The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (8:26-39)

When the priest prays the sacrament of baptism, he begins the service with prayers of exorcism over the catechumens who will be received into the holy Church. And as he prays that the Lord will bless the water, he asks the Lord to remove any evil, demonic spirits from the midst of the water and to bless the water and make it a water of regeneration and life. All throughout the prayers and services of the Church there is an explicit understanding of a spiritual battle taking place. The Lord and His angels are in a cosmic war against Satan and his demonic fallen angels. Satan is already defeated but he desires to take as many souls with him as possible before the end. The battlefield for this epic and cosmic battle is the human heart. The Church by the grace of God, equips each of her sons and daughters with spiritual armor and strength for this epic battle. One’s ability to stand and do battle with the demons is based on the amount of training we have put in through our exposure to the divine life of the Church. The services, the hymns, the reading of Scripture and the lives of the saints, our personal prayer rule at home, all of these work together as training for our spiritual battle and as a reward for putting our life in the hands of the Lord and His Church, we are rewarded with spiritual gifts, armor and grace in order to continue to fight the good fight.

In today’s gospel we hear about a man who is possessed by demons, evil spirits. This is not just the stuff of scary movies, but the stuff of reality according to the Christians. Demons are powerful and their goal is to occupy our hearts or to turn our hearts away from being occupied by God. They can work by influencing us, and if this terrible state of being turned away from the living God continues long enough, we may even become susceptible to demonic possession. In the case of the man in today’s gospel, we see that he had lost all of his normal rational faculties. He was truly mad, like a raging beast. So much so that he had been chained up on the outskirts of town and treated like a wild beast. We are reminded through the example of this poor soul that when a man is without God he is truly like an outcast, a slave, a savage and a monster. This is to true to differing degrees.

Yet we are also reminded that the most fierce and foul of beasts and men cannot even stand in the presence of the living God. When Jesus Christ went to visit the man, His presence was a declaration of war and a reminder of the utter and pathetic weakness of the demons and their darkness when they are exposed to the brightness of the True Light. They melt and cower in fear and trembling in the presence of the God-Man who created heaven and earth and all that is within them.

The demons within the troubled man cried out “What hast Thou to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beseech Thee, do not torment me.” They were filled with fear. They immediately recognized their maker and they trembled before Him. They were powerless against the Lord of glory.

Since they are powerless we might wonder why it is that Christians can still be influenced by and even possesses by demons? In brief, the answer is that we may live a life that helps energize the demons around us. How does this happen? Well, for some it is outright rebellion against the teaching of the Lord and the saints. But for many it is more subtle and gradual. It is a growing lukewarmness to the things of God. In our life, one of the most dangerous threats is our growing number of distractions. These are the silent enemies when they are not properly moderated and balanced in our life. We just have so many possible distractions. Distraction is for our purposes, the opposite of the watchfulness that so many of the fathers of the Church speak of with great zeal.

To be distracted away from prayer, from the thought of God, from the thought of virtue and goodness and beauty, this type of distraction means that our souls are not being fed and nourished and fortified and armored for the battle even as it is raging around us. Every day that we are slack in the battle, the enemies recovers and attempts to conquer more and more of our hearts and minds. He is happy to sit back and rest as we happily cooperate with all of his goals and aspirations for us. It will happen so gradually that we are almost lulled to sleep, like the story of the trojan horse.

We are distracted and busy with many things that cannot give us life. But one thing is needful. A heart and mind that are dedicated to loving Jesus Christ and living the life prescribed by His body, the Church. This is the way to turn the spiritual battle in our favor. We simply open a door for the Lord and He enters and as we have seen in today’s story, there is no place where Christ is present that isn’t forever altered and changed and sanctified. Wherever the light is present, the darkness is vanquished. So if we want to be with the Lord, in a place of light and holiness, we are called to open the windows and the doors of our senses and allow the Lord a chance to enter and to fill us with His goodness.

Let us conclude with a couple of words from St. Theophan the Recluse, who writes, “Refuse to listen to the devil when he whispers to you: give me now, and you will give tomorrow to God. No, no! Spend all the hours of your life in a way pleasing to God; keep in your mind the thought that after the present hour you will not be given another and that you will have to render a strict account for every minute of this present hour.”

He continues saying,

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

Glory be to God, AMEN.

Source: Sermons

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

Today we hear the familiar parable of the sower who went out to sow his seed. As we listen to the whole of this parable we are left with the understanding that the soil is man’s heart and the seed in the word of God. It is obvious that there is nothing wrong with the seed, since the seed comes from and belongs to God. However, the question that we must answer for ourselves is “What can I do to prepare my heart to properly receive and keep the word of God?”

In a garden, the soil must be prepared or else it will be difficult to expect much from what is planted. Sometimes this means tilling the soil, removing rocks and debris, and pulling up the weeds. It seems that Our Lord Jesus Christ also views the heart of each human being as a garden that can bear unbelievably abundant fruit under the correct conditions.

So how do we prepare our hearts to receive the word of God and keep it? The great teachers and fathers of the church speak of a number of things that we must do to prepare and soften our hearts. I would like to briefly focus on three methods of preparing and softening the heart: almsgiving, repentance and confession and the reading of Scripture.

Almsgiving mean to give to the needs of the poor. What can we give? Whatever we have the ability to give that will be a blessing to another person or group. When we give, our pockets are emptied but our souls are filled. We not only make room in our pockets and wallets and purses, we make room in our hearts for God since our possessions were taking up important space in our hearts.

