Church Consecration Anniversary

There's so much that we could meditate upon today.

The lives of these deacons that we commemorate

today, Parmenas and the others. The gospel, which

is important. That particular gospel is given

to us twice in a year, sometimes three times.

The life of the saints, the other saints today,

for example. But today is the anniversary. of

an important event in the life of our parish.

Foundational, I would say. Profound and deeply,

deeply meaningful for every one of us, whether

you know it or not. And that is, maybe you saw

coming in, I put the proclamation of the consecration

of the church there at the front door. It's a

little frame signed by ever memorable, Bishop

Tikkun, who died maybe, what was it, two years

ago. So today's the anniversary of the consecration

of this church. I won't ask for a show of hands,

but some of you were there that day. It was,

what, 20, it was 2001. We were a lot younger,

all of us. Matiszka last, but in fact, she prepared

the reception, the banquet for us. We had a huge

tent in the whole front of the parking lot, like

we did on the 75th anniversary. And she had only

been a parishioner at the Baptist, what, two

years earlier. She gave it her all. It was a

wonderful and beautiful celebration from beginning

to end. And it was very long. I'll tell you,

I'll just give you a brief overview. It was five

and a half hours long. The night before, we gathered

for vespers. There was a temporary altar table

set up here. And on it were put, if I recall,

the relics of St. Elizabeth, the new martyr,

the nun Barbara, her cell attendant, and the

Hierodican Anastasia of Kiev. I still don't know

anything about him. And we served. what I would

say was a brief vespers right here. And then

we had a dinner in the hall. And then the then

chancellor of the OCA was here, along with the

archdeacon from Washington. And the chancellor

said to his grace, Bishop Deacon, your grace,

when you go back to your hotel room, he said

this with a smile, ask the Lord, to put it on

your heart. It's not the way we stalk in the

Orthodox Church. Ask the Lord to put it on your

heart that we could use multiple chalices at

the liturgy tomorrow. And the bishop smiled.

Our choir director, Nicholas, was his choir director

for some time, and so he knows. Bishop Ticon's

rule was one chalice. For many reasons, you come

to that priest, You maybe don't like to come

to that priest, so you pick another priest. He

said, that's not right. It's the body and blood

of Christ. It's the hand of Christ giving it

to you. It doesn't matter. Besides, it's one

cup and one bread. So it was five and a half

hours because communion was over an hour long.

There being 16 priests that day and maybe 300

faithful were here. So we began the service.

The priests gathered in. the protection church

to be vested. And then we met the bishop there.

We escorted him here. We did the vesting, as

you know how that works. You've seen it many

times. And then the bishop came into the altar

with the other priests and we proceeded with

the rite, the ceremony of consecration. For that,

the priest put on this... sort of a white apron

to protect themselves from what's going to happen.

This altar table, which had been constructed

by Serge Anderson, did not have a top on it.

It was lying over here in the corner. And it

was just the frame of an altar. And in the middle,

at the bottom, there's a box with a little cross

on the top, with the top that comes on and off.

And during that ceremony, The priest took the

top, we put it on, we used pegs, wooden pegs

rather than nails, and wax was poured into the

holes. This is why you have to wear an apron,

because you get those river stones, which we

had, and we start pounding those pegs into the

holes. Wax is splattering on everyone. which

is, I guess, the way it's meant to be. You know,

in the Orthodox Church, we don't do things all

neat and tidy, do we? There's wax, there's oil,

there's sand, there's wine after communion, there's

breadcrumbs. It all takes attention, and that's

part of what we're doing here. And then the top

of the table was washed with holy water and wine,

and then it was chrismated. It was chrismated.

So, what comes after that? We dressed it. We

dressed it in a white robe. It's under this.

Under this green. And the white robe is wrapped

around with this robe. And at that point, we

came in to the nave. and we chrismated and washed

with holy water every spot in the church. Those

marks of the holy chrism are covered now, obviously,

with the frescoes. So like a person being baptized,

they're washed, they're clothed, they're chrismated.

And then we went to the little church where the

relics of St. Elizabeth and the others were waiting

on the altar. We got them. We did a procession

around this church. We walked in. Only after,

at the front door, we did these verses, which

sometimes you hear at Pascha, not really in our

tradition. Lift up your gates, O ye princes.

Be ye lifted up, ye everlasting gates, and the

King of glory will enter in. And the choir is

inside the church. There's a curtain on the front

door. They sing, Who is the King of glory? The

Lord of hosts, he is the king of glory. And then

we enter into the church in great solemnity and

singing and rejoicing. You know, I was at a consecration

two weeks ago on the island of Mull at the monastery

of St. Ninian. And actually, that had been my

seventh consecration, which is an incredible

blessing. You hear, oh, it's a once -in -a -lifetime

experience. It is. Each one is that once -in

-a -lifetime experience, even if you've gone

to ten. And the relics are brought in to the

altar. And then, awkwardly and strangely, and

probably it's meant to be that way, one of the

priests has to get down on his back and lift

up the white cover and reach in. and put in the

holy relics into that box in the middle to the

altar that's already been dressed. You hear this

prayer. Listen. O Master, Lord, our God, the

hope of all the ends of the earth, hear us sinners

who make our supplications unto thee. Send down

thine all -holy, adorable, and almighty Spirit

and sanctify this temple and this altar. Fill

it with the light everlasting. Elect it for thy

dwelling place. Make it the abode of thy glory.

