Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“I write these things not to shame you,” says the Apostle, “but to warn you as my beloved sons.”
Whenever we become disappointed in or disillusioned with the Church – the Orthodox Church, that sweet and hidden gem and best kept secret in the Western world which we inhabit – I always point to the Corinthian church. This is especially so for those of us who are converts, who have long been nurtured by other Christian traditions and who, having stumbled upon this Church, having finally found the true Faith and Church of our Lord and His Apostles, expecting to experience the Church as it was originally intended in all of her perfection, can become quickly disappointed in and disillusioned with all of her imperfections. When this happens, I always remind folks to read the Corinthian Epistles of St. Paul, and there you will see the original Church, founded upon Jesus Christ Himself and His holy Apostles, in all her glory as well as all her warts! Somehow, some of us have been led to think that if we could just re-create the Church in her earliest beginnings, get back to her original roots and replicate or re-produce our version of her earliest days, we would have the Church in her truest and most pure form, unadulterated by human beings. This has long been the Protestant quest whether you were a high church Anglo-Catholic or a low church Anabaptist. There, in those earliest days not long after the saving and sanctifying events in Jerusalem, we have believed we could find the perfect, perhaps even sinless, Church. The problem is and has always been and always will be – us! Sinners that we are.
The Corinthian Church, loved dearly by St. Paul, was by all accounts super graced, abundantly gifted, blessed beyond all measure, “enriched in everything by [Jesus Christ] . . ., so that [they] came short in no gift,” says St. Paul (1 Cr. 1:4-9). And yet, they gave him the most severe run for his money! They were a stone in his shoe, a burr under his saddle, a pain in his backside! Divided and dividing: fractured by factions and fragmented by their passions, enamored with popularity and persuaded by those so-called “super apostles” – the celebrity influencers of that day and age – who seemed to be smarter and bigger and better than St. Paul himself who they deemed – despite his profound love for them as their father in the Faith – to be quite unimpressive by comparison, sort of bland and mediocre. Although the Corinthians were still wet behind the ears in the Faith, they suddenly became know-it-alls because they had listened to so-and-so’s podcast or YouTube channel and so-and-so has thousands of followers.
And, what do you have to show for yourself, Paul? Weakness. Dishonor. Hunger and thirst. Poorly clothed. Beaten. Homeless. Reviled. Defamed. Persecuted. Having to work and labor to support yourself. If you’re trying to develop a following, you better come up with some better stuff than seeing yourself as “the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things.” That dog just won’t hunt if you’re looking to sell yourself or your product. Maybe Paul should consider hiring a publicity agent if he hopes to influence anyone, especially those whom he calls his “sons” or “children.”
But, the fact is: he is their father in the Faith who has begotten them in Jesus Christ. He has certain rights and privileges which all the others – despite their enormous popularity and celebrity status among the Corinthians – do not and cannot have. Paul has earned the right by virtue of his relationship with the Corinthian church which his competitors do not have. They are, at best, interlopers and usurpers, squatters, if you will, while he has the privilege of fatherhood. They may very well have ten thousand instructors on FaceBook and YouTube, but they have only one true father in the Faith; “for in Christ Jesus,” he says, “I have begotten you through the Gospel.”
The old “grass is greener” mentality is old, very old. The kids think the old man is crazy, ancient, behind the times. And, besides that, when dad’s away, well, the kids can play and talk is cheap. But, he warns them,
Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. But, I will come to you shortly, if the Lord wills, and I will know, not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power. For the Kingdom of God is not in word but in power (1 Cr. 4:19-20).
