DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
Sun.,
Dec. 17, 2006 Fish, Wine & Oil Tone 2 The Holy Forefathers of
Christ our Lord
Kellia:
Daniel 3:24-30
Epistle: Colossians
3:4-11
Gospel: St. Luke 14:16-24
Future, Present,
Past: Colossians 3:4-11, especially vss.
5-7: “Therefore put to death your members which are on the
earth....Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of
disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked....” As
you read today's Epistle, note carefully the grammatical tenses, the references
to time, in each verse or phrase; for the entire working of salvation,
stretching from the past to the present and into the future, is summarized in
these brief lines. While the
Apostle exhorts us concerning the labors and tasks of this present life, he
also looks ahead to the future in swift, impressionistic strokes and refers to
the past. Then he returns again to
the present where we daily evaluate, decide, act, and live.
As today’s passage begins, the Apostle holds
up our present condition: “Christ Who is our life” (vs. 4). However, as he speaks of the life in
Christ, he also places the present within the future. What future?
The time yet to come, when the Life-Giver will appear: “then you also
will appear with Him in glory”(vs. 4).
Participating in the Christian Mystery at present as a member of Christ,
astonishingly, places us on a path toward the glory that shall be.
Those who know and firmly hold on to Christ in
the depth of their being will also share in His magnificence when He is
manifested in glory. Wondrously,
those now motivated by their belief in Him are to be glorified together with
Him (Rom. 8:17). We would be
utterly at a loss to receive these words if we did not have the revelation of
the glory of God in the flesh, the record of “Wonder” Himself, Who was
incomprehensibly born among us in a humble form that our senses may
comprehend. He enables us to
project from this limited present to a glorious future.
In the reading, the Apostle invites us to
consider what is demanded of the Faithful now in the present by a future that
is to come: “Therefore put to death your members which are upon earth” (vs.
5). He lists what must be
mortified: “fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire and covetousness,
which is idolatry.” Consider: “Are
these sins operating in us now?”
St. John Chrysostom explains the present need
to mortify ourselves by having us imagine one who “has clean scoured a statue
that was filthy, or rather who has recast it, and displayed it bright afresh,
[as if he] should say that the rust was eaten off and destroyed, and yet should
again recommend diligence in clearing away the rust. He doth not contradict himself, for it is not that rust
which he scoured off that he recommends should be cleared away, but that which
grew afterwards.” New and former
sins alike can begin anew and corrode our hearts and souls. Now, therefore, let us continue to
purify and cleanse every trace of sin that threatens to grow within us so that
we may be found worthy of the glorious, future appearing of our Savior.
Having encouraged us by means of a
God-promised, ineffable future, the Apostle also reminds us of another of God’s
promises - of future retribution upon those who disobey Him. The “sons of
disobedience” will face wrath when the Lord returns (vs. 6). Further, St. Paul reminds us, we “once
walked” as these - in “anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, [and] filthy language”
(vss. 7,8). So, let us heed him
and “put off all traces of these” wrong doings (vs. 8).
Returning to St. John’s thought: once, in the
past, in the waters of Baptism, we were illumined, we were sanctified, we were
washed. Now, “even unto a ripe old
age,” we must continue to ascribe glory to God by putting “on the new man who
is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him Who created him” (vs.
10). Let us labor now so that
“Christ is all and in all” (vs. 11) - in ourselves and in all those we may
influence to live in Him. Then,
when He appears in glory, we too shall appear with Him in glory (vs. 4).
Grant a
Christian ending to our life and a good defense before Thy dread Judgment seat.
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