GOSPEL MESSAGE & RECORDING
Although the Qurbana is not a chronological order of the events of Jesus Christ, it does in some way highlight His birth, the institution of the Eucharist, and close to the end of the service when the Priest presents the Holy Mysteries to the congregation, the second coming. The Priest, before turning around toward the congregation says, “From thy Altar, may there descend pardon for they servants of Son of God, who came for our redemption, and who will come again for our resurrection and for the renewal of our race.” Here, close to the end of Qurbana, people are left with a sense that Jesus is coming again. That is, Christ is coming back to judge the world and to bring his believers to His kingdom. It leaves us with a sense of hope that we will see Jesus and reign with him forever. It also gives us a sense of relief that this world is not the end of our existence; there is more, and what lies ahead is better than what is here in the present.
In the Pauline epistle today, we hear the words of the Apostle Paul, “But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you, yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.” (1Thess. 5: 1-5) St. Paul is speaking about the second coming of Christ and how the time that precedes it should be of no surprise to us. That is why he says, “you have no need that I should write to you.” Because we as Christians should always be prepared spiritually -- ready for the day of the Lord. Also, we should not be surprised with what is happening in the world around us, that is, the political mayhem, the climate change, the unrest, the lack of natural resources, the wars, etc. Again, as Christians, this should not take us by surprise, because we know that these things will happen. If we look at the actual numbers, we find that the 20th century was the bloodiest century of all time. Global hunger is on the rise. Earthquakes are on the rise. Christ warned us about this when he said, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.” (Matthew 24: 6-7) But the takeaway is that we should not be alarmed. We should not be surprised and taken aback that humans are acting evil and our environment is unstable. I guess it is easy for me to say since we are generally living in prosperous times with government and financial stability; nevertheless, the fact remains, that we should be cognizant about what is going on in our world around us and be able to respond to it biblically.
Governments systems will arise and fall—democracy, theocracy. Economic systems will rise and fall—capitalism and communism. Empires like that of the Egyptians and Greek have come and gone. No one living during those prosperous empires would have thought it would come to an end. We who are living in the USA, do we think that this will last forever. We shouldn’t! One day this will also come to an end. So then, what does that mean? It does not mean we should be fatalists, but rather be aware that our hopes and dreams should not be placed in a country or system of governance.
Byzantine empire was considered by many Eastern Orthodox as God’s kingdom on earth. But eventually, the Ottoman Empire, a Muslim empire, conquered it. Does that mean Christianity was false? Absolutely not! Other religions are growing rapidly. Does this mean that Christ was wrong? The Bible teachings “in the latter times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons” (1 Tim. 4:1) Though this may be the case, we should stand firm in our love for Christ and not abandon him because everyone else is. In the latter days, there will be a remnant that stands for the Lord.
In later days there will also be a disillusionment about what is right and wrong. In Mat. 24:10, Christ teaches that “many will turn away from the faith.” First, in terms of hate and killing other human beings, the 21st century has been seen brutally on a full scale, from the genocides of Jew, Arameans and Assyrians, and many more. Even the prejudice and racism that we see in our present time is evidence of this. There is even now a disillusionment of what is male and female – what is biologically a woman can now be called a man, and what is biologically a man could be called a woman. St. Nilus, a saint of the Eastern Orthodox Church, prophesied that in the latter days, “men will fly like birds, and it will be hard to distinguish between male and female.” Let us live our faith as best as we can. Not to hate anyone. Yet, to stand up for what we believe in and hold fast to the faith that was handed down to us.