Homily for Sunday 25 May 2015--Holy and Glorious Pentecost Sunday

Jesus Changed the Meaning of Pentecost:  Not the Law, but the Holy Spirit

Homily for Pentecost (Seventh Sunday after Pascha) (25 May 2015, 8 June 2003)

Acts of the Apostles 2:1-11…………….John 7:37-8:12

 

Today we celebrate the Great Feast of Pentecost, the day when the promise of God the Father to send the Holy Spirit was fulfilled.

The two readings from the Holy Bible for today both mention this feast, because it was a Jewish holy day before it became a Christian holy day, and Jesus and His disciples celebrated it.

It still is a Jewish holy day—Shavuot, the celebration of the giving of the Torah, the Law, to Moses and the Hebrew people.  It comes 50 days after Passover—just as for us Christians the feast of the giving of the Holy Spirit comes 50 days after Pascha.  The Greek word Pentecost means “50 days.”

When the disciples were all together in one place to celebrate on the 50^th day after Passover, as described in the Acts of the Apostles, they had no idea of what was going to happen to them.  They were simply gathered for the holy day like all the other Jews.

And when Jesus stood in the Temple on the last day of the festival and proclaimed that He was the light of the world and also that anyone thirsty should come to Him and drink, no one knew that He was talking about the Holy Spirit that He would send from the Father—the Paraclete, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, who would lead believers into all the truth.

And that is the crucial difference between the Jewish Pentecost and the Christian Pentecost.  Both are from God, but the Jewish Pentecost is about the Law and the Christian Pentecost is about the Holy Spirit.  I often say that the coming of Jesus changed everything—and this is another example of that.

For the Jews, the Law given by God to them through Moses guided every aspect of their lives.  It was God’s way of showing them what to do in order to live in good relationship with God and with each other.  Understand and obey the Torah and you will have favor with God.  This is what they celebrate at Pentecost.

But for us Christians, it is the Holy Spirit given to us by the Father through the asking of Jesus that guides every aspect of our lives.  The Holy Spirit shows us what to do in order to live in right relationship with God and with each other.  The Holy Spirit empowered the disciples to speak all languages so that they could preach and teach Jesus’ message of salvation to all peoples.

In his Letter to the Galatians, St Paul writes that the Spirit brings “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”  In the First Letter to the Corinthians, he says that the Spirit gives various gifts to people to use for the good of everyone, such as wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, and so on.  This is what Jesus meant when He told the disciples to wait for the promise of the Father, and when He said, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”

Jesus promises us enlightenment and wisdom—the ability to see clearly and to make good choices.  He doesn’t promise us rules that we can follow without thinking.  He didn’t say that when the Holy Spirit comes it will lead you to the Law; he said that the Holy Spirit “will lead you into all truth.”  He changed the meaning of Pentecost, setting us free from the Law and giving us the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

And so, for this great gift, we give thanks and praise and glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One God, unto the ages of ages.  Amen.

Homily for 17 May 2015--Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council

Our Fathers in Faith Established the Basic Beliefs of Christian Faith

Homily for the Sixth Sunday after Pascha (17 May 2015, 1 June 2003)

Acts of the Apostles 16:16-34…………….John 9:1-38

 

On the sixth Sunday after Pascha every year, the Church celebrates the memory of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, which was held at Nicea in the year 325.  In 2015, 1690 years later, we might wonder what was so important about the Fathers, or Bishops, who attended that council.  Why should we remember them today?  Why should we have a Sunday dedicated to honoring them?

We can’t really answer these questions without knowing something about the time and the circumstances.  In 325 Jesus had been gone from the earth less than 300 years.  For example, that’s about the same length of time that has passed since the American Declaration of Independence.

In 325, Christianity had been legal only 12 years!  The capital of the Roman Empire had moved to Constantinople only one year before.  It was an amazing time for Christians.  We no longer had to hide our faith and celebrate the Eucharist in houses and caves and even tombs.  We no longer had to worry about being forced to worship the pagan gods or the Roman emperors.  We no longer had to be afraid of persecution and torture and gruesome executions.

