Sermon

Sunday, August 17, 2008

You are God’s field, God’s building, God’s co-worker, God’s temple

If you took the words I am, and added a list behind them describing yourself, what kinds of words would be on that list? Probably things like, son or daughter, husband or wife, father or mother, perhaps things like I am a resident of Tampa, a doctor, a teacher, an Orthodox Christian, a Florida State Seminole fan, maybe you’d have a college graduate or a former athlete, a home owner, or a TV junkie. Would the following be on your list? I am God’s field, I am God’s building, I am God’s worker, or that I am a temple of God?

In this morning’s Epistle reading, St. Paul compares the human being to a field and to a building. A field, whether it is a field of grass or a field of grain, is something that must be maintained to insure proper growth of the grass or the crop. For the field of grass, it must be regularly mowed, kept free of weeds, and periodically, parts of it need to be resodded. It certainly cannot be neglected for any period of time. It needs the proper amount of sun, water and warmth to stay green and beautiful. The field of grain needs to be planted, nurtured, then harvested and the cycle repeats all over again. Again, sun, water and warmth play a role in the successful harvest, but even more so than these is the vigilance of the farmer. The diligent farmer will generally bring forth a successful crop. The negligent farmer generally will not. And as for being God’s field, it is as if He has already planted each of us, and all we need to do is grow and harvest what He already has planted. We are not the farmer starting with some seeds or the homeowner starting with some sod for the yard. God has already planted the field and made the yard beautiful. It is our job to maintain the yard and to bring the crop in the field to harvest.

The analogy to being God’s building is a little different than the field. In this case, imagine that you are going to build something—it might be a home, a church, an athletic stadium. There are also other things we build in this life that are not physical structures—like we build a career, or a family. In this analogy, we are each given a different set of materials to work with—St. Paul mentions gold, silver, precious stone, wood, hay, straw. Just like we are each given a different set of talents to work with—some are outgoing, others quiet, some are good writers, others good thinkers, some are dynamic leaders, others devoted followers. St. Paul stresses that it is not the material of the building that matters, but rather it is the foundation. Because on “the Day” meaning the Judgment day, God will test the foundation of each building and the Day will declare which structures are built well, and which ones aren’t.

As most of you know, I am going on vacation this week. I’m going to California and Hawaii to visit family, and while I am in California, I will be going to San Francisco to see some people, one of whom is my Spiritual Father. At some point this week, I plan to go for confession and next Sunday, he and I will celebrate Liturgy at Holy Trinity in San Francisco, which is the oldest Greek Orthodox Parish on the West Coast. One of the natural disasters that we are at risk for in Florida is hurricanes—I hope the storm expected to move through here this week will not be bad. In California, the danger is from earthquakes. An earthquake not only tests the walls of a structure, as does a hurricane, but it also tests the foundation. I’ve experienced several earthquakes in my life, including serious ones in 1987 and 1994. Houses that are built on landfill do not have good foundations and hence do not hold up well in earthquakes. Some of them are built in places where they should not legitimately have been built—people take a chance, pour the foundation under less than ideal circumstances and then when the earthquake comes, they pay the price. Other buildings have a foundation, which they call, “on rollers,” which actually has some give when the ground shakes so that the building does not fall down. So some buildings are built with forethought and planning and others are built almost recklessly. And while both kinds of building may have a good outward appearance, when the critical test comes, only one kind of structure is able to withstand.

The foundation of our lives is supposed to be Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. If doesn’t matter what kind of material we build the structure from—gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay straw—if the foundation is no good. And just like the buildings in California, they may all look outwardly beautiful, but the earthquakes will show which ones have the good foundations and which ones do not. So the human life that doesn’t have a foundation in Jesus Christ is going to find itself lacking on the day of Judgment. And just like the earthquakes in California come without warning, so the Judgment of God upon our lives will come without warning, and either we will be prepared or we won’t. I know from growing up in California, after we had an earthquake in 1987, they inspected a lot of buildings and told the owners, these buildings survived a moderate earthquake but will not make it through a serious one. So either tear them down, or retro-fit them, make appropriate changes and supports so that the foundation won’t crack and destroy the building should there be an earthquake. The church is one entity that helps us to inspect the foundations of our lives, and if and when they are found to be lacking, the church is what helps us retrofit our lives and conform them to God so that we are safe once again and will service the Day of Judgment.

In I Corinthians 3:9, St. Paul calls us God’s fellow workers. St. Paul, in a sense, elevates humanity, he calls upon humanity to become a co-worker with God. This means that we are to work in tandem with God. I recall when His Eminence Metropolitan Alexios wrote me a letter after Nicholas was born, in which he used the term, in reference to the birth of a child, that parents are “co-creators with God.” That’s a pretty heavy concept. While God is the creator and author of life, the human being takes a role also in the creative process. And while God is the Almighty and ruler of all, the human being takes a role in the work of salvation. How is that? By doing godly things which sustains the world, improves the world, and in part helps to save the world. Things like loving other people, showing compassion and empathy, listening, being a good steward of the environment, using your gifts and talents for the glory of God. If God has given us our beautiful planet, when we are a good steward of our planet, we are working together with God. If God has shown us how we are to love one another, with Christ-like, sacrificial love, when we show love to another person, then we are working together with God. When we are wasteful, neglectful, negative, selfish or indifferent, then we are not working with God. In essence, we are working against God. And use this as motivation at work—when you are giving a good and honest effort, know that God is working right along side you helping in that effort, blessing that effort. And if you are giving less than an honest effort, if you are idle in your time, or cheating, or giving less than your best, can you really see yourself as God’s co-worker at that exact moment? No, you can’t.

