Sense of Direction

Passages: Is. 19:1-11; Gal. 2:1-10; Mk. 12:35-44
Ընթերցուածքներ՝ Եսայ. ԺԹ 1-11; Գաղ. Բ 1-10; Մկ. ԺԲ 35-44

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen!

Some people are better at staying on course than others. For some finding where they parked their car, showing directions, traveling without a compass, etc. feels like second nature. While for many others it is a struggle. Cognitive psychologists say that those who live in large country sides develop a sense of north, south, east, west, and general direction much better than those who live in cities like Chicago. The reason for this is the grid system, though helpful in the city, doesn’t help develop the navigation skills outside the limits of those grids. Anything foreign, open and unclear causes us to get lost easily. In his letter St. Paul talks about Titus, his student who was being tempted from outside influences “false brethren” as he calls them because they were secretly spreading misinformation. You see Titus is a Greek and, in those days, when Christianity was spreading, many of the Jews who followed Christ believed that a Greek first needed to be circumcised, meaning made into a Jew, only then could they continue to become a follower of Christ. Yet, St. Paul rebukes them and teaches them how this is a false narrative. Why?

My dears, all of us have a desire to grow in our faith. Some of us are stronger, some of us are weaker; some of us are full of knowledge and wisdom, while still many of us struggle and have a lot of questions. Yet, Christ Jesus calls all of us to him. For God there is no difference from where we come from, from which direction, what limitations, what knowledge, what age, what gender, what job title, or any other arbitrary limits we’ve put on ourselves. In fact, recently Pope Francis was criticized for making a comment to a group of interfaith youth where he said it doesn’t matter what religion you believe (I’m paraphrasing). We as the Orthodox Church would strongly condemn this because Christ Jesus teaches us “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but through me.” Yet, we would acknowledge my dears, that we are all on a different path in life. However, Christ guides and gives us the direction to the Father through Him. If we want to get to a certain address, we can take many roads and highways, following our sense of direction or the GPS. However, to get to that address we need to end up on the road where that place is located. In life we are on difference paths but if we truly desire to find God, ultimately our sense of direction must bring us to Jesus Christ as the true path. A path through which God calls all of us, as our Heavenly Father, His beloved children.

The issue is that many of us sometimes wander away from the truth. We get lost on our way, our relationship with God. And too often we try and navigate our way back to God through our means. We try any and every way to find our way back to an equilibrium of mental, social and spiritual health. Yet, just as getting lost in life can happen likewise, sometimes it feels like that more we try to find our way, because of the negative influences, lies, and temptations we face, in the process we get lost even more. We begin to think we are unworthy, unloved, unimportant or we think we need to somehow gain favor, do something extra, etc. My dears, this is not true. Even more important than this my dears, God is not lost for us to find Him. It is we who are lost and it is for that reason Christ came to us. And Christ gives this beautiful contrast in the Gospel today: he first presents a warning against false teachers, “Beware of the scribes, who like to go about in long robes, and to have salutations in the market places and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts…” Next he then speaks about who? “And he sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the multitude putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came, and put in two copper coins, which make a penny.” We all know how the story goes, about giving from our heart.

Yet, look at the 3 sets of people whom Christ Jesus, God is watching. You have the teachers, the ones who have all the knowledge, who can give proper direction, they can navigate anywhere and help you find what is lost. Yet, they are full of so much hatred, hypocrisy and have become blind to their own sinfulness that not only do they get lost, but they cause others to lose their way as well. Next you have the rich people with large sums of money. They have the means to learn, they have what is considered valuable in this life and yet, they think those material possessions is what sets them apart, gives them direction and purpose. They are so lost; they don’t know they’re lost. Finally, we have the poor widow; someone that has no rights, no privileges, most likely no education or means of helping others. She is the one Christ tells us to follow by example. My dears this isn’t to say being education, whether clergy or laity, having money and wealth are bad things. But Christ is reaching out to us and asks us, what gives us direction? What are we influenced by? Who helps us in our spiritual growth when we get lost?

God shows no partiality. God shows no favoritism. God our Father hears all our prayers, desires to share his love with all of us, and sent His only-begotten Son, Christ Jesus to die for all of us. And through the Holy Spirit we are reborn as His children. Not by our power, our means, our ideas of rules and regulations but by grace. By picking up our Cross and following Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life. The rules that we have in the Church, the teachings we follow are from Scripture. They are beacons of light to help guide us ultimately to Christ who leads our way. We don’t follow because they make us a better person but because through those rules we learn to observe the widow, the beggar, the lesser, the richer, the leader, the teacher and ourselves as the same. We recognize Christ in one another.

Sometimes this process is easy, sometimes it’s hard. We always like to quote Psalm 23 – the Lord is my shepherd. What image do the Holy Scriptures in Psalm 23 speak about? Your rod and your staff they comfort me. I’m not sure how many of you have been out in the field with shepherds but what is the difference between the Rod and the Staff? Well, the staff has a bend on the end, and it was used to hook on to sheep that might go in the wrong direction. The rod is a stiff piece of wood, much shorter that was used to beat off wolves and enemies but also to push the sheep if they strayed the wrong way. My dears, we don’t like being pushed, but we must understand, it is the rod and the staff that comfort us; that when God is pushing us, it is not because we are worthless or wrong but because He is protecting us from getting lost. He is protecting all of us equally like a Father holds to protect their child close to them.

Let us therefore pray my dears, that by the grace of the Holy Spirit, regardless of our path we are on, what journey we are facing, whether we think of ourselves as lesser or greater, poorer or richer, come and commit ourselves to God. Recognize His love as our Father for each one of us because we are His children. He comforts and calls all of us. If we get lost along the way, we can always ask for help, to find where we’ve parked, where we are through the love and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.