Bible Study Notes: Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt

Tags

Cross, Sacrifice, St. Mary of Egypt

This coming Sunday, as the fifth Sunday in Lent, commemorates St. Mary of Egypt. Her story is read, along with the Great Canon of St. Andrew on the fifth Thursday of Lent. Personally, I love the fact that her name is Mary, which invites us to compare her with the Theotokos. One is a virgin, the other a prostitute; yet, both say Yes to God and as a result each is now a beloved saint within the Orthodox Church. It is St. Mary of Egypt’s life that we kept in mind as we discussed the Epistle Reading (Hebrews 9:11-14) and Gospel Reading (Mark 10:32-45) for this coming Sunday.

We spent most of our time on the Epistle. As we discussed this pericope from Hebrews, it quickly became clear that we needed to understand the Temple sacrificial cult of ancient Judaism:

• The architecture of the Tabernacle (the mobile tent structure where the Ark of the Covenant was kept prior to the Temple) and the Temple (the permanent place of the Ark built by Solomon) is very similar to Orthodox Churches. The Narthex is the place where people would come with their sacrifices. The Law proscribes various sacrifices (liquid, grain and animal) for various needs and offenses (see the Book of Leviticus). The priests would then take these sacrifices into the Nave (where only priests where allowed to go). In the middle of the Nave was a sacrificial fire (at the time of Jesus, this was huge — the Temple complex occupied about 35 acres). Behind the Iconostasis, where the altar is would have been the Holy of Holies (where the Ark of the Covenant was). No one was allowed to go into this space except for one person (the high priest) and only one day a year.
• This day was Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) when two goats would be offered to God for all the sins of the people of the previous year and a bull for the priest (see Leviticus 16). One of the goats (the scapegoat) would have all the sins placed on its head and then led out into the wilderness (presumably for the demon “Azazel” to consume them). The other goat and the bull would be slaughtered and their blood would be sprinkled on various parts of the Tabernacle/Temple.
• St. Paul is therefore comparing the efficacy of these sacrifices with the sacrifice of Christ. If the Temple blood sacrifices effectively wiped away the sins of the people for one year, how much more effective is Christ’s sacrifice — the blood of God incarnate? Since God is infinite, so must His sacrifice be. Thus, His sacrifice is once and for all.

There are a couple of interesting implications from all of this:

• The space where Christians worship is the same space that was reserved only for priests. This is because we are now the royal priesthood (1Pet 2:9).
• The sacrifice that we make during worship for ourselves and for the people is ourselves. Note the prayer at the end of both the Small and Great Litanies: “let us commit ourselves and one another and our whole life to Christ our God”.

Some of us were offended by the whole concept of sacrificing animals to God — was such a thing necessary? Remember that St. Paul tells us that the worship of the Temple was a shadow of the heavenly worship (Heb 8:5). These things were done to prepare us for the coming of Christ. Without the sacrificial cult of the Temple, we can’t truly understand Christ’s sacrifice.

We continued to speak about sacrifice as we moved on to the Gospel Reading:

• Christ explicitly tells again that He will be killed when the chief priests hand Him over to the Gentiles. This will be the last Sunday of Lent, therefore we are preparing for the realities of Holy Week where we will see Christ crucified.
• Thus, the cup that Christ will drink and the baptism that He will receive are His suffering and death.
• This sacrificial love is the model of Christian leadership. A true leader is willing to be a servant (διάκονος) and a slave (δοῦλος).
• We briefly touched upon the reality that those who demand that women should be ordained as clergy grossly misunderstand the role of the priest and the bishop. This demand understands the clergy as those who rule over the Gentiles and lord it over people — they see the priesthood in terms of power. As we see in this pericope, the Christian leadership model is not based on power, it is based on service. In addition, Orthodox Christianity already ordains women — baptism and chrismation is an ordination to the laity, a.k.a. the royal priesthood. Remember, the proper title for those men who we call priests is really presbyter (which literally means elder, not priest).

Finally, we tried to tie all this to St. Mary of Egypt. She offered herself as a sacrifice to God by wandering the desert for 47 years and in the end had one of the most holy men of her age (St. Zosimas) bow in respect to her — she received the honor due to a priest.

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Bible Study Notes: Sunday of St. John Climacus

Tags

fasting, Ladder of Divine Ascent, prayer, St. John Climacus

Apologies for not posting anything last week. Medical emergencies on top of preparation for the Feast Day of our parish prevented us from having Bible Study and me from having any time to post my own thoughts.

