The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (19:1-10)

Whenever we hear the familiar story of Zacchaeus, our minds begin to come alive with the thought and the memory of years past and we begin to seriously think about the fact that in just a few weeks, we will begin Great and Holy Lent, which is the most joyous, difficult and beautiful time in the whole life of the Church.

Already the Church is preparing us by giving us small bread crumbs on the path to our salvation and healing. That is what salvation is all about, the healing of the human person, the restoration of his soul. And Zacchaeus clearly demonstrates some of the steps that are necessary for anyone who desires to be healed and saved. You know, I meet many people who say that they desire to be saved or desire to know God or desire to acquire peace. Yet we cannot expect to desire such great things without some effort and work on our parts. If someone desires to be a great athlete, they will have to do more than wish for it to happen. They can’t sit on the couch and eat potato chips while watching the television. That will not help them progress. Likewise the person who wants to become a great author and write the next great American novel, will need to do more than read the work of others. He or she can’t daydream about stories forever. One day, they will need to put pencil to paper or sit in front of their computers and type. The work of salvation and of knowing God is infinitely more difficult than becoming a great athlete or an accomplished author because it involves every part of us and every waking moment of our lives. If we say that we desire these great things from God, we will have to work to prove that to be true. Let us look at the example of Zacchaeus and see what is required.

We are told that Zacchaeus “sought to see Who Jesus was.” What a simple first step. Notice that we are not told that He sought to see Jesus, but to “see Who Jesus was.” Which means that Zacchaeus had a desire to know more about the Lord Jesus. It wasn’t enough to trust the word of others. He had an intense desire to search for himself. But this intense desire was not enough. He acted upon this desire to climb up into the tree. Zacchaeus could have made many excuses as soon as his desire developed in his heart. He could have said “there are too many people” or “I am just not tall enough to see over the others” or even “I would climb into the tree but I am afraid that I will look extremely foolish.” But he did not make excuses or justify inaction. If we are serious about knowing Christ, we will not make excuses or justify our own inactions. This means that we have to be abundantly honest with ourselves, which is maybe the most difficult thing for us to do. The Lord will not appear and force you to seek and pursue him, you must cooperate with the grace of God that is given you and force yourself and your will towards Him.

When the Lord Jesus looked up in to the tree and saw Zacchaeus He said “Zacchaeus make haste and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” The next step that we see is a simple one. Zacchaeus promptly obeyed the Lord without hesitation. How often do we hear the Lord’s words to us in our scripture reading or in the words of the Sunday gospel? How often do we hear the words in our conscience? Are we responding to the word of the Lord like Zacchaeus? Do we obey the Lord quickly and without hesitation? Again we are required to be honest with ourselves.

Finally as the Lord Jesus draws near and enters the house of Zacchaeus we witness a transformation occurring. We shouldn’t be surprised that it is happening because the presence of the Lord is full of power and wonder even from the first moment. First, he gave half of his goods to the poor. This is a sign truly the love of the Son of God had permeated his heart and mind. He was being healed and restored by Christ to the image and likeness of a child of God. In addition to demonstrating this love for the poor, he also is showing us that he is completely detached from materialism and the acquiring of wealth. Perhaps that is when we truly know that someone has genuine faith, when they “put their money where their mouth is.” In addition to his generosity towards the poor and his detachment from materialism we see one final step on his path to salvation, he repents greatly and tries to make amends with those around him, saying that he will restore fourfold of whatever he has taken unlawfully or defrauded from anyone. Fourfold! If he unjustly charged an extra ten dollars, he would pay back forty. If it was an extra $100, he would pay back $400 and so forth and so on. Do we need to make amends with people around us? Do we need to make things right with people that we haven’t treated well?

All of the steps that Zacchaeus took to gain salvation are steps that each of us must also be willing to take. 1) Desire to see Who Jesus is. 2) Follow your desire with action. Speaking about the first and second steps we’ve mentioned here our saint of the day, Maximos the Confessor writes “The person who loves God values knowledge of God more than anything created by God, and pursues such knowledge ardently and ceaselessly.” 3) Promptly obey when the Lord instructs you. 4) Give alms to the poor and needy. Regarding this point, St. Maximos writes “The state of love may be recognized in the giving of money.” 5) Repent not only towards God but by making things right with those that you have wronged at any time in your past.

All of these steps are fairly straightforward but they require honesty and introspection and they call us to action. They are difficult, but Christ is infinitely worth any momentary difficulties we may face when trying to be healed and saved, which is His will for our lives. Zacchaeus followed the path of his desire and hunger for the Lord Jesus and by his faithfulness in a few things, the Lord granted salvation to him and to his household…all within the same day! May our Lord Jesus Christ come to dwell in our homes and in our hearts and allow us to share in this joyous salvation. Glory be to God forever, Amen.

