Sunday, 1 Apr 2018
Palm Sunday Homily – The Deliverer
1 Apr 2018 at 5:07pm
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Homily for Palm Sunday
Philippians 4:4-9; John 12:1-18
How far are we willing to go for what is true?
How far are we willing to go for what is good (virtuous)?
How far are we willing to go for peace (not the cheap peace of appeasement, but the real peace of a battle well fought and a race well run)?
Imagine a world ruled by darkness. A place where there is no light. Where fear of the unknown and fear of injury have paralyzed people into inaction and have led them to accept all the injustices the rulers of the world of darkness impose on them. There may be some stories that some people tell about a bringer of light that would liberate them from the oppressive gloom; but in the meantime darkness reigns. For many, even the possibility of such a thing as light is outrageous; for them it is the myth and opiate of those who are too weak to accept the world as it really is. Of course, this attitude towards the light is the official dogma of the rulers of the darkness and they do what they can to mock and punish the dreamers and rabble-rousers who oppose it.
Then one day something miraculous occurs: the light-bearer comes.
As you can imagine, the first response was a jubilant awe. All those who had hoped for his coming ran to greet him. Children laughed and sang and delighted crowds thronged around him as he made his way into the city.
Today we are swept up in this same jubilation: it is Palm and Willow Sunday! We celebrate the coming of the Deliverer; after generations of oppression the source of Freedom has come into our midst!
But we know what comes next, not just because we know our history, but because we understand how things work: the rulers of this world ? led by the prince of darkness, the deceiver ? have no interest in freedom or light or truth or goodness. Quite the opposite. And what are these things ? mere ideas – when compared to the reality and raw power of darkness and death? When so many of the oppressed preferred the peace of appeasement and the predictability of the status quo to the uncomfortable truths the light revealed and the challenge of difficult change that real virtue would now require.
The coming of the light threatened to expose not just the evil that had come to dominate the world, but the evil that resides in the heart of every man. No one can see this truth and remain satisfied with the world and themselves as they are. The choice is either change… or darkness. Is it any wonder that we preferred the darkness? That we cheered the hardest when we called out “crucify him, crucify him”? That we asked that the curse fall on us and on our children?
We are again at this same crossroads with the same choice to make: the light has come to a world of darkness. So I ask again:
How far are we willing to go for what is true?
How far are we willing to go for what is good (virtuous)?
How far are we willing to go for peace (not the cheap peace of appeasement, but the real peace of a battle well fought and a race well run)?
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Sunday, 25 Mar 2018
Homily – Sacrifice is More than Deferred Gratification
25 Mar 2018 at 8:16pm
http://traffic.libsyn.com/orthoanalytika/20180325-OnSacrifice.mp3
Homily on the Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt (St. Mark 10:32-45)
What are you willing to sacrifice for a better life? To improve the lives of those around you?
The power of deferred gratification. Save now ? for something big later.
We use this for all kinds of things: retirement accounts, education, residencies
Think back: what sacrifices did you make in the past in order to obtain something you really wanted? Was it worth it?
Some even look at the Christian life as a cosmic deferred gratification scheme: give up a bit of time and money now at the local parish and get into that awesome retirement community in the sky
But what if that wasn’t what Christianity was about at all? What if it was less about sacrificing now for something I want later, and more about sacrifice as a means to become a better person now? What if living a life of sacrifice brought you a better life NOT because it allowed you to save up to get more and better stuff, but because it transformed you into a new person. Less broken, less needy, more joyful, more content, and more powerful?
This is exactly what psychological studies have found. The marshmallow test.
A strong sacrifice muscle is not just associated with the ability to getter stuff: researchers found that people with a strong one have better life outcomes, as measured by various “life measures”.
What are we willing to sacrifice to become better people, to become what our tradition calls “new creatures” (2 Corinthians 5:17), a “new self” (Ephesians 4:24). That will, more importantly, allow us to bring comfort, healing, and joy to all those around us whose lives are bing ruined by a world that is often cruel, brutal, and merciless in its oppression?
As people who have accepted that Christ is the Son of God, what are we willing to give up that will charge that acceptance with the kind of supernatural power that will allow us to join St. Paul in saying that it is “no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me?”
It’s sacrifice. That’s why silly things like giving up food and more difficult things like offering a substantial portion of our income to the church and other charities and of spending a substantial amount of time in prayer, worship, and community service are all built into what early Christians called “The Way”, but that we call “Orthodox Christianity”.
Any thing worth having requires hard work. All good things require sacrifice. The sacrifice of Christ made the salvation of mankind ? a very good thing ? possible. We are meant to imitate him in that so that, as St. Paul said, we might “save some.” (1 Corinthians 9:22).
This is what Christ meant when He said in today’s Gospel; “whoever will be great will serve… and the one that desires to be first will become a slave.”
That is the way of Christ and it is The Way of the Christian. It will give us a better life and improves the lives of those around us.
May the Lord strengthen as we dedicate ourselves to sacrifice our time, our tithes, and everything we hold dear out of our love of God and desire to serve ? and save – our neighbor.
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