DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS

St. Luke 19:45-48     (1/8)        For Tuesday of the 33rd Week after Pentecost (Tue 28th Week)

 

Cleanse Thy Church: St. Luke 19:45-48, especially vs. 46: “...My house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.”  The Apostle Paul reminds us that, being the Church, we “are the temple of the living God.  As God has said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them.  I will be their God, and they shall be My People’” (2 Cor. 6:16; Lev. 26:12; Ezek. 37:27).  To  recognize that we are the Temple of God changes today’s Gospel into an admonition, for any community of the earthly Church can meet the same tragic destiny as did the ancient Temple of God.

History supports the possibility of this tragedy.  In order to advance the material prosperity of the institutional Church, segments of the Church have rejected the primary task of God’s People - to be a  “house of prayer.”  Yes, agents of material success have subtly and sometimes blatantly treated Christ as an inconvenience needing “reinterpretation” to fit into their material desires.  “...the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people [who] sought to destroy [Jesus]” (Lk. 19:47), were clear in their diagnosis that the God Who is met and known in and through prayer can be a dangerous inconvenience to worldly agendas.

Therefore, it is incumbent on all Christians, since we are those whom God has “chosen” as “precious..living stones...being built up a spiritual house” (1 Pet. 2:4,5), to be alert to protect the holy communities and jurisdictions of God’s Church against the tragic, destructive course of “making over” some portion of the Church - whether a committee, a parish, a diocese, or whatever - into a successful, growing, materially-oriented program or institution.  Prayerful reflection on this Gospel will show us the Lord Jesus’ way for avoiding such a pitfall.

First, we are to purify our hearts so that worship in our communities are love feasts of the Kingdom of God.  Only thus will we avoid becoming “a den of thieves” (Lk. 19:46).  As St. John Chrysostom urges: “love...then let us plant in our own souls, that we may stand with all the Saints.  For they all pleased God by their love for their neighbor.”  If we will but let Christ's love transform us, then in our Eucharistic gatherings we will be a Father Schmemann describes: “standing in the presence of Christ, and like Moses before God...covered with His glory.”  Then in our assemblies, we will only say, “Christ is among us: He is and He shall ever be!”  There never will be a thought of devising in the secret of our hearts to seek how we can destroy Him. (cf. vs. 47).

The second means for preventing “ materialist thieves” from making over any portion of the living Temple of God into a measurably profitable program or a successful earthly institution is “for all the people [to be] very attentive to hear [Christ our God]” (vs. 48).  St. Gregory of Nyssa has us note that “the human mind..., as long as its current spreads itself in all directions over the pleasures of the sense, has no power that is worth the naming of making its way toward the Real Good; but once call it back and collect it upon itself, so that it may begin to move without scattering and wandering toward the activity which is congenital and natural to it, it will find no obstacle in mounting to higher things, and in grasping realities.”  It is not by accident that so often in the Liturgy we are called to “Be attentive!”

Finally, lest we fall into delusion to become some part of the den for thieves, let us pray that Christ our God will come and “drive out” (vs. 45) all thoughts and inclinations within us to embrace the world’s offers of quick success, proven programs, growth through promotional solutions for our Orthodox communities.  Rather, let us sing: “Come let us worship and fall down before Christ.  O Son of God, Who art risen from the dead, save us who sing unto Thee!”

O Lord, cleanse us by Thy cords of light and truth, driving out all base loves and making the glories of the blameless life and a worship in spirit and in truth to shine forth in us.

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