20081214 No Reserve Domain in Salvation
www.stmichaeluoc.org
www.orthoanalytika.org
Ephesians 5: 9-19. … (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says:
“ Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.”
See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,
St. Luke 18:18-27. And a certain ruler asked Him saying, Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou Me good? None is good, save One, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments: Do not commit adultery, Do not commit murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother. And he said, All these I have kept from my youth up. Now when Jesus heard these things, He said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow Me. And when he heard this, he was sorrowful: for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw that he became very sorrowful, He said, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” And those who heard it said, “Who then can be saved?” But He said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (One God). Amen.
Have you heard of the term “reserve domain”? As a political term, it can be thought of as those things that the government is not allowed to directly touch or affect. In the United States, our constitution – and especially the “Bill of Rights” – is designed to make sure that the government stays out of religion, out of our homes, out of our gun lockers, out of our peaceful assemblies, and so on. This is because the framers opposed tyranny and believed that a system of limited government would be best for our individual satisfaction and for the stability of our democracy.
I remember how upset my grandfather was because he felt the government encroached on the private domain of citizens when it amended the constitution in 1913 to make it easier for it to get into his wallet through a national income tax [16th Amendment]. He thought it had stepped way over the line. Others think the government stepped over the line when it passed the Patriot Act after 9/11; or when it protected the killing of the unborn with Roe vs. Wade; or when it threatened to tax political speech from the pulpit; or even when it generally privileges certain moral codes over others. I don’t want to talk about any of these issues today: my point is simply that all of us are accustomed to the reality and need for “reserve domains”.
In fact, we have a word for those governments that recognize no legitimate reserve domain: we call these governments “totalitarian”. The Soviet Union was totalitarian – it attempted to penetrate every aspect of people’s lives and to destroy every person, organization and institution that it could not twist to its own ends. Not every American agreed with President Reagan’s characterization of the Soviet Union as an “Evil Empire”, but I reckon that most did agree that Soviet subjects would have been better off without its invasive and tyrannical rule.
Glory to God, we do not live in a totalitarian state. While the scope and size of our government has certainly grown since the founding; our culture nonetheless has a strong sense of independence when it comes to government. We want our reserve domains. We may not agree on where they should be drawn, but all of us agree that there should be lines the government should not cross. We love our freedom. It is part of who we are. This is a wonderful thing. The founders were right: this keeps our country strong and our politics democratic. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. For Ukrainian Americans, this tradition is also supported by that of free Cossacks and the Zaporozhnian Sich. We all cherish our freedom.
Unfortunately, this bleeds over into other areas where the concept of the “reserve domain” is more problematic. Where it actually does us harm. Look at marriage: how many husbands and wives hide things from their spouses in a foolish attempt to maintain some kind of freedom? Virtual lives; hidden spending; separate bank accounts; drug use; extra-marital affairs and flirtations; these and other secrets come naturally to many Americans, but such reserve domains undermine the trust required to keep marriages healthy.
Worse, yet, are the things we try to keep from God.
Today’s Gospel lesson describes an encounter between God Incarnate and a rich young ruler. This young man is pious and respectful. He was a model to his peers, and would be recognized as such to us now because of his excellent manner of life. After all, how many of us have even tried to keep all the commandments from the time of our youth? And how many of us who have tried have had the self-discipline to successfully avoid temptation for so long? I only point this out because I want you to understand that this man was devoted to living life according to God’s will; and he seemed to be doing a pretty good job of it. But there was part of his life that he wanted to keep separate; private; reserved. When Jesus called him on it by telling him that he needed to sell everything he had, the young man “became sorrowful”. It seems as though he was willing to submit to God in every aspect of his life, save one. He wanted to protect that one area of his life; keep that one part of his life under his own control; keep that one part of his life separate from God. It is easy to fault the rich young man for this – and he certainly was at fault – but you have to admit that we are at least as guilty as him.
What will you do when God calls your bluff? When He tells you that you need to change the very part of your life you want to protect and keep private? Some of us are like the rich young ruler, afraid to give sacrificially from our budgets; others are reluctant to abandon extra-marital sex in favor of celibacy; others want to protect their careers; others are afraid to open up their hearts to love and hope. The actual domain may vary, but everyone seems to have at least one area they try to wall off from God.
Again, this seems quite natural to Americans. We subconsciously confuse the need for independence from government with independence from God. But we must empty ourselves completely to God; we must submit everything to His authority. Totalitarianism and tyranny are evil because men are imperfect and cannot be trusted with such power. But God is perfect and completely trustworthy. If He tells you to change part of your life, then you can be sure that giving it up is good for you; that it will make you more of who you really are and who you should become.
While it is hardly “selling everything you own”; the call toward tithing or sacrificial giving is likely to bring about the same sort of selfish sorrow that the rich young man had. Giving up meat during fasts, giving up sex outside marriage, and giving up our habitual hard-heartedness also seem easy when compared to the sacrifice asked of the rich young man; but we are as likely to walk away from Christ in sorrow when these things are asked of us as he was back then.
You cannot serve two masters (St. Matthew 6: 24). There is only one master worth having, and that is Jesus Christ. He is better than money, sexual gratification, meanness, and pride. These might bring comfort during this lifetime, but it is Christ that beings eternal life and following His commandments that bring true satisfaction and joy today.
Do what every saint has already done: give up everything you have and follow Him. Because through Him all things are possible.
-fr anthony
Monday, December 15, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
20081207 Thriving on the Cheap
20081207 Thriving on the Cheap
www.stmichaeluoc.org
www.orthoanalytika.org
Ephesians 4:1-6
St. Luke 13: 10-17
How to improve your life during difficult financial times by overcoming consumer-addiction.
We are facing difficult times in this country. For decades increasingly easy access to debt has fueled economic growth. Banks and credit cards companies enabled our insatiable appetite for self-indulgence with increasingly risky loans. We lost every vestige of self-control as we put ourselves into debt to buy things that we really never needed. Now, despite the efforts of our government, it seems as if our debt-induced “high” is coming to an end. Hard times are ahead. It is never easy to break addictions, no matter how unhealthy they are. Just as junkies will beg, borrow, and steal, some of us will do whatever it takes to support our artificial lifestyle. But a hard economy means that there will be no fix; no way to satisfy a habit that has been reinforced by years of addiction.
Yes, difficult times are ahead. But there is a silver lining. Everyone feels sympathy for the junkie as he suffers through rehabilitation, but every sane person also knows that his quality of life will eventually be much better without drugs than it ever was under their influence. So too, does our inability to satisfy our craving for new cars, bigger houses, better clothes, and so on mean that while we may suffer withdrawal in the short term, we have the potential to live much better lives than we did spending money we didn’t have on things we didn’t need. Some of the things we have to look forward to are stronger and more enjoyable bonds with our families, our friends, and our parish; more control over our emotions; and more money and time to spend on things that will bring genuine and lasting happiness.
But in the meantime, we have a difficult transition to make from being “insatiable and irresponsible consumers” to devoted and properly-centered human beings. Let me offer some suggestions that may help to make this transition shorter and less painful:
First, do not take on any more debt. Debt really works against you during a depression. Even payments that seem obviously affordable may suddenly come less so budgets shrink due to unemployment or reduced hours. Increased debt can help build a bridge across difficult times, but we don’t know how long these times will last, and you run a very real risk of running out of bridge before you run out of water.
Second, start saving. On average, Americans actually spend more than they make. We have a negative savings rate. Many people now rely on credit cards or home equity lines of credit as their emergency funds. This is dangerous. It may seem impossible to achieve, but even a $1,000 emergency fund can change your life. We can’t rely on the availability of credit to help us through emergencies any more.
Third, downsize your spending and your expectations. There are some things that you cannot downsize: for example, we have to buy groceries, pay our utilities, mortgages, rent, and taxes. But we can cut a lot of fat our of our budget by reducing or completely curtailing our vacations, eating out, pizza delivery, and impulse purchases. You would be amazed how much money we waste without realizing it. If you are not tracking every dollar of your income and expenses, it is time to start. Christmas has become a consumer frenzy: don’t let it. Let children know they will not receive as much and adults that cards and time together will suffice as gifts. Many of you are the matriarchs and patriarchs of extended families: use your influence to bring Christmas spending down to responsible levels. And know one should even THINK about borrowing money to pay for gifts. Remember the story of the little drummer boy. Avoiding television commercials will make this easier for everyone (watching commercials is the equivalent of bringing a recovering alcoholic into a bar at happy hour –don’t do it to yourself!).
Fourth, more for less. There are many things that cost little to no money, but bring enormous satisfaction. I suggest taking advantage of this Nativity Lent to get back to your prayer rule. Reading your morning and evening prayers alone or as a family will center and ground you like nothing else can. It will also help you rebuild your sense of self-control. You may think of all these things as added obligations; one more thing to add to an already overfull list of “things to do”. If so, then your budget is not the only thing that needs to be downsized. Not having time for prayer, is as much an indicator of trouble as not having enough money for your dues or tithe. Simplifying your life and centering it on Christ through prayer will move you quickly through your difficult transition. In addition, your parish offers enrichment classes and services during the week that won’t cost you anything, but that can bring enormous satisfaction. Observing the fasts of the Orthodox Church doesn’t just save money, it increases the self-discipline that will carry-over into every other aspect of our life. It also gives us a foretaste the joy that a life spent un-addicted to spending brings as we take the money we save on fasting and give it to the poor. Charity is the quickest way to regain your humanity and to show how selfish it is to be a consumer-addict. Loving and forgiving the people around you now without reservation is free to everything but your pride and will bring enormous returns in satisfaction.
Two more free but enormously beneficial services that are seriously underused are the sacraments of Holy Confession and Holy Communion. Changing your life is hard. Doing it by yourself may be impossible. God gave you these gifts for this very purpose. He gave you this God-protected parish and all these wonderful people to bring you out of your various addictions to a clean life of joy and eternal reward. Your relationship with God should be more than just another line on your budget or item on your weekly calendar: it fills the void we have all but destroyed ourselves trying to fill with other things.
In Conclusion: Christ healed the woman in today’s Gospel at the temple on the Sabbath. He will being healing you here today. Center your life on Him and His saving grace. Put it in the middle of your heart and mind. The changes he works through you and your life will be greater than the relief brought from anything on this world. You risk a dollar to win the lottery for a chance at the American Dream. Don’t waste your money. Paradise is already here. We are facing difficult times in this world, but the greatest difficulty isn’t with the world, it is with us and our addictions. We have brought these hardships on ourselves. I don’t know how long this recession/depression will last, and I am not saying that following my advice will move or keep your family budget out of the red. What I am saying is that buy refocusing ourselves and rededicating ourselves to the fundamentals, we can come out of these times better than ever.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
www.stmichaeluoc.org
www.orthoanalytika.org
Ephesians 4:1-6
St. Luke 13: 10-17
How to improve your life during difficult financial times by overcoming consumer-addiction.
We are facing difficult times in this country. For decades increasingly easy access to debt has fueled economic growth. Banks and credit cards companies enabled our insatiable appetite for self-indulgence with increasingly risky loans. We lost every vestige of self-control as we put ourselves into debt to buy things that we really never needed. Now, despite the efforts of our government, it seems as if our debt-induced “high” is coming to an end. Hard times are ahead. It is never easy to break addictions, no matter how unhealthy they are. Just as junkies will beg, borrow, and steal, some of us will do whatever it takes to support our artificial lifestyle. But a hard economy means that there will be no fix; no way to satisfy a habit that has been reinforced by years of addiction.
Yes, difficult times are ahead. But there is a silver lining. Everyone feels sympathy for the junkie as he suffers through rehabilitation, but every sane person also knows that his quality of life will eventually be much better without drugs than it ever was under their influence. So too, does our inability to satisfy our craving for new cars, bigger houses, better clothes, and so on mean that while we may suffer withdrawal in the short term, we have the potential to live much better lives than we did spending money we didn’t have on things we didn’t need. Some of the things we have to look forward to are stronger and more enjoyable bonds with our families, our friends, and our parish; more control over our emotions; and more money and time to spend on things that will bring genuine and lasting happiness.
But in the meantime, we have a difficult transition to make from being “insatiable and irresponsible consumers” to devoted and properly-centered human beings. Let me offer some suggestions that may help to make this transition shorter and less painful:
First, do not take on any more debt. Debt really works against you during a depression. Even payments that seem obviously affordable may suddenly come less so budgets shrink due to unemployment or reduced hours. Increased debt can help build a bridge across difficult times, but we don’t know how long these times will last, and you run a very real risk of running out of bridge before you run out of water.
Second, start saving. On average, Americans actually spend more than they make. We have a negative savings rate. Many people now rely on credit cards or home equity lines of credit as their emergency funds. This is dangerous. It may seem impossible to achieve, but even a $1,000 emergency fund can change your life. We can’t rely on the availability of credit to help us through emergencies any more.
Third, downsize your spending and your expectations. There are some things that you cannot downsize: for example, we have to buy groceries, pay our utilities, mortgages, rent, and taxes. But we can cut a lot of fat our of our budget by reducing or completely curtailing our vacations, eating out, pizza delivery, and impulse purchases. You would be amazed how much money we waste without realizing it. If you are not tracking every dollar of your income and expenses, it is time to start. Christmas has become a consumer frenzy: don’t let it. Let children know they will not receive as much and adults that cards and time together will suffice as gifts. Many of you are the matriarchs and patriarchs of extended families: use your influence to bring Christmas spending down to responsible levels. And know one should even THINK about borrowing money to pay for gifts. Remember the story of the little drummer boy. Avoiding television commercials will make this easier for everyone (watching commercials is the equivalent of bringing a recovering alcoholic into a bar at happy hour –don’t do it to yourself!).
Fourth, more for less. There are many things that cost little to no money, but bring enormous satisfaction. I suggest taking advantage of this Nativity Lent to get back to your prayer rule. Reading your morning and evening prayers alone or as a family will center and ground you like nothing else can. It will also help you rebuild your sense of self-control. You may think of all these things as added obligations; one more thing to add to an already overfull list of “things to do”. If so, then your budget is not the only thing that needs to be downsized. Not having time for prayer, is as much an indicator of trouble as not having enough money for your dues or tithe. Simplifying your life and centering it on Christ through prayer will move you quickly through your difficult transition. In addition, your parish offers enrichment classes and services during the week that won’t cost you anything, but that can bring enormous satisfaction. Observing the fasts of the Orthodox Church doesn’t just save money, it increases the self-discipline that will carry-over into every other aspect of our life. It also gives us a foretaste the joy that a life spent un-addicted to spending brings as we take the money we save on fasting and give it to the poor. Charity is the quickest way to regain your humanity and to show how selfish it is to be a consumer-addict. Loving and forgiving the people around you now without reservation is free to everything but your pride and will bring enormous returns in satisfaction.
