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In this morning’s gospel, the Lord spoke the parable of the Publican, or tax-collector, and the Pharisee. Just last week we heard about Jesus visting the home of Zacchaeus who was a chief tax-collector. Saint Matthew the Evangelist was a tax collector whom Jesus encountered in his tax collecting office and called to be His Disciple. Jesus was criticized for eating with tax-collectors and sinners. Tax collectors were bad people, but for some reason Jesus spent a lot of time around them.

So what was so wrong with the tax collectors? It’s not simply that human beings universally hate paying taxes. The problem was that the Roman government at the time deputized Jewish people to collect taxes on their behalf. There was an amount of tax that they were required to collect which had to be handed over, but anything that they collected above that amount, and by any means they deemed necessary, would go in their own pockets. People living in fear of the authorities could be easily extorted into giving much more than they owed in order to feel safe. The people didn’t like that they were under Roman rule to begin with, but even worse was the sense of betrayal at the hands of their own people.

By contrast, the Pharisees tithed, prayed, gave alms, and kept the commandments. They were esteemed as teachers of the law who sat in Moses’ seat. They sought to hasten the coming of the Messiah by a return to the keeping of the law. They saw the Babylonian exile of centuries past as a judgment on the people for disobeying the commandments. They considered the Roman occupation, and the fact that the presence of God was not manifest in the new temple as proof that the people had not properly repented.

These two groups seem so different on the surface. It’s easy to see why they might be at odds with one another or why the one might be respected and the other reviled. But let us look below the surface. Both saw the Roman occupation as a problem. While it’s obvious how the tax-collectors sought to enrich themselves under this occupation, the Pharisees did as well. The Pharisees knew well the commandments of God. They were experts in the Torah. But like the Publicans, they didn’t stop with what was required. They didn’t just keep the Sabbath, they made rules about what you could and could not do on the Sabbath, how far you could walk, what you could or couldn’t do for someone in need. They built a hedge around the commandment, so there was no chance of breaking it. And so people lived with the burden they imposed. Christ reviles them saying, “they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.”

The Pharisees had power over the people. To oppose them was no safer than to oppose a tax-collector who sought more than you owed. And perhaps the worst part of this is that they made God to be as much of a tyrant as the Roman Emperor. God who chastens those He loves is cast as an unloving ruler who wields punishment arbitrarily.

Christ became incarnate in this society, and in the midst of it shows mercy. He shows love. And the Pharisees who tithe even from the herbs of their gardens can’t stand Him because they have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. They are more focused on enriching themselves than on giving God what is due to Him. They enrich themselves by making a display of their piety. They give to be seen, they fast and disfigure themselves publicly, they make long prayers, and convert others to their ways. They receive the reward of all their deeds – the admiration of others. But meanwhile the widows, the orphans, the poor and needy, even the proselytes they have converted are used up and discarded like trash.

So it is that in the parable two men show up to pray. The one tells God of all his accomplishments, all of the ways that he has surpassed even God’s expectations, and he is deaf to the voices of those under his thumb who are crying out to God for mercy, or for justice. He looks at the Tax-collector and knows that he is certainly better than such a villain. He goes down to his home feeling justified in his own mind, but with God’s judgment against him.

The Publican, on the other hand, sees his sins. He knows what he has done even to his own people. He has seen people beg him for mercy, and has probably turned a deaf ear to their cries far too many times. But on this day, he knows his sins, he realizes that he has no defense for his actions, and he imitates them, casting his eyes to the ground and begging for mercy that he doesn’t deserve. And he, like the other former publicans in the gospel will repent by giving restitution, by trying to make right those evils which he committed. This one goes down to his house truly justified.

It was not the sacrifice offered in the temple that made things right, but the repentant heart and the amending of your ways. And this brings us to ourselves. As we approach Great Lent this year, do we live under a tyrant or God whose mercy endures forever? Will we follow the fast to the letter and judge others for their failures, or will we spend the fast seeing our own iniquities and with eyes downcast, seek forgiveness? Will we be Christians to be seen, or Christians who in the quiet of our hearts seek God?

