The reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (6:31-36)

Our Lord Jesus Christ, the lover of mankind, gives us beautiful words today.  He focuses on one word “love”.  This word is one of the most overused and misused words in all of our common day to day language.  But the Son of God, who is love incarnate, instructs and teaches His people so that they will not be in the dark but will have the light of life, the light of His teachings.

He says “As you wish men to do to you, do so to them.”  It’s a very simple saying, in fact we teach this rule to children.  We call it the golden rule “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  We know of course that loving one’s neighbor is among the very highest of the commandments and in this teaching of the golden rule it becomes more clear and concrete for us.  If you would not like someone to do something particular to you, then don’t do that thing to them.  Put yourself in their shoes.  Put yourself in their place and you can begin to see their perspective.  The Christian who cannot see things from anyone else’s perspective, is not yet a child of God.  He sees through human eyes and not through the eyes of Christ, the eyes of God.

We know that this is true because the Lord Jesus Christ is going to push us far past our comfort level regarding this often used word “love”.  The Lord is going to show us that what He means by love is something far different from our concept of love.  We often think of love as a feeling.  It is often emotional, even hormonal.  But that is not love according to the Lord.  He has to push us beyond our human understanding.  Beyond what is even rational.  Because if it is rational it will be according to human wisdom and not according to the mind of God.

So the Lord challenges His listeners “If you love those who love you, what credit is that you?  Even sinners love those who love them.”  He says that effectively it means nothing if you love those who act kindly towards you.  He says that if you only reciprocate love when others show love to you then that is not a sign that you are virtuous or holy, for “even sinners love those who love them.” So how will God push us past the point of comfort and raise our minds and hearts to Him?  How will God show us what we are missing in our understanding of this powerful word “love”?  He will attach this word to the people it will be most difficult to love…to our very own enemies.

Christ says “love your enemies.”  But it is very difficult, if not humanly impossible.  Man left to his own devices, will destroy his enemies and he will justify their destruction.  Some of you here have even been overheard saying that certain groups of people should die or be eradicated.  Make no mistake, that is not the way that the children of God should speak and with love I tell you that it is a sign that we are still very far from the kingdom.  

We can and sometimes we should hate what people stand for, we can hate false teaching and ideologies, we can hate evil practices and evil policies.  Yet, we love the human person and never reduce the person to their sins or their political party or their religion or their ideology.  If we do, then we are just like them, not like our Father who has graciously opened the doors to us and adopted each of us into His family.  And speaking of family, do you know who your enemy is?  It is your brother or your sister.  We are related to everyone.  We are created in the image of God.  Even those whom we despise are created in God’s image, difficult as that may be for us to consider.  

So how do we gain love for our enemies?  Well, some of the saints say that this is a gift.  That it comes by the grace of God.  That means that our task is to be acquiring God’s grace as much as possible, because God desires to give this gift to us. What are some of the means available to acquiring God’s grace?  Well, certainly there are the means such as the liturgy and fasting and the reading of Scripture.  But we can go further.  We can look at the power of confession.  Humility unlocks grace and there is nothing that demonstrates humility more than someone who comes and bares their soul during confession.  We can look at almsgiving.  When someone gives sacrificially for the sake of others, that is a great way to prepare the heart to receive God’s grace.  When someone accepts an insult or is mistreated and accepts it silently, that is a way that they acquire this grace richly through humility.  When we think of others, especially those whom we dislike, as better than ourselves, that is a powerful way to acquire humility and to attract the grace of God.

St. Silouan of Mt. Athos wrote on this topic of love often.  Let me share some of his words. He says, “If we are incapable [of loving our enemies] and if we are without love, let us turn with ardent prayers to the Lord, to His Most Pure Mother, and to all the Saints, and the Lord will help us with everything, He whose love for us knows no bounds.”  He goes one saying, “I continuously beg the Lord to give me the love of enemies. . . . Day and night I ask the Lord for this love. The Lord gives me tears and I weep for the whole world.”

These are not simply suggestions, they should become a law for our lives because St. Silouan also says something terrifying: “Whoever will not love his enemies cannot know the Lord and the sweetness of the Holy Spirit.”  May we be numbered among those who know the Lord and His love.  AMEN.

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (5:1-11)
The Lord wanted to do a great miracle in the life of St. Peter, who in today’s gospel is called Simon. He was often called Simon Peter. This miracle that the Lord wanted to do was not for the sake of Peter. It was also for the sake of the other disciples who would come to believe. But it was not merely for Peter or for those other disciples. The miracle was meant to be a blessing for all people. How so? Through this miracle of the great catch of fish, the disciples would begin to understand that the One whom they were listening to, the One whom they followed was no mere man but something greater. They would be convinced that He is the anointed one, the Messiah. They would be convinced that their lives and their mission and purpose should in fact change in light of this knowledge.

Our Lord began this special event on that morning by sitting down in Simon Peter’s boat and beginning to teach the people. First he fed the people with His word. Later He would feed them with a great catch of fish, more than any of them had ever seen in their lives. But there is an order to things. The first is the word of God, the teaching of Our Lord who is Himself the Word of God. First they receive spiritual food and later, they will receive physical food. Likewise this is the pattern for each of us if we want to have a balanced life in Christ. Each of us starts the day with overwhelming hunger. Not hunger for a bacon egg and cheese biscuit (although those are very nice). Starting with a hunger for the word of God, for the reading of scripture. And this daily reading, even 5-10 minutes, even one chapter of the gospels, is a light for us in the middle of darkness. Those short minutes set a compass for our hearts and minds throughout the day. We waste so much time. We aren’t ashamed that we spend days of our life scrolling through nonsense, but then we say that we have no time left for the Word. But our lives are an open book before the Lord.

Even in the case of the disciples they spent the whole night working and sweating and they probably wished they had been asleep in their beds, near their families, but instead they worked. Yet at the end of the work, they had nothing to show for it. “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing!” You can hear their frustration. Yet after all of their hard work, even they gained nothing. In a way this is true in the grand scheme of life. You work hard and afterwards, it’s gone. A mother works all day to clean the home and the next day they find that the kids have undone all the work. A man works hard to become wealthy and then he passes from this life and he finds that all of his work evaporated as his soul departed from his body. He couldn’t take any of it with him. So he enters into eternity in the same state as when he entered into the world as an infant. He is broke.

