Today, now two weeks after Great and Holy Pascha, the Church dedicates this Sunday to the Myrrhbearing Women; these courageous women who stood by Christ not only at the beginning of His ministry, but even at the darkest moments while our Lord was on the Cross, without fear of reprisal from the Jewish/Roman authorities, and without fear of what others might have thought about them. We also remember today the example of the Noble Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus, the powerful member of the Sanhedrin and follower of Christ!
I want to take you back a few weeks ago to the at the Unnailing Vespers for Great and Holy Friday, where we took the body of our Lord off the cross, and the girls, representing the Myrrhbearing Women wrapped it in a fine linen as the body was prepared to go into the tomb. A few moments later, the choir sang one of the most recognizable hymns of Holy Week that begins “The Noble Joseph”…
Who was this “Noble” Joseph, who had the courage to ask Pilate for the Body of the savior? What about Nicodemus? This was proud member of the Sanhedrin, who as we read in scripture, not only defied the Jews, but helped to arrange the burial for Christ! Before Christ came into their lives, both of these men became rich overseeing the markets in Jerusalem. They both rose to prominence and became highly influential within Jewish circles. Like many in the Sanhedrin, they could have used their power and influence for their own gain…yet St. Mark calls Joseph in particular “Noble”…
The Noble Joseph…
The word that is used in Greek is εὐσχήμων which means “someone who properly uses their influence.” One who, in a high position of authority, uses the gifts and power that God had given them for the sake of virtue rather than selfish and evil ends.
Joseph and Nicodemus both were indeed εὐσχήμων. After being granted the body of our Lord, Joseph placed him in a new, and extremely expensive tomb hewn out of rock. Nicodemus came by night and took tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of Myrrh and Aloes to anoint the body of our Lord…using the gifts that the Lord had given both of these men for the glory of God.
As we enter into a new phase of life for our parish family, and indeed a new beginning after Great and Holy Pascha…how do we ourselves learn what it means to be “noble”. How can we properly use the gifts and influence that God has given us…and offer it back to Him?
The first thing we have to do is to come to the realization, just like Joseph, Nicodemus, and the rest of the Myrrhbearing Women, that EVERYTHING THAT WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN IN THIS LIFE WAS GIVEN TO US BY GOD HIMSELF.
This is completely backwards from what we have been taught, especially here in the United States. From an early age, the “Phronema” or the “mindset” of our society is that everything that we have (money, wealth, possessions, power, influence) was earned because of our own doing.
Yet we learn something quite different from the few words that our Lord offered at His trial. When Pilate rebuked Jesus and said: “Don’t you know I have the power crucify You, and the power to release You?
Jesus’s response is one that we shouldn’t forget: “You could have no power at all…unless it had been given you from above.”
Everything that we have in life, our family, our homes, our jobs, our wealth, our power, the entire world itself…does not belong to us. We have all been made stewards. We have all been given this God Given responsibility to take what we have received and use it all for His Glory.
God has given us our families, not to use for personal or selfish gains, but rather to grow in love with…to pray with…and to share in the joys and tribulations of life with.
We have been given a planet, that as we saw this past week, protects us and turns powerful explosions from the Sun into incredibly beautiful waves of brilliance in the sky. This planet isn’t ours to do with as we please but is one that we have to continually care for and nurture.
Perhaps one that is near and dear to us today, we have been given a Church after two years of waiting. These past few months, I cannot tell you how many visitors and travelers have come to one of our services in this temple and said to me how incredibly unique and blessed we are at St. Mary Magdalene.
Dear ones, we don’t deserve any of what we have been given. To quote St. Basil’s Liturgy, “…we have done nothing good upon the earth…”. Yet, through His tender compassion and love for us, He has deemed us worth to receive this incredible gift of a parish family. It falls not just on a few members of the flock, but on all of us, to be good stewards of what we have been given. Everyone who considers themselves members of this parish needs to remember what it means to be “noble”, and to use the gifts from God that we have been stewards of towards the building up of His Holy Church.
If you don’t have a ministry in which to participate in at the parish, come and see me. If you have a gift that you can offer for the up brining of this holy community…whether it is singing, landscaping, cleaning, organizing…offer it.
God has given us all different incomes and material gifts which we are called to use for His Glory. Every family in this Church cannot fall into the trap of thinking that a select group from the parish will take care of the finances needed to build up this Holy Community. All of us need to be good stewards and tithing on a regular basis, offering up our GOD GIVEN gifts back to him.
We haven’t been a parish to “pass the plate” in a long time, because the truth is (and forgive me if I offend anyone from another Church)…a good parish family shouldn’t need to. All of us, from the Archbishop to the smallest child with a piggy bank on their dresser should naturally be offering back to God that which he has given us to be stewards of.
Dear Ones, let us remember that every day what it means to be “noble”, following in the footsteps of all the Myrrhbearing women, Joseph, and Nicodemus who showed the way in which we should approach our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.