St Peters Orthodox Church

Christ our God, by His presence in the waters of the Jordan River at His baptism, redeemed those waters. His presence in those waters made that water that He had created useful for the washing away of sins, putting to death fallen man in His death, and granting us resurrection to new life in His resurrection. What Christ did by His presence in the waters, He has also done at the Incarnation by His presence in time. Today we seek to gain Christ's perspective on time. Because of Christ, time has become the fabric through which our Lord heals and saves our soul by granting us the experience of Him in the brief moments, hours, and days that we are given.

At the Feast of All Saints we were given the gift of the revelation of Paradise to press us toward Christ our God, the healer of our souls. Tonight we are given another gift from our Lord. On the Feast Day of All Souls, the Day of the Lord is set right before us. We remember tonight that in the twinkling of an eye the trumpet will sound and all souls, the living and those who are dead, will ascend to be before Christ our King and the Judge of all souls. And we remember that no none knows the day or hour that this trumpet blast will sound. Our mortality is a gift to us if we will just see it from the mind of Christ our God. It is a gift that helps us with our thoughts imprisoned to our past and our thoughts all too focused on the future. If we lived every day as if it were the Day of the Lord, we would encounter the blessing of living and dwelling in Christ in the only time that we are guaranteed to have; the eternal now, this present moment with Christ our salvation.

Because of so many false teachings in many areas of Christianity, the term spiritual effort sometimes leaves a bad impression in the mind of many. Some may think of having to earn their salvation by spiritual effort. Some may think of other "works" oriented theologies putting the pressure of being saved in the hands of the individual. We must see spiritual effort in terms of relationship. No relationship can exist without the mutual sharing of selves between two people. Today our focus is on our relational spiritual effort towards Christ. Christ our God is always moving toward us with a desire to share all that He is with us that we might be made whole. It is when we press through by grace all of our distractions and many deceptions that we are met with Christ Who has been awaiting us. There, in that blessed fellowship, we find healing through illumination. And where the illumination of Christ is experience, darkness and despondency do not have a chance.

On the Feast Day of Christ the King we hear the resounding words from Revelation 5: Worthy is the Lamb Who was slain. So much about the Kingship of our Lord Jesus Christ confounds the wise and is foolishness to the world; for Jesus Christ's elevation as King was forged in humility, lowliness, and suffering by His self-offering. Today we explore this paradox to see the wonder that His Kingship is the fruit of His love for mankind.

Today we examine our typical thought life throughout the day. Most of us will find that we are constantly being pulled by thoughts that either direct our attention to the past or thrust our thinking into the future; both of which we have absolutely no control over. These thoughts are always at the expense of the sacred and eternal now. In considering this, we focus on recognizing the deceptive thoughts that move us toward escaping the present moment physically, mentally/emotionally, and spiritually. The important truth for us is this, neither the past nor the future grants us healing to our soul and a clear understanding of our true identity. Only by experiencing God in the present moment can we be made whole and know our most true identity.

Today the Parable of the Prodigal Son is the center of the reflection. It is one of the greatest scenes presenting the mercy of God given when one comes with the humble authentic need for this great gift of God. All too often we struggle within ourselves to go to God when we are in need of mercy. We also struggle to receive mercy when it is offered. May we all be encouraged to become receivers of the mercy of God for the healing and salvation of our souls.

The Hebrew word that describes the mercy of God is "hesed." In short, it means this: We who deserve nothing and could never earn anything from God, when we approach Him in our fallenness, deficiency, and need; God turns everything around on us and gives us absolutely every good thing. Today we not only seek to see more clearly the mercy of God, but we also look to Christ's words to us calling us to "Be merciful as your Father is merciful." St. Paul, in Ephesians 4, gives us steppingstones on the path to becoming the mercy of God to others.

St. Paul writes in Ephesians 5 that we are to live in such a way as to redeem the time. Spiritual despondency would have us throw time away blind to the very healing and redemptive presence of God in the precious gifts of the moments of our lives that He has given us. Redeeming the time is to make wise and sacred use of time. We often think of and understand the concept of sacred space. But time itself becomes sacred again when our awareness grows of God's presence in the most minute moments of our lives and we present ourselves to Him in those moments. That is when time becomes sacred. That is when the God Who eternally loves each of us manifests that love to us in the fabric time. We are healed and redeemed by a Living God Who is absolutely present in each moment of our existence when we live in that sacredness of time.

In Ephesians chapter 3, the blessed Apostle St. Paul bows his knees in intercession before Christ. He intercedes that all of us might truly come to know the height, depth, width, and length of the love of God toward each one of us. It is interesting that, on the one hand, St. Paul describes the love of God as immeasurable; that which is immeasurable. On the other hand, he uses physical measurements to describe that very love. The early Church Fathers tell us that the measurements St. Paul is using point us to the Cross; the very prism through which the love of God for every soul brilliantly shines forth. To behold the Cross is to behold the love of the One Who hung upon it; a love we will eternally grow to understand and experience.

