In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Today is the twenty second Sunday after Pentecost [1], and also is the day we celebrate the memory of St. Hilarion the Great. We wish many years to our beloved Archbishop Hilarion, who is down under now.

 

This day is appointed the reading of the parable of the Rich man, and Lazarus. [2] This parable is only given in St. Luke. We should understand that sometimes the Evangelists spoke about the same things, sometimes, they didn’t. Part of the reason why this was done was because they were individual human beings, and they gave their own imprint to the gospel they wrote.

 

Also, we can see better see the marvelous agreement of the gospels, because we can see how they were written in different styles, and with a different temperament, but when they speak of the same stories, they agree. They only have a little bit different perspective, since, two people can look at the same event, and both can have a true perspective. They just see different things in the event. This should make us want to read more, knowing that every gospel is different. Each story rendered is different. Sometimes all four gospels may give the same story, other times only three, or two, or one.

 

This should make us want to read more, and I admonish you — READ. Read the Gospels. Read what is necessary for your salvation, all the Holy Scriptures: the Gospels, the Epistles, the Old Testament and the Psalter. Read all these things for your salvation. You should so this every day. At least read the daily readings.

 

This parable, like all parables, has a literal and an allegorical meaning. Out Lord spoke in parables in order to convey a deeper meaning to those who wish to look into it, to those who are willing to struggle and try to learn. Those who just see the surface meaning lose out on the benefit that our Lord has intended for them.

 

This parable is particularly rich in meanings, MANY meanings. It speaks of the Jews and the Gentiles, Lazarus being the Gentiles, and the Rich man being the Jews. He makes several comparisons, and basically says that the Gentiles are at the threshold of salvation – they were laying at the gate of the rich man.

 

We also learn about the righteous and the unrighteous, how we are to act and how we are not to act. We see the endurance of Lazarus and the greediness and lack of compassion of the rich man. We learn something about how you are to act if you are rich, and something about how you are to act if you are poor.

 

Also, we learn something about what it will be like in the next life, especially for the damned. When I read what the rich man says, I am terrified. We see how it will be in the next life, both for the rich and the poor, that is, those who are rich in God, otherwise known as poor in spirit. We just read about that didn’t we? [3] We also learn something about rewards and punishments in this parable.

 

Oh, yes, indeed, we will be rewarded or punished, depending on how we live our life. This is true!

 

It is only recently, in the past few hundred years, that this heresy has come about that tries to remove responsibility from a man. Oh yes, we have plenty of responsibility. Our Lord tells us on every page of the Gospels how we are to act, how we are to live, and if we do not try to live in that way, yes, we will be judged. We can see something of this judgment in this parable. Lastly, at the end of this parable, we hear about the word of God and it must be listened to. If we don’t listen to that, we cannot be expected to be convinced by any other means, even if a man would rise from the dead.

 

The Parable begins “There was a certain rich man” [4] . A certain rich man – he doesn’t even have a name. But wouldn’t that be the way it would be? The scripture says about such a man, who is rich only in things in the temporal world, but poor in virtue, “Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.” [5] And the Lord says also, “a froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person.” [6] And then our Lord says, when He is speaking of the Judgment, “I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.” [7].

 

Isn’t that what happened to the rich man? He saw Abraham and he knew he was thrust out, and he was a man with out a name anymore. He was a man that God knew not. “His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.” [8], so says the Prophet Job. God help us, that we would not be like that, that we would have a name when eternity dawns. This man had no name anymore.

 

And he was “was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day.” [9]

 

There are two meanings here. The Jews were clothed with the law, and God’s grace toward them, and it is not a sin to be clothed with purple and fine linen, and to fare sumptuously on the teaching of God, but it is a sin to be luxurious, or to not appreciate what God has given us, like the rich man. He had plenty enough to spare, and as we see later on in the parable he KNEW Lazarus. After all, when he was in hell, he certainly could call him by name, but he never bothered while he was on the earth to even cast a glance at him.

 

”And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus [10]” , it says. Ah, this man HAS a name. God knows him. God knows him WELL. Lazarus also represents the Gentiles, and they indeed were beggars at the time, because they were as yet outside of the kingdom. The kingdom had not been revealed to them yet, and they were beggars. “Their remembrance is unto generation and generation”, that is the man who follows Christ, and he will have a name. That’s why Lazarus was named, and the rich man, the rich man who people would fawn over in this life, was nameless, faceless, without an identity anymore in the next life.

 

And it says that Lazarus “was laid at his gate, full of sores.” [11] Again there are two meanings. This gate — the Gentiles are laying by the gate, about to enter into the kingdom of heaven, right at the threshold of salvation. Harlots and tax collectors are entering into the Kingdom [12], and the Pharisees and the Sadduces didn’t know it, because they were too arrogant to see. They thought that their purple and fine linen would last into the next age, and indeed, it would not.

 

And we also have another meaning to think about here. Who is laid at our gate? Is there a beggar at our gate, whether he be a beggar for clothing, a beggar for money, or a beggar for salvation, a beggar for comfort, a beggar for consolation? Who is laid at our gate? We had better know. The rich man was without excuse, concerning this man Lazarus, because he knew him. He saw him at his gate every day, and he ignored him.

 

Also, these sores, what are they? They are sins. Lazarus was blessed, but he certainly was a sinner like you and I. The rich man was wretched, and he also was a sinner, but Lazarus’ sins were on the outside of his skin. His sores were there, so the dogs came and licked them, and comforted him. The rich man’s sins were internal. They were not out to be purged, to be cauterized, and so he died in his sins. Confess your sins, while you can, so that you need not confess them when there is no forgiveness.

 

And so, when it says that “the dogs came and licked his sores” [13] , what are we to understand by this? Do you see how alone the man was? He had no comfort. The DOGS came to lick his sores. No one else came, ONLY the dogs. He had to endure much, didn’t he? Do you see the greatness of his soul? The scripture does not come right out and say how great a man he was, but can you see, can you infer? Look at what he endured – coldness, nakedness, hunger, paralysis, loneliness, dejection, and also to see the warmth of the house of the rich man, and to see all the foodstuffs being brought in, and not to have anything to eat! And not to be warm. He endured much indeed, and the scriptures show that he did not complain one whit.

 

 “The beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom.”This beggar, he died, and to the world, it was a non-event. Someone had to grab him, because after all, he would start to smell, and throw him somewhere, into some potter’s field. No one came to pray for him. No one cared. No one knew him. The rich man might have noticed after two or three weeks, “Oh the beggar is not there anymore. I don’t have to step over him anymore. That’s good”. His death was of no consequence. It did not cause a ripple in the life of that time.

 

But he did NOT die alone, and his death was a matter of great rejoicing in the heavens, because the angels escorted him into Abraham’s bosom. What does it say about those that die who are righteous, and the appearances, both in this world, and the REAL appearances in the next? Solomon says,

 

“But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery, and their going from us to be utter destruction: but they are in peace. For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality. And having been a little chastised”…

 

Lazarus’ wounds were a little bit of chastisement mind you. Don’t look at the appearances, look at the truth! And

 

“they shall be greatly rewarded: for God proved them, and found them worthy for himself. As gold in the furnace hath he tried them, and received them as a burnt offering. And in the time of their visitation they shall shine, and run to and fro like sparks among the stubble.” [14]

 

 

So it is with the righteous when they die. The world sees a false picture, but we know the truth.

 

What is Abraham’s bosom? Of course, it is salvation. And our Lord made that comment because part of the reason he said this parable was in order to show the Jews their foolishness. And they got the message. This is one of the reasons they hated him so much, because they saw what He was saying in this parable – that they were unbelievers, and of course, the bosom of Abraham would be understood by the Jews to be salvation. After all, He said to them in another place, “I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom” [15], the Jews, those who did not understand, those who did not WANT to live according to what they had learned, “shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth”. [16]

 

The East and West represents the Jews and the Gentiles, the Greek, and everyone else. Salvation was being made manifest for everyone, and it was before the eyes of these proud Jews, and they DIDN’T SEE IT.

 

Then it mentions the rich man in this parable. ”The rich man also died, and was buried.” [17] . Period.

 

He died alone, brothers and sisters. Oh, I am sure there was a great fanfare. I am sure there was a GREAT funeral for him, and there were orations about him, and he was buried with great pomp and circumstance. And there were probably paid mourners who were weeping, and playing their horns, as the Jews were wont to do to show how much they loved him. And yet, so many of those people that were saying those things were rejoicing, because after all, he probably was hated by his servants. There were probably people who owed him money and thought, ”Now this is wonderful. Now that he has died, I don’t owe him anymore. I am sure glad he died before me”. And there was probably someone who said “Ah ha! I can take what he had, and add it to my larder, because he is gone now, and I can appropriate his goods.”