On Almsgiving St. John Chrysostom writes “This makes men like God….Though virginity, fasting and sleeping on the ground are more difficult than this, yet nothing is so strong and powerful to extinguish the fire of our sins as almsgiving. It is greater than all other virtues. It places the lovers of it by the side of the King Himself, and justly.”

On repentance and confession, St. Isaac the Syrian writes, “He who acknowledges his sin is higher than he who raises the dead through his prayer; and he who is worthy of seeing his true self, is higher than he who can see Angels.”

Repentance and confession begin at home. It is something that we do on a daily basis at the end of the day, when we say our evening prayers and take account of our actions and failings of that day. When we feel genuine remorse for our sins, we then bring this energy of repentance to the spiritual hospital, the Church, in order to bear a little shame and humble ourselves before the priest who has been given the great grace to offer the forgiveness of Christ.

The more ashamed we are of our sins, the more important it becomes to relieve this burden and share this with a priest in confession. As long as we hide it deep in our hearts, our hearts are hardened and the demons use it against us and it creates anxiety, depression and a multitude of other issues for us. In fact, St. Nikolai of Zicha says that if we don’t repent, we won’t be saved at all. He writes, “The Lord desires the salvation of each and every person. But not everyone wants to be saved. In a word they all desire it, but in deed they reject it… The ones who perish are the ones who sin but do not repent and only justify their transgressions. That is the worst, most deplorable state.”

Now we come full circle to the reading of Holy Scripture. In the parable we are reminded that the seed is the Word of God. So it makes sense to us that one of the best things we could possible do to ensure that some of the seed takes hold and bears fruit is to make sure we encounter the seed as often as possible and have as much of the seed as possible. The more seeds that we have in our field, the more likely we will be to have an abundant harvest at the right time. Likewise for us, the more we fill our hearts with the word of God, the more we meditate on the Scriptures, the more we study them and commit them to memory, the more blessings we will obtain. The word of God is a two-edged sword. It changes us. It cleanses us, purifies us, give us light and hope. It is a deep well with life-giving waters. Are we constantly depressed, anxious, scattered and feeling hopeless? The Holy Scriptures will help us reorient our lives while they also soften our hearts for the Lord.

On the reading of Scripture, Abba Poemen wrote: “By its nature, water is soft while a stone is hard. However, when it runs along a watercourse and drips on a stone, it slowly but surely makes a hole in it. Likewise, the word of God is soft while our hearts are tough. However, if a person frequently listens to the Word of God, his heart softens and becomes capable to accept the fear of God.”

Finally, we are reminded that it is not enough to just do these things in an empty and mindless way. It is not the works that save us, but God alone. Regardless of what we do, we rely on the grace of God to bless our efforts and to provide the fruit. St. Symeon the New Theologian writes,

“Just as the farmer wearies himself by merely plowing, digging and sowing the seed on the ground, but it grows and produces fruit early and late (cf. Jms. 5:7) by God’s gift, so it is in reality, as you will discover, in spiritual matters. It belongs to us to engage in every activity and with much toil and weariness to sow the seeds of virtue, but by God’s gift and mercy alone the rain of His loving-kindness and grace falls and causes the unfruitful soil of our hearts to bear fruit. When the grain of the word falls on our souls it receives the moisture of God’s goodness; it germinates, grows, and becomes a great tree” (cf. Mt. 13:31-32) (The Discourses; Paulist Press pgs. 219-220)

May our Lord Jesus give strength to our efforts and soften our hearts and may He pour out His great grace so that our struggles may be fruitful. AMEN.

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians. (6:16-7:1) and the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (7:11-16)

The gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news of the work that God has done in the world, is quite literally a matter of life and death. In today’s epistle reading the apostle Paul reminds the Christians and by extension reminds each of us that we are the temple of the living God. God is not so much interested in large cathedrals and extravagant building projects. These things do not necessarily bring glory to God. God doesn’t need a temple! He proved this when He allowed the temple in Jerusalem to be destroyed in 70 a.d.

The reason that God does not need a temple is that God does not dwell in man made buildings. He desires to dwell in the temple that He has built, the inner sanctuary of our hearts. If you want to see God, you will find Him in His faithful people, as is seen in the saints. You and I are called to a life that is infused by the aroma of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. The Lord says “I will live in them and move among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” We should really be amazed and astounded by such a magnificent invitation. Who am I, that the Lord should come to me or dwell within me? I am nothing. Perhaps I am less than nothing. Nevertheless, this is part of the good news. It is true that we are nothing but God does not see our nothingness as a conclusion but as a beginning. He sees our nothingness as a blank canvas upon which to create a masterpiece. This is God’s way because He creates from nothing.

We are blessed with immense possibilities in our spiritual life and in our ability to truly draw near to God and have a relationship with Him. But often our biggest battle in life is believing that we can have a deep relationship with God. Today we learn that God desires to share His Spirit with us in a generous exchange, “I will live in them and move among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” But something is expected of us. The Lord continues saying “Therefore, come out from them, and be separate from them,” says the Lord, “and touch nothing unclean.” What do these words mean? Is it a literal concern for what we physically touch that might defile us, or is there something more happening here? No doubt, the concern of the Lord and of His apostle is something more important. This is the concept of holiness.

When we are young or simply immature we play the game of trying to figure out just how far we can go before we’ve gone too far. We want to be a part of two worlds. We might pretend to be Christians when we are at the church but we might pretend to be people of the world when we are out in the world. When we leave the physical walls of the church, do our thoughts, opinions, and worldviews honor Jesus Christ and the teaching of His Church or do they pay tribute to the ideals of this world?

