OrthoAnalytika
Chapter Twenty-Two: ON THE USE OF MATERIAL THINGS WE are made up of soul and body; the two cannot be separated in our conduct. Let the physical therefore come to your aid: Christ knew our weakness and for our sake used words and gestures, spittle and earth as media. For our sake He let His power flow from the fringe of His garment (Matthew 9:20; 14:36), from the handkerchiefs or aprons that were carried away from the apostle Paul's body (Acts I9:I2), yes, from the shadow of the apostle Peter (Acts 5:I5). Therefore use all that is of earth as a staff of remembrance on your troublesome wandering...
info_outline Homily - ForgivenessOrthoAnalytika
Matthew 6:14-21 Romans 13:11-14:4 In today’s Gospel, the Lord tells us to lay up treasures in heaven, how do we do that? It’s not hard. And it’s, it’s actually a lot easier than fully investing in your 401k. Because the amount of love that is available to your heart, to share with others, that will then compound back into your own heart has no limit – its source is unending. The problem is that we are so often closing our hearts. One of the things that I study as a political scientist is polarization. And there is no doubt – the data are clear – that our society is plagued by...
info_outline Bible Study - Job:8 to the EndOrthoAnalytika
Bible Study – Job Class Six: Job 8:1-11:1; 11:1-42:22 From the Orthodox Study Bible. JOB 8: [Bildad’s nonsense] TO THE EARS OF BILDAD, JOB’S SECOND RESPONDENT, a man even less tolerant than Eliphaz, the foregoing lament seems to be an attack on the justice of God and the entire moral order. Unlike Eliphaz, however, Bildad is able to make no argument on the basis of his own personal experience. He is obliged to argue, rather, solely from the moral tradition, which he does not understand very well. Indeed, Bildad treats the moral structure of the world in a nearly impersonal...
info_outline Homily - Prejudice, Objectivity, and PerseveranceOrthoAnalytika
Homily – Prejudice, Objectivity, and Grit St. Matthew 15.21-28 Gospel: Then Jesus left and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and cried; “have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; for my daughter is severely possessed by a devil.” But Jesus did not answer her at all. So his disciples came and pleaded; “send her away, for she is crying after us.” Jesus replied; “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Then she came and knelt before him saying; “Lord, help me.” And Jesus answered; “it...
info_outline Bible Study – Job 2:16-7:14OrthoAnalytika
Bible Study – Job Class Five: Job 2:16-7:14The trial of ideas begins.
info_outline Homily - Spiritual Investing?OrthoAnalytika
Homily on the Talents Main point: What do we with the riches God has given us? Multiply them! How? By investing all those riches in spiritual activities that provide a strong return on investment and having enough self-discipline not to waste them on activities that cause spiritual harm. There are many kinds of riches that the Bible and Tradition teach about; today we’ll talk about spiritual and monetary riches. How to Get a Good Return on Spiritual Riches • Baptized Christians have all received riches (the grace of Baptism – a life in Christ!): what do we do...
info_outline FSAW - Falling Short of the Glory of GodOrthoAnalytika
In this episode of "Father, Speak a Word," Fr. Gregory Jensen, PhD and Fr. Anthony talk about why we should celebrate our shortcomings (as we repent of our sin). The conversation is based on Fr. Gregory's substack article "." [The audio has been corrected.]
info_outline Bible Study – Job 1:13-2:15OrthoAnalytika
Bible Study – Job Class Four: Job 1:13 – 2:15 From the Orthodox Study Bible. Job Loses His Children and Property 13. Now there was a day when Job’s sons and daughters were drinking wine in the house of their elder brother, 14. and behold, a messenger came to Job and said, “The yokes of oxen were plowing, and the female donkeys were feeding beside them. 15. Then raiders came and took them captive and killed the servants with the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!” 16. While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said to Job, “Fire fell...
info_outline Homily - What is a Home?OrthoAnalytika
Homily Notes on Zacchaeus Sunday: What makes a home? Walk in – can you tell (that a place is a home)? The feeling? · Feelings and intuition are unreliable; generally, they are the way the subconscious mind puts together other indicators · But to the sense our feelings are reliable, some places are haunted by memories of being home “The clutter?” There is something to this. · Imperfect indicator (museums have lots of stuff… & I hear there are homes with no...
info_outline Bible Study - Job 2:6-12 [OrthoAnalytika
Bible Study – Job Class Two: Job 1: 6-12 From the Orthodox Study Bible. Satan is Permitted to Test Job 6. Then as it so happened one day that behold, the angels of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and the devil also came with them. 7. The Lord said to the devil, “Where did you come from?” So the devil answered the Lord and said, “I came here after going about the earth and walking around under heaven.” 8. Then the Lord said to him, “Have you yet considered my servant Job, since there is none like him on the earth: a blameless, true, and God-fearing...
info_outlineSt Luke 18:35-43. The healing of the blind beggar.