We are not called to rule over others, we ought not to place burdens on others merely so we can enrich ourselves. We should listen to the cries of others, and respond with the same mercy and justice that our Lord demonstrates toward us. Those who keep the commandments and those who do not are both sinners. Those who fast perfectly, pray with attention, or give all that they have to the poor are still sinners in need of the mercy and help of God. We can keep all the rules, and still not live lives of virtue and perfection. This doesn’t mean that we don’t need to bother with something like fasting or almsgiving, rather we should heed our Lord’s words concerning the Pharisees: “These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.”

The Lord ends this parable and His criticism of the Pharisees in the gospel of Matthew with the same words: “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” You are the children not of a cruel tyrant, but of God, merciful, compassionate, who loves the just, and has mercy on sinners. God Who is the giver of the Law, but willingly subjects Himself to the Law; Who has mercy even on those who disobey His commandments if they seek Him with repentance. So humble yourself like He humbles Himself, that He might exalt you with Himself.

On this day, the Sunday after the birth of Christ, we recall the Holy Righteous Ones, the kinsmen of the Lord, David the King, Joseph the betrothed and James the brother of the Lord.  There were, of course many other kinsmen of the Lord and we celebrated the memory of all of them on the Sundays before the Nativity.  Why then do we single out these three for a special celebration?

The Prophet and King David is well known to us for it is though his lineage that the royal line of Israel passes down through the generations to Jesus Christ.  Our Lord, however, is not only king of Israel, but as God He is King of all Creation. He is the ruler of all that is.  As King, He orders the world around us, gives us the culture and environment in which we can best work out our salvation.  He dictates through His law the way in which we should live not only for peace and prosperity in this life, but also in the world to come.  He is our sovereign and we owe to him obedience, and loyalty and honor.  As God we also owe these same things to Him as well as worship and praise.  He is our King and God; in remembering the Prophet and King David we also recall the royal lineage of our Lord and we honor and praise Him as our King.

There are, however, good kings and bad kings.  In our American culture and education, we are taught that, for the most part, kings are bad – or at least self indulgent fools.  In fact, this is a gross misunderstanding of the place in society of the monarch who is the one who stands before God not only for his own life, but responsible for the whole nation.  In a Christian, and especially Orthodox, monarchy, he is crowned not so much with honor, but more importantly with a responsibility to rule his people in the place of God.  However, even in a monarch that is pious and holy we see that the flaws and faults of men come out.  The most brilliant example of this is again David the King, who, although he loved God, did also fall into sin and was in this way a “bad king”.  Even in his sin, the King David shows us the proper path to the Kingdom of God for when he is confronted with his sin, he does not deny it or run away from it or simply ignore it, excusing his action as a royal prerogative; he does repent, with tears and extreme sorrow not only turning away from his sin, but publicly expressing his sorrow that he had angered God and had erred and that he desired forgiveness.  This would be the ideal for an earthly king, but it was certainly not the only model that the people of God had seen.  The king they knew at that time was not David, but Herod.  Herod the king imposed by the Roman occupation was a cruel and selfish man, suspicious of others and of any attempt to deprive him of his position.  He did not care for his people, but only for himself.  He went so far as to slaughter 14,000 infants in an attempt to kill our Lord whom he had heard of from that magi.  He was truly a “bad king”.  Therefore when we consider Jesus as our King, we must recall that he is a King in the line of David, not of Herod and that He rules over us with love, not with hatred and selfishness.

