Fr. Timothy Barkley
St. James Orthodox Church
(3/1) Jesus, the Bridegroom of the Church, calls to His beloved, His bride: "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away." (Canticles ("Song of Solomon") 2:10 NKJV)
From Forgiveness Sunday, when we gather and reconstitute the Body of Christ by seeking forgiveness and reconciliation, until Holy Saturday, the day before Pascha (‘Easter’), the Church prepares herself to receive her Bridegroom’s self-offering, when he gave himself to win for himself a bride, the Church. The Church, both corporately and individually, prepares herself as a bride prepares for her wedding, yearning for the Bridegroom.
On Pascha ("Easter"), "the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land." (2:11-12) The springtime of the cosmos, new life, the resurrection of the earth and all creation, comes to us with the resurrection of the Bridegroom, his triumph over the sin and death that separates us from him, with our paschal union with him.
Until then, it is as though "he stands behind our wall … looking through the windows, gazing through the lattice" (2:9) … so near, and so present, and yet … somehow we are separated from the ultimate object of our desire. If he is all good, all beauty, all love, all joy and peace and the fulfillment of our heart’s desire, then desiring him is our natural state. Lent is yearning. It is the Bride preparing for her Bridegroom, setting aside everything else, all that is not worthy of him, readying herself for that glorious night of union with him.
God is love (I John 4:8), and because he is a loving subject, with particularity, there are things that he is, and things that he is not. He is love; and he is the way, the truth and the life. (John 14:6) Love and truth cannot be at variance, because the one God is both. There are things that resonate with his person, and things that violate his person. While we acknowledge that our understanding is finite and must bow before the infinite and ultimately unknowable God, that doesn’t mean we don’t know him. He has revealed himself to us in Jesus, who though fully God showed us how to be fully human.
And we, all of us, do yearn for him. We know we all do, because people look all over for goodness, beauty, love, and the rest. We celebrate it when we think we’ve found it, and we are disappointed, even angry and vengeful, when the object of our desire proves undeserving of our love, of our trust, of our faith. So we look elsewhere and repeat the cycle – or we become cynical and distrusting of even the possibility of love.
No wonder people are cynical. Sadly, the Church has not done a good job of presenting Christ to his world. We have harbored in our midst predators, wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing who prey on the most vulnerable. We have argued and backstabbed and treated each other shabbily, just like everyone else. We have participated in the sins of our society.
But we are called to shepherd the sheep, not devour them. We are not called to be "just like everyone else." We are called to be a prophetic voice to our society. We are called to shine as the light of Christ, a city set on a hill, to which the nations come, where they find the life and love of God.
We as the Church need to cry out to God for forgiveness of our failure to be the Church. We need to plead with God to have mercy and protect us and those around us from the effects of the sins of those in the Church, claiming to be the Church, who have used their Christianity and the Church as a mask for sin. Judgment comes first to the house of God (I Peter 4:17). Let us fall on our faces and repent, individually and corporately.
Lent is our gift from our loving God, the time to become the Church, the Bridegroom of Christ. During Lent we prepare ourselves for the Bridegroom. We cast aside all the sin that so easily entangles us, and run with perseverance the race marked out. We climb the tree with Zacchaeus, we cry out for healing with Bartimaeus and the ten lepers, we fall at Jesus’ feet with the Syro-Phoenician woman, we beat our breast with the Publican, we turn home with the Prodigal Son. All seeking the fulfillment of our heart’s desire.
We set aside time to clear away the clutter, to set aside the good-but-not-the-best, to pursue singlemindedly that which is infinitely worthy of our energies and affections. We run, we climb, we cry out, we worship, we humble ourselves and surrender to the one who we can trust with our life and our love.
Lenten observances – fasting, almsgiving, prayer – are not to placate an angry God by making ourselves miserable, so he won’t squish us like bugs; nor are they to check all the correct boxes on our cosmic Bingo card so we get into heaven. Lent is pure gift. We are graced with the opportunity to come face-to-face with just how shabby our lives are in comparison with the infinite beauty, joy, love, peace and … everything that Jesus is and offers to us by offering us himself as the Bridegroom, seeking his bride, the Church.
