Day 4: Temptation in the Wilderness

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry afterward. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him into the holy city. He set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will put his angels in charge of you.’ and, On their hands they will bear you up, so that you don’t dash your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again, it is written, ‘You shall not test the Lord, your God.’” Again, the devil took him to an exceedingly high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory. He said to him, “I will give you all of these things, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get behind me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only.’” Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and served him. Now when Jesus heard that John was delivered up, he withdrew into Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, he came and lived in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying, “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, toward the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sat in darkness saw a great light, to those who sat in the region and shadow of death, to them light has dawned.”* From that time, Jesus began to preach, and to say, “Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” Walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers: Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. He said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers for men.” They immediately left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them. They immediately left the boat and their father, and followed him. Jesus went about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the Good News of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness among the people. The report about him went out into all Syria. They brought to him all who were sick, afflicted with various diseases and torments, possessed with demons, epileptics, and paralytics; and he healed them. Great multitudes from Galilee, Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and from beyond the Jordan followed him.

If you’ve been an Orthodox Christian for a year or more, then you’re probably used to the idea of a forty day fast, since we have two of them – the Nativity Fast, in preparation for the celebration of our Lord’s Incarnation and birth; and Great Lent, the period before Holy Week and Pascha. The fasting rules for Great Lent are the most restrictive of the year, except, perhaps, for Great and Holy Friday, when those who are able to do so refrain from eating or drinking from the end of the Matins service on Thursday evening until after the Divine Liturgy on Saturday morning. Those who are unable to keep this rule are encouraged to take as little as possible, and so to participate in this fast. The fasting rules for the Nativity Fast are the least restrictive. It’s a good season for those who like fish! Of course, it’s one thing to say “fast” when we mean, “to abstain from eating certain foods while eating others”; and to say “fast” meaning no food or drink. In all probability, our Lord Jesus did the latter – nothing at all to eat, and nothing at all to drink. Keep that in mind during the next fasting season when that craving for a cheeseburger strikes you!

The desert is a harsh and unforgiving environment, and those who can endure forty days in the desert are rare; and the survivors of the desert are transformed: tougher, stronger, and with an adamant will. The author Leon Uris, in several of his novels about the Holy Land, draws on this image of the desert as a place where men are “forged,” as if by a blacksmith. Frank Herbert used the same imagery and language in his Dune science-fiction novels. In the Orthodox Church, there are many, many saints who went into the desert, and so were transformed: St. Anthony the Great, who did physical battle with demons while in the desert; and St. Mary of Egypt, who was purified by her ascetic labors in the desert – to name just two. It is also clear from the language at times in the Bible that the desert was a place to be avoided; a habitation of demons and unclean things, a source of terror.

If, or how often our Lord did battle with demons, we do not know. We do know that, at the end of this forty day period, the devil came to our Lord, Who was hungry and thirsty, and sought to have the Lord use His powers to turn stones into bread. Two other temptations follow. In each case, our Lord – the Word of God – responds by quoting the Word of God – the Scriptures – and, by doing so, defeating the attempts at the devil to ensnare Him, as Adam and Eve had been ensnared, and so led into sin.

St. John Chrysostom tells us that our Lord entered the desert and fasted so as to give the devil the opportunity to wrestle with Him. He did so immediately after His baptism in order to teach us that we also, after we have been baptized, will have to endure, and struggle against, temptations. Knowing this, we should not be surprised that we are being tempted; and we should not lose our poise, nor the peace of God within us, but to wrestle with the temptations as our Lord did. He makes a point of telling us also that we are most vulnerable when we are alone, as Eve was tempted at a time when she was not with Adam, and as our Lord, alone in the desert, was tempted. The devil is less likely to challenge us when we are with others, and especially with those who share our faith and hope in Christ. The saint also wants us to know the value of fasting as a weapon of spiritual warfare against the devil and against temptations. We are far more likely to yield ourselves to temptation when food and drink are abundant, and we have filled ourselves with all manner of tasty delights. We are also meant to follow the example of our Lord in doing battle, drawing upon God as the source of our strength.

The first temptation is not so much to make stones into bread as it is a challenge: “If you are the Son of God…” Prove it, the devil says, to provoke a reaction. Our Lord’s response tells us that we are to obey the devil in nothing. St. John Chrysostom points out that this applies even when the devil is trying to provoke us into doing something that, on the face of it, would be a good thing. The focal point is obedience. It was the failure of Adam and Eve to be obedient to God that caused them to be cast out of Paradise; and their failure was initiated by listening to the devil. They were no match for his cunning and guile; what makes us think we would do any better?

The second temptation also incorporates the challenge of identity: “If you are the Son of God…” The devil is saying, “You were called a beloved Son when you were baptized; let’s have some proof.” He advances his argument by going to the same source as did our Lord in countering the first temptation; the words of Scripture, saying, “for it is written…” How does our Lord respond? “You shall not test the Lord, your God.” Here St. John Chrysostom tells us that we do not overcome the devil or temptations by some miraculous powers, but by patient self-control and by enduring suffering, doing nothing to prove anything, or to gain any attention or glory. The act of casting down is the work of the devil; the work of our Lord Jesus Christ is to raise us up once more the place from which we had fallen, and He displays His power to the devil and to us, not by jumping off a high place to be carried by angels, but by destroying death and setting free death’s captives.

The first temptation was an attempt to exploit “the belly” – our desire for ease and comfort, and food and drink with which to satisfy ourselves. The second temptation was an attempt to exploit our desire for glory and honor and recognition. The third temptation attempts to exploit our desire for wealth, for its own sake, or for the sake of other things or pleasures that wealth enables us to obtain. The Lord is offered the wealth of the world if He will worship the devil, who presents himself as if the world God created had been his to bestow. Our Lord replies by commanding the devil to leave; God alone is to be worshipped, and no one else. Having failed, the devil withdrew, and angels came and ministered to the Lord – presumably, with food and drink for Him after His fast.

