What are You Willing to Do to Make Your Dreams Come True?

All of us have dreams; dream vacations, dream jobs, dream homes, even dream families. We invest our resources of money and time preparing ourselves to accomplish our dreams. When we are faced with choices, any choices, we painfully weigh our options against their potential to help us accomplish our dreams. If any choice either works against our dreams or doesn’t at least lead toward our dreams, we quickly opt out for fear that our dreams won’t become a reality. We will do ANYTHING to make our dreams come true.

As we begin another Church year in September, I would like you to consider this question, “Do you dream about being in Heaven when you die?” If you do, and I presume you do, what are you willing to do make that dream come true? The Orthodox Christian Way of Life is designed to help you make this dream a reality. Here are some examples:

Attending Church Services as often as you can – We read of two glimpses into Heaven in the Holy Scriptures in both Isaiah (chapter 6) and Revelation (chapter 1). Moses was commanded by God (told to us in Exodus) to shape Old Testament Worship (the model for New Testament Orthodox Christian worship) with the understanding that when we are worshiping God in Church, we are preparing to experience Heaven. SO....the more time we spend in Church for worship, the more we will appreciate the reality of Heaven. Heaven isn’t a good day fishing, it isn’t a good day at the golf course, it isn’t a peaceful field of bright colored flowers. Heaven IS the angels and saints (that includes us) worshipping God ALL THE TIME. If you dream about being in Heaven, but you don’t enjoy being in Church, spending more time IN Church will help make your dream come true.

Living the Fasts and Feasts of the Church – Jesus Christ commanded, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Mark 8.34) The only way you will be able to enjoy Heaven is to learn NOW how to deny yourself and take up your cross. When you live the fasts and feasts of the Church, you are learning how to focus your entire existence around having a relationship with Christ. The Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, has established a CALENDAR which focuses your time, daily-weekly-seasonally, on growing closer to Jesus Christ. If you dream about being in Heaven, allowing your life to be shaped NOW by the Church to focus upon God all the time will help your dream come true.

Caring for the Poor – Christ directly connects our entrance into Heaven to serving the poor in the Gospel of Matthew (chapter 25.31-46). Caring for the poor is an act of love. God IS love, and He commanded “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,' and 'your neighbor as yourself.” (Leviticus 19.18, Luke 10.27) If you cannot love your neighbor, and your enemies (Matthew 5.44), it will be impossible to enjoy Heaven. If you dream about being in Heaven, learning NOW to love your neighbors and enemies by caring for them, will help your dream come true.

Participating in the Whole Life of the Church – The life of the Orthodox Christian Parish is dedicated at all times to helping you make your dream of being in Heaven come true. The Divine Services, Bible studies, opportunities to serve the poor, fellowship through social events, house blessings, the Mysteries (Confession, Holy Communion, Unction, etc) special blessings (hospitals, newborns, adoption etc), special classes (Orthodoxy 101), and Parishes are always considering new ways to help you make your dream come true. The only part missing is YOU. What are YOU willing to do make your dream come true? It’s YOUR choice.

Why is Theophany So Important?

There is a HUGE difference between God and human beings. He is the creator and we are His creation. It is impossible for us to understand ANYTHING about Him unless He reveals it to us first. It is IMPOSSIBLE, no way, no how, for us to even believe in Him without Him first revealing Himself to us. It is IN NO WAY conceivable that we, mere creatures, can comprehend the purpose of our existence without the Creator first showing Himself to us.

So why is the Theophany so important for the Orthodox to celebrate? For many Christians, Theophany – also called Epiphany – the arrival of the Magi at Christ’s manger, or merely His Baptism in the Jordan River. But for the Orthodox, Theophany is THE APPEARING OF THE UNDIVIDED TRINITY – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – for the first time in human history.

It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven, "You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Mark 1.9-11)

So while we are indeed celebrating the baptism of Jesus, the greater gift of God is His divinity revealed as Trinity to those standing by and those of us who “love His appearing.” (2 Timothy 4.8) In the baptism of Jesus, it wasn’t Jesus that was changed, but the entire creation by His presence in the water. By entering the water, Jesus reveals the love of God for every living thing on Earth.

In the ancient Church, this revelation was welcomed with great joy and many believers were baptized. But since we only believe in one baptism, many faithful sought a new way to express the joy of the news of God’s appearing. Immediately after the consecration of the baptismal waters, and prior to baptizing the new believers, the faithful would drink from the Font to express their participation in the Feast and receive a blessing from God. As the Church practice developed over the centuries, rather than baptisms taking place on this day, the Church established the Great Blessing of the Waters, in which we all are blessed to participate.

Today, throughout the Orthodox Christian world, Churches are celebrating the appearing of God with the Great Blessing of the Waters. Some even celebrate with an event called a “Cross Dive” where young men, and sometimes women, dive into the water to retrieve the Cross of Christ. Let’s face it, when God reveals Himself to His creation, it’s worthy of great celebrations.

May God be blessed!