 

David says, “Their graves shall be their houses, unto eternity”. This is not the mansion [18] that our Lord speaks of. That’s the house that I want to live in. “Their graves shall be their houses, unto eternity”. The Lord will say to him, “Your feasting is finished, your name is blotted out of the book of life. And I DON’T know you.” And that is what happened to the rich man.

 

“And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.” [19]

 

Oh yes, there are actual torments, and these torments are, shall we say, the “would-ofs” the “could-ofs” and the “should-ofs”. We will know what we should have done when we die. May it be that we will rejoice, because God will say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant”. He is far off. He sees Abraham afar off, in brightness. He is in murk, and he sees the light afar off. He is far removed. And He sees Lazarus. Notice that Lazarus does not see him. Lazarus was in bliss. He did not see him. Those in the light have trouble seeing into the darkness, don’t they? But the people in the dark can see into the light. Lazarus was unencumbered by the knowledge of the Rich man’s situation.

 

Don’t let the Devil trick you now. I think one of the tricks that he has, especially for people that are converts, living in an unorthodox country, and where we have family, perhaps children, our spouse, brothers, sisters, parents that are not of the Orthodox faith or are even far away from anything even remotely resembling Christianity is this. We worry and we fret about them, and wonder, what will it be like when we die.

 

I have had this temptation, wondering how can I be happy if I know that my father or mother is not in heaven. Well, in heaven, you will have understanding, because all things will be revealed. You will be at peace. You will understand then. You don’t understand now, but you will understand then. Now we cannot fully understand. So don’t let the Devil trick you. Save your soul, because if you don’t save your soul, how can you help anyone to save theirs? And pray also for your mother and your father, your sister and your brother.

 

And the rich man, or we know him as the poorest wretch don’t we? says, “send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.” [20]

 

He who denied even a crumb to Lazarus is denied even a drop of water for his tongue. What a state he is in now!

 

Instead of music, he hears groaning.

Instead of the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, he is in darkness.

Instead of drinking and carousing, and eating to his fill, he has thirst, and hunger, burning thirst. Instead of gaiety he has despair.

This is the state of the man!

 

The Words of the Law were in his mouth. He was a Jew! I am sure that he went to synagogue, and that he said some prayers, and gave some alms for appearances sake, but the things he said, that he didn’t believe, they burn him now! That’s what is burning his tongue, you know. That is why his tongue is so hot, and parched, because he didn’t do what he said. He said he believed something, but he didn’t really, because he did not act like it.

 

The Lord says some things about these people, who are knowledgeable, but do not do His commandments,

 

”Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid” [21].

 

These wise men, so called, are those who trust in their riches, and their gaiety, and their feasting, and have not compassion, and their wisdom, and their prudence is hid in HADES, and their name is FORGOTTEN. The Lord says to us on every page of the scripture, “Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? [22] And the rich man is exactly like this kind of person: “He that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.” [23] And that house was forgotten.

 

And Abraham said to him, “Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. [24]

 

Abraham said to him, SON! Ah, this is a person who was in the church, this is one of those tares that grew up. Oh yes, there will out and out pagans in hell, and idol worshippers, and yet, there will also be those who call themselves Christians, those who call themselves good Jews. Abraham recognized, “Yes, you are one of us, and I call you Son, but that doesn’t do you any good now, because the place of torment is reserved for those who do not do the commandments, whether they are sons, or aliens” .

 

And He says that “ that thou in thy lifetime receivedst THY good things”.

 

In English, we really cannot see this distinction, but in the Slavonic, and Greek, this word “receivest” has a connotation of “receive because of what you have done”. What does it say in the other scriptures today, in the usual reading for venerable fathers, men who fasted and prayed, and became great Saints? St. Paul says “He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” [25] He reaped what he sowed, because he sowed nothing. So he had nothing. He was naked in the next life, and without comfort.

 

And likewise, Lazarus received evil things in this world, evil in appearances! But our Lord has something to say about that in the other Gospel as well, because He says,

 

“Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled”, not NOW, but in the kingdom you will be filled! Be patient!. “Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.” [26], and run to and fro, like sparks among the stubble.

 

So Lazarus had evil things and the rich man had those things that he thought were good things. And he made a trade, like Esau made. [27] He traded a pot of lentils for is birthright, is what he did. He made the choice. He decided what he wanted, and we indeed can make that choice also, brothers and sisters. We can decide, when we want our good things? Do we want them now, or do we want them in the kingdom? You can have good things now, according to your abilities, you can have everything you want. But you will have nothing in the Kingdom if you only pursue temporal happiness now. Lazarus punishment was only for a moment, only for a short time. He suffered grievously for only a short period, and then he had eternal life.

 

And Abraham then says to the rich man, to explain to him why he has no help, no comfort, no chance: “between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.” [28]

 

Oh yes, hell is permanent and real! And I tell you, the gulf was made by the rich man. He dug his own pit, and jumped into it, and he has no recourse after jumping into that pit. And see what he understood? The rich man knew what he had done! The rich man repented, he wanted to make amends. He was not a man with absolutely no good feelings whatsoever.

 

He said, “I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. [29]

 

His memory is all preserved! He remembers his brothers. He remembers how they act. He knows Lazarus. He knows Abraham, and yet he had never met the man! He never met him at all, because he never cared about the things he said, did he?

 

The senses in the next life are finer and stronger. We see and we understand more, we calculate more quickly in the next life, when we are unencumbered by the flesh. Indeed, even those in Hell have finer senses, so that they can more exquisitely feel their pain.

 

Do you see how terrifying this is? All their passions are still preserved, but there is no fulfillment for their passions. His thirst for liquor will never be fulfilled, his thirst for women, for song, all of it will go unfulfilled and will GNAW at him, and hurt him, and cut him, for eternity! “Their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”^[30], it says in the scripture. And that is the worm, brothers and sisters! Our passions are the worm! They will eat at us, unless we exorcise them now, so that we will be unencumbered by them. And in the next life, every knee shall bend [31], and all things shall be made known. Those in Hades, they will know, they will see Father Abraham, and this will make their pain even more real and more exquisite.

 

And Abraham says to him, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them”(the word of God). “And he said, Nay, father Abraham…”.He knew his brothers because he was one of them. “… but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”. [32] And the Jews certainly heard this, and it angered them, and just increased their foment, and their desire to put him to death.

 

Why is it some men will not be “persuaded”, whether by the Word of God, or even obvious miracles? Certainly most people here in America would say they “believe” in God, and even call themselves Christians, and yet so many are not really “persuaded” to live as Christians. Why is this so?

 

It is because they do not understand that the Christian life is a moral life, with moral change and amendment a necessity.

 

The rich man, like so many in this life, said he believed, but did not change. He was not compassionate. His wallowing in luxury dulled his senses, and he perished in worldly splendor. Lazarus, the blessed one, endured with patience and was saved. May God help us to endure all things, and to change ourselves to be like Him, to love, to be patient, eventually to see Him in paradise.

 

Amen

Luke 16:19-31

 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: {20} And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, {21} And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. {22} And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; {23} And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. {24} And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. {25} But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. {26} And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. {27} Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: {28} For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. {29} Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. {30} And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. {31} And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one

 rose from the dead.

 

Priest Seraphim Holland   St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, McKinney, Texas

 

This and other Orthodox materials are available in from:

 

This homily is at:

http://www.orthodox.net/sermons/pentecost-sunday-22_1996+the-rich-man-and-lazarus_luke16-19-31.html

&

http://www.orthodox.net/sermons/pentecost-sunday-22_1996+the-rich-man-and-lazarus_luke16-19-31.doc

 

New sermons, commentaries, etc  are posted on our BLOG: http://www/.orthodox.net/redeemingthetime

Archive of commentaries: http://www.orthodox.net/scripture

Archive of homilies: http://www.orthodox.net/sermons

 

To receive regular mailings of sermons, and scriptural and services commentary and other things throughout the church year, read our blog “Redeeming the Time” (http://www.orthodox.net/redeemingthetime). You may also subscribe to the RSS Feed or receive its postings by email.

 

Our parish Email list ( http://groups.google.com/group/saint-nicholas-orthodox-church) also has all the latest postings from our website and blog; everyone is welcome to join.

 

All rights reserved.  Please use this material in any edifying reason. We ask that you contact St. Nicholas if you wish to distribute it in any way.  We grant permission to post this text, if completely intact only, including this paragraph and the URL of the text, to any electronic mailing list, church bulletin, web page or blog.

 

 

This Sunday - Nov 1 2009 ns is the 21st Sunday after Pentecost.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Today is the Twenty First Sunday after Pentecost[1], and it is also the day that we remember the Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council. This council established permanently what the church had always known concerning the holy icons.