All three passages cited by our Lord in His battle with the devil are drawn from the book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy means, “second law”; not in the sense of a replacement for the first, but a retelling of the Law that God had given to Moses on Mount Sinai. At that time, Moses spent forty days (fasting) atop the mountain, being given the Law by God. Now, as the people of God were about to cross the Jordan River and enter into the land promised by God to Abraham and his descendents, Moses is teaching them the Law for the last time, as he will not be entering the land, because he had disobeyed a command God had given during the Exodus. Speaking of how God had led them through the desert to test them and try them and to find out what was in their hearts, Moses said:

He humbled you, and allowed you to be hungry, and fed you with manna, which you didn’t know, neither did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. (Deut. 8:3)

At the second temptation, our Lord quotes Deuteronomy 6:16: “You shall not tempt the Lord your God, as you tempted him at Massah.” Massah is the name given to a place where the people of the Exodus camped, but had no water. They complained to Moses, and demanded that he give them water. Moses responded by asking why they quarreled with him, and why did they want to test God? In part, this situation has its roots in an earlier confrontation when the people, hungry, complained, saying, “If only we had died by the LORD's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death." (Exod. 16:3) The Lord acted in this way:

Then the LORD said to Moses, "I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days. (Exod. 16:4-5)

The Lord put His people to the test at that time; now, at Massah, the people put God to the test. It is as if they are saying, “You gave us food; now give us water.” The miracle of the manna was not enough to convince them that God would provide for all their needs. When we are faced with temptation, we are to remember that, as God was with His people as they left behind the land in which they had suffered as slaves to come to “a land flowing with milk and honey,” as God had promised, so will He also be with us and provide what we need as we make the journey from this world, in which we were slaves to sin and captives of death, to the kingdom of heaven, where we will once again live in the intimate presence of God. (The events at Massah are found in the 17th chapter of the book of Exodus, if you want to read it for yourself – not a bad idea!)

The third temptation is met by a quotation from Deuteronomy 6:13 – “You shall fear the Lord your God; and you shall serve him, and shall swear by his name.” Now, you will undoubtedly have noticed that there is an apparent inconsistency between what is written in Deuteronomy and what St. Matthew has written. “Fear” isn’t the same as “worship.” What’s going on? Something interesting! If you look at the Hebrew text for the passage from Deuteronomy, the word used there means “fear” – but not fear in the sense of “terror.” Rather, as the Psalmist says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Ps. 110:10); and which the author of the Book of Proverbs quotes, and enlarges upon. However, St. Matthew would, in all probability, not have been quoting from the Hebrew text; rather, he would be quoting from the Septuagint, a translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (what we Christians call the Old Testament) from Hebrew into Greek. Here again, a different word in Greek is used when comparing St. Matthew’s text; but the difference is significant in that the intermediate work in the Septuagint actually transitions from the Hebrew word, “fear,” to the word St. Matthew uses, “worship.” The word found in the Septuagint version of Deuteronomy has the meanings, “to fear, be terrified” – touching the word in Hebrew; and also, “to reverence with fear and respect toward God.” (The same word is used in Ps. 110.)

It’s late, this is long, and most of the rest of the text is certainly clear. The last portion I want to point out is that, with St. John the Baptizer imprisoned, our Lord takes up the message His cousin had been proclaiming. He tells His listeners, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Indeed: the One Who will open the way for us to enter that kingdom is now in our midst.

To close, let me invite you to listen to a podcast prepared by a friend, Reader Steve Robinson. Posted today, he reflects on time he is spending at a monastery as he is there helping them to drywall and refinish their chapel, which is Steve’s craft – and let me tell you, he does excellent work. His podcast, posted today, is about marriage and monasticism; but he also spends time talking about the desert. This chapter’s setting in the desert, and what Steve has to say, are congruent; his podcasts are worth taking the time to listen. I recommend that you do so by going to his website, Steve the Builder. You should also check out his blog, Pithless Thoughts, and his other podcast (with Bill Gould), Our Life in Christ. Bookmark these sites. You’ll want to go back!

Scripture texts are taken from the World English Bible.

Day 3: Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord!

In those days, John the Baptizer came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” For this is he who was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, saying, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.” Now John himself wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. Then people from Jerusalem, all of Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him. They were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bring forth fruit worthy of repentance! Don’t think to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. “Even now the axe lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that doesn’t bring forth good fruit is cut down, and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you in water for repentance, but he who comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.” Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. But John would have hindered him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?” But Jesus, answering, said to him, “Allow it now, for this is the fitting way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed him. Jesus, when he was baptized, went up directly from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to him. He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming on him. Behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

The third chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew has two sections: The Coming of St. John the Baptizer; and the Baptism of our Lord. The first portion has three times as many verses as does the second (12 and 4). There is much more that is known about St. John the Baptizer; but we learn that later, in the Gospels according to St. Mark and St. Luke.

If ever there was a prototype for the way a prophet should look, it could easily have been St. John. We are told that his clothes were made of camel’s hair, held on his body by a wide leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey. Living in the desert, he surely had tanned, maybe even leathery skin, a shaggy beard and wild hair – an altogether grizzled look, with a fire in his eyes! His message was simple and direct: a call for people to repent. Why? Because the kingdom of heaven is near.

St. Matthew uses this phrase – the kingdom of heaven – where St. Mark and St. Luke instead say, “the kingdom of God” – a phrase St. Matthew uses only four times. Some scholars believe that the community for whom St. Matthew was writing his Gospel was Jewish in its background, rather than a community whose members had been drawn from the Gentiles. This is why, for example, the genealogy in the first chapter traces our Lord’s lineage back to Abraham, and no earlier. In the churches that arose from the Jews, these things would be far more important than to non-Jewish communities. This might also account for the difference in the way the kingdom is described. It was forbidden to speak the name of God; and there were euphemisms that were used in place of the name of God, which was too holy to be uttered by human lips. It would have been troubling, even scandalous, to refer to the kingdom of God among the Jews; and so we have instead the “kingdom of heaven.” Sometimes I’ll play some word games with our students, and ask, “Where does God live?” The answer invariably is, “Heaven.” Then I’ll ask, “And where is God?” The answer, because they already have been taught that God is omnipresent – that is, present everywhere in creation at every moment – is, “Everywhere.” Then the final question: So where is heaven? Usually, it isn’t too long before someone says, “Everywhere.” Not so simple now, is it, when St. John declares, “The kingdom of heaven is near?”