2013 New Testament Challenge – Day 39 (Reflections on Revelation 1-11)

Every year I participate in a special effort called the New Testament Challenge sponsored by a priest of the Orthodox Church in America. He encourages Christians to spend the Christmas Fast, also known as Advent) reading the entire New Testament as a preparation for Christmas. Each year I have done this, it has been blessing to me and I pray this year will be no different. As part of the New Testament Challenge, I endeavor to blog a bit about the reading for that particular day. I may miss a few, but I pray for those who follow this blog (NOW ALSO ON FACEBOOK) it will be a blessing.

If you’ve been a follower of my blog for any length of time, you already know I don’t make it a habit of publicly preaching/blogging about Revelations. It is the ONLY New Testament book not publicly read aloud in the Lectionary of the Church. (meaning the chanter doesn’t read it during the services in the same way the other New Testament books are read) It is only excerpted by including certain verses in prayers, hymns and Holy Icons. You will find some people preach/teach about it, but I have found that if the Church’s wisdom proves correct, there is a good reason it isn’t read publicly any longer in the Church. The basic reason for this, by the way, is to avoid its abuse. There was a time (and it seems to be here again with certain Churches) that Christians attempted to predict the return of Christ, or even to frighten Christians into submission. Since it is a book of prophesy and allegory, it isn’t possible to predict its outcome, especially since Christ said we wouldn’t know when He was returning. He even said,

Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. …the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of.” (Matthew 24.4-50)

So if Christ won’t tell, why should we try? Don’t be deceived by ANYONE (Orthodox or not) who tries to convince you that he knows the time of Christ’s return.

So today I just want to remind you of the ancient Holy Tradition of the Church – BE READY! What we can definitely understand from Revelation is that Christ IS returning, and He WILL judge the entire creation. And since we don’t know exactly WHEN….let’s just be ready NOW so we don’t have to worry about it. That’s the emphasis we can understand.

Until tomorrow…..Remember being prepared for Christmas is just a hint of what we are REALLY preparing for.

How do you Sacrifice Incense?

First-time visitor: “What is that smell?”

Me: “OH! That’s incense”

FTV: “What’s THAT!?”

Me: “Incense is a special power that we burn in the Church as an offering to God.”

FTV: “Hummm. I thought Saint Paul said we didn’t have to do that stuff anymore.”

Me: “Well! Just sit down here for a moment and let’s talk about that…

This is not a REAL conversation, but I have had many just like it in my twenty years (not all as a priest) in ministry. And I always enjoy a blunt conversation about why Saint Paul NEVER said to stop doing what we do in the Church.

The offering of incense (which by the way is a universal practice in EVERY major world religion) has been considered part of our worship since the earliest days. It is the feature of Psalm 140(141 in the Protestant/Roman Catholic Old Testament) offered EVERY evening to God.

LORD, I cry out to You; Make haste to me! Give ear to my voice when I cry out to You. Let my prayer be set before You as incense, The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips. Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, To practice wicked works With men who work iniquity; And do not let me eat of their delicacies. Let the righteous strike me; It shall be a kindness. And let him rebuke me; It shall be as excellent oil; Let my head not refuse it. For still my prayer is against the deeds of the wicked. Their judges are overthrown by the sides of the cliff, And they hear my words, for they are sweet. Our bones are scattered at the mouth of the grave, As when one plows and breaks up the earth. But my eyes are upon You, O GOD the Lord; In You I take refuge; Do not leave my soul destitute. Keep me from the snares they have laid for me, And from the traps of the workers of iniquity. Let the wicked fall into their own nets, While I escape safely. Psalm 140/141

One common theme I find myself discussing with visitors is the term, sacrifice, which most (thanks to Hollywood) associate with killing something to satisfy some deity. I have found MANY have the image of “the virgin in the volcano” in their mind when they hear the term, sacrifice. So when I suggest that we sacrifice incense to God, they get not just a little suspicious. It helps to point out, though I am always surprised at just how many refuse to believe me, that the ancient Jews sacrificed MANY things, not just living animals. Once I can convince the visitor to use the term, offering, rather than, sacrifice, it comes a bit easier to visualize the offering of incense, bread, wine, oil, wheat, grapes etc. It also helps them to visualize that we OFFER these items to God on the Altar as a gift. For an excellent discussion on the sacrificial system of the Jews, see Fr James Bernstein’s “Surprised by Christ.”

Once I’m past the terminology hurdle, I can  focus upon the FACT that the Holy Apostles maintained many of the offerings of the Jews in the Temple, but excused themselves to “house churches” to offer the Thanksgiving (Eucharist – see my earlier post on this term)

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. (Acts 2.42-3.1)

And IF the visitor does not agree that the incense is part of Divine Worship, I turn to Revelation. In the Book of Revelation, we read St. John’s vision of the glory of God and of the Lamb. In this vision, St. John sees the twenty-four elders who fall down in worship before the throne of God.

Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.  And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel's hand. (Revelation 8.3-4)

So, like I’m often heard saying, “Good enough for the Holy Apostles, good enough for me.” From that point, I pray a relationship is begun with the visitor about the genuineness of the Orthodox Church as the continuation of the Old Testament rather than a replacement. And we go from there…

This post is written for the 40 Days of Blogging Challenge sponsored by the Preachers Institute. You may find other blogs participating in this challenge. I hope you enjoy this year’s Advent journey.