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HOLY WEEK:
THE FIRST 2 DAYS.
SERMONS OF ARCHBISHOP LAZAR
ABBOT OF NEW OSTROG MONASTERY.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Behold, I make all things new

    MATTHEW 21:1-44
    The Entry into Jerusalem
    (Sermon at Matins for the feast.)

    Matthew's account of the entry into Jerusalem is a powerful testimony of the great changes which are about to take place. In every detail of this chapter we see a transition from something old to something new. But perhaps we should rather say that we see the passage from prophecy to the fulfilment of that prophecy.
    Brothers and sisters, we enter into Jerusalem together with Christ. Christ will enter into the city, riding on a colt of an ass — on a small donkey — and He will ascend to Mount Moriah where the Temple stands, to purify the Temple. But this is not the first time a great revelation took place in this manner, for Abraham also ascended to Mount Moriah, together with Isaak on the colt of an ass. The only-begotten son of Abraham and Sarah — the foundation of the Holy Nation — is taken by his father on a saddled donkey, to the site where Jerusalem would stand, to the Mount of Moriah, even then a sacred mountain, to fulfil the word of God and to offer his only-begotten son. Abraham also fastens the wood of his sacrifice on the back of his son Isaak, as Christ in a few days will carry the wood of His Sacrifice upon His back to another mount.
    Today, we see the connection between the Old Testament prophecy and the fulfilment in Jesus Christ. For as Abraham — the father of the Holy Nation — took his son, the foundation of the Holy Nation to offer him according to God's command, so now the Only-Begotten Son of God the Father ascends into Jerusalem and up to the Mount of Moriah to proclaim the holiness of the Temple, and to prepare for His Own Sacrifice, in order to found the new nation called after Him. Isaak could not be a satisfactory sacrifice, for God did not desire a human sacrifice, but He desired to establish the Holy Nation in a spirit of obedience and also in a spirit of prophecy. For, as He established the Holy Nation as a testimony of His relationship and love for mankind, so His Only-Begotten Son would establish the New Covenant — the New Church, the new nation called after Himself, in order to reveal His co-suffering love with mankind, in order to redeem mankind from its bondage and his fall.
    Today, our Lord Jesus Christ enters into Jerusalem and the people come out because of the miracles that He has worked, and some, perhaps even with understanding cry: "Hosanna! Blessed is He Who cometh in the Name of the Lord!" Yet, that same crowd a few days later would cry out with malice, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!"
    But there is yet something more. For when Adonijah had been illegally crowned, David the King sent his son Solomon down to the water of Gihon, riding on the king's own mule, to be anointed by Zadok the priest and blessed by Nathan the prophet, and made king in the stead of his father David. And Solomon, the son of David ascended back up to Zion riding again on his father's mule. It was he who would later build the Temple on Mount Moriah, where Christ would shortly appear to cleanse the Temple. So now, too, the Anointed One, the Christ, ascends up to Jerusalem, as the Son of the House of David according to prophecy. Why is it that Christ chose a colt rather than riding on a full-grown beast? It is because He was establishing something new, because the colt had not been ridden and the full-grown beast was a type of the Old Testament — the colt, a type of the New, that Christ Himself was now ushering in. Our Lord Jesus Christ, coming into the city and ascending up to the Mount of Moriah does something seemingly uncharacteristic — He goes into the porch of the Temple where the money-changers, who, in the exchange of money, daily swindled the pilgrims and those who had come to sincerely worship. Others sold the animals that were necessary for sacrifice, but at an extortionist rate and they were robbing simple and innocent pilgrims. But why is it Our Lord comes only at this time into the Temple and overturns the tables of the money changers and merchants? Because He is revealing to us something that He will again reveal with the fig tree. Now He comes into the Temple proclaiming again that the Holy Nation had fallen into a completely worldly mode of thought and forsaken its first love — the love of God — that Israel had again rejected the Prophets who had come to speak and proclaim the word of God. They had fallen into a more worldly mode of existence, forgetting the spiritual and remembering only the political, forgetting the aspirations and remembering the ambition, forgetting the Heavenly Kingdom and focusing upon an earthly kingdom. In truth, they did not desire a Heavenly King but they desired an earthly king; they did not desire a Saviour to grant them everlasting life, they desired a conquering tyrant to conquer and destroy their enemies. As He finished purging the Temple, many people came to Him to be healed, and the masses of healings struck the scribes and the Pharisees and the lawyers, probably with fear and certainly with envy. They came to Him and spitefully said, "Don't You hear what these people are saying? `Hosanna, blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord,' `Hosanna, the Son of David,'" They were enraged with Him that He allowed the people to call Him the Son of David, because they knew that they were proclaiming Him to be the Messiah. Christ only answers, "Truly, and have you never heard it said, `Out of the mouths of babes and suckling has He perfected praise?'"
    You see, brothers and sisters, how easy it is to forget, to misunderstand, to twist the meaning of the Holy Scripture when one has a worldly mode of thought instead of having a spiritual way of thinking and approaching it. Now Christ departs from the city. On the following day, he returned again into the city. As He approached Jerusalem, He sees a fig tree growing, and He approaches it, knowing full well that it didn't have fruit. But He approaches it, and seeing that it had no fruit He cursed the fig tree and it withered up quickly. The meaning of this action that Christ took in order to teach His disciples, was that the old Israel no longer bore the fruit of the Covenant. It no longer bore the fruit of its spousal relationship with God; it no longer proclaimed God and His word to the nations round about. And now it was withered and dried up, and would be replaced by a new tree which would bear fruit.
    The disciples marvel that the fig tree had withered up so quickly, and this only strengthened their faith in the supernatural powers of Jesus Christ, although yet they did not understand the fullness of His Person and the fullness of what it was He was about to accomplish. Still, they could rejoice in the Lord where others would abandon Him. Well did Avvakum say, "Though the fig tree shall bear no fruit... yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in God my Saviour." For Avvakum had also foreseen the withering of the fruit of Israel, and that the field would go fallow and no longer produce.
    And now Christ enters another time into Jerusalem, and the lawyers, once more wishing to tempt Him, ask Him: "By what authority are You doing these things?" For they desire either a confession with which they might catch Him, so that they might accuse Him of blasphemy and put Him on trial, or perhaps even some genuinely desired to know. But our Lord Jesus Christ, knowing the maliciousness of their hearts, instead of answering asked them a question: "Answer Me one thing, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. The preaching of John — was it of God or of man?" They being devious and sly reasoned within themselves, "If we say it was of man, the people might stone us because they hold John as a prophet. But if we say it was of God, they will say, `Why did ye not hearken to Him?'" They said, "We cannot tell." And He said, "Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things." For had He told them that it was of God, they would have become angry and instead of listening and instead of searching the Scriptures, instead of seeking to know and to understand, they would have used His words to accuse Him, as later indeed they did.