St. Matthew tells us that Isaiah had foretold that there would be a voice crying in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord. The prophet spoke of this after King Hezekiah, who had been deathly ill, had been healed by God and granted fifteen more years of life. The king received envoys from Babylon, and showed them everything in his palace. Isaiah confronted the king, and told him that the result of this would be a time of peace, at the end of which the Babylonians would come and carry away everything and everyone from the palace, and all the wealth of the city as well, taking the most prominent people as captives into exile in Babylon. While the king was glad that there would be peace through his lifetime, the news of the coming time of troubles had to have been disturbing. But God speaks to His people, saying to them, “Comfort, comfort ye, My people”; and promises that there will be an end to their suffering and exile, and that they will return to Jerusalem and once more worship God in their midst, signified by the Temple. This is when the voice of one crying in the wilderness will be heard, calling on the people to prepare a way for the royal procession to come from the wilderness into the city. St. Matthew then identifies St. John the Baptizer as the one who has come to tell the people it is time to prepare for the coming of the king.

If we look at this in terms of being in exile from the Garden of Eden, where we lived in Paradise and in the immediate and intimate presence of the Lord, the coming of St. John is the announcement that the time of our exile is drawing to a close. The King is coming; the kingdom is at hand; and so it is time for us to prepare the way, to make straight in the wilderness – the wild and untamed condition – of our hearts a highway for our God to travel. This is accomplished by repentance and confession; and by baptism, which, as administered by St. John, was not a baptism of regeneration – that was still to come. Instead, it was connected with the ritual bathing for purity that accompanied the preparation for the Sabbath, and for the worship of God in the synagogues and in the Temple. The people who heard the call of St. John came to him, confessed their sins, and were “washed” clean of them by their baptism.

When the Pharisees and the Sadducees come to hear St. John, he speaks to them in a most direct, even blistering, way. It really isn’t possible to concoct a “positive” outcome from referring to someone as a “brood of vipers.” He asks them, “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” He uses the images of axes cutting down trees at the roots, and of the sifting of wheat from the chaff by the use of a winnowing fork to declare that one aspect of the coming of the King is that the great and terrible day of Judgment is also coming nearer. He tells them, “Bring forth fruits worthy of repentance.” As the saying goes today, “talk is cheap.” It’s easy to say, “I repent.” It is much more difficult, and extremely important, to make our deeds conform to our words. It is not enough to say, “I repent”; we must also “do” what demonstrates that our repentance is more than just an empty, meaningless statement. It is interesting that we do not hear of anyone from either the Pharisees or the Sadducees being baptized by St. John. He speaks of his baptizing with water; and that the one who will come after his ministry will not baptize with water, but with fire. We see this accomplished on the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles and disciples with the appearance of being flames of fire.

The account of the baptism of our Lord is straightforward, and those who attend church regularly are probably quite familiar with it. One important aspect is that, in the events that accompany the baptism of our Lord, there is a “theophany” (which is the name given to the feast) – God appearing to us – by which the Trinity is revealed most clearly. We are told that the actions of our Lord Jesus have the approval of God the Father, Who calls Him, “My beloved Son, with Whom I am well pleased.” In part, this is related to the dialogue between the Lord and St. John. We also should note that, with His baptism, the period of time in which our Lord ministers and preaches in our midst begins.

As the cousins meet in the river, the elder, St. John, says to the younger that it is not appropriate for the elder to baptize the younger, for St. John knows that the man before him is more than what he appears. He admits his own need for baptism. St. John also wonders at the Lord coming to be baptized because, after all, his was a baptism of repentance, with the cleansing of baptism following the confession of one’s sins, with repentance – only now One Who is without sin, a blameless Lamb, has come to be baptized, Who does not need to repent or confess. Our Lord asks St. John to baptize Him anyway, so that all the requirements of righteousness may be fulfilled. St. John Chrysostom points out that the way of righteousness is the keeping of all the commandments. Here again, we are reminded that the sin of Adam and Eve was that of disobedience to the command of God. By their disobedience, death entered the world. Christ has come to remove the curse. He does so by His obedience in every aspect of the Law, doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves – and this act of fulfilling all the requirements for holiness, done for us by the incarnate Word of God, includes being baptized. As requested, St. John baptizes our Lord; and, with the Theophany, He enters a time of preparation for what lies before Him.

Day 2: Magi, Murder, Flight and Return

The second chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew can be divided into three sections: The Coming of the Magi; The Escape Into Egypt; and The Return to Nazareth. The stories are not complex: the first part has twelve verses; the second has six; and the third has only four verses. One interesting thing to note – and which, I must say, I hadn’t noticed before – each section involves a revelation that is given by God in the form of a dream.

At this point, something needs to be said about revelations that come from dreams. The teaching of the Orthodox Church with regard to dreams is, beware. We do not say that all dreams are nothing more than the attempts of the demons to deceive us. Clearly, the fact that dreams often play a role in revealing the will of God can be seen in the pages of the Bible: here in this passage, obviously; and in Jacob’s dream, just to mention one that immediately comes to mind. Here are two quotes from the Fathers that give us a good understanding of the interpretation of dreams (which I found on the website of St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in Texas):

Demons often transform themselves into angels of light and take the form of martyrs, and make it appear to us during sleep that we are in communication with them. Then, when we wake up, they plunge us into unholy joy and conceit. But you can detect their deceit by this very fact. For angels reveal torments, judgments and separations; and when we wake up we find that we are trembling and sad. As soon as we begin to believe the demons in dreams, then they make sport of us when we are awake too. He who believes in dreams is completely inexperienced. But he who distrusts all dreams is a wise man. Only believe dreams that warn you of torments and judgments. But if despair afflicts you, then such dreams area also from demons.

