Sermon ~ Sunday of the Canaanite Woman

Posted on by Fr. Peter
ED: Below is the text of my Sermon for the Sunday of the Canaanite Woman.  I ended up not using the first two paragraphs but I kept them as part of the text as I believe it is important.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Sunday of the Canaanite Woman
St. Michael Orthodox Church Southbridge
Matthew 15:21-28
On January 25th Orthodox Hieromonk Basilios Nassar was shot by an armed terrorist group in Hama, Syria on the second day of heavy fighting. Fr. Basilios was at the Metropolis when he was informed by a phone call that a parishioner of his was shot and needed assistance. The Patriarchate of Antioch has reported that the 30-year-old priest was shot while giving medical aid to the wounded man who was previously shot. Fr. Basilios was shot in the chest and in the right armpit. Immediately another priest, Fr. Panteleimon Isa, who was with him dragged his bloody body to a nearby building to save him, but the martyr for Christ Father Basilios was dead within 30 minutes from hemorrhaging. His funeral took place, January 26th, in the Church of Saint George in Hama. The blessed Father Basilios, known in the world as Mazin, was born in 1982 in the village of Kfarmpo in Hama and was a graduate of the Theological School of Balamand. He was also a teacher of Byzantine Music in the school Saint Kosmas the Melodist which he founded in the Metropolis.
Fr. Basilios is not the first Orthodox priest killed in the Middle East and unfortunately he will not be the last! He is a true example of what it means to love ones neighbor. He must have known that he might become a victim himself when he left the office to render aid to a parishioner, he must have known that there was the possibility that he would be killed yet he went anyway because a brother was in need.
People will do amazing things when someone we love is in need of help. We have an example of this in today’s Gospel on this Sunday of the Canaanite Woman. The unnamed woman comes to Jesus seeking help for her daughter who is sick. Such love she has for her daughter that she has taken the illness on herself and she cries out “Have Mercy on me!” She sees in her daughter’s well-being her own well-being. She calls after Jesus and he ignores her but she keeps on coming at Him. She can teach us many things about our spiritual lives.
The first thing she teaches us in our Christian vocation to reconcile all humankind to God is courage. Given her position as a foreigner and as a woman, it took phenomenal courage on her part to decide to take on the all-Jewish and all-male company of Jesus and his disciples. She was so small that, even though she addresses Jesus by his proper Messianic titles: “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David” (verse 22), Jesus still ignored her: “He did not answer her at all” (verse 23a). Most people at this point would give up and accept defeat. But not our Canaanite sister. Rather she intensifies her efforts and embarks on a one-woman demonstration to the point that the disciples had to ask Jesus to do something about it: “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us” (verse 23b). Her courage and her refusal to take no for an answer finally paid off.
The second thing we can learn from this woman is focus or what St. Paul calls “keep your eyes on the prize.” When Jesus spoke to her in language that demeaned her people: “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs” (verse 26), she did not lose her cool but kept her eyes on the goal of her mission, which is to show that even non-Jews are entitled to God’s blessing in Christ. Our sister knew that if she gave Jesus a piece of her mind at that moment, that would jeopardize her mission and she might lose what she came for. But with focus and with her eyes on the prize, she made it.
Finally, it was Jesus who gave in: “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish” (verse 28) and the woman got what she wanted. The message of this single woman outsider to every one of us today is: Be not afraid. Be not afraid to challenge prejudice and falsity even in high places, even in religious high places. The least among us can be a vehicle that God can use to bring justice and healing to all of God’s disadvantaged daughters and sons all over the world.
What is the message of the Canaanite Woman for each of us here today? The message is “Be Not Afraid.” If we have trust in God, and I don ‘t mean trust only when things are going well, but real trust in God then we need not fear for God is with us always. God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow and his love for us is unending and will never fail. Seek and you will find, knock and the door will be open.

