Fr David

Gold A Shishkin

25th after Pentecost (Luke 9)

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(On the picture “Gold” dy Andrey Shishkin)

Today in the Gospel reading, we heard the, perhaps to some of you, familiar parable of a rich man whose land one year yielded a plentiful crop, perhaps better than ever before. This year, he found himself unable to decide how best to deal with this situation.  He had no facilities large enough to store the crop, so he decided to pull down his existing barns and to build larger ones.  He would then retire and live the rest of his life in comfort.  He would “eat, drink, and be merry”.

However, God saw beyond this man’s selfish short-sightedness.  On the very night that he was making these decisions he would die.  Then whose property would all this plenty be?  This could be the situation of anyone who takes selfish foresight for his life.

Let’s remind ourselves of today’s Gospel which continues with the theme of giving, or rather of not giving.  It tells of a rich man whose land yielded crops abundantly.  When harvest came, there was such abundance that he was quite unable to store it all in the barns which had served him up until this point, so he decides to demolish his existing barns and build new, larger, ones so that he can store his entire harvest.  This he does with a deep sense of satisfaction.  Now he can sit back and enjoy the fruits of his labour – or rather those of his servants.   As a rich man it is unlikely that he spent much time in the fields himself.  Here we have an example of a man who, in the concluding words of the Gospel, ”lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God.” 

Elsewhere, Jesus warns us that we should not lay up treasure for ourselves on earth, where moth and rust corrupt, but lay up treasure in heaven.  In another place we are told to take no thought for the morrow.  Yet this is exactly what we spend so much time worrying about.  When we are young we worry, or not, about a good education, and gaining qualifications.  When we have a job we worry about moving up the ladder of promotion which, in itself, brings financial reward.  At the height of our powers we worry about when these must fail, and younger men and women will overtake us. And when we retire we worry about whether, or how long, we shall have sufficient income to maintain the lifestyle that we have become accustomed to. 

Always, always, always looking towards the future without realising that the present is passing us by.  The last hour, the last day, the last week, month, or year, can never be recovered.  Time passes us by and, as we get older, at what seems to be an accelerating rate.

When are we going to get around to those things that really matter? To the things that are eternal.  There is a strange optimism – I was going to say that it is a British characteristic, but I think that it is probably more than that.  It is an optimism that says “All will be well in the end.”  It was the English mystic, Dame Julian of Norwich who wrote “and all shall be well, all manner of things shall be well”.  When she wrote that it was from the perspective of one who had surrendered her possessions, her whole life and her being to God. 

I remember someone saying to me once, in a very self-satisfied way, “I think that I have lived a very useful life”.  Within weeks, she was dead and we prayed for her, and offered masses for her, and I hope that she is on her way to Paradise.  But the fact that we live useful lives is not really what we are called to do in the Gospel.  A lot of people lead useful lives.  We, as Christians, are called to set out on a path which will, ultimately, and certainly not in this life, lead us to union with God.  That will be by coming, increasingly, to know him through his Son, Jesus Christ, by setting out on the ascetic way to the extent that we are able in the situation into which God has placed us.  This does not exclude the possibility of living, in the words of that old lady “a useful life”, but it will be a life transformed by God himself, in which there will be no element of pride and self-satisfaction because of what we may have done.

Human recognition or gratitude for assistance given may be very nice, but that is treasure on earth, and it will pass.  Also, if we have been very active we need to beware of the dangers of self-satisfaction and pride.  As Christians, we need to be able to say sincerely, “Lord, I am an unprofitable servant.  Have mercy on me, a sinner.”  The prophet Isaiah once proclaimed, “All our righteousness is as filthy rags.”  Of course we come to the assistance of people in need, but that is not what puts us right with God.  Of course we avoid, if at all possible, the obvious sins and wrongdoing, but Jesus tells us, first of all to “seek the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you”.

The avoidance of wrongdoing will become second nature to us and through our prayer, through confession of our sins, through regular receiving of the Body and Blood of Christ at the Liturgy we shall grow into Christ, becoming citizens of his Kingdom, a place prepared for us from the beginning of the world.

The Good Samaritan

24th after Pentecost (Luke 8)

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(The Good Samaritan, depicted on arrival at the inn, by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1630 (Wallace Collection, London))

I wonder how many people asked Jesus, or have asked his followers since, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

On the face of it, this is a perfectly simple question.  We may even wonder why this man, a lawyer, a learned man, needs to put it to Jesus.  Lawyers in the Gospels are skilled and trained in the Law of Moses, the Jewish Law. Surely he must have known the answer to the question above all people, and yet there is just a hint that he is not happy with the customary answers even though the question might have been often debated.  However, Jesus gives him the opportunity to state his opinion – his understanding of the Law.

The man quotes what have become known as the two Great Commandments because they embrace all of the others, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all you mind:  and your neighbour as yourself.”  Quite simple really, deceptively simple because who is there among us who loves God to such an heroic degree.  Is it even humanly possible?  And what about the neighbour?  Love the next person as much as I love myself?  Do I love anyone that much?  Is that even possible?

The Lawyer, recognising the problem, asks for clarification.  “Who is my neighbour?”  In reply, Jesus tells the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

Many of Jesus’s parables are thought to have been inspired by what he had observed whilst walking through the countryside – a farmer sowing his seed, workers in a vineyard, wheat growing is a field choked by weeds, and many other examples.

