OrthoAnalytika

Welcome to OrthoAnalytika, Fr. Anthony Perkins' podcast of homilies, classes, and shows on spirituality, science, and culture - all offered from a decidedly Orthodox Christian perspective. Fr. Anthony is a mission priest and seminary professor for the UOC-USA. He has a diverse background, a lot of enthusiasm, and a big smile. See www.orthoanalytika.org for show notes and additional content.

Homily - Judaizing Circumcision & Babelizing Nationalism 09/10/2024

Homily - Teaching Liturgy (Full Length) 09/02/2024

Homily - Teaching Liturgy 09/02/2024

Homily - Teaching Liturgy Before the service. After attending the Divine Liturgy at Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, emissaries of St. Volodymyr, the King of Kyivan-Rus’ reported: “We knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth. One thing we understood, was that God was in our midst!” This is the experience that is available to all of us when we come to Divine Liturgy; but as with all things, this experience will be greater the more we prepare for it and the more we understand and open ourselves up to it. The time of preparation is over – now is the time to grow in our understanding of it and to open ourselves up to it. For the next hour or two you can relax, open yourself up, and be vulnerable; you can’t really do that at school or work; you may not even be able to do it with your friends. You certainly can’t do it on social media. But if you do it here, you open yourself up NOT to the risk of hurt or manipulation but to the love and transformational mercy of God. The words, hymns, and actions of the Divine Liturgy are the way that God has chosen to work with us to accomplish His will that “all be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.” Through these words, hymns, and actions, He will strengthen our hearts, heal our pain, and help us realize just how good it is to be alive. Today’s Liturgy is a Teaching Liturgy; I will be taking time at various points in the service in order to explain what is going on. Right now, I encourage you to strap in and prepare yourself for the powerful way God has chosen to meet and help us, His children: the Divine Liturgy. After the First Antiphon Right now, this may still look like a former medical center in downtown Anderson. But it is not; it is now a place of power. The barrier between earth and heaven has dissolved. This is what is known in mythologies and fairy tales as a “thin place.” But this is no mere story. Our reality is being merged with the reality of the constant and eternal worship that surrounds God’s throne. The beauty of the icons and altar, the music, the chanting, the vestments, the incense, the cloud of confessors, and the angels who came here with us; all these are part of the majesty of heavenly worship into which we are being drawn; this experience merging with that of the tens of thousands of angels, the thousands of archangels and the cherubim and seraphim who do this at the throne of God 24/7. We are like the Prophet Isaiah, the Prophet Daniel, the Apostle Paul, or St. John the Theologian, allowed to live through things that the eye cannot see nor the mind comprehend. If we open our hearts to this reality, we will be transformed by this mystical journey. After the Second Antiphon. Why do we repeat things? Because they are important. Because they make us part of something greater. They pattern our souls according to the logic of love. When we pray, we are part of something magical: God working through us and with us to transform this world. Our every moment throughout the preceding days has been transformed by prayer; this is the continuance and crowning of that prayer. Before the EntranceThe Divine Liturgy did not always look exactly like it does now. For one, there used to be a lot more movement. Instead of singing the first antiphons in church, we would have sung them on the way to church. The service would have begun as the Gospel was brought from the outside into the sanctuary. Now the ritual of bringing the Gospel out of the altar to the people reminds us of something very important: that Christ God has come from heaven to be in our midst! This is what we are celebrating and confirming when we kiss the Gospel and exchange the words; “Christ is in our midst – He is and shall be.” God did not just take on flesh two thousand years ago, He lives in the Church and its voice is His voice. After the “Holy God”, Before the Epistle In conversations, especially in conversations with people wiser and more knowledgeable than us, we should spend more time listening than speaking. Our liturgical dialogue with God is the same. Up to this point, we have been doing most of the talking, sharing our litanies of concerns with Him and asking for His mercy. Now it is time for us to stop talking and listen to His Word. The Epistles and Gospel readings are like food for our hungry souls. Before each reading, the deacon says; “Let us be attentive!” This is not the time for us to let our minds wander or count the number of tiles in the ceiling but rather a time to ask what God is trying to say to us and think of how we can improve our lives by putting His words into practice. After the Gospel Reading For today’s homily, I want to address a common question that many of us have but are afraid to ask out loud: “Why do we do this every week?” We sometimes forget that the central action of the Divine Liturgy is a ritualized “meal”, when we all eat the “Mystical Supper” together. Meals need to be repeated regularly. This isn’t just because our bodies need nourishment. If this were the case we could just shove something into our mouths when our bodies started getting hungry. That’s important, but meals are more than that. Every evening when families sit down together to eat, they are affirming some very important things. They aren’t just a collection of hungry people, satisfying their bodily needs – they are a family that gathers to share stories and remember who they are. In fact, it is when they eat together that the family is most itself. No matter how busy their schedules are, families have to set aside this time together to maintain their connection and shared identity. I am convinced by observation and research that families that build their schedules around an evening meal are more resilient and that the children in such