WEBVTT 00:00:01.260 --> 00:00:13.699 Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to the Father, and 00:00:13.699 --> 00:00:19.219 of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Spiritually 00:00:19.219 --> 00:00:25.219 speaking, spiritually speaking, we are still 00:00:25.219 --> 00:00:27.780 on the Mount of Olives where Christ ascended. 00:00:29.609 --> 00:00:32.250 where he told his apostles, where he told the 00:00:32.250 --> 00:00:39.670 Theotokos, the disciples, Lo, I am with you even 00:00:39.670 --> 00:00:44.369 to the end of the age. And the Catochian was 00:00:44.369 --> 00:00:47.210 saying, one of the hymns said, If he is with 00:00:47.210 --> 00:00:50.390 us, no one can be against us. This means he is 00:00:50.390 --> 00:00:54.630 always with us because we are united to him. 00:00:55.710 --> 00:01:00.140 He shares our flesh and blood. And this is an 00:01:00.140 --> 00:01:05.519 unbreakable connection. He is always with us. 00:01:05.560 --> 00:01:10.120 And this is true even if you feel down in the 00:01:10.120 --> 00:01:17.079 dumps emotionally and frustrated and afraid from 00:01:17.079 --> 00:01:21.760 all that is taking place. Whether you feel disgusted 00:01:21.760 --> 00:01:26.579 or angry or afraid or despondent or you blame 00:01:26.579 --> 00:01:31.560 this side or you blame that side. the lord is 00:01:31.560 --> 00:01:36.060 with us are we with christ that's what is an 00:01:36.060 --> 00:01:41.040 important question for us and as orthodox christians 00:01:41.040 --> 00:01:49.260 we have to not run away but we have to see experience 00:01:49.260 --> 00:01:54.939 understand and accept that our land is experiencing 00:01:54.939 --> 00:02:01.930 deep division and pain Again and again and again. 00:02:02.890 --> 00:02:07.909 However it has come about, I'm not capable of 00:02:07.909 --> 00:02:12.090 analyzing any of that. But what I do know about 00:02:12.090 --> 00:02:19.509 is the judgment of God. If you read the scriptures, 00:02:19.610 --> 00:02:21.669 you know something about the judgment of God. 00:02:21.710 --> 00:02:23.629 And what you know about the judgment of God, 00:02:23.750 --> 00:02:29.639 it means that God sets things right. He brings 00:02:29.639 --> 00:02:34.520 justice to his creation. God's judgment is always 00:02:34.520 --> 00:02:39.159 upon us. If we judge ourselves, says St. Paul, 00:02:39.319 --> 00:02:44.379 then we will not be judged. God's judgment is 00:02:44.379 --> 00:02:52.500 upon us now and always. Can't we see that violence 00:02:52.500 --> 00:02:58.000 and brutality beget more? violence and brutality 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:02.659 and sin. In God's judgment, he has allowed this 00:03:02.659 --> 00:03:09.020 to come upon us because of our iniquity and our 00:03:09.020 --> 00:03:13.819 division and our sin and brutality, corporately 00:03:13.819 --> 00:03:17.620 as a nation. Maybe this person or that person 00:03:17.620 --> 00:03:20.879 has done nothing, but just as we share the same 00:03:20.879 --> 00:03:25.120 nature with Christ, he shares with us. We share 00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:31.939 a common human nature. All this becomes an alphabet 00:03:31.939 --> 00:03:35.319 of sins. I listed all the sins that I could think 00:03:35.319 --> 00:03:38.780 from A to Z, and there are plenty of them. But 00:03:38.780 --> 00:03:40.759 if I started saying them, then someone would 00:03:40.759 --> 00:03:43.080 ask me, well, why did I leave off this one, and 00:03:43.080 --> 00:03:51.860 I didn't do that one? The bishops of our church, 00:03:52.080 --> 00:03:55.819 the Orthodox Church in America, released a statement 00:03:55.819 --> 00:03:57.520 yesterday. I'll read just a little bit of it. 00:03:58.659 --> 00:04:00.979 We, the members of the Holy Synod of Bishops 00:04:00.979 --> 00:04:04.419 of the Orthodox Church in America, mourn the 00:04:04.419 --> 00:04:08.340 tragic death of Mr. George Floyd on May 25, 2020. 