From the first chapter of the Gospel according to St. John. “In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Last Sunday we talked about the four great words. Today we have before us the meaning of Christmas in five words. This is the gift to us from our Holy Father and Evangelist John the Theologian. The five words are these: “…and the Word became flesh.” This is the meaning of Christmas. This is the great Christmas Gift to us. And today we marvel again at the permanence of its wondrous meaning!

The Gospel of John is unique among the gospels in telling us of Christmas. St. Luke gives us the detailed story of Mary and Joseph. We heard that story last evening. He tells of their long journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Luke alone tells of the birth of Jesus in the stable cave. He tells us of shepherds coming from their flocks to worship the Christ child. St. Luke sings the song of the angels, “Glory to God in the highest…”

St. Matthew tells us of the coming of the Magi, the “Wise Men” from the East. We heard that story this morning. Matthew describes their costly gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. He fills in the details of Gabriel’s announcement to Mary – then to Joseph. He also tells of the treachery of Herod who sought to murder the Child before He left Bethlehem.

St. Mark says nothing of the birth of Jesus at all. Perhaps his first readers already knew the great story. But St. John – St. John is different. He speaks in the first chapter of his Gospel of the meaning of Christ’s birth. Cave, shepherds, angels, wise men – they are all missing in John. It’s the meaning he’s after.

John the Theologian begins declaring the fact that Christ, the eternal Son of God, existed before the world even began. This “pre-existent” Christ shared the fullness of God’s very being. He was before all things. All things were made by the Father through His Son. He is the Light that illumined every human being. Even though His own people rejected Him, the Light that He is never goes out!

These are sentences of great meaning. They are taken from the first few verses of John’s Gospel. And then – then comes the five-word phrase that takes us to the heart of the Feast. “…and the Word became flesh.” God came to us in His Son, called by John the logos, or the Word. He came joined to our humanity at Bethlehem. And all of this, so that we might behold the glory of His truth and grace for us.

Years ago I head a Christmas story of which there are many versions. I share this one with you to help us absorb the meaning of the Word becoming flesh for our salvation.

A family went off to Christmas Day services at the church near their home. Everyone went, except the father of the household. He stayed home because he had no place in his heart for the faith in God. He had no place for that which moves people to attend services. As was his custom when the family went to service, he sat down with his morning coffee and Sunday newspaper. His morning was interrupted by a thump he heard against the picture window. He thought it at first, just a snowball thrown by the neighbor boys. So he angrily went to the door to yell at the thoughtless boys.

When he opened the door and stepped outside, he saw no one. He could not figure out where that sound had come from. As he was about to step back inside he saw it. A tiny sparrow on the ground at the base of the window. The bird was flopping and foundering in a daze. That little bird had hit the window in full flight. There it lay in the snow, unable to fly away or to sit still.
 
The man of the house paused to ponder a solution. “Just leave it alone and go back in the house,” he thought at first. But that did not seem right. He tried to get to the bird. But the closer he got, the further away the bird flopped. He even tried to set a few bread crumbs close by to help. The stunned bird made no response.

The man stood there. He thought about the gap between that poor bird and himself, a human helpless to do anything. In frustration he shouted at the bird. “Look, little bird, I only want to help you. Can’t you understand?” Then he thought. “If only I could become a bird, for just a moment. Then I could help this little fellow. Then he would understand!” At that moment the bells of the nearby church rang out. And the man was struck by a sudden realization. What he could not do in trying to reach one small creature, the eternal God has done for all people of all time.

“…and the Word became flesh.”  God has entered our world. God has entered our thought. God has put on our skin. He knows our heights. He knows our depths. He has joined us in our dreams. He has joined us in our dilemmas. Nothing human is foreign to Him. He is Immanuel. His is s’nami boh. He is God with us.

And what do we do with that greatest of all Gifts? It is to give a gift back to God by honoring Him. And we honor Him best by seeing in every person we meet a fellow human being for whom the Word became flesh. It is a lifetime of work to give this gift back to God. There will never be an end to the need for people to live this conviction.

And the Word became flesh. Now nothing is the same for us any more.

 Tonight’s Gospel of the Nativity according to St. Luke is surely familiar. But, familiar as it may be it comes new to us this holy night. It is the story of something new. It is the story of something quite unexpected. It is the story of God coming in Person, in human form. In the Child of Bethlehem, God comes filling a human body with His love and forgiveness. However – Apostle and Evangelist Luke reminds us – He did not arrive as a newborn in the Temple. He did not come to the priests, scribes or Pharisees. Who received the first announcement of the arrival of God in the flesh? It was the shepherds.

 The shepherds! At one time, the shepherd was a heroic figure in Israel’s past. Who were shepherds in Israel’s past? There was Jacob. There was Moses. There was, yes, David himself, royal ancestor of the Newborn King. It was Isaiah the Prophet who wrote these words. “He shall lead his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs in his arms.”  These were among the first words I learned to sing. I was in the 7th grade in school when our choir sang this great aria from Handel’s Messiah.

Though there were great shepherds in Israel’s history, by Jesus’ day, they had fallen far down the social ladder. If noticed at all, shepherds were looked down upon. No word of a shepherd was acceptable in a court of law in Israel. As one writer described them, “…shepherds were mangy, stinking, bathless people; ritually unclean.” 

To the religious people of Jesus’ day, the shepherds were beyond hope. They were outside the community of faith. Not only could they not, they did not keep the ritual laws of cleanliness. They were not allowed in the temple for worship. They did not study the Torah, the Hebrew Bible. No one, in the eyes of the people of Jesus’ day, could be further from God than shepherds.

Now, what should be notice about shepherds tonight? First of all, shepherds spent plenty of time alone and quiet. They lived apart from the noise and bustle of the city. (At least they used to. I have a photo I took of a shepherd’s tent in the wilderness south of Jerusalem. It has a TV antenna sticking out of it!) But in the first century, shepherds were able to be quiet and alone. They may have been closer to God than people thought.

But the thing to notice about shepherds was their humility. They knew they were different from the proud and powerful in town. They knew they were dependent on a Power greater than themselves just to stay alive. They were humble. They were receptive. They were available. They were humble enough to seek out the Savior in a cow cave in grubby old Bethlehem. What do we sing in the Beatitudes every Sunday?

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall see God.”  Such were those shepherds.

And such must we be. We must be as those shepherds if we are going to truly find Christ by being found by Him. We can be perfect church goers. We can observe all the social niceties. We can fulfill all the required moral obligations. We can consider ourselves reasonable safe. But we can still miss Him if there is no dependency. We can miss Him if there is no need. We can miss Him if there is no humility. We can miss Him if there is no desire for Him.

God comes to those who hunger for Him. He comes to those who truly want more than just this world’s trinkets and toys. Remember the bumper sticker: “Those who die with the most toys – still die!”  Church Father St. Augustine taught us that our hearts are restless until they rest in Him. That means finding Christ’s presence as the power and purpose for our lives.

Now, of course, that hunger can be turned into booze, or business. It can be channeled into constant activity or worry about the present moment. The Beatitudes again: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

Tonight we are here to say that God has been made flesh. We are here to say that all the power of God has been concentrated in the incarnate Jesus. Through the Child, the way to the Father is now open. But it is more than open. It is welcoming. It is inviting. The Father is waving us shepherds in. In humility, “Come, let us adore Him.”

I have four great words to give you.  Today, these four words have some great competition with other words.  “Finished the shopping yet?.”  “Got the gifts wrapped?”  “I am really tired.”  Maybe you would like “Short sermon today, please.”

The four words I have for you are none of these.  The four words that are the four greatest words we can take with us this last week before Christmas are these: “God is with us.”  Isaiah first said these words: “Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel (which means ‘God is with us.’)”

"God is with us" are the four words that are at the very heart of our faith.  They are the answer to that question asked in every time and place, in some form or another.  Can humans and God have any connection?  Can we humans live out our days on earth with any companionship with our Creator?  All true religion finds some way to grasp that relationship.  Today we Christians hear the answer most dear to us:  God is with us, here, now and forever.  You and I are not alone in a world that cares nothing for our hopes and fears.  We say that in one Hebrew word: Emmanuel, "God is with us."

Yet there always seems to be that part of us that holds out.  There is part of us that does not want to believe that God is truly with us.  That attack of doubts comes in many ways.  Christmas time, for example, is often a dismal time.  It is a time when memories of happier days return, making this one of the more unhappy times of the year.  In the center of that loneliness and longing for the way things used to be, doubt of “God is with us” makes its entry.  We hear the carol “Joy to the world” and it seems like a mockery. For us, “joy” is thought of as a repeat of the way things were. 

Sometimes doubt shows up as distraction.  There are the buying, and partying, the traveling and decorating.  There is having to satisfy so many people and meet so many schedules.  In the midst of all this the soul can get short shrift.  One begins to wonder if all this is “God is with us”?  

Tragedy takes no holiday at this time of the year.  Fires destroy children.  Auto accidents sweep away families.  Thieves keep stealing.  Wars do not cease in celebration of the Prince of Peace.  God is with us?  Where, given the trauma of the day's news?  Where is God with us when hundreds are killed daily in Iraq?  Where is God with us in a world where millions go to bed hungry each night?

God's coming into the world is on God's terms, in God's time, and via God's way.  The coming of God with us is to look with the eyes of faith to the mystery of divine love that redeems this violent world.  God's love saves the world, inch by inch, year by year, person by person.  That goes on in God's good way, until finally the coming of Emmanuel of Bethlehem is completed in the coming of the Son of God to make all things new. 

Jesus Christ was born in the midst of his own time.  It was also a hostile, uncaring and brutal world.  He came into the thick of the world at its worst.  In that, we can hope that He still works to redeem and renew all who kneel with the shepherds and sing with the angels.
 
“God is with us” stands against the forces that today assault our faith.  For this Christ was no stranger to cruelty and hate.  Jesus Christ knows all of that.  He has won the everlasting victory over it.  And He did not do it at a distance.  Rather, Christ took on our flesh and blood and entered fully into our humanity. He knows what it’s like.

So these are the four great words of hope that can gladden our Christmas celebrating.  Take them with you and cherish them as never before in your hearts.  Do so especially if this Christmas is different from other Christmases for you.   Do so, if, because of loss, or sickness, or worry, or change of any sort, this Christmas is a special one.  For, despite everything, God is yet with you.  God will not abandon you.  In spite of all signs to the contrary, Christmas will come anyway.

I hope that your preparation time has been filled with cards, and remembrances and get-togethers that do the soul good.  Perhaps you have received in the past weeks a Christmas letter or two.  Some people find it helpful to write a letter to enclose with their card, to update their friends on their lives.  I would like to share with you part of a Christmas letter I received several years ago.  It is from a woman whose husband had died earlier in the year:

He was forthright and full of fun; sensitive and compassionate, vital, young and so soon to die!  Why him?  Why now?  Fear, anger, frustration, silence:  it is now seven months since this man's death.  I have journeyed through deep valleys of loneliness and tears.  but also I marvel that, in the midst of sorrow and suffering, I find God.  I find God not causing, but caring, and providing the power needed to go on.  Why is it given to some to sense the triumph and joy and others to know only continuing sorrow and resentment?  For myself, I believe that in the mystery of the Word made flesh the answer is found.  Because the manger led to a cross and an empty tomb, all of life is forever changed.  The sweet little Jesus child of the carols is the Lord of all life.  God can be trusted to meet our needs no matter what they are.

This is not a common Christmas letter.  It bears witness to the treasure of the “God is with us.”  This is the spirit in which we keep our eyes of faith open to those unexpected gifts and blessings which come only from God. As we stand before God on this busy morning, let nothing drown out the greatness of those four words: God is with us.

Some time ago a child asked her mother: “Mommy, why does Santa Claus have a beard? And why does he wear such funny clothes?” Her mother could give no answer. For one reason, she was not an Orthodox Christian. All Orthodox should know the answer to the child's questions. Santa Claus has a beard and wears such unusual clothes because he is the folklore version of an Orthodox bishop. That bishop’s name was Nicholas. Who was St. Nicholas?

Born at the end of the third century, Nicholas was a very devout young man. While still quite young, he became a Bishop. Soon after he was appointed Archbishop of the then great city of Myra. Myra was located in the country now called Turkey. There Nicholas was renowned for his charitable deeds. He set up orphanages, hospitals, homes for the mentally ill. He fed the starving in famine. He set up a drainage system so that his people would not die from the diseases incurred by poor hygiene. Nicholas freed captives unjustly imprisoned. He saved sailors in stormy seas. He saved young girls who were bound for child prostitution. In everything he did, Nicholas wanted to show that all humans deserved respect. Every person is a child of God.

But even the great saint could not restrain himself at the First Council of the church. One of the priests at that council was a man named Arius. This Arius stood up and said that Christ was not the Son of God. He said that Christ was just a human being. Besides being generous and loving, Nicholas was true to the Church. He heard falsehood and he could not take it.

So it was that when this Arius spoke against Christ at the First Council, Nicholas walked up to Arius. Nicholas slapped him across the face. The other Fathers were horrified by this violent action. They defrocked Nicholas and sent him away. The Saint did not try to defend himself. Rather, he accepted this punishment with humility. However, God provided a vision for many of the Fathers. They saw in this vision Christ and his Most Holy Mother with St. Nicholas. They were returning to put on his bishop’s vestments. The vision was shared by many. Soon thereafter Nicholas was reinstalled as Archbishop. In the end, the heresy of Arius was condemned.

But just as the love of the holy saint is always with us so also the false teaching of Arius will always be. Like Arius in the fourth century, 21st century Ariuses choose to believe their own way. So many today do not accept the teaching and Tradition of the Christian Faith handed down to us by saints like Nicholas. Modern people often choose to go their own way if there is something the Church teaches they don’t like. More often than not, moderns will turn from the Church because the Church will not support their behavior. Moderns have invented gods to replace the true God. They invent gods who will approve of all sorts of bad behavior from abortion to self-mutilation. It is a dangerous way to go. We need more Nicholases today to stand up to such false teaching.

Today the once great city of Myra is no more. In Turkey, a Muslim country, there stand only the ruins of the great Cathedral of St. Nicholas. But St. Nicholas is still venerated there. He is venerated even by Muslims. Indeed he is venerated all over the world by Orthodox and non-Orthodox alike. How many churches are named in honor of St. Nicholas? Many hundreds; thousands perhaps. How many dioceses, including our own, have St. Nicholas as patron? Surely, many more!

Reading the life of St. Nicholas up until his death runs to many, many pages. But if we were to read of his life since his death? We would find that it runs to many, many books. His life since his death is much longer than his life before his death. Nicholas is one of those many saints who has continued to work miracles up until the present age.

I recently heard of one of St Nicholas' modern miracles. It happened in the 1980's, A Russian nuclear submarine was in trouble in the Pacific Ocean. Its engine had stopped. It could not be restarted. Even in those Soviet times, though, one of the young sailors remembered. His grandmother had told him that St Nicholas always protects sailors. Thus, despite everything around him, he remembered to pray to St. Nicholas at that moment. Through his prayers the engine started up again. Over a hundred sailors were saved. And more than that. The world was saved from yet another nuclear accident. St Nicholas is among us still today. He is here and now. He preserves from danger and evil all who pray to him.

There is one final question about St. Nicholas which we must answer. Why does everybody love St. Nicholas? Why is he so popular? Why do Muslims venerate him? Why do even Protestants dedicate chapels to him? Why do Catholics revere him and guard his relics in the town of Bari in Italy? The answer is simple.

Everybody loves St Nicholas, because St Nicholas loves everybody.

Holy Father Nicholas, pray to God for us!

Today's Gospel concerns the young man who asked Christ what it is necessary to do in order to have eternal life. Our Lord tells him:  Keep the commandments. Don’t murder. Don’t steal. Don’t commit adultery. Don’t lie. Honor your father and mother. In other words, keep all the commandments given to Moses. Then you will have eternal life. Christ Himself actually makes it simple. He reduces those commandments to only two: 1) love God; 2) love your neighbor as yourself.

These two commandments are linked. We know that from human history. We have seen dictators and tyrants. We have lived through wars and human misery. And it is always true: those who do not love God, do not love God's creation. And the summit of God's creation is humanity. Those who hate people are those who have first hated God. And such haters of people are also those who hate the rest of God's creation.  They are the ones who recklessly cut down forests. They are the ones who pollute the air and the water and the earth. Such people must be haters of God. After all, it is clear that they hate God's Creation.

So what does it mean that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves?  This does not mean that we are to love ourselves in the sense that we must be self-centered. It does not mean that we give in to our every whim and desire. It means that we are to love ourselves as we were created by God.  It does not mean to love ourselves as we are now. We are to love ourselves as God intended us to be, bright, sinless, as Adam and Eve were in Paradise. We love ourselves as we were created: in the image of God.

So often in our world today we witness that terrible mystery of self-hatred.  We even see that self-hatred glorified on TV and in movies. We see it in the self-destruction through alcohol or other drugs.  We see it through self-mutilation. We see self-hatred in its worst form: suicide. Those who enter on to such paths are often those who have been blinded by misfortune and depression. Perhaps they never knew that there was a path to follow that would restore them to what they could be, and were created to be.  Having become blind to the Beauty of the Creator, they have become blind to the original and potential beauty of the Creation, which they are.

The young man who spoke to Christ in today’s Gospel kept the commandments. And no doubt this was fairly easy for him. He probably had been well brought up.  He had been well instructed. However, our Lord tells him that there is yet a higher way to salvation.  There is a way to become perfect beyond just not doing this or that. That way to perfection is for him to give away all his wealth. The disciples were amazed at Christ's words about the rich. They asked who then could be saved? His words seemed to them to be hard words and that therefore none could be saved. But the disciples had not yet been enlightened by the Crucifixion, the Resurrection and the Descent of the Holy Spirit.

Let’s look a bit more closely at Christ's words. Christ does not say that the rich cannot be saved. Rather, He says that those who are attached to their riches cannot be saved. And this is the tragedy of the soul of the young man. In Matthew’s telling of this story, the young man went away sorrowful, for he had “great possessions.” Christ saw that the young man was not like those disciples.  The disciples had abandoned their fishing-boat in order to follow Christ. So it was not so much that the young man had many possessions. It was, rather, that he was possessed by his possessions.

And this is the secret of the Christian use of money. In the history of the Church and in the Lives of the Saints, we can often read of many people who came into great wealth.  However, they did not allow themselves to become possessed by their wealth. They were wealthy for a time. But then gave it away, to orphanages, to beggars, to charities, to churches, to monasteries. They understood that wealth is granted by God.  But He grants it only for a time and only for a purpose. God calls the wealthy not to be possessors, but rather distributors, of wealth. We are called to be channels, instruments, agents of the grace and blessings of God. Nothing should come from ourselves. We should be like mirrors reflecting God's will and infinite mercy.

“And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God.” On the one hand, Christ says it is difficult for those with riches to get into the Kingdom. Now here he says it is impossible. Our Father in Christ John Chrysostom was a wonderful preacher. He interprets this difficulty for us clearly.  This is what he says.

“Most excellent, therefore, and wonderful is this parable. The eye of a needle cannot fit a camel. This is because of the smallness of the needle’s eye and the camel’s great size. Just so, the way that leads to life does not admit a man possessed by his riches.  This is because of the ponderous bulk of those riches.  It behooves everyone to lay aside the fatness of prosperity and reduce himself to voluntary poverty in order to be able to enter into the Kingdom of heaven by the narrow way. Narrow and full of sorrows is the way which leads to life, and few there are that find it.”

Chrysostom concludes: “It is impossible for those tightly bound to their possessions to be saved.  It is impossible for them to be freed from this torment by their own power.  God, however, can save them, as, indeed He can do all things. And God will save anyone, if they offer Him their own efforts and call upon Him as the help and support of their liberation. … Thus we have learned and understood that it is impossible for the lover of money to be saved, unless he makes an effort and has God as his helper to deliver him.” 

Next Sunday we shall receive and dedicate our 2012 pledges of money, time and talent to St. Elizabeth Church. This is a chance to examine our lives and our possessions. May God bless our prayers during this time. May our giving be from our hearts with thanksgiving for all of God’s blessings to us.

A recently fired professional football coach once made this comment. "There are two types of coaches in the NFL. Those that have been fired, and those that will be fired." We could also say this in regard to our Holy Gospel for today. There are two types of people in the world. Those who are hurting, and those who will be hurting. We can’t escape it. Neither can we avoid it. At some time or another, we’ll all hurt. Even being Orthodox does not give you an exemption from hurting.

In today’s Gospel we read of a woman who was hurting.  She was crippled.  She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. She had had this condition for eighteen years. Medically, it was probably a fusion of the spinal bones. What a terrible disease! Every aspect of her life had to be affected. Her hurting and bondage is symbolic of all of our hurts and needs.

This woman, to me, is one of the most powerful pictures of faith in all the New Testament. She has been in this condition for 18 years! If she had been going to the synagogue every Sabbath for those 18 years, she had attended some 1,000 services there. She had been sick for 18 years. She had not been healed. But still she believes in God! She prays. But even when it seems like God isn’t going to answer the way she wants, she remains faithful. She comes to the services, in spite of the fact that no one would think a thing about her if she did not. She had suffered for years while seemingly God had only watched. And still she remained faithful!

What does that say to the mentality that abounds today! If we have a headache, we run to the medicine bottle and knock ourselves out. She was bent double, yet she came to the house of God to worship! We allow the slightest bump in the road of life to derail us and cause us to want to throw in the towel. She persisted in her faith, even when life didn’t go her way. She did so because she loved the Lord her God! I think she continued to be faithful because she knew that God knew best. I think she still believed in her heart that God would one day answer her prayer for healing. I think she knew the truth that God was worthy of her worship, whether He healed her or not! She loved Him and she would worship Him in spite of the obstacles she faced. She was committed to the Lord!
 
We, like this woman, continually need to be feeding ourselves with holiness. And that is because we’re constantly feeding ourselves with the unholiness of the world.  So we must do something to change that situation.  If we do not meditate upon holy things, we won’t become holy. The purpose of our gathering together as Orthodox Christians is to worship.  It is to expect God to do something to us by partaking of His Holy Mysteries.  It is to have enlightenment.  It is to have the medicine of immortality within us. But, this faithful woman, bent over for 18 years, did not question.  She just came to church faithfully.

And one Sabbath day in that synagogue, it is Christ who is teaching. The woman appeared in the synagogue as usual. Our Lord sees her. He calls to her. This had to be noticed by the crowd as unusual. After all women at that time were generally ignored. Why then did Christ take notice of her? Why did he make a point to respond to her need immediately and publicly? In New Testament times women, lepers, prostitutes, tax collectors, and widows were the most oppressed, ignored, hurting, and hopeless of people.  Yet these are the very people to whom Jesus ministered most often and most powerfully.

Have you ever felt that God does not take personal interest in us petty humans? Perhaps there are many things that you are going through.  Maybe you feel your prayers are unanswered. Luke’s Gospel speaks plainly to this. We have a Lord who notices the hurting. We have a Lord who has compassion on the burdened. And who is Christ to the hurting and burdened today?  It is us. It is you and me. We are the Body of Christ in the world today. As His followers we have the responsibility to do just as Christ did! We cannot ignore the hurting or be unresponsive to the sorrowful and troubled. We pray, of course, for those who are hurting, troubled, sick or in pain. But simply praying, though powerful and helpful, is not enough. Visiting, serving, helping hurting people should be our first priority in life.

As Luke’s story continues we see that Jesus had strong words for those who ignored hurting people. The local religious leader was more focused on religious rules and maintaining the order of service than in ministering to hurting people. He had no joy, no praise, and no relief at this woman’s healing. Jesus was greatly angered by this uncaring, indifferent response.

After all, our Lord came to this earth for the purpose of straightening out crookedness.  John the Forerunner quotes the Holy Prophet Isaiah. “The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:”  The Forerunner predicted it, and Christ made it so. Again, we find the promise on the lips of the Holy Prophet Isaiah. Speaking of Christ, he says this. “And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.”

Only God can make that which is crooked straight.  “And Jesus laid his hands on her.  And immediately she was made straight.  And she praised God.”  The prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled.  The woman was healed.  Because she was in church – no matter what!

I have an announcement to make as I begin this sermon. The announcement is this: Tomorrow has been cancelled! There will be no tomorrow. I can see the reaction. How ridiculous, you may be saying in your mind. This must be a trick or a joke.  But is it? For you see, that announcement comes to millions of people in the course of every day life.  For all you and I know, this announcement could very well be for you and me today.

It may be for many of you who are sitting here today, this has been a reality in your life. A heart attack. A near fatal accident. A brush with death through cancer or other disease.  Those things and others have almost brought the announcement.  Your tomorrow has been cancelled.  Truth is, every one of us is only a breath away from this announcement that our tomorrow has been cancelled.  You see, tomorrow was cancelled for the rich man in today’s reading from the Holy Gospels. It is true that this was just a parable, a story, that Jesus told.  But for many this story has become a reality. 

As the rich man speaks from this Gospel, notice the repeated words “I” and “my.”  “’What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’  And he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.’”  All this points to this man’s self-centeredness. He was a child of this world, to be sure. You know what that means. “Take care of number one!” He was concerned only about himself and nobody else. He didn’t care to help anyone in need. He wanted to get all he could in this life for himself so he could just sit back and enjoy it.

