Third Sunday of Lent 2021 Fr. James Jorgenson

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

of the Holy Spirit, amen. Glory be to Jesus Christ.

Today is the third Sunday of Lent, the middle

of Lent, and the Church liturgically places before

us the Holy Cross. Twice a year, The church reminds

us about the centrality of the cross in Christ's

life and in our life by placing it in the center

of the church. But I want to focus, before we

return to that, I want to primarily focus our

attention on the epistle reading, which is taken

from the epistle to the Hebrews. And it sets

out one of the major themes of the epistle to

the Hebrews, that the forgiveness of sins and

the reconciliation with God is accomplished by

Jesus Christ once and for all in that full and

perfect sacrifice which he offered to the Father

on the cross. The sacrifice which brings about

what those continuous and daily sacrifices in

the temple could not accomplish, the permanent

reconciliation of human beings with God, which

occurs once and for all by Jesus, our great high

priest, at the altar of the cross. And so this

is why this theme is... is i think particularly

prominent in today's epistle reading saint paul

says we see then that we have a great high priest

jesus of course for every high priest is taken

from among men and is important and is appointed

for men in things pertaining to god that he may

offer both sacrifices, both gifts and sacrifices

for sins. These are the high priests of the old

covenant of the temple worship, to offer sacrifices

for sins. But then Christ did not glorify himself

to become a high priest, but it was he, who said

to him, in other words, the father said to him

in another place, you are my son, today I have

begotten you. And he also says in another place,

you are a priest forever, according to the order

of Melchizedek. Melchizedek, of course, that

strange and enigmatic person who appears out

of nowhere. and meets Abraham in the book of

Genesis and brings an offering to God to him.

This is, as I said, the central message of the

epistle to the Hebrews, that Jesus is the new

high priest, not according to the Old Testament

priesthood, but a new priesthood which he establishes.

which eclipses the temporary priesthood of the

old covenant. You are a priest forever, not according

to the Aaronite priesthood, but a priest forever

according to the order of Melchizedek. To offer

sacrifice for sin, which he did on the cross,

and at each and every divine liturgy, which in

a way is a mystically unbloody representation

of what Christ accomplished, again, once and

for all, in a bloody way on the cross. This idea

and theme is reflected in one of the prayers

of the Divine Liturgy. And I've always thought

about that one of the unfortunate practices of,

there's a whole history behind this, but one

of the unfortunate practices of our contemporary

liturgical worship is that the real important

prayers at the liturgy are the ones that are

said mystikos, or silently, by the priest. Sometimes,

nowadays, some of these prayers are read aloud,

such as the prayer of consecration, the anaphora.

But it is these prayers, actually it is a litany,

which is an introduction to the prayer. And so

we have, sort of ironically, we have the introductory

liturgy, but it doesn't culminate in the prayer.

But be that as it may, the prayer that I want

to call your attention to is a prayer which is

said by the priest as a choir is singing the

cherubimic hymn at the time of the great entrance.

This, a number of priests I've talked with, and

they share my feeling that if we could single

out one prayer that is dearest. to us as priests,

it is this prayer, which is in a way unique for

two reasons. Number one, it's about the only

prayer in the liturgy in which the priest uses

the first person singular, I, I, I. Normally,

throughout the liturgy, the priest prays in the

first person plural, we. So the priest speaking

with and on behalf of the people offers this

praise and worship to God. It's unique in the

sense that, as I said, one of the few where the

priest speaks I and me, first person singular.