families are given a psychological boost that goes far beyond the nutrients they have been given. It can be a real drag to eat dinner together: we all have to set down our phones and pause our video games, leave the discord servers, and stop bingeing TikTok, YouTube, and Netflix! But the benefits are clear and this sacrifice is worth making. Even if it is the same thing pretty much every evening. It’s the same for the Divine Liturgy. There are always other things that seem more fun to do on Sunday mornings: video games, doom-scrolling, movies, sports, and how about just sleeping in and going to Waffle House for breakfast? But there is no better way to build resilience and a healthy identity – I mean to know who we are at the deepest level, even below ideology and whatever other attribute the world is trying to get us to obsess over at the moment – than to set all that stuff aside for a couple of hours and enjoy the meal that the Lord has set aside for us. Just like it’s okay for us to rather be doing something else at dinner time, it’s okay that part of us would rather be doing something else on Sunday morning. Part of growing up is learning to do what is good and right even when we’d rather be doing something fun and easy. That’s commitment. And commitment is both a critical component and a consequence of love. Before the Great Entrance and the Cherubic Hymn We are about to sing about how this is the time when we need to “Set aside our earthly cares” so that we can open ourselves up to something greater. The King of All Creation, the Ruler of the Heavenly Hosts, the One Who Is is with us now. We all know how crazy it is to see two people out on a date spending the whole time on their phones. But that is what we would be like if we used this time to worry about all the crazy things going on in our lives. At least for now, we need to let them go. Our problems will still be there when this is over … and if we do this thing well, we’ll be able to meet them with newfound strength. So let us lay aside all earthly cares as we ritualize the triumphant God in our midst. Before the Creed: The Kiss of Peace The Divine Liturgy would be a waste of time for us – an empty ritual – if we did not have love for one another and for God. The priest reminds us of this right before we say the Creed when he says; “Let us love one another so that with one mind we may confess.” In the early Church, this would be the point in the service when everyone would greet one another with the “kiss of peace.” We symbolically offer this kiss of peace to one another as the priest says “Christ is in our midst” and everyone responds “He is and shall be.” After the Creed and before the Holy Anaphora Through our participation in this worship, the grace of God has allowed us to enter into a very special psychological, spiritual, and communal state. There is only love within us. There is only love among us. There is no remembrance of past wrongs, no prejudice, no expectations; there is only the reality of the God who lives in us and draws us as one towards His peace and perfection. This is not just some feeling that we cultivate – our salvation should never rely on something so unreliable as our feelings. God is not with us like some kind of imaginary friend or even just as a spirit whose presence cannot be known with the senses. He is actually with us. We have heard His words and we have sung His praises. Now we will do something that no mind can ever fully understand. It is hard enough for us to accept that the uncontainable and all-powerful God became fully human to be with and save us; it is an even greater mystery to understand why and how He – the God-man – decided to continue His salvific ministry to us by giving us His flesh to eat and His blood to drink in the Eucharistic Communion. This is how the God-man explained this to His followers back in the day; Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. (John 6: 53-55) And St. John, a witness to these events, then describes that “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.” (John 6:66) Again, we cannot understand why or how the Lord has given us this method to accomplish our continuing transformation. It alternately mystifies, frightens, and humbles us. Without understanding, with the fear of God and with faith and love we join all of the saints from every place and age who have participated in this very same Communion – for there is only One Sacrifice. It is a Sacrifice that exists at the center of all our time and of all our space, a singularity that draws us towards it and through it and then on into something greater. Further up and further in! During the upcoming prayers, the priest will ask for the Holy Spirit to come upon all of us and on the gifts being offered. God reliably answers this prayer, changing the bread and wine into Christ-God’s flesh and blood. The miraculous transformation then continues as we follow His command – eating His flesh and drinking His blood. For this is no ordinary meal but the medicine of immortality that transforms us into something better, something eternal, and something glorious. So as to preserve the dignity of the Eucharistic Meal, I will not pause the service again until the end. Let us now enter into these, the most powerful prayers we know. Before the Dismissal This has been a miraculous time. God has come into our midst and then into our bodies through the Holy Eucharist. This is not just so that we can become better people, taking it “for the remission of sins” but so that we be the instruments that God uses to heal, transform, and bring joy to this fallen world. Let me leave you with this final thought; How would you react if you found out your Army instructor was a Medal of Honor winner, your coach had won the Olympic gold, your medical school lecturer was a Nobel Prize winner, or your business school teacher was a member of the Fortune 500 who did it all from scratch? You’d pay more attention to their words. You’d have more respect for them and everything they said. You would not want to miss a single lesson. And the beauty is that you would become better by your extra attentiveness. Christ the Great Rabbi is here. Among us. Teaching us. Preparing us for paradise. We become better by attending to Him and all He teaches through His Church. /episode/index/show/orthoanalytika/id/32864637

