Sunday of All Saints – Several Homilies

Several homilies on the Sunday of All Saints.

One explores what “Confession” in Christ really is. It *is* many things!
Another explores what being a Saint really means.

Another has many hard words that must be heard! It describes the arduous task of confession Christ against the Spirit of this age. Check yourself against these words, and open your eyes to see this age and whether or not you are conformed to it.

In order to be a saint, we must be holy. “Saint” actually means ???holy???. In fact, we are commanded to be holy. If we don not become holy we have no part with Christ. Christ came to help us to become holy. He gave us the ability, but we must have the desire and the effort. We are not only called but also commanded to be holy. So to be a saint is to be holy. This is not the calling only of those holy ones we have on our walls, but it is the calling of every person….

Sunday of All Saints, First Sunday after Pentecost. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven

Excerpt:

“Everyone that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children or lands for My Name’s sake, shall receive a hundred fold and shall inherit ever-lasting life. But many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first.”

This describes in microcosm the life that pleases God… These readings contain not only the encouragement and this incredible joy that we should feel about the grace of God; they also contain a blueprint, a path of how to live. Not only how to live, but also how not to live. The promise is there, that also contains, very, very clearly for those who have ears to hear and eyes to see, what happens when a man does not follow Christ…Our Lord said,

“Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.”

This is a fundamental characteristic of righteousness, to confess the Lord Jesus Christ. And how do we confess Him? With our lips and with our actions; with our priorities and with our way of dealing with people; with what we say is important and what we show is important. There are some obvious things that you could have come to mind. We confess the Lord by showing that we care about Christianity, that we live our life in a moral way. The entire world has gone off unto Sodom and Gomorrah, but we cannot do this. We must have the courage to stand against it, to stand against every form of immorality and vice. This is the confession of Christ.

Now there is a new form of Christianity in name only. It’s been around now for quite a good many years. In fact, you really can see the beginnings of it in Apostolic times. But certainly, in the past few hundred years of the post enlightenment age, it has been codified that this is an acceptable way of life.

This way of life confesses Christ with the lips, but not with action, not with morality, not with the way we live, not with the way we order our lives. The new Christianity, from which the Orthodox are not immune, has a sort of dichotomy between belief and action. But there is no such thing. This is the great lie. Faith without works is dead. There is no dichotomy between action and belief. And if you do not live according to what you say you believe, then you are not confessing Christ. And we’ve been given everything we need to confess Him. We’ve been given the Holy Spirit, the comforter, Who lives within us if indeed we make a place for Him, if indeed we clean out our soul, and garnish it and sweep it out with effort and desire. And He will help us in all things. But if we do not live righteously we are not confessing Christ.

Now there are other practical things. In our modern society we are constantly in social situations. Are you afraid to make the sign of the cross before you have your dinner in a restaurant? If this is the case, you should weep and lament and pound your breast and ask God’s forgiveness for this, and do it the next time. Are you afraid among your friends or among your business associates or whomever else you come across in your daily walk of life to show your priorities and the Christian way of thinking, or do you change your priorities based upon the vicissitudes of your life, maybe so you are not in trouble, or so nobody thinks badly of you, or maybe just so that you are not inconvenienced? This is not confessing Christ, either. …

Sun of All Saints 2009. Audio Homily. I want you to be ready.

Synopsis:

In order to be a saint – “Holy” – we are commanded to become holy – we must have desire and effort, and God will help us. If we do not have this desire and effort, God will not help us, and He will have no part with us.

We must, as the Lord says. “Confess” Him. He says something great and terrible: Whosoever will confess me before me.

One must understand what it means to confess. To confess in the Lord is is to live as He taught us, to have the priorities He taught us to have. Confession involved living the tight way. You cannot confession the Lord and steal, or be an adulterer. We must confess with the lips also – stand for what is right as Christians. We live in an age where good is called bad, and bad good. Abominations are deemed healthy, and to even believe that abominations are bad is labeled as bigoted, or even mental illness.

Let’s not talks about politics, or parties, or particular people – let’s talk about the age we are in, and what we must do – who we must be – in order to confess Christ in this age. …

Pentecost If any man thirst… Three important things John 7:37-52,8:12. Text/Audio Homily

There are three very important things that are said in the gospel today. They?re right in a row. One is basically a question. The other is a command or actually, a suggestion, and the other is the result. We are celebrating today Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples, the apostles and all the rest of the believers up to and including us – the Holy Spirit Who enlightens us, Who shows us the way of life, Who speaks to us in groanings that cannot be uttered. He tells us the things of God, the things of Christ; He enlightens us. But none of this, none of this will happen unless first we consider this very, very important question. And we must answer. When you answer a question, a Christian question, it?s not something that you say once. It?s something that you answer again and again and again…

What is praying in Jesus’ name? It is not adding a suffix!