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians. (4:7-13)

In today’s epistle the holy apostle St. Paul writes “grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” We will come back to that in a moment. He also writes“When He ascended on high He led a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men.” The “He” whom St. Paul refers to is Our Lord Jesus Christ, “When He ascended on high He led a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men.”

For our purposes I would like to focus on the second part of that phrase, “He gave gifts to men.” It is a well known fact God loves us so much that it wasn’t enough for Him to forgive us our sins. He did much more than this in order to prepare us to continue in good works which build up the Church, the body of Christ. St. Paul continues writing “And His gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers”. These are different roles within the community of the Church. Not every person fills every role, but each according to what God has given him to do. That is why we began the passage with the verse “grace was given to each according to the measure of Christ’s gift. This means that everyone within the Church has been given gifts not only for their own salvation but primarily for the salvation of others. And there is no use in being jealous or envious of the gifts that another person has because God is the giver of each whether we like it or not, and God gives to each in a different manner and not equally but everyone is given gifts from God for His purposes.

And then St. Paul says something really interesting, he tells us why these roles exist. “To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Who are these saints that are spoken of here? It is all of you. The Christians were understood to be holy and separate from those in the rest of society. They were considered holy because Christ our Lord is holy but they were also considered holy because they did not do the things that the outside world did. When their neighbors would run to pagan feasts and worship idols and fall into drunkenness and debauchery, those who were in the Church, kept themselves away from such things. They followed the will of the Lord.

When we are together, we are being equipped for the work of ministry. That tells us that each and every Christian within the Church is a minister of God. Each person has a ministry, a calling, a way that God can use their gifts and talents to build up the body of Christ (which is the Church). In our society, we are often taught to focus on what my gifts and talents can do for me as an individual. We begin to ask children from a very young age, what they would like to do when they grow up. We ask college students what they study. We almost never ask “How will you use your gifts for God and the profit of His Church?” It’s a pretty important question that we might want to begin asking our children, and that we might want to begin asking ourselves if we have never done it before.

St. Paul goes on and he tells us what it looks like as we build up the Church. He says that we build up the body of Christ “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.” So this tells us that even though we are all here, we are not all in the same place regarding our faith and our knowledge of the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. So each of us has a calling to assist our brothers and sisters towards this goal. Each of us should have a personal goal of deeper knowledge of Our Lord and savior and we can deeply affect others by our struggle for deeper faith in Christ. There is no limit to the ways that God can use us to help others through our genuine struggles to know Him. St. Paul tells us that the goal for the Church is “unity of the faith and of knowledge of the Son of God.” We are meant to believe as one mind, to worship as one body, to love with one heart.

He goes on further with his description of our life within the Church. He tells us that the goal is “mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” What does that actually mean? Let’s ask the holy fathers of the Church. St. John Chrysostom says “By maturity he means here the perfecting of conscience. For a grown man stands firm while young boys’ wits are tossed about. So it is with the faithful. We mature until we attain the unity of the faith, that is, until we are all found to share a single faith. For this is unity of faith when we are all one, when we all alike acknowledge our common bond. Until then we must labor.”

We see from this epistle that everything that God has given us is for our benefit. Each of us is planted here in this place to fulfill His purposes, to put on the mind of Christ, to become mature human beings who reflect Jesus Christ, not just a little bit. Instead we are seen to be mature with the fullness of Christ, as saints who radiate Christ in every word, deed and even our very thoughts. This is why God has created us, this is why God has redeemed us, this is why God has given us gifts and this is why he has brought us all together as one body. Glory be to God Forever AMEN.

Source: Sermons

The reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. John. (1:29-34)

It is a great temptation to see the world around us and to try to fix it. We see the troubles, the trials, the suffering and we attempt to apply our human logic in a productive way to address the many problems of our world. Engineers try to build better gadgets or devices. Doctors try to find cures. Politicians write new laws. Some people work hard to try and make their world a better place. There is certainly nothing wrong with that. However, when we read the Holy Bible we are forced into a new way of thinking. We are forced to accept something that we don’t intuitively realize or understand at first. It is this realization that creates a paradigm shift and allows us to see the world with fresh eyes.

St. John the baptist opens our eyes and changes our reality with one sentence… “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world! In fact this tells us so much about John, about Our Lord Jesus Christ and about the world. John the baptist was a great prophet. He had a direct connection to God and spoke words of caution, correction and preparation to all of the people who came to him. He knows the problems of the world around him and for the most part, those problems have not really changed over two thousand years. People still get sick, some are in great debt, some have family issues, some suffer hunger and yet others suffer injustices. But John goes to the heart of the matter and tells us that the biggest problem facing each and every person who has their eyes towards the kingdom of God is not socioeconomic injustice or global freezing.  Our biggest problem according to St. John is the issue of sin.  As we think about sin we understand that it affects every man, woman and child both directly and indirectly. When we see the many troubles facing mankind and even creation, we can understand them to be the product of sin or rebellion against God and His teachings.

