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HOMILIES FOR THE TRINITY SEASON - 2008 A.D. Blessed is the kingdom of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, from this day forth and forevermore. Amen.
Homily for the Sixth Sunday After Trinity (Feast of St. Peter)-June 29, 2008 A.D.
This is one of those weeks where the Lectionary sequence exactly matches the Feast Day schedule. Last week our reading from the Gospel of St. Luke brought us to the calling of the first four Disciples, Peter, also known as Simon bar Jonah (meaning son of Jonah), his brother Andrew, plus John and James, Sons of Alpheus, called the Sons of Thunder.
Today we celebrate the great Feast of St. Peter, the leader of the Apostles. In the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions, the Feast of St. Peter is combined with the Feast of St. Paul.
Today I am going to share with you some of the Homily of St. Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome from about 441 AD to 461 AD. Pope Leo was among the first to lay claim for greater power and authority for Rome over all the others Churchs (meaning Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Constantinople) and that Leo does not acknowledge that Peter’s brother Andrew founded the Church at Byzantium (later Constantinople), as Pope Benedict XVI had done in recent years.
Interspersed into Leo’s Homily are some ancient prayers and responses of the Church on the occasion of the Feast Day of St. Peter and St. Paul from the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Eastern Orthodox traditions.
Dearly beloved, in the joy of each and every holy feast the whole world may have a share. For there is but one love of God, and whatever is solemnly called to memory, it if is done for the salvation of all, must be worth the honour of a joyful memorial at the hands of all. Nevertheless, this feast which we keep today, besides that world-wide worship throughout all the earth, deserves from this our City of Rome an outburst of gladness altogether special and our own. For in this place it was that the two chief Apostles did so right gloriously finish their race. And on this day they lifted up their last testimony, let it be that the memory of that event receives in this place the most jubilant of all celebrations. O Rome! these two who brought the light of the Gospel of Christ to shine upon thee! By the work of Christ St. Paul went from being a teachers of lies to a learners of the truth.
V. Lord, is it be thou, bid me come unto thee upon the water!
R. And Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him, and said unto him: O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
V. But when he saw the wind so boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out: Lord, save me.
O Rome, these two are thy fathers; they truly are thy shepherds! They laid the foundations for the building of the kingdom of heaven better and happier than did Romulus when he first planned your earthly ramparts, the same which he polluted with his brother’s blood [here meaning Remus, the second of the brothers who founded Rome].
It is Peter and Paul who have set on thy head [here meaning Rome] this day your glorious crown, so that you have become an holy nation, a chosen people, a city both priestly and kingly, whom the sacred throne of blessed Peter has exalted so that you have become the Lady of the world, unto whom the world-wide love for God has conceded a broader lordship than is the possession of any mere earthly empire. O Rome, you were once made great by victories and your power spread haughtily over land and sea, but your power was narrower then, won from the toils of war, than that you now have which has been laid at your feet by the peace of Christ.
V. O Peter, Thou art Shepherd of the Sheep and Prince of the Apostles.
R. God hath given unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
It was convenient for doing the work of God that the whole multitude of kingdoms should be bound together under one rule so that the universal preaching of the Gospel should find easier entry to all the people, since all were governed by the Empire of Rome. But this City, knowing not Him who had been pleased to make her great, used her power over the nations to make herself the minister of falsehoods; The tighter that Satan bound her the more wondrous was the work of Christ in setting her free.
V. Simon Peter, before I called thee from the ship I knew thee, and I have set thee as prince over my people.
R. For unto thee have I given the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
V. Whatsover thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven, and whatover thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
And so today, we celebrate and remember the great contributions of Peter, the first among the Apostles, who all twelve were teachers of the Universe, and the author to the catholic epistles of St. Peter and also, traditionally, the instructor of St. Mark in the writing of his Gospel.
Today's closing prayer come from the Orthodox prayer for the Feast Day of St. Peter and St. Paul:
“Today Christ the Rock glorifies with highest honor the Rock of Faith and leader of the Apostles, Together with Paul and the company of the twelve, whose memory we celebrate with eagerness of faith, giving glory to the one who gave glory to all.”
“O Lord, thou hast taken up to eternal rest and to the enjoyment of Thy blessings the two divinely inspired preachers, leaders of the Apostles, for Thou hast accepted their labors and deaths as a sweet-smelling sacrifice, for Thou alone know what lies in the hearts of men.”
Glory be to God for all things. Amen.
Homily for Fifth Sunday After Trinity - June 22nd, 2008 A.D.
Today's Homily is shorter than usual, owing to our practice of Reading the Litany prior to Holy Eucharist on the last Sunday of any quarter.
Our reading this morning is again from the Gospel of St. Luke, going backward in time to Luke 5:1-11
Since today’s service is already long, I am going to make the Homily short by focusing on the two lessons to be learned from today’s reading.
