Looking In The Wrong Place

Passages: Jn. 1:29-34; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; Jn. 11:1-46
Ընթերցուածքներ՝ Յով. Ա 29-34; Ա Թես. Դ 4-13; Յով. ԺԱ 1-46

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

In the 4th century before Christ, the great philosopher Plato taught his students about a Great Society which had fallen into ruin. He gave a geographical description about an island beyond the pillars of Hercules, about a location in the Atlantic ocean, a city established by the Greek God Poseidon. For centuries after, historians, archaeologists, researchers and scientists, writers and enthusiasts of all kinds went out in search of this long lost place known as Atlantis. The stories of Atlantis, have inspired movies and fairy tales. Whether or not this city ever truly existed, people searched with very little information, often misinformation, descriptions, ideas, of what Atlantis should be. The truth is, with bad information, people went searching in the wrong places but they kept searching because they searched for something of great value and importance.

My dear brothers and sisters, we’ve all done something like this. We’re all searching, looking for something meaningful and valuable in life. Sometimes we’ve all looked for something valuable and important, with little to no information. Perhaps we didn’t have a complete picture of what it was we were looking for but we knew that when we found it, we would know. We search high and low to find that which will fill our lives. Entertainment, family time, love, money, possessions, all things we deem important and precious. However, the truth is something we struggle with is understanding how to look. If I want to watch football, and I go searching for a football game at a hockey rink, I will not find what I’m looking for. Yes, both hockey and football are sports, yes, both hockey and football are entertainment, displays of athleticism, but they are not the same. If I go to a hospital seeking help for my ailment, but I’m surrounded by healthy people, athletic people with no sickness or injury, I would wonder if I’m in the right place. Therfore, whether I am looking for sports, or healing, or whatever it may be, I need to know how and where to look. And this is important because if we go searching only with minimal information, we not only do not find what we are truly looking for but we are also left dissatisfied, and we may react negatively.

This is also truth in our search for God. We’ve all heard the argument that if God existed, and if God was all powerful and all loving and all good, then there would be no evil in this world. It is also for this reason, that many see no need to come to church. This is misinformation and leads to misunderstand of who God does, what the Church is thus forming in us bad preconceptions. Yet, St. John Chrysostom teaches us, “the church is a hospital for the sick.” In other words, if I go to a hospital and only find healthy people, I would say we need no doctors or hospitals because everyone is already healthy. If I come to Church, and only find Saints and holy people, righteous and sinless people, then why would we need God to help us in this life. Yet, this is counter to what Holy Scripture teaches us. Christ says in the Gospel, “I have come for the sick.” Jesus teaches us that He did not come for the healthy or self-righteous but for sinners, those aware of their need for healing and repentance. Therefore, why we need the Church is for healing. When we do come to Church, we don’t come searching for healthy people. We come searching for God our true physician. When we come searching for God, we come recognizing first that we are broken, we are sick, we need God to heal us, and likewise, all those in Church are searching for God’s healing love and mercy.

Too many of us, who come or don’t come to Church do so with of bad information, and preconceptions. We look for God without the complete picture and so we neither know how to look or where to look. We may even argue, “we don’t need to go to Church, we can find God anywhere.” However, when we are looking for Der Hayr (or priest) and need to contact him where do we look? We might first call his cell phone, send an e-mail, look for him in church at his office, perhaps go to his home, because we know that’s where he is. Sure, we could run into the priest in the streets, walking down the sidewalk, but we know that the priest is going to either be at home or in church, and is reachable through cell phones or emails. Likewise with God! We know God is everywhere, but God can be reached immediately through the Church, His home, God can be found in our prayers, and God comes to us when we go searching with humility, patience, love, and a desire to grow and to be healthy. Even if we do have incomplete information, if we approach with humility and not arrogance, God will guide us to Him. God will reveal to us that even if we are lost, hurt and broken, even if we may be sick in need of healing, we are not abandoned, and nothing can separate us from His love, not even the tomb can separate us from God, as we read in the Scriptures today of Christ raising Lazarus by calling him out “come out Lazarus”.

My dear brothers and sisters, yes, we are all searching for something. Possessions, material wealth, even the lost cities like Atlantis. Yet, these will only satisfy us for the moment. Christ Jesus our Lord, invite us to be satisfied, to be healed, for all eternity. No matter what we feel, what hurts us, what society and the world says about us, how rejected we feel or how lost we may be, each and every one of us is is loved by God, and when we search for God’s love and healing we will find it. Come to Church! Pray in humility. Come letting go of all preconceptions of what the Church or God should be like. Come and grow, come and learn, come and be healed! And the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit will heal us, and bring us into Communion with our Heavenly Father, to whom is due all glory dominion and honor Amen.