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Sunday 2 February 2025: Zacchaeus Sunday Father Nicholas Karipoff In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Before today’s Gospel, we heard the words of St Paul to Timothy, in the Epistle: Be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith and in purity. Timothy was ordained by St Paul as a presbyter, a pastor, who helps Christ to lead His flock, but the church has always had many people from among the laity as well who lead by their example and now today, we hear of such an example, Zacchaeus. The name Zakkay in Hebrew alludes to fairness and righteousness. As a chief tax collector in the rich city of Jericho, Zacchaeus had ample opportunity to be tempted and to act unfairly and unrighteously. But he had not completely lost his conscience, and this causes his great inner tension, to the point of becoming unbearable. When Zacchaeus hears that Jesus is passing through the streets of Jericho, he runs and climbs into a sycamore tree to see Him. Christ sees not just Zacchaeus, but also Zacchaeus’ heart. He sees that his heart is right for repentance and tell Zacchaeus that He is coming to see him at his home. The joy of Zacchaeus has no bounds. He gives his heart to Christ, just as we hear as far back as the Old Testament ‘Son, give me your heart’. In a short moment, he becomes worthy of his name, Zakkay. His speech shows not only his fairness according to the law, but the righteousness of love beyond the law. He promises that he will give half of his property and his wealth to the poor and then according to the law, he says – ‘If I have hurt anyone by false accusations, I will restore to that person four-fold’. If a thief was caught, his punishment would be that he had to pay a fine four times of the value of what he stole. Zacchaeus acknowledged himself as a thief, but more than that, his words show love. What is the critical moment of the story? It comes when Zacchaeus is in a conflict, forgets his station in life and courageously climbs a tree to see Christ. He ignores people’s ridicule, and he runs to climb that tree like a boy. Now he cares more about his relationship with God much more than his high position and prestige as a rich man. During the weeks preceding Great Lent, the church selects Gospel readings that illustrate this transformation, which is termed repentance. Repentance is a change of heart and mind, metanoia. If we give ourselves a proper chance to think about our life, our failures before God, if we stop worrying about what other people will think about us and start worrying about what God may think about us, we can get to a moment where we begin to live in harmony with our baptismal name. Ultimately our name is Christian, just like Zacchaeus – Zakkay. Sunday February 9: Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee By Fr Nicholas Karipoff In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We have started the Lenten Triodion, which is the material in preparation and during Great Lent. We are beginning our warmup before Lent. Today’s topic is the juxtaposition of pride and humility, as we heard in the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee. Today’s epistle, St Paul’s 2nd letter to Timothy, chap 3, talks about the persecutions and afflictions that St Paul had endured. He writes what persecutions I endured. But out of them all, the Lord delivered me. And yes, all who desire to live in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Today the church also celebrates the thousands upon thousands of new martyrs and confessors of Rus. How is this relevant to today’s gospel parable about pride and humility? In the gospel, the evangelist Luke writes, He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. This parable may or may not describe actual historical people; we are not certain. But it was more important for the Lord, of course, to show the typical behaviour of the proud person and the humble one. If the parable is inspired by actual persons, it would have been interesting to see how the pharisee’s contempt might have grown into hatred and persecution of the tax collector and others like him. Look at what happened at the dawn of humanity in Genesis; Cain slays his brother Abel who was more pleasing to God, which made Cain envious and murder him. The same contempt, envy and hatred moved the pharisees, who saw themselves as the most righteous, to crucify Christ. The Lord mentions the spilling of innocent blood from Abel’s day until His day, alluding to their murderous designs. I am not saying that persecution always means shedding of blood. We need to understand the dynamics of pride meeting humility. If, God forbid, we cannot see ourselves properly, we might share in that spirit of pride which leads to contempt and irritability towards people who, to us, seem to be worse than us. Just like the pharisee who thanks that he is not like other people, whom he considers to be inferior to him. If we pick up on any hint of this pharisaical spirit within ourselves, let us punish ourselves with contrition, like in the parable of the Publican and of the Tax-collector. On the other hand, we are often on the receiving end of people’s contempt and irritability, or subtle forms of persecution or bullying. According to the saints we must do two things in this situation; Firstly, we must thank God for teaching us to have more patience with all people. And secondly, we must pray for our persecutors