"Follow Me" Applies to Us All: Homily for the Second Sunday After Pentecost in the Orthodox Church

Romans 2:10-16

             Matthew 4: 18-23            

            In some ways, we may envy Peter, Andrew, James, and John for the clarity of their call.  On the day that Jesus Christ called them to leave everything behind and follow Him, there was no question what He wanted them to do.  The message was clear and they did as they were told.   

            Of course, that was only the beginning of their ministry as disciples and apostles.  As we know from reading the rest of the gospels, these men did not have a clear understanding of who Christ really was until after His resurrection.  Nothing in their background had prepared them for this unusual kind of Messiah or for the great sacrifices that following Him would require.  But on the day that the Lord called His first disciples, He did not require perfect understanding.  He asked only that they leave behind the life that they had known and take the first steps in following Him.

That was not a small thing, of course.  Imagine how hard it would be if Christ made very clear to you that He wanted you to give up the only occupation you had ever known, leave your family behind, and literally follow Him as He went around teaching, preaching, and healing the sick.  On that particular day, despite the enormity of this calling and their less than full understanding of it, these men did as they were told and became “fishers of men” for the Kingdom of God.   They were clearly chosen to be Christ’s disciples, but they certainly did not have it easy in any way for the rest of their lives.    

            It is a blessing and a challenge to have a strong and clear sense of what God wants you to do in life.  How many holy people—from the very first Christians until this very day—die as martyrs or suffer abuse and persecution for their faithfulness to Christ?  To take even small steps toward a holy life requires struggle, persistence, and a willingness to endure tension within our own souls and usually with other people.  To lead a righteous life requires loving God with every ounce of our being and our neighbors as ourselves.  Try to do that seriously and you will find yourself fighting many battles, especially in your own soul.

St. Paul was a Jewish convert to Christianity who knew that God had called the Hebrews for a unique role in the salvation of the world.   The Jews certainly had an advantage over the Gentiles because of all that God had revealed to them through Moses and the prophets.  But St. Paul also knew that God shows no partiality.  Hearing the Law without obeying it was of no benefit at all, even as Christ’s disciples would have gained nothing by ignoring Christ’s call to follow Him.  What matters is actually doing what God requires of us.

St. Paul knew that God had not abandoned the Gentiles, for He gave everyone a conscience, a knowledge of right and wrong engraved in our hearts; that is an important part of what it means to be a human being in God’s image and likeness.    So whether Jew or Gentile, whether according to the law of Moses or the dictates of conscience, St. Paul teaches that God holds us all accountable to the truth that we have received.  The question for every human being, then, is whether we obey the Lord according to what we know of His purposes for us.   

            He was under no illusion that the Jews had perfectly obeyed the Law or that the Gentiles had lived fully in accordance with conscience.  St.  Paul taught that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  No one is in the position to boast of a privileged status before the Lord or to judge another, for both Jew and Gentile (namely, all human beings) stand in need of grace and mercy to the depths of our souls.  Everyone is in need of a Savior Who conquers sin and death and brings us into the eternal life of God.

            That was certainly true our Lord’s disciples, who failed with some frequency to obey or even understand what Christ expected of them.  They largely abandoned Him at His arrest and crucifixion, and it was not until He appeared to them after His resurrection and gave them a measure of the Holy Spirit that their eyes were truly opened.  It was not until the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost that they boldly and effectively became “fishers of men” whose preaching and miracle-working ministry brought multitudes into the life of Christ.    As a consequence of their apostolic ministry, they took up their crosses in suffering persecution, hardships of all kinds, and even death as martyrs.  The Lord did not call them to an easy life of special privilege, but to an extremely demanding one of sacrifice for the sake of the Kingdom.

            At the end of the day, He does the same with us all.  Of course, the details will be different.  We are not fishermen in first-century Palestine or the very pillars of the Church in the sense that they were.  St. Paul surely did not have us in mind when he wrote to the Romans about Jews and Gentiles. It is possible to get so caught up in the particular callings and circumstances of others such that we miss the larger point. To be perfectly clear, the larger point is that we are all fully responsible for hearing and responding to God’s calling in our lives, no matter how imperfectly we understand it or how difficult it is to obey. 

In many ways, we have much less of an excuse than Christ’s first disciples, for we have the benefit of their example and of so many generations of faithful people who have gone before us in following Jesus Christ. As Orthodox Christians, we have received the fullness of God’s revelation in the ongoing life of the Church by the power of the Holy Spirit.  But instead of patting ourselves on the back and simply taking pride in these great blessings, we must humbly accept the great responsibility that they give us.     Like the Jews of old, we must remember that it is no great thing to be a recipient of God’s requirements if we do not actually do what He requires.  Like the Gentiles mentioned by St. Paul, we must remember that it is no accomplishment to have a conscience that leads us in the right direction if we do not actually follow it.  And our participation in the Church will be of no benefit to us if we ourselves do not become living witnesses of our Savior’s victory over sin and death in our daily lives.

