Sunday of Orthodoxy 2024 Fr. James Jorgenson

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

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

Today, on the first Sunday of Lent, we celebrate

the feast of the triumph of Orthodoxy, marking

the definitive end of the iconoclastic controversy.

we receive Holy Communion. We make a profession

of faith right before we receive Communion. We

say, I believe, O Lord, three things. I believe,

O Lord, that thou art truly the Christ, the Son

of the living God, who didst come into the world

to save sinners, of whom I am first. And I believe

that this is truly thine own most pure body and

that this is truly thine own precious blood.

The third of these is the reason why we say this

prayer, affirming our belief that the bread and

wine that we receive in Holy Communion is no

longer just bread and wine, but that by the priest

repeating the words of Jesus at the Last Supper,

what are called the words of institution, that

the bread has been changed into the body of Christ,

and that the cup of wine has been changed into

his blood. That's the first thing that we profess

before we receive communion. that this is really

the body and blood of Christ that we receive

in communion. The other thing, we profess that

Jesus came into the world to save sinners of

whom I am the first. I imagine that many of you

are tempted, like I am, to think in the back

of my mind, you know, I'm really not such a bad

person after all. Sure, I commit sins, but they're

only, what do you want to say, small sins? Well,

every sin is an offense against God. In a way,

to have that kind of thought, which we're tempted,

you know, at times, is sort of a milder version

of the prayer of the Pharisee. Lord, I'm not

so bad after all. I pay tithes, I fast, and I'm

not like this no good Nick over here, this publican,

this sinner. So regardless of the kinds of sins

or the frequency of our sins, we affirm that

in God's eyes and in our own eyes, we call ourselves,

we admit our sinfulness, and we say that we are

the greatest of the sinners. The third affirmation

of faith is the first one, and sometimes we glide

by that in our attention, that thou art truly

the Christ, the Son of the living God, who came

into the world. The belief that Jesus Christ

is the Son of God who came into the world. Now

this faith in who Jesus Christ is, is at the

very foundation of our belief in icons. This,

of course, was when Jesus recalled, when he asked

his disciples, whom do men say that I am? Oh,

some John the Baptist, some Elijah, or one of

the prophets. And he said, whom do you say? that

I am. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living

God. And Peter speaking on behalf of his fellow

disciples, and Jesus then congratulates him,

so to speak, on his profession of faith. Flesh

and blood have not revealed this to you, but

my Father who is in heaven. the affirmation of

who Jesus Christ is. For years and years, when

I hear Christmas carols, just same traditional

Christmas carols like you hear, they're beautiful.

There is a certain amount of legitimate sentimentality

and certainly nostalgia in our Christmas carols.

But listen to the words. All of the traditional

Christmas carols, to my recollection at this

moment, all of them say that they believe that

this boy that is born of Virgin Mary is the son

of God, veiled in flesh the incarnate deity.

This is who Jesus is. The Christmas carols are

also... an affirmation of faith that this baby

born in Bethlehem is the Son of God who came

into the world to save sinners of whom I am first.

Now the iconoclastic controversy. In the history

of the early church, I would say the two most

intense and prolonged controversies Number one,

the Arian controversy, which is exactly what

we've just been talking about, that who is Jesus

Christ? And it took the church several hundred

years to come to a complete resolution of that

and to condemn all other opinions. Still in all,

after 1 ,700 years, There are many people, some

Christians included, who think that Jesus is

a great man, was a great man, a wonderful moral

teacher. But to say, just as Christmas carols

say, that he is the incarnate son of God is what

some people find hard to affirm. Now the iconoclastic

controversy. As I said, for us Eastern Christians,

so to speak, or Orthodox, this controversy was

much more intense in the Eastern part of the

Christian world than it was in the Western part.

