May sermons 2025

Thursday, May 29, 2025.  The Ascension of our Lord
By Fr Nicholas Karipoff
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Spirit. 
We often read that the saints were described as earthly angels and heavenly human beings. Today’s feast points to this direction of spiritual perfection which was shown by the Lord through His teaching. Now, on the last day of His physical presence on earth, He shows this in His Ascension.  I have wondered for many years about the shift from Easter to the Feast of Holy Ascension to understand the joy that the Apostles. It is easier to understand the joy of the Resurrection but it not so easy to relate to the joy they felt at the Ascension, when Christ left.  Yesterday, in the wonderful services of the last day of Easter, there was an explosion of this Paschal joy of the Resurrection.  It is easy for us to relate to the joy that the apostles had when they were seeing the Lord during that forty-day period, but their joy was still earth-centred.  Literally minutes before He was about to ascend before their eyes, they asked him if it was now that He would become the King of Kings and to rule in Jerusalem forever. He explains nothing to them, nor does He argue with them. Instead He implies that they will soon understand.
 
We know many more things than the apostles knew as they were standing on the Mount of Olives, amazed seeing the Lord, their teacher, ascending before their very eyes. We know with our intellect and yet often we fail to understand with our heart, with our spiritual mind or nous.  Soon, from Pentecost we will begin to say the prayer to the Holy Spirit “Come and abide in us and cleanse us from every impurity”. This is talking about spiritual vision, the vision of the mind, the eye of the soul. How do we begin to see? In last Sunday’s gospel reading about the healing of the blind man, the Lord spits on the ground to make mud and anoints the unseeing eyes of this man.  He then instructs him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. The man came back seeing. To me, this shows what really blocks our vision. It is the earth.  We are so focussed on things of the earth.  This is why we cannot see spiritually. We have earth’s mud all over our eyes! Let us spit on the ground, on the earth, as Christ did.  The earth is not bad, except for when it becomes our idol - and it constantly becomes our idol.  We are citizens of the earth, and this is God-given, but there is a hierarchy of values.  Heaven is our home.  At that point when the apostles saw the Lord rising, they began to understand that. We must understand that Heaven is our home right now.  Not when we die, but now. When we come to church, we come to Heaven!  Heaven should be in our hearts, as the Lord said.  Today, as we look at Christ ascending before our eyes, let us try to say like the apostles, Lord I don’t know anything yet, but help me to understand. 
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Sunday May 25, 2025
By Fr Gennady Baksheev
 
Christ is Risen!
Today’s gospel reading, the Parable of the Blind Man (John 9:1 – 38) is about a meeting between the Creator and His creation. The man who was born blind receives not only his physical sight but more importantly, his spiritual sight, because of his confession of the truth. 
 
Before proceeding further about today’s gospel reading, we learn how Christ was teaching in the temple. A contrast develops between Christ on the one hand, who asserts that He is co-equal with the Father, and that those who want to follow him must abide in truth. Truth refers to the virtue of telling the truth, but also to Christ Himself. On the other hand, the spiritual rulers are denounced for doing the works of their father, the devil. The Pharisees take offence at his words and pick up stones to throw at Christ, but he leaves the temple and passes by the man who was blind from birth. 
 
This context helps us understand today’s Gospel reading. Take notice that this man who was blind from birth did not call out for help as Christ passed by, but rather it was Christ who stopped to help this man. Christ dismisses the commonly held assumption that disease is always the result of sin. In this case, this man’s condition was for the manifestation of God’s work. When this man was formed in his mother’s womb, Christ fashioned all the members of his body except for his eyes. He completes the divine act of creating when he sees this man who was born blind. He does this by spitting on dust, making clay and anointing the eyes of the blind man. In doing this, Christ provides evidence that He is the Creator. This act of creation is similar to what we read in Genesis, when Christ formed Adam out of dust (Gen 2:7). When Christ says, ‘that the glory of God should be manifest,’ Christ reveals the glory of Himself as co-equal with the Father. This therefore gives direct evidence to the Pharisees who earlier questioned Christ in the temple and demonstrates that it was He who fashioned man and now appears in the form of a man. 
 
