Synaxis of the Archangels 2020 Fr. James Jorgenson

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

of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Well, you're all bundled

up today, I see. I was listening to one Vespers

last night, and the priest said, Well, tomorrow

we have outdoor liturgy, so be sure you come

dressed warmly. Like one little girl in our parish

said, We never have bad weather in California.

We just don't wear enough clothes, which I thought,

a lot of wisdom, same thing my son said. But

at any rate, today, in addition to the regular

Sunday lectionary about the daughter of Jairus

and the woman with the issue of blood, we also

have, because of the movement of the days, this

is November 8th, the Feast of St. Michael and

all the archangels. and all the angels. And I

originally had planned on saying something about

angels today, and then I looked at the OCA website,

and there's a very extensive article on angels.

You read that, and there's much more there than

you can possibly remember. So I thought, if they

want to learn about angels, then they can just

read that on the OCA website. So what I'm going

to do is just say a few words about angels, and

then I'm going to focus our attention primarily

on the other gospel, the one for this particular

Sunday after Pentecost. Angels, of course, we

believe in because we say in the Creed, that

God is the creator of all things, both visible

and invisible. What are the invisible things?

Things we can't see. Angels. We can't see angels.

We know they exist. There are guardians. In the

baptism service, one of the prayers is, yoke

unto his life, or her life, a radiant angel.

So the church's liturgical tradition is that

each one of us at baptism is assigned by God

an angel to watch over us. We pray at every liturgy

for an angel of peace, a faithful guide, and

a guardian of our souls and bodies. I remember

probably the earliest prayer that i probably

memorized was a little jingle and i'm it's probably

familiar to most or many of you angel of god

my guardian dear to whom god's love commits me

here ever this day be at my side to light to

guard to rule and guide amen and i thought that

was such a beautiful prayer i say it not at the

beginning of the day but i say it when i go to

bed at night So we should remember we not only

have patron saints, but we have an angel who

leads us and guides us and inspires us to do

good things and reminds us not to sin and to

resist temptation. The other gospel. These are

familiar stories to us about the daughter of

the ruler of the synagogue. It's probably the

equivalent of a parish council member or something

like that, whose daughter was dying. And then

on the way, a woman with an issue of blood touches

the hem of his garment and is healed. Now, I'm

very fond, like many of the fathers of the church,

of seeing, well, what does this signify? Does

this remind us of something or stand for something

else? This is what's technically called allegory.

Does this stand for something else? Now, sometimes

it's clear that it stands for something else.

Sometimes the comparisons are a little bit, how

could I say, I don't want to say far -fetched,

but fanciful. That would be a good way to put

them. Some of the fathers of the church see here

that the girl who's dying and the woman with

the issue of blood represent two things. The

girl who's dying represents the synagogue, the

Jewish nation. The woman with the issue of blood

represents the Gentiles. So Jesus comes primarily

to heal the Gentiles. the Israelites, the Jewish

people, who cannot receive this complete forgiveness

of sins and redemption except through the coming

of their Messiah, Jesus Christ. And on the way,

he also touches and heals this woman who had

the issue of blood, who had spent all her money

on other things, other physicians, other gods,

other things. to try and heal her. The girl,

it's interesting, the girl is described, St.

Luke, the gospel, this is found, of course, in

this, these both miracles are linked together,

and they're found in all three of the first three

gospels, the synoptic gospels. Luke, the one

we just read, says that she was dying. And then

word comes from one of the servants to the father

and says, she's just died. St. Mark says, she

was on the point of death. Matthew says that

she had just died. Well, some people might think,

so what's the difference? But what I find there

is fascinating because people that study the

scriptures, I think maybe they run out of really

important things to study, but one of them they

like to say, well, is there a connection? Does

one gospel writer depend on another gospel writer?

Well, you know, you could chase after that idea

forever and ever, and I don't think that even

if we could say they were familiar, they borrowed

this, they borrowed that, still there's an independent

tradition. about these events that they all know

very well through the stories about Jesus and

through the preaching about him. So these little

variations, I think, serve to reinforce the importance

of the scripture writers, especially the gospel

writers, as basically independent witnesses to

the same reality. And they're not just copying.

somebody else's story. Another interesting illustration

of this is Saint Mark says she was the little

daughter of the man. Matthew says she was the

daughter and Luke adds two important ideas here.

She was the only daughter and she was 12 years

old. So once again, an illustration, these minor

little variations in details simply illustrate

not so much any interdependence, but the independent

witness to the reality itself. Before I get into

probably my closing thought to share with you,

I want to remind you that we have, before communion,

there are communion prayers that we should be

saying in addition to our regular evening prayers

or morning prayers. Prayers, depending on how

many you want to say, takes anywhere from 10

to 15, 20 minutes. But we should say a few extra

prayers. before we receive communion, whether

it's the night before or in the morning. Prayers

before communion. They're found in any Orthodox

prayer book. One of them, the woman in today's

gospel has a reminder each and every time we

say these prayers. One of the prayers says, Do

thou, O Christ, our God, who didst justify the

publican, had mercy on the Canaanite woman, open

the gates of paradise to the thief, open to me

the compassion of thy love toward mankind, and

receive me as I approach and touch thee, like

the sinful woman, and like the woman with the

issue of blood. By embracing thy feet, receive

the forgiveness of her sins and the other, but

by touching the hem of thy garment was healed.

So when we say these prayers, this is the woman

comes to our mind each and every time we do that.

There is, I mentioned comparing the three. To

me, it's fun. I enjoy reading to see if there's

any difference. When these particular gospels

are, the stories are told in different, each

one of the gospels. It's an interesting thing

for you to do. Try that once in a while, too.

There's one important item that I found very

fascinating. Mark has a sentence in there that

isn't found in Matthew or Luke. and talking about,

they both say, well, she was sick for 12 years

or for a long period of time and couldn't find

healing at all. Mark adds, and she had suffered

much under many physicians and had spent all

that she had and was no better off but rather

grew worse. I'm sure that you or people you know,

have had that same kind of feeling. Boy, I've

seen all these doctors, and I'm not any better

than I was before. It's kind of frustrating,

isn't it? Well, we know somebody that feels that

way. When I went to see my family physician back

when we lived in Michigan, I told him about the

retired priest who I replaced, and he was still

in the parish. and he went to see the doctor

because, as it turned out to be, he had a hernia.

But he and his family told me, 86 years old,

he never saw a doctor before. And I said to my

doctor, who had a good sense of humor, as you'll

see, I said, you know, how can somebody live

to be 86 and never go to see a doctor? My doctor

said, that's probably why he lived to be 86.

So, are we like this woman who suffers much,

can't find healing? I think we are. Because we

want to have happiness, peace, find some kind

of fulfillment in our life. Jesus is the only

one that can provide this. He's the only one

that can heal that. Constant flow of blood of

being unable to be fully healthy. Faith in our

Lord. And this is what the fathers like to underline.

It's faith in our Lord. Like this woman has.

That because she was unclean, she didn't even

want to come up and ask him anything. She said,

I'm just going to touch the bottom of this garment.

And she was healed. That is the way we are. We

don't find healing in money. We don't find healing

in houses, speed boats, skiing, doing all these

things that attract our attention. The only thing

that finds us peace, happiness, joy, fulfillment

in life is a real relationship and faith in Jesus

Christ and his church. This gives us the healing

and the happiness that the little girl in today's

gospel, and this ill woman had. So let us renew

once again our faith and our commitment today

to our Lord Jesus Christ and our love for him

and his church. Amen.