Homily for 26 July 2015, the 9th Sunday after Pentecost--"Don't Challenge God to Prove Himself"

Don’t Challenge God to Prove Himself

Homily for the 9^th Sunday after Pentecost (26 July 2015, 29 July 2012)

1 Corinthians 3:9-17                         Matthew 14:22-34

 

What do you remember about today’s Gospel reading?

The first thing that anyone remembers about this passage from the Holy Gospel according to St Matthew is that Jesus walks on the water.  Then maybe we remember that Peter also walks on the water (but with much less confidence and not for very long).

One thing that I always remember in this passage is what Jesus says to His terrified disciples:  “Take courage.  It is I.  Do not be afraid.”

Maybe we also remember that Peter cries out, “Lord, save me!” and that Jesus says that Peter is a man “of little faith.”

But there is something else here—something that should teach us an important lesson about our relationship with God.

When Peter sees Jesus walking on the water in the middle of the high waves and strong wind, he basically challenges Jesus to prove to them that He is really the Lord.  Peter tells Jesus, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”

So Jesus simply says, “Come.”

Be careful what you ask God for.  You might get it.  And then you will probably get more than you imagined you would.

Peter asks Jesus to command him to walk on the water.  So when Jesus does command him, he has to obey.  We can’t ignore God’s commands.  (Remember what someone once said:  “It’s the Ten Commandments, not the Ten Suggestions.”)

It seems that Peter speaks before he thinks, because when he actually tries to do what Jesus commands, he becomes afraid and starts to sink into the water.  He should not have asked Jesus to prove Himself.  We are not supposed to test God.

But, like Peter, we do test God.  We do it all the time.  We make rash promises, like, “O Lord, if You give me what I want, I will never miss Sunday liturgy again.”  Or we come up with stupid rationalizations for doing things we know are wrong, like, “If God really didn’t want me to do this, He would have stopped me.”

And the truth is that we test God because, like Peter, we are people of “little faith.”  We have enough faith to ask God for help, but not enough faith to live without doubt and fear.

Instead of asking God to prove Himself, we need to ask God to improve us.  Whenever we encounter the Lord or enter into a conversation with God, we need to start with grateful recognition and acknowledgement—something like we sing in the Great Doxology:  “Glory to You, O Giver of Light.  We praise You, we bless You, we worship You, we glorify You, and we give thanks to You for the splendor of your glory.”

Instead of asking Jesus to command us to do something outrageous, like walking on water, we need to ask Him to make us faithful to His commands, as we pray three times also in the Great Doxology:  “Blessed are You, O Lord, teach me your statutes.”

I’m sure we can all agree that it is hard enough to hold onto our faith and practice it in everyday life.  We don’t need to challenge God to prove Himself by commanding us to do unnecessary things beyond that.  Let us simply ask, “Lord, have mercy,” and give thanks and praise and glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and ever and unto the ages of ages.  Amen.

 

Homily for 19 July 2015, the Sunday of the Fathers of the First Six Ecumenical Councils--"Who Cares About the Fathers of the First Six Ecumenical Councils?"

Who Cares About the Fathers of the First Six Ecumenical Councils?

Homily for the Sunday of the Fathers of the 1^st Six Councils (19 July 2015, 13 July 2008)

Titus 3:8-15                         Matthew 5:14-19

 

On 13 July or the first Sunday after that date, the Church celebrates the memory of the Holy Fathers of the first six Ecumenical Councils, which took place in the 4^th through the 7^th centuries.

After so many years, why should we remember them?  Who were they, anyway? And what did they do?  Who cares about the Fathers of the first six Ecumenical Councils?

As the Christian Church, we remember them and care about them because they faced and dealt with conflicts over the Faith and the Church in ways that defined the Christianity we know and love today.  They were all the bishops of the Christian world, pastors and teachers and scholars, called together to represent all the people who believed in Christ as Lord, God, and Savior.  After deep prayer, long discussion, and some fierce argument, the Fathers of the Councils established Christian belief and the Christian Church.

This wasn’t accomplished all at once.  Without established doctrine, Christians came up with all sorts of questions about God and all sorts of answers to those questions.  Some of the answers were terribly wrong.  Some were different ways of saying essentially the same thing in different languages, which led to divisions in the Church that have not yet been healed.

