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Epistle: 2 Corinthians
1:8-11
8We
do not want you to be uninformed,
brothers, about the hardships we
suffered in the province of Asia. We
were under great pressure, far beyond
our ability to endure, so that we
despaired even of life.
9Indeed, in
our hearts we felt the sentence of
death. But this happened that we might
not rely on ourselves but on God, who
raises the dead.
10He has delivered us from such a
deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On
him we have set our hope that he will
continue to deliver us,
11as you
help us by your prayers. Then many will
give thanks on our behalf for the
gracious favor granted us in answer to
the prayers of many.
Gospel: St. Luke
5:27-32
27After
this, Jesus went out and saw a
tax collector by the name of
Levi sitting at his tax booth.
"Follow me," Jesus said to him,
28and
Levi got up, left everything and
followed him.
29Then
Levi held a great banquet for
Jesus at his house, and a large
crowd of tax collectors and
others were eating with them.
30But
the Pharisees and the teachers
of the law who belonged to their
sect complained to his
disciples, "Why do you eat and
drink with tax collectors and
'sinners'?"
31Jesus
answered them, "It is not the
healthy who need a doctor, but
the sick.
32I have not come to call
the righteous, but sinners to
repentance."
Sadly, even within the Church, the
Body of Christ, there are quarrels and
disputes. Too frequently contentions
have arisen throughout our two thousand
year history, despite the healing
ministry of Christ Who "is our peace"
(Eph. 2:14) and despite the outpouring
of His Holy Spirit upon us - from Whom
come "the fruit of...love, joy, peace"
(Gal. 5:22). This troubling of God's
People by "strife" (Deut. 1:12) is so
contrary to our Lord Jesus' will! After
all, He came to "reconcile [us all] to
God in one body through the Cross" (Eph.
2:16), and yet disputes occur!
Who does not know that quarreling,
altercations, and even all-out war have
been a dark, persistent factor in the
life of the human race through all time?
We can trace the bitterness of
contentiousness back to the dawn of
history, to the slaying of the righteous
Abel by his own brother, Cain (Gen 4:8).
Furthermore, we understand that the deep
cause of all our human disputes is our
sin and death, for "through one man sin
entered the world, and death through
sin, and thus death spread to all men"
(Rom. 5:12).
The Prophet Moses, understanding the
lurking, universal evil of sin long ago
- two millennia before the Incarnation
of Savior - graciously provided us with
a basic framework for the settling of
disputes within the community of the
Faithful. Moreover, because of what
Christ accomplished in His Passion, and
because of active work of the Holy
Spirit, Moses' framework still provides
solid hope that disputes among us do not
have to degenerate into enmity and
strife, but truly may be resolved
through seeking a common mind in the
Lord Jesus (Phil. 4:2).
Simply put, the People of God are
committed to choosing "wise,
understanding, and experienced men" and
to appointing "them as [our] heads"
(Deut. 1:13). Within the Church this
means we have a hierarchical body of
Pastors to lead us and settle disputes
among us - Patriarchs, Archbishops,
Metropolitans, Bishops, Priests, and
other elected leaders who are "set...as
heads over [us]" (vs. 15). In every
nation and society, we have such worthy
men who serve as fathers in God. Not
only at their ordinations do we pray
that "the grace of the all-holy Spirit
may come upon them" but we continue
praying "for all the clergy and the
people" that the peace of Christ truly
may reign among us in a healing and
living way.
Because those who are appointed and
set over us as heads are fallible men
like ourselves, the Church has a
hierarchical ladder of appeal for our
clergy, so that should any "case" prove
"too hard" for one of them, he may bring
it to those in higher councils of
pastoral responsibility to "hear it"
(vs. 17) and provide guidance and light
from the Lord.
For example, such was the Seventh
Ecumenical Council (of the Eastern
Orthodox Church), a gathering of the
leading hierarchs of the Church who
resolved a conflict in Church and State
that had produced numerous martyrs,
exiles, and confessors over a hundred
and fifty year period (717-843 AD).
These holy Fathers truly were "luminous
stars upon earth, and through them [God]
did guide us unto the true Faith" of
representing "painted images in accord
with the story of the biblical
preaching...for our benefit." The point
Moses makes clear is that in all
deliberations concerning quarrels within
the Church - among the People of God -
every effort is made to avoid partiality
"for the judgment is God's" (vs. 17). It
is under His truth that our holy Fathers
seek to resolve disputes.
Let us extol today those mystical
trumpets of the Spirit, namely the
God-mantled Fathers, who sang in the
midst of the Church a hymn of unified
tones, teaching the Triune Godhead.
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