Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

This morning I have in mind to speak only on the first sentence of today’s reading from 2 Corinthians. “It is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has commissioned us; he has put his seal upon us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” The translation that Joseph read this morning, which I think is the official translation of the archdiocese says “earnest,” which may be better. “Guarantee” is the way that it is in the Orthodox Study Bible. We’ll talk about that when we get to that.

Let’s reflect on this sentence. I want to draw your attention to one verb and two nouns. Let us speak, then, first of God’s establishing us—he has established us—second of his putting a seal on us; and third of his giving us the spirit as a guarantee—a pledge, an earnest, or, perhaps, as I shall say later, a down payment.

First, Paul declares, “God establishes us with you in Christ.” Now, what in the world does that possibly mean? “God establishes us with you in Christ.” Now observe that what is established is “us with you.” What is established is the relationship that joins Paul to the Corinthians. And what do you call that relationship? It’s called the Church. What is established, this complex of relationships, of all the members of an organism, the Church. Indeed, using the tools of vocabulary, grammar, and syntax—you can tell that somebody used to teach English Comp 101—using the tools of vocabulary, grammar, and syntax, I honestly don’t think that what Paul writes here is capable of any other meaning. He is declaring that God’s establishing act is what joins him to the Corinthians. He is speaking here of the Church and its relationship to the ministry of the Gospel.

This meaning was perfectly clear in former times, before the extreme privatization of the Christian experience that we associate with the Renaissance and the Reformation. For many centuries, it was obvious to all Christians that the proclamation of the Gospel was directed to the establishment, that is to say, the Church. That was the beginning point for all reflection about what Church means. It’s only fairly recently that the Gospel has to do with me and Jesus, and the Church is secondary. That’s a fairly recent idea, that me and Jesus. And then after me and Jesus get things set up, then we get church in here. For centuries, nobody, absolutely nobody, saw it that way. I think probably… At least I can point to some places in the Renaissance where one finds that.

What about the establishment of the Church? The Church is not established by the state. I know that in some countries you have an established Church, but the Church is not the establishment of the state. See, it’s going to be absolutely essential to say that. The idea that I would need the state’s permission to do any sacrament is unthinkable! And yet, a couple of months ago, an Orthodox bishop who lives not very far from here said it was illegal for me to do it. Let it be illegal! Let it be illegal. A lady down in Kentucky is in jail right now because she would not violate her conscience. Oh, I wish they had that in Illinois! You see, the Church is not an establishment of the state, nor does it rest on a merely societal consensus.

The Church does not come into being by Christians getting together and organizing themselves. Indeed, the Church is not established by its own organizational constitution and by-laws. The Church is not established by archdiocesan convention. The Church, beloved, is what God establishes. The Church is the ongoing historical community of covenant with God. This does not mean that the Church is perfect in the sense that all its members live righteous and holy lives. If the Church were perfect, my mere membership in it would finish that off! If all the Christians at Corinth had lived righteous and holy lives, we would likely not have these two apostolic letters to the Church at Corinth! If we inspect the Orthodox Church in our own country right this minute, it’s not difficult to tell it’s the same Church that was at Corinth. We perceive a number of distressing points of resemblance to the ancient Church at Corinth. Yet, notwithstanding the several grievous failings of which Paul accuses the Corinthian parish, he is still able to write to them, “It is God who establishes us with you in Christ.”

Now the idea arose for the first time in history about five centuries ago that the Church is invisible: the Church is not an organization; it’s an invisible, mystical reality. If that [were] the case, we would certainly not have 1 and 2 Corinthians, because one thing about a mystical, invisible reality is it doesn’t need any reformation. In fact, there’s no way to leave it.

The Church is not an invisible abstraction. It is not only an organization, it is an organism. The Church of God is made up of living people, specific individuals who have real names. In the case of Corinth, we’re fortunate to know the names of seven of its members, all of them who appear to be good guys, by the way. We know there were some bad guys at Corinth, but Paul does not name them; he just tells them to clean up their act, but he doesn’t name them. Among the good guys at Corinth, we know of Gaius, Crispus (Crispus means “curly”), Fortunatus (Fortunatus means “lucky”)—so we’ve got Curly and Lucky; we’ve got two of the people—then we’ve got Achaiaus, which simply means “the Greek.” It’s sort of like calling someone “Tex.” So besides Curly, Lucky, and Tex, who else is there at the Church at Corinth? [Laughter] Gaius, Chloe, Stephanus, and Sosthenes. These were real people.

