Sunday after Exaltation

Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to God. In the name

of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy

Spirit. Amen. It was not a quiet week here this

last week. Our parish was honored, and it was

very moving to host the funeral services for

Machka Priscilla. Shipley, she's the wife of

Father Ian. They were both here with their family

some years ago as parishioners before they went

to seminary. Now Father Ian is the rector of

St. Carol Methodius in Chico, a very, very fine

mission parish. We had 12 priests and our Archbishop

Benjamin, lovely choir from Chico. Much grieving,

but much joy, much peace. Priscilla had suffered

greatly, greatly for many, many years. And then,

of course, we celebrated the vigil for the elevation

of the cross, the exaltation of the precious

cross. It was brought out in solemn procession

during the singing of Holy God. You heard the

hymns already. We sang those. And then the next

day, of course. was the last time to visit our

dear friend, our brother in Christ, the awesome

church reader and singer, Tom, Reader Stephen.

And on Friday, the day of the feast of the translation,

the uncovering of the relics of the Holy Protomarty

Archdeacon Stephen, this is icon of St. Stephen,

he reposed peacefully. So much going on this

week. And it was blessed. It was full of grace.

We need consolation during these times. I mean,

when you pick up the... Well, who picks up a

newspaper? When you look at the Internet news,

you see horrible tragedies all across the world.

Violence, killing, natural disasters. Criminal

negligence. We need... We need encouragement.

I'd submit to you that the four readings you

heard today, if you heard nothing else about

the Christian life, those four would be sufficient.

Consolation and suffering. Knowing that Christ

loves us and died for us and that we have him

within us. Knowing that we have to love our...

Lord and God and Savior with all our heart, all

our soul, all our mind, all our strength. Think

what that means. Very few of us can do that.

But that is the first and the greatest commandment.

To put God before all things to serve him. And,

Jesus says, see this is the lawyers who are trying

to trip Jesus up. To get him to say something.

He didn't take the bait. your neighbor, the other

person, because he is where you're going to find

yourself. That's what that means, to love your

neighbor as yourself. In your neighbor, you will

find yourself. Your neighbor, as St. Anthony

the Great of the Desert said, is your salvation.

And of course, we heard what it means to follow

the Lord, to take up a cross. All this is for

our consolation. The cross is in the middle of

the church. The word of God is given us to be

in the middle of our heart. It's placed there

through prayer and struggle so our hearts change.

All this is given, I say again, providentially

as an encouragement to those who are grieving,

which is all of us. Those who are troubled and

vexed about life, which is all of us. Those who

are suffering or sick, which is all of us at

one time or another. Buffeted by the world or

confused or broken. Isn't that true for most

of us at some point? And for many, all the time?

When we read the scriptures, we receive encouragement

and consolation. Maybe some of us don't know

that, and we need to work on our scripture reading

a little bit more to be more faithful to what

we're given. St. Paul says this, whatever things

were written, and he's not talking about the

New Testament, because it wasn't written and

passed around yet. Whatever things were written

before were written for our learning, that through

the patience and comfort, see, patience and comfort

of the scriptures, we might have hope. I know

that for many of you, again, you don't give the

scriptures enough time or consideration in your

life so that you don't have the comfort and the

patience promised that you could acquire. Let's

work on that together as we go through this year,

this liturgical year. Discipleship, as you heard

in the first reading, whoever wants to come after

me, the Lord's inviting us to be with him, to

be his disciple. Discipleship is the way of the

cross, he says. That's denying ourselves, following

Christ, not following ourselves. How do we pick

up our cross? What does that mean? Well, it doesn't

mean little acts of charity. It doesn't mean

those so -called small crosses, situations that

we bear that are difficult in our life, relatives

or friends or something else. That's not what

this cross business is about. St. Peter objected

to the cross not because Christ wanted him to

do some charitable work. or to be kind to his

mother -in -law. St. Peter objected to the cross

because he knew what it meant. The cross for

us is the stretching out of our arms in self

-sacrifice for other people. The cross is giving

our entire life, our strength, our mind, Our

soul, as Jesus says, loving with all of that

without reservation. That's why St. Peter said,

Lord, this won't work. People are not going to

follow you if that's what you expect. And Jesus

said what? Get behind me, Satan. You're thinking

of the ways of man, not of the ways of God. Because

there's no other way for us to be refashioned

and saved. From death and sin. Except to follow

the Lord. So we can crush that sin. The stone.

As the Lord says. In another place. We'll crush

it. And we will be refashioned. But when we follow

the Lord. This is what Saint Innocent of Alaska

wrote. In his book. To the Alaskan natives. Okay,

we consider ourselves educated people. But brothers

and sisters, in the way of the heart, we're not.

In the way of technology, yes, oh, we're so educated.

But the way of the heart. So these are asking

people to understand what he wrote quite clearly.

We kind of struggle with what he said. It's simple.

Listen, he says, as we come closer to God, much

of what seemed difficult or bitter, the crosses

are stretching out of our arms to embrace our

neighbor. Self -sacrifice, much of what seemed

bitter or difficult before will become easy and

sweet. And what seemed to please us before will

come to seem boring and harmful. Of course, there

will be trying periods in our life when the path

of ascension towards God, how beautiful, ascension

towards God will seem exceptionally difficult.

Then we should think, that for every step taken,

there are a thousand rewards being prepared.

This is the narrow path that leads to heaven,

he says. St. Paul concurs. You heard it in the

epistle. He says that we are troubled on every

side. We're distressed. We're perplexed, but

not in despair. Persecuted. but not forsaken,

cast down, but not destroyed, always bearing

about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,

that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest

in our body. This is the state of things for

us as well, isn't it? It's all true. It's sad.

It's tragic. This is the state of things, this

path. This path with Christ has many difficulties,

but it's full of joy. Because the peace of God

that passes understanding will be given to us.

By the way, remember that when Christ was on

Golgotha, on the cross, there were two thieves.

We can choose to be like the thief, the so -called

wise thief, or as many of the church fathers

call him, the grateful thief. Thanking the Lord,

understanding his position. We can be like the

other thief who reviled Christ, hated him, continually

questioned God, turned his back. Let's be like

the wise thief. That means we can kind of forget

the idea that our Lord and God and Savior is

going to come to us in a very pleasant and wonderful

and easy way. that will require little or no

change on our part. See, this is the part that's

hard. This is the cross part, the change on our

part. We probably just give up approaching the

Lord since it doesn't happen that he comes to

us in the easy moments. God is more likely to

enter our lives through a crisis. Through all

these things that we're enduring through the

last few weeks. Through serious illness or loss

or failure. Why? Because these, the cross is

the sign of that. These are the things of God's

presence. These tell us Jesus is with us. He

comes to us in the eye of the storm. Through

the cross. For many of us, afflictions and troubles,

thunder alone can tear us away from our isolated

individualism and transform us into real servants

of God, to love our neighbor as ourself. We know

that it's possible because the man that used

to stand right there every Sunday and Saturday

night and every feast day, that's what he did.

We know it's possible because the priest that

used to stand here, who was a priest for 65 years,

did the same thing. We don't need any more examples.

We just need to do and to follow. And then, when

these things happen to us, these difficult moments,

When we're called to repentance, that is to turn

to Christ, not to feel guilty, no. Repentance

brings us joy. Then what happens? The Holy Father

says, say this, we begin to long for God as he

longs for us. We begin to love God as he loves

us. And then there's the consolation. One of

the elders says, all that pain and difficulty

that we experience, what we're really experiencing,

says Elder Milianos, is the pain of Christ on

the cross pursuing us. In my affliction, I cried

unto the Lord, says the psalmist, and the Lord

heard me. Believe me, brothers and sisters, God

will not forsake us. We have the light of Christ

shining in our hearts. St. Paul claims this today.

We have this treasure in earthly vessels, our

bodies. That the excellency of the power may

be of God, not of us. That means that we have

the promise of the resurrection within us now.

This is the way we live. His eternal life within

us. Here, especially when we partake of the Eucharist,

in our bodies, which will be transformed. And

the life... Then, which I live in the flesh,

in my body, I live by faith in the Son of God,

who loved me and gave himself for me. That's

encouragement. That's consolation. That's peace

in the heart. That's comfort in the Holy Scriptures.

The Abba Philemon said to one of his disciples,

the person engaged in spiritual struggle, That's

why we're here. Who has grown close to God, who

partakes of the holy light, and is wounded by

his longing for that light and presence, delights

in the Lord with inconceivable spiritual joy.

To our Lord be glory now and ever, to ages of

ages. Amen.