Reflection for the 3rd Sunday in Lent 2025

‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’

As we have discussed, God uses imagery so we might clearly understand His intent for us, the picture He envisions for us. We will continue this study of God’s imagery throughout the Great Lent. 

May God’s imagery help us to achieve the vision He has for us and help us to arrive at Easter no longer ash, but light.

In last week’s reflection we concluded by praying that our Lenten disciplines strengthen us for the work we must do in the chaos, bringing light to overcome darkness.

This week God’s set of images call us to the charge of overcoming barrenness.

Jesus begins by issuing a set of very stark warnings, and the warning slightly hidden in the parable of the fig tree.

These kinds of warnings concerning consequences are the subject of vast theological and philosophical dances. We might regularly hear pastors saying – Well, Jesus didn’t really mean that, He was actually saying…

People tend to shy away from the idea of consequences, from the idea that they have to lie in the bed they made, that we can set aside God’s justice and take His mercy for granted. It is the very reason the word sin and the concept of hell are rarely if ever brought up – especially in churches.

In Jesus’ parable, the owner of the fig grove is God. He arrives expecting results and when He finds the tree that produces nothing, He orders it cut down – literally cut off from life.

The picture of barrenness is a stark one. Today’s image of the barren fig tree is not the only occasion for Jesus addressing a tree’s failure to produce. In Mark, Chapter 11 we see Jesus cursing a fig tree for failing to bear fruit even though it was out-of-season.

God expects us to bear fruit and to do so both in and out of season, to always be at the top of our game, in the action.

The other message we receive today is the assurance of help in the process. The owner, God, has waited for fruit for three years. He agrees to wait yet another year. The gardener, Jesus, will provide the tree with His grace by tending it, cultivating it, and fertilizing it. But there too we must take care not to take that grace and time for granted. Jesus’ tending, cultivation, and fertilization must be taken into ourselves so we may reach the result He wants.

The image of barrenness and death is juxtaposed with God’s image of life and fruitfulness. Which image we reflect is up to us.

March 2025 Newsletter – Lenten Leadership

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Leadership requires action and example. A good leader (and remember, we are all leaders) sets a vision and then engages with others to meet the vision. Consider what bad leaders do. They say: ‘Do this and do that’ but merely sit back and watch. They are not alongside in working to accomplish the vision. They take a lais·sez-faire approach. Even worse, they sit back and criticize when they think you’re not doing it right. We can rightly say: How can we do it right without leadership?

Jesus is the good and perfect leader. He placed His entire self on the line for the vision His Father had set, the establishment of the Kingdom. He led and taught others the how and why. He set out clear goals and worked to get there – He alongside His disciples. He corrected His disciples when they went astray, but did so in a fair and evenhanded manner.

On the First Sunday in Lent our Epistle is taken from St. Paul’s letter to the Church at Rome. Paul is doing two things. He is contrasting the Law of Moses with its legalistic claim against the free gift of salvific grace offered through Jesus. St. Paul tells the Church that they have the Word of God and that if they confess Jesus as Lord and believe fully in Him they have salvation. They need not offer animal and grain sacrifices or carry out other precepts of the Law to obtain forgiveness or salvation. It is already theirs in Jesus’ sacrifice.

So too for us.

From there, Paul calls on us to lead by our proclamation. This was a call to bold leadership because to confess Jesus as Lord was quite hazardous then. For a Jew it could mean being cast out of family and community including great economic sacrifice. For a Gentile the penalties could include not only separation from family and community, but also arrest and prosecution, later even martyrdom. That’s not too far from reality today. Yet, lead we must without fear. Let us engage and through our Lenten action and example draw many to Christ trusting the assurance that no one who believes in Jesus will be put to shame.

Welcome to our March 2025 Newsletter. We enter Lent on March 5th with Ash Wednesday. Lent provides us with apply opportunity to practice the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and sacrifice. Join in our Directed Giving program to provide food resources in our local community. Looking forward, we are preparing for our Seniorate Lenten Retreat on April 5th and our Basket Social on April 27th. Looking back we announce the winners of our Valentines Raffle. Congratulations to all who participated. You support the faith development of our youth. Read up about CarePortal’s Love Day 2025. What we do really matters. We announce upcoming Ordinations for three of our brothers, Tonsure, and Minor Orders for another five. God bless them! All that and a reflection on the Orthodox Hymn “Open To Me The Doors Of Repentance.”

Read up on all this and more in our March 2025 Newsletter.

Reflection for the 2nd Sunday in Lent 2025

Jesus took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray. While he was praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white.

As we have discussed, God uses imagery so we might clearly understand His intent for us, the picture He envisions for us. We will continue this study of God’s imagery throughout the Great Lent. 

