Bible Study Notes: Judgement Sunday

Tags

fasting, Icons, Image and Likeness, judgement, monasteries

Let me open this post the same way I opened this week’s Bible Study: it is a pet peeve of mine that this Sunday is called Meatfare. Nowhere in the hymns of the Church nor in the readings is there anything about fasting from meat. That is not what this Sunday is about. Rather, this Sunday is more properly called Judgement Sunday.

The hymns are filled with images of the Judgement Seat with its river of fire and the opening of all the books:

When You come down to the earth, O God, in Your glory, all things will cower tremulous, and a river of fire will draw before Your Judgment Seat; the books shall be opened up, and public knowledge will things hidden be. Rescue me, then, I pray, from unquenchable fire, and count me worthy to stand at Your right hand, O You, the most righteous Judge. — Kontakion of Judgement Sunday

These images come from the seventh chapter of Daniel, verses nine and ten:

I watched till thrones were put in place, And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, Its wheels a burning fire; a fiery stream issued And came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, and the books were opened.

While reading the Epistle (1 Cor. 8:18; 9:1-2), one might be tempted to claim that it is about fasting; however note what St. Paul says about fasting from food:

We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. (1 Cor. 8:8)

The focus of this pericope, rather, is serving our weaker brethren. We need to know each other well enough and find value enough in each other to bear one another’s burdens. Part of why we fast is so that those who are weak are not tempted into further weakness.

This seeing value in others is also a very large part of the Gospel Reading (Matthew 25:31-46) on which we spent most of our time discussing. The key verse is Matthew 25:40:

Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.

Every human being is made in the image and likeness of God. Every human being is the icon of Christ. Therefore, the criteria for being a goat or a sheep is going to be how we see and treat our fellow human beings.

Some of our other observations:

• Orthodox monasteries are a wonderful image of Judgement and of our participation in it. The outside of the chapels are almost always covered in images from the Judgment — the images found in Daniel. Inside the chapel, the walls are covered in icons of the saints. This passively asks the question, Are you in or are you out of the Kingdom of Heaven? The choice is ours.
• Note the progression of how Christ describes treating our fellow human beings: feeding & giving drink; welcoming the stranger; clothing; visiting; going to. Our relationships begin with an external encounter of good will (food & drink). Then the Other comes to us (welcoming). Then we get to know them by allowing them into our lives (clothing). At this point the relationship begins to shift because we visit them (visiting). Finally, we go to where they are. This is where our relationships ought to be. It isn’t enough to give money so that others are fed and clothed. We must be willing to get out of our comfort zones and love one another enough to go where others are. Remember, this is the criteria by which we will be judged.
• Finally, it was asked what the word “punishment” in Greek meant. The word is κόλασιν, the root of which means maimed, or more literally, cut off. In other words, if we refuse to see the image of God and the icon of Christ in others, we cut ourselves off from our fellow human beings. We maim ourselves. In turn, this will become the standard by which we are judged. Because we have cut ourselves off from the image and icon, we will have cut ourselves off from God.

Bible Study Notes: The Prodigal Son

Tags

Abortion, death, Environmentalism

I must apologize for not maintaining this blog for quite a while. Due to weather, my own health and a conflict in scheduling, I have been unable to do Bible Study for a couple of weeks. Fortunately, we are back to a normal around here and were able to have a small study for this upcoming Sunday — the Prodigal Son.

I must preface this (as I prefaced the study) with the confession that I look forward to preaching on this parable every year, but not without a little trepidation. This is one of the most beautiful, beloved and bountiful pericopes in all of Scripture. It is so deep and so wide that it is intimidating to try and narrow one’s focus enough to do this passage justice in a sermon. The flip side of this coin, of course, is that I do not foresee a time when I run out of things to focus on.

We began our evening by briefly touching on the Epistle (1 Corinthians 6:12-20)

• St. Paul doesn’t pull any punches. He reminds us that we are members of the Body of Christ and that to commit adultery is to join Christ (ourselves as members of the Body) to prostitutes.
• This calls to mind the reality that the Prodigal Son finds himself in — he was a child of God the Father and united himself to “wasteful living.”
• There was some confusion over verse 13, where St. Paul reminds us that both food and our stomachs will be destroyed by God (in reminding us that eating anything we want is lawful, but not necessarily helpful, he reminds us of the usefulness of the Fast that we are about to undertake in the coming weeks). God will destroy both in that He will renew all of creation. The fallenness of the food and our bodies will be destroyed.

We spent the rest of the evening focusing on the Gospel Reading (Luke 15:11-32)

• We prefaced this study with the knowledge that the hymns of the Church very clearly identify us with the Prodigal Son.
• We briefly touched on the importance of the Prodigal coming to himself. We are not created to be separated from God. Our proper place is to be with God — even as a servant.
• We also noted that while the Father killed the fatted calf (something that takes time to prepare — it must be nurtured, cared for, fed and protected), the elder son asks for a young goat — something that takes little time to prepare in comparison to the fatted calf. Even when we are in the arms of the Father, we can still be tempted by the instant gratification that drew the Prodigal away from the Father.

We spent a lot of time with the image of the Prodigal working in the fields with swine.

• As a Jew, working to raise and feed swine is a fool’s errand. He cannot eat the food he is caring for.
• This is a natural outcome of a life separated from God. Everything we try to do sans God will eventually decay, collapse and disappear from the world. We may have some apparently good times, but the famine will eventually come.
• The Prodigal finds himself in a situation where the pigs are of more value than he is — though he would be willing to eat pig slop, no one gives him any. There are many places in our own culture where animals, objects and lifestyles are valued more than human life. There are strains of environmentalism that place the life of an animal above a human being. Much of the pro-choice movement is predicated on valuing a type of lifestyle for women over the life of the unborn.

We also spent some time mediating on the words of the Father, “your brother was dead, and is alive.”

• It is possible to be dead, though we live. Expending the kind of time and energy that the Prodigal does in fruitless labor (caring for swine) is a kind of living death. Where do we invest our time, our treasure and our talents? If we are busying ourselves with selfish things, we are living in the pig sty with the Prodigal. We are busying ourselves with a living death. Rather, we should be investing in the Kingdom, endeavoring to see that our time, treasure and talents are aimed at doing those things God wants us to do and be.
• God is the Giver of Life. When we separate ourselves from Him, we embrace death.
• The Father wants us to live. He is constantly watching out for our return. There is no watchmen at the gate. There is no messenger looking for the Prodigal to ask him to come back. It is the Father Himself  looking towards the horizon.
• When the Father sees his son, he runs. In the Middle East it is shameful for old men to run, yet the Father does. This calls to mind the shame of the Cross. This is how far God is willing to go in order to give us life.
• The Prodigal comes to the Father in humility, asking only to be a servant. The reward for this humility is a seat at the table where a feast with a fatted calf is prepared. In context of our own life, the banquet prepared for us is the liturgy, and the fatted calf is the Body and Blood of Christ.