(St John Climacus, "The Ladder of Divine Ascent", Step 3: On Exile or Pilgrimage (Boston: Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1978))

Inasmuch as we know the true sign and image of the Cross, the devil does not dare to use it (for our deception); for on the Cross his power was destroyed, and by the Cross a fatal wound was given him. The Master Christ we cannot recognize by the flesh, which is why the devil tries to convince us by lying that it is He, so that having believed the deception as if it were truth, we might perish. And thus, when you see in a dream the image of the Cross, know that this dream is true and from God; but strive to receive an interpretation of its significance from the Saints, and do not believe your own idea. May the lord enlighten the thoughts of your mind, O brother, so that you might escape every deception of the enemy.

("Saints Barsanuphius and John: Guidance Toward Spiritual Life," trans. by Fr. Seraphim Rose, (Platina, California: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1990))

Some good rules of thumb when it comes to dreams:
• Always start by being cautious. Cross yourself as soon as you have awakened and remember what you have dreamt, asking God to protect you as you ponder the dream.
• Always check the dream against what the Church teaches and practices, and with what is found in holy Scripture to be God-pleasing, and what is praised in the lives of the saints. If what you were “told” in or through the dream contradicts any of these, it is probably a sign of an attempt to deceive and mislead you. Even if the dream is in agreement with all three of these categories, don’t automatically assume that everything is fine, and that the revelation is authentic. Rather, proceed to the next step.
• Always share the situation with your spiritual father, and take only the actions that he blesses you to undertake. (This isn’t a bad idea, even if you are pretty sure the dream was false.)

The Coming of the Magi

Almost everyone in the western world knows the Christmas carol, “We Three Kings,” which tells of the visitation of the Christ Child by the Magi. They bring gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Three gifts; three kings – makes sense, right? Well, in St. Matthew’s account, the three gifts are mentioned – but the magi are unnumbered, and who says they are kings? The text of the Greek New Testament calls them “magoi” and not “basileos” – “king.” (These words appear in the same verse, v. 1 – in reference to both Herod and our Lord, “born King of the Jews.”) The magi may have been priests of Zoroaster, living in the region of modern-day Iran; or astronomers, as “magi” can have both meanings, as well as to mean a magus – a magician, a sorcerer.

Isn’t it interesting that the first visitors that St. Matthew tells us about are not the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night, who heard the angels singing in the heavens? (We’ll hear about them when we consider the Gospel according to St. Luke…) Of course, the shepherds were “locals”; and so, most likely, were Jews. The magi were certainly not either locals or Jews! This event is so important, St. Matthew may very well be saying, that even those who worship false gods are drawn to seek Him, and to offer gifts to him. They come to Herod in good faith, and out of respect – always a good position to adopt when you are in a strange land, with laws and customs that are different from your own! Their desire to find and worship the newborn Son of God – who may have been as much as two years old; for when you’re traveling by camel through the desert, it takes a while to reach Bethlehem from Persia – together with their dealings with Herod lead to another remarkable event: They are warned about Herod’s treachery through a dream given to them – to pagans – by God, and so return to their native land without returning to Herod.

There is a great deal of speculation among astronomers with respect to the star that guided the magi to find the Lord. Some think it was a nova, or a supernova, while others believe it was a comet. The Orthodox Church has a different understanding; and that understanding is a part of the service of the Proskomide. When a Divine Liturgy is to be served, there is a service, the Proskomide, that takes place before the Liturgy. The priest, and, if the church has one, the deacon say the prayers for entry into the altar, and then vest for the service. The bread and the wine that will be blessed to become the Body and Blood of Christ are prepared: the Lamb, which is placed in the center of the diskos; a piece for the Theotokos; nine pieces for the nine angelic orders; a piece for the hierarchs and other clergy; a piece for those in authority; and a piece for the departed follow, all going on either side and in front of the Lamb. Wine and water are added to the chalice; and then a particle of bread is taken out as the names of the faithful, living and departed, are read. The particles for the living go to one side before the Lamb; those for the departed, to the other side. Then the gifts are “covered.” The covers are for the diskos and the chalice; and there is a third cover, called the aer, which is placed over the diskos and chalice with their covers. He cover for the chalice sits on the rim; but the cover for the diskos needs a support to hold it above the bread. To do this, two pieces of metal, each in the shape of a “C” (with squared corners), and connected in the top center with a pin around which the arms can pivot, is placed to form a “roof” over the diskos, on which the cover can rest. This device is called the “star” – and the first thing done when it is time to cover the gifts is to hold the star in the smoke from the incense; and then, as it is placed on the diskos, the priest says, “And the star came and stood over the place where the young child was.” (This is in verse 9.)

How can a star do that? How can a comet do that? Any star in the sky, apart from the Sun, is millions of miles away from the earth. A comet is thousands of miles from the earth. Even if the place from which the magi started their journey was in a straight line from where they were to Bethlehem – which is certainly possible – how in the world could a physical light in the heavens show them the exact location of the cave that was the stable for the inn, in which the Theotokos gave birth to our Lord? It can’t be done. But if the light was an angel… Well, an angel could go before them and lead them to the precise spot where the Lord was to be found. So we let the scientists ask their questions, and form their hypotheses, because we know, in the end, they’ll never figure out how it could happen until they turn their thoughts to God…

One more tease before we move on. Last time I looked at a map, the region of Persia/Iran is to the east of the Holy Land. So if the magi came from Persia, they would have been traveling to the west. How, then, can they say, “We saw His star in the east,” and follow it? (I don’t know the answer, either. If you’ve got an idea, please share it with us!)

