In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit, amen. Glory to Jesus Christ.
So we have reached the conclusion of the first
week of Lent, and we come to the first Sunday
of Lent, which, as you know, today is the Sunday
of Orthodoxy. We believe, as Orthodox Christians,
that the Orthodox Church is the one holy Catholic
and apostolic church. We're in the teaching of
our Lord, the preaching of the apostles, and
the doctrine of the fathers has been held consistently
from the earliest days of the church down to
us in the 21st century. should be received with
humility and not be a cause of triumphalism because
St. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians that we
hold this truth in earthen vessels. Throughout
the history of the Church, there have been many
false teachings, false doctrines Even from the
apostolic times, we could enumerate a lot of
them. Gnosticism, especially if you read St.
Paul carefully, you see the heresy of Judaism,
that you have to adopt Jewish practices and eating
codes in order to become a good Christian. So
with all reverence to that, what we have received
is that we have tried to avoid heresies in the
history of our church. I would single out, of
course you could single out many heresies. A
lot of these are with us today. Secularism, materialism,
even... about Arianism and what we'll talk about
today also, Arianism and iconoclasm. But I want
to focus our attention this morning on what I
would, two of the most central and persistent
heresies in the church, which were Arianism.
That Jesus is not the son of God, but he is a
creature. And of course, this story is told.
on the Sunday before Pentecost, when we commemorate
the fathers of the First Ecumenical Council.
And they have given to us the Nicene Creed, belief
in Jesus Christ as true God of true God, light
from light, true God of true God, begotten, not
made, of one essence with the Father. And also,
towards the 6th, 7th century, another heresy
arose in the church, which was iconoclasm, that
we shouldn't have Christian art. We should neither
have it nor venerate the icons. And of course...
I was thinking of this beautiful church this
morning when St. Paul's Epistle was read to the
Hebrews. We are surrounded by such a great cloud
of witnesses, Jesus and the saints who are our
family. The early church, though, was allergic
or guarded in its reception. of Christian art
because one of these was that the Christians
were only a brief time away from paganism with
the worship of idols and of course idols is one
thing that God wanted to protect the Hebrew people
from any contamination with the people and their
culture and religion in lands where they lived
or conquered. So the remembrance of the times
when the church was very cautious about icons
was still there. And then with the development
of Christian art and icons, we have this coming
to the head in the seventh century. and 8th century.
The 7th Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 787 defined
the veneration of icons, that we adore God alone,
but we give veneration to the icons. And I've
always reminded people that I've talked to that
are not Orthodox or converts when they come into
the church, I would use this example. And I think
it's very true. I know it is for me. But when
you have pictures of your parents, pictures of
your family, pictures of your spouse, and there's
a certain... presence of that person when you
see that picture, that image. And that's basically
what we have as Orthodox, that we even kiss the
icons because a lot of times we show our love
for our departed members of our family, at least
I do, by giving a kiss to the image of that person.
Not venerating, of course, the paper. but the
person represented there. Fast forward a bit
from the Seventh Ecumenical Council to what we
celebrate today, the Sunday of Orthodoxy. Because,
as with all ecumenical councils, once a decision
was made, there is always a lingering non -acceptance
of that teaching. That's true in all of the councils.
And so there were people who were unwilling to
accept the decrees of the Seventh Ecumenical
Council. And finally, the sort of lid was put
on this error in the year 843 with the veneration
of icons, the proclamation of orthodoxy. But
you might, I don't know if you were, but that
didn't close the issue completely because until
an ecumenical, what was sometimes considered
an ecumenical council, but a council in the year
869 presided over by Patriarch Photius. who's
a famous person for many things, especially his
teaching on the procession of the Holy Spirit.
The issue arose, okay, so we receive iconoclasts,
or Christians who did not feel comfortable with
icons. We receive them back into orthodoxy through...
and then they are allowed to receive the Eucharist.
But the question arose, which I find fascinating,
that, well, what do we do with the iconoclastic
clergy? Sure, they can be received by repentance
and communion, but can they come back into the
church and exercise their orders of bishop, priest,
and deacon? There are two sides of that issue.
The previous patriarch, Ignatius, was, he was
a monastic, and he was a little bit of a hardliner,
as sometimes monks can be, take things very,
very seriously. And he thought, no, he was the
leader of what I call the hawk party, that said,
no, they come in as laymen. Then Patriarch Photius
came to the throne, and before he became patriarch,
he was a high -ranking member of the diplomatic
service of the emperor. And as a diplomat, he
thought, no, let's choose the softer line. Once
they have rejected the heresy of iconoclasm,
they can come in and exercise their orders as...
bishops, priests, and deacons. So we have this
treasure, which St. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians.
We hold this treasure in earthen vessels, our
holy orthodox faith. And we are surrounded by
this great cloud of witnesses. who again are
our friends and our spiritual family. We venerate
their image and we show our love and our respect
and veneration for the person represented in
the icons. So today on this glorious feast day,
we ask our Lord Jesus Christ. whose images are
before us, and through the intercession of the
saints, whose images are before us, to let us
keep this treasure firmly and consistently and
be faithful Christians, and especially Orthodox
Christians, in our thoughts, words, and deeds.
Amen.