power through hypocrisy and self-righteousness.  As we interpret the parable in today’s gospel reading, we must recognize that its message applies not only to those of generations long past, but also to us.

            Our reading from St. Matthew’s gospel follows the Savior’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  After being hailed by the crowds as the conquering Messiah Who would cast out of the Romans and establish an earthly kingdom, He told the chief priests and Pharisees that tax collectors and prostitutes would enter the Kingdom of God before them, for they had disregarded the preaching of St. John the Baptist, even after notorious sinners had repented in response to his teaching.  They were like sons who had promised to work in their father’s vineyard, but then did not keep their word.

By virtue of their knowledge, teaching, and ministry, the religious leaders of the day had a deep obligation to serve God faithfully.  They had, however, become so corrupt that they were like the false prophets and wicked rulers described so often in the Old Testament.  Their predecessors had worshiped foreign gods, exploited the poor and weak, and killed those who dared to criticize them or stand in their way.   Christ identified His opponents in the days leading up to His crucifixion with those of previous generations who had thought nothing of murdering righteous people who truly spoke the word of the Lord.  He foretold His own death at the hands of those who would not even respect the Son of God in Whom all the promises to Abraham are fulfilled.  The chief priests and Pharisees knew that the Savior had told this and others parables against them, but they did not arrest Him at that time because they were afraid of the crowds of people who thought that He was a prophet.

            Because they rejected Him, the Lord said in the verse immediately following this reading, “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.” (v. 44) Here He points to the coming of the Church in which there is neither Jew nor Greek, for those with no ancestral connection to Israel are now “grafted in” as branches of the olive tree whose roots extend back to the covenant with Abraham.  (Rom. 11: 17)  St. Paul warned Gentile Christians not to take pride in their status in relation to Jews who had rejected the Messiah, for “They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.” (11: 20-21)

            By faith in Christ, we have become the new tenants of the vineyard “who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”  Remember that that is precisely what the original tenants refused to do.  Instead of tending the vineyard and offering its fruit to their rightful owner, they wanted everything for themselves and even killed the son of the owner in order to take his inheritance.  We must read this passage as a reminder that embracing our membership in the Body of Christ requires offering all the blessings of life to Him.  It requires a refusal to distort our faith into a way of excusing ourselves from the exacting demands of accepting our high calling as those who have inherited by grace the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham in our Savior.  He is the vine and we are the branches, which means that we are organically united to Him and one another.  Our entire life in the world, then, must be taken up into His great Self-Offering on the Cross for our salvation.  Instead of being enslaved to getting what we want, we must die to self-centeredness as we learn to offer all the blessings of this life back to the Lord for Him to bless and multiply for the growth of His Kingdom as He sees fit.

            If we do not, we will fall into the same spiritual trap as the chief priests and Pharisees who rejected the Lord and handed him over to the Romans for crucifixion.   Instead of humbly accepting the great blessings of the law and the prophets, they used them to gain worldly power over other people.  They corrupted them in order to condemn the sins of others, while failing even to acknowledge their own.   They blinded themselves spiritually to the point that they not only failed to recognize their own Messiah, but actually wanted Him dead because He was such a threat to their desires.  We will do the same thing if we attempt to identify our Lord’s Kingdom with a nation, a race, or a culture; doing so makes it inevitable that we will see those who stand in the way of our worldly agendas as God’s enemies to be hated and condemned.  We will then become blind, not only to our own sins, but also to how even those the world tells us are our enemies bear the Lord’s image and likeness.  We will fail to see that how we treat them as Christ’s living icons is how we treat Him.    

As the Lord said in the parable, ‘“The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.’”  Of course, He was speaking of Himself.  As St. Paul wrote to the Gentile Christians of Ephesus, “You are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,  having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,  in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” (Eph. 2:19-22)  The Hebrews of old were accountable for being faithful to what had been revealed to them.  Now we, who have the fullness of the promise and share in the life of Christ by grace, are responsible to a much higher standard.  We are responsible for living as those solidly grounded on the one true foundation of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ, in Whose Kingdom the racial, national, and political divisions of this world are irrelevant.

If we do not so live, however, the consequences are as clear as the prophetic word He spoke to the chief priests and Pharisees:  “Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.” ( v. 44)  If we do not share in the life of Christ, we will revert to being strangers and foreigners from the Lord’s vineyard.  We will have as little life in us as branches that have fallen off the tree.   

