Church guide

Sermon given on Sunday, August 25, 2019 Faith vs. Doubt "In our Gospel reading from St. Matthew, the main theme seems to be, faith vs. doubt, or belief vs. unbelief. You heard the story. This desperate father comes to Jesus looking for help for his son, who suffers from terrible seizures that endanger his life. The man pleads, “Lord, have mercy on my son….” And then we are presented with a startling response from the Lord. Instead of quietly healing the boy, Jesus, in apparent exasperation, cries out, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?” And only after He utters this complaint, does He ask for the boy so that He can heal him. And heal him He does. But what are we to make of the Lord’s frustrated venting here? It seems like He lost some of His self-control and was overtaken by emotion. Consider another way to understand what is really going on. First of all, we must accept that there was never an idle or thoughtless word that escaped from the Lord’s lips. Absolutely everything that He did and everything that He said was for our salvation. Jesus did not just get carried away by His emotions and vent because it made Him feel better. He expressed frustration in order to cause us to stand up and take notice of what He was saying. In other words, Jesus was teaching His original audience and us in this moment. By doing something seemingly out of character, we are more apt to listen to Him. So, what is He teaching us? He is teaching the prime importance of faith! As perfect God, Jesus could sense the lack of faith in this father. The man showed a certain measure of humility, he bowed before the Lord, but he struggled in his belief. He had the same general mindset of his whole generation, who Jesus forcefully called “faithless and perverse.” Jesus’s resigned weariness at this general lack of faith results in Him asking rhetorically how long will He be with them and how long He must bear them. But, as I said, it is all for the purpose of coaxing people into grasping for faith. It is for the purpose of demonstrating how utterly crucial it is to have faith in order to be healed, in order to be saved. Interestingly, if we read St. Mark’s version of this same episode, we hear the man suggesting that he does have at least a little bit of faith. While admitting his doubts, he does make a confession of faith by honestly saying, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!” He at least had enough faith to come to Jesus and ask for help, even if he was unsure if Jesus could really provide that help. But it’s not just the weak faith of this father that concerned Jesus, for He also expresses His concern for His own disciples lack of faith. In fact, it was the desperate father that first pointed out the disciples’ lack of faith when he said that he first brought his son to the disciples but they could not cure him. In so doing, by casting blame on someone else, the father betrayed his own lack of faith. And then later in our reading, the disciples privately ask Jesus why they were not able to heal the boy and Jesus tells them plainly, “It was because of your unbelief.” With all that being said, I would summarize this entire passage as being focused on the necessity of faith for healing, for wholeness, for salvation. So we know in our heads as Christians that faith is important. We know that without faith, we cannot be saved. So, why do we all struggle with faith so much, especially considering that we believe that God has given us faith? It is a gift to us! We don’t have to manufacture it or do something to obtain it. If this is true, and I believe it is as it is what the Scriptures teach, then why do we tend to identify with the father in this story so much, who wavers between belief and unbelief, faith and doubt? Why do we seem to lack faith? And why does the rock-solid faith of the saints seem so unattainable and even odd to us? I suggest that although faith is given to us, we must cooperate with God in order to activate it. The initial deposit of faith is a gift, but it must grow and flourish within us, and in order for that to happen, we must do something. We must exercise faith. We must be obedient to God. We must love our neighbor. We must embrace righteousness and shun wickedness. We must pray. We must participate in the sacraments. Above all, we must love each other. When thinking about the dynamics of salvation, that is, how it is that God actually saves us, a distinction is often made between our faith and God’s grace on the one hand, and the good works that we do on the other. And not only is a distinction made, which is certainly warranted, but the two are pitted against each other, and this is where some trouble can appear. Let me be clear. We do not earn our salvation. Our good works don’t buy God’s favor for us so that He lets us into heaven. But why then, are good works commanded? Because good works make the gift of faith work in us. I don’t know about you, but when I read some inspiring story in the life of a saint, and start to wonder how it was that this particular saint got to such an exalted spiritual state where he or she could be so attuned to God and accomplish all sorts of amazing spiritual feats, I am awed and dumbfounded as to how that person got to where they were in their relationship with God. Then I start to think that maybe God plays favorites. I think, why did that saint get so much grace from God? How come I am not like that? Did God give me less faith than he gave St. Paul, for example? These are the types of ramblings that bounce around in my head from time to time. But this type of thinking is all wrong. It’s as silly as expecting that I am going to be some star athlete without working really hard in training. Every athlete has God-given talent. But that talent has to be developed and refined in order for someone to truly accomplish great athletic feats. So it is in the spiritual life. God gives faith freely to all. My problem, and maybe some of you share it as well, is that I sit around waiting for God to elevate me to some sort of exalted spiritual state so that I can be like the saints. The saints didn’t just wait around for God to do something for them. They took the faith that God gave them, and they exercised it. They made it stronger by working for righteousness. They fasted. They prayed. They repented. And they repented. And they repented. Get the point? My main point is that faith, like love, is an action, more of a verb than a noun. Many times we get so caught up in waiting for a feeling of love to strike us, that we don’t do the much harder work of actually acting in loving ways toward others, even when we don’t feel the feelings of love. The best spiritual teachers and even many people outside the Church, like counselors who may have no particular religious affiliation, will tell people to do acts of love and mercy, and eventually the feelings will come. So it is with faith. I may not feel particularly spiritual. I may not feel very close to God. How do I change that? Not by sitting around and waiting for God to drop some sort of faith bomb on top of me, but to be obedient to Christ and to act like a Christian. Faith increases in us, brothers and sisters, when we use it to accomplish works of mercy and when we deny ourselves, take up our crosses and follow the Lord. As was said by someone at our Wednesday night Bible study last week, you have to get up and throw a log on the fire in order to get warm. The fire doesn’t stoke itself. There is a very good reason for why St. Paul closes out our particular Epistle reading this morning by saying, “Imitate me.” He is no egomaniac. Rather, in humility he realizes the faith-energizing grace that is accessible to someone who truly follows after Christ in word and deed, for he had experienced it himself, because he had imitated Christ. And he wants those same blessings to be poured out upon all of his spiritual children and upon us. There is a reciprocal relationship between God’s grace which activates our faith, and our good works. It is a sort of synergy, a cooperation. God reaches out to us first. That’s very important to note. We are lost if He doesn’t reach out to us first. He grants faith by His grace. And we can choose to take that great gift, and do something useful with it, or not. If we exercise our faith with good works, always keeping in mind humility and repentance, our faith will become strong and be robust. And in so doing, we will prove to be faithful and wise stewards with what God has given us."