Here at the Chapel we have a stained glass window that tells the story of the calling of Peter and Andrew to be “fishers of men,” depicted in glass based upon the accounts in Matthew (4:18-22) and Mark (1:16-20). Both the account in Matthew and in Mark tells story simply by illustrating the calling of the first four Apostles. Peter and Andrew, the two brothers, brought along two other fishermen, the Sons of Thunder, as Jesus called them, James and John, the sons of Zebedee.
In the account of Matthew, Mark and Luke, we learn of the calling of these four fishers of fish to become “fishers of men.”
Not only does this show us Jesus building the start of His earthly ministry that would spread the message throughout the world, not just to the Jews, but it also shows us an example of Jesus’ method of reaching people. With the calling of Matthew, he used a tax collector to attract other tax collectors and government officials; here, with Peter, Andrew, James and John, he used their familiarity with fish to bring them to his side.
In the Lukan account, the fisherman had been fishing the same area without result for some time, yet when Jesus told them where to fish, their catch was so heavy that it nearly sank the boats.
The second message here is the response of St. Peter to this startling turn of events: he falls on his knees before Christ. Peter’s response was a fitting response to now knowing that he was in the presence of the Lord. For no one else could have caused such a miraculous result.
There might be a third message here, one of obedience. In a Septuagint translation, Jesus instructs them “to go out into the deep water” St. Ambrose say this instruction as signifying the depth of the mysteries of Christ, but we might also see it as evidence of divine knowledge, as Peter understood what had happened, but also that His instructions should be followed.
We should remain open to His suggestion. In Revelation 3:20, in reference to the Church at Laodicea, Jesus says: Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with Me.”
For this opportunity we should be both receptive and thankful.
Closing Prayer: (adapted from an Ethiopian Coptic Prayer of Thanksgiving)
WE give thanks unto the door of good unto us, the merciful God, the Father of our Lord and our God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, for he hath kept us, he hath brought us nigh and received us unto himself, and hath undertaken our defense and brought us unto this hour; let us therefore pray that the Almighty Lord, our God, keep us in this holy day all the days of our life and in all peace.
Glory be to God for all things. Amen
Homily for the Fourth Sunday After Trinity - June 15, 2008 A.D.
Our reading this morning is again from the Gospel of St. Luke (Luke 6:36-42).
Today’s reading takes us backward in chronology from the previous readings for Trinity Season. The scene in the reading this morning occurs on an unnamed level place at the base of a mountain. Those assembled are not only His Disciples but also crowds of people from Judea and Jerusalem but also from the coast near Tyre and Sidon. Tradition suggests that the parables in the reading were spoken somewhere in the region of Capernaum on the northwest coast of the Sea of Galilee.
Putting the reading in context, it should be noted that the scene occurs not long after Jesus had completed the calling of the Twelve and just after the short version of the Beatitutudes (the longer version described in Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount). This version is sometimes called the Sermon on the Plain. It contains several important parables.
When we hear Him urge the listeners to be merciful as the Father, meaning God the Father, is merciful and warns them that it is the Father that has the authority to judge -- and not themselves -- and here using language similar to that of the Lord’s Prayer: judge not and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.
There is in this reading an interesting bit of terminology that strongly suggests an explanation of fair marketing by the local merchants. This something Jesus employed in His teaching, putting words not just into commonplace language but in the context of daily life in the Holy Land in the first century.
He says, in the NKJV text: Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over” -- this means the way in which thea flour merchant, if he is being honest with his customer, presses down the flour, shakes it, to make it settle so that the customer is getting full measure in his purchase, where simply measuring it out without the tamping down and shaking will result in short measure.
Many traditional scholars argue that much of what Jesus has to say to us here was intended, at least in large part, for the Twelve’s ears. Verse 40 suggests this strongly: “a disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.”
We might say that Jesus is speaking to the crowd, to those who have come after them, as well as to the Disciples. The essential theological message here is the Mercy is an attribute of God not of man and that when we attempt to judge others we cannot possibly include mercy, for mercy is God’s alone to grant. Condemnation is likewise exclusive of mercy. Forgiveness can only come from a heart that is filled with mercy.
He wanted them to know these things before they went into the world to spread the message of the Gospel. But for us, we also, even today, need to renew our understanding of their meaning, which has not changed over time.
Again: judge not, lest ye be judged, for judgment is God’s to administer; forgive, if we expect to be forgiven;
The great early Christian writer, Cyril of Alexandria, noted that since Christ did not judge, it would be entirely inappropriate for His Disciples to go into the world judging others. “If the teacher does not judge, neither must the disciple, for the disciple is guilty of worse since than those for which he judges other.” This mean, he is more guilty because he has been taught better.
This is certainly true, for Jesus himself tells the Disciples to remove the plank from their own eye before lecturing their brethen on the speck that is in their eyes. What comes immediately after this scene in Luke is the admonition: “Why do you call me Lord Lord and not do the things which I say? Whosoever come to me and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like:’” going on to compare this man to one who built his house on a rock not a hill of sand
Closing Prayer: (adapted from a Syrian Antiochian Orthodox Morning Prayer):
WE GIVE thanks to thee, O Lord our God, who hast raised us up from our beds, and hast put into our mouths the word of praise, that we may adore thee and call upon thy holy Name; and we entreat thee, by thy mercies which thou hast exercised always in our life, send down now also thine aid upon those who [kneel] before the presence of thy holy glory, and await the rich mercy which is from thee, and grant that [we] may always with fear and love worship thee, praise thee, hymn thee, and adore thine inexpressible goodness; for unto thee is due all honour, glory and worship, to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto ages of ages.
