Bible Study Notes: Mopping the Floor

Tags

Holy Spirit, Theophany, Worship

This coming Sunday is the Sunday After Theophany, so both the Epistle Reading (Ephesians 4:7-13) and the Gospel Reading (Matthew 4:12-17) speak to the feast. One of the primary concerns of our group was seeing how these two readings spoke about the guy who does the janitorial work at the church — especially in context of the gifts given to the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.

To help answer this, we looked at the structure of how the Church deals with a major feast like Theophany. There is the Sunday before, where we are prepared for the feast (last week we were told by John that “I have baptized you in water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” — Mark 1:8). Then the feast (the event) occurs — we see the revelation of God as Trinity when Christ is baptized and the Holy Spirit descends upon His humanity. Then the Church takes a moment to reflect about our proper response to this event.

Both the Epistle and the Gospel speak to this response. St. Paul tells us that the gifts given by the Holy Spirit are specifically for

building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. — Ephesians 4:12-13

We build up that body and work towards that unity by following the first words Christ speaks in His ministry — after His baptism, He is taken into the desert by the Holy Spirit for 40 days and upon emerging He declares:

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. — Matthew 4:17

Repent — change one’s mind, turn towards God. Note that the message hasn’t changed from what John was saying in the wilderness (Matthew 3:2), nor has it changed from what the Church is saying today. There is a dramatic change in circumstance, however.

When John preached it, Christ had not begun His ministry. When Christ preached it, He had not finished His work — He had not gone to the Cross nor had He risen from the dead. Now, when the Church preaches it, we have the Risen Christ who sits at the right hand of the Father in glory with our humanity. Note that this is the same pattern we see with the Sunday Before, the Feast and the Sunday After. We prepare, we behold, we accept (and therefore act).

This, then, answers the main concern about the guy who mops the floors. He was told about this thing called the Orthodox Church by someone — a friend, a family member or through some kind of media. He then went and saw an Orthodox Church service — He saw the Kingdom of Heaven intersecting with time. Seeing this, he was moved to act. He accepted the gift of the Kingdom by becoming an Orthodox Christian (through baptism or chrismation). Having accepted this gift, he now behaves in fundamentally different way — he willingly gives his time, treasure and talent to build up the body of the Church. In his particular case, it is in mopping the floor.

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Bible Study Notes: All Who Have Loved His Appearing

Tags

Baptism, Cross, Holy Spirit, Isaiah, Resurrection, St. John the Baptist, Theophany

Again, this week was short and sweet given the time of year and the number of people traveling. For the first time in weeks, however, we did not spend the majority of our time on the Epistle (2 Tim 4:5-8).

We focused primarily on the verse “For I am already on the point of being sacrificed” (4:6). This was probably the last letter St. Paul wrote before his martyrdom. He was in prison and awaiting his death. Of interest is the word “sacrifice,” because in some translations in is rendered “poured out as a libation.” The sacrifice St. Paul is referring to is the drink sacrifice in the Temple where the priest would pour wine, water or oil over the burnt sacrifice at the end of the service in order to put out the fire. This Sunday is the Sunday before Theophany. It is thus a preparation for the Baptism of Christ and the revelation of God as Trinity. This image of St. Paul himself being poured out as a drink sacrifice brought us to mind of Baptism where we die to the world and are created anew in Christ.

The Gospel Reading is the first eight verses of Mark. We noted that the quote from Isaiah is not entirely from Isaiah: “A voice cries out from the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight” (40:3). The other half of the quote comes from Malachi, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who shall prepare your way” (3:1).

Baptism was not a new practice in Judaism. It was used for purification purposes and even as a means for proselytes to enter Judaism. So, what John was doing out in the wilderness was not something strange and new; however, what he was saying was: “I have baptized you in water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

The question was asked: When did Christ first baptize humanity in the Holy Spirit? He certainly sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. He also breathed the Holy Spirit onto the Apostles (John 20:22). Was He not baptized in the Holy Spirit at Theophany? Were not we, whose humanity Christ took on to Himself, baptized in the Holy Spirit with Him? Did not God say He was well pleased by this reality (Matt. 3:17)? This reality was then made accessible to all of us through the Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension of Christ. Now we all may be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit Himself.