In this season of the Apostles Fast, we want to become more like those blessed men who left everything behind in response to the Savior’s call, even though they often fell short.  Their understanding was imperfect and the same was true of their actions on many occasions.  But the Lord did not abandon or reject them, even when they abandoned Him.  He is merciful and calls us all to accept His mercy when we realize that we have not been doers of His will and have disregarded His calling. Like the apostles, we do not yet have perfect faith and obedience; but just like them, we are responsible to respond to the calling we have received as best we can.  To do so will never be easy or without sacrifice; we will often stumble along the path of discipleship.  But if we continue the journey with humble repentance, we will grow each step of the way in hearing Christ’s calling more clearly and in gaining the strength to obey Him more fully.

As hard as it is to believe, Jesus Christ calls each of us with the urgency that He called those first disciples and apostles.  We are every bit as responsible for obeying Him as they were, indeed even more responsible because we have the benefit of their example.  They had to wait three years for Christ’s resurrection and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, while we do not.  Far more than the Jews of the Old Testament or the ancient Gentiles, God has opened the eyes of our souls to know what He requires of us.  He has given us a great calling to share personally in His eternal and holy life.  There is no question about that.  The only question is how we will respond to the One Who says to each and every one of us: “Follow Me.” 

    

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Link to Podcast of Homily for Sunday of All Saints

http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/commentaries/sunday_of_all_saints

Sunday of All Saints

June 10, 2015 Length: 10:36

Our contemporary culture forms many people who cannot imagine any purpose higher in life than the pursuit of self-centered pleasure on their own terms. Fr. Philip LeMasters explains that on the Sunday of All Saints, the Church reminds us that we are called to follow a very different and much better path.

On Taking Up the Cross and Confessing Christ in Contemporary Culture: Homily for the Sunday of All Saints in the Orthodox Church

            

       

          We live in a time of great confusion. Our contemporary culture forms many people who cannot imagine any purpose in life higher than the pursuit of self-centered pleasure on their own terms.  For example, patient care for the dying and disabled, sacrifice to welcome and rear children conceived in inconvenient circumstances, and even basic sexual morality in singleness and marriage are often rejected today in ways that keep people from growing in God’s image and likeness. Our society produces too many people who love and fantasize about violence, worship money and what it can buy, disregard their needy neighbors, hate those who disagree with them, and recognize no standard higher than fulfilling their own immediate desires.   Such ways of living simply diminish us and enslave us to our passions.      

            On this Sunday of All Saints, the Church reminds us that we are called to follow a very different and much better path.  Last Sunday at Pentecost, we celebrated the descent of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit has been poured out richly upon all in the Body of Christ, showing that God intends to dwell in the hearts and souls of human beings such that we all become partakers of the divine nature by grace.

Today we remember all those who have been filled with the Holy Spirit, whose lives have borne witness to the holiness of God.  The meaning of the word “saint” is holy, and surely most saints have not been officially canonized by the Church.  Nonetheless, they are known by God and glorified in the Kingdom because they embraced His transforming love and became beacons of light.  They followed the true and blessed path for which God created us as His sons and daughters; consequently, they became truly human in the divine likeness.   

In today’s gospel text, Jesus Christ teaches that He will confess us to His Father in heaven if we confess Him before other people.  But if we do not, He will not claim us before the Father.  He says that we must love Him more than anyone or anything else.  The persecuted Christians of the Middle East and elsewhere certainly follow His teaching when they become refugees, prisoners, and victims of torture, abuse, and execution for their faith in Him.  But we may wonder what our Lord’s words mean for those of us who live in places where we do not experience such obvious threats.  Do we have any hope of Christ acknowledging us before His Father when we do not suffer that kind of persecution?

 The good news of the gospel is that the Holy Spirit enables us all to become holy in whatever life circumstances we face.   The divine breath gave us life in the first place in God’s image and likeness and empowers us all to grow eternally in becoming more like Him, to become perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect.  As hard as it is to believe, God calls us all to that kind of holiness.  He intends to make our lives shine with the glory of His Kingdom, right now and throughout all eternity. For that to happen, we must follow the path trod by all the saints, which is open to every human being in every generation.

Think about what Christ said concerning whether we confess Him before others.  That is relevant not only for circumstances of persecution, but also for every day of our lives.  Do we act and speak in ways that show we are united to Christ?  Are we living witnesses of His victory over sin and death?  Does the light of His resurrection shine through us by the power of Holy Spirit?  The hard truth is that, whenever Christ is not evident in us, we deny Him.   If we speak or act according to our own self-centered desires or the corrupt ways of the world, we indicate that we are not His.  That is to veer from the path to the Kingdom followed by all the saints; it is to turn away from what it means to be a human being in God’s image and likeness.  When we recognize we have done that, we must repent, reorienting our thoughts, words, and deeds toward Christ in humility.    

The Savior gives us an exacting standard to determine whether we are truly united with Him.  Namely, He says that those who love even family members more than Him are not worthy of Him.  Instead, we must take up our crosses and follow Him in order to be His.    As much as we do not like to hear it, even our deepest and most profound relationships in this life must be transformed by an even deeper and more profound allegiance to Christ if they are to become icons of the blessedness of the Kingdom.   Otherwise, they will become idols that diminish all concerned and keep us from fulfilling our high calling.

