Last week's celebration of Pentecost was beautiful,
truly lovely. I want to thank those that spent
so much time and effort and expense to decorate
the church, to sing, to bring food to the potluck,
to barbecue, made a wonderful, wonderful feast
day celebration. Today is All Saints. It follows
naturally. From Pentecost, of course. All of
us know when the Western non -Orthodox Christians
celebrate All Saints. Yes, All Hallows Eve, Halloween
on November 1st. There's interesting reasons,
historical reasons for that date, but it's not
important right now. But in the Orthodox Church,
we have this Feast of All Saints on the Sunday
after Pentecost. Why? Why after Pentecost? Because
the Spirit of God is given to those who confess
the Lord's name, to those who are baptized. It's
to make saints. It's to make saints. God is glorified
in his saints. The Spirit is given to us for
our sanctification. And so, on this day well
we remember that the word saint holy hallowed
sanctified all these words mean dedicated which
we are set apart which we are consecrated offered
up to god and this holiness the source of holiness
when we say spiritual it's from the holy spirit
And so today we remember all saints, known and
unknown, young and old, men and women, rich and
poor, every nation, every people upon earth.
There are more unknown saints than there are
saints that we do know. And when we remember
that, it should give us comfort that, as I said
last night, sanctity is not some kind of graduate
course of studies. For a small few. Yes, we have
these up here that we see the church glorified
because of their faith, their commitment, their
love, their magnificent example of life. But
each and every one of us is a humble offering
to God. Each of us to be sanctified. What happens
when you receive communion? You are sanctified.
You're saintly at that moment if your heart is
full of faith in God and if you give room for
the Lord to work in your heart. It's for all
people. The Gospel reading today offers us on
this Feast of All Saints one of the most difficult
sayings of Christ in the entire Gospel of St.
Matthew. Earlier in the 10th chapter, before
what you heard today, which comes from the 10th
chapter, St. Matthew records the Savior as emphasizing
how much the Father in heaven loves us, cares
for us, and knows when each and every hair is
numbered on our head. Each person. The message
there is, of course, it's trust in God. And then
immediately, immediately Jesus says, therefore,
because you accept this, because you know that
God has this love for you and care for you. You
heard the reader. Many are the afflictions of
the righteous, but the Lord will deliver them
out of them all. We believe this and we trust
this. There will be afflictions, but the Lord
will deliver. Out of those afflictions. So then
Jesus, after this message of trust in God, he
says, therefore, therefore, whoever confesses
me. To confess means what? It's not just with
the lips. It's with one's whole heart to profess,
to believe, to trust, to live according. Whoever
confesses me, I will confess before my Father
in heaven. Whoever denies me, I will deny. Whoever
loses his life for my sake will find it. Whoever
searches for his life will lose it. And so on.
Including the invitation to take up the cross
and follow him. Which was a vivid, and for those
people listening to him, an alarming illustration.
They had all seen people on the road. to Jerusalem,
crucified. Sometimes in many, many dozens. What's
this about? If you confess me, I will confess
you. If you deny me, I will deny you. If you
don't pick up your cross, you're not worthy of
me. This is a hard saying. This is not a warning.
This is not a threat of punishment. It's a description.
Of what being a disciple of Christ looks like.
It's an affirmation that the holy martyrs did
it. It's a prescription of how we ought to live
our life. That God is glorified in the saints.
And the martyrs who embody these verses. Well,
we find it daunting. We find it daunting. But
it's a choice. The Lord gives us a choice for
freedom in him who is the only free entity. If
you can call Jesus an entity, that's not right.
He is the only free one. And the rest of us are
not. It's a choice between what is true and real.
What is godly and what is in opposition to that.
What is false and fleeting? What is corrupt?
Christ is telling us why if love of God is not
first, then all the other loves we have will
be dysfunctional and corrupt and probably idolatrous,
including the love for ourself. He who does not
take up his cross and follow me is not worthy
of me. This is indeed a challenge. And the world
certainly rejects this message about the cross,
which means reject self -denial. Perhaps we misunderstood
this as well. Let me give you an illustration.
The prophet Hosea was told to find a woman that
was unfaithful. And to love her. And to pursue
her. And to give his whole life, his whole heart
to that woman. Why? It was an image, an illustration
of how God loves us. Now you might say, loving
a woman who prostitutes herself and is unfaithful
to us, well that's pretty dysfunctional. But
maybe that's the only image we can have of how
deeply God loves us. that he will go to every
length, and he has, even to depths and the depths
of the grave, to save you and me from destruction
and annihilation. That's what these words mean.
