The events of Palm Sunday (see following scripture) are so very rich in theological importance, I thought it might be good to try and put them in perspective.

That may sound quite presumptuous on my part, but I am aware that many people do not tie the different events of the day together.

There is a preface to the events of Palm Sunday in The Gospel according to Apostle Saint Matthew 20:17-19:

Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again.”

Note:

Jesus is to be betrayed TO the chief priests and TO the scribes. While this is obviously a reference to the act of betrayal of Judas, it is--in a larger sense--Christ's prophecy of a much more massive betrayal.

For Christ does not say, "The Son of Man will be greeted with cheers of 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of The Lord'. For Christ knew that those (the multitudes) who would greet Him as King would turn against Him in His hour of need before the chief priests and Pilate.

This is an integral part of understanding how Christ allows Israel and Rome to convict themselves.

Also, Christ answers the question of the ages: "Who killed Jesus?"

For it is those IN AUTHORITY who hand Christ over to "the Gentiles" (The Romans) to MOCK, SCOURGE and CRUCIFY Him.

Not only are Israel and Rome "co-conspirators" in BLASPHEMY, TORTURE and MURDER, but THE MULTITUDES take an active part in crying out for this to happen...the very same multitudes who had cheered His entry into Jerusalem are now those who JEER.

Virtually EVERYONE killed Jesus.

So, can anyone conceive that Christ Jesus took any joy from the greeting of the multitudes, except for the fact that their praise was perfected by The Father?

NEXT we see Christ in The Temple, and He is NOT there to win popularity points.

Anyone who understands anything about politics knows what a great force money can be in the decisions of politicians.

So, as Christ chased the money changers out of the temple AND then began healing the blind and the lame, He made himself an enemy to "the monetary powers" which the money changers represented AND the religious leaders OF AUTHORITY who had now ceased being religious and instead embraced POLITICS.

Certainly Christ (from what He prophesied) knew that these forces would quickly turn the good will of the multitudes against Him.

Still, just as Christ submitted to The Father, the hand of St John the Forerunner and His own creation (the waters) at Theophany, Christ also submitted Himself to the very praise which would eventually seal His fate.

Thus we can see that, as much as we rejoice on Palm Sunday, we are also remembering the beginning of the end, an end which Christ knew to be a certainty even before He entered the gates of the city.

Palm Sunday: The Triumphal Entry

Matthew 21:1-17 NKJV (also Mark 11, Luke 19, John 12)

Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them,

“Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her.

"Loose them and bring them to Me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.”

All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:

"Tell the daughter of Zion,

‘ Behold, your King is coming to you,
Lowly, and sitting on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them.

They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them.

And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:

“ Hosanna to the Son of David!

‘ Blessed is He who comes in the name
of the LORD!’

" Hosanna in the highest!”

And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?”

So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.”

Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.

And He said to them,

“It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’”

Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.

But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant and said to Him,

“Do You hear what these are saying?”

And Jesus said to them,

“Yes. Have you never read,

‘ Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise’?'"

Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there.

St Mary of Egypt

I've been surprised at how many Orthodox Christians there are on Facebook and how quickly I've found them.

It's been especially nice to reconnect with the St Herman of Alaska Brotherhood through Abbot Gerasim.

It's especially nice (as a songwriter) to have a way to link my profile there with my profile on Reverb Nation.

I'm going to start a group there called "Orthodox Circle" (if there isn't one already) and invite friends from there to join the group and stay connected here.

Joyous Fast!

Gordie

Prophet Malachi and Martyr Gordios

How much fun is this?

On OC, we get to have two name days: one on the calendar we observe and one on the calendar some of our friends observe.

However, it can be a bit confusing.

Through my parish of St Mary of Egypt, I follow the church (old) calendar.

Yet there is also an OCA parish nearby where I visit sometimes, and they are on the civil (new) calendar.

So, you can imagine I was surprise when my spiritual father (Fr Parthenios Turner of Nashville) sent me an email today, celebrating my name day.

And here I was focused on it being on the 16th.

Hey, who among us would tell our spiritual father he is mistaken?

In any case, if you visit my profile I have the information for Martyr Gordios (Gordie/Gordan/??????) posted there for all to see.

And, if you are busy today, just stop in on the 16th...

Schizophrenically yours,

Gordios/Gordie/Gordan/??????

P.S. I've just been informed that the other image in the icon on my page is NOT St Basil but rather Prophet Malachi who shares his name day with Martyr Gordios and St Genevieve.

Watch for a correction soon.

