[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAlCze3ZFjA]
V. Rev. Fr. Nicholas Apostola
Pastor, St. Nicholas Orthodox Church
This is the eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, and the reading is taken from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 9:2-12. In this excerpt, St. Paul presents an argument to affirm the authenticity of his Apostolic authority, against some in the Corinthian community who appear to have challenged it.
From what we can understand of the arguments intended on undermining his authority, one point was that St. Paul’s did not exercise the normal prerogatives of an Apostle, such as being financially supported by the community. I say ‘from what we can understand’ because we have to infer the argument of those opposing St. Paul from how he has responded. We do not have other documents, such as the original letters coming from Corinth to St. Paul, to hear precisely what they were saying. Nevertheless, we can still glean a great deal from St. Paul’s writings.
Without inflating his Apostleship, he tells them simply, “If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.” (v. 2) He doesn’t raise his other missionary work as proof; he tells them to look to themselves and their own community, at the work he has done there in Corinth. This is proof enough.
He then addresses the Apostolic prerogatives that he has not availed himself of. “Do we not have the right to our food and drink? Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a wife, as the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?” (v.4-6) He is telling them plainly that just because he had not wanted to burden the community with supporting him and Barnabas, does not mean that he had forfeited this right. The Church community has a duty to support those preaching and ministering to them.
We are reminded in these verses of some historical facts. All of the original twelve Apostles, except for John, were married. Paul chose to remain unmarried, perhaps because of the arduous nature of the missionary activity he was called to, or perhaps because he felt that the Lord’s coming would be very soon and the new age would then begin. Regardless, he claims his right to be married, without feeling the need to exercise it. (cf. 1 Corinthians 7:23ff)
Similarly, we know that St. Paul was a tent maker. This is how he supported himself when he would go to a new city to preach the Gospel. He and many others sacrificed a great deal in order to bring the Good News of salvation to people everywhere.
He then begins a very down to earth way of explaining why he has a right to expect to be compensated for his ministry among them. “Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?” (v. 7) Each one of us feels that it is only fair that we receive adequate remuneration for our work. This is at the very heart of our life in common. This is the foundation of our economy. But, it is even more basic than that.
“Do I say this on human authority?” asks St. Paul. “Does not the law say the same? For it is written in the law of Moses, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.’ Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of a share in the crop.” (v.8-10) One of the more amazing aspects of the Law is that even three thousand or more years ago fair payment for work rendered was considered central to being in a right relationship with God. Moses tells us that God is concerned with just treatment of laborers.
All that St. Paul has said up until now was meant to prepare us for his central point: “If we have sown spiritual good among you, is it too much if we reap your material benefits? If others share this rightful claim upon you, do not we still more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.” (v.11-12)
Things are not so very different today as they were in first century Corinth. The question of clergy salaries remains lively. How much should the priest be compensated? Is he really worth it? At least in here in North America, this question still sparks a discussion.
There has rarely been a time more than our own when the “best and the brightest” were needed to devote themselves to the preaching of the Gospel. We live in an epoch of huge cultural shifts. People are searching for a way to understand the changes in society and find meaning — find God — in what they are experiencing. We need people who have more insight, more understanding, and more spiritual wisdom than the average person to help and minister to us. These persons need to be compensated at least as well as other professionals whom we regularly engage to assist us in our earthly existence. Very simply, if we ask people to help us spiritually, we need to support them and their families.
I believe that the single most important issue facing the Orthodox Church here is the adequate compensation of the clergy. If this issue is not addressed, the consequences will be dire. As St. Paul reminds us, “It is for oxen that God is concerned?” It is certainly both oxen and us.
