In January, it was good to own stock. Prices soared and, recently, the Dow hit a record high. For many of us, this is where we place our trust: it’s our financial security, our 401(k) retirement, our indication of good economic times. But then this month it started to plummet, having one if its worst days ever with a 1,100 point drop. If this scares us, then biblical prophecy has come true: we’ve put our trust in the wrong things. (Reflections on Forgiveness Sunday)
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Securing Money and Investments
According to statistics, just under 60% of Americans have money invested in the stock market. While some people bought stock directly, others have invested through mutual funds or 401(k)s.
For those who are investing for retirement, they’re hoping to get a big – or at least decent – return on their investment. After all, the goal is to sit back and enjoy retirement, and, if possible, enjoy a living similar to the one you lived while you worked.
Much like the 1920s, stocks have been doing well recently. The tech boom in the ‘90s made many young millionaires. Wouldn’t it be nice to go back in time and buy some Microsoft stock? Wouldn’t it be nice if money created a “paradise” for us? Easy living, vacations, multiple homes, nice cars… one could get used to living in paradise.
At the time of Jesus, the Judeans had investments, a “stock market” of their own. It was the Temple in Jerusalem. We tend to think of temples as houses of worship. But, in the ancient world, temples had a dual function: the place where the deity lived and the place where the money was kept.
Originally, the temple treasury held the grain offerings, which fed the temple priests (Levites). However, in later times, and by the time of Jesus, it was a bank. From this bank came the money that paid off Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus. From this bank came the money for the Roman governor Pontius Pilate to construct aqueducts.
It was in this bank, the Temple treasury, that the 1st century Judeans had placed their trust. They believed that it would give them the security they needed to be the vindicated people of God.
A Crash into Oblivion
But not so fast.
Earlier this month, stocks plummeted and investors got scared. The president’s claim that the stock market was doing better than ever was squashed as we saw the greatest drop in the market in history: 1,100 points in one day.
Some people claimed it was just a “correction phase.” Perhaps stock prices had just gotten too excited and this was the market “calming down.” Others weren’t so sure.
If things go south, this wouldn’t be the first time. In 1929, on Black Tuesday, the Great Crash of Wall Street happened, leading to a 12-year depression in America. Devastated people jumped out of windows several stories up, others lost their jobs, and many people stood in long bread lines just to survive.
Hardship was the way of life: a low point in American history.
This was precisely the sort of thing Jesus was trying to warn us about.
Do not store up treasures for yourself on the earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves penetrate by digging and steal (Matthew 6:19 DBH).
Do not store up treasure on earth… whether it’s in the stock market, bank accounts, pension funds, 401(k)s, or a Temple in Jerusalem.
Stocks crash, interest rates at the banks give little returns, and temples get destroyed by foreign armies.
No matter how hard we try, no matter how careful we are with our money, the reality is: it will come about that we are exiled from our paradise.
Paradise Lost: Walking in the Footsteps of Adam and Eve
Using the treasury of the Jerusalem Temple, Jesus was trying to make a connection between the security of this world, and the security of the world to come.
If you’re secure in this world: great! Good for you. But don’t trust in that. It could fail. And, even if it doesn’t, you’ll still be cast out of the paradise you’ve created for yourself because, ultimately, you’ll find yourself living in a coffin, six-feet under the ground.
In this, we are as Adam and Eve, who once lived the “good life,” relaxing in paradise – literally! But, their “stock market” crashed. They put their faith in themselves and disobeyed God. They ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and they were exiled out of paradise.
This Sunday, now known as Forgiveness Sunday, was originally known as the Sunday of the Expulsion from Paradise.
Our hymns still reflect this reality.
“Woe is me!” cried Adam in lament, “…eating from the tree has estranged me from the Paradise of delight. …Once the king of all God’s creatures on the earth, I am now viewed as a hostage because of one piece of illicit advice; and though once vested with the glory of immortality, I, as mortal, carry about the skin of deadness lamentably. Woe is me! Which lamentation shall I enlist to collaborate with me?” (Triodion stichera from Orthros, Dedes translation)
[And Adam said] “But Satan the crafty one used the serpent as his own instrument, and tricking with forbidden fruit, separated me from the glory of God. Thus he has returned me to earth by death in regions dark and deep. “O Master, being compassionate, call me back again, I pray.” (Triodion stichera from Vespers, Dedes translation)
We, like them, live in exile. Even if we’ve created a paradise for ourselves, the truth is, it’s only vanity, and it’ll fail.
