Consider all the gifts that God has given us before we were even formed: the world that He created for us, the beauty of the sea and the stars, mountains, and all the animal life upon the earth, and, beyond the creation, His saving acts: the incarnation, the cross, the tomb, the resurrection, the ascension, and the glorious Second Coming, as we hear in the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, we quickly realize that in a sense we have nothing to offer that can ‘repay’ God for His bounty to us, His blessing to us, His many gifts.
Then, if we add to these universal blessings, the personal blessings and gifts He’s given each of us, foremost, the opportunity for new birth in Him, for koinonia, communion with Him through the Sacraments, healing from our sin-sickness, growth in the knowledge and love of Him, and eternal life with Him, we are left speechless; we are awed, humbled, and, I pray, thankful.
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; it’s our willingness to obediently struggle to live out our life in Christ and prioritize that life 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.
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 preoccupations in the world, our work, or our desire for gain and for worldly pursuits at the expense of our worship and life in Christ, who alone is Life. These distractions keep us from our focus on Christ and make it next to impossible to cultivate the kind of thankful spirit we see in King David.
Pride so easily gets in the way so that we make excuses when it comes to offering up even the minimum we can give God in return for His inexplicable graciousness to us sinners. We can perhaps more easily see the tangible and material benefits of our time spent at work, pursuing some hobby, doing chores at home, or taking care any of the other myriad of problems we have to deal with in the world.
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? The worship of the Church, our service to the body and then to the world, our coming outside of ourselves, to offer our “sacrifice of thanksgiving,” to lift up the cup of salvation in our hearts, to participate more fully in the sacramental life of Christ in our day to day lives, is the means of our 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, praying for more faith, availing ourselves of what the Church has to offer and in obedience to her teachings.
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. Being in the world but not of the world requires vigilance on our part and we can’t do it on our own; we need the body of Christ here to help us as we encourage each other, each living out his or her particular role in the life of the Church.
For this reason, we need to take advantage of other reminders of Christ throughout the week, not neglecting our fellowship with one another: praying daily, coming to Bible study or Daily Vespers, which will begin again this Fall, Great Vespers on Saturdays, staying for Trapeza on Sundays after Liturgy whenever possible, preparing more fervently to receive the Sacraments.
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. It is we who serve and build up each other. 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. There’s no other way because this is what it means to be and become more and more like 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 music and the song of praise from our lips and those of our brethren in Christ, we hear 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, the medicine of immortality, inside ourselves. “We taste and see that the Lord is good.”
Our coming outside of ourselves in worship is a paradigm for our coming outside ourselves to serve on another and witness in the world. 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 give of ourselves to God, the more we avail ourselves of opportunities to have our faith strengthened and our focus on God renewed; the more we serve, the more we reap the benefits in our 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. 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 12, 2012
Epistle: I Cor. 4:9-16
Gospel: Matt. 17:14-23