The road from Jerusalem to Jericho was familiar to those who travelled between those two cities.  It passed from the high ground on which Jerusalem stood, down through part of the Wilderness, or Desert of Judaea, and along the rocky road to Jericho and the Jordan valley.  The wilder parts of this were the haunt of robbers and brigands, always waiting to attack solitary individuals, or even small groups, so it was best to travel with a larger group where there might be safety in numbers.

The story has the feeling to me of events with which people were familiar – if not personally, at least at second or third hand, an ever present possibility for travellers in those parts.

The injured man was, by implication, a Jew.  So were the first two people who passed along the road after the attack – religious people, a priest, and a Levite.  Neither made any effort to help the victim. They were too afraid of suffering the same fate even, perhaps, by touching blood, becoming themselves unclean and unable to serve in the Temple  Then, along came a third man, a Samaritan.

The Samaritans, who are mentioned from time to time in the Gospels, were a bastard race who followed a form of Judaism based on their temple in Samaria near present day Nablus, as they still do today.  It is not that they were hated by the Jews, but that they were thoroughly despised, and the two groups had as little to do with each other as possible.  A Jew would not normally even speak to a Samaritan, and vice-versa, yet upon seeing the injured man basic humanity kicked in.  The Samaritan, ignoring the dangers in the situation went across to him, did what he was able on the spot, set him on his donkey, and took him to an inn – possibly that still known as the “Inn of the Good Samaritan”. He left money for his care until his return.

So that was Jesus’s reply to the Lawyer’s question, “Who is my neighbour.  Jesus had turned the answer back onto him and there could only be one answer although this man could not bring himself to use the despised term Samaritan.  He skirted around it with the words, “He who showed mercy on him”.

Seventh ecumenical council

20th after Pentecost (7th Ecumenical Council)

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Today’s Apostle is for the Holy Fathers, in this case of the 7th Ecumenical Council which we celebrate today.  As many will know it was the 7th Council which settled the dispute over the legitimacy of icons.  I say ‘settled’ because it was actually about another century before the decisions of the Council were universally accepted.

The Apostle is actually the final seven verses of St Paul’s epistle to Titus.  The Epistles to Timothy and Titus are sometimes called the ‘Pastoral Epistles’ because they are addressed specifically to people, to people who are pastors and Paul, out of his experience as a pastor advises and encourages two of the next generation of church leaders.

Timothy and Titus were not apostles, but they have been called ‘apostolic men’.  Timothy led the Church in Ephesus, and Titus the Church in Crete.  Today they would have been referred to as bishops, but at that time the office of bishop was not entirely clear and the terms ‘bishop’ and ‘presbyter’ are often used interchangeably.

So in this portion of the Epistle Paul is setting out his final message before signing off.  It is for Titus in his church, says Paul, to insist on ‘these things’,  that is the particular matters about which he has been writing in the epistle.  The reason is ‘so that those who have believed in God may be careful to apply themselves to good deeds; these are excellent and profitable to men.’

So there is a basic Gospel that Paul has proclaimed among them, and that Titus is to uphold: but Paul is also aware that the early Christians can be easily sidetracked.  They are to avoid stupid controversies, genealogies, dissentions, and quarrels over the law’.

These ‘stupid controversies’ are the kind of things that the Jews considered to be very important. Genealogies were important to the Jew because those who could trace their ancestry to some prominent person in the past were often honoured in the present.  Just as two obvious examples we could quote the Royal House of Judah, the descendants of David, and the Priestly Family, the descendants of Aaron, some of whom inherited the priestly office, and some of whom assisted the priests in the Temple.  There were no doubt others, but the point is that in the Church, neither descent from David, or from Aaron were of any significance whatsoever.  They conveyed no privileges to Christians, and to treat them as being of any importance was, in Paul’s words unprofitable and futile.

The other matter that Paul mentions is quarrels over the Law.  That is the Jewish religious Law – the Law of Moses.  This was a matter which had been of concern to Paul since he became an Apostle and a Christian missionary.  As we read his epistles , and the Book of the Acts of the Apostles we find that time and time again he is having to show that the Gospel in most respects has superceded the Law.  In many places Christian Jews were insisting that Gentile converts must accept the Law in all respects, and on one occasion Paul was forced to stand up against Peter, who had given in to Jewish pressures, and was no longer eating with Gentiles.  These things are unprofitable and futile.

If such a person is found supporting these matters he is to be admonished twice, but if he ignores these admonitions he stands self-condemned.  Paul does not draw the conclusion to this statement, but what we are to understand is that such a person is to be excluded from the Fellowship.

Paul’s Gospel is at the same time very simple and very clear.  The Gospel that he declares is Christ, and Christ Crucified.  Paul preached the Cross, but also the Resurrection whilst recognising that this was foolishness to the Greeks with their sophisticated wisdom and philosophy.  In Athens the learned Greeks laughed at Paul, but at least some wanted to hear him further and were convinced.

But the Cross and the Resurrection of Christ were to be worked out in the lives of Christians who, after believing were to be baptised, and in that act entered themselves into the death and resurrection of Christ.  To go down into the water, to be submerged in it was death and burial with Christ to be taken up out of the water was resurrection with him.  That is what Christians celebrate every Pascha. It is not merely the remembrance and celebration of an historical event.  It is a making present of an act in which we re-engage as we celebrate it once more.

And every time we celebrate the Eucharist, the Divine Liturgy, these events are again made present among us and also, with Christ, we present them before the heavenly altar, an act in which we can engage because we receive the Body and the Blood and in so doing renew and strengthen our relationship with him;  our being in him.

In case we should feel superior, having understood all this, I have to point out that, although there are mainly different matters, for people to get hot under the collar about today there are real live issues.

Let us just briefly consider the temptations which might arise in Orthodox congregations in our day.

Nationalism within congregations where people feel that, although worshipping in Britain they are in touch with the Old Country and its customs.  Then there is the phenomenon by which, for instance Roman Catholic converts become, as we say, more Catholic than the Pope.  The same thing can happen among Orthodox converts.  The insistence on customs which have perhaps originated amongst one particular stream of Orthodoxy:  perhaps even the introduction of customs which do not belong to Orthodoxy at all, which may in themselves be neutral but can also be divisive.

Let us hold to the Gospel that we have received, perhaps many years before discovering Orthodoxy, and let us gladly receive and employ the many aids available in the Orthodox Church to enable what we have received to come to maturity within us.

Saint Paul Conversion

19th after Pentecost (3rd of Luke) 2 Corinthians11:31-12:9

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This morning’s Apostle is not easy to understand and, as the 18th century poet and writer Alexander Pope wrote, “fools rush in where angels fear to tread”.  Nevertheless, maybe I am a fool but, as I read this morning’s Apostle, I felt drawn to speak about it this morning.

Paul is conscious, as he writes in the passage we heard this morning, that he might be accused of being a fool if he spoke of these things, but in fact he would not be a fool because he would be speaking the truth.  He wrote, as he often did, from his own experience.

At the beginning of the passage, he writes of his escape from Damascus after his conversion and baptism in order to avoid being arrested.  He was let down in a basket from a window in the wall of the city, and so he escaped.

I am sure that we all remember the account in the Acts of Saul’s, as he was known before his conversion, encounter with the Risen Lord on the road as he approached Damascus.  It was there that he heard the voice challenging him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me ……”  He was struck blind as a result of the vision, and had to be led into the city where, a few days later, he was healed by Ananias, one of the Christian community there – one of those who Paul had been sent by the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem to persecute.  Shortly afterwards he was baptised.  This happened perhaps two, three, or even four years after the Resurrection of Christ.

Some twenty years or so later, Paul was writing to the Christians at Corinth, whose Church had been brought into existence through his missionary activity.  We read part of this epistle this morning.

After the initial sentence, in which he refers to his escape from Damascus and, writing in about the year 56, he refers to an extraordinary spiritual experience some 14 years earlier, probably in the year 42.  This would have been around nine years after the Resurrection, and roughly the same time before his first missionary journey.

By the way in which he speaks, this experience seems to have been unique, at the time of writing, never having been repeated.  Pau, out of modesty, attempted to write of this experience as though it happened to someone else, but it is clear that he was actually writing of himself.

It seems that he was caught up, “whether in the body or out of the body” he knew not, into the “third heaven”.  He repeats the statement, “I know that this man was caught up into “Paradise”, whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.”

He uses the expressions “the third heaven”, and “Paradise” as alternatives for the same thing.  In New Testament times, in Jewish tradition, there were considered to be three heavens.  The first heaven was the world in which we live – a world initially created good, a  “paradise”, according to Genesis, but which had been afflicted and corrupted by sin – not a heaven as that word is usually understood.

The second heaven was the sphere of the planets, the stars, and the galaxies as far as, and far beyond, what could be seen.

The third heaven lay beyond the second heaven, and there was the throne of God –  heaven as we tend to think of it.

Perhaps, with our modern scientific insights, we may think of the third heaven as being beyond the limitations of a three dimensional universe of space and time, beyond our knowledge and experience – for now.  Beyond spatial and temporal limitations, this third heaven may be very close to us, but concealed through our own limitations, and particularly the reality of sin.  This hidden place is a reality into which many Christian mystics have found themselves transported in prayer.

So it was that fourteen years before he writes, Paul had been transported into the presence of God himself, where “he heard things that cannot be told, and which man may not utter”.  In other words this was an event in which he experienced revelations from God himself to prepare and strengthen him for his future work as a Christian missionary.

This was an extraordinary, an ecstatic experience for Paul, but in order that he should not be too elated, he was given a “thorn in the flesh” to harass him.  What this thorn in the flesh was is not specified.  The Orthodox Study Bible suggests that it might have been a chronic physical problem, or perhaps deluded Christian leaders, or perhaps hard-hearted Israelites.  I once heard it suggested that he was an epileptic, and many Christian pastors will recognise the experience of at least some thorns among their flocks.

Whatever the “thorn in the flesh might have been”, Paul begged the Lord that it should leave him, but the answer was clear, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  That answer satisfied Paul because he was than able to declare that he would gladly boast of his weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ might rest upon him.

It has been said that, when we pray, and ask God for something we shall get one of three answers – “Yes”, “No”, or “Wait.  When we complain that God doesn’t answer our prayers it is usually because he doesn’t give the answers that we think he ought to give.  It is important that, whatever the answer may be, provided that we have prayed in sincere faith we should accept that answer.

Paul was a man of extraordinary faith, who had been given an extraordinary mission.  In order to sustain and uphold him among all the trials of his ministry during the years ahead, and in addition to his extraordinary conversion experience, he had been given a revelation which was beyond anything he could describe. This enabled him to face and endure persecutions, hardship and eventually, the death of a martyr.  By the grace of God, Paul the Pharisee had become a worthy “Apostle of Christ to the Gentiles”.

Чудесный лов рыбы

Pentecost 17 (1st Of Luke)

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In today’s Gospel we find Jesus quite close to the start of his public ministry in Galilee.  He has been baptised.  He has spent the forty day fast and its related temptations in the wilderness, and on his return to Galilee he goes first to his home town of Nazareth.  There, he was invited on the Sabbath to read from the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue.

After the reading he proclaimed, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”  – and the people ran him out of town. He then set out for Capurnaum, a fishing village on the shore of the lake, where he taught on the Sabbath in the local Synagogue there.

Next we hear of various healings and exorcisms after which he went out to a lonely place probably, as he often did, to pray.  Yet some people had followed him and continued to press in on him although he had told them that he needed to go and preach in other places as well.  It is then that we come to this morning’s Gospel reading where he overcomes the immediate problem of being pressed in by the crowds.

They are close to the lake. There were two boats near the shore.  He got into one of these which, the Gospel tells us, belonged to Simon Peter.  He then asked him to pull out a little from the shore, and from there he was able to teach without being pressed in by the crowd.

Having finished what he wanted to say, he asked Peter to pull out into the deep and put down the nets for a catch of fish.  Peter’s response was that they had toiled all night but without success but that, if Jesus requested, he would do so.  The result was a net filled with a great shoal of fish, too great for one boat, so they had to call on another to assist, and both were full.

It was at that point that Peter recognised the truly exceptional situation in which they found themselves.  He fell down before Jesus with the words, “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.”  By these words Peter was recognising the truly extraordinary situation in which they found themselves, and he was struck by fear.  Jesus responded with words of encouragement, “Don’t be afraid, from now on you will be catching men.”  This was just the beginning.  Greater things were yet to come.

Many years ago there was a film called “The Big Fisherman”.  This was mainly concerned with the life of Peter. The tradition of Peter the Fisherman persisted into his later life and beyond so that, even today, the Bishop of Rome wears the “fisherman’s ring”.  How appropriate the gospel analogy of the fisherman seems to be.  “From henceforth you will be catching men”.  Once a fisherman, always a fisherman, although the nature of the catch may be different.  This was just the beginning.  As the Lord spoke then, he caught fish.  In time to come, the catch would be quite different – people.

Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.  Peter has been struck by something unique in Jesus.  This man teaches with authority – greater than that of their scribes and Pharisees.  He heals the sick.  He drives demons out of the possessed, demons who were incidentally the first to recognise him for who his is, “You are the Son of God”, they cry.  They are unable to resist his authority, and they leave the possessed in peace.

“Depart from me Lord ….”  The original language of the Gospels was Greek.  Peter addresses Jesus as “Kyrios” and the use of this word is significant.  In modern Greek it is widely used and we would translate it as “mister”. Nothing special to note in that.  In the N.T. it is most widely used of Jesus but I think that Peter, in this incident, may have been the first to use it of him.

However, in the Greek translation of the O.T. it translates the Hebrew “Adonai”.  This is used in the O.T, in place of the proper name for God, Yahweh, or Jehovah.  This was far too sacred for Jews to use, hence the substitute, Adonai, of Kyrios.

In today’s Gospel, Peter was usingthis substitute for the Divine Name, that is “Adonai”.  Whether or not he was recognising Jesus as the Son of God at this early stage is debateable and, I think, unlikely, but he sensed the power of God in this situation, and it made him feel vulnerable.  He wanted to step back. It made him aware, as a human being, of his sinfulness, and the experience of the power of God makes us afraid.

A familiar prayer to Orthodox is the Jesus Prayer – “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner” There is a lot more to the Jesus Prayer than simply reciting it many times.  It recognises the point at which we are in our relationship with God, and at whatever time in our lives we may use it whether as convert, on our death bed, or at many times in between.  When we can say nothing else there is nothing better.

Before God, all are sinners and, paradoxically, the holier the person, the more aware they themselves become of this fact.  Perhaps, for Peter, this was the first time that he had come to recognise this reality – the first time that it had really hit home, and it was a humbling experience for him as he prays, “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man”.

On a later occasion a Roman centurion begged Jesus not to come into his home because he was unworthy. “Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.”

It is through the humility and penitence of admitting our true situation – that we are sinful and unworthy – that the door is opened for God to enter more fully in our lives.

In Peter’s case, he received the promise of future blessing.  He was to become a major instrument in hauling many onto that ship which is the Church of God.  Initially, he might have been weak.  He might have misunderstood so much.  He might have denied his master;  but in all of those experiences, when it was really important he became strong in the Lord, willing to accept suffering as his master had, even to a similar death on a cross on the Vatican hill just outside Rome where his tomb is still venerated today.

Elevation of the Precious and Life-giving Cross

16th after Pentecost Sunday after the Exaltation of the Cross

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(On the photo is the largest known fragment of the True Cross in the world. It is treasured at the Holy Monastery of Xeropotamou, Mt. Athos. A hole from the nail that went through our Saviour’s right hand, can be seen surrounded by diamonds at the lower portion of the vertical cross-bar.)

Last Friday was the feast for the “Universal exaltation, or Elevation of the Precious and Life-giving Cross”, and the Feast carries over to today.  So the Gospel reading for today was from St Mark, but there are similar passages in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.  This passage is headed in the Orthodox Study Bible “Jesus’ first prophecy of His Passion”.

