The Reading from the Acts of the Apostles. (2:1-11) and from the Gospel according to St. John. (7:37-52; 8:12)

Today we are celebrating the great feast of Pentecost. The great pascal season has come to an end and culminated in this day. It was prefigured even by the Jews who celebrated Shavuot, the feast of weeks, which falls 50 days, seven weeks after the passover. On this day, tradition tells us that God gave the law to Moses. This is quite amazing since the gospel reading we heard 50 days ago on Easter, Holy Pascha ended with these words “For the law came through Moses but Grace and Truth through Jesus Christ.” Now, we are brought full circle in fulfillment of the feast.

During the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ and in His teachings He speaks about the fulfillment of this feast when He speaks on this 50 day feast of Shavuot. In today’s gospel we hear these words, “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.’” Now this He said about the Spirit, which those who believed in Him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

Our Lord is speaking of this celebration that we participate in today. A celebration of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles who were gathered together in Jerusalem. But whenever we celebrate a feast in the life of the Church we are not simply remembering a past event. We are not re-enacting it in the same way that we might do a civil war re-enactment. We are in fact bringing this event back to the front of our lives.

We are reminded by the Holy Church that any event that happens within the Church is an ongoing event for those who are participating in the life of the Holy Trinity. In other words, for all of the faithful. The crucifixion of Our Lord Jesus Christ happened at one historical moment in time and space and yet we are told that it transcends time and space to offer salvation to all of mankind, both before and after the event. This is possible, this is available to us because any act that involves God, must transcend time and limitations. God is timeless and infinite. Yet we participate in Him.

Our life in the Church is the fullness of the presence of the Holy Spirit. We go even further to say that according to the Holy Fathers of the Church there is not a single place on earth where one can go to somehow participate more in the grace of the Holy Spirit. Not Jerusalem, not disneyland, not the concert venue, not the football game. The Holy Spirit pours out His rich mercies within the life of the Church because the very foundations of the Church are built of the Spirit of God.

We are also reminded that there is not a thing that happens within the Church that is not somehow directed by and through and in the Holy Spirit. Our worship is spiritual in nature. The hymns were inspired by the Holy Spirit. The holy icons are written and guided by the Holy Spirit. The bread and the wine are transformed by the descent of the Spirit and each one of us is likewise transformed by this descent of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit inspires us to repent and turn back to God. And likewise when we see our sins and justify them rather than changing our way of life, that is a sign that we are rejecting the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. A very dangerous way to live, because we do not know when and if we will have the time necessary to properly repent in the future.

The Holy Spirit is according to the Church not a function, but one of the persons of the Trinity in the same way that God the Father has personhood and His only begotten Son Jesus Christ also has personhood. The Holy Spirit is equal in the substance of His godliness and divinity to the Father and the Son, yet He is unique as person.

Our Lord Jesus Christ told His disciples that He had to leave them in order to send them the Holy Spirit. Ten days after His ascension to the heavens, The Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples, we are told “like tongues of fire.” All of the sudden, they were clothed with the Holy Spirit. They each became individually, temples of the Holy Spirit and they became more. I’m going to tell you something that might sound strange or controversial. They became Christs. Don’t misunderstand me. They didn’t become the second person of the Trinity. They did not become the Son of God, but they became sons of God by grace. They became Christs, anointed ones. They received the anointing of the Holy Spirit so that they could be sent out into the world as the presence of God among His people. Each one of you who has received the sacrament of Chrismation has become a little Christ. A temple of the Holy Spirit. This spirit was not given to you so that you can live “your best life.” He was granted to you by grace, so that you might live a true life in Him. He was given to you so that you could have life that never dies. A life that participates in the Holy Trinity and in the kingdom.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem writes, “‘And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 2:3-4). They partook of fire, not of burning but of saving fire; of fire which consumes the thorns of sins, but gives luster to the soul. This is now coming upon you also, and that to strip away and consume your sins which are like thorns, and to brighten yet more that precious possession of your souls, and to give you grace; for He gave it then to the Apostles…” 

St. Cyril says that his listeners are now to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. They are to participate in Pentecost through their baptisms and chrismations.

And why does God want you to participate in the Holy Spirit? Because He loves you and desires to commune with you. He wants you to be purified, so that you can see Him who is pure. He desires to share Himself with you. He desires that you should dwell with Him as the Father dwells with the Son and the Spirit in the communion of love. For how long? Forever and ever, unto ages of ages. AMEN.

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. John. (17:1-13)

This reading from the gospel according to John is given to us as a bit of a preamble, a preparation for the Great Feast of Pentecost that we will celebrate next Sunday. In this passage we hear the words of the Lord praying his final prayers to God the Father before his life giving death. There are so many powerful words in this passage. For instance, John 17:5 “And now, O Father, glorify me in thy presence with the glory which I had with thee before the world was made.”

This is a bold statement of the relationship of Jesus Christ to His Father and the cosmic, powerful reality of the Son of God, who speaks of his glory that He had before the world had even come into existence.

But now I would like to focus on Jn 17:11 “Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are one.”

We know that this passage was a prayer for the strengthening of the disciples, who were about to endure a terrible psychological tribulation as they would have to deal with the fallout of having left their normal lives to follow a man that had been executed as a criminal and enemy of the state. But as we are so often reminded, these words of prayer from the mouth of Our Lord are words meant for each of His disciples including each of us.

I would like to take a few minutes to offer some practical advice on how we can live out the prayer of Our Lord Jesus Christ to be one. After all, Christ died so that we would be one as a community of Christians and one with God.

The first thing that we must do as Christians to be one, to be united, is to love Jesus Christ. We think we love Him, most of us admire some aspects of His teachings. Most of us believe in Him in some way, but what is required of us is something greater and that is absolute love. Absolute love is love of the teachings of Jesus Christ, as well as the person of Jesus Christ Himself. This love manifests itself especially in living life according to His teachings above all else and in prayer with Him. It is a fact that no relationship can survive long without true communication….Whenever there is a breakdown in communication, that is the first sign that things in a relationship will sour over time. How can we expect anything less in our relationship with God? It must be cultivated in prayer.

The next thing that we must do to be united as Christians is to follow the example of the Holy Fathers of the Church as seen in all of the ecumenical councils. Our Church is the Church of the councils. The First Ecumenical Council (whose memory we celebrate today) brought together the ranking bishops of the whole Christian world and this meeting was called by the Emperor Constantine the Great in order to bring about unity to the empire. We can also say that God used the emperor to safeguard the Church in oneness of mind. These men defended the Faith of the Church, they guarded the treasure that was passed down to them first by the Apostles. As we know it is not just important that you believe in Jesus, but that you believe in Him correctly. Anyone who says otherwise simply does not understand the nature and implications of truth. You believe in Jesus, good. Which Jesus do you believe in? If it is not the Jesus that is found in the New Testament and prophesied in the Old Testament and spoken of in the Church’s theology, then it is not the authentic Jesus of Nazareth, the messiah, the only begotten Son of God. It is some kind of imposter, a fraud, an idol. But it ain’t the Jesus handed down by the apostles and preached by His Church.

The next practical step to being one as a community gathered around Christ is to share of the sacraments of the Church together. The Church exists to bring the healing of Christ to His people and this happens through the sacramental and liturgical life of the Church. Having communion once a year is not enough, having confession once in your life is not enough. These sacraments are not meant to be exercises in religious piety, or routine habits. They are the required medicine for our souls and the maintenance and growth for our spiritual lives. They are not always easy, especially confession. Surgery is never easy, yet at times we find it necessary and quite beneficial. We bring all of our inner filth to confession before the priest. We leave nothing hidden due to shame. St. Nikolai of Zicha once said, “..In Confession, the Church wants one to show the wounds to his soul that he is hiding behind the appearance of health….In Confession, the Church wants one to reveal the festering sore on his soul…In Confession, the Church wants one who is playing the role of the splendid knight to show himself for what he is, the ruinous person he actually is when he is alone. No one goes to a physician to boast about his health. He goes in order to reveal to him the place on his health that is rotten.”

His Eminence Metropolitan Saba tells us that we should plan to confess at least 2-4 times a year. This is for our healing and great benefit.

Likewise we should receive Holy Communion on a regular basis but we also prepare for it so that we may receive the body and blood of Christ in a worthy manner. Because the bread and the wine are transformed into divine fire and light and we approach with boldness to partake and receive this within ourselves. How do we prepare? First we avoid partying and drunkenness on the evening before the liturgy. We should be sober minded as Christians and this is even more true when we are preparing to enter into the liturgy of the kingdom and to meet Christ face to face in the holy gifts. A typical Orthodox approach is to fast from midnight before the liturgy as well as to say a couple of the formal prayers before receiving communion. These are found in most of the Orthodox prayer books. Some say these prayers in the evening before bed and some say them on the morning of the liturgy.

We also make it our goal to show up on time for the liturgy, so that we can pray in an unhurried and attentive manner and give the Lord our focus for this brief period every week. I want to tell you with all love and firmness that it is completely inappropriate to come after the reading of the gospel and then receive Holy Communion. This is not a sign of faithfulness but an act of negligence on our part. There may be a couple of exceptions to this rule but in general there is very little stopping you from coming to the church on time and participating in prayers with your brothers and sisters. To come late is certainly better than staying home, but in such cases we should pray without receiving the gifts.

Finally another important step to being one as the body of Christ is to resolve differences with the folks around us as they arise. The Church is a community and a family, so harboring ill will or a grudge never solves a problem, it exasperates it. Most issues are miscommunications and misunderstandings but we should always be ready to talk and to forgive quickly so that we might heal whatever rift is there and we keep it from developing further. And of course this point is true not only in the Church but in the rest of our lives.

So please keep these steps in mind as we attempt to reach our ultimate goal of Christlike love. Love of our neighbors and love of God, and growth together, in the image and likeness of the Son of God, who loved us and gave His life for us. That we may be of one heart and one mind just as the Holy Trinity is One, Father, Son and Holy Spirit AMEN.

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. John. (9:1-38)

We are told that as Jesus was passing by He encountered a man who was blind. Some of the Church Fathers tell us that this man was unlike some of the other blind men that Our Lord had encountered because he did not have eyeballs, only empty sockets. Now as the Lord and His disciples encountered this man the disciples asked a very interesting question: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

That is a really profound question. The disciples felt at home asking these types of questions of the Lord Jesus, they had travelled with Him for a long time and they felt that when they were with Him, He was always unlocking the mysteries of life and God’s kingdom for them. So this was a good questions because it was conceived through their Jewish, old covenant understanding of life. They were under the impression that sin had caused these issues, that it was something like a curse from God.

What do we think about when bad things happen to us, or around us? Or when we hear a story about something bad happening to someone? Might we think that it was a punishment from God? Often when there is a natural disaster, people will blame God. It is interesting that at times the saints and Church Fathers will claim that a certain calamity was caused by God. St. John Chrysostom said exactly that after a great earthquake hit Constantinople. But St. John was a prophetic and powerful saint who spoke from a place of true, authentic spiritual knowledge gained through years of asceticism and spiritual struggle in the monastic life.

What would we think for instance if a man was building a church and he was up fixing the roof and then the roof collapsed and he died? Might we be inclined to think that God was punishing the man? Yet, the Holy Church, our mother, teaches us otherwise. Let us take for instance, the example of St. Athanasius of Mt. Athos. He was the founder of the Great Lavra.

While undertaking their church construction project, we are told that “foreseeing the time of his departure to the Lord, (he) prophesied about his impending end and besought the brethren not to be troubled over what he foresaw. “For Wisdom disposes otherwise than as people judge.” The brethren were perplexed and pondered the words of the saint.”

“After giving the brethren his final guidance and comforting all, the saint went to his cell to pray and emerged after prolonged prayer. Alert and joyful, the holy abbot went up with six of the brethren to the top of the church to inspect the construction. Suddenly, through the imperceptible will of God, the top of the church collapsed. Five of the brethren immediately gave up their souls to God. All who were nearby heard the saint call out to the Lord, “Glory to Thee, O God! Lord, Jesus Christ, help me!” before finding him dead a few moments later.

From the outside, we say it’s a tragedy, but we might also say, God punished him because he didn’t want the church built. We might say the same when we see a church catch on fire. But sometimes bad things are permitted because the end result will glorify God and be a cause for the salvation of everyone around. We see this clearly in the lives of the martyrs and we see it clearly in this gospel passage. Our Lord Jesus Christ invites the disciples into His world, into the mysteries of the kingdom. He tells them that it wasn’t a punishment for this man or for something that his parents had done, rather, it was “that the works of God might be made manifest in Him.”

It is a refreshing way to see our difficulties and trials in life. They are sometimes permitted so that we might grow in our prayer and reliance on God. They are sometimes permitted because they lead to the perfection of our souls. They are sometimes allowed because if we had not received them, we might not come to an authentic relationship with God and therefore we might not be healed and saved. They are, according to Our Lord Jesus Christ, allowed “that the works of God might be made manifest in us.” So there is a proper way to deal with our difficulties. Some difficulties might be caused by us, by our choices by our negligence, but other things are out of our control. They are permitted to help us become radiant children of God. They are allowed because through them others will say “look at how God loves us and works in our lives, praise be to God!”

While I am telling you this I am also aware that this will be a foreign concept for many of you. We are faced with this dichotomy in today’s reading. Sometimes we have eyes, but we don’t see clearly, we don’t see the reality of things. We can have physical sight but lack spiritual vision. The opposite can also be true. We might see things around us but we completely misunderstand them. As St. Athanasius said earlier, “For wisdom disposes otherwise than people judge.”

We have a clash of worldviews in this gospel reading. We have a clash of sight versus blindness. It is really a clash of faith versus unbelief. Sadly, it is often those who claim the most faith, who are the most in blindness because they fall into the trap that the Pharisees fell into. They put limits on what God can do and they have a very narrow understanding of what is possible with God. In fact if we are honest. We often fall into this trap. I do. Perhaps you do also. May God protect us from falling into this trap!

What are some remedies to this possible way of thinking? Here are a few: We study the Scriptures. We see miracles everywhere when we read the Holy Bible. We also see miracles everywhere when we read the lives of the saints. These stories open us up to what God can do in our lives even in the midst of trials and great tribulations. We have another very powerful tool at our disposal. We can bring to mind all of the many blessings which God has poured out on us. We can recall all of the times that things were going badly with us and then the Lord provided a resolution for us and took care of us. Sometimes we even have to recall when we went through great suffering and tragedies but God never left us. When we do this often, we will be free of blindness. We will see things as they are, ordered by God for each of us and for our salvation. We will see that God is indeed the center of the Universe and that if we are paying just a little attention we will see His merciful hand in everything regarding our lives, to Him alone be glory, honor and worship AMEN.

Source: Sermons

The reading is from the Gospel according to St. John Chapter 4:5- 42

Today in the Church’s calendar we honor St. Photini. She is quite a prominent saint in the catalogue of saints because the beginning of her story is told here in the gospel of St. John. She is better known as the Samaritan woman at the well.

We are all quite familiar with this story about Jesus who is left alone as his disciples enter the city to find food. He is now seated at the well and asks a woman who has also come to the well, for a drink of water. Normally such a request would be considered common place but this instance is quite different. You see she is a samaritan woman. She was considered an outsider, a heretic and ultimately a stranger to those who are devout Jews. Therefore it was not normal for any Jew to have conversation with such folk. But as we see throughout the four gospels, Our Lord Jesus Christ is not concerned with outer appearances, or impressing others….he is quite content breaking the mold. Let us take note here that Christ is often breaking the mold of the people’s limited expectations in the name of mercy and love towards others.

The Lord Jesus could have sat contently and said nothing at all. He could’ve said to himself….I have come only for the lost sheep of Israel. He could’ve worried about what others might have thought of him. But the truth of the matter is that God’s cares are not our cares. The fact of the matter was that Our Lord did not see an enemy, but a child of God….who was lost and in need of gentle but direct guidance. Our Lord Jesus is so wonderful precisely because he does not run away from a problem when we probably would. He finds a way to enter into dialogue with a woman who might also want nothing to do with him.

Our Lord grabs her attention by asking for a drink. She then reminds him that Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Then Jesus says something remarkable “If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, ‘give me a drink’, you would have asked Him and he would have given you living water.” Yet Photini’s focus is still on the water in the well, as she replies “sir you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep.” She has missed two very important things: 1) He is not speaking about the physical water. And 2) The well is much deeper than she realizes.

Our Lord answers her “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water shall become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” At this point she is still thinking about her physical thirst. But He will push her to realize that the true thirst is that which is deeper and more powerful, it is a spiritual. He will do this in an unconventional way by our standards, by pointing to her weakness, by pointing out her sins.

Take note, that it is only by pointing to her weakness and sins that he can begin to heal her. She is like each and every one of us. At times we are prideful and quite arrogant when in truth we have not taken a moral inventory of our lives and our situations. We are much more content “shooting” the messenger instead of daring to allow the message to bring us to the light and to change us. But He is the physician and the healer of our souls and as the divine surgeon He desires to cut out the cancer of our sins, to make us whole again. He wants to put light inside her so that she glows with this light of Christ, the light of grace.

This is why the Samaritan women was so special and why she bears the name Photini. Photo is the greek root for the word “light” Like the word photograph. She is the one who was brought to light at the well. She was enlightened by the Light of the world, Our Lord Jesus. This happened when He showed her all of her sins and when she received His correction with humility and repentance. This is the beginning of the way in which God heals us and we enter into His divine life. From that moment forward, she sits as an example of the witness we are to bring as Christians and bearers of light in the world. Her title is equal to the apostles! A title not lightly given to anyone.

She is a light-bearer, not in denial of her sins, not like those who are too arrogant or too “intelligent” to be taught. As we have seen in the case of Photini, the Lord knew all her sins, but her acknowledgment of such faults was the start of what made her become a saint. We are held accountable to the light who is Jesus Christ…..and there is nothing which is hidden from God, who sees everything, even the dark corners of our hearts. Therefore let us be children of the Light and let us walk accordingly in the light of Christ so that we will no longer thirst but will be filled with the cool and refreshing waters of grace and life through the Holy Spirit.

May this become our drink. May this become our life in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. AMEN!

Revised and adapted from original sermon preached on May 25^th, 2008

Source: Sermons

Today’s reading is from The Gospel according to St. John 5:1-15

The Gospel for this the third Sunday after Pascha is one that we are all quite familiar with.  It is rich with symbolism and meaning so we will try to focus on just a few points.

Let us put ourselves at the scene of this miraculous event in the life of Christ.  First we want to know when it happened in the context of the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ.  The story takes place in chapter 5 of the gospel according to St. John but the gospel is 21 chapters long.  Quite simply this tells us that the story takes place before the resurrection, or the crucifixion for that matter.  Now as I have reminded you in the past it is up to us to find the reason why the Church has chosen this lesson for this day. Nothing is coincidental, everything has a meaning and purpose in the church’s liturgical cycle. 

It seems clear that the gospel while not speaking directly of the resurrection is already an allusion to it.  The Life of Jesus is marked, even defined by his willingness and ability to grant life to all who come to him with a humble heart.   Now some of you are saying to yourselves “wait a minute” this man wasn’t dead,  Jesus didn’t give him life.  But we are mistaken.  Our Lord takes broken lives and broken dreams, broken hearts and even broken bones and he heals each of these.  In healing all of these He gives life.  As we have said in the past you are not truly dead unless you are spiritually dead and you are not truly alive unless you are spiritually alive.  Seen in this light it becomes quite clear that resurrection though not explicit, is the theme of this and many stories of healing.  We find the man here is very sick and lying on the ground…..he cannot even move, he has been in such a state for 38 years….38 years…….38 years.  After this amount of time sickness has become almost a part of who he is as a person.  To add insult to injury he must watch as others come and go and are healed of there illnesses while he is stuck.  If no other image sticks with you today remember this one…….The ill man who must move in order to be healed.  It is quite a shocking statement, it is also an impossibility !  If one is nearly paralyzed there is almost nothing he can do to move himself toward the thing which can heal him. 

I ask you to remember this statement not just today but every day of your life because at times we are each sick in the spirit.  We are the ones who know what we need to do in order to be made well, but since we are already so sick we cannot heal ourselves.  It is simply not within our strength to succeed. Some people come to confession and they say: I need to be less angry, I need to be more patient, I need to have less lust, I need to have more love. Repeat after me: It is not within my power to succeed. This is the very definition of “self-help.” For a Christian the idea of self-help is a lost cause. I cannot help myself because I am broken. I cannot heal myself because in truth I am in desperate need of healing. Where can I go? Who can offer me healing? Who can offer me salvation?

Enter Jesus Christ:  He comes to the man and asks him if he wants to be made well.  The man doesn’t respond with a yes, he is so used to disappointment that he simply says “I have no man to put me into the pool”  Some of you might be thinking “i’m sure someone will help him one of these days”  NO……it is clear that he has been like this for quite some time and no one is coming to help him because those who come to the pool have come to heal themselves and perhaps their loved ones.  But thank God for the Lord Jesus.  He does not need to lift even a finger. The Word of God simply raises the man by the very power of his word………..  These are the same words He now gives to us, take these words and live.  You who were dead in sins be made alive by his words.  Take up your stretcher and walk…….the flesh is passing but the spirit lives on.  We are called to healing in our spiritual lives and even more than that We are called to become runners of the spiritual marathon.   We are called not only to ask for spiritual healing, but to even become spiritual athletes. We are those who by the grace of God in faith and hope, contest for the faith, as the saints did. We do it in our daily lives.

So above all we must again Thank God for Our Lord Jesus Christ who has the ability to heal us not only of our physical but of our spiritual sicknesses…..to raise us from our beds.  Since He is the source of healing, each of us has to find new ways throughout our life to take new inspiration and power from His presence. We are called to look for new ways to bring Christ into our lives. One might do this by taking on the practice of reading one chapter from the gospels daily. Another might do this by spending more time in prayer at some point in the day. Another does this by serving the poor and the needy. Another does this by serving the Church. These along with the keeping of His commandments and the participation in the sacraments, are potent ways to bring ourselves into the presence of Christ.

He desires our healing. He desires our salvation. He desires to be with us and that we would be with Him. All of this is possible. We must remember that these things He does in our lives are very minor for the Lord of life and the conqueror of death itself.  Because He lives, we also will live.  Just as a loving father does not give his son a snake when he asks for a fish, likewise, if we will only ask for the gift of life with faith, with our whole heart, the Lord Jesus will never give us death.

I will leave you with a quote from St. Leo the Great of Rome. He writes,

“We must strive to be found partakers also of Christ’s Resurrection, and ‘pass from death unto life’ while we are in this body. We must die, therefore, to the devil and live to God: we must perish to iniquity that we may rise to righteousness. . . .

As we have borne the image of the earthy, so let us also bear the image of Him Who is from heaven, we must greatly rejoice over this change, whereby we are translated from earthly degradation to heavenly dignity through His unspeakable mercy, Who descended into our estate that He might promote us to His.” Thus has Christ fulfilled Adam’s quest for restoration….

“Let God’s people then recognize that they are a new creation in Christ, and with all vigilance understand by Whom they have been adopted and Whom they have adopted. These thoughts, dearly beloved, must be kept in mind not only for the Paschal festival, but also for the sanctification of the whole life… so that rising ever anew from all downfalls, we may deserve to attain to the incorruptible Resurrection of our glorified flesh in Christ Jesus our Lord. . .”. AMEN.

Christ is risen!

Originally delivered on May 18, 2008

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. John. (20:19-31)

The reading given to us on this the first Sunday after Pascha is a reminder of what was experienced by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They went into hiding and were terrified by the events of the Lord’s arrest and crucifixion. He was killed as a common criminal and an enemy of the Roman state. The disciples were not simply scared, they were paralyzed with fear. There was absolutely no thought of the resurrection in their minds. Although our Lord had warned them, it was too much for them to grasp mentally and emotionally during the turmoil that surrounded them. They trembled in fear as they hid themselves away, hoping that they would be forgotten, and praying that they would be spared.

Yet, according to the gospels this wasn’t the end of the story. More was to come. The Lord appeared to the disciples when they had lost all hope. He appeared to them in their darkest hour and from that moment on, their lives were completely changed. Nothing prepared them for the resurrection of Jesus. Nothing could ever change them after they had experienced it. Their lives from that moment forward, are a testimony and a witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In fact we get this word martyr precisely from the witness. And nearly every single disciple of the Lord Jesus became a martyr as they witnessed to the truth of His divinity and resurrection from the dead.

If you have seen someone rise from the dead after you have seen him killed, that sticks with you. That changes you. That makes you see life differently. This gave their lives a different purpose. They became single minded in their focus towards preaching the good news of the coming of God in the flesh. They became focused on teaching that we should repent and that God would indeed forgive us if we took our repentance seriously. They became focused on the need to build up the riches of the soul by communing with God instead of building up and storing the riches here in our earthly life. They became singularly focused on the need to introduce as many people as possible to the living God, the God who is love. The God who is truth and life. They knew this to be totally, completely and utterly true because they had witnessed a dead man rise from the dead three days later.

They were so convinced of this that they preached it and taught it everywhere and they were willing to give their lives for this belief without hesitation. This is the power of the resurrection that they observed and experienced.

In the course of this gospel reading we come across a couple of theological hot button issues. The first deals with forgiveness of sins. A common refrain from our protestant evangelical brethren is that one does not need to confess to a man, one can simply go straight to God. Yet here we see that Our Lord Jesus Christ, as one of His first acts after the resurrection is establishing good order and practice among His disciples. He breathes on them and says “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” By this the Lord clearly shows that there is a proper order to the spiritual life. God uses men who are given this specific task and the corresponding gift in order to heal men of their sins and to remove the wall that stands between them and God so that they can flourish and commune with the living God. It is noted here for our sakes, not for the disciples sakes.

Another interesting feature of this passage is a specific reference to Jesus as “God”. Many outsides and those who have not properly studied the New Testament, from atheists to Muslims to Jehovah’s witnesses to Mormons believe that Jesus is not God and they claim that He is never called God anywhere in the New Testament. Yet, we clearly see that this is not the case in John 20:28. Thomas answered Him, “My Lord and my God!” But it doesn’t end there, for that might not be a solid proof in and of itself but we have to see how Our Lord Jesus Christ responds to this exclamation. Here is His reply “Have you believed because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Had Thomas done something wrong, Our Lord would have surely corrected Him for the record and left that as a memorial to future generations. But He doesn’t. Instead He doubles down on Thomas’ claim and He comforts us who have not seen the Lord in the flesh. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

The resurrection of the Son of God is one of the very key elements of our Christian faith. It is a non-negotiable. Without it, our faith would fall apart and as St. Paul says, it would be “in vain.” But far from being in vain, we see the fact of the resurrection forever shaping the history of the world through the saints and martyrs who bravely and valiantly stand up for the truth of our teaching and proclaim it boldly everywhere in order to bring others this magnificent light and in order that those who receive the light may themselves become radiant bearers of light.

I see this when I turn around at Pascha when I bring out the lit candle from the altar. This light is the good news, the love of Christ being shared from one person to another. This light is a symbol of the light that completely eliminates the darkness of evil and sin in the world from one person to another. I love to see this light as it makes your faces shine and the joy washes across the church. You who have been baptized have received this light in truth and this is the light of Christ existing perfectly in divinity and humanity, the light of His resurrection! And it is this resurrection that we partake of and commune with when we receive the body and blood of Christ every week. Christ was and is our very life, not only of the body but also of the soul!

I leave you with a quote from Fr. Alexander Schmemann, he writes,

“Thus on Easter we celebrate Christ’s Resurrection as something that happened and still happens to us. For each one of us received the gift of that new life and the power to accept it and to live by it. It is a gift which radically alters our attitude toward everything in this world, including death. It makes it possible for us joyfully to affirm: “Death is no more!” Oh, death is still there, to be sure and we still face it and someday it will come and take us. But it is our whole faith that by His own death Christ changed the very nature of death, made it a passage—a “passover,” a “Pascha”—into the Kingdom of God, transforming the tragedy of tragedies into the ultimate victory. “Trampling down death by death,” He made us partakes of His Resurrection. This is why at the end of the Paschal Matins we say: “Christ is risen and life reigneth! Christ is risen and not one dead remains in the grave!”

― Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent: Journey to Pascha

Source: Sermons

[…] Following The Way Of Christ […]

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Mark. (10:32-45)

On this day we hear Our Lord Jesus Christ preparing His disciples for what is to come in the following days. Our Lord told the disciples everything that was to happen to Him. He did not hide anything from them at all. Yet, when all of the events of Holy Week, all of the events including the betrayal and arrest and imprisonment and yes, the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus occurred, the disciples were still completely unprepared. They were shocked, stunned by what was happening. Our Lord is telling them about His royal path of suffering as the humble servant, and in the midst of His teaching about suffering and death, the sons of thunder, James and John, come asking for a simple request. And we see that Our Lord is quite gracious to them. He asks them, “What do you want Me to do for you?” The Son of God is so generous to us, so humble, so willing to act on our behalf. Our Lord, the lover of mankind is pleased to hear our requests. To each one who come to Him in faith He says the same, “What do you want Me to do for you?” But of course there is a small catch. What we ask for has to be according to God’s will and it must be for our salvation. So the Lord waits for the sons of thunder to give their request and they ask, if they can sit in glory near the Lord, in the kingdom. They agree to split the glory as one wants to sit at the right hand of Jesus and one at the left.

Our Lord has just finished talking about going to His death, about experiencing the worst pain imaginable, about experiencing the greatest shame as He would hang naked upon the cross, but the disciples had not yet realized that He was quite serious. And they had not realized something else…in order to sit next to Christ, in order to be with Christ, in order to know Christ and commune with him, in order to share in His glory, we have to walk His path of suffering humbly, we have to be willing to make sacrifices and sometimes even give up our lives for the sake of following Christ.

Each one has to do this in their own way. A martyr does this by literally offering their lives for the sake of Christ. A monk or nun does likewise through their daily living. A priest or deacon sacrifices their lives to serve Christ and His Church. But each one of us can and must offer our lives to Christ. A husband or wife can offer their life to Christ by first honoring their marriage. When their marriage feels very difficult, that is when the sacrifice is that much more powerful and noteworthy. Parents can offer their lives by raising godly children in the faith. Parents can offer their lives by working to support the needs of their family without thinking about themselves.

Each one who follows Christ has to die in some ways. Each one has to put to death whatever is selfish or vain. Each one has to put to death sin in their lives. Each one has to put to death the things that are of the world in order to know God in truth. Each one of us has to learn to lay aside all earthly cares. This is part of our preparation for the eternal life. Each one of us is required to descend in humility in order that God might raise us up to a much higher state. Each one of us must offer our lives selflessly in order to grow in the likeness of Christ. If you aren’t willing to make any painful sacrifices and you aren’t willing to be uncomfortable, how can you claim to have faith and how can you know Christ who is the embodiment of true love? Christ the Lord is the King of glory, as He embraced being the innocent, suffering servant. He who descended in humility to the shame of crucifixion is raised to be seated in glory at the right hand of the Father!

On this the fifth and final Sunday of Great and Holy Lent, the Church as a wise mother also brings forth one of the greatest of all of her saints, Mary of Egypt. We read her life on Thursday evening. When Mary was in the world she was desired by many for her physical beauty and her lack of self-control and loose morals. Yet by God’s grace she was changed and she made this change permanent through heartfelt repentance and sorrow for her past. Through the love of Jesus Christ and prayers of the Mother of God, Mary of Egypt became once again desired by many more through the beauty of her soul and her chaste and harsh manner of life. What was once soiled and stained and broken, became radiant, and healed. As Mary offered her brokenness to the Mother of God, she was healed to such a degree that she herself became a great vessel of God’s grace.

Without knowing Scripture, her heart flowed with the word of God. Without being trained in theology, she grew in wisdom. She who had lived a life that was perverse and fleshly and full of sexual sin, later worked some of the greatest miracles recorded in any of the lives of the saints. She who greatly desired the attention and affection of all men, cast aside all of this in order to find true love that knew no end. This demonstrates that God’s desire is to heal and save us completely, regardless of our past history, regardless of the ways in which we may have struggled. Leave your past behind through repentance and confession. God is here, waiting to help us in the present and to give us a future!

Let me leave you with a beautiful quote from St. Kosmas Aitolos, a saint of the 18^th century. He writes,

“Blessed Mary of Egypt was twelve years old when she fell into the hands of the devil. She lived in sin day and night. But the merciful God enlightened her and she abandoned the world and went into the desert. There she led a hermit’s life for forty years. She was cleansed and became like an angel. God wished to give her rest, so He sent the holy ascetic Zosimas to hear her confession and to give her holy communion. Then He received her holy soul into paradise, where she rejoices with the angels. If there is anyone here like Blessed Mary, let him immediately weep and repent, now that he has time, and let him be assured that he will be saved as was Blessed Mary.”

Glory be to God forever AMEN.

Source: Sermons

The reading is from the gospel according to St. Mark 2:1-12

Today I would like to briefly explore the connection between St. Gregory Palamas and the second Sunday of Great Lent. First we must take a look at the gospel story of the paralyzed man. As Our Lord Christ encounters him He does something that was considered quite blasphemous at the time. He tells the man that his sins are forgiven. After a great degree of resistance from the on-lookers Our Lord asks “which is easier to say to the paralytic, “your sins are forgiven you” or to say “rise take up your bed and walk?”

I would submit that this is the connection to the great saint Gregory Palamas who lived almost 700 yrs ago. Gregory Palamas became archbishop of the great city of Thessaloniki (we know that St. Paul wrote at least two letters to the Christian community in that city some 650 years before Palamas). In fact, you can travel to Greece and visit the cathedral dedicated to him, and venerate his body which is in a side chapel of the church. This Gregory Palamas was called “the cause of all disorders and disturbances in the Church.” Now imagine that he was called “the cause of all disorders and disturbances in the Church” by the Patriarch of Constantinople himself. The year is 1344. This comment was made during a Church council and it caused this man to be thrown into prison for the next 4 years. Yet the Church in her wisdom has set aside this the second Sunday of Great Lent as Palamas Sunday.

Palamas understood through faithful practice that the body and soul must be saved together or they will perish together and he taught this quite publicly as bishop of the city of Thessaloníki. Among the spiritual practices taught by St. Gregory was the practice he learned from other monks called “stillness of the heart”, better known as hesychia or hesychasm. Stillness of the heart is the practice of quieting yourself to such a degree that you can finally come to hear the voice of God clearly in your heart as the psalmist writes “Be still and know that I am God.” 

This teaching was not endorsed by all of the leaders or teachers of the Church. In fact, I might go so far as to say that most Christian denominations still do not believe this teaching or it’s consequences. Many western Christians look at growing in their faith as a matter of intellectual growth, but Palamas, learning from the fathers, saw growth as requiring purification of the body in order to open a relationship with the Holy Spirit. We are walled off from God through our sins and passions, and the ascetical disciplines and the practice of prayerful stillness, renew us to receive gifts and treasures from God. Christ our God forgives us, but somehow we are still left with residue and scars from our sins and the filth of our souls. So these practices help us to be cleansed and to hasten our healing. We are open to synergy with the Holy Spirit.

“Be still and know that I am God.” Think about how difficult it would be to be still?

We are so easily distracted by so many things from smart phones to computers to television to movies to music that we are filled to the brim. All these not only distract but they add layers around our heart by numbing it and holding it captive. So these things distract our attention and focus elsewhere and they also leave us wanting more.

The truth is that many of us are afraid of quiet time. We must have a radio or TV in the background or we must be talking to someone. Are we afraid of what we will find without these distractions in our lives? Maybe, but we also know that unless you get rid of all the external pacifiers you cannot actually be pacified. We are always looking for a painkiller but we rarely remember that the pain is there to point us to the fact that there is a problem that needs a cure not a cover up. Our problem is that we are sinful and we have rejected God and by chasing and loving everything but God we have created the emptiness that we feel. Yet there is a cure. Our cure is to constantly and diligently seek Jesus Christ through prayer at every moment of the day. We follow this diligent search for the Lord by pursuing Him in the life of the Church which is His body.

St. Gregory defended the idea that he learned from others and put into practice in his own life, namely that through solitude (time alone) as well as constant prayer such as the Jesus Prayer, one could fully begin to hear God and to speak to Him in a meaningful way. By focusing all our attention on God one can actually begin to commune with Him and to even see His glorious light with the faculty of the heart. In fact, our theology and the lived experience of the Orthodox saints tells us that through this path, we actually, truly, really, begin to know God in His energies.

Today is a reminder of the struggles that we face as we are paralyzed by our own sins. It is a reminder that when God heals us, He heals all of us and not just a part. Knowing this each of you must continue to really give God your heart, mind, soul and strength. In this way He will see your heart as usable material that He can sculpt into His next masterpiece. Or a place that He can turn into His glorious temple!  I want to leave you with a quote a share nearly every year from St. Gregory Palamas, who writes, “Let not one think, my fellow Christian, that only priests and monks need to pray without ceasing and not laymen. No, no; every Christian without exception ought to dwell always in prayer.” AMEN.

Edited from 2-28-2010

Source: Sermons

Sunday of Orthodoxy The Holy Gospel according to St. John. (1:43-51)

Our reading is given today for the Sunday of Orthodoxy. This, the first Sunday in Great Lent is when we honor and commemorate the restoration of icons in all Christian churches which happened in the year 843 a.d., many hundreds of years before the Protestant reformation. Perhaps by divine providence this is our first Sunday together since we received the news that by your faith and generosity we have fully funded the first round of iconography for the Church. It is a really special gift that we are giving to one another and to the future faithful who will step foot into this church. We want people to be transported to another place when they come to pray. We want them to forget the world and it’s troubles. We want them to be fully immersed in the kingdom and the life of Christ. It is our Orthodox faith and understanding of worship which makes this possible.

As St. John of Kronstadt says, “The Church, through the temple and Divine service, acts upon the entire man, educates him wholly; acts upon his sight, hearing, smelling, feeling, taste, imagination, mind, and will, by the splendor of the icons and of the whole temple, by the ringing of bells, by the singing of the choir, by the fragrance of the incense, the kissing of the Gospel, of the cross and the holy icons, by the prosphoras, the singing, and sweet sound of the readings of the Scriptures.”

But the Sunday of Orthodoxy is actually much more than just the icons. It honors the whole Orthodox Church and her teachings and her life. In the Synodikon or proclamation of faith that is read today after our procession we will hear these words, “This is the Faith of the Apostles; this is the Faith of the Fathers; this is the Faith of the Orthodox; this is the Faith which has established the universe!”

Can you imagine such a gift? We have the faith which has not only been passed down unbroken from generation to generation. We have the faith that has established the Universe! The reason that we can say this with confidence is because we believe that Jesus Christ created the whole universe and we believe that His crucifixion and resurrection have saved the whole world from the full effects of sin. Do I truly believe that in my heart? Do we truly understand the honor and the responsibility that belongs to each of us because we are Christians in the unbroken Church?

We are part of a very special people. The Church that is truly holy and truly hears the words of the Lord Jesus and His apostles and obeys them. We are a part of the same Church as the great saints and fathers of the faith. The same Church that saw martyrs die for her teachings. And that brings us to today, March 9^th in Fuquay-Varina, NC. We have spoken of honor but what about our responsibility to the Church that has given us so much, to the Church that we have baptized our children in and where we ourselves where baptized, where we are married and where we will hopefully be buried.

As St. Tikhon put it “all the important events of our life are related to it, and it is ever ready to give us its help and blessing in all our needs and good undertakings, however unimportant they may seem. It supplies us with strength, good cheer and consolation, it heals, purifies and saves us.”

Now what are our responsibilities to this Church in return? We are to actively love her in all her ways. We spend time with her, in her services. We are to respect and cherish her teachings and never treat our own opinions as equal to hers. This has often been the case regarding teachings which seem politically or religiously inconvenient, but while our opinions can often bring harm, the teachings of the Church may offend some, but they bring life to any and everyone who accepts them with joy. Please remember that Church teaching is not subject to our approval. We subject ourselves to it and not vice versa. The teaching doesn’t answer to us, just as the Lord Jesus Christ does not answer to us, rather we submit ourselves to the doctrines of truth and life.

Finally, another great responsibility is to remember that we are the light of the world. It is not enough to be part of a special group of people. It means nothing if we hide this treasure for ourselves. Instead we should be like Philip in today’s reading when he told Nathaniel to “Come and see”. Invite others to come see your most precious treasure. Invite them to see your most prized possession. You can do this by being a great example of a Christian, by going out of your way to help others, by forgiving others, by carefully using words instead of carelessly speaking or talking inappropriately and finally we can invite others by telling them about the Church that we cherish and love. We are to become icons of the living God as Christ is the icon of the invisible God.

Yes our responsibility is more than just coming to church and hoarding the blessings for ourselves. Our responsibility is to be like Christ, to love everyone and to try to be a source of healing and peace which we will become by God’s grace. And if you are saying to yourself, “I don’t know where to begin…I’m not sure what I would tell someone about the Church” then I invite you to come and see with fresh eyes. Because the life of the Church must first be the joy of our lives before we can share this joy with others.

May all things be possible in and through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN!

First preached February 21, 2010

Source: Sermons