“Be separate from them” is not a suggestion of the Lord, it is a divine commandment. It is also a prerequisite to growth in the faith. Meaning, until I take this part of the equation seriously, I will not fully mature into the promises that God has in store for us. I will not reach my potential in Christ.

When we guide our youth, we guide them with this principle in mind. When we speak with the adults we follow the same principle. Bad company corrupts good morals. Just as an oak tree can’t thrive if it is only watered with salt water, You cannot thrive and grow as a Christian while you spend all of your time with those who don’t honor and serve the living God. Sometimes loving God means making sacrifices. By definition sacrifice means struggle and pain, but these things lead us to life.

The principle to be separate and holy is an important one. When someone wants to learn a new language, do you know what the best method is for learning? Complete immersion in the culture and language. We who are called to become saints are likewise called to a life of complete immersion in the things of Christ and His Church. Sadly, in our day and age many including our children are experiencing a different kind of immersion. Immersion in confusion, pride, sexual immorality and atheism primarily through the schools. There are some good and godly teachers but more often than not, they are outnumbered. The child learns what normal is, from their interaction with godless teachers and with their peers who often have no concept of God or Christian morality. If you are surrounded 6-8 hours a day by those who are unstable or insane (but who you assume are normal), do you suppose that might have a negative affect on you?

St. Paul, following the Lord’s teaching, leaves nothing to chance. If you desire to know God and to honor Him with your life, then remove yourself and your children from evil influences as much as it is possible. We say these things because we desire to see you thrive in Christ, to put on the mind of Christ and to live as saints together. Sometimes we don’t want to think about things that are difficult but it is usually the difficult things in life that need to be addressed rather than ignored. This is true no matter our age.

The Lord’s promise is quite powerful for those who have the faith to trust and obey Him. He says “I will live in them and move among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people… I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters,” What a thought!

I would like to leave you with a prayer from St. Gregory the Theologian who writes,

“May you be children of God, pure and blameless, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation (cf. Phil. 1:15): and may you never be entangled in the snares of the wicked that go round about, or bound with the chains of your sins. May the Word in you never be smothered with the cares of this life and so make you unfruitful: but may you walk in the King’s Highway, turning aside neither to the right hand nor to the left, but led by the Spirit through the narrow gate.” The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Second Series Vol. VII; Eerdmans pg. 229

May the Lord give us the grace to follow this path together. AMEN

Source: Sermons

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

“As you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.” These are the first words that we hear today from our Lord Jesus Christ. They are life giving words. The teachings of Our Lord are quite revolutionary and they stand in stark contrast to the fallenness of the world around us. In our world we follow the ideas of a world based on survival such as an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. We are kind to those who are kind to us and we hate those who hate us. But Our Lord seems to teach words that are incomprehensible to our earthly minds. He constantly kneads and forms the clay of our hearts in order to make beautiful and heavenly vessels. Vessels that are worthy to contain His word and to contain Him.

Our Lord Jesus connects us to every other human being and reminds us of how we are to treat others. It is not only the person who is kind to you or lends you money that is created in the image of God. The person who is cruel to you or owes you money is also created in His image. He received his life from God his creator just as you have received yours.

Before we can find any wiggle room, any space through which to escape and mistreat others, even when it might seem completely justified, our Lord gives yet another truly earth-shattering teaching when He says “love your enemies and do good.” It boggles our minds why we should have to be so good. Why should we have to go above and beyond in our love towards others? Yet, the reason is rather straightforward, because we first received unconditional love from God. In Romans 5:8 the apostle Paul writes “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

He did not wait for us to be holy, He died to make us holy. He did not wait for us to be good. He died to show us His goodness and impart this goodness to us. He did not wait until we became loving, but rather loved us to the point of death and thereby poured out His life and love upon us and upon all of creation. When God teaches you listen. When the incarnate God Himself lives this life and demonstrates these hard teachings, He shows us that it is not only possible but necessary for us to embrace them in order to become His people, the household of God, or as He says in today’s reading “you will be sons of the Most High”. He shows us that this is the way and that He has paved this way for us. He is not commanding us to do something that has never been done. He has done it in order to show us the royal path.

What kind of radical love is this? It is the love that allows us to care for those who despise us and to pray for and desire the best for those who do not desire the best for us. Even those who try to use and abuse us. Even love for those who try to hurt us or possibly take our lives because we realize that this isn’t our kingdom and we will even receive a new body at the appointed time. We have to see everything through the lens of the crucified and risen Lord. We have to judge reality on the basis of the fact of the resurrection. This allows us to see everything correctly.

St. Silouan of Mt. Athos spoke often about love of ones enemies. For him this was the infallible criterion of a true Christian. He wrote “I ask you to try something. If someone grieves you, or dishonors you, or takes something of yours, then pray like this: “Lord, we are all your creatures. Pity your servants, and turn them to repentance,” and then you will perceptibly bear grace in your soul. Induce your heart to love your enemies, and the Lord, seeing your good will, shall help you in all things, and will Himself show you experience. But whoever thinks evil of his enemies does not have love for God and has not known God.”

Our Christian life is a movement that starts from knowledge about God and moves to knowing God intimately. St. Silouan who lived and experienced this grace understood that the way to unlock this most important relationship and the goal of our whole lives is to remove all the obstacles in our hearts. The chiefest of these obstacles is hatred or enmity with anyone at all, especially those who have treated us most poorly.

