Glory to Jesus Christ. Well, here we are, first
Sunday of the Great Fast, and the church said
this is a feast day. Why is it a feast day? Well,
let's start at the beginning. Let me give you
a synopsis of the gospel we just heard. Jesus
comes to the Jordan. John says, I can't baptize
you. Jesus says, you must to fulfill our righteousness.
John baptizes Jesus. And he witnesses, he says
in the Gospel of John, that the Spirit descended
upon him. The next day, Jesus is back. And John
points to Jesus as he's walking. That's all St.
John the Evangelist says. Jesus is walking by.
And St. John says what? He says to his two disciples,
the Lamb of God. The two disciples, gone. They
go right after Jesus. They follow Jesus. And
Jesus asks them, basically, what do you want?
And they say, where are you staying? And he says,
come and see. Isn't that the way it is with Jesus?
You're not going to get specifics all the time.
Faithfulness is a matter of putting one foot
in front of the other with trust in God, knowing
he's leading you the right way. Faith is not
just an intellectual ascent. You know, we heard
some hymns today. last night about heresy. Heresy
is not that you and I might have an incorrect
opinion about something the church teaches. If
I asked most of us to give an explanation of
the doctrine of the Trinity, in that case most
of us would be way off. Heresy is a pulling away,
a sectarianism, a drawing out, a saying, come
and see. They're wrong in the church. This is
right. Jesus has come and seen. And they come.
They follow. And then it says the next day. Well,
it was the 10th hour. It's about 4 o 'clock.
And they're with Jesus that whole time. Could
you imagine being with Jesus at the beginning?
That afternoon, all evening, speaking with the
Lord. The next day, another disciple comes. I'll
let you fill in the blanks here. I'm just giving
you the high points. It says, we found the Messiah.
We have found him. So Nathaniel, that disciple,
comes. We've already got Andrew. We've got Peter.
We've got Philip. Now we have Nathaniel. And
then he comes up to Jesus. And Jesus says to
him these enigmatic and strange words. An Israelite
in whom there is no deceit. You remember Jacob.
He gained the name Israel because he wrestled
with God. He saw God. The name Israel is the
one who sees God. And Nathaniel responds, and
how do you know me? Jesus says, oh, before when
you were under the fig tree, I saw you. There's
nothing in the Gospel of John to tell us what
that means. But it had to be an event in Nathanael's
life that nobody else knew. Because how else
can you explain the response of Nathanael? You're
the king of Israel. You know these things. And
Jesus says again, come, see, follow me. Nathanael
is surprised. He's shocked, and Jesus says, well,
you'll see greater things than these. Remember,
Israel is the one who sees God. You'll see the
angels of God ascending and descending upon the
Son of Man. It's a feast day today, so why this
interesting, enigmatic, strange encounter? Why
is the gospel that today? Why is that given to
us? I've pondered this for a long time. Mostly
on this day, you're going to hear a sermon, which
is right, about the feast day of the triumph
of Orthodoxy, the Sunday of Orthodoxy, the restoration
of the holy icons, which is why you're holding
icons, and the icon of that feast day is in the
middle of the church, commemorating the Council
of 843, the year 843, and the proclamation. that
the icons are restored after 110 years of persecution
by the civil authorities of the church, towards
the church. So it's a feast day. The church is
in freedom, finally. Well, this gospel tells
us, first, a disciple of Jesus Christ is going
to follow him, number one. A disciple of Jesus
Christ is going to see things that other people
don't see because we're looking at the Lord.
Let's start really at the beginning for me to
give a short synopsis. You know, the politicians,
when you watch CNN, some debate in the Senate,
one senator will say, I give up my time, I yield
my time to the senator from Rhode Island. Well,
I'm going to yield most of my time to the procession
at the end because we have a prayer, and I think
it's important that we stay focused. So I'm just
going to say this, and then we can move on with
the liturgy. Our faith, the feast day that we
celebrate, is rooted in that strange defeat,
said Father Alexander Schmemann. which became
the most glorious victory. The defeat of the
man nailed upon the cross, who rose from the
dead, who is the Lord and Master of this world
and of all worlds. This is the first triumph
of Orthodoxy before anything to do with the painted
icon, because Jesus assures us that the living
icon You and me can have, as that hymn said that
the choir just sang, the corrupted image healed
and suffused with divine beauty. This is the
first triumph of orthodoxy. This is the content
of our commemoration. This is our joy, that we
have a way and God is leading us. Jesus, the
word of God. selected and chose 12 men. You heard
about four of them today. That's important. And
he gave them, after Pentecost, the power, not
worldly power, because the world persecuted them
for 300 years. He gave them the power to preach
and to speak to the heart and to teach us. To
worship the one God, the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit. The word of God who came to
us, who sends us from the Father, the Holy Spirit,
to sanctify us and to lead us into all truth.
So that the kingdom of God would be announced
to the whole world. Not just to the Greeks, to
the Syrians, to the Russians. No, the whole world.
You know, my brothers and sisters, how those
12 men, very simple men, they were fishermen.
Doesn't mean they were stupid. Very simple men,
simple fishermen, went out and preached. They
were covered with blood. But that blood was another
victory because they proclaimed the resurrection.
the end of the first century, when the church
was still very small, a small minority in society,
and the society was definitely anti -Christian,
much more than we complain about in our country,
much, much more. And persecutions were beginning.
St. John the Divine, the holy disciple, wrote
these words. This is the victory. Our faith.
This is the victory. There was no victory at
that time. St. Paul probably thought he failed
when he died. And yet, St. John knew that in
his faithfulness, he had the victory that will
be applied to us today. We have the promise of
Christ. The gates of hell will never prevail
against the church. We have the promise of Christ
that if we have faith, faithfulness, walking
in faithfulness, we have all the possibilities,
for with God all things are possible. The orthodoxy
we celebrate today is not fulfilled, not manifested,
not celebrated by having the right answers. to
particular theological questions. They are important.
Nor by preserving the tradition just because
it's old. Or because we think that if we do this
or that, we're going to be good Orthodox Christians.
We may be. No, the orthodoxy we celebrate today
is that of having our attention captivated by,
which is why we had one week of services morning.
We should have had it at noon, but there's not
enough strength there, and night, every day,
to draw us in, to teach us that we are going
to see greater things than you can imagine in
our soul, that it will be suffused with divine
beauty. The orthodoxy we celebrate today is by
having our gaze fixed upon, our ears open to,
and our hearts enthralled with our Lord Jesus
Christ through prayer, through fasting, through
worship in the church, through confession and
communion, for works of good for the poor and
for each other. He is for us, Jesus is for us,
the beginning and the end of all things. The
gospel you heard today is the beginning of his
ministry. Let us see, brothers and sisters. How
he is the alpha, the beginning, and the omega.
We can only do that by faithfulness if we stick
to it and apply ourselves. He is for us the beginning
and the end of all things. Archpriest John Bear,
who taught at St. Vladimir, says, he is the one
who began our faith, and he is the one who will
bring it to each one of us to fulfillment. to
fruitfulness, to repentance, to Pascha. Amen.