But Jesus called them to himself and said to
them, You know that those who are considered
rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and
their great ones exercise authority over them.
Yet it shall not be so among you. But whosoever
desires to become great among you shall be your
servant, and whosoever among you desires to be
first shall be the slave of all. For even the
Son of Man did not come to be served, but to
serve and to give his life a ransom for many.
There could not be a more appropriate gospel
passage to be appointed for this saint, this
practicum, and for the occasion of this ordination
to the diaconate than this. For every office
in the churches really embraces the concept of
diakonia or service. The Greek word diakonos
predates its use by Christians and was the term
used in ancient Greece for waiter. If you were
dining in ancient Athens and you wanted more
wine, you might have snapped your fingers and
said, or diakonos instead of garcon. So first
of all, the deacon is tied, if you will, to table
service. And that is exactly what we read in
the sixth chapter of the Book of Acts of the
Apostles, where the apostles, who were a bit
overwhelmed, chose seven men of good repute to
assist them in their ministry to serve tables,
that is to see to the care of the widows and
poor of the church. These seven men were set
aside and hands laid upon them to free the apostles
so that they could devote themselves to prayer
and the word. And so of the three major orders
of the church, bishop, presbyter, and deacon,
the order of deacons is the oldest. Diaconal
service was not originally liturgical but administrative.
Deaconesses were also appointed and set aside
to help in the care of widows and the preparation
of female catechumens for baptism, where it was
considered unseemly for males to perform these
functions. Eventually, deacons are given a liturgical
role, especially where the distribution of communion
is concerned. Parenthetically, the use of the
common spoon for distribution of Holy Communion
replaced the more ancient practice of the faithful
receiving the precious body of Christ in their
hands as the clergy do today was because there
was a shortage of deacons who followed the priest
giving the chalice. As servers at the Holy Table,
the deacons are understood to have a ministry
parallel to that of the Holy Angels who serve.
at the ideal heavenly throne of God. That's why
deacons often have the angelic hymn, Holy, Holy,
Holy, written on their aurorians. As I said earlier,
every ministry in the Church involves diakonia,
or service. In fact, almost every time in the
King James Authorized Version uses the words
ministry or minister in the New Testament, the
Greek word, or at least the very root of the
Greek word there, is some form of diakonia. So
today, as we ordain a deacon, Much like those
original seven men in the Book of Acts were ordained,
let us all be mindful of this. Now to St. Jacob
of Alaska, who was the very ruler model of what
Christ spoke about, a servant. He gave his entire
life over to serve the spreading of the gospel
among the native peoples of Alaska. He was born
on the Aleutian island of Atka in 1802, eight
years after the first missionaries arrived in
Kodiak. He was a Creole, that is, his father
was Russian and his mother was Aleut. and as
such he grew up with a foot in both cultures,
something that would prove valuable later when
he returned from Russia to Alaska to begin service
as a priest. Jacob, or Yaakov, assisted St. Innocent
in his work of translation, preparing translations
in Unangan, but he would not become known for
his work among the fellow Aleuts. After the sudden
death of his wife and father, Jacob petitioned
to be allowed to return to Russia to enter into
a monastery, as was the custom. said he would
bless that, but only when a replacement was to
be found. And of course, as in the church was
the case, no replacement was found. And so when
Fr. John Vinyaminov returned to Alaska as Bishop
Innocent, he asked Fr. Jacob to accompany him
to Kamchatka on an archpastoral visit. And it
was during this trip that St. Innocent convinced
him to leave his people for the sake of the gospel
and begin a mission in the Alaskan interior among
the Yupik people. Now you may not know it, but
Yupik is not related at all, the Yupik language
is not related at all to Aleut. It is as different
as German is from Russian. And the cultures are
also very different. Aleuts were a seafaring
people. Yupiks lived along the great rivers of
the Alaskan interior, like the Yukama and the
Kustukwim. But true servant, or the Akinos that
he was, of the gospel, he spent most of the rest
of his life... learning the Yupik language, translating
and spreading the Orthodox faith among the Yupiks
and other groups of Alaskan natives in the interior.
He is fondly remembered by the Alaskan native
people for his years of dedicated service. In
fact, I would have to say it was his work that
carried the Yupik people through the dark years
of neglect when no priests were available to
serve them. Life was not easy. You know, when
I lived in Alaska and I had to travel to some
of the Yupik villages, I had to travel in these
little bush planes, and I thought that was really
miserable, or up the rivers in open boats in
the cold and wet. That was not the case for St.
Jacob. But St. Jacob traveled by dog sled and
kayak. He didn't have a nice wooden church to
pray in, but most of the time he'd just attend.
One winter he and his father almost starved to
death, having run out of food, mainly salmon,
which I'm particularly not fond of, as most of
you know. that had been stored for the winter,
they were close to death from starvation. And
he sent out some people, it was during Lent,
he sent out some men to hunt to try and find
something to eat. And so after some days, they
arrived back with some moose and the people were
saved from starvation thanks to his quick thinking.
In his journals, which were later found... In
Sitka, there's a notation in the side. Russian
priests used to write a journal every day, what
they did, how many baptisms they did, how many
marriages they did, whether they served liturgy
or not that day. So his journals had all this
information. And so he tells the story of the
fact that they almost starved. No food today.
The next journal, no food today. It's getting
desperate. There's no food. Thank God they bought
a moose. And we were able to eat. So the bishop,
in reading this, as bishops often do, and totally
disconnected from Reddit, and said, what? Meat
during Lent? It shows you how much bishops know.
The last chapter of his life, however, was not
very pleasant. It seems that someone who had
a grudge against him made a logic complaint against
him, and he was called back to Sitka to appear
before the bishop. And while he was there, it
was decided that he would remain there because
of his poor state of health. He was 62 when he
died. And so he was cleared of this accusation,
but stayed there in Sitka and began to learn
the Tlingit language, which again is another
language that he learned and ministered to the
Tlingit people there. As we heard last night
from the reading of the wisdom of Solomon, but
the righteous live forever, and their reward
is with the Lord, the Most High takes care of
them. Therefore they will receive a glorious
crown and a beautiful diadem from the hand of
the Lord, because with his right hand he will
cover them, and with his arms he will shield
them. Well, today we don't know where his body
lies. Nevertheless, his memory is with us, and
he has certainly received a crown, a glorious
crown of sainthood for the Lord. So on this day
when we ordain a new deacon, let us pray that
St. Jacob will inspire him and guide him and
all of you to a selfless service to the gospel.
Amen.