Fr.Vladimir's Sermon Delivered on the 10th Sunday after Pentecost, August 24th, 2008:

Dear brothers and sisters, it is good from time to time to abandon every day worries, and every day stress, problems and issues, every day thoughts and talks, and come to this holy place and refresh ourselves with prayer and different, new, not every day thoughts. The days of the liturgical year are there so that we can take a brake from the earthly and physical things, that which has become a routine of the every day life, and by immersing ourselves completely into the prayer and reminding ourselves of God's immeasurable love and great deeds for us, we may obtain the new greater strength to continue the journey, sacrifices and spiritual growth.

Such is today's holy day when we heard the reading about a man who came up to Jesus kneeling before Him and said: "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly; for often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples and they could not heal him." And Jesus answered: "O faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? (Mt.17:15-17). But why such negative words from Jesus? Why, such a simple question created such negativity in our Lord? How can the Lord of goodness be as angry with the people as to call them the "faithless and perverse generation"?

It is clear that He was saying these to the crowd that was before Him for when His disciples came to Him privately they asked: "Why could we not cast it out? And He said to them, "Because of your little faith." The lack of people's faith angered the Lord of goodness so much that He criticized them harshly. But He did not simply call them faithless for the lack of their faith in Him, but also He named them perverse. What is that now? Why perverse if they only lacked faith? Again, why such negativity from the Lord toward His people, when it seemed that He depended on that same people? Was He confused or did He lack the experience because He was young, as He was only in his thirties? No! It was none of the above, but He was teaching them the Word of God, and He was not only teaching them, but He showed them the power of the Word of God. How? What is that power? What is that message? It is the following: He hoped in God and God did not leave Him. God showed Him to be victorious, and He has promised that whoever hopes in the Lord, and believes in Him and serves only Him, the God of love, will also be shown to be victorious. For God is faithful to His promises.

But, it seems that the lack of faith, thus the lack of understanding God's promise carries another illness. What is that illness? Let us take a closer look at the text below where it says: "The Son of man is to be delivered into the hands of man, and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day" (Mt. 17:22-23). He was talking about the Cross, yet people did not understand it. How could they, since they are a faithless generation. How can you understand the Cross unless you have faith? It is impossible to grasp it. As the blessed apostle Paul said, the Cross is a "stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles". Thus, to have a hard time hearing about the Cross, means a lack of faith; and lack of faith means faithlessness. Pure logic.

Yes, someone may say, I get why did the Lord call them faithless, but why did the Lord have to be so offensive as to call them perverse. If you are faithless, are you by definition perverse also? No, but the Lord never uttered even one word that was unnecessary, or without a message behind it. That you may understand what is in question here, let us examine the text carefully. What is it that the text is telling us next immediately after the words about the Cross? Right after the Cross, it says that although He was teaching them about the life eternal, and was preaching them the Word of God, and although He himself was sent by God, still these people closed their ears before the ultimate goodness and when they could not find anything else to accuse Him of, they started questioning His relationship to money. And they did not go to Him directly, and they decided not to ask Him, but they chose to create a confusion among the disciples who were struggling to follow Him, for it was easier for them to function in the chaos, thus they went to the disciples and said: "Does not your Teacher pay the tax?" (Mt. 17:24). Since He was blameless before the Law, they had to find a way to bring Him down in the eyes of people. Their only intention was to prove themselves to be right, even if it meant to kill their teacher. O, was ever the world more evil than at the time when the Lord came in the human form? O, how else was He to call them, but a perverse generation? For the faithless have no faith, but only the perverse, instead of listening to the Word of God and learning about the Word of God, would have their minds on: what does their source of the Word of God do with money. How else, but faithless, are we to call those who, having the Lord of Glory in their midst, they closed their ears, so that they do not hear Him; and how else, but perverse, are we to call those who, while the Lord was feeding them with the Word of God, they closed their eyes so that all they could see was their own vision (fabrication) of the Lord, and that is through the money. Knowing that their intentions are evil and slandering, He said: "What do you think Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take tall or tribute? From their sons or from others? And when he said, "From others," Jesus said to Him, "Then the sons are free"" (Mt.17:25-26). In other words, they are quick to accuse me who am appointed and consecrated by God Himself, yet they are very slow to look at their lives. They are the money lovers, yet they are accusing me of loving money? I am offering them life eternal, yet they wonder about the money. I love them and that is why I am here, yet they oppose me and will kill me. I teach them the Word of God, yet they say I am evil and sent by the devil, so that they may have an excuse to themselves to crucify me. If, while they hear the Gospel from me, the Word of God from me, the first thing they can think of is: the question of wealth, then they are indeed beyond any words; beyond hope. Then indeed, they are the "faithless and perverse generation".

Yes, some may insist, but that still does not explain the negativity? They are sinners, but why negativity? Why harshness? Shouldn't He have forgiven them, as He Himself taught about the forgiveness?

O, how can we speak about God's love? How can we contain the uncontainable? Yet, to better understand God's love and care for us even when it is hard for us to see it in His actions, listen to what the prophet Jonah has heard when he was sent by God to Nineveh to prophesy against their evil and sins, for which they repented by fasting, praying and turning back to God, thus God spared them, He did not destroy them, as He Himself has promised through prophet Jonah: "Three more days, and the Nineveh will be destroyed."

But, God, why do you speak beforehand about the disaster that you will bring upon people? Why do you threaten? Why do you discourage your people?

I threaten beforehand, because I do not want to bring the disaster upon my people. My dear brothers and sisters, God threatens even with the Hell, so that we may be frightened by the words, last we be destroyed by the actual deeds. Such is the beauty of a noble, righteous and divine "negativity," which is never scandalizing, but edifying for those who are watchful and vigilant.

More good news is the Lord's words from today's Gospel: "For truly I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain 'Move from here there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you." My dear brothers and sisters, if we need a faith only as big as the mustard seed in order to perform miracles, then where are we now? Do we even have that much faith? You see, it is not the quantity of faith, but the quality. If we only need a faith as big as the mustard seed, than where does this leave us? The message is clear, we should start questioning ourselves: "Do we truly believe, or is it something else?" Because, if we do, then, the good news is that, no matter what the condition, or the position we find ourselves into, there are no limitations or boundaries for us, and God will show us victorious even over death, let alone over the perishable, temporary and earthly. The life eternal is offered to us; we just have to have a faith as big as the mustard seed. That is all.

We could continue much more to explore the Word of God, but having in mind your love for the Church as I know that you are always eager to come to this holy place and hear the word of God, my beloved brothers and sisters, even this much suffices to encourage this noble gathering, your love and your readiness to help. As we have heard the Word of God, I will continue to encourage all of you who have the blessing of your spiritual father (your father confessor) to approach these awesome and divine mysteries, abandoning every sin, and every evil intention. As the blessed apostle Paul says: "Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord" (Heb. 12:14). And who is unworthy to see the Lord, is unworthy also of the Holy Communion with the Body and Blood of the Lord. For this reason the same blessed Paul says: "Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we should not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are chastened so that we may not be condemned along with the world" (1 Cor. 11:28-32). Let us cleanse ourselves in all, as sinful as we all are, and in that way let us approach the divine mysteries, so that we do not receive them for judgment or condemnation, but for salvation and health of our soul, and for the ceaseless hope for that salvation in and through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory always now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

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