The Parable of the Sower: An Orthodox Homily for the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council

          

           Mark Twain is supposed to have said that "it’s not the parts of the Bible I don’t understand that bother me; it’s the parts that I do understand."  In other words, we have more than enough already to stay busy with in the Christian life—we don’t need to go looking for new challenges. 

            Christ Himself reminded the Apostles that He had already taught them all that they should need:  “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God.” And though we find it hard to believe, that statement now applies to all of us who have entered into the fullness of the Orthodox Church.  We share, with all the other members of the Body, the great responsibility of being faithful to what the Lord has revealed.  Today’s gospel text reminds us all of the importance of being responsible for what we have received, for growing in the faith and bearing fruit for the Kingdom of God.

             Jesus Christ spoke of the word of God like seed cast upon the ground.  Some seeds never even begin to grow because they fall along the wayside and are eaten by birds.  And some who hear the good news of Christ do likewise, for they never even believe.  Some seeds just begin to grow, but the sprouts die as soon as they spring up because they landed on rocks and couldn’t grow roots or receive nourishment.  And some who believe at first fall away quickly, for they never seriously opened themselves to the strength received through regular prayer, worship, fasting, repentance, communion, and all the other means of support for the Christian life as taught by the Church—including the good deeds toward our neighbors that St. Paul wrote of in today’s epistle.  

            Then there are seeds that grow into plants that do take root; they seem to be healthy, but are eventually choked by thorns and weeds.  And some who make a good beginning in the Christian life find themselves so distracted by their worries, riches, pleasures, and passions that they allow their faith to be destroyed.  A gardener who is too distracted by other activities to look out for weeds will probably not be very successful.  Likewise, a Christian who is inattentive to the dangers posed by anger, greed, pride, lust, spiritual laziness, or other passions will not last very long. But some seeds fall on good ground, grow nicely, and yield a large crop.  And some Christians not only hear the word of the Lord, but keep it in their hearts and lives, and bear fruit with patience.

            Now in case all this gardening imagery becomes a bit too much, let’s be crystal clear:  As Orthodox Christians, we have received the fullness of God’s truth, the mystery of the Kingdom of God.  We have put on Christ in baptism, been sealed by the Holy Spirit in chrismation, and nourished by the Lord’s Body and Blood in the Eucharist.  Christ Himself forgives us when we repent in confession.   In His Body, the Church, we are taught the whole, complete faith of the apostles.  We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, the Saints, who inspire us by their examples and help us by their prayers.   In every Divine Liturgy, we join them and the entire heavenly host in the worship of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  There is no question what we have received in Jesus Christ:  our salvation, our fulfillment, as partakers in the divine nature.

            There is a question, however, about how we will respond to what we have been given.  Will we take our faith for granted and decide that there are more important matters than prayer, repentance, and serving others in the name of Christ?  Will we allow our spiritual life to become sick and weak, and ultimately die, because we are too lazy or distracted to fight our passions and accept the healing and strength which the Lord gives us through His Church?   Will we rest content with bearing no fruit at all for the Kingdom?  If so, we betray and reject Christ and shut ourselves out of His life. 

            St. Paul warned in his letter to St. Titus against letting foolish disputes, pointless arguments, or anything else distract us from good works, from meeting the urgent needs of others, from bearing fruit in the Christian life.  We don’t have to be experts in the New Testament to know that St. Paul was always writing churches to remind them to focus on Jesus Christ, to turn away from all the nonsense that tempts us from faithfulness to Him, that threatens to waste our time and energy on anything that separates us from the Lord, from loving relationships with our brothers and sisters, and from the building up of His Church.

            The question which we all face, no matter what particular set of challenges we face in life, is whether we will grow into the full stature of Christ.  Namely, will we build into our daily schedules opportunities to find the strength of the Lord through prayer, Bible reading, fasting, and service toward those around us?  Will we repent through confession on a regular basis and whenever we are aware of grave sin in our lives?  Barring extraordinary circumstances, will we attend Liturgy on Sundays and Feast Days?  Will we do all that we can to direct our attention away from anything that inflames our passions and toward  that which helps us grow in holiness?  Will we become so busy with good works that we have no time or energy for foolish arguments or other pointless distractions?   If so, then we will be like the seed that landed on good soil, got proper nutrition, and produced a bumper crop.  And we will know already the joy of the kingdom of heaven.

