In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Christ is in our midst! He is and shall be!
This morning’s passage from St. Paul’s letter to the Roman Church begins with his writing “having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” And for the rest of the passage he uses this language of slavery – building the fact that we are either slaves of sin or slaves of righteousness. And in the second verse he explains the use of this language – “I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.” In other words, this language of slavery gives us an idea of what St. Paul’s trying to convey. He has to use a language that we’re familiar with, if he uses a spiritualized explanation, we might not be able to understand what he’s saying. But we do have to remember that this language of slavery is an approximation – it gives us an image of what St. Paul’s teaching us, but its not the fullness, the image can only be taken so far.
St. Paul says that when we were slaves to sin, we were free with regard to righteousness. In other words, as sinners, righteousness had no hold on us. We didn’t have to be concerned with what was right or what was wrong. We were slaves to our desires. Some philosophers debate the idea of where our morals come from; can man be moral and strive for the good apart from the existence of God. St. Paul certainly seems to imply that God is the source of righteousness, and apart from God not only is the good not what we desire, righteousness doesn’t even exist apart from God. Apart from God we’re all about ourselves – we seek for what we want, and we might behave morally if it suits our will, but if it doesn’t, we’re just as likely to destroy our neighbor to get what we want. Apart from God, righteousness is not part of us.
But when we choose Christ, we’re made slaves to God and to righteousness, and we’re set free, then, from sin. In Christ our whole paradigm is changed – we’re no longer to seek after sin, but we’re to pursue righteousness to holiness. We’re to seek God’s way, in order to be set apart (holy) from the world and sanctified to God. And St. Paul says we’re set free from sin; in Christ, sin no longer has a hold on us, we’re no longer slaves to sin, we can choose something else, we can choose God and His righteousness.
After having told us of our position in Christ, St. Paul also tells us what we have to do. He writes, “For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.” Before Christ, we gave ourselves to sin like slaves. We chose pleasure, we followed our own will, and we did it like we didn’t have the freedom to do anything else. We were slaves of uncleanness and sin. But now that we’re in Christ, we’re to present ourselves as slaves of righteousness. Even in the way St. Paul phrases this, you can see where the image of slavery comes to an end. A slave has no choice – he has to do what he’s told to do. But in Christ, we still have a choice. We can choose to continue living for ourselves, or we can present ourselves as slaves of righteousness, which is what we’re called to do in Christ. His words remind me of a saying of the Saints – that we’re the most free when we’re slaves, when we have no will of our own. In other words, we’re able to live freely, as human beings, as we’re created to be in Christ, only when we set aside our own will and submit ourselves wholly and in all things to Christ. But this is a choice that we freely make – to enslave ourselves to Christ.
St. Paul then ends this morning in a way very much like Christ often ends a parable or a teaching – with a word of warning, and a promise. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” If we continue to choose uncleanness and unrighteousness, then the result of our choice will be death. And St. Paul doesn’t just mean death in the body, everyone experiences that. He means death of the soul: a soul blind to God for all of eternity. But the gift of God to those who choose it, to those who freely become His slaves, servants of the Gospel, the gift to those is eternal life with Christ. Life in the Kingdom of God, where there is no sickness or sighing or sorrow but Life everlasting.