    It is possible for each one of us to know what is right and yet to choose to do what is wrong, because of our passions, because of the condition of our heart, because of our egotism, our self-centredness and our self-love. So also now, though they might have known — those who proclaimed that they were the lawyers and the keepers of the Law — that they ought to search and to try to find and to see whether the words of Christ were true and whether the miracles that He did had actually been done, and to have examined the example of the life that He proclaimed before them. And yet we know that so many times, when the prophets spoke the truth to them and truly proclaimed the word of God, they were despised and hated, and many of them were stoned to death, and some were driven out of the cities; because the people did not wish to hear those things which censured their conscience, and which exposed the darkness of their hearts to the Light of God's Love and word. So it is now with the leaders of Israel — the Light of God's word shone forth from Jesus Christ and to some it was a joy, warmth, an illumination. But to those whose hearts were turned towards evil, it was a burning fire which pierced their hearts with a flame that ignited their conscience with malice, and with anger and with envy.
    Let us not pause at this reading, brothers and sisters, but continue on to the parable which follows. For in the parable that follows, Christ once more informs us that we are passing from the old into the new, and He is informing us that those who actually do the Will of God are the children of God, that those who actually follow after the word of God and obey Him with love are truly the sons of Abraham. Whether or not they were born according to the flesh sons of Abraham, they have been born according to the faith, according to love, according to obedience as the children of Abraham. For now He speaks a parable, and He tells us that a man who had two sons came to the first — the eldest — and said, "Son, go and work in my vineyard." And he answered and said, "I will not." But afterwards he repented and he went anyway. And to the second he came and said, "Go and work in the vineyard," and this son said, "Yes, I'll go." But then he didn't go, he lied to his father. "Now which of the two did the father's will?" And they said, "Well, the first one." And Jesus said unto them, "Truly I tell you that the publicans and the harlots will enter into the Kingdom of God before you." He said, "John came to you in the way of righteousness and you wouldn't believe him, but the publicans and harlots believed him. And you, when you had seen it did not repent afterwards, that you might believe in him." Now, what is He telling us here? Even those who might have had a promise, even those who were sons of the household, if they did not obey the Father and behave as members of the household, would be cast out. But those who were not members of the household, yet responded with love and obedience to the word of God — these would be accounted as His children. And the power of repentance is so boldly proclaimed here, because the publicans and the harlots, when they heard the preaching of John were touched to the heart and their conscience was opened and they repented and tried to correct themselves and struggle to have an inner transformation, just as Zacchaeus had done when he saw Christ from the sycamore tree. Those who felt that they were the children of the promise agreed that they would go and work in the vineyard of God, but in fact they did not, and consequently they would lose the promise and the promise would be given to those who would bear fruit. So again, we see this transition from something old to something new, that there is a change taking place in the whole order of God's relationship with mankind.
    And now, a much more damning parable — He speaks about a certain householder who planted a vineyard, and prepared it to bear fruit, and when the time came, he let it out to those who would lease it, and then he went away on a long journey. Now the people who leased the vineyard would have to give a certain portion of the fruit to the owner of the vineyard, and that was how they paid the lease. So at the time when the fruit should have been ripe, the owner of the vineyard sent his men to collect his share of the fruits that were owed to him, and the people who leased the vineyard beat these servants and cast them out, and some of them they even killed. Here of course Christ is talking about the Old Testament prophets, because He established Israel, as it says in one of the Psalms: "...this vineyard which Thou hast planted with Thine Own right hand, establish it, O Lord." And this refers to the prophets that He sent to constantly correct Israel and to ask Israel to bring forth the true fruits of charity and the kindness toward other human beings that the prophets proclaimed, to care for the widows and the orphans, to genuinely care about other people, and to care about those who had nothing. To care about humanity was an integral part of their relationship with God, and He sends the prophets to try to call the people round, to understand this and to fulfil their obligation this way. But they despised the prophets and would not listen to them. And then he says that the lord of the vineyard afterwards sent his own son saying "They will reverence him." And when they saw the son, they decided to kill him, so that they could take possession of the vineyard. Here, He is speaking precisely about Himself, and that God, having sent the prophets, and the prophets not being listened to, now He sends His only Son, saying, "They will reverence Him and they will listen to Him." And they kill Him, and cast Him out because they do not wish to hear His words.
    Then Our Lord speaks to them something that they understood very clearly, and very profoundly: "Did ye never read in the Scripture the stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our sight. And whoever shall fall on the stone shall be broken, but on whomever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." And the chief priests and Pharisees understood very well that He was speaking of them, and they were enraged and decided at that moment, that they wanted to kill Him.
    Let us hearken to these things and to this Gospel, because this Gospel was written for us, we are the husbandmen now, the ones who have leased out the vineyard. And Christ now also sends to us prophets and priests and teachers, and the word of God in the Scripture and the Divine Liturgy. If we do not hearken to them, if we do not render to God the fruits of our love, both for Him and for our neighbour and for all of humanity, then we will also be cast out and destroyed. The stone will also fall on us and grind us to powder. Christ Jesus is now preparing His disciples and all those for His Crucifixion and His Resurrection. And now, during this Holy Week which is approaching, let us also with fear and trembling, pass through these terrible days of Our Lord's suffering, that we might rejoice — with great joy — in His Resurrection. That we might render unto Him the fruits of love and of charity, and to the care for our neighbours, and to the care for mankind; that we might be gathered into His vineyard and inherit that vineyard in the fullness of time.
    Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has called us to Himself, and let us respond with joy, and understand how easy it is to turn away from Him toward a worldly way of thinking — to drive out His prophets, and above all that holy prophet which He has implanted in each one of us — our conscience. To hearken to our conscience as to a holy prophet, and to receive the word and to receive our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ — crucified, risen from the dead and ascended into the heavens — into our hearts, that we might experience that Paradise within our hearts already, and that we might not be cast out, as those who of old rejected Him when they saw Him face-to-face.

