Sermon

Sunday, May 17, 2009

AHEPA Sunday-Samaritan Woman

Today has been designated AHEPA Sunday by His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios. And in conjunction with this, we will honor AHEPA with an artoklasia service.

AHEPA, for those who do not know, is the acronym for American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association. AHEPA was founded in the early 20^th Century in the South as a way of protecting Greek people, their churches and their business interests from discrimination, and from violence from groups like the Ku Klux Klan. And during its 100 year history, AHEPAns have been instrumental in founding church communities, building churches, sponsoring college scholarships and building retirement homes. One of the words used in AHEPA is the word Paideia, which is the Hellenic or ancient Greek ideal of the well-roundedness of the human being. Before the time of the Hellenes, a person’s life was centered around putting food in their stomachs. Life centered around hunting and gathering, fighting to expand one’s territory, or fighting to defend one’s territory. The Hellenists discovered that life is more than food, the body more than the stomach. And they began to encourage the development of the mind. From the Ancient Greeks the world received the ideal of the well rounded person, one who was not only well fed, but whose mind was nourished through education and the arts, and whose body was kept fit through exercise. From the Hellenes the world received the Olympic Games, music, art, philosophy, politics, law, literature, debate, poetry and so many other things that today are the backbone of Western society. This is the ideal of Paideia. Paideia and Hellenism are often used interchangeably. Sometimes ethnocentrism causes us to think that one has to be Hellenic in order to appreciate Paideia. This is an incorrect way of thinking. Hellenism involves Greek culture, Greek language, Greek cooking, Greek dancing and all things Greek. Many of us are Greek, and very proud of it. But we can all appreciate Paideia, and what we need to promote, those in AHEPA and those who are not, is not Hellenism, in the sense of being Greek, but Paideia—to draw the whole world the concept of the well-rounded human being. Our kids are losing sight of this ideal, because in our computer age, we are not as interested in poetry, or in debate, or in art. And athletics is about winning, not the Hellenic ideal of competing well.

So the work of AHEPA is a challenge. And you only have to look at your name to understand that challenge. The A is for American. This is the land in which we operate. Many of us have ties to the old country, and that’s good—the challenge is to share your work with people in a way that shows ethnic pride without being ethnocentric. The H is for Hellenic—And so AHEPA is charged with preservation of Hellenic culture, but also with the preservation and the spreading of Greek Paideia, which is not the language, but the values and ideals of the complete person. E is for education, and it should be the goal of AHEPA to continue to work to offer scholarships to students from our parish so that they may engage in higher studies and may become contributing members of society. Invest in our young people so that your investment may grow and appreciate in the years to come, as the children of today, will hopefully become our leaders tomorrow, with a sense of gratitude for the help that gets them through today. P is for Progressive. Like many of the organizations in our church, AHEPA needs to remain progressive in order to attract new members. Once established as a safe haven for people to speak in their native language, AHEPA needs to provide a place of fellowship for everyone, in a way that meets the needs of today and waits ready to respond to the needs of tomorrow. And finally A is for Association—And as with any association, the keys for a successful ministry is organization, commitment and unity amongst the members. I would like to see our chapter continue its work in the years to come, and with God’s help, to become revitalized in its spirit, and renewed in its mission with a focus that strives to help each person be the best they can be. AHEPA is not about preserving language any more. It’s about preserving values, families, and basic human decency.

Allow me to make two more points before conducting the Artoklasia. First, is there a difference between Greek Orthodoxy and any other kind of Orthodoxy? The answer is, aside from differences in language and cultural elements, there is very little difference. In an Orthodox country like Greece, or Russia, or Romania they don’t call it the Greek Orthodox Church or the Russian Orthodox Church, just the Orthodox Church. When the Orthodox church goes to a country that is not Orthodox, the church adopts the ethnic moniker of the group that founds it. In the United States, there are about 2,000 Orthodox Churches, and about 550 of them are Greek Orthodox. The largest number of Orthodox Churches and people are the Greek Orthodox. Now, we have the name Greek Orthodox because our church was founded by Greeks, but our theology is the same as the Antiochian or Syrian Orthodox Church. It is the same as the Russian Orthodox Church and all the other kinds of Orthodox churches that there are in the United States. The only difference is that our church uses some Greek and socially there are elements of the Greek culture.