To Hell With You

Posted on by Fr. Peter
By Bishop David A. Zubik, Roman Catholic Bishop of Pittsburgh
It is really hard to believe that it happened. It comes like a slap in the face. The Obama administration has just told the Catholics of the United States, “To Hell with you!” There is no other way to put it.
In early August, the Department for Health and Human Services in the Obama administration released guidelines as part of the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The guidelines mandated that by Summer 2012 all individual and group health insurance plans, including self-insured plans, cover all FDA-approved contraception, sterilization procedures and pharmaceuticals that even result in abortion.
A million things are wrong with this: equating pregnancy with disease; mandating that every employer pay for contraception procedures including alleged contraceptives that are actually abortion-inducing drugs; forcing American citizens to chose between violating their consciences or providing health care services; mandating such coverage on every individual woman without allowing her to even choose not to have it; forcing every person to pay for that coverage no matter the dictates of their conscience.
Let’s be blunt. This whole process of mandating these guidelines undermines the democratic process itself. In this instance, the mandate declares pregnancy a disease, forces a culture of contraception and abortion on society, all while completely bypassing the legislative process.
This is government by fiat that attacks the rights of everyone – not only Catholics; not only people of all religion. At no other time in memory or history has there been such a governmental intrusion on freedom not only with regard to religion, but even across-the-board with all citizens. It forces every employer to subsidize an ideology or pay a penalty while searching for alternatives to health care coverage. It undermines the whole concept and hope for health care reform by inextricably linking it to the zealotry of pro-abortion bureaucrats.
To read the rest of this wonderful pastoral letter follow this link.

Prayer at March for Life

Posted on by Fr. Peter
OCA – Metropolitan Jonah was honored to lead the opening prayer at the March for Life in Washington, DC this past week.  He was invited to do so by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo who leads of Roman Catholic Bishops Office on Pro Life Activities.  The text of his prayer is below:
“Holy Father, our Creator, Savior, Redeemer and our God, Light and Life of the World, Who didst show Thine infinite love for mankind by sending Thine Only-begotten Son into the world to take our flesh and be born as an infant of the Blessed Virgin Mary, becoming all that we are in order to liken us to Himself; Who, through Thy servant Moses didst set before thy people two ways: the way of life and the way of death, and didst not only call us to life, but freely gavest it to us; Who, speaking to Thy servant the Prophet Jeremiah, dost remind us that Thou knowest each of us even from our mother’s womb; Who Himself was born in poverty and laid in manger, taking the form of a servant; Who didst hear the lament of Rachel weeping for her children, for they were no more; Who didst proclaim to Thy disciples that unless one receives Thy Kingdom like a child, one cannot enter it:
“Visit us on this solemn day, a day on which we beg thine infinite mercy for the atrocities we allow in the killing of children in the womb; a day on which we gather to bear witness to the Sanctity of all human life from cradle to grave; a day on which we bear witness together to the value of each human person; a day on which we offer to Thee for Thy blessing, and to the world as a sign, our witness to Thine infinite goodness and charity, even to us who daily neglect the life which Thou dost give us, even unto killing and death:
“Remember not our negligence and sin. Remember not our failure to be doers of the word and not hearers only. Remember not our hypocrisy, external zeal matched only with practical inaction to assist those who fall prey to the despair and hopelessness of abortion.
“Accept, O Lord, the repentance of us who have sinned, and heal our souls. Accept, O Lord, the grief of mothers who have aborted their children as a cry of repentance. Accept, O Lord, the bitter sorrow of regret as the broken heart thou dost not despise.
“We offer this sign of our visible unity, standing together in unity of mind, with a contrite heart and broken spirit. We offer our repentance, however we have sinned, for all have sinned and fall short, and thus none of us can judge or condemn. We offer our compassion for those in grief, in guilt and despair.
“We pray that Thou will receive us as Thou didst the prodigal, with open arms of forgiveness; and the woman who had sinned, whom Thou didst not condemn.
“We beseech Thee, O Lord, to enlighten those lost in the darkness of insensitivity. Transform the minds and hearts of those hardened in bitterness. Give hope, O Lord, to those immersed in despair. As Thou art Good and the only lover of mankind, visit us with Thine infinite compassion. Create in each of us, and in our nation, a new heart, taking not Thy Holy Spirit from us, and restore unto us the joy of life and of Thy salvation. Cleanse and redeem us by Thy precious Blood, shed for the life of the world. Caste us not off, neither turn Thy face away from us, but receive us in repentance according to Thy mercy, for we earnestly repent and with the necks of our souls bowed, we turn ourselves to Thee!
“For Thou art the Giver of Life and the Savior of our souls, and unto Thee we ascribe glory, to the Father Who is without beginning, Thine Only-begotten Son, and Thy most holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, always, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.”