 

Today, we read the parable of the Sower, which is a very familiar parable, known even to people that are not Christians. Many of these parables are really part and parcel of our culture. People even use biblical terminology and don’t even know that they are using it.

 

How do these parables affect us? There is an inner meaning and an outer meaning to these parables. Why did our Lord speak in parables? Why did He say things with a hidden meaning? The Fathers explain to us that when you look into something deeply and carefully, when it takes effort to look into it, then you develop more of an understanding. If something is handed to you and there is no effort involved in learning it, then you develop very little understanding.

 

We can see this principle even in secular life. Look at how young people can barely even read and write now, because of this television age that we are in. Information is given to them so freely it takes very little effort to find it out.

 

Also the parables are given because God does not those who are not worthy to be told things that they will be judged for. A man must do some investigation if he is to learn the deep meaning of these things, and God will judge us for what we know. God will also judge us for what we don’t know, if we CHOOSE to not know things. God will judge us the same if we know something and don’t do it or we choose to be ignorant in the ways of piety. If we are willfully ignorant, and this occurs whenever we do not try to seek out the knowledge of God’s commandments and exercise them in our life, God will then judge us in the Judgment, even if we try to say we do not know something.

 

 

What is the inner and outer meaning of this parable? There is a lot of explanation given for this parable, even in the very text of scripture itself. It is very rare in scripture where our Lord actually explains the deeper meaning of some dark saying of His. The Apostles came to Him, and they must have also come to Him many other times, and they said, we don’t understand this at all. He explained this to them, because it’s meaning is so important.

 

“A sower went out to sow his seed”.

 

Who is the sower? None other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Be careful when you read scripture — every word has meaning. The Sower went OUT to sow his seed”. He did not go “out” from the farmhouse and start to work — this “going out” is the incarnation of the Son of God. The seed is the word of God, those words that He spoke.

 

As he sowed, some seed fell by various places, the wayside, the rock, among the thorns and on good ground. It “fell”; it was not thrown. It fell everywhere equally, and these places, are the souls of men. The preexisting one, Jesus Christ, thought it not robbery to be equal to us, and became a man. And He sowed his teaching to the entire universe, equally and freely to all men. It is available to everyone.

 

There are four kinds of men described in this parable, and, three of those kinds perished. All of humanity fits into one of these categories, and the majority will perish. This is true in our age, and has been true in every age. The majority of people will not inherit the Kingdom of God, because they are not the good ground. And yet our Lord and Savior still sows His seed, and still gives the opportunity to a man to accept Him and to follow His commandments.

 

Remember the story of the talents and the man with the one talent — our Lord knew that he was not going to use this talent. Remember what a talent is? It is the grace of God, which enables us to do good works, to obey His commandments, and to learn more of Him.

 

The man with the one talent is like the ground by the wayside. The fowls of the air immediately snatch away the word from his heart, and he never really believes at all. We have all known people like that, who really have no belief whatsoever. The wayside is hard, and packed down. No seed can penetrate into it, and it is washed away, or it sits there, prey for the birds of the air.

 

The birds are the demons, which snatch away the word from a man’s heart, but only because a man leaves it out there, unprotected, and does not cherish it. The demons cannot take away the word from your heart if you hold it close to yourself, only if you care nothing for it.

 

So these men by the wayside, they have no part in salvation whatsoever, they never even bothered to believe.

 

Some of the seed fell upon the rock, and when it was spring up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. Have you every been to a glade? This is an area where there is a thin layer of soil over limestone bluffs, and only certain kinds of plants can grow. When there is a drought, everything dies, except for a few very hardy trees. There is a little bit of soil, a very small amount, but there is not enough soil to retain any moisture, which is the essence of Christ. There is just a small amount of knowledge, and not much struggle or desire, and at the merest, smallest trial, such a person falls away, and he perishes.

 

Some people are thorny ground. The thorns spring up with the good wheat, the word of God. These thorns choke out the following of the commandments. They choke out the knowledge of God, because we turn away from God, to our thorns, whatever they are, whether they are riches, cares of this world, sensual pleasures, our pride, our fear, ambition. There are hundreds of ways that a man can turn away from Christ, even though he appears to be a Christian.

 

Remember the parable about the wheat and the tares? These tares are the same as thorns. The tares are growing up right by the wheat, and except to a man who has extreme discretion and knowledge, and of course, the God-man, Jesus Christ, such people are sometimes indistinguishable to true Christians. They go to church, they have families, they may give alms, and they do everything externally just like everybody else, except they don’t have any life within them. Where their treasure is, so their heart is, and their treasure is not Christ, so Christ is not with them. Those people who are amidst the thorns have not Christ, even though they would call themselves Christians.

 

Some of the seed, a small amount of the seed, fell on good ground. And it sprang up and bear fruit. St. Luke says a hundred fold, and St. Matthew also recounts this story and shows that the Lord gave other information. Some sprang up thirty, some sixty and some a hundred fold, because not all the Saints are the same. Not everyone follows the word of God to the same degree, or the same amount.

 

I guess that is good news to me, because I don’t at this moment think that I can become like the Saints. I shouldn’t think this way, because God can change a man, if he only gives himself to Him. However, if none of us lives with the LOFTY righteousness of the Saints, God has a place for us in His mansion, since there are many rooms, if we make an effort to live according to His commandments.

 

I have said this many times before; success is not as important as your effort. If you make an effort, then in the end, paradoxically, you will be successful, because God will receive your repentance, and reward you, for some thirty, some sixty, some one hundred. May it be that we all receive a hundred fold. May we all be like the man who had five talents, and labored and increased it to ten, and then our Lord gave him an infinite amount of grace.

 

Now, how is it that we can be good ground? Isn’t that really what we should try to learn from this parable? What is good ground? Good ground has been tilled carefully, and dug, and the clods of dirt have been broken up, and it has been finely sifted, and fertilizer has been added to it, and it has been watered, and hedged round about so that animals can not get in. It has been guarded, so no one can steal the fruits it will produce. There is effort involved in having good ground. It does not just “happen”.

 

Last year, I tilled a part of my property in order to plant. I did not take care of it this year, and did not plant, and you can not even TELL that it was good ground, and it was VERY good ground after I had finished with it, but I didn’t take care of it, and so, it reverted back.

 

The same thing will happen to us. If we do not take care of the seed that is planted within us, we will revert back to the type of man we previously were, and we will allow the tares to grow in us. They will choke us out. Even if there are not tares to begin with – the seeds of tares fly through the air, don’t they? So do the demons. The tares can come into good ground at any time, and they constantly must be plucked out and uprooted with great care.

 

It is very painful to tear out many tares by the way, especially thorns and thistles, because they are sharp and they cut, and make us bleed. Regardless, we must do this work, and tear out these thorns and thistles if we are to be good ground, if indeed, we have EVEN begun to be good ground!

 

Our Savior says about those on the good ground, “But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.”

 

There are those words, that we have trouble with (I have trouble with them sometimes); “Having heard the word, KEEP it and bring forth fruit with PATIENCE.” Patience is the most difficult word in our language. The Christian life is patience, endurance. He who endures to the end will be saved. We are just beginning you know. And if indeed there is some part of our soul that is good ground, let us make the rest of it good ground, by careful labor, by backbreaking labor. And, while we are cleaning out those parts of our souls, let us at the same time pay attention to the places we have cleared, so the tares do not come in, and choke us.

 

How are we to do this? This is a task beyond our abilities! The Apostle tells us, in a marvelous way. He says,

 

“For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”[2]

 

Marvelous, magnificent words! May they be true in our lives. May we say that we no longer live, but Christ lives in us. May we live by faith, since this is the only way to accomplish our task. And what is our task? It is to know Christ isn’t it? Isn’t that what it said in the other Gospel today?[3] Our Savior was praying to His Heavenly father, shortly before He was going to go to His great passion for our salvation, and He said, “And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”[4]

 

What is knowledge? Knowledge is intimacy. Knowledge is … love. To know God is to love Him, and give everything to Him.

 

We see evidence of this kind of love even in our own relationships. The love of a husband for a wife, or a child for his mother or father, and especially the love of an infant, such perfect love.

 

But just like a child who is not so intimate with his parents after he has done something wrong – he doesn’t show up in the same room for a while, he doesn’t want to talk to them, he hangs his head, he has broken communion with them because of guilt — so it is with us, if we do not follow the Lord’s commandments. Then, we will not be able to cry “Abba, Father”, because we will be hanging our head in shame. Or worse, I say most people don’t do that, because they cannot bear that kind of shame. Instead, they just leave God. They become choked with cares, or lusts or passions, with misplaced priorities, or they become even worse than that, and they wither away, and have no faith whatsoever. That’s what happens to most people.

