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

Why does one person become a saint and another choose a different way? Why does one person seek goodness, beauty, truth and life while another runs towards evil things and death? Why do some people live their lives toward God and others spend their lives running from Him?

According to today’s gospel reading, the Lord Jesus Christ tells us that the difference between these types of people has absolutely nothing to do with God. What do I mean by this? I mean to say that God loves us all dearly. He has generously thrown His seeds everywhere. If we don’t respond to the excellent seeds that are generously given, then it is not the seeds or the sower of the seeds who is to blame. It is the soil that must be blamed.

The difference between the group that seeks the Lord and the group who rejects the Lord and His teachings is demonstrated to us as a difference between types of soil. And this soil is itself a symbol of the heart of man. The seed that is given to us from God is always the best of the best. The word of God can never be second rate. But what happens to the word of God once it has entered into our heart? Does it find a safe, fertile environment for growth? Or does the seed of the word encounter soil that has not been softened and cleared of weeds and thorns?

We can say that all of the Christian journey of life can be boiled down to this parable. What do we do with the word of God? Indeed, Our Lord tells us that everyone must unequivocally fall into one of these categories. We might gain a lot by asking ourselves, “which type of soil is like my heart?” And we should be willing to answer this question in an honest way. If we don’t answer it honestly or we’re worried about the answer, we won’t be able to properly address the problems or shortcomings we find. It would be like meeting a doctor when you happen to feel sick and then when the doctor asks you how you are feeling, you reply “I feel just fine, Doc”, because you are worried about the treatment. Well, if we are worried by the treatment, how can we ever be made well? If we are going to worry, we ought to worry not about the treatment but about what will happen to our illness if it goes untreated.

Each of the soils in the Lord’s parable offer us a type of person or a type of faith. Perhaps we have a very superficial faith. We might say that we believe in Jesus but we don’t actually follow His teachings, or worse yet, we might not even know His teachings because we never read the gospels and studied them. Perhaps we go through the motions of coming to the services and even saying our daily prayers. Or perhaps we are joyful Christians but our faith is not strong enough to carry us through the various trials and temptations that may come our way. If your faith is only as good as your situation, that faith is destined to fail you because it is not based on Christ who is our only rock and shelter in this life. It is instead based on the situations and circumstances of life. Or perhaps yours is like the soil that shares its space with the thorns. We might have faith and that faith might be genuinely good but that faith is always struggling to go deeper, always struggling to really grow and bear fruit, always on the verge of death. Why? Because the soil is shared with the thorns, which are the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. If my heart is burdened with cares, and riches and possessions, it can become nearly impossible to focus my heart on God and the things of His kingdom. As the Lord says “No man can serve two masters.” For all intents and purposes, it is as if we already have our own kingdom here and now. We love our life and all the stuff we have in this life. So we neglect the true, eternal joy that only Christ can give us. We forget that everything else is going to pass away. We can’t take any of our possessions with us when we depart this life. Only the things of God will matter, only the fruit that we have collected and possessed in our spiritual life will remain.

How can we honestly assess where we are and move in the right direction, towards Christ? We have to ask ourselves honestly “What or who do I love?” And how will we know the honest answer to that question? One way is to examine our schedules as well as our budgets. Perhaps there is no greater indicator of what we love than the way we spend our time and the way we spend our financial resources. So take some time and reflect on these matters and if possible, adjust them so that you spend more time and energy focused on God and the things of God. You will never waste any of your effort or energy if your life is focused in this way. Because you will be investing in the garden of your heart and this will bring forth divine, precious fruit from God. Unlike the stock market and the investments of the world, this investment carries little risk but many rewards.

If you love God, you spend time with Him, both at home and in the Church. The same way as a man should act toward a wife that he claims to love or that a woman should act toward the children that she claims to love. Love is not merely a word but an activity of one’s presence. We enter into His presence through prayer, both private and corporate.

In addition, if we love God and the things of God we should look at our budget and examine it. We should find ways to trim our budget of things that are unnecessary or unprofitable to our spiritual life, to our relationship with the Lord of our lives. We should then redirect those funds towards tithing and almsgiving, not out of a sense of guilt, but out of a deep sense of gratitude for all that God has given us and as a testament to the fact that we understand that God is the source of all of our blessings and even of life itself. When we examine our lives in this way, we will no doubt find things that we can change and those things will help transform our hearts from being poor soil to being exceedingly fertile.

God out of His love has given us His word as seed, as potential. It is our repentance that softens the ground and allows the seeds to take root. It is our ascetic discipline that removes the thorns and it is our acts of love and charity that help fertilize the seed of God’s word. And then something beautiful begins to happen. The seed of the word moves by grace, from potential to actual fruit. The seed finds its purpose fulfilled when it finds a good place to dwell within us. This will not happen overnight though. Much like any successful harvest, it will take diligence and patience. But God’s promises are true.

May the Lord help us to struggle like the saints, so that we might become a dwelling place that is worthy of the Lord! Glory be to God Forever AMEN.

Source: Sermons

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

We sometimes have the feeling that the gospel texts don’t relate to us, but nothing could be further from the truth. The gospel story revolves around life and death. The gospels speak of life and death but they take life and death to a whole new level. The Lord shows us that it is not the physical death which is the most important consideration of our life. Rather, it is the spiritual death that is our chief concern. Yet, the Lord remains intimately aware of our personal individual situations and our physical needs as well. He aims to heal us spiritually but also physically and emotionally.

We hear in today’s gospel that the Lord went to a city called Nain. The hebrew dictionary tells us that this means beauty. Of course there is no way to imagine what beauty would be seen at the gate of that city on that particular day as the Lord passed through it. It happened that as the Lord was traveling with His disciples and a great crowd, they came across a funeral procession. We are told that this was a large crowd who accompanied a widow, who had lost her only son.

