Passages: Is. 62:1-11; 2 Tim. 2:15-19; Jn. 6:38-47
Ընթերցուածքներ’ Եսայ. ԿԲ 1-11; Բ Տիմ. Բ 15-19; Յով. Զ 38-47
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen!
A couple of weeks ago, I went to the local library to get some research done and inevitably, my eyes wondered away from my computer and work, and I began perusing the countless books on the library shelf. As I walked by one of the tables, a poster caught my eye advertising a kid’s summer reading challenge. Growing up, I remember during the summers participating in the local library reading challenges, where we could pick a list of books to read and if we accomplished them, we would win a prize. Though I certainly don’t participate in these challenges now, I do however like to challenge myself to read; Fiction, non-fiction, religion, philosophy, psychology and so forth. If my wife enjoys going clothes shopping, and my son likes to go to the car section in a toy store, for me, I love stores like Barnes and Noble or Half Price Books. However, though I enjoy reading, I must admit a fault of mine. Perhaps a fault and condition some of us also deal with. Tsundoku is a Japanese word which describes the condition of a person who owns a lot of unread literature. A habit of picking up books that you never quite get around to reading. Yet, this phenomenon of tsundoku which literally translates to a piling on of books, can be applied to other areas of our life.
What about buying clothes, or shoes we rarely touch and never wear? What about piling our selection of “watch later videos” on Youtube or Netflix accounts? In a consumer society, almost all of us have this tendency – we “pile up” and never utilize or benefit from what we have available to us. Yet, if we step away from the materialism of books, clothes, social media and other such things, what about our faith? Some of us might think I am referring to the buying of religious books or having multiple Bibles at home, but that only scratches the surface. In the letter of James 1, we read the following warning, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who observes his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.” In other words my dears, what good is it to buy and fill our homes with rich literature but never read a word, what benefit is it to have expensive clothes but never wear them, in the same way, what good is it for us to buy Bibles, come to Church, and have the tools and means to grow in our faith if we never use it?
It is for that reason St. Paul tells us to “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” When we read our Bible’s or attend Church service, when we thirst and hunger for God what purpose does it serve? St. Basil tell us that “We need not only read Sacred Scripture but learn it as well and grow up in it.” To attend Church and grow up in the Scriptures, meaning the commandments and teachings of God, is to apply them to our life, to utilize them for our growth and for the healing of all creation. It means to say we believe in God, our life must be more than just theoretical ideas, or philosophies of religion. It is not enough to confess we believe in Jesus Christ, when we deny that belief with our life. It is also not enough for us to live a “moral” life but deny our need for God. My dears, our faith in God cannot and should not be limited to us walking into the Church or buying religious literature. Faith must be implanted into our hearts and transform us into who God has created us to be. Faith cannot be piled up on selves, never to be touched or used. We must respond and be participants in our own salvation by recognizing Christ Jesus who dies for us, be buried with Him in order to be raised, transformed and reborn. That is what our sacraments like baptism are about; That is what Badarak is about. They are not performances to bring people into this building, they are new life.
If for us my dears, all our faith is is a set of rules, something we do on a Sunday, or “books we buy and never read” than we will fail when we will fail in times of struggle, hurt and suffering; we will fail to understand and grasp the love of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit for us. We will fail because we will try to consume faith as information and make sense of this world through our limited understanding. We will reduce faith to books on a shelf never read, or clothes in the closest that keep no one warm, and food in the fridge that leaves others hungry. Yet, the love of God, is meant to shift our understanding, to lift us out of suffering, to be a tool by which we are able to “present ourselves to God”. Faith in God is to live the Word of Scripture, to clothe the naked, to have compassion and feed the hungry. As the prophet Isaiah teaches us, “Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out…(Is. 58:10) By that light, we and others come to the light of God, we see clearly our areas of weakness and in prayer and repentance adjust and go out into this world continuing to reflect God’s light through the life we live. To be hearers and doers – so that others will see and want to do. See how we are in our relationships with one another, see how we are when it comes to social justice or community issues, see how we are with our own bodies and minds, see how we are with our families, at home, in the workplace or wherever it may be. When these things are observed by the world, then faith will not just be “piled up” but it will also be used. Faith will be lived and not gather dust on a shelf; faith will light up this world and fill it with compassion, grace, hope and life.
Therefore, by the grace of God, let us recognize and ask ourselves, what are we “piling up” in our lives and never using? Does coming to Church, change us and strengthen our faith and transform the way we live to be Godlike? Perhaps today is the opportunity to not just remove books we never read, or clothes we never wear but to remove ideas and practices we maintain that seem to make our faith merely a dust collector. Remove the things we think are important and utilize our faith for what it meant to be. Our faith is a seedling that will grow into life when we water it with prayer, and tend to it with repentance; when we come to confession and participate in the life of the Church beyond just sitting in the pews. When we hear and do as God commands us, as Christ teaches, “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.” (Jn. 6:45) Let us go to Christ now and always daily, Amen!
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Passages: Is.
