August Sermons 2024

 25 August 2024                                          
Father Nicholas Karipoff
 
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The whole Gospel is full of meaning even in the small details, as the holy fathers teach us. Some of the stories will speak to us in a personal and powerful way. Today’s story of the storm at sea is one such story. This is the second storm, a scarier one than the first one. It happens after the miracle of the loaves and the fishes, in the early hours of the morning called the fourth watch, as we hear in the holy gospel.  It is followed by the long talk by Christ about heavenly bread, the eucharist, which takes place in the Capernaum  synagogue. 
 
The story of the storm at night is a lesson about the historical journey of the church, and of each church community, each family and ultimately about each one of us, because we cannot avoid these storms when they happen. They are our challenges in life. In this story, the Lord allowed the disciples to experience the storm so that they are trained and are enabled to face the difficulties in the spreading of the word of the gospel throughout the world. Why is it that the Lord did not organise things in a way that the path of the Gospel would be unopposed? Surely, He could do that? He is almighty! 
 
The answer is that the Christ’s “strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2Cor.12:9) Even the great Paul sorrowed about the difficulties that came his way, that constant presence of the thorn in the flesh. There is a lot to think about what that means. In other words, we individually or collectively in the church can only win through meekness and humility. Any remnant of pride causes us to lose in these storms, to drown, like Peter began to drown, when we face the difficulties and challenges of life. Christ allows Peter to learn about His weak faith when he wanted to demonstrate to the other disciples that he had more love for Christ than they had. That is not a humble attitude, is it? Christ teaches him (and us): if you want to do it come and learn what happens when you approach the storms of life with that attitude. The final dose of humility came to all the disciples at the time after the mystical supper when Christ is bound and taken away to the tribunal of the high priest; the disciples all ran away in fear. What a dose of reality, what a dose of humility!
 
There are many lessons that we can take out of this story of the storm. First, Christ is always near, even if He seems to be invisible, even if He seems to disappear, He is still there. Secondly, it is safer to stay in the boat; that means within the guidelines and traditions of the church within the community of love, of the family of the church. Thirdly, we should not be overconfident about our own strength.  And fourthly, prayerful focus on Christ helps us to build our trust in Him. It helps us to build real faith that He will always help us, both individually and collectively, that He will not abandon us. Peter starts drowning and Christ saves him. 
We live in a time of great storms happening in many different parts of the world and in many different aspects of life. Fierce winds are blowing in the world. Listen to the news. We cannot pretend this does not and will not affect us. We cannot say that is somewhere else – Ukraine, Gaza, America and Russia- or that it has to do with somebody else. It will come to us, we will have to deal with it, so it is up to us to learn how to handle ourselves, how to deal with these storms. Christ is our teacher but even more importantly He is our strength. He is stronger than any storm.
 
 
Sunday August 18
By Fr Nicholas Karipoff

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  
The four Gospels complement each other to give a complete picture of Christ. The interesting thing is that there are very few stories that are covered by all four of them. These few stories are the baptism of Christ (Theophany), Transfiguration which is the second theophany on the mountain, and of course, the events of Christ’s death and resurrection. Today’s story about feeding the five thousand (Matt. 14:14-22) is also covered by all four Gospels. It shows how important this story is. It speaks about the church and the Eucharist.  
 
The Eucharist is the central axis of church life.  The modern Greek theologian Christos Yannaras writes: The church is a meal. Five thousand people were hungry.  Christ lifts up His eyes to the Father to teach us where our meal comes from. As He also teaches in the Lord’s Prayer.  Give us this day our daily bread. Our daily bread, our bodily food comes from God. But the next morning, as we see only in the Gospel of John chapter 6, Christ teaches in the synagogue in Capernaum about another level of food. And that is God Himself, Who is food in Christ.  He is our Heavenly bread. The Lord’s Prayer points to this heavenly bread.  The apostles wrote the prayer in Greek, and “daily bread” (in the English text) is better translated as “essential bread”, something that is above practicality. It points of course to the Eucharist. You are what you eat, as the saying goes. 
 
