Hosken-News Blog

Saturday, March 24, 2018

The Tale of Two Marys

The Virgin Mary and St. Mary of Egypt In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

We have an extraordinary coincidence this Sunday: we commemorate St. Mary of Egypt on the fifth Sunday of Great Lent, which this year for New Calendar Christians falls exactly on March 25, nine months before the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know what happens nine months before a baby is born: it’s conceived! Yes, this Sunday we also celebrate the Annunciation by the Angel Gabriel to St. Mary the Mother of Christ our God. At the very instant Mary said to Gabriel, "Let it be unto me according to your word," the Word became flesh… God became incarnate… our salvation had begun! As St. Athanasius said – "Without the Incarnation there is no Salvation." Only when God partook of our humanity could we become partakers of His divinity (2 Peter 1:4). And the pure and sinless Virgin Mary's "yes" made it all possible.

But what about the other Mary? We can hardly identify with the Virgin Mary because of her purity and her not committing any personal sins. But we certainly can identify with St. Mary of Egypt who had yielded to temptation not just once or twice, but had relished and rollicked in her sin, dragging others along with her into the pit of debauchery. How many times have we repeated our favorite besetting sin – gluttony, gambling, porn, sexual, nicotine or alcohol addiction – over and over and over again? How did St. Mary of Egypt finally break free, and how can we?

In Joshua 24:1 & 14-28 we read Joshua's promises and warnings to the Israelites when they had entered the Promised Land and as he was about to die: "If you disobey the Lord, take foreign wives and worship their idols, the Lord will punish you!" And they replied, "We will worship only the Lord God!" But then they turned right around and did exactly what Joshua had warned them against. Mary of Egypt had boarded the ship to Jerusalem, going through the motions of a religious pilgrim while in her heart still being a harlot. Only when stopped by an Angel from entering the church in Jerusalem did she finally realize she must cease leading a two-faced life. Joshua told the Israelites, "Choose this day whom you will serve!" ...and they faked it. But Mary of Egypt finally realized that she couldn't fake it any longer, she must get real with God. Are we at that point where we realize that we need to stop faking our faith, and get real with God?

Why did the Church Fathers link St. Mary of Egypt with this Sunday's Scripture readings? The Epistle reading for this Sunday, Hebrews 9:11-14, tells us about this higher reality. The Israelites in the Old Testament had to repeatedly offer animal sacrifices, which were a mere shadow of things to come, but Christ offered His own Flesh and Blood as the once-for-all eternal reality that cleanses our guilty conscience from continuing in sin while faking our faith, and He enables us to get real with God.

In the Gospel reading for this Sunday, Mark 10:32-45, we see the same sort of phony holiness and fake bravado among the disciples. Just after teaching about faithfulness in marriage (which the early Mary of Egypt would have nothing to do with), Jesus rebuked the rich young man who wanted to follow Christ but also wanted to hang onto his wealth (serving God and Mammon), then in this Scripture passage He detected the same double-minded thinking in James and John: nothing against these two disciples in particular – in the last chapter we saw that all twelve were jockeying for first place, "who would be the greatest in the coming Kingdom."

The reading for this Sunday begins with Christ telling His disciples for the third time now that the destination of their current trek, Jerusalem, would be what seemed to them the end of the road for Him: He will be betrayed, condemned to death, scourged, mocked and executed. But they couldn't grasp that He would rise again to conquer all evil, all banal and worldly thinking, all self-centered seeking after one's own advancement.

James and John addressed Jesus as "Teacher" or didaskalos in Greek, which can also be translated as master or doctor (KJV+). It appears that they still viewed Him as a master teacher or doctor of this new philosophy. They were dabbling in learning some new philosophical ideas, which the Greek-speaking world really loved to do. But the Gospel is more than learning philosophical or theological ideas!

St. John Chrysostom wrote that this text teaches we are not to ask for privilege in the kingdom without readiness to die for it. The sons of Zebedee were not mistaken in recognizing that they were special recipients of His love, but they were mistaken in imagining that this would be without cost (ACCS). We all want to be transformed and glorified, but few of us are willing to take up our cross and deny ourselves. This is precisely the point Jesus was getting at when He said – "Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" (v. 38). To "drink the cup that I drink" is a Jewish expression meaning to share the same fate (NIVSB).

That cup is His Blood and that baptism is His death, burial and resurrection. Do we fully comprehend that when we were baptized we joined ourselves to His death, burial and resurrection, that is, we really and truly died, our old self was buried and a new person was born again into newness of life? Is it really real to us that partaking of the Eucharist is taking His crucified Body and His shed Blood into us as our new life in Him and He in us? This is a life-and-death issue, not just learning some religious doctrines!

"And when the ten heard it, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John" (v.41). The New Oxford Annotated Bible puts it – "they began to be indignant at James and John." They were really ticked off! These two were trying to cut ahead in line! Nobody likes it when someone else cuts ahead in line or cuts you off in traffic. Beside that, as Matthew tells us, the two didn't have the nerve themselves to ask Jesus, they had their mother ask Him (Matthew 20:20-21). What a couple of wimps! But Jesus, being God incarnate, knew their future: James would be beheaded and John would die as a prisoner on the island of Patmos. They would indeed drink His cup and be baptized with His baptism. So He called the disciples together and taught them – "This isn't the way it works in My Kingdom: if you want to be great, you've got to become a servant, if you want to be first, become a slave" (v. 43-44).