On the other hand, Christianity became the official religion of the Empire.  The Emperor and his bureaucrats expected the Church to support the government; they expected bishops to keep the people in order and loyal to the Emperor.  Yet there was no huge, well-developed Church bureaucracy to step in and do these things.  There was no standard liturgy—bishops and priests improvised the prayers according to the custom of their town or city or province.  There wasn’t even a basic agreed-upon statement of what Christians believed.

Of course this led to confusion and arguments and divisions.  People accused each other of being heretics simply because they didn’t agree about things we now take for granted as the Truth.

The hot argument of the early 4^th century was whether Jesus Christ was actually God, equal to the Father, or whether He was a created being given special power and status by God.  Arius, a priest from Alexandria, claimed that Jesus was inferior to God the Father—that He was the greatest of creatures, sort of adopted by God to do God’s work on earth.  Not knowing any better, and not being able to find out by studying the Gospels for themselves, a lot of people accepted Arius’s ideas and followed him.  In some places, they threw out or even killed bishops and priests who believed otherwise.

Obviously, this threatened the peace and unity of the Empire.

So the Emperor Constantine called all 318 bishops in the world to a meeting and told them that if this was going to be a Christian Empire they had to decide what Christians believed.

Today’s readings from the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel of St John help us understand the bishops’ actions and decisions.

In the Acts, St Paul warns the priests and bishops of Ephesus that they must take care of the church and guard it against “fierce wolves” who would try to attack the people and against false teacher speaking twisted words who would try to lure the people away from the true faith.  Obviously, for the Fathers at Nicea Arius and other heretics were such fierce wolves and false teachers.

In the reading from John’s Gospel, Jesus makes it clear again and again that He and the Father share divine identity.  He says that the Father gave Him God’s name.  He says that He and the Father are one.  He says He lost none of those entrusted to Him except the son of perdition.  Of course, Jesus was talking about Judas, who betrayed Him and then, realizing his sin, killed himself.  But the Holy Fathers at Nicea saw that this description also applied to Arius, who was also betraying Jesus by denying His divinity.  From this passage, we can see that the unity of the Church mirrors the unity of God.

So the Fathers of Nicea condemned Arius and his heresy.  They wrote the Creed, which says clearly that Jesus is “true God from true God, begotten not made, one in essence with the Father.”  They established the basic beliefs of the Christian faith.  They are truly our Fathers in the faith.  And that is why we remember and honor them, because they taught us how praise and glorify the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One God, unto the ages of ages.  Amen.

Homily for 10 May 2015--The 5th Sunday after Pascha: "See the Glory of God or Find Someone to Blame?"

See the Glory of God or Find Someone to Blame?

Homily for the Fifth Sunday after Pascha (10 May 2015)

Acts of the Apostles 16:16-34…………….John 9:1-38

 

In today’s Gospel reading, St John shows us two very different ways of looking at life.  One is to look at things that happen and see how they reveal the glory of God.  The other is to look at things that happen and try to find someone to blame.

Unfortunately, that second attitude seems to be more common.  When something goes wrong, or something bad happens, people everywhere look for someone to blame.  It’s the Jews.  It’s the Muslims.  It’s the Americans.  It’s the North Koreans.  It’s the immigrants.  It’s the rednecks.  It’s the pointy-headed intellectuals.  It’s the feminists.  It’s the religious right.  It’s the gays.  And so on.  When I was growing up, we knew who to blame for everything—the Communists.  Now I see things more clearly and blame the Republicans.  (No offense to those of you who may be Republicans--you know I don't talk politics in church.)

Of course, when life is good and things go right, people will sometimes say, “Thank God.”  But generally we are like the disciples, who want to blame either the blind man or his parents for his blindness.  We are like the Pharisees, who do not rejoice that the blind man has been given the ability to see, but instead want to find out who has undermined their power by healing the blind man and has broken the Law by healing on the Sabbath.  They know what they want to see, and don’t need to be bothered by the facts.  Finally, when they can’t get the answers they want, they turn to making personal attacks on the man who had been born blind.

But Jesus and the man born blind see things very differently.  Jesus tells the disciples that the man was born blind not because of sin, but so that the works of God might be revealed in him.  And the man born blind answers all of the Pharisees’ questions with the simple declaration, “If this man were not from God, he couldn’t do anything.”

