King David the Psalmist asks in Psalm 116, “What shall I render to the Lord, for all His bounty to me?” If we consider for even a moment all the gifts God has given us before we were even formed: the world that He’s created for us: community, the Church, the joy that children exude, the beauty of the sea, stars, mountains, and all the animal life upon the earth, and, beyond the creation, His saving acts: the Incarnation, the cross, the resurrection, we quickly realize that, in a sense, we have nothing to offer that can ‘repay’ God for His bounty, mercy, and many blessings.
If we then add to these universal blessings, the personal blessings and gifts given each of us, foremost, the opportunity for new birth in Christ, communion with Him through the Sacraments, healing from our sin-sickness and passions, growth in the knowledge and love of Him, and eternal life with Him, we’re left speechless, in awe, humbled, and, I pray, grateful for His mercy.
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, 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, our willingness to obediently struggle to live out our life in Christ and prioritize that life in Him above all the temporal preoccupations that otherwise demand our time, energy, and focus. It’s also our willingness to come outside of ourselves to serve Him and His Church, to build up the body of Christ, to witness to His truth and salvation to the world around us. These are all offerings of praise pleasing to God and at the heart of what it is to be a Christian. They are, foremost, if done with a spirit of thanksgiving toward God, a true sacrifice of praise.
This week, we commemorate St. Herman of Alaska, who truly lived to the praise of God’s glory, leading the way, together with the other Saints of North America, in giving us a ‘modern’ context for understanding the missionary spirit and zeal for the Gospel that’s at the heart of our calling in Christ. St. Herman was not afraid to love the truth. He exemplified courageous and humble obedience to his bishop in coming to the raw, difficult, and wild Alaskan frontier. This quiet monk embraced the work of spreading the Gospel and fullness of the life in Christ to the peoples God sent him to love. He even stood between them and his own countrymen when the latter sought to exploit His spiritual children. Only an identity grounded in Christ, in the new life in Him, only a thankful and loving heart, enjoys the courage, freedom, and peace to be, “in the world but not of the world” to such an extent that one’s identity in Christ is what matters most.
But how hard it is for us living in a culture where the hallmark of ‘living’ is to do and pursue “whatever you think makes you happy or ‘personally fulfilled’.” God and the way that leads to eternal life has nothing to do with it. To cultivate and learn to have this attitude of thanksgiving and service is that much more difficult to acquire when our focus is on ourselves, our own problems, our own perceived ‘fulfillment,’ consumed with the preoccupations of the world and what it says we should be about, at the expense of what God has called us to. That calling, to become men and women of God, grounding our identity and purpose in life on Christ, on that truth, demands a cross, self-denial if we wish to be among those who will inherit eternal life.
Pride so easily gets in the way of this calling so much that we can find ourselves making excuses when it comes to offering up even the minimum to God in return for His mercy on us sinners. It is pride that causes us to doubt God’s work in us and through us and in those around us. In today’s Gospel, the disciples can’t understand why they cannot cast out the demon. 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.”
Likewise, in our own life, there may be a ‘mountain,’ some impediment in the way of our living a more joyous and full life in Christ. Ask yourself, is there anything holding me back from putting Christ and His Church first in my life? Maybe that ‘mountain’ just seems to great for God to remove. But I’m here to assure you, nothing is too great for God. He has called us all to the fulness of life in Him.
Here’s the key: The worship of the Church, our service to the body of Christ and then to the world, our coming outside of ourselves, to offer our “sacrifice of thanksgiving,” to participate more fully in the sacramental life of Christ in our day to day lives and through our daily prayers, is the means of our further growth in faith and the removal of those ‘mountains’ that come between us and fuller life in Christ. Increase in faith begins with a desire for more faith, praying for more faith, availing ourselves of what the Church offers us, being obedient to her teachings. As we cooperate with the work of the Holy Spirit, submitting ourselves to Christ and His Church and making use of the tools God’s entrusted to us, those mountains can and will be moved!
Coming to church once a week is a first step, but it alone is not enough to counter the culture’s influence on us and the barrage of distractions we’re confronted with day in, day out in our culture. Being in the world but not of the world requires vigilance and recognition that we need more faith, that we need our Savior and His work through the body of Christ, the Church, to spur us on, as we each one live out our particular role in the life of the Church. We need, as Christ says, prayer and fasting. They are indispensible. We need to listen to Christ and His Church.
But 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 we’ve missed the mark and purpose. It is we who serve and build up each other. It is we who are Christ’s ‘workmanship,’ as St. Paul declares. 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 love more and more. There’s no other way because this is what it means to be united more and more with Christ.
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 see the gilded icons and beautiful vestments reflective of and pointing us towards the heavenly worship, the dignity of the priesthood, we smell the incense, the sweetness of the Kingdom of God and the life that is in Him, we hear the hymnody and the song of praise from our lips and those of our brethren in Christ, together with the truth of God’s words spoken through the Holy Tradition of the Church—liturgy, Scripture, hymnody. We cross ourselves, touch and kiss the icons, the cross, and, foremost, take Christ inside ourselves. “We taste and see that the Lord is good.”
And so here we also see the key to moving another mountain: that of building up our mission, growing “in spirit and in numbers,” as we pray in all the divine services. In availing ourselves of church for our own growth, in being energized through the divine worship and our daily prayers and study and praise, we learn more how to courageously love and share our gratitude to God with others so that they too can come to the knowledge and love of Christ as well.
The less time we give to God in worship, both inside and outside of Church, the less we’ll benefit from it. But the inverse is also true: the more we give of ourselves to God, not forsaking the effort of coming together to worship and fellowship, the more we avail ourselves of opportunities to have our faith strengthened and our focus on God renewed; the more we serve and give thanks to God, which begins at church, the more we reap the benefits in our spiritual lives and help others to find their healing and salvation as well. This is what it means to be part of the Body of Christ, the Church. 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. So, ask yourself, “What shall I render to the Lord?” Whatever you or I manage to offer, God, in His great love and mercy for us, has given us and will give us exponentially so much more in return.
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Sunday, August 5, 2018—Rendering to the Lord 2
Epistle: I Cor. 4:9-16
Gospel: Matt. 17:14-23
