5th Sunday after the Festival of Holy Cross

Welcome, Friends in Christ~
For those who are visiting us a first time, please click on the July archives at right. There you will find a brief introduction to our Church.

This Sunday we celebrate the Holy Mysteries at 11am in the chapel of St. John's in Olympia, WA.

A meditation from a passage of this Sunday's Gospel of Matthew:
But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brethren. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in Heaven. Neither be called masters, for you have one master, the Christ. He who is greatest among you shall be your servant; whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. (Mt 23.8-12)

In today 's Gospel we hear one of "the hard sayings" of Jesus. We know we have parents on earth whom we name our fathers and mothers. And we have spiritual parents: godfathers and godmothers, spiritual fathers and spiritual mothers. We also know we have teachers. Many fathers, many teachers!

Even St. Paul attests to his own paternal (and maternal) role when he writes that he has been in a kind of birthing labor for the Galatians: My little children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you! (Gal 4.19)

The saying calls us to examine our presuppositions, to get to the heart of our relationship with Jesus Christ, and through the Son to enter the heart of our relationship with His Father. By clarifying our theology of fatherhood, we are consequently clarifying and fortifying our theology of hope, and through theological hope we are bearing witness to the Victorious Cross of Jesus Christ.

Elsewhere in the Gospel Jesus replies to being called "Good Teacher" by contending that only one is good, so why call Jesus "good?" Our ultimate reference point must always be to God even while we attend immediately to people, places, and events. We are confessing our faith in God alone: none other is the Original Teacher, the Original Father, the Original Goodness.

We are likewise challenged to discern priesthood as sacrificial and sacramental fatherhood. Here appears a relation of means and ends: perhaps we can advance our understanding by considering priesthood as a means to achieve an end: we seek in the priest that singular fatherhood from above that always bears witness to God the Father. By naming our priests "father," moreover, we not only confess what God is doing, we profess what our priest is ordained to be doing. By naming the priest "father," we call that priest into action. We are reminding him of his oath, and the awesome oath that God Himself has taken in bestowing His Fatherhood upon us in those men who sacramentally share the singular priesthood of Jesus Christ. We are reminding ourselves of the transforming exousia (power) of the Word that we share, a Word whose transforming power belongs to God alone.

From the Gospel we know that "the Son is the image of the Father, and the Son alone has revealed the Father and makes Him known. No one comes to the Father except through the Son." Thus the Son as priest, prophet, and king works out our salvation in order to bring us to the Father. To know the Son is to know the Father -- and thus in the Spirit we cry out, "Abba, Father!"