The Escape Into Egypt

As in the first section, a dream is important in this part of the narrative as well. Herod, who wanted to put the Child to death, so as to prevent this person “born King of the Jews” from taking his throne, has been frustrated in this because the magi did not return to tell him where the Child could be found. Instead, he gives the order to put to death every male child under the age of two years living in Bethlehem, the location which the chief priests and teachers of the law identified as the place where the coming of the Messiah had been foretold by the prophets. (Yes, I realize this is actually in the first section of the chapter; but it develops here, so…) Why two years old or less? Because that was how long it had been since the star that guided the magi has appeared to them. Notice, too, the final line of the prophecy quoted in verse 6: “…for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.” You’ll recall that, in our discussion of chapter 1, we spoke of the covenant God made with David the King. The Lord said to David, “You will shepherd my people, Israel, and you will become their ruler.” (2 Sam. 5:2) The prophecy cited by Herod’s advisors was found in the book of the prophet Micah. (Mic. 5:2)

With this developing threat, God sends an angel to warn Joseph that he is to take the Child and His mother and go to Egypt, beyond the territory ruled by Herod. Joseph – who by now has had enough experience with dreams and with miracles! – obeys without question. In the tradition of the Orthodox Church (although found nowhere in the Holy Scriptures), Jesus, Mary and Joseph are also accompanied by James, the brother of the Lord, the youngest son of Joseph by his first wife. It is James who will become the first leader of the Church in Jerusalem, and who is martyred by being thrown down from the roof of the Temple, and, having survived the fall, was stoned, and finally killed by having his skull broken with a fuller’s pestle. This took place during the reign of Herod Agrippa II, the great-grandson of Herod the Great (who is the ruler we meet in this second chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel).

Herod’s troops carry out their orders, putting to death the male infants in Bethlehem. According to some, the number slain was several dozen; in the Orthodox tradition, the number was ten thousand or more. Neither figure can be supported by Holy Scripture, as no number is mentioned. Indeed, this account is not found in any of the other Gospels. In a way, the number is not what is important: it is the truth that innocent children were murdered simply to keep an old tyrant in power. The hymns of the Church for the service of remembrance for these little ones, which takes place on December 29th (on the Julian calendar; January 11th on the secular calendar), call Herod a latter-day Pharaoh, who took a similar action in order to eliminate the child born to be the Deliverer of the Jews from their slavery in Egypt. Pharaoh was unsuccessful in his attempt to kill Moses; and Herod was unsuccessful in his attempt to kill our Lord Jesus. The prophet Jeremiah had foretold the slaughter of the holy innocents. (Jer. 31:15) Rachel, the second wife of Jacob, was the mother of Benjamin; and Ramah, located in the territory allocated to the tribe of Benjamin when the Jews entered the Holy Land at the end of the Exodus, was the city where, after the Babylonians had captured Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple, assembled those who would be taken into exile in Babylon.

The Return to Nazareth

When Herod died, Joseph was told in a dream that it was now safe for him and his family to return to the Holy Land. He is further warned in a second dream not to return to Bethlehem, as Herod’s son, Archelaus, now ruled in his father’s place; and, presumably, would pursue his father’s policy if their presence in Bethlehem became known. They go instead to Nazareth.

Two prophecies, we are told, are fulfilled by their departure from Egypt, and their settling in Nazareth. The first comes from the book of the prophet Hosea. God, speaking through the prophet, says, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt have I called my son.” Most of us, when we hear a reference to “Israel,” think of the country of that name. It is the land of Israel because that is the place where the people of Israel settled. In other words, unlike what typically happens – we are called “Americans” because we live in America, or “Russians” because we were born in Russia, and so on – the people didn’t take their name from the territory; rather, they gave their name to the territory. “Israel,” as a matter of fact, is much better known to us by another name. He is Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, and the father of the twelve tribes of Israel. You will recall that, with the help of his mother, Rebekah, Jacob, Isaac’s younger son, impersonates Esau, the elder son, and so receives Isaac’s blessing, and so inherits all that had been Isaac’s. When the treachery is discovered, Rebecca sends Jacob to her people, where he lives in the house of Laban, Rebekah’s brother. Laban has two daughters, Leah, the elder, and Rachel, the younger. Jacob wants to marry Rachel, and Laban agrees, but deceives Jacob the deceiver, and he unknowingly marries Leah. He had worked for Laban for seven years in order to be married; and so he must work another seven years in order to also marry Rachel. This, by the way, is the Rachel whose weeping is in Jeremiah’s prophecy. God blesses Jacob, and he becomes wealthy. After he marries Rachel, he wants to return home; but since he must pass the place where Esau lives, Jacob divides his riches into two groups, and sends them separately, hoping that, at worst, Esau only intercepts one of them. As he is traveling through the desert, he sends his wives and eleven children across the ford at Jabbok, and so is alone in the night. During the night, he wrestles with a man who only succeeds in defeating Jacob at daybreak by touching his hip, and putting Jacob’s hip out of joint. Even then, Jacob did not release the man, and said he would not do so until the man had blessed him. When the man asks, “What is your name?” and Jacob replies, he is told, “You will no longer be called ‘Jacob,’ but Israel, for you have struggled with God and with men, and have overcome.” The man vanishes, and Jacob/Israel realizes he has looked upon God, and lived. So the “people of Israel” are the descendents of Jacob – the twelve tribes. A bit more: Jacob will have a total of 13 children; one girl, and twelve boys. Of the boys, only two have Rachel as their mother. The first is Joseph, who will become Jacob’s favorite, be given a coat of many colors, and so sold into slavery in Egypt because of the jealousy of his brothers. He will rise to prominence there, become second in power only to the Pharaoh himself, and his actions – based on his ability to interpret dreams – will be the salvation of all his family, including his father, Jacob, after they have settled in the land of Goshen, part of Egypt. After a time, when Joseph has been forgotten, the Egyptians, fearing that the Hebrews, who were becoming numerous, might be a threat, enslaved them – setting the scene for Moses and the Exodus.