Like the early Mary of Egypt, they still had their value system upside-down, but by the grace of God she rose up from the abyss of sin to the heights of holiness. They thought life was all about power, prestige and pleasure. Soon they would learn how fickle was their faith, as Jesus goes from being a hero in His triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to being executed as a rebel and a heretic the next Friday. Tune in next time to see how it all turns out: it just might turn your value system right-side-up!

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!

________________
Sources:
ACCS = Ancient Christian Commentary on the Scriptures, on this passage (e-Sword add-in)
KJV+ = King James Version with Strong's Dictionaries and Concordance (e-Sword)
NIVSB = New International Version Study Bible
NOAB = New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha
OSB = Orthodox Study Bible (used throughout except where otherwise noted)

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Saturday, March 10, 2018

The Veneration of the Holy Cross

(description of photo) In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

In our Epistle reading for this Sunday, Hebrews 4:14-5:6, we heard that Christ is the high priest Who offered Himself on the Cross as the final, eternal sacrifice for our sins. Christ "was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin" (4:15). Chrysostom taught that God thus compassionately identifies with the weak and the poor, whom the world rejects. Therefore, the Lord’s throne is a throne of grace and mercy, not a throne of judgment (ACCS). Only Christ, being the sinless God-Man, could offer the final, perfect sacrifice. Every previous high priest had to first offer a sacrifice for his own sins (5:3), but not Christ.

How can this be? How can any man, even Jesus Christ, be both tempted as we weak humans are, yet without sin offer a perfect sacrifice? The answer is that He combined two natures in one Person. Leo the Great wrote – "Since, therefore, the characteristic properties of both natures and substances are kept intact and come together in one Person, lowliness is taken on by majesty, weakness by power, mortality by eternity, and the nature which cannot be harmed is united to the nature which suffers, in order that the debt which our condition involves may be discharged.

"In this way, as our salvation requires one and the same mediator between God and human beings, the human being who is Jesus Christ can at one and the same time die in virtue of the one nature and in virtue of the other be incapable of death. That is why true God was born in the integral and complete nature of a true human being, entire in what belongs to Him and entire in what belongs to us.

"Each nature retained its characteristic without defect. Each ‘form’ carries on its proper activities in communion with the other. Because of this unity of Person, which must be understood to subsist in a twofold nature, we read that the Son of Man came down from heaven, and conversely we say that the Son of God was crucified and buried" (ACCS).

Wow! That’s powerful stuff! Christ has two natures – fully divine and fully human – united without confusion in one Person.

Now let’s go on to the Gospel reading for this Sunday, Mark 8:34-9:1. The context of this passage is when Peter first confesses Jesus as the Christ, God’s anointed, the Messiah, but when Jesus replies that He must suffer, be rejected and crucified, Peter turns right around and rebukes Christ – "No, that can never be!" How often do we try to force Christ’s commands into our pigeon-holes, our limited and sin-distorted framework of thinking? Christ had to tell Peter – "Get behind Me, Satan!" (v. 33).

Then Christ turns to all the people who were following Him – "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me" (v. 34). In other words – "Just like I must suffer, be rejected and crucified, you must too, if you really want to follow Me." This goes against our fallen human nature: we want to be recognized, rewarded and applauded for our Christian life, our good deeds – "What kind of academic degree and what title will I receive? What kind of fancy robes do I get to wear? How much does a career priest earn? What are the retirement benefits?"

No! Forget that nonsense! If that’s all you want out of life, you’ll lose big-time! "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it" (v. 35). This apparent logical contradiction is resolved when we realize that our entire existence depends on God (NOAB note), not on material things and social status. You might save your physical life by denying Christ, but lose your spiritual life; or you might lose your physical life or material wealth and status, but gain eternal life (NIVSB note). These very verses coursed through my mind on the evening of July 14, 1957, when I was debating with myself and finally decided to surrender my life totally to Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Little did I know what these verses would cost me in the future.

Let's continue in this passage – "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" (vv. 36-37). Here Jesus uses very mundane terms, to profit (opheleo) and to lose (zemio): business terms, like a profit-and-loss statement. Gaining the whole material world (kosmos) makes no sense if in the deal you lose your soul (psyche) or life (KJV+). In the game of chess, you sometimes have to sacrifice your rook or even your queen in order to save your king. Likewise, in the game of life you sometimes have to sacrifice your goals, even your career, in order to save your wife and family, or your soul – your ethical standards.

After serving in the Army where I learned Russian, I finished university in three years, aiming to go into the diplomatic corps. I passed the day-long written Foreign Service Officer exam that just 25% of college seniors who take it pass, only to lose in the oral interview when I took a stand on pacifism: that was the whole content of the interview, not a single question about my studies in political science, Russian and Central European history and languages, international law, etc.

