Father Stavros’ Message
As we head into the month of November, everyone’s mind is naturally on the Presidential Election. There is continued uncertainty in the economy. And people are unsure what changes will occur in politics in the next few days.
Regardless of the outcome of the November 4 election, there are some things we can say for certain. The goal of life remains the same—working our way towards salvation in the Kingdom of God. Accepting the message of Salvation comes with inherent responsibilities—there is a responsibility to continue a personal journey to grow in the image and likeness of God. And there is a corporate responsibility to spread that message to other people. We grow as individuals through private prayer, study of scripture, moral living, repentance, confession and spiritual growth. We spread the message to other people through worship, communion, charitable outreach, Christian witness and stewardship. While the human soul is the anchor point for personal spiritual growth, the Church is the anchor point from which we spread the Christian message to others.
Our church is supported through stewardship—that means we each give of our time, talents and treasures to support the church. We give of our time through corporate worship. We offer our talent through supporting the ministries of the church—singing in the choir, teaching Sunday school, serving on the Parish Council, etc., and IN NOVEMBER MOST ESPECIALLY, WORKING AT THE GREEK FESTIVAL. And we offer our treasure through the annual stewardship campaign which annually kicks off in November.
Stewardship is somewhat of a sore subject and is a subject that is quite misunderstood. When most people hear the word “Stewardship,” they react in the same way as when they hear the word “taxes.” Some people call stewardship a “necessary evil.” It is not. Stewardship is actually a holy thing. And stewardship is not only vital to the future of our church, it is vital to the salvation of each member of the church.
A STEWARD is a temporary caretaker. We are stewards of our talents, of our marriages, of our children, of our jobs, of our homes, of our planet, of our faith and of our church. That means that we are temporary caretakers of all these things. God has blessed each of us with unique talents that we get to use temporarily, because life on earth is temporary. Our marriages are temporary—there is no marriage in heaven. Our children are our temporary responsibility. We look after them until they are adults, we look in on them until we die, and then we leave them. Our jobs are also temporary—none of us will be working his or her respective job in one hundred years. I won’t own my home in 100 years either, but I still have to take care of the piece of the planet I call mine to make sure it is inhabitable by someone 100 years from now. We are stewards of our faith—that means that we are to preserve it and tomorrow pass it on. And we are stewards of our church—today we sing in the choir, serve on the Parish Council, teach Sunday school, work at the festival and maintain the buildings. Tomorrow, others will step in our places. However, THAT IS ONLY POSSIBLE IF WE PRESERVE AND GROW THE CHURCH AND HAVE A DYNAMIC AND THRIVING CHURCH TO HAND OVER TO THE NEXT GENERATION. If I take my home and poison the ground with toxic waste, no one will ever be able to inhabit it again. If we take our church and do not care for it responsibly, there will be no church to spread the faith to those who will come after us.
In order to be good stewards, one has to do a couple of things:
1) Have faith in Jesus Christ—if one doesn’t believe in God and the message of salvation, the church is just a social club, not a vessel that leads from this life to eternal life. Along with faith in God comes an understanding of Orthodoxy and why it leads to eternal life. If one does not understand Orthodoxy, there really is little motivation to be involved in the church.
2) Understand the role of the Church—The Church is the institution founded by Jesus Christ and His Apostles to preserve and to spread the Christian faith. The Church was established on Pentecost by the Holy Spirit coming down upon the Apostles and enabling them to become heralds of the Good News of Jesus Christ. The Church continues to be anchored around the Holy Spirit through the Sacramental life of the Church, where the Holy Spirit consecrates bread and wine that become Holy Communion, where the Holy Spirit looses and forgives the sins of those who confess and repent of them, and where the Holy Spirit effects the other sacraments offered in the church. The Orthodox Christian must understand that the Church is a vital part in the journey to salvation because the Sacraments are the way we continue to grow in the image and likeness of Christ. The Church exists to spread the word of God through the Sacramental life.