It is hard for us to imagine her situation or her mindset at this darkest hour of her life. She had lost her husband, the love of her life, although we are not sure exactly how long she had been a widow. But in her husbands death there was still the consolation of a grown son. Within her son she could see her husband. She was reminded of him. Even more, he took over the duties of providing for his mother. That is what a good son does for his mother. He looks after and takes care of the one who lived to look after him and raise him. Now we find this woman in the depths of despair as she has lost her beloved son. At this point we might question God in the way that modern people often do and say “why would a good and loving God allow such an awful thing to happen?” The answer is not easy to find. Death and corruption, suffering and evil are part of our world. They are part of our reality. The woman was facing these harsh realities but little did she know that she would come face to face with a new reality.

Our Lord Jesus Christ offers us a new reality. In this new reality, the old and the dying is swallowed up by newness and life. St. Luke tells us that He had great compassion on her. He knew her situation intimately. We often say “why does God allow awful things to happen in my life? Why doesn’t God care about me?” Today’s gospel reading is a reminder that the God sees everything and does care. It is also a reminder that His work happens on His time and no other. The widow was in the depth of her anguish and sadness. She had no idea what was in store for her. She had no idea who was coming towards her. She had no idea that God was already on His way to help her.

How was corruption and death swept away that day? How did darkness give way to light? How did despair become joy? The Lord used two ways; His touch and His word.

Let’s begin with His word: We are told that God created the heavens and the earth and all of creation by the power of His Word. We remember that the Lord calls forth Lazarus from the grave by His word. In His word there is tremendous power and life. My brothers and sisters, these words are also available to us. We can inhale the word of God through the study of the Bible and most importantly the study of the gospels. If a Christian does not study the scriptures, he is dying internally. If he is studying them seriously, he is being renewed in the spirit of his mind, as St. Paul says. If his mind is only filled with news and politics and trash tv and Facebook feeds, he is withering away and dying. But have faith in God and in His word. This word gave life to Lazarus and to the widow’s son. Let there be no doubt that Christ our God desires to give you this life through His word. Cling to it as you would to a life-raft in the middle of the sea.

But since the Lord desires to richly pour out His life upon us, He has done much more than give us His word. There is much more to knowing God than reading the gospels and studying the scriptures. These are often hallmarks of knowing God in according to the Protestant tradition. What is missing however is our knowing God through His touch. St. Luke tells us that the Lord touched the bier, the casket that held the widow’s son. He was not off in some distant place. He was there with the funeral procession. He was there with the grieving widow. He became a real, tangible human being. He took flesh and became man and dwelt with us.

According to our Orthodox teaching, God remains with us in a tangible manner through the sacraments of the Church. The sacraments connect us to the living power of Christ through matter which has been blessed by God. When we receive the sacraments, we receive the touch of Christ! When we offer the sacrament of Unction we are offering oil that has been touched by the Spirit of God and which is placed on the individual by the touch of the priest who represents Christ. When we come for confession we receive the hands of the priest upon our head as he touches us with the sign of the cross and asks the Lord to forgive and absolve us.

When we are baptized, we are immersed into the water that has been touched by the Holy Spirit and also by the breath and the hand of the priest. When we receive the Holy Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist, we touch and are touched by Christ Himself. He unites with us both physically and spiritually. He gives us life by giving us Himself.

Christ is present with us even in the midst of our sufferings and trials just as He was present for the widow. He is present because the Church is the physical presence of Christ. St. Paul calls the Church, the body of Christ. The sacraments are a sign of His life-giving activity among His people.

When we receive Christ’s touch and His word, we become full of life, full of Christ who is life. He touched the casket and the resting place of the dead man was transformed into a place of resurrection. He commanded the young man to rise and death was swept away. It became a distant memory. What happened to the widow’s son was a shadow of the new reality offered to us by Jesus. What the Lord has done for this young man, He offers to each of us; He takes our lives and our situations which often seem bleak and He transforms them just as he transformed the casket from a place of death into a place of new life. He offers us a new reality through the Church. Physical and spiritual resurrection that begins now and is fulfilled in the Kingdom which is to come.

We, the people of God are here together and together we wait for God. Have faith that God is drawing near to you even in your darkest moments. Have faith that God knows the details of your life and has compassion on you. Even if you feel dead in your faith, have faith. Have faith and draw near to God through His word and through His healing and saving touch which is found in the Church. Then we will know the Lord’s presence and have our sorrow turned to joy and proclaim with the people in the funeral procession “God has visited His people!” And Glory be to God forever AMEN.

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke 6:31-36

There is a powerful teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ that is well known as the “golden rule.” Our reading today begins with this golden rule. Our Lord Jesus says “As you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.” This teaching has the power to change your life, but like all of the teaching of the Lord Jesus, it only happens if one puts it into practice.

Every one of us has certain pet peeves. Each one of us is annoyed by the certain actions of others. Every one of us expects a certain standard of treatment. The genius of this teaching is that it takes that standard of treatment that we would like or appreciate and the Lord forces us to apply that standard to others. Wow.

If you don’t like it when others get angry with you, don’t get angry with others. If you don’t like it when others yell at you, don’t yell at others. If you don’t like it when others lie to you, why do you lie to others? If you would like others to share with you, then share with them. If you would like others not to speak evil of you or gossip about you, then you should also refrain from speaking evil or gossiping about others. If you would like others to treat you with kindness and respect, then treat others with kindness and respect. If you would like others to show you love, then show love to others.

Each of these principles points us to a very important fact. You are not special. That’s right. You are not special. Every man, woman and child who has ever lived throughout all of the history of humanity is just as important as you are. How is that possible? Because each and every person was created in the image of God. Each of them was given life by Him. So in fact when we treat the others in the way that we would like to be treated, we are actually showing extreme reverence and gratitude to God for His own handiwork.

It goes further than that. The Lord concludes His teaching today by saying the words that no one else dared to utter “love your enemies.” This is one of the primary ways that we as Christians can stand out from the world, by our practice of radical love. We need it now more than ever perhaps. The rise of social media and the internet has helped to foment and stir up political discourse to a new and terrible level. Truth has gone out the window and all that is left is the search for power, or so it seems. In all of that frenzy over right and left, Democrat vs Republican, liberal vs conservative, we had better take seriously these words of the Lord Jesus, not to see people by their political orientation or their ideology or their worldview, but rather to see them through the lens of the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross allows us to make sense of everything because it highlights for us the immutable law of the love of God for each of us.