In order that we might understand more clearly the love of God for us, not only do we see David the King as our example, but we see also Joseph the betrothed.  Joseph, while not the true father of Jesus, was betrothed to the Virgin Mary as her protector and guardian. He also took into his household her Son, Jesus, as his own son and cared for  Him as he cared for his own children.  In Joseph we see that God is not simply our king but also our Father.  He cares for us as His own children (for such we are) and protects us from all harm that might befall us just as Joseph protected the Virgin and Child even carrying them to Egypt to avoid the mindless paranoid wrath of Herod.  He provides for us all that we need in this life and in the next, as Joseph provided shelter and food and all that was necessary for the Virgin and Child.  God loves and cares for us as His own beloved ones just as Joseph loved and cared for the Virgin and Child as his own family.  Joseph is called the betrothed for he was selected not to be the husband of the Virgin, but to be her protector and guardian. By recalling this distinction we can see for ourselves the righteousness and love for God that Joseph exhibited as well as his humility.  He did not consider himself to be worthy of this calling, and even when he was selected by the priests to be the Virgin’s protector, he sought to hide out of humility, thinking that there must be some other person more worthy than himself for this task.  But Joseph’s love of God was shown to us by his reaction to the events following the annunciation.  When he saw that the Virgin was with child, he sought to save her embarrassment and allow her to marry the father of the child without the public spectacle of a divorce and showing her sin.  When the truth was revealed to him in a dream by God, Joseph did not waver or doubt, but immediately took the Virgin into his home and embraced her Son as his own. In the flight to Egypt, he left behind all that he had, his own family, his home, his very life to obey God and carry the Virgin and Child into exile. In all of this, we see the self sacrificing love of Joseph for God and for those who were given into his care.  In the same way Joseph reminds us of the love of God for us who came to us from heaven, an event so inconceivable that even the angels were amazed, and took flesh and became man that He might dwell with us in our exile and so might lead us out of our exile and back into His Kingdom.  In remembering Joseph, we remember also that God is our loving Father who, out of love for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, took flesh and became man.

When Joseph left his home and family to carry the Virgin and the child Jesus into exile to avoid the wrath of Herod, according to tradition, his youngest son, still an adolescent accompanied them as well.  Joseph, as we know, was a widower and had already raised his family and of all his sons, there was one who was still at his father’s side.  This son was named James.  When the Virgin Mary was brought into the household of Joseph, she was viewed with suspicion by the sons of Joseph, all older than she, as she and her offspring would be contenders for the inheritance of their father.  When Joseph finally died, the sons of Joseph contrived to exclude Jesus from a share of the estate.  Only James stood up for his younger stepbrother saying that he would divide his own share with Jesus as his brother.  Later on, when Jesus was revealed as the Messiah and began to teach and gather disciples, James was among the first of the sons of Joseph to follow Him.  After the Ascension of the Lord, James was chosen as the leader of the Church of Jerusalem and was known uniquely by the Christians as “the brother of the Lord” because among the sons of Joseph, only James truly embraced Jesus as his own brother.  Another of Joseph’s sons is also well known to us among the leaders of the apostolic Church.  This is Jude, who wrote the epistle bearing his name that we read in the Scripture.  Jude, however, in his humility does not identify himself with James as “the brother of the Lord” but only refers to himself as “the brother of James the brother of the Lord”.  Here we see the righteousness of James, who acted towards Jesus in a truly brotherly manner, sharing with Him his inheritance and supporting Him even from the beginning of His teaching.  Just as James is the brother of the Lord, so we are reminded that the God/man Jesus Christ is our brother.  He shares with us the inheritance of the Father, the life of the Kingdom of Heaven.  He supports us and walks with us as a brother, constantly at our side, supporting and guiding us.  Just as James took Jesus as his own brother, so Jesus takes all of us as His own brothers and sisters and offers to us the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven.

