What is peace?

The Reading from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians. (2:14-22) and The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (13:10-17)

In today’s epistle reading St. Paul tells the church at Ephesus that Christ is our peace. Those are important words for us. I would like us to meditate upon what that means for our lives. Christ is our peace. The first way in which Christ is our peace is that He himself has broken down the wall that existed between us and God. What was this wall made of and when was this wall built?
It was built first by Adam and Eve when they transgressed and fell in the garden. It was a wall of rebellion (which is sin) against God and His commandments. Due this rebellion, other walls were also built to fortify this wall, such as walls of shame. In this way we reinforce our decisions not to honor and obey and live with God and we further isolate ourselves until we feel that we are completely estranged from everything and everyone that we love, or rather, that loves us. In truth when we live in this kind of rebelliousness we don’t sense that others love us. We only sense that everyone is out to get us. That is a dysfunctional state of being but it is all the more dysfunctional when we apply this to our relationship with God almighty.
But the apostle Paul tells us that these walls have been broken down by Jesus Christ. How did he break them down? He broke them down by offering Himself, His broken body and His shed blood for us and for the life of the world. St. Sophrony of Essex would say that Jesus Christ justified God before man and that He justified man before God. How so?
Christ justified God before man in that He became man and lived with us and sacrificially gave His life for us in order to prove exactly how much God loved mankind. And then Christ justified man before God because by becoming man Himself, the Lord Jesus lived a perfect human life worthy of all praise and honor before God. In doing this He justifies man by showing God that man is indeed worth saving because man can live righteously, in holiness and love for everyone. In Christ we see the potential of man.
So these two sides of the coin work together to demonstrate that Jesus Christ is our peace. We were at war within ourselves, at war because of our sins, at war due to the outward laws and ordinances of the Jewish Mosaic laws and at war with God (or that was how it seemed). But because of His love which is clearly demonstrated for us, no one can open their mouth against the love of God. They try often and appear foolish because God’s love is clearly seen in all of creation and especially in the work of our salvation through the selfless offering of Our Lord Jesus Christ upon the wood of the cross.
St. Paul tells us that Christ “preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near for through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.” This is firstly a reference to the difference between the Jews and the gentiles, but we read deeper and see it as a reference to those who had some type of relationship with the living God and those who had no relationship whatsoever with the truth of the living God.
The apostle tells us that both groups of people now have equal access to the Holy Spirit because of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We can live in, through and with the Holy Spirit. In fact, we MUST! Whatever you are chasing in life is merely an idol if it doesn’t somehow honor and glorify and bring Christ to the center of our lives.

We chase so many things because we think that they will bring us peace. We chase wealth and power and identity and freedom and autonomy as well as relationships and experiences and affirmation and attention and love. Yet these things cannot give us life apart from the giver of life Himself. We can’t take a top down approach with peace. Peace starts from the foundation which is built on Christ who is the cornerstone of the foundation. Everything is then built upon this foundation so that the whole temple will be solid, and strong. So that it will last forever, because you are meant to live forever with Christ.

Stop pretending to be like the rest of the world when you are not, you are citizens of Christ. You are no longer strangers, so stop estranging yourselves from God through sinful and impure living. And the chief of those sins is to put anything in the place of God. To seek real peace part from Christ. St. Paul give us great encouragement and hope by telling us that we are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. What an honor and a blessing! Although we don’t deserve any of it, the Lord made you a member of His family on the day that you were baptized and chrismated. And we have this as a promise and yet also as potential. God will not revoke the promise, but He also will not force us to live up to our potential. It is given to those who have faith, to those who are faithful.

One of the modern elders of Greece, Elder Aimilianos says that God waits to see if we will be focused on lower earthly things or if we will direct our gaze to what is above, to the spiritual and heavenly things, because this is what God desires to share with us, but He can’t share those things with us when we are fixated on things that are much lower hanging fruit, to what is earthly. If you have your mind and your eyes set on the things that are below you, how will you ever rise to what God has promised from above?

We are truly comforted by these teachings. God isn’t out to get us, and He is not angry with us. You can see His tenderness even in today’s gospel passage and the healing of the woman on the Sabbath. He loves us and desires that we should be with Him, healed and full of life. That is the definition of peace. He knows that we struggle in this life yet He says to each of us, “In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world!” AMEN.

Source: Sermons

Giving From Your Heart

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (12:16-21)

In today’s reading the Lord gives a simple parable about the subject of treasure. Namely, what do we consider to be our treasure and how do we use or misuse our treasure. He tells us about a rich man whose crops flourished. They flourished to such a degree that in fact he ran out of space in his barns and storehouses. So upon seeing all of his abundance and the situation that was caused by this over abundance of crops, he asks “What shall I do?” On the surface, he did what any logical person would do. He decided to pull down the barns and build even bigger barns to store all of his wealth, meaning, his grains and produce. Now as he was contemplated all of this, he finished his daydream by thinking about the result of building new larger barns. He thought about how he would say these words “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.”

Now at this point in the parable we are told that God spoke to the man saying ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” I think that this message is very clear for us. And it is a two sided message. The first and plain reading is that we focus too much of our attention to our financial wellbeing without thinking about the “well-being” of the things of God. We worry too much about caring for our needs, and not nearly enough in caring for the needs of the things of God. But what are the things of God? Namely, the care of the poor and the care of the church. After all doesn’t our Lord Jesus tell us that the one who serves the poor serves Him? And doesn’t St. Paul also tell us that the Church is the body of Christ and the house of God?

When one is rich towards God, he starts from a point of view of gratitude towards God for all things. He looks at his treasures and his bank account and he doesn’t worry about his wealth, he worries instead about how he can show love and gratitude to God for all of the gifts that He has poured out on us, although we are unworthy of these gifts. He thinks about how he can glorify God with a small portion of his treasures. And he trusts that God receives these through the church and uses them to bless the lives of countless others.

My brothers and sisters, you know that we are raising funds to build a simple but beautiful church and now you can see the skeleton of that church. Do you think that this is simply a building? No! It will be a hospital for the many wounded who enter. It will be a refuge for those who feel unsafe. It will be a shelter and a home for those who feel homeless and without a family. It will be a lighthouse for those who are wandering in the darkness. You and your children and your grandchildren for generations will come here to take blessings and to commune with God. It becomes all of those things by the grace of God and by the love offerings and offerings of thanksgiving that we provide according to our ability. And Our Lord mentions these things not for His benefit but for our benefit.

St. Cyril of Alexandria says “How carefully and with what great skill he brings the lives of the holy apostles to spiritual excellence. And with them he benefits us too, because he desires all humankind to be saved and to choose the wise and more excellent life.” In desiring that we choose the excellent way, the Lord wants to free us of worldliness. He wants to free us of greed and orient our hearts to what is lasting, to what has eternal value.

Now I told you that there is also another meaning to this text. Specifically, that one who is rich towards God is focused on righteousness. He is not so focused on the condition of his bank account as much as he is focused on the condition of his soul because his soul will live forever. St. Cyril again writes, “It is true that a person’s life is not from one’s possessions or because of having an overabundance. He who is rich toward God is very blessed and has glorious hope. Who is he? Evidently, one who does not love wealth but rather loves virtue, and to whom few things are sufficient…. It is one whose hand is open to the needs of the poor, comforting the sorrows of those in poverty according to his means and the utmost of his power. He gathers in the storehouses that are above and lays up treasures in heaven. Such a one shall find the interest of his virtue and the reward of his right and blameless life.”

So St. Cyril actually connects the two. He tells us that when we care for the poor we are actually caring for our own souls. We can also say that the reverse is also true. When we focus only on ourselves, somehow we are not caring for but mutilating our own souls. The treasures we have are temporary possessions but if they are not properly and wisely used, they take possession of us. St. Leo of Rome tells us that as Christians we should always be focused on preparing for the end of our earthly life. He writes, “This should be the careful consideration of wise people, that since the days of this life are short and the time uncertain, death should never be unexpected for those who are to die. Those who know that they are mortal should not come to an unprepared end.” Sermon 90.4.1.

What is so important about this idea is that it is a common idea found among the ancient desert fathers as well. That we should always be preparing for our death. It seems from the outside like a strange and dark sentiment, but in fact, it is a spiritual boost and it allows us to focus on reality as it is. No matter who we are, king or queen, emperor or president, billionaire or philanthropist, doctor, lawyer, engineer, priest, builder, farmer, athlete, soldier, stay at home mom, or even a rich landowner, this is still our reality. May we love God and the things of God and keep these things in proper order in our lives so that we will not hear this dreadful word “Fool!” but will instead hear the Lord say to us “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.”

Source: Sermons

The Love That Unites

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (10:25-37)

“Who is my neighbor?” This is the question of the lawyer who stood up to put Jesus to the test. But my brothers and sisters, it is a fearful thing to try to test the Lord because you cannot test the tester of hearts and minds. This is what the lawyer encountered when he asked this question “who is my neighbor?” The Lord saw through the question to the motives behind that question. He found that those motives were not necessarily pure. It seems that the lawyer had blind spots in his life and in his understanding of what it means to walk in holiness and righteousness. The Lord out of His love for mankind, teaches the man so that he will not live in blindness but will have the light of truth.

The lawyer’s original question is a very good one. “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Wow! It is breathtaking in it’s simplicity and scope. And Our Lord Jesus Christ does not shame the man or reprimand the man for asking such a question. We would be good to ask such questions in our own hearts. If we started every day with this type of mindset, all would be right in our lives. Even if the whole world was falling apart around us, we would be in paradise because our focus would be on pleasing God and dwelling with Him. Some of the saints note that we begin to find God and dwell with Him in the moment that we search for Him prayerfully and with our whole heart.

So the answer to the question of the lawyer regarding how to be saved was “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” St. Ephraim the Syrian writes, “What is the greatest and first commandment of the law? He said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God, and your neighbor as yourself.” … All this teaching is held high through the two commandments, as though by means of two wings, that is, through the love of God and of humanity.” Commentary on Tatian’s Diatessaron 16.23.

As I mentioned to the intro to Orthodoxy class last week, prayer is the ultimate fulfillment of this first commandment. We love God with our everything, with all of our focus and energy, in prayer. And in fact the pinnacle of prayer is the divine liturgy that we are participating in together at this very moment. How is this so? Because we complete our prayer by participating in the Holy Spirit and receiving the Body and Blood of Christ. It is a fulfillment of this commandment to love God and in fact it is turned on it’s head as God dwells with us and loves us. So when we understand the liturgy in this way, it takes on new power and meaning. We begin to think of ways that we can make every liturgy more precious and powerful in our lives. Some ideas that come to my mind are to come a little bit early and attend some of the matins (orthros) service. Coming in late to the liturgy isn’t a very good way to have a prayerful experience. If we would not be late to a doctors appointment or to the school or to the movies, we should likewise consider that the liturgy is an appointment with God.

Likewise, we have a rule regarding receiving communion. Of course only Orthodox Christians may receive communion as is the teaching from the earliest times of the Church. But being an Orthodox Christian is not the only requirement for coming to receive the holy gifts. The Church teaches us that we should be here in time to hear the reading of the Holy Gospel, and that this is the bare minimum prerequisite for receiving the divine gifts. If you haven’t made it a priority to arrive before the reading of the Holy Gospel, then we have to work on our priorities because these priorities are a sign of the bigger picture. If you happen to arrive later, after the gospel, then you can certainly pray with us, but you shouldn’t receive the gifts in an unworthy manner. St. Paul says that when some of the Christians at Corinth received the gifts unworthily they profaned the body and blood of Christ and some of them became sick and some even fell asleep. The gifts are a fearful and wonderful treasure and a two-edged sword. They are life and sanctification to those who partake humbly and faithfully, but condemnation to those who approach without preparation and without repentance. So take care to remember these things.

Now back to the question of the lawyer “And Who is my neighbor?” The Lord gives him a simple answer really. Your neighbor is every person you encounter. Most especially those whom you label as “other” or “different”. We just went through another election and thank God that the election cycle is over. We would do well not to participate in divisive rhetoric online. Not to listen to it or to join in. These things are destructive to the fabric of society. Sharing your every opinion online is for undisciplined children. But we are called to be children of the Most High. He expects us to be like angels in the world, working for peace. And let’s also be careful with our conversations even here in the church. They can also tear apart the body of Christ. No one is your enemy, everyone is your neighbor, everyone requires love. We were alienated from God for a time, yet He did not consider us His enemies. He came to us and dwelt with us and poured out His life for us to redeem us. We are called to help redeem one another and lift one another up to Christ so that He might heal them and us.

There is no other. Each person is our brother and sister. Each person is precious in God’s sight. Christ died for each person. I want to conclude with this quote from St. Jerome who writes, “Everyone is our neighbor, and we should not harm anyone. If, on the contrary, we understand our fellow human beings to be only our brother and relatives, is it then permissible to do evil to strangers? God forbid such a belief! We are neighbors, all people to all people, for we have one Father.” Homily on Psalm 14 (15).

May we live seeing every one as our family, that God may accept us as His children indeed!

Source: Sermons

The Giver of life

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (8:41-56)

Whenever we read or hear the Scriptures and especially the Holy Gospels we are encountering a sacred text that has many levels. It is not simply a surface reading but often something much deeper. One of the beautiful aspects of Orthodox Christianity is an acknowledgement that the Bible is so powerful and so rich with meaning that often we can dig a bit deeper into a text and examine it. The Bible is our book. In fact, the Church wrote the New Testament. The New Testament did not bring the Church into existence, rather, the Church gave birth to the New Testament. This might seem like some sort of a controversial statement but please hear me out.

The earliest book in the New Testament was probably one of the epistles of St. Paul. He began writing near the year 50 or 60 ad. If we assume that the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified somewhere between 29 and 33 ad then we are left with somewhere between 20-30 years when there was not only no New Testament, but not even the first book of the New Testament. This suggests rather strongly that the Church survived and grew even without the New Testament. The Church had an intact structure and authority that was living and breathing and full of vitality within the men who were appointed by Christ to be apostles to the ends of the earth. The authority did not reside in the book (since the book didn’t exist). The authority rested on the Apostles and those who were appointed by them, such as the bishops and presbyters.

It is the Apostles of Christ that gave us the gospels and the epistles and all that is contained within the New Testament. So far from denying the importance and need for the New Testament, we affirm it with a hearty affirmation. The New Testament belongs to the Church. The Church gave birth to her through the work of the Holy Spirit. And this brings me back to my initial point, when we read the Scriptures and especially the gospels, we are encountering something sacred and deep. The Church fathers were well acquainted with these texts, they lived and breathed them and they had such a familiarity with them that they could sometimes drill down and see things by the grace of God that might not be immediately clear to us as casual readers.

Such is the case in today’s gospel reading. Many of the fathers tell us that the woman with an issue of blood is a symbol of the gentiles or the nations. While the girl who is dead is a symbol of the synagogue. This is further reinforced by the face that the girl’s father is the leader of the synagogue. St. Ambrose tells us that “The assembly of the nations is like the woman who spent all her money on physicians. The assembly of nations also lost all the gifts of nature and squandered the inheritance of life.” Yet he recognizes that she also came with a humble faith to be healed by the master. He writes

“The shy woman touched the hem, the faithful approached, the pious believed, the wise knew she was healed. The holy people of the nations that believed in God were so ashamed of their sin that they abandoned it. Brought faith, they believed.”

Yet another interesting commentary from St. Cyril of Alexandria tells us that the woman chose to remain hidden because she was considered unclean according to the Mosaic purity laws and that there was a punishment that would be brought against her for touching something or someone who was holy. He says “For this reason the woman was careful to remain concealed, for fear that having transgressed the law she should have to bear the punishment which it imposed. When she touched, she was healed immediately and without delay.” This should comfort us. Why? Because God is showing himself to be gracious and merciful. Not so concerned with the letter of the law but with the healing of His children.

Sometimes we put many different rules and regulations for ourselves and we think that if we perform all of these religious acts in a particular manner then we will win God’s mercy. It is false. God is not governed by our acts of piety. He is not manipulated by us. Sometimes we perform these religious routines to make ourselves feel better but we should be careful because this does not equate to a living relationship with Christ.

God desires to know us and commune with us in truth and He does this when He can enter deep into our hearts. When the heart is soft. When we are open to receiving Him. When we cry out to Him truly, then it means that we are open to welcoming Christ into our dwelling. We make a place for Him to dwell. The beauty of our faith is that the relationship that we’ve cultivated with Christ remains with us into eternity. It doesn’t end the day that we close our eyes. The soul is indelibly marked by the depth of this relationship to Christ. And Christ is eternally faithful to His promises to His children. So this is why we pursue this relationship with zeal on a daily basis.

Whatever we gain will be treasure that will remain with us forever. But often we find ourselves like the sick woman with the issue of blood. She focused all of her wealth on finding a cure for what was ailing her. Yet we do the same without even knowing it. We work hard and we acquire wealth and we spend our time in many pursuits, but perhaps we do so in a misguided way or with misguided intentions. We might feel that our earthly treasures will help us down the road. We might feel that these treasures will give us health and security, that they will take away our emotional pains or help us with our deepest longings. Yet the Lord offers a gentle rebuke in today’s gospel.

The healing and the wellness and the good that we seek isn’t found in acquiring things but in mending the severed bond with our Creator. We are healed in our soul once we give up on every other possibility or distraction or alternative to Christ. If you have an alternative to Christ in your heart then that is your idol. But true healing begins once we smash the idols in our life and really fall before His feet and ask Him to help us. Christ alone is our true healing. He is our resurrection, as He demonstrates in today’s passage. He gives healing to one and life to another because He is the giver of life. He is the source of life and we have no other. Again quoting St. Cyril of Alexandria, he writes, “O the power of a word and the might of commands that nothing can resist! O the life producing touch of the hand that abolishes death and corruption!” May this same Lord also abolish the death and corruption that is in us and bring us to fullness of life.

Source: Sermons

A Temple to Whom?

The Reading from the Second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians. (6:16-7:1) and the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (8:26-39)

We begin today’s readings with St. Paul’s words to the church at Corinth. He reminds them of the extreme honor and glory bestowed upon each of them as children of God. He says to them “Brethren, we are the temple of the living God.”

I found that this was an amazing juxtaposition to the gospel reading appointed for today. In this reading we hear about the Lord Jesus Christ travelling to the country of the Gadarenes, to visit a man whom we are told “had demons.” Meaning that he was demon possessed. Now as I looked at these two readings it became clear that the Church is trying to teach us something very valuable. She is trying to give us a glimpse into a hidden spiritual reality, something that we cannot see with our eyes. She tells us that every man, woman and child is a spiritual vessel. Each of us is like a container. Each of us is like a house with inhabitants. Either we are inhabited by the Holy Spirit or else we are open to being inhabited by other spirits, fallen spirits, demons.

Either the Holy Spirit is energized and active in our lives, or we are susceptible to the spiritual activity that does not build up and purify and edify us. When the Holy Spirit is active in our lives, it doesn’t mean that everything will be perfect. Saints and holy people can suffer tremendously. However, those who have the Holy Spirit dwelling richly within them are like fire to the adversaries. The Holy Spirit is not a material but a spiritual fire.

As Christians we should be convinced that the spiritual battle is great. Actually everything you see around you is part of a spiritual battle. The battle is fought in and for hearts and minds. The territory that is trying to be conquered is the life and soul of man. Each and every day that the Lord wakes you up to a new day, He does so with an intention. His intention is that we should fight this spiritual battle with renewed strength. We should wake up every day and prepare to go to war in the way that a soldier does when he is deployed. One day you will rest from your labors, but until that day, you struggle to make sure that your heart is not turned away from the living God.

St. Paul writes about this spiritual warfare in the epistle to the Ephesians when he says.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.” Eph 6:10-18 

So this is truly our task my friends. We are called to take up our armor every day. There are no off days during warfare. We have every advantage and edge in this battle if we have been baptized and Chrismated and regularly receive the gifts offered to us by the Church of God. She loves us like a tender mother and she prepares us to face the challenges and difficulties of the world by strengthening us and equipping us for the battle. She gives us what we were never even worthy to receive.

St, Theophan the recluse writing about the great grace that we’ve received said,

“In order that you may move your will more easily to this one desire, in everything—to please (God and to work for His glory alone—remind yourself’ often, that He has granted you many favours in the past and has shown you His love. He has created you out of nothing in His own likeness and image, and has made all other creatures your servants; He has delivered you from your slavery to the devil, sending down not one of the angels but His Only-begotten Son to redeem you, not at the price of corruptible gold and silver, but by His priceless blood and His most painful and degrading death. Having done all this He protects you, every hour and every moment, from your enemies; He fights your battles by His divine grace; in His immaculate Mysteries He prepares the Body and Blood of His beloved Son for your food and protection. All this is a sign of God’s great favour and love for you; a favour so great that it is inconceivable how the great Lord of hosts could grant such favours to our nothingness and worthlessness.”

Let us rejoice in this and embrace it. Don’t take it for granted because whether we struggle actively or become lazy, the enemy never even sleeps. May God grant us courage and grace to receive the spoils of spiritual victory with the saints.

Source: Sermons

Repent, Confess, Commune.

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (8:5-15)

The God who created the whole universe loves us. He loves us so much that He sent His only begotten Son to us, to live among us, to speak with us, to teach us, to suffer with us and to die with us. This son and Lord Jesus Christ often taught us in stories or parables. These parables are not given to entertain the people. They are not given to make the people fearful. They are given to us out of love for us. Our Lord is trying to reach each of us. The parables that were spoken 2000 years ago are not meant to sit in a book unread, gathering dust on your shelves. The word of the Lord is meant to enter deep into your hearts to bring you back to life. Glory to God for sharing His love with us through these beautiful words.

Today we hear the familiar story of the sower who went out to sow his seed. He is a good farmer. He casts the seed everywhere. He desires that everyone should have this seed and that this seed should one day bear fruit. He is a good farmer. His seed is also good. But there is one more component to the equation. What makes the difference between whether the seed will bear fruit or fail to produce? The difference boils down to the quality of the soil. And that is where each of us comes in. The Lord in speaking this parable reminds us that we have a part to play in our own salvation. St. Paul writes about this in Philippians 2:12 when he says “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” St. Paul would never say such a thing if your salvation was guaranteed. Why would he write such things to a Christian community unless he knew that they needed to hear and be reminded of it?

The meaning is reinforced in this parable of our Lord Jesus Christ. He speaks of the seed that fell on rocky ground. This rocky ground is a symbol of those who receive the word with joy and believe for a short while but then in times of temptation and trouble, they fall away because they have no roots. Most of us who are here in this room will not fall into the category of the first soil that is mentioned, the seed that fell among the path. Because we have believe and we are here. So it leaves us with only three possibilities, either the soil of our hearts is rocky, or covered in thorns or it is good soil that is able to bring forth fruitfully.

What can we as Christians do to prepare the soil of our hearts to receive the seed, to receive the word of God? And what is the word of God? Some think the word of God is a reference to the Bible. But in actuality the word of God is really a reference to Jesus Christ Himself. He is the word.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4In him was life,a and the life was the light of men….He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11He came to his own,b and his own peoplec did not receive him. 12But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Sond from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

So it’s clear that Jesus is the word. And what must I do to prepare the soil of my heart to receive Him fully? What does a farmer do? In the beginning he tills the soil. He breaks up the clumps and the hard earth. Likewise, we do this through our own repentance. We take time daily to reflect and ask God to forgive us of all our sins. When we really do this we make the soil soft and ready to receive the word. Those of you that are Orthodox Christians should make plans to come to confession every so often. His Eminence Metropolitan Saba asks that we confess about 2-4 times a year. It’s not much but it is the difference between thriving spiritual life and just going through the motions. The sins you are covering and failing to confess, are the sins that are your master and they keep you from growing deeper roots in Christ. Confession is a bit painful. It brings up our shame. But confession releases us from the bondage of the shame and the courageous act of humility breaks open the heart so that the grace of the Holy Spirit can enter and effect powerful change within us. This is how we break up the hardened soil of the heart. This allows the Word of God to dwell deeply within us.

So we’ve spoken briefly of repentance, confession. Let’s continue talking about how we nourish the soil of our hearts with the sacrament of Eucharist or Holy Communion. For an Orthodox Christian, one of the ultimate spiritual weapons in our warfare is Holy Communion. We believe that the Holy Spirit transforms the offering of bread and wine into something much more. Into the very body and blood of Jesus Christ. The bread and wine continue to have the properties of bread and wine. Yet the are changed in a spiritual manner into the mystical body and blood of Christ. When all else fails as a Christian, the sacrament of the eucharist won’t fail us if we approach with a humble and faithful heart.

Listen to the words of St. Cyril of Alexandria,

“If the poison of pride is swelling up in you, turn to the Eucharist; and that Bread, Which is your God humbling and disguising Himself, will teach you humility. If the fever of selfish greed rages in you, feed on this Bread; and you will learn generosity. If the cold wind of coveting withers you, hasten to the Bread of Angels; and charity will come to blossom in your heart. If you feel the itch of intemperance, nourish yourself with the Flesh and Blood of Christ, Who practiced heroic self-control during His earthly life; and you will become temperate. If you are lazy and sluggish about spiritual things, strengthen yourself with this heavenly Food; and you will grow fervent. Lastly, if you feel scorched by the fever of impurity, go to the banquet of the Angels; and the spotless Flesh of Christ will make you pure and chaste.”

In essence, St. Cyril says that the sacrament will give you whatever you are lacking in your spiritual struggle. So don’t neglect this part of your walk with Christ.

This my friends, is our path if we want the Lord to consider that we are good rather than bad soil. This is our path if we want to find a place to keep the word of God in our hearts. This is our path if we want to travel the narrow path that leads to life everlasting. AMEN.

Source: Sermons

Death Vs Life

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (7:11-16)

Today we see something very interesting. I’ve read and heard this gospel passage countless times over the years and yet only yesterday did I notice a feature of this passage that was always right in front of my eyes. Our Lord Jesus Christ was traveling and went to a city called Nain. We are told that He was accompanied by His disciples and a great crowd.

At this exact time as they are entering the city, near the gate, they encounter another large crowd that had gathered. Although it was right in front of me I never noticed that it was an encounter between two large crowds at that very moment. It gives us the sense that something big is happening, that society itself is about to be changed. There are two large tribes here and each is symbolic.

It seems to me that this is indicative of the church vs the world. The church is the disciples and those who follow after Christ wherever He leads them, and what is it the world is doing? They are mourning the death of one of their own. The focus of the one group was the man who laid lifeless in the casket. The focus of the other group was the man who offered the power of God in His words and deeds.

This is indicative of the societies around us. Some live their lives from day to day while following Christ with hope. Some live their lives day to day with no hope but an overwhelming sense of dread at the coming of death. In fact St. Paul speaks about this is in the letter to the Romans. He writes “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” The fear of death affects us and causes us to sin. Father John Romanides writes “The power of death in the universe has brought with it the will for self-preservation, fear, and anxiety, which in turn are the root causes of self-assertion, egoism, hatred, envy and the like.” He continues saying “Man does not die because he is guilty for the sin of Adam. He becomes a sinner because he is yoked to the power of the devil through death and its consequences.”

As I said, some live their lives day to day with no hope but an overwhelming sense of dread at the coming of death. But some live their lives from day to day while following Christ with hope. It is for us as Christians, who have living faith in God belong to the second group rather than the first.

At this very moment in history, in a small town in Judea, these two groups met symbolically. Life and death collided. They could not share the same space together. It was a small skirmish before the final battle and a foretaste of things to come. When death encountered life, death was vanquished. When this man encountered Our Lord Jesus Christ, the death that was in him departed as darkness is dispersed by light. Christ gave this man life, precisely because Christ is our life and the life of the world. He gave life to man who was just dust at the beginning. He again gave this man life before he would be turned back into dust. In giving him life, He also offered new life to his mother who was a suffering widow. In offering resurrection to the man, He offered resurrection to all of those who mourned without consolation. He offered hope to the hopeless. He changed many lives that day, not simply one or two.

In this beautiful act we are reminded that Christ’s love never leaves us. We can never get lost or separated from His love for us. St. Paul writes “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8.

Nothing can separate us from His love my brothers and sisters. If Christ had to descend Himself to recover us from Hades, He would do it. In fact, He did do it!

All of these miracles were small glimpses into the truth of the person of Jesus Christ, the life of the world and the resurrection of all men. It is given to each of us to believe in this Lord Jesus and to live lives that witness to the truth of His resurrection and also our own personal resurrections. Each of us has been at times like this dead man. Perhaps we were alive in body but dead in our souls, dead in our ability to seek after God and to love others. Yet through His grace you have all been healed. In your baptism the old man was buried and the new man was born to new life. This is our inheritance as children of God.

I leave you with a beautiful quote from St. Nikolai of Zicha, who said “It is not fitting to call those dead for whom Christ, in His love, suffered and died. They are alive in the living Lord. We shall all know this clearly when the Lord visits the graveyard of this world for the last time, and the trumpets sound. A mother’s love cannot separate her dead children from those living. Still less can Christ’s love.” 

May we enter into this love! AMEN.

Source: Sermons

How Do I Carry My Cross?

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Mark. (8:34-9:1)

This reading is given to us on the Sunday after the feast of the cross, which we celebrated yesterday. The Church wants us to linger on this feast a bit longer. Not to rush away from it. For in the mystery of the cross is the crucifixion and the crucifixion is our whole life as a Christian. The cross that was certain death for Our Lord Jesus Christ, has become our guarantee of life and a guarantee that God loves us immeasurably. So the Church lingers here and reminds us with the words of our Lord, that we must each carry our cross. “The Lord said, “If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?”

St. Innocent of Alaska speaking about carrying the cross said this,

“When you bear your cross, “It is then that you will feel an indescribable delight, a wonderful inner peace and joy such as you have never experienced before, and at the same time you will feel an influx of spiritual strength; prayer will become easier and your faith stronger.”

But someone might ask, “what does it mean to carry your cross?” So let me try to explain. To carry the cross means to do the thing that is difficult to do in your life because it is well pleasing to God. Typically this is something that is painful and feels like a kind of death. If it were something easy it would not be called a cross, it would be called a luxury or a pleasure. But to fail to carry it requires you to break the commandments and to fall into sin. So this is part of the equation in carrying your crosses, a complete obedience to Christ. If we are successful in carrying our crosses then it will indeed be suffering, but it will bring us to purification and sanctification and it will give life to us and to those all around us.

What are examples of carrying one’s cross? An example of carrying a cross might be a difficult marriage that you choose to stay in so as not to fall into sin. Please note that I said difficult, but I did not say abusive. Carrying the cross might be caring for a spouse or a child that is very sick and needs assistance 24-7. Carrying the cross might be dealing with a difficult co-worker or fellow student or even a difficult teacher. Carrying a cross might be learning to live with a sickness or disease that causes you great pain every day. The world might offer solutions, might tell you to call Dr. Kevorkian. But we have to reject those whispers because they are veiled in compassion but underneath the veil it is something from the father of lies.

But mostly, it seems that we carry the cross of our sinfulness and sinful desires. We carry the cross by struggling against these desires and bringing them before Christ daily. One example of this might be the man or woman with same sex attraction. You can acknowledge this desire as real and powerful but you can also accept that following this desire is not good for you, that it damages your soul, that it puts up a great wall between you and God. It might seem like the most painful thing to live with such desires but have no outlet for them. It seems like the unfulfilled desire might even kill you. Now you understand the meaning of carrying the cross. Yet we carry it with faith.

Because we are fleshly people, our desires are often for things of this world, pleasures of life, but the Lord has told us that we could have the whole world, yet we would lose our soul and our life in the process. So if someone can offer you the whole world on a platter, you have to understand that they will not offer it for free. They will certainly exact a toll and it could be that the toll that will be taken is the cost of your precious soul.

So we are forced daily to ask ourselves: “What can a man give in return for his soul?” “What is my soul worth?” “What am I willing to sell out for?” The ultimate sellout is the one who gives away the gifts that he didn’t earn but gained by the grace of God. Don’t be a sellout and don’t be a coward. Christians, you can’t be afraid to struggle. You can’t be afraid of pain. Did Jesus Christ our Lord not struggle? Did He not feel pain? He accepted these things as a pure offering that He offered up to His Father on our behalf. Let us boldly do the same with our struggles.

Say to God, “Lord, you know my life and you know my struggles better than I know myself, help me to be brave and give me strength to carry the cross that you have given me, for I am convinced that you chose this cross for my salvation.”

St. Nikolai Velimirovich once preached, “What does it mean to take up your cross? I means the willing acceptance, at the hand of Providence, of every means of healing, bitter though it may be, that is offered….Suffer it all with patience, cleaving to God in your heart, as Job did.” + St. Nikolai Velimirovich, Homilies, Vol. 1

May we do this and may we come to know true joy and riches that surpass everything we could hope for or possible imagine. AMEN.

Source: Sermons

What is a great feast day?

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. John. (3:13-17)

Joy of the feast my brothers and sisters in Christ. As many of you know today we celebrate the first of the great feasts of the church calendar, the feast of the nativity of the Mother of God. Most of you know about the great feasts but lately we have many new faces among us and so I thought it would make sense to share a little bit about the great feasts with you and especially this feast that we are celebrating today.

According to Jewish custom, some days were considered more special and holy than other days. These are days that were designated as feast days. Days when we should particularly celebrate the saving activity of God among His people. Likewise, according to the teaching of the Orthodox Church there are days that we should celebrate, especially the 12 feasts which are considered to be great feasts. You might think that it is conveniently one per month, but that is not the case. Some months have no great feasts, and other months can have multiple. Each of the great feasts centers around an event from the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, or His mother, the ever virgin Mary. There is one exception to this which is the next feast we will celebrate on Saturday Sept 14. That is the elevation of the cross. This feast alone does not celebrate or commemorate an event from the life of Christ but it focuses on a critical piece of the story of His crucifixion, and that is the wooden cross itself.

The twelve feasts in order beginning with our feast today are as follows: Nativity of the Mother of God, Elevation of the cross, Entrance of the Mother of God into the Temple, The Nativity of Christ, Holy Theophany (Epiphany), The presentation of the Lord in the Temple, The annunciation, the entrance of our Lord into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday), Ascension of our Lord, Pentecost, Transfiguration and the dormition of the Mother of God. That’s all of them.

Those of you who are paying close attention will realize that a couple of really important events are not listed among the 12. The first of those events is the crucifixion of our Lord. This is the most solemn day on the church’s calendar. But it is not called a feast day. Lastly we have not mentioned the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, which the Church calls Pascha. This is not numbered among the great feasts because it is seen as surpassing all of the feasts. The Church calls Pascha the feast of feasts! It is the resurrection that is the common theme and celebration of all of our Sunday liturgies.

Now each of these feasts is celebrated in a similar fashion beginning with the divine liturgy. Why? As one hieromonk noted “The Liturgy is found at the very center of life, experience and understanding of the Orthodox Catholic Church of God and consequently at the center of Orthodox Theology. For the being and life itself of the Orthodox Church consists of the Liturgy, because the very being of the Church of Christ is liturgical and Her very life eucharistic.” Hieromonk Athanasije Jevtic

If you are really listening to these words, they will inform and change your life or your understanding of life. Our life is liturgical. So when we celebrate a feast of the Church it has to begin with Liturgy. For instance, let us imagine that Christmas (the nativity of Christ) happens to fall on a Monday. This would mean that we would typically celebrate a festal liturgy that morning or the night before. But some might say, “well, we just celebrated a liturgy on Sunday morning, so there is no need to go back to the church again, we can just stay home and celebrate.” No, my brothers and sisters. That means our life is out of balance. We can’t celebrate the feasts without the liturgy because as we just said, our life is liturgical and eucharistic. The feast is meant to celebrate our life in Christ, so you can’t stay home and party when you haven’t first come to worship the God whom you are claiming to celebrate. That is the very foundation of our joy together.

Today we celebrate the birth of the Mother of God, the holy virgin Mary. Fr. Thomas Hopko tells us that “The record of the birth of Mary is not found in the Bible. The traditional account of the event is taken from the apocryphal writings which are not part of the New Testament scriptures. The traditional teaching which is celebrated in the hymns and verses of the festal liturgy is that Joachim and Anna were a pious Jewish couple who were among the small and faithful remnant—“the poor and the needy”—who were awaiting the promised messiah. The couple was old and childless. They prayed earnestly to the Lord for a child, since among the Jews barrenness was a sign of God’s disfavor. In answer to their prayers, and as the reward of their unwavering fidelity to God, the elderly couple was blessed with the child who was destined, because of her own personal goodness and holiness, to become the Mother of the Messiah-Christ.”

He continues saying, “There had to be one born of human flesh and blood who would be spiritually capable of being the Mother of Christ, and she herself had to be born into the world of persons who were spiritually capable of being her parents. The feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos, therefore, is a glorification of Mary’s birth, of Mary herself and of her righteous parents. It is a celebration as well of the very first preparation of the salvation of the world. For the “Vessel of Light,” the “Book of the Word of Life,” the “Door to the Orient,” the “Throne of Wisdom” is being prepared on earth by God Himself in the birth of the holy girl-child Mary.” (The Orthodox Faith Vol. II)

This is the cause of our celebration today. And I want to tell you that one of the secrets to growing in the Orthodox Christian faith is hidden right in front of you whenever you are in the Church and especially on days like today. That is, the shortcut to growing in Christ is to cultivate a relationship with His Mother. We don’t always do that. We think that perhaps it is unnecessary, but the life of the Church teaches us that it is necessary, right and good because we are entering into the family of God, a community. You aren’t becoming an island all by yourself. You have to know your roots, both physical and spiritual. You can’t love Jesus and despise His Mother. Because we have put on Christ, she becomes mother to us. She worries and prays for her children as all good mothers do. Let us draw near to her heart in supplication. When you ask her to pray for you, she will gladly do it. When you invite her into your life, she will become a part of your life and she will speak to her beloved Son on your behalf in the way that only a mother can do. Through the prayers of the holy Mother of God, may the Lord bless you all. AMEN.

Source: Sermons

New Year (In September)

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (4:16-22)

In the time of Our Lord Jesus Christ’s earthy ministry, people worshipped God communally in one of two places. At certain times and seasons they would go up to the temple in Jerusalem. This temple was destroyed in 70 ad by the Romans. Now most of the year they would focus on worship at their local synagogue. This was particularly important on Saturday, the day of the Sabbath rest. We note that in our day, living as people of the new covenant when we come to the church we in fact are participating in worship that is a hybrid of both temple and synagogue worship.

It is said that before the end of the world the temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt and someone will enter that temple to receive worship. This will no doubt be an anti-Christ or The AntiChrist. But as Christians we are reminded that we have no need of a temple since we as Christians become the temple of the Holy Spirit. God dwells within our human fleshly temples because He is the God who created all of the material world and who Himself took flesh and lived as perfect God and perfect man.

Nevertheless it is important to note that the Lord was submissive to the religious customs of the day. He was a good and observant Jew. He wasn’t arrogant or aloof from the synagogue or it’s leaders. He is truly the only person who knew every sermon before it was preached. He was in fact the greatest preacher who ever lived. Yet, He did what was expected of Him because He wanted to properly observe the Sabbath and He did not want to be opened up to accusations of being faithless or rebellious. But most of all, He went to the synagogue weekly because He loved God His Father, and this was one of the ways that He drew near to God.

Now on this particular day, it seems that it was the Lord’s turn to stand up and read from the holy Scriptures. And the book that was handed to Our Lord was the prophet Isaiah. Something very special was about to happen and this thing set in motion or rather, it indicated to us that events were in motion that would forever change our understanding of the world, of God and of life itself. The Lord Jesus found a particular text in Isaiah and He began to read these words, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor and to heal the broken hearted. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Do you know what this passage is about? It is a proclamation of the gospel. Our Lord is sharing the beginning of the good news with us. He is telling us that He sees our broken hearts. He recognizes the captives. He notices the blind. He takes note of those who are oppressed. He sees them all. He sees all of us. At some point in our lives, each and every one of us falls into one or more of these categories. Above and beyond the normal ways that we each struggle, our Lord is dialing in on the true source of our misery and difficulties in life. He is focused on our enslavement to sin, to evil and to death, the greatest of all the enemies of mankind. And He tells us that all of these troubles are coming to an end.

How so? How do we enter into this victory? We enter into it by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Christ was victorious and conquered sin and death through His life, His crucifixion and His resurrection from the dead. And the One who sees us welcomes us in to participate in His victory. The Lord says to us, “Come my brother and my sister, because I am victorious, you shall also be victorious with me!” Yet, some of you might still be thinking “how do we participate in this victory?” So let me share a few words that might help you.

As we’ve been studying St. Sophrony’s work “His Life is Mine” during our weekly gatherings, we came across these beautiful words recently. He wrote, “All of us are today in vital need of a firm faith in Christ’s eternal victory, that we, too, may become spiritually invincible. A very great deal depends on ourselves—to remember, for instance, that at the baptismal font we received new birth from on High, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Those who are baptized ‘with the Holy Ghost and with fire’ (Luke 3.16) perceive in their prayer that every given moment of our life is enveloped in Divine eternity. At all times and in all places we are held in the invisible Hand of our Heavenly Father.”

He continues on a little while later with these words… “from the moment we turn to God, resolved to follow His commandments, a process of basic healing begins.” Finally he ends by saying “If any of my readers is suffering from some psychological wound occasioned by failure in life, he can attain to a regal freedom of spirit and radically change his whole life if he turns to God every day with a personal prayer…”

So St. Sophrony, one of our great modern teachers tells us that first we need to remind ourselves of who we are in Christ. We need to be reminded of our royal lineage and the victory of our King. Next he mentions that we begin to embrace this faith through embracing the commandments of God. Clinging to these commandments and teaching of the Lord with our whole being. He tells us that this begins the path of healing. Finally he mentions that deep healing, even on the psychological level, will occur when we make profound personal contact with God in authentic heartfelt prayer.

Most of this probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise to you. You have heard these things before. There is a reason for that. We repeat these thing because they are true and they don’t change from day to day or week to week. So even though we know these things we need to have them repeated to us and we try to find new ways to motivate ourselves into meaningful action.

It seems to me that this reading is given to us today, on the first day of the ecclesiastical new year, in order to remind us of these things. We are encouraged to bring everything to Christ every single day of our lives and especially on this first day when we ask Christ’s blessings on us and on the rest of the year. We do this with confidence that Christ has already achieved this victory and that He offers the faithful and pious a share in this glorious inheritance. Glory be to God forever AMEN.

Source: Sermons