Two more free but enormously beneficial services that are seriously underused are the sacraments of Holy Confession and Holy Communion. Changing your life is hard. Doing it by yourself may be impossible. God gave you these gifts for this very purpose. He gave you this God-protected parish and all these wonderful people to bring you out of your various addictions to a clean life of joy and eternal reward. Your relationship with God should be more than just another line on your budget or item on your weekly calendar: it fills the void we have all but destroyed ourselves trying to fill with other things.
In Conclusion: Christ healed the woman in today’s Gospel at the temple on the Sabbath. He will being healing you here today. Center your life on Him and His saving grace. Put it in the middle of your heart and mind. The changes he works through you and your life will be greater than the relief brought from anything on this world. You risk a dollar to win the lottery for a chance at the American Dream. Don’t waste your money. Paradise is already here. We are facing difficult times in this world, but the greatest difficulty isn’t with the world, it is with us and our addictions. We have brought these hardships on ourselves. I don’t know how long this recession/depression will last, and I am not saying that following my advice will move or keep your family budget out of the red. What I am saying is that buy refocusing ourselves and rededicating ourselves to the fundamentals, we can come out of these times better than ever.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
20081130 Wall of Separation
20081130 Wall of Separation
www.stmichaeluoc.org
www.orthoanalytika.org
Ephesians 2:14-22
St. Luke 12:16-21
Before I begin, let me share the deepest love and condolences from the faithful of St. Michael’s to the parish of St. Mary’s on the falling asleep in the Lord of their beloved pastor, Ihumen Gregory. May God strengthen them during this difficult time, and may He grant their spiritual father a Memory Eternal.
St. Paul teaches us in today’s epistle that Christ has “broken down the middle wall of separation”. This is the wall that separates us from holiness and sanctification. In the beginning, we were created for eternal growth in the Lord; to grow in beauty and goodness. There was nothing between us and the realization of our full potential in community with one another and Perfection. But our sin and the resultant fallenness of the world we live in have created a great gulf between us and the goodness that we long for.
In olden days, God gave the Jews the Law so that by following it they could be brought to holiness. But, as St. Paul points out, instead of bridging the gap between their sinfulness and God’s perfection, it became a wall; a constant reminder of their unworthiness. You see, no one could keep the law. No one could live without sin. So instead of serving as a guide to avoid temptations, it served as a description of all the temptations the Jews could not avoid.
Now, like anyone who is away from their homeland, we never feel quite right where we are. There is always the nagging sense that we were made for something else, something better; that the world itself is not quite right. We try to satisfy that longing with various things; you know the litany. In this promiscuous culture many of us try to quench this thirst with illicit sex of various types: adultery, pornography, self-stimulation, hook-ups... the list goes on and on. Many of us turn to alcohol and drugs. But even those of us who somehow manage to avoid these temptations are likely to fall into one much more inciting and ubiquitous: we try to satisfy ourselves with the things we buy. I love America and the capitalism that has made it strong. I believe that capitalism is the most efficient way to organize any economy. Unfortunately, it has also been incredibly successful at turning us into incredibly hedonistic and selfish consumers. Instead of bringing simple transparency to the market, the advertisers of Madison Avenue have manipulated our weaknesses to the extent that we have become addicted to buying stuff we don’t need. Their siren call has led us to blur the distinction between what we “need” and what we simply “want”; something which easy credit (what I call “easy debt”) has exacerbated to the point where we are willing to risk our families’ economic and physical security in order to buy stuff that does nothing to improve our happiness.
We keep trying to fill that “God shaped void” in our hearts with more stuff, but more stuff never fills it. Economists assume that our appetites are insatiable: they are correct in that no amount of worldly things can never satisfy our longing. And now our economy, based at it has been on the risky satisfaction of artificially-generated needs, is coming crashing down around us. The silver lining here is that this may allow more of us to see this mockery of a market for the illusion it always has been [despite the best efforts of the government, which is attempting to dampen the effects of the crash by leading creditors away from making prudent lending decisions]. The truth that Madison Avenue tries to hide is that nothing can satisfy our primal longing except the One Thing Needful: our Lord, God, and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Christ has put a door through the wall that separates us from perfection. He is at that door inviting you to open it (Revelations 3:20). If you answer His call, then you can transcend the limitations of your fallenness: you can go through the wall of separation; you can cross the threshold from sinfulness to sanctification. So open it. Go through it. Find your heart’s true home.
As St. Paul says, it is Christ who, through the Cross, restores us to unity with one another and the Father. Therefore, we are “no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and the members of the household of God.” We are members of His household. This past Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving, a time when Americans open up their homes to family and friends and offer them our most genuine and heartfelt hospitality. We all cherish this holiday. But the hospitality shared at even the best Thanksgiving gathering is but a shadow of that shown by the Master when we become members of His household. The hospitality shown in God’s house is beyond compare. And just look at the banquet He has set for us: He has truly offered up the greatest feast imaginable; a meal that offers forgiveness and an eternity of joyful and satisfying celebration.
St. Paul finishes today’s lesson by telling us that we, being fitted together with Christ as our cornerstone, grow into a holy temple”. You can see this in your parish as it grows in holiness; as you all grow into a more fitting “dwelling place” for “God in the Spirit”. You have found the door and opened it. You are enjoying the feast. Now Christ is working within and through you so that you can show others the door. There is a world outside that is hungry; a world that is starving to death feasting on dry husks (St. Luke 15: 16) that it cannot really even afford. Here in the Lord’s house we have the food that is “broken and distributed” but “never consumed”. You are members of God’s household. You are, indeed, members of His very body. Now go do as He commands: go out into the highways and the hedges to bring our starving brothers and sisters to the feast (St. Luke 14: 16-24).
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
=================================
How many cars do we need?
Our economy continues to “correct” itself after decades of being artificially inflated by easy credit, poor saving habits, and superfluous spending. The government is attempting to ease the effects of this correction by replacing the suddenly prudent (i.e. risk-averse) credit market with its own. In this way, it forces more money into a system in dreadful need of cathartic reform and guarantees that America will continue be more squeezed by debt payments than a newly minted Ivy League philosophy PhD ... and with about as much a chance as her of ever paying the whole thing off [no offense to philosophers, but that isn’t the kind of degree you go into debt for; especially if you aren’t willing to do other work... the stars are beautiful, but falling into the well of poverty is far from wise].
While I found the first wave of financial bailouts distressing, the current talk about how to save the U.S. auto industry is equally depressing. The pattern of the debate is indicative of our unwillingness to come to terms with the unsustainable consumerist culture at the foundation of our economy. This culture isn’t just destroying our country, it is killing our people.
The Auto Industry: A Case Study in the Perils of Consumerism
Problem 1. Efficient at what?
Economists will point out that cars have made our economy more efficient: capitalism benefits from the free movement of labor as much as it does the free movement of capital. A culture built around car ownership and supported by cheap gasoline allows individuals to move more efficiently through the labor market, allowing him to take the best job within 50 miles (FWIW, cheap credit did the same via the housing market by making it easy to move). They point out that we all benefit from having more individuals taking the jobs for which they are best suited because it allows companies to produce the things we want more efficiently. They will also point out that it allows people to make more of the money they deserve.
While all this is true as far as it goes, the market does not account for unintended consequences very well (e.g. the increased stress from long commutes, pollution, soul-less commuter communities, the hollowing out of cities, and a general separation of individuals from one another and the satisfactions of true community). Moreover, economists argue that the freer movement of labor will allow us to serve one another better through the strengthening of the “invisible hand”; but indirect satisfaction of a stranger’s wants is far from the kind of sanctifying service (“diakonia”) for which we were created.
Problem 2. The self-fulfilling rule of insatiability: how many cars do we need?
The combination of a strongly perceived “need” for transportation has combined with marketing manipulation and easy credit to lead us into a bizarre place where people will go into great debt to buy far more car than they need (a process they repeat with dizzying frequency). Drive around any suburb and count the number of car dealers; try to estimate how many cars they have for sale. The fact that this seems natural shows that Gramsci was right (in his diagnosis, not his prescription): hegemony makes irrational and self-destructive behavior seem right as rain. One of the first things financial advisor Dave Ramsey asks debt-struck-callers-struggling-to-make-ends-meet is how much they owe on their cars. It quickly becomes clear that most of those in trouble risked their families’ welfare and their own health and security to buy cars they did not need. And they aren’t the only ones who have done this: everyone would have more money to spend on things that they really need and that would really improve their lives if they spent less on their cars. It just doesn’t make sense.
The automobile-market is based on the risky satisfaction of artificially-generated “needs”. Is it any wonder that the US automakers are hurting? Is it any wonder that they are so slow to change? Brainwashed consumers and banks willing to make risky loans protect them from having to adapt to objective (i.e. “real”) changes. We laughed at the Communist market with jokes like “you pretend to work, and they pretend to pay you”; but our perversion of capitalism is equally laughable and almost as tragic. Its not just that we don’t save anymore (a lines of credit is the new “emergency fund” and finding favorable financing now seems wiser than saving to pay cash... which is objectively wiser?).
Conclusion
The irony should be obvious to everyone: we buy cars so that we can get better jobs so that we can spend more on our cars (and McMansions). Another irony is that allegedly “conservative” Republicans join big-state, big-industry loving Democrats to support the kind of consumerism that is destroying everything true conservatives want to preserve. I wish that Republicans would spend more time reading Burke, Dreher, and Chesterton; that Democrats would spend more time reading Kropotkin; and that they would both spend more time reading St. John Chrysostom (and here, and here) and the Gospels.
I understand why we want to soften the impact of the crashing economy, but what we really need is the vision, intentionality, and strength to make sure the one we grow to replace it isn’t just internally efficient and sustainable, but designed to meet our true wants and needs as well.
www.stmichaeluoc.org
www.orthoanalytika.org
Ephesians 2:14-22
St. Luke 12:16-21
Before I begin, let me share the deepest love and condolences from the faithful of St. Michael’s to the parish of St. Mary’s on the falling asleep in the Lord of their beloved pastor, Ihumen Gregory. May God strengthen them during this difficult time, and may He grant their spiritual father a Memory Eternal.
St. Paul teaches us in today’s epistle that Christ has “broken down the middle wall of separation”. This is the wall that separates us from holiness and sanctification. In the beginning, we were created for eternal growth in the Lord; to grow in beauty and goodness. There was nothing between us and the realization of our full potential in community with one another and Perfection. But our sin and the resultant fallenness of the world we live in have created a great gulf between us and the goodness that we long for.
In olden days, God gave the Jews the Law so that by following it they could be brought to holiness. But, as St. Paul points out, instead of bridging the gap between their sinfulness and God’s perfection, it became a wall; a constant reminder of their unworthiness. You see, no one could keep the law. No one could live without sin. So instead of serving as a guide to avoid temptations, it served as a description of all the temptations the Jews could not avoid.
Now, like anyone who is away from their homeland, we never feel quite right where we are. There is always the nagging sense that we were made for something else, something better; that the world itself is not quite right. We try to satisfy that longing with various things; you know the litany. In this promiscuous culture many of us try to quench this thirst with illicit sex of various types: adultery, pornography, self-stimulation, hook-ups... the list goes on and on. Many of us turn to alcohol and drugs. But even those of us who somehow manage to avoid these temptations are likely to fall into one much more inciting and ubiquitous: we try to satisfy ourselves with the things we buy. I love America and the capitalism that has made it strong. I believe that capitalism is the most efficient way to organize any economy. Unfortunately, it has also been incredibly successful at turning us into incredibly hedonistic and selfish consumers. Instead of bringing simple transparency to the market, the advertisers of Madison Avenue have manipulated our weaknesses to the extent that we have become addicted to buying stuff we don’t need. Their siren call has led us to blur the distinction between what we “need” and what we simply “want”; something which easy credit (what I call “easy debt”) has exacerbated to the point where we are willing to risk our families’ economic and physical security in order to buy stuff that does nothing to improve our happiness.
We keep trying to fill that “God shaped void” in our hearts with more stuff, but more stuff never fills it. Economists assume that our appetites are insatiable: they are correct in that no amount of worldly things can never satisfy our longing. And now our economy, based at it has been on the risky satisfaction of artificially-generated needs, is coming crashing down around us. The silver lining here is that this may allow more of us to see this mockery of a market for the illusion it always has been [despite the best efforts of the government, which is attempting to dampen the effects of the crash by leading creditors away from making prudent lending decisions]. The truth that Madison Avenue tries to hide is that nothing can satisfy our primal longing except the One Thing Needful: our Lord, God, and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Christ has put a door through the wall that separates us from perfection. He is at that door inviting you to open it (Revelations 3:20). If you answer His call, then you can transcend the limitations of your fallenness: you can go through the wall of separation; you can cross the threshold from sinfulness to sanctification. So open it. Go through it. Find your heart’s true home.
As St. Paul says, it is Christ who, through the Cross, restores us to unity with one another and the Father. Therefore, we are “no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and the members of the household of God.” We are members of His household. This past Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving, a time when Americans open up their homes to family and friends and offer them our most genuine and heartfelt hospitality. We all cherish this holiday. But the hospitality shared at even the best Thanksgiving gathering is but a shadow of that shown by the Master when we become members of His household. The hospitality shown in God’s house is beyond compare. And just look at the banquet He has set for us: He has truly offered up the greatest feast imaginable; a meal that offers forgiveness and an eternity of joyful and satisfying celebration.
St. Paul finishes today’s lesson by telling us that we, being fitted together with Christ as our cornerstone, grow into a holy temple”. You can see this in your parish as it grows in holiness; as you all grow into a more fitting “dwelling place” for “God in the Spirit”. You have found the door and opened it. You are enjoying the feast. Now Christ is working within and through you so that you can show others the door. There is a world outside that is hungry; a world that is starving to death feasting on dry husks (St. Luke 15: 16) that it cannot really even afford. Here in the Lord’s house we have the food that is “broken and distributed” but “never consumed”. You are members of God’s household. You are, indeed, members of His very body. Now go do as He commands: go out into the highways and the hedges to bring our starving brothers and sisters to the feast (St. Luke 14: 16-24).
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
=================================
How many cars do we need?