 

I hope that in our church, if you forgive the expression, we beat the “odds”. I hope that all of us will be good ground, but I know that the only way that this can be possibly true is if we struggle — apart and together. We must pray for one-another, help one-another, and then, in our corner, in our closet, cry out to God each day, asking Him to help us with whatever passions we have, with whatever sins we commit. Even if we have poor attitudes, and we desire to change our attitudes.

 

Do you know that all sin, and even all action proceeds from thought? Everything we do proceeds from thought. We decide to do something, and then we do it, whether it is good or bad. So we must amend our thoughts. That is why the Apostle Paul says,

 

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”[5]

 

Train yourself! So now, if you want to be good ground, you must not add any trash to this ground. You must not add such things as impure thoughts, gossip, judging others. You can surely think of many other things that are within your heart that you do and that are affecting your ground. And if ground is left alone, and just walked over, and not cared for, it becomes the wayside. It becomes hard and the seed can no longer penetrate, and that which is in it dies, or never germinates. So we have a great labor to do, my brothers and sisters. We must continue to care for our ground carefully. And we must have patience.

 

There are two sides to patience. One is that we must be patient with our position in life, with our status, with the amount of money we make, with the difficulties we are encountering. We must not curse God or say that we should have this or we should have that. This is one kind of patience.

 

There is another kind – a very important kind of patience. Allow God to work! It takes time for Him to work. We do not know how much time we have, but the time we have is what God has allotted to us. He is going to use every moment of that time to perfect us. So, if we have trouble with our sins, if there is something that we fall into every day, then EVERY day repent of it, and be patient!

 

Be manly in spirit, and do not be like a child and run away from that sin, or rather, run away from the knowledge of that sin, since it will always be with you until you conquer it. Confront it! Confront it with sword and with shield, and with buckler, and with faith.[6] Eventually, God will deliver you. It will happen. It is guaranteed. If a man struggles to know to know God’s commandments, He will reveal them. This is absolutely certain, because in your struggling, you will be doing His commandments.

 

So, be patient, and cultivate your ground every day, every moment. However, be careful not to judge yourself. This is a hard lesson, that takes us a long time to learn – to not judge ourselves, and look at the sins we are doing and to say we can never do better. In some things we do better, and in some things, God help us and forgive us, we have done worse, but the demons cannot take away from us that we are children of the Most High.

 

We are able to cry “Abba Father”, only if we are struggling to live in Christ. God lives within us. He enlightens us, He helps us, even though we are sinners. So, if He has come to us and has offered us FREELY His grace and mercy, who are we, in our pride and arrogance to say “that is not enough mercy or enough grace. I can’t change”? Every man can change. Everyone can change magnificently if he only allows God to change him, but this takes time, a lot of time.

 

I am sure, you are like me, and are very tired of your sins. They weigh us down, they are like an anchor, and they cut and they hurt. And yet, in some weird and perverted way, they are dear to us. They must be dear to us in some way, but God understands, and will help us if we make an effort, and if we are patient.

 

None of us right now are the wayside because we are at least trying to be Christians. Some of us may be the rock, some may be thorns. God knows, and this will be all revealed in the end. Even if you have very little soil right now, and even if you are choked with thorns and cares, God will help you to become good soil. He will help any man to become good soil. He is no respecter of persons. Any man that desires will be given, freely, God’s mercy. So take God’s mercy and clasp it to your hearts. Hold in to it and cultivate it, and be good soil, and God will save you.

 

Amen.

Luke 8:5-15

 A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. {6} And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. {7} And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it. {8} And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. {9} And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be? {10} And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand. {11} Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. {12} Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. {13} They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. {14} And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. {15} But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.

 

Priest Seraphim Holland 2009.     St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, McKinney, Texas

 

This and other Orthodox materials are available in from:

 

This homily is at:

http://www.orthodox.net/sermons/pentecost-sunday-21_1996-10-14+parable-of-the-sower_luke8-5-15-galatians2-16-20.html

&

http://www.orthodox.net/sermons/pentecost-sunday-21_1996-10-14+parable-of-the-sower_luke8-5-15-galatians2-16-20.doc

 

New sermons, commentaries, etc  are posted on our BLOG: http://www/.orthodox.net/redeemingthetime

Archive of commentaries: http://www.orthodox.net/scripture

Archive of homilies: http://www.orthodox.net/sermons

 

To receive regular mailings of sermons, and scriptural and services commentary and other things throughout the church year, read our blog “Redeeming the Time” (http://www.orthodox.net/redeemingthetime). You may also subscribe to the RSS Feed or receive its postings by email.

 

Our parish Email list (http://groups.google.com/group/saint-nicholas-orthodox-church) also has all the latest postings from our website and blog; everyone is welcome to join.

 

All rights reserved.  Please use this material in any edifying reason. We ask that you contact St. Nicholas if you wish to distribute it in any way.  We grant permission to post this text, if completely intact only, including this paragraph and the URL of the text, to any electronic mailing list, church bulletin, web page or blog.

 

 

 

Resurrection of the Son of the Widow of Nain

Being  in the way of Christ

Luke 7:11-16

Day of the Glorification of St Jonah of Manchuria, Sept 20, 1996

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. Welcome to our visitors today.  It is the twentieth Sunday after Pentecost today, and on this day we read the story  of the widow of Nain, or more correctly, that of her son, who was raised from the dead by our Lord Jesus Christ [1]. 

 

This also is a great day  in our church, because Bishop Jonah of Manchuria has been glorified as a Saint. [2] The main services for him are in San Francisco and Chicago, and we sang  his tropar today, and we number him among the saints. Of course, we knew he was already a Saint, because of the miracle that occurred on the day of his death.

 

We will talk more about this after liturgy, because we will have a Molieban beseeching St. Jonah  for help, and then I want to read his life. It might be a little long, but then, after all, we do not have very long in this life, so we  must spend the time we have fruitfully.  Reading about the saints, those who inspire us to do good and avoid evil,  is one the best ways to spend our time.

 

Our Lord tended to do things in a stepwise fashion. He revealed Himself by degrees. This is a principal in the Christian life. God reveals Himself slowly, as we can  bear Him.

 

“God is the Lord, and hath appeared unto us”, so it  says. This is what the Lord did in His ministry. He revealed Himself bit by bit.  In the beginning, He was  born as a babe, merely a babe in swaddling clothes, and there was nothing spectacular about Him at all, except for those who knew how He was conceived, and that was not well known at the time. Except for those  who saw the star, and only those who were worthy saw the star, and  we know the star was an angel, don’t we, from the Holy Fathers.  It was not a physical manifestation in the heavens, it was an angel who guided the wise men  from Persia, whom Daniel had  prepared and told to expect the Messiah.

 

Our Lord, just before the miracle we have before us today, had cured the centurion’s servant . You  remember the story. Our Lord is walking toward the centurion’s house, in order to heal his servant, who is almost dead. The centurion hears of this, and send some friends to Jesus with a message. This soldier, through his friends,  with humility pronounces himself unworthy to even have Christ “under his roof” [3].

 

The friends continue delivering a remarkable message: “Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.”[4]

 

And Our Lord said, “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” [5] , and healed the servant immediately, without even seeing him. Later, this man, Cornelius,  who was a man with a good heart, was enlightened by the Apostle Peter, and that story is given in the Acts. [6]

 

Our Lord healed his servant  right then and there. He did not heal him by walking to him, He just spoke the word, and the servant was healed. A time before this,  Our Lord healed the mother in law of the Apostle Peter, when He was in her presence. [7] She was in a fever, probably not altogether near death,  but  nevertheless, very sick and feverish.

 

Do you see how the miracles progress? And can you can see why our Lord raised the dead, healed the sick, stilled the waves? All these  miracles are meant to show us who He is, so that we can believe in Him.

 

Our Lord comes into the city of Nain, right after he had healed the centurion’s servant, before which  He had delivered His sweet discourse we know as the Sermon on the Mount. We mostly think of this when it is recounted in St. Matthew’s gospel, but the Apostle Luke also records it.

 

He is walking into the city, and He  is walking along the road, just going from one place to another. People are following Him, because they heard of his miracles, they have seen them, and they have heard His sweet words. They were attracted to these sweet words. At least, they continued to be attracted, most of them, until they  heard him say such things as “I am the bread of life” [8] , and “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world”. [9]

 

Then they had trouble with Him, because He was saying things that their carnal minds could not understand. But this was, if  you want to call it so, the “honeymoon” period of his ministry. Thousands of people were thronging about, watching  our Lord’s every movement.

 

He comes into the city of Nain, and He sees a funeral procession of a man  who had been dead quite some time, because he was about to be buried. This procession passes  by Him. They coincide together. And so Our  Lord says to the woman “Weep not”, and touches the bier.

 

Who is this who says “weep not”? Who has  a right to tell a woman who has lost her only son, who is a widow, and has nothing more in this world for sustenance? Remember, in those days, to be a widow was to be truly poor. There was no financial safety net for such people. They were destitute if they had not a husband or a son. She was bereft of any help in the world. Not only had she lost her son, but she was also likely to endure a life of poverty in the future.

 

Our Lord says  “Weep not”. We don’t have the right to say “Weep not” to someone who has lost their son, but our Lord does.  Why can he say this? He  had compassion on her, and knew what she needed. He knew he would  provide what she needed.

 

He stopped the bier. He put His hand on the bier. The Fathers think this is very significant. By the way, I mention parenthetically here that when we talk about the scriptures, we who are appointed to teach , the priests, and preeminently, the bishops,  we do so with fear and trembling, and we consult the Holy Fathers. We don’t  just make things up, since scripture is not a matter for private interpretation. [10] We read from those Fathers who led lives of great sanctity, and we know some of their names. Chrysostom, St. Basil the Great, St. John the Damascene, St. Theophylact of Bulgaria,  and many other Fathers, who  agree, even in minor points of theology. We read these  fathers before we start to talk so that we do not make a mistake, and say something that is heretical,  or say  something that is not edifying, and even then, may God preserve  us and you  when we make mistakes.

 

Our Lord touches the bier. There is great significance to this action. We do not have a particular icon in the church, but one of these days, hopefully, we will have it – it is called “Sweet Kissing”. It shows the Mother of God,  with our Lord kissing her on the cheek. It is a very tender and evocative icon. It means  the same thing as what He meant when he touched the bier – His great love for humanity. After all, He became a man. He took on our flesh, not just  to show solidarity with us, not just to be an example to us, but to transform us, because He loves us. He is not an aloof God. He is right here and now, as He was right there, and He touched the bier to show us His great love and to show how  He would  transform us as He Himself had transformed His own flesh. He was made of the same stuff we are made of  you know, the same flesh, also being God, but the flesh He wore is the same flesh  as we have, or the same flesh, should I  say, as we will have in the eighth day, because He will transform us, if we live in the way. This is the way that He walked.

 

This man, this dead man, was fortunate to be in the way of Christ. After  our Lord touched the bier, He then said dogmatically, “Young man I say unto thee, arise” [11] .  He could have said something  else, perhaps a bit less dogmatic. He could have said, “Young man, be risen from the dead”, but He said “I say unto Thee, arise”. Why should He say such a thing? Because He is the Lord.  He is the One who said to Moses, “I am”. [12] He is the uncreated one. He is our Savior, and He shows us this by this miracle, and by His presence. Even those who hated Him knew that, He does speak as the scribes and the Pharisees. He speaks with authority. [13] And how did  He speak with authority? Because He was and is – authority. He is God.

 

We have a principle in the church. You cannot give what you do not have. This is very true.

 

Parents, if you want your children to grow up without passions, to be without anger, or to be obedient and God-fearing, if you are still filled with anger, or not obedient, or do not fear God, do not expect your children to learn these virtues from you. You wont be giving them what you don’t have. A priest cannot ordain. Only a Bishop can ordain. He has something a priest does not have. Christ can give us so much, because He has an abundance.

 

So He says to the young man, arise, and He gives the young man to his mother. He starts to talk, and the fathers  tell us that the reason he sat up and began to talk right away is so those around him would not think that our Lord was a sorcerer. He was not glassy eyed, he did not look like he was drunk, or on drugs. The man was completely risen from the dead, and was  ready to begin his life anew. Surely, indeed, he had much to ponder in the rest of his life. We are not told what happened to him from that point on.

 

The people who saw this miracle had a great  fear upon them. They said “ a great prophet has risen up among us, and God has visited His people” [14] . And they were correct, but they also did not know the  fullness of the truth concerning Christ.

 

Remember that God is revealing Himself to them, just as He does to us, according to what we can bear. Do you remember the story  of the talents that we spoke about recently? [15] The man who had five talents, later increased to ten, and then to eleven, and then, really, infinitely – that man had greater talents at the beginning because of his greater love for Christ. So Christ filled Him more.

 

The man started with a few talents, and went higher,. And we should start with some number and go higher, and never lose talents, and bury them ion the earth, and blame our Lord  because we do not use the grace that He has given us.

 

Remember that is what a talent  is – the grace that God gives us to follow His commandments.

 

What is  the point of the Christian life? It is to know God, isn’t it? It is to obtain our salvation.

 

And  how do we know God? By becoming like Him. We follow His commandments. It is impossible to be a Christian and not to follow  His ways, and do the things that He tells us. He says this over and over again. Every  page of scripture speaks of this. If you say you believe, act like it! Your faith is known by how you live, how  you think, how you act.

 

These people did not quite know Christ yet. They knew that He was very unique, and extraordinary, but they did not quite understand that He was the God-man, and that when He said “Young man, I say to unto thee, arise” [16], that He was the one, the Messiah. He had to show them many, many times, with many miracles, and many sweet words, and even  some did not understand until much later.

 

We have St. Paul speaking  of how he was one born “out  of season” [17], as he says. He was born out of season because he persecuted the Christians for a great length of time, and killed many hundreds of them, if not thousands, and with blood on his hands, on the way to Damascus, he was visited by the God-man, Jesus Christ, and his life was changed. [18] It took him quite some time, but we believe that he certainly made up for that time, by becoming a great apostle.

 

We can see several  things we should learn from this short passage. We can see many other miracles in the scriptures.  When we read them, do they make an effect on us, do they change us?

 

What do we see? First of  all, there is something earlier in this passage that we have not touched on, but need to, because it is very, very critical.  Our Lord touched the bier, and they that bear Him stood still. Stood still , because of obedience.

 

If we do not stand still in the Christian life, our Lord will not touch us, our Lord will not change us. We must stand still. And what  is it that we must do when we are standing still? Be obedient, and  listen to our Lord.

 

Why was this man raised from the dead?  Because he was in the way of Christ. What  is this way? It is the gospel, it is what our Lord teaches us. Preeminently, He has taught us to love, and He  has given us an apparatus as it were, to help us – the church. His body  is where we must be joined, or else we are not in the way, and God will not touch us, and will not redeem us, and will not change.

 

So all these things that we know about as Christians, such as following the fasts, because  they a prescribed for us, not by man, but by the Holy Spirit (the apostles  fasted after our Lord was gone, and taught the church to do so), the Holy services, partaking  of the Holy mysteries, reading the Holy Fathers, understanding all the doctrines and dogmas of our faith – all these things  comprise being in the way, but we surely know that they are all useless if we do not change because of them.

 

If we do not  change, it matters not what we believe, because the Devil believes. He knows. He knows  the truth of the matter, better than most of us do, and he will not change.

 

Our Lord gives us many opportunities to change. The Gospels are one continual  story after story of God showing Himself, manifesting Himself, showing His power, His wisdom. These people who did not know our  Lord yet, at least many of them would learn because they would  see other miracle, and our Lord would touch them in other ways, and they would come to an understanding. And then there are others, you know,  who, when they came to a greater understanding, rejected our  Lord. It is a mystery why one man  and another act differently with the knowledge of God.  This is something we do not know and cannot understand, only God knows – why some reject the truth even though they believe it. This is a hard  thing to understand, and a hard thing to know.

 

The bishop that we glorify today, Bishop  Jonah, lived a very extraordinary life in terms of the inner life in trify today, Bishop  Jonah, lived a very extraordinary life in terms of the inner life ihe church, but  very pedestrian in it’s outer aspect. He died very young, before he was forty. He died of typhus, just like anybody else, with a fever.  He had only begun his ministry in  Manchuria. He was there about three years, and yet, he left an indelible print upon the Russian people and upon the church because he invested in young  children, and those that had fallen away from the faith. Even to this day, surely you can find priests, and those who have lived pious lives or come back to the church because of his ministry. He only died in the late twenties.

 

His life did not look extraordinary to someone who would not be looking very carefully. This woman of Nain did not have an extraordinary life either, and yet extraordinary things happened to both of them.

 

The woman had her  son raised from the dead, merely because her way coincided with Christ. Bishop Jonah gave  his legs to a young boy who had lost the use of his, the night he died. He appeared in a dream to the boy and said, take my legs, I don’t need them anymore. This is one of the  signs by which we know that he is sanctified and that God has received his repentance, and numbers  him among those who please Him.

 

I want you to realize again , there was nothing extraordinary about his life externally. He just worked hard. He worked  in an orphanage. He took care of children. He preached. He taught. He labored. He administrated. In the midst  of all his work was Christ. He was a man with great love, and when you hear his testament and his life later on, you will agree that he is certainly numbered among the saints.