King and martyr, murdered at Gilling, near Richmond, Yorkshire, England, on 20 August, 651, son of Osric, King of Deira in Britain. On the murder of his father by Cadwalla in 634, Oswin still quite young was carried away for safety into Wessex, but returned on the death of his kinsman St. Oswald, in 642, either because Oswy had bestowed upon him Deira, one portion of the Kingdom of Northumbria, himself ruling Bernicia, or, as is more probable, because the people of Deira chose him for king in preference to Oswy. Under his sway of seven years, peace, order, and happiness reigned throughout the kingdom. But in the relations between Oswy and Oswin there was apparent peace only, the former was employing every subtlety to bring about his rival’s death. At length Oswy declared an open warfare, and Oswin, unable to meet the superior forces of his adversary, disbanded his army, either from worldly prudence (Bede) or heroic virtue (monk of Tynemouth), and made his way for greater security to Hunwald an eorldoman upon whom he had lately conferred the fief of Gilling. Hunwald promised to conceal him but treacherously betrayed him to Ethelwin, one of Oswy’s officers, and he was murdered. He was buried at Gilling and soon afterwards transferred to Tynemouth, though another account says he was buried at Tynemouth. The anonymous monk of St. Albans, who in the reign of King Stephen was resident at Tynemouth, and there wrote the saint’s life, says that his memory was forgotten during the Danish troubles, but in 1065 his burial-place was made known by an apparition to a monk named Edmund, and his relics were translated on 11 March, 1100, and again on 20 August, 1103. At the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII there was still a shrine containing the body and vestments of St. Oswin. A portion of his body was preserved as a relic at Durham (cf. Smith, “Bede”, III, xiv). Eanfleda, Oswy’s queen, daughter of St. Edwin, prevailed upon him to found in reparation a monastery at Gilling, some remains of which still exist, though it was destroyed by the Danes. Bede in his “History” (III, xiv) gives a description of his character and features: “most generous to all men and above all things humble; tall of stature and of graceful bearing, with pleasant manner and engaging address”. There is now preserved in the British Museum (Cotton manuscript Galba A.5.) a psalter which until the fire of 1731 bore the inscription “Liber Oswini Regis.”These are all words that should be very familiar to the Christian and words that we should use each and everyday in our vocabulary. I have often said that one the hardest things a Christian is asked to do is to forgive. Not an easy task.
Today Scottish officials released Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi the convicted bomber of Pan Am Flight 103. 270 people were killed on that day over Lockerbie Scotland and al-Megrahi was the only one convicted of the bombing.
al-Megrahi was given life and Scottish law allows for the Justice minister to release people on compassionate grounds. He is suffering from cancer and is sure to die. The justification of releasing him was so he could die at home. Something that he did not allow his victims to do.
I believe in compassion and I believe in forgiveness but I also believe that a sentence is a sentence and it should be carried out. He was tried and found guilty and was given a life sentence. Again I understand compassion but by all accounts he was getting fair treatment in prison and could have been made comfortable until his end.
I believe that the release of this man flies in the face of justice for the 270 people who were killed on that day. It flies in the face of the memory of the 270 and in the face of their families.
This is not justice, this is not compassion, this is just wrong.
Question: Ann wants to hear Dave’s opinions on healthcare being a moral obligation.
Dave Ramsey’s advice: I think if I were arguing for government healthcare, that is the card I would play. The people who want the government to take over healthcare are playing that card because the issue is so emotional. Playing an emotional trump card is an excellent move on their part as part of a political snowjob.
But is it a moral obligation for the government to provide healthcare? Absolutely not. Healthcare is not a human right. We need to care for each other and have a process in the healthcare system for people with no coverage to be helped. But Jesus wouldn’t provide healthcare through the government. Nowhere in Scripture was the government used to help people. People helped each other.
There is nothing Christian about the government taking care of anyone. Churches can do it and have been and should do more. We should take care of each other. I think those who are ticked off about the government doing all this should start outgiving the government and put the government out of business.
Originally Posted Here
Let me set the stage for you. Jesus has just finished feeding the 5,000 people and he tells his friends to get in the boat and meet him on the other side. They get in the boat and set off and a big storm comes up. They are all huddled in the center of the boat in fear of their lives and they see Jesus out on the water, although they do not recognize that it is him. Peter asks that if it is in fact Jesus that he calls him out so he can walk on the water. He does, and Peter does. Then the wheels come off the wagon.
A big wave comes up and Peter takes his eyes off Jesus and he begins to sink. He cries out and asks Jesus to save him and of course Jesus does. Jesus chastises him a little and calls him a man of little faith. But we know the end of the story and Peter becomes one of the greatest of all of the Apostles.Peter’s mistake was not a lack of faith but rather a lack of trust. How often have we lacked the trust not only in God but in other people? Maybe we have been let down before and maybe we have been hurt before. We all need to trust in order for us to go through life. If we ever hope to make a difference then we need to trust. Trust in God and trust in yourself.
We face storms in life everyday. The waves come crashing over the side. Maybe the wave is money or maybe the wave is your health. It does not matter what the wave is as long as we keep our eyes fixed on the goal all will be well in life.It is very easy to trust God when the seas are calm but when the waves of life start to crash over the side it gets very difficult. These are the times when we need to throw our legs over the side and get out of the boat. Put your trust in Jesus and he will carry you to the other side of your troubles. Just take that first step and get out of the boat.
By the grace of God and the missionary zeal of Metropolitan Dimitrios of Irinopolis, the spreading of the word of God continues with the conversion of our African brothers. 1,780 newly illumined have been welcomed into the Church since the beginning of the year, and the philanthropic work in Tanzania continues.
St. Stylianos, the first Orthodox orphanage of the Holy Metropolis, which was inaugurated by Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Kition and Metropolitan Dimitrios of Irinopolis, has been completed.
This important and necessary work for the district was undertaken with the blessing of the Metropolitan of Kition, the help of “The Association to Fight the Scourge of Hunger, Cyprus,” and the philanthropic contributions of the sisters Norma and Alice Dimitriou of Lanarka, in the memory of Athena Dimitriou and Stella Papayianni.
The compound accommodates six residence rooms, baths, a kitchen, a dining room, a reading area, and areas for recreation and prayer. It is intended to house and protect 24 orphaned children, most of whom are suffering from the scourges of AIDS and malaria.
There, where the Muslims rule, after hard struggles, devout prayer, and systematic missionary work by the Greek and Cypriot missionaries (consisting of both clergy and laymen) thousands of Tanzanians have been baptized. At the same time, with the help of the Holy Metropolis, a number of new buildings have been erected including an Orthodox Clinic, three grade schools, two high schools, one kindergarten, and now the St. Stylianos Orphanage.
More Information: www.ocmc.org
Second, the Catholic Church does not teach that “health care” as such, without distinction, is a natural right. The “natural right” of health care is the divine bounty of food, water, and air without which all of us quickly die. This bounty comes from God directly. None of us own it, and none of us can morally withhold it from others. The remainder of health care is a political, not a natural, right, because it comes from our human efforts, creativity, and compassion. As a political right, health care should be apportioned according to need, not ability to pay or to benefit from the care. We reject the rationing of care. Those who are sickest should get the most care, regardless of age, status, or wealth. But how to do this is not self-evident. The decisions that we must collectively make about how to administer health care therefore fall under “prudential judgment.”
Third, in that category of prudential judgment, the Catholic Church does not teach that government should directly provide health care. Unlike a prudential concern like national defense, for which government monopolization is objectively good – it both limits violence overall and prevents the obvious abuses to which private armies are susceptible – health care should not be subject to federal monopolization. Preserving patient choice (through a flourishing private sector) is the only way to prevent a health care monopoly from denying care arbitrarily, as we learned from HMOs in the recent past. While a government monopoly would not be motivated by profit, it would be motivated by such bureaucratic standards as quotas and defined “best procedures,” which are equally beyond the influence of most citizens. The proper role of the government is to regulate the private sector, in order to foster healthy competition and to curtail abuses. Therefore any legislation that undermines the viability of the private sector is suspect. Private, religious hospitals and nursing homes, in particular, should be protected, because these are the ones most vigorously offering actual health care to the poorest of the poor.
