On Matthew 17 - Fr. Lawrence Margitich

and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. I greet

you, brothers and sisters. I greet those of you

weathering the storm. Hopefully your hearts are

warmed by the Lord and by the Gospel message.

Christians are accused of two things often. First,

and I think it's reasonable to say, Christians

are often accused of being obsessed with sin.

Being obsessed with feeling guilty for sin. Being

obsessed with the possible punishment of hell.

But that's not the orthodox way. We have today

The commemoration of this marvelous icon to my

left. Icon made without hands. We've just celebrated

Dormition, the joyful feast of the entry of the

Theotokos, the most pure one into the kingdom

and the life of the age to come. And before that,

we celebrated the incredible feast of Transfiguration.

are anything but obsessed about guilt and sin

and punishment. If anything, it's obsessed with

the beauty and the glory of God. And particularly

the feast day of this icon, Archio Orpheus, the

one made without hands, the story which you can

read about, in which Christ pressed a cloth against

his face, and this image was imprinted on it.

and it was sent to Abgar, prince of Edessa, far

to the east, who had the disease of leprosy.

So this is the first icon of the church. And

it's important that it's the icon of Christ that's

the first icon, because it tells us not just

about sin, although it says something about that,

and not guilt for sure, and not punishment, but

the beauty. of our own calling, the beauty of

what we are created to be in his image. Transfiguration,

Dormition, this icon displays for us, first and

foremost, our heavenly calling, what we as humans

are called to be. Like God. Like God. And the

other thing that Christians are accused of is

being distant, especially Orthodox Christians.

I don't know about evangelicals. They're accused

of being too involved. Of being distant and uninvolved

and mystical to the detriment of those around

them. But this is also false. We have an understanding

of sin and sorrow. And suffering. So the church

gives us not only the commemoration of this incredible

icon. But it also gives us this account from

the Gospel of Matthew. Which we hear more of

during Lent. From the Gospel of Mark. But essentially

the Lord is coming down from the Mount of Transfiguration.

And like Moses. Coming down from Mount Sinai.

What does he find? Lack of faith. Chaos. Accusations

against the disciples. Not very polite by a man

asking something for Jesus. Your disciples couldn't

do this. Doesn't speak well of this man's approach.

The Lord comes down to sin and suffering. And

the disciples who had been given the power to

cure. all manner of diseases and to cast out

demons just in the previous chapters could not

do it. The man had no faith. The scribes and

the Pharisees there wagging their fingers at

his disciples saying, you can't do this. And

the disciples also, Jesus says, have little faith.

There's no faith and there's little faith. Why

could We not do this, they say. And Jesus says,

you know, there's a strange idea out there, and

it has been for some hundreds of years, that

all we need to do is try harder, have a little

bit more education, put money in the right places,

and we will solve all kinds of problems in our

society. Let me quote for you a very short three,

four lines here from a famous preacher from the

1960s. He said this, It's the strange conviction

that if a man goes on thinking, inventing, and

governing, he will be able to conquer by his

own strength and his own ingenuity the nagging

forces of evil. Remember, the boy wasn't a lunatic,

wasn't ruled by the moon. He had a demon. There

was evil present there. And this preacher goes

on. He says, just give people a fair chance and

a decent education, and they will save themselves.

This idea has swept across the modern world like

a plague, ushering God out and Escorting man

in. Substituting human ingenuity for inner spiritual

guidance. He goes on. But the problem that has

always frustrated man has been his inability

to conquer evil by his own power. He is constantly

asking in pathetic amazement. Why can't I? Why

can I not cast this out? Why cannot? I remove

evil from my life. Whether it be addiction or

pornography or hatred, anger and resentment,

gluttony, desire to acquire, and so forth and

so on. People will make a resolution on New Year's

Eve. We're going to stop this. We're going to

start that. Next New Year's Eve comes around.

Nothing happened. St. Paul said today, We are

not sufficient in ourselves. So, while the Orthodox

exalt the beauty of Christ and his holiness and

our calling to be with him, and while we also

can see sin and suffering and know that something

has to happen, we are to minister to those. You

know, the worst accusation a Christian could

receive, the church could receive, would be what

this man said to Christ. Your disciples, they

couldn't do it. Not to heal somebody, because

Christ isn't asking us to do that. Not to solve

world hunger. He's not asking us to do that.

Your disciples, they did not reach out. did not

give to the poor. They did not give of their

time. They did not console. Your disciple didn't

call me when I was sick. Your disciple didn't

come to see me when I was lonely. Your disciple

gave me no clothes when I was naked or a place

to stay. We're called to do the thing in front

of us, to be involved that way. But we're called

to do something more. If we are to rise to the

image from which we were created and of which

we are to attain, the image of God, his likeness,

this is not just about action at a social level.

Who was this preacher I quoted? Anybody recognize

him? That's Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. But what

he couldn't go on to say, and what he did not

go on to say, is that Jesus Christ gives us the

two things we need in order to cast out evil,

first from ourselves, and maybe in our community.

And maybe then we can reach out. You know, people

want to solve all the problems of the society

right now. But we can't do two things, which

are absolutely necessary, without which, our

Christian faith will become irrelevant to us.

And what are those things? The Lord was very

clear. Lord, why could we not cast this out?

This only comes out, he said, by prayer and fasting.

Prayer, not as obligatory time set in the morning

and the evening. which we kind of power through,

and we're tired, and we've got something else

to do that day, and we have to rush through it.

No, prayer as conversation with God, and ultimately

as prayer standing in his presence, being with

him, and being enlightened by him. And fasting,

not just as something, I'm not going to have

a hamburger, but I might eat a whole bag of Lay's

potato chips. Fasting as, for the same reason,

if I'm going to play a piece of music, I practice

it to gain capacity to play it. If I'm going

to shoot baskets in a basketball league, I'm

going to practice shooting a basket so I can

hit the mark. I get the capacity to do that.

If I want to be able to sing, I have to practice

so my voice has capacity. If I want to be and

stand as a Christian in likeness and image of

God. and cast out from my own soul. He says,

all you have to do is have faith as small as

a mustard seed. That's small. It's living, though,

and it will grow. Then the mountain in the heart,

St. Ambrose of Milan said, will be made flat,

and the valleys will be lifted up, as the prophet

says. We're Orthodox Christians, brothers and

sisters. Let us attain and always keep in our

vision the beauty of Christ and our own pathway

to be in his likeness. But it won't happen, and

our faith will be irrelevant to us. And the church

might be full, or it might be empty. But without

prayer and fasting, we cannot. have the capacity

to hold God's grace within us so that all that

we need from God will be given and all that evil

that is within us will be cast out and those

whom we touch, those whom we are with, those

that we bring charity to, they will be blessed

too and as we will be. To our Lord who guides

us on the way, shows us the light of his face.

The honor and glory now and ever to ages of ages.