    70
    MATTHEW 21:
    "BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH"
    (Sermon on the eve of Holy Monday, The First Bridegroom Service, 2006)

    Yesterday, we marvelled at the raising of Lazarus. This morning we entered into Jerusalem with our Saviour and heard the cries of the people, "Hosanna...." We ascended Mount Moriah with Him as He purged the Temple precincts and we wandered together with the Apostles at the pronouncement against the fig tree. This evening we stand waiting for the Bridegroom, as we will for the following two evenings.
    Let us examine together this segment of Matthew's Gospel that we might bring all these mysteries together. Let us discover why Holy Week begins with the Bridegroom services. How do all the events fit together in Christ's revelation?
    Let us recall that the Covenant between God and Israel was a spousal relationship, not a treaty or legal agreement. To this all the prophets testified. How many of the prophets were scorned or even killed for proclaiming the truth? God has been the ever-faithful Bridegroom and Israel the unfaithful Bride. This is why the holy prophets used spousal language in their attempts to restore Israel.
    Now, instead of sending emissaries to recall Israel to the fulness of the Covenant, the Bridegroom Himself has come, moved by His Own co-suffering love for mankind. "He came unto His own, but His own did not receive Him."
    Christ did not enter Jerusalem as a triumphant king. He entered rather like a humble bridegroom coming in procession. As the Covenant was a spousal relationship, the Temple was the bridal chamber. It was here that Israel came to consummate her spousal relations, it was here that the banquet of the sacrifice was symbolically offered to God, a type of wedding feast offered to keep Israel faithful and maintain her bond with God. Now the Bridegroom appears and finds His bridal chamber defiled. "It is written, `My house shall be called a house of prayer,'" for prayer is the manner in which the earthly Bride communes with the heavenly Bridegroom.
    The problem was not that an essential service was being provided. People coming to the temple from afar needed to exchange money and they needed a place to purchase their sacrifices. The problem was that extortionist prices were being charged, and members of the temple clergy were profiteering. Moreover, this business was being conducted in the very precinct of the temple.
    A little later, Christ will explain all these things in His parable of the wedding feast. It yet remains, however, to explain the connection between the chastising of the fig tree and the purification of the Temple of the Bridegroom. Mark tells us that it was not the season for fruit to be found on the fig tree (11:13). Why then would Christ expect to find any? Surely this is a parable of another sort. Israel was more than a fig tree. The Bride should have expected to be fruitful to the Bridegroom and, moreover, to have recognized Him and received Him with joy. Does He not answer our question when He says that the Lord will come in an hour when He is not expected (24:42). Indeed, this is the very theme of our Bridegroom Services: "Behold the Bridegroom cometh in the middle of the night, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watchful..." Truly, the fruit of the fig tree was not season and the harvester was not expected, though for Israel there should have been no such limitation. Nor should there be for us, as our beloved father Paul, as if recalling the fig tree, admonishes Timothy, "Be alert both in season and out of season." Like the fig tree, if we do not keep watch and pray, we will find ourselves spiritually withered up and dead from the roots up when the Bridegroom comes. We know all too well from the parable of the wedding feast, that if we are not ready to enter in when He comes, there are yet others who can take our place as we are left outside in darkness — in darkness even while the light shines upon us.
    Therefore even as Paul cried out, "We are ambassadors of Christ and we beseech you on His behalf, become reconciled with God," so now I also beseech you on behalf of the heavenly Bridegroom. Take these Bridegroom services fully to heart. Lay aside all earthly cares and every frail human excuse. Watch and pray and be always in season with the fruits of pure love and sincere faith that your soul may rejoice at the sound of the Bridegroom's voice, and so that you may take your appointed place at the everlasting spiritual banquet in the Kingdom.
     Amen!