Our economy continues to “correct” itself after decades of being artificially inflated by easy credit, poor saving habits, and superfluous spending. The government is attempting to ease the effects of this correction by replacing the suddenly prudent (i.e. risk-averse) credit market with its own. In this way, it forces more money into a system in dreadful need of cathartic reform and guarantees that America will continue be more squeezed by debt payments than a newly minted Ivy League philosophy PhD ... and with about as much a chance as her of ever paying the whole thing off [no offense to philosophers, but that isn’t the kind of degree you go into debt for; especially if you aren’t willing to do other work... the stars are beautiful, but falling into the well of poverty is far from wise].
While I found the first wave of financial bailouts distressing, the current talk about how to save the U.S. auto industry is equally depressing. The pattern of the debate is indicative of our unwillingness to come to terms with the unsustainable consumerist culture at the foundation of our economy. This culture isn’t just destroying our country, it is killing our people.
The Auto Industry: A Case Study in the Perils of Consumerism
Problem 1. Efficient at what?
Economists will point out that cars have made our economy more efficient: capitalism benefits from the free movement of labor as much as it does the free movement of capital. A culture built around car ownership and supported by cheap gasoline allows individuals to move more efficiently through the labor market, allowing him to take the best job within 50 miles (FWIW, cheap credit did the same via the housing market by making it easy to move). They point out that we all benefit from having more individuals taking the jobs for which they are best suited because it allows companies to produce the things we want more efficiently. They will also point out that it allows people to make more of the money they deserve.
While all this is true as far as it goes, the market does not account for unintended consequences very well (e.g. the increased stress from long commutes, pollution, soul-less commuter communities, the hollowing out of cities, and a general separation of individuals from one another and the satisfactions of true community). Moreover, economists argue that the freer movement of labor will allow us to serve one another better through the strengthening of the “invisible hand”; but indirect satisfaction of a stranger’s wants is far from the kind of sanctifying service (“diakonia”) for which we were created.
Problem 2. The self-fulfilling rule of insatiability: how many cars do we need?
The combination of a strongly perceived “need” for transportation has combined with marketing manipulation and easy credit to lead us into a bizarre place where people will go into great debt to buy far more car than they need (a process they repeat with dizzying frequency). Drive around any suburb and count the number of car dealers; try to estimate how many cars they have for sale. The fact that this seems natural shows that Gramsci was right (in his diagnosis, not his prescription): hegemony makes irrational and self-destructive behavior seem right as rain. One of the first things financial advisor Dave Ramsey asks debt-struck-callers-struggling-to-make-ends-meet is how much they owe on their cars. It quickly becomes clear that most of those in trouble risked their families’ welfare and their own health and security to buy cars they did not need. And they aren’t the only ones who have done this: everyone would have more money to spend on things that they really need and that would really improve their lives if they spent less on their cars. It just doesn’t make sense.
The automobile-market is based on the risky satisfaction of artificially-generated “needs”. Is it any wonder that the US automakers are hurting? Is it any wonder that they are so slow to change? Brainwashed consumers and banks willing to make risky loans protect them from having to adapt to objective (i.e. “real”) changes. We laughed at the Communist market with jokes like “you pretend to work, and they pretend to pay you”; but our perversion of capitalism is equally laughable and almost as tragic. Its not just that we don’t save anymore (a lines of credit is the new “emergency fund” and finding favorable financing now seems wiser than saving to pay cash... which is objectively wiser?).
Conclusion
The irony should be obvious to everyone: we buy cars so that we can get better jobs so that we can spend more on our cars (and McMansions). Another irony is that allegedly “conservative” Republicans join big-state, big-industry loving Democrats to support the kind of consumerism that is destroying everything true conservatives want to preserve. I wish that Republicans would spend more time reading Burke, Dreher, and Chesterton; that Democrats would spend more time reading Kropotkin; and that they would both spend more time reading St. John Chrysostom (and here, and here) and the Gospels.
I understand why we want to soften the impact of the crashing economy, but what we really need is the vision, intentionality, and strength to make sure the one we grow to replace it isn’t just internally efficient and sustainable, but designed to meet our true wants and needs as well.
Monday, November 24, 2008
20081123 Holding on to the Rope
20081123 Holding on to the Rope
www.stmichaeluoc.org
www.orthoanalytika.org
Ephesians 2: 4-10
St. Luke 10: 25-37
Homily: Holding on to the Rope
What does it mean that “by grace you have been saved?” What is the role of “faith?” What is the role of “good works.” What, exactly, do we need to do to be saved? Just believe in Christ? Just be a good person, doing “good works”?
There have been many answers to this question over time, and much of seminary is spent studying the course corrections that some Christian groups have made as they bounce from heresy to heresy. As with so many things, the answer is not found in one extreme or the other, but in balance. This is the balance that traditional Christianity – Orthodox Christianity – has preserved and taught from the beginning.
St. Nicholai Velimirovich explains it with this parable (from the Prologue from Ochrid, November 9th):
A child was on a journey by night, and it fell from hole to hole, from ditch to ditch, until at last if fell into a very deep pit, out of which there was no way it could clamber. When the child had abandoned itself to its fate and thought that this was the end, suddenly there was someone standing above the hole, letting a rope down to it and calling to it to take a firm hold on the rope. This was the king’s son, who rescued the child, washed it and clothed it and took it to his court, keeping it with him. Was this child saved by its own act? In no way. Its only action was to grab the passing rope-end and hang onto it. By what, then, was the child saved? By the mercy of the king’s son. In God’s dealings with man, this mercy is called grace. ‘By grace ye are saved.’
Let us also know and understand, my brethren, that we are saved through grace by the Lord Jesus Christ. We were held in the jaws of death, and have been given life in the courts of our God.
Like I said, there is a dry way to approach the question of faith and works – and that is through study of the dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Reformed Protestant churches. But I am less interested in teaching you about history than I am guiding you to salvation through Jesus Christ Our Lord; so I am going to tell how this teaching relates to us as Orthodox Christians working out our lives here and now. So while the divisions I will describe do not match up with their historical precedents, they are quite real am important.
First of all, there is a significant number of people who do not really feel the need for salvation at all. They think that they are good enough already. To use St. Nicholai’s parable, it is as if they had managed to avoid falling into any hole from which they would ever need to get out. It was to such as these that God Himself referred when He walked this earth two thousand years ago, saying; “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick… for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (St. Matthew 9: 12-13). If you are already perfect, then you obviously don’t need anyone’s rope. How many people do you know that avoid Confession because they don’t have any sins to confess? You don’t need Confession and you don’t need Communion if you are already perfect. So those of you who are perfect, please pray for the rest of us. J Because the rest of us are like the child in the story, falling from hole to hole and from sin into sin.
And just in case there really are people out there who think they have no sin, let me point out an unavoidable fact that is described both in Scripture and our everyday experience: “the wages of sin is death...” (Romans 6: 23) Those who are perfect do not die – it is sin that brought death into the world (Romans 5:12); [and] death is a pit that no amount of work or self-righteousness can pull you out of; nor that event the most stubborn and hard-headed person can ignore. Death awaits us all, because we have all sinned (Romans 3: 23). Why not grab hold of that rope now, while you still have a chance? Because only the perfect get out of the pit of death, and it is only in Christ that we can become perfect and inherit eternal life.
Secondly, there are those who think it is their good works that save them: they have replaced faith in God for faith in themselves. These are folks who, when asked if they are saved, reply that they have done some things wrong, but on the whole they are pretty good people; after all, they haven’t killed anyone and they do the best they can, given the circumstances. They admit that they are not perfect, but think that their sparkling personalities and great sacrifices will tip the balance in their favor at the dread judgment seat. While I know Christians who act as if they believed this, it is irrational and heretical madness. Christ died for our sins. For all of our sins. He made this sacrifice because without it they [our sins] would condemn us to death and eternal darkness (Romans 5:1-11). If you think that you can make up for your own sins, then you have replaced Christ’s propitiary grace with your own, offering up your own goodness in place of His perfection. If that is really what you want, then “good luck… cause you’re gonna need it.” After all, [as today’s lesson of the Good Samaritan points out] the Judge will not be using your personal standard of right and wrong when he renders his verdict, but the eternal and changeless standard. And in that balance, our deeds will undoubtedly condemn us. That is why we need Christ to tip the scale in our favor (2 Corinthians 5:10, 21).
Lastly, there are some who are humbly holding on to that rope. They recognize the hole they are in and that they cannot get out of it themselves. They not only have faith in the rope to pull them out, they hold onto it as a force much greater than their own pulls them skyward. For most of us, it is hard to hold onto that rope. The effort of forgiveness, of “loving God” and “loving our neighbor” seems too much at times. We have to concentrate and make the rope the focus of our attention, despite all the many distractions. Sometimes we slip. Sometimes we lose our grip through the sins of “self-righeousness [pride], greed, adultery, envy, impulsiveness, anger & laziness” (list of major sins from the “Short Catechism”); we slip down that rope, but even if we were to let loose of it completely and wallow once more in the pit of our depravity, the rope is there. And Christ strengthens us and pulls us back to Him through His Mysteries of Confession and Communion.
And don’t forget who the parable of the child ends: once he pulls the child out of the hole, he takes that child to his court and keeps him there in splendor.
You are indeed in a hole, but the rope is here before you. It is the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, offered to you for the forgiveness of your sins, for life everlasting, and an acceptable answer at the dread judgment seat. Will you reach for it? Will you hold it? Will you recognize it for the lifeline it is, making it the center of your attention? Salvation and an eternal life in the mansions of glory await all those who do.
www.stmichaeluoc.org
www.orthoanalytika.org
Ephesians 2: 4-10
St. Luke 10: 25-37
Homily: Holding on to the Rope
What does it mean that “by grace you have been saved?” What is the role of “faith?” What is the role of “good works.” What, exactly, do we need to do to be saved? Just believe in Christ? Just be a good person, doing “good works”?
There have been many answers to this question over time, and much of seminary is spent studying the course corrections that some Christian groups have made as they bounce from heresy to heresy. As with so many things, the answer is not found in one extreme or the other, but in balance. This is the balance that traditional Christianity – Orthodox Christianity – has preserved and taught from the beginning.
St. Nicholai Velimirovich explains it with this parable (from the Prologue from Ochrid, November 9th):
A child was on a journey by night, and it fell from hole to hole, from ditch to ditch, until at last if fell into a very deep pit, out of which there was no way it could clamber. When the child had abandoned itself to its fate and thought that this was the end, suddenly there was someone standing above the hole, letting a rope down to it and calling to it to take a firm hold on the rope. This was the king’s son, who rescued the child, washed it and clothed it and took it to his court, keeping it with him. Was this child saved by its own act? In no way. Its only action was to grab the passing rope-end and hang onto it. By what, then, was the child saved? By the mercy of the king’s son. In God’s dealings with man, this mercy is called grace. ‘By grace ye are saved.’
Let us also know and understand, my brethren, that we are saved through grace by the Lord Jesus Christ. We were held in the jaws of death, and have been given life in the courts of our God.
Like I said, there is a dry way to approach the question of faith and works – and that is through study of the dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Reformed Protestant churches. But I am less interested in teaching you about history than I am guiding you to salvation through Jesus Christ Our Lord; so I am going to tell how this teaching relates to us as Orthodox Christians working out our lives here and now. So while the divisions I will describe do not match up with their historical precedents, they are quite real am important.
First of all, there is a significant number of people who do not really feel the need for salvation at all. They think that they are good enough already. To use St. Nicholai’s parable, it is as if they had managed to avoid falling into any hole from which they would ever need to get out. It was to such as these that God Himself referred when He walked this earth two thousand years ago, saying; “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick… for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (St. Matthew 9: 12-13). If you are already perfect, then you obviously don’t need anyone’s rope. How many people do you know that avoid Confession because they don’t have any sins to confess? You don’t need Confession and you don’t need Communion if you are already perfect. So those of you who are perfect, please pray for the rest of us. J Because the rest of us are like the child in the story, falling from hole to hole and from sin into sin.
And just in case there really are people out there who think they have no sin, let me point out an unavoidable fact that is described both in Scripture and our everyday experience: “the wages of sin is death...” (Romans 6: 23) Those who are perfect do not die – it is sin that brought death into the world (Romans 5:12); [and] death is a pit that no amount of work or self-righteousness can pull you out of; nor that event the most stubborn and hard-headed person can ignore. Death awaits us all, because we have all sinned (Romans 3: 23). Why not grab hold of that rope now, while you still have a chance? Because only the perfect get out of the pit of death, and it is only in Christ that we can become perfect and inherit eternal life.
Secondly, there are those who think it is their good works that save them: they have replaced faith in God for faith in themselves. These are folks who, when asked if they are saved, reply that they have done some things wrong, but on the whole they are pretty good people; after all, they haven’t killed anyone and they do the best they can, given the circumstances. They admit that they are not perfect, but think that their sparkling personalities and great sacrifices will tip the balance in their favor at the dread judgment seat. While I know Christians who act as if they believed this, it is irrational and heretical madness. Christ died for our sins. For all of our sins. He made this sacrifice because without it they [our sins] would condemn us to death and eternal darkness (Romans 5:1-11). If you think that you can make up for your own sins, then you have replaced Christ’s propitiary grace with your own, offering up your own goodness in place of His perfection. If that is really what you want, then “good luck… cause you’re gonna need it.” After all, [as today’s lesson of the Good Samaritan points out] the Judge will not be using your personal standard of right and wrong when he renders his verdict, but the eternal and changeless standard. And in that balance, our deeds will undoubtedly condemn us. That is why we need Christ to tip the scale in our favor (2 Corinthians 5:10, 21).
Lastly, there are some who are humbly holding on to that rope. They recognize the hole they are in and that they cannot get out of it themselves. They not only have faith in the rope to pull them out, they hold onto it as a force much greater than their own pulls them skyward. For most of us, it is hard to hold onto that rope. The effort of forgiveness, of “loving God” and “loving our neighbor” seems too much at times. We have to concentrate and make the rope the focus of our attention, despite all the many distractions. Sometimes we slip. Sometimes we lose our grip through the sins of “self-righeousness [pride], greed, adultery, envy, impulsiveness, anger & laziness” (list of major sins from the “Short Catechism”); we slip down that rope, but even if we were to let loose of it completely and wallow once more in the pit of our depravity, the rope is there. And Christ strengthens us and pulls us back to Him through His Mysteries of Confession and Communion.
And don’t forget who the parable of the child ends: once he pulls the child out of the hole, he takes that child to his court and keeps him there in splendor.
You are indeed in a hole, but the rope is here before you. It is the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, offered to you for the forgiveness of your sins, for life everlasting, and an acceptable answer at the dread judgment seat. Will you reach for it? Will you hold it? Will you recognize it for the lifeline it is, making it the center of your attention? Salvation and an eternal life in the mansions of glory await all those who do.