As I mentioned before, many churches in this country were founded by AHEPA, and they were founded as small cultural enclaves so that Greek people could gather and share the same language and cultural traditions. Many Greeks who came to America did not intend to stay long, so they wanted to set up Greek schools to keep their children up to date on the Greek language so that they wouldn’t be behind in school when the family returned to Greece. Many Greeks, like other immigrant groups, were discriminated against and mistreated, so the church was a place of protection. Successful Greeks helped find jobs and schools for the new arrivals and helped them assimilate into the American culture. Now that the Greeks have been established in America for over 100 years, we no longer need the church for protection, many of us have lots of friends who are not part of this church, and our youth are marrying non-Orthodox, non-Greek people at a clip of almost 90 percent nationally.

Historically, the Orthodox Church has always assimilated linguistically into the vernacular of a particular country where the Church takes root. In America, that would be English. Again, just as the mission of AHEPA is to promote the Hellenic ideal of Paideia, rather than Hellenism itself, so the mission of the church is to promote Orthodoxy, rather than Hellenism, recognizing that we bring Orthodoxy to America by Hellenic roots, but that the future of our church will be found in teaching theology, not in promoting language.

Which brings me to my final point, which is that our Lord showed us through many examples, including this morning’s Gospel, that He was and is the consummate teacher. One of the many positive qualities of Christ was that He was a good teacher. He taught with His life and His words, with love and compassion. Throughout the Gospels, we see Him approach different people on their own level. For instance, to Nicodemus, a Jewish leader, He taught by quoting the scriptures, because Nicodemus was a learned man. He used pastoral images when speaking to shepherds and images of the sea for fishermen. He gave signs to those who needed signs, miracles to those who needed miracles and challenges to those who needed to be challenged. In this morning’s Gospel lesson, Jesus encountered a woman of Samaria sitting by a well, and being that she was uneducated, but curious, He used simple words and was patient in drawing her out to learn by figuring things out, rather than by just dictating to her. His willingness to engage her in conversation, His patience in answering her questions, and His compassion in looking into her heart helped this simple woman of Samaria, whom Orthodox Tradition recognizes as a saint named Photini, the one who is illumined, to become the first Evangelist, the first to proclaim the good news, as she told the people of her town, “Come and see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”

The beauty of Orthodoxy is accessible to everyone, and this is truly a blessing. To a little baby, the church speaks with sights and sounds and smells. To the teenager, the church speaks through youth groups and camps. To those whose hearts are beset with emotions, the church offers hymns that reach us on an emotional level. To those whose minds yearn to be filled with knowledge, the church teaches us with scriptures, prayers and sermons. To those who have gone astray the church offers confession and reconciliation. To those who are in sorrow, the church offers comfort.

Jesus makes one of the most poignant statements in the entirety of scripture when He tells the Samaritan Woman, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked Him and HE would have given you living water. . . .Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” Our cultural heritage has given us a gift—it is called Paideia, an ideal invented by Greeks, which is to be promoted by AHEPA, for each of us to be the best he can be, to enrich not only his body, but his mind. And our Lord through the church has also given us a gift. It is called salvation, for each of us to be the best he can be, to enrich not only his body and his mind, but his soul and his spirit. So, as we mark this special occasion for AHEPA, it is a time for each of us to think about not only Paideia but about salvation, and as we call upon God to multiply His blessings on our AHEPA chapter, we call upon Him also to multiply His blessings upon each of us, that we indeed will come to know the gift of God, the living water, the message of salvation that quenches our thirst for truth and for hope, and that we will each partake of it, that it may become for us a fountain of water springing up to everlasting life.