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

    71
    MATTHEW 22:1-46
    Behold, the Bridegroom Cometh.
    "He came unto His own, and His own received him not" (Jn.1:11).
    (Sermon on the eve of Holy Monday, The Bridegroom Service, 2007)

    It is not only Christ Who is referred to as the "first-born" of God. In the Hebrew Scripture, Israel is also referred to as the "first-born." Israel was called and chosen by God to be a testimony among the nations to the oneness and sovereignty of God. Through the Holy Prophets, we understand that the Covenant was understood as a "spousal relationship" rather than a legal agreement. This metaphor makes it clear that the relationship between God and Israel was to be one of love and trust, not one of bondage and coercion. Separation from God always ended in defeat, destruction and death; union with God produced hope, peace and life. God is the only source of life and the source of all true hope and peace.
    In the parable of the vineyard, the lord of the estate has sent his servants to require the fruits of his land. We understand that the fruits of the vineyard which God has planted are love, trust, and obedience based in love and integrity, and the witness of the vinedressers to the world. The Lord has sent His servants, the prophets, to teach and to admonish that the nation offer such fruits of their lives to the Master. Many of the prophets were driven out, others were killed. Finally, the Master sends His own Son.
    The "Son" is the Incarnate God. He has come to His own, to His bride, Israel, and the leaders of the nation, so far from receiving Him, plot how to kill Him.
    While this parable and the revelation it offers is leading us into Holy Week, let us not waste our energy recriminating the Pharisees while the parable may well apply to each of us. Let us assimilate this Scripture to our own lives and bring it to life in our own experience. We also must react in some way when we are called to account for our stewardship of all that God has entrusted to us. If we have become truly followers of Christ, He has promised to plant a vineyard of paradise in our hearts. Having accepted that promise, we have become responsible to render to Him the fruits of the grace and love that He has bestowed upon us. Let us all, therefore, take this parable as if it had been spoken of us. Has He not set the conscience in our minds to call upon us for the fruits of His grace and the faith that we have professed? Shall we seek to stone our conscience and silence it? Has the Divine Scripture not been given to us as God's servant to speak to our hearts and call upon us to render to God that which is God's, and to show forth the fruits of the faith, love and righteousness to which He has called us? Let no one think that this parable was spoken to others, but let each one of us accept it as a calling to our own hearts and respond to the Master by rendering to Him the fruits of His vineyard in due season, and not seek to drive out His servants and even to kill the presence of Christ in our hearts. It is not only that we will be called to account for what we have betrayed and misused, but that we shall suffer so great a loss as to be eternally inconsolable.

72
MATTHEW 22:1-14
The Bridegroom Services of Holy Week
Behold the Bridegroom Cometh in The Middle of the Night

    And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, And sent forth his servants to call those who were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.
        Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: And the rest took his servants, and treated them spitefully, and slew them.
        When the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then he said to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.
        So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.
        And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.
        Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
        For many are called, but few are chosen.

***********************************************

Archbishop Lazar.
SUNDAY OF ORTHODOXY, 2008

Glory to Jesus Christ!
[People: Unto the ages of ages. Amen!]
Glory to the Holy Spirit!
[People: Amen!]

Brothers and sisters, it is by the grace of the Holy Spirit that we can come today to celebrate this feast day for the Sunday of Orthodoxy. Let us think together a little about the meaning of this feast.,At the end of this service we will read from the Synodikon of the Sunday of Orthodoxy. In that document,we will be told that the Church of God does not consist in buildings, but in the faithful who come together to worship God in those buildings. The Kingdom of God is manifested first and foremost in the hearts of the faithful, in the community of the faithful who have opened their hearts to one another.
    On the Sunday of Orthodoxy we think celebrating the triumph of the holy icons. We recall those years long ago when people wanted to destroy the icons and remove them from the churches and from people's homes. But what was the real problem in those times? What is it that we finally triumphed over, in that this Sunday is called "the Triumph of Orthodoxy?"
    It was, of course a victory over all of the ancient heresies; but all of those ancient heresies and most of the modern ones can be seen in the actions of those who were against the holy icons.
    A major part of the problem was that some people had begun to think that the material universe, the things that were created were somehow evil or in opposition against the spiritual. Even the human body, some of them thought, was evil and was in opposition to the soul. They began to teach that the soul is somehow a prisoner in the body, that the body is a prison which opposes the salvation of the soul and tries to keep it in bondage. They forgot that God had created all of material things. Some people misused the Scripture and mixed it with pagan philosophies to teach that the soul is a prisoner of the body, and many thought that the creation of the material universe was either a mistake or an act of malevolence. Not all the iconoclasts were members of the Gnostic sects that taught these things, but their opposition to holy icons was inspired by them to some degree.
    Among those early false teachers, some wanted to destroy all of the ancient medicalliterature, because they considered it a sin to treat the body with medicines. They thought that the sooner the body was destroyed, the better because then the soul would be free from the body. So they did not want to have medicine, and some of them considered medical doctors to be evil.

