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In times of war...

12/31/2022

Dear brothers and sisters,
As you know, Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, has illegally, wickedly, and sinfully invaded the free and independent nation of Ukraine, starting a war, causing countless casualties, destroying cities and villages, and forcing millions of people to flee their homes into the neighboring European countries.
When human beings kill other human beings, they commit the sin of Cain - treacherously murdering their brothers. War is never justifiable and is always condemnable. Putin's actions are hard to fathom. May the Lord have mercy on his soul.

While emotions are still running extremely high, especially for me; and since our parish was founded by people whose ancestral lands are in the Eastern Europe; and since we have a number of parishioners who are immigrants from Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine, I am asking you, and myself, to do three things at this time:

1. Pray. Living in the US, so far from the horrific events in Ukraine, we can't do much, but we can pray. Which is a lot more than we may realize. Here are three prayers you can use at home, and which we will also pray in church after every Liturgy.

2. Show practical love by making financial donations or providing humanitarian aid. Two Orthodox Christian organizations that are providing help to the refugees and to those still in Ukraine are Ukrainian Refugee Relief (organized by the Orthodox Church in America and Polish Orthodox Church) and International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC). We have made humanitarian aid collection. Once it is sent to Ukraine, we might make another collection.

3. And lastly, please do not talk politics in church. I will strictly enforce it myself. Generally, I am of the opinion that the church is a place where we can and should discuss any topic. But not now. For some of us the feelings may be too raw, so avoid any political discussions, be they on Ukraine and Russia, EU or NATO, Trump or Biden, Democrats or Republicans, liberal or conservative, pro-this-thing or anti-that-thing. We will not talk about politics either before services, during our communal prayer, or after, at the fellowship time.

There has been quite a lot of anti-Russian rhetoric online, and TV, and among people in general. So it is necessary to say that Russian people did not attack Ukraine. Russians are not Putin, and Putin is not Russians. A lot of Russians are against the war, and they have shown this by going out on protests in Russia and getting arrested. So if you catch yourself expressing hateful things towards Russian people, please stop. They are victims as well, living under tyrant.

Yours in the Lord,
Father Aleksey

Summary of salvation [text & audio]

11/13/2022

Sunday sermon on the most frequent Sunday Gospel lesson Luke 8:26-39

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.

If you’ve paid attention throughout our liturgical year, there is one Sunday Gospel lesson that is read more than any other – that’s the Gospel we heard today; the Gospel about a demon-possessed man who lived in the tombs and about the pigs that drowned in the lake.

We hear this story on up to three Sundays a year (depending on how early or how late is the Pascha). So, out of 52 Sundays in a year, we get three Sundays dedicated to this story. There are memes made (as the kids on the internets say these days) every time this reading comes up. People joke about the “deviled ham” or all the bacon that Jesus is willing to sacrifice for us.

Progressive Christianity [audio & text]

11/6/2022

Sunday sermon on the Gospel lesson from Luke 16:19-31

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.

Looking at the rich man from today’s parable, we could say that he’s really got it. He had the best clothes, he had the best food, he had the best banquets, he probably even had some friends who really enjoyed the things he was providing for them.

By many different standards, especially by the standards of our time, he was living the life. By our standards, he was a really progressive and progressing man. Deep down in our hearts, there isn’t one person here today who wouldn’t want the kind of life the rich man had.

Born to preach [text only]

10/30/2022

Sunday sermon on the letter of Saint Paul to the Galatians 1:11-19

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.

The spiritual journey of each of us is a unique path, designed specifically for us, based on our abilities. It’s like going to a dietologist and getting specific diet that no one else might have. Some can handle more, some should handle more, some can’t or should not.

But the end of our journeys is one and the same. In the ancient Rome they used to say, “All roads lead to Rome.” We now know that all roads, in fact, lead to Jesus Christ. The end of our journey is Christ.

Sons of the Most High [text & audio]

10/16/2022

Sunday sermon Luke 6:31-36 and 2 Corinthians 9:6-11

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.

One of my seminary professors, who was also a priest, said that every time his teenage sons were getting ready to go out, he would tell them, “Remember whose sons you are.”

As a priest, he was known in his town, and people knew his sons. So if they got, say, drunk and boisterous, it would have poorly reflected on the father. Going out, the sons represented their family, they were their father’s image.

Established, sealed, guaranteed [audio]

9/19/2022

Sunday sermon on the Epistle reading from 2 Corinthians 1:21-2:4

Purpose [text & audio]

9/4/2022

Sunday sermon on the Gospel lesson from Matthew 19:16-26

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.

There was this famous Teacher in town, there were a lot of rumors circulating about Him. Were any of them true? Was He really clairvoyant as some were saying? Was He the Messiah, as others claimed?

The young man had a desire to meet this Teacher because he had a burning question to ask Him. The young man had diligently tried to keep all the commandments. In his mind he was doing good. He was rich, he had many possessions – a clear sign of God’s favor toward him.

Yet, something kept nagging him; he felt like something was missing.

Join the resistance

8/31/2022

There have been a lot of words spent trying to analyze what is going on with our society today. According to some, we have reached a point of no return - our society is on the brink of a major collapse, akin to the collapse of the empires of old, and it will only get a lot worse before we see the sun again. And the blame for this collapse lies on the [insert the political party to which you do not belong].
Others claim that we ain't doing that bad. In fact, we are improving, look at all the new green technology saving our precious earth. Only if [insert the political party to which you do not belong] weren't so damn pessimistic all the time, we wouldn't feel so down as a society.
So, where's the truth? Who's right? It may be one of the sides; maybe even both sides; or the truth may be somewhere in the middle; or there may be no truth. In a way, who cares? For us, Christians, as long as we remain faithful to God (as opposed faithful to satan; and sorry, there is no middle ground in faithfulness, it's either God or satan), whatever comes or doesn't come will not matter in terms of how we behave towards ourselves, each other, or the society in general. We are here to repent, to take up our cross, to follow Christ, and spread His Gospel.
There is, however, one troubling trend right now - the relationship between men and Christ. To put it simply, men are, for the most part, missing in churches. There are some men, and glory to God for them, but where are the others? There can be made a case for the present culture making the men weaker, less masculine (and no, masculinity does not equal toxic masculinity. Only toxic masculinity equals toxic masculinity. Masculinity is a gift from God and it has a purpose in our world. Just like femininity). Weaker men are incapable of maturing into husbands and fathers. Weaker men are incapable of building and supporting their families. Weaker men are scared of commitments and responsibilities. Weaker men are ashamed of facing God.

Below are two facebook posts from two men (one priest and one layman), who have done some background work and assessed the situation with today's men and tried to come up with their own propositions.

Pray and fast to be Christ-centered [text & audio]

8/22/2022

Sunday sermon on the Gospel lesson from Matthew 17:14-23

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.

Today’s Gospel lesson is preceded by the story of Christ going up to the mount Tabor with His three disciples, Peter, James, and John, where He was transfigured before them, where He revealed to them His divine nature.

While they were on Tabor, a man approached the other disciples, who waited at the bottom, and asked them to help his son, who was sick. He was possessed; he had seizures. In fact, the literal translation of his disease is lunacy. We don't know what the disciples did or tried to do, but they could not help the poor boy.

You feed them [text & audio]

8/7/2022

Sunday sermon on the feeding of a crowd of thousands of people from Matthew 14:14-22

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.

Every year we read today’s Gospel lesson about the feeding of the crowd of more than five thousand people, I am always struck by the magnitude of Christ’s request of His disciples.

Jesus had spent the whole day with the crowd, having compassion on them and healing their sick. And as the evening came, His disciples said to Jesus, “Hey, listen, we are kind of in a wilderness here, in a deserted place; let these people go into the neighboring villages to get something to eat.”

Living together [text & audio]

7/31/2022

Sunday sermon on the Epistle reading from Romans 15:1-7

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.

Today’s Epistle reading from the letter of Saint Paul to the Christian community in Rome comes from a section of about 2-3 chapters where Paul talks about living together in a mixed community.

In the first century, the Roman Christian community consisted of Jews and pagans. As such, they had very different views on life in terms of morality and proper worship of God. As Christians, however, their views had to be transformed, had to be enlightened, and in some cases had to be changed.

Gifts according to grace [text & audio]

7/24/2022

Sunday sermon on the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans 12:6-14

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.

