What Has Changed?

There are times it feels like today’s Christians are living opposite lives than those of the ancient Church. In the ancient Church, many saints were known for their willingness to abandon the rationale of the world for the Logos of God. In the ancient Church many saints were known for their hope for a better life in the Kingdom to Come rather than placing their joy solely in the world. Much has changed, or am I just imagining things?

In today’s reading from Hebrews, Saint Paul reminds us of the surety of God’s promise for a better life in the Kingdom to Come. I doubt he would have had need to say such a thing if the majority of Christians truly experienced hope for their future, but that doesn’t mean they gave up. That is what I feel sometimes in our contemporary Christian journey. It sometimes feels like Christians have given up hope for the future in exchange for ‘lets hope for the best today.’

BRETHREN, we feel sure of better things that belong to salvation. For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love which you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness in realizing the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. – Hebrews 6.9-12

Today’s Gospel also makes me think things have changed. After witnessing God’s healing power, the crowd was charged to tell no one. Immediately they went out and spread the Good News of God’s Power to heal. Today, it seems more likely that people, if they have been healed by God, prefer to keep His blessings a total secret. The only difference is, now that Christ has risen from the dead, He EXPECTS to tell everyone, and yet we remain silent.

At that time, Jesus returned from the region of Tyre, and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of Dekapolis. And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech; and they besought him to lay his hand upon him. And taking him aside from the multitude privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. And he charged them to tell no one; but the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well: he even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak.” – Mark 7.31-37

Maybe nothing has changed after all. Maybe the difference is that we are no longer expecting anything from God. The first believers, being pious Jews, had spent their entire life expecting the coming of their Savior. While it is true the elites refused to recognize Christ as their Savior, many did. It should come as no surprise when they couldn’t keep quiet about His healing powers.

Unfortunately, today is another story. Most Christians go through daily life expecting nothing from God at all, at least in America. Most of us have plenty of food and shelter, even enough to spare. Most of us have access to the best medical care in the world. Most of us never experience a single day of persecution for our faith. I guess what has changed isn’t the world. What has changed is our blindness to God.

Instead of waiting for His promise, we have chosen to depend upon what we can see and feel. We don’t even think we need a savior because even our excellent medical care keeps extending life well beyond where it was even one hundred years ago. We have become, or so we think, totally self-sufficient, and that change is enough to spoil our salvation.

Fight the temptation to think you don’t need God. Just because the world is an easier place to live, for those of us in modern America at least, doesn’t mean our need for God has in any way decreased. In fact, I would suggest we need Him more today than ever before. Don’t let the Great Fast end without spending some real time dwelling upon your need for God, and then share with everyone you know just how much He has blessed you. Don’t let changing times change your faith.

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