receive a measure of a gift. There are in the
church priests, prophets, healers, teachers,
and so forth. It's a partial list only he gives.
He doesn't give the whole list. And the purpose
of those gifts, partially, is for us to build
up the church. For me, to help equip you to use
those gifts. Obviously, you know, not as an altar
server or lighting candles or whatever. That's
what we do in here, and it's blessed and good.
But to be the light of Christ, to use the gift
of the Holy Spirit that you have, which turns
out to be many gifts in your daily work outside
these doors. But this is a small congregation
today. And so I'll make a little, let's say confession.
Since there's not so many of you. You know that
at the second coming, any sin that we have not
confessed is going to be pretty obvious to the
rest of the universe. So when we do confess,
we should be very clear and complete. Because
St. Paul says if we confess our sins now, we
won't be judged. I believe that very, very strongly.
But about what I'm going to say, this is not
part of my sermon, so if I can tack on a few
extra minutes at the beginning. What I want to
say is, here we are again, as one parishioner
emailed me. The title of the email was, etc.,
etc., etc. Well, here we go again, Father. And
I'm not, she has some immune issues. I'm not
comfortable coming right now. Please forgive
me for that. I want to come very badly. I want
you to come bless my house, by the way, and so
on and so forth. And I'm thinking, yeah, here
we go again. And the church is not full. It was
full last week. My confession is, I feel incredibly
ill -equipped to equip you. To build up the body
of Christ. My only consolation is everybody else
is pretty poorly equipped to do their job from
the highest levels of government, medicine, all
the way down to us. It's a very difficult situation
we are in, brothers and sisters. But if we are
one body, as St. Paul says, and that's not just
a metaphor. then we are united to one another.
And whatever we can do, our prayers for one another,
staying in contact with one another, serving
one another, helping, we build up the body of
Christ. We strengthen each other. We need that
very much. I need it. My job isn't to do everything
here. My job is to equip you to do things here
and out there. I'm your priest. Here in this
building and in your homes and wherever you see
me. But you're the priests, the prophets, the
kings. Because you've been anointed. You've been
washed. You've been crowned for those outside
these doors. So let's support one another in
these difficult times. We have issues that are
facing the church. Let's not get distracted with
masks and other things that are peripheral. So
that's my confession. You've heard this term,
post -feast. Frequently in the church, you read
it in my bulletins, my announcements. Now is
the time of the post -feast of theophany. The
afterfeast, the afterglow, if you could call
it that, as one clergyman said. Theophany is
always January 6th. Often, therefore, it's movable.
It's in the middle of the week. Well, you're
back at work, mostly. After whatever Christmas
break you had, you're back at school. So the
church says this feast is so very, very important
and profound. More so than Christmas, on the
level of importance in the life of the church,
theophany is way up here. It's kind of interesting
that it's on the same level, because it's the
chronological sequence. But we want, the church
says it's so important that we're going to extend
the feast. We're going to have a post -feast,
an afterglow. We're going to keep going. The
story keeps going. It wants to include... everyone
in what it means that Jesus was baptized. What
it means that the Holy Spirit descended on him
and the Holy Spirit comes to us. What it means
that the Father's voice was heard proclaiming,
this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
Hear him. It's extended so we could rejoice in
the fact that the waters, the creation itself
is sanctified. That sinners, and not just sinners,
but those of us who are lost, who are wounded,
who are broken, who are unsure, who are anxious,
can behold the Savior who comes and appears and
is revealed to us as one of the Holy Trinity
at the Jordan River. and he comes not just to
take us over the Jordan as Joshua did, not just
to take us through the Red Sea, miraculous as
both of those things as Moses did, but to take
us through death into life itself, to live forever
as citizens of the kingdom of God. So the feast
is extended, and here we are. On this Sunday,
the church is saying, dear children, faithful
children, let's also then ponder. What happened
after the baptism by John of Jesus in the Jordan?
What happened after the temptation? There's a
sermon there. I'm not going to give it to you
now. Our school principal, John Galuli, has a
whole class on that. When he gives that class,
you'll sit in to hear what he has to say. Jesus
completely confused Satan. who simply could not
understand what was happening there, that Jesus
is the divine son of the Father, both God and
man. Why would that occur? And Jesus hears that
John has been arrested. And of course we know
how that story ends, since we mark that solemn
day every August 29th with a strict fast and
a divine liturgy. So Jesus wisely then leaves
Judea, that region around Jerusalem, and heads
north into pagan lands, non -Jewish areas, to
Galilee. And the prophet saw this. Isaiah saw
it centuries before. He says, the land of Zebulon,
the land of Naphtali, toward the sea across the
Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people sitting
in darkness saw great light. For those sitting
in the land and shadow of death, light sprang
to them. Jesus went, he sought people. It wasn't
a one -off thing. What he did then, he does now.