Family life by itself is not the salvation of the world.  The relationship between man and woman so easily becomes distorted and brings misery on them both, which is why there is so much divorce today.  Parents and children have it no easier, as witness child abuse, abortion, and the neglect of the elderly. When it comes to siblings, just remember Cain and Abel.  Even the best human inclinations so easily fall prey to the worst when they are not healed by sacrificial offering to the Lord. 

Christ went to the cross for us, bearing the consequences of all human corruption to the point of death, burial, and Hades in order to conquer them and bring us into eternal life through His resurrection.   The Father gave the Son and the Son offered Himself up on the cross for salvation.  That is the ultimate act of love.  If—together with our family members and loved ones-- we want to share in the new life that Christ has brought to the world, we must not make idols of any human being or relationship.  We must not pretend that they come before God or are fine just as they are.  No, we must offer our families and relationships to the Lord and bear the cross of sacrificing the idolatry even of our spouses, children, and parents. For like us, they are simply human beings and not God.  And if we make false gods of them, we will bring sorrow to them and ourselves.   We will bend everyone concerned out of shape, putting more weight on them than anyone can bear.  Instead, we must take up the cross of loving others according to God’s will for them and us.

Purely out of love, the Son went to the cross for the salvation of the world.  That is sacrifice beyond what we can understand.  And if we share in that love, we must sacrifice the ultimately self-centered illusion that we will find or give other people true fulfillment and happiness apart from Him.   And if we put ourselves or others before faithfulness to the Lord, we will end up confessing some false god in place of Jesus Christ.  It is not as dramatic as worshiping an idol, but the spiritual significance is the same.  It is not the way of the saints, and it must not be our way if we want to open our lives to His glorious blessing and fulfillment.

 If we really love others, we will bear the cross for them and offer them to the Lord as best we can.  For example, when man and woman join in marriage in the Orthodox Church, they wear the crowns of the Kingdom, which are crowns of martyrdom.  Each dies to self in loving and serving Christ in the other.  We must not look for unrealistic romantic, financial, or social bliss in marriage, for that leads only to dissatisfaction and divorce.  The true calling of husband and wife is to make their life together an icon, a living image of the Kingdom of God.  Mutual forgiveness, patience, self-sacrifice, self-control, humility, and steadfast commitment are the signs of a holy marriage.  Faithful husbands and wives pray for and with one another.  Faithful fathers and mothers do the same with their children.  When families worship together and use their financial and other resources to serve God’s purposes in the world, they offer their common life to the Lord.  They confess Jesus Christ to one another and the world.  They open their lives to the holiness of God and follow in the way of the saints.

Yes, this kind of family life is a cross to bear, and it requires forgoing much that we may well desire.  In our age of internet pornography, promiscuity, and routine divorce, there is not much today that supports the holiness of marriage and family.  We face great struggles in fulfilling our calling to confess Jesus Christ as Lord with integrity each day in a world that worships pleasure, wealth, and selfishness.   Fortunately, the Holy Spirit strengthens us all to take up our crosses, which means confessing our Lord each day of our lives in all we say and do.  If we will do so, then we will open ourselves to His mercy and know already the peace and joy of a Kingdom not of this world together with all the saints who have gone before us.

     

REVIEW: An Orthodox Response to “Same-Sex Unions” from Fr. Joseph Huneycutt

June 3, 2015 by Fr. Joseph Huneycutt 

What is the relationship between morality and the Eucharist? Do our actions, outside of the church building, define who we are in Christ? Essentially, does our bodily relationship with self and others affect our communion with the Other? These are the issues addressed by Fr Philip LeMasters in his book, Toward a Eucharistic Vision of Church, Family, Marriage and Sex. Given that “same-sex unions” is the hot topic of the day, this review will center on chapter six of the book.
Midway down the opening paragraph of the chapter, “An Orthodox Response to ‘Same-Sex Unions,’” we read: “The question of Christianity’s proper stance on homosexuality is the most controversial and divisive issue facing churches in North America today” (p.79). This is a quote with which few Christians can quibble. Fireworks among foes and arm wrestling among friends might be found further down the page:

There is no question about the teaching of the Orthodox Church on homosexuality; namely, sexual relations between persons of the same sex are “sinful and contrary to God’s will. Orthodoxy maintains the living Tradition of the Church on the question of homosexuality. The Scriptures, writings of the Father, lives of the Saints, and the Liturgy provide no basis whatsoever for the endorsement of sexual relations between two people of the same sex under any circumstances. Consequently, there is no debate on this question in the Church (p.79).

