Saturday, October 15, 2011

What We Owe One Another in the Body of Christ


Sermon for Pentecost 5
Romans 10:4; Romans 13:8; Galatians 6:2

This month I have prepared a list of sayings of the Desert Fathers that you can reflect on each day through the month. These sayings of wisdom come from the early days of monasticism when believers fled to the desert to work and pray apart from the distractions of ordinary life.
 We might think that these were hermits separated themselves from other Christians to cultivate their personal relationship with Christ.  Indeed we find wisdom in these sayings:
·         About finding God in silence

·         About the practice of unceasing prayer

·         About the struggle with demons

·         About the cultivation of the virtues

·         About the path of repentance

But we have these stories and sayings because these holy dwellers in the desert were
concerned with—and involved with—others. Many of their sayings have to do with their relationships with one another.

Last Sunday, we said emphatically that no one can be a Christian alone. To be a Christian is to share the New Life of Christ together with others. It is to be a member of the Body of Christ and to actively partake in the Holy Communion of the Church.

There is a story from the Desert Fathers that says what our attitudes should be toward others in this Body of Christ. Perhaps you have heard it.

Two monks in the Egyptian desert made their living by making baskets. One day, they went into Alexandria to sell the baskets they had made. At the end of the day, one said to the other, “Let us go back to the desert to take up our prayers again.” The other said, “You go.  I must stay here. For I am not worthy to continue the path of holiness in the desert. You see, this very day, while you were selling baskets, I wandered off and I fell into the sin with a woman.”

The other said to him, “I too, when you had wandered off, also fell into the sin of the flesh.  But let us not despair. Let us go back to the desert and live a life of repentance and pray that the Lord would have mercy on us.”

So they both went back to the desert together. And they both confessed to the gathering of the community of monks that they had grievously fallen into temptation. And they asked everyone to pray for them. And both accepted the penance given to them. And from that time on the two did not cease to live a life of humility and penitence for their sin

After some years, one of these monks died, and then the other. And at the funeral of the last, it was revealed that only one of these monks had actually fallen into the sin he had confessed. The other had confessed the same sin, for the sake of the other.  Not wanting the other to fall into despair and be lost, this righteous monk joined the other in his confession and repentance. So it was that both were saved.

This is an example of the kind of life we share together in the Body of Christ, the Church. It is a life of the deepest kind of love. This is the love called agape love—self-giving love. It is the kind of love that the Lord Jesus Christ was talking about when he said, “A new commandment I give to you. Love one another.  As I have loved you so you must love one another!” (John 13:34).

Today we read in our Epistle that “… Christ is the end of the law that everyone who has faith may be justified” (Romans 10:14). Please understand.  This does not mean that we can do anything we please. The Lord Jesus Christ has fulfilled the Law of the Old Covenant. So we are no longer “under the Law but under grace.” (Romans 6:14).

But, in a sense, we in the Body of Christ are given a “Higher Law.” This is the “Law of the New Covenant.” The scriptures call it the “Law of liberty”; the “Law of the Spirit of Life”; or simply the “Law of Christ.”

Let’s be clear what this Law of Christ is.  Some would suppose that it is the  rules regulations of the Church. They would assert that the Law of Christ consists of the obligations of the members of the Orthodox Church. These are the traditions of the Church set down in its “Canons.”  Or even the duties of parish members set down in its constitution.

According to this idea, those who are willing to follow these regulations are members of “our church.”  Those who do not (or cannot) follow them are not members.

But what does the scripture say? St. Paul says it, ““Owe no one anything except one thing—that you love one another. For those who love fulfill the Law” (Romans 13:8). We are not bound together by the rules and regulations of the “old Law.” But we are bound together by the New Law of Christ.

What is this “New Law” of Christ? The Lord Himself taught that our fundamental obligation to the Holy God is to love Him with our whole heart, and soul, and mind. (Matthew 22:37). And our fundamental obligation to our fellowman is to love our neighbor as ourselves. (Matthew 22:39).  And our primary obligation to our fellow members of the Church is to love one another just as Christ has loved us.  (John 13:34).