The what? The why? And the how?

These are the questions we will consider today. They are not really questions, more like question words. Nevertheless, the what? the why? and the how? is what we will answer today.

In other words, today is your luckiest day. First, because you are here. You made an intentional decision to spend this Sunday morning worshipping God on purpose. And second, because all of your questions will be answered today…

Fearing God [audio & text]

7/17/2022

Sunday sermon on the Gospel lesson from Matthew 8:28-9:1

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.

As Christ healed the two demon-possessed men, the people who saw it, ran to the city and told everyone, “Come all! You have to see this. This Man has just healed the two possessed, and caused all of our pigs to run off the bank into the sea!”

As the people were gathering, they were asking each other: “What do they mean, healed? Those two couldn't be contained by chains and someone was crazy enough to approach them? And what is this about our pigs running off the cliff? How are we to support ourselves, if it’s true?”

The wages of sin or the free gift of God? [text & audio]

7/10/2022

Sunday sermon on the Epistle reading from Romans 6:18-23
on our choice of the wages of sin and the free gift of God

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.

Those of us who are old enough to work for money, know the feeling of getting paid for the work we put in. When a person is hired, there is a sort of agreement between the employer and the employee – the employee agrees to do the necessary work, and the employer agrees to compensate the employee accordingly.

After you work those 40 hours a week and come to your boss for the check, you do not break down in tears thanking him for paying what you are supposed to be paid (unless you have a really crappy boss). In fact, if you do not get paid, you are likely to sue the boss. After a full week of work, we are entitled to the appropriate paycheck.

You are a fisher of people [audio]

6/26/2022

Sermon on the Gospel lesson from Matthew 4:18-23

What does it mean to be a fisher of people?

Father's Day - what are men good for? [audio & text]

6/19/2022

Father's Day sermon

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.

There has been a trend in popular media, especially movies, a rather troubling trend. In superhero movies, male superheroes are replaced with basically the same but female characters. And not only that, whenever a strong female character is introduced, the male characters around her are almost always portrayed as wimps.

Whether it’s an intentional attack on masculinity, or attempts to spread some sort of ideologies, or lack of talent in today’s screen writers, the point is clear – our society, for some reason, does not want us to have strong men and strong women. It has to be either one or the other.

In Spirit and Truth

5/22/2022

Fifth Sunday of Pascha

Sermon on the Gospel lesson from John 4:5-42

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.
Christ is risen!

We are worshipping creatures. We never worship nothing; we always worship Someone or something. If we do not worship the One True God, then we will worship anything.

Women of the Church [text & audio]

5/8/2022

Third Sunday of Pascha

Sermon on the Myrrh-bearing Women, Mother's Day, womanhood, and motherhood in the Church

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.

Christ is risen!

Every so often today’s feast of the myrrh-bearing women and Mother’s Day coincide. Today happens to be that day. And so, I would like to talk today about our women.

Doubt for truth [audio]

5/1/2022

Second Sunday of Pascha
Believing Saint Thomas
Sermon on the Gospel lesson from John 20:19-31

"Looking at Saint Thomas, we can make one simple conclusion – if we never have doubts, then we have never believed."

Parish leadership lessons from Saint Paul [text & audio]

1/23/2022

31st Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday after Theophany
Sermon on the Epistle reading from Ephesians 4:7-13

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.

Let’s talk about gifts.

I know, I know, we just got over a holiday season where we very likely shopped ourselves into a coma with all the gifts.

Still, let’s talk about gifts, because that’s what Saint Paul wants to talk about today. “Each of us,” he says, “was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”

What do a donkey and an ox have to do with Christmas?

1/7/2022

Saint Nicholas [audio]

12/19/2021

26th Sunday after Pentecost
A sermon about Saint Nicholas

Virtues or infirmities? [text & audio]

12/12/2021

25th Sunday after Pentecost
Sermon on the Gospel lesson from Luke 13:10-17 & Epistle reading from Ephesians 4:1-6

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.

There she was, in the synagogue, among other believers like herself. But there was one difference between her and the others, one stark difference – she was bent over and unable to stand up straight.