David the King, Joseph the betrothed and James the brother of the Lord: these three righteous ones we honor today for they, as the kinsmen of the Lord, instruct us in God’s love for us.  The God/man Jesus Christ is our king to whom we owe loyalty, obedience, honor, worship and praise.  He orders our life and gives us his law to walk the path of salvation.  Our Lord Jesus Christ also cares and provides for us as a father for his children.  He gives us food and shelter and clothing and all that we need for this life and for the life in the world to come.  He sacrifices himself for us, forsaking all that he has so that we might have life.  Our Lord also takes us as his own brothers and sisters, sharing with us His inheritance even though we have no right or claim to it – the Kingdom of Heaven.  As God has love us, so let us also love God as our King, as our Father, as our Brother.

On this Sunday before the Nativity in the flesh of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ,  The gospel this morning presents us with the genealogy of our Lord given to us in the gospel of Saint Matthew. A genealogy is not just a record of physical lineage, but a way of saying who someone is. It traces lineage through certain people and not others.

In part, this genealogy describes three periods of time. From Abraham to David the King, the people were led by heads of clans and judges, from David to the Babylonian Captivity they were led by Kings, and from the Babylonian Captivity to the coming of Christ they were led by High Priests. Christ then stands at the culmination of these three periods as Judge, King, and High Priest all at once.

We heard in epistle another kind of genealogy we get a list of Old Testament figures, who show the reason for our faith and hope in God as if by descent. The full chapter which is shortened in the lectionary also includes statements about Abel, Enoch, Rahab, and Moses.

In chapter ten of this epistle, Saint Paul speaks of the need to endure and persevere in the faith, not giving up in the midst of tribulation or temptation, and so chapter 11 begins with the words, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.” Faith is the substance, it makes concrete, those things that we hope for, those things that God has promised us. Faith is a living out of trust in God and hope in His promises, a realization of and participation in those promises by our actions.

And so we see deeds in the life of the ancestors of Christ -- Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain, Enoch pleased God by the way he lived his life, Noah built an ark, Abraham left his home, Sarah bore a son and so on. They did things; sometimes rather ordinary things, sometimes incredible things, but in all cases things that were pleasing in God’s sight.

But let us zero in on the time period we heard in the gospel. Saint Paul says, “By faith [Abraham] dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”

God told Abraham “Get out of your country, from your kindred and from your father’s house, to a land I will show you.” It was not a plot of land that was important, Abraham lived there nomadically, as he could have almost anywhere. He lived by faith day by day in hope and expectation of the Kingdom --  a city which has its foundation on Christ the chief cornerstone, and which would be built by God.

He was told that his closest kin from his extended household would not be his heir, but that “the One who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” That One is Christ, His descendant. Abraham lived in hope and expectation Jesus Christ, not his son Isaac who was only a type of Christ.

Abraham faithfully participated in the salvation of Christ. He lived by faith – not a perfect and sinless life, living faithfully, hoping in promises that were bigger than he could really comprehend. By his manner of life, he participated in those great and wondrous things that God was preparing through him.

We see similar things in the other figures mentioned. “Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel, and gave instructions concerning his bones.” He knew that God is a deliverer of His people and so he desired even in his death to be with them. By his faith, Joseph participated in the Exodus from Egypt and in the Resurrection of Christ by which all are delivered from death.

Moses, whose story was largely passed over in the reading this morning, lived as Abraham, leaving his home, leaving power and prestige, and he participated beforehand in deliverance by baptism, passing through the waters as God’s enemies were drowned in the Red Sea.

Rahab the harlot who Saint Matthew mentions in Christ’s genealogy is commended by Saint Paul because she received the spies in Jericho, and because of this was spared in the fall of the city. By means of a red ribbon she participated in the deliverance from death that later the martyrs would receive by the red ribbon of their blood.

All these, Saint Paul tells us, “having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.” These people lived faithfully. They understood the mighty works of God in creation, they knew His promises, and trusting in Him, they lived faithfully. They did the things God had given them to do. And so they received a good testimony. They are remembered by us, but they hadn’t yet received the promise, because that promise comes with the feast that we celebrate this Wednesday.