How does God view time? What is His perspective on it? Today we look further at what He has shared with His Church for 2,000 years as to the gift that time truly is for all of us. Time is the fabric in which the God Who is love grants us the experience of His love for us. Today we focus on the reality that, to the Christian, time should be a beautiful and wondrous gift to us from God. A gift through which God fills with Himself so that we might fellowship and experience Him in this life. In light of the wonder of this gift, today we consider what we are doing with such an offering from God.

In the Gospel of St. Matthew chapter 6, Jesus tells us, "Do not worry about your life." So many of us struggle to trust God to provide us with the things we need for life and for our salvation. With the words Jesus speaks from this passage of Scripture, He is giving us the antidote to our worries and anxieties over financial needs. That antidote is to behold Him; to consider Him. In doing so He will show us how eternally faithful He is as the God Who provides.

Most of us are unaware of many deceptions that have crept into our souls regarding how we see, understand, and treat the precious little time we are given here on earth. Our enemy conditions us to see time incorrectly. At the root of every one of his deceptions is to diminish our awareness of the presence of God in every moment of our lives. When God is removed from the moments of our lives, time becomes wasteful at best and harmful at its worst. The truth of the Christian view of time is wonderfully stated in the Akathist Prayer Service of Thanksgiving: "Glory to Thee; Who cures affliction and emptiness with the healing flow of time." Today we just begin to examine this truth-filled perspective on time; the way God sees and intends to use time.

In Psalm 84 the Psalmist writes, "How lovely is your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts. My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God." Where does our soul make its home? The answer to that question will greatly impact the human experience in the moments of our lives. Today we look at what results for a soul that longs after God.

There is one absolute constant in our lives; that is, our thoughts continuously being painted on the canvas of our minds. Today we look at the importance of taking our thoughts captive in order to discern whether they are truths that leads us to the experience of God in that moment; or, whether they are thoughts intended to deny us the blessed fellowship with God throughout the day. Our enemy is always at work trying to remove us from being truly present in the moments of our lives which denies God the opportunity that He so desires; to manifest His presence for us in those very moments.

Many would say that one should not question God. The truth of that statement depends on the posture of the one questioning. God wants us to question him because in doing so we discover his greater revelation of Himself to us. Are we questioning God because we want Him to conform to our image? Or, are we questioning God to be conformed to His image?

Spiritual despondency, simply stated, is the spiritual slumber of the soul that disconnects us from the beautiful and eternal value of the experience of God in the precious moments of our lives. When we are in a state of spiritual slumber, we can never recognize for ourselves just how asleep we really are or why we are in that spiritual slumber. We need the illumination of Christ to both reveal our spiritual slumber as well as to wake us up again so that we can truly live. It is time to regain the gift of moments with God in the little time we have.

We have the healing of the deaf-mute man in the Gospel of St. Luke 7. In the beginning we were created to hear, to receive the words of God directly from the Word of God. We were also created to proclaim through the voice that is our very life all that we have received. The deaf and mute man could do neither. Christ's compassion healed Him; restoring him to his originally created state. Today we find that the healing of the deaf and mute man is the healing of us all.

In the Gospel of St. Luke 18, we are given two parables and a lesson Christ gives by the example of children. All of these tell us something so very important about the nature of our God. They also tell us how to come to Christ by His consistent invitation. The Parable of the Persistent Widow, the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, and Christ teaching us to come to Him as little children all demonstrate the blessed life of repentance that leads to our healing and restoration if we will but come to Him; and never cease coming to Him with our authentic pain and brokenness.

When St. John Chrysostom describes the continuing ministry of Christ through the Apostles as seen in Acts chapter 5, he says that "Earth was becoming like heaven". The same ministries Jesus did while on earth continued through Christ's Holy Church and they continue today. In 1 Corinthians 12, St. Paul describes the continuing ministry of Christ through the Church as He discusses the spiritual gifts that are ordered and distributed by the Holy Spirit for the benefit of all. Christ's desire has always been to continue, through every living stone in His Church, His ministry of bringing the souls of mankind to Himself so that He can grant them salvation and the experience of every benefit of His Kingdom.

Christians should consider themselves servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. This is who we are; this is our identity. What does it mean to be a servant and steward in our relationship both to God and to man? The life that lends itself to becoming that very identity is a life of relational obedience to our Heavenly Father as modeled in Jesus Christ Himself. Then, the world can see Christ and His Kingdom in us.