WEBVTT 00:00:01.419 --> 00:00:04.200 But Jesus called them to himself and said to 00:00:04.200 --> 00:00:07.219 them, You know that those who are considered 00:00:07.219 --> 00:00:09.500 rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and 00:00:09.500 --> 00:00:11.560 their great ones exercise authority over them. 00:00:12.060 --> 00:00:15.580 Yet it shall not be so among you. But whosoever 00:00:15.580 --> 00:00:17.660 desires to become great among you shall be your 00:00:17.660 --> 00:00:20.699 servant, and whosoever among you desires to be 00:00:20.699 --> 00:00:24.480 first shall be the slave of all. For even the 00:00:24.480 --> 00:00:27.179 Son of Man did not come to be served, but to 00:00:27.179 --> 00:00:29.019 serve and to give his life a ransom for many. 00:00:30.640 --> 00:00:32.600 There could not be a more appropriate gospel 00:00:32.600 --> 00:00:35.119 passage to be appointed for this saint, this 00:00:35.119 --> 00:00:38.200 practicum, and for the occasion of this ordination 00:00:38.200 --> 00:00:41.679 to the diaconate than this. For every office 00:00:41.679 --> 00:00:44.579 in the churches really embraces the concept of 00:00:44.579 --> 00:00:48.399 diakonia or service. The Greek word diakonos 00:00:48.399 --> 00:00:51.299 predates its use by Christians and was the term 00:00:51.299 --> 00:00:54.640 used in ancient Greece for waiter. If you were 00:00:54.640 --> 00:00:56.380 dining in ancient Athens and you wanted more 00:00:56.380 --> 00:00:58.000 wine, you might have snapped your fingers and 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:02.619 said, or diakonos instead of garcon. So first 00:01:02.619 --> 00:01:04.879 of all, the deacon is tied, if you will, to table 00:01:04.879 --> 00:01:07.680 service. And that is exactly what we read in 00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:09.980 the sixth chapter of the Book of Acts of the 00:01:09.980 --> 00:01:11.980 Apostles, where the apostles, who were a bit 00:01:11.980 --> 00:01:14.739 overwhelmed, chose seven men of good repute to 00:01:14.739 --> 00:01:16.939 assist them in their ministry to serve tables, 00:01:17.099 --> 00:01:19.239 that is to see to the care of the widows and 00:01:19.239 --> 00:01:22.379 poor of the church. These seven men were set 00:01:22.379 --> 00:01:25.519 aside and hands laid upon them to free the apostles 00:01:25.519 --> 00:01:27.099 so that they could devote themselves to prayer 00:01:27.099 --> 00:01:30.420 and the word. And so of the three major orders 00:01:30.420 --> 00:01:32.079 of the church, bishop, presbyter, and deacon, 00:01:32.200 --> 00:01:37.159 the order of deacons is the oldest. Diaconal 00:01:37.159 --> 00:01:39.500 service was not originally liturgical but administrative. 00:01:40.659 --> 00:01:42.680 Deaconesses were also appointed and set aside 00:01:42.680 --> 00:01:45.060 to help in the care of widows and the preparation 00:01:45.060 --> 00:01:47.879 of female catechumens for baptism, where it was 00:01:47.879 --> 00:01:49.719 considered unseemly for males to perform these 00:01:49.719 --> 00:01:53.340 functions. Eventually, deacons are given a liturgical 00:01:53.340 --> 00:01:56.260 role, especially where the distribution of communion 00:01:56.260 --> 00:02:04.590 is concerned. Parenthetically, the use of the 00:02:04.590 --> 00:02:07.129 common spoon for distribution of Holy Communion 00:02:07.129 --> 00:02:08.990 replaced the more ancient practice of the faithful 00:02:08.990 --> 00:02:11.409 receiving the precious body of Christ in their 00:02:11.409 --> 00:02:13.849 hands as the clergy do today was because there 00:02:13.849 --> 00:02:15.830 was a shortage of deacons who followed the priest 00:02:15.830 --> 00:02:20.810 giving the chalice. As servers at the Holy Table, 00:02:20.990 --> 00:02:23.250 the deacons are understood to have a ministry 00:02:23.250 --> 00:02:25.530 parallel to that of the Holy Angels who serve. 