Fr.Vladimir's Sermon Delivered on the 14th Sunday after Pentecost, September 21st, 2008:

Dear Brothers and sisters, today, we are commemorating the Nativity of our Most Holy Mother of God, and please, allow me to say a few words about the feast itself, but also about the Gospel reading of the day, on the 14th Sunday after the Pentecost; namely, what is the meaning of the both stories for us today, here and now.

What is it that we are celebrating today? It is the Nativity, or a Birthday of the Most Holy Mother of God. The story of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God is preserved through the Tradition of the Church from the earliest times to this day. According to the Tradition, Mary's parents, Joachim and Anna, were childless for many years. They remained faithful to God, but their prayers for a child were unanswered. One day, when Joachim came to the temple to make an offering, he was turned away by the High Priest who chastised him for his lack of children. To hide his shame, Joachim retreated to the hill country to live among the shepherds and their flocks.

As Joachim was praying, his wife Anna was praying at the same time at their house in Jerusalem. An angel appeared to both of them and announced that Anna would have a child whose name would be known throughout the world. Anna promised to offer her child as a gift to the Lord. Joachim returned home, and in due time Anna bore a daughter, Mary.

My dear brothers and sisters the Church through today's Feast day is telling us that our children are in fact God's. Here we must note that Mary, the Mother of God, was a blessing through the righteousness and much prayer of her parents, but She was chosen by God to be the Most Holy Mother Of God only after Her long preparation in the Temple, many years dedicated to God, and finally Her total obedience as She said to the Angel who appeared to Her: "I am the Lord's servant; whatever He says I accept" (Lk. 1:38).

We do not choose to be born, my dear brothers and sisters, just like we are not able to choose the temptations in our life, both spiritual and physical; yet we do choose what are we going to do about them, and we also do get to choose what are we going to do with our reality. That is why it is very important for us to always remember the story in Genesis that we are PLACED in the Garden of Eden; we did not find it, let alone created it. It was not our choice to be put into the Garden. People were simply placed there out of the Sovereign will of God and by the Hand of God, and they were asked by God just to maintain it. Is not that the case with each one of us? Aren't we also asked just to maintain as good stewards what we as individuals were entrusted by God?

And the rest of the Genesis story gets little more complicated when people got to exercise the free will on their own.

Well, I guess my point is that, although not by our own choice, all of us were born, or rather created, and through our birth we are entrusted by God to do certain work, and at the same time we were offered certain assignments. Now, on the basis of how we deal with the reality here and now, we will be either dismissed, or awarded by God Himself. It is very important to always keep in mind that we are given these tasks and assignments exclusively for our own benefit, that is to say, for our own growth toward perfection through the Incarnation, Suffering, Cross, Resurrection of the Son of God, Who IS the Word of God, offered to us through the One, Holy, Katholike, and Apostolic Church . And so, today's story of the Nativity of the Mother of God is a simple one, yet teaches us very firmly how the children become blessed through the prayers and righteousness, and firm dedication of the parents in the first place, and than, through the example they get from they parents, the children will learn what it means to be obedient to God and His will. The Most Holy Mother of God is the Theotokos (the Birth Giver) only through Her uncompromised obedience, and consequently the fruit of Her womb was the Suffering Servant, "who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a Cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:6-9).

Thus, once again, in Scripture, it is only because of the obedience that the Most Holy Mother of God is the Theotokos, and likewise, it is only through the obedience that Jesus is the Christ. Based on that, the blessed Apostle Paul made His point in his instruction to his flock, saying: "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among who you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ, I may be proud that I did not run in vain, or labor in vain. Even if I am to be poured as a libation upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me" (Philippians 2:12-18).

Now, let me say a few words about today's Gospel reading which talks about a king who had arranged a banquet, and the way he did it may seem strange to us but in Palestine it was normal. If a man purposed to hold a banquet he fixed the day ahead but not the exact hour. When the day came the more honored guests were personally summoned by servants. Those not so summoned divided themselves into two classes: Those who had no great opinion of their own importance were there early, humbly grateful for the invitation and determined not to miss the banquet; and those who had a good opinion of themselves waited until the last minute, or actually came late, to make an entry and let everyone see that they were there. When the day came, a servant was sent out to summon the guests, and they all began to make excuses, and ultimately most of the invited refused to come and enjoy the gifts of the kingdom.