Then my wife and I had a stint in mission work to Christians behind the Iron Curtain, only to be forced to return to the U.S. for my wife’s health. After getting into careers as consultants, I was managing a billion-dollar project at an insurance company where I was consulting and found out that they were routinely mis-coding abortions to get the U.S. government to pay for them: a violation of U.S. law at the time... and a violation of my conscience. When I blew the whistle on them, it effectively ended my career as a consultant.

But this was the same time when the Berlin Wall was coming down, Central European countries were casting off communism, many now being led by the same dissidents we had brought Bibles to! We returned to mission work, this time spending 17 years in Russia where we were drawn to the Orthodox Christian faith – the original Church. We lost our careers and high incomes, however, we gained the pearl of great price, our eternal souls! "But God forbid that I should boast except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal. 6:14). That’s the real "art of the deal" – will you take up the challenge, your cross?

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!

______________
Sources:
ACCS = Ancient Christian Commentary on the Scriptures, on this passage (e-Sword add-in)
KJV+ = King James Version with Strong's Dictionaries and Concordance (e-Sword)
NIVSB = New International Version Study Bible
NOAB = New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha
OSB = Orthodox Study Bible (used throughout except where otherwise noted)

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 10 Mar. 2018.)

Saturday, February 24, 2018

The Sunday of Orthodoxy

The Sunday of Orthodoxy In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

The first Sunday of Lent marks celebrates the triumph of Orthodox Christianity over the Iconoclasts, who for over a century had hijacked the Eastern Church and destroyed icons anywhere they could find them in an effort to appease the encroaching Muslim armies. So on this day, Orthodox Christians bring their icons to church and make a procession around it, holding up their icons, to celebrate this victory.

In our Gospel reading for this Sunday, John 1:43-51, we learn how Jesus called His first disciples: Andrew and his brother Simon whom Jesus renamed Cephas (Peter) meaning a "Stone," then Philip and his brother Nathanael. Nothing is said here about James and his brother John, likely because of the author’s reluctance to name himself, although the other gospels place them among the first batch of disciples.

When Philip invites Nathanael to see Jesus, Who seems to be the fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah, Nathanael makes this strange statement: "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" (v.46). How should we understand this? The brothers Andrew and Peter, as well as brothers James and John, all came from Nazareth, but Nathanael seems to disparage the town, wrote Chrysosotom. Augustine, however, thought it could be taken two ways: "either as casting aspersions on Jesus' birth and upbringing, or affirming that something good can come out of Nazareth" (ACCS). But Nathanael’s brother Philip brushed aside this complaint by simply saying – "Come and see." This is what we need to say when people bring up objections about Christ, Christianity and the Church: invite them to church: "Come and see," or better yet, pick them up and take them to church. Only about 10% of the people you invite to church come, but 100% of the people you take to church come!

And what's that strange bit about the fig tree? When Nathanael came, Jesus said to him – "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!" Nathanael seems a bit embarrassed and asks – "How did you know me?" And Jesus replied – "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you" (vv. 47-48). What's with the fig tree? It was a place of shade in hot weather where a man could sit and pray or meditate on the Scriptures (NIVSB). Nathanael knew that Moses and the prophets hadn't written anything about the Messiah coming from Nazareth, but rather from Bethlehem: what a puzzle!

Okay, that’s the lead-in. The stunning thing about this Gospel reading, however, is that the relatively obscure Nathanael, not Simon Peter, is the one who makes the shocking confession right at the start of Christ's ministry – "Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" (v. 49). It was only much later that Peter would confess – "You are the Christ [Messiah], the Son of the living God" (Mat. 16:16). Why is this? St. John Chrysostom wrote that "Jesus was praising Nathanael for being so diligent and careful in his search for the Messiah. Christ's foreknowledge and His ability to see into Nathanael's heart stir him to this confession of faith" (OSB note).

This is all it took for Nathanael, he was hooked on Jesus when He told him – "Because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,' do you believe? You will see greater things than these" (v. 50). All it takes for most people is a personal encounter with Christ through someone who sees their heart, cares enough to show interest in them, and that person sees Christ in them. Do we care enough to show interest in people... especially those "others" who are maybe a little strange and different from us?

Even more stunning than Nathanael's confession of Jesus as the Son of God, however, is what Jesus said to him next – "Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man" (v. 51). This brings to mind Ezekiel’s vision – "...the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God" (Ezek. 1:1), and the story of Jacob’s ladder in Gen. 28:12 – "Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it." What does all this mean, and how does it tie into the Sunday of Orthodoxy?

When the Virgin Mary conceived Jesus by the Holy Spirit, the Son of God – the eternal Sophia and Logos – became the Son of Man. Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man. He is not just a man who was a created being and became really godly, like the Arians and later the Muslims would say; nor a half-and-half, part man and part God, as the Nestorians taught. NO! The invisible God became a visible, tangible and very real human being while remaining fully God. This is what the iconoclasts and the Muslims fought against, that the invisible God, Whom nobody may make a three-D carved image of, became visible and could be depicted in a two-D image, an icon.