Where did you read or hear that Jesus died for only one group of people? Where was it said that Christ’s death redeemed only one privileged class? His love is universal love for all of humanity, all of His creation. And He proves that what He teaches, He has fulfilled in practice. He tells us to do something that seems impossible, to love our enemies. And He shows us how to do it by patiently accepting to suffer and be killed at the hands of His enemies. Through His suffering and death, He did more than demonstrate His love. He poured it out upon creation. He took what was evil and He redeemed it and made it good, through His love. This is our only way forward as Christians.

St. Ambrose adds to this by saying “What Christ said in word, he proved also by example. Indeed, when he was on the cross, he said in reference to his persecutors who were slandering him, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing,” so that he might pray for his slanderers, although he could have forgiven them himself.” Hereafather of the Church shows us that one of the ways that we show love to our enemies is to pray for them. Prayer is one of the ways that we direct our love towards God and towards others. When was the last time that you were angry with someone or some group? When was the last time that you prayed for them with fervent love for them and for their salvation? That was the example of the Lord while in the midst of excruciating suffering upon the cross, how can it not be our example?

I have mentioned this before but I must mention it again. St. Siouan, not so long ago wrote “He who does not love their enemies, does not know God.” That is something we must take seriously. We can’t put it off because we don’t know when we will go to meet the Lord.  This isn’t easy…but it is possible with God’s help, so always ask God to help you love your enemies. Whatever we lack, we can request from God, who gives us generously.

Life is very short. Too short for hatred and grudges.  Too short for false divisions.  The devil divides, but only the Lord unites. Only the Lord grants us liberty and this liberty is the freedom from anger, sin and corruption. The Lord bought us such freedom through His love for us. Each of us must live by that rule of love that was demonstrated by the Lord, in order to fully know that love in the person of Jesus Christ. This is our purpose in life.  Glory be to God forever AMEN.

Source: Sermons

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

One of the ideas that has guided modern anti-religious thinking is the idea that God has multiple personalities. That God is sometimes love and sometimes wrath. This has caused an unhealthy fear of God and has often caused people to dismiss the “Christian” God as being petty or childish or unstable. For instance some teach that if someone accepts Jesus Christ, then God loves him. But if he rejects Christ, then God hates him and moves to punish and destroy him. This has led to unbalanced views of heaven and hell and the afterlife, but most importantly it has caused people to be unsure of their relationship with God or to reflect hostility towards God since they believe that God is already hostile towards them. If we believe in this type of God, we are left confused or angered by the unpredictable personality of God. It then becomes no wonder that people have fled from the Christian faith and that the typical modern western man or woman no longer considers Christian faith as an integral part of our society and culture. These are the ways in which our theology or dogma have a deep effect on our worldview and thinking from the top down. What you believe about God affects your whole world.

In today’s gospel reading which is given to us on this, the Sunday before the Feast of the elevation of the Cross, we are reminded of the reality of this God whom we serve. John writes “For God sent His Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” So John tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ did not become a man who dwelt among us and lived our life and experienced our pain and suffering because He hated us or wanted bad things for the human race. In fact it is the opposite, He came to us and was present with us because of His deep love for us. We see this again in the life of the Lord Jesus as He does not impose His beliefs on others or cause them physical pain or use force in order to coerce them into faith and belief, no! Instead we see that He teaches out and works openly and invites people to come to Him.

It is not that God forces us at all. Out of His love for us, He opens to us the opportunity to choose Him and to choose His way over the ways of the world (which are the ways of death and corruption). Yet, even in the life of the Lord Jesus we see that people would not always accept Him or His teaching. Sometimes they would reject him and then we saw the one thing that was unimaginable. People turned on God and attacked His Son. Humanity repaid God’s love by betraying Him. Far be it from God to condemn the world, in fact it was the world who condemned His Son. How much love does God have for us, that He would allow such a terrible and hateful thing to occur? We have no way to quantify such a deep love.

St. John writing in his first epistle says this about the subject “God is love.” He is telling us something about God’s character, God’s personality and even God’s essence. In a manner of speaking, love is in the very fibers of God’s being. There is no place for anything other than love within Him! When we say that God is love, we are saying that His love is perfect, eternal and unconditional. God will always love you. There is nothing that you can do that will change this pillar of our universe. God IS love.

We see this love come to complete fruition when we see the Son of God hanging upon the cross. In effect, this is the way in which God says to the world “Now you see just how much I have loved the world.” St. Paul writing in today’s epistle had this to say “But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is our glory because it fundamentally changes the way that we understand the world, theCreator of the world and our place in the world.

Everything is seen differently when we begin to understand God’s love. We even understand our lives differently through the lens of the cross of Jesus Christ. We understand through seeing the cross, but even more, through living the cross. It is one thing to see Christ from the outside, it is another thing to put on Christ and carry the cross.We begin to see that life is not about comfort but about struggle. We begin to see that doing the right things does not always mean that you are rewarded with comfort and happiness. Often it means thatyou will have to really suffer. That is part of what it is to be a Christian who lives according to the law of love. To loveis often to be used, humiliated, disgraced, hurt or even killed. Many of you have experienced such pains and trials.Why do you think that we remember the Martyrs so often? Because they have demonstrated to us what it means to put on the Lord Jesus and take up His cross with love. But my brothers and sisters, if we recognize that men and women like us have been able to embody and demonstrate such love, we can never forget that God’s love far exceeds any concept of love that we might understand. His love for us is perfect.

