Saturday, May 1, 2004
Christ is Risen!
The Holy Prophet Jeremiah
Kellia: Deuteronomy 2:1-23 Apostle: Acts 9 :19-31 Gospel: St. John 15:17-16:2
Deuteronomy 2:1-23, especially vs. 16-18 RSV: "So when all the men of war had perished and
were dead from among the people, the Lord said to me, 'This day you are to pass over the boundary of Moab at Ar.'"
Having embraced the life in Christ, we discover before us a "land to possess," the "Kingdom of God within," as promised
to the Faithful by the Lord Himself. Being illumined by the Holy Spirit at Baptism, we are called to "possess" this land by
freely choosing to undertake a multitude of struggles through which we prove ourselves "children of the Light" and "heirs
of eternal good things."
In the Baptismal Liturgy, the struggles which follow our choice to pursue the way of the Lord are called "putting away the
old man, corrupt through the lusts of the flesh," and "being clothed upon with the new man after the image of the Lord,"
and are won with God's help.
"Being clothed upon with the new man" is equivalent to preparing for "possession of the Kingdom." Today's reading
discloses some of what is involved in this preparatory process: a long period of spiritual purification, persistent effort to
meet fruitfully the demands of daily life, and conscious effort to continue pursuing the goal God has given us. Ancient
Israel's example during the wilderness pilgrimage provides types which describe such maturation in discipleship.
Though initially Israel disobeyed God and remained camped at Kadesh-barnea, yet in time they turned and journeyed
toward the Red Sea, to the northernmost bay of the Gulf of Aqaba and the settlements of Elath and Ezion Geber (vss. 1,8).
"Journeying" in their case actually was a protracted thirty-eight year nomadic existence (vs. 14). They survived on manna
(see Ex. 16:35), surplus from their flocks, and produce grown in campsite gardens (Dt. 2:7). During this time they skirted
about the mountains of Seir, the home of the Edomites (vs. 4), but they always stayed in the wilderness to the west and
south, without permanent settlements.
This nomadic existence served as their time of purification. They reposed, the generation of those who balked at entering
the Promised Land from Kadesh-barnea (vss. 14-16), but the younger generation - who were just children at the time of
Israel's failure - matured by meeting the daily rigors of unsettled, wilderness living. They were slowly honed into an
adaptable army ready to possess the Promised Land whenever God should direct them.
Similarly, Orthodox Christians ought to consider that the essence of life in Christ is spiritually nomadic, a life of
pilgrimage, in which God is preparing each one for great conquest through the daily spiritual efforts of the present life.
Others around us in our neighborhoods, at our jobs, or in the communities may have settled lives as did the Edomites and
the Moabites. By remaining in the wilderness, Israel learned to rely solely upon God, not the comforts of this life.
At the end of the thirty-eight years, the process was completed and the Lord commanded them to go "in the direction of the
wilderness of Moab" (vs. 8). Just as they had avoided Edomite territory all those years, now they were to respect Moabite
territory and "not harass...or contend with them in battle" (vs. 9). A nomadic people may buy and sell in relation to others
(vs. 6), but always they understand that they are "in passage" and that they are not to become entangled along the way
toward the Promised Land.
Moses reminded them that each of the other peoples had dispossessed giants (called by various names, vss. 10-23), a signal
to Israel that they too would face giants in the land they were about to possess (vs. 12). And so shall every Christian! Still,
in Christ, we can be victors.
O Christ our God, keep us ever warriors invincible in every attack of those who assail us, and make us all victors even unto
the end, through Thy crown incorruptible.
