Sermons April / May 2026

​Sunday 26 April 2026: Myrrh-bearing Women; Joseph of Arimathea & Nicodemus
Fr Nicholas Karipoff
 
Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!
Today’s story (Mark 15:43 -16:8) of Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus and the Myrrh-bearers is a shining illustration of the New Testament words that would appear later in the writings of St John the Evangelist: Perfect love casts out fear(1 Jn 4:18). Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were members of the Sanhedrin - the Supreme Council of the Jews, and were secret disciples of Christ, for fear of the Jews, as it is written in the gospel. When Christ is crucified, they overcome their fear and they approach Pilate to release the body for burial which they perform with great respect and in the proper manner. The Myrrh-bearing Women, too, showed more courage than the Disciples.  They came early on Sunday morning to the tomb to anoint the body of Christ. What were they expecting? They knew that there was a guard there at the tomb, and secondly, they knew that there was a huge rock that they could not move themselves. This is the nature of love. It is beyond logic. Love creates miracles. 
 
I want to share with you a story from a 19th century Russian novelist, Turgenev, in his book “Notes of a Hunter”.  He describes coming back from one of his walks in the countryside, after some hunting. Suddenly his hunting dog ran ahead and was looking at something down on the ground. As he approached, he realised that it was a little sparrow which the dog was sniffing at. Suddenly, the mother of the sparrow came down from the tree, fluttering vigorously in front of this huge dog as if saying “don’t touch the little one, take me”.  It was such a powerful message to the dog that the dog just backed off. This picture from the animal kingdom illustrates how powerful love is, because love is life. Love drives out fear because fear is about death and for God’s sake, we are Christians, we believe in the Resurrection! How did I just begin greeting you? Christ Is Risen! 
 
Richard Rohr, an American psychologist and Franciscan friar, has interesting observations about fear. We are all subject to fear. Rohr observes that people with the worst fears sometimes become tyrants and he gives the example of Adolf Schicklgruber, better known as Hitler. He had the worst paranoia, the worst fears and he became a tyrant. You can see how fear disfigures our whole life. Fear makes an evil caricature of what we as human beings, especially as Christians, ought to be. Fear is driven by our bodily mortality, which is a function of our fallen, sinful nature. The apostles, the martyrs, the prophets, and the other saints had no fear, and we should re-acquaint ourselves with stories of their lives and how they faced threats but were not afraid. When an officer was sent to arrest St Basil, the saint said, ‘How can you threaten me? I do not have anything you can take. I do not have any property.  If you exile me, the Lord’s earth is everywhere. If you take my life, I will be with my Lord, my Christ’.
 
Today the church gives us a very inspiring example of these two men and a group of women. We celebrate our Sisterhood today, because they are like the Myrrh-bearers. Women historically have saved the church many times. During the worst times, the women, just like the Myrrh-bearers today, saved the day. May we acquire their love for Christ and then our life will be transformed. 
 
 
Sunday May 3: Sunday of the Paralytic
By Fr Nicholas Karipoff
 
Christ is Risen!
Gospel stories always speak to us on many levels, and in today’s story (John 5:1-15) about the healing of the paralytic, it speaks to us, firstly, of our salvation through Christ. Humanity was paralysed by sin, having broken its bond with God, until the Lord took pity on us and sent His only begotten Son to come and heal us.  Bethesda was the pool where sacrificial animals were washed before they were taken to the temple. The healing powers of its waters, although it only happened once a year, prefigured the mystery of baptism. The Lamb of God, Himself, came from Nazareth to the River Jordan to be baptised, to be washed according to the law, in preparation for His sacrifice. The paralytic in today’s story did not have a man to help him get into the waters that were disturbed by the angel, so he kept missing out. But Christ heals everyone who enters baptism, or at least, we begin our journey of healing from the font. Christ is the Man. This is why the Lord tells the healed man afterwards, Sin no more, lest a worst thing come upon you. In saying this, Christ means that salvation is not a passive process, but one that involves our constant participation.  We cannot just rest on our laurels!  The best way to participate in our own salvation is to become, through Christ, the person whom the paralysed man needed but did not have… Christ’s messenger.  The paralysed man was there for 38 years, and no one noticed him.  Everyone was concerned only with their own problems.  Sin often incapacitates us. We can be hurt by people, ignored by them and then we are provoked ourselves. We get angry and sulk, and then we are spiritually and psychologically paralysed. We feel alienated in that state.  St Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians, that if someone falls into sin, those in a better spiritual condition should help such a person, in meekness; it will not help if you have a superior “holier than thou” attitude!  
On this Sunday of the Paralytic, the church begins to turn its attention from the events of the Resurrection to the life in grace that begins in baptism. The stories for the next few Sundays relate to water.  We begin a preparation for the next feast, Pentecost, which is a feast enabled by the Resurrection of the Lord.  The life in grace is a life that heals us from self-isolation. Self-isolation is a paralysis, an inability to love. Once we find the Man, we will find connection also to brothers and sisters in Christ. When we are healed from this state, we must help others also to come out of this paralysis. It may just take one kind word.  I can tell you that I know one case when a young person was taken out of this paralysis of self-pity and despondency just because someone bought him a Maccas meal! It really does not take much from us to help!