Much has changed in America in the ten years since the book, Toward a Eucharistic Vision of Church, Family, Marriage and Sex, was published (2004). For instance, in an Illinois Senate Debate that year, Barak Obama stated, “I don’t think marriage is a civil right.” He went on to state that gay people have rights …but marriage was not among them.[1]
One need not be a political news junkie to understand that Obama’s views have changed. When running for President in 2008, Candidate Obama stated: “I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman.”[2] On May 9, 2012, Obama told an interviewer that he supported same-sex marriage.[3] Then, in 2015, one reads: “Calling state bans on same-sex marriage ‘incompatible with the Constitution,’ the Obama administration Friday filed a brief at the U.S. Supreme Court in support of couples who are making challenges in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee.”[4]
Granted, Toward a Eucharistic Vision of Church, Family, Marriage and Sex is not about politics or the evolving belief of the President of the United States. But with such attention directed from the nation’s “bully pulpit,” is it any wonder that many Americans – even those within the Orthodox Church – are questioning the Church’s teaching on human sexuality?
Traditional media outlets – radio, television, movies – and, especially, social media, not to mention politically-correct public school systems, have indoctrinated the next generation of Americans with the notion that love knows no boundaries, and neither should laws regulating marriage. The speed at which we have reached this erroneous notion is dizzying. These days, to question this mandated mantra is viewed as backward, hate speech, bullying. It is for this reason that this book, especially the chapter on “same-sex unions” is a must read by those who seek to understand why the Church believes as She does.
Detailing commonly heard arguments of “orientation” and even citing those who make a good case for the same, LeMasters lays out the timeless position of the Church that “a homosexual relationship is [incapable] of bringing human beings to participation in the Trinitarian love of God in ways that are truly parallel to marriage between a man and a woman” (p.81). The foundation of God-pleasing union detailed throughout the book is our union with God in the Eucharist. With this in mind, LeMasters asks, “Is a homosexual relationship of the sort that may be a foretaste of the Wedding Feast of the Lamb?” (p.81) He is here referring to the eschatological imagery which permeates the Church’s scriptural witness:

From Genesis through Revelation, there is a continuity of God’s purposes for the man-woman relationship that is a unique means of our participation in the life of the Trinity. When man and woman die to self in the conventional love of marriage, they live eucharistically and participate in the very life of God, even as they prepare for the Kingdom. The fulfillment of God’s intentions for our nature as man and woman is possible only in Christian marriage. Hence, relationships which do not fulfill our nature as man and woman before God may not be instruments of grace or a means of participating in God’s reign. For this to happen, grace would have to become the foe of creation; in a dualistic fashion, nature and grace would then be enemies, rather than dynamic categories which together shed light on our standing before God as creatures who have strayed from the Lord’s purposes for us and who need a spiritual healing which is beyond our own ability to effect. Manachaean dualism once more would rear its ugly head” (p.85).[5]

Gnosticism believes that the spiritual cannot mix with matter; it does not matter what you do in the sensible realm as long as you understand the spiritual realm. Gnosticism – with its emphasis on knowledge as the key to power, science and religion – is dualism. It leaves men free to practice immorality.

Those who argue that the biological distinctions between the sexes amount to no more than spiritually irrelevant plumbing have fallen prey to the Gnostic dangers of radically distinguishing the person from the body. A faith which places so much weight on the Body of Christ – in connection to the incarnation, the resurrection, the Church, and the Eucharist – must never dismiss the importance of the bodily differences of man and woman, as they have been revealed to have tremendous importance in the economy of salvation from the biblical period to the present. It is unthinkable for the Church to bless unions which are so clearly perversions of God’s intentions for man and woman (p.85).

A May 2015 Gallop poll reveals that 63% of Americans now find “same-sex unions” to be morally favorable (up 23% since the year 2000); furthermore:

The substantial increase in Americans’ views that gay and lesbian relations are morally acceptable coincide with a record-high level of support for same-sex marriage and views that being gay or lesbian is something a person is born with, rather than due to one’s upbringing or environment.
The public is now more accepting of sexual relations outside of marriage in general than at any point in the history of tracking these measures, including a 16-percentage-point increase in those saying that having a baby outside of marriage is morally acceptable, and a 15-point increase in the acceptability of sex between an unmarried man and woman. Clear majorities of Americans now say both are acceptable.[6]

If you couple this with the recent Pew Research Center findings that 71% of Americans identified as Christian in 2014 (down from 78% in 2007), one must assume that even those within the pews have redefined their moral beliefs based on a mandated politically-correct agenda rather than the faith “once and for all delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3).”
Referring back to the chapter’s last quoted paragraph, above, no other conclusion can be reached than that many have indeed fallen into a Gnostic division of the body from the soul on the path to salvation. In other words, physical morality plays no part in the salvation of the soul. Such a belief is contrary to the witness of scripture, the fathers, and the saints of the Church. This deviation denies the witness of the Incarnation and distorts – nay destroys – a proper understanding of the Body of Christ as a communion of believers united in the Eucharist. Thus, as with any heresy, grace is denied.

God’s grace enables us for us the eschatological fulfillment and restoration of our nature, for the sharing of God’s reign through our participation in the life of the body of Christ. A homosexual relationship is not a fitting vehicle for coming to share more fully in God’s holiness. Regardless of arguments about whether homosexual activity is in any sense natural in our fallen world, Christians know the true nature of our sexuality if from what God has revealed about our creation and salvation as man and woman. Since grace restores and fulfills, but does not destroy our sexual nature as man and woman, to participate in homosexual relationships is to place oneself on a trajectory away from God’s gracious purposes for our sexuality. Hence, one who is not called to the vocation of heterosexual marriage should remain single and chaste, and take up the unique forms of ministry available to the celibate (p.87).