You see, the Church is much more than a business that has rules, requirements, and dues.
It is the Living Body of Christ in this world. And in this Body of Christ, we bear one another’s burdens.  For as St. Paul says, it is in bearing one another’s burdens that “…fulfill the Law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2)

That is the very essence of love--that if we share the forgiveness of God and the hope of the resurrection, we also share in each other’s struggles. Bearing one another’s burdens means supporting one another in the “good fight of faith.” And instead of judging or condemning others, we encourage one another.  And if anyone has gone astray, it means seeking to restore that person to the fellowship in humility and gentleness (Galatians 6:1).

We are in this together. And our Holy Tradition is, above all, the way of the cross-- the way of self-giving love. Christ is the end of the “old Law,” the "Old Covenant." The begining of the "New  Covenant" is Christ our Lord .This new Law of Christ is fulfilled when we love one another as Christ has loved us. That is what we owe one another in the Body of Christ.


Sermon on the Dormition

The Importance of Endings

You can probably guess that I did a lot of things that drove my mother crazy—probably still do. One of those ways was what I said after every story she read to me. Just as soon as she turned the page and read the words “The End!” I would say, “And then what?... And they what?... There had to be something more. I enjoyed stories of all kinds and simply did not want them to end.

I wonder whether you are of the same mind. If it is a good story, are you sorry when it is finished or do you want to rush to the end to see how things turned out? I want to make a simple point today as we celebrate the Feast of the Dormition of the Holy Theotokos.

It’s about endings.  That’s what the Dormition is about. It’s about the end of the earthly life of the Theotokos. But that means more than just the last thing that happened in her life. The Dormition is about ending as completion, realization, and fulfillment.

Let me take a few moments to explain as we reflect on the Feast. Beginnings are important. Nothing happens without a beginning. You’ve heard the saying of Confucius:  “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” But we often do not take this step out of fear, insecurity, or even laziness. So we get stuck.

However, once we do start down the road, then it important to have a goal, or we will wander about in circles. A goal is a destination. And that means there is an end to the road. It is a place where one can say, “I have accomplished what I set out to do!”

Endings, therefore, are just as valuable as beginnings. When we think of the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can say that the beginning is important. We, therefore, celebrate the Nativity of the Lord with a great deal of joy. However, I think that it says something about the spiritual life of our society when it puts more emphasis on His birth than on His death and resurrection. Most of us like the beginning. But what about the ending?

I am reminded of the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ from the cross: “It is finished!” He could say those words because He had given Himself completely as the perfect sacrifice  “for the life of the world”   Now, nothing else needed to be done. This was indeed an ending.

His resurrection on the third day confirmed the Father’s approval of what He had done. And His Ascension into heaven meant that His work on earth was complete.  He now is worthy to be called the Lord and Savior of the World.

Without this ending, we would have no beginning. We would still be subject to the powers of sin and death. We would have no hope of reaching a good end to our lives in the resurrection.

But now, for a moment, let’s apply these thoughts to the Feast of the Dormition. “Dormition,” as you know means “Falling Asleep.” This word is not just empty church talk. By using this term, we affirm that the Holy Mother of God died just as all human beings must die.

This is a point that the Orthodox Church firmly upholds.  The Theotokos is one of us. As is often said, “She is not the great exception; She is the great example. We believe that the Theotokos “fell asleep in the Lord” as all believers must do. Look, there is an ending here. There was a death; there was a funeral; there was mourning.

All that was proof that the Theotokos was no longer to be physically present on earth.  The All-Pure and Ever-Virgin Mary who bore the Son of God into the world travelled the same road that we all must travel. And she arrived at the signpost that finally said, “The End!”

At this end, soul and body are separated.  Our souls are taken up to be with the Lord in the heavenly realm. The body returns to the earth from which it was made.

But having said this, let’s not stop there!  According to the story of the Feast of the Dormition, in three days,  her tomb was found to be empty.  What had happened? To this day, we have relics of the robe and belt of the Holy Theotokos, But we do not have relics of her body—none. Wherever her body was buried, it is no longer there!