One of the shortcomings with all of the disciplines mentioned above is the ignorance of sin and how it affects us and divides us as people and disrupts our society. We are also unable to see how sin creates a wall between us and God. Sin is usually ignored because many people would rather not believe that God exists and God alone gives sin a frame of reference. Without God there is no sin, or so the thought goes. But take for instance the politician who helps create laws. If he creates a law that says murder is forbidden, will that alone stop people from committing murder? Not at all. The law does nothing to address the source of the problem which is the sinfulness in the heart of mankind. So we may hear these words of the gospel many times throughout our lives but we should never take them for granted. Sin exists, and it enveloped all of creation in its web of darkness. It had done so since the time of the first fall of Adam and Eve and it continued uninterrupted until God provided the Lamb.

The spotless lamb is an image which is used with regularity in the Old Testament. Lambs and goats were among the many animals that were offered and sacrificed on behalf of the people before the Lord. The spotless or perfect lamb in particular was sacrificed for the passover. John tells the Jews who came out to see and to hear him, that the One who was coming towards them at that very moment, was in fact the true Lamb of God. The spotless, blameless and perfect Lamb who would become the sacrifice not only for the Jewish people but for all of humanity, and even the whole cosmos. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ was still about three years away and yet His cousin St. John understood that this was ultimate purpose for the coming of Jesus Christ. He came to fix the things that can’t be fixed by doctors, engineers, lawyers, psychologists or gurus. He came to fix what could not be fixed by therapy, medicine, religious practice, meditation or self-help books. Christ came to fix our souls by wiping away our sins and freeing us from what is useless and unprofitable. In the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 1 verse 11-19 it is written:

“Of what value to me is the abundance of your sacrifices? saith the Lord: I am full of whole-burnt-offerings of rams; and I delight not in the fat of lambs, and the blood of bulls and goats: neither shall ye come with these to appear before me; for who has required these things at your hands? Ye shall no more tread my court. Though ye bring fine flour, it is vain; incense is an abomination to me; I cannot bear your new moons, and your sabbaths, and the great day; your fasting, and rest from work, your new moons also, and your feasts my soul hates: ye have become loathsome to me; I will no more pardon your sins. When ye stretch forth your hands, I will turn away mine eyes from you: and though ye make many supplications, I will not hearken to you; for your hands are full of blood. Wash you, be clean; remove your iniquities from your souls before mine eyes; cease from your iniquities; learn to do well; diligently seek judgment, deliver him that is suffering wrong, plead for the orphan, and obtain justice for the widow. And come, let us reason together, saith the Lord: and though your sins be as purple, I will make them white as snow; and though they be as scarlet, I will make them white as wool. And if ye be willing, and hearken to me, ye shall eat the good of the land:”

St. John understands the problem and he give us the solution.  He offers us the way to freedom by showing us the One who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  May we diligently follow and be obedient to the teachings of this Lamb of God who desires to wipe away our sins. It is for this reason that He came and dwelt among us. Glory be to God forever, AMEN.

Source: Sermons

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

Christmas is about the coming of God to all of mankind. It is about His taking human flesh and dwelling with us, in order to suffer and die for us and save us, but God became man for another reason as well. So that we might hear His teachings. By the grace of God we are given the privilege of coming into His house every week and hearing His actual words. He loves us so much that He doesn’t tell us to go off on our own and figure things out. God does not want us to be lost, or confused. He teaches us with His words, to give us His teaching for our lives. In today’s reading, given to us on this the eve of the New Year, we hear these words “Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.” If that is not a worthwhile New Year’s resolution, I am not sure what would be. Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. But what does that actually mean for us? What is this path that we need to make straight? What is the way of the Lord, and how do we prepare it?

Perhaps we should not be surprised that ultimately these words refer to the heart. Christ desires to reign and to rule over His people by ruling in their hearts. And we who deeply desire to know Him more intimately, more deeply, are given the way forward here. We have to prepare the way of the heart and straighten the paths of the heart so that God can come to us, or rather, that we might come to Him. We prepare the way of the Lord in the same way that the people prepared the way for the Lord long ago, when these words were first spoken. We repent and we confess our sins and then we receive baptism or the washing away of our sins. Of course we know that in our Orthodox Christian faith, there can only be one baptism. So how can we be baptized again?

St. Basil the great says that the second baptism is the baptism of tears. We should pray in a heartfelt manner and reflect upon all of our sins. We should acknowledge that our sins have truly and violently separated us from the God who loves us and also from our families and friends. We should acknowledge that our sins have tainted every single thing that we have done in our lives. I should understand that my sins affect more than just me. They are felt within the whole community and even cosmically. Our sins are powerful. But God is more powerful by far.

Why should we start our New Year with this resolution? Because as Christians, we have stated that we desire to know God and be His sons and daughters. This, my brothers and sisters, is the only way to make our desire a reality; through true and heartfelt and even painful repentance. Anytime someone wants to build a house, we think that the first thing that must be done is to prepare a foundation. But it’s not true. The first thing that must be done is to clear a path for the materials and workers and equipment to come to the construction site.