Glory be to God for all things. Amen.
Homily for the Third Sunday After Trinity - June 8th, 2008 A.D. "Our reading this morning is again from the Gospel of St. Luke (Luke 15:1-10). This week’s reading is part of a scene in the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees which we started last Sunday. In our reading we hear two parables from the Master, but to get the best out of the reading we need to extend the reading into two more verses, which are the beginning of a third parable in this same set. The extended reading is verses 11 and 12, which are part of the parable of the prodigal son, a story of a man with two sons. One of the sons wanted his portion of his inheritance now and the father gave it to him. We will come back to the rest of the parable of the prodigal son in another Homily. For today we are looking at Jesus’ parable of the Lost Sheep and the parable of the Lost Coin, plus the two additional verses, 11 and 12. This morning we are going to look at the spiritual meaning we can draw from these words, which were the Master’s answer to the criticisms of the Pharisees we find in Luke 14, which was the subject of last Sunday’s homily. I can’t go farther into the text without pointing out that the parable of the Lost Sheep draws us into the inherited understanding which the Church adopted from the Jewish tradition. By this I mean the reference, in the King James Version, to the joy of the angels upon the repentance of just one sinner. In a moment we’ll go into repentance, but for the moment let’s stay fixed on the issue of the angels. Those of you who are here for Tuesday night Compline know that one of our readings is Psalm 91. Ps. 91:11, 12 says “For he shall give his angels charge over thee, * to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee in their hands, * that thou hurt not thy foot against a stone.” Christian tradition tells us that angels are created being, part of the heavenly host. As Christians, in the Nicene Creed, we say that Jesus was God’s creating force, for it was He, Jesus Christ, “by whom all things were made.” In our church our hymns sing of angels. Our stained glass windows in this Chapel show us a depiction of the Guardian Angel standing watch over the little boy and girl. Please note that many modern translations of Luke 15:1-10 do not mention angels, but simply refer to joy in heaven, which begs the question, who is it that shows such joy over the repentance of a sinner if it is not the angels? Many New Testament translators apparently think we are too rational and logical in our thinking to want to hear about angels, direct references to which are very few in the New Testament (largely in the Lukan nativity accounts, that of John the Baptist and of Jesus). Now, we turn back to the text of today’s reading. Among the Fathers of the early Church, including those in both the Western or Roman Catholic tradition, but also among those in the East under the Patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, there was general agreement on what these verses meant at the spiritual level. By the end of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth century, the explanation offered by St. Ambrose of Milan, the mentor of St. Augustine of Hippo, and himself a great leader of those who were under the Bishop of Rome, and by St. Basil the Great, Bishop of Caesarea, older brother of St. Gregory of Nyssa, and the theologian to who we owe our western style of explaining the mysteries of the Holy Trinity. St. Ambrose found in these verses (1-12) a very strong Trinitarian symbolism through the mention of three persons: verse 4, the reference to the man who had 100 sheep and lost one of them; verse 8, the reference to the woman who lost one of ten 10 coins; and verse 12, the reference to the father of two sons. For St. Ambrose and those who came after him the man in verse 4 is Christ, who “carries you on his body, he who took your sins on himself,” the woman in verse 2 is the Church “which seeks those who sin”; and the Father, in verse 12, is God the Father “who receives.”
I had been searching last week for the right words to explain this text. I found them in the writings of St. Basil the Great written almost a half century before the words of St. Ambrose: Please note that it was about the time of St. Basil that the powerful image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd with the lost sheep around his neck, was turned into an icon like the one we display in the Narthex and use on some of our Sunday Bulletins. Here is what St. Basil wrote: “Leaving those that have not strayed, the good Shepherd seeks you. If you will surrender yourself, he will not hold back. In his kindness, he will lift you up on his shoulders, rejoicing that he has found his sheep that was lost. The Father stands and awaits your return from your wandering. Only turn to him, and while you are still afar off, he will run and embrace your neck, with loving embraces, he will enfold you, now cleansed by our repentance....He says, ‘Truly, I saw unto you that there is joy in heaven before God over one sinner who repents.’” This is of course entirely consistent with the Comfortable Words from St. Paul (1 Tim. 1:15) and St. John (1 John 2:1,2) we use in our Communion liturgy to explain the purpose of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. So that you will not think St. Basil sexist in his use of male images, here is his comment on the second parable, that of the woman who lost the coin, he wrote “the good Father himself will say, “It is fitting that we should celebrate and be glad, for this my daugther was dead and is come to life again. She was lost and is found.” Closing Prayer: a catena from Ps. 119, which is part of the introduction of the Psalter text and commentary project, It seemed especially relevant in the context of a discussion of angels and repentance, because understanding of sin can come only through an understanding of the Commandments: (a catena on Ps. 119:12,18,16,48a,27a,64b,98a,105) BLESSED art thou, O Lord; O teach me thy statutes; Open thou mine eyes; that I may see the wondrous things of thy law; My delight shall be in thy statutes, and I will not forget thy word; My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments; Make me to understand the way of thy commandments; O teach me thy statutes; Thou, through thy commandments, hast made me wiser than mine enemies; thy word is a lantern unto my feet, and a light unto my paths.
