The Christmas Banquet

In many families, there is a familiar occurrence around dinner time. The child comes into the kitchen as dinner is being prepared.

                

“I’m hungry! Can I have a snack?” the child asks.

 “No, you’ll spoil your appetite,” the parent responds.

                

“But I’m starving!”

          

A few minutes later, the table is set, the hot food is on the table, and the parent calls, “Dinner is ready! Come to the table!” The child does not come.The parent repeats, “Dinnertime!” No answer. From the child’s room comes the noise of playing: maybe that recognizable sound that only comes from digging around in a bin of Legos, or the digital sounds of a video game. Minutes before, the child was “starving” but now something has distracted him. Something else seems more important than dinner.

                

Sometimes children, especially young children, need several warnings ahead of time to change from one activity to another. They need transition time. Giving a ten minute warning and then a five minute warning helps children put down the toys and come to the dinner table.

Today we are getting close to dinnertime: the feast of Christmas is just around the corner. Today our heavenly Father is giving us a ten minute warning, so to speak. We’ve spent the past several weeks in a period of fasting—soon we will be feasting. Our Father knows we need transition time, so He gives us the two Sundays before Christmas to make a transition. We put down fasting and penitence to feast and rejoice at the birth of our Savior, the Incarnate God.

We are called to the literal feast of Christmas, and given time to prepare. But every day we are called to the heavenly banquet in the Kingdom of God. We are invited to rejoice and praise our heavenly Father every day. But often our toys and games distract us, and even though we are starving for the heavenly bread, we don’t come to the table when our heavenly Father calls us.

Like those in Christ’s parable of the banquet, we’re often burdened by worldly cares: finances, relationships, our health, our comfort… and so we say “no” to God’s invitation. We prefer our toys and games to the heavenly banquet, and so we go hungry.

Why don’t we say “yes” to God’s invitation? What keeps us away from the banquet? Paul tells us today in the epistle reading, “put to death what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” Our desires are messed up, Paul tells us. We desire what we don’t have. Rather than rejoicing and praising God for what we do have, we imagine having what we don’t have. We are dissatisfied with what God has given us, and we want more.

Then Paul tells us that not only our desires are messed up, but our aversions, our anger, is messed up. He calls this “anger, wrath, slander, and foul talk.” We want what we don’t have, and we reject the things we do have. We say “no” to the gifts that God gives us. We’re not satisfied when things aren’t how we want them, so we get all bent out of shape. We get angry, or we despair. We rage or pity ourselves.

Our energy to desire and reject is our human will. Our human will is broken—it controls us and does not allow us to rejoice in the truth, to have joy in how things really are, to praise God for his gifts to us. We say “no” to the heavenly banquet.

Our will is broken, and we don’t praise God for the way he orders our world and our life—his providential care for our lives. So we say “no” to the banquet. And we’re miserable.

Our will is broken and we can’t fix it by ourselves. A broken will can’t fix a broken will. We need help, what do we do?

The problem, Paul tells us, is idolatry. He’s not simply talking about paganism, or atheism, or any other “-ism.” He’s talking about our tendency to worship things that are not God. We find a thing, or a person, or an idea, and treat that as if it were God. We obey it and worship it. We put our highest value on money, or a relationship, or our career, or some political ideology. Even if we are Orthodox Christians outwardly, sometimes our allegiance is to these other things, rather than Jesus Christ. We put something else in where God should be.

But when we place God where God should be, we are transformed. When we worship the true God, and trust in his providential care of our lives, our broken will is straightened out. What I want is no longer as important as it once was. We once were scrambling for what we didn’t have, but now we rejoice in the gifts God has given us. We once were angry at what we thought was wrong in the world, but now we see God at work in all things. The old nature has been put off and we put on the new nature, as Paul put it.

We worship Jesus Christ, true God of true God, who united human nature to divine nature in his own person. We worship him outwardly, by coming to Church, and participating in the holy mysteries. We worship  him inwardly by letting him reign over us, and submitting to his will for our lives.

He helps us put down our broken will, our out-of-control desires and anger. We learn to say “yes” to God’s invitation. When we rejoice and praise him, we “taste of the banquet” of the heavenly kingdom. The joy of the Christmas feast is God’s gift to us when we accept his invitation to the banquet.

Sermon given at St. Innocent Mission on December 16, 2012, based on these readings: Epistle of Paul to the Colossians 3:4-11 and the Gospel According to Luke 14:16-24. 

More about preparing for Christmas

The “Nativity Fast” is about more than abstaining from certain foods. Fasting, praying, and giving alms during this season is a change of outward behavior that we hope will change our inward behavior, our thoughts and intentions. Everything we do as Christians, is aimed at transforming our hearts. The fast helps us in specific ways.

Without Christ’s help, we are held captive to the “passions,” or “sin.” The passions are certain thoughts, desires, and aversions that cause us trouble, that get in the way of having a peaceful heart. They lead us to act badly, and to hurt ourselves and others. Because of the passions, we are alienated from God and those around us.

Three passions cause us more trouble than the others. These three are the devil’s Marine Corps. They make the first landing on the beach of our heart. They clear the way for other armies of passions to enter and destroy us. These three are: the desire for comfort, the desire for a good reputation, and the desire for wealth. These three are also called “gluttony, vainglory, and greed.”

Fasting from food combats gluttony. Prayer combats vainglory. Giving alms combats greed. These are spiritual tools that are not given to us so that we might conquer the passions by ourselves. But when we do these things, we are living as Christ teaches us to live; we move closer to God and our neighbor. Our alienation is over. We become ready to celebrate the feast of Christmas with hearts that are open to the gift of Jesus Christ.

Preparing for Christmas

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, our bodies are busy: buying gifts, making plans, writing cards, and cooking food. This outward preparation prepares us for a festive time where we take a break from work, and spend time with loved ones. Yet our fathers and mothers in the faith remind us not to neglect the inner preparation for the celebration of Christ’s birth. From November 15 until December 24, Orthodox Christians prepare spiritually for the feast by prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. The purpose of these things is not to become “puffed up” or prideful at our own religiosity or piety, but to draw us closer to Jesus Christ.

Today is a good day to pray! Prayer begins with saying certain words to God. The “Our Father” teaches us the kinds of things we should pray. But prayer is more than just reciting words. St. Theophan the Recluse wrote, “Feeling towards God—even without words—is a prayer. Words support and sometimes deepen the feeling.” Spending time with Him who loves us is how our healing begins.

The Orthodox monastic practice of fasting includes abstaining from animal products and alcohol. For most of us, these rules are difficult to follow consistently. Yet we gain spiritual benefit from the fasting that we do undertake. St John Cassian suggests moderation: “Food is to be taken in so far as it supports our life, but not to the extent of enslaving us to the impulses of desire. To eat moderately and reasonably is to keep the body in health, not to deprive it of holiness. A clear rule for self-control… is this: stop eating while still hungry and do not continue until you are satiated.” On Thanksgiving, we don’t fast! On this unique American holiday, we eat and give thanks to the God who has given us so many gifts.

“As water extinguishes a blazing fire, so almsgiving atones for sin.” –Sirach 3.30 Giving of our time, talents, and treasure helps us be less self-centered and helps us practice that virtue that is the goal of all of our labor: love.

May God bless your prayer, fasting, and almsgiving during this busy season!

Witches in the Basement

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When I was a child, I enjoyed playing in the basement. There were nooks and crannies to hide in, and decades of accumulated stuff to explore. It was a little spooky down there, and I was convinced that witches lived down there. But as long as the lights were on, I was unafraid. When I had to go back upstairs, I had a problem. The switch for the lights was at the bottom of the stairs, so I had to turn off the lights before I was safely upstairs. When I flipped that switch and the light went off, I was sure that the witches would come grab me if I didn't get up the stairs in about five seconds. Every time I came up from the basement, I turned off the lights and sprinted up the stairs as fast as I could, just to be safe from the witches. I must have been fast enough, because I’m still alive today!

Like the witches in the basement, sins and temptations can’t grab me if the light of Christ is shining in the basement of my soul. When we confess our sins openly to Christ in the presence of a witness (the priest) the light comes on, and our sins can’t get ahold of us. Our problem comes when we hide our sins out of shame or pride. This is why David prayed, “Cleanse me from my hidden faults.” (Psalm 19/18) When we look honestly at ourselves and confess our shortcomings, we begin to get freedom from the sins and temptations we try to hide from others.  As St John Cassian wrote, “The devil, subtle as he is, cannot ruin or destroy [someone] unless he has enticed him either through pride or through shame to conceal his thoughts.”

Confession is not meant to produce guilty feelings. It is a safe place to be open about the secrets that bother us and cause sinful behavior. Honest confession cleanses us from hidden faults. 

