June 21st, 2026: Third Sunday after Pentecost, Homily on Almsgiving

Glory to Jesus Christ. We come to the third Sunday

after Pentecost, and it's been a, you could say,

a Sunday of, a litany of Sundays where we focus

on the saints, collective saints. Our first Sunday,

of course, all saints, then all saints of North

America. Today, we celebrate the saints of Mount

Athos and, of course, the martyrs who were under

the Turkish yoke. Collectively, the resurrection

gospel at that first Sunday of All Saints is

the backbone of all of them and should be the

backbone of us. Therefore, who confesses me before

men, him... I will also confess before the Father

who is in heaven. I know we worship Jesus Christ

because we're here, worshiping Jesus Christ.

And I know all of us do that, that are here,

and many who can't be with us. And we follow

him to the best of our ability. The question

we have to continually ask ourselves is, do we

confess him? And I'm not going to go into all

of what that means, but remember that just as

much as we're called to confess Christ, we're

also told that the opposite is true. If we deny

him before men, he will deny us before the Father.

So we're either confessing or denying in everything

that we do and everywhere we go. And especially

the way we live, it isn't so much the words that

come from our mouth as it is, who are we? How

do we impact the world and the people around

us? Is it confessing Christ or denying Christ?

Thomas Hopko said, at every moment in life, everything

we do is either completely holy or completely

evil. When not living like we should in holiness,

we're called to repent. If something doesn't

lead us to Christ, it leads us to destruction.

There is no in -between this confessing and denying.

There's no time out, no King's X. No, I'm going

to confess him next Wednesday because we did

a little bit here on Sunday and so I'm going

to find a way. No, it's everything we do at all

times. In all places. But the basis for this

divide. We hear in today's scripture. When was

read. I can find it. Oops. The light of the body

is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single,

thy whole body shall be full of light. That's

the basis for the divide between confessing him

or not. Is your body full of light? And the spiritual

life is about the struggle seeking the life,

the love, and this light of Christ. So to fight

the good fight, that we may be confessors of

Christ, we have a spiritual warfare that we're

called to. And we know the church teaches the

fathers of all taught in a unified way that prayer,

fasting, and almsgiving are the three tools we

have. In Ephesians, Paul names the three enemies

of Christians by which these, and how they're

fought. Paul names them. And our whole body,

if it be in darkness, are darkened by these things.

The enemy of the devil, the enemy of the flesh,

and the enemy of the world. So this spiritual

warfare of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving is

how they're fought. It's fought by prayer. This

turns our mind, our noose, towards God. The enemy

of the flesh is fought by fasting. Because our

flesh is where the appetites exist. Not just

fasting from food, but all the addictions and

the things that lead us off. You see, fasting

weakens the body's hold on the passions. An enemy

of the world, we fight by almsgiving. Almsgiving

loosens the soul's grip on matter, on possessions,

on the illusions of self -security and self -sufficiency.

No one can serve two masters, this scripture

today goes on to say, for either he will hate

the one and love the other, or else he will be

loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot

serve God and mammon. So without almsgiving,

prayer, and fasting, we cannot do battle. And

you see, prayer and fasting are incomplete without

almsgiving. These three disciplines purify together.

They're not separate. They aren't fully therapeutic

for our hearts, minds, our soul, unless they're

all done together as a whole. Remember in Luke

12, 34, where your treasure is, there your heart

will be. And that's not a financial principle.

It's a diagnosis of the noose, where the heart

is anchored. Where is your heart anchored? It's

by prayer, fasting, and almsgiving that we find

freedom from being anchored in the world. Almsgiving

is participation in God's own nature because

God loves to give. God, we call him when we pray

the lover of mankind. That's not a sentiment,

you know, like God loves me. I love you, Jesus.

It's a sentiment. It's the deepest relationship

with God. And it consumes us and all eternity.

It's God's very nature, this love. And when we

give through almsgiving, We don't just obey.

Oh yeah, what are we supposed to do? Oh yeah,

I'm supposed to give something to the poor. It's

not a mere obedience. Giving is how we participate

in God's nature. Think about the quality of your

giving. There are two modes of almsgiving that

sometimes are confused. They're either separated

or crushed together. They're not understood clearly,

but it's really important to understand them.

We're supposed to direct almsgiving to the poor.

Very true. Nothing should confuse you about that.