Lamenting Our Lost Paradise
And so, realizing our present condition, we mourn. We lament. We fast.
Often, we think of fasting as an ascetical practice – a form of piety. There is something to be said about this. From this point-of-view, we fast to learn discipline. We seek to overcome the passions (anger, lust, pride, greed, avarice, vanity, and the rest) to gain interior freedom – apatheia, as the Fathers said.
The idea is to learn control through the stomach and then apply that control to all our passions. Only when we’ve freed ourselves from the control of our passions can we freely choose Christ.
But, originally, fasting was a lament. It was wailing for our loss of paradise. It was a demonstration of our sadness for having been exiled, a fate that ends in death.
The hymns for this Sunday still reflect this original intent.
For his disobedience Adam is exiled from Eden and is banned from its delight, for he let himself be moved by the woman’s words. Naked now, there he sits across from the garden, and he weeps, alas, and he laments. Therefore let all of us welcome now the period of the fast, the holy forty days of Lent, heeding evangelical traditions, so that we may thereby be pleasing and obedient to Christ, and that we may once again enjoy residence in Paradise. (Triodion stichera from Vespers, Dedes translation)
Adam sat opposite Paradise and, lamenting his nakedness, he wept, ‘Woe is me ! By evil deceit was I persuaded and robbed, and exiled far from glory. Woe is me ! Once naked in my simplicity, now I am in want. But, Paradise, no longer shall I enjoy your delight; no more shall I look upon the Lord my God and Maker, for I shall return to the earth whence I was taken. Merciful and compassionate Lord, I cry to you, ‘Have mercy on me who am fallen’. (Triodion stichera from Vespers, Archimandrite Ephrem translation)
Our fasting is interior wailing of our fallen condition. We cry at our present state.
And in our heartache, we act out our grief. Instead of feasting, we fast. This is all further corroborated by one of the lectionary readings from last week.
“Yet even now,” says the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and repents of evil. (Joel 2:12-13 RSV)
We fast from party foods eaten at celebrations – meat, wine, dairy, and oil – because it wouldn’t be appropriate to eat as if we’re having a fête.
We fast from celebrations of life – vacations, entertainment, sporting events, theaters, movies, parties, and the likes – because it wouldn’t be right to live as if nothing were wrong.
Our Lenten fast isn’t just a “spiritual practice.” It’s a manifestation of sorrow for a paradise that was once ours but is no longer.
Regaining Paradise
We’ve wrongly put our trust in what we can do, what investments we can save. And, we’ve found that the whole thing has crashed on us – or will soon crash. We’ll be left out in the cold, and we’ll be distressed at our loss.
But Christ offers us way back into paradise. He offers us a renewed life. The key? It all starts with forgiveness.
For, if you forgive men their offenses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; But if you should not forgive men, neither shall your Father forgive your offenses (Matthew 6:14 -15 DBH)
Forgiveness isn’t easy. I’ve seen families split apart because a mother and daughter, or a father and son, couldn’t forgive each other. I’ve seen people leave the church because they couldn’t forgive a brother or sister in Christ. I’ve seen communities wrecked because citizens couldn’t forgive someone for the way they voted.
Hardheartedness keeps us in exile. It keeps us in death. It keeps God’s forgiveness from us, and, so, it keeps us out of paradise.
But, through the cross, Christ has shown us another way. In the shadow of the cross, our stony hearts start to break. The Cross is the ultimate sign of forgiveness.
Seeing the Son sacrifice himself for us is forgiveness, and it becomes the pattern for our lives. It becomes the roadmap for us out of exile and back into paradise. It’s the key to real security and real treasure: free from moth, rust, and thieves.
This Lent, let us stop fooling ourselves. We live in exile. Let us learn to fast, lamenting the loss of paradise, a place that was, originally, prepared for us. Let us begin the journey home. And let us begin by forgiving one another.
P.S. Experience God’s forgiveness this Sunday.
St. Elias the Prophet (419 N. Grandview Ave., Dubuque)
Wednesdays during Lent: Presanctified Liturgy, 5:30 pm
Fridays during Lent: Akathist and Salutations, 5:30 pm
Saturdays: Great Vespers, 4 pm
Sundays: Orthros, 9 am; Divine Liturgy, 10 am
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