Getting out of the spin cycle!

Getting out of the Spin Cycle!
The Reading is from Luke 10:38-42, 11:27-28
At that time, Jesus entered a village; and a woman called Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving; and she went to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve you alone? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her." As he said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!" But he said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"
We read of Martha today.  She wanted to serve.  In the midst of her service she feels overwhelmed.  The Greek text is very instructive  and brings out the true state of her emotions.  This is what happens when we do not sit first at the feet of Jesus.

Jesus  said, “Martha you are careful (merimnas),  troubled (turbaneis) .” Luke said she  was periespasato  about her service.  She said, “lord don’t you care (ouk  melei  soi)”

Not spending time with the Lord we experience 4 things,

1.Anxiety
2. Spinning about-  we get on spin cycle so to speak.  This is the word for a turbine.
3.We are broken up in our attention.
4.We become bitter about others- feeling  we are the only ones serving God.

Let’s  get out of the spin  cycle-  tossed to and fro with cares  broken  inside, and thinking we’re doing it all and just stare in the Face of the Lord  and enjoy His Presence.

A Pause to Give Thanks

Forgetting to be Thankful:  a Pause to Praise

A change has subtly occurred in our culture  over the last few years.  Traditionally Christmas decorations and shopping  begin  on the infamous Friday after Thanksgiving, when the frenzy of festal buying can reach a fever pitch.  But I noticed this year Christmas music and decorations went right up after Halloween.  There was not even a pause given  for Thanksgiving.  Of course, Thanksgiving  doesn’t have quite the merchandising magnetism of Halloween or Christmas. Turkeys, pies and canned goods   don’t give a big economic up tick.  

Let’s pause instead in the midst of the mayhem and thank God for the blessings  He has given us. After all as the Psalmist said, “It is He who made us and not we ourselves.”

This attitude embodies the heart of our worship, it is proper. As we say in the Divine Liturgy, “Let us give thanks unto  the Lord...it is proper and right.” The attitude of thanksgiving is  gratitude for the grace given.  At the heart of this attitude  is the acknowledgement, “what do you have that you did not receive?  Now if you did receive it,  why do you boast as though  you  did not receive it?” (” (1 Cor.4:7) Everything is a gift from God, although He might use us as His instruments. 

This attitude is preparatory.  Thanksgiving prepares our heart to  receive God’s blessings. St.  John  tells us, “grace is given instead of grace “ (Jn.1:16) That is,  a life of gracious thanks  causes us to  give out of grace of  God’s bounty and fullness and ironically  brings more grace.  The greatest blessing we can then receive is God Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ, who by our thanksgiving  we can  prepare our hearts to receive this Nativity season.  

a pericope in perspective

Gospel text follows.

There are two  accounts of rich young rulers seeking to have eternal life in the New Testament (Nicodemus is another case altogether). Here in today's reading of Lk.10:25-37, and Mt. 19:16-31  tells of another ruler.  The text in Mt.  emphasizes the first commandment-  to love God with your whole being, as evidenced by selling all and trusting in God.

This text, in Lk.10, the Lord again  answers a rich young ruler and says,"Love God and your neighbor as yourself. " He then  illustrates who the neighbor is,  and disarms this man of his self confidence of keeping the law.  So  here we have the example of loving your neighbor as yourself.

So the Lord wastes no ink- one pericope-  section  emphasizes loving the Lord,  and how to practically do so- and the second illustrates how to practically love our neighbor as ourselves.  With that in mind  let's practically do so.

Lk.10:25-37:

At that time, a lawyer stood up to put Jesus to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read?" And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." And he said to him, "You have answered right; do this, and you will live."

But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.' Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed mercy on him." And Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

Scripture passages are complementary.  Some people  doubt their veracity because the details are not the same.  But the details mentioned are complementary to give us a fuller picture-  panorama- or better yet-  synoptic- view of things.

The Spiritual metric system.

In keeping with  the message of mercy, our Lord lays out literally a spiritual metric system. "  Judge not that you be not judged, " why? " for with  what measure (metrw) you  measure it shall be measured to you again (antmetrithesetai) As the austeros kritis who weighs us finds us wanting in no uncertain terms  He says the measure of our judgment is lessened by the measure of mercy we show. "blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy"  Or as St.  Jacovos  says," He shall have judgment without mercy who has showed no  mercy and mercy triumphs against judgment."
 It is really the reverse  of the lex telones- the principle of an eye for an eye.  As we show grace-  give grace - God gives grace to us.  And of course this is what the prologue of St.  John's gospel  says.
"And  from  His fullness (of grace)  have all we received" how?"and grace  instead of (anti) grace."
  You sow grace, you reap grace, sow mercy reap it. Sow to the Spirit,  reap  life everlasting (Gal.6:7-10)

The basis for our judgment Lk.12:48

In the liturgy we pray  several times, "for a good defence before the dread judgment seat of Christ."  Today's  gospel  reading describes the basis of that judgment, "to whom much is given much shall be required."  Those who sin out of ignorance are punished lightly.  Just like we do with our kids.  Sometimes they do not know and we just say  don't do it again!  But  when  the older child  does something-  well that is another story.