Folly of the Cross

"For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

One day, a monk named Anthony was sitting in his cave, weaving his baskets, pondering the state of the world. He was thinking about suffering, injustice, and poverty. He started to get bothered and a little bit angry. How can an all-powerful and loving God allow such suffering to stain His beautiful universe? In his righteous irritation, he prayed, "Lord why do some people die as babies, yet others live long lives. Why do some men starve on the street while others eat and drink their fill in palaces? Why does a good man work hard all his life and die penniless while a wicked man gets rich off the labor of his slaves?"

Anthony had a picture in his mind of how things in the world should be. He thought that good and righteous men should be rewarded with health, long life, and prosperity. Evil men, he thought, should be punished. They should not have the comfortable life they seem to have. The universe did not function according to Anthony’s picture of how things should be, and this disturbed him. He wanted to be chairman of the universe-running committee.

How often are we in the same situation? Sometimes watching the news is upsetting. We think, “How can he say that? Or “Congress did WHAT?” Other times, our own lives just are not going the way we think they should be. Maybe the driver in front of me is going a little too slow, or my kids just aren't obeying me as quickly as I think they should. We have a picture of how things ought to be, and the world just isn’t that way. So we despair, or get angry. Just like Anthony, we want to sit on the universe-running committee too!

When this happened to Anthony, he heard a voice answer him. "Anthony, keep your focus on yourself. All things are according to God's plan, and it will not help you to know the answers to your questions."

The Lord was telling him "The world is in my care. It runs according to my providence, not your will. It's not your job to run the universe, it's mine. Your job is to find peace within by surrendering to my will."

The voice did not answer Anthony's concerns directly. Anthony did not find out why suffering and injustice exists. There were no clichés or pat answers explaining suffering. But the voice suggested a solution for Anthony’s anger and despair: surrender to God’s will.

It suggested that Anthony should change where his attention was focused. In effect, the voice said "You will never know the answers to your questions, and even if you did, it would not help you. Instead of agonizing over the problems you see in the world, be vigilant over your own heart and mind to make sure that you do not become one of those wicked men you're complaining about. 'The good man out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil man out of his evil treasure produces evil; for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.' (Luke 7.45) If you continue to focus on the evil of other men, you will fill your heart with anger, resentment, and despair. You risk becoming just like them."

St. Anthony would go on to find that peace within, and become one of the earliest and greatest monastic saints. He led his life in surrender to God’s will, and acquired holiness that has inspired generations of Christians.

When we give up our own idea of how things should be run, we resign from the universe-running committee in our mind. We begin to trust in God’s providence that runs the universe and guides our lives. We surrender to the will of God, and find relief from our desire to be in control of things.

When we surrender to the will of God, we fulfill the command of Christ, who said "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Letting go of our own idea of how things should be and trusting the Lord is bearing our cross daily. The cross is the power of our salvation.

Our egos want us to sit on that universe-running committee. To surrender to God’s will seems like folly. As we heard St. Paul say this morning, "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." But life trusting in the Lord's providence is better than a life of anxiety and anger at the state of the world.

If we pray the Lord's Prayer in the morning, and we "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." We can remember that today is the Lord's day, not ours to do with as we thing best. We can carry that prayer "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" with us for the rest of the day, and surrender to God's providence. We give up our seat on the universe-running committee, and let the Lord run the show. We trust Him of whom we heard it said in today’s gospel reading, “he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion on them.” We give up our idea of how things should have been yesterday, or how they should be tomorrow. We focus our attention on the tasks God has given right now, and surrender our anger, despair, and anxiety. By this cross, by surrender to God’s will, we begin to share in that inner peace that was given to St. Anthony found.

(Sermon given on the 8th Sunday after Pentecost)

What does Annunciation mean?

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Today we celebrate one of the church’s great feats: the Annunciation of the Most Holy Mother of God. Every year, spring arrives, and the days get longer. At that time, as the light and life arrive with the spring equinox, we celebrate this feast and remember the light and life that comes into the world: Jesus himself, fully God and fully Man. We commemorate the message of the world’s salvation which the angel Gabriel brought to Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ. We celebrate with special hymns. We relax our Lenten fast and self-denial. Our penitence is lightened by the joy of the feast. Today we praise her who heard the word of God and kept it.

