4th Sunday in Great Lent
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
In the Epistle to the Hebrews, we are repeatedly hearing how Jesus is that perfect High Priest who fulfilled all the Law, who fulfilled all sacrifice, who fulfilled everything that was required for our salvation. What we see today is evidence of how He is, in fact, our High Priest not only because the sacrifice of Himself is predicted at the end of the Gospel reading, but because He is the Agent of God’s love in that perfect way.
Wherever Jesus is, wherever Jesus is present, there is always a reaction of some sort. We see that always in the Gospel. Wherever Jesus is, something happens. In this case, it is a devil tormenting a child. We are told that this torment had been going on for a long time. Although His disciples had tried more standard methods to get rid of it, only Jesus Himself is able to do it and He does it with just one word of command. He says : “‘Come out of him and enter him no more’”. Instantly the child is healed. Wherever Jesus is, life comes. When He comes into our lives, there has to be a similar response. We ourselves are called to live in the Kingdom. We are called to live as sons and daughters of the King. The characteristic way in which members of the Kingdom live is in an open and active response to the Lord : an immediate desire to give of oneself for the welfare of other people as well as for proper worshipping of the Lord.
It is true that the devil does not come out except by prayer and fasting. He does not come out of our lives except by our prayer and fasting. In part, anyway, that is why we Orthodox Christians spend so much of the year in fasting days. During these fasting days, we actively turn away from sin. We try to bring our lives into conformity with the Gospel. We are supposed to spend all these days praying even more than usual, and building up our resources in the Kingdom. We should be preparing ourselves for doing whatever the Lord has called us to do.
Prayer and fasting. This is one of the essential characteristics of growing in Christ. What is another ? Here in this parish, we can speak about one very practical way in which believers are supposed to behave. For a long time now, this parish (like many other parishes, but not by any means all parishes) has operated more or less for itself. People seem to have grown to believe that the only way to contribute to the life of the parish is by paying the dues. We all know how sensitive the issue of the dues is. We can never talk about dues without someone getting upset. That is, perhaps, a reasonable reaction because paying dues is not the proper way for a parish to operate, even though we do operate that way and even though we seem to be stuck with this system for the time being. Nevertheless, paying dues does not allow us to behave naturally the way Christians ought to behave. Paying dues puts a block in the way of our response to the Lord. It tempts us to be minimal. It tempts us to say : “Those few dollars are all I have to give. I will throw a dollar on the plate now and again, and that is all that is necessary”.
However, that is not how Christians have always responded, and it is not what the Bible tells us to do, either. Even in the Old Testament, we are told that the natural response to God is simply to give. The suggestion in the Old Testament is that we should first of all recognise that God gives us everything and that without the Lord we are not at all even alive, let alone active. Everything that we are and that we have is because the Lord blesses us and gives us life. Because of this, the Old Testament (and the New Testament also) as a strong suggestion says that we should give at least one-tenth of what we have to the Lord. We see that always in the Old Testament – one-tenth of the harvest goes to the Lord, to the Temple. One-tenth of everything that people have goes to the Lord. Even Abraham, when he had been successful, gave thanks to the Lord by giving one-tenth of everything that came to him to this priest-king, Melchisedek (see 1 Moses [Genesis] 14:20) whom we heard about today.
However, one-tenth of all that we have is not only one-tenth of income. One-tenth of time, one-tenth of energy, one-tenth of talents, one-tenth of everything that I am and that I have should go back to Him as a sign of my love for God. This is a fundamental Christian attitude. If this parish operates on the basis of dues (to help determine who is a member of the parish), that should not mean that that is all I am expected to give as a Christian. The Lord expects me to give much more. The Lord does not demand that I give everything back, but as a sign and a symbol of everything, one-tenth is not very much. It is ironic, but even in this secular world, we can deduct twenty percent of our income for charitable giving. Some people give away twenty percent of their income. That is pretty good. We believers often tend to fall into traps. Some people might criticise me for talking about this sort of thing. The fact is, however, whenever we might turn on the television, and listen to Jimmy Swaggart, Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, Jerry Falwell or anyone else of these Protestant evangelists, what do they say ? They are all the time quoting the Bible and saying : “You must give ten percent. Ten percent belongs to the Lord. It doesn’t belong to you, and if you don’t give it to the Lord, you are going to be in trouble”.
Orthodox Christians tend to be subtler about these things, but that does not mean that the demand of the Scriptures is any different for us. One of the funniest things that I can imagine is when Orthodox Christians sometimes criticise Calvary Temple or maybe even one of these Anglican Churches, and yet they envy how much money goes in and out, and how much they can do in their parishes. Do you know why ? It is because the people are reminded over and over and over again that God requires a sign of devotion from His people, a sign of this response of love. Therefore, people give. If we Orthodox Christians do not manage to produce and to be effective in society, there is only one reason – we do not give. We do not share. We do not honour the Lord with our gifts. We do not respond to Him. We only give Him peanuts instead of giving Him our whole selves. We just throw a kopek or two towards the Lord instead of saying to the Lord : “Here I am. Everything that I am, You give me. Help me to use what I am to Your glory”.
Whatever we do, let us not allow ourselves to be limited by bottom-line giving of ourselves, or of our energy, or of anything else that we have. Let us not wait for someone to come begging and to say : “We have a big project, and so we need money”. The response of Christians does not wait for such things. The response of Christians is giving because of love without asking any questions, without waiting. We give ourselves, our energy, our time, our abilities, not just money. Let us ask the Lord to help us to pray always ; to give thanks always every day ; to act out that love which we have for Him, and to show in all the visible ways that we can how much we love Him and how much we love each other. May every aspect of our life proclaim our love for our Lord, God, and Saviour, Jesus Christ, together with the unoriginate Father, and the all-holy, good and life-creating Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.