Do You Know the Impact You Can Have?

Our holy father, the martyr Paramon, was not a Christian; but he was a well-respected man in the region where he lived.  He encountered one day a group of 370 Christians whom the governor of the region has arrested, bound, and brought to the temple of Poseidon.  There they were threatened with death unless they offered sacrifice to the idol – something that none of them would do.  When Paramon learned what was taking place, he denounced the wickedness of the governor and continued on his way.  The governor sent his men after Paramon.  He was arrested; tortured by being stripped and beaten, by having a thorn jabbed through his tongue, and then by being stabbed all over.   Paramon endured it all with prayer, and gave his soul to God, being baptized in his own blood.  The 370 Christians were then beheaded, giving their souls to God as martyrs in the year of our Lord 250.

Most of us will never be arrested because of our faith.  Most of us will never be tortured in an effort to make us renounce our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Most of us will never become martyrs, as did our holy father Paramon and the 370 faithful we hear of today.  But there are some things we should note in the life of these saints, by which we also may be instructed, if we will hear the teaching and follow it each day.

The first thing to note is that Paramon was not a Christian at the time he suffered – at least, not in a way that we would recognize.  This should serve as a warning to us not to judge others, nor to condemn others simply because they have not been baptized, and do not openly proclaim the Lord Jesus as their own Savior and Lord.  God knows His own; and He will provide for them the necessary faith when time and circumstance require.  We should give thanks for those who seek to do good to others, whose lives are Christian, even if their faith is not known to us.  Of course, if we have the opportunity to do so, we should tell them of our Lord, and invite them to become Orthodox Christians.

This leads to the second point.  What was it that brought about Paramon’s martyrdom?  Was it not the example of the 370 who were willing to die rather than turn away from their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and offer a sacrifice to an idol?  This tells us that the quality of our lives can be a powerful testimony to others.  Does the way in which you live tell others that you are a faithful follower of the Lord, and that you will not turn aside from that path?  Or do our lives say that we are indistinguishable from those of the world around us – that we pay tribute to worldly concerns and fleshly desires, just as the nonbelievers do.  If you won’t even say a prayer in silence and cross yourself in public, as we do at mealtimes, what message does that send?  If we abuse others in word or in deed; if we gossip; if we consider ourselves to be better and more deserving of others, what message do we send?  And if we do not live as Christians, where will those who today stand in the role our holy father Paramon once held see the power of faith, and so be inspired to do as he did?

May God grant us grace and strength to walk in His ways without turning aside, so that we may also bear witness to Him.  Holy father Paramon, pray to God for us.  Amen.

Preparation for Martyrdom

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The holy martyr Julian of Tarsus was a young man when he suffered and died for the Christian faith.  Born into a family of wealth and influence, from his youth, he was taught the Faith; and so, when the time of his suffering came, he was ready, and despite being taken from town to town and being out to torture in each one, he would not deny that Jesus Christ is Lord.  After a year of enduring torments, he was sewn into a sack filled with sand, snakes, and scorpions, and thrown into the sea.  He was eighteen years old when he departed this life.

Our holy father John of Shanghai and San Francisco, whose feast we celebrated yesterday, was also born into a noble family; and he also, from his youth, learned the Christian faith, embracing the Orthodox way of life, inspired by the asceticism of the monks he saw living near to his village.  His family fled from his homeland during the Russian Civil War for Serbia. He left Serbia for Shanghai when he became a Bishop. Forced to flee from Shanghai once again ahead of the Communists, he led his flock to the Philippines, from where they were resettled, some in Australia, some in South America, and some in the United States.  He knew of his impending repose some four days before it happened, and foretold as well the place where he would die.  He was seventy years old when he departed this life.

Both of the holy fathers whom we celebrate this weekend experienced what our Lord spoke of in the reading today from the holy Gospel according to St. Luke. Both experienced persecution; both knew that a martyr’s death was a very real possibility, and one achieved a martyr’s crown.

What about us?  Although none of us has been born to a family of power and influence, we live in a time and place with riches and conveniences that we take for granted, which not even emperors had of old – and they could have almost anything they wanted.  In addition to the prosperity we enjoy, we also live in a time of relative peace, and in a place where we are not suffering for our faith – at least, not yet.  But the words our Lord spoke to warn and to encourage His disciples remain as true today as when He first uttered them.  The apostles saw the armies of Rome arrayed against Jerusalem, and their defeat of that city.  The faithful were persecuted again and again across time and space – and there are places around the world today where Christians suffer for the Faith, and martyrs are killed all the time.  We don’t see it happening on the evening news; we don’t see it happening in our neighborhoods – but it is taking place all the same, and we are naïve if we think that it will never happen here. 

