Fr. Timothy Barkley
St. James Orthodox Church
(6/14) The Lord said to his disciples, "Every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny him before my Father who is in heaven. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy
of me; and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me." (Matt. 10:32-33)
This is one of those frightening Gospel readings. It’s one of those Fr. David Jacobs, formerly pastor of this Church, meant when he said that if you think the Old Testament is scary, you haven’t actually read your New Testament. It’s scarier.
It’s easy to relegate "denying Christ" to a relatively innocuous position in our lives, and only worry about it if we find ourselves, like Peter, forced to make a statement. But if we read Christ’s words more carefully, consistent with his other teachings, it sobers us up.
We’re familiar with the parable of the sheep and the goats. At the end of time, Jesus will say to the former, "enter into my kingdom, because when I was hungry and thirsty, you fed me and gave me a drink; when I was naked and cold you clothed and sheltered me; and when I was sick and in prison, you visited and comforted me." He will say to the latter,
"depart from me, because when I was hungry and thirsty, you didn’t feed me or gave me a drink; when I was naked and cold, you didn’t clothe and shelter me; and when I was sick and in prison, you didn’t visit and comfort me."
Both groups will ask, "Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or naked or cold, or sick or in prison?" And he will answer, "inasmuch as you did it to the least of your brothers and sisters, you did it – or didn’t do it – to me."
So … when we ignore the image of God in "the least" of our brothers and sisters, we deny Christ himself. St. James writes that "if we say we love God, but do not love our brother, we are a liar." Ouch! If we do not love our brothers and sisters who bear his image, if we do not honor his image in them, we do not love him. It’s that simple. Like calls to
like; if his image is perfected in us, it will recognize his image in them – and vice versa.
Sometimes our brothers and sisters don’t look particularly Christ-like to the untrained eye. That’s our fault, not theirs. We need to clean our glasses, get our vision adjusted by the Great Ophthalmologist so that we can see clearly, learn to look beneath the superficialities to see the reality.
And it doesn’t matter what our father, mother, neighbor, co-worker or boss thinks. If we put their opinion above God’s calling to love the least of our brothers and sisters, we are "not worthy" of Christ. Even if it causes us problems – even if it’s like being tortured to death – even if it costs us everything – we must – we can only – love God by
loving our brothers and sisters.
On this Sunday of All Saints, we remember those who were perfected in love and thus glorified by God as they showed forth his divine nature. By drawing near to God, they drew near to their brothers and sisters, even the least of them. In partaking of the divine nature, as Christ was formed in them, as they put on Christ, they realized that there is
neither Jew nor Greek nor black nor white, slave nor free. All are God’s beloved, and if we love him we will also, naturally, love them.
They had their vision adjusted to see God in the people around them. We can do so, too, by drawing near to God in humble repentance for our failings and sins, seeking to be perfected in love, and partaking of the divine nature. We will then by nature love, because we have love resident in us.
If we do not love "the least" of our brothers and sisters, we must ask ourselves whether we love God, whether we partake of his nature, whether, ultimately, we make ourselves into those whom Jesus will not recognize. When he looks at us, on that last and great day, will he see his image shining forth, or will he see a twisted and darkened visage that
looks on him the same way we look on those who bear his image? It’s up to us.
Read other homilies by Father Barkley
About St. James the Apostle Orthodox Church of Taneytown
The Holy Orthodox Church is the Church founded by Jesus Christ and described throughout the New Testament. All other Christian Churches and sects can be traced back historically to it. The word Orthodox literally means "straight teaching" or "straight worship," being derived from two Greek words: orthos, "straight," and doxa, "teaching" or "worship."
As the encroachments of false teaching and division multiplied in early Christian times, threatening to obscure the identity and purity of the Church, the term "Orthodox" quite logically came to be applied to it. The Orthodox Church carefully guards the truth against all error and schism, both to protect its flock and to glorify Christ, whose Body the Church is.
St. James the Apostle Orthodox Church of Taneytown is a congregation of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. We are the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Christian Church whose roots trace directly back to first century Antioch, the city in which the disciples of Jesus Christ were first called "Christians" (Acts 11:26). The
Orthodox Church is the oldest and second largest Christian group in the world. We are called by God our creator to worship and follow Him, and to proclaim to the world His message of love, peace, and salvation.
God loves all mankind and desires that all human beings should believe in Him, know Him, abide in Him, and receive eternal life from Him. To accomplish this, God Himself came into the world as a man, Jesus Christ, becoming man that we might become like God.
The Antiochian Archdiocese, under the leadership of His Eminence Metropolitan Joseph, sees itself on a mission to bring America to the ancient Orthodox Christian Faith. We join our brothers and sisters in the various Orthodox Christian jurisdictions — Greek, Orthodox Church in America, Romanian, Ukrainian, and more — in this endeavor. In less than 20
years the Archdiocese has doubled in size to well over 200 churches and missions throughout the United States and Canada.