and ask God to give us patience and love. We might be pleasantly surprised by the results of such a prayer. Even if there are no pleasant surprises, we will agonise less and feel more peaceful within ourselves. Saturday February 15: The Meeting of the Lord By Fr Nicholas Karipoff In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The Feast of Christ’s presentation in the temple on the fortieth day after Nativity is called the Meeting of the Lord. This meeting is primarily with Simeon, an elderly man who had been humbled over a long lifetime. Church tradition says that his longevity was given to him because he had a doubt about a verse in the book of Isaiah prophesying that a Virgin shall give birth. He was promised that he would not die until he saw the Lord’s Christ, as we just heard in the Gospel. The words he spoke as he held the baby Jesus have become a doxology used by the church at vespers for over two thousand years, as well as some other occasions: Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation which thou hast prepared before the face of all people. A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. (Luke 2:29-32) This is a prophetic prayer that is spoken by the Holy Spirit. In the creed we say that the Holy Spirit spoke through the prophets. This feast gives an image of Elder Simeon holding baby Jesus in his arms. It is an image of our own meeting with the Lord. Simeon prays over a long lifetime for the Messiah to come. When Simeon achieves the necessary measure of humility, the Son of God shows an infinitely greater humility. He is born as a vulnerable baby. He allows Himself to be held in the elderly arms of this old man. Same with us. When we stop doubting God and trying to prove something to Him, to ourselves and to other people, the same thing will happen with us. God will tangibly meet with us in His humility. Then we will not resist this process of our own growth in becoming humble and seeing the things of God. This feast is always close to the beginning of Great Lent. The feast tells us to not waste time but to grow in humility and in God’s wisdom. Then we will be like St Simeon and all the saints who saw the slow approach of their physical death as a joyous meeting with the Lord. Sunday February 16: Sunday of the Prodigal Son By Fr Nicholas Karipoff In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The parable of the Prodigal Son, which we just heard, is one of the most moving images of the love of God. For that reason, it has inspired many works of European literature and art. The first part of the story can be summed up in the words of the great Syrian ascetic, St Isaac: There is no unforgiveable sin except the sin of unrepentance. In the parable the youngest son, who represents every human being, comes to his senses and realises his abysmal rock-bottom spiritual state. The prodigal son prepares a speech for his father after this realisation, saying he is no longer worthy to be called his son. He planned to ask his father to accept him as a hired servant. This is possibly the origin of the expression that traditional Christianity uses: Servant of God. But as we hear, the father does not allow the son to finish his speech. Instead, he showers him with signs of glory and honour that are appropriate for a true child of God who carries the image and likeness of God. This is the second Sunday when the Holy Church gives us this encouragement in our weakness and failings so that we can mobilize ourselves and ask the loving and compassionate God for mercy and salvation. The epistle today which has been chosen by the church lectionary - the yearly programme of readings – expands on the ideas of the parable. The passage of 1Cor:6 begins with the words of St Paul: All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. With these words St Paul intended to address some aspects of Mosaic restrictions. But these words were misrepresented by the Corinthians who stretched them to infer that everything is allowed, even sexual immorality. In preparing for this sermon, I investigated the different meanings of this word prodigal. In English, the word comes from the Latin prodigus which means “wasteful”. The prodigal son wastes his father’s money. In Slavonic, the term is ‘блудный” and the meaning here aligns with the Greek word asotos meaning both “lost” and “debauched’. Further, St Paul writes that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Sexual immorality desecrates the temple. During Lent, people are aware that we are asked to limit ourselves in terms of food. But there is a lot more to it. We need to restrain ourselves in quality and quantity in food, but we also need to be self-restrained in many other things, including guarding our eyes. There is unseen warfare. There is so much visual material everywhere that causes temptations, especially content on the internet, and everything is so accessible. People see things that they should not see because it affects them badly. It brings their psycho- physical life to the level of that rock-bottom condition that the prodigal son experienced. Everything is allowable in the sense that we can repent but not everything is beneficial. God forgives instantly, but healing the wounds takes time. There are so many detrimental things to our spiritual life and we need to realise this. This is something to think about in the coming weeks of Lent. Comments are closed.
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