And then also it happens to be Historically,

one of the latest additions to the liturgy probably

was included in the liturgy somewhere in the

Middle Ages, 12th, 14th century. Can't say for

sure. But as I said, for many priests, it is

their favorite. That's what I'm going to share

with you. Because this prayer says precisely

what St. Paul said in the epistle to the Hebrews.

says today. The priest says, No one who is bound

with the desires and pleasures of the flesh is

worthy to approach or draw near to serve thee,

O King of glory. For to minister to thee is great

and awesome, even to the heavenly powers. Nevertheless,

through thine unspeakable and boundless love

for man, thou didst become man, yet without change

or alteration as ruler of all, and did become

our great high priest, and commit to us the ministry

of this liturgical and unbloody sacrifice. Therefore,

I, priest speaking first person singular. Therefore

I entreat thee, who alone are good and ready

to listen, look down on me, a sinner, thine unprofitable

servant, and cleanse my soul and my heart from

an evil conscience. And by the power of the Holy

Spirit, enable me, who am endowed with the grace

of the priesthood, to stand before this, thy

holy table, and to perform the sacred mystery

of thy holy and pure body and precious blood.

For I draw to knee near to thee, and bowing my

head I implore thee, do not turn thy face away

from thy servant, nor cast me out from among

thy children, but make me thy sinful and unworthy

servant, worthy to offer gifts to thee. Now,

for thou art the offerer and the offered, the

receiver and the received, O Christ our God.

And we ascribe glory to thee together with the

Father, some everlasting, and the all Holy Spirit,

now and ever and to ages of ages. Amen. But there

is the key also, and a connection with the epistle

to the Hebrews, Thou, meaning Christ, is the

offerer and the offered. He is the one who makes

that offering on Golgotha. He makes that offering,

and what is that offering? It is himself. It's

him being crucified on the cross. The offerer

and the one who is offered. The receiver. and

the received. He receives the offering as God,

and he is what is received, the offering. So

it's a beautiful prayer, which reflects the great

high priesthood of Christ, the new high priesthood

of the New Testament, the new covenant. This

is what St. Paul is speaking about in Hebrews.

And by the way, Hebrews happens to be my favorite

epistle. I was once asked by, I was debating

whether or not to share this with you, but I

will. I was once asked by a non -Orthodox theologian,

well, what's your favorite epistle? And this

always is sort of, I'm wondering what's behind

that question. He had no ulterior motive. It's

like getting caught in that, what's your favorite

scripture saying? Well, you know, I've got several.

But there's nothing wrong with that. Some people

have favorite scripture sayings. But I said the

epistle to the Hebrews. He said, oh, you have

a high Christology. And I replied, is there any

other kind? The high Christology of who Christ

is, the great high priest. who offers this sacrifice,

full and perfect, once and for all, to the Father.

Leading us to what it has to say today, which

is precisely what our Lord himself says in the

Gospel. Whoever desires to come after me, must

take up his cross and follow me. The intimate

connection between following Christ and taking

up the cross in imitation of Christ. Now we can

interpret the cross to us in many different ways.

We can look into our life and say, all of us

have some kind of cross or crosses to bear. It

might be a sin or a bad habit that we have or

something, a very close member of our family,

whatever, that we feel should be closer to God

than what they are. The cross might be difficult

people. Either in our family, extended family,

or difficult people in the workplace to get along

with. We all have crosses. But I think for each

and every one of us, the greatest and the most

difficult cross, the heaviest cross, is to follow

Christ. To follow him perfectly, completely,

unreservedly. Christ expects of us unconditional

surrender to him. Not to have any strings attached,

but to do our best in this world to follow him

perfectly. This also I think is very appropriate

at the time of Lent too, because we see when

we try and do extra acts of charity, fasting,

avoiding sin perhaps a little bit more diligently.

Whatever we try to do during Lent, don't we see

our own weakness and helplessness? No matter

how hard we try, we don't really make it, so

to speak. I think this is good for us spiritually

because we can never get to a point and say,

aha, I've achieved. My goal in life. No, our

goal in life is a constant struggle. A constant

struggle to day by day and hour by hour conform

ourself as much as possible to our great high

priest who loved us so much that he suffered

and died on the cross. And the more we share

in his effort and in his love, the more we follow

him. and the more happiness and fulfillment we

find in this world and perfect joy and blessedness

in the kingdom to come. Amen.