This man had success, satisfaction and security. What more could he possibly want? One could say that as far as this world was concerned he had it made.  He was enjoying life.  But Jesus makes it clear that true life does not come from an abundance of things.  Nor does true life come from success or security. This man had a false view of both life and death.

There are a lot of people that are like this rich man. In this world they feel secure, invincible.  They think they will live forever. They refuse to think of death. They refuse to think of eternity.  They refuse to think of judgment. As far as they are concerned this world is all that there is. How foolish to think this way. Death will come to all. All will face eternity either in the presence of God or expelled from his presence forever. All will face this judgment.

But this man’s tomorrow was cancelled with these words. “Fool! This night your soul will be required of you.” Death caught this man when he least expected it.  We might be tempted to say, “Too bad this fellow dies just when he had everything going for him! How tragic that he could not finish his great plans.” But I tell you, the great tragedy of this story is not what this man left behind.  The tragedy was what was laid before him: eternity without God!

Death has no favorites. It doesn’t respect age, position, importance, prosperity or anything else. Young people, you, too, must listen. Just because you are young and have your whole future ahead of you don’t think you can’t hear those words.  Your tomorrow may be cancelled, too! There may be some here today who would say, I’m a good person.  I treat people fair.  I should live a while yet.  But anyone could hear those words: your tomorrow has been cancelled.

But let’s say tomorrow is not cancelled. How are we going to live? Are we going to live as if this is the only world? Or as if there is something beyond this world? John the Theologian said: “This world and all its desires is passing away. But, they who do the will of God will abide forever.”  The Holy Apostle James said: “Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”
 
The Old Testament Prophet Joel is clear. “Now,” he says, “is the accepted time. Today is the day of salvation.”  St. Paul writes this to the Corinthians. “For God says, ‘Your cry came to me at a favorable time, when the doors of welcome were wide open, I helped you on a day when salvation was being offered.’ Right now God is ready to welcome you. Today he is ready to save you.” We Christians and sinners presume that we have a tomorrow.  We think we will have time to take care of things. But God says, “Don’t put it off, do it now, get help, open your heart to someone, spend time in prayer. Do it! Tomorrow might be cancelled. Don’t presume that you will have a tomorrow.”

The Holy Church Father Augustine: “God has promised us forgiveness for our repentance, but God has not promised us a tomorrow in which to repent.”  Now, today, is the only time we have. Don’t put God off to another day. Any of our tomorrows may be cancelled – even before the end of this Liturgy.

This Gospel is truly an Advent one.  Advent means of coming.  In this fasting season we are preparing for the coming of the Christ born to His Blessed Mother.  But this is also a time to think of another coming. This is the coming of death and judgment.  We are not assured of tomorrow. All we have is today. Let us be ready. Let us live with clean and pure hearts at all times. It is always too late to put it off until tomorrow. For all we know, tomorrow may be cancelled!

The Bible, written in mostly a rural context, uses the figure of a shepherd to describe God's relationship with his people.  No one knew better than the people of Palestine how dependent sheep are on their shepherds.  No one knew better than they how concerned for and committed to his sheep the shepherd is.  David's famous Psalm 23 lays out the characteristics of the shepherd.  He is one of constant vigilance.  He has fearless courage.  His love for his flock is patient and longsuffering.  Yes, we are the church of the Good Shepherd.  And that is both comfort and a cross.

Christ is able to be the Good Shepherd because he has received the love of the Father.  He shares the love He has received with those who hear His voice.  His life was one of love for all he encountered.  This love was not the sentimental kind you find on greeting cards.  He loved and he challenged.  Remember Christ's meeting with the woman at the well, or the cleansing of the temple.  There Christ challenged with love. 

We are called to the values that Christ lived in his own life.  We are called to be good shepherds.  By the Holy Spirit, we, too, share in that love of God.  Thus we belong to Christ by the love of the Father. We are part of His church. We belong to the Good Shepherd's flock.  This carries some meaning for us.

First, it means a special comfort in these uncertain times.  It means that when so much is being torn loose from its moorings, and changes are in the wind everywhere, we are in the hands of the Good Shepherd. Others may be confused, our Shepherd is not.  Others may be panicky, our Shepherd is not.  Others may be perplexed, our Shepherd is not.  He is in full control of all things necessary for bringing His purposes to fulfillment.  We are His.  The Good Shepherd is with us for the whole course of this life.  Nothing is too much for Him.
 
In a world of rapid and radical changes, and new threats, we don't have to fear.  The bumper sticker seems right on when it says, "If you are not confused and frightened, you're uninformed."  It is easy to be anxious about what lies around the next corner.  It is also no wonder that tranquilizer sales are at an all time high.  As well, alcohol distributors never had it so good. And drugs? They continue to undermine and sap our national strength.  This is the reaction of sheep without a Shepherd.  They become fearful and panic.  They think that the shepherd has deserted them, or worse, has died. 

How different for those of us who know that the Lord Christ is our Shepherd.  And, as He promised, He is always with us, with His rod and staff to protect us.  He has already fought the lion and the bear and emerged victorious.
 
We who follow the Good Shepherd, we have meaningful purpose in this time of such aimless wandering.  There are so many who feel alone. So many have been reduced to just numbers in an electronic world. How often do people today find themselves wondering if anyone really knows about them or cares?  After all, who am I?  To the government I am #960-57-8821, whose area code is 770 and zip code is 30188.  At the bank I am known as 431700 2580 0030.  To GA DOT I am 19-648-321.  At Comcast I am 4783895568176708654.  Everyone has their own numerical biography.  If only you felt that you were someone, that you counted.  If only you were a real live person to someone and not just a sequence of digits or perforations on a plastic card.  Well, those who know the Lord Christ as Shepherd, have no doubts.  "I know my own, and my own know me."  You are somebody to the Good Shepherd.

To be a part of the Good Shepherd’s flock, is surely a comfort.  It is also a disturbing cross.  For what God's Word makes equally clear is that, as Peter put it, "Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow."  The Good Shepherd has committed to us the shepherding.  To be His Church not only means to be in His care, it means also to share His care.  It means that He has called us to embody his seeking, healing, strengthening and protecting presence in the world today.  This is our task, yes, even to the part about the shepherd giving his life for the sheep.  Our Lord's flock is scattered in the world. He has given to us the shepherd's heart and the shepherd's work.  This is a comfort and a challenge.
 
The challenge is not so much about what we say. The challenge is the way we live with one another.  In a world where so many people find it impossible even to be civil to one another, we are called to be of one heart and soul.  But be sure: this union is not our work alone.  This union is only possible if God's grace is allowed to work in the life of our church, St. Elizabeth Church. For we are a church of the Good Shepherd.

Each of us must make this love real in our own lives.  Each time we share our love, we give new life to those we love.  Each time we live out our care and concern for others we manifest the care of the Good Shepherd for the world.  We are called to live out the story of the Good Shepherd. We are called to give what we have received of Him.  And that is the love that gives life.  It is love so abundant that it must be shared. 

St. John Chrysostom lived in 4th century Antioch in Syria. He was a “golden mouthed” preacher. He was elevated to Patriarch of Constantinople. He was a shepherd to be sure. But when he went after straying sheep, he was sent into exile by those sheep and died. The work of the shepherd is dangerous. It is hard work. Sheep are not always easy to work with. But there is but one flock, and one Shepherd, Christ our Lord.
 

We all know about interruptions in life. There’s the phone call that comes at the wrong time. There’s the ring of the doorbell as you sit down for dinner. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was not immune to interruption. Today’s Gospel is the story of a sudden interruption in the life of Jesus. Jesus was returning from the Gentile country of the Gadarenes.  Last week we heard that Jesus had made evil spirits go into the pigs that ran over the cliff.  Now returning from there a ruler of the synagogue approaches Jesus.  His daughter has died.  Jesus was leaving with the ruler.  Then suddenly comes the interruption.  It was a woman in the crowd that was pressing on Jesus who simply touches the hem of Jesus’ garment.

The woman had a bleeding issue for 12 years. We are told that this woman had tried all the natural means of being healed. The Jewish rabbinical book of teachings and opinions called the Talmud prescribed some 11 cures for bleeding.  But nothing worked.  This woman was in despair!  Having tried all resources she was left to the realm of faith.  In Jesus she felt the sense of an all-conquering power.  She believed that He had the resources that could heal her.  She believed with all her heart that somehow these resources of healing were for her.  And even though she felt unimportant (after all, Jesus was talking with a ruler of the synagogue), she wanted Jesus’ help!

As this woman approached Jesus she took a chance. Would she be rejected? Would she be told to go away? She may have heard "Leave Him alone!" from the crowd pressing the Lord.  She might have thought she was not worthy of Jesus’ attention. She was ill and weak – a nobody compared to this Ruler of the Synagogue. There were many reasons why she should not approach Jesus. This woman had no other choice. Here was her last chance. She had to come to Jesus just as she was.

Now, according to Jewish law this woman was considered unclean.  For 12 long years this woman had no life. Because of her illness, she was not allowed to take part in worship or any of the festivals. She could not visit with neighbors and friends, in fear she might make them unclean. Even family life was to be lived at a distance. She was looking and longing to have her life back.

Now she sees her chance. This becomes a great leap of faith for this woman. So with all these things against her she made a decision. She would just touch the hem of Jesus garment. She would do this without being noticed. It seemed her only chance.

 
This woman’s plight is much like our own. We want to approach Jesus for some need in our lives. But we usually have that mistaken notion that we must somehow first make things right. We don’t think Christ is really someone to come to. Or else we need to clean ourselves up, make ourselves worthy, before coming to Jesus.

This woman did not have that chance. She had to make up her mind right away. Yet she still hesitated to meet Christ face-to-face. The single thought on her mind and lips was to get close enough to Jesus just to touch his garment. “No one will know. I will be hidden in the crowd.”

Then she reached out and just touched the hem of Christ’s garment. And when she touched it, it was as if time stood still. It was as if we were looking at a movie and suddenly it stopped and left us looking at one scene. For a moment it seemed that for Jesus no one but that woman and nothing but her existed. She was not simply a poor woman lost in the crowd. She became the center of Jesus attention.

And Jesus said, "Who was it that touched me?" When all denied it, Peter said, "Master, the multitudes surround you and press upon you!" But Jesus said, "Someone touched me; for I perceive that power has gone forth from me." And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace."

Making contact with Christ – how do we make contact? We do not need grand preparations. We do not need to consider what others might think of us. We do not need to let the crowds of life interfere. We only need to touch with faith believing that we will make contact.  Whether it is in our sickness, in our weakness, or in our strength. All it takes is reaching out and allowing His power to work in us.

Where are you in your faith? Are you still trying to deal with issues in your life that plague you? Have they been issues that have lasted for years? Have you have tried to deal with them in your own self-effort, only to find them still there? It may be time to show forth faith that is beyond human reason. It may be time to come to Christ and make contact with Him who can heal you. Sometimes it means saying finally, “I can’t do this by myself.” You can try to find yet another book on how to improve yourself. Or an internet blog to answer your questions on how to deal with life’s problems.

Take this poor woman as your example today. Come just as you are to Christ.  It can be as simple as a touch of the hem of His garment. Christ will know. And in faith He can touch back.

We are in the middle of the season that has been come to be called Halloween.  With the help of merchants and advertisers, society has come to link Halloween with demons and evil spirits.  We also have come to link thoughts of Halloween with grave markers, tombstones and skeletons.  We even decorate our homes with images of such things.  In the world around us, demons and evil spirits have been stripped of their true power.

Let us not let ourselves be fooled, however.  Demons and evils spirits are real.  They are powerful.  We have only to look at our reading from the Holy Gospels for today.  In this reading from Luke, Jesus meets a man under the influence of demons.  The demons that lived in the body of this man were fierce and violent.  Luke tells us that the demonized man lived naked and among the tombs. Among the tombs.  We might think that’s a good place for this demon-possessed man.  He ought to live among dead bodies and skeletons.  That may be part of our Halloween connection.  And it may be partly why many are fearful of walking through a cemetery at night.

These demons who lived in the man were so fierce and violent, we are told, that even chains and fetters could not hold the man.    When Jesus passed by, the demons confronted Him.  “What have we to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High?  Do not torment me!”  We must remember, first of all, that demons are spirits – evil spirits.  They know all about God and God’s plan for humanity.  They knew that Jesus was the Son of God.  They knew that the time for their power to be taken away was near.  These demons knew of the power of Jesus, the Son of God.  They even knew what Jesus had planned.  They knew what was going to happen. “They begged Jesus to let them enter the herd of swine.”

When Holy Evangelist Matthew tells this story, Matthew tells us that Jesus said one word to these demons.  “Go!”  It is brief.  It is right to the point.  There is no argument.  There is no justification.  There is no explanation.  There is simply a one-word command: Go!  I am reminded of Jesus’ response to Peter in Matthew 16.  Peter had scolded Jesus when Jesus had told the disciples he would have to die.  Jesus then was right to the point with Peter.  “Get behind me, Satan!”  When something is not in harmony with the will of God, it is to be rejected.  No matter what the source.  No matter who is doing the tempting.  It calls for a clear, quick and to the point rejection.  When evil tries to have its way, there is only one response:  “No!” 

Evil has no place in a world of people created in the image and likeness of God.  When an alliance is made with evil, only evil can result.  There is no middle ground.  There is no compromise.  A swift rejection of evil makes an alliance with God.  When we ally ourselves with God in Jesus Christ, we come down squarely on the side of good.  We ally ourselves with beauty, perfection, peace, harmony and unity.  Any force that would tempt us away from this godly path must be rejected.  We must reject it fully.  And we can, with Jesus as Guide and Power, do it simply:  “Go – get behind me, Satan!”

We are reminded how important it is not even to get into conversation with evil.  Our Father in the Faith John Chrysostom observes such in his commentary on Genesis.  He says that man made himself vulnerable to sin when he began to talk with the Serpent in the Garden.  The first step in committing sin is to change the “No” to the temptation, to “Maybe.”  That considers the possibility of sin.  It opens up a middle way.  And when it comes to evil and sin?  There is no middle way.  There is no compromise.  Jesus Christ, the Son of God, tells us so.

It is a growing trend in our world to remove God completely. I have talked with some of you about the great contribution of Thomas Jefferson to our country. It was he who championed the separation of church and state. The real intent of such separation was elimination. Jefferson favored the elimination of “church” from society completely. In the generations since Jefferson, this elimination of God has been mostly successful. Our society has become so “me”-centered, for example, that the reality of evil has been dismissed.  When we are tempted to evil today, our first reaction is not “is this right?”  Rather, today’s modern person says, “Will this make me feel good?”  Or asks, “Will this be of some advantage to me?”  God has been left out of the equation.  One’s own self becomes the measure of good and evil.  It is no wonder the world is in the state it is.

May God grant us the power and wisdom to say “No!” to evil.  May God grant us the power of the Holy Spirit to always ally ourselves with Him.  In our Epistle today, Paul writes to the Ephesians.  “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”  And there is no greater work than the rejection of evil.  May we believe in the power of God to overcome evil.  And may we ever walk in the good works God has prepared for us.

It has been many years since I saw the play Our Town by Thornton Wilder. I remembered being struck by one scene. I’ve gone back to the play to share it with you. Emily is the center of the story. She dies. But she returns from the dead long enough to revisit scenes of her childhood. When the visit is over, she weeps at her own graveside. This is what she says: “It goes so fast. We don’t have time to look at one another… So all that was going on and we never noticed. One more look. Good-bye, good bye, world. Oh, earth, you were too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? Every – every minute.”

This is one of the most moving scenes in all of American drama. And certainly the message is driven home by having Emily return from the dead to give it to us. In the story of the Rich Man and poor Lazarus in today’s Gospel, the same possibility is raised. But it doesn’t happen. The dead Rich Man pleads with Abraham to send Lazarus back to the living. He wants him to give the message to the living before it is too late. “If someone goes from the dead, they will repent,” he pleads. But, no. It cannot happen.

Have we gotten that message? Instead of getting that message and repenting, what are our lives like? We rise in the morning. We work through the days. We sleep out the nights. We relax through the weekends of our existence. We never do quite come to grips with that sadness within. We don’t ever truly deal with the suspicion that there is supposed more to life than this.

What is the message the Rich Man wants us to know before it is too late? If the Rich Man could speak to us today, what would he say?

I think the Rich Man would begin by urging us to open our eyes. “Take into your being as much as you can the greatness of God,” he would say. He might share with us about his life; his life wasted; his life unable to be gotten back. He would say, “Seize the moment. Know the world in all its grandeur. Get to know the world to come in all its mystery.” The Rich Man had fun in his life. He enjoyed what he did. But he spent so much time doing and enjoying, that he never found time to find God Who had created heaven and earth.

Our counter-culture friends of the 60s urged us to take the time to smell the roses. Today the Rich Man, eternally bound to hell, urges us to go beyond that. Go beyond the surface into an awareness of Him Who made the roses. He begs us, before it is too late, to let the reality of God penetrate our lives. Let it give us the depth and the excitement we dribble away with all of our “getting and spending.”

Then the Rich Man lowers his voice. He comes a little closer to us. “This God,” he says, “Who created heaven and earth, the God and Father of all, has a special set of friends.” He especially loves the have-nots of this world. Case in point? Here is the beggar Lazarus. In the eternal heavens, it is the beggar who rests comfortably in Abraham’s bosom.

But, we protest, doesn’t everyone know that? God loves the poor, the downtrodden, the weak and the powerless. We can find it everywhere in the Bible. We can start with “Blessed are the poor…” from the Beatitudes we sing each Sunday. Then we can say that we are those poor, too. After all, we pray every day for “our daily bread.” How could this Rich Man have never understood God’s love for all the poor? We are about to go on giving more examples from the Bible. But the Rich Man stops us.

“I knew all those words, too,” he confesses. “But I didn’t know what they all meant. But I do now. Pay attention to the people at your gate!” We know what he means. Day after day, the Rich Man walked through his gate. He saw poor Lazarus. He even sent him scraps of food. Why else would that miserable Lazarus return every day to the same spot? But for all that, Lazarus remained poor and hungry and sick. And he did so at the gate of one who had the power to change all that.

But at best, the Rich Man tolerated the presence of Lazarus. He never stopped to speak to him. He never tried to find out what was going on inside this poor man. He merely tossed him a crumb whenever he went in and out of his gate; a dollar here; a dollar there.

What if God had simply tolerated our poor existence here on earth? What if God merely walked by and tossed us a crumb every now and then? God did not do that. He became involved in our world. God became a human being like us. God knows in all ways just what it is like to be poor or sick or in pain. He Himself in the Person of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, lay at the gate of a world that hardly noticed His very existence.

In Christ’s story of the Rich Man and poor Lazarus the message is clear. Notice God. Take notice and take in the greatness of His majesty and glory in this world and in the world to come. Notice the poor at your gate. Become involved in the life of people like ourselves who need the presence of God and of His material and spiritual blessings.

Wilder’s play reminds us of the shortness of life. Today’s reading from the Holy Gospel reminds us to heed the warning signs now. For later will be too late.

Our Father in Christ John Chrysostom: “Let us flee from any resemblance to the Rich Man, let us hate his inhumanity. But let us covet the wisdom and patience of Lazarus. It was for this reason that this story is told: that we might not suffer the same fate as the Rich Man.” 

St. Athanasius of Alexandria was a fourth century Church Father. The fourth century was a time of conflict within the Church. Questions we being asked about church teaching. Who is Christ? Is Christ God? Why did Christ come to earth? The answer to most of those questions came in the Nicene Creed we sing at every Divine Liturgy. But, it was Bishop Athanasius who made a statement forever remembered as central to Orthodox teaching. He said: “God became man so that man could become God.” Our whole purpose in life is to become as god-like as He made us at Creation.

One way Orthodox remember that God became human in Christ is to show the image of Christ in icons. The Christ icon is the central icon of the church. The word “icon” means “image.” The purpose of Chrismation is to empower a person with the gift of the Holy Spirit in order to become like God. Chrismation begins the process of our selves becoming icons, images of Christ.

Why are icons such an important part of our spiritual lives?  It has much to do with what we remember today.  For today the Church calendar tells us is the Commemoration of the Holy Fathers of the 7th Ecumenical Council.  This was the last of the councils of the Fathers.  It convened in 787, over 1200 years ago.  The council decided a lot of things.  The most important was about icons.

If I asked one of the children to show me where Christ, our Lord, is in this church, what might he or she do?  Probably even a child would know to point to the icon of Christ.  The word “icon” means “image” or “picture.”  But that image is so much more than just a picture.  Here is a picture of Big Bird. I am sure you recognize him right away. The question I would ask is this. “Is it really Big Bird?”  The answer, of course, is “No!”  This is only a picture of Big Bird.

On the other hand, if I pointed to an icon of Christ, I could ask the same question.  Is this Christ, our Lord?  You might say, “No.  This is only a picture of Christ, our Lord.”  But that is not the right answer.  This is not just a picture of Christ, our Lord.  Our Church teaches us clearly that what we say to this image, what we do to it, how we act around it – all of those things pass directly to the person we see in this image.  Do you ever wonder why we kiss icons?  Or why the deacon and priest cense the icons so often in church?  The reason is that our love, our affection, our devotion, our adoration – all these things pass directly to our Lord when we kiss, cense or bow down to the icon.

Be that has not always been possible.  Almost 1300 hundred years ago, the emperor, Leo, made a law that declared icons illegal.  You could not own one.  You could not have one in church.  You had to destroy all of them.  Emperor Leo believed that people were worshiping pieces of wood.  For over one hundred years there were no icons in church.  Then all of the bishops got together.  They gathered at what has come to be called the 7th Ecumenical Council.  The Bishops prayed and studied the Bible and the Church Fathers.  They made a new law. Icons must be in the churches and homes of the faithful. This is what the bishops said in that Council.  God chose to become a human being, one of us. That God become human is Jesus Christ. Just so, we are to become like God, as Jesus Christ was as well. To help us, the Holy Orthodox Church requires that images of Christ and the Theotokos be placed in the churches. But also, images of people who have become God-like are to be there, too. We are to see God’s purpose in our life, as we see God’s purpose in the lives of Christ and the saints.

In the year 843, the icons were finally restored. The Icons we have here in our church are powerful visual messages that heaven is present right here on earth.  Icons are, as some have described them, windows through which we see heaven.  We can speak to Christ, to the Blessed Mother, to all the Saints when we pray with icons.  And they speak back to us, too. They are present with us in this holy place forever.

I have shared with you before of my experience with icons. It was 18 years ago this month that the icons on the wall of a monastic church in Greece spoke their powerful message to me. As I sat there with the eyes of Christ and the Saints looking down at me, I recognized them as friends I had known my whole life. I knew my place in God’s Holy Church in the Communion of Saints.  I knew my calling to the priesthood to be a genuine one.  That experience with icons is one of the strongest reasons that I stand before you here today.

But perhaps more importantly, the victory of the icons reminds us that we, too, are icons.  We are created in the image of God.  We are icons of God.  When people look at us they are to see God.  The high calling of everyone in this chapel today is to be an icon of God to the world.  We are to speak the message of God.  We are to show the love of God.  We are to become what God created us to be:  His very image. 

Now what happens if an icon gets dirty?  We carefully determine what has made it dirty.  And then we clean it!  And if I get dirty, that is, if I sin, as the image of God?  I carefully find out what I have done to make me dirty.  Then I take it to confession and, in front of the icon of Christ, I am carefully cleaned.  Then I can show myself again as God’s image. 

Today is the remembrance of the God-bearing Fathers who restored the icons to the Church.  May each of us become like them.  May others through us and the icons have a greater reverence and love for our Lord Jesus Christ, the Blessed Mother, the Holy Trinity, and the Saints.

"All religions are the same!" This is what many would have you believe these days. There is a popular effort by many to create one world religion by focusing on the things believed the same rather than the differences. So it is said: We all believe in some sort of afterlife. We all believe in some sort of higher power. We all believe that we should be loving and kind to one another. We all believe so many similar things. Thus the question: Why can't we all just get along? Why not just one world religion?

It is true. There are a lot of similarities between the various world religions. But there are also a lot of similarities between an apple and an orange. For that matter, there are a lot of similarities between an apple and a plastic apple. Yet one is real, and one is a fake. One is an apple; one is not. You discover this, not by focusing on the similarities, but by focusing on the differences. When comparing world religions, you cannot compare the similarities. If all you do is focus on the similarities, you will be forced to conclude that they are all the same. They are not. To discover truth, it is the differences that are important. In the differences truth is found.

Still, some Christians say, "So we have some major differences. Aren’t there some areas of agreement?” Our Gospel today directs us to what has been called the Golden rule. All religions hold to a Golden Rule. But none are like that which Christ declares. Christ’s Golden Rule goes above and beyond anything you will find anywhere else.

Hear this Golden Rule as Christ states it. And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise. For just a moment, listen to what other religions declare as the Golden Rule. Chinese Confucianism says, "Do not do to others what you would not like yourself" (Analects 12:2). Buddhism teaches, "Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful" (Udana-Varga 5,1). In the writings of Hindus, we read "Do nothing to others you would not have them do unto you" (Mahabharata 5,1517). Even the Jews put it similarly: "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellowman" (Talmud, Shabbat 3id).

Did you notice the vast difference between what all these religions teach and what Christ says in our Gospel? All of these other religions state the Golden Rule negatively. Do not do to others what you don't want them to do to you. If you don't like something done to you, don't do it to others. If we followed the Golden Rule of the world religions, it would only stop us from doing harmful things to others. We shouldn't steal, because we don't like it when others steal from us. We shouldn't lie to others, because we don't like to be lied to. We shouldn't hurt others, because we don't like to be hurt.