Imagine every waking hour only seeing your own feet. Imagine not being able to stretch out and inhale lungs full of air. Imagine recalling all of the sinful acts that led to being bound and tortured by Satan.

Make no mistake about it, Satan and all the evil spirits desire nothing but our suffering. They tempt us, put all sorts of traps and road blocks for us, but they cannot bind us and possess us unless we let them. And we let them through our sins. Especially the sins that we stubbornly refuse to see or to confess.

The Samaritan is our neighbor [text & audio]

11/28/2021

23rd Sunday after Pentecost
Sermon on the parable of the Good Samaritan

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.

The parable of the Good Samaritan is one of those stories from the Bible that even the non-believers know and often reference.

Who is the Good Samaritan? It’s the one who helps those who are in need. Who is my neighbor? It’s anyone we encounter.

As we hear this parable every year, we know the outcome, nothing is surprising in it. We know that the expert in the Law is not asking an honest question. We know that the priest and the Levite refuse to help the half-dead man, but in a sense, they are obeying the Jewish Law by not helping because if the man were dead, they would become unclean and unable to serve in the Temple. And we know that the Samaritan, an outsider and an enemy of the Jews, is the only one who goes above and beyond to help the poor and wounded man.

But there is one question we should always ask ourselves when hearing a parable, any parable, told by the Lord – who are we in this story?

Lord, it is good to be here! [text & audio]

11/21/2021

22nd Sunday after Pentecost
Thanksgiving Sermon

As I have done in the past years on the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day, today I will read someone else’s sermon.

This sermon was written by Father Alexander Schmemann, who was a great and influential theologian of the 20th century, a liturgical scholar, and also a loving teacher and pastor.

He was the dean of Saint Vladimir’s Seminary for a couple of decades. He delivered this sermon on Thanksgiving Day of 1983, which was the last Liturgy he celebrated in his earthly life.

He died from cancer not long after, on December 13th of the same year. This sermon was written in the form of a prayer, a thanksgiving prayer of a man, who knew his journey on this earth was coming to an end.

Father Alexander never wrote down his sermons, always delivering them extemporaneously. But on that Thanksgiving Day in 1983, he came out before the Seminary congregation, took out a piece of paper, and said,

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Everyone capable of thanksgiving is capable of salvation and eternal joy.

Thank You, O Lord, for accepting this Eucharist, which we offered to the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and which filled our hearts with joy, peace, and righteousness of the Holy Spirit.

Thank You, O Lord, for revealing Yourself to us and giving us the foretaste of Your Kingdom.

Thank You, O Lord, for uniting us to one another in serving You and Your Holy Church.

Thank You, O Lord, for helping us to overcome all difficulties, tensions, passions, temptations, and restoring peace, mutual love, and joy in sharing the Communion of the Holy Spirit.

Thank You, O Lord, for the sufferings You bestow upon us, for they purify us from selfishness and remind us of the “one thing needed” (Luke 10:42) – Your eternal Kingdom.

Thank You, O Lord, for giving us this country where we are free to worship You.

Thank You, O Lord, for this parish, where the Name of God is proclaimed.

Thank You, O Lord, for our families: husbands, wives, our parents, and, especially, the children, who teach us how to celebrate Your holy Name in joy, movement, and holy noise.

Thank You, O Lord, for everyone and everything.

Great are You, O Lord, and marvelous are Your works, and no word is sufficient to celebrate Your miracles.

Lord, it is good to be here!

Amen.

Slightly adjusted for the use in our parish.

Thanksgiving Homily, 1983
Father Alexander Schmemann celebrated the Divine Liturgy for the last time on Thanksgiving Day. This was particularly appropriate since Father Alexander had devoted his whole life to teaching, writing, and preaching about the Eucharist; for the word eucharist in Greek means thanksgiving. At the conclusion of the Liturgy, Father Alexander took from his pocket a short, written sermon, in the form of a prayer, which he proceeded to read. This was a strange occurrence since Father never wrote his liturgical homilies, but delivered them extemporaneously. These were his words, which proved to be the last ever spoken by him from the ambo in Church.
- The Orthodox Church, Vol. 20, No. 2, February 1984, p. 1:1

Jesus said to the crowds about John, “I tell you, among those born of women no one is greater than John the Baptist.” (Luke 7:28)

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