Homily - Building Relationships 08/25/2024

Homily - Is Christ Divided 08/18/2024

Homily - Carry the Weak 08/11/2024

Homily - Rules for Living with Others 08/04/2024

FSAW - Orthodoxy, Freedom, and Evangelism 08/02/2024

Homily - Living Gracefully Together in Christ 07/30/2024

Homily - Embrace a Life of Mystery, Love, and Wonder 07/21/2024

Homily - Healthy Christian Relationships Improve Discernment 07/14/2024

Homily - Spiritual Development (Conscience, Law, and Grace) 07/08/2024

Homily - Gossip undermines Love and Ecclesiology 06/30/2024

Homily - The Diabolic (Pan!) Heresy of ... Self-Righteousness 06/17/2024

Homily - What the Blind Man Teaches us about Relationships 06/10/2024

FSAW - Like Puppies Wagging Their Tales 04/25/2024

The Way of Ascetics – Chapter 26 04/24/2024

Homily - The Two Holy Mary's and Us 04/21/2024

FSAW - Seeking Deeper Meaning in Orthodoxy 04/18/2024

Homily - The Ladder and Living in the World 04/14/2024

The Way of Ascetics – Chapter 25 04/10/2024

Homily - Taking up our Cross 04/07/2024

Homily - Taking up our Cross Homily of the Sunday of the Cross From Bishop Nicholas (DOMSE Newsletter): The Church has placed the Cross in the middle of Great and Holy Lent, the third Sunday of the Fast, for a very specific reason! The Church has placed the Cross in the middle of Great and Holy Lent, the third Sunday of the Fast, for a very specific reason! By the third Sunday of the Fast, most of us have been abstaining from eating prescribed sumptuous foods for three weeks, participating in many services each week at inconvenient times of the day after having worked long hours, expanding our prayer rules, and reading spiritual books. Having done ascetical deeds, some of us are weary, tired, and may feel unsettled. Prior to Christ being crucified, the cross was a sign of disobedience, a sign of unlawful activity, a sign of damnation, and a sign of condemnation. Thieves and criminals died on the cross so that society was “cleansed.” Jesus was considered one of those unlawful people despite the fact He had healed the sick, raised the dead, and performed miracles that had not been done by anyone else prior to His incarnation. He did not fit their earthly expectations with His divine plan! Therefore, He was crucified. But after His resurrection, the Disciples, who effectively became apostles at Pentecost (Acts 2:14-42), began to change the common perception of the Cross as they began preaching the resurrected Jesus Christ. Having received the Holy Spirit, Peter’s sermon (Acts 2:14-39) was emotionally moving and thought-provoking to the crowds. Thousands were baptized and started following Christ and His teachings through the words of the Apostles. The faithful’s view of the Cross began to change from a condemnation interpretation to a salvational reality, from a discouraging truth to an encouraging certainty, from a despair mentality to a hope mindset, and from a life destroying event to a life-giving actuality. Such a change in demeanor toward the Cross urged the Church to utilize its power to inspire the faithful to take up the whole armor of God that they may be able to withstand in the evil day (Ephesians 6:13). That is why the Feast of the Cross has been celebrated on the third Sunday of Great and Holy Lent. May God bless you and may the Holy Trinity protect you all! + Bishop Nicholas /episode/index/show/orthoanalytika/id/30983448

The Way of Ascetics – Chapter 24 04/03/2024

Class - Palamas and Becoming One (as God is One) 04/01/2024

Homily - St. Gregory Palamas and Marriage 04/01/2024

Homily - St. Gregory Palamas and Marriage Marriage as a Metaphor for Orthodoxy Homily of St. Gregory Palamas Today we celebrate the life and teachings of someone who really got it? St. Gregory Palamas; he experienced God's love for him in a real and tangible way, and he reflected that love back at God and on all those around him. That's what we are to do, as well. To open ourselves up to the deifying warmth and light of God; and then to send our thanksgiving and praise back up to Him and to use the energy of His grace to serve those around us. The Good News of the Gospel is that this is made possible and real through the life, death, and resurrection of the God-man Jesus Christ. Although this Gospel really is simple, it has been elaborated with so many words and celebrated, confirmed, and taught (if not gilded) with so many rituals and denied by so many lies that it is understandable if we sometimes end up misunderstanding, judging, and even venerating the cup rather than that which it holds. Perhaps a metaphor will help. I have met at least two sets of people who think they understand the joy and transformation that marriage can bring. One set thinks they know it because, while not married, they have their own version of it that seems to enjoy some of its benefits - most notably sex - without any institutional commitment. The availability of internet porn means that this can even be done without the bother of having a partner. No one can deny the reality of such experiences, but such experiences have precious little to do with the enduring joy of marriage. Such people claim that they do not need to be married to experience the joy of sex - the physical part of "one-fleshedness"; but even when it comes to that (ie to sex), they have settled for something less satisfying than the real deal. And while intimacy is a powerful and even necessary part of marriage, it is hardly the primary source of the transformative joy that marriage brings. They think they understand things it well enough to do them their own way, but they don't, and their improper understanding leads them to accept something less than they should. Something that is actually counterproductive and harmful. A second set which is equally troubling think they understand marriage because they have submitted themselves to the institution of marriage. They have had their ceremony, they wear their rings, and they share a house. But when you start speaking to them about the joy that comes from sharing a life with another person, you learn that their experience is quite different. Shallow. Weak. Joyless. They are living the rituals of marriage, but they are missing the very thing those institutions are meant to hold and protect. They think they get it, but they don't, and their improper understanding leads them to accept something less than they should. This is a great and wonderful mystery but, as with St. Paul, I speak not of marriage, but of the Church. (Ephesians 5:32) St. Gregory Palamas fought against both of these misunderstandings about God. On the one hand, there were people (like the Bogamils - basically medieval Pentecostals) who thought they could really experience God without the institution and sacraments of the Church. This is like having sex without marriage or even without a partner; it may be real in some sense, but it is not healthy nor is it real in the way that a committed sacramental relationship with God in Church is real. These heretics thought they got it, but they didn't, and their improper understanding led them to accept something less than they should have. Something that is actually counterproductive and harmful. On the other hand, there were those (like Barlaam and the Churchians) who thought that the rituals and sacraments of the Church were the only way to know God. They did not believe that it was possible to experience God. They believed that the teaching that we are to enjoy union with God through Christ was just a metaphor for belief. And they believed that the noetic experience of God that monastic ascetics had when they opened themselves up to the Divine Nature of God was just a simple emotion and not a metaphysical or supernatural reality. They thought they got it, but they didn't, and their improper understanding led them to accept something less than they should have. It was a joyless religion, lacking the possibility of deeper union with God. God is real and we were meant to become partakers of His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). We are Orthodox Christians. We have not settled for something less than we should. We are not just going through the motions when we pray and participate in the rituals of the Church; we are opening ourselves up to God. We allow His grace to heal and transform us, and then we offer and share this transforming grace with the world. /episode/index/show/orthoanalytika/id/30615828