At least, that’s the idea. We know we are supposed to be celebrating and praising the mother of God. But in the midst of our hectic everyday life, this event, which happened over two thousand years ago, seems so distant sometimes. Does this story mean anything? Does it change my life in any way? Can this story of a heavenly messenger appearing to a young woman be important to us? Or is this simply a nice story to remember every March 25?

Let’s look again at the story of the Annunciation. It is found in the gospel of Luke, chapter 1. God sent the angel Gabriel to bring a message to Mary in Nazareth. Mary was a young woman, a virgin, who was betrothed to Joseph. Her virginity, one of the fathers tells us, shows us the divine nature of the child she bore. Her betrothal to Joseph preserved her from slander, and shows us God’s protection of Mary.

Gabriel appeared to Mary and said, “Rejoice, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” At hearing this, Scripture tells us, Mary was troubled. She wondered who this was who appeared to her. Was it a messenger of God? Or was this a vision of the evil one, who can appear like an angel of light? Was she being tempted by the serpent, as Eve was in the Garden of Eden? In her humility, Mary did not presume that she was worthy to be visited by an angel.

Gabriel answered her doubts, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” Then he proclaimed the good news of the salvation of the world. “…you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there will be no end.” This message of the coming of the Messiah and the salvation of the world had been spoken before by the prophets, by Moses and Isaiah and the others. The prophets spoke in images and metaphors that were not always understood. But this time was the first time that the good news had been spoken so directly. Mary was the first one to hear the gospel proclaimed plainly.

Gabriel made known God’s will to Mary. God’s will is that all the world should be saved by union of the divine nature with the human nature in the person of Jesus Christ. One of the hymns of the feast expresses this beautifully: “Today is revealed the mystery that is from all eternity. The Son of God becomes the Son of Man that, sharing in what is worse, He may make me share in what is better.” By sharing in the human nature, God makes us able to share in the divine nature. We can become like God, as he became like us. He took on our hunger and thirst, weariness and even death. So we can take on his uprightness, courage, holiness, and immortality. Most importantly, we can grow in his love toward Him and our neighbor.

Again Mary wondered, saying “How shall this be, since I have no husband.” She said this not because of doubt in the Angel’s message, but out of her humility. She did not presume to be worthy of so great a miracle. The divine creator of all things dwells in the womb of a virgin. This is beyond our comprehension, and was beyond Mary’s comprehension.

The angel continues, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.”

Mary answered “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” Whatever her human reservations, doubts, or fears, she submitted her will entirely to God’s will. She heard the word of God and kept it. Because she said “yes” to God’s word, she bore Christ within her, and brought salvation to the world.

This story tells us about Mary’s holiness. Her sanctity comes from both God’s grace and her cooperation. We praise her willingness which helped bring Christ into the world for our salvation. It is fitting to praise the Mother of God for her holiness, and for the love that she continues to show to those who ask her help.

And yet Jesus himself gives us guidance in how to praise her. Later in Jesus’s ministry (Luke 11.27-28), as he preached to a crowd of disciples, one of them cried out “Blessed is she who gave you birth, and she who raised you.” Jesus did not deny these words of praise of his mother, but he did correct the intention a little bit. He said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

In our celebration of this feast, we praise the Mother of God, as did this disciple of Jesus. But we also take heed to Jesus’s words. All those who hear the word of God and keep it imitate Mary, and are blessed. By hearing the word and following, we too are blessed.

This feast is not merely the celebration of an event that happened long ago. We follow Mary’s example by hearing the word of God and keeping it. We listen for the word of God in our lives, are willing to do what He asks. None of us are asked to do what Mary was asked to do. But when we lay aside our will and surrender to Him, we begin to do what He asks of us. We become like God as he became like us. We begin to live, not so that we can fulfill our every desire, but so that we can give love to those around us. We show by our words and our actions, the love of Christ himself.

By saying “yes” to God’s will, Mary bore Christ within her womb. We also, by saying “yes” to God’s will instead of our petty desires, bear Christ in our hearts. As Mary brought Christ into the world by giving him birth, we bring Christ into the world through our love.

How can we properly celebrate this feast? We take a moment at the beginning of each day to listen for God’s word. We ask “What does Christ ask of me today? How can I bear Christ’s love within myself?” If we are willing to set aside our own desires we imitate Mary. Like her we say, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”


(This was given as a homily at Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church in Yonkers, New York on March 25, 2012)

God's agenda

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There were once seven young men who embarked on a spiritual quest for enlightenment. They had heard of a desert far away that was full of gurus, miracle-workers, and holy men. They dropped out of society and left their home with nothing more than hope, curiosity, and a few provisions. They traveled to a faraway country. The first holy man they visited lived in a cave on the side of a cliff, a five mile walk into the desert from town. He ate only raw food, was a vegan, and was said to have powers to heal. He was clairvoyant and could see into the future. 