Who would have thought that there was so much going on in the background behind the brief second chapter in St. Matthew’s Gospel? But we’re not done yet! Now we go back to Hosea, and the prophecy, “out of Egypt have I called my son.” Israel, the people, were loved by God, not the least of which was because of His love for Abraham, and His love for Jacob/Israel. So the descendents of Israel were called out of Egypt, set free from their slavery, and led back to the land God had promised to Abraham and his descendents. Of course, by the time of Hosea’s prophecy, this had long before been accomplished; and now God is speaking of how His people have failed to keep their covenant with Him. The people whom He delivered from slavery in Egypt still need One Who can deliver them from their slavery to sin and death; and so the prophet’s words take on an additional meaning, now that the Son of God has come. This is part of what St. Matthew wants us to know.

There is one more prophecy to mention, and that has to do with where the holy Family lives upon their return from Egypt – Nazareth. Nazareth isn’t mentioned at all in the Old Testament; and it didn’t appear to have much going for it at the time our Lord took up residence there. Consider what Nathanael says when his friend Philip tells him they have found the One foretold by Moses and the prophets, Jesus the Nazarene. Nathanael replies, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” To be called a Nazarene at that time was an insult. Likewise, the Pharisees, when confronted about whether Jesus was a prophet, reply that no prophet arises out of Galilee – and Nazareth is in Galilee. There is no direct quotation for this prophecy in the Old Testament, or elsewhere in the Bible. St. John Chrysostom teaches that, because of the carelessness of the people of God, who did not value such things, many books of the Old Testament period, in which such prophecies were recorded, were destroyed or lost. Indeed, the book of Deuteronomy was lost for a time, until a copy was found in the period after the exile into Babylon, when some of the people returned to Jerusalem, and began to rebuild the Temple. There is an account in the book of Nehemiah (one of the “historical” books of the Old Testament) of a great assembly of the people at the newly-rebuilt Temple, where Ezra the scribe reads the Law to the people, beginning at daybreak and ending at around noon. Perhaps what was read was, in part, from this book that had been lost, and then found.
You’ve probably figured out by now that there is more that can be said – but this is probably enough for today! Tune in again tomorrow, when we read and reflect on chapter three!

Day 1: The Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ

We used to joke in seminary and say that the first chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew was one of two New Testament “phone books”; in part, because of the old joke about the man who, having read through a phone book, wrote the following review: “This book has a great cast of characters, but it doesn’t have much of a plot.” The first part of this first book does, indeed, have a great cast of characters; some known, and some unknown. There are some names that would be familiar even to those who seldom or never read the Bible, nor heard it apart from being read in church. There are a great many names that would be familiar only to those who have read the historical books of the Old Testament a number of times; and some names that are virtually unknown, apart from this list (and the parallel list in the Gospel according to St. Luke).

Examples of the most familiar names are: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; Judah; David and Solomon; Ahaz, Hezekiah, and Manasseh; and Joseph, to whom Mary, our blessed Lady Theotokos, was betrothed. Actually, maybe the troika of Ahaz, Hezekiah and Manasseh are pushing the boundary of “most familiar” names; unless you are paying attention during the readings after the Entrance at Great Vespers! If you have spent any time in the historical books of the Old Testament, you’ll know who they are, as well as Boaz, Obed, Jesse, Rehoboam, and Jehoshaphat; and, if you’re familiar with the book of Isaiah, you’ll recognize Uzziah, for the passage that describes Isaiah’s call to be a prophet of the Lord begins, “In the year that King Uzziah died…” The only other potentially recognizable name is that of Zerubbabel – and that primarily because it’s just fun to say his name: “Ze-RU-bba-bel!”

With the exception of Zerubbabel and Joseph, all of the names listed above come from the first two of the three series that St. Matthew lists, regarding the ancestry of our Lord Jesus Christ – the reason why he has included the genealogy at all. Although I didn’t highlight that here, St. Matthew sets it out in the first verse: “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Having traced the line of descent from Abraham to Joseph, St. Matthew adds his summary in verse 17: “Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.” Clearly, St. Matthew wants us to know that our Lord Jesus Christ is, first of all, an heir to the covenant God made with Abraham: “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Gen. 12:2-3) As well, in Genesis 13 God gives to Abram the land He had promised; and in chapter 15 God foretells the 400 years of slavery in Egypt, and of the Exodus, and that Ishmael, the son Abram fathered on his wife’s maid, Hagar, would not be his heir, but that a son of his with his wife would inherit the promises God had made. Then in chapter 17, God makes yet another covenant with Abram, the covenant of circumcision, in which God gives Abram a new name, Abraham, together with the promise, "I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.” (Gen. 17:5b-7) For his part, Abraham is circumcised, and he takes every male in his household, family and servants alike, and circumcises them, as well. His descendents, if they desire to receive the blessings of the covenant, must be circumcised; and any who refuse to do so are to be expelled from the community, cut off from his people.

By the time of our Lord’s incarnation, the descendents of Abraham, the people of the covenant, were known as the Jews, who would, at one point, say to our Lord, “We have Abraham as our father.” By beginning his genealogy with Abraham, then, St. Matthew is showing how our Lord can legitimately claim to be an heir to the covenants God made with Abraham. Abraham begins the first of the three series of ancestors; the first series, then, will include Isaac and Jacob, and Joseph and his brothers, who come to live in Egypt during the seven years of famine, settling down in the land of Goshen. Then comes the prophesied four hundred years of slavery In Egypt, and the calling of Moses, and the Exodus; followed by Joshua and the entry of the people God brought out of Egypt into the land God had given to Abraham, and the time of the Judges, and the rise of the prophets, and finally, the rejection of God by His people when they demanded to be given a king, as all the nations around them were ruled by a king, and not by prophets and judges. The prophet Samuel anoints Saul to be king; but Saul, like Adam in the garden and Moses in the wilderness, disobeys a command of God, and his throne passes to a shepherd named David. With David, the first series draws to a close.

