Good Samaritan 2021 Fr. Nicholas Carr

Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to God. 401K, 401B,

STRS, traditional IRA, Roth IRA, all these things

bring to mind to those of us that know retirement,

that we will need, there will be a time where

we would stop working and we should have prepared.

for that time to have some extra funds. You would

go to a financial advisor to get advice. Well,

this morning, we commemorate St. Gregory Palamas,

and he is our spiritual advisor. Let us see what

words he would give to us in investing in a 777K

for our spiritual advisor. well -being. Given

that we desire long life, should we not take

eternal life into account? If we long for a kingdom

which, however enduring, has an end, and glory

and joy, which great as they are, will fade,

and wealth that will perish with this present

life, and we labor for the sake of such things,

ought we not to seek the kingdom, glory, joy,

and riches, which as well as being all -surpassing

are unfolding and endless, and ought we not to

endure a little constraint in order to inherit

it? In today's Gospel reading, We have our Lord

Jesus Christ approached by a man who is there

to test him. To test him because he is a lawyer

and he knows the law, the law of Israel, and

how one is said to achieve reaching heaven. And

so he comes and says, Teacher, what shall I do

to inherit eternal life? And Jesus, knowing his

heart and his intention, says, What is written

in the law? What is your reading of it? And the

lawyer answered a good answer from the Torah,

a good answer from Deuteronomy and Leviticus,

saying, You shall love the Lord your God with

all your heart, with all your soul, with all

your strength, and with all your mind. And your

neighbor as yourself. And Jesus responded, you

have answered rightly. Do this and you will live.

And this is true for us as well. If it was true

for that lawyer, it is true for us. Let us hear

it again. You shall love the Lord your God with

all your heart, with all your soul, with all

your strength. and with all your mind and your

neighbor as yourself. We must love God, and it

must be a total, complete love from heart, soul,

strength, mind, without detailing this too much

in depth. Let us say that we must love God with

all that we are. And how do we do that? first

in our lives. Faith in God and our relationship

with him becomes primary, not secondary, not

tertiary, not after what other people think,

whoever they may be, but primary in our lives.

One way to test if you are truly loving God in

your life right now in this primary sense is

to look at the decisions that you are making.

Do you even consider if this would be something

God would approve? Or think of the commandments

of Christ in relation to your decisions. Is your

decision made to please your own desires and

appetites? Or perhaps to please other people?

When we make life decisions, ought to be primary

and we should think of it first and not after

the fact when we come to confession and say I

made the wrong decision if we could somehow well

it is good to go to confession it is good to

confess all those things and to admit that we

made a mistake and to have a repentant heart

but how much better would it be if we had somehow

looked to the Lord first and not fallen. We must

make God and God's will primary. And to do this,

we must have what is called the fear of God.

The fear of God, not being frightened or scared

in that sense at all, but filled with awe of

God, knowing how wonderful God is in his love

and his grace and his mercy, how he created all

things, that our very life and being comes from

God and esteeming God with honor and praise and

from our heart knowing that God is our creator

and our redeemer and that one day we will stand

before his judgment seat. Proverbs 19 .23 says

this, The fear of the Lord leads to life, and

he who has it rests satisfied. He will not be

visited by harm. And St. Tikhon of Zadonsk says

this, The fear of God is like a faithful guard

which is vigilant, guarding our spiritual house

from every evil. or rather it is like a strong

and high wall which obstructs the arrows shot

by the enemy and renders them ineffective. The

fear of God teaches the man to examine his own

conscience and to cleanse it by fervent repentance.

The fear of God is the true school of humility

which attracts God's grace. So how do we love

God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind.

Not by being people pleasers, not by saying or

doing things that people in the world would want.

St. Gregory Palamas says this, the passion for

popularity brings such injury upon those it masters

that it shipwrecks faith itself. How do we truly

love God? We pray. We make decisions where the

central part of our decision -making is what

God would want. Seek ye first the kingdom of

God and his righteousness, and all these things

shall be added unto you. And once we love God,

Then we will be able to do as the Good Samaritan

did today in the parable that was read, and love

our neighbor. And who is our neighbor? Anyone

in immediate need, even a supposed enemy. And

there is even more to this parable. The Orthodox

Study Bible tells us, symbolically, the Good

Samaritan is Christ himself. The wounded man

is humanity set upon by demons. And the inn is

the church. Love for neighbor proves our love

for God. But we cannot love our neighbor unless

first we love God and we live with fear of the

Lord, of that respect and awe and making God

primary. Someday each one of us will reach the

time of our repose. Will we have invested like

the IRA, the Roth IRA, the STRS system? Will

we have done something in our lives to have invested?

And I would recommend heavy investing. That not

just 10%, perhaps we could give even more. And

how do we give that? From the time that we have

in our life, we need to be here in church together

as we are, worshiping and taking holy communion.

We need to have that time at home in front of

the prayer corner where we spend time with the

Lord and we let God minister to each one of us

and sanctify us. Let us choose. to do that as

we make decisions in our daily lives. Glory to

Jesus Christ.