Because remember, to give to the poor is to give

to Christ. Giving to Christ himself. In Matthew

25, 40, we hear, as you did it to one of the

least of these, you did it to me. But it's mode

B that we get confused about. Almsgiving to the

church. Some will tell you that almsgiving isn't

your giving to the church, but actually, if you

do a deeper dive, you'll find out that This mode

that is forgotten has been artificially separated

from almsgiving in general. But the fathers don't

separate them. They're one discipline and two

expressions. I think the problem is in our modern

world, we've completely lost track of the context

in which the fathers, the apostles first and

the fathers afterwards, were addressing spiritual

disciplines, especially almsgiving. The fathers

did not separate them. In the Didache, which

is the first evidence we have of what the apostles

were teaching, it says very plainly, I think

it's in whatever they call it, chapter 13 or

verse, well, it's the section that is numbered

13. It says the firstfruits are to be given to

the prophets and the teachers and everything

else. shared with those in need. In other words,

the first fruit of your labor was no longer under

the Jewish law, was to be given to the prophets

and the teachers and the preachers, to those

who were nourishing and sustaining this new movement

of grace, the church that we've inherited. So

supporting the ministry is the oldest form of

church almsgiving. Because it was through the

church that the poor were taken care of. And

you hear Paul talk about this all the time. The

poor in Jerusalem, he was pleading with the Corinthians

to give more of their abundance so that the church

could be supported. Because the church and the

poor they fed and the way they ministered to

people and brought the good news out was all

one thing. There was no false separation. John

Chrysostom said, the church is the treasury of

the poor. What you give to the church, you give

to the poor. For the church does not spend it

on walls, but on souls. You see, the whole purpose

of this, we have a building with walls. We have

these beautiful icons that have been By the grace

of givers. Been put here. So that we can feed

the poor in spirit for centuries to come. We

feed the poor. Who are hurting for meaning. Who

are poor in their relationship with God. Who

are poor in their ability to even understand

what God wants. And how do I live the Christian

life. That's why. supporting the church is supporting

the poor and from those who take on this nature

of discipleship can go into the world and help

others our almsgiving to the church should be

both feeding the poor in spirit and those who

have physical needs your charity and if we emulate

the church we've inherited should be Freely given

to the church and we could develop the programs

for the abundance of your giving to help those

in need rather than looking at the latest appeal

when you're doom scrolling on your phone because

everyone's out to get your money. Make it a spiritual

gift and find ways through your parish here.

to do the work of both educating the poor in

Christianity and feeding the poor who are in

need. In Corinthians, I forgot here, just a minute,

Cyprian, I want to read his quote. The offerings

of the faithful are the means by which the church

is sustained and the poor are supported. It was

a unified... appeal for people. Now, in Corinthians,

Paul is not organizing fundraising campaign when

he's asking and appealing for the supporting

Jerusalem. He is describing what a soul transformed

by grace looks like from the outside. Are you

witnessing? What do you look like? Are you witnessing?

What do people encounter? Paul's describing it.

The soul of someone who's transformed by grace

is a soul that gives. And it gives first from

your first fruits. And it gives willingly, no

obligation. It gives from what it has. Do you

have a little? You should be giving what you

can. If you have a lot, Out of God's abundance,

you should give abundantly. And the measure God

receives is not the amount of what you give,

but the freedom and love from which the gift

rises. Because the heart that has been touched

by Christ cannot hold what it has been given.

You feel it when you love. You feel it when you

feel God's love. When you have joy, you can't

hold it in. You give it away freely. The abundance

of your lives needs to be given freely. So the

ultimate reason that we give is not duty or obligation,

and it's certainly not because someone shoved

the parish budget in front of you and said, You

need to give more to the church because, look,

we're going underwater on our bills. That's not

the measure or the reason for giving. The ultimate

reason is because you've been transformed by

Christ. And the measure of your transformation

can be seen in how you give. Not just love. Not

just your participation in divine services, your

labor of worship, but also your labor out in

the vineyard or your labor in the church hall.

And especially the labor of your lives that is

returned to you in financial support. You give

freely of that. Remember, giving changes the

giver. So whether you're tithing because you

can discipline yourself to tithe and not find

other ways to spend your money, or whether you're

trying to work up to tithing because right now

things are tight and you've got so many obligations

and now all of a sudden you're trying to up your

participation in the parish. So you can't tithe

yet, but you can start with something. Whether

it's only a little bit because you have nothing

extra. Examine your hearts. Ask yourself, God

has blessed me. How can I return that blessing

through my giving to the parish? Giving through

tithing. Giving through pledging. I didn't...

write all of this and dig up and study stuff

so I could coerce you because we have an immediate

need. I have no idea what the needs of the parish

are but I can tell you that in our world today

we don't understand what it means to give of

our abundance. Very few people actually achieve

even a glimpse of what it is. But for those who

do, those who've done it, for those, whether

it's a widow's mite or you were blessed abundantly

through family or business or whatever, when

you give abundantly, it transforms you. It changes

you. And that's what the fathers agree on, that

if you give, you will be changed. If you give,

your prayers, Your fasting and your almsgiving

will suddenly take on a transformative power

in your lives that you really need. All of us

need. The heart that gives freely is a heart

that's being freed of this world. The heart that's

freed from worry and possessions. In other words,

Worry over what you have, your management, your

latest this and your latest that. You've got

to stick money in the 401k and what are you going

to do about that property you inherited and on

and on and on and on. The worry. Or whether you're

worried because you just don't have anything

or you don't have much. Both anxieties and both

worries bar you from encountering God in your

hearts and in your life. When you're freed from

that worry, you have a heart that can receive

God. When your heart receives God, it's a purified

heart. An eye that is single, as we heard in

scriptures, where God takes up his abode in us.

Actually, we give so that we may become what

we are giving towards to purify our hearts. can

see God, and that we can become a vessel of God.

So the whole body becomes full of light to love

as God loves, to receive the gift of life that

God gives us. You know, it's all bound together.

There's no separation. Don't neglect giving.

Prayer and fasting and almsgiving. They will

transform you. Lay up yourselves treasures in

heaven. Where your treasure is, there is your

heart will be. Examine your heart and where your

treasure is. Glory to Jesus Christ.