A Prayer of Hope- “For Your mercy’s sake, O Lord my God, tell me what You are to me. Say to my soul, ‘I am your salvation.’ So speak, that I may hear O Lord; my heart is listening; open it that it may hear You, and say to my soul, ‘I am your salvation.’ After hearing this word, may I come in haste to take hold of You. Hide not Your face from me. Let me behold Your face even if I die, lest I die with longing to see it. The house of my soul is too small to receive You; let it be enlarged by You. It is all in ruins; do You repair it. There are things in it- I confess and know- that must offend your sight. But who shall cleanse it? Or to whom besides You shall I cry out? From my secret sins cleanse me O Lord, and from those of others spare your servant. Amen.” From the Ancient Faith Prayer Book

Sermon given on Sunday, August 18 Be an urchin! "From our Epistle reading, we heard the Apostle Paul using various images from daily life, in order to convey important spiritual truth. For example, he began our selection by saying, “We are God’s fellow workers, you are God’s field.” Like Jesus Christ Himself, the master storyteller who often spoke of planting seed or of vineyards, the apostle uses an agricultural metaphor, an image from nature, in order to help us understand something about ourselves in relation to God. But then St. Paul abruptly changes images to something more urban: a building. In helping his readers and listeners to understand the relationship they have with the Apostles and with Jesus Christ, he teaches that all members of Christ’s Church are parts of a whole, like the different components of a building. This building is built by Paul and has Jesus Christ as the foundation. And all of us, contribute to this building, with the works that we do on behalf of the Lord. But this morning, I would like us to consider an image that comes to us from nature, this one from the animal kingdom. I would like to apply some facts that I learned about a particular creature, and make an application to our own spiritual lives. When my son heard what I was going to be preaching on, he challenged me to do this sermon in the voice of Sir David Attenborough, the venerable British broadcaster who narrates so many of those wonderful nature documentaries. Sorry, I don’t have it in me. You’ll just have to imagine Sir David is speaking to you this morning! A few weeks ago, as I was driving into church, I turned on the radio and heard a cooking show. As I listened, I heard some amazing facts about a little marine animal, that is also a popular craze among foodies and gourmet connoisseurs. Has anybody ever had sea urchin before? I’m told it’s called uni at sushi restaurants. Sea urchins are little ball-shaped animals that live in the ocean, and they are covered in spikes which is their natural defense against predators. They are all armored-up in a thick exoskeleton. They can allow themselves to be carried by the ocean currents, but they also have little feet that they can use to walk along the ocean floor. From the cooking show, I learned a little bit of the science behind why sea urchins taste so good, at least to people who enjoy that kind of food. They are so delicious, because of how vulnerable and open to the elements they are. Other than water itself, what is the substance that is most pervasive and in great quantities through the oceans of the world? Salt, right? Well, if you’ve ever taken a swim in the ocean, you might have experienced how the saltwater effects you. You skin becomes prunelike, you start to get thirsty and feel dehydrated. Salt has that effect on us and on animals. Those effects happen to us humans after only a short time in the ocean, but the sea urchin exists in that briny environment all the time. Unlike fish or other marine life, sea urchins don’t have a protective layer of skin. Their spiky, hard exoskeleton might help them ward off an attack by a predator, but it does not keep the high levels of salt out from its interior. So, all of that salt has the ability to completely dehydrate the sea urchin and to cause it to shrivel up. But sea urchins thrive in the ocean, so how do they do it? They counteract dehydration by stockpiling certain substances that water likes to attach to: sugars, amino acids, and certain other kinds of salts. It just so happens that these are the substances within sea urchins, that give them their delicious flavors. So, you might be wondering, “Where am I going with this? Why are we getting a lesson on marine biology and seafood during Liturgy