Last Judgement 2021

Glory to Jesus Christ. Perhaps this is one of

the most serious days in the year for an Orthodox

Christian. The Lord is teaching us. He's giving

us a word about our eternal destiny. And each

one of us, each person, every single person born

on this earth, Beloved by God, made by God, has

a destiny. God has created us to be in love with

him and to be in communion with him, to share

his life. To share his life. That's our destiny.

We weren't created just to go to work, just to

make money. just to spin our wheels, to find

entertainment and distraction, and then die.

No, we are created to live forever in the light

of God's love, in the light of God's presence.

This is our destiny. And today, the Lord teaches

from a specific... perspective about this destiny

for us. Before I get into this gospel, I want

to share with you just a few words from this

brand new book, which is transcriptions of the

talks by Father Alexander Schmemann of Blessed

Memory to Radio Liberty for 30 years, a weekly

talk. This is the first collection in that. These

are short selections that he gave to believers

in the Soviet Union. He asks about faith, and

that's a critical question for us today. What

is our faith? A man once came to me 12, 15 years

ago. I certainly didn't know what to tell him

then. I'm not sure I'd know what to tell him

now. He said, why did God create us if he's just

going to have the judgment day and those people

who he knew would be evil are going to the left

side to hell prepared for the devil and all his

angels, not prepared for us, by the way. Why

would he even create anybody to suffer that fate?

Doesn't sound fair. Well, He was looking for

some kind of system, I suppose. He was looking

for a way, this man, to kind of pull down God.

And he had forgotten that God is trying to pull

us up. That we are to be like him. We are to

be his image and likeness in this world. We are

his servants, so we have a further ministry.

We have the ability, we have the grace, we have

the means, the holy mysteries to be cleansed,

to truly be like him, to be sanctified. This

is why the church walls have saints on them.

To call us to join them. They are our brothers

and sisters. They are like us and we are to be

like them. Here's what Father Alexander says

about faith. And perhaps it answers that man's

question and sets for me the tone. Of what it

means to believe in God. And by the way, I'm

sorry, but everybody is required to keep their

masks on. This is just the rule of our hierarchy.

And we are limiting our capacity to 30. That's

our own personal rule. So please listen to our,

as you do, to our ushers when they want to help

you. They're only here to help. Here's what Father

Alexander says. Where does faith come from? From

fear of the afterlife? From my inherent passionate

and ultimately egotistical desire not to utterly

disappear from the face of reality? No. No. For

the most clever philosophical discourse about

the afterlife, about eternity, and so on, seems

but useless babble to me. What do I know about

all this? And what can I say to others? And I

do not believe in God because I desire the afterlife

and eternity, but rather I believe in eternal

life because I believe in God. But then to the

question of all questions, why do I believe?

Only one answer can be made, because God gave

me this faith, and he gives it to me all the

time. He gave it as a gift, and I am convinced

of its reality by the unique joy that does not

depend on anything in this world, the peace that

does not depend on anything external, which I

experience in myself in those rare moments when

the word God ceases to be just a word, becoming

a boundless waterfall of light, of love, of beauty,

and true life that washes over me. Peace and

joy and the Holy Spirit, says St. Paul. This

is what St. Paul said, and there are no other

words. This is why we are children. This is why

we are baptized. This is why we are members of

the kingdom of God. This is why we come to worship

him. We enter into this church and we hear, lo,

the words of Jesus, lo, I am with you even to

the end of the age. And we hear the words of

the prayer, attend, O Lord Jesus Christ, from

thy holy dwelling place and from the glory of

the kingdom and come to sanctify us. So thou

who art present with us now. And yet, the Lord

will come again for all to see. We know he is

here with us and we worship him. But he will

come with his angels in all his glory and all

will see the glory of the Son of Man. The glory

of the wounds of his hands and of his feet and

the spear that had pierced his side. The glory

of the members of his kingdom, which we hear

today, are not just the people, maybe not at

all the people that minister to the least, to

the poor, to the hungry, to the thirsty, to the

imprisoned. But to those who are imprisoned,

there is Jesus. To those who are thirsty, to

those who are hungry and alone, they are the

Christ. That we can meet. That's the glory of

God that he's coming with. Chapter 24 tells us

something extremely important about the teaching

we hear today in chapter 25. And that is this.

The disciples of Jesus gathered to him. The twelve.

And Jesus said to them, See ye all these things?

Truly I say to you, the temple, there shall not

be one stone upon another that shall not be thrown

down. And as he sat down on the Mount of Olives,

which is across from the temple, he told his

disciples who came to him privately. All of these

things about the end, they said to Jesus, tell

us, Lord, when shall these things be? And what

shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end

of the world? Was Jesus alone with his disciples

on the Mount of Olives? And he spoke about the

end and about rumors and wars and tribulations

and plagues. and nations fighting against nations

and earthquakes. But all these things are not

yet the end. And the sun shall be darkened. And

then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man

in heaven. And then shall all the tribes of the

earth mourn. And they shall see the Son of Man

coming in the clouds of heaven with power and

great glory. And then what does he tell the disciples?

And what does he tell us? Because we claim to

be his disciples. He's sitting with them on the

Mount of Olives. We're sitting with them on the

Mount of Olives. And Jesus says these parables.

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened to

ten virgins. The five wise and the five foolish.

And the foolish were left out when the bridegroom

came. Because they were not prepared. And then

he tells the parable of the man who goes to a

far country and he gives each of his servants

talents, five, ten, whatever. And then he returns

and he expects a return on his investment. And

then he tells the parable we just heard. What

is this telling us, brothers and sisters? This

is a message for the disciples. I don't know

how God is going to judge others. But you've

just got to look, a pre -look at the final exam.

It's clear. The disciples of Christ are to show,

are to show the fruits of their faith. And the

greatest fruit of all, and we learned this recently

in an epistle if we were listening. It's the

bond of perfection is love. God created us out

of love. He has joined us to himself in the church

out of his love. He bestows that love in us and

through us to others. Our judgment is going to

be based on how we love. Like me, you probably...

could go downtown, could go off of Industrial

Drive. You could drive to Berkeley, get off the

Ashby Avenue exit. You could go to San Francisco

and walk from Union Square to the Civic Center.

And what are you going to see in all of these

three places, and far more than those places?

You're going to see tents and homeless people

and drug addicts and people sitting and sleeping

on the sidewalk. You can't even walk on the sidewalk.

You're going to see all that. The paradox is

when we give to one of those persons, we're giving

to Christ. Jesus is not saying here, solve world

hunger. He's not even saying, I hope you can

see the image of God in these people because

that's what you're going to be saved. No, he's

not telling us that. This is a paradoxical situation.

The righteous are surprised that they ministered

to Christ. When did we see the old Lord? But

their whole life was of love. No matter to who

it was, they loved. And this is to be the content

of our life too. We are setting off now. On the

journey of great Lent. We've heard publican,

tax collector. We've heard the prodigal. Now

we have the last judgment. We hear about God's

mercy. Now we hear what the servants of God are

expected to be like. Lent is going to be the

time in which we try to attain that love. To

attain that Christ -likeness. So that our hearts

become a reflection of the Son. It's almost like

the moon reflects the sun, but the Son of God.

Amen.