            That, my brothers and sisters in Christ, is the will of the Lord for each and every one of us.  Young or old, male or female, priest or layperson, it does not matter.   We have all received the mystery of the Kingdom of God, and we all have the ability to respond to our Lord’s great mercy with repentance, love, and faithfulness in our daily lives, regardless of the circumstances we face.  And, yes, that really is true for each and every one of us, no matter what sins we have committed and no matter what our problems may be.   Remember St. Mary of Egypt, a wicked prostitute who later became an example of righteousness.  Recall St. Peter, who denied Christ before His crucifixion, and then became the most senior bishop of the early church, a powerful evangelist, and a great martyr.  Bring to mind King David, St. Paul, and countless others who turned away from evil to embrace the mercy of the Lord and find new life in Him.

            Maybe we feel this morning like we have done our best to kill the seed that Christ has planted in our souls.  Perhaps we have had a spiritual draught or can’t even see a sprout because of all the weeds in our lives; maybe we feel pretty far from bearing fruit, building up the church, or serving our neighbors.  If that’s the case, we should remember that the mystery of the Kingdom of God is all about mercy toward sinners like you and me.  In Christ Jesus, there is always hope, there is always the promise of a new life with the blessing and peace of the Kingdom.  No matter how far we have to grow in the Christian life, He is with us, ready to heal our sicknesses, to strengthen us in our weakness, to calm our passions, to enable us to serve Him in our neighbors and in His Body, the church.  

            So in repentance and humility, it’s time for us all to become responsible for the great gift of salvation, the mystery of the Kingdom, that is ours in Jesus Christ.  Instead of taking the Lord for granted, it’s time for us to root out everything in our lives that tempts us from responding to Him with a good heart, keeping His word, and bearing fruit with patience.     

            And then we will be like the seed that fell on good ground and flourished, becoming a blessing to the world and a sign of God’s salvation, of the great mystery of His redemptive love that is revealed to us in Jesus Christ.                                         

            

High School Football and Orthodox Christian Asceticism

            Where I live in West Texas, there is no shortage of asceticism, especially during the terribly hot month of August.  That’s when high school football players and band members spend several hours each day practicing in the blazing sun.  Members of the tennis team, cheerleaders, and other athletes do the same.  They want to become better at what they do, so they accept a good measure of discomfort without much complaint as their seasons begin.  The same is true of fans who drive hours in the wide open spaces out here to cheer on their teams as they sit in temperatures near the 100 degree mark even as the sun goes down.

            It’s interesting that our society more readily accepts discipline and sacrifice for sports than for religion.  Even a moderate form of Orthodox fasting, for example, seems shockingly difficult to many people.  (“No meat or dairy?  You’ve got to be kidding!”) The length of our services, the practice of standing for at least much of them, and the other spiritual disciplines of Orthodoxy seem to ask more  than many are willing to give.  How ironic, then, that fans joyfully embrace driving a few hours each way to a game and sitting in the elements on uncomfortable bleachers for hours.  They’ll gladly sweat in August and freeze in December, if their teams make it that far in the play offs.   And athletes, band members, and others sacrifice much more time, energy, and comfort on a regular basis in their practice sessions.

            There’s nothing wrong, of course, with people reorienting their schedules, and overcoming their laziness, in order to excel in athletics, music, or other activities.  The benefits of such self-control may strengthen us physically, morally, and even spiritually. Any honest endeavor that gives us practice in putting aside self-centered inclinations for the pursuit of a higher good is probably good for us.  Nonetheless, it is easy for such endeavors simply to serve human glory and to be exercises in wedding ourselves even more closely to pride, the praise of others, and the perverse joy of building ourselves up by putting others down.  It’s chilling to think of how alluring we find it to identify ourselves with a group—whether a team, a race, or a political party—that demonstrates its superiority by crushing an opponent.  Competition isn’t evil in and of itself, but our passions so easily get the better of us.  Too often, the passing thrill of winning isn’t the most important thing, it’s the only thing.

            As St. Paul wrote, “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.  They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.  I do not box as one beating aimlessly, but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” (1 Cor. 9:25-27) Orthodox Christians do not deny themselves in order to clobber other people, hear the applause of the crowds, and proclaim that we’re number one.  We do, however, struggle to achieve victory over ourselves, especially our obsessions with getting our own way, satisfying whatever self-centered inclinations we have at the moment, and  treating other people and creation itself as though they existed simply to serve us.  If we do not cooperate with the Lord by doing what we can to turn away from such habitual sins, we will not have the spiritual strength to love and serve God and neighbor.  Instead, we will remain in the default position of corrupt humanity by worshiping only ourselves.