The Way of Ascetics – Chapter 23 03/27/2024

The Way of Ascetics - Chapter 22 03/20/2024

The Way of Ascetics - Chapter 22 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 along the narrow way. May the whiteness of the snow and the blue of the heavens, the jewelled eye of the fly and the scorching of the flame, and all of creation that meets your senses, remind you of your Creator; but make use especially of what the Church offers you to help you yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness (Romans 6:19). First of all, the Lord's Holy Communion. But likewise the other mysteries, or sacraments, and the holy Scriptures. And the Church offers you also the holy icons of the Mother of God, the angels and the saints; and prayer before them, and candles and incense, holy water and the gleam of gold, and singing. Receive all this with gratitude and use it all for your upbuilding and encouragement, improvement and benefit as you travel further. Give free outlet to your love for the generous Lord of love, kiss the Cross and the icons, adorn them with flowers; if only evil be crushed with silence, the good will be allowed to breathe freely. If what is given in love is received with love, the scope of love is increased and enlarged, and this is the aim of your work. The greater the river, the wider the delta. Use your own body, too, as an aid in the struggle. Trim it down and make it independent of earthly whims. Let it share your trouble: you wish to learn humility, so let the body also be humble and bow to the ground. Fall on your knees with your face to the earth as often as you can in privacy, but get up at once, for after a fall follows restoration in Christ. Make the sign of the Cross assiduously: it is a wordless prayer. In a brief moment, independent of sluggish words, it gives expression to your will to share Christ's life and crucify your flesh, and willingly, without grumbling, to receive all that the Holy Trinity sends. Moreover, the sign of the Cross is a weapon against evil spirits: use this weapon often and with reflection. A house is never built until the scaffolding is raised. Only the strong man has no need of outward support. But are you strong? Are you not the weakest among the weak? Are you not a child? /episode/index/show/orthoanalytika/id/30503438

Homily - Forgiveness 03/17/2024

Homily - Forgiveness 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 polarization. We have lost the ability to see the good in people who do not think, look, or move like we do. This is a problem. It’s not just a problem when we’re on-line or when we’re watching the news where so much of this feeds to our hearts. The problem is that we take in this spirit of the world; we take in the spirit of division. This spirit is diabolical. And we bring it into our own hearts where it sows confusion. We bring it into our families. We let it affect our friendships. And heaven forbid, it even affects us here [in the Church]. That is not the way it should be. It should go the other way. We should seek peace within our hearts. We should let go of all of the words the world has given for us to judge one another. And to justify ourselves, and demonize “them”. We [should let those words] go. And then we should live in the love … and let the grace of God transform our hearts. So that then when we relate to our family, when we relate to our friends … there’s something magical that happens; there’s a transformation that occurs. People who have suffered from the divisions of the world then find healing. The grace that you have in Christ, you bring to them and there’s a resonance of your heart with theirs. And in that time, you remember who you are. And we remember who we are collectively. All of our lives, our friendships, our families, our parishes, then become an alternative to the world. They look at us and they say; “how is it that those people despite their differences, love one another.” And they will desire the same. Every moment gives us so many opportunities to offer this way of abundant grace. One of the words that we use to describe the mechanisms of this process. Is patience. You cannot love people that are different than you without patience. And when we offer that patience to someone else. That’s grace. That’s God operating through you and blessing your relationship with someone else; and then when you receive that patience as a gift. I’m blessed every day with the patience of the people in my life. Another one, though, is the one that we’re focusing on today. And relationships cannot endure without it. That is forgiveness. [I like to joke with the parishes that I serve that I just show them pretty quickly, how fallible I am. So that I can show them the ability and give them an opportunity to forgive.] So often our relationships are based on our ability to project perfection. As a priest, I convince everyone of my holiness and my ability to do everything perfectly. But it breaks down eventually; your relationship with your wife, your husband, your kids, your parents, cannot be based on that kind of artificial mask, because the mask will be shown to have no relationship to the broken person you need to allow to breath and speak in order for grace to abound. We have to allow people – people that we can trust - to see that we are vulnerable, let them see our brokenness. So that they can offer forgiveness and pour their love in. So the grace can grow. And then a mistake becomes an opportunity for God to manifest himself in this world, and for the world to become just a little bit better. Because when we forgive someone, we are acting in Christ; we are bringing his love and his way into it. When on the other hand, we do as the world has taught us – and we see the very worst in everyone. And we focus on that and bring that up. The devil rejoices, division grows in the world a bit further, it grows; and we end up supporting the one we reject – that we ceremonially spit on and then turn around and commit to the way of patience of the forbearance of forgiveness, of looking for that good in the other, and allowing that to define our relationship. And then as they do that back towards us, we are both reminded whom we are in and in whom we live and love and life no longer becomes this drudgery of one bit of pain followed by the next with no promise of anything. And instead it becomes an opportunity to get this… [and it’s all] thanks to our own brokenness, of moving in love from grace to higher grace. This is the way that the Lord has established for us. Let us rejoice. /episode/index/show/orthoanalytika/id/30503193