It was here that we found how these two readings spoke to each other. St. Paul writes:

Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. — 2 Tim 4:8.

At the Theophany, God reveals Himself as Trinity and Christ as God and Man. Those who love this appearing — we who accept God as Trinity and Christ as perfect God and perfect man — have a crown of righteousness prepared for us by the Lord.

Bible Study Notes: Retreat!

Tags

Christmas, St. Paul

Due to the coming holiday, with people traveling or preparing for family to travel to them, this week’s Bible Study was short and sweet. It primarily focused on the reason why the Epistle Reading (Galatians 1:11-19) is read along with Matthew 2:13-23 on the Sunday after Christmas.

The Gospel Reading focuses on Christ’s flight to Egypt in the face of Herod’s massacre of the male children in Bethlehem. On its surface, St. Paul’s claim that the gospel he preached is not man’s gospel doesn’t seem to be related in any obvious way. The key for understanding this relationship lies in Galatians 1:16-18:

I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia; and again I returned to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem

If we remember St. Paul’s story, he was sent to persecute the Church. If he returned to Jerusalem immediately, he would have faced not only persecution, but retribution. In this way he is like the Christ child. He was newly born in the faith. As such he was not yet ready to fulfill his role in the history of salvation. It was not yet his time.

The flight to Egypt underlines the reality that Christ came in order to die. The immediate reaction of those who live in this world to the Nativity of Christ is violence — a violence that He will eventually allow HImself to be subject to; however, it was not His appointed time. He had to allow his humanity to develop, to create the human bonds necessary to set up the foundation of His Church.

In this same way, St. Paul had to prepare for his coming mission to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. He had to process everything that God had revealed to him in order to be able to teach others the wisdom he had gained. He only endeavored to get his blessing from the Apostles to carry out his mission when it was his time.

Bible Study Notes: Chasing Names

Tags

Abraham, Barak, Bathsheba, Christmas, David, Manasseh, Old Testament, Rahab, Ruth, Tamar, Theotokos

From the perspective of studying the Bible, the readings from the Sunday before Christmas (Hebrews 11:9-10;32-40 and Matthew 1:1-25) are absolutely some of my favorites. Both the Epistle Reading and the Gospel Reading are replete with names and stories from the OT. It is a wonderful invitation to chase these stories down and to see how they speak to us about our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ. In our limited time this week, we did not begin to cover all of these stories, but here are the ones that caught our immediate interest:

The promises made to Abraham first appear in their most basic form in the twelve chapter of Genesis:

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” — Genesis 12:1-3

These promises do not find their fulfillment until Christ and the founding of the Church. Our land is the Kingdom of God. Our nation is the Christian people. Christ (and by extension the Church which is His Body) blesses all of the families of the earth because Christ has united Himself to our human nature — embracing everyone. Please note how Matthew traces Christ’s human lineage back to Abraham.

Barak is one of the Judges that was called by God to defend the people against their adversaries. His story coincides with that of Deborah in Judges chapters 4-5.

David is a King, as opposed to a Judge. The people of God transitioned from being a nation without an earthly king — the era of the Judges — to being a kingdom at their own request. This request angered the Prophet Samuel, but God said to him, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.” (1 Samuel 8:7) This is a key verse and it is a caution to all who place their faith in earthly governments. Our true king is Christ, not any earthly power. Samuel then goes on to tell the people about the reality of what they are asking for:

These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots; and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his courtiers. He will take one-tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and his courtiers. He will take your male and female slaves, and the best of your cattle and donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take one-tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the LORD will not answer you in that day.— 1 Samuel 8:11-18

The people get what they ask for in Saul. Then to prove the point, God gives them a pair of good Kings — David (the Beloved) and Solomon the wisest man ever to walk the face of the earth. David was a murderer and an adulterer. Solomon fell away from God and became an idolater. Even the best of earthly kings and politicians will fail us.

