Sermon

Sunday, September 7

Mission/Vision and Pathologies

First of all, it is good to be back. I thoroughly enjoyed my time away—it was relaxing and renewing and also provided a time for thought and reflection. Presbytera and Nicholas are home today, as it takes him about 5 days to recover from the time change—they’ll look forward to seeing you next week. Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit the church of the Holy Trinity in San Francisco, which is now the parish of my Spiritual Father, Fr. Aris Metrakos. Fr. Aris visited our parish last year in October and offered an adult retreat and also preached the sermon in church one Sunday. I’ll be writing in the October Messenger, a more extensive article on what is a Spiritual Father and why one is important in your life, but suffice to say, I practice what I preach and I went for confession while in San Francisco. It lasted three and a half hours. You might say, what could you possibly have done wrong, that your encounter lasted three and a half hours? Well, the “confession” part of the conversation lasted only a couple of minutes. It doesn’t take that long to list off your sins. The rest was advice and counseling, some of a spiritual nature and some related to being an Orthodox priest. I was so intrigued by the conversation that I asked if I could get a notepad and start taking notes. We talked about human pathologies, the things that are the root cause of our sins. We spoke about how our childhood affects so much of our adult life, making connections between my childhood and adult life that I had not previously considered. We spoke about how God calls us through our pathologies, that means through our good points and even our bad ones so that we can be healed and so that we can heal others. I will be writing and speaking about this topic more extensively in the future because it is fascinating and enlightening. Fr. Aris said to me that through his own spiritual life, through his own confessions, through his understanding of his own pathologies, and through his own struggles, he has not only become a better Christian but a better priest. And so in speaking to you and in the near future, writing to you about some of the things that came out of our conversation, I hope that not only did this encounter give me a needed spiritual boost as a Christian, but that it will make me a more effective priest. I have been going to confession to Fr. Aris for 7 years and this by far was the most powerful confession. The lesson here is that going to confession frequently, over a period of years and going to the same person will lead to deep conversation that will not only scratch at the surface level of sin but will go deep into the mind and soul. In the numerous times I have gone to confession, some have been powerful, other less so, and this one was extremely powerful and thought provoking. It has taken many times of going to confession to the same person to go deeper and deeper spiritually.

Today marks a milestone of sorts in our parish—first, it is four years since I arrived in Tampa as a priest. Secondly, with the beginning of September, we begin a new Ecclesiastical year. And third, today is the first day of Sunday school, with our other “fall programming,”—GOYA, YAL, Bible Study, Philoptochos, Young at Heart, etc. to be beginning shortly. Hopefully you read the Messenger from August, where I wrote extensively about the Mission and Vision statements of our church. They are reprinted in the Sunday bulletin today and I encourage you to refer to them as I offer this morning’s homily. I’ve said many times, “Goals without plans are fantasies—they don’t come true.” And the Fathers of the Church, as well as philosophers throughout the ages have said, “Without a vision, the people perish.” The Mission and Vision Statements are not a product solely of my brain. The Mission Statement comes directly from the Great Commission of Jesus Christ in Matthew 28, that we are to Baptize all Nations, and from the Nicene Creed, that we are the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. Because the Great Commission and the Creed provide the backbones of the Orthodox Church, there is no need for a Parish Assembly to vote on them. How presumptuous of a present day parish it would be to debate the commandment of the Lord, or argue over the First Ecumenical Council. The whole purpose behind having a Greek Orthodox Church in Tampa is not because we are Greek, it is not because this is a nice group of people we can call our friends, it’s not so we have a place to sing on Sundays, or any other reason than to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. There is nothing wrong with having fun or making friends in a church community, but the ultimate purpose of the community is to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and if the Gospel is not being spread by a community than the community is a failure. And if individual members of the community are not spreading the Gospel, one must question, why do they belong?

The Vision statement, as I wrote in the Messenger, is the plan for how to implement the Mission. In the case of a sports franchise, which I also referenced in the article, the mission of every sports team is to win games—The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are not hoping to have fun, or be entertaining, or anything else. When they take the field this afternoon, it is for one purpose, to win. How they will go about that is the vision of the particular team. Jon Gruden of the Bucs likes the West Coast offense. Steve Spurrier had the “Fun and Gun” when at UF. And the University of Hawaii uses the “Run and Shoot.” The Tampa Rays believe in stocking their minor league system through the draft, while the Yankees go out and buy free agents. Can you imagine what Jon Gruden would say if his quarterback tells him, “I don’t really care about winning, I’m just here to have fun and collect my paycheck.” I’ll tell you, I don’t personally know Jon Gruden or his quarterback, but I’m very sure there would be a quick parting of the ways. Now, what if there was a member of our parish who said, “I don’t really care about growing our church or spreading the Gospel, I’m just here for the social life,” how should the parish respond to that person? A rhetorical question for you to think about.