Monday, November 17, 2008
20081116 Healing on the Way
20081116 Healing on the Way
www.stmichaeluoc.org
www.orthoanalytika.org
Galatians 6: 11-18
St. Luke 8: 41- 56
Today we have a foretaste and proof of something that you must always keep in your mind. Something that will bring comfort to you in sorrow and strength when you are weak: that Christ is coming to resurrect all the dead, that He comes to restore everyone to complete health of soul and body, and, at the same time, to restore us to perfect health in community with one another. Just look at today’s Gospel: the pious man Jarius’ daughter was ill; Jarius petitions Christ to heal her; she then dies; but Christ restores her spirit to her body, and her to her parents’ love. Christ revived her and brought her back into loving union with her family. This is what God promises to all of us: as He Himself said: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even through he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” (St. John 11:25)
And the coming resurrection is more than just a restoration of spirit to body, it is a perfecting recreation. The moments of physical vitality and mutual love that we treasure so dearly are just hints and shadows of the vitality and love that await us. St. Paul shares this Good News in his letter to the Romans:
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory”. (Romans 15: 51-54)
This is the road that Christ travels, and that we travel through Him. But what is it that happens on the way? Today’s Gospel describes two things that happen on the road to the restoration of Jarius’ daughter. They can help us as we walk this same road toward the General Resurrection.
First, there is the healing of the woman with the issue of blood. She had been suffering from this infirmity for twelve years. She was destitute from her search for a cure. She was suffering. So she sought out Christ. She found Christ on the road, as He was on his way to Jarius’ house. She reached out to Him, and the combination of His physical presence and her faith healed her. He saw her, blessed her, and gave her peace. What a beautiful encounter! Wouldn’t you like to see such a thing? Last week, Archbishop Antony reminded us that we are to be the Gospel; that we may be the only Christ that people see and hear. The woman received healing because she was able to find Christ.
This area is full of people in need of healing. Full of people who have spent their fortunes on false cures. People who are looking for an authentic cure. Seeking out the real Christ. Would they find Him in us? Would they recognize Christ in us? What kind of Gospel do we share? I don’t mean the one that stands on the center of the our altar, or the one that sits in your prayer corner, but rather the one that we really share; the one we share with how we live our lives, with how we treat one another, with how we treat strangers. Christ is self-sacrifice and love: are we? Christ is the “New Adam”, the one that exhibits and shares every “fruit of the spirit” (e.g. love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control – Galatians 5: 22).
Are we like that, or do we still walk in the flesh as did the old Adam (with adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like – Galatians 5:19). If we want to witness Christ, both as individuals and as a Church, then, as St. Paul says “let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.” (Galatians 5: 26) If we gossip about one another, if we provoke one another, if we refuse to forgive one another, if we bring anything but love and longsuffering to our relationships with one another, then we are not the real Gospel, but an abomination.
Christ brings healing to all He encounters on the road to the Resurrection. Abomination brings pain and suffering to all he encounters on the road to damnation. St. Michael’s is called to be Christ to the world: this requires our mutual love and sacrifice. Otherwise we are like all the other charlatans that the woman met in her twelve years of suffering.
The Second thing that happened on the road was that Jarius’ daughter died. Jarius was a faithful man. He expected Christ to heal his daughter from her illness – what else would a loving God do? But instead, she died from her illness. This is a vital lesson: Christ brings the one thing needful, but it isn’t always what you think it should be. Later in the Gospel lesson, Jarius understands. He understands when he holds his living daughter in his arms. You have the fullness of the faith at your disposal, so you should already understand.
Let me paint the picture of this at its most dire; at its most difficult: this week we have been commemorating the 75th year since the tragedy of the Holodomor, a time when one out of every four Ukrainians was purposely starved to death, when those who survived watched helplessly as one out of every three of their children died a slow and agonizing death. When abomination, under the guise of progress, did its best to destroy the love and test the longsuffering of Christian people. How can sanity endure such a thing? How can faith possibly persevere?
There is only one true answer to the havoc that abomination wreaks in this world: that through the suffering and resurrection of Jesus Christ; “The body is sown in corruption, [but] it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, [but] it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, [but] it is raised in power.” (1 Corinthians 15: 42-58). We preserve our sanity in the midst of suffering through faith in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And through living in His love, we like Him; we AS HIM; will bring healing, comfort, and peace to those we meet along the road.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
=================
Some thoughts on this past week - and on the Holodomor
It was another busy week here at St. Michael’s. Here are some highlights:
Monday
While I spent most of Monday on administrivia, the highlight came in the evening with the opening of the Holodomor exhibit at the Rhode Island Community College (Knight Campus) Art Gallery. As part of the commemoration, Professor Cheryl Madden (who teaches history at CCRI and was recently awarded the “Order of Princess Olha” by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko) gave a talk on the tragedy, and a local playwright (David Eliet) discussed and shared his short film on the subject. Afterwards, we toured the exhibition compiled from the work of various local artists and groups (to include one from our parish - you can see it on the bottom left of the flyer linked above).
Wednesday
On Wednesday we usually pray the Moleban intercessory prayer service and then move into our Adult Education class. Instead of a Moleban, this week we continued our commemoration of the Holodomor with a Panakhida prayer service for the more than ten million souls who were starved to death in 1932-1933. It was an incredibly moving service [an aside: to save money on oil this winter, we are holding weekday classes and services in the rectory office. I learned this week that even a little incense will create enough of a cloud to make it impossible for all but the most hardy to stay. Thankfully, I learned this early enough before the service to allow things to clear out a bit!]. After the prayer service, we watched a short film on the Holodomor and then discussed it for a while.
After that, we had a parish board meeting where we conducted an AAR (after action review) of the bishop’s visit (it went very well), the patronal feast (some would prefer that we went out to celebrate, others prefer to keep it in the hall), and the possible incorporation of another Orthodox cemetery (St. John’s - a Ukrainian Orthodox parish in Providence that closed many years ago).
Friday
At 2:30 AM, my oldest son (Nicholas, 13) and I headed down to our seminary/consistory in S. Bound Brook, New Jersey. We got there at about 6:30 AM (it was an easy drive - we didn’t even have to slow down much to cross the George Washington Bridge!), just in time to prepare to celebrate Divine Liturgy in the seminary chapel with Bishop Daniel and our full-time seminarians. What a blessing! Then I headed across to the Consistory to check-in with Archbishop Antony and all my friends there. There, Fr. Bazyl (the rector of our seminary) asked if I was available to teach a class on “Kyivan Spirituality” for our weekend seminarians next semester. Of course I enthusiastically agreed. This will mean spending one Friday a month there (and a whole lot of time in preparation). On the way home, we stopped at Chipotle (Nick’s favorite restaurant and in my top five) and to see Fr. Taras in Cartaret (he gave us some new Divine Liturgy books for the pews). We got home at about 6 PM. Not everyone understands why I like to make that trip, but it really is a treat for me.
Saturday
I slept in a bit on Saturday morning, then helped out the Ladies’ Sodality do some last minute preparations for our “Ukrainian Kitchen”, which ran from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM. The Kitchen went VERY well - not only did the Ladies raise some money, we got to meet lots of people in the local community (I like to play the role of greeter). The Ladies make incredibly good varenyky (cabbage and potato dumplings), perohy (stuffed rolls), holobtsi (cabbage rolls), fried cabbage, soup, etc. But even more amazing is their dedication to the Church. You would not believe the amount of time and energy they put into their efforts.
At 3PM, we had our weekly chanting class. At 4PM we celebrated Vespers. Then at 5PM we celebrated a crowning service for a couple who wanted to “renew their vows” within the Orthodox Church. I cannot describe the joy shared there. It was a beautiful thing. The couple invited us to the reception, which was everything a reception should be (good fellowship, food, etc.).
Sunday
Sunday was my “one morning of work” as a priest, and I followed my usual routine in preparing and the like. The service was beautiful, despite the fact that there were only about 45 folks there to enjoy it. After a coffee hour and a short nap, my family took me out to a local Mexican restaurant for my birthday. It was really nice. We finished up the day with swimming and ice cream. Happy times.
The coming week looks to be no less busy than last, with the biggest additions being a new weekly service on Wednesday afternoon (daily Vespers), a presentation on immigration at the “Faith and Order Commission”, and a new graduate-level class I am teaching down at the Naval War College in Newport. Daily Vespers and the immigration thing should be a snap, but I am a bit stressed out about the new class. [One more thing: I have a dear friend and mentor undergoing surgery on Friday (please pray for Ihumen Gregory).]
============================
What was the Holodomor?
Holod: from the word for hunger; Mor: from the word for plague/murder
It occurs to me that not everyone who reads this may be familiar with the Holodomor. Here is the basic context: Stalin was trying to centralize control over all industry and agriculture. He was also trying to Sovietize the various nations under his rule. The Ukrainians resisted both of these efforts, so Stalin used starvation to force them into submission. The main mechanism that he used was the enforcement of impossible grain quotas. How does this work? Central planning runs on quotas: the government determines how many of every commodity should be produced, the price that will be offered for them, and the price that they will be sold for. In the case of Ukraine, Stalin demanded ALL of the grain (and other foodstuffs) produced and offered nothing in return (at least to those who refused to join the oppressive collective farm system).
Recognizing the danger to their very lives, some Ukrainians hid grain to feed their family, so Stalin sent in forces (both “professional” soldiers and deputized mobs) to look into every nook and cranny. He then put more forces at the borders of Ukraine to keep people from leaving and goods from coming in, and then he watched as over ten million Ukrainians slowly starved to death. This was about one in every four Ukrainians, and one out of every three Ukrainian children. The official party line was that there was no famine (artificial or otherwise), but that there may have been isolated suffering due to poor harvests. This was a lie that has now been publicly and clearly outed (despite the early efforts of the New York Times). To this very day, there are government officials in Russia who deny that the Holodomor ever occurred and to commemorate those who perished in it (I will never understand why anyone would feel the need to ignore or defend Soviet attrocities).
Some folks wonder how it is that such a thing could happen to such a large and civilized country in this day and age. Most assume that it could not happen today; that it could not happen here. I am not so sure. As I wrote last week, all it takes is a large government supported by people who value “progress” (or any other ideal) more than human lives. The Communists in Russia and Ukraine (and the Nazis in Germany) were not martians - they were sinners with the same temptations we have. It was easy for them to believe that the people dying were less important that what was being achieved; that the victims stood in the way of a brighter and more just future. I would argue that not only could it happen here, it is happening here; but instead of sacrificing peasants and farming families to the God of progress, we sacrifice babies to the God of comfort and sinful self-indulgence. You cannot tell me that anyone with a moral bone in their body doesn’t look at the slaughter of the unborn through abortion with the same abhoration and disgust as we do when we study the atrocities of the Nazi Holocaust or the Soviet Holodomor.
Yes, it can happen here. It is happening here. And like before, the apologists for our sin (such as the New York Times and every pro-abortion politician and activist) propagandandize to convince us that there is “nothing to see here”, that “everything is okay.”
But everything is not okay. People are being slaughtered. And just as the covering lies damaged the souls of the Soviet survivers, so to do our own lies kill our souls.
May God grant Memory Eternal to all the souls who departed this life during the Holodomor, and may God grant mercy to the souls of those who perpetuated and supported it.
www.stmichaeluoc.org
www.orthoanalytika.org
Galatians 6: 11-18
St. Luke 8: 41- 56
Today we have a foretaste and proof of something that you must always keep in your mind. Something that will bring comfort to you in sorrow and strength when you are weak: that Christ is coming to resurrect all the dead, that He comes to restore everyone to complete health of soul and body, and, at the same time, to restore us to perfect health in community with one another. Just look at today’s Gospel: the pious man Jarius’ daughter was ill; Jarius petitions Christ to heal her; she then dies; but Christ restores her spirit to her body, and her to her parents’ love. Christ revived her and brought her back into loving union with her family. This is what God promises to all of us: as He Himself said: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even through he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” (St. John 11:25)
And the coming resurrection is more than just a restoration of spirit to body, it is a perfecting recreation. The moments of physical vitality and mutual love that we treasure so dearly are just hints and shadows of the vitality and love that await us. St. Paul shares this Good News in his letter to the Romans:
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory”. (Romans 15: 51-54)
This is the road that Christ travels, and that we travel through Him. But what is it that happens on the way? Today’s Gospel describes two things that happen on the road to the restoration of Jarius’ daughter. They can help us as we walk this same road toward the General Resurrection.
First, there is the healing of the woman with the issue of blood. She had been suffering from this infirmity for twelve years. She was destitute from her search for a cure. She was suffering. So she sought out Christ. She found Christ on the road, as He was on his way to Jarius’ house. She reached out to Him, and the combination of His physical presence and her faith healed her. He saw her, blessed her, and gave her peace. What a beautiful encounter! Wouldn’t you like to see such a thing? Last week, Archbishop Antony reminded us that we are to be the Gospel; that we may be the only Christ that people see and hear. The woman received healing because she was able to find Christ.
This area is full of people in need of healing. Full of people who have spent their fortunes on false cures. People who are looking for an authentic cure. Seeking out the real Christ. Would they find Him in us? Would they recognize Christ in us? What kind of Gospel do we share? I don’t mean the one that stands on the center of the our altar, or the one that sits in your prayer corner, but rather the one that we really share; the one we share with how we live our lives, with how we treat one another, with how we treat strangers. Christ is self-sacrifice and love: are we? Christ is the “New Adam”, the one that exhibits and shares every “fruit of the spirit” (e.g. love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control – Galatians 5: 22).
Are we like that, or do we still walk in the flesh as did the old Adam (with adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like – Galatians 5:19). If we want to witness Christ, both as individuals and as a Church, then, as St. Paul says “let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.” (Galatians 5: 26) If we gossip about one another, if we provoke one another, if we refuse to forgive one another, if we bring anything but love and longsuffering to our relationships with one another, then we are not the real Gospel, but an abomination.
Christ brings healing to all He encounters on the road to the Resurrection. Abomination brings pain and suffering to all he encounters on the road to damnation. St. Michael’s is called to be Christ to the world: this requires our mutual love and sacrifice. Otherwise we are like all the other charlatans that the woman met in her twelve years of suffering.
The Second thing that happened on the road was that Jarius’ daughter died. Jarius was a faithful man. He expected Christ to heal his daughter from her illness – what else would a loving God do? But instead, she died from her illness. This is a vital lesson: Christ brings the one thing needful, but it isn’t always what you think it should be. Later in the Gospel lesson, Jarius understands. He understands when he holds his living daughter in his arms. You have the fullness of the faith at your disposal, so you should already understand.
