Use It or Lose It!

The connection between physical health and spiritual health is unmistakable! But God won't allow active faith to disappear. If we neglect our Faith, He will give it to others!

“Father, you simply have to MOVE!” With that, my doctor, who was in the Marines as a young man, made it clear I had to change my sedentary lifestyle if I was to be healthy.

In other words, if I didn’t start moving and exercising, I was going to lose my health.

I had to use it or lose it.

That wake-up call was just what I needed at the time. But, I confess, it didn’t last.

Oh, sure, I did start exercising more, and I got on that treadmill that had become more of a clothes hanger than a workout machine. But as time passed, I made excuse after excuse as to why I didn’t have the time to exercise.

And that lasted until last year when I had a health scare that prompted my youngest daughter to look at me with a distraught look and say, “Dad, I sure hope you get to know my children.”

Wow!

That day, I began to get serious about paying attention to my physical health. After losing 100 pounds, I’m on my way to better health.

And you know what I discovered? I hate exercise!

Just like physical discipline, spiritual discipline is difficult, which is why the Church constantly calls us to an attentive lifestyle. It’s when I treat my spiritual health as just a hobby that I discover my spiritual life getting weaker and weaker. And that’s why Jesus told the People of God in His day that the Kingdom of God is going to be taken from them and given to others who will appreciate it and won’t take it for granted!

Look at our lesson today in Matthew 21:43-46:

The Lord said to the Jews who had come to him: “I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it. And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but when it falls on any one, it will crush him.”

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. But when they tried to arrest him, they feared the multitudes, because they held him to be a prophet.

Once again, Jesus confronts His own people, and especially the religious leaders of the people, since it is they who are most responsible for leading the people to dynamic and active participation in the faith.

And the Lord doesn’t mince words. Reading today’s Gospel Lesson does show why the leaders hated Jesus. He left them with only two choices: Repent or kill Him.

We know what they chose. And in doing so, history tells us that by 70 A.D., the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, and the city of Jerusalem was burned to the ground, the population was exiled, and the Romans renamed the area.

The Lord tells these religious people, “Use the Faith or lose the Faith.”

Many thousands decided to “use the faith” and formed the Christian Church’s nucleus.

But so many others decided to reject the Faith, and look what happened. The Holy Spirit came to a group of Gentiles, foreigners, and now all the tribes of the earth are participating in this Christian message centuries later! And the Orthodox Church continues the Mysteries of both the Temple and the Synagogue.

So, what blessing and warning should we take from this Gospel passage today?

Well, the blessing is that actively staying engaged and purposeful in our faith increases the strength of the faith we pass on to the next generation. If we use it, we will keep it! And so will our children!

The warning is that if the People of God, shaped by centuries of scripture, prophets, and Temple worship, could miss the Son of God, then we today cannot ever believe our faith will sustain itself on some “automatic pilot” attitude.

If we pass on a weak faith to the next generation, we shouldn’t be surprised to see the Faith go to “another nation” that WILL take it seriously and actively practice it!

Jesus said the Father seeks people to worship “in spirit and truth.” ( John 4:24) And God is no “respecter of persons.” (Romans 2:11) So, if those of us blessed woith the heritage of active Orthodox faith grow cold in our practice of the Faith, the Lord will move on to those who will practice the Faith. The current influx of new converts to Orthodoxy is proof that the Spirit is still active in calling everyone to the Fullness of the Faith.

History is full of the stories of nations that began with a loving devotion to God, only to see later generations forget their dedication, and the Lord took the blessing of the Faith from that nation and gave it to others.

It is still happening today. But it doesn’t have to. We can ask the Holy Spirit to reignite the flame of love in our hearts and genuinely appreciate the heritage of Faith we have inherited from the saints!

Tomorrow we celebrate the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos. The dedication of our Panagia to God becomes a heritage of Faith passed on to us today. If we will only treasure the things of God as the Theotokos, we will never be that generation that sees the blessings of Purposeful Orthodoxy going to others. God dosn;t abandon us. We abandon Him.

Today, your faith is strong in direct proportion to your practice and your love for your faith. The goal of the faith isn’t some thoughtless habit as much as it is about a dynamic relationship that becomes so “normal” and active that it is only natural that the generation following you would keep the faith active and alive in their lives as well. The Faith is our greatest treasure, and that treasure must be passed on to our children. The only way to do that is to prioritize Orthodoxy and GO TO CHURCH!

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. Watch the Faith Encouraged YouTube Channel here - https://www.youtube.com/@FaithEncouragedTV

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