The Vision statement of our parish, is how we are going to endeavor to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The vision statement came about after many hours of prayerful discussion and reflection by the Parish Council. When you read it, I believe it reflects very solidly what the church is about. I think it is also really common sense. That’s why there isn’t really any need for debate about it. I mean, doesn’t it make sense that the church should seek to fulfill its mission by “embracing the Spiritual life of the Orthodox Church through regular prayer, worship and frequent participation in the sacraments”? Is there anyone in the congregation who thinks it is not important to pray regularly, to worship regularly and to participate in the sacraments frequently? Apparently, there is a large segment of every Orthodox congregation who thinks this is not important—because it is the segment we see only on Christmas and Easter. The second part of the vision involves supporting the church through stewardship of time and talent and sacrificial giving. Is there any other way to support the church—we either offer time, talent, or treasure of a combination and this is how our church continues functioning. There are, however, a number of people who affiliate themselves with the church but do not contribute any of these things—just ask Nick how many times in the office we have non-members schedule sacraments who gladly pay the fee rather than become members. As we are now 2/3 of the way through the year, so far this year at St. John, I have celebrated 11 weddings—and of these, I see one couple frequently, three couples occasionally, and the other seven not at all. Same can be said for the baptisms—many not only don’t attend regularly, they don’t even come for the three Sundays the child is supposed to receive Communion following the baptism. How can someone claim affiliation to a church which they never attend and to which they contribute little or nothing? And there are probably a number of people in church this morning who still haven’t filled out a stewardship form for 2008, for whatever reason.

Providing a welcoming, caring and loving environment is the third pillar of our vision—again, is there anyone who thinks that an unwelcoming, uncaring, unloving environment will help to spread the Gospel? So, if we agree that a welcoming, caring and loving environment is part of our vision, how come there are still people who have no one to sit with at coffee hour? How come we don’t call people when we haven’t seen them at church in a while?

Having members exemplify Orthodox Christian character and morals is a necessary component of being an Orthodox Christian. We are all struggling, myself included, with passions, pathologies and temptations. The operative word is “struggle.” If a person decides “I am going to live a lifestyle outside the boundaries of Orthodox Christian morality, I’m resolved to having an affair, or having relations outside of marriage, or I’m addicted to gambling, act in an abusive manner toward a spouse or child, regularly participate in criminal activity, or some other habitual sin” then how can that person help the church in fulfilling it’s mission. If Christ calls us to love one another, then we cannot cheat one another. If Christ calls us to be pure, then when we are impure, we are not following Christ but turning a blind eye to Him.

Supporting ministries that facilitate the overall mission of the church—this means that if someone steps forward and says “I would like build a bar on the corner and all proceeds will go to the church,” this is not a ministry the church should engage in. If someone says “I want to teach Yoga at the church for members every Wednesday morning,” we’d have to debate that—would that benefit members in a spiritual or fellowship way? And if not, that probably would not be an appropriate ministry. Renting the hall for a basketball league is a fundraiser, not a ministry, and that is different. But any ministry operating under the auspices of St. John Greek Orthodox Church has to contribute to the mission of the church in some way.

And finally, exemplifying commitment to community service and charitable outreach. We’ve heard the phrase, charity begins at home. How can one be charitable to oneself? That is a conflict in terms. How can I say “My favorite charity is myself,” or “my kid’s college fund,” or “my IRA”? Charity is something from which one benefits spiritually while others benefit materially. So, I feel some spiritual benefit when I offer my pledge to this church, but the material benefit goes to the church. And our church has an obligation to the greater community in which we find ourselves to offer charitable support of organizations which help people in the greater community. That is why I am so proud that our church will again partner with Life-Path Hospice this year and again offer 10 percent of our festival proceeds to this charity.