 

We can learn something from his life, so plain on the outside, or from the widow of Nain, that our life is just to follow Christ, simply and without pretense. God will indeed do miraculous things to  us, if we just live as He has told us.

 

This is very simple, a lot  simpler than we want it to be. We like to have things  complicated. We like to have things difficult. It is very simple. Christian, what  are you to do? You are to struggle to know Christ, and to know yourself. You are to struggle to  love those who hate you.  You are to struggle to learn God’s commandments, which are sweet, and to follow them.

 

You are not just  to say that you believe, because that just puts you in the same league with the devil, but you also must follow what you believe.  And you are to keep the fasts, you are to worship in the  services with fear and with trembling, and with awe, you are to  prepare yourself carefully for the mysteries. You are just to go on with your daily life, imbuing  it with Christ, Who lives within you.  If indeed, God ever gives you a mountain to climb, and some great work to do, then you will know it., And it will happen. Great works begin with very tiny beginnings.

 

When Bishop Jonah went to Manchuria, the people there were  very faithless. He would begin the divine liturgy, and nobody would show up until after the Cherubic  hymn, but he persevered. And his preaching was powerful. People saw something in this man that attracted them, and this something, of course, was Christ. So as he continued serving and preaching, in a very short while, the churches were filled to overflowing, and he was able to come  up with vast sums of money to create orphanages and schools.  At that time, the Russians in China that had been exiled were quite poor. There were children that had been sold into slavery, women being sold, dysentery, and disease … and typhus, from which our saint died. There were very  bad conditions. Bishop Jonah waded into those conditions and changed people. He made people  to see what it is they should do with their life, and follow Christ. He just did it by  being a Christian, by believing what he was doing. By laboring.

 

I don’t know why this  word “labor” is misunderstood so much among those that call themselves Christian today. Perhaps the greatest heresy of our day, and of all time is the divorcing  of … belief from action.

 

This is greater than the heresy  of Arianism, which if you are a student of heresies, and you should be, as a Christian, so you can know how to avoid them, leads to this great heresy,  since Arianism separates the flesh  from the spirit. We Christians don’t do that! The flesh and the spirit are joined. So as we believe, so we should act,  but so many believe and act differently, and have no qualms about this. This heresy has infiltrated all levels of life.

 

We cannot have this heresy  in our life! We must follow what God has taught us, or we cannot call ourselves Christians. And if we follow what God has taught us, most days it will not be spectacular. We will have struggles, we will be victorious in some, we will fall in others.  There may be some passion or sin that has a hold on us for a long period of time, and we fall again and again and again. 

 

How in the world can we say that we are making any progress when that happens? Oh, indeed, we are making progress! God wants us to be patient, to endure and to struggle. But we must struggle in truth, according to  what has been revealed in truth! If we struggle in something that  is not true, then it is of no benefit to us, except perhaps, that when we come to our senses, we will be ever grateful to God that He has delivered us from our previous life, before we were  Orthodox.

 

Let your way be in Christ’s way. This is the meaning of this scripture for today. Let  your way be in Christ’s way, follow what He teaches you. And when He touches you, stand still and listen. Listen to what He commands you to do. Don’t consider anything He says to you, through His church, to be a suggestion. The young man did not consider our Lord’s words to be a suggestion when He told him to arise. Nothing our Lord tells us is a suggestion. It is an order, from a king.

 

Check yourselves every moment, which way are you proceeding on? If you are proceeding on the way that  is Christ’s, then He will fill you.  He will change you, He will  enlighten you, He will raise you from the dead. If you deviate from that way, whether it be by incorrect belief, or pride,  or not trying to struggle against your sins, then you will not meet Him, because He will not be there. Stay on the way of Christ. Stay on the royal path. And then stand still, and listen, and God  will help you.

 

Amen.

Luke 7:11-16

 

And it came to pass the day after, that he went into a city called  Nain; and many of his disciples went with him, and much people.    7:12  Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a  dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and  much people of the city was with her.    7:13  And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto  her, Weep not.    7:14  And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still.  And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.    7:15  And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him  to his mother.    7:16  And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a  great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his people

 

Priest Seraphim Holland      St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, McKinney, Texas

 

This and other Orthodox materials are available in from:

 

This homily is at:

http://www.orthodox.net/sermons/

 

New sermons, commentaries, etc  are posted on our BLOG: http://www/.orthodox.net/redeemingthetime

Archive of commentaries: http://www.orthodox.net/scripture

Archive of homilies: http://www.orthodox.net/sermons

 

To receive regular mailings of sermons, and scriptural and services commentary and other things throughout the church year, read our blog “Redeeming the Time” (http://www.orthodox.net/redeemingthetime). You may also subscribe to the RSS Feed or receive its postings by email.

 

Our parish Email list ( http://groups.google.com/group/saint-nicholas-orthodox-church) also has all the latest postings from our website and blog; everyone is welcome to join.

 

All rights reserved.  Please use this material in any edifying reason. We ask that you contact St. Nicholas if you wish to distribute it in any way.  We grant permission to post this text, if completely intact only, including this paragraph and the URL of the text, to any electronic mailing list, church bulletin, web page or blog.

 

Mat 21:33-44

 In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.[1]

 

Today is the 13th Sunday after Pentecost.  We hear the parable of the vineyard on this day.  It is also the Church New Year, being September 1.  Also on this day we commemorate St. Symeon the Stylite and his mother, Martha, so we have many feasts today.

 

All Scripture helps us to learn about God.  It gives us promises.  It teaches us how to live.  It teaches us how not to live by giving us the opposite example.  It also gives us a pattern and a role for living. 

 

Today, in this parable about the vineyard, we can see all these things.  On the surface, there is a strong rebuke of the Jews, because of their rejection of the Messiah.  Some of the Jews were the ones, of course, that were the husbandmen who killed the Householder’s servants and even His son.  The Jews understood this when He rebuked them.  Have no doubt about it.  This was one of the things that led them to plot to kill Him. 

 

We not only see the negative example of the Jews, but also a pattern for how to live.  If you look at how carefully God created the vineyard, and His continual entreating of the householders and what he required of them, you can see that this is, in microcosm, the Christian life. And you can see how to live and how not to live.  And then, with a little explanation, with an understanding of the mind of the Church of what fruits are and what some of the symbolism is, you can see how this parable doesn’t just apply to  the wicked Jews who killed the Savior.  It applies to us, who are wicked if we do not do the work that we are called to do in the vineyard. 

 

Now, there’s also a marvelous connection between this Gospel and the Gospel we say for St. Symeon who is a venerable Father[2].  We say this Gospel where at the end it says,

 

"My yoke is easy and My burden is light.  Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden."[3]

 

There is a connection between these words, "Take My yoke upon you" and what God told the householders to do.  It’s quite simple.  God gave us everything we need for our salvation.  It is natural labor.  Not natural according to the natural man, but natural according to the heavenly man, which is who we are supposed to be becoming. 

 

Let’s see a little bit about this parable - it is rich in symbolism - and then see how it applies to us. 

 

"There was a certain householder which planted a vineyard and hedged it round about and digged a wine press in it and built a tower and let it out to husbandmen and went into a far country."[4] 

 

If you read from the Fathers you can see what these things mean.  The Church has understood them for many, many hundreds of years now.  The Householder, of course, is Jesus Christ.  The vineyard is the Jewish people, and by extension, the New Israel -Christians, the Christian Church.  Blessed Theophylact says that everything described is spiritual.  He created a vineyard with everything necessary for our sustenance and for our salvation.  A vineyard bears sweet and juicy grapes that are not only tasty for the palate, but are good for the body and, by extension, this vineyard is good for the soul. 

 

There is a hedge round about the vineyard.  What does a hedge do?  It protects from marauders, from thieves and from wild animals.  It keeps that which is undesirable, and even evil, out.  The vineyard is the Church.  And the hedge that goes round the Church is just like the sides of a boat, which is another image of the Church - the Ark. This is the Law, the Law of God.  This is our tradition.  Our Holy Tradition: our fasting, our services, which are so full of meaning and beauty, our way of thinking, confession, the grace of baptism - all of these things and many more are the hedge that goes round about the Church. 

 

The winepress is the altar.  Sacrifices are offered on this altar.  The Jews would have thought of the sacrifices of bullocks, but we think of the sacrifice that the God-Man has given to us and of the Body and Blood of Christ offered on this altar.  And the tower within the hedge is the temple. It is high, to be seen by all, and to be a light for all.  And the temple, or course, must be within the hedge because the True Faith is only within the Church.  And it is hedged round about keeping away heresy and unclear ways of thinking and acting, no matter what they are. 