That establishment of which Paul writes endures to the present day. Let us recall that the missionaries who founded the Church at Corinth were sent there by what church? Anybody? Antioch! Very good. I expected to hear at least a hundred voices there… The missionaries who founded the Church at Corinth were sent there by the Church at Antioch.

I thought of that connection with our own parish. It was a bishop sent from Antioch who received our own congregation into that identical historical establishment, the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. This was and remains the work of God, who establishes us with you in Christ.

Second, beloved, let’s talk about the seal of which St. Paul says that God has put his seal upon us. What is this seal, this sphragis? Sphragizo means to seal; sphragis is a seal. This seal is God’s mark on a human life. It is a sign that someone belongs to God. Of earliest times, this seal was understood to be the sign of the cross, by which the very body of the believer was marked. To this day, the flesh of the newly baptized Christian is several times marked with the sign of the cross, at which each time the congregation standing around asks God in the form of a monosyllabic prayer: “Seal!” We have that every time we have a baptism or a chrismation. You all stand around and invoke the Holy Spirit: “Seal! Seal! Seal!”

St. Paul refers to this seal more than once. For instance, he writes to the Ephesians of the Gospel of your salvation, “in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” Later in that same epistle, Paul exhorts the Ephesians, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” And that expression, “the seal of the Holy Spirit,” is still used in our own baptismal rite several times.

This seal signifies God’s continued protection of those who belong to him. You know, one of the Christians in the course of history who had a lot of deep spiritual problems was a German Christian by the name of Martin Luther. I don’t cite Luther very often as an authority, but I will this morning. When Luther felt oppressed, and particularly felt depressed by the demons—and he had a great deal of spiritual turmoil in his life—Luther had the custom of making the sign of the cross. He made it in the German fashion, like this. He made the sign of the cross over his flesh, and he would say, “Baptizatus sum; I have been baptized.” He put that in the absolute center of his soul. That is profoundly Christian sentiment: we put our baptism at the root of our souls. We identify ourselves by reason of this sealing that God put upon us.

This is the meaning the word several times has in the book of Revelation. This sealing corresponds to the sprinkling of the blood of the Lamb on the lintels and doorposts of Israel, their protection from the avenging angel who pays a midnight visit to the households of Egypt. This seal of the Holy Spirit is not magic. Like any seal, it can be lost; it can be violated. Indeed, in the service of baptism and chrismation, we explicitly pray that the new Christian will preserve the seal inviolate to the end of his life. This seal is something that God sees; it is his own mark on the believer’s life, and God protects what belongs to him.

It is easy to understand why Christians are devoutly disposed to renew the sign of the cross over their own bodies. Christian parents make the sign of the cross over the bodies of their little infants. There are various ways to do that. When I was a very little boy, I distinctly remember my mother making the sign of the cross, pretty much the German style, crossing me with her thumb: my head, my lips, my heart. That’s one of the ways to do it.

Christians make the sign of the cross frequently by way of renewing the grace of holy baptism. It is important that we stay in our baptisms. At the beginning of his treatise On Baptism, at the very end of the second century, the African theologian Tertullian says, “Sed nos pisciculi [secundum ichthoun nostrum Iesum Christum] in aqua nascimur nec aliter quam in aqua permanendo salvi sumus.” Let’s see if I can translate that. “Sed nos pisciculi”: hear the word pisces in there? Little fish, pisciculi. Secundum—and then he switches to Greek—”[secundum ichthoun nostrum Iesum Christum], like the big fish, Jesus Christ, in aqua nascimur, we are born in the water, nec aliter quam in aqua permanendo salvi sumus, and we cannot otherwise be saved than by remaining in the water.”

What does that mean? Constantly in the sentiments of the faith of baptism, constantly in conversion, constantly in repentance. To make the sign of the cross on oneself is a serious prayer for the divine protection, by way of renewing one’s baptismal dedication. The act itself, the sign of the cross, is a prayer to the Holy Spirit for the divine protection. It is the Christian’s public declaration that he belongs to God. Don’t ever be ashamed to make the sign of the cross—ever be ashamed to make the sign of the cross.