Bible Study - Job:8 to the End 03/06/2024

Bible Study - Job:8 to the End 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 way. To the mind of Bildad, the effects of sin follow automatically, as the inevitable effects of a sufficient cause. The presence of the effect, that is, implies the presence of the cause. If Eliphaz’s argument had been too personal, bordering on the purely subjective, the argument of Bildad may be called too objective, bordering on the purely mechanical. In the mind of Bildad the principle of retributive justice functions nearly as a law of nature, or what the religions of India call the Law of Karma. Both Eliphaz and Job show signs of knowing God personally, but we discern nothing of this in Bildad. Between Bildad and Job, therefore, there is even less of a meeting of minds than there was between Eliphaz and Job. We should remember, on the other hand, that Job himself has never raised the abstract question of the divine justice; he has shown no interest, so far, in the problems of theodicy. Up to this point in the story, Job has been concerned only with his own problems, and his lament has been entirely personal, not theoretical. Bildad, for his part, does not demonstrate even the limited compassion of Eliphaz. We note, for example, his comments about Job’s now perished children. In the light of Job’s own concern for the moral wellbeing of those children early in the book (1:5), there is an especially cruel irony in Bildad’s speculation on their moral state: “If your sons have sinned against [God], He has cast them away for their transgression” (8:4). What a dreadful thing to say to a man who loved his sons as Job did! Like Eliphaz before him, Bildad urges Job to repent (8:5–7), for such, he says, is the teaching of traditional morality (8:8–10). Clearly, Bildad is unfamiliar with the God worshipped by Job, the God portrayed in the opening chapters of this book. Bildad knows nothing of a personal God who puts man to the test through the trial of his faith. Bildad’s divinity is, on the contrary, a nearly mechanistic adjudicator who functions entirely as a moral arbiter of human behavior, not a loving, redemptive God who shapes man’s destiny through His personal interest and intervention. Nonetheless, in his comments about Job’s final lot Bildad speaks with an unintended irony, because in fact Job’s latter end will surpass his beginning (8:7), and “God will not cast away the blameless” (8:20—tam; cf. 1:1, 8; 2:3). On our first reading of the story, we do not know this yet, of course, because we do not know, on our first reading, how the story will end (for example 42:12). So many comments made by Job’s friends, including these by Bildad in this chapter, are full of ironic, nearly prophetic meaning, which will become clear only at the story’s end, so the reader does not perceive this meaning on his first trip through the book. As Edgar Allen Poe argued in his review of Bleak House by Charles Dickens, the truly great stories cannot be understood on a single reading, because the entire narrative must be known before the deeper significance of the individual episodes can become manifest. As Poe remarked, we do not understand any great story well until our second reading of it. This insight is preeminently helpful in the case of the Book of Job. JOB 11 [Zophar’s nonsense] WE NOW COME TO THE FIRST SPEECH OF ZOPHAR, Job’s most strident critic, a man who can appeal to neither personal religious experience (as did Eliphaz) nor inherited moral tradition (as did Bildad). Possessed of neither resource, Zophar’s contribution is what we may call “third-hand.” He bases his criticism on his own theory of wisdom. Although he treats his theory as self-evidently true, we recognize it as only a personal bias. Moreover, Zophar seems to identify his own personal perception of wisdom as the wisdom of God Himself. Whereas Bildad had endeavored to defend the divine justice, Zophar tries to glorify “divine” wisdom in Job’s case. If it is difficult to see justice verified in Job’s sufferings, however, it is even harder to see wisdom verified by those sufferings. Like the two earlier speakers, Zophar calls on Job to repent in order to regain the divine favor. (This is a rather common misunderstanding that claims, “If things aren’t going well for you, you should go figure out how you have offended God, because He is obviously displeased with you.”) Zophar also resorts to sarcasm. Although this particular rhetorical form is perfectly legitimate in some circumstances (and the prophets, beginning with Elijah, use it often), sarcasm becomes merely an instrument of cruelty when directed at someone who is suffering incomprehensible pain. In the present case, Job suffers in an extreme way, pushed to the very limits of his endurance. It is such a one that Zophar has the vile temerity to call a “man full of talk” (11:2), a liar (11:3), a vain man (11:11–12), and wicked (11:14, 20). The final two verses (19–20) contain an implied warning against the “death wish” to which Job has several times given voice. This very sentiment, Zophar says, stands as evidence of Job’s wickedness. The author of the Book of Job surely understands this extended criticism by Zophar as an exercise in irony. Though the context of his speech proves the speaker himself insensitive and nearly irrational in his personal cruelty, there is an undeniable eloquence in his description of the divine wisdom (11:7–9) and his assertion of the moral quality of human existence (11:10–12). Moreover, those very rewards that Zophar promises to Job in the event of his repentance (11:13–18) do, in fact, fall into Job’s life at the end of the book. In this story of Job, men are not divided into those who have wisdom and those who don’t. In the Book of Job no one is really wise. There is no real wise man, as there is in, say, the Book of Proverbs. While wisdom is ever present in the plot of the story, no character in the story has a clear grasp of it. True wisdom will not stand manifest until God, near the end of the narrative, speaks for Himself. Even then God will not disclose to Job the particulars of His dealings with him throughout the story. From St. Gregory the Great Ver. 3. Doth God pervert judgment? Or doth the Almighty pervert justice? xxxvi. 