Glory to Jesus Christ. Perhaps this is one of
the most serious days in the year for an Orthodox
Christian. The Lord is teaching us. He's giving
us a word about our eternal destiny. And each
one of us, each person, every single person born
on this earth, Beloved by God, made by God, has
a destiny. God has created us to be in love with
him and to be in communion with him, to share
his life. To share his life. That's our destiny.
We weren't created just to go to work, just to
make money. just to spin our wheels, to find
entertainment and distraction, and then die.
No, we are created to live forever in the light
of God's love, in the light of God's presence.
This is our destiny. And today, the Lord teaches
from a specific... perspective about this destiny
for us. Before I get into this gospel, I want
to share with you just a few words from this
brand new book, which is transcriptions of the
talks by Father Alexander Schmemann of Blessed
Memory to Radio Liberty for 30 years, a weekly
talk. This is the first collection in that. These
are short selections that he gave to believers
in the Soviet Union. He asks about faith, and
that's a critical question for us today. What
is our faith? A man once came to me 12, 15 years
ago. I certainly didn't know what to tell him
then. I'm not sure I'd know what to tell him
now. He said, why did God create us if he's just
going to have the judgment day and those people
who he knew would be evil are going to the left
side to hell prepared for the devil and all his
angels, not prepared for us, by the way. Why
would he even create anybody to suffer that fate?
Doesn't sound fair. Well, He was looking for
some kind of system, I suppose. He was looking
for a way, this man, to kind of pull down God.
And he had forgotten that God is trying to pull
us up. That we are to be like him. We are to
be his image and likeness in this world. We are
his servants, so we have a further ministry.
We have the ability, we have the grace, we have
the means, the holy mysteries to be cleansed,
to truly be like him, to be sanctified. This
is why the church walls have saints on them.
To call us to join them. They are our brothers
and sisters. They are like us and we are to be
like them. Here's what Father Alexander says
about faith. And perhaps it answers that man's
question and sets for me the tone. Of what it
means to believe in God. And by the way, I'm
sorry, but everybody is required to keep their
masks on. This is just the rule of our hierarchy.
And we are limiting our capacity to 30. That's
our own personal rule. So please listen to our,
as you do, to our ushers when they want to help
you. They're only here to help. Here's what Father
Alexander says. Where does faith come from? From
fear of the afterlife? From my inherent passionate
and ultimately egotistical desire not to utterly
disappear from the face of reality? No. No. For
the most clever philosophical discourse about
the afterlife, about eternity, and so on, seems
but useless babble to me. What do I know about
all this? And what can I say to others? And I
do not believe in God because I desire the afterlife
and eternity, but rather I believe in eternal
life because I believe in God. But then to the
question of all questions, why do I believe?
Only one answer can be made, because God gave
me this faith, and he gives it to me all the
time. He gave it as a gift, and I am convinced
of its reality by the unique joy that does not
depend on anything in this world, the peace that
does not depend on anything external, which I
experience in myself in those rare moments when
the word God ceases to be just a word, becoming
a boundless waterfall of light, of love, of beauty,
and true life that washes over me. Peace and
joy and the Holy Spirit, says St. Paul. This
is what St. Paul said, and there are no other
words. This is why we are children. This is why
we are baptized. This is why we are members of
the kingdom of God. This is why we come to worship
him. We enter into this church and we hear, lo,
the words of Jesus, lo, I am with you even to
the end of the age. And we hear the words of
the prayer, attend, O Lord Jesus Christ, from
thy holy dwelling place and from the glory of
the kingdom and come to sanctify us. So thou
who art present with us now. And yet, the Lord
will come again for all to see. We know he is
here with us and we worship him. But he will
come with his angels in all his glory and all
will see the glory of the Son of Man. The glory
of the wounds of his hands and of his feet and
the spear that had pierced his side. The glory
of the members of his kingdom, which we hear
today, are not just the people, maybe not at
all the people that minister to the least, to
the poor, to the hungry, to the thirsty, to the
imprisoned. But to those who are imprisoned,
there is Jesus. To those who are thirsty, to
those who are hungry and alone, they are the
Christ. That we can meet. That's the glory of
God that he's coming with. Chapter 24 tells us
something extremely important about the teaching
we hear today in chapter 25. And that is this.
The disciples of Jesus gathered to him. The twelve.
And Jesus said to them, See ye all these things?
Truly I say to you, the temple, there shall not
be one stone upon another that shall not be thrown
down. And as he sat down on the Mount of Olives,
which is across from the temple, he told his
disciples who came to him privately. All of these
things about the end, they said to Jesus, tell
us, Lord, when shall these things be? And what
shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end
of the world? Was Jesus alone with his disciples
on the Mount of Olives? And he spoke about the
end and about rumors and wars and tribulations
and plagues. and nations fighting against nations
and earthquakes. But all these things are not
yet the end. And the sun shall be darkened. And
then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man
in heaven. And then shall all the tribes of the
earth mourn. And they shall see the Son of Man
coming in the clouds of heaven with power and
great glory. And then what does he tell the disciples?
And what does he tell us? Because we claim to
be his disciples. He's sitting with them on the
Mount of Olives. We're sitting with them on the
Mount of Olives. And Jesus says these parables.
Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened to
ten virgins. The five wise and the five foolish.
And the foolish were left out when the bridegroom
came. Because they were not prepared. And then
he tells the parable of the man who goes to a
far country and he gives each of his servants
talents, five, ten, whatever. And then he returns
and he expects a return on his investment. And
then he tells the parable we just heard. What
is this telling us, brothers and sisters? This
is a message for the disciples. I don't know
how God is going to judge others. But you've
just got to look, a pre -look at the final exam.
It's clear. The disciples of Christ are to show,
are to show the fruits of their faith. And the
greatest fruit of all, and we learned this recently
in an epistle if we were listening. It's the
bond of perfection is love. God created us out
of love. He has joined us to himself in the church
out of his love. He bestows that love in us and
through us to others. Our judgment is going to
be based on how we love. Like me, you probably...
could go downtown, could go off of Industrial
Drive. You could drive to Berkeley, get off the
Ashby Avenue exit. You could go to San Francisco
and walk from Union Square to the Civic Center.
And what are you going to see in all of these
three places, and far more than those places?
You're going to see tents and homeless people
and drug addicts and people sitting and sleeping
on the sidewalk. You can't even walk on the sidewalk.
You're going to see all that. The paradox is
when we give to one of those persons, we're giving
to Christ. Jesus is not saying here, solve world
hunger. He's not even saying, I hope you can
see the image of God in these people because
that's what you're going to be saved. No, he's
not telling us that. This is a paradoxical situation.
The righteous are surprised that they ministered
to Christ. When did we see the old Lord? But
their whole life was of love. No matter to who
it was, they loved. And this is to be the content
of our life too. We are setting off now. On the
journey of great Lent. We've heard publican,
tax collector. We've heard the prodigal. Now
we have the last judgment. We hear about God's
mercy. Now we hear what the servants of God are
expected to be like. Lent is going to be the
time in which we try to attain that love. To
attain that Christ -likeness. So that our hearts
become a reflection of the Son. It's almost like
the moon reflects the sun, but the Son of God.
Amen.