St Seraphim Day 2023 Fr. Nicholas Carr

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

of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ.

Glory to God. I love riddles. Riddles are puzzles

with words. They challenge us to think outside

the box. I think the first time I realized how

much I enjoyed riddles was reading The Hobbit.

by J .R .R. Tolkien, where Bilbo Baggins enters

into a contest of riddles with Gollum. And Bilbo,

of course, Bilbo wins the contest and escapes

Gollum's wrath and takes with him the One Ring.

Well, in today's daily Gospel reading, there

are two riddles presented. One is given to Jesus

by the Sadducees, and the second is given by

Jesus back to them. And let us explore these

two riddles and their answers. The first riddle

is presented to Jesus by the Sadducees, who were

a class of Jewish priests who claimed there was

no resurrection from the dead. The Pharisees

believed in the resurrection of the dead, and

thus the Sadducees and the Pharisees quite frequently

debated and argued over this issue. So the Sadducees

approached Jesus with this main intention to

demonstrate how ridiculous it was to believe

in the resurrection. And so they asked Jesus

this question. They gave him this riddle. Teacher,

Moses wrote to us that if a man's brother dies

having a wife and he dies without children, his

brother should take his wife and raise up offspring

for his brother. Now there were seven brothers

and the first took a wife and died without children.

And the second took her as wife and he died childless.

Then the third took her and in like manner, The

seven also, and they left no children and died.

And last of all, the woman died also. And here

is their riddle. Therefore, in the resurrection,

whose wife does she become? For all seven had

her as wife. And at this point, can't you see

the smiles, the little snickers? We've got him

trapped. This prophet can't answer this question,

and we will demonstrate that there is no resurrection

very clearly. He will have to admit that it's

ridiculous to have seven husbands. Can you sense

their smugness? Can you see their little smiles?

Then Jesus answers with these words. The sons

of this age marry and are given in marriage,

but those who are counted worthy to attain that

age and the resurrection from the dead neither

marry nor are given in marriage, nor can they

die anymore, for they are equal to the angels

and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.

I can see their jaws dropping. Their smiles disappearing

as the Sadducees realize their plan has totally

failed and that Jesus instead has given proof

for the resurrection. He has established it as

fact. And then Jesus gives them a riddle as well.

He asks them, how can they say that the Christ

is the son of David? Now David himself said in

the book of Psalms, the Lord said to my Lord,

sit at my right hand till I make your enemies

your footstool. Therefore, David calls him Lord.

How is he then his son? And of course, they could

not answer. They did not have eyes to see. But

God has given us the answer, the church, the

answer to this riddle. the Christ, the Messiah,

have been Lord to David when he was alive, and

yet also have been born as a son of David? And

the answer has been given to us and revealed

to us from God. Because the Messiah is fully

human and fully divine, Jesus is David's son

in his Yet David calls him Lord in his eternal

deity. Today we honor the venerable seraphim,

wonder worker of Sarov, who after living ascetically

in solitude for many years, was given a vision

of the mother of God and two saints. of that

day being commemorated the holy high martyr clement

of rome and saint peter archbishop of alexandria

and the mother of god told him to end his seclusion

and devote himself to others so saint seraphim

did that and he blessed countless others with

the wisdom that god had imparted unto him And

no matter what time of year it was, St. Seraphim

would greet everyone with the words, Christ is

risen, my joy. The resurrection was first in

his mind. He knew the answer to that riddle.

He knew the answer to many riddles because of

God's revelation to him. Because St. Seraphim

knew the answer to both of the riddles from today's

gospel, he is a great example for all of us.

Perhaps you are struggling with one or several

of the riddles of life. Perhaps there's some

struggle that you're going through now. Well,

just as St. Seraphim went to the Lord, so we

need to. All the answers can be found in our

Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ. There

is no riddle that he does not know the answer

to. So let us follow the example of St. Seraphim,

drawing close to God, looking to him for all

the answers. Glory to Jesus Christ.