Sunday after Theophany 2024

In the name of the Father and of the Son and

of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Don't be frightened

by my three books. I promise I'm not going to

give a class. I just need a little bit of reminder

sometimes of what things say. So have no fear.

If you've been on a wonderful trip, a journey,

you want to relive some of those moments to talk

about them, to bring to your mind what was so

wonderful and enjoyable about that trip. Well,

let me do that a little bit for where we've been.

Today's the 13th day after Christmas. Yesterday

was the 12th day, just like in this song, the

12 days of Christmas. It's a very Christian understanding.

It's a festal period which goes on for 12 days.

Actually, It's just leaking out and continuing

as we go. So today is very festive as well. We

did a vigil for Christmas. Actually, we had days

of preparation, pre -feast days, which we had

matins in the morning and vespers in the evening.

As I said to the congregation yesterday at the

end of the service, please come back for vespers

yesterday. In the Orthodox Church, we have at

least two services a day. Not that we always

do them, but we have them. We're preparing for

this great celebration of what happened there

in Bethlehem, what led to it, and what happens

in the Bethlehem of our heart, how we meet the

Savior of the world. That God is with us. We

don't sing, God is with us, understand all ye

nations, and submit yourself in a triumphalistic,

worldly way. We sing that because God has become

man and he is with us. He's with us today. Where

two or three are gathered, where a multitude

have come together, not just informally, not

just casually, but as those who live according

to his name. You carry his name. That means when

you come together, you are united in Christ and

he is there in the midst. God is with us. That's

why we sing this. And we celebrated and we sang

and we sang Christmas carols and we had wonderful

food. I hope you had all that. And then... Some

days went by, and we came to New Year's Eve,

and we had Vespers for St. Basil and the Feast

of the Circumcision of Christ. Well, remember

that his parents took him, Jesus, in accordance

to the law of Moses, to what was given to Abraham,

to be a sign of the covenant that he himself

humbled himself to be, because he is one of us.

God is so humble. You know, he pretty much will

take anything we can give him. You don't feel

like praying in the evening? Do one bow, say

the Lord's Prayer. God is humble, and he receives

that because he loves you. And then you feel,

maybe I can do a little bit more. And God's Spirit

then is activated in your heart, and you begin

to pray a little bit more. But it all starts

with humility. His humility. His whole life was

one of humility. And the shedding of blood from

the beginning to the very end. And I'm coming

back to that point in a moment. And we celebrated

the faithful and good and amazing servant, the

Bishop of Caesarea Basil. You can see right there

in the altar, Basil the Great. There's not many

saints we call the great. He was only a bishop

for nine years, and in that time established

hospitals, orphanages, schools, miracles in abundance.

And then we celebrated New Year's Day. We had

a liturgy here, which was wonderful. And in the

evening, we gathered again. Yes, it was tiring

physically. It was tiring. Who comes back on

New Year's Day? There's bowl games on. But we

came back to sing the Vespers, just brief, it

was about 40 minutes, of our venerable Father

Seraphim, wonder worker of sorrow. That's the

January 2nd is the day of his repose. So of course

we're going to gather because that's the day

he entered in to what you can call The council

of the saints. God is glorified in his wondrous

ones. That he is with the Lord. Interceding for

us. And this parish is named after him. So you

carry a bit of St. Seraphim. Wherever you go.

Because you are a member of the parish of St.

Seraphim. And he prays for you. Each one of you.

Individually. I can say that boldly. And then.

The next morning, we were expecting our archbishop

to come, but he was ill. But many priests came,

and we celebrated his feast day. This means when

we celebrate a divine liturgy in honor of a saint

or any feast day, that means we are lifted up

to be with them at the throne of God, at his

divine banquet table, to feast with the saint.

We're with them. It's not... Some ethereal thing.

It's very practical because we eat and drink.

That's food. Spiritual food from heaven. And

then a couple days went by and we celebrated

the Feast of Theophany. You see this magnificent

fresco and the icon is still in the middle of

the church because we are just the day after

Theophany. And it was as if we gathered at the

shore of the Jordan River. We had gallons and

gallons of water. And we prayed that the Holy

Spirit would come and change that water to be

the water, the true water of life, the water

of the Garden of Paradise, where we were standing

with Adam and Eve. And creation is being renewed,

starting with that most basic thing, water. Isn't

that an amazing thing that your church gives

us? I'm saying all this, and I'm recounting all

this, not to make anybody feel bad because you

missed some of this, but to tell you and to remind

you about the riches of the church, the riches

of liturgical life, and to also inoculate you

a little bit. I read an article last week. It

was by a young man who had gone to Yale Divinity

School for one semester. And he said, the one

semester at Yale Divinity cured me of my Christianity.

