Sermon
Sunday, February 11, 2007
The Last Judgment and the Lenten
Covenant
I
was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me to drink, I was a
stranger and you welcomed me. I was
naked and you clothed me. I was sick and
you visited me. I was in prison and you
came to me. When you did it to one of
the least of my brothers, you did it unto me.
Christ tells His followers that one of the standards by which we will be
evaluated at His glorious throne at the Last Judgment will be the standard of
how we relate to our neighbor, because, in His words, when we do something for
one of our brothers, our neighbors, it is as if we are doing it for Christ
Himself. And when we fail to do
something for even the least of our brethren, then it is as if we have ignored
Christ Himself. These six tasks—feeding
the hungry, quenching the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked,
visiting those sick and coming to those in prison have quite a broad reach in
their meaning. They even reach our
church community in its focus.
Feeding
hunger and quenching thirst relate to giving food to the poor. They also relate to those who are spiritually
hungry—A person comes into this church and is spiritually hungry—do they go
away satisfied or turned off? Maybe some
day I am spiritually hungry, because I feel kicked to the curb of life by its
circumstances. In my own church, will I
find nourishment from my fellow parishioners, or frustration and hypocrisy?
I
was a stranger and you welcomed me refers to the new guy in the neighborhood,
the new gal at work, the new student at school, but is very apropos to our
community, for often we encounter strangers in the form of visitors and new
members—do we reach out to them and welcome them. Eighty percent of our marriages occur between
an Orthodox person and a non-Orthodox person who is of a different culture,
religion, and sometimes even race. Do we
make those people feel welcome in our church?
I
was sick and you visited me. Taking care
of those who are ill is another basic task Christians are supposed to engage
in, including obviously family, friends, and even fellow parishioners whom they
do not know well. Nowhere in the Bible
does it say, I was sick and the priest visited me. The “you” in the phrase is an all-inclusive “you,”
and tells the followers of Christ that visitation of the sick is something
which is incumbent on all Christians to do, not only their priests. Hence, the development of the
visitation/bereavement committee which will have a short meeting to kick-off
this ministry, and today seems like the most appropriate day to do it, in light
of what we read in the Gospel this morning.
I
was in prison and you came to me. I had relative
of a former parishioner who ended up in jail for a short time. And I remember someone in the parish wanting
desperately to visit this person. They
weren’t a close relative or a friend, so I asked, “Why do you so desperately
want to visit this person in jail?” The
answer, “The Parable of the Last Judgment says ‘I was in prison and you came to
me,’ so I figured I had to visit someone in jail at least once in my life to go
to heaven, so I want to go and take care of that.” While the Gospel passage encourages us to
visit those who are imprisoned, it is not only talking about the kinds of
prisons with bars and razor wire. Being
in prison also refers to those in prisons of despair, doubt, debt, loneliness, confusion,
addiction and other kinds of life circumstances that make us feel trapped like
we can’t escape. And part of Christian duty
is to minister and help these people to escape from their prisons, rather than
contributing to their inability to get out of them.
I
had to go to the doctor the other day, and as often happens at the doctor’s
office, there was a long wait. There
were four other people in the small waiting room and all happened to be senior
citizens. They, of course, guessed that
I was a priest, (easy to do when I’m wearing all black) and we struck up an
interesting conversation. It seems that
all four had grown up going to church and all four no longer belonged to the
church. They said they no longer
believed in organized religion. They
said that in the churches they grew up in, they found hypocrisy, racism,
elitism, politics and constant fundraising.
They found little outreach, no sense of mission, little joy, and a less
than warm welcome. Not surprising
hearing this conversation, when I had read an article just that morning that
church membership in most denominations has declined by 30 percent in the past
40 years, which can be attributed in large part to a continual eliminating of
God from society, and due at least in small part to a secularization of God’s
holy churches. They all told me that
they believe in Jesus, said things like, “All he said was believe in Him and be
good and we can go to heaven.” I asked,
“To whom, then, are you accountable?”
They answered, “no one, I guess, just our own consciousness,” to which I
thought, but did not say aloud, and your own personal construct of what is
good. There is no concept of
accountability to a spiritual father, mentor or guide, no sense of camaraderie
with fellow parishioners on the same journey, having the same spiritual
triumphs and spiritual challenges. In
the ideal church community, we are supposed to “bear one another’s burdens” and
so build up the body of Christ,” in the words of
I
hope that by now you have received the Messenger for the month of February. And in my monthly message, I hope you read
about the concept of a Lenten Covenant, which will be the method this year that
we’ll use as a parish to encourage spiritual growth during Lent. Lent is a time
of personal spiritual examination and renewal, but should also serve as a time
for spiritual examination and renewal on a parish level. Hence, the Lenten Covenant is this year’s
tool to do both.