 

There are two meanings regarding the husbandmen.  First of all, the Jewish teachers were the first husbandmen all throughout the ages.  And there were good husbandmen, but there were a remarkable amount of bad ones.  Later, Christian bishops, priests, deacons and indeed, all of us, because we are a holy priesthood, a holy nation, and peculiar people, so says the Apostle Peter.[5]  We are like husbandmen now because if you see, later in the parable, the vineyard was taken away from the first husbandmen.  They were not worthy of it.  And it was given to other husbandmen, that is the universal Church, through the calling of the Gentiles. Now we are of that vine and of that body, if we choose to live according to the way God has taught us.

 

Now, God, the householder, went into a far country.  What does this mean?  It means God’s long-suffering for us.  It means that He is slow to judge us and quick to hear our repentance.  He is not slack concerning our salvation, but He is patient with us,[6]  however, when a person goes on a long journey, they return from that journey eventually.  And when He returns that will be the end of the age.  That will be the judgement.  So God is patient.  And God might seem, occasionally, because of this patience, to be far away from us.  "He doesn’t see", so we sometimes lie to ourselves.  Indeed, He sees all, and He is patient.  But there will come a time of reckoning.

 

So we must not be slack concerning what we have been told to do just because He is not on top of us as a taskmaster with a whip, telling us every moment what to do.  We must indeed be mature in Christ and live according to the Gospel without compulsion.  Remember some of the other things that are in the Gospels.  The prodigal son went into a far country and came back.  In that case the country means something different.  Remember the foolish virgins.  Their master went away and He was late, so they thought, in coming and five of them let their oil go out.  They did not have works of mercy and of devoutness and of desire and they were left out when the Bridegroom came to the great feast.

 

Be careful, brothers and sisters.  Life has a sort of narcotic quality to it.  We’re so busy with living.  We’re so busy with the things we need to do (or think we need to do). We forget so often, God is merciful and allows us time. Time to become like Him.  Time to repent of our sins.  Time to grow in knowledge of Him.  Time to grow in perfection. This is the purpose of our life.  Not time to acquire anything, or for pleasures, or for entertainment, or all the other things that are craved in our industrial society.  We must watch.  Jesus said it to us.  He said to His apostles and to us, "Watch, therefore, for ye know not what hour the Lord shall come."[7] 

 

So, the Master of the house is in a far country.  But He still sees all.  And He is patient.  And that patience should spur us to action knowing that we have a little bit of time to work out our salvation.  It should make us zealous.

 

Let us think for a minute of this image of the vineyard.  The Master of the house has given us everything necessary and he has hedged it off so that all which is evil cannot get in.  As long as you are within the vineyard you are safe.  As long as you are within the Ark you are safe.  All the things in the vineyard are there for a purpose: the altar, the tower, the trellises, the land, and the crops. We are given these things in order to work.  What are householders to do in the vineyard?  Are they to lie in the sun?  Are they to daydream their days away?  There is work to be done in the vineyard!  There is honest labor and growth to be accomplished in the vineyard, and gradual growth in the knowledge of God.   And as we grow in the knowledge of God, we grow in becoming like God in morality. 

 

"And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. {35} And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another."[8]

 

In fact this happened twice, and then He sent his Son.  The "time of the fruit" is the years of the prophets, according to the Fathers.  They announced the coming of the fruit many, many times.  And God sent His servants to receive the fruits of the vineyard, that is our obedience and growth.  That is all we are asked to do, to tend the vineyard.  We’re given all the tools and everything necessary just to be obedient.  That is what we are asked to do and to grow in the knowledge of God.  God counts as His gain our gain and knowledge of Him. 

 

So these householders, these terrible wicked men, given all of these things for their salvation, thought of it as theirs instead and grasped it, and killed the prophets.  Isaiah was sawn in half.  Zachariah, father of St. John the Baptist, was killed between the temple and the altar.[9]  St Elias was hounded.  So many of the others were killed, tortured in various ways because the husbandmen would not be obedient to the Master of the house. 

 

"But last of all he sent unto them his son saying, ‘They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir.  Come let us kill him.  Let us seize on his inheritance.’  And they caught him and cast him out of the vineyard and slew him."^[10]

 

The coming of the son is the Incarnation.  God comes to His own vineyard, which He had created for us.  And when He was cast out of the vineyard, this was a prophecy of how He was to be killed because, indeed, He was killed outside the gates of Jerusalem, cast outside the vineyard.  Jerusalem is a metaphor for the Church, and He was also cast outside the guileless will of the people.  He was killed by the wicked householders outside of the Law, outside of the vineyard, which was hedged round about.

 

Now, there is an important question which asked, "When the Lord, therefore, of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?"[11]  He came looking for fruit, you know.  He came looking for obedience.  He came looking for someone who had used His gifts, the talents that He had given properly.  Some actively opposed Him, and perhaps there were other householders who were not so wicked, just misused the vineyard and did not work, but then again did not lift the hand to stop the killing of the prophets or of the Son of God.

 

The Jews hearing the parable did not yet that is was about was about them. We can see in St. Luke that they did understand eventually because they said,

 

"He will miserably destroy those wicked men and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen which will render him the fruits in their seasons."[12] 

 

Then when Christ said something that made them understand, it was them - they said, "God forbid!"  Well, they had already said it.  They had prophesied what would happen to themselves and all those who do not labor in the vineyard with honest work. 

 

Let us look carefully at this phrase, "…render him the fruits in their seasons."  There is fruit to be rendered.  To be a Christian is to have an obligation.  You have accepted God’s grace, and baptism.  You must work now in the vineyard.  Our Christian life is labor. 

 

I’ve said it a thousand times and I will say it a thousand more times if I have breath.  The great heresy of our age is that one can have belief without labor.  It is not true.  The Christian who laments his sins knows that he must labor to cease doing them. The Christian that loves God and is thankful for what has been given desires to labor in the vineyard and picks up his spade and digs, and a hoe and hoes away the weeds from his soul so that it will be bright and shiny and will be able to grow. 

 

We have everything we need in this vineyard and it is hedged round about and yet we, in our foolishness, sometimes cut through the hedge.  That’s what we do when we sin, you know.  That’s what we do especially when we have incorrect attitudes about the Christian life, because from incorrect attitudes comes sinful behavior and we open the hedge.  And if we open it wide enough, marauders will come in.  This is happening in our beloved Church, even as we speak, these days.  And it is something that should make a Christian lament.  We currently see so many opening the hedge to marauders by false doctrines, false ways of life, false practices that are being touted as Orthodox and we know that they are not. 

 

The fruit that the Lord wants is the knowledge of Him in our souls.  And a necessity - if the knowledge comes then the action will come too.  A man fools himself if he thinks he knows something about God and he doesn’t live morally.  Do not mistake the time the Lord has given you for your own personal security. You must bear fruit.  It is a requirement.  Now, you need not bear fruit like St. Symeon did.  He would stand in prayer from sundown until the 9th hour (that’s 3 in the afternoon).  And then he would counsel people until sundown from that time. And he did this for 80 years on a pillar.  He had clairvoyance and humility and all manner of spiritual gifts.  He bore fruit abundantly.  We must have humility and realize we cannot reach such heights.  But we must stay in the hedge to bear the fruit that God desires and requires of us. 

 

How do we do this?  It’s simple.  The things I’ve told you over and over. And the things I tell myself over and over, because it is only possible to do spiritual works by making a beginning; keeping the fasts, accepting the Church’s authority over you, in the way you live, even in the way you think, the way you act, going to the services, fasting, praying, giving (alms-giving) what is God’s to God, and work in the vineyard. 

 

Know that your purpose is to know God.  It’s to become perfected.  It’s to ascend in knowledge and in action.  Those two swords, when Christ said it was enough, when someone said, ‘here are two swords’[13], knowledge and action.  Those are the necessities for salvation.  Anytime you sin you break down the hedge.  So you must rebuild it as rapidly as possible.

 

May God help you in staying within the vineyard and in working out your salvation.  Now remember, in the vineyard, there is a product of a vineyard and it is grapes, and fruit.  Now, if you are in the vineyard and you do not participate in producing fruit then you will be cast off.  Have you ever seen grapevines burn?  It is mentioned when they tried to burn the Three Holy Children.  The wood that comes from a vine, like grapes, when it dries out, burns incredibly rapidly and with great heat and intensity.  This is what will happen to those who cast themselves off the vine by not laboring.  So now we see.  We come to the end of the meaning of this parable.  Apply it to your life.  Work in the vineyard, brothers and sisters, and struggle for your salvation and understand that every moment God requires of you fruit.  May God help you to attain salvation.  Amen.

