This past Sunday our lectionary assigned Luke 4:14-21 as the gospel lesson at the celebration of the Holy Eucharist.
The reading can be found here: www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%204:14-21&version=ESV
The verse that really grabbed my attention, and that I want to comment on briefly here is this verse 20, where Saint Luke writes
"The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him"
It is a critical and often overlooked part of the story. Jesus has captivated his audience. He has come into their midst and become the center of their attention. They wait expectantly to see what he will do or say next. They certainly have some ideas about what they would like that to be. Their eyes are fixed on Jesus.
First comment: Beloved in Christ, on what are your eyes fixed?
Too often we fix our eyes on people and programs that will pass away, that are far less beautiful, far less honorable, far less truthful than our Lord and Savior, who is himself Beauty, Truth and Honor. Jesus has come into the world and he presents himself to us daily and yet we frequently do not have eyes to see him, and even when we glimpse him we are so distracted, so undisciplined that we barely give him a moment before we are gazing upon another, yet all in the synagogue fixed their eyes on him. Beloved, we must fix our eyes upon Jesus, gazing upon him with eyes of faith and trust, watching to see what he is doing in the world so that we might join with him in it.
So far in the story the people in the synagogue have served as a good example to us - they have been a people who were captivated by Jesus. Luke continues the narrative however by showing us that though their eyes were fixed on him, they were unable to receive his message and ministry because their own expectations of Jesus clouded their ability to see rightly.
In that regard they serve not as an example to be emulated, but as a warning to us. The salvation that Jesus brought was not the salvation the Jewish nation had been waiting for or desired (at least from their perspective).
Second Comment: Beloved in Christ, what is it you desire from Christ?
If we are a distracted people, if we are a people of wandering eyes and unfocused faith, then we will desire those things that seem best from our personal vantage point, but may actually be far less than or different from God's desires for us. We are the ones settling for less than God wants to give. We must fix our eyes on Jesus, but we must see him rightly, as he is, offering what he is offering: himself, his life for ours.
The Jewish nation desires a political overthrow and Gentile servitude. Jesus announced that he was inaugurating a new era and that his love and mercy extended beyond national and ethnic borders. He was up to far more than people expected, yet their inability to see Jesus rightly was because of their unordered affections and priorities.
Beloved, we must see that our Savior comes to share his life with us, and that frequently he does this in ways that may confuse or disturb us. He desires that we enter into his life, that we abide in him and through this union our hearts and our minds will be transformed and we will have a vision of him as he truly is.
Grace & Peace to You,
Micah+
On January 17, 2013 the Right Reverend Frank Lyons, Assistant Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh ordained me as a priest in Christ's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
It was a reverent, Spirit infused liturgy. Following my ordination I immediately concelebrated the Holy Eucharist with Bishop Lyons.
Days before the ordination a spiritual father wrote me the following words:
You are being taken up into Christ's own ministry in a new way. All of our life is a being taken up into Christ's life, of course, but ordination is a sharing in Him in a new way for the sake of His Body and the world. All of our life is utterly dependent on God, and how much more so this form of service!
The recognition of this is sobering when I consider the great treasure that has been entrusted to me - the feeding and guidance of Christ's sheep, purchased unto salvation with his own blood. I entered the ordination service soberly, aware that I would leave that place with a great deal of responsibility laid upon me.
In preparation for the ordination I spent days reading, re-reading and meditating upon Saint John Chrysostom's "Six Books on the Priesthood." There he writes the following:
"The shepherd needs great wisdom and a thousand eyes, to examine the soul's condition from every angle. As there are plenty of people who are puffed up into arrogance and then fall into heedlessness of their own salvation because they cannot stand bitter medicine; so there are others who, because they do not pay a proportionate penalty for their sins, are misled into negligence and become far worse, and are led on to commit greater sins. The priest, therefore, must not overlook any of these considerations, but examine them all with care and apply all his remedies appropriately, for fear his care should be in vain...he needs, therefore, a heroic spirit, not to grow despondent or neglect the salvation of the wanderers, but to keep on thinking and saying: 'Peradventure God may give them the knowledge of the truth and they may be freed from the snare of the devil.'"