Let me paint the picture of this at its most dire; at its most difficult: this week we have been commemorating the 75th year since the tragedy of the Holodomor, a time when one out of every four Ukrainians was purposely starved to death, when those who survived watched helplessly as one out of every three of their children died a slow and agonizing death. When abomination, under the guise of progress, did its best to destroy the love and test the longsuffering of Christian people. How can sanity endure such a thing? How can faith possibly persevere?
There is only one true answer to the havoc that abomination wreaks in this world: that through the suffering and resurrection of Jesus Christ; “The body is sown in corruption, [but] it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, [but] it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, [but] it is raised in power.” (1 Corinthians 15: 42-58). We preserve our sanity in the midst of suffering through faith in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And through living in His love, we like Him; we AS HIM; will bring healing, comfort, and peace to those we meet along the road.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
=================
Some thoughts on this past week - and on the Holodomor
It was another busy week here at St. Michael’s. Here are some highlights:
Monday
While I spent most of Monday on administrivia, the highlight came in the evening with the opening of the Holodomor exhibit at the Rhode Island Community College (Knight Campus) Art Gallery. As part of the commemoration, Professor Cheryl Madden (who teaches history at CCRI and was recently awarded the “Order of Princess Olha” by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko) gave a talk on the tragedy, and a local playwright (David Eliet) discussed and shared his short film on the subject. Afterwards, we toured the exhibition compiled from the work of various local artists and groups (to include one from our parish - you can see it on the bottom left of the flyer linked above).
Wednesday
On Wednesday we usually pray the Moleban intercessory prayer service and then move into our Adult Education class. Instead of a Moleban, this week we continued our commemoration of the Holodomor with a Panakhida prayer service for the more than ten million souls who were starved to death in 1932-1933. It was an incredibly moving service [an aside: to save money on oil this winter, we are holding weekday classes and services in the rectory office. I learned this week that even a little incense will create enough of a cloud to make it impossible for all but the most hardy to stay. Thankfully, I learned this early enough before the service to allow things to clear out a bit!]. After the prayer service, we watched a short film on the Holodomor and then discussed it for a while.
After that, we had a parish board meeting where we conducted an AAR (after action review) of the bishop’s visit (it went very well), the patronal feast (some would prefer that we went out to celebrate, others prefer to keep it in the hall), and the possible incorporation of another Orthodox cemetery (St. John’s - a Ukrainian Orthodox parish in Providence that closed many years ago).
Friday
At 2:30 AM, my oldest son (Nicholas, 13) and I headed down to our seminary/consistory in S. Bound Brook, New Jersey. We got there at about 6:30 AM (it was an easy drive - we didn’t even have to slow down much to cross the George Washington Bridge!), just in time to prepare to celebrate Divine Liturgy in the seminary chapel with Bishop Daniel and our full-time seminarians. What a blessing! Then I headed across to the Consistory to check-in with Archbishop Antony and all my friends there. There, Fr. Bazyl (the rector of our seminary) asked if I was available to teach a class on “Kyivan Spirituality” for our weekend seminarians next semester. Of course I enthusiastically agreed. This will mean spending one Friday a month there (and a whole lot of time in preparation). On the way home, we stopped at Chipotle (Nick’s favorite restaurant and in my top five) and to see Fr. Taras in Cartaret (he gave us some new Divine Liturgy books for the pews). We got home at about 6 PM. Not everyone understands why I like to make that trip, but it really is a treat for me.
Saturday
I slept in a bit on Saturday morning, then helped out the Ladies’ Sodality do some last minute preparations for our “Ukrainian Kitchen”, which ran from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM. The Kitchen went VERY well - not only did the Ladies raise some money, we got to meet lots of people in the local community (I like to play the role of greeter). The Ladies make incredibly good varenyky (cabbage and potato dumplings), perohy (stuffed rolls), holobtsi (cabbage rolls), fried cabbage, soup, etc. But even more amazing is their dedication to the Church. You would not believe the amount of time and energy they put into their efforts.
At 3PM, we had our weekly chanting class. At 4PM we celebrated Vespers. Then at 5PM we celebrated a crowning service for a couple who wanted to “renew their vows” within the Orthodox Church. I cannot describe the joy shared there. It was a beautiful thing. The couple invited us to the reception, which was everything a reception should be (good fellowship, food, etc.).
Sunday
Sunday was my “one morning of work” as a priest, and I followed my usual routine in preparing and the like. The service was beautiful, despite the fact that there were only about 45 folks there to enjoy it. After a coffee hour and a short nap, my family took me out to a local Mexican restaurant for my birthday. It was really nice. We finished up the day with swimming and ice cream. Happy times.
The coming week looks to be no less busy than last, with the biggest additions being a new weekly service on Wednesday afternoon (daily Vespers), a presentation on immigration at the “Faith and Order Commission”, and a new graduate-level class I am teaching down at the Naval War College in Newport. Daily Vespers and the immigration thing should be a snap, but I am a bit stressed out about the new class. [One more thing: I have a dear friend and mentor undergoing surgery on Friday (please pray for Ihumen Gregory).]
============================
What was the Holodomor?
Holod: from the word for hunger; Mor: from the word for plague/murder
It occurs to me that not everyone who reads this may be familiar with the Holodomor. Here is the basic context: Stalin was trying to centralize control over all industry and agriculture. He was also trying to Sovietize the various nations under his rule. The Ukrainians resisted both of these efforts, so Stalin used starvation to force them into submission. The main mechanism that he used was the enforcement of impossible grain quotas. How does this work? Central planning runs on quotas: the government determines how many of every commodity should be produced, the price that will be offered for them, and the price that they will be sold for. In the case of Ukraine, Stalin demanded ALL of the grain (and other foodstuffs) produced and offered nothing in return (at least to those who refused to join the oppressive collective farm system).
Recognizing the danger to their very lives, some Ukrainians hid grain to feed their family, so Stalin sent in forces (both “professional” soldiers and deputized mobs) to look into every nook and cranny. He then put more forces at the borders of Ukraine to keep people from leaving and goods from coming in, and then he watched as over ten million Ukrainians slowly starved to death. This was about one in every four Ukrainians, and one out of every three Ukrainian children. The official party line was that there was no famine (artificial or otherwise), but that there may have been isolated suffering due to poor harvests. This was a lie that has now been publicly and clearly outed (despite the early efforts of the New York Times). To this very day, there are government officials in Russia who deny that the Holodomor ever occurred and to commemorate those who perished in it (I will never understand why anyone would feel the need to ignore or defend Soviet attrocities).
Some folks wonder how it is that such a thing could happen to such a large and civilized country in this day and age. Most assume that it could not happen today; that it could not happen here. I am not so sure. As I wrote last week, all it takes is a large government supported by people who value “progress” (or any other ideal) more than human lives. The Communists in Russia and Ukraine (and the Nazis in Germany) were not martians - they were sinners with the same temptations we have. It was easy for them to believe that the people dying were less important that what was being achieved; that the victims stood in the way of a brighter and more just future. I would argue that not only could it happen here, it is happening here; but instead of sacrificing peasants and farming families to the God of progress, we sacrifice babies to the God of comfort and sinful self-indulgence. You cannot tell me that anyone with a moral bone in their body doesn’t look at the slaughter of the unborn through abortion with the same abhoration and disgust as we do when we study the atrocities of the Nazi Holocaust or the Soviet Holodomor.
Yes, it can happen here. It is happening here. And like before, the apologists for our sin (such as the New York Times and every pro-abortion politician and activist) propagandandize to convince us that there is “nothing to see here”, that “everything is okay.”
But everything is not okay. People are being slaughtered. And just as the covering lies damaged the souls of the Soviet survivers, so to do our own lies kill our souls.
May God grant Memory Eternal to all the souls who departed this life during the Holodomor, and may God grant mercy to the souls of those who perpetuated and supported it.
Monday, November 10, 2008
20081109 Orthodoxy and Your Budget
20081109 Orthodoxy and Your Budget
http://www.smichaeluoc.org/
http://www.orthoanalytika.org/
In deference to my bishop, I did not prepare a homily on this week’s lessons. So this week I would like to share the class I gave on Wednesday and some thoughts on the events of the past week.
Orthodoxy and Money
Our God is more than idea: He took flesh for us. He lived among us. He continues to live among us through His continuing Incarnation in the Holy Orthodox Church. He did this out of love for us, so that we would not suffer in this fallen world alone; so that through Him we can live life in abundance now and forever. Some think of God as something abstract or someone far away, but God is not really like that. He does more than watch us – He offers everything He has so that we can live better lives. This includes offering His death and Resurrection for us, revealing Himself through the Sacraments/Mysteries, and teaching us. His teaching is found in the Scriptures and, thanks to the gift of the Holy Spirit, in the teachings of the Holy Fathers and Mothers of the Church.
Living a Christian life involves more than confessing Christ as your Saviour. It even involves more than partaking of the Mysteries and prayers that He offers us through His Church. It involves developing and routinizing a way of life that is thoroughly grounded in His teaching, how else are we to become Christ-like if we do not implement His teachings? What kind of belief would we have if we did not take what He teaches seriously? What good would the Sacraments/Mysteries be if we did not take advantage of their deifying power to change our lives to the better?
Christ teaches us how to live. Not just in church, but in our marriages, our relationships, our jobs… in everything. This is not to say that there is a “one size fits all” solution to every problem, but rather that there is an approach that leads to sanctifying choices no matter what the circumstances. This is less a roadmap that it is a holistic worldview that leads one inevitably towards the only destination worth reaching: perfection and unity in Christ.
So what does God teach us about money?
The first thing is to recognize that money is not separate from anything else in our lives. It, like our time and our relationships, is to be treated according to basic Christian principles.
http://www.smichaeluoc.org/
http://www.orthoanalytika.org/
In deference to my bishop, I did not prepare a homily on this week’s lessons. So this week I would like to share the class I gave on Wednesday and some thoughts on the events of the past week.
Orthodoxy and Money
Our God is more than idea: He took flesh for us. He lived among us. He continues to live among us through His continuing Incarnation in the Holy Orthodox Church. He did this out of love for us, so that we would not suffer in this fallen world alone; so that through Him we can live life in abundance now and forever. Some think of God as something abstract or someone far away, but God is not really like that. He does more than watch us – He offers everything He has so that we can live better lives. This includes offering His death and Resurrection for us, revealing Himself through the Sacraments/Mysteries, and teaching us. His teaching is found in the Scriptures and, thanks to the gift of the Holy Spirit, in the teachings of the Holy Fathers and Mothers of the Church.
Living a Christian life involves more than confessing Christ as your Saviour. It even involves more than partaking of the Mysteries and prayers that He offers us through His Church. It involves developing and routinizing a way of life that is thoroughly grounded in His teaching, how else are we to become Christ-like if we do not implement His teachings? What kind of belief would we have if we did not take what He teaches seriously? What good would the Sacraments/Mysteries be if we did not take advantage of their deifying power to change our lives to the better?
Christ teaches us how to live. Not just in church, but in our marriages, our relationships, our jobs… in everything. This is not to say that there is a “one size fits all” solution to every problem, but rather that there is an approach that leads to sanctifying choices no matter what the circumstances. This is less a roadmap that it is a holistic worldview that leads one inevitably towards the only destination worth reaching: perfection and unity in Christ.
So what does God teach us about money?
The first thing is to recognize that money is not separate from anything else in our lives. It, like our time and our relationships, is to be treated according to basic Christian principles.
- That we are stewards of the things we have. God entrusted them to us to further His purposes (and our growth). This means charity and sacrificial giving (what about tithing?).
- That we should work hard (e.g. Proverbs 10:4), but not love money (1 Timothy 6:10), or be jealous of the prosperity of others (Exodus 20: 17).
- That we are more than consumers, and that relationships with others are more than contracts and transactions. We are made in the image of God, designed to be in community with others (look at how the Church lived in Acts!).
- God provides what is needful (not just the “lilies of the field”, but especially the “One Thing Needful” of salvation and perfection through Christ.
- What about debt? Debt is at the center of our current economic problems. Would it have been avoided if we had followed God’s advice?
Proverbs says that surety is foolish (6: 1-5 & 11: 15). Many Christian counselors advise against loaning money or cosigning. Does this counteract our Christian virtue of compassion?
- Going into debt makes you a slave to the lender (Proverbs 22:7). It also makes presumptions about the future (James 4: 13-15) and limits your maneuverability.
- Regarding the current crisis, debt has enabled us to satisfy artificially inflated wants. We confuse things we want/like for things that we need.
Questions to ponder: Why should the Christian work hard? What is the obligation of people with disposable income (i.e. more money than they need)? What is the obligation of the poor?
Some Commentary on the Past Week
This was another busy week here at St. Michael’s, culminating with the visit of our archpastor, His Eminence Archbishop Antony. While much of the business was pretty mundane, there were some things you might be interested in.
Tuesday was election day, one of my favorite times.
I love election day not just because it means politicians will stop trying to oversell themselves and their differences, but also because it is a reaffirmation of our commitment to the ideals of freedom and democracy. I’ve studied the theory and practice of democracy quite a bit, and, while I don’t buy into Rousseau’s ideas about the “will of the people” or the notion that democracy will lead us to some utopian future where individuals and communities are perfected through self-governance, I do buy into the more limited (but still quite grand) belief that democracy is the best institutional defense against tyranny. Anything else (like useful policies) is pretty much gravy compared to that.
As for this particular election, I think the contrast between the profiles of the two candidates was striking, and reckon that it was as much a rejection of an unsustainably aggressive foreign policy as an investment in charisma, optimism, and trust in government solutions. As someone born and raised in the South, I love the fact that we elected an “African-American” president (I put that in quotes because he is, as he has pointed out, as much a mutt as just about every others American; if we were being objective, he could be called “white” as much as “black” if it weren’t for the questionable and vestigial way we categorize race).
I also love that President-elect Obama admits to be driven by his Christian faith. Conservatives complain about double standards in the media (as when they point out that Conservative politicians who admit to being driven by their faith get mocked while liberal ones are embraced for their enlightenment); and they can argue that President-elect Obama interprets the implications of his faith incorrectly; but they should still recognize and appreciate (as Frank Schaeffer has written) that his popularity shows the limited reach of the new atheism and that we have not been entirely cut off from our Christian roots. I could not personally support Senator Obama because I know abortion to be a great evil, but I do like what his election says about America and Americans (very, very few of whom voted for him because they want to see the slaughter of innocents to continue).
