This weeks' sermon in advance...

January 14th, 2007
Leavetaking of Epiphany
Homily

It was said of the legendary George Halas, owner and coach of the Chicago Bears that he once described football as “22 men desperately in need of rest being watched by 80,000 people desperately in need of exercise...”

In the epistle reading today, and in fact through the whole New Testament and the early church fathers, we are presented with a vision of the church as a unity, a body, and a place where different people, united in a common faith, are given a diversity of gifts by the one Holy Spirit, gifts given to be used for the building up of the faithful and blessing the world. We claim, as Orthodox, that this Church is us, or at least we represent a fullness of this that is not possible outside of us.

So why don’t we look like this?

If these are truly the roots of our Faith how come Orthodox parishes too often look like George Halas’ description of football and too little like the exhortations of St. Paul?

Somewhere along the line we’ve lost something and we see Church as something we go to and ministry as something that Priests do. Neither of them is completely true and both ideas have brought us to the point where we often have a select few people performing in the front for the benefit of those who sit silently in the seats. And that hour and a half is what constitutes “church” for the vast majority of Orthodox.

Is it any wonder that people drift away from the Liturgy because they see it as a service rendered to them and are disappointed when they can get a better show on TV?

Does it suprise anyone that our Orthodox pews are filled with people who are either spritiually frustrated because they feel like they can’t use their faith or those who have just grown cold and silent and accept that deadness as what being an Orthodox Christian is all about.

And why does it seem that so many Orthodox leave the church and find another where, despite their being baptised and chrismated as Orthodox, they feel like they have been “born again”?




We often complain about the ethnic clinginess of Orthodoxy and there is a great deal of truth in that. But we should also be glad because there are times when only ethnic and family obligations, and not the lure of a living relationship with Christ, kept people walking through our doors.

But it was never supposed to be that way.

Yes, Orthodoxy has hierarchy and structure and liturgy and sacrament. The church always has and there was never a golden age of apostolic simplicity where everything just kind of went along with the flow. There’s not way to read the history of the church without seeing that all these structures that are part of our life were there from the beginning. We have more now but they are not different.

But they were given by God not for the purpose of endowing and enriching a caste of professionals to rule the masses and provide necessary services. Instead they were to bear rule and teach and handle sacred things correctly to the end that all the people of God would also be able to exercise their various callings and ministries, their priesthood, in the life of the church and the world.

In return it was understood that the people of God would respond to the teaching and leadership and service of those in authority by seeking to be as fully active, alive, and serving in their faith as possible. No spectators were allowed, all were called to be on the field, playing the game as it were, and seeking to bless each other and the world with all the riches that are found in Christ.

And in a continuation of that it is our Orthodox understanding that this active life of faith, nurtured by sound teaching and the sacramental life of the Church, was never simply a matter of Sunday morning worship. Our Divine Liturgy is most certainly the height of what we do but it is not the extent of what we do. Strengthened by sound teaching and nourished, healed, and forgiven in the sacraments we are to go into the world and be Christians not as a convenience but everywhere, always, and completely. Church never ends at our door, and if it does we are not truly a church no matter how nice our Liturgy is, how beautiful our icons are, or what great kibbeh we can make.

What is needed in our Orthodox churches is not some new fad or program but rather a return to some long forgotten roots of our faith, to an understanding of who are as people of God endowed with spiritual gifts by the Holy Spirit which we are commanded to use for the salvation of our souls and the world.

If you’ve ever asked yourself why you don’t feel fulfilled as a Christian maybe its time to make your faith real, alive, active, and more than Sunday morning. The bottom line is you get what you put into it and too many Christians are missing out on incredible things simply because they’ve been hanging out on the sidelines.

If you’ve ever thought how come churches sometimes turn on themselves and people get nasty just remember that idle hands are the devil’s workshop and people with nothing else to do have a vacuum inside that can be easily filled with dark things.

If sometimes you wonder how the world got to be the way it is stop complaining, light your light and make a difference.

If you think Liturgy has become routine try getting involved, sing where you can, follow the prayers and make them your own. Come expecting to give and discover that in doing so you still receive.

None of what has been said is about condemning you or making you feel guilty. I struggle too but that doesn’t mean what the Apostle Paul said to that church in Ephesus so long ago isn’t true, then or now. There is so much more to this faith, this Christians life and more than anything else I want you to know even a taste of it because if you do you’ll never want anything less again.

When I was a Baptist and it was time to move ahead we used to say “It’s time for us to get off our blessed assurance..”

Is this our time?