Homily

A Crowned Future

Sunday Before Theophany 2004

St. Andrew Orthodox Church / Father Josiah Trenham

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: One God. Amen. This last Wednesday evening we prayed together the doxology of the New Year on which we asked the Lord God to bless the crown of the coming year with His goodness. Soon we will ask the Lord’s blessing upon our homes as we sprinkle the Jordan water. This morning we hear St. Paul describe his own future as crowned. The Epistle lesson for this morning is taken from St. Paul’s second letter to Timothy (4:5-8). This epistle, together with the Apostle’s first letter to St. Timothy and his letter to St. Titus, follow one after another in our canon, and are linked together in the Pauline corpus by being addressed to individuals and concerning the interior matters of the Church. They are often called the “pastoral epistles” because of the theme of the pastorate which runs throughout them.

The Poignancy of the Pastoral Epistles. No letters of St. Paul are more maligned and attacked by unbelieving scholars and students of the Bible than these letters. Many scholars, and sadly even some Orthodox scholars, maintain that these letters were not really written by St. Paul. Supposedly they are much later compositions, probably 2^nd century documents written by a person or persons who are in the line of St. Paul’s spiritual children. Never mind the personal references throughout the epistles in which the author claims to be St. Paul in very particular circumstances. Why is it that these epistles are so maligned?

I think there are a number of reasons, but they can all be summed up by the statement that these pastoral epistles are very powerful statements of the beliefs of the Apostles and their teaching about what the Church is supposed to be, believe, and do. Some of these apostolic teachings found in the pastorals have become politcally and religiously incorrect, for instance:

· St. Paul gives detailed instructions concerning the differences between genders and their particular vocations. For a number of reasons he forbids women to teach or exercise authority over men. He reserves the priesthood to men alone, and not just to any men, but to a certain very specific type of man. 1 Tim. 2: 13-14.

· The Apostle affirms clearly the different spheres in which men and women are to function, and affirms the extreme value of the family home, and the centrality of the wife in it. And there is hardly something more despised by modern feminism than the family home. Titus 2: 3-5. In the same vein he proclaims the dignity of childbearing, and goes so far as to affirm that women will be saved through procreation with faith. 1 Tim. 2:15.

· The Apostle ranks homosexual practices together with kidnapping, murder, lying and perjury as serious sins and crimes. See 1 Tim. 1:8-11.

· The Apostle teaches very many specific things about the nature of the last days, or end times, which appear so very familiar! 2 Tim. 3:1-5.

· The Apostle in these epistles teaches the Orthodox understanding of the Church and its internal polity, or governance, and especially the important theme of spiritual fatherhood which runs throughout the epistles. The evil one knows how valuable and precious are the teachings of the Church as one family, and the priest as the father, and the members of the Church as true brothers and sisters and the forces of society propel us to independent living detached from the Church. These are just some of the reasons I believe that the pastoral epistles are mistreated by some.

Who are Timothy and Titus? These men were not simply friends of St. Paul. Nor were they simply pious Christians in the first century Church. Nor are they simply pastors and teachers. Rather they were Bishops of very concrete geographical dioceses. Bishop Timothy oversaw Ephesus, and Bishop Titus oversaw Crete. St. Paul consecrated these spiritual sons of his as bishops, and in these pastoral epistles he gives them instructions about being bishops. How do we know that these men were not simply priests and pastors? The answer is that St. Paul affirms in these epistles that Ss. Timothy and Titus had the power to ordain priests, the spiritual fatherhood of the priests and deacons, and the ecclesiastical power to discipline clergy and faithful both. “Ordain priests in every city” Titus 1:5. And to St. Timothy he wrote, “Do not lay your hands on anyone too quickly, and thus share in the sins of others” I Tim. 5:22. This authority of the “laying on of hands” in ordination the priests do not have, but Ss. Timothy and Titus had it. The priest is set by the bishop over one parish, but the bishop is placed as shepherd over all the priests, and thus all the parishes. The priests shepherd the people, and the bishop shepherds the priests. The priests and deacons are also to be selected by these bishops according to lists of qualifications given by the Apostle in two places in these letters.

Why is this so important? Because it demonstrates, brothers and sisters, that our way of life in the Church, our internal ministry and functioning, is of divine origin. It is not man-made. The ministry of bishops, priests and deacons is the divine creation of our Great Highpriest Jesus Christ through His Holy Apostles for the stewardship of the Holy Mysteries unto our salvation. How many Christians today believe that the Orthodox Church reality is something made up by man many centuries after the founding of the Church. Such heresy inspires and keeps alive hundreds of local churches in Riverside county.

Church organizations, parish councils, men’s and women’s groups are not inspired and divinely dictated Church realities. The cooperation of the laity with their priest, and the employment of spiritual gifts of all the faithful for the building up of the Church unto the fullness of Christ is of divine origin, but the exact nature of that expression in concrete terms varies from country and country, and even from parish to parish. The same cannot be said for the holy priesthood and its necessary expression in the ministry of bishops, priests and deacons. If an individual is in a Church that has no apostolic bishop, priest or deacon, that individual is not in the Church, but in an man-made imposture. This church is a poser. The doctrine of the Church, the very epicenter of modern heresy, is not an add-on to the simple New Testament faith. It is part of the simple New Testament faith as we see from this morning’s lesson and the pastoral epistles in general, and this is why they are expressed in the fourth paragraph of the Nicene Creed. Our beliefs about the Church are basic and creedal matters that are not to be tinkered with without great spiritual harm. Especially important it is for those who are catechumens and inquirers of the Church to hear this loud and clear. Orthodox is not a denomination. No one can become an Orthodox Christian, and then leave Orthodoxy for any reason without imperiling their salvation. Sadly, there are far too many phony converts these days who have done just that. Let it not happen here. It happens most I believe because of a failure to make a mental shift upon conversion. When one is searching for Orthodoxy it is necessary to be a discriminating judge. How can one get out of his previous confession without judging it insufficient? Yet once finding the Church this notion of self-judgment must be repudiating. The convert must embrace the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church as the teaching authority of Christ on the earth, and thoroughly renounce the position of judging the Church. For the rest of our days the Church judges us, not vice versa. Some converts never make this shift, and so they remain the judge, and when a serious problem arises through the work of the enemy they find fault with the Holy Church, judge her, and leave.

St. Paul at the End of His Ministry.