On
the Lenten Covenant, you will find eight specific areas to address in your life
this Lent—prayer, worship, fasting, reading the Bible, reading an Orthodox
theology book, confession, changing a bad habit, and most important of all, a
spiritual goal you want to commit to once Lent is over. The Lenten Covenant will make Lent and Holy
Week more meaningful to you this year—some of you have never attended a
Pre-Sanctified Liturgy or a Lenten Compline service in your entire life, some
have never fasted or been to confession and the Lenten Covenant will hopefully
provide the incentive to do so. The hope
is that making a commitment to do something for the seven weeks of Lent and
Holy Week is something you will carry over well after Easter has passed. For instance, if you have a difficult time
praying and you make a commitment to five minutes of uninterrupted prayer each
day, the hope is that doing that for seven weeks, it will continue once Lent is
over. If you’ve got a bad habit of
wasting time or self-pitying, and you change it during Lent, the hope is that
the change will be permanent. If you
take time to read the Four Gospels this Lent, it hopefully will inspire you to
read more of the Bible once Lent is over, and so on.
I
have found in my life that there is great motivation where there is
accountability. So, shaking a hand,
looking someone in the eye, giving your word, and signing my name to something are
powerful things—it’s hard to do them without some sense of accountability. The Lenten Covenant is a commitment to be
made between you and God. If you fill
out the form, no one will ever know what you write on the form, only you and
God, unless you share that with someone else.
You will notice a small box up here in front of the Iconostasion in
front of the Icon of the Virgin Mary and the Christ child. It says Lenten Covenant 2007. That is where you will place your Lenten
Covenant, should you choose to fill one out.
During the entirety of Lent and Holy Week, the box will sit in front of
the icon of our Lord and Savior, and in front of our spiritual mother, the
Virgin Mary. Every time you come to
church, you will see the box and hopefully you will think of your promise with
God. The box has a lock on it—the only
person with a key is me. When you put
your envelope in there, please have it sealed with your name and address on the
outside. I will open the box only to
look at the names on the envelopes so that I can pray for them during this
period of Lent. After Easter, I will
mail the covenant back to you so you can evaluate how you did, and also so you
will know that your envelope was never opened.
You should, however, keep a copy of your covenant for yourself so you
know what your goals are for this Lent, and you should put the covenant in a
place where you will see it, like your nightstand or in your Bible. There is not going to be any ceremony of
fanfare when people put their covenants in this box—simply bring your envelope
up here quietly sometime between now and next Sunday and place it in the box. There will be three meetings for those doing
the Lenten covenant during Lent and one after Easter to answer questions, offer
support and encouragement, and share experiences. This might even be a time to meet some new
people in our parish. (a note on the Lenten Covenant—If you are unable to
attend some of the four meetings because of work, or cannot commit to some
section of the covenant, don’t worry, commit to what you are able to commit to,
just make it something that challenges you).
It
is my great hope that you will grow as Orthodox Christians through the Lenten
Covenant. And it is also my hope that we
will grow as a parish. Imagine what
would happen if everyone in church this morning participated in the Lenten
Covenant? Imagine what kind of parish we
would have if everyone made a commitment this Lent to pray, to fast, to attend
more worship services, if everyone in church this morning went to confession,
read the Bible, broke some bad habits, did some acts of Christian charity, and
most importantly, made a game plan for how to keep all that going in some way
after Easter is over. Imagine the kind
of church we would have—it certainly would not be the kind people walked away
from shaking their head at organized religion.
Some
of you were alive when President Kennedy launched the space program with these
words, “We choose to go to the moon and do the other things, not because they
are easy, but because they are hard.”
Nothing worthwhile in this life comes easy, and that includes our
salvation. Our journey to salvation is
something that will challenge us.
Because not everyone will be saved, salvation is only for those who
desire it and work at it.
If
you elect to make a Lenten covenant, I will guarantee you three things: It will be challenging, it will make for
probably your most meaningful Lenten experience ever; and it will make for an
overall positive experience in your life, in your relationship with God and in
your relationship with others.
This
concept of a Lenten Covenant will be challenging to me as a priest—First of
all, I will make a commitment to pray by name every day for everyone who makes
a covenant this year—this is part of my covenant with God and with you. Secondly, as part of the Lenten Covenant has
to do with the sacrament of confession, I will be listening to as many
confessions as we have participants. And
if that number should God-willing be very high, that will create an incredible
commitment of time, in an already busy Lenten schedule. But if you are up to the challenge of the
Lenten Covenant, then so am I. The work
is always joyful when it brings people closer to God. And I find in my life, when I am doing Godly
things, there is always more than enough time for the other things, God makes
us efficient in our other tasks when we put aside time for Him.
Society
challenges us to attain the highest status possible—best house, best car, best
clothes, prestigious job. The highest
status one can achieve in life is being numbered with the sheep at the right
hand of God at His awesome and glorious Second Coming. The church, and specifically this Lent, the
Lenten Covenant, provide us with an opportunity to make some progress in that
journey. And so this week, I will pray
for the people of this community to carefully and prayerfully consider making
that covenant, and I will eagerly look forward to making that journey with you
beginning next Sunday.