Sermon

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Agios-set apart

What do you think about when you hear the word “Holy”? Probably some of you are thinking about saints, icons, even God Himself. The word “Holy,” in Greek “Agios,” means “set apart.” In fact, the word Agios does not translate as correctly as “Saint” in English, but as “Holy” and “Holy” means “set apart.”

God calls each of us to holiness. God calls each of us to live in the world without being of the world. This means that God calls each of us to be set apart from the things of earth, to live on the earth for sure, but to worship, love, adore and desire the things of God, rather than the things of earth. In the Liturgy, shortly before Holy Communion, we hear the words, “Ta Agia tis Agiois,” which we translate in English, “The Holy Gifts for the Holy People of God.” Perhaps a translation that would add more meaning to this beautiful phrase and put it in its proper context for us would be, “the things that are set apart in a Godly way are for the people who seek to set themselves apart in a Godly way.”

And how do we seek to set ourselves apart in a Godly way? We do the things of God. We learn to love—we learn the meaning of sacrifice. Reaching out to someone in need becomes an intrinsic feeling, not something we have to practice or rehearse or think about, just something we do. You hear that someone needs help and your heart races and jumps to help them. Your heart beats, so to speak, in tune with someone else’s. Their thoughts, hopes, dreams and struggles become as important to you as they are to them. We learn kindness and goodness. We see the goodness in other people and don’t jump to judge them. We seek to build up and strengthen other people, make them feel more positive about themselves, embrace them in an altruistic way. We learn to be patient and to forgive. We learn to pray. And not just we learn, but we desire these things. We wake up every day and thank God for the new day He has granted us. We have God on our minds throughout the day, especially when we are tempted to get mad or frustrated.

Most of us are familiar with the Jesus Prayer, that simple but beautiful prayer of our church: “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” It is the tradition of the church that this prayer is said repeatedly. I’m sure we’ve all had the experience of hearing a song and having it stick in your head all day long. No matter what you do, you can’t get the song out of your head. Well, that the way the Jesus Prayer works. Say it enough times, and it will be stuck in your head all day. You will hear it all day long, whether you are praying it or not. Think I’m lying? Try saying this prayer 100 times in the morning for a few days, not racing through it, but standing in front of your icons, looking at Christ in the eye and lifting up this prayer to Him. See how long the prayer stays with you throughout the day. And see how your behavior changes if you walk through the day with this prayer in your head. Say this prayer enough times, and it will be stuck in your head all day. More importantly, say this prayer enough times and it will stick in your heart all day as well.

Most people think that to be holy, one can’t have fun—not true. Laughing, enjoying God’s creation, using a sense of humor in a wholesome way, these are Godly things. There is nothing intrinsically sinful about a round of golf or catching a football game on TV or enjoying an evening out with friends. Nothing wrong with dancing at the Greek festival, singing songs and or playing in the band. Because when we are using talents and traits that God has blessed us with and enjoying the fruits of the talents of others, enjoying fellowship with other people who are also God’s handiwork, and enjoying in a wholesome way parts of God’s created world, we are also giving glory to God.

And most people think that holy people lived a long time ago. Again, not true, as illustrated by the story of Saint Nectarios, whose memory we commemorate today. He died not even 100 years ago. He became a saint of the church not even 50 years ago. Most people also think that holy people must meet a violent and horrific end to become holy. Again, from the story of St. Nectarios, not true, as St. Nectarios died a natural death. Sad to say, in most of today’s world, the only fear a Christian has is from other Christians. What makes one a saint in the eyes of God is that one has to be set apart as a person who loves the things of God, one who consistently delights in the fruits of the spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control.

Saint Nectarios was born in Sylyvria, Thrace, now a part of Turkey, in October 1846. An average student, he went to Constantinople at the age of 14 and over the next seven years, became an accomplished scholar in the classics and theology. At age 21, he entered the monastery on the island of Chios.