Glory be to God for all things! Amen.
Homily for the Second Sunday After Trinity, June 1st, 2008 A.D. Our reading this morning from the Gospel of St. Luke (Luke 14:16-24). The scene is set on a Sabbath day, meaning a Saturday, when Jesus visits the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees (no name is mentioned). St. Luke tells us that the Pharisees watched Him closely, certainly looking for Him to make a statement they could use against Him. Before we enter the scene this morning, He has already healed a man who had dropsy (verse 2 & 4) and the Pharisees have accused Him of doing the unlawful by healing on a Sabbath day. Jesus then told a second parable involving the greater wisdom of how to seat oneself at a wedding: by taking a lesser seat rather than a better one, thus being able to offer the better seat to one who is less well off. Jesus then spoke yet another parable telling them to invite the poor and not the rich to their feasts. Just before we enter the scene, one of the men at the table said: "Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God." Cyril of Alexandria, the early 5th Century Bishop of Alexandria, thought that the man who spoke must have been a Theophany, that is, it was God the Father and that the offer meant the bread of heaven. Let us look now at both the literal and the spiritual meaning of today’s reading. The time is Supper. This may mean the Gospel author St. Luke is suggesting that what Jesus says in this parable concerns both the evening meal of that 1st Century day and but also could mean the Last Day, the Day of Judgment. In the parable, many have been invited to this feast. The host of the feast says: "Come, for all things are now ready." Many early Christians thought this supported the interpretation that Jesus meant both the present day (1st Century) and the Last Day. A literal and a spiritual reading of the text admits of the dual interpretation. Whichever interpretation one choses, it is clear that the invited begin immediately to offer excuses. They say they cannot come for specific reasons, but they mostly mean it is inconvenient, for coming would require giving up some other, more interesting, alternative: One owned a piece of land which he needed to visit. One had bought five yoke of oxen which needed to be tested. One has recently married and has other demands on his time. These three excuses could represent the demands of the world. Early Christian Fathers thought they might also represent the Five Books of the Mosaic Law; others thought the three categories represent the Gentiles, the Jews and the heretics; others thought the five oxen represented the five human senses. These are only a few of the possible connections one might draw. In the parable, the Master of the House loses patience and commands the servants to invite people off the street (the streets and lanes, highways and hedges) and of those who had originally been invited he says: "none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper." (verse 24). St. Ambrose of Milan wrote in the 5th Century that we should also take this last statement to mean that an offer has been made to the whole world, not just the Jews, who have rejected His offer. "He [Jesus] sends them to sinner, so that they should come from the broad paths to the narrow way that leads to life. He sends them to the highways and hedges. They, who are not busied with any desires for present things, hurry to the future on the path of good will." In Christian theology, the message of the parable is both literal and spiritual: In the literal sense, I think we could see the excuses offered by those invited in our own daily lives, as we decide whether to come to Church on Sunday or otherwise participate in the affairs of the Church. Each of us has earthly things we could be doing: golfing, gardening, taking a Sunday drive; sleeping late; dining out for a late breakfast or brunch; watching a race or a football game, or other similar activities; hanging around with friends. The literal message of the parable is that we have been told where our time is best spent. This makes an interesting contrast with the Old Testament lesson for the day, from Deuteronomy 20:1-9, in which, in a battle circumstance, the priest allows men to go home to young wives, fields, farms and other endeavours. These absences the priest excuses. In the New Covenant, new rules apply, and this leads us to the spiritual side of the text. Spiritually, we can take the parable to mean that we have been invited by Jesus to believe in Him as the Messiah, the unbegotten Son of God, who was Incarnate among men to die for their sins. We have choices: We may accept the offer, which is conditioned upon acceptance of Church doctrine. Or we may reject it, but before we do so we must remain aware that in rejecting His offer for frivolous reasons we will not be invited to His Supper. Closing Prayer: Adapted from the 1st Century liturgy of St. James of Jerusalem. Remember, O Lord, according to the multitude of thy mercy and compassion, we thy humble and unprofitable servants; graciously give us a blameless life; keep us undefiled in the way, and purchase for us a good degree, that we may find mercy and grace, with thee and all the saints that have been well pleasing to thee since the world began; who with the Father and thy all-holy and life-giving Spirit, liveth and reigneth, one God; now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Glory be to God for all things. Amen.