But something has the potential to be different and that is the wealth of the soul. My soul can be full of unlimited treasures. Likewise, in our lives we are often like the fisherman, toiling, working, sweating, slaving away to get by. Some days it feels like nothing is going right. Yet the Lord was actually preparing the disciples for something better. He uses these difficulties and trials to prepare our hearts for something greater, for Himself!

Had the fishermen been successful all night, perhaps they would have had little need for the Lord. Perhaps they would have felt no deep hunger or pain. But here they are, listening intently as they are frustrated and tired and questioning themselves. And now the Lord, after speaking and softening their hearts and preparing them, makes a request that might have been more than they could handle at that moment. “Put out into the deep and let your nets down for the catch.” You can hear their frustration through the words of Peter “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing!” But we can also see their humility, “But at Thy word I will let down the nets.” They are frustrated and exhausted, but they are humble and obedient. God rewarded their obedience. Our Church fathers have so much to say about the topic of obedience. Here is one example: St. Maximos the Confessor writes, “Just as the result of disobedience is sin, so the result of obedience is virtue. And just as disobedience leads to breaking the commandments and to separation from Him who gave them, so obedience leads to keeping the commandments and to union with Him who gave them.” St. Maximus the Confessor, Philokalia, 2nd century on Theology

Obedience was a starting point for the calling of the disciples. The Lord picked a moment when they should in fact be most irritable and least likely to cooperate, and yet, they did cooperate (perhaps under the leadership and example of Peter). In cooperating with the Lord they were accepting an invitation to draw near to Him. He gave them an opportunity that anyone in their right might would jump at, but they didn’t know it at that moment. It was hidden behind something that looked difficult, even annoying. What difficult things might God be calling us to in our own lives? What is God asking us to do that might feel like it is beyond our abilities or strengths?

My brothers and sisters, you will have many day when your life feels like Peter did after catching no fish. When you are at your wits end. Start those days by preparing your hearts with the word of God. And since you don’t know which days will be like this particular day, then you have to prepare your hearts for this every single day! And be prepared to obey whatever the Lord tells you in your heart and in your conscience. Don’t silence that quiet voice, lean in and listen closely. Be prepared to obey the teachings that the Lord gives you on a daily basis, to the best of your abilities for those teachings are our treasure if we save them in our hearts. Sometimes we even feel that the commandments are difficult. We don’t understand that they are an invitation into a deeper relationship with God.

Understand that the Lord is not distant or cold or uncaring. He sees and He knows and He understands our lives. Continue to obey Him without losing hope. Continue to obey Him with full confidence that the Lord is with you and He will give you what is needed today and every day of your life. His calling to go deeper in our relationship with Him is often cloaked. It might not always appear for what it is. The Lord didn’t need fish. The Lord didn’t need the disciples to go fishing. He wanted to test them and because they accepted the invitation, they opened new doors through their obedience. They went in further. The saw a wondrous thing and this was nothing compared to what the Lord would show them for the next three years.

Our task is not only to obey but to obey from a loving heart for God, because we know that God loves us and wants the best for us. This will allow us to unite with God and that is the goal of life. This is the path to union and communion. Christ our God has a plan to fill the nets of your life. Moreover, He has an even greater plan to fill the nets of your soul, because you are His inheritance and His people.

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians. (6:11-18) and The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. John. (3:13-17)

Today’s gospel reading is given to us by the Church in order to prepare us for the Feast of the elevation of the Holy Cross, which we will celebrate tomorrow morning with a liturgy. In order to fully prepare us for this feast the Church brings out passages which bring the cross into focus and remind us, help us to understand the beauty and the power of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and what has been accomplished for us upon that cross.

In teaching the people Our Lord refers to the story of Moses with the Jews in the wilderness. As you know from the book of Exodus, there were poisonous snakes that would come out and bite the people and kill them along the long journey to the promised land. This was a terrible situation that turned dire. We might come with human solutions but Moses prays to the living God. The Lord reveals the solution for this terrible situation. Moses is told to make a bronze serpent upon a staff. Moses is instructed to tell the people that if they are bitten by one of these poisonous vipers they should immediately look at the bronze serpent upon the staff. Amazing. It defies all human logic or explanation. It defies science (the god of the modern age). Yet, the Lord uses this to offer protection and safety to His people. And who are His people? Those who will obey His instruction given through His servant Moses. Those who are bitten and refuse to have faith and obedience, die. They cease to exist on the earthly plane. They cease to be God’s people because of their refusal to obey God.

This uncompromising way continues into the New Testament and the new covenant. God hasn’t changed from the Old to the New Testament. He is the same, but what He requires of us is more apparent and He Himself has become clearer to us through the incarnation of His Son Jesus. With our understanding of God deepened and brought to light, we see that we can’t live in the old ways. Things must change. St. Paul was a pharisee of the pharisees. He was a teacher of the Israel, of the Hebrew race, of the people of God. Yet, upon encountering the risen Lord Jesus, His understanding had to be reshaped and reformed and He began to understand everything about His life and His religion in a new way. He began to see everything that came before Christ as a prequel, a shadow, a foretelling. Now in the person of Christ, everything was different. The rules had changed. This is why St. Paul writing in today’s epistle, spends time speaking of circumcision and the law. These were his reality as an obedient and faithful Jew. Yet as he writes to the churches he reminds them that circumcision will not benefit them at all and adherence to the Mosaic law will not benefit them at all now that Christ has been revealed to us as the anointed one, the faithful servant of God, the Holy one.

So if circumcision or adherence to the law will not benefit the Jews then what will? According to the Apostle’s teaching, only a living faith in Jesus Christ and in the power of His cross can help them. St. Paul writes as much when he says “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.”

So just as the Lord commanded the Jews in the wilderness to look upon the image of the bronze serpent with faith when they were bitten, so also does the Apostle Paul command the Jews to look upon the cross of the Lord Jesus if they desire to be saved from the poison of sin and death. He makes it clear that there is no other way, not even through circumcision or through the law of Moses. Only through faithfulness to Christ is one saved, by God’s grace.

