Musings From The High Desert

We begin a look at the Pastoral Epistles this week with an introduction to the person of Timothy, who accompanied Paul on his journeys after Timothy's conversion, the character of the Timothy correspondence, and the wonderful passage in the first chapter which is our reading for the 36th Sunday after Pentecost. (I Timothy 1:15-17)

Fr. Gabriel reflects on the Parable of the Talents in light of the society in which we live as Orthodox Christians.

This week Father Gabriel focuses on the fool for Christ on this day when we commemorate St. Xenia of Petersburg. The Fools for Christ have much to teach us, as we learn in this week's sermon.

This week Fr. Gabriel discusses the life and work of St. Gregory of Nyssa, commemorated on 10 January, and surely one of the greatest figures in Orthodox Christian history. St. Gregory was instrumental in charting the path of our spiritual growth and he sounds remarkably contemporary. Fr. Gabriel invites you to consider just a portion of Gregory's monumental thought today.

As we begin the new civil year, Fr. Gabriel reviews the concept of a Gospel, the uniqueness of the Gospel of Mark is, and the extraordinary way Mark begins in the center of Jesus's life and gives us his approach to that life in a few words. The Gospel leads directly to the baptism, and Fr. Gabriel uses St. Gregory Nazianzus to direct our attention to the many meanings of this for our lives.

This week Fr. Gabriel combines thoughts from three different homilies at the time of the Nativity to offer you a diptych. One side of the diptych is a sketch of our approach to the Festival through image, symbol, and literary allusions; the other side is a sketch of the aftermath of the Feast, when we begin to contemplate with sobriety following Christ, the cost of which we see in the martyrs' days that immediately follow.

As we come to the conclusion of this great epistle concerning the Mystery of Christ in the Church, Fr. Gabriel considers the armor of the Christian in the fight against principalities and powers, those unseen (and seen) forces that tear down our faith and confront us. Paul leaves us with these thoughts as we continue, as a community, to live in, but not of, the world.

Fr. Gabriel sums up the content of the Epistle to date and moves into chapter 5, which begins with the call to be "imitators of God"—a tall order, indeed, but one followed up with practical advice on behavior. Paul tackles three movements in the Christian life: from lust to love, from darkness to light, and from folly to wisdom. The last movement hearkens back to the Old Testament's wisdom tradition, in which wisdom is an attitude rather than an attainment, a behavior rather than an intellectual task.

This brief passage at the beginning of the fourth chapter of Ephesians is like the hinge on a diptych. In chapters one to three, Paul has laid the foundation for our calling or election by God into the covenant with Christ that overcomes the barrier between Jew and Gentile. In chapter four he will focus on the structure and the ministries of the church which is Christ's Body. Chapter 4:1-6 at once sums up and propels us forward, from our faith in the one God known in Trinity to our unity with one another.

In Ephesians, Paul expresses a breathtaking vision of the unity of the universe in Christ. Often termed the Cosmic Christ in the Ephesian and Colossian letters, here is a vision of humanity renewed. But as with all visions, it must begin somewhere, so Paul comes down to the ground and gives us the broken wall between Jew and Gentile, from which we move out to see that any wall can be broken.

Fr. Gabriel addresses particularly the catechumens who were chrismated this weekend at St. Anthony but the message is for all. We concentrate on the truth that the Church is the Mysteries and the Mystery is Christ and the Mystery of Christ comes to us in the Mysteries. What blocks our vision and our behavior is the clouding of reason and the pursuit of the passions. Many people in our age think of these distortions as normal. God has more in store for us, as Fr. Gabriel attempts to expounds this week, with Ephesians as the ground for consideration.

In our readings through the epistles and the whole New Testament we use lectio continua, meaning that we read straight through a particular book day by day. This means that whole chunks of books may not be preaching texts. This week Fr. Gabriel attempts to cover the main points in the Epistle to the Galatians before Paul signs off in chapter 6. At the heart are his words: "God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ..."

This week we see a crucial difference in prepositions. Most translations of Galatians 2:16 speak of justification through faith in Christ; of older translations, only the KJV reads "through the faith of Christ." This is an important distinction, as father Gabriel shows. In Galatians, Paul emphasizes our inheritance of a covenant relationship with God, which he demonstrates in the case of Abraham (chapter 3) and which governs his thought: we enter relationship with God through Christ, who is the trustee of God's grace toward us.

As we begin the reading through Paul's magisterial Epistle to the Galatians, Fr. Gabriel brings an overview of Paul's mission efforts. How did Paul perceive himself within Judaism, and what was his mission intended to do? We also consider some of the misunderstandings or Paul's teaching that have grown over the years.

This week Fr. Gabriel explores the Epistle lesson from II Corinthians 11:31-12:9. Here we see Paul as Christ-mystic and also Paul as faithful person capable of understanding suffering within the framework of God's Presence. This pericope contains the famous passage many people know and have repeated over the course of their lives: "My grace is sufficient for you, and my power is made perfect in weakness."

This week Fr. Gabriel considers the Epistle lesson, II Corinthians 9:6-11, and its preceding chapter and following verses. He works with the text regarding Paul's request for an offering grounded in the grace which has fulfilled the lives of the Corinthian Christians from three angles: the church's abilities at responding to human needs out of mercy over against the industry of service; the false gospel of prosperity that is given the lie by Paul's text; and the inner strength that we receive in terms of meaning and purpose in life through the grace of Christ, a strength and fulfillment so obviously lacking in contemporary society and whose loss was again demonstrated in the tragic events in Oregon this past week.

Fr. Gabriel considers the conclusion of II Corinthians 6, where Paul enjoins his hearers to thread a way through the culture that honors commitment to Christ without caving in to the Zeitgeist.The early Fathers of the Church stressed that we need to make individual decisions that will bring us into the light rather than into the darkness. Each cultural issue must be taken on its own merit, and we can enter into alliances with others for social good without knowing everything about their positions. We have to remain vigilant but at the same time we need to be open to alliances for the overall benefit of the culture in which we find ourselves.

Fr. Gabriel continues with the resurrection Epistles from II Corinthians, this week from the sixth chapter. In the first verses of this chapter, Paul urges his hearers not to receive the Gospel "in vain." We will consider what this means, working from Paul's statement of the gracious gift of God that concludes chapter 5. Paul's use of the Servant Poem from Isaiah 49 sets up his audience to hear about their reception of the "mighty acts of God" in the person of Christ.

Fr. Gabriel considers the two metaphors in the Epistle text for the week (separate from the text for the Dedication of the Church of the Resurrection) from II Corinthians 4. The first metaphor is the famous one about clay jars holding precious treasure, as was true in that era when people kept their gold or silver in humble clay jars. We explore the potential meanings of this text and then move on to consider the next verses in which Paul switches to a military metaphor of preparation for battle and suffering. The two metaphors are tied together by considering our evanescent nature. We are humble and inadequate vessels to bear the Gospel, yet we can bear the cross and resurrection of Christ to others "in our bodies".

This week Fr. Gabriel once again seeks to unearth the treasures buried in a few short verses from Paul in his return letter to the Corinthians. These are the heart of the Epistle for this week, reminding us of God's positive action toward us through Christ and in the Holy Spirit.