Fr.Vladimir's Sermon Delivered on the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost, June 29th, 2008:

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Two things I must underline in today's Scripture readings: 1) Did you know, my beloved brothers and sisters, that we are at no time more like God then when we forgive? And 2) We are at no time more like the Apostles then when we follow Christ and His Church just as Peter and Andrew, James and John did, as it is recorded: "Immediately they left their nets and followed Him" (Mt. 4:20). Without a question, they simply followed Jesus. Take a moment to think about this, dear brothers and sisters.

We are at no time more like God then when we forgive, and the apostles immediately left their nets and followed Christ. Now, apply that to our society today. Which one of us here today can: "I follow Christ and His Word?" Which one of us here today is ready to forgive for God's sake? These are rhetorical questions, and you can keep the answers for yourself, but please, take a moment to think about them.

And why do I say that we are like God when we forgive? Because, only through forgiveness we become God-like. If our God was not a forgiving God, than we would not be able to gather here today at this very place, sinful as we are. O, is there any greater proof of God's mercy and forgiveness than Christ and His Church? Being evil, disobedient, self sufficient, self centered as we are, God still grants us His Church and His Christ through the Church. Tell me, which one of us would be ready to give our only child so that our enemy could live? And which one of us would do that time and again, as God does every time the Divine Liturgy is celebrated? And when you know all that, tell me, what excuse do you have when you refuse to come and participate in this Mystery and Love of God's Son? Tell me, how can anything else be more important than God who dies for you even here and now, before your eyes? Tell me, what more is there that anyone can offer to you? What else would attract you more to your God, than the sacrificial death of His Son before your very eyes? What else would attract you more then His Body and Blood "which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins and life everlasting"? O, my beloved brothers and sisters, let us not neglect this greatest Mystery, a Divine Mystery, and remember what you heard last Sunday here at this very place: "So, everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in Heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in Heaven" (Mt. 10:32-33). How do you deny Jesus? Well, when you see Him being sacrificed for you at the Altar table, and when you see Him offering Himself for you and to you, when you hear the words: "with the fear of God and with faith draw near," yet only one third of the congregation approaches the Chalice with His Body and Blood, what else do you do, but deny Him before men. Not to mention that there are those among us who even neglect coming to church out of their laziness and indifference for the Son of God.

Our Lord, Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God, said it all, we heard it and we know it, and now we do not have any excuse anymore. For He also said: "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin" (Mt. 15:22). And this is why, my beloved brothers and sisters, I urge you to, please, take the Church seriously. I will bore you day after day with the Truth that I know from the Word of God given to us and preserved through One Christ's Holy Apostolic Church, because, this is our last chance. If this is all we got, and God said that there will be no other opportunities to change our attitude and repent after we die, than, my beloved, let us hurry to embrace everything that the Holy Church offers us. Let us fully embrace God's Church. Let us not pity anything in this world, so that we may acquire life eternal in God's Kingdom. I am asking you today, my beloved, which one of us wants to lose God's Kingdom? I am asking also, what is more worth in this world than God's Kingdom? Please, my beloved brothers and sisters, think about my words. I cannot beg you enough to think about these words of mine seriously.

Christ also said: "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more then me is not worthy of me" (Mt. 10:37). What are you saying my Lord? How can I neglect my father, my mother, or my brothers and sisters in order to be worthy of you? Didn't you say earlier that by loving others I love you? Why this contradiction now?

Yes, my beloved, by loving others you love God, but look around you, and see what love has become. Love, today, my beloved, became a pure pursuit of pleasure and pseudo-happiness. We all live in a country which requires allot of our time in order to accomplish something and become successful. And I am sure that most of you who are parents have experienced the moment when you get to choose for your child between going to church and going to some other activities. And I am not going to dwell too much on this issue at this time, since I have to consider the length of my sermon, and I certainly will not judge anyone, because it is not mine to judge, however, I will ask you to think about what would be your choice between our Lord Jesus Christ, and all the other activities that can be summed up in a couple of words: pursuit of happiness? I am asking you: What is your choice when you find yourself in a position to choose between going to church and somewhere else? Do you always follow Christ as Andrew, Peter, James and John did in today's reading?