St. John the Evangelist wrote in the first part of this chapter – "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace [kharis] and truth [aletheia]" (v. 14). Grace is not merely a free gift from God, as our Evangelical friends say: it doesn't make sense to say that Jesus was full of the free gift from God. Grace is also God's divine energy that transformed Mary into the Theotokos, the Birthgiver of God, and is transforming us into His likeness. And the truth here is God's Word that sanctifies us – "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your Word is truth" (Jn. 17:17).

So now we've solved this puzzle: the Son of God – Sophia or Wisdom, Logos or the Word – no longer is just an abstract ideal in the realm of ideas. He came down the Ladder of the Virgin Mary’s womb, He took on human flesh while remaining fully divine, God became the Son of Man, became a visible, tangible Man, as St. John wrote later – "That which was from the beginning, which we have seen and heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word [Logos] of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you may have fellowship [koinonia] with us. And our fellowship [koinonia] is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ" (1 Jn. 1:1-3 NIVSB).

This koinonia-fellowship refers to Communion, the Eucharist, in which we become koinonos-partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4 KJV+). It is not merely a symbol, it is partaking of the very real Body and Blood of Christ: the Son of God becomes the Son of Man, the Word becomes flesh and dwells in and among us; thus we become the Body of Christ, the Church. Let us now proclaim what we have seen and heard to the whole world: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek" (Rom. 1:16) – and also for the Carpatho-Rusyns and for the Russians, Serbians, Americans, Italians, Africans, Fijians, Peruvians… "Come and see!"

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!

________________
Sources:
ACCS = Ancient Christian Commentary on the Scriptures, on this passage (e-Sword add-in)
KJV+ = King James Version with Strong’s Dictionaries and Concordance (e-Sword)
NIVSB = New International Version Study Bible
OSB = Orthodox Study Bible (used throughout except where otherwise noted)

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 24 Feb. 2018.)

To keep our websites free,
please Support Agape Restoration Society: click on the "DONATE" button there.
Also, please Share Our Vision with your family and friends.
And shop at our Amazon.com Store too!

Saturday, February 10, 2018

Forgiveness Sunday

Forgiveness Sunday In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

On February 18, Forgiveness Sunday, the beginning of Great Lent, the Epistle reading is Rom. 13:11 - 14:4, and the Gospel reading is Mat. 6:14-21.

We call it "Forgiveness Sunday" and it's a very special, moving service of mutual forgiveness. But every Sunday – in fact, every day – should be Forgiveness Day. In today's Epistle, we read in Rom. 14:1-3 – "Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God has received him." As we enter Great Lent, keep in mind that it's not a game of spiritual one-up-man-ship. Some can fast, others just can't. St. Paul says here that he who eats only vegetables is weak in the faith: we fast to strengthen our weak faith, not to show how spiritually strong we already are. Nor should our Evangelical friends who eat meat during Lent look down on those of us who fast – that's not receiving the weaker brother. Each of us – Orthodox, Catholic or Evangelical – will answer to his own Master, Christ, not to us (v. 4).

Our Gospel reading this Sunday begins with - "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses" (Mat. 6:14-15). How often do we unthinkingly rattle off the words in the Lord's Prayer in Mat. 6:9 – "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors"? Forgive and accept those brothers and sisters in the faith who do secondary things differently! Fasting isn't the main thing, nor are our beloved ethnic foods and customs. Folk dances, fish fries or halushki never got anyone into or kept anyone out of heaven. This is Forgiveness Sunday, so let's forgive and accept one another!

Mutual forgiveness implies repentance – "metanoia" – a change of heart and direction. That is what Lent is all about. So let's go a bit further in today's Gospel text: the Lord gives instructions on how to fast – "Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly" (vv. 16-18). The Jews put ashes on their heads when fasting, but put oil on their heads for joyous occasions (NIVSB), so put on a happy face when you fast. Do you tell others about your fasting? Stop it! Doing that loses all the benefit of fasting! As Christ said in v. 5, "And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward." Do you fill your belly with tasty "fasting foods"? Cut it out! That's fake fasting: real fasting is simple and spare eating.

What to the Church Fathers say about it? St. John Chrysostom wrote – "What good is it if we abstain from eating birds and fish, but bite and devour our brothers?" (OSB note). Blessed Augustine said – "Pride can appear not only in the pomp of worldly wealth but even in the garment of sackcloth, where it is all the more dangerous because it is a deception under the pretense of service to God" (ACCS).

This leads us to the next thought, about false wealth and true treasures – "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust corrupt and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (vv. 19-21). "Moth and rust" represent all agents and processes that destroy worldly possessions (NIVSB). So you bought Bitcoin as it went up to $20,000? Now it's down to $6,000 and you've lost your shirt. You grew your business and built yourself a million-dollar mansion, did you? One night your soul will be required of you, and the tax man will take most of that, thank you. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Mat. 5:3). Which are you: poor materially but striving for more wealth, or truly poor in spirit? The Greek word for "treasure" is "thisauros" (KJV+) from which we get "thesaurus" – a thick volume containing a treasury of fancy synonyms you can use to sound like you're well-educated: could this be another earthly treasure we are not to seek?

