Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to God. 401K, 401B,
STRS, traditional IRA, Roth IRA, all these things
bring to mind to those of us that know retirement,
that we will need, there will be a time where
we would stop working and we should have prepared.
for that time to have some extra funds. You would
go to a financial advisor to get advice. Well,
this morning, we commemorate St. Gregory Palamas,
and he is our spiritual advisor. Let us see what
words he would give to us in investing in a 777K
for our spiritual advisor. well -being. Given
that we desire long life, should we not take
eternal life into account? If we long for a kingdom
which, however enduring, has an end, and glory
and joy, which great as they are, will fade,
and wealth that will perish with this present
life, and we labor for the sake of such things,
ought we not to seek the kingdom, glory, joy,
and riches, which as well as being all -surpassing
are unfolding and endless, and ought we not to
endure a little constraint in order to inherit
it? In today's Gospel reading, We have our Lord
Jesus Christ approached by a man who is there
to test him. To test him because he is a lawyer
and he knows the law, the law of Israel, and
how one is said to achieve reaching heaven. And
so he comes and says, Teacher, what shall I do
to inherit eternal life? And Jesus, knowing his
heart and his intention, says, What is written
in the law? What is your reading of it? And the
lawyer answered a good answer from the Torah,
a good answer from Deuteronomy and Leviticus,
saying, You shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart, with all your soul, with all
your strength, and with all your mind. And your
neighbor as yourself. And Jesus responded, you
have answered rightly. Do this and you will live.
And this is true for us as well. If it was true
for that lawyer, it is true for us. Let us hear
it again. You shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart, with all your soul, with all
your strength. and with all your mind and your
neighbor as yourself. We must love God, and it
must be a total, complete love from heart, soul,
strength, mind, without detailing this too much
in depth. Let us say that we must love God with
all that we are. And how do we do that? first
in our lives. Faith in God and our relationship
with him becomes primary, not secondary, not
tertiary, not after what other people think,
whoever they may be, but primary in our lives.
One way to test if you are truly loving God in
your life right now in this primary sense is
to look at the decisions that you are making.
Do you even consider if this would be something
God would approve? Or think of the commandments
of Christ in relation to your decisions. Is your
decision made to please your own desires and
appetites? Or perhaps to please other people?
When we make life decisions, ought to be primary
and we should think of it first and not after
the fact when we come to confession and say I
made the wrong decision if we could somehow well
it is good to go to confession it is good to
confess all those things and to admit that we
made a mistake and to have a repentant heart
but how much better would it be if we had somehow
looked to the Lord first and not fallen. We must
make God and God's will primary. And to do this,
we must have what is called the fear of God.
The fear of God, not being frightened or scared
in that sense at all, but filled with awe of
God, knowing how wonderful God is in his love
and his grace and his mercy, how he created all
things, that our very life and being comes from
God and esteeming God with honor and praise and
from our heart knowing that God is our creator
and our redeemer and that one day we will stand
before his judgment seat. Proverbs 19 .23 says
this, The fear of the Lord leads to life, and
he who has it rests satisfied. He will not be
visited by harm. And St. Tikhon of Zadonsk says
this, The fear of God is like a faithful guard
which is vigilant, guarding our spiritual house
from every evil. or rather it is like a strong
and high wall which obstructs the arrows shot
by the enemy and renders them ineffective. The
fear of God teaches the man to examine his own
conscience and to cleanse it by fervent repentance.
The fear of God is the true school of humility
which attracts God's grace. So how do we love
God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind.
Not by being people pleasers, not by saying or
doing things that people in the world would want.
St. Gregory Palamas says this, the passion for
popularity brings such injury upon those it masters
that it shipwrecks faith itself. How do we truly
love God? We pray. We make decisions where the
central part of our decision -making is what
God would want. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness, and all these things
shall be added unto you. And once we love God,
Then we will be able to do as the Good Samaritan
did today in the parable that was read, and love
our neighbor. And who is our neighbor? Anyone
in immediate need, even a supposed enemy. And
there is even more to this parable. The Orthodox
Study Bible tells us, symbolically, the Good
Samaritan is Christ himself. The wounded man
is humanity set upon by demons. And the inn is
the church. Love for neighbor proves our love
for God. But we cannot love our neighbor unless
first we love God and we live with fear of the
Lord, of that respect and awe and making God
primary. Someday each one of us will reach the
time of our repose. Will we have invested like
the IRA, the Roth IRA, the STRS system? Will
we have done something in our lives to have invested?
And I would recommend heavy investing. That not
just 10%, perhaps we could give even more. And
how do we give that? From the time that we have
in our life, we need to be here in church together
as we are, worshiping and taking holy communion.
We need to have that time at home in front of
the prayer corner where we spend time with the
Lord and we let God minister to each one of us
and sanctify us. Let us choose. to do that as
we make decisions in our daily lives. Glory to
Jesus Christ.