Why?  Because the Lord raised her from the dead.! According to Saint Paul, the Lord Himself was the “first fruits of those who had fallen asleep.”  But the second one to follow Him was the Mother of God. This means that the day of the Dormition is not one of sadness and mourning. It is a day of thanksgiving and rejoicing. You see the saints who rest in the Lord must wait at the Last Day. Then their souls will be reunited with the glorious resurrection bodies that God will recreate for them.

This is a deep mystery of our faith.  How it will happen we do not know. But we believe that has already happened to the Mother of God! She has already been raised from the dead to live in the Eternal Kingdom of the Lord. In this, the rest of the story of the Theotokos, is a glorious sign of the resurrection. And it is a sure pledge that we too, like her, will also share in the resurrection and the life of the “Age to Come!

The resurrection is the rest of the story for the Holy Theotokos. In it, the life of the Theotokos is complete. She now shares in the fulfillment of all of God’s promises. She now shares in the accomplishment of God’s plan for the human race. She now shares in the realization of all the hopes of the world.

But her destiny is also our destiny, because she is one of us. All who hold the same faith in the Jesus Christ; follow Him as Lord and Master; “hear the [same] Word of God and keep it” in a life of obedience to God –as she did---they will reach the same end as she had already reached. They will reach the same end as she has already reached.

So then our celebration of the Dormition is essential for our faith. It is a celebration of the end, the goal, the fulfillment, and the completion of the Theotokos’ life on earth. And it is the celebration of our hope that we too will reach the same end, and goal, and fulfillment, and completion of life that she did. And so today, we have even more reason to bless the Theotokos: “Ever-Blessed, Most-Pure, and the Mother of our God.”

The Soil of Thanksfulness: Pentecost 18


Cultivating a Heart of Genorosity

In our epistle, the Apostle Paul urges generosity. That is indeed the very thing that we are promoting in the fall stewardship program that I introduced last Sunday.

Generosity is an attitude of the heart that stems from thanksgiving. Therefore, we have called our program the “Harvest of Thanksgiving.” We can be sure that when we sow the seeds of love, faith, peace, and kindness wherever we go in life. The Lord of Life will make these seeds grow, and they will produce fruit in the lives of others.

Furthermore, as there is a cycle of crops in the field from preparing the soil, to planting, growing, and harvesting, so there is a cycle of our spiritual sowing and harvesting. God gives us his blessings. Then we respond in thanksgiving, and we share a portion of the blessings of the Lord with others. In turn, those who receive these blessings give thanks to God. Moreover, the seeds of God’s goodness sprout, grow, and produce fruit in their lives. And those who have received God’s blessing through us in turn share their blessings with others.

St. Paul believed that this very cycle of sowing and harvesting was what would happen in his day. The Apostle, you see, wrote the words of our Epistle as a promotion of a special project. This project was to collect an offering from all his churches for the relief of the mother church in Jerusalem.

This fall the diocese called for a similar offering. Two churches in our diocese were flooded in New Jersey, and we sent money from this parish to help. In total, our diocesan churches contributed $33,500 to the aid of these churches.

Likewise in St. Paul’s day, the church in Jerusalem was having a difficult time. The Christians in the mother church were suffering from longstanding and desperate poverty.  The Apostle appealed to all the mission churches that he had started to come to their aid. Paul himself would collect the offering of his churches and personally go to Jerusalem to present that give to the church. This would be a  way of sharing the love of Christ with fellow believers. It would also be a way of underscoring the unity of the Church, the oneness of both Gentile Christians in the Empire and the Jewish Christians of the mother church.

So here is the cycle of thanksgiving. Out of thanksgiving for the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Church sent missionaries like Paul to proclaim the Gospel. This was like sowing the seed of the Word of God throughout the world. In places like Antioch, Macedonia, Galatia, and Ephesus, this seed has sprouted and grown.

St. Paul spoke about his work in one of those places, Corinth. He said, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase” (1 Cor. 3:6). Now the seeds of the Gospel were ready to produce a harvest in Corinth. The offering for the poor in Jerusalem was the fruit of the labors of St. Paul and others in the planting the Gospel in the Roman Empire.