It is the teaching of Scripture and of the Church that this salvation is open to all people no matter where they may come from, no matter what race or tribe or ethnicity. This salvation is open to all: Greek and Jews, slave or free, male or female. It is through faith in Christ and in the might of His cross. Through baptism in Christ we are engrafted into the family and household of God. Through faith and devotion to Christ within the Church, which is His body, we continue to live and grow and flourish as sons and daughters of God. So then, membership in the household of God is no longer based on genetics or lineage. Membership is not based on location or which passport you have. Membership is not based on the country to which you belong. Membership is based solely on whether you accept Christ fully, first through baptism and then in a life of faithfulness. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

It is for this reason that St. Paul can then say clearly to the Galatians, “And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.” Gal 6:16 Paul is making a clear demarcation and differentiation between Israel as a place and people, and the new Israel, the Israel of God, which is made up of those who walk by this rule given by St. Paul. And who alone is following this rule? The faithful of the Church.

St. John Chrysostom preaching about this verse says “Those who pursue this new creation will enjoy peace and goodness, and truly deserve to be called by the name of the true Israel. But those who oppose it, even if they have been born of Israel and carried Israel’s name with them, have fallen away from Israel and from that name and family. For those who can truly be Israelites are those who keep this rule, abstain from the old ways and pursue what belongs to grace.” Homily on Galatians 6.16. [IOEP 4:101.]

To further confirm this reading we have the writing of St. Ambrose of Milan who writes, “peace and mercy rest on two parts—believing Jews and faithful Gentiles; “Israel of God,” not “Israel of man.” Again we have confirmation from another great Church father as St. Jerome writes,

“All things are measured by a standard, and when a ruler is set next to them they are revealed to be either wrong or right. In this way the teaching of God is a sort of standard for words that differentiates between what is righteous or unrighteous….He says “Israel of God” to distinguish it from the Israel that ceased to belong to God. For they call themselves Jews but are not, and they lie since they come from the synagogue of Satan. You should not be surprised that the fleshly Israel mimics the spiritual Israel, but the former lacks both peace and mercy (Paul, writing to the Corinthians, refers to them when he says, “Consider the Israel that is according to the flesh”).” Commentarii in Epistolam Pauli ad Galatas, Book 3, on Galatians 6:16

My brothers and sisters, the peace and mercy of God and His power and might to overcome all of our enemies (even Death) is given only through the Cross and resurrection of the only begotten Son of God, the God-man Jesus Christ. This is the heart of the gospel, and those who accept Christ through baptism, become citizens of the Israel of God, the heavenly Jerusalem, the Holy Church AMEN.

Source: Sermons

Sept 6, 2026

As many of our children have returned to school I thought I would share a story about some chickens, well really it’s about one chicken named Fred. Fred was a rooster. For years he would get up every morning and alert everyone to the rising of the Sun. He would proudly crow: Cockadoodledoo! And wake up everyone at the farm. In addition to that He would protect the hens and their eggs. There were some mornings when Farmer Paisios wished Fred would have slept in so that he could also get more sleep but he was usually really happy with Fred the rooster. Fred knew his role and he did it well. He served the whole farm community.

One day while everyone was busy working, a sneaky fox crawled up to the chicken house. This had happened before. Once before Fred came to the farm, the fox snuck up to the chicken house and stole many eggs. But the slippery fox never tried anything like that while Fred the rooster was there to protect the hens, and their eggs. But this one particular day, while everyone was busy and distracted, the fox greasily slid his way over to the chicken house and just as he was getting ready to attack the hens and take their eggs, he noticed that Fred the Rooster was watching. Fox had no way to get past Fred so he came up with a new plan.

He came close to Fred and tried to act like a friend. Fox said to Fred the rooster, “How are you feeling today?” Fred replied that he was feeling good, maybe a bit tired from always getting up early. And this is where Fox began his work. Every day he would come by and tell Fred the rooster that something must be wrong with him. He shouldn’t be tired. He should always feel great. He had convinced Fred after many weeks that perhaps there was something wrong with him. Finally one day, Fred the rooster asked for advice from Fox. “What do you think I should do about my situation? I’m tired and I don’t feel like getting up and crowing at daybreak and protecting the hens for a living. I wish I had it easy like the hens.”

This was the chance that Fox was after. He declared with confidence and without hesitation that perhaps Fred the Rooster was born in the wrong body. Perhaps he was really a hen stuck inside the body of the rooster. This seemed strange to Fred at first but the more it was repeated and the more he thought about it, the more he became convinced that this was really the problem. All of his troubles and all of his problems would go away if only he could be treated like one of the hens. So he made a decision and decided not to get up the next day to cockadoodledoo. He just slept in and ignored the rising of the Sun.

Farmer Paisios slept in as well. He never heard Fred the rooster because Fred the rooster was still asleep. Farmer Paisios finally rose and realized that something must be wrong so he went to the chicken house to see what was the matter. Upon arriving he found Fred still sleeping and he also noticed that there were no eggs anywhere. They were gone. Farmer Paisios yelled at Fred to wake him: “Lazy bum! Why didn’t you wake up and do your job this morning?!” Fred the rooster looked at him and replied, “I don’t feel like being a rooster anymore. I feel like being a hen!” “You feel like being a hen?!” groaned Farmer Paisios. “What gave you the idea that you could become a hen?” So Fred the Rooster shared the whole story about what Fox had told him and how we had convinced him that something was wrong with him.

Suddenly it all made sense to Farmer Paisios and he looked at Fred and said “Fox told you what he wanted you to hear, not because he cared for you, but because he cared for the eggs you were guarding.” “No, it can’t be!” cried Fred. “He seemed so genuine and so caring!” But Farmer Paisios just shook his head thinking about how sad it was. He was sad that the fox had crept into the farm. Sad about all of the eggs being gone. And most of all, he was sad that Fred the Rooster had forgotten his purpose in life.

Later, after Farmer Paisios spent some long hours in prayer, he came to Fred the rooster and spoke with him. “Fred, I know that you were confused and I forgive you, but we must never let that happen again.” Fred was still puzzled and he asked “How do I prevent this from happening again?”