Russian monasteries taking a pioneering role in bringing organic food to consumers

Posted on by Fr. Peter
By Anneli Ahonen in Sosnovyi Bor/Halila
On the former sanatorium estate of Halila, cheese is made using methods dating back to the Middle Ages.
Orthodox Monk Gavriil is standing next to a huge bull in a cowshed, stroking its back. ”Our products and soil are pure, better than those that have been pumped full of chemicals”, he says.
The Optina Pustyn Monastery farm sprawls over a total area of 240 hectares on land belonging to the former Halila tuberculosis sanatorium on the Karelian Isthmus, between Vyborg and St. Petersburg.
The present name of the village is Sosnovyi Bor, which sounds grim, but it has nothing to do with the town called Sosnovy Bor in the Leningrad Oblast with the famous and rather rickety nuclear power plant.In fact, the Russian name Sosnovyi Bor means “pine forest” in English.
The farmers in the monastic community grow strawberries and produce milk, cheese, smetana (heavy soured cream), and quark (a kind of curd cheese), using organic methods. Neither pesticides nor artificial fertilisers are used, but the farm does not have an official organic certificate.
The potentially toxic elements in the soil have not been measured.Every so often a loud blast is heard in the distance. At the Russian army’s test site, some 30 kilometres away, some post-war munitions are being blown up in controlled explosions.
In order to attract in tourists, the farm has acquired goats, sheep, a raccoon, and 20 ostriches, the eggs of which are sold in the summer. Cows graze in an enclosed pasture next to the cowshed until the winter. In the shed, they are standing with cloth tethers around their necks.
The manure is pushed down the gutters on the floor, then thrown through a trapdoor into a machine that takes it to a slurry tank.
Manual work is accorded great worth on this farm. Milking is performed by machines, but from that point onwards, all milk processing is done manually, often in ways that have not changed much since the Middle Ages.
Master cheesemaker Maksim Parstsikov turns on a CD-player, and thumping techno and trance music starts echoing off the walls of the cheese factory, which have been decorated with icons.He takes from a cupboard a bag made of cotton gauze and containing some quark that has been strained for a day or so.
Parstsikov scoops out lumps of quark into a bowl, beginning to chop and dice the lumps.As a result, he manages to produce a proper texture that resembles cottage cheese.
The quark is then packed into small plastic boxes and sold at the farm’s own store.Milk is also used to produce cheese flavoured with parsley, dill, and other herbs, which will be ripened in large containers.
The cheese crumbles when cut, and it tastes slightly sour.
In Russia, organic food is only just finding its way to the shops and consumers.
The monasteries have seized opportunities in the emerging market, as they have all that is needed for this – land, experience in agriculture and animal husbandry dating back many centuries, free labour, and plenty of time.
Among the famous monastery products are for example cold-pressed sunflower oil and canned vegetables from the Krasnodar monasteries, as well as honey from the monasteries in Rjazan.
”Today, all manner of preservatives and food dyes are added to food, or it has a false designation of origin. The maximising of profits is endangering consumers’ health”, sighs Igumen Rostislav, the director of the Halila monastery farm.
”Here everything is on display. We have to be honest also before God, not only before people”, he continues.
The Igumen wants to make the farm self-sufficient, to run a 13-head dairy cattle operation, and to earn enough by selling groceries in order that the monastery farm could get by on its own.
In the future, the farm, which employs ex-drug addicts and alcoholics, plans to seek the status of an independent monastery.
The construction of a new church is already in full swing. In addition, the farm also has a small hotel for visitors, a sauna, an icon workshop, and a large greenhouse.
Organic groceries could be the next big thing in the largest cities in Russia.LavkaLavka – a Moscow-based enterprise producing organic food – started operations in St. Petersburg last summer.
It sells for example cheese from the farm of the Optina Pustyn Monastery.In Moscow, the number of such companies is already sizeable and growing, tapping into a market for exclusive items and with a ready customer-base among the well-to-do.
”There are various types of customers. Some of them come to pick up their food bags from the outlet, as they do not want to pay for home delivery. Some others send their chauffeur to pick up the purchases”, says Vasili Konasjonok from LavkaLavka.
”Our largest customer group consists of mothers with small children. They are concerned with the purity and natural ingredients in the food they eat and feed to their babies”, Konasjonok continues.
The certification of organic food is still in its infancy in Russia.
Production is not being monitored as it is in Finland. However, a Russian certificate for organic food does exist. For example, the Finnish dairy products manufacturer Valio has obtained such a document for the milk, quark, butter, and smetana it exports to Russia.
The certificate indicates the purity of the food. It does not intervene in questions of production conditions.
”It is still early days yet in the production of organic foodstuffs in Russia; there are no official markings and benchmarks, and the market is wild”, summarises Mika Koskinen, Valio’s director responsible for operations in Russia.”According to one opinion poll, around 10 to 15 per cent of St. Petersburg residents would be interested in organic produce. However, when asked whether they are ready to pay some 30 to 40 per cent more for organic food, the number of interested respondents falls drastically”, Koskinen observes.