What, then should we do?  We must be instructed by what our Lord tells His disciples – and we are His disciples if we follow His teachings, and His example.  By enduring, we will win our lives.  Not in this world, to be sure – but this world, this age, this life will not endure.  Only that which is established in heaven will endure. If we will embrace and live the life of our Lord Jesus Christ given to us in baptism, fed in us by His Body and Blood, taught to us by the holy Fathers and Mothers, shown to us in the lives of the saints, then our lives, too, will be established in heaven.  Above all, it is by so pursuing the life of Christ being expressed in our own that we can endure even betrayal by friends or family, to say with our Lord, “Father, forgive them,” even as we are being put to death.

Brothers and sisters, let us ask God for the grace and mercy He gives to us from His love for us, that we may not love our lives in this world, but rather desire the life to come, so that we will not fail in the time of trial, but may also come, with our holy father Julian and our holy father John, to a blessed repose, and a place in His kingdom that shall never end.

The Triumph of Orthodoxy

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Today is the “Sunday of Orthodoxy”; sometimes known as the “Triumph of Orthodoxy.” The celebration of this day, which takes place every year on the first Sunday of Great Lent, celebrates the decision made at the Seventh Ecumenical Council that icons do not violate the provisions of the second of the Ten Commandments, in that, by becoming incarnate, the invisible God Whose form could not be depicted properly in any way could now be seen, and so could be depicted in icons. The same was held to be true for icons depicting the Mother of God, and the saints, for all of them, though imperfect, show us the image of Christ – indeed, every person is made in the image, and after the likeness of God, and so each one of us is an icon of Christ.

We come to church, and we find icons. We cross ourselves and bow, or make prostrations, before them. We offer prayers before them, asking for the prayerful assistance of the saint whose image we see, or of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, being aware of His presence with us in a special way through our seeing Him in the icon. We are not confused. Our Lord is not in the icon – at least, not in some magical way. For we know that our Lord Jesus Christ, being God, is everywhere present and fills all things through God the Holy Spirit. He is present in the icon only in the same way that He is, as we have said, “everywhere present.” But for those who understand – and the Orthodox Church has never required any of her members to revere the icons, only to avoid saying that the use of icons is idolatry – we are connected by faith with the person we see in the icon, and that the love and respect we show to the icon is not offered to wood and paint, but actually passes to the person who is the object of our devotion.

But our bowing and prostrations and prayers are meaningless if we do not realize that these images are less important than the living icons standing here all around us. Our devotion and respect and prayers are meaningless if we forget that every living person is an icon, and do not treat them with the same devotion and respect we offer to the images of pigment on wood. The truth of our Orthodox faith, and the triumph of our faith, celebrated today, is worthless if it does not cause us to understand the connection between the icons in the Church and the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the homeless, the sick, and the imprisoned about whom we heard on the Sunday of the Last Judgment. Remember what our Lord said: for inasmuch as you have done these things unto one of these, you have done it unto Me; and to the extent you have not helped them, you have not helped Me – and each group receiving its reward. We will not be judged on the basis of how much we reverenced the icons we find in the church and in the prayer corners of our homes; we will be judged on the love and respect we have offered to the living icons all around us. That recognition and the action that flows from it, as we reach out in love to help another person – that is the real triumph of Orthodoxy. May God grant us the grace we need to be truly Orthodox, loving God, and loving our neighbors as we love ourselves.

A Dinner Invitation: What's Your Excuse?

Today we celebrate the holy forefathers of our Lord Jesus Christ, the patriarchs and the prophets and the other holy men and women from Adam and Eve to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to Moses and Joshua, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel up to John the Baptizer, the last of the Old Testament prophets.  When we read the Old Testament, we should do so to learn not only of the history of God’s involvement with us, but also to learn the many ways in which we were being prepared for the coming of Christ.  Yes, we know that the prophets told us of His coming, from the “Suffering Servant” mentioned in the prophecies of Isaiah, and of His miraculous birth, also found in the book of the prophet Isaiah, who foretold that the Virgin would conceive and would bear a child, whose name would be called, “Immanuel” – that is, “God with us.”  But if we read and learn, we may also recognize in Abel a prefiguring of Christ the Good Shepherd, who was the first to offer sacrifice pleasing to God, for which he became the first martyr.  We might learn of the faith of Abraham that led him to depart from his homeland to the place where God would lead him, to give him a home, even as we are called to leave this world behind to follow where God leads, to our true dwelling-place with Him in His kingdom.  We would see the sacrifice of our Lord in the offering of Isaac, we would see the faith of Ruth and Rahab the prostitute, and many, many others, all of whom can teach us about who we are and who we are meant to be as followers of our Lord Jesus Christ, Whose coming fulfilled the promise God made to Adam and Eve even as they were being forced to leave Paradise because of their sin, that a Deliverer would come to set us free from sin and death.  As we draw near to the celebration of the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord, we do well to prepare ourselves, to learn, and to live as we should.