St Genevieve

This is from my response to the blog of a Methodist pastor I know, in which she pointed out that communion is an "open" practice within her tradition.

Easy on your comments...she's my sister ;^)

It is a wonderful thought that we might be authorized by Christ Jesus to share the Eucharist with all who approach His table.

In truth, it is proper for you, under the authority of your jurisdiction to do so, for that is an approved action recognized within the Methodist tradition.

Still, it is important that both communicant and presbyter be of like mind (one accord) when sharing of the mysteries of The Body and Blood of Christ Jesus.

It is within this mindset that ALL Christian traditions practice "open communion", for there is not one Christian tradition which refuses the Eucharist to those who are in one accord with the authority of the hierarchs and Holy Tradition of their particular Christian tradition.

In this presentation and acceptance of the Eucharist, the burden is not upon the recipient but rather on that person/presbyter who offers the mysterious supper, certifying the authenticity of the sacrament and proclaiming the authority to do so.

For the communicant, no matter their age, approaches the Cup of Christ as a child, trusting in the priest or bishop who shares the eucharist.

Paradoxically, there is no such thing as "open communion", for even those who call everyone to the Cup of Christ do so with a reminder that this is an act of faith.

Therefore, those who are without faith are not asked to partake of the Eucharist, for the requirement for "communion" would not be met under that circumstance.

Organized Christian traditions which teach that only baptized and chrysmated/confirmed Christians may partake of the Eucharist are simply remaining faithful to the teachings and authority of their particular Christian tradition, in the same manner that Methodists are being faithful to their own understandings of The Church and Her sacrament of holy communion.

Further, traditions which believe and teach that the elements of bread and wine are mystically and actually transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ--through the power of The Holy Spirit, by a presbyter or bishop with apostolic authority to do so--are doing a good service in withholding the mysteries of Christ from those who do not accept either the realities of the mysteries of Christ in the Eucharist or the apostolic authority of the bishop and his presbyters to both prepare and share the Eucharist.

There is an acknowledgement of this when prayed communally in The Orthodox Church prior to the partaking of the mysteries of The Body and Blood of The Lord Jesus Christ:

"...Of Thy Mystical Supper, O Son of God, accept me today as a communicant; for I will not speak of Thy Mystery to Thine enemies, neither like Judas will I give Thee a kiss; but like the thief will I confess Thee: Remember me, O Lord in Thy Kingdom..."

In Christ,

Gordie

I submitted to the alarm clock this morning.

It wasn't such a bad thing to have my sleep interrupted by the insidious chirp, chirp, chirp of my alarm clock. The clock has been with me for the past dozen (or so) moves about the world. You might say we are married to each other.

Last night, for the first night in quite a while, I went to bed and fell asleep in a flash...or, is that "like a flash"? Regardless, once my head eased onto the pillow, I cannot remember staying awake beyond a few seconds.

I slept soundly too. As far as I can tell, I wasn't interrupted by visions of sugar plums or sleigh bells ringing.

Earlier, I had been able to hear some excited little feet upstairs, running hither and yon, likely attempting to discern the contents in the colorful packages of varying shapes and sizes under their Christmas tree.

Those sounds served to be the best inducement to slumber I've heard in...oh, at least a year!.

I don't even know the names of the children upstairs. Still I'm certain that--in the midst of their Christmas Eve glee--they sounded more like tiny tots with their eyes all aglow than a four-legged caribou with a nose "you could even say it glows".

I do recall, as I was tucking myself in, I asked Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra (a great prayer warrior) to pray to God on my behalf, that by next year there would be someone sleeping next to me hogging all the covers, she in her kerchief and I in my San Diego Chargers cold-weather cap and three sets of thermal underwear.

Last night I had the bed linens all to myself. Good thing too, for when I awoke, I was consternated to realize I had virtually entrapped myself by subconsciously wrapping me very effectively in my sheets, blankets and bedspread.

You could even say I was "swaddled".

Ah, the point of the story!

When I was a child I learned that the baby "Christ The Lord" had been wrapped in swaddling cloths. Yet in the year of my confirmation in the Presbyterian Church, I had been given a current edition of The Holy Scriptures which read that The Baby had been "wrapped in folding cloths".

I sought out my minister for an explanation of this typo. He told me that, in the original scriptures, the words meant "folding cloths".

I would need to remember that the baby, Christ the Lord, got wrapped and folded, not swaddled.

You may be wondering why I'm not saying "The Baby Jesus". That's because this wasn't the baby Jesus...yet.

This was Christ our Lord, just as the archangel Gabriel had announced: