Monday, October 25, 2004
Tabitha the Merciful, Raised by the Apostle Peter
2nd Vespers, Martyr Demetrios: Jeremiah 2:1-13 Epistle: Colossians 2:13-20
Gospel: St. Luke 9:18-22
Jeremiah 2:1-13 LXX, especially vss. 2, 3: "I remember the kindness of
thy youth and the love of thine espousals in following the Holy One of Israel, saith the Lord.
Israel was the holy people to the Lord, and the first-fruits of His increase." In these verses, God
"remembers" the people of Israel as they were in their youth - a nation devoted to Him (vss. 2,3),
to which He contrasts them in their later unfaithful state, after settling in the Promised Land - a
people in revolt, far from Him, and "gone after vanities and become vain" (vs. 5). This prophetic
contrast readily transfers to the famous religious opponents of early fourth century Rome: the
young Military Governor of Thessalonika and true Christian, Demetrios, and his tormentor, the
pagan Emperor, Maximian, "the senseless persecutor" who supposed "that the repose of a saint
could be like that of a sinner, for the death of sinners is evil." The contrast which the Prophet
Jeremiah records for us is a penetrating measure for assessing our own spiritual state.
We may hold Christ, our Creator, Lord, and Savior, in our heart as a young lover newly espoused
to Him, as one who would never cease "in following the Holy One of Israel" (vs. 3), as one who
will always allow Him to guide in every circumstances of life. Such was St. Demetrios, for when
he knew Maximian was approaching Thessalonika to hold him to account for not following his
orders to cleanse "the city in which you were born...of the impious Christians" and to "put to
death all who call upon the Name of the Crucified One," the great Martyr "put into the hands of a
trusted servant named Lupus all his possessions...he had inherited from his parents" to be
distributed "to the poor and needy, saying, 'Give away my earthly riches and let us seek the
wealth of heaven.'" He prepared himself for death out of great love for the Life-Giver.
In contrast, it is possible to put the Lord our God totally out of mind and to pursue the games and
pleasures of this life, to revolt against our Savior and to go "after vanities and become vain" (vs.
5). We do not need to look far to see such apostasy and false values all around us among the
godless who worship at the altars of self-indulgence and feeling good.
The Prophet Jeremiah also records that the apostates of his day lacked any historical memory.
They never thought to ask, "Where is the Lord Who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, Who
guided us in the wilderness, in an untried and trackless land, in a land which no man at all went
through, and no man dwelt there?" (vs. 6). It was as if all the great salvation events at the Red
Sea and at Sinai had never happened. They lived only for the moment. Woe to us or to any
people who forget their spiritual planting in the saving acts of God.
Rather, blessed are the People of God when they mean the words of the Psalmist with their whole
heart: "Make me to understand the way of Thy statutes, and I will ponder on Thy wondrous
works" (Ps. 118:27 LXX). God not only saved Israel from slavery in Egypt, but He has more
wondrously saved us from the bitterness of sin and death. "The Cross, the Grave, the
Resurrection on the third day, the Ascension into heaven, the Session at the right hand, and the
second and glorious Advent" are life. These are God's own doing and all we can offer to Him.
What marks the Faithful is a fierce holding to God, a cleaving to His Church, and a "life-saving
grip" upon the truths of the Gospel. As Jeremiah records in the Psalms, "Let my tongue cleave to
my throat, if I remember thee not, if I set not Jerusalem above all other, as at the head of my joy"
(Ps. 136:7,8 LXX). Let us not be those who forsake God, "the fountain of the water of life, and
[hew] out...broken cisterns, which will not be able to hold water" (Jer. 2:13).
We who have put on Thee, O Christ our God, boweth also our heads unto Thee. Keep us ever as
warriors invincible, even unto the end, through Thy crown incorruptible.