Christ then instructs the blind man to wash in the pool of Siloam. The blind man obeys Christ, and he gains vision, he gains physical sight. Some Holy Fathers say that the clay was fashioned into eyes as he washed them. In any case, this scene would have stirred trouble on the streets, but the man was unashamed of his former condition and begins proclaiming the truth to everyone around him. He is then taken into the temple for questioning by the Pharisees, to which the man grows even bolder in his confession of the truth. He is not fearful of telling the truth, even in the face of being accused of slander. For this he is cast out of the synagogue. But this was to his benefit as he was honoured by the knowledge of the Son of God. 
 
What does this mean for us? All of us are blind from birth, and we are born into mortality and corruption. Just as the man who was born blind, we also could not see Christ until He came to us and visited us. Jesus saw us by passing by, that is, when He was clothed in flesh and walked among us, bowing down Heaven to earth. We are not healed simply through believing, but we also are sent into the waters of Baptism, being baptised through water and the Holy Spirit, just as the blind man was sent to the pool to be cleaned. 
 
Temptations also befall on us after our baptism. We are called to carry our cross to show our allegiance to Christ, as only He can heal us. Perhaps we may also be driven out of the synagogue and be deprived of our wealth and glory. But let us steadfastly hold to our confession of truth so that we may gain Christ, the Son of God. Amen. 

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 Sunday May 11, 2025
By Fr Peter Sheko
 
Christ is Risen!
Today, dear Brothers and Sisters, we heard the gospel reading about Christ’s discussion with the Samaritan woman at the well. This is one of the most beautiful and personal encounters which we hear in the gospels.  What starts as a request for water becomes an initiation to eternal life. Jesus says to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that says to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water. The woman is confused at first.  She thinks He means regular water, the water we drink when we are physically thirsty.  But Jesus is speaking of something much greater. 
 
 St John Chrysostom, one of the great teachers of the church, explains this living water is the grace of the Holy Spirit.  He says that Christ used this image of water because it cleanses, refreshes and gives life.  But this water is not like the water in the well. It is spiritual and eternal. St John writes: The living water is the gift of the spirit which purifies those who receive and makes them spiritual and immortal. In other words, this living water is God’s very life in us.  It washes away sin, gives us peace, strengthens us in our weakness and fills the emptiness of our hearts.  It is the kind of water that once we drink, we don’t keep coming back to the same dry places in life.  We are satisfied in Christ. The Samaritan woman had been looking for happiness and meaning in many places - five husbands and she was still not satisfied! But Jesus, knowing everything about her, gently leads her to see what she truly needs.  Not judgement, not shame, but healing, and He offers it freely.  Her heart is changed.  She leaves her water jar behind, a symbol of her old life, and runs to tell others: Come see a Man who told me everything I did!
 
 This woman, who once came to the well in shame and isolation becomes one of the first evangelists of the Gospel.  The church remembers her as St Photini, or in Russian, Svetlana, Equal to the Apostles. Brothers and Sisters, Jesus is speaking to us as well! He offers us this living water, His spirit, His love His life.  Are we still trying to quench our thirst with the things of the world - comfort, pleasure and distraction?  These wells run dry but the water that Christ gives becomes in us a spring of water welling up to eternal life. We receive this living water through repentance and especially in the Holy Mysteries, the Sacraments of the church.  Each time we confess, each time we receive Holy Communion we are filled with this grace again.  Let us come to Christ honestly.  Let us ask Him for this living water.  And like St Photini, may we leave behind our burdens and become joyful witnesses to the risen Christ. 

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Sunday May 4, 2025 (Russian follows the English)
By Fr Gennady Baksheev
            