00:04:09.300 --> 00:04:11.919 We too have looked before at the footage of this 00:04:11.919 --> 00:04:14.939 episode and condemned the brutal actions that 00:04:14.939 --> 00:04:17.660 caused his violent death. We look to the civil 00:04:17.660 --> 00:04:23.970 authorities to bring justice. Let us be sensitive 00:04:23.970 --> 00:04:30.370 to those that feel they're afflicted and enter 00:04:30.370 --> 00:04:36.230 into that. I'll say something about that in a 00:04:36.230 --> 00:04:45.230 minute. No, I'll say something now. When we sin, 00:04:45.410 --> 00:04:48.670 when we see sin around us, when we see division 00:04:48.670 --> 00:04:54.589 and hatred and brutality, Then we pray. And I 00:04:54.589 --> 00:04:57.310 don't mean, oh God, please help so -and -so. 00:04:57.470 --> 00:05:00.670 No. We pick up our prayer book. We say the supplicatory 00:05:00.670 --> 00:05:04.350 candy, the Theotokos. We fast. I don't mean on 00:05:04.350 --> 00:05:07.129 Wednesdays and Fridays, but I mean we fast. We 00:05:07.129 --> 00:05:10.889 don't eat. We do prostrations. I don't mean two 00:05:10.889 --> 00:05:17.149 or three. As many as you can do. I mean tears 00:05:17.149 --> 00:05:22.329 begging God to help us. Now this isn't a lecture. 00:05:22.730 --> 00:05:25.329 It's a sermon. So I'll remind you about what 00:05:25.329 --> 00:05:32.689 I know. The sin of Cain in Genesis. God warned 00:05:32.689 --> 00:05:36.709 Cain. He said this, Sin is crouching at your 00:05:36.709 --> 00:05:44.670 door. Grasp that image. Sin is crouching at your 00:05:44.670 --> 00:05:48.250 door. It desires to have you, but you must master 00:05:48.250 --> 00:05:53.240 it. Sin is mastering us. Orthodox Christians, 00:05:53.420 --> 00:05:55.699 we have said nothing and done nothing for our 00:05:55.699 --> 00:05:58.560 country, hardly at all. We're a little blip. 00:05:59.319 --> 00:06:03.240 These press releases, no one hears them because 00:06:03.240 --> 00:06:06.100 we've made no impact, because our faith is weak, 00:06:06.319 --> 00:06:09.980 because we've not lived the gospel the way the 00:06:09.980 --> 00:06:12.220 Lord has given it to his apostles and disciples. 00:06:12.639 --> 00:06:15.660 We've watered it down and we end up blaming other 00:06:15.660 --> 00:06:17.899 people for all our problems rather than saying, 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:22.139 Lord, this has come upon me for my sins. Sin 00:06:22.139 --> 00:06:25.560 is crouching at the door. If we are Christians, 00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:31.439 we're responsible for all and everyone. This 00:06:31.439 --> 00:06:33.699 is the teaching of St. Silavon of the Holy Mountain. 00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:40.100 And the wrath of God is coming upon us. What 00:06:40.100 --> 00:06:45.720 is the wrath of God? God is love and good and 00:06:45.720 --> 00:06:53.209 long -suffering, merciful. His wrath is when 00:06:53.209 --> 00:06:57.610 he lets the human anger and pettiness. He doesn't 00:06:57.610 --> 00:07:01.029 have any of that. But he lets us have our way 00:07:01.029 --> 00:07:03.730 when we go down that road and we don't turn to 00:07:03.730 --> 00:07:06.550 him. This is the wrath of God. He lets man go. 00:07:06.790 --> 00:07:09.529 He hands him over. He abandons him for maybe 00:07:09.529 --> 00:07:17.250 a little