DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
Deuteronomy 10:14-21 (01/30) Second Reading
at the Vespers of the Three Hierarchs
In Praise
of God: Deuteronomy 10:14-21 SAAS, especially vs. 21:“He is your boast and your God, who
did these great and glorious things for you, the things you saw with your own
eyes.” Orthodox
are above all a People of praise and worship: “Let our mouths be filled
with Thy praise, O Lord, that we may sing of Thy
glory....Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.” Especially let us be grateful to the
Three Holy Hierarchs, Basil, Gregory, and John, for providing such rich and
wondrous hymns, and prayers for opening our mouths in praise and exaltation of
God.
The Liturgy
used most frequently by the Church, that resounds in our
hearts and issues so easily in song on our lips, comes from Archbishop
John Chrysostom. While the Liturgy
of Basil the Great sustains us in the struggle with our wounds and sins in the
days of Great Lent, reviving us again and again with the challenge,
“...who is sufficient to speak of Thy mighty acts, to make all Thy
praises to be heard, or to tell of all Thy wonders at every season?”
And never
forget, as we delight in the Glory of the Paschal Verses, that the words come
from the two Resurrection orations of Gregory the Theologian: “It is the
day of Resurrection, be illumined for the Feast, and embrace one another. Let us speak brothers, even unto those
who hate us, and forgive all for the sake of the Resurrection, and so together
let us cry out: Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling down death by death and upon those in the tombs, bestowing
life.”
The present
reading from Deuteronomy comprises two exhortations to the Church given in the
gleaming light of the august God to Whom belongs the
heavens and “...the earth and everything
in it” (vs. 14). Its
verses are marked by contrasts as Moses proclaims the majesty of God, and urges
us to “...serve Him, and hold fast to
Him” and swear by His Name (vs. 20).
First, the
great Seer reminds us: “Indeed, heaven
and heaven of heaven belong to the Lord your God, also the earth and everything
in it” (vs.14). He
calls on us to meditate upon the immensity, power, delicacy, and complexity of
the universe which modern science has illumined. What a call to adoration! Observe a cosmos that measures beyond us
in light years and beneath us to the tiniest mesons and particles and yet joins
our lives to all other living creatures.
All is from Thy hand, O Lord of the heavens and of the heaven of heavens! Rightly we sing, O Lord, “...there
are no bounds to the majesty of Thy holiness, and just art Thou in all Thy
works...”!
Then Moses
heightens the contrast: “The Lord chose
your fathers to love them; and He chose their seed after them, you above all nations,
as it is this day” (vs. 15).
His words foreshadow the condescension of God the Word: “In this
is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the
propitiation for our sins” (1 Jn. 4:10). The indescribably infinite God loves us
with a tender compassion ineffable and unimaginable.
And so,
says Moses, “...circumcise the foreskin
of your heart, and do not be stiff-necked any longer”
(Deut. 10:16). Submit yourselves to
God; open your hearts to Him!
Having brought us to our knees before the Lord, the Prophet once more
lifts our eyes to the supreme majesty of God: “For the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords,
the great God, mighty and awesome...” (vs. 17). Moses proclaims Him as the God Who
executes “...justice for the resident
alien, the fatherless, and the widow” (vs. 18), and Who requires us to do justice for and to love the dependent
and needy: “...love the resident aliens,
for you were resident aliens in the
Beloved of
the Lord, fear God with a holy fear and be lifted up to His presence. May we always reveal Him as our true
praise, glory and life (vss. 20-21).
Blessed be
the Name of the Lord, henceforth and for ever more!
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