On Wednesday, I got to visit a brother priest in the hospital.
Ihumen Gregory was in good spirits. Not only is he a wonderful pastor to his flock in New Britain and a liturgical scholar of the highest ordes, he is a kind heart and a generous mentor. I know that you will join me in praying that he is back in the pulpit and before the altar soon. Until then, we are doing what we can to help him and our sister parish.
Later on Wednesday, our adult education class joined our brothers and sisters from St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church across the river in Blackstone, MA for a tour of the local mosque/masjid. It went very well. The men at the mosque were friendly and hospitable. Their imam gave us a nice ecumenical “introduction to Islam” and tour. We were also able to watch them pray their evening prayers. I was relieved that there was no awkward invitation to participate: they, like us, believe that understanding and tolerance can be maintained despite fundamental theological differences (this, as opposed to some who try to create false toleration by papering over our differences). I think that simultaneously understanding and tolerating difference is the civic equivalent of “walking and chewing gum” at the same time. We should really teach (and trust) everyone to do it.
On Friday, His Eminence, Archbishop Antony Arrived (and stayed through Sunday)
He had spent all day Friday on the road, from Ohio to New Jersey, and arrived in Massachusetts (where he was staying with old friends) around midnight. I met him there to pick up the two seminarians he had brought with him. This was a real treat: Ivan and Andriy had both stayed with us for a month or so during their breaks from seminary, and we enjoyed hosting them again. On Saturday morning, Archbishop Antony and I visited Ihumen Gregory, then (after sitting in Boston traffic) worked our way back to Woonsocket for the evening’s celebrations.
At four o’clock we celebrated Vespers. It was a wonderful occasion. Heirodeacon Vasyl and Seminarian/Reader Ivan came down from our sister parish in Boston; our own Subdeacon John came home from Chicago; and lots of folks came to celebrate the arrival of Arcbishop Antony.
The service went well (our cantors have been working hard to prepare, and it really showed), as did the reception thereafter. During the latter, Archbishop Antony affirmed his desire to keep me here in Woonsocket for many years to come; an announcement that allayed the concerns of many. In addition to parishioners and our board, several clergy from the community came to pay their respects.
On Sunday, we celebrated the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy and our Patronal Feast
The high point of every Orthodox Christian’s week (and life!) is Communion with God and His Community through the Holy Eucharist, and this week was no exception. While every Eucharist manifests the fullness of Christ and His Church, it is most evident and natural when presided by the bishop. It is within this context that you can begin to understand how exciting this past Sunday was for us. As icing on the cake, we had the “setting aside” and tonsuring/ordination of two men, one to serve as the leader of our cantors (“Dyak”) and the other as the leader of our altar servers (subdeacon). Vocations are an indicator of a community’s vitality, and this weekend was testimony of the vigor of St. Michael’s. Another indicator was the wonderful turnout and all the volunteer work that went into the preparations and execution of the myriad events this weekend.
The visit by a bishop is bit like having the commanding general come in the sense that his delegates (especially the priest, but also the parish board) are called to present and account for the state of the parish. Formally, this means that the bishop “inspects” the parish books and meets with the parish board (both of these went fine), but there is so much more involved. He is our archpastor, and has the discernment and responsibility to ensure that the needs of his flock (those entrusted to him by Christ) are being met. There is also the matter of making sure that the services are being conducted in a satisfactory manner (i.e. prayerfully and correctly), that the sacred grounds and articles are being tended, etc. All of this went well (Glory and thanks to God).
Conclusion and the Coming Week
And now? Now it is recovery time. This week we will commemorate the tragic events of the Holodomor, a testimony to the evil that can be committed against the alleged “enemies of progress”. It (and the broader soviet/communist experience) is also one of the many reasons I do not trust government, especially the “perfect storm” of a government that is 1) large 2) committed to “progress” 3) lacking in real Christian morality 4) unfettered by institutions that would protect its people from tyranny [political commentary: an Obama administration combines numbers one and two and a mixed bag on number three; leaving only four to act as a levee against the ravages of “good intentions”.
Monday, November 3, 2008
20081102 Why should we trust St. Paul?
20081102 Why Should We Trust St. Paul?
www.stmichaeluoc.org
www.orthoanalytika.org
Homily on Galatians 1: 11-19
Why should we listen to St. Paul? Wasn’t he “just a man”? There are lots of teachers out there, many of whom teach a different, easier, version of the Gospel. Why treat his opinions as any more valuable than these others? Our generation is not the first tempted to trade St. Paul’s teachings about the Christ for others. The Galatians were tempted to do this. As St. Paul writes to them:
“I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:6-9)
Clearly St. Paul puts a lot of stock in what he is confessing, but conviction alone should not persuade us; those who “trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ” also present their versions of the truth with conviction. So how do we know that we can trust what St. Paul tells us? How do we know that he is right, and that what he teaches us is True and useful?
This is a big question, and it doesn’t just have to do with St. Paul. One of the great challenges of our present age is that we have become so jaded. Politicians and advertisers are incredibly good at marketing themselves and their products. So good that we sometimes give in to the hype and invest our money and our hope in what they offer, only to learn that they and their products were oversold; that they could not deliver what we hoped they could. When this happens enough times, we end up where most of us are now, refusing to believe or invest our hope in anything. The present presidential campaign has been run so well that many of us have once again opened ourselves up to new promises; but this says more about the deep yearning within us all for something better than it does about the candidates’ ability to actual make a lasting difference. No matter who wins, we are bound to be disappointed. We are bound to be disappointed because the government cannot satisfy the deeper yearning within us. This yearning can only be satisfied through loving communion with one another and God through Jesus Christ.
Which is why the question of St. Paul’s authority is so important: we need to be united to one another in Christ Jesus. This isn’t just about which political platform will improve our economy, our schools, our security, or even best protect the unborn (although these are obviously important); it is about how to bring ourselves and this world to salvation. People are teaching different Christ’s; how do we know that St. Paul is right? How do you know that I am right? Whom can you trust to tell you the Truth?
On a personal note, it was just this question that ultimately led me here, to the Holy Orthodox Church. I grew up knowing that the Truth was found in the Holy Scriptures, and that the Holy Spirit would lead the believer to the Truth through earnest study and prayer. This is a wonderful theory, but what do you do when earnest believers interpret the Scripture differently? When they come to different conclusions? Who is right? Which teacher, which denomination, which interpretation should we follow?
The dizzying array of choices and their impressive ability to market themselves make it easy to give up. I suspect that many people have left organized religion altogether because the number of choices made it seem unlikely that any one of them was any more real than the others. Some don’t give up, but rather, select their version of the truth based on which one fits other opinions that they hold. So, for example political conservatives might move towards a more fundamentalist theology and political liberals might move towards a more liberal theology. By the way, you can do this without ever changing churches – I am sure there are even people here who are tempted to modify the Gospel in this manner. But neither of these options is satisfactory: you need to worship and study in community, and you need to worship and study the Truth. Your own brand of theology may match all your other lifestyle choices, but unless it actually matches the Truth, it isn’t going to move you any closer to perfection.
Let me give you the short answer to the questions I posed earlier:
You can trust that St. Paul is telling you the Truth because, as he says, he received from Jesus Christ. You can trust that he really did receive it from Christ because what St. Paul teaches is perfectly consistent with everything else that the Holy Orthodox Church teaches. You can trust the Orthodox Church because it was founded by Christ Himself. He taught and empowered the Holy Apostles (to include St. Paul) to continue His ministry. In turn, they taught and empowered bishops who have done the same down to this very day. Every bishop is taught and teaches the very same Truth first given to the Apostles. This Apostolic Succession, preserved in word and sacrament, is the ultimate “proof of authenticity”. It is what makes Orthodoxy the standard, and variations of Orthodoxy simple shadows and even perversions (no matter how well they are marketed or how much easier it would be if they were true).
Our bishop, His Eminence Antony will be with us next week. He is part of the Apostolic Succession. This means two things: first, that he maintains the very same Truth that has been proclaimed from the beginning, and second, that he is part of the chain of bishops going all the way back to the first Apostles. When we greet him, kiss his hand, and ask for his blessing, we are expressing our appreciation to God that He has revealed Himself to us in such an immediate and approachable a form as His Holy Church; that He has blessed us with bishops through whom He is given to us through the Holy Mysteries.
I was and remain convinced that Orthodoxy is the answer, that it and the Truth it proclaims can be trusted. And like St. Paul and his conversion, I am immersing myself in it and continue to change my life around it. I am overjoyed that all of you are doing the same. May the Lord grant us the strength of our convictions.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of Holy Spirit. Amen.
www.stmichaeluoc.org
www.orthoanalytika.org
Homily on Galatians 1: 11-19
Why should we listen to St. Paul? Wasn’t he “just a man”? There are lots of teachers out there, many of whom teach a different, easier, version of the Gospel. Why treat his opinions as any more valuable than these others? Our generation is not the first tempted to trade St. Paul’s teachings about the Christ for others. The Galatians were tempted to do this. As St. Paul writes to them:
“I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:6-9)
Clearly St. Paul puts a lot of stock in what he is confessing, but conviction alone should not persuade us; those who “trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ” also present their versions of the truth with conviction. So how do we know that we can trust what St. Paul tells us? How do we know that he is right, and that what he teaches us is True and useful?
This is a big question, and it doesn’t just have to do with St. Paul. One of the great challenges of our present age is that we have become so jaded. Politicians and advertisers are incredibly good at marketing themselves and their products. So good that we sometimes give in to the hype and invest our money and our hope in what they offer, only to learn that they and their products were oversold; that they could not deliver what we hoped they could. When this happens enough times, we end up where most of us are now, refusing to believe or invest our hope in anything. The present presidential campaign has been run so well that many of us have once again opened ourselves up to new promises; but this says more about the deep yearning within us all for something better than it does about the candidates’ ability to actual make a lasting difference. No matter who wins, we are bound to be disappointed. We are bound to be disappointed because the government cannot satisfy the deeper yearning within us. This yearning can only be satisfied through loving communion with one another and God through Jesus Christ.
Which is why the question of St. Paul’s authority is so important: we need to be united to one another in Christ Jesus. This isn’t just about which political platform will improve our economy, our schools, our security, or even best protect the unborn (although these are obviously important); it is about how to bring ourselves and this world to salvation. People are teaching different Christ’s; how do we know that St. Paul is right? How do you know that I am right? Whom can you trust to tell you the Truth?
On a personal note, it was just this question that ultimately led me here, to the Holy Orthodox Church. I grew up knowing that the Truth was found in the Holy Scriptures, and that the Holy Spirit would lead the believer to the Truth through earnest study and prayer. This is a wonderful theory, but what do you do when earnest believers interpret the Scripture differently? When they come to different conclusions? Who is right? Which teacher, which denomination, which interpretation should we follow?
The dizzying array of choices and their impressive ability to market themselves make it easy to give up. I suspect that many people have left organized religion altogether because the number of choices made it seem unlikely that any one of them was any more real than the others. Some don’t give up, but rather, select their version of the truth based on which one fits other opinions that they hold. So, for example political conservatives might move towards a more fundamentalist theology and political liberals might move towards a more liberal theology. By the way, you can do this without ever changing churches – I am sure there are even people here who are tempted to modify the Gospel in this manner. But neither of these options is satisfactory: you need to worship and study in community, and you need to worship and study the Truth. Your own brand of theology may match all your other lifestyle choices, but unless it actually matches the Truth, it isn’t going to move you any closer to perfection.
Let me give you the short answer to the questions I posed earlier:
You can trust that St. Paul is telling you the Truth because, as he says, he received from Jesus Christ. You can trust that he really did receive it from Christ because what St. Paul teaches is perfectly consistent with everything else that the Holy Orthodox Church teaches. You can trust the Orthodox Church because it was founded by Christ Himself. He taught and empowered the Holy Apostles (to include St. Paul) to continue His ministry. In turn, they taught and empowered bishops who have done the same down to this very day. Every bishop is taught and teaches the very same Truth first given to the Apostles. This Apostolic Succession, preserved in word and sacrament, is the ultimate “proof of authenticity”. It is what makes Orthodoxy the standard, and variations of Orthodoxy simple shadows and even perversions (no matter how well they are marketed or how much easier it would be if they were true).
Our bishop, His Eminence Antony will be with us next week. He is part of the Apostolic Succession. This means two things: first, that he maintains the very same Truth that has been proclaimed from the beginning, and second, that he is part of the chain of bishops going all the way back to the first Apostles. When we greet him, kiss his hand, and ask for his blessing, we are expressing our appreciation to God that He has revealed Himself to us in such an immediate and approachable a form as His Holy Church; that He has blessed us with bishops through whom He is given to us through the Holy Mysteries.
I was and remain convinced that Orthodoxy is the answer, that it and the Truth it proclaims can be trusted. And like St. Paul and his conversion, I am immersing myself in it and continue to change my life around it. I am overjoyed that all of you are doing the same. May the Lord grant us the strength of our convictions.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of Holy Spirit. Amen.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
20081026 Orthodoxy as the "Good Ground"
20081026 Orthodoxy as the "Good Ground"
http://www.stmichaeluoc.org/
http://www.orthoanalytika.og/
St. Luke 8: 5-15 (Gospel) “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it. Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold.” When He had said these things He cried, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” Then His disciples asked Him, saying, “What does this parable mean?” And He said, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that
‘ Seeing they may not see, / And hearing they may not understand.’
“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.
---
Christ is giving us an amazing parable today, describing how different people respond to Christ. All of the people he describes hear the Good News and accept Christ into their hearts, but it only flourishes in one group of people: the ones whose hearts are “good ground”. Unlike the others, they “hear the word with a noble and good heart, keep it, and bear fruit with patience.”
We cannot live life in joy without God. We cannot truly enjoy our relationships with one another unless we ourselves and those relations are grounded in the Truth. This is the way to salvation, so it is vital that we understand what Christ is telling us. What is it about the last group that allows them to keep the word in their hearts, that protected it from the thievery of the evil one; that allowed the Truth to take root and grow in them; to avoid the temptations that would pull them into error and lies; that would insulate them from the hedonistic cares, riches, and pleasures of life that would render them barren; in short, how does one develop a “good and noble heart”?
To develop Christ’s parable a bit, what can we do to prepare the grounds of our hearts for the seed of His Word? A farmer prepares the ground for planting in a very careful and intentional way. He removes rocks and thorns and weeds; and does whatever he can to make sure it is fertile. How do we remove the rocks, thorns and weeds from our hearts? How can we make it fertile so that the Truth will grow in us?
Let me give you the short answer: Orthodoxy.