The First Ecumenical Council, held at Nicea in 325, was called by the Emperor Constantine because he wanted unity of belief in the Church just as he wanted unity of loyalty in the Empire.  The Fathers of the first council formulated the Creed, and in doing so condemned Arius, a priest who taught that Christ was not God.  They also recognized four principal national Churches—Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem—and designated the Bishop of Rome as “first among equals” because Rome was the capital city of the Empire.

At the Second Ecumenical Council, held in Constantinople in 381, the Fathers finished writing the Creed by clarifying the identity of the Holy Spirit as co-equal with the Father and the Son in the Holy Trinity of the One God.  They also added Constantinople to list of major Churches, in second place because it was the New Rome.

The Third Ecumenical Council, at Ephesus in 431, emphasized the unity of Christ as God and Man, condemning the teaching of Nestorius that the Virgin Mary was only Christotokos (mother of Christ), not Theotokos (mother of God).

At Chalcedon in 451, the Fourth Ecumenical Council condemned the teaching called Monophysitism (that the divine nature and the human nature in Christ are so essentially combined that He has only one nature—monophysis).  This decision caused the split between the Coptic and Syriac Churches and the Orthodox Church that remains to this day, even though theologians now understand that the problem was that the Greeks could not (or would not) understand the way the Copts and Syriacs spoke about the nature of Christ.  This Council also designated the five major Churches—Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem—as patriarchates and gave their bishops jurisdiction over all the Christians in their territories.

The Fifth Ecumenical Council, held in 553 at Constantinople, reaffirmed the doctrine of the two natures in the one person of Christ.

The Sixth Ecumenical Council, in Constantinople in 681, dealt with a further dispute about Christ, affirming that He has two natures, God and Man, and two wills, divine and human.  The Fathers condemned a teaching called Monothelitism (that Christ has only one divine will).

So, the first six Ecumenical Councils accomplished two important things:  they established doctrine (the teaching and explanation of Christian belief) and the organization or structure of the Church.

Bearing in mind that today is the Sunday of the Holy Fathers, the Scripture readings teach us about what bishops are supposed to do and how they are supposed to act.  But these teachings don’t apply just to bishops; they apply to all Christians.

In his Letter to Titus, whom he had sent to be bishop of the Christian community in Crete, St Paul, gives this advice for church leadership:

·         Teach the people to do good works

·         Avoid “stupid controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the Law”

·         Admonish those who cause divisions, then ignore them (or maybe throw them out)

And in the Gospel of Matthew Jesus teaches His disciples (and bishops and all of us):

·         You are the Light of the world—show it, don’t hide it.

·         Let your good works reveal the glory of God.

·         Observe and teach the commandments of the Law, as fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

We can ask how well the Holy Fathers of the first six Councils lived up to these guidelines and how well bishops—and all of us—live up to them now.

The early Fathers did teach the people to do good works.  There was a great emphasis in the early Church on caring for the poor, the sick, widows, and so on.  Throughout history, Christians have often been the ones who founded and maintained hospitals, orphanages, and other charitable institutions.

The early Fathers also dealt with people who caused divisions.  Sometimes they did this too harshly, without really understanding what they were doing and why.  Often the early Church Fathers got caught up in nationalism (Greeks vs. non-Greeks) and politics (the good of the Empire, the wishes of the Emperor, West vs. East).

They didn’t do so well (and we still don’t do so well) at avoiding quarrels, controversies, dissensions, and so on.  Some Fathers were very passionate, but not very nice.  At the First Ecumenical Council, for instance, St Nicholas punched Arius in the face instead of sitting down to talk with him.  In our own time, some very high-ranking cardinals and bishops have used very harsh language to disagree with Pope Francis.

Sometimes, both then and now, bishops have been too concerned with the power and prestige of the Church as an institution.  They feel a need to “protect” the Church instead of to connect the Church with society.  As a result, sometimes we don’t shine our light very well.

Christians—the bishops and the people—have always had a tendency to get caught up in the details of Church law and to forget or neglect good works.  For instance, if we worry too much about the rules of fasting, we miss the point of why we should fast.  Or, with regard to sharing Communion with other Christians, should we insist on doctrinal agreement first or should we build unity by sharing the Eucharist in charity?

We must remember that bishops—the Holy Fathers—even those who are saints, are human, just like the rest of us.  Sinners, just like the rest of us.  As our prayer for the departed says, “There is no one who lives and does not sin.”  They have a difficult job, trying to define correct belief, teaching, administration, giving a good example.  And they don’t always succeed.

So we must love them, pray for them, and even criticize them when necessary to call them back to the guidelines established by our Lord Jesus Christ and set forth by St Paul.

And we must devote ourselves to good works to meet urgent needs and reveal the glory of God, praying that the grace of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit will be with us now and ever and unto the ages of ages.  Amen.

 

Homily for 12 July 2015, the 7th Sunday after Pentecost--"St Paul Tells Us How to Be the Church"

St Paul Tells Us How to Be the Church

Homily for Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (12 July 2015, 3 July 2005)

Romans 15:1-7…………….Matthew 9:27-35

 

In his letter to the early Christian community in Rome, St Paul takes a lot of time to tell them how to live together as the Church—the people assembled in Jesus’ name.  In Greek, the word is ekklesia; in Hebrew knesset; in Arabic kniesseh.  All of these mean “the assembly” or “the congregation,” that is, the people gathered as the Church.

The passage from the Letter to the Romans that we have read today sums up in just a few sentences the four main themes of St Paul’s instructions on how to live as the People of God.

First, those who have strong faith have to work with those who have weak faith, in order to build them up.  We don’t get involved in the church for our individual pleasure or profit; we are part of the church so that all together we can grow closer to God, our loving Creator and Savior and Comforter.

Second, the Bible—both the Old Testament and the New Testament—was written to provide guidance and encouragement for God’s people.  We should read it, study it, and understand it so that we can apply its principles in our own lives and have hope in God’s love and mercy and justice and help for His people.  The Bible is not a rule-book or an instruction manual.  It is not a science or law or history textbook.  It is a source of hope and encouragement.

Third, the Christian people should live in harmony with one another, as Jesus taught, so that with one voice—that is, in agreement—we can give glory to God.  This doesn’t mean that all Christians must think exactly alike or worship in exactly the same way.  It does mean that we must respect each other and that we must be in agreement on the basic truths Jesus gave us.  We should concentrate on glorifying and praising and thanking God, not on fighting among ourselves over who is right about a certain point of doctrine or worship.

Not even all the different churches together—Eastern and Western, Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant—understand God completely.  We can’t.  We can’t, because God is our Creator and we are God’ creation.  But in many ways, our different ways of thinking and worshipping reflect God’s infinite variety and incomprehensible completeness that we are trying to understand.  Ultimately, though, all we can do is to seek to know and love and obey God according to the best of our understanding and ability, from divine revelation and human experience, with humbleness and gentleness.

Finally, continuing this theme of unity, Christians must welcome one another.  Not just tolerate or respect one another.  We must actively welcome one another.  No Christian can ever say, “This is our church for our people; you have to go to your own church.”  We have to say instead, “Welcome to our church; we hope you like our way of doing things even if it’s not what you are used to.”  We don’t try to change the way other churches worship, and we don’t change our way to conform to what they do.  Every kind of Christian prayer and worship, done in the right spirit, gives glory to God and adds richness and beauty and depth to our limited human understanding of God’s will.

Not all forms of Christianity are the same; not all are equal.  I’m not saying that one church is just as good as another.  We believe that some come closer to a full and authentic view of God’s plan for creation.  But we welcome and respect and love as brothers and sisters all who believe in One God, the Creator and Almighty Father; in the only Son of God, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior; and in the Holy Spirit, sent by Jesus from the Father to be with us always and to guide us into all truth.

To the One God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be thanks and praise and glory now and ever and unto the ages of ages.  Amen.

Homily for 5 July 2015--the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost: "You Are Healed: Stand Up, Pick Up Your Pallet, and Go Home"

You Are Healed:  Stand Up, Pick Up Your Pallet, and Go Home

Homily for Sixth Sunday after Pentecost (5 July 2015, 26 June 2005)

Romans 12:6-14…………….Matthew 9:1-8

 

Two things stand out in today’s Gospel story of Jesus’ healing the paralyzed man.  First, Jesus forgives the man’s since before He heals his paralyzed body.  And, second, when He heals the man, Jesus tells him to stand up, pick up his pallet, and go to his home.

From this we learn that spiritual healing always goes ahead of, or along with, physical healing, and that part of healing is moving ahead, getting on with the activities of life.

These things are as true for communities as for individual persons.  If a community or a group of people is paralyzed, unable to move, stuck in one spot, incapable of seeing new directions or solutions to their problems, the first thing they must seek is spiritual healing and renewal.