            Athletes typically do not sweat and toil under the authority of coaches merely because they enjoy physical exertion or being told what to do.  Instead, they devote themselves to achieving a goal that may be reached only by accepting a certain kind of discipline.  If they work so hard for what is here today and gone tomorrow, all the more should Orthodox Christians accept another kind of discipline that enables us to “run with perseverance the race that is set before us” (Heb. 12:1) as we “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:14)  Yes, it requires dedication and self-denial to practice the spiritual disciplines of the Church on a regular basis.  Prayer, forgiveness, fasting, and generosity to the needy, for example, do not come easily to us.  But if we will undertake them as best we can with a humble prayer for the Lord’s mercy, we will find new strength for the journey. That won’t be because we have accomplished something by our own power, but because we will have opened our lives to the One who enables us to run without becoming weary and to walk without growing faint.  (Isa. 40:31)

            So the next time you see athletes denying themselves in order to achieve excellence, consider whether you take the practice of the Christian life as seriously as they take their sport.  Let their example be a reminder that people are usually willing to struggle and sacrifice for what they love most in life.  For us, shouldn’t that be Jesus Christ?  And if we are not willing to take up our cross and follow Him by taking intentional steps to reorient our lives toward His Kingdom, we need to ask just what game we are playing and what team we are on. 

Christ's Compassion and Integrity: Orthodox Homily on the Raising of the Son of the Widow of Nain

2 Corinthians 9:6-11

Luke 7:11-16

            No one likes a hypocrite, someone who says one thing and does another.  As Christians, we must be very careful not to condemn ourselves and scandalize others by not living out what we teach to be true.   Instead, we must be people of integrity who live out our beliefs every day in what we say and do.

            Jesus Christ is certainly the perfect example of a life lived with integrity, for He is a human being who is also divine.  He Himself is the perfect integration of the image of God with God Himself.  And He does not ask us, or anyone else, to do anything that He has not already done.

            When we read the account of the Lord’s raising of the son of the widow of Nain, we are probably reminded of St. James’ teaching:  “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this:  to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”  And that is precisely what Christ does:  He has compassion upon a widow who mourns the death of her only son.  He comforts her, saying “Do not weep,” and then touches the coffin, bringing the young man back from the dead.

            The Lord’s great act of compassion for this woman is a sign of our salvation.  For we weep and mourn not only for loved ones whom we see no more, but also for the broken, disintegrated state of life that the sins of humanity—and our own sins—have brought to us and to our world.  Death, destruction, hatred, fear, and decay in all their forms are the consequences of our refusal to live faithfully as those created in the image of God.  We have worshipped ourselves, our possessions and our pride, and found despair and emptiness as a result, as well as slavery to our own self-centered desires.  So we weep with the widow of Nain for losing loved ones and for losing ourselves.

            The good news of the Gospel, however, is the compassion of God.  Rather than simply observing human suffering and letting us bear the consequences of our actions, the Father sent the Son to enter into our suffering, into our distorted and disintegrated world, in order to set us right, to stop us from weeping, and even to raise us from the dead into the glory of the heavenly kingdom.  The Son touched the coffin of the dead man and he arose.  Christ’s compassion for us is so profound that He also entered a coffin, a tomb, and even descended to Hades, the shadowy place of the dead because—out of love for humankind—He could not simply stand by and allow us to bear the full consequences of our actions. 

             You see, our faith is not fundamentally about justice or punishment or wrath for sinners.  It is instead about the infinite and holy love of Christ Who will stop at nothing to bring the one lost sheep back into the fold, Who is not embarrassed to welcome home the prodigal son, and Who will even submit to death on a cross in order to destroy death by His glorious resurrection.

            And, yes, we have our part to play in response to His love.  If we seek to follow Jesus Christ, if we are members of His Body the Church, and are nourished by His Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist, then His compassion must become evident in our lives.  If we are partakers the divine nature in Him, then His life must become ours such that, as St. Paul teaches, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”  If we receive Christ’s compassion, we must extend compassion to others, suffering with them in love, sharing their pain as best we can and going out of our way to show them the mercy and care that we have found in our Lord.

