The call to holiness is made ever-more explicit during this time when we celebrate the great feast of Pascha. As I have preached during this time, Pascha is our own Christian PASSOVER – the historical event which has truly formed us and is forming us as a People of God. It is not just a past historical event! It is the event which continues to form us as a people who truly sees the connection between us and our God. This event, because it reveals to us that the life we experience and enjoy is truly immortal and eternal, reveals to us that life is a sharing in God’s own divine life and that life’s journey is to make progress in becoming more and more like the person Jesus who shares our human nature.

As one might easily surmise, this understanding is much different than that subscribed to in Western Christian Churches. It is important, however, not to think of one way being right and the other wrong but, merely, to thank God for the way that we understand the journey of life. For me, the Eastern way is much more positive and a way that I can more easily embrace. It speaks very dramatically to the great love that our God has for us and flows from the way we worship.

Consider how we celebrated Pascha. We declared over and over again that Christ IS Risen from the dead. Hopefully these were not just idle words to us who sing them! They are meant to be words that call us to real belief in what God, by this event in history, revealed to us about human life through the life of His only -begotten son, Jesus.

The call to holiness, I truly believe, is a call to think about and reflect upon what we do and say in our worship and to fully embrace these beliefs. Our worship is meant to transform the way we think and behave. It proclaims the Good News that God has revealed. Ask yourself, What do I think the Good News is? I think it is essential that each of us attempts to answer this for ourselves!