The only way to avoid such a fate is to live daily as those in communion with Christ.  The fruit of the vine finds its fulfillment in the wine that becomes His Blood.  We must offer all the fruits of our lives to the Savior in order to enter into the joy of His Kingdom.  Such an offering requires dying to self out of love for God and neighbor in a way that destroys self-righteousness, hypocrisy, and the tendency to use religion for worldly gain of any kind. It requires being so solidly rooted in the Lord that we become living icons of His holiness and grace, especially to those we find it very hard to love and serve. Though none of us is worthy of this high calling, it remains our vocation as new tenants of the vineyard to “give Him the fruits in their seasons.”  It is how we must live as those whose only foundation is the Savior Who fulfilled and extended the promises to Abraham even to people as unlikely as you and me.    

Humble Faith, Not Legalism: Homily for the 12 Sunday After Pentecost, the 12th Sunday of Matthew, and the After-Feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos

1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Matthew 19:16-26

A common temptation for religious people is to fall into a form of a legalistic self-righteousness.  It is appealing to assume that what God requires may be boiled down to a simple code of behavior such that those who obey it earn a reward, while those who do not merit condemnation.  People who are not religious may certainly have their own forms of legalistic self-righteousness, but our immediate concern is to address our own temptations.  For the prideful attitude that we have somehow fulfilled all that God requires of us is simply deadly for the Christian life.

 

            The Jews of first-century Palestine typically viewed people like the rich young man in today’s gospel reading as those who were very pleasing to God.  Not only does the man claim that he has obeyed the Old Testament commandments, but his wealth was understood to be God’s blessing upon him as a righteous person.  That is why the disciples were astonished when Christ said that it was very hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  Perhaps this man was like a Christian today who lives according to the teachings of his church and is successful in his business and family life.  He was a model citizen of his community and surely knew that.

            The distance between conventional religious and cultural success and finding eternal life remains great, nonetheless.  Perhaps that is why the rich young man asked the Lord what he needed to do in order to gain eternal life.  He must have sensed that something was missing or that there was more required to enter into the Kingdom.  That is when the Savior gave him a challenge well outside of the man’s comfort zone:  “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”  Since he loved his possessions, he went away sorrowful.  For the Lord gave him a requirement that exposed his deep love for material things and the status and comfort that they provide.

He revealed the man’s spiritual weakness and brokenness by challenging him personally and powerfully.  Remember that the Savior identified the greatest commandment as:  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all you soul, and with all your mind…And the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”  (Matt. 22: 37-39) By giving away his beloved wealth to the poor and leaving behind his privileged position to follow Christ, the man would show that he truly loved God and neighbor.  Given his particular spiritual maladies, those steps were necessary for his healing.  He lacked the strength, however, to obey that command, which is why he went away in sorrow.  This fellow’s recognition of his weakness, however, did not necessarily cut him off from the hope of eternal life, for as Christ said, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

The contrast between this rich man and St. Paul is stark.  As he wrote in today’s epistle passage, St. Paul knew that he was “unfit to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”  Elsewhere he refers to himself as the chief of sinners upon whom God had mercy as an example of His overwhelming grace. (1 Tim. 1:15-16)  Before his conversion, Paul had been “faultless” in obeying the Old Testament law and a zealous Pharisee. (Philippians 3:6)  He had come to recognize, however, that the confidence he had had in his own religious achievements was simply garbage to be left behind when he embraced the true righteousness of God through faith in Christ.

As someone who had previously persecuted Christians, St. Paul simply acknowledges that “by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain.”  He did not go away sorrowfully when the Lord appeared to him in blinding light on the road to Damascus with the words, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4)   He obeyed and said, “Lord, what do you want me to do?” before being baptized and beginning his very unlikely ministry at the constant risk of his life.  Instead of trying to build on whatever righteousness he had achieved by obeying the Old Testament commandments, he threw himself entirely on the mercy of the Lord, trusting that the One Who died and rose again for the salvation of the world was able to heal his soul in ways that he had never been able to do through his own conventional religious observance.