Some people wonder why we have all this stuff: all the icons, the iconostasis, the altar, the vestments, the rituals, the prayers, and the customs; why we cross ourselves, bow, and make prostrations; thank God in the morning and the evening and before and after each meal; why we fast on Wednesday and Friday, before Communion, and in preparation for major feasts; why we get our houses blessed; why we make such a big deal about Baptisms, first Confessions, and Marriages; why we follow customs like kissing the bishops hand and asking for his blessing; and why we are gathered here today to celebrate the Divine Liturgy. The deep theological answer to “why do you have all this stuff”? is that it flows naturally from the Incarnation of God as Jesus Christ, and that His Incarnation continues mysteriously in His Holy Orthodox Church. But the more immediate answer is that we have all this stuff because it is what keeps our heart’s fertile for the flourishing of Christ’s word within us. All this stuff prepares the soil, removes the stones, pulls the weeds, and allows the seed within us to yield a “hundredfold” as described in the parable.
Plenty of people want to know if all this stuff is really necessary. Our pews are not full, so I have to assume that most people are trying for an “easier way”; that they are going to make a go of it without all the stuff. I wish them good luck, but the parable today leads me to fear for their failure, to wonder if they are doing enough to allow for a full harvest.
Friends will tell you that they love God and see Him everywhere. They do not need Church to keep Christ’s word in their hearts. They experience God in other ways: in a walk through the park, time spent with friends, caring for the poor, tending their garden, or taking care of animals. They really do not need something as old fashioned as Church. It may not be Orthodox, but the seed is the same.
Others will tell you that they have found an easier way to worship, a way that is simpler, more modern, more entertaining, and far less demanding. That it may not have all the stuff of Orthodoxy, but that all that stuff isn’t necessary – the only thing you really need is to accept Christ into your heart. The rest is just a celebration of this decision, so why make it so hard? Why not make it more fun? No, it’s not Orthodoxy, but the seed is the same.
On the face of things, both arguments have merit: you can and should see God everywhere; every motion and encounter should be a sacrament that works to bring you into closer union with Him. It is also true that the most important thing is to accept Christ into your heart. But when you look at the alternatives to Orthodoxy using today’s parable, you understand how incomplete and how dangerous they are. God would not be warning us about the many ways the Word can leave our hearts if it were as easy as all that. It’s not easy. Nothing worthwhile is. We can pretend it is easy – like when we buy lots of cool stuff on credit – but eventually reality brings this fantasy to an end. The farmer can pretend that all it takes is to have really good seed, and that all he must do to gain a good crop is spread it everywhere; that he can just sleep in, take strolls through the park, and have fun while it grows on its own, then harvest it all in the Fall. Yes, he can pretend that it is easy to grow a nice crop… right up until harvest time.
The seed that God has given us good. It has the potential to change our lives. To grow us into perfection. But just having the good seed is not enough. The soil must be prepared. The garden must be tended. Orthodoxy is the practical wisdom and practice of spiritual gardening. It’s not always easy, and you may be tempted to take short-cuts and compromise your faith. But when you are tempted to do this, to ignore some of the “stuff” of Orthodoxy, think of the parable of the sower. Cross yourself and keep gardening.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of Holy Spirit. Amen.
http://www.stmichaeluoc.org/
http://www.orthoanalytika.og/
St. Luke 8: 5-15 (Gospel) “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it. Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold.” When He had said these things He cried, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” Then His disciples asked Him, saying, “What does this parable mean?” And He said, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that
‘ Seeing they may not see, / And hearing they may not understand.’
“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.
---
Christ is giving us an amazing parable today, describing how different people respond to Christ. All of the people he describes hear the Good News and accept Christ into their hearts, but it only flourishes in one group of people: the ones whose hearts are “good ground”. Unlike the others, they “hear the word with a noble and good heart, keep it, and bear fruit with patience.”
We cannot live life in joy without God. We cannot truly enjoy our relationships with one another unless we ourselves and those relations are grounded in the Truth. This is the way to salvation, so it is vital that we understand what Christ is telling us. What is it about the last group that allows them to keep the word in their hearts, that protected it from the thievery of the evil one; that allowed the Truth to take root and grow in them; to avoid the temptations that would pull them into error and lies; that would insulate them from the hedonistic cares, riches, and pleasures of life that would render them barren; in short, how does one develop a “good and noble heart”?
To develop Christ’s parable a bit, what can we do to prepare the grounds of our hearts for the seed of His Word? A farmer prepares the ground for planting in a very careful and intentional way. He removes rocks and thorns and weeds; and does whatever he can to make sure it is fertile. How do we remove the rocks, thorns and weeds from our hearts? How can we make it fertile so that the Truth will grow in us?
Let me give you the short answer: Orthodoxy.
Some people wonder why we have all this stuff: all the icons, the iconostasis, the altar, the vestments, the rituals, the prayers, and the customs; why we cross ourselves, bow, and make prostrations; thank God in the morning and the evening and before and after each meal; why we fast on Wednesday and Friday, before Communion, and in preparation for major feasts; why we get our houses blessed; why we make such a big deal about Baptisms, first Confessions, and Marriages; why we follow customs like kissing the bishops hand and asking for his blessing; and why we are gathered here today to celebrate the Divine Liturgy. The deep theological answer to “why do you have all this stuff”? is that it flows naturally from the Incarnation of God as Jesus Christ, and that His Incarnation continues mysteriously in His Holy Orthodox Church. But the more immediate answer is that we have all this stuff because it is what keeps our heart’s fertile for the flourishing of Christ’s word within us. All this stuff prepares the soil, removes the stones, pulls the weeds, and allows the seed within us to yield a “hundredfold” as described in the parable.
Plenty of people want to know if all this stuff is really necessary. Our pews are not full, so I have to assume that most people are trying for an “easier way”; that they are going to make a go of it without all the stuff. I wish them good luck, but the parable today leads me to fear for their failure, to wonder if they are doing enough to allow for a full harvest.
Friends will tell you that they love God and see Him everywhere. They do not need Church to keep Christ’s word in their hearts. They experience God in other ways: in a walk through the park, time spent with friends, caring for the poor, tending their garden, or taking care of animals. They really do not need something as old fashioned as Church. It may not be Orthodox, but the seed is the same.
Others will tell you that they have found an easier way to worship, a way that is simpler, more modern, more entertaining, and far less demanding. That it may not have all the stuff of Orthodoxy, but that all that stuff isn’t necessary – the only thing you really need is to accept Christ into your heart. The rest is just a celebration of this decision, so why make it so hard? Why not make it more fun? No, it’s not Orthodoxy, but the seed is the same.
On the face of things, both arguments have merit: you can and should see God everywhere; every motion and encounter should be a sacrament that works to bring you into closer union with Him. It is also true that the most important thing is to accept Christ into your heart. But when you look at the alternatives to Orthodoxy using today’s parable, you understand how incomplete and how dangerous they are. God would not be warning us about the many ways the Word can leave our hearts if it were as easy as all that. It’s not easy. Nothing worthwhile is. We can pretend it is easy – like when we buy lots of cool stuff on credit – but eventually reality brings this fantasy to an end. The farmer can pretend that all it takes is to have really good seed, and that all he must do to gain a good crop is spread it everywhere; that he can just sleep in, take strolls through the park, and have fun while it grows on its own, then harvest it all in the Fall. Yes, he can pretend that it is easy to grow a nice crop… right up until harvest time.
The seed that God has given us good. It has the potential to change our lives. To grow us into perfection. But just having the good seed is not enough. The soil must be prepared. The garden must be tended. Orthodoxy is the practical wisdom and practice of spiritual gardening. It’s not always easy, and you may be tempted to take short-cuts and compromise your faith. But when you are tempted to do this, to ignore some of the “stuff” of Orthodoxy, think of the parable of the sower. Cross yourself and keep gardening.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of Holy Spirit. Amen.
Monday, October 20, 2008
20081019 Restoring Our Sense of Touch
20081019 Restoring Our Sense of Touch
www.stmichaeluoc.org
www.orthoanalytika.org
2 Corinthians 9: 6-11
St. Luke 17: 11-19
What is it that your heart desires? What is it that you long for? Or, to put it a different way, what is it that you fear; the one thing that you worry about so much that it keeps you from enjoying the manifold blessings we call life?
With the huge government bailouts and a looming depression, our first inclination towards answering these questions may have to do with financial security. In recent polling, most Americans listed economic problems (to include employment and heating costs) as their greatest concern. A reported increase in stress and decrease in levels of happiness seems to be correlated with increased economic woes. It seems obvious that our hearts desire security and prosperity, and that we fear not being able to make ends meet.
God is our loving Father. He does not want us to suffer from stress and uncertainty. Look at one of the most obvious expressions of that love: God took on flesh. He was incarnate among us; lived among us. Some people knock the Church and stay away from her services claiming that they do not offer real solutions to real problems. They are deceiving themselves and refusing the very help they need. God’s help is immediate. It is real. And it is imminently practical. Today’s lessons are great examples.
Let us look at the Epistle reading. Are you one of those people whose financial problems keep you up at night? Is money what keeps you from enjoying life? Is it what poisons your mind so that you know only stress and hopelessness? St. Paul has an answer for you: give cheerfully. [In tough economic times, this may seem like an oxymoron: giving and cheerfulness do not seem to fit together at all: but our faith is full of such seeming contradictions. For example the cross of crucifixion; a sign of torture and agony, becomes a joyous sign of victory over sin and death.]
St. Paul writes; “he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully”. Some Christian pastors have perverted this into the “prosperity gospel”, claiming that if you give money to the church, then God will give you even more money back. This is heresy. Our Church is the Church of the martyrs, not of billionaires. St. Paul is teaching something far more fundamental than this: he is teaching us how to attain joy even in difficult times. Even in the midst of poverty. Giving of yourself and of your money changes everything. It empowers you, reminding you that you were put here for more than groceries and heating bills; and in so doing, it puts all these necessities into perspective. How can you be happy if making rent is your highest monthly priority?
God knows that we have to pay our bills. If you are interested in the nuts and bolts of Christian budgeting, there are plenty of good resources out there [Dave Ramsey is my personal favorite, and we at St. Michael’s will cover the basics of fiscal responsibility in our adult education classes later this Fall]. But unless you change your attitude towards money, then fixing your budget is like straightening the deck chairs on the Titanic. Cheerful giving and making charity a priority in your life redirects the ship towards safer waters.
Another, related, piece of practical advice contained in today’s epistle has to do with gratitude. You cannot be a cheerful giver if you are not grateful for the things you have. If you horde over your possessions like a miser, then you cannot enjoy them or anything else. When misers give to charity, they do so reluctantly, grudgingly. For the miser, things like parish dues and tips for service become obligations; the giving of which sucks even more happiness out of their souls because they drain money that might be put towards things that are deemed more essential. Do you see how this poison works? How it commodifies and perverts our transactions with others and leads us into greater stress and depression?
Gratitude is a strong anecdote. Teach yourself to be grateful for the things you have, and tipping a waitress and charitable giving become ways to express and share that gratitude. They actually increase happiness rather than draining it. Do not think of these things as bills to be paid for services rendered: you should not give to the Church in return for sacraments, good singing, or useful programs; nor should you give to your waiter simply for bringing you your food; or to the beggar on the street just to leave you alone. You give because things have been given to you. Because you are grateful. Give so that it can become who you are. Give because it reifies and restores your humanity, your relationship with others, and your relationship with God.
Today’s Gospel reaffirms this lesson. Christ the God-man heals ten lepers and sends them to the priest, but only one returns to thank Him. Let’s explore this for just a moment. Leprosy causes terrible suffering. First, it deadens the sense of touch. There is no feeling. No direct contact with the outside world. So all feeling turns inward, to the creeping malady there. Second, lepers are ostracized. According to Jewish law, lepers were complete outcasts, totally cut off from any kind of fellowship. They suffered and died separate from family; separate from community. This is a terrible combination. So when Christ healed these lepers, He did more than give them a new lease on life, He restored their sense of touch, gave them the potential to regain contact with the community, the potential to develop strong reciprocal relations with families and friends. They were no longer sentenced to a life focused on internal stress and misery, but could share their lives – their joys and concerns – in harmony with others. But would they? Perhaps their attitudes had been so poisoned by years of introspective worrying that they were no longer willing to connect with others at any more than the most superficial level. The lack of gratitude of the nine suggests this to be the case, at least with them. This is a great pity.
But one did came back! When God renewed the possibility of a full life for him, he jumped on the opportunity. He reached out of himself by showing his gratitude - and look at what that did for him: it truly restored his connections with humanity and with God Himself. He was more than thankful: through his gratitude he had become a cheerful giver; a positive force for joy and restoration.
There is no greater metaphor for the way we live our lives in this fallen world than leprosy. Our senses have become dead to the touch of others; we have turned inward, focusing on the many potential points of failure in our lives and in our budgets; we have cut ourselves off from the enjoyment of community. Our interactions with others have become obligations, things that drain us.
Earlier, I asked you what you feared. If you thought about money, I want you to look deeper. I believe that our stress over financial challenges is just a symptom of a much greater malady. This malady is the utter aloneness and desperation of life lived apart from the shared love of community (ecclesia) in one another through Christ. A malady that the world misdiagnosis and against which it offers only snake-oil and narcotics, the peddling of which has brought us nothing but financial ruin and even greater numbness. I believe that our greatest fear is to live and die alone, unloving and unloved.
The irony is that there is a real cure, and it is here. You are Christians. Through the Sacraments of His Church, Christ has healed your spiritual leprosy as surely as he did those lepers in Samaria and Galilee. You are free to join humanity, to feel love, to grow eternally in your enjoyment of fellowship and community. Or you can be like the nine who never came back and continue to live and die inside yourself.
What does your heart desire? You will find it in Christ. You will find it, feel it, enjoy it, and share it though your gratitude to Him and all that He has given you.
www.stmichaeluoc.org
www.orthoanalytika.org
2 Corinthians 9: 6-11
St. Luke 17: 11-19
What is it that your heart desires? What is it that you long for? Or, to put it a different way, what is it that you fear; the one thing that you worry about so much that it keeps you from enjoying the manifold blessings we call life?
With the huge government bailouts and a looming depression, our first inclination towards answering these questions may have to do with financial security. In recent polling, most Americans listed economic problems (to include employment and heating costs) as their greatest concern. A reported increase in stress and decrease in levels of happiness seems to be correlated with increased economic woes. It seems obvious that our hearts desire security and prosperity, and that we fear not being able to make ends meet.