As with any review, there is a temptation to quote all the good stuff; alas, I have done some of this above. Yet, to fully understand the nature and import of Toward a Eucharistic Vision of Church, Family, Marriage and Sex more than select quotes – or even the cited chapter on “same-sex unions” – is needed. While the issues discussed in the book have been politicized in contemporary society, they are not political but moral issues which have been politicized. Above all, Christians are called to remain true to the Faith revealed to us by God in the scripture, the fathers, and the witness of the saints. Fr Philip LeMaster’s book, Toward a Eucharistic Vision of Church, Family, Marriage and Sex, explains and maintains this high calling.
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[1] Available: http://www.mediaite.com/online/obama-in-2004-homosexuality-not-a-choice-but-i-dont-think-marriage-is-a-civil-right/ (accessed May 27, 2015)
[2] Available: http://www.mediaite.com/online/obama-in-2004-homosexuality-not-a-choice-but-i-dont-think-marriage-is-a-civil-right/ (accessed May 27, 2015)
[3] Stein, Sam (May 9, 2012). “Obama Backs Gay Marriage”. Huffington Post.
[4] [March 6, 2015] http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/06/politics/obama-nationwide-same-sex-marriage/ (accessed May 27, 2015)
[5] Manichaeism: Manes (215-275) was a Persian and a Gnostic. He contrasted light and darkness, and maintained that Satan had hidden in man the particles of light, and that Jesus, Buddha, the Prophets, and Manes had been sent by God to help in the task of freeing men from the material and sensible world into the Light of Being. Manichaeism had a hierarchy, which distinguished the sensible, intellectual, and divine light. Manes was a proponent of knowledge of divine things, rather than faith. (Taken from an unpublished manuscript by the Rev. Dr. Charles Caldwell, 2010.)
[6] Available: http://www.gallup.com/poll/183413/americans-continue-shift-left-key-moral-issues.aspx?utm_source=Social%20Issues&utm_medium=newsfeed&utm_campaign=tiles (accessed May 27, 2015)
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/orthodixie/2015/06/review-an-orthodox-response-to-same-sex-unions.html

American Christianity Declines as the Martyrs of the Middle East Bear Powerful Witness to Christ: Homily for the Sunday After the Ascension

         

           A recent survey of Americans about religion is getting a lot of attention, especially because it shows that fewer people now identify themselves as Christians and more consider themselves unaffiliated with any religion.  Perhaps at least part of the reason for these declines is that many people have not found something worth living and dying for in the churches with which they are familiar.   

            Their experience reflects the failure of so much Christianity in our culture to embody with integrity the good news that we celebrate during this season of the Ascension, which invites us to participate personally in the fulfillment of our humanity in the risen and ascended Savior.The Lord went up into heaven forty days after His resurrection. In Him, humanity and divinity are united in one Person; He rises into heaven as the God-Man.   His Ascension shows that the Son shares in the glory that He had with the Father and the Holy Spirit before the creation of the world.

            And He brings us into that glory with Him.  The Ascension is a brilliant icon of our salvation, for it makes clear that our Lord has raised us in all dimensions of our existence—not only from the tomb, not only from Hades—but into the eternal life of the Holy Trinity.  In the ascended Christ, we truly become participants in God, partakers of the divine nature by grace even as we live and breathe in a world that so often forgets the One Who spoke it into existence.

            The Ascension reminds us that Orthodoxy is not an “I’ll Fly Away” religion that excludes holiness and union with the Lord from life as know it.  The point is not to escape our bodies or any dimension of earthly reality, but to offer every aspect of our life to Christ for blessing such that we already experience the life of heaven even in a world that increasingly thinks of God as irrelevant.   He ascended with His glorified body, and we “look for the resurrection of the dead and life of the world to come” as the ultimate fulfillment of His good creation.

            The Ascension also reminds us that Jesus Christ is not merely a great teacher or example or even an angel or lesser god.  As the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea proclaimed, He is light of light, very God of very God, of one essence with the Father, the only begotten Son of God.   Only One who is truly divine and eternal can ascend into heaven and bring us into the divine, eternal life of the Holy Trinity.  That is why the Council of Nicaea rejected the teaching of Arius, who did not think that the Son was fully divine.   That is why the Orthodox Church has always disagreed with those who deny our Lord’s full divinity or His full humanity.  Only One who is truly both God and human can bring us into the life of God as our Savior.

            Perhaps some today find Christianity irrelevant to their lives because they have never seriously encountered the Orthodox experience of Jesus Christ.  Many in our culture seem to think of the Lord as little more than a good teacher and example with a message not that much different from that of secular and other religious figures.   We do not have to be geniuses to figure out that it is possible to be a nice person and a good citizen without being a Christian or religious at all.