This love brings us to life and gives our life new meaning. Even difficult things and painful circumstances become beautiful when they flow from our love for God and when we attempt to live His love for others. So this is exactly what we try to do on a daily basis. We don’t simply go around in a careful way, trying to avoid all kinds of pain and struggle. That is no kind of life. We embrace holy struggles. We struggle to be loving to others even when they treat us poorly. We struggle not to condemn others, even when we see them sinning. We struggle to be faithful and dilligent to our work and our families and our husbands and wives. We struggle not to get swept away with the currents of the world. We struggle to be honest even when we see our classmates and co-workers being dishonest. We struggle to live holy lives.

We carry our crosses with the understanding that each one of us can multiply the love of Christ in the world. We carry them bravely, knowing that God is able to raise us up because He alone has conquered death! We carry the crosses that He allows in our lives, no matter how difficult they might beand He promises that we will share in Hisresurrection. All of this is given to us by grace because He first loved us and gave up His life for us, to Christ our God is due all glory, together with His Father and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. (22:2-14)

Again and again I am moved by the way that Our Lord Jesus Christ has refused to leave us ignorant about the things of God and the things of His kingdom. Because He loves us, He opens the blinds and gives us a glimpse into the most critical issues for the people of God.

Last week we heard the parable of the vineyard and this week we hear that “the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a marriage feast for his son.” There can be no doubt that the king in the parable is God the Father. The son is Our Lord Jesus Christ. The feast to which God is calling us is the celebration of the marriage union of the Lord Jesus to His bride. St. Paul tells us that the bride of Christ is the Church. The Lord consummated this marriage by uniting Himself to His bride upon the holy wood of the cross. He became one with His bride and took her infirmities upon Himself. In return for the death that He took for our sakes, He gave His bride, His own life and resurrection!

Each and every Sunday we come together as the bride of God, the Church, in order to celebrate this union of God with man. This transformation of death into life. We celebrate the swallowing of despair and the rebirth of hope. Each Sunday is Pascha. Each Sunday is entrance into the kingdom of God. There is in a very tangible sense, a way in which we live from Sunday to Sunday. That is actually the structure of the services and the weeks of the Church calendar.

Sunday, the day of the resurrection, is the day where we fully commemorate and enter into the marriage feast with our bridegroom, the One whom we love and long for. Christ our bridegroom loves us, His bride, to such a degree that He does not want us to be apart from Him. Like any sane and healthy husband longs to be with his wife and to grow ever closer to her. The Lord Jesus fulfills this deep desire for His bride and her deep desire for Him by offering us food to fulfill our deepest hunger, and drink to quench our deepest thirst. He doesn’t offer us food and drink that will only fill us up for a short time but will then leave us hungry and thirsty again. He offers us to take and eat of His body and His blood. He gives us of Himself because it is only by consuming the One who is eternal and limitless that one can be satisfied. But there is something more to this. He gives us of His body and blood in order to fully unite us to one another. The Lord teaching in the gospel of St. John says “He who eats my flesh and drinks by blood abides in Me and I in him.” The best and finest way that we unite to Jesus Christ is through partaking of holy communion. We receive the body and blood of Christ and become united to the One who united Himself to us by dying our death. In receiving Him, we are consumed by the One whom we have consumed.

It is a great gift that each Sunday we hear the word of the gospel. When the priest or the deacon comes out to read the gospel all of the people stand attentively and no one even moves while the gospel is being read. We do this out of reverence for the Lord and His word. It is an even greater gift that each Sunday, the Lord is given to us as bread and wine, the mystical body and blood. We should be even more attentive and stand reverently (if we have the strength) during the distribution of communion. We are present at the feast and the Son of the King is in our midst. We have to be reverent, much more reverent than we are during the reading of the gospel or the blessing of the priest. This is our reality. Often I don’t notice things during communion because I’m trying to be very careful while distributing the gifts but this is something that we should do as best we can. It is a sign of our deep gratitude for what is happening and a sign of our love for God who is giving Himself to His people. And love is the crucial factor in the parable.

We notice that there is a man who has been invited to the marriage feast and yet when the king arrives he sees that the man is not clothed properly. He has no marriage garment. The king has him thrown out of the banquet. Why? St. Gregory the great tells us that the garment which the man was lacking was love. In a very real sense, everyone is invited to the kingdom but not everyone will be dressed properly to stay and celebrate. St. Augustine writes “All the faithful know the story of the marriage of the king’s son, and his feast. They know that the Lord’s table is open to all who are willing correctly to receive it. But it is important that each one examines how he approaches, even when he is not forbidden to approach.” He is saying that just because you can approach to receive communion doesn’t mean that you always should approach. We have to prepare for it with confession (at least a few times a year), we have to prepare with heartfelt repentance. We have to prepare by showing acts of mercy and charity. We have to prepare through cultivating a life of prayer and not merely outward motions or intellectual belief.

What makes our appearance acceptable to God is not our outward dress or our hairdo or makeup. God is not concerned with the outward appearance, but with the things of the heart. Where is your heart? What fills your heart? Are we already fantasizing about coffee and donuts or what we will do after the liturgy? Or are we focused and present and full of love right now during this marriage feast which gives us a taste of the eternal marriage feast to which we are called? Marriage means that you devote all of yourself to the one that you love.  We are here at the feast, we have accepted the invitation, don’t stop now! Go forward in you relationship, don’t let it get stagnant. Pour out your heart to God so that He can clothe you with the garment of His love. It is when you receive this love, that you truly are brought back to life. Then we won’t come to the feast as mere guests or observersbut Christ our God will welcome us to enter as His beloved family. He says to us “everything that you see here in My kingdom is for you because I love you and desire to share it all with you.” May the Lord help us to walk in a manner worthy of His holy invitation. Glory be to God Forever AMEN.

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. (21:33-42)

Today we hear the parable of the vineyard. We are told that there was a man who planted the vineyard and along with this vineyard he built and provided everything that was necessary for the vineyard to thrive and do well.