St. Paul died as a martyr and his ministry involved deep struggles of so many kinds, including imprisonment, beatings, narrow escapes from death, and arguments with those who sought to corrupt and weaken the churches he had established.  Who would not look at this former Pharisee who became the great apostle to the Gentiles and say, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible”? His unique and exalted ministry which has so profoundly shaped the Church to this day was not simply the achievement of a gifted religious personality.  It was the gracious blessing of God at work through a person who had no illusions about his own brokenness and weakness, who had learned not to trust in his own ability to earn anything from God.  His humility made it possible for God to work in him what Paul could never have accomplished on his own.

The Savior’s exacting statement to the rich young man was an invitation to acquire the same spiritual clarity about his life.  By revealing to him the weaknesses of his soul, Christ opened his eyes just a bit to the inadequacy of viewing his relationship with God in terms of a list of legal requirements to be checked off.  He needed much more than the legal advice of a rabbi who could clarify the expectations.  His inability to demonstrate his love for God and neighbor by obeying Christ’s command showed that he needed healing that he could not give himself.  He needed the God-Man Who conquers death through His glorious resurrection and makes us participants by grace in the life of the Holy Trinity.  He fulfills our ancient vocation to become like God in holiness by healing our souls in ways that a set of legal or moral standards never could.

Those who are so strongly tempted to trust in their worldly accomplishments and comforts, or in the admiration of others for their supposedly exemplary lives, often need a bold, shocking message or course of events to wake them up from their complacency.  If we will open the eyes of our hearts just a bit to the light of Christ, however, we will see that none of us may claim to have mastered God’s requirements or to earn our way into the Kingdom based on our good deeds.  Our calling is not simply to be religious or moral people, but truly to become brilliant with the divine glory.  Before such a high calling, we must not go away sorrowful due to our inadequacy, but should instead fall on our faces and voice the Jesus Prayer from the depths of our hearts.  We must obey as best we presently have the strength to do, using the awareness of our weakness to open ourselves more fully to our Lord’s grace through our humility. 

As we continue to celebrate the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, we should look to her as the best example of a humble, obedient person united to Christ in love.  She became the Living Temple of the Lord in a shockingly unconventional manner when she accepted the Savior into her life as His virgin mother. She did not go away in sorrow upon hearing the message of the Archangel, but said, “Behold the handmaiden of the Lord.  Let it be to me according to your word.”  She served Him the rest of her life, even standing by His Cross and going with the other women to anoint His body on the morning of Pascha.  In her “falling asleep,” she shows us that such a life of loving obedience leads to the Kingdom of Heaven, not through legalism, but by humble, complete receptivity to the grace of her Son, in Whom all things are possible.  Let us all follow her example for the healing of souls.

Personal Transfiguration in Holiness: Homily for the 11th Sunday After Pentecost, the 11th Sunday of Matthew, and the After-Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ

1 Corinthians 9:2-12; Matthew 18:23-35

There is a lot going on the life of the Church this time of year.  Even as we continue to celebrate our Lord’s Transfiguration, we prepare by fasting to observe the Feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos during the coming week.  In order to enter into the good news proclaimed through these feasts, the eyes of our souls must be cleansed so that we will be able to behold and participate in the brilliant divine glory of our Lord.  We must become radiant with God’s gracious divine energies as we follow the Theotokos in uniting ourselves more fully to the Lord in holiness.  She was the first to receive Christ when she said, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” in response to the message of the Archangel that God had chosen her to become the virgin mother of His Son.  As we celebrate at her Dormition or “falling asleep,” she was also the first to follow Him as a whole, embodied person into the Kingdom of Heaven, for her tomb was found empty three days after her death.      

             The Theotokos provides the best model of what it means for a human being to be transfigured by personal participation in the grace of God.  She freely chose to accept the Savior into her life in a unique way as His mother, and she knew the pain and joy of offering herself fully to the One Who conquered death by His own death and glorious resurrection.  She counted for nothing in the eyes of the kingdoms of this world, but gained the unique dignity of the Mother of God, His Living Temple, when she contained Him in her womb.  The Theotokos then made the rest of her life an ongoing offering to the Lord.  How fitting, then, that her own death became an icon of the promise of eternal life for those united to Christ in holiness. 