Source

Let us be in Solidarity with Those Who Suffer

Posted on by Fr. Peter
The economic situation in Romania is deteriorating each day. Yesterday some 3,000 protesters gathered in cities around the country and called for the resignation of the Government. The Prime Minister fired the Foreign Minister due to remarks he made about the anti-government protesters and the situation is getting worse. The new President of the European Union has called on Romania to enact sweeping economic reforms to ease the living standards of Romanians. Public wages have been cut by 25% and taxes are on the rise things are at a boiling point.
Yesterday the Press office of the Romanian Patriarchate released a statement about how the church needs to act during such times. (I cleaned up the translation a little)
Because the present situation of deep discontent of the Romanian people is very hard, and as a result of the world and economic crisis of the society, the February 15th and 16th meetings of the Church National Assembly and of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church will have as a priority a discussion relating to how the Church could contribute, by words and deeds, to the changing of the present state of crisis of the Romanian society.
Although autonomous (Romanian Constitution, article 29, paragraph 5) and neutral from a political point of view, the Church cannot be indifferent to the suffering of the people whom she serves on the way to salvation. Therefore, she must implement her mission of social peace (Bill of the Religious Cults, article 7, paragraph 1) and defender of human dignity when people are humiliated because of social injustice, poverty and helplessness.
Therefore, during this hard time, we must increase prayer, dialogue and cooperation in order to, together, find practical ways of resolving the present issues and of re-establishing confidence in the institutions with maxim responsibility for the life of the Romanian society, especially in the present international context which is confused and unstable. In spite of the present difficulties, Christians must cultivate solidarity with those who suffer and the hope that we can overcome the present crisis.
Let us all pray for all of those who suffer around the world because of this economic situation.

‎Church Under Attack

Posted on by Fr. Peter
In the Gospels Jesus warns us that the world will hate us. He is giving us a warning that being a Christian will not be easy and that it will be a fight, every day, for what we believe in. The world is becoming increasingly hostile to the truth of Jesus Christ and I do not see it getting any better.
Yesterday I posted an essay on the Huffington Post Religion Page and before my finger was even off the send button the attackers came out. They hate the fact that the church would dare speak out on issues that affect people and their beliefs, one of the more shocking things was that some of those attacking my words were Orthodox! Yes, the Orthodox Church teaches and preaches traditional family values, well it is supposed to anyway, but I fear that many of my brother priests have not done their job. I know our bishops have not done their job as they have been silent these last few years as the Government of the United States slowly erodes our religious liberty. But it is not their fault.
We need to provide the strength and support to our bishops so they will know that we want them to speak out. We need to let them know that we support the mission of the Church to being the truth to society and we need them to know that we need them to find their voice and find it now! I serve on a committee with the newly formed Episcopal Assembly of Orthodox Bishops. The Committee for Church and Society is tasked with the following;
“The Committee for Church and Society will develop a process to determine both the propriety and the priority of advocacy by the Assembly of issues concerning Church, government and society that are relevant to the lives of the faithful in the Region (e.g., same-sex marriage, abortion, war, etc.).”
I believe I was appointed more than a year ago, although I found out I was appointed by reading it on the website of the Assembly, but the Committee has yet to meet or begin the work that we are supposed to accomplish!
The bishops of our church are the authentic teachers of the faith. It is their role as Arch-Pastors of His Church to educate the people in the faith and what the Church teaches. This is an important role but I feel many times they say only what the people want to hear. Jesus did not tell the people what they wanted to hear He told them what they needed to hear and most of them did not like it but that did not stop him. He was not concerned with what people would think or whether or not they would put anything in the collection bin, he was concerned with the salvation of their souls, period!
Friends I find it unbelievable when I hear Orthodox people, people who have been Orthodox their entire life, say things like same sex marriage should be allowed in the Orthodox Church. People who believe that sex before the sacrament of marriage is just fine because everyone is doing it, and a growing number of people who believe that unrestricted abortion is an acceptable form of contraception regardless of the reason. I am sorry to say these are not Orthodox positions!
Being a Christian in the 21st Century is not easy and being an Orthodox Christian is even harder. We are a Church with some pretty counter cultural beliefs that we hold dear. We are a Church that still placed requirements on her members and hold them accountable for their actions. We are a church that is supposed to preach the truth regardless of whether or not is it politically correct. We are a Church that preaches confession and repentance and that we are all sinners and that the Church is the hospital for healing not just a place to come to hear your native language and eat foods from the home land.
It is time for the Orthodox Church to wake up and start preaching what we need to preach! It is time for us to wake up and, with love, correct people when they go astray. “We have found the true faith” and that faith needs to be preached as it has been handed down to us and watered down. And it is high time that the Orthodox Bishops in this country find their voice and start to speak. If the leadership is not willing to speak then individual bishops need to do it. Your Eminences and Your Graces we need to hear you, your people need to hear from you, we long to hear your voice and we need your teaching!
The world is in darkness and needs us to being the light!
I recently heard someone, sorry I cannot remember who, speaking about evangelism. At the end of the talk the speaker left his audience with a question and I think it is appropriate to end this essay with the same question. How will they come and see if WE do not GO and tell? The first part of the Great Commission is GO, we need to GO and we need to GO now!

We Have Eggs!

Posted on by Fr. Peter
For those of you who follow these pages you know that several months ago I purchased 6 chickens and a rooster.  Each day I go to the coop and look for any signs of eggs.  Well today I opened the coop and there were 3 eggs perched on the straw!  I guess they realized what their job is after all.  One of them was broken so I did not keep it but the other 2 are a good size as you can see from the picture.  Now I have another reason to head on out to the coop in the morning.

The funny thing is I was just talking to an old time farmer last night and he told me that if they have not started laying they wont start now until the Spring.  I guess the really is an exception to every rule.

Off to make an omelet!

SOPA ~ Stop Online Piracy Act

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Today many of the large sites on the internet have gone dark in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act presently working its way through Congress. I am all for the protection of intellectual property but in my mind this bill goes way too far.
The bill is designed to protect copy-write holders and give them some teeth to go after site that misuse their intellectual property. It also protects consumers against counterfeit drugs from Canada and other such countries.
The bill would give the US Justice Dept. the power to go after website not only in the US but outside. How do we enforce US law outside the US? The law would require intent companies block sites suspected of piracy and search engines like Google would also be required to block sites suspected of piracy.
Opponents of the bill say it would restrict the free exchange of ideas and is also an infringement on the 1st Amendment to the Constitution protecting Free Speech. It would basically create a “black list” and that would lead to censorship.
One of the best parts of the internet is the concept of free exchange of ideas. This is a hallmark of American society at all levels. This bill, as written, would restrict the free exchange of ideas and send a message to other countries that it is okay to restrict speech. The United States has long been a country that prides itself on its freedoms and if this bill in enacted it will take away a portion of the freedom.
A letter from the American Society of News Editors had this to say about SOPA:
It is our longstanding dedication to First Amendment rights that drives our opposition to SOPA. Navigating the balance between copyright and free speech demands precision, and in seeking to protect the interests of copyright holders, the First Amendment requires Congress to adopt the least restrictive intrusion on speech available.
Two provisions of section 201—the definition of willfulness in section 201(c) and the expansion of criminal penalties to public performances in section 201(a)—are troubling. While each provision is problematic in its own right, the two together could threaten important library and educational activities. Letter from the Library Copyright Alliance
But the most striking quote comes from an article in the Weekly Standard quoting former Senator Chris Dodd who now the head of Motion Picture Association of America;
If you’re wondering why lawyers and Hollywood folks would get behind legislation to censor the Internet, you only need to listen to former Senator Chris Dodd, now the head of the MPAA, who last week explained to Variety that the lobby is only asking for the same kind of power to censor the Internet as the government has in the People’s Republic of China.
Well I don’t think the United States should be looking to have the same power as the government of Communist China.
We need some reform but this is not the answer.
Blog