59. These things blessed Job had neither in speaking denied, nor yet was ignorant of them in holding his tongue. But all bold persons, as we have said, speak with big words even well known truths, that in telling of them they may appear to be learned. They scorn to hold their peace in a spirit of modesty, lest they should be thought to be silent from ignorance. But it is to be known that they then extol the rectitude of God’s justice, when security from ill uplifts themselves in joy, while blows are dealt to other men; when they see themselves enjoying prosperity in their affairs, and others harassed with adversity. For whilst they do wickedly, and yet believe themselves righteous, the benefit of prosperity attending them, they imagine to be due to their own merits; and they infer that God does not visit unjustly, in proportion as upon themselves, as being righteous, no cloud of misfortune falls. But if the power of correction from above touches their life but in the least degree, being struck they directly break loose against the policy of the Divine inquest, which a little while before, unharmed, they made much of in expressing admiration of it, and they deny that judgment to be just, which is at odds with their own ways; they canvass the equity of God’s dealings, they fly out in words of contradiction, and being chastened because they have done wrong, they do worse. Hence it is well spoken by the Psalmist against the confession of the sinner, He will confess to Thee, when Thou doest well to him. Ps. 49:18. For the voice of confession is disregarded, when it is shaped by the joyfulness of prosperity. But that confession alone possesses merit of much weight, which the force of pain has no power to part from the truth of the rule of right, and which adversity, the test of the heart, sharpens out even to the sentence of the lips. Therefore it is no wonder that Bildad commends the justice of God, in that he experiences no hurt therefrom. 60. Now whereas we have said that the friends of blessed Job bear the likeness of heretics, it is well for us to point out briefly, how the words of Bildad accord with the wheedling ways of heretics. For whilst in their own idea they see the Holy Church corrected with temporal visitations, they swell the bolder in the bigness of their perverted preaching, and putting forward the righteousness of the Divine probation, they maintain that they prosper by virtue of their merits; but they avouch that she is rewarded with deserved chastisements, and thereupon without delay they seek by beguiling words a way to steal upon her, in the midst of her sorrows, and they strike a blow at the lives of some, by making the deaths of others a reproach, as if those were now visited with deserved death, who refused to hold worthy opinions concerning God. We have heard what Job, his wife, and his three friends have to say. They cycle through similar things several times. Next week, we will briefly see what a new speaker, Elihuh has to say and spend most of the class – the last one before Great Lent – to look at God’s conversation with Job. During Great Lent, we will work through chapters of Tito Coriander’s Way of Ascetics. Scriptural review Mentioned historically as Jobab in Genesis (4), Joshua (1), and 1 Chronicles (5) Ezekial 14:20. Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness. James 5:11. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. Liturgical review Mentioned (through James) at Holy Unction; “You have heard of the patience of Job.” From the Funeral for a Priest Beatitudes: Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. “Why do you lament me bitterly, O men? Why do you murmur in vain?” he that has been translated proclaims unto all. For death is rest for all. Therefore, let us listen to the voice of Job saying, “Death is rest unto man.” But give rest with Thy Saints, O God, unto him whom Thou hast received. Ode Six: I remind you, O my brethren, my children, and my friends, that you forget me not when you pray to the Lord. I pray, I ask, and I make entreaty, that you remember these words, and weep for me, day and night. As said Job unto his friends, so I say unto you: Sit again and say: Alleluia. Forsaking all things, we depart, and naked and afflicted we become. For beauty withers like grass, but only we men delude ourselves. Thou wast born naked, O wretched one, and altogether naked shall you stand there. Dream not, O man, in this life, but only groan always with weeping: Alleluia. If thou, O man, hast been merciful to a man, he shall be merciful there unto thee. And if thou hast been compassionate to any orphan, he shall deliver you there from need. If in this life thou hast covered the naked, there he shall cover thee, and sing the psalm: Alleluia. Triodion Wednesday of Cheesfare Week; Matins Canticle Eight Let us preserve these virtues: the fortitude of Job, the singlemindedness of Jacob, the faith of Abraham, the chastity of Joseph and the courage of David. Saturday of Cheesefare Week; Matins; Canticle Two … a second Job was Benjamin in his constancy … Thursday of Clean Week (and Thursday of the Fifth Week); Great Canon Ode 4 Thou hast heard, O my soul, of Job justified on a dung-hill, but thou hast not imitated his fortitude. In all thine experiences and trials and temptations, thou hast not kept firmly to thy purpose but hast proved inconstant. Have mercy on me, Oh God, have mercy on me. Once he sat upon a throne, but now he sits upon a dung-hill, naked and covered with sores. Once he was blessed with many children and admired by all, but suddenly he is childless and homeless. Yet he counted the dung-hill as a palace and his sores as pearls. Have mercy on me, Oh God, have mercy on me. A man of great wealth and righteous, abounding in riches and cattle, clothed in royal dignity, in crown and purple robe, Job became suddenly a beggar, stripped of wealth, glory and kingship. Have mercy on me, Oh God, have mercy on me. If he who was righteous and blameless above all men did not escape the snares and pits of the deceiver, what wilt thou do, wretched and sin-loving soul, when some sudden misfortune befalls thee? Have mercy on