Sunday of Orthodoxy 2025

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit, amen. Glory to Jesus Christ.

So we have reached the conclusion of the first

week of Lent, and we come to the first Sunday

of Lent, which, as you know, today is the Sunday

of Orthodoxy. We believe, as Orthodox Christians,

that the Orthodox Church is the one holy Catholic

and apostolic church. We're in the teaching of

our Lord, the preaching of the apostles, and

the doctrine of the fathers has been held consistently

from the earliest days of the church down to

us in the 21st century. should be received with

humility and not be a cause of triumphalism because

St. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians that we

hold this truth in earthen vessels. Throughout

the history of the Church, there have been many

false teachings, false doctrines Even from the

apostolic times, we could enumerate a lot of

them. Gnosticism, especially if you read St.

Paul carefully, you see the heresy of Judaism,

that you have to adopt Jewish practices and eating

codes in order to become a good Christian. So

with all reverence to that, what we have received

is that we have tried to avoid heresies in the

history of our church. I would single out, of

course you could single out many heresies. A

lot of these are with us today. Secularism, materialism,

even... about Arianism and what we'll talk about

today also, Arianism and iconoclasm. But I want

to focus our attention this morning on what I

would, two of the most central and persistent

heresies in the church, which were Arianism.

That Jesus is not the son of God, but he is a

creature. And of course, this story is told.

on the Sunday before Pentecost, when we commemorate

the fathers of the First Ecumenical Council.

And they have given to us the Nicene Creed, belief

in Jesus Christ as true God of true God, light

from light, true God of true God, begotten, not

made, of one essence with the Father. And also,

towards the 6th, 7th century, another heresy

arose in the church, which was iconoclasm, that

we shouldn't have Christian art. We should neither

have it nor venerate the icons. And of course...

I was thinking of this beautiful church this

morning when St. Paul's Epistle was read to the

Hebrews. We are surrounded by such a great cloud

of witnesses, Jesus and the saints who are our

family. The early church, though, was allergic

or guarded in its reception. of Christian art

because one of these was that the Christians

were only a brief time away from paganism with

the worship of idols and of course idols is one

thing that God wanted to protect the Hebrew people

from any contamination with the people and their

culture and religion in lands where they lived

or conquered. So the remembrance of the times

when the church was very cautious about icons

was still there. And then with the development

of Christian art and icons, we have this coming

to the head in the seventh century. and 8th century.

The 7th Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 787 defined

the veneration of icons, that we adore God alone,

but we give veneration to the icons. And I've

always reminded people that I've talked to that

are not Orthodox or converts when they come into

the church, I would use this example. And I think

it's very true. I know it is for me. But when

you have pictures of your parents, pictures of

your family, pictures of your spouse, and there's

a certain... presence of that person when you

see that picture, that image. And that's basically

what we have as Orthodox, that we even kiss the

icons because a lot of times we show our love

for our departed members of our family, at least

I do, by giving a kiss to the image of that person.

Not venerating, of course, the paper. but the

person represented there. Fast forward a bit

from the Seventh Ecumenical Council to what we

celebrate today, the Sunday of Orthodoxy. Because,

as with all ecumenical councils, once a decision

was made, there is always a lingering non -acceptance

of that teaching. That's true in all of the councils.

And so there were people who were unwilling to

accept the decrees of the Seventh Ecumenical

Council. And finally, the sort of lid was put

on this error in the year 843 with the veneration

of icons, the proclamation of orthodoxy. But

you might, I don't know if you were, but that

didn't close the issue completely because until

an ecumenical, what was sometimes considered

an ecumenical council, but a council in the year

869 presided over by Patriarch Photius. who's

a famous person for many things, especially his

teaching on the procession of the Holy Spirit.

The issue arose, okay, so we receive iconoclasts,

or Christians who did not feel comfortable with

icons. We receive them back into orthodoxy through...

and then they are allowed to receive the Eucharist.

But the question arose, which I find fascinating,

that, well, what do we do with the iconoclastic

clergy? Sure, they can be received by repentance

and communion, but can they come back into the

church and exercise their orders of bishop, priest,

and deacon? There are two sides of that issue.

The previous patriarch, Ignatius, was, he was

a monastic, and he was a little bit of a hardliner,

as sometimes monks can be, take things very,

very seriously. And he thought, no, he was the

leader of what I call the hawk party, that said,

no, they come in as laymen. Then Patriarch Photius

came to the throne, and before he became patriarch,

he was a high -ranking member of the diplomatic

service of the emperor. And as a diplomat, he

thought, no, let's choose the softer line. Once

they have rejected the heresy of iconoclasm,

they can come in and exercise their orders as...

bishops, priests, and deacons. So we have this

treasure, which St. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians.

We hold this treasure in earthen vessels, our

holy orthodox faith. And we are surrounded by

this great cloud of witnesses. who again are

our friends and our spiritual family. We venerate

their image and we show our love and our respect

and veneration for the person represented in

the icons. So today on this glorious feast day,

we ask our Lord Jesus Christ. whose images are

before us, and through the intercession of the

saints, whose images are before us, to let us

keep this treasure firmly and consistently and

be faithful Christians, and especially Orthodox

Christians, in our thoughts, words, and deeds.

Amen.