62:1-11; 2 Tim. 2:15-19; Jn. 6:38-47Ընթերցուածքներ’
Եսայ. ԿԲ 1-11; Բ Տիմ. Բ 15-19; Յով. Զ 38-47 In
the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen! A
couple of weeks ago, I went to the local library to get some research and work
done. Inevitably,
my eyes wondered away from my computer and work, and I began perusing the
countless books on the library shelf. As
I walked by one of the tables, a poster caught my eye advertising a kid’s
summer reading challenge. Growing
up, I remember during the summers participating in the local library reading
challenge. Where
we could pick a list of books to read and if we accomplished them, we would win
a prize. Though
I certainly don’t participate in these challenges now, I do however like to
challenge myself to read. Fiction,
non-fiction, religion, philosophy, psychology and so forth. If
my wife enjoys going clothes shopping, and my son likes to go to the car
section in a toy store, for me, I love stores like Barnes and Noble or Half
Price Books. However,
though I enjoy reading, I must admit a fault of mine. Perhaps
a fault and condition some of us also deal with. Tsundoku is a Japanese
word which describes the condition of a person who owns a lot of unread
literature. A
habit of picking up books that you never quite get around to reading. Yet,
this phenomenon of tsundoku which literally translates to a piling on of
reading, or consuming can be applied to other areas of our life. What
about buying clothes, or shoes we rarely touch and never wear? What about
piling our selection of “watch later videos” on Youtube or Netflix accounts? In
a consumer society, almost all of us have this tendency – we “pile up” and
never utilize or benefit from what we have available to us. Yet,
if we step away from the materialism of books, clothes, social media and other
such things, what about our faith? Some
of us might think I am referring to the buying of religious books or having
multiple Bibles at home. But
that only scratches the surface. In
the letter of James 1, we read the following warning, “But be
doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if any one
is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who observes his
natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself and goes away and at once
forgets what he was like.” In other words my dears, what good is it to buy and
fill our homes with rich literature but never read a word, what benefit is it
to have expensive clothes but never wear them, in the same way, what good is it
for us to buy Bibles, come to Church, and have the tools and means to grow in
our faith if we never use it? It is for that reason St. Paul tells us to “Do your
best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who has no need to
be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” When
we read our Bible’s or attend Church service, when we thirst and hunger for God
what purpose does it serve?St.
Basil tell us that “We need not
only read Sacred Scripture but learn it as well and grow up in it.”
To grow up in the Scriptures, meaning the commandments and teachings of God, is
to apply them to our life, to utilize them for our growth and for the healing
of all creation.It means to
say we believe in God, our life must be more than just theoretical ideas, or
philosophies of religion.It is not
enough to confess we believe in Jesus Christ, when we deny that belief with our
life.It is also
not enough for us to live a “moral” life but deny our need for God.My dears,
our faith in God cannot and should not be limited to us walking into the Church
or buying religious literature.Faith must
be implanted into our hearts and transform us into who God has created us to
be.Faith cannot
be piled up on selves, never to be touched or used.We must
respond and be participants in our own salvation by recognizing Christ Jesus
who dies for us, be buried with Him in order to be raised, transformed and
recreated or reborn.That is what
our sacraments like baptism are about. That is what Badarak is about. They are
not performances to bring people into this building.If all faith
is for us my dears, is a set of rules, something we do on a Sunday, or “books
we buy and never read” than we will fail not at our faith.But we will
fail in times of struggle, hurt and suffering; we will fail to understand and
grasp the love of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit for us.We will fail
because we will try to consume faith as information and make sense of this
world through our limited understanding.We will
reduce faith to books on a shelf never read, or clothes in the closest the keep
no one warm, and food in the fridge that leaves others hungry.Yet, the
love of God, is meant to shift our understanding, to lift us out of suffering,
to be a tool by which we are able to “present ourselves to God”.Faith in God
is to live the Word of Scripture, to clothe the naked, to have compassion and
feed the hungry.It is to come
to the light of God, see clearly our areas of weakness and in prayer and
repentance adjust and go out into this world by reflecting God’s light through
the life we live.To be
hearers and doers – so that others will see.See how we
are in our relationships with one another, see how we are when it comes to
social justice or community issues, see how we are with our own bodies and
minds, see how we are with our families, at home, in the workplace or wherever
it may be.And when
these things are observed by the world, then faith will be “piled up” and used.Faith will
be lived and not gather dust on a shelf.Faith will
light up this world and fill it with compassion, grace, hope and life.Therefore, by
the grace of God, let us recognize and ask ourselves, what are we “piling up”
in our lives and never using?Does coming
to Church, change us and strengthen our faith and transform the way we live to
be Godlike.Our faith is
a seedling that will grow into life when we water it with prayer, and tend to
it with repentance; when we come to confession and participate in the life of
the Church beyond just sitting in the pews.When we hear
and do as God commands us, as Christ teaches, “It is written in
the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Every one who has heard
and learned from the Father comes to me.” (Jn. 6:45)Let us go to Christ now and always daily, Amen!
St. Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Church 