Sunday, April 08, 2007

Restoring life

Christ is Risen!

OK, so it's going to be a short one, but I am a week late on this, though it definitely works today.

Lazarus Saturday--It dawned on me about halfway through the service, maybe after the Great Entrance, about how dead we all are before Christ, and to be honest, how weak I felt before Orthodoxy. Wrapped in the grave clothes, four days...and probably stinky.

But Christ, in His love for mankind, came to the tomb and called me out.

Please understand. I am not saying I did not love and worship God before I came to the Holy Orthodox Church. However, I know that I am moving toward becoming the person He created me to be at a much quicker pace within this place, largely due, I believe to the access to the Sacraments, to the deep theological well of the Fathers, and all else Orthodoxy provides.

So He called me out, and for that I am grateful.

The Church turned our attention to Lazarus and Christ's miracle the week before Great and Holy Saturday, a week before we observe His death and burial. In the Holy Scriptures, the miracle of Lazarus' resurrection comes right before the entrance into Jerusalem, before the waving of the palms, the betrayal and the death.

But as the service focused on that passage, the Eucharist reminded me that the greatest miracle of all, that which secures our hope, is yet to come.

Wait, He said. Just wait and see what I can do.

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