Matthew specifically mentions five women in Christ’s genealogy:

• Tamar is the daughter-in-law of Judah — the founder of the tribe of Judah. After her husband, his brother (Judah’s sons) and Judah’s wife die, she seduces Judah, disguised as a prostitute, in order to get pregnant with his child. It is this child, Perez, that continues the lineage of Christ (cf Genesis 38)
• Rahab is the prostitute that helps the spies of Joshua escape the city of Jericho. She is spared from the coming destruction by identifyinh her household with a red chord. This is reminiscent of the mark of blood that the Hebrews place on their door to be passed over by death in Egypt. She goes on to become the mother of Boaz, who marries Ruth.
• Ruth is a Gentile who insists on staying with her Hebrew mother-in-law despite the fact that they have no men to protect them and she is an outsider
• The wife of Uriah (Bathsheba). King David commits adultery and murder in order to get Bathsheba as a wife. This is emphasized by the way Matthew refers to her — not by her own name, but by her rightful and murdered husband.
• Mary is he mother of Jesus.

This all speaks to the humanity that God has united Himself to in the person of Jesus Christ. It includes prostitutes, adulterers, murderers, and Gentiles. In other words, God has embraced everyone, no matter who they are, where they come from or what they have done.

Finally, we highlighted one more name: Manasseh. He was the son of the righteous king Hezekiah. After the efforts his father to return the Kingdom of Judah back to the proper worship of God, Manasseh falls back into idol worship, for which he is condemned in both 2 Kings (21:2-16) and 2 Chronicles (33:2-19). His story does not end there, however. According to 2 Chronicles, he is captured by the Assyrians. After repenting, he returns to Judah and his father’s ways (cf 2 Chronicles 15-17). His prayer of repentance (found in what is called the “Apocrypha” by Protestants) is part of the Orthodox Christian Great Compline. Its text is as follows:

O Lord, Almighty God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of their righteous seed; who hast made heaven and earth, with all the ornament thereof; who hast bound the sea by the word of thy commandment; who hast shut up the deep, and sealed it by thy terrible and glorious name; whom all men fear, and tremble before thy power; for the majesty of thy glory cannot be borne, and thine angry threatening toward sinners is importable: but thy merciful promise is unmeasurable and unsearchable; for thou art the most high Lord, of great compassion, longsuffering, very merciful, and repentest of the evils of men. Thou, O Lord, according to thy great goodness hast promised repentance and forgiveness to them that have sinned against thee: and of thine infinite mercies hast appointed repentance unto sinners, that they may be saved. Thou therefore, O Lord, that art the God of the just, hast not appointed repentance to the just, as to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, which have not sinned against thee; but thou hast appointed repentance unto me that am a sinner: for I have sinned above the number of the sands of the sea. My transgressions, O Lord, are multiplied: my transgressions are multiplied, and I am not worthy to behold and see the height of heaven for the multitude of mine iniquities. I am bowed down with many iron bands, that I cannot lift up mine head, neither have any release: for I have provoked thy wrath, and done evil before thee: I did not thy will, neither kept I thy commandments: I have set up abominations, and have multiplied offences. Now therefore I bow the knee of mine heart, beseeching thee of grace. I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, and I acknowledge mine iniquities: wherefore, I humbly beseech thee, forgive me, O Lord, forgive me, and destroy me not with mine iniquites. Be not angry with me for ever, by reserving evil for me; neither condemn me to the lower parts of the earth. For thou art the God, even the God of them that repent; and in me thou wilt shew all thy goodness: for thou wilt save me, that am unworthy, according to thy great mercy. Therefore I will praise thee for ever all the days of my life: for all the powers of the heavens do praise thee, and thine is the glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Bible Study Notes: Hospitality and Truth

Tags

Environmentalism, St. Mary of Paris, St. Spyridon

This week during bible study, we looked at Ephesians 5:8-19. For us, the verses that fueled our discussion were 13-14:

when anything is exposed by the light it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light

The Church reads this Epistle on the feast of St. Spryidon. He was present at the First Ecumenical Council and was one of the stalwart supporters of the Orthodoxy against the Arians. He stood in Truth and shined a light on the darkness of Arianism.