3) Understand that the while the church was founded by the Lord, it is preserved by the faithful of the church. If there are no people, there is no church. If there are no priests, there is no church. If there isn’t a place to worship, there is no church. So stewardship helps to maintain the church building, provides for compensation for the priest and the other people who work full time for the church, and helps support the ministries of the church, which help us to grow in our faith.
4) Offer time, talent, and treasure in a loving, sacrificial and joyful way—When one offers the minimum or a token amount, one cannot really call that a loving, sacrificial or joyful gift. When one offers a percentage of time, talent and financial resources that represents a sacrifice, is given with joy and with loving concern for the furthering of the message of the Gospel, then this is what it means to offer stewardship. Jesus tells the story of a widow who put two pennies into the treasury in the temple. And the temple leadership laughed at her. Jesus told them that her gift was worth more than the rest because it was all she had. So the offering of someone without means who offers a greater percentage of what they have is worth more in the eyes of God than the person of means who offers perhaps more in real dollars but less in proportion to their means.
Don’t Base Your Stewardship on the Economy—God doesn’t base His forgiveness on the severity of your sins. People say that in a bad economy, the first thing people cut down on is charitable giving, they cut down what they give to the church. When times are tough, the first place people cut back on is God and the Church. Does that mean that in times when are faith is weak or we have committed a serious sin, that God quickly abandons us? Absolutely not. It’s during these times that He wants to draw us to Him even more. God doesn’t abandon us when our lives disappoint Him. And we should abandon Him when life disappoints us, because of a rough economy. Furthermore, I have found through my life that when I offer to God with joy and with sacrifice, He multiplies His blessings right back on me. No one who has ever offered to the church has gone hungry or without the basic of life. When one offers something to God in a prayerful manner, it always brings peace.
November is stewardship month—that means that the new stewardship forms will be sent out for 2009 in November. One is even included in this issue of The Messenger. We will have a stewardship campaign, telling people why they should pledge and encouraging them to do so. Some of you will take the message to heart and offer substantial stewardship. Some will approach stewardship in a very prayerful way and put their trust in God and increase their pledges. Some will cut a check and say “Thank God I paid the church off for the year.” Others will offer a token amount and be done with it. And others will offer nothing—they’ll wait for the 10th reminder or maybe withhold support because they aren’t happy with something.
Being a steward is a joy. Just like the stewardship of my priesthood is a joy. I don’t get paid according to how long The Messenger is each month. Over the past four years, it has gone from a hand-out to a small magazine. I don’t get paid according to how many liturgies I offer, or how many Bible studies or how many confessions or youth events. And all of these things have increased in the past four years. And so has our congregation! My life certainly hasn’t gotten less busy over the past four years—it has gotten a lot busier with the growth of our parish and the growth of my family. And yet The Messenger gets longer and longer—I put more and more effort even though I have less and less time, because it is a joy and it is a necessity to offer this to you. I try to give my best as a steward of this parish. And you know what, the more I offer, the easier it is to offer. I write more than I used to, but I write faster. It’s as if God rewards my effort by making me more efficient. There are more ministries in our church, but God continues to see to it that there is more and more help to keep them going. And so when you approach your stewardship, be prayerful, offer sacrificially and with joy, and see how God will multiply that in your own life.
For your consideration, I offer two articles. The first is called “Stewardship-The Required Responsibility,” by Fr. Steve Dalber. It is the best article I’ve ever read on stewardship. The second article is by Fr. Grigorios Tatsis, and it talks about what happens when we die. Understanding that the goal of life is salvation (from Fr. Grigorios’ article) and understanding why stewardship plays a vital role in your salvation (from Fr. Steve’s article), I hope will lead you to make your stewardship pledge today, to help us reach our stewardship goal. So please take some time and read these articles. I even put in an extra section to the issue of The Messenger entitled “Liturgical Helps,” to help you to get even more out of the Divine Liturgy.
