Fr.Vladimir's Sermon Delivered on the 11th Sunday after Pentecost, August 31st, 2008:

Dear brothers and sisters, today is the second day of our food and music festival which has brought many together both to help but also to share in the joy of our church. These days our church looks like the honey comb, very much alive and the place of hard work. This festival is first and foremost a proof to us that we can accomplish much as long as we are willing, but also, this year, my dearly beloved brothers and sisters, we have set the bar very high and, just as the true athletes always strive for better results, so also we must continually strive to improve both ourselves and our parish; and it would be very inappropriate for a church if, although wounded every day at the market places, at home, wounded by our friends, coworkers, relatives, enemies, neighbors, servants, wounded by our own thoughts, if even once a week we wouldn't care to heal the wounds, even more so if the healing does not require any financial expense and does not hurt the body. When St. John Chrysostom preached the Gospel as the ordained clergy man of the Church, he did so with the great authority and great boldness saying: "In my hands I do not hold a medicine, but instead I take up the word which is the most powerful medicine, and I offer it whenever I sense a sinful decay that needs to be cut off, without causing pain to anyone. In my hands I do not hold fire that burns, but I do hold the teaching more powerful than fire; it does not cause any burned spots, but preventing spreading of evil, instead of pain, brings great joy to those who are being saved from it."

For this we do not need a lot of time, it does not require any effort, or money: it suffices to wish it and we have already done everything we can for the virtue. If we only were willing to think about majesty and magnificence of God who commands and gives the laws, we would already have learned enough. And I am trying never to preach my own words apart from the word of God, Church Tradition and the Holy Fathers of the One, Holy, Katholiki and Apostolic Church.

Having said that, let me get into today's Gospel reading. Beginning the parable about the King and the Kingdom, and His servant, the Lord did not simply say: "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain King who wanted to settle the account with His servants," but instead He said: "Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain King who wanted to settle accounts with His servants." Why did he add the cause? Because he was teaching the disciples how to control the wrath and that they should not mind unfairness and injustice against them by others: "Moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that "by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established." And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector" (Mt. 18:15-17), that is to say, do not speak to them, until they come and ask for forgiveness; and if they do that, than it will be your Christian obligation to forgive them.

Therefore, when we hear that the Lord will settle accounts with all his servants, let us not neglect this saying, but let us think about all the people that we know of, all the man and women of all ages, and let us think about what kind of accounting will take place before the Lord. And if we may forget or try to find excuses for our mistakes and sins, God will never forget them and He will demonstrate them to us, unless we prevent them here and now with the true repentance (that is to say a complete change of your mindset and the attitude toward sin), and through confession. Why does God settle the accounts with us? Not because He does not know something (how is it possible for Him not to know something, He who knew all things even before they were created?), but because he wants to convince us, His servants, that whatever we owe to Him, we will be accounted for, and even more so, these are said not only that we may learn something, but also that we may cleanse ourselves; that we may change ourselves. For that reason He commanded the prophet Isaiah to go and speak up against the sins of the Jews: "Cry aloud, spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet; tell my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins" (Isa. 58:1); not only in order that they may hear the transgressions, but also that they correct themselves.

"And when He had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to Him who owed Him ten thousand talents" (Mt. 18:24). O, how great of a debt that is? How much was entrusted to him, yet he spent it all! How can we go into even greater debt when we already owe Him? Who dares to be generous with what is God's? If we are generous with God's, yet we spare our own, listen to what God commands: "that the debtor be sold, with his wife and children, and everything he possessed, and that payment be made" (Mt. 18:25).

In the story we read that this great debtor did not have many virtues and carried many sins upon himself, thus it is said: "But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold." From this, we can see the Master's true love for mankind, because he settled the account, and he ordered that the servant be sold, yet he did not intend to sell him out. How do we know that he did not intend to sell him out? From the very end. If he truly intended to sell him out, than who would have stopped Him to do that? Who would have prevented Him to do that?

But why, then, did He command it, if He did not intend to accomplish the commandment? In order to increase the fear in the debtor. And the fear He increased with the threat, so that He would make Him ask, even beg, for mercy; and He made Him ask for mercy and forgiveness so that He gives him an opportunity to be forgiven. Of course, He could have forgiven the debtor even before he asked for forgiveness, but He did not do so, in order not to perpetuate the sins of the debtor. The master could have forgiven his debtor even before He settled the account, but He did not; and He did not forgive in order to prevent the one, who owes so much and does not recognize the magnitude of His mistakes and sins. The master did not forgive in order to prevent the debtor to become even more evil and inhuman towards his neighbors; and the master does the correction as follows: He first directs attention to the greatness of the debt and the mistakes with much wreath: "that the debtor be sold, with his wife and children, and everything he possessed, and that payment be made," and than he forgives. If even after the settlement of the accounts, pointing out of the magnitude of the debt and mistakes, if even after the threat and uttered sentence by the master himself and after the debtor was through all that, if after all of these he was so rude and inhuman to his neighbor, how much more would he be rude and inhuman to his neighbors if he did not go through the above mentioned? Every little detail from the story talks about the debtors personality, just like every single detail in our lives talks about our personalities.

God has created and ordered all things in order to prevent the debtor's inhumanity. But if the debtor was not corrected by any of the above mentioned, than it is not the teachers' fault, but the one's who refused to accept the advise. Bear in mind that the debtor was forgiven as soon as he asked for forgiveness, yet he lost everything at once in masters' eyes by being rude to his neighbor.

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, so that we may have a peaceful and a life without confusion here, and there that we may obtain the forgiveness and absolution of our sins let us try to love each other as much as it is in our power and let us show kindness to every person we either work with, pray with, or simply a person that we run into. Let us ask for forgiveness from each other when we make mistakes, and let us speak openly to each other, so that we may avoid any misunderstanding, slandering and may obtain the forgiveness even here. That way we will earn masters' mercy and compassion even if we commit greater sins and we will obtain the future goods, which may we all attain by the grace and the love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory now and forever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

For other sermons click here.

Click here to return to home page.