They will soon have ample opportunity to put their money where their mouth is when their spiritual father in God’s grace comes home. God’s Kingdom – the Transfiguration – is about God’s power and grace converting us and changing us from the inside out. It is the Cross, which is the wisdom and the power of God, the foolishness and weakness of God, that debases the worldly proud and puts down the cocky arrogant (1 Cr. 1:18-2:5). This is what St. Paul knows well and has delivered to his sons and daughters in the Faith as Jesus’ good Apostle despite not being worthy of being numbered among the Apostles because he “persecuted the Church of God.” Yet, God’s grace was nonetheless poured out on him (1 Cr. 15:1-2, 8-10). They will show him the “wisdom” they have gained in their arrogance from their beloved celebrity influencers and he will display to them the power of the Cross to kill and to make alive, to put down and lift up, to put to death sin in us and to raise up in us the righteousness of God! He will show them the true love of a father for his children who will bend over backwards for their well-being, come Hades or high water, whereas those influencers could care less so long as the popularity flowed, along with its benefits. I once told a former parishioner who had been bragging about how much he supported some TV evangelist at the expense of the parish because he had some issues with the church that the next time he needed a pastor at three in the morning when he was in the hospital to try and call whatever TV evangelist it was and see if he would get on his private plane and come to the hospital.
For the sake of the Church and for his beloved sons and daughters whom he has begotten through the Gospel of God’s Kingdom, St. Paul gladly and joyously accepts being called the scum of the earth for them and for their salvation. He is more than willing to be thought a fool if it meant his children would be wise in Christ. Paul is not less than those glamorized by the Corinthians. Indeed, he is at least their equal, if not more! Like Jesus Christ, he has laid down his very life for them. He has been made a servant of Christ and a “steward of the Mysteries of God” (1 Cr. 4:1; 1 Pe. 4:10). And, if that weren’t enough, he has been made by God’s grace their father in salvation. “Therefore,” he says to them, “I urge you, imitate me – follow me – as I do Jesus Christ” (1 Cr. 11:1). “Like father, like son.” A spiritual father has great responsibility to show Jesus Christ, to display what it means to be a disciple of the crucified and risen Son of God. The Faith may be taught with words, but it is moreso caught by deeds. “For the Kingdom of God is not in word but in power” (1 Cr. 4:20).
Beloved, strive as we might to recover some intangible glorious past of the Church when it was “really the Church in its purest form,” is really an exercise in futility because Christians, having been begotten by spiritual fathers over the centuries, have all struggled with the passions. The Church, from her inception, has always been full of sinners in need of salvation, of sick in need of healing. Nothing has changed. Jesus Christ remains the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hb. 13:8). Then as now. We, therefore, are to give heed to those whom God has placed over us, who show us Christ crucified and risen (Pp. 2:29; Hb. 13:7, 17), who nurture us with the saving and sanctifying Mysteries of God’s grace in the Sacraments (1 Pe. 4:10), who spend their lives working for our salvation and praying for us, seeking not their own profit but the profit of the many so that the many may be saved (1 Cr. 10:33). We are to honor them, just as God in the Commandment exhorts us to do: “’Honor thy father and thy mother’” for in so doing, says St. Paul, we are blessed by God (Ex. 20:12; Dt. 5:16; Ep. 6:1-3). Nothing has changed but the calendar. God, nevertheless, remains faithful and present in His Church so that fathers might beget children in the Faith and children might grow up into Jesus Christ, crucified and risen (Ep. 4:11-5:1).
Allow me to conclude with some thoughts from two of our spiritual fathers in the Faith whom we would do well to hear – St. Nikon of Optina and St. Paisios the Athonite.
St. Nikon says this:
The spiritual father only shows us the way, like a signpost, but we have to traverse it ourselves. If the spiritual father shows the way and the disciple doesn’t move himself, then he won’t get anywhere, and will rot near the signpost (Wisdom of the Divine Philosophers III, 141).
And, St. Paisios of Mount Athos:
One who does not have a spiritual father as an advisor on his spiritual journey will get confused, weary, delayed, and will find it hard to reach his destination. No matter how wise he may be, if he comes up with solutions to his problems on his own, he will remain in darkness, for he proceeds with self-confidence and pride. But one who is humble goes to his spiritual father and asks his opinion and guidance and is greatly helped. God will certainly enlighten the spiritual father to provide the right answer. The most necessary thing today is for people to find a spiritual father, to confess, trust him and follow his advice. If people have a spiritual guide and establish a rule of prayer and study, if they go to church on a regular basis and receive Holy Communion, then they have nothing to fear in this life (Wisdom of the Divine Philosophers III, 142).
Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
PROPERS:
1 Cr. 4:9-16
Mt. 17:14-23