St. Maximos the confessor tells us that there is a path to growing in love and knowing God. He writes “He who has genuinely renounced worldly things, and lovingly and sincerely serves his neighbor, is soon set free from every passion and made a partaker of God’s love and knowledge.” So we don’t start in reverse. We don’t wait until we are loving people and then serve others. We serve others first with the knowledge that such service softens and prepares our hearts to make room for Christ.

It is easy to love when others love us. But it is so difficult to love when others are hostile towards us or seek to hurt us. Yet God loves all of His creation even those who hated Him. Christ demonstrated this from the cross on the day in which He was crucified and asked His Father to forgive those who had persecuted Him. That is radical love. You and I are called to this love, nothing less. We choose to accept this invitation and embrace this love because this Love first chose and embraced us. And Glory be to God forever AMEN.

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (5:1-11)

In today’s gospels we see Peter, a grown man, a tough guy, brought to his knees and brought to the depths of humility by the Lord Jesus Christ. But what did the Lord do that brought Peter to his knees? Did He punish him? Did He correct him harshly or rebuke him? What happened that reduced Peter to the human equivalent of a puddle?

What happened was that the Lord Jesus Christ gave Peter and the other fishermen with him a generous and overwhelming gift. Perhaps you have had such an experience in your life. I hope that you have have. Receiving an unexpected gift, especially a big or special gift is always one of life’s great joys. I pray that all of you will have that experience. But I want to go further, I want to assure you that in fact you have already had that experience even if you do not understand it yet.

When we receive an unexpected gift this is something that can overwhelm us with emotions but in the case of Peter, he was even more overwhelmed because he did not deserve the gift in any way. In fact, not only did he not deserve the gift, but he completely dismissed the gift giver from the start. Yet our Lord remained faithful even when he was not.

Peter was not a normal man. He was an expert fisherman. Someone who made his living by catching fish to feed himself, his family and the whole village. He spent hours and hours out on the water the night his encounter with Jesus. He was likely exhausted, hungry, thirsty and probably a bit depressed. It turns out that he man have been normal after all. He may have been a man with passions and emotions and frailty similar to our own.

As the sun rose, Peter and the other fishermen went back to shore and started the process of cleaning up and washing their nets. At this point the Lord tested Peter. The Lord rarely tests us when we are in good spirits and everything is going well. No. It is when we are vulnerable, weak and tired that the true tests happen. Why? Because when things are going very well, we rarely ask God for anything and we rarely think about our need for Him.

Peter was frustrated and tired and he probably wanted to go home, but he heard the word of the Lord Jesus and he obeyed anyways. He obeyed half-heartedly. He didn’t really expect anything to happen. The preacher did not understand fishing. But Peter wanted to be respectful and honor the Lord and so with a small amount of faith and a large amount of skepticism, he obeyed. What happened next brought the man who would become the head of the apostles, to his knees in utter disbelief. The water trembled and then splashed and then quaked as fish rushed into the nets. It seemed that the whole of the lake was going to empty itself into those nets. Peter and those with him were actually afraid that their nets were going to break in the process! And just like that, the Lord had completely shifted Peter’s thinking. He started thinking that he would gain nothing at all through this effort and by the end he had gained so much that he was afraid that if God provided even one more fish, the whole net would be destroyed.

Peter was left shocked, amazed and humbled beyond words. He never believed Jesus. He obeyed out of politeness, but he had no faith. Now, after this great gift from the Lord, he believed and he began to understood the depth of his own ignorance and pride, and to an even greater degree, the depth of the mercy and love of God for mankind.

Each of you have had or will have moments in life that remind us of Peter at at the beginning of this passage. We work hard, study hard, toil and sweat and struggle and sometimes nothing seems to work. We work hard at our jobs, at our studies, at home, in our relationships and even in our free time. But we often feel that nothing seems to help. I want to encourage you to take time to listen for the voice of Christ and take hope. You will hear his voice in your prayers and in your gospel readings. But you will not hear his voice unless you try to hear it. Yesterday we celebrated the memory of St. Silouan of Mt. Athos, a great saint of the 20^th century. He had this to say “The Merciful Lord loves His own servants and gives them sorrows on earth, so that the soul would through sorrows learn humility and dedication to God’s will and find peace in the pain, as the Lord said: Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you will find rest unto your souls.” Bring your problems to the Lord and sit quietly and listen as well. You won’t get an instant answer but have faith. The moment before the nets started to fill was a moment filled with silence.

I want to assure you that God plans to fill the nets of your life and He will provide for you because He loves you more than you can imagine and not one day of your life has gone by without many many gifts from Him. If have gratitude and open our eyes we will see that in many ways the Lord has already provided so much more than we could ever want or need. He has most certainly provided more than we deserve, especially the forgiveness of our sins and the gift of divine life. And for all of these gifts and many more, we should follow Peter and fall on our knees daily and say to Christ, “My Lord, depart from me for I am a sinful one.” If we are honest, this is the only appropriate response. To Christ alone be glory together with His Father and the Holy Spirit, AMEN.

Source: Sermons

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

The gospel of Jesus Christ is the antidote to the problems of the world around us. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the vaccine of truth against a pandemic of lies. Among the most wicked and deceitful of all of the lies around us today is the lie that we should do whatever we want in life. We should chase after pleasure and self-fulfillment. We should have everything that we want. The beauty of the gospel, the precious words of our Lord Jesus Christ, the most important, beautiful and powerful words that have ever been spoken, is that they correct our way of thinking and seeing and expose us to truth and light, if we are willing to accept them.

The world tells us not to suffer, not to deny ourselves anything that we want. Chase your desires. Follow your urges. Don’t hesitate at all. Everything can be yours. You can have it all. Yet the Lord Jesus Christ says something different and each one of us must seriously choose who or what we will honor and follow with our lives and our choices. We are not polytheists. We don’t worship multiple gods. So as Christians, it is up to us to take this call of following Christ seriously.

In today’s gospel Our Lord says “If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” Did you notice those words? “If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself”. Since the beginning of humanity we recognize that the problems of the world and the corruption which entered into the world did so through the lack of self-control and self-denial of Adam and Eve. They were given everything upon earth. A plentiful and rich garden full of delights. Yet, this wasn’t enough. The deceiver, Satan, whispered into their hearts and made them desire that which they should not go after. That which God had forbidden. But Satan promised them that when they grabbed hold of it, they would forever be changed, and he wasn’t wrong.

In our lives, Satan whispers every single day to each of us. He tells us to pursue pleasure, to dedicate our lives to serving our own needs and desires. He tells us to sacrifice everything at the altar of our own gratification. He tells us that our feelings are more important than knowing and honoring the word of the Lord. And each Christian struggles with passions and sinful inclinations. But the fathers of the Church teach that pursuing these inclinations is a form of death to the soul. Following after these harmful things is like running away from God and His way and His life.

A Christian can have nearly anything that he desires in this life because God in His love for mankind allows us to have some freedom in our choices and decisions in life. He gives us life as a gift that we can use as we please (for a time). He desires our good, but He cannot compel us to the good. So a Christian can have almost anything he desires, but he can’t outrun the spiritual damage after he has partaken of things that are impure or evil.

The Lord Jesus Christ asks us to deny ourselves of whatever is harmful to our souls. We call these things sin. Murder, adultery, sexual immorality, greed, idolatry, lying, pornography, substance abuse, coveting, practicing homosexuality, pride, gossip and other such things are all paths that lead to darkness. Some of these sins have been repackaged and repurposed in order to make them more fashionable or to make them seem less problematic. But we can’t fool the Lord, we can only fool ourselves. No amount of reasoning or dialogue or tolerance or re-education or debate will transform what is sinful into something good and pleasing to God. I don’t say these things to you to disturb you, but to warn you and to give you courage. You are children of God and you must think and act like His children. St. Diadochus of Photike writes, “All of us who are human beings are in the image of God. But to be in his likeness belongs only to those who by great love have attached their freedom to God.” The Lord Himself will help and aid those who struggle faithfully.

It is important that we take the words of the Lord seriously and instead of indulging ourselves and everything that we are inclined towards, we must take the more difficult road and deny ourselves and take up our crosses and follow after Christ. There is simply no other way to proceed if we want to know Christ intimately. He knows those who are kindred spirits to Him through purity, humility, obedience and love. And one of the greatest signs of love is self-sacrifice and denial of our desires. We don’t deny ourselves in order to pursue suffering or to make ourselves unhappy. We do it out of faith and love for Christ who taught us that this is the way to actually gain life. He tells us what we need, not what we think we need.

Our Lord asks a powerful question that helps us put all of this into perspective: “what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul.” The world seems to offer you everything, but at a very heavy cost, the value of your soul which is precious and cannot be replaced. Yet the Lord offers you much more. He offers you an invitation to follow His footsteps and enter into His way. A chance to truly fellowship with Him and know Him as Lord and Master and this is exactly how we experience salvation. Not surprisingly this means that we should start with repentance because none of us is perfect. St. Nikolai of Zicha said “Repentance is the abandoning of all false paths that have been trodden by men’s feet, and men’s thoughts and desires, and a return to the new path: Christ’s path.”

Seek Christ’s path my brothers and sisters. His path is a journey to real life. How blessed we are that although we are insignificant, the Lord invites us to follow Him and to become partakers not only of the cross but of the joy and power of the resurrection? Truly He is the lover of mankind! Amen.

Source: Sermons

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

“What good deed must I do, to have eternal life?” That is the question posed today by the young man to our Lord Jesus Christ. In my opinion, part of the question is excellent and part of the question is not. The part of the question that is excellent is the stated objective of the question. His desire for eternal life. Anyone who asks questions with eternity in mind has certainly aimed in the right direction. However another part of his question is problematic because he says “what good deed must I do”. In the greek he says “what good thing” or “what good”. The problem here is that we cannot trade good works for the kingdom of God. There is no magical activity that we can undertake that will earn us a spot in heaven.

So our Lord draws this young man toward the heart of the commandments and the heart of the gospel because if a man dedicates his life to ceaselessly pursuing these two commandments, he will surely find himself with God and that is exactly the goal. Eternal life is a life with God, communion with Him, joy with Him, peace in His presence, love fulfilled.

Eternal life can’t and won’t be found by doing one good work or deed. It is found in unceasing desire for the ultimate good, God Himself. And our Lord Jesus perceives that the man is not serious about his objective. The young man has asked a good question but he hasn’t done it in a serious way. So our Lord changes his understanding. Christ invites him to give up everything that he loves, everything that he leans on, everything that he identifies as, in order to follow Him. You don’t bring your identity to Christ and tell Him who you think you are. That is blasphemy. Your creator gives you your identity and your identity becomes clear as you pour yourself into knowing the One who created you.

This young man was immature in his understanding of all things especially his understanding of God and of himself. He self-identified as blameless and perfect according to the law. Yet we are reminded that self-identification is often self-delusion. Christ proved this by asking the young man to give up his riches and give them to the poor and He invited the man to follow Him. In rejecting this invitation and going away sorrowful, the young man proved what was really in his heart, that in fact he didn’t love his neighbors and certainly didn’t love God with all of his heart, soul, mind and strength. Perhaps he loved God a little bit, but he loved himself a whole lot more.

Our Lord taught us that you cannot love and serve two masters. Jesus Christ requires a full commitment of our whole life. He doesn’t compromise. He gives us freedom to explore and choose what type of life we will live, but He doesn’t compromise with those who claim to desire Him and seek eternal life. He doesn’t compromise because He can’t lie to us. We often lie to one another in order not to offend others but you are no friend if you lie about things that matter. Actually you become the worst enemy of all, the enemy that looks like a friend. Our Lord loves us too much to misrepresent the truth. So He shares the truth with us regardless of how difficult it might be for us to hear and accept. Eternal life is found in a deep relationship with Christ. There is no room for negotiations or compromise. St. Anthony of Optina writes “Can you place your hope in the world? Whom has it not deceived? To whom has it not lied? It promises much, but gives very little. Only those who hope in the Lord, according to the words of the Prophet David, do not sin, i.e., they are not deceived in their hope!”

Christ tells the disciples that “it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven.” Often we focus on this as it relates to financial wealth. We should also understand that it has implications that go beyond finances. This teaching can relate to anything that we treasure or hold most dear in our lives. For some it is their intellect, perhaps their academic degrees. For others it is their outer beauty and physical health. It could be your position at work or the business that you built from the ground up. It could be our children, or our spouses and loved ones if we put our love for them before our love for God. It could even be our unerring, legalistic adherence to traditions such as fasting and other religious observations. If we hold anything in our hearts as a matter of pride, or as more important than Christ, then we are very much like the “rich man”.

This rich man went away sad because he counted what he would lose in order to follow Christ. But let us instead imagine what we will gain if we follow Him. We will gain purpose for our lives. We will gain peace. We will gain joy. We will gain forgiveness and redemption. We will gain spiritual health. We will gain wisdom. We will gain holiness, resurrection and divinity. We will gain life in the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We will gain the saints and the angels as our friends and helpers on this royal path. So in fact, what Christ asks us to put aside, He plans to return many times over. He will share unfathomable spiritual treasures with those who trust Him. As the Apostle Paul writes “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Cor 2:9)

How are you rich? How are you self-sufficient? Where in your life do you place your hope? Ask these questions prayerfully and the Lord will help you to discern the truth. He loves you and wants to share life with you forever, and that my brothers and sisters is the definition of eternal life. May the Lord make us worthy of such treasure. Glory be to God forever, AMEN.

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians. (4:9-16)

One of the most common questions that comes up when someone comes to the Orthodox Church, especially those who come from protestant/ non-denominational backgrounds is “Why do you call the priest ‘Father’?” This is actually a very good question. We should ask questions about our faith and try to dig in and learn as much as we possibly can in life, especially our life in Christ. When we ask the right questions we have the possibility of gaining knowledge and insight that can inform and sometimes transform our reality. One of the philosophers once said “the unexamined life, is no life at all.” That being said, we are encouraged to ask but also to listen closely to the answers provided through the gospels, through the Scriptures, and through the holy tradition of the Church as it has existed for 2000 years.

This question about why we call the priest “Father” is even more important in light of the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 23:9 where He says “Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.” So the question then is, “why do Orthodox and Roman Catholic believers still call their priests “Father”? As far as I can tell, the answer is multi-faceted. It involves depth not careless and simple interpretation.

Fr. Richard Ballew in his short article “Call No Man Father?” writes that “[Christ] was telling them not to use their positions as fathers and teachers as an opportunity to build disciples around their own private opinions. For to do so would only serve to “shut up the kingdom of heaven against men”.

He goes on saying “While Father Abraham by his faithfulness deserved the title, as did others of Israel’s greats in history, these men (the Pharisees and Sadducees) had forfeited their role as fathers. They were to cease and desist in their use of the term and, in turn, bow to God Himself as the fountainhead of all fatherhood.”

St. Jerome writes,

“No one should be called teacher or father except God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. He alone is the Father, because all things are from him. He alone is the teacher, because through him are made all things and through him all things are reconciled to God.

But one might ask, “Is it against this precept when the apostle calls himself the teacher of the Gentiles? Or when, as in colloquial speech widely found in the monasteries of Egypt and Palestine, they call each other Father?” …. One is rightly called a teacher only from his association with the true Teacher. I repeat: The fact that we have one God and one Son of God through nature does not prevent others from being understood as sons of God by adoption. Similarly this does not make the terms father and teacher useless or prevent others from being called father.” Commentary on Matthew 4.23.10. [CCL 77:213.]

St. John Chrysostom had this to say, “not that they should not call, but they may know whom they ought to call Father, in the highest sense. For like as the master is not a master principally; so neither is the father. For He (God) is cause of all, both of the masters, and of the fathers.” Commentary on Matthew, Homily LXXII

In today’s epistle we hear these words from the great Apostle St. Paul who writes “For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.” (1 Cor 4:15)

I remind you that this St. Paul encountered the living Lord Jesus Christ and learned from Him directly. He was the chosen apostle to preach and teach the gentiles. He possibly understood the faith with more depth than anyone who had come before or after him. Yet here he clearly calls himself “father” to those Christians at Corinth. It wasn’t that He was ignorant of the teaching of Christ. It was that He understood it much better than we do. It was not meant as a hard and fast rule to be blindly followed. It was meant to mold and guide our understanding of reality in Christ. It also pointed to what was lacking within the leadership of the people of Israel at the time of Christ.

These days when I meet someone from a protestant background, they are hesitant to call me father. They call me brother or pastor or James. And that is generally ok, because they are not part of our flock and they often want to honor the words of Our Lord. However, within the Christian community of the Orthodox Church, the priest is the father of the community in a very real sense, just as some of you are fathers to children within your homes. To pretend otherwise would be a sin. You bring your children into existence, you nurture and support them, you provide for them and protect them. These are attributes of fatherhood. Even if you adopt children, if you faithfully take on the mantle of all of these responsibilities, whether the child appreciates it or not, you become their father.

Life in the Church, just as in the home, functions best when a good father is present. The father is there to challenge, to encourage, to correct, to protect, and to provide for his family. Sometimes that means literal food and clothing and shelter, but most often this refers to caring for our spiritual needs. Without a priest, there are no sacraments especially the most holy body and the most precious blood of Christ, and without the sacraments and the corresponding prayer and liturgical life, the church ceases to fully exist. It may exist as a shell or a shadow, but the reality is that a priest under the authority of a canonical bishop is required for the Church to be fully manifested and present in any place. This has been and remains the teaching of the early Christians and of the Orthodox Church until now.

Know that we are here to serve you and to present you to Christ. This is our life’s work and our joy. Pray for all the priests and especially this priest so that we may faithfully embody the sacrificial and life-giving love of God, who is our true Father. Glory be to God forever, AMEN.

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians. (1:10-17)

In today’s epistle we hear the apostle Paul’s works to the Christians at Corinth. His warning to them is a simple one that requires our attention every so often. Often as we read the Scriptures and the New Testament we are reminded of things that we might take for granted or ways that we may have become complacent in our own lives, and attitudes.

Listen to these words: “Brethren, I appeal to you, by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no dissension among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brethren. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispos and Gaius; lest anyone should say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.)”

For St. Paul, the greatest tragedy would be a church that is not united. He had spent his life in serious study and prayer, looking for the truth and trying to know God more fully. He was zealous for the ways of his teachers and fathers and this zeal, although misguided, had enflamed the apostle with a desire to see the truth spread and the false teachings stamped out everywhere. This is why he led attacks on Christians and threw many into prisons. Because his zeal was misguided and ill-informed. One day, by the will and the grace of God, Our Lord Jesus Christ revealed Himself to St. Paul on the road to Damascus and this set off a chain of events that have rippled through time and completely changed the course of history. Paul became the apostle to the gentiles and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ far and wide. He had a new focus for all of his earlier zeal and love for God. Rather, God came into focus more clearly for him. Through the encounter with the risen Lord Jesus, Paul’s world was turned upside down. His life was now fully dedicated to teaching others about Christ and helping others encounter and know this messiah, this Son of God who could save mankind from their sins.

With all of this as a background, we see St. Paul undertaking major missionary journeys all over the known world and the Roman empire. He gave the rest of his life to this daunting and joyful task of bringing the news of what God had done for humanity through His Son Jesus to the whole world. He set up communities and spent time with them, loved them, prayed with them and encouraged them. He would then pick up and move to the next area to start the work again in a new place, to bring new souls to Christ. St. Paul would often hear news from these communities that he had started, some good, some not so good. And what St. Paul understood clearly was that there were a few things that could hurt, if not destroy a church community.

First, false teachings. Second, immorality. Third, dissension or division over smaller issues. This is the one that St. Paul is focused on in today’s reading. What was the issue that began to cause division for the Christians at Corinth? It was their baptismal lineage. Who had been baptized by whom? Some claimed their baptism was better because it was at the hands of Apollos, some at the hands of Cephas (Peter), some at the hands of Paul. And this rather trivial matter became a big issue that divided the people.

In our world there are always things that will divide us if we let them. Today we divide over political affiliation, the use of vaccines, the wearing of masks and who serves the most delicious cheeseburger. But we are reminded that to divide over trivial matters isn’t just bad manners, it is a serious sin. It is tearing the fabric of the body of Christ in two. Shredding a lovely, single garment made by the hands of God, into pieces. It is a sign of a deficiency in love towards Christ and His Church and towards those for whom Christ gave His life upon the tree of the cross.

My brothers and sisters, it should not be so. We should not be like the world around us, uncivil, ill-mannered, ill-tempered, easily provoked, easily offended. As Christians we are called to see Christ in every person and to love every member of the church with a godly love. The things that unite us in Christ are much greater than the trivial and childish things that cause us to separate from one another. And if we find that perhaps our opinions are too strong, too offensive, too harsh and polarizing, we can choose the path of humility instead of the path of prideful resistance. We can choose to be peacemakers. I believe that our Lord said something important about being peacemakers. Being the man or woman who works for peace with their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, is more important than feeling right or justified in my opinions.

It should go without saying, that this is true even during coffee hour or when we are on social media. Not everyone does a good job of showing restraint and thinking about how their comments and opinions might serve to alienate or push away their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. That we don’t think about others makes us more than negligent, it makes us selfish and self-centered. So we are all called to restrain ourselves and to think of others. That is how we love actively. That is how we honor Jesus Christ.

St. John of Kronstadt writes, “As the Holy Trinity, our God is One Being, although Three Persons, so, likewise, we ourselves must be one. As our God is indivisible, we also must be indivisible, as though we were one man, one mind, one will, one heart, one goodness, without the smallest (mingling) of malice – in a word, one pure love, as God is Love. “That they may be one, even as We are One” (John 17:22).” He writes in another place “A Christian must always be kind, gracious, and wise in order to conquer evil by good.” Sometimes we are the ones being offended. Even then we are not let off the hook. We are commanded to forgive everyone so that we also might be forgiven.

My friends, let us work diligently for the salvation of our fellow brothers and sisters, every minute of every day, especially when we are here with this great extended family. Let us love and be ambassadors of Christ’s love just as the Lord first loved us and sacrificed Himself on our behalf. Let us not push others away carelessly, instead let us draw them further into Christ’s Church with the net of mercy and compassion, for this makes us shine with the radiance of the All- Merciful and compassionate God, the Lover of mankind. AMEN.

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. (9:27-35)

Today’s reading reminds me of another gospel passage which is read soon after the celebration of Pascha, on the Sunday of the Blind Man. Today we hear of not one but two blind men who were together. We never learn exactly how they learned about Jesus but one thing was for certain, they knew who He was and they were motivated to have an encounter with Him. They cried out to Him loudly with these words that should be so familiar to us, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.”

Why should these words be familiar to us? Because they are a part of the very fabric, the DNA of Orthodox Christian prayer. This is seen and heard repeatedly throughout all of our liturgical services and especially in the liturgy. The phrase which is repeated more often than any other is precisely this “Lord have mercy!” We say this so often and yet like anything, sometimes it is good to step back and to ask ourselves “what does it really mean?” It means to have pity or compassion. In praying this prayer we pray it with an assumption that we don’t have much to offer to God, but that we are in dire need of whatever it is that He is willing to offer to us. We should model our prayers after those who successfully petitioned the Son of God for such things.

How do we model our prayers? By aligning our hearts with the hearts of those who cried out to the Lord with everything within them. They didn’t reserve anything of themselves and their desire for Christ. Repeatedly throughout the gospels we see men and women like us who pour out their pains and struggles to the Lord and repeatedly we see the Lord Jesus respond with precisely what they seek. He offers them healing. He offers them fulfillment. And yes, He offers them mercy.

So how do we align our hearts to be like those who asked with confidence and received? We start with humility. If you notice the blind men never actually asked to be healed of their blindness. They were truly humble and truly faithful men. You don’t have to tell God exactly what you need, He knows what you need even before you open your mouth! That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pray and ask. It means that you should pray with humility and faith. Humility that God knows what is best for us and faith that God is able to provide for us. The blind men don’t ask for healing of their blindness because they don’t have to. They truly believe that Jesus is the Christ, the long awaited Messiah and they ask for mercy knowing that the Lord will give them whatever is good according to His will for their lives. That is an example of faithful humility. They ask for mercy and trust God to give them what is good.

It turns out that the thing that is most good is in fact mercy. When we have mercy from God, even mercy from others, we feel that everything is right in the world and in our lives. We run to the Lord in prayers in a way that invites the Lord to work in our lives. What is required is humility, an understanding of our own brokenness. The blind men could cry out to the Lord because they knew their own infirmity. They knew their own brokenness. They knew their desperate need for Him. How do we pray? Sometimes we have trouble praying for more than a minute without feeling distracted or bored. Sometimes we pray for help from God and then we go about our business trying to make things happen, forcing things that may or may not be God’s will. Sometimes we pray to God and then go about our lives living in open rebellion to God, in disobedience to His teachings.

King David, the prophet wrote “a broken and humbled heart God will not despise.” When we pray to God and ask for anything we should do it in a way that invites Christ to help us. We should pray as if there are no other options, no other solutions. Pray like nothing else matters. Don’t pray and keep one eye on the clock. Pray and forget whether you are in the body or out of the body. Pray as if the only thing that matters is that God will hear you. Because if God hears you, nothing else will matter.

So this is why we pray such prayers frequently and with repetition such as “Lord have mercy”, “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me, a sinner” and so forth. They are prayers that get to the heart of the matter. When they are combined with a small bit of humility and faith, even the faith like a mustard seed, these are prayers that get to the heart of God. This is our meeting place with God, the heart. St. Dorotheos of Gaza writes “In the mercy of God, the little thing done with humility will enable us to be found in the same place as the saints who have labored much and been true servants of God.”

The blind men cried out from their hearts and after the Lord asked them if they believed, they answered from their hearts. We can say that they believed, that they saw Christ with their spiritual eyes. That they would see him with their physical eyes was the next natural step in Christ’s divine wisdom.

It was Christ’s good pleasure to heal their blindness. It is Christ’s good pleasure to heal our blindness and every other sickness within us, the physical and especially the spiritual. But let us turn to the Lord with everything in our hearts. Let us learn how to completely give ourselves to Him in prayer and without distraction, without grumbling over our situation, without complaining and without watching the calendar or the clock in order to time God. This is why it is important that the Lord says to the two men “According to your faith be it done for you.” If we don’t believe much it becomes difficult to receive much. For this reason it is even good to ask God to increase our faith just as the Apostles did (Luke 17:5).

I would like to leave you with this beautiful quote from St. Symeon the New Theologian. He writes, “To have faith in Christ means more than simply despising the delights of this life. It means we should bear all our daily trials that may bring us sorrow, distress, or unhappiness, and bear them patiently for as long as God wishes and until He comes to visit us. For it is said, ‘I waited on the Lord and He came to me.’” AMEN.

Source: Sermons