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
04 July 2009
Trusting in God
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Christ is in our midst! He is and shall be! The chapter that our Gospel reading comes from this morning (St. Matthew 6) is the middle section of our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount (chapters 5-7). This Sermon on the Mount is an extensive teaching by Christ on the life that God would have us live if we choose to follow Him. And the passage that we have this morning deals specifically with trusting God, especially when it comes to our basic day-to-day needs. This is something that many Christians truly struggle with – trusting God to care for us, trusting God with our lives and our situations, and knowing what it means to trust in God to provide for our needs. The first three verses of this passage we read initially doesn’t seem to go with the rest of the reading. Most of the reading is about trust in God to provide – but the first few verses actually give us an important perspective. Christ begins by teaching that we can’t serve two masters; we can either serve God, or we serve the ways of the world. If we try to do both, eventually we’ll wind up loyal to one and despising the other. And the Father’s of the Church make it clear that Christ means eventually we’ll turn our backs on God for the immediate physical pleasure of the world. Christ then goes on to talk about trusting God to care for our needs – but in the teaching our Lord is constantly re-enforcing the fact that we can’t serve two masters. We can’t serve the things of the world, and then somehow also expect ourselves to trust in God. When we read passages like this, or talk about trusting in God, sometimes we don’t stay on the safest road, we lean a little to the right or to the left. We’re tempted to think that we can just do whatever we want to do and that somehow God will make things work out. We trust God will work things out, and we just live. And then there’s also the temptation to do nothing; to just wait for God to do things for us. But it’s obvious from the examples our Lord uses that neither one of these things is the case. He talks about food and drink and clothing – if we do nothing, then we’ll have nothing. Let he who doesn’t work not eat. So our Lord isn’t talking about doing nothing and waiting on God to give us something. And He certainly isn’t teaching us to do whatever we want to do and make occasional reference to trusting that God will watch out for us and make things okay at the end of the day. Christ is referring in this passage again to the beginning – we can only serve one master. Only one thing can occupy the highest priority in our lives. Either we give God the first place in our lives, or we give the world first place in our lives. And so the warnings Christ gives this morning show us the wrong path – if we’re overly worried and anxious all the time about food and drink and clothing and shelter – then there’s a good chance that our priorities aren’t straight. Our Lord is warning us against anxiety and being caught up in the things of the world – we’re being warned against having our ultimate focus (that #1 place) on the world, even on the most basic and physically necessary things in life. We have to think about these things; we have to work to provide for ourselves, and we have to shop and buy houses and all those things. But our focus is to be on Christ. Those without Christ [Gentiles] worry constantly about the things that keep them alive physically (food, drink…) because that’s all they know. We know something more. Christ is risen from the dead, we sang at Pascha, destroying death and giving life. A total pre-occupation with the things of this world, what Christ is warning against this morning, it ultimately comes from a fear of death. If all I know as a source of life is food, then I chase food. But as followers and disciples of Christ, we know that the source of life is God. We chase God; we seek God first in all things; He who is the Creator of the food and the drink and the shelter. Christ then ends this section of the Sermon on the Mount with a re-iteration of what He said at the beginning – “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things [that you need for your daily life on earth] shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). This is constantly our Lord’s message. We get caught up in so many things that distract us from God, but for true Health and Joy and Peace, we’re told to do one thing. Seek first the Kingdom of God. Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
21 June 2009
The Judgments of God
Epistle Reading Romans 2:10-16
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Christ is in our midst! He is and shall be!
In this morning’s Epistle reading from St. Paul to the Church in Rome, St. Paul gives us some insight into the judgments of God. And specifically – how God judges the actions of man. Obviously, St. Paul thought this was an important thing for us to understand. And it’s important for several reasons – how God judges man reveals again [in addition to the Scriptures and the life of Christ] the love of God for man; His desire for us is our redemption and our salvation. And also, if we have some insight into how God judges, it may help us work on one of the passions that just plagues humanity: which is our constant judgment and criticism of each other.
There are many false notions about God in our world, and there are some terrible mis-representations of God as an angry and vindictive judge who just can’t wait for the chance to punish us for all of our failures. But that’s not the image St. Paul paints this morning. God is Love, God is Truth – and the judgments of God flow from Who He Is. And one of the potentially most “scandalous” realities that comes through from St. Paul, is that the judgments of God are not monolithic. Everyone is not judged in the exact same way. We are individuals, with various experiences and abilities, and we’re treated by God as individuals. It’s like parents try to be with their children – they love their children, and they strive to be fair, but each child has to be treated as a unique person. We aren’t all the same.
I’d like to read an excerpt from this morning’s Epistle:
But glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God…for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them (Romans 2:10-11, 14-15).
When God judges man, He sees us for who we are. There is no partiality with God, St. Paul writes. God doesn’t play favorites based on any factors (the Jews despised the Gentiles because they were outside of the law, but St. Paul makes it clear to them that God will treat each person as they are). And he goes on to explain that the Gentile will not be judged according to the law given to the Jews. That wouldn’t be fair – to be measured by a standard that you never knew. Rather, the Gentile will be judged according to the law written on their hearts. Those without the law are measured by their conscience. Our conscience is our God-given way to know what’s right and what’s wrong. The second century apologist St. Justin Martyr makes exactly this point, using St. Paul as a reference – those with no knowledge of Christ will be judged according to their conscience. This is an enormously important point for us to remember. It shows us the lengths of God’s love – after all that was done for our salvation, He still treats each of us as a unique person. God’s desire is not to exclude people from the Kingdom, but to call us all to Himself.