me, Oh God, have mercy on me. I have defiled my body, I have stained my spirit, and I am all covered with wounds: but as physician, O Christ, heal both body and spirit for me through repentance. Wash, purify and cleanse me, O my Saviour, and make me whiter than snow. Read at Vespers/PSL on Monday of Holy Week: Job 1:1–12. Read at Vespers/PSL on Tuesday of Holy Week: Job 1:13–22. Read at Vespers/PSL on Wednesday of Holy Week: Job 2:1–10. Read at Vespers/Vesperal Liturgy on Thursday of Holy Week: Job 38:1–21; 42:1–5. Read at Vespers on Friday of Holy Week: Job 42:12–17 (LXX ending) --- Job 38 FROM FR. PATRICK REARDON NOW THE LORD HIMSELF WILL SPEAK, for the first time since chapter 2. After all, Job has been asking for God to speak (cf. 13:22; 23:5; 30:20; 31:35), and now he will get a great deal more than he anticipated. With a mere gesture, as it were, God proceeds to brush aside all the theories and pseudoproblems of the preceding chapters. … [Whirlwind, Lord] … At this point, all philosophical discussion comes to an end. There are questions, to be sure, but the questions now come from the Lord. Indeed, we observe in this chapter that God does not answer Job’s earlier questions. The Lord does not so much as even notice those questions; He renders them hopelessly irrelevant. He has His own questions to put to Job. The purpose of these questions is not merely to bewilder Job. These questions have to do, rather, with God’s providence over all things. The Lord is suggesting to Job that His providence over Job’s own life is even more subtle and majestic than these easier questions which God proposes and which Job cannot begin to answer, questions about the construction of the world (verses 4–15), the courses of the heavenly bodies (verses 31–38), the marvels of earth and sea (verses 16–30), and animal life (38:39–39:30). Utterly surrounded by things that he cannot understand, will Job still demand to know mysteries even more mysterious? If the world itself contains creatures that seem improbable and bewildering to the human mind, should not man anticipate that there are even more improbable and bewildering aspects to the subtler forms of the divine providence? God will not be reduced simply to an answer to Job’s shallow questions. Indeed, the divine voice from the whirlwind never once deigns even to notice Job’s questions. They are implicitly subsumed into a mercy vaster and far richer. Implicit in these questions to Job is the quiet reminder of the Lord’s affectionate provision for all His creatures. If God so cares for the birds of the air and the plants of the fields, how much more for Job! 39 - 41. On the Behemoth and the Leviathan Both behemoth and Leviathan are God’s household pets, as it were, creatures that He cares for with gentle concern, His very playmates (compare Psalms 104[103]:26). God is pleased with them. Job cannot take the measure of these animals, but the Lord does. What, then, do these considerations say to Job? Well, Job has been treading on some very dangerous ground through some of this book, and it is about time that he manifest a bit more deference before things he does not understand. Behemoth and Leviathan show that the endeavor to transgress the limits of human understanding is not merely futile. There is about it a strong element of danger. A man can be devoured by it. It is remarkable that God’s last narrative to Job resembles nothing so much as a fairy tale, or at least that darker part of a fairy tale that deals with dragons. Instead of pleading His case with Job, as Job has often requested, the Lord deals with him as with a child. Job must return to his childhood’s sense of awe and wonder, so the Lord tells him a children’s story about a couple of unimaginably dangerous dragons. These dragons, nonetheless, are only pets in the hands of God. Job is left simply with the story. It is the Lord’s final word in the argument. 42. Finale THE TRIAL OF JOB IS OVER. This last chapter of this book contains (1) a statement of repentance by Job (verses 1–6), (2) the Lord’s reprimand of Eliphaz and his companions (verses 7–8), and (3) a final narrative section, at the end of which Job begins the second half of his life (verses 9–17). The book begins and ends, then, in narrative form. First, one observes in Job’s repentance that he arrives at a new state of humility, not from a consideration of his own sins, but by an experience of God’s overwhelming power and glory. (Compare Peter in Luke 5:1–8.) When God finally reveals Himself to Job, the revelation is different from anything Job either sought or expected, but clearly he is not disappointed. All through this book, Job has been proclaiming his personal integrity, but now this consideration is not even in the picture; he has forgotten all about any alleged personal integrity. It is no longer pertinent to his relationship to God (verse 6). Job is justified by faith, not by any claims to personal integrity. All that is in the past, and Job leaves it behind. Second, the Lord then turns and deals with the three comforters who have failed so miserably in their task. Presuming to speak for the Almighty, they have fallen woefully short of the glory of God. Consequently, Job is appointed to be the intercessor on their behalf. Ironically, the offering that God prescribes to be made on behalf of the three comforters (verse 8) is identical to that which Job had offered for his children out of fear that they might have cursed God (1:5). The Book of Job both begins and ends, then, with Job and worship and intercession. In just two verses (7–8) the Lord four times speaks of “My servant Job,” exactly as He had spoken of Job to Satan at the beginning of the book. But Job, for his part, must bear no grudge against his friends, and he is blessed by the Lord in the very act of his praying for them (verse 10). Ezekiel, remembering Job’s prayer more than his patience, listed him with Noah and Daniel, all three of whom he took to be men endowed with singular powers of intercession before the Most High (Ezekiel 14:14–20). The divine reprimand of Job’s counselors also implies that their many accusations against Job were groundless. Indeed,... /episode/index/show/orthoanalytika/id/30502908