Farmer Paisios turned to the rooster and spoke kindly saying, “Fred, you made a big mistake when you let the Fox even start to talk to you. We know that the Fox is a liar and a murderer — when he speaks, he always lies. That is his nature. It can’t be changed any more than you can change being a rooster, or I can change from being a man. The only one Who never lies is God. Not only does He always tell the truth, but He always loves us. And do you know Who created you?” Fred replied with a question, “Was it God who created me?”

Farmer Paisios was pleased with that response, “Yes my friend, God created you and me and every other creature on the farm! Now do you think God makes mistakes?” “Well, no, I don’t think so” said Fred. So Farmer Paisios opened his Bible to Genesis and began to read to Fred… “in the beginning God made them male and female…” and upon closing the Bible he turned to Fred again. “Fred, you see that you cannot be a hen that lays eggs anymore than I can be a cow that gives milk. God made each of us with a purpose and we can’t change our identity whether male nor female, whether rooster or hen, whether bull or cow, whether girl or boy. We can rejoice and give thanks that God made each of us perfectly as He intended us to be.

The Fox snuck in to fool you. He hates you and everything that you are — as a faithful and vigilant rooster — and the next time he comes around here it won’t be to steal eggs, it will be to eat you! So, be on your guard; don’t listen to him; don’t let him get close enough to even start talking. CROW as loud as you’ve ever crowed and chase him away. That way the hens and the eggs and YOU will be safe and sound.

My dear children, this advice from Farmer Paisios to Fred the rooster is my advice to you: The Fox is a symbol of the devil. Don’t speak with the Devil or anyone else who tries to confuse you or who makes you doubt who you really are. The devil will always lie and he only wants to hurt and destroy you. Keep Our Lord Jesus Christ close to your heart and mind; trust God with all things; get up every morning and pray with all your might so that the Devil is chased away from you and your loved ones. And finally, always give thanks to God for making you who you are — because He did it in love.

Source: Sermons

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

Today we hear the parable of the landowner who has planted a vineyard and later on he hired men to work to tend his vineyard while he was away.  We are told that the problems in this parable begin when “The season of fruit drew near.”  This is a big indicator to us of what is really going on with this parable.  The man who was the landowner expected that his investment would pay off richly.  That he would receive the fruit that was owed to him by the land and more specifically by those who had been hired to work and tend the land.  But his expectations were met with great disappointment, even with shock.  He sent his servants to go and to get the fruit but we are told that the hired tenants took each of the servants and either beat them or killed them or stoned them.  This is serious.  The man has come to his own property, a property that he had allowed tenants to work and to live on.  He sends his own personal servants to collect the fruit of the harvest and instead they receive shameful treatment, even up to death.

The landowner is not happy at all.  So he sends more servants than before with the hopes that they can go and clarify things and get the fruit of the harvest.  But once again, the same thing happens.  They beat and killed the servants that were sent to them.  Well now the master of the land has no choice.  He is indignant.  How could they treat my servants this way?  Do they not understand that my servants represent me?  That’s it.  I am sending my beloved son.  They have to respect him and treat him correctly.  When they see him, they will not see him, rather they will see me and will fall in line and act appropriately.  But the master was wrong.  When the son arrived at the vineyard, “the tenants said to one another “This is the heir, come let us kill him and have his inheritance.”  And they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.””

The Lord Jesus Christ said this story publicly to point to the realities of Israel and the Jewish people.  It is clear from the story that the landowner with the vineyard is God.  The tenants are those who are tasked with upholding the teachings and religious practices of the Jews, the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Jewish priests and scribes.  The servants of the master are the prophets.  They are sent on behalf of God in order to inspect and to receive the harvest of fruit, which will later become wine.  Yet they are all mistreated and killed.  Finally the son is the clear symbol of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God.  So this parable is given by the Lord and it indicates to us that He knows exactly what is happening and exactly what will happen to Him.  He has seen it all and understands this moment better than they do.  The Jewish authorities will turn on Him just as they had turned on all of the prophets including John the Baptist.  They will reject Christ, His life, His teachings and then they will murder Him because they see Him as a threat to their power over the people.  They don’t see the Jewish people as belonging to God.  Rather they see them as belonging to them, they see the people as property and as a means to enrich and empower them.  And worst of all, they don’t see God through His Son.  Although our Lord came to minister to them and to help and save them, they completely refused and often continue to refuse him.  In rejecting Jesus Christ, they rejected God, the Father.

God was patient, He sent prophets over and over and then He sent His only Son to the tenants because He wanted to gather the fruit that was owed to Him.  What is the nature of this fruit?  It is spiritual in nature.  The fruit that God desires is the rich harvest of souls who are washed and sanctified and purified and brought closer to Him.  There is no other fruit.  The fruit is not big cathedrals or busy churches or one hundred catechumens.  These are not the heart of the matter.  You can have a beautiful cathedral and tomorrow it burns down in a fire or one hundred catechumens and in a year or two you find that many have left.  You can have a full church with hundreds of people and yet most of them aren’t growing in their relationship with God, they are just taking up space.  No.  The real fruit is a human being that is alive, with a soul that is on fire for God.  St. Irenaeus once said “The glory of God is man fully alive.”  To become a real human being means to be fully alive with God as the center of your being and life.  Anything less than that is not life.  What does it matter that we build large churches or bring many people into the Church if they are not sanctified and their lives aren’t changed, if they haven’t become holy?  Then we are no better than the Jewish authorities, in fact, we will be reckoned as worse because we know better.  Nothing has been hidden from us. So we see the parable as a summary of the Jewish authorities and their treachery against God and against His Son, and we can also see this parable as a reminder that each of us is expected to do something with what God has given us.  

In the gospel according to St. John we hear these beautiful words from our Lord Jesus Christ: 

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” Jn 15:1-08

Each of us has been placed as a steward over something.  Perhaps over a church or over a family household, but certainly over our own lives.  And each of us will have to answer and bring fruit to the Master at the appointed time.  We are called to bear fruit.  What is this fruit? It is the fruit of righteousness, the fruit of the Holy Spirit. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;” (Gal 5: 22-23)  These are the fruits of a soul that has toiled and worked and hungered for God and God blesses such souls with His abundant grace. When the Lord comes looking for His harvest, may He not find one of us empty handed.  AMEN.