But what does Christ say? He says, "Do unto others, what you want them to do to you." This is not a negatively stated command, but it is positive. Christ goes way beyond just not doing bad things to others. Christ raises the bar. Now the Golden Rule is about doing good things for others. Sure, don't steal. Don't lie. Don't cheat. Don't hurt. But above and beyond that, give generously to others. Tell the truth when you could keep silent. Be honest. Help others who need help. Bless, and pray for others.

You may have noticed in the list of world religions I quoted that Islam was not among them. The Muslim religion is much in the news today. You may be curious to know what their version of the Golden Rule is. Surprisingly, it appears to be the closest of all to Christianity. According to their writings, a true Muslim must "desire for his brother that which he desires for himself" (Sunnah). This sounds remarkably close to Christianity. For unlike all the others, it is stated positively. But again, did you notice the vast difference between it and Christ's statement? Islam teaches that you only have to wish good for your brother, not actually do it as Christ says. Furthermore, you only have to wish this good on a brother. When it comes to the enemies and infidels of Islam? Perhaps you already know. They must convert or die.

How far above this is Christ's Golden Rule? First, not only are we to not do bad to others. Not only are we to wish good on others. We are to actually do good to them. And not just to our friends and relatives. We are to do good to our enemies as well. This is radically different than anything you will find anywhere else in all the world. It is a radical change from all religions, throughout all history. The very essence of Christian conduct consists not in keeping from bad things. The essence of Orthodox Christian conduct lies in actively doing good things. And then, there is even more. We do good not just for our friends, but for our enemies as well. No one dare say that Christianity is just like every other religion. It is not. Even in something as seemingly universal as the Golden Rule. No. Christ sets the standard much higher. The world has its standards. But those standards are not as high as Christ’s. If we want to make a difference in the world, we must be different than the world.

As a child of God, what makes you different from the world? What makes you more like God and less like the world? We could even go beyond what Jesus mentions here and talk about movies, music, behavior at work, attitude, handling of finances, treatment of family. As Christians, we often believe we're better than the world. But are we? We live according to the Golden Rule. Well, so do they. We love those who love us. Well, they do too. We give to those who give to us. Well, even sinners do that.

Christ says that as children of God, living by their Golden Rule is no longer good enough. We need to live by the Divine Rule. We must live by the Golden Rule of loving, giving and lending to our enemies. When we do this, no longer will people say that all religions of the world are the same. When we seek to be more and more God-like, the world will sit up and take notice. Yes, there is indeed something different about Christianity.

In today's Gospel reading, Christ comes upon several men who had been fishing all through the night. The hadn’t caught a thing. After spending some time teaching His message, Christ turned his attention to these fishermen. At Christ's request, they returned to their boats. Putting their faith in Christ's words, the fishermen once again let down their nets. They caught so many fish, they broke the net. There were enough fish to fill two boats. And those boats were so filled, they nearly sank. One of those fisherman was the future apostle Peter. Seeing this miraculous catch of fish, Peter confesses to the Lord his sinfulness. Christ responds that while they now catch fish, soon they shall be catching people.

Peter was no doubt an expert in fishing. After fishing all night and catching nothing, he disputed the possibility that any fish would be caught. Peter’s mastery of his occupation told him that to lower the nets again would be a waste of time. Nevertheless, our Lord commanded that he do it. And he did. Christ was teaching his followers that they must put their trust in Him. They must trust Him even when it seemed a waste of time. They must trust Him even when it seemed foolish. They must trust Him even if they thought they knew better. The obedience of these men to Christ command was rewarded by a huge catch of fish. The same Lord commands us, equally strongly, to put our trust in Him and to obey His commands. Sometimes that seems illogical to us. Sometimes we might want to dispute it. And yet that we must do. When, for example, illness overtakes us and puts us through pain and suffering. When life’s problems makes us doubt about our future, we must still look to Him. It is just then, this Gospel teaches us, that we are to place our trust unconditionally in Him. For only then can we believe that in our obedience, we shall eventually find our reward.

The clear message here is that though we try in our lives to accomplish certain things, and fail, we must never stop trying. We must never give up. Peter, after working all night, was ready to give up. He was ready to surrender to failure. But he did not, thanks to Christ's insistence. There are many who give up on prayer, on worship, on practicing the spiritual disciplines. Prayer is too long. Liturgy is boring and not entertaining. Why should I care for others when I need to care for myself? Giving in to these impulses is surrendering to failure. This Gospel is clear. Those who struggle on, despite all, can only triumph at the end. The Evil One never stops trying to tempt us by discouragement. We must not listen.

This well-known Gospel story tells us of the power of God. Very simply put, God does work miracles. The Old and New Testaments are filled with stories of the miracles of God. So also are the lives of the Saints. The history of the Christian peoples also records many miracles. Lives thought lost are saved. Suffering and distress are transformed into peace and abundance. Nations threatened by certain catastrophe are saved by God's intervention. To be sure, we are not promised rewards or miracles in this life. Sometimes we must wait until the next life. Nonetheless, the rewards are given. In today's Gospel, Christ rewards the faith of the fishermen with an abundant catch.

He also rewards them by making them His Apostles. And what is that reward? Our Lord says it simply. "From Henceforth you shall catch men." Peter, James, and John become Apostles. They spend the remainder of their lives winning people to the Church. Some blessing. These men are wrenched from a way of life they have known. They are removed from a life with which they seem reasonably comfortable. And they are given the task bringing whole nations into the Church. These are simple men, unrefined men, ignorant of worldly knowledge. Yet, Christ makes them leaders of His Church. The Gospel for today concludes, "having brought their ships to land, leaving all things, they followed Him." They followed Christ.

Now, none of these men received material rewards in this life for their trouble. Hardship, toil, hatred, violence, and finally death by martyrdom was the worldly price paid by these men for obedience to Christ. Yet, they obeyed. And they were rewarded with eternal life. They were crowned with martyr's crowns in the Kingdom of Heaven. They have been venerated by all the Faithful of the Church as Saints. And they will be so venerated until the end of time. How many people do you know are named Peter, James, Andrew John. The faithful of the Church remember the names of these Holy Apostles. They honor them and seek to imitate them in, their faithfulness to Christ.
Their sole object in life was to catch people in Christ's net so that those same people might be saved. They still catch men. St. Gregory the Theologian writes this. "The fishermen are Teachers of the Church, who catch us in the net of faith, and, as it were, bring us to the shore, to the land of the living."

We too, as simple Orthodox Christians, are called to catch others for Christ. Consider, for a moment, the state of the world around us. Consider this city we are in, and the cities and towns nearby. Consider the frightful nature of the world, of the overflowing cup of evil all around us. Consider the huge numbers of confused and frightened people, wandering aimlessly like frightened fish in the sea. Could they find peace and joy in the fullness in which we find Him in Orthodox Christianity. We need only lower our nets. That is what Christ tells us to do. And we can catch them for Him.

We lower our nets when we are kind, patient, and generous towards our neighbors. We lower our nets when we pray, keep the fasts, attend Liturgy, and remaining close to the Church. Finally, we lower our nets when we are not ashamed of Christ's Church by hiding it from those around us. We must be about sharing the beauty of Orthodoxy with others. Let each of us strive to follow in the footsteps of Peter, James, and John. For we, too, are called to become catchers of souls for Christ. Let each of us also put aside all those things that distract us from our real purpose in this life. Let us leave those things, as our Gospel says, and, like the Apostles, follow Christ.

It is said that when a certain African tribe hunts monkeys, they cut a coconut in two. Then they place an orange in the middle and then put the two halves back together.  Then they cut a hole in one half that is big enough for a monkey’s hand to go through. When the monkey smells the orange, he puts his hand in the hole. The monkey grabs the orange and then cannot free his hand with the orange in his fist. The hunters say that the monkey would refuse to let go of its “prize” even when the hunters came to catch it.

That monkey holding on to the orange in the face of death is just like you and me. We hold on to things of this world. We hold on tightly even though we risk our spiritual death on them.

About 200 years ago, the tomb of the emperor Charlemagne was opened. The sight that greeted the workmen startled them. They found his body in a sitting position. He was clothed in the most elaborate of royal garments, with a scepter in his bony hand. On his knee lay a Bible. Charlemagne’s cold, lifeless finger was pointing to Mark 8:36. "For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?"

Most people live too much in the world around us. We depend on the world for not just our food and health. But we also depend on the world for our entertainment, our fulfillment. We even depend on the world for our emotional needs. The world says we must be winners. And the world claims to supply us with all we need to be winners.

In order for us to become what we were created by God to be, however, we must become losers. We must actually lose ourselves in order to find our lives. Our Lord Christ says that he who loves his life loses it. He who hates his life will keep it. Of course, He was speaking about our eternal life.

A loser by our social standards is one who has failed to accomplish any relevant success or significance in his life. Losers are cast out. Losers are marginalized. But by God’s standards a loser is one who let go of the world. A loser in God’s eyes has totally dedicated his life to the will of Christ. The essence of Orthodox Christianity is about loss. It is about the Holy Cross. It is about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is not about you and me coming to Jesus just as I am or just as you are. It is about coming to Christ with less than we are now and giving ourselves over to change. It’s about losing our former lives and gaining a new life in Christ.

Losing our former life means to give up everything we are holding onto that might keep us from focusing totally on Him. It may be hard to realize that whatever it is we have that, you know, we would never give up, actually controls us. And if it controls us, we must give it up! Christ demands a sacrifice from each of us. That sacrifice is to leave the world and all the things in it that we want to cling to. That is the cost to be a real Christian. A life without sacrifice will accomplish nothing. The orange we hold onto can be anything in life that keeps us from true life in Christ. Whatever, that orange is, we must let go of it – for God’s sake.

There was a sign in a textile mill once that said, “When your thread becomes tangled, call the foreman.” A young woman was new on the job. Her thread became tangled and she thought she would straighten it out by herself. She tried, but the situation only got worse. Finally she called the foreman. She told him that she had done the best she could, and he said, “No you didn’t. If you would have done your best, you would have called me first.”

If we want to have the best life we can, we need to learn total dependence on God. And the one thing we must do before we can accomplish that is to humble our selves before Him. The mark of a real Christian is humility before Christ. It is allowing Christ to lead; no matter what direction it happens to be.

Today we hold high the Cross of Christ. The central symbol of our Orthodox Faith is held plainly for the entire world to see. And what do we see when we look at this Cross? We see a humbled, humiliated, executed Christ. We see One who, despite His own misgivings, gave up His life for the world. This is what He calls upon us to do as well. Christ went where His own Father told Him. Christ held on to no worldly oranges, refusing to let go.

The Tropar of the Cross that we have sung many times today, tells all. “O Lord, save Your people…” The word “save” actually means to heal, to make whole that which has been broken. Save us, O Lord, from holding on too long to the attractions of this world. “…and bless Your inheritance.” The word “bless” means “to speak well of.” When we, your chosen people, stand before the judgment seat, we ask that Christ bless us – that is speak well of us in judgment. May Christ say that we have given up our own lives and given them to Him. “Grant victories to all Orthodox Christians over their adversaries…” Give us victory in our struggles. Especially give us victory in our struggles with the world, the devil and the flesh. “And by the virtue of Your Cross, preserve your habitation.” Grant, O Lord, that with the Cross as center of our lives, our families, our homes, our country, our world will be safe.

O Lord, save Your people, and bless Your inheritance. Grant victories to all Orthodox people, over their adversaries. And by the virtue of Your Cross, preserve Your habitation.

The government of Polish Prime Minister Jaruzelski had ordered crosses removed from classroom walls. They had already been banned in factories, hospitals, and other public places. Local bishops attacked the ban. There were waves of anger and resentment all across Poland. Ultimately the government relented. They insisted that the law remain on the books. But they agreed not to press for removal of the crosses in the schoolrooms.

One Communist school administrator, however, decided that the law was the law. So one evening he had seven large crosses removed from lecture halls. These crosses had hung there since the school’s founding in the twenties. Days later, a group of parents entered the school and hung more crosses. The administrator promptly had these taken down as well.

The next day two-thirds of the school’s six hundred students staged a sit-in. When heavily armed riot police arrived, the students were forced into the streets. Then they marched, with crosses held high. They marched to a nearby church where they were joined by 2500 other students from nearby schools. There they prayed in support of the protest. Soldiers surrounded the church. At the same time, pictures from inside of students holding crosses high above their heads flashed around the world. So did the words of the priest who delivered the sermon. He spoke clearly. Everyone understood. "There is no Poland without a cross," he said.

In our Epistle today, St. Paul is coming to the end of his letter. He had been dictating it to his scribe. But now he takes the pen into his own hand. He restates what has been the central focus of the entire letter. He doesn’t conclude with a list of twelve important things to remember. Nor even three, like a good Orthodox preacher. No – he says that just one thing matters. It is the Cross of Jesus Christ

“God forbid that I should boast in anything, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Paul doesn’t boast in his religion. He doesn’t boast in his success as a missionary. He doesn’t boast in his status as an apostle in the church. No, he boasts only in the Cross of Jesus Christ.

For Paul the cross was not something to be ashamed of. He calls the Cross “the power of God for salvation” in his letter to the Romans. In the Roman world of his day, a cross was a reminder of defeat. It symbolized the harshest cruelty of the Roman Empire. It was the equivalent of the electric chair, or the gas chamber or any form of inhuman execution. For St. Paul, though the cross may have looked like defeat. But it is the instrument of victory. The Cross is victory over sin. The Cross is victory over the Satan. The Cross victory over the death and the grave.

Now St. Paul does not simply say that he accepts the message of the Cross. He doesn’t say that he can live with it. No, rather, St. Paul celebrates it. He boasts in it. The Cross is the centerpiece of his life. This blood-stained, hated Roman instrument of torture had become precious to him. The Cross was the place where St. Paul’s life had been transformed.

What finally counts, St Paul says in v. 15 is a new creation. And the source of that new creation? The cross is the source of the radical change that Paul calls "a new creation." Outward things are not enough. The Cross must cause a change from within.

London businessman Lindsay Clegg told the story of a warehouse property he was selling. The building had been empty for months and needed repairs. Vandals had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and strewn trash around the interior. One day he showed a prospective buyer the property. Clegg took pains to say that he would replace the broken windows. He would also bring in a crew to correct any structural damage, and clean out the garbage. "Forget about the repairs," the buyer said. "When I buy this place, I’m going to build something completely different. I don’t want the building. I want the site."

It is fashionable to spend much time and money to improve on the externals of our own lives. Spas, health clubs, weight reduction programs -- these are as trivial as sweeping a warehouse slated for the wrecking ball. What God wants is the site and the permission to build. And what will that new, renovated building look like? The new life that Christ wishes to work in us will be a life marked by right living. It will require cooperation on our part with what the Spirit means to do in us. And it will have its center in the Holy Cross.

After all, there is really only one thing that really matters in this life. And St. Paul is perfectly clear. “God forbid that I should boast of anything, except the Cross of Christ.” So this week we celebrate the Elevation, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. We serve that feast midweek, while today we anticipate it. Next Sunday we conclude the feast.

 As the hymn from Matins of the Cross says: “The Cross is the guardian of the whole world. The Cross is the support and staff of the faithful. The Cross is the beauty of the Church of Christ. The Cross is the mighty strength of kings. The Cross is the glory of angels and the wounding of demons.” May we boast in nothing else. Or to paraphrase the words of that Polish priest: “There is no life without the Cross.”

Today, as they say, is the first day of the rest of our lives. Today we take the step so longed for, so prayed for, so supported. Across the community, the diocese, and across the Orthodox community, many rejoice with us today. People of God, brothers and sisters, we’re here! Fourteen years of wandering and waiting are over. We’re here! Now some might think that the job is now finished. Well, let me be perfectly clear. As I just said, “today is the first day of the rest of our lives.” Though in some ways today is an end, in many others it is a beginning.

The missions’ commission, under the direction of our Dean, the Very Rev. Michael Rosco, has adopted a new theme for missions in our diocese. Taken from the popular movie “Field of Dreams” comes this theme.  “If you build it, they will come.” Well, brothers and sisters, we have built it. Will they come? Will people, Orthodox or otherwise come to St. Elizabeth now that we are built?  Will our own people who have waited so long for this day, continue to come? Or better, will they come more often? On this, the first day of the rest of our lives, let’s consider our mission. Let’s consider if, now that we have built it, they will come.

The first and most important thing to remember is that we do not bring anyone into the Church. That is not our job. We do not attract people to the faith. We do not convince people of the Truth. We don't do any of that. God is the One Who attracts people. God is the One Who brings them in the door. God convinces people of the Truth. God brings them to repentance. We do none of this.

Too often in the North American model of doing mission, the individual person is made responsible for doing God's task. More often than not, in trying to do God's work, we neglect our own. What then is our task? According to St. Seraphim of Sarov (19th century Russian monk and spiritual father), our task is the gaining of the Holy Spirit. Our task is the working out of our own salvation. Our task is to repent and weep for our sins. Our task is to enter the Kingdom of God. This more than anything else is what we must do. This is a mission task - indeed the primary mission task.

There are other quite specific mission tasks that belong to us. Remember that it is God who brings people to the door of the Church. Remember that it is God who convinces them that they should enter. However, we must keep the door to the Church open and visible. Hence, Orthodox mission must center on the Church. It must emphasize the beauty of the building. It must show forth the beauty of the services. It must make available as many of the services of the Orthodox Church as it can. Orthodox mission is served by beautiful icons. It is served by golden domes and crosses rising against the sky. Orthodox mission is served by the smell of incense and the pious and holy singing of the services. Orthodox mission is served by our visibility as Orthodox Christians in the world. By this I mean things like the clothing of the clergy (and in these days the modest and humble clothing of lay people as well). Orthodox visibility means making the sign of the cross as we pray at each juncture of our lives. When we begin and end a task – the sign of the Cross. Before eating and after finishing a meal – the sign of the Cross. When starting and ending a trip – the sign of the Cross. Orthodox mission is the keeping of icons in our homes, in our offices, in our cars. Orthodox mission is keeping the fast without excuses or compromises. Orthodox mission is setting our priorities to bypass the appeals of the world in order to be at divine services whenever they are held. Orthodox mission is denying ourselves and bearing our cross. Orthodox mission is keeping the door of the Church open and visible. Yes, the Holy Spirit is the One who draws the world to Himself. But it is you and I who keep the doors of the Church open and who welcome all who come.

The second specific task that we as Orthodox Christians have in our mission is the practical expression of God's love to the world. Orthodox mission is greeting visitors as they come to the Church. And then it means modeling for the visitors proper behavior and actions in the Church. That’s modeling – not teaching or correcting – modeling proper behavior in Church. Orthodox mission is hospitality offered – to share meals, to provide shelter and clothing as needed. Orthodox mission is to pray for our neighbor and to love our neighbor as ourself. Orthodox mission is going to a soup kitchen and serving there. Many of you know of the soup kitchen at St. John the Wonderworker in Atlanta. Fr. Jacob and his people are always seeking volunteers. Orthodox mission is giving to the poor without regard for "how the money will be used." Orthodox mission is visiting the sick in hospitals and praying for them. Orthodox mission is going to the prisons and offering comfort and kindness to the imprisoned. Orthodox mission is loving your enemies. Elder Silouan of Mt Athos says that this is the true mark of a Christian -- the love of one's enemies. Orthodox mission is loving your neighbor as yourself.

If we all did these things (and I for one fall short of all that I have just said) then our Church would be open. It would be filled with light and glory drawing all who see her by the grace and action of the Holy Spirit in their hearts. We don't have to preach on street corners. We don't have to have "events" or revivals or seminars as mission tools. Brothers and sisters, we simply have to be Orthodox Christians. We have to be the best Orthodox Christians we can be. And we must be Orthodox Christians without reservation or compromise. That is Orthodox mission.

Today is the first day of the rest of our lives. Let us be who we are and fill this church to overflowing, for the glory of God and for the salvation of the world.

"This is the way my heavenly Father too will deal with you; if you do not, each one, forgive your brother from your heart." (Matthew 18:35).

Plutarch was one of the most famous and prolific authors of antiquity. He was a historian and moralist. Plutarch lived 46-120 A.D. He wrote many books, and was a very popular author in the ancient world. Among other things, he wrote essays on proper behavior. Many of these essays have a great similarity to Christian teaching. Some say that Plutarch was influenced by the teaching of the Christian Gospel. After all, he lived at the same time as the Apostles. Perhaps Plutarch was influenced even by St. Paul.

One of Plutarch's essays was about the education of young people. In that essay, Plutarch told of something that happened to the great philosopher Socrates. One day Socrates was teaching in one of the public squares of Athens. A bold and rude young man was walking by. For no apparent reason, he kicked Socrates. Socrates said nothing. The youth ran away, for the crowd was quite upset with him. They protested to Socrates. Why didn’t he react? The philosopher calmly answered. "If a donkey kicks you, do you think that you gain anything by kicking the donkey back?"

The young man, as it happened, received his just punishment. The people of Athens began calling him Λακτιστην — the kicker. This nickname embarrassed the young man. In fact, he was so shamed that he finally took his own life. From this story, Plutarch concludes this teaching. He says this. “What makes a wise man and a philosopher is meekness. The wise man is unwilling to become angry.”

However wise the words of Socrates, they are but human wisdom. Socrates himself never insisted that his words be accepted as absolute truth. Socrates did not call people to himself. Socrates did not offer people relief from the burdens of life. Socrates asked questions. He provided moral guidelines. He was a good man who behaved well. He was much like other great champions of truth.

Now Socrates was a great philosopher. He, too, sought the truth. He was a great example of good living. But Socrates was not a god. He remains a man. Never did he say: "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Contrast the good man Socrates with Christ. Christ lived in history, yes. But He lives also today, and forever. Christ is not a dead figure of the past, lying dormant with the rest of human history. We don’t just remember his quotable quotes from a dead essay. No -- Christ lives. He is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. He is the center of history. Socrates spoke to people of earthly things. Christ invites us to come to Himself. Then He speaks to us of heavenly, eternal things. He speaks of a kingdom of life, beginning while this life is in progress. He speaks not of theories and possibilities, but with assurance, with authenticity. He speaks with authority. "Truly, truly I say to you." Thus the words of Christ are sure and to be followed.

But sometimes, Christ speaks in parables. These are stories that contain hidden meaning. They speak to the spirit. They speak to those who have ears to hear. One of these parables is related in today's Gospel. It is called the parable of the two debtors. One of these servants owed his employer 10,000 talents. In today's money, the sum is huge — $10 million. The second servant owed the first servant a hundred dinars — about $20. Compared to $10 million, $20 was nothing. The employer forgave the first servant the debt of $10 million. But this same servant could not find it in his heart to forgive his fellow servant the $20 debt. As we read, this servant had him thrown into prison until he could pay the $20. This parable of Christ surely shows us the way we really live.  We who have been forgiven so much by God remain unwilling to forgive others in the smallest matters.

How different life would be if people were very strict with themselves. And, at the same time, were very forgiving with others. The reality of life is that we are much more strict with others. And we are more willing to forgive ourselves. If we were strict with ourselves and lenient with others, life on earth would become like life in paradise.

Socrates here was right. Remember the Kicker in Plutarch’s essay? It is useless to fight fire with fire. Hatred does not cancel out hatred. A kick in response to a kick solves precisely nothing. It was Mahatma Gandhi who said, “An eye for an eye makes both blind.” Our obligation is to extend the love of Christ to those who owe something to us.

After all, we all owe God. We owe our very lives to Him. We owe Him all we own and all we have. We are told clearly that judgment will come upon us just as did judgment come upon this unforgiving servant. For that unforgiving servant was given over to the torturers until he could pay every penny. This is a picture of future judgment.

May we, trusting in the love and forgiveness of God, learn to forgive and love one another from our hearts.

St. Gregory the Theologian says that as Christians we undergo three births. The first is our physical birth. That is when we are born into the life of this world. The second is our baptism. That is when we are reborn through water and the Holy Spirit as members of the body of Christ. The third birth is the resurrection. That is when all of us hope to be born anew into the Kingdom of Heaven. Last Monday we celebrated the glorious feast of the falling asleep, the dormition, of the most holy Mother of God. It is the day we celebrated her new birth into the resurrection.

The icon of the feast shows what happened. We know that the Theotokos carried our Lord Jesus Christ in her womb. In this she became "more spacious than the heavens," since her womb was the dwelling place of God. The icon known as “more Spacious” is found at the front of most every Orthodox Church. We know that the Blessed Mother held Jesus in her arms. She fed Him with milk from her breasts. She nurtured, protected, and cared for Him throughout His childhood. We know that she shared the horrible pain of His crucifixion. And, as well, she shared the glorious joy of His resurrection. Jesus gave her as mother to His beloved disciple, St. John the Theologian. And we know that she had an honored place at the heart of the earliest Church.

After her falling asleep, she is seated beside her Divine Son in heaven and shares His radiant life. She is "more honorable than the cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the seraphim." She extends her motherly care, protection, and help to all of God's people. And she prays for us continually before the Lord. She is always present with us. She is ready to listen with compassionate love. For all of this we are most thankful.