The Church has a word for this, a Greek word—metanoia.  It is translated as “change of heart.”  It’s similar to repentance, but it’s more than that.  Metanoia signifies opening the heart to God, so that it can be filled with God’s love and grace and power.  More than any human action, God in us forgives our sins, breaks the bonds that keep us from moving, and enables us to move forward again.

But we have to come to God, conscious of our paralysis and need for healing, and we have to ask God to fill us with His healing love and mercy.

And when we turn to God and receive healing, we have to carry out the second part of the deal.  Like the paralyzed man, we have to stand up, pick up our pallet, and go home.

It’s easy to understand the first instruction Jesus gives:  stand up.  That’s the natural action anyone would take after being healed from paralysis.  It’s the first move, the one that tells us the healing is real.  Until we stand up, we don’t know we are healed and we can’t go anywhere.

Jesus’ second instruction is to pick up your pallet.  In a way, the pallet or bed symbolizes the paralysis—it’s where we are stuck until we are healed.  We might just want to leave it behind and forget about it, but we have to pick it up and carry it away.  It reminds us of what we have been healed from by the power of God.  It reminds us to be thankful.  And it reminds us of where we could end up again if we lose our closeness to God and let sin paralyze us again.

Finally Jesus tells the man to go to his home.  After he was healed, he might have wanted to go out and celebrate.  He might have wanted to show off to everybody that he could walk and run and dance again.  But Jesus tells him, “Go to your home.”  Home is the center of our life.  It’s the place where we share life with those we love.  It’s where we learn to pray, where we praise God in the morning and thank God in the evening.

So before we can go out in new directions after being healed, we have to go home, to the center, to get re-oriented, to get focused, to decide what’s important and how we will use our restored ability to move.  And from there we will be able to begin again, to go forward knowing that God is with us, that God has healed our souls as well as our bodies.

And then we can give thanks and praise and glory to God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages.  Amen.

Homily for 28 June 2015--the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost: "We All Have to Submit to God"

We All Have to Submit to God

Homily for Fifth Sunday after Pentecost (28 June 2015, 27 June 2010)

Romans 10:1-10…………….Matthew 8:28-9:1

 

In today’s reading from the Letter to the Romans, St Paul warns that people who don’t know about God’s righteousness, and try to establish their own righteousness, fail to submit to God.

In today’s reading from the Gospel of St Matthew, the demons possessing the two men challenge Jesus by asking, “What do You have to do with us, Son of God?”  They don’t want to submit to God, but they know they have to.

The point here is that we all have to submit to God, whether we want to or not.  God is the Creator of the Universe and all that is in it.  God is the Savior of the world from sin.  God is the Judge who can grant us eternal life.  God is the Spirit of Truth, our guide and counsellor and comforter.

Whether we are led astray by ignorance or by pride or by demons, ultimately we have to submit to God.  St Paul says we are saved by faith—by what we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths.  And that faith is in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the World.

This is why we can’t take our religion or our faith or our salvation for granted.  If we don’t believe in our hearts that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, the Son of God who rose from the dead, and if we don’t proclaim that belief by our words and our actions, and if we don’t submit to the righteousness of God, we will end up destroyed like the demons who entered into the pigs and plunged off the cliff into the sea.

Probably we don’t like the idea of submitting to anyone or anything.  We like to think of ourselves as independent and strong and able to take care of ourselves.  We think of submitting as defeat.

But submitting to the righteousness of God is not defeat.  In fact, submitting to the righteousness of God brings liberation and victory—liberation from sin and victory over death.  Only God, the Almighty Creator and Redeemer, can give us that.

And in two separate Covenants or contracts with humankind, God has promised that liberation from sin and victory over death to us, as long as we submit to God’s righteousness.

In the Old Covenant, God gave the Law of Moses to guide God’s Chosen People in living in righteousness with God and each other.

In the New Covenant, God fulfilled the Law by sending God’s Living Word, God’s only Son, to teach all people the new Law of Love.  The Law of Love—love God completely and love your neighbor as you love yourself—shows us how to live in righteousness, not by observing the details of many rules, but by being conscious of how we relate to God and to other people—all the time.

We don’t need to invent our own righteousness because we know what God wants.  We don’t need to ask, “What do You have to do with us, O Son of God?” because we know that we are nothing without God, who loves us so much that He sent His only-begotten Son to bring us life instead of destruction.

So we proclaim Jesus as Lord.  We believe in our hearts that He rose from the dead.  And we submit to the righteousness of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages.  Amen.