Homily - Prejudice, Objectivity, and Perseverance 02/18/2024

Homily - Prejudice, Objectivity, and Perseverance 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 is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” Then she said; “yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that moment. Are we ashamed of the Christ? Should we be? If you were not jarred by the language of this Gospel lesson, then I am not sure that you were paying attention. Did you hear what Jesus said to this poor woman? She came to him with a terrible problem, and how did he respond? First, he ignored her! Then, as if that was not bad enough, he told her that he did not come to help “her kind.” And then, to top it off, he pretty much called her a “dog” and told her that she was not worthy of his help! How can we deal with this? How are we to understand the rudeness that Christ exhibited to this brokenhearted and suffering mother? It is a point of fact that when the Scriptures surprise or offend us (and it often does… or should!), that we should react with joy rather than sadness, anger, or disbelief – for we are about to have our understanding enlarged! That is certainly the case with today’s lesson. The fact that Christ’s words are so offensive is part of the point, part of the lesson. So what are we to learn from it? Some theologians would explain that we have to look at the cultural context of the reading: Jesus was a Jew, and that this was how Jews thought about and treated the Gentiles. This is what some theologians say, but they are wrong. In charity, I should give them more credit: they are only mostly wrong. They are right in teaching that we should look at the cultural context of scripture, but they are completely wrong in believing that Jesus was shaped by it: Christ is utterly BEYOND culture. Remember: he was the Logos before time began. As a human, he was affected by his time and place, but as the source of wisdom he transcended the bigotries and prejudices of the world. Ironically, it was this very transcendence that led to his offensive treatment of the Canaanite woman. Let me explain. Jesus recognized that there were aspects of worldly cultures that were literally demonic (e.g. Psalm 81; Psalm 95:5 1 Corinthians 10:20) and, as such, they were a serious obstacle to satisfying his desire that all men be saved. Through his language, he was awakening his audience to the absurdity of treating people based on their group rather than as unique persons in need of our love and attention. The disciples could not help but notice the huge gulf between what morality required and the way their prejudices would have them act. There is no room for prejudice or division in God’s love. Those who serve him must rise above their worldviews and see the world in the light of pure love and objectivity. Again, Christ was using this encounter to teach his audience that love requires that we serve everyone who comes into our midst, regardless of the color of their skin, where they or their babas were born, or how much money they make. So what about the poor woman? What if she had given up? Remember, we are not dealing with a common man here, but with the eternal God incarnate. He knew the woman’s heart in its entirety; not just the love she had for her daughter or the trust she had in the power of God to heal her, but also her grit. He knew that she would do anything within her power to save her daughter. She would persevere. She would overcome. This is the second lesson I would have you learn today: the virtue of perseverance and grit. On perseverance. [Persistence – examples from regular life (including studies on the relative importance of “grit”)] If perseverance matters for all these other parts of our lives, why shouldn’t we expect it to affect our spiritual life? If we are persistent, if we persevere, then the changes we make in our lives – eating well, exercising, being more patient with our families, dealing properly with our addictions, praying and worshipping more, being more serious in our Orthodoxy – will become less about the goals we want to achieve and more an expression of who we are. We would no longer eat well because we wanted to become healthy, we would eat well because we WERE healthy. We would no longer exercise regularly because we wanted to become more fit, we would exercise regularly because we WERE fit. We would no longer be more patient and loving with our families because we wanted our family life to be more enjoyable, we would be patient and loving with our families because our family life WAS more enjoyable. We would no longer be more diligent in our prayer and worship life because we wanted to reduce stress and help others, but because we WERE LIVING stress-free and helpful lives. We would no longer be more serious in our Orthodoxy in order to get into heaven or to become more holy, but because, through Holy Orthodoxy, we WERE ALREADY BECOMING holy and more worthy of a place in heaven. Then we will have been transformed: From dieters to health eaters. From out of shape to fit. From casualties of broken families to beneficiaries of healthy ones. From stressed out and powerless, to peaceful and powerful. From part-time Christians into saints. While each of these begins with a single decision, a decision on its own is not enough. In order to change our habits we have to exhibit enough grit and determination to make our decisions real in our lives. People who are serious about making changes rededicate themselves to their decisions every morning, then take stock of their efforts every evening. Moreover, they constantly ask God for his strength and support and that he remove the stains their weakness has caused. This is true whether we are talking about food and exercise or the even more important decision to give our lives over to The Way Christ established for the healing and salvation of all his people; it takes grit to make it real. It takes determination. A Warning We have to be careful: the world is full of snake-oil salesmen who will try to sell us shortcuts to health and perfection, and our egos are the most convincing charlatans of the lot. But there are no shortcuts. A pill cannot make up for laziness. We cannot eat junk and lay around all the time and expect to be healthy. We cannot ignore your family and be a blessing to them. We cannot skip prayer and find lasting peace. We cannot forsake The Way of Orthodoxy and live a holy life. And we cannot do anything worth doing without grounding ourselves completely in Jesus Christ, the very source of all power and perfection. Anyone who tells us differently – to include our own egos or “consciences” – is setting us up for failure. We have to ignore them, roll up our sleeves, and get serious. Conclusion It takes a lot of effort to gain anything worthwhile. In his interaction with the Gentile woman in today’s Gospel, Christ was showing us that salvation and the qualities needed to obtain it are not limited to any race, class, or nationality. It is ours to take no matter the color of our skin or where we were born. Christ came to save us all. In him and his love – that is to say, in his Holy Orthodox Church – there are no Gentiles or Jews, no Americans or Syrians, no rich or poor. Only those who are alive in Christ. Remember, God is not a respecter of persons. He desires that all be saved. He is knocking at the door of every heart. We must all let him in. We must accept him as our Lord, God, and Savior. And this is more than a one time promise. We cannot just say a “sinners prayer” and expect to be saved. The kingdom of heaven is taken by force and we must constantly strive – dare I say “work!” for our salvation. But do not despair: through Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit, we all have access to the strength we need to persevere. And the road that we must walk, the very “Way” that the persistent must follow is found in its fullness here at this parish and in this community of Christ the Savior in Anderson, SC. /episode/index/show/orthoanalytika/id/30007428

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