In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit, amen. Glory be to Jesus Christ.
Today, on the first Sunday of Lent, we celebrate
the feast of the triumph of Orthodoxy, marking
the definitive end of the iconoclastic controversy.
we receive Holy Communion. We make a profession
of faith right before we receive Communion. We
say, I believe, O Lord, three things. I believe,
O Lord, that thou art truly the Christ, the Son
of the living God, who didst come into the world
to save sinners, of whom I am first. And I believe
that this is truly thine own most pure body and
that this is truly thine own precious blood.
The third of these is the reason why we say this
prayer, affirming our belief that the bread and
wine that we receive in Holy Communion is no
longer just bread and wine, but that by the priest
repeating the words of Jesus at the Last Supper,
what are called the words of institution, that
the bread has been changed into the body of Christ,
and that the cup of wine has been changed into
his blood. That's the first thing that we profess
before we receive communion. that this is really
the body and blood of Christ that we receive
in communion. The other thing, we profess that
Jesus came into the world to save sinners of
whom I am the first. I imagine that many of you
are tempted, like I am, to think in the back
of my mind, you know, I'm really not such a bad
person after all. Sure, I commit sins, but they're
only, what do you want to say, small sins? Well,
every sin is an offense against God. In a way,
to have that kind of thought, which we're tempted,
you know, at times, is sort of a milder version
of the prayer of the Pharisee. Lord, I'm not
so bad after all. I pay tithes, I fast, and I'm
not like this no good Nick over here, this publican,
this sinner. So regardless of the kinds of sins
or the frequency of our sins, we affirm that
in God's eyes and in our own eyes, we call ourselves,
we admit our sinfulness, and we say that we are
the greatest of the sinners. The third affirmation
of faith is the first one, and sometimes we glide
by that in our attention, that thou art truly
the Christ, the Son of the living God, who came
into the world. The belief that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God who came into the world. Now
this faith in who Jesus Christ is, is at the
very foundation of our belief in icons. This,
of course, was when Jesus recalled, when he asked
his disciples, whom do men say that I am? Oh,
some John the Baptist, some Elijah, or one of
the prophets. And he said, whom do you say? that
I am. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. And Peter speaking on behalf of his fellow
disciples, and Jesus then congratulates him,
so to speak, on his profession of faith. Flesh
and blood have not revealed this to you, but
my Father who is in heaven. the affirmation of
who Jesus Christ is. For years and years, when
I hear Christmas carols, just same traditional
Christmas carols like you hear, they're beautiful.
There is a certain amount of legitimate sentimentality
and certainly nostalgia in our Christmas carols.
But listen to the words. All of the traditional
Christmas carols, to my recollection at this
moment, all of them say that they believe that
this boy that is born of Virgin Mary is the son
of God, veiled in flesh the incarnate deity.
This is who Jesus is. The Christmas carols are
also... an affirmation of faith that this baby
born in Bethlehem is the Son of God who came
into the world to save sinners of whom I am first.
Now the iconoclastic controversy. In the history
of the early church, I would say the two most
intense and prolonged controversies Number one,
the Arian controversy, which is exactly what
we've just been talking about, that who is Jesus
Christ? And it took the church several hundred
years to come to a complete resolution of that
and to condemn all other opinions. Still in all,
after 1 ,700 years, There are many people, some
Christians included, who think that Jesus is
a great man, was a great man, a wonderful moral
teacher. But to say, just as Christmas carols
say, that he is the incarnate son of God is what
some people find hard to affirm. Now the iconoclastic
controversy. As I said, for us Eastern Christians,
so to speak, or Orthodox, this controversy was
much more intense in the Eastern part of the
Christian world than it was in the Western part.
