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This sermon was preached by Fr Gregory on the Sunday after the Nativity. The Promise of GodThe promise of God is sure but it is worked out within the conflicts, trials and sufferings of every day life. The flight of the Holy Family into Egypt from the murderous Herod, the slaughter of the Holy Innocents, the proto-martyrdom of St. Stephen, the suffering of the martyr St. Theodore the Branded; these are all examples from history which find their way into our Calendar to remind us that our Christian lives are forged in the furnace of affliction. The world hates us because it first hated Him. Listen to these words of the Gospel of St. John: - "If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent me." (John 16:18-21) And again in the First Epistle General of St. Peter: - "Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified." (! Peter 4:12-14) How far this gospel pattern is from the experience of many Christians in the West, many of whom have succumbed to the temptations of an easy life, placating the hostile secular power and culture that has attempted to strip Christianity of its very essence. In trying to be all things to all men, Christianity has now become despised where once it was merely mocked. Standing for anything it now stands for nothing. The only thing that matters today is "keeping the punters happy;" in other words, entertainment, dumbing down and minimal content. The Orthodox Church, alone I think sometimes, simply doesn’t concern herself with what the world thinks about her life provided she is faithful to the full gospel and maintains an unflinching adherence to that which has been entrusted to her by God. This is profoundly the right instinct. Where would the Russian Church be now if she had given in to Soviet blandishments in the 20’s to modernise and moderate her claims? Where would the Greek Church be now if it were not for her New Martyrs of the Turkish yoke who gave of their lives rather than renounce their faith of Christ? Where would the Orthodox Church in America be now if her penniless Old World immigrants had given in to the seductive calls to adapt to the Protestant New World Order? To some this Orthodox insistence on faithfulness against overwhelming odds is the essence of its appeal. These folk feel acutely the generalised anxiety of the West now that it has dismantled its old sacred landmarks and launched into an uncertain future on the stage of an increasingly dangerous and endangered world. For others this godly obstinacy, although attractive in its own right, is not sufficient to counter balance the (for them) depressing realisation that that Orthodoxy is not going to take the World by storm with a temple on each street corner by the year 2020. There is still something of the "western disease" in this last approach; the feeling that since Orthodoxy is the True Faith it must be ‘successful’ in terms of numbers and influence. This is a very worldly estimation of Orthodoxy and based on false premise. God did not promise that we should be successful, He promised that our names would be written in the Book of Life. To His servant Paul, Christ promised that he would suffer much for the Gentiles and their inclusion into the Church. To us he promises the Kingdom but we would do well to remember that these are scraps that fall from the Master’s table. His is the Banquet, His is the Feast, His is the Invitation. What he requires from us are not grandiose schemes but a faithful and whole-hearted response to His call. We conclude, therefore, that we cannot possibly see the structure and plan of God’s design over the millennia. If we do attempt to do this then we shall fall into the insanity of our presumption. We shall, indeed, fall out of the very picture we are attempting to see. It is sufficient for us to be faithful and to be ready for persecution when it comes. Such are the blessings that await those who trust in God’s promise and who take no heed for the morrow: hard, but saving words, these: - words for a true faith and hope on New Year’s Eve! |