Christ is Risen!
Today the Church commemorates the righteous Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus and the myrrh-bearing women. We learn from their lives that they overcame fear for their own lives and showed love towards Christ in response to the love that they received from God. For example, Joseph of Arimathea was a member of the Sanhedrin and an honourable counsellor, as we heard in the Gospel. This means that he had duties of public service and accountability. He was also wealthy. However, he put all of this aside and found the courage to boldly ask Pilate for the body of Christ to honour Him with a burial. Joseph then proceeds to prepare and bury Christ in his own new tomb, together with Nicodemus, who also was a member of the Sanhedrin. In this way, these two secret disciples of Christ publicly show their affection for Him. This was a very courageous and loving act as they publicly exposed themselves as followers of Christ and were liable to death. 
The Church also glorifies the holy Myrrh-Bearing Women, for which reason this very Sunday is called the “Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearing Women.” The myrrh-bearing women sacrificed much for Christ and were particularly present during the sufferings of Christ. For example, they were present at the Cross, together with John the Theologian, when all of the other disciples were scattered. They saw that Christ was buried in simplicity and returned early on Sunday morning to perform one last act of love for their Teacher. On their way to the tomb, they logically understood that a heavy stone was rolled across the tomb’s opening. However, they pressed on, despite all obstacles and threats to their own lives. And in their longing to be with Christ, these women were the first to receive the joyful news of the Resurrection from the lips of an angel. 
Let us also imitate Joseph, Nicodemus and the myrrh-bearing women in our longing to be with Christ and actively participate in the light and joy of His Resurrection. May this light and joy be spiritual, pure, peaceful and exalting for our souls. For this was the effect of the Resurrection on the myrrh-bearing women, who not yet seeing the risen Christ, ‘fled from the tomb, for they trembled and were amazed.’ This joy can lead us to an expression of faith, as the Apostle Thomas expressed when he was overjoyed to see the Risen Christ by answering Him: ‘My Lord and my God!’ St Philaret of Moscow writes, ‘nothing leads us so directly to the perception and faith and conviction in the divinity of Jesus Christ, as does His resurrection.’ Perhaps it is for this reason that the Mother Church gives us the most sublime truth to meditate and contemplate on: that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages, became man to share in our human nature. Mankind fell out of communion with God through the transgression of Adam and Eve. However, Christ could not bear to see his most precious creation suffer, so He came down to earth to raise mankind to become gods by Grace. Through His cross and Resurrection, the devil and death are destroyed and are replaced with a new order in which Christ and life reigns. The indicates the direction of our lives towards the Heavenly kingdom as Christ enthroned human nature at the right hand of God the Father. This orientation begins here and now, so let us take up this call by cultivating the virtues and seeking our joy in its true source, in Christ. Amen.  
 
христос воскресе! 
Сегодня Церковь чтит память праведных Иосифа Аримафейского, Никодима и жен-мироносиц. Из их жизни мы видим что они преодолели страх за свою жизнь и проявили любовь ко Христу. Иосиф Аримафейский, Например, был членом синедриона и почетным советником, и выполнял обязанности общественного служения. Кроме того, он был богат. Но, он отложил все это в сторону и смело попросил у Пилата тело Христа, чтобы почтить Его погребением. вместе с Никодимом, Иосиф приступает к подготовке и погребению Христа в его собственном новом гробе. 
Церковь также прославляет святых жен-мироносиц, поэтому сегодня называется неделей или “Воскресеньем жен-мироносиц”. Жены-мироносицы многим пожертвовали ради Христа; присутствуя при страданиях Христа, они вместе с Иоанном Богословом были при Распятии. Они увидели, что Христос был похоронен в спешке, и вернулись рано утром в воскресенье, чтобы завершить погребение. По пути к гробу они размышляли о том, что вход закрыт большим камнем, однако они продолжали добиваться своей цели и получил и радостную весть о Воскресении Христа.
Нам дается пример Иосифа, Никодима и жен-мироносиц, чтобы и мы также стремились быть со Христом и активно участвовали в свете и радости Его Воскресения. Пусть этот свет и радость будут духовными, чистыми, и возвышают наши души. Ибо таково было действие Воскресения на жен-мироносиц. Эта радость может привести нас к проявлению веры, как это выразил апостол Фома, когда он ответил Христу: "Господь мой и Бог мой!" Воскресение Христа из мертвых ведет нас к вере и убеждению в том, что Христос есть Бог. Возможно, именно по этой причине Мать-Церковь дает нам самую возвышенную истину для размышления: Иисус Христос, Сын Бога, рожденный от Отца прежде всех век, стал человеком ради нашего спасения.  Через свой крест и воскресение, Христос открывает нам путь к вечной жизни. Дай Бог нам возрастать в добродетелях и постоянно искать нашу радость во Христе. Аминь.