May God’s imagery help us to achieve the vision He has for us and help us to arrive at Easter no longer ash, but light.

Last week we encountered the tremendous set of images where we saw with the eyes of our heart the fasting Jesus, tired and hungry in the dessert. There He was put to the test by Satan. We saw the rocks – would they be turned to bread, the mountain top with a supernatural view of all the kingdoms of the world, and the parapet of the Temple high above Mount Zion in Jerusalem.

Today, the eyes of our heart are taken to another mountaintop, Mount Tabor, where Jesus is Transfigured, appearing in all His glory, and standing between Moses and Elijah. The Patriarchs and Prophets give testimony to God’s Son come among us.

The three Apostles overwhelmed seek to react. We might have the same thoughts they did – what can we do and how will we do it.

Wait, let’s build three dwellings right here, then we can stay here with Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. Indeed, it is good that we are here. I will leave everything else behind just to remain.

The linchpin in the Gospel is the statement: they spoke of his exodus. Jesus’ path is made very clear. He is going to Jerusalem where He will be arrested, tortured, and killed, and on the third day rise.

The apostles wanted none of that bad stuff. How much better to stay on this mountain then to descend into the coming chaos.

Brothers and sisters, in this place, in this church, we ascend the mountain, and we commune with Christ Jesus. We experience His glory and are safe from the chaos out there. How lovely it would be, and I often picture this, to remain here, to rest here, to be in the Lord’s presence continually. Lovely yes, but not God’s will for us.

St. Paul, as he always does, makes it real for us. We must go out into the chaos filled with the grace we have received here and be those who thus conduct themselves according to the model [we] have in Jesus and His Apostles.

Through our Lenten disciplines let us strengthen ourselves for the work we must do in the chaos, bringing light to overcome darkness.

Reflection for the 1st Sunday in Lent 2025

When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.

This past Wednesday we entered the Great Lent. I pray that the Pre-Lenten season has prepared each of you for this journey we are now on together.

As we have discussed, God uses imagery so we might clearly understand His intent for us, the picture He envisions for us. We will continue this study of God’s imagery throughout the Great Lent. 

May God’s imagery help us to achieve the vision He has for us and help us to arrive at Easter no longer ash, but light.

We see a tremendous set of images in today’s Gospel. Jesus, having fasted for forty days and nights is put to the test by Satan. You see, all Jesus must do is give in just a little to gain bread for His hunger, power in the world, and ultimately provide a show for Satan by throwing Himself off the parapet of the Temple.

In resisting Satan, Jesus quotes Scriptures, “One does not live on bread alone.” and “You shall worship the Lord, your God, and Him alone shall you serve.”

In the third temptation, Satan quotes back two consecutive verses of Psalm 91, verses 11 and 12. In resisting Satan, Jesus recalls the next verse of that Psalm, verse 13: ‘You can tread upon the asp and the viper, trample the lion and the dragon.’ By resisting, by not giving in just a little, Jesus is victorious over Satan’s temptations. As the Gospel tells us, Satan will wait for another day.

Temptation is very real, and it gets redoubled during this holy season of the Great Lent. 

Think of the many small compromises we may be tempted to make. Consider still more how we might use Holy Scripture to justify our compromises and forego our disciplines.

Lent calls us to an enhanced level of care in our lives.

In our first reading from Deuteronomy, Moses speaks about the obligation of the Israelites to worship, to bring the first fruits of the soil, recognizing that they were given to them by the Lord, and to literally recite out loud the history of salvation. This wasn’t a mere exercise. It kept before the people of Israel the true center of their lives – God and His saving power.

The power of evil in this world calls us to forget God, to give in, to backslide, justify, and place God on the back back back burner – out of sight.

This Great Lent calls us to overcome all that. We are, like Jesus, to resist and persevere. Ultimately, Psalm 91:14 gives us assurance. If we cling to God, if we resist giving in just a little, we will be delivered, we will be set on high with Jesus.

Reflection for Ash Wednesday 2025

“Jesus said to his disciples:
When you give alms…
When you pray…
When you fast…”

As I have mentioned over the past several Pre-Lenten weeks, God speaks to us in images. We see Jesus setting out very clear pictures as to what good and worthy almsgiving, prayer, and fasting look like.

It is interesting that society at Jesus’ time and to our day see these virtuous activities as difficult, a chore, or as perhaps a way to earn cheap kudos from others. They and we tend to miss the point of these exercises.

Certainly almsgiving, prayer, and fasting work against the worst of sins. Almsgiving fights against our tendency to greed. The habit of prayer – having conversations with God whether in formal or informal words – brings the grace to resist pride, envy, and wrath. Fasting trains us for, and is a direct counter, in the fight against gluttony, lust, and laziness. Those are practical remedies. But consider, almsgiving, prayer, and fasting more importantly as an intimate experience of God being with us as we work to become more like Him.