Temptation

Posted on by Fr. Peter
The Temptation of Jesus
We all know the scene, a person standing there trying to make the decision and on one shoulder stands the guy in the red suit and on the other stands the guy in the white suit. They both whisper in your ear on the benefits of doing it the way they want you to do it and in the end we have to make the decision. But is that how it really goes? Well maybe. Let’s take a look at some Scripture;
At that time, Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward He was hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But He answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'” Then the devil took Him to the holy city, and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will give His angels charge of you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'” Jesus said to him, “Again, it is written, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.'” Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them; and he said to Him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! for it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.'” Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him. (Matthew 4:1-11)
There are a few observations here;
1. Temptation comes when we are at our weakest. Scripture tells us that Jesus had been in the desert for 40 days fasting when the tempter came to Him. The tempter did not come on day one or even day 35 but on day 40. This way the point that physically Jesus was at his weakest.
2. The tempter quoted Scripture. One of the things we need to always keep in mind is that the evil one knows Scripture in many ways better than we do and can twist it to his purpose.
3. Jesus resists His tempter with the Word of God. Jesus did not try to be cleaver and use His own words, no Jesus used the very Words of His Father to fight off His tempter and in the end we see that not only sis the tempter leave Him but the Angels came and ministered to Him.
How then are we to deal with temptation when it comes our way?
Brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace; besides all these, taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:10-17)
St. Paul, writing to the Ephesians, reminds them that to fight temptation they need to put on the whole armor of God. To be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might. Paul uses the imagery of the warrior getting set for battle because that is exactly what it is a battle.
One of the problems with modern society is we have reduced the works of evil to nothing. Not only does sin not exists but the evil one does not exist. Sin does exist and yes, the evil one exists and he will stop at nothing to get you to follow Him. If he was willing to tempt the Son of God do you think he would not come after you?
We need to be prepared to face the evil one head on and if we follow the guidance of St. Paul we will be just fine. We cannot do it alone but if we “put on the whole armor of God” we will be able to send him fleeing away from us.
The evil ones in many different disguises and he is a wily one. We defeat him with prayer, fasting, reading Scripture, and attending the Divine Services. We cannot do it alone, but with Christ all things are possible.
What tempts you?

Tebowmania

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Denver Broncos Photo
Well the long awaited football game is over and the New England Patriots beat the Denver Broncos. As expected the haters came out before the game was even over. I was watching my Twitter feed and people were saying things like, “where is your God now” and the like. I will admit I go back and forth on the whole Tim Tebow thing but this past week was an eye opener for me.
The Gospel periscope for the 29th Sunday after Pentecost is very fitting for this situation. It comes from the Gospel of St. Luke, chapter 17 and verses 12-19. This is the story of Jesus healing the lepers. After he heals them he sends them off to tell the priests. They do this but only one returns to thank Him. Jesus says were not 10 cleansed an only one returns? To me that one is Tim Tebow.
Tim Tebow lives his faith out loud. Maybe too loud for me but that is me. Last night before the game the network did a little profile of what Tebow is doing with his new found fame. His foundation brings one person to each of his games. These are folks with some kind of disability or medical issue. They don’t just come to the game; he spends time with them before the game. For most athletes the time before the game is spent getting their game face on. For Tebow, he spends it with his special guests. It’s not about him it’s about love of neighbor. This is a very Christian thing to do.
This morning I read a blog post titled, Tebow after Tonight’s Game, a very interesting take on the whole “Tebowmania” thing. In the article the author quotes Christian blogger Carolos Whittaker, “I’m embarrassed by Tebow” he says. Not for the reason you might think but because Tim Tebow lives he faith. “He is the real deal.” I have to agree.  He does what many of us do not do and that is live our faith out loud.
We do not know what Tim Tebow is praying for when he does his now famous move called Tebowing. I would guess, based on his Christian faith, which he is praying that he plays well and that through this he brings glory to God. That should be the prayer of all of us, that we use our God given talents to bring glory to God. Yes, throwing a football to the best of your ability brings glory to God the same way anyone who does their job to the highest ability brings glory to God.
Just like the one leper from today’s Gospel, Tim Tebow thanks God for the gift that has been given him. Because of that gift he is able to make a difference in the lives of many people. Hey, he has the entire world talking about prayer and God so how bad can it be.
I am a Patriots fan and I am glad that my team will advance to the next round of play. I believe that Tim Tebow has a great career ahead of him. He has been given a talent that many will never have and he is using it to bring glory to God. Nope, God does not care about a football game but he does care about how you are using your talents.
How are you using your God given talents?
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