What is very interesting is that Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a feast, or a banquet. A feast is an occasion of joy. And we all know how our own festival, held not so long ago, brought many to share in our joy of the festival, banquet, and the festivities. We have seen people very much enjoying their time at our festival. It is the time of eating and drinking and putting aside, at least for short time all the problems; that is what a festival is all about. So, it is all about enjoyment. At the time of Jesus, a festival, or a banquet had the same meaning. It was very attractive, thus Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to such a banquet. It would have been well if we as Christians always remembered this parable. We do well to remember that Jesus likened the Kingdom to a feast, or a banquet. In its essence Christianity is a thing of joy. And the feast that we as Christians are invited is expressed the best by St. John Chrysostom (Golden mouthed Saint) in his sermon on the day of Pascha: "

If any man be devout and loveth God,
Let him enjoy this fair and radiant triumphal feast!
If any man be a wise servant,
Let him rejoicing enter into the joy of his Lord…
Wherefore, enter ye all into the joy of your Lord; Receive your reward,
Both the first, and likewise the second.
You rich and poor together, hold high festival!
You sober and you heedless, honour the day!
Rejoice today, both you who have fasted
And you who have disregarded the fast.
The table is full-laden; feast ye all sumptuously.
The calf is fatted; let no one go hungry away.
Enjoy ye all the feast of faith:
Receive ye all the riches of loving-kindness.

Thus, what is being presented to us through the words of the one of the greatest saints and theologians, through the mouth of the one who is called Golden mouthed (Chrysostom), is that the feast of the Kingdom of God is through the Son, and only through Him. Thus, the true feast and the true banquet of the Kingdom is the liturgy, my dearly beloved brothers and sisters, because that is where we are feasting with the Son. The King has sent the invitation to the feast of His Son a long time ago, and has sent his servants a long time ago to bring those who were honored with the invitation to the Kingdom, yet still there seems to be plenty of room for more guests in the banquet. At the feasts of the Church, at the Eucharistic banquets, the Church seems to be desolate of her children. And in the Gospel of Luke, the same parable tells us that the invited guests "all alike began to make excuses" (Luke 14:18). The excuses are significant, my dear brothers and sisters. The first said, "I have bought a field and I must go out and see it" (Luke 14:18). That is the excuse of the man whom business comes first. It is possible to become so obsessed with the activities of the world that the thought of the unseen things gets crowded out altogether, and no time is left for prayer, worship and devotion. That is precisely the value of the feast days in our Church. If it were not for the feast days, and for call to worship, how often would we think of God at all? The liturgies and other church services are a summons to think of other things than earthly activities. To abolish the days of the liturgy, or to use them in purely secular ways, is a sure way to arrive in the end at a life which has forgotten God. And the trouble about such a life is that it is a life out of proportion. Tell me, my dear brothers and sisters, how can someone who never receives communion, never takes confession, even seldom comes to church, how can that person have a life in order and peace, let alone be able to make sincerely Christian and honestly good deisions and suggestions?

Yes, some may say, but we have seen some who have been partaking of the Sacraments all the time, who new all the prayers by heart, who were in church all the time, and yet they behaved as though they have never heard of Christ.

My dearly beloved brothers and sisters, if those who partake of the Sacraments on the regular basis, and who know everything by heart, and who are in church all the time, are able to do such evil things, I am asking, how much weaker and vulnerable are those who never do that?

The second man said: "I have bought five yoke of oxen and I go to examine them" (Luke 14:19). That is the excuse of the man whose passion is novelty. He has a new possession and he is obsessed with it. The Apostle Luke has said of the Athenians that their one desire in life was either to tell or to hear something new (Acts 17:21). There are people whose danger is that when they encounter something new it drives everything else out of their minds. For a wile, for instance, they may come to Church and worship with fidelity; then something new, unexpected comes into life and at once, either pleasant or unpleasant, still the claims of worship are abandoned for the something else. We must remember what are the permanencies, and that is the Body and Blood of God given to us here and now for our consolation, assurance, and as a seal of the salvation and the life eternal even here and now. If you want to go to need to know basis, that is what you need to know. God works salvation in our midst, and we should not make the truth obscure by keeping ourselves busy with so many other, new, more "attractive," things of this world. Let us share the joy of this Heavenly and Divine Banquet with others, and let us serve the food which gives life eternal, that is the Word of God, and let us serve it abundantly, let us be generous and feed everyone with the Word of God, so that no one leaves this royal Banquet hungry. And by doing that, my dearly beloved brothers and sisters, we will attain the heavenly crowns, and abundant blessings.

The third man said: "I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come" (Luke 14:20). This excuse is the demands of home. There is a paradox about our homes. They are the most important place in our lives; in one sense it is true to say that no claim can come above theirs. But, it is possible to take an entirely selfish view of home. It is one of the tragedies of life when good things crowd out the claims of God. There is no lovelier thing than a home, and yet a home was never meant to be used selfishly. They live best together who live with God; they serve each other best who also serve God;the atmosphere of a home is most lovely when those who dwell within it remember that they are also members of the great family and household of God.

My dear brothers and sisters, all the reasons the guests gave for not accepting the invitation were in themselves good reasons. It is right that a man should attend to his business, that he should be interested in what is new, that he should set the claims of home very high. One of the great dangers of life, though, is that good things can come between us and Christ. If the tempting things always looked bad, we would seldom fall. The most insidious temptation of all is to let the good interfere with the best. Thus, let us be safe from that danger and let us put first and foremost the claim of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory, together with his Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amin.

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