Christ is born, He lives, He dies and He rises from the dead so that we can be sanctified by the humanity of God. That is how St Gregory the Theologian puts it. In today’s story, the disciples came to the Lord, overwhelmed by the mass of people, and asked what they should do. The Lord answers:  You feed them!  In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan takes the wounded man to the inn, and entrusts him to the innkeeper.  The inn represents the church with God’s helpers there, for the healing of soul and body, sustained through two denarii, the price the Samaritan gives to the innkeeper.  The Holy Fathers say that these two denarii are the body and blood of Christ. We must overcome the tendency to think of the church in moralistic terms. It is not some sort of religious club.  The church is something existential. It is a family, it is healing like in the parable.  It is the meal that sustains life above mere psycho-physiological level.  The church is an existential invitation to rise above being just an intellectual animal. 
 
 
Sunday August 11
By Fr Gennady Baksheev
 
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 
Brothers and sisters, we are temporary pilgrims on earth. We have been placed here to work out the salvation of our souls in fear and trembling with the help of Christ. Today’s Gospel reading (Matt. 9:27-35 Jesus heals the blind and the mute) is a stark reminder for all of us to continue in our spiritual battle against sin, our passions, the world and the evil one. To use the words of St Paul in his letter to Timothy: ‘Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life to which you were also called (1 Tim 6.12).’ This is the disposition of a Christian soul; as we say in the Creed  ‘I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.’ 
 
Today’s gospel reading (or pericope, as known in theological terminology), is a short passage from St Matthew. It begins with the words ‘When Jesus departed from there.’ This refers to a preceding section in St Matthew’s Gospel, where Christ raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead. And so, these two blind men followed Christ as He left Jairus’ house. The blind men cried out to Him, acknowledging Him as the Son of David, that is, the Messiah. But Christ keeps walking. He does not stop to heal them on the road amidst a multitude of people. It is as though he is testing their resolve, their faith and desire. 
 
Christ takes them privately into a house and talks with them. He poses a question to them: ‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’ They answer Him very succinctly with ‘Yes, Lord.’ And so, these two physically blind men were able to discern with their spiritual eyes, that standing before them was the Lord over all creation. 
 
This belief in Jesus as Lord was based on proof. There were no newspapers during those days, no social media. Rather, there was the spoken word, and people would need to go out and see what was taking place. These blind men would have heard of the numerous miracles of Christ: the cleansing of a leper, healing of a paralysed servant, the calming of a storm at sea, the healing of a woman who had bled for 12 years and the raising of Jairus’ daughter from the dead. 
 
Let us imitate these two blind men. They had no doubt struggled in their lives as blind men. However, this struggle is so important for each and every one of us if we desire to grow spiritually. Christ says that in this world we will have tribulation, but to be of good cheer, as He has overcome the world (John 16:33). These should be comforting words for us. In the original Greek, the term ‘be of good cheer’ is expressed as ‘thar-seh’-o.’ This means to have courage. When the woman who had haemorrhaged for 12 years touched the hem of Christ’s garment, he turned around and said ‘Daughter, have courage.’ In last week’s Gospel reading we heard about the healing of the paralytic man who was lowered by his friends through the roof of a house. Having seen the faith of the paralytic’s friends, Christ said to the paralytic man ‘Son, take courage.’ 
 
As Christians, we are required to develop courage. The Holy Fathers teach us that courage is a foundational virtue. Let us learn what this means from the lives of the saint, especially the martyrs. Do not be defeated or be crushed by the trials and tribulations of life. Let us take courage and walk in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
 
Во имя Отца, и Сына, и Святого Духа. Аминь.
Братья и сестры, мы - временные паломники на земле. Нам нужно в страхе и трепете трудиться для спасения наших душ с помощью Христа. Сегодняшнее Евангельское чтение является суровым напоминанием для всех нас о необходимости продолжать нашу духовную борьбу с грехом, нашими страстями, и с миром. Апостол Павел пишет: "Подвизайся добрым подвигом веры, держись вечной жизни, к которой ты и призван’ (1 Тim 6.12). 
 
