As I highlighted in last week’s sermon, when all is said and done, the primary message of the Good News (i.e., Gospel) is that the task of earthly life is metanoia. What exactly is metanoia? It is, in essence, the foundation of the WAY. Metanoia is the work of changing our hearts and minds – our thinking and our behavior – to be in   concert with that of Jesus. It is our belief that Jesus is the model of how humans should live. Our Heavenly Father, knowing that we would not be able to figure this out on our own, came Himself in the Person of Jesus and became a model for us on how we should live if we want to become all that we were created to be. Earthly life is given to us for a purpose! And what is that purpose? To become the spiritual beings He created in His image and   likeness. We are here to learn!

I can assure you that there is no one living that does not have to engage in metanoia if they want to be a follower of Jesus – if they want to be the human that God created them to be. If you think that you don’t need to change I would only ask you to assess your attitudes and determine whether they are in concert with those of Jesus.

God, in His infinite wisdom and loving goodness, decided, when He created humankind, that He would provide us with free will. His love for us is so great that He took the chance of allowing us to freely return His love. This is true unconditional love! He believed that love has the power to bring all things into unity and harmony and the earthly experience He created for us delivers multiple opportunities for us to learn how much we are loved. His only desire is our free love and our good.

I believe that it was never God’s intention to create a situation where He would punish us. He shares His very life with us! He would, in effect, be punishing Himself if He created a situation where He would have to punish us. This does not mean, however, that we cannot bring a great deal of misery to ourselves. Whenever we are self-centered and selfish, we open ourselves to pain and misery. Whenever we refuse to unconditionally love and forgive, we diminish ourselves and bring ourselves pain. We are the ones who punish ourselves when we don’t try to live with nobility and magnanimity.

It is my belief that the spirituality of the Eastern Church offers a different understanding of earthly life and calls us to embrace the belief that God really and truly unconditionally loves us and only calls us to return His love for our own good.