It is made quite clear in the Gospels that, at a certain stage Jesus prepared the disciples for these events, but that they were unable to understand or even to accept what he was telling them. Yet what he says is quite clear.  St Mark states that “He began to teach them that the Son of Man must be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” A series of very clear statements, but statements which, at that stage in his ministry, seemed to his followers to be completely incomprehensible and are to be understood only in the light of the fulfilment of these events

Perhaps to shed some light on the scene we need to go back a few verses.  Today’s Gospel begins at verse 34 when Jesus announces to his disciples that whoever desires to follow him must also deny himself.  He can then take up the cross and follow him because whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Jesus’s sake and the Gospel’s will the save it.

He goes further by asking what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul because that is the outcome of choosing the world.  It is to lose one’s soul.

He also continues that “Whoever is ashamed of me in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” To this he adds another statement that must have been very difficult to understand for his hearers, “Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power.”  It is important to note that we might see this statement in the light of the very next episode recorded in the Gospel – the Transfiguration of Jesus, but we should see also in in the light of the select group who were taken up the mountain by Jesus to witness this event.  We are told that this morning’s Gospel was related in the presence of the people and his disciples, by which we ate to understand the Twelve. The Transfiguration, the vision of Jesus in his glory took place in the presence of just three of them, Peter, James, and John as witnesses.  Only these three, at this stage were ready for this

I think that we are intended to understand the statement that I quoted above, “Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power”, we are to understand this in the sense that the vision of Jesus in the glory that was his by right was, after all, to witness to the coming kingdom Of God.

In today’s Gospel we are told of things that, to the disciples, in their fullness were yet to be.  Even now, two thousand years later, they are still yet to be.

In the early Church, the return of the Lord in Glory was thought to be imminent, and Christians lived in faithful expectation of this wonderful event.  Today, two thousand years on we seem to have lost that sense of expectation, and yet what we should be for ever aware of is that although the return of the Lord seems to have been delayed, or rather not delayed, but the time has not yet come.  Millions more have died during those two millennia in the expectation that, although the return of the Lord seems have been delayed, we still await it, as our ancestors did, in God’s good time.  However there is another event that we cannot delay and that is our own death, an event that we need at all times to keep in mind.

The return of the Lord in glory needs to be seen in another way.  It will come about only when all who have been pre-destined by God to be included in this great in- gathering have been born and the vast majority have died.

If it had happened during the life times of the apostles, many millions of those who have lived throughout the intervening two thousand years would have been excluded.  They would not have been born – they would not have existed.  However it was a part of God’s good purpose that they should have been included, and for it to be possible for them –and that includes us – to have been included they needed first to have been born, and to have lived their lives according to God’s will and purpose.

Parable of the Great Supper

14th after Pentecost Matt. 22:2-14 c.f. Luke 14: 15-24

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The Gospel reading today is sometimes known as the “Parable of the Great Supper” or, as the heading in the Orthodox Study Bible has it, “Who enters into the Kingdom?”  Perhaps that heading, above all, should make us sit up and take note.  In this homily I shall be quoting from both the Matthew version that we heard this morning, and from the Luke version in order to give a fuller picture.

The scene is a supper. One of the guests, in Luke’s account, but not in Matthew’s, exclaims “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.” And this provides the lead-in to the Parable.

A king gave a great supper, and many guests were invited.  There seems to have been no set date or time for this event, but when the time came, the King sent his servants to proclaim to those who had been invited that “All things are now ready”.

The response was not quite what might have been expected.  One by one the invited guests made their excuses.  “I have bought a piece of land:  I have bought five yoke of oxen, and am going to test them:  I have married a wife.”  No doubt there were other excuses in the same vein.  Some of the servants were even beaten up and killed.  The surviving servants returned to their master to report.

The king was angry.  He sent his servants out to the streets and the lanes of the city, to bring in the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind.  The servants did this, but still there was room, so they were sent out again, this time to the countryside, to the highways, and the hedges to compel them to come in, “that my house may be filled.”

The final words in the Luke version of the parable are “I say to you that none of those men who were invited”, that is those were invited first, “shall taste of my supper.”

The scene that this parable is intended to invoke in Jesus’s hearers is the Messianic Banquet.  The great celebration in the Kingdom of God, that is Heaven, at the end of the Age, following the general Resurrection.  At the sound of the angelic trumpets announcing the return of the Lord, and following the last Judgement, there will be a great celebration.

God will make all things new; and the whole of creation, the entire cosmos, which has been subject to death and corruption since the Fall will return to its primal state of blessedness

Jesus makes a number of points during the course of the parable. There are those who were first invited, the Jews.  These as a group, although as we know there have been, are, and will be exceptions, rejected the invitation.  However, the banquet will take place, and all the places will be taken.

So we are reminded of the announcement of the coming kingdom to the Jewish people first, an invitation which was rejected by many, perhaps most of those people, represented by their contemporary leaders, the Priests, the Scribes, and the Pharisees.

Then the invitation is to be extended to all and sundry – to the nations, the Gentiles, that is to us. This is a theme that is to be found in all the Gospels, but the invitation, or announcement, is brought in the Gospels first to the Jews, God’s people, and the signs of rejection are already there, as in today’s parable.

After its rejection by the Jews the invitation was to be broadcast throughout the world.  Luke’s second book the Acts of the Apostles relates the beginnings of this process, as missionaries were sent out into “the streets and lanes, the highways, and the hedges”.

The Christian expectation has always been that, having received an invitation lacking a date and a time these will, in due course, follow at very short notice, so we are to be ready at all times.  It may come after our individual deaths.  It could be at some time during the next few minutes or so, but happen it will, and it will be an event of such un-precedented magnitude that “All flesh shall see it ….”

