In Psalm 116, King David asks, “What shall I render to the Lord, for all His bounty to me?” His response is: “I will lift up the cup of salvation, and call on the Name of the Lord.”
As we Consider all the gifts that God has given us even before we were formed: the world that He’s created, the natural beauty of the sea and the stars, mountains, and all the animal life upon the earth, and then, beyond the creation, His saving acts: the incarnation, the cross, the tomb, the resurrection, the ascension, the words of truth we hear each week in the Divine Liturgy, a grateful heart can easily see that, in a sense, we have nothing to offer God that can ‘repay’ Him for such blessings to us, His many gifts.
If, then, we add to these universal blessings, the personalblessings and gifts He’s given each of us, foremost, the opportunity for new life in Him, for communion with Him, participation in His divine life through the Sacraments, healing from our sin-sickness, growth in the knowledge and love of God, and eternal life with Him, we are left speechless—awed, humbled, and, I should hope, thankful for His great love and mercy on us sinners.
St. Gregory Palamas says, “When David, having reflected on the matter, saw everything he had received, and everything given to those who went before him…he understood that the benefits bestowed by God are immeasurable and that, whereas these really are bounties from God for us, the things men offer to God are nothing in comparison.” And so, this being the case, what does St. David offer in response? He says, “I will offer to Him the sacrifice of thanksgiving.”
Our thanksgiving is the song of praise, the glory we offer to God in worship, beginning with our getting ourselves to worship in the first place; it’s also our obedience to struggle to live out our life in Christ, to pray, to participate in the Sacraments, to prioritize the life in Christ above all the temporal preoccupations that otherwise demand our time, energy, and focus. It’s our willingness to come outside of ourselves to serve Christ and His holy Church, to build up the body of Christ as an offering of love to Christ, to witness to His truth and salvation to the world around us.
But how hard it is for us to have this attitude of thanksgiving and service when our focus is on ourselves, our own problems, or if we’re consumed with our own preoccupations in the world, our work, or our desire for gain or for worldly pursuits at the expense of our worship and life in Christ, who alone is Life. Such distractions keep us from our focus on Christ and make it next to impossible to cultivate the kind of thankful and faithful spirit we see in King David.
In today’s Gospel, the disciples can’t understand why they cannot cast out the demon. They are dumbfounded. Christ tells them directly, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”
In our own life, there may well be a ‘mountain,’ some impediment, in the way of our living a more joyous, thankful, and faithful life in Christ. Ask yourself, is there anything holding me back from making Christ and His Church the priority in my life? What ‘mountain’, what lack of faith stands before me? The worship of the Church, our participation in the Sacraments, our service to the Body and then to the world, our offering of our “sacrifice of thanksgiving,” our daily prayers, the cries of our hearts, are all means of further growth in Christ and the removal of those ‘mountains’ that come between us and God. Increase in faith begins with a desire for more faith, humbly praying for more, availing ourselves of the Church and all her tools of salvation.
Coming to church once a week is an important first step in learning to prioritize Christ in your life, but it alone isn’t enough to counter the culture’s influence on us and the barrage of distractions,’ the ‘mountains’ we’re confronted with day in, day out. We need the Body of Christ here to help us as we encourage each other, each living out his or her particular role, gifts and talents, in the life of the Church. We needrepentance, the Sacraments, fasting, all the tools Christ’s entrusted to us if we’re to see His victory in us and love as He’s commanded us.
So here we see another truth: we don’t just come to church for ourselves, but for our brother and sister in Christ. And they, likewise, don’t just come to church for themselves, but for you! The extent to which you receive what you need from God is related to how you give of yourself to God and, therefore, each other. In this way, Christ assures us, we build up the Body of Christ.
Church can never be just about what’s here for me. If we want the church to make things comfortable for us and do as we bid, serving us only, then that is not Orthodox Christianity and you will find yourself not growing in communion with Christ. It’s we who serve and build up each other. We are the Church. In our Orthodox worship as in our Orthodox understanding of salvation, it’s necessary for us to be willing to come outside of ourselves to serve, to grow, to change. There’s no other way because this is what it means to be and become more and more like Christ, who said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. 26 Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant.27 And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave—28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:25-28).
The worship of the Church guides us in this way—to come outside of ourselves and use all of ourselves in worship. In Orthodox worship, we use all our senses: we seethe gilded icons and beautiful vestments reflective of and pointing us towards the heavenly worship of God’s Kingdom to which we are called and drawn, we smellthe incense, the sweetness of the Kingdom of God and the life that is in Him, we hearthe beauty of the music and the song of praise from our lips and hearts, the truth of God’s words spoken through the Holy Tradition of the Church—liturgy, Scripture, hymnody, the prayers. We cross ourselves, touchand kiss the icons, the cross, and, foremost, take Christ, the “medicine of immortality,” inside ourselves.
Our coming outside of ourselves in worship is a paradigm for our coming outside ourselves to serve on another and witness to the world around us. The less time we give to God in worship, both in and outside of Church, the less we’ll benefit from it. But the reverse is also true: the more we strive to worship, to pray, to give of ourselves to God, the more we avail ourselves of opportunities to grow in faith, being strengthened and renewed in Christ, the more we reap the benefits in our spiritual lives, and the more we help others to find their healing and salvation as well. The more we partake of the medicine of the spiritual hospital of the Church, the more we heal and grow and make it possible for others to do the same through our witness. What shall I render to the Lord? Whatever you offer to God, in His great love and mercy for us, know that He has given us and will give us exponentially so much more in return. And as we grow in faith, offering ourselves as a living sacrifice, we too will see those mountains moved that stand between us and God and His eternal Kingdom.
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Epistle: I Cor. 4:9-16
Gospel: Matt. 17:14-23