this morning?” Well, here’s the application. Let’s consider the sea urchin, and use this humble little creature to learn something about ourselves and our spiritual lives. As the sea urchin stockpiles certain substances so that it can attract more water in order to ward off dehydration- death by excessive salt, we must stockpile the virtues, in order to attract God’s grace, so as to ward off death through sin. The wages of sin, is death, writes St. Paul elsewhere. In this case, it is not physical death that is the focus, but spiritual death, that is, being alienated and disconnected from God, Who is the Only real source of life. Several of the saints of the Church speak in terms of our need to attract God’s grace. Like a magnet attracts metal, we should do everything we can to be able to absorb the maximum amount of God’s grace that He is sending our way. For example, both St. Paisios and St. Porphyrios said in numerous ways that it is through humility which leads to repentance, that we can best attract the grace of God. Without a constant desire to be humble so that we can deeply repent, we will be overcome by the things within ourselves and the things in this world which can overwhelm us and lead us to spiritual dehydration and eventually death. Stockpiling the virtues, especially humility, is the antidote which counteracts the death spiral that sin will work within us, so that repentance becomes a way of life. Then God’s grace which is always given to us, and never withheld, will be able to work within us, keeping us balanced and spiritually healthy. Because the sea urchin stockpiles amino acids and sugars, it is prized as a delicious menu item to certain people. If we stockpile humility and other virtues, we will be delightful in God’s eyes. We will taste sweet to Him. Like the saints, we will be His prizes, His trophies. There is one more aspect of the little sea urchin that we can relate to our lives. Although it doesn’t have any natural, external defense like skin to protect itself against the ever present sea salt, it does have that hard spiky exoskeleton, which discourages predators such as sea stars, otters and seals from biting into it and devouring it. God gave the sea urchin this defense when He created it. He has also given us a defense against that which assails us from outside ourselves, a defense against the devil and the many temptations in this fallen world. Like the armor on an urchin, elsewhere in his letters, St. Paul describes for us, spiritual armor given to us by God. God’s truth, His righteousness, the Gospel of peace, faith, the word of God and salvation itself, these aspects of God and the gifts that He has given to us act to protect us from the predatory attacks of the divider, the accuser, the father of lies. So let’s utilize them! Lest it seem a little too much of a stretch to take something from nature, especially something so radically different from mankind as a sea urchin, and use it to illustrate important spiritual truths for us, consider the teaching from the Church Fathers that each person is a microcosm of the whole universe. For saints such as Maximus the Confessor, since mankind has both spiritual and physical aspects, he is thus creation in miniature, for creation itself consists of both the physical and the spiritual. A part of creation, namely us human beings, reflects the whole of creation. Mankind occupies a “middle” position in creation, straddling the division between the material world that we inhabit and the spiritual world of the angelic powers. Conversely, if man is a microcosm of the universe, then for St. Maximus, the universe is a macro-version of man, insofar as the universe can be contemplated as a man, a man distended, as it was written elsewhere. I say this to make the point that it should be no surprise to us, that God would scatter all sorts of reminders of who were are as human beings, throughout His entire creation. In a mystical sense, we human beings embody the entire cosmos, and the cosmos, in a sense, reflects the reality and nature of man. And the fact that mankind is both physical and spiritual, a state of being possessed by neither the angels nor the animals, has profound implications for the notion that human beings are mediators, priests over all creation. Mankind uniquely bears the image of God. We have been given a responsibility to be stewards over creation, and to represent all of creation, before God as priest. But that is a subject for another sermon. You’ll have to wait another time for that one!"

Blessed Feast of the Dormition!

Sermon given on Sunday, August 11, 2019 "Some of the episodes in the Life of Christ which are recorded for us in the Gospels are only to be found in one or two of the Gospels, such as the changing of water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana, or the raising of Lazarus, which are each only found in St. John’s Gospel, or the teaching of the Lord’s Prayer, which is only written down in St. Matthew’s and St. Luke’s Gospels. The story that we heard today, from St. Matthew’s Gospel, is recorded for us in all four Gospels- the miraculous feeding of the 5,000. Actually, the number of those fed was significantly higher, for the 5,000 count was just of the men. St. Matthew notes that there were women and children there also. When some people hear this story, all they may think of is something like this, “Wow! Jesus is compassionate! He provided for all those people, and He showed His divine power by miraculously multiplying the five loaves and the two fish.” Now, that is all true of course. Jesus is compassionate. He did perform a miracle. And as God, He is the provider of all good things. These are all important things to understand about our Lord. But if we stop there in our thinking, after hearing this story, we are greatly missing out. This story gives us an opportunity to be helped in understanding a very crucial spiritual truth. I would like to suggest to you this morning, that this story, although it records an actual, historical event, can also be seen as an instructive metaphor for our calling as Christians, for our entire life in Christ. This story can help us to see what following after Jesus really entails, and what God will do with us if we truly become His disciples. Let me explain. And to do so, first, a little context on our human situation. Each of us, if we are honest with ourselves, experiences feelings of inadequacy and insufficiency. This comes, in part, from our fallen humanity. Sometimes we just feel inadequate, because of our own insecurities. But in a very real sense, we are inadequate, inadequate to be granted eternal life in heaven, because absolute perfect holiness is the standard. This inadequacy we suffer, is because of the choices we have made. That is, part of our understanding of who we are as human beings, as people who place our trust in Jesus Christ, is that we often miss the mark, we fall short. In other words, we sin. A proper understanding of sin entails the notion that our sin diminishes us as human beings. We become a little bit less of who were were meant to be, a little further away from our full potential, each time we turn our back on God and choose sin instead. But of course, God is able and willing to restore us through forgiveness when we repent! And He is able to build us back up, helping us to repair the damage that we have done to ourselves through our own sinfulness. It is this situation that we find ourselves in as human beings, which helps us to see our need for a Savior. We can’t save ourselves. We can’t be perfect under our own strength. Therefore, our only hope is to rely upon the righteousness and mercy of Christ, and our union with Him which is forged by our faith and is manifested in our baptism and our participation in Him through the Holy Eucharist. Christ’s call upon our lives is total and complete. “If anyone wants to come after Me,” Jesus said, “let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” That is the radical call to discipleship that is incumbent upon everyone who dares to call him or herself a Christian. This type of self-denying, cross-bearing Christianity is not just for bishops or priests or monks or nuns, but for all Christians. There is no authentic Christianity which is half-hearted or apathetic. The price that was paid on our behalf, so that we would be liberated from the clutches of sin, and even more importantly, from death, was high, enormously costly- the precious life of Jesus Christ Himself. God’s claim on us is complete. He wants all of us, not just some part or aspect of us. This is not because He is some sort of egomaniac who needs His creatures’ complete loyalty and obedience to feed His ego. No. God is not like that. The only reason that God asks to give every aspect of our being over to Him and really seek to live for Him wholeheartedly, is because He knows it is in that state, and that state only, that we will derive the greatest benefit. In other words, it is because of His great love and care for us that He asks us to totally and completely follow Him with our whole being. And here’s where I’d like to apply the story of the feeding of the 5,000, to each of our own lives. Christ calls us to offer up to Him all that we have, and all that we are. And even though what we are and what we have are insufficient, when we offer ourselves and all that we have to Him, He blesses it and makes it superabundant. It was clear that five loaves and two fish weren’t enough to feed a crowd of thousands of people. But the Lord asked for that meager amount of food anyway. He took it, and blessed it, and perfected it so that it was sufficient. In fact, it was more than sufficient. Everyone had enough to eat, and still, there was enough left over food to fill twelve baskets. If in faith, we trust in the goodness and the power of God, if we offer ourselves and all that we are capable of, even knowing that we are broken, imperfect and inadequate in many areas of our lives, God will honor that faithful act. He will transform us and what we have to offer, so that we will accomplish His purposes. There is a part of the prayer that is said for a priest or deacon at the time of his ordination which has the bishop asking God to make up, by the Holy Spirit, whatever is lacking in the one being ordained. This same principle holds true for all of us, regardless of ordination status. God is willing to take us, such as we are, and use us, despite our weakness. He just asks that we be willing to cooperate with Him. If we enter into a relationship with God in which we sincerely desire to not hold anything back, and to truly live for Him, He will amaze and surprise us with what He is able to do with us. Speaking personally, I have seen this in my own life. I am painfully aware of some of my inadequacies, especially as they relate to my ministry in the priesthood. I suspect that you see some of my inadequacies too. But as it became clear to me that I was being called into the priesthood, I said yes, albeit with much fear and trembling. If someone would have told me, 30 years ago, that I would be a priest and standing up in front of a congregation each week and leading the divine services, I would have laughed at them. I couldn’t even get up in front of my high school speech class without my knees shaking due to nervousness. But here I am. God is making up what is lacking. I use the example of my priestly ordination, because it is what I know personally. But this principle holds true for every Christian, ordained or not. In whatever way we serve God, in our home and family life, with our friends, through our employment and studies, whatever it may be, if we offer up what we have as far as our talents, and who we are, if we offer this up to God to let Him use it, He will bless it and use it for His glory. Don’t let your awareness of your shortcomings prevent you from offering yourself and your talents to God. It is false humility, actually, concealed pride to say that we have nothing good to offer God. He takes us, measly and insufficient though we are, and like the loaves and the fish, He has a tendency to multiply what is given, and to do great things with it. He is just looking for willing hearts and minds to trust Him, people who make themselves available for service. If, like the Prophet Isaiah, we can step forward and say, 'Here I am, send me' then God will honor that small bit of faith within us, and turn us into saints."

Sermon given on Sunday, August 4, 2019 "The Gospel according to St. Matthew, from which our Gospel reading came this morning, is written thematically. St. Matthew’s primary audience was Jew,s and so his overarching concern was to present Jesus in terms that Jews could relate to, in the hopes that many of his fellow Jews would embrace the Christian message as a natural progression born out of the Jewish messianic expectation. In chapters eight and nine of St. Matthew, the Evangelist has been building his case that Jesus is the Messiah – even God in human flesh – because He has authority to do what only God Himself can do. For example, Jesus has authority to heal the sick and diseased. He has authority to control both the natural world and the supernatural world of angels and demons. He backed up His claim to have the authority to forgive sins by healing the paralytic and having him pick up his bed and walk away. He has already shown His authority over death twice by resurrecting the widow’s son at Nain and raising back to life Jairus’ daughter in Capernaum. In St. Matthew’s mind, Jesus has given ample proof for the claim that He is the Messiah, the Chosen One of God, who is in fact the Son of God who shares in His Father’s divinity. In our reading for today, we have come to the last miracles in this series that is found in chapters 8 and 9, but the emphasis now shifts to the responses of the people to these miracles. Specifically, there are three different responses to the miracles that were performed by Jesus in today’s reading. Some believed and their lives were eternally changed. Others were amazed, but no perceptible change took place in their own lives. Then there were those that rejected Him and blasphemed Him. We still find these same three responses to Christ today. As we read and hear passages such as this, passages in which people are responding to and reacting to the words and actions of the Lord, we would do well for ourselves if we reflected upon our own response to Him. Have we allowed our encounters with Jesus to transform us? Have we been amazed and in awe of Jesus, but not experienced significant change within us? Or have we even dared to oppose Him and speak ill of Him? What has been your response to Jesus? Some or all of the above? In the first part of the reading, we heard the story of two blind men. They were physically blind, but they had some spiritual sight. Using the very Jewish title Son of David, they called out to the Lord for mercy. In order to strengthen the faith that they already possessed, Jesus asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” And they replied, “Yes Lord.” Jesus has gone from being the Son of David, a probable Messiah figure, to being the Lord of these two men. Their faith was getting stronger by the minute. This is what happens when an already open and faithful heart has an encounter with the Living God. The result is an abundance of faith. So He healed them, saying that He was doing it specifically because of their faith. Then the Lord says a very strange thing. He tells the formerly blind men not to tell anyone what had happened! At other times, Jesus encourages the one who has an encounter with Him to go and tell others and glorify God. So, what’s going on here? Why did Jesus want the two men to keep this healing quiet? St. John Chrysostom and Blessed Theophylact both suggest that this is Christ’s humility on full display. Even though He is God, His primary mission is to come to earth to heal and save mankind, and to thereby glorify the Father. As the eternal Son and Word of God, as the second Person of the Trinity, Jesus enjoys the same glory as the Father and the Spirit, a glory that was with Him from before the world began. But, at the incarnation, He set aside that glory, He seemingly emptied Himself, in order to serve the Father’s will on earth. So, Jesus was telling the men to be quiet, according to the ancient commentators, only if their sharing of the news would not properly glorify God and lead others to repentance and faith. In other words, Jesus didn’t want the glory, but He wanted all of it to go to the Father. As we heard from the epistle reading this morning, Jesus does not seek to please Himself. So, did the two men heed Jesus’s words? No, they did not! St. Matthew says that they spread His fame throughout the whole district. Jesus couldn’t care less about His fame. What He was concerned about was that God the Father was glorified. Regardless of this disobedience to the Lord, it is clear to see that the lives of these two men were radically changed by their encounter with Jesus. And the change is much deeper than just being able to physically see. Their faith grew. They became enlightened spiritually. They cooperated with the grace of God and were transformed by Christ. That’s one way we can respond to God. It is what He is inviting us and everyone to do, all the time. In the next part of our reading, we hear about the second, and perhaps the most common response to Jesus. St. Matthew tells us that as soon as the blind men departed, some people brought to Jesus a man who was unable to speak, a man that they judged to be possessed by a demon. Jesus immediately cast the demon out and the man was able to speak. We don’t know how the now liberated man responded, but the response of the crowd is amazement. The crowds marveled saying, “Never was anything like this seen in Israel!” Now, when we see an unusual or spectacular event, and certainly the freeing of a person from an evil spirit is unusual, amazement is an understandable reaction. But, St. Matthew gives us no evidence that the response of the people progressed beyond the initial amazement. Did the entire crowd who witnessed this miracle suddenly become fervent and devoted followers of Jesus? Apparently not! Did their lives substantially change, did their faith increase upon seeing this miracle? Nothing is said to suggest that is the case. It’s as if they said, “Oh, we saw an amazing thing!” And then they just carried on as they had before. God’s power did not make a change on them that lasted. I say that this is perhaps the most common response to Jesus because so many people are happy to say that Jesus was a righteous person, that He had some good things to say, even that He is one of the greatest moral teachers of all time, but this acknowledgment doesn’t result in any lasting effects upon them. In other words, they pay lip service to the uniqueness or greatness of Jesus, but their lives do not reflect that they have allowed Jesus to become their Lord and Savior. This tragic sentiment is, “Jesus, yeah, He’s a great guy! Now let me get on with my life the way I want to live it!” The third of the three reactions to Jesus is captured by what the Jewish religious leaders, the Pharisees, said, after this exorcism that He performed. Because they were jealous of Jesus, because His popularity threatened the status quo, they had so completely hardened their hearts toward His words and actions, that they were willing to accuse Him of consorting with demons. So, their illogical charge was that the power that Jesus had to drive out demons was given to Him by the prince of demons, Satan himself. Elsewhere in the Gospels, Jesus takes the time to knock down this ridiculous argument, but suffice it to say, it had no merit and it proved how perverse and arrogant the religious leaders had become. Sadly, some people openly oppose and despise Jesus Christ. If people do not hide their heads in the sand, then if they are confronted with the words and actions of Jesus, they seem to react in one of these three ways. Either, they faithfully acknowledge Him as the Messiah, as God, and follow after Him, however imperfectly, or they note the significance of Jesus, but like water off a duck’s back, they prove impervious to His life-changing grace, or, they become hostile to the Lord and hurl insults and spread false accusations about Him. Jesus is too compelling, too dramatic, too authoritative, too influential to be completely ignored. But only one way of reacting to Him is life-giving and healing. Only one way brings salvation. The other two ways are the ways that lead to death and darkness. Every time we read or hear the Scriptures, every time that we encounter Jesus, we have a choice to make regarding how we will regard Him. Will we oppose Him? Will we acknowledge Him as an interesting curiosity, but nothing more? Or will we worship Him and follow after Him? The choice is always ours to make."

Liturgy for the feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord, Monday, August 5, 6pm Bring your grapes or other fruit for the traditional blessing service at the end of Liturgy.

The audio of the Paraklesis service, which we pray during the Dormition Fast we have just entered.

On Friday August 2 at 7pm, we begin the first of several Paraklesis services during the time of the Dormition Fast (Aug. 1-14). This beautiful service is a prayerful cry, asking the Lord and His Mother for help and for healing of soul and body. Come and pray with us, but if you can’t come to church, pray the same service at home. The link to the text is here. For home use, the clergy parts can be omitted. https://antiochianprodsa.blob.core.windows.net/liturgicalinstructions/Paraklesis%20Little%20SERVICE.pdf

St. Paisios the Athonite said, "More than anything, the devil does not want us to pray. When he sees someone praying, if he cannot stop him, he tries to entice his mind with fantasies and unhelpful thoughts."

August 1st is one of the feast days of the Holy Cross. Therefore, when we gather at church this Wednesday evening at 6:50pm the particular Akathist hymn that we will be praying is the Akathist Hymn to the Spiritual Ladder, the Precious Cross. Please join us! But if you can’t come, pray at home during that same time. Here’s the text. http://saintmichaelsmitessatan.net/AkathistHymnToTheCross.html

Sermon given on July 28, 2019 "In our Epistle reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, the Apostle gives us a precious gem, something to contemplate and hold onto, for stability, for sanity, for life itself. In one brief line, one little verse, he exhorts us to do three things: 1. “Rejoice in your hope,” 2. “be patient in tribulation,” and 3. “Be constant in prayer.” Let us consider the truth in St. Paul’s advice. If we are to rejoice in our hope, then we must first realize what our hope is. So, let me ask the question: as Christians, what is our hope? An often heard, simple answer is,” to go to heaven”. That is good and true, as far as it goes. But what does that mean? How can we proceed from a simplistic statement like that, and begin to understand what our full hope as Christians really is? Well, let’s go to the Scriptures for our answer. Because of the Lord’s own resurrection from the dead, our hope is centered on the promise that we too, will be raised. Here is what St. Paul wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians. “Behold I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep (die) but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. The trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.” This is St. Paul’s way of saying exactly what Jesus told the grieving sister of Lazarus, immediately before the Lord raised him from the dead. He said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, though he may die, will live. Whoever lives and believes in me, will never die.” How is this possible? How is it, that Jesus, the conqueror of death, can affect our own existence to such a degree, that He grants us eternal life. Well, because He so intimately unites Himself to us, through our faith and participation in the sacramental life of the Church, that He is in us. His life becomes our life. We become like what He is. Thus, St. Paul could write, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Christ is in us! He’s not a distant, far-off, inaccessible God. He is the lover of mankind, the One who draws near to us and makes Himself available to us. Here’s another one, that explains a bit about what our hope really is. This beautiful promise is from the pen of the Apostle John. “Beloved, we are already God’s children, but what we will be is not yet revealed. But when He is revealed, we know that we will be like Him. For we will see Him just as He is!” To summarize, compelled by love, the One who abolished death, unites Himself to those who believe in Him with faith, and this results in glorious, eternal, joyful and full life. This is our hope! So, the Christian life is characterized by rejoicing in hope. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? That sounds great to me! Who wouldn’t want to be full of joy and hope all the time? But we all know that life isn’t always easy. Life can be very difficult. This world is rough. We are surrounded by suffering and we often suffer ourselves. By mentioning the reality of tribulations, St. Paul is acknowledging the brokenness of this world, and our own personal brokenness. Being a Christian doesn’t mean being guaranteed to live an easy, comfortable life free from suffering. Quite the contrary, in fact. Christians, like all human beings, both cause and receive suffering. And in addition to the kind of suffering that all humans are subject to by virtue of being human, being a faithful follower of Jesus Christ will be the precise source of some amount of suffering. Of this, the Scriptures are clear. For example, St. Paul notes, “All those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” Many parts of God’s Holy Word are very real, very authentic about the sufferings and tribulations of life. The Bible, although it presents Good News, the best of news, doesn’t sugarcoat life. Many of the Psalms, for example, are a desperate cry to God for help and deliverance from trouble. The whole book of Job is one big study on the suffering of the righteous. And if we become students of the lives of the saints, if we familiarize ourselves with how God’s holy ones in ages past lived, we will see that many of them, indeed, most of them, went through some very intense suffering at one time or another in their lives. And we must always remember, nobody suffered more than Jesus Christ Himself, as He was rejected by His own people, and willingly went to the Cross, for the salvation of the world. Surely if the Master suffered and was mistreated; as His servants, we can expect some of the same. With this perspective, with this knowledge of what both our Lord and the saints had to endure, and how they handled their tribulations, we are asked to patiently endure our tribulations. For how does it profit us if we grumble and complain or worse, if we despair? It is in the patient acceptance of tribulations, that God can do amazing, transformative things for us. It is there, in the fragility and vulnerability of suffering, where we can grow, really mature spiritually, if we choose to and if we cooperate with God to bring it about. So, what is the solution? How are we possibly able to be rejoicing in hope, as St. Paul encourages, while we patiently endure the many tribulations of our life? The answer is given to us by the Apostle. It is to be constant in prayer. Prayer orients us to God. Prayer unites us to Him. God certainly doesn’t always make the suffering go away. But through prayer, we come to the amazing realization that He joins us in our suffering and this knowledge can transform our suffering. Instead of suffering seeming cruel and meaningless, suffering, for the Christian who has the eyes to see and the ears to hear, can itself be a cause for growth, development, and eventually joy. Prayer is, first and foremost, being in the presence of God. In prayer, we can begin to be suffused with His goodness, to trust in His protection, to be energized by His grace. And this way of life, for prayer is so much more than just an activity, it really is a way of life, this leads to communion and fellowship with our Creator. It is through this communion, this fellowship, which is so close we can say that it is union, it is in this state that King David exclaimed with joy in the Psalms, “One thing I have asked of the Lord; this is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and seek Him in His temple.” But for us, living under the New Covenant, after the time of Jesus Christ, we are told that we, ourselves, even our very bodies, have become temples of God. So, this longing for God and the reality of dwelling in His presence becomes even more personal, more intimate. For He is so close that He is in us! Prayer is one of the chief ways that we can begin to satisfy this kind of longing for the Divine. In prayer, we renew our hope, and we learn to be patient through all kinds of tribulations, And this is why the holy Apostle Paul is commending his readers and us, to be constant in prayer."

One of our members, Jennifer Hope, is hospitalized and suffering from a chronic health problem. To make matters worse, she and her husband John are experiencing great financial difficulties because of medical costs. Please consider responding to this appeal for financial help.

Two excellent resources for Orthodox children’s books: Potamitis Publishing and Exaltation Press. Check them out! They’re both on Facebook.

From Holy Saturday Liturgy this morning- “Arise O God and judge Thou the earth...”