00:02:25.930 --> 00:02:29.050 at the ideal heavenly throne of God. That's why 00:02:29.050 --> 00:02:31.250 deacons often have the angelic hymn, Holy, Holy, 00:02:31.289 --> 00:02:34.810 Holy, written on their aurorians. As I said earlier, 00:02:35.050 --> 00:02:37.050 every ministry in the Church involves diakonia, 00:02:37.169 --> 00:02:40.689 or service. In fact, almost every time in the 00:02:40.689 --> 00:02:42.990 King James Authorized Version uses the words 00:02:42.990 --> 00:02:45.330 ministry or minister in the New Testament, the 00:02:45.330 --> 00:02:47.090 Greek word, or at least the very root of the 00:02:47.090 --> 00:02:51.349 Greek word there, is some form of diakonia. So 00:02:51.349 --> 00:02:54.439 today, as we ordain a deacon, Much like those 00:02:54.439 --> 00:02:57.020 original seven men in the Book of Acts were ordained, 00:02:57.099 --> 00:03:00.199 let us all be mindful of this. Now to St. Jacob 00:03:00.199 --> 00:03:03.580 of Alaska, who was the very ruler model of what 00:03:03.580 --> 00:03:07.419 Christ spoke about, a servant. He gave his entire 00:03:07.419 --> 00:03:09.479 life over to serve the spreading of the gospel 00:03:09.479 --> 00:03:12.400 among the native peoples of Alaska. He was born 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:15.379 on the Aleutian island of Atka in 1802, eight 00:03:15.379 --> 00:03:17.259 years after the first missionaries arrived in 00:03:17.259 --> 00:03:19.879 Kodiak. He was a Creole, that is, his father 00:03:19.879 --> 00:03:22.569 was Russian and his mother was Aleut. and as 00:03:22.569 --> 00:03:24.370 such he grew up with a foot in both cultures, 00:03:24.569 --> 00:03:26.569 something that would prove valuable later when 00:03:26.569 --> 00:03:29.449 he returned from Russia to Alaska to begin service 00:03:29.449 --> 00:03:33.689 as a priest. Jacob, or Yaakov, assisted St. Innocent 00:03:33.689 --> 00:03:37.030 in his work of translation, preparing translations 00:03:37.030 --> 00:03:40.469 in Unangan, but he would not become known for 00:03:40.469 --> 00:03:43.069 his work among the fellow Aleuts. After the sudden 00:03:43.069 --> 00:03:46.550 death of his wife and father, Jacob petitioned 00:03:46.550 --> 00:03:48.530 to be allowed to return to Russia to enter into 00:03:48.530 --> 00:03:52.719 a monastery, as was the custom. said he would 00:03:52.719 --> 00:03:54.680 bless that, but only when a replacement was to 00:03:54.680 --> 00:03:56.520 be found. And of course, as in the church was 00:03:56.520 --> 00:04:02.000 the case, no replacement was found. And so when 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:04.340 Fr. John Vinyaminov returned to Alaska as Bishop 00:04:04.340 --> 00:04:07.400 Innocent, he asked Fr. Jacob to accompany him 00:04:07.400 --> 00:04:09.860 to Kamchatka on an archpastoral visit. And it 00:04:09.860 --> 00:04:11.879 was during this trip that St. Innocent convinced 00:04:11.879 --> 00:04:14.960 him to leave his people for the sake of the gospel 00:04:14.960 --> 00:04:17.699 and begin a mission in the Alaskan interior among 00:04:17.699 --> 00:04:20.410 the Yupik people. Now you may not know it, but 00:04:20.410 --> 00:04:23.110 Yupik is not related at all, the Yupik language 00:04:23.110 --> 00:04:26.850 is not related at all to Aleut. It is as different 00:04:26.850 --> 00:04:30.290 as German is from Russian. And the cultures are 00:04:30.290 --> 00:04:32.810 also very different. Aleuts were a seafaring 00:04:32.810 --> 00:04:35.329 people. Yupiks lived along the great rivers of 00:04:35.329 --> 00:04:37.089 the Alaskan interior, like the Yukama and the 00:04:37.089 --> 00:04:40.290 Kustukwim. But true servant, or the Akinos that 00:04:40.290 --> 00:04:43.170 he was, of the gospel, he spent most of the rest 00:04:43.170 --> 00:04:45.910 of his life... learning the Yupik language, translating 00:04:45.910 --> 00:04:48.009 and spreading the Orthodox faith among the Yupiks 00:04:48.009 --> 00:04:50.889 and other groups of Alaskan natives in the interior. 00:04:51.910 --> 00:04:54.529 He is fondly remembered by the Alaskan native 00:04:54.529 --> 00:04:56.569 people for his years of dedicated service. In 00:04:56.569 --> 00:04:59.310 fact, I would have to say it was his work that 00:04:59.310 --> 00:05:01.329 carried the Yupik people through the dark years 00:05:01.329 --> 00:05:04.149 of neglect when no priests were available to 00:05:04.149 --> 00:05:08.189 serve them. Life was not easy. You know, when 00:05:08.189 --> 00:05:09.990 I lived in Alaska and I had to travel to some 00:05:09.990 --> 00:05:12.439 of the Yupik villages, I had to travel in these 00:05:12.439 --> 00:05:14.360 little bush planes, and I thought that was really 00:05:14.360 --> 00:05:18.980 miserable, or up the rivers in open boats in 00:05:18.980 --> 00:05:22.160 the cold and wet. That was not the case for St. 00:05:22.259 --> 00:05:28.699 Jacob. But St. Jacob traveled by dog sled and 00:05:28.699 --> 00:05:31.180 kayak. He didn't have a nice wooden church to 00:05:31.180 --> 00:05:32.879 pray in, but most of the time he'd just attend. 