They based their way of life on this promise, but for them it was hundreds or thousands of years away. In the meantime, God blessed them, He made their names great, they received a good testimony, they were given victory in battle, they were cared for, provided for, but with the coming of Christ in the flesh they have the fulfillment of the promises made alongside us.

This is an important lesson. When we read the scriptures, when we read the lives of the Saints, even up to this day, we tend to focus on the great and marvelous things that God did through these people, and we want that kind of narrative for our lives. We want to experience the call to holiness; we want to see the path before us that we will walk. We want miraculous wonders to sustain us and guide us, and we want others to see God’s hand in the life that we live. 

But remember that Saint Paul is exhorting the people to persevere in faithfulness by the example of these figures. He is reminding them that these figures from the Old Covenant lived faithfully even when they didn’t realize in full of the promises that God made, and yet they endured and persevered.

Our life should be one of faithfulness to God. Very often this is a quiet life that looks more like we have patience, or joy, or kindness, or generosity but in which the story arc isn’t always so clear. We wake up every day and we try to live according to God’s commandments. We offer prayer to God, we mortify our fleshly desires maybe only a little bit through fasting, almsgiving and occasional vigils. We offer veneration to the image of God in other people by loving them as well as we can manage. And at the end of the day we offer to God our repentance for all our failings throughout the day. It is a simple life, but God is made manifest in this simplicity. God is with us when we in our hearts are trying to be with Him.

We now have the fulfilled promises of God, we receive baptism and chrismation, we are made into temples of the Holy Spirit and are recipients of the body and blood of Christ. All these generations longed for this promise and lived faithfully because of it. Let us who have received this promise live even more faithfully than them. Every day, every moment of each day, let us turn in repentance to God and live faithfully doing such things as are well pleasing unto Him.

Col 3:4-11

“When Christ, Who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory” Consider this wonderful promise communicated to us by the Apostle here, that we shall appear with Christ when He shall come again. What a glorious destiny is set before us – to be with Christ and to be with Him in glory. This is indeed our destiny, and the very reason that we were created. However note that there is one condition to this – “Christ, Who is our life”. In order to enter into this promise, this destiny we have to also have His life in us. For this reason, the Apostle immediately instructs us, “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: for which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience … also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds”.

Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk uses the image of a hospital and physical infirmity to talk about the effect of the illness of sin on the soul. He says, “…learn the multifarious infirmities of your soul, that you may look for its healing by Christ, the Heavenly Physician. The more you examine and learn of its infirmity, the greater eagerness and desire you will exert in seeking its healing. (Just as) unhealed bodily illness threatens temporal death (so) unhealed illness of the soul threatens eternal death…Examine and learn what is happening in your soul and how many and which illnesses torment it and lead it to death. You have entered into the sacred clinic of the holy Church to seek healing of your soul from Christ the Savior, and thus to be eternally saved…” He explains here the purpose of the Apostle’s warning – in order to truly abide in the life of Christ – to be healed of our deadly spiritual illnesses and to have that life in us – we must examine ourselves, identify our sins and cast them out. Otherwise that unhealed spiritual illness that we allow to remain in ourselves will bring us not to the glorious destiny of life in Christ, but rather to eternal death.

St John of Kronstadt also elaborates on the effects of sin in our lives: “Sin is foolish and destructive. For instance, a drunkard from the excessive use of spiritous liquors, becomes, ill, and indulges in various dissipations and shameful acts, which he himself is ashamed to think of and remember afterwards. And yet he continues to give himself up to drink. A glutton, after eating, feels a heaviness and his capabilities become obscured, his tongue is bound, and he himself sees that he has become like an animal or bestial in nature, because he often breathes malice and spite against those who live with him, or who daily ask alms of him. He is subjected to oppression and incapable of meditating upon heavenly things or of being a true Christian, of living for the highest purpose of existence. An adulterer (or fornicator) sees that through adultery (or fornication) he defiles and dishonors his nature, his soul and body, subjects them to maladies, perverts the order of life established by the Creator, exposes himself to shame; and yet he continues to commit adultery (or fornication). A miser sees that his riches are a burden to him, sees that they deprive him of his spiritual freedom and make him their slave; that they turn him away from God and the love of his neighbor, draw him away from the true life, and bring death into his soul, depriving him of spiritual and bodily rest; that they lay heavy anxieties upon him; but yet he continues to accumulate greater riches and to add to his load, until, exhausted by cares, he falls ill and dies, having lost his soul through the accumulation of riches. And so it is with every sin – pride, malice, envy and others.” Hearing this is it any wonder that the Apostle warns us to flee the sins of the old man? How destructive to our very being sin is, and not only that, it robs us of our will – taking us captive and forcing us to fall deeper and deeper into its dark abyss.