            But we need to be clear:  Extending Christ’s compassion to others is not the same thing as being a wimp or making sure that everyone likes us.  It took discipline, strength, and courage for the Lord to show compassion throughout His entirely earthly ministry, especially His journey to the cross.  And every time that He healed the sick or raised the dead, He surely knew that the Pharisees and perhaps the Romans were watching, noticing Him as a threat to their power.  And they certainly did not like Him or His ministry.  

            If we are to live the Christian life with integrity, we too must have the courage to show compassion to those who suffer, who mourn, and whose lives are filled with pain and disorder.  Perhaps they brought some of these conditions upon themselves.  Maybe they didn’t always do the right thing and are reaping the consequences of their own bad choices.  In some cases, they may actually believe that what they are doing is good.  Well, so what?  Isn’t that the story of us all?  Christ did not come to show mercy upon those who deserved it, for mercy is something that, by definition, we can’t deserve.  The widow of Nain and her dead son did not deserve the compassion of the Lord, but He showed love to them anyway.  The relevance for our lives should be obvious.  If we have integrity as Christians, we will respond to others with the same compassion that we have experienced in Jesus Christ. 

            This is not a calling for cowards afraid of their own shadow, for it requires discipline, self-control, and a strength of character beyond our own power.  Unfortunately, it’s become second nature for us to try to judge others as though we were God, as though it were our place to separate the sheep from the goats.  Nothing gets in the way of mercy more than self-righteous judgment, for it so easily inflames our passions and gives us perverse pleasure in naming the faults of others.  This prideful attitude quickly takes root in our hearts, weakening marriages and families, destroying friendships, giving us every excuse not to care for those who don’t measure up to our standards, and making it impossible for us to live the Christian life with integrity.

            Well, Jesus Christ certainly has integrity.  Not only are God and humanity integrated in His own Person, He lived out the kind of life that He taught in the same fallen world that we experience every day.  He came to bring us into His eternal life out of compassion.  He suffered with us to the point of death.  The One who was the highest became the lowest for our sakes. 

            If we want His compassion, let us be compassionate to those who suffer even as a result of their own bad choices and habits.  That doesn’t mean that we should give everyone exactly what they want, let them run our lives, or refuse to speak and act according to the truth, but it does mean that we sorrow with them in their pain and discern prayerfully how to do the fitting thing that best manifests Christ’s love in our relationship with them.

            By the power of the Holy Spirit, each of us may become a better living icon of our Lord’s compassion.  In order to do that, we must open our lives more fully to the presence of God, mindfully rejecting the lies that we tell ourselves about who is not worthy of our time, attention, and assistance.  The greater focus we place on prayer, the more seriously we take our fasting, the more conscientious we are in confessing and repenting of our sins on a regular basis, the more aware we will become of the great mercy that the Lord has shown us and of where we need to grow in sharing His compassion with others.

             Then we will grow in integrity as Christians, treating others as the Lord has treated us, and living out what we say we believe.   And our lives will become signs of Christ’s salvation, living evidence of His victory over sin and death and of the power of His unfathomable love.  And that same holy compassion that raised the son of the widow of Nain will raise us, and others, into the blessed eternal life of the Kingdom.   

             

            

Be All That You Can Be: Character Development in Eastern Orthodox Christianity

            I was asked recently if it is still possible to raise children with character in our culture.  The person who asked wondered because many societal institutions—including many churches—seem to excuse all kinds of behavior because it is much easier and more popular just to pat people on the back than to call them to be all that they can be.  Okay, that sounds too much like those old Army recruiting ads.  Nonetheless, the point is clear:  if raising everyone’s self-esteem by watering down substantive visions of the good life is our preferred mode of operation, then heaven help us if we want our kids to worship anything other than their own self-centered desires. 

            That’s not to look down upon our children; it’s to tell the truth about ourselves.  Self-centered indulgence in money, material possessions, whatever kind of sexual pleasure we desire, and getting our own way at home, church, the office, and in politics, have become our false gods.  We worship at their altars whenever we replace the high standards taught by Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount with whatever is convenient or easy or popular.  These matters cut much deeper than American political divisions or where we like to place ourselves in the culture wars.  The way of Christ remains the way of the cross as an indictment of all human schemes to usher in a kingdom that suits us or to make God and neighbor in our own image. 

