Have We Forgotten?

It is not unreasonable to be caught up in all of the news and craze and fear and chaos of today. Everywhere we turn and look there are distractions, pleasures, paths and patterns of avoidance. We are constantly bombarded and exposed to a pace of life that does not leave much room or time for a moment of peace. The worst part about life being this way, or becoming this way is that unbeknownst to us, we take a huge chunk of responsibility for things being the way they are.

You see we are people in the world, whom the world hungers over and seeks to devour; it wants’ to rule every last aspect of our life. Most of the time we find ourselves cooperating with it. It’s becoming a little more noticeable however that people are becoming increasingly aggravated by the advances of the world. They do not wish to be dominated by it, they do not want it interjecting itself into their home; they wish to be free from it’s clutches.

When faced with this struggle I find myself with two potentially helpful courses of action. The first being to flee, to run and avoid struggles, to ignore them, to fill my time and life with more pleasant, productive and presumably beneficial activities. The problem I have bumped into down this road is that I find it to be primarily self-serving and even cowardly.

The second, and initially much more unpleasant path is to continue to engage with the world. To shine light on my own shortcomings and struggles, to transform them from pitfall and points of weakness into something else. Interestingly enough I am not the one doing the transforming, I am the one cooperating and participating in it. The primary tool or more accurately the means by which to do this is love. A word that is misused and over used (I imagine plenty of you reading right now may be rolling your eyes). A word that is just as much a verb as it is a noun. Most importantly love is a proper noun also know as God.

In God, through the person of Jesus Christ, we see in the Gospel accounts the beginning of the restoration of the world. Sight being given to the blind, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the mute speak, and the dead are even brought back to life. The Messiah, Jesus, the Christ, born in Bethlehem, who was spoken of and prophecies about throughout the Old Testament; who Israel interacted with many times prior to His Incarnation. By His Crucifixion Christ overcame the world, sin and death, through His Resurrection.

Following Christ’s Ascension the Church, the people of God, all remaining 120 faithful decibels and apostles, the myrrh-bearing women and the most holy Theotokos received the Presence of God of the Old Testament, the 3rd Person of the Holy Trinity, whom we as Christians come to know as the Holy Spirit, the manifestation of Wisdom itself. He dwelled in the whole Church, and He continues to make Himself available to us. Have we forgotten our end of the deal? To be a witness of all that God has done for us through His only begotten Son, to not be afraid of the world because He has overcome it in every conceivable and inconceivable way, and in so doing He has given us the ability to do so as well. Have we forgotten to live a life focused on the Heavenly Jerusalem and physically manifesting God’s Kingdom here on earth through our communal worship and transformative works of mercy and repentance?

+ Rev Ioannis (Yanni) Michaelidis, Assistant Pastor