Fourth Sunday of Great Lent 2023

We have a lot to take in today. As you heard

in the hymns, we're celebrating the Feast Day

of Annunciation. I'll give a reward to anybody

who can point out the Annunciation right behind

me. That's right. The Anon. Also in the Holy

Doors, it tells us that heaven and earth come

together in the Theotokos, but most perfectly

in Jesus Christ, who we will take into ourselves

later during this very liturgy. And we will become

Christ -bearers too. Heaven and earth are joined

together forever now. The invisible and the visible

are joined. That which is spiritual is joined

to the material. So we rejoice. We know how to

celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, special occasions.

But we don't live in a culture that celebrates

religious holidays. Hasn't happened. It's been

a long time. All we have now is Mardi Gras, you

know, and that's vulgarity probably mostly. So

we have to make sure that we're going to celebrate

a feast day to imbibe in the joy the reality

of what's happened for our salvation. We have

to plan it out so our home becomes that place

of celebration. We gather other people together.

We have a special meal here, which we do every

Sunday. Why? Because every Sunday is like a little

Pascha, and we have fellowship. But we have to

be intentional. Otherwise, these feast days will

come and go, and there's no impact on our soul.

But if you listen to the hymns that we sing at

the vigil and liturgy, this is like the most

important thing that ever happened. But we need

to approach it with that kind of intentional

seriousness. So we're celebrating an Annunciation.

March 25th is how many months before December

25th? It's nine months. Yes, that's because the

feast day is the conception within her of the

Word of God. No Christmas without what we celebrated

yesterday and we continue to celebrate today.

I said there's a lot to take in. That's true.

We also remember this day, commemorate that which

the Archangel Gabriel did throughout the Old

Testament, but that culmination of coming to

the Theotokos, the Virgin, and there he is. And

you see his wings, they're all in motion. I remember

in the book club that we're reading, this space

trilogy by C .S. Lewis, I think it's in Paralandra,

and it speaks of angels, and when they come to

a certain place, they're not standing still like

us. No, because the earth is spinning at what?

Is it 18 ,000 miles an hour? Something like that?

The angel is in movement to stay with the spin

of the earth. So the angels all... Fire, all

messenger, all movement to come to us. So we

celebrate this day. And I'll read you from the

Sennacherib what it says about Gabriel. A being

of fire, free from all alteration, and permanently

consecrated to the contemplation of divine glory.

The archangel Gabriel was designated by the Lord

as a ministering spirit sent forth to serve.

quoting Hebrews chapter 1, for the sake of those

Hebrews 1 · chapter mention

who are to inherit salvation. That's us. According

to St. Proclus of Constantinople, Gabriel's name

means God and man and signifies that he is charged

to announce all the mysteries which have contributed

to the preparation for the incarnation of our

Lord Jesus Christ. The goal... and summit of

his mission was therefore the word rejoice. That's

how we approach our Christian life, rejoice,

which he announced to the mother of God and which

has become the form of praise and thanksgiving

of all those who thanks to him inherit salvation

and try to imitate on earth something of the

angelic life of praise of God. I said we have

a lot to take in. We also have this gospel account

from Mark about the demon -possessed child, the

distraught father, and Christ's words at the

end that he will be crucified, arrested and crucified,

and the third day arise, and his disciples did

not understand. We're disciples, and most of

the time we don't either. The Lord is approached

by a noisy crowd. Let me say something about

this account. And the disciples are distraught

also. They're frustrated, and they're demoralized,

and they're being made fun of, if you read between

the lines, because they could not heal the child.

Jesus throws up his hands. How long will I put

up with you? faithless generation. That was then.

Have we gotten much better? The account is given

to us on this day, this fourth Sunday of Lent,

past the midpoint. And I'd like to point out

two things about this gospel. There are many

things, but let me say two things that it teaches

us. One, wonderful and amazing. The other, something

like sorrow, leading to joy. And the first thing,

let me start with the sorrow. It might come as

a surprise and a shock to each of us. Once we

actually dive into Lent, to try to fast, to try

to pray more. to try to come to church services,

not just Sunday, but the Pre -Sanctified and

whatever else, it might come to us as a shock

to realize how broken I am. How fragmented my

thinking and my intentions and my desires are.

Just for everything, I want to pull it all in.

How demanding I am. That's what shocks me. How

sinful and helpless I am. The father of that

boy in this story, in chapter 9 of Mark, read

it, comes to Christ. This man's got faith. Just

enough. He cries out to the Lord. Lord, I believe.

Help my unbelief. Help my fear. Help my doubts.

Help my lack of love. He sees himself so clearly

here. But it's in the presence of the Lord Jesus

Christ, our Savior, that he sees himself. It's

not just because he had some kind of realization.

You know, the devil likes to show us the truth

of our vices. And it produces because he blames

us, he accuses us. It produces hopelessness and

depression and denial in us. Lack of faith in

us. But when God reveals the truth about our

sins, our vices, our weaknesses, he also reveals

his love. The light of his love is the thing

that illumines what we can see about ourself.

And this liberates us from the bondage of self

-love. It encourages us, gives us courage. That's

what the word encourage means, to strengthen

our heart. The French word for heart is in there.

To struggle for further change, to repent. The

devil has shown me my sins, and I know he's shown

you your sins because I hear confessions. He's

shown us so many times in that negative, dark

way. God has shown me my sins, but it's a very

different experience. Because the first smothers

hope. The second renews hope. So I'm learning

to be, and I hope you are too, more careful about

this than I used to be. We have the book of the

ladder of divine ascent. That's the other thing

that the fourth Sunday is usually, almost always.

commemorated as. The St. John, the writer of

the Ladder of Divine Ascent. We have to be careful

if we read it as the devil would have us read

it to condemn ourselves. Christ is the liberator

of captives. Most of us have been captives of

all kinds of fearful self -love. It's fearful.

But now we start to move away from that. The

second thing, the second thing, the wonderful

words which we heard, the words of Gabriel to

the Theotokos. I said there's two things. This

is the second thing. Gabriel says to the Virgin,

with God, all things are possible. Let's not

reduce that to monetary or material means. Back

when I used to work at a design company, I would

frequently go to a print shop over on Pioneer.

Now it's an auto place, but it was a print shop.

It was called Cleek Printing. And the man in

there who owned the print shop would greet me

very kindly all the time. And he learned that

I became a priest. And I was still working. And

he says, Padre, because that's what people in

the world call you when you're in your civilian

clothes and they found out you're a priest. Padre,

I want to get this sailboat. I need this loan

for $250 ,000. Would you pray for me that I'll

get the loan? So what do I say? I said, Duffy,

I'll pray that God gives you. what you need for

your salvation. If it's a sailboat, may he grant

it. Duffy died about a month later. So let's

remember that when the angel says, with God all

things are possible, it doesn't mean for our

entertainment. It doesn't even mean to pull us

out of our suffering. It means that he can save

even us. The second wonderful thing also, St.

Philaret says, whom I quoted yesterday, without

its creator, now listen carefully, don't be insulted,

without its creator, a creature is nothing. Seems

accurate, right? We would not exist. He says,

it is only something, we. creatures of God by

the power of its creator and so of what significance

is the will of man if it does not attach itself

to the will of God through obedience as the virgin

did that is to follow obedience is to follow

the one whom we hear and love let me put it in

the words of the savior I am the vine you are

the branches he who abides in me and I in him,

that is, lives in me with freedom, and I live

in him with freedom, bears much fruit. For without

me, you can do nothing. This statement is about

our very existence, not our accomplishments.

This feast we're celebrating yesterday and today,

the Annunciation, the Good News brought by the

Archangel, The two bring us this wonderful self

-realization. We see our weakness. And we learn

without Christ we can do nothing. And he comes

to us. And we have success in the spiritual life.

We're so fragmented. We're so broken. We celebrate

the virgin. What's virginity? It's not an absence

of some experience. It's wholeness. It's integrity.

We need spiritual virginity from God. We're so

fragmented. The Theotokos teaches us, sweeps

us up in this feast day, literally, with the

healing of Christ. So let us rejoice, brothers

and sisters. Remember, to rejoice in a feast

takes a little work, takes some intentionality.

Takes a little bit of time. We donate that to

the Lord and we receive all the blessings he

can give us. To our Lord be glory now and ever

to ages of ages. Amen.