Сегодняшнее евангельское чтение - это короткий отрывок из Евангелия от Матфея. Сегодняшний отрывок из Евангелия начинается словами "Когда Иисус ушел оттуда’. Это относится к предыдущему отрывку из Евангелия от Матфея, где Христос исцелил женщину, страдавшую кровотечением в течение двенадцати лет, и воскресил дочь Иаира из мертвых. Когда Христос уходил от этого место, за Ним последовали двое слепцов. Они взывали к Нему, признавая Его Сыном Давидовым, то есть Мессией. Но Христос продолжает идти. Он не останавливается, чтобы исцелить их по дороге среди множества людей. Он как будто испытывает их решимость, их веру и желание.
 
Христос уединяется с ними в доме и беседует с ними. Он задает им вопрос: "Верите ли вы, что Я способен это сделать?" Они отвечают Ему очень кратко: "Да, Господи ‘. И вот, эти два физически слепых человека смогли увидеть своими духовными глазами, что перед ними стоит Господь всего творения.
 
Мы также должны подражать этим двум слепцам. Они, без сомнения, боролись в своей жизни, будучи слепыми. Эта борьба очень важна для каждого из нас, если мы хотим духовно расти. Христос говорит, что в этом мире нас ждут скорби, но мы должны мужаться, потому что Он победил мир (Иоанна 16:33). Эти слова должны быть для нас утешительными. 
 
Как христиане, мы должны развивать в себе мужество. Мы можем научиться об этом из жития святых, особенно от мучеников. Будем развивать мужество и ходить в вере в Господа нашего Иисуса Христа. Аминь.
 
 
Sunday August 4
By Fr Nicholas Karipoff
 
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
For several hundred years since the beginning of the Reformation in the early 16th century, Western Christianity debated whether we are saved by works or by our faith.  Today’s Gospel story about Christ forgiving the paralysed man (Matt. 9:1-8 ) gives a clear answer. Similarly, the words of St James, the Brother of the Lord, who writes in his epistle that faith without works is dead. Faith has to be externalised in our life.  To use a modern American expression, it is not enough to talk the talk, you have to walk the walk!
 
Christian faith is just that.  It is an existential event.  The story of the paralytic shows several aspects of faith and life.  We have heard Matthew’s shorter version of this story, but Mark and Luke give longer versions in which they described how the paralysed man’s friends uncover the roof to lower him down as they could not get through the crowds.  What an incredible effort of love ! No wonder we hear Jesus say to the paralytic when He saw their faith: Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven. Jesus Christ as God, of course, saw their faith even before they got there. Their faith, hope and love were made manifest for all the other people.  The image of these four men carrying their paralysed friend is a powerful image of the church.  It is an active connectedness with the Lord in faith, hope and love. 
 
Our sinful nature is a heavy weight that is not easy to move.  Have you noticed how ingrained this culture of ticking the box has become in modern life? To be children of God we cannot get away with just creating appearances.  There is a good expression of that in 18th century Russian history:  Potemkin villages.  It comes from the story about how Grigory Potemkin, the governor-general, wanted to impress Empress Catherine so he prepared fake facades of towns and dressed peasants in nice costumes for the Empress’ tour of the Black Sea region, recently secured by him from Turkish rule.  She probably understood that it was fake but she played along with it. That is not good enough! Let us be honest with ourselves, with God and with our neighbour. What if our faith and Christian life are  feeble to the point that we are not unlike this paralysed man in today’s story. The church here and in heaven is carrying us, each one of us when we need it in different times of our life.  As we get stronger in connection with Christ, we then can also carry others, as we heard in today’s Gospel.