Homily for First Sunday After Trinity - May 25th, 2008 A.D. Unlike last year where I established a theme for the first three months after Trinity, this year I return to the tradition of focusing upon either the Psalm, Old Testament, Epistle or Gospel reading for the day, or some combination of them. I warn you in advance that I am reserving the right to focus instead upon an event or theme of importance to the Church. Today’s Homily will dwell upon some of the themes of Jesus’ parable about the Rich Man and Lazarus. Here, please not that Lazarus is not the man Jesus raised from the dead in the Gospel of St. John, but another Lazarus, which derives from the Hebrew name Eleazar, meaning "God has helped." In the case of this Lazarus, he was a beggar and, as Jesus describes him in the Lukan account, "full of sores." In the early Church this story was very popular, especially with our namesake John Chrysostom, who rarely missed an opportunity to portray any part of Scripture as a moral lesson in the evils of wealth and the abuse of earthly prosperity. Now some of you who may have grown up in the Roman Catholic tradition may know the Rich Man by the name of Dives (de-veeze) but this is not a real name. The Scripture does not name the Rich Man; however, but after St. Jerome’s Vulgate Bible was translated, people in the Roman Catholic tradition began calling him Dives after the Latin adjective for "rich" (dives). The account in Luke’s Gospel describes the Rich Man as clothed in purple and fine linen. Purple means he wore a garment made purple by the expensive mollusk extract sold exclusively by the Phoenicians to nobility and royalty. Linen was far too expensive to be worn by any but the most wealthy. [The story is the one of the sources of the Prayer of Humble Access used in the Eucharistic liturgy: in verse 21, Lazarus expects to be fed with "the crumbs which fell under the rich man’s table."] The parable tells of the carrying of Lazarus by angels into the "bosum of Abraham," which means heaven. The Rich Man, also dead, not in heaven but in Hades, looks up to see the beggar Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom. He cries to "Father Abraham" to send Lazarus to him to "dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue." So here we have a Rich Man who has lived his life among the privileged. You’ll learn somthing worthwile if you now take a moment to read once again the Psalm reading for this morning (Ps. 73), particularly verses 5, 6b, 7, 12b which show that this habit of the ungodly, or the wicked, with self, wealth, earthly prosperity, is not a new one. Those of you who attend our Bible Study class on the Old Testament books of Genesis and Exodus know that St. John Chrysostom held in contempt those who were too concerned with earthly things. In his colorful prose style, he put into words the fine things the "Rich Man" probably indulged in: "couches, rugs, furnishings, sweet oils, perfumes, large quantities of wine, varieties of food, — and flatterers." [emphasis added] Abraham reminded the Rich Man that in life he had had many advantages while Lazarus had had "evil things." Now, Abraham said, Lazarus is comforted and you are tormented." (verse 25). The most chilling part of Father Abraham’s speech is yet to come. He reminded the Rich Man that those "who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us." (verse 26). The Rich Man heard the message and urged Abraham to send a messenger to the man’s five brothers, all still living, to testify to these things that they not end up in Hades. Abraham said "They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them." The Rich Man replied that if Abraham sent one back from the dead, the brothers might listen. Listen now carefully to Father Abraham’s reply: If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead." (verse 31). What are we to make of this? It is clear that the message of the Christian Church has been constant since the First Century. Those First Century Christians had the first hand example of those who put Jesus to death and still refused to believe in Him after His Resurrection. They knew the truth: that some will not hear the message of the Gospel. St. John, near the end of the First Century, in writing his First Epistle (which we heard this morning in the Epistle reading), reminded us that we need to distinguish the true words of the Gospel. And in our Old Testament reading from Jeremiah 23:23-32 we heard of the need to distinguish truth from the "chaff" spread by others. The meaning is that we must be constant in our teaching and living of the way of the Church. "Behold I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongues, and say, He saith. Behold I am against them that prophesy false dreams saith the Lord, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not jprofit this people at all, saith the Lord." (verses 31-32). We exist here at St. Chrysostom Anglican Church to be a standard bearer for the true faith of the Gospels, unchanged by man’s additions and interpretations since the Apostles. Our parish Web Site has been reformatted with new content to stress this same message, using a new theme: Come home to Tradition. We are here at St. Joseph’s Villa Chapel on Sunday,s Tuesdays and Thursdays to provide a spiritual home for those who want to come home to tradition. Closing Prayer: From the 1st C liturgy of St. Mark the Apostle. WE give thee thanks, O Lord our God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for all thy goodness at all times and in all places, because thou hast shielded, rescued, and guided us all the days of our lives and brought us to this morning hour, permitting us again to stand before thee and implore forgiveness for our sins. We pray and beseech thee, merciful God, to grant in thy goodness that we may spend this day and all the time of our lives without sin, in fulness of joy, health, safety, holiness and reverence of thee; Drive away from us all envy, fear, temptation, the influence of Satan, and the snares of wicked men; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Glory be to God for all things. Amen.