As I write this message to you in mid-October, no one knows who will win the Presidential Election. No one knows when the economy will turn around. No one knows when the war in Iraq will be over. But everyone should know that regardless of who is our next President, what the state of our economy is, and how long the war lasts, the goal in life remains the same—Salvation. The vehicle to salvation remains the same—THE CHURCH. The means by which we support the church remains the same—Stewardship. And the success of our parish depends on your generosity of time, talent and treasure. This we know for sure.
The stewardship goal for 2009 is $300,000. My goal is to have all the stewardship forms in by January 1, 2009. Please read through these articles. Please make a pledge that is prayerful, sacrificial, and joyful. Please also fill out the “Time and Talents Pledge Form” indicating the time and talent you wish to offer towards the mission of our parish. And please let me know when and what I can do to assist you in your journey to salvation. Thank you for your stewardship to St. John, and for your encouragement as I offer my stewardship of ministry to you.
With love in Christ,
+FR. STAVROS
Stewardship-The Required Responsibility-by Fr. Steve Dalber
“For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.” (I Corinthians 12:12)
“Now you are the body of Christ. . .” (I Corinthians 12:27)
“So also is the body of Christ, which is the Church” (St. John Chrysostom, Homily XXX, on I Corinthians 12:12)
What is the Church?
As defined in the Scripture by the Apostles; as defined in Holy Tradition by the Holy Fathers; as confirmed by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost; the church is the “Body of Christ.”
And just as Jesus Christ is the mystical Incarnation of God, so also is the Church the mystical union of humans with the Holy Spirit; the fullness of humanity in cooperation with the fullness of Divinity. The Church is flesh and Spirit. We, the people, make up the physical body of the Church, while God’s life-giving Holy Spirit guides us and unites us to Him. The Church is the living continuation of Christ’s ministry in this world. It is the perfect bond of mankind and God, sharing in love, life, divinity and common purpose. This common purpose has been defined by God and is non-negotiable. The implementation of this purpose is the reason for God’s Incarnation and is the reason for the existence of the Church.
What is the (non-negotiable) purpose of the Church?
“For God so loved the world He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
Jesus Christ came into the world for a specific reason—to save humanity. His ministry and purpose was the gift of salvation to anyone who is willing to accept it. As the “Body of Christ” we the Church have accepted salvation, but we also accepted the responsibility of being the continuing image and ministry of Jesus Christ in this world offering salvation to the entire world.
“Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15)
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20)
By accepting the message of the Gospel we are granted salvation and right to be children of God, and just as children are part of a greater family we also have become part of a greater family—the Church. We are reborn into this family by water and by spirit—baptism and chrismation. With our baptism we are incorporated into the “Body of Christ” and through this incorporation we receive the gift of salvation but we also accept the responsibility to present others with the opportunity to become children of God.
“This is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” (Luke 22:19)
“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life.” (John 6: 53-54)
The Church was created by Jesus Christ for the purpose of salvation, with specific instructions on how this can be done. The Orthodox Church has striven for 2000 years to remain obedient to our Lord’s instructions. We are first and foremost a Eucharistic community, because the foundational act of all Orthodox Christians is unity in the Body; to God and to each other through Holy Communion. Thus first we are united in the Eucharist, then we are united in a common purpose.
“Faith without works is dead.” (James 2:20)
“Come you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me. . .Truly I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” (Matthew 25: 34-36, 40)
Good works are also part of the responsibility which we accept in being members of the “Body of Christ.” Good works are not a payment for salvation but rather a part of salvation, since salvation does not only mean eternal life, it also means doing good works as part of eternal life. Salvation is not conditional upon good works, but rather, good works are a natural condition of salvation.
What is Stewardship?