            Like Arius, many throughout the centuries have made Christ in their own image as an exemplary human being according to whatever standard they found appealing in their time and place.  While that might be useful for some cultural or political agendas, such interpretations quickly fade when people figure out that they can achieve their worldly ends quite well without a little religious icing on the cake of what is really important to them.  At best, this attitude produces a wimpy faith that does not last and most people will not take seriously. 

            In contrast, Orthodoxy maintains the ancient faith of the Church that Jesus Christ, the God-Man, has conquered death in His resurrection, ascended into heaven, and made us participants by grace in the life of the Holy Trinity.  We must never seek to water-down our faith in the Savior in an attempt to make following Him popular, easy, or fully in harmony with our culture.  Should it be surprising that to ascend with Him to a life of holiness in our corrupt world will demand discipline, sacrifice, and being out of step with many trends?  Would it not be strange if offering our lives for blessing to the crucified, risen, and ascended Lord were as easy and ultimately insignificant as simply being nice or fitting in well with social norms? 

            Sometimes looking at other cultures helps us see our own situation more clearly.  To this very day, many Christians in the Middle East (Orthodox, as well as others) lay down their lives as martyrs for their faith in Jesus Christ.  In that region and in other parts of the world, our brothers and sisters suffer persecution, abuse, and harassment from oppressive governments and hostile groups that want to eliminate them and their faith.  Communism and fascism made countless martyrs during the 20^th century.  The same is true of the Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian genocides at the hands of the Turks that began a hundred years ago.

            Few in our culture recognize that many millions of Christians have died for their faith over the last century. Thousands continue to do so each year.  Like the martyrs of the early Church, they do not go to their deaths out of loyalty to a mere human teacher or an example of how to be a moral or pleasant person.  They certainly do not do so because being a Christian brings them any kind of cultural or worldly advantage.  No, they simply refuse to abandon a Lord Whom they know as God, Who has conquered death, ascended into heaven, and Who has strengthened them to share in His eternal life even as they literally follow Him to the cross.

            Remember that, in a matter of days, Christ’s disciples went from total despair and defeat at His crucifixion to the astounding joy of the empty tomb and the amazing sight of His Ascension. These were life-changing experiences that gave them the strength to sacrifice their own lives for the Lord.  Generations of martyrs do not give their lives for even the best teachers and good examples, but the power of the risen and ascended Son of God continues in the Church, especially in the witness of the martyrs to this day who share in a victory that is not of this world.

            The early Christian teacher Tertullian wrote that “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”  In ways that may seem surprising, people in the early history of the faith were drawn by the witness of those who gave up their lives for Christ.  Perhaps they sensed that something different, something new, something truly worth living and dying for had led the martyrs to their great sacrifice.  That is apparently what they wanted in their own lives.  Many people still do today.   

            As we celebrate the Ascension, we should recognize that what we have to offer the world is our witness that the crucified, risen, and ascended Lord has brought us into the eternal life that He shares with His Father and the Holy Spirit.  His divine glory shines in the witness of the martyrs to this day, and must shine through us in ways that go beyond what even the best teacher, example, or political activist could inspire.  We must demonstrate with integrity that He is worth living and dying for in a culture where so many make the world their god.  We will do so by ascending with Him to lives of brilliant holiness even as our feet remain planted firmly on the ground.    

            He calls us to become living icons in ways that attract others to the joy, blessedness, and fulfillment of the Kingdom.  He enables us to live in this world as those who already have experienced its salvation.  He commands us to radiate the divine glory in which He has made us participants.  If we do so, we will bear witness to the truth of the Ascension, and many in our culture will be drawn to our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ for the first time.   And by His grace, they will see that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  

Opening the Eyes of our Souls to the Light of the Resurrection: Homily for the Sunday of the Blind Man in the Orthodox Church

           

              Probably all of us have the ability to know at a glance whether something looks right in some area of our work, our hobbies, or interactions with others.  By long experience of trial and error, we learn to see some things quite clearly.  We develop a good eye for them.    

            The glorious season of Pascha has opened the eyes of our souls in a very different way.   Like the blind man whom Jesus Christ healed in today’s gospel text, we share a lack of spiritual vision that cannot be overcome by more experience of the world as we know it.  For this blindness is a symptom of our collective and personal turning away from the union with God for which He created us.  It is the consequence of our continuing to prefer the ways of death to the ways of life.  We may learn to make out the shadows of the tomb, but that is nothing compared with beholding the divine glory.  Learning how to stumble around in a world of death has nothing in common with sharing in the joy of Christ’s resurrection.   

            The jailer in today’s reading from Acts provides a striking example of this kind of blindness, for he was ready to kill himself rather than endure the penalty that awaited him for letting his prisoners escape.  He knew how things worked in the Roman Empire.  When St. Paul assured him that he had nothing to fear for they were all still in their cells, the jailer was so shaken that he asked what he needed to do in order to be saved. In other words, he came to recognize his blindness and wanted to leave behind the pitch black tomb of death and to enter into the light.     