I also repeatedly read the following prayer which hangs over my office desk:
"The scope of our art is to provide the soul with wings, to rescue it from the world and give it to God and to watch over that which is in his image. To take it by the hand if it is in danger, to restore it if it is ruined. To make Christ dwell in the heart by the Spirit, and in short: to deify and bestow heavenly bliss upon one who belongs to the heavenly host."
~Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 2.22
As I reflected on the above quotations I began more and more to that my sharing in Christ's priesthood has less and less to do with programs, planning and administration (though there are certainly those things!) but that it has more to do with the love and healing of broken lives - touching those who need healing, teaching those who need wisdom, offering myself for the sake of others.
Another of my spiritual fathers, Father John Porter, preached at the ordination. In his sermon he noted that the world is deeply distraught, and filled with suffering and pain. He pointed to the fact that God has taken the needs of the world into his own hands and has provided the remedy with the giving of Jesus as the Savior of the world. He also pointed out that as a priest sharing in Christ's priesthood I have been given instruments of healing for the world around me. He spoke of the "handing over of instruments" that would take place later in the rite, when I would be handed a Bible and a chalice, representing the two aspects of my priestly ministry: to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Word and Sacrament, as the means by which our world can be healed by God's grace.
Above all the experience is humbling and makes me all the more aware of my dependence upon God, who in his mercy has begun a work in me and who has called me and will by his grace sustain me in this ministry.
Grace & Peace,
Father Micah+
O Lord Jesus Christ, enkindle the hearts of all thy priests with the fire of zealous love for Thee, that they may ever seek Thy glory; Give them strength that they may labor unceasingly in Thine earthly vineyard for the salvation of souls and the glory of Thine All Honorable and Majestic Name: of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.
~Saint Gregory of Palamas
Our view of objects changes depending upon the angle and direction we look at it. The same is true of our view of life and our purpose as humans on this earth.
As we begin a new year (I realize we're already a week into it) I think it is important we ask ourselves from whose perspective we view our lives - it is easy when I look at my life from my own perspective to see things in terms of hours, dollars, tasks, etc. And when I look at it from that vantage point it can become depressing: not enough hours, not enough dollars and too many tasks.
This past year was a busy one for our family, and not without difficulties pertaining to each of those three categories I just mentioned. Already the new year we have begun promises to be just as busy and will likely bring the same challenges. In a week I will be ordained a priest in Christ's Church and will assume new responsibilities, spiritually and temporally, as I exercise my ministry in this congregation. My wife and I are expecting another baby, meaning come July we will have a fifteen month old and a newborn. We are planning on expanding some existing ministries and starting some new ministries. We still have a house we are trying to sell in a different state. There are still adjustments to a new city, a new church, etc.
Each of those realities deserves my attention, my care, and my diligence. But they are the only the immediate tasks of life. They are not my ultimate purpose. And if I only focus on the immediate tasks, without any consideration my ultimate purpose I can become terribly misguided and terribly frustrated.
To understand my ultimate purpose however, I need a different perspective, I need God's perspective, for he is the one who created me and everything else and he is the one who gives purpose because he is Life himself.
I don't have a complete question about why I exist, but I think it has something to do with union with the Godhead and living in the Kingdom of God, where Jesus Christ reigns as King.
I don't make lists of new year's resolutions because I lack the discipline to keep them and have (at least temporarily) decided to not discourage myself more by adding to failure. But I have determined that this year I am going to seek to see life from God's perspective more, to get a glimpse of my ultimate purpose and the ultimate purpose of all creation through the eyes of the One who created all things.
My prayer for you this New Year is that you would see all of life from God's perspective.
Grace & Peace to You,
Micah