And when we hear St. Paul explaining for us these judgments of God, we’re immediately reminded that the Scriptures also warn us not to judge one another – all judgment belongs to God [and in fact, that judgment will be carried out by Christ]. When we judge one another, we judge based on us, based on what we expect or want of another. We can’t be magnanimous judges (the type described in the Epistle) because all of our judgments revolve around us, and we’re fallen and in need of being judged ourselves. God judges in Truth and in Love – and it’s a grave sin to take on ourselves this prerogative of God’s. In St. Matthew’s Gospel we read (7:1) “Judge not, lest ye be judged.”
The bottom line, when we’re reflecting on the judgments of God, is that God judges not only our deeds, but also our heart. God has everything in the universe at His disposal, and His desire for us is that each and every person be saved. We can take refuge in that knowledge. So the only thing left is our question to ourselves – is our desire Christ, are our struggles for Christ. We do our part – we struggle to live our lives for Christ, according to the Gospel – and we can safely leave the judging to God.
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Christ is in our midst! He is and shall be!
In this morning’s Epistle reading from St. Paul to the Church in Rome, St. Paul gives us some insight into the judgments of God. And specifically – how God judges the actions of man. Obviously, St. Paul thought this was an important thing for us to understand. And it’s important for several reasons – how God judges man reveals again [in addition to the Scriptures and the life of Christ] the love of God for man; His desire for us is our redemption and our salvation. And also, if we have some insight into how God judges, it may help us work on one of the passions that just plagues humanity: which is our constant judgment and criticism of each other.
There are many false notions about God in our world, and there are some terrible mis-representations of God as an angry and vindictive judge who just can’t wait for the chance to punish us for all of our failures. But that’s not the image St. Paul paints this morning. God is Love, God is Truth – and the judgments of God flow from Who He Is. And one of the potentially most “scandalous” realities that comes through from St. Paul, is that the judgments of God are not monolithic. Everyone is not judged in the exact same way. We are individuals, with various experiences and abilities, and we’re treated by God as individuals. It’s like parents try to be with their children – they love their children, and they strive to be fair, but each child has to be treated as a unique person. We aren’t all the same.
I’d like to read an excerpt from this morning’s Epistle:
But glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God…for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them (Romans 2:10-11, 14-15).
When God judges man, He sees us for who we are. There is no partiality with God, St. Paul writes. God doesn’t play favorites based on any factors (the Jews despised the Gentiles because they were outside of the law, but St. Paul makes it clear to them that God will treat each person as they are). And he goes on to explain that the Gentile will not be judged according to the law given to the Jews. That wouldn’t be fair – to be measured by a standard that you never knew. Rather, the Gentile will be judged according to the law written on their hearts. Those without the law are measured by their conscience. Our conscience is our God-given way to know what’s right and what’s wrong. The second century apologist St. Justin Martyr makes exactly this point, using St. Paul as a reference – those with no knowledge of Christ will be judged according to their conscience. This is an enormously important point for us to remember. It shows us the lengths of God’s love – after all that was done for our salvation, He still treats each of us as a unique person. God’s desire is not to exclude people from the Kingdom, but to call us all to Himself.
And when we hear St. Paul explaining for us these judgments of God, we’re immediately reminded that the Scriptures also warn us not to judge one another – all judgment belongs to God [and in fact, that judgment will be carried out by Christ]. When we judge one another, we judge based on us, based on what we expect or want of another. We can’t be magnanimous judges (the type described in the Epistle) because all of our judgments revolve around us, and we’re fallen and in need of being judged ourselves. God judges in Truth and in Love – and it’s a grave sin to take on ourselves this prerogative of God’s. In St. Matthew’s Gospel we read (7:1) “Judge not, lest ye be judged.”
The bottom line, when we’re reflecting on the judgments of God, is that God judges not only our deeds, but also our heart. God has everything in the universe at His disposal, and His desire for us is that each and every person be saved. We can take refuge in that knowledge. So the only thing left is our question to ourselves – is our desire Christ, are our struggles for Christ. We do our part – we struggle to live our lives for Christ, according to the Gospel – and we can safely leave the judging to God.
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
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