They express God's profound arrows for us, a
love that we would say is probably dysfunctional
and wrong. But that's how God is. He is that
giving to us. And these words then are a reminder
of God's love for us. Someone's car alarm is
out there going off. Then Peter answered, hearing
all of this, and said to Jesus, well, look, see,
because Peter thinks it's transactional. We do
this, you're going to do that. But that's not
the way God's love is, is it? God doesn't, his
love for us doesn't depend upon you and me. And
St. Maximus says, my love for you should not
depend on you. That's how deep it should be.
So Peter, thinking, well, it's a transactional
thing. What am I going to get? We've left everything,
which they did. We have followed you, which they
did. Therefore, what shall we have? So Jesus
said to them, Amen, I say to you, that in the
regeneration, that is the renewal, the resurrection,
when the Son of Man comes and sits on the throne
of his glory, you who have followed me will also
sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes
of Israel. Well, that sounds great for Peter.
What about us? St. John writes, In the book of
Revelation. That he was in the spirit. And he
saw this magnificent and amazing vision. He says
behold. A throne stood in heaven. And one seated
on the throne. And he who sat there. Had the
appearance of Jasper and Carnelian. And around
the throne was a rainbow. That had the appearance
of an emerald. Around the throne were 24 thrones,
and seated on the thrones were 24 elders, clothed
in white garments and golden crowns on their
heads. Think of the martyrs at the back there,
the 40 martyrs with the crowns. That's where
this comes from. And around them were a vast
multitude of the faithful, all in white. It's
good to remember, brothers and sisters, that
those words and the words of the gospel were
written and read originally to those who were
not just oppressed, but persecuted, for whom
the Beatitudes about being poor, about persecution,
about hungering, the words about crucifixion,
about martyrdom, were very real and sometimes
immediate. With all saints, will it be just something
up in the sky for us? Or just in a book? Too
far to see, too far to inspire us. The thrones.
God is surrounded. He's not by himself. He's
surrounded by the faithful, by those whom he
loves, those who love him. It's the promise of
what Jesus told the apostles. I mention this
not as a Bible study, but to encourage you. And
all the divine services, the vigils and the liturgies,
what we do here today, are not... Religious services,
in quotes. They're divine. Lifted up to the throne
of God where we are with him in his kingdom,
at his table, with the angels and the archangels
serving him and glorifying his goodness. That's
what we do here. The vision of Revelation is
a vision also of the divine liturgy. And yet
to be given, still in its fullness to us. This
is wonderful, but I, and I hesitate to say, but
our daily experience is not this vision. Nor
do we usually meditate on this. Nor do we remember
how deeply God loves us. Remembrance of God's
love begins with intentional thanksgiving to
God every day. intentional reading of the scriptures,
and intentional prayer to him. But what we see
and what we learn daily, most often, comes from
those most unreliable of sources, not the scriptures,
not the saints, but the news and the social media,
which one writer in an article I read a couple
of days ago, described as a mental intravenous
drip of hell that comes from the screen. And
an acid bath of political machinations. All that
distorts us and us and our vision and blinds
us to that which is really holy and around us
in God's world. The world is not evil, says...
The recent saint, Arseny Popachuk, a Romanian
saint, he says, the world is not evil, but we
don't know how to love. That's why we see it
that way. Of course, there is violence and division
and poverty and injustice and political confusion
of the highest order and war all over the place.
And this is what we see, and it comes to us in
a rush. And great waters and great noise. Instead
of the noise of the Spirit, it's the noise of
all of this. All saints is the antidote. The
portrait of the saint. Just look around. There's
many of them. Some of them are sitting on the
floor today. Look around. The portrait of the
saint. His, her life. The child of God. As Father
Stephen Mahalik said in a sermon, here's a portrait
of me as I could be, as I should be, as I must
be. Careful attention to our spiritual state,
not blaming others or the world, or indeed God,
allows the Holy Spirit to teach us in our heart.
Not to be conformed to this world, but transformed
by the renewal of our mind. The saints offer
the antidote to our current state so that we
can love God above all others. This radical love,
which then makes all the other loves we have.
Not to be sick, dysfunctional, and idolatrous,
but to be full of grace and compassion and the
holiness of God. This difficult passage today
from Matthew challenges us. Are we prayerful
enough to enter into it? To our Lord be glory
now and ever to ages of ages.