Often times we teach that stewardship is giving back a portion of what God has given us, to the Church and towards His ministry. That is to say, God give to us; therefore we are obligated to give back to Him, like a tax, or as a legal obligation to God; a contract. In the Old Testament, the first 10% of everything received was to be given back to god for the maintenance of His temple, that is to say, it was to maintain the status quo. With the Incarnation of Christ, the mission of the faithful has changed. We are no longer to merely maintain the status quo in a certain geographical location, but now we are expected to expand this ministry of worship and salvation throughout the world. Naturally, this requires substantial resources of time, talent and treasure.
Stewardship is not an amount or a percentage but is directly linked to the mission and ministry of the Church. Stewardship is doing whatever it takes to get the job done. We have accepted salvation and we have accepted the responsibility to continue and to grow Christ’s ministry in this world. If we are serious about our faith and our salvation, we must also be willing to accept our responsibility to do what needs to be done in order to accomplish this.
Everything belongs to God. The question that we must ask ourselves is not “How much do I give back to God?” But rather, “how much do I really need to live on and how much can go towards Christ’s ministry?” The responsibility to do this is not only the individual’s but also the Church in general: Parishes, Metropolises, Archdioceses, etc. We all share an equal responsibility to each other and more importantly to God.
How much?
“For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26)
We do not give in order to be saved; we give because we have been saved. In the Lord’s Prayer we read “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” What if it said “save us as we have brought others to salvation”? If the mission of the Church is to bring others to salvation and we have accepted this mission when we accepted our salvation, then how much should we give towards the mission? How much is our salvation worth to us?
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in an steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth or rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your heart is, there your treasure will be also.” (Matthew 6: 19-21)
Where is your heart? Where is your treasure? There you will find the answer to the question “how much?”
Editor’s note: Fr. Steve Dalber is the Proistamenos of St. Nektarios Greek Orthodox Church in Charlotte, NC. St. Nektarios Greek Orthodox Church just celebrated its 10 year anniversary. It currently has 450 families, employs three full time priests, has bought ten acres of land, built a family life center, and a large church sanctuary in the past 10 years, doesn’t rely on a Greek Festival and is debt-free. This is done through stewardship—sacrificial giving. The above article appears in the Fall 2007 issue of Diakonia Magazine, the official publication of the Metropolis of Atlanta.
“I look to the Resurrection of the Dead and the life of the age to come: What Happens when we die?”
By Fr. Grigorios Tatsis
“And He shall come again in glory to judge the living and the dead; Whose Kingdom shall have no end.” We confess this every time we recite the Nicene Creed.
“And He shall come again in glory”—Christ’s return in glory is called the Second Coming. He prophesied that He would return while He was talking to His Disciples on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem before the events that ended in the Crucifixion. He said that His return would come after there had been calamities and unusual sufferings:
“For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places, there will be famines; this is but the beginning of the sufferings. . .”
“For in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will be. . .”
“And then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then He will send out the angels, and gather His elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. . .”
“But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Take heed, watch, for you do not know when the time will come.” (Mark 13: 9-14)
There have been people in every generation who felt that the world had become as bad as possible and that therefore the end of the world was at hand. This happened shortly after Christ’s Ascension into Heaven. In the Christian community at Corinth, which St. Paul established, the people got the impression that Christ’s words meant that the end of the world was close at hand. They stopped working, they cast off their responsibilities and simply sat and waited.
Time went by and nothing happened except that life went on as before. There was sickness, evil and injustice. People lost their loved ones through death, both natural and unnatural. The people were alarmed; they felt that Christ had betrayed them. St. Paul wrote to them, reminding them that Christ had said that no one could know when the time would come, but that everyone should be prepared at all times. They should continue their work for Christ just as before. The expected event would only happen when God deems it the proper time.
What will happen at the Second Coming?
Our Lord Jesus Christ will come again to be with us a second time—not in humility as He was the first time when He was crucified, but with GLORY—as King, coming in the clouds with all the Angels and with the sound of trumpets. He will first raise the bodies of those who have died, as He raised His own body. These bodies will not have the evils which we know today as the result of original sin; they will be incorruptible and each of them will be given to the soul which belongs to it. At the same time, He will also change the bodies of those who are alive and make them incorruptible. He will then judge all of them.