    It was through the efforts of the monastics and teachers of the early Church that all of this ancient medical literature was copied and preserved for us. A medical system began to take shape within the Church already in the time of the Holy Apostles.
    The understanding given to us by the holy icons is that all those things created by God are good and that God created the material universe also. He created the human body and therefore the human body is not evil and not the enemy of the soul, but it is the partner of the soul, to work together for the mutual salvation of each, something like the way that a husband and wife are supposed to work together for their mutual salvation. The body and the soul work together as one for the salvation of the whole person.
    We understand then that the created material universe has the blessing of God and that our love and respect for the created material universe is taught to us by the holy icons. You see when we reverence an icon, we say that the veneration that we give to the icon passes over to the one who is portrayed in the icon. Since man is created in the image or icon of God, the veneration of icons teaches us that, since every human being is the icon and likeness of God, we should have a
reverence for every other human being. We must have this reverence regardless of what race, nationality or religion the person is. It may be that the image of God is more darkened in some than in others, but our attitude toward other humans, like our veneration of icons, passes over to the prototype, to God Himself. Thus, if we have hatred or condescension toward another human being, this attitude is reflected upon our relationship with God. If we have love and compassion toward other human beings, this also passes over to the prototype, to our relationship with God. But this reverence is not just for human beings. Those who were opposed to the icons did not want any material representation of the saints or of our Lord Jesus Christ. But our Saviour had appeared in a material, physical body. And we are told by the Apostle that we see the things of God in the things that are created [Rm.1:20]. "The heavens," the Prophet says, "proclaim the glory of God" [Ps.19:1-4]. Every created material thing can reveal to us something about God, about His love and about His compassion. When we see the spring blossoming of flowers and all the beauty of nature around us, surely we are seeing an icon of God also in this beauty and in the grace of this beauty that touches the earth.
    So when we talk about the triumph of Orthodoxy, we are not just speaking of the victory of those who wanted to keep the icons and understood that the icons were also a form of the Holy Scripture, rather, we are speaking also of the understanding that the icon teaches us that matter itself can be grace-
bearing, that God can bestow His grace upon and through material things. From this we understand that the human body is sacred as are all the things God created.
    This is really what the Triumph of Holy Orthodoxy is about: to teach us to understand and reverence all the things that God created and to reverence our fellow human beings as icons of God. We are called to the realisation that God sometimes works miracles through material things, so that we do not forget that He was the One Who created them in the beginning, and that He blessed them and said they were very good.
    This feast testifies to us and reminds us that God sometimes works His miracles through holy relics in order to confirm the Resurrection of the body, and through icons in order to teach us so that we not fall into the heresy of thinking that the human body is evil. Moreover, the material universe is not evil nor may we misuse and abuse the things that were created in this universe. Rather, we should treat them like a sacred trust.
    All that God has made, both the spiritual and the material, we should reverence and use with care and with diligence. This is the greater reality of what the Triumph of Holy Orthodoxy and the re-establishment of the holy icons is about. Icons are also a testimony that our Lord Jesus Christ truly took on the flesh and became the Son of Man, although He was the Son of God, in order to reunite us with God. We portray Christ our God in icons because He appeared in the flesh and took on the material body, and so blessed and sanctified it and taught us that the human body is also blessed and sanctified.
    Let us, then, venerate the image of God in our fellow human beings and not merely offer an empty veneration of holy icons simply as something that we are enjoined to do when we enter the church. To worship God in Orthodox fashion is to open our hearts to humanity and to cherish and nourish the world in which we live.
.Amen.

    67
    MATTHEW 21:
    "BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH"
    (Sermon on the eve of Holy Monday, The First Bridegroom Serivce, 2006)

    Yesterday, we marvelled at the raising of Lazarus. This morning we entered into Jerusalem with our Saviour and heard the cries of the people, "Hosanna...." We ascended Mount Moriah with Him as He purged the Temple precincts and we wandered together with the Apostles at the pronouncement against the fig tree. This evening we stand waiting for the Bridegroom, as we will for the following two evenings.
    Let us examine together this segment of Matthew's Gospel that we might bring all these mysteries together. Let us discover why Holy Week begins with the Bridegroom services. How do all the events fit together in Christ's revelation?
    Let us recall that the Covenant between God and Israel was a spousal relationship, not a treaty or legal agreement. To this all the prophets testified. How many of the prophets were scorned or even killed for proclaiming the truth? God has been the ever-faithful Bridegroom and Israel the unfaithful Bride. This is why the holy prophets used spousal language in their attempts to restore Israel.
    Now, instead of sending emissaries to recall Israel to the fulness of the Covenant, the Bridegroom Himself has come, moved by His Own co-suffering love for mankind. "He came unto His own, but His own did not receive Him."
    Christ did not enter Jerusalem as a triumphant king. He entered rather like a humble bridegroom coming in procession. As the Covenant was a spousal relationship, the Temple was the bridal chamber. It was here that Israel came to consummate her spousal relations, it was here that the banquet of the sacrifice was symbolically offered to God, a type of wedding feast offered to keep Israel faithful and maintain her bond with God. Now the Bridegroom appears and finds His bridal chamber defiled. "It is written, `My house shall be called a house of prayer,'" for prayer is the manner in which the earthly Bride communes with the heavenly Bridegroom.
    The problem was not that an essential service was being provided. People coming to the temple from afar needed to exchange money and they needed a place to purchase their sacrifices. The problem was that extortionist prices were being charged, and members of the temple clergy were profiteering. Moreover, this business was being conducted in the very precinct of the temple.
    A little later, Christ will explain all these things in His parable of the wedding feast. It yet remains, however, to explain the connection between the chastising of the fig tree and the purification of the Temple of the Bridegroom. Mark tells us that it was not the season for fruit to be found on the fig tree (11:13). Why then would Christ expect to find any? Surely this is a parable of another sort. Israel was more than a fig tree. The Bride should have expected to be fruitful to the Bridegroom and, moreover, to have recognized Him and received Him with joy. Does He not answer our question when He says that the Lord will come in an hour when He is not expected (24:42). Indeed, this is the very theme of our Bridegroom Services: "Behold the Bridegroom cometh in the middle of the night, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watchful..." Truly, the fruit of the fig tree was not season and the harvester was not expected, though for Israel there should have been no such limitation. Nor should there be for us, as our beloved father Paul, as if recalling the fig tree, admonishes Timothy, "Be alert both in season and out of season." Like the fig tree, if we do not keep watch and pray, we will find ourselves spiritually withered up and dead from the roots up when the Bridegroom comes. We know all too well from the parable of the wedding feast, that if we are not ready to enter in when He comes, there are yet others who can take our place as we are left outside in darkness — in darkness even while the light shines upon us.
    Therefore even as Paul cried out, "We are ambassadors of Christ and we beseech you on His behalf, become reconciled with God," so now I also beseech you on behalf of the heavenly Bridegroom. Take these Bridegroom services fully to heart. Lay aside all earthly cares and every frail human excuse. Watch and pray and be always in season with the fruits of pure love and sincere faith that your soul may rejoice at the sound of the Bridegroom's voice, and so that you may take your appointed place at the everlasting spiritual banquet in the Kingdom.     Amen!