In every situation, we can see God at work or we can look for someone to blame.  We can rejoice that someone was healed or we can blame someone for breaking the rules.  We can feel sorry for ourselves in sickness or in hard times, or we can thank God for what we do have and trust in God’s help to deal with our problems.  We can complain about the people who don’t come to church or we can give glory to God for bringing enough people to church so that there is a church to come to.  We can be happy that people love each other and want to get married, or we can denounce them for being the wrong religion or the wrong race or the wrong nationality or the wrong gender.

What we cannot do is refuse to see God at work in the world.

Everything we are, everything we do, everything we have comes from God.  All creation reveals the glory of God.  Sometimes it’s not easy to see.  Sometimes it’s hard to understand.  But our job is to believe in God’s love and goodness and mercy at work in the world and in us.  Jesus is the light of the world, and God opens our eyes to see that light.

So let us live in Jesus’ light and see the glorious works of God and give thanks and praise and glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One God, unto the ages of ages.  Amen.

Homily for the Feast of the Annunciation to Mary, 25 March 2015--"Nothing is Impossible With God"

Homily for the Feast of the Annunciation to Mary

25 March 2015 /2012

Epistle:  Hebrews 2:11-18                                Gospel:  Luke 1:24-38

 

When Mary asks the Archangel Gabriel how it will be possible for her to become pregnant without having sexual relations with a man, the angel doesn’t answer her directly.  To make his point, he tells her that her cousin Elizabeth has “conceived a son in her old age.”  She was called barren, but now she’s six months pregnant.  And this proves that “nothing will be impossible with God.”

This same idea is proclaimed four or five time in the Gospels—in slightly different ways—nothing is impossible for God—what is impossible for people is possible for God—and so on.

Naturally, we love to hear this.  It gives us hope when life seems hopeless.  It gives us strength when we are weak.  It encourages us when we are discouraged.

But there is a danger in this idea, too.  We can use it as a crutch, or as a replacement for our own efforts.  “Nothing is impossible with God” can come to mean, in our minds, “Nothing is impossible with God, so I don’t have to do anything.”  “Nothing is impossible with God, so let God handle it.”  Or even, “Nothing is impossible with God, so if God wants it to happen, it will happen.  I’ll just wait and see.”

When people think like that, they are missing the whole point of the statement that “Nothing is impossible with God.”

Today’s Gospel reading makes clear that nothing is impossible with God, but human cooperation is required.

When Mary hears the angel’s greeting—“Hail, full of grace.  The Lord is with you.”—she is “greatly troubled” and wonders what this means.  She’s not just a little bit bothered.  She doesn’t just think, “Whoa, this is weird.”  She is “greatly” troubled.

When Gabriel then explains about her conceiving a son who will be called Son of the Most High, whom God will give the throne of David, who will rule over the House of Jacob forever, and whose kingdom will have no end, Mary has more questions.  She wants to understand God’s plan, as much as she can.

And when she does understand, she proclaims her faith and agrees to cooperate with God’s plan:  “I am the handmaid of the Lord.  Let it be done to me according to your word.”  In other words, “I am the servant of God.  I agree to the plan you have explained to me.”

The lesson for us is that when we hold onto “Nothing will be impossible with God,” we also have to be willing, in faith, to cooperate with God.  We have to seek understanding of how God wants to use us to accomplish God’s will.  Then we have to profess that we are the servants of the Lord, ready to let God’s will be done in us and through us and by us.

Mary didn’t say, “Well, I’d like to be the Mother of God, but I don’t want to spend any money or put out any effort, so I’ll just wait to see what God does for me, since nothing is impossible with God.”

In the same way, a parish cannot say, “Well, we’d like to grow and flourish, but we don’t want to spend any money or put out any effort, so we’ll just wait to see what God does for us through the bishop, or the priest, or maybe a new priest.  After all, nothing is impossible with God.”

If we want to conceive the Son of God in our parish, as the Son of God was conceived in Mary’s womb, we have to say, “We are your servants, Lord; we’re ready to do whatever it takes to cooperate with your will and accomplish your plan.  We’ll spend whatever it takes and put out whatever effort is required.  For nothing is impossible with You and nothing is impossible for us when we work with You.  And so we give You thanks and praise and glory, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages.  Amen.”

