OrthoAnalyika Shownotes: 17 January 2010
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Christ is baptized! In the Jordan!
Congratulations to all those who were brought into the Orthodox Church this week. Our obligation – as parishioners and priests – is to make everything good and proper seem natural. Christ is quite clear: it would be a grave sin to put the stumbling block of our own poor behavior before the newly illumined. St. Mark 9: 42. “… [W]hoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea.”
Today’s Gospel reading is taken from the first few verses of the Gospel of St. Mark. It begins not with the Nativity of Christ, but with the ministry of St. John the Baptist and the Theophany and Baptism of Our Lord, the God-man Jesus Christ. This shows the significance of this event (the Theophany) in the life of the Church and in our lives as Christians. [In fact, the celebration of Theophany predates that of the Nativity.] Why is the contemplation and experience of the Theophany so important? Why has the Church always held this event to so high esteem? What are we as a 21st century parishioners to learn about this thing that happened two thousand years ago on the other side of the earth?
And please know this – there must be something to learn. The Church calendar and order of worship were created to serve and sanctify us – this is why we follow it so closely. It was created to grant us a greater understanding of ourselves and the world and to bring us into closer unity with God and with one other. If we simply allow these events to pass by as ordinary tics on an ordinary calendar, then (once again) we are missing the point; and more importantly, we are missing an opportunity for personal growth [among a great number of other things]. When I see how we sometimes treat the events on our Liturgical calendar, I am reminded of the life and studies of students. [just going through the motions? Fine you will make it through the other side of exams, but what if you actually need what they were teaching you? We sometimes give students the wink wink nudge nudge when they – but shouldn’t. If it’s not worth learning, then it’s not worth teaching. There is so much for students to learn as they prepare to become productive and healthy citizens to waste their time; and the same goes for us and our sanctification. The Liturgical calendar is a blessed curriculum for sainthood. You can get through the days with your eyes and hearts closed – but why would you? Is that how you would behave if you were at medical school? Of course not – that would be foolish and dangerous. Your spiritual health, and the spiritual health of your families and community are even more important that this.
What are we to learn from the Theophany?
We do this every year, but the wonderful thing is that there is no end to what can be learned – even with a lifetime of Theophanies, we are only scratching the surface of the subject. For this year’s contemplation of the Theophany and Baptism of Our Lord, let me suggest the theme of what this event teaches us about our proper relation to the created world. Three points: a description of Christ’s effect on creation; our potential as Christians; our own effect on creation.
The effect Christ had. The Jordan turned back. The water that touched Christ was brought back into its role – not just as a cleanser, but as something that provides positive blessings. Before Christ, there was water cleansing… after Him it brings both cleansing and sanctification. You take this water to your homes to bring this deifying change into your daily lives. There is another hint of the effect Christ had in restoring creation’s proper equilibrium: the effect He had on wild beasts. In his commentary on the Gospel of St. Mark, St. Theophylact points out that, after His baptism, Christ went into the desert surrounded by wild beasts and attended to by the holy angels. (St. Mark 1: 12-13) This is something that Isaiah prophesied when he revealed this about the coming age of the messiah; “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:16). You get the sense that, around Christ, all of creation was being restored to its proper equilibrium.
Being a Christian means having Christ in us. We were driven out of Eden because of our pride, but, thanks to God’s grace and mercy now able to work our way back towards paradise. He was the God man – fully Divine and fully human. Through Him, we are to take our proper place within creation – and to work about the same changes He did on the world around Him. Of course this change will not be completely realized until the second coming, when all is restored in eternal perfection and unity. But until then, we are called to become the people God intended and to bring beauty and balance back into a world that groans in sin.
Our effect on creation. People. Things. Why does the world groan in sin? Because we groan in sin. Our ability – as creatures made in the image of God – to be little creators does not cease when we sin. We affect the world around us – both the mundane, visible world and the spiritual world. In fact, there really is no division between the two – they are intimately connected. Because of our pride and callousness, our creative effect is generally bad: we waste most of our creative energy being predators and parasites, bringing physical and spiritual ruin to everything we touch.
This is why the world “groans in sin” – because we have been living this way for countless generations. But all that can end. In fact, it is already ending. We have living examples of how this change takes place here and now. The world’s potential for harmony and beauty – and foretaste of the heavenly kingdom to come – is growing within the Church, and especially around all the saints. [Describe the effect of saints on people, things.] We need living saints to show us the vision and reality of creation restored to its proper balance. [most of our effect remains negative…]
But even now – though we have only begun the walk towards saintliness – we have glimpses of the kingdom to come. Let me give you some examples: the special relationship we have with pets. Joy of a well-tended and bountiful garden. Love of sharing our harvests with others – (both giving and receiving). Pleasure of a well-cooked meal. Satisfaction of a well-built project. The joyful humility of an icon, well-written. The gentle relaxation of knitting and quilting. In general, the love of intentional labor – and sharing the fruits of this labor with others.
We are a society that once reveled in these simple epiphanies of God’s grace and purpose for us – but I worry that even these are being forgotten. It is easy to lose sight of the spiritual value of work when unemployment is so high; even those with paying jobs are tempted to put their attention on the value of the paycheck rather than the redeeming quality of the work itself. But church will always be a place that reflects and participates in creations restored through Christ. From the dedicated work of our Ladies’ Sodality; to the beautiful service of our choir and cantors to the blessing of pot lucks and breaking bread together; to the simple joy of the liturgy itself (the “work of the people”); you have a place to feel the joy of our relationship with creation renewed and revealed.
This is the Theophany of Our Lord: may God bless us as we contemplate and grow in it.
Interview with Natalie Kapeluk-Nixon, the Directory of Youth Ministry for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA.