How then do we escape this trap, how do we “put off the old man with his deeds; and put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him”? Returning to St Tikhon’s “hospital”, we know that just as “there is a physician who visits the sick, examines them, and treats them, in the Church there is the holy Doctor, Christ, Who visits and heals Christians, the spiritually ill.” Here is our great remedy – the healing care and treatment of our Lord Jesus Christ, of His life and grace which He bestows upon us. St Theophan the Recluse tells us that “communion with God … has already been given us in the sacrament of baptism and renewed through the sacrament of confession, since it is said: ‘for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ’ (Gal 3:17), ‘ye are dead (that is dead to sin through baptism and confession), and your life is hid with Christ God (Col 3:3).” So how is it, he asks, that “communion with God still has to be attained when it has already been given to us?” He explains, “The whole of our spiritual life consists in the transition from … communion with God in thought and intention to … a real, living and conscious communion.” He elaborates: “A mystical communion with our Lord Jesus Christ is granted to believers in the holy sacrament of baptism. At baptism and chrismation grace enters into the heart of the Christian, and thereafter remains constantly within him, helping him to live in a Christian way and to go from strength to strength in the spiritual life. All of us who have been baptized and chrismated have received the gift of the Holy Spirit. He is in all of us, but He is not active in all of us.”

Here is the crux of the matter of our life in Christ – to enable the Holy Spirit to be active in us. “You must believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is within us – by the power of baptism and holy communion, according to his own promise; for He is united with us through these sacraments. For those who are baptized are clothed in Christ and those who take holy communion receive the Lord. Only … sins deprive us of this great mercy, and … then it can be regained by those who repent and go to confession.” First and foremost we must receive the sacraments of baptism and chrismation for it is through these that the life of Christ is planted in us. Then we must root out and resist the old habits of sin that belong to the old man and replace them with the new life of the new man. When we fall back into those old habits, rather than let them enslave us again and draw us down into death, we have the remedy of repentance and the sacrament of confession. It is in this sacrament that the power of sin over us is broken so that it can no longer irresistibly drag us down. But to access the grace given in this sacrament, we must approach it with repentance: first confessing our sins (that is admitting that we have sinned and acknowledging before God that we have sinned) and then by repenting (that is turning away from that sin – resolving never to let it back into our lives). When we approach confession with this attitude, then the grace of God becomes active in us to repel that sin in the future.

Sometimes we are overwhelmed by the same sin over and over again. This is because the “old man” of sin in us is strong and does not want to die and so he tries to assert himself time and again. However, the “new man” of Christ in us becomes stronger every time we repel the old man either by resisting the temptation or by repenting of our failings. Our Lord Jesus recognized that we will be faced with this struggle as long as we are in this life and so He gave us the promise that “he who endures to the end will be saved.” That means we never give up, never quit, never yield willingly to the sin no matter what, but struggle over and over until the very moment of our departure from this life. And if we do this, our Lord will look at our struggle and endurance and He will perfect His good work in us and will save us.

Here then is the final promise: that we will be united to Christ Who is all, and in all. This is the promise of our great and lofty destiny – to be with Christ in glory, to be one with Him, to be united to Him Who is all and in all.

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