The fourth Sunday of Lent is dedicated to St. John Climacus, author of the Divine Ladder of Ascent, an ascetical treatise that uses the image of a ladder to describe ways of avoiding vice and embracing virtue in order to obtain salvation. The icon of the Ladder of Divine Ascent depicts Christians climbing a ladder towards Christ while demons use various tools to try to pull them off.

It is in this context that we examined both the Epistle Reading (Hebrews 6:13-20) and Gospel Reading (Mark 9:17-31) for this coming Sunday. We began by struggling through the Hebrews pericope, trying to understand how it was related to St. John Climacus. The image around which we were able to do this was Christ as “a sure and steadfast anchor” (Hebrews 6:19):

• Anchors in the ancient world were made of stone.
• This brought forth the image of both the rock in the desert that gushed forth water (Exo 17:6) and that Jesus equates Himself with (John 7:37) as well as the rock of faith that Jesus built His Church upon (Matt. 16:18).
• One of the uses of anchors in times prior to engines was the help steer. By setting an anchor out away from the boat, one could pull themselves toward the position of the anchor.
• God does not change. When He makes a promise, that promise will be fulfilled because God does not change, therefore neither will that promise.
• Thus, we can safely place our hope and faith in Christ as an anchor because He will not change where He is — we always know that He is in the same place (seated at the right Hand of the Father with our humanity intact). Thus, we can pull ourselves toward where He is knowing with certainty where it is that we are going.
• This is similar to the image of the Ladder.
• Note that it was not we who placed the ladder nor the anchor — it was God.

Our discussion of the Gospel was a little less focused:

• We discussed possession by demons — whose fault is it? God said to Cain as he was contemplating the murder of Abel, “Sin is crouching at the door hungry to get you. You can still master him” (Gen. 4:7). We are not inherently evil, rather we choose evil.
• However, it was noted that the focus of Christ’s admonition “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you?” (Mark 9:19) is not aimed at the possessed boy, but rather at the Disciples and the father of the boy.
• The Disciples were unable to cure the boy because they and the father had no faith. This is shown by the father’s request, “if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us” (Mark 9:22). Note where Christ takes the father: “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).
• Thus, the father has taken his first step upon the Ladder.
• It was noted that one can doubt and still have faith.
• This pericope shows us that our actions, whether we are sinning or working towards our salvation, affects those around us. The possessed boy was negatively impacted by his father’s disbelief and cured through his belief.
• If we accept that we are created in the image and likeness of God and that God is one in essence and three in persons, than humanity is also one in essence and many in persons. What one person does, then, can affect all of humanity.
• Thus, we come to the necessity of prayer and fasting — these are tools that we can use to help us climb the Ladder and bring us closer to Christ — and through us others.

Bible Study Notes: Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas

Tags

Cross, Psalms, St. Gregory Palamas

For those of you who followed this blog over this past Advent Fast, you will already be a bit familiar with St. Gregory Palamas. As much as I adore him, even I have to admit that he can be a bit impenetrable at times; however, his import on the second Sunday of Lent can be easily summarized. In the 14th century, there was a philosopher named Barlaam who claimed that philosophers knew more about God than prophets and that contemplative prayer was a waste of time because God is unknowable. St. Gregory argued against Barlaam’s claim by insisting that all Christians are capable of participating in the uncreated light of God’s divine glory even in this life through the ascetic practices of prayer and fasting (to which I would also add almsgiving). In other words, our own ascetic endeavors during this time of Lent are not in vain.

This week we started contemplating St. Gregory’s import by examining the Gospel Reading (Mark 2:1-2):

• It was noted the importance of the faith of the friends of the paralytic. They didn’t tell him that he should go and see Jesus, they physically took him to Jesus.
• We compared this to the concept of “Come and See” vs. “Go and See.” The former requires that we are actively involved in and present at Church. We are saying “come to the place that I am” rather than “go to that place over there.”
• Note that the factor that Christ highlights is the faith if the friends, not the paralytic. Our faith, our prayers and our presence in Church is vital to the health, not just of ourselves, but of those around us.
• This pericope highlights the reality that the Church is a hospital that heals us both in body and in soul. The friends of the paralytic brought him to the best hospital for the best medicine available to him — Our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ.
• Note how the path to get their friend to Christ was not easy. There path was blocked and they had to go to the great effort of lowering him in through the roof — not unlike our ascetic practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
• Finally, note the very first thing Christ heals the paralytic from — his sins. In other words, sin (our separation from God) is the cause of all the world’s problems, diseases, etc.

