St Peters Orthodox Church

St. Thomas and all of the disciples were in a crisis of faith existing in fear, anxiety, and great sorrow as they had just witnessed their Lord be taken from them, tortured, crucified, and buried in a tomb. In St. John 20 we have the narrative of how Christ appeared to them and brought them from the darkness of all that they were going through to peace and joy. What was it that delivered them from fears, anxieties, and sorrows? It was Christ's presence with them and the revelation He would give to them of Himself. Then they would be filled with joy and proclaim Him as their risen Lord and God. It is the same for us. The answer to our distress will always be Christ's presence with us and His revelation to us that we may know Him. (Jonathan, I have attached an icon to be uploaded with this sermon)

As is tradition in the Orthodox Church, on Easter Sunday we hear together the Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom. "Hell took a body and came upon God. It took what it saw but crumbled before what it had not seen."

Tonight is the night of our deliverance. Christ, our Passover Lamb, is crucified and He is raised from the dead. We are delivered through Him from death to life, from the lesser condition of oppression and slavery to heirs of a Heavenly Father, and from darkness to light. This is the night Christ, having descended into Hades breaking its gates in sunder, He rises from the dead granting the firstfruits of the Resurrection as many come out of the grave and proclaim what He has done. For Christ is Risen!

The writer of Hebrews said that it was for the joy set before Him that Christ endured the Cross. What was His joy? We were His joy. We who have fallen short, we who suffer the disorders and dysfunctions from the fall of man were His joy. It was for the joy of redeeming and healing us that our Lord endured the Cross. What kind of love is this? How far God went to gather us back to Himself.

The last night our Lord Jesus Christ was with His disciples before His Passion, He gave them a command. He took bread and wine, gave thanks blessing them both saying, "This is my Body and this is my Blood. Do this in remembrance of me." This was not a suggestion of something for them to consider doing when they gather. It was a command from the love of Christ our God Who offered His disciples forgiveness of sins, healing of their souls, and eternal life through that which He had blessed for them. Tonight we celebrate both the command and the gift of Christ; Holy Eucharist.

With Christ's Passion before us, tonight we remember the words of the Prophet Isaiah who said "by His stripes we are healed." Right in the middle of Holy Week, our Lord places one of the greatest reasons He went to His Passion right before us. He became broken so that we might be put together and made whole again. As we bless the oils of Holy Unction and that of the Catechumens, we remember the fullness of Christ's healing ministry in our lives. And as we have the oil of Holy Unction placed upon our heads tonight, we remember and believe that Christ lays His hand upon us to restore our body, mind, and soul.

Christ our God took the Roman instrument designed to shame, torture, and bring death and turned it into something magnificent. By Christ's willingness to die such a death, and by His presence on the Cross, He turned the Cross into the very instrument through which we could be released from our shame and given life. How far our Lord willed Himself to go that the paradise of fellowship with Him once again could be open to us. His love enduring the Cross declares how much worth He places on us all.

The transition on Palm Sunday itself is a difficult transition. We start out with Palms celebrating the coming of our King and Messiah and transition in that same Mass to His Passion. But it is Christ our God who willed all of this. And why? His love for us drove Him to the Cross.

Why do we bless Palms, waive them, and process to the Altar with them on Palm Sunday? It is not just to re-enact an event that happened over 2000 years ago. God's people who waived their palms as Jesus entered Jerusalem back then were mistaken as to Jesus' kingship and they limited Who He was as Messiah and what He would do as their Messiah. But beyond the Cross and the Resurrection, we know Who He is and all that He is done. Palm Sunday begins Holy Week. And Holy Week is a participation in all that Christ did to gather us back to Himself in the eternal now.

St. John of Kronstadt offers wisdom for Priests who serve at the Altar during Liturgy. These same principles can be applied to the Priesthood of all Believers as they take their place as living stones in the Mass. Today we discuss these principles that will help us fulfill the ordination God has given us all in the eternal worship of Him.

We speak often of Christianity as an ascension out of the results of the Fall to our Lord Jesus Christ. And, we are right to do so. But in the last two weeks of Holy Week called Passiontide, we focus on descending with Christ as we journey with Him to and through His Passion. His journey to His Passion was one of great humility. The Lord of Lords, the Word of God condescends to place Himself in the hands of humanity so that humanity might be saved. Humility is the path to salvation as we are called to live in the same humility by taking up the Cross and dying that we might live.

One of the greatest roles of the Priesthood of all believers is the role of prayer. Today we look at six aspects of the action and attitude of prayer as taught by St. John Kronstadt.

Here on the Fourth Sunday of Lent, we are given a Mass that bears the name "rejoice!" It is a reminder that rejoicing in the Lord is not dependent on our circumstances. In reality, rejoicing in the Lord may be the antidote to our circumstances. Today we look at some of the benefits that, perhaps, we have forgotten that are realized in our lives as we rejoice in the Lord.

St. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7 that "godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. But what is this godly sorrow? Today we discover that it is God's own sorrow over our suffering caused to the yet to be healed areas of our soul. If we would let ourselves be joined to God's sorrow over us, we would rush so quickly to seek the healing touch of our loving Savior and find our sorrow turned to joy.

Having taken Eucharist by the provision of God, the Mass now guides and prepares us to take that which we have received and offer it to this world. In this last session of this series we explore each part of the Mass as to how the grace of God is given to us as we descend the mountain; a grace that enables us to be transformed by our encounter with Christ for our salvation, and a grace that empowers us to fulfill the mission of the Church. As we depart the mystery of the Mass where all in heaven and earth have joined together with God, we go from there to bring the Kingdom of God to earth as it is in heaven.

Today we reach the pinnacle event in the Mass. It is in this session that we explore the Eucharist and all that it is on our behalf. We see that in the Eucharist He who fulfilled the Law fills us, it is a time of absolute fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ, we partake of the eternal covenant meal, we receive the provision for life eternal, and it is indeed the Day of the Lord.

In this session, we come to the Passing of the Peace of God. We explore how, in these very few moments in the Mass, the absolute peace of God flows from His throne through each one of the Living Stones as they minister that very peace one to another. We also explore the prayers of preparation said by the Priest and later said by the people. These prayers assist us by grace is posturing ourselves to receive the life that Christ longs to offer us in the Eucharist.

Having sung the eternal hymn of the Sanctus, we now move into what is known as the Canon of the Mass. Here we find and discuss the meaning of Christ’s words of institution, the meaning of the word “remembrance”, the Lord’s prayer, and a prayer for deliverance from evil.

We have arrived at the point in Mass where the Priest calls us to lift up our hearts and we respond by lifting them up to the Lord. But what are we, in fact, offering up to God? In this teaching we explore the answer to this question. The focus of this session is on the understanding of the Sursum Corda, the praise and thanksgiving offering within the Preface, and the eternal hymn offered to God in heaven and on earth that has been and will be sung throughout eternity…the Sanctus, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts. Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory.”

In this session we cover the meaning of the prayers we offer each Mass for the whole Church. We also look at the purpose of the General Confession in Mass. Based on the framework of this prayer, we consider the correct approach to offering up this confession and receiving Christ’s washing and forgiveness of our sins as we draw ever closer to communing with Him in the Eucharist.