Glory to Jesus Christ. We come to the third Sunday
after Pentecost, and it's been a, you could say,
a Sunday of, a litany of Sundays where we focus
on the saints, collective saints. Our first Sunday,
of course, all saints, then all saints of North
America. Today, we celebrate the saints of Mount
Athos and, of course, the martyrs who were under
the Turkish yoke. Collectively, the resurrection
gospel at that first Sunday of All Saints is
the backbone of all of them and should be the
backbone of us. Therefore, who confesses me before
men, him... I will also confess before the Father
who is in heaven. I know we worship Jesus Christ
because we're here, worshiping Jesus Christ.
And I know all of us do that, that are here,
and many who can't be with us. And we follow
him to the best of our ability. The question
we have to continually ask ourselves is, do we
confess him? And I'm not going to go into all
of what that means, but remember that just as
much as we're called to confess Christ, we're
also told that the opposite is true. If we deny
him before men, he will deny us before the Father.
So we're either confessing or denying in everything
that we do and everywhere we go. And especially
the way we live, it isn't so much the words that
come from our mouth as it is, who are we? How
do we impact the world and the people around
us? Is it confessing Christ or denying Christ?
Thomas Hopko said, at every moment in life, everything
we do is either completely holy or completely
evil. When not living like we should in holiness,
we're called to repent. If something doesn't
lead us to Christ, it leads us to destruction.
There is no in -between this confessing and denying.
There's no time out, no King's X. No, I'm going
to confess him next Wednesday because we did
a little bit here on Sunday and so I'm going
to find a way. No, it's everything we do at all
times. In all places. But the basis for this
divide. We hear in today's scripture. When was
read. I can find it. Oops. The light of the body
is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single,
thy whole body shall be full of light. That's
the basis for the divide between confessing him
or not. Is your body full of light? And the spiritual
life is about the struggle seeking the life,
the love, and this light of Christ. So to fight
the good fight, that we may be confessors of
Christ, we have a spiritual warfare that we're
called to. And we know the church teaches the
fathers of all taught in a unified way that prayer,
fasting, and almsgiving are the three tools we
have. In Ephesians, Paul names the three enemies
of Christians by which these, and how they're
fought. Paul names them. And our whole body,
if it be in darkness, are darkened by these things.
The enemy of the devil, the enemy of the flesh,
and the enemy of the world. So this spiritual
warfare of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving is
how they're fought. It's fought by prayer. This
turns our mind, our noose, towards God. The enemy
of the flesh is fought by fasting. Because our
flesh is where the appetites exist. Not just
fasting from food, but all the addictions and
the things that lead us off. You see, fasting
weakens the body's hold on the passions. An enemy
of the world, we fight by almsgiving. Almsgiving
loosens the soul's grip on matter, on possessions,
on the illusions of self -security and self -sufficiency.
No one can serve two masters, this scripture
today goes on to say, for either he will hate
the one and love the other, or else he will be
loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot
serve God and mammon. So without almsgiving,
prayer, and fasting, we cannot do battle. And
you see, prayer and fasting are incomplete without
almsgiving. These three disciplines purify together.
They're not separate. They aren't fully therapeutic
for our hearts, minds, our soul, unless they're
all done together as a whole. Remember in Luke
12, 34, where your treasure is, there your heart
will be. And that's not a financial principle.
It's a diagnosis of the noose, where the heart
is anchored. Where is your heart anchored? It's
by prayer, fasting, and almsgiving that we find
freedom from being anchored in the world. Almsgiving
is participation in God's own nature because
God loves to give. God, we call him when we pray
the lover of mankind. That's not a sentiment,
you know, like God loves me. I love you, Jesus.
It's a sentiment. It's the deepest relationship
with God. And it consumes us and all eternity.
It's God's very nature, this love. And when we
give through almsgiving, We don't just obey.
Oh yeah, what are we supposed to do? Oh yeah,
I'm supposed to give something to the poor. It's
not a mere obedience. Giving is how we participate
in God's nature. Think about the quality of your
giving. There are two modes of almsgiving that
sometimes are confused. They're either separated
or crushed together. They're not understood clearly,
but it's really important to understand them.
We're supposed to direct almsgiving to the poor.
Very true. Nothing should confuse you about that.