C1: Amen!

Fr. Pat: And make it as public as possible and as explicit as possible. It’s a testimony: I am baptized! And it’s so important. “I am baptized! I am a Christian! I belong to Christ, and God is my Father and my Protector.”

Third, let’s talk about the guarantee, the earnest, the pledge, that Paul mentions today. He declares that God has given his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. That’s the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit speaking in the heart of the believer. It’s important to say that, because there are Christians who don’t believe that the Holy Spirit gives us that assurance.

I suppose we’re obliged to use a word like “guarantee” if we translate the word into English. In truth, however, we do not have a completely adequate translation of this word. In fact, this underlying word, arrabon, which is what you have in the Greek text, is not even a Greek word. See, even Greek did not have an adequate expression! Arrabon is a Semitic word for which there are parallels in Syriac and in Arabic; it’s a Semitic word. It’s the word that we find in the Hebrew Bible about a surety, a guarantee, through the Old Testament. It’s interesting that when that word appears in the Hebrew text, the Septuagint or the Greek Scriptures don’t translate it. It’s like the word “Amen.” We don’t translate the word “Amen” unless you want to sound dumb, like “Verily, verily.”

Certain words should not be translated. “Alleluia” is one of them, although I suppose “praise the Lord” would work. But you don’t translate a word like this—at least, the ancients didn’t. The Greek translators of the Old Testament simply transliterated the word into Greek letters, because this Semitic word, arrabon, did not have an adequate equivalent, even in Greek. It’s a Semitic word; that is to say, it’s a word that comes from the Middle Eastern Greek trader. Have you ever haggled in a market with somebody from the Middle East? [Laughter] Yeah. I used to think of myself—I was a really good haggler. I lived three years in Italy, and I would go down to the flea market in Italy on Sunday afternoons, and I’d haggle with these guys. Of course, it helps if you know Italian. [Laughter] And I thought of myself as a very good haggler until the first time I tried to haggle with somebody in Jordan. Ho ho ho ho! I mean, he had my lunch and my supper! [Laughter]

But the Middle Eastern businessman is a real businessman, and this word comes from that setting. It’s a mercantile word. It’s a term drawn from the world of sales, deals, and commerce. It’s a word expressing the fundamental, foundational principle of all commerce, which is trust. Arrabon signifies the inviolability of a contract.

When our parish contracted builders to construct our parking lot, we and they signed an arrabon. It meant that they would construct the parking lot, and that we would pay them. I’m sure glad we had a signed document on that, because I’m not sure we wouldn’t be having even more problems even now. The document was a symbol of mutual trust, because trust is the foundation of all commercial activity, because it’s the foundation of all social life. We speak of “living up to” a contract.

Now on two occasions, writing to both the Corinthians and the Ephesians, Paul refers to the Holy Spirit as an arrabon. This reference means that the Holy Spirit is given to us as a pledge, a guarantee, of something that is to come. But the arrabon is not just a guarantee; it is also a down payment, and an arrabon works the way a down payment does. An arrabon is the presumption of ultimate possession. Thus when we make an initial arrabon on our homes, we start to reside in those homes right away; we don’t have to wait until we’ve paid off the house before we’re allowed to move in. As soon as the asphalt was laid in our parking lot, I notice you began to park there immediately, even though the parking lot wasn’t finished, and it certainly wasn’t paid for yet! You all presumed that! We’ve already signed a contract, made a down payment: we take possession. See, that’s the Holy Spirit.

To affirm that we have received the Holy Spirit as an arrabon means that we can already begin living the life of heaven, even here on earth. The gift of the Holy Spirit, beloved, really is a gift. Our Father in heaven actually gives us our own down payment on eternal life. In fact, eternal life itself is a gift.

Now let us be persuaded, let us be convinced, that from God’s side the deal is sealed. He has established us together in Christ. He has marked us as his own. With respect to this guarantee, nothing has power to hurt us. It is the resurrection of Christ—in the resurrection of Christ, the whole enterprise of the redemption was signed, sealed, and delivered. And that’s why, brothers and sisters, we have nothing to fear. We are marked with the blood of the Lamb. For the rest, we live in trust, resting our confidence in the Maker of heaven and earth. Amen.