In other words, if we stand in Truth, we have nothing to fear. No amount of light or scrutiny can challenge or cow us, because we are light — we stand in Truth. Those who hide in the dark — those who lie, cheat, bribe, etc. — cannot stand scrutiny or truth. They try to hide from it. An example of this is the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. Instead of standing in the Truth and being honest about their data, they manipulated data that didn’t match their desired outcome of proving man-made global warming and they tried to suppress any scientists who had findings that ran counter to the man-made global-warming narrative. When thousands of CRU e-mails and other documents were made public, the legitimacy of global-warming, especially of the man-made variety, was seriously compromised.

The Gospel Reading for this coming is from Luke 14:16-24 with the addition of Matthew 22:24. This is the parable of the man who gave a great banquet. Though this is normally understood to be a metaphor for the Kingdom and the Lord’s Table, our discussion focused on how the conduct of this man giving the banquet challenges us in our own hospitality.

Normally, when we take someone out for a meal (a client, for example) we expect something in return (more or continued business from the client). Note how the man invites the poor, and there is still more room. Further, he sends his servant out to the open road and hedgerows (places where highwaymen and robbers are).

We spoke about the difference between merely handing out food to the poor (and thus de-humanize them by treating them as we might cattle), and looking them in the eye and getting to know them as a human beings. St. Mary of Paris was adamant about this. She did not want any bread given to the poor unless they were acknowledged as human beings. She insisted that we see the image and likeness of God in them, so that they might know that they have value.

Love and Basketball

Tags

Epistle, Gospel, Holy Spirit, LeBron James

I lead a Bible Study every week and the people who come like to study the Epistle and Gospel Readings for the coming Sunday. We all find this exercise to be fruitful because it helps all of us to prepare for the sermon on Sunday. In my case, it helps me tune into issues that people find interesting or important. For others, they get more out of sermons on Sunday (even if they are traveling and end up at another Church).

Recently, I have been trying to summarize our sessions as part of my preparation for Sunday and at the request of a fellow priest to help him in his own preparations. In turn, a parishioner requested that I share these summaries with a wider audience. Thus, I will endeavor to get these summaries posted here for all of those interested.

This week, the discussion focused primarily on the Epistle Reading (Galatians 5:22-26; 6:1-2):

Brethren, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another. Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Look to yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Of import is the fact that this isn’t the regularly scheduled Epistle for the 10th Sunday of Luke. Rather, it is the reading for St. Savas the Sanctified who was a monastic in Palestine and who defended Orthodoxy at the council of Chalcedon. In other words, the Church is holding up St. Savas as someone who embodies living by the Spirit.

Though it is not part of Sunday’s reading, Galatians 5:16-21 helps us contrast the fruits of the Spirit with the works of the flesh:

Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Note how the ruler of the synagogue from Sunday’s Gospel Reading (Luke 13:10-17) embodies the works of the flesh. When angered by Christ’s healing of the woman crippled by a spirit of disease for eighteen years because it was the Sabbath, the ruler makes an idol out of the Law, demonstrates jealousy and strife, and causes dissension, faction and quarrels. He forgets that the primary purpose of the Law is the revelation of God — who is merciful (as demonstrated by Christ’s healing). In forgetting this, the ruler places the Law above the needs of human beings (again, running counter to God, who provides us the Law for our benefit).

For a contemporary example of works of the flesh, we meditated on the reports coming out this week about the NBA basketball star, LeBron James. It seems that LeBron is selfish to the point of being toxic. His selfishness has lead to strife within his team and the Miami Heat has had a lackluster beginning to their season, despite having one of the most talented rosters in all of basketball. Please note that LeBron James has never won an NBA championship. The best way for him to do so would be to start living by the Spirit. His selfishness may appear to be success, but it is harming everyone around him. If he were willing to sacrifice for others — especially his team — the Miami Heat would be infinitely better than it is right now.