Trusting in worldly goods is useless, as James writes (ch. 5:2-3) – "Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasures for the last days" (NOAB). The "last days" are the Last Judgment, when all worldly wealth and status will go up in smoke. Again, Chrysostom writes – "The love of money wounds the center of your vitality, your soul, your very life, and may overthrow your salvation. In relation to God's providence, all things about which we are anxious will pass away" (ACCS). Our very salvation is at stake: serve God or mammon, you can't serve both.

Finally, Blessed Augustine writes – "How can a heart be clean while it is wallowing in the mud? On the other hand, if it be fastened upon heaven it will be clean, for whatever is heavenly is unpolluted. A thing becomes defiled if it is mixed with a baser substance, even though that other substance be not vile in its own nature. Gold, for example, is debased by pure silver if mixed with it. So also is our mind defiled by a desire for the things of earth, although the earth itself is pure in its own class and in its own order" (ACCS). The soul was made for higher things than earthly treasures: keep it undefiled!

In conclusion, 1) forgive, don't judge or hold a grudge; 2) fast plainly and without show; 3) speak and live simply, don't strive for earthly treasure or status. Do all this to inherit the Kingdom of God.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is in our midst! He is and ever shall be!

______________
Sources:
ACCS = Ancient Christian Commentary on the Scriptures, on this passage (e-Sword add-in)
KJV+ = King James Version with Strong's Dictionaries and Concordance (e-Sword)
OSB = Orthodox Study Bible (used throughout except where otherwise noted)
NIVSB = New International Version Study Bible
NOAB = New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 10 Feb. 2018.)

Saturday, January 27, 2018

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

The Gospel reading from Luke 18:9-14 (OSB) begins with these telling words – "Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others…."

What images does this parable conjure up in your minds? Do you envision a luxuriously-dressed, well-fed or even corpulent Pharisee, head held high in pious prayer pose, with a bag full of coins tied to his waist cloth, some of which he has just dropped into the moneybox; while standing afar off cringes a scruffy Publican, unkempt and dressed in tatters, looking down and weeping? Is that what appears in your mind’s eye? I’ve seen such depictions in icons and other illustrations. But this is incorrect: the Publican or tax collector was a Jew who served the occupying Roman governor, thus he was very likely well-compensated from his allowed percentage of collected taxes in addition to whatever more he could squeeze out of Rome’s unwilling Jewish subjects. So he may well have been better-dressed and more well-fed than the Pharisee, which is why the latter despised him with an air of moral superiority.

But in his commentary on Luke (ACCS), St. Cyril of Alexandria wrote: "Lower your pride, because arrogance is accursed and hated by God. It is foreign to the mind that fears God. Christ even said, ‘Do not judge, and you shall not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.’ (Luke 6:37) One of his disciples also said, ‘There is one lawgiver and judge. Why then do you judge your neighbor?’ (James 4:12) No one who is in good health ridicules one who is sick for being laid up and bedridden. He is rather afraid, for perhaps he may become the victim of similar sufferings…. The weakness of others is not a suitable subject for praise for those who are in health."

The Pharisee despised this tax collector for being a traitor to his Jewish race and country: "Why, that half-breed quisling Publican probably extorts unjust sums from our people, bathes nude in the public Roman baths, sends his children to the Greco-Roman gymnasium where they are taught pagan ideas such as wife-swapping, abortion, and homosexual practices. How disgusting! But I! I fast and tithe like a good Jew should!" In our Carpatho-Rusyn context, we might say: "I go to church whenever the doors are open, I pay my church dues and put something in all the regular and special offering envelopes, I send my children to a Christian school, and I make halushki and nut rolls like the best of them!"

Notice in both cases the "I… I… I." As the introductory verse to this parable says, it is about "some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others." The focus is on "I" - on self, not on God. Do we look down on those who are not like us, not of our cultural or ethnic background: not Eastern European, not Greek, or even not white? It is a natural – if fallen – human trait to consider one’s own culture and clan superior, but St. Paul wrote: "For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise." (2 Corinthians 10:12, OSB) Our measuring rod ought not to be ourselves, but Christ our God in His perfection: "You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:48, NOASB)

How many times in the Gospels does Christ turn our stereotypes of self-satisfaction and ethnic superiority upside-down? This tax collector is just one: recall Zacchaeus (in the next chapter of Luke) and Matthew, both tax collectors, the good Samaritan, the Roman centurion, the Syrophonician woman, the woman caught in adultery, the harlot who anointed Christ’s feet with precious oil, and others. The implied message is that the Jews, the Chosen People, especially the Pharisees who knew the Law inside and out and followed it to the letter – and by extension we who sing every Liturgy, "We have found the true faith!" (Beware that you never sing that out of pride!) – we all must come to God on the same basis as those traitors, foreigners, and fornicators: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" Don’t look at the other person or in the mirror, comparing yourself with them or with yourself, but look to God in all His fearsome holiness, fall down and beg for mercy.

In Ephrem the Syrian’s Commentary on Tatian’s Diatessaron (ACCS), he wrote: "In the case of that Pharisee who was praying, the things he said were true. Since [however] he was saying them out of pride and the tax collector was telling his sins with humility, the confession of sins of the last was more pleasing to God than the acknowledgment of the almsgiving of the first. It is more difficult to confess one’s sins than one’s righteousness."