            As someone has said, Orthodox Christianity is the right religion for the wrong people.  In other words, we are all sinners who stand in constant need of the mercy of Jesus Christ.  Nonetheless, we have the benefit of a Church that tells it like it is.  No matter how much we want to spend our money simply on ourselves and to disregard the needy, what we do to the least of these, we do to our Savior.  No matter how much we want a certain politician or political philosophy to triumph, Christ’s kingdom is not of this world and we must love our enemies, even those who vote what we believe to be the wrong way.  No matter how inclined we may feel toward romantic fulfillment outside of the bonds of faithful, monogamous marriage between a man and woman, that is the only kind of intimate union known in the Body of Christ as a sign of the relationship between Christ and the Church.  No matter how hard we may find it to love people whose culture, belief, or way of life is different from ours, they all bear the image and likeness of God and we must bless them and pray for them, not curse and hate them.

            My experience is that mainstream American culture will have a hard time making sense of pious, sincere, and humble Orthodox Christians who do not fit into their stereotypes of the right or the left, of the traditionalists or the progressives.  That is because the Church does not form us to live according to worldly categories, but according to those of a Kingdom that is not of this world and in which the first shall be last and the last first.  The cross—which is foolishness in the eyes of the world—is at the heart of the character that we seek to embody:  selfless, forgiving, faithful love that will literally die before abandoning the Lord and those who bear His image and likeness.

            Anyone who knows me will know that I fall well short of such a vision of human existence.  The truth is that we all do.  But one of the great glories of Orthodox Christianity is that we still speak the truth, we do not shy away from proclaiming what it means to be a human being in the image and likeness of God.  Forgive the examples, but we expect physicians to be held accountable to high standards because people’s lives are at stake.  Military training is serious business because warfare is literally a matter of life and death.  Airline pilots have to know what they are doing for the same reason. 

           Orthodox Christians know that who we become through the thousand small details of each day is also a matter of life and death, for it is through our words, deeds, and thoughts that we grow in the new life that Christ has brought to the world and turn away from the soul-destroying corruption of sin.  The Church sets us on a trajectory for the fulfillment of our calling to become ever more like God as we grow in holiness, faith, hope, and love.  This kind of character transcends morality and civic virtue to become an icon of our salvation, a sign that human beings may participate by grace in the eternal life of the Holy Trinity.

So, yes, it is possible to raise children with character in our culture.  It is possible for everyone to become more fully who we were created to be in God’s image and likeness.  The theology, worship, and other spiritual disciplines of the Orthodox Church point the way and provide all the resources that we need.  The only question is whether we will use them to be all that we can be to the glory of God.            

 

 

 

Baptism and Mercy: Homily for the 17th Sunday After Pentecost in the Orthodox Church

2 Corinthians 6:16-7:1
St. Luke 6:31-36

            We have witnessed today the mystery of our salvation as Lisa, Zach, and Isaac have put on Christ in baptism; they and Ed have been filled with the Holy Spirit in chrismation and are now fully integrated into the life of Christ’s Body, the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.  They have renounced Satan and all the corruptions of evil in response to St. Paul’s admonition:  “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord…I will be a Father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters.”  And they will be the first today to receive our Lord’s Body and Blood in the Eucharist as they partake of the Heavenly Banquet for the very first time.

            Of course, the Lord’s calling to them is the same as it is to the rest of us:  to turn away from everything that holds us back from participating fully in the life of Christ, from shining brightly with the divine glory for which we were created.  The hard truth, however, is that our journey to the Kingdom is not as easy as making it through the ceremonies of baptism and chrismation.  Instead, we actually have to live as those who have died to sin and risen to a new life in baptism.  We have to embody the fruits of the Holy Spirit and become instruments for His work in the world.  Our body and blood—our entire life—must become a living icon of the Savior’s obedient offering of every dimension of His life to the Father.

            That’s a tall order and none of us fills it perfectly, but we are reminded in today’s gospel lesson where we need to start; namely, with mercy.  None of us deserves the mercy of God; by definition, mercy is given, not earned.  Baptism, chrismation, and communion are not rewards for good behavior, but totally undeserved blessings for those who know that they are unworthy of them even as they do their best to live in accordance with God’s will for their lives.  If we are so bold as to accept the divine love and forgiveness for our sins and failings, we have an obligation to extend the same love and forgiveness to others.  If we judge and condemn people while claiming to trust in the mercy of the Lord, our faith is a sham, a fraud, a lie.  And instead of worshiping our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ—who said from the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”—we really worship ourselves, which is a pathetic form of idolatry by which we will exclude ourselves from the joy of the Kingdom. 