The best way in practice to approach this balance of public and private roles is to spread the risks and costs of health care over the largest number of people. This is the principle underlying Medicaid and Medicare taxes, for example. But this principle assumes that the pool of taxable workers is sufficiently large, compared to those who draw the benefits, to be reasonably inexpensive and just. This assumption is at root a pro-life assumption! Indeed, we were a culture of life when such programs began. Only if we again foster a culture of life can we perpetuate the economic justice of taxing workers to pay health care for the poor. Without a growing population of youth, our growing population of retirees is outstripping our distribution systems. In a culture of death such as we have now, taxation to redistribute costs of medical care becomes both unjust and unsustainable.
Fourth, preventative care is a moral obligation of the individual to God and to his or her family and loved ones, not a right to be demanded from society. The gift of life comes only from God; to spurn that gift by seriously mistreating our own health is morally wrong. The most effective preventative care for most people is essentially free – good diet, moderate exercise, and sufficient sleep. But pre-natal and neo-natal care are examples of preventative care requiring medical expertise, and therefore cost; and this sort of care should be made available to all as far as possible.
Within these limits, the Church has been advocating for decades that health care be made more accessible to all, especially to the poor. Will the current health care reform proposals achieve these goals?
The current House reform bill, HR 3200, does not meet the first or the fourth standard. As Cardinal Justin Rigali has written for the USCCB Secretariat of Pro-life Activities, this bill circumvents the Hyde amendment (which prohibits federal funds from being used to pay for abortions) by drawing funding from new sources not covered by the Hyde amendment, and by creatively manipulating how federal funds covered by the Hyde amendment are accounted. It also provides a “public insurance option” without adequate limits, so that smaller employers especially will have a financial incentive to push all their employees into this public insurance. This will effectively prevent those employees from choosing any private insurance plans. This will saddle the working classes with additional taxes for inefficient and immoral entitlements. The Senate bill, HELP, is better than the House bill, as I understand it. It subsidizes care for the poor, rather than tending to monopolize care. But, it designates the limit of four times federal poverty level for the public insurance option, which still includes more than half of all workers. This would impinge on the vitality of the private sector. It also does not meet the first standard of explicitly excluding mandatory abortion coverage.
I encourage all of you to make you voice heard to our representatives in Congress. Tell them what they need to hear from us: no health care reform is better than the wrong sort of health care reform. Insist that they not permit themselves to be railroaded into the current too-costly and pro-abortion health care proposals. Insist on their support for proposals that respect the life and dignity of every human person, especially the unborn. And above all, pray for them, and for our country. (Please see the website for the Iowa Catholic Conference at www.iowacatholicconference.org and www.usccb.org/healthcare for more information)
So the question is to Tweet or not to Tweet? And we need to check what we send because you never know who is going to read what you send.
Today whilst watching TV I saw an ad with this young girl walking in the mall and other places. Everyone was saying hello to her and asking questions about what she was doing. The ad was about being careful what you put online as you never know who is going to see it. The answer is everyone is going to see it so be careful what you post!
Orthodox Christians mark August 16 as the Feast of the Icon “Not Made With Hands,” the miraculous face of Christ first left on a cloth sent to King Abgar of Edessa. The stories of the icon are swathed in the mists of history – but the image (or representations of it on icons) remain among the most popular of Orthodox images. It is frequently the icon that graces the entrance of a Church.
On a deeper level, it is an icon that points to Christ as the image of God and the true image of man. When looking upon His face we see both what we are as creatures (created in the image of God) and what we shall be as the children of the kingdom (conformed to His image). His face is more than face – it is countenance – the very presence of God directed toward us.
Read the Rest Here