There's so much that we could meditate upon today.
The lives of these deacons that we commemorate
today, Parmenas and the others. The gospel, which
is important. That particular gospel is given
to us twice in a year, sometimes three times.
The life of the saints, the other saints today,
for example. But today is the anniversary. of
an important event in the life of our parish.
Foundational, I would say. Profound and deeply,
deeply meaningful for every one of us, whether
you know it or not. And that is, maybe you saw
coming in, I put the proclamation of the consecration
of the church there at the front door. It's a
little frame signed by ever memorable, Bishop
Tikkun, who died maybe, what was it, two years
ago. So today's the anniversary of the consecration
of this church. I won't ask for a show of hands,
but some of you were there that day. It was,
what, 20, it was 2001. We were a lot younger,
all of us. Matiszka last, but in fact, she prepared
the reception, the banquet for us. We had a huge
tent in the whole front of the parking lot, like
we did on the 75th anniversary. And she had only
been a parishioner at the Baptist, what, two
years earlier. She gave it her all. It was a
wonderful and beautiful celebration from beginning
to end. And it was very long. I'll tell you,
I'll just give you a brief overview. It was five
and a half hours long. The night before, we gathered
for vespers. There was a temporary altar table
set up here. And on it were put, if I recall,
the relics of St. Elizabeth, the new martyr,
the nun Barbara, her cell attendant, and the
Hierodican Anastasia of Kiev. I still don't know
anything about him. And we served. what I would
say was a brief vespers right here. And then
we had a dinner in the hall. And then the then
chancellor of the OCA was here, along with the
archdeacon from Washington. And the chancellor
said to his grace, Bishop Deacon, your grace,
when you go back to your hotel room, he said
this with a smile, ask the Lord, to put it on
your heart. It's not the way we stalk in the
Orthodox Church. Ask the Lord to put it on your
heart that we could use multiple chalices at
the liturgy tomorrow. And the bishop smiled.
Our choir director, Nicholas, was his choir director
for some time, and so he knows. Bishop Ticon's
rule was one chalice. For many reasons, you come
to that priest, You maybe don't like to come
to that priest, so you pick another priest. He
said, that's not right. It's the body and blood
of Christ. It's the hand of Christ giving it
to you. It doesn't matter. Besides, it's one
cup and one bread. So it was five and a half
hours because communion was over an hour long.
There being 16 priests that day and maybe 300
faithful were here. So we began the service.
The priests gathered in. the protection church
to be vested. And then we met the bishop there.
We escorted him here. We did the vesting, as
you know how that works. You've seen it many
times. And then the bishop came into the altar
with the other priests and we proceeded with
the rite, the ceremony of consecration. For that,
the priest put on this... sort of a white apron
to protect themselves from what's going to happen.
This altar table, which had been constructed
by Serge Anderson, did not have a top on it.
It was lying over here in the corner. And it
was just the frame of an altar. And in the middle,
at the bottom, there's a box with a little cross
on the top, with the top that comes on and off.
And during that ceremony, The priest took the
top, we put it on, we used pegs, wooden pegs
rather than nails, and wax was poured into the
holes. This is why you have to wear an apron,
because you get those river stones, which we
had, and we start pounding those pegs into the
holes. Wax is splattering on everyone. which
is, I guess, the way it's meant to be. You know,
in the Orthodox Church, we don't do things all
neat and tidy, do we? There's wax, there's oil,
there's sand, there's wine after communion, there's
breadcrumbs. It all takes attention, and that's
part of what we're doing here. And then the top
of the table was washed with holy water and wine,
and then it was chrismated. It was chrismated.
So, what comes after that? We dressed it. We
dressed it in a white robe. It's under this.
Under this green. And the white robe is wrapped
around with this robe. And at that point, we
came in to the nave. and we chrismated and washed
with holy water every spot in the church. Those
marks of the holy chrism are covered now, obviously,
with the frescoes. So like a person being baptized,
they're washed, they're clothed, they're chrismated.
And then we went to the little church where the
relics of St. Elizabeth and the others were waiting
on the altar. We got them. We did a procession
around this church. We walked in. Only after,
at the front door, we did these verses, which
sometimes you hear at Pascha, not really in our
tradition. Lift up your gates, O ye princes.
Be ye lifted up, ye everlasting gates, and the
King of glory will enter in. And the choir is
inside the church. There's a curtain on the front
door. They sing, Who is the King of glory? The
Lord of hosts, he is the king of glory. And then
we enter into the church in great solemnity and
singing and rejoicing. You know, I was at a consecration
two weeks ago on the island of Mull at the monastery
of St. Ninian. And actually, that had been my
seventh consecration, which is an incredible
blessing. You hear, oh, it's a once -in -a -lifetime
experience. It is. Each one is that once -in
-a -lifetime experience, even if you've gone
to ten. And the relics are brought in to the
altar. And then, awkwardly and strangely, and
probably it's meant to be that way, one of the
priests has to get down on his back and lift
up the white cover and reach in. and put in the
holy relics into that box in the middle to the
altar that's already been dressed. You hear this
prayer. Listen. O Master, Lord, our God, the
hope of all the ends of the earth, hear us sinners
who make our supplications unto thee. Send down
thine all -holy, adorable, and almighty Spirit
and sanctify this temple and this altar. Fill
it with the light everlasting. Elect it for thy
dwelling place. Make it the abode of thy glory.