68
   MATTHEW 22:1-46-
    Behold, the Bridegroom Cometh.
    "He came unto His own, and His own received him not" (Jn.1:11).
    (Sermon on the eve of Holy Monday, The Bridegroom Service, 2007)

    It is not only Christ Who is referred to as the "first-born" of God. In the Hebrew Scripture, Israel is also referred to as the "first-born." Israel was called and chosen by God to be a testimony among the nations to the oneness and sovereignty of God. Through the Holy Prophets, we understand that the Covenant was understood as a "spousal relationship" rather than a legal agreement. This metaphor makes it clear that the relationship between God and Israel was to be one of love and trust, not one of bondage and coercion. Separation from God always ended in defeat, destruction and deat; union with God produced hope, peace and life. God is the only source of life and the source of all true hope and peace.
    In the parable of the vineyard, the lord of the estate has sent his servants to require the fruits of his land. We understand that the fruits of the vineyard which God has planted are love, trust, and obedience based in love and integrity, and the witness of the vinedressers to the world. The Lord has sent His servants, the prophets, to teach and to admonish that the nation offer such fruits of their lives to the Master. Many of the prophets were driven out, others were killed. Finally, the Master sends His own Son.
    The "Son" is the Incarnate God. He has come to His own, to His bride, Israel, and the leaders of the nation, so far from receiving Him, plot how to kill Him.
    While this parable and the revelation it offers is leading us into Holy Week, let us not waste our energy recriminating the Pharisees while the parable may well apply to each of us. Let us assimilate this Scripture to our own lives and bring it to life in our own experience. We also must react in some way when we are called to account for our stewardship of all that God has entrusted to us. If we have become truly followers of Christ, He has promised to plant a vineyard of paradise in our hearts. Having accepted that promise, we have become responsible to render to Him the fruits of the grace and love that He has bestowed upon us. Let us all, therefore, take this parable as if it had been spoken of us. Has He not set the conscience in our minds to call upon us for the fruits of His grace and the faith that we have professed? Shall we seek to stone our conscience and silence it? Has the Divine Scripture not been given to us as God's servant to speak to our hearts and call upon us to render to God that which is God's, and to show forth the fruits of the faith, love and righteousness to which He has called us? Let no one think that this parable was spoken to others, but let each one of us accept it as a calling to our own hearts and respond to the Master by rendering to Him the fruits of His vineyard in due season, and not seek to drive out His servants and even to kill the presence of Christ in our hearts. It is not only that we will be called to account for what we have betrayed and misused, but that we shall suffer so great a loss as to be eternally inconsolable.

MATTHEW 3:13-17
Holy Theophany, 2008

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory to the Holy Spirit!
    Brothers and sisters, in this world we can ask, "What time is it?" But in the life of the Church, we cannot. Because when we enter into one of these special divine services, time no longer exists for us. Today we come to the River Jordan. Today we stand on the banks of the River Jordan as our Saviour is baptized. Today the Holy Spirit descends upon the waters and sanctifies and blesses the waters. Today, we participate with John the Baptist. Today, we see the beginning of the ministry with our Lord Jesus Christ in this world. Today, brothers and sisters, we confess and proclaim our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ in the world. Today all the waters of the world are sanctified and blessed, as they were blessed at the River Jordan when our Lord Jesus Christ stepped into the waters.
    When we celebrate these great feast days, we step out of time and we participate in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ completely and fully. Today the Holy Spirit descends over the waters, and today the Holy Spirit descends upon each one of us, and to every community of the Orthodox who celebrate this sacred feast day on this day. Today we become participants in divine grace, and today we shall partake of that water which is blessed and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, through the power of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Today our hearts should open once more, for a few days ago,we celebrated the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our hearts opened up to become the manger in that cave, to receive our Lord Jesus Christ into our hearts. Today our hearts open up to be as the River Jordan, that the Holy Spirit may descend into our hearts and fill us with divine grace and with the joy of the presence of the Living God within us and within this community.
    It is a great miracle of our Lord Jesus Christ and a great miracle of the love of God and of the grace of the Holy Spirit, that we are taken away from the limits and the boundaries of time, and are made a partakers of eternity and of everlasting life, not only through this sanctified water, but through the Body and Blood of our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ, which we shall partake of in Holy Communion. When we go forth to bless and sanctify the waters outside the temple, we are following the path of hundreds of thousands — nay, millions — of Orthodox Christians who have gone before us. We are following the footsteps of the holy apostles, indeed following the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that when we make our procession with the Cross and when we bless and sanctify the waters, we are a part of the whole history of the Church, going back to that very day when our Lord Jesus Christ was baptized, but even going more than that — to the very creation of the earth itself. For we read in the Scripture that at the creation the Holy Spirit hovered over the waters to bring forth life from the water. And today the Holy Spirit hovers again over the waters, to bring forth spiritual life into the hearts of all of us, who proclaim our Lord Jesus Christ and whose hearts are open to His grace.
    So let us open wide the door of our hearts, and let us uncover our conscience that the grace of the Holy Spirit may sanctify everything that is within us, as well as sanctifying the water, and sanctifying those who partake of it. Let the grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the grace of the Holy Spirit, the love of God the Father fill our hearts and our souls with joy on this day, and give us strength and courage in the face of the world around us, knowing that when we enter His temple, we enter His Kingdom and that when we open our hearts, He enters our hearts and creates and makes His Kingdom within our hearts. Let us therefore feel the grace of the Holy Spirit, feel the blessings of our Lord Jesus Christ and feel the blessings of God the Father upon us today. For today the Holy Trinity is revealed to mankind, and so let the Holy Trinity be alive in our hearts, in our minds, in our souls, sanctifying us, perfecting us, bringing us to the holiness which is love and preparing us with a wedding garment, so that we might enter into the Heavenly Kingdom — to the eternal wedding banquet, when our Lord, God and Saviour calls us. Amen!