We will make our decisions based on this mission and vision statement. And in talking to Fr. Aris a couple of weeks ago, he was sharing with me how he is approaching his new ministry in San Francisco. He told me that in past parishes, instead of setting a bar or standard in place, he would go to the people’s level and try to bring them up to the bar. Except that he found that didn’t work. Instead of sticking to the bar, he let friendships and other distractions get in the way so that the community never came up to the bar. Now that he is starting over, he is preaching mission and vision and setting a standard to which he will hold himself and others accountable to. Now, I can’t exactly start all over again here. I’ve been here for four years, and have made my share of mistakes. After all, confession, repentance and spiritual growth is not about patting oneself on the back, but looking critically at what one can do differently. And so, as I begin year number five, I am looking at what I can and should do differently. And one thing that was apparent, even before my trip to San Francisco, was that we need to have this mission and vision statement as our bar, as our standard and we need to hold everyone accountable to it, or at very least, the people who serve in leadership positions.

You will see the mission and vision statement presented frequently, through sermons, Messenger articles and in meetings, until we all learn it and learn to live by it. A few weeks ago, right before I left on vacation, we had a meeting of ministry heads, where we discussed the yearly calendar of the church. And I also discussed with them the mission and vision of the church—And said that it is incongruent to the spreading of the Gospel to have parish leaders who do not buy into the vision of the church. If one doesn’t believe the sacramental life is important, if one doesn’t help foster a loving and caring and welcoming environment, if one doesn’t support the church through stewardship, and the other tenets of the vision, we are not going to kick them out of the church, but we certainly will not allow them to be in leadership positions. After all, how can someone, as an example, teach children in Sunday school that it is important to receive Communion frequently but then never go themselves? How can someone serve on the Parish Council and encourage people to fill out a pledge form if they themselves have not? They simply can’t. We’ll be putting our mission and vision statements up against the decisions we make as a parish, and if we have the opportunity to do something that goes against this vision, we won’t do it, plain and simple.

It seems to go counter-culture to set a moral bar, or any other kind of bar in place. Contemporary political correctness tells us that it is not appropriate to set a bar in place, or set a bar high. Rather, we go for the lowest common denominator. I was appalled at a recent article I read about a 9 year old in Connecticut who was kicked out of little league because he threw the ball too hard, and it wasn’t fair to the other kids in the league. I guess Michael Phelps ought to be happy the little league board wasn’t on the Olympic Organizing committee, for surely they would have thought it unfair to the other swimmers that he is so good. In 2008, Michael Phelps sets the bar for what you have to do if you want to be Olympic Champion. And 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ set the bar for what you need to do if you call yourself His follower and reach the kingdom of heaven.

The Gospel Lesson this morning puts the bar in place—For God so loved the world, that He sent His only-begotten Son so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) It doesn’t say, “so that whoever exists for a while shall have everlasting life,” but that whoever “believes.” And as I wrote in the September Messenger, if you believe in God but you don’t believe in prayer, or worship, or the sacraments, or morality, or charity, or honesty, then you believe that you are the exception. Except that there are no exceptions. People who are faithful Orthodox Christians pray, worship, participate in the sacraments, contribute to the life of the church on a regular basis, help provide a welcoming environment, struggle and strive to be people of moral character, support the ministries of the church, and have a sense of outreach to the greater community. Putting these ideas down as the vision of the church is a way to put in a concise manner, what it means to be a member of this community, and what it means to be an Orthodox Christian.

I hope you got a break from me and my long sermons. In hearing this morning’s sermon, I hope you are hearing more passion than criticism. Sitting down with Fr. Aris, he gave me a thing or two to think about, a personal sermon I want to share with you. As we were concluding our conversation, he looked me in the eye, and with firm conviction, he said to me: The bar is here, and this is why we need it to be here—1)This is about life and death; 2)We are all going to die; 3)This changes lives. Those who don’t come up to the bar are going to perish—they are going to go away from God. Shine a light on cockroaches and they will scurry away. When you shine the light of Christ the way you are supposed to, this will encourage and attract people whose lives need to be changed. When we start off doing the right things but for the wrong reasons, this leads to doing the wrong thing for the wrong reasons. When we do things for the wrong reasons, this brings discord. The goal of the Christian life is to do the right things for the right reasons. And when we do things following God’s call, this brings peace. There is no one on this earth that is perfect. Everyone is beset with certain pathologies, both positive and negative. God calls us through our pathologies and sometimes in spite of them so that we can be healed and in turn can heal others. This is how one becomes a faithful Christian. This is how one attains the kingdom of God. Amen.