He decided to allow tenant farmers to lease the vineyard and to work this land and take care of the vineyard. This was done with the understanding that one day they would bear fruit and share the fruit of the land with the owner. We are told that the season for fruit drew near and the owner of the vineyard sent servants to get the fruit. How did the tenant farmers treat the servants that came from the one who owned the vineyard and allowed them to work there? They took the servants and beat one of them, killed one of them and stoned another. Killing and stoning are both mentioned because stoning was a particularly shameful way to die and was usually reserved for those who had done wrong or committed transgressions according to some aspect of the Mosaic law.

How did the master of the vineyard respond to this? He sent even more servants in the hopes that he might get a different result. But it was no use. The result was the same. And finally the master decided to send his own son while he said to himself “They will respect my son.”

The Lord told this parable to teach the people and His own disciples about what was really happening around them. The Lord saw the religious authorities of the day, the Pharisees and Sadducees as the tenant farmers who worked the land that they did not themselves own. It was the land that they received in pristine condition, already built up with all that was necessary for the bearing of fruit. They received the law of Moses and the priesthood. They received the temple and all that was contained therein. They received the teaching of God. But none of that changed their disposition. In fact their disposition became worse. God had allowed them to work and serve in order that they might bear fruit. What was that fruit?

It was the fruit of repentance, which is love. The fruit would be seen in the changed lives of the people. The fruit would be seen in people who were brought from their old ways and directed towards love for God and their neighbors as well as the poor and suffering. But the tenants had nothing to give to the people because they didn’t first cultivate love for God and for their neighbors within themselves. In fact they so lacked love that they became hostile towards the Master who had allowed them to serve on His land and those whom He had sent to them, namely the holy prophets.

God began by sending His prophets to teach and warn and correct the people. Most of the prophets were not received with open arms but were driven away or killed. What was the message of the prophets? To cease from worshipping false idols and the things of the world and focus our lives on repenting, loving God and showing mercy to our neighbors and those in need.

Finally the Lord Jesus Christ begins to predict or foreshadow His own sufferings and death when He says in the parable that the master of the vineyard said “They will respect my son.” And of course they would have respected the son of the master had they been decent, good and upright people but they were not. They were corrupt to the core. Instead of looking at the son as a representative of the father, and treating him with utmost respect and gratitude for all that his father had done for them, they looked on the son with scorn and hatred. They said to themselves “This is the heir, come let us kill him and have his inheritance.” And so they took him and cast him out of the vineyard which was his birthright and they killed him.

All of this the Lord tells us in order to show us the reality of the situation. God sent His only begotten Son to us and He was treated shamefully and unjustly because of what He represented to the Pharisees and Sadducees as well as those in authority; a threat to their power and ability to rule over the people that God had given to them to care for. The problem is that these were not their people. They were God’s people. God taught and nurtured and loved His people throughout the ages in order to prepare them and bring them to Himself. Finally, when there was no other perfect way, in the fullness of time, Our heavenly Father sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ to us. He did this knowing beforehand, that His Son would suffer just like the prophets did, but even worse.  He would be hung shamefully, from a tree, the sign of one who is accursed according to the law. He was betrayed by the very people who should have embraced Him and venerated the very ground upon which He walked.

Our Lord tells us that the master of the vineyard will put those miserable men to death and will let out the vineyard to others who will give the fruit in due season. The apostles were given the priesthood of Jesus Christ, and have passed this down through the laying on of hands which has fallen to us. In this way, we who are responsible for the people of God are the tenant farmers and the vineyard is the Church. God the Father is the master who holds us accountable. It is not a lighthearted matter but a matter of spiritual life and death. My brother clergy and I will be held accountable for what we have taught and what we have failed to teach you. But most importantly we will be held accountable for whether or not we have taught you to truly love God and love your neighbor as if he is Christ in your midst.

Our Lord comes to each one of us every day.  Sometimes He comes as a thought to pray.  Sometimes He comes in the person who is needy or sick.  Sometimes He comes to us in the word of the Scriptures and especially in the gospel.  Sometimes He comes to us as bread and wine.  But how do we receive Him? Do we cast him aside and live our own lives as we see fit? Do we crucify Him again by falling back into sin and rebellion?  Or do we receive Him with open arms?  Do we show Him honor and gratitude by bearing the holy fruit of love?

Nothing is more important in our lives than overwhelming love for God and for His Son. This love can be cultivated through intense prayer, and through the humble preparation for and participation in the holy mysteries as we do at every liturgy.

Our love is also cultivated through our love for others (but not just our friends and family). St. Maximos the confessor says “He he who does not love his neighbor fails to keep the commandment, and so cannot love the Lord.”

This is the foundation of all that we aim to do and this foundation of love is built upon the love of Jesus Christ for the whole world. Through this love, He who was the stone rejected by the builders became the headstone upon which our whole faith and Church have been built. To Him alone be the glory, dominion and worship with His Father and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. (19:16-26)

In each gospel reading we come face to face with the mind and the heart of God. That is not a light thing. When we pay attention to the gospel text we should rightly be shaken to the core. By shaking us to the core, God can ensure that our foundations are strong and ready to be built upon in the right way.

The rich young man that came to the Lord Jesus, came with the right question in his mind. But he had no place for the right answer in his heart. Everyone in this room should have this man’s question as one of the guiding questions of their life “What must I do to have eternal life?” Every day is a new chance to ask this question and to work towards that goal. Why is this such an important goal? What is the big deal?

The big deal is that our earthly life is short and everything in our life, everything that we have worked so hard for or invested so much in, will fall right through our grasp. It will be counted as nothing unless it is an investment towards the kingdom and towards our life in that kingdom and with the King of life! St. Augustine writes,

“For this life is loved, whatever its quality; and however troubled it is, however wretched, people are afraid to end it. Hence we should see, we should consider, how much eternal life is to be loved, when this miserable life that must at some time be ended is so loved. Consider, brothers, how much that life is to be loved when it is a life you never end. You love this life, where you work so much, run, are busy, pant. In this busy life the obligations can scarcely be counted: sowing, plowing, working new land, sailing, grinding, cooking, weaving. And after all this hard work your life comes to an end. Look at what you suffer in this wretched life that you so love. And do you think that you will always live and never die? Temples, rocks, marbles, all reinforced by iron and lead, still fall. And a person thinks that he will never die? Learn therefore, brothers, to seek eternal life, when you will not endure these things but will reign with God forever.”