MATTHEW 4:1-12 (Eph.4:1-12)
Sunday After Theophany, 2008

Glory to Jesus Christ!
Unto the ages of ages. Amen!
Glory to the Holy Spirit!
Amen!

    Brothers and sisters, let us rejoice that again we have been able to come to the River Jordan to behold John and to behold our Lord, God and Saviour being baptized in the Jordan. For let us remember what was said yesterday: that when we participate in the Divine Liturgy, in these divine services, we step completely out of ordinary time and space. We participate this very day in these events which are commemorated. Today, we stand at the River Jordan as we did yesterday for Holy Theophany. Today, because we are blessing the water again and asking God to send down the blessing of Jordan through the grace of the Holy Spirit — today we rejoice that our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ has begun to proclaim to us the Gospel of our salvation.
    And what is it that we are being delivered from through our Lord Jesus Christ? One could think of so many things in this world and in this life, and yet when the Apostle told us today that we should dwell together in a spirit of harmony and peace and oneness of mind, understanding that there is one faith which has been revealed through the holy apostles and through the holy and God-bearing fathers and mothers, that "faith once given to the saints," as the Apostle says. And that faith has brought us here today and has united us together. In this Divine Liturgy we hear a little of other languages besides our own, Greek, a little bit of Romanian, some Slavonic and the last Liturgy of the month, Slavonic with a little English and some Greek, because we must think beyond ourselves and turn ourselves away from being self-centred and self-loving. If we came here to this country and heard only a native tongue from where we came, we would still be focussed on ourselves and the harmony and the peace and the oneness of mind and of heart would not be there, at least not so strongly. Yet, when we come together with brothers and sisters of other languages and other nations and celebrate one and the same Divine Liturgy, for we all know what is being said and celebrated in this Divine Liturgy; it matters not whether you are from Siberia or an Alaskan native tribe, or Serbia, Greece or an Arab country, or from the Ukraine or Belo-Rus. Wherever Orthodox Christianity shines forth, in whatever language it speaks, Japanese, Korean or Chinese, it is one and the same liturgy, because it is one and the same faith. This kind of harmony and peace of mind should especially come to us today on this feast as it does on Pentecost. When the Gospel was heard in every language, and today the Holy Trinity was revealed by the descent of the Holy Spirit and the voice of God the Father, that voice speaks in every tongue and every language on the face of the earth\. The Holy Spirit is beheld in the heart of everyone who is open to receive It. So let us maintain and keep that which Apostle Paul has commanded us, that we have this harmony, this spirit of unity, this spirit of oneness of heart, this love among ourselves, and that we not seek and demand our own, rather than opening ourselves up to our brothers and sisters and receiving them in also. That is one of the strengths of serving here in the monastery, where we come together from various nations and various backgrounds and various histories and various languages. We, in proclaiming this liturgy also proclaim that the Holy Spirit is one. Our Lord Jesus Christ has given us one faith, one baptism, one voice with which to cry out and glorify His name.
    Brothers and sisters, on this sacred and beloved feast, let us open our hearts to each other and feel the unity of love and the warmth of this oneness of mind, because we share a common hope. We share a common aspiration, we share but one salvation and one Lord Jesus Christ. In the blessing of the holy water today, the procession to the brook, the procession to the holy well, all these things that we take part in together, so familiar to most of us, we know that our brothers and sisters throughout the world are doing the same on this same feast. Let us rejoice in our Lord Jesus Christ that He has given us this opportunity to open our hearts to the other, to one another, and to love one another and to understand and to share with one another. Everyone's culture has something to give, something to offer, something to bring — provided there is a heart open to receive all that is given and all that is brought. Let us brothers and sisters remember that the River Jordan flows down from Mount Hermon out of that cavern and from the snowfields, and flows into the Sea of Galilee which is so full of life, sustaining life for century after century after century. And it flows out again and waters that valley down to Aenon where John the Baptist was baptizing, and then flows into the Dead Sea. There the water becomes dead and does not support life. The same water, flowing from the same Mount Hermon, flowing through the same Jordan Valley and into one sea that is abundant with life and the other which is. Remember that the River Jordan is life-bearing, flowing into the Sea of Galilee only because the water flows out again on the other side and the Dead Sea is dead because the water does not flow out again but stagnates and evaporates into a heavy salt water. So also with the grace of the Holy Spirit and the love of our Lord Jesus Christ; if it flows into our hearts and does not flow out again, it dies within us and becomes dead. But if that grace and that love flows into us and then flows outward toward others, it becomes life-bearing and springs to life within each one of us.
    So let us, as we come to the River Jordan today, make of our hearts the Sea of Galilee, that the love which is given will also be given, that the love which flows into us from God and the grace which flows into us from the Holy Spirit, will flow out of us again to embrace others and to water the earth with this life-bearing spring so that we can be light in the midst of darkness, so that we can bear life in the midst of death, so that the love and grace of God not die within us and we become like the Dead Sea. Let our hearts be opened and our souls rejoice in one another, even as we rejoice in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen!