And we are given the privilege of responding by setting the beguiling ordinary aside for a brief moment, drawing near to him with all our strength – great or little though that be – and with our consummate determination – so that on that glorious night of Paschal union with our Bridegroom, we can hear these glorious words of St. John Chrysostom addressed to us:
"If any man be devout and love God, let him enjoy this fair and radiant triumphal feast. If any man be a wise servant, let him rejoicing enter into the joy of his Lord. If any have labored long in fasting, let him now receive his recompense. If any have wrought from the first hour, let him today receive his just reward. If any have come at the third hour, let him with thankfulness keep the feast. If any have arrived at the sixth hour, let him have no misgivings; because he shall in nowise be deprived thereof. If any have delayed until the ninth hour, let him draw near, fearing nothing. If any have tarried even until the eleventh hour, let him, also, be not alarmed at his tardiness; for the Lord, who is jealous of his honor, will accept the last even as the first; He gives rest unto him who comes at the eleventh hour, even as unto him who has wrought from the first hour."
And He shows mercy upon the last, and cares for the first; and to the one He gives, and upon the other He bestows gifts. And He both accepts the deeds, and welcomes the intention, and honors the acts and praises the offering. Wherefore, enter you all into the joy of your Lord; and receive your reward, both the first, and likewise the second. You rich and poor together, hold high festival. You sober and you heedless, honor the day. Rejoice today, both you who have fasted and you who have disregarded the fast. The table is full-laden; feast ye all sumptuously. The calf is fatted; let no one go hungry away.
Enjoy ye all the feast of faith: Receive ye all the riches of loving-kindness. let no one bewail his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed. Let no one weep for his iniquities, for pardon has shown forth from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the Savior’s death has set us free. He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it. By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive. He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh. And Isaiah, foretelling this, did cry: Hell, said he, was embittered, when it encountered Thee in the lower regions. It was embittered, for it was abolished. It was embittered, for it was mocked. It was embittered, for it was slain. It was embittered, for it was overthrown. It was embittered, for it was fettered in chains. It took a body, and met God face to face. It took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took that which was seen, and fell upon the unseen.
O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you are overthrown. Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen. Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen, and life reigns. Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave. For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages.
Read other homilies by Father Barkley
About St. James the Apostle Orthodox Church of Taneytown
The Holy Orthodox Church is the Church founded by Jesus Christ and described throughout the New Testament. All other Christian Churches and sects can be traced back historically to it. The word Orthodox literally means "straight teaching" or "straight worship," being derived from two Greek words: orthos, "straight," and doxa, "teaching" or "worship."
As the encroachments of false teaching and division multiplied in early Christian times, threatening to obscure the identity and purity of the Church, the term "Orthodox" quite logically came to be applied to it. The Orthodox Church carefully guards the truth against all error and schism, both to protect its flock and to glorify Christ, whose Body the Church is.
St. James the Apostle Orthodox Church of Taneytown is a congregation of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. We are the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Christian Church whose roots trace directly back to first century Antioch, the city in which the disciples of Jesus Christ were first called "Christians" (Acts 11:26). The
Orthodox Church is the oldest and second largest Christian group in the world. We are called by God our creator to worship and follow Him, and to proclaim to the world His message of love, peace, and salvation.
God loves all mankind and desires that all human beings should believe in Him, know Him, abide in Him, and receive eternal life from Him. To accomplish this, God Himself came into the world as a man, Jesus Christ, becoming man that we might become like God.
The Antiochian Archdiocese, under the leadership of His Eminence Metropolitan Joseph, sees itself on a mission to bring America to the ancient Orthodox Christian Faith. We join our brothers and sisters in the various Orthodox Christian jurisdictions — Greek, Orthodox Church in America, Romanian, Ukrainian, and more — in this endeavor. In less than 20
years the Archdiocese has doubled in size to well over 200 churches and missions throughout the United States and Canada.