Later, Saint Nectarios entered the service of Patriarch Sophronios of Alexandria, Egypt, who gave him a scholarship to study theology at the University of Athens. After his theological studies, he was ordained a priest to serve in Cairo, Egypt, where he eventually became a Bishop. However, Saint Nectarios had enemies, and these weren’t enemies of Christianity, but enemies in his very own Christian community, who pressured Patriarch Sophronios to strip Saint Nectarios of his Diocesan authority. He was forced to leave Egypt, and he found himself back in Athens, where he became famous as a preacher and theologian. For no group of enemies could silence the wisdom being displayed by this devout man of God. He was appointed dean of a theological school in 1894, and used this appointment as a launching pad for other achievements. He established a convent for nuns named for the Holy Trinity, on the island of Aegina. Eventually, he retired to a small retreat on the island. However, this pious man continued to be visited by pilgrims in his retirement. He built a chapel where he would hold services each day to welcome those who had come to Aegina to pray with him. He was buried in that chapel after his death on November 9, 1920. Yet people continued to come to his chapel, now a shrine to the renowned bishop. Reports of miraculous cures occurring at his grave led a steady stream of pilgrims to come to visit and to pray for his intercessions. Recognition by many people throughout the world of the holiness displayed by this quiet man led to a proclamation by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1961 which declared Nectarios a saint of the Orthodox Church forty-one years after his death. (Most of the preceding paragraphs on the life of St. Nectarios were taken from Orthodox Saints by Fr. George Poulos)

We are all called to become saints. We are all called to be holy. We are all called to be Godly. We are all called to be set apart from the things of this world. Last Sunday, I preached on heaven and hell. These places are not abstract concepts, or figurative places designed to get Christians to work hard to achieve one while avoiding the other. Some people choose to believe that life on earth is hell, because it is hard, and then we all die and go to heaven. Heaven is for the holy, so therefore it is not for everyone, only those who have consistently chosen the things of God over the things of man. This choice begins with faith—believing in God, and continues with work—choosing the things of God.

Every Liturgy, in the sacrament of Holy Communion, the holy people of God are invited to partake of the holy gifts of God. It begs the question, why aren’t we receiving the gifts more often. Because the gifts do not change—they are always set apart, lifted up, offered, as a foretaste of God’s Kingdom. Why do some of us only approach a few times a year? Why do some not approach at all? Is it because we don’t feel holy? And how about those few times a year when we do approach? Is it because we feel holy, we feel set apart from the world at those times? Or it is merely out of obligation, or for the holiday? Again it begs the question, if we are working to set ourselves apart, albeit only a few times a year, to receive Communion, is it because we are too lazy to motivate ourselves to be Godly at other times of the year?

The person who is trying to set himself or herself apart from the world on a regular basis, by the way that he or she lives, should be approaching Holy Communion often. Saint Nectarios celebrated the Divine Liturgy every day, as a way of keeping himself in a perpetual state of readiness to receive the Holy Gifts of God. Saint Nectarios was a man of prayer—not pretentious, not lifting himself up on a pedestal, to draw attention to himself. When he was rejected in Egypt, he didn’t protest, or go to court, or demand a recall, he left quietly and found a new city in which to do the Lord’s work.

As I reflect on the life of Saint Nectarios, I realize that he wasn’t flashy like some other saints—he wasn’t a general like Saint Demetrios, or a Patriarch like Saint Athansios, he didn’t author a Liturgy like St. Basil, or have a fancy title, Chrysostomos, Golden Mouth like Saint John Chrysostom. He was quietly loving everyone he met, praying for people without ceasing, seeking the things of God, and God worked through him, led thousands of pilgrims to him, and now works miracles through him. The key to the sainthood of St. Nectarios, however, was his willingness to LET God work through him, his desire to separate himself from the things of the world, to focus on the things of God.

We’ve become so pre-occupied with the things of this world—possessions, money, popularity, that we compromise the things of God in order to get them. We don’t take time to pray, because that takes away from time to work and make money. We judge others and put them down because that gets us ahead. We buy one thing and then look for the next thing because in the eyes of the world, money and possessions are what put us ahead, and thus our appetite for material things is insatiable.

As we celebrate the feast day of St. Nectarios, the saint of the 20^th century, let us remember him not as Saint, but as Holy, Agios Nectarios, the one set apart in a Godly way. And let us remember the words of Christ, it profits us nothing to gain the whole world but to lose our soul. We save our souls a place in God’s kingdom, in the place of light, the place of happiness, the place of peace that we prayed about in the memorial service, when we desire the things of God—with joy, with enthusiasm, and most importantly with consistency—in times of happiness, in times of sorrow, in times of frustration. For the Holy Things and the Holy Places are not for people whose journey has been easy, but for those who when the journey gets hard, set themselves apart from the things of this world, rather than becoming a victim to them. Heaven is not for those who get sucked in to the pleasures or defeated by the frustrations of life, but for those who with love rise above them. Heaven is not for victims—but for survivors. May God, through the intercessions of St. Nectarios, inspire each of us to set ourselves apart, so that becoming Holy people, we may enjoy the Holy Gifts of God—Holy Communion in this world, and eternal Communion with God in the next. Amen.