            Well, we obviously don’t want to do that.  So let’s get to work.  Let’s ask who are those in our lives who do not love us, whom we count as our enemies, whom we would like to see fail or least whom we wish would just go away and stop bothering us?  Surely, we all have them.  Instead of fantasizing about their doom, we should help them as best we can, pray for them, and show them the same patient consideration and forgiveness that that the Lord has shown us.  Maybe we are right and they are wrong, as best we can tell.  Maybe our line of work makes it our responsibility to correct or discipline them in some way.  Maybe we really do have to protect others, such as our children or someone else for whom we are responsible, from their bad influence.  Nonetheless, we can refuse to hate them; we can act decently toward them; and we do the best we can under the circumstances to help them, even if they will likely never return the favor.  We can still treat them as we would like others to treat us.

            Whether we were baptized today or decades ago, the calling is to the same:  to be a living icon of the mercy that Jesus Christ has brought to sinners like you and me. In order to do that, we must struggle daily to separate ourselves from evil in all its forms.   There is no better place to start than in how we treat the people with whom we have a problem.  But God is gracious and if we will do our best to show them the same mercy that we ask of Him, then we will be His sons and daughters.   As Christ said, “He is kind to the unthankful and the evil.  Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.”  That is the most basic challenge today to us all.  If we have put on Christ in baptism at any point in our lives, let’s start acting like it in how we respond to the people we love to hate.      

Frustrated Fishermen and Barren Old Couples: Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost and the Conception of the Prophet and Forerunner John the Baptist in the Orthodox Church

Epistle to the Galatians 4:22-27
The Gospel According to St. Luke 5:1-11

           

             Probably everyone who has a job or is in school has felt at some point like the disciples did when Jesus Christ found them washing their nets.  They had fished all night and caught nothing.  Things hadn’t turned out as they had hoped, and they were disappointed and frustrated to the point of giving up.   I’ve been there many times and I bet that you have also.  But then the Lord told them to get back to work and let down their net.   They did so and caught so many fish that their net was breaking and their boats began to sink.  Just imagine what a surprise that was for them. They were all amazed and St. Peter fell down before Christ and said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” But the Lord said, “Do not be afraid.  From now on you will catch men.”  Then the disciples left behind their boats and nets and followed Christ as His disciples.

            That day probably began like any other day.  The fishermen were busy with their work and who knows whether they expected anything out of the ordinary to occur.  It was just another day with the same old routine and the same responsibilities and worries.  But then the Lord blessed them and they saw that their work was not simply about fish, but about bringing people into the eternal life of the Kingdom of God.

            Surely, the disciples knew that they couldn’t take credit for such a large haul of fish.  And there was no way that they could become fishers of men simply by their own power.  We are made of the dust of the earth, enlivened by the breath of God.   We are just flesh and blood.  We can’t make fish swim into our nets or even solve many of the small problems we encounter every day. Much less can we give anyone eternal life. 

            The good news of the gospel, however, is that our Lord is able to bless and transform our humble work, the difficult situations we face, and all the struggles of our lives.  No matter what we are doing, no matter how well or poorly it seems to be going, no matter how frustrated we may be, Christ is with us, inviting us to make the same old frustrating and boring routine into a ministry of the Kingdom.   

            Granted, the disciples were called to a very special ministry in the founding of the Church; they had to leave their old occupations and serve the Lord full-time as evangelists, apostles, and bishops.  Some continue to be called to serve in that way.  But most of us will remain right where we are, spending each day in an office, a shop, a classroom, or some other workplace.  We may be tempted to think that what we do has no spiritual significance, that we are somehow second or third-class in our service of the Kingdom because we remain in the same old world.   But that would be a great error, for all work is holy because it provides opportunities to be good stewards of God’s creation and to offer our lives and the fruits of our labor to the Lord for blessing and fulfillment. 

            Yes, our work and our education can be very difficult, but we are called to bear our crosses and learn patience through our struggles and problems.  In response to disappointments and difficulties, we have opportunities to grow in humility and trust.  That is what Zacharias and Elizabeth did as a faithful Jewish couple who had not been blessed with children.  Like the disciples, their nets were empty and they had given up hope for children, an especially painful situation for Jews who had a role to play in continuing the family line of Abraham that God had promised to bless in the Old Testament.  Of course, the story of the Hebrew people began with Abraham and Sarah, another elderly couple without children, whose frustration and sorrow was overcome by God’s promise to bless them and their descendants.   They could take no credit for this blessing and neither could the parents of John the Baptist.  And even though Zacharias responded to the message of the Archangel Gabriel with doubt, he and Elizabeth were still blessed beyond their expectations.  God always remains faithful to His promises, even though we are often not faithful to ours.