 

Matthew 21:33-44

 

Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: {34} And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. {35} And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. {36} Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. {37} But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. {38} But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. {39} And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. {40} When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? {41} They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. {42} Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes? {43} Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. {44} And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

 

 

 

    

 

Priest Seraphim Holland 2009.     St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, McKinney, Texas

 

This and other Orthodox materials are available in from:

 

This homily is at:

http://www.orthodox.net/sermons/pentecost-sunday-13_1998+the-parable-of-the-vineyard.html

http://www.orthodox.net/sermons/pentecost-sunday-13_1998+the-parable-of-the-vineyard.doc

 

 

New sermons, commentaries, etc  are posted on our BLOG: http://www/.orthodox.net/redeemingthetime

 

Archive of commentaries: http://www.orthodox.net/scripture

 

Archive of homilies: http://www.orthodox.net/sermons

 

To receive regular mailings of sermons, and scriptural and services commentary and other things throughout the church year, read our blog “Redeeming the Time” (http://www.orthodox.net/redeemingthetime). You may also subscribe to the RSS Feed or receive its postings by email.

 

Our parish Email list (http://groups.google.com/group/saint-nicholas-orthodox-church) also has all the latest postings from our website and blog; everyone is welcome to join.

 

All rights reserved.  Please use this material in any edifying reason. We ask that you contact St. Nicholas if you wish to distribute it in any way.  We grant permission to post this text, if completely intact only, including this paragraph and the URL of the text, to any electronic mailing list, church bulletin, web page or blog.

 

 

The Epistle read for St Elijah:

Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.  {11} Behold, we count them happy which endure.  Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.  {12} But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.  {13} Is any among you afflicted?  let him pray.  Is any merry?  let him sing psalms.  {14} Is any sick among you?  let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: {15} And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.  {16} Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.  The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.  {17} Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.  {18} And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.  {19} Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; {20} Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.  (James 5:10-20)

 

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen[1]

 

Today is the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, when we read about the feeding of the 5000.  Today is also the day that we commemorate the Holy Prophet Elijah (or Elias).  We hear of a great miracle in the feeding of the 5000.  It’s full of great inner meaning, because it really points to the Church very, very clearly[2].  I would like to talk about that, and we will, later, after trapeza,, but I would like to talk about even more about something else right now, a GREATER miracle.  Christ has said to His disciples, "Greater things than these shall ye see."[3], and indeed it is true.  The great miracle I’m speaking of is one that is hidden in the Epistle for the Prophet Elias.  It mentions him a little bit in the epistle - not very much, only a sentence or two, but a great miracle is hidden in the words, and it is not that rain came or didn’t come for three and a half years.

 

It says, "Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months."[4] This is the great miracle.  It was not the drought, nor the rain after the drought, but a man with passions prayed fervently to God, and God heard him.  Something that seemingly is impossible was asked for, to keep rain from falling.  It might seem rather possible nowadays in Texas that this could happen[5].  To keep rain from falling from the sky?  We have no ability to do that.  That’s not within our province.  Can we heal the sick as is mentioned also in this Epistle of St.  James?  We don’t have the ability to cure incurable diseases, to cleanse lepers.  All these things are impossibilities to us.  We don’t have the ability.

 

The greatest miracle - the greatest miracle - that God works is when He changes a heart.  And if you see your heart start to change, if you see yourself turning to God, even if it’s only happening slowly, you can be assured that this is a greater miracle than raising the dead.  God can raise the dead anytime He wants, but for a man to truly change, this involves great effort as well as God’s grace.  It is the greatest news, the best news there has ever been, that a heart CAN turn to God. 

 

We celebrate Elias so extravagantly because he was a man of like passions as us.  You read his story[6].  He was not perfect, no not at all.  In fact, he showed great weakness even after he had performed perhaps the greatest of his signs, what most would call the greatest of his miracles.  This was when he went and rebuked Achab, and had them set up two sacrifices, one for the priests of Baal (or Baalim) and one for the True God, he gave them a little wager: We will pray.  You pray to your god and I will pray to mine, and no fire will be put underneath, and whichever holocaust is burned, He is God.  The people said, ‘that’s a good proposition’. 

 

The priests of Baal prayed the entire day through the afternoon, and Elias mocked them with great fervor and with great bravery, because these were people who wanted to kill him, and there were many of them and he was few.  Then we all know what happened.  He prayed to God with faith.  We are told that he was a man with passions now, a weak man.  And the entire sacrifice, and the twelve stones, and the water and everything, the dust, the stones and dirt was all consumed by the fire of the Lord.  And then the rain came and during this time of the rain coming, Jezebel, that name which will live in infamy, sent him a message saying my ‘gods will do this to me and more besides if I don’t have you dead by this time tomorrow.’  And what happened to Elias?  He was afraid.  It says right in the Scriptures, he was afraid.  So - yes, he has passions just like us, weaknesses just like us. 

 

It doesn’t matter how weak a man is, not if he has faith in God.  This was just a slight misstep for the prophet, because a scant 40 days later, God appeared to him in the cave - not in the wind, not in the earthquake, not in the fire -but in the still, small voice.  Elias was very worthy of receiving this; it didn’t matter that he had weaknesses.

 

Emulate Elias.  Not his fear.  We don’t emulate the saints when they are weak.  We emulate their strengths, and this is a man with many strengths, great fervor, great love for God, and because of that, he could pray and that which is impossible would happen. 

 

Now each one of us, from my experience as a confessor, I tell you, each one of us has something we consider to be impossible in our life.  If you pray with fervor it will no longer be impossible.  You’ve got to believe this.  Despite the fact that there is so much evidence in the life of the Church, we find it difficult to really believe this.  This is why we celebrate the saints, that so magnificently show what faith can do.  Whether it is stopping the heavens and starting them again, or whether it is consuming a burnt offering that is soaked in water, or whether it is giving up one’s life even in the bloom of youth, such as St.  Marina did, who was celebrated just a few days ago, this is from God changing a heart.

 

God can change your heart.  It will take an effort from you, though.  If you’re lazy, your heart won’t change.  You’ll never believe.  You’ll never really believe.  What a tragedy. 

 

We read in the Scriptures of these exploits of the saints, and is it going to be for us like watching a movie?  Watching a movie about, let’s say, the Everglades, but never being there?  Never experiencing it?  Never understanding what it’s like to be there?  The exploits of the saints are not a movie or a book for us.  They are a way of life and they lead us, if we follow the path, to the greatest of miracles - our heart changing.  Truly it excites me to think of the saints.  They are our destiny, you know.  God has shown in them what we will be like if we follow, if we live according to faith.  Even the ones that sin grievously sometimes, eh?  Even like David who combined two sins in one, adultery and murder.  And so many of the other saints that had difficulty in their lives.  But they also had great faith. 

 

We must exercise that faith, brothers and sisters.  You must believe that you can be changed.  If you believe this, then God will change you.  It’s going to take some effort on your part.  It’s going to take some pain as well, because there are things that we like that we don’t want to let go of.  We hold onto them.  We get dragged along the ground with the wild horses that are our passions, but we don’t let go of the rope.  But the first and foremost thing you must do if you are to conquer your passions - you must believe that they can be conquered.  This is just another way of saying that you must believe in the resurrection.

 

May God help you to truly have this belief, to truly know that the purpose of your life is an intimate knowledge with God.  That is your destiny.  It is the purpose of your being, and it is possible.  Through the prayers of the Holy Prophet Elias may we have firm, real, living faith in our Savior.  Amen. 

 

Bibliography:

·         Questions and Answers about St Elijah: http://www.orthodox.net/questoins/elias_1.htm

·         The end of Third Kings, and part of Fourth Kings

 

This, and other Orthodox materials are available in booklet and electronic form from:

 

This particular text may be found at:

 http://www.orthodox.net/sermons/pentecost-sunday-08_1998+feeding-the-5000-and-st-elijah.doc

http://www.orthodox.net/sermons/pentecost-sunday-08_1998+feeding-the-5000-and-st-elijah.html

 

New sermons, commentaries, etc  are posted on our BLOG: http://www/.orthodox.net/redeemingthetime

Archive of commentaries: http://www.orthodox.net/scripture

Archive of homilies: http://www.orthodox.net/sermons

 

To receive regular mailings of sermons, and scriptural and services commentary and other things throughout the church year, read our blog “Redeeming the Time” (http://www.orthodox.net/redeemingthetime). You may also subscribe to the RSS Feed or receive its postings by email.

 

Our parish Email list (http://groups.google.com/group/saint-nicholas-orthodox-church) also has all the latest postings from our website and blog; everyone is welcome to join.

 

All rights reserved.  Please use this material in any edifying reason. We ask that you contact St. Nicholas if you wish to distribute it in any way.  We grant permission to post this text, if completely intact only, including this paragraph and the URL of the text, to any electronic mailing list, church bulletin, web page or blog.