The Call of Obedience

 

I had meant to write this yesterday, but circumstances didn’t allow me, so let’s talk about it today. There is a lot in the media today about rebellion and “living your best life.” Oftentimes the typical mainstream media television show or movie will feature a character fed up with their job and they leave it to find true freedom and happiness doing whatever they want and however they want. In an era that has rejected the basic principles of Christianity, the world sees freedom as being able to do what you want, when you want. There is no sense of obedience. The media, the elites, the intellectuals, all have reduced us to basic primal animals. We are told that releasing our inner animal and fulfilling our pleasures are what will give us a satisfying life. Whether its sexual, or monetary, or anything in between. Everything goes. That is where our problem for today’s blog lies and what we can do about it.

To start our discussion about obedience, we need to start at the source. That means we look at the One who gave us the example to follow, who every life of every saint is patterned after. I am of course referring to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ as the epitome of humankind gives us the clearest picture of how we should act. In John 6:36-39 Jesus says, “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.” Jesus though God himself, did not come to do his own thing. He wasn’t going to go off script and try to do something that was against his nature. With the Holy Spirit dwelling within all Orthodox Christians, we can become more like Jesus. If we are to be more like Jesus, then, we should not act differently than what God has called us to be. True obedience to God means surrendering our wills, our desires and our thoughts for the sake and glory of his Kingdom. It is not the source of a poor life, a worse life than one if we forsake God. On the contrary, by surrendering ourselves to God we open the entire world for us. We become the Sons of God. We enter the glory of the Lord and participate in the heavenly liturgy. Again Psalm 119 discusses this in verses 1-8 when it says, “Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord.  Blessed are those who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart—they do no wrong but follow his ways. You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed. OH, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees! Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands. I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws. I will obey your decrees; do not utterly forsake me.  Clearly there are benefits to obeying the commandments of God. Of course, there are also benefits for obeying the commandments of others, especially those in authority. The same can be said for breaking commandments

People today don’t normally believe in Hell. In fact, I would argue that most people today do not believe in Hell. But to the Orthodox Christian, Hell is just as real as Heaven, and to believe in one, a person must believe in the other. This isn’t a get out of jail free card from Monopoly, your actions, and your reactions to the teachings of Jesus Christ determine your eternal fate. I don’t want to discuss Hell in this blog, because its solely focused on obedience, but the consequence of Hell is important to our discussion. Disobedience of God’s commandments is sin. Im sure most reading this blog are familiar with that term. But sin, in the western world is a transgression against God, and God must enact justice upon those who sin. Sort of life a Judge, Jury and Executioner. But for us in the Orthodox Faith, that have kept the tradition and teachings of the Apostles, sin is rather a sickness. A disease that infects all mankind. We only can overcome this sickness through prayer, fasting and obedience to our spiritual father and elders. The more that we turn away from God and choose to do our own things as I mentioned in the opening, we create more sickness, more death inside of us. Some will scoff and say how could a good and benevolent God do something so evil as to condemn those who commit sin to eternal punishment? My response is this…You have already condemned yourself by turning from God and rejecting the very gift he has presented to you. It is not his fault you have sinned. He has given you every opportunity to repent and to come to the fullness of faith, but so many have rejected this path to “live their best life now” (looking at you Joel Osteen). 

Without a sense of structure, without obedience, without temperament, we cannot achieve spiritual success. This Lent, I am calling all of us, to look into our own hearts and find the obedience to listen to God. To follow his example. To take up our cross. This Lent, the Lent of Forgiveness, I am pleading for all to join together and find our pathway to the Tomb.

Amen.