First Sunday of Lent 2023

Glory to Jesus Christ. Well, here we are, first

Sunday of the Great Fast, and the church said

this is a feast day. Why is it a feast day? Well,

let's start at the beginning. Let me give you

a synopsis of the gospel we just heard. Jesus

comes to the Jordan. John says, I can't baptize

you. Jesus says, you must to fulfill our righteousness.

John baptizes Jesus. And he witnesses, he says

in the Gospel of John, that the Spirit descended

upon him. The next day, Jesus is back. And John

points to Jesus as he's walking. That's all St.

John the Evangelist says. Jesus is walking by.

And St. John says what? He says to his two disciples,

the Lamb of God. The two disciples, gone. They

go right after Jesus. They follow Jesus. And

Jesus asks them, basically, what do you want?

And they say, where are you staying? And he says,

come and see. Isn't that the way it is with Jesus?

You're not going to get specifics all the time.

Faithfulness is a matter of putting one foot

in front of the other with trust in God, knowing

he's leading you the right way. Faith is not

just an intellectual ascent. You know, we heard

some hymns today. last night about heresy. Heresy

is not that you and I might have an incorrect

opinion about something the church teaches. If

I asked most of us to give an explanation of

the doctrine of the Trinity, in that case most

of us would be way off. Heresy is a pulling away,

a sectarianism, a drawing out, a saying, come

and see. They're wrong in the church. This is

right. Jesus has come and seen. And they come.

They follow. And then it says the next day. Well,

it was the 10th hour. It's about 4 o 'clock.

And they're with Jesus that whole time. Could

you imagine being with Jesus at the beginning?

That afternoon, all evening, speaking with the

Lord. The next day, another disciple comes. I'll

let you fill in the blanks here. I'm just giving

you the high points. It says, we found the Messiah.

We have found him. So Nathaniel, that disciple,

comes. We've already got Andrew. We've got Peter.

We've got Philip. Now we have Nathaniel. And

then he comes up to Jesus. And Jesus says to

him these enigmatic and strange words. An Israelite

in whom there is no deceit. You remember Jacob.

He gained the name Israel because he wrestled

with God. He saw God. The name Israel is the

one who sees God. And Nathaniel responds, and

how do you know me? Jesus says, oh, before when

you were under the fig tree, I saw you. There's

nothing in the Gospel of John to tell us what

that means. But it had to be an event in Nathanael's

life that nobody else knew. Because how else

can you explain the response of Nathanael? You're

the king of Israel. You know these things. And

Jesus says again, come, see, follow me. Nathanael

is surprised. He's shocked, and Jesus says, well,

you'll see greater things than these. Remember,

Israel is the one who sees God. You'll see the

angels of God ascending and descending upon the

Son of Man. It's a feast day today, so why this

interesting, enigmatic, strange encounter? Why

is the gospel that today? Why is that given to

us? I've pondered this for a long time. Mostly

on this day, you're going to hear a sermon, which

is right, about the feast day of the triumph

of Orthodoxy, the Sunday of Orthodoxy, the restoration

of the holy icons, which is why you're holding

icons, and the icon of that feast day is in the

middle of the church, commemorating the Council

of 843, the year 843, and the proclamation. that

the icons are restored after 110 years of persecution

by the civil authorities of the church, towards

the church. So it's a feast day. The church is

in freedom, finally. Well, this gospel tells

us, first, a disciple of Jesus Christ is going

to follow him, number one. A disciple of Jesus

Christ is going to see things that other people

don't see because we're looking at the Lord.

Let's start really at the beginning for me to

give a short synopsis. You know, the politicians,

when you watch CNN, some debate in the Senate,

one senator will say, I give up my time, I yield

my time to the senator from Rhode Island. Well,

I'm going to yield most of my time to the procession

at the end because we have a prayer, and I think

it's important that we stay focused. So I'm just

going to say this, and then we can move on with

the liturgy. Our faith, the feast day that we

celebrate, is rooted in that strange defeat,

said Father Alexander Schmemann. which became

the most glorious victory. The defeat of the

man nailed upon the cross, who rose from the

dead, who is the Lord and Master of this world

and of all worlds. This is the first triumph

of Orthodoxy before anything to do with the painted

icon, because Jesus assures us that the living

icon You and me can have, as that hymn said that

the choir just sang, the corrupted image healed

and suffused with divine beauty. This is the

first triumph of orthodoxy. This is the content

of our commemoration. This is our joy, that we

have a way and God is leading us. Jesus, the

word of God. selected and chose 12 men. You heard

about four of them today. That's important. And

he gave them, after Pentecost, the power, not

worldly power, because the world persecuted them

for 300 years. He gave them the power to preach

and to speak to the heart and to teach us. To

worship the one God, the Father, the Son, and

the Holy Spirit. The word of God who came to

us, who sends us from the Father, the Holy Spirit,

to sanctify us and to lead us into all truth.

So that the kingdom of God would be announced

to the whole world. Not just to the Greeks, to

the Syrians, to the Russians. No, the whole world.

You know, my brothers and sisters, how those

12 men, very simple men, they were fishermen.

Doesn't mean they were stupid. Very simple men,

simple fishermen, went out and preached. They

were covered with blood. But that blood was another

victory because they proclaimed the resurrection.

the end of the first century, when the church

was still very small, a small minority in society,

and the society was definitely anti -Christian,

much more than we complain about in our country,

much, much more. And persecutions were beginning.

St. John the Divine, the holy disciple, wrote

these words. This is the victory. Our faith.

This is the victory. There was no victory at

that time. St. Paul probably thought he failed

when he died. And yet, St. John knew that in

his faithfulness, he had the victory that will

be applied to us today. We have the promise of

Christ. The gates of hell will never prevail

against the church. We have the promise of Christ

that if we have faith, faithfulness, walking

in faithfulness, we have all the possibilities,

for with God all things are possible. The orthodoxy

we celebrate today is not fulfilled, not manifested,

not celebrated by having the right answers. to

particular theological questions. They are important.

Nor by preserving the tradition just because

it's old. Or because we think that if we do this

or that, we're going to be good Orthodox Christians.

We may be. No, the orthodoxy we celebrate today

is that of having our attention captivated by,

which is why we had one week of services morning.

We should have had it at noon, but there's not

enough strength there, and night, every day,

to draw us in, to teach us that we are going

to see greater things than you can imagine in

our soul, that it will be suffused with divine

beauty. The orthodoxy we celebrate today is by

having our gaze fixed upon, our ears open to,

and our hearts enthralled with our Lord Jesus

Christ through prayer, through fasting, through

worship in the church, through confession and

communion, for works of good for the poor and

for each other. He is for us, Jesus is for us,

the beginning and the end of all things. The

gospel you heard today is the beginning of his

ministry. Let us see, brothers and sisters. How

he is the alpha, the beginning, and the omega.

We can only do that by faithfulness if we stick

to it and apply ourselves. He is for us the beginning

and the end of all things. Archpriest John Bear,

who taught at St. Vladimir, says, he is the one

who began our faith, and he is the one who will

bring it to each one of us to fulfillment. to

fruitfulness, to repentance, to Pascha. Amen.