No Guarantees

Luke 4:22-30

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Last week, with the account of the healing of the centurion’s servant, we hear how the people of the covenant with Moses, the people whom God had prepared with the revelation of Himself and His promise to send a Redeemer, had not, for the most part, recognized His Son when He came into their midst. Instead, it was someone who was not a member of the community of faith, someone who was not allowed to worship in the temple, who knew that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, with the power to heal even from a distance. That theme is present as well in the reading today from the holy Gospel according to St. Luke. Our Lord is speaking to the people of God in the synagogue when he tells them how the prophet of God Elijah was sent to dwell in the house of a widow and her son during a time of great famine. The woman had just enough flour and oil to bake one last portion of bread for herself and her son, and then they were resigned to starving to death. But while the prophet was there – having asked her to give him their last meal, which she did – the container of flour was never empty, and the pitcher of oil never ran out. So it was that they survived the famine – but the widow and her son were not from among the people of god. Our Lord also tells them of the prophet Elisha, who healed Naaman the Syrian of his leprosy. His statements anger those who heard what He said, so much that they even tried to kill Him by throwing Him from the top of a cliff. The words He said that angered them should be words of warning for all of us – for remember, we are now the people of God; we are the people of the New Covenant; and we are the ones at risk of missing the blessings that God desires to give to all who call upon His name with faith.

Here’s what our Lord was saying in the synagogue that day that made those listening so upset. It wasn’t, He was saying, that there were no widows in Israel who were starving – indeed, there were. Likewise, it wasn’t that there was no one afflicted with a skin disease, called leprosy (although what we call leprosy today is not what was referred to there) in Israel – indeed, there were. In both instances, our Lord was pointing out to those who thought that they were holding on to a “guarantee” of being the favored people of God that God would not hesitate to reach out to those who truly believe, as the widow trusted God in feeding His prophet, and as Naaman trusted by following the prophet’s instructions for his healing. Just because we know how to cross ourselves, this does not make us the people of God. Just because we know how to fast, just because we know how to pray, just because we venerate the holy icons – these things, all good for us to do, these things do not make us the people of God. Do we have the love of God in our hearts; and do we show that love to everyone we meet? Do we have a love that is patient, gentle, humble, generous, forgiving, and kind? Do we trust that God will provide for our needs, and live, not for this world, but for the world to come? It is living in that way – living a life in which Christ can be seen, humble, righteous, patient, and loving so well that He accepted death on the Cross on our behalf – it is living that way which makes us to be the people of God.

Brothers and sisters, may God give us grace and strength, wisdom and patience, and the peace that passes all understanding, that we may show the life and love of Christ to all, to the glory of His name, and the salvation of our souls.

Preparing for the Coming of Christ

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Today is the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It is also the Sunday before the Nativity of our Lord; so this season of preparation for the celebration of His coming in the flesh is drawing to an end.  Has everyone finished their shopping? 

Unfortunately, that seems to be the highlight of this holiday – actually, we should say, “holy day,” which is the origin of the word, “holiday”:  feasting, parties, decorations, presents – and let me say that there is nothing wrong with any of these things.  But it is easy for us to lose sight of what we are celebrating, and lose our connection to the holy with our focus on the earthly side of the holiday.  We need to remember first that Christmas – again, more properly called, the Nativity of our Lord – is not the culmination of the Christian life, or faith, or message.  You wouldn’t know that if you look at how the various holidays are celebrated here in this land, in this culture.  But the Nativity, as important as it is, pales in comparison to the celebration of Pascha.  Now, it’s true:  No Nativity, no Pascha.  But Pascha is the pinnacle, the completion; and the Nativity isn’t even really the beginning of what is finished at Pascha.  The beginning of the work of bringing about our salvation is the feast of the Theophany, which we’ll celebrate in a few weeks, some twelve days after the Nativity.  Until that time, there was no public ministry on our Lord’s part.  After that time, He begins to proclaim that the kingdom of God is near, gathering followers and disciples, working miracles, healing the sick, and starting down the road that will lead to Gethsemane, death, and resurrection.  If that is the story from beginning to the end, the Nativity is the prologue, the introduction, letting us see how the story itself is set in motion.

The setting in which the Nativity is the highlight, the completion, is the feast celebrated today, the Holy Fathers of the Lord.  From Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the patriarchs whose trust in God led them to a new land, the Holy Land, to Moses the Lawgiver, and Joshua and the judges who ruled Israel guided by God, to David the King and the other rulers, to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Hosea, Amos, and the prophets, God is at work fulfilling His promise to Adam and Eve and all their descendents.  God made things ready for His people to receive One Who would be prophet, priest, and king:  His Son, whose birth in a cave we celebrate this week.  We see in the Holy Fathers Faith, the Law, and the Prophets, all needed for us to understand Who Christ is, and to receive Him as Lord and Savior, as we should.  We should not lose sight of this, either, even as we make our plans and carry out our celebrations.

Finally, as we celebrate Christ’s coming into the world, for which celebration we have been preparing ourselves in this season, we should always keep in mind that He has promised to return.  We should always be preparing at least as much for His second coming as we do to celebrate His first coming – for unlike the time when He was born in that cave, and laid in a manger, He will return in glory, with His angels; and while this time after His birth is a time of mercy, a time for repentance, a time for the transformation of our lives, then, when He comes again, He comes to judge the living and the dead.  Does anyone want to come to that great and terrible day of Judgment without making some preparations?  I think not; but can we truthfully say that our preparations for that day are even close to being equal to the time and energy and attention we put into the celebration of the Nativity?