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians. (15:1-11)

In today’s epistle, the apostle Paul is writing to the church at Corinth in order to build a case.  The case he is building is for the purpose of properly correcting his spiritual children and bringing order to the church.  As part of this case that he builds he goes through a process of reminding, a process of remembrance regarding how we got here, what he knows to be true about the Christian faith.

For St. Paul this process of remembrance and “case building” must always center around two events, the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Ultimately those are the foundation of his preaching.  We see his beautiful heart for his people, for protecting them, for shepherding them through his words.  “Brethren, I would remind you in what terms I preached to you the Gospel, which you received, in which you stand, by which you are saved, if you hold it fast—unless you believed in vain.”

This means that what we believe about Christ matters, truly matters.  And that what we believe doesn’t matter for a short period of time.  If we believe it in one moment and then we later convince ourselves or are convinced by others that we no longer believe, either of these is a kind of spiritual death according to St. Paul because either one has caused us to let go of the life raft, which is the Church of God and this life raft floats and moves through the storms of the world, the storms of this life.  The life raft is powered through and held together with and made sea worthy and indestructible by the power of the Son of God, through His incarnation, His death and His resurrection from the dead.  And St. Paul makes this case by giving a reminder and a warning, “this is the gospel which you received and in which you stand, and by which you are saved, if you hold it fast.”  It only helps us if we continue to hold it.  Once we let go, we sink and are drowned in the depths of the sea.

But in order to make his case he starts from the beginning.  St. Paul reminds us of his own journey of faith, because it matters.  He tells us that he delivered to the churches what he himself had received.  And it is important that we see that he uses the word “delivered”.  In Greek the original word is properly translated as “traditioned”.  So this is one of a few instances within the New Testament where we see the place of holy tradition in the beginnings of the life of the Church.  He traditioned to them what he had also received.  By “traditioned” he means that he passed it by word of mouth.  He breathed it to them.  Just as the foundations of the universe and the beginnings of the world were made by God’s Word, so in this case the apostle reminds the people that their faith and their very salvation, their life, was made possible by his preaching, by his word.

So this aspect of our holy faith has always been there from the start of the Church.  Before the gospels were recorded, before the epistles were written, before the New Testament was compiled:  holy tradition, the apostolic preaching, existed.  St. Irenaeus (whom we commemorate today) wrote: “We have learned the plan of our salvation from no one else other than from those through whom the gospel has come down to us. For they did at one time proclaim the gospel in public. And, at a later period, by the will of God, they handed the gospel down to us in the Scriptures…” – St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies

Now as part of that holy tradition St. Paul gives certain historical facts to further bolster his case to the Corinthians.  He reminds them that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was not some kind of myth or a far off tale in a distant land.  He reminds them that Our Lord Jesus Christ appeared to the pillars of the Church, people that all the Christians either knew or knew about.  He mentions them publicly because they are a measure of truth.  They are witnesses.  They can corroborate the story.  So he mentions Cephas (St. Peter), and then he mentions the twelve.  Then he mentions that the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to 500 brethren together and he completes this statement with the words “most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.”  What does that mean?  It means that St. Paul is challenging the Corinthians to find and speak with these people if they have any doubts regarding the Christian faith.  Then he mentions that the Lord appeared to James and to all of the Apostles.  And finally the blessed Paul gives us the final word on the subject:  “Last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared also to me.”

He wove a defense that was built upon holy tradition in accordance with the Scriptures and he ends with the most powerful witness of all, his own experience of the resurrected Christ.  He saw Jesus Christ after His death.  He spoke with Him.  He communed with Him.  These words are powerful on their own but they become so much more powerful when we remember that St. Paul was a man who hated the Christians and who attacked and imprisoned them from town to town. So anyone who came across this epistle or who was a member of this community or any other Christian community of the time would have taken these words of St. Paul seriously.  Paul meant what he said and his life after becoming a Christian was a testimony to his unwavering faith and love of Jesus Christ.  Through persecutions, imprisonments, excommunications, and various trials and tribulations, St. Paul proves that he encountered the living Jesus and that for Jesus alone, he could suffer anything and everything through God’s grace.

Through the witness of St. Paul, who wrote over half of the New Testament we are invited to enter into this same life with him.  Suffering and struggling together, praying and growing together in love for one another and love for God.  And we are reminded that you must never ever, ever let go of your faith and your hope in the crucifixion and the resurrection because Christ saves those who hold His hand and never let go.  This was what St. Paul received and handed down to us and what continues to be offered to us through the Church.  Once again quoting St. Irenaeus, “One should not seek among others the truth that can be easily gotten from the Church. For in her, as in a rich treasury, the apostles have placed all that pertains to truth, so that everyone can drink this beverage of life. She is the door of life.”  -Against Heresies, III.4

May we enter through her doors into life, into salvation, into resurrection, into the kingdom.  AMEN.

Source: Sermons

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

Today we hear a parable, a story of Our Lord Jesus Christ.  Honestly we should be in complete awe and wonder that Our Lord would allow us a glimpse into the things of His kingdom.  Who am I that the Lord should reveal anything to me, let alone His heavenly kingdom?  Yet He does reveal these things to us and we are blessed if we truly hear them and apply them in our lives.  But woe to us if we hear them and don’t heed them.    

Today we hear that the kingdom of heaven is like a King who wished to settle accounts with His servants and those to whom He lent money.  We are reminded by this that everyone and everything within the world is called to be a servant to the Lord and that each of us has actually been given many gifts and treasures but they are given with an expectation.  What have we been given from God our King?  First, we have been given life.  Life is a gift that only God can give.  He is the life-giver.

Next we have been given the image and likeness of God as human beings.  But we can go much further.  We have been granted grace through the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Through His death and resurrection we have been granted a chance to enter into newness of life through our baptism.  In this baptism we have received mercy and forgiveness of our sins and we continue to receive these gifts every day in the life of the Church.  Everything that we receive here is a reflection of the kingdom of God.  It is a place full of God’s mercy through the prayers and the sacramental life.  