We are all stewards of God's grace (1Pet.4:13).  An  oikonomia- dispensation, responsibility-  has been  given  to each of us.  As  oikonomoi-  stewards of the grace given to us- we are told that God will judge us as stewards.  We are to not judge our own  faithfulness (1Cor.4:1-5), as God will.  What do we do  if we have failed as stewards?  We see in Lk.16:1-16  what to do.  Write off our losses show God  our intent to  more wisely steward His gifts  and then  He is pleased. We will hear," well done good and faithful  servant." 

For those who are interested  there is an allusion to the idea of toll  houses here (a distinctly  Russian  take on our judgment, which I am inclined to)

While He has the whole world in His hands it is not all under His feet

Tomorrows  epistle reading is typical  for feast days:
Hebrews 2:2-10
BRETHREN, if the message declared by angels was valid and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard him, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his own will. For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere, "What is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that thou carest for him? Thou didst make him for a little while lower than the angels, thou hast crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet." Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for every one. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering

To tie this in to the kingdom of God post...  Here we have a theological  account of what  Christ did. Everything is in God's hands.  However not everything  is under his feet- that is subjected to Him.  Evil  happens in this world by God's permission and providence.  The kosmos  was subjected to  powers hostile to God's rule (Gal.4:4-7,19; Col.1:15).  The world then is not under his feet (I Cor.15:22-28).  Christ on the Cross however did  subject  potentially everything to God.  When  He returns,  St. Paul tells us,  everything will be subjected to  Him.  In the meantime we will experience  suffering  as Christ did.  For the suffering ," of this world is not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us." (Rom.8:17-18)
So  let us rejoice that He has the whole world in His hands, yet wait  for all to be subjected to Him.   

The dunamis of Christ

Here is a different take on the reading, Today's gospel  reading- 6no.  It explains  the phenomenon  we experience around others. How many times do we feel drained  after talking to others?  Strength  has left us.  As ministers of the new Covenant  we all have  the privilege of being vessels of the Holy Spirit.  As we interact with others that Divine Dunamis, Presence and Power,  diminishes.  Jesus Himself  as Man experienced this.  He  had to retreat early in the moring to pray  and be endued with the power He needed to  heal others  and minister God's presence.  As we go about this week, let's not think  that we have arrived.  Every tool  I have needs to be recharged.  Let's get connected to the Lord and  get exhausted in His service.  Then start the cycle  again!

form... with substance

"Hold fast the form  of sound words which you have heard among many witnesses,"  was the admonition St. Paul  gave to his son in the faith Timothy.  True  religion has a form and content.  People ask,"why do we worship this way?"  well, the essential structure was given to us, and the basic  elements of our Faith, which the Church elaborated upon as She matured in grace and truth. This explains why  we have an apostles creed that predates the Nicene of 325.  It does not contradict, but we accept the growth in understanding (NB  not  growth in doctrine).  The Church's self reflection and understanding of  the Sacred Deposit  matures.  The structure- the form  of that Truth  doesn't change, while the particular details might.  Take for instance the structure of the Liturgy. The Church  has always had the basic structure we have, and been consensus it elaborated on it's expression of it. Therefore in the 500s the chanting of the Creed  was added to the liturgy. And we could go an  near infinitum.

Religion is Relationship

The mantra typically heard from folks is,"I don't believe in religion,  I believe in a relationship with Christ."  This is a nice way of saying they  don't believe God is to be worshipped and related to by rituals (which is true...to an extent). It is an aspersion at liturgical "Christianities" (those who emphasize a set form for worship).  My contention is that religion rightly understood is relationship.  Why?
Religio is literally what binds one back re- back,  ligio-  bind.  This is where I agree with a famous (NB infamous) mentor of mine  Dr.  Pentiuc.  A theologian  is a philologist (one who loves words).  Relate is from  Latin  relatus, from  referare  to bring back.  In a relationship  you bring yourself back to the other- you bind yourself to them. "the bond of love" as St. Paul calls it.  Religion  binds us to  our culture, the people of God and God Himself. So are we religious? yes we are bound to Him in the cords of love.  Everything we do  we should do religiously.
Religion  also  implies a form of worship, which we affectionately call liturgy. But this is the subject of another post...which I will religiously try  to follow up