Because remember, to give to the poor is to give
to Christ. Giving to Christ himself. In Matthew
25, 40, we hear, as you did it to one of the
least of these, you did it to me. But it's mode
B that we get confused about. Almsgiving to the
church. Some will tell you that almsgiving isn't
your giving to the church, but actually, if you
do a deeper dive, you'll find out that This mode
that is forgotten has been artificially separated
from almsgiving in general. But the fathers don't
separate them. They're one discipline and two
expressions. I think the problem is in our modern
world, we've completely lost track of the context
in which the fathers, the apostles first and
the fathers afterwards, were addressing spiritual
disciplines, especially almsgiving. The fathers
did not separate them. In the Didache, which
is the first evidence we have of what the apostles
were teaching, it says very plainly, I think
it's in whatever they call it, chapter 13 or
verse, well, it's the section that is numbered
13. It says the firstfruits are to be given to
the prophets and the teachers and everything
else. shared with those in need. In other words,
the first fruit of your labor was no longer under
the Jewish law, was to be given to the prophets
and the teachers and the preachers, to those
who were nourishing and sustaining this new movement
of grace, the church that we've inherited. So
supporting the ministry is the oldest form of
church almsgiving. Because it was through the
church that the poor were taken care of. And
you hear Paul talk about this all the time. The
poor in Jerusalem, he was pleading with the Corinthians
to give more of their abundance so that the church
could be supported. Because the church and the
poor they fed and the way they ministered to
people and brought the good news out was all
one thing. There was no false separation. John
Chrysostom said, the church is the treasury of
the poor. What you give to the church, you give
to the poor. For the church does not spend it
on walls, but on souls. You see, the whole purpose
of this, we have a building with walls. We have
these beautiful icons that have been By the grace
of givers. Been put here. So that we can feed
the poor in spirit for centuries to come. We
feed the poor. Who are hurting for meaning. Who
are poor in their relationship with God. Who
are poor in their ability to even understand
what God wants. And how do I live the Christian
life. That's why. supporting the church is supporting
the poor and from those who take on this nature
of discipleship can go into the world and help
others our almsgiving to the church should be
both feeding the poor in spirit and those who
have physical needs your charity and if we emulate
the church we've inherited should be Freely given
to the church and we could develop the programs
for the abundance of your giving to help those
in need rather than looking at the latest appeal
when you're doom scrolling on your phone because
everyone's out to get your money. Make it a spiritual
gift and find ways through your parish here.
to do the work of both educating the poor in
Christianity and feeding the poor who are in
need. In Corinthians, I forgot here, just a minute,
Cyprian, I want to read his quote. The offerings
of the faithful are the means by which the church
is sustained and the poor are supported. It was
a unified... appeal for people. Now, in Corinthians,
Paul is not organizing fundraising campaign when
he's asking and appealing for the supporting
Jerusalem. He is describing what a soul transformed
by grace looks like from the outside. Are you
witnessing? What do you look like? Are you witnessing?
What do people encounter? Paul's describing it.
The soul of someone who's transformed by grace
is a soul that gives. And it gives first from
your first fruits. And it gives willingly, no
obligation. It gives from what it has. Do you
have a little? You should be giving what you
can. If you have a lot, Out of God's abundance,
you should give abundantly. And the measure God
receives is not the amount of what you give,
but the freedom and love from which the gift
rises. Because the heart that has been touched
by Christ cannot hold what it has been given.
You feel it when you love. You feel it when you
feel God's love. When you have joy, you can't
hold it in. You give it away freely. The abundance
of your lives needs to be given freely. So the
ultimate reason that we give is not duty or obligation,
and it's certainly not because someone shoved
the parish budget in front of you and said, You
need to give more to the church because, look,
we're going underwater on our bills. That's not
the measure or the reason for giving. The ultimate
reason is because you've been transformed by
Christ. And the measure of your transformation
can be seen in how you give. Not just love. Not
just your participation in divine services, your
labor of worship, but also your labor out in
the vineyard or your labor in the church hall.
And especially the labor of your lives that is
returned to you in financial support. You give
freely of that. Remember, giving changes the
giver. So whether you're tithing because you
can discipline yourself to tithe and not find
other ways to spend your money, or whether you're
trying to work up to tithing because right now
things are tight and you've got so many obligations
and now all of a sudden you're trying to up your
participation in the parish. So you can't tithe
yet, but you can start with something. Whether
it's only a little bit because you have nothing
extra. Examine your hearts. Ask yourself, God
has blessed me. How can I return that blessing
through my giving to the parish? Giving through
tithing. Giving through pledging. I didn't...
write all of this and dig up and study stuff
so I could coerce you because we have an immediate
need. I have no idea what the needs of the parish
are but I can tell you that in our world today
we don't understand what it means to give of
our abundance. Very few people actually achieve
even a glimpse of what it is. But for those who
do, those who've done it, for those, whether
it's a widow's mite or you were blessed abundantly
through family or business or whatever, when
you give abundantly, it transforms you. It changes
you. And that's what the fathers agree on, that
if you give, you will be changed. If you give,
your prayers, Your fasting and your almsgiving
will suddenly take on a transformative power
in your lives that you really need. All of us
need. The heart that gives freely is a heart
that's being freed of this world. The heart that's
freed from worry and possessions. In other words,
Worry over what you have, your management, your
latest this and your latest that. You've got
to stick money in the 401k and what are you going
to do about that property you inherited and on
and on and on and on. The worry. Or whether you're
worried because you just don't have anything
or you don't have much. Both anxieties and both
worries bar you from encountering God in your
hearts and in your life. When you're freed from
that worry, you have a heart that can receive
God. When your heart receives God, it's a purified
heart. An eye that is single, as we heard in
scriptures, where God takes up his abode in us.
Actually, we give so that we may become what
we are giving towards to purify our hearts. can
see God, and that we can become a vessel of God.
So the whole body becomes full of light to love
as God loves, to receive the gift of life that
God gives us. You know, it's all bound together.
There's no separation. Don't neglect giving.
Prayer and fasting and almsgiving. They will
transform you. Lay up yourselves treasures in
heaven. Where your treasure is, there is your
heart will be. Examine your heart and where your
treasure is. Glory to Jesus Christ.