This sounds like California in the 1970’s but actually it was Egypt in the 390’s. The holy father’s name was John of Lycopolis, a saint of the church, and his seven visitors were monks from Palestine. John greeted them joyfully through the hole in the wall of his cave, and the monks asked him to say a prayer. John was ninety years old and a renowned and experienced ascetic. Yet he was a layman and he asked if any of the brothers was a clergyman who could lead them in prayer. One of them was a deacon, but a little shy about it. He had not even told his six companions that he was ordained. Perhaps he was thinking, “This is a holy man full of the grace of the Holy Spirit. I’m just a deacon, what do I have to offer?” He kept silent and stayed back.

The old man looked straight at him, and with the gift of clairvoyance said, “You are a deacon!”

“Oh no, father, you are mistaken!” the young monk replied, a little timidly. John reached out and took the deacon’s hand and kissed it, out of respect for his office.

Yet he gently challenged the young man, “Do not spurn the grace of God, my child, and do not lie by denying the gift of Christ.” The ordained brother accepted the rebuke, and began the visit with prayer. The monks stayed there three days and John gave them good practical advice on living the Christian life.

The deacon was intimidated in the presence of a famous ascetic. He thought the grace that had been bestowed on him at ordination didn’t compare to the grace of the saint. In his fear, he decided to remain silent and out of sight. Perhaps he was newly ordained. A newly ordained deacon is often nervous that someone will criticize the way he swings the censor, or laugh at his mistakes in the altar, or find today’s sermon boring and irrelevant.

All of us, ordained or not, do exactly the same thing as that timid deacon. We sometimes hide our God-given talents and gifts, because we think they don’t measure up. We are afraid that someone will laugh at us, or look down at us. We think “My gifts and talents seem so puny next to his.” Full of fear, we procrastinate on tasks that will bring light to those around us. In the language of the parables, we hide our light under a bushel, or bury our talent in the ground.

When I compare my gifts to someone else’s I make the same mistake as the deacon in the story. I think my gifts and talents are my possessions, rather than God’s gifts. I compare the gifts I think are mine with that guy’s gifts and I feel like I just don’t measure up. Fearfully, I keep part of myself silent and out of view. When we do this, we are denying God’s grace; we say “no” to God’s agenda for us.

But how do we say “yes” to God’s agenda for us? Remember the story of Andrew the Apostle in the gospel of John. John the Baptist was standing in his camelskin suit by the Jordon with two of his disciples, Andrew and John. It was late afternoon on the day after Jesus’s baptism.

John saw Jesus and said to his two disciples, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

The two disciples heard this and went to Jesus. Maybe they hoped that Jesus would take away their sin. Maybe they saw something special in Jesus’s countenance. Maybe they just couldn’t take one more meal of locusts and wild honey.

Jesus saw them and said, “What are you looking for?”

“Teacher, where are you staying?” they replied. “Come and see.” Jesus told them. So they followed him and stayed where he was staying. Andrew then found his brother, Simon Peter, and told him, “We have found the Messiah!” By being the first one to proclaim that Jesus is the Messiah, Andrew said yes to God’s agenda for him. Unlike the timid deacon, he did not spurn God’s grace and he did not lie by denying the gift of Christ, but embraced the mission given to him by God.

Each of us has talents and gifts given to us by God. Each of us has a unique place in God’s universe. We may not know God’s plan for our whole life. We do not know what we will be doing after graduation, or in a year, or in ten years. We may not know if we are called into church work or not. But Christ calls you and me to be faithful to the mission he gives us today. As baptized Christians, we belong to Christ, not to ourselves. Our agenda for the day is set by Christ, not by us.

Perhaps your day will be filled with study, domestic duties, or administrative tasks. Today’s agenda probably does not seem as exciting as Andrew’s was that day by the Jordon. But we follow Andrew’s example when we faithfully attend to today’s tasks even when we don’t want to, even when our gifts seem puny next to those of our peers. When we use our talents and gifts with courage, for the service of our Lord and our neighbor, in whatever task we are presently occupied with, we answer the call of Christ. 

*This was originally given as a homily on the feast of St. Andrew