When Christ told His disciples to be ever watchful for this event, He did not mean that it was going to happen right away; He meant that one must live one’s life in such a way that he is always prepared for the last day. It is the same with how we learned our lessons in school. You must always be prepared for the examination: you cannot wait until the last minute and expect to make up for many weeks of neglect. It also means that you cannot do wrong today and say to yourself, “I’ll make up for it tomorrow.” You cannot cheat today and expect to use what you have gained in order to do good tomorrow. It is all added up, and finally you will be called to answer for what you have done.
To Judge the Living and the Dead
At the time of Christ’s Second Coming He will sit in judgment over the souls of all those who have lived since the beginning of the world. Those who have not had the opportunity to know the Christian Law, Christ will judge on the basis of the Natural Moral Law which every man carries within him from birth, and which is expressed in his conscience. Those who have had the opportunity of knowing the Christian Faith, whether they accept it or not, Christ will judge on the basis of the Christian law. Those who did not accept the Christian Faith, even though they had the opportunity to know it, or those who accepted but afterwards abandoned, corrupted or betrayed it, and did not repent before they died, all those will suffer punishment. This judgment is called the “Last” or “Final Judgment.”
In Matthew 25, we find:
“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and He will place the sheep at His right hand, but the goats at the left. Then the King will say to those at His right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘When, Lord, did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You a drink?. . .’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly I say to You, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to Me.’ Then He will say to those at His left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave Me no food, I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome Me, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ Then they also will answer ‘Lord when did we see You hungry?. . .’ And He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to Me. And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:31-46)
What happens between death and the Last Judgment?
When a person dies, his body returns to the earth and the soul undergoes a preliminary Divine Judgment. If he has believed in Jesus Christ, kept his faith incorrupt, repented of his sins before death, God assigns him to live with those who wait in happiness until the Second Coming. If he has been an unbeliever, or despite believing has corrupted his faith and not repented, he is assigned to live unhappily or punished temporarily until the Second Coming.
Ties between the living and the dead are not broken by death. Those who are in happiness (the saints) pray to God for us; but those who are in temporary punishment need our prayers. We help them by offering their names at Liturgy and in Memorial Services. We record their names so that they can be remembered at the Divine Liturgy and especially on the Saturdays which the Church appoints for the remembrance of souls (Saturdays of the Souls which are commemorated on the two Saturdays before the Great Lent, the first Saturday of the Great Lent and the Saturday before Pentecost.)
St. John of Damascus (in the Exposition of the Orthodox Faith) says:
“We shall therefore rise again, our souls being once more united with our bodies, now made incorruptible and having put off corruption, and we shall stand beside the awful judgment-seat of Christ. The devil and his demons and those belonging to him (that is, Satan and the impious and sinful) will be given over to everlasting fire; not material fire like our fire, but such fire as God would know. But those who have done good will shine forth as the sun with the angels into life eternal, with our Lord Jesus Christ, ever seeing Him and being in His sight and deriving unceasing joy from Him.”
Whose kingdom shall have no end—
In Christ’s final kingdom the condition of each soul will be no more changed. Those who have gone to Paradise will live in Heaven, eternally happy, and those who have deserved punishment will live in Hades, eternally unhappy.
May the Holy Spirit continue to guide your footsteps towards Paradise. Amen.
Editor’s Note—Fr. Grigorios Tatsis is the Ierokyrix (Travelling Preacher/Confessor) of the Metropolis of Atlanta. This sermon was given this summer at the St. Stephen’s Summer Camp. Source Material for the sermon came from “The Creed—Basic Teachings of the Orthodox Church” by Rev. Constantine Leftheris, Rev. George Nicozisin, Presbytera Freida Upson; compiled by Xenophon Diamond, published by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America Department of Religious Education, Brookline, MA, 1972.