So that, a lot of times, is not in the forefront

of the thinking of Western Christians, our fellow

Christians in the West. But we believe... in

the icons, the controversy over whether or not,

number one, whether or not you should have icons,

and then number two, can you venerate them, kiss

them, show your respect and homage to this material

thing? But then, of course, the fathers and the

councils have affirmed that an icon is an affirmation

of the reality of the incarnation, that Jesus

Christ, that God, in Jesus Christ, when he became

a human being, he accepted the ability to be

described, to use the technical term, that you

could draw a picture of God, now God who became

flesh. So I would say during the 7th century,

this controversy started to simmer in the East.

And then at the last of the ecumenical councils,

the 7th, in 787, they affirmed, the council fathers

affirmed, that yes, you can. You not only can,

but it's appropriate to show our respect to the

person. represented in that icon, or the person

represented on the cross that we venerate. But

that wasn't the end of the story. It wasn't until

this teaching of the Council was accepted in

843, half a century later, that the feast that

we celebrate today, the triumph of Orthodoxy,

that this was, you know, widely accepted, and

so to speak, this heresy was put to rest. But

it's interesting to note that the story doesn't

end there because people who were reluctant to

venerate icons They were called iconoclasts,

as opposed to iconodules, the people who showed

reverence to the icons. That the church was confronted

with the question, okay, these folks that didn't

accept the veneration of icons, now they want

to become formal, official members of the church.

What do we do with them? And the answer was,

They have to go to confession, so to speak, and

make a profession of faith, which of course was

very logical. That's how all heretics were reconciled.

But we know that one of the simmering issues

was, what do you do, especially with clergy,

who were, as leaders of a Christian community,

the ones who... did not accept the veneration

of icons. Sure, you can be lenient and easygoing

with the lay people, but what about the clergy?

The bishops, few bishops and the priests that

were opposed to the veneration of icons. When

they come back in, what do we do with them? Two

groups emerged. One were the, well, I'll call

them in modern day terms, the hawks and the doves,

the intransigent ones that maintain that you

can receive them back into the church, but they

cannot exercise their ministry as deacons or

priests. This hardline position was one that

Patriarch Ignatius at that time had. So these

are two ways of... What are you going to do with

them? They weren't heretics. It wasn't a heretical

thing, but what do you do practically with these

folks? Patriarch Ignatius, who was a monk, by

the way, and monks normally have hard -line positions

on matters, too. They don't like to compromise

or appear to be compromising in anything. And

then the more lenient ones, represented by Photius,

who eventually did this political controversy,

because it had political as well as religious

controversies. In this storm, in about the year

850 and 860, Patriarch was finally settled upon

to replace Ignatius. And Photius wasn't a monk.

He was a member of the diplomatic corps. He was

a diplomat, so you would expect him to have a

more easy opinion on this matter. Let them come

in like everyone else, make their profession

of faith, and they could resume their ministry

as priests and deacons. So this controversy,

again, as I said, these two councils, 869 and

879, The fact that this matter was discussed

shows us that the victory of the iconodules,

the worshippers of icons, was not completely

put to rest in 843. The lingering embers had

to die out, so to speak. So the great heritage

we have as Orthodox Christians is... I would

say, based on what I just said in the last few

minutes, twofold. That we believe who Jesus,

we affirm this at the creed, same thing. That

Jesus is the son of God who came into the world,

light of light, true God of true God. We affirm

our faith in the reality of the incarnation,

who Jesus Christ is. And number two, we as Orthodox,

of course, are very familiar with icons. We venerate

them. So that's become part of the Orthodox ethos,

the Orthodox mentality, the Orthodox soul, so

to speak. So we have today, by God's grace, two

wonderful gifts. that God has given to us and

to his church. The belief in who Jesus is and

the belief and the affirmation that we can describe

him. We can draw pictures of him and show our

respect to him each and every time we venerate

his icon and we show respect to the angels and

saints. when we cross ourselves and venerate

their icons. So today is not only a feast of

the triumph of orthodoxy, but I would say it's

also a feast of thanksgiving. Thank you, Lord,

unworthy as we are, that you have revealed these

truths to us. May we always hold them dear and...

at the very center of our life. Amen.