Or, if I, as a parent, send my child to play sports instead of training him/her to go to church and teaching him/her about the Church and God, than Jesus' words: "If you love your son or daughter more then me, you are not worthy of me" are not puzzling anymore. It is clear that I deliberately made the choice to skip the church, or not to send my child to church, and consequently I am not worthy of Him. Or, another example, if a priest, as father of a community, goes along with the wishes of his own family-congregation (children, spiritual children), or those who are there to learn (parishioners), and preaches only what the community loves to hear, than again, he is not worthy of the Son of God, who came exclusively to preach and teach the Word of God. If you find many excuses to reject the Word of God which is given to you at this Holy place, remember that you are in no way different than those who rejected our Lord two thousand years ago and because they rejected Him, they dared to even crucify Him, because they loved the world more than anything else. They hated God and His Word, because of the pleasures of the world. Let us not forget that He also said: "He who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me" (Mt. 10:38). Do you realize now that the Lord, and not I, said that the Cross is the very center of our faith. The Cross of Christ is our joy and not sadness, because it brings life; it is a life-giving Cross. It is through the Cross that we know of Resurrection. Or, haven't you heard of saying of the great and holy Apostle Paul: "For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and weakness of God is stronger than men" (1 Cor. 1:22-25). How dare we even think that something else in this world is Christianity; let alone to say that we must be "attracted" by something or someone else to come to Church? It is an abomination to think like that!

Please, I cannot beg you enough, dear brothers and sisters, to be attentive to the words that you learn here. In the Church, we need each other, because you will be my witnesses before God-witnesses that indeed I preached these words, just as I will be your witness before God for the sins which you confessed. See how we need each other. God will judge each and every one of us, and even if no one listens to the words that are spoken from this place, still every word is being recorded in the book of life. No word is uttered in vain. But that you may know, my beloved brothers and sisters, that this is true, let us hear what the Prophet Malachi says: "Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another; the Lord heeded and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before Him of those who feared the Lord and thought on His name" (Mal. 3:16).

And I am not saying these to make you sad, but that you, who always come, may be even more encouraged to participate with greater zeal and more often, but also that you may know how to teach others who visit this holy place, the house of God, only several times a year.

We said earlier that by forgiveness we become like God. Every other virtue is in vain, if we do not have forgiveness. Patience without forgiveness is in vain. Love without forgiveness is in vain. How can I be patient and love somebody if I am not ready to forgive in the first place? Yes, father, some may say, but what if they do not forgive? What if they are still mean to me? Well, don't worry about them. You make sure that you are like God; listen to what today's Epistle reading says: "Therefore you have no excuse, O man, whoever you are" (so, whoever you are, means all of us, both you and me), "when you judge another; for passing judgment upon him you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who do such things" (Rom. 2:1-2). Then, it goes on to remind us of God's judgment, a notion that somehow is disappearing from our churches. No one talks about God's judgment anymore, and I see a great danger in that. All I hear is: "God loves you, and God is our Father. If He is our Father, He will certainly be merciful and compassionate." That's all I hear. But I was very fortunate to have a good friend of mine in school, whose father was a judge. He taught me that his father is his father at home, but when he sits in the judgment seat in the courtroom his father is a judge and there is no joke with him anymore. So also we, my beloved brothers and sisters, let us have confidence in God as our Father, but let us never forget that God is also the Judge; our Judge.

We must remember the day of our death! And we must remember the day of God's judgment! Yesterday in the Gospel we heard: "Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment" (Mt.5:28-29), and in today's Epistle reading it is said: "For he will render to every man according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give life eternal; but for those who are factious and do not obey the truth but obey wickedness, there will be fury" (Rom. 2:6-8). Or haven't you heard, my beloved, of the Gospel of Matthew where it is written: "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then he will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and He will place the sheep at the right hand, but the goats at the left" (Mt. 25:31-33).

What is then our hope?-one may ask. Why is the Gospel such good news when in fact, all it does, it speaks about the judgment of God? But, that you may not leave this holy place without any words of hope and consolation, and my own words are not of authority, hear what our Lord, God over all, says: "For this is the will of my Father, that every one who sees the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life; and I will raise Him up at the last day" (Jn. 6:40). This is our final goal. This is Christianity. This is our sole hope. This is true happiness, my beloved brothers and sisters. What is it? It is the life eternal through our Lord Jesus Christ given to us freely, as a gift, just like that. Let us then take up our crosses silently and follow Him!

See my beloved brothers and sisters, how we have it easy today. He is here at this very place, in our midst, as He Himself said: "Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age" (Mt. 28:20). Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God, is sacrificed in our midst every time we come together to celebrate the Divine Liturgy. And every single time He is offered to us so that we may believe that, indeed, it is He, who is our Lord and our God. Here, it is very appropriate to ask: Do we believe in Jesus' words that He is in our midst? If so, where are we as a community today? How much do we truly love Christ? How much does each one of us truly do and sacrifice in order to remedy the situation in our parish? Since, one more time, this is a rhetorical question, I will stop here for today, but will continue to talk about the subject often until I see a major change, so that by my preaching and your listening we both may benefit: you, because you listen to the Word of God being preached, and I, because I spread the Word of God to the community, so that we may acquire the heavenly crowns and life eternal in God's mentions, through the prayers of all the saints who preceded us in the endeavor to teach the fear of God. Amen.

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