HOMILIES FOR ADVENT Themes based upon the UECNA Advent Wreath Ceremony Advent 1 - December 2, A.D. 2007 - A Light in Our Darkness Today is the First Sunday in Advent, which marks the start of a whole new Church Year. Advent is a wonderful and joyous season full of hope in the expectation of the Coming of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God. As I noted last Sunday, it also leads us into the recognition that Christ will come on Christmas Day but that he will also come again to be our judge. Since the UECNA wants to continue to remind us of the meaning of our Church seasons, you heard this theme expressed just moment ago in the words of the Advent Wreath Ceremony. The Homily for today, and for the three remaining Sundays in Advent, will focus on the themes expressed in the Wreath Ceremony. Today’s topic is A Light in Our Darkness. This comes not just from the Ceremony’s words, but also from an event which my son Christopher related to me during his visit this past week. He had been discussing the Church, the faith, the need for conversion of non-believers to Christianity. Christopher had stressed the blessings which belief in Christ offered to all who would receive it. The young man’s answer was that he thought his life was pretty good right now, that he was happy with his status and his situation. Later I will come back to this point. The coming of Jesus Christ as a Light into the world is the central theme of the First Coming of Christ: We find it in the words of St. John in John 3:16-21, part of the conversation with Nicodemus—depicted in the stained glass window to the right of the Baptismal Font—concerning how a man can be born again without entering his mother’s womb. Here is what Jesus said to Nicodemus (NKJV text) "For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practising evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God." Later in John’s Gospel, in one of the "I AM" sayings of John’s Gospel, Jesus tells us again that He is the light of the world. In many religious cultures of the East this is more easily understood since the words for Light and Holy are identical. In Eastern services the midnight Mass or All-night Vigil is ended when the morning light comes through the celestory windows high in the church wall or in the barrel of the dome. In many respects the modern interpretation in the Church stresses the external manifestation of Light. For instance, that Jesus’ glory was easy to behold from His person. In the Transfiguration, his face assumes a very special brightness that is a futher manifestation of His glory. We follow this practice in our Church. Not only in Advent but throughout the year we use light to convey the presence of the holy. Our votive candles in the side windows, our memorial candles in the Narthex, and, yes, the Altar Candles signify the presence of God’s Holy Spirit. But this is not the only way to see meaning in Jesus’ words. It is not that idea of light that I want to talk about this morning. The words of the Benedictus, the wonderful prayer of Mary for herself and for the world, says: "Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us; to give light to them that sit in darkness, and to guide our feet into the way of peace." Some saw this reference as meaning a Light for the dead of the pre-Christian era, the Old Testament saints who were raised from the grip of death at Christ’s descent into Hell prior to His Resurrection. But the purely Christian theological meaning is not the light that we can see, though that is important. It is the light that shines upon our inner darkness. It is the salvational result of faith, that is, the belief that Jesus Christ is the only-begotten Son of God and that he became Incarnate so that he could, by taking our sins unpon himself in ransom for our misdeeds opened the doors to our salvation and a joining into the Kingdom of God. What Jesus offers all who believe on Him, in all the points of the kerygma, or proclamation, of the first three centuries of the Church, is a light that can shine into our inner being. The Church has always taught that people with a good heart and an inner purity based upon faith in God will always welcome the Light that comes from God. On the opposite side, those with evil intent and desire resist the light and prefer to stay in darkness. This latter is a characteristic of the cockroach. It hides in the dark, in the warmth of decay, and runs for shelter when the light comes on. When St. Paul tells us to put on the whole armor of God, the helmet of salvation, he means to tells us we must live our lives in the Light, not the darkness. We must give ourselves over to the commandments of God and live by his statutes and ordinances. The early Church understood more clearly than us moderns that inviting the Holy Spirit into our lives, or as we say in the Study Prayer, enlightens "the eyes of our understanding" is a necessary spiritual step toward salvation. Christopher’s young friend I mentioned earlier has confused the blessings of this world with the far more important benefits of understanding the Jesus offers everlasting life in the kingdom of the Father, that these benefits that come from the faith cannot be taken away, that can come to us whether we are young or old, rich or poor, handsome or homily. As Christians, we need to do a better job of delivering that message to the world. Advent is the season in which we can renew again our commitment. Jesus gave this advice to the Disciples concerning what to do with the new Light they possessed through knowledge of Him and faith in Him: Jesus Himself tells us, in Matthew 5:13-16:(NKJV text) "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." The Post-Homily Prayer is an adaptation of the 9th Century Latin hymn, Veni, Creator Spiritus: "O Come, Holy Ghost, wo dost thy sevenfold gifts impart to thy servants; Inspire our sould and lighten us with thy celestial fire; grant us by blessed unction that is comfort, life and the fire of love; overcome the dulness of our blinded sight with thy all holy perpetual light; Anoint and cheer our soiled face with the abundance of thy grace; keep far our foes and give peace at