The Lord Jesus will provide the materials, the workers and the equipment and He will even oversee the whole job. The materials are the sacraments that bring us the grace of God, especially Holy Communion. The workers are the clergy and our fellow brothers and sisters who minister to our needs and love us. The equipment is the Church and all that is contained in her. Her prayers, her discipline, her services, her hymns. All of that is provided by the chief architect and builder, who is Christ our Lord. What is required of us is to clear a path for Him to work. We have to give Him space to do His amazing work. The work requires patience and time and it requires us to genuinely struggle to keep the path clear and straight for the Lord. If the Lord is always battling for a spot on the path, we are bound for failure. But if we uproot the sins and the unnatural and downright demonic lusts of our hearts, then He can do a marvelous work in each of us. I know that some of you, hopefully all of you, would like to be saints. It is possible only if the heart is struggling for purity. So how do we struggle in a practical sense?

Our struggle is not just to avoid certain things, and certain activies. We have to struggle to actually do some things that are very important. We have to develop a spiritual rule for our lives. It has to be something that we do every single day, without fail. If you don’t think this is possible, remember that you shower, brush your teeth and eat nearly every day. The soul is also hungry, so allow God to feed it! First, Dedicate time to God every single day, at the very least with 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening. Don’t try to convince yourself or me that you don’t have the time. Our days are already numbered by God. There are plenty of prayer books and prayer apps that can be used and if you would like a recommendation, please see me later or send me an email. The end of each day should be marked with prayers of repentance and a daily private confession of your sins. This confession should be punctuated by confession with your father confessor at least 4 times a year and my recommendation is to confess early in the fasting periods as opposed to right before the feasts in order to get the biggest benefit, because “no one puts new wine into old wine skins”.

In addition we should definitely understand that purity is holistic and it builds upon our environment and our senses. Christians have no business watching filth, no matter what name that filth goes by, be it Game of Thrones or Walking Dead or Sex and the City or Will and Grace or whatever other nonsense to which we are exposing ourselves. Guard the door to your hearts ferociously, with zeal, because our God is a jealous God and He refuses to share space in our hearts. There is only enough room to love God and love your neighbors. Sometimes, even if what we are watching and doing is not awful, it can still be obscuring the path to our hearts. Facebook is not just a drain on your time, it is a drain on society. If you want to continue to use it, do so, but understand that when it replaces things that are spiritually productive, it becomes a great sin, because your life was given to you so that you would have fellowship with God and serve Him.

That is ultimately what this gospel reading is telling us, cleanse your hearts in an uncompromising way and allow space for God and what is holy, and then you will be quite surprised by the way that God breathes new life into you and into your life, your relationships, your school and your work. May the Lord bless the crown of the New Year by His grace and love towards mankind. AMEN.

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (14:16-24)

Today’s gospel reading is given to us traditionally two Sundays before Christmas (the feast of Nativity). This Sunday is called the Sunday of the Forefathers or Ancestors of Christ. On this Sunday we hear this parable about the man who gave a great banquet. This reading is specifically appointed for this day, but the question is why?

What does the Sunday of the forefathers of Christ have to do with this parable about the grand banquet? The short answer is EVERYTHING. The man in the parable is the living God. This living God whom we worship and serve, has been inviting men and women into His great banquet for a few thousand years. He has extended this invitation to many, throughout the generations of the people of Abraham, and the generations that lead up to the Messiah Himself. But the sad truth is that while the invitation has been given freely, so many people have ignored or plainly rejected the invitation to come and to sit at the table with the Lord and to dine in His presence, to be treated to the most amazing banquet that we can possibly imagine.

As we prepare for the coming feast where we celebrate the earthly birth of the Lord and His taking on of human flesh, we are reminded that there were many who came before the Lord, who are related to the Lord. There are many who were invited, but only a few were ultimately chosen to taste of the Lord’s banquet. Two thousand years after the birth of Jesus Christ, we can say that in this regard, not much has changed. More people have been invited to this banquet, in fact, billions have been invited to this banquet. Yet the Lord is telling His servants to go out to the streets and lanes of the city, and to the highways and hedges in order to find more guests. He does this because He desires that His house may be filled.

We are part of those who are given an invitation to the banquet. In fact the Liturgy which we serve every week is a sign and symbol, a foreshadowing and a confirmation of the reality of this banquet. This mission alone has around 120 members. But where are those who were invited? Could they not afford the ticket? It was free. Could they not understand the services? They are said in the language of the land. Could they not find a seat? The seats are plentiful. Did they not receive an invitation? Far from it! The invitation is universal. Christ our Lord is inviting us to His heavenly banquet, to salvation, which is in truth a process of uniting with us and with our hearts. When we move past this little community we see the same thing in each of the churches. So many invited, so few who responded. What is worse is that these same people respond with eagerness to the invitations of the world, the world from which we are called to be holy and separate. So they run to parties, they plan for sports, activities, and leisure even on the day of the Lord. In addition people are toiling, sweating, worrying, and spending their lives to work for and buy gifts and toys and distractions that will not benefit us much in the long run. A heartfelt letter or card, or time together is more precious than most of the gifts we give. In the business world, those who make purchases are called consumers. But in truth it is what we purchase that often consumes us. It is what we possess that often possesses us. The Lord reminds us of this when He says, “for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

What about us? We are here, physically present in the church. But where is our heart today? Where has our heart been during this fasting season? Where has our heart been all along, for the previous days, weeks, months and years? Christ has invited us to prayers every day, how have we responded? He has invited us to read His holy words in the gospels, how did we answer Him? Christ has shown us the examples of His multitude of saintly men and women, have we read their stories and imitated their lives? Christ has invited us to receive the greatest possible gifts and treasures, things that eyes have not seen nor ears heard. The Lord loves us so much that He has not only invited us to the banquet, He has clearly demonstrated the way to get there. He even grabs us by the hand and walks us there, if we are willing to be led by Him. My brothers and sisters, life is short, the invitations have been received by each of us, and the time to respond is now!

Without Christ there would be no great banquet, no Christmas, no festivities at all! Without Christ we would have no forgiveness, no surpassing joy, no freedom from sin and death, no resurrection. Without Christ we are nothing but dead, inside and out. With Christ there is festive joy, forgiveness, freedom, life and resurrection. This is the joy and the meaning of the invitation given by Our Lord Jesus. He comes to us as a pure and innocent babe that we might choose to come to Him in purity and innocence of heart. He comes to us as poor, that we might come to Him and receive true wealth. He comes to us to give us the gift of His life, that we might die to our old ways and accept His invitation to a banquet of true life with Him and in Him! To Christ be the glory, with His Father and the Holy Spirit, always, now and ever and unto ages of ages AMEN.

Source: Sermons

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (13:10-17)

When our religious practices don’t start with the love of God, they become like weapons. They no longer can do good for us or for others. They no longer help us to heal but cause wounds.

We are witnesses to the way that the ruler of the synagogue practiced his religion, his Jewish faith. He was like many of the Jews of his day. Perhaps he had started his life with a pure love for God but somewhere along the way, it was overtaken and obscured and replaced with love for rules and laws. In truth rules and laws are easier. They don’t require us to have open hearts. They don’t require us to leave our comfort zone. They don’t require us to be vulnerable. Don’t misunderstand what I am saying. Laws and rules are very important. They bring order to our lives and when applied correctly, they reflect the presence of God. But when the laws are divorced from God, they become weapons of destruction.

One of the traps that can often ensnare people as they try to grow in faith is the idea that perfect adherence to rules is what will make us worthy before God. According to the gospel of Jesus Christ, nothing makes you worthy of God’s love. God in His mercy, pours out this love upon all of us. We are here in a season of fasting. We do our best with the rules of the fast but we should remember that our strict adherence to the fast does not, in and of itself, make us holy, good or worthy in the Lord’s eyes. St. John Chrysostom says that people can abstain from eating meat and yet they devour one another with their gossip and lack of charity. The fasting that is pleasing to God has nothing to do with what goes into the mouth. It has everything to do with what comes out of our hearts. Those are not my words, but the words of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Does it mean that we shouldn’t fast? No. Does it mean that we should be slack in the way that we practice our faith? No. It means that we should be ready to do everything that is required of us with cheerfulness and by putting Christ at the front of our minds. God is the one who brings it all together and allows it to be done correctly, with love. The ruler of the synagogue was alive towards the rules of the law, but he was dead towards his neighbor’s needs. And if he was dead towards his neighbor’s needs, he was in truth, dead towards God. Our Lord Jesus Christ opens his eyes and exposes his darkness. He says “You hypocrite! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?”

All that the ruler of the synagogue could see was a law being broken, but in his blind zeal, he forgot that he also broke this law every Sabbath when he took care of his own animals. But it was even worse. Not only did he forget his own works on the Sabbath, he forgot to care for the needs of the woman who was suffering for eighteen years! He forgot to fulfill the second commandment of our Lord, to love thy neighbor as thyself. In neglecting to love his neighbor, he neglected to love his God. This is the definition of a dead faith. We are told that all of the Lord’s adversaries were put to shame at that moment. It is crucial that our practice of faith doesn’t bring us shame but joy and liberty through Jesus Christ.

How can we ensure that we are not like this man who had misplaced zeal and who used his religion as a weapon against others? We have to recognize that we are also infirm like the woman who was sick for those many years. We have to genuinely believe that we are in need of the healing touch of Jesus Christ. Not once or twice in our lives, but daily. When we feel our need for God, when we feel our shortcomings and our fallenness we won’t have the strength to focus on what others are doing or to compare our practices to others. We will feel truly at the mercy of the Lord and that is precisely when the Lord does His best work. My prayer should not be “Lord, thank you for making me better than other people” or “Thank you for making me good.” My prayer should be “Lord, reveal to me the depth of my sins, and the depth of my sickness and have mercy on me, the one who is not worthy of your mercy or your love.”

Our Lord Jesus helped the woman because He could see her need. He also sees our hearts. He knows if we genuinely seek Him. He knows if we, deep in our hearts, actually hunger and thirst for Him. He knows if we feel self-sufficient. He knows if we have deeply seated pride. He knows if we love Him and if we love our neighbor, and upon these two laws, hang all the law and the prophets. May our Lord search our hearts and find our religion to be pure, genuine and full of love. Glory be to God forever AMEN.

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians. (5:8-19)

In the epistle reading today we hear some great words of instruction. The holy apostle writes “Brethren, walk as children of light—for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true—and try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.”

What it is to be a child of light is to be someone who bears fruit of light. This light is the divine light which comes by the grace of the Holy Spirit. It guides us and shows that when we show fruits that are good and right and true, we are actually showing divine fruit because Christ our God is the source of the good fruit that is in our lives, as our Lord said “without Me, you can do nothing.” St. Paul continues saying “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness.” It should go without saying that when we commit sins, we are not being productive or fruitful. We are wasting the valuable time that has been given to us and we are wasting the life with which we have been blessed by God. We have especially wasted the baptism that we have received through the Church. All of it is wasted on the one who partakes of the works of darkness in an unrepentant way. This life of sin cuts us off from God but it never ends there. It starts with being cut off from God but sin does not rest until it has cut us off from our families, our friends and our own right minds.

Sin literally makes us useless to God and useless to our fellow brothers and sisters. Sin makes us dead by deadening our souls but generally speaking sin also makes us like the dead because the dead do not produce fruit, they are of no benefit to anyone (please note that this does not apply to the saints or holy ones). For this reason St. Paul writes “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.” This is not merely light like of the Sun and the Moon, or the Christmas lights we see everywhere. This is the divine light of God! This is the light of life. This is the light that I want to fill my soul and during all of the struggles of the day I have to decide what will fill my soul, will it be the darkness of sins or the light of God. Each one is cultivated through our choices and our works. Each one is drawn to us based on the state and the inclination of our hearts. If our heart is seeking after goodness, after God, it cultivates good and finds that it has the fruit of light. If our heart inclines towards sin and madness, we find that we quickly cultivate a garden of filth for our souls and we produce rot and stink and death for ourselves and for those who are near us.

Thankfully St. Paul gives us a way out of such a mess. He says “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but expose them.” There are many ways that we can expose our sins but I will focus on the most important one, the one that the Church provides for all of it’s people, free of charge. The sacrament of confession.

I have mentioned to people in the past, that there is a significant differencebetween those who confess regularly and those who confess sporadically or never at all. Confession is a powerful medicine given to us directly from the mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ who said to the disciples “receive the Holy Spirit, those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven. And those whose sins you retain, they are retained.”

Confession is your opportunity to expose your works of darkness to the light. It is not the light of the priest, but the light of Christ that works dynamically in the one who comes boldly and lays his sins at the feet of Jesus Christ. This sacrifice of ego and pride is exactly what the Lord is seeking as the psalmist King David writes “a sacrifice that is pleasing to God is a broken spirit, a humble and contrite heart, you will not despise.” Don’t simply tell God in private that your spirit is broken, and that you are sorry for your sins. Prove that your heart is humbled by opening up and bringing your sins to the place where they can be exposed to the light more fully. Bring them to the place where they can be completely removed by the power of Jesus Christ. The priest is not interested in your sins just as a doctor is not interested in your sickness, he is interested in your recovery. He wants to see you healthy and holy.

How often should we confess? I would recommend that we confess at least 4 times a year (especially before or during the major fasts). You can and should confess more often if you have something serious which needs to be confessed. You should also confess when you feel that you are weighed down emotionally and struggling to pray or to progress in your spiritual life.

It is sad to hear of so many Christians who go to counselors and pyschiatrists and psychlogists without first coming to confess their sins. It reminds us of the Lord’s words when He said that we should never sew a new piece of fabric onto an old garment or put new wine into old wine skins. Both must be new or renewed by Christ! Come and be healed and start on the road to wellness, by receiving what the Church offers for free. Come and expose the darkness of your heart to the light of Christ. Let us awake while there is still time and as St. Paul writes in today’s epistle “Christ shall (indeed) give you light.”! And glory be to God forever, AMEN.

Source: Sermons

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

Every parable of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ is a gift that is wrapped and offered to us. We are invited to take the gift and to peel away the wrapper and the many layers to find more and deeper meaning as we read and study and pray, asking God to open our hearts and minds to His reality.

This parable of the rich landowner is commonly interpreted as a call to be generous with our finances, to give more than we save for ourselves. There is certainly truth to that interpretation, but I see something else here that goes beyond our finances. We could say that the Lord is not so much interested in the finances but in the finances of the human heart.

We as a community are coming off of the wonderful celebration of a great event, the consecration of this church into a true house of God. We are liable to feel a bit of let-down after all the excitement and activity and the thrill of such an event. We are also liable to feel like it is time to rest. In that regard we would be much like the rich man in today’s gospel. He said “I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”

One of the ideas that you will never hear in the Scripture or the New Testament is this “God wants you to be comfortable.” In fact it is often just the opposite. It is hardship, trial, and opposition that allows us to be built up and strengthened. It might be easy for some of us to look back at the last couple of years and months and to begin to take our rest and to celebrate what we have accomplished (though in truth it was not we, but He who accomplished it all). This is misguided thinking and it is the kind of thinking that turns the ship in the wrong direction and heads straight towards the rocks and certain shipwreck. We can’t stop now, we can’t be comfortable and we can’t rest.

The Lord says that the one who is foolish is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God. How do we make sure that we are not foolish? How do we make sure that we are actually being rich towards God? We have to be generous with everything that belongs to us, not simply our finances but our very precious time, our talents, our energies, and our love. These things must be understood rightly as coming from Christ and when they are understood rightly, they can then be returned to the Lord Jesus Christ with generosity. We won’t come to God or to His Church and think that God and His Church are trying to steal our money or our time or our energy or our life. We will see reality and say “I am so thankful to God for His many generous blessings towards me and I cannot help but pour out my life to Him who first poured out His life for me.”

We can act generously towards Christ and His body, the Church through so many different works. One teaches, another visits the sick, another cleans the floors, yet another sets up for coffee hour. One rearranges chairs and tables every week, another purchases supplies for coffee hour. Some teach the kids, others serve in the altar, yet others bake bread or bring food for our meals. Every person has a task and a ministry within the community and without your work the community suffers as if the body is being neglected. It suffers when we cease to be generous and to work with open hearts towards the living God who blesses us continually. It suffers when we begin to count the cost and try to figure out what we are owed or how we are underappreciated or what else we might’ve done had we not been busy with the church. These attitudes are not from the Holy Spirit. He is looking for us to act according to the words of the Lord Jesus who says “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty’” (Luke 17:10). If we act daily with this kind of overflowing gratitude and joy, nothing becomes impossible for us.

Most importantly, this life of generosity towards God and towards others is demonstrated through our life of prayer! Think about that. There is nothing which demonstrates our relationship or lack of relationship with God like our focus or lack of focus on spending quality time with the Lord. When we lack generosity towards God, we say “Lord, there is not enough time in the day for you”. But when we are generous towards God and we understand His place, we say “I cannot afford not to spend time with you, my Lord and the love of my life.”

This generosity is not just towards God, but towards our family and friends and parishioners. When we are generous with our time and energy and bring them to the Lord, we are also being generous and serving others by praying together as a community and there is nothing more powerful than communal prayer. This generosity towards God and towards the things of God becomes a complete paradigm shift in our life and it means that we are building up beautiful treasure with God. Rather, we begin to realize that He is our only treasure and only what we build in Him can never be destroyed or taken away from us. We will truly understand that Christ the Lord is our very inheritance, to Him alone belongs the glory, along with His Father and the All-Holy Spirit. AMEN.

Source: Sermons

Next week we will have the great blessing of two major events in the life of this mission, and indeed in the life of the Church.

On Saturday we will have the consecration service for the church building. This of course coincides with the other great blessing which is that we will receive His Grace Bishop Nicholas for his first visit to our mission, and this is actually the first time any bishop has visited us since we began nearly 21 months ago.

The consecration of the church is important because it reminds us that everything in this life, everything, is to be offered to God. But this is not simply our act of dedicating the building to God. It is in fact God’s act of pouring out the Holy Spirit and making this place radiant with His Grace and presence.

You’ll notice some familiar elements within the consecration service such as the procession that we will take around the building 3 times. The Bishop will stop in front of the closed doors of the sanctuary and he will start a familiar dialogue as he beats on the doors of the church and says “life up your gates O ye princes, and be lifted up ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall enter!” This reminds us of the special Pascha (Easter) services as we open the doors of the church and remember that Christ our Lord has ultimately made it possible for us to have an open door not only into the church, but into the kingdom of God.

After the Bishop and the people enter the church, the bishop will focus on the altar table for a while. This makes sense as the altar table is the center of Christian worship. It is upon the holy altar table that the holy gospel book sits. And it is upon the altar table that we place bread and wine and ask God to transform them into His sacred and mystical body and blood. The life of the Church revolves around the altar table because it is at the altar table that Christ returns to us and offers us salvation through union with Him.

