Imagine for a moment the life of the Gadarene demoniac: naked, alone, prone to great violence in body and in soul, living, but in some sense, already dead. Fittingly, he even lives among the tombs, which is where Christ finds him. Everything about this man seems already dead. He is truly a tortured individual.
Satan often works in much more subtle and crafty ways today, convincing people that there’s no such thing as spiritual warfare, the demonic, convincing people that they don’t need God, that they can live their life as they choose, redefine what love and marriage is, do away with the whole objective idea of sin, and, therefore, apartness from the life that God is.
However Satan works, his aim is the same: to bring about man’s death—spiritual and physical through the evil he introduces into the world through his influence and that of his demons. The reality of spiritual warfare, of demonic possession and influence was real in Christ’s day and our faith, the lives of the Saints, the Scriptures, the Councils, the Synods, and our own experience and struggle with sin testifies to its reality today as well.
Thank God that Christ has made for us a way out, a way of freedom and healing from our sin-sickness, of protection from the influence and possession of the evil one. This protection starts right here, in the Church, through the Sacraments of initiation—baptism and Chrismation, whereby we “put on Christ” and are born anew, becoming a citizen of heaven, and then, as we live out our faith, participating in the ongoing heavenly worship of God the Holy Trinity in the divine services of the Church, and finally, as we participate in the sacramental life and all the accompanying tools that surround that life, such as prayer and fasting. The Sacraments are our best defense against the evil one and his minions.
St. Paul, alluding to baptism, says to us today, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” When we are baptized, we die to the old self and are raised to the new. But this is not magic. Rather, baptism needs to be acted on in order to not become dormant in our lives. If we are to be defended from the influence of the evil one and actually to go on to overcome him with Christ’s power, we must go on the offense: that is, live the faith.
Those who are satisfied with occasional church, who rarely pray or confess, or give of themselves through service to God, are missing out on the abundant life that God has for us. In such cases, we cannot help but suffer from the weight of sin, the weight of ourselves.
Only an active, participatory life in Christ, that is dynamic and growing, brings us healing and salvation.
This month, we are invited to consider our commitments for 2013—just a couple of months away. What would you want to receive from the Lord? What is missing from your life in terms of your life in Christ, what can be strengthened? Where does your faith and trust need to grow? Where do you want to see Christ make a difference in your life? Where does sin-sickness still plague you and me? The Church invites us, offers to us, an opportunity to take a step of faith, to come outside of ourselves to love and to serve, to continue to grow individually as a communicant. As we do so, our faith also teaches us that we will also inevitably grow as a community in spirit and in numbers as a faithful witness of Christ’s love, healing, power, and glory.
Of all the missions in North America, ours was selected as one of two to receive the OCA’s Mission Grant for 2013, a great and humbling honor for us. I don’t know about you, but I feel unworthy. Are we ready? The Church and the Holy Synod say we are. We have three years to grow from a small mission to a full-fledged parish. Just think of how this mission can grow if we all chip in with our time, our talents, and our treasure to help us grow in our ministries, our presence in the community. If not for yourself, for the love of others who are either away from their faith and need to come back to holy Orthodoxy or those who have never heard of Christ and His holy Church, we need to grow this mission.
We need to be able to provide for our children. We need to have Sunday School move from once a month or so to once a week. In a couple of years, we’ll need to start a youth group program to help our pre-teens and teens navigate the difficult waters of teendom, while learning to own their faith, which will be invaluable to them keeping their faith let alone growing in it in our present culture.
Increasingly, we will need to minister to young families with small children too, while also serving the students whom God brings our way. We need more opportunities for teaching and learning the faith too. In order for all this to take place, you need a full time priest, which is what the Mission Grant affords, if you are all giving your half (the Mission Grant is a matching grant, by the way). But all of this is not and cannot be the work of the priest alone. The priest leads and shepherds, he equips the faithful, but it’s the faithful, growing in their faith and with a spirit of gratitude to God and thanksigiving, giving back to Him a “first-fruits” of their time, talents, and treasure that builds them up and builds the church up in the process.
I invite you to join me in this journey that will bring us all great blessings: through opportunities to serve we grow, through growing, we partake more readily of the tools of salvation that Christ God entrusts to us through His Church. We benefit and others do as well.
I’m excited for the road ahead and what God is doing and will do in us and through us in the next year. Give of yourself and you will receive much more in return. This is God’s example to us of what the sacramental life is.
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Sunday, 28 October 2012
