22nd Sunday after Pentecost
Martyr Platon of Ancyra; Martyr Romanus the Deacon
Eph. 2.4-10; Luke 12.16-21
F/S/HS. Brothers and sisters, there are many reasons historically and spiritually why an Orthodox priest wears a cassock. One of these I find especially compelling. It is to remind me that my deepest identity is in God, in sacrificial love and service to our Lord’s church, and not in material adornment.
Let me be a bit confessional with you on this subject. Since becoming a priest nearly 19 years ago, and to this very day, if you were to open my bedroom closet door you would see quite a few button down shirts: Two-thirds of those long sleeve shirts, one third short sleeve shirts. I wear these shirts on occasion, especially when I’m away from Walla Walla on trips unrelated to being a priest. Do I need these shirts? No! So why do I hold onto them? Do they fill some perceived need?
Historically, even well before I became Orthodox, I adopted a practice shared with me by a dear friend, of every three or four years sorting through my shirts and taking a few to Goodwill. But usually only a few: 3-5 for example. In part because I would buy a new shirt occasionally, or be given one as a gift. I don’t know entirely why, but I’ve had a hard time letting go of many of my shirts.
Three months ago, something then happened–two things actually–over the course of two days. The first day: I was reading our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, in the Gospel of Matthew. Particular verses struck me. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy … Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? … So why do you worry about clothing? … Now if God so clothes the grass of the field … will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith…. Therefore do not worry, saying … ‘What shall we wear?’ (Mt. 5.19-32).
The very next day, a second event. I was reading an account of the Grand Duchess Elizabeth, or St. Elizabeth. A woman of immense wealth, the deeper into her Orthodox faith she journeyed, the more Elizabeth gave away her material assets, to the poor. Then, shortly after the love of her life, her husband Sergey, was brutally assassinated in 1905, Elizabeth became a nun. She gave away the vast majority of her wealth, including her entire clothing wardrobe that was worth a fortune. She donned a cassock–often white in color–from that time forward.
Something of a lightning bolt, a sudden jolt, went through me later that same day. That next day I went to my closet and for the next hour sorted through my shirts. At the end of that hour, 38 of my shirts were in the back seat of my car, ready to take to Goodwill. After dropping those shirts off at Goodwill, the sense of peace and contentment of heart that I felt was so pleasurably palpable. I had done something that I needed to do!
Please dear sisters and brothers, I do not share this story to draw attention to myself, to any virtue of giving on my part. I am a selfish man, too invested in material things. I have a hard time letting go of things, even shirts that I haven’t worn for years. But I do share this story for a particular reason, very relevant to this morning’s Gospel reading.
A Gospel reading about a man whom our Lord calls an utter fool; a man who has plenty; a man who stores up his riches and says to his soul, ‘Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry. Why is this man an utter fool in our Lord’s eyes? Because, the closing verse of our Gospel says, he lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God (Luke 17.19-21). Oh my … not rich towards God!!!
A particular priest whose writings I like and respect, Fr. Stephen Freeman, makes a compelling observation of late. Fr. Stephen points out that since Covid we Americans are on a buying spree. Simply observe all of those Amazon trucks driving around! The rise in Amazon stock! Those amazon packages arriving at our front doors!
Partly undergirding this buying spree, speculates Fr. Stephen, is a gnawing and growing anxiety. Anxiety related to our disconnection from people; anxiety about politics and the future of this world; anxiety about the fragility of daily life. And from this place of anxiety, we turn to purchasing material things for comfort; a little fix to satiate our loneliness, to sooth our anxiety.
Hence, Fr. Stephen concludes, we currently live in a time of great temptation–the temptation of greed, the temptation generated from perceived need, the temptation to acquire what we think we need.
For however true Fr. Stephen is, hold this reality up against that one petition in the opening litany of our Divine Liturgy, chanted by Fr. John a few minutes ago: That we may be delivered from all tribulation, wrath, and necessity, let us pray to the Lord.
That we may be delivered from all necessity! What necessity? In this case, our perceived necessity for more things in our lives, such as clothing. Sober words, dear ones, coming to us two days after so-called “Black Friday,” as we prepare to enter into the holiday season of shopping. Oh dear Lord, deliver us from the felt sense of necessity!
And it is here that St. Elizabeth asks such a simple yet profound question of all of us: What is it that as Christians makes us content? Where do we find our deepest contentment? Certainly not in an obsession with things, such as clothing.
Yes, some measure of contentment is important regarding our clothing. Contentment in particular colors adorning our body. Contentment in being creative in how you dress. I’m more content with certain styles of cassocks, while I dislike other styles.
Being content with obtaining riches is indeed important! But riches as defined by how the Gospel of Jesus Christ defines riches. Nowhere in the Gospels or our church teachings, or the lives of the saints, do we see riches defined as gold, stocks and bonds, or clothing; or many other material possessions for that matter.
True riches according to the Gospel are love: Love for our Lord, and sacrificial love on behalf of others. True riches are faith, faith in the mystery and providence of God. True riches are hope, hope in the kingdom to come especially.
In words from this morning’s Epistle, true riches are knowing God who is rich in mercy and love for us; true riches are knowing the exceeding riches of God’s grace for you (Eph. 2, vss. 4,7). As Fr. Seraphim Rose stated in one of his talks with the youth who came to the young people’s retreats there at St. Herman’s Monastery: You are one of God’s created riches. And so know your value in our Lord’s eyes; a value greater than all the gold in the world.
True riches are the deeply abiding connection of friendship with another person. True riches are the enduring love within Holy Marriage. True riches is sobriety and a healthy detachment from material things; of possessing certain things because you truly need them and not because you want them, or think you need them. Let us not one day stand before the dread judgment seat of our Lord and hear that we were obsessed with material riches while a total pauper in our Lord’s eyes.
What is really needed, counsels St. Elizabeth, is Christian contentment: Where we are content in God’s ways and will with us; content in God’s providence for us in our time of true need. As our Lord says in His Sermon on the Mount: Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? (Mt. 6.30).
I find splendid guidance and wisdom in Paul’s letter to the Philippians, specifically chapter four, which addresses the subject of Christian living and Christian contentment. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice, Paul begins. And then goes on. Be anxious about nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God… for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content … Indeed I have all and abound, I am full … And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (v. 6, 11, 18-19).
Beautiful and wise words from the Apostle Paul, about resting content in God’s riches for him. Paul’s interior disposition is a disposition not in the least shackled to outward circumstances.
Let me close sisters and brothers with a story I read just the other night, from a new book I’m reading titled God, Where Is The Wound?, about the life and wisdom of the Romanian nun, Mother Siluana Vlad.
Someone asked Mother Siluana about why God allows the demons and our passions to bind us up in chains? Why doesn’t God give us relief from these assaults, these chains, these demons? And Mother Siluana answers by citing a teaching from the Paterikon: A holy Elder sees a demon dragging a Christian by a chain. And the Elder says to the demon: ‘You wretched demon, this is God’s creature who is made in God’s image, and he is baptized. How dare you keep him bound in chains. And the demon replies: O holy Elder, are you blind? Don’t you see that I am only dragging the chain, and he is holding on to it?’
Brothers and sisters, how easy it is to hold on to things that we think we need, things that–if we had God’s eyes to see–bind us up. Christ has set us free from that binding. If only we will just let go of those chains of perceived need. F/S/HS