The question posed to the Lord was a good one. The response to the Lord’s answer was not what the man expected. But why should it be what we expect in the first place? When you come to God and ask for answers, you should be prepared for God’s answer to shake you to the core because God is in the business of turning people’s lives upside down in order to turn their hearts and minds right side up.

How does the Lord do this for the young man? He asks him if he has kept the ten commandments. The man replies that he has. Next the Lord tells the man the one thing that the man did not expect, the one thing that would certainly shake him to the core. The Lord Jesus says “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow me.”

At this point many of you are probably saying to yourselves “thank God I’m not rich, I guess my path into eternal life will be easy.” But I want you to know that while the focus has been material wealth, the words of the Lord Jesus most certainly apply more broadly than that. We can be rich in many ways and many of those forms of wealth can keep us from loving God fully. They can be things that consume our hearts and minds and time and energy. Some people are wealthy with money, others are wealthy in their gifts or talents, some are wealthy in their physical beauty or their intellectual abilities. All of these forms of wealth can keep us from inheriting eternal life because we use them to build up our pride and arrogance and not to build our love and service towards God.

Preaching about this passage, St. John Chrysostom says, “Christ demonstrates that there is a significant reward for the wealthy who can practice self-denial.” Our holy Orthodox faith teaches us to practice self-denial. This is why we learn to fast not only for great fasts but every Wednesday and Friday. We learn to give alms to the poor and to delay our desires for instant gratification. We learn to pray and keep vigil instead of merely spending our time trying to be entertained. All of these are forms of self-denial that can be directed to focusing on and following Jesus Christ.

Can we imagine that this rich man went away sad? People around us are spending their lives and their strength trying to accumulate wealth and this man who was already wealthy, went away sad. But there is something else, he did not simply go away sad, he also went away poor. Why was he poor? Because he had been offered the chance to follow Jesus and His disciples and he walked away from that chance. He walked away from the living treasure out of his love for things that can be stolen and lost and ultimately are left behind one day.

My hope and prayer is that each one of us doesn’t walk away from Christ, sad and poor. The Lord tells us that it is truly difficult for a rich man to be saved. But with God’s helpit is possible to leave behind the perceived riches of our lives and direct ourselves to the Master. “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” St. John Chrysostom says “If you also want to learn the way and how the impossible becomes possible, listen. He did not make this statement that what is impossible for man is possible for God merely so you could relax and do nothing and leave it all to God. No, he said this so you could understand the importance of calling upon God to give you help in this rigorous contest and that you might more readily approach his grace.”

Sowe have to take steps in the right direction and we do this through ourspiritualpractice and ourway of life and even in the way that we approach and prepare to receive the body and blood of Christ here at the Divine Liturgy.

Let us work and humbly ask God to work within each of us so that we might enter into the true life of communion that never ends.

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. (18:23-35)

We would not know a single thing about God or His kingdom had it not been shared with us in His great love for us. God did not want us to be ignorant people who walk around uninformed and unenlightened. God did not want us to be blind or empty. He wanted us to be full of joy and our joy is to know God, to know His ways and to know His kingdom.

Today’s parable is yet another example of the generosity that the Lord Jesus Christ has for us as He teaches us about the kingdom of heaven. These are not things that the Lord must teach us. No one is forcing Him to do so. He does them because He is merciful to us and He wants us to be with Him in His kingdom. He wants to share the kingdom with each of us. In teaching us about the kingdom we are also being reminded or put on notice “This is not our kingdom.”

What aspect of the kingdom does the Lord share with us in today’s parable? His focus is forgiveness. If we pay attention we find many examples of this teaching about forgiveness throughout the gospels. Perhaps if something is mentioned multiple times, we should open our ears as well as our hearts and minds and hear what it is that the Lord is saying to us. In today’s reading we are told that the kingdom of heaven is to be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. Upon finding that his servant could not repay his debt, he ordered the servant to be sold with his wife and kids in order to repay the debt. But something powerful happened! The servant who was about to be sold with his wife and children dropped to his knees and begged for patience. He asked for the king to be merciful to him and to his family. We can imagine such a scene, a man at the end of his rope, pleading, begging and crying out of despair. And how does the king respond? He responds by forgiving all of the debt and releasing the servant. So far so good. The king in this story is the Lord God. And we are the servants who owe a great debt to God. Such a debt as can never be repaid. Although it is God’s prerogative to sell us or allow us to be sent to another master (that is the evil one), He graciously chooses to forgive us all of our debt. So far so good.

But now comes the trouble. That same servant who was just released from all of his mountain of debt, was walking along the way and he found one of his fellow servants who owed him just one hundred denarii. And the anger inside him welled up and he grabbed that other servant by the throat and said “pay what you owe.” So the man who owed the hundred denarii fell to his knees and asked the man to be patient and merciful to him. How would this servant who had himself owed ten thousand talents to his king and was forgiven respond? He responded by taking the fellow servant and threw him into prison until he could pay the debt. This tells us that there is a problem with us when we ask God to forgive us from the bottom of our hearts but we are unwilling to forgive others who ask for our forgiveness from the bottom of their hearts.

The Lord Jesus tells us that the one who does not forgive another is essentially putting that person into a type of prison. And I have experienced this firsthand. We feel imprisoned because someone is angry with us and they refuse to properly forgive us. Each of us has been in that situation. We feel helpless because we have done our part to try and right the situation and have been apologetic (even when we may not have had much to apologize for in the first place), but those who are angry hold all the power. They can choose to remain angry or they can choose to forgive. In addition to making us feel imprisoned, those who are angry also put themselves into a type of prison of their own making.