            Jesus Christ’s resurrection made that possible for him, for us, and for the entire universe.   He has given life to the dead, restored sight to the blind, and made even the dark prison of the tomb a gateway to the brilliant light of life eternal.  He enables us to see, to know, and to participate in the divine glory for which He made us in His image and likeness.  He has set us free from the bondage of our sins and of the misery that we have brought upon ourselves.  The good news of this season is that we may rise up in Him from these darkened, pointless ways of living to the light, truth, and joy of the Kingdom of Heaven.  We may share in Christ’s eternal life, in His victory over sin and death, even now.  But in order to do so, we must follow the example of the blind man in today’s gospel reading.

            Notice that he had to actually obey the Lord’s instructions in order to regain his sight.  Christ put clay on the man’s eyes and told him to wash in the pool of Siloam from which water was taken for rites of purification at the Temple.  He did so and he could see.  This washing reminds us of baptism in which we enter into Christ’s death in order to rise with Him into the new life of the Kingdom.  Even as Christ put clay on this man’s eyes, He puts a robe of light on us in baptism. “As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Gal. 3:27)  He clothes us with the glory of His divinized humanity, fulfilling our calling as those made in the image and likeness of God.  This is also what Christ did for the jailer who had been ready to kill himself, but then believed and was baptized along with his family. He had been ready to embrace death, but then entered into life.   Like the blind man, he was set free from darkness and beheld the light.  

            The Lord enabled both men to begin a new life, but note that what we read about them describes only the beginning of their journeys.  Like the rest of us, they had a long road before them.  They still had to live faithfully each day and intentionally turn away from the darkness in order to open themselves more fully to the light.  They had to cleanse and focus the eyes of their souls in order to sharpen their spiritual vision, to grow in their personal participation in and knowledge of the Lord.             

            Christ said “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”  (Matt. 5:8)  Purity of heart was surely a goal for these men as much as it is for us, and we have certainly not yet attained it.  We do not yet have the eyes to see with clarity how the darkness has obscured our full participation in the brilliant light of the resurrection.  If our goal were simply to become a bit more functional in daily life or to succeed by the standards of our culture, that would not be much of a problem. A little conventional religion can serve those mundane aims well. Our goal is quite different, however.  We want to become radiant with the divine glory like an iron left in the fire.  We want to see, know, and participate in God by grace, to become partakers of the divine nature. (2 Pet. 1:4)  

           For that to happen, we must purify our hearts by turning away from all the dark and deadly influences of sin in our lives.  None of us has perfect knowledge of our sins, of course, but we all know them well enough to keep us more than busy with repentance.  In other words, Christ has restored our spiritual vision in baptism such that, despite our imperfection and distorted spiritual vision, we all have enough knowledge of Him to know generally where we fall short and where we need to grow.  Instead of despairing that we are not at the heights of spiritual perfection, we simply need to do what we presently have the spiritual strength to do in turning away from death and toward life.  In words, we must with humility take the steps we are capable of taking as we reject obvious corruption in our lives and embrace faith, hope, and love. By uniting ourselves to Christ even in these small ways, we open ourselves to His purifying presence in our hearts.  We invite Him to cleanse and clarify the eyes of our souls such that we will know Him more fully.   And the more we know Him, the more His holiness and purity will become characteristic of us.

            On this last Sunday of Pascha, let us all open ourselves to the brilliant light of our Lord and glorify Christ Who is risen from the dead.  Let us radiate the joy, holiness, and blessedness of His resurrection.  Let us be so filled with the divine glory that darkness can find no place in us to hide.  Then we will truly have the eyes to see Him and to become living witnesses of the good news that Christ is Risen!

The Power of Conversation with Enemies and Strangers: Homily for the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman in the Orthodox Church

Christ is Risen!           

            The world today has more than a little in common with the time and place in which Jesus Christ ministered. Both in the first and the twenty-first century, people easily divide up into groups that hate one another and view their enemies as less than human.  If someone is of the wrong religion, political party, or ethnic group or stands on the opposite side of some issue, too many respond simply with condemnation.

            We may wonder, then, how to demonstrate the new life of our Savior’s resurrection in a time when severe disagreements and divisions are so common—both in our own country and around the world.  Christ’s conversation with the Samaritan woman provides a challenging example of how to interact with even the most unlikely people, of how to overcome the barriers that exist between those who consider themselves simply enemies.  

             Remember that the Jews hated the Samaritans as religious and ethnic half-breeds because they had mixed the ethnic heritage and the religion of Israel with that of other peoples.  No self-respecting Jew would have anything to do with a Samaritan, much less ask one for a drink of water.  The Samaritans knew that, but Christ did the unthinkable by striking up a conversation and asking the woman for a favor.   As a result of this unlikely conversation, a Samaritan woman came to recognize Him as the Messiah, to believe in Him, and to lead many of her own people to the faith.  She ultimately became Saint Photini, an evangelist and martyr with the title “Equal to the Apostles.”

            Not only did the Jews look down on the Samaritans, but the gender roles of the day meant that Jewish men simply did not speak with women in public.  But this Messiah did not allow cultural divisions to shut off the Samaritan woman from His saving presence or her calling as an evangelist. 