Since we as humans did not and could not earn these treasures, we are all in debt to the Lord.  It is actually an impossible debt that can never be paid.  It is paid through love and sacrifice, by our Lord.  His love and His sacrifices for us are a sign of His mercy.  We could not possibly earn this love.  They are a sign that He truly loves us and wants us to be with Him.  He doesn’t desire our sins to interfere with this relationship.  He doesn’t want our sins to be a wall between us and Him, so He removes them.  He doesn’t count our sins against us at all.  It’s as if He doesn’t see them.  But there is a catch according to the parable.  The catch is an expectation that is set for each of us.  

The Lord says in effect, “I have forgiven and will continue to forgive you, but you must also forgive others continually.”  This is often beyond our human comprehension.  But it is clear that this is the parable. What is truly terrifying is that the real implication of the parable is that the doors to the kingdom of heaven are not locked by the king, the master of the house.  The key that can unlock the mercy of God is held by each of us.  The key that unlocks God’s mercy is mercy itself. 

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk says, “Do we refuse to forgive? God, too, will refuse to forgive us. As we treat our neighbours, so also does God treat us. The forgiveness or unforgiveness of your sins, then, and hence also your salvation or destruction, depend on you yourself.”

As fellow Christians we have lots of moments in life where we fall or fail or offend or hurt others.  We can each look back and see faces and situations that are uncomfortable for us.  Sometimes we harbor resentments and have a real sense of pain, maybe even post traumatic stress, from the way that people might have treated us.  Sadly, this can happen with those whom we are closest to.  The more time you spend together, the more opportunity there is for your humanness and your imperfections to manifest themselves.  So we might have a situation where there is enmity or bitterness between husbands and wives or between parents and children, or between siblings or any other possible configurations, between co-workers or between friends or between neighbors or between your brothers and sisters in the church.  Yet in all of this, the key that unlocks mercy is mercy itself.

Sometimes when others have hurt or offended us, we need to step back and perhaps recall a time when we hurt or offended others yet they did not hold it against us.  Of course the best example of all is the various ways we’ve offended God and sinned against Him.  Yet we recall that God has not judged any one of us harshly.  If you had been judged harshly, you wouldn’t be here.  When we remember the great list of our own sins and failings, we begin to be humbled and we might even begin to make excuses for others before God and others.  We might let go of resentment and bitterness to not only free ourselves from that terrible net but free the other person as well.  When we hold grudges we wrap the other in chains.  We hold them captive, yet ultimately we are the ones who have to carry the weight of those chains.  

When we forgive we open doors and we know that this reflects the love of God who opens His arms to us and opens the doors of His kingdom to everyone who would enter with faith.  And our behavior towards others must reflect this commandment given by our Lord right before His betrayal and crucifixion, “that you love one another, even as I have loved you.”  It is a commandment that is self enforcing.  Either you love and have mercy or you can’t understand that language, it’s like something alien to you and even if the Lord would open the doors to His kingdom you wouldn’t be able to enter because you could not comprehend His mercy or His love. You would run from it as from fire.  Because it is something that would cause you discomfort and anguish instead of bringing you peace and a sense of belonging.  It is an energy, a spirit that we don’t comprehend if we haven’t assimilated it into our lives, rather, if we haven’t assimilated into the life of Christ.

I would like to leave you with a short quote from St. Moses of Optina who writes,

 “If at some time you show mercy to someone, mercy will be shown to you.  If you show compassion to one who is suffering (and of course, this is not a great deed) you will be numbered  among the martyrs.  If you forgive one who has insulted you, then not only will all your sins be forgiven, but you will be a child of the Heavenly Father.”

What a gracious, bountiful and merciful God who allows us the opportunity to reflect His love and gentleness to others and by doing so, to be transformed and to truly grow as His beloved sons and daughters.  Glory be to God, AMEN. 

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. (17:14-23)

This week we celebrated the Feast of Transfiguration, the appearance of Christ in and as radiant light, to His chief disciples. The gospel that we heard today is in fact the very next passage after the transfiguration of our Lord. There is nothing so painful for a father or a mother than to see their child sick, to see their child unwell, to see their child suffering and in pain. Any sane parent would gladly switch roles and places with their child if it would mean alleviating their child’s suffering. In today’s gospel we encounter such a man who brings his son to the feet of our Lord Jesus Christ. The father tells the Lord that his son suffers from epilepsy, that he frequently has seizures and that these seizures, far from being harmless actually are very dangerous and life threatening. How do we know this? Because the man tells Our Lord that when the boy has seizures, he is often thrown into the fire and into the water. To this very day, in our modern world there is very little that is more dangerous than fire and water, than burning or drowning.

It seems to me that there is also a deeper symbolism in this because we learn that the epilepsy that is associated with this boy is not merely a physiological condition or physical ailment, it is demonic, spiritual in nature. So the fact that the demons that possess the boy are attempting to throw him into water and into fire is a sign of the true character of the demonic forces. They have only one desire, to destroy life. Life is a gift from God, and they have rejected life in God. They reject God Himself and they aim to do their best to undo His creation especially mankind who is the pinnacle of God’s creation, created in His image and likeness.

In our lives we struggle with various spiritual ailments and we become lukewarm and we convince ourselves that our sins are insignificant and don’t really matter much but we would do well to remember that we are tempted because the demons seek our destruction. They want to ruin your life and destroy your soul so that you never can repent and turn back to God. They don’t really care whether this takes a short amount of time or a very long time in a gradual slide towards spiritual death. Either way, they are pleased with the outcome if we are spiritually dead and far from the Lord.

Now this man comes to the Lord and tells him the situation regarding his own son and he adds another important detail: And I brought him to Thy disciples, and they could not heal him.” To this Our Lord responds in an unexpected way saying, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” Through this we see that the Lord considers the man to be lacking faith and in addition it seems that He is saying that the disciples themselves also lacked faith. The noted scholar Origen believes that the words of the Lord are meant for the whole human race. So often we come to God in prayer or we come to the priest in the church and we ask for healing and prayer, but do we actually believe, do we have living faith that Christ can work healing and miracles? If we don’t have faith, why not? What stops us from believing? Why is our faith so small? Why is our image of God so lacking? Have we not read and studied and observed what God has done and continues to do everywhere and at all times?

