by Fr. Jonathan H. Cholcher
“In the beginning God made heaven and earth.” (Genesis 1:1)
“The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom…godliness toward God is the beginning of perception.” (Proverbs 1:7, 8)
“Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth. For the Lord has spoken: ‘I have begotten and brought up sons, but they rejected Me…Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean. Put away the evils from your souls before My eyes. Cease from your evils. Learn to do good. Seek judgment and redeem the wronged. Defend the orphan and justify the widow. Come now, and let us reason together,’ says the Lord, ‘although your sins are like crimson, I shall make them white like snow, and although they are as scarlet, I shall make them white like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good things of the land.’” (Isaiah 1:2, 16-19)
Every year during Lent we learn again what it is not only to be truly Christian but to be truly human. To be truly human and Christian are one and the same, the fulfillment of God’s plan. This is why we read from the books of Genesis, Proverbs, and Isaiah. We learn of our beginning and the need to return to that beginning; therefore, Lent becomes a new beginning, or rather, a renewed beginning.
In Genesis chapter 1, basic definitions of our existence are stated. One, the uncreated God who is a plural – God, the Spirit of God, the Word of God, Us (i.e., the Holy Trinity) – made everything, both the heavenly, angelic realm and the material universe, from nothing. Two, space, physical zones, and time have certain dimensions, or divisions. Three, plants, animals, and ultimately human beings exist within those divisions according to specific kinds. Four, animals and human beings are blessed by God to reproduce thus manifesting God’s ongoing creation in life and growth, feeding on seed-bearing, proliferating plants. Five, human beings are uniquely fashioned in the image and likeness of God to unite the divine and creaturely in their accomplishment of the life given by God.
In Proverbs chapter 1, we focus on wisdom and instruction, that is, learning the very meaning of our life. Here the fear of God and godliness are the keys of knowledge. God created and sustains us, and apart from His gifts we cease to exist; thus, the fear of God is the respect, awe, and honor of God, not terror or dread, drawing us to live and grow according to His eternal design. Godliness (Gk., evsebeia) is that reverential attitude sometimes known as piety or religion which directs our senses and mindset always towards God and the discovery of His will. The discernment of God’s will – wisdom – depends on instruction (Gk., paideia, literally, “child-rearing”), that is, disciplined learning from the words and examples of our parents and reinforced or undone by the company we keep.
In Isaiah chapter 1, we receive God’s call to repentance, to return to the very Source of our existence. We have a choice: to conform ourselves once again to the doing of God’s commandments in righteousness, or to continue in our own prideful and self-gratifying way of life contrary to the law of God, often marked by excessive religiosity, to our own destruction. God created us to be in a relationship with Him as His true children, but we forsake God seeking to be the master of our own life. As long as we persist in our own lawless course, God will not even listen to our prayers. When we humble ourselves before God and acknowledge the reason for a truly blessed existence, then God restores and redeems us to that blessed life.
Can we attain the godly life anew? We must, if we genuinely want to know the Creator who put us here, how to live wisely according to God’s design, and grow in the grace of God despite our own doubts, misgivings, and habitual failings.
The godly life is possible because God has created us for this very purpose, and He has provided salvation – health, redemption, renewal – becoming One of us, Christ Jesus, the Son of God in the flesh. This was the great promise first given to Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:15) and perpetuated in God’s faithful patriarchs beginning with Abraham (Gen. 12:7f.). This promise is prophetically defined in Isaiah (e.g., 7:14; 9:5-6; 11:1-5; etc.). The Son of God, Jesus Christ, is the flesh and blood revelation of “the wisdom of God” (Prov. 8:23f.; 1 Cor. 1:30; Col. 2:3).
Furthermore, the godly life is possible because we have been freed from the grip of sin and evil in order to cooperate with God in this creation in Christ. During Lent we rediscover this great truth of our life through all the various disciplines of the season: fasting, prayer, almsgiving, Confession, contemplation of nature and the Word of God, participation in the services of the Church. By expending effort in the love of God, we “work out our salvation in fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12) and come to the knowledge of God by experience.
Let us begin!