In the reading today from the Gospel according to St. Luke, we hear of the man who prepares a great feast, and sends his servants to gather those who had been invited to take part.  But they respond by making excuses as to why they cannot attend; and so the host sends his servants out again and again, to gather the uninvited as guests, even using force to compel them to enter, until the hall has been filled; but, in his anger, he declares that those who had been invited would now be refused entrance to the feast.

What shall we make of this?  Do you realize that a feast has been prepared for you this very day, and that all who desire to take part and have prepared themselves will be fed with the most holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ?  What excuses have kept you from accepting the invitation today?  It is true, no one will compel you to come today – no one will be forced to come to the feast today, nor next Sunday, nor on the Feast of the Nativity itself – but why do you not come?  Why do you refuse the hospitality of our God, Who desires that we share in His rejoicing in His Son, our Savior?  Brothers and sisters, a day is coming when we will make excuses to not attend His feast, and find that we are no longer welcome.  Let us not harden our hearts, and so risk being denied a place at the great banquet of the kingdom.  Let us prepare ourselves with fasting, confession, repentance and prayer; and let us come to the Mystical Supper, especially on the day we celebrate the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ into our midst, remembering also that He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.  Let us strive by the grace of God given to us in our baptism and in the Lord’s Supper to be ready for the day of His return, that we may celebrate and rejoice to behold Him.

Our King and Savior is drawing near!  Come, let us adore Him.

You Are the Light of the World

In the reading today from the Gospel according to St. Matthew, our Lord tells those who are listening to Him, “You are the light of the world.” He then gives some additional details about this light. He says, “A city on a hill cannot be hidden be hidden.” Think about driving around town at night. Every house on a hillside can be seen for miles. Our Lord also says, “No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Rather, the lamp that is lit is put on a stand, so that its light shines for everyone in the house.” Then He tells us what this means for us: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify God in heaven.”

With what light are we meant to shine? On one level, it is the light of good works: especially those things that are done to help another person in need. We know what these things are: feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, housing the homeless, visiting the sick, and those in prison, and welcoming the stranger – all the things spoken of when our Lord describes the time of the Great Judgment, of the sheep and the goats. But it is possible to do these things, and yet fail to shine. If we are to understand this, and to respond in a manner pleasing to the Lord, what else is there?

Another form of “good works” by which we may bring light into a world of darkness is to faithfully live the Orthodox way of life: praying, fasting, and giving; with humility, patience, forgiveness, generosity to others, and love. If we devote our time and energy to developing and refining these behaviors in our daily lives, we will find it a joy to reach out to others, to feed and clothe and visit and so on. Yet even these good things can be done without bringing the light we are meant to shine. What else must we understand and do to be pleasing to the Lord?

St. John Chrysostom tells us that the light within us is not our own. Rather, the light is ignited in us by our Lord Jesus Christ when we are joined to His life in Holy Baptism. He lights the lamp in us. St. John continues, however, to instruct and remind us that, while the light in us was lit by the Lord, it is up to us to keep the lamp burning. That is, we must, from time to time, trim and renew the wick; and we must, from time to time, refill the lamp with oil; and we must, from time to time, clean the lens through which the light must shine.