Seeks people who are sitting in darkness to bring
them the light. All of us are called to be light
bearers. You know that. But did you know that
we are also called to carry that light and share
it with others? Yes. In his Sermon on the Mount,
Jesus states very clearly that the disciples
are not simply to be basking in the light, but
they become light themselves. Chapter 5, verse
14, you are the light of the world. In that same
chapter, let your light so shine before men that
they may see your good works and glorify your
Father who is in heaven. Light bearers, brothers
and sisters, that's what we are to be. Not bad
news bearers. Not criticizers. Not downers, either
at home or in public. But light bearers. And
we will struggle to achieve that because it is
a struggle. It won't come naturally to us in
our fallen state. And this is what I want to
talk about briefly. The land of darkness wasn't
just there in Galilee where Jesus came. The shadow
of death. Jesus gave the shortest sermon he ever
gave right then. The most powerful sermon he
ever gave. The one that we could quote and ponder.
over and over again. From that time, says St.
Matthew, Jesus began to preach and say, repent,
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. What is
this kingdom? It's Jesus. He's there. What is
this darkness and shadow of death? What's the
condition of the people then, now, that he's
going to be with? What was our condition? Before
we answer those questions at baptism, do you
unite yourself to Christ? I unite myself to Christ.
Have you united yourself to Christ? I have united
myself to Christ. I'm not going to ponder with
you the nature of sin and darkness and what it
means to be wounded. I think we know that. St.
Theophilus says this about sin. Sin is the likeness
and silhouette of death. Very descriptive. The
likeness and silhouette of death, which is scriptural,
because sin, the wages of which are death. Jesus
also gives the medicine and the cure for that
darkness. Repent! The kingdom is here. Not some
far off place, not a future reality, but now
Christ is in our midst over and over again. Lo,
I am with you even to the end of the age. For
a person to repent, it isn't that you just say,
I'm sorry. That's not what repentance is. It
might involve that, but that's not the core.
The word repent literally means I change my mind,
I change my direction, I change my understanding,
I change my orientation. That's interesting,
isn't it? Which way do we have the catechumens
face? After they face the West and spit on the
devil, they reorient themselves. The word means
east, towards Christ. The day spring from on
high as we just sang at Christmas. Repentance
is our way of life. Why do I say that? What's
the proof? What's the good of it? Why did Christ
tell us to do it and keep doing it, not just
a one -time thing? St. Simeon the New Theologian
wrote this, he says, the careful fulfillment
of the commandments, which we start to keep when
we repent, teaches a person what? His own weaknesses.
And the focus goes off the other person's sins.
Brothers and sisters, believe me when I tell
you this. This is some advice. Don't watch the
news in the morning. And don't watch the news
before you go to bed. That's just advertisement
of everybody else's sins. Pray. Pray again. If
it's important enough, you'll hear about it.
When we start to repent, we keep the commandments
and we start to see ourselves, says Saint Simeon.
He goes on, exactly as soon as one who believes
in Christ begins to fulfill the all holy commandments
of the gospel or also to perform the works of
a renewed nature, one's fallen nature, one's
sinfulness and potential too. is instantly and
continually revealed to him, which has been hidden
from sight until then. And then we enter into
a battle, a sustained battle. But God is with
us, so we are not defeated and we are not frustrated,
even though we are contrite. Where does all this
lead? Our intern, Joseph, gave me a stack of
books that he translated the other day. Talks
by St. Nectarius. And I saw this and I thought,
I have to share this because this is where repentance
leads. This is where banishment of darkness leads.
This is what the Christian faith is all about.
And we're hearing it now at the beginning of
the year, after Christ's baptism, after Christmas,
to encourage us in a very dark time. Christianity,
says Saint Nectarios, his icon is right over
there by Gabriel, is not intended merely to transmit
religious and moral truths, rules, but also to
awaken a new religious and moral life within
us. Thus Christianity is a religious moral institution
with the established goal of the formation of
the heart and the illumination of the noose.
And so its true followers are not those who only
receive its teaching, but those who also arrange
their life and their ways, Christianity is called
the way in Acts, in accordance with the principles
and teaching. Not everyone who says to me, Lord,
Lord, said Jesus, will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but he who does the will of my Father. Christianity
does not intend to form man into a philosopher,
but into an image and likeness of God. And this
indeed he becomes. So long as man dedicates his
heart to be a holy tabernacle, wherein the Lord
dwells, abides, and tarries, in which he, Jesus,
makes a dwelling place for himself. Can I hear
an amen to that?