This type of behavior is problematic for at least two reasons. The first is that each one of us is human and none of us is perfect yet. Since we are not perfect it is reasonable for us to assume that at some point or another, we will be the ones who are in need of mercy and forgiveness from others. But the second point is much more important than the first. We each owe a great debt to God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We accumulated such a debt of sin that it reaches high into the sky like the tower of Babel. Our mountain of sin is so great that it is like the peak of Mt. Everest. We cannot even see it from the ground. It is so high it reaches above the clouds.

And what could we do with such a mountain of sin? How could we repay the great debt that we owed to God? There was no way possible. Each one of us would have been bound by our sin and sold to the devil. But God in His abundant love for us did not want to see us bound as prisoners. He paid the debt for all of humanity and all of it’s sins with the sacrifice of His own Son. In return this sacrifice offered us true freedom from bondage and in fact the Lord’s sacrifice elevates us from mere servants of the King to members of His royal family.

What does this mean for me practically? It means that God’s forgiveness is not unconditional. God has generously forgiven us with a condition; That we must forgive each and every person that wrongs us in our life. In fact we say this very thing each and every time we say the Lord’s prayer. Study the words! Remember that this is not our kingdom. But what we do or fail to do here will have everlasting consequences. We should not approach this simply from fear of God, but even more so, from gratitude and a place of joy. We should say “If God has forgiven me for so much that I have done wrong, how could I possibly hold a grudge against people who have done so little wrong to me?” That is the message. Our forgiveness of others is a key that unlocks others from their prisons of regret, doubt and shame. It allows them to move on with life in a productive and healthy manner without emotional and spiritual roadblocks and detours. This is the mentality that is necessary to be sane in a world full of insanity, anger and misguided searches for justice. Forgiveness is key to our salvation and the salvation of our families. What a difference it makes when wives forgive their husbands and husbands their wives. What a difference when parents forgive their children and children their parents. What a difference when brothers and sisters forgive each other and never hold any grudges or keep any scores. No matter how difficult it might be, find a way to forgive and the doors of the kingdom of God will be opened wide for you. And most importantly, forgive me, the chief of sinners. AMEN.

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. (17:1-9)

Blessed Feast day! My brothers and sisters, today we are celebrating the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord Jesus Christ and all of the miraculous events that surrounded that magnificent event.

When we listen or read the gospels it can be easy to think that these are simply myths or tall tales that have been handed down from generation to generation but none of this accounts for the extreme dedication and devotion of the apostles and earliest disciples to teach and preach this gospel everywhere and at all times, even under the threat of death. We see in today’s epistle reading that St. Peter already needs to remind the Christian community of the truth of their message. He writes

“Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these things, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to arouse you by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. And I will see to it that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things. For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father and the voice was borne to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son, with Whom I am well pleased,” we heard this voice borne from heaven, for we were with Him on the holy mountain.”

He reminds us that he was an eye witness not only of the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus and His crucifixion, but even of the Lord’s miraculous transfiguration. This was such an important event because later on the disciples could recall it and realize that the one who sat with them and taught them and died for them was not simply human. He was also fully divine. He demonstrates this by revealing His glory to the three disciples who constituted His inner circle.

He glowed more brightly than the sun. His garments became whiter than any white. He seemed to glow from within, He was the source of the light, because we know Him to be the Light! This would have been a glorious sight and I have no doubt that each of us wishes that they could have been there to see it. In fact the ancient church teacher Origen writes,

“Do you wish to see the transfiguration of Jesus? Behold with me the Jesus of the Gospels. Let him be simply apprehended. There he is beheld both “according to the flesh” and at the same time in his true divinity. He is beheld in the form of God according to our capacity for knowledge. This is how he was beheld by those who went up upon the lofty mountain to be apart with him. Meanwhile those who do not go up the mountain can still behold his works and hear his words, which are uplifting. It is before those who go up that Jesus is transfigured, and not to those below. When he is transfigured, his face shines as the sun, that he may be manifested to the children of light, who have put off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. [Rom 13:12.]They are no longer the children of darkness or night but have become the children of day. They walk honestly as in the day.”

So Origen tells us that anyone can behold the transfiguration for themselves by simply beholding Jesus in the gospels, by studying and reading those texts. He tells us that God is beheld in form according to our capacity for knowledge. In essence, the Lord gives us according to what we can handle but He does this with some regard for the efforts we have put into this. If we barely study, barely scratch the surface, then the gospel stories will still provide some benefit to us such as comfort and uplifting but more is possible. If we struggle to learn and grow and know Him more deeply through His word, He will give us deeper and more intimate knowledge. He also tells us that part of that struggle is the struggle to be victorious in putting off the works of darkness and walking obediently to Christ’s teaching.

In essence we are told that anyone can be a witness to the transfiguration of the Lord by applying themselves to the task of loving Christ more fully. In the process of loving Christ we don’t simply see His light from far away, No! He draws us into His light. His light enters into our body and soul and transforms each of us into true children of God.

Speaking of children of God. Today we also celebrate the great blessing of sharing with you the third and final saint that was recently gifted to our community. We first celebrated the elder Joseph the betrothed. Next we celebrated St. Beatrix of Rome whom we commemorated last Sunday and now we celebrate St. Luke the Evangelist and Apostle.

We have many details from the life of St. Luke but for the sake of time we will only briefly touch on it. We know that he was born in Antioch, Syria and that he was a convert to the Jewish faith. He was a brilliant man who took his studies seriously and excelled especially in medicine and became known as a physician.

He was one of the 70 apostles of the Lord Jesus and very likely was present at the crucifixion of the Lord. Tradition also tells us that Luke was one of the two men who spoke as they walked along the road to Emmaus when the risen Lord Jesus came and walked beside them and taught them.

After the resurrection and Pentecost, Luke went out to preach the gospel and travelled to Sebaste, Antioch, Greece and Phillipi in Macedonia. He also travelled with the Apostle Paul and documented much of the history of the early Church in his work “the Acts of the Apostles.”  Of course we cannot neglect to mention that his most important work was the writing of his gospel, one of the four most important books of the whole Bible around 60 a.d.