In discussing the Epistle Reading (Hebrews 1:10-2:3), we focused primarily on St. Paul’s quotation of Psalm 109:1

Sit at my right hand, till I make thy enemies a stool for thy feet.

and Hebrews 2:1

Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

The first part of Psalm 109:1 states, “The Lord said to my Lord” where the word “Lord” is a title for God. In other words, “God said to my God.” It is one of the explicit OT references to a Trinitarian existence within the Godhead. Thus, the Father is telling the Son these things. One of the verses for the Lauds sung next week (the Veneration of the Holy Cross) is this:

Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at the footstool of His feet; for He is holy.

In other words, the Church understands that Christ’s footstool is the Cross. Therefore:

• That which we have heard is the Apostolic kerygma — Christ Crucified and Risen.
• We cannot escape crucifixion — without the Cross we cannot have the Resurrection.
• We are anticipating next Sunday (the Veneration of the Holy Cross).
• The easiest way to deny ourselves and pick up our Cross is to pray, fast and give alms (thus tying back to St. Gregory Palamas).

Bible Study Notes: Sunday of Orthodoxy

Tags

iconoclasm, Iconography, Icons, Kingdom of Heaven

It is the first week of Lent, which means that this Sunday is the Sunday of Orthodoxy — the celebration of the restoration of the icons to the Churches after the end of iconoclasm. This week’s Bible Study was small, short and focused on how the Epistle (Hebrews 11:24-26, 32-40) and Gospel (John 1:44-51) Readings speak to the Orthodox Church’s understanding of icons.

We primarily focused on the last verses of each pericope:

And all these [holy ones of the OT], though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. — Heb. 11:39-40

Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. — John 1:51

In order to truly appreciate how these two speak to each other, one much look to the Greek of St. John:

ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, ἀπ᾽ ἄρτι ὄψεσθε τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀνεῳγότα, καὶ τοὺς ἀγγέλους τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀναβαίνοντας καὶ καταβαίνοντας ἐπὶ τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου.

A more literal translation looks like this:

Truly, truly I say to you: you will see heaven — the one that has opened — and the angels of God — the ones ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.

Note the subtle difference in tense suggested by the participles. Nathaniel cannot see what already is; however, unlike the holy ones of the OT, for whom the heavens were closed because Christ had not yet become incarnate, Nathaniel is capable of seeing these things. He need only put away his attachment to earthly things (as suggested by his political understanding of Christ as merely the King of Israel), open his eyes and see the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven in Christ Himself.

The Orthodox Church understands icons as windows that allow us to glimpse what already is —  heaven is open and angels are descending and ascending upon the Son of man. The reality of the Kingdom of Heaven has entered into the world through our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ and is available in Him. We need only open our eyes to see. Amen.

Bible Study Notes: Forgiveness Sunday

Tags

fasting, forgiveness, Great Lent

This coming Sunday is the last Sunday before we begin Lent. It is called Forgiveness Sunday and we also commemorate Adam’s expulsion from Paradise. In other words we must have these things in mind when we read the Epistle (Romans 13:11-14; 141-4) and Gospel Readings (Matthew 6:14-21):

• All of the themes from the previous weeks since we’ve opened the Triodion: the humility of the Publican, the coming to oneself of the Prodigal Son, and the criteria that God will judge us at the Judgement Seat (“Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.” —Matthew 25:40)
• The casting out of Adam and Eve from paradise (the consequences of which we are still living with)
• Forgiveness
• The beginning of the Great Fast

The discussion on the Epistle this week centered around the fast and why we do it.

• It allows us to exercise our spiritual muscles by taking something very basic (food) and willingly choosing to deny ourselves those things which in the ancient world took a lot of time to prepare (meat, dairy, fish, oil and wine). By practicing saying “No” to these basic things, it makes us more able to deny ourselves with other aspects of our lives. Ultimately, it strengthens us for when we are tempted with our weaknesses.
• In modern times, the things that in the ancient world took so much time to prepare, take about the same amount of time (and in some cases less) than fast-friendly food. This extra time we are supposed to gain from fasting is to be used for prayer and reading Scripture. For us, this means that we need to find that time in other things than food preparation (TV, internet, etc.).
• Since everyone is on their own unique and unrepeatable path towards Christ, we cannot judge or condemn someone else’s path. For example, someone with diabetes is going to have to fast in a fundamentally different way than someone who is 100% healthy and a pregnant woman shouldn’t be fasting from food at all.
• Despite the fact fasting from meat etc. doesn’t have the same practical outcome that it did in the ancient world, we still maintain these as part of our fast. This is because we not only fast for ourselves, but we fast for others as well. When we choose to keep the fast, we are strengthening our fellow Orthodox Christians to do the same.
• In addition, we all get to practice obedience. We die to ourselves and place the wisdom of the Church (and thus Christ) above our own.

