Holy Fathers 2020 Fr. Lawrence Margitich

Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to the Father, and

of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Spiritually

speaking, spiritually speaking, we are still

on the Mount of Olives where Christ ascended.

where he told his apostles, where he told the

Theotokos, the disciples, Lo, I am with you even

to the end of the age. And the Catochian was

saying, one of the hymns said, If he is with

us, no one can be against us. This means he is

always with us because we are united to him.

He shares our flesh and blood. And this is an

unbreakable connection. He is always with us.

And this is true even if you feel down in the

dumps emotionally and frustrated and afraid from

all that is taking place. Whether you feel disgusted

or angry or afraid or despondent or you blame

this side or you blame that side. the lord is

with us are we with christ that's what is an

important question for us and as orthodox christians

we have to not run away but we have to see experience

understand and accept that our land is experiencing

deep division and pain Again and again and again.

However it has come about, I'm not capable of

analyzing any of that. But what I do know about

is the judgment of God. If you read the scriptures,

you know something about the judgment of God.

And what you know about the judgment of God,

it means that God sets things right. He brings

justice to his creation. God's judgment is always

upon us. If we judge ourselves, says St. Paul,

then we will not be judged. God's judgment is

upon us now and always. Can't we see that violence

and brutality beget more? violence and brutality

and sin. In God's judgment, he has allowed this

to come upon us because of our iniquity and our

division and our sin and brutality, corporately

as a nation. Maybe this person or that person

has done nothing, but just as we share the same

nature with Christ, he shares with us. We share

a common human nature. All this becomes an alphabet

of sins. I listed all the sins that I could think

from A to Z, and there are plenty of them. But

if I started saying them, then someone would

ask me, well, why did I leave off this one, and

I didn't do that one? The bishops of our church,

the Orthodox Church in America, released a statement

yesterday. I'll read just a little bit of it.

We, the members of the Holy Synod of Bishops

of the Orthodox Church in America, mourn the

tragic death of Mr. George Floyd on May 25, 2020.

We too have looked before at the footage of this

episode and condemned the brutal actions that

caused his violent death. We look to the civil

authorities to bring justice. Let us be sensitive

to those that feel they're afflicted and enter

into that. I'll say something about that in a

minute. No, I'll say something now. When we sin,

when we see sin around us, when we see division

and hatred and brutality, Then we pray. And I

don't mean, oh God, please help so -and -so.

No. We pick up our prayer book. We say the supplicatory

candy, the Theotokos. We fast. I don't mean on

Wednesdays and Fridays, but I mean we fast. We

don't eat. We do prostrations. I don't mean two

or three. As many as you can do. I mean tears

begging God to help us. Now this isn't a lecture.

It's a sermon. So I'll remind you about what

I know. The sin of Cain in Genesis. God warned

Cain. He said this, Sin is crouching at your

door. Grasp that image. Sin is crouching at your

door. It desires to have you, but you must master

it. Sin is mastering us. Orthodox Christians,

we have said nothing and done nothing for our

country, hardly at all. We're a little blip.

These press releases, no one hears them because

we've made no impact, because our faith is weak,

because we've not lived the gospel the way the

Lord has given it to his apostles and disciples.

We've watered it down and we end up blaming other

people for all our problems rather than saying,

Lord, this has come upon me for my sins. Sin

is crouching at the door. If we are Christians,

we're responsible for all and everyone. This

is the teaching of St. Silavon of the Holy Mountain.

And the wrath of God is coming upon us. What

is the wrath of God? God is love and good and

long -suffering, merciful. His wrath is when

he lets the human anger and pettiness. He doesn't

have any of that. But he lets us have our way

when we go down that road and we don't turn to

him. This is the wrath of God. He lets man go.

He hands him over. He abandons him for maybe

a little while. So we repent. If we don't repent,

then our choice of evil multiplies. And the moral

evils to which God has delivered a heart of heart

appear to be very vices characteristic of our

own times and days. You've seen the news. O Lord

Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon us

and on thy world. Pray, my brethren. Pray for

our land. Pray for the people that feel aggrieved

and abused and support them. If you don't have

love from God, then you can't know how to support

them. If we don't have love for God, we're hopeless

after all we've been given in the Holy Church.

What's our approach? Listen to the words of St.

Cosmas the Aetolian, who lived his life under

the repression and oppression of the Turkish

-Muslim authorities in Greece. He says this,

Even if we perform upon thousands of good works,

my brethren, fasts, prayers, almsgiving, even

if we shed our blood for Christ, we don't have

these two loves, the love of God and the love

of brethren, but on the contrary, have hatred

and malice toward our brethren and blame them.

All the good we have done is of the devil and

we go to hell. But you say, We go to hell despite

all the good we do because of a little hatred?

Yes, my brother. Because that hatred is the devil's

poison. And just as when we put a little yeast

in a hundred pounds of flour, it has such power

that it causes all the dough to rise, so it is

with hatred. It transforms all the good we have

done to a devil's poison. Through the prayers

of St. Cosmos, Lord, help us. Our situation stands

in stark, bitter, sorrowful contrast to the gospel

we heard today, which is what I want to leave

you with, which is about unity, which is about

union in Jesus Christ. God becomes man so that

we may become like God by grace, the divinity

of Christ, equal in honor and divinity and essence

with the Father, sharing our human nature. On

this Sunday, the Sunday between Ascension and

Pentecost, specifically the Church directs our

mind to this great mystery, the mystery of piety.

And we celebrate the 318 Holy Fathers of the

First Ecumenical Council who gathered in the

city of Nicaea and ended their deliberations

on May 20th, the year 325. Nicaea is now the

city of... Iznik, Turkey, 50 miles outside of

Istanbul. Nicaea is gone. The faith remains.

This tells me that the fashion of this world

and the things that are visible don't gate your

life by them. They pass. It's the things that

are invisible from God that aren't in flux but

are eternal and we set our hope and our life

on them. And I hope that when we recite the creed

in just a little while, that that incredible

thing that we've received from the 318 fathers

of Nicaea, it's been handed down to us, it's

been given to us, that we live it. Do we struggle

with it? Face the fears and the possible doubts.

Confront them. Because our faith is not philosophy.

It's not religious formula. As Father John Sheddick

said in a sermon on this gospel a few years ago,

he said it wasn't a bunch of guys sitting in

a room saying, now what do we believe? Let's

think about that. No, not this, but that. None

of that. It's not some secret gospel. It's not

hazy, mysterious. It's not a secret religion.

What was true for the apostles, what was true

for the 318 fathers of the First Ecumenical Council,

what was true for the martyrs must be true for

us too, is what the Savior said in prayer to

the Father. I have manifested thy name unto the

men, the apostles, whom thou gavest me out of

the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest them

to me. They have kept thy word. Now they have

known all things whatsoever thou hast given me

are of thee. This is what we have to do. For

I have given unto them the words which thou gavest

me, and they have received them, and have known

surely that I came out from thee. They believe

that thou didst send me, that he is the way,

the truth, and the life. How to summarize our

salvation? God became man, so that we may by

grace become as God is. Anything lasts is not

salvation. So, beloved, walk on the straight

and narrow way. Love God. Love your neighbor.

Repent of the sins of our nations. You may not

have done those sins, but we're united to one

another. Seek peace. Pursue the glory of God.

Pursue Christ. Walk on the way of the truth and

the life. This is what the Church presents to

us this day, before the Feast of Pentecost. Glory

be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the

Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to ages of ages.

Amen.