God also made a covenant with David. The Lord says, “You will shepherd my people, Israel, and you will become their ruler.” (2 Sam. 5:2) At first, David is the king of Judah, while the remaining portion of the land is ruled by the sons of Saul. But after seven and a half years, David becomes king over Israel as well as Judah, and so establishes a unified country and kingdom, over which he will reign for thirty-three years. With this, David moves his capital from Hebron to Jerusalem; and, while living in his palace, he is moved to build a house for the Lord. He buys a property, a threshing-floor; but the Lord appears to him and tells him that David will not build a temple, but his son will do so. Then the Lord, speaking through the prophet Nathan, promises, “…the LORD himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son… Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.” (2 Sam. 7:11b-14a; 16) Not all of the descendents of David kept their part of the covenant with God. In the time of David’s grandson, the kingdom, wracked with rebellion, was split once more into two territories, with Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Foreign armies invaded the land repeatedly, with the northern kingdom falling first to the Assyrians, and then the southern kingdom being defeated by the Babylonians, taking the royal house and the other principal leaders away into exile. With this, the second series draws to an end.

The third series is the period of time from the exile until the time of our Lord’s incarnation. With the disappearance of self-rule, the situation changes somewhat. Prophesy becomes more important, as God’s people are reminded time and again of the promises God has made to them through Abraham and David. The people are departing from God’s ways, the Law given by God to Moses, and so they are suffering. Even as judgment is pronounced on them by God through His prophets, they are not left without hope: the theme of the Anointed One of God – “Christ” means, “anointed” – is heard more and more frequently. Then, some four hundred years before the birth of our Lord, the prophets were silent. The people of God, the descendents of Abraham, who were once a mighty nation, were now a province in a series of Empires: the Persians; the Greeks, under Alexander the Great, and then under one of his four generals, between whom his empire was divided; for a brief time, following the Maccabean revolt, self-ruled; and finally becoming part of the Roman Empire. During this time, the Hebrew scriptures were translated into Greek for the benefit of the Jews in the Diaspora, who spoke Greek, rather than Hebrew. The Jews in the Diaspora, who were cut off from worship at the temple in Jerusalem, and surrounded by pagan practices, organized themselves into synagogues; a practice they brought with them and continued when they returned from exile. The synagogue downplayed the rituals of the temple, making them mystical instead of literal: “Let my prayer arise in Thy sight as incense before Thee; and let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice.” (From the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts) The two forms of worship, one centered in the Temple, the other in the synagogue, produces two groups in Israel: the Sadducees, who controlled the High Priesthood and so were connected with the Temple, and who were also more influenced by the culture; and the Pharisees, who were associated with the synagogues, and whose emphasis was on the Torah (the Law) rather than ritual. A third group, the Essenes, may have been a separate group, or were perhaps a subset of the Pharisees, who believed it was necessary to separate themselves from culture and society in order to live in a manner pleasing to the Lord. With all of these developments, the stage was set for our Lord to come into the world and fulfill the promises made by God.

One more point worthy of mention before we leave behind the prologue to the story St. Matthew wants to tell us. He has shown how our Lord is descended from Abraham, and so is rightly counted as an heir to the promise; and he has also shown how our Lord is a descendent of David, and so is of the royal line – in other words, fit to be King. But there among the forty men named are five women: four listed by name, and one by reference. They are Tamar, the mother of Perez; Rahab, the mother of Boaz; Ruth, the mother of Obed; “Uriah’s wife,” which is to say, Bathsheba, who is the mother of Solomon; and Mary, the wife of Joseph, “…to whom was born Jesus, Who is the Christ.” We know the final name, of course! Some may know Ruth, or Bathsheba; the others require you to be a bit more of a scholar of the Old Testament. Let me tell you about them.

Tamar was Judah’s daughter-in-law. Her husband was the eldest of Judah’s three sons. Because of his wickedness, God put him to death. As was the custom at that time, Judah sent his next son, Onan, to impregnate Tamar, so as to raise up sons to be the heirs of the eldest brother. Onan refused; and, because of the way in which he expressed this refusal, he was also put to death by God. Judah then instructed Tamar to dress as a widow and to live in her father’s house until Judah’s youngest son came of age, to marry her. Time passed, but Judah did not keep his promise. When Tamar learned that Judah was coming to her village, she dressed as a prostitute, covered her face with a veil, and became pregnant by Judah. She then resumed living as a widow in her father’s house. When her pregnancy became apparent, her family was determined to put her to death. Judah ordered that she be burned to death, the punishment for prostitution. When she produced evidence that, in fact, he was the father, Judah spared her, and she gave birth to twins. You can find all this in the 38th chapter of Genesis.

Rahab was a prostitute in the city of Jericho at the time that city stood against the army of Joshua and the people of God. She assisted the spies Joshua had sent into the city, hiding them in her house, and lying to the king of Jericho by misdirecting his search for them. Pleading that her life and the life of her family be spared, she betrayed her city, which Joshua conquered. As God had commanded, every living thing in the city – man, woman, children, and cattle – was put to death; with the exception of Rahab and her family, who were spared, and given a place among the people of God.

Ruth was a woman of Moab, married to a man of the tribe of Benjamin, whose father and mother and brother had gone to Moab when a famine struck their homeland. When all three men, father and two brothers, died, the mother, Naomi, resolved to return to her people. Her daughters-in-law pledged themselves to accompany her. Naomi sought to send them back to the house of their father, and one daughter-in-law did so. But Ruth would not be deterred, saying, “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.” (Ruth 1:16b) They returned to Bethlehem at the time of the barley harvest; and so Ruth came to the attention of Boaz, who allowed her to work as a gleaner, and saw that she was protected and given what she needed to eat and drink. He was moved to kindness for her because he was a relative of Naomi’s, and he was grateful for Ruth’s caring for her. Eventually, they married, and had a son, Obed, who was the grandfather of David the King.