00:05:33.959 --> 00:05:35.819 One winter he and his father almost starved to 00:05:35.819 --> 00:05:38.399 death, having run out of food, mainly salmon, 00:05:38.480 --> 00:05:40.220 which I'm particularly not fond of, as most of 00:05:40.220 --> 00:05:43.850 you know. that had been stored for the winter, 00:05:44.050 --> 00:05:48.949 they were close to death from starvation. And 00:05:48.949 --> 00:05:51.329 he sent out some people, it was during Lent, 00:05:51.350 --> 00:05:53.649 he sent out some men to hunt to try and find 00:05:53.649 --> 00:05:57.689 something to eat. And so after some days, they 00:05:57.689 --> 00:06:03.290 arrived back with some moose and the people were 00:06:03.290 --> 00:06:05.569 saved from starvation thanks to his quick thinking. 00:06:06.029 --> 00:06:10.610 In his journals, which were later found... In 00:06:10.610 --> 00:06:13.350 Sitka, there's a notation in the side. Russian 00:06:13.350 --> 00:06:15.910 priests used to write a journal every day, what 00:06:15.910 --> 00:06:18.170 they did, how many baptisms they did, how many 00:06:18.170 --> 00:06:20.550 marriages they did, whether they served liturgy 00:06:20.550 --> 00:06:22.670 or not that day. So his journals had all this 00:06:22.670 --> 00:06:25.990 information. And so he tells the story of the 00:06:25.990 --> 00:06:31.629 fact that they almost starved. No food today. 00:06:31.910 --> 00:06:34.629 The next journal, no food today. It's getting 00:06:34.629 --> 00:06:37.069 desperate. There's no food. Thank God they bought 00:06:37.069 --> 00:06:40.920 a moose. And we were able to eat. So the bishop, 00:06:40.939 --> 00:06:43.279 in reading this, as bishops often do, and totally 00:06:43.279 --> 00:06:47.079 disconnected from Reddit, and said, what? Meat 00:06:47.079 --> 00:06:53.680 during Lent? It shows you how much bishops know. 00:06:55.339 --> 00:06:57.519 The last chapter of his life, however, was not 00:06:57.519 --> 00:07:01.759 very pleasant. It seems that someone who had 00:07:01.759 --> 00:07:03.860 a grudge against him made a logic complaint against 00:07:03.860 --> 00:07:07.420 him, and he was called back to Sitka to appear 00:07:07.420 --> 00:07:10.120 before the bishop. And while he was there, it 00:07:10.120 --> 00:07:12.480 was decided that he would remain there because 00:07:12.480 --> 00:07:15.180 of his poor state of health. He was 62 when he 00:07:15.180 --> 00:07:24.000 died. And so he was cleared of this accusation, 00:07:24.040 --> 00:07:26.980 but stayed there in Sitka and began to learn 00:07:26.980 --> 00:07:29.920 the Tlingit language, which again is another 00:07:29.920 --> 00:07:35.459 language that he learned and ministered to the 00:07:35.459 --> 00:07:38.189 Tlingit people there. As we heard last night 00:07:38.189 --> 00:07:40.750 from the reading of the wisdom of Solomon, but 00:07:40.750 --> 00:07:42.290 the righteous live forever, and their reward 00:07:42.290 --> 00:07:44.389 is with the Lord, the Most High takes care of 00:07:44.389 --> 00:07:46.370 them. Therefore they will receive a glorious 00:07:46.370 --> 00:07:48.509 crown and a beautiful diadem from the hand of 00:07:48.509 --> 00:07:50.889 the Lord, because with his right hand he will 00:07:50.889 --> 00:07:52.829 cover them, and with his arms he will shield 00:07:52.829 --> 00:07:58.350 them. Well, today we don't know where his body 00:07:58.350 --> 00:08:00.910 lies. Nevertheless, his memory is with us, and 00:08:00.910 --> 00:08:02.529 he has certainly received a crown, a glorious 00:08:02.529 --> 00:08:05.970 crown of sainthood for the Lord. So on this day 00:08:05.970 --> 00:08:10.389 when we ordain a new deacon, let us pray that 00:08:10.389 --> 00:08:14.670 St. Jacob will inspire him and guide him and 00:08:14.670 --> 00:08:17.029 all of you to a selfless service to the gospel. 00:08:17.329 --> 00:08:17.769 Amen.