It is well and good that we don’t extort money, oppress widows, are sexually pure, fast twice a week, give alms to the poor – these are all good things for oneself and for society! They were good things for the Pharisee to do, and are good for us to do. But if these outward religious acts are merely a mask for pride, ethnic superiority, and self-righteousness, they do more harm than good to our eternal souls.

The Pharisee, Christ says, appeared to be praying to God but in actuality, he "prayed with himself" – he was putting on an act, he was wearing a mask: that is what the word "hypocrite" means. His prayers got no higher than the ceiling. All those good works were good for nothing, they were only for show. But the tax collector’s spirit of humility in his genuine repentance for his treason, extortion, and other sins gained for him justification – true righteousness – from God by that simple prayer that we sing and say over and over in all our services: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!" - and in our private prayers: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner!"

So let’s combine the outward righteous acts of the Pharisee with the inward humility of the Publican, doing good works but not to be seen by men, and also recognizing the tendency of our fallen nature to deceive ourselves that we are somehow better than others. May we say "Lord, have mercy!" from our hearts, not begging an angry, vindictive deity who’s itching to hurl down thunderbolts on us, but asking Him Who is truly a merciful God Who loves all humankind: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!"

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

Sources:
OSB = Orthodox Study Bible
ACCS = Ancient Christian Commentary on the Scriptures, on this parable
NOASB = New Oxford Annotated Study Bible

Sunday, January 14, 2018

Peter the Pebble, Christ the Rock

How The Social Order Crumbles The Scripture most often quoted by Roman Catholics to support their belief in the papacy is Matthew 16:18-19 - "I also tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give to you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; and whatever you release on earth will be released in heaven." As a teenager and newly "born-again" Christian raised in an Evangelical church, I was taught that the Greek word "Petros", Peter's new name, actually meant "little stone" or "pebble" and that the Greek word for "rock" is "petra" meaning a huge chunk of rock, like a foundation stone.

Also, in Acts 4:11, when St.Peter was called before the Sanhedrin concerning the healing of the lame man at the Temple, Peter said: "He [Christ] is 'the stone which was regarded as worthless by you, the builders, which has become the head of the corner.' There is salvation in none other, for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, by which we must be saved!" Here Peter identifies not himself, but Christ as the chief Cornerstone, as prophesied in Psalm 118:22 and Isaiah 28:16.

And in Peter's first letter, he again refers to the same Old Testament prophecies - "Coming to Him [the Lord], a living Stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God, precious. You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Because it is contained in Scripture, 'Behold, I lay in Zion a chief Cornerstone, elect, precious: he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.' For you therefore who believe is the honor, but for such as are disobedient, 'The Stone which the builders rejected, has become the chief Cornerstone'" (1 Peter 2:4-7). So Peter himself twice states clearly that not he but Christ is the chief Cornerstone on Whom the Church is established.

St. Paul also quotes those same Old Testament prophecies - "Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; And no one who believes in Him will be disappointed" (Romans 9:33). And again - "having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the Cornerstone, in Whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in Whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:20-22). And again - "For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:11).

Coming back to Matthew ch, 16, in the Greek text Christ uses the singular pronoun for "you" ("thou" and "thee" in the King James version) which here indicates one person, Peter. This is sometimes pointed out by Catholics to bolster their case for the papacy, the heirs of Peter's authority who hold the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. But we find the same idea of "the keys" in Matthew 18:18 and John 20:23 where the Greek word for "you" is plural, indicating all of the Apostles had this authority. As we saw in Ephesians 2:20-22 above, Christ is the Cornerstone on which all of the apostles and prophets built the Church.

It is well known that St. Peter was taken to Rome as a prisoner where he was tried, sentenced and crucified upside-down. But there is no proof that he ever served as Bishop of Rome. In the early fourth century, Hippolytus of Rome wrote The Apostolic Tradition, which describes the Church's rules for ordaining bishops, priests and deacons, as well as Church governance for the first three centuries, indicating that there were multiple bishops in Rome and that none of them claimed authority over the others.

What's all the fuss about? Why is this important? Because for the first several centuries of Church history, the eastern and western leaders of Christianity were able to correct and balance out each other by meeting together in councils when threats to true doctrine or church order would arise. The first council was held in Jerusalem - see Acts ch. 15 - and was chaired not by Peter but by James, the brother of the Lord. Starting with Popes Gerasimus I and Leo the Great in the fourth and early fifth centuries, however, the Archbishops of Rome began claiming authority over all other bishops, archbishops and patriarchs.

In The Republic, Plato described four types of government - monarchy, aristocracy, democracy, and anarchy - that tend to devolve from one to the next. We can see this tendency over and over in history: an absolute monarch (emperor, king, or pope) gives way to a senate or council of highly-qualified leaders, which eventually yields to a democracy of all the people, which in turn degenerates into anarchy when the common people find their way to the public purse and bankrupt the state. Then the cycle starts over again.