“Uriah’s wife,” the mother of Solomon, was seduced by King David, and conceived a child when they committed adultery. David then gave secret orders to the commander of his army to set Uriah in the first rank of a charge into battle, and then to withdraw, so that Uriah would be killed. That child died; but, when confronted by the prophet Nathan, King David confessed his sins of adultery and murder, was forgiven by God through Nathan, and married Bathsheba, who then gave birth to Solomon, David’s heir to the throne.

The significance of all this? Prominent in the family background of our Lord Jesus Christ are two prostitutes, a traitor, a pagan foreigner, a murderer, and two adulterers. Most of us wouldn’t put such people in a family tree or genealogy! This was part of the plan of God: to taken on Himself a human nature that was dead in sin and corrupt, in order to restore it, and make it new.

Now we come to the actual opening of the story: the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. St. Matthew keeps his focus in these next eight verses primarily on Joseph, for it is through Joseph that our Lord’s place in the community of the people of God would be reckoned. Some say that the genealogy and focus on Joseph indicates that St. Matthew’s Gospel was written to speak primarily to the Jewish communities, and so touched important points of connection to that community and its history. It’s an interesting theory, but ultimately we find that Joseph’s story is very much one of faith and love. He is betrothed, an older man whose wife has died, and his family all but grown, because she is related to him – as we found in the story of Boaz and Ruth. When his wife, with whom he had not consummated the marriage, was found to be pregnant, he did not respond as Judah had done, calling for Tamar to be put to death; he was going to divorce Mary quietly, so that she would be spared. It was then that God revealed what was taking place, and Joseph did as the Lord commanded him, even giving the child the name, “Jesus.” St. Matthew also tells us that what took place fulfilled the prophesy of Isaiah, “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel — which means, ‘God with us.’” (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23) We also get insight into the meaning of our Lord’s name. “Jesus” is the Greek rendering of “Joshua” (Yeshua); which means, “The Lord saves.”

Well, that’s all for chapter one! I had no idea this was going to be this long! I also have no idea what the next chapter may be like: longer, shorter, or about the same? We won’t know until we get there! Oh, and your questions and comments are certainly welcome!

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Day Zero: An Introduction to the Journey

My original intention was to post each day's chapter, and follow it with some discussion, perhaps drawn from a commentary, or simply my own observations. By the way, I will do my best to let you know which is which. After all, you can trust the commentaries! I am always at risk of making an error, so where you should consider the Fathers authoritative, please do not do the same for my offerings! <- Please note: What just happened is likely to happen at any time! I started out with one point to make, but without any warning, suddenly shifted to something else. In my classes, I always have to warn my students: sometimes, we may fall into a rabbit hole; other times, into a wormhole. How do you know the difference? If we can find our way back, it was a rabbit hole. If we have no clue as to where we are, or how we got there, it was a wormhole! For the record, what happened here was a rabbit hole.


Back to the point: posting the actual text. The problem with doing this is that any attempt to use any sort of contemporary text will invariably result in a copyright violation. So far, the only copyright-free versions are the venerable old King James Version (KJV), and the 1899 Douay-Rheims American Edition. Frankly, the KJV language is not the easiest to work with; and the Douay-Rheims isn’t much of an improvement. The Douay-Rheims also has the disadvantage of its being a translation from the Latin Vulgate for use in the Roman Catholic Church. This is not a negative criticism of the Roman Church; just a recognition that the D-R was prepared to a very large degree for use by the Counter-Reformation in Europe; and I'd prefer to use a version that has been translated from the Greek...


What does all this mean? It means that, until/unless a better translation that can be copied and reposted on the Internet can be found, I will not be posting each day’s chapter; only the comments and observations, with the occasional short passage from the text that day, when doing so will be helpful, or necessary, to the discussion. This will not, therefore, be as convenient as I had hoped; but I will post a link to the site for each day’s text, and hope that will be sufficient.


So, put on your crash helmets and buckle your seat belts, and let’s get ready to go!

Coming Soon!

Christ is risen! Xpuctoc Bockpece!

It was over five years ago that, in a burst of enthusiasm, I decided to launch this blog. At the same time, I had started four other blogs: one to comment on current events (Observations); one to use to post my sermons (Reflections); one to present an explanation of what we believe as Orthodox Christians, and why (Ancient Religion); and one to be a sort of "online catechism class." (Orthodoxy 101) Only the first two ever went beyond the initial post; and even these suffered from neglect, as the "shine" of blogging became a grind, and then the grind became too demanding, and everything "shut down" for a while.

I'm not sure I can say what, exactly, has changed to bring me to revive these blogs -- and I do intend to be posting in all five very soon. The best explanation I can offer is that, as our parish has moved through time and space, the single most effective way we have found to announce our presence to the larger world has been through the internet. As such, it seems to me that the more places where we can be "found," the better -- for we don't have the resources to match the mission: to bring as many people as we can reach to an awareness of the Orthodox way of life and belief, and to invite as many of these people as possible to join us on the journey from life in this world to life in the Kingdom of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ. Having this as our responsibility, together with my responsibility as a priest to proclaim the good news of our salvation in Christ, well...

The cycle of readings is completed once every quarter. Ideally, then, just to keep things neat and tidy, I should have started April 1st (if not January 1st). This means that I'm some twenty-two days or so behind at the start! But the third quarter doesn't begin until July 1st -- and I'm afraid that if I wait until then to start "neat and tidy" it will never happen! So I'm going to start now, and hope to be posting multiple entries in an effort to "catch up" to the cycle of this quarter.

Not having done this before, I'm not sure what form it should take. I hope that those who read this site will feel free to offer comments and suggestions.

According to Fr. Arseny, it is a pious practice to read a chapter each day from the four Gospels: St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke, and St. John the Theologian. There are 89 chapters in all; and so one can read through the Gospels four times each year.

I propose to do just that -- and to record the reflections and study notes that I derive in this blog. Of course, I've already missed the first quarter of this year (2004); and the start of the second quarter; and, with Holy Week and Pascha just around the corner... well, the posting may be inconsistent at first. By the grace of God, and to His glory, it will get better!

Your unworthy servant in Christ,