The Way

In the Pauline Epistle today, the Apostle Paul makes a differentiating statement. He says, “all sin is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.” (I Cor. 6:18) At first glance, this portion of St. Paul’s teaching seems confusing because we may ask ourselves: Isn’t all sin a part of the body? For example, when someone is angry or behaving gluttonously, is that not in the body, just like sexual immorality?

here is a story of a priest who was advising his spiritual son. The priest asked his son “what are your plans for the future?” and the son responded, “to finish college then find a good job.” To this, the priest responded, “and after that?”, “to get married and to buy a home.”, “and after that?”, “to have children.”, “and after that?”, “live long enough to see my grandchildren.”, “and after that?” “well, Father, after all this, I think I will have done everything that I need and will die.”, and to this the priest asked, “and after that?”

In BBC’s virtual newsletter, called Future, author William Park wrote “Those we surround ourselves with have the power to make us fatter, drink more alcohol, care less about the environment and be riskier with sun protection, among many things.” (May 20, 2019) This article pointed out how our friends can be effective influencers in our decision-making in almost all keys areas of life, like health, career, family life, etc. The idea is quite simple: those whom we hang out with play a major in the positive and negative outcomes of our life. This is not to negate the responsibility that a person has in making decisions for oneself, as though one is helpless in the midst of friends; but it is to point out that such a human need—friendship—relationships—play a vital role in a person’s life successes and failures.

Was it strange to anyone else that the Bible reading for today goes from talking about serving God and mammon as well as talking about the general love of money to “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery.” The entirety of Luke chapter 16 speaks about being loyal stewards with your wealth. So why is the verse on divorce added in?

The “law” was given as a tool by God to the Jews to identify sin. Before that, there was an understanding of “right” and “wrong.” One can make this inference because when God did not accept the offering of Cain, He clearly stated, “if you do NOT do well, sin lies at the door. Sin desires for you, but you should rule over it.” (Gen. 4:6) However, it was only until the 10 Commandments were given at Mt. Sinai that God codified a list of sins. This brought forth the “knowledge” of sin as specific behaviors, such as, stealing, adultery, idolatry, etc. Although the knowledge of sin was now available, sin still reigned. In other words, sin did not disappear because people now knew what was specifically right or wrong, even if they had a reference point as the 10 Commandments. On the contrary, sin continued, carrying with it condemnation.

Follow the Good Shepherd (Matthew 16: 5-12) - Br. Predeep Chacko by St. Luke Orthodox Mission Church

The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. He is God! When we are baptized into Christ and receive the Holy Myron, we receive the Holy Spirit. Meaning, the Holy Spirit physically resides in us. The Holy Spirit works in and through us for the glory of the Kingdom of God. A person, if he or she is a baptized Christian, has the Holy Spirit inside of them from the time of their baptism, until death. However, how active the Holy Spirit can be within a Christian is based upon his or her prayer life and seriousness in observing fasting, all of which lead to a deeper relationship with Christ.

We say that we are Christians, and some of us even do good deeds regularly. But what is the source of these good deeds? In this Gospel portion, we see a common sight, Christ is chewing out the Pharisees because they act according to the rule of law. In this instance, Christ states in allegory that the Pharisees keep the outside of their cups clean while the inside remains dirty. The Pharisees only do what is asked of them out of duty. Some of us may be asking ourselves, “There are so many rules and restrictions as an Orthodox Christian, now you are saying that even if I follow all of these commandments, I may still be lacking?” What could be missing which is so important?

For many of us, when we read through this portion of the Scriptures, we just look at Christ being asked to pay a tax and Him paying it through a miracle. But, what is this Temple Tax, which Christ and Simon end up paying? In the book of Numbers chapter 3, we see a mention of taxing the people with reference to the Tabernacle. More specifically, there was a census throughout all of Israel that was surveying all the firstborn. In this census, 22,000 Levites were called to be dedicated to the Lord, specifically, it states that “The Levites shall be Mine: I am the Lord”. Those who were in the 22,000 were exempt from paying this tax, while the rest of the firstborn, which was numbered 263, we're told to pay a tax for their redemption. Not only were these select Israelites exempt from the tax, but also they were allowed to draw near to the Tabernacle without the fear of death.

During these uncharted times of COVID-19, we encounter many challenges like never before. We are very worried and anxious about our health and the health of our loved ones. Furthermore, because of the political and social condition of our world, especially our country, the United States, we feel even more anxious about the times we are living in. Why do we fear? Why are we anxious? Why are we worried so much?

Here are some reasons why we should not fear, be anxious or worry: