I want to talk to you today about one of those routines of Orthodox life: prayer.  I’m sure you’ve heard many a sermon on prayer.  Today, I want to speak about a specific part of prayer.  It is a problem about prayer that has affected many people with whom I have had a spiritual connection in my life.  It is the problem of what is called unanswered prayer.  As a prison chaplain I saw the problem often. An inmate prays long and hard for a light sentence. He receives a long and hard one. A parishioner prays for relief from chronic pain or the deliverance from a dread disease. Yet the pain and disease persists. Why? Does prayer really work? 

Jesus once told a story about that.  This is his story from the Gospel of Luke. 

"Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, `Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; and he will answer from within, `Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything'? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

It was midnight.  The whole village was quiet, asleep. All of a sudden there comes a pounding on the door.  A neighbor calls out to his sleeping friend through the door.  “Please lend me three loaves of bread.  A friend of mine has arrived from a journey, and I have no bread.”  Nighttime travel is common in the Middle East in order to avoid the heat of the day.  And the newly arrived traveler was hungry.  Three loaves of bread would make a satisfying meal.  From within the house comes the whispered answer.  “I can’t help you.  We are all asleep.  I can’t get up to give you anything.”  To get up would awaken everyone in the house.  In those days, everyone slept in the main center room of the house.  It would be perhaps half the night before the children would get back to sleep.  And, likely, the cows, chickens and goats were also sleeping there.  “Sorry,” the close door signaled.  “We are closed for the night.”

But the pounding on the door kept getting louder.  You could imagine what was happening.  First the chickens, then the cows, then the children started waking up.  The dog started barking.  Soon everyone would be awake.  So the friend tiptoed to his bread supply.  He quickly passed three loaves out the door.  Then he could return to bed.  Jesus summed up the meaning of the story this way.  The man would not get up to give his neighbor anything because he was his friend.  But, because of the persistence of the neighbor, he arose and gave him whatever he needed.

Two important questions emerge from this little story.  First: if you pray with persistence, will you get anything you want from God?  Is persistence the chief factor in successful prayer?  Second: Is God like this selfish householder?  In another place, Jesus told the story of a woman trying to get a favorable ruling from a judge.  He was slow in responding to her.  So she was after him continually for satisfaction.  He finally gave her his ruling, just because he wanted her out of his hair!  Is God like that?

But Jesus follows his story of the neighbor at the door at night with a simpler illustration.  “What father,” Jesus asks, “if asked by his son for a fish would give him a snake?”  Or, “If he asks for an egg would give him a scorpion?”  No right-thinking father would ever do that to his child.  God, Jesus says, is not to be compared to either the selfish neighbor nor even the loving father. Jesus asks, “If you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”  How much more?  God will do infinitely more for someone than a friend would ever do for a friend.  And God would do infinitely more even than a father would do for his child.  There is just no comparison.  God is not like the begrudging neighbor who finally got up to help his friend to shut him up.  God is not even like a father who would grant the reasonable requests of his children.  Our hands cannot hold the blessings He pours out on us.

Then Jesus gives the great promise of prayer.  “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”  But notice that little word IT.  Ask, and IT will be given to you.  God will provide the content of the IT.  God knows exactly what is best for our lives.  He will not always supply what we want – but always what we need.  Sometimes we don’t even recognize the answer when it comes.  Sometimes it looks quite different from what we ask for.  But the promise holds.  “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

Nor does he specify when the answer will come.  Blessed David’s cry in the Psalms is continuously, “How long, O Lord, how long?”  Apostle Paul prayed at least three times, he tells us, for the thorn in his flesh to be removed.  The answer to that prayer, he also tells us?  “My grace is sufficient for you.”  “My love is enough. Don’t expect more.”  Jesus three times asked that the cup of suffering be removed from His Father’s plan.  Yet Jesus still suffered death on the Cross.  It was part of the Father’s plan to do so.  We cannot always see the grand design that God has.  We often get our own agendas in the way.  And we are so impatient.  I guess they were 1600 years ago when our Father in Christ John Chrysostom wrote: “If you don’t receive right away that which you ask for, do not despair. This is why Christ said “knock” to signify that even if He should not open the door right away, we are to stay right there.” (Chrysostom, Homily XXIII on Matthew)

A Christian today may have problems for which he or she literally pounds on the doors of heaven for answers.  Sometimes the prayers are said with such persistence that knuckles are raw and hands are exhausted.  But, nevertheless, God will answer in His good time. God will answer in His glorious way.  “Ask, and it will be given you. . .”

As Jesus went ashore he saw a great throng. And he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

I served ten years as staff Chaplain at a PA prison. One of my responsibilities was to speak to the training class of new correctional officers.  When I talked to them, I usually talked to them about authority.  They needed to know that authority was very important in a prison.  But no matter how they might be called upon to exercise authority, I told them something more.  They must always exercise authority with compassion.  Can you imagine talking about compassion in a prison? That raised a few eyebrows. It even got a few chuckles.  Most people see compassion as a kind of sweet sentimentality.  Compassion is for the bleeding hearts. 

Compassion, however, is what in today’s Gospel Jesus had for the people who were following him.  Jesus often talked about compassion.  Let me tell you the story I told those correctional officers in training.  It is a story to explain what I mean by compassion.

Once there was a very old man in India. He used to meditate early every morning under a large tree on the banks of the Ganges River.  The tree was so large that its roots extended out into the river.  One morning, having finished his meditation, he opened his eyes.  He saw a scorpion floating helplessly in the strong current of the river.  As the scorpion was pulled along, it came closer to the tree roots.  It finally got caught in the tangle of those tree roots that extended far into the river.  The scorpion struggled frantically to free itself.  The more it struggled, though, the more it got caught up in the complex network of tree roots.

When the old man saw this, he carefully stretched himself out onto the extended roots of the tree.  He slowly reached out to rescue the drowning scorpion.  But at soon as he touched it, the scorpion stung him wildly on the hand.  Instinctively, the old man withdrew his hand.  He almost lost his balance, but regained it before falling into the rushing waters.  The he stretched himself again out on the roots.  He reached again for the unfortunate scorpion.  But every time the old man came within reach, the scorpion stung him.  The scorpion stung him so many times, that the old man’s hands were soon swollen and bleeding, and his face distorted with pain.

Just then, a passerby saw the old man stretched out on the roots, struggling with the scorpion.  “Hey, you stupid old man,” the passerby shouted.  “What’s wrong with you?  Only a fool risks his life for the sake of such an ugly, useless creature.  Don’t you know that you may kill yourself to save that ungrateful animal?”  Slowly, the old man turned his head.  He looked the passerby directly in the eyes.  “Friend,” he said, “because it is in the nature of the scorpion to sting, why should I give up my nature to save?”
 
In Latin, the word for compassion means to suffer with someone.  In Greek, the word describes the feeling in the pit of the stomach when we realize that someone else is feeling bad.  The word is well translated in the King James’ Version of the Bible as “bowels of compassion.”  It has something to do with deep inner empathy.  Most of us know the feeling of “bowels of compassion,” yet we don’t do much with it.  Let me explain.

 Suppose you are watching a rather graphic television program.  Perhaps it is one of those reality health programs that deal with emergency situations.  Such programs are often set in hospital emergency rooms.  They are graphic in that they often show the reality of injuries, blood and the accompanying emotional trauma.  I suppose that most everyone who has seen such trauma gets this feeling in the pit of the stomach.  It is that very feeling that is contained in the Greek word for “compassion.”  Usually, our initial response to that feeling is revulsion.  We reach for the TV remote and change the channel!

 I believe that the feeling in the pit of the stomach is one that has been created in us as a way to feel the pain and trauma in those whom we see suffering it.  But we have trained ourselves to turn away from that pain and trauma.  We don’t want to feel it.  However, by virtue of our common humanity (all of us created beings of God), we have a built-in connection with those who suffer.  Developing that built-in connection, rather than turning it away, is the development of human compassion.

 The Holy Father of the seventh century, St. Isaac of Syria once said this.  “What is a compassionate heart? It is a heart on fire for the whole of creation. For humanity. For the birds. For the animals. For demons. For all that exists. At the sight of them such a person's eyes overflow with tears. This is because of the compassion which grips the heart.  As a result of his deep mercy his heart shrinks and cannot bear to look on any injury. He cannot look at the slightest suffering of anything in creation. This is why he constantly offers up prayer full of tears. These tears are even for the irrational animals and for the enemies of truth.  Even for those who harm him, so that they may be protected and find mercy. He even prays for the reptiles as a result of the great compassion which is poured out beyond measure. This follows his likeness unto God – in his heart.”

“Because it is in the nature of the scorpion to sting, why should I give up my nature to save?”  It is in the nature of God to have compassion.  God has built that into our nature, too.  We are made in the image and likeness of God.  I told the officers in prison that authority must be tempered with compassion.  So it is with us.  For such is the way of Christ. “As Jesus went ashore he saw a great throng. And he had compassion on them, and healed their sick.”

Today’s Gospel is from the prayer that Jesus prayed. He prayed this prayer right before He was arrested and went to Cross. One desire dominated his prayer. The desire was that we, his disciples, be one as He and the Father are one.

When we read this unity prayer we think that Jesus is seeking for all Christians simply not to fight among ourselves. In some respects that is True. But what He wants for us is so much more than that! What Jesus wants is for all Christians to be one as He is with Father. Unity is more than absence of conflict. Christian unity is a total, unreserved total communion, that is, a total sharing, of everything with one another. Listen closely to what Jesus prays to the Father. He prays, “All that is mine is yours and all that is yours is mine.”

That is unity from God’s perspective—a total sharing of everything. In our society we have a very different concept of sharing. Our concept of sharing is if I have $100 and you have a need I give you $ 10 and pray others will give as well. Or my compassion might even cause me to give you $50 and I keep $50. I think most of us would feel pretty good about ourselves if we did that. As good as that might be that is not the unity that Jesus prayed we would have.

He prayed that we would be one as He and the Father are one. That unity is described in the verse just prior to that in these terms: “All that is mine is yours and all that is yours is mine.”

When our daughters were small we taught them to share. When Becky was 5 and Beth was three, and one had two pieces of candy. We would say to them (as probably all parents have said): “Now share .... “All that is yours is mine and all that is mine is yours.”

Here is the truth about sharing with God. It’s not that Jesus has two pieces of candy. He gives me one and keeps one. No, we both get two pieces of candy. We both have it all. We all have it together. All that God has becomes yours and mine. We never fully realize what sharing with God is until all that I have and am becomes His. That’s sharing. It’s a whole lot more than simply coming to church. It’s a whole lot more than putting a few bucks in the offering plate.

Man was created in the image and likeness of God. But that was turned upside down when Adam sinned. We now choose for ourselves rather than to choose as one made in God’s likeness. When a group picture is taken, what’s the first face you look at to make sure the picture is acceptable? When a new phone book comes out, what number do you check first? These are symptoms of a preoccupation with self.
Christ became human, died and rose again to free us from the tyranny of self.
Before we could ever hope to live in unity with others something has to be done about that. Until that matter is dealt with in our lives we will be frustrated about the lack of attention others give us. We will be offended by the lack of appreciation we receive from others. This is where our relational problems originate. Our biggest problem, my biggest problem, is not your spouse; it’s not the church; it’s not your boss. It is the selfishness in my own heart.

We live in a highly individualistic society. The percentage of people who volunteer in a political campaign-stuffing envelopes, making phone calls, going door to door- is today about ½ what it was in the late 1960’s. The percentage of active membership in local clubs and organizations, like PTA is ½ what it was in the 1970’s. People are visiting one another less frequently. Having friends over is happening less frequently. Interaction with an electronic machine and not a person is skyrocketing. In short, every objective measurement of participation in community is declining. Why? Some blame TV. Others blame dual career families. There are probably a number of factors involved. The point is there are forces in our society which are pulling people apart and isolating them. This makes it more difficult to come together in community. Those forces affect Christians as well as non Christians.

But for sure, unity in community is hard. It’s like the group of porcupines that the famous philosopher, Schopenhauer, once used to illustrate a point. A group of porcupines were marooned in the middle of a frozen field during a terrible blizzard. There was no way they could escape the biting wind. They could not borrow into the frozen ground. As they huddled together to keep warm their sharp quills began to pinch and hurt. The closer they moved together the more the pain increased. Some of the animals could not bear the pain and drew apart to sleep. In the morning those who had drawn apart had frozen to death.

 Today we remember the Holy Fathers of the first Six Ecumenical Councils of the Church. Our holy Fathers worked tirelessly for the unity of the Church. They accomplished their goals. Yet today, 1500 years after, the Christian community is divided into thousands of different groups. What is to be done to fulfill the unity prayer of Christ?  We can’t even get all of our Orthodox brothers and sisters together in unity!

 Brothers and sisters it begins with us. We must demonstrate to the world that we are one in Christ. We must show that we are willing to live in that sharing relationship with Christ. We must see that all we have is not ours – it has been shared with us by Christ and through Him. How we accept that truth in real life shows how willing we are to share what we have with others. “All that is mine is yours and all that is yours is mine.” He has given us all He has. May we ever give Him all we have.

Today we celebrate our nation’s 234th birthday. It was a little over two and a quarter centuries ago that the United States was born. The United States of America was a nation based on the ideals of liberty, responsibility and godliness. It was a nation that earned the freedom for its people to become what God intended us to be. This, in the history of the world, was a new and revolutionary idea.

The celebration of our nation’s birthday is really a celebration of freedom. We celebrate the precious gift of freedom we have because of the price others paid. After all, freedom isn’t free. Freedom is very expensive. It has cost some people everything. It has cost some their lives. Freedom isn’t free. But it is infinitely valuable.

Freedom is an ideal that our founding father’s believed valuable enough to risk everything on. They risked their fortunes. They risked their families. They risked their reputations. They risked their honor. They risked their very lives. Many of them paid for our freedom with their blood and the blood of their children. I suspect that most every one of us has a relative or friend whose life was given in the service of our country. He or she gave a life for freedom. My own uncle, after whom I am named, gave his life in the second world war. He was a U.S. Navy radioman who was killed in the South China Sea. His body was buried at sea right there.

Today we worship in security and comfort. We do so because thousands of young people have given their lives and shed their blood on foreign soil. They died in forsaken places. They died with names not remembered. They died so that we could experience the joy and responsibility of freedom. Even today many young Americans are giving the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is so that we can continue to taste the fruit of freedom that springs from the tree of liberty. In a letter to William Smith dated November 13, 1787, Thomas Jefferson wrote this. “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” No, freedom is not free. The price is always paid in blood.

The blood spilled by young Americans in the 234 year history of our country was not the first time blood was spilled for freedom. The blood spilled on battlefields called Concord and Charleston and York Town  as well as Kabul and Baghdad was not the first time blood was spilled for freedom. No. 2,000 years ago a young man’s blood spilled upon the ground so that we could all experience freedom.

Our Lord Jesus Christ came in order to bring us freedom from a host of human ills. St. John the Theologian wrote.  (Jesus said) "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Later, the Apostle Paul wrote these words to the Romans about the work of Christ in setting us free. “The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.”

Today we celebrate our independence from tyranny and bondage to an oppressive government. This day is a remembrance of an independence won over 200 years ago.  However, we celebrate an independence, as a nation, that is temporary. A day may very well come when we can no longer enjoy the freedoms we now have.

Many of our Orthodox brothers and sisters know all about this. Think of the Orthodox in Russia. For centuries they worshiped and lived the Orthodox life in peace and freedom. When the Communists ruled, everything changed. Not only were the Orthodox not permitted public worship, but they were persecuted and killed for their faith. This included the deaths not only of lay persons, but many hundreds, thousands, of priests and bishops as well.

Think of our Orthodox brothers and sisters who worshiped in freedom in the Middle East. That was until the Muslims silenced them. That silencing has continued to today.

In our celebration of Independence Day, let us take a moment to reflect upon the meaning of our freedom. Let us think about what it means that we are part of the American people. Let us remember that, as members of the Kingdom of God, that is our abiding city.  Our earthly freedom may be fleeting, but our freedom earned through the work of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ lasts to eternity.  We give thanks to God first for the salvation granted to us in Christ. Then we give thanks to God for the freedom we have to work out that salvation in this free country.
Thus, no matter what the future holds, our freedom in Christ is secure. We pray for our country’s leaders. We pray for its defenders and its lawmakers. We pray for its very people. We pray that all may see the way to allowing us continued freedom to be the people of God. We pray that we may have the freedom to serve God openly,  proclaiming the Good News of Christ to all.

No one goes through life without difficulties.  Adversity in life often brings out the best or the worst in our attitudes.  It all depends on our perspective. After all, the Lord is far more interested in developing our character than in seeing us succeed in our jobs. God is wise enough to know that you can teach some people by what you say.  You can teach a little more by what you do.  But you teach most effectively through who you are. Christ always tried to help the disciples get His Father’s priorities for their lives above their own.

An example of this was an event just before the reading in the Holy Gospels appointed for today.  One day Jesus and his disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee.  Suddenly, a furious storm came up on the lake. The waves swept over the boat.  The lives of everyone on board were threatened. The disciples panicked with fear.  But Jesus kept on sleeping. The disciples woke Jesus. "Lord, save us! We are going to drown!"  What did Jesus answer?  "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" After Jesus calmed the wind and waves the men were amazed.  They asked, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him?"

When we encounter hard times do we admit our need to grow in faith, knowledge and intimacy with God?  God knows what everyone needs to grow spiritually.  No human ever reaches a point where he or she does not need to improve. Even though the stormy experiences are unpleasant we know that the Lord is always in control of every circumstance. God’s plan is to work all things together for good if we love Him and conform to His plans. We have a sovereign Lord who is able to take every delay, every problem and every person and work them all for our greater conformity to the image of Christ. That is what Paul says to the Romans.  “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him.  For those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” It might not seem pleasant at the time, but the Lord allows hard times for good reasons.

Think of the Old Testament St. Job. The Book of Job is a long poem. The book discusses why innocent people suffer. Job was a good man. But to test him, God allowed Job to lose all his possessions. Even Job's children died. Job became so ill that he wanted to die. But in the course of all this, Job refused to blame God or curse Him.
Job's friends supposed that all that happened to Job was because of his evil deeds. But Job was an upright and God-fearing man. Then, a wise man named Elihu explained the truth to Job and his friends.

The explanation, though lengthy, is quite simple. God is in charge of His creation. God can do as He pleases with His own creation. He can give and He can take. The only thing God asks for is our trust in Him. God had shown his love, care and faithfulness to His own people. But God’s people often reacted like those who advised Job. “Curse God!” they said. “Look at all the bad things in life. How can God be loving?”  In the end, Job prayed for his friends that they might see the truth. In the end, Job was rewarded for his faithfulness and trust in God. For at the end of the story, God restores all of Job’s family and possessions.

Christ wants us to look beyond the storms to His reassuring face. When the disciples saw the stormy seas and the waves spilling into their little fishing boat, they let fear control their thinking.  It was time to take the focus off of emotional reaction to problems and transfer them to the Lord in prayer. There is a line from an old Protestant hymn that is so true.  "Oh what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pains we bear. All because we do not carry. Everything to God in prayer."  Christ stands ready, willing and able at the right hand of His Father’s throne to intercede on our behalf. Even when we do not know what to do, what to pray or how to control our fears.  He is ready to hear and answer us.

It is evident from this storm story that Jesus does not sweat the small stuff.  He did not worry about drowning that day on the stormy Galilee Sea. He was not a fatalist.  He just knew that His heavenly Father had a plan.  He was sure that the plan would be carried out. Jesus recognized that the disciples were relying on their human instincts to assess the situation. The Lord knew that this situation could be used to teach them an important lesson. It is easy to give in to the emotions. 

The Fathers of the Church knew that the temptation to follow emotions could easily lead to sin.  For emotions are the outward signs of inward passion.  And passion is the craving to fulfill purely selfish desires.  And doing so is sin.  We must refuse to give in to the temptation to follow the passions.  This is why we fast.  We train ourselves to overcome those purely selfish desires we call the passions.  If we can overcome our desire to feed ourselves with food we don’t need, we start on the road to not sweating the small stuff, too.

Does God want us to stay where the storms of life can teach us His lessons?  Yes.  Do not think we can run away from troubles. The Lord wants us to remain in the battle where He can teach us, mold us, and use us in ways that are in accordance with His will. Do not run away from the Lord’s difficult paths.  He is the one who is able to deliver us.  And he can do so just in the knick of time.  Christ knows the outcome of every situation in advance. Trust His wisdom, timing and power to deliver us from any hardship.

Sometimes even in the secular world we hear about examples of real faith. People magazine some time ago reported about such an example involving a professional acrobat.  When he was a younger man, this acrobat used to do a high-wire act across Niagara Falls.  During one of his performances, he requested a volunteer from the crowd. The volunteer was to ride piggyback on the high wire across the falls with him. A young lady accepted the challenge.  They have been married now for over 30 years.  I guess if someone will go with you across Niagara Falls on a high wire, you can quit worrying about whether he or she genuinely believes in you.  That’s real faith! 

Jesus encountered a man with such a faith. He was a Roman centurion, a man of authority and power. Centurions were in charge of a “century.” That was a group of 100 Roman soldiers.  But his power and authority were not the things that endeared him to Jesus. 

First, he was a kind man.  He showed his kindness because of his servant.  Most men of power and prestige had servants back then. But this servant was dear to the centurion.  For the servant lay critically ill and the centurion was very concerned. When he heard of the marvelous works of Jesus, the centurion sent a delegation of Jews to ask Jesus to come and heal his servant.  The Jewish delegation asked Jesus to heed the centurion’s request. “He is a worthy man,” they said. “He loves our nation and helped us rebuild our synagogue.” Yes, the centurion was a kind and generous man.

He was also a humble man. Jesus was impressed by the testimony of these Jewish friends. So Jesus went with them toward the centurion’s house. As they neared the house the centurion sent out another delegation.  This time it was some of his friends.  He sent with them a message.  The message read like this: “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. That’s why I did not presume to come to you. But say the word and let my servant be healed.”  “I am not worthy to have you come under my roof...” For a man of authority this centurion was remarkably humble.     Humility is a quality that is out of favor in most quarters nowadays. We are more attuned to power, pride, and “winning through intimidation.”  According to the Church Father St. Augustine, there are three requirements to be Christian. They are, first, humility; second, humility; and third, humility.

 
Somehow this remarkable centurion had that kind of humility. He felt that he was not worthy for Jesus to even enter his house! He was a kind man.  He was a humble man.  But it was neither his kindness nor his humility that Jesus praised. It was his faith.  Perhaps the most important characteristic of the Christian is faith.  It is faith that is the spring that feeds the fountains of kindness and humility.  And how did this centurion show his faith?  He said that Jesus did not need to come under his roof. He only needed to say the word and his servant would be healed. He used his own authority as a military officer as an example. “When I say to a soldier, ‘Go,’ he goes; and when I say to another, ‘Come,’ he comes. And when I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ he does it.” When Jesus heard this from the centurion, Matthew tells us that Jesus “marveled.”  Then Jesus said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” 

There is an old fable from Holland about three tulip bulbs. They were named NO, MAYBE, and YES. Someone had placed them in the bottom of a tin to save them until planting time.  One day they were discussing their future as tulip bulbs.  NO said, “As far as I am concerned, this is it. We have come as far as we are going to come as bulbs. That’s all right. I’m content. I don’t need anything else.”  MAYBE said, “Well, maybe there is something more. Perhaps if we try real hard good things will happen to us.” And MAYBE tried hard to be all that he could be, but little changed and soon he gave up in frustration.  YES, on the other hand said, “I believe there is something more, but I don’t believe that it is up to us. I have heard that there is One who can help us be more than we are if we simply trust him.” 

One day a hand reached down into the tin to select bulbs for planting. NO and MAYBE shrank back.  But YES gladly gave himself into the hand of the gardener. He could scarcely believe what was happening when he was buried underneath a mound of dirt. But when the springtime came, YES burst forth in radiant color. He was now a beautiful flower. 

The centurion was a “YES” kind of person. He was not only a kind man and a humble man. He was a man who was open to God in his life. If Jesus would simply say the word, his servant would be healed. In that simple prayer, the centurion believed.  And Jesus said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”  What kind of faithful prayers do we offer today?
       
What will we do with our faith and our prayers now that summer has come?  Will we go on vacation this year and forget our prayers?  Will we leave our faith behind when we are at the seashore, or in the mountains, or wherever we might go?

For us to be Christians of faith, like the centurion, we must constantly leave our prayer before Christ.  We must be of humble faith to believe that Christ can do anything He wants to.  But Christ wants our prayers.  Let us not leave Him out – ever!  Faithful people still say the prayer: “Lord, I am not worthy… say the word only!”

In recent years our society has been plagued by a new epidemic. The cure for this epidemic has become a billion dollar industry.  One drug company after another tries to find the magic cure. What is this new epidemic? It goes by several names. But perhaps the most common names are worry, stress and anxiety. I see evidence of this epidemic almost on a daily basis. Statistics show that people who suffer with stress and are three-to-five times more likely to go to the doctor.  They are six times more likely to be hospitalized.
 
One of the most common places one develops stress and anxiety is the workplace. It is said that in the U.S., depression caused by workplace stress is predicted to be the leading occupational disease of this century.  It will be responsible for more days lost than any other single factor. $300 billion, or $7,500 per employee, is spent annually in the U.S. on stress-related claims.  Other common health problems are linked to stress.  Our country is spending billions of dollars seeking a cure.  Drug companies are lining up to find the magic fix. So, as is often the case, we try to medicate our stress away. 

While the world works to find a cure for stress and anxiety, I believe God has already given us the cure.  Cares and anxieties of this world lead to worry.  Worry has its origin in the mind.  When things are not going well, the mind conjures up all sorts of scenes that “could” or “might” happen.  When worry plays on the mind, it then becomes a state of mind. And stress begins.

St. Paul tells us of the way to overcome such worry.  It is by renewing one’s mind.  This is done by asking the Holy Spirit daily to impart His wisdom, understanding and the mind of Christ to us. “Let this mind be in you,” Paul says to the Philippians.  And that mind is the mind of Christ Jesus.  We must allow the Holy Spirit to lead, guide and direct our paths, moment by moment, day by day.  Then cares, stresses and the worries of tomorrow becomes a thing of the past.

I am reminded of the movie “The Lion King.”  This popular Disney film features wild animals in the jungles of Africa. One of the theme songs called “Hakuna Matata,” is sung by a meerkat and a warthog.  “Hakuna Matata” means “no worries.”  Animals have been created by God in His wisdom to be on a lower level than that of human beings.  Yet there is a lot that we can learn from animals. 

Several years ago, our dog had an accident and lost an eye.  He went through the rest of his life with only one eye.  He never seemed anxious or stressed about it.  He lived to be about sixteen years old.  He even became blind in the other eye.  Pani and I never had a complaint from him.  We can learn from the animals to live one day at a time. That’s what today’s reading from the Gospel of Matthew says.  Do not be anxious about your life. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

There is scarcely any sin against which our Lord more warns his disciples, than worry about the things of this life. Take no thought for the things of your life, Jesus says.  Don’t worry about the length of it.  Let God lengthen or shorten it as He pleases. Our times are in His hand.  Do not worry about the comforts of this life.  Leave it to God to make it bitter or sweet as He pleases. Food and clothing God has promised.  Therefore we may expect them. Do not be anxious for the future.  Don’t worry how you shall live next year.  Don’t worry about what it will be like when you are old, or what you shall leave behind you.  God has given us life. God has given us the body. If we take care about our souls and for eternity, we may leave it to God to provide for our body.

Care for our souls is the best cure for anxiety about the world. Seek first the kingdom of God.  Make a relationship with Christ your business. By daily prayers we may get strength to bear us up under our worldly troubles.  Participation in the Holy Mysteries of the Church will arm us against the worries that come with worldly troubles.  Happy are those who take the Lord for their God.  Happy are those who make full proof of it by trusting themselves to God’s wisdom.

We have been, the past two Sundays, remembering the Saints. The Sunday after Pentecost was the Sunday of All Saints.  Last Sunday we celebrated the Saints of our own Carpatho-Rusyn heritage.  Now what did the Saints do? They simply put the Kingdom of God and His righteousness first. These values, to put the things of the spirit first, are the values of the Saints of God. They are exactly the opposite of the values of modern society.  And it is no wonder that modern society suffers from worry, stress and anxiety.
 
May God grant us the gift of the Holy Spirit.  May the Saints continue to pray for us that we may seek God’s kingdom first.

Let me invite you into a land where nothing is done for you…ever.  In this land there is no opportunity to buy or sell.  If you want to eat, you must grow the food yourself.  If you want to live in a house, you must build it yourself. And forget about anyone ever teaching you how to build a house or tend a garden. You must figure that out on your own as well.  If you get sick?  You have to care for yourself.  If you get into some trouble?  You are on your own!

 You might wonder how anyone could ever survive in such a land. If everyone looked out for only number one, you can bet in the land where nothing is done for you…ever, many people would die. Eventually, the only people to survive would be those who somehow learned for themselves how to do what it takes to live in such a land.

 One day, a young man came to the land where nothing is done for you…ever. This Man wanted to change the rules. He taught anyone who has an ear to hear, that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He taught that no one can come to the Father but through Him. He told them that He had come to prepare a future Place for them. He called them to be His disciples and followers. Most of the people who heard this Man didn’t have time for what He had to say.  They just went about their business: building houses, growing gardens – just like they always had.

 In today’s Gospel we have the story of the first of those would follow.  Peter and Andrew were the first to listen and act.  This story from Matthew’s Gospel is actually the second time that Andrew and Peter have heard Jesus speak to them. Their first meeting can be found in the Gospel of St. John.  Do you remember that meeting? The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah.” Having first met Christ, now they are being approached by Him for the second time.

 Let’s think again about that world where nothing is done for you…ever.  That was the world of the first disciples. What would our world today be like if those first hearers of Jesus did nothing but go back and take care of their own needs?  In a way, it appears that is what originally happened with Peter and Andrew. You see, we know they were very happy that they had found the Messiah.  But no sooner did they receive the Good News, they went back to their everyday way of life.

 Why wouldn’t they go back to their place of work? There seems nothing wrong with doing such a thing. You and I can relate to their actions. We, like hundreds of others on Sundays hear the Good News that Jesus Christ is Lord. Then we leave and go back about our business. We take care of the things we need to take care of.  Most people are content with this. And, there is really nothing wrong with taking care of that which we need to do. And Jesus certainly did not scold Andrew and Peter for wanting to get back to their work. But if that was all those first disciples did – hear and go back to work – could you and I be here today serving this Divine Liturgy together? Suppose they had just stayed as fishermen in Galilee.

 Thank God they did not.  They responded to Christ’s call.  No longer would their world be a place where nothing is done for you…ever.  They followed Christ.  They gave up all they had.  And remember that fishing was a rather lucrative profession.  And they followed Christ – all the way to their own Crosses: Peter’s upside down; Andrew’s in the form of an X.

 God’s call upon our life changes us.  The first change is that our spiritual focus no longer remains an inward one. Although we may still go to work, and may very well have to take care of our own needs, we do those things differently.  For in whatever we do, we also seek to take care of the needs of others.  And, then, for some of us, God’s Call is to devote an entire life and lifetime to that service of others in the Holy Priesthood. 

 We, today, together, celebrate a Call to service.  A Call to be what Christ is.  This call is extended not only to the Apostles.  It extended not only to All the Saints of the Carpatho-Rus whom we commemorate today.  It extends not only to the Bishops, Priests, Deacons and Sub-deacons of the Church.  The Call is extended to YOU as well.
 
 No longer, ever, can there be such a land like the one where nothing is done for anyone…ever. Because Christ’s love, His Spirit, His Mercy, His Word are way too powerful and too exciting for any of us to ignore. These gifts, and more like them, given to us, move us to immediately get up, and, for the sake of others, leave our nets to follow Him.

 I have been in the service of Christ’s Church for thirty-six years.  I wanted to be a priest since I was twelve years old, playing church in the basement of my home.  By God’s grace, now three years ago, I was given the privilege and responsibility to serve as a Priest in His Holy Orthodox Church.

Was it worth it? Was it worth the loss of friends and relationships made over a long period of time? Was it worth finding a new family to love and care for? The answer is “Yes.” It was worth everything to find out that never again will there be a world where nothing is done for you…ever.  For you and I will make sure that there will always be someone in the world who will help someone else.

In Greek the word is ekklesia. In English we get the word ecclesiastical. The word is translated in English as “church.” The word ekklesia comes from two other words: ek and kalo. Kalo means to call. Ek means out. The original word for “church” thus means “to call out.” It means to call out to the faithful to gather together. It means to call out to the heavens and to ask for God’s mercy. Ultimately the Christian life is a calling for every one of us. It is God calling us to become more and more like Him. What this really means is that we are called to become saints! That’s right; you and I are called to join those invisibly present with us here now. We are called to be as those whose images we see on icons and on the walls of Orthodox churches throughout the world.

Some might think, “How could I possibly become like Saint Nicholas or Saint George? How could I ever be like the greatest Saint of our Church, the Theotokos, the Virgin Mary?” It’s not as hard as we think. After all these people were just body and soul like us. But they made a choice. They chose to give body and soul to God. And, after all, that is the sole purpose of our existence. We give our bodies and souls back to God who made them.

On this Sunday of all Saints, we remember those that have gone before us. We remember those who have fulfilled God’s plan here on earth. We remember those who took up that call from God to join Him. Many of them suffered greatly and died for their faith. It is on this day that we not only remember those saints who are well known to us. We also remember those whose names we don’t know. Every single day of the year with exception of the major feast days of Christ and the Theotokos, Orthodox services remember many saints. The day of their remembrance is the day on which they passed over into eternal life.

Who, do you think, today would make a candidate for a Saint? When we look at the icons of our church we can see that Saints came from all different walks of life. We have Saints who were doctors, soldiers, bishops, monks. Some saints were priests, nuns, kings, queens, married couples. Some were whole families who were killed for their faith. Also, how old you are does not stand in the way of becoming a Saint. Many of the Saints, and especially many of the martyrs, were teenagers and young children. It is said that Saint John the Theologian, who wrote the Gospel, was only about 14 years old when he was chosen by Christ to become one of the Apostles. Even the Mother of God by tradition was a teenager when she gave birth to Jesus. Yesterday we remembered seventeen year old Theodosia of Tyre who became a martyr for Christ. She stood up for what she believed and was beheaded in 307 A.D.

So what qualifies us to join the ranks of the Saints? We have just noted that you don’t need to be young or old. As well, you don’t need to be a bishop or a nun. Likewise, you certainly don’t need to walk through life trying to look like a saint. You know, pretending that you wear a shiny halo around your head! Christ tells us in today's gospel how we are to become saints. This is how.

First, we must confess Christ before all people. This means that we don’t hide our faith as if it’s something to be embarrassed about. Don’t wonder what people might think if you go to Church every week or every day. Don’t fell ashamed to make the sign of the Cross in public. Furthermore, don’t disregard the practice of praying or reading the Bible. Those are not things that only priests or religious fanatics do. We have as Orthodox Christians 2000 years of tradition. And, we have a God who loves us very much. It’s not something to hide. It is something that should make us happy and proud. It is something of which we should wish the whole world was a part.

Second, we need to place Christ and to love Christ before anyone else that we love. We need to love Christ more than our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, wives, and husbands! This is often a sore point with many Christians. It is a hard condition to fulfil. However, first we focus our attention and love on Christ. After this is done, love for one’s family members follows naturally.

The final point in looking at what qualifies one to become a saint is this. One must be willing to suffer for Christ. Being an Orthodox Christian often creates sharp conflicts and divisions within communities. And why is that? It is due to the great call to self-satisfaction in our world today. The true Saint must be prepared to sacrifice selfish desires. In the Gospel Christ says today that might mean even sacrificing family relationships. The true Saint must be prepared to endure the hardships that this world brings upon true believers. And today that might call for the ultimate sacrifice of our lives.

The lived an elderly pious monk known as the Elder Paisios. He died in 1994. He lived a solitary life on Mount Athos in Greece. One day he left his solitary life. In 1977 Paisios made a visit to Australia. While there, Paisios said this. "Many problems exist here in Australia, because this land has not as yet brought forth a saint." He also said, "I believe though, that even Australia, in the future, will bring forth Saints. [There are] so many faithful who fight the good fight here; and then things will change. . ." Wise words from a man who himself may one day be among those Saints remembered in our daily services.

I think this call to Sainthood by the Elder also applies to America. Who knows? Maybe it is a call for you. Perhaps one day an icon of you may adorn our church walls!

Through the prayers of Your Holy Saints, O Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and save us!

Most of the major feasts of the Orthodox Church’s year are celebrated for eight days. We have just completed the celebration of Easter. It lasted forty days. On Thursday we celebrated the Ascension of our Lord. The feast is still being celebrated today, four days into the eight-day feast.

In most of the world, Ascension Day is a forgotten holiday. In western Europe Ascension Day is observed as a national holiday.  Banks are closed, as are schools. Businesses shut down. But, like church holidays that are observed nationally, the churches are hardly crowded. But this day, the Feast of the Ascension, cannot go by unnoticed. The day on which it is celebrated is not the main thing. The truth about the Ascension of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ is the main thing.

Apostle and Evangelist St. Luke tells the story of the Ascension in the 24th chapter of his Gospel. In English, the description of the actual Ascension takes only ten words. In the Greek in which Luke wrote his Gospel it is only eight words. Here is what he says. “He parted from them and was carried up into heaven.” That’s it. Ten words. And most everyone thinks that Jesus is gone!

The icon of the Ascension shows Jesus not gone. He is there. He is the center of the icon. He hovers between heaven and earth with upraised hand in blessing. He points both ways – to heaven and to earth. The Ascension of Christ into heaven is not that Christ is now absent. Rather, the Ascension proclaims Christ present everywhere. He is without limits. He is no longer bound by the limits He accepted when He became human. 

Other accounts of the Ascension tell of a cloud that took Christ from the sight of his Apostles. The cloud is a symbol for God’s presence. In the mystical cloud He works in new ways and for new purposes for the saving of the world. It was a cloud that guided the children of Israel in the desert – the Shekinah.  Shekinah is the Hebrew word for God’s presence, not His absence. In His Ascension, Christ is present. He is not absent. All that Christ did for humanity: healing, caring, loving, saving from death – all these things are still present through Christ. He is not gone. He lives on. And where does He live? Blessed St. Augustine, Church Father of the fifth century tells us. “He withdrew from before our very eyes and we were grieving. Only to find Him again in our hearts.”

We live in the twenty-first century under the shadow of the question, “Where is God now?” That question was asked after Hiroshima, after 9/11, after the tsunami in the Indian Ocean, after the earthquake in Haiti. Where is God now? Every time there is a cataclysmic woe and the human family is shaken. Where is God now? The old doubts rise. The firm foundation of certainty begins to teeter. The question is not asked in the abstract. It comes from the depth of the hearts of people in fear for their own lives.

So we celebrate the Ascension of our Lord. The celebration is not a date on the calendar. It is the holding fast of the promise of God never to leave His children orphaned. The Ascension is the final stone in the building of plan of salvation for all people. The Ascension is Christ’s homecoming, like a valiant soldier who has returned from battle. The victory has been won!

We celebrate Christmas and Easter because they happened in our space and time. In the Ascension, our eyes cannot see, nor our ears take in the sound. It is Christ laying at the feet of the Father the trophy of victory, now and ever and forever. And that victory is ours, now and ever and forever.

We cannot comprehend the full mystery. I was thinking of a way to convey that thought – we cannot  comprehend the full mystery. Think about this. Most of us use email as a normal way of communication. Now there may be two or three of you out there who might be able explain how email works. I can’t. I am behind most ten-year-olds when it comes to understanding and using electronic media. I have no idea of what goes on inside a computer. I do not know how the technology bounces a signal off a satellite and drops it down on another continent in an instant of time. But it happens. I can send a message to someone 6000 miles away. The words get there. The words have importance. People expect them, receive them, act on them.

And so it is with the Ascension of Christ. We cannot comprehend the full mystery. We receive it. We celebrate it. We make it a part of our lives. We share it with friends and family. We live it out as the Body of Christ, still on earth, in the Holy Orthodox Church.

The Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council believed this. They believed so strongly that they were willing to offer their lives for it. Each time you sing or say the Nicene Creed, you do so with the faith of the Holy Fathers behind it. We proclaim that Christ’s work is not something in the past. We proclaim and live it in the present. We proclaim that Christ did not leave us at the Ascension, but became an even larger part of us.

Christ is where He always is. He is present in His Holy Word. He is present in the Holy Communion. He is present in you, the people who are the Body of Christ on earth. Christ is here, now. He is in our hearts and in our lives. He shares His victory with us even as he lays the trophy of victory at the feet of His Father. The Ascension seals its permanence. Jesus Christ is Lord. Everywhere. For every person. For all time.

Here we are on another Mother's Day. Today we honor those who not only gave us life, but who formed us by their teaching into what we are today. In his second letter to Timothy, St Paul wrote: I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you. Timothy grew up in a Godly home. This faith began in his grandmother, was passed down to his mother, who in turn passed it down to him. By their actions they planted a seed that would one day blossom into the flower of eternal life.  These were godly women in a day when godliness was unfashionable.

Godliness and fashionability: under which do we stand today?  Think of these examples. In 1973 the Supreme Court said that it was fine for mothers to abort their children. The number of abortions performed in the US since 1973 is approaching 50 million. Fifty million is easy number to read. Fifty million is a hard number to get your mind around. If you add up the populations to the following states, they equal about 50 million. Kentucky, Oregon, Oklahoma. Connecticut, Iowa, Mississippi. Arkansas, Kansas, Utah. Nevada, New Mexico, West Virginia. Nebraska, Idaho, Maine. New Hampshire, Hawaii, Rhode Island. Montana, Delaware, South Dakota. Alaska, North Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming

Businesses that used to rely on young people for part time work are now suffering a worker shortage. Colleges and universities are shrinking in student population, and tuition is on the rise to compensate. We have seen in recent years several instances where teenagers have had children out of wedlock, then threw these newborn babies in the trash. I read recently that the average child will spend 6 minutes a day talking to their parents. They will spend hours and hours on the internet, iphones, ipods, and other electronic media. It is said we reap what we have sown.

There is a battle going on around every Christian. The battle is in every family. The battle is also around every mother in this country. God has given us each the freewill to choose and live our own lives either unto God or not.

So what kind of a mother we seek today?  Of course, when we look for such characteristics, we must start with the Holy Mother of God, Mary Theotokos.  It is she whom we hold up as the example for the lives of women and Mothers everywhere. The Holy Theotokos bore in her body our Savior Christ. Her obedience, her faith, her loving care for Christ – these are what we look for in every mother.

Families need their mothers to bear Christ in their bodies as well. No matter how outwardly beautiful a woman may be in this Church today, if you are not bearing Christ inside of you? Nothing more needs be said. This of course can be said of all of us. We all need to bear Christ in our bodies along with the marks of Christ’s passion. This is what St. Paul calls on all of us to do in his Epistle to the Galatians. Obedience, trust, love – these are the characteristics of women and men we seek today. Being obedient, trusting, loving in our world today will lead to the marks of the passion of Christ. This is because obedience, trust and love are not the world’s way today.

In our world today it is far more fashionable for women to take charge. It is far more fashionable for the wife to be her own head, to dominate a marriage. Yet St. Paul tells the Ephesians. “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing."

In our society this is a very unfashionable notion, that the wife follow the leadership of her husband. After all, aren't women just as intelligent as men? Can't a woman do everything that a man does? Isn’t this a matter of justice? That’s what the world asks.

So what is St. Paul really saying? He is talking about design. God designed men to fill one role in the family and in the Church. And God designed women to fill another role within the family and in the Church. A woman is no less a human being when she follows God's design in the marriage. But she becomes less than what God designed her to be when she follows the world's fashionable new idea of marriage.

No farmer would go out into the field to plow with a high-powered sports car. The sports car might be able to go fast on the highway. You might even be able to win races with it. But who would try to pull stumps or plow a field with it? The sports car is not designed to do this. But a tractor is. Have you ever had to follow a slow-moving tractor down a country road? Then you know that the tractor is not designed for highway travel. Again, it's a matter of design.

When God designed men and women, He designed them to fill certain roles. The husband was designed to be the leader of the family. The wife was designed to support the Godly leadership of her husband. Children learn Godliness and obedience to authority not in school, not on the streets, not from their friends – but from their parents. This threesome of father, mother and children is imitation of the Holy Trinity.

What if the child sees a mother who tries to be independent of the husband? What if the child’s mother criticizes and belittles the man she married as the child looks on? What if the child never sees love and affection shared between both his parents? This same child will only have a worldly view of marriage to imitate. But what happens when a child sees his mother living for Christ while supporting the Godly leadership of her husband? The child sees a strong family unit that the child will imitate as an adult.

It is Mother’s Day. It is a day to honor our Mother’s living and reposed. May God bless you mothers. May He keep in blessed remembrance those mothers who have gone before us and rest in the bosom of Abraham.

Today we meet again with the woman at the well.  In a short conversation with Christ many things happened to this Samaritan woman.  She came to terms with her own sinfulness.  She saw the failures of her life in a new way. She recognized in Jesus the offer of forgiveness.  She also recognized in Jesus that He was the One whom she needed.  He was the One her people were looking for.  And, this woman was empowered to bring others to know and worship Jesus as Lord.

What was going on seems to be related to the Mystery and Sacrament of Confession and Absolution. In Confession we know what our sins are.  In Absolution we are cleansed of those sins. We talk a lot about sin in Orthodoxy. On more than one occasion in my journey into Orthodoxy I have been (rightly) asked a question. “Why does Orthodoxy so strongly emphasize our sin and unworthiness?  It makes one feel so small and insignificant.”  The answer is to look, of course, to Christ Himself.  We can find out as He talks with the woman at the well.

Jesus has gotten the woman’s attention at the well first by simply talking to her.  But this seemingly very small thing was a problem.  A man speaking with a woman in a public place in the middle of the day? Not acceptable!  Neither do Jews have anything to do with Samaritans.  But Jesus was not bound by the social rules of His day.  Jesus has other, loftier, goals in mind. 

He gets the woman involved in exploring the truth.  And he does so by speaking of things in her own experience.  He speaks of drawing water. After all, that is why the woman was there in the first place. Jesus then moves to a picture that intrigued her – “living water.”  He responds gently to her.  He reveals the woman’s own weaknesses.  He uncovers her old religious prejudices.  And then He leads the woman on to seeing life in a new way. 

Jesus was not simply fixed on sin.  He does not work on the guilt that is often associated with sin.  Jesus moved the woman toward forgiveness and new life.  He did so not with warnings.  He did not use fearful words of coming punishment.  Jesus moved the woman toward forgiveness.  He moved her toward a new life with the promise of living water welling up within her to eternal life.  He was speaking, of course, of the Holy Spirit.  In John 7, Jesus says this. “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me!  Let anyone who believes in me come and drink!  From his heart shall flow streams of living water.” 

I served as the first staff chaplain to the Montgomery County, PA, Correctional Facility in Eagleville, PA.  I was there ten years, from 1986 to 1996.  As chaplain I had many duties. I organized and enabled religious services of all types to happen.  I assisted in the training of prison volunteers at all levels of their involvement in the life of the prison inmates.  However the work with individual inmates,  for me, was most important.  It was also most valuable for the carrying out of my priestly ministry.  I was involved in the lives of many and various individuals involved in crimes.  Some of those crimes were so horrific that I never have talked about them anywhere.  I have heard the confessions of murderers, rapists, drug dealers and child molesters. 

It is very difficult for many people to separate the sin from the sinner.  In order to fulfill the old adage, “hate the sin, love the sinner,” it takes much work.  In dealing with those who have committed serious crimes, it is very hard work indeed.  One must love the sinner, while hating the sin.  But, at the same time, one must help design a way to help the sinner to look at sin and life in a new and different way.

This is just what happened to Photini, the Samaritan woman in her meeting with Jesus.  She said that this Man at the well had told her everything she had ever done.  But the reality was not that she didn’t know what she had done.  It was not that Jesus had to tell her.  She knew exactly what she had done.  But now she was able to see her sin differently.  As a result of meeting Jesus, she now could see her life for what it really was.  She saw that a life lived in simply seeking pleasure and self-gratification had led nowhere.  Surely this is the essence of sin.  It is the sin of Adam and Eve.  “She saw that the tree was good for food.  And that it was a delight to the eyes.  So she took of its fruit and ate.” Such is the essence of sin: the seeking of false fulfillment.  But now the woman at the well had met the Christ.  She would find in Him that which she needed most. 

At the end of this story, we see the woman now in conversation with her neighbors.  She tells them of all that Jesus had said to her.  She probably did not grasp the meaning of all this yet.  But she acts like a woman who has had a long refreshing drink from the living water.  She acts like she is beginning to learn what it can mean to live from the wellspring of life that Jesus Christ is!

And the story ends not just with the change in this woman’s life.  Because of her testimony, the whole village requested that Jesus stay with them.  After a few days, the village, too, could know what that woman now knows.  Jesus is indeed the Living Water.  He is, indeed, the Savior of the world!

The story of the pool of Bethesda in today’s Gospel was that an angel would come down and stir up the waters. First one in got healed! Imagine the chaos and people diving into this pool when the waters moved.  Like a game of spoons, musical chairs, or runners in the blocks waiting for the starter’s gun to go off . Everyone is on the edge and waiting to go!

We don’t know what happened to the paralytic who was at this pool.  We’re told only that he had been ill for 38 years, and that he had no one.  No one would let him down into the pool for 38 years.  Why did he have no one?  Maybe his illness had stripped him of everything: his strength, companions, perhaps even his hope.

People today have different pools.  People today visit different pools in order to find healing and meaning in life.  For example, there’s the pool of health. To feel good, to be strong, to be on top of the world.  This is the goal.  So they exercise, drink protein drinks, get so many facelifts and tummy tucks that they can’t smile or bend over. Their doctor becomes their best friend and closest confidant. There is an endless search for the perfect body and a healthy life.  Maybe you’ve heard it.  Maybe you’ve said it.  If I can just get the right treatment, diet, or exercise program: then I’ll be better. 

Then there’s the pool of wealth.  If the personal trainers can’t heal us then maybe the stockbroker can. I just need a little more money.  That will take care of everything.  So many in our culture sit at the edge of the pool of wealth. They work two jobs and stay up late working the Internet to find a way to get into the pool first. Every time someone wins the lottery the waters are stirred and look how many dive in.  If I just had a little more.  Then there’s the pool of pleasure.  If all else fails there is finally the pool of pleasure. Many relentlessly sit at the pool of pleasure.  One more vacation.  One place to go or one more entertainment to take in.  Maybe just a little time off.  That will make me well and whole!

But the secret is this: these pools don’t work.  And the pools of people today don’t work.  Even if you get in the pool and win the prize, you won’t be well!  Here is the seat of our un-wellness.  Sin has made us sick.  We are depressed.  We are covered with a spiritual malaise that saps our strength and sucks the joy out of life.  No amount of exercise, not even freedom from crippling disease, will satisfy our souls.  Sitting at the pools of health, wealth, or pleasure does not make you whole nor fill your soul.  Not even if you get into the pool first!             

What’s left are the excuses. The man at the pool in Bethesada had a whole list of excuses. I can’t get in the pool. There are too many others. No one will help me. It’s not my fault .  This guy became a bitter and ungrateful man. And it didn’t change when he was healed. When you read the whole story you will notice that even after Jesus healed him physically he didn’t change spiritually.  Later he was challenged by the religious leaders for carrying his bed on the Sabbath.  And this healed man actually said, “Jesus made me do it!”

People today have the same excuses.  I can’t get in the pool. There are too many others. No one will help me. It’s not my fault.  Excuses are not the problem.  The problem is sin.  But we know that! But so many don’t seem to understand this simple fact.  Sin eats us up from the inside out.  Yet we sit at the edge of a pool, hopeless, and strangely comfortable. We even get used to it.  Like this man who had spent 38 years in this place.  So many have stopped hoping for healing.  They simply accept a bad reality as a normal existence. Hopeless living has become a way of life for many people. None of the pools will help them even if they could get into them. So they begin to grow numb and hopeless. Life becomes one day following the next.  Life is seen as a series of chores, an endless job and a pile of bills at the end of every month.

But we are a people of Easter.  We are a people of hope and healing.  We are all crippled and broken people. We have been battered and bruised by life. Every person here has a story of defeat and brokenness. Paralysis and disease are part of our reality.  The key question is this: do you want to get well? Surprisingly, this is an important question. Lots of people really don’t want to get well. Life is too comfortable the way it is.  Don’t rock the boat with more calls for a life-changing commitment.  

No wonder when Jesus saw the paralytic, and “learned that he had been in this condition for a long time,” His first words were, “Do you want to get well?”  The question is directed at us.  Do you want to get well?  Don’t make excuses. You have been in the pool.  The only pool that works is the pool of baptism.  Now that you’ve been there, do what Jesus says to do. Just as Jesus told the paralytic, let us pick up our beds and walk.

But what does that mean for us? Well that’s what we are about being the Church. It’s about first having received healing through baptism.  We continue in health through confession and absolution.  And we continue in our good health through the Body and Blood of Christ.  Then taking up our bed and walking is about our mission of helping the unwell people of the world to become well.  For them to have the courage to trust the Risen Christ and become part of the community of the healed and whole.  We must be and be seen as the Body of Christ to the sick world around us.  Do you want to get well?  Having been in the pool, take up your bed, and walk!

Today we revisit the tomb. We find Joseph of Arimathea providing for Christ’s burial.  Then come Myrrhbearers come to anoint Christ’s body with spices and oils.  But they discover that the tomb is empty. They run from the garden, St. Mark tells us, “for they were afraid.”

Now, we’ve gone through fifty days of Lent. We prayed through the intensity of Holy Week that ended with the joy and triumph of Easter Day.  We have proclaimed again and again that Christ is risen from the dead and has trampled down death by death.  Last week we were with Thomas to touch the body of the Risen Christ. Why now, then, does the Church return to the tomb on this Sunday?

We join the Myrrhbearing women who have followed Jesus through his passion.  They have witnessed that he was tried and crucified. They have watched as Joseph of Arimathea stepped up and gave Jesus a proper burial in his own tomb. They have seen the stone sealing the tomb. These women loved Jesus. Now they grieve for the loss of their beloved leader. All hope is lost. He is gone.

Yet even in the face of hopelessness, these women act. They buy ointments and sweet spices so that even in death, Jesus’ body is honored. Their actions show their steadfast love for Him.  For even after hope is shattered, they go the extra mile to honor Jesus. Such is their love for this dead man.

Did the Myrrhbearers come to anoint Christ in order to be recognized or receive some kind of reward from Jesus?  There was nothing in it for them. Jesus was dead. The women, rather, are motivated simply by their love for Christ.  They want His body to be blessed with sweet smelling fragrance. But they did get a reward. These women were honored with being the first witnesses to Christ’s resurrection. They were the first to know the joy that Christ had defeated death.  They were the first to know that hope was fulfilled.  They were the first to know that despair and grief were not all that was left to them. And, they were the first one sent by the angel to tell others that Christ had risen from the dead.

Now, we know the triumph of Christ. We know the end of the story. We know this even as we walk with these women to the tomb, as they despair, hopeless. Yet still in our lives, we also may deal with despair. You’ve heard the questions. Maybe you have even asked them. Why am I stuck in this job? Why can’t I pay my bills? Why can’t I be patient with my children? Why do I feel so alone? When we are abandoned.  When we try to follow God’s will but can’t see the way.  When we lose someone or something we don’t think we can live without.  When we suffer.  Perhaps that is when we experience Christ as dead.

So there is a reason why we return to the tomb after Easter Day. The Church has us return again each year to the experience of Joseph and the Myrrhbearers.  We join them at the point that they had lost their hope. The Church brings us back to the worst and best parts of their stories.  For their story is ours as well.  There are times of hopelessness and despair.  There are times, however when we know what it is to find the Body of Christ – alive!

It is interesting that the first New Testament reading for today tells of the first deacons of the Jerusalem Church. The word deacon means servant. In Jerusalem, the deacons were chosen to serve the widows who were being neglected. The deacons may have been called to continue the work of the Myrrhbearers.  They are called to serve the Body of Christ in a special way.  So all of us are commissioned to serve the body of Christ, the Church. And in so doing, we, too, can find the Body of Christ alive in the midst of our own lives’ hopelessness.

So who are the Myrrhbearers of today? Those who sing in church are myrrhbearers. Those who set up and take down for our Liturgy are myrrhbearers. Those who prepare for the services are myrrhbearers. Those who serve at the altar are myrrhbearers. Those who work on our new parish house are myrrhbearers. Those who prepare for our festival by working with their hands are myrrhbearers. Those who bake, and cook, and serve us food are myrrhbearers. Those who prepare the coffee or donate food for coffee hour are myrrhbearers. Those who donate icons or make offerings of money are myrrhbearers. Even those who simply come and pray for the salvation of all are myrrhbearers.

All those who work for the Body of Christ, the Church, in this world, but are not of this world, are myrrhbearers. They are so because they show that they too selflessly love Christ.  And what is the reward of myrrhbearers? It is to be the first to see and know the Crucified Body of Christ Risen.  It is to be the first to hear the words of the Angel resplendent and whiter than snow.  “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is Risen!”  This is our joy, not only to feel, but also to know that the Body of Christ, the Church, is Risen.  For the Church is the place of the Resurrection.  And we are witnesses of Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection. Moreover, when we care for the Church, the Church cares for us, for we are risen with Her.

You may still be stuck in the worst parts of your life, but today we’re reminded through the Myrrhbearers of the victory that is truly here. And how?  In that we have seen, and heard that Christ is Risen!

Christ is risen!

Has our “Christ is risen!” worn out so soon?  Has it become merely a greeting and nothing more? Has it become something akin to the greeting of “Merry Christmas” around the feast of the Nativity? Or maybe it is more like, “Happy Holidays”? If it has worn out, we must remember this.  Pascha and the Resurrection of Christ is the central belief of the Christian faith.

The great Apostle Paul, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, is perfectly clear.  “If Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain.  And your faith has been in vain.  If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile.  And you are still in your sins.” In other words, if there is no Resurrection of Christ, then Christianity is the biggest lie ever told.  If there is no resurrection of Christ, then we, and all those that have gone before us, have to be the most gullible fools that ever walked the earth. We cannot call ourselves Christians and discard the Resurrection of Christ.  We cannot be considered Christian if we regard the resurrection of Christ as some kind of myth or fairytale. That is how important Christ’s resurrection is to our faith and us.

I repeat : That is how important Christ’s resurrection is to our faith and us.  We don’t consider the Resurrection of Christ as something that simply happened nearly two thousand years ago.  Rather, we celebrate the Resurrection as a timeless event that happens for us now. In fact, we celebrate Christ's Resurrection every single Sunday in the Church calendar.

Can you recall the hymn of the small entrance?  You know, when the priest carries the book of the Gospels up high?  “O come let us worship and fall down before Christ, who is risen from the dead.”  This hymn is based solely on the Resurrection.  And have you ever looked at the book of Gospels?  If so you may notice that it always has the icon of the Resurrection facing upwards.

We call today, Antipascha. It is the first Sunday after Easter.  It is the Sunday of St. Thomas.  Antipascha is not translated as anti-Easter.  Beginning today, every Sunday of the year until Easter next year, we will remember the Resurrection of Christ. Every Sunday is Antipascha.  It is correctly translated as “reflection of Easter.”

Therefore, we say “Christ is risen!”  Then we say back, “Indeed He is risen!”  We don’t say, “Christ rose from the dead.” We don’t talk as if His Resurrection were just one more past event in history. Rather we confess the Christ who is risen and is present with us here and now.  And we remind ourselves of that every Sunday.

Christ's Resurrection is becoming more and more the topic if debate among other Christian groups.  In the secular world the idea of Jesus rising from grave is totally denied. I thank God that Orthodoxy still believes the fullness of the Christian faith. For Orthodoxy teaches the actual Resurrection of Christ.  In Orthodoxy, absurd theories about the resurrection of Christ are simply not permitted by our bishops.

But you can be sure that at some stage in our life we will be like Thomas in today’s Gospel.  We, too, may question and doubt. There are times even Orthodox Christians question things about their beliefs.  Such questioning may very well be a sign of a healthy faith.  After all, people who question are not taking their faith for granted.  Even Thomas questioned.  He doubted.  But Thomas didn’t need proof to allay his doubts.  He did not even have to put his finger into Christ’s side.  He simply experienced Christ himself.  Then Thomas confessed openly that Jesus Christ was his Lord and God.

The world around us tries desperately to make us doubt the Risen Christ.   The world around us offers us alternatives.  It offers us entertainment. It offers us fun and games.  It offers us all of those things that are meant to make us physically feel good.  God through His Holy Church offers us the Risen Christ.  God, through His Holy Church offers us the very Body and Blood of the Risen Christ Himself.  God, through His Holy Church offers us the same Victory over death that we find in Christ.  But to share in Christ’s victory means to share in his Suffering.  It may not make us feel good to give time, or money or talent to God when called upon.  It may make us feel anxious to sacrifice what we have for others.  But giving of ourselves is the Way God has chosen to work.  For God gave of Himself in Christ so that we, too, would be able to conquer death and live forever with Him. 

We do not have the luxury that Thomas had to see in person the wounds of the Resurrected Christ.  But the Resurrected Christ is here nonetheless.  He is here looking at us through the icons.  He is here in the person of the priest.  And, what happens when “In the fear of God, and in faith and love” you come forward?  The Resurrected Christ’s Body and Blood will greet you right here. When we have done this, we will know that that Christ was talking about you and me. This is what he said. It is from today’s Gospel. "Blessed are those have not seen and yet have believed.”

Why is Good Friday called Good?  Here’s one even better. Why do we Orthodox call this day “Great”? What is great about an innocent man being arrested in the middle of the night?  What is great about being betrayed by one of His own apostles, Judas?  What is great about being denied by another, Peter.  What is great about being accused falsely by the chief priests?  What is great about being mocked and scourged by soldiers?  What is great about being crucified like a criminal and being scorned and mocked in His dying hours? What is great about the crown of thorns on his head? Or the nails in his hands and feet? Good question, this. Why is Good Friday called Good?  Or even better, why call today Great?

 
Well, it wouldn't be good or great if Jesus were just one more innocent victim in history's long list of innocent victims.  You know, those who were arrested, tortured, and unjustly put to death. If Jesus were just another innocent victim, then this Friday should called Evil Friday, Bad Friday, Horrible Friday. 

Look what we have before us. The Author of all Creation is now held within His creation. The Giver of Life has now given His life in behalf of us all. He Who made the heavens and the earth in six days and then rested on the seventh day now rests in a tomb.  And we call this day Great?

Usually, when a battle is fought, the winner is still alive.  It is the one who is defeated who has lost his life. But this is not an ordinary battle. This is no ordinary victory. The One the world thinks it has destroyed by death is destroying Death itself by His death. The Creator Who is resting in the tomb is accomplishing for us a new Creation. The Giver of Life Who is resting in the tomb is giving life to those held captive by Death.  Death has been conquered.  Hell is ravaged. And all those who had suffered in a place of darkness now behold the uncreated light of the glory of God in our Lord Jesus Christ.  For He has entered in their existence to set them free. He has come to lead them out of captivity into the glorious freedom of His kingdom.  That is why we call this day Great!

So it is that St. Paul writes, “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; therefore, let us keep the feast.” Israel of old was led out of captivity by the power of God.  So too are we, the new Israel, the people of God, led out of captivity to death, and to sin, by our Lord Jesus Christ. We who are baptized into His death are also partakers of His life.  By the waters of baptism, we have “passed over” from death to life.

The people of Israel saw clearly the power of God when they crossed the Red Sea on dry land.  But they very quickly forgot the mercy and power of God.  They had been freed from Egyptian slavery.  Then they rebelled.  They longed to return to what they thought was the luxuries of Egypt. Because of this rebellion, they had to wander forty years more in the desert.  Only then were they allowed by God to enter the Promised Land.

We who have journeyed through the Fast of forty days in Great Lent also stand at the edge of the Promised Land. Yet like the people of Israel, there is a deep longing inside of us to return to the ways of sin.  We are so good at repeating this failure.  We are so often just like the people of Israel.  For the sake of tasty food they were willing to return to slavery and captivity in Egypt.  They would rather fill their stomachs with rich foods than eat the manna, the bread of heaven, provided by God. Do we love the “taste” of our own sins so much that we will continue to turn our backs to Him Who has died to set us free?

The women soon will come to the tomb bearing myrrh to anoint His body. It is an act of love and devotion for Him Who had taught them so much.  This Jesus Christ had shown them a glimpse of the heavenly realm.  This Jesus Christ had inspired love in them with His love for them and for all mankind. So the myrrh-bearers are coming to do Him one last honor, they think.  But there are many obstacles in the way of their act of devotion. They could be arrested by the soldiers guarding the tomb. And, who would roll away the stone for them?  But they are determined. They will not turn back.  No.  They set out to perform this act of love. And what happened when they got to the tomb? There the myrrh-bearers found the meaning of why this day is called good, no, why this day is called Great.

But, for now He is resting in the tomb. Are we preparing the myrrh, the sweet fragrance of a life and love devoted to God? Are we making ready the spices of a life dedicated to the ways of God, and not returning to the ways of the world? Will we also resolve to brave the obstacles that would keep us from fulfilling our duty to God? Will we, for this brief time, lay aside all earthly cares?  Will we forego all thoughts of the growling stomach?  Will we do away with all the worries of Martha, preparing for the feast?  Can we not watch and wait and mourn His death one hour? If we can, we, too, will be filled with wonder and joy when we see His empty tomb. 

Yes.  This is a good day.  Yes.  This is a Great Day.

Today the King of all creation enters Jerusalem. He is seated not on a white horse.  He does not have an army of 100,000 to escort Him like the Emperor. He is seated on a donkey, the lowest of creatures.  His escort is the street children. For He is not the King of Rome, the King of War and Power and Pride and Riches.  No, Jesus is the King of Jerusalem, the King of Peace and Humility. And this is only right. After all the name “Jerusalem” means “the City of Peace.”  Therefore, Christ alone, the King of Peace, is its rightful King.

Children greet Him with palms, the symbols of victory.  They cry “Hosanna,” meaning “Save, we pray.”  Their cry and their deed are greater than they know.  For in their innocence they speak and do truth.  For it is Christ alone who saves us.  And He only will save us if we pray to Him.  And branches from the tree?  They are indeed tokens of victory.  For Christ’s victory, and our victory comes through the Tree of the Cross.

This is not just an event of history.  It is an event that can be repeated at every Liturgy. For here we seek peace.  And here, as innocent as children we, too, cry: “Save, we pray.”  And only here we know that Christ enters our souls and makes them into Jerusalems within us.  He gives us true peace.

However, we know that in Jerusalem there were not only children who greeted Christ.  There were also others.  The Scribes and Pharisees, we are told, “were displeased.” They are those who wanted a worldly leader.  They wanted a man of violence.  They wanted a rival to the Romans.  And, not getting what they wanted, they will lead Christ to Golgotha.  They will prefer an unrepentant thief to the Son of God. Within a few days our Lord will suffer. He is innocent.  He is guilty of no crime. And all the innocent suffering of the world is taken up in Him.

The contrast between the children on the one hand, and the Scribes and Pharisees on the other, is a contrast that is repeated again and again.  All of us have at some time or another been on one side or the other. For when we are selfish and worldly?  We are on the side of the Scribes and Pharisees.  And when we are faithful and true?  We are on the side of the children. But whose side are we on today and whose side will we be on this coming week?

For in this coming Great and Holy Week, Passion Week, the Church calls us to follow Christ. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we begin to relive the dramatic events in Jerusalem of this Week. On Thursday we come to the celebration of the Last Supper, which was and is the First Liturgy. On Thursday evening we have the beautiful Service of the Twelve Gospels.  This is when the Church tells us all the details of Christ’s betrayal, His trial, His scourging and Crucifixion. On Friday evening Christ is taken down from the Cross and is buried.  That is when the Church sings the  Lamentations around His Tomb. On Saturday morning, we shall witness the first Resurrection Liturgy with the changing of vestments from purple into white.  Then on Saturday at midnight Christ will make clear His Resurrection. This by tradition is the moment when Christ returns to earth and we feel His presence most clearly.

These are the services that truly distinguish us as Orthodox!  We have the opportunity to follow Christ through all the events of this Great Week.  This is the Week that changed the history of the whole world!  Let us be like the children.  Let us put away our self-centeredness.  Let us lay aside all earthly cares.  Let us be with the family of God.  Let us join with the Mother of God and St. John and follow Christ to the Cross.  Let us be with the Myrrhbearers and follow Christ to His Tomb.  Let us be with the archangel who announces the Resurrection, the Victory and the Triumph.  And let us also be resurrected in spirit together with Him.

At the end of the coming week Great Lent will be over. Next Saturday is Lazarus Saturday, which is followed by Palm Sunday, the Entry of our Lord into Jerusalem. Then comes Great and Holy Week. However, today we commemorate another entry into Jerusalem. It is not the Entry into Jerusalem of our Lord. Rather it is the entry into Jerusalem of Mary of Egypt. Who was she and what is her significance today?

Mary was born in Alexandria in Egypt in the middle of the fifth century. As a young girl Mary fell into the vice of prostitution. For seventeen years, from the age of 12 until the age of 29, she lived the life of a harlot. However, once finding herself in Jerusalem, out of curiosity she went to see the Cross of Christ. She found that she was unable to enter the church where St Helen had placed the Cross. Some invisible force prevented her from entering in. So frightened was she at this that she went to an icon of the Mother of God at the entrance to the church. There she asked why this was. Why couldn’t she go in? The Mother of God replied to her that Mary first needed to repent. Only after promising to do this was Mary allowed to enter the church in Jerusalem. Mary went in and venerated the Cross. Then she heard a voice. It was the Mother of God talking.  Her words seemed strange. She said, “If you cross the Jordan, you will find true peace.”

Mary was shaken by these events. From that point on, she left her old life. She traveled east out of Jerusalem and crossed the Jordan River. She made a new life in the desert. We do not know the exact details of her day-to-day life. We do know that she dwelt there like a hermit. She ate only eating plants. And, like other Christian desert dwellers, Mary lived in torments and struggle with the demons. Eventually was given the grace to work miracles. Among other things, Mary was able to cross the Jordan as if on dry land. She soon became withered and skin dry and leathery, as we can see in her icon.  Yet she survived in the desert for forty-eight years. Then she was discovered by a pious monk by the name of Zosimas. He is often seen in the icon together with St. Mary. It was to Zosimas that St. Mary told the story of her life that we have today.

The Life of St Mary of Egypt teaches us many things. One lesson we can learn from her is that we should never try to play God. We ought never ponder the question, “Who will be saved?” It is not for us to answer this question. The life of St. Mary of Egypt shows us that it is never too late to repent. It is never too late, even for us. The human way of thinking would judge St. Mary’s early life by thinking that salvation had become impossible for her. And yet the Orthodox service written in her honor calls her “the greatest of saints.” Humanly speaking, we are all condemned. But by the grace of God repentance is always possible. No one has the right to judge another.

The life of St Mary of Egypt also teaches us something about human nature. In each of us there is the desire for worldly pleasures. We all want amusement, entertainment, food and drink – the pleasures of the senses. But there is also the desire for pleasures of a higher sort. We also seek those pleasures that are lasting, which we may call joys. Those joys are so much higher than the fleeting pleasures of the senses. The life of St. Mary teaches us that these higher joys alone make up the path to lasting happiness. A world that is devoted only to satisfying the need for fun is a world full of sad faces.

The life of St Mary teaches us that the values of the Church are quite different from those of the world. She went out into the desert and had nothing. She had no friends, no home, no possessions. She had no clothes and hardly any food and drink. The world looks for pleasure. The world seeks satisfaction of the senses. The world wants money and power. Yet St Mary was moneyless. St. Mary was powerless in the world. Today's Gospel confirms the choice of St Mary. This Gospel says that those who wish to be great must be servants. This is upside down from all the ways of this world. But this is what Christ preached. This is what St. Mary of Egypt lived.

The Church calls St Mary the greatest of saints. The use of this word great may be a surprise. In everyday life, we use great in other meanings. The world speaks of many great things: great politicians, great soldiers, great film-stars. There is a PBS TV program called Great Performances. A certain automobile is called a great car.  But the Church calls St Mary great. And a thousand and a half years after she lived we ask for her prayers. We don’t ask for the prayers of any great politician or soldier or film-stars. Let us think more carefully before next we utter this word great.
And as this last week of Great Lent begins, let us also ponder on the words of the Mother of God. Think of the words that led Mary to her salvation through repentance. These are the words that made her great. The Holy Theotokos said, “If you cross the Jordan, you will find true peace.” These mysterious words are today also addressed to each of us. The meaning of their mystery is open to the souls of each of us. Let us ask the Mother of God and St Mary to guide us. And then we shall find our own way to “cross the Jordan.”

Holy Mother Mary of Egypt, pray to God for us!

Fasting is a regular part of the Orthodox life.  We spend a lot of time talking about what fasting is.  We want to know what the “rules” of fasting are.  But fasting is more than rules about meat, fish, or “giving up something for Lent.”
 
First, fasting is a means of humbling ourselves. The Holy Apostle Peter tells us "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."  Here he says plainly that the only way to get anywhere with God is through true humility.  The usual way things work in our lives is like this.  We face hardship and attacks.  Then we cry, whine and complain about it. Usually the hardship or problem doesn’t go away.  No matter how much we cry, whine and complain.  Holy Apostle Peter goes on. "Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time."  No matter what happens in life, God’s way is always the best way. Yet so often, when we come into a difficult situation instead of humbling ourselves we cry, whine, complain.  And we try to scheme and manipulate to get our own way.  Fasting is giving up on our own way to let God have His way. 

Fasting may sometimes have to do with eating.  It has more to do with humbling ourselves before God.  It has more to do with giving up on making our selves and our passionate desires more important than God.  If you love red meat, try not eating it in order to control your own appetite.  That is fasting.  If you like to cry and complain about life, practice silence and acceptance to control your emotions.  That, too, is fasting.  If you have a passion for TV, movies or video games, put them aside for a time to practice self-control.  That, too, is fasting.  For if your appetite, emotions and self-control have become obedient, you have begun to be humble before God.

Second, fasting is evidence of true repentance.  The Holy Prophet Joel calls on us to "Turn to (God) with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning."  Why?  Because God wants to see that we really mean business.  God wants to see that we’re not just playing games or acting out of sheer emotion.   Evidence of true repentance is the person who yields himself to God with fasting, weeping and mourning.  The New Testament word for “repentance” is the word meaning, turning around.  It is making a 180 degree turn so that what was ahead of you, is now behind you.  Fasting is an outward sign of true, heartfelt, lasting repentance.  In fasting we turn completely away from that which is simply self-centered to what is God-centered.  In that way we gain power over the flesh.

 
 Jesus himself warns us to watch and pray because the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. We know we need to repent for our own sins. More often than not that knowledge is in our head but not yet really in our heart.  Fasting takes it from our head to our heart.  When we exercise the control of our passions through fasting, it breaks the power of the flesh.  Then the spirit becomes stronger than the flesh.  And we, too can have the power used in today’s reading from the Gospels.  We, too, can cast out evil spirits and make the deaf to hear.  For the power over the flesh, we are told, comes only by prayer and fasting.

This Sunday, the fourth in Great Lent, the Church commemorates St John of the Ladder.  Who was he?  St John lived in the sixth and seventh centuries.  He was a hermit and then the Abbot of the Monastery of St Catherine’s on Mt. Sinai.  St John was a man of grace who lived in unceasing prayer.  He also wrote down what he had learned from his life in God.  His book is called The Ladder.  It is this work which has given St John his title “of the Ladder.”

In this book the Saint describes thirty chapters, or rungs of the Ladder.  Each rung is a way, with God’s help, to raise ourselves up from our sinful inclinations.  Thus the soul rises up to God as if on a ladder.

St. John’s book was written specifically for monks.  But it has much to say to us as folks who live day after day in the world.  Much of the book is devoted to St. John’s directions on how to overcome pride and vainglory.  He gives specific instruction on how to be humble.  And it is clear that the path to humility is the defeat of one’s own will.  In its place must be put God’s will. 

Our Lenten fast is the time to practice our humility.  Can we give up on our own desires and place God’s will there instead?  It is a hard road.  The ladder of which St. John speaks is steep and dangerous.  It is easy to fall from it.  But hear what St. John has to say as encouragement for the last weeks of Lent.  And for all of life:

“Do not be surprised that you fall every day.  Do not give up.  Stand your ground courageously.  While a wound is still fresh and warm, it is easy to heal.  But old, neglected and festering ones are hard to cure.  They require for their care much treatment, cutting, plastering and cauterization.  Many from long neglect become incurable.  But with God all things are possible.”

Holy Father John of the Ladder, pray to God for us!

“This is the day on which we bow before the life-giving Cross.  Come, let us all venerate it.  Resplendent in the light of the Resurrection it is given to us.  Let us kiss it in the joy of the Spirit.”  So we sang at Matins for this third Sunday in Great Lent.  It is the Sunday of the Veneration of the Holy Cross.  The Canon for this day goes on.  “Joy reigns on earth and in Heaven today.  For the sign of the Cross has shone over the world.  Its thrice-blessed image is a fountain of eternal joy for those who venerate it.”

 In another wonderful hymn of the Church, we sing this.  “The Cross is glory of priests.”  Did you ever wonder why a priest wears a large, heavy cross?  Or why it is attached to a heavy metal chain?  The answer is simple.  “The Cross is the glory of priests.”  He is chained to it.  He bears the Cross as a sign to the world that he takes seriously what Christ says in today’s Holy Gospel.  “Whoever wishes to come after me, must deny himself.  He must take up his cross and follow me.”  These words are not only meant for priests, but for “whoever wishes to follow” Christ.

“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself.”  Let’s look a closer at the word “deny.”  If someone accuses you of something you didn’t do, your initial reaction is to “deny” those charges. And should someone accuse you of something terrible, you don’t just “deny” the accusations.  You deny them strongly.  “Hey, I did not do that!” We get passionate about it! And should, if you are innocent!  Denying is distancing ourselves from anything that might hurt us.

When Christ says we are to deny ourselves He means that we must put the things of God above everything.   That includes the things that we think are really important to us.  We must “deny” these things in order to “take up our cross and follow Him.”  It is absolutely urgent that we understand that we must deny ourselves in order to follow Christ.  This Gospel makes that perfectly clear.

So what must I do to deny myself? Denying self requires us to give up anything that we would want or seek that would hinder our doing the will of God. This does not mean that, if we want something, it is necessarily wrong. It means we must take our wants and desires down from the throne and place Christ and His will as the governing power in our lives.  As Christ Himself says, there is room in each life for only one Master.
 
We live in a selfish generation. We want immediate gratification, don’t we? We want what we want.  And we want it right now! We had to have fast food restaurants.  When they weren’t fast enough, we got drive-thru’s. We had to have bank drive-thru’s too.  When they weren’t fast enough, we had to have ATM’s. Now we have ATM’s at the Drive-thru!  They are everywhere.  After all, we don’t want to have to look too hard to find one.  We wouldn’t want to be inconvenienced, would we? After all, isn’t it all about me? Am I not the center of everyone’s universe? That is the attitude about which Christ is talking in today’s Gospel.
 
Christ elsewhere tells us that everything we have on earth will be destroyed.  Everything! Got a nice house? Have to skip out on liturgy sometimes so you can take care of it? Cut the grass? Paint? It will be destroyed! Got a new car? Do you have to miss liturgy to work overtime to be sure you can make the payments on it? Proud of it? I guess we’d better enjoy it now. It too will be destroyed! Remember what Christ said about all that we are so proud of.  Thieves, He said, can break in and steal it all from you! What are we to do?  The Church tells us today, this day of the Veneration of the Holy Cross: Take up your cross and follow Christ.

Taking up the cross means bearing burdens and suffering hardships for the Lord. Yes, such hardships will at times be required.  But there is yet another meaning.  After all, what was a cross for? It was not just a burden of suffering to be borne. Far more than that, the Cross of Christ was an instrument of death and total sacrifice.  Christ said take up your cross and follow Him. He bore a Cross and we must bear our cross and follow Him. But where was He going with His Cross? Christ was going to die.
 
Thus, “taking up your cross” refers to giving one’s whole life to God, as Christ gave His life for us. This involves bearing burdens, but it is deeper than that. It is a total dedication of life. Our whole life is given to His service in anything He says. This is possible only when we willingly deny ourselves. Following Him then requires us to live as He lived His life.
 
If a person holds his life so dear to himself that he wants to use it to please himself, do his own will, and accomplish his own purposes, rather than denying self and serving God, that person will in the end lose his life eternally. But anyone who loses his life for Christ’s sake, that is, gives his or her life in service and sacrifice to God by denying himself, such a man or woman will gain eternal life.  There can be no greater or clearer teaching anywhere of the meaning of being a disciple. This is how our Master lived.  So this is how His followers must live. We must live lives of complete and total submission to the will of God.

Hear the words St. Clement of Alexandria. “The one who knows God will follow the Lord's footsteps, bearing the cross of the Savior.  The Lord says, ‘He who loses his life will save it.’  We can “lose our lives” in one of two ways. First, we can risk our lives just as the Lord did for us. Secondly, we can separate our lives from the customary things of this world. Bearing the cross means to separate our souls from the delights and pleasures of this life. If you do this, you will find your life again - resting in the hope of what is to come. Thus, denying ourselves means being content with the necessities of life. “   May the remainder of your Fast be so blessed.

On the day St. Mark describes Christ’s coming to Capernaum, Christ had become very popular. Around Christ, many were saying, “Can you believe what’s happening? Everyone is being healed, and this man is speaking with such authority...” At the beginning of His ministry, there were many who loved Him. They crowded around Him. There are so many about Him that day people can’t even fit in the house where He is preaching.

Then a man who is paralyzed asked his friends to help him. He has four friends that will take him on his bed. They will help bring him to Christ. Because of the crowd of people, he couldn’t get to Christ. The crowd is mentioned in other healings done by Christ. This crowd of people has a symbolic meaning.

The crowd stands for the obstacles that we encounter in our Christian life. And we encounter great obstacles. Now in the case of this man who was paralyzed, He wanted to get to Christ. And it would be very hard to get through the crowd. How can you carry a stretcher through a huge crowd of people? Even with his friends helping, it was just not going to happen.

So what did they do? They overcame the crowd by climbing onto the roof. A roof is high above all things. In the Bible, a roof is a symbol like a mountain. We should look up. We should be thinking of spiritual things, not of worldly things. We should not be caught up with daily things. We should elevate our mind. As St. Gregory Palamas, 14th century monk of Mt Athos taught us, we are to be still and to contemplate pure things, things that God wishes us to know.  So these men got up on the roof. They symbolically elevated their minds by elevating their bodies.

We, too, encounter the crowd. And when we do, we often are stopped in our tracks. It is true that our society is a very difficult one for a Christian to live in. There is such coldness, violence and filth. There is such materialism, such hardheartedness, such wavering as far as what to believe. And even among the Orthodox, there is this mixing of the world with holiness. And we live right in the middle in this difficulty. This is the symbolic crowd of the Scriptures. It’s hard for us to live in this world.

It is difficult for us to get past the crowd. And why should we get past the crowd? Because we’re paralyzed too. We have spiritual paralysis. We are spiritually crippled. If we look inside with honesty, we see that we are really broken inside. We are incomplete. There are terrible sadnesses that happen in our life. There are terrible things that we just can’t cope with completely. And we need to get to Christ!

Actually, if any person thinks that life is easy, and that things are really okay, than I say that you should really be afraid, because God is far from you. According to the Holy Church Fathers, if we’re not tempted, then we’re not being saved. That is because we are incomplete. We are weak creatures. To be sure, we have the image of God within us. And, yes, God has promised that He will be with us until the end. He has assured us that He will complete the good work which has begun in us. But in the meantime, as we are approaching that goal, there is so much about us that needs work. And we must get past the crowd if we are truly to get any kind of relief. You know, the crowd makes a lot of noise. It is very distracting. Noisy and distracting -- this very well describes the Christian life today. St. Gregory Palamas knew that.

So how do we get past the crowd? Get up on the roof. Not just get up on the roof, but work to get there! There must be work involved in the Christian life. The greatest misbelief of all time is that the Christian life can be lived without work. It is a mistake to think that salvation can be obtained without work. This is the great heresy of our age. It has been around now for quite some time, that we can actually gain salvation without work. It takes great labor on our part to gain salvation. It takes effort for us to push by the crowd. It takes effort for us to get on the roof, to elevate our minds to things above, not to things below, not to carnal things, not just to day-to-day living.

It is so easy to lose track of holy things. How often do we say “I haven’t read scripture for so long.” Or, “I forgot my prayers.” Or, “I just can’t motivated.” How easy it is to just sort of flow through life. We must fight through these things. We must get on the roof, have our minds elevated.  It takes work. It takes effort. There is great effort involved in breaking through a crowd.

But know that Christ is interested in everything that goes on in our life. We must bring all the difficulties of our life to Him. We as Christians don’t do this very much. We suffer with our worries and our concerns. I know that your concerns are not trivial ones. Many of your concerns are not worldly concerns; they are spiritual ones. All of them need the healing hand of Christ.

Now how do we attain this healing?  Today’s reading of the Holy Gospels is clear. By effort. By work. There is no substitute whatsoever for godly effort. If a Christian does not struggle, does not strive, does not point himself to Jerusalem and not look back, does not try to ascend, as it were, to the roof through working at it, then he or she will not come to salvation.  Such is the teaching of St. Gregory Palamas. His life was put into jeopardy because of his teaching of silent, still work at ascending to the heights of God. The saint stands before us today as model and teacher.

Holy Gregory Palamas, pray to God for us that we might expend great effort toward our salvation.

Many of the practices of Orthodoxy have been devoutly ignored. Many simply don’t want to be not burdened with them. One of those practices is fasting. The fast was proclaimed and spoken about by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. But what kind of fasting was He speaking of? He spoke concerning a genuine fast, a fast with a deep spiritual purpose. He was not speaking of kind of fast with which most of us are probably familiar. He spoke of a fast that was not only denying ourselves from certain foods. He spoke of a fast from sin as well. Fasting is made necessary by our spiritual condition.

Fasting, in itself, is not a religious virtue. It is not a good work that can be proud of if we accomplish it. Rather, fasting is the means whereby one can achieve virtue. Thus, in today's Gospel Lesson, Jesus insists that fasting be accompanied by two virtues: that of forgiveness, and that of almsgiving.

The Pharisees fasted very strictly and with great show. Their eyes were gloomy. Their attitude was sorrowful. And, making themselves most obvious, they put ashes over their heads. They wanted to show others that their fast was a strong and a difficult one. In the presence of others they beat their breasts, loudly mourning their sins. On the other hand, although they boasted of their strict fasting, they continued to oppress the poor— especially widows and orphans. "But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation," so Christ said. These hypocrites tried to prove their worthiness not to God. They were more interested impressing others with their arrogant actions.

The act of fasting has little value if we persist in sin. The purpose of fasting is, while persisting in sin, destroyed. Yet many practice just this type of fasting. Thus our first concern with the Great Fast is to work on keeping away from sin.  Keeping away from certain foods is only practice for fasting from sin.

St. John Chrysostom in his sermon on Fasting insists that, unaccompanied by virtue, fasting is worthless. “Let the mouth too fast from disgraceful speeches and railing. For what does it profit if we abstain from birds and fish; and yet bite and devour our brethren? The evil speaker eats the flesh of his brother, and bites the body of his neighbor.

Because of this Paul utters the fearful saying, "If you bite and devour another, take heed that you be not consumed one of another." You have not fixed your teeth in the flesh, but thou hast fixed the slander in the soul. You may have inflicted the wound of evil suspicion. You may have harmed, in a thousand ways, yourself and many others. For in slandering a neighbor you have made him who listens to the slander worse. You may have caused the glory of God to be blasphemed. For as his name is glorified when we have good report, so when we sin, it is blasphemed and insulted.”

In the list of Orthodox virtues, fasting comes last. The first three are love, humility and charity. To really fast, we must abstain not only from food, but from sin. Otherwise we dishonor the holy period of Great Lent. What is the use of not eating meat, if we cannot stop criticizing others behind their backs, St. John asks?

Tomorrow, Clean Monday, is the first day of the Great Fast. Let us begin our spiritual preparations for the great and holy Pascha.  During this period, as your spiritual father. I ask you this. Pray; fast; abstain from sin. Love. Be humble. Assist the poor. Try sincerely during the Fast, and you will gain new strength for the rest of our life.

 One day while walking with some children, Queen Mary was caught in a sudden shower, Quickly taking shelter on the porch of a home, she knocked on the door.  She asked to borrow an umbrella.  “I’ll send it back tomorrow,” she said. The queen had deliberately disguised herself. She had put on a hat that partly covered her face. She wore some very plain clothes. The homeowner, reluctant to give a stranger her best umbrella, offered her one she found in the attic. One rib was broken. There were several holes in it. Apologizing, she turned it over to the queen, whom she did not recognize.

 The next day she had another visitor at her door. It was a man with gold braid on his uniform and an envelope in his hand. “The queen sent me with this letter,” he said. “She also asked me to thank you personally for the loan of your umbrella.” Stunned, the woman burst into tears. “O, what an opportunity I missed. I did not give my very best.” she cried.

 Today we hear once again Christ’s story of the Last Judgment. This is the Sunday of the Last Judgment. The point of Christ’s story is simple and clear. God will judge us based on our caring service in the face of human need. The parable teaches us two basic truths concerning God’s call to service. He places this call on the life of every believer.

 The first truth we see in this parable is that God calls us to loving service. We serve a God who is described as being a loving God. The word “love,” as it is used to describe God, is not merely a good feeling that washes over us. It is not the love we see portrayed on TV or in Hollywood movies. Love is not just some “primal urge.” When the word love is used in association with God, you will always find an accompanying action. 

 God always shows His love. He does not merely say, “I love you.” But along with those words is the proof of that love. The love of God is living, and active. It is real and easily recognized. When God’s love is poured out, there is no mistaking it. St. John the Theologian said it like this in his most famous Gospel passage. “This is the way God loved the world. He gave His only-begotten Son.”

 In turn, God expects us, his children, to be loving as well. Just as we are reflections of our human parents, so, too, are we to be reflections of our heavenly Father. We are to imitate Him in our actions and attitudes. As our Father Athanasius of Alexandria has written, “God made man so that man may become as God.” The God of love calls us to loving service. It is not enough to meet together once a week and tell each other we are children of God. We are expected to live every day as His children. We are to act out our faith. Just as He is a God of giving and sacrifice, so we, too, are to give, sacrifice and serve others.

 The second truth found in this parable is that God calls us to simple service. Note the activities that Christ mentions here. Feed the hungry. Give drink to the thirsty. Show hospitality to strangers. Clothe the naked. Care for the sick. Visit the imprisoned. This parable describes acts of mercy we all can do every day. These acts do not depend on wealth, ability or intelligence. They are simple acts freely given and freely received. Any one of us could easily be involved in a number of these simple acts of kindness without stressing our time, money or strength. Christ does not tell us to fix all the world’s problems in one shot,. Rather He invites us to make a difference in a simple way: one person at a time.

 You’ll also notice that Christ equates our acts of kindness on behalf of those in need around us as acts of kindness given to Him. “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” Dietrich Bonheoffer correctly interprets this saying of Christ. “In Jesus,” he says, “the service of God and the service of the least of the brethren were one.”

 A 19th century painting shows a long row of beggars waiting in a soup line. They are all ragged and sleazy looking. But around the head of one, barely perceptible, is a halo. One of them is Christ Himself! You may see no halo around the heads of your brothers and sisters in need. Yet to serve them is to serve Christ, for the King is hidden in them, too!

 While it is true that the type of service we are called by God to engage in is simple, that is not to say that it is without cost to us. The acts which Christ mentions in this passage all have a ring of personal compassion. They require more than simply writing a check to charity. The call of God to simple service is the call to become personally involved in the lives of those who are hurting.  It is a call to touch them with our lives.

 The story is told about man cleaning out a desk drawer. In that drawer he finds an old flashlight. It wouldn’t work. The batteries in it were badly corroded. He realized he had put the flashlight in a warm, comfortable spot. Be he also realized that the flashlight was not intended to be warm and comfortable. It was intended to give light. So it is with us. We weren’t created to be warm, safe and comfortable. You and I were made to put our lives to work. We are made to apply our patience in difficult, trying situations. We are made to let our light shine through acts of simple service.

 And so will God judge us at the Great and Awesome day of the Last Judgment.

Have you ever seen a child before a mirror for the first time?  If the child is still very small, the child will not recognize the image.  The child will enjoy seeing the other child smiling from the far side of the glass wall.  But all of a sudden, the expression on the child’s face will change.  Suddenly there is recognition.  “That’s me!”

The same thing may happen to us when we hear this familiar Gospel story.  We listen to it at first as if it were an interesting tale.  We really don’t have much to do with it.  A rather odd, but fascinating guy, this prodigal son.  No doubt this is true to life.  No doubt he is the type of person all of us have met at one time or another.  Certainly we all have some sympathy for him.

Until all of a sudden our expression changes.  “That’s me!”  Suddenly we recognize ourselves in this story.  Now we can read the whole story in the first person.  But that is the way all of Jesus’ stories work.  That is the way the whole of the Bible works.  Until we recognize ourselves among the people who walked with the Lord, we will not recognize the Lord! This prodigal son—this is the image of our own lives.  This Father—this is the image of our heavenly Father waiting for us with open arms.  Perhaps the story has become far too familiar to be so personal.   

The son asks for and is given the value of his inheritance.  The son takes the money and spends it without a thought for whose money it really is.  When he runs out, he comes to his senses and returns home.  It is a simple story.  It is so very familiar.  This over-familiarity has bred some very interesting interpretations.

So the son returns home.  What will he say to his Father?  “Father, I grew more mature in the far country.  Father, I have grown up now.  I have suffered and paid for all my sins.  I have accepted the risk of life and have become a man.  Now you must take me in.  I am at the end of my resources!”  Is that the way the lost son will speak when he come to his Father?  That’s the spin modern society would put on this story.

Today’s pop culture would invent a new end to the story.  The “new” ending would have the prodigal son sending his brother out to the far country so the brother could “grow up.”  Today’s pop culture would say it was good for the lost son to be lost for awhile.  It was good for him to sow some wild oats.  It was good for him to sin.  After all, a person has to go through this kind of thing.  One must have the courage to renounce God, today’s pop culture says.  That is so that one can be accepted by God afterward.  The son simply has to experience the fullness of life at both ends of the spectrum.

But Jesus’ parable says nothing of this.  What did the son say to his Father?  Simply this: “I have sinned against heaven and against you.”  The fact that the lost son was taken back is not because the son became more mature.  He was accepted back solely by the grace and love of God.  No one, anywhere, anytime, has any claim on God whatsoever.  It is a matter of being surprised and grabbed by God.  It is the amazing mystery that God seeks the lost.  It is the gracious mystery that heaven rejoices over one sinner that repents.  (And not over ninety-nine who have become more mature.)

God, forgiving?  God, giving an opportunity for a new start?  “No way!’ says our popular culture. Most everyone outside the Church sees God as Someone sitting up there and finding punishments for the wrongs we do. After all, pop culture says that “God” is only another word for retribution and law.  All that might be true, if it were just anyone telling us a story about a father.

But this is not just “anybody” telling the story. This is Christ Himself speaking.  And He is not merely telling us about any father.  Christ is not telling us about an alleged heaven that may be open to sinners. Christ came to earth to show us this loving and merciful Father. In Christ, the kingdom of the Father is actually in the midst of us.  He eats with sinners.  He seeks out the lost.  He is there when all others have deserted and death is our only friend.  He is the light that shines in the darkness.  He is the very voice of His Father’s heart that says, “Come home.  You can come home!”

The ultimate theme of this story, then, is not the prodigal son.  The story has been poorly titled for hundreds of years.  The story is about the loving Father.  It is about the Father who finds us.  The story is not finally about our faithlessness.  It is about God’s faithfulness.

And this is also the reason why the joyful sounds of festivity ring out from this story.  Wherever forgiveness is proclaimed there is joy and festive garments.  We must read and hear this Gospel story as it was really meant to be: good news!  It is news so good we could never have thought it up ourselves.  It is news that would stagger us if we were hearing it for the first time.  For everything about God is completely different from what we and our pop culture could possibly spin.  It is news that God has sent His Son to us and is inviting us to share in an unspeakable joy. 

The ultimate secret of this story is this.  There is a homecoming for us all, because there is a home.

There is a story of a priest who dies and is standing in line, waiting outside of heaven. He is standing there patiently, wearing his best cassock and cross.  In line just ahead of him is a guy wearing sunglasses, a loud shirt, leather jacket, and blue jeans. The priest thinks to himself, “Thank God that isn’t me. I mean, I may be dead but at least I know how to dress for that ultimate meeting with my Maker.”
 
When the two men finally make it to the front of the line St. Peter speaks to the man in the loud shirt.  “Who are you so that I may know whether or not to admit you into the Kingdom of Heaven?” The man says, “I am Joe Cohen. I am a cab driver from New York City.”  St. Peter then consults his list. When he looks up he smiles at the taxi driver.  “Take this silken robe and golden staff and enter into the kingdom of heaven.” The taxi driver puts on his robe and takes his staff and enters into heaven.  The priest then gets really excited. If a lowly cab driver from such a God forsaken place like New York City gets a silken robe and golden staff, what could be in store for a priest?

It was finally the priest’s turn.  He stood up straight and walked toward St. Peter. Then in his best preaching voice, he booms out “I am the Right Reverend Protopresbyter Joseph, pastor at St. Mary’s Church for the last 43 years.”  St. Peter then consults his list again. When he looks up this time he simply hands the preacher a plain cotton robe and wooden staff.  “You may enter the kingdom of heaven.”
 
The priest is angry. He has been a faithful disciple all these years.  Now that he stands for his eternal reward he gets what is seemingly a slap in the face. “Just a minute,” the priest says to St. Peter. “That man was a taxi driver. I was a faithful priest. He gets a silken robe and golden staff and I get this? Where is the justice in this?”  “Sir,” says  St. Peter, “here we work on results. During your 43 years at St. Mary’s Church, when you preached, people slept. When he drove his cab, people prayed.”

We have heard this Gospel reading of the Pharisee and Publican on this first pre-Lent Sunday for many years.  We tend to accept this story, even though it isn’t really the way we live our lives. Whenever we read this story we do so with a judging eye on the Pharisee. Perhaps that was Jesus’ point. Still we look at the Pharisee as the bad guy in the story and the tax collector as the good guy and that is at least a bit unfortunate.

A Pharisee was a member of the Jewish faith.  But he was not just any member of the Jewish faith. Pharisees were set apart from everyone else. They were not members of the priesthood but instead were lay folks. They were zealous about keeping the faith, particularly in matters of the law. They wanted to keep the Scriptures, the oral law, and the traditions of the Hebrew faith pure. They were the pious people of their time. They attended every Bible study and sought to obey every law down to the minutest detail. They wanted above all to be faithful. Pharisees knew how to pray. In fact they applied themselves to the art of prayer.

Today we have grown accustomed to thinking negatively of them as soon as we hear their name. However, the Pharisees were highly respected and looked up to in the Israelite world. They were the leaders of the synagogue.  I think that it is important that we see them as honored members of the Jewish community if we are to fully understand this parable. The Pharisees were the good guys. They were the best of the best in Jewish society.

On the other hand was the tax collector. This is, without question, the other end of the spectrum. A tax collector would have been seen by the community as the worst of the worst of Jews maybe even lower. Tax collectors, in the Scriptures, were Jews who worked for the ruling Roman authorities. They were considered both thieves and traitors. They were thieves because they were known for collecting more taxes than was owed and pocketing the difference. Then they were considered traitors because they served the hated Romans.

All of that, and yet somehow, some way, the Church, has turned the tables and made the good guy the bad guy and the bad guy the good guy. It is easy enough to see. After all, Jesus wants us to identify with the penitent prayer of the tax collector.  He wants us to reject the proud, arrogant prayer of the Pharisee. 

But the key is the first part of the Pharisee’s prayer.  “Thank you, God,” he prays, that I am not like other men.”  In secret, we all want to be Pharisees.  We want to be upstanding church members.  We want people to look at us as faithful Orthodox.  In fact, if we look deeply into our hearts, we may hear the same prayer.  “Thank you, God, that I am not like others: drug addicts, murderers, robbers, single mothers, protestants” or any other characters we don’t want to like.  In other words, we secretly like saying, “Thank God that’s not me.”   But, in truth, it is me.  It is us.  We all have our share in making this world the way it is.

Just like us, the people who are out there, people who make us uncomfortable, are sinners, too.  They, as well as us, need to bow down before the icon of Christ in confession.  “I confess to God Almighty…all my sins and transgressions.”  We can strive to be good Orthodox.  Let us work at being outstanding members of our mission.  Pray often.  Prepare for the Great Fast. But never, ever, stand in judgment of another. 

Look again at the world around us.  May we not say, “Thank God that’s not me.”  Rather, with the publican, say, “In your loving kindness, O Lord, forgive me for that which I have done to help make this world the way it is.”

There were some present at that very time who told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered thus? I tell you, No.  But unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen upon whom the tower in Silo'am fell and killed them. Do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, No.  But unless you repent you will all likewise perish." And he told this parable. "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard.  He came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, `Lo, these three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?' And he answered him. `Let it alone, sir, this year also, till I dig about it and put on manure. And if it bears fruit next year, well and good.  But if not, you can cut it down.'"  (Luke 13:1-9)

Several years ago I saw a rather humorous piece of TV news.  The video was of goats running wild all over the PA Turnpike.  A trailer filled with goats had overturned as a result of an accident.  The goats it was carrying scattered.  It was somewhat comical to watch PA State Police chasing and wrestling these goats down.  That image is contrasted to the images in the news this week.  These images are all too familiar.  Whole families were wandering aimlessly in the midst of destruction beyond belief. It is Haiti. People with no food, no water, nowhere to go.  Dead bodies lay in the street and in the rubble rotting.  This while totally unscrupulous looters were running off into the same rubble.  What we are seeing is surely another tragedy.

The ancient Greeks seemed to ponder long and hard on what they called “tragedy.”  I speak about the goats on the PA Turnpike for a reason.  The English word “tragedy” comes from a Greek word.  That word is “tragos” – it means “goat.”  Goats are commonly associated with stubbornness, mischief, and even damnation (as in Jesus’ story of the separation of sheep from goats at the Last Judgment).   Tragedy seems always with us: 9/11; tsunami; Katrina; Haiti. 

The questions arise every time.  Why did this happen?  Do these victims deserve this? Why does this continue to happen?  I come to you this day not with answers to these questions.  I cannot probe the mind of God for answers.   But there are many who cannot live without answers. They are well meaning individuals but are highly impatient. They would rather have a simple answer than no answer at all. And so, they are carried away by the first answer that blows in the wind. 

Remember what some of the most prominent religious sages said when 9/11 happened. “God is judging America. God is punishing America. The crashing towers of New York City is God’s wake up call.” And many of us simply accepted these explanations. 
This is not new. Bad things happened 2000 years ago when Christ was walking the face of the earth, too.  Two such tragedies were the slaughter of innocent Jews while they were offering their sacrifices in Jerusalem.  This and the unfortunate deaths that occurred when the tower of Siloam fell.  Why were innocent people treated like this?  Were they being punished for their sins? 

Christ’s answer to that was simple.   He reminds us that the sin of these victims is no greater than your sin or mine.  If the victims of these tragedies died because of their sin, certainly you and I would be among them.  And we would not be standing here talking about how sinful they were.

Maybe these people died because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time.  No, Jesus says, that is not why these people died.  In fact, Jesus is telling his hearers, don’t ask “Why?”  That is the wrong question.  When  we ask the wrong questions, we are going to naturally come up with the wrong answers.  Let us leave the question “why” to others who think themselves wiser than we are.  Today, let us follow the lead of of Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ.

In the wake of tragedy it is not so important that we know why.  It is exceedingly important that we know “What now.” In the wake of tragedy the real question is: “What are we going to do?” How is the tragedy going to change our lives? There may be any number of ways that tragedy might change our lives. Tragedy might make us bitter. Tragedy might fill us with fear. Tragedy might immobilize us. But Jesus prefers a different kind of affect. Jesus wants tragedy to bring about a positive change in our lives.  He speaks clearly of repentance.  He speaks of turning around, of change.

So Jesus follows his statements about repentance with a story. The story is about the lack of fruitfulness in a fig tree.  The orchard owner plants a fig tree and nurtures it. After three years the tree has failed to produce. So the farmer tells his caretaker to cut it down.  But the caretaker pleads for one more year, and one more year is granted. 

Thus, today, in the wake of the tragedy of earthquake in Haiti instead of asking the question “why,” ask: What am I going to do? What am I going to do with the realization that it was not me who was in that storm? What am I going to do with the wonderful fact that I am still alive, still healthy? What am I going to do with the wonderful gifts offered to me by our great God? 

For He is the one who walks in vineyard of our lives.  He says to us  simply:  “I give you today to live.  What will you do with it?”

Today, and now three times in the last month, we have served the Mystery of Holy Chrismation. In Holy Orthodoxy, Chrismation and Baptism go together. The usual order is that an infant, a baby, is Baptized and Chrismated at the same time. We have had adult converts. Their Baptisms took place several years before Chrismation. But in God’s eyes, and the eyes of the Church, that in between time is as nothing. When these adults, Kathryn, Daniel and Robert were Chrismated, it is as if they were just Baptized. And now has come the sealing of it in Holy Chrismation.  That is, they, as we, are sealed with the Holy Spirit. What does it mean to be sealed by the Holy Spirit?

There are a lot of documents that are of no value without a seal: a diploma, a deed, a will, a title, a building plan. These and other documents are useless unless they have a seal. A notary uses his or her seal to validate documents. When I went to the University of Pennsylvania as a doctoral student, I had to have a student ID card made. It had my signature and my picture on it. However, until validated, meaning that my tuition was paid, it was useless. When it was usable, it would have a sticker attached that said, "Validated."  That is what our Baptism and Chrismation is and does.  It is God’s stamp. It is God’s seal. It is God’s validation. What does this seal mean?

The Greek word for seal means to confirm, to ratify.  The same Spirit that sealed Christ also seals us. To be sealed by God in the Holy Spirit is a powerful thing!  When the prodigal son came back home, his father reinstated him as a son. He had a robe, a ring and sandals brought by his servants to be given to this son. This story is about you and me. Before you and I were Baptized and Chrismated, we were prodigal sons and daughters. Now we have received the robe, ring and sandals.

First, the robe is given to cover our shame. When Adam and Eve sinned, they realized that they were naked. The robe can be thought of as clothing of grace. It was not until the prodigal son came home that he was clothed in a robe. When the prodigal son came home, he was truly repentant. For him the robe showed that he was truly a son, a child of his father. When a person is baptized in Holy Orthodoxy, a white robe is placed upon him or her. He or she now truly becomes a child of God.

Secondly, the ring was also a symbol of rank. On the ring was a seal. When the father gave the prodigal son a ring, the son’s dignity was restored. The son had now his own identity.  He was his Father’s son once again, and could prove it!

Baptism and Chrismation are a lot like a wedding ring. They are symbols of a new way of life. It has been said that Baptism is to the Christian faith what the wedding ring is to a marriage. Like the wedding ring, baptism draws a mark on the ground between the past and the future. Like the wedding ring, it says, "From this day forward, and forever, I stand with God.”

Like marriage, Baptism involves a relationship. Baptism marks the point at which we began to follow Christ in His Church. Baptism also marks the point at which we say to God, "From this day forward, and forever, I stand with you”. Just as in marriage, two become one flesh, in Baptism, we become united with God’s Spirit. Baptism is God’s way of saying that He has not given up on us.

Thirdly, for the prodigal son the sandals given him at his return showed the son’s new status. Slaves did not normally were shoes. Only true members of the family do. The prodigal son had been fully restored!

Now, why did the father of the prodigal son give him a robe, a ring and sandals? He did so to impress that he was indeed the Father’s son. That is exactly what God does through His Holy Spirit in our Baptism and Chrismation. God confirms and impresses upon us that we are his sons and daughters, who have been given our spiritual dignity. That dignity is ours because we have been Baptized into the likeness of His only begotten son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The father of the prodigal son gave him all that he needed so that he could feel secure that he was truly a son. That is what God does in our Baptism and Chrismation. It is as if God gives us a robe, a ring and sandals. He does so that we too, can have the security that we are His adopted sons and daughters. God now owns us, once again.

To be God’s property mean that we are owned by God. There is a powerful story about an English missionary who died in the early part of the 20th century. Right after his death, his former neighbors broke into his house and started carrying away his possessions. The English Consul was notified. Since there was no lock on the door of the missionary’s house, the Consul pasted a piece of paper across it. To that piece of paper, he affixed the seal of England. The looters did not dare break the seal. Now the property belonged to one of the world’s most powerful nations.  For a Christian to be sealed in Baptism and Chrismation means that we are God’s property!

To be sealed as God’s property means that nothing can touch you. "Now it is God who makes us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us. He set his seal of ownership on us. He has put his Spirit in our hearts, guaranteeing what is to come"  This is what Paul says to the Corinthians.  To Timothy he says, "Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you. Guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.”  Kathryn, Daniel and Robert – God has given you the strength so to do!

In a recent television movie a talented teenage Country-Western Singer left home to pursue her singing career.  In so doing became estranged from her father, for she left in spite of his protests. Even after she became one of the most popular Country Western singers in the nation, there was no relationship with her father.

Years passed.  The father attempted to make contact with her.  Not knowing how to call her the father even had to send a letter to his daughter telling her that her mother had died. When the father finally came to see the daughter, in a panic she left a note and fled.  The note said she did not want to see him.

 Then one day as she rode on a bus, she sat next to an old man, with a long beard, and a large hat. From the dark glasses it was clear that he was blind. During a horrendous snow storm, the bus became lodged in a snow bank.  There was no rescue in sight. The singer began to shake.  The old man asked her what was wrong. She said that she was a diabetic.  In her rush she had forgotten her insulin. The man responded by telling her that he was a diabetic, too, and that diabetes was the cause of his blindness. He then told her not to worry because he had insulin with him, enough for both of them. Against her protests he insisted that she use the injection.

They both fell asleep on the bus, with her head on his shoulder as they awaited a rescue. When help finally came, the singer, who was feeling much better, tried to awaken the old man. She discovered that he was dead.  She noticed his insulin case.  There had only been enough insulin for one person. The old man shared what he had, and it cost him his life.

 Later the truth was discovered. The man who had saved her life and had lost his life for her sake, was her very own father.  She had not recognized him. This man, in the end, gave everything he had so that his daughter could be saved.

 At Creation God created a perfect order. By our sin, disobedience, bad choices, and behavior we caused dis-order. In spite of the alienation that we caused He sent the Patriarchs and Prophets to help us return into the order He had planned for us. When we ignored and rejected His Prophets, He came into the world Himself as an infant.  He was born of a Virgin and placed in a manger in a strange town. God took on flesh in order to make us one with Him. In the movie, if the father had totally rejected the daughter, she would have died. He could have said, “It serves her right. I wrote her. I tried to visit her. I called her. She chose to reject me. Now she has to live with the consequences.”  If God the Father had totally rejected us because we have rejected Him and His plan for us, then we would be dead this day. But He sent His only begotten son.

 He was looking for us. He took the first step when really since we were the ones who broke the relationship. He could have insisted that we take the first step. In gratitude for even being born, we should have taken the first step. But we did not. He did. God took on flesh and dwelt among us. He came to transform our nature. He came to give us life that sin was rapidly taking away. He did not come with trumpets playing to announce His arrival. He came in the most humble of circumstances, so that in discovering Him we might be transformed.

 And so, how do we live transformed lives? We do so by learning to forgive each other, forgiving even those who have broken our hearts. We do so by reducing blame. For if blame for bad behavior were the basis for cutting someone out of our lives, God would have cut us out years ago. We are transformed by praying first before trying to get back at someone who has offended us.  For we have regularly offended God. We are transformed by looking for Christ in this broken world, for it was into this broken world that Christ was born.

 The world wants to see Christ. And in some small or large way, someone each of us knows needs to see Christ shining through us. For the Christ who wishes to be born in you is also the only One who can save your life.

 Today, the Sunday that falls between December 11-17, we call the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers. The Church Fathers appointed the memory of the Patriarch Abraham and his descendants to be observed this day. It was Abraham, our Father, who left all to follow the call of God.  God told him to pack up everything and move from his family’s home.  Where would Abraham move? God said, “To a place I will tell you.”  So, not knowing where he was going, Abraham did as God told him. The place was the Promised Land. It was the very land where Christ Himself was born, died and rose from the dead. In our Holy Forefathers, we have become, like Christ, sons and daughters of Abraham. Abraham’s unflinching obedience brought him to the Promised Land. Christ’s unflinching obedience brings us to our own Promised Land – an eternal life with the Holy Trinity.

 Hear a word for Christmas from an 8th century Desert Father, Cosmas of Maiuma .  Christ incarnate makes me worthy of God. Christ humbled for me, raises me high. Christ, the giver of life, suffering in human nature, frees me from the passions. And so, I sing a hymn of thanksgiving, to Him who is glorified. Christ crucified raises me high. Christ who is slain makes me rise again with Him. Christ gives me life. And so, clapping my hands with joy, I sing to the Saviour a hymn of victory, to Him who is glorified.

19 days to Christmas. So much to do and so little time. In the midst of the holiday preparation, today we stop. Today is the Feast day of St. Nicholas. For many it is so hard to believe St. Nicholas is real. The world around us has turned him into a made up character. They have given him the name Santa Claus. But this man Nicholas was real. He actually lived and died. I am talking, of course, of none other than Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, the Bishop of Myra.
 
What is it about Saint Nicholas that puts him at the top of the list of Saints? Next to St. John the Forerunner and the Holy Theotokos herself, only St. Nicholas has a day of the week during which he is honored.  Every week of the year on Thursday, the service to St. Nicholas is sung in the churches.

The stories of St. Nicholas are many. There is the story of the saint providing money for three women in distress. They were to be sold as slaves if their father did not raise enough funds for their dowry. Up on the housetop, St. Nicholas dropped gold coins down the chimney to save them. There is the story of the restoring to life of three boys. They were being pickled during a time of great famine. They were to be sold for food. The holy Saint while walking through the woods came by the butcher’s inn and restored the boys to health. There is the story of the Saint with Bishop Arius. Arius refused to believe that Jesus Christ was both God and human. It was said that St. Nicholas slapped Bishop Arius across the face because Bishop Arius insulted Christ.

Perhaps St. Nicholas is so loved by all because he lived out that which is at the heart of our Christian faith. He had the ability to give, to give, and to give some more. To love, to love, and to love some more. And to care, to care, and to care some more. Now this Holy Saint was a wealthy man. But he knew that true wealth was to give away all that he could. Nicholas gave his all to the Church. He stood firm in the faith even when threatened with torture and death.  He is truly a saint to be held before us to follow. He truly is a saint to lead us to Christ.

It is fashionable these days to condemn the commercialization of Christmas. You know when you hear religious carols played in the mall while hundreds rush about spending money they don’t have. Someone recently wrote, "I feel like Christmas has become nothing more than the greatest gimmick for corporations to make millions at this time of the year." Be that as it may, know this. Whether anyone realizes it or not the world is celebrating the birth of Christ. The commercial ways of doing it may not be the way we want it to. But the reality is this. You cannot take Christ out of Christmas.  It is St. Nicholas himself who helps us understand.
 
After all, could not Santa Claus help us in our celebrations? Let’s put him in his proper place.  I might like to see a separate celebration of Saint Nicholas Day.  Make this day, December 6, a national, a world-wide holiday. In fact, this is the case in many places of the world.  Today is a day set aside for service, in the tradition of the Great Saint. The greatest lesson would be to act like St. Nicholas himself. You don't need a white beard, a red suit or a bag of toys. What you need is a giving a heart, a loving soul and a willingness to share. You need a willingness to share your faith, your hopes, your dreams. You need a willingness to share with those in need. For St. Nicholas all people were and are the loving children of one God.

So let's not let the tradition of St. Nicholas falter. Let us restore it with great enthusiasm. Let us embrace the celebration of Christmas with a restored reality. Yes let us do so even with those who want to change Christmas into some sort of winter celebration or Yuletide festival. Let us help them realize that the image that they hold up as the most secular – Santa Claus—belongs to our Orthodox family. Let us not be shy about it. Let's proclaim it aloud. Let's share it with our children and grandchildren. Let's not have one child not know that the reality is that Santa Claus is our Saint Nicholas.

For the Holy Saint is truly a patron saint for all of us. He is patron of Russia, of Aberdeen, Scotland, of Greece, of seafarers,  of pawnbrokers with their symbol of three balls, of children. St. Nicholas is Patron of our own God-saved Diocese. Holy St. Nicholas is Patron of so many things. He is, however, Patron of all Christians who give: who give gifts, give self, give love. He is Patron of all who seek to be more like Christ and to show His love in our world.
May we be faithful, as St. Nicholas was faithful. May we take time at this Christmas and every Christmas to share with our family, friends and children the true story behind Santa Claus.

Columnist David Lawrence Dewey writes this. “I believe we have lost the true meaning of Christmas. That is because we have fallen into the corporate gift buying trap. Is there wrong with buying gifts? No, I don't believe so. But what is wrong is what we feel when we are buying gifts. Are we buying the gift to impress someone? Or are we buying the gift because we think it will bring a smile on someone’s face? Or are we buying a gift because it is the latest, newest gadget to come down the pike. (And I must get this for someone to impress them). What we care about is not the person, but our own self ego when we are buying. These may sound like harsh judgmental words. But I truly feel that is why Christmas has lost its true meaning. We have forgotten Christ. Maybe it is about time that we put Christ back into our Christmas”

But I say to you. Remember that Christ has never left Christmas.  Let us put St. Nicholas back into Christmas, and let him lead us to the Christ who is already there!

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!

“But God said to him, `Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."

 The Fathers tell us that our life is not lengthened by an abundance of possessions in the material world.  It is, therefore, foolish for us to concern ourselves with getting them.  And perhaps, they tell us, it is even more foolish to hold on to them. All too often, we waste time and energy worrying about “stuff.” 

Our Lord knew the very questions we ask ourselves.  “What shall I eat?  What shall I drink? What shall I wear?” Of course, if we have nothing, these questions take on a different meaning. The person who is starving asks, “What shall I eat?” But that is a different question when we have things in abundance. The poor ask the same questions as do the rich.  But they do so with a different reason, and to a different end. We see this in the parable from the Gospel of St. Luke today.

 The rich man in Jesus’ story makes several mistakes. First, he worries. He worries not that he will lose his “stuff.”  He worries because he’s go too much! He has had an abundant harvest. He worries about how he will enjoy it.  And he worries about how he will protect it.  Second mistake: he takes the credit for God’s blessing.  Listen to what he says.  He talks about “my fruits” and “my goods.”  He does not take into account that God is the provider of all.  Third mistake: he makes plans for a long life.  Now, to be sure, this man has no assurance of a long life.  He simply says to himself, “Eat, drink, and be merry.”  He ignores the reality that too much food and too much drink usually leads us to indulge other passions as well.  Thus such indulgence makes our offenses even greater than before.

 Let it be said plainly. We are all rich in material goods.  We dwell in a land that is the symbol of prosperity. America is the symbol of wealth and consumption. Despite the facts of recent economic woes – we are still in abundance. We see that most when we compare our styles of life to billions in the world. The rich man in the parable looked at his fields, and his harvest.  He decided he needed bigger barns to store his wealth. How often do we check on the value of our property and investments? The rich man decided he could do better.  He was sure he could get more.  The more he could get, the more he thought he could live a life of comfort and ease.

 Let us ask ourselves today.  What is it I am working for?  How many hours do I spend going about the business of making money?  For what purpose?  To what end?

 Again, let it be plainly said.  Money is not evil.  Food and drink and clothing and shelter are all necessary. But when was the last time you stopped to give thanks to God for blessing you and protecting you? Think of the skills each of us uses to obtain our daily bread, and the other things we need to live.  Did not God give us these abilities? And did not God give us the opportunities? What do we do with the material things we possess? Do we remember those in need?  Do we give alms to help them? Our Father among the Saints, John Chrysostom is very clear. "God has invested capital with you. It is not your property. It is a loan by him. This loan is made to give you opportunity to exercise mercy to those who are in need."

 Where should the rich man in today’s parable have stored his abundance? The Fathers say of this rich man, that he had no need to build bigger barns. He could have stored his surplus grain, the Fathers say, in the bellies of the poor.  Not only would it have been safer there, but then he would not have had the need to build.  Neither would he have to worry about fire, or theft, or decay affecting his riches.  And, when it came time for him to give an account of his life, he need not worry that he had neglected others.  He would have been merciful to them, as God had been merciful to him. Then the angels would not have had to come to him to take his life from him.  He was, after all, reluctant to give up his life. After all, he loved this world and its pleasures so much. Instead, he would have already given his life into the hands of God.  And he would have departed this life willingly, in order to be with God. This is same God who so richly had blessed him to begin with.

 Brothers and sisters, we are rich in material possessions. Let us not be like this rich man. Let us instead give thanks to God for all that He has given us.  Let us seek to use what He has given to glorify Him.  Let us use what He has given us to care for His people. Let us give from the abundance we have received to support the work of the Church. Let us give from the abundance to help those in need. Let us use wisely the time and resources, which God has entrusted unto us, to the glory of God, and the salvation of our souls.

 On this Stewardship Sunday, we receive with thanks the financial pledges of support of our membership for 2010. We thank God for the ongoing financial support. We thank God for the sacrifices you and others have made for the past twelve years to keep this mission going. May your generosity not be forgotten. May God bless you that you may live in peace and joy that your pledges may be fulfilled.

The story of the Good Samaritan has to be one of the most familiar in the entire Bible.  I am sure we have all heard the story many times.  I’m sure we’ve heard many sermons based on the story.  Most of those sermons surely had the same application.  We are to try to be like the Good Samaritan.  We are to regard any human being in need as our neighbor.  All neighbors have a rightful claim on our concern and compassion. 

 Now, to be sure, that is the central point of the story.  But today I would like to focus our attention on another person in the story.  This person is often neglected.  It is the man who lies by the side of the road.  He is beaten, helpless.  He is totally dependent on the care which somebody else must extend to him. 

 In this story, it is obvious that the Samaritan is the “good guy.”  He’s the guy we’re supposed to identify with.  The priest and the Levite are the “bad guys.”  Thus our attention is usually drawn away from the helpless, pathetic figure lying wounded by the side of the road.  There seems not much to prompt us to identify with him.

 Let’s think about him for a moment.  Let’s think about what it means to be on the receiving end of help.  For every person who cares for another, there is someone who is being cared for.  It is said that it is easier to receive help than to give it.  Let me suggest that it is very hard to be dependent on help that comes from outside of us.

 Now don’t get me wrong.  I will be the last to want to slight caregivers.  I have been in the full-time position of care giver myself for many years. This includes not only being a Priest, but a counselor, therapist and psychiatric technician as well. In my years as a caregiver, I have often thought about what it would be like to be on the receiving end of a Good Samaritan’s care.  We don’t often identify with such people.  But I am sure that there are people sitting here today who are hurting.  They are wounded, lying along the roadside of life. They are in need of a Good Samaritan and his or her care giving.

 And if there are such persons among us today, we have come upon part of the problem.  Most of the time, if we are hurting, we try to keep our wounds hidden.  We’ve been taught to cover them up with a smile and a stiff upper lip.  We have been taught to solve our own problems.  We’re not to burden others.

 We have been taught to identify with winners, with success, with the strong.  You know, “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps!” Yet no one is a winner all the time.  Everyone needs to be cared for.  Everyone is dependent.  How can we be that way gracefully--with dignity?  It is great to be adult, grown up, responsible for ourselves completely.  But in a way we are not more than a tiny little child.  We are totally dependent and completely vulnerable to the shocks of life and death.  There are times when each of us yearns for arms around us.  We want at times to know someone is there, if only to listen.

 But it is hard to open ourselves to receive help.  That is more true in our “winning is the only thing” society.  It seems degrading to admit that we are unable to solve our own problems by ourselves.  We feel ashamed.  We feel like real losers.  We have not reached that level of self-sufficiency which has been our lifelong goal. We have been taught that we must be winners, or we are next to worthless.  Therefore any losses we sustain must be borne silently and alone.  After all, we don’t want anyone else to know we don’t have it all together.  We don’t want them to see that we are hurting.  We don’t want them to see that we are vulnerable.  They might think we are losers.

 This is often accompanied by a shaky view of Christianity.  We get the idea that being a good Christian means never being found lying in the ditch.  The feeling we get is that we have less than adequate faith if we need help.  We measure our worth by how well we handle life.  If we are strong and successful, we must be good Christians.  If we are beaten down, somehow our value before God is at risk if not lost completely.
 
With that view it becomes very hard to ask for help.  All that we have and are flows from God.  All of life comes as a free gift of God.  Our value is not dependent on who we are, what we do, or how well we handle life’s problems.  We are children of God.  Our life and worth were determined when God became human in Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the Good Samaritan who does the caring – for us. 

We begin the Nativity fast today. This time of preparation for the Holy Nativity of our Lord is a gift.  It is a gift given to remind us of the care that God has given us.  God got involved.  He got involved with us.  He sent His most valuable resource, His Son Christ, our Lord, in our time of need. During these next weeks it will be easy for us to forget that and focus on our selves, our wants, our pleasures.  It will be a temptation to forget Christ just because the rest of the world wants us to.  Don’t fall into the temptation. 

 If today’s story of the Good Samaritan is to mean anything for us this Nativity fast time, let it be this.  That we remember how God through Christ got involved with our eternal salvation.  That we sacrifice our own personal wants and pleasures to be involved with Christ and His Church.  That we remember our time is short.  Christ is coming.  He will soon be here.  Let Him find us as close to Him as we can get.