In the meantime each of us is here this morning is here by invitation, to share in what is a foretaste of something, the reality of which will be so wonderful that it is beyond description.  It is beyond description because we have no reference points by which to describe it.

The Eucharist, the Divine Liturgy is itself a foretaste of the Great, or Messianic, Banquet.  Even the words “Banquet”, or “Feast” can offer only a poor and inadequate description of the great heavenly celebration that is to be, not in earthly time, but into all eternity, a concept which has no beginning and no ending.

We are invited to the Divine Liturgy week by week.  Many make excuses.  We do know the time and the place, but that does not seem to prevent many from accepting more apparently pressing invitations – “Worldly entanglements: Poor excuses.”

Bishop Kallistos once described an icon that on an occasion he once saw in a church.  At first sight it appeared to represent the Great Entrance, that we shall shortly perform in this Liturgy; but as he looked at it more closely he realised that those represented in the scene were not men, but angels, and the priest was Jesus Christ himself.

Here, at the Holy Table we stand, as it were, before the Heavenly Altar surrounded, invisibly, by the Cherubim and the Seraphim.  So the priest sings “Christ is in our midst”, and all reply, “He is, and ever shall be.”  This is made very clear in what we shall then sing:

Let us who in a mystery represent the Cherubim, and who sing the Thrice Holy Hymn to the All Creating Trinity, lay aside all earthly cares, that we may receive the King of All, who comes invisibly up- borne by the angelic hosts… Alleluia.

Try to follow these words carefully today.  If we truly accept this, or even just begin to understand it, our hearts will be raised little by little and, in time, more and more as we are drawn closer and closer to the Great Banquet that is to be.

Be in no doubt about it.  The invitation to be here at 10.00 on a Sunday morning is the most important and significant that you will ever receive.  Participating in the Divine Liturgy, week by week we also participate in some degree, by anticipation, in the Great Heavenly Banquet.

Transfiguration

10th after Pentecost, (Forefeast of the Transfiguration)

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In recent weeks, beginning on the first Sunday in June, we have been reading Gospels for the Sundays of Matthew.  These continue for fourteen weeks until September

Today we hear Matthew’s account of the Transfiguration of Jesus as today is the Forefeast, and tomorrow the Feast.  Jesus, with Peter, James, and John climb a high mountain- perhaps Mount Tabor which, as I have recently commented, is visible for miles around.  The four of them are there by themselves.  They have left the other disciples behind, below, on the plain, to deal with the crowds and it seems from the first verse of today’s Gospel that they are expected by the people to deal with situations entirely beyond their powers.

That episode comes immediately before the Gospel for the Transfiguration, and it is on that that we are concentrating today

“And he was transfigured before them.  His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light”. Matt. 17:2

The Transfiguration is a unique event, a theophany, – a manifestation of God, and especially of the divinity of Christ, through the display of his uncreated, divine energy.  Therefore, the Orthodox Church celebrates the Transfiguration of the Lord as a major feast day.  Several elements of the Transfiguration event show that Christ is Messiah and God:

Because God is light, the bright cloud, the shining of Jesus’s face like the sun, and the whiteness of his garment all demonstrate that Jesus is God.  In some icons this light is shown as beyond white, a kind of bluish-white, an unique and ineffable colour indicating its spiritual origin.

Then the Father bears witness from heaven from the cloud concerning his Son. It is important to note that He does nor say “This has become My beloved Son” but “This is my beloved Son”.  This proclaims that the divine glory which is displayed before them is his by his very nature, and from eternity.  Jesus is God’s Son, fully sharing in the essence of the Father.  As we proclaim in the Creed, “He is God of God”.

The Transfiguration not only proclaims Christ’s divine Sonship, but foreshadows his future glory when he, as the Messiah, will usher in the long-awaited Kingdom.  The bright cloud is a reminder of aspects of temple worship. This is the cloud that went before the Israelites in the wilderness, the visible sign of God’s presence among them.

Peter sees this as a sign that the Kingdom has come, and knowing that the Feast of Tabernacles is the feast of the coming Kingdom, he asks Jesus if he can build booths as was done at that feast, to serve as symbols of God’s dwelling among the righteous in his Kingdom.

Moses, of course, represents the Law and all those who have died.  Moses is the great Law-giver.  Elijah represents the prophets and – since he did not experience death – he was taken up into heaven –on this occasion he represents all those who are alive in Christ.

The presence of these two shows that the Law and the Prophets, the living and the dead, all bear witness to Jesus the Messiah who was to come, the fulfilment of the whole of the Old Testament.

The presence of Moses and Elijah also manifests the communion of the saints.  Both men are immediately recognisable, and talk to and with the Lord.  The disciples are able to understand Jesus’s words that “Elijah has come already”, referring to John the Baptist.  Their eyes have been opened to the fact that Malachi’s prophecy refers to one who is to come “in the spirit and power of Elijah”, rather than to Elijah himself”.

Finally, the Holy Trinity is manifest here, for Christ is transfigured, the Father speaks from Heaven, testifying to Jesus’s divine Sonship, and the Spirit is present in the form of a dazzling light surrounding Christ’s person, and overshadowing the whole mountain.

After this unique experience which will inevitably form a memory engraved in the minds of the three disciples the small group return to the plain below, to the other nine disciples and the crowd who were awaiting them.