Our discussion of the Gospel Reading was more varied:

• It was pointed out that Christ’s lesson on forgiveness is in context of teaching the Lord’s Prayer. Indeed, the Gospel Reading for Cheesefare Saturday (the day prior to this Sunday) ends with the Lord’s Prayer.
• It was noted that the Gospel Reading teaches about the three basic aspects of our ascetic life during Great Lent: prayer (v. 14-15), fasting (v. 16-18) and almsgiving (v. 19-21).
• The root of the Greek word for “forgive” used by Christ (ἀφῆτε) means “to let go.” In other words, we have to let go of the past in order to move towards our future in the Kingdom of Heaven. If we do not let go of that past, we choose to live in that reality rather than the reality of the Kingdom. Thus,

If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

• A corollary of this is the ability to allow God to forgive us. We must let go of our own sins in order to move forward towards the Kingdom. We must acknowledge them, name them by confessing them, let them go and look forward to the chance to do better next time.
• Great Lent is a time for doing exactly this — it is an opportunity to turn towards God, letting go of sin, letting go of the past and looking forward to striving to better ourselves and get closer to God as Great Lent progresses. May we all take advantage of all our opportunities in this Lent. Amen.

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.

Bible Study Notes: The Three Hierarchs

Tags

Arianism, Baptism, Old Calendarists, Resurrection, St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian, St. John Chrysostom, The Law

This coming Sunday is the Synaxis of the Three Hierarchs. Around the year AD 1100 there was a raging argument plaguing the Orthodox Church — who was the greatest, St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian or St. John Chrysostom? This strife was so contentious that the three saints appeared to St. John Mauropous, Bishop of Euchita (celebrated on October 5) who was a great hymnographer. Explaining that the glory they have at the throne of God is equal, they asked him to compose a common service for them in order to end the disputes. We have celebrated this service on January 30 since.

Thus, while reading the Epistle (Hebrews 13:7-16) and the Gospel Reading (Mathew 5:14-19) we tried to place them in context of this feast as well as the events of the readings themselves and our own lives.

The verse we spent the most time on was Hebrews 13:9:

Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings; for it is well that the heart be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited their adherents.

We asked the question, “What are diverse and strange teachings?” To understand this, we need to look at verse 8:

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever.

In other words, the truth that was taught to the Apostles is the same that was passed down from generation to generation down to us. The means by which Christ saves us has not changed. The reality of Christ Incarnate — both God and man — the crucifixion, and the resurrection has not changed. So, what we know about God, Christ and how we are saved has not changed throughout the ages. We might have clarified these truths, depending upon the context that the Church found Herself, but these basic truths have not changed.

Diverse and strange teachings call into question either what we know about God (and therefore Christ) or about how we are saved:

• In St. Paul’s time, there were those who insisted that fasting laws and getting circumcised were necessary for salvation. This calls into question how we are saved. If fasting laws and circumcision are necessary, then Christ’s saving passion is somehow incomplete.
• In the time of the Three Hierarchs, there was a teacher named Arius who taught that there was a time when the Son was not. He called into question what we know about Christ, God and the Trinity. If there was a time when the Son was not, then He is part of creation and of a fundamentally different essence than God the Father. As such, uniting ourselves to Christ would do us little good, since we are already part of creation. Only in being of one essence with the Father does uniting ourselves to Christ save.
• In our own time, there is the phenomenon of the Old-Calendarists. When various Orthodox Churches (Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Poland and Bulgaria) started to switch to the revised Julian Calendar (which uses the Gregorian Calendar for fixed feasts) in 1924 (the last in 1963), there were those who refused to make the switch. These Old Calendarists broke communion with the Orthodox Church in order to form their own communion. In other words, they follow in the footsteps of the Judaizers of St. Paul’s time. They see the use of the Julian Calendar as necessary to salvation, calling into question the completeness of Christ’s passion.