Now St. John Chrysostom had an interesting take on these events especially regarding the disciples and their inability to heal in this case. St. John says that this is in fact a demonstration that oftentimes the disciples of Christ were able to heal even when the one who asked for healing didn’t have faith. Since it seems clear that many people received healing from the disciples and everyone was surprised that the disciples could not help in this particular case. Chrysostom goes on to say that “just as the faith of the one bringing in the sick was often sufficient for receiving a cure even from lesser ministers (those who lack some measure of faith), so the virtue of the minister was also sufficient to achieve a miracle even without the faith of those bringing them in.” -The Gospel of Matthew, Homily 57.3

But either way, the words of the Lord hold true. Everyone in this situation lacked the faith necessary for this healing. The disciples, the father, the people there present.

Yet the Lord did not leave His people empty handed and begging by the side of the road. He did not leave them lost in the wilderness. He taught them and He showed them the truth. That faith is not static. That faith is not simply given as a gift from the Lord, as the disciples might have imagined. Faith is a living entity within us. It is a flame. Faith can increase or decrease. Faith can be cultivated.

The chief methods for growing faith are shared privately with the disciples, when they ask why they could not heal the boy. The Lord told them that they lacked faith and then He gave the methods for growing that faith: Prayer and fasting. It is as if the Lord is speaking directly to the Orthodox Christians! The Church gives us roughly 200 days out of the year to fast. The Church also gives us a daily cycle of prayers, to grow our faith, to bring us closer to Christ. How many days do we squander? How many of these days do we complain?

Or on the other side of the equation, how often do thank God for the gifts of fasting and prayer? How often do we run to the Lord to receive these gifts for our sanctification and the healing of our souls and bodies? How often do we take the Lord at His word and pray with great faith and believe that with God all things are indeed possible? The Lord says that for the one who has great faith “nothing will be impossible.” This is a promise given to the children of God through Our Lord and Master. This promise brings us full circle back to the feast of Transfiguration which we just celebrated and which came right before this passage. Through prayer and fasting, God’s grace is given an opportunity to work in us. Faith changes from theory to life and truth and power in Christ. St. Nikolai of Zicha writes, “In the man who only theorizes about faith, there is a great deal of room for the demon. But in the man who gives himself to sincere prayer and fasting, there is only the narrowest space for the demon, and he must flee from such a man.”

This, my brothers and sisters is the faith that Our Lord Jesus Christ wants to impart to us. This is the faith that is our inheritance with all of the saints. Through their prayers may this faith grow within each of us…to the Glory of God, AMEN.

Source: Sermons

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

Each time we read or hear the holy gospels we are encountering God. The gospels stand in a place of preeminence in the life of the Church. We believe in the Bible and revere it as the inspired word of God. But we put the gospels even higher than the rest of the Bible. As you see the gospel book sits alone, wrapped in gold (gold plating) on the Holy Altar table. Why? Because the gospels reveal God to us clearly and completely. The gospels are the eyewitness accounts of the life and the teachings of the Son of God, Our Lord Jesus Christ. They are the most precious treasure, the most important texts ever written in the history of the world. We take the things written in them, the things of Christ and His Church seriously.

For an Orthodox Christian these are not cleverly devised tales or myths. They are our sacred history. The gospels give us our meaning and our identity and every other identity that we have comes second to our identity as Christians. When we begin to compromise our identity in Christ, when we begin to compromise the way that we live and we begin to live a life of rebellion against the teaching of Christ and His Church then we find that our foundation cracks and before long we find ourselves on the outside looking in, completely unable to understand the Christian faith. We become alienated. This alienation didn’t happen because Christ or the Church or it’s people changed but rather because we moved, we shifted, we changed. Yet the gospel stands as an ever present reminder and witness to the truths we accept through faith. The gospel is ready to enlighten you and to teach you and to help you correct your way of life. It will help bring you to life in God if that is what you truly desire.

In today’s reading we see that Our Lord Jesus Christ has completed His long day of teaching, healing and feeding the multitudes. He dismisses the crowds and then He does something that we would not expect in our human logic. After a long and exhausting day outside, in the elements and with the many people and their many pains and struggles, we would very likely be drained. We would probably want to sit down and rest. We would want to eat and possibly go straight to bed. That would be normal. Yet the Lord is not like us. He chooses to hike up a mountain to spend most of the evening in prayer. He is teaching us even in these quiet moments in the middle of the night. What we desire in food and rest, the Lord desires from His Father in prayer. God is His food. God is His rest. Prayer is food, shelter and refreshment. We are told that He goes up the mountain to pray. In this we understand that prayer itself requires an effort, like climbing up a mountain. It is not so easy. It doesn’t often feel like running downhill. It feels like an uphill battle if you will. Good prayer sometimes requires sweat and tears. Yet there can be no mistake. The gospel account is clear. Christ our Lord is teaching us that prayer is our rest and refreshment.

So often when people come to confession they say that they don’t pray enough. We often look at prayer as a check list. I pray because I have to, right? I pray quickly for 3 minutes and I feel that I have done my duty. But what did you accomplish friends? Prayer is for you, not for God! Prayer is not a punishment but many of you treat it as if it is a sort of death sentence. How do I know? Because you run away from prayer. You don’t go to prayer with intention and feeling and zeal. You don’t run towards prayer. We fail to see that prayer is a special time to be alone with God and enter into a deep communion with Him. God desires time with you. It should really open our eyes that Our Lord spends His evening in prayer. He is always with God the Father and the Father is always with Him. They are one. Yet, He prays in order to be in intimate union with His Father without any distractions.

Prayer also changes us. St. Ephraim the Syrian says “Virtues are formed by prayer. Prayer preserves temperance. Prayer suppresses anger. Prayer prevents emotions of pride and envy. Prayer draws into the soul the Holy Spirit, and raises man to Heaven.” So this is an antidote to the idea that you can become different by trying harder. Trying harder does very little. Prayer changes us.

Those of you who have come to confession know the example about the iron and the fire. If you take a cold rod of iron and you bring it close to a fire as it gets closer to the fire what will happen to it? It will no doubt get warmer. And if you bring that iron very close what will happen? It will get hot. And if you put the iron in the fire and leave it there for a time what will happen? It will become red hot! The fire will be married to the iron and the iron to the fire. The iron will glow and be hot as flame. This is what is possible for an Orthodox Christian in the life of prayer. We are the iron, often cold and lifeless. Yet we can be activated through prayer.