Adorn it with thy divine and supernal gifts.

Appoint it for a haven of the tempest house,

for a healing of passions, for a refuge of the

weak, for an expelling of evil spirits. Let thine

eyes be open upon it day and night. Let thine

ears be heedful of the prayer of those who shall

enter herein. in thy fear and devoutness, and

shall call upon thine all -honorable and adorable

name, that whatsoever they shall ask of thee

in thy name, thou wilt hear it in the heaven

above, and wilt show mercy and be gracious unto

them, and preserve it indestructible even to

the end of the ages. That last part's left up

to us. I tell you about this consecration because

it's exactly what happens to us, but in a different

form. When we are baptized, we become catechumens.

We renounce the devil and all his angels, all

his works, all his service, and all his pride.

We spit on the devil. We turn our back on him

without fear because we know we're going to say

those... essential words without which we should

be very fearful. I unite myself to Christ. And

even so, the Lord lets us deal with spiritual

warfare because we are his representatives. We

are the continuation of the incarnation. We are

those disciples of the apostles and the apostles

heard, and you didn't hear it today, but a little

later in the gospel, the Lord appoints them to

go out to preach the good news, to heal the sick,

and to cast out demons. We're their disciples.

The church does that. When we're baptized, what

happens to us is what happened here on that day.

Now, I was in Scotland, and I was talking, actually

it was last night, but to somebody about this.

But when I was there, one of the priests told

me, oh, there's many, many churches, old Anglican,

beautiful Anglican churches, hundreds of years

old, some of them, that have fallen into disrepair

or that are now apartments or nightclubs or restaurants

or shops. How does that happen? Think about it.

The church is the place where the divine sacrifice

of the Eucharist takes place, where the thanksgiving

prayers, where we offer the bread and wine, and

we ask the Lord, our Father in heaven, to send

down his Holy Spirit and change this bread and

to change this wine into the body and blood of

his precious Son. by whose blood we are saved.

The Eucharistic sacrifice, this great service

of thanksgiving, takes place on this altar. That's

one thing, one of many, the main thing that makes

it a church. It's also the one thing which makes

you a Christian, that you receive that body and

blood, and you become a church also. All this...

Archbishop Benjamin said at that consecration

in Scotland, all this beauty, all the joy of

the singing, all the hymns are to be a reflection

of the soul and the heart of the human being

who has been sanctified and consecrated in baptism

and chrismation to our Lord and God and Savior.

You become the church too. If we don't continually

renew that connection with the Eucharist within

our own soul, then it begins to fall into disrepair.

If we don't allow repentance and contrition to

flow into us as a gift of God, like when we come

to confession, then our soul begins to become

distant and fragmented and lose its savor. of

holiness that St. Paul speaks about. If we don't

take care of the grounds here, the weeds will

take over, just like in the parable of the seed.

Oh, the man receives a seed and he's joyful,

but very soon the cares of this world and the

troubles of this world, legitimate cares, mind

you, but things have got put first rather than

in their proper place. they start to squeeze

and the weeds and the thorns take over. And there's

no spiritual life left anymore. If we don't clean

the inside of our church, fill the lamps, take

care of the candles, wash the walls every now

and then, they get smoky, and pray in here continually,

then our church, it will be the same as those...

500 -year beautiful Anglican churches that are

empty or not just empty, but are filled with

things that don't belong in church. The Soviets

tried this, of course, but, you know, lacking

any sense of fun or entertainment, they just

made them into garages and storehouses. We have

to be careful, brothers and sisters, that we

care not just for the physical here. But think

about your commitment to the Lord. Is there a

liturgy going on in your heart and soul? This

is a choice we can make. Without God, people

say, life is easier. Because God brings into

our life something that must inevitably change.

Sometimes you hear that change from your spouse,

sometimes from your friend, sometimes from your

priest, sometimes in your heart and your conscience

you know it, sometimes from the lives of the

saints. But once we accept God in our life, once

we become dedicated and consecrated to him, and

we become churches and adorned in the inside

with the icons and the prayers and the beauty

and the gift of the Holy Spirit in the heart.

then we have a responsibility to care for that

more than any other responsibility we have. I'll

close with this thought, which is a strange thought

from the gospel today. They saw an amazing miracle,

the Lord's power over sin and evil and darkness.

And God came to this man. He didn't call out

to God. God came to save him. You know, when

we say we're saved, we're being saved, we have

been saved, it's as radical a thing as that.

Maybe not so dramatic. But we have life where

we did not have it. But the people there gave

no thanks to God. Jesus says to the man, go tell

everyone the great things God has done for you.

But the people there... wanted Christ to leave.

We have a choice. Let your heart, your soul,

your body be the continual dwelling place of

the Holy Spirit, the joy and the worship of the

liturgy, even as you leave today. Care for it

better than we care for this place. Because now

you're responsible. You've been given a great

gift. Don't let it fall into disrepair and disuse.

Don't let the liturgy and the Eucharist ever

be absent from this church, neither from your

heart and soul either. The Lord gives us such

a tremendous gift. We give thanks to him on this

day of the anniversary of our church. May the

Lord continue to bless us. Amen.