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Experience with oil lamps, as often found in a church, teaches that the wicks are best served when trimmed twice a day, morning and evening. So it is that the Church advises us to be diligent in prayer at the start, and at the end, of each day. Remember how Moses, when he would return to the people of Israel from being in the presence of God, had to cover his face with a veil, because his face was bright with the light of the presence of God? When we take time to draw near to God in prayer, we come into the light, and so are better prepared to carry that light with us through the course of the day. The lamps must be filled at least daily; and so we should fill ourselves with the words of Holy Scripture, and the teachings of the Fathers, and the lives of the saints, who also brought the light of Christ to us and to the world – that’s why, in the icons, they have haloes. Periodically, the lamps must be cleaned of the dirt and debris they accumulate; and so too must we seek to be made clean in the mystery of confession, through repentance, with the desire not to repeat our sins, but to be transformed. These practices will help us tend to the light given to us, so that, properly cared for, we nay shine with Christ’s light in us, becoming lamps on stands, and even cities on hilltops, to light the way for those in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide those who are seeking God to find and follow the right path.

Brothers and sisters, let us ask God for the grace we need to tend the light given to us, so that the light of our good works of piety and charity may shine before men, so that God may be glorified; and let us never seek praise or commendation from others for the good we may do; but give thanks and glory to God, remembering that if we shine, it is only because He loves us and has given Himself for us, so that we may be saved.

Racism and Our Mission of Love

In the readings today from the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. John the Theologian, we hear the theme of love. We are told of God’s love for us: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” We are taught that the greatest commandment is to love: “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” We are also commanded to love one another.

From a cultural point of view -- which is to say, from the world’s point of view, as opposed to the heavenly perspective – the word “love” many times means eros; erotic love, associated with sexual desire. Used properly, this is a gift from God, drawing a man and a woman closer to each other, making them one in holy matrimony, and establishing them as a family, as children may become, as it were, the fruit of their love. Less often, “love” might mean philos; brotherly love, which also binds us together for our good as a family – whether as having the same parents, or grandparents; and also in a larger sense, being of “one blood,” the blood of Christ, being children of God, and so brothers and sisters together. But here the evangelists are speaking of agape; the unselfish love that God has for us, and which we are called to serve as fountains on behalf of all the world. It is a love that thinks more of others and less of self; it is the love that sacrifices for the benefit of others, without thought of reward or repayment. It is the love that made it possible for our Lord Jesus Christ to endure suffering and death on the Cross for our salvation.

Perhaps you have heard some of the controversy that has been taking place during the national debate over the proposal to reform health care insurance in our nation. Ordinarily, the sermon doesn’t usually address topics of current events; but the theme of the readings from the Gospel today directly addresses these events, and so it is helpful to speak of them. It has been suggested that some of the opposition to the plan being advanced by President Obama arises as a result of racism. It is, it seems, an aspect of human nature – fallen human nature – to distrust, and even to have an irrational hatred, for those who are different. Racism, of course, is a response to a perceived difference based on the color of your skin. We are all aware of the cultural aspects of racism in American history and society: of those of African origin who were unwillingly brought to this country as slaves – an action that was acceptable in the minds of many because they were considered to be inferior. After slavery ended, the hatred and discrimination continued. You don’t need to go far outside the doors of the church here to see this: At one time, few, if any, “white” people lived south of Indian School Road; while those sometimes called, “persons of color” – blacks and Hispanics – were only permitted to buy property south of there, including this neighborhood, and surrounding ones. By God’s grace, things have been changing; but according to some, this controversy is a reminder that there is still work that needs to be done.

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Brothers and sisters, let us not be mistaken. Those of us who have been joined to Christ by baptism, and who partake of the holy Mysteries of His Body and Blood are one with Him, and are one family in Him. The relative presence or absence of melanin – the pigment that produces the color in our hair, and in our skin – is not of any significance. That is to say, there are not three races, as was once thought and taught: there is one race, the human race. Every person, regardless of the color of their skin, is a human being, made in the image and after the likeness of God, and therefore worthy of respect, dignity, honor, and love – of agape, the sacrificial love of the Cross. It is not always easy to overcome the thoughts and habits of the culture in which we grew up; but we are called to do so as children of God, and as disciples, followers, of our Lord Jesus Christ. We each need to remember that we, those baptized, the Body of Christ, share in the priesthood of all believers: to minister to the world, to show all the world the love of God for us in Jesus Christ, in what we say, in what we do – in how we treat each other.

Let us examine ourselves for any signs that we do not yet love with the love of God, and ask for grace and strength to bring this love to a world which still needs to hear the good news of salvation, so that they also may receive the love God has for each of us, so that He may be glorified, and we may be blessed to fulfill our mission of unselfish love.

