Glory to Jesus Christ. In the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I hope and trust that all of you had a good Thanksgiving
holiday, one in which there was thanksgiving
to God. I was happy to see so many of you here
on Thursday at the liturgy, and so happy on Monday
as well when we had a big crowd in the altar.
And we were all rejoicing. I know many of you
have been traveling. I'm grateful that you've
returned safely. Now we all return more intensely
and intently, hopefully, to Advent. For the fast,
directing ourselves towards Christmas and all
that means. What a marvelous gospel. I think
it will help us to orient ourselves. towards
Christmas. Let's think of the story, the account
that you heard for a moment. Jesus was teaching
in a synagogue as he was invited to do frequently.
What was he teaching? Well, just before the account
that you heard, St. Luke tells us that he was
teaching a parable. Now, It doesn't say this
specifically in the scriptures, but I have to
imagine that this is exactly what Jesus was doing
at that synagogue. Synagogue is a place of gathering
for the Jewish people. It's not the temple. The
temple is where the sacrifices take place. The
synagogue is a place of prayer, to hear the Psalms,
to hear a sermon, to have some hymns. It's a
gathering place for the community. And Jesus
is teaching this parable. He says, Certain man
had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. And he
came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then
he said to the keeper of the vineyard, look,
for three years. Now, does that remind you of
anything? Jesus' ministry was for three years.
He's being very specific. Look, for three years
I've come seeking fruit on this fig tree. and
find none. Cut it down. Why does it use up the
ground? But he answered him and said to him,
Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig
around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit,
well, but if not after that, you can cut it down.
And then Jesus saw this woman in the synagogue.
And he heals her. He touches her. He says, woman,
though it loose from your infirmity. And everyone
is praising God. They see this incredible thing
because this woman who is bent over, cannot see
the sky, cannot lift up her face to pray. All
she can do is bend over like some kind of animal.
You know, mostly it's only humans that can walk
upright and see like this. Mostly, not totally,
but mostly. Everyone's praising God for this
miracle. And they know that they are in the presence
of the Messiah. Everyone except one man. This
grump. Well, more than a grump, and I'll tell
you why. There are six days in which you can
work. But on the Sabbath, you don't. So come
and get healed another time. 18 years this woman
has been suffering. And there's this, what a
tragic contrast we have. Here's this woman bound
by Satan, unbound by Jesus Christ. Here's this
grump in charge of worship. Envious. Envious.
Local synagogue leader. He's bent by envy. He
cannot rejoice. And he has a pretext. It's not
just that he's a stickler for the Sabbath day
rules. Oh, it's not just that. In fact, he was
envious when Jesus healed the woman, but I have
no doubt that he was scheming on how to convict
Jesus because the Pharisees were already plotting,
says St. Matthew, against Jesus, how they might
arrest and destroy him. The Old Testament law,
as Numbers 15 tells us, Any kind of work is prohibited
on the Sabbath. Now, this man had an idea of
what that meant. It wasn't just one thing. But
Numbers 15 says one could receive the death penalty
for breaking the Sabbath law. So this man thinks
he's finally caught Jesus. He can turn him in
to the Pharisees. His work is over. Shows the
ugliness of envy. It's the Advent season. If
you pay any attention to ads, envy may strike
you. Be very careful. Let's look at this woman.
She was certainly following the Lord's commandment,
in specific, the fourth commandment, to remember
the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. But because
the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, And sanctified
it. Incidentally. Let me remind you. That Sunday
is not the Sabbath day. We keep the Sabbath day.
In the Orthodox Church. Every Saturday pretty
much. Is dedicated to the commemoration of those.
Who are resting in the Lord. Who have gone before
us. Who have died already. Commemoration of the
departed. Of course all that goes back to Holy
Saturday. When we proclaim. the Lord's victory
over death, that he is resting from all his work.
The Sabbath is the seventh day. Sunday is the
eighth day. Now, what does that mean? Oh, that
sounds very interesting. It's a number thing,
right? No, the eighth day is the day of the kingdom,
the day of the resurrection, the day without
evening. There's that beautiful line in the Akathist,
glory to God for all things, that we did a portion
of on Thursday. I see thy dwelling place, fiery
and purple, gold and blue. They speak prophet
-like of the ineffable beauty of thy presence.
Calling to us in their majesty, we turn to the
Father. When I was in Italy, I saw all these
old churches, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th century churches
with mosaics in the apse. Christ surrounded by
saints or with the Theotokos. And in those Ab's
mosaics. And I never knew this before. There's
these beautiful purple, red lines, varied colors
behind him, looking like waves. But it's exactly
this. It's the last day and the new day of the
kingdom. That's Sunday. That's why we come here,
to glorify the Lord risen from the dead. Our
faithful observance of Sunday must be far beyond
what the Jews do with Sabbath day. Because it's
about our resurrection. It's about the coming
of Christ. Will we be ready for his coming? Joyfully
ready to meet him as he comes, as St. Paul says
in Thessalonians. That's just incidentally. This
faithful woman came on the Sabbath. Probably
every Sabbath. In spite of what must have been
excruciating pain from her infirmity. How could
a person like that sit, stand, sleep? In spite
of her embarrassment, probably from being stared
at, whispered about, made fun of. Oh, they probably
said, she must be a sinner. Great sinner. Otherwise,
why would God afflict her with this? It's so
cruel. And here she was, faithful, although in
pain for 18 years, and she puts God first. She
puts God first, which is what we do now over
everything else as we make our way through the
current of this world towards Christmas. We put
God first. She didn't ask to be healed. She didn't
cry out like the blind man in Jericho. She didn't
make a spectacle of herself by disrupting the
teaching. And Jesus is saying this parable and
then interrupts it and walks over to her. She
was just there to listen, to hear, and to be
saved. Her faith and her struggle led her to
this moment. And Jesus recognized her humble
and attentive heart. And he walks over to her
and touches her and she is healed. Jesus sees
each one of us. He knows all our struggles. He
knows all our doubts. He knows how we are bound
by some sin. And believe me, I know most of us
have a repetitive sin that we feel bound by.
Jesus can loose us if we but remain faithful
to him. And yes, we have to struggle a little
bit. We have to return to him over and over again.
Sometimes that repetitive sin is there to keep
us humble, to keep us faithful. Otherwise, we
would lose connection with him. Jesus loosed
her. He unbound her as he does with us and our
sins. You are set free. You are loosed, he says.
And that's what happens in confession too. How
might we be also bent and bound, brothers and
sisters? Remember, Jesus was teaching the parable
of the unfruitful, the barren fig tree. This
should give us pause. He was teaching that man,
the synagogue worship leader, about something
specific. That man's gone. That synagogue no
longer exists. The message is for us. This is
a time when we should produce fruit. What kind
of fruit? Peace of heart? Love? Charity for the
poor? Prayer? Worship? Forgiveness? love of our
enemies, and all those things that the Lord commands,
and he lays out in the Beatitudes, which we hear
every week. Grasp that. Grasp the fact that we
should be fruitful servants of the Lord. Grasp
the fact that he can loose us from our sins.
We each have them. This man in the gospel didn't
know it, but he is much worse off than this 18
-year -bound woman. Because he won't open himself.
There's plenty of us that don't do that, that
do that as well. Let's give glory to God. Ask
him to reveal to us our own weakness, our own
bound sins, and give him glory for loosing us
and saving us. Amen.