In various places in scripture, St. Paul recalls the long journeys, the dangers, the shipwrecks, the mobs, the beatings, the jails, the sleepless nights, and the unending work of proclaiming the Gospel. But now his work has paid off, the Church has been established throughout Asia Minor and in Europe across the Aegean Sea.. And the sign of the establishment of the Church in the major cities of the Empire. And the fruit of intense missionary work was to  be a special offering. It would be a substantial offering given in thanksgiving to God for His gift of salvation in Christ.

But what would the result of this offering be?

St. Paul believed that the mother church in Jerusalem would receive this offering with joy, and they would give thanks to God for this gift. So the cycle of planting and harvesting would continue. Those who contributed to this offering would have a double blessing. First, they would be blessed with God’s good gifts. Second, they would have the joy of knowing that others would benefit from these same blessings through them.

The driving force of this cycle of sharing in the grace of God is thanksgiving. The more thanksgiving that we have the more generous we will be. And as St. Paul said, the more generous we are, the abundant is the harvest of thanksgiving.

But now the Gospel for today adds another level of insight. Thanksgiving takes an open heart. This is true whether we are talking about receding or sharing God’s blessings.

First, in order to receive the gifts of God, we must be open to receive them. Recall that in our Gospel, the sower sows the seed on all kinds of soil. This teaches us that the Almighty God sows the seed of His Word of Grace and Life in His Kingdom in the hearts of all sorts of people.

St. John Chrysostom explains that God does not discriminate between one person and anther. Asthe rays of the sun fall over all the earth, so the Almighty God shines the gift of His grace on the world. 

But some people to whom God offers His grace are not open to receive it. The Lord Jesus Christ teaches that to produce the harvest takes a “noble and good heart” (Luke 8:15). It does not depend on the sower or the seed: these come from the God of steadfast love.

Therefore, it all depends on the condition of the heart. It takes an open heart to receive the spiritual blessings of God. Like the path, it can be hardened by bitterness, despondency, or despair. Like the rocky ground, the heart can be shallow and careless. Like the weed patch, the heart can be full of worldly concerns. None of these states of the heart is truly receptive to the Gospel or the grace of God.

Moreover, the test of the fertility of these soils is the capacity for thanksgiving. If anyone should find it hard to be thankful, then he should look to the state of his heart. A heart that is bitter, downhearted, or in despair knows only its bad feelings. It cannot be grateful. A heart that is shallow and careless does not recognize the value of what is given. A heart that is full of the cares and pleasures of this world has no room for the grace of God.

It also takes an open heart to share God’s gifts with thanksgiving. The test of this willingness to share is faith. If anyone finds it hard to share one’s blessings, then he should look again to the state of his heart. A heart that lacks trust in God’s goodness will give, perhaps, but only grudgingly. A heart that doubts whether God will provide what one needs will only give sparingly. A heart that thinks that it can only rely on itself will give but only out of a sense of duty.

Generosity comes from thanksgiving, and thanksgiving is a state of one’s heart. A heart that is open to God in thanksgiving is necessary for both receiving and sharing the blessings of God. If anyone has such an open heart, he will bear the fruit of sharing the blessings of God with others.

But if anyone has a heart that is unable to receive the blessings of God or unwilling to give, then know that hearts can be changed. The hard path can be ploughed up. The rocky ground can be broken up. The weeds can be plucked up. The birds can be driven off. And hearts can become open to receive the Word of the Gospel, the grace of God, and the nurture of the Holy Spirit. Likewise, hearts can become open to share the blessings of Go, and what was once infertile soil can become fertile and produce a rich harvest to the glory of God.

Therefore, today let us pray with the psalmist that the God of Grace would “create a clean heart and renew a right spirit within” us as the psalmist says (Psalm 51:10). With this right spirit will come the restoration of the “joy of salvation” (Psalm 51:12) And with it will come a “willing spirit” (Psalm 51:12) and an overflowing sense of gratitude. Then with this open heart and grateful spirit, we will indeed joyfully produce a “harvest of thanksgiving,” We will bear the fruit of faith, love, joy, and peace in our lives and sow those same seeds of goodness in the lives of others to the Glory of God.