We can become energized with the grace of God. We can become like God. We can become by grace what God is by nature. We can be completely transformed and transfigured through the Holy Spirit, in prayer. We can have union and intimate relationship with God. This is not a speculation or wishful thinking or theory. It is established and confirmed in the lives of the saints of the Church and in the teaching of the New Testament. Prayer is a doorway to become partakers of the divine nature.

Perhaps your life is full of storms. Yet Our Lord Jesus is waiting for you in the midst of the storm. He calls to you. He invites you to Him. He wants you to be where He is, to be with Him. Why do we doubt and hide ourselves in so many other distractions? But we should also remember that prayer isn’t only when we are in front of our icons in the morning or the evening. Any moment of the day can be a moment of prayer for us.

As St. Tikhon says, “Prayer does not consist merely in standing and bowing your body or in reading written prayers….it is possible to pray at all times, in all places, with mind and spirit. You can lift up your mind and heart to God while walking, sitting, working, in a crowd and in solitude. His door is always open, unlike man’s. We can always say to Him in our hearts Lord , Lord have mercy.”

Morning, evening, midday, midnight. When we are worried, when we are tired, when we are joyful, when we are lost, when we are angry, when we are tempted, when we are sad, when we are thankful, in each of these moments we can turn to God in prayer and He will never leave us empty handed. What Father will give His children a rock if he or she asks for bread? The disciple were in the midst of the storm and Peter was sinking. They were in complete fear yet Christ was not far from them. He is not far from anyone who loves Him and tries to put in some effort to know climb the mountain of prayer and I want you to know that this is the most worthwhile activity that a human being can undertake in their life. St. Mark the Ascetic writes, “Prayer comprises the complete fulfillment of the commandments; for there is nothing higher than love for God.” And Glory be to God forever AMEN.

Source: Sermons

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

In today’s gospel reading we encounter the story of a man who is a paralytic.  We are not told his name or anything about him.  Only one thing we know for sure.  He is paralyzed and cannot walk let alone move.  When we hear this story and similar stories we are struck by the degree of suffering and the difficulties caused by such an illness.  We look at this man with our all too human eyes and we think that we understand the situation, that we understand what is really wrong.  Yet glory be to God that Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, does not see the world through our merely human eyes.  The Lord goes much further, much deeper in His examination of the person who is before Him.  This should cause us to tremble and also to be joyful.  We should tremble because God will see the truth about us.  We should rejoice because in that truth lies our salvation and our real healing.  In God’s truth we see who we are and what we are.  We are exposed before God, as Adam and Eve were exposed in the garden.  Yet this is to our benefit because what is not exposed before God is not healed.

Through our human understanding we think that the greatest issue with the man is his paralysis.  But Our Lord Jesus Christ wipes away this understanding.  The greatest enemy of this man is not his physical paralysis, but rather his spiritual paralysis.  The paralysis of his soul.  This is the deeper point of the gospel.  And we are beyond comforted to hear the most gracious and beautiful words spoken of by the Lord Jesus to this man who is suffering in a way that is deeper and more profound than what the onlookers could imagine.  He suffers from the sickness of his sins.  Yet the Lord sees this man in his entirety and breathes forth words of mercy, healing and life:  “Take heart my son; your sins are forgiven.”  

Through this gospel passage we learn that the most critical aspect to our human healing is the healing of the soul even more than the healing of the body, although the two are closely tied together.  It is the primary and most important aspect because our Lord forgives the man before He causes him to get up and walk.

We each deal with sin in our lives, whether sin of words or deeds or thoughts, whether large sins or small sins.  But sin is a paralyzing agent.  Sin makes it impossible to live a truly human life, to live a life that  reveals us as created in God’s image and likeness.

When I was with some of the kids at camp I asked them a simple question:  “why do the commandments of God exist?”  I received so many answers, many of them were good answers.  They might say “they exist so that we will obey them.”  But I asked them to go deeper.  Why do the commandments exist?  Finally I revealed the answer to them.  The commandments exist because God loves us and wants to protect our souls.   Sin is not failure to fulfill the letter of the law.  It is about protecting the soul from damage and corruption and ultimately death.  But not mere death, since everyone has to die.  But the death of the soul, which is an everlasting death that stays with us forever.

So in the gospel we see many aspects of the truth although they are often hidden at first glance.  We are reminded that sin is the very worst human condition.  And we are encouraged by the Lord to take heart.  No matter how bad we may seem, no matter what life we lived, no matter what the world may think of us, God still loves us and wants to heal us.  He wants to redeem us from corruption.  He wants to wipe away our sins and make us whole.  For the Orthodox Christians it is clear that this process of complete forgiveness and healing happens in the context of the sacraments of the Church, primarily through Holy Communion, Holy Unction and the Holy Confession.  

Some of the saints have mentioned that the greater our confession is, the more it is bold and truthful and humble, the greater the healing that will come through the sacrament.  You hear the gospel and you wish that the Lord would offer you this healing and unloose your burdens…then come and confess your sins and do not hide them.  God already knows the situation but you have not shown humility and faith in trusting God and the sacraments of the Church to bring you healing and forgiveness.  If you are afraid to mention your sins and the things that bring you shame to the priest who is a mere man during confession, then how will you stand before the living God with unconfessed sins?  

In the life of the Church, the priest is like those who carry their friend on a stretcher to place them before Christ.  The priest does this during confession and he does it even more profoundly during the offering of the liturgy.  The priest stands before the table to make an offering on behalf of himself and all of the people and their sins so that Christ who loves mankind may have mercy and see our act of faith through worship.  The offering is not in order to pacify or appease God, it is an offering of ourselves, our hearts, our minds and our bodies in order to unite ourselves with the divine life of God.  In order to make God’s life, our very life.     

 St. Paisios (whom we commemorate today) said “God wants us, above all, to be happy and to enjoy inner peace. God is not a tyrant who pesters and intimidates us, but instead he wants us to be free.”  Christ is waiting for us to appear before Him with all of our brokenness and with a desire for healing.  We do this when we come to the church with and when we pray in our own homes from a pure and humble heart.  He did not reject the paralyzed man and neither will he reject us.  He desires to forgive us, he desires to heal us, he desires to be with us, so take heart.

Source: Sermons