Jesus, in telling us to go into our rooms to pray and in His other directives concerning fasting and charity sets a picture of a place where we and God commune and work together in the fight against sin. Jesus is telling us that these practices are a real occasion for joy – because in them we work toward victory.

There is a beautiful Orthodox Hymn sung at this time of the year: “Open To Me The Doors Of Repentance” It is short, and the lyrics as follows:

Open to me the doors of repentance O Lifegiver; for my spirit rises early to pray towards Thy Holy Temple, bearing the temple of my body all defiled. But in Thy Compassion purify me by the loving kindness of Thy Mercy. Now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. Lead me on the paths of Salvation O Mother of God, for I have covered my soul in shameful sins and have wasted my life in lazy acts. But by your intercessions, deliver me from all impurity. Have mercy on me O God according to Thy Great Mercy and according to the multitude of Thy Compassions blot out my transgressions. When I think of the many evil things I have done, wretched I am, I tremble at the fearful day of Judgement, but trusting in Thy loving kindness, like David I cry to Thee. Have mercy on me O God, have mercy on me O God, Have mercy on me O God according to Thy great Mercy.

The picture drawn here is of one who seeks God, who is self-aware of their failings, and the true darkness those failings entail. It shows that one approaching the Temple of God – the Holy Church – and with the help of our Blessed Mother’s intercession placing their full reliance on God’s mercy.

As we begin this journey let us rely on our true Lifegiver. As we take these ashes, a sign of where we are right now, let us rely on Him Whom the hymn calls the Lifegiver for that is Who our God is. We pray that He open to us the Doors of Repentance to us so that with the help of His mercy we receive the full and joy-filled benefits from our almsgiving, prayer, and fasting this Lent and arrive at Easter reflecting the image of what God has called us to be – no longer ash, but light.

Reflection for Sexagesima Sunday 2025

“Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give, and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”

Welcome to the second week of this Pre-Lenten season.

The Holy Church gives us this season so we might not jump into the Great Lent unprepared, but ready for a spiritual journey of transformation. What we are at the end of Lent needs be quite different from what we are now.

This season is akin to the stretching exercises an athlete does before they head out onto the track. This season of stretching ourselves helps in preventing spiritual injury – regrets and disappointments – because we were unprepared for our Lenten walk.

Last Sunday I noted that God uses imagery so we might clearly understand His intent for us, the picture He envisions for us.

In our first reading we see David presented with an opportunity to get rid of Saul who wanted David dead. Saul and his army was in search of David for that very reason. Saul’s anger was motivated by jealousy. Yet, despite what would have been expedient, David did the faithful thing, refusing to kill Saul. 

David trusted that God would save him. David didn’t need to take matters into his own hands. We see a picture of faithful David on a bluff above the army holding Saul’s water jug and spear which made the point better than any other solution.

Which do we want for our self-vision? Will we be Saul, acting on negativity, assembling an army to do damage to another, or is our self-vision one of faithfulness and doing right even if the wrong is easier and speedier? How do we want God to see us as He looks at us?  Who do we want to present before God on the day we meet Him?

Jesus paints a strong picture of the people He wants with Him, the people He will welcome into eternity. He wants loving, forgiving, tolerant, and faithful followers. He wants the Church to be those who walk the long walk, take the hard road, and because they do are outstanding examples of what it means to be God’s children.

If we take this Pre-Lenten opportunity for reflection and for a re-evaluation of our self-vision, we take the first steps toward being true children of the Most High Who is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked, Who is merciful to all.

Jesus came to show us the road to life, and to remind us of what God desires we pursue. So let us set to work in meeting His vision for us and reap a full measure of blessings.

Reflection for Septuagesima Sunday 2025

Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD. He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream

Welcome to the start of this Pre-Lenten season of Septuagesima.

The Holy Church gives us this season of preparation so we might not jump into the Great Lent unprepared, but ready for a spiritual marathon through which we pray to be transformed. What we are at the end of Lent needs be quite different from what we are at its start.

Keeping up the sports analogies, this season is akin to the stretching exercises an athlete does before they head out onto the track. This season of stretching ourselves helps in preventing spiritual injury – regrets and disappointments – because we were unprepared for our Lenten walk.

I have begun today by drawing pictures for you. Certainly, you can mentally see an image of a marathon runner, an athlete preparing by stretching, and an athlete ill-prepared getting injured.

God uses imagery today as He has done throughout history in order that we might clearly understand His intent for us, the picture He envisions for us.

Consider our first reading. We can see a dead tree standing in the middle of a lava wasteland. That tree has no life and bears no fruit. What could be beautiful and life giving is useless and an occasion for sorrow.