This pattern also held true for the Church: the kings of the Old Testament gave way to Church councils of the Apostles and their successors, the bishops. In the West, the Roman Senate by the fifth century had yielded to the people's demands for "bread and circuses" that led to anarchy and the collapse of the Roman Empire. This is when Pope Leo the Great siezed the reins of civil government by negotiating with the advancing barbarian Huns, thus becoming both the secular and spiritual absolute ruler.

Which brings us to the Enlightenment (weakening of papal authority), Gutenberg's invention of the printing press (the spread of literacy to the common people), the Reformation (rejection of papal authority and beginning of church governance by laypeople), the advent of modern liberal democracy (rule by the propertied people), and modern liberal-leftist anarchy (rule by demagogues, semi-literates and the masses of the poor who are addicted to the public purse). You can read about this intellectual/theological development (or devolution) at my Literature web-page.

In Rod Dreher's recent article How The Social Order Crumbles, he traces the beginning, the growth... and the demise of modern democracy. The inscription under the above photo states - "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people..." by President John Adams.

Dreher writes - "The problems in liberalism didn’t show up until now because most people in liberal democratic countries took the Judeo-Christian moral framework for granted. If the human rights (for example) that liberalism enshrines are something real, then they have to be grounded in something transcendent. It has been observed many times that liberalism is mostly a secularized version of Christianity; there’s a lot of truth to that. As I read [#1 best seller] Why Liberalism Failed, I take [the author] Deneen as saying that liberalism had to fail because at its core it stands for liberating the individual from an unchosen obligation. Ultimately, it forms consumers, not citizens."

Modern liberal democracy assumed the moral and religious principles of Western Christianity, which had come to the point of toleration of myriads of differing theological and organizational modes, so today we have tens of thousands of denominations with conflicting doctrines that all claim to have the truth. When by now this toleration has widened to include first the Jews, then the Muslims, then Buddhists, Hindus, Confucians, and even atheists and hedonists, it has devolved into the nebulous mush of what Justice Anthony Kennedy described in his infamous line that Dreher quotes: "At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life."

In traditional Christian theology, however, liberty or freedom is the ability to choose and to act upon what is good and right. It assumes objective goodness and rightness as aspects of the Divine nature. But when liberty or freedom comes to mean the right to define one's own meaning of the universe, in other words, to believe and act in whatever way one wishes, it degenerates into consumerism, hedonism, and anarchy. The masses of people have found their way to the public purse.

In the comments section of Dreher's article, one person wrote: "We have learned, as a people, that there are no moral truths binding on anyone. There is no moral truth that cannot be simply dismissed and ignored."

I replied to that comment - "Another way to put this is: 'There are absolutely no absolutes, and that's the absolute truth.' By reducing his words to this bare-bones restatement, we can see its obvious absurdity.

To state it positively, there ARE absolute truths, but they are not easy to comprehend and even more difficult to put into practice. It requires faith, self-denial, and a deep sense of our own finitude and fallibility.

We must return to these basic Christian virtues and submit ourselves to the greater wisdom of God's revealed truth in Christ, in the Scriptures, and in the great Fathers and Mothers of the Church. No one human being is perfect, infallible or absolute, which is why we need to be guided by the consensus of godly men and women of the faith."

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 14 Jan. 2018.)

Saturday, December 30, 2017

Do Not Harden Your Hearts!

Do not harden your hearts How easy it is to let doctrinal truths slip-slide away into the mist as we shovel snow, drive to the shopping malls or shop online, eat, drink and be merry as we celebrate Christmas and the New Year (or the New Year, then Christmas, and then old New Year, if you're an Old Calendarist).

It was most likely St. Paul who wrote in Hebrews 3:8 & 15 - "Do not harden your hearts!" The Israelites had just been delivered from slavery in Egypt and were wandering in the Sinai desert. God had given Moses the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, but the Israelites were caught slip-sliding into idolatry by worshipping a golden calf. Later, after the Lord rebuked them by destroying the leaders of a rebellion against Moses, the Israelites grumbled: "It's not fair!"

How in heaven's name can we ever say that God is not fair? He has created the whole universe and our planet earth precisely the right distance from our sun to give us liquid water, breathable air, a livable climate, four beautiful seasons, plants and animals to feed us and for us to care for, and loving families who care for us and we care for them. But when anything gets just a little bit out of balance, we cry: "God, how can you do this to us? It's not fair!" Mostly it's our own fault that we've messed up the earth, the climate, the rivers and the oceans, and our relationships. But it's our fallen human nature to project the blame on someone else.

God has given us something even greater: His Holy Spirit to dwell within us: see John 14:16-17 - "I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that He may be with you forever, - the Spirit of truth, whom the world can't receive; for it doesn't see Him, neither knows Him. You know Him, for He lives with you, and will be in you." And He will reveal the truth to us: see John 16:12-13 - "I have yet many things to tell you, but you can't bear them now. However when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak from Himself; but whatever He hears, He will speak. He will declare to you things that are to come."

