I wish each of you a blessed feast. You know
how it is after Christmas in most neighborhoods,
certainly stores, all the decorations come down
at Halloween. Then the next day after Christmas,
they... The trees are in the garbage on the street.
We also, in the church, begin our Christmas preparations
early, a little bit after Halloween. And that's
been the case since the early church. And we
begin with that fast of 40 days before we celebrate
Christmas. Today, with the Feast of the Meeting
of the Lord in the Temple, which we're celebrating,
this marvelous fresco... You can contemplate
that. We come to the end of another set of 40
days. So we're talking about 80 days here since
we began to prepare for Christmas. During that
time, for Orthodox Christians, we tried to gauge
and direct our lives about this. We heard about
enlightenment. We heard about the temple. We
heard about the heart of man, the baptized person
being the temple of God. We heard about the shining
forth of Christ, his birth, his coming to the
world, his theophany. It's all about salvation.
It's all about Christ, that whole time. And now
that we have celebrated all of that for 80 days.
And we've heard and considered everything that
came before. And this takes some conscientious
and intentional effort. So we can do that. Otherwise
we let the 80 days just slip by. But having heard
all of that, we are now ready to end that. And
we come to another time of preparation. As Orthodox
Christians, our life is about expectation, anticipation.
Fulfillment. A catechumen is preparing. They're
baptized. It's all fulfilled in that baptism
and chrismation. And then they receive the Eucharist.
But then it's about anticipation for the next
week to receive the Eucharist. And then it's
about anticipation for the coming of the Lord
in glory and the resurrection. And we live in
this state. But now the church says, we're preparing
for a new time for preparation. Yes, another
time for preparation. We're preparing for Lent.
Pretty soon, this blue and this gold is going
to purple. Less than a month. That's beautiful.
Because we need it after that. Now we're prepared
for it. We've had all this other stuff. We're
prepared for it. This parable of the... and the
tax collector, the Pharisee. That's the clarion
call. That's the bell that tells us as a community,
not individual Christians, but as a community,
the church, we're getting ready for the 40 -day
great fast, which begins on February 22nd with
Forgiveness Sunday Vespers. And how I look forward
to that. But first I'd like to say something
before I speak about the publican, the tax collector.
Publican, public official, that type of thing.
In Britain, a publican is a guy who runs the
bar. So that's not this guy. You heard about
the publican last week. I know that because I
heard the sermon, which was wonderful. I don't
need to go into what a publican is. I'd like
to say something about today's feast first, though.
We have this Feast of the Meeting of the Lord,
the end of the Christmas season. It's on February
2nd. We moved it to today with the blessing of
the bishop. Luke tells us that after long years
of waiting and expectation, the elder Simeon,
he was not a priest. You see, we have this reading
from the Epistle of the Hebrews. It might sound...
complicated to us, but really it's just telling
us there was no priest there to receive Christ
because he is the priest. That's what that's
telling us. After long years of expectation,
the elder Simeon is there in the temple of God.
We have two scenes from temples today. And he
receives the 40 day old Jesus in his arms. And
he recognizes him. He recognizes him in the spirit
as the Savior of all mankind. He and the righteous
Anna, because they are prophets. And they recognize
Jesus, though there could be hundreds of children
coming that day to be offered to dedication to
the Lord. Those two immediately see it in the
spirit of God. And they praise God. It's a day
of joy. It's a day of sorrow also. Because the
Theotokos is told that there will be severe pain
and sorrow and grief with the crucifixion of
her son. And she holds all of these things in
her heart. Father Alexander Schmemann remarks
in his wonderful sermon on this day, he says,
how unspeakably good that the long -awaited light
and joy comes to the elder Simeon through a child.
Imagine the old man's trembling hands as he takes
in his arm the 40 -day infant so tenderly, so
carefully, his eyes gazing on the tiny being
and filling with an outpouring of praise. Lord,
now lettest thou thy servant depart. He calls
this child his Lord. Amazing. I have held in
mine arms, I have embraced the meaning of life.