And he goes on to explain what kind of Christianity

he kind of had and what they were teaching him.

It was a Christianity in which he was being taught

at Yale that the verse, God so loved the world

that he gave his only begotten son is simply

child abuse. That you would give your son to

be brutally treated by godless and wicked people,

the Romans, to be crucified? What kind of father

would do that to his son? And then it goes on

and on and on, of course, because there's imperialism

and all that stuff wrapped up in that. But that's

not... the faith we have. Listen to one of the

prayers from yesterday. Let this inoculate you.

Let's see. O Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten

Son, who art in the bosom of the Father, true

God, the fountain of life and immortality, light

of light, who came as to the world to enlighten

it. Are we enlightened? Illumine our mind with

the Holy Spirit. Receive us who offer thee magnification.

For thou hast clothed thyself, O Lord, in our

weak and poor nature, and hast condescended to

the stature of a servant, thou who art king of

all, and yet to stand to be baptized in the Jordan

at the hands of a servant, having sanctified

the nature of water. O sinless one, Thou mightest

lead us into a new birth through water and the

Spirit and restore us again to true and first

freedom. God is not an angry God dangling us

over a pit. If we don't confess his name, he

will just destroy us. That's the God that this

kid believed. That's the God that they were teaching.

We don't believe him. But then they would strip

away everything, all the miracles, the resurrection,

the baptism, the dove, the hand of John, the

angels, the shepherds, the wise men, the healings,

all that gone. What are they left with? Jesus

of Nazareth, they say, with the Beatitudes. But

the problem there is, The Beatitudes, you can't

acquire any of those things. Peace, meekness,

truth, humility, being persecuted without the

gift of the Spirit. You can't have a spiritual

life without the Holy Spirit. And today, today

we celebrate this incredible forerunner in Baptist

John. who gives us a clue about what might not

seem obvious. This is what the Synoxarian says.

The church honors the forerunner and the Baptist,

extolling him as the greatest of prophets, most

noble of those born of women, voice of the word,

herald of grace, swallow, presaging the spiritual

spring. torch and beacon of the divine light,

spiritual dawn announcing the sun of righteousness,

and terrestrial angel and heavenly man stationed

at the border of heaven and earth, uniting the

Old and New Testaments sent by God as a voice

in the wilderness in order to announce and to

prepare for the coming of Christ. You've heard

this from Isaiah, and St. John quotes it. Prepare

the way of the Lord. Make straight the paths

of our God. Every valley shall be filled. Every

mountain and hill humbled. The crooked ways shall

be made straight. And the rough places, plains.

And this is what St. John brings to us through

Christ. This is what it means when he says, repent

for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. This is

what it means when Jesus says, repent for the

kingdom of heaven is at hand. It doesn't mean

you should be miserable and not have any fun.

That's what people think. The society is very

Calvinistic and Puritan. Repent has a very negative

tone, but this is what repent means. The glory

of the Lord shall be revealed. And all flesh

shall see the salvation of God. The Lord has

spoken. This leads us, brothers and sisters,

directly to what St. Paul says to do. The Holy

Spirit has been given to us. You've been baptized

by water and the Spirit. You've been immersed

in the Holy Spirit. Immersed in him. So that

you bear him. For what? For yourself? No. Not

for yourself. Some to be apostles. Some to be

prophets. We have prophets. Some evangelists.

Some pastors. Some teachers. For what reason?

For the equipping of the saints. For the work

of ministry. For the edifying and the building

up. of the body of Christ, till we all come to

the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the

Son of God, to the perfect man, to the measure

of the stature of the fullness of Christ. We're

being called to be like Christ, his representatives

in this world. You have been given the gift of

the Holy Spirit. Live according to it. Build

up the body of the church. Don't just come to

church. Be the church. Live the church. Do everything

you can to adorn the church with your virtues,

your life, your work, your blood, your sweat,

because the glory of the Lord will be revealed

to all. Beg God that you may dwell in that glory.

To him be glory, now and ever, to ages of ages.