Holy tradition also tells us that Luke probably saw the martyrdom of St. Paul in Rome and that he later went to Italy, Dalmatia, Gaul, Macedonia and Egypt to labor on behalf of Christ and His Church. During all of these travels he ordained priests and deacons and healed those who came to him. Ancient tradition also tells us that Luke was the first iconographer of the Church and that his first icon was the image of the Mother of God with the infant Jesus.At the age of 84 he was martyred in Thebes, Greeceby being crucified on an olive tree.

The location of his relics werewell known during the fourth century because of the many miraculous healings that occurred there. At that time they were transferred to Constantinople.  In 1204 they were stolen by Roman crusaders who plundered Constantinopleand the relic ended up in Padua, Italy.  In 1992 the Metropolitan of Thebes requested a significant portion of the relics to be returned and this prompted a scientific investigation of the relics in Padua which confirmed that the relics indeed belonged to an individual of Syrian descent from between 72-416 a.d.  A large portion of the relic was returned and since then has worked many miracles.  On December 22, 1997 the marbletomb of St. Luke began to stream myrrh.

We should never be surprised when we hear of all the amazing feats and accomplishments of the saints. Indeed we even see Moses and Elijah alive and appearing to the Lord Jesus in today’s gospel. God is faithful to those who love Him and He gives us much more than we can ever begin to imagine because He is the life and the light of the faithful and there is no other life or light outside of that which He alone can give us. May our lives also shine with the love of Jesus Christ to the glory of God the Father. Amen.

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. (14:22-34)

Everyone has moments in their life where they feel as if they are going to drown. I’m not necessarily talking about drowning in water, but the feeling that we are drowning in the difficult circumstances of our life. A marriage on the rocks.  A woman feeling the weight of her role as mother.  Parents who are struggling with disconnected teens.  It may be financial difficulties like an unexpected car repair or the loss of job. It might even be an unexpected illness. Our fathers and mothers in the spiritual life alsospeak of the feeling that we are drowning in the sea of sin and temptations.  Everyone must go through such difficult moments as these. They are a part of our human condition and the fallen world in which we find ourselves.

When we are going through such trials and tribulations they seem to consume us. We are consumed by worry and anxiety. We are consumed by fear. We often are paralyzed to take any step in any direction. We see this in the picture of St. Peter as he seems to come to his senses and realizes that he is now walking on water in the midst of the sea in the middle of a raging and howling winds. We are told that he was afraid and began to sink. Please note that if the chief apostle was afraid even though he could clearly see the Lord Jesus Christ, then it is quite normal for us to be afraid when we sense that we are also at risk of drowning.

But it’s not enough to simply learn from Peter’s failure, we must also learn from his success. You might be asking yourself “whenwas he successful? He tried to walk on water and failed miserably” But actually he was successful in at least two ways. His initial faith and his cry of desperation. Often our initial faith in God and our ability to conquer our difficulties is quite strong. But later on we pay close attention to all of the “what-ifs” and we find that we are overtaken by the fear and anxiety that they cause. We become like Peter as he took notice of the winds and the raging seas instead of focusing on the Lord who called him. The initial faith was enough to get him out of the comfort of the boat, but it did not last. Luckily, Peter teaches us something else that is powerful, something that should be a life lesson for us. Something that we can carry with us as a powerful weapon and shield through the storms of life. Peter teaches us how to cry out to God from the depth of our fear. We are told that he cried out “Lord, save me!” Lord save me. Three words that can change anyone’s life. They may notalwayschange your outer circumstances, but they will change your frame of reference by changing the focus of your life. It is this inner change of our focus that brings about our redemption. Our turning from the distractions to the Lord and source of life. After all, how can we love the Lord with all our heart, mind soul and strength unless He is the focus of our attention?When we cry out to Him and say “Lord, save me!”He does not hesitate to extend His merciful hand to help us, often in ways that we do not immediately notice, but always in ways that are for our redemption and salvation.

Last week I mentioned to you that I had received the great blessing of three holy relics from three different saints. Last week we spoke of the life of Joseph the betrothed. Today I want to mention our next saint, St. Beatrix (Beatrice) of Rome. She was a woman who also faced trials, tribulations and great difficulties in her life. She witnessed the torture and beheading of her own dear brothers Sts. Faustinus and Simplicius in the year 303. Can we even begin to imagine her pain? We know however from her story that she did not sink in her despair. She did not drown in her despairbut she turned her despair towards the One who could relieve this despair. She face the worst and most unimaginable moments by crying out to the Lord “Lord, save me!” Her cry of despair became the firm foundation of her renewed faith in Jesus Christ and allowed her to refocus her life.

After she saw her brothers bodies thrown into the Tiber river she had them drawn out of the water and buried. This alone was a remarkably courageous act. For the next 7 months, she went to live with a pious woman named Lucina. She didn’t hide and cower in the face of the threat of the authorities. She wasn’t paralyzed through her profound grief. She wasn’t trapped in her worries about her own life and how she would survive from day to day even though she had lost the men who cared for her and supported her emotionally and financially. She cried out to Christ the conqueror of death and her life became an offering to others. During those 7 months, she worked in secret with Lucinato help persecuted Christians in their area. When she was discovered and arrested, she was commanded to sacrifice before the idols and she announced that she would never sacrifice to demons because she was a Christian. Does she sound like a woman who was gripped with fear of her circumstances or a woman who was gripped with love for God?

While she was in prison, she was strangled to death. Her dear friend Lucina took and buried her body along with her brothers in the cemetery called Ursum Pileatum near Rome. We are told thatPope  Leo II (682-683) translated their relics to a church which he had built at Rome in honor of St. Paul.

St. Beatrix shows us what it is like to live and walk in the midst of the raging seas and the howling winds of life. She shows us that while there is a threat of drowning, she has no doubt that the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ is always ready to reach out and save us because He loves us and wants us to have life with Him. May she also pray for us to struggle with courage and to look up to Christ for light in the midst of our darkest hours. Glory be to God forever AMEN.

Source: Sermons