As soon as Jesus and the other three met up with the others a man came up to Jesus begging in despair “Lord have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic (the older version says” lunatic”).  He suffers severely, for he often falls into the fire and often into water, but your disciples could not cure him.”  In response, Jesus immediately rebuked the demon, for he discerned that this was the cause rather than a purely medical condition such as epilepsy, and the demon immediately came out of the boy, and he was cured.

This episode comes immediately after the Gospel for the Transfiguration, and it is on that that we are concentrating today, but I will just say a few words about it because it would have been the Gospel reading for today but for this being the eve of the Transfiguration.

We have been on the mountain with Peter, James and John, sharing with them as witnesses to the fullness of the true nature of Jesus Christ who is himself, as we proclaim in the Creed “God of God; Light of Light; True God of True God”.  Now with a word of the power that is his he casts out what he discerns is the evil spirit that had been troubling the boy.

We can only imagine the joy of the father as his son is returned to him cured and able to live in the fullness of a relationship which they had not been able to share until this moment.

The nine disciples who had not been on the mountain with Jesus then came to him ask why they had not been able to cast the demon out.  Jesus tells them that it is because of their unbelief.  “If you had faith as a mustard seed (the smallest imaginable) you could move this mountain.”

Yet things were to change for them in due course.  As well as Peter, James, and John, the three who were ready to be with Jesus on the mountain on that day, in due course the Holy Spirit would come upon the others in due course when the Lord was no longer with them in the flesh and, in the power of that Spirit these men would initiate the spread of the Gospel to the ends of the Earth.

Galilean Sea

9th after Pentecost (Matt. 14:22-34)

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I have made a number of pilgrimages to the Holy Land, although my last visit was now more than twenty years ago.  On each occasion I experienced what can only be described as a “home coming”. I suppose that this may have been because for most of my life the Bible and its study have been important to me.

Travellers around the Land will soon be aware of considerable variations in the countryside and landscape in this small country.  To the north, in the Galilee region, there is water, and plenty of greenery.  In other parts, particularly during the summer, the landscape is parched and dry.  In some parts you pass through regions of true desert, particularly in the south-east and the approaches to Jericho, or to the Dead Sea.

The Gospel last week and this was set in the Galilee area.  The name is applied not just to the Lake, or Sea of Galilee, but also to the countryside.  The lake itself consists of a considerable body of water fed from the north by streams originating in Mt. Hermon.  From the south, the water flows out into the River Jordan, which runs eventually into the Dead Sea.  The Dead Sea has no outlet other than evaporation into the atmosphere.  This, over many centuries has led to an increasing salt content which makes it impossible to sink in the water.

When you travel in parts of the Galilee region you are often aware of a high, flat topped, hill to the South.  This is Mt. Tabor, almost certainly the mountain on which Jesus was transfigured, an event which the Church commemorates a week tomorrow.

As today’s pilgrims drive by coach down in the direction of the Lake, they pass a sign which states that you are about to pass below sea level that is the level of the Mediterranean.  Here, though, the lake itself is still several hundred feet further down.  On my first visit we were led by an elderly, and now long dead, Anglican priest.  His custom at this point was to advise pilgrims to put on their breathing apparatus.  Fr. Foizey would be delighted to know that perhaps twenty five years later his little joke could still raise a smile.  May he rest in peace.

The Sea of Galilee was the setting for last week’s Gospel reading when we heard the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 in a lonely place on the far side of the lake. Jesus had gone by boat to this place with the intention of seeking a little solitude after a grueling and exhausting journey around the region.

There, he had been intercepted by a crowd of people who had followed him on land around the shores of the lake.  Now, having spent the day with them and fed them, he told the disciples to return to the other side in the boat while he sent the people away. He then went up onto the hillside to pray alone.

As we heard in the Gospel, the disciples did as Jesus requested, leaving him alone, and we are led into the main narrative for this morning’s Gospel.  Jesus has sent the crowds away and has spent time alone in prayer with his Father, receiving refreshment.

We then hear the central account for the Gospel.  The weather, we are told, on the Lake of Galilee is very unpredictable even for those used to it.  The boat was now out in the middle of the lake, but could be seen to be tossed about by the wind which was, as the Gospel tells us, contrary.  There is no indication that the disciples were at all worried by what to many of them was a regular occurrence.

Then, in the fourth watch of the night Jesus came to them, walking on the water.  Obviously this was not a natural event and the disciples call out in fear, thinking that this was a ghost.

Then Jesus responds with the words, “Be of good cheer.  It is I.  Do not be afraid.”   The response of Peter was, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water”.  Jesus gave the command, and Peter stepped out onto the water and began to walk towards Jesus – until, that is he realized what he was doing – which was clearly impossible – his faith failed him, and he began to sink.  Peter cried out in fear to Jesus, who then reached out and caught his hand with the words, “Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And as they climbed into the boat the wind ceased. Then they all came up to Jesus and, as the account says, worshipped him saying, “Truly you are the Son Of God.”

There is a verse in the Letter to the Hebrews which says, “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.”   Peter walked on the water, but only for as long as he kept his eyes firmly fixed upon Jesus, the Lord through whom the power came to enable him to do this.

I have mentioned before that there was often a reason for recording such incidents in the Gospels. They often formed the basis of a catechesis, a teaching in the early church to illustrate some particular point.

Jesus Christ is the source of our faith.  He is our inspiration, our strength.  Through him we do indeed have the power to do what, in our own strength, is impossible.  That goes for the relatively ordinary situations in life which, without the inspiration of Jesus, we might well avoid.