Brothers and sisters, it’s later than we think; the time is drawing closer, even if we do not know the day and hour of His return.  As we give thanks to God for the gift of love He has given us by giving us His Son, let us also ask for the grace we need to be ready to rejoice in His presence when He comes again to judge the world.

Who is Worthy of the Kingdom?

When our Lord Jesus Christ, during the time of His ministry on earth, returned to his home town of Nazareth, word of the miracles and healings He had performed to that time had reached the people who knew His family, and had known Him as a boy growing up in their midst. “Is this not the carpenter’s son?” they asked; suggesting that they wondered how someone who had come from such a humble beginning could do such marvelous things elsewhere. Knowing their hearts, He said to them, “You will undoubtedly say to Me, ‘Do here at home the marvelous things You have done in Capernaum; yet a prophet is not acceptable in his own town.” Because they thought they knew Him, they required Him to give them a sigh; but when He responded by telling them about the holy prophets Elijah and Elisha, they were moved to anger, even hatred, and tried to take him to the cliff at the edge of town, to throw Him to His death.

Today we commemorate the holy prophet of God, Elijah (or Elias, as he is also called). His name means, “The Lord is my God”; and he was sent by God to the northern kingdom of Israel as a sign of God’s presence in a land whose king, Ahab, and important leaders had turned away from God to worship Ba’al, believed to be a god of fertility who lived in the rain clouds.

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Elijah’s zeal for the Lord was great; at one point, he believed that he was the only prophet of God – indeed, the only follower of God – who remained in the land of Israel. Elijah prophesied a drought that would come upon the land and would last for three and a half years; and during this time he challenged 450 priests of Ba’al and 400 priests of Asherah to offer a sacrifice to Ba’al to bring an end to the drought; at which time he would make a sacrifice to the God of the covenants with Adam, Noah, Moses, and David – with the people pledged to worship the one revealed to be truly God. The priests of the idols performed their rites of sacrifice from morning until the time to offer the sacrifice had come. At that time, Elijah prepared the sacrifice he would offer on its altar, giving orders that the sacrifice itself, and the wood that would be set aflame by the action of God alone, be soaked with water; so much water that a trench he had ordered dug around the altar was filled with water. Then Elijah prayed, and the Lord sent fire from heaven that burned not only the wood and the sacrifice, but also the water, as well. In his zeal, Elijah ordered the people to seize the false priests, and had them put to death. This action caused Ahab’s queen, Jezebel, to swear that she would have him put to death. This is but one action that was carried out by the holy prophet of God.

What made the people of Nazareth so angry? When our Lord said that the prophet Elijah, during the time of the famine caused by the drought, did not minister to any of the many widows in Israel, but instead brought God’s help to a widow from a foreign land; and that the prophet Elisha – Elijah’s follower and successor as prophet in the northern kingdom – healed a leper from another land, but not one of the lepers in Israel, though there were many who needed such a healing, He was, in effect, telling them that these foreigners, who were not people of the covenant, as were the Jews, were more deserving than the people who were supposed to be the people of God. By connecting the people of His home town with those who needed God’s blessing but did not seek it, He was saying that the same is true for those who lived where He had grown up. Jesus the Messiah, promised by God to His people from the time that Adam and Eve were expelled from Paradise, had come – but the people who were supposed to have been watching and waiting for Him did not recognize Him, and thought they knew who He was.

This should make us stop and think. After all, we say of ourselves that we are the people of God, the inheritors of the New Covenant, the covenant of the Cross, of the Blood shed by the offering of the Lamb of God for our sake. We also say that He will come, as the people in our Lord’s home town said that the Messiah would come, establishing His kingdom. But do we live as His people should live? Or do we say one thing, but do another? And if we were to learn that there will be those who, without entering into the Orthodox Church, will be worthy of a place in the kingdom of heaven, while there is the very real possibility that some Orthodox Christians will not receive the same blessing, would that make you angry, as the people of Nazareth were angered?

We say we know the Lord is God, our Savior and Redeemer. But do we live like Him? Are we patient and forgiving, as He is? Are we striving to turn away from our attachments to this world, and to live as citizens of His kingdom? Do we love God more than we love ourselves, and the pleasures of this world, and of our flesh? If you want to know whether or not you love God, consider how you live with the person who cuts in line in front of you on the highway, or at the store. Do you lose your peace? Or do you forgive, and pray for that person? What about the person – maybe even here, in the house of God – who, because of the way they are dressed, or where they stand, may not be following exactly the manners of the Orthodox way of life? What about the person who does thing that irritate you, maybe even someone in your own household? Do you love them? Do you forgive them? Do you pray for them? Do you try to change who you are, what you say, what you do, in order to help them, while forgiving them for their faults and weaknesses? If you love them, as Christ loves us; if you forgive them, as we are forgiven; and if you give of yourself for them, gently, humbly, patiently, expecting no thanks, or anything at all in return – then be encouraged, brothers and sisters: for if we love those around us, even those who hate and scorn us, even those who might kill us – if we love them, we may also say that we love God. Then we will not be like the people of Nazareth who became angry when our Lord came into their midst; rather, we will be like Him Who, for love of us, unlovely sinners, gave Himself for us, that we might live in Him, and He in us.

Holy prophet of God, Elijah, pray to God for us!