Adorn it with thy divine and supernal gifts.
Appoint it for a haven of the tempest house,
for a healing of passions, for a refuge of the
weak, for an expelling of evil spirits. Let thine
eyes be open upon it day and night. Let thine
ears be heedful of the prayer of those who shall
enter herein. in thy fear and devoutness, and
shall call upon thine all -honorable and adorable
name, that whatsoever they shall ask of thee
in thy name, thou wilt hear it in the heaven
above, and wilt show mercy and be gracious unto
them, and preserve it indestructible even to
the end of the ages. That last part's left up
to us. I tell you about this consecration because
it's exactly what happens to us, but in a different
form. When we are baptized, we become catechumens.
We renounce the devil and all his angels, all
his works, all his service, and all his pride.
We spit on the devil. We turn our back on him
without fear because we know we're going to say
those... essential words without which we should
be very fearful. I unite myself to Christ. And
even so, the Lord lets us deal with spiritual
warfare because we are his representatives. We
are the continuation of the incarnation. We are
those disciples of the apostles and the apostles
heard, and you didn't hear it today, but a little
later in the gospel, the Lord appoints them to
go out to preach the good news, to heal the sick,
and to cast out demons. We're their disciples.
The church does that. When we're baptized, what
happens to us is what happened here on that day.
Now, I was in Scotland, and I was talking, actually
it was last night, but to somebody about this.
But when I was there, one of the priests told
me, oh, there's many, many churches, old Anglican,
beautiful Anglican churches, hundreds of years
old, some of them, that have fallen into disrepair
or that are now apartments or nightclubs or restaurants
or shops. How does that happen? Think about it.
The church is the place where the divine sacrifice
of the Eucharist takes place, where the thanksgiving
prayers, where we offer the bread and wine, and
we ask the Lord, our Father in heaven, to send
down his Holy Spirit and change this bread and
to change this wine into the body and blood of
his precious Son. by whose blood we are saved.
The Eucharistic sacrifice, this great service
of thanksgiving, takes place on this altar. That's
one thing, one of many, the main thing that makes
it a church. It's also the one thing which makes
you a Christian, that you receive that body and
blood, and you become a church also. All this...
Archbishop Benjamin said at that consecration
in Scotland, all this beauty, all the joy of
the singing, all the hymns are to be a reflection
of the soul and the heart of the human being
who has been sanctified and consecrated in baptism
and chrismation to our Lord and God and Savior.
You become the church too. If we don't continually
renew that connection with the Eucharist within
our own soul, then it begins to fall into disrepair.
If we don't allow repentance and contrition to
flow into us as a gift of God, like when we come
to confession, then our soul begins to become
distant and fragmented and lose its savor. of
holiness that St. Paul speaks about. If we don't
take care of the grounds here, the weeds will
take over, just like in the parable of the seed.
Oh, the man receives a seed and he's joyful,
but very soon the cares of this world and the
troubles of this world, legitimate cares, mind
you, but things have got put first rather than
in their proper place. they start to squeeze
and the weeds and the thorns take over. And there's
no spiritual life left anymore. If we don't clean
the inside of our church, fill the lamps, take
care of the candles, wash the walls every now
and then, they get smoky, and pray in here continually,
then our church, it will be the same as those...
500 -year beautiful Anglican churches that are
empty or not just empty, but are filled with
things that don't belong in church. The Soviets
tried this, of course, but, you know, lacking
any sense of fun or entertainment, they just
made them into garages and storehouses. We have
to be careful, brothers and sisters, that we
care not just for the physical here. But think
about your commitment to the Lord. Is there a
liturgy going on in your heart and soul? This
is a choice we can make. Without God, people
say, life is easier. Because God brings into
our life something that must inevitably change.
Sometimes you hear that change from your spouse,
sometimes from your friend, sometimes from your
priest, sometimes in your heart and your conscience
you know it, sometimes from the lives of the
saints. But once we accept God in our life, once
we become dedicated and consecrated to him, and
we become churches and adorned in the inside
with the icons and the prayers and the beauty
and the gift of the Holy Spirit in the heart.
then we have a responsibility to care for that
more than any other responsibility we have. I'll
close with this thought, which is a strange thought
from the gospel today. They saw an amazing miracle,
the Lord's power over sin and evil and darkness.
And God came to this man. He didn't call out
to God. God came to save him. You know, when
we say we're saved, we're being saved, we have
been saved, it's as radical a thing as that.
Maybe not so dramatic. But we have life where
we did not have it. But the people there gave
no thanks to God. Jesus says to the man, go tell
everyone the great things God has done for you.
But the people there... wanted Christ to leave.
We have a choice. Let your heart, your soul,
your body be the continual dwelling place of
the Holy Spirit, the joy and the worship of the
liturgy, even as you leave today. Care for it
better than we care for this place. Because now
you're responsible. You've been given a great
gift. Don't let it fall into disrepair and disuse.
Don't let the liturgy and the Eucharist ever
be absent from this church, neither from your
heart and soul either. The Lord gives us such
a tremendous gift. We give thanks to him on this
day of the anniversary of our church. May the
Lord continue to bless us. Amen.