while. So we repent. If we don't repent, 00:07:17.490 --> 00:07:21.819 then our choice of evil multiplies. And the moral 00:07:21.819 --> 00:07:25.339 evils to which God has delivered a heart of heart 00:07:25.339 --> 00:07:29.839 appear to be very vices characteristic of our 00:07:29.839 --> 00:07:32.980 own times and days. You've seen the news. O Lord 00:07:32.980 --> 00:07:36.399 Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon us 00:07:36.399 --> 00:07:40.839 and on thy world. Pray, my brethren. Pray for 00:07:40.839 --> 00:07:44.120 our land. Pray for the people that feel aggrieved 00:07:44.120 --> 00:07:49.120 and abused and support them. If you don't have 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:51.860 love from God, then you can't know how to support 00:07:51.860 --> 00:07:58.100 them. If we don't have love for God, we're hopeless 00:07:58.100 --> 00:08:01.540 after all we've been given in the Holy Church. 00:08:02.680 --> 00:08:05.439 What's our approach? Listen to the words of St. 00:08:05.439 --> 00:08:10.879 Cosmas the Aetolian, who lived his life under 00:08:10.879 --> 00:08:13.720 the repression and oppression of the Turkish 00:08:13.720 --> 00:08:17.699 -Muslim authorities in Greece. He says this, 00:08:19.099 --> 00:08:22.800 Even if we perform upon thousands of good works, 00:08:22.920 --> 00:08:27.500 my brethren, fasts, prayers, almsgiving, even 00:08:27.500 --> 00:08:29.860 if we shed our blood for Christ, we don't have 00:08:29.860 --> 00:08:33.120 these two loves, the love of God and the love 00:08:33.120 --> 00:08:36.500 of brethren, but on the contrary, have hatred 00:08:36.500 --> 00:08:40.379 and malice toward our brethren and blame them. 00:08:40.740 --> 00:08:43.240 All the good we have done is of the devil and 00:08:43.240 --> 00:08:47.350 we go to hell. But you say, We go to hell despite 00:08:47.350 --> 00:08:49.690 all the good we do because of a little hatred? 00:08:50.590 --> 00:08:54.909 Yes, my brother. Because that hatred is the devil's 00:08:54.909 --> 00:08:57.629 poison. And just as when we put a little yeast 00:08:57.629 --> 00:09:01.350 in a hundred pounds of flour, it has such power 00:09:01.350 --> 00:09:05.230 that it causes all the dough to rise, so it is 00:09:05.230 --> 00:09:08.830 with hatred. It transforms all the good we have 00:09:08.830 --> 00:09:12.649 done to a devil's poison. Through the prayers 00:09:12.649 --> 00:09:17.789 of St. Cosmos, Lord, help us. Our situation stands 00:09:17.789 --> 00:09:22.789 in stark, bitter, sorrowful contrast to the gospel 00:09:22.789 --> 00:09:25.269 we heard today, which is what I want to leave 00:09:25.269 --> 00:09:28.909 you with, which is about unity, which is about 00:09:28.909 --> 00:09:33.970 union in Jesus Christ. God becomes man so that 00:09:33.970 --> 00:09:37.289 we may become like God by grace, the divinity 00:09:37.289 --> 00:09:42.309 of Christ, equal in honor and divinity and essence 00:09:42.309 --> 00:09:45.840 with the Father, sharing our human nature. On 00:09:45.840 --> 00:09:48.500 this Sunday, the Sunday between Ascension and 00:09:48.500 --> 00:09:52.580 Pentecost, specifically the Church directs our 00:09:52.580 --> 00:09:57.080 mind to this great mystery, the mystery of piety. 00:09:58.860 --> 00:10:03.259 And we celebrate the 318 Holy Fathers of the 00:10:03.259 --> 00:10:05.740 First Ecumenical Council who gathered in the 00:10:05.740 --> 00:10:09.019 city of Nicaea and ended their deliberations 00:10:09.019 --> 00:10:13.559 on May 20th, the year 325. Nicaea is now the 00:10:13.559 --> 00:10:17.669 city of... Iznik, Turkey, 50 miles outside of 00:10:17.669 --> 00:10:22.370 Istanbul. Nicaea is gone. The faith remains. 