So, St. Paul calls us to be co-workers with God. In Greek, the word St. Paul uses the word Synergoi which we translate co-workers, but also means contributes, participants in work. And the most important work we carry out, together with God, is the ministry of God, spreading the word of God to our fellow human beings.

And St. Paul, after calling the human being a co-worker with God, and comparing life to caring for a field or building a structure with a good foundation, elevates the human being to an even higher level. He tells us, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” Our church temple, this beautiful edifice of St. John, is a holy and sacred place. When I enter the church, I feel as if I am leaving the world and entering a holy sanctuary. This church is very unlike the world—sometimes it is alive with people worshipping God. And sometimes it is quiet and silent, when it is empty. But it is never noisy and never busy—rather it is a refuge, a safe haven in which we come to worship, to focus, to refocus, recharge and relax. Even those who are not Orthodox, when they come into our church, they get a sense of holiness, just from the appearance of the building.

St. Paul tells us that we are the temple of God. How does your life reflect being a temple of God? Is there a sense of holiness in your life? Are you alive and joyful? Do you take time to be quiet and still? Or are you always noisy and busy? I remember one time I drove a group of teenagers somewhere. And as four of them got into my car, each one put on his headphones and went to get lost in his own little world. I could have had four dead people in the car, or had an empty car, no difference. I told them not to listen to the headphones in my car, that it wasn’t every day that I had four teenagers in my car and we should make conversation. They thought I was crazy, but humored me. And in the two hour drive where we were going, we learned a lot about each other. You could say we were alive. When we are lost in our own world and indifferent to others, we are like the walking dead, we are not truly alive.

Does you life appear to be outwardly holy—do you project a sense of peace or a sense of chaos? Do you appear to be more in control or more reckless? And how about inwardly? Do you appear as an actor on the outside, but have a totally different countenance inside? Are you someone who looks like you have it all together but on the inside are really falling apart? Or are you someone who is inwardly faithful, joyful and full of hope?

When we look at our church in Tampa, we are not just to keep the outward appearance good—clean carpets, change the lightbulbs, etc. But we are supposed to have the inward appearance good as well—faithful people who reverently worship and constantly seek to grow and expand the ministry. And as for our bodies, we are supposed to be outwardly clean—meaning we wash ourselves, present ourselves to others in a respectful way, the way we dress, the way we act. Inwardly, we are supposed to guard against making poor choices, eating too much, looking at inappropriate things and having bad thoughts. Someone was in my office the other day, and I apologized that it is not very neat at this time. Then we walked in the church, and they commented how neat the altar was, observing, why can’t my office be as neat as the altar. To which I answered, I guess that is what St. Paul had in mind when he wrote that we are the temple of God—that our lives, our offices, our homes, our families, should be as ordered, as clean and as sacred, as the altar in our church.

There is a tradition that every time we drive past an Orthodox Church, we make the sign of the cross. That is because in each church is the Holy Communion in the tabernacle on the altar. So as we cross the plain of the altar, whether we walk behind the altar, in front of it, or drive by the church, we acknowledge that we are passing the presence of holiness. There is a tradition in monasteries that monks bow to one another when they pass each other. And that is because they are acknowledging not only the other monk, but the presence of God in that monk. They are recognizing that their brother carries God within him. Each of us carries God within ourselves. So when we defile our neighbor because we are rude to him or evil to him, we are defiling the temple of God. And when we defile ourselves, because we say or do the wrong things, we are again defiling our own temple. So, St. Paul warns us that whoever defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. Because each body is a temple, because God is present in each one of us.

So think about the field of your life this week? Is it full of weeds? Is it ready for harvest? Is it time to replant? Think about your life as a building. Will the foundation make it in an earthquake? Is the building made of sturdy material or are we more concerned with how the material looks or how much it costs? And if we are God’s co-workers, do you see yourself working in tandem with God on a daily basis, are you in competition with Him, do you work against Him? And as for the temple of God—do you see yourself as a holy person? Perhaps our temple provides a good metaphor for life—it is structurally sound, but needs some repairs. And one of these days, perhaps we’ll get motivated enough to make them. Hopefully your spiritual life is structurally sound. And with God’s help, you’ll be motivated to make the needed repairs. Yet another way to look at the church—it is not just the hospital for spiritual illness, but it is the repair shop that takes care of cracks in the walls and even cracks in the foundation, helps pull the weeds and provides spiritual vocational training, so that we can become the field, the building, the co-worker and the temple that God, through the words of St. Paul, calls us to be. Amen.