Is that what we would want for our self-vision? Is that what we would want God to see as He looks at us?  Is that what we would want to present before God on the day we meet Him? Of course not!

But if we turn away from God, if He is not our first priority, if His work is somewhere down our list, we are doing our best to end up a dead tree.

Yet, if we take this opportunity for reflection, for a re-evaluation of our self-vision we take the first steps toward being that living and fruitful tree; not only living and fruitful, but also fully assured no matter what may come.

We can see ourselves as that living and fruitful tree when we stretch out our hands and arms in prayer to the God Who lives and is merciful. We live when we turn to God, do His work, and make Him our priority.

It all comes down to what we want to look like in presenting ourselves to God and how we get there. 

Jesus came to show us the road to life, and to remind us of what God desires we pursue. He paints a picture of life and glory for us. So let us now set to work in meeting His vision for us, a living and flourishing people.

Reflection for the 5th Ordinary Sunday 2025

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me has not been ineffective. Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them; not I, however, but the grace of God that is with me.

Throughout the Christmas and Epiphany seasons we focused our attention on God’s self-revelation. He came among us, born as a man in a stable in Bethlehem. He was revealed that night to the shepherds. He was proclaimed by Simeon and Anna in the Temple and subsequently to the world through the Magi. At His baptism He, along with the fullness of the Holy Trinity was revealed. At the wedding in Cana His might was shown.

As we complete this short stint in Ordinary Time, and head into Pre-Lent next week, we hear Jesus calling us to the job of revelation.

Jesus, speaking to Simon Peter and thus to us says: “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”

It seems like a daunting task because we interpret it through the experience of the Apostles who left everything and followed Him.

Yet this task, this call to ministry is not difficult nor is it just intended for a few among the faithful.

Having read the accounts of the Prophets and Kings, having read or listened to the stories of Jesus’ Apostles and disciples, and knowing the stories of the saints through the ages gives us a rather global view of all that happened. We try to absorb a whole life story and then attempt to compare it to ourselves, where we are in this brief moment.

That is why it is essential that we study the moment of calling and then walk as the called did, following Jesus and trusting in Him.

Jesus never laid out for His called an exact roadmap of all their moments and experiences. Rather He just issued the call because He, as God, knows us intimately. He knows the skills and abilities we possess – even if we do not know them.

Paul left who he was and trusted in God’s redeeming grace. Paul let God’s grace move him and look at all he accomplished. Simon, James, and John took a leap-of-faith and followed Jesus. All the saints did likewise. Those called to sacred ministry the same.

So, it must be for each of us, for every faithful person. While we cannot exactly know what lies on the road ahead, we can trust Jesus. While we may not know the skill within us that God will use, we can let Him use it through our hands, minds, feet, and voices. What we must do is trust like St. Paul in saying: His grace to me has not been ineffective.

Reflection for the Solemnity of the Presentation 2025

Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord

Today, we complete the forty days of our Christmas observance.

For those not well versed in Mosaic Law there is a bit to unpack here.

The first item is the idea of purification. As our Gospel tells us: When the days were completed for their purification Joseph took Mary and Jesus to Jerusalem. A mother had to spend forty days in the process of purification from having given birth to a son. She was considered unclean or impure during those days and could not be seen in public, and most particularly not in the synagogue or Temple, nor around anything holy.

To complete the purification a sacrifice, a purification offering, was to be made. The Law required the offering of one-year-old lamb and a young pigeon or turtledove. Because Joseph and Mary were poor, they were allowed to offer a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. By the way, if a mother had given birth to a girl, under the Law she is considered unclean for eighty days. If you want to go into all the details read Leviticus 12.

As we all know, the old Law has passed away in Jesus’ sacrifice and our purification by confession and faith. So why do we pay very special attention to this day?

What is most telling for us is what happened on that day in the Temple and its parallels thirty-three years later.

Three plus decades later a purification offering was to be made. Jesus goes up to Jerusalem again to present Himself to the Father and to carry out the Father’s will. He would be that purification offering for us.

Consider as Jesus goes to Jerusalem, He drives out the money changers and sellers who were plying their trade to people who could not afford items for sacrifice – they were taking advantage of people just like Mary and Joseph.

Consider too the cost. Could we afford Jesus? Could we afford the cost of the sacrifice necessary for our salvation? Absolutely not! Even the richest person in the world is too poor to pay for salvation, for their sin, thus why Jesus had to pay our cost.

These parallels are underlined in Simeon’s words to Mary. Jesus would be the reason for the rise and fall of many, and a sign that would be contradicted.

Jesus’ coming has led to our being raised up. Because of Him we are a contradiction to the worldly. As He is our light so are we a light to all who would come to Him.