The Great Escape

What drives our selfish choices? Why are we often our own worst enemies? And is there an escape from this pattern of destructive living? Yes, but it might surprise you!

Sin is boring! It really is.

Because of my ordination and the blessing of the bishop, I am blessed to hear confessions from the faithful. Hearing confessions, I confess, is one of the most wonderful, challenging, and rewarding parts of my priesthood. And the reason is I get invited into the lives of people I genuinely love and respect. And I get to hear from them about their struggles. And I get to be used by God to say words of comfort and direction. Most of those words come not from me but from a place of mercy and grace that can only be from the Lord. I learn something about myself at every confession, and I leave there a better man because of it! All that to say “Sin is boring!”

It’s so predictable. It’s never creative. And it always sounds the same. That means that sin being boring means there is ALWAYS a way to avoid it IF we want to!

Creativity is beautiful! Sin is counterfeit, self-serving, and mundane! But there is an escape from such a dead-end way of living. Interested?

Look at our lesson today in 1 Corinthians 10:12-22:

Brethren, let any one who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, shun the worship of idols. I speak as to sensible men: judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a communion in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Consider Israel according to the flesh: are not those who eat the sacrifices partners in the altar? What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of the demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of the demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

Paul seems to say to us that the first step in learning how to avoid sin and escape the devil's traps for our lives is to admit we can’t do this by ourselves! We aren’t meant to be able to escape the traps of our sin alone. God designed us to do this hard work together! No Lone Ranger Christianity for us!

And we have to remember that sin, according to we Orthodox, isn’t merely the “breaking of a rule” but the wounding of our truest selves. Sin is the self-inflicted wound that weakens us, allows for spiritual infection within us, and causes us to be so enslaved to our self-inflicted pain that we don’t notice God or each other at all. Sin is a loner. Sin causes aloneness.

So, it isn’t an accident that Paul goes on to tell us that the key to escaping the woundedness of sin begins with rejecting all idolatry. All “false” worship must become hateful to me. I have to start by making sure my mind is clear about Who the True God is. He is Jesus Christ, my savior and only true lover of humanity! Every other temptation to “worship” anything and anyone lesser is a trap! And that trap makes it impossible to escape the slavery of sin and to avoid temptations.

Then Paul proves this by tying my clear-headed and focused trust that Jesus is my Lord to the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist. The Bread is real communion, a connection to the real Jesus. The Cup is really communion, connectedness, in the blood of Jesus. This is all about my relationship with Jesus and His disciples and saints. Disconnectedness grips my life, and communion in Christ makes me able to escape temptations!

My escape from sin and the death it produces is possible BECAUSE of my relationship, my connectedness, to Jesus Christ in the Mystery of His Church. Escaping sinful living doesn’t depend on “doing better” or fighting sin.” It comes from a positive, proactive choice to love Jesus Christ, strengthen my desire to be with Him, and let nothing break my connection with Him.

Tomorrow, we celebrate one of the 12 Major Feasts of the Christian Faith: The Dormition of the Theotokos. This remembrance of the falling asleep of Mary and her human appointment with mortality is called by the Church, the Summer Pascha. Once again, we are confronted with the message of the Faith that Jesus Christ defeats mortality. This defeat of mortality heals a foundational wound in humanity because the fear of mortality drives many of our selfish choices and behaviors. This escape from death is the Messsge the Church offers the world as an escape from sin through communion with the risen Lord Jesus, Who is the First of us to rise from the dead. This will now be the common experience of all humans. Mortality is defeated for all. How sad that some will choose to continue living selfish lives as if that weren’t true.

So, today, are you able to escape when you are tempted? Trust me when I say that it is the focused connection that was inbuilt by my regular and pious participation in the life of the Body of Christ in the Eucharist that makes me able to see the escape the Lord has prepared for me every time! It’s all about living a free and Normal Orthodox Life!

P.S. In faith, O you people, leap for joy while clapping your hands; and gather in gladness on this day with longing and shout in radiant jubilance. For the Theotokos comes nigh to departing from the earth unto the heights; and we glorify her with glory as the Mother of God in our unceasing hymns.

Fr. Barnabas Powell is the parish priest at Sts. Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene Greek Orthodox Church in Cumming, GA. He is also the founder of Faith Encouraged Ministries and produces the Faith Encouraged Daily Devotional on Substack.