            Their life was not a bed of roses, however, for Zacharias would be martyred when the wicked King Herod murdered the young boys of Bethlehem.  Elizabeth died forty days later and John grew up in the wilderness as an ascetic prophet who would eventually lose his head for criticizing the immorality of the royal family.  But God worked through these painful circumstances to prepare the way for the ministry of Jesus Christ, to extend His promises to Abraham to all would have faith in the Savior.

            Do you see what these stories have in common?  Barren elderly people have babies.  Fisherman who have caught nothing suddenly find that their nets are breaking and their boats sinking because of their large haul.  And people like you and me grow in patience, humility, and selflessness by enduring our daily disappointments, worries, fears, and aches and pains.  At times, we may feel that we are accomplishing nothing and be tempted to think that there is no point at all to what we do all day or maybe even to what we have done for years.  But that would be truly a temptation, for the Lord has promised never to abandon us, to be with us always, and we know His power most when we have no doubt about our own weakness.  If we are offering our lives to Him as best we can, we can trust in His blessing—even if we cannot figure out how He is at work in our present situation.

            What is failure and frustration in our eyes may present a unique opportunity for us to grow into the people God wants us to be, to prepare us for a role we cannot yet imagine.  He used the childlessness of Zacharias and Elizabeth to prepare the way for Christ.  He used the frustration of the fisherman to open their hearts to the new life of discipleship.  And in ways that we probably do not yet have the eyes to see, He calls us to use our present circumstances as an opportunity to grow in faith, hope, and love and to better serve Him and our neighbors.           

            Contrary to what our culture teachers, our work is not simply about us.  It is a form of service through which we transform God’s good creation for His glory.  And we don’t do it alone for we journey together toward a new heaven and a new earth.  Jesus’ Christ’s ministry of feeding the hungry, healing the sick, restoring sight to the blind, and proclaiming good news to the poor shows that His salvation concerns the real-life challenges that people continue to face in the world as we know it.  He showed God’s love for the hated Gentiles and Samaritans, for people who had fallen into great sin and were shunned by respectable people.  In His Body, the Church, all peoples and nations are reconciled and united in the life of the Kingdom.   We cannot judge Him by worldly standards and neither should we judge ourselves in that way.

            Whether we see it or not, our daily work plays a role in bringing His salvation to the world.  Everything that we do and say should be a sign of God’s blessing.  We all have the opportunity to forgive those who wrong us; to work toward reconciliation with those from whom we have become estranged; to refuse to treat people differently because they look, act, or think differently than we do; and not to let greed or ambition get in the way of relating to others with honesty, kindness, and decency.    Of course, our work must support us financially, but there is a difference between meeting our legitimate needs and selfishly worshipping comfort, convenience, and commercialism.  When we have the opportunity to encourage our co-workers, classmates, or businesses to serve Christ in the poor, lonely, or troubled, we should do so. 

            Like Abraham and Sarah, Zacharias and Elizabeth, and John the Baptist, our calling is to use the challenges, blessings, and painful struggles of our daily lives to grow in holiness as we play our role in making this world an icon of God’s salvation.  That’s how we may all become fishers of men.  So even if we feel like we have fished all night and caught nothing, it’s time to let down our nets again in obedience to Christ’s command.  He alone turns apparent failure into glorious victory.  He alone works even through our troubles to bless us.  So we must not fall into despair or fear, but instead trust that God is with us and at work in our lives.       

On Taking up the Cross: Homily for the Sunday After the Elevation of the Cross and for the Commemoration of the Holy Great Martyr Euphemia in the Orthodox Church

  Saint Mark 8:34-9:1

    Epistle to the Galatians 2:16-20

              We think of the cross as the great symbol of our Christian faith.  We wear it around our necks and otherwise display it proudly. But during the first century it was nothing of the sort; it was a cruel instrument of execution used by the Romans to make a statement:  unfortunate people died long, painful, and shameful deaths on crosses.  The intention was for their wretched example to strike fear in the hearts of would-be traitors and rebels.  No one at that time honored the cross in any way, and certainly no one thought that God’s Messiah would die on one.