But at the time of her dormition, she has to face death, as even her Son did before her. It may have been a fearful time for her. It surely will be for us. She has to leap into the dark, to enter into a mode of existence that is until now unknown to her. She has to let go and give up finally everything she has known of this world. She, as we, must give up everything good and beautiful that we have loved in God's earthly creation. Finally, she has to give up entirely her own life, the control of her own mind and body. But, the Mother of God knew that her Son is risen from the dead. She knew that He is always with her. Thus, the prospect of death was as the entrance to a full life with Her Son.

The icon shows us that the Holy Mother enters the Kingdom of Heaven as a little child. In complete humility and complete trust, she gives up her life into the hands of her Son. He stands at the center, in the glory of His resurrection. He holds her in His arms as a baby. He enfolds her in His own risen life. In a remarkable way, their roles have been reversed. She gave birth to Him in the flesh. Now He brings her to birth in the eternal Kingdom.
Like the Theotokos, all of us have to approach God as little children. Whatever our achievements, whatever our growth in the Spirit, we are still God's children. Like her, we have to face the unknown. Sooner or later we have to accept a radical loss of control over our own existence. We have to accept that our life is a gift from God. It does not belong to us. We need to prepare ourselves to offer our whole being back to God at the time of our own death. We must be thankful to Him for the life He has given us. We must be prepared to entrust ourselves to the Lord who creates and sustains our life.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Bridegroom of the Church. He is also the Nurturer and Life-giver. His love is a complete and all-encompassing. St. Clement of Alexandria was a second century bishop. He said that as Christians we are children. Christ Himself provides all the care we need. He serves as the Father. He is the Caregiver, and Guide, the Teacher. He is also the Mother and the Nurturer. His agony on the Cross is the labor pain by which He brings us forth into the resurrection. He also feeds us with His own Body and Blood, which St. Clement identifies with milk. When a mother nurses her baby, she gives it life from her own body. In a similar way, Christ gives us His own life as nourishment in the Holy Communion.

Throughout history, many of the saints and fathers of the Church have recognized that Christ loves us with a mother's love as well as a father's love. One of the more recent examples is St. Silouan the Athonite who died in 1938. He was a monk and spiritual father on Mt. Athos. “The Lord,” says St. Silouan, “is a merciful Creator. He has compassion for all. The Lord pities all sinners as a mother is compassionate with her children even when they take the wrong path. Where there is no love for enemies and sinners, the Spirit of the Lord is missing.”
 
Inside each one of us there is a child who needs to be loved and nurtured. We live in a harsh world that often seems empty and without love. Some people have lost their mothers in childhood. Some have been separated from them. Some were never truly loved by their mothers. Such losses leave deep wounds at the core of a child's being. That wound continues to be painful in adulthood. In these situations especially, we need motherly care and nurturing from the Theotokos and from her Son. When we ask them and open our hearts to them, they are more than happy to grant us this priceless gift. This may be an important step toward wholeness and the abundant life that Christ promised.

So let us during this feast of the Dormition give thanks for God's love. Let us honor the ever-virgin Mother of God. And let us glorify the Most Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and forever. Amen.

Today’s Gospel follows up on last week’s. Jesus had just fed a great crowd with five loaves and two fishes. We are told that the people looked at Him as the potential for a king. They wanted a military commander who could crush Rome. When St. John tells this story, he comes right to the point.  He says that the crowd tried to make Him a king. Because of that, Jesus left. 

And what does He do?  He goes up in a mountain apart to pray. Of course, this is our great example. When we are showered with good things, what do we do? Few, I would suppose, go off to pray about it. But Jesus does. While He's praying the disciples are in the boat. The boat stands for the Church. The boat keeps us safe from the waves and the storms of life. That is, if you stay in the boat.  If you leave the boat you may drown.  The boat is the life in the Church.  Everything that has to do with life is the mind of Christ. That is the point of our life. “Have the mind of Christ,” is what St. Paul says. If you don't have this mind, you’ve stepped out of the boat. 

Now the disciples were in the boat and Christ was on the mountain praying. Christ comes to them walking on the water. Of course, they are afraid. Now comes the test. The disciples were in the boat.  Their lives were safe, so they thought. Remember that the boat symbolizes the Church. There is safety here. There is danger if they were to leave the boat.  So they see Christ and Peter says "Lord if it's You, bid me to come."  There is a problem with that.  Peter had the best of intentions. But he failed to recognize what he mind find outside the boat. When he got out of the boat He, like Christ, walked on the water just fine. That is, until he saw the wind. The wind stands for things in life that make us afraid.  Peter saw, as it were, the struggles of life.  He became afraid.  How many of us are afraid when we see the wind when we have struggles in life that we're not quite able to conquer?  Or we find those things that we are attached to. We know better than to stay attached to them. But we struggle to say upright. We don’t even think of turning around. We don’t seek the safety of the Church. We struggle on; sure we can walk on the water if only we try harder!

God reveals Himself to us.  We must respond.  We must not just be like the stump of the tree or a rock – not listening, not changing.  If we are changing then we are Christian. If we genuinely struggle, we have come to know Orthodoxy.  For we must struggle until the end of our days.  For some, I think, this is a hard saying – to struggle until the end.  We don't like struggle. We don't like to work very hard, especially at religion.  We don't even like to spend more than two minutes waiting for our hamburger at the restaurant.  We're a very impatient people, unwilling to endure much.  This is a problem. If we don't endure there is no salvation.
We are told that Jesus came walking on the water in the fourth watch. This is the last watch of the day. He comes not in the second, not in the first or the third watch. He comes at the end of time. Thus we must endure until the end. 

So Peter goes out of the boat. He steps out into life on his own. “Lord, if it's you bid me to go on the waves!” And, of course, what happens? He starts to sink. This will happen to Peter again. Think of Peter’s later three-fold denial of Christ. Peter had been full of faith. Peter had raised his sword in the Garden in defense of Christ. He had cut off the ear of the High Priest’s servant. But – a very short time later, he denied Christ three times. 

So there he is, Peter, standing in the sea of life, on the water – just like Jesus Himself. Was there a moment of pride for Peter? He was walking on the sea. He was just like Christ! But then Peter became aware of the wind. And then he begins to sink! Just when we are puffed up with the personal pride of accomplishment, something else comes along. “There’s always something,” we like to say. On the sea, the wind rarely stops blowing.

Remember the last time the wind was a problem on the sea for the disciples in the boat? They awoke a sleeping Jesus because they were afraid. What did Jesus do? He calmed the wind and the waves, and they all returned safely to shore.  What about this time? What did our Lord do for Peter sinking into the sea? We are told that Jesus did not calm the wind. He took Peter by His hand. “O you of little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt?” Jesus did not calm the wind.  And it was only when they finally got into the boat that the wind stopped.

Christ allows the problems and storms of life to confront us – even to make us afraid. Christ takes us by the hand. But where does He lead us? He does not take us through the storms of life, walking on water for all to see. No. He returns to the boat with us. There the winds cease. He takes us back into the church. Here the storms of life cannot make us afraid. Here we find comfort, peace and the worship of Him who is “truly the Son of God.”

Just as Peter will say “I will never deny you” so he says on the sea, “Bid me come on the water.” Just as Peter did deny Christ, and did start sinking into the sea, So Christ does not let Peter drown, nor punish him for his denial. On the shores of the sea, after His Resurrection, Christ takes care of this all. “Peter,” Jesus asks, three times, “do you love me?” Peter there finds love, peace and forgiveness from Christ.

This is the story of how the Church works. No matter what the winds of life threaten. Stay in the boat.

There are rare times in the Bible where the tremendous glory of the Trinity was revealed directly to human beings. Most of the time God's glory was revealed in more subtle ways. Most often it was in miracles or wise teachings. Matthew 17:1-9 is the appointed Gospel for the feast of the Transfiguration.
 
And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain apart. And he was transfigured before them. And his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Eli'jah, talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is well that we are here. If you wish, I will make three booths here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Eli'jah." He was still speaking, when lo, a bright cloud overshadowed them. And a voice from the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him." When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces, and were filled with awe. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Rise, and have no fear." And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them. "Tell no one the vision, until the Son of man is raised from the dead."

The Orthodox Study Bible describes this event as, "the demonstration that Jesus is the Lord of glory despite the fact that he will later suffer and die on the cross." It is a foreshadowing of the Risen Lord. I guess you could say that the experience the apostles had on the mountain was a break from all the madness of the world. It was a brief, but important, encounter with God's glory, and His plan for all people.

The transfiguration of Jesus revealed to his closest disciples the heavenly change to glory that awaits all the saints of Christ. The Holy Apostle Peter later would write that the Transfiguration proves that Christianity is more than just another religion. Christianity is about the power and glory of the Son of God. But Peter was not the only one to ever see the glory of God.

Moses was a great man of God. He was a hero to the Hebrews. Yet, Moses wasn't even allowed to set foot in the Promised Land. But he still saw God face to face. Moses once told the Lord, "I have never been eloquent, neither now or in the past. For I am slow of speech and slow of tongue." This does not sound like the type of person God would choose to meet face to face. But despite Moses' failings as a human being, he experienced God's glory.

Peter, James, and John, who witnessed the transfiguration, all had their faults too. Peter denied Jesus when the going got rough. Peter wasn't the brightest star in the sky either. The Gospel authors seem to poke fun at Peter for his many mishaps. The truth is that any one of our names could be placed within the gospels in place of Peter's. It comes as a relief to me to find that even the future "rock" of the church was as plagued by confusion and doubt as we are. Yet to Peter was revealed God's glory.

James and John had their problems too. They woefully misunderstood the Kingdom when they asked to be Jesus' right and left hand men once the Kingdom came. They were probably just as slow as poor Peter. Yet they too saw the Glory of God. The point is that you don't have to be perfect to experience God. You only need to be willing to follow.

I believe there is great comfort in the Transfiguration. There is comfort in the future glory that the Transfiguration has revealed to us. This glory is our hope. Peter probably died around 67 AD. According to church tradition he was crucified upside-down. He said that he was not worthy to be crucified the same way his Lord was. His life was probably neither fun nor productive by today's standards. He was poor and a member of an outcast religion. He was most likely either misunderstood or despised by the majority of people he came in contact with, both in the Jewish and Roman worlds.

Yet he and many other followers of Christ were willing to die for Him. The experience on that mountain probably sat in Peter's mind throughout all of the persecutions he endured. Perhaps he could vividly recall it any time he wanted to. Perhaps even as Peter was hanging upside-down, he had a good vision of what awaited him after he took his final breath.

I don't think that many will ever see God's glory the way Peter did. However, through the Holy Spirit, there are still many ways to witness and know the same Lord of glory. We can do this through the mystery of the body and the blood. We can do this through prayer. We can do this through the Divine Liturgy, through observing the church calendar, or by simply reading the Bible. I often see God's glory in nature, through his wonderful creation.

I also see God's glory through other people. I see them through amazing folks like you. You who have patiently waited so long for this mission to have a home.  God’s glory is all around us. Let those who have eyes see it! Let those who have ears hear it! May the glory of Transfiguration be fixed in your mind, so that you, too, may carry it into the glory of the life to come!

In 1953, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were put on trial for treason against the United States. The trial was a long and bitter one. In the end the sentence was death. When it was pronounced, the lawyer for the Rosenbergs cried out, "Your Honor, what my clients ask for is justice!"  The Judge replied, "What the court has given them is what they ask, ¬ justice! What they really want is mercy. But mercy is something this court has no right to give them."  The Judge was right.  The only One who has the right to give mercy is God.
 
This is brought out in many Gospel readings. In the story of the Pharisee and the Publican, the publican prayed. "God, be merciful to me the sinner." His only plea was for mercy, Hospodi pumiloj!   One of the most beautiful examples of God's mercy is the prodigal son.  Here is a young boy who leaves home.  He wastes all his father's resources in sin.  He ends up living with pigs.  He suddenly remembers his father and repents.  He then returns home.  There he is embraced by his waiting father.  The father declares a feast to celebrate his return.  The father pictures God.  The action of the father is God's mercy.

Psalm 50 is ¬one of the most used psalms in Orthodox worship services. The Priest recites Psalm 50 while he does the incensing.  In this Psalm, David asks God's mercy for his sins.  He proclaims that God's steadfast love and mercy are greater than the sins of His creatures. "Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast love. According to Thy abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin."

In the liturgy one of the most repeated words is the prayer Lord, have mercy. It is repeated again and again.  Sometimes, ten, twelve, thirty, forty, or a hundred times.  St. Symeon of Thessaloniki writes this about the Lord, have mercy prayer. “We should not ask for anything except for mercy.  (For) we have neither boldness nor access to offer anything as our own.  So as sinners and condemned through sin we cannot, nor dare not, say anything to our Loving Master except 'have mercy.' "

The word mercy in English is the translation of the Greek word eleos. This word has the same root as the old Greek word for oil, or more precisely, olive oil.  Olive oil has been used for centuries as a healing agent. The oil was poured onto the wound and gently massaged in.  The oil soothed, comforted and made whole the injured part.  To say “Lord, have mercy” is to say, “Lord, soothe me.  Lord, comfort me.  Lord, take away my pain.  Lord, show me your steadfast love.”  Thus mercy does not refer to justice.  For justice refers to receiving what is due.  Justice means that the punishment fits the crime.  Mercy does not mean punishment.  Mercy refers to the infinite loving-kindness of God.  Mercy points to God’s compassion for his suffering children! It is in this sense that we pray “Lord, have mercy,” with great frequency throughout the Divine Liturgy.

Think of the people who approached Jesus with this simple prayer, "Lord, have mercy."  There was the Canaanite woman whose daughter was tormented by a devil. She persisted in her plea for mercy until her daughter was healed.  There was a man whose son was possessed by an evil spirit that threw him into the fire. He came to Jesus with the plea Lord, have mercy! The prayer was answered and his son was healed.  And in today’s Gospel, the two blind men sitting by the road outside Jericho cried out to Jesus, “Have mercy!” That cry was heard by Jesus who healed both of them.

In all these instances Lord, have mercy was not a prayer that people recited unthinkingly and mechanically.  It was a cry of sincere faith that came from their hearts.  It was a cry of desperate need and dependence on Christ.  Such a prayer God will not despise.

The story is told of a mother pleading with Napoleon to spare her condemned son's life. The emperor said the crime was dreadful. Justice demanded his life. "Sir," sobbed the mother, "Not justice, but mercy." "He does not deserve mercy," was the answer. "But, sir, if he deserved it, it would not be mercy," said the mother. "Ah yes, how true," said Napoleon. "I will have mercy."

We dare not stand before the throne of God and ask that we be given what we deserve. Our only cry is, "Lord, have mercy." And the miracle is that there is mercy. At the very heart of the universe beats the heart of God's love. "I tell you," said Jesus about the publican, "this man went down to his house justified rather than the other."

"Even if we reach the summit of virtue, we are saved only by God's mercy," said St. John Chrysostom.

A dying Christian was asked on his death bed, "Are you going to receive your reward?" "No, no!" he breathed. "I go to receive not my reward but God's mercy."

Hear this prayer from the Lenten Triodion.  "As the Prodigal Son I come to Thee, merciful Lord. I have wasted my whole life in a foreign land.  I have scattered the wealth which Thou gavest me, O Father. Receive me in repentance, O God, and have mercy upon me."
 

In 1990 a 32-year-old psychiatric patient rushed through the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam.  He ran until he reached Rembrandt’s famous painting, "Nightwatch." Then he took out a squirt gun filled with acid.  He sprayed the acid all over the masterpiece before he could be stopped.  He was caught, of course.  But what do you think happened to the painting?  Did the curators throw it out and forget about it? Of course not! The museum used the best experts.  The experts worked with the utmost care and precision.  They made every effort to restore the treasure.
 
God’s masterpiece was His creation.  His crowning achievement was us.  By our own misguided actions, we have damaged His masterpiece.  We have marred the beautiful image of Himself.  But He was not content to throw us out, or even to leave us damaged.  Rather He has chosen to provide us with the opportunity to reverse the effects of death that our sin has brought upon us.

In the miracle story of today’s reading from the Gospels, Christ is very clear.  He has the power and the desire to reverse the course of death in our lives.  And He has the power to reverse it completely and finally. Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Christ saw their faith, he said to the paralytic. "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”  When sin entered the created world, it brought with it death.  From that time on symptoms of death were all around us. 

And what is the human response?  We do whatever we can to deny those symptoms.  We do what we can to avoid death at all costs.  How do we do that? Many times we choose to act out on things that make us feel good.  For example, we choose to eat whatever we want whenever we want.  We like to call that a way to deal with “stress.”  “Stress” is a symptom of sin and death in the world.  Some choose to sleep in on Sunday.  Others spend Sunday morning reading the AJC or New York Times.  What is excess sleep and choice of worldly pleasure over the Church of God?  They are symptoms of sin and death in the world.  We choose that which makes us feel good.  That way we think that we don’t have to worry about the symptoms of sin and death that we see all around us.

Remember that for Adam and Eve, life meant “walking with God in the cool of the day.” Life was perfect.  Life was perfect communion with God.  But the choice to do what God had forbidden Adam to do – that is what introduced death. And there was nothing Adam or anyone, except God Himself, could do about it.

In the case of the paralyzed man in today’s Gospel, our Father in Christ John Chrysostom suggests that his paralysis symbolizes that human inability.  It is that we are unable, on our own, to overcome death and all of its symptoms.  We are as helpless as this man lying on a mat.  Christ offers the only help that could possibly work.  And what does he say?  Does he say, “I will heal your paralysis and make you feel good”?  No.  What he says is amazing. "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” 

Christ looks at the man whose obvious affliction was a paralyzed body.  But what Christ sees is a paralyzed will.  Take heart, Christ says, your sins are forgiven.  Therein is the power to overcome the effects of death that sin has brought on.  Your sins are forgiven.  What power!  What power has been given to the Holy Church‘s priesthood to offer even to every one of you that your sins are forgiven.  What power is available for you knowing that your sins are forgiven.  For, your sins being forgiven, now your paralyzed hearts can seek once again to “walk with God in the cool of the day.”

At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, "This fellow is blaspheming!" Knowing their thoughts, Christ said, "Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ’Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ’Get up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." Then he said to the paralytic, "Get up, take your mat and go home."

Human sickness was not part of God’s original plan for mankind.  Human illness is a brokenness that resulted from the entering of death into God’s perfect creation.  Christ did not come to this paralyzed man just to cure his bodily illness.  Rather, Christ offered to the man forgiveness of his sins.  Christ cured the paralyzed man of his illness because those who were watching Christ forgive sins thought Christ was blaspheming.  “How,” they thought, “could a mere man forgive sin?” they thought, with evil in their hearts.  And to show the onlookers that He was not a mere man, but did have the power to forgive sin, Christ cured the paralyzed man.
 
And here is a foretaste of the resurrection.  In the resurrection there will be no sickness, no pain and no tears.  And each time in the Gospels that Christ heals it is a foretaste of resurrection.  It was a foretaste of resurrection on that day with the man on his mat.  It is for us each time we, having come to confession, receive the forgiveness of our sins.  For there our bad choices are forgotten by God.  And we are renewed in our ability to make the choice to “walk with God in the cool of the day.”

What happened here this morning? A little water. Some oil. A few words. What happened? What happened was an absolute miracle. This is what happened to Emma-Catherine Page. It is what happened to each of us when we were baptized.

Through baptism God adopts us as His own sons and daughters. He makes us heirs of all His riches. He makes us members of His family. As members of God's family we are all related to each other and responsible for each other. Yet baptism is more than all of this. Through baptism we are attached to Christ. We become members of His body. Each baptized Christian becomes an extension of Christ. We become other Christs in the world. We become His eyes, His hands, His tongue, His feet. Christ has chosen to work in the world through us – the members of His body. It is our special responsibility as baptized Christians to let Christ be present wherever we ourselves are stationed in the world as baptized Christians.

Christ has made Himself dependent on us to do His work in the world today. To quote St. John Chrysostom, “Christ is the head of the Church, but what can the head do without hands, without feet, without eyes, without ears, without tongue?” You saw in the baptism that parts of the body are anointed with the sign of the cross to signify that they are now dedicated to serve Him since they are members of His Body. Baptism is the sacrament of belonging. So, first of all, what happened? Emma-Catherine, like you and I have been made Christian – that is, little Christs to do His work in this world.

After all, St. Paul says, “You are not your own, you are bought with a price, so glorify God in your body.” God doesn't rent you. He buys you. He holds title to you. He owns you. Through baptism you become His child. And when God adopts you as His child, He does so for a purpose. He has a plan for you. Yes, you are saved from sin. But, you are saved for service, for love, for good works, for enlarging the kingdom. Your life has real worth and meaning. “I know My sheep,” said Jesus. “And nobody can pluck them out of my hand.”

Following baptism you are God's property. You have the authority to say to the devil, “Take your hands off me. I don't belong to you. I belong to God. I am His property. You have no claim over me. I renounce you!”

What happened here was the creation of the new person in Christ. It is to be born anew of water and the Spirit. Each one of us had nothing to do with our physical birth. Physical birth is a great gift of God which He brought about through our parents. This first birth was a birth of the flesh. My second birth, the “born-anew” birth, was also something with which we had nothing to do. It also was a gift of God. It has been given to us by God's grace at the baptismal font.

Through baptism we “put on Christ.” This has tremendous implications. If we have put on Christ, then we have put on His love, His forgiveness, His peace, His joy. If we have put on Christ, we have put on His servanthood: “If I your Lord and Master have washed your feet, then you also ought to wash one another's feet.” If we have put on Christ, then we shall suffer as Christ suffered. We shall be persecuted for the truth as Christ was persecuted. If we have put on Christ, we shall be resurrected as Jesus was. We shall be glorified as Christ was glorified. We shall ascend to the Father as He ascended to the Father. We shall sit at the right hand of the Father with Christ. We shall partake of His divine nature and share in His life and glory.

However, all of this is not automatic. It is not magic. It is not mere belonging to the Church that saves. It is, finally, the acceptance of the Spirit of Christ. St. Peter said, “Repent, and every one of you must be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” To become truly a Christian, one must agree freely to be converted, to repent, to turn to Christ, and accept His Holy Spirit. As Emma-Catherine becomes aware of faith in Jesus Christ, she will look back. She will realize that something or someone led her to this act of faith. Eventually, he or she will realize that it all began at the baptismal font. It all began when God came to her. At that moment she will have to make a personal response to God. The baptized must choose to be what he or she has become in baptism.

The new life, initiated by baptism and sustained by the Holy Communion, becomes the way to follow as one walks through this world. This means that salvation is not instant. It begins on the day of our baptism and chrismation. It begins when we renounce the devil, receive Christ, and accept the gift of the Holy Spirit. From that moment we begin a process of slow spiritual growth. Thus there is no end to baptism. It is an ongoing, a lifelong journey. The sins committed following baptism also need to be washed away by water. But that water is the water of our tears, the tears of repentance. As we renounced the evil one in baptism and united ourselves to Christ, so we need to keep saying “yes” to Jesus and “no” to Satan many times each day as we go through life.

What happened today has already happened to you. Be what Emma-Catherine has become. Be what you have already become. Be Christ to the world.

Do you trust your doctor? We usually trust our doctors to give us the correct diagnosis for what ails us. But sometimes they are only making an educated guess at what is wrong. People generally have complete faith in their doctor’s judgment. And if you lose that faith? You just change doctors.

Do you trust a policeman? We trust our police officers to enforce the laws and make a safe environment for us to live in and to raise our families. How surprised we are when we discover that the police officer might be human. How we are taken aback when we find a police officer might make mistakes. How shocked we may be when the policeman becomes the criminal. After all the police officer is suppose to be protecting us from criminals. How devastated are we when we discover that our doctor is human and makes mistakes. Sometimes we put our trust in humans and sometimes that trust is let down. Humans often fail to meet our expectations. But we often blindly put our trust in them.

A few weeks ago there was an article in the newspaper about a high school freshman as she prepares for a track meet. With shoulder length brown hair, she looks like most runners her own age. She is thin, focused, intent on the race ahead. Undistracted, her face turned downward, she holds one hand at her right ear. A tiny radio is attached to her waist. Nearby her father speaks into a small transmitter.
The ordinary looking girl runs both the 100 and 200 meter dashes for her high school track team. She is almost totally blind. How does she do it? How does she line up with a group of healthy, sighted teens and dash for a finish line she cannot see? By radio.

Natalie runs with a single earpiece in her right ear. Her father’s voice comes through the tiny earpiece. She hears the course corrections he gives her from the sidelines. With nothing more than trust, and her father’s verbal directions, this blind high schooler runs at full speed toward a goal she cannot see. She runs with competitors she can only hear. She runs over obstacles she can only imagine.

Hers is a perfect picture of our race with Christ. For us, the Holy Spirit directs our race. We face challenges we cannot see. We race for a goal we can only imagine. Though we don’t hear our coach through a radio earpiece, the Lord promises over and over that he will guide us in our race for the finish line. He will direct us. We will hear our Heavenly Father’s voice. We must trust, as blindly as that high school track star does, the whispering in our spiritual ears. We must trust and respond. Change course. Run the race. Your Father is whispering in your ear.

We hear today in the Gospel of the faith of a Roman centurion. He, too, had a faith in something that was unseen. He had only heard about Jesus and what He was doing but he still believed that Jesus could heal his servant even without coming to his home. He recognized that there was something unique about Jesus and His message. He even saw the truth in Jesus’ message by the miracles that He had already performed. He believed not because of what he had seen Jesus do but what he had heard about Jesus and His ability. How hard is it for us to believe something unless we can see with our own eyes? How many of us today would believe that Jesus could heal the sick and cure the lame if He was walking the earth today? But the centurion did. He put aside all the doubts and came to Jesus asking in complete faith that Jesus could do what He wanted to do.

The story is told about a priest at a church in the British Isles. The church was heavily in debt. One day a perfect stranger came to the priest’s office. He said that he was aware of the church’s financial problems and offered to help. He put a blank check on the priest’s desk and promised to come back later and sign it. The priest couldn’t believe what was happening. After the man left, he began to study the situation. "This can’t possibly be true. Does this man realize that our debt is thousands of pounds? I don’t think he would pay it in full, if he knew. Yet he told me to make the check out for the full amount. But that would be taking advantage of him. I’ll make it out for half." After a great deal of thought, that’s what he did.

When the stranger returned, he signed the check with no hesitation whatsoever. He obviously had meant what he said. The church’s benefactor was actually a well-known philanthropist. When the priest realized who he was and that he was fully capable of paying the debt in full, he wished he had made out the check for the entire amount the church owed. How many of us receive only half the benefit we might – if we only trusted the promises of God?

The Centurion in today’s Gospel had a trust that was complete. He did not just believe a little bit. The centurion realized that all Jesus had to do was to speak and it would be done. The Centurion knew that Jesus did not require to be in the presence on the one sick to accomplish the healing. I probably would have wanted Jesus to come home with me so I could be sure the sickness was healed. You know, just in case.  The centurion had no such doubt.

An early Church Father wrote this. “Feeling himself unworthy that Christ should come into his home, he was worthy that the Lord should find a place in his heart. This was a vastly greater gift. For Christ entered many homes. … But the centurion received Him in his heart Whom he did not receive into his home. He showed his firm faith in the Lord as an omnipotent Wonderworker. He showed his firm faith in the Lord that one word was enough to cure his sick servant.”

“Speak the word,” the centurion said to Christ. We pray that Christ will speak the word to us. Is our faith strong enough to hear it? To accept it?

I just don’t know if I can do it. I had such high hopes that our church would be completely finished by now. Now I don’t know if it will be September before we can open. I am concerned about our members who are not well. I think of all the losses I have had in the past few years. I wonder who is next?

Worry, worry, worry. I am sure you’ve seen the TV commercial with the dog so worried about his bone. So many things to worry about. There is no way to eliminate the problems that are the source of worry. In certain sections of France, the poor people wear wooden shoes. “Sabot” is the French word for such shoes. “Sabotage” means to throw a wooden shoe into some machinery to stop it. In our language, it means any attempt to hinder progress or ruin a product.

Worry is a wooden shoe. It is a wooden shoe that the demons throw into our lives to keep us from trusting our Father who art in heaven. Worry is a form of spiritual sabotage. It paralyzes the spirit. It sours the mood. Our Lord Jesus Christ was fully aware of it. From our Gospel today: “Do not be anxious about your life. … Your Father knows what you need.”

Christ is not asking us to be lazy or uncaring. He wants us simply to trust our Father. “Watch out for the wooden shoes! Down with the saboteurs!” After all, why worry? Why be troubled about the needs of this life? If God takes care of the birds of the sky, why would He not care for you? You—human being—are the crown of His creation. Trust in the promise of God.

Just where does your help come from, after all? Just what are any of us able to do without God’s help? Do you really believe what St. Paul says? He says, “All things work together for good to those who love God.” How good a relationship with God do you have? The closer you become, the more you know it. God has knowledge and help for you. He has every answer to injury, need, temptation, and every wooden shoe that has ever sabotaged your life.

“Consider the lilies of the field,” Jesus says. “…will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” Our Lord Christ goes so far as to say that if you are troubled about virtually anything – you are actually denying your faith. After all, prayer and relationship with God is putting faith into practice. Worry is a denial of God and your trust in Him. Prayer is putting your hand in God’s. It is letting Him lead and guide you. Worry is taking away your hand. Worry is trying to do it on your own. If prayer rules your life, God speaks the last word. If worry rules it, you go it alone.

A gastric specialist at the Mayo clinic once said that 80% of all stomach disorders are not organic. They are functional. This is what he said. “It is my experience that faith is more important than food in the cure of stomach disorders.” I clearly remember a sermon I heard at seminary. The preacher was clear. Worry, he said, was wickedness. Worry is atheism. Worry says that God has given up and left everything to our own made-up answers about life.

Jesus goes on. “Seek first the Kingdom of God…and all these things will be added to you.” It is told about a family that made a vacation trip to the Rocky Mountains. During that trip, feeling the need to be alone, Dad decided to take off on his own. He started hiking on one of the mountain trails. It was so beautiful that he walked for hours, not noticing the time. Soon evening was approaching. He was quite a distance from the camp, so he started walking faster. He surely wanted to get back before dark. But the darkness catches up very quickly. Soon the sun fell behind the mountains. The sky clouded up. No stars. No moon. It is very dark. Suddenly, his foot slips on a loose stone. He falls, rolling over and over down the steep hillside. Just as he feels himself to be falling over the edge, he grabs a bush. Clinging to it, he hangs over the ledge in the air. He tries to climb back up, but he cannot. His strength and endurance fail. All around is darkness. Somewhere far below is the ravine. He strains every muscle to hold on to the bush. Finally, his strength is exhausted. In despair, he lets go and drops. About six inches to the ledge below.

This is our story. It is about the many times when we worry and struggle with some mountainous problem. You know those times. Nerves are high with tension. Human strength is taxed to the utmost. When all the time, we only need let go and drop into the arms of God just there beneath us. The story is about the times we cry, fume, or curse in despair when the earthly pilgrimage seems too much to bear. The story is about the times we cling doggedly to our own strength and refuse the waiting promise of God. “Seek first the Kingdom of God…and all these things shall be yours as well.”

St. John Chrysostom says this about today’s Gospel. “…trouble and anxiety everyone has from the hostile things which come to us. It is enough that we are concerned about today. If we begin to worry about tomorrow as well, when shall we have time to think of God? When shall we serve Him, when we are always troubling ourselves about physical matters? Let us, then, be diligent and work to fulfill the Lord’s commandments. Let us be concerned about the salvation of our souls. Let us turn away from wicked and worldly works. Let us push ourselves to do good works, that we may receive the promised blessings. In Christ Jesus our Lord, to Whom are due all honor, glory and worship, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and forever. Amen.”

On this All Saints Day and Father’s Day, I share this story with you that comes from an unknown writer.

At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled children, the father of one of the school’s students delivered a speech.  That speech would never be forgotten by all who attended. After praising the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question. “Everything God does is done with perfection. Yet, my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as the children do. Where is God’s plan reflected in my son?”  The audience was stilled by the question. The father continued. “I believe,” the father answered, “that when God brings a child like Shay into the world, an opportunity to realize the Divine Plan presents itself. And it comes in the way people treat that child.” 

Then, he told the following story. Shay and I walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, “Do you think they will let me play?”  Shay’s father knew that most boys would not want him on their team. But the father understood that if his son were allowed to play it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging. Shay’s father approached one of the boys on the field and asked if Shay could play.  The boy looked around for guidance from his teammates. Getting none, he took matters into his own hands and said, “We are losing by six runs, and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we’ll try to put him up to bat in the ninth inning.”
 
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay’s team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. At the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the outfield. Although no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be on the field, grinning from ear to ear as his father waved to him from the stands.  In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay’s team scored again. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base. Shay was scheduled to be the next at-bat.

Would the team actually let Shay bat at this juncture and give away their chance to win the game?  Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn’t even know how to stand or hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball. However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher moved a few steps closer to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least be able to make contact. The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly toward Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball to the pitcher. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could easily have thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have ended the game.

Instead, the pitcher took the ball and threw it on a high arc to right field, far beyond reach of the first baseman. Everyone started yelling, “Shay, run to first. Run to first.”  Never in his life had Shay ever made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline with everyone yelling, “Run to second, run to second!” By the time Shay was rounding first base, the right fielder had the ball. He could have thrown the ball to the second baseman to tag Shay out. But the right fielder understood what the pitcher’s intentions had been.  So he threw the ball high and far over the third baseman’s head. Shay ran towards second base as the runners ahead of him circled the bases towards home.

As Shay reached second base, the opposing shortstop ran to him, turned him in the direction of third base, and shouted, “Run to third!” As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams were screaming, “Shay! Run home!”  Shay ran home, stepped on home plate and was cheered as the hero, for hitting a “grand slam” and winning the game for the team.

“That day,” said the father softly, with tears now rolling down his face, “the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of God’s plan into this world.”  These two teams and a father learned a real reason about winning. Have you ever won and really lost? Have you ever lost and really won?  In today’s Gospel the Holy Evangelist Matthew tells us that Jesus said, “many that are first will be last, and the last first.” That is what is God’s Plan for His world.

“The first will be last.  The last will be first.”  This is not only a good definition of a saint.  It is also a good definition of a father.  On this All Saints Day we remember all who have won by losing.  We remember all who have become first by being last.  We remember all those who have given up their own wants, desires and longings to serve Christ alone.  Some of those saints are called martyrs.  They lost their earthly lives to win a life forever with Christ. “The first will be last.  The last will be first.” A father is similar.  The good father gives up his own wants, desires and longings to serve Christ in his child.  A good father makes himself last and his child first.  The way that Shay was treated by the other ball players is the lesson.  “The first will be last.  The last will be first.”

At the first Pentecost, described in our Epistle today, comes the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This outpouring had been prophesied centuries earlier. It was the Prophet Joel, hundreds of years earlier who said this. And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. St. Peter in his Pentecost sermon that follows our Epistle recalled the ancient prophecy of Joel.  Peter used Joel's words to proclaim that the promise of God's spirit to visit his people had been fulfilled.  With a great vision and with dreams of a new life in Christ, the Spirit had now come. 
 
This, really, is the most exciting part of the Day of Pentecost.  Yes, there is the rushing wind, the speaking in tongues, and the flames of fire.  But the dreams, the visions---these are what the Day of Pentecost is all about.  It is about catching the vision and sensing the dream that God means for us, right here, right now.

Old and young together, men and women, rich and poor, experienced and new-born babes in the faith--all of us are united in the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord.  We are called together by the power of God's love.  In that love God freely and fully forgives our many sins.  Those sins include the sins of dullness of soul and listlessness of spirit.  When our spiritual life bogs down into visionless humdrum; when we no longer sense the mighty works of God for us and for the world--we need renewing.  We need to have our lives cleaned out of all that gets us down, and blurs our spiritual vision.

That gift of God is proclaimed to you again this day.  To all who humble themselves before the Father, the proclamation is made.  To all who confess from the heart the need for God to rule there, the proclamation is made.  To all who just ask, God comes with healing and mercy and renewal.  Today we claim again the heritage that is ours.  It has been given to us through the gift of the Holy Spirit. It has been preserved for us in Orthodoxy in the link we have with what has been believed "everywhere, always, and by all."

How essential it is, that we see ourselves in that light of grace that shines upon us in Christ!  Some years ago I found a box placed in the church on the seat where I usually sit.  I opened the box to discover a lovely gold cross, suitable for a woman to wear.  Attached to this box was a note, addressed to me.  The note read: "Father:  God knows that I could not possibly accept this gift or wear it.  But I am giving it to you in the hopes that you might think of someone you take care of who could wear it rightly."  There was no signature to the note. 

I did not know who the person was, or what were the circumstances surrounding this cross.  All I saw was some troubled soul who regards himself or herself as unworthy of wearing the symbol of the cross. "God knows I could not wear it," the writer wrote.  Does God really?  God means mercy and grace and all of the gifts of the Spirit for this person's life.  Now like so many more, this person cannot face the fact that he or she is accepted and loved by God.
 
None of us should hurry past the Gospel proclaimed to us this glorious Pentecost Day.  We need to stop and drink deeply at the well of salvation.  For God has plans and purposes for us that are above all that we could ask or think.

See visions!  Dream dreams!  Let us start with our own lives.  Let's see where there is room for fresh vision and renewed dreams.  Do not settle for the prospect of money or fame.  These things do not last.  Seek that which does not fade or fail, and that only is the Kingdom of God that came to your life in baptism.  Think of this time as the time to vision the enlarging of your sphere of love and care and understanding.  See the next year as unfolding for you the dreams of a finer discipleship, a maturity in prayer and worship, and a growth in the Christlike life.

Such a vision of your own life will surely link you with other people who share a similar vision and who seek the same dream.  For Peter's Pentecost sermon addresses a community of people, not just isolated persons.  See visions!  Dream dreams, even in our own parish community!

See visions!  Dream dreams!  Between vision and reality, between dreams and deeds, as we in this parish community well know, lies much hard work, sacrificial giving, and patient waiting in prayer.  Dreams and visions are the signal to rolling up our sleeves and working hard.  Each must accept his or her part.

Without vision, the people perish. That is what the writer of Proverbs reminds us (29:18).  It is true.  Winston Churchill observed that "people will find it very hard to look up to leaders who have their heads in the sand."  Our heads are turned to Him who does all things well.  Our heads are turned to Him whose promise is to be with us always. 

So we bid you a festive Pentecost Day.  And better than that: we bid you a whole lifetime filled with the vision and dream that God our Father's will may be done among us.  May we all, by the power of the Spirit poured upon us this day, continue individually and together, to be faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ and loving to each other.

The reading from the Holy Gospels (John 17) is sometimes called Christ’s “High Priestly Prayer.” In this prayer, prayed by Christ the night before His death, Christ talks of His relationship to the Father. He also talks about his mission on earth. Christ states it clearly. He has been sent by the Father to give eternal life to all men and women. This is salvation. He said: "Eternal life is this: to know you, the only true God, and him whom you have sent, Jesus Christ."  We know the true God through Jesus Christ. Evangelist St. John says this. "No one has ever seen God. It is God the Only Son, ever at the Father's side, who has revealed Him" When the apostle Philip asked Jesus: "Show us the Father and we will be satisfied", Jesus said. “After I have been with you all this time, you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”

We celebrate today the memory of the 318 bishops who attended the first Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. These bishops came from East and West. That is why we call this Council an Ecumenical Council. The word “ecumenical” means “world-wide.” The teachings of these Fathers of the 1st Council are recognized by all the Christians: Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants.

Why did all the bishops of the world gather in this first Council? Because there were some who taught that the Son of God is not equal to God. They taught that Christ was created by God. They taught that the Holy Spirit is not God, but is created by the Son. So according to them, God the Father created the Son and the Son created the Holy Spirit. This is not the true faith. We read in the Gospel of St. John: "In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. And the Word became flesh (that means, a human being) and lived among us. And we have seen the glory as the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth.”

If Christ is not the Son of God, we are not saved. If he is only a human being, we cannot be saved, because no human can save another human. Since all are slaves of sin, someone had to come who is without sin to free humans from the slavery of sin. This man is Jesus Christ the Son of God, who "for us and for our salvation", as we say in the Creed, "came down from heaven…"

When I was in seminary, now some 40 years ago, I remember a student whose room was right down the hall from me. He had come from Korea. They were building a new seminary in Seoul, so he was in St. Louis for the year. He told a story that may help us understand what the First Council Fathers taught.

When in the process of building the new seminary, the workers dug a deep hole. As it does often in Korea, a rainstorm hit. The hole was filled half-way up with water. It happened that some frogs jumped into the newly-made pond. But finding that this was not a good place for frogs to live, they tried to get out. But as they jumped up on the muddy walls of the hole, they just slid back down into the water. If they did not soon get out, they would die. The frogs attracted a large crowd of people to watch them in their plight. One person in the crowd said this. “If only for a while I could become a frog, I could show them the way out on the other side.”

If only… As God looked down on the plight of humanity stuck in a world of death, He did not say, “If only…” God actually did something. He sent His Son into the world to become just like one of us. He has shown us the way out of our earthly grave. He became one of us. He died and rose again. He ascended into heaven to take us with Him. We sit with Him on His heavenly throne at the Right Hand of the Father.

Such is the true teaching of the Church that the Holy Fathers affirmed at the first council. But these teachings are not just writings on a page of a dusty old book. These teachings have meaning for our lives. In a few moments, I will pray this. "Let us stand aright, let us stand with fear, let us be attentive. So that we may offer the holy Sacrifice in peace." And what is it that the people answer?  "A mercy of peace, a sacrifice of praise." God becoming one of us in Christ is "A mercy of peace." This is God's action in the world. The second part is "a sacrifice of praise." This is our action as Orthodox Christians to thank God for what He has done.

How do we do that? How do we thank God for what He has done? In His priestly prayer, Jesus prays. "I am in the world no more. But these are in the world as I come to you. O Father most holy, protect them with your name which you have given me, that they may be one even as we are one." We are called to be holy. We are called to be one with Christ and God. And when we are one in Christ, we can become as St. Luke describes the church in the Book of Acts. He says they were of "one heart and one soul." This is our “sacrifice of praise.” We seek to do His will to become one with Him.

But Christ’s prayer is not just reserved for the few of us. He extends His prayer to all Christians throughout history: "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be one in us. So that the world may believe that you have sent me." So that the world may believe that You have sent Me. This is a sure summary of the Orthodox life. It is about being one with Christ. It is about the world seeing that in us and believing.

The world will not believe in Christ and His Holy Church if we are not one with Christ Himself. The Holy Fathers of the First Council laid their lives on the line to profess these truths. These truths have been passed down to us 1686 years later. It is now our responsibility to believe and practice them. And to pass them on to the world.

About six months before He went to the Cross, Christ was in Jerusalem for the feast of Tabernacles. This was a major feast in the life of the Jews. It remembered the wandering of the Israelites in the wilderness for 40 years. They lived in tents that whole time. The word “tabernacle” means “tent.”  So Jesus went to Jerusalem for this feast. Already then, the authorities were seeking to put Him to death.

When He left the temple that day of the feast, Jesus saw a blind man. The blind man was begging for help from the passers-by. The followers of Jesus asked Jesus a question about the blind man. “Lord, who sinned, he or his parents so that he was born blind?” Our Lord, knowing the hearts of those who asked, responded in compassion and love. “Neither he sinned, nor his parents. He was born blind so that God’s work could be shown.”

The belief among the Jews in those days was that the sins of the parents cause their children to suffer. This was a misunderstanding of the commandments in the book of Exodus. God had given Moses the commandment to have no other gods but the True God. If they served someone or something else? God said, “I the LORD your God am a jealous God. I will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me.” This very specific punishment was thought to be for all sins.

But elsewhere in the Bible it is made clear. Each person is responsible for his or her own sins. Parents will not be punished for the sins of their children. Children will not be punished for the sins of their parents. Deuteronomy 24:18 is clear. “The fathers shall not be put to death for the children. Nor shall the children be put to death for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin.” Each person will have to give an account for his or her own deeds.

But what about those children who do suffer? What about babies born with defects? Sometimes this happens because of the life of the parents. One or both may have been addicted to drugs. The mother may have not cared for herself during the pregnancy. In these cases, the sins of the parents directly do affect the child. But the blame is not on God. It is not a divine punishment. The sins of the parents are visited, in such cases, on the children.

Here we have a man born blind. In his case, his blindness was not a result of a sin of his or his parents. But why should an innocent man be afflicted with this misfortune? We are used to seeing God’s glory in the good things He sends us. We are less likely to see God’s glory in misfortune, and sorrow and other afflictions. We tend to thank God when He sends us His generosity. We rarely, if ever, thank Him for sending us troubles. Usually when we suffer troubles, our first reaction is “O Lord, why are you punishing me like this?” Is there any thanking God in Tuscaloosa, Alabama?  Is there any thanking God in Joplin, Missouri? God is not punishing either Tuscaloosa or Joplin. Tornadoes have ravaged those cities. Is it possible to see in these terrible tragedies the goodness of God?

Look at the blind man in this Gospel. Of course the disciples think that the misfortune of blindness was a punishment. But, no! The blind man’s handicap was present so that the work of God could be shown forth. So that the work of God could be shown forth.  St. John Chrysostom, in his commentary on the Gospel, tells us that this man was not just sightless. Chrysostom says he was born without any eyes at all. Thus Christ not only gives the man his sight. He also creates new eyes from the mud formed by the earth and Christ’s own saliva. And therein lays the great miracle. Whoever heard of such a cure? Many claim to be able to give sight where there is none. But what doctor is able to give eyes to a man born without eyes?

New eyes!  Newly created eyes! Here we see in this miracle Jesus, the same God Who at the creation took the ground of the earth and made man. He we see the same God who, by breathing into the nostrils of the man he created, made him a “living soul.” This same God now takes mud and creates new eyes. The same God who made this man now gives him his sight. He gives him that of which he was deprived from birth.

This man was blind not because he sinned. This man was blind not because he was being punished. This man was blind so that something great could happen through him. This is something great, not only for the man born blind, but for all who would both witness and be told of this great miracle. This man was blind for our sake.

The Fathers of the Church say that God sends afflictions to those whom He loves. That is how they interpret Proverbs 3:12. “The LORD reproves him whom He loves.” Someone who is finds himself successful in everything and thinks he has no need of anything is forgotten by God. In reading the lives of the Saints and Martyrs of Orthodoxy one thing is clear. All the good people suffered. But the Glory of God shown even more brightly through them.

David the Psalmist writes (94:12): “Blessed is the man whom thou dost chasten, O Lord.” It was not the mud made by earth and saliva that cured this blind man. It was the creative Word of Christ. If that Word worked so beneficially to the man born blind, think what it can do for us. May our prayer be from one of the hymns for today at Matins: “I come to You, O Christ, blind from birth in my spiritual eyes. I call to you in repentance. You are the most radiant Light of those in darkness.”

Did you ever notice all the references to “water” during the Easter season? At the Little Entrance of all Liturgies in Easter, the priest sings. “Bless God in the churches; bless the Lord, you of Israel’s well-springs.” The choir sings the canon of Pascha that we first heard on Easter Eve. “Come, let us drink a new drink. No one brought forth from a barren rock. But that springs forth from the tomb of Christ!” On the Sundays after Pascha we find ourselves at the Sheep Pool. We are at the Well of Jacob today. We have been at the Pool of Siloam. We experience all of this because of Christ Himself, the Living Water of which He speaks today. For He is the Cup of Life, from Whose side flowed blood and water for the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting.

All this talk of water. Make you thirsty? Have you ever been really thirsty?  I don't mean the average thirst where a drink of water sounds good after a long walk. Or that thought of a glass of ice water after working in the garden on a hot summer day. I mean really -- really thirsty. I mean thirsty where your tongue sticks to the roof of your mouth and all you can think about is water.

In 1996, a young marine corporal named Joey Mora was standing on a platform of an aircraft carrier patrolling the Iranian Sea. Incredibly, he fell overboard.  His absence was not known for 36 hours. A search and rescue mission began, but was given up after another 24 hours. No one could survive in the sea without even a lifejacket after 60 hours. His parents were notified that he was "missing and presumed dead." About 72 hours later four Pakistani fishermen found Joey Mora. He was found treading water in his sleep. He was clinging to a makeshift floatation device made from his trousers. This was a skill learned in most military survival training.  He was delirious when they pulled him into their fishing boat.  His tongue was dry and cracked. His throat parched.

Just about two years later, he gave an interview on NBC Dateline. He spoke of the most difficult part of the experience.  Joey said that the one thought took over his body. One thought pounded in his brain. "Water!" 

Have you ever been thirsty like that? Physical thirst can be excruciating and dangerous. Dehydration will get you into serious difficulty in a hurry. And, as Jesus pointed out to the Woman at the well, spiritual thirst can develop into spiritual dehydration. We are told to drink eight glasses of water a day. Some do it. Many do not. We are told to pray unceasingly to stay spiritually healthy. Some do it. Many do not. How thirsty are we for the water, as Jesus says, welling up to eternal life?

Thirst is one of the most powerful spiritual symbols in all of scripture. Dehydration draws the whole of our physical being to a longing for water. In the same way, a spiritual void will draw our spirits into a search for deeper meaning for our lives. The Psalmist expressed it this way. "As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." [Psalm 42:1-2]    Or... "I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land." [Psalm 143:6]

We encounter spiritual thirst especially when life has delivered one of those tough experiences. You know, when the wind gets "knocked out of our sails. It can happen when the "same old, same old" goes flat. Or the things we counted on aren't there. Or the joy has just plain gone out of our living.  Have you ever been there?  Have you ever been in that dry, desert wilderness of the soul? We can learn from this "dryness of soul." Spiritual thirst can act as a signpost in their life's journey.  It can be a signpost pointing to a richer spiritual life.

I heard a story once of a person who came to this country and saw a water fountain for the first time in his life. But he could not see how to make it work. The water fountain had no tap. There were no buttons to press. There was no bar to push. The man became very angry and frustrated. He was about to turn away when someone pointed out to him a small sign at the base of the fountain. The sign said, “Bend over and drink.” Well, when he bent over he discovered that an electric eye detected his presence. Then the water flowed out automatically.

It may be like going through a dry, dusty desert for days with no water. Then you come upon a river. Would you know what to do? Yes, of course – we all would know what to do. But would you do it?  If you were parched with thirst, yes, you would try to get to the water and drink your fill. That is what Christ says to this Samaritan woman. “Come to me and drink.” The water is right there. It is for all people. The water welling up to eternal life is right here. We can all see it. Everyone knows it is there. And so many are so thirsty. And yet, they don’t come and drink.

It is perhaps one of the most frustrating things for a priest or for any dedicated lay person. You can lead people to the water welling up to eternal life. But you can’t make them drink. If everyone were like the man who saw the sign, “Bend over and drink,” and would do so – our church would be full and overflowing.

The conversation Jesus has with the woman at the well is the longest conversation of Jesus recorded in the Gospels. Jesus, too, needed to convince the woman that the water He had for her was a water that would quench her thirst forever. It took Him awhile. But Jesus’ own persistence, and constant offering of that water finally penetrated the woman’s soul. She discovered that the gift of Christ’s Living water was more important, and longer lasting, than any water she could draw from that well. “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!”

Have you ever noticed that Christ never forced anyone to follow him? He offered.  He invited.  He encouraged. But it was always up to the person to make up his or her own mind. Does anyone here want the full life in Christ?  Does anyone here want all that Christ promises for a full life in Christ?  Does anyone here want to be healed of fears, pains and anything else that ails you?  Then, friends, you have to want to be healed.

Now, you’d think that anyone who was offered healing would accept it. You’d think everyone would want to be healed. Right?  When Jesus saw the man who had been paralyzed 38 years and knew how long he had been ill, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?” Jesus understood human nature. He understands our nature. He knows we’d more often than not stay sick, or stay addicted, or stay ignorant, or stay bigoted, or stay small and closed-minded than really want to be healed.

If you don’t believe me, then ask yourself.  Is your life whole?  Are you healed and cured by Christ of all your ills?  Are you living the full life in Christ.  If not, then, why not? Why aren’t you healed? 

So Jesus asked the man.  “What do you want me to do for you?”

I read recently on the internet this item from The San Jose Mercury News.  It was included in their "News of the Weird" column:  James Kelley of Washington, D.C., is one of a small group at his local church who are enthusiastic Episcopalians.  But they do not believe in God. Said Kelley, "We all love the incense, the stained-glass windows, the organ music, the vestments and all of that. It’s drama. It’s aesthetics. It’s the ritual. That’s neat stuff. I don’t want to give all that up just because I don’t believe in God."

Such is the comic and tragic state of some churches.  But what of us? Do many of here today believe that God does miracles anymore? How many of you think the gifts of the Holy Spirit were stopped after the Apostles received them at Pentecost? How many of you would be uncomfortable if people showed up next Sunday to have demons cast out or leprosy healed or drug addiction cured or the AIDS virus eradicated?

We say we believe.  But why we don’t see the kinds of miracles today that Jesus and the early church considered a regular part of Christian life? 

Jesus told the Paralytic, “Stand up, pick up your sleeping mat, and walk!”

There has to be some level of belief on our part if we are to be healed. I’ve seen dozens of people enter substance abuse rehab only to come out and get right back into the same addictions they’ve been in before. I seen dozens of people on second and third and fourth marriages who believed the right person will heal them.  They only wind up back in divorce court in a matter of time.  I’ve seen many church people who think that if they come to church once in a while.  Or take communion once in a while.  And go to confession during Lent—all will be well and life will be fine.  Only to find out that when troubles come and healing is needed, there is no solid foundation.

The Paralytic eventually had to believe he could stand up and walk.

You have to believe in Christ the way Christ presents Himself to us. You can’t make up a user-friendly form of Christ.  You know, the kind of Christ that doesn’t offend.  The kind of Christ that wouldn’t make your friends and neighbors uncomfortable. You have to believe in the no-nonsense Christ our Scriptures present to us.  The alternative is to stay paralyzed in so many ways.

If we want to be healed, we have to change. And only God can change us. And God will change us from the inside out through the power of the Holy Spirit in the Sacred Mysteries.  St. Paul said: Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world. But let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do.  And you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is. (Romans 12:2)

About this transformation Paul wrote to the Corinthian church: What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun! (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Our glorious and blessed Church Fathers put the Sunday of the Paralytic in the season of Easter for a simple reason.  Easter means new life.  It certainly means new life for Christ.  It absolutely means new life for each of us.  Just as the Paralytic was healed by the power of Christ, so we can have a new, resurrected life in Christ.  If we want it.

From the time I was very small, I always thought Mothers’ Day was a day on the church calendar. As I grew older I looked for a Sunday that might be called the Fifth Sunday after Mothers’ Day. I never did find it. While today is the Sunday of the Myrrhbearers and St. Joseph of Arimathea, I do know that Mothers’ Day may be on many more minds than is the day of the Myrrh Bearing Women.

Preaching a sermon on Mothers’ Day is always challenging. For some people, the remembrance of their mothers may be a painful thing. Like the celebration of other holidays, Mothers’ Day may be a hard day for some to get through. If that is the case for you, I beg your indulgence. Because for me this Mothers’ Day is a uniquely special one. It is the first Mothers’ Day without my mother. My mother reposed in the Lord last summer. God granted me the opportunity to spend some special time with her before His call to her to come home. During that time, we recalled several episodes that were memorable. I would like to share some of these.

One happened when I was in the eighth grade. My mother was the school secretary. I was captain of the safety patrol boys. It was my job to run the flag up the flagpole every morning. One day while happily doing my flag duty, I bent over and the seam of my cotton pants opened up. What to do? I walked sideway to the front entrance of the school, keeping my back to the bushes. Once inside, I continued walking sideways along the hall to the front office. That was where my mother worked. When she saw me sidling into the office and standing up against the wall, she knew, like mothers do, what had happened. She told me to sit down. She then drove all the way back to our house and picked up another pair of pants for me.

Mothers always seem to know. My mother seemed to know more about me than I ever told her. The year I graduated from college, I was also accepted as a novice at a monastery in New York State. I thought that I had the calling to be a monk. I had been testing this calling myself for several years. I had told no one. My visits to the monastery had been kept well hidden. So I thought. The day that the letter of acceptance arrived, I was sure that I who had gotten the letter was the first and only person to know what its contents might be. While I was reading it, my mother came into the room. “And when are you leaving?” she asked me. “Leaving for what?” I asked. “For the monastery.” I was shocked. How did she know? I had not told her. I had not told anyone. “How did you know?” I asked her. “Come on,” she said, “I’m your mother!”

Quite obviously, as it turned out, I did not enter the monastery. Some years later, while attending seminary, my mother was influential again. The mid-1970s were a difficult time at my seminary. One had to either stand up for the traditional orthodox Christian faith, or accept the new, liberal tendencies that were showing up there. My Lutheran seminary was so divided, that it eventually split into two schools. Which would I choose and why? She was clear and to the point with me. “Your father and I brought you up with traditional Christian beliefs. Even if your best friends leave you, you must stand up for the Church’s long held beliefs.” The point was made. The decision was made. Over 400 of my friends and classmates left the seminary to form their own new, liberal school. 23 of us stayed behind in the traditional school. As it all worked out, again, Mother was right. Not only was she right then, she had been right all along.

My father died ten years ago. When my mother died, my sister said to me, “We’re orphans now.” She was right. How many people can you count on to love you no matter what? How many people can you count on to inspire you with their generosity and understanding? How many people can you count on to bring you pants when you desperately need them?

My mother’s name was Mary Virginia. She was, of course, named for the Blessed Mother herself. The Holy Virgin St. Mary is the model for all of us. She was the first one to receive Christ. And she has become the model of what we can become in Christ. In the midst of our troubled world, the Holy Mother is the prime example of one who says “Yes” to God. She showed us that life was meant to be communion with God. God does not force His will on us. Nor did He force His will on the Holy Theotokos. But her response to God was, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word.”

The Blessed Virgin is our connection to humanity at its best and purest forms. Thus, she is not just a representative of women before God, but she is the image, the icon of all humanity responding to God. The proper title the Church gives her is “The Theotokos”, i.e. Mother of God, because the One she bore in her womb was the eternal God. Our Lord Jesus Christ assumed His human flesh from the Blessed Virgin. This is what the Archangel Gabriel told St. Mary, “the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.” Thus she played a pivotal role in God’s divine plan for our salvation, which is the heart of our Christian faith.

And so on this Mothers’ Day, we remember our Mothers as we remember the Mother of God. Our mothers gave us life. The Mother of God gave us life in Christ. Our mothers shaped our lives. The Mother of God continues to do so. Cherish and honor the Mother of God. Cherish your mother while you still have her. Pray for her and ask her to pray for you whether she is here or in the company of the Saints.

As we say, seeing is believing.  In that resurrection appearance to the eleven in a room "locked for fear of the Jews," our risen Lord turned the phrase around.  Believing is seeing.  "And Jesus said to him, 'Thomas, do you believe because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.'" Thomas was present this time.  He was standing there for all of us.  He was announcing that if he could not see the visible evidence, he could not believe.  Well, Jesus' answer puts things in the right order.  First comes belief.  Then comes the vision. Then comes what we can see.

With that declaration, Jesus put aside once and for all the thought that people of our era are somehow at a disadvantage.  We have never seen the body of the resurrected Christ.  We have never touched the wounds.  How often has the sentence been repeated down through the ages in one form or another.  "Unless I see . . . I will not believe."   Jesus himself sets it straight.  The reality of the resurrection of the Son of God is not confined to those who could see and touch him. 

After all, not every one who could have seen and touched the resurrected Jesus and thereby affirmed that resurrection did so.  The priority lies with belief.  The order is belief first, and then the vision of resurrection.  And why is that?  It is because resurrection faith is not what we think it is.  It is what God makes it to be.  Yes, it takes head knowledge.  And yes, it takes affirmation of that head knowledge.  But at the heart of faith and belief is trust.  The heart of faith is the humble and childlike leaning upon the word of Christ, trusting him with our whole being.

How do we get such faith?  That may seem like an unnecessary question, especially for seasoned Orthodox believers like us.  Yet it is never to be taken for granted.  No matter how experienced we are in the faith, we must constantly return to the fundamental answer to that question.  How do we get faith?  Paul tells the Romans directly.  "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."
 
The Spirit draws us to faith by a word, by an announcement that we can hear.  That announcement is simply this: and in the last week we have heard it over and over again. Christ is risen from the dead….  That word points to the cross and empty tomb as God's saving work for the world.  Into that word, God has packed the power to believe with our whole heart and being.  He joins that word with water in baptism and with bread and wine at the Divine Liturgy.  We do not believe on our own and of ourselves.  If we did, our belief would be entirely dependent on our own emotions, experiences and personal likes and dislikes.  Yet that is the case with so many these days.

Several weeks ago, someone came to me and said this.  "I do not believe all this business about Jesus' turning water into wine, healing sick people, walking on water, and rising from the dead."   That statement in itself is not bad coming from someone seriously inquiring about the Christian faith.  This man seemed serious enough.  What I found interesting about what he said was his stringing together of several Bible stories.  No doubt he had heard of the water to wine, the healing, and the walking on water as a child.  But then, at the end of the list, he stuck in the resurrection of Christ .
 
This person has yet to see with the new eyes of faith.  For Jesus' resurrection is not simply one more item along a string of events that one dares to believe.  The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the one, central act of God to which all the others point.  The Orthodox faith is not a matter of swallowing whole first one unlikely thing, then another, and then finally going for broke with the resurrection.  It is not like that at all.  The resurrection of Christ is the foundation for everything else that is built of faith.  By raising Christ from the tomb, God is undoing the fatal grip that sin has on all of us.  We can only know that Jesus is Lord by his mighty and glorious resurrection.  The angel sticks the word into our ear:  "He is not here; he is risen!"

Today we can look around us and see something entirely new. We see a church building that has existed only in the minds and hearts of a handful of believers. This church building, this Pan-Orthodox place of worship is proof of what I have just been saying. A few moments ago I said, “The order is belief first, and then the vision.” Fourteen years ago, a group of people believed. They first believed in the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Then they believed in the Holy Orthodox Church. Then they raised money to build a church to the glory of God and the spread of the Holy Orthodox Faith. But first they believed. First YOU believed. And now comes the vision. It is the vision of a church building coming into being. It is a vision of the Resurrected Christ filling this place with hope and joy. And all this because they – YOU – first believed.
 
How do one get such belief?  Remember, the Holy Apostle Paul says that it comes by hearing. Belief grows by the exercise of one’s faith in prayer and the life of Orthodoxy. Belief comes by trusting God. Belief comes by banking everything on the Risen Christ. First we believe that Christ is Risen. Then we see Him truly Risen in this place. Then we see what we can do with deeds of love.  We do not ask today to see the finished product of our faith.  We only ask what the next step is.  Do what comes next.  Then do what is next after that, one day, one deed at a time.  We do it with trust in what Jesus says to Thomas and to us:  "Blessed are you who have not seen and yet believe."

But today we have seen. But we see only because we believed!

Accidents. Everyone here in this room has had an accident. It may have been an automobile accident. Perhaps it was a skiing accident. Or the accident might have just been tripping over the cat or dog and raising a welt on your head.

I still have a scar hidden in my right eyebrow where I was kicked in the head. It was with the blade of a hockey skate. Despite the fact that it was hockey – it was an accident. In college I got hit in the head with a baseball bat. I was “on deck” as they say. I was next to bat. The batter accidently let go of the bat. It hit me in the head. I was wearing a batting helmet and was not hurt. It could have been worse.

Accidents. Throughout my life, I have had my share of accidents. There were the usual hot water scalds and the failure to use a hammer properly. I have had fender benders and spin-outs in the snow. All accidents, to be sure.

The thing about all those events though is that they were accidents. None were planned. At no point did I decide it would be useful to hammer my thumb instead of the nail. Nor did I burn bits of my body off in an attempt to improve myself. Nor was it the fault of my parents. For example, at no point did they think it would be nice if I learned what it was like to come within a quarter inch of losing my eye. No, it’s not the kind of thing that moms and dads do.

And that’s why the events that we remember this Great and Holy Friday are so shocking. Be sure of this. Nothing about the crucifixion was an accident. Contrast the incidents that I have shared with you about my life. Contrast them with the things that happened to Jesus on that that first Great and Holy Friday. All of those things that happened to our Lord were entirely planned.

They were planned by the high priests and Jewish officials. Those men wanted to do away with Jesus. They wanted Jesus dead because of His challenge to their authority. They wanted Him dead because he claimed that He was God. What happened to Jesus was planned by Judas as well. He made a deliberate choice to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. These events were in some sense even planned by the Romans. They killed Jesus in an every-day execution alongside two criminals.

But, and this is the most shocking idea of all, these things that happened to Jesus were planned by God. It was no mistake. It was not something that God just permitted to happen.  The Bible tells us that the chief architect of the events of Good Friday was God the Father. Listen to the words of Isaiah, written hundreds of years before Jesus died. “Yet it was the will of the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief; when he makes himself an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.” (Isaiah 53:10)
This is one simple verse, but one powerful message. From this we learn that it was the Lord’s will to bruise Jesus. The original Hebrew means more than just “bruise.” It means to crush. It was not just that Christ suffered. It was not just that He died. But it was that Jesus was crushed. He was destroyed. He was killed mercilessly.

Thus we need to reflect on the fact that it was the will of the Father to do this. This was His plan. This was His purpose. From the beginning of time Jesus was going to die, and die horribly. This was the plan not only of the Father. Jesus knew it. He entered into willingly. Remember His words in the Garden? “If it is possible take this Cup away from me. Yet not my will but yours be done. Yet not my will but yours be done.” At every Divine Liturgy, the priest prays the following words. “And after He had come and fulfilled everything in the Divine plan for our redemption, on the night on which He was betrayed, or rather, on the night on which He gave Himself up for the life of the world, He took bread…”

Christ presented himself as a sacrifice for our sins. He offered Himself for our salvation. Isaiah says more. Christ took up our infirmities. He carried our sorrows. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. All this because our infirmities, our sorrows, our transgressions and our iniquities had brought on us an eternal separation from God we call death. So our Lord and Savior, who had no infirmities, sorrows, transgressions or iniquities, took ours on Himself. He suffered the death and separation from God due to us. “My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?”

And why would God plan all of that? Because God also planned to raise His Son from death on the Third Day. That, too, was no accident. It is all part of God’s plan to raise us up, too. And so He will, After all in Christ, death is defeated on the Cross. And what is our part in this? We must take on the likeness of Christ. We must become more and more like Him. In doing so, we join with everybody who says “yes” to the Father’s plan. And so we are here today to declare publicly that it was no mistake. It was no accident. It was no unfortunate sequence of events. It was deliberate. It was planned. And it was successful. Hear Isaiah once again.

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
because he poured out his soul to death,
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:12)

And so is God’s plan for us. It is no accident.

Great and Holy Week begins with our Lord’s entry into Jerusalem. But this entry looks more like a King entering a conquered city. “Hosanna!” chants the crowd. “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.” The crowds are out in force. They proclaim Jesus to be the Messiah. They are actually celebrating his entrance into the Holy City. They are throwing their palm branches before him. There is great celebration.

But we know what happens on Friday. The same crowd will call for his death. Their “King” is traded for a thief named Barabbas. Their “King” is sentenced to death by crucifixion as a criminal. What happened in this span of less than a week? Why did the crowds who so recently declared him king turn on him and cry out for his death? Did they know who Jesus really was?

Throughout his ministry, Jesus asked the question, “Who do you say that I am?” This is perhaps the most important question asked at any time in history. Jesus posed that question to those who he met during his life on earth. He poses the question to us every day of our lives. Who do you say that I am? Who do you say that I am?

It is a personal question. It is a question that goes to the core of who we really are. Who do you say that I am?  Often we are introduced to another person. The question there is asked “What do you do?” The question is usually brief and to the point. “I am a teacher. I am a nurse. I am a lawyer. I am a doctor. I am a businessman. I am a homemaker. I am retired.” All this comes as if this explanation tells who we are. We define ourselves to others by our occupation. Such an answer does not describe who we are at the core of our being. What we do for a living does not fully describe our soul. When Jesus asks, “Who do you day that I am,” He is really asking, “Do you really know me?”

Recall that John the Baptist had sent one of his disciples to Jesus. He asked Jesus if he was the Messiah. Jesus did not directly answer John, rather he simply pointed to what he did. The blind see. The lepers are healed. The lame walk. The dead are raised.  The good news is preached. In His answer, Jesus pointed to concrete evidence about who he is. John was to come to his own conclusion to his question, “Who is Jesus?” Jesus throws the question back to John to consider. Given what you’ve seen me do and say, what am I about, who do you think I am?

Towards the end of his ministry, Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do the people say that I am?” The disciples responded: “Elijah returned; Jeremiah; a prophet.” Perhaps dissatisfied, Jesus poses the same question to his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter, ever the eager one, proclaims, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus tells Peter that this was known by the grace of the Holy Spirit. By affirming Peter’s answer as from the Spirit, Jesus is telling us the conclusion we all must reach to really begin to know him.

But now we fast-forward Christ’s entrance into Jerusalem. The people were expecting a Messiah. But their understanding of the Messiah was too limited. The crowds were expecting a military leader. They were expecting a leader who would lead them to freedom over their Roman oppressors. They were expecting a political savior.

The crowds didn’t really understand Jesus. They didn’t really know him. They wanted a Messiah of their own making. They wanted to create their own Messiah. Once they discovered that Jesus was not going to fulfill their expectations, they quickly deserted him. They handed him over to death on the Cross.

Quite often today, people believe in a Jesus of their own making. Some reduce Jesus to a good teacher. Others see him as a model pacifist. Some cast Jesus as a spiritual guru who will help people reach spiritual enlightenment. Others envision Jesus to be a social activist. Others see Him as a sort of spiritual teddy bear. You know, a good buddy who forgives all and demands nothing.

But Christ Himself defies our attempts to define him. He refuses to let us put him in a box. To those who see him as only a good teacher, he refutes their conception by laying claim to authority that only God himself has—thus proclaiming his divinity. To those who see him as a pacifist, he confounds by saying, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” To those who see him as another Buddha, as just another way to enlightenment, he says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” For those see him as one who grants forgiveness without demanding any change within us, he preaches judgment. He is all of these things to some degree, but he cannot be reduced to any of them. To reduce Jesus down to a creature of our own making is to deny who He really is. Then it is just as if we were apart of the crowds yelling, “crucify him, crucify him!” We have no use for the real person. We have no use for Jesus the Christ.

Even the Fathers of the Church struggled at the Great Councils as to how to answer this question. Who do you say that I am?  They understood that Christ was divine and human, but they struggled over how to put that into words. They often chose to leave things unsaid. And yet Christ calls to us, challenging us, “Who do you say that I am?”

The crowds that first Palm Sunday thought they knew who Jesus was. When they saw that he wasn’t what they wanted and expected, they turned on him. They crucified him. Who do you say that I am? He is the Lord of all creation. He is the one who walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden. He is the one who raised Lazarus from the dead. He is he one who was crucified and rose again three days later. He is the one Who calls to us as we carry our branches of palm and willow. Who do you say that I am?

Today is the fifth and final Sunday of Great Lent. It commemorates St. Mary of Egypt. Saint Mary is for us a great image of repentance as a suffering servant of God. She lived her early life as a harlot in Egypt. On one occasion she followed a group of pilgrims to Jerusalem. She eventually found herself unable to enter a church because some force was keeping her out. After a vision and conversation with the Mother of God, she came to repentance and was able to enter the church. Mary then spent the rest of her life living in the desert on the other side of the Jordan in repentance. She lived alone there, totally dependent on God until the end of her life.

In today’s Gospel, we are given a message that describes for us what it is to be a follower of Christ. We must be a suffering servant as our Lord was through His holy passion. Our Lord first teaches his disciples that He as the “Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes. And they shall condemn him to death. And shall deliver him to the Gentiles: And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him. And they shall spit upon him, and shall kill him. But the third day he shall rise again.”

Jesus was trying to prepare His disciples. These would be trying days for all of them once Jesus entered into Jerusalem. At the same time, Jesus is showing how He is the fulfillment of the prophecies. The Holy Prophet Isaiah foretold the events of Christ the Suffering Servant. The Church uses Isaiah chapter 53 as a reading during Vespers  of Great and Holy Friday.

So also this Gospel today prepares us. We are readying ourselves for the events of the Great and Holy Week. We celebrate Palm Sunday next Sunday. Then we follow Christ to the foot of the Holy Cross. We are the present day disciples. We are being prepared today just as Christ prepared His disciples.

But in this Gospel, something strange happens. Two of His disciples become concerned about their status once Christ would be gone. They ask our Lord, “Grant unto us that we may sit, one on your right hand, and the other on your left hand, in your glory.” James and John were leading apostles. Yet they show their own weakness. It is a weakness from which we all suffer. It is the affliction of self-centeredness. They ask as we often ask of God, “What is in this for me?” This is, simply said, the sin of selfishness. It is no wonder why Christ says in the Gospel of St. Matthew, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”  But, as usual, Christ provides a way out. He always provides hope. He completes that saying with, “However, with men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.”

Our Lord knew the hearts of His disciples. He knows the hearts of all people. This is why He does not react when these apostles make this request. Instead, He continues to teach them what it means to be His disciple. Christ asks them two questions. “You do not know what you are  asking for.Can you drink of the cup that I drink of? Can you be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”

Their response, without thinking, is yes. Quite obviously, they did not understand this question. They did not see the full implications of a “yes” answer. Perhaps these apostles were thinking of an actual cup of wine. Most would gladly take that kind of cup. Perhaps they were thinking of an actual baptism by water. Surely they would want that. 

But Christ means something else. He is telling James and John that they will go through the same things that He will go through. Elsewhere Christ had said this. “Remember the word that I said unto you. The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”

The cup and the baptism that our Lord is referring to is that of martyrdom. Each one of the Apostles, except John, did become martyrs. Each was cruelly tortured and put to death for their faith. 

In a conversation this week, I talked with someone about popular churches these days. So many churches have gone to entertainment to attract members. Many have become “feel good” churches. You go to church and you come out feeling fine. Until it’s time to get in your car and face the real world again. So many would rather just feel good in church. So many do not want to follow the path of the cross.  Today’s Gospel reminds clearly. It is only by following Christ’s path that we can receive the joy of the Kingdom of Heaven. We have heard it over and over again. It was on the Sunday of the Cross we heard it most recently. “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”

Great Lent is an Orthodox discipline designed to defeat our own will and selfishness. We do so by fasting from selfish and self-centered foods and activities. We do so by confessing our sins and shortcomings. We kneel and prostrate ourselves before the Cross. We know that the Cross is the key to God’s heavenly Kingdom. First there is Christ’s Cross. Then there is ours.

So we come to the end of the Great Lent. Great and Holy Week looms ahead. My  prayer for you is that you may follow in Christ’s footsteps. Receive the cup that Christ offers – the cup of suffering and sacrifice. Such is the way to the Kingdom.

On this fourth Sunday of Lent we remember St John Climacus. The name Climacus means ladder. Thus we remember him because of his book, Ladder of Divine Ascent.  He was an abbot of the monastery of St Catherine in the Sinai desert in the 6th century.  He wrote his book as a way to teach about the spiritual struggles that are needed to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  We remember it because it is a work that teaches about the struggle we are all enduring this Lent.  These efforts are good for us, even if, after these few weeks, we feel at our lowest.  Be assured – we are ascending the heights!  We are ascending the heights of humility. We are ascending the heights of obedience!  We are repenting, that is, changing our lives.

However, we do not take pride in the meager accomplishments of our Lenten efforts.  Yes, we may be doing well.  But once we are proud of what we have done, our efforts are nothing.  St. Arsenius the Great was a 4th century Roman deacon and monk. One day one of his disciples believed himself to have attained a great spiritual life. The disciple asked if there were anything else for him to achieve to in this life.  St Arsenius knew that pride was what had really taken hold of this disciple. It was surely not the heights of Heaven being gained.  He responded to his disciple saying: “Only this…” and immediately, he raised his hand. The Saint’s hand became light itself.  Truly, Arsenius had gained much through his spiritual efforts. His disciple who fell to pride had been pulled off the ladder of ascent to Heaven.

Last week we brought the cross to the center of the Church to venerate it.  The Roman tool of torture became the way that God brought us to everlasting life.  Christ was elevated on the arms of the cross so that we would have the opportunity to go and meet Him in the clouds at His glorious Second Coming.  The world tried to keep Him down low.  But He ascended the Cross. He rose from the dead. He ascended into heaven. He has given us all the opportunity to be with Him for eternity.  And now, St. John reveals to us the ladder which guides us in ascending the heights as well.

Perhaps you took note on the icon of the day of the dark figures floating in the air underneath the ladder?  These are the demons who are trying to stop our climb to the Lord.  They are pulling off those who do not climb the ladder in humility.  Some of those being pulled off are priests, bishops, and even lay people.  That’s right – no one is safe from the efforts of the Demons.  Those who, in humility, make their way past the demons to the top? They are received into the heights of heaven by Christ Himself.   

The image of things being set on heights is plentiful in the tradition of the Church.  Look at Christ Himself lifted high upon the cross. This raising on the Cross raised us to the Heavenly reward.  That is what the Ladder has as its goal.  To attain the Kingdom of Heaven. It is what we call in Orthodoxy to be deified.  One of today’s hymns says: “O wise father, thou hast passed by the worthless joys of this material world, and raised thy mind upon the wings of immaterial prayer; and through the perfection of thy life thou hast received an inheritance on high.”  He has ascended the heights; he has given us an image of the way we also are to climb.

The key for those making the climb is this: humility.  Knowing where one’s place in the world really is, without pretense or pride.  St John says:  “Many have attained salvation without the aid of prophecies, illumination, signs and wonders.  But without humility no one will enter the marriage chamber, for humility is the guardian of such gifts.  Without it, they will bring disaster on the frivolous.”

Humility is what St. Arsenius’ disciple did not have.  St. John writes that humility is the “readiness of the soul to accept indignity.” He calls humility is the “wiping out of anger.” Humility, St. John says, is “the honest distrust of one’s own virtues, together with an unending desire to learn more.”  Finally, St. John says that if we want to live a life of humility, “we must never stop examining ourselves.”

And the cornerstone for humility the Saint tells us? It is the remembrance of our sins.  He says “Some drive out empty pride by thinking to the end of their lives of their past misdeeds. (They remember them, even though) they were forgiven. (Those) sins now serve as a spur to humility. Others, St. John says, “hold themselves in contempt when they think of their daily lapses.”
   
And when true humility is achieved, first of all always be suspicious of this! For after this many things follow. And there are still many other rungs on the Ladder of Ascent. We will be asked to turn our backs on the world. We will be asked to live a life oriented to God instead of oriented to this world.  We become obedient. We turn from sin. We have self-control in life and speech.  We become pure in many ways.  We are freed from those things that hold us prisoner in this present life.

At the top of the ladder, on the thirtieth rung, as St John has it, he says this.  “Someone truly in love keeps before his mind’s eye the face of the beloved. The beloved is embraced tenderly.  Even during sleep the longing continues unappeased. That is how it is for the body.  And that is how it is for the spirit.”  This is the height to which life was meant to climb.  When the climb is accomplished, true unity with Christ is reached. 

In the midst of Great Lent, the ladder is placed before us. We see Christ there. He is at the other end. But we also see the dangers in the demons who try to sidetrack us. The ladder we are climbing continues throughout our lives.  It is the Orthodox path of life. From today’s Matins canon:  “Ascending to the height of virtues and rejecting the pleasures that creep upon the ground, O holy father, thou hast become the sweetness of salvation to thy flock.”  Holy John of the Ladder, pray to God for us.

Today is already the Third Sunday in the Holy Lent. It is the Sunday of the Veneration of the holy and life-giving Cross. The Holy Cross is decorated with flowers and placed out for veneration by the faithful.
 
Respect and reverence for the Cross is as old as Christianity itself. St. John Chrysostom wrote in the fourth century.  "In the middle of the Holy Fast, the Church takes the holy and life-giving Cross and presents it to the people for veneration. Today is the day of veneration of the Holy Cross." Another Father, Cyril of Jerusalem, wrote this.  "While the Fast weakens the body and makes it useless for sin, the pure and spiritual veneration of the Holy Cross lifts up our minds to the Kingdom which is above us." The veneration of the Cross always reminds us of our Lord. It reminds us of his death. And it reminds us of the hope of the resurrection.

The Cross is for us the symbol of Christian duty. It shows us how to act. Our duty is a cross. Our duty is to follow the exact teaching of our Lord. "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." People in our day are not at all willing to bear burdens and crosses. Yet they are more than willing when it comes to rights and demands. In so many places in this world, with high-sounding expressions and empty words, people demand their rights!  Orthodox Christianity is not about rights. Orthodox Christianity involves duty. Christ said: "Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."

While we can and should sacrifice our rights and privileges, we must never shirk our duties. How often is the opposite the case. Many so easily forget their duties. But they never seem to want to go without their rights. Think of what has happened to many children these days. They come to their parents and tell them. "You must send me to college. I must go away for a vacation, I need a car, I must have money." But let a parent ask something of his child? What is often the reponse? "This is my life; it is none of your business." The word "responsibility" seldom exists in the vocabulary of a child.
But life is a duty. It is a cross, the Cross of the Lord. He set us an example to follow. "The Lord ascended His Cross first," writes Chrysostom, "leaving us an example, a pattern for all who would follow." And here is the curious thing about how we respond to this. We think that the Cross of Christ is so heavy. We think the Cross of Christ is a road so steep. I would expect to hear complaints on why we cannot accept the burden of the Cross of Christ. I rarely hear complaints about the Cross of Christ. But what do I hear complaints about? I hear complains about the cost of gasoline. I hear complaints about the demands on our time. I hear complaints about medical issues. I hear complaints constantly about worldly things we don’t like. Those crosses seem very heavy, indeed.

Christ assures us that His Cross is light. He promises to elevate all who lift and accept that Precious Cross. Christ calls all who are weary of their worldly crosses to take up His light yoke. "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

We do not say that it is easy to be a Christian, especially an Orthodox Christian.  For sure, the way of the Cross has its difficulties. Yet the way of the Cross leads to the Resurrection. On the other hand, the way of the world leads to destruction. At first secular crosses offer pleasure. But in the depth of enjoyment is hidden pain. Also, we must remember that we are not called upon to travel the way of the Cross alone. Our Lord Himself is with us every step of the way. Just as Simon of Cyrene helped Jesus with His Cross, even so does the Lord promise His help to us. Just as Simon helped the Lord, so the Lord helps all who sincerely wish to carry His Cross. Those who bear the crosses of this world, however, are without help. They are alone. They are deserted.

Those who bear the Lord's cross have nothing to fear. He himself will walk beside you every step of the way. Saint Anthony was suffering much from temptation in the desert. When it finally passed, he prayed, "Lord, where were You in my hour of temptation?" And the Lord answered, "Anthony, I was closer to you at that time than ever before." We read in the Acts of the Apostles that when persecution broke out in Jerusalem, and the Christians were scattered all over the Mediterranean world, "the hand of the Lord was with them." Saint Peter adds, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God. So that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your care upon him, for He cares for you."

If you are struggling to bear some sort of worldly cross, throw it away. And throw it away from you quickly. Sooner or later it is bound to lead you to catastrophe. Do not be deceived — being bound with earthly crosses will certainly end in pain. Today venerate with humility and piety the honorable wood of the Cross. Ask God for the Cross’s protection in all circumstances. He who ascended that Cross will give you the perseverance to bear His Cross with joy. He who used the Cross as a place of triumph will free you from the cross under which you have been struggling. Learn with John Chrysostom the meaning of the Holy Cross. He writes, "Through the (Wood of the Life-Giving) Cross, all things are redeemed and become new."

We adore Thy Cross O Christ, and Thy Holy Resurrection we praise and glorify.

Have you ever misplaced something that you really wanted? Maybe you were working with some tools. You lay one down. You go to get it again – and, for the life of you, you don’t know where it is. Or you walk into a room and stop. You have no idea of why you went in there! Maybe when you were interrupted in a sentence, you can’t remember what you were talking about. There have been times when Pani would ask me to get something for her. By the time I got only a few steps away, I’d have to turn around and ask her again what it was she wanted.

It was the ancient Greek scientist Archimedes who ran naked through the streets shouting, in Greek, “Eureka!” He had just discovered a principle of physics. He did it while taking a bath. He ran out shouting, “Eureka!  I have found it!” Maybe we are not as enthusiastic when we find what we’re looking for. But we may be just as happy.

This same word, “Eureka,” is used three times in our reading from the Holy Gospels today. First, when Jesus found Philip. Second, when Philip found Nathaniel. And third, when Philip says to Nathaniel, “We have found Him…Jesus, son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Philip had been selected by Jesus to be one of His disciples. Jesus said simply to Philip, “Follow me.” Philip got up from whatever he was doing. And he followed Jesus. We are told that all of this happened even before Jesus performed one miracle. He had followers just because He asked for them. But there had to have been more. Philip, Andrew and Peter had to have seen something in Jesus. It wasn’t amazing miracles. It was something that touched them so profoundly that they could walk over to Nathaniel and shout, “Eureka! We have found Him!”

Today is the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy. It is today that the Holy Orthodox Church solemnly calls to mind its victory over heresies. She gratefully remembers all who fought for the Orthodox faith in word, writing, teaching, suffering or godly living. Holy Orthodoxy is a great treasure. Like many others, I am one who, like the man who sold all when he found treasure in his field, gave up all for this Holy Faith. It is worth selling all that one has and buying that field. And so it is true, “Eureka!  I have found it!”

In a sermon given on the Sunday of Orthodoxy in 1903, these are the words of Bishop Tikhon. He was Bishop of the Aleutian Islands and North America. He preached these words in the Cathedral in San Francisco. “Keeping the day of Orthodoxy, Orthodox people ought to remember that it is their sacred duty to stand firm in their Orthodox faith. And it is their duty to keep it carefully. For us it is a precious treasure. We were born and raised in it. All the important events of our life are related to it. And it is ever ready to give us its help and blessing in all our needs. It supplies us with strength, good cheer and consolation. It heals us. It purifies us. It saves us.”

The Orthodox Faith is the faith of our Fathers. The Apostles themselves, along with many martyrs suffered for this Faith. Many have shed tears along with their blood for this Faith. It has been said that this Orthodox Faith ought to be as dear to us as the pupils of our eyes. How quickly, though, many lose the Faith in this country of freedom in lifestyle and creed! So many these days judge the practices of our Faith as “old fashioned.” They claim that the Holy Orthodox Faith is not in keeping with modern ways of thought. Surely Orthodoxy, they say, can not be accepted by educated people.

They are the same ones who usually lose their faith after doing away with the long-standing customs and traditions of the Faith. These include customs like praying before and after meals. Or praying both morning and evening. They reject keeping icons in the home. They object to the wearing of the Holy Cross. They forget church holidays and fast days, or turn them into secular feasts. These same people soon lose the habit of regular Sunday attendance at Divine Liturgy. They no longer go to Confession. They marry outside the Church, and delay the baptism of their children – if they are baptized at all. Soon the ties with the Holy Orthodox faith are broken. But – when death draws near? Call for the priest.

How often do I hear that the Church needs to keep up with modern times? “These are busy times. Our time is precious.” Thus concerns of the world are put first. If there is time leftover, it might go to the Church. But probably not. Someone sent me an email this week that included several modern ideas about the Church. One said, “Isn't it strange how we need to know about an event for Church 2-3 weeks before the day so we can include it in our agenda, but we can adjust it for other events in the last minute?”

In that same sermon, Bishop Tikhon asks this. “Who is to work for the spread of the Orthodox Faith? Who is to work for the increase of the children of the Orthodox Church? Pastors and missionaries, you answer. You are right. But are they alone?” St. Paul wisely compares the Church to a body. Now the life of a body is shared by all its members. So it ought to be in the life of the Church also. Everyone has something to offer of the Faith to friends, family and neighbors. If only in conversation, or in allowing others to see your faith in action – this helps. Is it a fasting day and you are out to eat with friends? Might they ask you why you are eating only vegetables? Here is a chance to witness to what you believe and practice. Is there a Divine Liturgy scheduled on the same night as a club meeting or sports event? Excusing yourself with an explanation of your faith is an opportunity. The Holy Orthodox Faith is the foundation on which all of life is built. Those around us will not hear of it unless we tell them and show them.

God has found us. We have found Orthodoxy. Eureka! May it be said of us that someone else found the Treasure because of us.

When Christ came the first time, He came as a very humble infant to the cave of Bethlehem. The second time He will come in His glory. The first time He came many people did not notice His arrival. Instead of giving Him a throne to sit on they put Him on the Cross. Next time He will come sitting on the throne of His glory to judge the living and the dead.
 
Upon His first arrival angels escorted His entrance into the world. Upon His second coming angels will accompany Him again.  “And all the angels with Him.” St. Paul more vividly describes the picture of His second coming. He writes this to the Thessalonians. “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with the cry of command, with the angels' call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.” Why will He be escorted by the angels? St. John Chrysostom answers: “Because the angels brought to men the messages and commandments of God which concern their salvation.” In other words, the angels will be present as witnesses to the great court. What will follow thereafter? The resurrection of all the dead. All the peoples of the world, everyone since Adam and Eve will be gathered before Him.

The resurrection of the dead is a universal hope of all people. Every liturgy we say in the Creed, “I wait for the resurrection of the dead.” The Prophet Isaiah foresaw the resurrection of the dead. With a hopeful voice he cries out, “The dead shall rise and they that are in the tombs shall be raised.” When St. Paul visited Athens, he preached the truth of the resurrection to the Greek philosophers. “God,” he said, “has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness. (He will judge) by that Man whom He had ordained.” The dying philosopher Socrates discussed with his disciples the life that will continue beyond the grave. St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept.” The Prophet Ezekiel received an order from God to preach to the dry human bones. “Ye dry bones hear the word of the Lord.” With these words the bones began to move and join each other. Ezekiel continued. “So I prophesied as the Lord commanded me: And it came to pass while I was prophesizing that, behold, there was a shaking and the bones approached each other one to his joint.”

So all humanity will be raised from the dead. And then what? Then will follow the separation of the sheep from the goats. Palestine's sheep were usually white, and the goats usually black. What were sheep like in the hearing of Jesus’ first audience? They were seen as good and gentle. Sheep were free givers of milk and wool – without protesting. And the goats? They were seen as undomesticated, rough, aggressive and destructive. One of the Church Fathers said, “Goats do not walk straight paths but deviate and walk dangerous ways.”

And what is the basis for this separation? It will be based is love — not knowledge, education, science, wealth nor status. It will be based on the love of man to his fellowmen. The first group, the sheep, will hear, “I was hungry and you gave me food.”  The second group, the goats, will hear, “I was hungry and you gave me no food … gave me no drink … did not clothe me … did not visit me.” Blessed are the first who were full of love. Cursed are the second who did not have any trace of love but lived only for themselves. The first inherit and the second are disinherited from the eternal reward. Simply, that which each sowed, that will each reap. The reward falls fully on their own choices. Love, or don’t love. Care, or don’t care. It’s each one’s choice.

Christ does not demand great and difficult things of us except love and understanding of the needs of others. And here, “love” has a specific meaning. It is not a romantic notion of feeling and emotion. Love is “giving.” Love is “offering.” This love has no limits for anyone. This love is the same for rich or poor. The rich gives out of his wealth. The poor offers even of his lacking funds. Those who have nothing to give or offer can extend a glass of cold water. They can offer the sick companionship. Sometimes it happens that this kind of offering is the worthiest, because the offering is like the “two mites” of the widow. And what did Christ say of the poor widow who gave her last? “This poor widow has put more in than all that has been cast into the treasury.”

So the sheep then protest. “Lord, when did we see Thee hungry and feed Thee, or thirsty and gave Thee drink?” The goats also protest. “Lord, when did we see Thee hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick, imprisoned and did not minister to Thee?” Prophet Isaiah answers this question for us. “For my ways are not your ways says the Lord. But just as the heaven is far from the earth, so are my ways far from your ways, and my thoughts from your thoughts.”

God’s ways are not our ways. Both the sheep and the goats don’t understand what has happened. The goats looked for Christ in their lives and could not find Him. They failed to find the person of Christ they could minister to. The sheep, on the other hand, didn’t realize that Christ is to be found in every human being.  When they shared that cup of water. When they donated that clothing. When they visited that sick person or that prison inmate. They were loving Christ. They needed to look no further than the next-door neighbor to find Christ. They needed to look no further than the person sitting next to you to find Christ.
 
And so is the simple judgment at the end of time. It is not hard. It is not scary. Everyone of all time will be there. They will all be judged by the same Judge. They will all be judged by the same standard. Did you find Christ in everyone you met? Did you find Christ in everyone who was in need? If so, then, come, enter into life eternal.

When I was young, I thought a lot about the story of the prodigal son. I imagined what it would be like to run away from home. I didn’t think it was too cool. The son got what he deserved. I thought then that the story was correctly titled. It was about a prodigal. He was reckless. He was wasteful. He was uncontrollable. All those words mean prodigal. That’s what I thought when I was young. The story of the prodigal son was rightly named.

Later in my life I became a father. That is, not just a priest Father. I was the father of two daughters. Reading this same story as a father, however, changed my mind. I think the story ought to be re-titled. It should be called “The Loving Father.”

Let’s look at the father in the story we call the Prodigal Son. The father is fearless. He takes the risk of offering his sons their inheritance before his death. They could have taken everything!  When the younger son decides to take him up on the proposal, the father does not go back on his promise. He doesn’t try to stop him. He respects his son’s freedom of choice.  How many of us could do such a thing?  How many of us, when we have the chance, approve the freedom of someone else to choose? How many of us approve those choices even if the choices are opposed to our own values and interests?  Most of us are afraid of freedom. But not this father. He demonstrates fearlessness of the highest quality. So high it is divine.  He is the perfect image of God. After all, God cannot be pleased or displeased.  God is always the same in all things. As it rains on the just and the unjust, so is God toward the obedient and the disobedient alike. We are meant to see, of course, in this father an image of God.

Notice how much different from the father is the older brother.  The younger son returns. He repents of his sins. The father graciously embraces him. What does the older son do? He complains.  “How could you take him back like that?”  The older son believes that the father is far too generous.  To us this great generosity is the source of our hope. God is too generous, too welcoming, too inclusive.  Why, God may even accept us, though we may not deserve it. Acceptance is sometimes very hard to believe. The older brother cannot believe it.  There are always some who base their belief on a God who is angry and easily offended. But how can this be?  The Gospels show us a very different God in the life of Jesus Christ. In Christ we see the living, breathing example of God. And, like Christ Himself, we see a God who is overly generous.

Thus the father rejoices that his son is home!  And the son returns with the miraculous words “I am sorry” on his lips. But, long before he hears those words, the father runs to embrace him. He races to his son even while he is still a long way off. The young son barely has an opportunity to get out his prepared lines. Remember what Christ says elsewhere?  “The angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner who repents.”  The older brother certainly was no angel.

Our God is generous to a fault. And we are made in the image of God!  Do we show the same generosity as this father? More often than not we don’t. We don’t show this generosity or acceptance because we give in to the temptation of self-interest.  “Don’t you dare stand in my way,” we shout.  Or maybe we think like Madonna who said, “Everyone is entitled to my opinion.”  But we do not need to go down that path. We can, if we choose, keep those negative thoughts and feelings from carrying us where we do not wish to go.  But we must catch them quickly before they do so. We must catch them so that we can make the wise choice of turning aside from the temptation to simple self-interest. 

St. Maximos the Confessor was a seventh-century Orthodox monk, theologian, and scholar. Listen to this Church Father: "The one who is perfect in love and has reached the summit of detachment knows no distinction between (what is) one's own and (what is) another's. (He makes no distinction) between faithful and unfaithful, between slave and freeman, or indeed between male and female. But having risen above the tyranny of the passions and looking to the one nature of men he regards all equally. And (he) is equally disposed toward all. For in him there is neither Greek nor Jew, neither male nor female, neither slave nor freeman, but Christ is everything and in everything."

Who among us does not desire to live like that?  That is what the Fathers called passionlessness. That is sinlessness. The person who has passed beyond judgment of any kind is one who has seen God. The one who lives like that is truly free. Nothing evil can touch him or her.  This is what I see in the Prodigal Son’s father.  A free man. A deified man.

What is it that keeps us from being generous, loving people in every situation of life? It is fear of losing something that we cling to too much? That includes things like money, reputation, station in life. That fear, that clinging is just what the father of the prodigal son did NOT have. After all, God knows no fear. God has no self-interest. God will never lose money. God’s reputation is never threatened. God’s station in life is permanent and eternal. Therefore God knows no offense and is completely generous. 

The Loving Father is the perfect image of God. The Loving Father is the second call to the coming Great Lent. We heard the call of the Publican and Pharisee last week. The publican’s humility is a quality we seek. The Loving Father’s generosity is yet another quality that should be ours.  Great Lent begins two weeks from tomorrow. Two weeks from today we observe Forgiveness Sunday. All of these are reminders that our lives are in a constant state of change. We need to change somehow every day of our life. Great Lent is an opportunity to change from pride to humility. It is a chance to move, like the Loving Father, from self-protection to God-like generosity.

After hearing today’s Gospel, I don’t think many will band together to form a new chapter of Pharisees. On the other hand, we might hoist the publican on our shoulders too quickly. This tax-collector, the publican, gets our cheers. The Pharisee is the villain. It might be good to examine the villainy of this villain. We need to do that because, if anything, the Pharisee was religious.  And we? If we aren’t religious, we are nothing.

Who were the Pharisees? In the 23rd chapter of Matthew, Christ pays them high tribute. “The scribes and Pharisees, “ He says, “sit in Moses’ seat. Whatever, therefore, they tell you to do, do it.” The Pharisees were religious zealots. They upheld every tradition of the Law. Christ Himself came, not to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it. That is, Christ came not to undermine the good work of such people as the Pharisees. He came to demand that not one “jot or tittle” of the Law fall to the ground.

Pharisees were upstanding members of the community. If you wanted to improve the educational system, you probably saw a Pharisee. If you wanted to improve the sewer system, you probably saw a Pharisee. If you wanted to step up police protection, your probably would see a Pharisee. Development of community life would find the Pharisees at work and responsible.  When a Pharisee said he was not an extortioner, he told the truth. When he said he was not an adulterer, he was not lying. Society in those days, as in our day, might welcome more people minded like the Pharisees.

The Pharisees were not priests. They were lay people. If you wanted someone for the building committee, you probably saw a Pharisee. If you needed a Sunday School teacher, you would probably see a Pharisee. If money was what you needed, here was your man. He gave tithes of all he owned. Notice: “all” that he owned. He did not just give ten percent of net income. He gave 10% of all he owned. If you wanted an example of modest and wise living – here was your man. It is said that once we give tithes of all we own, and actually fast twice a week – only then can we be critical of the Pharisees.

So what was the problem here with this Pharisee we see going up to the Temple to pray? Having worked for many years with people addicted to substances like drugs and alcohol, one thing is common to them all. They usually do not recognize their addiction. They live in denial. So the Pharisee. He denied that there could be anything wrong with him. He had a wonderful list of good things. He kept the Law. He fasted. He tithed. He prayed. And this list kept him from seeing himself as a human being.

The Pharisee, as any other creature of God, was given high expectations by the Creator. Humans were made to fear God. God intended for humans to walk in His ways. God intended his creatures to love Him and serve Him with all their heart and soul.  There would be no bribe taking. There would be only loving service to those in need. There would be no compromise. There would be only justice for the oppressed. There would be no holding back. There would always be enough food, clothing and shelter for everyone.

The Pharisee, however, put a great distance between himself and every other human being. Remember the words of Christ? “He trusted in himself and despised others.” Is this not the exact opposite of what life in Christ is all about? We have just come out of the season of the Nativity of Christ. We celebrated the fact that God, eternal and without limit, became a human being. In Christ the distance between creature and Creator is reduced to zero. Thus also the distance between creature and creature. The distance between every human being, through Christ, is reduced to zero as well.

Each time we serve the Divine Liturgy we are reminded of that. God has designed this feast for sinners. This Liturgy is for creatures who have gone astray. To attend this banquet, to feast on the Body and Blood of Christ, is to admit that we are creatures. And that we have gone astray. The Divine Liturgy invites us to banquet on the Body and Blood of Christ with the very people we may despise. We feast with those we have placed at a distance from ourselves. In the feast we are all brought together as one. This is done by our common sharing in the human nature of Christ. Christ’s is a nature now shared by every created human being. We share this common nature in Christ. We share it with the poor, the neglected. We share it with the rich, with strangers. We share the same nature in Christ with tax-collectors. And, yes, we share the same nature in Christ even with Pharisees.

Christ feeds us often with His holy Body and precious Blood. It is just like our regular eating of meals. For this Holy Communion reminds us that we are like other people. Our stations in life make us neither higher nor lower than another. Our financial standing is without consequence. Our common nature is the very human nature of Christ.

We hold before ourselves the Pharisee today. We ask ourselves if we do, in fact, trust ourselves and despise others.  We ask if we put any distance between our own human nature and that of anyone else. If we do, it is time to, “with faith and love, come forward.” Share in the Body and the Blood. Be reminded again and again that we are all one in Christ as he has made Himself one with our nature.

Then go up to the Temple to pray. Take a place near to the tax-collector. Shorten the distance between yourself and the person or persons you might despise. Only then, will you go back to your house justified in the sight of God.

Today is one of those January days. I’m not speaking of weather. I am not saying that I don’t know that today is February 6. The month of January was named for the Roman god Janus. Janus is pictured as a head with two faces. One face looks forward. The other looks backward. Thus the name for the month January. It is a month for looking back on the year past. It is also the month of looking ahead to the new year. In the Church, today is one of those January days.

Today falls within the Feast of The Meeting. This feast remembers the meeting of the infant Jesus with Symeon in the Temple, forty days after the Nativity. The feast speaks of January-type things. The old is past. Symeon and Anna, elderly, faithful watchers for the coming of Christ may now “depart in peace.” They have seen the Christ of God. And with the meeting of the New with the old, the new age of Christ has begun.  This change from old to new, this turnaround, this two-facedness – we find in the person of Zacchaeus. For today is also Zacchaeus Sunday.

Zacchaeus was a marked man. As a hated tax collector, Zacchaeus had cooperated with the hated enemy – for a profit.  The Romans did not collect their own taxes. They found collaborators from within. These Jews were much more willing to fleece their neighbors. They charged more than was due and pocketed the difference. Thus a man who wouldn’t blink at helping himself to others’ money, did not care what they thought of what he did when Christ came by. He climbed up into a tree to see this Visitor.

I wonder if ever before in this tax collector’s life a religious leader had called him by name. Or much less probable, asked to sit with him at dinner.  To associate with a tax collector in this way was strictly forbidden by Jewish Law.  Jesus Christ took an enormous risk when he offered to go to dinner with Zacchaeus. The onlookers reacted instantly. “They all complained, ‘He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.’” This was not the first, nor the last time they people would complain against Jesus. Here Christ cut right through the jumble of rules to get to Zacchaeus. In doing this, Christ was only previewing what he would do that would lead Him to the Cross. The people’s complaint turned much worse. “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”

So Christ shows up at Zacchaeus’s home. We can assume that Zacchaeus, Chief Tax Collector, was the perfect host. A great feast was served. All the social niceties were observed. Then Zacchaeus makes his short (but probably well-practiced) speech. “Behold, Lord,” he began. “The half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” What wonderful words! But was this Zacchaeus trying to hustle Jesus? Wasn’t he acting just like he underhandedly went after each of his clients?

Jesus does not let Zacchaeus’s speech hang out there for long.  He moves to higher ground. “And Jesus said to him, ‘Today, salvation has come to this house. He also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost.’” Jesus is not some big shot guest in the house of the chief tax collector. He is not some curious rabbi being entertained by an upper class socialite. No – Jesus Christ is salvation that has come to the house of Zacchaeus. This hated tax collector represents all of the human race in need of what Jesus brings.  He brings salvation. And what exactly does that mean – salvation? 

The earliest of the Church Fathers were perfectly clear about what salvation meant and still means for us today. St. Justin, the second century martyr, said this. “But there is no other way than this. To be come acquainted with this Christ. To be washed in the fountain spoken of by Isaiah for the remission of sins. And for the rest, to live sinless lives.”  Zacchaeus himself has received salvation. Christ called Zacchaeus a son of Abraham. Not only was Zacchaeus like the Patriarch in that he believed and was counted righteous by faith. But also, like Abraham, Zacchaeus now used his money to be generous to the poor.

Christ did not say that Zacchaeus had always been a son of Abraham, but that he now is. Before, he was a chief publican and tax collector. Before, he bore no resemblance to that Abraham, and was certainly not his son. Remember how Christ had silenced the crowd? They had complained that Christ had gone to be the guest of a sinful man. And what was Christ’s response? “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
And Zacchaeus was lost. But having received salvation at the hand of Christ, Zacchaeus is now a changed person. He gives half of his goods to the poor. And if he has taken any thing from any man by false accusation, he restores it to him fourfold.

The Church Fathers tell us exactly what this means. If anyone repents and follows a path that is opposite to his former way of life, he heals his former sins. That is, he receives salvation and is called a son of Abraham. Like Abraham, he also goes out of his land and away from his former sin. He leaves his old self behind. He rejects his former condition. Thus, when he left his old home, that is, when he went out of himself and changed, he found salvation, as did Abraham. The old becomes new.

Despite the fact that today is February 6, it is a January Day. Zacchaeus Sunday is the first call to Great Lent.  The actual start of Great Lent is still a month away.  But today announces what is to come.  Great Lent is the time to renew our relationship with God.  It is the time to look away from sins and look ahead to Christ with our whole hearts.  No matter where we are in life.  It is time. Run after the crowds.  Climb a tree if you must.  But seek out Christ and what he has to offer.  For it is only in Christ we find salvation.

“The three great luminaries of the Holy Trinity … enlightening the universe with the beams of their divine doctrine.” (Tropar for the Feast of the Three Hierarchs)

This is the praise that the Church heaps upon those great fathers of the Church we honor today. They are known as “The Three Hierarchs.” They are St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian, and St. John Chrysostom. The Church’s praise, however, does not end with this verse from the Tropar.

Here are some other phrases, gleaned from the Church’s prayer for today. The three are called “those who have the manner of the Apostles.” They are “the teachers of the world.” They are called “instruments of grace,” “the depths of wisdom,” “the oceanic sources of the spirit.” With poetic majesty the three are called “the living water which produces the brightest diamonds.” As well, “the trees that bear the fruit of joy and gladness.” And “the coals that burn with an unquenchable fire.” If that is not enough, hear these. They are “the castles of faith.” They are “the expert healers of the sickness of soul and body.”

This should tell us something about the amazing lives the three bishops led. It should tell us of their impact on the Christian faith. So great was the contribution of each father, that selecting how and when to celebrate them became a struggle. Some seven centuries after these holy fathers died, the Church was faced with just this dilemma. For groups had formed around the memory of each of the saints. Each one tried to have their saint—either Basil, Gregory, or Chrysostom—regarded as the most important father.

Thus we had Basilians, Gregorians, and Johannites quarreling over how to remember their own saints. The solution was given by Bishop John of Euchaita. Bishop John had a vision of the Three Hierarchs. They were standing before the throne of God as equals. They commanded the Bishop to write a single service for the three of them. This he did. The Church then recognized these three bishops as the supreme teachers of the Church. Yes, as the tropar states, they are the “three great luminaries of the Three-Sun Divinity.” Each of these fathers contributed his own individual gifts to the life of the Church. Each spoke and wrote at a time when the Church was embroiled in heresy and controversy within.

Basil was a father who was a man of action. His ministry was most definitely one of action. He founded the first orphanage as well as hospitals and other human service centers. His classmate, Gregory, most definitely earned the title of “theologian.” For he was “a visionary of the Church, who, becoming captive to the uncreated light of the divine glory, made the vision of God the first aim and supreme value of his life.”

Thus we see the distinction between Basil and Gregory. Basil sought to take the “eternal and unquenchable light of God” and shine it on the created world through vigorous activity rooted in Christian love. This was at a time that the world was just beginning to recognize Christianity. It was coming to know Christians as people of love, care and service for one another. Gregory sought to bring all of creation upward toward the light that is Christ. It was his desire that humanity now take its first step towards a mystical communion with God.

And then there is John, the Golden Mouth. “Golden Mouth” is what the word Chrysostom means. John completes the perfect threesome. He combines the best of both Basil and Gregory. He combined the worldly activity of Basil with the heavenly teaching of Gregory. Chrysostom was at once “practical and theoretical, a pastor and an ascetic, an erudite scholar, and a dedicated believer.” Nowhere do we see this better than in the divine liturgy which bears this great saint’s name. Here, in this Divine Liturgy, is the place where heaven and earth meet.

The influence of these three great Bishops on our Church is very great. Each was fully educated in the philosophy writings of their age. While some Christians walked away from the world denouncing it, the Three Hierarchs seized the world and confronted it. They did not give in to the world. They transformed it with the light of the resurrection. As no one had done before, Basil, Gregory, and Chrysostom took philosophy, science and other worldly disciplines and made them holy. They showed us that education and learning can be used to God’s glory. Not just for worldly gain.

Basil, Gregory, and Chrysostom are models of Christian life for us. Taken together, the Three Hierarchs show us what it is to be a Christian. We must learn our faith. Then we must engage the world with it. After all, our faith is not an artifact or antiquity to be carted out on Sundays. Our faith is a living flame that burns within us. It ought to move us to live in the world as Christians. It ought to prevent us from giving in to the norms and standards of modern Western life.

Where Basil calls us to action, Gregory the Theologian calls us to reflection and communion with God. Chrysostom teaches us that you can never separate faith from life. Our faith is not meant to be read, or simply thought about. Rather it is meant to be lived.

Such is the importance of this day. The Three Hierarchs shine forth from the fourth century to this very moment. They put life in today’s Gospel. That Gospel calls for us to “shines our light before others that we may give glory to our Father in heaven.” Few have shown forth that light brighter than the Three Holy Hierarchs.

In the verses just preceding today’s reading from the Gospel, Jesus speaks to his disciples. “We are going up to Jerusalem.  Everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock Him, insult Him, spit on Him, flog Him and kill Him. On the third day He will rise again.” Now, we are told, the disciples did not understand any of this. They were blind to His meaning.  They just did not know what Jesus was talking about.

It is the third time in the Gospel of Luke that Jesus predicted His coming death. For Jesus is on a mission of mercy. He’s headed to Jerusalem, where he goes of his own will. And the caravan of people that are following Him is growing at each stop. In today’s reading from the Gospel, Jesus is now approaching the city of Jericho.  There He meets blind a blind man.

Now blindness was a very common problem in Palestine. Generally, one who was blind was never healed. Besides, there was also a cultural and religious stigma against blindness. We see this especially in the account of another man who was healed of his blindness in John 9.  There the disciples ask Jesus a question: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  Did those who were blind deserve their blindness? Many people thought blindness was a punishment for sin. It was a punishment either because of the sin of the individual himself.  Or it was a punishment for something the parents did. As a result, blind people were often ignored or made fun of. They were surely cast aside to the margin of society.

Blindness is really a picture of our spiritual condition. Paul says that “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel.”  We, too, are spiritually blind. And there is nothing we can do to change that on our own. This man knew he was blind. Everyone knew it. Many of us, however, act like we’re not spiritually blind.  We think we are o.k.  We know. We can see. The truth is, we must admit that we are just as blind in a spiritually as this man was physically

Then the blind man cries out. “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!”  “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!” Every Orthodox Christian should know this prayer. This is, of course, the Jesus prayer. “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!”  The blind man was expressing his belief that Jesus the Messiah had the power.  What the blind man needed was not simply to see.  He needed the mercy of Jesus.  That would heal his blindness.  Yet the crowd tried to silence him.  And when they did, we are told, “He shouted all the more. ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’”

 
Would you shout out for Christ to change you?  Have you ever put into words the cry of your heart? Have you ever verbalized your deepest needs? Have you ever shouted out for mercy like this blind man?  Do you realize that at every Liturgy you do so over 100 times?  Add to that the “Lord, have mercy”s of the hours, and that number jumps to 200.  These “Lord, have mercy”s are all responses to requests made on our behalf by the priest. 

And what is it we pray for? We pray for peace, health, for our Patriarch and our Bishop and for many other concerns.  It does not matter what the concern is. What is it you want from God? It may be a personal concern. It may be a request for someone else. It may be huge. It may be a very small request. But, no matter what it is, the response is the same when the request is made. “Lord, have mercy.”  Whatever we need, whatever Bartimaeus needed, he first needed God’s mercy.  “Lord, have mercy.” “Kyrie Eleison.” “Hospodi pumiloj.”

So Jesus had mercy on Bartimaeus. But what happens when one can see, truly see, for the first time? Scientists tell us that recognizing what one sees is a skill learned over many years. Like a young child growing up. Or when cornea transplants allow a blind person to see for the first time. What is it you see? What are you looking at? Some never learn to really see. 

From a California newspaper: “On November 30, 1991, fierce winds from a freakish dust storm triggered a massive freeway pileup along Interstate 5 near Coalinga, California. At least 14 people died and dozens more were injured as topsoil whipped by 50 mile-per-hour winds reduced visibility to zero. The afternoon holocaust left a three-mile trail of twisted and burning vehicles, some stacked on top of one another 100 yards off the side of the freeway. Unable to see their way, dozens of motorists drove blindly ahead into disaster.”

Physical sight is never enough. Spiritual sight, granted by the mercy of God is everything. It allows us to make better decisions about what we do with what we see.

Our whole Orthodox Christian spirituality is based on God’s mercy.  Without God having first taken some action in His created world, we would be nowhere.  And when humanity chose to follow its own path to God in the garden, God could have just let us go.  But He did not.  He had mercy.  May we ever be aware of our own spiritual blindness.  May we ever acknowledge who we truly are.  Where we truly stand. Where we truly can safely go. And how we can truly get there. May we ever know the hugeness of God’s mercy. 

“Lord Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us.”

It’s fascinating to me how a married couple can communicate with a very small number of words. Husbands, imagine this scene with me. You’ve been invited to a dinner.  After spending the day working out in the yard, you dash into the house and get cleaned up. You go to your closet.  There you realize that you’re not quite sure about what is right to wear for this function. You’re not sure if it’s completely casual.  Maybe it’s a little dressier affair. But you find an outfit that you think will work.  You put in on.  You comb your hair.  You get the car keys.  You go out to the living room.  And there’s your wife.  She looks at you, and smiles.  But it’s not the sort of smile that says, "Darling, I really love you." It’s more of a sort of a polite smile. She looks at you and says five words to you. Just five. She says, "Is that what you’re wearing?" And you know how to respond. You go back to the bedroom and you change clothes!

In today’s reading from the Holy Gospels, Jesus tells a story that has to do with what to wear.  He even talks about wearing the wrong thing.  "The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son.  He sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding.”  This wedding feast that the king prepared for his son was to be the “mother of all feasts.” Jesus was picturing the most elaborate celebration possible. This was the ultimate party.

But those who had been invited wouldn’t come.  His invited guests were too busy with other things.  But it gets worse. “And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies.  He destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.’" The king is furious. He punishes those rebellious people. 

Then he decides to extend the invitation to this feast to anyone and everyone who wanted to come. "’Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests."

 
According to the teaching of our Father in the faith St. John Chrysostom, the king in this parable is God.  The invited guests were His chosen people, the Jews, who had already been called by him. The servants God sent to them were prophets, John the Baptist, Jesus himself, and the apostles. John the Baptist was rejected and beheaded. Jesus was rejected and crucified.  And the apostles and prophets were rejected and persecuted, many being put to death. When the Jews rejected the kingdom, the invitation was then extended to anyone who would come.

"But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen." The king came in to see how the banquet was going, and he spotted someone without a wedding garment.  Again, He was furious.

In those days the king supplied the wedding garment for his guests. All they  had to do was put it on. But here was a man who didn’t even make the small effort involved in putting on the proper clothing.  It’s important for us to remember that accepting an invitation means accepting the terms of the invitation. Suppose you go to eat at a restaurant which has a sign out front.  It says, “Coat and tie required.”  You don’t go wearing your jeans and T-shirt and expect to get a good reception at the door. Accepting an invitation means accepting the terms of the invitation.  A lot of people want to be a part of the feast.  But they don’t want to submit to God’s terms.   It is the difference between “joining the church” and being the Church.

It’s true that the door of salvation is open to all.  But when we come through that door we must put off the old and put on the new.  Being part of the Body of Christ is not just a gift. It is a responsibility.  We cannot go on living the lives we lived before we became followers of Christ. We must be clothed in a new purity and a new holiness. 

In the end, Jesus said, "Many are called, but few are chosen.” There’s another way of saying this. Everybody is invited. But very few wind up at the table. Why? It certainly isn’t God’s fault.  St. Paul tells us that God wants all people to be saved.  God loves every human being with the same intensity of love, and wishes that all may come to him. God has prepared the feast for everyone.  But He’s not going to force anyone to eat and drink. If you miss out on the party and you go hungry, you have only yourself to blame. Everyone has the opportunity to enter the kingdom of God. Everyone has the opportunity to become more and more God-like.  Everyone can pray, serve, come to Liturgy, give to others.

"Many are called, but few are chosen.”  After all, only a few will first of all accept the invitation to enter the kingdom.  And even fewer will be serious enough to clothe themselves in that goodness of God Himself.

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

I once saw a cartoon strip in which the leading character is in a courtroom standing before the judge. The judge says to him, “It’s guilty or not guilty. You can’t plead I gotta be me.” I found the cartoon more than just humorous. The strip touches a reality in our culture. Today we often place self-expression as the highest good. Jesus warned his followers to beware of the “wicked and adulterous generation” in which they lived. And then I wonder what he would call our generation. We have long passed the simple sins of which Jesus may have been talking. This generation is into acts of violence, sexual addiction and perversion that had never been thought of in Jesus day. We even build entertainment – television programs and movies – around such perversity.

And yet, we seem to no longer call anything sin these days. What would happen if Jesus Himself came into New York or Atlanta? He would stand up before the crowds and tell them they were a part of a corrupt and perverted generation? What if he took 15 second spots during the evening news to call the nation to repentance? How would it go over? There would be calls for him to get out of people’s bedrooms and mind his own business. They would say he should not try to impose his personal morality on other people. That is, that’s what they would say before someone eventually assassinated him.

What is the truth that Jesus is trying to get across when he comes calling for repentance? Why do we need to repent? Why do we need to change? After all, that is what repentance means. It is a 180 degree turn from where we are to where God would have us be. Well, we need to repent first of all, because we have a problem. This is the hard part. The hardest thing we have to do is to admit that we have a problem. Doctors experience this with patients. I have known people who would go to the doctor and purposely hide things from him. They would not tell him the truth, because they were afraid of what he would say. Then they would become angry with the doctor because he was not helping them.

Financial counselors experience this also. People go for help and hide some of their debt or their financial practices. Counselors and psychotherapists encounter the same thing when people deliberately don’t tell them significant things that are necessary for the counselor to know in order to help them. So it is no surprise that when people come to Christ Himself. They try to keep all kinds of things hidden. This is the problem many priests have with people in confession. They often want to hide, even from Christ Himself, significant things that keep them from growing in Christ-likeness. They cannot face the fact that they have a problem. They don’t want to face their sin. They are stuck, but they are afraid of moving away from their sin.

Ben Patterson tells a story from his personal life. “In the summer of 1988, three friends and I climbed the highest peak in Yosemite National Park. Two of us were experienced mountaineers. Two of us were not. I was not one of the experienced two. The climb to the top and back was to take the better part of a day. Halfway there we had to cross a glacier to get to the top. As the hours passed, we trudged up the glacier. The two mountaineers opened up a wide gap between me and my less-experienced companion. Being competitive by nature, I began to look for short to beat them to the top. I thought I saw one to the right of an outcropping of rock. So I went up, despite the protests of my companions. Thirty minutes later I was trapped in a cul-de-sac of rock atop the glacier. Looking down, I could see several hundred feet of a sheer slope of ice, pitched at a forty-five degree angle. I was only ten feet from the safety of a rock. But one little slip and I wouldn’t stop sliding until I had landed in the valley floor about fifty miles away. I was stuck and I was scared.”

Some here today may be stuck. You ay have a problem. You know that you are in a dangerous place and you are scared. But you don’t see a way out. You may have gotten to that dangerous place by taking chances with your life that you shouldn’t have taken. You ignored the warnings and concerns of others. You need help, but you don’t want to ask for it. It’s time for a change, but you don’t know how to make it. You  also are not sure it would work if you tried. Maybe it is easier to give up and stay where you are than to change. But change is the meaning of repentance. Repentance means that you turn from what you were doing and go a new direction. Going a new direction is sometimes more scary than the stuck place you are in. That’s because as bad as it is, the present stuck place is at least familiar.

When God delivered Israel from slavery it seemed wonderful. That is, until they began to face the reality of what it meant to be free. They were in trouble, but they did not want to turn to God. They wanted to go back to their old life. Freedom meant hard work and responsibility and change. There were things back in Egypt they enjoyed, in spite of being slaves. So they rebelled and actually wanted to go back into slavery. Instead of calling out to God, they blamed God.

Because he knew we have a problem and we need to change, Christ’s first sermon is a call to repent. This had been the call of John the Forerunner as well. But something better has come. We were walking in darkness, but we have seen a great light. So Jesus said, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is near.” This is the reason for the need for change: the kingdom of God is here. When God shows up things have to change. Something new has come. When something this good comes along, we have to let go of everything that is holding us back. We cannot carry the burden and bondage of sin into this new kingdom of God. It just doesn’t belong there. God wants you to be free of it. “Repent, for the kingdom of God is near.”

Today we hear the beginning of the Gospel written by St. Mark.  Mark is unlike Matthew and Luke who start their Gospels with Jesus’ birth.  Mark begins his Gospel with Jesus’ baptism.  Why might that be?  St. John Chrysostom says with the baptism of Jesus by the Forerunner, the old ends and the new arrives.  With baptism something new begins. With Jesus’ baptism His work for us begins.  It begins, so says Mark, by showing us who this Jesus is.  He is God.  He is the beloved Son of the Father.

Thus, St. Mark begins with the very purpose of the coming of the Son of God into the world.  He begins with Theophany.  Theophany means the revealing of God.  And what is God all about?  God is all about providing us with salvation.  And that salvation comes through and in Jesus Christ.  And, what, one may ask, is salvation?  Many a Protestant will answer that salvation is being born again in Christ.  Some say it is making a decision that Christ is one’s “personal savior.” Some say it’s just “getting into heaven.” In Orthodoxy we have a different slant on what salvation is.

For Orthodox, salvation is a process.  It is a step-by-step process by which we become more and more like God Himself.  That process is called “theosis” or “divinization.”  It works like this. God had created humans in His image and likeness.  Humans lost that image through the sin of Adam.  We regain that image through Christ.  Christ suffered the very result of human sin.  He suffered death.  But He defeated death by His rising from the dead.  Thereby Christ has given our human nature the chance to itself defeat death.  We do that by becoming more and more like Christ Himself. 

The process of becoming more and more like Christ begins with Baptism.  For each of us, it begins with our own Baptism. As Orthodox Christians, the Sacrament of Baptism is our entry into the Church. It is the “new birth” by which we die to the world.  In Baptism we begin our life in Christ.  It is through Baptism, that we begin the process of theosis. The Holy Sacrament of Baptism serves as the door leading into the Kingdom of God.  It grants access to the other Sacraments of the Church. Christ Himself spoke of the importance of Baptism.  He said this to Nicodemus. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus couldn’t understand.  “How can a man be born when he is old?” Christ said that this new birth comes only through water and the Spirit. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.”

In Baptism, each person receives, in place of the old life, a new life.  In Baptism one becomes a child of God.  In Baptism one becomes a member of the Body of Christ, the Church. Baptism, therefore, is required for all, including infants, so that growing in body and spirit one might grow in Christ.

At His Ascension into heaven, Christ stated that He is “with us always.” He meant that He is not just someone who lived in the past.  Nor is He someone we will meet in some future heaven. Christ is always present in our lives through the Holy Spirit. We can know Him directly, here and now, in the present, as our Savior and our Lord.  And we can grow more and more like Him. That happens only because of and through Baptism.
In his Pentecost sermon, the Apostle Peter said it clearly. “Repent!  Let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Sprit.” To this day, one comes to Christ in just that way.  It happens in the baptismal service of the Orthodox Church. One first repents. Then one renounces the devil.  Next the person is baptized by immersion in water for the remission of sins.  Finally he or she is chrismated (anointed) thereby receiving the Holy Spirit.

And then the process begins.  Then the process of becoming more and more like Christ can happen.  This process can only happen within the Church and its practices.  It takes Baptism to begin it. 

On this Sunday before the Theophany, we remember Baptism as a beginning.  It begins the Gospel of Mark.  It begins our life in Christ and His Church.  But it is only a beginning.  It is for us.  It is for all of us. Baptism reveals that we, too, can become more and more Christ-like.  The Church lays out the process.  From infancy to the final rites at the grave the process goes on. It is like this. Confession is the cleansing of the soul of those things that keep us from becoming like Christ.  Communion is the food for the journey to Christ-likeness.  Holy Anointing frees our bodies and souls from falling away from Christ due to illnesses that try to turn us away from Him.  Holy Matrimony makes holy the union of a man and woman for the purpose of mutual joy and the creation of the family, the home Church.  Holy Orders are conferred on those called to a special life of guiding Christians through this whole process.

I once tried to explain Baptism to a group of children.  When I was a protestant, I never did like the idea of just being sprinkled with a few drops of water at Baptism.  I asked the children if they knew what a pickle was.  One child answered.  “You take a cucumber and stick it in vinegar for a long, long time.  Then it somehow becomes a pickle.”  “That’s right,” I said.  “And Baptism is like that.  Remember that you have been surrounded in God’s Holy Water for your whole life. Then you will never forget whose you have become.  Or what you have become.  You become like Christ.  All because you have been baptized.”