Hosea & Matthew Hate Largesse
God is the only authority. Whenever we pretend to have authority, He bursts it into smithereens with the power of His word. The prophets are the mouthes of God. Their sole purpose is to pronounce His word so that we may hear His instructions, and obey them with fear. The evangelists serve a similar role. Through stories they illustrate the instructions of God. The minor prophet Hosea and St. Matthew pronounce a holy judgment upon us who worship largesse instead of God, who follow our own ways and call God's way evil.
St. Paul is as clear as a smogless Los Angeles Summer day.
they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25).
We love parishes of 300 people and 500 people. Our deepest desire is to have a parish of 1000 people. When we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and His resurrection we have 1500-2000 people worshipping at once, and this puts us in a state of ecstasy. During our Epiphany celebration we have close to 10,000 people gathered to supposedly worship the God of the Prophets and the Apostles. Have we read the Prophets and the Apostles, and asked ourselves what they have to say regarding this matter?
So, for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men (Matthew 15:6-9)
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge,I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. The more they multiplied, the more they sinned against me;I will change their glory into shame.They feed on the
sin of My people and direct their desire toward their iniquity (Hosea 4:6-8).
In the Ethiopian Orthodox Church the first 24 days of every month is a holiday. During these holidays, and indeed everyday, the divine liturgy is celebrated in Ethiopia. Any time the divine liturgy is celebrated the epistles, psalms and gospels are read. This is good. This is true knowledge. But, scarce is the knowledge of the word of God. We are more accustomed to hand-me-down pagan myths, wives' tales, hagiographies, prayer books and the beautiful melodies of our divine liturgy that are in a language we forgot long ago.
What can we do? We need to train as many Orthodox bishops, priests and deacons in the instructions of God, and have them feed a manageable flock. 5 servants can not feed a flock of 300. Nor can 100 servants feed a flock of 1000. For some shepherds, a flock of 20-50 is manageable. Others can only handle 5-10. Additionally, there are those who can only manage 1-3. If you are a shepherd, examine yourself. How many believers can you feed the word of God to and learn their stories to make sure that they are steadfastly obedient to God's instruction? When we multiply in numbers, the rituals and traditions we crafted with our hands are outwardly beautiful. But, if they are not backed by the invisible inward beauty of obeying God's instructions, then we have transformed ourselves into whitewashed tombs that worship the works of their own hands.
Lord Jesus Christ Son of God have mercy on us sinners, keep us from the idolatry of works we make with our hands and grant us the wisdom to humbly feed your flock that we may glorify you in all that we do.
Furthermore, we must love each other.