In our day, many people who believe in Christ end their extemporaneous prayers with the ubiquitous phrase: “In Jesus name”, in large part due to an incorrect understanding of this verse: “Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.” What does it means to pray in Jesus’ name? It does not mean to add a suffix to our prayers, but rather, to live according to His name, and then, of course, our prayers will be in accordance with His all-holy will. We explore this important idea.

Exegesis of the Parables at Vespers for Pentecost Numbers 11:16-17, 24-29 ; Joel 2:23-32 ; Ezekiel 36:24-28

The “Parables” for an important commemoration are read on the eve of the feast, and are usually from the OT, and they always elucidate the meaning of the feast in some way. We look at the 3 OT readings for Pentecost Vespers, which, among other things, describe the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the calling of the Gentiles, the promise of the sending of the Holy Spirit to all Christians, and a superb description of the human condition and how the Holy Spirit helps heal it. This last point may be the most important one, because of we do not recognize our need, we will not do everything in our power to have the Holy Spirit abide in us.

The Ministry of the Holy Spirit. Exegesis of O Heavenly King. Pentecost 2011

The giving of the Holy Spirit is the last big piece of our salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ became incarnate, taking on and changing our nature, teaching by word and example, and was crucified, buried and rose from the dead, enabling our flesh to defeat death. Then after 40 days He ascended, showing us that our human flesh could be with God in eternity. Then according to the promise, the Holy Spirit was given, without which our salvation would ot be possible. We look at the ministry of the Holy Sprit by explaining “O Heavenly King”, and the various names and symbols for the Holy Sprit. The “take home” message is that in order to have the Holy Spirit abide in us, since He is the Spirit of Truth, we must live according to the truth. This entails much more that only not telling a lie!

When He the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. Thoughts on Pentecost, Truth, Campus Crusade for Christ, and Monasticism

On this day of Pentecost, we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit, Who “will guide you into all truth”. (John 16:13) The following is a meditation on that bible verse, which is the most important piece of Scripture I have ever read, because it cause me to search for and find the church. I describe the road through “Campus Crusade for Christ”, which started me on the trip, and stayed behind while I pursued the whole truth and not a partial truth, and morphs into a discussion of Monasticism and morality. All these things fit together on Pentecost!

Also an explanation about “King Cosmos” in the Pentecost icon.

Published
Categorized as Pentecost

Electronic Newsletter May 29 / June 12 Holy Pentecost

St. Nicholas Orthodox Church, McKinney, Texas Electronic Newsletter May 29 / June 12 Holy Pentecost Announcements Prayer Requests Schedule of Divine Services in the Coming week Fasting in the Coming week Links related to the coming week Blessed art Thou, O Christ our God, Who hast shown forth the fisherman as supremely wise by sending… Continue reading Electronic Newsletter May 29 / June 12 Holy Pentecost

Prayer and Its Practice with Igumen Gregory Zaiens. Fundraising Russian Tea – July 17, 2011, 5-7 pm

“Prayer and Its Practice” – July 17, 2011
Speaker, Igumen Gregory Zaiens
Presented by: St. Nicholas Orthodox Church of McKinney, TX
At the Bingham House, 800 S. Chestnut, McKinney, TX
5:00– 7:00 p.m. Russian Tea,
5:30 ~ 7:00 p.m. Igumen Gregory speaks on Prayer and Its Practice
$25 per person, $20 for each additional family member. Deadline:July 2, 2011

Join us at the very lovely Bingham House in McKinney to learn firsthand about prayer practice in the Orthodox Church from Igumen Gregory Zaiens, Archimandrite of St. Arsenius Hermitage.

Proceeds to help our Church build a covered deck since our hall is too small.

Childcare provided at our Church, directly across from the Bingham House, by the youth of St. Nicholas & St. Sava – donation appreciated

Book reservations at http://orthodox.net and pay with Paypal, or send your check, made out to St. Nicholas Orthodox Church, to: Dcn. Nicholas Park, Box 37, McKinney, TX 75070

Please include a note w/your name, number attending, and childcare needed

Questions: Call Elaine King @ 214- 556-9486