Obtaining Eternal Life

If you wanted an account from the gospels that speaks to our culture today, and if, in order to do so, you could choose only one parable from the four accounts of the life and ministry of our Lord, Jesus Christ during the time between His Theophany and His resurrection from the dead, the reading today from the Gospel according to St. Matthew might be the best choice. The parable of the rich young man in the Gospel according to St. Matthew captures who we are in this time and place, shaped as we are by the society in which we live. He has everything that anyone could want: comfort, ease, and the ability to obtain whatever he wants. Yet, having all this, he is still unsatisfied, and he knows he is missing something – he does not have eternal life. It is this that draws him to our Lord, and to ask what he must do to obtain this life that will not end.

Our Lord begins with the basics: He says, “Keep the commandments.” Remember that this dialogue is taking place in a culture that considered itself to be God’s chosen people, to whom God had given the Ten Commandments, and other detailed aspects on what was acceptable to God, and what was not – over six hundred “laws” within the Law. Presumably, this young man, being well off, would also have been well educated, and so would have known this. Now, you would think that this answer would have been enough – keep the commandments – but the young man wants to make the task less difficult, and so he asks, “Which ones?”

Jesus takes him to the next step, listing that portion of the Ten Commandments dealing with our relations with others: do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness; and honor your father and your mother. He adds as well the second part of the summary of the Law He taught to His followers: love your neighbor as you love yourself. The young man says, I have lived this way since I was a child. What do I still lack? Putting that another way, he is asking, I have done these things, so why am I still unhappy?

He is then given the final instruction: Go, sell what you have, and give it to the poor, and then come and follow Me. He departs from the scene, deeply troubled because, we are told, he had a great many possessions. We never learn what decision he made as he struggled with his desire to live eternally and with his attachment to his possessions.

The truth is, each one of us is the rich young man. Even though we may think of ourselves as being followers of Christ – and we are, to one degree or another – we live today more comfortably than most other people on the face of the earth, and with more comfort and ease than even emperors and kings of old enjoyed. We look around, see the mansions on the hillsides with their luxury cars and people dressed in the finest clothing with jewelry and rich food and all the amenities that wealth can provide, and we think to ourselves, “Oh, if only I could live like that, I would be happy!” We should already know, based on this Gospel reading, that wealth by itself, nor any of the things that wealth can obtain, can truly make us happy. We should already know that the only true source of happiness is to be developing our relationship with God, and living in that relationship with each other. But we don’t usually think about these things, not nearly as often as we think about what we want to obtain – even as we already have so much! We need to stop focusing on what others have, stop thinking about what we think we lack, and instead give thanks to God for blessing us with so many good things. We need to remember that the greatest gift of all is the gift the young man was seeking: eternal life, which is freely offered to us through our Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.

Each one of us is the rich young man, asking, “What good thing must I do to have eternal life?” The answer is, nothing. There is nothing we can do to earn or deserve eternal life. We do not have the strength or power to do so, apart from the Lord. The good news is that He has already completed the task; He has already obtained eternal life for us. Our part is to believe that this is true; and in this belief, this faith, this trust, to follow Him, which is done best by living the Orthodox way: praying, fasting, struggling against our passions, giving from what God has given to us to support the work of the Church and to help those in need; by loving and forgiving, by being patient and gentle.

What of the command to sell all that we have and give to the poor? Consider this: If you had nothing, no possessions, you have nothing to lose. No thief or robber can disturb you by taking anything away. If you have no possessions, even the government is no threat, apart from your life. And if you have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, that He died on the Cross and rose to life without end from the grave, then even those who would threaten your life have no power over you, because you know that the life we have here in this world is nothing more than a prelude, the threshold to life without end. To have no possessions – not even considering your life to be a possession, but belonging instead to God alone – you are truly free to follow Christ. So, brothers and sisters, let us ask our Lord for the grace to be set free from the things we acquire in this life, seeking nothing in this world, but working instead to set aside for ourselves treasures in heaven; and for grace to be faithful followers of our Lord Jesus Christ, rather than followers of the world and of wealth.

Who is Worthy of the Kingdom?

When our Lord Jesus Christ, during the time of His ministry on earth, returned to his home town of Nazareth, word of the miracles and healings He had performed to that time had reached the people who knew His family, and had known Him as a boy growing up in their midst. “Is this not the carpenter’s son?” they asked; suggesting that they wondered how someone who had come from such a humble beginning could do such marvelous things elsewhere. Knowing their hearts, He said to them, “You will undoubtedly say to Me, ‘Do here at home the marvelous things You have done in Capernaum; yet a prophet is not acceptable in his own town.” Because they thought they knew Him, they required Him to give them a sigh; but when He responded by telling them about the holy prophets Elijah and Elisha, they were moved to anger, even hatred, and tried to take him to the cliff at the edge of town, to throw Him to His death.