Homily for 22 March 2015--Fifth Sunday of Great Lent: "Relationship with the Living God"

Homily for Fifth Sunday of Great Lent—St Mary of Egypt

22 March 2015 10 April 2011

Epistle:  Hebrews 9:11-14                                Gospel:  Mark 10:32-45

 

In today’s reading from the Letter to the Hebrews, the author tells us that “the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, will cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.”

By sacrificing His own life, Christ takes away our sins so that we can worship the living God.

Like so much of our Christian faith, this seems to be a contradiction or a paradox:  Christ, who as God is immortal, dies so that we mortals, who are dead because of sin, can worship the living God.

What is eternal and immortal dies . . .

What is dead comes to life . . .

But God is living, now and always and forever . . .

This is what is important.  This is what saves us.  This is the great Truth we celebrate at Pascha and in every liturgy and every day.  Our God is the Living God who gives us eternal life.

It’s interesting that “dead works” is the phrase used to describe sins—which Christ’s death takes away so that we can properly worship the living God.

What does “dead works” mean?  Works are our actions, our efforts, our deeds—the things that we do on our own, by our own motivation, for our own purposes.  They are dead because they don’t come from God and they don’t lead us back to God.  When we try to do things on our own—by me, to me, for me—then we’re acting without God; we’re acting as if we don’t need God.  Ultimately, we’re acting as though we believe we can save ourselves.  And that is a dangerous delusion.

Sometimes we do this even when we are trying to be good and religious and holy.  For example, sometimes people want to do something good for the church, but it has to be done their way, on their terms, without the help of anyone else—even if doing it that way causes disagreement or resentment or offense.

Similarly, sometimes people insist on being married in church or having their baby baptized—even though they never come to church or have no intention of being part of the church.

They want to do the works without, it seems, having a relationship with the Living God.  And so those works are dead.  If we focus on the actions or the rules or the appearances rather than on how they connect us to God, they become just empty shells.

This is what Jesus means when He tells James and John that they don’t know what they’re asking for when they ask to be seated beside Him in Paradise.  They don’t see beyond the position, the privilege, the prestige, to the sacrifice, the suffering, the relationship involved.

The relationship with the Living God must come first.  We have to value it and want it.  We have to know that we can’t get it on our own, by our own efforts.  We have to do what Jesus did—we have to put other people first, to serve rather than be served—so that we will come to know the Living God in living people, who are made in God’s image and likeness and who show God’s face to us.

Jesus invites us to this relationship with the Living God.  He has already made it possible, and continues to make it possible, because He gave His life as a ransom for many, cleansing us of our dead works and teaching us to worship the Living God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages.  Amen.

Homily for 15 March 2015--Fourth Sunday of Great Lent

The Power of God and the Importance of Faith

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Great Lent (15 Mar. 2015, 26 Mar. 2006)

Hebrews 6:13-20           Mark 9:17-31

 

Today’s Gospel story of the man whose son was possessed by an unclean spirit teaches us about the power of God and the importance of faith.

The boy whose father brings him to Jesus is possessed by a demon or spirit that tries to destroy him.  It makes him unable to speak; it takes control of his body and throws him around, even into the fire and into water.  Actually, it sounds a lot like what we would call epilepsy.  We now understand that epilepsy and other diseases are not caused by evil spirits, but they still cause pain and destruction, and need healing.

In fact, we can look at this Gospel story as a metaphor or image for any kind of affliction over which we have no control and which works to destroy us and to affect those around us.  This could be illness of the body, such as cancer or diabetes or heart disease or AIDS.  It could be illness of the mind, such as severe depression or schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.  It could be an addiction, such as to gambling or drugs or alcohol.

Every human being has some sort of affliction or addiction, and every human being also knows and loves someone else who also is afflicted or addicted.  We all know how destructive these afflictions are; truly they do seem to come from evil or unclean spirits.

In the Gospel story, the spirit attacks the boy, which also hurts the father.  It is as though the Devil is trying to destroy the father’s faith in God by attacking his son.

When the demon sees Jesus, it immediately attacks the boy:  it knows that Jesus has power over it, so it tries to scare the father away from asking Jesus to heal his son.  But the father is desperate and determined.  He pleads with Jesus:  “If you are able, have pity and help us.”