And Simeon waited. He waited his entire long
life. And surely this means he pondered, he prayed,
he deepened as he waited so that his whole life
was one continuous expectation of the greatest
thing that could possibly happen. This eve of
a joyful meeting. Isn't it time, Father Alexander
says, that we ask ourselves, What am I waiting
for in the way I live? Is my life a model like
Simeon and the righteous Anna? They see him.
It's an amazing thing. And the Theotokos comes
to the temple to dedicate. Is it a moment of
joy? Yes. But there she is, a model again of
our Christian life. She is going to hear at that
moment of encounter about the profound sufferings
that she will also suffer with Christ to see
her son. And she will remain faithful to her
son from beginning to end. So she's that role
model for us once again, who face sufferings
in this world, those who face social stigma,
those who face social rejection, those who face
sorrow. this is another aspect of this great
and awesome day. And today, in that same temple
where Simeon and Anna were, where Simeon met
our salvation, we hear a parable from Christ
about another encounter. Two encounters. About
a despised man coming to the temple to repent.
He's probably small of stature, like Zacchaeus
last week. It was only last week, so there's
a relationship here. He is much hated for his
cruelty and his greed. And there up front in
the temple is a deeply pious and religious man.
Well respected. Knowledge about... knowledgeable
about the law. He's generous. He's a Pharisee.
He's a religious man. He's dependable. A model
parishioner, I would say. And he's praying, sort
of. And just guessing, our publican probably,
probably could hear this Pharisee praying, Oh
Lord, I thank thee. I'm not like other men. Like
that publican, the tax collector. Well, the tax
collector coming into the temple, how does he
pray? He could have boasted also. It's what I
would have done. Lord, I come before you today
to tell you how great it feels to give half of
my goods to the poor. I never knew I could be
so generous. I gave back. Four times, Lord. Four
times. I hope you notice that. Not just the two
that the law says. And that takes some humility.
And well, I could have given back five times
because I've got plenty of money. Lord, please
forgive that Pharisee. So boastful. So prideful.
What a hypocrite. But that's not what he said.
He said something very, very simple. God be gracious
to me, a sinner. God have mercy on me, a sinner,
for centuries now. As this parable is a clarion
call for Lent, the church is telling us about
a warning, about our attitude. Rightly so. Despising
others is one of the most universal human pleasures.
Just look at the internet. There's very little
that is so necessarily satisfying to one's sense
of self as to put down someone else, especially
people in positions of power that you will never,
ever, ever, ever meet. Jesus was particularly
warning us concerning the way this passion ruins
our hearts and our attempts to live in an upright,
moral, pious manner, a gracious manner. a loving
manner, a humble manner. I know it well. It continues
to trip me up and probably you too sometimes.
This is the first lesson about Lent. And in the
parable, the self -condemnation of the publican
is offered as an example to us of humility. We
cannot pray without that gift. These days, however,
I encounter many people who do not so much despise
others as despise themselves. This is another
side of the same coin. A root cause of this affliction
is a person trusting in themselves. And this
is a big mistake. The first rule of Orthodox
spirituality is never trust yourself. The second
rule is dare to trust others. fully in God alone,
like Simeon, like Anna. So whether we think ourselves
something, or we think ill of ourselves, we're
still making a judgment on our own terms. Our
spiritual life is undertaken in a spirit of humility,
which is about accountability. What do I mean?
Very briefly, Do you know what the Pharisee really
needed? Not just rules. We need those also. He
needed a good spiritual counselor, a confessor,
and a friend. So did the publican. And those
who pray like the publican, for them, the merciful
God does not leave us in captivity of our passions
with a sense of failure. getting swept away again
and again with the circumstances of many sins,
with guilt that will never be resolved. No, no.
Our guardian angel standing near us quietly to
help us inspires us to turn to Jesus Christ when
those thoughts, when that guilt, when that pain
comes. And we give him thanks. Not like the Pharisee.
Not trying to count up all that we did good.
in comparison to the bad. No, but thanks for
his providence, his help, his love. And we offer
the prayer of the publican, God be merciful to
me, a sinner. Amen.