Today we commemorate the holy prophet of God, Elijah (or Elias, as he is also called). His name means, “The Lord is my God”; and he was sent by God to the northern kingdom of Israel as a sign of God’s presence in a land whose king, Ahab, and important leaders had turned away from God to worship Ba’al, believed to be a god of fertility who lived in the rain clouds.

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Elijah’s zeal for the Lord was great; at one point, he believed that he was the only prophet of God – indeed, the only follower of God – who remained in the land of Israel. Elijah prophesied a drought that would come upon the land and would last for three and a half years; and during this time he challenged 450 priests of Ba’al and 400 priests of Asherah to offer a sacrifice to Ba’al to bring an end to the drought; at which time he would make a sacrifice to the God of the covenants with Adam, Noah, Moses, and David – with the people pledged to worship the one revealed to be truly God. The priests of the idols performed their rites of sacrifice from morning until the time to offer the sacrifice had come. At that time, Elijah prepared the sacrifice he would offer on its altar, giving orders that the sacrifice itself, and the wood that would be set aflame by the action of God alone, be soaked with water; so much water that a trench he had ordered dug around the altar was filled with water. Then Elijah prayed, and the Lord sent fire from heaven that burned not only the wood and the sacrifice, but also the water, as well. In his zeal, Elijah ordered the people to seize the false priests, and had them put to death. This action caused Ahab’s queen, Jezebel, to swear that she would have him put to death. This is but one action that was carried out by the holy prophet of God.

What made the people of Nazareth so angry? When our Lord said that the prophet Elijah, during the time of the famine caused by the drought, did not minister to any of the many widows in Israel, but instead brought God’s help to a widow from a foreign land; and that the prophet Elisha – Elijah’s follower and successor as prophet in the northern kingdom – healed a leper from another land, but not one of the lepers in Israel, though there were many who needed such a healing, He was, in effect, telling them that these foreigners, who were not people of the covenant, as were the Jews, were more deserving than the people who were supposed to be the people of God. By connecting the people of His home town with those who needed God’s blessing but did not seek it, He was saying that the same is true for those who lived where He had grown up. Jesus the Messiah, promised by God to His people from the time that Adam and Eve were expelled from Paradise, had come – but the people who were supposed to have been watching and waiting for Him did not recognize Him, and thought they knew who He was.

This should make us stop and think. After all, we say of ourselves that we are the people of God, the inheritors of the New Covenant, the covenant of the Cross, of the Blood shed by the offering of the Lamb of God for our sake. We also say that He will come, as the people in our Lord’s home town said that the Messiah would come, establishing His kingdom. But do we live as His people should live? Or do we say one thing, but do another? And if we were to learn that there will be those who, without entering into the Orthodox Church, will be worthy of a place in the kingdom of heaven, while there is the very real possibility that some Orthodox Christians will not receive the same blessing, would that make you angry, as the people of Nazareth were angered?

We say we know the Lord is God, our Savior and Redeemer. But do we live like Him? Are we patient and forgiving, as He is? Are we striving to turn away from our attachments to this world, and to live as citizens of His kingdom? Do we love God more than we love ourselves, and the pleasures of this world, and of our flesh? If you want to know whether or not you love God, consider how you live with the person who cuts in line in front of you on the highway, or at the store. Do you lose your peace? Or do you forgive, and pray for that person? What about the person – maybe even here, in the house of God – who, because of the way they are dressed, or where they stand, may not be following exactly the manners of the Orthodox way of life? What about the person who does thing that irritate you, maybe even someone in your own household? Do you love them? Do you forgive them? Do you pray for them? Do you try to change who you are, what you say, what you do, in order to help them, while forgiving them for their faults and weaknesses? If you love them, as Christ loves us; if you forgive them, as we are forgiven; and if you give of yourself for them, gently, humbly, patiently, expecting no thanks, or anything at all in return – then be encouraged, brothers and sisters: for if we love those around us, even those who hate and scorn us, even those who might kill us – if we love them, we may also say that we love God. Then we will not be like the people of Nazareth who became angry when our Lord came into their midst; rather, we will be like Him Who, for love of us, unlovely sinners, gave Himself for us, that we might live in Him, and He in us.

Holy prophet of God, Elijah, pray to God for us!