Growing or Learning Pains

Passage: Is. 58:1-14; Rom. 13:11-14:26; Matt. 6:1-21
Ընթերցուածքներ ՝ Եսայ. ԾԹ 1-14; Հռոմ. ԺԳ 11- ԺԴ 26; Մատթ. Զ 1-21

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

The Jamaican singer Dennis Brown once said, “Every day you learn something new.” I think most of us would agree with this statement. Learning something new, either a task, a bit of information, whatever it may be is something that has become easier day by day. For example, who can tell me what happen on September 4, 1998 (26 years ago) that made learning something new easier? You can all tell me by pulling out your smartphone – Google was born. Today even in our everyday conversations when a question comes up, what do we say or do? We pull out our phones and “Ask Google”, or “Siri” or whatever the next AI will be. Learning something, getting information today is easier than ever.

Now without going into the quality of the information available out there, as easy as learning is yet, when learning and mastering new information and especially a skill, there are 4 key points we need to remember. The initial struggle: What king of challenges will we face? Bad information? Self-doubt, awkwardness, mistakes we will make along the way, setbacks etc. The learning process: What king of guidance we need, where do we go with our questions, how much practice and at what consistency can we maintain to learn. Ultimately the moment of success: Learning the skill, the wisdom and knowledge, looking at our challenges and acknowledging what we have overcome. The final and most important point – Personal Growth: Apart from the skill we have learned, or information we have gathered, how have we grown and become better? What character development has there been. These 4 points are important to think about my dears when we are learning something new because they help uncover the why – the RAISON D’ÊTRE or reason to be.

We are all gathered here in Church for prayer; we are here to learn. We can say that our reason or purpose that brings us here is our faith. Though faith is much more than a skill yet, we can apply those 4 key points of learning to understand on a deeper level why we come. What struggles do we face in our faith, where do we go for guidance, how have we succeeded and ultimately have we grown through faith? By applying these 4 steps we realize faith is not our purpose, it’s not why we come to Church. In today’s Gospel, we have 5 skills that Christ directs us to. “When you give alms”, “when you pray”, “if you forgive”, “when you fast”, “Do not lay up for yourselves.” After each one of these, Christ teaches us how to learn and do these skills. Someone without faith can do these as well. This means faith as a feeling or understanding is not our purpose. Faith is training. My dears, faith must be lived out and practiced to help guide us towards our purpose and reason for being here, for giving alms, praying, fasting, etc. Our purpose is Communion with God.

Our faith in Christ Jesus is a responsive faith that through process of learning is strengthened. However, it is only strengthened if we don’t lose sight of our reason – Christ Jesus. If our reason to read the Bible is knowledge or history – that is not faith. If our reason to come to Church is to see who didn’t come or what everyone is wearing – that is not faith. In the same way Christ tells us, if we are fasting, praying giving alms, or seeking things of this world then our purpose, our reward will die with us in this world – where moth and thieves will destroy. Living out our faith my dears therefore, is like the search engine in our smartphone, it must help grow us towards Christ Jesus. Like those 4 steps tell us, yes, there is difficulty, and we will mess up and be challenged. But this is true of all real education. When we are kids, we hate being in school; even as adults, we don’t like to be criticized or told we are wrong. Growth in life and especially in faith at its root can be bitter yet, the fruit that is Christ Jesus is sweet and blessed. And scriptures invite us to eat of this fruit, by learning my dears. Prov. 1:7 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction,” or 2 Tim. 3:16-17 “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”

And so now we are here, on the doorsteps of learning from God. Tomorrow, we enter the season of Great Lent. And all this week, I have received questions about properly observing lent, what foods to not eat, what is right or wrong; what happens if along the way we make a mistake; how do we help our faith? My dears, the Church in her divine wisdom has given us the season of Lent and the practice of fasting not as a punishment to adhere to or else we are bad, but rather as a tool, a magnifying glass and mirror to better evaluate ourselves, to refocus and ask what our purpose is. St. Basil the Great for example teaches, “There is both a physical and a spiritual fast. In the physical fast the body abstains from food and drink. In the spiritual fast, the faster abstains from evil intentions, words and deeds…For as much as you subtract from the body, so much will you add to the strength of the soul. ” Or St. Ephraim the Syrian reminds us that if we are not forgiving, compassionate and merciful as Christ tells us in today’s Gospel with the Lords prayer, than, “Fasting will not help you, until you will become accomplished [meaning grow] in love and in the hope of faith. Whoever fasts and becomes angry, and harbors enmity in his heart, such a one hates God and salvation is far from him.” Faith is in Christ and fasting is about lessening of ourselves and lifting up of others by allowing God to be more present in our lives.

My dears yes, we have our fasting practices, we have our Lenten services, and if we want to learn more then let us ask through faith. We are invited to learn something new every day. However, what do we do, how do we live our faith with the information we have been given that brings us to Christ? Is it self-serving or guiding? Is it self-justifying or perhaps self-loathing or refocusing towards the merciful and loving presence of our Lord? Just like learning anything new, we will struggle, we will fall, we will have obstacles yet, hopefully we will succeed eventually. And we will have grown, because whatever we learn my dears in our personal lives must serve a purpose and help us grow, even if it challenges us and we are struggling with it. Ever more so with our faith in Christ. The Scriptures, our life in the Church, faith lived is not informational but transformational; it reminds us of our brokenness and the challenges we face, but also lifts us up out of the tomb and heals us, leaving only scars behind which we can see and use to help teach others. But this can only happen when our reason for this season, our purpose of faith, our why we are here is Communion with our Lord Jesus Christ. Who loves us all, calls us to Him and illuminates our hearts and minds through the Holy Spirit. Transforms our lives and tells us if you have faith, if you want to live by faith then live with purpose.

Ralph Emerson says, “knowledge is when you learn something new everyday. Wisdom is when you let something go everyday.” Let us let go in this fasting season not of foods, but of our egos, our pride, our arrogance, our self-hatred, our selfishness. Let us grow in wisdom, making room and refocusing on Christ Jesus. Let us pray, fast and practice with a desire to invite God to be ever present in our lives guiding us all. And if along the way we fail and fall, let us lift our eyes to God and God our Heavenly Father will embrace us, love us and lift us up. May the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ help us in this Lenten season and may the Holy Spirit fill us with wisdom and compassion now and forever, Amen!