00:10:23.110 --> 00:10:26.190 This tells me that the fashion of this world 00:10:26.190 --> 00:10:30.210 and the things that are visible don't gate your 00:10:30.210 --> 00:10:34.750 life by them. They pass. It's the things that 00:10:34.750 --> 00:10:39.830 are invisible from God that aren't in flux but 00:10:39.830 --> 00:10:43.049 are eternal and we set our hope and our life 00:10:43.049 --> 00:10:46.340 on them. And I hope that when we recite the creed 00:10:46.340 --> 00:10:49.299 in just a little while, that that incredible 00:10:49.299 --> 00:10:52.059 thing that we've received from the 318 fathers 00:10:52.059 --> 00:10:55.179 of Nicaea, it's been handed down to us, it's 00:10:55.179 --> 00:10:59.659 been given to us, that we live it. Do we struggle 00:10:59.659 --> 00:11:04.299 with it? Face the fears and the possible doubts. 00:11:06.679 --> 00:11:10.139 Confront them. Because our faith is not philosophy. 00:11:11.240 --> 00:11:15.480 It's not religious formula. As Father John Sheddick 00:11:15.480 --> 00:11:17.740 said in a sermon on this gospel a few years ago, 00:11:17.879 --> 00:11:20.600 he said it wasn't a bunch of guys sitting in 00:11:20.600 --> 00:11:22.480 a room saying, now what do we believe? Let's 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:25.019 think about that. No, not this, but that. None 00:11:25.019 --> 00:11:27.840 of that. It's not some secret gospel. It's not 00:11:27.840 --> 00:11:31.259 hazy, mysterious. It's not a secret religion. 00:11:34.100 --> 00:11:37.559 What was true for the apostles, what was true 00:11:37.559 --> 00:11:41.360 for the 318 fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, 00:11:41.840 --> 00:11:46.220 what was true for the martyrs must be true for 00:11:46.220 --> 00:11:49.879 us too, is what the Savior said in prayer to 00:11:49.879 --> 00:11:54.019 the Father. I have manifested thy name unto the 00:11:54.019 --> 00:11:56.539 men, the apostles, whom thou gavest me out of 00:11:56.539 --> 00:12:00.879 the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest them 00:12:00.879 --> 00:12:04.700 to me. They have kept thy word. Now they have 00:12:04.700 --> 00:12:07.399 known all things whatsoever thou hast given me 00:12:07.399 --> 00:12:11.879 are of thee. This is what we have to do. For 00:12:11.879 --> 00:12:14.919 I have given unto them the words which thou gavest 00:12:14.919 --> 00:12:19.799 me, and they have received them, and have known 00:12:19.799 --> 00:12:22.639 surely that I came out from thee. They believe 00:12:22.639 --> 00:12:26.639 that thou didst send me, that he is the way, 00:12:26.820 --> 00:12:32.879 the truth, and the life. How to summarize our 00:12:32.879 --> 00:12:38.460 salvation? God became man, so that we may by 00:12:38.460 --> 00:12:43.259 grace become as God is. Anything lasts is not 00:12:43.259 --> 00:12:47.679 salvation. So, beloved, walk on the straight 00:12:47.679 --> 00:12:52.179 and narrow way. Love God. Love your neighbor. 00:12:53.279 --> 00:12:55.600 Repent of the sins of our nations. You may not 00:12:55.600 --> 00:13:00.460 have done those sins, but we're united to one 00:13:00.460 --> 00:13:05.179 another. Seek peace. Pursue the glory of God. 00:13:05.679 --> 00:13:08.139 Pursue Christ. Walk on the way of the truth and 00:13:08.139 --> 00:13:11.230 the life. This is what the Church presents to 00:13:11.230 --> 00:13:14.789 us this day, before the Feast of Pentecost. Glory 00:13:14.789 --> 00:13:17.429 be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the 00:13:17.429 --> 00:13:19.710 Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to ages of ages. 00:13:19.950 --> 00:13:20.350 Amen.