Every so often the liturgical calendar has a happy confluence. This weekend is such a one. Earlier today I concelebrated Orthros and Divine Liturgy for St. Luke the Evangelist. Tomorrow is the day of the Prophet Joel. And, the two are intimately linked. You see, the Prophet Joel prophesized the coming of the Holy Spirit. And, St. Luke recorded the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles.
But, that is not the interesting part of this confluence. For, you see, the one is a classical Jewish prophet, while the other is a convert. And, in the two together we find the reality of what the Orthodox Church could be today. This is the vision that we need to hold in our hearts and minds, a Jewish prophet and a Greek convert together.
Sadly, all too often our vision is of either the Prophet or the Evangelist winning. Either the “ethnics” will keep their identity with no compromise, or the “converts” will completely take over the Church and make it into something else. But, it need be neither one nor the other. The Prophet Joel and the Evangelist Luke co-exist side by side in our liturgical calendar. Can we co-exist side by side in real life?
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