Through creation God has given us this amazingly beautiful world, and through the Law of Moses He has given us rules on how to live in this world. But even greater than all this, through Christ He has given us eternal life in a heavenly home... if we hold fast in the face of temptations and trials:

"Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken, but Christ is faithful as a Son over His house; whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the glorying of our hope firm to the end. Therefore, even as the Holy Spirit says, 'Today if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the provocation, like as in the day of the trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me by proving Me, And saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was displeased with that generation, and said, "They always err in their heart, But they didn't know My ways;" as I swore in My wrath, "They will not enter into My rest."' Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God; but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called 'today,' lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm to the end: while it is said, 'Today if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion" (Hebrews 3:5-13).

There are some who say that a believer can never lose his salvation: "Once saved, always saved." But the consensus of the Church's teaching from the beginning does not uphold this Augustinian doctrine of predestination: see "Augustine" on my Literature web-page. It should be clear from the above Scripture that St. Paul is writing to "brothers," i.e. believers, and yet he clearly says two times - "do not harden your hearts." And "falling away" back into unbelief is a real possibility that we are warned here to avoid.

Yes indeed, God foreknows and in that sense He predestines us. But we do not possess foreknowledge, so from our human point of view we have freedom and thus the responsibility to choose good vs. evil, right vs. wrong, to hold fast or to give in to temptation and give up. Notice something interesting and even rather peculiar in the above Scripture: "we are members of His household (present tense) if we hold fast our confidence firm to the end (future tense)." And again it says: "we have become partakers of Christ (present tense), if we hold fast, firm to the end (future tense)." How can something in the present be conditional ("if") upon something in the future? This illustrates God's foreknowledge: He knows "in advance" (with the eternal God there are no time constraints, so it doesn't strictly make sense to say "in advance" in relation to God), but we time-bound humans don't know "in advance" so we are presented with those "ifs."

Our fallen human nature can be transformed into the divine nature if we hold onto the great and precious promises that God has given us, as St. Peter wrote:

"Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, seeing that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and virtue; by which He has granted to us His exceedingly great and precious promises; that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust. Yes, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence; and in moral excellence, knowledge; and in knowledge, self-control; and in self-control patience; and in patience godliness; and in godliness brotherly affection; and in brotherly affection, love. For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be neither idle nor unfruitful to the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:3-8).

You might be asking the question - "Whose knowledge?" It's both God's infinite foreknowledge of us, and our finite knowledge of Him... if it abounds to the end.

Recall the story of the Israelites being delivered from slavery in Egypt: several times it says that when the Lord through Moses performed miracles of the plagues, Pharaoh first said he'd let God's people go, but then Pharaoh "hardened his heart" and changed his mind:

"The Lord said to Moses, 'Tell Aaron, "Stretch forth your hand with your rod over the rivers, over the streams, and over the pools, and cause frogs to come up on the land of Egypt."' Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt. The magicians did in like manner with their enchantments, and brought up frogs on the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, 'Entreat the Lord, that he take away the frogs from me, and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may sacrifice to the Lord.'
Moses said to Pharaoh, 'I give you the honor of setting the time that I should pray for you, and for your servants, and for your people, that the frogs be destroyed from you and your houses, and remain in the river only.' He said, 'Tomorrow.' Moses said, 'Be it according to your word, that you may know that there is none like the Lord our God. The frogs shall depart from you, and from your houses, and from your servants, and from your people. They shall remain in the river only.'
Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to the Lord concerning the frogs which he had brought on Pharaoh. The Lord did according to the word of Moses, and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the courts, and out of the fields. They gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank. But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart, and didn't listen to them, as the Lord had spoken" (Deuteronomy 8:5-15).

Finally, after several more plagues, we read - "The Lord said to Moses, 'Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I may show these my signs in the midst of them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your son's son, what things I have done to Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that you may know that I am the Lord'" (Deutereonomy 10:1-2). God says - "Alright: if that's the way you want it, that's what you will get... permanently. I'm not going to let you flip-flop again: I have hardened your heart forever." Then the Lord sent a plague of locusts and again Pharaoh begged Moses to take them away, so the Lord sent a strong wind that blew them into Red Sea. "But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he didn't let the people of Israel go" (Deut. 10:20).

This is how it will be in the end times: people will see the judgments of God in nature, but they will refuse to believe in Him because their hearts have become permanently hardened. In Revelation 16:8-11 we read - "The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was given to him to scorch men with fire. People were scorched with great heat, and people blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues. They didn't repent and give Him glory. The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was darkened. They gnawed their tongues because of the pain, and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores. They didn't repent of their works." When people's hearts become hardened, they are so locked into their mindset and lifestyle that they simply cannot repent. Instead, they blame God for their own rebellion and blaspheme His holy name.

Whatever might be your compulsive-addictive behavior: overeating, smoking or chewing or sucking on tobacco, sexual addiction, illicit drugs, pornography, Internet addiction, procrastination, making excuses, laziness, crude and hard talk to those you love ...whatever it might be - give it up now, before it's too late! The time may come when your heart will be permanently hardened and you simply can't give it up. Let us all turn away from our sinful, dysfunctional, harmful habits and by God's grace - His transforming power - let us change our lives and be transformed into the divine nature!

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 30 Dec. 2017.)