So that, a lot of times, is not in the forefront
of the thinking of Western Christians, our fellow
Christians in the West. But we believe... in
the icons, the controversy over whether or not,
number one, whether or not you should have icons,
and then number two, can you venerate them, kiss
them, show your respect and homage to this material
thing? But then, of course, the fathers and the
councils have affirmed that an icon is an affirmation
of the reality of the incarnation, that Jesus
Christ, that God, in Jesus Christ, when he became
a human being, he accepted the ability to be
described, to use the technical term, that you
could draw a picture of God, now God who became
flesh. So I would say during the 7th century,
this controversy started to simmer in the East.
And then at the last of the ecumenical councils,
the 7th, in 787, they affirmed, the council fathers
affirmed, that yes, you can. You not only can,
but it's appropriate to show our respect to the
person. represented in that icon, or the person
represented on the cross that we venerate. But
that wasn't the end of the story. It wasn't until
this teaching of the Council was accepted in
843, half a century later, that the feast that
we celebrate today, the triumph of Orthodoxy,
that this was, you know, widely accepted, and
so to speak, this heresy was put to rest. But
it's interesting to note that the story doesn't
end there because people who were reluctant to
venerate icons They were called iconoclasts,
as opposed to iconodules, the people who showed
reverence to the icons. That the church was confronted
with the question, okay, these folks that didn't
accept the veneration of icons, now they want
to become formal, official members of the church.
What do we do with them? And the answer was,
They have to go to confession, so to speak, and
make a profession of faith, which of course was
very logical. That's how all heretics were reconciled.
But we know that one of the simmering issues
was, what do you do, especially with clergy,
who were, as leaders of a Christian community,
the ones who... did not accept the veneration
of icons. Sure, you can be lenient and easygoing
with the lay people, but what about the clergy?
The bishops, few bishops and the priests that
were opposed to the veneration of icons. When
they come back in, what do we do with them? Two
groups emerged. One were the, well, I'll call
them in modern day terms, the hawks and the doves,
the intransigent ones that maintain that you
can receive them back into the church, but they
cannot exercise their ministry as deacons or
priests. This hardline position was one that
Patriarch Ignatius at that time had. So these
are two ways of... What are you going to do with
them? They weren't heretics. It wasn't a heretical
thing, but what do you do practically with these
folks? Patriarch Ignatius, who was a monk, by
the way, and monks normally have hard -line positions
on matters, too. They don't like to compromise
or appear to be compromising in anything. And
then the more lenient ones, represented by Photius,
who eventually did this political controversy,
because it had political as well as religious
controversies. In this storm, in about the year
850 and 860, Patriarch was finally settled upon
to replace Ignatius. And Photius wasn't a monk.
He was a member of the diplomatic corps. He was
a diplomat, so you would expect him to have a
more easy opinion on this matter. Let them come
in like everyone else, make their profession
of faith, and they could resume their ministry
as priests and deacons. So this controversy,
again, as I said, these two councils, 869 and
879, The fact that this matter was discussed
shows us that the victory of the iconodules,
the worshippers of icons, was not completely
put to rest in 843. The lingering embers had
to die out, so to speak. So the great heritage
we have as Orthodox Christians is... I would
say, based on what I just said in the last few
minutes, twofold. That we believe who Jesus,
we affirm this at the creed, same thing. That
Jesus is the son of God who came into the world,
light of light, true God of true God. We affirm
our faith in the reality of the incarnation,
who Jesus Christ is. And number two, we as Orthodox,
of course, are very familiar with icons. We venerate
them. So that's become part of the Orthodox ethos,
the Orthodox mentality, the Orthodox soul, so
to speak. So we have today, by God's grace, two
wonderful gifts. that God has given to us and
to his church. The belief in who Jesus is and
the belief and the affirmation that we can describe
him. We can draw pictures of him and show our
respect to him each and every time we venerate
his icon and we show respect to the angels and
saints. when we cross ourselves and venerate
their icons. So today is not only a feast of
the triumph of orthodoxy, but I would say it's
also a feast of thanksgiving. Thank you, Lord,
unworthy as we are, that you have revealed these
truths to us. May we always hold them dear and...
at the very center of our life. Amen.