WEBVTT

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Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to the Lord. We

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celebrated Christmas. We celebrated St. Basil,

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New Year's Day. We celebrated St. Seraphim Day.

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And for the past few days, we've been preparing

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for what comes this evening and tomorrow. And

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today is a big part of that preparation. In a

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little while after communion, We're going to

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take the lids off of these containers here. And

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we'll sing some hymns. We'll do some prayers.

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We'll ask God to bless the water. Then we'll

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carry that water home. I'll come to your homes

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and we'll do house blessings. At the end of the

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liturgy, I'll go over to the parish hall, to

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the office in the church school, and we'll bless

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that. We'll try to bless everything in Santa

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Rosa, every little house here and there, so the

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whole town is somehow vibrating with the holiness

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of the Holy Spirit. But before we continue the

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liturgy and get to this blessing, I was reminded,

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I want to share with you, I was reminded last

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night, to really think and consider that reading

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from the book of Kings about Elijah. We had it

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last night. We did a whole group of readings

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in preparation for today and for tonight and

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tomorrow. In this particular reading, the 400

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priests of Baal, that is, the pagan god, basically

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a fallen angel, looking for worship, demonic

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power. These 450 priests, which the prophet Elijah

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calls the priests of shame, because they're not

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worshiping the true God, have a sacrifice that

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they're going to prepare, the evening sacrifice.

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One of the things that the worship of Baal would

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sometimes involve would be human sacrifice. Fertility

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rites and human sacrifice. Well, if you remember,

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sacrifice always means a meal. This is something

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too horrible to contemplate right now. Shameful,

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it's destructive, it's violent, it's evil. These

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prophets of shame were going to do their evening

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sacrifice. The prophet Elijah comes, he hears

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about this, and he... Well, the way we put it

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now, he challenges them to a duel, to the ultimate

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smackdown of Baal. And he says to them, go ahead,

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and you ask God, your God, Baal, to send down

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fire from heaven and consume this offering. They're

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praying all day. Nothing happens. They're cutting

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themselves, put blood on it. Nothing happens.

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Elijah says something like, oh, your God must

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be on vacation and must be asleep. You need to

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wake him up so he can do something for you. And

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he says, enough of this. So he goes and he sets

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12 stones, one for each of the tribes of Israel.

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And he has the servants pile on wood. And then

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he says, build a ditch. And they build a ditch.

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They dig a ditch. And he says, fill it with water.

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And they fill it with water. He says, fill it

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again. And he fills it again. Of course, like

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us, he did everything three times also. Fill

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it the third time. And they filled so that the

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water was running over. Then he said, cover the

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sacrifice, which was a lamb or an oxen. I can't

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remember. Cover it with water. Drench it. Completely

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drench it. He prays. Briefly, the fire of God

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comes, completely, utterly destroys, not destroys,

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consumes everything. Even it says the dust is

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gone. No more rocks, no more sacrifice, no more

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water, no anything. What we are about to do,

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brothers and sisters, is ask God to send down

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the power, the fire of the Holy Spirit. That

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same fire. that Elijah asked for to sanctify

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this water. The people seeing this incredible

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event at the altar that Elijah made said, oh,

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the Lord, your Lord, Yahweh, the one that Elijah

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worships. Yahweh meaning I am who I am. It's

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what it says on the icon. Or another way to say

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it, the one who causes all things to be. The

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Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God, and all

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the people worship, but that worship didn't last

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long. Faithfulness came almost immediately if

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you keep reading the book of Kings. But when

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Christ comes and we see his fresco of him in

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the Jordan, and we see the icon before us, it's

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not with sound and fury. And frightening fire

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from heaven. It's humble. It's quiet. He hears,

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it says, the voice of the Father. Doesn't say

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everybody heard it. He hears, this is my beloved

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Son. And he sees the Spirit of God descend upon

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him. That same Spirit that caused that fire to

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come down and consume the offering. The same

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Spirit that we have been given at our baptism.

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For the people worshiping Baal, who then proclaimed

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the true God, it didn't last long. For us, it's

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not external. It's not something we see. It's

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not something fantastic out there. It's something

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that happens in the human heart. The illumination

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of truth of the Holy Spirit that comes to us.

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This is what... one aspect of what we are celebrating

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today, tonight, and tomorrow and what we've been

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preparing for since Christmas Day. It's the illumination

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of the soul which is to see our own sins and

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to stop seeing everybody else's sins. It's to

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worship the true God, the knowledge of the Father,

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the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That's what's given

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to us here today. It's to see The goodness of

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creation. The glory of God permeating everything.

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The heavens declare the glory of God. And the

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firmament proclaims his handiwork. It is to see

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that water becomes what it's supposed to be.

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A means of communion with God. So, in a little

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bit, we're going to stand before these containers

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of water. And I want you to remember. that what

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you are going to experience and see, whether

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you experience it emotionally, psychologically,

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or you see it with your eyes or with your soul,

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what you will see is the same water that that

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blessed Adam saw when he opened his eyes in creation

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and saw what God had made. That's what we're

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going to restore today. And we will be sanctified

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by that to carry it home. Don't be like the worshipers

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of Baal, only faithful for a little while. You

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heard the epistle. St. Paul says, I've run the

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race. I've done everything I need to do. I've

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been faithful. There's so much against us to

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be faithful. Think of today and carry that holiness

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with you all the time. May the grace... be with

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each and every one of you. Amen.