ARCHBISHOP LAZAR PUHALO
Sermon on the 26th Sunday (Lk.12:16)

    Glory to Jesus Christ!
    Glory to the Holy Spirit!

    Brothers and sisters, let us not forget the Holy Spirit. We glorify our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, but we know Him by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and it is the Holy Spirit that opens our hearts to the light of the Gospel, and to the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour and of our salvation itself. The Gospel reading today so often makes us think about the storing up of material things. The Gospel tells us to put our treasure in the Heavenly Kingdom and to store up good things in eternity for ourselves. But it also tells us something else; it warns us not to store up our evil things. We think about our worldly things — wealth, possessions, or perhaps just having enough, having a sufficiency. We may also be thinking about spiritual things — faith, charity, seeking to draw closer to Jesus Christ. These spiritual things are needful to us both in this life and in the world to come, especially a growth in godly love. But we can also store evil things in our heart and we can store those evil things up so deeply in our souls that they will be waiting for us when we depart from this life. When we depart into eternity, we will find all of these evil things that we stored up waiting for us there. They will speak against us and cast a dark shadow over us.
    This is why it is necessary for us to struggle in this life. It is necessary for us to weigh our own soul, so that our soul will not be weighed in the next life and found wanting. We can store up hatred, malice, greed, envy, and gossip, slanders, false stories and tales, and all of these, even petty little things, that are evil and bad, things that destroy our own soul and destroy other people around us. We can teach our children how to hate, we can teach our children how to be prejudiced. We can teach our children about anger and encourage them to be greedy just by doing those things ourselves so that they see it and hear it from us. When our children see us angry they begin to think that anger is proper and a solution to problems. When our children hear us gossiping and saying bad things about other people they learn to do the same. When our children hear us full of hatred or malice or envy or any of these things, they learn it from us. You see, we do not store up our evil things only in our own hearts and in the next world, but we are also storing up our evil things in the hearts of our children.
    Let us repeat this sorrowful fact and I ask you to think about it deeply. We are not only storing up our unrepented passions and evil things in the world to come for ourselves but we are storing up these negative and evil things in the hearts of our own children. So it is really necessary for us to stop and think more deeply and more sincerely about our Orthodox Christian faith. Why are we here in this temple today? Surely it is to praise and glorify our Lord Jesus Christ and to receive the Holy Communion, but also so that the light of Christ might shine into our hearts and, as the Apostle has told us today, to let that light come and illumine our heart, and expose the negative things that lurk in each or our hearts so that the fruit of the Spirit may become manifest and multiply.
    But think about it, brothers and sisters: how often do you store up your bad things in your heart and make your heart a storehouse full of evil? How often do we store our own bad things in the hearts of our children by our example? Remember that on Judgment Day, when our Lord Jesus Christ returns, all will have to answer for what they have taught their children and for whether they stored up evil things in their hearts or good things. Everyone will have to answer, brothers and sisters, when we come face to face with the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the light of His beauty and love. If we did not repent in this life, if we did not struggle against these evil things in our own hearts, then we will find all of them waiting there for us. And because we stored them up for ourselves, we will go in their direction, to the left-hand side, and not to the right-hand side of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our hearts will automatically move toward the things we stored up in Heaven, those things which we treasured and kept in our hearts in life. If we store them on the left, we will go to the left, and be separated from God. If we have stored up good things in Heaven and stored them on the right, then we will go to the right-hand side of our Lord Jesus Christ.
    Of course we all fall into sins and do evil things in this life from time to time, but do we repent? Do we sincerely seek to purify our hearts, through the reading of the Holy Scripture, through the reading of sacred books, through our prayer and through learning to love one another so that we can love others around us? All of these things are necessary so that we do not find that we stored up only destructive things, and have not stored up life-bearing things for ourselves. Let us make our own lives better, more peaceful, more full of light, more happy, more full of joy, by struggling against the evil things that try to take root in our heart.
    How much happiness do you have when your heart is full of hatred? How much peace do you have, when you are burning with malice against somebody? How much real joy do you receive from gossiping and slandering and telling stories about other people? Does any of that lighten your heart and make your life better, make your life more full of the light of God's grace? Does any of that open your heart and fill it with happiness and joy? Certainly not! Rather it brings a cloud of darkness into our hearts and overshadows our souls with a heavy fog so that we have no joy and no peace. But if you wish to acquire a spirit of peace then, first of all, stop hating, stop being angry, stop having malice, stop gossiping, stop judging other people. If you accomplish that then the grace of the Holy Spirit can descend upon you and give a spirit of peace within your heart and teach you what true joy and true happiness really are. Because all these things come from a peaceful and godly love for one another.
    This is what the Gospel is telling us today and this is how we should take it and make it come alive in our own hearts, in our own lives so that we can live a life well-pleasing to God. Then we can find our good things stored up for us in the Heavenly Kingdom, treasures which have multiplied by the grace of the Holy Spirit and, above all, the love and the glory of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.