            To make things even more complicated, this particular woman had been married five times and was then living with a man outside of marriage.  She may have gone to the well at noon, an unusual time to do so, because the other women of her village did not want to associate with her.  The Lord knew these details, but did not condemn, judge, or ignore her as a result.  Perhaps because He treated her as a beloved child of God, she acknowledged to Him the truth about her life and they continued speaking about spiritual matters.  

 Photini showed bravery in telling the men of her village that Jesus Christ is the Messiah.  Not only would they have been shocked for a woman, especially one of her reputation, to speak to them about God, they would probably also be astounded to hear that a Jewish rabbi was a Messiah for them as Samaritans.  Being inspired by the shocking ways in which Christ had reached out to her, she reached out in surprising ways to her own people.

We will miss the good news of Pascha if we think that the blessing of Christ’s resurrection is only for people we think of as being on “our side” of any religious, moral, or political divide.    As sinners ourselves whose only hope is in the abundant mercy of Jesus Christ, we have no right to exclude anyone from the possibility of embracing the new life of the empty tomb, even if they presently believe and act in ways contrary to God’s purposes.

St. Paul urged the Corinthians to hold the members of their church accountable for grave sin, but said that it was no concern of his to judge those outside. (1 Cor. 5:12)  It is one thing to acknowledge the truth about the behavior of people who are outside the life of the church, but another to appoint ourselves as the judges of their souls or to treat anyone as though they are beyond redemption. Remember that Paul himself was a persecutor of Christians before the Risen Lord appeared to Him and made him an apostle.

Jesus Christ Himself took the initiative in bringing the blessing of His kingdom to a Samaritan woman with an immoral lifestyle.  We learn from the Lord’s conversation with St. Photini that we must not treat anyone as a hopeless case or as  somehow unworthy of Christ-like love, no matter what they have done or what they currently think, say, or do.   Though it is business as usual in our corrupt world, it is not genuinely Christian to isolate ourselves from those whose lives seem especially broken and off course—or even perverse and godless.   If we respond with hatred, judgment, or stony silence to those we deem unworthy, we turn away from Christ’s ministry of bringing new life to the whole world.    For which of us has the right to cast the first stone of self-righteous condemnation at another?  Our Savior never condoned sin of any kind and neither should we.  He told the truth even when it was uncomfortable, as He did with Photini about her marital problems. But He did so not to condemn, but to save.  He came to bring sinners to repentance, to heal the sick, to give sight to the blind.  He died and rose again for the salvation of all created in His image and likeness, of the entire world.  He has made great saints of murderers, adulterers, and idol- worshipers who have called on His mercy and ultimately changed their lives.   

So when we have the opportunity to show compassion or friendship or encouragement to someone who seems very far from following Jesus Christ, we should do so.  We should treat them as Christ treated the Samaritan woman.  To do anything less is to place our own limits on the power of the Risen Lord to bring salvation to the world—and it is to refuse to follow in the way of the One Who conquered death.    

St. Photini is also a powerful example for each of us as we struggle with our own sins, passions, bad habits, and weaknesses.  Sometimes the burden of our sinfulness is great and we are tempted to despair of ever finding peace and healing in our lives.  We can become obsessed with our own unworthiness, perhaps viewing ourselves more as those condemned by a harsh law than as the broken and weak whom Christ’s mercy can heal.  If we are not careful, this way of thinking can lead us away from the Church, for the guilt and frustration of failure are hard to bear, and we often would simply rather not be reminded of it.

St. Photini was no stranger to such failures, but she learned to keep her eyes on the prize of the new life in Christ.   Perhaps her experiences had taught her humility. She knew she was a sinner and must have been thrilled finally to be on a path that would take her in a different direction.   We do not know the details, but she surely faced struggles, temptations, and reminders of the scandal that she had made of her life.  Some people probably continued to view her in a very judgmental light.  Perhaps her own thoughts and memories threatened to condemn her at times.  For all of us, some things are hard to forget.

Despite these obstacles, this Samaritan woman became a glorious saint, an evangelist equal to the apostles and ultimately a martyr.  If she could pass over from sin to righteousness, from death to life, in Christ Jesus, then we can, too.  The great blessing of Pascha comes to us all, and we have countless opportunities in our families, our marriages, our parish, our friendships, and our workplace or school to participate more fully in the Lord’s victory over sin and death.

 No matter what we have done in the past, no matter our present weaknesses and challenges, no matter what anyone thinks or says about us, we must remember that the Son of God has conquered death in order to bless, heal, and save us. Like the Samaritan woman, we must acknowledge our brokenness and turn to Christ with faith, love, and hope for a new life, and then continue on the journey of discipleship, even when we stumble or are tempted to give up. 

During this season of Pascha, we know that life eternal has sprung from an empty tomb purely as the result of our Lord’s love and mercy.   The good news of Pascha extends to the Samaritan women of our day and even to you and me. So let us treat them as He treated her and, together with them, come to participate more fully in the brilliant light of the Resurrection.