Also, according to our faith, by looking to Jesus, there are much greater things that we might do.  Remember, on one occasion Jesus, speaking of faith told his disciples that if they had faith like a grain of mustard seed, which is a tiny thing, they could command a mountain to be uprooted and cast into the sea.  May the Lord grant us true faith, as we look unto Jesus.

The Miracle of the Five Loaves and Two Fishes

8th after Pentecost

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The passage which comes before today’s Gospel tells of the death of John the Baptist.  At the end of that passage we are told that “John’s disciples came and took away the body and buried it; and they went and told Jesus.”

The response of Jesus was to withdraw privately by boat to a lonely place.  He needed to do this, partly to recharge his batteries after a gruelling tour around the towns and villages of Galilee, and partly, not so much to mourn for John, as to prepare for a further stage in his own ministry.

Only two chapters further on we read of the Transfiguration. On that occasion Jesus was seen to be conversing with Moses and Elijah.  Here he speaks of the “exodus” that he is to accomplish in Jerusalem.

We are familiar with the word “exodus” from the title of the second book of the O.T., but not everyone will know what it means.  If you visit a Greek speaking country you will see this word written boldly where we would use the word “exit”.  In biblical terms, it refers to the exodus or exit of the Hebrews from Egypt via their passage through the Red Sea.  This event has always been sees as a “type” of the passage of Jesus through the “deep waters” of death and the grave to the Resurrection.  It was from that moment, his Transfiguration, that Jesus began to teach his disciples about his forthcoming death.  So we are to see this short period between the death of John and his own Transfiguration as a time where, in this lonely place, he is able to prepare for what is to come.

Unfortunately, distances in the Galilee region are not very great, and on a clear day it is not difficult to see right across to the other side. Someone standing on a high point near where Jesus had set out on the boat could quite easily have followed the course of the little vessel to its destination.  Then the word would have been passed around and everyone would have set out to catch up with him by simply walking around the northern shore of the lake.

On arrival, Jesus was met by a great crowd.  Instead of being irritated and trying to get rid of them, “his heart went out to them and he cured those who were sick”.  Instead of considering his own needs, he had compassion – one of the most characteristic qualities that we associate with him – on these people.

We are familiar with the word “passion”, which, in the biblical sense, means “suffering”.  To say that Jesus had compassion means that he looked at these people, recognised their need, and himselfshared in their suffering.  He entered into their suffering with them.  The immediate and most pressing need was to heal the sick, and this he did, but then towards the end of the day his disciples came up to him, pointing out that this was a lonely place, and the day had gone.  He should send the people off to the villages to buy food.  But how practical was that?

The day is far on, it will soon be dark and this, being a lonely place, the nearest village was some distance away.  And what when they get there?  Was there likely to be enough food available?  We are talking of five thousand men, as well as women and children.

It was then that Jesus performed one of his most remembered miracles, recorded in all four Gospels. He took five loaves and two fishes, blessed God over them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples, who distribute them around among the people, and all were satisfied.

Miracles, to some people are a problem.  They are not something that we normally expect to take place.  Possibly for that reason they rarely do.  However, Jesus knew exactly what to expect.  All the disciples had to do was to follow his instructions.  Miracles do take place, and there are examples among Orthodox Christians of even such as this, the “multiplication of bread”.

Someone once said, about the miracles that were taking place among a fairly simple and uneducated people, to another who questioned the facts,  “The trouble is, these people are to dumb to know what is not possible”.  If we were to receive the gifts of humility and simplicity from God, we would not only expect miracles, but not be surprised when they occurred.

And yet there is one miracle which occurs among us week after week. We have become so accustomed to it that many of us don’t bother to come if we don’t feel like it.  It is the miracle of the Eucharist in which ordinary bread and wine are changed by the power of the Holy Spirit and become the Body and the Blood of Jesus Christ.  In St John’s Gospel, Jesus follows the feeding of the 5,000 with a teaching on its meaning.  As a Eucharistic homily it says all that could be said.  “I am the Bread of life.”  “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood dwells continually in me and I dwell in him …….. so he who eats me shall live because of me” and so on.  Read St John Ch 6.

It was this kind of terminology that lead to early Christians being accused of cannibalism.  In a group that I once belonged too there were two elderly ladies who had tremendous problems with it, even the words used by the priest as he distributed communion. “The Body, the Blood of Christ”.  So how can it be?  It still looks like bread and wine.  It still tastes like bread and wine.  If submitted to scientific tests it would react as bread and wine.  And yet Jesus says this is my Body, this is my Blood.  And that is just the way that in faith we receive them.

The Western (R.C.) Church developed a particular theory as to how this could be so.  The Orthodox Church does not have any such theory, but the important thing is to be aware that whatever they may appear to be in every physical characteristic, in a real spiritual sense they are actually something different.  By receiving them we are ingesting something of the life and reality of Jesus Christ himself without which we cannot live.

Don’t put yourself above the words of Jesus.  Receive them thankfully.  When he first spoke them they caused great scandal, and we are told that many of his disciples withdrew and no longer went around with him.  Jesus didn’t call them back.  He didn’t say “come back, you haven’t quite understood what I have been saying.”

Some of his words are hard, but we cannot reject them just because they don’t fit into our world view of things, or our way of thinking “The words which I have spoken to you are both spirit and life.  And yet there are some of you who have no faith.”

May God grant us this faith, which is founded on simplicity and humility.

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