God is our loving Father. He does not want us to suffer from stress and uncertainty. Look at one of the most obvious expressions of that love: God took on flesh. He was incarnate among us; lived among us. Some people knock the Church and stay away from her services claiming that they do not offer real solutions to real problems. They are deceiving themselves and refusing the very help they need. God’s help is immediate. It is real. And it is imminently practical. Today’s lessons are great examples.
Let us look at the Epistle reading. Are you one of those people whose financial problems keep you up at night? Is money what keeps you from enjoying life? Is it what poisons your mind so that you know only stress and hopelessness? St. Paul has an answer for you: give cheerfully. [In tough economic times, this may seem like an oxymoron: giving and cheerfulness do not seem to fit together at all: but our faith is full of such seeming contradictions. For example the cross of crucifixion; a sign of torture and agony, becomes a joyous sign of victory over sin and death.]
St. Paul writes; “he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully”. Some Christian pastors have perverted this into the “prosperity gospel”, claiming that if you give money to the church, then God will give you even more money back. This is heresy. Our Church is the Church of the martyrs, not of billionaires. St. Paul is teaching something far more fundamental than this: he is teaching us how to attain joy even in difficult times. Even in the midst of poverty. Giving of yourself and of your money changes everything. It empowers you, reminding you that you were put here for more than groceries and heating bills; and in so doing, it puts all these necessities into perspective. How can you be happy if making rent is your highest monthly priority?
God knows that we have to pay our bills. If you are interested in the nuts and bolts of Christian budgeting, there are plenty of good resources out there [Dave Ramsey is my personal favorite, and we at St. Michael’s will cover the basics of fiscal responsibility in our adult education classes later this Fall]. But unless you change your attitude towards money, then fixing your budget is like straightening the deck chairs on the Titanic. Cheerful giving and making charity a priority in your life redirects the ship towards safer waters.
Another, related, piece of practical advice contained in today’s epistle has to do with gratitude. You cannot be a cheerful giver if you are not grateful for the things you have. If you horde over your possessions like a miser, then you cannot enjoy them or anything else. When misers give to charity, they do so reluctantly, grudgingly. For the miser, things like parish dues and tips for service become obligations; the giving of which sucks even more happiness out of their souls because they drain money that might be put towards things that are deemed more essential. Do you see how this poison works? How it commodifies and perverts our transactions with others and leads us into greater stress and depression?
Gratitude is a strong anecdote. Teach yourself to be grateful for the things you have, and tipping a waitress and charitable giving become ways to express and share that gratitude. They actually increase happiness rather than draining it. Do not think of these things as bills to be paid for services rendered: you should not give to the Church in return for sacraments, good singing, or useful programs; nor should you give to your waiter simply for bringing you your food; or to the beggar on the street just to leave you alone. You give because things have been given to you. Because you are grateful. Give so that it can become who you are. Give because it reifies and restores your humanity, your relationship with others, and your relationship with God.
Today’s Gospel reaffirms this lesson. Christ the God-man heals ten lepers and sends them to the priest, but only one returns to thank Him. Let’s explore this for just a moment. Leprosy causes terrible suffering. First, it deadens the sense of touch. There is no feeling. No direct contact with the outside world. So all feeling turns inward, to the creeping malady there. Second, lepers are ostracized. According to Jewish law, lepers were complete outcasts, totally cut off from any kind of fellowship. They suffered and died separate from family; separate from community. This is a terrible combination. So when Christ healed these lepers, He did more than give them a new lease on life, He restored their sense of touch, gave them the potential to regain contact with the community, the potential to develop strong reciprocal relations with families and friends. They were no longer sentenced to a life focused on internal stress and misery, but could share their lives – their joys and concerns – in harmony with others. But would they? Perhaps their attitudes had been so poisoned by years of introspective worrying that they were no longer willing to connect with others at any more than the most superficial level. The lack of gratitude of the nine suggests this to be the case, at least with them. This is a great pity.
But one did came back! When God renewed the possibility of a full life for him, he jumped on the opportunity. He reached out of himself by showing his gratitude - and look at what that did for him: it truly restored his connections with humanity and with God Himself. He was more than thankful: through his gratitude he had become a cheerful giver; a positive force for joy and restoration.
There is no greater metaphor for the way we live our lives in this fallen world than leprosy. Our senses have become dead to the touch of others; we have turned inward, focusing on the many potential points of failure in our lives and in our budgets; we have cut ourselves off from the enjoyment of community. Our interactions with others have become obligations, things that drain us.
Earlier, I asked you what you feared. If you thought about money, I want you to look deeper. I believe that our stress over financial challenges is just a symptom of a much greater malady. This malady is the utter aloneness and desperation of life lived apart from the shared love of community (ecclesia) in one another through Christ. A malady that the world misdiagnosis and against which it offers only snake-oil and narcotics, the peddling of which has brought us nothing but financial ruin and even greater numbness. I believe that our greatest fear is to live and die alone, unloving and unloved.
The irony is that there is a real cure, and it is here. You are Christians. Through the Sacraments of His Church, Christ has healed your spiritual leprosy as surely as he did those lepers in Samaria and Galilee. You are free to join humanity, to feel love, to grow eternally in your enjoyment of fellowship and community. Or you can be like the nine who never came back and continue to live and die inside yourself.
What does your heart desire? You will find it in Christ. You will find it, feel it, enjoy it, and share it though your gratitude to Him and all that He has given you.
Monday, October 13, 2008
20081012 Our Great Counselor
20081012 Our Great Counselor
www.stmichaeluoc.org
www.orthoanalytika.org
Today, I would like to use the First Epistle of St. John to set the context for today’s lesson:
This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 St. John 1: 5-9)
God is Light: the purest perfection. The purest joy. The purest love. The purest beauty. The purest peace. He desires that we join Him in that light. That we become pure joy, pure love, pure beauty, and pure peace. That we transcend the sin and darkness of this broken world to live now and eternally in abundant and rational bliss.
Is this something that you think you might enjoy? Wouldn’t you prefer a life of peace to one where you are beset by worries; a life of purest joy to one where your happiness is dependent on the stock market, the size of your paycheck, or the vicissitudes of bodily health? Wouldn’t you enjoy a life of shared love, fellowship, and communion with others who walk only in beauty and joy and who desire only the best for you? Isn’t that kind of success better than anything the world offers?And I say to you as God says to you: this goal is within your reach. The path is before you. It will take you to your heart’s deepest desire. Will you take it?
I have benefitted from the advice of many counselors. In my junior year of college, I realized that I liked studying political science and thought I might like to go to graduate school. So I went to the graduate school admissions counselor to find out how to get there. He pulled out my transcript and immediately put a wall between me and my new dream, saying; “you don’t have the grades to get into graduate school; I just don’t think you would do well. There are plenty of other things I am sure you are good at. Graduate school is not for everyone.” You see, I had not applied myself during my first two years of college. I made some really bad grade, and would have had more if I had not dropped several classes before their grades stuck. I did well at the classes I liked, but lacked the discipline to work at the ones I didn’t. But that had been two or three years before. Since then, my time in the army had taught me the value of hard work, perseverance, and self-discipline. During a year at the army’s language school, a year in which we lost 50% of my class, I learned how to learn. I knew that I had the skills to succeed at graduate school. Rather than giving up, I asked; “what would it take for me to get into graduate school?” To his credit, he gave me a target:; “a 4.0 from here on out, and a really good score on your GRE”. I smiled, thanked him, shook his hand, and left. I am sure he thought he would never see me again. But I followed the plan he set out for me and, despite working two to three jobs and taking extra classes, I hit the target [of course, Pani Tina played a big role in this; we were married between my junior and senior year]. Unfortunately, while I was able get into graduate school, I still haven’t figured out how to get out. One day I’ll get around to defending a dissertation :-)
As you know, there are all kinds of counselors willing to give us advice about how to improve aspects of our lives: career counselors can help us get better jobs; financial counselors can help us save for retirement; credit counselors can help us get and stay out of debt; marriage counselors can help us gain greater fulfillment from our marriages. But the value of advice even the best of these can give pales next to that given to us by God. Those other counselors can help you be more productive in your life; but Our Great Counselor can give you a reason to live.
The counselor told me that graduate school was not for everyone. Those who did not enjoy reading, writing, and working hard would only be hurt by the experience. St. John tells us that God is light; and that if we have sin or darkness in us that we cannot be with Him. So how do we become creatures of the light? What is the path that leads to the only goal worth achieving?
Glory to God that He has made the way straight. In today’s scripture lessons He tells us what we must do.
1. The first lesson come from the epistle reading: St. Paul teaches us that if we want to be true “sons and daughters” of God; then we have to separate ourselves from all the things that defile us. He uses the metaphor of the temple. We are to be temples of the Living God. Our church is a temple. We would never bring or do anything in here that was not holy, that did not reflect God, that did not help us move closer to Him. All of our icons, literature, banners, candles; everything is specifically and intentionally put here for our edification and God’s glory. We are to do the same with our lives; intentionally surrounding ourselves with things that are holy and removing and avoiding those things that defile us. As St. John says, God gave us the sacraments to cleanse our hearts; but don’t stop there. Intentionally order your life in purity. Purify your time through morning and evening prayer. Purify your house by removing temptations and putting up icons. We are in the midst of a financial crisis: purify your budget by removing those things that distract you from the Truth. All these things will allow us to “perfect holiness in the fear of God.
2. The second lesson comes from the Gospel reading: Christ Himself tells us that must “love [our] enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return.” It is not enough for us to love those who might love us back; or give to those who might reciprocate; or welcome those who might join; or console those who might console us. We must do these things despite the expected return. When we say that “God is Love” we mean that it comes out of Him like light from the sun. The sun does not give light because we want to see, or even because it wants light back. It gives light because that is what it does. This is how we are to live. We are to be love. We are to radiate Christ to everyone and everything.
In summary, God desires us to live in perfect joy, to become partakers of eternal goodness. He has given us the straight path of His Son so that we might attain this goal. Order your life around Him and become like Him. This is our calling; our life’s work. It is also our blessed assurance, our peace, and our joy.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
www.stmichaeluoc.org
www.orthoanalytika.org
Today, I would like to use the First Epistle of St. John to set the context for today’s lesson:
This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 St. John 1: 5-9)
God is Light: the purest perfection. The purest joy. The purest love. The purest beauty. The purest peace. He desires that we join Him in that light. That we become pure joy, pure love, pure beauty, and pure peace. That we transcend the sin and darkness of this broken world to live now and eternally in abundant and rational bliss.
Is this something that you think you might enjoy? Wouldn’t you prefer a life of peace to one where you are beset by worries; a life of purest joy to one where your happiness is dependent on the stock market, the size of your paycheck, or the vicissitudes of bodily health? Wouldn’t you enjoy a life of shared love, fellowship, and communion with others who walk only in beauty and joy and who desire only the best for you? Isn’t that kind of success better than anything the world offers?And I say to you as God says to you: this goal is within your reach. The path is before you. It will take you to your heart’s deepest desire. Will you take it?
I have benefitted from the advice of many counselors. In my junior year of college, I realized that I liked studying political science and thought I might like to go to graduate school. So I went to the graduate school admissions counselor to find out how to get there. He pulled out my transcript and immediately put a wall between me and my new dream, saying; “you don’t have the grades to get into graduate school; I just don’t think you would do well. There are plenty of other things I am sure you are good at. Graduate school is not for everyone.” You see, I had not applied myself during my first two years of college. I made some really bad grade, and would have had more if I had not dropped several classes before their grades stuck. I did well at the classes I liked, but lacked the discipline to work at the ones I didn’t. But that had been two or three years before. Since then, my time in the army had taught me the value of hard work, perseverance, and self-discipline. During a year at the army’s language school, a year in which we lost 50% of my class, I learned how to learn. I knew that I had the skills to succeed at graduate school. Rather than giving up, I asked; “what would it take for me to get into graduate school?” To his credit, he gave me a target:; “a 4.0 from here on out, and a really good score on your GRE”. I smiled, thanked him, shook his hand, and left. I am sure he thought he would never see me again. But I followed the plan he set out for me and, despite working two to three jobs and taking extra classes, I hit the target [of course, Pani Tina played a big role in this; we were married between my junior and senior year]. Unfortunately, while I was able get into graduate school, I still haven’t figured out how to get out. One day I’ll get around to defending a dissertation :-)
As you know, there are all kinds of counselors willing to give us advice about how to improve aspects of our lives: career counselors can help us get better jobs; financial counselors can help us save for retirement; credit counselors can help us get and stay out of debt; marriage counselors can help us gain greater fulfillment from our marriages. But the value of advice even the best of these can give pales next to that given to us by God. Those other counselors can help you be more productive in your life; but Our Great Counselor can give you a reason to live.
The counselor told me that graduate school was not for everyone. Those who did not enjoy reading, writing, and working hard would only be hurt by the experience. St. John tells us that God is light; and that if we have sin or darkness in us that we cannot be with Him. So how do we become creatures of the light? What is the path that leads to the only goal worth achieving?
Glory to God that He has made the way straight. In today’s scripture lessons He tells us what we must do.
1. The first lesson come from the epistle reading: St. Paul teaches us that if we want to be true “sons and daughters” of God; then we have to separate ourselves from all the things that defile us. He uses the metaphor of the temple. We are to be temples of the Living God. Our church is a temple. We would never bring or do anything in here that was not holy, that did not reflect God, that did not help us move closer to Him. All of our icons, literature, banners, candles; everything is specifically and intentionally put here for our edification and God’s glory. We are to do the same with our lives; intentionally surrounding ourselves with things that are holy and removing and avoiding those things that defile us. As St. John says, God gave us the sacraments to cleanse our hearts; but don’t stop there. Intentionally order your life in purity. Purify your time through morning and evening prayer. Purify your house by removing temptations and putting up icons. We are in the midst of a financial crisis: purify your budget by removing those things that distract you from the Truth. All these things will allow us to “perfect holiness in the fear of God.
2. The second lesson comes from the Gospel reading: Christ Himself tells us that must “love [our] enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return.” It is not enough for us to love those who might love us back; or give to those who might reciprocate; or welcome those who might join; or console those who might console us. We must do these things despite the expected return. When we say that “God is Love” we mean that it comes out of Him like light from the sun. The sun does not give light because we want to see, or even because it wants light back. It gives light because that is what it does. This is how we are to live. We are to be love. We are to radiate Christ to everyone and everything.
In summary, God desires us to live in perfect joy, to become partakers of eternal goodness. He has given us the straight path of His Son so that we might attain this goal. Order your life around Him and become like Him. This is our calling; our life’s work. It is also our blessed assurance, our peace, and our joy.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)