            Our Lord’s disciples, like other Jews, apparently expected a successful king, someone like King David, who would destroy Israel’s enemies and give them privileged positions of power in His kingdom. So it made no sense at all to His disciples when the Savior told them that He would be rejected, suffer, die, and rise again.  When St. Peter tried to correct Him, Christ called him “Satan” and said that he was thinking in human terms, not God’s.  To place the pursuit of worldly power over faithful obedience was a temptation Christ had faced during His forty days of preparation in the desert before His public ministry began.  Then that same temptation came from the head disciple, and the Lord let Peter know in no uncertain terms that He must serve God and not the powers of this world.   To place worldly success over sacrificial obedience was simply the work of Satan.

Then Christ told the disciples what they really didn’t want to hear.  They too must take up their crosses and lose their lives; that’s the way to enter into the blessed salvation of the Kingdom of Heaven.  Though it is shameful in the eyes of the world, the cross will be their instrument of victory.  The false gods of this world are passing away, and we will not save ourselves through them.  Instead, we must lose our lives in the service of the Kingdom in order to become our true selves in the divine image and likeness. 

            The hard truth that the Savior broke to His disciples was that we can’t jump ahead to the joy of the resurrection.  We must first go with our Lord to the cross; we too must die in order to rise again. That is what the Holy Great Martyr Euphemia did, giving up her privileged life as a Roman senator’s daughter to endure horrible tortures for Christ and to die after being wounded by a wild bear in the arena.

            Of course, martyrdom and persecution of believers continue in the world today.  The Communists martyred millions in the 20^th century.  The Christians of Egypt are especially vulnerable right now, as are those in Syria, Iraq, Palestine, and many other places.  We must support them by our prayers, generosity to charitable organizations like IOCC, and by doing what we can to make their plight known in our own country.  It is shameful that a nation like ours with so many Christians makes alleviating the sufferings of our brothers and sisters such a low priority.  No prominent group or individual in American culture or government or politics has placed much emphasis on helping persecuted Christians around the world.  How sad.

            Even though probably none of us will be called literally to die for Christ as physical martyrs, that doesn’t mean that we are exempt from the Lord’s teaching to take up our crosses and follow Him.  For every last one of us needs to become a living martyr by dying to our sinfulness, to how we have distorted ourselves, our relationships, and our world.  Christ offered Himself in free obedience to the Father, taking upon Himself the full consequences of sin and death to the point of a horrible execution; He did so out of love for us.   And thus He opened the way to the Kingdom of heaven, to life eternal, for you, me, and all humankind.    

            And that way is the cross, for if we want to share in the joy of His resurrection, of His victory over death, we must first participate in the struggle, pain, and sacrifice of crucifixion.  No, that does not mean trying to put ourselves in situations where we will be persecuted or convincing ourselves that all our problems are the result of someone being unfair to us because of our faith.  Instead, it means that we must die to our sinful desires and actions and that we must crucify the habits of thought, word, and deed that lead us to worship and serve ourselves instead of God and neighbor.  We must kill our obsession with hating our enemies, judging others, with getting our own way, living only for ourselves, and satisfying every self-centered desire.   

            Unfortunately, it’s hard to do that in a culture that encourages us to worship at the altar of self-glorification.  If we have enough money or social standing or power, we think that we will be happy.  If our bodies look a certain way, if we find the friends and the spouse that we want, and if our candidates and our teams win their contests, we think that all will be well.  And if our desires are frustrated, we feel justified in falling into anger, hatred, and condemnation toward those who stand in the way.  If we get what we want when we want it, we think that we have found the good life.  So everything centers on us, our desire, our will, our pleasure, our obsessive need to build ourselves up even as we put others down.   

            The sad truth is that even those who succeed in such idolatry are still miserable, are still looking for true peace, joy, and fulfillment. They may gain the whole world, but end up losing their souls.  And how many people throughout history have been poor and miserable by worldly standards, have had no power or prominence at all, and perhaps have literally suffered torture and died as martyrs like St. Euphemia, but still shined brightly with love, forgiveness, and holiness; they saved their lives by losing them in the service of God and neighbor.   

Saint Paul said of himself, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”  In other words, by dying to his sins, Paul became a living icon of the Lord.  Our Savior’s glorification of humanity was made present in Paul’s life.  He became truly himself in the divine image and likeness by sharing in the Lord’s death and resurrection.    

Do you see the connection?  If we want to share in Christ’s life, we must also share in His death.  If we want to participate in His glory, we must share in His humiliation.  If we want to become our true selves in Christ, we must die to the distortions and corruptions we have welcomed into our lives.   That’s how we become who we are created to be in the first place.