Daily Readings: Is. 17:7-14; 2 Corinth. 13:5-13; Mk. 11:27-33
Ընթերցուածքներ` Եսայ. ԺԷ 7-14; Բ Կորնց. ԺԳ 5-13; Մկ. ԺԱ 27-33
In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen!
How many of us my dears, in our closets have a shirt or pair of pants, something that after we lost weight or grew out of, we still have for some reason. We hold on to because “you never know.” Or the contrary, you have something that’s far too small motivating us that we’re going to one day weare it. It’s interesting because our church fathers actually say that the food in your fridge, the leftovers, the clothing in your closet, the shoes in your room, that you do not use are in fact sinful because they could be used by those who do not have. What we need above all else, when we look at those clothing those shoes is to ask, and be honest with ourselves, why are we holding on to those things?
In the letter of Saint Paul today to the Corinthians, he begins by telling us, examine yourself, test yourself, do you not know yourself that Jesus Christ is in you? In other words, look at the life you live, look at your closet, look at the things that you are holding on to such as your past, perhaps your present. Why and what purpose does it serve? Is it Christ, is it Christlike or is it something else, of a life in the past? which we have no more control over, perhaps we live with regrets, or is it something that we are unsure of what may come in the future?
Last week, I spoke about Christmas and Halloween decorations in stores, and well another thing that happens in this time of the season is movies. Every few years, for Christmas we get another version of which movie? Ebenezer Scrooge! Ebenezer Scrooge who is this wealthy, very evil for a lack of word, man who is visited by 3 ghosts – the past, the present and the future, warning him, asking him examine yourself; look at the life that you came from, look at who you are now, and where is it going to lead? Ebenezer Scrooge eventually comes to the realization, what am I doing? Why am I holding on onto those things in the past that have filled me with bitterness today that in my future will, eventually lead me to loneliness, isolation and fear.
I don’t think any of us have a ghost that visits us, showing us our past, present and future. But we do have ghosts, shadows, we all have skeletons, we have things in our closet that we’re holding onto that we are fearful of either letting go, or we hold onto because we’re unsure of what the future will bring. My dears, what are we holding on to in our closets? What kind of life are we living, what are we filling it with? In the Book of Wisdom of Solomon, he writes, “my children have you sinned” in other words is your closet full of the past of things that you wish you could let go or things that you’re holding onto, “have you sinned? Go and don’t add more to it.” Flee from sin, pray for your former sin but flee from it as you would flee from a snake because when you approach it, it will bite you.
My dears, it doesn’t say live with regrets, it doesn’t say be angry about your past. Christ tells us to repent; Christ tells us to live as He commands us, and St. Paul tells us to recognize that we must begin by that self-examination because he continues that Christ Jesus is in you. What does that mean? What does it mean to have Christ Jesus in us? Keep Jesus in our closet right, only use them unnecessary? No, my dears! To have Christ Jesus in us, as Saint Paul says, is to ask are we living as Christ guided us and directed us in humility. In kindness, in mercy, and compassion. Are we imitators of that? The saying goes, and I know many of you have heard it, that “Saints around us our Saints because they sinned yet, trusted God, all saints have a past, and all sinners have a future.
Yet, the sad thing and the difficult thing my dears is that when we hold onto that past, we allow that past brokenness, that sin, that large clothing, that small clothing, that thing that we are afraid to let go, we allow that to define us, rather than Christ. My dears, there is nothing that defines us, there’s no greater love, there’s no greater mercy, there’s no greater compassion, than of God. His love is greater than any brokenness that we might bring, addiction, hopelessness, despair, depression, murder, lies, cheating, adultery, idolatry, bring what it might be, without adding to it as Solomon says, without focusing on it and think that because we’ve messed up, because we’re broken, that we might as well just keep adding to it. Rather examining yourself, and ask how ever broken I am, is no is not greater than how powerful and loving and merciful my Lord Christ is. For there is nothing greater than that.
Therefore, examine yourself, let go of that piece of clothing, give what you have access of to others. Examine the life you live every day, not just in church but every where and ask is it Christ that is in me? Is it mercy and compassion and forgiveness that comes from me? Or is it something else that I’m holding onto. Hold on to our Lord, hold on and recognize that when we are humble, when we come asking for forgiveness, nothing defines us more than the love of God, nothing is greater, not our broken past, our difficult present or our uncertain future, than that which God has already done through His Son, Christ Jesus through whom we come into communion with the Father and Holy Spirit, and through whom we learn to live not just Christians here, not just as Christians when life is easy, but Christian’s healed of our past, strengthened in our present and prepared for the future, Amen!
