St Jacob of Alaska Abp. Benjamin

But Jesus called them to himself and said to

them, You know that those who are considered

rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and

their great ones exercise authority over them.

Yet it shall not be so among you. But whosoever

desires to become great among you shall be your

servant, and whosoever among you desires to be

first shall be the slave of all. For even the

Son of Man did not come to be served, but to

serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

There could not be a more appropriate gospel

passage to be appointed for this saint, this

practicum, and for the occasion of this ordination

to the diaconate than this. For every office

in the churches really embraces the concept of

diakonia or service. The Greek word diakonos

predates its use by Christians and was the term

used in ancient Greece for waiter. If you were

dining in ancient Athens and you wanted more

wine, you might have snapped your fingers and

said, or diakonos instead of garcon. So first

of all, the deacon is tied, if you will, to table

service. And that is exactly what we read in

the sixth chapter of the Book of Acts of the

Apostles, where the apostles, who were a bit

overwhelmed, chose seven men of good repute to

assist them in their ministry to serve tables,

that is to see to the care of the widows and

poor of the church. These seven men were set

aside and hands laid upon them to free the apostles

so that they could devote themselves to prayer

and the word. And so of the three major orders

of the church, bishop, presbyter, and deacon,

the order of deacons is the oldest. Diaconal

service was not originally liturgical but administrative.

Deaconesses were also appointed and set aside

to help in the care of widows and the preparation

of female catechumens for baptism, where it was

considered unseemly for males to perform these

functions. Eventually, deacons are given a liturgical

role, especially where the distribution of communion

is concerned. Parenthetically, the use of the

common spoon for distribution of Holy Communion

replaced the more ancient practice of the faithful

receiving the precious body of Christ in their

hands as the clergy do today was because there

was a shortage of deacons who followed the priest

giving the chalice. As servers at the Holy Table,

the deacons are understood to have a ministry

parallel to that of the Holy Angels who serve.

at the ideal heavenly throne of God. That's why

deacons often have the angelic hymn, Holy, Holy,

Holy, written on their aurorians. As I said earlier,

every ministry in the Church involves diakonia,

or service. In fact, almost every time in the

King James Authorized Version uses the words

ministry or minister in the New Testament, the

Greek word, or at least the very root of the

Greek word there, is some form of diakonia. So

today, as we ordain a deacon, Much like those

original seven men in the Book of Acts were ordained,

let us all be mindful of this. Now to St. Jacob

of Alaska, who was the very ruler model of what

Christ spoke about, a servant. He gave his entire

life over to serve the spreading of the gospel

among the native peoples of Alaska. He was born

on the Aleutian island of Atka in 1802, eight

years after the first missionaries arrived in

Kodiak. He was a Creole, that is, his father

was Russian and his mother was Aleut. and as

such he grew up with a foot in both cultures,

something that would prove valuable later when

he returned from Russia to Alaska to begin service

as a priest. Jacob, or Yaakov, assisted St. Innocent

in his work of translation, preparing translations

in Unangan, but he would not become known for

his work among the fellow Aleuts. After the sudden

death of his wife and father, Jacob petitioned

to be allowed to return to Russia to enter into

a monastery, as was the custom. said he would

bless that, but only when a replacement was to

be found. And of course, as in the church was

the case, no replacement was found. And so when

Fr. John Vinyaminov returned to Alaska as Bishop

Innocent, he asked Fr. Jacob to accompany him

to Kamchatka on an archpastoral visit. And it

was during this trip that St. Innocent convinced

him to leave his people for the sake of the gospel

and begin a mission in the Alaskan interior among

the Yupik people. Now you may not know it, but

Yupik is not related at all, the Yupik language

is not related at all to Aleut. It is as different

as German is from Russian. And the cultures are

also very different. Aleuts were a seafaring

people. Yupiks lived along the great rivers of

the Alaskan interior, like the Yukama and the

Kustukwim. But true servant, or the Akinos that

he was, of the gospel, he spent most of the rest

of his life... learning the Yupik language, translating

and spreading the Orthodox faith among the Yupiks

and other groups of Alaskan natives in the interior.

He is fondly remembered by the Alaskan native

people for his years of dedicated service. In

fact, I would have to say it was his work that

carried the Yupik people through the dark years

of neglect when no priests were available to

serve them. Life was not easy. You know, when

I lived in Alaska and I had to travel to some

of the Yupik villages, I had to travel in these

little bush planes, and I thought that was really

miserable, or up the rivers in open boats in

the cold and wet. That was not the case for St.

Jacob. But St. Jacob traveled by dog sled and

kayak. He didn't have a nice wooden church to

pray in, but most of the time he'd just attend.

One winter he and his father almost starved to

death, having run out of food, mainly salmon,

which I'm particularly not fond of, as most of

you know. that had been stored for the winter,

they were close to death from starvation. And

he sent out some people, it was during Lent,

he sent out some men to hunt to try and find

something to eat. And so after some days, they

arrived back with some moose and the people were

saved from starvation thanks to his quick thinking.

In his journals, which were later found... In

Sitka, there's a notation in the side. Russian

priests used to write a journal every day, what

they did, how many baptisms they did, how many

marriages they did, whether they served liturgy

or not that day. So his journals had all this

information. And so he tells the story of the

fact that they almost starved. No food today.

The next journal, no food today. It's getting

desperate. There's no food. Thank God they bought

a moose. And we were able to eat. So the bishop,

in reading this, as bishops often do, and totally

disconnected from Reddit, and said, what? Meat

during Lent? It shows you how much bishops know.

The last chapter of his life, however, was not

very pleasant. It seems that someone who had

a grudge against him made a logic complaint against

him, and he was called back to Sitka to appear

before the bishop. And while he was there, it

was decided that he would remain there because

of his poor state of health. He was 62 when he

died. And so he was cleared of this accusation,

but stayed there in Sitka and began to learn

the Tlingit language, which again is another

language that he learned and ministered to the

Tlingit people there. As we heard last night

from the reading of the wisdom of Solomon, but

the righteous live forever, and their reward

is with the Lord, the Most High takes care of

them. Therefore they will receive a glorious

crown and a beautiful diadem from the hand of

the Lord, because with his right hand he will

cover them, and with his arms he will shield

them. Well, today we don't know where his body

lies. Nevertheless, his memory is with us, and

he has certainly received a crown, a glorious

crown of sainthood for the Lord. So on this day

when we ordain a new deacon, let us pray that

St. Jacob will inspire him and guide him and

all of you to a selfless service to the gospel.

Amen.