Three points:
- Jesus did not stay in one place.
Jesus Christ is and was God. It is fitting that He reside in the throne room of God, surrounded by the cherubim and seraphim, with His holiness reflecting off all the angels and archangels around Him. But as the being of perfect love, He had to act on behalf of his beloved children (US!). So He took flesh and became man.
Some would have expected Him to take up residence in the Temple or in the Governor’s House. But instead He lived among common men and women and, for the last three years of His life, went from town to town so that everyone would know the Good News of salvation. His body was the temple and He took His holiness, His healing love, and the truth of the Gospel everywhere He went.
We must do the same. God resides within us. We are called to love others as God loves us. We are more than just disciples, we are Christ to the world– we are members of His body, the Church. Others expect us to keep the reason for our joy and hope here in this building, but that is not how to love! Yes, we invite the world to be transformed by joining us here, but love requires that we share the reason for joy and hope in the world. We don’t hide it under a bushel (no!) we let it shine!
The Lord was traveling in today’s lesson, and we give a glimpse at what happened as He did. We see that it isn’t always neat.
- Jesus – and his disciples – encountered the messiness of the world.
The world is a messy place. Look what happened in today’s lesson: Christ and His entourage are almost to Jericho, and a beggar disrupts their travel. This comes on the heels of other messy encounters: people having the nerve to bring their children up to Him to be blessed … a Rich Young Man questioning Jesus, and now this beggar! I am willing to guess that, in their weaker moments, the disciples would have preferred Jesus stay in a place where they could control Him. Then He could teach them – and anyone else who knew how to behave and knew what kind of questions were appropriate.
But that would have been a different God, the God of Ivan Karamazov’s “Grand Inquisitor”. Life is messy. People have real problems, questions, and needs that do not fit into neat little categories. And God goes out to meet them where they are. As with the Rich Man, He may not always tell them what they want to hear, but there is the real sense that love required meeting people where they are (out in the world)… and then leading them to the cross and, through that, to the Resurrection and life eternal.
We have to recognize the way our desire to control and mediate grace is more often a result of our own totalitarian pathology than a genuine desire to do God’s will. Yes, grace leads to harmony; but demanding harmony before offering grace is like withholding medicine until a patient is well enough to deserve it.
- Everyone glorified God.
My final point may seem obvious, but it demands attention. How did the people respond to the blind man’s healing? Did they attack Jesus (they did in other places, as when He healed on the Sabbath)? Were they upset that He wasted His time and power on a simple beggar when He could have done something more important? Were they upset that they did not get their fair share of Jesus’ miracles on their own body (I bet all of them suffered from something!)?
No, the Gospel says; “And immediately he received his sight, and followed Him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.”
This is the proper response to God’s love and power no matter how it matches our desires or expectations: glorification! When we glorify God, we become more human, more happy, more resilient. And when others see us glorifying God, not just here in the temple, but everywhere we see Him and His miraculous action in this world, they are naturally drawn to worship Him as well.
Yes, let’s continue to praise God and enjoy His miracles here within these walls, but let’s be like Jesus Himself and take the Good News out into the world and let our friends and neighbors – even our enemies – feel the healing grace that flows through our love for them. Yes, it’s going to be messy and it may well mean that more unworthy beggars than kings feel the benefit of this grace; and it may end up meaning that we bring more grace to the lives of the people in our humble community of Anderson than to those in the great halls of Washington D.C. (that may seem to need it more).
But Christ cured the blindness of the beggar on the way to Jericho despite the all terrible things the powerful were doing in Rome. Evangelism is local; it begins with the transformation of our hearts into overflowing fountains of grace that pour out to bless everyone we meet. May the Lord strengthen us as we spread His grace in a messy world.