The Bishop will take the relics of St. Raphael, our beloved patron saint, and he will seal those relics into the center cavity of the altar table with hot wax. He will also seal in a list of the names of all of the parishioners of this mission. The relics of the martyrs remind us of the fact that the early Church used to celebrate the liturgy on the tombs of the saints. It also brings our minds to the words of Revelation (the Apocalypse of John) who writes “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:” (Rev 6:9). The life of the church is vibrant because of the witnesses who boldly proclaim the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, no matter the cost. This same boldness is required of us as we consecrate this church building to God. It’s not enough to say to people, come and see. Sometimes we have to actually do the really difficult work of being witnesses or martyrs of our faith in Jesus Christ.

The bishop will then wash the table and anoint it as well as vest it with new garments. This process should remind each of us of our washing in the holy waters of baptism. At baptism we all died and were buried with Christ and we were raised again to live life in a new way. We are meant to understand life as a new reality when we actually are born again and come into the life of the Church through baptism. Church is not what we do on Sundays, it is what we do every day as Christians. Everything about us has to change as Christians.  As St. Paul writes, because of our baptism we have to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (1Cor10:5). The church building is then anointed with the oil of Chrism which was used to anoint every person who was received into the Holy Church. This anointing is a sign of the laying on of hands from the Apostles and a sign of the reception of the Holy Spirit.

When the church is anointed, it belongs fully to God. When we are anointed with Chrism, we belong fully to God. It becomes the task of our life to present ourselves as worthy of the name and the blessing that we have been given as Christians. It also becomes our task to bring this church building to life through the way that we use this place. Not as a place for pride, or gossip or laziness. But as a place full of love and joy and service, first to the Lord and also to the people who come here looking for God’s love and healing presence.

These are just a few of the momentous aspects of this coming week. We give glory to God who has given us every blessing and allowed us to come together and to work prayerfully, with love, to build up this holy community. To Him be the glory with His only begotten son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages AMEN.

Source: Sermons

Tomorrow is the Feast of St. James the brother of the Lord

As a change of pace today I thought I would take some time to tell you about Saint James the brother of the Lord and some of his work. As you know there are likely 3 Saints named James in the New Testament. One is St. James the greater, who is the son of Zebedee and the brother of John the evangelist. The next is St. James the less the son of Alphaeus. Both of these James were part of the 12 disciples. Last but not least we have James the brother of the Lord. This James is spoken of in the book of Acts and was considered one of pillars of the early Church and probably the first Bishop of Jerusalem.

He was related to the Lord Jesus Christ because he was the son of Joseph the carpenter. As you know Joseph was married and had children and later when his wife died he became a widower and God chose him to take care of Mary the virgin. St. Jerome writing in the 4^th century tells us that “After the apostles, James the brother of the Lord surnamed the Just was made head of the Church at Jerusalem. This one was holy from his mother’s womb. He drank neither wine nor strong drink, ate no flesh, never shaved or anointed himself with ointment or bathed. (the idea here is that he is not a man of this world) He alone had the privilege of entering the Holy of Holies, and went alone into the temple and prayed in behalf of the people, insomuch that his knees were reputed to have acquired the hardness of camels’ knees.” He was murdered by the Pharisees in Jerusalem when he was thrown from the pinnacle of the Holy Temple. This was in response to his fervent preaching of Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God.

And St. Paul tells us in 1 Cor. that James was one of the first people to see the risen Lord after the crucifixion. Also in Acts 15 when there is a disagreement among the Apostles over how the gentiles (the non-jews) should be received into the faith, they turn to James who gives his opinion which is considered authoritative. These are his words “Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.” Please notice that all of those prohibitions still exist for us today. St. James helps guide the course of Christianity to be set with a focus on the gentiles that is not merely words but a changed reality. If they wanted these people who did not know God to come into fellowship with us they couldn’t force them to be Jews first…that would be difficult and would turn many away from the faith. They could bring them in and also teach them to love God without obeying all of the outward Jewish laws.

One of the other great works that St. James did was that he wrote the epistle that bears his name in the New Testament. It is a fantastic book. It is 5 short chapters and is straightforward and easy to read. This book focuses very little on Theology or dogma but does a great job of getting to the basics of living a Christian faith practically. “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” James 1:3-8

St. James also teaches about how our Christianity should be alive, he writes “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their afflictions, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” And he adds more to this “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe and shudder!” His idea that faith without works is dead was so offensive to reformers like Martin Luther that he wanted to have the book of James removed from the Bible. This is the arrogance of modern man. When we don’t like what is in the Bible, or when it disagrees with us, we imagine that it isn’t there or that it wasn’t meant for us.

While there are many other points to focus on in the epistle of St. James, the last one we will look at today is on prayer. St. James says “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.” This is a reminder that nothing in the world is so powerful as the fervent prayers of the righteous. When all the troubles of life hit, we are reminded by St. James that prayer has a powerful effect. Prayer can not only help us in our personal lives, it indeed has power to transform the world around us and when we pray humbly and fervently we see that we can effect great change through God’s power. When we honor God, He honors us.

By the prayers of the righteous Apostle and Martyr Saint James, May God hear us and help us to apply and live our faith to the Glory of God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, AMEN.

Source: Sermons