The verse from the Gospel that we focused on was verse 18:

For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

The iota and the dot are the smallest of letters and strokes in the Greek alphabet. Thus, Christ is claiming that the law must be fulfilled completely. If we read some of the hymns from January 1 we see the Church declaring that Christ fulfills the Law:

The supremely good God was not ashamed to be circumcised in the flesh; but for our salvation He offered Himself as a type and example to all. For the Author of the Law fulfills the precepts of the Law and the things the prophets preached of Him — Stichera of Vespers for the Circumcision in the Flesh of Our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ

The Law reveals our sin, because fallen humanity is incapable of fulfilling the Law. Christ, being both God and man, is sinless. Therefore He is capable of perfectly fulfilling the Law — abolishing that which separates humanity from God. This He accomplishes for our sake. When we are baptized we are said to put on Christ (cf. Ga;. 3:27). Thus, the Law is fulfilled in us by Christ Himself. The Law is not the means of our salvation, Christ is.

Bible Study Notes: Trinity

Tags

Faith, Name of God, prayer, St. John Chrysostom, Trinity

During Bible Study this week, we spent a majority of our time on the Epistle Reading for Sunday (1 Timothy 1:15-17) Our discussion began with a recognition of verse 15 as the source for the communion prayer:

I believe and confess, Lord, that You are truly the Christ, the Son of the living God, who came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first.

It was also noted that verse 17 sounded familiar:

To the King of Ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory to the ages of ages. Amen.

Thus, we took a look at the Anaphora of St. John Chrysostom to compare:

It is proper and right to sing to You, bless You, praise You, thank You and worship You in all places of Your dominion; for You are God ineffable, beyond comprehension, invisible, beyond understanding, existing forever and always the same; You and Your only begotten Son and Your Holy Spirit.

Note that both use apophatic language (declaring what God is not, rather than what God is — because God cannot be contained by language). Also, note that though Chrysostom’s declaration is longer, it doesn’t change the basic truth of St. Paul’s words. Rather, Chrysostom clarifies — these attributes of the Father are also the attributes of the Son and the Holy Spirit because they are the only God.

Someone then asked the question of whether or not this understanding of God as Trinity could be seen in the OT. We discussed the opening lines of Genesis:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light (1:1-3)

God the Father is present — He is the one who speaks. The Son is present because He is the Word of God. The Holy Spirit is present because He is hovering over the face of the waters.

We also took a look at the burning bush when God revealed His name to Moses. Again, the Father is the one who speaks. The Son is present as the Word of God. The Holy Spirit is the unconsuming fire. In addition, the name of God revealed to Moses can be seen in its Greek translation in the halo of Christ in most icons depicting our Lord, God and Saviour:

It was then noted that this understanding of Christ as God is present it the Gospel Reading (Luke 18:35-43). When the blind man at Jericho cries out “Son of David, have mercy on me!” he is acknowledging Christ as God. Not only is He calling Him by a proper title (the Son of David) but he is attributing Him with the power of God to have mercy. This faith is then put on display when, prompted by Christ, he asks for His sight.

Finally, it was noted how the blind man continued to cry out (even all the more) in the face of rebukes.We should all aspire to have such a faith.

Bible Study Notes: Repentance

Tags

Baptism, equality, repentance, Theophany

Still in the midst of celebrating Theophany, it was difficult to see this Sunday’s Epistle Reading (Colossians 3:4-11) and Gospel Reading (Luke 17:12-19) outside of this context. In fact, St. Paul seems to be specifically refer to Baptism in verses 9-10:

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

The old nature refers to the reality that each of us is born into the fallen world. When we are Baptized, we die to this old nature and put on Christ (cf. Galatians 3:27, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ”).

We couldn’t discuss this passage without making mention of one of my personal favorite verses in Scripture (Colossians 3:11):

Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all.

I find myself quoting this often in context of discussions about equality (there is no more radical a statement of equality that this). Upon reflection, we realized that our current ethnic mishmash here in the U.S. is probably closer to the audience St. Paul was writing to — the Roman Empire — than we may imagine.

In terms of understanding the phrase “Christ is all, in all” we need to remember that as beings made in the image and likeness of God, we have a trinitarian existence. In other words, just as God is one in essence in three persons, so, too, are we of one essence and in many persons. Thus, when Christ took on our humanity, He affected all of humanity through our nature —Christ is all. Since we are also made in the image and likeness, Christ is also in all.

Following the theme of remembering Theophany, we recalled Christ’s first words after His baptism (read last week on the Sunday after Theophany), “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4:17). When Christ told the ten lepers to present themselves to the priest (indicating that they were cleansed — the priest would confirm this and their re-integration into society), only one presented himself to the true High Priest — Christ Himself. In doing so he turned around (the literal meaning of repentance) — he repented and oriented himself to God. Being a Samaritan, he indicates that this action is possible for everyone (Christ is all, and in all). This act of repentance (and our participation in salvation) is confirmed by Christ’s words, “your faith has made you well.”