At this point, he is not fully aware of Jesus’ power as the Son of God, so he says, “If you are able.”  Jesus notices the father’s uncertainty and tells him, “All things can be done for those who believe.”  This leaves no doubt of God’s power—“All things can be done.”  But at the same time it emphasizes the need for our faith—“for those who believe.”  So the father cries out, “I do believe, but help my unbelief.”

Belief, or faith in God, is our decision to accept God’s power and authority and control of our lives.  Illness and pain and suffering can be used by the Devil to try to weaken or destroy our faith, so, like the possessed boy’s father, we also need to ask God to “help our unbelief” as well as to have pity and heal us and those we love.  “Help my unbelief” is another way of saying, “Strengthen my faith.”  The more we turn to God for help, the more God can help us, for “all things can be done for those who believe.”

Believing, and holding on to our belief, takes work.  As Jesus told the disciples, some spirits can be driven out only by prayer and fasting.  Keeping our faith requires discipline and determination.  And we have to keep on, even when what we hope and pray for doesn’t happen, or when we cannot understand what does happen.  When we have faith, all things can be done for us.  There is no guarantee that they will be done, or when or how we want them to be done.  We cannot dictate to God; we can only pray, “Have pity on us and help us, and help our unbelief!”

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

Homily for 8 March 2015, Third Sunday of Great Lent--the Veneration of the Holy Cross

The Cross is a Gift, not a Burden

Homily for the Third Sunday of Great Lent (8 Mar. 2015, 19 Mar. 2006)

Hebrews 4:14-5:6           Mark 8:34-9:1

 

When we come to the end of the forty days of Great Lent and the end of Great and Holy Week, we look upon the Cross as the terrible instrument of the Lord’s suffering and death.  We see Him nailed and set up on the Cross like a common thief.  We take down His precious and wounded Body and lay Him with tears and flowers in the tomb, and we erect the empty cross as a sign of our grief—but also as a sign that the tomb will soon be empty, Christ will be risen from the dead, our grief will turn to joy, and defeat will turn into victory.

Today we are half-way through the forty days; half-way to the tragedy of the Crucifixion; half-way to the triumph of the Resurrection.  And today also we focus on the Cross.  It stands in the middle of Great Lent like a shady tree in the middle of the desert; like the Tree of Life in the middle of the Garden of Paradise.

In the Gospel reading for today, Jesus tells us that if we want to be His followers, we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him.  This reminds us that we have choices on life’s journey—but only one choice will lead us after our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ through death to everlasting life.

We can choose not to take up our cross and follow Jesus.  We can choose not to deny ourselves—in other words, we can choose to live for pleasure, or money, or power, or food, or drugs, or work, or whatever we want.  But that choice will not make us followers of Christ.

We can become followers of Christ only if we choose, as Christ chose, to take up our cross.  For us, the Holy Cross is like a staff or a walking stick that we use to support ourselves on our journey through life.  It is strong enough for us because it has already carried Jesus our Savior.  It will not fail to bring us back to Paradise.

At first, today’s reading from the Letter to the Hebrews might not seem to be about the Holy Cross.  But when we read it carefully and understand how the writer talks of Jesus’ sacrifice as High Priest, we realize that Jesus’ sacrifice for the sins of the people was His death for us on the Holy Cross.

The author shows us that every high priest chosen from among the people made sacrifices for the people and for himself—but Jesus, being God as well as Man, made a sacrifice of Himself, not of a lamb or some other animal.  He was the perfect sacrifice—the one who as God could offer Himself—the priest as well as the offering—so no more blood sacrifices have to be made.  In the Divine Liturgy, we refer several times to this “unbloody” or “bloodless” sacrifice—the bread and wine we offer become the Body and Blood of Christ that He offered once for all.

But because Jesus was human as well as divine, He understands how we feel.  He knows our self-doubt and self-contempt because of our sins.  He knows that we need a way to sacrifice something for our sins so that we can come closer to Him.  So He gives us His Cross to carry, so that we can share His sacrifice and follow Him to death and resurrection.

For us, then, the Holy Cross is a gift, not a burden.  It is a help, not an obstacle.  It is the way, not the destination.  It is not the end—it is the beginning of Eternal Life with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One God, unto the ages of ages.  Amen.