home; be our guide to keep away all ills; teach us to know the Father, Son and Thee, who art but One; and through the ages make this our endless song: Praise to thy eternal merit, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen." Glory be to God for all things! Amen. Advent 2 - December 9, A.D. 2007 - The Holy Fire of Judgment Today is the Second Sunday in Advent. The Homily for today, the Fire of Judgment is based upon the words of the Advent Wreath Ceremony for this morning, which spoke of bringing a candle, which has fire, to proclaim the fire of his judgment that we might be prepared for his coming— meaning for both Comings: the first the celebration of His Incarnation and the second of His coming again. But what do we mean when we talk about "fire" in this context. Fire is a word with many vibrant images associated with it. We could think of a house on fire; a flaming oil well like those in Kuwait during the First Gulf War; Some interpretations see an image of a raging fire, or Hell-fire, of punishment. These images of fire are entirely negative, connoting punishment. We might better however call this the association of fire with sin and death. Like so much of our Christian thinking, fire has another meaning, at least it did to the early Christians. We can see that association here in the Chapel where our liturgical worship involves the use of candles. The fire in the candles suggestions, not punishment but illumination, the presence with us the Holy Spirit. In the early Church, depictions of God and Christ in early icons and mosaics closely associated God with fire. In their way of seeing depicting God, God Himself is always associated with fire. In some case, since we cannot see God, we see instead bright fire which is His symbol. Fire is mentioned in the NKJV translation 53 times in the Old and New Testaments. The oldest use of "fire" in the Old Testament is in Exodus 3:2 in which God appears to Moses in a burning bush that is not consumed by the fire. In the Psalms, the Psalmist tells us that "fire goes before Him" (Ps. 97:3) At the end of the Old Testament, in the Book of Malachi, we are told that God is like a refiners fire" (Malachi 3:2) The Psalmist tells us something about the connection between God and Fire in a way that is repeated in the Book of Hebrews 1:17: The Psalmist says that God makes his ministers a flame of fire (Ps. 104:4) In the New Testament this split between two visions of fire, one of punishment and one of a positive image of God, continues. In Matthew we find the reference to God burning up the chaff (3:12) and a reference to "hell-fire" (Gehenna, actually). (5:22) Mark writes of the fire not quenched of eternal torment (9:44) It is in the Gospel of St. Luke and its continuation in The Acts of the Apostles that we find a different possible interpretation. As in the Book of Exodus, God, in the form of the Holy Spirit, appears in flames of fire. In Matthew, we hear of Baptism not by water, as in the case of John the Baptist, but of fire and the Holy Spirit. St. Paul says in Hebrews that "our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12:29) In this second interpretation, God is a Holy Fire that offers cleansing, a burning away of the corruption of sin. Even though we can also depict the Holy Spirit as a Dove, the association of the Tongues of Fire at Pentecost is perhaps the most lasting image, and the one we ought to rely upon more. St. Paul, a scholar of both the Greek and Hebrew understandings of the Old Testament, in Hebrews 1:17 uses the words of Ps. 104:4 to remind us that God’s ministers are a flame of fire. In this interpretation we, if we believe in Christ as the Son of God, our Redeemer whose death is a propitiation, or ransoming, for our sins, and we live accordings to His commandments, loving one another, taking care of each other in time of need, then we should see the Fire as a Holy Fire offering God’s protection against sin and evil if we live close by the Holy Fire. In this view then, when Jesus says in St.Luke 12:49, "I came to send fire on the earth" he means the redemptive fire of the Holy Spirit. This does not contradict the other interpretation, becausse St. Paul tells us that those who do not know God and do not obey His commandments will be burned up in this same fire. I believe the choice is ours to make. We may see that the Fire is a Holy Fire sent to protect us when we live in God’s way, walk on His path, living by the commandments and our traditional understanding of the faith. It is in this way that we have hope of being prepared when He comes again to be our judge. The Advent Wreath ceremony asks God for the grace to "honestly and courageously" examine ourselves, looking at both the good and the bad, at the love and the evil within us." The Post-Homily Prayer comes from an ancient Coptic Orthodox prayer of St. Chrysostom, which is printed on page 61 of Prayers in the Christian Tradition illustrates last week’s discussion of the Light that comes to our darkness as well as the Holy Fire: O Lord our God, the God who loveth mankind and who by thy divine will makes us worthy to enter thy holy sanctuary: render us worthy in the faith to read thy word which is suitable for thy serive; send us the light of thy glory upon us, that light which destroys all unclean and wicked thought and sinful acts; send us the grace of thy Holy Spirit, that fire which destroys the wicked mind and burns up sin; through thy only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Glory be to God for all things! Amen. Advent 3 - December 16th - Rejoice in the Love of the Lord Today is the Third Sunday in Advent. In the first week of Advent we talked about Christ bringing His light into our inner darkness. In the second week, we walked about the Holy Fire of God. This week our teaching prayers and readings from the Advent Wreath Ceremony ask us to focus today on God’s love. And since today is Gaudete Sunday, which in Latin means "Rejoice," our Homily theme today is Rejoicing in God’s Love. Driven by our modern obsession with the here and now over the eternal; with the logical over the spiritual, too many modern people, both men and women think of love as