             Unfortunately, the world has too much religion that does not lead people to transfiguration in holiness.  If we think that Christianity provides simply theological ideas, moral precepts, or directions about how to conduct religious services, then we will fail to behold and participate in the glory of our Lord.  For all of those aspects of religion, as laudable as they may be, can be affirmed and practiced in ways that do not make us “partakers of the divine nature” by grace.  Christ revealed His divine glory to Peter, James, and John on Mount Tabor so that they would know He is truly God and the fulfillment of the Law and Prophets of the Old Testament.  The voice of the Father proclaimed, “This is my beloved Son in Whom I am well-pleased.  Hear Him.”  (Matt. 17:5)

             Unlike a prophet or teacher of law, the Savior did not come to provide instructions that would make us a bit more pious or moral.  The One Who revealed His divine glory in brilliant, blinding light came to make us shine in holiness like an iron left in the fire.  He came to transform us so that we may participate personally in His gracious divine energies in fulfillment of our basic human calling to become like God in holiness.  The Savior called His disciples to “be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.”  (Matt. 5:48)  He cited the Psalms: “You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High.” (Psalm 82:6; Jn. 10:34)  While we remain human persons by nature, Christ enables us to become like Him by grace.  That is why theosis is an eternal process, for God’s holiness is truly infinite. 

            The point of our faith is not, then, simply to gain forgiveness for ourselves or anything else that we might want.  Like the wicked servant in today’s gospel reading, we will shut ourselves off from participating in the gracious mercy of the Lord if we think that forgiveness is something we may receive without being transformed personally.  That fellow begged for more time to pay his unbelievably large debt, and his master responded with shocking mercy, for he forgave the debt completely.  But instead of sharing the mercy that he had received, the servant then refused even to show patience with a fellow slave who owed him much less.  He then had the second fellow put into prison until he could pay.  When word of his actions reached the master, he had the first servant put in jail until he could repay the entirety of the massive amount he owed.  Christ concludes the parable with these challenging words, “So also My heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

            The Lord said that because refusing to forgive others is a clear sign of our refusal to become like God in holiness.  If we ask forgiveness for ourselves without extending it to others, we show that we are not interested in sharing in the life of our Lord by grace.  We demonstrate that we are not offering ourselves for transfiguration in holiness.  Instead, we become idolaters who worship a god in our own image who we think will give us what we want and make no demands that do not suit us.  Such corrupt views of religion will bring only greater darkness to our souls and enslave us further to passions such as hatred, judgement, and the refusal to forgive.  They make it impossible for us to be transfigured in holiness.

This temptation is especially dangerous because it is often appealing to convince ourselves that religion and the rest of life are entirely separate realms. We like to think that we meet our obligation to God by doing explicitly religious things at church or keeping a rule of prayer, fasting, and other spiritual disciplines.  Of course, we should offer ourselves to God in these ways.  They are vital means of opening ourselves to greater participation in the life of our Lord.  We will err grievously, however, if we hypocritically seek the mercy of the Savior while refusing to embody His mercy toward others whom we encounter in everyday life.  It is simply impossible to unite ourselves to the One Who said “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” from the Cross if we refuse to show mercy toward those who have offended us. If we try to do that, we will be in the false position of those who want one thing from God while giving the complete opposite to our neighbors.

The illumination and healing of our souls is an eternal process, for our goal is very high:  to become like God in holiness.  We should not despair when memories of the wrongs of others come to mind, when we have harsh feelings toward those who have wounded us, or when we cannot imagine how we could be reconciled with others with whom we have a broken relationship.  These are signs that we live in a world of corruption and need further healing for our souls.  Our choice is either to open our hearts to Christ for greater participation in His mercy or to harden them by embracing hatred and judgment.  The process of our transfiguration must begin by opening the darkened places in our hearts to His brilliant light as best we presently can.  We do that when we pray for God to bless our enemies and to forgive our sins by their prayers.  We do that when we mindfully refuse to dwell on the wrongs of others or to speak ill of them.  We do that when we go out of our way to help them.  As we struggle to show them the same mercy that we ask of Christ, we will grow in humble awareness of our own brokenness and dependence upon His grace for our healing.

This is the path that we must all follow if we are to become transfigured in holiness through personal participation in the life of our Savior.  In her Dormition, the Theotokos shows us that such a life leads to the eternal joy of the Kingdom of God. In order for us to follow her holy example, we must begin with the humble forgiveness of those who know that they are never in a position to condemn others.  Instead, we must become living icons of the brilliant mercy that we have received. That is how we may become truly human in God’s image and likeness by participating personally in the Savior’s healing of our corrupt humanity.