some physical thing which rises from somewhere within us. We can, for instance, love strawberries, or chocolate, or the combination of strawberries with chocolate. When we were teenagers we fell in and out of love, sometimes with painful consequences, more than several times in a month or a school year. When we see men and women on TV and in the movies engaged in a sexual act, the modern world tells us they are "making love." This is not the Christian understanding of love. St. Paul taught that of the three primary virtues: Faith, hope and love, that the greatest of these was love (1 Cor. 13:13). Elsewhere, in his epistle to the Romans, St. Paul tells us that "Love is the fulfillment of the law." (Rom. 13:10) As Christians we need to return to the early Father’s strong belief in spirituality over pure human logic and reason. We must take this gift of love into our hearts, as Mary took the words of the Archangel into her heart. We believe that love is a gift of God delivered into us by His Holy Spirit. This is what we mean when we speak of the Procession from the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit, and of the reverse when we pray, being in the Spirit, meaning the Spirit is in us, we pray through the Son to the Father. It is this same Spirit we speak of in the Nicene Creed when we say that we believe the Spirit "spake throught the prophets." The blessed Apostle John, the one who was beloved by the Saviour Himself, explained it best in his first epistle: (NKJV text) 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. It is this special blessing of grace from the Father that must be within us to effectively receive forgiveness in Confession, to receive the Cup of Salvation in the Eucharist; "the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us" (Romans 5:3) As we saw last Tuesday night in the homily on St. Nicholas of Myra our whole Christian tradition of Christmas is involved with love for others, when St. Nicholas tossed his gift of gold through the now-impoverished rich man’s window. Our traditional celebration of Christmas is intimately tied to our belief that the Incarnation of God’s Son is God’s gift of love for His creation, not a reward for our acts of righteousness or works but of God’s love and mercy. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. In the Summary of the Law in the Holy Eucharist liturgy, we repeat the words of the Saviour that loving each other and loving God are the greatest of the Commandments. St. John said: 12 ... If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. 17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him because He first loved us. My message today is that you could receive no greater gift this year than by welcoming the Spirit into your inner being. By doing so you will have taken a step toward a return to the unabashed emotional truth of the words of St. Simeon in the 11th Century, who wrote that the Spirit is love — which is "the fulfillment of the law,...who fills, burns, inflames, embraces my heart with a measureless love....teacher of the prophets, offspring of the martyrs, inspiration of the fathers and master, the perfecting of all the saint." The Post-Homily Prayer comes from St. John Climacus’ closing summary and exhortation in The Ladder of Divine Assent: " Ascend, my brothers, ascend eagerly. Let your hearts resolve to climb. Listen to the voice of the one who says: "Come, let us go unto to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of our God." (Isa. 2:3), Who makes our feet to be like the feet of the deer, "Who sets us on the high places, that we may be triumphant on His road." (Hab. 3:19) "Run, I beg you, run with him who said, "Let us hurry until we arrive at the unity of faith and the knowledge of God, at mature manhood, at the measure of the stature of Christ’s fulness." (Eph. 4:13). Baptized in the thirtieth year of His earthly age, Christ attained the thirtieth step on the spiritual ladder, for God indeed is love, and to Him be praise, dominion, power. In Him is the cause, past, present, and future, of all this is good forever and ever. Amen." Glory be to God for all things! Amen!
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A Message from the Vicar At St. Chrysostom Anglican Church we believe that the celebration of Holy Eucharist should be focused upon the sacrament of Holy Communion. To honor this tradition of the ancient church, Homilies (known as Sermons among Protestants) are limited to about 10 minutes and are focused tightly upon a weekly theme. Homilies are presented only during the 11:00 A.M. service, reserving the 8:30 A.M. service for the monastic style of chanting/singing of the Morning Prayer office. Generally, the weekly theme is derived from the Sunday reading from the Psalter, the Old Testament, the Epistle, or the Gospel, generally the Gospel reading. On some Sundays the Gospel theme may find a foreshadowing in both of the Old Testament readings and, occasionally, across the Psalter, Old Testament and Epistle readings. Homilies at St. Chrysostom are intended not to entertain but to teach the doctrines of the traditional Church. They rely heavily upon the understandings of the faith taught by the Apostolic Fathers (also known as the Patristic Fathers) during the period of the Seven Ecumenical Councils, especially our namesake, St. John Chrysostom, whose theological thinking is reflected in much of the traditional Anglican liturgy for Holy Communion. One of the greatest talents of St. John Chrysostom was the ability to explain the complex in simple, non-technical words easily understood by all. Although I cannot pretend to the eloquence of our namesake, I do try to write Homilies that do not require a seminar education to understand. At left is the current series of Homilies for the Trinity Season, plus the four theme Homilies from Advent Season 2007 A.D. I invite your comments, questions, or suggestions by phone or by email: (804) 559-2690 or ron.anglicanchurch@earthlink.net. Or you can stop by St. Joseph's Villa Chapel between 9:30 and 10:30 A.M. during Vicar's Open House and inquire in person. X Fr. Ron
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